Life is such a strange thing. All this living and growing and learning and changing. I love it - just being 24 and livin' life and trying separate fact from fiction. Even when it's hard and when I cry or get really really angry I still love life.

I also think it's really important to be able to laugh at yourself. I think my friend Kate taught me this lesson. I was thinking of her last night when I went to my first class at the Gym. I signed up for this class for many reasons - to be healthier, to feel better all around, and apparently to use muscles I never knew I had! Trevor, my personal trainer, commented that I laughed a lot and added that it was a good thing. He had me balancing on one of those big balls and doing all of these one hand and one leg off the floor exercises to "strengthen the core" (I always feel like an action figure hero when I say that. "My Core is STRONG") Anyways . . . So here I was trying to balance on this ridiculous ball, wondering how falling over ever two seconds could possibly count as a workout. This was a challenge for me because I have the WORST balance in the world. So bad that my friends always make fun of me when I walk on ice because I kinda shuffle like a penguin so I don't fall over. It's awful.

So here I was trying to balance on this ridiculous ball, wondering how falling over ever two seconds could possibly count as a workout.

"It takes time to extract joy from life."
~ Susan Sarandon, Elizabethtown

It was a lot of fun though, and I can definetley feel it in my muscles today! The sad part is that a few years ago I would've felt so self-conscience about it that I probably wouldn't have even gone in the first place. As is the fear of most teenagers, I would have felt like everyone was laughing at me (and so they should because it was really funny!) and I would have been so upset. I used to take life so seriously that I missed out sometimes because I was afraid. Don't get me wrong - I think there is a time and place for being serious, for calculating risks and for just enjoying being melancholy. I am not "super happy ra-ra-ra fun and games girl" all the time. But I am enjoying being alive. I am enjoying growing up and although sometimes being an adult sucks, the payoff is that the insecurity of my youth is slowly fading and I am learning how to let go.

I watched Elizabethtown the other night and Susan Sarandon, who plays the mother, says something at the end of the film that I thought was so profound. She is speaking at her Husband's memorial/funeral service, and she says "It takes time to extract joy from life." And it is so true. I hope I never become a person who is too busy or fearful to take the time to extract joy from life.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Cha

Current Books:
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Beowulf
My textbooks for Dreamweaver and Flash
Romans

In the Stereo:
Franz Ferdinand
Jem
Patty Griffin
Coldplay
Alexi Murdoch
Death Cab for Cutie
Juelz Santana
Damien Marley
Imogen Heap

Recent Films:
Eliabethtown
Big Fish
Tupac - Rezurrection

5 Things I am Grateful For:
Burt's Bees Lip Balm
My family & friends
God's Grace
Finding three .60 Jim Dunlop Picks
Pineapples