...gravity caught up with me

So, this weekend has been crazy.  I think more things have happened than I thought could possible happen in one set of three days.  Friday night me, Michelle, Angela, and Michelle's two sisters went to see Wicked at the musical hall at fair park in Dallas.  It was... indescribably amazing.  If you haven't seen it, you really should if you ever get the opportunity.  Then we had some late night strawberry margaritas and then some tacos from taco bell (which we ate sitting in the parking lot in our fancy dresses) since we were hungry and the kitchen was closed.  Pretty much an altogether wonderful and delightful evening.

I spent that night at Angela's apartment and the next day was just supposed to be Angela and Emily's day of fun.  We slept in, and then she took me to Addison to show me around since she's going to move there in september.  After that, we drove into wylie so I could show her around downtown and stuff, since she's still editoring the wylie neighbors.  Well, just as we turned onto the street for downtown wylie, her car started to make a funny grinding noise and to be jerky.  We pulled into the parking lot of the baptist church and drove it around a bit and called my dad to come look at and eventually decided to take it to the car fix it place down the street.  They thought it was brakes at first, but it turns out her whole transmission will have to be rebuilt, which will probably take about a week and cost a lot of money.  Poor angela.  But luckily we noticed it right away, despite loudly singing along to the wicked soundtrack in her car, and didn't cause any further damage. 

Angela spent the night at my house last night, since she needed to go to the car fix it place in wylie the next morning to iron out the details of gettting her car fixed and all.  I woke up, went downstairs to talk to my parents, then came up to take a shower.  I climbed into our marble, walk in shower, and suddenly, before I could think or grab anything, my feet were sliding out from below me, I crashed to the ground, and my face slammed into the corner of the shower doorway.  I felt something smash, and as I struggled to get up, I noticed blood everywhere.  I grabbed a towel to wrap around me just as angela and my parents came rushing in to see what was wrong (I think I kept yelling the whole time).  I figure out that the blood is coming from my nose and my face, so I tried to grab my roll of toilet paper to staunch the flow.  In my frantic, jumbled mind, for some reason I was concerned about getting blood on my towels, but as a rushed around the bathroom, I'm pretty sure I just succeeded in getting blood everywhere.  Angela and my parents fetch a towel however, and make me lift up my head and press it against my face.  At this point, I notice that the blood is coming from a big gash on the bridge of my nose and also my left nostril.  My parents are freaking out and everyone runs out to get things ready to go to the hospital.  I pitifully try to put on my clothes with one hand, since nobody really thought about that, and then angela hears me wimpering and comes and helps me.  My parents rush me to the hospital, leaving poor angela alone in a strange house that's covered in blood with two crazy dogs and a breakfast cassarole in the oven.  By the time I get to the hospital, the bleeding has slowed down, and the adrenaline has gone down enough so that I notice that I'm in a lot of pain and that I'm covered in blood.  They get me in immediately (luckily, no one else goes to the hospital on sunday morning), and at first they just think that its a cut on my nose.  But, as we're sitting there, the bridge of my nose just starts to get larger and larger.  We take some x-rays (the x-ray technician must have thought I was in a fight or wreck or something because when I told him that I slipped in the shower, he laughed at me!) and sure enough, its broken!  The doctor says that I have to wait about a week for the swelling to go down before they can see how bad it really is and see if I need surgery to fix it.  Today all they could do was sew up the gash on my nose and send me home with some painkillers.  Its not hurting too badly yet, as long as a I keep taking ibeprofin.  I look vaguely like a fish, or maybe an alien from star trek, since there is no longer a dint between my forehead and the bridge of my nose.  Hopefully the swelling will go down before graduation in a couple of weeks, but we'll see.  Altogether, it has been quite an interesting weekend... 

Defying Gravity

I sent in my acceptance forms today.  For Rice in general and for the summer program.  I felt a bit shaky afterwards - I've never really made such big life decisions.  But it felt good.  My course is set and the future is rushing towards me at a break neck pace.  It's probably good that things are starting so fast in May - won't give me any time to be all nostalgic and sad.  I guess now all that's left is to trust God and finish strong and not think about the goodbyes

Too late for second guessing.  Too late to go back to sleep.  It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap... 

Mmmm rice...

For some reason my emotions have been everywhere lately.  I feel like I've been jumping around free extreme joy to exhausted despair to a thousand places in between without any warning beforehand.  Sometimes I hate being a girl.  But its okay.  I had a wonderful time this weekend with my girls, and I had a fabulous birthday when my parents came to visit.  Birthday fun continues tonight, when my girls cook me dinner and take a little time for some snazzy fun amidst the crazy stressfulness that is the week before spring break.  I'm 23 years old now.  Travis informed me that I'm in my mid-twenties, but since I still don't feel in any way grown up, I've decided it must still be early twenties.  This weekend I go home to have a wonderful time sitting around and probably watching a bunch of smallville.  The second part of spring break I will go to Houston to visit Rice.  I'm kinda nervous/excited about the visit because I'm really starting to think that this is the place I should go.  The gut feeling (which is generally how I make really big decicions) is starting to work itself out and point in a clear direction, so if the visit feels right, I may just have found my new home!  I'll just have to figure out how to minimize the poofiness of my hair in all that humidity...

So have you ever realized that your first impression of someone is wrong, and felt ashamed for the assumptions you made?  The other day I was working the drive through at Starbucks, and this lady pulled up in a slightly beat up car.  She was an older lady, and it seemed that she didn't put much effort into her appearance, to put it nicely.  Her car was full of cat stuff, huge bags of cat litter, bulk pallets of cans of cat food, bags of dry cat food.  It was all piled haphazardly in the back and in the passanger seat, and it filled the small car.  Of course my first thought was "oh, look, a crazy cat lady, what is she doing coming to a place like starbucks?".  She pulled up and I told her the total for the small latte that she ordered.  It was less than four dollars and she began rooting around her purse looking for the money.  She pulled out a huge wad of paper and other objects from her purse, and began to search for the dollar bills that were placed randomly throughout the mass.  She found one dollar and then two, and then began to search around her car for more.  She found a third dollar and a fourth, and I felt a wave of relief that this poor lady wouldn't have to face the embarrasment of not being able to pay.  But then she kept searching!  I was about to lean in and tell her that the total was only $3.15, and that she had enough money, when she extended her four crumpled dollar bills in my direction.  "I'm so sorry, I can't find any more money to give you as a tip" she said apollegetically.  I took her money and gave her the change, and she promptly put the meager coins in our tip jar.  "I wish I could give you a better tip" she said again.  "I know how hard it can be to go to school and have to work at the same time."  She told me about how she used to work in a bowling alley when she was in school, and was so kind and thankful for the meager service that I offered.  When she left I was ashamed, but my heart was warmed.  So many people come into our store and wait impatiently for their coffee, with never a thought of leaving a tip for those of us working behind the counter.  They talk on their cell phones and get frustrated when we don't hear their order right the first time or we don't make their drink fast enough.  I know because I've been one of those people myself.  But the meager 85 cents that this lady offered, all of the money that she could find in her car, was worth more than what so many others offer.  This wonderful, kind lady, who I dismissed as a crazy cat lady, gave all that she could find for the poor, hard working college students that so many overlook.  It showed me the power of a small kindness, and reminded me not to make those disparaging judgements that are so easy to make.  You never know when 85 cents will make somebody's day.