coffee

Jerkwads and 1st World Problems

/ Tina Bausinger / 3 Comments

 

This guy.

I’m a reasonable person most of the time. I don’t have a record. I pay my taxes. I buy 2% milk and take vitamins and never litter. I follow the rules.

But when I see stuff like this…well, I feel a little like a vegan trapped at a Texas barbecue. That’s CRAZY.

Why do people think it’s ok to do stuff like this? And what’s more, when I put it on Facebook, a friend of mine responded with “Yeah! I saw that guy there LAST WEEK DOING THE SAME THING.” So this guy is a repeat offender! GRRRR!

I guess I just don’t understand this kind of entitled mentality…someone who says to himself, “You know what? Even though parking spots are rarer than a Longhorn fan in Razorback country, I DESERVE two spaces for my brand new, untagged vehicle. I JUST DO.”

I would NEVER double park my giant truck in front of a popular sushi restaurant! That is unacceptable; only the biggest jerkwads would do that! (My dad, who never cursed, would call people jerkwads.) I might have used another harsher term under my breath.

But wait. Am I REALLY complaining about having to search for a parking spot? Is this the worst thing I’ve had to endure today in my cushy world? Wahhhhhhhh!

Whenever it dawns on me that I’m just as bad as Rude Truck Guy… I’m ashamed.

I often hear people joking about “First World Problems.” That’s really a catch phrase for entitlement. I’m guilty of this, without even realizing it. If the lady at the drive-thru at Starbucks doesn’t immediately come on to take my order, I get miffed. Every second that ticks by I get more annoyed. What’s taking so long? I’m BUSY. I have classes to teach and minds to ignite with knowledge! I can’t be expected to work my magic without my triple capp frapp! THE HORROR. There are people going through serious health issues, mamas grieving their children taken too soon, children going hungry. These are the real tragedies.

How spoiled I am! Here I am, on my way to have dinner with one of my sweetest friends (you all know her as Leigh Ann), at my favorite restaurant that is NOT cheap. Minutes before, I was watching Oklahoma with my Mancub, cuddling with my chihuahua, listening to the rain fall softly on the window of my cozy house. Hours before that, I finished up my first week of my dream job teaching students the joy of writing. I have so many things to be thankful for, but what do I post on Facebook? My outrage at this guy.

Forgive me Jesus.

Thank you for my cozy house that I have the privilege of taking care of. Thank you for my sweet hubby who puts up with my crazy ideas and my obsession with writing and literature. Thank you for my beautiful girls laughing in the kitchen, giving each other a hard time. Thank you for Mancub, who is transforming into a Godly man right before my eyes.

Thank you, Jesus, for these and many more blessings. Soften my heart and show me the ones in need you would have me help.

But listen, while I have you here, could you maybe send a little smiting Jerkwad’s way? Just the smallest smidge of smiting–like a giant bird doo on his precious window. If it’s not too much trouble. Amen!

 

Do you have a First World Pet Peeve you’d like to vent about? Go ahead! I’m with you, Sister!

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On Justice for Others and Mercy for Ourselves–and Pie!

/ Tina Bausinger / 1 Comment

pie
“The justice we are seeking is God’s justice—justice that leaves no one out, no one left behind. His justice breaks chains, rids the world of injustice, frees the oppressed, cancels debts. He’s interested in seeing us share our food with the hungry, invite the homeless and poor into our lives, put clothes on the shivering ill-clad, and be fully present to our own families.” From Bessey’s Jesus Feminist.

When I hear the word justice, I picture movies about the Old West–a five-man posse showing up to run the outlaws out of town, or even better–seeing those yeller bellies hanging high from the newly constructed gallows. Ten gallon hats, pistols gleaming in the noonday sun, the LAW is here. The townsfolk rejoice, and usually the women bake a bunch of pies to celebrate. Hey, it’s my blog so I can put pies in it if I want!

It’s so easy to demand justice when we are wronged while begging for mercy when we do wrong. A thin, razor’s edge separate the two and it’s difficult to skate along the slippery surface for too long. This is what we call hypocrisy, or by its other name, humanity.

Every person in the world is guilty of hypocrisy, practically every day of our lives, because we are inherently selfish beings. Americans may be the worst in this area because we are the most blessed.

We have so much of everything available…we turn on a faucet to fresh clean water, we open the refrigerator we had to buy to store all of our food, we gain weight because we don’t know when to stop…I am the first one in line for this indulgence.

There are so many in need we don’t have to look very far to see them. Sometimes they are in our own country, our own city, our own family. What am I doing to help those within my own four walls? Within the small list of people I’m related to? Would they ask me for my help if I were too blind to see? Is my personality approachable, my heart transparent enough to step outside of my own daily tasks to be the hands of Jesus?

And then, the last part: being fully present. My heart cringes at this one because I already feel the conviction. When I’m picking Mancub up in the morning after school, do I take a moment and chat with him in the quiet of the car, or is my mind full of countless meaningless things that can just WAIT? When I’m with my husband, am I actively communicating my love for him or am I so busy doing stupid crap on my iPhone to notice he’s hurting? When my daughter approaches me while I’m washing dishes, her silent presence her way of asking to talk to me, do I dismiss her without even knowing?

Dear God, please help me to be your eyes to see those in need, your hands to help others, your ears to hear other’s suffering, and your voice to speak comfort. Help pull me away from my selfishness and show me your mercy and leave the justice to you.

***

Want more? Get Tina’s new Amazon Best-Seller book Cold Coffee and Speed Limits!

Tina Bausinger has published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, IN Magazine, and the Tyler Paper. She's working on her Ed.D at A&M Commerce.

Tina Bausinger has published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, IN Magazine, and the Tyler Paper. She’s working on her Ed.D at A&M Commerce, but rarely has any clean laundry or groceries at the house.

On Wrestling With the Bible and Icy Hot

/ Tina Bausinger

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“I want you to wrestle with the Bible. Do it. Wrestle until, Jacob-like, you walk with a limp ever after, and you receive the blessing of the Lord.” Sarah Bessey, from Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women.

Hello friend! I’ve brewed some fresh coffee. I’m drinking mine black, but I have cream and sugar if you’d like. Have a seat. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m no theologian, but I’m good at research, and I’d like to really study the bible and what it says about women. I’d like to pick it apart and Sarah Bessey’s Jesus Feminist is just the place to start, I think. I’ll also bring in some Jen Hatmaker and Rachel Held Evans to help my research.

I read the above quote and started thinking about it. What comes to mind when we hear the word “wrestle”? It’s kind of violent, right? I mean, even the WWF stuff is crazy to watch. People in costumes dancing around like weirdos, breaking chairs over each other’s heads.

I love words, really digging in and dissecting their meaning, so I did what any English prof would do. I consulted the dictionary. When I looked up “wrestle”, I found that it is an intransitive verb. Here’s the first definition:

1: “to contend by grappling with and striving to trip or throw an opponent down or off-balance.”

What? Is Sarah suggesting we try to take the Bible down? We’re supposed to trip it up and throw it down–knocking it off-balance? How is that even possible? While I doubt we can “trip up” the Bible, I think it’s ok to inspect it from all angles, and to turn it upside if necessary. Let’s look at the second most common definition.

2 To combat an opposing tendency or force, as in wrestling with his conscience. So this definition would suggest that the Bible is a an opposing tendency or force? While I think that the Bible does sometimes create opposition, both within and in the world…maybe this is closer after all. 

Wait, before we decide, let’s look at the last usage.

3:  to engage in deep thought, consideration, or debate. At first glance, this definition makes the most sense, I think, don’t you? I think the bible, particularly bible verses about the treatment of women, should be engaged in deep thought, consideration and debate. 

A word of caution: Debate can often get violent, and words can wound. It’s not for the faint of heart.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Sarah’s mentioning of the story of Jacob wrestling with the Lord. This might really point to the sweaty, painful power struggle between two ideas, that is not over with quickly or easily, and somebody is going to be hurt in the process. It might be a deep hurt that causes a lifelong disability, a noticeable reminder of what happens when we take on sensitive topics.

 Here’s the story she’s referencing. It’s in Genesis 32:24:

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,[a] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[b] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,[c] and he was limping because of his hip.32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip,because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

At the bottom of the definition, I found this:
Related Words: battle, clash (with), combat, contend, duel, fight, war (against); bash, batter, beat, buffet, hit, punch, slug,strike; box, spar; brawl, skirmish

Are you ready? I’ve got the Icy Hot ready and some Tylenol, just in case.

On Sarah Bessey’s “Jesus Feminist”: Can These Terms be Reconciled?

/ Tina Bausinger / 3 Comments

bessey

I recently picked up Sarah Bessey’s book “Jesus Feminist.” The first paragraph certainly stirs the pot of conventional women’s bible studies:

“Jesus made a feminist out of me. It’s true. I can’t make apologies for it, even though I know that Jesus plus feminist might be the one label that could alienate almost everyone. I understand that–I do. I know feminism carries a lot of baggage, particularly within the evangelical church. There are the stereotypes: shrill killjoys, man-haters, and rapid abortion-pushers, extreme lesbians, terrifying some of us on cable news programs, deriding motherhood and homemakeing. Feminism has been blamed for the breatkdown of the nuclear family, day care, physical and sexual abuse, hurricanes, the downfall of “real manhood,” the decline of the Christian Church in Western societyy, and spectacularly bad television. Most of what has passed for a description of feminism is fearmongering misinformation” Bessey (1). I agree with this, because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the name of Jesus invoked as a control mechanism in marriage, and Paul’s teachings used as a model to destroy independence and equality in marriage. I’ve sat with women whose controlling husbands used the bible as a millstone to drag their wives to the bottom of the sea–out of sight and under their thumb.

I don’t know of anyone THAT paragraph won’t ignite–though the fires that begin burn for different reasons.

This book is unlike anything I have ever seen, and I consider myself a bit  of a book expert. I don’t have a PhD (yet), but I did a great bulk of my Master’s work with 20th century feminist writers, particularly such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Julia Kristeva, bell hooks, Laura Brady, and Eileen Schell. I remember devouring these writers’ works like a fat kid eats cake. Their words were so very empowering, yet simultaneously disturbing, because I was having a hard time reconciling their works with the works of God in my heart. Thirty plus years of attending church and hearing the teachings of the distinct line drawn between male leadership roles and female leadership roles caused quite a disturbance. As Sarah muses, “In some circles, using the word feminist is the equivalent of an f-bomb dropped in church–outragous, offensive” (1).

I wondered if I could be both feminist and Christian, both reverent and seeking, both open to new teachings without endangering my soul and wounding the Spirit of He who made me. It seemed unlikely. Who then, do I propose to be? And isn’t it a bit late to be asking these kinds of questions?

I don’t think it’e EVER too late to ask questions. I also don’t think the kind of God I serve minds. I think He respects those who geniuniely seek.
I could sure use a few friends on this journey with me. Want to come along with me while I figure it out? I’ve made a cup of coffee for you just the way you like it. Let’s do this.
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Top 5 Recipes To Make for Your Mom For Mother’s Day Breakfast

/ Tina Bausinger

keurig

Ah Mother’s Day, the time of year moms are revered for their eternal patience and long-suffering martyrdom. WRONG! It’s more of a desperate showdown to see which kid can outdo the other in the gift department. I know you have probably already been planning months in advance what you are gonna do for your mom for Mother’s Day, so chances are you don’t need this post.

You haven’t? GASP! You can’t see, but I’m lowering my eyebrows right now. Holy crap, you’d better keep reading! Your life may well depend on it, buddy.

But if you need some help figuring out what to make Mom for breakfast tomorrow, here are some life-saving ideas. Remember, the life you save might be your own.

I love the Pioneer Woman. She’s kind of my cooking mentor. Every recipe I’ve tried from her website has always turned out wonderfully, sinfully delicious. Not that I’m encouraging you to sin or anything.

1.Migas are truly a Texas thing. They are delicious blend of eggs and corn tortillas.Yummy!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/06/i-love-migas/

2.Another good recipe to try, that’s not too difficult, is french toast. Here’s a version you can make the night before and throw into the oven all fancy-like.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/05/cinnamon-baked-french-toast/

3.Something you can’t go wrong with is blueberry muffins and coffee. I mean, it’s a scientific fact that every mother in the world loves blueberry muffins and coffee. If you come across a woman who says she doesn’t, walk away slowly, backward, because chances are she’s not REALLY human and in all actuality is MOST LIKELY AN ALIEN SPY or POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL. These are the two most likely scenarios. For everyone else, here is a great recipe for blueberry muffins.

Pictured: blueberry muffins I made for Nathan’s band the day I went insane (well one of them). I made about 8 dozen different kinds of muffins and THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS.

blueberry muffins

.http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/08/dairy-contest-finalist-recipe-the-awesome-est-blueberry-muffins/

4.Just in case your mom is one of those health nuts we’ve heard tell about, I’ve included an awesome egg recipe in this “Carb Buster Breakfast) that should fit the bill. It’s also delicious for moms who don’t give a rip about calories. So you’re welcome.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/10/carb-buster-breakfast/

5.Last but not least: coffee. I can’t stress the importance of this enough, folks. If you waltz into your mom’s room on Mother’s Day without steaming hot java goodness…well, I shudder to think of the consequences.

Yes, I have indeed heard of women in this country who don’t drink coffee. It’s a scary urban legend told over campfires, horrifying enough to send a chill up your spine. I’m not gonna add fuel to those crazy rumors here. I’m all about the truth, people. I’ve included a video about how to make a latte at home. If you don’t have all this equipment, you can just make a quick trip to Starbucks or make her a cup of coffee the way she likes it with Ye Olde Coffee Maker. Either of these is a good option.

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDuFP_l9uMU

Tell your mama Happy Mother’s Day for me…if you make it out alive, that is.

 

5 Reasons To Have Your Morning Coffee. No, really.

/ Tina Bausinger / 1 Comment

coffee in arkansasWe all know that coffee is the nectar of the gods. Whoever first thought to roast and grind fresh coffee beans, in my opinion, deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. I don’t have any tangible proof, but I’m pretty sure that many life-changing decisions are made over coffee. Here’s 5 reasons to go ahead and have that yummy coffee this morning.

1. Black coffee alone has almost no calories. It’s yummy black deliciousness. What’s not to love? And if you brew it at home, it’s so stinking cheap anyone can afford it. In fact, you can’t really afford NOT to, because…
2. According to the Huffington Post, coffee lowers your chance for Type 2 Diabetes. apparently, the more the better!
3. Having a cup of coffee in the morning before you hit the ground running allows you to steal a moment of peace before the insanity begins. Take a sip and plan your day.
4. It lowers your risk of death. Studies held by the New England Journal of Medicine show that more coffee consumption extended the life span of its participants. My theory is that coffee drinkers know their weakness and just do it already. Having a cup of coffee is a chance to recharge the battery and refocus on tasks needed to be done.
5. Let’s just face it: in my house, Mama’s consumption of coffee really ensures the health and well-being of EVERYONE PRESENT.

So go ahead and get your java on, girl! It’s a matter of life and death!

In Search of the Perfect Shanghai Coffee

/ Tina Bausinger / 1 Comment

coffee in austin

 

You know who I am…or so you think you do. I’m the gal who always carries a cup of coffee wherever I go. In fact, my addiction is akin to that of a streetwise heroin junkie…only chubbier. That first jolt of java doesn’t wake me up, it just gets me primed for my real goal: the second cup.
I was once involved in this crazy exercise craze where I tried to put my health first for once. I did everything my lean and gorgeous coach recommended.

Situps and pushups at the butt crack of dawn? Check.
Jogging at 5:00 a.m.? No problem.Cutting back on sugar and sweets? A less enthusiastic, but still present commitment.

Then came the final straw: give up coffee.

Me: “Excuse me? Did you say give up toffee? No worries…haven’t touched the stuff since last Christmas. You can count on me, Coach.”
Coach: “You heard me. I said no more coffee.”
Me: “I’m sorry, must be the earwax. Did you say give up being bossy? Well, anything’s possible, I guess. But understand, I’ve been bossy for a really long time, possibly since my exit from the birth canal when I tried to tell the nurse how to do her job,” I rambled nervously.
Coach: “COF-FEE. You have to give up coffee! For Pete’s sake…”

And the gauntlet was thrown.

Me: Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. I’d sooner give up my car and my bachelor’s degree and my prescription medication. And, trust me, ain’t nobody gonna want THAT to happen.

But sadly, there wasn’t a discount club to turn to last May when I spent 3 weeks in Shanghai. I was told there would be coffee. No, that’s not the first question I asked when the idea surfaced. I think the very first question was “Do I have to get a bunch of shots?” We were even promised that coffee was brewed in the dorm we were staying in. I don’t really count the coffee machine, circa 1978, as fresh-brewed, but you know what? I drank it and I’d do it again. I’m not proud of it, but you have to ask yourself what you would do in this situation.

Yes, they have a Starbucks in Shanghai. But you have to take a bus filled to the gills with sweaty students to get there, and they sadly close at 9:00 p.m.

Finally, about a week in, I found a little restaurant that, bless its little heart, was really attempting to serve “American” food. I’m not sure what the Shanghaiese (not sure that’s a word but go with it man) think of when they conjure up images of American food, but let me tell you, this was NOT it. I’m not even sure if the pasta was made of flour. It tasted something LIKE flour, only less floury. It’s difficult to explain if you haven’t lived in the Far East. Anyway, I saw on the menu, “coffee” and decided to try it…I DID NOT GET MY HOPES UP.

You know what? It wasn’t bad. It was pretty good, especially next to my vending machine standards.

shanghaicoffee

It was this day that changed my luck, because before the trip was over, I was sitting at High Tea on the 28th floor with two lovely ladies, Anita and Lynn, at the Renaissance Hotel drinking THIS:

coffee in arkansas

 

I knew the coffee gods smiled upon me that day.

Where do you think the best cup of coffee is served? Vote here in the comments block.