Baby!

Some dear friends of mine just found out they are pregnant.

When I got to work on Friday this was waiting for me on my desk!

A pink poodle baby rattle!

I love it!

Their last name is pronounced "shoe".

So some names they are considering:

Tyrone Dam Schuh (tie your own damn shoe)

Brianne New Schuh (brand new shoe)

haha they are great!

They are also going to make absolutely wonderful parents! Congrats Schuhs!!

Beauty and the Beast!

For Rebekah's birthday I took her to see Beauty and The Beast on Broadway.

2 days before I found my "Buty and the Best" Barbie dolls from 4th grade. Naturally I HAD to bring them to The Pantages and whip them out before the show. Then at intermission they had a costume change. The 5 year old girl sitting in front of us was SOOOO jealous. She kept turning around, staring at them and giggling. I felt the same way.

Life is a Waiting Game

For a while now I have been feeling like I am waiting for my life to begin.
Then I read Donald Miller's new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. A fantastic (I may be slightly biased- since I'd marry him in a heartbeat) book about getting out there and living life. It made me feel even worse about my lack of life.
Darn you economy.
Darn you state of California and your horrible budget issues.

Recently I read Cold Tangerines. A book, that at times while reading I was certain that Shauna Niequist had read my journal/we were the same person.

"I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself, the one my mind could see so clearly. In college, the post-college “adult” person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. Then the married person, then the person I’d become when we have kids. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that’s when life will really begin.
And through all that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. I am waiting for that time, that person, that event when my life will finally begin."

My New Life Goal:

"I don’t want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting. "

Amen, Shauna, AMEN.

March 17, 2011

St. Patrick's Day! But most importantly Rebekah's birthday!

I have 2 best friends. Coincidentally they both have the same name, and live on opposite sides of the coast. I've always been stingy with the word "best friend", so when I say it, I mean it. Sort of how I also feel about giving hugs.

Rebekah is my soul mate best friend. OR heterosexual life partner.

I met Rebekah working at the summer camp that we both still run. The first time I officially hung out with her I was with my other best, Becky and all three of us went to see Shakespeare in the Park. The rest is history.

Rebekah and I have been friends for about 7 years (this July). Over the course of 7 years we have learned a ton about each other. We've cried, laughed, peed our pants (well...one of us. ahem), t.ped ("decorating"), gone on vacations, road trips, and countless other adventures. She is one of the most honest, loving, giving, and caring people I know. Whenever we are out, and one of us notices something about a person or thing around us, we tell the other person, and they've already seen it. We see the same things. We observe the same things. We laugh at the same things. To quote Blink 182, "I don't think she needs me quite half as much as I know I need her."

About a year ago Rebekah started dating a great guy. I felt extremely jealous that he was taking her away from me and threatened that I would no longer have my best friend around. Or that she wouldn't need me as a best friend anymore. Thankfully they are engaged now and I'm a great third wheel. Besides, she'll need someone to complain to about him, and talk about how much she loves Josh Groban. Sooooo December, 2nd bedroom? Good.

Lent and Why I Had to Give up Facebook.

Every year for Lent I decide that I am going to give something up. One year it was fast food. I did pretty well with that even when mom drove through the in-n-out drive through. Rude. One year it was deciding to not hit the snooze button. That one I did not do well with. I hit it the first morning the alarm went off. Then I reminded myself about an article I read that said the best sleep you get is between snooze button hits. Why deprive myself of that much needed sleep? This could also be the reason I let the alarm/snooze go off for practically an hour before I actually HAVE to be out of bed. Ridiculous. This year I was sort of over the whole idea of giving something up. You're suppose to give something up that takes time away from God and replace that activity with something that will increase your relationship with God. Two days before Lent someone on FB said they were giving FB up for Lent. The next day my good friend Courtney decided that she was also giving up FB. I knew in my heart of hearts that I needed to do that also.

First though, I need to give you a brief history of my relationship with Facebook.
I like FB. And by like I mean that I can spend 2 hours on FB and not even realize it. I'm also really good at FB. I'm too good at FB. The way FB works is that people put things online that they want you to know. If they didn't want you to know they wouldn't put it OR they would delete it. When I say that I am good at FB I mean that my friend can have 2 random comments on his wall from someone who I don't recognize as a normal contributor to his wall and I know that something is up. In fact this happened and of course I was right. He also told me I should work for the FBI. (Don't worry I looked into it already.) This friend of mine also knew that I would be looking and guessed I would ask about it within 4 days. It took me 2. I can't help it I'm curious AND observant.
I can hang out with my best friends and have entire conversations about things that have happened on FB. It's too much. I talk about FB comments ALLLLLLLL the time. It's too, too much. I've even had 2 separate dreams involving FB. ooooookay.
THEN people that I went to high school with add me as friends. I wasn't even friends with some of these people IN high school so the fact that they want to be FB friends OUT of high school is beyond me. It's been 9 years. I've been fine not knowing, I'll be fine now. But noooooo I accept their friend request. Then, of course I have to go their pages and compare my life to theirs. Married. Kids. Job. Me: 0.
Not only am I disgusted with the fact that FB is actually my only socializing, and I talk about it all the time BUT it also lowers my self-concept. I read an article on CNN.com that said that young adults were now having "thrisis". (http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-09/living/generation.thrisis_1_somethings-social-networking-adulthood?_s=PM:LIVING)

The article basically says that people nearing 30 (me. ugggggh) are going through a mini crisis because we are on FB and comparing ourselves to our peers. Nailed that one. Like I don't already feel badly that I have no job, husband or kids, but now I have to see pictures and posts about people younger than me with all that. No thank you.

I've vacillated between deactivating my account or just leaving it. I can't decide. I've made FB such a part of my day-to-day life that I feel like I'd be missing out on so much if I deleted my account. Then again, maybe I wouldn't feel so badly about my lack of "traditional" adult milestones.

The Paris Wife

I've been reading The Paris Wife. It is about Hadley, Ernest Hemingway's first wife.
She was 29 when they married, he was 21.

I love this book. It reminds me a lot of A Moveable Feast by Hemingway. Coincidentally they are written about the same time frame. I'm not sure what exactly I love so much about them.

I think I would have loved Paris in 20's. The sheer Bohemian lifestyle that they lived there. Hanging out with up-and-coming artists and writers, expatriates living in Paris.

Maybe I've just romanticized Paris so much that anything I read about it makes me long to go even more.

I love that the author has given Hadley a voice. I love this book.