Humor

So the ADCO on console today (Todd- see, there's your credit) made the following comment about me: "You should come with a warning".
In context, he was referring to my penchant to gesticulate wildly when I talk (something that several people over my lifetime have brought up). Taken out of context...I find this comment wicked hilarious. Of course, I told him this and in true Melissa fashion, proceeded to point out the other areas this statement could be applied to: my randomness, my dorkiness, my quirkiness (yes, I have learned to embrace all of these). Ha, I'm still giggling about it it..."you should come with a warning".

Ha! It didn't stick.

So my neat freak roommates who have guilted me into becoming a neater more tidier person?Yeah...it SO did not stick. :D...I had to pick up the other day because I was thinking, "wow, I think I would be embarrassed for housekeeping to come in here". Ah....untidiness... (hehe, I can hear many of you groaning right now...aww, she was sooo close!).

Weekend

It was actually a pretty quiet weekend- I know, I know, disappointing to all you folks who told me to go here or there...but it is cold here and I don't do well with long periods in the cold...
On Friday night a group of us went to this great Indian resturant here...I'm the only woman out here right now from work, so its been an adjustment back to "hanging with the guys". But we had a good time...excellent Indian food.
On Saturday I slept in and then hit Ismalova with my co-worker Nik. He had never been and I had a few things to pick up as well. And then I was coordinating a rendezvous (ha, I almost wrote that "rndz"...you work people will find that funny) spot with a friend of Dustin and Megan's (my caregroup leaders) to go to church with today. Unfortunately both the places he mentioned I couldn't picture in my head, so I trekked out to find them. Plus, I had no feel for how long it would take to get there...but I found the big plastic cow we were supposed to meet at :)
I got to go to church for the first time ever while being in Moscow today. The church is called International Christian Fellowship. I met up with Jason and we headed over there. It is such a cool experience to worship with believers from all over the world. Today was pretty neat because it was Children's Day...so the junior and senior high school aged youth ran the service. They have a bible study that meets on Tuesday nights and I am planning on going to that as well. And Sunday was topped off by dinner with a group of guys at the "Raxat Lukum" Uzbek restaurant that I really really REALLY like. Yummy hachipuri (amazing cheesy bread) and shashlikh (shish-kebab).
Here's to launching tonight! Go Discovery!

Love this

"Not the labor of my hands

Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone"

From Toplady's "Rock of Ages"

Snow!

Russian snow that is...I think that makes it more exotic...(yeah, warning, I'm running on little sleep, so this blog may be excessively quirky)...
Actually, I changed my seats on the flight from ATL to Moscow and got three seats to myself! Can you say "holy lay-down-across-all-three-and-actually-get-some-solid-sleep Batman!"? That was of course, until Russian-guy-who-was-sipping-from-his-duty-free-beverage-bottle got sloshed and proceeded to talk REALLY LOUDLY about politics. Actually, I have no idea if he was talking about politics, I just said that because it sounds very Russian...he was probably telling the babushka sitting next to him that he didn't like her hair color or something... (shrug)...anyways, he got carted away (I am still wondering where they stored him...he didn't surface again until customs)...and I was awake again. But I highly recommend the three seat thing...
There is so much snow here! And it is really cold. My co-worker, Nik, and I headed to Red Square after checking into the hotel (unexpected blessing- I DO have a wired room! Yay for a computer being close by!). Of course, my camera battery died after the first picture (I charged it yesterday, but then I realized that I think this is the battery that I meant to throw away because it wouldn't hold a charge any more)...so I will head back tomorrow to get some more snow pictures...but here's what I got...

Moscow Book List

As most of you know, I am an avid reader. I've been quite the slacker as of late, due to other projects, priorities, etc. I'm hoping to make a decent dent in my "to read" stack of books while in Moscow (helping that fact is that I am in an unwired room- ie no computer, most likely no AFN, coupled with cold weather- makes for a nice recipe for reading). Here's the stack I have compiled (subject to change between now and when I actually get on the plane :) )-

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron- a travel journalist's take on China
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (nope, I haven't watched it either)
Kingfisher by Gerald Seymour- it was on sale and looked interesting-spy/thriller
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro- one of my favorite authors
The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin- given my background with Mars stuff, I figured I'm a bit overdue for reading this :)
My Grandfather's Son, A Memoir by Clarence Thomas. The Supreme Court Justice's memoir- I've heard good things
Knowing God by JI Packer- I'm about halfway done reading this one...its slow going cause there's so much application on every page!

We'll see how far I get...

Whomp! Thwack!...Whoa....

That's the sound of a song smacking me upside the head...what? you've never experienced that before? You're sitting in your car and a song comes on and you're like "OH MY GOSH! That is TOTALLY what I've been feeling/thinking/wanting to say but can't find the words etc etc? You have, trust me ;-). The past few weeks have been filled with a plethora of whomp-thwack-whoa moments for me. My friend Megan gave me some lyrics to a song (maybe I will post it someday :) ) that she heard and then thought of me...and I finally looked up the words to another song she had mentioned and yep, you guessed it: whomp, thwack whoa. I think it is amazing that God has gifted people in the area of songwriting- to put words to thought and feelings that we sometimes have trouble clearly expressing, or even putting our finger on. Today in church, we sang this song for the first time and well, I think the word "waterworks" sums it up :). Yay for whomp-thwack-whoa moments.

Abba, Father

Abba, Father, you have loved me
With a love like I have never known
Abba, Father you have saved me
From the depths that I’ll never know

What a great Father you are
What a great Father you are

You have loved me with arms open wide
You have held me through it all
You are faithful to the broken
Lord you hear me when I call

Thank you Lord for all that you’ve done
Thank you Lord for giving your Son
When I was lost you came after me
When I deserved such great penalty

You have loved me with arms open wide
You have held me through it all
You are faithful to the broken
Lord you hear me when I call