NICKEL CREEK. OBSESSED.

To say that I am obsessed with Nickel Creek would be an understatement. 


The two songs below are by far my favorites!

                                                      When You Come Back Down"

                                                                  "The Hand Song"


I am fully blaming Mindy for this obsession and the fact that my most listened to song since Saturday is "The Hand Song". It's her fault. 


Annnnddd, my children will listen to their albums as lullabies, they are amazing artists and are so soothing and meaningful songs. 


LOVE them.

New words.

"I am both a contradiction and conviction, lost and purposeful... But I am trying to live each phase of  my life in a way that feels right to me."


So, as time is quickly flying by and Fontbonne is only 33 days away, I have begun thinking about how the next two years are going to be a new stage in my life. How the relationships in my life are going to change, how I am going to grow and discover myself and the people around me. 


I am all together thrilled and terrified. This is a whole new stage and place in my life. One that I can't wait to explore with myself and John and friends and family. 


I am counting down the days and seconds and yet, thanking God for the ones that are quickly passing through my fingers. 


The next few weeks are going to be stressful and crazy, but the next two years are going to be WORTH IT. 


xoxo, Jess

Because Frozen Yogurt Does Things for You That Your Boyfriend Never Could—The benefit of an EF’s encouragement and the dichotomy of attention

I’m sure that some of you may have noticed that once you are out of high school and into the college scene it becomes especially difficult to maintain any kind of fitness pattern, particularly if you were never in the sports scene, like me. So after about two years of playing the ten pounds on ten pounds off game, I guess me and my EF finally got fed up and decided to get serious. Jess happened across this really AWESOME running program for smartphones called “Couch to 5K,” and it is tailored to those of us who have had about as much exercise as lifting the remote control. And I would like to just tell you, it freaking works.

A Butterfly that I saw during one of my runs at Lakeside 370 Park. Running is a great way to explore parts of your town you never even knew you would like.

My first run was tough, but not so tough that I could not complete it. From there it just builds you up and up. I kind of suck at consistency, so I’m actually just now moving into week two after two weeks of week one, one week off, and another week of week one (when you work three jobs at once, running is hard to make time for). Eventually you start wanting to work in other activities, like long walks, and cycling. I actually find myself getting anxious if I don’t get out and do something physical every day. And none of this would have happened without the encouragement of my EF.

That all being said, I’m addicted to Frozen Yogurt and it’s all her freaking fault. I didn’t even LIKE frozen yogurt until she was all: “ooooh come eat at Yo My Goodness with me” and I was all “ewwwww” and she was all “no it’s so much better than FroYo” and IT IS. We go probably two or three times a week. Lucky for us they have a rewards program, so I don’t feel quite so guilty about spending what I am sure will eventually equal the cost of a year of education at OU. So it’s a GREAT thing that she also introduced me to C25K so that when I stuff my face with the frozen goodness I’m not gaining a jillion pounds too.

So a couple weeks ago we were at Yo My Goodness (as usual), and we are sitting on the bed of her truck talking and indulging in the gift from the yogurt gods, when something happened that has just stuck in my mind. Now don’t get me wrong—I’ve seen my share of boys acting silly. But this was straight up RIDICULOUS, and it really made me think about some things.

We were sitting on the bed of Jess’s truck when this boy walks by and is totally eyeing me—again, not really unusual. But then he heads back past our spot to his car, and suddenly *notices* something on his shoe and just *bends* over to *rub it off* and then gets up all *slow like* and you can see that he’s hoping some killer background music will start playing. As he gets up, he is looking directly at me to see if I was watching this little display he put on. Seriously? A male version of bend-and-snap? I feel somewhat bad that after all his hard work we basically just burst out laughing at him. I mean, sure. That’s one way to get my attention. It’s also one way to ensure that I will never think twice about turning you down.

Anyway, this little event got me thinking about attention. Ask anyone who knows me—I am definitely an attention whore. It’s nice to be paid attention to, and I feel like as long as you don’t cross certain lines, that it’s not an issue. Until, of course, you find that one person whose attention you want more than anyone else’s, and then no one else’s really matters. That, my friends, is the dichotomy of attention. On the one hand, you love it and it’s fun and makes you feel appreciated. On the other, unless it’s coming from the source of choice, it’s worthless. I see it a lot in relationships, for instance, your guy friend might spend a ton of time with you until he meets a girl he likes. After that you don’t really hear from him much except for facebook chat and group events. If they break up, suddenly you have a buddy around again. I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s very normal. I just never really noticed that it was such a pattern before.

So that’s what’s been on my mind lately! Now that I’ve posted my EF will be happy. There’s a rule or something that she doesn’t like about consecutive posts. J Things are getting crazy now that school is right around the corner. At the moment I actually have no place to live at OU, but you can be sure I’ll blog about it if I end up living out of my car.

<3 HR