What's in a name?

The first year at a new school, it's never you. And you KNOW that- you don't know anyone, so why should they know you? Still, every time, you can't help but turn around.
"Jenni!"
Nope. Not you. The other one. Always. So you end up looking like an over-eager fool every day. The only place you're guaranteed that someone is calling YOU is in your own home. And even there, you get called by other things. Nicknames, sibling's names, names of beloved pets...But at least you know it's you, unlike the uncertain new stomping grounds that you are forced to attend from 8:15 to 3:10 every day. 5 days a week, almost 7 hours a day of this confusion.
And then one day, you make a friend at school. That's the way it works, isn't it? I've been to a few new schools in my lifetime, and this is how things usually play out:
You get there, you walk around awkwardly repeating 15,607,698,705 times a day who you are and where you came from (knowing, of course, that most people won't remember) for about the first week, give or take a few days.
Suddenly, one person singles you out. They're that heaven-sent kid who won't leave you alone and is bound and determined to help you fit in. God bless those kids. They're like the biblical "man of peace" who you're supposed to find to help you get integrated into a community whenever you're trying to evangelize. They introduce you to their friends, pull up that extra chair at the lunch table, save you a seat in assemblies. And suddenly, a few people know your name. Every once in a while, when you turn around, it really IS you that someone is calling. Eventually, the correct assumptions come closer and closer together, until you've learned to distinguish which voices call your name and mean YOU. You can turn around to answer with certainty, and it's a good feeling. In fact, it's a great feeling.
See, there's something so wonderful about being known and being called by your name. My brother was the first person to really bring this truth to light in my mind. He knows a lot of people, and I mean a lot. Whenever we go places together, I've just come to accept the fact that we will see at least 2 or 3 people that he knows. But no matter how many people we see, he always knows their name, and every time he calls them by it, their face lights up.
"People like to hear their own name, Jen. It shows them you really do remember them. It's endearing," he said to me. That was a few years ago, but it made a big impression on me.
He's right. I know from experience, and so do you. That person who calls you by your name, even if you've only met once- they know YOU, they remember YOU, and they think YOU'RE important enough to remember.
It's a good way to make friends and influence people, as my mom would say. It's really not that hard to do, and it makes people feel so good. The new kid at school or church, the woman who checks you out at the grocery store, your lunch lady, someone who helps you find what you're looking for at the mall, your neighbors...just take the time to invest a little bit in them.
The look on their faces will be worth it.

Lauren Sanders is Awesome

By request, as you can imagine.
But really, I was thinking about my life the other day, and I just realized how truly blessed I am to be where I am. I have a wonderful network of friends, family who cares about me, and God. This is really just a shout out to everyone I'm close to. To those who give me a hug when you notice something is wrong, to those who celebrate with me when things go well, to those who invest in my life by just taking the time to be a part of it, thank you. To the people who are not that to me but are that to someone else, thank you, too. And to those lucky people like me who have people like that in your life, thank them.
I love you guys, and I realize it more and more every day. I only hope that someday, I can mean as much to someone as you all mean to me.

...And then the reason to sing is gone.

Michael Buble's voice is intoxicating. Who needs drugs or alcohol when you could just put his songs on repeat and allow it to take you wherever it wants? Now, I'm not one to get into pop culture, and I'm certainly not into celebrity crushes- and I'm not making an exception for him. But those notes...and the poetry in the lyrics...and his personable intonation...well, it's a lethal combination to my pride.
In the early hours of the morning at Sonic, I heard a song that made me really happy, so I asked my boyfriend David what it was since he always knows everything about music. Excitedly, he told me it was "Everything" by Michael Buble. To be honest, all I'd ever known from Buble was "Home," which was really good, but unfortunately and quite irrationally overplayed to extinction, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this song was by him. David and I discussed the coolness of the key change and the brightness of the lyrics and melody, and how it just made us feel good. I made a mental note to go home and look it up on Youtube so I could listen to it over and over and over and over again.
I did just that. :o)
Then, I decided to research it. I'm one of those annoying people who enjoys memorizing little-known details about things that I'm interested in. (My brother is to be credited for this, I think, along with lots of other habits and quirks that I have...he's an influential guy, not just to me, but to a lot of people.) I really just like to be informed, because ignorance (not the kind that you can't help, but the kind that you CAN help) is one of my pet peeves. So I always check up on things. So I found out that Michael Buble has a sad history with love songs & girls.
He was engaged for a while to Debbie Timuss (stage actress), for whom he wrote "Home. Then they broke off the engagement. Afterwards, backstage somewhere, he met Emily Blunt (English actress) and dated her for a while, and he wrote "Everything" for her...but they recently broke up, too. Kind of ruins a love song for you, doesn't it?
I mentioned this misfortune to Ray Smith, who replied in an interesting way. He said,
"Well of course it happened that way."
I was confused. Guy+girl+really sweet romantic song=breakup? Hmm...that's not usually how my math adds up (Then again, I'm not much of a math wizard. ...but still.) He proceeded,
"When a guy writes an incredibly romantic song for a girl, it goes one of two ways: she either loves it and goes crazy over him, or she gets really creeped out and claustrophobic and leaves him."
Sad but true, isn't it? It's even sadder that I can see the logic behind both sides. Man, the human mind is messed up.
All I have to say is that most girls that I know feel like this:
If someone wants to write us a song saying,

"And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's you, it's you, You make me sing
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything,"

they have our permission. Especially if they can sing like Michael Buble.

Dominication

It doesn't take much to wake me up, but I will admit to being groggy for my first half hour of consciousness. I'm not as bad as my brother is- he will have entire conversations that he never remembers, say outrageous things that we wish he could hear; he even slept through an earthquake once..or maybe it was twice. I, on the other hand, merely lack the ability to think coherently. But when my mom woke me up on Labor Day and told me that the very next day, we would begin hosting an exchange student from Switzerland for two weeks, I perked right up.

Why two weeks? Why the short notice? Mom knew the coordinator for his exchange program, and she was desperate for a house for him. You see, Dominic was going to be staying for 10 months with a family that lives out near Warner Robins, but there was a date mix-up, and they were still going to be on vacation for two weeks after he arrived. To make a long story short, Mom said we would be glad to take him until they came back.
For the first half of the day, we could list the things that we knew about him in one breath: His name was Dominic, he was 17 years old, he was from Switzerland, and he was deathly allergic to cats. Slowly, information came to us. He would go to Rutland. He played piano. He had designed his own website related to snowboarding. He might be shy at first, but he would warm up quickly. I even looked him up and added him as a friend on facebook. All signs were good.
The next day, Mom went to go pick him up from the airport. When I got home from piano, there he was, inhabiting my brother's room, standing right in front of me, extending his hand as a greeting. It was a bit surreal. We became fast friends, though.
We took turns playing piano (he's much better than I am), ate dinner, talked a bit about his life and his trip. I explained to him that the loud noise outside was crickets, and the concept of American football, and words that he didn't know.
Our two weeks ends tomorrow, when his real host family will pick him up, but our time has been great. From our house to Disney World to church to downtown Macon, I think Dominic has really enjoyed being here with us. As for us, I think we've enjoyed having him even more. He has a good heart- polite, gentle, expressive, and always willing him help. Dad will probably be the most lonesome after he leaves; he has to go back to living with two girls and a fluffball of a dog for companions.