"everything should taste like bacon."

To be quite honest, I should be working on my client satisfaction survey analysis right now, but it’s been a long day of work and I get off in 30 minutes…my brain is fried. I’ll use the last bit of time (graciously given to me by my preceptor to work on my objectives) to write instead. I got a chunk of my survey done, though when I think about what I’m writing it comes out in spanglish anyway. Well, mostly English, but with Spanish phrases thrown in. it’s kind of fun! I’ll be sad to switch to a rotation where I don’t speak Spanish all day every day, I don’t want to lose the proficiency that only comes with lots of practice!

This past Sunday after church a bunch of people from my community group went to a little local restaurant called Luna Cafe. I drive by it all the time, and have always wondered if it was any good! Boy was it. I was really hoping for a big fat pancake but we missed the breakfast cut-off by an hour…so a veggie omelet it was. The menu was neat- you basically pick the filling (veggie, meat-lovers, seattle classic) and then the style you want it prepared. I got the traditional, but you could also get a scramble (with all the goodies mixed in, along with hash browns) or a pile, which is all the goodies layered on some hash browns with two fried eggs on top. Zach got the meat lovers pile:

Aka, heart attack in a bowl. I tried a bite though, and it was delicious. At one point I think we got to talking about something relating to meat and vegetarians….all I remember is him making a comment that “the chicken, the cow, and the pig” were all in his one bowl.

And in case that wasn’t enough, you could put some of this on it too….it was on every table:

Because after all, "everything should taste like bacon."

Anyways, the whole group sat outside in the sunshine and planned all kinds of fun things we’re going to do in the upcoming months. We want to rent a cabin in the mountains somewhere and take a weekend vacation. With 15 of us, it looks like it will only be around $30 each! And we can play board games and cook good food and drink peppermint hot chocolate by the fireplace :) And those who want to ski can ski and those who don’t can stay back and read…I really hope we follow through with it. It would be a blast, especially with the company. I appreciate them all quite a lot.

Que mas...

This past Monday we had the day off as interns, which was great because I had a little more time to get caught up on my work. I spent most of the morning here:

At my (unfortunately miniscule) desk, coffee in hand. I went for a little jog around lunchtime and discovered this neat little staircase that takes you right down to the park, though there’s nothing "little" about it. 300 stairs, according to my roommate. From my house it’s an 8 minute run, all downhill, to get to the park. Which obviously means a lot of uphill work to get back home. After that I went to c&p coffee shop, the old antiquey one with mismatched furniture, to sip on a chai latte and read for a bit. After a while a few guys sat down at the table I was at (it’s huge) and started playing board games, which were fun to watch for a little while. They got to talking about the settlers of catan expansion pack…which made me want to play the game again. I’ve only played once, and it’s been almost a year!

I got back to the house just in time to catch my roommate heading out to dinner with our friend across the street. We ended up at a seafood restaurant down on Alki where I had the most delightful Mahi Mahi fish taco with mango salsa and a sweet sauce that I’ve ever had. I savored every bite :)

This week was mostly normal at work. I pretty much took over the dieticians’ schedules, so I’ve been counseling basically from 8-5 daily. I had an appointment in English the other day and it was a piece of cake compared to having to think so hard to talk in Spanish! I met a bunch of girls around my age who are working for AmeriCorps, which was fun. They told me a bit about what they get to do, and how they can buy really nice food with the food stamps that they get as part of their stipend! Because apparently it doesn’t matter if you buy the $1.27 cheap white bread or the $4.59 good and grainy whole wheat bakery bread. I could live with that!

Community group on Tuesday was super great, as usual. It was Westin’s birthday so there were yummies too! There’s a bakery here that makes little tiny cupcakes, you buy them by the dozen and they come in an egg carton. How creative! We all just hung out for a while and talked and laughed, then got to talking about the message from Sunday, which was really a good one. Well, I guess they always are :)

The passage was Luke 11:29-32, and it talks about unbelief. It says that the Queen of the South (Queen of Sheba, see 1 Kings 10:1-13) didn’t believe king Solomon’s power, so she came to see it for herself. And when she saw all that he had and all that he had done and all his wisdom, she believed. She will testify against the generation at hand, the word says, because while she doubted, she saw and then believed, as opposed this generation, which sees greater signs even that that, and yet does not believe. Likewise, the passage says that the Ninevites will also judge this generation because they repented at the teaching of Jonah, who went to them reluctantly (namely, only after being eaten by a fish), and then only preached a half-hearted warning. And yet the people believed, and this generation, though they had the preaching of JESUS, wouldn’t repent. Bubba (one of the pastors) went on to talk about unbelief, and how it doesn’t change the way the Lord views or related to us, but it changes our interactions with him. For example, take any relationship. For a relationship to work, trust must be established and maintained. If one person starts to disbelieve the other, it creates separation, regardless of the attitude of the other person. That one person will be unwilling to be honest, to draw in, to be real. He also explained that just as we practice a sport or a hobby, we can practice the sin of unbelief. And with practice (not even intentional practice, just a recurring presence) this becomes the norm, which is nothing but division and destruction. Our doubt should be put to death by the blood of Jesus, by the cross. After all, what more perfect sign is there? Nicole (wife of the aforementioned meat-lovers Zach) put it well: “if we aren’t actively believing, we are passively disbelieving.”

Bubba also talked about the day of judgment. When we die, we will ALL stand before Jesus and give an account of our lives. We must give an account, every one of us! For the things we have done, both good and bad. For a believer, we will stand before Jesus, with his blood as our only plea. Our sins will be exposed like everyone else, but to the glory of the Lord, we will claim Jesus’ blood over them. For the nonbeliever, their sins will likewise be exposed, every word, every thought, every motive, every action. And with no plea good enough to match the weight of their sins, they will stand condemned. We will all stand before Jesus as sinners. But for the believer, this is a moment of worship and repentance in the face of our Savior.

Needless to say, it was a really challenging and thought-provoking sermon. The next day I was reading in 2 Corinthians and came across v. 5:18 which says “through Christ, God reconciled us to himself.” Did you catch that? Reconciliation requires to parts, both to be in agreement. (Unlike forgiveness, which only requires one.) And God reconciled US to HIMSELF. He did the work of both parts, both my solving the problem of sin (by providing the perfect sacrifice) and by filling us with the Holy Spirit, to draw us to know him and partake in this glorious reconciliation. By no merit of our own.

Those are my current thoughts on that. On Thursday Susie fixed us an awesome dinner, I should have taken a picture so you could see it. Squash/feta/couscous stuffed red bell peppers, all roasted in the oven and perfectly delightful. We ate them while enjoying a glass of merlot, which I snagged at Trader Joes for a very thrifty price. Great little store, that Trader Joes. When I went in I was super hungry and pressed for time….that combination in a grocery store leads to plenty of impulse buys. I limited mine to some unsulphered unsweetened dried mango, one of my favorite treats, and saved the shopping for another time.

And today is Friday! Which means lots of working hard on homework this weekend, interspersed with fun things like magnet-making parties and sugar cookie decorating. I’ll fill the world in on all that when it happens :)

That's all for now!