Welcome to GOTCHA

So it's Valentines Day and Hulu sent me this "Valentine's Present" of a Free Month Trial.   I thought to myself that this was optimal timing, because the Olympics are on and I had just read that you could stream them online with Hulu. 

*Side note, I don't have cable, so I've spent pretty much every night bumming on my friend's couch and watching the Olympics.  This may have been as much a gift to her as it was to me.*

Anyways, I was pretty stoked that Hulu was giving me a free month because I basically thought they were giving me the gift ofthe Olympics (BEST GIFT EVER).

And then it all came crashing down.

Because the free month is their cheap plan and apparently that doesn't cover the Olympics and I just signed up for a month of NOTHING.

Also, I'm pretty sure they probably sent that "gift" to about a million people, so now not only do I feel angry that they're Olympicless, but I'm also peeved that there was no originality in their gift.  Who wants to bet that Hulu is run by a man?

Travel Expo's - the Good, the Bad, and the...wait, what?

Let's get one thing straight, I've never been to a travel expo before a couple weekends ago.  Further more, if you had asked me to describe what I pictured a travel expo to be like, I probably would have described something very similar to Comic Con vendors along with my own personal fantasy touch of a gladiatorial stage where all the trips I've been dreaming about battle it out to see which one should be my next.

Needless to say, that's not quite how it went down on Friday.

First off, there were a variety of people there, so my initial plan to wow all the vendors by being the young, cool kid did not go as planned.

If anything, I think they found me to be more of a space hogger (taker-upper?  Apparently hogger isn't a work...but you know what I mean).

And I'm not making this up.  The prime example is that at one point during the night, my friend and I stopped at a stand to look at the tours they were offering, the lady smiled at me, but when an older gentleman stepped up next to me, she stood up and started telling him about all their offers with superfluous eloquence.  And there I am.  Right next to him, trying to eavesdrop on the advertising spiel that I myself, did not receive, and she ends up asking me if I'd mind stepping to the side so she could show him one of their safari trips in AFRICA.  The safari trip that I was looking at 5 seconds earlier!

I walked away feeling like a spurned girlfriend.  Was it my age?  My hair?  The fact that I showed up wearing workout clothes?  Why didn't they want to advertise to me?

The most ridiculous part of it all is that I don't even like being advertised to...until someone is purposefully advertising to me in favor of someone else.  Then all the sudden I start feeling like I'm missing out.  I get FOMO big time when I can see that other people are getting something I'm not getting.

Which, actually, may be a really great place for travel agency to go with their advertising.  Do this now, because otherwise you'll never get to do it and you'll be the odd man out for the rest of your life.






Not bad, travel expo.  Point you.

However, I still prefer my gladiatorial battle of the trips.

New Year

I'm not much of a goal setter, but New Year's is the one time a year that I actually get excited for goals.

But probably the best part of this New Year's was when I got on goodreads to set a goal for the number of books I want to read this year and not only came across my own book (who knew that both my books were on there???), but also came across this:

For about 90% of the population, I really don't care what they think, but I've always been worried about what my parents think about me.  Seeing my Dad's review made my day and makes me want to work harder on my next novel and in my own life.  I hope I can always live in a way that he'd be proud of me.

During this last year, I focused a lot on "reawakening".  I had been feeling pretty unattached and uncaring about things, so I wanted to reawaken to my own life.  I got back into running and ran a half marathon.  I went on an amazing trip to Costa Rica.  I started two new jobs.  I started a TESOL course and am in the process of planning my move abroad.  I realized that I was wrong about not liking audiobooks - it turns out that I love nonfiction audiobooks (sorry, still not sure I like fiction audiobooks...maybe next year).  I made some amazing new friends and I went to space camp and the Highland Games, along with plenty of other random events.

All in all, here's to a fantastic last year and the start of the new year.  Here's to all the moments waiting to be seized.  Who knows what will come?

Some Thoughts From the Last Two Weeks

1.  Tina Fey's biography was riotous.  The most memorable part (besides the word blorft which had me cracking up*), was the rule that you always go along with whatever your comedic partner says.  Which is just like life.  Sometimes you have to just go with whatever happens.

'"Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' - Tina Fey 

2.  Sometimes I desperately need a little time to recuperate.  People are great, but also, blech.  I get to make small talk all day, it's not exactly high on my list of weekend activities.  So get over it roomies, I don't want to make small talk with your new boyfriend.  I want to lie on my amazingly comfortable bed and watch Netflix.

3.  There is no light switch that I can find in the employee bathroom in my current library and this seems like a serious issue.  It's normally automatic, but when I walked in the other day, it didn't turn on.  So, I tried to find the switch and there was nothing in the bathroom...so, I turned to go check on the outside wall and managed to run into the DOOR.  Yes, it made a huge thud that probably most the library heard.  No, no one asked if I was alright.  I started laughing, because it was so ridiculous and everyone else politely pretended nothing had happened, because I'm new and that's what you do when someone is new.

4.  I went for a run and then decided I was too tired to run, but I wanted to be outside...so I just walked around the park.  An older woman joined me and started talking to me. Depending on my mood, this either creates a "WHY?!!!!!" attitude or a "Tell me your life story complete with all the little details and bare your soul to me because I'm genuinely interested and looking for answers to my own life by learning about other peoples lives."  Anyways, it ended up being a great conversation.  No, she didn't give me the answer to life's questions, but she did tell me "You can't control everything, so just let go and take it all with a sense of humor.  Laugh, cause you don't get these moments back."

5.  Thanksgiving as one of my top holidays.  It combines two of my favorite things: food and family.  Sadly, working at a library means that I only get Thanksgiving and Black Friday off, so I had to drive down DAY OF, which sucked majorly.  I spent most my drive imagining my arrival being greeted like Prometheus rolling into town - "Hey humans, check out this fire thing I brought for you!" Sadly, my family did not herald my arrival with quite that fervor, but hey, families will be families.

How Taking Chances has Changed My Life

           I’ve been putting off writing on here for a couple weeks now.  I admit that it’s because I was feeling sad and I didn’t know how to put my grief into perspective.  I didn’t want to write until I had at least started putting it into perspective.

            One of the hardest things in life is change and I think I’m tired of saying goodbye to people that I genuinely care about.

            See, I just started a new job and it’s a great opportunity, but saying goodbye to my old life and the people who were in it has been hard.  Every time you promise that you’ll keep in contact.  Then over time, those contacts slip away and become only memories.  I used to be okay with it, I was so caught up in looking to the future and the possibilities that the goodbyes hardly fazed me.  Now, I realize that it’s not that easy to make new friends, that it’s going to be a lot of work, and I realize that I’m going to spend quite a few lonely moments missing my old friends.

            So why do I do it?  I mean, I keep doing it and I know I should do it.  New state, new job, new life, new me…every few weeks there something new, some change that I get caught on and start working towards.  Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t, but it doesn’t really matter, because it’s the very act of working on something that keeps driving me.  Because I have this need to prove to myself that

I can do hard things.

            I think some people are really passionate about their careers.  Some people are passionate about saving the planet.  This might sound incredibly selfish and please understand that this isn’t the only thing I’m passionate about, but in the last two weeks I’ve realized that one of the things that I’m passionate about and that I couldn’t live without, is this incessant need to push myself beyond what I think I’m capable of.

            I never know what the challenge is going to be.  I’m not really much of a planner.  One day I’ll wake up and something will just be there, that idea that sparks a determination to do something different.  I’d like to think that those moments are magical, the moments when my need for challenge matches up with God’s plans for me, giving me the divinely stubborn drive to do something I’d never dreamed of doing before.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s work in your life is bigger than the story you’d like that life to tell. His life is bigger than your plans, goals, or fears. To save your life, you’ll have to lay down your stories and, minute by minute, day by day, give your life back to him.” – BYU Professor

            I don’t really know what God’s ultimate plan for me is, but I do know that I don’t want my own fear and lack of self-confidence stop me from allowing Him to shape me.  I had a mission president who wrote this equation during a conference:

Doubt  +  Obedience    =   A Witness

            I think I’m always going to be afraid of change.  I think I’ll always be sad to say goodbye to people and afraid that I won’t make new friends.  But I’m also learning that it’s only by not knowing and pushing myself into action despite that, that I can ever truly change.

Run, Run as Fast as You Can

I wasn't planning on going for a run today...but those cops came out of nowhere.

Okay, so I did plan the run.  I also didn't get chased by police officers.  I just thought that the irony in this picture was right around perfect.

And Thus the Holiday Season Comes Upon Us

The last three months of the year are some of the best because of the amazing holidays and celebrations that take place.  This smile basically embodies how I feel all throughout October, November, and December:

I'm pretty sure he gets his smile from his mom...
I swear she used to smile like this every Christmas morning

 And first up we have Halloween...the Nightmare before Christmas if you so will :)