Joie de vivre

Many happy returns to the day of crystallia's birth! And a wonderful day it was, too, for it gave the world the lovely, loving, and much-loved Lizzi.

Hope it was a wonderful day, dear, and that Josh spoiled you silly. =)

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PS-and-don't-tell-my-mother: I encountered ice on my way home; yea, much ice and behold there was some sliding that occured, but nobody ran off the road or into anybody so it's all good and now that I've experienced it, I don't have to go trying to do it deliberately [I did mention before that I always had a wicked and dangerous urge to TRY to slide my car on ice on purpose?] because behold, it was kind of scary.

Tomorrow at 6:00am the town's largest annual rummage sale starts. 

I don't have to be at work until 8:15. 

Hmmmm.

If I get up at 5:00...and leave by 6:30...

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And now in other news, even though savetheolives and I are both busy, we've managed to exchange 18 emails in the past twenty minutes. In hindsight, Google Chat might have been a better option... 

Update: 32. And now I have to go back to work.

-rescued mom from the rain
-worked all day
-survived Wal-Mart
-taught the dog to walk on a leash
-survived an Experience

...And am currently sorting an entire cattle trailer load of clothes to donate to the mission. (A long, long story.) 

I have no time to read. *sob* Or eat, not until much later. *sob sob*

I am truly a part of Generation M.

Today I begin listening to my lecture series on English. It arrived yesterday, in all it's 18-CD glory, and I am very much looking forward to it. Of course I popped in one of the CDs to find what the professor sounds like reading Old English and it is good.

From last night (I'm glad I went, savetheolives):

Jeff: How can you encourage someone? With words?
Bill: ....to some extent.

I'm taking the day one step at a time, and I think it's going to be okay. =)

I'm not a math kind of person, but I do like numbers. Observe:

An Average Year of my Life, In Numbers

(Remember that a day in this instance is a period of 24 hours.)

83 days are spent at work
6.5 days at church
7 days in the shower (O_O)
5 days driving to and from work
100 days sleeping
6.5 days exercising
22 days eating
5 (or more) days on the phone with savetheolives
2 days at Grandear's house

And the hardest one to figure:
30 days spent reading

I figured that I spend on average two hours a day reading. During the week it might be less, but almost never less than an hour, and I make up the difference on the weekends, I'm sure.

(I added all these numbers up, and that leaves about 100 days unaccounted for. They're probably taken up by shopping, annoying the brothers, hanging out with my mom, cooking, and reading my friends page. Lol.)

-My head hurts
-I'm stressed and a little nervous, both made worse by the head hurting
-My plans changed, and that's fine, but it makes me feel uneasy for no good reason
-But oh, do I feel better than last week. As long as I don't lose sight of that, I can help but be cheerful. Things are better than they were!

Tonight I'm going to treat myself to a movie. Hurrah. Also pizza and fries. Go me.

In case it's possible that there is somebody who hasn't heard: trozzort is holding a Graphic Design contest. I have some things in it, so by all means go vote--for you might be voting for meeeee!

I have 45 minutes before I need to be at work. I have caught up on my friends page, my emails are read, and no one is on AIM. Which means: I post. Whether I have anything to say or not.

There is change in the air. Two months ago, it seems like nothing in my life was the same as it is now. Of course not that much has changed, but what has changed has affected me dramatically. My car has changed. My duties at work have become more varied, more important, and just more. My boss had changed--for the better, I might add. Relationships have changed and grown. I feel a strange duty to protect and hold up Sandra, as if I am stronger than she.

I can feel my maturity level grow daily, even as I see all the foolish things I do.

If the full time position happens, with it's paid vacation, health coverage, and higher salary, my parents are thinking about having me buy my own car. I could sell the older Chrysler and keep that money for my own, even though I don't technically own the car, and have my uncle scout out a newer one for myself. I'm thinking a Sebring coupe--the lines of the convertible are nicer, but I don't want a convertible! At first I wasn't thrilled with the idea, for that means paying my own insurance, repairs, etc. But I will need a car of my own a some point anyway, and buying it now, when I have income and few expenses, makes sense.

I never knew growing up could be so painful and so thrilling at the same time. I am so much more than I was. I am so much less then I hope to be.

I am Mari, age twenty and a half, and I see myself clearly, even if I do not understand. I am scared, but I am ready.

I'm so happy to have more then three icons again. =D I could not resist LiveJournal's offer of an extra two months if you bought a year's paid account: and so I did, with a little technical help from savetheolives, who once again has come to my rescue, brandishing her always-on internet connection.

(After all, she'll be here in about ten days, so I have say nice things about her, on the off chance she'll change her mind and take a flight to Italy instead.)

So I've made a whole lot of new ones and picked the best; I've resurrected my Hope icon, although thankfully I don't feel the need for it as much as I did in the anxiety-laden days which I devoutly pray are gone; and I even borrowed (or stole, depending on how you look at it) a Sicily icon from savetheolives, which I think I will use mostly on posts where I rant about Things.

Parenthetical note, without the parenthsis: my favorites, I think, are the East of the Moon and West of the Sun icons. I read one of Tolkien's earliest poems, where the beginnings of the Silmarillion are faintly seen, and fell in love with the first few lines:

East of the Moon, west of the Sun
There stands a lonely hill;
Its feet are in the pale green sea,
Its towers are white and still,
Beyond Taniquetil
In Valinor.

So now I have a paid account for a year and two months. It seems strange to think of it as being that long. In 14 months I'll be 21. In 14 months I could be...living somewhere else. My life could be entirely different. It's all very odd to think about.

But instead of looking forward, today I'm looking back. Today is the six month anniversary of when I started this job. ( how my life has changed )

Last night I had a dream. Every so often I have one of those very intense, vivid dreams, and I wake up thinking it really happened. The mood of those dreams follow me for days, sometimes. I've been frightened to death by some of them. But this one....this one was beautiful. Someone told me some of the sweetest words I think I could ever hear, and made me feel so wonderful. I woke up full of joy--even after the momentary disappointment when I realized it was only a dream. I've spent the day floating on air, feeling beautiful and loved, and I'm not sure even yet that it didn't really happen. I hope, I pray, that someday it will be Real. If a dream can do this to me, what must the reality be like!