Fast, Fun and Friendly

The last couple of days have been phenomenal, and I wanted to take a minute to reflect on them and get my thoughts down. I've had a great start to the week, and it can only get better with me taking a trip to Cullowhee in two days!

Church Sunday was awesome. The message was great, continuing with the idea of hopelessness and being broken. During communion, each person had a slip of paper and we all got to write down that one thing that is holding us back, that one thing that is keeping us broken. More importantly, the thing that is keeping us from God. I wrote mine down so quickly- that one little word. And threw it in the basket with all of the other folded up slips of paper. The pastor told us they would be taking them outside after the services and burning all of the slips and using the ashes as part of the Ash Wednesday service tomorrow. It was such a relief, putting that piece of paper in there and just giving everything to God. Really refreshing.

Yesterday I started my training at Target. Fun Fact: Every Target employee, down to the janitors, gets trained on a cash register their first day. Every person in the store can run a register. This helps keep up their motto of being "fast, fun and friendly." So yesterday I got trained on the register. It was fun, overall pretty easy, and went by really fast. After work, I got coffee with a girl I met at Youth last week. Her name is Norrell, she was a music major, and is the music director at the church. She's 28 and is really nice, you'd never know she is almost thirty. But we went out for coffee and talked and it was awesome. The coffee was delicious and the company was great. I really enjoyed how easy it was to talk to her and be open about our lives and just discuss random things. It was SO refreshing to get out of the house with someone other than my Gram for a little bit. She told me about her boyfriend and their group of friends, and said I should come with her to Birmingham sometimes, which would be pretty exciting. She said they like to go to bars a lot and she didn't know if that would make me uncomfortable or not. I was like.... Girl, I just got out of college. Bars are my life.

Today at work I did a lot of computer training, which was so boring I almost fell asleep like five times. But I met a really cool guy, who also happens to be extremely good looking. I tested him by getting up to see if he would talk to me first, and he did! Haha it sounds really dumb but I was so excited. He asked me my name and talked to me for a few minutes, it was cool. I'm trying really hard not to be a thirsty trick who looks at every guy she meets and asks herself if he is dating material, though. I need to be focusing on me, myself and I. The rest will come later, when God knows I'm ready for it. I was so excited today, though because I had MORE plans with another girl from church, named Lee. She is awesome and sings in the praise band. Her voice is beautiful. She's 27 but the girls around here must age really well or something, because she doesn't look that old at all. We went out for Mexican, which was delicious. And once again, the conversation was so easy and smooth and not awkward at all! I love people who can keep a conversation going with ease. We had frozen yogurt too, which was delicious. I felt great, just like myself again, which was really refreshing. We talked about what we were giving up for Lent (which starts tomorrow), and I told her I am giving up soda. I think this is going to be good for me on many different levels. I've been wanting to quit drinking sodas anyway, and now I have a reason to. Anytime I'm craving a soda or feeling desperate for one, I'm going to sit down and talk to God. I need to do more of that anyway. Lee said she is going to keep a prayer journal, and I thought that might be a good idea for me too, to see how far I've come over the course of the 40 days. I'm also hoping that it will lend me to just stop drinking sodas all together, which will lead to a healthier lifestyle in general. I'm even considering fasting at some point once I have money to purchase fruits and vegetables. I'm looking into it, at least.

Rain has been drenching our little hole in Alabama for several days now. It's been non-stop thundering and lightning and pouring. Although I'm getting pretty tired of it, I'm looking at it as a sort of metaphor. A symbol of the cleansing I am trying to do in my entire life. I just want to let go of all of the negativity, all of the doubt, all of the stuff from the past that is holding me back. I think I'm doing a really good job of it so far, and the rain is kind of symbolizing that. Out with the bad, and in with the good. Letting go of the things that have done me wrong, and welcoming the new great people and opportunities that are showing up in my life.

Life is moving right along, pretty fast. I'm finally starting to have fun, and so thankful for these friendly new faces that are helping me with this entire experience. So excited!