My First Time

First, let me point out that you can now follow the blog by email. Over here to the right!

I made the 7 hour journey from the Burg to the Bluegrass this weekend. This time instead of me and a Nicholas Sparks book on CD I had Shauna with me for company! The purpose of the trip was so she could find a new car and we could stop sharing mine – a worthy goal for sure! The beginning of a long drive is always the easiest. You are singing and talking and snacking. We were having no problems at all! In fact, I was telling her a hilarious/embarrassing/gross/entertaining story that we were cracking up over. Then we both saw it at the same time – black SUV parked on the side of the highway, lights on top, pulling out right as I drive by. I look at my speedometer and the dreadful feeling of “Oh shit.” washes over me. I was going way too fast. I don’t know how my foot got so heavy or when I turned cruise control off but here was the moment of truth. I’m gradually slowing down and the SUV is steadily getting closer to my tail. I think he was close enough to read every bumper sticker before he turned his lights on. And there it was folks – my first time being pulled over.

The officer was friendly enough and had an adorable West Virginia accent. I wish I could recreate it in writing for you. He was curious as to where we were going and where we were coming from. I think I acted calm and friendly but really I was shaking like a leaf! He asked if I knew why I was pulled over and I gave him a big ole “Yes sir,” and I’m sure I threw a smile in there too. I knew exactly why I was being pulled over but I didn’t want to let him know I knew how fast I was going, even if it was purely by accident! After he looked up my information and came back with his little pink pad of paper I had a brief flash of fear about getting my license suspended. He asked why I was in such a hurry and if I knew how fast I was going? I hit him with the truth and told him I wasn’t in a hurry and I don’t even know how I got going that fast! He said it was easy to do but going that fast won’t get me home at all (meaning it will get me killed I think). He had me sign off on the little pink slip but made sure I knew it wasn’t a ticket, just a warning. He didn’t want to ruin my weekend! I looked up at him, so grateful, and said, “This is my first time ever being pulled over. I don’t know if you want to take that as a good or bad thing.” He replied, “Oh ma’am, it’s a very good thing. Now ya’ll be safe.” I wanted to tell him that I didn’t like his pen very much but I didn’t want to push my luck so I just told Shauna.

As we entered the WV Turnpike we passed each other a few more times. I couldn’t help but smile remembering my first time, not because I got away without a ticket but because it was just the lesson I needed to take my driving safety up a notch. This man could have just saved my life! (I also signed a no texting while driving pledge this weekend too. Thanks dad!) Yes, I just turned getting pulled over into a positive meaningful event!

Another quick thing I wanted to add in this post was some of my thoughts on “home.” I wasn’t really looking forward to making the trip back to KY. I felt like so much of my life, work, and friends were all in Harrisonburg. Yes, I love Kentucky so much, and I love my family and friends there but I almost feel more settled in the Valley now. I spent all last year missing and wishing I was at home spending time in my relationship. I don’t have that to go back to anymore and it’s a weird feeling but it is so fulfilling to know I am creating my own home, my own happiness. How crazy is it to think y’all that at this time next year I could very well be setting up shop in a new home, new state, new school?! That used to really freak me out but ya know, I’m okay with it now. I think know I can handle it.

30 Seconds of Courage

This weekend was a super fun time in the Burg. I didn’t get lots of homework done like I wanted to but I got to be very social and that was a nice change of pace. We spent time at Bluestone Vineyard, the Artful Dodger, and partying around Longview Oaks! Just one update before I get into the rest of the weekend – Remember the guy that asked Shauna to call him? Well, he now has added her to a group text and sent out the message, “What’s poppin” yesterday night. Needless to say, she is taking after me and has stopped responding. Idiot.

Okay, so this weekend on Friday afternoon/evening there was a graduate school dinner for all graduate students and their families. Of course, lots of CSPAers were there being social and loving on the free food. At some point during the dinner I decided this would be a perfect place to try to meet normal nice people who aren’t in my cohort… which evolved to Emily and Greg scouting out attractive men. Duh. After a few no-goes Greg pointed out two super cute guys sneaking in a little late. They sat down with their food and Greg and I started to head over to chat them up about joining the Graduate Student Association but then they got up to get drinks. Ugh. By this time my table knows what’s going on. I think they also know how uncharacteristic it is of me to go up and talk to strangers, even if I have a reason to. I think I took this as a challenge and thought to myself, I am never going to make new friends if I don’t talk to new people. So I used my 30 seconds of brave independent woman courage and walked over to talk to them by myself! It was a pretty monumental moment that has now been documented in history thanks to my friends for taking pictures. Haha but here’s what happened once I got over there:

I gave my GSA opening remarks and before I had to scramble to say something else intelligent the guys informed me about GSA because they work for The Graduate School and one of their friends is also on the executive board with Greg and Candace. They asked if I knew their friend and oddly enough the name sounded familiar (this never happens to me at JMU!) and it clicked. Their friend lives in the apartment across from me, we’re neighbors! After I said this they looked pretty surprised – and for good reason – they were dog sitting this weekend while their friend is out of town! They knew exactly where I lived and what my lovely JMU wreath looked like. This is where awkward Emily made her grand appearance by wishing them both a great weekend and leaving without introducing myself. I think I was just thrown off by the it’s-a-small-world-after-all effect that was going on… or my 30 seconds of courage were up. I returned back to my table and gave everyone the thumbs up. I did it! I made new friends! Even if I have no clue what their names are…

Later that night morning (2AM) I wrote a note to the dog sitters of Apartment D and taped it to their door. At this point, what did I have to lose? They already know I live here! The note basically just said, “Knock on our door if you are bored and come be our friends!” To our surprise the next afternoon when we were leaving our apartment we found reply hidden in the wreath saying to have a great day and we might have some company later. Who knew that making new friends could be so fun!? We did chat it up later in the day, officially exchanged names, and shared a few beers during the UofL football game (while checking the score of the JMU game). It was a good afternoon which led into a great evening full of more CSPA friends too. My apartment was filled to capacity with people! Can't wait until next time y'all!

The crazy moral of this story is something that I have known all along but have a very difficult time putting into practice. Meet someone new! Talk to people! Get to know them! Surprise yourself with 30 seconds of courage and it will pay off. I think I am going to have an extended network of new grad school friends and I’m pretty happy about it. To me, that is definitely worth a little risk. I told the two guys that I would probably blog about this so if they ever read it, I hope they are happy with the way they were presented (not creepy) and if they aren’t - I didn’t use their names in order to protect the innocent :)

Cheers to new friends, fall nights, and CSPA bonding!

Nice Rack!

So I have a few serious thoughts to get out of the way and then I’ll give y’all the grand single life update. I know you are dying to know what (or who!) has been occupying my time lately. I don’t know if I’m on my second or third life revelation (the first was that wearing make up makes you look prettier) but who’s keeping count anyway so I’m just gonna go with it. My newest revelation is that first, relationships ending suck. That’s a given. But the reasons why are the real sad parts. I lost someone who used to be my best friend. Someone who I relied on and who relied on me. Someone who became my superhero on really bad days and my biggest cheerleader on really good days. This someone turns into a void, practically nonexistent in all of the everyday moments. Oh sure, I still think of him, but who I am thinking of is not the same person anymore. This brings me to the main point of my discovery. The person who I love only exists in the past. He only lives on in the memories I’ve gathered up and stored in a shoebox. My job for the future is to heal and grow. I am changing my perspective on life and striving to be the best me that I can be. I can’t say what his job is or if he is changing or not. It’s not my business to know any of that but what I do know is: the person he is today and who he has become since he left my life is a stranger. I refuse to let myself think that is a sad fact. I am looking at that as a comfort. I was lucky enough to have a really happy thing at one point but now, I can’t feel that way about someone I don’t even know.

Alright, now all of that is out of the way… Or if you’re one of those people that avoid anything emotional and sappy at all costs, this will be the first part of the post you actually comprehend. I don’t want to say that being single is so terrible but I also don’t want to say it is so amazing either. It just is. Like me, I just am. And I’ll tell ya what, I am pretty darn happy. I feel fantastic about what I have to offer the world! I posted something similar on Facebook this week and my wonderful supervisor from this summer said, “You should feel like that every day!” I thought about it for awhile and I do feel like that every day I just hadn’t found a way to articulate it.

Even though I may feel incredible about myself, the guys in Harrisonburg sure aren’t picking up on that! (Or maybe they are just too intimidated. Guys, that’s a real fear right?) My roommate, Shauna, takes the cake for award winning texting conversations this post. Here’s a snippet from last weekend:

Guy: Hey, what’s good?

Shauna: Who is this?

Guy: We met at a party.*

(insert more awkward small talk)

Guy: What’s happenin tonight?

Shauna: Having some friends over for dinner.

Guy: Call me tomorrow.

*First, we didn’t meet this idiot at a party. We met him at a bar – a public venue on a Saturday night 15 days ago! How strange to contact her now! Although, we gave him the benefit of the doubt because Shauna (who is much better at not giving away all of her personal information when exchanging phone numbers) saved her number in his phone as GO CARDS! so it was understandable he couldn’t get in touch with her even if he wanted to. Then again, he doesn’t sound like he wanted to that badly. Call me tomorrow? Ugh. I can’t even talk about this level of stupidity anymore.

This week, I went to a kickboxing class with my friend Maggie. It was an amazing workout and I really felt like I kicked some serious butt! (I woke up the next day feeling like I’d been hit by a truck but that’s another story…) As soon as I saw her I couldn’t hold in my good news any longer. “I met a guy today!” I burst out. Without missing a beat she says, “Is he a student?” There wasn’t really any way around that one... I just had to go with the truth. Yes. Yes, he is a student. So therefore… No. No , I didn’t really meet a guy today I just reviewed his resume.

Overall, I’d say the highlight of the last two weeks has been taking out the trash and noticing a wine rack near the dumpster. Right away I walked skipped back to the apartment to get Shauna and show her my great find. She approved! We carried it back to the apartment where I washed it down and cleaned it up. The next step in my I-must-be-mature-if-I-have-a-wine-rack experience is to sand all the nasty spots where it looks like a poorly trained puppy was allowed to use it for a chew toy. Otherwise, it is in really great condition! Eventually, I’m going to paint it and then here comes the best part - stock it with wine... or vodka. Okay, both. Cheers to a wine/vodka rack! The newest addition to 334C!