Last night, and the better part of this week to be more accurate, was consumed with the 2nd Annual Community Christmas Party that my job helps to head up. Basically this meant that I maintained the RSVP list, answered the numerous phone calls and emails containing questions, wrapped dozens of gifts, decorated, ran to the store several times, and a various assortment of other things.
All was going well, despite the fact that we had more than double the number of people than we had had last year, until I passed between the kitchen where the hotdogs, mac’n’cheese, applesauce, and cookies were being prepared to the main room where an organized pandemonium reigned supreme one too many times. What resulted brought tears to my eyes, a dry heave from one of our board members/volunteers, and unexpected compassion from my boss. My right index finger was smashed between the two swinging doors as they went in opposite directions allowing two of us to pass through at the same time. My finger didn’t make it through in time.
Thankfully, one of our volunteers was a retired doctor and took a look at my finger. He didn’t think it was broken, but considering the swelling and black’n’blue color of my finger, suggested that I ice, splint, and go to the doctor the next day as there was the possibility of it being cracked.
All turned out to be well after a two hour visit to the walk-in clinic and subsequent x-rays. The doctor suggested that I ice my finger, take pain reliever, and try to continue moving my finger so that it wouldn’t stiffen. As I had to go back to work, icing it was out of the question and I had used the last of my pain reliever after the accident so I had to suffice with just typing my little heart out at work. Now that work is over, I’m blogging. Seems to me like a good way to exercise it!
Yay for blogging!
It’s a new year. It’s 2013. Life has continued onward. It has moved on. The major question is now if you will move on with it. Technically, we have the choice every day if we want to move forward with our lives and change. But there really is something special about the new year. It is a time to make resolutions and attempt to keep them.
Personally, I never make resolutions anymore. I used to make resolutions every year. But after six years of writing “learn to dance en pointe” and it never happening, I gave up on the whole concept of resolutions. But that doesn’t mean that I no longer believe in the importance of change and moving forward in my life.
This past year has held a lot of changes for me. I moved out of my parent’s house. Now this may not seem like a big thing for some people, but for me it was. I lived at home while in college and I was comfortable. Living expenses were miniscule. But the time had come to move on. It was time to leave home. It was time to grow and change.
In 2012 I also was given more responsabilities at my job. I am pretty much alone at the office now, so it is my job to make sure that everything that needs to get done is accomplished without the constant presence of my boss.
There have been other changes, but those are the major ones. The point is, however, that I have moved and changed when live required it of me. I have moved onward with my life. Will you?
I know that I have not posted anything in a very long time. Life has been pretty interesting. I moved. I picked up another job. I have realized that there is a lot about me that is not good and needs to change. Like I said, life has been interesting since I last posted.
So first things first: I moved. The last few days of July, I moved out of my parents’ house. It has been a very good thing. At the very least, I feel like my relationship with my parents, especially my mom, has gotten better. It was hard to have five legal adults in the same house get along all the time. Granted we never had any major fights or anything, but there comes a time when it is just time to move on. And I am ever so glad that I did.
Next: I picked up another job. Okay, this job is not exactly a job. I still work for Uprise Festival and the clothing line LifeLoveMusic, but now I spend time working at the Chamber of Commerce in my town. It has been a good experience so far. At the very least, I love/dislike that I need to dress up for work now. When I work at the Uprise office, I don’t see anyone on a regular basis, so a nice pair of jeans with a dressy/casual shirt is fine. Now I have to worry more about what I look like. Makeup must be applied. Dress pants or a skirt must be worn. Dressy shoes are a definite. Don’t get me wrong; I love dressing up, but I actually have to think about what I’m wearing now and take the time to create an outfit. It’s totally different from what I was used to, but a good different.
Lastly: I have learned that there are things about me that needs to change. I am not who I would like to be. Not that I need to change my style or lose a lot of weight or something (although I would not be opposed to weight loss). Instead, I need to change on the inside. I do not have the qualities inside of me that should be there. I need to be more open. I need to be more respectful. I need to be more honest with myself and with others. I need to be less prideful. It is a hard thing to see yourself for what you truly are, but it is a good thing. Once I am able to see, I can begin to change through the help of God and those around me.
Moral of the story, be open. You might see all that God has is store for your life. But when you are open to accepting it, whatever it may be, God will move in your life…and it is good!
Although I have nothing particularly thoughtful or thought provoking to write today, I did want to share a picture of my henna. It is the first time I ever got it. I always have wanted it, but never had the chance to get it at a reasonable price. So, without any more ado, here it is.
I’m not a very knowledgeable person about a large number of topics. This is something that I have come to realize about myself. But there are some things that I do know, and it is those things that I should focus on and fine tune. So on that note, I have decided to write about my shoes. I can guarantee you that I am not the most knowledgeable person on the subject, but I do love shoes.
Shoes are in important part of every outfit. They may not be the largest part of your wardrobe, but they are important nonetheless. In my closet, I probably have close to 50 pairs of shoes. To some people, especially a guy, this sounds like a lot of shoes. Before you pass judgement on me for the number of shoes that I have, there is something that I must point out. Probably a third of the shoes that I own were either given to me or purchased for less than $5. The next third were purchased for between $6 and $15 each. The rest of my shoes were purchased for less than $40 each, often less than $30. I have never, let me repeat that, never, purchased a pair of shoes for more than $40.
I refuse to pay that much for anything that I will wear. I will shop around before I buy anything expensive to see if I can find it cheaper elsewhere. If I can’t find it for a price that I like, I won’t buy it. Call me stingy, call me a penny-pincher, call me whatever you like; but at the end of the day, I still have name brands in my closet and money in my checking account.
Back to shoes. The reason that I have so many shoes, other than the fact that I love shoes, is because shoes are like accessories. Most women have a pretty large collection of jewelry. A new necklace can make an old outfit seem new. Shoes are the same way. By changing up the shoes you would usually wear with a particular outfit can make it seem new. You would not believe the number of times that someone has commented on an outfit of mine, thinking it new, when all I had done was worn a crazy pair of heels instead of plain boots or flats like I usually would have.
Shoes are the spice to a dish that your making for dinner. Shoes are the secret ingredient to your favorite recipe for chocolate cake. Shoes are the zest to clothing. But before they can work such magic in your wardrobe, you to go out on a limb and buy something that will not go with every outfit in your closet. If a pair of shoes can go with more than eight different outfits, you’re probably buying silver hoop earring shoes. They match all the time, but they are not as fun, nor as interesting, as the dangling feather earrings that you’ll only wear once or twice month because they only match one or two outfits.
Moral of the story? Buy some outlandish shoes. Think of them as an accessory. Let your shoes make an outfit. Be daring and take chances on something outside out your usual clothing comfort zone. But remember that you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on the crazy stuff. If you’re only wearing it once or twice a month, buy cheaper than you would on something that you’ll be wearing one or twice a week. Shop around. Look at the clearance section. Sometimes, that is where you can find the cool shoes anyway, because someone else was not willing to step out of their comfort zone and buy something new and shocking. Be that daring shoe woman who you have inside of you. Show your individuality through your shoes and happy shopping to you!
Every day, every single stinkin’ day we are faced with the public. Right now, at this point in my life, I don’t come into contact with a lot of people on a daily basis. But that does not change the fact that the public does not have an influence on my life. It has an influence whether I want to admit it or not. I do care about what others think about me. I do make decisions based on what those around me think. I am influenced.
Today I was reading in James. Actually, I have been reading in James a lot. I have been in the first and second chapter or James for a few weeks. I keep rereading the verses in different versions and each time I get something new. I was reading in James in The Message today; James 2 to be specific. The very first verse said, “My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith.” It went on to discuss how we treat other people. And while this is very valid, I applied the first verse to another part of my life. I have been job hunting since I graduated from college in December and have yet to get hired. Over a week ago I had an interview, but I found out on Friday that they hired someone else. I could let this news depress me. I have applied to many places and this was the first place that actually called back for an interview. I thought that this might be it. This was open door that I was waiting for. But it turns out that it wasn’t. This wasn’t my door.
If I listened to public opinion I might get depressed. I might start to feel that this economy is going to make it impossible for me to find a job. I will never get a full-time position with good pay, even without benefits. I am trapped in the same place that all of the other college graduates are stuck in. But that is not true. I have something that they don’t have; I have my faith in Christ. I know that He has a life for me that is good. It is glorious. I need to live that life. I need to live each day as if I know that God has something just around the corner, because He does. While I don’t yet know what that is, or how far away that corner is, I’m not going to listen to the public voices around me saying that I will never find a job.
I choose to live my life with the faith that God has something for me. How do you live your life?
Do you know any words or phrases that you cannot hear without laughing or at the very least smirking? I feel like I know more than a few that have been forever ruined.
For example, the word precious is no longer a good word. Every time that I hear it I think of Gollum saying it.
One time while I was still working at a convenience store, I heard a woman call her husband sweetums and it took everything inside of me not to start laughing, especially because the man was on the hefty side. Here’s why. (Fast forward to :46.)
Every time that I think about the Boston Tea Party or the Tea Party political group, the movie What a Girl Wants comes to mind, particularly 1:50-1:55.
I know for a fact that there are a few more words or phrases that will never be the same in my mind, but of course they only come to mind when the moment is right. Which words or phrases always strike you as funny?
For a twenty-three year old, I’m pretty far behind on technology. I have never had an iTouch or iPhone, a smart phone, an eReader, or a tablet of any kind. Even though a lot of my friends and acquaintances have at least one of the above, I have not had the pleasure of figuring out how they work by messing around with theirs. I have been on my best friend’s Kindle Fire twice. But that is it. That is the extent of my knowledge. And even when I was on her Kindle Fire she had to set everything up for me.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I don’t mind being behind on technology. With the speed that everything is moving ahead, I know that it will be impossible for me to keep up. Technology is not my drive in life. I would honestly rather turn the paper pages of a book than swipe my finger across the screen to see what happens next in the novel I’m reading. I love the feel of paper. I enjoy the smell of an old book. Very little compares to the pleasure of opening a book and being able to tell by the binding that it has never been read before. Knowing how many pages I have left until the book is finished but not being able to guess how it will end is a suspense that no movie can beat.
Here is my problem. I got a HTC Flyer as a graduation gift from my parents. It just came in the mail yesterday. Last night I showed it to some of my friends. One of them, a fifteen year old girl, was able to figure out how to alter the factory settings for me in the matter of a minute or two. (I had spent about ten minutes and still hadn’t been able to figure it out.) She very kindly showed me how to change it so that I would know for next time. She and my best friend pointed out Amazon’s App Store to me so that I could download some stuff. My problem is that when I got home and picked out which I wanted to try out first, I have yet to figure out if they downloaded or not and if they did were they are. I am completely and utterly lost.
Basically, in the last twenty-four hours I have realized just how far behind I am. I realized that I have quite the learning curve to climb. But I am confident that when I am finally able to figure everything out that I will absolutely love my HTC Flyer. In the meantime, I have a lot of learning to do!
It’s 7:30am. My alarm starts to go off. I roll over, look at it, decide on 10 minutes of snooze time, and close my eyes for another few moments of bliss before my day must begin.
Ten minutes have gone by and I really must get out of bed. I have a lot to do today. Heading downstairs, I open the refrigerator to see what’s available. Yesterday I had french toast so that is out. The day before I had…I don’t remember what I had, so it doesn’t matter if I repeat that day. Okay. What to eat? What to eat? I look through all the shelves to see what interests me. My eyes land on the last of the macaroni salad that I had made on Monday. That works. I open the bowl, grab a bowl and fork, scoop out what I want, and put the rest back in the refrigerator.
At this point some of you may be thinking, “What on earth is wrong with her?” or “Who eats macaroni salad for breakfast?” or “That’s the strangest thing I have every heard of anyone eating before lunch.” Whatever the case my be, I’m here to ask you, “Does it really matter what I eat for breakfast?” Breakfast is the meal of the day that we have always been taught to eat. Some of us listen and some of us don’t. We are told that it is the most important meal of the day. A good breakfast can lead to a much better day, both mentally and physically. So I ask you, what defines a good breakfast? Does it have to be a bowl of cereal and half an apple? Does it have to be an omelet filled with vegetables? Does it have to be something we have come to recognize as a breakfast food? I say no, it does not.
I have gotten into the habit of eating pretty much whatever I feel like eating at any meal of the day. If it is breakfast time and I see some left-over lasagna that interests me, I’ll cut a piece, microwave it, and dig in. If it is lunch time and I decide that I’m in the mood to make some french toast, that is what I will do. When dinner time rolls around and I’m in the mood for pizza, I’ll get out my pita bread, some sauce, cheese, oregano, and broccoli, put them together and throw it in the oven for 10 minutes.
Now you may think that having french toast at lunch time is no big deal. So what if it is a breakfast food. People enjoy having breakfast during the day sometimes. So on that note, I ask you, why can’t have I have lunch at breakfast? No one seems to care if I have breakfast at lunch or dinner. Why can’t I reverse the order? As long as I am getting the protein and other such nutrients that I need, does it really matter what I eat? Again, I say no, it does not.
Moral of the story. Eat whatever you want any meal of the day. As long as it is healthy and it gives you the nutrients that you need to get the day started correctly, it does not matter what it is. So enjoy the day. Enjoy your food, whatever it is.
Jewels Space 