Gush

Ohmygosh. I just loved today. It counted as a work day, but I went to a class at a Holiday Inn in Orlando for a foodhandler safety course which lasted many long hours. However, it did not last nearly as many hours as a usual day at my crap job, so it was awesome. Reasons why it was awesome:

1) I wore my argyle sweater. I love! my argyle sweater. It's comfy and gray and purple and adorable, and I don't wear it to my crap job because I could get crap on it. Which leads me to my next point.
2) There was no food there! The proctor of the class apologized for the lack of food and said we would have a lunch break to go get something to eat after the first three hours of the class, but I loved the fact that there was no food. I hate food. I'm around it all day! And it tends to soil my sweaters. Ah, glorious foodlessness.
3) I got to make posters, like in high school. We were given our pick of colored markers and giant pieces of paper and were told to draw visual aids of different food-borne illnesses from the videos we were watching and being tested on. I was the ONLY one enjoying myself. And my partner was sort of quietly giggling at my artistic endevors, so I think he enjoyed himself too. But I drew a jaundiced cook and a shrimp with hepatitis A, and presented them to the 'class' after which no one applauded or even cracked a smile. But I loved it. I think I get it from my mom, the fact that I could have cared less if no one else loved the activity. How often do you get paid to make stupid posters?

Okay, so afterwards when I got home, Kyle took me shopping to Hobby Lobby where we bought a star for our Christmas tree. Then we had dinner and I ordered STEAK! and the best cream spinach (and only) cream spinach I have ever had.

It was an awesome day. And tomorrow, I work the day shift, so I get to be home in the evening like a normal American woman.

And I mentioned to Kyle the other day that I had always imagined that when I was married I would have a vanity to set up beautifully and keep my girly things. So he bought me this! and hung my antique mirror above it. (ignore what you see in the mirror, it is currently the ironing room.

Awesome day off

Today was awesome. It started with bible study then lunch by the beach. Then we went bike-riding around downtown Titusville. We got some awesome use out of my new camera!


Look what Kyle bought me :) hahaha



My handsome hubby on the dock :)







The day ended with swimming and dinner at McDonalds :)

rough road

I tried to blog a couple times while I had a cast on my arm, but one-handed typing is exhausting and frustrating. So, I always gave up. But now that the cast is gone, I have to work on flexibility, and flattening my wrist enough to type is a great exercise, so here it goes.

Where to begin. I have been studying Romans at my womens bible study on Wednesdays, and in my alone time, I have been reading about Paul's thorn, which he asked God to remove from him 3 different times. But God left that thorn in Paul's life, whatever it was--physical ailment, bad relationship--it's not specified. But every time I read the description of a thorn, I think of my current job situation. It drains me, it causes me to lose sleep, it makes me feel inferior and lost and scared. I know none of these feelings are from God, so that means Satan is supplying them, right? So why does Satan have such a hold on my life right now? Why can I walk around work smiling and greeting people with my outgoing personality, then cry myself into exhaustion every night at the thought of going back?

It's a rough road I'm on, and Kyle is right there with me. He sees (and is forced to hear) my pain, and he is growing into a wonderfully supportive husband as a result. He has a tendency to brush negativity off with sayings like, "That's life," or "It's a job, it's supposed to make you miserable," but when I told him how much those things make me feel hopeless, he has really risen to the occasion. The other night was especially horrible. I couldn't get work off my mind. It was also my day off and I had just had my cast removed, so my doctor had said that I needed to take a bath and work out my arm underwater. So while I was having a meltdown at 10 o'clock at night, Kyle ran me a bubble bath and put votive candles all around it. He really doesn't want me to feel this way, and niether does God. So I just have to remember that this is my thorn, and as much as God wants to remove it, and my husband wants to drown my sorrows in a bubble bath, I have to remember that when I am ready, God will remove me from this rough road. And until then, I will try to be the best version of myself.

On a positive note, I bought my plane tickets to go to Texas for the birth of my niece. Four whole days of my three favorite things: Texas, sister(s) and traveling will be a much-needed break from the mutiny of my thorn issue. And after that, I have Thanksgiving to look forward to, for which I will be traveling to Georgia! I know that the remaineder of this year will fly by. Living day off to day off really eats up the weeks and blends them into a mushy memory of "what just happened??" And today is my day off, so I plan to get my nails done, orgainize our dvd collection, and make boring calls to my insurance providers.

Location Guilt

I feel guilty for living in Florida quite often. Doesn't that stink? The other night I left work around 1 am and thought, "I'm 6 or 7 miles from the beach right now. I should go and listen to the waves." But you know what I would rather do at that time of night? I would rather go home to my sleeping husband, eat a sandwich and watch Netflix until I settle down. That sucks! So many people go their whole lives never seeing the ocean, never smelling the salt and letting the sand burn their toes. I love the beach with all that is in me, but by the time I have packed my bags, driven there, set up my towel and sun-blocked myself, I feel like I could have done a million other more important things. I promise myself that when school is over (in 2 weeks) I will go to the beach on my days off from work. Two whole days each week to spend doing things like taking pictures with my graduation present (a nikon D3000) and tanning and cleaning and reading my bible and praising God with my guitar.

If someone came running up to me today and said, "It's terrible that you live this close to the beach and don't go every weekend!" I would throw my arms up and say, "I know!" But on the other hand I know that feeling guilty about this is silly because it's not like I sit around looking for something to fill up my time. I sit around filling my time wishing I could empty it a little bit. So, there you have it. My location guilt. Now back to writing a critical comparison/contrast essay on a common theme represented in African American literature.

manager in training

Ever since Kyle decided not to join the army, I have been in full-out work mode. Good thing for me, I have God on my side and he put all the pieces together to have my boss offer me a full-time salary position at my current restauraunt job just a few days after Kyle dropped the bomb about dropping out of his pre-committment to the army.

Today was my first day of manager training, and I'm pretty sure that my favorite part about today was not having to wear my bowtie and apron. I wore a nice purple tailored shirt and black dress slacks. And all my work friends called me "Manager Cara" and laughed at me. I'm so excited to finally be changing and moving up. The benefits and all the positive aspects of this job are really in the forefront of my mind right now, so I'm very optomisitic about the future of this job. This weekend Kyle and I are moving into our new TWO BEDROOM apartment, which will be a nice change from our NO BEDROOM studio apartment that we are living in now. Work at 8 in the morning and once again I didn't get my homework done tonight. What's new? Six more weeks and I will be a degree-holding, restaurant-running, awesome apartment-renting woman!

Goodnight!!

Anniversary Video

A Year

Yesterday was mine and Kyle's 1-year anniversary. We spent the entire weekend celebrating, though. Here is how our weekend transpired.

Saturday morning we left bright and early for Walmart where we got gas and a tire gauge to make sure my tires were ready for a 2.5 hour trip. When we got to Tampa around 10 am, we went straight to Busch Gardens and bought our tickets. They have a deal where you buy a one-day pass for $77 and you come back free for the rest of the year. We rode ride after ride and ate our smuggled sandwiches (because we would rather eat normal-priced food on dates and pass up $15 chicken fingers and corn dogs). The check-in time for our lovely Sheraton Suites hotel room was at 3pm, so that's when we left the park with plans to return the next day. We unloaded our baggage, showered, jumped on the amazingly soft bed, explored the hotel which had rivers and water-falls flowing through its spacious lobby, then we decided to find a place for dinner. Here's where we made a mistake. We used the Yellow Pages App on my iPhone to find good Mexican Restaurants in our area, when it turned out that Yellow Pages sucks because certain restaurants aren't appropriately labeled "In the Ghetto" when they truly are in the Ghetto. So we drove fifteen minutes through the wrong side of town to find that the plaza where Yellow Pages suggested we eat was a scary area and the restaurant had been closed down long ago because there was no sign of it. We drove back to the hotel, our blood sugar dropping by the second, and tried driving in the other direction without the help of Yellow Pages. After passing a few strip clubs I saw a Dillards off in the distance...a Mall!! "People like me shop there!" is what I shouted as I sped through its parking lot to see a Macy's and all the other normal department stores that a mall has to offer. When we got through the mall there was even a Tiffany & co! I have never seen such beautiful rings, except the one on my left hand. Our GPS told us that this mall had a Cheesecake Factory in it, and sure enough there was a whole out-door dining city outside the foodcourt complete with a pub, a trendy music restaurant with a hip-hop performer, a Champps Bar and Grille, which is where we ate that first night, and a few other adorable restaurants. We decided to save Cheesecake Factory for the next night when we were actually gonna exchange our anniversary cards and get all dressed up. So the next day was a typical day at a theme park. We slept in and didn't reach the park until around noon and left around 5 to go on our fancy date to where I got Chipotle Spicy Chicken Pasta and Kyle had Shrimp and Chicken Gumbo and we ordered a slice of Adam's Peanutbutter Cup Cheesecake, which also included Butterfinger pieces and caramel in the center. Yum! Each night was capped off with lying bed watching cable on our giant flat-screen tv. We have a new fave show--parking wars. We watched like, 3 hours of it that night after hanging out in the hotel lounge for a hour. By the third day, we checked out of our hotel around 8 and got to Busch Gardens just as it opened. We were able to ride 4 rides without any lines, and then we left for Orlando where we went shopping and had lunch and Kyle even surprised me by taking me to my favorite diner where I ordered my peanut butter and chocolate shake ane he ordered his vanilla malt. It was a perfect weekend filled with fun and a ton of sleep. I knew it would all go by so fast and that I would be sad when it was over. That's why I took pictures!


This picture was taken just before we left for the scary Mexican restuarant that didn't exist.




Kyle and I before our special date where he made me cry with the love-note he wrote me.



Our Cheesecake



Our delicious milkshakes