Laura's Visit: A Photo Summary

Well, after an awesome weekend that was absolutely packed full of sightseeing and delicious restaurant meals, my friend Laura is safely back in her old Kentucky home.  I took her to the airport this morning, and then headed off to work, as usual.  It was after work that the exhaustion of the weekend set in - after arriving back at my apartment, I completely crashed.  I wound up taking a 2.75 hour super-nap on the still-inflated air mattress in the middle of my living room, before waking up, throwing a Sweet and Sour Chicken skillet meal on the stove for dinner, and heading off to Bible study.  I fully believe that sunburns and exhaustion are the signs of a good vacation, and according to this criteria I had just as awesome a "vacation" as Laura did.

Since I didn't have time to write while Laura was visiting, I thought I'd recap the last few days with a photo summary of Celia and Laura's Texas Adventure Weekend...because a picture's worth a thousand words, and we both took a ton of pictures this weekend (don't worry, not all of them will appear in this post).

Day #1: Fort Worth

Lunch at Fuzzy's Taco's before hitting the road to Fort Worth for the day!

At the water gardens, we ventured down into the giant canyon fountain (which is entirely legal, in case you were wondering)...

It was absolutely terrifying.  It doesn't seem like the walk down is going to be so intimidating until you're standing at the top about to start the trek.  Those platforms behind us are the stone stairs we took down.

Vacations necessitate jumping photos.  It's a fact.  Eventually, a passerby came by and offered to take a photo of Laura and I jumping TOGETHER...that gem of a photo lies on Laura's camera, unfortunately (watch for it coming soon on Facebook)

Dinner at Risky's Barbecue.  I was reminded of my absolute love for barbecue joints, and inspired to look up barbecue crock-pot recipes immediately upon return to the apartment.  I had a pulled pork sandwich with potato salad, if you're interested.

We spent the evening in the Fort Worth Stockyards...aka, stereotypical Texas at its finest.  It's like walking into a Wild West film.  Seriously.

Laura outside the Cowtown Coliseum (yes, the COWTOWN COLISEUM), before the rodeo (yes, RODEO)

Getting our Texas on at the Rodeo.  We were some of the small number of people not wearing cowboy hats.

We were SO pleased with ourselves...it was just about the most Texan thing ever.

Cattle ropin'.  Other events included bull-riding, kids riding on sheep, and cattle herding.  It.  Was.  Crazy.

That's right people, Fort Worth has rodeos every Friday and Saturday night - a $15 ticket for three hours of Texas fun.  Who knew??

Day #2: Dallas

After beginning the morning at Dealey Plaza (site of the JFK assassination), Laura and I explored the West End...including Wild Bill's Western Shop.

If only we'd had these hats for the rodeo the day before...not that we actually bought them, of course.

Lunch was had at Chuy's...Tex Mex at it's finest!

We spent the afternoon briefly visiting the church where I work (ps, we visited SMU's campus the day before, I forgot to mention that).  Then, we headed out to White Rock Lake to check out the harbors and sailboats.

And for dinner: Pokey-O's.  Because nothing says vacation like an enormous ice cream cookie sandwich :)

By this point, we were (quite obviously) absolutely exhausted, and spent the evening watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Music and Lyrics back at the apartment.  

I must say, after a weekend of doing all of my favorite Texas things and experiencing a rodeo firsthand, I feel like I went on vacation too!

A Tribute to 10 Years of Friendship

Today's blog post goes out to my friends Nick and Ashely, with whom I spent the day, and with whom I have been friends since we were 13 (meaning this is our 10-year anniversary of friendship).  I seriously love these people.  So today's post is a tribute to them, and to friendship.

The remarkable thing about our friendship is simply the fact that we've managed to remain friends.  We met in eighth grade, when we were all rerouted from our existing middle schools to the brand new middle school they built in between the two.  We met entirely by chance, happening to sit at opposite ends of the same lunch table with our respective friends.  Eventually, and inevitably, our two groups merged into one group of friends.  The group was bigger then, but you know how people come and go in our lives - somehow, Nick and Ashley have managed to stick around.  I'm not even sure that we really had any classes together during that time.  It was, essentially, just lunches that we spent together, and the occasional school dance.

After that one year, we split off from each other (again, courtesy of school district attendance areas).  Nick and Ashley went off to Lafayette High School, while I went off to Eureka High School.  You'd think that would be the end of things...I mean, what random one-year middle school friendships really last?

Apparently, ours does - for the last nine years, since we graduated from WMS, we've managed to keep getting together regularly, even if only twice a year, maintaining and cultivating our friendship into one that I truly cherish in my life.  It's really remarkable how every time we get together, we pick up exactly where we left off, laughing and joking with each other like always.  

It's funny how we've grown up.  Where our conversations used to consist of middle school gossip and judging the attractiveness of Pirates of the Caribbean actors (on my and Ashley's part, Nick just put up with us in annoyance), we spent our dinner conversation tonight talking about our career aspirations and relationships.  We also spent a fair amount of time contemplating how strange it was that we were friends - had the new middle school not been built, or had we sat at separate lunch tables, we would never have become friends.  Instead of laughing together over a Pei Wei dinner, we'd be at separate tables, maybe noting casually to our dinner partners that we'd gone to middle school with "that girl/guy over there."  

That's a weird sort of thing to think about - how people's lives come together and form relationships, and how those relationships would be nonexistent if certain circumstances were changed.  How would my life be different if I hadn't moved to Missouri as a baby, or if I hadn't changed schools multiple times, or if I'd gone to a different college or graduate school?  

I think of all the relationships I've built with people, and I think about how I've managed to maintain some of them across significant distances, and I'm incredibly thankful for the life that I have had, and for the people that have entered into that life.  

But, sometimes, I still wonder about those relationships I'll never have.  I wonder if, had my life gone differently, I would have been friends with that stranger across the restaurant.

In any case, sometimes you're lucky enough to happen upon a friendship of small foundations but great persistence.  Nick, Ashley, and I have that type of friendship.  I have no doubt that, even if our lives go different ways, that we could get back together years from now and still enjoy each others' company.  That is a truly special type of friendship.

So here's to middle-school friendships that stand the test of time.  Here's to Nick and Ashley.  And friends, next time we get together, let's go to Disney World.

Spontaneity and Symphonies

Today was a prime example about how one small decision can change the course of your entire life.

OK, well, in this instance it wasn't my ENTIRE life, but one small decision did alter the entire course of my day for the better.

Having slept until noon, I spent the first two hours of my waking hours being lazy and unproductive, mostly staring at Facebook and watching random YouTube videos.  After these two hours, I realized that there was a good chance I was going to do that all day...but, since it was a beautiful day outside, I decided to take my New Testament reading down to a bench by the lake with the hope of jumpstarting my productivity.  And so I went...little knowing how my day would change as a result!! (I'm making this super dramatic on purpose).

After an hour or so of reading (wishing that the book was more exciting), I started wandering back to my apartment, when all of a sudden I discovered my friend Rachel walking through my parking lot.  Even though we live in the same grand apartment complex, we live in different small apartment complexes (I basically live in an apartment subdivision), so seeing her in my parking lot was unusual.  It turns out that she was meeting our other friends Rachel and Amelia, and Amelia's fiance Brandon for a walk around the lake (by which I had been sitting), and asked if I'd like to come along.  Wanting to avoid the aforementioned dry reading, I happily obliged.  The rest of the people showed up shortly, and we had a fun semi-workout walk around the lake, doing all the silly par course things that we came across.

Afterwards, we were all thirsty and went to Sonic, and then Rachel invited Rachel and I to her apartment for dinner (yes, there's two Rachels...if you hadn't caught on yet), where we had tasty chicken with orange bell peppers and onions and tasty green beans.  It looked like this (Rachel took this picture and posted it on facebook, I'm just stealing it for illustrative purposes):

It was ridiculously tasty.  And healthy.  Also, I never want to eat canned green beans again, I will only eat fresh ones from now on.  There is absolutely no comparison.

So anyway, all of that socializing fun happened because I decided to read by the lake instead of reading in my apartment.  This is proof that a small decision can effect significant change.

Moving on, there was one more element to the day that was planned: my friend Miranda and I went to the SMU symphony!  The concert hall was GORGEOUS, with a beautiful and gigantic pipe organ, and the orchestra was really, really good.  The program was well-selected too...apparently Music History actually DID give me a greater appreciation for music.  Anyway, it was wonderful.  Here are some more commemorative photos...

Awesome Organ in Awesome Concert Hall

Miranda and I being all symphonic.

Also, after the symphony, I'm pretty sure I saw my future husband.  Yes.  He's probably the most attractive man I've ever seen, and he may or may not be a Green Bay Packer (Miranda and I based this judgment on the fact that he was exiting the SMU football stadium at 10:00pm, and the Packers are currently practicing there for the Super Bowl).  So anyway, you're all invited to the wedding...I just have to locate this guy, and we'll be good to go :)

Tomorrow's tasks: homework, homework, and MORE homework.  And laundry.  And homework.  See you then!

A Post in Three Parts

This post will come to you in three parts:

Part One: The Junk Food Epidemic of Early 2011

Like most Americans, I have made the resolution vow to "eat healthier in 2011."  That being said, let me quickly recount my diet since the clock struck midnight on New Years Eve: Papa Johns Pizza (two meals), Pop Tarts, Macaroni and Cheese, Steak and Shake, Sonic, and Crab Rangoon.  Yeah.  That's healthy, right?

Here is the conclusion that I've recently come to:  I find the notion of eating healthy for an extended period of time in a way that would account to a lifestyle change to be extremely intimidating and am, in fact, quite fearful of it.  As a result, I tend to go on a junk food craze and have lots of "last meals," so to speak.  Except, that every last meal isn't actually the LAST meal before junk food is banished from my life.  So I have last meals of junk foods for a good 2 weeks or so until I eventually settle back into my semi-healthy food style.

Obviously, this resolution needs some work...strategy and planning and what have you.  I'm thinking portion-sizing will be the key to victory.

Part Two: The Game of Life


My sister Hannah has an Xbox that she won online (because such is Hannah's life).  My aunt gave her the "Family Game Night" video game for Christmas, which includes Life (the board game) in video game form.  While we were playing it tonight, I realized how different the average life actually IS from this board game.  For example, I doubt that anyone gets $15,000 from each of their friends when they get married (last I heard, people got blenders).  Furthermore, never have I heard of someone I know finding $50,000 worth of buried treasure, or making $60,000 a year as a local hairdresser.  The only part of the game I personally related to was having a lot of loans to pay off.  Also, has anyone ever noticed that, according to this beloved childhood game, you "win" at life by having the most money when you die?  Knowing this, you're encouraged to gamble excessively and sue your friends.  Just saying...the life I want to lead would totally lose the board game version of Life.  (Please note that none of these observations stem from the fact that Hannah beat me in the game...though that is also true).

Part Three: Looping


I went to the Loop tonight with my friends Nick the Weatherman and Ashley, and had quite a lovely time.  For you non-St. Louisans, the Loop is a street of urban awesomeness.  You can google it if you want.  Tonight's Loop adventure centered on Thai food and Frozen Yogurt.  But, what's super cool is that Nick, Ashley, and I have been friends for 10 years, after going to school together for only 1 year (our 8th grade year, when we were all rerouted through the newly constructed Wildwood Middle School before branching out to different high schools).  10+ years of friendship spawning from 1 year of school, when we were all 13 and therefore at the most stupid and annoying points of our lives (no offense, 13 year olds, you'll understand one day).  That's dedication.  We'll go months without seeing each other, and pick up right where we left off whenever we get together next.  I feel blessed to have friends like them :)