Faith & Opportunism

I tend to think I need a plan. I need to have everything mapped out and figured out. Basically up until graduating from college, I did. The plan was 1. Graduate high school, 2. Graduate college, 3. Be financially independent, 4. Get married sometime after that.

I'm currently working on #3. At some point, I want to lapse back into #2 and get a Master's degree in something. It helps to know what that something is before studying for whatever test I'll need to take and applying to whatever schools I need to apply to. I'll need to apply for loans, decide to work and take classes at the same time or go full time. I'll need to think about how much debt I'm willing to take on, what kind of doors an advanced degree might open and what I'd be leaving behind to pursue something else.

When I start thinking about my future (even as near as this summer or next year) I start spiraling into confusion. Most 20-something year olds get it. They're in my boat, but there is no use talking about my future plans with real adults (i.e. my parents or coworkers) because it just shows them I'm lost, unstable and unprepared to take on the world.

BUT, I'm coming to terms with the fact that I don't need to have my life mapped out. I actually had a thought this morning that some of the people who will most influence me in my life are not even alive yet...like my children and grandchildren. Somewhere we get the idea that by the age of 20, we need to have the next 60+ years mapped out.

I heard a great statement about faith today. When you're driving at night, you can only see a few hundred feet in front of you, but you still know the road is there. As long as you follow the little bit of the road you can see, you'll get where you're going. It's such a simple concept, but I need to apply it to my life. I'm not big on cliche quotes, but I like this one by Martin Luther King Jr., "Faith is taking the first step when you don't see the whole staircase."

Now, you're probably expecting some big announcement that I'm taking some grand big step on my grand staircase of life- I don't have a big announcement other than I'm going to go to work tomorrow and keep living my life.

My aunt gave me a little pep talk about being opportunistic today. After thinking about it, some really great and exciting things have happened to me when I chose to be opportunistic instead of chickening out. My sophomore year of college, an opportunity to study abroad with Baylor University for 19 days in Southeast Asia fell in my lap. I'm not quite sure how- I wasn't looking for it. I had never dreamt of going to Asia, and I honestly didn't have a strong desire to go. I felt pressured by the Baylor professor, and before I gave my final "yes," the professor reserved a plane ticket with my name on it and my mom made a deposit.

On January 1, 2008 I found myself bawling in the airport parking lot with my family all around me (I don't like crying in front of people- even my family). I was scared. I was going to spend 19 days on the other side of the world with 13 strangers- kids I had never met from a different school. It was actually a bigger deal than just that. A week after I was to get back from Asia, I was spending an entire semester in London with a group of girls I had met a few times- I had a few acquaintances in the group, but they might as well have been strangers too. I felt the close friends I had made in my first 3 semesters at school drifting away and I knew when I got back the next Fall, everything would be different. My parents told me I didn't have to go if I didn't want to. What? We've paid for this trip, I've packed, I'm here at the airport and you're telling me I don't have to go?

I went anyway. Both study abroad experiences were life changing. I went to 10 new countries, shook the hand of a Thai prince, went paragliding in Switzerland, climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower, St. Paul's Cathedral, and St. Peter's Basilica, laid on a Spanish beach and hiked through the English countryside. I learned a great deal about myself and the strangers I was afraid of became some of my best friends. I am thankful for the lessons learned, the experiences I gained and the people I met. I trust life continues to hand me wonderful and unexpected opportunities.

I can't stress about my future. I know as long as I'm patient and have faith, my future will unfold without me trying. I think if I try to map out the next 60 years of my life, I'll screw it up. God knows what He's doing. He has a plan, and He isn't willing to unveil it all right now, but that's probably for the best. I'd be far too excited about my entire future to fold my laundry tonight and go into work in the morning.

"Your life is defined by opportunities. Even the ones you miss." Benjamin Button

My Oscar Debut

I know I'm way behind the times, but last night I finally saw The King's Speech. Just to show how out of the loop I am, I was excited to see Colin Firth was in it....didn't even know he was the Oscar-winning star!

I think that is the all time best ever movie....ever.


I love the acting- Colin is unbelievable! I love the filming too. Every shot was deliberate. I love the colors and decor in every scene.

I could never pick a favorite scene, but I do love this one. The character development is great- you see a this hostile relationship between a therapist and royalty turn into a true friendship.

I could own this movie. I don't like owning movies because I don't normally like seeing movies more than once. Most movies that are out there are just mediocre and who wants to see a mediocre movie over and over and over? The King's Speech is actually a movie worth memorizing the lines to.

The real reason I love this movie is because I'm in it. Kind of....

Camera crew for The Kings Speech

In this clip at 1:20 and 2:15 there are clips of people hanging on a gate outside of Buckingham Palace. I was in London last January and one day I took a walk...right past Buckingham Palace and I saw them filming something. I had no idea what it was and I asked someone else watching and they didn't know. The camera crew was set up outside the palace gate filming people right up on the gate and then about 30 yards back there was a group of people sitting up on the statue in front of Buckingham Palace.

They actually let us walk between the people hanging on the gate and the people on the statue because the people on the gate cover all the tourists in the background. I was walking in the middle of that scene while they were filming! I was in a movie that won 3 Oscars!!!

@ 1:20 in the movie trailer, there's a clip of people hanging on a gate- this is the filming of that clip! 

@ 2:15 in the trailer, you see a group of people standing on a statue- I walked right past them while they were filming!

During the movie, I leaned over to my friend and said, "When I was in London I saw them filming a movie that looked like it was set in the 1940s. I wonder if this is it!" Then during the big huge final speech, it showed this scene for 3 seconds and I freaked out and said, "I was there! I was there!!!!" So embarrassing....but I'm so proud of my big Hollywood breakthrough!

The Verdict is In

Cupcake bake-off complete! Liz made white cupcakes with white (turned green) icing. Her's are beautifully displayed on the cupcake tree and the icing is swirled perfectly and professionally. She won the presentation award.

I won the creative award. Most people were a little apprehensive to try the "tie-dyed" cupcakes. One co-worker (who.shall.not.be.named) was worried the dye wouldn't make it through the digestive system well (if you know what I mean...). They're just hating on my creativity. They were delicious! And I think they looked good for an amateur if I may say so myself. I think I have a sugar high headache just from smelling sugar all day.

Ok, now to travel back in time. Back when we had Super Storm MMXI, my mom called me to tell me I got a jury summons in the mail. Great....I had to miss work for jury duty on top of having to miss 4 days of work for Super Winter Storm MMXI and then 1 day of work for Mini Winter Storm MMXI the next week, and then after a full week of work I was out an entire week for Super Flu MMXI (that wasn't really the flu but I don't really know what it was so I call it the flu).

I had mixed feelings going into jury duty. On the one hand I have way too much work to do to miss any days, but on the other, I'm a huge fan of the justice system. I think its brilliant that our country allows us to have a free and fair trial by our peers. I'm grateful for that and therefore (as strange as it might be) I'm grateful for the chance to serve on a jury.

I don't really know how to write about this experience. When I got home from the trail (after the case was closed of course) I talked my parents' ears off. Completely. I just kept talking and talking and talking about all the details. Cases fascinate me, and this wasn't even a good case. I got a civil trial.

I'll go ahead and condense the case and ruin the surprise. This woman was turning left, waiting on oncoming traffic to clear when a man driving behind her took his eyes off the road to pick up a water bottle he dropped on the floorboard and when he looked up, saw the stopped car, slammed on the brakes and swerved. Unfortunately for him, he did hit her a little- barely. The lady complained of back problems when she had chronic back problems and multiple sclerosis to begin with. There wasn't a "guilty/not guilty" sentence. We had to decide if the injuries claimed were solely caused by this accident. We said no. And we gave her no money.

Highlights of jury duty:

• When all the jurors of the day were sitting in one big room (like 1,000 people), I was sitting up front by the judge and got to hear everyone's great excuses for trying to get out of jury duty. One of the requirements is you have to be a citizen and you have to be able to read and write (in English). There were quite a few...well, I'm from Texas...you know. They tried to get out of jury duty by saying they didn't know English well. The judge said, "Did you fill out your summons card by yourself?" "Yes" "Well this is wonderful! You did so well! Sit down, you're still in!" HAHAHA 
•  2 of the 36 jurors on my jury panel fell asleep during voire dire (where they question the jurors to see if you'll be biased)
• I see no strategy in actually picking the jury. Two people who admitted that they would probably be biased in one way or another during voire dire were chosen for the jury. I was number 21 and they only needed 12. Tell me how I got picked as #12?  
• This lady had the world's worst (or most selective) memory and the worst hearing. She actually put her ear up to the microphone like it would help her hear. Interestingly, she could understand her own attorney pretty well, but not the defending council. He did have a southern accent, but it wasn't that bad.
• I loved the nonverbal communication in the courtroom. I actually think that's how all cases are decided. The plaintiff's refusal to respond to the defending council's questions and her awful memory ruined her credibility. I get it if you don't remember much about the accident, but if you don't remember multiple car accidents, your medications, your doctors, or even if you took your mom the loaf of bread after the accident....come on! What DO you remember about the past 5 years?
• I loved how the attorneys made strategic eye contact with the jury. During one of the painful moments of silence when the plaintiff refused to answer (but she was really just pretending like she didn't hear), the defending council saw me make a face. I think he saw me make several faces (I'm a really easy person to read). I think I actually became his "go to girl" for a reaction. Never let me play poker- at least not for money. 
• During one recess I got to watch a bunch of 50 year olds on the jury play Angry Birds. Definite highlight of my day. 
• It's funny how the smartphone has replaced the endless trail of photos of kids and grandkids people used to keep in their wallets. Why yes...I'd love to see your entire family and all their birthday cakes. 
• We had a fun jury. How often does a group of 12 strangers from a wide age range and a variety of education levels and jobs get along as well as we do? We spent maybe 20 minutes deliberating. We probably only needed 7- it was an easy case.
• If jury duty paid better, I'd want to be a professional juror. I like to listen and observe.

A Week of Birthdays

So this post is going to be chronologically out of order. The post that is still in my head comes before the one I'm writing, but this one is shorter, so it's coming out of my head first.

I know it's silly, but Sunday was my 1/2 birthday. I don't know why I even "observe" my 1/2 birthday. I think, as an August baby I may have been sensitive to the fact that I was always the youngest in my class, so I was so proud of my 1/2 birthday because it meant I was almost as old as the other kids!! I guess my nerdy 1/2 celebration could also be from my mom letting us eat dinner on the "special plate" when I was little on our birthdays and half birthdays. It was just a blue plate with confetti and "Celebrate!" written on it. It still makes me feel special to eat dinner on it :) But I didn't get to on Sunday :(

Today (what's left of it) is Texas' birthday. The grand, great, beautiful state of Texas became the Republic of Texas March 2, 1836!

Texas was an independent nation for a short 9 years (we're still holding out hope that one day we'll regain our independence). While the Republic of Texas, they established an embassy in London which is now a Tex-Mex restaurant called the Texas Embassy (creative, huh?)

When I studied in London for a semester, a group of us went to eat at the embassy to get a tex-mex fix. Emily (on the right) was the other Texan with me in our London group.

Today was also a coworker's birthday. He didn't tell anyone about, but Facebook isn't good at keeping secrets, so we made a big deal of it. Well...as big of a deal as saying "Happy Birthday" and eating lunch at Cane's.

My coworker/friend since birth (Liz) and I decided to bake cupcakes. I think we both crave baking but have no one to bake for (unless we want to bake for ourselves and blow up like blimps). At first, I thought we'd do this collaboratively, but it turned into a bake-off. I'll probably get my tail handed to me because she took a cake decorating class at Hobby Lobby and I don't have cake decorating skills. We asked the birthday boy what his favorite color was and he didn't give a straight answer. The conversation led to tie-dye, which is the inspiration of my cupcakes!!!

I got some white cake mix and NEON food coloring, mixed up the batter and then split it up into 4 bowls (see pic #1). I made deep purple, neon green, turquoise and hot pink! (Perfect boy colors, right!? I know he'll love it!)

So, next picture...I dropped the different colors in random order into the cups and swirled and stirred them with a knife. I completely forgot to take a picture of what they looked like when they got out of the oven, but they basically look like the did when they were uncooked, just a little bigger and...well, more cooked.

Now for the icing...I don't have professional-grade cake decorating tools like my competition, but I split the icing up into 3 bowls and colored them Green Apple, Smoky Blue, and Neon Blue. I put the icing into a ziplock bag, cut the corner and made my own piping bag! The swirled icing didn't look fabulous so I swirled the icing with a spoon and topped with fabulous silver sprinkles!

We'll be operating on a sugar high in the morning.

Rhet Crit

I'm a nerd, I know.

My favorite class in college was Rhetorical Criticism. I loved analyzing ad campaigns and researching what made them work or not work. I actually like watching commercials more than I like watching tv...especially during the Super Bowl!!! There were some fabulous commercials and some not so fabulous commercials. I think the fact that the most popular commercials were the Doritos commercial with the dog knocking the door down and the Bud commercial with the dogs serving beer goes to show that the average American loves dogs and is stupid.

I did laugh out loud at the resurrected grandpa Doritos commercial.

I love ambiguity in advertising (wrote a nerdy paper about it my Junior year if you'd never like to read it...) I personally think the Hundai Elantra ad is fabulous (this one and this one too). They use subliminal messaging to make you think you're buying into some subliminal compact car conspiracy. The Reliant Energy ad that is (not) endorsed by Troy Aikman works really really well too- you can hardly tell Troy is endorsing Reliant.

The Kia Optima and Carmax are growing on me. They're thinkers too- the flow from one scene to the next works a lot like my brain does but I find that normal people in normal conversation don't really follow me there, so I wonder how many people get lost in these ads.

The worst ones by far that really rub me wrong are the Groupon commercials that take actual problems with humanity or the environment and belittle them. The whole thing with Tibet was ridiculous and uncalled for. I'd say the Groupon commercials are actually worse than the Old Navy mannequin commercials. That's why I get my deals from Daily Social, not Groupon.

On the flip side...I LOVE Toyota's commercials "Ideas for Good"- it sort of makes up for Groupon, but not really.

You know who made a smart move?....Crystal Light.

Ocean Spray marked on their box (on the top and the front) that their flavor packets were only 5 calories per serving. Crystal Light's were 10 calories a serving. What did they do? They cut their serving in half. Now, the back says a serving is 1/2 a packet, but so does Ocean Spray's...so they're the same, but stupid shoppers couldn't figure that out before so Crystal Light had to step up their game to compete with Ocean Spray. Good move Crystal Light.

SUPER STORM MMXI

Yesterday I woke up in a slight panic- the "worst case scenario" had happened.

It was the coldest night in Dallas in 15 years and I woke up at 6:00 am to no power. I immediately called my mom, because that's always what you should do when you're panicking. My throat was killing me and my apartment was getting colder by the minute. I closed my sheer curtains as if that was actually going to help keep the cold out. A ton of cold air was coming in through my fireplace, but I didn't have wood. For about 8 seconds I actually contemplated burning old books or clothes that are too big...luckily I snapped out of it.

After layering on clothes and snuggling up in bed, I realized...this is what cavemen went through! Except they didn't have candles to light, or matches to light them with, or a soft bed or a secure apartment. I have some serious respect for prehistoric humans! I was so thankful to at least have my iPhone so I could stay in contact with the rest of humanity.

I feel so awful for the homebound elderly and disabled during this "SUPER STORM 2011." I saw Meals on Wheels wasn't delivering yesterday, and I doubt they're delivering today. I'm quickly running out of food (probably have enough to last me until Saturday, but then again, I live within walking distance of a gas station), but I can't imagine what those who depend on others for their food are going through! I hope they either have kind neighbors or their food providers delivered extra before the storm hit.

Most of North Texas experienced some power outage as they did rolling blackouts. I don't understand the whole power system enough to really know why, but they said each outage would only last about 15 minutes. Mine was out at least 2 hours, and another friends was out 3 hours and 20 minutes. Do you know how fast a house can get cold when it's 18 degrees outside?! No fear though, every building associated with the Super Bowl had full power all day- you know...for security reasons.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow. You know you're officially "grown up" when the word "snow" doesn't get you excited anymore. I don't want to go throw snowballs or make snow angels. I just want it to be warm, I want the roads to be clear, and I want to go to work. I'm working from home again but there's just something about getting dressed up and going into the office. I like it and I miss it.

I'm alive...with a case of cabin fever

I have an excuse....okay, many excuses....I did try to post a new blog entry at some point in January but it just didn't work.

Other excuses:
- I'm a workaholic

I think that covers everything.

North Texas is in a state of emergency. Current temperature= 18 degrees, but it feels like 1 degree (straight off weather.com...that's not me being exaggerative). It rained most of the night, started sleeting about 4 am and it started snowing soon after.

I knew conditions would be rough, and I woke up to the news/talk radio show saying, "If you possibly can, stay home today." No way dude! I'm still a glorified intern. I have to show dedication and determination (and stupidity). A friend said I am a rare combination of a defiant and stubborn 12-year old and a 35-year old workaholic dad. That's a fair assessment. I woke up at 5:25 am and got ready for work. Mom texted just as I was about to step out the door and said, "I hope you're planning to work from home today!" I ventured outside. The complex was a ghost town. The sidewalk was solid ice, the parking lot was solid ice....my car was solid ice. I tried scrapping the little snow off the car and it wouldn't go anywhere. I started defrosting the car, and not much happened. I could tell 1 car had made it out of the lot successfully, but I had visions of me sliding out of the lot hitting every car on my way. I don't think my insurance would cover that much damage....my boss would understand.

So, I'm working from home against my will. It's Mother Nature's way of forcing me to update my blog. Like the new layout?! I took the background pic with my dad's old black and white film camera (and had the film put on a cd before I developed them myself in class...so fun!)

I have cabin fever already. Temperatures are supposed to stay below freezing until Friday. FRIDAY. That's 4 days I could be trapped in my apartment. (P.S. my electricity just flickered, so this could become an interesting week).

I just want to go outside. I'll walk around the neighborhood in the freezing cold, I don't care. Last January, when I was the student assistant for Jan Term in London, I had lots of free time to explore the city. One day I went on a solo adventure up to a Northern London neighborhood, Hampstead Health, and walked around a HUGE park. I walked miles and miles in the snow, taking baby steps on the ice. I might be crazy, but how many free days do you have in London? Take advantage! I saw some pretty cool stuff and got some cool pics.

This is the Kenwood house where the last scene of Notting Hill was filmed.

Maybe I'll actually finish working on my scrapbook from my semester abroad that I did 3 years ago! Or I can do like 5 workout DVDs a day and read 20 books. I mean....I'm working from home. I have work to do.

I've gotten some really interesting calls while at work recently. First, I've gotten calls from Clearwater, FL nearly every day for the past 3 weeks. I usually ignore them or miss them, but I've been 'chosen' for a million dollar prize, maybe a free cruise too. I don't really listen, I just say, "I'm not interested in a million dollars, thanks." Boy, is that weird to say! I got a call from my cable company last week and they were offering me this amazing deal where I could get my internet, cable and a land line for only $107. That's great, but I only pay $39 now and I don't need a land line. *click*

My favorite calls are when the caller asks to speak to the owner of my company. Hmmmm....let's see. In the 9 months I've worked here, I've seen Michael Dell once, and that was kind of a big deal. I've never spoken to him, so no, I don't think you can either. Who do these people think they're calling?

My next favorite was a lady who called for a Mr. Hamilton. I told her she had the wrong phone number. She apologized but asked if there was a veteran in the home. I said no, but a coworker said I should've said, "Well...actually, yes. Mr. Perot."

I might choose to be stupid and go into work for a 1pm meeting. We'll see. I just can't stay inside forever!