Four Years Later

About a month after graduating from college, I accepted my first GROWN-UP job out of college and got ready to move to Tyler.

Today is the four year anniversary of making that decision, and I praise the Lord that I am still here!

I’ve now lived in Tyler longer than I have lived anywhere since we moved away from my childhood home when I was 15. (BAM. Milestoned.)

My first job here was through a temp agency, but I upgraded significantly after that, though it was to a position I cared nothing for because: I worked with sports. (Yes! ME! Sports. SPORTS.)

I hung up my… sport belt after a year of the…sports, and after a short stint working at a book store, I was in the dreaded “in between” phase. Where to go? What to do? For a time it looked like I would be moving back to Houston, but it never felt right to me. I didn’t want to leave Tyler. How glad am I now that I stuck it out and stayed here?

(Answer: very.)

During my first year-ish in Tyler, I had virtually no community to speak of, a fact that is now completely and wildly reversed, amazingly enough. (Look, Mom! FRIENDS! They let me talk to them in public and everything!!!)

So let's review.

Then: Sports (?) job, two friends if you count my grandparents.
Now: Awesome internet job with a Christian organization, more than two friends. Like, three or four even. (OKAY, more than that.)
Jesus: Always knows what He's doing.

I’m so glad I stayed.

Small world.

How crazy is this internet thing? About every month or so I pull up my Facebook account only to have yet another elementary school classmate asking to be my friend. This week I had a girl who I could have sworn disliked me ask to be my friend. We are now connecting over Facebook messages and I've come to discover that the third party information I received and believed for almost 15 years was WAY OFF BASE. I love how God is always at work in bringing truth to light. :)

So Facebook connects us, but this blog world has done a little bit of introducing on it's own. A few years ago my sister demanded I read the hilarious blog of one Annie P. I found myself chuckling at her musings and videos. I offered a mixer up to our blog readers and she readily agreed to take it off my hands. From there it's been terribly enjoyable becoming friends with someone you've never met. Annie told me recently that she's looking forward to meeting David... and also me.

Through Annie I started following the blog of a guy living in the midwest who was writing a really interesting series on dating. I kept noticing another girl from Arizona who would also comment on his blog. Turns out Jordan and I were BOTH from Texas and living as aliens in this strange desert. We actually met up for lunch and a movie a year ago and since then we have both met and become engaged to fellas from the Valley. I followed her year of planning and looked at the photos of her beautiful wedding before deciding I needed all of the advice she could give me. Her sweet mother has been giving my mom TONS of good info.

David and I went to Starbucks last Saturday morning and he pulled out a HUGE box that had been mailed to me from Jordan. Wedding goodness galore! Thank you Jordan!!

Of course, I can't fail to mention that I met my terribly wonderful soon-to-be-husband (114 DAYS!) on this crazy thing. So I may waste a few hours on the old Mac - but I'd say the web has been pretty good for my relationships.

things.

“The Bachelorette” is mostly really great this season. You know what makes it even better? Joey’s recaps. (Ahem. You want to click.)

Also: have you heard of “The Bachelor Pad?” It’s a new show that… you know what? I can’t even tell you. ABC? Take it away: YOUR FAVORITE ALL-STARS FROM THE BACHELOR AND THE BACHELORETTE BATTLE IT OUT FOR A CHANCE AT LOVE AND A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS, ON ABC'S HOT NEW SUMMER SERIES, BACHELOR PAD!

You can't see my facial expression right now, but let's just say it's one of OMG CAN'T WAIT BECAUSE THIS WILL BE AMAZINGLY AWESOME AND ALSO AWFUL. Something like that.

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Ginger didn't like my suggestion that her bridesmaids wear hot pink jewelry at her wedding. New idea: we wear DIAMONDS instead. Bought by the bride and groom. Yesh? Nudgenudgewinkwink? Or: better yet. All groomsmen will be single, taller than me, and under the age of thirty. Good? Good. I think that would be a fair compromise.

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I love unexpected laughs. Like when stumbling across one of my all-time favorite Annie Parsons-isms. Good Lord I love that girl.

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Guess. What. I moved into a brand-new office yesterday! It has walls and a door and everything. However: I miss my office mates! HOWEVER: walls and a door. I may have lost a window, but I got an honest-to-goodness door. (That's like a saying, right? Something like that?)

Goodnight/Hello.

We've registered... that was interesting/exciting. Let's just say one of us is trigger happy and the other is patient and likes to think through every. single. item.

But we did it. I'm excited for the fun stuff... but I'm really ready for a new place. So, to express my feelings, I thought we could have story time together... a little book I like to call "Goodnight, Apartment." Enjoy.

"Goodnight faucet that shoots water all over my counter whenever the dishwasher is running."

"Goodnight view of the other apartment complex and dumpster."

"Goodnight coffee maker that falls apart."

"Goodnight refrigerator with the handle that comes off every other day."

"Goodnight oven that is slowly falling to pieces."

"Goodnight one-bedroom apartment."

"Hello! Hello house with man who brings me flowers and cooks dinner after I've been away for work all weekend. Hello."

The End.

Sky Falls Down

Today. Has been quite a day.

First of all: it's been raining for approximately forever.

Then.

A tree fell on my grandparent's house. Thankfully they were out of town so no one was hurt. But I drove over in the rain to see the damage.

The first thing I saw when I drove up was this:

Oh, hello giant tree and mud and roots! You look awesome!

All you can see from the street is this:

Now their porch looks like this.

Then.

I headed in to work. Or at least TRIED to get to work.

Here is what one road looks like now:

Fun, right?

And here is work:

Awesome.

Needless to say, things were a little crazy at work- nothing like some inclement weather (to say the least) to keep you on your toes!

Luckily the day ended with sunshine and Sporcle.

(Which really is almost as good as a rainbow.)