Weekends of Woe

Rachel's Randomness

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"No one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much, that they never find it necessary to use more than half." - Henry Tilney (Northanger Abbey) 

As I sit at work, listening to Pandora, surfing the Internet for story ideas, thinking of how fast these past few months have passed, Michael Buble's' song, "Home" starts playing. Oh, how appropriate that the lyrics play to my heart throbs. 

Do you ever feel that people who may or may not claim to be your "friends," often use you as a last resource or thought? We are such selfish human beings, some of who give so much more love, loyalty, affection, than we receive. But I feel like King David in the Psalms, when I say, praise God that we are not alone and that did not Christ suffer SO much more than we ever will? He is so gracious and longsuffering towards us. Those thoughts alone should humble and bring us down on our knees in thanksgiving and lift that burden off our shoulder. 

These past few months in Washington, D.C. have been great for me in so many ways and have revealed to me things about myself. At times I think I'm strong in and of myself to fight temptations but before I know it I end up thinking, "How did I, of all people, get here?" It reminds me of what my dad has preached and taught me throughout my childhood, and I'll never forget it, "Pay attention, don't wander," he would say in his deep, grave voice.

I have been blessed in so many ways and just reflecting on them brings a smile to my face and melts away my complaining heart. There are millions of things we can find to complain about in a day - it's a better challenge to find and reflect on what blessings that God through Jesus Christ has blessed us with. Take a minute to name a few and you will see what I mean. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17, "So we do not lose heart...For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."

All that said, I am just going to quickly point out how frustrated I am that my computer decided to commit suicide last night. Yes, a mere MONTH after the year warranty from Dell expired. Never thought I'd say these shocking words, but say them I will, I detest, no HATE Dell! I feel they plant time bombs in the computers so you have to buy a new one every year - I've definitely decided it is a conspiracy of some sort - I'm onto them. My hard drive is completely done for - a lot of my life is on that computer. I think I might cry. Thank goodness I've put most of my pictures on facebook. Dell, I'm SO done with you - Apple, here I come!!! But the "Pollyanna" side to that is I was able to post pictures I took in Williamsburg as well as watch "Northanger Abbey" on youtube with Michal.

Williamsburg was lovely but very hot. My favorite part of the entire visit was the Colonial period dancing on Saturday night. They asked for volunteers after demonstrating various dances, such as the minuet. There are two-couple, three-couple, and four-couple dances! As they asked for volunteers from the crowd for the four-couple dance, I raised my hand in high hopes of being selected, since I was in the back of the non-to-well-lit room. A gentleman (Daniel was his name) in a red velvet waist coat picked me! I was so glad I decided to wear my pink sundress from J. Crew. I felt like I was transported back in time and had become a part of Jane Austen's world - I could almost envision Mr. Darcy dancing across from me. 

Michal and I decided to go for a run last Tuesday night, not expecting the torrential downpour that was brewing. Halfway across the bridge over the Potomac, the storm unleashed its unrelenting fury - as if it were crying angry tears for me. (This was a hard week for me at that point) I had never before been scared of a storm until that moment, when I felt so exposed and as the wind whipped around us and the rain stung our skin. Within seconds, Michal and I were drenched and we could barely see in front of us and had to keep blinking the water out of our eyes. I groaned aloud, "My iPhone is SO going to die now!!!" We got home and the speaker wasn't working. I called AT&T and they recommended putting it in a bowl of rice. Thank goodness Michal had some. Praise God that the next day it worked like a charm. Now I can wait to upgrade to the iPhone 4 until they fix it.

The exciting part of the beginning of last week is that on Monday, my article on women and their struggle with pornography made the front page of The Washington Times: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/11/more-women-lured-to-pornography-addiction/ 

Thank you all for your continued prayer, friendship, and for taking time to read my blogs. It shows me that you truly care about me enough to follow what is going on in my life. Until next time.

Peace out,

Rachel Duke

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Rachel's Randomness

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"A dream I won't wake from. A story that will never end. The ground your feet walk on, let me be there..." - For My Love

This is one of those moments where my sleep-deprived brain is frantically scrambling to kick into gear and stay on track because of the information overload it has from all the details I want to get out and write down in some sort of organized, simple fashion. See, I am even writing run-on sentences that probably didn't make a lick of sense to any of you but me - haha!

I will do my utmost to tell all of this past week's highlights in a nutshell - which is probably just as futile as telling the world to stop moving.

Ah, yes. I did tell you all to expect a huge ta-do about, and me mooning over Eclipse (no pun intended - haha). Hillary (another Washington Times intern) and I pre-ordered our tickets the day before for the 8 p.m. showing at a theater in Chinatown. We were both like giddy girls and felt like such dorks for pre-ordering our tickets. We got great seats. The movie was more fantastic than I was expecting. I was floating on cloud nine afterwards and was in a daze of awesomeness. It was so cool because a month or so before the movie came out, I had bought the Eclipse movie soundtrack and had listened to the songs so many times that I recognized them throughout the movie and even knew some of the lyrics - haha - wow! Edward really redeemed himself in this movie - the humor was well balanced, the story was solid and easy to follow, and some of the lines were unforgettable and brilliant! "Doesn't he own a shirt?" - Edward -- "Let's face it, I'm hotter than you." - Jacob -- "I will fight for you until your heart stops beating." - Jacob. There are many other parts that really struck a chord in my own heart - especially with Bella - I feel this is the first movie that better captured her character in the Twilight books and gave her a movie script with more substance. Anyways, lots of hotness going on - two thumbs up!

I have to say that I was almost embarrassed at how obsessed some, if not most of the audience members appeared to be. There was a ton of clapping, hooting and hollering going on - lol. At one point where Edward formally asks Bella to marry him, and before Bella has a chance to reply, one of girls in the audience yelled (in a creepily orgasmic manner) "YES!!!" Wow - there are no words.

Friday, Michal and I went on a "double-date" at Sculpture Garden to hear live jazz and sip sangria with Jeff and Brian - TON of fun! Jeff even got all fancy and brought actual wine glasses so that we didn't have to drink out of the plastic cups. After that we made our way toward this place recommended to us called Cafe Burma. Michal and I split a meal - it was pretty delish. Then we strolled the street-lit sidewalks to get some yogurt at fro-zen-yo. Tons of laughter all around - great times to be cherished always!!!

On Saturday, I got to go to the Home Depot with Andy and Brian to scout out materials Brian needed to build a back porch and we got stuff for a car wash (hose, hose head, sprinkler, etc.) - I just enjoyed watching the guys do their thing and joking along with them - I felt like I was back in Texas that day, just because I was at Brian's house and not an apartment, riding around in a car, and away from the press of downtown festivities. We swung by and picked Michal up and washed Brian's car and then we all ran like kids through the sprinkler like wild banchees - I was definitely squealing - not gonna lie. Then, wonder of wonders, guess what people?!!!! I got to drive A car for THE first time in about TWO MONTHS!!! Michal and I drove to get groceries and make dinner for the hungry men - it was delish of course. We ate out on the patio then the boys played guitar for us and we sang along. Board games were in order but Michal and I ended up introducing the guys to the world of Brian Regan -- suffice to say -- we spent the next hour straight, a laughing heap on the couch.

Sunday was 4th of July - what a happy one it was too! It was pretty awesome to celebrate America's independence in Washington, D.C. - a bunch of us went to church at Frontline at 5:30 then we had a cookout - which I helped run and (wo)manned. We then all got into cars and made our way over to a bridge off the highway that overlooks the Potomac. It was a breathtaking view with all the lit boats on the water with the Washington monument in view. The fireworks were glorious and made more magical as they reflected off the water. The spot we were located gave us a 360 degree angle of fireworks from around other cities.

We had a pool party on Monday to do something chill to recover from the madness of the flurry of festivities of the July 4th weekend. After swimming, a group of us headed over to Old Town to Hard Times Cafe - even Jeff joined us there. They have pretty awesome wings, chili, and cornbread. I drained three full glasses of diet Coke because I was SO thirsty! Good times at Hard Times - haha!!!

Like I've said before - there are so many details that I miss or slip my mind as I write these blogs - wish I could preserve and right down more perfect memories than I do. At least I can give you all a small glimpse of what my experiences and feelings are. Hope each of you had a Happy 4th of July!!!

Peace out,

Rachel Duke