Clarity

On Friday when Casey and I were on our way to the driving range, we were listening to a mix CD that he made back in 2004 and one of the songs that came on was "Clarity" by John Mayer. I love John Mayer and this happens to be one of his best songs in my opinion, but this song has special meaning to me right now and has had a special meaning to me in the past as well. When Casey and I first started to date, this was his ringtone. It's silly, but in this technological age - it's relevant. So this is a song that I naturally relate to him and to the time when we were falling in love. This is a cool thing in itself, but when I heard it again on Friday the word "Clarity" really stuck with me. It stuck with me because of where I am right now in my life -I feel like I have finally found clarity. For the past two years I haven't really felt like myself and it's been really wearing on me. I felt like I didn't have a spiritual life, I felt like I had no direction, and I felt in a sense, kind of worthless. Now I'm not going to have a pity party, because that's not really my style and never has been, but let's just say that my life wasn't really where I wanted it to be and it was taking a toll on who I was as a person, mentally, spiritually, etc. So all weekend I've been thinking about how I have improved my life here recently as well as other things I want to do to improve my life from now on and I'm trying to come up with a "bucket list" of sorts, but more of a guideline for what I want my life to look like. Here are a few things:

1. Learn more - whether it's furthering my formal education, getting teacher certified, taking cooking classes, etc - I need to be learning more. That's why I am super excited to be getting certified to teach!

2. Read more - the last time I read a book was during the hurricane when there was nothing else to do. The last time I read a book before that (other than a text book) was my sophomore year of college. I really do love to read, but if a book doesn't hook me in the first chapter - I'm very likely going to put it down and never finish it. It's probably partly because of my ADD lol. Right now I am reading Luther's Small Catechism which is cool because it really breaks down the bible and church rituals to where they are relevant and make a lot more sense.

3. Travel more - When I become a teacher and have a steady salary and lots of time off, this will be a lot easier. When I worked at Elliott - I had money to travel, but no time off, working in insurance, I have unlimited time off, but not steady money. Teaching will be perfect because I will have 2 months off during the summer to travel and will actually be making decent money so that I can AFFORD to travel. I am probably the most excited about this.

4. Record my experiences more - I used to take a TON of pictures all the time and while it was probably annoying for the people around me, now we can look back on those pictures and remember those good times. There have been so many times when I have gone through an old photo album and have completely forgotten that those random nights out with friends ever occured. Pictures are my link to the past, and I think it's very important to remember where you came from. So I am going to take more pictures and continue to blog because those are two things that make me very happy. So there! Hahaha

5. Keep up with people better - Thank GOD for Facebook and Gchat sometimes right? If I didn't have Gchat or Facebook I probably would not keep up with as many of my friends as I do and that would suck. I absolutely hate talking on the phone (except to my family) so calling friends is usually not my MO, but I am trying to make an effort to call my friends more often and check up on them. Today I talked to Kacy Sandidge, now Ellis (my friend since 1st grade - or is it 3rd? - can't remember) as well as Meredith Ylitalo- now Rodriguez and it's always nice to see how old friends are doing. Anyway - this is one of my main goals.

6. Be NICER - Living in a big city like Houston has made my frustration level go up and my ability to hold in my anger go down. I get road rage like NO other and sometimes I find myself using very unflattering hand gestures towards people who probably didn't even realize they did something wrong. So for the past few weeks I have been really trying to be more patient and in turn nicer. I've been working on not just doing "one nice thing a day", but doing several nice things a day for strangers. I feel a lot better already and I know I will be much happier when most of the anger and rage is out of my life.

Anyway - I feel really, really great and I finally feel like my life is coming together.

In other news: I got my nose re-pierced on Saturday night with Megan!

Meg getting her nose pierced!

The question I get the most: "Did it hurt?" - the look on my face is your answer.

Our piercer Jayson

On Saturday Megan came over around 1ish and we hung out while Casey and Andrew were golfing. After Casey and Andrew got back we all four went down to the Old Town Spring Crawfish Festival. The weather was questionable, but we decided to go ahead and go and the biggest mistake we made was not bringing an umbrella. After we were there for about an hour it started raining SUPER hard. We got soaked, but it pretty much cleared up and we had a great time. As we were leaving we were handed a flyer from American Tattoo Company on Cypresswood & I-45 so we stopped to talk to the people handing out the flyers. I had been wanting to get my nose re-done but didn't know how that would work with my job and stuff and now with becoming a teacher, but the way I look at it is - you only live once and as long as it heals before the Region IV Job Fair in June (which it will) I'll be fine and can cover it with makeup.

The Gang at the Crawfish Festival

Some crazy Carni lady almost came after me for taking this picture - but it was so worth it - look at the small print at the bottom.

Today and this evening there were CRAZY rainstorms! We're talking flash floods, tornado watch and WARNINGS, and severe storm warnings. Not cool! Although around 7:45 the sky turned a beautiful yellow color and there was a really nice rainbow, so that was okay - but the rest of the storm was SCARY!!




Anyway, we've just been hanging out tonight and that's about it. The catechism class was nice yesterday and I could listen to Pastor Espinosa talk for HOURS. He is so well spoken and educated and he teaches exactly how I learn - it's a match made in Heaven! (sorry that was corny). I finished 3 and a half school job applications on Saturday morning, but I still have a few to go, so I better get on that. Hope all of you have a great week!


And for a little fun: Here's a video of me jumping on that bouncy thing at the carnival