Things I am Learning

There is this old song called "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" that is real catchy and has been stuck in my head all day. Not because I have recently experienced a break up, but because I keep singing to myself, "Growing up is hard to do." (To the same tune. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can click here and listen to it.)

Here are some things I am learning and looking forward to in the upcoming year:

For starters, I am learning to eat new foods. I ate some Lebanese food in New Orleans this past November, I conquered oysters on the half shell there too, and now, I give you... the chicken wing:

And here is the proof that I ate it:

Yay me :) I know, it's probably weird that I waited this long to try one. Don't sue me.

I am also learning car maintenance. This afternoon, I got a hands on lesson from my dad on how to replace windshield wipers and check the air in my tires. As my emancipation from being a dependent on my parents' income tax return is drawing near, I suppose it is good that I learn these things now.

On that note, I had my first job interview this week. I am not giving away all the details until they let me know if I'm officially hired or not, but it has dream job potential and I'm praying so, so, so hard that everything works out. They've given me a tentative thumbs up and emailed me all the insurance details and benefit plan so I'm hopeful that I they may offer me my first job. Stay posted for details.

Of course with the breaking news of possibly having a set-in-stone job come all my planning compulsions. I've been stalking furniture and home good websites for things for my first home. I have been bumming furniture off my parents for a while and I'm ready to put my name on something and have my name on it. I have visions of gorgeous coffee colored chenille and rich blue and gold silks.... And then I snap back to reality. :)

Seriously?

Seriously.

First Post of the New Year

So ends the first full week of January and my fifth week home for the holidays. Truthfully, my break from the working world has been a good one and even more truthfully... it has been a break that I really don't want to end. I'm dragging it out as long as humanly possible. I haven't spent this much time at home since I graduated from high school and I forgot how good it is to just be a kid again. It definitely puts simple "grown-up" things like laundry and buying groceries into perspective. And though I'm glad that I am months away from being a real adult, I am going to miss writing things down on my mom's grocery list and having them magically appear on the counter a few hours later or throwing my laundry in the bin in the hall bathroom and having clean and folded laundry magically appear on my bed.

So I have one more week at home before I have to head back to my apartment and my last internship. I think most of the people from my program are starting on Monday, but my hospital didn't want me to show up until the 18th, so I get another free week to bum around my hometown. I'm not so nervous about my hospital placement; I had an excellent full day of orientation back in November when I got got meet all the other therapists, got a tour of the hospital, got the lowdown on my caseload, etc. So I know exactly what to expect. I'm excited about it (and really excited about wearing all the scrubs I got for Christmas!) and my schedule is pretty good there. I only have half days on Friday so that means I will get to come home a lot! You might think that my parents are happy about this but I think they are just tired of my dog coming with me....

Seriously?

Seriously.

Christmas and the New Year

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year. I enjoyed celebrating the Reason for the season at my new church in downtown Macon (love it) by singing old Christmas hymns and having Christmas communion. I wish everyone could just sit back and realize why we celebrate Christmas - realize that it is a wonderful spirit-filled time of year and forget some of the commercialism that our society has so willingly associated with the holiday.

But on the note of commercialism, I really did get some amazing gifts this year. Here are a few highlights for those of you that might be wondering:

• A new digital camera - wide angle lens, 12 megapixel, 7x optical zoom = amazing. It is seriously a very, very cool camera. And I got a huge memory card and case and all that stuff to go with it. I am currently experimenting with all the settings (and have discovered that my dog automatically looks at the floor when I get it out because she has learned to hate the flash).
• A new printer - HP Photosmart with a touchscreen (this was really much appreciated as my old one hasn't been working properly in the last year) and a new printer cable (this one capable of reaching lengths longer that 2 feet), ink cartridges, and a ream of paper to go with it, haha.
• A new blender - hooray! No more "piece-of-junk" blender that can't even crush ice, haha. My new blender is glass and stainless steel and capable of turning ice into snow in a matter of seconds. Is it bad that I am at the age where I can really appreciate a kitchen appliance as an awesome Christmas present?
• Scrubs, white lab coat, stethoscope - all these things were needed for my medical placement... and I look legit in the whole get-up.
• Season 1, Volume 1 DVD of GLEE = love, love, love.
• Volume 1 and Volume 2 of GLEE CDs = good for jamming out in the car.
• 17 Again on DVD - Ah, Zac. Where have you been all my life?
• Clothes (yada, yada, the usual)
• Money, gift cards, etc.

Anyway, the new year is approaching and I am very excited to say goodbye to 2009. (Dear 2009, thank you for teaching me that I never want to take another standardized test ever again, that I can get through graduate classes just fine and still maintain a life, how much stuff I really have and how much I don't want to move it again, how pathetic my dating life was, and how much I actually hate being more than an hour away from home.) I have all sorts of resolutions that I am going to try and keep this next year. For starters, as you may have read on my facebook page, that I am going to read the whole Bible chronologically. Very excited about this process.

2010 already holds several wonderful things in store: graduation (again) from college, my first real job, my first real home, financial independence, the wedding of one of my best friends, the engagement of my other best friend, and the fact that this time next Christmas, I will be able to buy my family some nice gifts too.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Closing In

Christmas is fast approaching (although really, it's not approaching any faster than any other day of the year... how's that for a Sheldon?)

Tomorrow is a crunch day. And while I should be fast asleep preparing myself for a long day of shopping and making gifts and wrapping, I'm up late trying to figure how it's all going to get done.

First order of business: Barnes and Noble with my mom. We get my youngest cousins books to add to their family library every year for Christmas and we need go pick out this year's selections. I also found a slim Bible there the last time I was home and have been wanting to go back and get it. Especially since I forgot my big study Bible at my apartment and looked ridiculous on Sunday morning when I didn't have a place to "turn to."

Second order of business: finish the "projects" for two of my favorite little guys. I have been babysitting them for the past six years and they are about to move halfway across the country. I started a (rather ambitious) Christmas-slash-going-away present for each of them and now I'm worried that they might not get done in time. Hopefully, I won't have to ship them!

Third order of business: shopping tomorrow night with one of my best friends and hopefully some more friends as well. I am hoping for a little reunion of high school friends. (That is really one of my favorite parts of the holidays--seeing all my old friends again. The only bad part is trying to remember how many first dates I've been on since the last time I saw them, ha ha ha. Or in keeping with the season would it be ho ho ho? Nope. Definitely cliche.)

Fourth order of business: do NOT forget to pay the cable bill.

Fifth order of business: return Christmas present overload. I bought my mom three different kinds of the same thing because I couldn't make up my mind which one was the best. So after careful consideration, I picked one. Now I have to return all the other stuff and get my money back. Hooray money. (Really, that was much more enthusiastic that it looks in type.)

I mostly put all this up for a certain someone who said I was getting behind on my blogging. You know who you are. :)

Seriously?

Seriously.

Definition of a Good Day

Blah, blah, blah [insert generic Christmas event here], blah, blah, blah. I love the holidays but ever since I returned home, it's been a lot of the same thing (sleep til lunch, watch random television, run errands, eat dinner, stay up late watching movies, repeat). Today, however, was a welcome break from the blah-ness of my rigorous holiday schedule. A little joi de vivre if you will....

After getting the necessary eleven hours of holiday sleep, I got ready (and actually wore eyeliner and mascara on my bottom lids, ladies, shocker, I know) and went to lunch with my freshman year roomie. I hadn't seen her in ages and it was so good to pig out on cheeseburgers and Dairy Queen hot fudge sundaes (I mean, since it's the holidays and all, I'm not counting calories) and catch up. I also got to meet her precious Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (who despite her overwhelming cuteness is hardly big enough to live up to her breed's name).

Add a great lunchtime with holiday shopping with my brother and you have yourself the ingredients for a spectacular afternoon. We roamed the aisles of Best Buy for a while before buying each other a Christmas present. Let me also state at this time that it was a little less like shopping for each other for Christmas morning surprises than shopping for ourselves, finding the perfect gift for ourself, and then handing it to the other sibling to buy. It's how we roll.

To top things off, I ended the day by going with my best friend and her rockstar mom for Mexican and margaritas. Aside from the mariachi band who decided to play raucously loud (and obnoxious) latin music less than four feet from our table (really, I would have gladly tipped them a big fat 20 to just go away), we were able to enjoy each other's company and to destroy the chips and queso and nuestras cenas in no time flat. After dinner, the three of us went to see The Blind Side, which is an amazing movie. Go see it. Now.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Lovin' the Holidays

So begins my five weeks off from internships....

I finished up my school placement Friday. It was bittersweet--although glad to be done with another chapter and being one step closer to my degree, I was so sad to say goodbye to the faculty and students and the school where I have been since August. I got some of the nicest (and super sweet) cards and presents from both teachers and students and enough memories to last me a lifetime. Including the following:

While screening kindergartners (on my last day... trying to get those last few hours in!) Friday morning, I had hilarious conversation with a little girl. There is a question on the Fluharty screener where you have to ask the student, "How many brothers and sisters do you have?" After asking this question to a little girl, she responded,

"Ummmmm, one brother and three sisters, and, oh! Wait! Three boyfriends!"

"Three boyfriends?" I asked. "How do you juggle all those boys at one time?"

Laughing, she responded, "It's easy. They are all in different classes!"

It was my turn to laugh. "Do I know any of these boys?"

"Not unless you know Peyton, Carter, and Riley." (*names changed)

"Riley in the class next door to yours?"

"Yes!! Do you KNOW him? Because he is the one that likes to KISS me."

Oh, the image of kindergarten puppy love. :)

Seriously?

Seriously.

All My Friends Are Growing Up...

This has been an interesting year... and I'm pretty sure next year is going to be even crazier. For starters, one of my friends had a baby. I was super excited for her, but it was weird at the same time--seeing her baby belly, knowing that she wasn't just a friend and a wife... that she was a mom. Like... for real. (You know who you are and you know I love you!)

And then there was the fact that I got invited to fifteen weddings this summer, one of which I was a bridesmaid. Happy Singles Awareness Day x 15. But I got through it just fine, thank you very much.

So that left me wondering what was up next for me. When was I going to grow up? I've been in the same boat for a long time--going to school, getting good grades, hanging out with my friends, going to church, going to work, etc, etc. I thought moving to a new city and living on my own might do the trick. But really I was doing the same old things than I was before I moved, including getting a roommate all over again (which has turned out to be a good thing - paying the bills all on your own is tough stuff!)

But today, I did something that makes me feel VERY grown-up. And you know it's serious because I don't like to capitalize all the letters in a word very often :)

I officially submitted my resume for my first big girl job today.

It was a little scary at first, making sure everything looked right, etc. Resumes are a tricky business. You can't put too little information but you really can't put too much either. Do you include this or that or leave it out all together? What's relevant? Etc, etc.

But here's hoping that everything looked reeeeeal nice and that after reading that wonderful piece of paper, that they will want to meet me. And hire me? I dunno. Haven't thought that far yet.... It would require me to move back home and possibly in close proximity to my parents.

Seriously?

Seriously.