Sunday Hope

Thad talked about hope this morning. He played a clip from The Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. Morgan Freeman has a line: Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

The most dangerous thing about hope is that you might lose it. How do you keep hope alive when everything around you seems hopeless?

Three things trigger hopelessness:

1. Pointlessness or meaninglessness.
2. Believing your situation is not going to change.
3. Believing the outcome is going to produce an undesirable result.

He preached from Hebrews 6:10-20. How do you recover hope?

• v10~Draw your meaning from God and God alone. God is not unjust. He hasn't forgotten you.
• v17&18~God doesn't change. Attach your meaning to God. He is the point.
• v11~Wait until the end. We know the end.
• v19~We have this hope as an anchor for the soul.
• v18~Always pray and don't lose heart.

How do you gain a measure of hope? Make sure your prayer life is up to speed. Will you spend an hour of prayer? Draw you meaning from God alone. Function like Jesus - Pray.

I don't know how much sense that made as I typed it from my notes, but it was inspiring coming from Thad this morning. I hope you glean just a little inspiration from it.

Thanksgiving 2006

My time in the jury box this week brought this story to mind. I thought I'd share it here.
It was the day before Thanksgiving, November 22, 2006. I had an appointment in Atlanta that day, so I had to take the day off of work. Convenient. After my appointment, I drove on to South Carolina and Daddy's house. Half a mile from my exit, an 18-wheeler hooked my left rear fender (see the first picture). It pulled my car into the truck crushing the rear door (see the second picture). The car then spun as I hit the brakes and the truck continued to pull the left rear of the car forward. I basically almost completed a 360 - I remember seeing the cars coming at me head-on - before heading into the median. When the car stopped in the median, my heart was beating a mile a minute, but I wasn't hurt at all. Despite the damage to the car, it was perfectly drivable. The State Trooper followed me to the exit to be sure. So, Daddy and I went to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving. I had a nice visit - recounting my story to family and friends. I came home the next week - Tuesday, I think. I was off work the whole week. That Wednesday night I went to supper at church. My friend, Laura - the mom of the boys I babysit for - asked what had happened to my car. I told her about the wreck. She told me that that morning she knew I was driving to South Carolina and had prayed for me. I hugged her and thanked her, telling her it could have been much worse without the prayer.

Jury Duty - Day 4

We reached our decision today. It's back to work tomorrow.

Okay, now I can talk about it. It was a personal injury case involving a car accident where a young woman in a Ford SUV was hit by an 18 wheeler. She broke six ribs and her collar bone and fractured six teeth in the accident. She had a collapsed lung, a ruptured diaphragm, lacerations on several internal organs, head trauma. They had to remove her spleen. She's had a lot of emotional problems since the accident. Her medical bills at this point are over $101,000. Her dental expenses for the rest of her life are estimated at $120,000. It was three and a half days of testimony that I'm not going to recount here. (I have 27 pages of notes - and a half a sock!) The judgement we awarded was $750,000. After we returned our judgement, the lawyers told us the defense had offered to settle for $500,000; they declined it and said they would take $1,000,000. We split it right down the middle and we didn't even have those figures going in. I feel good about it - especially after he told us that.

I was surprised they picked me because in the jury selection they asked if anyone had ever been in an accident with a 18-wheeler. I have. They asked if anyone had ever been in a wreck and been injured. I have - different wreck. They asked if anyone had ever been in a wreck and sued the person who hit them. I did. Yet, they selected me. I was seriously surprised. Seriously.

Next time I'll tell you about my 18-wheeler wreck of Thanksgiving 2006. Don't be scared when you see the picture of the car. It's all better now.

Jury Duty - Day 3

Well, the plaintiff rested their case today and the defence began their's. I think the case may go to the jury tomorrow. We have several decisions we have to make. Maybe we'll be done tomorrow, but I'm not sure. I may be turning a heel in deliberation.

Jury Duty - Day 2

Yep, it grew today. I've got a lot of trial notes, too. So it's not like I'm not paying attention. I think it's pretty cute. Maybe tomorrow night, I'll post a pic of it on my foot! I went to Pine Mountain tonight and had dinner with Seth and his family. We went to our favorite Mexican place, San Marcos. It's the best Mexican food anywhere. Generous portions and great prices. Just so good.

Jury Duty - Day 1

I was picked to be on a jury. I was really surprised. I can't talk about the trial. I will say that I know the judge from when I worked at the Government Center. I called him by his first name then. It's hard to refer to him as Judge ___ now. He seemed to be cool with me knitting in the Jury Box when we were coming out of breaks. And I had no trouble getting my metal circs through security. I knitted a little while we watched some video depositions. Man, are those dull. All of us were falling asleep. The only way I can stay awake is to knit. I took some notes, but then they get all blurry because I'm sleepy. I could be there all week. They said four to five days. Vince is thrilled, as you can imagine. Anyway, here's my sock:

Catching Up

Okay, the Bronchitis/Sinusitis isn't really gone yet. I still have the cough and ended up with an asthma inhaler. Today, three weeks and two days after I first got sick, was the first day I didn't have to use the inhaler since I got it over a week ago.

THE YARN HARLOT

We spent the night at Debbie and Pat's houses in Manchester. We had lots of fun. Debbie had a friend come who's a physical therapist. She gave us a hot parrafin treatment and hand massages. Here Debbie gets ready for her massage while Julie lets the parrafin moisturize her hands.

Except when Tara's yarn got knotted.
I helped her untangle it.
Here are Tara, Pat, Laura, and Debbie at the knit it before the Harlot came out.
Here she is. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot.
Here I am with my copy of Stephanie's new book, Things I Learned from Knitting. I was waiting in line to have my book signed. Over my right shoulder you see Debbie, Pat, and Lacey.
Here's Stephanie signing my book. I was star-struck, more so than last time, and didn't tell her many of the things I had in mind to tell her, and I forgot to give her the hand cream I had in my bag for her. I gave her hand cream last time and thought if I did it again, I'd be "the odd lady in Atlanta who always gives her hand cream." Oh, well.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did a article about the event. If you click on the crowd picture it'll get biggger. You can see us in the third row. Lacey (part of her) in white, Julie in green, me in black, Tara's empty chair (she was getting food), Pat in pink, Laura in blue, and Deb in green. We don't know the lady on the right in pink.

KNITTING LESSONS

I've talked much about my young friend, Catherine. I babysat Catherine last weekend. I was doing a hat on my Knifty Knitter. I took another Knifty Knitter with me and taught Catherine to knit on it. She'll be six next month and I've been telling her since she was three that I'd teach her to knit when she turned six. I've got a "learn-to-knit" kit for her birthday present, so the Knifty Knitter is only on loan.



She's so proud of what she's doing. She says she's making a hat for her mom to match the one I made her. Too cute!

JURY DUTY

Tomorrow I report for Jury Duty. I worked at the Government Center for over four years, but that was nine years ago. It's a little weird going back. I've got a sock pattern printed out. I need to get it cast-on tonight. I'm putting it on two metal circs, but I'm packing plastic dpn's and going early in case there's a problem. I'll keep you posted. People say I won't be selected because I work in media. I think the fact that I've lived here a long time, had lots of jobs, go to a big church; and, therefore, know half of Columbus, will keep me from being selected. I'm excited about the knitting time I hope to have. Vince, my boss, not so much.

Photo Friday . . . on Saturday

This is a picture from a trip to Atlanta to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot. Here she's taking a picture of me and my sad little first sock. This picture ended up on her blog! Click the link and look for me. Anyway, she's coming back tomorrow and there's nine of us from Columbus going. There will be pictures, maybe not tomorrow night, but they will come. Hang in there.

Sick

Sorry I haven't posted,but I've been sick since Friday. Went to the doctor yesterday - bronchitis and sinusitis. Saving my strength for the Yarn Harlot this weekend. Dr. Lois says I can go back to work tomorrow. Not that I feel like going back to work tomorrow. I'll let you know when I'm all better.