vacation

I would really like to plan a nice, one-week vacation in the next few months. Just throwing it out there. I think I would really love to go to Ireland, but only going for a week might be a wee bit short. I shall explore.

Happiness

In determining what will ultimately make me happy in life, my daily life, and my future life, I have decided to pursue being a wedding coordinator again. Ultimately, I value the flexibility it offers, the ability to travel, take an afternoon off, and be a mom later. I am very excited at the prospect of doing this in about 7 mos.

thankful

After a week of My Boy being home now, I am eternally grateful that he made it home back to me, and of course to his family and friends too. I wish I was able to dip into his personal Pensieve and see all of his memories firsthand, but hopefully over time he will recount new stories for me as I am eager to listen and hear the tales. Someday I hope to be able to go on adventures just him and I, and see remarkable sights together.

weird.

It is strange to watch events play out that I used to attend. I don't know if I am offended, surprised, or just intrigued that I was not asked to be there. I guess I am more interested in the reasoning from the people who put it on.

The Boy Who Survived Death

Never have I been sucked into a series since The Babysitters Club, as much as I have with the Harry Potter books. I don't know what it is about the stories, but they capture so much emotion, suspense, thrills, adventure and fantasy. I feel like kind of a nerd--and not a nerd that is going dress up and march off to a convention and start practicing spells on friends or anything, but am intrigued by the specials on television and hearing people's theories..just for fun though.

That is what I have been looking forward to at the end of my days these past weeks, as time ticks by and I wait for My Boy to come home, it's three teenage friends of mine that I spend time with in the late hours...wow I AM a nerd.

"Oh the Places You'll Go"

I was a little surprised to never receive this obligatory gift for neither my high school or college graduation. Maybe if I had received it it would have provided some insight for what I am supposed to do with my life. I feel like I am at a point where I need to decide, right now, and be happy forever. I am beginning to realize there is no perfect job, but I do want to do something with the bulk of my day that makes me happy and is gratifying. I have thought about going back to school to get my credential to be able to work as an ASB Advisor in a junior high or high school, but the problem with that is that my BA is in Communications-not really applicable. So I have no idea what I would do. Then there is also the idea of owning my own wedding planning business. That is something that I am good at, enjoy, and don't need much prep for-no going back to school.
Maybe making a list of pros and cons would be helpful.

Wedding Planner
+ Experience from internship
+ Good at
+ Mentor in Bre
+ Fun job
+ Know how to advertise
- Unstable
- Lack of health insurance
- Mercy of people hiring you


ASB Advisor/Teacher
+ Event planning component still there
+ Work well with others, including students
+ Inspired to help kids out and make HS or MS enjoyable
+ Summers off, winter break, HEALTH INSURANCE
- Go back to school
- Don't even know what goes into going back to school bc of teaching portion-what other classes? English seems most obvious, but I don't have an English degree
- Student loans would be necessary to continue

I need help.

Friends, Frenemies, Foes, Faux

With My Boy being gone last year I had my first experience of people really not giving a damn if your longterm boyfriend packs up and goes to Africa. Some of it I chalked up to preoccupation with other things, such as weddings, and just personal lives in general. However, this year, with the love of my life being gone for an even longer period of time, it's shocking to see how people lack sentiment. It's not as if I need a crying partner every night, but just an inquiry to how his travels are going and how maybe I am facing each day, would be really nice. I know that if the roles were reversed I would try to extend an ear, an evening, or something just to let my friends know I care. I am naturally not a self-absorbed person (yes, tooting my own horn) and I forget that sometimes others really are-they do not stop and think about the world around them and what's affecting their family and friends.

On the flip side of this matter, some friends have been overwhelmingly lovely, and I hope they know that I will and would extend myself to them in their times of need. I think having a friendship is such a simple idea, but the maintenance required really reveals who is in it for the long haul, and I am so thankful to have them in my life.

Papier

It’s funny how important paper is in our lives. Paper holds our inner-most thoughts, declarations, proclamations, and has served as the canvas for some of our country’s most important documents; documents that declared our independence as a sovereign country, documents that end conflict, documents that gain and lose territory. Those fine fibers also notate important occasions in our lives-birth, death, marriage, divorce, graduation. A thicker, resilient version is our means of currency. Our identity is defined on a small blue piece of blue paper, and it can be taken away if that paper falls into the wrong hands. This recorded history is filed on paper. In a way, it’s the paper that solidifies the event. The western world revolves around endless piles of paper and paperwork. Documents are filled out, stored and locked into the arsenals of time, necessary evils. The point to this narrative is that I don’t see how paper can’t solve more problems than it creates. If such momentous occasions such as a marriage should only cost the required $10 or so it costs to get the certificate, why can’t we foster other relationships with paper? With all of the problems that there are in the world I don’t see why we can’t attempt to say “stop the fighting” around the world. Yet, that might just be my simple mind speaking or my love of a certain fictitious paper company staff showing. I guess I find that sometimes the most conflicted situations can have the most simple of answers if you just step back from the situation and blink your eyes a few times.