And the World Spins Madly On...

     Ever have one of those weeks, you know where every itty bitty insignificant thing totally and completely stresses you out? Those weeks where you just want to curl up into a ball in a corner somewhere and not come out for a reeeeeeeally long time? Those weeks where everything frustrates you for no reason at all? Yeah those weeks suck so badly. And I am truly sorry for any of you that have had a week like the one I just had.

     It's not that it was a hard week or anything, it was just one of those weeks where your mental state just isn't prepared to do anything harder than sleep. So when something harder than that activity comes up, as they inevitably will, that's how life is after all,those things make you feel uber stressed and just icky.

     There's just been so much drama lately and while I was watching it play out in front of me the song World Spins Madly On by the Weepies kept playing over and over again in my head. Because no matter how dramatic life gets the world keeps spinning, life keeps moving on and there's no stopping it. I just think everyone needs to take a step back and take a deep breath. Especially me. I just need to breathe and let myself be.

Thankfully I have wonderful coworkers, many of which I am proud to call my friends and wonderful friends that I don't have the pleasure of working with that are very understanding of me when the stress is just too much for me to handle and I snap at them for no reason. They are the reason that I am able to get through weeks like the one that I just had. Their understanding and caring and their willingness to lend a listening ear when I needed to whine and complain about my life {that isn't really awful at all} I love them and am so grateful to them. Thanks you guys!! You do more good than you know and I love you for it!

     We have this one chance at mortality...this one jaunt on Earth to prove ourselves...let's make the best of it. 

...And the world spins madly on... 

Woke up and wished that I was dead

With an aching in my head 

I lay motionless in bed

I thought of you and where you'd gone

and let the world spin madly on

Everything that I said I'd do 

Like make the world brand new

And take the time for you

I just got lost and slept right through the dawn 

And the world spins madly on

I let the day go by 

I always say goodbye

I watch the stars from my window sill 

The whole world is moving and I'm standing still

Woke up and wished that I was dead 

With an aching in my head 

I lay motionless in bed

The night is here and the day is gone

And the world spins madly on

I thought of you and where you'd gone 

And the world spins madly on.

Sometimes we want to freeze a moment...but, just like scenes on the highway, it rushes by as the world spins madly on

Dear Dumb Girl at the Gas Station....

Dear dumb girl at the gas station with the nice jeans, cute shoes, fantastic sunglasses and huge diamond ring....

     People like you....IRRITATE me! It's not the jeans, it's not the shoes, it's not even that new Marc Jacobs bag you kept swinging around...to those I say more power to you...they're gorgeous and I love them. No it's the fact that you are like 22 and CAN'T PUMP YOUR OWN GAS! Really...what's with that? I mean come on lady! We live in America....we drive cars....we NEED gas. Every person with a drivers license knows how to pump their own gas; at least that's what I had assumed, guess I was really, really wrong.
     I saw you while filling up my own tank, we did that awkward eye-contact-with-a-stranger-smile thing and I went back to my own business. As I was finishing up you ever so politely asked me if I could help you with the gas pump, I laughed thinking you were kidding. Apparently you weren't. "Wait what? Are you serious? You can't pump your own gas for your ridiculous, too-big-for-a-woman-of-your-size Cadillac SUV? Am I getting Punked?! Will I get to meet Ashton??" At least that is what I wanted to say to you...I didn't.... but I thought about it.
     Sooooooo of course I helped, I wasn't raised in a barn for goodness sakes, and taught you how to pump gas for your still ridiculous Cadillac SUV and went on my merry way. But really lady...can't pump your own gas..at 22-ish years of age? Most Americans know how to do that by at least 14 if not younger for some. Unless you are Amish or from a third world country I think you should be able to pump your own gas. How in the world did you get your rockin jeans, fabulous sunglasses and that Marc Jacobs bag that I am still drooling over? I mean you came across as someone that was well versed in the ways of the automobile...again I guess I was wrong...but COME ON! You must know by now that America basically runs on gasoline, even Cosmo runs articles about it...ya gotta know how to do it. I mean if the Kardashians can do it...surely you should be able to...just sayin....
     But really...
     Since I taught you how to pump gas and everything, which is a valuable life skill...really it is....I think you owe me that Marc Jacobs bag in return...I mean it's only fair. We are BFFL's now after all. It's just the polite thing to do.

XOXO, Lindsey

PS - I'm gonna tell you to drop the guy that put that huge rock on your left hand...not the ring...just the guy. I mean really, if he wants to marry a woman who can't even pump her own gas then he must not be the sharpest crayon in the crayon box, if you know what I mean. That relationship is just doomed to fail. And I only say this because we are BFFL's after all. I probably wouldn't be very good for his ego...lemme guess he wears ridiculously tight t-shirts with too much bling on them, has an orange tint to his skin and wears his douche-ey sunglasses indoors? Thought so..time for that relationship to end...I'll be composing a letter for him soon.

So Blessed

Best friends!

     The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine about life and how different it would have been had I chosen to go to Utah State University last fall. I could not believe how different my life would be. There would be so many people that have made a huge impact on me this past year that I might not have met. There are others that I have grown close to that I probably would have never even begun friendships with. So many adventures that I would have missed out on and so many experiences I wouldn't have had. I'm sure that I would have had awesome and crazy adventures as an Aggie but it was still completely weird thinking about how many people and adventures and experiences would be missing from my life had I chosen to go away to school.

Carli. Love her. Nuff said.

Best friend since Kindergarten.

     This chat also helped me to realize just how extraordinarily blessed I am. It's almost as if I have an embarrassment of riches in the blessings department. I was thinking about everything that happened in this last year and the person that I am now compared to the person that I was a year ago and I am just so grateful for all of it. This past year at school I really think that I have discovered who I am, and yes I do realize how cheesy that sounds but its the truth, and what I truly want from life. I feel as if I have a clear path in front of me and I know what I want to do with my life {for the most part at least, I am still open for changes no matter how drastic they may be}. I'll be honest with all of you, last year at this time I felt lost, completely and hopelessly lost. I didn't know what school to go to, what I wanted to study, whether or not I wanted to minor in anything and whether or not I even wanted to go to school in the fall. But luckily I finally made the decisions that brought me to where I am today, and I am so grateful that I did. I have an extraordinary passion for my chosen major {just ask any of my close friends and they'll tell you that I ooze psych major sometimes.... I just can't help it!} I have loved almost all of my classes so far and I have made awesome friends! I feel great about my choice of school and I'm so glad that I chose to go to school last Fall in the first place.

Halloween at the
Grub

     I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, whether that reason is obvious or not. I believe that certain people come into our lives at specific times for very specific reasons. And that is so totally true, at least in my life it is. I have been seriously blessed with an amazing group of friends and seriously awesome co-workers. I absolutely love the place that I am in my life and I love the people that came into and stayed in my life. There have been a lot who have walked in and walked right back out, and while they all taught me valuable things and helped to make me who I am right now, the fact remains that they are no longer in my life and there are some that I really miss. Those that have stayed in my life have taught me valuable things and continue to teach me daily, and I am so grateful to them.

My Theatre people. Oh how I miss them

Love her!

Love and miss this!

     Everyday I am amazed at the goodness of my friends. I wish they could know all the good that they do. Most of the time it is just by their example that their goodness shows through. Just in the way that they treat their peers, their families, and even strangers. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat a complete stranger, usually someone that can do absolutely nothing for them, and I am so proud to say that most of my close friends treat these people very well. I am amazed at their abilities to make friends quickly with people that were previously strangers to them and to create a very comfortable environment around them, I hope to one day be able to do this myself. There is so much that they teach me just by their examples. I am very lucky to have the people in my life that I do. They remind me every day that there is good in this world, that there are still wonderful people around and that one person can make a huge difference in the world. I thank God every day for these amazing people that He has sent to be my friends and I hope that I am half the friend to them that they are to me. They mean the world to me and I am unbelievably grateful to them. Like I've said about a billion times already in this post I am so unbelievably blessed.

Princess Stairs with Anne!

Yep....

I love you all so very much, and don't want you to ever forget that you are incredible individuals that deserve all the best in the world! Don't ever be afraid to be amazing because that's what you already are naturally.

God Bless America!!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

     I am SO proud to be an American! I am blessed to be living in this beautiful nation and feel so indescribably grateful to those men and women who "gave the last full measure of devotion" to keep this nation free.

     In 1776, 56 men bravely signed their names to a document that would surely be their death sentence had their revolution failed. 56 brave men took a stand against the tyranny of their mother country and declared themselves a free and independent nation. Because of these 56 men history has never been the same. On a hot day in July these 56 men committed the highest act of treason so that generations after them would be able to enjoy the freedoms that they had been denied. I am undeniably grateful to these 56 "treasonous" men, for they have given the greatest gift, a free country. 

     Remember my friends that we are one nation under God. Together we stand, divided we fall. Our founding fathers recognized the hand of the Lord, or Providence, in what they did.

     On September 7, 1774, as the British were attacking Boston, the First Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. The Congress voted to open that meeting with a prayer. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams described that first prayer and the disagreements surrounding it.

     He wrote, "We were so divided in religious sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Presbyterians, and some Congregationalists, that we could not join in the same act of worship."

     However, Samuel Adams arose and said, that he was "no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of piety and virtue," Samuel Adams' notion was seconded, and passed and a local reverend read several prayers in the "established form" and read the 35th Psalm, which was the designated scripture for that day of the year.

     "I never saw a greater effect upon an audience," John Adams recounted to his wife. "It seems as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read upon that morning. After this, the reverend, unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present."

     "Be thou present O God of Wisdom," the prayer began. "Direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that Order, Harmony and Peace may be effectually restored, and the Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety prevail and flourish among the people."

     It was, as John Adams remembered, "enough to melt a heart of stone."

     Let us celebrate the birth of our nation with continued prayers, let us unite ourselves as the early patriots did and ask the Lord God to bless this land and to bless our efforts at bringing peace to the world.

     Over the years the stars and stripes have been immortalized in subsequent battles for freedom. The flag appeared at the Treaty of Versailles when the First World War ended, on a rocky rise on the tiny island of Iwo Jima, sewn inside a POW's coat at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War, and flying over the wreckage of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

     We believe this land that we live in has been blessed, we are one nation under God. This is a blessed and choice land to all those who serve the Lord (Ether 2:10). 

     As the last verse of the "Star Spangled Banner" reminds us, 

Blest with victory and peace,

may the heaven rescued land

praise the Power that hath made

and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must,

when our cause it is just,

and this be our motto:

"In God is our Trust!"

 

I love this country. I am grateful to those who willing put their lives on the line to protect freedoms that I too often take for granted.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!