Mayhem

Yeah, so very sorry that it has taken me so long to post. Live has just been absolutely crazy for the last month. First the trip, then packing to move, then getting sick,then moving. Yeah, I'm pretty worn out. Anyway...

I'm sure you all want to hear about the England trip. I'm going to have to condense it in a huge way because we did A LOT of stuff. The first day was pretty short because I didn't sleep on the plane and eventually just pooped out and decided to go to bed. I did at least get to eat fish and chips, though. The next day was much better. We went to the National Gallery. That was cool, there were a lot of pieces that I remembered from my art history classes. After that we had lunch at a pub, then we went to Oxford Street, the most concentrated retail area in the world. It was...interesting. A LOT of people. After that we went to the theater to pick up our tickets for Equus then went back to the hostel to shower. Once I was clean, we went to TGIFriday's for dinner with was the worst dining experience we had over there and then made our way to the theater. The play was incredible. It only took me about two minutes to get past my, "OMG that's Daniel Radcliffe like 15 feet away from me." feeling. Then I was just enamored with the play. The acting was great. I'm not being biased because Writer thought so too. We tried unsuccessfully for an autograph afterwards, but we'll revisit that later.







The next day we went on the Severn Valley Railway, which is where they got the train for Chronicles of Narnia. It was really cool. We spent half that day at a village called Bridgnorth which was really cool. It was on top of a hill and the views were incredible.







The day after that, we went to Oxford. We didn't get to enjoy it to it's full extent because a lot of the university was closed to visitors due to exams and degree ceremonies. We still got to go in the Eagle and Child where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien hung out as well as the Christ Church Great Hall and Cathedral. Upon arriving back in London, we went to King's Cross station (Harry Potter) and ate at McDonald's then decided to give the autograph thing another shot. We didn't succeed at the autograph, but I did get a picture.




The following day was spent in Bath. We got to go in the Roman Baths which was pretty cool. Spent some time in a park along the River Avon. And went through the city centre shopping area.







Next we went to Reading which is where Writer did her study abroad last year. We ate at a pub, hung out in a music store, went to the shopping mall, then ate at a Japanese cafeteria restaurant called Wagamama. It was pretty cool.







We spent the last two days in London. The first of the two, we went to the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, the Camden Market, The Tate Britain Modern Art Museum, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, and Victoria Station.



The last day we started at the Tower of London, then to Westminster Abbey, then we ended up at Hyde Park which is where J.M. Barrie was inspired to write Peter Pan and was therefore used to film bits of Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp. We hung out there for about 3 hours just kind of enjoying the beautiful weather. So it was a good way to end the trip.



So that was the ultra-condensed version of the trip to England. Pictures will be coming soon.

Upon my return, I had to simultaneously get over the jet-lag and adjust to my new third shift schedule. It was rough. Even once I had had a few days to get used to it, I had to start packing and getting ready to move which didn't allow for much sleep.



When it came to last weekend when we got the keys to our new place, I got sick which caused us to push things back a little bit, but luckily we had a whole week before we had to get out of our old place. So even though I was sick, and exhausted, I was managing about 3 hours of sleep a day. It was one of the worst weeks I've ever had. I'm still trying to recover and probably will be for a while. The good news is, we're now in our new place. I absolutely love it. The location is great. About a 30 second drive to church...walking distance to the Greene. It's awesome. So that's what's been going on in my world. Sorry it took so long. now that things are starting to settle down and I have internet at home, I'll start blogging a little more regularly.



I hope you're all doing well!


God bless!



Pepto

It's been a long time

Yeah, sorry about that. So...this be my last post before leaving the country. Yes, I'm leaving for London in 3 days, 19 hours and 37 minutes. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I'm not keeping track or anything. So, a lot's been happening lately. I am now totally full time at the base and officially free of Target FOREVER!! I'm excited about that. The last day was actually kinda sad. There are definitely a few people that I'll really miss there. But at least I'm only working crazy hours at one job now instead of two.

Let's see...what else. SebbieDue moved downstairs. :( I miss our shenanigans, but at least we still get to chat. Thank God for people like her. I don't know if anybody could have put up with as much crap from me as she has lately, and I'm extremely thankful that she was so willing to do so. After many conversations, usually talking about the same thing, she finally got through to me somehow. So, spiritually speaking I'm finally, after nearly a year of rebellion, starting to get back on track. Speaking of which, I recently agreed to take over leadership of the missions team at church. It's a position that's been offered to me at least three times previously, but the timing just wasn't right. So yeah, I feel a bit overwhelmed about it, but I know God will work through that. I'm also rejoining the praise team. YEAH!! I've missed it so much, and since I'm going to 3rd shift upon my return from vacation, I'll be able to be there for rehearsals. I've even considered, after some more work with Girl Scout, that maybe I'll try my hand at singing. MAYBE. We'll see.

Blue Jacket and I will be moving to Stonebridge at the beginning of June. I'm excited about that. I'm really looking forward to being closer to the church as well as my church family, and not to mention...The Greene. By the way, if anybody would like to help us paint/move/clean/whatever else needs done the weekend of June 8th/9th, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.

So yeah, I guess that's about it. I'm going to try to blog at least once while I'm over the pond. It just depends on when, if and how long I can get access to a computer while I'm over there. After I get back, I'll definitely be posting pictures and details of everything.

Well, I hope all is well with you all. Love ya and praying for ya!

God Bless!

Pepto

Turn the page around...Ch Ch Changes

Yeah, so a lot's been happening lately, yet not much has been happening. The big news for the moment is that I'm FINALLY going full time at the base. So praise the Lord! The funny thing of it is, is that they told me the same day that I THOUGHT I was going to get promoted at Target. I thought so because everyone told me it was a virtual certainty. Yeah, well...they didn't offer me anything. So that made it even easier to tell them that I would be drastically cutting my hours and availability. So my days at Target are almost over. In fact, the only reason I'm staying is for the extra money for my trip to England. So after that, I'm gone forever. I can't wait.

Since my last post, I have officially bought my plane tickets to London as well as tickets to the play Equus. Some of you may know the significance of that, some of you may not. Don't worry about it. But the cool thing is, I have front row seats. Oh yeah. I'm excited. We've got some plans in place for trips to Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton, and Bath, so that will be cool. 47 more days.

So more in internal thought news, I think I'm finally starting to figure some things out about myself. I've always seen myself as a sort of free spirit. It was what to do about that that I've always been confused about. But I've basically decided to just go with the flow. Take things one day at a time. There's no sense in planning out my future when I know that it won't end up like I plan it to anyway. I'm probably confusing right now, I hope you're all following me.

Another conclusion that I've arrived at is that I really don't want to get married for at least a few more years, if not more. This may be kinda surprising coming from me, but alas it is true. I just think there's a lot that I can do and accomplish while being single and young that I may just not be able to do if I was married or I had kids. For example, going to London just 2 1/2 months after deciding to go.

In family news, my parents finally have a home of their own. My brother and family bought a house and they're now renting out their condo to my parents. My mom is currently working a temp job in a factory of some sort. So if y'all could keep them in your prayers that they can get settled down and especially that my mom can find a decent job, I would really appreciate it.

In music news, if you haven't heard it yet, definitely give a listen to Chris Daughtry's CD. Elliot Yamin's is pretty decent, too. Two really good ones that I've recently acquired is John Mayer's Continuum and James (not Jim) Morrison's Undiscovered. GREAT music, in my opinion. I think I'll start sharing my latest musical discoveries with y'all in my posts just to share the wealth. ;)

Well, that's what's going on in my world. I hope all is well with everyone out there! You're all in my thoughts and prayers!!

God bless!

Pepto

Viva London!

Yeah, I'll get to the title in a minute.

Life's been pretty much the same ol' same ol' for the most part. Been working a lot. Haven't been doing a whole lot else. I finally started my singing lessons with Girl Scout, and that's going pretty well. And I was named "Great Team Hero of the Month" at Target, most places would call it Employee of the Month. Yeah...I guess that's about it.

Now, looking forward...I'll be working even more than I have been. I've got 60 hours this week, which is just a tiny bit more than normal. Next week I have 82 hours scheduled. Yes, that's right, 82. It's technically it's in 6 days not 7 because I have a day off in there somewhere, and I'm expecting about the same for the following week. Now, I know you're all thinking that I'm out of my mind to be working so much especially when I hate one of those jobs which brings me back to the title.

I've wanted to go to Europe for quite a long time now, and for the last few years I had every intention of finding a way of going as soon as I possibly could upon graduating from college. Well, there's no better time than the present. I went last Monday to apply for my passport, and just decided why not. Now, at that point, I was still kinda iffy, but then on Thursday I hear from my old roommate Writer who lives in Boston right now. We got to talking and I told her I wanted to go to London in May, and she said she was too. So we decided to go together. So since at that point I had a travelling buddy, I decided for certain, at long last, to go to Europe. I'm crazy excited about it. We're going to go see Equus. For those of you who don't know, it's the play that Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) is doing right now. We're gonna visit Oxford. We may even take a day trip to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. So yeah...I can't wait. And everything seems to be falling together as far as timing and finances and everything. Even though I have to stick to a fairly tight budget for the next month or so, but it's a good learning experience.

So a part of me almost feels selfish for doing such an expensive thing but I feel like after 4 years of college and 6 months of working my butt off, I think I deserve a break/adventure like this. It also gives me a goal to work towards which makes it easier to get out of bed and face the day. And it's teaching me how to budget. For the first time in probably 4 years, I'm finally keeping track of my spending, making and sticking to a budget.

So yeah, I'm super excited about all that. In future job news, there's still no word as to when I'll be going full-time at the base. So, just in case it will be a long time, I'm applying for the current open Team Leader position at Target. Since this position is actually posted, and I can't think of anyone else who would be applying for it, I may finally get it.

So that's what's going on in my life right now. I know I haven't seen y'all in a while, and I probably won't for a while because well, I'll be at work. I hope all is well with everyone! Love and prayers to all of you!

God bless!

Pepto

Goings on

Yeah, so I just realized that it's been about a month since my last real update, so I guess it's about time I give another one. Not a whole lot has been going on, yet a lot has been going on. I'm a walking contradiction, aren't I?

ANYWAY, work's been...well...work. Target slashed my hours. I originally had 12.5 hours this week, but I picked up someone else's shift so I'd have 20. The good news is I picked up a couple extra shifts at the base, so that helps the finances. Next week I have 19 hours at Target and they could potentially be my last. They're expecting the new contract to be signed any day now, so as long as that happens, I'm supposed to start full time on the 19th. WOOHOO! I can't wait. I'll probably be bouncing around as far as different shifts for a while until we get this big transitional phase done, but after that, there's a good chance I'll be working a day shift which is a pretty big deal since I just started here. One guy had to wait 4 1/2 years to get a day shift. On the down side, SebbieDue is moving elsewhere in the building, so I won't get to work with her anymore. :( I'll still see her, but it just won't be the same.

Speaking of SebbieDue, we've gotten to be much closer over the last few weeks, and I'm very thankful for it. One night at work I started asking her some theological kind of questions and by the end I was spilling my guts. I cried, she cried, she prayed for me, we praised the Lord cause I had my guitar. It was great. So anyway, I owe her a lot of thanks for helping to get me started back on the right path again.

I've finally made it back to Bethany a couple of times lately. It's still an every other week thing which is really freakin frustrating because when I'm not at Bethany, I'm doing ad set at Target. HOPEFULLY, this Sunday will be the last time.

In other news, my lack of love life is going ok. I always get grumpy this time of year what with Single's Awareness Day and crappy weather and all, but for the most part I'm still alright. My parents are officially moved back to Ohio. They're going to be taking over my brother's condo when he and his wife and son move into a house after they buy one. We are now down to three roommates in our household. Bianca's moving back home. I'm getting back into playing guitar and I'll soon be learning how to sing. Girl Scout, a woman on the praise team at church previously known as Sight-Sing is going to give me singing lessons as I give her guitar lessons in exchange. Pretty sweet deal in my opinion.

Well, I can't think of much else to say. Maybe life will get more interesting once I'm not working all the time or trying to catch up on sleep.

A very late congratulations goes out to HBM and family!!! I can't wait to meet Peach Fuzz someday soon.

Love y'all! God bless!

Pepto

Life Soundtrack

Soundtrack of Life
IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don`t lie and try to pretend your cool... and alot of the songs fit with the setting

Opening Credits:
Proud Mary - Tina Turner

Waking Up:
When Doves Cry - Prince

First Day At School:
All or Nothing - O-Town

Falling In Love:
Harder To Breathe - Maroon 5

Fight Song:
Best I Ever Had - Vertical Horizon

Breaking Up:
Wink - Neil McCoy

Prom:
Run-Around - Blues Traveler

Life:
6th Avenue Heartache - Wallflowers

Mental Breakdown:
Mambo #5 - Lou Vega

Driving:
Don't Wanna Be A Player - Joe

Flashback:
My Prerogative - Bobby Brown

Getting back together:
Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson

Wedding:
Borrow Mine - Bebo Norman

Birth of Child:
You Raise Me Up - Josh Groban

Final Battle:
Toxic - Britney Spears

Death Scene:
Girls and Boys - Good Charlotte

Funeral Song:
Yeah! - Usher

End Credits:
Here for the Party - Gretchen Wilson




Yeah, so the vast majority of these don't make any sense.
Hope all is well with y'all.
Peace out.

Pepto

Sorry

Yeah, I know I said I was going to be at church yesterday then I wasn't. Please believe me when I say I desperately needed the extra sleep. I pretty much just slept through my alarm. I haven't been sleeping much lately due to work and just generally not being able to sleep. It sucks. I'm getting worn out and I'm afraid if I don't start getting more sleep I'm going to get sick again.

So anyway, what's going on in my world...not much. Updating my journal is getting depressing because I never do anything anymore. But I believe I've finally decided to do something about it. I was sitting in my room last night talking to Bianca and I suddenly decided to get my guitar out and start playing. That's the first time I've done that in several months. It made me realize how much I missed it. So yeah, I really want to get back to playing again. I want to get better at it. So I can be a rock star. ;)

Anyway, after playing guitar for a while I came to a bit of a realization. I've been in this whole, "I'm finding myself" frame of mind for the last few months. The weird thing is, I knew who I was. I lost myself sometime around June or July this year. I'm still not totally sure what happened, but it happened nonetheless. I think satan used that to his full advantage. I was still holding onto a bit of my life up until about November and then it all went out the window. I've turned into this boring, insomniac, workaholic drone, and all of you should know that's not who I am. Once I finally figured this out, I realized that I'm the only person that can do something about it. I've been telling myself that as soon as I go full time at the base I can get back to all the things I've left behind, but that's crap. There's no reason I can't work on it now. I may not be able to do everything, but I can at least get back to my normal self again. So that's my challenge or New Year's resolution or whatever you want to call it.

So yeah, that's what's going on in my head right now. I'm gonna get back to "work."

GO BUCKS!

God bless!

Pepto