Batter Up

I grew up on the softball diamond picture above. Okay, maybe not the diamond pictured above, but it is true nonetheless that I grew up pinch hitting, shagging, and running the bags. If 10 year-olds are eligible to have glory days, playing softball was definitely my time to shine. There is something about organized sports that I absolutely love. Maybe it's the feeling of camaraderie that is bound to develop between even the most perfect stranger. Perhaps I like all the "good games", and "nice try"s and "let's do this". It very well could be the slaps on the bum that naturally signify "good work" and "keep it up." Or maybe it's just the feeling of standing out under the lights. Either way, I am happiest when I am playing sports. And how I have missed softball.

In an effort to rock 2008 and step out of my comfort zone I organized a softball team with some friends from work. Our first game was tonight and as I drove up to the field for our 9pm (yes, PM) game, I couldn't help but feel an excitement that only raked sand and field lights blazing through the dark give me. Not even the luminescent Wal*Mart next door could spoil my fun.

My oh my, it's softball season. And I am loving EVERY minute of it.

Don't bother me, I'm eating

Sometimes I feel like I am stuck in a time warp. Lately I have felt like I have been watching all of my friends and family continue ahead on life's path(s) at a lightning speed while I kick back in my jeans and puffy vest and pretend that everything around me isn't changing. Over the course of the last three days I have received some pretty weighty news about two of my siblings and their newfound "all growed up-ness" (all of which is too important to post preliminarily in a blog), planned my best friend's baby shower, and celebrated with two friends who are making their graduation plans and are excited to walk away from university life with a bachelor's and a master's, respectively. In the middle of this I am looking at my life and wondering where in the world I fit into the land of marriage and babies and master's degrees. I didn't have too much time to ponder the idea, however, because my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I flipped open my phone to find a message from a good friend that I haven't heard from in months. Here is the text: "How are you? What are you up to? I am expecting a little boy in July." I wasn't quite sure how to answer that at all so I did what I do best and told the truth. I swiftly typed back, "I am eating a cheeseburger." And that about sums it up.

E N F J

" According to the Jung - Myers-Briggs typology all people can be classified using four criteria:

• Extroversion - Introversion
  
• Sensing - Intuition
• Thinking - Feeling
  
• Judging - Perceiving"

This was taken from the website where you can find out what your own personality type is. Mine is freaky accurate, so check it out! I matched up with King David and Oprah. I'll take it! I am an extrovert, intuitive, feeling, and judging. This is the combination of how I run my life, apparently. It actually hit the nail on the head for me! Check yours out at:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/

Go to "Jung Typology Test" and click take test. It takes about 5 minutes. Be sure to read through all of the explanations afterward.... Enjoy!
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Monday, Bloody Monday

How is it that I am already feeling the twitches of corporate burnout. I sit here on a Sunday evening dreading the inevitable: Monday Morning.

You know the feeling. The alarm goes off at the hellish hour of "before you're ready". Somehow you drag yourself from the bed (which is always warm and inviting) to the shower (on a good day) and begin the process of "getting ready" for work.

Does anyone else see it is a bad omen that in using the phrase "getting ready" we are acknowledging that we are essentially systematically bracing ourselves for the coming day? The last time I was told to brace myself I was 9 years old on a rickety yellow school bus performing the "we're too cheap to give you seat belts, so if we crash, your only hope is to stick your arms in front of you" drill. (Truthfully, that's basically how I feel at work anyway, so maybe it is a good morning ritual.)

Once we ready ourselves for the day, we cruise on auto pilot to our current place of employment. For me I require at least two hours once at work to sort through my weekend hangover, which isn't so much from alcohol as it is from the contact high of actually LIVING, the one great blessing that Saturday and Sunday provide.

Unfortunately there is no amount of bread or water that can cure the weekend hangover; it simply must be bludgeoned out by ringing phones, unanswered emails, and a daily commute. My head is hurting already- I can feel it in the air: Monday morning is just around the corner.

BRACE YOURSELVES.

"Now THAT'S a trashy family!!!"

What do you get when you combine fried twinkies, Linsey's birthday, and NASCAR?

Just another night out with the fam!

Here's to race car tournaments, infra-red shoot-a-thons, muscle shirts, mustaches, and blue eye shadow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINS!!

Chi-Chi-Chistosa

Some pictures from my recent visit to the mission... oh, things are much different now that we aren't in skirts!


Las Hermanas y Evelyn at Kassandra's quincinera. When you have a moment you should ask me about the bathroom incident... bless you Moffy for saving my butt. Literally.






LtR: Kath, Kassandra, Vero, Evelyn, Moffy, and Shay.

This was the best night... we danced the night away!!









Hermana Teresa and two of her kids, Juanito and JoAnna. This afternoon we learned how to be models and learned the REAL meaning of CHISTOSA.

SOOOO good to see everyone. Para ustedes que quizas estan leyendo esta blog, gracias por todo! Les quiero y les extrano mucho...

Direction

Do you ever wonder if there really is a direction that we are "supposed" to be headed in? I think that all of my life I have been terrified to make a "mistake" and therefore end up letting a lot of great things pass me by simply because I fear that I will take a step, even if just a small one, in the "wrong" direction.

Well what the heck IS a mistake, anyway? And what direction is wrong? What qualifies one decision as valid, yet another as useless? I'm starting to really believe that we each have control over our realities, and that our small, daily choices frame our individual worlds. Here's to throwing caution to the wind and reclaiming our lives. I'm tired of doing what I'm "supposed" to.. I'm choosing the roads less traveled by. I think it really DOES make all the difference. Care to join?