Second time's the charm!

Hey all! This is my new blog, the one I am actually going to utilize more than 6 times in a year. I still have my old blog, The Jesus Driven Life, but now I'm going to reserve that one for thoughts, questions, musings, and other such things specifically concerning Scripture or the church. This one, on the other hand, will be more general: all things Pura Vida.

For those who don't know, "pura vida" is a very common Costa Rican colloquialism. It is the most useful phrase I have ever heard, because it means "pure life" in English, and can be used in ANY situation. Examples:

You go to a restaurant, you enjoy a delicious meal, your stomach is bulging, you lean back and ponder whether or not you can get away with unbuttoning your pants in this establishment without getting dirty looks from the server, and someone at the table asks, "How was your food?" Your response: pura vida! (definition: the best thing I've ever had in my life!)

Or...you go to a restaurant, your server is unaware of your presence for the first 30 minutes, then after she finally takes your drink orders, she brings you Diet Coke instead of regular (like she's trying to tell you something), and then a cockroach crawls out of your undercooked hamburger...which really sucks, because it is supposedly a steak. You walk out disgusted and disgruntled, and a couple standing outside is trying to decide whether or not to dine there. "How is this place?" they ask you. Your response: pura vida. (definition: I'd rather undergo Chinese water torture than eat that so-called food again.)

You see, "life" is full of good and bad, wonderful and terrible, encouraging and depressing, and so saying something is "pure life" can mean anything, all that matters is your facial expression and inflection. Since you don't have the privilege of either of those through this medium, I'll try to supplement my usage of the phrase. But for a person like me, who often experiences the whole spectrum of human emotion in a single day, this phrase is particularly useful.

Three days ago I left Gilbert and returned to U of A in Tucson. Tucson is just as metropolitan as ever, by the way. It seems that when God was handing out the emotions, he tripped and spilled a triple portion all over me. The amount that I miss people who are close to me is particularly out of wack. What sucks about that is no one can relate. They can comfort me, and don't get me wrong, I appreciate that. A lot. But no one can relate to a selectively bipolar person like me. Well, I won't say "no one." That makes it sound like I think I am utterly unique, and that's not the case. I don't want to come off as some horribly misunderstood emo kid. My poetry isn't depressing enough. Or clique enough. But then that's a stereotype. I'm sure there is some quality emo poetry out there somewhere. Like...Poe. There you go. And King David on occasion. Ha, that's funny. But anyway, I apologize now for any sudden emotional profession I may make on this blog.

So I've been doing Desk Assistant training for the last two days. I'll be a Desk Assistant in Coronado this year, which is an elite group of suckers that work the only 24-hour dorm hall front desk on campus. But at least we get paid a smidge extra to do Guest Log on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, and to do after hours any day of the week, plus working in a dorm of 800 residents, half of which are sorority girls, frat guys, and athletes promises some great stories. That's not just a raging stereotype talking, it is a proven fact corroborated by the many stories of the returners. So hopefully it'll give me something to blog about in the future, especially since this entry is becoming increasingly dull (a rare feat considering how boring it was at the beginning).

I'll bring this one to a close now, but I'll be back. No Terminator reference intended. I think I'll watch one more episode of The Office, and then I'll go buy text books and go grocery shopping. Alone. You know what that means? I'll probably talk to myself. I can't control it! Which is unfortunate, since it seems to be off-putting to many people. Oh well. :)

Jesucristo es PURA VIDA!

Con mucho cariño,
Lindsey