food, water, and news.

typically at work i've got a lot of time on my hands. with the vastness of the internet before me, i've found myself doing something i've always wanted to do: completely immerse myself in the news. being a human on earth, i would like to know what's going on around me. not only around me at my current location, but also countries around the world. things are happening, and i think it's important to pay attention to those. 

my hands down favorite place to get my news is from the bbc. british do a lot of things better, and at the top of that list is news. i've found they give the most unbiased look at what's going on around the world. and unlike cnn or foxnews, they report on the world (which, in my opinion is much more important than dumb u.s. celebrity stories). and one of my favorite things, if you don't happen to have a lot of time, their spacial layout makes it easy to see photos, read headlines, and a brief sentence about the story. and you can easily click on other areas of the world and get more specifics about those countries. please add this to your list of daily sites to visit.

one thing i've noticed in the news lately is discussion of the rising price of food. it's been on the top of the list of things to tackle at the G8 summit (and if you don't know what that is, please read this. it's kind of a big deal), people in nepal are dealing with hunger as being a new part of life, motown in detroit is becoming growtown as the people in the area are taking it upon themselves to grow their own food to save money, and the stories keep coming everyday. yeah, we complain about the increasing price of groceries, but seldom do we stop to think about the impact on the rest of the world. and they say the era of cheap food is long gone. 

now i'm not trying to be debbie downer and make you hate yourself for eating lunch. but i think i just want  to increase awareness. i sit here and think what can i do to help, buy less food and send the money to some organization, only eat as much as some young woman does in rural africa, mail my leftover food to 'hungry child' in india. i could. but i don't know if it's the best way. and to be honest, i don't really know what to do. i read these stories, and then just sit and stare at the words, thinking how many people have no idea what others go through. then i realize these are the problems my generation is going to have to deal with. 

i could also go on about the availability of fresh water for most of the world. believe me, i saw some of the spouts in india, but i'll just reference you to organizations like blood:water mission. they're doing great things.

when we think about problems the world has, a lot of people think aids, terrorism, genocide, all very bad things. but most people don't realize that lack of food and water is as much of a problems as these other things. simple food and water. 

ok, i'm sure i've made you feel bad enough (in my defense that was not my point), but i hope i've inspired you to read more news  and be more aware of what is going on around you. this is just one example of news, there are many more, some of those very funny (i'll reference what i've posted on facebook for that).  this post is very link heavy, but i challenge you to click them all and at least see what they're about. you'll be a better person for it. 

and just incase you want to laugh. 

top 5

if you haven't seen high fidelity, you should see it sometime soon. i'd say it's one of my favorite john cusak films, by far. something they do in the movie, which i've come to love / claim on my own is top 5's. i love doing top 5's - for anything. and i figure it's about time to introduce them here. 

i made my third weekend in a row home, but this was probably my favorite thus far. we put another tally in the 15+ year tradition in the sawyer family: going to herrington lake. for what feels like forever, my family and two other families of close friends have trekked down to a lake house one of the families owns for a weekend of water, blowing things up, and yummy food. 

here's the top 5 things about the weekend:

1. fireworks - they get better every year. especially cause recently we get them from china, directly. 

2. food - pretty much the weekend revolves around food traditions. spaghetti, fresh chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, the best beef ever, perfect watermelon, i could go on. 

3. the house itself - it comes completely outfitted with any sort of entertainment you'd need. pinball, video games, ping pong, pool, darts, you name it. and there's a lake outside. 

4. movie/dvd selection - the house comes with a mini blockbuster, and somethings almost always on. you think it'd get annoying, but it works for this weekend. 

5. jet skis + water - love them both. a lot. 

be on the lookout for more top 5's. at the moment, it's back to the grindstone in nashville. the phone keeps ringing, i keep answering, and things still need mailed. all in a days work. 

city life.

now that i have a real job in a legit city, i get to experience all the perks of real city life. one of them is city traffic. my fave. here's some photographic peaks into the 45 minutes i spent hanging in nashville after work yesterday. 

what i saw a lot of. this is demonbreun and highway 40 i think. 

my feelings towards sitting in traffic for nearly an hour. thank you ipod for keeping me sane. 

let's hope today i can time my commute home better. we'll see. 

2 of 3.

this past weekend, i spent my second weekend home in a string of three. last weekend was for a chicago adventure, next weekend is for the annual 4th of july extravaganza, but this past weekend was the weekend of the dress clothes. that's right, i basically adorned a dress/skirt from friday morning when i went to work, to sunday afternoon when i changed from church. i've never been happier to see my gym shorts. 

the reasons i journeyed home were for two showers and a wedding. i'm truly beginning to realize tis the season of life my time will be consumed with such events. i need to embrace this. and increase the amount of snazzy dress clothes i have. angie barber, one of my small group leaders from high school, is having a lovely baby girl, laura. her shower was friday night. saturday afternoon, laura kinney (soon to be laura lamb), a friend from high school,  is getting ready to get married. we celebrated by eating lunch and giving her kitchen-y things. then later that day, a long time family friend whom i grew up with, jacob glancy got married to a girl i graduated high school with, in a beautiful ceremony and reception (with yummy food). truly a weekend of celebration. 

honestly, dress clothes aside, this weekend proved to be really great. i had a nice time connecting with various people from high school both from my church and school. it's odd seeing people i haven't seen in three plus years, but good to catch up on life. it's interesting seeing what they're doing with their lives, how they've moved on or stayed the same, various choices they've made. the funny thing about lexington, is most people stay there. forever. grow up, go to school, go to college, get a job, and never leave. that's not a bad thing at all; i adore lexington, but it's not for everyone. and i'm so glad i had a chance to get away. i needed it really bad. i just needed a new experience. 

little did i know making one choice to try something new, would lead to a growing trend of newness in my life. it seems God likes that kind of stuff. 

grocery shopping.

i've realized one of my favorite things to do down here in nashville. going to publix. 

publix is a grocery store chain, typically located in the south. in my brief life span, publix has been associated with vacation, as that was my mom's the store of choice in florida. now, i conveniently have one just 2.5 miles from my house. i love food. i love eating. i love making food. and now i'm developing quite the fondness of grocery shopping. now i'm not sure if it's the aura of publix (and it being the most amazing grocery store on the planet), or i'm reaching that point in my life where i like grocery shopping. but i'll embrace this enjoyment while i've got it. [we'll see if it's still there when my only choices are lance's or walmart...]

here's one of the many reason why i like publix: yesterday, i went out to get groceries for my house. i'm typically elected because my housemates think i'm betty crocker, because i cook on a regular basis. and of course betty crocker can grocery shop. after filling my cart, i pull up to isle 8. i happen to like isle 8, because that's were bonnie checks out. bonnie is a particularly southern belle, who somewhat reminds me of my grandmother, with a little less sense. and she always complains about the heat. that day, joe happened to be bagging, of which i quickly learned, he's probably the best bagger in tennessee. the whole time i was standing there, joe and bonnie just bantered back and forth in their southern accents about groceries. and i loved it. 

it's the little things, remember. and the other baller thing about publix, their store brand puts everything else to shame. just as good or better quality than brand name things, and 10x better advertising. and they've got their own line of whole foods/organics. fantastic. 

God was right on when he decided that to get our energy and stamina we needed to eat, three times. thank you. 

bundle up, it's 90 degrees outside!

so, i'm at work right now. and despite the fact i'm in the south and it's probably in the 90s outside, this is how i dress to come to work. <-- basically if antarctica and a meat freezer were to have a baby, it would be my office. and before you say so, it's not just 'rachel who's always cold,' everyone in the office agrees. the boys in their own offices have to keep their windows open just to regulate the temperature. amanda and i have space heaters at the foot of our desk. and it's almost july. 

ok, it's time for a couple of updates/highlights:

- aaron's back in town! woot. he's in nashville for a whopping 6 days before heading back out again. oh, the life. but i do really enjoy it. there's lots of hanging out with him, eating lots of good food, hanging with his friends. i like having him around. 

- summer music swap is in full swing. this summer's lucky contestant is miss blake elizabeth bachman. for those of you who don't know summer music swap, one of my favorite ways to keep in touch, is through one of my favorite things: mix cds. the games is simple: make a mix for someone, and send it in the mail. sometimes you get a little creative with the album art, or the theme of the cd, or you chose to try and do all new music. there's a lot of creative freedom in the game. and you get a mix cd out of it. perfect. [if any of you would like to participate, feel free to contact me about an application.] 

- amanda's last day. today is amanda's last day in the office. we all went out for a farewell lunch to baja burritos (yum.) and then the guys surprised her with cake when we got back (yum.). now we're all trying to get work done, but more so are just rocking out to music and trying to wrap some things up. [and trying not to freeze to death.] it's a good time. 

- i can drive now. after leaving from dinner last night, i realized i've got a good directional grasp on the city of nashville, both in the city and on the highway. and no matter how good/bad the directions are, i think i can get myself anywhere.

 

- i heart netflix. in this 'real life' summer, of working a 9-4ish job and coming home to no homework or extra-curriculars, i found i've got a lot of time on my hands. some nights are spent with people. but i've found in an average day, there's more time than you think when you're not swamped. thank you netflix. i've finally got time to use my subscription to the full advantage, and i have. i love movies. 

i think that's it for now. the phone's ringing so i should probably answer it. 

1270.6

for as bad as i am about making decisions, i love spontaneity. love it. 

at three o'clock on friday, i left work, to drive home quickly. fifteen minutes after arriving home, i was back out the door, bags pack, and ready to hit the road. i was headed for lexington/chicago, for the weekend. 

many of you are probably thinking, 'wait. lexington isn't near chicago, that doesn't make sense.' you're right. it doesn't make sense. here's the story. my friend hannah was throwing a party/bonfire. i really wanted to go and see some friends from home. in the mean time, my parents (as crazy as they are) convinced some people to leave at midnight on friday, drive through the night up to chicago, get there in the morning, go see rugby games (that happened to be in chicago) that afternoon, chill in the city, and leave to head home at midnight on saturday. of course, being twentysomethings, this sounded like a brilliant idea. while the four boys were getting pumped for the games, three of us girls decided to come along for a free ride to chicago. my thought process: junice (a best friend from school) lives in wheaton. wheaton is close to chicago. i really want to see junice. perfect reason for going to chicago. 

so we did it. spent two night sleeping in the back seat of a van with other people, saw a whole lot of the u.s. highway system, but every one of the 1270.6 miles (nashville-lexington-chicago-lexington-nashville) was worth it. these are the times of our lives we do crazy things like this. these are the stories we tell our kids of which they won't believe us. but we know it happened, and that makes us smile. here are some photos from the weekend. 

junice! in wheaton, with our FREE pint of ice cream we got at target. holla. 

wheaton college. contaminating students one academic building at a time. 

chicago style pizza. almost worth the trip by itself. 

nectar of God.

chicago at night. i like this city. 

my view in the van of a really, really sketch gas station in indiana somewhere around 2am. 

it was a good time. now i'm back to the daily grind at nettwerk. amanda's got two more days, then yours truly steps up to the plate. good thing it's baseball season. 

go do something spontaneous. 

the job.

i don't have a dirty job. but i do enjoy watching what other people do. especially while at work. 

remember a long time ago, i wrote something about how my job was going to look different than originally thought. here's the explanation i owe you. 

amanda (my supervisor) turned in her two weeks notice my second day working with her. (before you go overboard, it wasn't because of me.) long story short, she felt called to take another job in florida being an assistant/manager for a speaker. now, she only has three more days in the office before she's officially done. i believe, at the moment, she's moving all her stuff down to florida (her last days are next week.) that being said, when we sat down to go over my hours, she told me she was quitting, and they had hoped i'd be willing to step up and kind of 'temp' for her, until they find a replacement. ok, alright. 

so the last week has been spent training me for her job. if i don't end up temping for her, then i'll be responsible to really train the next person. i already know i'm going to learn a heck of a lot this summer. sweet. really. this is going to be a huge/great experience. 

so today was my first official 'stand in' day for amanda. she's out thurs/friday. cue the looking like i know what i'm doing. basically i answer the phone, mail all sorts of things (including email), and do whatever chris and pasty need. and spend a lot of time on the internet. or watching dirty jobs (which is what i did today. amongst other things.) 

mike went to a mud factory. dirty. at that point i was very happy to be sitting at my desk, in the freezing cold office, answering emails and mailing things. 

good thing i'm still in college.

i think i'm going to take a geography class before i graduate. i'm awful at knowing where things are in the world. i should get better at this. i think it will help me be a better human. in the mean time, i have friends who keep me in line. this post goes out to katie rousopoulos, my favorite greek on the entire planet, who so lovingly calls me out for not knowing where things are. rousop, you always keep me in line. what would i do without you?

[this is my favorite greek and i at a yummy greek restaurant.]

ok, everyone, the parthenon is NOT in rome. it is located in athens, greece. i deepest apologies for any i confused or offended by my lack of knowledge. i will now spend all day studying the history and significance behind the parthenon and greek culture. [and try and get some work done at the office.]

rome and training. parks and playgrounds.

i went to the parthenon today. really, the parthenon. here's the photo to prove it. [thank you google images] little do you know, there's actually a replica of the parthenon in nashville, tennessee. it's smack dab in the middle of centennial park on the west end. and in going, i think i found one of my new favorite places in nashville. 

most people who know me well, know i love playgrounds and parks. after church today, i came home, packed up a lovely lunch and headed for the park. aaron and natalie took me past the parthenon when he was in town the other day, but it was just a quick drive by. today i decided i wanted a better look. so i took my lunch, a blanket and a book and hit up the park for the afternoon. and what a lovely afternoon it was. delicious lunch, beautiful weather, perfect spot under a tree, and plenty of people watching. [two of my favorite people today had to of been the lady dressed head to toe in all black (sweater, jeans and all) except for a bright red belt and bright red cowboy boots, having the time of her life walking in the park. and the other would be a wanna be zach morris, looking really gq, walking the dog, but not a real dog, a yoyo. amazing.]

upon returning from an afternoon in my own little rome, i knew i needed to continue my training. training for what you ask? ahh, yes. the annual fourth of july bluegrass 10k quickly approached, and while i was in some state of mind, i agreed to run it. now i just need my body to agree with my head that i can do it. three weeks in counting. nashville's hot. real hot. and there's a lot of hills. my body and my mind are currently at a standoff. 

despite the heat and hills, i've conviently placed the end of my running route at my neighborhood playground (which is only a street over from my house. baller). regardless of if i have a great run or feel like i'm about to die, i know i've got a good quality cool down on a swing set. 

so today i learned something. even though my start in nashville hasn't been the easiest, and the experience of moving somewhere completely new by myself is a little overwhelming still, sometimes i need to stop, remember, and embrace the simple things in life. they really help. especially those that follow you everywhere. i knew i needed a pick me up, and i love parks, so i went to a park. here's the key-- it takes a lot of little things to make one big thing. many times finding joy in the small things will help you find joy in the larger things. 

it's going to be a good summer.