West Coast \\ Midwest // East Coast

Within the span of a week I was on the West Coast & East Coast. I have to be honest, I needed the travel. Although they were short trips I needed a getaway. These are the perks that come with my dad's job and I had the privilege of jumping on board. (catch that pun?) So last week I packed my bags for California and flew over some beautiful mountain ranges in SoCal. My heart leapt as I listened to mixed music made by friends of mine and looked at the beauty thousands of feet below me. I took some pictures of the scape but none can live up to the beauty my eyes beheld. I imagined myself down in the ridges of the mountain, experiencing the nature and taking in the revitalization it brings. I daydreamed a little and finished reading a script written by a dear friend of mine, who, if I may brag about here on this cyber-page, is quite talented, I couldn't put the script down if only to gaze on the mountains out my window.

I spent the weekend in San Bernardino with my family and many of the University of Mary Hardin Baylor's generous donors and other important people. I now have spent a great deal of time with the Owner of the Dr. Pepper distribution plant...Dr. Pepper's originating city is in Waco, TX (45 min from where I live). I also know the Blue Bell man! They're all older guys of course but hey perhaps I can get them to like me enough to give me free things! The DP man offered me a gallon of DP concentrate which makes 6 two liters of normal soda! I will be taking him up on that!

So California was beautiful, I had my own hotel room, and I got to go to the Pacific Coast Aquarium! I got to see the penguins! That made me excited. We ate fancy and got to see our football team play and win they're first game of the season. Then we got on a plane at midnight western time and headed home. Got in at 5:30am central time and my bag was nowhere to be found........After searching everywhere and checking with everyone I went to bed at 7:30am and by 5pm that afternoon the airport found my bag. They lost it. Go figure.

So 3 days later I'm packing for New York. So very excited because I get to see my JULIE!! I was more excited about seeing her than the broadway show I was going to see that weekend. So we get in on Wednesday and meet up with my uncle who lives in Manhattan. We drove from Times Square, where we were staying, to New Jersey to have dinner at a fancy and expensive restaurant. I can remember eating there when I was a kid and my uncle took us that last time as well. Let me just say our bill was almost $200 for the 4 of us. It was crazy...crazy and good! I felt a little spoiled by my uncle who made me order dessert after having such a huge and amazing meal. He's pretty great. He also took us to ground zero since it was 9/11 I wanted to make it out there. It was neat to people watch around there. Some were stopping wherever they were to take pictures of the lights in the sky that replaced the buildings that were once there and others sat and consoled each other.

The next morning we went to Pick-A-Bagel the best place in NY to get bagels. We then went to Central Park, Bloomingdales, H&M, New York & Company, Juicy Cube and some other shops. I took a short nap and Julie came over. Julie and I had planned to eat dinner, head to her place in BKLYN and then she would come over to stay at the hotel with me. So we ate left overs cuz we are cheap and why not!? Then we walked to the subway and I bought my first metro card! I forgot that as many people are on the street there are just as many below the street. Thatshacray! We rode the subway and talked the whole 40ish minutes to BKLYN. The moment we got there it had started to rain, so we walked 4 blocks in it, totally unprepared to her apt. We were only there a few minutes when Lizzie (her roomie) got home and stood at the door, in a dress, soaking wet. It was definitely a movie moment other than the fact that she wasn't too bothered that she was soaking wet. We at peppermint patties and visited for a moment till I took Julie...well, she took me to my hotel. Riding back the subway was not as crowded and we got to kinda freely enjoy catching up by joking around and laughing. When we got back to the hotel we changed and went to the restaurant in the hotel to get dessert. It was lovely. "Friends" was the end to our evening and the next morning we got breakfast, mini cupcakes, moseyed around LOFT and then she went back on the subway to work. That evening we got to eat at a fancy family style restaurant called "Carmines" and see "Jersey Boys." To tell you the truth, I fell in love with one of the actors who played one of the four seasons. I swooned... and I don't think I have ever swooned before, but I knew it when I did it. I swooned.

Our next day was tailgating and football. We won. Yep that's about as exciting as it gets.

In other news... I'm back in Texas. I introduced my folks to Mongolian tonight and went to see "The Family" in theaters. In other, other news... my heart is acting up. Yes, physically my heart is acting up. The other night I was bothered by its hard beating and along with it struggling to breathe completely, which makes me dizzy. So this has been going on for 3 days now. We got my blood pressure taken and it's fine... so I'm going to see my family doctor tomorrow. It's not beating fast. Just hard beats. Not constantly. Just when I'm resting. It's beating hard enough to make me notice my heart is beating. Normally people don't just stop to notice their heart beating. So like right now I can feel it every once and a while a couple beats will be harder than others. Anyway, as weird as it is, if you could say a prayer for my heart that it's nothing to worry about.

Was that update long enough for you all? I think I will spare y'all any more for tonight. I will update when I know whats up with this heart of mine. Who knows, all that swooning the other night over a broadway actor could have something to do with it... haha


Here's some pics from the past 2 weekends:

Music & Beauty That Bring You Back

Sometimes when I am missing what life once was. When I feel distant from so many people I love. When my mind forgets the simpler and yet deeper parts of my being. Sixteen bars of music or steeling a glance of nature's beauty reminds my heart that there will be more sweet seasons; there will be dancing, there will be laughing, there will be tears of joy and there will be love. 

There Will Be So Much Love.

"First we run and then we laugh till we cry 

But when the night is falling 

and you cannot find the light 

If you feel your dream is dying 

Hold tight 

You've got the music in you 

Don't let go 

You've got the music in you 

One dance left 

This world is gonna pull through 

Don't give up 

You've got a reason to live 

Can't forget you only get what you give"

//"You Get What You Give"\\ - The New Radicals

Sleep In Heavenly Peace

For the past almost two and a half weeks I have suffered from nightmares and night-terrors. I have had maybe 3 or 4 peaceful nights where I had not one nightmare. Perhaps it's the transition I have told myself, perhaps it's that I am overheated in my sleep (triggers nightmares for some people), perhaps subconsciously I feel anxious and my body deals with it through a nightmare. I have been plagued by guilt when I wake up because in my dreams I may have done something I would never do in reality like murder someone. I start to think 'what the heck is wrong with me?' 'what am I doing wrong?' When I got back from Costa Rica last summer I also was plagued by constant nightmares and through a lot of prayer and asking the Lord to watch over me and be present while I slept they eventually went away. The nightmares have been more constant and worse in content than when I came back to the states last summer. Even when I ask that the Lord be present as I sleep and dream I have been having nightmares. So this morning as I was troubled with the thought of all the nightmares I have had I kept reminding myself that the person who is in the nightmares is not who I am in present life. The desires to do evil in the nightmares are not the desires that I have in the real world. 

So I sit down to read Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and open my kindle bible app and this verse of the day appears:

Of course I am like 'woah!' Coincidence I think not! I am in such a vulnerable place right now as an individual. I am back home and missing community and fellowship with friends and elders of my church back in Virginia. I am at alone most of the time and that is a key opportunity for evil to sink it's teeth into my mind. I was talking to Kadi last night about life apart from community and how challenging it is. It's a different world when you aren't plugged into a church yet, or a small group or when you aren't always pouring into people, and people aren't always pouring into you. You start to think of everything you could be doing or should be doing. You get down on yourself for not having motivation and structure in your life. But, that is the transition. It's the mud you have to trudge through to get to the stream at the other end where you can wash away the struggles and challenges you have overcome, and move forward into your future. It's preparation in the most vulnerable state, because you are alone, and there aren't as many distractions. Anyway... a little rabbit trail there. 

Sleep is precious. It is a gift and it can be compromised by evil that seeps in. I'm so serious. It attacks your identity in your sleep, it feeds on your past mistakes, it devours all that is good about the restoration of sleep. I'm fighting a battle right now. Every night as I lay down to sleep my subconscious mind is fighting and in the physical realm I am doing what I can to fight off evil that follows me into my sleep. 

So in my reading this morning from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young it was about safety! These are the key excerpts from the reading:

"In closeness to Me, you are safe. In intimacy of My Presence, you are energized....I designed you for close communication with your Creator....When you commune with Me in the garden of your heart, both you and I are blessed. Together we will push back the darkness, for I am the Light of the world."

Couldn't be any more perfect, right? It just means that I'm going to have to get closer to God so together we can push away the darkness that floods my dreams. Not a bad idea.


So my friends, how can you pray for your fellow Texan? Pray for my sleep. Pray for peace in rest. As you lay your head down on your pillow think of me and pray that I would be free from attacks and protected. & I pray that the Lord blesses you as you sleep that He covers you and keeps you.

That's life right now. It's 1:10 pm and I am sitting in my kitchen in my pajamas writing. Yep. haha



Also....

This is one of the verses that was with the reading. I read it in the 4 different versions and I love each one. Especially the NKJ & ESV which end with Selah.

    PSALM 32:7

NIV

7You are my hiding place;

you will protect me from trouble

and surround me with songs of deliverance.

           MSG

7God’s my island hideaway,

keeps danger far from the shore,

throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.

NKJ

7Thou art my hiding place; 

thou shalt preserve me from trouble; 

thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

ESV

7You are a hiding place for me;

you preserve me from trouble;

you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah