“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.”

I don't think I can do a whole recap of the last four years thing. I think you can read back through this blog and see how it went. There were a lot of ups, a lot of downs, and overall it was probably the best experience I could have asked for. In the moment I'm sure I would have changed a few things, but I think everything worked out as it should have. I made the absolute best friends, got my 4.0 and that red mortar board, and probably figured out a lot more about who I am and the kind of person I want to be. So there's that.

I forgot to relay this terribly awful/funny story. Our cat Bob was like 18 years old. He was mostly blind, could barely walk and couldn't seem to ever find his litter box. He was one of the best cats ever, but he's been ailing for the past few years. So when we all call home our question isn't, "how's Bob?" it's "so is Bob still alive?" and for the past few years, my mom and dad would laugh and say yes.

So we are at my graduation dinner at Mellow (which was AMAZING and Anders was our waiter which was so fun) and Kathy nonchalantly asks, "so is Bob still alive?" and my mom just looks at both of us and doesn't say anything. So we are like WHAT?! 

Turns out Bob died A MONTH AGO! So we just kind of look at each other panicked, cry a little bit, then it just melted into laughter over the thought of Bob finally offing himself by lunging off the box that he mysteriously became able to climb. I'm actually glad my parents didn't tell me he had died when it happened. I was in the middle of a meltdown at that point and really didn't need anything to push me over the edge. Bob was an amazing cat, and I certainly miss him. But he gave us 16 or 18 (honestly can't even remember how old he was) years of fun and we were just blessed to have the silly boy for so long. Now he, Sasha and Diamond get to run around (or in his case, waddle) like best friends in pet heaven. :)

So that was certainly an adventure. But God bless that cat, he was a fighter. He was looking pretty rough two years ago when I got Tux, but I think Tux rejuvenated him. He got a little bit of a spring in his step and seemed really happy to have another friend around. It was fun to see them together.

So anywho. There's that. This week has been interesting. Started my job with Living NEO Green on Monday but also am working full time for CBH. So juggling that has been intense. But I'm genuinely loving everything I'm doing for LNG. I can tell it's where I belong right now.

I went to the farmers market yesterday. It's amazing how well I eat when I get the chance to go there. All I crave are fruits and veggies and everything I buy there. I LOVE it. And I got the most beautiful gerber daisies. Yay!

Today Robert helped me move a bunch of my stuff to a storage unit. Did I tell y'all that Paula and Abby are moving in with me for the summer? I don't know if I did. But I wanted to save money and they both needed a place to stay, so I cleared out (well, I'm in the process of clearing out) my sewing room and we are going to have a wonderful super amazing summer. :)

Now I need to finish clearing that room out and work on some stuff for work. OH! I forgot to tell you! The people from the farmers market emailed me and asked if I would like to sell my crafts there a few weeks this season, so of course I said yes! I will be there next Thursday selling my record bowls and record coasters, so you all need to come out and buy things! :)


Pictures!!

“The things that one most wants to do are the things that are probably most worth doing.”

I am officially a graduate of The University of Alabama! It's so crazy how the past four years have flown by. Sometime in the next few days I'll get around to a recap of college post, but for now let's focus on the past few days!

My parents came in Wednesday. Wednesday night I went to Nicks in the Sticks with everyone from work. It was really fun and really yummy. A bunch of us went out after and it was really fun too.

Thursday was just spent getting ready for graduation and having people over and whatnot. It was just nice to have my parents here and to hang out. We went to Jason's Deli, of course, cause my dad loves it. hehe

Friday was the big day! We hung around the house in the morning, I had a shoe emergency around 1 so Amy and I ran to TJMaxx, then we headed over to the Coliseum at 4:30. Jackie and I were right next to each other in line so we got to make sure our hair was good and our caps were straight. Spent the hour and a half taking pictures and talking. Graduation was at 6. It was only 2 hours, which was nice. I didn't fall. Huzzah! After it was all over we met outside, took lots of pictures, then headed off to find Connie and Tammy who were roaming downtown trying to find Mellow Mushroom.

We finally found them, and Mellow had about an hour wait. We said eh we will wait, which was good, because it definitely wasn't an hour. Anders ended up being our waiter! It was great to see him and Michelle! We sat outside. It was really nice out. We all shared a bunch of pizza and chatted and laughed and had a wonderful dinner.

After dinner we came back to my apartment for cake, hung out a bit then everyone called it a night. I was so exhausted. Saturday morning I got up obscenely early. Mom and I drove Kathy to the airport, since everyone else's flights got cancelled and they got booked onto later ones. When we got back we went to Manna for lunch. It was delicious. After that Chris, Amy, Mom and Dad packed up and headed to the airport. It was so nice to have everyone here!

After they left I ran errands then took a nap. Everyone came over later, we watched Supernatural, then we went out and beat up the gloriously awesome pinata I got at K-Mart. It was a GIANT hideous elephant. It was so much fun. Then we went to see The Avengers. Such a good movie!! Clay, Heather and Erin came back to watch more Supernatural, then I went to bed around 3:30.

Today I need to get life in order because I start both of my jobs tomorrow.

OH YEAH I GUESS YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT MY NEW MYSTERY JOB.

So everyone already knows I'm working for CBH this summer. That has been a done deal for a while.

But y'all, I got a big girl job! Let me tell you the story.

So Heather came to BFW and took pictures. While she was there, she met a woman starting up a new online magazine, they talked, yada yada, and Heather ended up landing this wonderful amazing job writing for LivingNeoGreen, a wonderfully amazing online magazine that is just starting and is all about living a green lifestyle and everything that encompasses.

I was SO happy for Heather, because it's the perfect job for her. So we've been talking about it for a while and one day we off-handedly talked about how awesome it would be if we worked together. Well, I started thinking more about that, and decided it would be REALLY awesome and that the magazine sounded like such a perfect fit. So I sent in my resume, writing samples, etc etc and got set up with a phone interview. The interview was Wednesday morning, and I got the job!! I will be working as the Fashion Editor for LivingNeoGreen. :D I get to write about fashion and sustainability and work with the rest of the team on anything that encompasses fashion.

How crazy is that? It's the perfect job for me, and I couldn't be happier. And since it's an online magazine, I can basically live anywhere.

Which brings me to the other secret I've been keeping for a while!

Once I realized I didn't really want to go to New York yet, and I didn't want to work in a huge corporate environment, I kind of panicked. That was what I was supposed to do, and without it, what was my plan? So one day I woke up and realized I needed to not have a plan. I needed to just let things happen. So I let go of being anxious about finding a job and just let it be. Then, a gap year plan started to form in my head. I wanted to move somewhere I didn't really know anyone, get a job in retail and spend the year doing everything I have had to put off because of school. Make all my own food, make my own clothes, and finally get really serious about losing weight. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that was exactly what I needed.

And it definitely still is. I'm SO ecstatic to have a wonderful job that makes me happy, and I'm so happy that it will still allow me to follow through on my original plan. More than likely, at the end of the summer I am going to move down to St. Augustine, or somewhere around there. I've always loved that area, and now is the time to move anywhere I want. I would love to be close to the beach, and the lifestyle there is slow enough that I can focus on my writing and achieving all of the goals I have set for myself.

SO there you have it. I will try to keep everyone posted on how everything plays out, but now you are all filled in on everything I have been keeping hush hush for the past month or so. :)