Removing the subtitles

We all love the commentary, the sarcasm, the one who adds flavor and meaning and their own spin to things. I think that's why we love the news. We could get the same information in a much less flashy, must less biased manner, but then it wouldn't be news. Instead it would just be congress, talking of another bill, another imperfect man doing his best to lead a country, crimes from a moment of passion instead of the crime of a century.

But I've been trying to improve my language abilities, so I've decided to go without subtitles. At first it was confusing and I wondered if I was really catching everything. Could I really understand everything? Didn't I need other people to interpret and scrutinize? It requires a little more concentration, a little more astuteness, but once you don't have to watch the words you can begin to watch their faces. You pick up the subtle nuances of voice inflection, the turn of a head, you can begin to see if for yourself instead of through a lens.

So I decided to put it to the test, not only would it be for my Korean dramas, but I'd try it in real life. Not put words in people's mouths, not spend my time figuring out what I wanted them to be or mean or say. Instead I would spend less time analyzing and more time observing. More time really listening instead of mentally summarizing and compartmentalizing.

And although I can't say I'm a native, I'm definitely more fluent.

What I think about biking in the rain and falling and scrapping my arm

Popular Mechanics for Lovers

It's one of those books.

You know. The kind that you don't need. The one that you have so thoroughly mastered that you don't even have interest in it. The title is intriguing, but certainly not something that you would bother with, unless...


She is one of my best friends and the library is free, so I checked it out. I'll give it a quick look over at least.

And the more pages that I read the more I feel the desire to change. The desire to fix myself before trying to find the one who is out there waiting for me. I'm not a mess. But I'm not perfect either. And so I continue reading, mesmerized by the truthfulness of every page and the encouraged by the thought that maybe, somewhere out there, my soul mate is waiting for me. Waiting for me to realize it.

G00613 voice

I love Google, I recently found out that Google Voice will listen to your voice messages, transcribe them to text, and give you the best laugh you could have expected. I have my favorites, of course, but today I got one that really gave me a belly laugh:

"Yes, I was trying to reach Chris, I'm trying to get a message to the Y innately easy as a contact. My name is Lisa, my number is ***-***-****, and I was thinking to return my call if you could give him that message. Thank you. Hello Hello. Cash express the place hum a happy."

Thanks Lisa, I'll make sure to relay the message.

Discovering the Cure for Cancer

Freedom comes with a price and it's own sense of dependence. Free to sit at home. Free to wonder if I did the right thing. Free to hang out with friends and spend the night with Carin spur of the moment.

And yet a sudden dependence on my bike and my sister to take me places.

Anna and I went to visit Orem last night. Except after about five minutes her oil temperature gauge went off the charts. We prayed that we could make it safely there and back when suddenly the gas light went on and we pulled off into a gas station.

It was fortunate that we did, as soon as we came to a stop we realized that the engine was smoking. I jumped out, scared that any minute there would be a large explosion and only a little of me left. I crouched down to peer under the car and exerting my full expanse of car expertise announced, "We're leaking!"

There was a green trail that had followed us up the hill and as Anna and I sat contemplating what would have happened had we been so brave and silly to actually make it to Orem, God sent his messenger to give us some advice. Except this messenger was wearing an oversized Simpson's t-shirt, had shaggy unkempt hair and I wonder if he had ever seen a dentist... in his life...

"Stand back," he warned, "I've seen those things explode before." Needing no prompt, Anna and I both leaped backwards a good ten feet and allowed the homeless angel to open our hood and proclaim that it was the worst case he had ever seen, but our anti-freeze had boiled over and was dangerously low. As he opened our anti-freeze container and advised us to "wait it out", both Anna and I began to thank the heavens for this fortunate turn of events that lead us to
 1. not dieing
 2. not being stuck on the side of the road

As we waited I pulled out the never-been-read-before user's manual and began flipping through. After laughing as some of the inane signals that were found there, I nudged Anna,
"Look, this says that if the engine over heats then all these other symptoms may become evident as saftey mechanism."
Anna looked at the pages in shocked amazement, "this is wonderful, I'll go get my car fixed tomorrow and what I thought was a million problems is really just one problem. Becca, this is like finding the cure for cancer"

"Except," I reminded her "we haven't found the cure, just the cause." Ignoring my comment she blissfully began repeating "We've found the cure for cancer! We've found the cure for cancer!" And I couldn't help but smile and laugh at my wonderful, crazy little sister.

 So if you pray for help, don't think God's not listening just because it doesn't turn out the way you want.  We can learn a lot from break ups and break downs and breaking apart and God is always helping us out.

Looking Back

Do you ever wonder if maybe you have too many good options. For a girl who can't say no, it can be hard. I had a dream about a boy who I haven't seen in at least ten years.  He came over, and it was odd, he was married, I was still dating someone else, but he came over. He was trepid and then he told me, he told me that he still felt bad about that week, the week when it was over. That he could still remember my broken hearted face and that he was sorry.

I laughed. I had overcome it so long ago that it almost seemed inane to remember it. I assured him that I had recovered and that it was best to have happened, because now we were both happy in our separate lives and I had been able to grow so much from this experience. I had gone on a mission and lived out on my own, I had grown and learned and become. There was no need to apologize.

And I hoped that it was a message for me. I woke up feeling okay again.

Hollah for some Challah

Recently I remembered my ever deep love of the free Macey's Little Theater classes and I attended one on bread-making which was hands on and I got to even take home my own dough to make it later. I have never been very good at making dough, but I think because of the neat braided effect and the artisan looking sesame seeds on top that people enjoyed it although it was not too difficult nor necessarily a taste that would blow anyone away.

Hallah:

• 3-4 cups flour
• 1-3 t salt
• 1-2 eggs
• 2-7 T honey (depends on how sweet you like it)
• 2 T yeast
• 1-2 T olive oil
• 2-3 cu water
• raisins/nuts to your liking

1. Mix yeast with 1/2 c lukewarm water, let sit for 5 min or so, stir to dissolve
2. Pour flour on your work surface, make a well for adding other ingredients. Add salt, eggs, olive oil, honey and the yeast water to the well (also nuts/raisins if desired go in here)
3. Gradually stir in flour from the sides to make a soft dough. Knead until dough is elastic and ready to rise.
4. Divide dough into 3 balls and let rise until double in size. (about 1 hour)
5. Roll each ball into a long strand, and braid strands (just like you'd braid hair)
6. Place the braided loaf on a baking sheet (sprinkle baking sheet with olive oil/flour/cornmeal to prevent sticking) let proof until doubled in size. (about 1 hour)
7. Preheat oven to 375 F
8. Brush loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy/sesame seeds
9. Bake until golden brown and cooked through (30-50 min)
10. Remove from oven, let cool, enjoy.

Challah is a traditional Jewish braided bread that has many different variations The ingredients are typically the same, but the amounts vary by a wide degree depending on which recipe you follow.