Small Blessings, Day 2

I had another fabulous half hour today, this time at the Citadel. But somehow, I don't think that counts to write about the same thing 2 days in a row, even if it's true.

But I did have a wonderful drive home. It was pretty cool (about 75 degrees at 6:45) and the sunset over the river was beautiful. As I drove across the bridge, I could smell the salt from the river and see the silhouettes of the dark palm trees against the pinkish-orange sky. Yes, I am blessed.

Small Blessings, Day 1

My pastor down here suggested last week that, as a part of my spiritual development, I end each day looking for the places in my life that God has given me small things. He said that it's not often that God speaks through a parting of the skies, but that He's very intimately involved in our lives in very small ways. I've been practicing that for a week now, and I've realized that there are some very beautiful small moments in each day. So, for the next week, I want to share those things with you.

Today's was exceptionally good. I got a text from my friend this morning asking about our Old English homework which I hadn't finished last night. I decided to leave work half an hour early and head down to campus to work. The building that my class is in is itself in a small courtyard and there are lots of trees because it's right in the middle of downtown. I found a seat on the edge of a deserted planter that had a (working!) fountain in the middle. It was a shady spot and rather cool; it was only about 80 today and a small breeze was blowing. I spent an hour there, working on my translation, which is one of my favorite things to do, in a very nerdy kind of way. I was wearing one of my favorite skirts and the breeze ruffled it and blew through my curls. That quiet hour was one of the best times I've had in a while. At one point in the middle of it, I became cognizant of the situation and thought "wow. I really belong here."

Anyone else have small things to share?

Yesterday's quote of the day

I spent most of yesterday at a Student Leadership Summit so that the GEA wouldn't get 30% of our budget taken away. Most of it wasn't too memorable, except for the "working lunch" where my partner in crime and I sat with a guy from an acapella group and a guy from the archaeology club. At one point, I got up to refill my drink and accidentally got unsweetened tea (which I didn't even know they made down here). When I mentioned that, acapella guy said "Yeah, I don't like unsweet tea. I'd prefer a nice glass of diabetes, which is how is should be down here."

Welcome to the south

One of the 8 million reasons I love Joe

Joe is number 3 of 5, the middle boy in our house. He's also known as "Big J" or, when writing "J"-Jack is "Little J" and "j". Anyway, our birthdays are 4 years and 363 days apart. He came home from the hospital on my 5th birthday, so we've always had a special bond. As evidence, here's our facebook conversation from this evening:

Me

you know, just chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool

Joe

taking part in recreational sporting events outside of the establishment where you receive and education?

Me

when several young hoodlums who had malicious intent started harassing the individuals who reside concurrent to my place of residence

Joe

my guardian was alarmed at this peril and felt it was in my best interest to reside with my mother's brother in another part of the country.

Me

when i arrived, i motioned for a vehicle wherein to be transported to my uncle's place of residence and noticed that the identifying plate on the vehicle bore the adjective "fresh" and the gentleman driving had a curious pair of novelty dice hanging from his mirror

Joe

I, however, being in somewhat of haste, decided to pay no mind to the novelty dice and request my chauffeur to proceed to my new place of residence

Me

we arrived at said residence between seven and eight o'clock pm, and as I exited the vehicle, I bid the chauffeur farewell and proceeded to examine the luxuriousness of my new dwelling place. I truly felt like a prince arriving in his own kingdom

Yes, we took the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song and put them into proper English. Special is one way to describe us!

I love living on the coast

Yesterday I went to the beach with my brother's girlfriend, Erin, who's down visiting for the weekend. He had a football game to work, so we packed up and went to Sullivan's Island, one of the islands around here. A friend of mine from my program had told me that it wasn't really crowded, so it was a good place to go. We had a lot of fun, despite the comedy of errors that it really was.

First, Erin didn't have a bathing suit (because I forgot to call and tell her that I was planning a beach day), so she was wearing shorts that, of course, got wet as we waded in the water a little bit. Second, we only brought one towel, so we had to share it. Third, I'm terrible with sunscreen, so not only was I incredibly sandy when we got back, I also look like I have a Picasso painting on my back. Fourth, we went without eating breakfast and then forgot to bring food or water, so by the time we finally ate something at 4:00, we were ravenous.

However, we had a lot of fun just hanging out; she's the first girl that my brother's dated that I've gotten along with like this, so I'm thankful for that. We people-watched, which is always interesting at the beach, then navigated back to Pat's school to pick him up. The three of us spent the evening here with one of his cadet friends; it was a good night

Acting like a grownup

Last night, I went to bed with an upset stomach. I'm going to blame my non-functioning gallbladder for not dealing properly with yesterday's deviation from my normal eating habits. I woke up still not feeling great this morning, but as I hadn't actually been sick, I went to work anyway. For the first couple of hours it wasn't so bad, but as the morning progressed I felt worse. I texted my dad to see if he was sick too, but it was just me. I really wanted to go home and crawl in bed, but there wasn't actually a reason for me to leave so... I stayed. And I lived.

Sometimes being a grownup isn't so much fun. However, getting to decide to go to the beach tomorrow totally is. So it all evens out in the end

Only the really classy girls drink wine out of juice glasses

Or those of us that don't have wine glasses.

Anyway, I'm doing much better today. I hear that I made my mother cry this morning when she read my depressing post last night, so this is an attempt to ratify that with a couple of stories from my day.

1) At work this morning, just about everyone was late because of traffic; there's bridge construction coming from the island where they apparently all live (guess I'm not one of the cool kids!). One of the guys who's interning with me said that he was late because of an accident... that Animal Control had stopped at to help

2) I'm starting to get around this fair city without my GPS-I only got a little lost going from church (where I had lector training) home. Go me!

3) Bon-Qui-Qui is coming to my school. I don't know where, when or why, but I do know that student tickets are $5 and public tickets are $10. I feel like I ought to investigate this more.