So right now, Starbucks has this Paul McCartney promotion going on...

About a week or so ago, I'm working at good ol' Starbucks and a woman with her two middle-school age daughters walks up to the counter to order some Frappucinos. She tells one of the girls to pick out a gift card to give to their dad for Father's Day. The girl picks up one of our flowery summer cards. Mom says "Oh, I don't think Daddy would like that one..." So the girl picks up a Limited Edition Paul McCartney Starbucks Gift Card. A puzzled expression comes over her face.

"Who's this?"
"Oh, that's Paul McCartney, sweetie. He was one of The Beatles."
"The Beatles? Who are they?"



I just about had heart failure.





Life is pretty sweet right now.





Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Mark Twain

Shopping Bliss

Today included an impromptu road trip to Lancaster with Laura to visit and go shopping with Mary.

We arrived just in time for Happy Hour at Applebee's.

After cocktails and buffalo wings, we ventured over to River Valley Mall to explore Steve and Barrys, where we located the best thing to ever happen to clothing in the history of the universe.

Bitten. A clothing line developed by Sarah Jessica Parker. Its catch phrase is "Fashion Is Not A Luxury: It's A Right".

Nothing is over $20.

I bought the best pair of jeans I've found in a long time for $14.98. I could've spent so much money there! The clothes are great, lots of basics that you can put together into totally adorable outfits. At least in my opinion.

I have so much respect for what she's doing. A very high-profile A-List star designing an affordable clothing line. Maybe it doesn't seem this way, but I think it's a great move towards bridging the socio-economic gap.

Check out the Oprah Show featuring SJP on her fantastic clothing.

$15 jeans. I just can't get over it!





Yesh.
- Sir Sean Connery

"Happy Winds-day, Piglet!"

Today was a good day. Pleasantly simple and uncomplicated.



I am not afraid of storms
For I am learning to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

The Real World?

Yesterday I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre with Concentration in Dance.

Should it feel like it went fast? Because it doesn’t.

If you’d asked me six months ago, I’d have told you my plans were to move to New York the day after graduation. Then everything changed.

Over the course of the last ten or so weeks, I started realizing that I didn’t want what I thought I wanted. The problem with being an artist is that everything seems to inadvertently complicate itself. I realized these last couple of months that my life has been very complicated the last four years.

And I’m exhausted.

So I’m not moving to New York. I’m not pursuing a career in acting. At least not right now. It may happen eventually, but right now I feel my dreams are changing.

And what’s all this everyone keeps saying about “the real world”? Were we not living in it before?

Last time I checked, I’ve living in an apartment or house on my own paying bills and managing my living space going on three years now. I don’t totally support myself; I have help from my parents, but I know plenty of people well into their thirties who still get help from their family. That’s how family works. You help each other.

For me, there’s no shame in asking my family for support because I work very hard to take care of myself and my life. I can only do so much though.

Maybe I’m hopelessly optimistic, but frankly, I think the real world is very overrated. I’m not frightened, because I know I have help. I know what I want from life. How and when I get there is yet to be determined.

Wherever I end up, I know this: I will never “settle”. Even when I’m married and raising children in my comfort of my very own home, I will continue to stretch my wings and fly. I will remain vibrant in the face of hardship. I will learn, I will challenge myself and I will allow my life to keep changing in accordance with God’s will.

Nothing is ever set in stone; we are never really still. Our place in life changes by day, by minute, by moment.

So why should we settle?

How To Move A Mountain

I'm not sure many people can pinpoint the exact moment when they first discovered their purpose in life. Mostly because many of us are still searching. I am still searching, but I know the moment I took the first step.

I was fifteen. I was singing. A woman told me, "When you sang, you made me feel..."

I don't remember what else she said. All I knew was that I possessed the ability to make others experience something profound.

That's why I chose to pursue theatre in undergrad. The reactions people had; laughter, tears. That was it, that was everything. With that, I could move mountains.

So why don't I want to do that anymore?

That's wrong; I do want that. I want to move mountains, but they are different now. Before, I moved them with performance, with song, with words.

Now, I think I need a little more action. And I don't want to wait so long for it. My life doesn't need to be the roller coaster I thought it needed to be.


Time has passed through me and become a song.
- Holly Near

Mostly Everything Happens for a Pretty Good Reason

My father once made up a phrase to describe strange things or happenings: "weirdo-beirdo".

This week has, indeed, been weirdo-beirdo.

Somehow I thought the last days of my undergraduate career would be more...memorable. But between the heinous allergic reaction and the ridiculous amount of unnecessary stress, this week was definitely forgettable.

I guess I pictured tearful goodbyes, wise words from mentors and many gatherings with close friends, remembering our time at Otterbein. Instead, when I wasn't in class or working at Starbucks, I was sprawled half-naked on my futon in a benadryl-induced vegetative state, cursing the college for never installing air-conditioning in my sorority house.

What did I really have in mind? I think some part of me really honestly believed that I would end up with an A-list agent and have to leave school early to embark on some unbelieveably well-paying acting gig; that my four years of blood, sweat, tears and emotional melt-downs would've resulted in a fairy-tale ending. I would move to New York right after graduation and start this glorified starving-artist life that would result in me becoming a Broadway superstar.

But I think anyone who has ever performed thinks that at one point in their life.

Right now, today, at this time, this instant: I don't want to move to New York. It's hard. The weather sucks. There aren't any mountains or trees. And it's expensive.

Instead, I think I want to be an english teacher. I want to move back to Portland. I want an apartment far enough away from my parents but not so far that I can't conveniently go there for dinner a couple of times a week. I want to drive down Brockman really early in the morning and see the silhouette of Mount Hood. I want to get married. I want to never have to feel lonely as long as he's there. I want to have kids. I want to drive them to soccer practice every day. I want their crazy little friends to come over after school and eat freshly baked cookies. I want a backyard. And a barbecue. I want to host a block party on the 4th of July. I want a Doberman I can go jogging with ridiculously early in the morning. I want to teach kids Shakespeare. I want them to read plays. I want them to be excited to go to their high-school english class every day.

For so long, the only option I gave myself was to move to New York and be an actor. If I didn't do that, in my mind, I was a failure.

That's so silly. There are so many other fulfilling things I can do with my life.

Maybe this weirdo-beirdo week, more so this whole weirdo-beirdo year, was a message. I have this philosophy - no, belief - that mostly everything happens for a pretty good reason.

Whatever it means, obviously I'm supposed to be exploring other options. Otherwise I wouldn't be exploring them, would I?

I think my cat just ate a jelly bean...




The place where you are right now, God circled on the map for you.
- don't remember where I heard this one...