Gobble, Gobble up these fun facts!

Wow, what a great day to learn new things!

**A couple weekends ago, a few of us went to Chicago, Illinois and spent a Saturday passing out fliers for a church, making conversations with passerbys, and enjoying some deep dish Chicago-style pizza. While talking to one homeless man, Darnell, I realized how much I take my education for granted. I've had the opportunity to be educated for nearly 15 years now. For most of these years, I have not appreciated my education, nor have I thought about how grateful I should be for the encouragement and financial support from my family to be attending college. When Darnell found out that we were all college students, he thought it was awesome that we were in school, and he shared with us about how he wished he had had a chance to go to school. At that point, I learned how truly blessed I am to be attending school and working towards a great education.


Fun Facts about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
- If you laid every parade balloon since 1927 end to end they would stretch from Battery Park City to the Cloisters (approx. 12 miles I think?)
- Due to a helium shortage in 1958, the balloons are brought down Broadway on cranes.
- Santa Claus has ended the parade every year except 1933, the only year in which he led the parade.
- Macy's is the world's second largest consumer of helium. The United States government is the first

Fun Facts about Thanksgiving
- The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.
- The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.
- Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the United States.
- Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead.
- A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds.
- Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey.
- $1 is the average cost per pound in of a frozen whole turkey.

...Well that's all for this Thanksgiving Day (at least for now). Keep your heart open today and think (and pray) often for those who are spending today without family, friends, a home, and/or food.

-Melissa

Hurry up and read it already! (the blog of an impatient person)

I've learned something new: I am very impatient.
I often blame it on the fact that I'm an American...but I think the reason is probably more in depth than the simple fact that I live in an impatient culture.

気短か
ongeduldig
impatient
ungeduldig
ανυπόμονος
impaziente
성급한
impaciente
нетерпеливо
impaciente
不耐烦

*If you were able to spend time trying to figure word above and which languages were included in the list, you've already proven to have more patience than me.

I have been hit in the face lately with the fact I have a very impatient side to me. I always cram my schedule so full of activites that when I'm forced to wait for someone or something, I feel that I am wasting my time.

Truth is, I am a very selfish individual. I want things done when I'm told they're going to be done...I don't want to wait around because something "came up" or "needed to be taken care of". I understand that often times, these things that I call excuses are truly important happenings in the lives of others. But, because of my selfish desire to have things done as planned and when I expect, I often boil inside when such excuses are given to me.

The past couple of days, my patience has been tested many-a-time. It was today that I realized maybe there is bigger reason that schedules and planned meeting times keep falling through...perhaps it is God's way to get me to an empty building and make me wait for an hour, unable to be distracted by the usual distractions of a dorm room. God can do a lot in an hour. Though people around me may let me down and cause me to feel unworthy of their time, God displays his goodness continually. How great He is.

NAsty Syndrome

I've learned something new: If one plans to buy a train ticket, one should buy a train ticket when it first comes to mind rather than waiting a few days. Why? As days go by (approaching the desired departure date), the price of the tickets increase.

I purchased a round-trip train ticket today so that I will be able to travel home to see my parents (and friends, I suppose) over fall break. I've been planning to purchase the ticket for quite some time, but I just felt like it would be too premature to purchase the ticket before today. Additionally, I didn't want to invest so much money in a ticket in case I was able to snatch up a ride with another student. Needless to say, I did not find a ride that would work with my schedule, so I resorted back to the train ticket...a few days too late. Between Friday and today, the ticket had increased $18 (round-trip)! In all reality, it's no big deal...my parents are willing to cover the cost :) They're so sweet.

I've learned another something: Negative attitude syndrome is not good.

I have a tendency to have periodic outbursts of Negative Attitude Syndrome ("N.A.sty" Syndrome, as I like to call it). I was hit by one of these this morning during Sunday School. Over this past year, many of the things I've learned have led me to this new discovery. I used to accept my negative attitudes as part of who I was - my personality. This, however, was a lie that I used to subcontiously justify my attitude. You see, if I justified my attitude, I didn't have to own up to my wrong actions...I could simply blame them on a "conflict of personality" with whoever I had offended or hurt during the course of my NAsty Syndrome outbreak. Today, however, perhaps for the first time, I was able to catch myself in a negative attitude and identify it while I was experiencing it. Because I was able to identify it, I was able to allow God to change my heart...which allowed my negative attitude (which would have normally lasted all day...or perhaps a couple days) to be contained to a few minutes during the Sunday School period. Golly, I've still got a lot to learn. God is so good...and so faithful in teaching me new things.

What have you learned today?

-Melissa

Blogger?

I am not sure that I am a blogger. Honestly, I cannot see myself maintaining this page as I hope to, but I figured I would give it a shot anyways.

A few questions (and the answers to the questions) that you may be wondering:

1. (Q) Why "Never Learning Less"
(A) Last semester I was hit in the face with the fact that I was simply getting through each day. I was not enjoying myself, and I was not taking time to enjoy each precious day that God was giving me. So, I began to realize that in order to see the good in each day, I needed to ask myself one simple question each day. The question - "What did I learn today?" This question made me realize that there was extreme good each day - as long as one has an open heart, one can learn a great amount without ever learning less.

2. (Q) Do you really think people are interested ito hear about what you're learning?
(A). Yes. Probably. Possibly. Probably Not. No. I really don't know the answer to this question. But here's what I figured: People are snoopy (myself included). They'll see that I started a blog, they'll open the blog, they may read this first post to see what I'm all about, and then they'll stop back at least once or twice more to see if I've updated the blog. It is after about the third visit to a blog that one decides whether or not they appreciate the blog. So at this point, I have no idea whether or not people are interested to know what I've been learning, but I am sure that someone is bound to read at least one thing that I've learned. This one thing may be something that they'll appreciate. Who knows.

3. (Q) What about today? Have you learned anything today?
(A) Yes! While putting this blog page together, I learned that alternate names for a blog are Weblog and Web log. The term "blog" is a shortened form of the two previously listed names.



That's all I've got for now.
Melissa