friday photos: week 5

friday, october 29

deanna's little girl rachel came to work at the end of the day. she kept saying "cheese" for me, but wouldn't look up at me.

saturday, october 30

cori, karissa, and natalie all came up with this idea to have a "mad men"-themed cupcake/bonfire party. we went all out.

sunday, october 31

"blackbird singing in the dead of night..." karissa wearing her halloween costume.

tuesday, november 2

my parents got this wok for their wedding or an anniversary or something... and never used it. for years i asked my mom if i could have it. she kept saying yes, but it's not easy to take on a plane. since i drove this past chirstmas, i brought it back with me. but i also never used it. until now.

wednesday, november 3

there is no better way to spend a rainy fall night than having a fire in the fireplace with good friends. thanks, dan, for having us over!

thursday, november 4

myka asked if i wanted to go to the bluebird with her to see carolina story. i had never heard of them before, but i went. and i loved them. totally added them to my long list of "music i would like to obtain when i have money"

i'm so famous.

(please note the title of this post is dripping in sarcasm sauce. someone invent a dang sarcasm font already, please?)

anyway. check it out. npr used one of my photographs for an article. much thanks to my friend jace for finding this and sharing it with me.

wednesday wisdom: #5

"dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. living for something is the hard thing. living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. we live for what we believe."
-donald miller, blue like jazz

the fear of no fear

you know what i think my biggest fear is? getting rid of fear.

because when we get rid of fear we have no more excuses.

a few weeks ago in my small group, we talked about what names we feel like god is telling us to put down/give up. and i didn't think about the question at all beforehand and then when we were sharing i just kind of blurted out "coward" and i don't know where it came from and i didn't really think about it until the next couple of days. and now i'm realizing how true that is for me. fear has played a large role in my life.

sometimes i think i'm afraid to chase after my dreams. there is the fear that i'll get into it and maybe realize that's not what i want and then be more confused about what to do with life than i already am. fear that i won't measure up. fear that i don't have what it takes.

but the scariest part is getting rid of those fears because they make for good (bad) excuses.

monday meals: white chili

this is so easy. and good. are you ready?

ingredients:
2-3 chicken breasts
3 15-ounce cans of great northern (white) beans
1 15-ounce can of black beans
1 jar of salsa
1/3 block of pepper jack cheese
1/3 block of monterrey jack cheese
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper

directions:
cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks and cook in a skillet over medium heat until they're no longer pink. throw all the ingredients into a crock pot and let it cook for a couple hours. the end.

friday photos: week 4

friday, october 22

i passed this tree while going for a walk to meet up with some friends to head to a happy hour party. i couldn't resist taking a picture.

saturday, october 23

a fall saturday night in nashville = wine, fire, and music.

sunday, october 24
our friend dan works at a flower shop and brought these over to our house, just because. (i think they were leftover from a wedding.) they're so pretty and fall-y and match our dining room perfectly with its red walls.

tuesday, october 26

the wind was so crazy on tuesday. see that picture frame on the floor near my bed? that's where it was when i got home from work. it used to be on top of the radiator next to the window.

wednesday, october 27

i spent all of wednesday on set of the blue like jazz movie as an extra. we weren't allowed to take pictures, so i took this real fast as i was leaving. i know. it's an exciting picture and you can totally tell it's a movie set.

thursday, october 28

my friend regan played a show at the darkroom in edgehill village. this was her first show in months. she's pretty great.

look for me on the big screen

about six years ago, a group on my college campus was giving away copies of don miller's "blue like jazz". i thought hey, why not, and read the book. and it changed my life. this book helped me realize that it was okay for me to question my beliefs, to challenge the christian ideologies i had grown up with. this isn't to say i ever stopped being a christian, or doubted the existence of god. it was more of a "do i believe in god because that's what i was told to believe or do i believe in god because i see the evidence of his existence in my life and in the world" kind of doubting. and it was hard. and it was good. and from that, i grew. i don't think it's possible to grow without questioning.

and the thing that i liked about the book was this raw honesty. and don's writing is so conversational, it makes for a quick easy read. my friend and i always joked that it felt like we were sitting down with him over a cup of coffee and just having a conversation with an old friend.*

well, a few years ago, some filmmakers from here in nashville approached don about turning this book into a film. so they worked together and changed some aspects of the book to turn it into more of a storyline, and hired actors and a crew. and then about a month ago, they announced they no longer had the funding to go ahead with the filming. until two guys started up a kickstarter campaign on behalf of the film. they set the goal low - with as little as $125,000 they could scrape together what they needed to get rolling. but records were broken and at the end of the campaign (which was this past monday), they ended up raising almost $350,000. and they began filming yesterday. and i got to be an extra.

so really i spent all day yesterday sitting in a lecture hall pretending to be a student at reed college. we sat in that room for about 10 hours, which will translate to probably 10 minutes of film. and though it had it's boring moments, it was still exciting, especially knowing the story behind the whole thing. and the actors were all incredibly nice. marshall allman is playing the lead character, and as a huge fan of lost, i was totally geeking out over the fact that tania raymonde was brought in as well. and of course, don was around for the whole thing.

so when this movie comes out, keep your eyes peeled for yours truly. there's maybe an 80% chance my shoulder will be seen. if you're lucky, i might sign the dvd when it comes out.

*ever since then, having coffee with don has been on my bucket list. so if anyone reading this knows anybody or has any strings they can pull, please, hook a sister up. he'll be in town for about a month.