Living The Dream

  Life is a funny thing you know. Always twisting and turning and just when you think you have some direction you realize your Garmin navigation system of life is yelling at you to make a U-turn in an area in which you know it’s illegal. Then you’re stuck. Stuck in that panicked, lost, horrible situation in which people are honking at you to make a move but you have no idea where you are, what you’re doing, or where you can go from that point. On the other hand life is also funny in the sense that it always works itself out. Sometimes not exactly as you planned it. But it works itself out. I suppose that’s reassuring in this crazy mess of a world we live in. I choose to look at it as an adventure. And trust me that’s exactly what my life has been for the past twenty-two years and I don’t see that changing any time in the near future.

  I was born in Hartford Connecticut and have lived the life as a gypsy ever since. Before you start picturing me playing a cimbalon in big hoop hearing while gazing into a crystal ball let me clarify that I’m not actually a gypsy. My family just thought it would be fun to move every few years; you know just to mix things up a bit. In reality my parents made the moving decisions in order to take better job opportunities so that my sister, brother, and I would have a better future. Or so that’s what we’ve been told. I do have this theory though that they are really secret spies, which is why we are constantly on the move. Regardless, I truly appreciate the sacrifices they have made for us and as far as I can see I haven’t been psychologically damaged in the process. You’ll have to check in with me a few years from now to see how that past statement is holding up.
 

  Currently I live at home with my parents, have two pet guppies named Carl and Lenny, and drive a big black mini-van named Shaniqua. You know, just living the dream. And yes, I do come from a family that names inanimate objects. Let me take this time to remind you I said my life was an adventure…not “normal” in any sense.  I always pictured that at this point in my life I would have my own apartment and a job that doesn’t pay a measly $7.50 an hour. Instead I have two completely pointless online classes standing in the way between me and my degree. World fairy tales and Business 499, aka “learning how to work in a factory”, are the two things that hold me back from landing a professional career. The most frustrating thing is that those classes have absolutely nothing to do with my major.  If I wanted to work in a factory I would have skipped the whole working my butt off for four years studying and working minimum wage jobs to pay for books and ramen noodles to eat so I could survive while living at school. And yet I continue to shell out over $1,000 per class to learn Chinese fairy tales about magicians who train ants to do magic tricks in order to avoid being eaten by their enemies.   One day I’ll look back at this and laugh and once again be reminded of how funny life thinks it is at times.

  The good news is that I was hired to do some freelance advertising/marketing for a local café in town.  I suppose it’s a good stepping stone on the path to becoming an official adult. Looking back at my past I can rest assured that this phase is going to be nothing less than an adventure. That’s ok. I think I’m ready. Bring it life. 

Stay tuned for updates on how this whole southern living thing is going! 

Puzzles

Life is a puzzle. Four corner foundation pieces give us a start in the messy jumble of pieces that we live in. They are an anchor, a reassurance. We must learn which pieces we need to connect to for our own stability and which pieces to avoid that don’t fit comfortably into our lives. Just because we don’t connect with certain pieces in our life doesn’t mean we discard them. We use them down the road to build our life story, to learn, to love, accept, and grow. Without them our story would be incomplete.  We learn to love each piece as an individual as we are all cut in different shapes, sizes, and colors. We learn that our puzzle would be so much more challenging if every piece was the same. Puzzles take time, patience, and hard work much like everything we do in our own lives. Life can be challenging but if you keep at it the ending results can be rewarding. As humans we are constantly searching for our place in life much like every individual puzzle piece is. It’s important to remember we all have a special place in which we belong. Some people find it right away. Some people don’t. Just because you can’t figure it out right away doesn’t mean it’s not sitting there waiting for you when the time is right. Throughout a puzzles life its pieces get lost, edges get worn, and colors begin to fade. To me this shows a life well lived and well loved, for a puzzle in perfect condition it typically rarely used and never loved. In my life I hope I can connect with those I need to connect to, bring new colors into the world of others, and be building block in creating this masterpiece we all call life. And if sixty years down the road I am a little torn around the edges, a few pieces of me are missing, and my colors have begun to fade I can rest in the fact that I have lived a life worth living. 

Carl & Lenny....the adventure begins!

Well I am finally back home and have an accessible internet connection. It's nice to be settled in and I am ready for this new adventure in Alabama.  Although I am happy with where I am at I have quickly come to realize that something very important is missing from my life. My awesome roommates Caitlyn and Lydia that I have spent the past 2 years living with.  I wasn’t sure how I was ever going to fill this void. Then I got creative and found a solution:

Meet Carl (named after Caitlyn) and Lenny (named after Lydia).

Ok. So I know that they are fish.  And there are a lot of differences between my new pets and my roommates. The list is as follows:

1)     Fish are quiet…my roommates are not.

2)    If I kept my roommates in a tank of water they would die.

3)    I only have to feed these guys once a day… my roommates and I ate A LOT.

4)    Fish do not like being hugged.

5)   My roommates are white…and my fish are orange, yellow, purple, pink, and blue.

Obviously the list could go on and on.

Never-the-less I am excited to have my new aquatic friends as roommates and they are a reminder to me every day of the human people I miss so very much!

So starts the journey of Carl and Lenny.

I really hope they make it past a week of living!!!