Cowgirls Don't Cry

It seems like it's been a year since I last updated y'all on my life. I'm sure you've been itching with anticipation so I'll indulge you! There are a very short 24 days until I accompany British Airways into the Tuscan region of Italy. The day is getting closer all the time and I'm not even close to being prepared for it. Compared to some of the other students, who are making packing lists and preparing 'mock packing sessions', you'd think I wasn't even planning to go at all. First of all, I'm working every day. Although I'm flattered that I can be depended on to scrub the toilets well and be amiable to our customers, being scheduled to work every day has kept me from preparing for Italy, keeping my room in a state fit to live in, and even buying my Christmas gifts in a timely manner.

Regardless, I'm very content right now. I can mark "get a 4.0 for at least one more semester" off my college bucket list because this fall, I made it happen! Although my schedule seemed less stressful (Italian, World Music, Macroeconomics, the Understanding of Music, and Microeconomics), the size of my load (17 hours) and my good results will ultimately do wonders to my rather mediocre GPA.

As for my Christmas Break so far, it has been spent making up a semester's worth of sleep in a matter of days. At one point, I woke up at 10am, grabbed my book and laid in bed until 3-4pm. It wasn't until I realized that I was planning to meet some friends that night that I finally showered and made myself look less like a zombie. It's been pure bliss! The dark gray circles under my eyes are slowly fading and my irritable countenance is leaving with them. I've also been enjoying the company of my sister the last couple of days. I forgot how much I miss crawling into bed and talking until the wee hours.

While I'm digressing into a spider web of topics, I want to set the record straight about an issue that's been bothering me as of late. Since I brought Cara up, I think you all need to be explained some things about my family. 1) While I am more than capable of enduring friendly jests about members of my family, I'm not very good at tolerating blatantly insulting comments. I'm very aware that I'm known as someone who will joke about my 'real life,' and that including the daily squabbles at the Aldridge Manor. But when you come to me with complaints about my sister's absence and start to acquire an increasingly furrowing brow, know that I will not tolerate disrespect. 2) I understand that many people are dissapointed that she has been preoccupied to the point of absence lately. To been frank, I'd know better than you, as I've been living at home all semester, just how rare it is to see her. But I can also say with polite sincerity that if you have made no effort to see her or talk to her, she's probably feeling equally deserted. That being said, redirect your comments to someone more able to control this issue, i.e. her. As if I can doing anything about her busy schedule! On top of which, I might remind you that she's in nursing school, working every weekend at the hospital, going to church and, oh yeah, she's engaged. Most of the complainers have a seriously less-stressful schedule.

Now for the seventh inning stretch! I stayed the night at Rachel's last night. By the time I had been there 3 hours, I was wearing her boots, Cowboys sweatshirt, Carhartt and was learning to use a Bow and Arrow. Honestly, I felt like I was betraying my Sooner heritage. But I had a really fun time learning to shoot with her Bow! It was my first time and I thought I did . . . decently well. Here's my fierce Hunger Games picture I took in her kitchen.

Not quite a natural but maybe it comes with practice?

Very Merry Un-Birthday

ATTENTION EVERYONE.

I failed to broadcast a very important day in this blog that was brought to my attention: Danielle Settle, my best friend, turned 21 years on November 27th. Some of you may be thinking, "Hm, Who's Danielle?" Well, my friends, I composed a list in order to educate you of the fantasticness of Danielle that is very worth celebrating!

1) She's so stylish. I mean, sometimes I am so overwhelmed with my closet and I just think, WWDW? (What Would Danielle Wear?)

2) I'm so lucky that my dearest friend shares my enjoyment of food. It doesn't matter where we are or how difficult the task, we find time to eat together.

3) It's always nice to know that if I need her to, she could save my life. I mean, sometimes, I choke on bubble gum and I think to myself, "Who would save me?" Then I remember.

 4) In today's day-and-age, there's nothing in the world more valuable than the ability to parallel park. If someone said, "Parallel park or die," I'd be in great hands.

 5) Santa will always be able to deliver my presents on time because he has some amazing staff.

6) I can always count on her to encourage me to study hard and finish the race. She never distracts me from finishing my schoolwork.

7) If I'm ever in need of a dance partner, she's my gal. She never makes me feel dumb about dancing to Chris Brown randomly.

 8) She's a gentle spirit. She'll save any creature in need. Sometimes, I think of her as Grandmother Willow.

9) She's a ginger. And ginger's gotta stick together.

 10) Finally, she's the most loyal, loving and encouraging person I know. I can't wait to be friends for a really long time. It was no accident that she came into my life when she did. 

"I thank my God every time I remember you." 

Philippians 1:3

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

It's here! It's here! And if you're anything like my family, you probably feel like you just took down Christmas lights and finally got rid of those cinnamon spice candles. Nevertheless, pull those boxes out of the attic, dust off the Christmas CDs and get on board because it'll be over before you know it. That bitter cold that I love so much is back, too, which, aside from the harsh, biting wind is very well received on my end. I don't know about you but there's nothing that brings love to the air quite like the coziness of having to bundle up on this holiday! And of course, listening to 104.1 as they bring me the best of the Christmas Hits. For those of you who I haven't told (which is few), my very favorite Christmas song is, as I titled this blog post, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. How can you not be festive after falling asleep to that?

Before I get ahead of myself: Thanksgiving. Ours was lovely. We went to Wellston and I must say, without fear of family reading this as they don't read my blog, the food was sort of a letdown this year. Maybe it's just that I talked it up to this unattainable climax or maybe it was just like any other year, but I wasn't even tempted to overeat. I guess I should consider this a blessing? About halfway through my mashed potatoes, my baby 10-year-old cousin said, "Oh, by the way, Grandma used the liver, gallbladder and heart of the turkey to make your gravy." (Courtney gags.) All of you moms are out there laughing because "everyone knows you recycle the organs." Ha-Ha-Ha. I might be a vegetarian now. Not to say that it was awful and don't judge me too harshly -- it's just that all of the sudden I noticed that there was unidentifiable floating matter all over the one side dish that I had dared to put on my plate! 

Other than that, the company was nice. We don't do a very good job of getting together regularly so it's usually birthdays, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. I guess you could say that it gives us more to talk about when we get together. I was assigned the "kid's table" because as you probably already know, you don't graduate from the kid's table until you've had 2 kids -- it's not enough to just be married! All jokes aside, I hung out with my cousins, Steph and Ash, and Chloe. We never let one family meeting go by without playing Croquet together so it wasn't long before we pulled out the mallets:

 

Aren't we cute?

I hope you spent your Thanksgiving loving on your family and eating tons of delicious turkey and mildly appealing gravy!

As for the rest of my oh-so-short Thanksgiving break, I spent it doing:

1) LOTS of this:

2) Piling into the front of the pick-up to find a tree:

3) This:

4) Working (No picture needed/wanted)

5) And lastly, getting into the spirit of the season with our festive skirts:

Whatever It Is

Ohhh boy. It's back. What's "it," you may ask? Dried out hands; dark bags under my eyes; the permanent smell of foccacia and mop water; and the ever-attractive hat hair. That's right, I have, yet again, sold my soul to Panera Bread. Before you judge me harshly because of the awful mood I was always in last year, you should know that my time away has at least helped me to maintain a better attitude when I work. This morning was my first shift back and fortunately, all the soup worshipers took the day off and decided to go everywhere else -- I.AM.RUSTY. I kept getting things mixed up and wrong and people laughed. A lot of embarrassment. I felt new all over again. Plus, they were telling embarrassing stories -- "Hey Courtney, haha, remember that time, haha, that you slipped and fell on your butt in the back of the house, haha?? So funny, haha." "You must be talking about someone else...." "No, haha, that was totally you." 

Represent. But I also didn't realize how many Panera kids I considered friends. I was beaming all day because I got to see all of them. I suppose I kind of missed them, maybe?

This weekend is drowning me. I have a lot of homework which, of course, is why I'm blogging. But really, I've told the same person I can't see them about 4 times in the last two weeks. I think she's giving up on me! I just told myself last May that I was going to do better this semester -- that I was going to get a 4.0 at all costs. I'm almost there -- only a few more weeks! I guess I just don't know what went wrong. I was in high school, loving it, always busy, surrounded by friends and distractions, and still never had below an "A." I know what you're thinking: "Courtney. You went to Choctaw High School. How hard is it to get an A?" Well, still, it's not like I never challenged myself. I took ... reasonably difficult subjects... Okay, so they were pretty easy. But I'd like to think that the real reason I've performed on a mediocre level in college is because I really don't loooove what I'm learning. What would YOU do if you could do it all over again? 

Other than all the busyness, I'm happy, or at least, the absence of sad. How do you define happiness, anyway? We talked about that the other day in class and I just thought it was funny. I mean, when someone just asks you blankly, "Are you happy?," isn't your answer always, "Well, I mean, I'm not NOT happy..."? I think a general sense of happiness -- that is -- happiness in its most consistent form is lost when someone loses their innocence -- when the world gives them a good spanking. I was fortunate that this period came pretty late for me -- when I was 18 and I realized that I had to be grown-up and that only I could answer for my choices and friends and future. I think in America, at least, these realizations force us to a crossroads where we get so serious and lose our uniqueness and spontaneity. I'm not trying to sound morbid or depressing -- I love laughing and playing and being alive. I just think too many people confuse optimism for happiness. They say, "Happiness is a choice." I would argue, optimism's a choice. Happiness is sometimes, I stress, sometimes in the cards you're dealt. It has nothing to do with money or success or love. It has to do with finding what your soul desires and making sure you get it. That could be service, missions, leadership, commerce, philanthropy, you name it! But whatever it is, every person was built to add their facet to a larger whole. And when they find that ticket, they are fulfilled, and consequently, happy. Their soul wants for nothing more.

Am I happy? I'm definitely optimistic! I have no doubt that I will find whatever "it" is. I've found pieces of it. But I'm waiting, wherever you are!

Look at the gorgeous picture of the Sorrento Ruins I found! Must go there! Italia: 63 Days!

"Plenty of people never miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."

99 Bottles of Beer On the Wall

ROAD TRIP!!! Well, kinda. Aubrey and I headed down to Thackerville last night for the Celtic Thunder (CT) concert, which was precious. It's really embarrassing when the only people who share an interest in the things you enjoy are all over the age of 60. It's fine. No shame, right? The first act was pretty traditional; but our jaws were dropping when it only lasted 45 minutes. We got kind of worried, thinking that we were being ripped off and only getting an hour and a half WITH an intermission.

No, no, no. The party really got started in the second half. CT usually sings some American songs in their concerts when they tour the U.S. and ended up choosing some pretty, uh, "regional" songs. After they finished "Friends in Low Places," we were starting to wonder about the reputation of our fair state! And these kids are from Ireland. How in the WORLD do they know about Friends in Low Places???

The rest of the evening was lovely. They sang some funny "pub" songs and some of the music from previous CDs. My favorite of the entire evening is when they completely surprised me by singing "Galway Girl," which if you didn't know, is one of my FAVORITE songs (if not my most favorite) ever created. Honestly. In case you've never heard that song, which would be criminal by the way, click on the button and you can hear Steve Earle, the original artist, singing it.


So after the concert, we huddled over by the curtains in hopes that the oh-so-popular CT would make a fan appearance to the 50 people that had stayed to wait for them to come out. They didn't. It didn't matter how many times I winked at the fat bouncer, he wasn't budging. I asked him if there was a back door, wink wink. He laughed and said, "Ma'am, there isn't any back door." Lies. So what did Aubrey and I do? We circled the casino for about 20 minutes looking for the charter bus or even the semis full of stage equipment. When we finally found them hidden behind a security hut, we disgustedly headed to our hotel. I think it's safe to say that I'll be writing a strongly-worded fan letter to Keith Harkin, professing my love and disappoint at not getting to meet him. I might slip in that I plan to visit Ireland over Spring Break -- "maybe I'll see you there??"

76 Big Ones

For some time now my best friend Danielle has been posting numbers on my profile. "200," "164," "117." Perhaps you noticed these random number posts or perhaps you didn't. I'm sure, though, that you're at least a little curious now that I've told you about it, right? For over half a year, we have been counting down the days to our awesome adventure! Our most recent number? 76! Can you believe it!? 76 days away from a semester of bliss! To countdown with us, click on the button below!



For those of you who don't already know, I'm kind of weird. That is, I sometimes have what the world would call "weird taste." But hey, the world needs color, right? I listen to Celtic music; more specifically Celtic Thunder. There it is. I said it. I'm not even ashamed. The exciting part is that Aubrey and I are going to see Celtic Thunder this weekend at some casino! I couldn't be more thrilled, mostly because I get to see Keith Harkin, who is my Celtic Thunder crush. What? You didn't expect them to be ugly, did you? Actually, I'm just hoping that Mr. Harkin proposes . . . Too far?

Not bad, right? You thought he'd be ugly, huh? Nope. Helloooo, Keithy :)

Annnd, one more for the road, people. In honor of Halloween:

What Are Men Compared to Rocks and Mountains?

We've passed the halfway point, people! We are now less than eight weeks from the end of the semester -- which is quite shocking, actually. For those of you who didn't already know, this is "la mia stagione preferita," or my favorite season, for a lot of reasons. 

We'll start with the most obvious: Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back, y'all. Unfortunately, when I take the time to consider the calorie intake, I only end up drinking 1-2 all season, but still, it's cause for celebration. Maybe you don't like pumpkin spice lattes? Well, to that I'd say 1) you're crazy; 2) insert your favorite herbal tea or coffee flavor here. Every hot drink is more appreciated. The very act of using a mug seems a little more validated. You understand.

Obviously, autumn sees a significant temperature change. This is the main reason that fall is my favorite season. My friend Justin and I resolved last year that moving to Washington state is a must for people like us; that is, people who sweat when they're swimming. I love feeling crisp, harsh wind on my face and while other people are wearing peacoats, I'm wearing a cardigan, and sometimes, even short-sleeves.

Candles. There's nothing like the smell of pumpkin pie and cinnamon spice filling up every corner of your house to make you feel festive 24/7.

Oddly enough, death. There's something peculiarly natural about the entire world shedding its skin and dying so that the spring is extra-inviting. And although it's only pretty while the leaves are changing, I'm not appalled when the grass turns that nasty shade of pale yellow.

I'm sure you have your own reasons for loving autumn, or maybe you don't. Nevertheless, treasure it! Because it usually ends up feeling/being the shortest of them all. 

     This past weekend, I ended up being a "sponsor" on the Fall Retreat at the last minute. I put sponsor in quotations because if you know me at all, you know that sometimes I have to be scolded for being as obnoxious as the junior-highers that I'm supposed to be overseeing. It ended up feeling short -- which is sad because it was the most fun I've had in awhile. A lot of the kids weren't able to attend for one reason or another (it being fall break that weekend) but we seemed to make the best of it. 

     I learned to play Mafia, which is a really fun and addicting card game that has absolutely nothing to do with cards. I'm being really clear, aren't I? We had fart-making contests -- with our mouths, of course. I won, naturally. If you ask me to demonstrate the next time I see you, I just might grace you with my award-winning fart. We went hiking, of course, since we were at QMCC. Usually we just hike Young's Mountain since it's on campus and the trails are really obvious. This time J took us to some of the surrounding hills and we got to spread out and go where we wanted. I was with Shawna, who if you didn't already know, is a beast. She's that girl that goes to "Boot Camp" at 5a.m. during the week and has mythological calves. True story. This hill feels like a 90 degree angle and homegirl's sprinting up the mountain. Seriously? I don't kid myself, I went into this adventure knowing that I'm out of shape but apparently I'm REALLY out of shape. We had Brandon and Zach with us (two 12-year-olds) and they're poor legs weren't long enough for our strides. Here's one I took of them -- look how tiny they are compared to the rock!

You wouldn't believe the sea of cacti that we happened upon. One of the quills went through my shoe and sock and I had to stop, remove my shoe, and extract it before we could move on. Needless to say, seeing the top was rewarding. From the picture it looks like nothing, but we were so high and the view was lovely. 

And most importantly, I learned a lot. Mostly about myself and what I need to fix and change about me. Usually I'm so busy staring at a chalkboard and pouring over textbooks that I really don't have much time for reflection and self-evaluation, which some would argue is the superior education. Something I took away this weekend -- what sometimes seems like an overused verse but seemed to be what I needed to hear:

"You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 

You know when I sit and when I rise; 

you perceive my thoughts from afar.  

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.  

Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.  

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, 

too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

 Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;  

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, 

if I settle on the far side of the sea, 

even there your hand will guide me, 

your right hand will hold me fast."

Psalm 139