Picture Story

A lot has happened since I last wrote. Life is a giant roller coaster and clearly I went up and down and about six loop de loops in the last few months. I'm not really sure how I feel about the way my life has gone and I'm even more unsure if I want to put my thoughts on some digital paper. Instead of going into the whole story I've decided to do a picture story. In the English Major world, a picture story is short, choppy sentences with snapshot pictures that tell a more detailed story. So here's JJ's Ways from May to Now:

End of May: Journey to Fla to see Kristen's nesting extravaganza.

June: It's just me and Grace Kelly now, enjoying taking a few summer literature classes, making new friends and interning with a GREAT group of rising 10th graders.

July: Senior seminar with Dr. Phil Beidler changes my outlook a bit on the whole English Major thing in a good way; the Johnson-Watson family welcomes the CUTEST little guy I've ever seen!
August: Cue up Fall Senior Semester Take One, Momma's birthday and the excitement of new classes.

September: A new football season brings an anxious air to Tuscaloosa, last year's Titletown. Saturdays bring friends and family decked out in their crimson, white and houndstooth: Roll Tide Roll!

October: Really feeling the pressure of taking 12 hours of advanced English and teaching courses and trying to have fun. The Braves enter the playoffs during Bobby's last year. I was lucky enough to go to the last game, with spectacular seats. Go Bravos! Alabama decided not to have a true Autumn and I frequently run around town in shorts/skirts/dresses while friends up North wear sweaters!

November: So far so good. I am writing a novel as part of NaNoWriMo and enjoying the days get cooler. College football keeps Saturdays interesting and lots of text messages back and forth with my Dad.

Life has changed for the better in my small cluttered apartment and I am looking forward to being extra thankful this Thanksgiving for the hidden blessings I have been given these last few months.

One Word for Wednesday

AHHHHH!!!

Okay, I said it would only be one word but I lied. This week, last week and next week are all SUPER DUPER stressful for me. And really I feel like screaming...so:

AHHHHH!!!!!

Postcards

So I wish life was as easy as a Spring day. Sadly, mine is not. Now, do I absolutely LOVE my life? Yes. Do I wish it was easier? Not really, I just wish I had about three extra hours in the day and more energy. But as the French say, c'est la vie. (It's just life). There isn't anything exciting around here to report except, work, work, work all day long!

I was fortunate enough to be a part of a poetry reading in my American Literature class last Tuesday. It's very rare that inspiration and a warm-ness wash over you while sitting inside a classroom on a wonderful Spring day. But hearing some of Ms. Andrea Barton's poems did that for me. I just sometimes forget to stop and smell the roses I guess. Well, this is her poem "Postcards" I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Postcards

I have to find a different space. I think the way that I will hurt you back
is to go to every city that makes postcards of itself and send you one with the directive,
“Wish you were here.”

I won’t stay anywhere for very long—stop at a gas station for a postcard or two,
a state-shaped magnet, diet coke and cheese crackers.

Every familiarity will change in proportion to my distance,
will mark that I am opening my car door in the elsewhere of corn fields
and distressed billboards until I recognize nothing in the foreign faces.

I will drive with purpose. I will drive in a way that throws up dust
or pothole debris, the wet muck sopping against my undercarriage.

When I am tired of driving, I will tell my friends stories that have nothing to do with you:
of how I slept at a rest area just past the bridge between Memphis and Arkansas
or met a couple in Arlington who made soaps for a living.

I will tell them how the accents became thicker, more difficult to understand,
how I rose to the occasion in a chess match with a farmer named Temple.

I will pray every day for people on the interstate with somewhere to get to,
will love them for being strangers.

And I will tell friends later if they ask, that I am wonderful—that I have been every place—
that I have learned to interpret loss and how it is always the same:
an empty postcard of a solitary windmill that stutters on an unused field.

Andrea Barton

Bucket List

I FINALLY FINISHED! I feel such a great sense of accomplishment for creating this list. I am still working on the 101 in 1001 list but knowing I have put the bucket list out in the world makes me want to work on the other one a little harder. So here is what I came up with as the big dreams in my little life. I wonder what others think about it and what other peoples' dreams are...hmmm.

Meet a genuine celebrity

Win a contest/sweepstakes

Visit all 50 states--upon visiting each state put a pin in a map of the US

Visit Australia, South America, Asia, North America, Europe, Central America, and Africa--upon visiting each place put a pin in a map of the world

Buy a pair of Manolo Blahniks and Christian Louboutions

Cultivate a vegetable garden and keep it alive for a year!

Buy a car because I want a new one, not because I totaled one

Own my own home by age 30

Actually help another person

Adopt a piglet

Learn to drive a stick shift

Receive a post graduate degree

Adopt a shelter dog as often as I can

Take part in an electoral campaign

Grow enough sunflowers one summer that I can give some to others!

Keep a list of all the books (serious and fun) I have ever read

Plant a tree and watch it grow!

Go to the Final Four games for March Maddness

Take my Daddy to the MAC football Championship

Bring my child to watch Alabama win another football national championship

Do yoga on the beach in Bali

Take a cruise through the Mediterranean

Take my Momma and Mark to the US Open in New York, the French Open in Paris, Wimbledon in London and the Austrian Open in Sydney (not all in the same year)

Do something out of my comfort zone

Fire William's pistol, just once in a shooting range

As I grow and as I change, update this list with new adventures and new challenges

It feels really fitting I put this up on Easter Sunday. Easter marks the beginning of Spring and the coming of Summer. Easter means new life and a world filled with love. I hope everyone feels the same calm that I felt during Holy Week, especially Holy Thursday. Hoppy Easter!

Still alive...barely.

So I'm still alive. But barely. Not only am I drowning in school work (being an English major is a lot of reading and writing--I didn't see that one coming!!) work work, bow making, cleaning/laundry/upkeep of my home, and clinical experiences in the high schools....BUT I hurt myself. And when I say hurt myself I mean, seriously injured myself. I have what the doctor ESTIMATES is a slipped disc in my lower back. What it really means is for the last 10 days I have not been able to stand, sit or lay down for any amount of time. I'm pumping myself full of all sorts of chemcial wonders to get through the day but they make me sleepy and I just have no energy. The downer about my back is they have no idea when it will be getting better. Two to three weeks it should heal itself with the aide of painkillers, anti-inflammatory and a muscle relaxer. Yippee!

With my back, I have had zero time to do most things. Like blog about my super wonderful and relaxing Spring Break with William to Watercolor, FL. We did not really get any pictures(read: we took one picture of William and one of his best friends Lane). We did however, have fun. Saint Patrick's Day was the day we got wild. Green beer is SO fun. Especially when you're 21! We spent most of our time either in Watercolor or Seaside and really enjoyed running into one of my pledge sisters and her mother in Seaside! I wish I had more to say, but the vacation was really just quiet (with the exception of St Pattys when I got a little TOO drunk) and beachy--my two favorite things. I do recommend both Seaside and Watercolor as amazing beaches in Florida, with Destin about 30 minutes away, the areas are the perfect blend of quiet and fun.

So with all that: I'm BACK! Hopefully, I will have time to finish something I'm very excited to have started. By laying on the floor most of the day I spend a lot of time procrastinating on my homework and working on a bucket list. I've seen a ton of them on blogs, and I have to say my favorite is my sweet friend Paige's. By composing my bucket list I really have seen my fears (I'll NEVER skydive!!) and how truly blessed my life has been thus far (there aren't many places in Europe I haven't been to!). I'm also working on a 101 in 1001 list, but that seems a little more difficult. Basically a condensed bucket list, the 101 in 1001 list is REALLY giving me trouble! I promise it won't be two weeks until y'all hear from me again!

Have a wonderful rest of the week! And of course I hope as Holy Week begins, may we each have a blessed rest of the week!

Wordless Wednesday: Spring Break Fever

Full Speed Ahead.

Life seems to be going just a bit to fast these days. Between tutoring, clinicals, actual class, work and my hobbies, I basically have ZERO time. My life looks like it isn't going to be slowing down anytime soon. I'm just hoping to make it to Saturday, and the official start of Spring Break. Last night's Oscars were a highlight to the weekend. I am so proud that Sandra won. It was so well deserved! However, Kathy Ireland, Miley Cyrus and Zoe Saldana needed to have stern talks with their stylists, makeup artists and hair stylists. Miley, my personal vendetta against you aside, you look like a Linebacker with helmet fuzz hair. (Picture thanks to Jared over at CelebBuzz)