Monday, February 4, 2008; 10:30 pm by Not Suzi.

Well, I know I haven’t written in a few months. Things were nuts for a while but I’ll try to catch you up here.

NOVEMBER

• Got married in the beginning of November as you can read from the previous post.
• Had a death in the family and family from Chicago visiting.
• Went to a wine and tapas dinner with a few friends.
• Lomee made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for just the 2 of us.
• Worked on another paper for class and submitted Chapter One for my independant research project.

DECEMBER

• Lomee’s holiday party was a blast. Very crowded though (about 1000 people).
• Finished up our church’s introductory class (finally) in order to become members.
• Went to see Little Big Town and Sugarland. Easily the best concert I’ve ever been to.
• Went to Chicago for 5 days over Christmas. Had fun, got to see some friends and family. Shopped at a couple stores I don’t have here.
• Got awesome gifts from family and my Lomee.
• Spent way too much but it was totally worth it to watch the kids (and Lomee!) open their gifts.
• Needed a vacation from Christmas; it was so exhausting. But I’m glad we went and saw everyone.
• Spent New Years Eve at home with Lomee. Lucked out and got a few more days off in a row.

JANUARY

• Beginning of the month was quiet. Still kinda warm here.
• Had my birthday mid-month. Lomee made me an awesome dinner.
• Had a bad sinus infection that I had been battling for a couple weeks. Went to the doctor to take care of that and he put me on Prednisone because I was so achy and inflamed. Allergies are killing me though, which is typical of this area of the US.
• Went to another wine and tapas dinner at the end of the month. Had a great time and delicious food.
• Lomee made a couple yummy dishes I got pictures of. Will post when I get a chance.
• Buddy (black Lab) had an ear infection and had to go to the Vet. He’s better now but I can’t believe how expensive Vets are. I wonder if pet insurance is worth it.
• Sat down with Lomee and worked out a budget and debt reduction plan for the next few months to a year. We are really working on substantially reducing our consumer debt by the end of the year. People that know me know that I hate to carry any consumer debt however, I realize at times it is necessary. So this will be a good thing.
• Lomee is working on a problem at work and his solution is getting the attention of some big-wigs in the organization. I’m proud of and happy for him. I love it when his work inspires and challenges him.
• I have car fever and really want a new one. Mine is about 5 years old and I don’t have any payments, which is nice but I’m really wanting a new one. Not needing, wanting. It’s really not practical right now but I’m hoping by year’s end it will happen. I had been wanting a VW Passat but after reading some not too good reviews, I don’t think I’ll be getting one. At Lomee’s urging I’m considering a BMW 3-series but think it may be too small. I’d really love a 5-series but it’s about $20K more than I want to spend, even for a used one. However, I do like the Infiniti G35 and M. So, we’ll see.

I have more papers and chapters due for school and I’m just trying to wait it out. I graduate in 8 months if I can stay on track. Hopefully there will be a great job in my field waiting for me then (the job market here is great if you’re in an engineering or technical field; not so great if you aren’t).

I’m seriously considering Lasik as my eyes are driving me nuts. Ever since I changed my contacts last summer they have felt dry and itchy. The left one always feels like it doesn’t fit right or there is something in it. The doctor can’t find anything wrong. I’m slowly going insane.

We have to do our taxes or find someone to do them. Lomee has always done his and I’ve had an accountant do mine in the past because of owning my own business. I’ve used Turbo Tax the past 2 years but I’m not sure if I want to go that route this year as there was a lot of changes last year: selling my house, moving, Lomee buying a house, starting school, getting married.

That’s about it. I’ll try to do better with blogging. I just hate to write stuff for the sake of writing; I always feel like its un-interesting. It’s really not much different than what is going on in anyone else’s life. I wish I could be one of those bloggers that could tell stories about their life or pontificate on a subject and have it be relevant and interesting. I think about how certain situations would be amusing or fun to blog about but then I don’t follow through. I suppose I could write about things in my life that many people don’t really know about me or haven’t considered. It may be easier to give you some history about myself so you can better understand me and my thoughts. I don’t really know. It would probably be a bunch of boring shit that you don’t care about anyway.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007; 9:06 pm by Not Suzi.

I will not be held responsible if you continue reading and experience any adverse health effects from the contents of this blog post.

Lomee and I have been going to church.  Yes, me. I’ve gone to church and the place didn’t burn down nor did I get struck by lightning.

I have not attended church regularly since 1982. Previous to that my mother forced my little sis and me to go to church every Sunday. Whether she was trying to save our souls or gain a few hours peace, I’ll never know. The church was missionary baptist and very strict. Sunday school sucked; same old teachers, students and teachings every year. It was very “clique-y” and being the poor kids whose parents did not attend, we never quite fit in with all the kids whose parents were “good Christians” and active in the church. I hated it and spent most of my time daydreaming. The service entailed the preacher on the pulpit shouting about salvation and saving our souls from eternal hell fire. Organ music and singing the same hymns from musty song books every Sunday. As you can probably guess, this was the time when I was able to catch a quick nap.

Once we moved south in 1982 we went sporadically with friends from school, trying a few different churches but never really settling anywhere for long. At college, I went to church once or twice with a friend but never felt comfortable there either. All together, I doubt I went to church more than 30 times in those 10 years.

I didn’t go to church at all during my marriage to my first husband. He was catholic and there was no way I was gonna get involved with that shit.

Around age 30 or so (coincidentally during a rough time in my life), I started reading about various spiritual and religious beliefs. Mainly those faiths that were non-western in nature. Maybe my involvement in the massage therapy world and exposure to “new age” culture made me think there may be something out there that resonated more than what I had been exposed to. I started reading books on just about anything that was different than what I knew: Paganism, Buddhism, New Age, meditation, astrology, energy work, conscious living, etc. However, I still thought like a western taught Christian and felt like one despite the fact that I could not claim a “religion” or church.

My spiritual beliefs have pretty much been in limbo the past few years. That is, until last year when Lomee came into my life and he introduced me to his church. He went to an awesome church which showed me that church didn’t have to be stuffy & boring. I was definitely interested.

Fast forward to last month. We had been talking about trying a few churches in the area but wasn’t sure which ones to start with. After a search we narrowed it down to 3. The first one was eliminated because they had recently moved and were mainly doing online ministry now. The second one is one of the largest baptist churches in the area. They are a little more modern than where I had gone when I was little, but it still did not feel right. The last church we were considering Lomee was unsure of because the head Pastors were a husband and wife team.

Ultimately, the last church was exactly what we’ve been looking for. It has a lot of similarities to Lomee’s church he left when he moved here last year, and for me it is very different than any church I had ever attended. I had no idea church could be this way…it is almost fun.

It is very progressive and quite large with nearly 3,000 members but it is so well organized and the people there are extremely nice. We felt right at home from the first service and have started attending their 10 week class to become members. They have many ministries and outreaches, and there are classes for children that are broken out into 3 categories by age group, as well as a specialized program for young people interested in going into the ministry. They have different groups based upon your interests and they give a lot of money to missions each year throughout the world.

The service this morning was very cool with upbeat, modern music. There were some people jumping around and singing. I thought maybe there was gonna be a mosh pit down front at one point. Everyone was so excited and happy to be there and the energy just spread throughout the sanctuary.

If you’re interested in reading more about them I will post a link to the church’s website in my “Contact” page of this blog (this is to preserve my location anonymity). Use the same password you have been using to access.

So, are you still with me or did you pass out from shock?

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