Resurrection

Well, Hello…

After a year-long hiatus I have finally returned to the world of blogging.  And by “returned” I mean I am posting today and may or may not ever post again.  I just have finally become wise enough to not make promises about my commitment to this whole thing.

I’m just imagining the look on people’s faces when they see that my blog has been updated.  Most will probably think that the internets have broken down or something.

So, what’s been happening lately? Lots of life.  The school year is finished and summer is here.  I’m re-teaching myself to play guitar (because I apparently remember shamefully little from my previous lessons) so I can teach guitar lessons at school in the fall.  I’m trying to get my choir room in order, set up curriculum, and my college roommate Alison just got married.

Obviously, I am very busy and important.  I hope to write again sometime in this life… but again, no promises.

Must (NOT) See TV

This summer has been very interesting so far.  I’ve been home a lot more than in past summers and it has been hotter than the seventh layer of Hades in Texas this summer, which means I am enjoying my summer in the great indoors.  It also means that I have acquired some interesting television habits- some evenings I would be willing to swear I see steam coming off my DVR with the high demand I have placed on it.  Since I’ve always been a fan of sharing those things which mean the most to me I thought I’d share of my current faves with you. 

Before I do so, I’d like to claim this as a “safe place” where I can be safe to confess my most embarrassing television habits. Agreed?

5. Swords: Life on the Line- In my lifelong pursuit to live every week like it’s Shark Week, I am obsessed with any show which holds an off-chance of seeing a shark. 

4. Army Wives- Only, not any more since the season is already over.  I’ve only gotten into this show during the past two seasons so I feel that I should go back and watch the first seasons that I missed.  However, I can tell you that I have not cried at a television show in years like Army Wives made me cry this year. One episode literally made me go into the ugly cry… and then it sent me into the ugliest cry.  And then it gave me a crying headache.  My head even hurt the next day.  I am not even (that) embarrassed to share that I would get my crying under control and then as soon as they returned from commercial break I would be sobbing again in no time.

That, my friends, is some powerful television.

3. Real Housewives of New Jersey-  It never fails to entertain me. NEVER. It’s got it all:

Family drama? Check.

Squabbling siblings? Check.

Fur Boots? Check.

Fur Vests? Check.

Fur Coats? Check.

All-You-Can-Watch Fur Clothing? Check.

Cat fights with fur flying? Check and Check.

What more do you want out of an hour of television???

2. House Hunters International- I have a particular fondness for anyone who’s purchasing a home over $500,000.  Mainly because it’s so far away from anything I will ever know and also, because $500,000 means one thing in Texas and something entirely different in Europe, Costa Rica or Thailand.

1. Antiques Roadshow- I’m sorry, but if you’ve never sat and watched the Roadshow, then you’ve never known what it is to live vicariously through people who are raking in the dough for their salt and pepper shakers they found in grandma’s pantry. It is truly amazing television!

So, there you have it. And now I’m wondering, what television are you watching? What are my DVR and I missing out on?

After rereading my list I’m also wondering, when did I become a middle-aged housewife?

New Heights of Crazy

It has been tense around my house the past few days.  A different kind of tension than usual. Sports tension.

Over the weekend my DBU Patriots played in the NCAA regionals. This is a big deal because DBU was an independent and it’s very rare for independents to get a chance to play in the regionals.  They won the Fort Worth regional and are headed to a Super Regional! I’m not even sure what a Super Regional is, but I know that I’m excited about it.

So, as we say at DBU, Get Your Guns Up! (I’m not entirely sure why we say that, I think it has something to do with our mascot being the Patriot and all I know is we make the cutest little hand sign when we say it.  Can you tell this tradition started at the end of my college career and I was too old to be cool enough to get it?)

Coincidentally, any time I see or hear Patriot over and over I think back to my freshman year of college when the DBU choir had to sing at this HUGE, fancy banquet held at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas where we had to perform a little ditty called “The Patriot’s Voice”.  The fact that I could not find a sample of it anywhere on the internets should tell you just how great it was.  All I remember is the beginning which went something like this: “Hear the voice of the Patriot singing” sung in unison.  We had a dramatic reenactment to accompany our song- which, of course, included powdered wigs.

I digress.

Also, the Mavs.

My Mavericks have played several games in the past week which have each given me at least 7 minutes of intense nerves.  I have literally begun to believe that I have some sort of power over the outcome of the game.  I have a lucky shirt, I sit in my lucky spot on the couch and when it gets down to clutch time I have a well-worn path around the living room.  Crazy.  How is my shirt going to help the Mavs win? I mean, it isn’t even blue.  I tweeted tonight that my nerves were on the same level as if a tornado were bearing down on me while snakes slithered at my feet and someone eats a huge bowl of jello in my presence.

If you know me at all, you know that the fact I even typed that j-word is seriously saying something.

It says something because I can't even bring myself to say that word out loud in real life.

Really, it just says something about just how crazy I was to begin with.  Before all the sports-related-crazy.

Two Things

To ease myself back into blogging (I don’t wanna strain anything by writing a full post my first time out of the gate) I’d like to share two things with you.

 

1. GO MAVS GO!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Tomorrow is the last day of school for students.

I have to work on Saturday. 

But then comes Sunday……  And then comes summer.  I can honestly say that summer has taken on new meaning for me after this year.  It kind of makes me miss my old college days when summer began May 9th and went until August 25th but I am so much more appreciative of my time off now, because it actually means something. 

 

On a complete change of pace I had a job interview this morning and would appreciate any prayers you can send my way right now for wisdom and better decision making skills.  I don’t really know where God is leading for next year but I’m trusting that His plan is better than mine, and I’m following Him in this whole crazy journey.

**Bonus Info:

I’m sorry I’m boring tonight.  I’ll try to be more humorous in the future.

Blog Revival

Remember how I said back in March that I’d like to post more than once that month?  And then do you remember how I ended up posting twice that month?  Practically a miracle.

Then, remember how I didn’t post at all in April (until April 21st)?

Not so miraculous.

Anyway, I sense a blog revival coming on.  And, in companion to the revival of my blog I have been enjoying a revival of my iPod.  I recently took on the task of organizing my songs into playlists, or as I like to call it, Via Delarosa 2011.  5 short hours after I began I finally had a semi-organized iPod and was finally able to enjoy so many of my songs I’d forgotten I had.

Here’s a few of the songs which are on repeat right now:

1. Carry Your Name

Christy Nockels?  Greatness.  Passion CD?  Greatness.  Singing this in the car at the top of my lungs?  Bliss.

2.  Glorious Day

and

3. You are Faithful

Both from the ‘God of Victory’ album.  These are both songs that were written by the worship team at the church I attended the past three years.  One of the hardest parts of moving was leaving my church, but having all these songs on CD offers me so many fantastic opportunities to worship- even if it is only in my car.

4. Rollin’ in the Deep

By Adele.  Oh my.  Oh. My. OH. MY. You should also listen to the WHOLE ALBUM.  Oh my.

5. Little Too Much

By Natasha Beddingfield.  I ran across this song when I saw the preview for the new movie Something Borrowed.  I loved the trailer for the movie so much that not only did I buy this song (and the whole rest of the album) I also read the book.  And then I read the sequel to the book.

Obsessed much?

 

Y’all enjoy!

Carmen Miranda Wants Her Moves Back

Due to my gullibility servant’s heart, I have (somehow) recently taken on the job of Children’s Choir at my church.  I’m not really sure how it all went down, or how it was decided that I was qualified to run a few minutes of choir practice every Sunday night, although I seem to recall my music minister throwing around words like “fun” and “ministry” and “God” which made it all seem totally easy and perfectly normal for me to try to wrangle a group of 18 children ranging in age from 4-12 for an hour once a week.  How it came about is still a bit of a mystery to me, but there’s no doubt it’s definitely happening.

Let me just say that, as a person who has no children of her own but was once one, Sunday nights are hard times for anyone to concentrate- the weekend is almost over and you just want to cram all the fun you can handle into those last few hours before reality sets back in.  I get it, I totally understand.  However, my understanding does not stop me from feeling that there is a slight possibility that the children in my choir are sneaking behind their parents’ backs on Sunday afternoons and eating several spoonfuls of sugar before coming to church on Sunday nights.  It’s just a sneaking suspicion, but it’s either that or they’re all just TOO EXCITED! AND HAPPY! TO BE! AT CHOIR TOGETHER!!!!  My money’s on the sugar.

Other than a slightly wired feel to each rehearsal, we have a very cute little musical all picked out and I am so excited to see it coming together.  While I personally never had much of a church choir growing up because our little church was too tiny, I have sung in many a choir in my day and the most important thing to any great show-stopping group is the perfect combination of catchy music and rockin’ dance moves.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking full out ‘Glee’ dance routine- including, but not limited to any combination of pyrotechnics, laser light shows and live bands.  I’m talking about a nice little choir who has mastered the art of the box step (Not that I’m encouraging dancing amongst the children, mind you).

Anyway, one of the songs in this year’s musical is called “The Fruit That Is Rooted In You” all about the fruit of the Spirit and it has been stuck in my head for two full days.  Count ‘em- TWO- 1, 2 days.  It’s a precious little song with music in the style ala Carmen Miranda:

 

SO, so good.

(Not to be confused with the musical stylings of Charo). 

The whole thing is golden, but the highlight, for me personally, begins at 1:05.

There’s so much that is so right in this video.  But, I need to pause for a moment to point out two important details: 1. What the heck kinda workout is Charo doing because I am missing out? 2. Where do you think you find men’s high-waisted pants made out of jewel-toned glitter fabric?

Let’s just say I was already dreading the costume’s and choreography we’d need in order to do our own Carmen/Charo tribute song justice when I came across this video of our song, and a little jewel in its own right:

And then it hit me.  All this time I had been worried about the costumes I should have spent worrying about the choreography.

The Good News:  Choreography?  Between Carmen, Charo and Corrie the Choreographer we should be in business.

The Bad News?  High-Waisted, Jewel-Toned Glitter Pants? Never gonna happen.

The Even Worse News?  This song is going to be stuck in my head until May.

Marching Right Along

Well.

(I’m guessing that’s not a long enough to be considered a complete post)

I promise I didn’t forget I have a blog… I only forgot what it looks like.

Actually, anytime I would come to check on my blog roll I would scroll down far enough to see the “Little Mermaid” picture and, without fail, the orange hair would stress me out.  It’s safe to guess that this post is merely a way of getting that picture out of my daily routine.

In case you all have forgotten to check your calendars lately, it’s March.  March!  Yikes.

Anyway, as a way of jumping back into the habit of blogging I am going to share five favorites from my life right now.

 

 

Five Favorites:

1. Boots Moisturizer

So perfect for my sad winter skin.  It goes on thick enough that you feel it making a difference, but is NEVER greasy.  A miracle in a bottle. Seriously.

We should probably just add all Boots products my list of favorites.

 

2. Adele’s new album ‘21’

Love Adele.  LOVE.  Love.

 

3. My Target Sunglasses.

They save my eyesight on a daily basis, now that the sun is staying out longer.

 

4. My BlackBerry charger. 

My phone dies nearly everyday.  Everyday. And it’s not because I’m gibbering away on it 24/7, it’s just because it hates me.

 

5. My Kindle.

Oh, my Kindle.  I can’t even begin to describe to you all the ways it has changed my life.  Let’s just say, in the interest of time, it’s changed my life in a lot of ways.

 

**Bonus Thing I Love: My return to blogging. 

 

Let’s hope I can break the 2011 curse and blog more than once this month!

Resolute

Happy New Year!

Have you guys made any New Year’s Resolutions?  Because, I have not.

Last year I really did sit down and think it over and set reachable goals.  The reachable part is important for me because most years January 1st rolls around and I say I’m going to jog 30 minutes a day.  I typically fail at my resolution by sometime around 5:30 January 1st.  So, it just seems to make more sense to be as footloose and fancy free as possible!

I don’t have any resolutions, but I’m excited for the new year.  Let’s face facts, anything would be better than the swift kick-in-the-pants 2010 delivered to me.  But, it’s all good- 2011 is gonna be awesome!  Or, more likely- 2011 is gonna have it’s fair share of hurts and sadness, but I’m hoping it’s tempered by some fun and joy and hope.

What about you?  Did you make any resolutions that will inevitably put me to shame?

Shocking AND Embarrassing

That title should be my new nickname.

I absolutely cannot believe I’ve gone almost two whole months without posting.  The problem is I went one week without posting and got really overwhelmed with all of the important things I should have written about and didn’t.  Then one week turned into two and my embarrassment doubled and then it had been a month and then it was December 13th.  Yikes. 

The above paragraph gives you a sad little look into my life.  Being a procrastinator and a perfectionist is really hard on me.  And, apparently, on you my reader(s).

So, I’d now like to very quickly update you on the past two months of my life in a very short list.

1. I took a little trip to visit my friends Sarah and Justin in Longview and got to enjoy some beautiful weather and fun times with friends.  Our friend Miranda also came over and we built a fire, made a craft project and ate some bruschetta that, I think it’s safe to say, changed my life.

I think it’s also safe to say we had ourselves a mighty good time.

 

2. I helped with our children’s choir’s Stomp performance.  If I never have to hear another bucket being thumped on with a wooden stick it’ll be too soon for my sanity’s sake.  I also sang with the adult choir in a Christmas performance.  It’s been fun to sing in a choir again after all these years.

3. My BFF Chelsea and I and our families attended our alma mater’s playoff football game.  It was fascinating.  Our team lost but it was really fun to have a family outing.

4. I got my craft on.  Hard core.  I made three wreaths this year for Christmas and a “Gratitude Tree” for Thanksgiving.  My poor little fingers have never recovered from all the hot glue.  I made an ornament wreath, a coffee filter wreath and a lima bean wreath.  And I got to lose all the feeling in my index fingers.

The Lima Bean Wreath in the middle of production

5. I had a birthday.  It was actually a pretty fun day.  A bunch of my students sang happy birthday to me and I had a great dinner with my family, plus we got to drive around and look at the Christmas lights.  Not a bad way to spend a birthday.

I probably would have included even more anecdotes if I had remembered to write for the past few months.  I’m feeling like I need to have a goal for my next post, so I’ve decided that I’m taking requests.  Let me know if you have any questions or would like to hear a retelling of a specific story and I’ll get right on top of that.  And I promise that by “right on top of it” I don’t mean two months later.

 

I’ve missed you, internets.  -C

The Fairest Of Them All

Last Saturday Chelsea and I went to the State Fair of Texas.  I am only slightly embarrassed to reveal to you that it was my second time to visit the fair.  That week.  I don’t really know how to defend myself, other than to say that when you love something with your whole heart, as I love the Texas State Fair, you make it a priority in your life.  Anyway, Chels and I had a great day.  We managed to check all of our “Must-Do” items off of our list.

We visited the petting zoo:

And discovered that alpacas may just be the cutest animal I ever did see:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I caught up with Big Tex:

We tried some Texan delicacies (and by ‘delicacies’ I mean anything that would stay still long enough to be deep fried):

Deep Fried Frozen Margarita

 

Fried Bacon

And, since I know the questions are inevitable, I will give you my opinion on all the fried foods I partook of.  In my personal experience fried foods are exciting and delicious.  IN THEORY.  In reality?  The first three bites are usually pretty good… but then you start to think about what exactly it is your eating and it’s all downhill from there.  But, I continue to eat them because fried food hope springs eternal.  The fried margarita could have been good, except they poured strait margarita juice (or whatever that would be called) over the fried part, which made it pretty gross.  The bacon was ok, except every time you took a bite all the fried stuff would fall off, so in the end you were just eating bacon.  And I don’t know about you, but I prefer not to pay $8 for my bacon.

After eating our way across the fair Chels and I headed to visit my friend Cortnee.  While there we watched a little MLB Smackdown:

I may be momentarily obsessed with the Rangers.  And I’m ok with that.  Especially when they’re winning.

After we left Cortnee’s Chelsea needed to run by her office (at 8:00. On a Saturday night. Nerd Alert!) so she headed over to do that and I went home.  After I’d been home for a few minutes Chels called and asked if my Dad and I could come jump her car since it was dead.  When we got there I realized that Chelsea had been holding out on me:

I had no idea she was this prepared.  She has her own traffic emergency sign.  We’ve been best friends for over 10 years and I would never have expected her to have a spare tire, much less a traffic sign.  In my defense, she did have a flashlight, but no batteries.

All said and done the Fair definitely lived up to its hype this year, and now I am counting down the days until next year.  Just 365 days left to prepare my arteries for the deep fried butter.

I Blame ‘Twilight’

Last week at school all the kids wrote out their dreams and some goals for how they could achieve their dreams.

Lots of children wrote about wanting to become a football player or a veterinarian and some wanted to work at their parents’ car shops or become rock stars.

As they were writing out their dreams I was walking around the room and one young man stopped me and asked me how to spell “ologist”.

I said, “like biologist?”

He said “yes, but just the ologist part”

I told him how to spell it and said “Do you want to be a biologist when you grow up?”

“No.” he said, “I want to be a werewolfologist.”

Behold, the youth of tomorrow.

I Have Some Thoughts About Some Things

I’ll write my thoughts in list form, so that I am not required to think too hard and so that you read this post with the lowest possible expectations.

1.  This weekend I watched Dirty Dancing for the first time in a long, long while.  I love that movie.  All summer long I wanted to bring a watermelon to a party just so I could say “I carried a watermelon”.  I never did it.  But I know it would have been cool if I did.

2.  I attended a Fall Festival on Saturday and enjoyed a funnel cake.  Funnel cake may not scream fall, but it does scream my name any time I see it.

3.  I am LIVING for the State Fair of Texas.  LIVING.  Living.  The fair has always been a big deal to my family.  We would always go and work our way from the car show, across to the craft pavilion, take in a show and spend a few hours gawking at whatever farm animal has been immortalized in butter that year.  Not to mention the food.  Oh, the food.  There is something oh so magical about fair food.

4.  I really have to hold myself back from spending my whole paycheck on buying new clothes.  Boots and sweaters are my friends.

5.  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this before now, but I recently became involved in a relationship.  I’m in a love affair with a little TV show called Friday Night Lights.  And it’s serious.  I am so embarrassed that it took me 4 years to jump on board (you can count on me to be on the cutting edge of the trends) but now I am all in.  I just wanna have a “Matt Chat” and be Tim Riggins’ AA sponsor and go to church with Smash Williams and hang out with Eric and Tammy Taylor (or, as I like to call her: Mrs. Coach).  You can see that I’m in love.  Mainly in love with Matt Saracen but also in love with Friday Night Lights.

Thursday Thoughts

1. Happy 90210.  I cannot tell you how delighted I was to tune into The Today Show and watch them repeatedly report on the interesting coincidence of today’s date (9-02-10) with photos of Brendon, Donna, Brenda, Kelly, Steve, Dylan and the gang from the early 90’s.  It felt like some strange holiday that I was totally unprepared for.  Although, it did make me crave a nice long Beverly Hills 90210 marathon.

2. Today I decided to tackle cleaning out and organizing my closet.  I began this afternoon and this was the scene in my room around 10:00 tonight:

I thought maybe Hurricane Earl had swept through and someone forgot to tell me.  Then I remembered that around 4:00 I decided I should go ahead and clean out all my drawers too so I could optimize my cleaning / purging.  Obviously, this plan was well thought out and reasoned. 

I’m dreading sleeping on the couch tonight.

3.  Speaking of dread.  This weekend I will be visiting my storage unit in order to get a few of the fall clothes I have packed there.  That’s right.  I’m bringing MORE clothes into the mix.  Just to give you a peek into the reality of my life:

This was my storage unit when I last left it.  I understand it’s dark in there and I understand it may look like my audition photo for “Hoarders: Buried Alive”, but it’s bad.  Really bad.  Just to further stress my point:

4. I am currently having a love affair with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.  If you haven’t ever tried it you should run- don’t walk- to your local grocery store and try some.

5. Since the weather has been so nice this week I’ve been taking long walks in the evening and each night I’ve ended up at my grandparents house across the pasture.  I’ve been missing them a lot.  They were really special people.

My Mammaw and Grandaddy- Paul and Faye.

 

I hope you guys are having a great day!  And for my reader(s) on the East Coast stay safe and keep outta Earl’s way. 

Because, honestly?  The last thing you wanna rumble with is a Hurricane named Earl.

The Month Before September

Well, August is finally over.  And, in celebration of this, I have made an important decision:  from this year forward August shall forever be referred to as: “the-month-that-is-dead-to-me”.

No, I’m not more dramatic in the month of September, why do you ask?

So, clearly ‘the-month-that-shall-not-be-named’ was a rough one, but some fun things happened too. 

Here’s a list:

1. Shark Week!  Shark Week was extra incredible this year.  I got a ton of it on the DVR (unfortunately the DVR has since bit the dust since my parents got HD which means they get a new DVR which means Shark Week is, once again, merely a fond memory) and particularly enjoyed the newest version of “Air Jaws”.  On July 31st I got a tweet or a text or a comment or a wall post from Katy (sometimes I think I am overly committed to all my social networking) saying she hoped Shark Week didn’t disappoint me, which I thought was really funny and sweet.  Clearly, I have worn my Shark Week heart on my sleeve and she didn’t want to see me hurt, but I am happy to report that I was not disappointed in the least.

2. I got to see plenty of my favorite people!  Including meeting the Evans girls for some coffee and some talk (ideally there would be an adorable photo of Ginger posted right here, but I forgot to dig my camera out that day, so you’ll just have to take my word for just how remarkably beautiful she is). 

I also got to hang out at a birthday party for Miranda along with Jennifer, Alison and Sarah and Justin.  The birthday party was a fun combination of games, birthday cake and porch swings.  That’s like the Pythagorean theorem for the perfect party in my mind.

3. The WEATHER!  Oh, my heavenly days, the weather.  At some point last week God smiled upon Texas and our temperatures dropped from about 112 degrees to 87 degrees daily.  It was a summer miracle.

4. My friend Cortnee came to my parents house in the country for the weekend.  I took her to see all sorts of things, including my neighbors’ farm of exotic animals, which deserves a post all of its own.  But, most importantly, my parents took both of us on a little driving tour of the country.  We even drove up to the lake.  It was beautiful and bizarre all at the same time.  I felt like I was back in junior high sitting in the back of my Mom’s car with my friend while we drove on the county back roads.

5. I accepted a couple of job offers.  Then today I accepted a new one and will be working full time for a school in the area.  The only explanation for it all is that my life is weird.  Every time I give up hope I am surprised by God’s provision again. 

I think that last bullet point explains why I am not going to continue looking back on the dark days of ‘the-month-that-is-dead-to-me’.  Not that I didn’t have some fun times, but from here on out, I’m all about September.

Life Under Construction

I don’t know if you do much driving, but this summer has been “The Summer of The Car” in my little world.  It explains a lot about why I haven’t written anything on my blog in about a month… I was too busy driving in my car.  All summer long I had been leaving my parents house on Monday morning and driving about an hour and a half to work, then I would drive about 20 minutes to a friends apartment and spend the week with her- driving back and forth to work everyday.  On Fridays I would make the trip home again and the whole process would begin anew Monday morning.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat.  Towards the middle of July the friend whose house I was staying at moved (out of the country) and I was sent into a tailspin.  I stayed with a friend one week who lived about 40 minutes from work, one week I drove from my parents home (an hour and a half BOTH WAYS.  I was seriously questioning my sanity) every day and in the midst of all that I’ve been driving to interviews all over creation.  I’m not positive about the exact number, but I think it’s safe to say I put something like 200,000 miles on my car.

All that time in the car this summer put me in the way of some serious construction zones.  Here’s the thing about construction zones: they’re annoying.  Incredibly annoying.  I think all of us can agree that (for the most part) we realize the necessity of highway construction and we appreciate that, in the end, it’s gonna be a wonderful thing for us.  But DURING the construction?  Miserable, awful and annoying. 

What I’ve noticed lately though is that my life is sitting in the middle of a construction zone.  I’ve been searching for a job all summer and I’ve been waiting to find a new place to live until after I have a job.  And all the waiting has felt like gridlock.  Annoying, headache-inducing gridlock.  It seems that God has decided to take every comfort I never knew I was clinging onto and strip them away until the only comfort is Him.  From financial security to pride God has decided to light fire to things that are not eternal and while I see that the end product will probably bring me greater joy, right now?  I’m stuck in traffic and the car is starting to overheat.

I can’t help but think that one day (in the not-so-distant future) I’m going to really regret having written this post.  I’ll look back and laugh and say to myself: “you were such a drama queen!  Of course you had to learn that lesson, but why did you have to share it on the public domain?”.  Oh, the mid-twenties.  They are a veritable smorgasbord of insecurities.  But, I don’t have a diary that I write in every day and the whole purpose of writing a blog is to record my life and share it with others.  Whether it be about life’s big questions or about my inability to spell the word rhythm.  I mean I’d love to be able to come on my blog and write another post about how much I truly loved Shark Week (because I truly did), but the truth of the matter is, life isn’t really that pretty right now and writing about my gruesome fascination with shark attacks isn’t going to change that.  So, I’ve decided instead to just be honest and tell you my life is under construction and some days I don’t know what it all means or what it’s all about, but sooner or later the traffic will ease up and I’ll be moving ahead again.  Until then, I’m living life in a construction zone.

The Obsession That Just Won’t Quit

I may have mentioned once or five hundred times my obsession with the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.  Specifically my fascination with a little show called Air Jaws which takes place off the coast of South Africa.  So, you can imagine my delight, terror and awe at the following story and accompanying pictures (please, please, please click over!  I promise you it’s worth it!):

Beware of jumping whales if you’re sailing off South Africa - Yahoo! News

Yes.  That is a 40 TON WHALE jumping onto a boat.  (Not to be confused with pictures of me from my last sailing excursion.  I kid, I kid.)

All I can figure is that the whales in South Africa got wind of all the fame that those sharks were getting and this little guy decided to take matters into his own hands and win back some of the limelight.

One thing I know for sure: I will not be riding on ANY boats off the coast of South Africa anytime soon.  Because, honestly?  Sharks, Whales- it doesn’t matter to me.  I’m equal opportunity terrified.

Unrelated Doesn’t Mean Unimportant

I have so much to share with you all, and so few brain cells to string together a sentence.

1. Y’all I SERIOUSLY need a job.  Seriously.  The job hunt is an emotional rollercoaster that puts the rides over at Six Flags to shame.  I keep thinking to myself “you have a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in your field of study, surely the people should be beating down my door begging me to take their jobs.”  Then I think to myself: “you are so conceited… and that’s why you don’t have a job” (because, in my mind, potential employers can read my thoughts).  All I know for certain is that the summer’s bound to end sooner or later, thus ending my summer employment.  In other words: I’m a short month away from resorting to moving into my parents’ house and becoming a field hand on my Dad’s farm.  And let’s all face the facts- that’s not gonna end well.

2. I spent last weekend in Corpus Christi, Texas.  I have pictures that I’m sure I’ll post sometime before 2011 rolls in.  I went for the wedding of my dear college friend Mari.  In a weird twist of fate she married the brother (Frank) of one of my other dear college friend’s Brent.  Anyway, it was a gorgeous ceremony and wedding.  I think I may have even got half a photo of Mari’s face.  I’m not so great at taking pictures and since my camera seems to have a 9 second delay before it takes a photo I usually decide to forgo the embarrassment of whispering “wait, just wait, just hold it” in hushed tones out of the corner of my mouth to the person standing next to me.  Moral of the story?  Some pictures.  Not many.

3. As a result of my trip (see #2) my obsession with Shark Week has reached a premature fever pitch.  I’m telling you- I don’t quite know what the deal is with me and (as I like to call it) The Deep Blue, but I know I’m obsessed.

4. I watched Steel Magnolias tonight.  I bought it for $5 at Target yesterday and I’m willing to go out on a limb and say it’s the best darn $5 I’ve spent this month.  It gets me every time.

5. Is anyone else done with this 5,000 degree humidity we’re suffering in Texas?  I know I am.  I get so upset with the weather man when he says “The high today is 93, but with the heat index it’s gonna feel like 118 out there”.  Just say it’s gonna be a 118.  Don’t get my hopes up.

There you have it.  It makes no sense, but when have I ever made sense?

I Can’t Handle The Truth

I don’t know if you’ve ever spent a great deal of time around kids who aren’t yours, but the same thing seems to happen every time.  They start out sweet and kind and flattering… then they get confused.  The kids start to believe that you’re one of the family and so they believe it’s ok to abuse you and misuse you any way they want.  Since I baby sit the twins everyday and have for the past two summers, and since I’ve known them for three years they have begun to think of me as family.  Part of me loves that.  The other part of me is busy nursing my bruised leg (from when Omar thought I was a jungle gym and accidentally kicked me doing a somersault off my body) and ego.  And the hits to my ego have been especially hard lately.

To prove my case, here’s a little conversation we had today:

Iman said, “Ms. Crystal?  There’s something wrong with my eye!”

“Oh No!  We should have my friend Sarah look at it.  She’s a doctor.  An EYE doctor.”  I replied.

“Wow.  We should introduce her to my Mom and Dad” (their parents are both doctors).

I said, “That’s a good idea, we could introduce Sarah to your parents and we should introduce her husband Justin to them too, because he’s also a doctor.”

“How old is your friend, Ms. Crystal?  40?”

“No, Iman.  She’s my age.”

“Oh, I know why she’s a doctor and you’re not.” Iman said.

“You do?  Why?”

Iman said, “Because she’s smarter than you.  She’s your age and she’s already got a husband so she must be A LOT smarter than you are.”

And there you have it.  Not only am I not a doctor, I’m also not married.  And apparently, stupid.

I know she’s 7, and her reasoning may not be totally based in logic, but I’m not going to lie to you: part of me thinks she might be on to something.

I Came Just Shy Of Promising

So, remember yesterday, when I promised I had a big post planned for today?  That was absolutely NOT a lie.  However, I failed to mention that I’d have to finish that post yesterday and then I failed to remember that I am a lazy bum who had yesterday off and consequently forgot how to do anything that didn’t involve a “Real Housewives of New Jersey” marathon.  And then I failed to remember how to compose a sentence without running on for lines at a time.  What’s interesting is that even as I wrote yesterday’s post I nearly threw an “I Promise” in and then I thought-  “No.  You don’t promise, because that’s the most surefire way to fail.”  So, I didn’t promise, but I still sorta failed.

In order to tide you over between now and whenever I get around to finishing the post that I began on May 29th I’d just like to tell you all that I saw “Eclipse” tonight.  Finally.  And after viewing it all I could think about was how badly I wish I was 17 again.  Because maybe then I would feel less oogey about how extremely good looking I find Taylor Lautner.  And Robert Pattinson.  And basically every other underage werewolf or vampire in the movie.  But, unless I miraculously turn 17 again sometime soon I guess I’ll have to entertain myself with normal non-shape shifting men.  But, honestly, would a night out with a Cullen really be too much to ask? 

If I promise to avoid red meat on our date?

The First Post Of Many Where I Blame Everything On The Heat

So, I’ve been a bit out of the blog loop here lately.  I don’t really know how to explain it except to say, it’s been 1,000 degrees here and I’m homeless and I have nothing exciting to write about (unless you consider being homeless an exciting thing to blog about).  One week off quickly became two and then, here we are, three weeks later and I have fallen so far off the blogging band wagon that I can’t even see the wagon anymore.

I have a few posts “in production” that I never finished and I was starting to wonder if they would still be relevant and interesting all these weeks after I wrote them, but then I checked Katy’s blog and was deeply inspired.  She did a whopping 7 posts in one day and put me to shame.  So, get excited, because I’m sure you have all been wondering what precisely I was doing on May 29th and now you get to find out.

What do you think it is about the summer that makes blogging so hard?  I’m inclined to blame the 1,000 degree heat, but since the heat is my perpetual whipping boy this time of year, maybe it’s unkind to blame it for my procrastination too.  All I know is that I’m planning on spending the next two months in an ice bath and I’ll be sure to blog all about it.