No-Labor-at-All Day

I literally just had the best weekend ever. It's so nice to be able to say that, even though I've said it many times before. But this time it seriously was the best weekend ever. Part of me was a little afraid that my excitement for the weekend to come was so great that the weekend wouldn't live up to it, rather like how excited I was to go to D.C. in 8th grade and ended up ill, or when I went to Christmas Conference and spent the first half of a full day in the hotel room recovering from a rumble with a double shot espresso on an empty stomach.

It began on Friday night when my best friend finally appeared at my house. Yes, I was still working, but that didn't stop me from digging through the bag of clothes she purged from her closet and brought for me to choose from. We watched Gilmores as I worked and chatted about life, etc, and finalized our plans for the following morning.

Saturday found us leaving my house at quarter of 8 in the morning to drive to Dublin, OH, to meet up with our long lost friend Courtney who recently moved to Ohio! Thankfully Jess remembered her camera and then I pilfered some pics from Facebook to post on here! The four of us (Jess, Court, Court's friend Katy and myself) went to Starbucks and talked for two straight hours. We would've talked longer if they didn't have a bridal shower to attend just down the road at 11am.

No matter! Dublin is a super cute place so Jess and I ran around the main drag taking pics and stopping in a yarn store that I fell in love with and an Irish Import store where we had a long chat with the owner about GPS's, big festivals, and red hair.

***small portion of yarn store***




Next stop was the North Market in downtown Columbus for ethnic food before taking a wander down High Street on a search for vintage stores where we tried on clothes and had a photo shoot.





On our drive to Columbus that morning we passed the exit for St Rt 37 to either Granville or Lancaster and I told Jess all about my love for Granville, especially Dennison University which is basically the prettiest place in Ohio, so we decided to leave Cbus a little early and make a pit stop in Granville so she could see it. There are no pictures of this detour, so I have borrowed a few.
***downtown Granville, Granville's website***
***Denison's Chapel, Denison's website***
***view overlooking campus***

We then drove to Canton so she could meet my Clyde, which was a total success. We also went to Plato's Closet for some cheap new finds and I got a beauteous grandpa sweater for practically nothing so it was a major score for me! However, after this escapade Jess and I drove back to my house and then she drove home and Johnny came a half hour later to take her place! We spent Sunday at the Stark County Fair, of which there are no pictures because all County fairs look exactly the same. We ate half of a HUGE blooming onion and then felt sick later and stood in line for a good twenty minutes for a ride we found required us to have purchased tickets beforehand.

Today we both had the day off so I made homemade buttermilk pancakes for breakfast and we wandered the streets of New Concord, ran into a couple of friends down by the coffee shop who insisted on praying for the third time over my bum knee, and visited our favorite administration at the University. Mostly, though, we lounged around the house and watched a couple of movies and ate a really great homemade dinner that made Johnny fall completely in love with my family.


Over all, amazing, amazing weekend! God really is just so good.

The Perfect Day

Today was basically a really super great day.

I never have a reason to dress nice, but because I knew that Johnny would be totally GQ from his interview that I wasn't about to wear jeans. And I never do this, but I'm going to post pics of today's outfit. :D


I might have had lots of fun with this picture...

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today, no humidity and in the mid to lower 70s, so the dress was perfect.


Bought this hair clip i think from Wet Seal forever ago and have never worn it... Till today!

Then I met up with Johnny and we looked so good that we had to take some pictures.




Spent the whole morning with my Clyde and it was phenom. Perfect day. :D

The Best Part

of my day is just as work is ending. My job has me working till 11pm (hence the need for a new/slightly different job) so when it's over I suddenly have this overwhelming feeling of...

I'm FREE.

Until 3pm the following weekday, I am completely free to do whatever I like. And what I like is to talk to my ah-mazing boyfriend and then either go for a run or do aerobics.

Yes, I AM weird, thank you for noticing!

Sometimes this also sucks because I want to run right away, but if I do that then Johnny will go to bed before I'm back and we don't get to talk AT ALL, which is completely lame. I really can't wait until he and I are both on similar schedules so we aren't interrupting each other's workday.

Today I drove to Columbus, along with all of Ohio's worst drivers, and had lunch at Cosi at the Easton Mall and then picked up a pair of shorts that were being held for my mom at The Limited. Saw the prettiest dress EVER there as well, but it was a leetle expensive so I'll hold off on that...

Tomorrow I am finally going to get my new Ohio driver's license. I've had my CT license for nine months too long, according to State law, so I get to spend my morning at the BMV retaking the written test, getting an eye exam and then, hopefully, my new license. Then, when I turn 25 in five months, I get to do it all again.

But on the upside, I'm having lunch with Johnny after he has what I believe will be a very successful job interview in Navarre. :DDD

To quote a fun movie:

Kit: Good news, it's champagne Thursday.
Paula: It's Friday.
Kit: Uh, yeah, Thursday came twice this week.
Paula: For the third straight week.
Kit: There's talk of making it permanent.
Paula: Oh, kind of like daylight savings time?
Kit: Right, but for booze.

Have a great Thursday, y'all!

Jigga wha?

I feel like God answers my blog posts.

Remember last week's post, that poor sad lament to my lonely life?

Goodbye lonely! At least for a little while.

The week after that post two different friends gave me info about two different jobs in two of my absolute FAVE Ohio cities!

Job #1: Quality Assurance Analyst for a company in Columbus! According to my friend/contact at this company I am way overqualified. He also suggested I play up my customer service strengths on my resume due to the fact that they're jonesing for someone to do customer support. He assured me that it would not be on the phone but rather via email. Thank the Lord! This job pays exceptionally well and also has kick butt benefits. Total score!

Job #2: Sr. Claims Processor: adjustment team at the same company I work for in Mason (aka Cincinnati). This would be a step up from the temp job I currently hold with higher pay, vacation time and slightly better benefits. I'm in the process of applying, though it requires supervisor approval and I'm not sure what to do about that...

So!! That's amazingness #1 for last week! Both suggestions came within hours of each other and while the position at the company I already work for seems to make the most sense, I feel like the other position would offer more variety and interest into my day. Plus I absolutely adore Columbus.

Aaaaannnd I have friends in both cities. :D

Beyond this, on Saturday my amazing boyfriend and I joined some of my local acquaintences for a trip to King's Island! We spent the whole day there, even though it rained for part of it, and had an absolute blast. The Diamondback coaster was so great that we went on it TWICE and bought a keychain with our crazy picture on it! Amazingness #2!


On Sunday following this we went to the local Vineyard church instead of my family's church and some good friends there prayed over my knee, which feels better but not 100% and still needs surgery. (I ran today anyway... sssshhhh!)

Then, today, one of my college friends moved back in for the year and she lives literally right around the corner! So I went over around 11am to help her unpack her car. She's living with another friend of ours who moved in yesterday! So my morning was full of catching up and lasted well into the afternoon. I made it home just before work. A couple hours later, as I was working, I got a phonecall from my bestie and we chatted for a good long time, so long that I actually abandoned my work temporarily to sit out on the porch. We decided she would come for a visit in two weeks. Finally!! Then, not a half hour later I got a phone call from an old friend I haven't heard from in forever because she has been residing in Rome, Italy! This caused another timely break from my work but both calls were SO worth it, especially since the second friend recently moved to OHIO from South Carolina and when Jess comes to visit we're making a road trip down to Oxford to hang! SO EXCITED!

*this is us, many moons ago, in Chicago*

I went from a boring, lonely, uneventful existence to WHOA! Where did all these people come from??? I loves it!!

Really?? You too?!?

Last Saturday I had the wonderful fortune of spending the late evening with friends eating gourmet food at the local Steak-N-Shake and after finishing a short conversation with one of the guys I tuned into the girls to discover they were discussing blogs. As the writer of a blog I joined in eagerly.



One of the other girls also writes a blog, one that I had read previously, especially to find out the particulars of the engagement to her now-husband. I stopped reading her blog because a) she stopped writing one and b) I had the overwhelming feeling that her life was significantly better and more interesting than my own. I told her that, and was subsequently floored when it turns out that she stopped reading blogs altogether for awhile because she felt the same way! This girl who is happily married to an amazing Christian man, holds a position as an admissions counselor at the local university, attends a local church at which she has many good friends, and a million other little things believes her life to be just as boring as mine, a single 24-yr old girl still living with her parents working a temporary job adjusting insurance claims with no close friends within a hundred miles.



It's amazing how easy it is to prefer someone else's life because we're so accustomed to our own.



For a long time I have believed that if I moved somewhere else, got a different job, attended a different church, that suddenly my life would take on some meaning. That I would find a group of Christian friends I could spend time with, have a successful career doing something I enjoy, that living in a city instead of a very small town in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio, would give me more opportunity to discover myself.



And perhaps it will, once I find the right place.



Moving to CT didn't do it for me. I did find friends, but only a small handfull of them were Christians, and most of the time I was with Neal hanging in my apartment watching Law & Order SVU, the only TV show worth watching before 3pm. Back here in my parent's house I spend the entire morning alone, entertaining myself, often working out and then weighing myself so I can marvel at the fact that I weigh six pounds less now than I did this time last year and then nursing my poor bum knee.



It's a lonely existence.


photo from weheartit.com

Dreams of Change

I actually really wish I was going back to school this fall.

Ever since I was a kid, fall meant the annual ritual of learning new teachers and schedules and possibly making new friends and wearing new clothes and getting a new haircut and with it came the ever present feeling of major change.

And even now, three years since my last first day of school, fall brings with it that feeling, a feeling that I both love and hate.

I love the feeling because it grants me excess inspiration to put towards drawings or writings, etc, and I hate the feeling because it boils up my wanderlust and gets it moving and antsy. Having the feeling of change without actual change to accompany it, only the longing, is enough to drive a body crazy with cabin fever.

That being said, there are a few things I wish were happening this fall:

1. I wish I had a reason to buy school supplies. I have no plans to go back to school and I have no children. Therefore, no reason for school supplies *sigh*

2. I wish I were taking some kind of trip to a new place and meeting some new people and having awesome adventures. Once upon a sorority formal I was voted Most Likely To Go On An Adventure. Can't wait to feel like I've actually embarked.

3. I wish to free the genie, because I actually can't think of a third wish.

I also just love the smell of fall, the activities of fall (um, pumpkin carving, hello), the fall holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc), the food of fall (especially hot appled cider!) and most of all the colors of fall.

It's my most favoritest time of year, and I cannot wait for it to start!

PLEASE don't send me to Africa!

I go to church every Sunday (except for the ones when I visit my best friend because she attends church on Monday) and for the past three weeks each and every sermon I have heard is about missions.

Week 1: Village Vineyard in Columbus where their pastor, Josh, gave a message called Go, Give, Get. The idea is that you GO to people/places, you GIVE Jesus to them, and you GET exponentially what you gave so you have more to give later. Simple, fun, meaningful message.

Week 2: A church in Canton South that has the word "Zion" in the name, but I can't remember the name exactly right now, where a guest missionary currently serving in Bolivia told stories about his experiences in the various countries he has been to and then played the saw most beautifully.

Week 3: Friendship Baptist Church in New Concord, my home church, where our associate pastor spoke about his recent trip to Cairo, IL, with his oldest daughter.

To add to this madness, I recently purchased and began reading Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig. He writes about his experiences in England working for a crazy awesome church but feeling as though he was settling. He got restless. God had a bigger vision. So he and his wife and their son took off and drove all over Europe, visiting churches and the location for a 125 year prayer meeting and giving flowers and chocolates to prostitutes while telling them Jesus loves them and a myriad of other things that all eventually lead into him beginning the 24/7 Prayer movement that has swept the world. And as I read about these adventures and what God did with this quiet, unlikely candidate for such an amazing mission all I could think was, This man is doing everything I've always thought of doing. I want to travel Europe, meeting people and making friends and contacts and getting to know them, etc, and for the past two years I have felt that God has bigger plans for me.

I'm a restless spirit. It's hard for me to settle, and I know that if I were to settle into a normal, middle class American suburban lifestyle that I would go insane with boredom. And as I began to read that book and after three weeks of nothing but sermons about missions I'm afeared that God wants me to be a missionary.

Not that being a missionary is such a bad thing. I just know myself, and I know that I'm not exactly the best of witnesses and I hate initiative evangelism with so much passion and this would mean extensive prayer, yet another epic fail of mine. Then again, just as I wrote that I'm hearing Moses' excuses when God told him to be an Israelite HE-RO and God used him anyway.

And there's always that chance I'm interpreting this all wrong.

We shall see.