Bounce

I have really curly hair. Like really. curly. hair. And I have always kept it long. Long, luscious, curls. But not any more! I chopped it all off! Muah ha ha ha. Now my hair bounces. Everywhere I walk. Bounce. bounce. bounce.

I decided I wanted to donate my hair a while ago. I work in a Cancer Center and walk through a facility where people receive their chemotherapy treatment through an IV. I walk through all the time to get water and ice from a dispenser in the back. I walk past people that have no hair. Every day. Every single day. So I felt the urge to do something. Some people looked so sad. Or I felt they were looking at me longing, for their hair to grow back, like mine. Pretty life-changing, life-tugging, emotional glances. I also walk by a room that is filled with wigs. Filled! And I wanted to help. I wanted to give something of me, that could be life-changing for someone else. Hair. As simple as that. Cut it off. Donate it. Give. Share the curls. Let someone else be able to bounce down the hallway. Spring in their step with confidence that they have luscious, curly locks. Yep, sign me up.

Hands DOWN one of the coolest things I've done in a LONG time. I walked in to the Salon, (I went to a woman named Adeline, she is FANTASTIC! check her out the next time you get a hair-cut, if you live in Duluth.) pretty nervous and timid. Sat down in the hair-chopping chair, about to pee my pants in terror. But Adeline totally knew what she was doing. Before I even had time to process what was going on, my hair was in a pony-tail, then it... wasn't. Gone. GONE were the locks. Still in a pony-tail, but not on my head. WHOA! Totally crazy/awesome. Then she went to work, sculpting a bob of bouncy curls. Phenomenal. My favorite part was braiding the now cut-off pony, and putting it into a puffy package to send to Wigs for Kids. A non-profit that relies on donations to make wigs for children who have cancer or some sort of disease that prevents them from growing hair. So great. So. Great.

So now I get to bounce. My inner-happy-bouncy-nature can express itself wherever I go. On a run? Most definitely, wind in short curls, bouncing all the way. In the kitchen? Oh yeah, bouncing around making bread like a champ. On the way to work? Well, who really wants to go to work. But now I can bounce around to get my ice water, knowing that soon, someone else might get to feel just like me. Bomb diggity.

Great job, parents! Thanks for the curls. Truly blessed

Motivation

HELP. My motivation has been misplaced. I can't seem to find it anywhere. I've looked for it at work. Nothing. I've looked for it at home. Nope. Under the couch? Nah. On facebook? Big fat NO. So where is it hiding? Where, oh where!, can my motivation be??

   I've been pondering this all day, as I sit in my cubicle. I need a jolt. A lightning strike of super power multi-tasking bliss. There is just a huge list of things that I want to accomplish, but am lacking motivation. Studying for the MCATs is a LARGE BLINKING LIGHT at the top of my list. I want to start. But I'm afraid? Tentative? Hesitant? Freaked-out? WORRIED THAT I WON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING? And cry in the corner while I'm tempted to run for the hills? Yeah, I need to start. Enough whining.

   So who has motivational tips? Who has the answer to my being freaked-out and scared? Hmmmm, I wonder....
   In my daily devotion, I found the answer.
      "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55: 6-9

   Lightning bolt? I think so. Just when you feel like there is nowhere to turn. Or that you're trying so hard to plow forward in one direction, you realize GOD IS THE ONE WITH THE PLAN. His thoughts are WAY BETTER than my thoughts. His ways are WAY BETTER than my ways. I don't have the capability to fully understand anything because I have a sinful brain. His plans for me will always be better. So I don't need to worry, or panic, or be afraid, because He totally knows what He is doing. He will help me find my motivation. It may seem completely lost to me at the moment, but it will come back.

    Trust in Him.

First Wave

I did it. I ordered the first round of MCAT study books. I have my lovely Gold Standard, that I so lavishly talked about in one of my first posts, but there is more. Oh so many more books...

Exam-Krackers. Doesn't sound like a book that is really going to help me. Sounds like something that I would rather put my smoked fish on that I got at Applefest this weekend. (cracker, haha, get it?) But really, this means I have to start studying. I have to pick up these kracker books and infuse the knowledge in them into my brain. I can't hide anymore. Studying will commence. The first wave has begun.

Despite me kind of wanting to study for this lame test of death, a friend of mine keeps errking me about it. He keeps poking my thoughts about how I'm feeling now and where I'm headed. He wants me to find happiness in my current work situation, or DO something about it if I'm not. Lame, right? Yeah, such an awful thing to think about, right? Anyways, it's like having someone bang those stupid large plastic blow-up tube things that you can get at a major league baseball game, that you smack together and they make a SUPER ANNOYING hollow banging noise. Yeah, you know what I mean. That's what my friend is like. It's kind of hard to ignore. Hard enough for me to ignore, to actually get me to buy the first stupid wave of books. He currently has a broken foot. I kind of wanted to kick the thing, but that might be a tad harsh....

Well, who wants to come study with me? I will have enough books to go around for like 10 people. They will be on my door-step in 3-14 days. Whoever decided that was an appropriate time to ship books? They may arrive by Friday, but they most certainly will be here by Halloween.

This shall be epic?... Maybe by the time the books arrive I will have a better attitude... : )

Smack

I'm clumsy. There, I said it. People who know me understand this. They have seen the carnage. For those of you who don't know me, I fall. A lot. Usually when I'm running in the woods. I mean, it's a little trail, covered in roots and rocks, people fall, right? Ha. Apparently I'm an exception. I asked a friend once, when we were blasting our way down some trails in Hartley. 'Hey dude, how many times would you say you fall in a week?' He looks at me and goes, 'Are you crazy? I can't remember the last time I've fallen.' I about fell over laughing. At that time, I had already fallen twice that week. I think it was a Tuesday.

     This past weekend, I went running in the woods. Seeing as it is Fall leaf-changing season here, the trails are riddled with leaves. Leaves covered everything. The trails, especially. It was beautiful, no doubt about it. But there should have been a large, blinking red stop sign posted where I hopped onto the trail that said, 'CAUTION, TRAIL IS COVERED IN LEAVES. MAKE SURE YOU ARE CAREFUL. YOU COULD FALL.' Not saying I really would have paid any attention to the large, blinking sign, but I might have thought twice before plowing forward.... Needless to say, my dainty running skills were nowhere to be found....

    I was running along, enjoying the gorgeous afternoon, totally happy and free in the woods. My favorite. But then, SMACK. It was like my left foot hit a brick wall. Boom. I am DOWN for the count. Practically fell on my face, but somehow I grabbed a random wimpy tree next to me and kept myself from going head first into a large rock. Did I mention I was wearing my Vibram toe shoes? The ones where each toe fits into a certain spot like a glove? Yeah, pretty sure I thought I left my left pinkie toe somewhere behind me. Like I was going to have to turn around and go scrape it off of the rock that I just smacked. Man alive, my whole foot was numb! I proceeded to continue jogging (because what else was I supposed to do, I was in the woods) and after a while I pulled off my shoe and examined the carnage. My toe was already swelling up. I could feel it pulsating. And when I went to put the shoe back on, it was tight. Gosh. Darn. It. Well, I managed to half run/half gimp my way back home. In one piece, just a tad worse for wear. 

   The best part now? My toe and foot are purple. Yeah. Gorgeous coloring, I must say. Sort of reminds me of the leaves changing color. Red to purple to yellow. Beautiful. 

   I will leave you with this: Take caution in the woods. And don't kick rocks.