Found on Fark.

Ok....so I've been a lurker til now (first post eep!) Here's a brief background...

I was raised in a Born Again Christian household my whole life, but my parents never had a church that we went to. We just kind of prayed together when I was younger (I'm 20 now) and watched John Hagee every week on tv. I went to public high school, and as far as christian upbringing, yes we prayed and believed, but they never really sat down with me and told me why God said to do this or do that, or way we should wait for sex... My parents didn't discuss relationships with me, love, what i should do once I start dating, what God has planned for me...it was just a "Trust and believe in the Lord. Women who have sex outside of marriage are whores..."

Needless to say I never had a church environment, and because I was a very curious and independent child, I just kind of grew up knowing that Christianity was right and I should pray and believe, but didn't really understand. I wanted to have fun, I wanted to be liked by boys, and I didn't see the evil of sex outside of marriage.

Well, college came along and I rebelled against my parents and God after finding out my mother's cancer had come back and she was digressing even though she kept praying and having faith that she would be healed. I made horrible decisions, fell into an influencial "just go with it and have fun" group, and lived at a college whose members of Campus Crusade totalled 16. Out of 2500.  Long story short, I slept with men.

And I regret it, and begged for God's forgiveness, and have finally (after praying a lot and going to church and finding a strong community) begun to really get close again to God. Its in my past and is forgiven. The worry that I have is that, though I am single, when the day comes that I want to get married and settle down with a strong Christian man, I doubt any Christian man would ever marry a person with my past. I've met Christian men who, after finding out, have scoffed and pushed me into the dirt like a whore.

What is your guys opinion of this...would your significant other's past be a primary position for deciding whether the person is worthy enough to be with? If i could I would back in time and never do what I had done for 2 years...but I did...and I moved on from it. I just don't think that any Christian man would ever accept someone who isn't "pure."

Just asking...this was really hard for me to write, but I have no one else to go to.

Whoo, this is my first post in the community. Haven't had a good reason to post until now.

So, my girlfriend will be visiting from Oakland in a few weeks. After unsuccessfully trying to track down a good place in Austin for us to get a couples massage, (I've never had one but I understand it's basically just both people getting a massage at the same time.) she ruined the would-be surprise by asking me to help find a place.

Thing is, I don't know the first thing about finding a reputable massage therapist.

Apparently she had posted on craigslist at one point and got a lot of creepy replies for "tantric massage" and shit like that. O_o

Any recommendations???

Ok I swear I'm almost done asking you guys questions, promise!

So I got the job in Taylor, but I'm still trying to live in Austin, or as close to Austin as I can, without there being a huge commute (35 minutes or less). I've looked at Wells Branch apartments through the suggestions from someone else who responded to me recently, and I saw two that seem nice:

Madison at Wells Branch and Hunt Club Apartments

Does anyone have any experience with these places? Or am I missing any hidden gems?

p.s. I'm super bummed about AMLI @ Scofield Ridge, because I've been trying to work with them for the past two days and only have a week to pick an apartment so I can move. Long story if anyone wants to hear it, but that's not going to be working out for me.

p.p.s. If anyone wants to friend me after reading my interests, super cool. I promise I don't bite! I'm shy when it comes to making friends. :)

where's the best selection of fluevogs in town?

For all your Righteous Babes out there..
Just wanted to let you know that Ani Difranco will be playing @ Stubbs on September 21.
Tickets are on pre-sale now at Front Gate Tickets
and the pre-sale password is: babeville



I'm soo excited!!

Books I'll be looking to buy when in London... well, a selected sub-set of them anyway, as getting all would be FAR too expensive, and as we're not leaving till August 28th, the list is likely to grow even longer.

* The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl 6) - Eoin Colfer (maybe... I own 1-3 in Danish, so it might be silly to get #6 in English. May just wait till it makes it to the libraries)
* The Yada-Yada Prayer Group #4 (I bought 2 and 3 from Amazon uk today. Second-hand they cost around £5 each including postage, so this depends very much on the price!)
* Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1) - Jim Butcher
* Too Busy Not To Pray - Jo Carro
* The Beasts of Clawstone Castle - Eva Ibbotson
* The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family - Mary S. Lovell
* The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip
* The Perilous Gard - Elizabeth Marie Pope
* Encyclopdia of an Ordinary Life - Amy Krouse Rosenthal
* The Cross-Legged Knight - Candace Robb
* Nifft the Lean - Michael Shea
* Outer Banks - Anne Rivers Siddon
* Freedom and Necessity - Steven Brust
* Daughter of the Blood - Anne Bishop
* The Sleeping Beauty Proposal - Sarah Strohmeyer
* The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
* People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks
* Kitchen Confidential OR A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
* Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading - Maureen Corrigan
* Sabriel - Garth Nix
* Enchantment - Orson Scott Card
* The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
* Avalon High - Meg Cabot
* Idlewild - Nick Sagan
* What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman
* The Lost Diary of Don Juan - Douglas Carlton Abrams
* About the Author - John Colapinto
* The Trial - Franz Kafka
* The Children's Hospital - Chris Adrian
* City of Pearl - Karen Traviss
* Dragonsdale - Salamanda Drake
* In Between - Jennifer B. Jones
* The Death Committee - Noah Gordon (so far I've loved everything I've ever read by Noah Gordon)
* An Offer You Can't Refuse - Jill Mansell
* The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Alborn
* The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
* Ill Wind - Rachel Caine
* Answering 911 - Caroline Burau
* Hidden - Shelley Shepard Gray
* The Shape Changer's Wife - Sharon Shinn
* A Mango Shaped Space - Wendy Mass
* Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall - Wendy Mass


Yikes, it turned out even longer than I expected. Okay, this is where I need you, dear fellow-bookworms. I have to cut this list down somehow, so if you'd care to play along, tell me which 5 of the following I should get (and if you feel like it - why). Also tell me which one I should stay far, far away from.

Thanks! :-)