Randomocity #1: Counterfeit Money

I know this is a random topic, but it really got me thinking today. I am working at the Imax this summer. You know, selling tickets, doing concessions, ushering, and whatever else they tell me to do. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but it's helping to pay the bills.

ANYWHO... When selling tickets we are required to check out all the 50 and 100 dollar bills to make sure they are not counterfeit. You know the routine...the clerk takes your money, pulls out the black magic marker and draws a line on the bill. If it is yellow, it's genuine....but if it's black...it's definitely counterfeit.

And that leads to my pondering question of the day: What happens as a ticket worker if one of my customer has a "black" bill? Do I call the police? Do I refuse the bill given to me by an 83 year old man wearing a visor? Do I have the right to tear up the money in a thousand pieces and throw it in the customers face? I know that marking the big bills is standard routine but nobody has ever (in any job) told me what happens if the dreaded line turns black. Am I the only one who thinks about such things? And these questions lead me to an even bigger question: What would happen if I was the customer and I was the one with the "black" bill?? I don't think you could ever come back from that!! What if they ripped it up in front of your face and all of a sudden you were out $100? What if they called the police on you? How do you explain that you might be able to teach twenty-five fifth graders how to reduce fractions but NEVER in a million years come up with the brains to create fake money?? Would the police come search your house, your car, under your bed?? Could I lose my job? These are serious questions. My mind is whirling with all the humiliating possibilities that could happen from such an event. I suppose what I have learned from this new irrational fear of mine is that I should never ask for or accept bills larger than $20 increments, whether it's from a bank or at Country Mart, stocking up on the extremely reduced prices of Blue Bunny ice cream.

Hello...Is anybody still here???

Alas!! I have returned! After over six months of absence and feeling like I was betraying a good old friend, I have persuaded myself that this blogging thing is good for me. It's good for my mood, my stress level, and my soul. It's funny to me...blogging, that is. Sometimes I don't ever feel like I have anything worth saying unless I have a picture to go with it. I like it when a blog tells a story and has illustrations to go with it. I also feel like I'm never able to blog unless I can make an amazing plug about what God is doing in my life. Granted, God is always doing something in my life...sometimes the message just remains hidden. The more I read my friends' blogs, the more I enjoy the blogs about everyday nonsense. You don't always have to have a deep message, pictures, or even a point at all. This is my new mission in blogging. If I have strange thoughts that make no sense, I am going to share my weirdness with the world! So look out world and meet the new and improved Chats with Casey....complete with not always having pictures, a point, and guaranteed to shout out pure randomness!!

Belated Blog of Adventures in Greece and Bulgaria: Part I

As most of you know, I got the amazing opportunity in July to go on a mission/music trip to Bulgaria and Greece. I travelled with a group called Messiah Project and basically did mission work through the arts. There was a choir of about 9 singers, a professional ballet company out of Houston called Excelsior Ballet, a professional piano player (Larry Dalton) and a Bulgarian Orchestra. We toured these two countries for two weeks. I want to tell many stories of this trip but I'm sure it will be broken down into many blog postings, seeing that there are just too many to tell in one. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures into a foreign land!

Segment I: Sofia, Bulgaria

Of all the places I've ever travelled, Sofia stands out as one of the strangest. It was my first time to visit a former communist country. I think I was surprised at how Second-World this country of Bulgaria was. Most of the buildings were run down and there was grafitti/vandalism EVERYWHERE!

There doesn't seem to be much order of the state considering that cars park all over the side walk! It's ridiculous! People park absolutely anywhere that is convenient for them. Despite the strangeness of this country, I truly enjoyed our stay there.

We stayed in a nice hotel right on the city square. I shared a room with Megan and Tierra, two high schoolers from Branson. I truly enjoyed getting to know their sweet hearts. One of the perks of rooming with these two girls was jumping on the beds. Even more fun were the attempts to capture these moments on camera!

Another amazing thing about rooming with these girls was teaching them some old bluegrass songs in the middle of the night that my mom taught me when I was a little girl. Because we usually didn't start singing till after midnight, we always had someone knocking at the door or banging on the wall. It just made the memories that much more precious.

For most meals we walked a few blocks to a huge building that was kind of a mall but mostly a food court. It was all Bulgarian fast food. We ate a lot of gyros and had some amazing pizza covered in feta cheese. It was wonderful. Not so wonderful was the room temperature skewer of pork that I took a big bite of! What was I thinking...there wasn't even an oven visible at the stand.

Another amazing thing about Bulgaria was the ice cream! I love European ice cream, but I think Bulgaria wins as far as presentation and taste. AMAZING!!












This timershot is in honor of Kate...you inspired me and then all the girls were so excited with timershots, they were basically the RAGE of the whole trip! Everyone was doing them everywhere. See Kate...you have great influence over the entire WORLD!

Well, this wraps up Segment I of the Way-Belated Blog of my trip to Europe! Stay tuned for Roman Ampitheater visits and Senior picture post!

Climbing Out of a Rut...

I feel like I've been in sort of a rut the past three or four months. My life has changed in huge ways and I think that under lots of different types of stress, I sort of went into a bit of depression. I don't think I recognized it as such until this weekend when I had some time to think about my life. As I sat at my kitchen table last night, and poured my cries out to God in my journal, I realized I didn't even have words to express everything I feel. I mentioned a lot of this to my closest friends over the past few months...that I felt like my life was lacking something. That I no longer felt any strong passion towards any one thing...even God. For some reason, though I heard His voice prompting me to talk to him...I wouldn't. I would ignore him. I couldn't even muster up the motivation to care about sin or what I was doing to my relationship with the Lord. I honestly didn't really care. It's as if the person I know God created me to be, a person with a huge passion for life and people, and creativity...was stifled and shoved into a little tiny box and thrusted into the back of my heart. I became numb...to everything.

As hard as that is for me to write, it was the truth. So now what? you may be asking yourself. I'll tell you what. Something amazing about this God of ours is that he doesn't let you just sit there for long by yourself in a rut. No...over the past three or four months, even in my darkest moments, the Lord has been there, pursuing me and continuing to love me despite my downfalls. Every once in a while He gives me a sweet glimpse into the life I desire and reassures my doubting heart that all will be okay.

Yesterday, I took a nap. I'm not usually one to take naps because I always think I'm too busy. But I laid down and slept solidly for over 5 hours. I honestly think sleep is one of the things I needed more than anything. I woke up and yesterday feeling better emotionally than I had in a long time.

Today I woke up and was excited about life. I realized that my life is not going to end just because I only have six dollars in the bank. I feel like there is this rejuvanated spirit in my heart. I realized today that it is a real desire for me to start exercising and be healthy. I realized that I want to blog...and SHOULD blog. I have stifled so much creativity in me these past few months that my right side of my brain has probably shut down!

I want to paint and write letters to friends and I want to drink more hot tea and I want to cook a lot and sing loudly and put my laundry away and laugh and have a special time for just the Lord and me. I want all these things, I desire these things, and now I thank the Lord for allowing these things to become a reality.

Many Apologies!

It has come to my attention that I have taken an incredibly LONG time to post on my blog. I was once told by a wise blogger that you never want to post daily because that gets annoying but that you should always post every three to four days. If you wait any longer than that...well, people just lose interest. This is a formal letter of apology to all of those readers who have hung in there and checked my blog consistently. There is no excuse for my action and therefore would understand if none of you ever spoke to me on this crazy cyber world ever again.
Much regret,
Cassandra Dawn Chambers

Road Trip 2007!!

As most of you know, I just got back from an amazing road trip with my dear friend Emily. We travelled all the way through Tennessee and across North Carolina to the ocean. It was a blast and will always be remembered as one of my favorite vacations...ever.

Before I show you some pictures, let me recap some of my favorite memories:

• When Emily realized that she forgot her sunglasses and was forced to buy an expensive pair in a gas station in the middle of nowhere, only to find the glasses covered with a thick film of dust and grime.


• I am truly like a fun grandma and bought Emily and I a fun backseat traveller book with entertaining activities like camp songs, string games, palm reading, and even a scavenger hunt to find all the liscense plates of North America. Out of 50 states, we found 42!! We even found a Canadian liscense plate! This game entertained us the ENTIRE trip!


• In the car, we ate a bunch of snack foods, but I'll never forget the huge quantity we ate of string cheese!


• It was amazing to see Emily get to know my favorite people in Tennessee, Dennis and Shanna Fuller. They are the ones in charge of Discipleship Focus in Pigeon Forge.


• REAL sweet tea in the South!!
  
• We went on an amazing hike in the mountains and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the cool air. After being on trail for a while and griping at the occasional piece of trash on the trail (enough to take the trash with us), I accidentally lost both of my toxic-fish-killing batteries out of my camera into the river, never to be seen again. I'm such a hypocrite!


• Because we stayed on a Marine base, our car had to be searched every day by beautiful Marines carrying big guns. (I'm pretty sure I was convinced that I wanted to marry one!)


• While frolicking in the ocean, Emily noticed a school of stingrays swimming towards us. There were probably six or seven of them. While Emily walked towards the shore very calmly, I ran screaming out that water as fast as my body could carry me!


• Peeing simultaneously with Emily in the Atlantic Ocean. She was right, it definitely is more fun to do it at the same time as someone else.


• On the drive back, we discovered the amazingness of watching DVDs while driving. Not something I'd recommend for careless drivers, but it did make time fly our last 12 hours.


• Everytime Emily drove, she almost always had to drive through a major city and was always being rained upon. Everytime I drove, the rain stopped and the sun came out.
  

Here are some pictures that highlight the trip:

This is Emily and I in the car at 6:30AM on our way out of town. Don't we look like little kids?

Here's the skyline of Nashville, Tennessee. I like the Motorola building on the left...it looks like something from Batman or something.
This is me in serious distress that I can't, for the life of me, get my flipping sunglasses off my head! This is Emily rubbing in the fact that she CAN take off her sunglasses...what a brat. No wonder we were confused at this stoplight in Pigeon Forge....there are at least 15 lights!! This is Emily and I taking advantage of timer shots at the Potter's House, a darling little cafe in Pigeon Forge. They make there own flour, bread, and plates!!

This is me on the peak of a very tall mountain...or a very big rock.

Here are some views of the scenery in the Great Smoky Mountains.

We hiked up the mountain and found a barn, a springhouse, a cabin, and even a double seater outhouse!!

After our beautiful hike up in the Smoky Mountains, Emily and I travelled back down to civilization to explore the amazingness of Dollywood!!

After our fun in Tennessee, we loaded up our car once again and headed for the coast of North Carolina, where Emily's brother is in the Marines.

For the full story of the second leg of the journey, I'm going to direct you to my dear friend Emily's blog. She tells the story so well, and it might be excited to hear about the adventure from her perspective. Don't be frightened.... just click here.

However, I will show you some fun pictures...

This is us at the beach we were at. As you can see, it was beautiful and not really crowded at all.

While at the ocean, we ate at this fun little bar called Buddy's and enjoyed some fried sea food and mojitos while gazing at the beautiful view of the ocean.

Here are some pictures of Pete, Emily's brother, and her beautiful neice Evangeleene. She was darling and had the coolest baby hair ever!!

Well this about wraps up the coolest road trip of 2007. Like I mentioned before, you really need to check out Emily's blog if you want to read the fun details...try it. It'll be fun!

First week of SUMMER!!!

So, exactly a week ago today we finished school! I shed my last tears and sent my soon-to-be 6th graders out the door.

This week I jumped right into preparing for next year. I had training all week for a technology program called eMINTS4all. I'm slowly discovering that I have a little geekyness in my system and that there is SO much out there I don't know about in the techy world.

This week, I have discovered what an aggregator is, learned about the constructivist theory, why Madeline Hunter's teaching method is on its way to the garbage and what an avatar is. Never heard of any of these terms? Neither had I!

The craziest thing about my cool techy class was that we were introduced to Second Life, a highly geeky virtual world where people create a dual personality and communicate with SL's other 7,000,000 inhabitants. If you don't believe me, check out SecondLife.com.

Tonight I coached my first softball game! To those who haven't heard, I'm the new assistant softball coach at Branson...pretty exciting! I felt really nervous in the games because...well, I haven't played in 7 years and I forgot some of the rules of the game and all the lingo. It'll take me a while, but I'll get it.

Being a new techy geek is definitely going to benefit me during softball, because Coach Arnold has already put me in charge of updating the website and keeping all the stats on a PalmPilot. We'll see how that goes...

Well, this about wraps up my first week of summer. I like to think that NEXT week is my real first week of summer. I'm going on a crazy road trip with Emily to Pigeon Forge and then the beach!!! More to come later!