Encouragement of a Friend

Earlier today, while I was out walking one of my dogs, my phone went off, informing me that I had a text message, or in this case, that someone had posted on my Facebook wall.  When I checked it, I was incredibly surprised to see that it was informing me that one of my former youth pastors had posted on my wall.  The surprise came from the fact that I haven't really seen or spoken to him since my family moved into Albuquerque.  Since the message only gives a the first couple of words of the post, I really wasn't sure what the post was about.

So when I got home, I headed straight over to my computer and proceeded to check it out.  I was again incredibly surprised when I saw that it wasn't just a short post like I was expecting, but almost a full page.  Reading what he said, reminded me of why he was always one of my favorite people.  He told me that he had seen my blog and wanted to encourage me in my weight loss.  That in and of itself was huge for me.  And then he shared his own weight loss goals and story with me.  Again, that was huge for me.  I have a few people who are encouraging about my weight loss, but none of them have really struggled with being overweight or struggled to then lose that weight.  Reading his story was one of those moments of, I'm not alone in this.

Most of the time what I post on my blog is meant to be interesting or something to learn from or just fun, in short, I try to post things that will encourage or interest other people.  What I never expected, was that through it, I would receive some of the encouragement I've gotten from friends who have read it.  And for that, I feel very blessed.

Thankful for the Little Things

So a couple days ago we got a notice on our front door that our water would be shut off in order to make some repairs in the area, which basically meant, we're redesigning part of the golf course right across from your house and we're doing something with the water lines to improve it.  Yeah, kind of annoying, especially since I don't golf and could care less how the golf course looks or functions.  But, I was not consulted in the matter, so, oh well.  In any case, the notice said the water would be off from 8 am till 4 pm, kind of an annoying time frame because I don't usually get up till around 8, but I figured getting up an hour or so earlier wouldn't kill me.  I honestly wasn't all that concerned because I was supposed to be working for most that time frame.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

So I woke up this morning feeling pretty depressed.  I'd had this absolutely perfect dream where the guy I liked finally liked me too, my career was getting started and going really well, I was thin and felt beautiful, and basically everything I wanted had come true.  It was so vivid, so real...and then I woke up.  Worst feeling ever.

River of Lights

 So I realize that I'm almost a month late posting these, but, honestly I haven't had the time to go through all the pictures I took.  But, hey, better late than never!  So here are a few of the pictures I took.  Enjoy!

Disappointment Hurts, But Life Goes On

So today was a day of several rather important events, well, two important events really.  As I mentioned in my last blog, I started this new diet today and had my audition for Anne Frank.  I was worried about how I would do with the diet because today and tomorrow I'm on what they call a modified fast.  So basically I drink this shake type drink once in the morning and once at night and that's it.  I can't eat anything or drink anything other than water.  It actually turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be.  The shake was very filling and even now, almost ten hours later, I'm not horribly hungry, though I am kind of watching the clock as I wait for 8 o'clock to roll around.

It's For Men?!

So today was kind of an interesting day.  Mostly good, but it had its fun and interesting parts to it.  I had a short work day which was super exciting because it was incredibly stressful and disorganized, mostly due to the fact that our regular day crew manager just left to go on a cruise (lucky!) and we had some other random manager there who didn't seem to totally know what she was doing.  On a Friday, that can be kind of disastrous, and since she made some rather unwise cuts to our crew much earlier than she should have for a Friday the rest of us were kind of screwed once it got busy.  Plus people were ordering some really weird salads today.  Needless to say, I really wanted to smack some of those people for ordering their ridiculous salads.

But I lived (yay!) and had a get together with a friend to look forward to.  Since she lives in Santa Fe we don't see each other a lot, so I was ridiculously excited to hang out with her, because she's so much fun to be around.  We met at Starbucks and got some coffee and ended up spending three hours just chatting which was a lot of fun.  We oohed and aahed over Les Mis and The Hobbit, debated the singing abilities of Gerard Butler in Phantom of the Opera, discussed life and school, talked about books, careers, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Doctor Who, more Les Mis and The Hobbit and generally just had a fantastic time as our conversation jumped all over the place.  I always love how she sometimes says the most unexpected things that make me think, wow, was not expecting that!  She never fails to make me laugh.

Going On An Adventure!!

So I don't get to hang out with friends too terribly often, 1) because our schedules are usually completely different and 2) because most of them live out in the mountains so its not always real easy to do anything.  But I did make some new friends during my time as part of the cast of A Christmas Carol and as it turns out, some of them are as nerdy as I am. =)

Look To The Future

A couple of weeks ago, a girl I work with mentioned that she had a job interview with a company in Albuquerque.  The job sounded fantastic and she encouraged a lot of us to try applying as well.  The job sounded great and exactly what I've been kind of looking for so when I went home that night I decided to apply.  Now don't get me wrong.  I honestly love my job (I work at Dion's, btw) and the people I work with and everything.  But its not exactly a career job, the schedule changes every week so I don't have a consisted paycheck, and I'm not making a ton of money.  Since I'm planning on moving to L.A. sometime soon, I figured I needed a better paying, more full-time job.

So I went ahead and applied and, man, was it a hard application!!  Typing test, oral test, computer proficiency test, it was intense!  But I got it done and submitted it and got a notice that I would be informed in 72 hours if they wanted an interview.  Well, after 72 hours I hadn't gotten a call, so I figured, oh well, at least I gave it a try.

A Year In Review: 2012

1)  At the beginning of the year I decided to get a couple of mice:  Matthias, Martin, and Methuselah.  Not knowing much about mice, its been a bit of an adventure, but not one I regret taking.

2)  For my 21st birthday my parents and I went to the zoo for the first time in probably close to a year and had an amazing time.

3)  For my mom's birthday we went to the botanical gardens which were gorgeous and completely in bloom.

4)  On May 20th my family watched the solar eclipse which was pretty interesting.

5)  Got to see the 4th of July firework show at the Balloon Fiesta Park.

6 & 7)  My family went up to Silverton.  This and the next picture shows some of the gorgeous scenery we saw.

8)  During part of the summer I got to work as a sales representative with some really neat people.

9)  My family joined the ranks of the crazy people who take all of their animals with them on vacation.  We took our cats with us on our second trip up to Silverton.

10)  Our crazy family photo.  This is what we're really like. =)

11 & 12)  We also visited Vallecito and saw so many deer in the couple days we were there including a doe and her twin fawns which were adorable!

13)  My mom and I did a photoshoot with a mushroom.

14)  I had the opportunity to go on a fall retreat with two of my best friends.  I was so blessed to get to spend time with them.

15)  Just before the cold hit, the rosebush I planted in the spring started to bloom.

16)  Enjoying those last few warm days hanging out in the garden.

17)  Again, for the first time in many years my family and I went to the Balloon Fiesta.

18)  The Hobbit premiere was amazingly epic!

19)  I had an amazing time as a member of the cast of A Christmas Carol and made a lot of new friends.

20)  River of Lights with my parents after not having gone for several years.

A friend of mine did this and I thought it was so neat with the pictures so I decided to copy her. =)  Hope everyone had a fantastic 2012 and here's to 2013!!  Cheers!