On the subject of "catcalling"

With the cost of gasoline climbing daily, I'm making more of an effort than ever to travel from point A to point B under my own human-powered locomotion (namely bicycle or on foot as I have yet to channel my brainpower towards teleporting).

Unfortunately, this resolution towards greener living often leaves me at the mercy of the classier types of the opposite sex who enjoy vocalizing animal sounds and/or pick-up lines out their windows while passing in their automobiles. A sample of the highlights:

• Wolf-howls (apparently I resemble the moon with my winter-whitened skin)
• Woof-woofs
• "Looking hot, Baby" (why yes...as a matter of fact I'm standing directly in the sun waiting to cross the black asphalt streets)
• "Hot mama" (see above but add padded spandex shorts and a bicycle)
• "Yummy yummy" (must've been the unwashed hair pulled haphazardly into a ponytail and Chacos...that's hot stuff)
• You name it...I've probably heard it.

The one-sided exchanges baffle me.

I mean...honestly...what do they think is going to happen? I'm going to stop what I'm doing, run over to their car, and say: "Oh Baby, that's just what I've been wanting to hear. Open the door and take me with you wherever you're going in your rusty jalopy/utility van/large gas-guzzling truck." ???

I mosey on most often annoyed, occasionally laughing, but still an annoyed sort of laugh. It's especially intrusive when I'm trying to have a reflective, prayerful commute.

Dear Average Man-of-the-World...when trying to capture my heart
(or any other woman's on the planet):

I suggest a new strategy.

Let it rain.

The adventurers tally ho...

Oddly wet and brisk for this time of year. Perhaps I just haven't lived here long enough. In desperate need of some mountains and trees, I decided to go hiking rain or shine (rain). Since the snow level is still at 2500 ft, Jackie, Marisa, and I headed to the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River Trail off I-90...a year-round hiking destination. Eleven skillfully driven miles down the treacherous, pot-holy road brought us to the trailhead where we kindly thanked the Camry for holding together, donned our rain gear, and bravely ventured forth into the lush, verdant forest lining the Snoqualmie River.


Bridge to Terabithia

Crossing the bridge over the swollen river, we discovered (amazingly) that one doesn't have to drive all the way out to the Olympic Peninsula to find a rainforest. Damp, brilliantly green moss carpet, ferns, rivulets, rocks, mist rising to towering rocks...and quiet.



Quiet like I can't find anywhere else. Underneath even trail conversation is a reflective sort of quiet that allows my spirit, soul, mind, and body to get reacquainted with one another. I forget how much I truly need peaceful places to simply be still and know that He is God (Ps. 46:10). It's easy to succumb to the myriad of other "to dos" that exist at all times in my life, but once I take that first step out the door with fresh air in my lungs and a stirring in my heart things just seem to fall into place.

Micro-scenery. Macro-scenery.

Sappy? Perhaps. Thoreau-esque? Likely. But deeply and sincerely true.

I know my Creator, and He knows me.
And I delight to be fervently alive
and active in His world.


Wet, muddy, splattered delight.

Something new...

There is something that happens to one's thoughts when they're committed to writing. The act of creating concrete, comprehensible order on the page is a physical representation of the state of the mind. Surrounded day in and out by numbers and graphs and data, I miss the artistic beauty that comes in crafting and forming fanciful wisps of thought into the written word. Organic musings that blossom and mature.

My heart is full, and my mind is aflame.
I need a place to wax eloquently (or not).
But at least a place to think and share.

My grandad has a blog. I suppose I should get with the times.

I'm not sure how this venture will evolve, but I anticipate it will contain a smattering of my various passions: God, reaching out, mountains, science, etc. Expect some hashing of thoughts from my reading as well: God's word, apologetics, theology, nature, and the like.

I love new adventures...