nothing new

The problem with committing to write for seven straight days is that sometimes there really is nothing to say. I've hit my wall. Check back tomorrow.

I picked a good week to write every day with all these birthdays popping up. Today is another very special day. My brother Parker turns 24 today (also Arnold Schwarzenegger is 62 - who knew the gover-nator was so old?!).

Parker and I are very different and with those differences sometimes comes frustrations, but honestly for the most part it's these things that I respect the most. For example, he's extremely dedicated to his goals, if he sets his mind to something he's going to do it - he said he wanted to be a dr. and now he's in his third year of med school. He has a clear vision of what he wants his future to look like and always has a plan on how to get there. I, on the other hand, graduated with a degree in anthropology and work at my parents' restaurant with a very small view of what my life will look like in the next few years.

He's also paved the way for me in a lot of things, there are many avenues I've travelled that I probably wouldn't have if he hadn't gone their first. In the 6th grade when the time came to pick an instrument to play it was Parker who convinced me that percussion was the way to go. In high school he was involved in student council, eventually becoming president, I jumped in and two years later I was the president. He moved off to go to school at UT and became really active in BYX and the Austin Stone, I moved off to a different and better university (gig 'em!) and found my own Body with his encouragement. You can even thank him for this blog, because he started one first.

So, Happy Birthday Parker! Thanks for being such a great brother and example in my life.

And feel free to give me a hug after reading this heartfelt post ;)

halfway

Today I got on facebook, like I do almost every single day of my life, and I found that my friend Grace tagged me in a note called "BBC must read books." It was a list of 100 well-known books that according to the BBC everyone should read but the average person usually has only read 6 (probably in their high school English classes). Grace has always been an avid reader and she knocked out a whopping 47. I was seriously impressed. I decided to count up my number and I am pleased to report that I've read 17. Not quite as good as 47, but respectable. So this got me thinking, if the BBC thinks I should read all these, then maybe I should. I hopped on my bike and headed to the library, planning on checking out Pride and Prejudice, it was number one on the list. I saw the movie my freshman year of college and have yet to fall in love with Mr. Darcy, but most girls list it as one of their top reads. Every girl can't be wrong. Right? Well I get to the library and the only Jane Austen the Ward County Public Library offers is The Complete Works. Sure I could very easily check that out and maybe even knock a few titles off the list, but I hate big books. Even if it's lots of books put together, there's something about the thickness that intimidates me. In 8th grade the fourth Harry Potter book came out and that sucker was like 500 pages and even though I'd read the first three book my love for all things wizard couldn't overcome my fear of big books. So instead of looking for another title on the BBC list I went with The Devil Wears Prada. Definitely not anywhere near the list, but hey, I'm an American! Why should I listen to the BBC anyway?

birthday girl

First of all I would like to say I totally called the Bachelorette. Go Ed! My dad told me last night that I've got "my finger on the pulse," if there's one thing I know, it's reality TV.

I started writing this entry about two hours ago only to be interrupted by a power failure on our block. So for the last two hours I've been riding around town with my parents soaking up the AC and then sitting on our front porch listening to my dad either play pinball on his iPhone or look up people on facebook. In any other case I would have abandoned this endeavor altogether, but I committed to 7 days of blogging and today happens to be a very special day.

Today is my best friend Mindy's birthday. Yesterday she told me she was really excited about getting a measly shout-out, so I can't wait to hear what she says when (after checking Perez Hilton... yes I called you out on your birthday) she checks my blog and sees it's dedicated to her. So I have a couple options of what I could do for this post... A) write sappy stories about our friendship B) write embarrassing stories about our friendship C) post pictures of our friendship. I'm going with option C. Some might say that's a cop out, but hey pictures speak louder than words right???

Lookin hood.

NYC. One of my favorite trips ever.

Spring Break '07.. special memories.

Hazel & Bobbi

Secondhand Serenade concert in Austin. Not the best show, but definitely an adventure.

Probably our best picture together. This was right before I was a third wheel on her date. You're welcome.

Most of my favorite memories in college are with this girl, so these are just a few snapshots of the many many fun times we've had together. From Sonic runs and rollerblades to statistics and library drama she's been through it all, and I'm so grateful to be her friend and even more thankful that we got to spend the last three years as roommates.

Happy Birthday Melinda!

so far so good

Okay so it's day two of consecutive (that doesn't look right, but I spell checked it) blogging. And since my last post I was thinking more about the question and I have another profession to add - President of the United States. Seriously I could never be the first lady! I have too many skeletons in my closet that would be dug up as we campaign. Also I'd probably have to get my hair cut short and wear lots of dress suits and sweaters. Well, mainly I don't want to cut my hair, I actually like wearing suits and sweaters - I just don't want to be told that's what I should wear. It's kinda like when I go running with someone (ahem.. never) and they try to tell me I'm doing a good job and I should keep going, even if I am doing okay it makes me want to stop. That's not a good quality to have. Ugh, stubbornness.

I don't have a question of the day for today (shoutout to Sarah and Mindy for actually responding!) so I figured I would just write about my day so far. Interesting stuff I know. It's kinda like I have my own reality tv show, only it's not on tv and I don't get paid. I woke up this morning and decided to go to the complex (Monahans' version of the gym). I tried to go on Saturday but they were closed so instead I came back home and spent an hour on facebook, so it's been a while and I've been eating lots of Mexican food... so yeah. I have a pretty relaxed attitude about working out, anything is better than nothing, so I don't really push myself. I spent 15 minutes on the elliptical machine, did some crunches and decided to call it a day. Another one of my not so wonderful qualities. To top it off, today is Mocha Monday at McDonalds, so I drove down the street to get my free mocha. Did I particulary want one? No. Do I even really like mochas? No. Were they free? Yep. Thank you very much. This is a quality I get from my grandma who has drawers full of hotel shampoos.

After McDonald's I came back home to shower and get ready for the day and such. I'm taking an online course right now on fundraising for ministry and I like to look semi-decent for that, since it is video conferencing. I always get really nervous before the course starts, but as soon I sign in and we get started I feel much more comfortable. It's actually a really great course that I would recommend to anyone thinking about going into full-time ministry or mission work. The company is called Kingdom Come Training and they do these video conferencing classes 4 days a week for 3 weeks, teaching you the Biblical bases for support raising and how to effectively cultivate and minister to your donors. Everyone I know hates raising money, but this has really helped to change my perspective. Sure I still get nervous thinking about talking to people about giving, but it's getting better.

And for the rest of my day? The only thing planned is the Bachelorette finale! Every girl in America will be watching and I'm just as engrossed in this twisted version of romance as the next. Personally I want Ed to win so Kiptyn can be the next Bachelor, but rumors are circulating that Reid is back too. I wasn't a Reid fan at first, but he started growing on me, and I kinda think he and Jillian would make a good couple too. Can't wait to see who she picks!

a week in the life

Lately I've been pretty lazy about posting and I think that needs to change. Nothing's worse (okay there are a lot of things that are worse..) than a blog that hasn't been updated in like a month. So in order to remedy this problem I've challenged myself to write for the next seven days. I don't have anything in particular to write about, but I think that's okay. This is my blog and if I want to write about nothing I can do that. I even think it might be better. Before I thought I had to have an idea or a theme or an event to write about, those are good ideas, but let's face it - life in Monahans can be pretty boring and if I just wait for something to happen to be able to post then I'll end up with a pretty sparse blog. So here we go, day one...

Last night I was talking to my friend Garrett about my blog and he suggested that I put questions up for my readers to answer. I told him I thought that was lame because no one will answer them and then I'll just feel dumb. But, I don't really have any better ideas... so I'm going to not only steal his idea, but also his question. Which profession could you never marry? He said he couldn't marry a mortician. I get that it's kinda weird but it's definitely not a deal breaker. Sure, it's not the most glamorous job, but there's good job security. People always die. I had two answers - I could never marry a mime, and I could never marry a poet. I know that if I married a mime he would probably wash his makeup off and talk while we are at home, but it's still a creepy job. What's even the point of mimes? And poets! First of all, he'd be really emotional and sensitive. Not a bad thing, but I get creeped out by gushy stuff and he'd probably want to write me poems all the time and I don't know how to respond to that. What if I don't like it? What if I don't understand his analogy? I'm supposed to just pretend like it's beautiful even though I have no idea what he's talking about. I can't deal with that.

So now that I've answered this is the place in my entry where I ask you to answer the question and no one but Garrett responds... What profession could you never marry?

SHAMON!

I realize I am like a week behind the rest of the world, but I still would like to have a blog post dedicated to the king of pop. I've been thinking about this for a few days and I think the best way I know how to commemorate the life and death of MJ is to compile my top five favorite Michael Jackson songs. So now without further ado, my Jackson Five...

5. ABC - At this point, all Michael Jackson songs are classics, but there is something about this one that I particularly enjoy. It's such a sweet, simple song - a reminder of Michael before plastic surgery and Neverland, just an extremely talented little boy.

4. Dirty Diana - Switching gears just a tad. I love this one because it's rough and hard hitting.

3. I'll Be There - Just a beautiful song.

2. Man In The Mirror - This is a recent addition to the list, but even so it made it all the way to number two.

1. Will You Be There - Yes. It's the Free Willy Song. I'm not sure if it's the song I like so much or the movie, but both bring back lots of good memories and I think that's what a song should do. My brother and I were borderline obsessed with Free Willy, I had a whale necklace that I wore, and we made my grandma adopt a whale in our name (her name was Princess). This song was

just the icing on the cake, I still love it!

the vault

About Me

I'm a recent college grad living at home, trying to figure out what's next.

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birthday boy