positive pointing #11

I'm thankful late nights and being tired and for moments of just waiting (for other people to arrive) because they always make for good, snapshot-y photo times.

ps. snap shots are my favorite--flashed out, off center, strange facial expressions.
that's where the money is.

positive pointing #10

Today was a hard day. It began with a no coffee and a headache, continued with overcast skies and a flustered, late arrival to church, came to a climax with a melt down and some sobs and ended sooner than I expected with a nap and a Mark Driscoll sermon. I am thankful for Mark Driscoll who actually suggests incredibly practical advice like "sometimes when you feel crazy, when you feel bothered and grumpy, go take a nap. you don't need to be confronted about it, you don't need to talk through it, you just need to go take a nap."

and so that's exactly what I did and the rest of the day went something like this:
1. woke up and made myself half a mug of coffee. Perfect.
2. chatted with Mary about pleasant nothings
3.got picked up by Eric to go out on a sushi date and got to look straight at that boy's beautiful face.
4. aquired some exciting, free artwork by Eric's friend, Kit
5.had a spontaneous, front yard photoshoot with the artwork (pictured below)


6. got to wear a jacket and my eye glasses (both make me feel cozy)
7....when I went to see District 9 with Eric and Kit. (CRAZY good! but don't take your mom.)
8. had a before-bedtime chat with Ben and Linnea about Harry Potter and winter boots

...sometimes, you just need a a good nap.

positive pointing #9

RMCAD smells better than Moore.

positive pointing #8

I'm thankful that i get to date an artist man.

Sometimes I forget, because there are so many aspects of our lives that are incredibly different, that there is a huge area of our lives that we get to share and enjoy. God could have planned it so I fell madly in love with an accountant who always wore stiff grey suits and picked up only mechanical pencils and never paint brushes. But He didn't. He gave me Eric. Today I got to accompany him to one of his studios at school so he could finish up some homework he had for his printmaking class. Something about the smell of art supplies, dirty table tops, bins and cupboards full of odd materials and dozens of "do not touch this!" signs written in angry sharpie makes me feel at home. Spending quiet time with Eric, making prints together or just sharing bits of our little collected knowledge about art, in the midst of all that kinda made my heart sing a little bit.

positive pointing #7

I am thankful
for plans that need making,
for stress that needs soothing,
for challenges that weaken me,
for having cried bitter tears,
for hopeful glimpses of my future,
for new things,
for new friends,
for new sidewalks to walk down and new thoughts to think of

Thank God for change and all the ways he breaks me.

positive pointing #6

Today I'm thankful for picnics. A friend from school called me up and wanted to have lunch. I suggested getting subs from subway and walking across the street to a park with a huge lake in the middle of it and lots of trees scattered around it. So with help from her pink blanket, we united for lunch in the shade of a tree with warm sunshine on our toes and talked about how much school sucked. for two hours. It was grand; to find someone who can continually nod their head as you talk is incredibly liberating and sometimes makes whatever you're talking about, not as bad and somehow bearable.

so maybe, I'm thankful for Megan, for heads nods, for Veggie Delites at subway, for cool sunshine but the picnic was the gift box in which it came so I'll stick with that.

positive pointing #5

Today I'm thankful for mangos. Last night I made a salad with spinach, walnuts, chicken, tomatoes and mangos. Because I bought only one mango and quite a large volume of everything else, the mango chunks were spread a little thin. During lunch today I was eating the leftovers and was thinking dismally, 'You know, this salad isn't very good', totally forgetting that there were mangos in it. (I was looking off our balcony, not at the bowl or I probably would have noticed the few bright orange slices waiting there.) Nothing had punch or kick or really any fighting spirit. Then I took my next bite and knew I'd found my good thing for August 25th.

Thank God for sweet things, fruit and otherwise.

positive pointing #4

so today, i got my first real reminder of school: early mornings. It has been an INCREDIBLY long time since I've risen before 7:00 a.m., stumbled into the bathroom across the hall and confronted Tired, Sleepy-Looking Kyrie. I haven't seen that girl for ages. We don't really get along that well. Her hair is so wierd looking.

That's not my good thing though. the reason i got up this morning is my good thing: I helped Robin clean houses today. And that's a really good thing cause this girl loves to clean. Organizing is my favorite kind of cleaning but any old cleaning will do. Today I got to dust and vaccum. So that was good. But what's really great is I got TWO twenty dollar bills for doing it. My whole work day was over by 10:30 a.m. (which is when I am more accustomed to getting up). And one of those twenties went to buying some groceries for myself.

so, recap:
1. got to clean
2. got paid to do it.
3. was able to eat because of it.

my cup overfloweth.

positive pointing #3

I'm thankful for being able to hear an incredibly applicable sermon today. Actually had everything to do with my basis for starting these entries: the importance of cultivating a heart of gratitude. He read from Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. It was all about how being peaceful, content and joyful had little to do with environment and situation and alot to do with "the soil of your heart"; our ability to absorb the good that is there. There are always reasons to be bitter, jealous, discontent, he said, and all those feelings are just the beginning of a never ending slide downwards. We make progress in our life with Christ if we begin by simply being grateful.

what? this is exactly what i needed to hear!
so yes, today I'm thankful for being told to be thankful.

positive pointing #2

well, today's entry was not too hard to find.
My housemate Mary got two free tickets to a Cat Power concert and invited me to come along. It wasn't even a late show either--which is nice--it started at 4:00 and Juliette Lewis was there too. Mary works at a hand&wrist hospital type thing-y and Cat Power (i know she has a real name but i can't think of it at the moment.) came in to have her wrist looked at and is so friendly that she invited Mary and a friend to come to her concert today. And i got to be that friend. woo hoo!

positive pointing #1

I have decided, in an effort to stay posative, to post something good about my situation in life everyday. I'm hoping that, while i dig for something good, I'll find tons of things and then i won't, as I'm prone to do, see what is not good. I think I've become quite good at it. I want to always be able to take joy and delight in little things and to not let bad things discourage me so much. I know there are mountains of happy things just waiting to be uncovered. I just have to stop and point at them and thank God for giving them to me. My posts will be however big or small. Just something. And maybe, just maybe, I can resist my selfish inclinations and be happy that there is a tree planted right outside my bedroom window that is a most ferocious shade of green and provides a perfect lump of shade to park my car under so that it dosen't melt the skin off my body when I get into it.

and there is number one.

things i will miss...

sienna's fearless style and the constant photo opts that chattanooga presents

kiko and vincent's living room where community just happens

Milton, the three-legged, spazzy fluffernutter belonging to vincent&kiko

sienna, and her loyalty to all things truly american (burgers, hot dogs, coke, fast food, cigarettes, a southern accent).

my family, who gives me a place in their puzzle. (kiko included--she was on the phone)

go to my flickr for more!

summer snap shots

this is what i love about photos. the best part of this picture is the water splatterings in the backround and i never saw them once that day but arn't they precious? such a happy summer thing--can't you just visualize all the water interaction we had on the pier that day?

two of the most beautiful girls that have ever graced my life. (yes, i got to share a house with them this summer. i am a lucky girl) also, my strange, wig-of-hairdo that the humidy invents for me.

the sun and eric. it does not get better than this. honestly. two things that soothe me instananeously.

and yes, he did wash his hair in the rain. my very own Tarzan.