A Few of My Random Thoughts…

One of the things I love about my church is the fact that I am constantly having my eyes opened to simple truths in the Bible that I had previously overlooked or perhaps forgotten about.  Its easy when you grow up in church (I have been faithfully attending since 9 months before I was born) and attended a private Christian school for 7 years complete with numerous Bible classes.  I have a lot of Biblical knowledge and I think its easy to get caught up in all the theology and miss the simple things.  Anyway, back to my reason for writing this post.

We just finished a series at church called “@work” (watch it online here if you haven’t already seen/heard it- well worth it!).  I’ve know the story of Adam & Eve and “The Fall” for as long as I can remember and in the back of my mind I think I also always associated “work” with the punishment that came after Adam & Eve disobeyed God.  I always thought of the verses in Genesis 3:

¹⁷ To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…”

Well, in the series our campus pastor Jeff Henderson pointed us back to a verse in the previous chapter:

^“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)

Now, I’m sure I’ve read that verse many times before but I don’t know that I ever stopped to think about the fact that it was talking about work.  God had Adam working before “The Fall.”  Therefore, work is not a result of sin and shouldn’t be looked at as punishment.  Definitely gave me something to think about.

The fact that in my last post (back in September) I said I was setting a goal to start blogging once a week and this is the first time I’ve written anything is very discouraging to me.  It seems to be the story of my life in that I always have these great intentions of stuff I want to do and then I never seem to be able to follow-through on it.  Like Pink says in her song, I sometimes feel like “I’m my own worst enemy.”

So what’s the solution to this problem?  I’ve discovered it can be summed up in one word- DISCIPLINE.  Discipline is something I’m severely lacking in my life and that’s not a good thing.  Sure I’m good at making all kinds of excuses but at the end of the day it still comes down to the fact that I don’t always do what I know I should do (didn’t Paul have a whole section in one of his letters with that theme?).

Since I know discipline is the problem, how do I go about becoming more disciplined?  I’m learning that you have to take things one at a time; and beyond that, one day at a time.  I’m starting to set small goals for myself for areas of my life in which I need to be more disciplined.  Its started with my sleeping habits– I’ve been working on sleeping in my own bed instead of the couch every night and also at waking up on time so that I can get to work on time.  I’m doing much better but I know I still need to improve.

The next goal I believe will involve going to the gym and on a spiritual level, I want to start reading through the Bible using The Message daily devotional.  I bought it a couple weeks ago and now its time to start reading, one day at a time.  I’ll let you know how it goes =)

So I’ve decided I’m not very good at this whole “blogging” thing.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to write about (trust me- I have plenty I want to say!), its just that I never seem to find the time to sit down and write out my thoughts.  This is kind of a reflection of how my life is right now– so many ideas/goals/intentions that are never realized or accomplished because I can’t find the time to get them done.

Now, I’m the first to admit that the whole “not finding time” thing is my fault.  I recognize that the biggest thing I’m lacking in right now is DISCIPLINE.  Its not like I have any less hours in my day than everyone else- I just don’t know how to properly manage them.

I’ve decided that the only way to help myself with this problem is to set little goals.  When I look at what I want to do as a whole, I get overwhelmed to the point where I don’t do anything.  So, my goal for the next week is to write down my goals =)

First goal is probably going to be to start blogging at least once a week.  I don’t know if anyone ever reads my blogs but at least its an outlet for me to express my thoughts, feelings, frustrations, etc. so I want to continue doing it at least for myself.  Here goes nothing!

My Confessions aren’t nearly as “scandelous” as Usher’s so I thought I would go ahead and share…

• I have a serious sugar addiction.
• I can not for the life of me successfully back into a parking space.
• I consider myself a true Southern even though some would say growing up in Atlanta doesn’t qualify.
• Some people say I’m a “bad” or “scary” driver.  I like to think of it as defensive driving (I grew up in Atlanta, remember?).
• My true natural hair color is dark brown, even though I seem to say/do a lot of stuff that would make people think I’m a blonde.
• Despite being an introvert, I have been known to break out into a dance routine in front of large groups of people.
• The biggest talent I don’t have and wish that I did is the ability to sing.  If I had a great voice, I would be on stage performing any chance I had!
• I have never been to the Georgia Aquarium and I don’t plan on going anytime in the near future as fish, etc. kind of freak me out.
• I have read the whole Twilight series and I totally love it (I’m even planning on going to the convention next month!).
• Animals in general kind of freak me out– I think its a control thing.  I like small dogs though =)
• I love all things Coca-Cola.
• I’m a pretty picky eater, yet I have recently discovered that I like sushi, especially dipped in eel sauce!
• I miss the 90s.
• I will probably always love ‘N Sync.
• I want to own a black Cadillac Escalade one day.
• My heart belongs to God, my family, and the Georgia Bulldogs.

I’m sure there are lots more I could put on here so I’m just going to leave this as “Part I”.

But not here in Hot-lanta!  Yes, folks, it is the middle of December, the week before Christmas, and it is a wonderful 70 degrees outside!  I know I’m probably in the minority when I say that I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING THIS!  Sure snow is fun and pretty but I HATE being cold!  And in Georgia, it always seems to get really cold and then we get nothing for it!  We mostly have ice, not snow, and if we do get snow, it is usually pretty pathetic (exception being the famed Blizzard of ’93).  I think my disappointment in the Georgia snow began after I went to Colorado for the first time to ski.  They have real snow out there and it is beautiful and I can stand the cold when I’m in that kind of environment.

I used to always get upset when we would call our friends down in Orlando on Christmas and they would talk about how they were in shorts.  I have considered moving to Florida but I love Georgia too much and I’m not so crazy about the hurricanes.  California could also be an option but I somehow don’t think I would fit in very well out there– not exactly “my type of people.”

The one downside to this warm December weather is that it might push the “winter weather” out even later–like March, April, and May.  I hate the cold but I REALLY HATE when it is cold in April on my birthday!  I have a Spring birthday and therefore I feel I should have Spring weather!  So, I would gladly trade the 70 degree December day for 70 degree temperatures in April.

As Christmas is drawing near I’ve been hearing all these commercials from the Georgia Lottery encouraging people to give lotto tickets as gifts.  I can’t help but wonder about this.  Say you purchase a lotto ticket for someone and then they end up winning the jackpot– like $40 million or something– how would you feel?  You had purchased the winning lottery ticket with your own money and then you just gave it away?  I suppose if the person you gave it to was a good friend (and a good person in general), maybe they would share some of the winnings with you but you really have no guarantee.  Maybe it would be wise if you made them sign some sort of contract that would entitle you to half of the winnings if over $1000 or something like that.  Regardless though, I would be afraid to give such a gift knowing there was that kind of risk.  I think it would be interesting to do some kind of study of how many winning lottery tickets were actually purchased by the winner versus tickets that were given as gifts.

I must add a disclaimer that my writing this post does not mean I endorse the lottery or think that it is right to gamble like that.  I just have to sit back and wonder about the people that do and if they really think through these things.

“Oops” has so far been the theme of my day.  It started when my alarm went off this morning.  I have been having a harder time than usual getting out of bed but I knew I had to change that today because I had a 9AM meeting so I needed to get to work before then.  Well I was pretty awake when my alarm went off so I thought that was a good start but then, as always seems to happen, I ended up laying in bed “just a little while longer” and probably fell back asleep or something because I didn’t get out of bed until about 7:40.  This was still better than my normal time of 8:00 so I thought I was good to make it to work for the meeting.  For whatever reason, however, I started doing random stuff around my house instead of getting ready and before I knew it, the clock said 8:30, which was the time I had planned to get to work.  I rushed out the door and ended up making it to work at about 9:10 so I missed the first part of the meeting.

Now those of you that know me, know that I can be a bit of a klutz some times.  Well, a few weeks ago I tripped and fell down a flight of stairs at church (well, half of them anyway).  Then this morning I was walking down the stairs from our parking lot at work and as I was stepping off the last step I fell down!  Luckily I was at the bottom so I didn’t fall down any steps like last time– just hit the ground with my computer bag and purse falling with me.  It didn’t hurt and I don’t think any one saw me so that was good but I still couldn’t believe I fell again after the last incident.

Before all of this, I had an “oops” moment of the fashion faux pas kind.  I just got a new red purse that I love and I had been carrying it this week.  Well, I didn’t even think about it when I left this morning but the outfit I was wearing consists of a hot pink shirt so the red purse totally does not match!  I am very big on not mixing red and pink so this has been a huge upset for me– I still am so embarassed!  I think I just go so frazzled this morning I was rushing out the door and didn’t stop to consider my appearance.  I blame it also on the fact that I had put my black coat on before I picked up my purse so I didn’t see the red against the pink right away.

Going in a different direction off the title of this post– I loved the Britney documentary and it made me love her even more.  I also went ahead and purchased tickets to her March concert here in Atlanta =)

I’ll be the first one to admit that I have a shopping problem.  I think it really is a form of therapy for me or something.  Well yesterday, I took it to a whole new level when my friend Leslie introduced me to this site called Etsy- a place where you can buy various handmade stuff in addition to some other fun items.  I went on the site looking to get a customized bracelet of some sort and then I ended up drifting over to the various purses that were for sale.

I have always had this facination with vintage purses, however I only own one and that is one that I bought recently.  I think the facination comes from a purse that my mom has that is vintage and I absolutely love but she won’t give it to me.  Anyway, I found out that I could search vintage purses on this new site and I came up with lots of super cute purses!  I also disovered that the word “vintage” apparently has no boundries as some of the ones I bought are from the 80s.  I even saw one for sale that was listed as “vintage 1991″, which made me laugh.

Needless to say I couldn’t help myself and ended up buying a total of 7 purses in addition to 2 pieces of “vintage” jewlery that I absolutely loved.  I basically spent all the money I was making yesterday (hence the title of this post, a lyric from “Workin’ for a Livin’” by Huey Lewis).  i think I got some good deals though and I officially have a new favorite online shopping place!  I think the site is going to come in really handy when it’s gift-giving time!

Here are some pics of what I bought:

So this post isn’t really going to have anything to do with the song I choose for the title.  That song, which is technically titled “Gonna Make You Sweat,” has become my new ringtone.  I recently discovered that I can have any song I want as a ringtone on my BlackBerry so I’ve been searching for some of my favorite songs that have really good intros (since I haven’t yet figured out how to “cut” the song to have the ringtone just be a certain part).  This song has one of my favorite intros and it always gets me in the mood to dance.  If you call me and it seems like it takes me a while to answer, that’s just because I’m rocking out to my ringtone so I apologize =)

Okay– now onto the topic of today’s post.   Today is October 13, which is my half-birthday.  I’ve discovered since entering the working world that not a lot of people know what a half-birthday is and as I share my story of how I used to celebrate it, I get made fun of.  Am I the only one out there who did this?  I think it started as something my mom used to do for my brother and I.  The theory I’ve come up with is that our birthdays are both in April so that means the next time we would get presents would be December so to break things up she started celebrating our half-birthdays with us.  I remember that I used to get like a small cake or a cupcake and maybe even a small little present.  My half-birthday was also significant because it was the day before one of my childhood best friends, Jennifer’s, real birthday.  Jennifer and I used to always talk about how we were exactly 6-months apart and we would acknowledge each other’s half-birthdays (which were the day before/after the other’s real birthday).  So I think growing up like this I have just always been aware of when my half-birthday is and every October 13 I think about it.  Is that crazy?  Was my mom insane for celebrating such an “event”?  Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

So I decided it was time for me to start a blog.  I’m not sure that anyone will necessarily be interested in reading it but I figure that since all the cool kids seem to be doing it, why shouldn’t I?

I love taking personality tests and we did this one in high school that classified you as some combination of 4 personality types (choleric, melancholoy, phlegmatic, and sanguine– if you’re dying to know what they all are, let me know and I’ll explain).  I was by far the “melancholoy” type, which is “the thinker.”  I have a very analytical mind and  a big imagination so the majority of my day is spent thinking about all kinds of things– both fantasy and reality.  I’ve had friends say to me on more than one occassion that they wish they could get inside my head for just a day to see what all goes on.  Well, I figure this blog is the best I can do.  My hope is that this will serve as an insight into who I am for those that choose to read.  Even if no one chooses to care about my random thoughts, at least this will serve as a forum for me to get some of them out in writing and thus provide yet another means for me to analyze things.

So there you have it.  As soon as I click “publish”, I will be come an official blogger.  I don’t think the world knows what its in for…