Lessons From a Blueberry

Things That Are Dumb

1. Traffic with absolutely no cause

2. Everything Kanye West says

3. Expectations

We played this game in the car the other day, asking each other ,”What are some things that you think are undeniably dumb?” Not surprisingly, being an opinionated individual, my list went fairly long. But these were the top three I settled on.

When there is no rhyme or reason as to why people hit their brakes, it is dumb. You know what I’m talking about. You’re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, inching along for a few feet only for it to magically evaporate two minutes later. WHY?! Why did that happen? Can anyone explain? No. It’s just dumb.

Does the second point really need any explaining? Ok, moving on.

Expectations. We all have them. Whether they be about relationships, situations, movies, sophomore albums, job opportunities, or politics… we have expectations. And typically, when something happens to alter them, it hurts.

I’m not going to pretend to know how to fix that hurt in my life or yours, but I do think it’s helpful to be aware of your own expectations.

I had pretty high expectations heading in to this week. I had a second phone interview with an impressive and fun tech company in the city and I felt like I really rocked it. I expected to get an on-site interview.

I didn’t.

And I was (am?) incredibly disappointed.

One of the professor’s at Golden Gate gave a short devotional message before our new student orientation last week. As he was sharing scripture from the book of Isaiah, he profoundly said, “Disappointment is inevitable. Discouragement is a choice.”

If you’ve read the book of Isaiah, you can agree that he found out a few things about disappointment. (If you haven’t read it, I would suggest you not to start there. It takes some more heavy duty studying, trust me)

I’ve been holding on to the words of that professor. If I become discouraged every time an expectation is altered, then I am in for some serious heartache in whatever is left of this life I’ve been given. What is a sure way to keep your heart from being discouraged? Always being thankful. There is never, ever a moment where we don’t have many things to be thankful for.

I'm going to come clean about something right now. I hear that the blogosphere is the place to do that so here we go: I really, really, really like VeggieTales. I have for years. It's adorable, clever, hilarious, and shares great messages. So whenever I think of being thankful, one of the episodes of VeggieTales always comes to mind: Madame Blueberry has a ton of stuff but is consistently unhappy. It's not until she comes upon a little girl saying grace over a piece of pie that she starts to understand that stuff won't make you happy. "A thankful heart is a happy heart," the little girl sings. And even as I type those words, I get a little misty (I told you I like VeggieTales) wondering if my heart is as content as that little girl thanking God for what she has. 

What are you thankful for today? 

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Shower Resonance... and other things that are different in California

Written: August 11, 2014

As I got ready for my first Skype interview this afternoon, I was belting in the shower in order to calm the nerves and I realized I needed to readjust… because even the resonance in my shower is different on the west coast. I had gotten used to the feeling and sound of my Blacksburg shower. I would sing full musical numbers while washing my hair and know the feeling of how every note rang. But here, like most things, it’s just… different.

I’ll be honest: I’m not loving it all just yet. You probably think I’m lying because you may have seen the amount of pictures I’ve all ready posted. But let’s all just be honest and agree that things that are posted on social media aren’t always the things that are “real.” So yea, the golden gate bridge is lovely, and yea, the weather is fantastic, and yea, we’re doing all this cool new stuff in the big city… 

but my shower sounds different. And the weather is different. And the people are different. 

 I miss my people.

There’s a bunch of unspoken rules here, and if you follow the rules, then everything will be OK. For example: Dogs should be treated better than humans. Buy organic (unless you’re poor, like us). And never, under any circumstances, forget to recycle. They will hunt you down if you toss that aluminum can in the wrong receptacle. I've warned you.

Don’t get me wrong: This is a beautiful place and I’m glad to be here. I am truly glad! There’s so much to see, and we have barely scratched the surface. I’m sure this is just the beginning stage of any life change where you’re a little uncertain about it all.  You’ve been there. It’s all a little weird at first.

“Weird” has been our Word of the Month.

The stress of getting a job hasn’t helped things, that’s for sure. For about the first 10 days we were worry-free.

And then we had to pay our credit card bill.

Without income

… since May.  

It was an unpleasant feeling, much like the one you get in your stomach when you smell something you know you don’t want to eat. But we paid it, and we continue to survive. We continue to enjoy and explore and yes, eat. We are wise (and possibly stingy) with our spending until a job does begin, but is that really the worst thing? We have had great role models to follow when it comes to “living simply,” and I believe that we sure could be doing a lot worse. I am grateful and I will continue to be grateful.

But back to singing in my shower… it’s just a little off.

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The One Where I Started a Blog

So here we are.... the Blog-o-Sphere. The Big Domain. The World Wide Web. You get the point.

Kudos to Sir Aaron Peck for this blog title. I was mostly impressed with the amount of comment likes he received. I also am pretty sure no one knows how to pronounce my married name. 

It's GOW-DUH. 
Like proud or cloud or loud. 
That last one should be easy to remember if you've spent any amount of time with me.

I met Aaron sometime last year in Blacksburg and we bonded over the woes of mat-rolling at 6:30am and our mutual love of superheroes. One time, Ryan (that's my husband) and I went to the movies to catch a New Years Day showing of Anchorman 2 (don't waste your time, folks) and Mr. Peck was sitting in the back row. We were lucky enough to join him for the showing, so we all ended up wasting our time on the film... but it was certainly more enjoyable with our friend Aaron. 

Let me tell you something: Aaron Peck is a catch, ladies. That's right. A catch. So if you're sitting in your apartment somewhere near (or not near) Southwest VA right now reading these ramblings of mine, do yourself a favor and read his blog. And then get his digits because he's super cool. And kind. And funny. Like really, really funny. 

(You probably weren't expecting me to say all that about you, Aaron, but you can thank me later... when you're married to someone who was reading my blog then started reading yours. And then got your digits)

Let me just lay out some ground rules before we go any further in this relationship:
a.) This isn't necessarily a focused idea/ cause blog, it's more a of a stream of consciousness -type thing. I'm always open to suggestions or topic ideas
2.) Although it does in real life, lose grammar and writing etiquette isn't going to bother me here. Don't let it bother you
d.) More than anything, I hope it makes you laugh. And sometimes I hope it makes you think too
9.) I'm all about interaction so even though this is an online thing, please comment. Take those italics as me begging. I really mean it... write something.


That's where we're starting from. 
Let's do this thing. 

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