is it Saturday yet?

I know, I know....not for a few days, kiddo. :) Just finished up a long, fun, exhausting weekend. Our friends Brent and Hannah got married on Saturday, and we were very involved in the execution of the wedding. Plus, our good friend Sonya came up from Texas for the wedding, so I stayed up later than I should wanting to spend as much time with Sonya as possible. The wedding went really well, and was very special and sweet and pretty. And I remembered what it is like to wear healed shoes all day :). So today...I think I'll put off cleaning my bathroom until tomorrow and take a nap. I've got four more early working days ahead of me, so I'm going to try and start the week off on a good note.

a few good movies

I've watched a couple of good movies recently (not in the theater, mind you, so some of ya'll out there have probably seen them already). One of the movies is Scoop. It has Scarlet Johansen, Hugh Jackman, and Woody Allen. It was a kind of whimsical murder mystery. Hugh Jackman and Scarlet Johansen were funny and witty and really good in there roles, and the movie was very entertaining without being over the top, which I appreciated. Only down side...Woody Allen's character grated on my nerves. Another recent movie that I enjoyed recently was Friends With Money; a contemplative drama with some light, funny moments thrown in. But not too contemplative, so not depressing. Basically it's just about life and relationships and making choices...but again, not too depressing. I feel like I've seen some other movies recently, but can't remember what they were (clearly they didn't stand out all that much).

Ta ta!

book sale

Today I went with Nicole and Jeanette to the public library's bi-annual book sale. As a friend of mine (who is a library volunteer) put it...it was like being in a candy store! Seriously, it was a good thing that I only brought a certain amount of money with me because I could have done some damage...and the books were cheap! $2 hard back, $1 trade paperback (those are the large-size paperbacks for anyone who isn't familiar), and $.50 mass market paperback and children's books. I spent $15.50 and came home with 12 books. Awesome!

M.I.A.

I know, I know...Patti will be harrassing me for not posting in months. :) The last couple of months can be summed up like this: baby shower, wedding shower, school, baby shower, lingerie shower, wedding planning, school, wedding shower. Oh, and little book reading, t.v. and movie watching (especially catching up on 6 seasons of Gilmore girls), and work thrown in. So, I've been having fun, but staying busy that's for sure.
Next week will be the last week of school for the semester; this week and next week I have A LOT of work to do. But the first semester has flown by with only one or two minor meltdowns. Like riding a bike; a tad cliche, but true. I can't take any classes this summer because of scheduling, but I'm looking forward to the fall semester, and I'm going to try and volunteer at our local library this summer for some experience; figure it can't hurt.
What else....
Here's a fun tidbit -- I think that I wrote a WHILE back about an exercise challenge that my friends and I entered in; basically we have to exercise 30 min. a day/5 days a week. For each day we don't exercise we put a dollar in a jar. (so if we only exercise 3 days we put $2 in, etc.). And of course, you get sick days. We started the first part of January, and so far there is only $8 in the jar. yay!

hope this weekend is one with plenty of joyful moments.

spring's around the corner

Fall is my favorite season; always has been. But every time spring rolls around I remember how great it is. Some of the things I like about spring:

1. more daylight
2. the chance to wear flip-flops again (with jackts and long sleeves sometimes, which is my favorite way to wear them).
3. flowers
4. gardens and the beginning of fresh produce
5. pretty dresses

Not that it's spring quite yet, but down here in the South, it's getting close. We're in that in-between time. Anyway, happy Wednesday!

exciting Saturday

Welcome to my Saturday...I'm sitting at the computer, "participating" in a chat for one of my online graduate classes. I put the quotation marks because I'm mostly "listening" to the chat. Anyway, not a very exciting Saturday evening, but (aside from being tied to the computer for an hour against my will) I love having a chill, no-fuss, veg-out evening every now and then. We seem to have been busy lately, so it's nice.

We're hosting our becoming-an-annual-event Oscar party tomorrow night. The first one was in Houston with Steve and Jason and a few other friends. But mainly occurred because of Steve and Jason...wish you guys could come! Cali isn't that far away. ;) Basically it's candy, popcorn, and filling out our own Oscar ballots. Whoever guesses the most right gets a prize (movie tickets). The prize is really why people come. :) Party-planning tip: if you want people to come to your party, offer a prize.

purple

I'm terrible at coming up with titles sometimes for just random, "this is today" posts. So purple has nothing to do with anything. Just a color.

We played ultimate frisbee yesterday afternoon for an hour or two. I'm a little sore today, sadly. But I haven't done that much sprinting in a long time. Not to mention the sprint-stop abruptly-change directions thing in while. That's what really kills I think.

Finished reading a mystery paperback called Monday Mourning. It's the series that the t.v. show Bones is based on, if anyone is ever heard of that show (we watch it...it's pretty good). Of course, "based on" is very loose in this case. The character has the same name and profession, but the setting/other characters/etc. is completely different. Of course, that was a little hard to get around at first when I was reading the book, because I still had a picture in my head that didn't fit. But I got over it. And it was a good book.

So. rambling post. It's a monday, what can I say. :)

odds and ends

well, i've been m.i.a., that's for sure. school's going pretty well so far. only 4 weeks in, it's hard to make any hard and fast observations. the delayed feedback on assignments, etc. is the only downside so far to online classes. i love not having to work my schedule around actually attending classes.

what else is new....nicole's dad is in town for an extended stay -- he's looking to rent a house for a month or two (she's hoping two, or longer). so that's new and different. i've started taking some yoga classes about once a week. i bought a six-class card, so i've been trying to space it out. i'm enjoying it so far; i'm week enough that it's a good muscle workout, and it's really good for my inflexibe body. i have a tendency to tighten up if i don't stretch regularly, so this helps. today i'm going to try "hot yoga." it's basically regular yoga, but they turn the heat way up so you sweat a lot. doesn't that sound like fun! :)

no profound things to say today. i've seen both The Prestige and The Illusionist in the past few weeks. Very different movies, that's for sure; but i enjoyed them both. The Prestige is very dark; obsession is a big theme there. The Illusionist is more of a classic mystery and with an underlying love story. i really like Edward Norton, so that's a plus. of course, i really like the actors in The Prestige too (Michael Cain, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman). Anyway, i recommend both movies.

happy Tuesday!

making preparations

So, I've decided that now's the time to start keeping tabs on the potential presidential candidates: what they're up to, what they think, what they've done or not done. I know a lot of you out there tend to keep up with this kind of thing ("news" and "politics" ;) on a regular basis, so if anyone has any good sources let me know. I'm looking for lots of good information without having to spend hours looking at millions of sources. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it....I'm into voting responsibly these days.

On a different note...
A few friends and I are encouraging each other to exercise with a little challenge we stole and adapted from one of their friends. Basically, we have a set number of days in which we are supposed to exercise, and if we miss a day, we have to contribute a dollar to our "jar" (it's actually a manilla envelope, but whatever). At the end of six months, whoever contributed the least to the jar gets the money. Then we start over. So far it's working pretty well...none of us want to give up our dollars! We'll see how it goes.

Happy Tuesday!

this and that

So registration worked out and this week i begun my first two graduate classes. Yay! I am nervous about some things, and a little stressed about some things, but not worried, if that's even possible or makes sense.

We got some cool weather again. yay!

Lots of weddings this year. Well, two that I'll attend, and one that I'll attend a post-ceremony celebration. Either way, it's quite a bit of festivity. It's fun to watch plans unfold.

Happy Thursday!

various things

Our trip to Texas and Missouri (briefly) was nice. We were gone a whole week, and I enjoyed the break. The families are good; my niece is as cute as they get (I know...I'm partial). once I get around to downloading pictures off my new digital camera, I'll try and post some on here. My dad's getting ready to retire next year, and he's pretty excited about it.

I'm frustrated these days because I put some things off and now have only 13 days to try and register for graduate classes for the upcoming spring semester. Only problem is, my username and password (given to me by the school) won't work on their web site (where you register) and of course the offices are closed right now for the holidays. !! we'll see what happens. I may be starting in the spring or fall instead. Oh well. Guess it'll be a learning experience either way, right? :)

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Lone Star State!

Today

Today, I'm working at Mattox Family Practice. Our good friend Dr. Mattox and his staff (his wife Kathy and our other good friends Ryan and Nicole) are out of town for the week, so Jeremy, Jeanette and I are taking turns answering the phones and manning the office while they're gone. It's nice -- I'm spending most of the day just chillin.' I've checked e-mail, done some web surfing...I brought my book and a movie, and I'm hoping to write a little as well. (of course, we all know how undisciplined I am in that arena). Anyway, just a little ramble.

'Tis the Season

Sometimes during the Christmas season I feel Scroogy: what's the point? I ask myself. Hopefully I'm celebrating Jesus every day. But still, it's important to really meditate on it now and then. And what about gift giving? Sometimes it feels like checking names off my list is more important than the giving itself. So I examine the reasons why I'm giving. Obligation? Or love. Honoring the gift given to me by the Father by giving something to someone else. So in that spirit, maybe I should be doing more charitable giving. Of course, that happens all year as well. And what about traditions? I had a long think about that last year, and realized that any time we establish traditions with our family or friends, it's not always (or usually) about the traditions themselves, but about bringing us closer together, celebrating our love for each other. So the key to keeping the holidays meaningful for me: being deliberate. At least, that's what I've come up with for now. :) Deliberately being thankful, loving, generous, thoughtful...at least, trying to be these things. I am far from perfect after all.

Peace

keith mccord

Mine and Jeremy's friend Keith McCord passed away Friday evening from cancer. He wasn't quite 30, married with a tiny baby boy named Lincoln.

It's odd. I'm probably a minority in this, but Keith is the first friend I've known to die; my other experiences have been with grandparents, etc.

Keith was an interesting guy. Pretty cynical, but we just gave him a hard time about it. He was super creative -- a writer, a musician, an artist. He loved computer games -- he and Jeremy could play for hours. Okay, days even when they'd get together for gaming weekends. He was a good friend. I got to know him best one semester at college when there were some difficult things going on; he had a lot of good advice. He and Jeremy were much closer than Keith and I ever were; they were housemates for a while. I know Jeremy will miss Keith.

Peace.

purple and black and blue

Those are the colors of my toe. Well, the colors are beginning to fade, but last week at this time they were nice and bright. Because I broke my toe. The middle one, to be exact, which is a big pain because you can't avoid the middle toe when you're walking and I'd been doing really well with exercising, but everything I like to do puts pressure on the broken toe. (sigh). Sorry. Whine fest is over. Maybe I'll learn to be less of a klutz. ;)

did you vote???

Today, as I was waiting outside the polls (after voting, of course) for Jeremy and Jeanette, I heard someone who had just exited the polls tell someone else that they voted for someone "because they have the same name as NASCAR driver."

Long live democracy. :)

Pumpkins

This post really isn't about pumpkins, but I couldn't think of a better title. :)

So, I got accepted to North Carolina Central University's master's program for Library Science. Yay! Now I can be the nerd I was always born to be. :) I probably won't start until next fall; summer at the earliest. But that's okay. With the business starting up this summer, I think I need only one major life happening/change/activity at a time. For my own sanity and stress level.

We watched the movie "Thank You For Smoking" a couple weeks ago. It was pretty funny. As far as theater movies go...I've seen Marie Antoinette and The Departed recently. (two in one month! Crazy). I enjoyed Marie Antoinette a lot more than I expected. You alternately feel sorry for her and think 'what are you thinking!' She (and King Louis) come across as very real, sympathetic characters. Kind of young and stupid, but you kind of don't want to blame them for being young and stupid. The movie really made me want to learn more about the actual history of that time period. Oh, and the music and sets and costumes were great.

The Departed was really good as well. A gangster movie for sure (language, violence, etc.), so if you don't like that genre you probably wouldn't like it. But it's a head trip in a good way. At least, I thought so. My friend Ryan didn't really like it.

Anyway.... happy Thursday!

Ummm....

....don't have much to say, but I feel like my blog is neglected. :)

Went shopping today; let's hear it for birthday money! But I bought a red pillow for our khaki couch that in no way matches our other (maroon and navy and khaki striped) couch. Somehow, I thought the maroon was more red...negative on that. So...keep it with forward thoughts (I'd like to get a neutral-colored slipcover for that couch) or return it?

That's about it for shallow thoughts today. What about deep thoughts? you ask. Well, the biggest deep thought around here lately is not worrying about the future, but taking things one day at a time. Reminding myself that God is in control. Also, I'm trying to decide what to do about grad school. Once again, I missed the deadline because part of my application somehow didn't show up in their office -- even though I know it got mailed. So do I say, oh well, and wait until summer? Or do I just say, forget it, and look at something else (cooking school, maybe. or landscape architecture. who knows). or even just forget it and enjoy life as a lifetime barista and wanna-be writer. (that's a whole other struggle right there. Why can't I make myself sit down at the computer every day???? What's my problem???? besides the obvious laziness, of course. And how do I fix it.)

Still enjoying fall. With all the pine trees around here, I don't get to see too many leaves turn (a few). But I'm lovin' the air and the smells and the light.

Later

So...where did September go?

Yeah...the last 30 days or so have just slipped by. Pleasantly, but without making much of a fuss, and without lingering that's for sure.

I may have mentioned Team in Training and Jeremy and I training for a marathon/half marathon. Well, unfortunately we're not going to continue the training this time. Since it's a fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, participants are required to raise a certain amount of money. Today we had to recommit or bow out. If we recommited then we had to personally guarantee the full fund raising amount, regardless of how much we raised. Our fundraising didn't go like we hoped, and we didn't feel that it was a good time to guarantee almost $5,000. So...maybe another time. On the bright side, I feel like the training we did thus far was beneficial...I might even consider myself a "jogger" now. :) and we did manage to raise some money for cancer research, so I feel proud about that.

Jeremy and Dijana and Dean Shelby are visiting this week. It's been just what I needed...old friends whom I miss dearly. Now if we can just get some of our other dearly missed friends to visit! (hint, hint) I guess we could visit too, to be fair. :)

Anyway. Happy almost the end of September. And happy fall!!