Oh What A Night

This past weekend found me in Columbus with some of my most favorite people for a 21st birthday celebration. We stayed out till the wee hours of the morning. Drank too many shots and way too much beer. We danced and sang along with the music til we were hoarse. It was all worth it when, at the conclusion of the night, the birthday girl declared her love for each of us and said "I'm pretty sure that was the best night of my life."



There's something to be said for spending time with the people who've known you through the good and the bad, yet love you anyway. People who will always have your best interest at heart. People who can infuriate you one minute and make you laugh the next. They're the friends that over time turn into family. They are the ones that make this ride of life more fun, meaningful, and unforgettable.

Sometimes I...

Sometimes I speak without thinking. I'm trying to correct this but sometimes my temper gets the best of me.

Sometimes I come home from work, put on sweats, grab my favorite blanket and a book; then spend the rest of the evening reading. Now that its cold I find myself doing this more and more.

Sometimes I get ridiculously excited for weekend trips to Columbus to visit my friends. There will be birthday shenanigans galore this weekend that may or may not include a dueling piano bar.

Sometimes I procrastinate getting gas, sometimes it pays off like tonight. Gas was 10 cents cheaper!

Sometimes I finally do make it to the post office to mail packages that have been sitting on my floor for, oh I dont know, THREE months! As an added bonus I mailed some letters to friends.

Sometimes I try to convince my younger cousins that cleaning is fun and that they should come help me complete the dreadful task. Unfortunately kids these days are just too damn smart for my own good.

Sometimes I treat myself to a chocolate raspberry chai in the middle of the week just because, sometimes just making it to the middle of the week is a small victory.

Sometimes I settle in to watch a DVD, only to end up taking a nap through the whole thing.

Sometimes I go days without watching television and truthfully, I don't miss it at all.

Sometimes I start listening to Christmas music entirely way too early, but its just so darn catchy. Barry Manilow has a new Christmas cd out and I'm going to see the Rockettes in Pittsburgh this month!

Sometimes I shake my fist at Mother Nature when I have to scrape the frost off of my windshield twice in one week, I'm not ready for winter just yet (or ever).

Sometimes I burrow down under my warm covers and hit my snooze button no less than 5 times because I just don't want to leave the warm cocoon of my bed.

Sometimes I get really behind on my blog reading and commenting during NaBloPoMo, but really admire those who can do it and stick with it all month. I could not.

Sometimes I think the best party of my day is coming home from work and being greeted my Golden Retriever who wags her whole body, cries, and then immediately rolls over for a belly rub.

Your turn, fill in the blank. Sometimes I ________________.

Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee Winners

Thanks to all of you for entering my Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee Giveaway!

Five winners will receive this awesome prize pack which will include:



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• $5 Starbucks® Card
• Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee coupons
• Starbucks Doubleshot Energy+Coffee-branded white board

The winners were chosen using Random.org:

Amanda

Jen from Jen's World

Pam

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns

Auburn Kat

Congratulations winners! Please email me your address (mandy {dot} smalltowngirl {at} gmail {dot} com) and I'll forward it on to the right people so you can be sent your prize!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Also, don't forget to enter my Starbucks Giveaway. You have until Monday at 8 to enter. Five names will be randomly chosen, right now your odds are 50/50. Go comment. Anything.

Kay from Apartment #412 is having a blog design giveaway, go check it out.

Lauren From Texas is having a fabulous giveaway too!

Somehow I'll Just Know

Over the weekend I was shopping in Pittsburgh with a friend. As we were strolling through the mall, Starbucks in hand, I told her about a piece of jewelry I’ve been hoping to find. We casually wandered in and out of a few stores, finding things that could have been what I was looking for but something about each of them just wasn’t quite right for various reasons. They would have been a perfectly acceptable substitute but they weren’t what I had my heart set on. “Don’t worry,” my friend assured me “you might not know exactly what it is you want, but when you find it, you’ll just know.”

She always has this way of telling me what I need to hear and in this instance her words can be applied to my life in more than one way; one more complex than just finding the right piece of jewelry.

I feel like I’m searching for something, that I’m blindly following my heart toward some unknown that I can’t even properly describe. Sometimes it feels like I’m standing in complete and total darkness in front of a door fumbling around for the right key, one among many, that fits just so into a lock that will cause the door to swing open toward some new place I’ve never been or seen before. Right now, as frustrating as it may be, it seems all I can do is peer through the keyhole.

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While I do have an idea of what I think I’m searching for, I’m not exactly sure. I just know that there’s a longing deep inside of me that needs something new, something different. It’s a yearning that can’t be satisfied, that won’t be quelled until I find it.

Searching like this has taken me on a daunting journey through many peaks and valleys, through many emotions, and shaken me to my very core. It has stripped away things I thought I knew, things I could be certain in and replaced them with doubts causing me to question. Question myself. Question my convictions. Question what it is I truly want. And now after what feels like months, I’m still not sure I have the answers or am any closer to truly being able to answer them.

I do know that what I am seeking has to be something I am able to give my whole heart too--something that makes me feel connected, that makes my heart burst with happiness, and ultimately brings me peace.

In the meantime I have to keep believing and follow my heart. I won't accept a substitute. I know I have to continue having hope and faith that when I do finally stumble upon whatever it is I’m looking for, finally find that key that opens the door, that it will just feel right. That somehow, as my friend suggested, I’ll just know.

A Reminder

Sometimes I need to remember what it is I'm working toward on this journey. What it is I want out of my life. I wrote this and posted it here on my blog several months ago, but tonight I need a reminder....

I want to always surround myself with bright colors and beautiful things. I want to live life out loud, flamboyantly, and without explaining myself to anyone. I want every time I see the ocean to feel like the first time, so vast and immense, unending. I want to only see the good in people and not be hurt because of it. I want to stand alone in a field of wild flowers and be one with nature. I want to stand above the city overlooking the cityscape and take in all the life going on below me.

I want to feel the warm sunshine on my skin every single day. I want to always follow my bliss. If I have to cry, I want it to be from laughing too hard not from sadness. I want to play with the wild abandon of a child. I want to make a difference. When I have to make a big decision, I want to make it without hesitation or second guessing. I want to know what it feels like to be truly free. I want to act without thinking, leap without ever looking.

I want to always appreciate my friends. I want life to have background music. I want to fall completely and totally in love just like in the movies. I want to believe that the good guy always wins and that good will always trump evil. I want to live without being confined by time restraints, I always want to have the time for people and events I enjoy. I want to remember the exact emotions and feelings behind each photograph I have or take.

I want to find something I am passionate about and make it my career. I want to love going to work everyday. I want to help someone without thinking twice about it. I want to seize the day, every day. I want to never go to bed angry, at anyone. I want to find complete joy in the simple things in life, like blowing bubbles. I want to always feel the wind in my hair when driving. I want to dance every chance I get, with or without music.

I want to always see the positive even when the situation itself isn't. I want to explore new ideas without being judged. I want to be perfectly content. I want to be grateful for every single blessing I have. I want to always know the right words to say, at the right time someone needs to hear them. I want to be the very best friend I can be. I want to be true to myself. I always want to stand up for those who aren't able to stand up for themselves. I want to never fit in, instead I want to always be different from anyone else, standing out amongst the crowd.

I want to be completely at peace with myself. I want to believe in something greater than all of us.

You'd Never Guess

Its Friday. We are all eagerly anticipating the weekend and needing something light and fun to read. Right? So today, inspired by a tweet from a friend, I’m sharing four things you may not have guessed about me.

1. I enjoy target, skeet, and trap shooting. While I do well at all three, trap shooting is by far my favorite. There is something completely satisfying about obliterating an orange clay disc so it shatters just perfectly into a puff of smoke. I’ve been taking part in the sport for about four years now.

2. I have a slight obsession with Frank Lloyd Wright, particularly his organic architecture. I became hooked after a trip to Falling Water and would happily listen to someone discuss his designs for hours. I also really enjoy architecture as a whole. If I had any sort of brain for that I might have considered it for a career.

3. I don’t really plan on having any children of my own; but if I did, I think I would give serious thought to homeschooling them. Homeschooling allows for greater flexibility and freedom, can be tailored to a child’s individual needs/personality traits, and involves much more hands on learning as opposed to learning from a textbook. I am the product of a public school education system that I enjoyed but could have been much more. This could be a whole post entirely by itself.

4. I have climbed (as in a very narrow, straight up staircase seemingly suspended in midair with pigeons swooping mere inches from my head) to the uppermost part of the US Capitol, standing directly below the bronze Lady Freedom statue a top the Capitol Dome. The sights are breathtakingly beautiful and provide a vantage point of DC unlike any other. If you ever have the opportunity take a Capitol Dome tour, DO IT! Even if you are, like me, not too keen on heights.

What is something people may not guess about you?