Today I came to a realization: In a month, I will be thirty, and yet in 29 and eleven twelfths years, I have never been asked on a date in person. I have been asked out via phone call, Facebook message, text message, and dating app messaging. But never has a guy walked up to me and said, “Would you like to get dinner with me some time?” I always thought it would be great to be asked out in person. You’re in the same room with them and you can see their facial expressions while you realize that they like you enough to spend some time with you. After musing about my realization, I thought perhaps a deciding factor in whether or not I should marry someone in the future should be how he asked me on our first date. If it wasn’t in person, perhaps I should just say no. But that’s just setting myself up for life as a spinster whose best option is to marry foolish Mr. Collins, the man who somehow thinks condescension from a great lady is a thing to boast to every person in the room.
Books
Wide Enough
Several months ago, a friend told me to listen to the soundtrack of Hamilton, the musical that has gotten so very much acclaim recently. And so about a month and a half ago, I listened to it for the first time. Boy! did my life change that day! I thought I would just be listening to another good musical, and possibly falling in love with it – the story, the music, the lyrics – as I have done with other musicals like Into the Woods and Les Misérables. I was wrong. I am now rather obsessed with this musical. So obsessed that, for a couple of weeks, I listened to Hamilton and only Hamilton on constant repeat. I have never before felt so emotionally connected to our founding fathers, or felt so proud to be a United States citizen. Actually, there have been very few times in the past that I have been whole-heartedly proud of being from the United States. Sure, there are luxuries and privileges that come with being a citizen of this country, but there are so many things I have not liked about it. There are still things I do not like about the United States: our rampant consumerism; our disrespect for nature and wasteful use of resources (which thankfully is lessening in some places, but could still be improved upon); and our “bigger is better” motto when it comes to things like food servings, vehicles, and campaign budgets… Just to name a few.
Check the B.S.
Have you checked your blood sugar recently? Go check it and take care of it if you need to do so. And then read this post. For those of you without diabetes, bask in the luxury of not needing to do this. I envy you. While I am thankful that I have Type 1 Diabetes because it has forced me to be a healthier, more compassionate person, that certainly does not mean that I enjoy what it takes to take care of my diabetes. I enjoy the results of taking care of my blood sugar – feeling normal, happy, energetic, and able to pay attention. But I do not enjoy the process involved in getting to that good blood sugar. In the rest of my life, I often enjoy the process much more than the result (the result is over much too quickly), but goodness no! not in diabetes. No, with diabetes, I like results. In diabetes, I like moving forward, getting better at management, and hearing about (and seeing the results of) all the amazing things JDRF is funding to cure, prevent, and manage this disease.
Palm Sunday 2015
Praise God for warmer weather.
Praise God for good education.
Praise God for friends.
Praise God for family.
Praise God for music.
Praise God for story.
Praise God for being humble when we, His creation, are not.
Praise God for sewing.
Praise God for new discoveries.
Praise God for teaching us through hard circumstances.
Praise God for health insurance.
Praise God for blue skies.
Praise God for caring people.
Praise God for loving us when we do not deserve it.
Praise God for eye-opening experiences.
Praise God for happier days.
Praise God for bearing our burdens.
Praise God for rain.
Praise God for flowers.
Praise God for redeeming us.
Praise God for feeling pretty without makeup for the first time in my life.
Praise God for rest.
Praise God for colors.
Praise God for lifting our heads from despair.
Praise God for role models.
Praise God for sending His long-expected Son.
Praise God for His Son’s unexpected humility, poverty, humanity, and love.
Praise God for doing what many of us will be remembering through this Holy Week.
Read from the beginning: soarwithlaughter.com/soar-cloud-high
The One in the Window Seat
Where the doors are moaning all day long,
Where the stairs are leaning dusk to dawn,
Where the windows are breathing in the light,
Where the rooms are a collection of our lives:
This is a place where I don’t feel alone.
This is a place that I call my home.
– “That Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra
I’m sitting here looking at all this delicious food I just made. And eating it. I was feeling lonely and depressed today… well, really for the past few days… and the audiobook of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie I had checked out was due tomorrow, so I drove around quite a bit listening to the end of the book. I went to the grocery store, and when I came back from returning the audiobook and checking out a new one, I had planned to make a chicken vegetable soup. I started cooking frantically. I boiled the chicken, then started to cook sweet potatoes and carrots in the water as I tore up the chicken. Then my cooking plans changed completely. I ended up making a sweet potato/carrot/almond/peanut soup and stir-frying chicken and vegetables on the side. There wasn’t enough space in the pot for everything at once and the puréed smooth carby vegetable and nut soup just sounded too good to pass by. When I cook, I often end up making something completely different than what I planned on making. I will plan to use a recipe to try something new, and then change half of it around by the time I get to the end of my cooking endeavors, completely forgetting that I even had a recipe to follow in the first place. Now I sit here with two delicious dishes, and I feel much better. I cooked today more than I have in a long while. I took out my anger and frustration and sadness on the sweet potatoes, listened to Mumford & Sons, and felt very stylish with a nice hairdo and a cute apron. The only thing I’m missing are people with whom to share all this good food. Then my house would feel like home.
Artists Everywhere
I came to Blackberry Farm nearly six months ago to get experience in the hospitality industry with the idea of someday opening a Bed and Breakfast of my own. At Blackberry Farm, I hoped to learn from one of the most prestigious places in the industry and I wanted to find out if hospitality is the right industry for me.
Soar with Laughter 