for the glory of it all…

I’m in the process of fixing my laptop. I’m debating whether or not to completely wipe the hard drive all together. But regardless of that decision, I’m still trying to get the millions of photos, documents, and music files off of here and onto either our external hard drive or disks.

So while I’ve been trying to rescue my ol’ Dell and get it somewhat up to speed with my life, I’ve been slowing down just enough to take a trip down “memory lane” while sorting through photos taken with best friends, and music from different seasons of my life.

All my life I’ve wanted to grow up. I’ve waited, for as long as I can remember, to be in the position that I am now: married, living in a cute little “urban-chic” apartment, with a little puppy (who I swear God made for me), and of course, living the dream: working for Starbucks.

I’ve waited so long to be where I am now, and yet going through those pictures, I was hit with something I didn’t expect when I was seven, dreaming of who I’d be when I grew up. I hadn’t counted on the loneliness I’d feel when I had moved to a new town. I hadn’t counted on the fact that my best friends, my family, and the place that I called home, would feel so painfully close in my heart, but so overwhelmingly far away from where I was.

Sometimes I feel like I’m living a different life. In a way I am, but it’s so astonishing to be hit with the realization that I live in two different worlds, separated by hundreds of miles. And if only I could combine the two: husband and home.

Right, I know that my home is supposed to be where my husband is, and that’s completely understandable and how it should be - in years from now. Because let’s be realistic here, home is a familiar place where you’re comfortable and settled. But the married life is almost completely opposite of that, especially in the first year.

We’ve only known each other a year, and have been married for almost half of that. (Ha! I just realized how different that seems in writing) We don’t have this long history, and while I love him, he’s not necessarily familiar yet. And as far as comfortable and settled: married life is like venturing out into “uncharted waters” on some flimsy raft (I seriously watch way too much Lost) completely unprepared for whatever the ocean brings your way. Really, you have storms, sunburns, sharks, “The Others” taking Walt from you…wait.

No, but seriously.

I know that some day I’ll feel comfortable, at home, and settled in “the married life”, but for now - while I wait for that - I’m missing home.

For now I feel like a not-so-carefree vagabond.

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I didn’t want to go to the trouble to publish one and then post another. This part would just be my long-winded rambling.

I’m working at a new Starbucks now! It’s only about 6 - 8 blocks down from our apartment, which in New York City would be nothing, and you’d be crazy to drive that. I’m looking forward to a brand new store (it opens officially on the 15th) and being even closer to where we live. I’ll be working around 20 hrs./week just to bring in some cash that we can put into savings. Once I get the “green light” (from Jesus) I’ll start trying to move up in the company. Living the dream, dontcha know.

I’m still doing the Resident Director shin-dig. My numbers (of attendance) are slowly improving, and I think I tend to get discouraged instead of really understanding that I just have to keep on keepin’ on and God will take care of the rest. Praise Jesus that there’s growth. I’ve gotten to know a lot more of the residents since I’ve started here. That’s something! Tonight we had “Group Exercise” in the work out center. I was thinking no one was going to show up, but 5 of us were there, which is more than I had expected.

If you get the chance, please pray that God would have His favor on Christopher and me in our new jobs. 

Speaking of Christopher, he’s loving being an Assistant Manager at his new store. The Manager he has is so committed to training him to be the best out of all of the Assistant Managers in our district so that they can promote him to store manager. She’s done a wonderful job! Christopher has been at the store for almost three weeks and he already knows everything he needs to know about running a store as a Store Manager. Plus, she thinks he smells good (the patchoulli and I will take the credit for that one!).

Last week, Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks Coffee Co. announced a contest between all of the Starbucks stores in the nation. The store that has the biggest margin of growth in the next week with their whole-bean sales will have Howard Schultz personally visit the store to meet and congratulate all of the partners, and each partner will receive an i-touch (or whatever the heck is called. dude, I still have a shuffle). So far, Christopher’s store has sold insane amounts of whole beans. On Friday, they sold 1/3 of what they had sold during the whole contest Monday - Thursday. They announced that the winner of the contest is in our region (North Texas and a part of Oklahoma?) - we’re just waiting to hear the results in the next week.

I just keep praying that it’s Christopher’s store. He’s not my Assistant Manager but I know that with his character, personality traits, and passion, he will make an incredible Assistant Manager and an even better Store Manager. All he needed was for someone to believe that he had what it takes, take him under their wing, and teach him. And God set him up with a Manager like that. We’ve had His favor from the get-go and I can’t help but think that his store doing so well - with whole-bean sales to the point where they’re expecting to win the contest - is again, God’s favor.

I’ve been having all this time to get stuff done, but I feel like nothing is getting done. I even woke up at 7:30 this morning to get a head-start on the day, and didn’t get around to accomplishing things (other than a shower, taking care of Charlie, and making to-do lists) until 2:00 this afternoon. Where does the time go?

Some mornings I’m up, drinking my coffee (as usual), enjoying the morning and I think “maybe I should spend some time with Jesus”, but then my  mind floats over to my to-do list and I immediately think “I don’t have time to do it right now, I’ll do it later”. Classic, huh? “Famous last words” as my Mom would say…

But today I was thinking that I’m not being as productive as I could be since I’m not prioritizing correctly. That’s the key.

The founder of the Methodist Church spent hours a day with God early on before he started his day. People would ask him how he had time to get everything done in the day by spending all of that time with Jesus. His reply was something similiar to that if he didn’t make time for Jesus early on, he wouldn’t be able to get as much done.

And logically, that doesn’t make sense. If you take the three extra hours you would have spent with Jesus, and spend them working you’d get more done, right?
Logically, but our hearts aren’t alive because of logic are they?
They’re alive because of faith.

Tomorrow I’m prioritizing and I know I’ll see a difference.