Claudia, Meet Colorado!

A few weeks ago, my friend Claudia, traveled to Denver for a teacher's conference. Claudia lives in Arizona and we rarely get to see each other so I insisted she stay a few extra days and spend the weekend with me in Colorado Springs.

I drove to Denver on a Saturday evening to meet up with Claudia after the conclusion of her conference. As luck would have it, two of my closest friends from Texas Tech were hosting their Birthday party just a few blocks away from Claudia's hotel. If Claudia were to meet any of my friends from college, I would want her to meet Kristine, Blake and Matt, so I was pretty excited for her to have the opportunity to do just that.

I met Claudia in 2008. We spent one, crazy summer together doing camps for Student Life.

Some of me and Claudia's best stories come from the thousands of miles we traveled that summer. Imagine a cross country road trip with 2 vans, 2 pickup trucks, 3 Penske trucks, and 24 people between the ages of 19 and 27. The stories that came out of those miles are the kinds of stories that we can laugh about now only because we are 4 years removed from the whole situation. Claudia and I were in van world which means we traveled with the vans, pickup trucks, and the majority of the team. There were plenty of times that Claudia would be driving one van and I would be driving the other, and I kid you not, every time that scenario occurred, it would start to rain. And when I say rain I don't mean a few drops; I mean a downpour - the kind where you can't drive faster than 30mph. It became quiet humorous actually because the downpours only happened when I was driving.

I guess I should not have been so surprised when Claudia and I got caught in a snow storm on the drive from Denver to Colorado Springs. For Claudia the Arizona girl, it was a horrifying experience, but we couldn't help but to laugh that after all of these years, our curse lived on.

Sunday I was excited to introduce Claudia to my church family. Of course one of the kids in the nursery pulled the fire alarm right in the middle of worship resulting in a very awkward ending to the church service and the sad fact that Claudia didn't really get to meet any of my church family.

Determined to find an adventure, Sunday afternoon Claudia and I set off for the Cave of the Winds, a tourist attraction in Colorado Springs. Claudia and I affectionally called it the Cave of Wonders. Pretending we were part of a scene from Aladdin distracted us from the painful awkwardness of the high school aged, tour guides in training who were leading our group.

 Does this not remind you of LOST?

 According to our trusty tour guides, there was something about rubbing this rock for good luck in order to make it up the staircase without falling to your death.

 I lost track of the number of times we got in trouble for falling behind because we were so busy making jokes and taking funny pictures.

After the Cave of Wonders expedition, I took Claudia to Glen Eyrie, a stretch of beautiful property that my office building sits on. The south section of the property is also used for conferences and events. I took Claudia on a self-guided tour of the castle and property. The big horn sheep were outside when we pulled into the parking lot. Imagine Claudia's surprise when we turned around to find these guys were just a few feet from us.

Before taking Claudia to the airport, there was one more thing I was determined for her to see - my Colorado family. A trip to Colorado Springs just wouldn't be complete without paying the Bhatt's a visit. Izzy and Liam anxiously waited for us by the door!

It was a quick weekend and I would have loved more time, but I have really learned to cherish those special days with special friends. Thank you Caludia for being my friend in real life!

Shots

As you might guess, when you travel to Africa, there is a long list of health precautions you have to take in order to minimize your risk of contracting some crazy disease. After a week or so of hunting down shot records, online travel health research, fighting with our HR Department about preventative health coverage, and a number of phone calls to find the one and only in-network doctor (an allergist) who is authorized to give the Yellow Fever vaccine, my appointment was set. I thought this would be a pretty simple, in-and-out, kind of appointment, but nothing ever seems to be that simple for me.

While filling out paperwork, I couldn't help but notice everyone else in the waiting room was 100 years old which I found odd.

After a few minutes in the waiting room, the nurse took me back to an exam room but before I could even sit down, the doctor popped his head in and said, "The receptionist said we owe you a bag of chips" and then left the room. About 2 minutes later (before the nurse even had a chance to take my vitals) the doctor came back into the room, handed me a bag of chips and told me he hadn't stopped laughing about some funny thing I said when I called to make the appointment and that the receptionist thought I was so entertaining she wanted to give me a snack when I came in for my appointment. Then he asked me to remind him what country I was traveling to and left the room. I have no idea what I said to the receptionist; although I do remember being a little overly excited that I found someone who could give me the vaccines I needed.

The doctor came back a little later with paperwork in hand ready to talk about the vaccine options along with his recommendations. I told him that after my research I had decided against the Rabies vaccine. He was surprised by my attention to research. I was surprised he thought I would walk into a doctor's office without any understanding of the possible treatments.

We debated on the flu shot, but in the end I just flat out refused to get it. I didn't feel like I needed to explain that I had never received a flu shot in my life because my Dad has a theory that the flu shot is some government/medical conspiracy to kill off the elderly and weak - like the host of 100 year old patients he had sitting in the waiting room.

Final decision: I needed 5 shots and 3 prescription drugs

The doctor said there was no pressure to get all of the shots on the same day and that I could come back and get the vaccines over several appointments. I didn't really understand though. He didn't have a compelling medical reason against knocking it out all at once other than, "it may be painful." I opted to get them all that day - 3 in one arm and 2 in the other.

After the final decision was made, I was left alone in the exam room for 45 minutes. When you tell someone they are about to become a human pin cushion, it is just plain mean to leave them to think about it for 45 minutes. Praise God for iPhones and Parks and Recreation on streaming Netflix.

The nurse finally came in with my cocktail of vaccines and the fun began. Typically, as long as I do not see the needles I am ok so I told the nurse I needed to look the other way and focus on something else. After the very first shot she said, "Oh gosh you are bleeding!" Now why on earth did she feel the need to say that? Just take care of it and move on. Shot number two was ok. Then half way through shot number three I felt myself lose control of my arm. Before I could even say anything the nurse said, "It feels so weird when your muscle goes into spasms with the needle still inside of it." To which I responded, "Yeah, it doesn't feel too great on this end either." When we switched to my right arm, that one went into spasms too. I told you, nothing can ever be easy for me.

Finally, after all five shots were complete the nurse decided to tell me I had to stay so they could keep me under observation - something about cardiac arrest.

I hung out in the waiting room with the geriatrics until they cleared me. I had left work at 12:30 and did not get back to the office until 3:00. It was so ridiculous.

The next day I realized why the doctor tried to talk me out of doing all of the shots in the same day. I was in constant pain. Just sitting at my desk and typing was painful, but after a day of pain, I started to feel like my old self again.

Today is post-shots day 2 and both of my arms look like disasters. I'm wondering if they lined my Band-Aids with acid. I thought it might go unnoticed, but after being at work for 5 minutes this morning I was asked if I had ring worm.

Whatcha Ghana Do?

I have been so hesitant to blog about this, or even tell anyone, but because I am one month away I feel like I can confidently say it.

Drum roll please...

I'm going to Ghana, Africa in June! Freshman year of college I was planning to go to Toronto for a mission trip and then backed out to go to New Mexico instead. My senior year of college, I was planning to go to Nigeria and then it all fell through. After that I temporarily gave up on world travels. I knew I would go overseas someday, but I was tired of being broken hearted after plans changed. Bottom line: the Bible tells us over and over to have a heart for the nations, but it's really hard to have that kind of heart when in my mind, the word nations doesn't stretch further than the continental U.S.

I have sponsored Eugene through Compassion International since the summer of 2008 and this past November I received an email to inform me that Compassion was planning a sponsor trip to Ghana, where Eugene lives.

After a few months of going back and forth looking for a burning bush telling me to go or stay, in January I signed up for the trip.

Since January I have been so hesitant to mention my trip to anyone because deep down I believed it would probably all fall through just like it had with my previous two attempts. As of today, I have my passport, vaccinations and flights and I'm starting to believe this is actually going to happen. Plus, I am blogging about it. How much more official does it get?

I have enjoyed buying gifts for Eugene over the past few months knowing I will get to personally deliver them to him. I always have my eye out for things a 9 year old boy might enjoy. It has been a challenge because even though I love this little boy and he is one of the biggest joys of my life, I do not really know him. I have a few ideas, but the two most important gifts are already purchased.

There are probably a million things I should be worried about, especially since I am going to Africa with 20 people I have never met, but I have been surprisingly calm. I have just adopted the philosophy that stressing out isn't going to help or change one single thing.

Do not be too impressed though. I am not completely worry free. In fact, here are my top 3 fears in order of least to greatest: 

3) Getting Malaria - It turns out there is not a vaccine for Malaria. The best you can do is take preventative pills and try to dodge mosquitoes. It's kind of like birth control pills but if you miss a few you run the risk of getting a life-threatening disease instead of a baby - and like with birth control, even if you do everything right, you could still be that one in a million who gets a surprise. 

2) Not Connecting With Kids - I have said it a hundred times on this blog. I am not a kid person. I think kids are strange, little people who could bind together and overthrow us adults if they ever decided to get organized. This trip is going to be all about loving on kids and their families and I'm really nervous that I will be the one awkwardly standing in the corner for the entire trip.

3) Crying My Face Off - The only thing worse than crying is crying in front of other people, especially people you don't know. I hate crying. I just hate it! It does nothing for me except make me feel embarrassed and stupid. Unfortunately, one of the few things that makes me cry aside from a really emotionally charged football game, is human injustice. I sobbed through the entire second half of The Help and I still have no idea what happens in The Pianist. I can't make it past the first 30 minutes of the film. All of that to say, the chances of a complete emotional breakdown are frighteningly high and I am scared to death. I have decided though, that if someone dares to mock me for one of these breakdowns I will shout back, (between sobs) "Don't you think Jesus would be upset by this?" What now!

So there you have it, the countdown to Ghana has officially begun. Welcome to the journey.

Highest Accomplishment

I've been in my house right at one full year and over the past 365 days I have made a lot of improvements. For some of these improvements I was fairly confident when I started. For others I was weary but still knew deep down I could do it. A few weeks ago, for the first time, I attempted a project and wasn't sure if I would be successful.

I bought new ceiling fans for my bedroom and my roommate's bedroom before I even signed the closing papers on my house. The ceiling fan in Katie's room looked like something out of a horror movie and needed to be replaced immediately. The ceiling fan in my bedroom was fairly new, but it wasn't exactly my style and it gave off barely any light.

Thanks to the help of friends Jessi and Jarrod, the ceiling fan in my roommate's room was replaced within the first week of living in the house. However, we didn't have time to get to my fan and a few months later Jessi and Jarrod moved away, so here we were, one year after move-in day and the new ceiling fan was still sitting in the garage.

I finally worked up the courage to try and make the installation by myself and moved the box from the garage to my bedroom. I figured that it would still be a few weeks if not months before I needed the fan and I rarely used the light because it was so worthless so if the project went awry, then I had plenty of time to put in a frantic call to a friend or to call a handy man before I was in desperate need of my new fan. 

First step was taking down my existing ceiling fan.  

To my surprise, I was able to uninstall it without too much of a hassle. 

Now it was time to assemble the new fan. All was going well until I once again stripped the screws that were in the motor. How does this happen to me? I started having flashbacks to the last time this happened and knew it was best if I just stopped and asked for help. See, I am learning.   

This time it wasn't Michael, but Joey who came to the rescue. I just wanted to spread the "helping Dani" duties out evenly among the Alethia Church pastors. Plus, I was headed to the Clark's house for my small group later that week anyway. So I just went a little early, took the fan motor, and let Joey work his magic. I watched with a look of defeat as it took Joey all of 10 seconds to remove the screws. 

With the screws removed I could continue to assemble the fan and then mount it on the ceiling. The mount that came with the new fan wasn't working too well so I uninstalled it and then reinstalled the old mount. Why did I not do that in the first place? 

Anyway, after everything was in place it was time to start on the wiring. I did my best to match wires safely and properly then made sure the fan was safely secured to the ceiling. To my amazement, when I restored the power and flipped the switch, the light worked! I was giddy - like a 12 year old with a crush on the high school quarterback. 

When I went to test the fan, my giggles quickly faded - no such luck. I was so close yet so far. I had a feeling the wiring would take a little trial and error but at least the light was working. After a few failed attempts at the fan, I gave up and decided to save that battle for another weekend. However, the last thing I wanted was for another year to go by and this fan still not be in working order, so I left the ladder in my room as a reminder to get this project finished. I would not move the ladder until I had a working fan.

The ladder sat in my room for two weeks solid. Finally I was ready to go a second round with the wiring. After about 45 minutes and some electrical tape, I had a working light and fan. This was my proudest moment as a homeowner. 

This was probably my least favorite of my projects so far.  I think ceiling fans have now made it on my This I Refuse to do After Marriage list. Now I just need to find a husband, which may be easier than installing another fan. 

However, even through all of my complaining, the fact that I now know I can do this has opened my imagination a bit. The lighting fixtures in my house are terrible, especially the ones in the kitchen and living room. Now that I know replacing them is within my realm of possibility, I'm even more motivated to find their replacements and get to work. 

Needtobreathe all one word

Needtobreathe is my favorite band. I think I discovered them in 2007 and by "discovered" I mean someone probably told me about them because I rarely find cool things on my own. In 2008 Needtobreathe went from being that band that I thought was pretty good to the CD I couldn't get enough of. In 2009 my mom heard These Hard Times and asked if I knew her new favorite tune. My mom is so cool. She said the song was by a band called "need to breathe all one word."

In 2009 the CD I couldn't get enough of turned into my survival anthem. In the fall of 2009 Needtobreathe embarked on their Outsiders Tour and performed two shows in Birmingham, Alabama. Because I was unemployed, living out of a suitcase at my parent's house in Florida, was dangerously close to complete depression, and had nothing else to do, I drove 8 hours to Birmingham to see the concert. At the time, some of my favorite people in the world lived in Birmingham and I somehow convinced them to all get tickets to the show.

The 2009 concert is still the best concert I have ever been to. Needtobreathe blew me away and made me a fan for life. Not only was it a great show, but did I mention that I got to see it with some of my favorite people in the entire world? We had a great table that came with a waitress and immediate access to the full bar. Between the 7 of us at the table I am not exaggerating when I say we knew at least 1/3 of the people at the venue that night. It was a never ending parade of people coming to our table to say hello. In my mind, the only bad part of the night was the Canadian girl who opened for Needtobreathe. I don't care what you think Jared Brown, she was terrible.

In 2011, Needtobreathe released The Reckoning but I delayed purchasing it until January 2012 and listened to it for the first time as I crossed the starting line for the Disney Half Marathon. Thank you Needtobreathe for getting me through at least the first 6 miles of my 13.1 mile endeavor. I know I could have done it without you, but it would not have been nearly as enjoyable.

In March 2012 Needtobreathe was making a stop in Denver as part of The Reckoning Tour and my mom continued to call my favorite band "need to breathe all one word."

A few things about me and concerts before we proceed. First, I am not a "concert person." There are very few people/bands I care about seeing in concert. Second, I dislike concerts not only because of the fact that your ears are ringing for hours after the closing song, but I find them very intimidating. I feel like I always have to prove I am cool and trendy enough to be there and because I know I am not, I spend the entire night wondering if the people around me are tweeting Instagram photos of my obviously Old Navy outfit. Plus, pretending to be cool is downright exhausting. This concert started at 8pm on a Tuesday. Do I need to tell you how tired I was on Wednesday morning? Don't these cool, concert going, people have jobs? Third, I really hate crowds and big events.

Despite all of these truths, I love Needtobreathe so much that it didn't matter in 2009 and it certainly didn't matter in 2012. I convinced my friend Alicia to go with me and thankfully Needtobreathe did not disappoint. The music itself just might have been better than the 2009 concert. The opening acts were certainly better. I don't typically get crushes on band guys (probably because you have to go to their concerts) but for Ben Rector I am willing to make an exception. Ben and his bow tie were downright adorable - and anything was a step up from the trashy, Canadian girl with the mouth of a sailor. Also, I was pleasantly surprised when Needtobreathe played several songs from The Heat, which is my favorite of their albums. In the 2009 concert they strictly played music from their current album so I was happy they mixed it up a bit this time around.

The venue/bar was in a shady part of town, but once we got inside I knew it would be perfect and Alicia and I found a great place to take it all in - after the annoying, high school girls next to us left to make their 10pm curfew.

Still not sure how the typewriter theme set plays into the theme of The Reckoning, but it made for some cool effects.

 The lighting was so good. Props to the lighting guy and also to Chris Kulow for imparting just enough lighting knowledge to me so that I can intelligently comment on the lighting.

One of my favorite things about Needtobreathe is the fact that the lead guys are brothers named Bo and Bear. I want a son named Bear! There is a guaranteed cool factor that comes with a name like Bear. Also, I love that Bo and Bear are truly talented musicians. You lose count of the number of instruments they pull out during a show and they are phenomenal at all of them.

This was probably the one time I went to Denver and hoped I would not run into Tim Tebow. Bands that come to Denver (or wherever Tim is living for that matter) have a habit of inviting him on stage to "sing" if he is in attendance at their show. If you have never heard Tim sing then I recommend you search it on YouTube right this minute. It is as adorable as Ben Rector's bow tie, but you will also quickly realize why I put the word 'sing' in quotes. I love to watch Tim play football, but I do not need him on stage putting a new spin on a song I drove over an hour to see performed. It would be outlandish for John Fox to put Bo and Bear on the line for a 3rd down conversion in the 4th quarter. So why does everyone think it's such a great idea to throw Tim Tebow on a stage to muddle through some country band's latest hit?

One of the concert highlights was when Ben Rector came back out at the end to play a few songs with Needtobreathe. So much talent on that stage and I loved every minute.

I think everyone in attendance would agree the best moment of the show was a blue man type drum line at the very end. 

For your viewing pleasure

Down the Hall

Now days there are very few walls in my house that have not been touched. When I moved in I remember saying the paint in the entry and hallway wasn't that bad and didn't need to be touched, at least for a few years. However, after transforming the living room, the hallway and entry looked so dingy and dirty.

Originally I wanted to tackle the hallway and entry during the same weekend I painted the living room, but it just didn't happen. Now, here we were, months later and the paint was still sitting in the garage waiting to be used. 

After taking a few weeks off from major home improvements in order to rest and work on smaller projects, it was time to tackle a little more painting.

There really aren't too many interesting things to say about a hallway and entry so I'll let the photos do the talking.

Move-in Day

Before

 After

Before

 After

Before

 After

Before

 After

I'll Never Let Go

Today I shamelessly saw Titanic in 3D. I had been looking forward to it for weeks. Over those past few weeks, I was asked countless times from disapproving friends why I was bothering to see the movie. To those nay-sayers out there I reply, "Why would you not see the rerelease of Titanic in 3D?" Leo and Kate pretty much defined by entire 12th year of life.

A few thoughts after seeing Titanic in 3D:

First, that drawing scene is far less awkward without your mom sitting next to you. I saw Titanic for the first time with my mom. In middle school, you basically had nothing of value to say if you had not seen Titanic so it's not like my parents were horrible people for allowing me to see it. However, I was not one of those kids who had to beg either. My parents saw the movie on a date night and after coming home, one of the first things my mom said was that I would have loved the movie and she would be happy to take me. Looking back I am beyond confused by this. Maybe it was her way of tricking me into having the sex talk. All of her other efforts up until this point had ended in me running from the room in tears. I'm not exaggerating even a little. So anyway, there we were, 12 year-old Danielle and her mom watching Titanic. By the time the ship actually went down, I was already so traumatized by the frontal nudity and the car sex that I barely noticed all of the frozen dead bodies.

Second...and speaking of the dead bodies, it was not until this time around that I really understood the tragedy of the whole situation. For some reason when I was 12, I was so caught up in the dramatization of it, that I just never realized how many people actually died when the ship sunk. Out of over 2,000 passengers, only 700 survived. I didn't really understand or realize that before. I blame this on the drawing scene.

Third, the best part about a rerelease of a movie is that you don't have to worry about missing anything. I never take bathroom breaks or make trips to the concessions while watching a movie in the theater, and I mean never. However, because I already have Titanic pretty much memorized, when my stomach started rumbling I had no problem getting up for a popcorn refill. It was actually pretty freeing.

Fourth, I still could not manage to make myself cry.

Fifth, as I drove home from the movie theater I wondered what made this movie so special. For me there is definitely an element of sentiment to it but I remember people seeing this movie 5 to 10 times in the theater when it was first released! What draws so many people into Jack and Rose's story?

Well, old lady Rose pretty much summed it up when she said, "Jack saved me in every way a person can be saved" right before she tossed the Heart of the Ocean into...well...the heart of the ocean. Then in the final moments of the movie the camera scrolls over photos of Rose traveling, flying a plane, and riding a horse on the beaches of California. Jack physically saved her life, but he also revived her spirit. It was very apparent that Rose lived the rest of her life as a testament and tribute to Jack's sacrifice.

This being Easter weekend, these thoughts of Jack and Rose led me straight to the cross and my relationship with my Savior. I promise, I'm not trying to get super spiritual here. I hate when people do that. You know me better than that. I rarely turn daily things into spiritual moments on this blog. I just couldn't help but to take the 20 minutes it took me to get home to think about the sacrifice that was made for me and how my life is different. I live as a testament and a tribute to a man who truly did save me in every way a person can be saved.

So tomorrow as I sit in my church's Easter service, reflecting on the cross and the resurrection, I will most likely be thinking of Leo.

My heart will go on.