I Whip My Hair Back and Forth

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

My hair is long. Like...super long (for me).
I started growing it out...I guess a year and a half ago. I went back to school and I just didn't get my hair cut. I got it trimmed once or twice but that was it. After awhile it started getting long (shocking, right?) and I decided I wanted to grow it out for my brother's wedding that way I could do basically anything I wanted.
Well I ended up putting it up (and my me I mean my fabulous mom) and I think it was actually a little too long for that but we twisted it and made it work. Ha!
But after that I liked having long hair and I decided to keep growing it out, but now...it's been getting awkward.

First of all, it gets caught in my seat belt ALL THE TIME. And it hurts! Seriously, every time.

Secondly, I live in Southern California. I wear tank tops a lot. I also wear my hair down. It's easy. I shower, dry my bangs, and go. But...my hair is so long that it gets caught. Under my arm.
Ok. My arm pit. It's weird, and gross, and worse: it tickles. Wah.

Thirdly, and most awkward of all, it goes down the front of my shirt. And the worst part of that is it tickles, and in the middle of class I FREAK out and wonder WHAT is going on down there and glance down, realize it's just my hair, pull it back, and we're good to go.

So there you have it friends. Was this too much information?
Probably.
But did you laugh at all?
I hope so. Otherwise this is just awkward.

The Opera

I went to the opera!

Sounds awesome, right?
Um...well....it was a small little building that apparently used to be a mortuary. Ok? Do you see how strange this is already?
I went with my friend Becca and we had decided to dress up, so I curled my hair, spent more than 5 minutes on my makeup, wore my favorite pink dress, and wore my 4-inch heels. I looked good, ok?
We get to the opera, and there are only old people. Old people in sweat suits.
No big. I don't care.
And the opera begins:
Act 1: Boy goes to Girl's house to propose. Girl is so distracted talking on the phone Boy has to leave to catch his train. Girl notices Boy is missing and becomes sad. Boy calls girl from the train station and proposes over the phone, she says yes, everyone is happy!
Act II: Boy and Girl have apparently ended their engagement. Girl is living in France and has taken up a younger lovaaa, who is ending their relationship because New-Boy is getting married. Girl is very sad (cray-cray-sad...wrapping-the-phone-cord-around-her-neck-cray-cray) and talks to him saying good bye and assuring Boy that she'll be ok.
I'm pretty sure she ends up dead at the end...not quite sure. It was weird.

The point of this is that during the intermission the actor from Act I came to sit in the audience with an older lady, but right before Act II started he suggested that they change seats. So they get up, and he leads her over to me. And they sit next to Becca and I.
Ok. Random. People usually leave a buffer, and there were plenty of other seats, but...whatever.
They sit down, and Act II starts. A few minutes into it I get this weird feeling...a feeling like someone is watching me...
So I turn and see this:



CREEPY, RIGHT??????

I did NOT know what to do. I think I ended up smiling and looking back at the stage, but the entire time I kept using my peripheral vision and he kept looking over the rest of the opera.
I'm slightly traumatized.

The point of my story is...when going to the opera, don't be the hottest looking one there. You WILL get creeped on.
Watch out for them creepers. They'll get cha.

**The picture is from Google. I have no idea who he is.
Sorry for the potential nightmares...

A Literal Day in my Life

7:30: Alarm goes off, hit snooze...for a half hour.
8:00: Wake up, shower, get ready
8:30: Realize I sped this morning and have time to get together snacks and have time to watch something on my laptop
9:10: Leave for chapel
9:30: Chapel (today it was...well, it was bad.)
10:20: Go to the convenience store on campus with a friend to get caffeine
*you know it's going to be an interesting day when you start drinking soda at 10:30am. Just sayin'
10:40: Late Romantic & Early 20th Century Music History class (I aced a test in this class today, thank you, thank you)
*I picked my term paper too: comparing and contrasting Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet to Disney's Sleeping Beauty soundtrack. I am stoked!
11:50: Orchestration.
There is really nothing exciting about this.
1:05: Senior Seminar - where we discussed angels, demons, spiritual warfare, marriage, and our topics, mine which changed. I'll now be writing about the importance of BOTH hymns and contemporary praise songs. Boom.
3:30: Class dismissed early because the room is FREEZING and we were basically done anyway.
Because I live in southern California, that means that the AC is cranked up, and sometimes the AC gets stuck. Which means it may be scorching outside, but it is arctic inside. Not. Cool. (pun intended)
3:40: Homework/Study/Reading/Cleaning time.
5:30: Break for dinner (this is rare. Yay me!)
6:00: Back to more homework/study/reading/cleaning
10:00: Take a break...decide if I'm going to pull a "late-nighter". Not an all-nighter. Not this early. That's just unfair.
So far I've decided to NOT pull a late-nighter. Realistically I only have 3 classes tomorrow, which I don't have anything due in. So I can work on stuff tomorrow as well. So now I will watch something or read something fun and go to sleep at a descent hour, to do this all over again tomorrow.
*sigh* Good thing I like my classes or else this could become extremely mundane...

Advent/New Year's Resolution

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It's where singing out of no where is (somewhat) socially acceptable, and people even join in! It's where you can go shopping everyday and people don't think it's weird...granted you shop for everyone else, but that's not the point. It's where you bake goodies all day, you drink copious amounts of hot chocolate, put up decorations, the music, the movies, it's...it's magical.
My favorite part of the Christmas season is the Christmas Eve service. This year was no different.
Well, it was plenty different. It was more like a big loud party. An awesome party. :)
The music was amazing, the worship was great, and Andrea and I were pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. :)
During the message I found myself feeling extremely overwhelmed with Christmas. I feel like a month is not long enough to prepare yourself for Christmas. I don't mean the baking, the shopping, the decorations, or any of that. I mean that moment when you sit down and reflect on the "reason for the season" and you try to BEGIN to comprehend the fact that God, the all-knowing and powerful God sent down his only son to us humans. Flawed, sinful, selfish humans. And what did we do with Him? We killed him.
It's such a huge thing to comprehend.
Through all the hustle and bustle of Christmas we often lose our focus and don't have time to think about why we're even celebrating Christmas. By the time you start to think about it, it's Christmas day and we have to start planning for New Year's Eve.
This year I've learned a lot about priorities. Who knew that sleeping and eating comes before studying for 12 hours straight!
So during the Christmas Eve service I realized that I don't want this to happen again. Next year, I want to have my heart ready from day 1. I want to seize every moment I have to worship and honor Him not only during Advent, but the rest of the year too.

Day O Thanks

It's Thanksgiving tomorrow (and if you weren't aware of that go out and buy yourself a calendar right now) and everyone seems to be posting things that they're thankful for. For obvious reasons... :)
So I thought I'd jot down a few of my own.
I'm thankful for...

my family
my friends
my bed
a warm shower every morning
my school, education, and professors (most of them anyway)
my church, both home and school
my roof over my head
my car (!!!)
my job(s) both librarian and nanny
my kids (back home who I never get to see, but once in awhile get a text or picture from their mom saying they miss me)
books
my kitty!
the internet
heater/ac
pizza
chocolate
phones/texting
holiday breaks
and most importantly, my Savior who gave us this life to live for Him each and everyday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy it with family, friends, and even strangers. (Well, I mean...stranger danger. But I know some people can't go home for the holiday so I figured some of you might be going to a friend's house where there will be strangers. Don't just go up to a random stranger and spend Thanksgiving with them. That could be dangerous.)
My point is, to have a safe, warm, scrumptious, and beautiful Thanksgiving. :)

Liebe dich zuerst

"Wait for it. Wait for somebody who is perfect for you. I don't care how long you've been alone, or how easy it is to make excuses for somebody who makes you feel bad. I don't care if it's because you kind of like them, and I don't care if you think it 'could maybe work out.' Wait for somebody who is good to you. It doesn't matter if they make you giggle laugh, because if they give you that empty 'I'm not hungry' feeling in your stomach when they forget to call, they are not worth it. They are never worth your bathroom tears or your constant 'what do you think it means' barrage to your friends. You are worth it. You are stupidly cool/sometimes lame but you have a human pulse and you don't kill people and you deserve to be happy. Maybe this person will take forever, maybe it will take till next week. Who knows when they will get off their lazy butt off the couch and come find you? However, until then, don't put up with crap. Don't put up with the bad feelings. Just go do your own thing until somebody fits your puzzle piece. It'll be something for the books. Don't settle for anything less."

Here's the link I got this from (my AMAZING roomie sent it to me. :) )
http://liebedichzuerst.tumblr.com/post/12473551889/wait-for-it-wait-for-somebody-who-is-perfect-for

Dreams

I'm a dreamer. Through and through.
When I was little I'd always be playing dress up and make believe just to "live" a dream that I had.
I was that little girl who put her stuffed animals in a line and played "teacher". I was the teenager who sang into the hairbrush as I danced around my room pretending to be a rock star.
I totally still do that. I'll be honest. I love it too. So ha!
But I also dream of changing the world. Making a difference...somehow. I've always wanted to do that. And I thought it would be by doing the whole rock star thing. I'd share my testimony, change a life, and boom!
But as I'm finishing the rest of my education I realize...it's probably not going to happen. And I'm ok with that. I know that I'm doing what God wants me to do. And how can I argue with that?
Now my dream is to be the best music teacher I can be, and to do my best in leading others in worship through music. I love both of these things. These are my dreams, and they are becoming a reality, slowly but surely.

I also have a dream of being a wife and mother. I nannied for a year when I was home and I went back and forth between wanting to me a mom. Ok, I never didn't want to, but I started questioning the whole "mom" thing! :)
But after watching them grow up in the course of a year I know I could never not have kids. I absolutely love the two that I got to watch every day, and they're not even mine. I love that Katelyn still tells her mom that she misses me, and that she loves music even more than she did when I started watching her. I almost cried when she told me she wanted to sing in "big church, cause that's what Leasha does."
I want that. I dream and crave that.
I also want to be a wife. (before the mother part. don't worry!) My favorite book of the Bible is Proverbs, specifically Proverbs 31. I studied it with my mentor over the summer and I have learned so much! That woman is who I strive to be like. She is strong, secure, dependable, beautiful, talented, worthy, respected, the list goes on and on.

I feel that the dreams I had as a little girl aren't that different than the dreams I have now. In fact, they're basically identical. Only a few minor changes.

I can't help but feel blessed that I know (and always knew) what I wanted to do when I grew up.
...speaking of which...I should probably get back to homework. You know, to learn more about what it is that I want to do with my life...
:)