my faithful once a year blogging

ok, so i totally forgot that i had a blog, as evidenced by the huge gap in time since my last entry. a lot has happened since then. i've gracefully entered the big 2-7 and i'm still wondering what 'it' is and sure as hell can't wait to experience it! i think that whole biological clock theory that they like to scare career-minded gals (not at all like myself) is starting to tick loudly...i can't claim that it is ringing off the chain, but it's begun the process. neither here nor there!
i've officially come full circle as i'm again a student at the university of georgia (go dawgs!). i get the strangest looks when i mention that i was first here in '99, that i'm a good 10 yrs older than a great many of my fellow classmates. the stares of pure shock are initially painful, but then it's always (quickly and smoothly) followed by a "but you don't look that old at all". depending on my mood that's either a compliment or yet another reason to get that ak 47 and tower i've heard about...
but seriously, i love being in school. it took years for me to realize what subject i am passionate about studying; i love studying spanish and portuguese and italian. love it! i'm taking an arabic class too, which is just plain crazy, but i can read words even if i don't know what they mean, so that's kinda cool. gosh i hope i pass that class...lol
that's it for now. i'm studying italian and portuguese, but i got tired of it thus producing the blog you now read. quit enabling me!

good grief, has it really been that long?

so i feel a little guitly because unbeknownst to me, there is high demand for my upkept blog. who knew?
i gracefully entered the big 2-6. i know i imposed on myself having "it" together by 27, and i suppose i technically have one more year, but i've decided to let life just come at me and not worry about it. not just because age has brought much wisdom, and i really shouldn't think i should have it together by 27, but because that would be one helluva year, with sooo much to do, and really, who has the time for that??
i'm now working as a full-time nanny, soon to be a part-time nanny (which will improve my sanity, i'm sure), and prayerfully starting school (foreign languages) in august. emocionante.
the family i worked with in spain came to visit me today; i hadn't seen them in 2 years, so it was wonderful. i also left a suitcase with them, so once i got past the initial 2 year old funk, it was just like christmas.
well, i'm going to read through all my past entries (yep, i'm that person). i won't write so much this time...gently ease you back into my world. bienvenido.

glorificaré el Hijo

This is the beach at San Sebastian in northern Spain. It was so gorgeous! I had misplaced my original CD with my overseas pics, and when I visited Tae last weekend, I discovered that I had actually downloaded them onto her computer. Yay smart, 1-year-ago-me!
This past weekend was pure awesomeness. The roommies and I went to H2O on Friday night then drove to Lake Hartwell. Ben came and joined us that Saturday afternoon. I really enjoyed being in the boat and sleeping in a camper for the very first time (yeah, I don't get out that often). And the company wasn't that bad, truth be told. But you know me...I was going through Shanka withdrawals by the end of the weekend, and I got all grumpy and testy. I got to spend the majority of Monday all to myself, so I'm almost back to normal. Whatever that is.
I've been reading Dr. Phil's book "Life Strategies." Being the kind of thinker that I am (that I can have common sense knowledge of something that doesn't become real to me until it is experienced/realized), I finally had an epiphany that goal setting is a good thing.
Life is so beautifully precious and should be lived to the fullest. I don't want to have any regrets; I never want to be one of those people who wished they had said that thing they'd wished they'd said or had done that thing or seen that thing. I pray that I will not waste time acting a certain way or thinking certain things but in all things do for the glory of Jesus. I was just thinking how wonderfully blessed I was to spend years of my life being somewhere that I never thought I could go. That I'm able to strum a guitar and carry a tune (lol) and speak a language (and hunger to speak more!) and be the wonderfully creative being that God created me to be. He's so great.
So, the goals that I want to acheive:
1. Send my mom an awesome package of goodies to show that I love her.
2. Spend more time with my siblings and sobrinos and tios and show God's love to them.
3. Get healthier.
4. Have a really big afro. Eventually a red or a light brown afro; I don't know yet.
5. Write a novella. I've started about 10 stories.
6. Visit New Zealand and maybe Australia. I have always wanted to visit New Zealand, but I never knew why.
7. Write a cool song. Again, I've started a ton, but never one that I was pleased with. Maybe I just need to collaborate with someone.
8. Discern God's good, pleasing, and perfect will for my life.
9. Pray like crazy that it includes a fabulous guy and super kids!
I think that's all for now. You have your perennial faves such as "road trip usa (and the world)" and "be the bass playing/drumming cool girl of a band". But I figured those were a given. 

athfest, baby!

this weekend was pretty sweet. i convinced mr. ben to come over saturday and inspect the ac in the car. he totally got it working (broke a couple of other things in the process, but you know, win some lose some lol) and i'm alls thankful. i truly intended to clean my home, but then i sat down and started strumming and 3 hours later, alicia came home. then rawin came over and he convinced us to shell out 15 bucks to see concerts that night. but it worked out cause he bought all our food. yay!
athens has a music festival called athfest and tons of musicians fill the streets and venues with their various tunes. we met up with cat and michael and that guy who is in his band at hot corner. she looked so cute! then alicia, rawin, and myself walked around, signed up for a free cell phone, got our pic taken by the lady there, listened to some band, stared at several people (not anything creepy...just to see if they would turn around...and they did!), had some bellini's at eastwest, went to transmet and listened to still small voice and joyful noise who we liked, went to 40 watt and listened to cinemacanica who we liked more, went to the ga theater and listened to hope for agoldensummer who i kind of liked but loved the clapping song, went back to 40 watt which now sucked, went back to hot corner and did not listen to the athens boys choir cuz those punks were not there, went to wilson's and did not drink coffee, then went to the grill and had some good stuff. we had this game goin' on to see who recognized the most faces, and alicia won cause she kept seeing people from high school (i think she was making it up, but whatever. i am not a sore loser!). then we went home, but not before the crazy people i was with decided to be drunk. it was quite funny. we did, in fact, find the car. found it indeed.

help me help myself!

so i've been approached by 2 different departments here to interview for some positions. let me take a break and say, my great good God, i've received so much favor here in my workplace. He is surely deserving of praise! cause i sure as heck don't know what i've been doing that's so great that people would like me so much and want to see me succeed. okay. first lady who approached me was concerning a (somewhat) teaching position where i would go to individual homes and teach families how to interact with their children and help them grow. that would actually be very cool. my boss here thinks i can do it since i've been an au pair before. and this was kind of her plan in the beginning: she wanted me to get a foot in the door so that when a teaching position became available, i'd be considered. the second position would be a clerical one...from what i understand, i'd be somewhat of an administrative assistant's assistant (!). either job would be an increase in pay, with the teaching position being the higher paid one. but we know it really isn't about the money (cause if it was, i'd be a teller at a bank now). i was just thinking in these last couple of days about myself and what i want and what fulfills me. i know i can do a good job in front of a computer and telephone, but can i see myself there forever and ever? do i want to place myself in a position where i have to (egad!) become transparent (cause really, you have to be real in one-on-one interactions with others). won't i eventually become bored and irritated when i have to file ONE MORE TIME something that someone didn't file right in the first place? (that's actually already begun...) can i stretch myself to create meaningful relationships with the people i'll care for? on a slightly different note, should i make myself take classes at a local community college and earn an associate's degree that'll kick up my payscale in the teaching position (assuming that i get it) almost 3000 bucks?
i shouldn't even worry...i mean, i'm not guaranteed any of these positions. they've both told me that "i've heard/seen you've done a good job so far, and i first thought to ask you," which is really so very cool. i'd give me an 80% chance of hiring based on that alone. and with the teaching position, i'd get my gas reimbursed. do you know how much gas is?? well, i guess that's one reason to be glad i'm in the states and not in europe for it's much more expensive there.
anyway.
(almost) any advice will suffice.

a couple of weeks ago

i had a fun weekend! i did counselor type things on friday night. i like being a part of that! (it's a summer camp for middle school kids on thursday and friday evenings.) i like the people i work with, and stayed up til about 1 talking to leanne and alicia about my experiences there. slept in til 830! and went with ashley to old navy and bought this cute top and skirt. i went in for shorts, but, you know. afterwards we had a picnic at the elder covered bridge in oconee county. then we watched most of moulin rouge. pam came later that night, and we went to atlanta to hear over the rhine. it was great! i even saw rachel there! talk about coincidencies...we are surely meant to be friends. hem is touring with otr, and they were pretty nice as well. we walked around little five points; cause really, how many times will one get to do that at 1230? we stopped for groceries at walmart and drove around in those carts for old people. we thought, surely there are no old handicapped folk shopping at walmart at 130 in the morning! we were surely wrong. then we had some good food at ihop, where we discovered that men act the same at 70 as they do at 18. it was really quite creepy. they gave the poor hostess a hard time! i didn't put head to pillow until 330.
sunday offered a solid 5 hour sleep, and i ended up not as late to church as i thought i would have been. afterward we went up to helen and had a picnic and tubing. now, truth be told, i did not want to tube down that river. last time i fell out and i really did not want to get wet. but i decided to go at the last moment. got stuck a couple of times, but i (and miss ashley...the rest of our actual group did not even try to wait for us! but i'm not bitter...) ended up bumming off this group of clemson guys (we travelled down the river together, and when we'd get stuck, they'd unstick us...it was great!). then the storm clouds came a'rumblin', and completely soaked us head to toe. i mean, it was a good, hard rain. pam waited for us at an "exit" since we were barely at the halfway point, and we found shelter at some restrooms. we managed to flag down one of the buses and met back up with the clemson guys. this other guy told us about how he found shelter in a spider shop. good stuff! then we got to my house and ate pizza and watched the ringer. i really don't care how much attention it brought to the special olympics; i was thoroughly unpleased within 20, and went to bed around 11. monday night found pam and i at the mall shopping for undies and shorts. then we went to the grit and had some yummy veggie food and decided to go to the movies. ashley was on her big date with ryan and joined us, but not before we stopped at chuck e. cheese for some skeeball and got ourselves knocked up with cotton candy and a slinky. we saw "v for vendetta", stayed till after the credits, stayed till after they shut off the lights and all the employees went home. seriously though: bad customer service. we played a couple of rounds of ultimate mortal kombat...we kept trying to finish each other off at the end but to no avail. and i left my purse in ryan's car, so we got to see where he lives. tonight should be fun; we have a softball game and afterwards we're playing games. i like games.

good stuffs

so my weekend was nice. on thursday we went to ashley's graduation. made her laugh while she was with her class; it was great! saw some very cute barely legal hotties. stayed up til freakin' 2 in the morning playing cards at her house. seriously though, so much fun! pam left the next day, but not before we and leanne went to moe's. i don't really remember what i did on friday and saturday, but on sunday leanne and i went to cracker barrel and had breakfast (mmm strawberry pancakes..so very good), then we went to church. we talked about our mission here, how we are to invade the darkness. it was cool. i've been reading this book called "he came to set the captives free" all about spiritual warfare. so it's been interesting to study that same topic at church.
i then had my VERY BIG TALK (lol) with the person i was angry with all week. i have no idea why i was so scared...it was totally chill and we even hugged afterward. made me feel a whole lot better!
then we went to join alicia and her family and friends at lake hartwell. it's about an hour drive. you know (well, you might not know) that i love long car rides. it was a beautiful day, and i went on my very first sea doo ride. was scared crapless, let me tell ya. but after the initial eyes-squeezed-shut-head-buried-in-stranger's-back-shock of it all, i really quite enjoyed it. leanne asked me later what my fave part was, and i said that was because that was the first time i'd done that. so shanka 1, lame fear of drowning and being sucked up into a sea doo, 0.
let's see, what else? oh, i contemplated calling in sick, cause we actually had to work on memorial day, and i would have loved to stay at the lake with everyone. but i wasn't sick and felt guilty about doing that. then i woke up that next morning with a sore throat, fever, and aches all over. i worked for a good whole hour, and called leanne to come get me. i slept in today, too. my body was sooo tired! it was nice; i don't think i woke up till about 3. oh! and celeste called me that morning (luckily i skipped work) and we talked. then she called back later that evening and i spoke with auntie and randy and theresa. i don't even remember the last time i spoke to her!
all in all, good times.
ps, want to hear (read, whatever) something incredibly sad? i'm on disc 1, season 9 of friends. when did i start this? well, alicia's been with us since 1 april, so a little while after that. i've done the impossible: crammed into less than 2 months what took 9 years to create. marvelous!