Sunday, February 22, 2009

i'm 26 and i'm grown enough, 'cause i'm not better, but i won't give up

(blog entry title is another sk6ers lyric.)

so my 26th birthday was yesterday, and it was a good one. i slept in (aka woke up at 7:00), made myself an omelet (i'm becoming quite the expert in omelet-making), and just relaxed in the morning.

then around 12:30 kristin and i went to go look at a house for rent. i liked it, a lot. i'm hoping this works out, or if it doesn't, then whatever does work out needs to be even better haha. it wasn't anything to get too excited about, other than it's location. it's only a mile from the house where my friends stacy, erin, and regan live. also, it's only a mile and a half from fido. i would love to be able to walk to all those places once it starts to get nicer outside.

since i was so close, after looking at the house i went over to hang out with stacy. we just went to fido for some coffee, and rented a movie (henry poole was here - i highly recommend it). then we went to mafioza's, and then on to exit/in to see matthew perryman jones and griffin house.

but i'm old now, and getting home at 1:00am was really hard. and today is going to be harder. in about an hour i'm heading over to my friend breanna's house, and then we are hitting the road to knoxville for a ben folds concert. i'm very excited - i have never seen him live, but i've been loving him for many years now.

gotta run.

Friday, February 20, 2009

mechanics, money, munchies, and mochas. aka... dependence.

mechanics
i still do not have my car. it has been thirteen days since the transmission died. i was frustrated with robert (my mechanic) for taking so long. until he called me on thursday. the transmission he had purchased for $350 didn't work. he said if he hadn't been so pissed, he would have called me earlier. he went to the place he bought it from and they refused to give him the money back, but finally was able to convince them to do so. he found another (much better) transmission elsewhere for $450. he is not charging me the extra $100. which brings me to...

money
it's been tight, but i'm learning through that. a little more on this later.

muncies
due to my lack of having a car at the moment, i have been getting rides from deanna the past two weeks. how have i been paying her? donuts. or doughnuts. or however you prefer to spell them. she's pregnant, what can i say? i call her at 6:00am, she answers groggily. "pick me up, i'll buy donuts," i say. "I'M UP I'M UP I'M UP!" she announces. donuts. who knew? but i've only needed rides three days a week, because two days a week i work from home.

mochas
working from home two days a week is great. i have been spending more and more time at fido on these two days, and i love it. but not having a car has left me missing their daily brews, pink poodles (raspberry mocha) and rolovers (caramel mocha). rolover is not spelled wrong although firefox tells me it is. it's rolo... as in the chocolate/caramel candy.

all this to say, i'm learning a lot about...

dependence
on people, cars, money, mechanics, and yes, even mochas. but mostly, on god.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

i like bandwagons.

in college, a lot of my friends joined xanga. and so did i. now they have (mostly) all left. and so have i. so here's my new blog. greetings, blogspot. how are you today? i am fine.

the title of this blog comes from one of my favorite stephen kellogg and the sixers songs, called "see you later, see you soon". the song mostly is associated with a lot of great memories for me, particularly over the past year, year-and-a-half-ish. and this particular lyric is where i'm at now. i'm moving out of my apartment (which has been my home for 2.5 years) and moving to some....where. it has not yet been determined. still in nashvegasville, but no lease has been signed yet. and i am trying to let go of my fears.

a few months ago i blogged about my lack (and subsequent need) of community. things are slowly turning around in that area, but i am becoming more and more aware of the fact that community isn't going to happen unless i let go of my fears and open up to those i find myself surrounded by.

i guess that's all for now.

goodnight, world. i have to wake up early to watch lost on abc.com before i go to work, else co-workers spoil it for me.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

it's been a few crazy days.

church was great on sunday. while the main topic of the sermon was focused on what community means, there was a side-quote that really stuck out to me. this is not word-for-word, but basically it was that we often spend too much time asking god to fix our problems rather than worshiping him regardless of the circumstances.

so i thought about it sunday. i prayed about it. i began to wonder what this would look like in my daily life.

monday was gorgeous... 72 and sunny. i work from home on mondays, so i thought i'd head over to fido (local coffee shop) and grab a latte and work outside and enjoy the spring-like day. so i got ready, got in my car and headed down the interstate. and then my car decided not to keep going down the interstate. instead it decided to go only 20 mph. so i pulled over. i ended up having the car towed and looked at by my mechanic. her transmission was shot. so i panic. i hardly have any savings and everything in my checking account i need for all my normal bills. so i googled the price of getting a transmission fixed for a '93 toyota camry and i start seeing prices around $3000. i panic even more. and then i remember sunday. and i try my best to stop asking the "whys" and the "hows" and instead i worship. granted, i'm human and so i fail miserably at this, but i tried.

this morning robert (my mechanic) calls me. he found a transmission and he can fix my car for $700 total. this is easily less than half of what i was expecting to pay. it's still a major "ouch" number, especially in light of my current financial situation, but it's a lot lot lot better than i expected. i feel a huge sense of relief.

and then reality sets in. i'm reminded that $700 is still hardly doable for me and i begin to freak out again. and then i remember sunday. and i remember what he's already done for me. and i remember matthew 6:25-34 (a friend had recently mentioned it). and again, i do my best to not worry and instead to be thankful, to worship.

and then a friend informs me that she has $150 saved up for something she had planned, and those plans fell through, and she offered to lend me the money. and then my mom calls; my brother's car died on him too, he needs a whole new engine put in, and it'll cost $1200. my mom then tells me that my grandma is going to help both my brother and i get our cars fixed.

god is good, is he not?

Friday, February 6, 2009

spring awakening

spring awakening is the name of a musical that i desperately want to see, specifically with kyle riabko starring in it. but that's not going to happen.

it's also how i felt today. i took the day off and spent it with some much needed fido time (fido = local coffee shop, book-in-hand). i finished my book ("traveling mercies" by anne lammott).

today is about 65 and the warmth and the breeze and the hint of spring remind me again that change is part of god's glorious design. driving around town with my sunroof open, i was feeling reminiscent of my childhood days spent with my friend libby, spinning in circles on the front lawn until we fell down, and then lying there feeling as the world kept spinning around us.

next i plan to tackle "velvet elvis" by rob bell. i have started it three times now. though i enjoy what i've read, i have not been able to get myself past the first section, as there is so much to digest.

i love dr. pepper.

i'm contemplating the move to blogspot. stay tuned.