oh, you know. just my thoughts.

Oh John Mayer-

How you sing the things we feel. And how we love it and melt for it and hang on every word of it. I wish I could have quoted every word of his concert. There was just so much….wisdom [yes, some would argue that]. In matters of the confused heart, and I’d brave that every heart is at least a little confused, Johnny is an expert.  Hopefully one day, he’ll figure it all out. Hopefully some day, we all will.

Did you read the Rolling Stone article? The guy struggles. He’s more off the walll then I realized. And dirty.

Today, I ran into the quote below and decided that in some [probably few and far between] ways,  Johnny and I aren’t all that different.

From Twitter, on Huffington Post:

“Just read my Rolling Stone cover article. I’m still not sure if I would want to hang out with me” and “After 30 minutes of twirling my hair into a knot, I say “f*** it.” You can’t go wrong if you tell the truth.”

I dwell on the things I say all the time- like all the time. And I hate it. Oh, well.

If you missed the concert, have no fear. I documented it for you.

On my heart and in my phone, lately.

The ones that were not taken by me, were found on Joie De Vivre.  A recent find that I am very much obssessed with.

[ok, hi. i just realized today is wednesday, not monday. travel will do that to you. in any case, hello wednesday]

It’s been 22 whole days since 2010 started. How are you doing with all those resolutions you made? Can you even remember them? I know a lot of you didn’t make any, and that’s cool too. I respect that.

Last year, Heather and I made a laundry list of resolutions that were posted on this blog and on our fridge, alongside pages from the Victoria’s Secret catalog. We superimposed our heads on Marissa, Heidi, etc’s bodies. Anyway, that list quickly came off and disappeared into some great abyss or another, never to be seen or thought of again.

And how many of those resolutions did we keep? Half of one. Half!

So this year, I chose three things to make a valiant effort to do.

1. Live Within My Means

This means, no AMEX [it's my only CC]. Every month, I can spend what I earn and that’s it [can you imagine that?]. Seems simple enough but I guarantee you, not many people in America do it. Does the phrase sub-prime mortgage crisis ring a bell? I’ve been doing good on this one! I did overdraft twice last month but I am considering that a growing pain. A punishment for my lack of discipline. I haven’t given in though.

2. Be Happier/Less Serious/Have More Fun [you get the idea]

Somewhere in the past two years, I managed to lose a lot of my joie de vivre. I got all of a sudden too serious, too rigid, too….old. I am 25, not 65. I need to start acting my age a little bit. I think I’ve been doing good at this one as well. I’ve made an effort to go out and not do things I don’t want to do for the sole purpose of pleasing others. I’m letting more fun in and changing my frame of mind.

3. Read More Periodicals

At the training I attended in Arizona, a lot was discussed about globalization [of everything] and the importance of keeping up with current events. So not only learning by reading books but also by reading magazines and newspapers. On this one, I have to admit I am slacking. I have a few issues of TIME and one of MONEY [which is like Japanese to me, I don't understand the half of the magazine that isn't ads] to catch up on. I’ve read my Women’s Health and American Photo. Yesterday, I purchased People- I wanted to read about Heidi [lame, I know].

If you’ve fallen behind on whatever your resolutions are, have no fear. You still have 353 days to catch up!

Conquer 2010.

I agreed with Ash when she said this to me today:

 Ashley: oh i left you a little award on my blog. it’s like a forwarded emial chain thing and i usually don’t participate in those type of things but I thought you’d be a good sport about it

Ash gave me a Beautiful Blogger Award [thanks, friend]. The award comes with a caveat: you’re supposed to write 7 random facts about yourself. So, here they are.

I. I am going through a creative [and spiritual] drought. My brain use to think in bloggy-ease [like my new word?]. As events would  happen, they’d magically manifest themselves into perfectly crafted blog posts and lately? Nada. I can’t think and I can’t write. What’s the deal? I can’t wait for this to be over.

II. Watching the footage of Haiti REALLY REALLY breaks my heart. Hearing the pain in the background of the footage makes it even worse.  But seeing America stand up and run to help stirs my heart up in the best of ways.

III. I cracked the screen on my Canon Rebel ATVing in the Superstition Mountains in Phoenix. It was worth it.

IV. I recently bought a scale and learned I fluctuate 5 pounds per day.

V. Ashley says I am a “maintenance machine”. And I am, if you only knew.

VI. I recently went to the cardiologist to get my heart checked and secretly wished there was something not very serious wrong with it so I’d have a way to justify my laziness and love of sleep. The Doc said you’re heart is so normal it’s weird. I better shape up, no excuses.

VII. I am late to kickboxing because I stayed at work late to tell you this nonsense!

And now, I give this to three other lucky lucky people: Angie-Katie-Matty!

Remember when I told you what I wanted for Christmas?

Looks like Santa [but there is no Santa, it was you!] showed up.

Keep showing up, keep giving, keep being Christ-like and for goodness’ sake- check out the smiles!

Advent Conspiracy 2009 Thank You from Living Water International on Vimeo.

The Well’s water for Africa fundraiser, coming soon to a Winery near you [if you like in 850, that is].

 I left Tallahassee on December 18, just shy of a month ago. First for Christmas vacay and then for training. I was starting to miss home [my sweet, sweet friends]; until this morning [sorry sweet, sweet friends]. Why trade this:

for this:

I am scheduled to go home tomorrow but there are terrible storms throughout the Southeast canceling most flights in and out of Atlanta. Delta released this statement to CNN: 

Atlanta, Georgia-based Delta Air Lines, noting “winter weather may impact operations,” offered winter weather travel waivers to Delta and Northwest passengers on flights to, from or through five states.

Travelers can change their schedule without fees until Saturday if their routes include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi or Tennessee.

May be one more day in paradise. Shucks [not].

PS- I need a new, two-column, WordPress theme. This one is too narrow for my snapshottery. If you run into any good ones, please do share!

I love Marshalls & TJ Maxx, really do. Most of my shoes come from there (shhh!). I think most people would agree that you can find some solid gems there (hello Dooney & Bourke patent leather clutch for $59) but every once in a while you come across an item and, well, you just know how it landed itself at the discount retailer. See below for clarification.

Pam bought this recently. This is a size extra small (with a Medium tag), Alabama (Roll Tide!) dress. It is adorable (See below). But check out the tags- The color of this Medium labeled extra small dress is- FSU. When did FSU become a color? And if it were, why would Alabama use it? Wouldn’t they get their own Alabama color? Color should say: Crimson. And the style? Floride of course. No, not Florida and no not Alabama but Floride. Nick Saban would be pissed. It’s almost enough to make Tebow cry (again).  

Do you have any stellar or not-so-stellar Marshall’s/TJ Maxx finds?

Gotta love dessert shadows.