All You Are

First off, I've failed at blogging for the last few months. Oh well, get over it. I have. :)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having brunch with some wonderful ladies of Alpha Phi. Every other month our alumnae chapter gets together, and it's always a treasured experience. This one was extra special. Though it started with me not wanting to go anymore because I'd have to drive two hours to get there (I of course live the furthest away, and they all live pretty close together) and we were going to a place that was definitely going to cost far too much. But I sucked it up and went anyway. I am glad I did.

The food was expensive, but it was so amazing! The best part was the amazing women I get to spend time with. One of our sisters was diagnosed with brain cancer about 7 weeks ago. She has lived a long, beautiful life and decided to not pursue treatment. She was told that by not pursuing treatment she had about a month to live. That was over a month and a half ago. It is a blessing that she is here with us still. What's even better than that is that she is virtually symptom free. Her only symptom is weakness in the legs that makes standing up difficult. To look at her and talk to her is amazing because she is so full of life and so happy. It's a miracle, it really is. I cannot begin to explain how full of life she seems. You would never know she is sick. When we planned our next gathering (in February) she did not hesitate to add it to her calendar and tell us she'll be there.

I was so inspired by the radiance of this amazing sister. So I thought, what can I learn from her? Lately I've been struggling to run. The last 2-3 weeks I haven't been running because I've had no motivation. Running used to be a stress reliever for me, but it started to become a cause of stress. Seeing this sister so brilliantly full of life and happiness gave me a reason to run again. I have an amazing life and I need to stay in good health, both physically and mentally. So today after work (despite my lack of motivation) I went running. It felt like running used to feel. It relieved stress and it made me feel wonderful. I can't wait for tomorrow's run. I found my motivation and inspiration in the life of an amazing woman.

--

When you're afraid of what your heart says, you fall into place with your excuses

Don't say what you mean if you don't mean it

If you're gonna dream, why don't you dream it?

...to life, you come back to life

When you feel paralyzed and could not care

Well open your eyes and see what's there...

And you follow the light, your heart is strong

And make up the time that you have lost...

The song of the moment in my life:

Crazy Unproductive.

I had planned on being super productive today. I was going to write two papers that I have that are due tomorrow. Well I wrote one. I do however have plenty of time tomorrow to write the other one (which is only a first draft anyway so it doesn't need to be perfect). So how did I end up being so unproductive today? Well my day started off pretty early. I was awake around 6 (might have something to do with me being in bed at 9pm). I went to Church for the 8:30 mass. After that I ran a couple of errands. Then I met some friends for brunch at The Fish House. I had a delicious vegetable frittata (I love that word) and a bottomless mimosa (which at some point I had to let it reach the bottom). After that I ran back to my apartment to change into my Batman costume. Yes, my Batman costume. Then I went and met some friends at the Gulf Breeze Zoo for a fun day of "Boo at the Zoo". Had a great time there. People loved my Batman costume. One kid asked his mom if I was the real Batman (success!!). There was a little girl dressed as Batgirl who asked me if I was Batgirl. I told her I was Batman and she said I couldn't be Batman because I'm a girl. Well I'm wearing the Batman costume so deal with it! I did not say that, I just laughed and said 'Okay, I'm Batgirl.'

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 16

So that was the majority of my day. I came home and wrote my one paper in just a couple of hours. Made myself a quick dinner. And then made this delicious chocolate chip cheesecake dip for our Halloween party in class tomorrow. It's delish. I must resist eating it all before the party. So as my day was not nearly as productive as I intended it to be (which I'm fine with because I had a GREAT day) I decided to find a TED talk that was totally irrelevant to my life and maybe just a little crazy. I think it turned out to be a whole lot crazy and I really can't even begin to discuss it in depth. It's a talk by Joshua Walters on being crazy. It's crazy, it's funny, and you can definitely get something out of it, but I'll just let you do that on your own. So enjoy. (It's another short one too.)



Oh and as for Snowtober back home, it's not going so well. Connecticut is now faced with it's worst power outage in history (beating out the record set by Hurricane Irene not so long ago). I know that 99% of my town was without power, and it's now down to 97%. The power companies have said that it will be up to a week before full power is restored. My parents have borrowed a generator from my brother so they can at least have the necessities. It's pretty rough up there though. So for any of you up in the Northeast, I hope things get better for you soon. Stay safe.