I would like to introduce you to my brother’s girlfriend Margaret, who is way cooler than I am. She is a social media queen, and since my brother designs websites, it was only a matter of time until their two talents combined and she began a blog of her own.
P.S. I am aware that my blog is now requesting you to sign in to Twitter. I have no idea why. I am looking into it. But in the meantime, why not sign up for Twitter? You may like it.
I’m back home from the whirlwind Kansas trip where one of my best friends, Ellen, got married. As a bonus I got to see a few extra friends and introduce David to many people. Most of it is a blur, but here are some thoughts regarding the weekend. To see the rest of the pictures and more of the story, go HERE.
The rehearsal dinner had all you can eat barbecue. I’m usually not so much a fan of barbecue, but the side dishes were so good that I stuffed myself.
We got to visit my best friend Becca, who is 8 months pregnant. She and her husband just bought a fixer-upper house. Here we are in front of it.
The wedding was outside, and it was a THOUSAND degrees. I think I sweated more than at any soccer game I’ve played in. Also, the bridesmaids wore the shoes from hell. They were pure evil, despite their cute appearance.
David was so supportive to come all the way to Kansas with me, missing his own cousin’s wedding to go to a place where he knew no one. I love him.
Got to hang out some with these cool girls, Julie and Valerie, friends from Tabor College.
The obligatory bride and groom picture. Ellen was beautiful, and I took her veil from her literally the minute after she removed it later that day. It will be my “something borrowed” at my own wedding!
My good friend Julie let David and I stay at her house while we were there. She and I are a lot alike, and whenever I see her I lament the fact that we live two states away.
We left town around 4 p.m. on Saturday, and since David had to be back by noon on Sunday we just drove through the night. We got home around 2:30 a.m. having been awake since 5 a.m., but we made it!
Final thoughts: I’m jealous that Ellen is married already and I can’t wait to be myself! David and I had some good quality time together this weekend despite the craziness, and I can’t wait to spend my life with him. I have some amazing friends and I hated to say goodbye to them, but I will be seeing them in less than two months!
#1: I just painted my toenails a dark shade of purple. I am in a wedding this weekend and the bridesmaid dress is purple, and I do not want my hideous toenail bruises showing. However, it is the worst toenail paint job ever, and I’m wondering if the bruises might not be more attractive.
#2: I am devastated because Bennigan’s has filed for bankruptcy and soon will be closed down forever. This was one of my favorite stand-by restaurants. I always knew I could go there for a good meal (the baked potato soup and 1/2 county cork sandwich with a brownie bottom pie for dessert was my favorite). Never again. Tear.
#3: A good friend of our family’s and a member of our church who has always enjoyed photography is now becoming more serious about it, and thus set up a website. He particularly enjoys action shots, and came out to one of my Saturday morning soccer games the other week and took a bunch of pictures. Go HERE to see them. They are really good, except for my hideous face which is a mixture of concentration, exhaustion, and heat stroke.
#4: I am headed out of town to Kansas tomorrow straight after work for the previously mentioned wedding. I am toting David along with me. It is going to be a crazy fast trip, but memories will be made, I will see some of my best friends, and David and I will be together more than we have in the last week combined. And it will be good to get away, if only for a bit. See you when I get back!
I have a friend. I met her in an interesting way that is most uncharacteristic for me. When I graduated from college the first time and moved back to Houston I was working at a cancer clinic doing medical records. I had this job for two years before I entered nursing school. One of the nurses at the clinic was my friend’s mother. Her mother and I became close, and I really looked up to her as a role model for many different reasons. She would talk about her daughter from time to time and eventually I thought I might like to be friends with her daughter too.
I wasn’t sure how to make the friendship happen, but there finally came an opportunity to meet in a somewhat non-threatening manner. My roommates and I were planning on attending a Beth Moore conference at the time, so I decided to invite her. I actually just called her out of the blue (luckily her mom had told her about me), we talked for a bit, and she agreed to come. We met and were able to talk easily, and since then we have made an extreme effort to stay in touch. We don’t have any of the same friends, so it is difficult. But for a few years now, we have been meeting almost every week to have dinner together.
We are entirely different people. She is charismatic, and I am not. Charismatic in the spiritual sense of the word mainly. I have stories. I know her well now, and I believe our hearts are in the same place, but if I had known all of this about her in the beginning I would have thought, “I’m sure she’s a wonderful person, but just not the type I can be friends with.”
I love my friend deeply, but it’s almost as if she occupies just this one little corner of my life, cut off from everything else. I have been talking to her about my wedding this whole year, and I was extremely happy for her when she got engaged a month ago. Since then I have loved talking to her about her own wedding planning. I thought we had an understanding, that we are two very different people who have decided to make a friendship last despite our worlds being so separated. I thought that we could always talk to each other but that in the end, we were peripheral friends. I expected that when she moves next year, that we would possibly fall out of touch.
I was speechless tonight when she asked me to be her maid of honor.
I was flattered, honored, overwhelmed, speechless, but mostly I felt guilt. That she’s not even a bridesmaid for me. And when I said yes, she just squealed with delight, said I had made her day, that she was telling her fiance the other day just how much she liked me even though we are so different.
I guess all I can do is continue to make a conscious effort to maintain our friendship, and be the best maid of honor I can be .
Hey everyone, I’m returning to the internet world. I’ve been almost completely cut off, only able to briefly check my e-mail at work. I have to say, this past week has been pretty depressing. Not because of the lack of internet, but because my life is in upheaval. My roommate Amanda moved out last week, taking all of her furniture and dishes with her. Courtney and I lived the whole week in a bare apartment, with no TV, no internet, barely any food, no plates or bowls, etc. It was a lonely place. I did a lot of reading.
Also, I am still getting used to my work schedule. I love my job, but there are times when I despair over waking up at 4:30 a.m. and going to sleep at 8:30 p.m. I have only a few hours in the evening to myself, and although there are so many things I want to be doing with that time (being with David, planning the wedding, working out, playing tennis) I rarely have the energy for any of it. I’m hoping that things will get better the longer I go.
And then finally yesterday I moved out of my apartment. My amazing fiance, parents, and soon-to-be parents-in-law helped me out immensely. My furniture is being stored at a friend’s house for the time being, and all of my stuff is now piled in an extremely disorganized fashion in the guest room at my parents’ house, where I will be living for the next few months. I’m house-sitting this week, and I am trying my best not to think about this:
Some people may have an anxiety attack when they lose control of a situation, others when they are forced to throw things away, but I lose it when my life becomes extremely disorganized. I’m barely holding it together here!
Also, I injured my toenails again. First week I played outdoor soccer this happened:
Beautiful, right? And I’m sure it won’t be gone in time for the wedding. Oh well, that’s my life. And by the way, outdoor soccer during the summer in Houston? Is pretty much hot as hell, but with a lot more humidity.
To end on a positive note, here is a picture of my handsome fiance with our pastor’s son Isaiah. We went out to eat with their family this afternoon, and I think I only caught about half of the conversation because Isaiah insisted that I sit by him and he talked to me the entire time. I’m not complaining, I want one just like him!
On Monday night I went out and bought a bunch of pairs of scrubs in Caribbean blue, our required color. This is not a popular color for scrubs, but I found it at an awesome store in Katy. There was a friendly Indian woman there who owns and runs the place, and by the end of my shopping experience she was giving me marriage advice and showing me all of her receipts for the day.
On Tuesday my preceptor was off and my backup preceptor was late, so I ended up working with a girl who has only been a nurse since January. Although she was very nice, she was also extremely disorganized and I did not much enjoy working with her. That night David and I went and spent some time with our good friends Megan and Peter, who were in town for a wedding. The highlight of the night involved Megan and I getting completely made fun of for the fact that in high school we listened to ska music and skanked. Don’t know what that is? You’re cooler than I am.
Wednesday my preceptor was off again and I sat with the unit secretary. It was boring, but at least I got to sit down. That night David and I went to visit his aunt and uncle in Sealy. David is very close to them, and his aunt has pancreatic cancer and is not doing well. It was good that we went.
Today my preceptor, Christy, was back and we had a good day. She is allowing me to do more things now. Tonight I am returning to my apartment. I have been away for over a week house- and pet-sitting. I miss Cleo and my bed.
I am really exhausted. 4:30 a.m. comes really early.
My friend Lauren from school called me today and was all, “Are you freaking out about the NCLEX yet? How much have you studied? How are you studying? When do you start work? What is our first week going to be like? Did you realized NCLEX is less than two weeks away?!?” Um, I wasn’t freaking out until I talked to her.
OH MY GOSH NCLEX IS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY. AND I START MY JOB ON MONDAY, MONDAY AS IN FOUR DAYS FROM TODAY. So excuse me while I go hide myself away with some Quakes rice snacks, my dog, and my review book. Hopefully I shall emerge at some point this weekend for some air.
I had a pretty busy/exciting day today. It started out with me going to Methodist to get “processed” for my new job. Basically I filled out a bunch of paperwork and got a physical. Although this in itself wasn’t exciting, the prospect of starting my new job in a week and a half is.
THEN, I picked up my wedding dress! It is now in my possession. It needs ALL kinds of alterations, but still! What I will be wearing the day I get married is hanging in my closet!
Next I came home and watched the finale of “Dancing with the Stars” that I recorded (yay Kristi!) while working on my computer.
After that I went and bought a couple pairs of scrubs, then stopped by the hospital to see my friend Sara who just gave birth to a lovely baby girl yesterday! I’m so proud because she’s just recently gotten into “Gilmore Girls,” I of course lent her all of the seasons that I have on DVD, and she named her daughter Rory! Such a sweet baby.
The visit was short, and so I headed over to help David’s mom with something, got a salad at Wendy’s, then went to my soccer game. I was beginning to have quite a headache at this point, and when I started playing it became much worse. But thank God for ibuprofen, because I gulped down four of them and by halftime I was almost as good as new. And we even won!
On Saturday David and I went to Austin to see my good friend and former roommate, Carmen, compete in the O. Henry World Championship Pun Competition. It’s always quite an experience, one which I have actually come to enjoy. I love visiting Austin, seeing Carmen and her family, and the pun competition can be pretty dang funny.
Although David wasn’t completely convinced he would like it, I did catch him making a pun at one point. There was some reverb from the microphones, and someone in the crowd sarcastically yelled, “Can we get some more feedback?” Then David whispers under his breath, “Feedbag.” I made him repeat it to me, and he admitted that he was trying to pun off the word “feedback.” Too bad the pun didn’t have to do with anything…but I thought it was really cute.
Anyway, I would like to proudly say that my friend Carmen won first place in the event “Punniest of Show.” This is where the contestants perform a prepared monologue under two minutes long. I’m so proud! For your enjoyment:
Last night I totally came home and watched Dancing with the Stars, Gossip Girl, AND The Hills. I don’t know what came over me, but I have to say that it was fun.
I was watching with my roommate Amanda and her friend Lilly, who is loud and hilarious. Everything is better when you watch it with her. When it was time to watch The Hills, we discovered that something went wrong with the DVR and it failed to capture the sound. We were determined to view the episode, so we turned on the captions. This inevitably led to us acting out the parts in each scene, and we even sang the theme song. I call it TV Karaoke.
If you’re bored, I highly recommend this activity. Especially with The Hills. It is an entirely different viewing experience.
