Running for 'The Hills'?

My Tuesday night television watching just hasn't been the same since the first season of Glee ended a few weeks ago. Namely, that there is NOTHING I find worth watching on Tuesday nights now! If I were taking classes right now, this wouldn't be a problem as it would force me to get up off the couch and actually STUDY. But it's summer! And I want to veg and watch some reality TV and campy musical sitcoms.

So I found myself turning on The Hills marathon, as the series finale was last night. I haven't watched MTV since I used to sneak into my parent's basement and watch Season 3 of the Real World while in junior high (that was the San Francisco season with Rachel and Puck. You know, when the show still dealt with real issues like HIV, politics, and when they had careers? Now it's just seven strangers drinking. No thanks. I can see that any night out in Adams Morgan if I want to).

Okay, so that's kind of an exaggeration. I have watched The Hills before. My roommates and I have watched maybe 2 or 3 episodes together in the past, only to mock the long, empty gazes the actors/characters/whatever exchange amid conversations about parties, shopping, and...that's about it.

So imagine my surprise last night as I actually UNDERSTOOD one of the "characters" and (almost) knew where she was coming from! She wasn't talking about money or drugs or plastic surgery, she was talking about finding herself.

Since it was the series finale, MTV has to tie up their "storylines" in a pretty little bow. One is taking the 'next step' by buying her own place, one is moving in with her boyfriend, one is getting sober (I wish I were kidding). And this last girl decided she needed some time alone, away from everything and was going to take a trip to Europe for an indefinite amount of time.

When she was talking about needing to move on and go do something for herself, she used a phrase that went something like, "I need to be scared" and it struck me. Mostly because that it was an odd phrase, but also that I kind of got what she was trying to say.

The times in our lives where we find out who we are usually involve some kind of risk or fear factor. Now, we can't live inside this fear, but when we are afraid, it puts us into survival mode. We have to look inside of ourselves and say, "No one else is around me now. What do I believe? What do I want for myself? What do I know how to do that will keep me going?".

Now, I don't know if that girl ended up going to Europe or if it was just a storyline MTV came up with (the show ended up weird where they let the viewer "in" at the very end and showed a Hollywood lot and cameras, leading the viewer to question, was any of this real? Not that we are surprised if it's not...) but I had to applaud her self awareness or desire to make herself vulnerable for the sake of learning about herself. Even if she didn't come up with this idea on her own ;)

To switch gears and make this theological....Reading The Sanctifier and learning about the Holy Spirit, I've come to learn that the Holy Spirit and it's love possesses us. Or It should. And this is scary for us, I think. We are taught as humans we shouldn't be enslaved or possessed by anything, and that is true! We shouldn't be consumed by our possessions and certainly should not enslave another human being!

But the Holy Spirit and LOVE are different. When they possess us in a pure and complete way, they make us better. They lead us to fulfill our call. So while this possession can be scary, we need to let ourselves be vulnerable to this possession of love through the Holy Spirit.

I found myself relating to a character on The Hills last night, and that was scary! ;) And so is letting ourselves be docile to a Spirit. But the character was speaking some truth, and the Spirit just wants to possess us with love. So who am I to limit how the Spirit works?

Does that have us running for the Hills? Um, lemme check: No. But making ourselves uncomfortable, nervous, or even a little "scared" in order to rely on the Spirit and let Him possess and direct us? I think, like, omg, totally ;)

Peace,
Julia

Today I Rant About Seafoam

Seafoam or Seaglass? Please someone tell me the difference.

Disclaimer: This post will not be theological in content in any way. But will have everything to do about my life ;) Well, not everything. I am already disgressing...

By some dumb, er, luck? I have been getting a free subscription to Better Homes and Gardens magazines. I still feel like someone signed me up as a joke or it is being sent by my mother in hopes I would grow to love getting recipes and kitschy kitchen ideas.

I should also preface this post- I am kind of the anti-Martha Stewart. Don't get me wrong, I can throw a good party. But I usually just take care of the guest list and booze when our roomies have a get together. And frankly, if the party doesn't have winebottles and/or beer ("recyclables" as my friends and I call them) then I don't know if it's a party I want to be at. Humph.

So I get Better Homes and Gardens. And they pretty much sit there on the coffee table and mock me about how little I care about having a better home OR garden. My roommates, however, do subscribe to the Real/Simple/Martha Living mags, so I suppose the Better Homes ones don't stick out TOO terribly much in this house. I just mostly use them as coasters, though.

Well, folks, today I decided I was going to be a big girl and open the infamous mag over breakfast. And it almost had me too. Almost.

The cover had summer recipes for watermelon and grilling. I actually like watermelon and grilling. Summer BBQs I can handle because they usually have the aformentioned "Recyclables" present PLUS paper products as dishware. Bonus recycling. Less pressure.

I almost wanted to know about 15 ways to prepare watermelon and 5 great ways to skewer shishkabobs.

But then...

I stumbled upon the "better homes" section, apparently, and there were articles telling you how to add color to your house (they even suggested colors for laundry rooms. Really? Do you WANT your laundry room to look appealing so you spend more time in it?) and I read these words that let me know I wasn't ready for Better Homes OR Gardens:

"Seaglass is the new off-white".

This sentence spoke volumes to me. 1.) what the heck is seaglass? The fact that I didn't know it was a color, let alone trendy, made me feel isolated 2.) I didn't know off-white was ever "in". Really? I do know that it is universal...is seaglass really universal if I don't know what it is?!

Now I can keep up with fashion. I LOVE it. So perhaps, if these colors were being applied to a new shift dress rather than laundry room wall-color, I wouldn't have stumbled so much over the words.

But seaglass? This word to me means class separation. I don't know that seaglass is a color. Does that make other BH&G readers better than me???

The color I DO know of is seafoam and I mostly associate that with 80s bridesmaids dresses. I actually think seaGLASS is EXACTLY the same as seafoam but paint marketers didn't want that association. You can't fool me, Better Homes and Gardens. You are just trying to dress up seafoam. You can't put seaglass on a pig. It's still seafoam.

In other news...I went to St Louis this weekend for the first time in two years! Still processing the experience, but I can say it was certainly blessed. More theological reflections and life updates to follow!

In the meantime, contemplate the meaning and deception of seaglass...


Peace,
Julia