You want me to eat what?

Each time I see Taco Bell's commercial for the new Pacific Shrimp Taco, I nearly gag. The first thought I have is, "Is there such a thing as artificial shrimp?"

I don't know anyone who has been brave enough to try it either on a dare or because they want to, but I will make a deal with you. If you decide to eat this fancy item from Taco Bell, please take a picture of yourself eating it, and email me your review of the product and the photo at martylcooper@gmail.com. I will then post them on my blog so we can either warn or encourage people to try Taco Bell's new delicacy.

If I get at least 5 reviews, I will eat one and write my own review to be included with the others.

Who's up for the Shrimp Taco Challenge?

I hate goodbyes

Help! I can't find one of my dearest friends: Salt and Vinegar chips.

I have been on road trips the last 2 weekends (Nashville and Jackson, respectively), and one of my favorite parts of the road trip is to stop at the gas station to get junk food. Typical snacks for me include Gardetto's, cheese puffs, mustard pretzels, or some kind of chip product, coupled with a diet Dr. Pepper.

Kurt and I stopped at a store outside of Nashville on the way home last weekend to get a snack, and I looked for Vinegar and Salt chips. They were nowhere to be found. I found this odd, but I figured that particular store was merely out of one of my favorite snacks, and I settled for something else.

On my way to Jackson on Friday, I stopped in Louisville to get some Vinegar and Salt chips and a diet Dr. Pepper. The delicious snack was nowhere to be found, so I had to settle for Dill Pickle chips -- a close second, but not as tangy.

Kurt says they don't make Vinegar and Salt chips anymore "because they're gross." He is wrong.

Do you know where the Vinegar and Salt chips have gone?

An update of sorts...

1. Winnie is about to be 10 months old. Her birthday is on Cinco de Mayo, so everyone is welcome to bring their puppies over to our house to play and drink margaritas with us on Win's birthday! Ole!

2. My grandmother fell last week and broke her left patella (knee cap, for all you non-medicals out there), right wrist, and right shoulder. Poor grandmom. She is in a lot of pain and has been in the hospital for a week now. She will stay there at least another week as she undergoes physical therapy. Thankfully, no surgery was required to reset her bones. All the breaks were clean.

3. I have been reading The Shack. ("Gasp!" sayeth all the conservative Christians.) Before you deem me a heretic, check out the book for yourself. It is good fiction. Admittedly, some parts of the book make me uncomfortable, but what is the harm in that? It is good to stretch our minds and consider other viewpoints (and deem whether we agree or disagree thereafter). I will save my book review for another post, but I find myself experiencing the same emotions as the protagonist Mack. I'm excited to see where this story takes me.

4. I have recently rekindled my love for Coldplay's "Amsterdam." I had forgotten how beautiful the music and lyrics are to me. I relate to the lyrics emotionally as well as spiritually, I think. Below are the music and lyrics for your consideration/enjoyment.

Making Whoopi?

On the Today Show this morning, Whoopi Goldberg was being interviewed about her new book Sugarplum Ballerina. Meredith Viera talked about how busy Whoopi is on The View, and then asked her "Is there anything you don't do?"

Whoopi's response: "I don't have a lot of sex...I'm too busy."

Sure, Whoopi. That's the reason.

Off to Memphis!

We are going to See Brian Regan live tonight at the Orpheum in Memphis!

Points to consider

Warning: it's personal.

I get daily devotional emails from Ravi Zacharias ministries. However, I honestly haven't read one in about a year. I just haven't wanted to...

In the subject line of the email today it said "At the border of doubt and hope," so I decided to read it.

I would like to think that I teeter on the border of doubt and hope, but if I am honest, I live in a lonely world of darkness and doubt with very little hope. Maybe it is my natural disposition. Maybe it is from bleak life experiences that started when I was a child and have seemed to lag into early adulthood. Maybe it is from situations I wish so badly had worked out, but ended up backfiring and blowing up in my face. Whatever the reason, I can't seem to shake the cloud of despair that hovers over my daily existence.

Oftentimes I am distracted from it and the sun peaks through -- when I'm with friends or laughing at something, reading good literature or having a drink. Even shopping helps, and constant love and assurance from friends and family, but somehow this gloom, light at times and heavy at others, has remained for an entire 25 years.

How can this be?

The email today was insightful, and though I don't find myself in Stuart McAlister's shoes, I hope that one day I can gain a glimpse of his outlook. His story recounts a physical imprisonment, but for me it describes the personal prison of despair and depression.

McAilster writes, "I can well remember a point of surrender. After several days, I resigned myself to the possibility that my imprisonment could last for years. I might not get out for a long time, so I had to make the best of what was and to rest in God. It is a point where we accept the hardship, where we still believe in greater good, and where we surrender to what seems like inevitability. I think I came to relinquish my sense and need for control (I had none anyway) and simply accept that God would be there as promised, and therefore, to rest in Him. "

I have heard these same insights my whole life, but I have never seemed to master them. Or at least taking on this mindset hasn't seemed to work for me as well as others claim it does. It seems more like living in denial than reality. However, McAlister comments on that as well:

"As those raised in comfort and convenience, the very nature of all this may frighten or repel us. If the message we have believed or the model we have been taught has raised false expectations, then we are going to be subject to doubt and fear, and worse, reject the whole thing. But the gospel and Christianity are concerned with reality, and hence with truth. By this I mean what the true nature of life really is and means. Christianity is not an escape system for us to avoid reality, live above it, or be able to redefine it. Christianity is a way that leads us to grasp what reality is and, by God’s grace and help, to navigate through it to our eternal home. "

Something to think about...

Kathryn's new website

My friend Kathryn Wiggins recently returned from a 2-year stint in Scotland where she got her master's degree in fine arts. She has a new website! Check it out!