Winter Wonderland?

In the southern half of the united states, how often does it snow on Christmas? In my experience, very rarely. And since I now live in Texas, the chances really seemed to slim down. Well, we got a white Christmas here in Dallas! It was so great. Two days later and everything is still white. I was able to make snow angels with the brother and even threw some snowballs!

Christmas here was great. We had cinnamon rolls, opened presents youngest to oldest, and watched Katelyn's newest movie 27 Dresses. We had ham for dinner with all the normal stuff you have with a holiday meal. I successfully made Grandma's cranberry relish, yay! And Katelyn made some interesting chocolate pies :) Now your life is complete, as you know all the details of my Christmas day.

Today is an exciting day for me though, I'm leaving this evening for my 2 week trip around the world. I'm headed over with 3 other college friends and we'll be working at a school in a small village. I'm all a jitter! 11.5 hour time difference, 20 hours of travel one-way, teaching english, eating lots of different foods. It's gonna be crazy! I'll have lots of stories to tell when I get back, I'm sure. So, the blog will be down until I get back, but then check back for posts and pictures!

Christmas Traditions

I'm halfway through Christmas break, I'm sitting here listening to my favorite acoustic bands, and am staring at our Christmas tree. A Christmas tree that is almost naked. One of my absolute favorite traditions is decorating the tree. This year we (my parents) are hanging on pretty tight to the traditions that pull us together as a family and the current state of our tree is a testament to that fact. See, we are still waiting for Katelyn to get home for break. Law school doesn't get out until today, so we've been anxiously awaiting the time when all of us are going to finally be home. And since I am leaving the country next week, the total time we will all be here is only 5 days. But back to the Christmas tree, my favorite part. I'm not sure how this tradition started, but every year each of us children get an ornament, and yep we have one from age zero to now. Christmas decorating starts by getting everyone together, starting the Christmas music playing, and putting the hot chocolate on the stove. For many years, the one thing we could count on was our youngest sister crying at some point during the decorating. Unfortunately, she is growing out of that, so Katelyn and I will probably no longer take bets on how long before she loses it.
It all starts with 1988, the year Katelyn was born. She places her first 2 ornaments until the glorious year of 1990 when I arrived on the scene and the world changed for the better. We continue through the years, mom handing us the ornaments one by one til we get to Josh and finally Cassaundra. Oldest to youngest, year by year. We fight for the best positions on the tree, and by the time we get to the current year, there is absolutely no room for another ornament. I guess it's a good thing that Katelyn and I are getting ready to officially move out - our tree can't handle many more additions to the ornament collection. And probably Cassaundra's ornaments deserve a little bit of time at the front of the tree :) But for now, we're just enjoying the naked fake tree.

Happiness and Cheer

It's Christmas time again, but this year it's different. Basically the only thing that has remained unchanged is Christmas itself - lots of decorations, lots of traffic, and the joyful reminder of Christ humbling himself to come and live on earth. I'm also feeling the effects of overdosing on Christmas music in years past. The cheesy songs don't seem to have the same appeal this year, or maybe it's just that the weather is especially warm this year so the Christmas spirit is a little more mild than usual. This year has been a year of major changes, and next year brings even bigger ones. I guess I'm not used to the feeling that Christmas is this season that happens despite the whirlwind of life going on around it. And fortunately, I'm still a college student so life halts for about a month. I really get to sit back, take inventory of life and take time to stop and smell the Christmas trees.

So what's new this Christmas? The biggest change is location. My parents moved this summer so now instead of "going home", I "go to my parents' place" (except don't tell them I said that). Yes, there will always be a sense of home where my parents are, but I'm from South Carolina, not Texas. So as a family we have been asking what is it that makes Christmas for us? For me, it's Christmas decorations (most importantly the tree), and just being here. Plus, since I graduate in May and Katelyn also finishes law school, my parents are facing the fact that we probably won't ever have a Christmas where we are all home for an extended period of time. Talk about pressure to make this a good Christmas! Don't get me wrong, we love Christmas and it's always a great time of year, but I can sense this underlying seriousness when my parents talk about plans. Oh how I love my parents, they're great.

I also threw a wrench in their plans when I decided to leave two days after Christmas for a trip to Southeast Asia (if you want more details than that, it'll have to be in person). I'll be gone for 2 weeks, half of my Christmas break. I could have jumped on the plane a month ago! But my parents definitely needed some time to warm up to the idea. I've been doing a lot of prepping for this trip and they have enjoyed (well I think they have) being a part of it. They might even be excited for me now! Packing will commence soon and then it's finishing all the little details for international traveling. I sure do hope that this is a regular thing I get to do. I should have been an international business major. Except not really. Business suits are too stuffy for this free spirit.

So Christmas is coming just the same as it did last year. I know I'm a different person, but that makes these timeless traditions feel all the more special. And dang, I'm really feeling like an adult now.

Back? Maybe

The first sentence of a blog post is the hardest for me :) But now I'm past it, so yay. I took a long break from blogging (obviously). I was sick of forcing myself to write and I didn't think I would miss it. But guess what, I did! Will I be consistent at writing? I haven't any idea. I would like to be, but I'm sick of promising a new post but never delivering. So instead of setting expectations for myself and trying to live up to them, I'm just not setting any expectations so that we can be happy with whatever I deliver. That is such a great philosophy to live by!! NOT!!!

I am in the last days of my second-to-last semester of college. I am FREAKING out. A lot. This has been I think the best semester I've had yet. And I thought freshman year was gonna be pretty hard to beat. I love that in college it is so easy to neatly place life in seasons and sections. Last year I figured out a lot about myself. This year has been figuring out what that looks like exactly and living it out. SO. MUCH.FUN! I've learned so much in these past three months. I've tried a lot of new things, God has really been teaching and stretching me, and I feel like my perspective on life is changing for the better. But I'm having trouble letting go. And this isn't even the end yet. But moving on! I'm trying so hard not to be sappy and mushy all the time. And I'm trying not to ramble - maybe that should be something I work on. But maybe not. I don't know. Should I set goals to improve my blog writing? hmm. oh. rambling.

Joy. Trust. Faith. Grace. These things have been key in this semester. I have had an incredible amount of Joy recently and it can only come from God. One of the coolest things in life for me is seeing tangible ways that God fulfills his promises. And He has definitely given me an indescribably joy - about life, about the future, about people, everything. But idk what I would have done without that, because this whole semester has been God saying "hey Jo, do you trust me? Oh you think you do? Well, what if this happens?" So yeah. Don't get me wrong - nothing major major happened. Just a bunch a bunch of medium-sized things. And since I have a tendency towards the dramatic, life is that much more interesting. Anyways, I have learned that trusting God isn't just patiently waiting for something you know is going to happen. It's having absolutely no idea and actually believing that whatever happens will be good. It's SOOOOO easy to know it or think it. But actually living it is hard - actually letting go of worry and anxiety is something different. But yeah, God wants to tangibly take away my freaking out. I just gotta let Him! I'm losing control, that's all.

So welcome back into my life! Go give someone a high-five :)

The leaves aren't changing yet :(

Sometimes I get confused. Sometimes I think the class time starts a lot early than it actually does. Sometimes I sit outside my class for 20 minutes just waiting. Haha. That is definitely what I am doing this morning.

It's been a weird week. I think the humidity is messing with the clarity of my mind. Yes, it's been super humid, which means bad hair. PLUS, over the weekend we had beautiful fall weather, then it jumped back into the 90s and I was not prepared. At all.

Anyways, I am totally rambling and as a (pretend) blogger I feel like that's a big no no. So. FALL. That is what I want to talk about. No, not falling and tripping (which I've been doing a lot of), but the season. It's definitely my favorite time of year. At least it is right now. I finally tried a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte this morning so I feel like I am officially in fall. It was so good!! Now I understand why people talk about it all the time! I also bought stuff yesterday to make pumpkin butter. Yay! I've never made it before. And to be honest, I'm not even sure exactly what you do with it. But I saw the picture on Pinterest and I couldn't pass it up. I've been dying to branch out and start baking some new things and fall is the perfect time for that. Apple pies and pumpkin things. Hooray! After my recital I really will be baking (and eating) things all the time. I unfortunately have to stay focused until the 15th though. But then I'll share some recipes, woohoo!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

This is the highlight of my day:

Yep! Gummy worms! I entered this certain food establishment planning to get just a bottle of juice to accompany my homemade sandwich, but I was surprised by candy. I literally gasped and said aloud "gummy worms!" I hadn't been into this place since it was renovated and I had no idea that there is now a bulk candy section. And I feel like it probably would have been best if I had remained clueless. They have jelly beans, and chocolate, and even milkshakes! Obviously the milkshakes aren't in the candy section. I just love the little things that make a day great.

Plus, it was my day of seeing almost everyone I know (and even meeting new people) on campus. Nothing makes a Monday swell like getting to talk to peeps and eat candy. Hooray. Tomorrow is Tuesday, my first day of class in the week :( But I'm not staying up late to do homework because it's done! Good for me I guess, haha.

The recital countdown is on!! Exactly 3 weeks from this moment I will have performed my final Baylor recital and will be almost ready for graduation. Cra-cray! I'm feeling little twinges of stress as I write this, but mostly I am excited. Poster pictures are taken, now I just have to design them and get them printed!! My recital hearing should be soon, and then it's just party planning for the reception! And of course lots and lots of practicing, duh. 'Night!

Musings

So like I said, I am working on discipline. And of course this week has just completely slipped through my fingers. So I didn't post like I planned to! Haha. I had an awesome conversation tonight with a friend that got me thinking about life. I've taken to walking with friends at night, it's really a great way to hang out and it's free and fun. Tonight we had to run from some sprinklers and I kept having to dodge moths and crickets.

Anyways. Life. There are two things in my life that sometimes almost paralyze me: fear and perfectionism. Actually, they kind of are the same thing. And I feel like its a universal feeling too. I tell myself that I want to live the best life I can live. I'll be disciplined, productive, have deep relationships with lots of people, I'll take care of myself and learn to be an outgoing person. I'll grow my relationship with Christ and have it all together all the time. And these are all good things. But there's a problem that I too often run into. Life is messy and I'm not anywhere near perfect. So I spend my time doing little reformations in my life and thinking about how my life can be the best. I mean, reform is good. Sanctification is completely vital. But I focus way too much on how to improve my life instead of how to live it right now as it is, mess and all.

Take my future plans for example. I'm looking at several different options of what to do after I graduate. I am terrified of making the wrong choice or a bad choice or doing something that will ruin the rest of my life (that last one especially marks a lack of faith). And it's affecting how I live right now because I'm trying to figure out the perfect way to prepare for next year. Do I do this or that, or what if I decide I want to do X at the last minute, how can I prep for that? Okay, I'm starting to go too deep into my issues.

Point is, what my friend says is right. I am a new creation and creation is meant to live. Jesus came for me to have an abundant life. Right now. As I am. I'll make mistakes, do stupid things, sometimes get it right. But if I don't live right now to love and serve Him, my life is more wasted than if I have to take the long route to where I'm going. So. Live! Pray for guidance, soak up God's word, and live boldly. And hold me accountable for doing the same.

The Artistic Life

I came into senior year truly thinking that I had stuff mostly figured out. I knew who I was, what I wanted to do with my life, and had this beautiful (and might I add boring) picture of what this year would be like. Haha, if you ever catch yourself thinking those kinds of things, brace yourself! Life is much more interesting than you ever think it will be, and I think that God likes surprises. And I am so glad. While I hate waiting, and I don't like not knowing what's going on, and I especially have a hard time not being in control, if my life actually followed the ideal picture in my head, I would miss out on so much!

I'm a month into this last year of college and it's been (for lack of a better word) crazy. I dropped a class the first week of school, which means I am taking the minimum 12 hours. I planned to not accompany much, but have thrown that plan out the window because I've realized just how much I love playing with people! I need to keep the little bit of sanity that I have and always only practicing my own music by myself is the quickest way to start losing it :)

I also went from car-driving fiend ("I am such a good driver!"), to a bus-taking, walking-to-class hipster because I was in a wreck. It's a little frustrating to have to get a ride everywhere, and sometimes I feel trapped in my condo, but it's been getting cooler and my walks in the morning are always quite peaceful. I just crank up the ne-yo and neon trees in my earphones and I'm good to go, sometimes I dance-walk a little when no one's around.

My biggest realization of the semester though, is how terribly much I fit into the stereotype of an "artist". I've spent my whole college career trying to maintain a little normalcy in my life so that I could say that I'm not like most music majors. I love music majors and all, I was just trying to avoid the label of it. Welllll. My summer put me over the edge and I will now confidently say that I am a musician. Someone the other day was apologizing for being a little crazy, then said "oh wait, you're a music major, so you're really crazy, it's all good." Haha, I could do nothing but laugh and assure him that I try to hide it at first, but yes I'm crazy. I'll sing whatever I'm thinking, I'll spaz out and start daydreaming in the middle of a conversation, I don't sit still, and sometimes I just laugh at everything. (I LOVE anti-jokes) I'll talk about classical music all day if there's someone to listen (and even when there's not). An unsuspecting person asked me a music question yesterday and I started talking super fast and probably gave way too much information, but it was a happy moment for me. I also lack discipline and am a little (ok maybe a lot) unorganized. Someone today sent me an article on how to be disciplined as an artist, I'm a little scared but I know I NEED to read and apply it. Fortunately I live with people who accepted my craziness long before I did. And sometimes they serve as a buffer for things ;)

I'm also working on the best way to do this blog. My scatter-brained-ness means sometimes I just neglect this. But I've been given some ideas that I will hopefully be implementing soon!! Yippee!

Laughing

Today I made a lot of joyful laughing noises. It was one of those days where you just laugh at yourself a lot. It was a super day, but I feel like it could have been a comedy show. I probably won't do justice to the humor in this post, but I'll do my best.

The morning started off badly with two almost dead bugs in the kitchen that I had to deal with. One upside-down cockroach with wiggling legs, and one cricket that may or may not have been dead (I smashed it just in case). Gross. And then I had to eat breakfast. Ah well, that's what happens when you live with someone who won't touch the bugs and just leaves them lying there :) I then proceeded to leave the house without an umbrella. At the time, I did not realize that that was going to cause a problem. ha. ha. ha. How little I knew.

I enjoyed a cancelled class this morning, which really kicked off my day nicely. That meant I sat in class merely 3 times this week! Oh the joys of senior year! I was a good little girl and spent the morning in the practice room...sorta. I went to get coffee and ended up staying and talking to a friend and that cut out a good chunk of the time I had alloted to practice. By then, the clouds were rolling in and I had to face the fact that I was probably going to get really wet by the end of the day. That time came after lunch when I had to go to the library. It was POURING. Really really pouring. Maddie graciously offered to walk me over to the library and let me share her umbrella. After making sure she would get major roomie points and one of the scones I was going to bake. Haha, with how hard it was raining, the umbrella only kept about a quarter of each of us dry. We also had to cross a flooded street. Somehow, water does not drain on campus and the one street we had to cross had literally become a river. There was no way around it. So we jumped/waded across the current and almost collapsed from laughing. We made it to the library and took a video to commemorate the situtation:

I rounded out the day with a class and a rehearsal. Drinking coffee before class always makes for an interesting experience. I really should steer clear of that. The caffeine just gives me jitters and makes me prone to laugh out loud at the comments of my neighbors. Not the best thing in a class of 8. I also learned the valuable life lesson of "look before you sit". Yes, yes I sat down at the piano and someone had moved the bench WAY far back and I missed it. I did catch the edge of it though and I have a nice little bruise on my rear. So the screams from the practice room were just me, no one was getting killed. I'm home safe now - thank goodness! I made my scones and while I almost burned them, they really turned out perfect. I did have to vacuum in addition to cleaning the counters - I made quite the mess. Now to tackle dinner...

Perspective

It's amazing what two days can do for my perspective. I always go into the weekend worn out and drained, so by Monday I am usually felling better. Yesterday I had to take a test for my piano literature class, but after that was over, I was home free! The joy of no class on Monday is not homework on Sunday!! So today was wonderful. I got up and walked to campus because it was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MORNING. It was chilly and a breezy and sunny. So amazing. The only small hiccup in my day was the cricket in my practice room. How dare him! I wanted to peek out into the hallway and see if there was anyone who would come and smash him, but I just let him crawl away. ick. He didn't jump on me so I let him live.

I spent most of the day practicing and preparing for my piano lesson this evening. I am playing the most amazing sonata ever! But it's going to be the death of me. There is so much depth and detail in the music and I am struggling so much with it. It's a piece by Nikolai Medtner, a Russian 20th-century composer. I absolutely LOVE music from that time period and that area of the world. But it is SO complex! And since I don't understand the culture, there is much to be learnt from the music. The mood, the character, the feeling, the humor and the intensity all have to be understood in a certain context. And I am blessed to be taking from a teacher who gets it and helps me understand. This evening she was telling me how a student she taught this summer who was from a communist country was able to understand the piece so much easier. Well, I am obviously not from that part of the world, so I have a lot more learning to do. But it's good! And I enjoy it so much. My lessons always stress me out a lot, but sometimes I feel like they're worth it. (sometimes)

I also ran tonight! I am loving my new shoes! Though I'm getting a blister on the arch of my foot :( But that's normal I guess, so I'll get over it. I accidentally ran my first mile at 8:33, which was TOO fast, but finished the second mile at 18:20. So the second mile was almost 10 minutes. Pacing is something I should maybe work on? Also! My shoes are Adidas, which RGIII represents! So I feel like a real Baylor girl getting me some Adidas gear. But yeah, they're gonna be good. Hopefully all my shin issues will continue to go away - I think not running too fast will help that also. I'm finishing off the night in the kitchen with my roomies. After watching the premier of The Voice, we put on the Train Pandora station and I baked cookie bars for our MC tomorrow night. I have awesome roommates who will dance to the music with me as I stir the cookie dough :)I'd lie if I said I wasn't anxious about the start of all the Church stuff. I tell ya, this year really is stretching my people skills. So tomorrow as a co-leader of this group, I will be welcoming and meeting a bunch of new people! But that's tomorrow, I've gotta squeeze the last little bit of life out of this day!

When Life is Out of My Control

Well guys, after my unintentional month long break from blogging, I have decided to come back! Life is a little topsy turvy right now, so pardon my sometimes heavy, sometimes confusing posts that I'm sure will come. First off, I'm a senior. And it's scary. My rock-solid plan is starting to fall through and my "12 hrs is easy!" semester is quickly getting filled up! I came into this year wanting to spend my time really building relationships and friendships, and I'm doing a bad job. To the people I've blown off already or those that I haven't quite been super friendly to: I'm sorry! All that to say, I am super pumped about this year. God is at work - in my life, in the lives of my friends, and all around - and that brings a smile to my face no matter what my day holds. Not to say I haven't had any breakdowns already, but at least I'm living life to the fullest - I'm sure feeling ALL the emotions.

In addition to school I am taking an active part in my Church this year and I am sooo excited. I'm having the opportunity to invest in people and also be discipled by older/wiser people. I'm also joining the worship band!! I'll be playing keyboard occasionally during college hour. I feel rather unqualified and not cool enough, but I'm secretly really excited :) Also somehow I feel like so many people are all of a sudden crossing paths with me - and I love it! I've had the chance to meet a bunch of new freshmen and I'm also being able to spend more time with people I've known for a while but never really got to spend time with. I just want to give up school and hang out with people! So this year will be about learning to be a people person - learning how to talk and carry a conversation ;) , remembering to text/talk to people, going all-in for relationships. That last one is hard. Too often I worry that people don't actually like me, so I stay guarded and awkward. But someone once told me that if you never feel pain you aren't loving well. So here's to loving well!

I'm also going back in time to when I didn't have a car. The wonderful vehicle that I was given in February is sitting right now in a wrecker lot. I was hit a couple weeks ago and my car had to be towed, there was no way I was driving it home. Thankfully no one was injured! But my poor car will probably never be driven again. Considering it's worth $500, we're pretty sure the insurance will total it when they finally get their act together and take care of my claim. So for now I am car-less and am having the joy of asking people for rides all the time. I went to clean my bike today and start using it, but my tires don't hold air anymore. FIGURES! haha, at least it cooled off somewhat this weekend so that walking is more enjoyable.

So! Senior year has started out with a bang! It's been fun - dancing, movies, climbing on bridges, great conversations, lots of froyo. And it's been crazy - car wrecks, forgetting assignments, unintentionally ignoring people, and firefox crashing about 20 times. Also much running! My goals are a 10k at thanksgiving and a half marathon in March! There's no stress reliever like pounding the pavement. So here goes a life-changing year!

I've had the most amazing summer anyone could ever have

Guys. I can't even put into words how happy, blessed, amazed I feel right now. I am currently driving to my new home with my family from our family reunion in Arizona. It's pretty much the end of my summer. I leave for school in a week, so this week will be spent unpacking, resting, and packing again. I need to wind down and prepare for senior year. But I'm going to this "home" I've never been to, so hopefully I will be able to find some peace and rest.

I made it home from Europe in one piece - despite leaving 2 days early - and was picked up and taken care of by my bestie Olivia. The last few days in Innsbruck were spent preparing for the final recital and doing a good bit of shopping. I went way overboard on souvenirs. And since I skipped out on the trip to Italy, I bought myself a cute outfit - yay! Friday night I spent in Munich at a Marriott and it was wonderful! I received free room service, wifi, and breakfast - in addition to a comfy bed and a tv on which to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The next day I made my flight (upgraded to economy comfort!), made it through customs really easily, and arrived home in the U.S. super happy to be here. Though I miss Europe incredibly much!

Monday I had a couple doctors appointments that went not so great - but I was so glad to be at MY doctor who was an American, haha. My family was already in Arizona at the reunion so I was still on my own, but my friends took really good care of me. Tuesday the three of us hung out then I went to the airport - I was SO ready to get to my family!! Well, I arrived in Nashville to find a 3 hour delay - I almost lost it there in the gate area. But I eventually made it to Phoenix where my dad was waiting and then we headed to the resort after stopping for burgers at In-N-Out.

The family reunion was with my dad's parents and 5 of his 8 sisters. I had SUCH a great half week there. It was soooo good to see family that live far away. And I got to hang out with my cousins that I get to see far too infrequently. We hiked, played cards, had wii dance and karaoke tournaments and went out for icees. I drove my cousin's truck, we won a game of pool, and we made giant s'mores. And some of us stayed up talking til 4 this morning. Good times. AND I'm still Ross's favorite. Wow. All in all I feel so very loved after the reunion.

After I get home and upload pictures and such I will post a Europe trip re-cap. So many amazing experiences that I can't wait to share!

A Little Update

Hi guys, I had such an adventure yesterday that I have to share. I got up in the morning and decided to go back to the doctor to get some stronger medicine for this migraine that won't go away. Unfortunately, migraine medicine is really difficult to get a hold of. All I want is some excedrin! Anyways, the doctor seemed concerned that the meds he gave me earlier didn't help and that I was still having some vision problems. So he sent me to the hospital. Yep. When he first said that, I almost laughed out loud because I thought he was joking, then when it hit me I just about burst into tears. But I maintained composure and asked if I should just wait til I get to the states on Monday. No, he wants to know right away. So I spent my morning yesterday in the neurological ER here in Innsbruck. I received a full neurological examination, blood work and an MRI. I came away with no bruise on my arm from the IV, which is amazing because I always get HUGE bruises on my arm whenever I get blood drawn. Anyways, everything was of course absolutely normal. So they wanted me to stay at least one might in the hospital for observation. Ha! No way José. Fortunately they let me sign something and leave - with zero charges. Everything was free. I was so shocked. The whole time I was there I couldn't stop thinking about how much damage I was going to do on my dads emergency credit card because of a stupid headache. But thanks to European socialized medicine, I haven't had to pull out the plastic yet. They gave me some kind of medicine through the IV that made the rest of the day seem like a blur though. I was so drowsy and out of it, I slept pretty much from 5pm to 8 this morning with a nap earlier in the afternoon too. Anyways, my European experience has included the health care system, so I'm getting a well-rounded picture I guess. I do have to say that God is watching out because it's possible my doctor at home would want an MRI when I get back, and my family is between insurance. So I might as well get it done while its free!

I only have a couple days left here and I am going to do my best to enjoy it. On my to-do list is: get apple strudel, get gelato, buy souvenirs/gifts, get an item of European clothing. I think that's it. Oh, and stay out of the hospital, haha.

Hello! So much for a travel blog, right? Internet does not work at my hostel so I have been stuck checking emails real quick at the bus stop! So that means no access to blog! I am here in Innsbruck for the piano academy and it is going really well. I have been dealing with migraines though which has been incredibly frustrating. But the mountains are amazing and I am enjoying all the time simply dedicated to piano playing. I'm getting excited for my senior recital! Anyways, Austria is lovely and I will post more if I get a chance. There are so many stories to tell!

Vienna is lovely

Oh how I love it here! It is the end of day 3 in Vienna and I have one day left to enjoy the city. I have crammed as much as possible into my time here and I am exhausted! So far my favorite thing has just been walking around. All the buildings are beautiful but then you turn a corner and run into something magnificent! Today I did some shopping. I just walked around a few of the different main shopping streets and came home with a couple souvenirs. I also walked around the park that's right next to my hotel and saw the golden statue of Johann Strauss.

I am beginning to get comfortable with getting around and doing things like ordering food. Yesterday I told my brother that the worst thing here was trying to eat. Restaurants here are confusing! I went into one the first night I was here and stood at the front for several minutes and no one seated me. So I left. The next day I figured you just sit down, so I did. Well no one ever came to get my order. So I left again, haha. Since that I've stuck to cafes mostly. I don't even need English anymore to get food :) though I still pretty much feel stupid all of the time. Oh well. People are mostly nice and helpful.

Also, I finally checked out the executive lounge today. Since Dad booked my reservation and he is platinum level at the Hilton, I am enjoying the executive floor and all its privileges. That includes free food and drink upstairs in the lounge. Sweet!

Okay, I'm going to sleep now so that I can get the most out of tomorrow. I might cry when I have to leave.

Europe

Internet access is limited until I get to Innsbruck on Sunday, so my blogs will be short. I'm about to go to dinner so here is the email I sent to my parents last night when I got in.

Well I made it! What a stinkin long flight! And I could NOT sleep. So much for depriving myself last night so that I would be tired. And then the 3 hour wait for the 4 hour train ride. But! I am safe in the Hotel now.
I have to say, it was a little frightening trying to get around at first. SO many people just came up to me talking German and I just panic-like said "English". Haha. Maybe I don't scream tourist? Doubt it. And I'm pretty sure I got lectured on the S-bahn, though I have no idea why because I couldn't understand her then she walked off. I think it was cuz I had my feet on the empty seat across from me. Woops.
I got to walk around Vienna some this evening in the rain trying to find food. But I have figured out the subway and even helped two ppl who asked me for help! Haha. SO many ppl just come up to me and start speaking German.

Yep that was basically my day. I could share all the little details - but that would be a lot!

Today I visited schöbrunn palace an walked through the gardens. It was great. Now I am just exploring the city on foot. I ran into Beethoven and Goethe statues! And got up the courage to go into shops (with a grüss gott greeting) and a grocery store. I got chocolate and "juicy water". Hooray! Also I found out that the film festival will be showing der freischutz and the phantom of the opera the next two nights. Exciting! Okay, that's all for now. Check out my instagram for pics: jocelise

Guest Post!!

Hey guys, here's another GREAT post from my good friend and roommate. I absolutely love what she is saying here! Enjoy!

Bonjour. I really don’t know any French besides “hello.”  Actually, that’s a lie.  I can say ham sandwich. “Croque monsiour.” If I’m feeling really adventurous, I can say “ham sandwich with cheese.” “Croque monsior con fromage.”  But that’s it. “Hello” and “ham sandwich.”

So. How was your day? I really want you to think about this question.  I’m not asking it in the passing sort of I-don’t-know-what-to-say-to-you-because-I-wasn’t-expecting-to-see-you-so-I’m-going-to-politely-ask-you-how-your-day-was-and-hope-you-don’t-answer-with-something-more-than-good kind of way.

 I’m really asking you, “How was your day?”

 Did you smile at a stranger?  Did you pick up that piece of trash on the ground, saving the life of an innocent squirrel who would have mistaken it for an afternoon snack?  Did you pause for a few minutes to admire the beauty of nature?  Did you make a difference in the world?

 I think we often live too much for day-to-day.  We say we are living in the present, living life to the fullest, yada yada yada...but are we? I know I’m not.  I wake up, go to class, come home, eat lunch, meet this person, meet that person, make dinner, activity #1 from this time to this time, TV show from this time to this time, clean my desk, get ready for bed, set alarm, recharge for next day.  I plan everything.  Now, I’m not telling you to go and be spontaneous and jump off a bridge...I don’t want to be responsible for any injuries.  But, I am asking you to examine your life. 

 A quote that often inspires me is, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.”  I think that’s incredibly motivating.  It’s not saying, “Do one thing everyday that compromises your morals and puts you at a higher risk for a premature death.” One thing that scares you.  Saying hi to somebody scares me.  It doesn’t matter if I know the person or not.  The same questions run through my head when I am confronted with the opportunity to say hi to somebody: “What if they don’t see me?” “What if other people see the person not say hi to me and think I have no friends?” “What if the person says hi to me only because they feel sorry for me?” “What if they’re embarrassed to be associated with me?”  It seems almost silly, typing out all of these dumb things that roll through my head.  Sometimes I just want to flick my little inner conscience and give it a bag of chocolate.  Tell it to be a little more positive.  Really, who cares what they think of me?  I should be thinking about how I can brighten their day by saying hi to them.  I need to do my one thing that is scary so that they have the courage to do theirs.

 So, that’s all I’ve got for you.  How was your day? Did you do something that scared you? Will you wake up tomorrow ready to carpe some diem?  I hope so, ‘cause I’ll be right there with you. :)

~Maddie

More baking!

It seems that baking is all I post about nowadays. But it's basically all I do nowadays. Baking is one of two things that keeps me sane. The other is running. I feel like they balance each other out really well too. Bake, eat, go run. Repeat. Fortunately I have been able to cook dinner for the family so not all of my time in the kitchen is spent making people fat from sugar! I pride myself in finding delicious meals that everyone will love. Well, actually that's completely false. All of my family are picky picky eaters, so I basically cook what I want and mom makes them eat it. It's a pretty good deal! She even does the grocery shopping so that literally all I do is cook :)

Let's see. Before I get to the food. This week is the week of crazy. The family leaves in 7 days - ONE WEEK! Which means Europe happens in 2 weeks. The to-do list includes: buying one last train ticket, stocking up on last minute things I need before heading out of the country, PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE, pack, bake, pack, practice, fill in the backyard pond, clean the car, blog. And watch the olympic trials and Wimbledon. Fortunately the trials are only on for an hour a day, so I won't have to miss a ton of it. And its only the first rounds of Wimbledon, so I can miss those. haha, the problems of a lazy summer.

But I do have to share two things. If you ever have the chance to try Ethiopian food, DO IT! My mom grew up in Ethiopia so I have enjoyed Injera and Wat for a long time. But some family friends just adopted from there and so we went out for Ethiopian food last week. Gosh it is so dang delicious. And Ethiopians know how to make coffee too. No cream needed, and that coming from me who has to have half and half, not milk. Second! I mentioned summer TV in my previous post. If you need a laugh, check out The Choice on NBC Thursday nights at 9pm est. I've only watched it once so far, but we were dying! It was so great. Take Me Out is another dating show that's on just before it. Also funny and worth a watch, though not as great as The Choice. Okay, done rambling, now to food.

My favorite recipe so far is actually one I made for dinner. This is delicious. Baked Salmon with Garlic and Dijon. And it is SO easy and takes no time at all. The only thing I would change is next time I am going to marinate the salmon in the sauce for a while. The flavor is delicious but could have been stronger, the thicker parts of the salmon weren't as flavorful. Anyways, this one's a winner. AND fish is super good for you!

My fail of the week was chocolate chip cookie dough bites. The idea kinda sounded good, but I didn't think it through. Basically it is cookie dough that you are supposed to roll up (aka touch all of it with your hands), refrigerate, then eat. But the dough wasn't that good, apparently without eggs it gets pretty grainy. And you can only eat so much dough. Definitely won't be making that one again.

Another delicious dinner recipe is these chicken rolls. Yummy! I haven't tried the mozzarella variant, but that is on my list. And top it off with a snack of caramel marshmallow popcorn, but only if you have a major sweet tooth! Seriously it was SO sugary.

So there you go! A peek at my week, some good recipes, and some bad recipes.

I love summer TV shows

Life. It has been really really crazy. Not the busy, hectic crazy. Just completely oddball. haha. First of all, I get home from school last month and I am told that my family is moving halfway across the country this summer! Talk about the summer not being what was expected! They gave themselves a little over a month to pack up and will be moving in the next 2 weeks. So right now the house is full of boxes and is looking emptier and emptier. It's um, weird. We moved here when I was 11, so almost exactly ten years ago. While it was hard then, I didn't realize quite all that moving means. It's strange to just pick up, leave everything, and plop down in the middle of somewhere new and try to insert yourself into people's lives. I mean, for me this move doesn't have a big effect. Things will be different, but other people are having a lot harder of a time than I am. So yeah, life here has been quite unpredictable!

I was just talking to a friend and telling her how this summer has been nothing at all like I had hoped or planned. And it really hasn't. I had this nice picture of what the summer would look like. It included having a job, practicing hours and hours and day, spending lots of quality time with my family, and hanging out with my friends a TON. I think I miscalculated how many hours are in a day. Because I don't have a job and I'm doing about half of the rest of the stuff. Fortunately I have been able to spend a lot of time with friends. I have the MOST amazing friends here. I don't know why they are so good to me. And I guess I spend a lot of time with my family too! I've been doing a lot of travel planning too. Although I was hoping to have a job so that I could really throw away money in Europe, I am learning to live on a budget. God has provided I think not a penny more than I absolutely need. Which is to say that God has provided! I am working on a detailed itinerary of what I plan to do for my 4 days in Vienna, including coffee shops to visit and (cheap) restaurants to eat at. And it's amazing how many things you can do for free in Vienna!

Let's see, piano is stressing me out like usual also. It is so hard to keep my focus where it needs to be. I don't play piano to be the best or to impress people. I play piano because I absolutely love music and what music can do. Yes, I want to be good and I want to do well, but if that's what motivates me, I'm in a scary spot. Yeah, sometimes I go to bed feeling a little sick to my stomach about how much I didn't practice. I just need to keep my motivation healthy. I'm also playing for an Episcopal service on July 1st. I'd never been to a sunday episcopal service before last week - it is definitely different than the baptist stuff that I'm used to! There's a lot of pressure on the music leader, basically I could ruin the whole service. AND I am running the choir rehearsal before the service. What?! I feel so unqualified - but I guess I still have the job so it's all ok! I'll have to let you know how it goes.

I tried out some new recipes this week too! I'll share my successes and failures with you in the next post!

Eating and Exercising

These two things are what take up most of my time nowadays. I'm even sitting here eating a peach! I've been doing some cooking and baking lately, right now I've got a coffee cake in the oven. So yes, eating and exercising with a little reading and piano mixed in there.

Thanks to my Y membership I have been able to work on my running despite my shin splints. Right now I'm just working on distance. My goal for the summer is to get my base mileage up to around 4 miles. I also hope to get to a point where I can't not run, so that when school starts I have some kind of motivation. It's one thing to run in the summer when there's not much to do, but it's another to keep at it when you're doing homework at night instead of sleeping! I've also finally started getting to the pool to swim laps. As of now, I don't know that the triathlon in August will happen, but I want to get at least a little ready so I can train without starting from scratch. Fortunately I have a workout buddy who gets me to the gym just about every day. For those of you reading who need motivation, well here's a little encouragement. Get out there and get sweaty!! It feels great :)

So onto food! I've only fixed a few things, but I have several recipes to try over the next week or so. I did make a delicious cobbler last night though! I found a recipe here that I used. I followed it exactly except I used mixed berries and definitely used more than called for. It was SUPER easy and turned out absolutely delicious. I would have taken a picture, but it was completely gobbled up in about 10 minutes. It was yummy.

Well stay tuned. There's lots going on here so I plan to post a life update soon!

Eventful!

I have a problem. Most of the time I want to blog and I don't have anything at all going on. But then stuff starts happening and I don't blog because by the time I think about sitting down, all I want to do is go to bed! I guess I'm just still trying to figure out this blogging thing. I've had a pretty eventful week, lots of fun things going on.

Last Sunday my Grandma came to visit and she leaves tomorrow. We've had such a good time talking and just hanging out. And this week has been one of the busiest of the summer, so she has been along for the ride. She has started a new exercise regime and I have happily joined her while she has been here. She's been kicking my butt! 2+ hours at the gym is more than I've ever done in a day, haha. She is a part of some program that allows her access to the YMCA here in town and since I am the only one who volunteered to work out with her, she got me a Y membership for the time I will be at home! They just finished building the new Y, so the facilities are great and there are lots of classes offered. I'm excited to start going to a couple classes a week. I'm thinking Pi-Yo and either Zumba or Butts & Guts. I will not be attending Zumba on my own, so that decision rests on whether my friend will go with me. AND I will be doing a little bit of triathlon training - I'll keep you posted!

The most exciting thing that happened was on Saturday Olivia and I went to Charleston for the day to celebrate her birthday! We left early, got back late and enjoyed shopping, the beach, dinner and dessert. And NOTHING went wrong!! We only made 2 U-turns, and the worst thing was Olivia got blisters (though it's because she bought new shoes and wore them out of the store). We enjoyed dinner on the water, we even got to sit on the porch, then went downtown to a sit-down dessert place. I got toll house pie with ice cream and Olivia enjoyed a cappuccino torte.

And finally, this morning I made the most amazing smoothie - and it was so easy! So here's my recipe:

JOCELYN'S SUMMER AMAZING SMOOTHIE

1 mango, peeled and cubed

1 medium peach - cut up

yogurt, plain unsweetened (could use greek?)

ice (optional)

chia seeds (optional)

Add yogurt to blender first, then dump in mango and peach. Blend! Add as much ice as you want. The more ice, the thicker. If you like more of a juice consistency, use less ice. Blend! I added about a tablespoon of chia seeds and didn't notice them at all. Blend! Enjoy!!

I could taste the mango and peach both perfectly. I didn't add any sugar or honey and it was quite sweet!

(I also just found out that my hotel room in Vienna includes a fluffy bathrobe!! How exciting!)

Here are pics:

Happy Memorial Day!

What a full week it has been! Literally all Thursday and Friday I spent cleaning my room. I have been going through old stuff and sorting stuff and throwing away LOTS of stuff. I have found recently that I really really love getting rid of stuff - whether it's donating it or taking it to the dumpster. I have filled almost 2 giant trash bags, plus a box of stuff to donate. So much happy!! I did find this treasure though:

I used to have several glass dolls - I never played with them, but I loved having them. But almost every single one of them had a foot broken off. I guess that was my trademark with dolls. I was super surprised to find this one with both feet intact!

And I finally got to try a new recipe the other night! On Saturday my mom asked me to cook dinner so I took the opportunity to go gourmet. I saw a huge bag of quinoa in the cabinet, so I went the route of Aztec food. I made quinoa black bean burrito bowls, I found the recipe here: Quinoa Black Bean Burrito Bowls. They were good! When I told my Dad what I was cooking he was not very excited, but he said that he actually liked it! They were really good, only my brother didn't finish his, but he's a snooty eater so it didn't surprise me. Here's my finished product:

And finally, some other random things I want to share with you:

I ordered a german phrase book this week! Should be here soon, Austria here I come!

My shin splints are back. I swear my body hates me! Never have I successfully run more than a couple weeks without problems. So if any of you have suggestions, send them my way!

Favorite new hobby: looking up million dollar homes for sale - some people live in such extreme luxury. It makes me sick, but I kinda enjoy it at the same time.

And my cat, she has started leaving Josh's bed for my bed at night. Victory!!

Summery

Oh summer, it's such a weird time in college. I've actually been able to fill up my time this week! Of course while still getting plenty of sleep and TV time in :) Monday was a nice lazy day. I called back some of the places I have applied at and got some more NOs. I also went for a nice, way-too-long run. I mapped a new route on Sunday that took me out of the neighborhood a little bit. It was nice to go a new way, though running along one of the main drags in town is a little intimidating. I'm still getting used to the hills around my house and getting back into running shape. And of course you have to run when you are "out in public". Suffice it say that I won't be running that route for a while, that stretch made my legs BURN. And I was starving the whole rest of the day, SO hungry.

Tuesday I went shopping with a friend and her new baby sister from S. Korea!! She is the most precious little girl - so adorable! And today I explored downtown with a friend to celebrate her birthday!! 25 - SO OLD! haha. So this paragraph and a half that I have written is about everything that has happened. The rest of the week I plan to practice and clean my room/go through old stuff. Vienna is on the horizon and I need to whip some music into shape. I had a nightmare the other night that it was the day of my senior recital and I didn't have everything memorized. SOO terrifying. Ugh, it puts knots in my stomach just thinking about it. But I comfort myself with this thought: at least there's a recital hearing 2 weeks in advance. haha!

Well, hopefully I will start doing things worthy of blogging. I'm going to try some new recipes and start some crafting. We have a fancy new sewing machine and I was inspired by all the artsy fartsy people downtown today. woohoo!

Education

No I'm not going to write about education, haha. I actually don't have much to write about today. And since it's late and you know I need my beauty sleep, I'll keep it short. This morning we got up and headed out to some friends' graduation ceremony. It was super nice! There were only 15 graduates, so the ceremony was really personal and neat. As a senior in college, it's amazing how young these graduates look! Did I seem that young when I graduated? Man, I know I thought I was awesome and so mature. ha. ha. ha.

I also watched The Incredible Hulk tonight - how exciting. I saw The Avengers with friend before school ended and I hadn't seen any of the previous movies! But it was SUCH a great movie. So my summer goal was to watch the rest of them. Fortunately, my family was in the process of watching all the movies BEFORE they went to see Avengers. So I've already finished Hulk, Iron Man 1 & 2, and got to see the Avengers again. Now to get a hold of Thor and Captain America. I may have to rent those, but what's $3 for two good movies?

Also!! Best news ever. My good good friend just brought home her new adopted baby sister from South Korea!! I will hopefully meet her soon!

Summer Searching

What a week it's been! For having nothing to do, I sure have not had much down time. Tuesday I was able to go to coffee with another long-time friend. We talked and walked around downtown and laughed a lot. You know, relationships are probably one of the most important things to me. But I really have to work at them, and over the past few years I've been learning what it means to be a good friend and how to have healthy relationships. I feel like I could write a book on my mistakes and things I've learned - but I'm sure that no one would want to read it, haha. The biggest thing that I struggle with is honesty. It is SOOOO much easier for me to hide things than to have to deal with trying to explain my feelings to someone. Especially if I don't like the way I feel, then I really don't want to share that. Anyways, my time that morning was great, and this week has been an exercise in honesty :)

On the job front: nothing has turned up. It seems that my leaving in July is a little bit of a problem, which I did completely expect. But still, I had hope. But now it is slowly leaving me. Tomorrow will be follow-ups and maybe applying to some more places. I would even just love to babysit occasionally! But alas, even that seems to be a closed door. And yep, this is definitely an exercise in trust and I don't like it at all.

I have found that my neighborhood is a wonderful place to run. School is flat as anything, but where we live has some great little hills to run through. Granted, my calves are KILLING me after a run Tuesday and again today. But I am gulping the chocolate milk and pretending that it will help - any excuse to drink chocolate milk works for me! Unfortunately if I don't get a job I won't be joining the swim center for tri-training. I might try to start working in some biking, I just need to check out the family bikes and maybe give them a little tune-up. So for now it's just running, which is convenient because I have needed a lot of head-clearing already and running is perfect for that.

In other news, I went to the library yesterday and got two travel books on Europe and one book on how to pack!! Now to buy those train tickets!

Friendship

There's something exceptional about getting together with a long time friend. I woke up this morning to hang out with my nearest and dearest friend. Although we don't talk much while we are at school, we always seem to pick right back up as if we had seen each other last week. It brings me so much joy! We share a mutual love for coffee, so our get-togethers always include a good cup o' joe. And then we just talk for hours. So my summer has officially started off with a bang. Thanks liv :)

This afternoon I decided that I should get my rear in gear and go out job hunting. I applied to 4 places in about 3.5 hours before giving up. One place seemed really promising, but who knows. It would be wonderful to hear back before I have to get dressed up and go out again.

And tomorrow is running day! A friend is driving over early to run with me :) yay! So I am going to bed now.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Well first off, I CANNOT find anything that will get the pictures from my camera to my computer, so no pictures tonight. That probably makes me sound really technologically unsavvy. I really know my electronics, it's just hard to come home after 3 months and find things :)

So, I guess I'm up to Colorado day 2! We got up in the morning and I dropped her off at her office to meet people and then went and did her grocery shopping for her. I'm so nice, right? I actually just wanted to get the errands done so we could hit up the mountains! It ended up being cloudy and in the 40s on Friday. We went back and forth on whether or not we wanted to actually get out of the car and hike, so we decided to dress as warmly as we could for what we packed and decide later whether or not we would get out of the car. Well, before we even got to the park, it was snowing pretty hardcore.

Estes Park is this cute little town in the mountains just before the entrance to the park. It has a cute downtown with shops and a hotel and I guess people live there. We got out and walked around a little bit and went into almost every tourist T-shirt shop. You wouldn't believe the number of obvious dirty jokes are on Colorado tourist shirts. I was a little shocked, maybe I shouldn't have been. Then we headed into the park/mountains!! It was cold. Cold cold cold. So we decided to do all driving. We did get out at almost every pull-off to take pictures, but shivered and jumped back in the car. When we got to where the road finally closed off at the top, all we saw was a wall of white cloud. I guess it was cool, but we didn't get to see any mountains unfortunately. But it was still a great trip and we had a lot of fun.

As a side note, altitude sickness is real. By the time we got to the top of the park, I had a headache and my stomach was not feelin' so hot. It's so weird how that works. It didn't seem like we were climbing that high, but I guess we were. On the way back to the house we stopped by goodwill and the outlet mall. I found a few steals and I think Katelyn only bought a gift, but it was successful! We crammed everything I wanted to do into one day and still got home for dinner - steak!

Tomorrow starts the job hunt, that shall be not fun. And it's RAINING here so my ability to go running is non-existent. Worst timing ever - I have leftover school and travel stress I need to get rid of! But soon, when the weather co-operates, I'll start maybe logging my tri-training.

Colorado

I am home for the summer! What an adventure the last couple of days have been. I know I promised to write the other night, but I have not had access to internet for the last 3 days. So this is the first chance I have had to blog! I think I left off when we were in New Mexico, so there is a lot to write about. Thursday we got up to finish the drive to Colorado. We got to Colorado Springs by 11 AM. And talk about a beautiful city!! It was much smaller than I was expecting, but the mountains were breathtaking. Pike’s Peak was in the background and all snowy and pretty. The first thing we did was stop in Garden of the Gods. It’s a beautiful park with some amazing and huge rock formations. We mostly drove around, but did get out and walk part of one trail. My favorite part was seeing some rock climbers in action! Climbing Garden of the Gods is now officially on my bucket list – I’m thinking a trip after graduation. We also got to see the kissing camels but avoided any snake sightings (to Katelyn’s relief). After that we drove over to the headquarters of Focus on the Family to visit Whit’s End. If you didn’t grow up listening to Adventures in Odyssey (a kid’s radio program), then you probably won’t appreciate this. But Katelyn and I had a blast! We got to visit the soda shop and we both ordered a Wodfamchocsod. So delicious! It was really similar to a chocolate shake, but had a little bite from the club soda. We took pictures with Whit and Eugene, then headed for the 72 ft. slide. We were both just under the height limit, so we got to slide down probably the best slide ever. Super twisty and steep! Then we grabbed a burrito from Qdoba and hit the road to Denver. Katelyn has an internship just outside Denver for 6 weeks and has been blessed by our second cousins who are letting her stay with them! We got to their house late afternoon and met them and their 3 boys for the first time. Talk about the wonderful bonds of family! They took us out to dinner and we really enjoyed getting to know them. Since I flew out today, Friday was our big day to sight see in the Rocky Mountains. Not only did we have to go to Estes Park/Rocky Mountain State Park, but there was a huge goodwill and an outlet mall that we had to hit up! Is that enough of a cliff hanger? Okay, since I have so much to write and so many pics to post, I’ll leave off and finish up Colorado tomorrow. In the mean time, I am going to enjoy home and my bed! And my family of course :)

And uploading pics is going to take more time than I have tonight, so they will have to wait also!

Welcome Back!

Summer is here! I finished my last final on Monday and skipped town yesterday afternoon. I finally head home Saturday afternoon. At the moment I am on a road trip with the older sis. We are going to spend a couple days here in the Rockies - hopefully get a hiking trip in. And then home for most of the summer! I plan to blog a ton! I'll be tracking my triathlon training as well as my trip to Europe! I'll have more about the trip tomorrow!

Crazi.ness

Life. It just goes doesn't it? But it's April fools day so I figured I should post. And no, there's no logical reason for that. Haha. But no worries, everything in this post will be truth. It's a little but of an understatement to say that life has been crazy. And I think the evidence will be me in the practice room well past 9pm this week. People keep telling me that I will make it so I guess I will, haha.
This week's agenda is: 2 recitals, 3 recital hearings, play in a master class and keep up with everything else. I can't decide if it being a 4 day week is a good thing. I don't have to last as long, but everything is crammed in Oh well. But it's also Holy week. Although I don't attend a church that is real liturgical, I love love love Easter and lent and Holy week. I even got chills listening to a children's version of the easter story, ha. God is good. The hard part this year will be focusing on what is important when there is so much else vying for my time and attention.

And I have to do taxes.

So what do I do when I get home at 8pm am hungry and have a long night of practicing ahead? I cook a nice dinner. I burned the noodles in the rice pilaf a little bit because I was distracted by a good grade I got back,, but it still turned out super yummy. The chicken was lemon-lime. I hadn't defrosted the chicken so I pulled it out of the freezer, put it in a pan with lemon juice and lime juice, and popped it in the oven. It turned out pretty nice. Alrighty, I'll try to keep you posted his week, but no promises :)

Stress, running, and a picnic

I have not been managing my stress well at all. This weekend I was completely overwhelmed by the things I had to do and I let it get to me. Most contributing to this is an accompanying piece I have to learn, my piano lesson today (which ended up being good), and a test tomorrow. However, I still got in some working out and some rest, which helped. And I had a lot of fun things happen too that I want to share.

I am one of the many who have read Hunger Games recently and I went to the midnight premier on Thursday. I ha never been to a midnight showing and wanted to get one in before I graduate. It was really fun! We got great seats because they let us move to an overflow theater. And I really liked the movie - it was well done.

The most important event this weekend was that I ran my first 5k! It really snuck up on me and I didn't feel prepared at all so I was a bit nervous. I made a playlist that consisted of a lot of eminem, and ran with my sister who is in much better shape than I am. I was aiming to be under 35, as I hadn't trained a lot and was not confident in my stamina. But we crossed the finish line in jut under 28 minutes. I almost hurled at the end, but finishing so well was the best feeling! I am hoping to run the half marathon next year, so I am going to begin to build up my base mileage. Running shoes will hopefully be a viable option soon, but probably not...so that will be interesting. But I am super excited!

After the race instead of taking a nap, I decided to go for a picnic with my roomies and explore the park here in town. It is huge! There are so many hiking and biking trails and we found an excellent picnicking spot. It was lovely.

Then I did homework and that's how I ended the weekend. This week is maybe turning out to be kinda chill. I'm doing some cross-training and am going to hopefully get back in the habit of cooking!

The happy list

Today I would like to share a few things that make me happy:

My ear plugs have a carrying case
Laughing with my roommates
Wheat thins
a moment of awkwardness defeated
humming classical music with a friend over coffee
booking an overseas trip (maybe this should be at the top)
cinnamon gum - it helps with my caffeine headaches!
good parking spots on campus
Chocolate cheerios, or chocolate cereal in general
giant teddy bears
having senior hours a semester early
cancelled classes
symphonies

And yes, this is to avoid writing a long blog post because it's late and I have a quiz tomorrow :)

 

The Joys of Adulthood

Overall, I think being an adult is pretty awesomesauce. But sometimes it can scary or just plain frustrating. Yes, these thoughts are coming from experience.

So yesterday I get a text in the morning from my mom saying there is supposed to be severe weather and to watch for tornadoes. In addition, the weather forecast said there was a 90% chance of rain all day long. Well, it was a good thing I decided not to wear my rainboots because it was sunny all day until after dinner. But come about 9:30 or 10 pm and it starts storming like there's no tomorrow, yikes. Fortunately I have roommates whose commentary on the storm kept us all in good spirits. The sky was lighting up and the thunder was loud and long. And there's just no way to convince my mind that the thunder won't hurt me, haha. See, as a kid, I could go to sleep knowing that my Dad was listening to the weather radio and would wake us and get us to safety if there was a tornado. Well, when you're living on your own the best you can do is hope that the tornado siren wakes you up. And that's not too comforting when you're a deep sleeper. Anyways, I managed to get to sleep and only woke up once at 1:30 to the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard besides the time that lightning struck a tree right outside my dorm. When I woke up this morning it was STILL thundering, sheesh. But all was well and the storm eventually stopped.

Now comes the frustrations of adulthood. My roommate went out to leave this morning and her car was dead. Oh joy. Have any of us jumped a car? No, and I know we sound like such girls. But we have the cables and figured we would get instructions. So I go to move my car next to hers and mine won't start either. I wiggle the battery cable because that usually works and it still didn't start. So now two out of three of our cars are dead. So we have a friend come over and she gave Kris a ride and they later jumped her car with the help of a neighbor. And yes, I eventually got mine to start. But we will both probably be buying batteries pretty soon.

But despite the rough start to the morning, the day was good! I had some good rehearsals and some productive practice time :)

Classical music update

I just got back from a piano concert entitled "Classical Smackdown". It was rather interesting. The pianist, Frederic Chiu, put together a program of music by Prokofiev and Debussy. He paired them up in 4 "rounds" and the point was to see which of each round we enjoyed better. He even gave out ballots and apparently gives this concert often and is tallying up the results. Not only was he a fantastic artist, but I loved the alternation between genres. The music of Debussy and Prokofiev is so different, yet their lives overlapped (Debussy was about 30 years older). Prokofiev has that eastern European coldness that lends itself to excitement and bitter emotion. Debussy explores all the colors and timbres of the piano and is, in my opinion, really beautiful. Because of these differences, it was really hard to decide what I enjoyed more. I somewhat decided that I like listening to Debussy, but I enjoy playing Prokofiev. The process of learning and understanding music like Prokofiev's is rather fun. Hooray!

Parking meters and kale

Ok! Well my "do one crazy thing a day" goal hasn't been 100% successful, but it's been close. I think we covered up to Monday? Tuesday I think was the non-crazy day. I literally think I did nothing yesterday. I seriously don't know where the time goes - my mind has told my body that it is spring break and it needs to rest! Which is a good thing. Rest is super important to me and this week is definitely a week of very intentional rest. Today I did get up and run. I went to this park near where I'm staying and ran! It was adventurous, and fun. I also caught up with some friends for lunch! They were driving through town so we decided to eat at this hippie pizza place, and it was great. I parked at a parking meter and we talked about how we are adults. This whole college life is weird, but I've decided that instead of feeling like I am in a transitional phase I am going to embrace being an adult. I guess junior year does that to you. Crazy crazy.

Okay, running news. I am SO incredibly sore. sheesh. And it's just my ankles and the lower half of my shins. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and popped my ankle three times in a row. Then I stopped, though I felt like I could have popped it more. Also, I am working on changing my stride because I apparently run badly. My friend is a serious runner and worked in a running store for a while and she has been giving me some advice. Anyways, I don't know how to get my feet to do what they are supposed to do, but I guess it just takes time - and probably I should get good running shoes. Though we know I don't have the money for that right now. Maybe barefoot running is the way to go! It's all the rage right now - and free.


Now to end the rambling...maybe. I will leave you with one last thing. Try kale chips!! Haha. Kale is super good for you, and it's kinda yummy! And kale chips are incredibly easy to make, especially if you buy Kale that is already chopped! Take your kale, toss it with some olive oil, spread it on a baking sheet and add some salt and pepper:

Stick it in the oven at 415 for about 15-20 minutes. You want it to be a little crispy but not too burnt. That's it! The kale shrinks up A LOT though. It always is a nice little surprise to see how much it shrinks up. Oh, it doesn't store well, so make what you will eat and don't have any left overs. I threw out a bunch the first time I tried it because it was oh so disgusting the next day. Here's how mine turned out:

Paperclips and biscotti

Spring break. hmmmm. Just those two words make me feel all happy inside. Plus, Bob Marley is playing on my pandora right now - so that helps the mood. Anyways, there's nothing like a little break to get your priorities back in order. My sister and friend who I am with are big health nuts and runners, and are therefore having a superb influence on me. I have already been on a health kick, so these past couple of days have been great. Katelyn loves finding really wacky recipes on pinterest and the blogs that she follows, so we (mostly her) have been experimenting in the kitchen. Last night we had orange cloud pancakes, Saturday we had imitation chick-fil-a sandwiches. I've also enjoyed a few smoothies and some zucchini brownies that were surprisingly really good. You have doubts about the zucchini? Try it, I dare you.

In the three days that I have been here, I have been to the gym twice. And we are going again for yoga tonight (woo!). Not only do I have two girls to pressure me, but I have a 5k coming up in less than 2 weeks that I am trying to get ready for. But today I felt like a real runner because I came home with several blisters. Actually, that probably makes me only a wannabee cuz real runners do fancy things so they don't get blisters. Oh well. And this apartment has probably a hundred issues of running magazines and books, so I plan to maybe learn a thing or two to take back to my roommates :)

Okay, what else have I done over break? Here's my checklist that I plan to expand by one crazy thing every day:
1) get hit on by a 45 yr. old man
2) visit a tattoo parlor. Yep, I went with a friend. No, I didn't get a tattoo - I can't even think about it without getting a little weak at the knees. I totes could pull off a little something, but don't think I ever will.
3) wander downtown by myself and find a nice little place to sit and journal.

Okay, I hope my parents aren't freaking out :) Recipes and other fun things to come!

Starting Anew

I have missed blogging!!!! That is a big statement considering I almost deleted it at the beginning of the semester. These past two weeks have been a little overwhelming. Plus, I just didn't handle them very well. Hence, no blogging. But now I am on spring break, am evaluating life and am starting afresh. What did I do on my first day of break? I woke up and went to he gym. It was glorious. I ran Hard on the treadmill and then did some calisthenics. It was even raining. I don't know about you, but I feel like going to work out on a gloomy day gets extra points, haha.
So, I have a lot of new things that will be showing up on the blog. I am training for a 5k and have honestly gotten hooked on running, so I will be sharing those adventures. I have also been trying new recipes and exploring new stuff in the kitchen. Maybe I'll even make up some of my own stuff to share! And I've really been racking up life lessons recently. My relationship with Christ, my music, even my outlook on life have been growing and who knows if anyone reads this or cares. But since I am so much better at writing things than speaking, I am going to start spicing up this blog of mine. I might even add some fancy features since I have no homework this spring break. Ah! So much suspense.

Quick Note

Hi friends - just want to say that my blogging fever hasn't permanently ended. It's just on a short break while I catch all these plates that I'm juggling. Probably at the beginning of next week the posts will re-commence. I have a recital tomorrow and am playing for a masterclass on Monday. In addition to being a little overrun by accompanying (which is a good thing!).

I'm learning ways to handle my stress appropriately too. My parents told me to make sure that I'm eating enough iron to keep my energy levels up. Also, my Dad, when I told him I hadn't been sleeping well, very pointedly and lovingly asked me what I spend my time thinking about. Well, especially at night, my mind starts running - and worrying/stressing. So my goal is to spend my last waking moments every night meditating on Scripture. Instead of just saying I won't worry, I'm going to replace these disruptive thoughts. Also, since I also need a very practical thing to do as well, I am cutting out screen time right before I hit the pillow. No more ipod-ing right before bed :) Anyways, I hope that if you are struggling with stress that you will treat yourself well. Eat well, rest well, and be very intentional about re-focusing your thoughts.

Oh! And my roommate introduced me to the Book of Awesome yesterday. You should either check it our or create your own. It will totally make you appreciate the little things in life! Okay, have a great day everyone!

Candy and Rappers

Warning: this is a post written by a worn out person. (so it will be short)

What did I do today? I rode my bike to school, practiced, rehearsed, played for a lesson, class, my lesson, more rehearsal, then I came home to watch the voice with friends. But I am worn out from a long day and tomorrow is seeming ever more daunting.

I did learn something about myself today, though. When I am feeling weary and stressed all I want to do is lay on my bed and listen to rap music. Yes, unfortunately eminem is a little bit of a guilty pleasure. It kinda hit me today though that instead of letting rap music block out my exhaustion, I need to be seeking rest in Christ. I can't and never will be able to sustain myself, so why do I try. The beauty of the gospel is that God's power is made perfect in weakness. If I really believe that, it needs to affect how I live - and how I rest. Eminem is not going to give me rest and prepare me for the next thing I need to accomplish. It's going to suck me in and reinforce my selfish emotions. This is all breaking my heart. Rest is important to me - but laziness is something I really need to get rid of. And just the thought of that makes me a little more tired. Fortunately, I am not alone (and I'm not afraid, haha).

I also learned that there is an eminem m&m commercial. It's actually kinda humorous, though I was in a giggly mood so take that with a grain of salt.

What else was good about today? I had a sweet potato and broccoli for dinner. Can you say yumm?? Then I ate a bunch of m&ms because I was angry at commercials during the voice. Yes, yes, a dramatic day. Ok goodnight.

(I hope that you got my puns. I've been really puny of late - I'm not sure what to attribute that to. But maybe the coffee. I swore I would never be addicted...)

Question and answer about awkward situations

I have strong feelings about awkwardness. I think most awkward situations can be avoided/diffused by friendliness - awkwardness is actually created by us, not by the situation. However, sometimes awkwardness can be augmented by your response. So, to address this issue, I am providing some answers to a few questions about awkward situations.

Q: when I have met someone once but see them around everywhere, how should I acknowledge that person?
A: I think you should smile real cutely then turn away real quick whenever you see them. Sometimes only half look in their direction. If they are of the opposite gender this is especially helpful to the situation.

Q: when someone I don't know comes to give me an unwanted hug, what do I do??
A: "embrace" the awkwardness and turn it into one of those super awkward side-hugs. That will send a loud and clear message.

Q: I'm a music student, and what should I do if I am rehearsing one-on-one with someone who doesn't really talk to me?
A: just be yourself and don't try to compensate for the other person's lack of vocalization. They are either socially unaware so you don't have to worry that they might think you are an awkward person. Or, they think you are just awesome and they feel so comfortable with you that they think you can read their mind.

Q: so I was talking with this girl and we didn't have enough interest in each other to keep up a conversation, so we quickly said goodbye. But then we ended up walking the same direction for a while. Can you say awkward! What should I have done?
A: in this situation, always mention how you are stalking them. Always.

In my real opinion, these situations can be delicately handled with friendliness. Be kind and gracious, knowing that they are probably feeling uncomfortable also and you can put them at ease. Then they will like you forever. What power!

Roses are red

Today was such a welcomed day! I've needed the weekend since Wednesday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I slept in (sorta) then enjoyed a fancy breakfast of chocolate Cheerios. Yum. I then had a burning desire to play cinderella so I cleaned the condo. In addition to vacuuming, I dusted the baseboards and mopped!! I felt like super homemaker. Then I practiced piano basically all afternoon. I have a nice stack of music to learn that is about 2 inches tall. I think I scared off a prospective student though. So I was in the practice hallway and there was absolutely no one around. The practice rooms were full, but everyone was being productive and reclusive. It was an audition day, so this girl who was dressed up came walking down the hallway with her parents. I decided to be friendly so I said hi super cheerfully and asked if she was auditioning. Well, no. I asked if "they" were auditioning then laughed and corrected myself. She said yes and I asked her what instrument. She answered but there was no smile from anyone in the party and they just kept walking, hahaha. "Jo goes crazy on caffeine" moment I guess.

Okay, so last night we had this girl's college event for church. We were at a lady's home and there were a bunch of us college girls and some ladies from the church. We had an awesome time of just listening to the ladies share their hearts and encourage us to seek Christ with our whole heart. One piece of advice that really encouraged me was about commitments. They strongly encouraged us to learn to say no. It is super important to have time for yourself to rest and think and build a relationship with Christ. But one lady also said to be careful to never be afraid to say yes to new opportunities. Don't remain in your comfort zone, in your box. While God can use you wherever you are, there is often something great lying just beyond a leap of faith. However, you will never be able to discern God's will if you aren't persistently praying for it. So, let this be an invitation to spend some real time in prayer, then follow God into a new and maybe scary place. There is so much good waiting for us!