God bless, March. Mostly because it isn't January and it isn't February and that means that time is actually progressing and I don't live in a grey haze of a snow globe, aka, Pittsburgh.

But don't mind me as I wax poetically about the never ending headache that is this polar vortex...it's March!

Guess who downloaded Overgram? Moi

I'm numbering this because I'm assuming I will write many more posts with this title.

Planning ahead.

I saw Swan Lake on St. Valentine's day! The whole night was crazy and stressful and I felt like such a mom. Our group was 13 (!!) strong and we all had to get on the city bus and ride into downtown Pittsburgh and then find the theater. Also, one of the students, Alex, was talking to another student about her birthday and she said, "Date, Month, 1995".

1995.

I don't even remember what the date and the month were because I was shocked at how recent that sounded. 1995? I mean, I was born in '90 so I'm not that much older than her, but 5 whole years seems like a lot.

Essentially there were a lot of freshman in the group and, God bless freshman, but they were all just flirting the whole time. Like, poking and hair pulling. For real. So by the end of the night they were all calling me "Mom" but whatever I just care about their hearts and their souls and no one died.

But the ballet was beautiful and it was great to hang out with more students and get face time with some of the more elusive ones.

My only issue with the ballet was that the bad guy, Von Rothbart looked like Greg from the Old Gregg youtube video. He's like swamp monster...the video is inapprops so don't watch it.

Old Gregg:




Von Rothbart (this is from the NY performance, the PA one didn't have horns, he had a ginger mane):

To Do Updates
A little while back I posted a To Do post and now I'm going to update you all because I need some accountability in my life.

1. Stop being afraid of St. Therese
This one is hard. The good news is that she is everywhere. And a student (Alex, born in 1995) will occasionally text me St. T quotes, which is nice and thoughtful and makes me cry because I'm a big fat sap.

2. CHARTING
So, I'm doing this! I've only missed one day of taking my temperature. Also, to clarify, you don't have to take your temperature vaginally which, for some reason, I thought you had to! So once I read that orally is fine then I jumped all over this charting train. I'm sure you all already knew that, but, whatever I didn't.

3. Planking
Booo. So I haven't been doing a good job with this. I blame it on my own lack of self control and maybe the worst cramps I've ever had. But, I'm through that so now it's back to planking.

4. Cook things
I baked bread! I'm also going to be more adventurous in the future so get excited.

Have a great Monday!

Mondays, right? Woof.

Let's just cut to the chase

Here is my To-Do list for 2014

1. Stop being afraid of St. Therese
I always have been. I'm one of the 1% of Catholics who are scared of the Little Flower. I mean, seriously, what is my deal. But not anymore. I've decided now is the acceptable time to get to know her, fight that fear, become bff, etc.

So I'm going to read "Maurice and Therese" as soon as I can buy it because apparently it's really good and not intimidating.

2. Start charting, dang-nabbit
I have been preaching about the importance of women knowing their cycles, understanding their fertility, checking mucus, blah blah blah but I haven't been walking the walk. So, now I'm going to. I don't have the nifty Creighton Model chart with baby stickers (which is fine because there is no baby-making happening in my life right now) so I'm using the Kindara app on my phone for the time being.

3. Do some planking
My legs are getting a great work out with all the hills and walking I do in Pittsburgh but the rest of my body is getting fluffy. I have no workout equipment, I can never motivate myself to use the gym in the CMU Union (all the walls are made of glass...it's in the middle of the union building, no thanks) so I'm going to start planking every morning before I hop in the shower.

Ugh. I regret saying it already.

4. Cook things
Yesterday I cooked chicken and spagetti squash for me and my roommate and I forgot how much I enjoy cooking. Not that microwaving squash and cooking up chicken is cooking but, baby steps. So, I'm going to do more of that because I've been eating mostly oatmeal and frozen vegetables. I am the picture of health.

Maybe I'll get y'all posted.
Call it, Motivational Mondays
Or like, Mo' excuses-why-I-didn't-plank Mondays.
Ever the optimist.

Peace

Excuse me while I rejoice heartily in the fact that January is over.

It's not that January is an objectively terrible month but I'm just glad it is over. Moving and starting a new job is hard, but I feel like the first month doing something new is the hardest and now it can just be smooth sailing.

Yeah, right.

Also, February is a little baby month so I have no qualms about taking it down. Furthermore, hoping that it will continue to get warmer so our pipes don't freeze again because nothing is more fun than diarrhea and a lack of running water. TMI? Nah, we're close.

Let me regale you with a story about something mundane that I will make 100% more dramatic than it needs to be.

Get excited, these are they kind of riveting posts you can expect from me.

In Pittsburgh, you can purchase a residential parking permit which allows you to park on certain streets. Parallel park, might I add. So I was using a guest pass, apparently it expired, I received three tickets for $45 a pop and decided I needed my own.

So after extensive googling (not extensive enough, this is called foreshadowing) I used my off-morning this past Monday to drive downtown (!!!) to get a parking permit.

I'm from Lincoln, NE and our downtown is essentially a 10x10 square city block. Pittsburgh is a major city. I parked a million miles away, plugged an over-priced parking meter, and hoofed it to the County Building.

Also it was a balmy 9 degrees.

So I arrive at the County building and it looks like a scene from Law and Order, or the scene in The Dark Knight Rises when Bane is standing in front of a non-descriptive government building: business people milling around, everyone is smoking cigarettes, everyone has a manila folder, everyone looks harried.

Looooong story only a little bit short, I went to three (3) separate buildings and none of them sold parking permits. I finally discovered I was 5 blocks too far west (thanks, Google Maps) and finally found the correct building. Of course I bust in, feeling accomplished, ready to kiss the earth and the woman at the front desk tells me the registration for my car is expired.

Sigh.

I hoof it back to my car, find the current one (apparently I'm a glove box hoarder) and get a parking permit. Gleefully, the woman informs me that this one is only good until April.

Oh, but come April I will demolish getting a new permit.

Big city living.

Thanks for being here.

So a million years ago I wrote a post for this blog that I created and then I abandoned said blog for five months.

I created this blog on a whim, and then that whim was deflated but I would like to inflate it (re-inflate it?)

My friend Hannah recently started a super cute personal blog, but hers is very exciting because she is married and also pregnant. I am neither of those.

BUT before you click away or close this window just give me a quick chance.

I am a recent college grad (Praise Jesus) and working as a FOCUS missionary at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. I found out I was moving here in December, and moved on January 9. So it's been a little crazy. I finally decided that I want to be able to recount what my life is like right now, and a blog seems like a pretty easy way to make that happen.

And then years from now when I'm old and grey I can look back on my youth and laugh. That's what technology is all about.

Fotos!