last night I heard my mama singing a song
Sorry for not responding to all your very insightful comments about beauty. I didn't have any helpful context or definitions that would make it easier to answer; they were pretty vague thoughts to begin with, so I'm not sure how to make it more clear.
My Theater professor has grown on me a lot, to the point where I am not annoyed by her at all and am actually growing kind of fond of her. Relatedly, at some point this semester I have to present a one-minute monologue. Any suggestions?
Yoga updates: I have been going more or less every weekday, and it's been having a noticeable effect on my physical and mental state. I tried a new kind of class, Water, and was actually not all that impressed by it; it was basically a Fire class with music, candles, and minimal instruction. In theory, this sounds nice and calming, but I came away from it feeling like I hadn't deepened my practice at all. I guess I appreciate instruction and critique more than I realized.
Birthday things: I'm two decades old and not a teenager anymore. True to my Tamez heritage, I celebrated for something like a week straight. (Who needs an excuse to party, really?) It started on Saturday, when Alan took me to Genghis Grill for dinner (oh the deliciousness of it all). When we got home, we had a crowd waiting at the house with balloons and streamers and food. As it turns out, Alan and thrown me my very first surprise party ever--I've always wanted one. We played lots of games (Paper Charades, the Name Game, Noah's Ark) and stayed up late laughing and talking. My favorite part of the whole evening was having all three sets of our parents together having a good time. Nikki and Blake were there, too, which was really cool.
CR went really well. I passed out bulletins and noted that I'm beginning to recognize a lot of faces. A woman from my closed group asked me to be her accountability partner, which thrilled me. And a handful of us organized a potluck for this Friday, which I'm way more excited about than you would believe if I told you.
The celebration continued on my actual birthday. The day actually started in a kind of sucky way; I woke up to the sound of shower water blasting and learned that when Alan tried to turn the water on, the entire faucet came off, leading to a geyser blasting from the wall for about 45 minutes before we managed to get the water turned off. Things got better from there, though. Alan worked from home, so after school I came home and got to spend some time with him. He even went to a yoga class with me (and he did very well--he said he enjoyed it more than he expected). In the evening we went over to my parents', where we hung out and played Boggle, ate fideo, and opened presents.
This year's loot list was quite sizable. I got several yoga accessories (a mat, a block, and a strap, as well as a pair of stretchy yoga capris), a Ross gift card with which I purchased four new shirts (which I love), a mouse-shaped cheese grater, a button-covered pillow, $20 in cash, a vanilla bundt cake, two books (Ann Coulter's Slander and Eireann Corrigan's Splintering), a piano bench with seat storage, flowers, an assortment of cards (including Andrew's memorable "It's Your 85th Birthday" contribution), and of course, The Road to Hell.
The next day (yesterday), Lauren came over mid-afternoon and we hung out and ate and talked. I also went with her to Alfred Angelo to buy my bridesmaid dress. It was a great, relaxing afternoon. I love spending time with friends.
Upcoming events about which I am excited: meeting Fuat, the Turkish man, at Starbucks for a language exchange this Saturday; a trip to Austin in October; buying a pet sugar glider sometime around Christmas.
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blah blah vampire emergency blah
Maybe no one else is interested in this but me...but it's my blog, and I think it's pretty interesting.
I wasn't just imagining it when I felt like my form was improving. Here is the shot of me in standing bow that I posted, what, a week or two ago? along with one from today.
The major difference here is the straightening of the legs. Eventually, it will look something like this. (Ugh, I can't believe I thought the first one was good.)
Also, did I mention that I'm super proud of having gotten my foot in Lord of the Dance? (It's a video still because I really just can't get into this fast enough for a ten second self-timer.)
And yes, I know it looks really bad right now (it will eventually look like this), but I couldn't even get this far two months ago. I can't wait to see what I'll be able to do in a year.
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a tear is only water, a sigh is only air
It's been a really great day.
Okay, so to start: I am officially stepping down as a volunteer at the Turning Point, as much as I loved it there, and joining the team at the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center (DARCC). I'm really excited about this. It's a startup (they've only been staffed since January), so there's a lot of flexibility and potential that I'm really digging. I met with a woman there once to turn in my application (although it was almost a formality), and then again today to go over the agency-specific protocols. They do a lot of things differently from TTP--mostly good changes, I think. I'll go into that more later, maybe. Anyway, the woman told me that Sarah (volunteer coordinator at TTP) couldn't say enough good things about me, which made me feel good and was a nice send-off. I may never have a "real" job, but at least I know I'm good at non-profit, right?
Yoga--even the staggering amount that I already write about it doesn't do it justice. I feel completely transformed. I'm getting physically stronger, and more flexible, all the time. The actual time at the studio does wonders for me mentally; it's so good to just set aside a time to relax and listen to my body. It loves being pushed to the limit. (The instructor told me today that I'm "super flexy," which made me happy. ALSO, I got my flippin' foot in flippin' LORD OF THE DANCE the other day. If you do yoga you'll know how difficult this is.)
That was today. School started yesterday. I'm taking Theater and Government II; both of my professors are really annoying, but in their own special ways. One of them is at least entertaining in her annoyingness; the other is skull-numbingly boring. Oh well.
This past weekend, we had Alan's parents (both sets) over, along with Jake, Kylie, James, and Addi. It was so much fun. We had some really delicious food--we made chicken tortilla soup, Alan's mom brought cheesy potatoes, and Laura brought cheesecake--and they gave us housewarming gifts (a gorgeous plant and a bottle of white wine from Jesi & Paul, a Target gift card from Ronnie & Laura). Yay for our first real dinner guests!
As you may have seen, we had to have Trixie put down. She had the best life any mouse could ever have, and I'm so glad we got to have her as long as we did.
GTL:
- Got a free fridge!
- Had a fun roleplaying session here at the house with Daniel, Andrew, and Nikki.
- Alan has bought me flowers twice in the past week or so, just because.
- We cleaned and organized the entire house; we are now completely unpacked and everything looks great
- Chelsea
- Alan put up shelves for me
- My birthday's coming up
- ...and Alan has some kind of surprise planned for me ^-^
- Blake will be home from Korea tomorrow! My seester is pretty pumped.
- I found a Turkish guy living in the DFW area who's willing to meet up with me (with Alan present, of course) to do a language exchange
- A friend of mine who's pregnant is making her daughter's middle name Virginia after me
- Lauren is coming over next Wednesday and we're going to make a day of it to celebrate my birthday
- CR, and all my wonderful friends there
- Being a greeter at CR
- Kylie said to Mom (referring to the chicken tortilla soup), "Nana, I LOVE this soup!"
- Alan was put in charge of a project at work
- There are so many different kinds of cheese! It's wonderful.
- Saralynn is back from Hungary.
- Addi is expected to be walking by Christmas
- The Casa Linda Bakery is amazing. So far I've had some lemon thumbprint cookies and petit fours--so good, so convenient, so cheap. I'm going to have to be careful not to go too often.
- Alan is wonderful! I'm so infatuated with him.
- "If we don't deal with the past, it's not the past."
Poll Questions:
1. Asking people (specifically, people you don't know very well) about their tattoos (meaning, background, etc.): kosher or no? It can be a great conversation starter, but for some people, it's too personal.
2. Christians: Have you ever considered the possibility that beauty could be absolute? (My argument in a nutshell: God is always right; if God says that something is beautiful, and someone else says it is not, God is right and they are wrong; therefore beauty is absolute and not relative.) This has been on my mind a lot lately, although my still-forming opinion is open to being changed.
3. Do you have any good recipes to share? Bonus points if it involves strawberries and/or cheese in some way.
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If someone ever creates these pages, I will "become a fan" of them.
Telling People When You Dream About Them
Watching Movies Just to Make Fun of Them
Your Children Will Make Fun of Your Bumpit Someday
Wondering What to Do With the Food In Your Mouth When Someone Starts Praying After You've Already Started Eating
Going to the Public Restroom En Masse
I Learn The Hard Way Which of My Dishes Are Not Microwaveable
Clumsy People Who Feel That Bella Swan is Not Doing Them Any Favors
My GPS Might Be Useful If It Ever Had Satellite Reception
Instead Of Passive-Aggressively Joining Groups And Hoping the Appropriate People Notice, You Should Just Tell Them Whatever It Is You have to Say
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do you feel me?
Some examples of God's faithfulness in the first ten days of August:
- I found out that someone I cared about betrayed my trust years ago. I felt irrationally angry; I knew that it shouldn't matter, since it happened so long ago, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't let go of the anger. Finally I did what I should've done from the start and prayed that God would help me let go of my bitterness, and He did.
- Neko invited us to visit her and Kevin in Louisiana shortly after Christmastime. I'm excited; I haven't seen Neko since the wedding, and it'll be cool to meet Kevin.
- "Separation from God can feel very real, but it is never permanent." I have felt very separated from God for awhile now, but I think I am just now coming out of it. I may not always understand the cause of the perceived separation--whether it is something I'm doing, or if He is choosing not to show Himself for reasons I don't know--but I can take comfort in knowing that He will never abandon me.
- I have become addicted to yoga. It's amazing to be able to go whenever I like, and the more I become more familiar with the postures, the more I can practice them on my own at home. I'm becoming stronger all the time and I love it.
- Everything about the move went really well. We had a bunch of good friends come over to help (you always know who your real friends are...just kidding!), and it was like a big party, complete with donuts and pizza. Lauren stayed at the new house and spent the afternoon unpacking and arranging furniture with me. She also asked me to be the maid of honor in her wedding, and I was certainly very happy about that. :) That evening we went to Hailey Swearingen (now Neds)'s wedding, which was beautiful and made us both feel very sappy. It was also nice to get to hang out with friends (many of whom we had seen earlier in the day at the move).
- The house: it's amazing. Once everything's unpacked and organized, I'm going to go through and take pictures of everything. For now, just take my word for it--absolutely perfect.
- I got my copy of Eireann Corrigan's latest book, Accomplice, and it was smashing. It's been quite awhile since I read such an entertaining book. After I expressed this to her, she said, "Ginni, I'm so happy you liked it! Thanks so much for letting me know. Best of luck with the move-- I'll be thinking of you and Alan!" It meant a lot to me.
- Spent some time with Cameron while he was in town (Dairy Queen, Texasopoly, secret errands); it was good to see him.
- Picked up Katie and Elvis from the airport (they were flying in from their honeymoon in Cozumel Mexico). It was amazing to see them and catch up; they are super cute together. They also bestowed many gifts upon us (including a Mexican hammock that we will hang in our backyard soon, and some really delicious Mexican candy), which seems a little counter-intuitive, but we weren't complaining.
- Was a greeter at CR again this week. It was great. I really feel like this is a place where I belong. I also went to I Heart Yogurt afterward with my closed group, which rocked, both because of the yummy yogurt and the great company.
- "Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth." (Psalm 86:11a) Some days it's hard for me to approach God; I don't understand why He does what He does and doesn't do what I want Him to do. But even when I don't believe anything else, I believe in truth, and all truth is God's truth.
School is almost over--well, summer classes--and then I'll have a week off before fall classes start. We have all kinds of stuff planned for the next few weeks. Should be interesting.
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