My Quest to Find a Cowboy--Week 2

I know you've been waiting all week for this...

mcarcs writes,

"I dont have a picture uploaded because I dont want my face plastered all over a dating site. But I assure you, I am more than handsome and more than willing to share a photo.

definitely worth your time"

I think it might be definitely worth mcarcs's time to learn some punctuation...

Texas Queen

I have some really funny friends.

This week I got a package from my friend, Brad. This was waiting for me in my hotel room on Monday.

My favorite part of it was the silly bandz. I wore silly bandz all the time when I tutored 2nd graders. It was a great conversation starter because all of the kiddos wore them. Don't think it will go over quite as well in corporate America, but it's definitely worth a shot.

Here's to being forever young, silly, and FUN!

P.S. last Tuesday we went bowling at Dave and Buster's and they gave us ACTUAL D&B socks. My first Texas souvenir. I'll have to snap a picture of them soon.

A very late rental car Monday

So...

I couldn't take a good picture of last week's rental car. In fact, it wasn't even worth blogging about.

I mean...I did get to ride in a car with red interior, but the picture came out all blurry so I thought I would share this with you instead.

Since I've become a frequent traveler I've started to notice quite a few a sunrises and sunsets from up in the air. There's just something different about them. This is actually a sunset I snapped on the way to Nashville last week.

If nothing else, it's a great reminder that each day is so much bigger than whatever circumstance we're going through.

And that should give us all hope.

My Quest to Find a Cowboy

So, I did something silly.

No, like really silly.

Are you ready for this confession?

I joined OkCupid in Houston.

Stop judging me.

And stop laughing at me.

I joined OkCupid for some good, wholesome reasons.

1. Because I'm trying to find a cowboy

And

2. Because it's entertaining

Trust me, I'm taking this very seriously. I'll even give you a glimpse of what's on my Houston profile.

OkCupid asks, "On a typical Friday night I am..."

My response, "In Atlanta, GA"

OkCupid asks, "I spend a lot of time thinking about..."

My response, "SAP Technology"

I have others, but I'll save them for a later posting date. So here's what I'm going to do with this OkCupid excitement. 1 day a week I'm going to pick an extra awesome message that I've received and post it for everyone's enjoyment. Maybe you guys can help me sift through the weirdness to help me find my man.

Here's this week's.

RomanticSky writes,

"you are extra ordinary gorgeous. nice pics. can we talk?"

Should I respond?

Tuesday Fun Night

It's week number 4 in Houston and it's about time we started doing some fun things.

Tonight we checked out the Studio Movie Grill at the City Center to see the movie 50/50. I'd never been to a movie theatre where you could actually have dinner and drinks during the movie...and I still think it was cheaper than a normal theatre.

Hooray for fun Tuesdays!

Rental Car Mondays

I don't know about you, but every Monday we commute about 800 miles to work. I wake up at 4:45 am in Atlanta; leave my apartment a bit after 5:30 and by 7:30 I'm up in the air on my way to Houston.

Once in Houston; we de-board the plane, walk past security, stop at Starbucks, and then hop onto the nice little bus that takes us to the rental car station...aka...my favorite place in the IAH airport.

Anyways, last week we rented a car that had a push start...and we accidentally forgot to return our rental car keys. Whoops...

Good thing we come back every week :) More on that story later.

Anyways, from now on I'm declaring Mondays; Rental Car Mondays. Here (meaning every Monday) you'll find a picture of our most current car with some additional commentary from yours truly.

Here's this week's! It's a lovely, silver dodge intrepid. Included in this pic are also my 2 favorite traveling buddies. I'll introduce them soon! They're great.

All themed up

I'm re-doing my blog.

Why?

Because it needs a theme.

And this new theme will be (drum roll please....) all about my adventures in Texas. I will (as far as I know) be traveling here every week for the next year. So let's make the most of it.

Be on the lookout for this blog to slowly but surely evolve into some consistent thoughts about life on the road, life in Texas, and my quest to find a cowboy. This will be fun!

#TexasForever

I've been spending a lot of time in Houston, Texas these days.

And let me tell you...Texas is a bit different than Georgia. I have yet to park in a parking deck in Georgia that has an ENTIRE floor dedicated to "Truck Parking." But, that's what makes Texas, Texas. Well, that and cowboys.

Last week on my flight out of ATL I finally spotted a real cowboy heading back home. I could hardly contain my excitement as I was capturing his pic so I wanted to share it with you.

Texas. Forever.

The power of vulnerability

Check out this TED Talk.

I'm such a sucker for all things self-help

A blogging hiatus

Ooops...

I unintentionally took a 6 month break from here. Lots of life changes happened in those months.

Let's do a quick update...

• I graduated from Vandy
• I went to Bonnaroo?
• I was a part of another best friend's wedding
• I moved to Atlanta
• I went on a 16 day road trip out west
• I came back from that 16 day road trip with enough bug bites for 3 different antibiotics
• I started my first job
• I started traveling every week for my job

Annnd this leads me to where I am today.

I think I'm going to try to do a bit more on here...with a little Tex-Mex flavor since I'm spending most of every week in Houston, Texas.

Y'all...keep me accountable

What do you know for sure?

I've been semi obsessing about this question a lot lately.

It's unnerving to me if I really begin to think about all the uncertainty that surrounds my life each and every day. The uncertainty of being successful in a job, friendships, relationships, finishing school, $$$, and even another day/minute/second on earth. There's not many things I think we can really "know for sure."

I know in the past months I've asked myself so many questions about BIG decisions I've recently made. I've been in circles about a new job, new state, new city, new friends…I could go on and on. I've been certain, uncertain, 100% positive, and filled with fear all at the same time. Maybe you can relate. Change and uncertainty surrounds our lives. So with these thoughts permeating my soul these past few months; I've had to make a conscious decision about how to deal with this uncertainty. And how I'll continue to manage it in these next few months. I need something to be sure of.

So here's what I do know for sure:

1. God loves me
2. God is great
3. God is good

Sounds simple doesn't it? I wish reminding myself of these things was a magic formula for minimizing the anxiety that comes with uncertainty, but it's not. We can't get rid of or run away from uncertainty. I don't think that was God's plan. But what I do think is that by standing on these three truths we can face the uncertainty of life with confidence; knowing that we don't have to always be certain because we have a God who is bigger than ANY uncertainty we will ever face.

So...what do you know for sure?

Loves like a hurricane

I love this song. Listen to the lyrics. I mean, really listen to the lyrics.

I get chills when I sit and meditate on them. Incredible. I can't think of a song right now that paints a better picture of God's love for us, for me, for you.

"Oh how He loves"

I Don't Get It

How is it that I can make myself like black coffee (cold turkey), but I don't have the willpower to keep twitter off of my phone?

I made it 1 week and 1 day.

Hahahaha. I'm okay with that

Not So Awesome Things

My last post was about awesome things. This post is about not so awesome things.

Like food poisoning that makes you miss your (super/fun/awesome) trip to Memphis with your friends.

No, I'm not bitter.

Last Thursday night I got some ridiculous food poisoning. No need for details, but I was for real sick. You do funny things when you're sick.

Like talk to yourself.

No, this post isn't about that. Instead, this post is about the people that talked to me when I was sick.

I've heard more, "when I had food poisoning" stories in the past 3 days than ever. But, the point of those stories wasn't to compare bathroom details. Instead, it was a way for my friends to say, "hey, I've been there too. I know it sucks. Let me know if you need anything."

And I really appreciated it.

I realize in the grand scheme of things that food poisoning is in no way that big of a deal, but for the past 3 days it's seemed like a pretty big deal to me.

So, thanks to my friends (& family) near and far that shared their food poisoning story with me.

I think we could write a pretty awesome book about the not-so-awesomeness of food poisoning.

Awesome Things

I'm a sucker for all things "self help." I can't help it. I may not believe or apply what I read or listen to, but I love learning about ways people can become better.

It's true.

That's how I stumbled upon this video. Well, that and twitter. This TedTalk is by Neil Pasricha and it's worth watching if you have 15 mins. The title of his talk is, "The 3 A's of Awesome." It's about his journey to appreciate and celebrate "awesome" things in life that we too often take for granted.

It's fun and inspiring.

Here's a link to his blog. Check it out!

Today I'm celebrating the awesomeness that comes with having another snow day. I think I'll spend some time playing the (super addicting) Wii game, Just Dance, with friends.

What about you? What's 1 awesome thing you can celebrate today?

Last First Day

I think I can 100% say that for right now this will be my last first day of class.

And it feels so good.

I'm excited to see what this last semester of graduate school brings...besides snow and a lot of tutoring make-ups.

I always think the first day of class is awkward (even for an adult.) There's the anxiousness of getting a good seat, groupmates, and what you'll say in your 30 sec. introduction. Your 30 sec introduction is arguably the most important part of your 3 hour class. If you have no friends in the class, it's how people will size you up and decide if they like you or not. If you have friends in the class, you have to think of something new and clever to say so they'll actually pay attention. Seriously, it's how people decide who they want in their group projects. So you better think it through. I have to laugh in that I know me and some of my friends have already begun to plan project groups before our first class. Some people just can't handle that 30 second pressure.

I wish I could remember more about my real first class as a grad student. I'm pretty sure I was scared to death and felt like the youngest one in the room. Some things don't change. I still am the youngest one in the room.

So here's to the beginning of the end and making the best of what (I hope) to be the last semester of my student career. In the meantime, I need to think of something clever for my introduction.

What about you? What's the best 30 sec introduction you've ever given?

Silly Bandz

I got some silly bandz for Christmas this year in my stocking. It's January 11th and I'm still wearing them. You can't judge me for that. I like my silly bandz. That's kind of how I feel about this blog. I tried to do a blog a couple years ago, but I was worried I wouldn't have anything worth writing about.

That was before twitter.

Recently, I've deleted twitter off my phone so I can spend more time being "present" with the people I'm actually with.

It's driving me crazy.

It's only been 3 days. I'm going to make it to 5. I hope.

I'm trying blogging again because it's 2011 and I think I have some things worth talking about. I don't necessarily know what those things are yet. I think my life is kind of like that at the moment so it's appropriate.

I figure this will be a little like my twitter, but more than 140 characters. And probably not all about silly things my 2nd graders do when I tutor them in math.

Thanks for following