A Little Rambling

I've had a lot of time to myself already this summer.  My sister is up in Seattle for the summer, Dad works, Mom's been working out of town, most friends are in summer school or out of state, and I don't work till 3 or 4 pm each day.  This means my mornings are full of...not much.  It has more than made up for the hectic craze of the last semester, and I'm ready for my life to be filled with a little more busyness again.  This week I was actually pretty good about not sleeping in super late and being a totally lazy bum.  I've been keeping up with my cooking challenge to myself, though I haven't posted it.  Last week's counted double, because I made pizza dough and pizza sauce from scratch recipes.  It was pretty delicious, and I've still got a lump of dough in the freezer, and a small vat of sauce to be used.  (I was expecting about 8-10 people and ended up with 4, so there were leftovers!) Some days, though, I just laze around the house, wo...

My heart aches tonight. I have some very definite ideas of what I want out of life.  I have goals and I get close to them, and then they are no longer in my control and that frustrates me to no end.  I don't like having no ability to work towards what I want.  Patience is not really the problem; it's helplessness that bothers me.  Some things in my life recently have taken drastic turns, and I am left waiting indefinitely with no guarantees of a positive outcome.  The question becomes, do I keep waiting?  For how long? I don't want to give up, because these are things I care deeply about.  They are dreams I've clutched tightly and woven ideas around and fallen in love with.  I committed.  I knew it would be difficult, and I said yes anyways.  It's worth the heartache and the struggle and the waiting. I want to give up.  I don't want to care.  I want to be fine without these hopes, carefree and casual.  I don't want...

I am normally what one would call a grammar nazi, were the term even remotely politically correct. I don't slaughter people over incorrect grammar or spelling, but I have many a friend who will testify that I have jumped down their throat over their minor tweaking of the English language. I value correct pronunciation, punctuation, and spelling. This may be a good portion of why I so dearly love Rebekah in all her linguistics major glory. This is also why I just LOVE to edit people's papers - if you are ever in need of a peer review, please come to me! However, as I'm sure you've noticed, I tend to stretch those rules to their limits - and often break them. I definitely overuse the hyphen, and the comma...and the ellipse. It galls me at times. But! (Oh yeah, and the whole starting sentences with 'but' and 'and,' and having sentences that don't end, aren't enough words, or run on and on, or lack an actual verb...or subject...). Sigh. ...

If you've never been to the Music Instrument Museum - and you live in Arizona - you should definitely make a visit. 'Tis a fascinating place, divided up geographically and taking you through worlds of music. The best part is, it's not just a place to go and look at the instruments, though their collection is remarkable in itself. The fun is that it's an audio tour, so you actually get to hear all the different musics. There was an Native American water drum song that captivated me, and a Samoan haka that was just exciting. There were many, many, many more that were wonderful, but those two stand out particularly. Anyhoo, the museum partners with my studio, and I was asked to perform there yesterday as part of their 'museum encounter' series. I was rather filled with trepidation, as I have mentioned before that playing piano in front of people scares me to death. So, I figured out my songs, spent a lot of time rehearsing, found myself a wonderful accomp...

I sometimes forget that I am shy. I have a wonderful, wonderful group of friends. Around them, I am loud and enjoy attention (sometimes too much so) and try to be in the middle of things, laughing and happy and having fun. I get used to that me, which is definitely not a shy me. Sometimes quiet and not needing to be in the center, content to watch, but confident in my place. When I teach, I am aware of my role of authority and have no problems, even when parents insist on sitting in the lesson with me. At auditions and speech classes and teaching pre-schoolers, I am secure and open and myself. Sunday, I remembered that I am shy. I went to a baptism at a church where I knew practically no one, and my initial instinct was to cling for dear life to the one person I was with. I answered rather monosyllabically (is that even a word? It should be!) to most questions and comments directed my way, smiling and trying to be friendly while at the same time trying to hide behind Ryan. I r...

The last day has come! I cheesily stood around smiling in my backyard this morning just to get a picture for this post. Then tonight my indecisiveness kicked in and I didn't know which to pick! I think that's been the most prevalent theme in all these posts. For simplicity's sake, I went with the first one I took. (the more I took, the stranger the faces I began making) Thar Ah is, on ma parch. For those of you who don't speak goofball, how have you put up with me this long? Five Good Things That Have Happened Since I Started the Challenge 1. I put in an offer on a house, and the Seller accepted it! Though I may wait a small eternity to hear back from the bank about the short sale, this is such a good thing! 2. I have managed to become much better friends with Rebekah, and it so nice to have a "soul-friend." Our friendship is so refreshing. When we talk, I hear the words of my own heart echoed back to me much clearer than I could ever articulate them...

Mmm...graham crackers with frosting are so delicious!! I would love to not carry a purse - to be unencumbered by a bag constantly hanging from my shoulder, prone to falling off and being forgotten. However, I live life on the go and always need to have everything with me, so a purse is rather a necessity. Let us then examine what is apparently necessary to be with me at all times (or at least today)... 1. Mini-wallet/card case, holding all my ids, money, gift cards, bank cards, and other flat, important things. 2. Regular wallet, holding other money, change, concert attendance cards and odds and ends that don't fit in the mini case. Considering how rarely I open this, I sometimes question why I have it. 3. Pencil holder, replete with pens, pencils, highlighters, extra lead, a mini stapler, earplugs, treble cleff shaped paper clips, and erasers. 4. flash drive 5. two sticks of chapstick - one regular, one cherry. and one tube of mint lipgloss. 6. keys. Lots and lots of ke...

This one was difficult! Do you know how many pictures of myself I have? Waaaaay more than any normal person, we'll leave it at that. I love to take pictures, and I love to have my picture taken, and I occasionally do some modeling for photographers. All that combined means I have a ton of too many pictures of myself, and I like a lot of them! I was thinking through ones I loved and started noticing a trend. "Aww, this one is with my Bekah and Rachel! They were so cute. This should be it cause they're such a huge part of my heart. Or maybe the one with them and the Thompson kids and the Lindly kids and Seth with the beanie babies on my head..." "Oooh, what about this one, with Jonathan and Sean? It was so great to see them the night they got back! Or the one of me and Nellie when she surprised me?" "This one of me and the guys from this weekend is pretty cool, all smiling and laughing with our Butterbeer. Or one from our day trip to Old Town Gil...

Because I'm me, I can never just pick one picture. So here are two! This is me all gussied up for the 2010 spring banquet at Southwestern College/Arizona Christian University . I've changed a lot in the last year. Physically, for sure - I'm in much better shape now, and almost 30 lbs lighter than I was! Yay hiking! My hair has changed colors a couple times - though not nearly as frequently as the year previous. Someday it will get back to natural and stay that way...maybe. :) This is me and my lovely friend Amy - right after we finally became friends - almost exactly a year ago. :) This time last year, I was going through a very bad breakup. Still not being sure who all reads this, I'm going to generalize and say you probably know all about it. If you don't...well, it was rough. It messed me up pretty bad for a long time. In some ways, I'm still not fully recovered from it, and from some of the psychological and emotional abuse that came with it. But li...

It's a beautiful rainy day! Usually rain makes me chipper and feel like dancing. Today, for some reason, it's put me in a kind of funk. Nightmarish traffic didn't help that at all. But I'm home and about to make a delicious sandwich, so that helps! On to the challenge... Hi, I'm Laura. Not so good at introductions. Mostly because I always feel there is way too much to me to fit in a few sentences, and at the same time not enough to really fill one. But I suppose the 15 facts will help introduce me, as will the other 29 days left to go. In short, I am a Christian girl from Phoenix with two great parents and one little sister and a heart full of friends. I left a corner of my soul in Germany and can't wait to go back to visit it, though I doubt I shall ever reclaim it. And if I write any more here, I doubt I'll be able to come up with 15 facts, so moving on! Voilà! C'est moi. And the vanity shows through in the fact that I couldn't pick and h...