Category: Stuff I don’t like

My father knows I love the Narnia Chronicles, so he asked me if I was going to go see the Prince Caspian movie.

No way.  They got the first movie all wrong.

I went to see it with a friend, Eva, who’d never read the books.  We have really similar tastes and reactions to things-just read her comments here. I think she’s my long lost twin.  Anyway, I was excited for her to meet Aslan.

When I met Aslan I was about 10, reading all curled up in our comfy 70s green easy chair.  When I got to the part where Aslan died, I cried and cried and cried.  Then I was shocked to read "…if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you…".  How did C.S. Lewis know how I felt about Aslan? 

I fell in love with Aslan reading those books.  I think it was the first step in me falling in love with Jesus a few years later.  (Don’t worry, I won’t break into a Jesus is my boyfriend song…right now.) 

After the movie, I asked Eva what she thought of Aslan.  She said that the movie was really about the kids, that he felt like an afterthought. 

My point exactly.  Take the scene when Father Christmas finally is able to return to Narnia.  In the book:  "I’ve come at last,” said he.  “She has kept me out for a long time, but I
have got in at last. Aslan is on the
move. The witch’s power is weakening.”  The children don’t know who Aslan is yet, but they feel a strange thrill at the mention of his name. 

In the movie, it was something like: "I have been able to come because of the hope you children have brought to Narnia."  No mention of Aslan at all. 

Honestly, to me that’s bordering on blasphemy.

Like now.  I found out yesterday that my mother had a heart attack Saturday night.  The only good thing is that she’s going to be moved to a nursing home for rehab that’s just blocks from my sister.  There are plenty of not good things.  Plenty.

Heartbroken. That’s a better word than sad about how I feel about my friend not coming to see my life here and share my vacation.  Other good words include crestfallen, crushed, desolate, despairing, despondent, disappointed, disconsolate, grief-stricken, grieved, heart-sick, heartbroken, heartsore, inconsolable, miserable, mournful, prostrated, sorrowful, wretched.  Amazing how I just couldn’t express myself when the keyboard I was using didn’t type in my heart language.

How much am I blocked from sharing what I think and what I feel when I’m not able to do it in English, even though my French is pretty good?  How much more than that are people blocked from connecting with God when they can’t hear his story in their mother tongue?

Ok, I guess it’s worth it.  I’ll stay here and keep going.  Even though my friend can’t come, and I really miss my family.  I mean, after I got the news that Cynthia couldn’t come today, I went out for Chinese food, and nearly burst into tears when I saw chop suey on the menu, because that’s what my dad always orders, no peapods, no mushrooms. 

I
am typing this at an internet cafe.  On a keyboard that is not like the ones in the States.  Someday I will find the apostrophe on here and can start using contractions again.  Later I can bring my laptop and do a better entry, funny how stifled I am by having the a where the q belongs.

Anyway, I am sad because my friend is not coming to visit because she can not get one of the vaccinations required to travel here because of another health thing.  Phooey.  We should be able to work something out so that I can still have my vacation with her somewhere there is no yellow fever…sigh.

More when I am at a computer that has keys zhere I think they should be…did I mention that the W and Z are also switched?

So, a few nights ago, I’m in bed.  I’m rooming with two other women during some training I’m helping with, Holly and Shirley. We’ve had a lot of fun giggling about all sorts of stuff, especially Shirley’s tick issues.

Holly and I start laughing about the ticks-you know, that uncontrollable kind that leaves you gasping and crying?  It was great fun.  We’d finally calmed down and stopped setting each other off.  I put on my reading glasses, picked up my book, and was going to read for a few minutes before going to sleep.  All of a sudden, Holly yells "Cockroach!" just as something hits my shoulder.  I of course screamed and tried to get out of bed, but I was all tangled in the sheets.  Eventually I got free, and dove across the room, where Holly was yelling and Shirley was telling us that we deserved it for laughing at her bugs.

Then the hunt was on – we had to find that thing, otherwise it would come out and get us during the night.  After much screaming, yelling, smacking of flip flops, spraying, inhaling bug spray, coughing bug spray, and a final valiant stepping on by Holly, the invader was vanquished. 

I am never traveling anywhere ever again without my nice travel mosquito net .  Never.  Ever.

The other morning my roomie-for-a-week Shirley called from the bathroom: "I need some help…".

She was ticked.  All over her stomach and back.  Ick.  Nobody else got them, we don’t know where they came from, but they’re gone now!  I rinsed them down the sink. 

This kind of stuff either makes you laugh or cry.  We decided to laugh, a lot.  I haven’t had a belly laugh in a long time, much less giggles that go on way past bed time.  Ok, I wasn’t covered with bugs, so it just might have been a little funnier to me than it was to her…