I Need Some Rocky Road Ice Cream

Swimsuit shopping.

Most women who are reading this now are probably making a horrible face of disgust already, just by my topic. Tonight I went looking for a one-piece suit because I'm going to try swimming as therapy for my lower back. Starting tomorrow. Needed a suit.

So, I figured Target of all places would have a good variety at a low price. However, I quickly came to find that the only one-pieces that Target had were size 14 and up. Nice. Old Navy had no one-pieces. I went to TJMaxx, hopeful.... I love TJMaxx in Waterloo, but this place was really REALLY ghetto. I tried on six swimsuits there. A quite interesting suit I tried on was the "miracle suit, guaranteed to make you look 10 pounds thinner instantly!" Like I really need to look 10 pounds thinner... 10 pounds thinner for me would be pre-8th grade weight. the suit was extremely tight top to bottom and was slenderizing, but had this weird support in the butt that lifted so much that, well, it made a crease where there shouldn't be one... I'll leave it at that.

So finally, I went to "Filene's basement" which is just like TJMaxx, only better. Tried on 4 more suits. Found a Ralph Lauren sport one that fit nice.

What gets me is, I'm a small girl who doesn't feel the excessive need to change her body, pretty happy with where I'm at. Just being here in Chicago and living a busy lifestyle has made me lose weight I wasn't trying to lose. So why is it, that the size of clothes I normally wear is tripled or quadrupled to be the size my swimsuit? How's that for a self-esteem builder? And those lights in the dressing room, someone needs to wise up and realize that women would buy more clothing if the lighting was more flattering and not so show-me-all-my-imperfections-to-the-max.

I'm glad I found a swimsuit when I did, I was about to give up. Blech.

Home and Back Home

I first off want to apologize for my blogging... or lack therof I guess. But I did warn beforehand that with school starting up again this semester that the continual blogging would diminish. That being said, I would have to admit I have really missed blogging and reading everyone else's blogs.

I went home this past weekend to smalltown, Iowa. I was supposed to leave Thursday afternoon since I don't have classes on Fridays, but the huge snowstorm kept me inside. It snowed a lot in Iowa, but the storm must have shifted, because we pretty much just got lots of rain. (I'm not a snow person, so I am not complaining.) So I made the usually-5-hour-drive on Friday instead, and finally understood this "cold" the Iowans were complaining about. It was so bitter cold. When I called Josiah from Iowa and told him it was -7 degrees that evening, he told me that Chicago was still pretty nice, in the 20s/30s still.

Of all the things I planned to do while at home, I accomplished relatively little.

Original plan:
shoot 4-5 rolls of film, including 2 rolls of portraits; get my federal and state taxes done and my FAFSA started; spend the night with Haleigh Saturday and go to church with her Sunday; have a relaxing weekend at home; get my sketchbook assignment done for drawing class. Ambitious huh?

Here's what actually happened:

Babysat Bill & Nat's kids and failed to use that opportunity to take pictures. And to do my sketches. I had hours. But I just chilled while the kids slept. At least I got to see the kids and Bill and Nat and my good friend Megs. I did relax though, overnight got to use the marvelous sleep number bed. My sleep number is 25. Or was for that night, anyway.

Shopped at Goodwill with Mom. I don't think she fully understood that I take hours to shop there because I try a million things on out of hope for a steal. She had wanted to go so that she could look at all the house stuff like cups/dishes/etc. I bought 7 awesome skirts and two short dresses to wear over jeans. I was pleased. But we were there for probably 2-1/2 hours at least.

Went to dinner with the fam, got to ride in the new family vehicle. Wow, we have never owned something so nice. Good job, Dad. I'm impressed. Leather interior and everything. We ate at Pizza Hut, which was fun, I still get my employee discount because I'm technically still on the payroll. (I never officially quit, I may work there some in the summer.)

Tried to do taxes, but Dad had chores after dinner and I was so tired, I gave up before he could really help me. I went to bed, my federal taxes are maybe half done. Haven't even touched Iowa taxes, and I may have to file in Illinois also, I haven't figured it out for sure yet. And FAFSA? Ugh. Not now. Maybe next weekend.

Drove to Ames Sunday morning, saw Haleigh, went to church. Had a great time, ate a good and cheap lunch, shopped at Target. Proved my theory that if I go into Target for 3 things, I will always find more that I "need" and end up spending $50 or more.

Drove back to Chicago. It was the longest drive of my life, I felt. Highway 80 is quite... non-exciting. I had real issues with trying to find a good place to fuel up and use the restroom, the places I pulled off ended up being either way out-of-the-way or closed. Let me tell you, when I saw my Chicago skyline, I got very excited, and got that feeling of, "thank God, I'm home" that I would normally get coming back to Iowa. I love being at home in Iowa, but there's something about this city that feels so familiar, so comfortable to me. But sometimes I feel as if I don't fully belong in Waverly or in Chicago. I think a part of me has to have both to feel satisfied.


Pepper spray in my pocket, and boyfriend 15 minutes away again, I am at ease.

Amendment to my previous post, by request

I got some comments asking, "What about Josiah?" from my last post, so here's the nitty gritty of it:

Hours spent talking on the phone to Josiah per week:

Probably around 5

Hours spent with Josiah each week (in person):

Probably about 30

So basically, i'm not actually spending those 27 hours doing homework nor those 56 hours sleeping. Just like T said, everything looks better on paper... it doesn't actually work out as planned.

Also of note, this past Tuesday, Feb. 7th was my 1-year anniversary with Josiah, from the day we were officially not-just-friends and a real dating couple. Tonight we celebrated, since Tuesdays he has his ministry training at an inner-city youth group. We exchanged gifts - I bought him this awesome Colorado Avalanche (our fave NHL team) sweatshirt, and he gave me a "Best of Coldplay" piano book and some other sheet music, as well as some adorable magnetic kissing stuffed animals. We ate at a casual steakhouse called "Ronny's" and shared a 20-ounce t-bone, baked potato, corn, garlic bread, and some unbelievable good lemonades. All for less than $25. Woohoo. What a wonderful year it has been. Being together almost every day now has really stretched us in many ways, but excitingly, we are growing closer as a couple and much closer to God. I am so blessed!

One favorite date place of ours... Sunday afternoons at Lincoln Park Zoo.
(It's free, and there are penguins.)

p.s. Keep me in your prayers for Saturday morning and after, I'm interviewing to be an RA for next year, which would save me a nice $11K for next year.

Where has all the time gone?

Wow, I actually feel kind of guilty for not blogging for so long. Actually, maybe guilty is not the word, it is "amazed." The past three weeks of school has really flown by. How has all my time been spent? I felt the desire today to mathematically determine how ridiculously over-scheduled I am. So here's the weekly breakdown:

Hours expected from my teachers to work on my homework:

27

Hours to actually sleep 8 hours per day:

56

Hours spent in class:

19

Hours working at H&M:

15

Hours devoted to an average of 40 minutes to get ready in the morning:

4.67

Hours devoted to eating two meals per day at 20 mins each:

4.67

Hours in church on Sunday:

2

Hours on public transportation to get to church and work:

2.5

Hours walking to and from class:

1.67

Daily devotions:

sadly, a mere 2.33 hours per week

The grand total of these activities.... 134.8 hours

How many hours are in a week? 168.

Theoretically, I have nearly 5 hours to spare each day. If only it worked out that nicely. And looking at how my time is spent, I am sort of saddened. I sometimes find it hard just to spend those 20 minutes a day with the Lord. I spend twice as much time per week getting ready in the morning than I do reading the Bible and praying. It's humbling, a real reality check.