the wall.

i've hit it. blogging-wise anyway. i have a lot of cool things that i could blog about, and every now and then i'll write an entire post in my head, but when it comes to actually sitting down and putting it out there - i don't. maybe it is because working all day every day really takes it out of me (i'm just not used to it yet) , maybe its because my computer is uber slow, maybe it is because my camera battery barely lasts long enough to take a days worth of pictures AND load them onto my compy before it dies, maybe it is because to be on my computer i have to sit in my drafty unfurnished second bedroom on the floor behind the door (my butt falls asleep every time), or maybe its a little bit of all of these things all at the same time, in varying distributions depending on the day.

i want to blog about:
-the weekend my roommates came to visit.
-the weekend my sister with the babies came to visit.
-the shoe house.
-being employee of the month.
-my christmas tree and lights and ornaments.
-my strawberries.
-the new additions to my little fam, Sophie and Gordon (my new car and the GPS).
-meeting up with old and new friends in Baltimore.
-being at the Ravens game last Sunday.
-family parties.
-christmas cookies.
-buying stamps from a post office ATM.
-the crazy tall, impossibly skinny lady i saw while buying stamps from said post office ATM. (imagine that Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle was a real person)
-the cute shirt i got for the office christmas party tomorrow.
-the crazy dream i had last night.
-waking up an hour after my alarm went off and still making it to work on time.
-how excited i am to be spending this weekend at Julies.
-how VERY excited i am that i will see my parents in less than a week!

some of these things are just so far past, i'm afraid that if i started trying to catch up, it would be the middle of the summer when i finally got around to telling you my charming story about how today i am dressed more like a high schooler working at a drug store than a successful college grad working at an engineering firm.

help me! i'm in a funk and i cant get out!

after all.

one day this summer, i called my mom in Wyoming for help finding the saran wrap aisle in the Ebensburg Walmart.

on Saturday morning, i called my sister in Slovakia to get the address of my Aunt in California.

...its a small, small, world...

you know its bad when...

you lose to the Browns.
I mean come on.
Seriously?

(sigh)

Lets Go Pens!

miscommunication.

Mark came to visit me last night, so i made him come with me to pick up my christmas tree. this is part of the conversation that was had in the car on the way there:

A: I love you.
M: (in response to the radio) What?!?
A: (not realizing he was talking to the radio) I said I love you.
M: (pause) whatever.

christmas shopping triumph.

I FOUND IT!!!

(cue epic triumphant music)

*fist pump**happy dance**victory lap*

*acknowledge applause*

*go back to work*

hitting 100 before the holiday.

91. my parents.
92. fake fridays.
93. chinese buffets.
94. family to spend the holiday with.
95. laughter.
96. four day weekends.
97. joyful anticipation of great things.
98. new orange cars!
99. having an address.
100. Gretchen.

danke shane!

81. three day weeks.
82. the tomb is empty!
83. celebrating easter in november. (why not every day?)
84. colored goldfish.
85. new black heels.
86. Jesus loves me.
87. not being a part of the accident three cars ahead of me.
88. hoodies.
89. the perfect cup of coffee in the morning.
90. family that blogs :)

life is full of sweet surprises.

71. free lunch. (there IS such a thing!)
72. chipotle.
73. eating outside in the sunshine.
74. college roommates.
75. jello.
76. tie-dye.
77. curtains.
78. irons and ironing boards.
79. power tools.
80. relaxing fun weekends to forget about a stressful week.

thanks again.

61. mail in my mailbox.
62. no bills in my mailbox.
63. $100 in my mailbox.
64. online shopping.
65. a washer and a dryer in my apartment.
66. quesadillas.
67. fuzzy socks.
68. digital cameras.
69. email.
70. new kitchen accessories.

i am thankful for...

51. aquariums on rainy days.
52. the fact that i live far enough away from any walrus that could sit on me and kill me.
53. a niece that is a beautiful lady.
54. a nephew that is her handsome fella.
55. air mattresses.
56. terminal 8.
57. headlights.
58. bread bowls.
59. my own bed.
60. alarm clocks.

whoah! i'm halfway there...

41. first Sundays in a new building.
42. handicapped parking spaces.
43. running into old friends.
44. birthdays.
45. new car shopping.
46. not eating lunch alone.
47. comfy pajamas.
48. weekends.
49. new makeup.
50. love.

i'm glad for what i have.

31. nice cashiers in walmart.
32. finding my wallet.
33. finding my keys.
34. naps.
35. lasagna.
36. the ability to laugh at embarassing and stressful moments.
37. friends to laugh with.
38. neighbors.
39. cell phones.
40. hot chocolate on rainy mornings.

not so easy.

ok so i'm not gonna lie - i thought it would be fairly simple to get to 100 things that i'm thankful for in a month. thats only 10 posts of 10 things. i've posted more than that in a month. no biggie. right? wrong.
these past two days i've been finding it way easier to find things that i'm NOT thankful for (like backed up traffic, people who can't merge, frost on my car in the morning, being alone every night with no one to talk to, the world series bumping my wednesday night show for two weeks, forgetting my earrings, phone AND vitamin today...shall i continue? ) than it is to find things i am thankful for. a couple of times, i was able to look past my initial annoyance and see something good (backed up traffic led to me being thankful for well marked detours) but for the life of me i cant come up with anything good about people who come to a COMPLETE STOP on the on-ramp.
this is the best i can do today.

21. my Dad - who has loved me through everything and continues to do so.
22. my Mom - who managed to be a mom who commanded my respect when i was little but also turned into a friend as i grew up.
23. my Sister - who calls me pretty much every day to make sure I haven't choked and died.
24. having family on the West coast to call and cry to when its too late to call anyone on the East coast.
25. defrosters.
26. free coffee.
27. Robin and Dawn (my buns and abs of steel ladies)
28. leftover spaghetti.
29. treadmills.
30. Eye of the Tiger on my iPod.

...is a happy heart.

11. a car that runs with surprising regularity and reliability.
12. well marked detours when the highway is backed up.
13. sunshine in the morning.
14. fog.
15. warm apple cider.
16. a blanket and a good book on a fall evening.
17. a tv to watch my favorite shows.
18. macaroni and cheese.
19. hi-liters.
20. menthol cough drops.

because a thankful heart...

So every year for the past few years, my mom has spent the month of November making a list of things that she is thankful for. it seemed like a good idea to me, cuz i have a lot to be thankful for, so i'm gonna try it out this year.

1. jobs with benefits.
2. an apartment of my own.
3. flu shots.
4. Aunt Sara's taco dip.
5. boyfriends who think that being able to make said taco dip makes me an amazing cook :)
6. pumpkin patches and corn mazes on halloween.
7. a table with chairs to carve pumpkins at.
8. friends to carve pumpkins with.
9. 'Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.'
10. getting up at the right time when daylight savings time ends.

actually, it was a sneaker.

there is a new guy at work. well, i guess he's been here for a few weeks now but thats besides the point because since i've been here longer so i can call him the new guy :)

anyway - the only reason i mention him is that (to add to my list of famous people that my coworkers remind me of) he could have been the voice of Froggy from the Little Rascals.

i'm not even kidding. he sits at the cubicle on the other side of the divider from me in the structures department, and every time he asks Tim a question, i have to stifle my giggles. he kind of looks like Froggy too. it kind of creeps me out. i think i liked it better when Allison sat there.

sprouted.

i am growing strawberries. or at least i am attempting to. there are those that tell me its too late in the season to actually grow them. i of course am choosing to ignore them and press on in my own little world. they live in a cute little pot on my windowsill. i water them every day to keep the soil moist cuz thats what the distructions told me to do. i took this picture on the first day that a tiny little spot of green pushed its way up out of the dirt. (its kind of hard to spot, but trust me its there)
over the weekend, another sprout came up to keep the first company. it makes me feel a little more accomplished and domestic, especially on the days when i can only muster up enough energy to put a couple frozen waffles in my toaster and call it dinner.

seriously?

i glanced at the office phone list today. i do this often, just to see which people i know. today, i saw a new name.

April Showers.

no lie. who does that?

a long post about a table.

one of the last things on my list of "essential items that i need for my apartment" (right under toilet paper and a mini baby pumpkin) was a table and chairs. i could get the ones i wanted from walmart.com, which made them the least amount of hassle to obtain. so i lived for the first few weeks in my apartment eating on the floor in front of my couch using magazines as coasters. it was working pretty well for me, but i figured that if i ever wanted to invite anyone over to see my apartment they might not appreciate the japanese style dining.
so i ordered them. and i waited. and just when i thought i might bust from waiting, i got an email saying they had made it to the store (free shipping site-to-store!) and i could come pick them up anytime.
i spent a good deal of time talking myself in and out of going to pick them up by myself. it was sure to be a heavy, awkwardly large box that would be easier to handle with a friend. but all my friends were far away and unable to come for the evening. so i figured that i am a single woman living on my own and a very capable one at that. i went to walmart.
the nice man put my table on a dolly and helped me to my car with it. it was an interesting battle to finangle the 3x4 foot box into the cavalier whose trunk wont open, but we managed to make it work:




it wasnt until i made it back to my apartment that i fully realized exactly what i had gotten myself into. here i am, a 5' 2.5" tall, 120 pound woman living in a second floor apartment, with a 3x4 foot 101 pound box to heft out of my car and up a flight of steps. this was starting to seem like a not-so-good idea. but i had a point to prove - i am a capable, industrious, strong single woman - so (after quickly glancing around the parking lot in hopes of seeing a strong man who might be willing to help me) i hefted the monster box out of gretchen and across the short distance to my door. after it took a decent amount of effort just to get the box far enough inside so i could shut the door, my hopes of actually having a table and chairs in my apartment began to waver a little. i ended up flipping the box end over end in order to make slow progress up the stairs. even as i type that, it seems a lot easier said than done. there were a few moments in which my own mortality seemed very real, and one particular moment that i remember thinking that if i were to fall and be crumpled in a heap-o-mando at the bottom of the stairs and allowed this bigger-than-me box to land on top of me, there would be no one to worry about me and no way of anyone knowing that anything was wrong. and even if someone were to come to my rescue, they wouldnt even be able to get in to help me because the door wouldnt open because i and the table in a box would be smushed against it.
at one point, when i was mere inches away from the top of the stairs, i was certain that i was going to just have to let go - i was in pain all over, i was overheating in my hoodie and i couldnt even take a break to take it off, i couldnt budge the box another inch, and my grip on the railing was slipping. i was really hoping for a movie moment where a big strong guy would just ring my doorbell and come to my rescue, but no one came. i have no idea how i got that box up onto the landing, but i did. and it sat there in the middle of my living room. i was too tired and sore to even lift my camera to take a picture of it sitting there. the appropriateness of the sight that greeted me at the top of the stairs - a message of survival and encouragement - was not lost on me :)
the next night (after i had spent the majority of the day popping ibuprofen and recovered a little) i decided to put the thing together. the first chair (out of four) took me an hour to put together. i got better as i went, and had the last chair together in 20 minutes. i was all done in time to watch Glee at nine. i was so proud of myself. theyre so pretty :)i have most recently accesorized them with uber-on-sale placemats in the most gorgeous shade of sage-y green that match my scheme perfectly and look gorgeous against the dark brown fake wood.
come visit anytime. me and my table are ready for you :)

virtual memory.

i have discovered that both i and my laptop are low on virtual memory. my laptop can not hold any more pictures until i delete some of the ones on there. similarly, i cannot remember something new unless i forget something else.

i remembered to buy vitamins.

(just in case i'm not eating quite right all the time)
i forgot to buy the masking tape i needed.
i remembered (on the first day) to take a vitamin.
i forgot to put in my earrings that day.
i remembered my earrings the next day.
i forgot to take my vitamin. (this became a pattern for a while)
i remembered to take my vitamin yesterday.
i forgot my phone at home yesterday.
i remembered my phone today.
i forgot my vitamin today.

you would think that virtual memory wouldnt really matter as much as real memory: since virtual reality isnt really real, is there even any such thing as virtual memory? maybe that is why its so hard to keep enough of - theres just none out there. its all a figment of our imaginations. but if thats the case, then why do i still have no space on my compy?

sprinkles.

it is raining outside today. the kind of rain that Mr. P would deny as being rain, with his infamous line, 'its not raining til i say its raining!' i guess that would define it as a sprinkle.
Barry (the office manager) brought donuts today. Rose (the most amazing secretary) sent everyone an email to let us know they were in the lunch room. i told myself i didnt want one, didnt need one, reminded myself that i hadnt eaten a donut in years, and vowed to stay out of the lunch room, just in case. i finished my coffee, and had to clean out my mug. i went into the lunch room. i got a donut. cuz it had sprinkles on it. good fall colored sprinkles. they are my downfall, regardless of color.
it is delicious :)

burning ducks.

i just reread my last post. i really dont understand why, but it makes me laugh. out loud. every time.

hitchhikers.

" 'Hey! Do you know any jokes?' I asked him.

He pondered a minute. 'I do know a pretty good joke. Okay: Why do ducks have flat feet, Zippy?'

'Why?'

'To stamp out forest fires.'

I gasped, then nearly fell over laughing. It was the funniest joke I'd EVER heard, and I'd been collecting jokes for a while.

'No wait! There's more. Why do elephants have flat feet?'

I couldn't speak, so Mom asked why.

'To stamp out burning ducks.'

I just collapsed face-first into my coloring book I rolled around in a little ball until tears were running down my face.

George made a sound like a fire truck. 'Emergency! We've got a burning duck down over here!'

Even Dad had to laugh. 'George, you're gonna kill her.'

I finally stretched out on my back and begged for mercy. Hitchhikers. Good Lord. "

-She Got Up Off the Couch

design on a dime.

looking for a cheap and easy way to make your rental place look more like home? try adding more pictures. personal ones. it is a great Sunday-afternoon-football-watching activity, and will just make you feel better than having a frame on your wall full of black and white shots of picture frame people. somehow their smiles just seem less real and bring less joy than those of people that you love. i printed 82 pictures. i filled three frames. i had a ton left over.
think you're too cool for picture frames? hoping to have a more modern feel to your place? then what you need is office supplies. lots of them. and i'm not just saying that because i have a strange obsession with them: its true.
with just six command hooks, twenty-one binder clips, two paper clips bent into a heart shape (just cuz i ran out of binder clips! *asthmatic gasp!*), and a roll of green ribbon, i was able to create three separate areas of personality.
its very chic, very modern, and very inexpensive - especially since i already had everything that i needed :) printing the pictures was the biggest cost and the biggest hassle... everything else either came out of the trash can that currently holds my desk stuff (until i actually get a desk) and my jolly green box o' craft stuff (p.s. i made my bed just to take this picture)
i need more binder clips. because you can never have too many, and you just never know when they will come in uber handy :)

hearing impaired.

i've been having trouble with my ears lately. yesterday, i woke up with a killer ache in my left ear. it has since subsided significantly. (how bout that alliteration?) last night, i discovered that the piercing in my right ear is slightly infected, so it hurts a lil every now and then. on top of that, when i sit at my desk with my headphones in, i can only hear about half of what anyone says to me. so when Joan came over this morning, i could have sworn she said to me, "how are you doin, little person?" i looked at her incredulously because she is in fact shorter than me, until she repeated herself. turns out she just wanted to know who the precious baby on my background was. my bad.

little boxes.

on a hillside...

i got several boxes today. they were not made out of ticky tacky and they were not all the same. every box was different, and each contained exciting things. some were small boxes. some were larger. some came with a box inside of another box. (and when it arrived, i smashed it with a hammer!) just kidding.
the smallest of my boxes came to me at work today. it had my new business cards. they have my name on them with E.I.T. after it, and my new work email, and my work phone number too so now i dont really have to learn it, i can just give my card to people who want to call me at work :) im not sure just who that would be, but hey, its an option.


my other box was waiting for me on my doorstep when i got home. it was spray painted orange and yellow on the outside which made me think it might be from my great-aunt Vi, sending me messages and presents from the grave. but even better, it was from my Momma :) and it was full of great things. it had my supersoft pink bunny, a roaster, two metal bowls, four retractable ultra fine sharpies, an eyeliner, and my card that says i am a member of the national wild turkey federation :)



a box within that box held the (finally!) final product of my high school senior project - a professionally bound copy of La Casa que Juan Construyo, illustrated by me :) one copy for me, and a copy for my Spanish teacher. better late than never, right?
and another box inside the box held my very own little george foreman grill! gotta love yardsales :)

i dont think a girl could ask for a better monday :)

cubicle buddy.

today, i met my cubicle buddy. his name is Paul. i have worked here for almost two full weeks now, and this is the first day that he has been into the office. (apparently he works a lot in one of the Maryland offices.) i kind of wanted to take a picture of him just to prove that he does indeed exist.
unfortunately, i left my camera at home after having it out last night to take a picture of the aliens that were inhabiting the pipe in my utility room. so this is the best i can do:
he reminds me of Eric from That 70's Show. except he's better dressed. he has plants in his cubicle. they're half dead. i feel kind of bad for them, but hey theyre not my plants and i might not be able to keep them alive any better. but his cubicle does have a lot more flair than mine. maybe i'll get a goldfish...




**update: my cubicle buddy did not come back after lunch. im not sure that im entirely convinced he works in two places at once... maybe he is just very sneaky about making it SEEM like he's in two places at once when really he is home napping. maybe that will be my next project to figure out how to make that work for me... or maybe ill stick with the goldfish.

life doesn't get much better.

just enough internets today to find out where the lint trap is on my dryer so i am no longer afraid of setting the apartment on fire by doing laundry. wish i had enough internets to watch mondays episode of greek.
also, there is a pipe in my utility room that is glowing orange. (instead of being worried, i took a picture of it) its not hot, so i figure there must be aliens living inside. and, i got my appointment with comcast moved up to next tuesday so i wont have to wait til the fifteenth for better internets. AND i turned in my first timesheet today :) and i only have to dress up one more day this week before wear-jeans-and-go-out-to-lunch friday :)
pierogies and strawberries for dinner. a good day.

itty bitty internets

i called comcast today to set up my internet and cable. after quite the runaround, i still do not have my own setup. i have discovered however, that there are a few connections in my area that are not security enabled, which means that i can pick up on their itty bitty bit of internets and let you all know that i am still here, still doing well, and i got a mattress today to go on my bed! i do not want to risk my precarious connection by trying to post pictures, but just know that i have them, and as soon as comcast gets their act together, they will be here for your enjoyment!

work and lunch.

i decided to eat lunch today at my desk, just because some people do that and i figure i should try it out to see if i liked it.
i didnt.

my first job.

This is me on my first day of my first job. I got up early in the morning, made myself beautiful and professional, put on my best smile, and steeled myself for a bumpy ride. I got in the car, and 45 minutes, a couple angry drivers, and only one wrong turn later, i made it to the office.

I have my own desk. and a phone with my own personal extension, and a key card to get into the building and a new email address. and this is the best part: i have two monitors.

its SO cool they work separately and together at the same time i can move my mouse from one to the other and drag stuff across the screens. i am so easily amused :) other than that theres not a whole lot of flair in my cubicle just yet. I have a Steelers mousepad from a boy who loves me, and a little desktop organizer that Rose the secretary found for me.
it sits by my phone and looks very officey. Overall, i have a very nice space at my new job. i even get my own name plate and my name is spelled right. these cubicle nametags come in handy when i forget peoples names which happens fairly often. it is only my second day after all.


i think i'll go back tomorrow.

here we go.

this is gonna be just real quick cuz im supposed to be getting ready to go to my first day of work. this is big. and exciting. and terrifying. i mean really, what if i dont live up to these guys' expectations? what if im a huge letdown? after all, theyve never even seen me before. but just in case, im saving my pink shirts and cute shoes until im a little more established. i dont wanna be seen as the Elle Woods of the office. but i would settle for being the gorgeous new smart-as-heck girl. hope they dont mind my new title :)

my new place.

want to hear a story about how good my God is at working stuff out? good cuz ive got one.
so on monday i went and looked at three different apartment complexes. there was one that i was leaning towards from the beginning, but i figured i should give them all a fair chance. I liked all three of them pretty well, and thought it would be pretty difficult to decide between them all. three pro/con lists later, i decided on the one that was the best deal overall, which was incidentally the one i liked the best from the beginning.
on tuesday i got a call, saying that the unit that i had been looking at in the complex that was my favorite had been taken the day before. that was the bad news. the good news was that there was still another unit available, and a new special from the leasing manager which was $100 less a month than the previous special. i filled out my application immediately.
this morning i got up early and was the first person at the leasing office. i turned in my application, got approved, and got to look at my new place: a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath upstairs apartment on the end of the row. it has all new carpet and paint, a cute little balcony area, and a nice old man downstairs. i am SO EXCITED!!!
all i need now is all my designer buddies to sweep in, design my space, buy all my furniture, and have it all perfect and ready for me to move into next weekend :)

back in good ole PA.

I MADE IT! Gretchen and myself rolled into e-town around six thirty last night. I got settled into the basement, went on a walk with Aunt, Uncle, Peanut, and Millie, and mentally prepared myself for today before crashing gratefully into bed.
Today i get to go apartment hunting :) this is exciting and terrifying all at the same time. i am really excited because my boy is driving up so i dont have to go it alone, and excited about maybe finding a place that i can call my own for a year or so, excited to FINALLY have a chance to really unpack my car, excited to get to use the GPS, and terrified of it all going horribly wrong. so i guess i am way more excited than terrified, which is a good thing - nay, a GREAT thing :)
GOD IS GOOD

for my devoted fans.

i am in Chicago. well technically, i am in a suburb of chicago, but its close enough for me. traveling has been going rather uneventfully - i have been trying to take pictures of the Welcome signs at each new state i get to, but Iowa messed me up. i'm still not sure where South Dakota ended and Iowa started. way to not have a sign. dont worry, i have wyoming, south dakota, and illinois. tomorrow i plan on getting indiana, ohio, and pennsylvania.

last night i watched 3/4 of the steelers game, and was informed this morning that they indeed won, just like i knew they would :)

and in case you were wondering: putting pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, walnuts, and feta cheese on a salad with chicken and a poppyseed dressing is in fact a GREAT idea. mmmm so good....

and YesMan is a good movie. in my opinion at least.

traveling is great fun when you have friends along the way to visit with :)

overwhelming.

it has been two weeks. Mark has come to Wyoming, seen the sights, and made it safely back to the East Coast. we accomplished almost everything on his list of things to do while on his great Wyoming adventure, and even added a few things to the list just to cross them off :) i have an overwhelming amount of pictures, and i dont even know that any of them do any justice to the amazingness of our time out west. as one of my favorite dinosaurs once said, "it's been a memorable two weeks indeed!"

now that Mark is gone i have to start thinking about some really important things: like how i am going to move BACK across the country, if i am really taking ALL of my stuff with me, where i will live when i get there, how to open a new bank account, when i will be able to afford my kayak, and where will i fly fish out east? if i let my brain get the best of me, i feel like curling up in a ball and having myself a good cry.

the encouraging thing is to know that no matter how overwhelmed i might feel, my God is always at least one step ahead of me, preparing the way and making sure that my head always stays above the water. i thought that i would never get a job: i had three companies call me within an hour. i thought that it would be impossible to decide between WY and PA: WY didnt have a position for me. now, i have a job doing exactly what i want to do, close to family and friends. if God can work all that out, why would i not trust Him completely with the details of this move?

the truly overwhelming thing in my life is the amount of love all around me, coming at me from all angles. I am loved by my God, my parents and family, Mark, my friends, and my church family. always and forever, they stand by me, pray for me, and just love me regardless of the circumstances and it blows me away. being overwhelmed never felt so great :)

space issues.

I am running very low on virtual memory on Local Disc (C:)

this means that all the pictures i have taken: of devils kitchen, and the church picnic, and the rodeo, and thermopolis, and yellowstone and every other fun thing that i have done since i got to WY... are stuck on my camera. my poor little computer does not have enough space to handle them all. i have started contemplating secretly uploading my pictures onto alexs computer. mark says i have issues. he leaves on monday. maybe by then my compy will have caught up with itself and finally opened the Disk Cleanup feature i clicked on an hour ago...

interesting and different.

There are just some things...


...big things like a friend's new apartment, or a wedding, or the world's biggest truck stop;



...interesting things like windmills, an 80 ft tall dinosaur, and an elephant slide on the side of the highway;



...unique things like happy water towers or gas stations like you thought only existed in movies;



...or epic things like important historic figures carved into a granite mountainside...



that you just have to be willing to travel to see.

not so different.

Indiana was rainy. it was also flat and full of corn fields.


Illinois had great clouds. it was also flat and full of cornfields.

Iowa took forever to drive across. it was also flat and full of cornfields.

South Dakota had a few mountains. but it also had areas that were flat and full of cornfields.

Wyoming also had great clouds and was flat where there were no mountains and i think i even saw a cornfield or two.

And here i though there would be a lot of interesting and different things to see on my drive across the country...

grand opening.

even though i hadnt made it to wyoming yet, i opened the trunk of my car to see if there would be any way that i could make more stuff fit. there wasn't. surprisingly though, the only thing that i had to leave behind was the french horn (which never really belonged to me in the first place). the rest of my stuff PLUS a duffel bag of marks stuff (and mark too!) fit into Gretchen with no real problem. the only question left was whether or not Gretchen would make it...

loaded.

Gram: "Well girl, you're loaded."
Me: "Yeah, I just wish it were in the monetary sense of the word."

spiritual gifts.

a couple of weeks ago i visited a new church. lakeside community church of the nazarene. they were very nice people. their pastor was not there that week, so they watched a video by Louie Giglio. i like him too. they made me feel very welcome there, and invited me to come back. they even bribed me a little with an awesome gift bag.
unfortunately, i wont be going back because i am leaving E-burg on thursday evening to go to Maryland where i will pick up my boyfriend and head out on an almost-spontaneous road trip to Wyoming. i'm planning on staying there, and he will catch a plane back home after a few weeks. he has yet to buy his ticket. i think he is giving himself a safety net in case for some reason or another he decides to leave earlier than he originally planned. i think that he should commit to something - either buy the ticket and stay the full two weeks, or just dont buy a ticket at all and stay indefinately. but thats just me.

no thank you.

you know you've hit an all-time low when CareerBuilder starts suggesting that you would be qualified to be a Shift Manager at McDonalds.

it is raining.

^ that is the story of my summer. it is cold and rainy. this is not the summer i ordered. (i would take a pic, but its too sad)

on a brighter note, i leave for Maryland this afternoon :) then i'm going to a wedding in harrisburg on saturday that i almost forgot about (how bad would it have been if i showed up with no wedding attire!) and the plan for the rest of the week is kind of up in the air. originally we were going to the beach. and then we found out that it is going to rain every day i am there. (except for saturday, when we'll be at the wedding) but i am not complaining (surprise, surprise) because it has been three weeks since i last saw my boy and i miss him greatly and i am very excited to see him.

what i will complain about is that i still dont have plans for my wyoming trip and i have not seen my family in almost three months and i miss them atonandahalfandthensome and i have to call wyoming to see if they are going to give me a job and i am still waiting to hear back from the interview i had in pittsburgh yesterday and i dont think that i can wait til the end of september to visit at the same time as my sister and i would really like someone to just make all of these decisions for me!

things i would like to have today:
1. a decision-maker
2. a job that pays
3. a teleporter
4. sunshine

well, there's always tomorrow for dreams to come true...

i love mahaffey.

Mahaffey Camp Song 2009
(the talent show has gone digital)

the milkshakes. (and waiting in line for four or five hours for them)
the interns.
the golf carts. (the most reliable form of transportation)
the sports tournaments. (that got rained out)
the mud.
the speaker in the youth tab.
the old people. (they've been here since 1894 too.. and the reason the dining hall exists)
the maintenance men.

but seriously. the milkshakes.

I havent missed a year of Mahaffey Camp since I was 2. Even if i only ever made it up for a couple days, (or just a day the past two years) I made sure I got there. There is photographic evidence of this (for most years at least). Let me tell you, it wasnt about the pristine accomodations, or the amazing food, the great t-shirts at the craft store, the cool buzzing bees from the bookstore, or the giant beach ball at game time, or even those wicked cool crafts in the afternoon. and while i looked forward very much to the sno-cones after craft time (and those bees were the bomb), the main reason i went and kept going back was because of who showed up. My family was there. my friends were there. (the ones who you grow up with and even though you only see them once or twice a year you still consider them among your best friends)
and God shows up at Mahaffey Camp. without fail.
"For where two or three (or a couple hundred) come together in my name, there am I with them" Matt 18:20

(AND the milkshakes! It has been said that you can't go to Heaven until you have been to Mahaffey Camp. and you can't say that you have been to Mahaffey Camp until you've had a milkshake. i think i'm pretty well covered)

i need to vent.

**DISCLAIMER** i have to preface this post by saying that i love my grandparents very much and i really appreciate them letting me live in their house for the past 6 weeks.

Top Ten Things my Grandma has said to/about me:

1. "I just dont understand how you can wear THAT many clothes!"

2. "...and i dont know what she needs so many goddam shoes for..." "she just has a god-awful amount of shoes!" "she has a GIANT tub of SHOES!" (i dont even)

3. Uncle M: "are you still living out of your car? wont gram let you move anything in?"
Gram: "she has enough stuff up in that room already." (three duffel bags of clothes, a backpack, a computer bag, and of course ALL my shoes.)

4. "i know your mother made you kids do your own laundry. i never made my kids do that."

5. "i know i dont get upstairs very often, but could you keep your room a little neater? ...i know thats how you keep your room at your house - but this is not your house." (i dont know what she was talking about... the piles of clothes are clean. and check out how much of the carpet you can see!)

6. "why do you wear your pants so long? theyre such a mess at the bottom. you are a professional now. let me hem your jeans." (my WORK jeans that i've been wearing for the past two years on the road crew)

7. "every time i see you you're wearing a different shirt!" (i was wearing the same t-shirt that i had been wearing to work all week)

8. "i raised seven kids in this house and i NEVER... (insert whatever i (or anyone else for that matter) am doing)"

9. "if i can find a place to put those hats, you can have those two little drawers in that dresser thing in your room." (emphasis on the word little. she had ten hats, she's one crazy mother... six in one drawer and four in the other!)

10. "you are just so independent - but i guess you HAVE to be since your mom and dad moved way out there." (i love you mom and dad. get my room ready cuz im sure if gram hears about this post she'll kick me out)

PS: Aunt Danielle if you could NOT mention this blogpost to Gram i'd really appreciate it cuz she might really kick me out...

opinions please.

so my best friend Julie told me a story the other day about a lady she works with. apparantly this lady and her best friend, to celebrate turning 40, went out and got matching tattoos so that the nice guys that come to take them away will know not to separate them in the nursing home. Julie thought that sounded like a great idea, but why wait til we're 40? 22 seems like as good a time as any to get matching tattoos with your best friend. so we decided that to celebrate when we both get jobs with benefits and whatnot, we will get our matching tattoos.
we're thinking that our ankles or feet are our best bet for a lasting tattoo that wont stretch out funny over time. so since Julie signed a contract yesterday with a school in Maryland, i figured that i should start planning so we have time to really get attached to a design before it gets attached to us. ive been workin on this all afternoon. heres what ive got:

the first one is my favorite. it says "changed for good" in cursive in between two aquamarine stars for our birthstones. and cuz the star is apparantly a symbol of protection against evil, femininity, and mathematical perfection :)
the other star designs are pretty self explanatory, just variations on a theme.
the loopy one is some sort of symbol of friendship. i drew it upside down on my own ankle. it would look way cooler in real life.



any opinions that you may have will be greatly appreciated and taken into consideration. the amount of time that we have to decide on a design is kind of up in the air, since i dont have a job yet. (keep praying about that too.) but if you could let me know sooner than later, then i can start trying to wash off the ones we dont want :)