Confabulate

Two things I've learned in the past week: number one, confabulate is another word for "discuss," and two, I like plums.

So life has been good to me lately. My work days have been going by quickly and nicely and I have a lot to look forward to. Let me back up to last weekend. Alex G. and I went to the Biltmore Estate...first time ever...and it was incredible. It took us about an hour and a half to walk around one of the multiple gardens and another hour and a half to walk around the 4-story house. They were setting up for 7 weddings that night. Crazy.

OH! And there was a nun with a pink cowgirl hat!!!

After that, we drove to the winery, but skipped out before the wine tasting because there was a long line and we had to get back to meet my parents for dinner. We met them at McAlister's and the conversation was quite entertaining. The only down side to the day was that I wore some new shoes that I had yet to buy heel gel things for, so there were blisters on the back of my feet and I started walking funny.

The next day (last Sunday), I went to Symphony in the Park with some friends. There's a free symphony concert by Southpark Mall on Sundays during the summer. We got rained out, but it was still fun. I got to use an orange peeler for the first time ever. Sara went with me the week before and it was also a LOT of fun. We rolled up to the Taco Bell drive-thru around midnight last time and all the lights were off. We were bummed because it's supposed to be open til 2 a.m. Chris said he bet it was still open so he drove up to the intercom thing. The lady working the drive-thru said hello and the rest of us gasped. There was someone there!

Oh, I got a couple of my grades back from last semester. I got through Aquinas with a B! I came out with an A in New Testament survey, but I'm still waiting for my other class. The summer class on contemporary cults went well, too. It's my favorite so far.

By the way, the professor went on a tangent one day and let us in on a little secret to quit smoking. He said he used to have long hair and smoke in high school and one day, he and his friends were standing around outside when some girls walked by. There was ice on the ground because it was winter and when the professor took a step forward to talk to one of the girls, he slipped and fell to the ground. The cigarette burned the back of his throat and he swallowed it. He said he had some really weird indigestion for about a week and never smoked another cigarette.

OK, ready for some REALLY exciting news now?...I bought a yoga ball!!! Yay, I'm excited. I wish it was a pretty color instead of gray, but oh well.

So next weekend, I'm going home for the 4th of July. That should make for some good pictures on here. The weekend after that, I'm off to Wilmington with the girls! We're trying to convince Sara that she needs to come. She said she'll be tired becuase she'll be at camp with people from work all week, but we told her she doesn't have a choice; she has to come.

P.S. Thought of the day: Why do oatmeal raisin granola bars have "oatmeal" in the title? It's a granola bar, so of course it has oatmeal, and none of the other flavors have "oatmeal" in the title...chocolate chip, peanut butter, etc....So why can't it just be called raisin?

The 10 Month Itch

It's been almost a year since I came back from Australia. I came back July 6 I think. For probably a month after, it was great to be home and see friends and family, have a car and make money again. But for the past I don't know how many months, I've been having withdrawals. Not just from Australia, but traveling altogether.

Before I went, I was getting really restless, ready to get away from work for awhile and distance myself from drama on the home front. I wanted to see something new, meet new people and ride down a different road. I did all that and for awhile I thought I was "cured," that I was content again and had, in a sense, "gotten it out of my system."

But now I just want to travel even more. I've said this to Pete a lot lately, but it's true. I can't stop thinking about what I'm missing. What's going on in such-and-such place while I'm eating breakfast? While I'm at work?

When I look out my bedroom window, I see another apartment building and some trees. And I'm sure while I'm looking out the window, someone somewhere else is doing the same, but what is that view like? Of course, if I was anywhere else, I'd still be missing whatever is going on here.

It's not that I'm dissatisfied with my life here; I like my job, especially doing something different every day, and it's nice to be close to friends. I missed having someone familiar to talk to while I was gone and I missed a lot of little things...like recognizing brands at the grocery store or knowing where I was going. I don't want to make it sound like I'm unhappy; I'm just restless again and it's a little frustrating.

It's frustrating because I feel like I should be content where I'm at. I have a good life and I can't complain. It's also frustrating to tell friends that I want to travel more and hear that it's not practical. Geez, kill the mood in five syllables or less why don't ya. "It's expensive to travel." "When are you going to take off work?" "Yeah, I want to travel too, but it's not gonna happen."

One of my favorite quotes is "remember that at any given moment, someone would love to be in your shoes." (I made it up!) I tell people that a lot and it's certainly true. I can't forget that I have it good here and that I have to be somewhere, right? So why does this traveling thing constantly nag at me?

Sometimes I'll go through pictures from Australia or see some of the people I met there on Facebook and my heart sinks a little. There were things I didn't enjoy while I was there and people that I don't miss, but overall, it was exciting, a breath of fresh air.

Right now, I have a calendar of Ireland and I catch myself staring at it all the time. I want to go there, I think, and I make a mini itinerary in my head.

At the same time, while I was abroad, I realized that it's not nearly as fun to travel without someone. When I say I want to travel, I don't mean by myself. If I had my way, I'd take my family one place, my friends another and so on. It means a lot more when there's someone to share it with. In fact, there was a guy in one of my classes a couple years ago who modeled. He'd been all over the place and posed the question, If you had one year to live, would you spend it with your family or traveling around the world? He said he loved going to all the different places, but it just wasn't the same without someone to share it with.

As much as I want to go everywhere, it wouldn't be very fun by myself. There wouldn't be anyone to laugh with, get lost with or pose for pictures with.

Maybe if I traveled some more, I would find that it's not as great as I thought it would be. It could be like the straight/curly thing. If you're born with straight hair, you'll always want curly hair and vice versa. (I'm just now coming to terms with my own and that took 22 years). Say I got the opportunity to travel with whatever job I have, and then determine that I'd rather be at home...But I have to know.

I want to see all the states and I want to go abroad again. What I don't want to do is let a busy work schedule or money overrule my desire to do those things. I hate hearing people share something they've always wanted to do, but have never acted on.

Now, I guess I should clarify something. I don't want to live out of a suitcase, either. I just want to take some trips here and there and remind myself that there is life outside of Charlotte (or wherever I am at the time). There's too much world to only see a small portion of it.

At work, we have to type up birthday, funeral and wedding announcements. I've typed up several now and it's amazing how many people seem to stay in the same small town their whole lives. "So-and-so got married to so-and-so Saturday. Her parents are from Unionville and his parents are from Unionville. In fact, their grandparents are from there, too. After a honeymoon five miles outside town, the couple will reside in Unionville."

And that's great if that makes them happy. Personally, I think I'd feel claustrophobic.

There are a lot of people who do what they love regardless of how impractical it may seem. I tell myself that if it's God's will that I travel, I will travel. There will be a way. Maybe I'll travel a lot all at once, maybe I'll travel for work or maybe I'll just get to plan a lot of vacations, but I suppose we'll find out. I guess I just hope that sometimes God values passion over practicality.

Hot Like Wasabi

It is so freaking hot. Inside, outside, in my car...hot hot hot. Sara came home yesterday with an oscillating fan. She said her parents have a fan I could use, but I'm not sure where I would put it. And I don't think our air conditioner works very well. It's on, but you can't feel it. Maybe it's faith-based...

Today I've had the day off. I love my days off. I still got up early because Deb and I had plans to go to the pool, but she was passed out and didn't hear her phone, so I caught up on e-mails, listened to music (Beach Boys anyone?) and finished watching Mulan.

Maybe I should explain the last one. Sara has had a rough week, so last night I said we should watch a movie. She said nothing about love...which drastically limited our selection because I can be a sucker for the sappy stuff and she's a hopeless romantic...and has a lot of Disney movies, which, of course, all end with princes and princesses smooching in front of a sunset.

So we settled for Mulan, although it still ends with the military guy falling for her, but anyway...We didn't get very far until Sara took a phone call, then I took a phone call and before I knew it, it was 1:30, so I finished it today. I've found that it's difficult for me to start a movie and not finish it. I always hated when we didn't finish movies in history class.

Then I went to visit Sara at work and to see Amanda. We had plans to go to the park with her dog, but like I said, it's too hot, so we stayed in and had a chat. We talked about how Oscar (the dog) likes to eat flip-flops, her boss who doesn't do anything, how Monroe just got a Starbucks, summer vacations, fitting in with married couples, spelling bees, the hampster named Jim and stealing things.

The last thing has come up several times recently and everyone seems shocked that I stole things in first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Glandon, had a bonus word every week and if we spelled it right, she would let us choose a Blow-Pop from a huge drawer in her desk. (For a brief time when I was little, I wanted to be a meteorologist because I could spell it...Plus, I liked putting the velcro sun and raindrops on the weather board). Well, I figured out that if I crouched down behind the counter at the front of the classroom when she got everyone in line to go to the bus or car lot at the end of the day, then I could sneak another Blow-Pop. Always the watermelon ones. I would pretend I was tying my shoe and wait for everyone to leave, then make my way to the big drawer.

A couple times it was locked and I remember being disappointed. Or sometimes all the watermelon ones were taken and I had to settle for grape or cherry, and cherry is just not the best flavor out there.

After awhile, Mom asked me where I was getting all the Blow-Pops. "I got the bonus word right," I would say. Which was at least partially true. I mean, maybe we didn't have a bonus word THAT day, but we most certainly did at some point in the week and I always got them right. I remember my first-grade self had to start being careful how many I brought home so Mom wouldn't be too suspicious.

Oh, I forgot she reads my blog. Well, I'm sure she caught on anyway.

It wasn't until fourth grade that I got more confident and took a purple rabbit's foot keychain from a girl named Lindsey. She had long blonde hair and I was jealous. I'm not sure if that's why I took it, but I remember wishing I had her hair. I don't know if she ever noticed I took it, either. This is when we had cubbies and it was pretty easy to walk over, undo the keychain from her backpack and slip it into mine. I still have it, too.

Ok, that's enough. For anything else I've ever taken, I plead the fifth...

I forgot to write last time that I went to a high school a couple weeks ago to talk about being a journalist. There's a career-oriented class at Monroe High School, and one of the girls wants to be a reporter. I was all excited and even made some note cards, but when I got there, I found out the class is mandatory. That right there says a lot.

Besides the one girl, no one cared what I had to say. I tried my best, but to no avail. I don't think I'd like teaching high school.

Speaking of class, I start my Contemporary Cults class next week. I'm looking forward to it, but it's going to be an extremely busy week. Work for 8 hours, then class for another 4 1/2 every day and then on Saturday. But it's just one week.

I'm also trying to plan a beach trip with "the posse." I'd like to go to Wilmington the weekend after July 4, so we'll see. It would be nice to have all the girls in one place again.

June Bugs

Sara gave me a pass for a free one-week trial at Lifestyle Fitness and yesterday I decided to try it out. This morning, I could barely lift my arms to wash my hair or reach the cereal. At least I know it had some effect...I went back this morning :)

This morning, Deb went to church with me. There's a couple from the church that had a baby awhile back and headed to India shortly after to be missionaries. We found out that their life savings was depleted yesterday when their bank card was stolen. There's a chance that they'll get the money back, but that's several thousand dollars that they don't have now. If you remember, say a prayer for them.

After church, I had lunch with Alex G. We went to Jimmy John's, then Manifest...a music/movie store where I realized just how many movies I haven't seen and just how slim my music selection is. We're talking about going to the Biltmore Estate in a couple weeks because he bought tickets for my graduation and we haven't been yet. I'll just have to remember to load up on allergy medicine beforehand...I've seen pictures of the massive gardens.

So a couple weeks ago, Pete came to visit before heading to Alaska for the summer. (I contemplated sneaking into his luggage, but I think his bag would've been over the weight limit). We got to double up with Sarah and Topher to go to the Olive Garden one night, and saw Prince Caspian the night it came out.

One of the nights, I made dinner while Pete made a Boston Cream Pie. I think I had the easier part. Then I scolded him for doing all the dishes. I felt like a guest in my own apartment.

Oh, and I have a new car stereo! (Again, thanks to one of the most thoughtful and giving people in the world). It sounds great. No more headphones while driving, which of course isn't exactly smart.

So now the most thoughtful person is helping his uncle build a house a few time zones away and I'm sweating out the end of spring in muggy Charlotte. Sara said no AC til June, but I couldn't sleep and had to turn it on yesterday. May 31, June 1...same thing.

Oh, and I went to a band concert Friday night. I wrote an article a few weeks ago for work about a high school band that's celebrating its 75th anniversary. It's the 3rd oldest band in the state and has some interesting background stories. Anyway, I told the band director I'd try to go, so I headed that way after work Friday. I'm really glad I did; it was something different.

Well I need to go to the grocery store before meeting up with Deb again.

Til next time, happy June!

Quote of the day: "If you want a rainbow, you gotta deal with the rain."

P.S. Are June bugs named after the month? And if so, why June? I'm partial to January myself ;)