"You don't miss them, you miss who you thought they were."

That's a good one.

Time is flying...

God is awesome.

Engagement
I must say this is the weirdest thing I've ever gone through. It's happy, don't get me wrong. I love my ring. I love my fiance. It's great. But weird... I think I disappoint people with my appearance of non-elation. Truly, I'm overjoyed. But the story of my engagement is mine. It was simple and perfect and ours. And although I tell people, it seems like it's not enough. Maybe I'm trying to keep it to myself. And then the engagements brings the wedding and all it's assorted planning - what an adventure. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all these people who have ideas and opinions and are really wanting me to choose their pick. I love the help and all the different perspectives and yet at the same time it is becoming glaringly obvious that my "style" (I use the word loosely) is...unique, if not just outright weird. The fans are not pleased. But I'm actually standing firm, being obstinate. I figure if there's a time when that's allowed, it's now, right? I'm not complaining. Just standing back and observing. I shouldn't be surprised, but it continually surprises me how different reality is from the thoughts and visions you come up with in your head. I don't mean disappointment, just different. Another thing... Our parents haven't met yet. I'm saving that for a very special day. Lol. This could be tv.

Election
That was...fun. I'm Republican. But it was (and has been) fun to question voters. Republican or Democrat. I really don't care how you voted, but I do believe if you mishandled your ability to vote, you deserve to be criticized and questioned to the point of physical blows. Just kidding. But all those people who are proud of the fact that, though eligible for years, this was the first time they thought it was worth their time to register really annoy me. It demonstrates their indifference to their own country and undermines "responsible" citizens. It took a "sensational" candidate for you to even care enough to vote?  Way to go, be proud. (responsible can be debated at a later date)

Spelling
I keep finding myself spelling things with an s instead of a z (like criticised and criticized). Maybe it's the books I read; I can't figure out where I picked this up.

This is a disjointed response to Jackie's post.... (Not really....it's more a response to the article hyperlinked below)

This is the link in her post about why doctors won't prescribe the pill...

Are these people serious? So what some doctors and pharmacists don't want to prescribe the pill. Go to a different one. And the story about the girl who went to the Catholic hospital/clinic whatever and was completely stunned when the doctor said she didn't believe in the pill but believed in natural family planning. Really? I'm not even Catholic and that doesn't surprise me. And more, that would pretty much be the expected response. And are you seriously going to be offended when you find out that your doctor/pharmacist (and granted sometimes you've been with them for years) disagrees for "moral" reasons with your lifestyle (choice of contraception)? I'm thinking... and granted this is just "intentionally uninformed" Courtney... that maybe you would want a doctor/pharmacist who was somewhat ideologically in agreement with you (why would you want to support the "opposition"?). And I'm not talking about them passing judgement on you but really.. If you're some liberal hippy, why would you want to go to a whacked out Christian conservative doctor? I know I wouldn't. Granted I'm talking in extremes here and most cases probably do not involve such "incompatible" people. And honestly, I don't care much. Find someone else. Pretty sure Planned Parenthood is still open. And if your employer told you to kill someone, would you do it? Would you sign a paper saying you would follow company rules no matter what, with no regard for your own beliefs? I don't know many people that would. And I am not saying that I believe the pill kills, that was just an analogy. But if these people have that strong of a conviction, if their belief is that deep, why try to mess with them? It is my experience that liberals believe they are the more "intellectual and smarter" party (in ideology and in number) anyway, and since it does take some intelligence to be a doctor, it follows that more doctors would be liberals. (And yes, I realize that there is a suspicious closeness in that sentence of the words "more" and "smarter"... as I stated initially...disjointed)

I don't have to collect any leaves! Woohoo!

I have to go to class on Mondays; makes my trek to Claremore a 3x/week affair. Not too hapy about that, with gas and missing work and all, but work was ok with it... Mondays will be interesting - both jobs and school. Fun times.

My phone doesn't work correctly anymore. The screens are gone. I can't text. And if you aren't on speed dial, I probably won't call you . I really want to hold out until November so I can get a different phone. Peoples are requesting I just pay the $50 for insurance get a new one for now. Urgh... Phones.

Got my books on Ebay. Awesome.

Jobs are good. Business at the restaurant is picking up; traffic at the clinic is incredibly crazy since school just started and everyone is figuring out their schedules.

I bought another Hannah Swenson Mystery. (Girly mystery books that include a lot of recipes...interesting, I know) They are rather tame compared to my British obsession, but they are easy reads.

Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they leave a tip that's less than 10%. If the service sucked, I could understand. If the food sucked, I could understand. But when everything is good (great), what's with it? Truly, if you can't afford the tip, then you probably shouldn't order the food. Just a thought... And you may be thinking 'well I'm poor and I can't really afford that great of a tip', but I've been there and if I offered anything less than 20% I seriously would come back at a later date and give more. I've done it. My own mother disagrees. So you can, too. But know that servers in Tulsa make just over $2 an hour. Sorry... Ranting...

The olympics are addicting...

Going to TN on Sunday.

The boyfriend is awesome.

My dad is in CA.

I'm hungry.

Gas has been going down.. Woohoo! Not because gas is going down, but because I actually had some money, I got gas yesterday. You know the cheap gas was 3.45 at the BA QTs. So I was getting ready to pump, and I hit the super, super whatever gas - 3.65 a gallon. I'd already been inside the QT and didn't feel like going in again so I just pumped it on into the tank (and before someone jumps on this chance to prove my ignorance... I know you're not supposed to mix them and I know "once you start using the high octane you have to always use it cause your engine expects it..."). But I only pumped like 2 gallons. And then I went to a different QT to fill up with the cheaper gas. And the car has shown no adverse affects. Woohoo! But it made me laugh... While most people are getting gas at the cheapest it's been in months, I was voluntarily paying 20 cents more..

I lost my wallet a couple weeks ago... It felt disastrous that first day. I didn't cry. But I yelled a lot. It just made no sense. It really just disappeared. Once I recovered, I started fixing all the junk... Called the bank, and all the credit card peoples, and even went and sat at the Social Security office (because yes, like they tell you not to do, I kept me social security card in my wallet..). (Sidebar: The Social Security office is one of the oddest places on earth. First off, it looks like an immigration office. Very rarely do you hear english spoken. And another weird thing was how many little kids were there. It was like a daycare. I really didn't want to wait but since I had nothing else to do and I knew I'd have to do it eventually anyway, I waited an hour. And that hour was some of the best people watching I've had in a while. You should go visit. It's interesting. You better not be intimidated by odd smells though - it's not for the weak-stomached person.) Anyway.. the cool thing about all this all the shiny new cards I get! My bank card is pretty. And my credit card design was changed and now it's a really sparkley gold. Sometimes I just take it out and look at it because it is so pretty. And of course I got a new wallet to hold all my shiny new cards. I think this could almost be thought of as a positive experience now (I was incredibly blessed in that there were no fraudulent charges to worry about).

School starts next Thursday. I almost fear saying it but I should actually graduate this time... How badly can I screw up 2 classes? You're right, my name is Courtney, and I could screw it up pretty badly. But that's not going to happen. I have to take Botany and when I told Alysse she said I can see it now... In November you'll be recruiting people to find any kind of leaf and vegetation possible. As this is fairly easy to envision, I'm hoping there won't be some huge project like that... (FYI - if you still have bugs, feel free to throw them out. I actually still have some. They were pretty cool looking so they've found homes in the bookcase.) We can pray. I'll find out next week.

I'm about halfway through that Captivating book. Although the overbearing femininity of it annoys me, it actually is pretty good and I read a chapter last night that I totally identified with. So now I'm thinking all girls should read it. But like Jenna always says...take some, leave some, confirm with the Bible. I think the next book is Irresistible Revolution. I've heard good things. I also speed-read (summarized) His needs, Her Needs yesterday. It was surprisingly very good as well. The author uses a lot of illustrations. I skipped all those which was what allowed me to really speed through. But if you like examples, you would enjoy it. Personally, i'm not the biggest fan of examples.

I'm off... Hope you all have a fabulously happy Wednesday!