Week 2

If I thought getting up at 5:30 every morning was hard the first week, the second week just about killed me. People who say that getting up early gets easier they lie. I am pretty sure it is getting harder.

Don't worry I won't be doing a play by play, even though I am sure you all love it.

The week started out normal, except I realized that I really had no idea what the traffic in Atlanta could be like. Apparently last week the traffic was fairly light. That was not the case this week. On a good note, I was able to get to and from work without the use of a GPS! It's the little things really.

Things I have learned from my commute:

1) It doesn't matter where you live, people struggle to master the technique of merging.
2) Don't get overly optimistic when the traffic moves, you are just going to have to stop in a couple feet anyway.
3) Constantly switching lanes doesn't get you to your destination faster, you just look like a jerk.
4) When being pulled over by a police officer, do not pick the most narrow section of the road. (Honestly, I thought this was common sense but apparently it must be learned.)
5) People watching is fantastic. (You're welcome to the many cars that passed by me and enjoyed my jam session. It was Shakira if you are curious.)
6) An hour and half commute is a great way to discover new music. Thank you Spotify and Pandora for expanding my music library.
7) There are some musicians and music that I will never like. (I'm talking about you Jason Derulo and 2 Chains.)
And finally:
8) Moving a modular home that takes up two lanes is probably not a good idea on the Friday of a holiday weekend. The person who suggested that should probably be fired.

I also realized that the marker of becoming a real adult is when the frustration of being in traffic is not the amount of time it takes (it's actually a great time to think and ponder, when you are not listening to music, yes dad and Laura that does happen) but the loss in fuel economy in your car. Yep, I have become my father. It's not a bad thing I just wasn't prepared, I thought I had more time.

As for my actual work, I am loving it. I am learning so much and am very excited for the upcoming weeks. I know they will be long and hard but they will be worth it. So my day-to-day consists of writing social media for different client's. Meaning I write daily tweets for the company, Pinterest board captions for the company I work for and another client. I also write blog posts, FB posts, and will soon be working on press releases.

I know my family might not want to hear this but there is a good chance that I just won't come home. Just live here forever. Atlanta is completely different when you are here not for a mission and I love it even more. My initial love came from my love of the service that I was able to do here, but now that I have "lived" here I can honestly say that I love everything about this city. It also doesn't hurt that the family I live with are the greatest and are doing their best to spoil me enough that I don't want to leave. (Melysa, it's working.)

 I have also starting going to the YSA ward here in the area. I am pretty excited about it. It is already so different from my ward back home, I am going to have some great material for my paper. It should be interesting when I actually get involved. (Mollie even though I act like going places by myself is no biggie, it is actually pretty terrifying and takes a lot talking myself into it.)

All-in-all this was a fabulous week. It went by quickly, which is always a good thing. I am so glad that I am here and can't wait for the adventures that wait for me in the next few weeks. Have a blessed week everyone!

I survived!

I have officially been in Georgia for one week. I am doing an internship with a PR firm in downtown Atlanta for the summer. I am so excited to be back to my "home". I use quotes only because my family doesn't like that I consider Georgia my home now. I have loved every minute of this week. Yes, even the hour I spend on the road, in traffic to get to the office. Now for my adventures for the week, starting on Saturday, my travel day.

Saturday May 10th: My dear brother Mike woke up at 3:30 a.m., yes there is a 3:30 at that hour as well, and drove me to Vegas so that I could catch my 7:00 flight to Dallas. That leg of the trip was pretty uneventful, expect for the realization that siblings really do turn out the same and some personality traits are inherited. For instance: Mike and I both have serious road rage, we have to control ourselves not to actually follow people and beat them with a stick. Anyway I digress, when we got to the airport I was concerned that one of my bags would be over the limit, turns out it was by five pounds, after some minor adjusting I got my bags send off into the black hole that somehow gets them onto the correct plane. I only had about a 20 minute wait in the security line and I was off. I got to the gate only about 20 minutes before boarding. Now comes the exciting part. We board, pretty standard, the plane is full the pilot gets on and says that we were going to be able to take off early and that he would be moving to the runway. Well we get to the runway and sit there for about five minutes when the pilot comes on the intercom again and says that the light that indicates that some function is working properly is not working and they can't figure out why so we have to go back to gate. Meanwhile I am sitting in the middle sit about six inches short of room to be comfortable. We go back to the gate and sit there for about an hour. That's right folks, the plane that was on track to leave early actually left one hour late. YAY! Well I pass out on the flight after we finally get in the air and the next thing I know is that we are landing in Dallas. We touch down right as my flight to Atlanta is scheduled to start boarding. Well the pilot takes his sweet time getting to the gate, I book it off the plane and down the terminal (lucky for me my connecting flight was in the same terminal); however, this is still not enough as I rush to my gate I see that the doors are closed. I missed boarding by three minutes. I was a little miffed. However, because they knew that my flight from Vegas was late they had already rescheduled me to the next flight leaving in an hour. Totally fine with that. In fact, I was upgraded to first class for my flight to Atlanta. That's right peasants. I have crossed the curtain. I was in heaven. I had so much room I probably could have learned to ballroom dance on that flight. Although I did feel a bit like a child because everyone around me was a business man or woman in their mid thirties or older. I should have thought to bring a coloring book. When I landed in Atlanta my baggage had apparently been able to make the first connecting flight because it was already there waiting for me, which was fantastic because then I didn't have to wait for them to unload it. I was then greeting by Melysa. The wonder lady who is letting me live in her house for three months. It was so good to see her and Chris and the kids. Nothing brings me joy like being called Aunt J by their kids.

Sunday May 11th: Nothing special other than going to church in Canton. I am planning on going to the YSA ward while I am here but I figured with it being Mother's Day that I should go to the family ward with Melysa. It's way different going to church in a ward that you once served in as a missionary. Especially when there are missionaries in the ward. We then had a wonderful dinner and played until bedtime.

Monday May 12th: My first day. Oh I was so nervous. Melysa was kind enough to wake up early and take me to get my rental car (a Dodge Charger) that morning and then I made my first trek to the city. With the help of a GPS I was able to quickly find the office and the traffic wasn't too terribly bad. That day was such a blur. All I remember is meeting the people I would be working for and my co-workers and that is all. They are all pretty great, very smart and a bit intimidating. I was so overwhelmed by everything I could hardly take it all in. By 5:30 that afternoon I felt like my brain was going to explode. When I got home I was just a few months in a grave short of being a zombie.

Tuesday May 13th: My alarm goes off at 5:30 am, yes I was shocked to realize that there was one of those. I do my morning routine and I am out the door by 7. Holy early. This time I took a different path just to see how it would work. Pretty much the same. I got to the office at about 8:25. This day was hard simply because it was the nine year anniversary of my mom's death and I wasn't near family. I was kind of lethargic all day. I will never cease to be amazed at how much it still hurts. People say that it gets easier with time but those people lie. It's been nine years and I can still remember every detail of that morning. The days after are a little fuzzy but that morning is as clear as if it happened yesterday. As is the pain and the missing her. I still catch myself thinking "Oh I need to call and talk to mom about..." only to remember that I can't. So it was a rough day. Remember how I told you that Chris and Melysa were amazing? Yeah well when I got home they had bought me a vase full of flowers, they were sitting on my nightstand and they made my heart smile.

Wednesday - Friday: I will not bore you with the details but lets just say that my head is no longer going to explode it has been mending itself since about Wed at 9 am. Constantly training and learning new things and then doing them on my own. Oh my goodness I have never felt more inadequate than I do right now. Let me just say that school does nothing to prepare you for the real world and a career. All I am really paying for is just a piece of paper saying that I am "qualified" to do something. Kind of a waste, but whatever, I am so close to having that paper so I won't stop now.

Saturday May 17th: Slept in until 7 am then started the day with a bit of job applications and then ran errands with Chris and Melysa. It was fairly uneventful but good in that I was able to relax a little after a pretty intense week.

I say that I survived because it was touch and go there for a couple days. I am so glad to be here. While the next three months are going to be super hard, I know that they will be worth every hardship. As I write this I can hear Chris singing to James Blunt in the basement and I can't help but that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else on the planet at this time. I am meant to be here and I am so excited for the journey to continue. I will be continuing these weekly updates, don't worry I won't do the daily play-by-play but you know me they will be fairly lengthy.

The straw that broke the camels back

Today as I was driving to school I saw a very innocent looking car. Then...I saw a bumper sticker. This is what it said: "A world with wanted children would make a world of difference." I flipped. The best way to describe what happened inside my brain is that a literal switch was flipped. I was having an okay day and then was reminded of the stupidity of those around me. I'm not saying that I am the most brilliant person, but I would like to say that on the important things my head is firmly on my shoulders. This is what I deem an important thing.

To quote a beloved apostle "...if we are not alert, there are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God’s laws and nature. A law against nature would be impossible to enforce. For instance, what good would a vote against the law of gravity do?" President Boyd K Packer. The full talk given at the October 2010 General Conference can be found here: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/cleansing-the-inner-vessel?lang=eng

I suggest a thorough study of this amazing talk.

I know that many do not agree with this, they feel that choice is more important. Let me be frank, if you don't want kids, keep it in your pants. Your choice was to do the baby making activity. You don't get to choose the consequences. Why is it that responsibility is considered a four letter word? The way I see it is that the "world of difference" would only be a society that shirks at responsibility becoming completely uncivilized. 

To make it clear, I am a fan of agency. To me choice and agency have different meanings. Choice denotes that we can do whatever we please without consequences. Agency makes it clear that we have a choice, right or wrong, but there are consequences from every choice that we cannot get out of.

Lets Discuss Dating!

Dating Podcast

New Found Confidence.

          What a crazy week that ended in a fantastic weekend. The week started out great, that could have been because I was on top of Cedar Mountain with two of my very best friends. Also could have been that I didn't have to work Monday, which makes for a great day always. Then everything went down hill from there. Until Thursday. So my friend Amber really wanted to ask this guy on a date, but she didn't want to do it alone. So I agreed to ask someone out as well. Full disclosure, we each used the rouse of "Well she wanted to ask him out but didn't want to go on the first date alone", it worked beautifully. Because, I didn't just ask a guy out, I asked the love of my life out. I've known this boy for about two years. For about a year and a half I didn't see anything other than 'a good guy'. Then we went to dinner after not seeing each other for about six months. My vision was dramatically different. After about three months of having a major 'crush' on this boy I realized that he wasn't just a rebound. There was definite interest, on my part at least, and I had better do something about it before it became a what if. One of my biggest fears is having what ifs. Luckily this is not a time when I will have one.

I am usually known for my shy nature and for my complete lack of moxie. However, this little adventure turned a new leaf for me. I have a major fear of rejection and not being good enough. So when I put myself out there and set myself up for possible rejection you cannot imagine my anxiety. I was pleasantly surprised when I was not rejected. While going through this anxiety I started to think of the possible anxiety that men go through when asking a woman out.

This then made me realize that I, as a woman, can't expect a man to know that he can ask me out with me not rejecting him, without some sort of encouragement before hand.  I came to this conclusion because this whole last week I had been thinking that this whole process would be so much easier if this young man had given me some sort of encouragement. He had never discouraged an invitation but he never openly encouraged it. In conclusion, I realized that I couldn't have expected him to encourage an invitation because I in return had never really encouraged him either. So my lesson of the week: You will never know unless you try. I have done my part in encouragement, so if he reciprocates then I have nothing to worry about. If he doesn't then I won't have any what if's. The best part of this experience: I have come out of my shell. Yes I am still afraid of rejection but I also know that I am a great person. I am fun, exciting, unpredictable, cute and enjoyable. I have a great friend who once told me that once I came to understand my qualities that actually make up who I am and how great I am, and not focus on what I think I should be, mainly what I think I should look like to be a person worth being with, I would be a force to reckon with.

A new beginning

                The life and times of an adopted southern belle, is undergoing a transformation; the person behind the blog as well as the blog itself. In the last few weeks I have learned a valuable lesson, it does not matter the speed in which you are progressing, it only matters that you are moving forward. I have spent much of my life comparing myself to those around me. Some would make the comment “Well that’s silly.”, and I agree, however, as human beings part of putting off the natural man is strive to overcome this tendency. One day as I was sitting and comparing myself to someone else, the question came to my mind: “Do you think that Heavenly Father compares you to others? If he doesn’t, when he knows everyone personally, why should you? Especially since you usually only see the good parts of people that they allow you to see.” Call it an epiphany, or just call it a personal revelation, whatever it was has helped me realize just how important it is to base our own personal self-worth on our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

                Too often we see people base their importance on the standards of the world. When in reality the only standards that matter are the Lords. The standards of the world change at a rapid pace, the standards of the Lord are consistent, never changing, and they are reliable. They do not inhibit, confine, or hold back, rather they promote growth, set free, and increase the speed in which we can prosper.

                How is this personal revelation going to affect the contents of my blog? The realization that I fell victim to the standards of the world, and allowed them to influence the way I felt about myself, scared me. Not only because it happened to me, but because it can happen to anyone. Before five years ago I was the baby girl, I was the one everyone worried about. Well I am now an older sister; I now have younger sisters who are watching me. I do not want them to fall victim to the same trap. I am an instrument in the Lords hands to help them and others come to understand their full potential. So now instead of just random postings about life, I am going to have a theme, and that theme will change every couple of months. The first theme is going to be 20 different dates. My friend Ashlee and I each are going to do 20 different dates. I want to do mine on super random things that you usually don't think of until the spur of the moment. I have a couple but not the full list, that will come in a few days.
               

RETURN TO THE SOUTH

As many know the last three months I have been looking forward to my trip to Georgia. And my trip did not disappoint, but I am getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning.

My trip really started Christmas day, when my trip to Georgia became a reality. After months of roughness this trip became a bright spot. And since I have yet to master the blog world the pictures above seem random but they are not. The first is a beautiful morning in Conyers, the second is Covington square, famous because it has been on many a TV show. The third is the big chicken and me as well as the photographers thumb. The fourth is underground. The fifth is a part of the skyline of Atlanta. And the sixth is the World of Coke, for more pictures see my FB page :)

Let me begin by saying that I LOVE flying. I love the entire process, driving to the airport, unloading my luggage, checking in, going through security (yes that sounds crazy, but I figure if the security has to be tight to keep people from hijacking planes, I am totally okay with it), waiting the terminal and people watching. However, my favorite part is boarding then taking off. I can’t describe how wonderful the feeling is. I am positive the feeling is even greater for the pilots, but as great as I feel, I can’t even imagine how great it would feel for pilots. Anyway, in case you were wondering I love flying!

Day 1: As usual I landed in Atlanta, the funniest thing, the pilot said “Ladies and Gentlemen we are approaching Hartsfield Jackson were they are reporting a light rain thank you for flying AirTran… blah…blah…blah…”. Of course I looked out the window, and the pilots ‘light rain’? Heavier than then what we in Utah call a heavy rain. I chuckled a bit. Complements to the pilot, and a wonderfully smooth landing. Our gate was in Concourse C, baggage claim was clear past T, and the tram was broken, so I had to walk the whole way. Now normally I wouldn’t have been frustrated, however, I am finally in Georgia and I had to waste time walking from the gate to baggage claim! And by walking I mean running because, again I couldn’t waste any time.

I finally make it to baggage claim and my dear wonderful friend Melysa Moran was there ready and waiting to pick me up. Basically, heaven and those who have been to Georgia know exactly what I am talking about! Anyway, I get my luggage and we walk to the car (it’s still raining by the way), we get on the freeway and drive through the city, at least I think we did even after living there I still have no idea where I am. The entire drive to Melysa’s house it rained, you may wonder why I keep mentioning rain, and it is because I forgot how much I love the rain. When we got to Melysa’s house I felt like I was home. So many memories came flooding back, I had the same emotion, but I couldn’t decide how to display this emotion, I couldn’t decide if I should cry or laugh or just stop and stare in pure wonderment. So I did a mix of all three. It was delightful!

Seeing as how I had been up since 7 am the previous day (turns out that I don’t sleep that well on planes), Melysa and I decided to take a nap. It was about 6:20 am at this point. At 7:20 I hear these three little feet coming up to my door, and then I turn over and see this cute little head peeking through the door and right then Lauren said “see I told you she would be awake by now”. Then the three Moran kids came in and sat by me on the bed. Audrey looks at me and says “we didn’t wake you up right?” so sweet! Then I get to hear from them how excited they were for me to come and visit. That alone made my entire visit worth it. Lauren and Audrey remembered me really well Colin was a little confused, granted he was only like 2 when I was first in the Hickory Flat.

The rest of that day was spent in the pleasurable company of the Morans. With a delightful trip to a bakery, that I have forgotten the name of. I do have to say, the bakery should have stuck to the baked goods persuasion. However, their cheesecake was delightful!

Day 2: After a wonderful night’s sleep, I again awoke to the sound of little children. Today would be the first time that I stepped foot in downtown Atlanta. And I would love it, again I am getting ahead of myself. So the day starts great, a piano lesson for the girls, and then a discussion on whether we can take Melysa’s car because parking in downtown is pretty limited. Well turns out that Melysa’s car is too big, and to be honest, it’s not that big. But we still took it and parked in a great ghetto parking lot, it made me very happy! I forgot to mention the reason in which we would be in downtown; well I wanted to go to the World of Coke, and Underground Atlanta. I loved the World of Coke, some would say it’s boring but it’s not, it was fascinating. My favorite part was the tasting! So great! Although I do have to say that the States have the best products. England had a delightful lemon concoction that I could get used to drinking. Everything else had a weird aftertaste. And the floor! Oh my heavens, it was gross! My feet were sticking to the floor! I was pretty much grossed out! After the World of Coke, we went to the Underground Atlanta. And for any that don’t know what that is, during the Civil War Atlanta was burned, well instead of tearing the remaining parts down they just built on top of it, and now there are shops and such in that part. Not as big as I thought it was going to be, but still really cool. Then we went to the big chicken. And no it’s not a real chicken, it is a KFC with a big chicken out front. Everyone talked about the big chicken, so I had to go, before it was out of the mission. Don’t judge but every once in a while I would think ‘ahhhhhhhhh I am out of my area!!’ then I would think, ‘Oh you silly girl, you’re not on a mission anymore, you can go anywhere you want!’ And yes I have conversations with myself sometimes.

Day 4: Sunday!! Yay!! It was so great to be back in the Hickory Flat ward building! It was especially great to see the farewell of one of the young men that was in the ward when I was serving there. Seeing everyone was fantastic! I planned my trip perfectly; the weekend I was there it was sweet Colin’s birthday. He turned 5. Well is birthday was the next day but we celebrated it on Sunday with family.

Day 5: Colins actual birthday, and being Aunt J I played as many games as he wanted to, let him play on my phone, so pretty much a great day!

Day 6: My last day in Hickory Flat, but not the first day that the little kiddos realized that I am leaving. And they kept sticking a knife in me and twisting it in my heart! It was awful! However, I had a schedule to follow. So after a piano lesson for the girls we headed to Conyers. When I was on my mission and in the Hickory Flat ward, we took a certain route to our zone conferences and on this route there was this house that was fashioned after a mini castle. It has a small mote, and some creepy garden gnomes as the statues to protect the home. It is fantastic! It was a lovely drive to Conyers and when I got there, it was so great to see David, after almost two years of not seeing him it was great! I also walked Olde Town Conyers and it was so great!

Days 7-10: I have condensed these days because I spent the majority of the time visiting people. There was a Relief Society party that was fantastic as well as a night spent playing volleyball, in the dark! It was great! Now on day 10 Diana and spent the day shopping and then at the ward party, which was a chili cook off, fantastic!

Day 11: Sunday in Conyers! Nothing has changed, which is fantastic, families still sat in the same spot! So great! Totally made my trip, it brought back so many memories! I got to see, the Ingrams and Bloise Avery, great people!! And I got to have dinner with the Murphys and the Elders. Great times!

Day 12: My last day in Georgia involved a breakfast at Cracker Barrel with David and Aunt Terry. Which has its own great story. Even though I had been at the Williams for about six days, Aunt Terry forgot who I was the night before, and she was extremely frustrated that I was around. So breakfast was interesting. Then came the time to put my suitcase in the truck and get ready to go to the airport. Life was great, Diana and I were going to have lunch at Panera Bread before she boarded her flight. However, when I got to the airport they claimed I couldn’t check in because it was more than 4 hours before my flight. But luckily they had an earlier flight that I was able to get on standby and get checked in. I made it through security with no problems, and with a little flirting action from a security agent. Of course me being me, I didn’t realize it until afterward. But oh well, its all for the best. Diana and I had some great lunch at Moe’s, then she boarded, and three hours later I boarded. Normally flights are nice and relaxing for me, however, that doesn’t happen when you have a kid sitting behind you kicking your seat the whole flight! Great fun!

Well there you have it, my adventures in Georgia, I did nothing super overly exciting, but it was so fantastic it can’t be put in writing! After the last few months this trip was meant to be a time away from my usual routine and it was perfect. I learned a couple things on this trip.

The first morning I was there, the morning it was raining, when we got to the Moran’s and we got out of the car I heard the birds singing. I realized that the last few months, I haven’t been singing in the rain! I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true! The last eight months have been rough, on myself and my friends because they have had to be there when I have a rough day. But that morning I realized how I have to sing in the rain, and I love the rain so I am thinking that my life is going to be filled with rain, so I might as well sing. Plus I have an awesome voice so I will be able to make others happy as well! Just kidding!! The second lesson came from a dear friend. She said something that made me think. She said that she didn’t see me getting married or having kids. And that’s when I realized how important it is. I have spent the last few months pretending that I didn’t want to get married or have kids. Her comment kind of hurt a bit, her saying that basically translates to me not going to be a good mother. Which has me thinking exactly what do I want in life? I don’t know, I am confused about that, but what I do know, is that Heavenly Father has my best interests in mind, and while I am confused, I just have to pay attention to the spirit and pray for guidance. Life is good as long as I remember who I am and what I am worth!