Birthday? No. Birth-week!

I prolonged my birthday celebrations as much as I possibly could.

I took the whole weekend off and made tons of plans with all my friends (:

Friday was just a sleep in until way past noon. Like way wayyy past noon. Like until 6. And after I woke up, Luis and I went to Panda and picked up some movies from the Red Box.

It was definitely a no makeup, no fixed hair, jeans and a long shirt kind of day. We went back to my dorm after gorging ourselves on fried rice, chow mein, mandarin chicken, golden honey roasted walnut shrimp, and green bean chicken. We watched Django, which was pretty good, then went right back to sleep.

Saturday we woke up considerably earlier at around noon. We then watched Silver Linings Playbook, which was also really good. (anything with Jennifer Lawrence in it is good!) Then I got ready to go out with my beautiful God-daughter and best friend, Alexa. I put on this top that I bought at Wet Seal from their penny sale. It's a little too small, but for one cent and cuteness, I can stand not breathing for a few hours.

I picked her up and we went to Bistro Niko to pick up my lost purse. I was SO happy when I woke up to their wonderful phone call telling me it had been turned it! Everything was still in the purse, it was great! We then stopped by Mickey D's because I hadn't eaten all day, and since my card was cancelled, all I had were the $15 I had left inside my purse. We then went to her place to meet up with her friend, Alise.

We chilled there for a while talking about make up and movies and jobs and all that fun stuff girls talk about when they get together. Finally, the fourth person to our party showed up and we went to the dollar movies.

We watched Jack the Giant Slayer and it was actually really good. I really enjoyed it. It made me sit on the edge of my seat (figuratively) in excitement over the action, made me sigh, made me hope, made me laugh, and made me cry. That's a pretty good movie to me.

Finally the movie was over and we went our separate ways, but not before Alexa gave me my birthday presents. I swear, she knows my style so well and always buys me the cutest things!

And it always comes in the cutest packaging. She once gave my mom this gift that came in the most gorgeous gift box I have ever seen. I don't remember what came inside the box, but it's still sitting in my mom's living room as decoration.

Inside the cute box above, came this beautiful scarf. The picture truly does not do it justice. It's a bad picture in awful lighting and way too close to see the overall image, but I promise, the scarf is adorable!

So cute! I feel like these earrings are totally business world, sophisticated earrings. Perfect for me! You don't see any teenagers running around with earrings like that, however, me? I'll rock them!

After I left the movies, I went to Luis's house so we could go to the wedding reception together. It was probably one of the most Mexican parties I have ever been to, and I go to a lot of Mexican parties, trust me. They had the whole banda there playing their 5 million instruments and singing. It was fun though.
.

Luis wasn't really in the dancing mood, so I ended up dancing with his mom, which was pretty fun. There's this one song, Caballo Dorado, which is like a Mexican version of the Cha Cha Slide, only funner, that we danced to together, and I could not stop laughing! It was a great night!

Here's out picture for the night!

Then Sunday was nice too. We slept in late and went to Mass at 5.

After Mass we went to the last college ministry meeting for the school year. That was really fun. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we had authentic Mexican food (not that Tex-Mex stuff) and ate to our tummies content. Then we had Adoration, which is such a beautiful experience every time. Adoration is probably my favorite part of being a Catholic. We then went our separate ways so I could study my butt of for finals!

Monday was just a normal day, no birthday fun. I worked in the morning, went to school, took a final, then spent the rest of the day on Hulu catching up on Once Upon A Time (I knew Queen Regina was a softie at heart!).

Then Tuesday was when things picked up again. I went to work in the morning and got to lead shift for the first time! I was really excited about that! I'm training to be a team leader (assistant manager in Chick-fil-A lingo) so finally getting to lead the shift on my own was fun and exciting. I ended up staying wayyy past when I was supposed to leave, so I could get more training in. Finally I leave and head to Chili's to meet my girls!

I have two other friends whose birthdays are also in May, Emily and Estela. So we decided that we were going to do something together to celebrate all three of our birthdays. We have been talking about going to Chili's to just get their chocolate molten lava cake since September and it still hasn't happened, so we figured that this would be our opportunity to do so! We invited two more friends, Daena and Jessica (not the shopping one, the one that I went to Rumba with. I'll just call her JP from now on because that's her nickname anyways) to come celebrate with us!

Of course, nothing ever goes as planned. Daena had a million errands to run for her mom and couldn't make it, and Estela's grandparents are in town so she couldn't make it either. It was alright though, JP brought another friend with her and the four of us had a grand time.

Me, Emily, Yane, and JP (:

We had so much food! We ordered that 3 different appetizers thing with spicy boneless wings, honey boneless wings, and potato skins. Then we each had an entree which was delicious. I had the light version of the steak, and Yane let me try one of her bacon something quesadillas which was also really good. Finally, the moment we were all waiting for came, dessert time! We ordered two of the molten lava cakes, one for us to eat then, and the other to take to Estela, since she couldn't join us and it was her birthday too.

When it was finally time to go, we turned Chili's into our photo booth. We took so many pictures and it was great. I had so much fun with my friends (:

Just Another Crazy Busy Bee Weekend

What a week!

This past week... I don't even know where to start!

I guess I'll pick up where I left off.

So last Wednesday I wake early and go to class. I sit through a boring anthropology lecture. Then I get a text from my boss boss (like the Operator/Owner boss). He asked me to come in for a photo shoot release.

What? Photo shoot? All he had to say was that there were cameras involved and I would have been there in a jiffy. That's just the type of girl I am. I love pictures!

And I'm feeling pretty special too, because we both have iPhones, so I would have been able to see if he had sent the same text to multiple people in a group message, and it was a private. I felt so special! Although I'm sure he texted more than just me (I later found out 5 of us had the interview), but still, give me my two seconds of glory and ego-raising glee.

But unfortunately, I had class. As much as I love pictures, finals start this week and I could't afford to miss any classes from now on. So I told him the soonest I could get there would be at 12 45 (He texted me at 10 30), and he said okay! Excited again!

So I leave class (please don't ask me what we talked about in class, because all my notebook has written in it is a bunch of pictures of cameras!), and walk straight to my car (Lulu is looking pretty good, pictures eventually!) and drive straight to Chick-Fil-A.

All I have to say is that I'm pretty glad that I dressed up cute in the morning. I pulled this sexy professional look with black leggings, a long white shirt, a black blazer, and these adorable black heels. And of course, the bright red lips. I think my bright red lips can turn any outfit into classy and sexy.

Black leggings and adorable black heels

Long white shirt and black blazer, not mention the cute necklace ;D

Bright red lips :*

I walk in, looking for the cameras, and my Operator calls me over to a table and there's a lady sitting down with a pile of papers and her laptop. He introduces us, jokes around that I speak 7 languages (Um, it's 4, let's not give people high hopes of me. I hate to disappoint), and leaves the two of us together. We make small talk for a little bit. The kind of stuff everyone over 25 asks us under 20 kids. "Where do you go to school? What do you want to do? Blah blah blah" I am a professional at answering those questions, no joke. I have my answer down pat. And of course, the following, "Oh my goodness you're so smart, you're going to go far, etc etc" came, as always. I have a slightly inflated ego when it comes to these kinds of things.

Then, we get to the juicy bit. She finally asks me if I know what I'm doing there, and of course, I have no clue. He said photo shoot, but I don't see any cameras, so at this point I just feel like he knows how to get me to drive 20 minutes from Kennesaw.

Then she tell me the good news. She is a talent scout! Eek! She recruits people to do modeling, take pictures, and do videos! The excitement is overwhelming!

Of course, I'll be in my Chick-fil-A uniform and the pictures are for CFA marketing and instructional videos for all the newbies coming in to teach how to do stuff in the stores. But still! I'll be on camera and people will be taking pictures of me and I'll be on video and hundreds and thousands of little newbie CFA team members will get to see me on their videos! That's publicity right there my dears!

This is only the first step! Next, someone will realize how amazing I am at doing CFA informational videos, and they'll start hiring me for commercials and movies and runways and red carpets and so much more! My future life is flashing before my eyes and I am super excited! And it all started in junior high when I posed for Samoa's 40th anniversary for Girl Scouts. I can feel the tears coming. Michael Kors, here I come!

Not to mention that the pay is really nice too. Almost double of what I'm making now. But I'd do it for less. Just the experience of being a model, regardless for whom, is amazing. I am a beautiful budding talent, waiting to be discovered! Here I come Hollywood!

Then the rest of Wednesday was just a normal day. School and work. Yay.

Then Thursday was an adventure all on it's own.

I woke up super early to head downtown. As a political science major (Yay international relations!) I have to do an observation report almost every semester. That means waking up super early, going to court for several hours, writing down everything that goes down, then writing a ten page essay on it. Whoop-dee-do.

So Thursday morning I drove to downtown to go to immigration court. When I go to look for a parking spot, I realize that I left my credit card with Luis so he could fix Lulu. That is slightly problematic when I am stuck in downtown Atlanta with an almost empty tank and no money. So I look all over my purse and car and pull together $4 and a few cents to pay for parking.

Then I go to court, hold my tears in as I watch the judge be a jerk to a poor immigrant, and issue him to leave the country. Ouch. As a Latina, watching people get deported hurts. I switched court rooms at one point to see another judge too. The second judge was sort of nicer, at least to me. He realized that I wasn't there for a court date and started asking me questions, and he answered a lot of my questions too. I got a ton of notes from talking to him, even though he was obviously one of those self-righteous judge's who thinks America is for Americans, so screw the immigrants. I sure had a hard time not expressing my own feelings on the issue. To me, personally, he was pleasant enough though.

Finding my car was the next big issue. I walked up and down downtown for a good 15 minutes before I remembered where I parked. Then I had to sprint in the opposite direction because my parking meter was about to expire. I managed to get there 2 minutes after my time expired, but the cop was on the other side checking those cars, so I escaped without a ticket. I was fully prepared to cry my way out of a parking ticket though. My tears were on the ready!

Then I went to work, and that was that. At this point I forgot my laptop at work and only got it back Saturday night.

I did, however, go to a bar with Carlin after work Thursday night. That was super fun!

Blurryyy

We have a pair of friends, Haley and Alexis, who are in a band and often perform over at a bar close to my Chick-fil-A. Usually I'm too busy to go to any of their shows, but since that's so close to me, I always try to make those. I got there a little too late to watch them perform, but we had fun rocking to a rock band!

We're too cute!

We then hung out with a crowd who came out to see Haley and Alexis too. Afterwards we went to the only place open in the wee hours of the morning, the true Southern staple, Waffle House!

I ended up at home at 4am (which wasn't a very smart idea considering all the work I had to do on the following days). It was a crash and burn kinda night. I'm surprised I even took the time to remove my makeup!

The rest of the weekend was all work.

Chick-fil-A Ready!!

I worked 2 to close on Thursday, 11:30 am to close on Friday, and here's the real beauty of the weekend: open to close on Saturday! And that was on two nights straight of four hours of sleep. By 8pm Saturday night, I was ready to bite someone's head off. I opened drive thru and closed kitchen, which was actually a lot of fun for me. I have never worked screens before, so it was nice to do something different, and a great change of pace on such a long day.

Then Sunday I slept into 2 30 pm, which was amazing! Luis and I wore matching outfits

Yes, I know we're lame

And we went out for breakfast/dinner at Golden Corral! Then we went to Mass, which was really nice. And since we got out of Mass last night at 9 30, it's been non-stop homework, studying, and essay-writing.

Finals week is officially here, so life is about to get busyyyyyy!

Month-iversary

Today is the 14th of April 2013.

We started dating the 14th of October of 2009.

That's three and a half years.

Three and a half years with this crazy kid that I've fallen head over heels in love with. Three and a half years of laughter, smiles, joy, butterflies, cards, love notes, "I love you more" fights, dates, trips, and memories. Three and a half years of tears, fights, screaming, hanging up the phone, and calling each other jerks.

Three years ago today, he walked for six hours, just to leave a rose and a note on my doorstep. He walked, biked, and took buses to get to my apartment, because I was busy all day and he couldn't see me on our 6 month-iversary.

And still, even now, every month on the fourteenth, we do something special together. He buys me flowers, we give each other cards, we watch a movie, or go out to eat. It's our guaranteed date night for the month. It's great. We have this whole day to make each other fall in love again, and it's absolutely amazing. Most people tell us we're crazy and cheesy for celebrating all these months together. Most people stop celebrating months after they hit 6 months or a year, but here we are, at 42 months together, and today was our 42nd special month-iversary date. I love it.

Today I made him breakfast and he took me to Brunswick. The Brunswick part is actually really cute. We show up at Brunswick and he's almost crying because apparently everything is going wrong. It was raining really hard today and it was pretty chilly because of the rain. What sucks the most is that the rain couldn't wait until tomorrow. His original plan was to take me to the zoo. His back up plan was to go to the park. Rain cancelled both. Now this particular Brunswick we went to used to be a US Play. When we pull into the parking lot, all he had to say was "This was supposed to be US Play!"

My poor baby, he had all these great ideas and none of them went according to plan. Regardless, we had an amazing day. We went inside and bowled. After a competitive first game, we had two back to back games where we were intentionally trying to make the other person win. The funny thing was that after so many gutter balls on both our parts, we had several strikes and spares, one right after the other, once we started goading each other to see who would win. Just to show that our games could have been competitive and high scoring had we not been messing around.

After our intense bowling session was over, he took me to Brusters and we camped out in his car, sharing a hot fudge brownie sundae. After enjoying the yummy chocolately goodness, we went to Mass, which ironically enough, was about love. (For the readings today, see here) We got to hear all about the difference between the three main types of love: eros, filial, and agape. It was the perfect homily for a month-iversary if you ask me.

We ended the day with my favorite restaurant ever, Olive Garden! He even bought me dessert and didn't complain when I left a 20% tip. It doesn't matter in the least that things didn't go as according to plan. We can go to the zoo another day (hint, hint). We still have many more months to come, with many more month-iversaries to celebrate. So now I'm here typing, completely stuffed with yummy Olive Garden food, happy and in love.

Three and a half years.

Luis Antonio Delgado Zepeda. You are my love, my cupcake, my gummy bear, my sweetheart, my prince charming, my guardian, my best friend, my everything. I don't know what I'd do without you. I love you.

Happy 3 years and 6 months sweetie (:

My God's Not Dead, He's Surely Alive

While I was driving home tonight, this song came on the Fish.

Like any song that is meant to speak to us, one line stood out to me more than any other. I know this song. I know most of the lyrics, and I sing along every time. I actually quite like the song. This line has never meant anything, nor am I sure that I knew this line before tonight, but when I heard it, it struck a cord.


"Let hope arise and make the darkness hide. My faith is dead, I need a resurrection somehow. Now I'm lost in Your freedom and this world I'll overcome"

"My faith is dead, I need a resurrection somehow"

"My faith is dead."

Cord struck. Ouch.


How easy it is to get wrapped up in the everyday trappings of this life. Wake up, get ready, go to school, go to work, do some homework, go to sleep, then wake up to do it all over again. Then comes that time when you wake up late one morning and forget to say morning prayer because you're in a panicked rush, and before you know it, morning prayer is no longer a part of your morning ritual. Then you have a super long day and you can't wait to lie down in bed and knock out. You're just SO tired that you think your bedtime prayer can wait until morning, after all, God will understand that you're too tired. Even the Apostles fell asleep on Christ, right? Then before you know it, you stop praying before going to sleep.

These little things keep on building up and building up until you end up forgetting how to pray completely. And it's hard to sit in church and focus without prayer. All of a sudden, Mass loses all the meaning it had to you before and you start drifting off, thinking about other things, completely irrelevant things, maybe even sinful things, when you should be focusing 100% on the Eucharist before you. Mass without its meaning becomes unimportant and suddenly you start finding reasons why not to go to church, and when you do... You become a prime example for going through the motions.

And without prayer and Mass, sin becomes so easy, and sometimes it even seems harmless. Once you lose prayer and church and that fire that kept you going for so long, sin is there waiting to take over your life and show you the path straight to Hell. Where there was once a burning passion for my God, there is now a shadow created by the darkness of my sin.


How on earth did I fall this far?


When you fall, you don't notice until you're too deep in to just brush off your scraped knees. You're so deep in that you end up having to claw and fight your way out of the quicksand that the Devil has so cleverly got you trapped in. And the worst part is, when I realized that I fell, I was too exhausted from the fall to try to get back up. Sure I've prayed every blue moon to God to bring me back to Him and to pick me up and reignite my fire, but I didn't do anything about it. I've been sitting here, wallowing in my self-pity that I'm in the dark, asking God to pull me out of it, but I haven't done a single darned thing about it. Asking God to help me is all great and dandy, and it's exactly what we're supposed to do, but how can we expect for Him to guide us towards the light, when our backs are to Him? How did I ever expect Him to fix anything, when I was barely trying to get out and actively working on digging myself a deeper hole?

But the good news is that I have absolutely zero doubt that once I turn around and start actively trying to get out of this pit I'm in, God will be right there to pull me out, brush me off, and bring me back to His Path. And there's no better time for me to start the fight than now. It's during these forty days of Lent that we are all supposed to be growing closer to Christ as we get closer to His Resurrection.


Today's Mass Psalm reading even kind of ties in with it.
Psalm 34:5-7 I sought the Lord, who answered me, delivered me from all my fears. Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush for shame. In my misfortune I called, the Lord heard and saved me from all distress.
Psalm 34:19 The Lord is close to the broken-hearted, and saves those whose spirit is crushed

In my misfortune I am calling, and I have faith and trust in the Lord, that He will hear me and save me from this distress. All the parts of my life that I now find lacking, I know will all fall back together again, in an enriching and fulfilling way as I turn towards God. No more will I have my back turned against Him, because I want, I desperately want and need that radiant joy that comes from knowing Him and walking in His paths. It's deliverance time. I'm ready to repent, and turn myself over to God once again, to be saved and loved. No more shall I be broken-hearted and crushed, because I'm turning myself over for a true spiritual makeover.

And I'm changing the empty prayer I've been saying for so long now... I am no longer praying to have the faith life I once had again; I'm praying to have an even better and stronger faith life.


So come shake the ground with the sound of revival, because I'm ready to be on fire for God again and overcome this world!

Meditating on Scripture?

They say that reading Scripture without meditating on it is like swallowing food without chewing first. However, I am quite terrible at this meditating bit that people so often talk about, so I'm trying something new. I am going to write about the message that the Bible verses are speaking to me, as well as whatever background whatever I use to 'meditate'. Hey, everyone's faith journey is different right?

So here it goes...

Today (or yesterday, depending on how you count your days.. I count a day over when I go to sleep, so February 19 1AM is still the 18th to me) I decided to read the daily Mass readings that pulled from this lovely website. The readings were:

Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Psalm 19:8-10, 15
Matthew 25:31-46

And of course I ended up reading Leviticus 19:3-10 and Psalm 19:11-14 too. So some of the verses I'm reflecting on are included in there too. I'm just going to put the verses that stood out to me and what I thought about them.


The first verse was right at the beginning: Leviticus 19:3 "Revere your mother and father, and keep My Sabbaths. I, the Lord, am your God"

This one stood out to me because throughout this chapter, all of the Ten Commandments are mentioned at some point or the other, but these two came first. Also, I think that whenever certain points of the Bible that I am familiar with come up again in other parts, it just pops out to me, kind of like a friendly face in a crowd of strangers. Also, I had a little bit of Catholic guilt in there, because I've been bad about making it to Mass every Sunday over the past couple of months. I think I've probably missed as many as I've gone to and I feel pretty bad about it ): I think I'm back in the groove though; I'm working on it at least/

Verse number two was: Leviticus 19:16 "You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake. I am the Lord"

The first part didn't really strike out to me, it was the second. "Nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake." I interpreted this in both the literal and the figurative state. Earlier today I was doing some stuff and looking a pro-life things, even had a conversation about it with a pro-choice person. Reading this verse really just brought all that back. I can't stand idly when my neighbor's life is at stake. And who is my neighbor? My roommate is. So is the kid down the hall or down the street. So is someone in a neighboring county, city, or state. So are people in Mexico and Canada and Brasil and even Europe and Asia and Africa. Everyone is my neighbor as far as Christ is concerned, because everyone is my brother or sister in Him, even the figurative "Samaritans" that aren't considered to be like me or even have the same beliefs. But that's a really cutesie thing to say, until you realize that the unborn child is also your neighbor. "Nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake." I can't stand by idly while children are being mass murdered every day, by their own parents.

The second way was a lot less drastic. But still, how much does it cost you to help someone else? Make their life a little better? My neighbor is the homeless man who sits at the intersection holding up a sign, and I can't stand by idly while his life is at stake, even if all I can do for him is give him a Chick-fil-A coupon or a dollar. My neighbor is the single mom with 5 kids whom she's struggling to feed. How can I stand by idly while there's legislation popping up to reduce financial aid for these families and take away her children's only means to healthcare, when I'm 18 and able to vote for someone who will help her? That weird kid in class is also my neighbor, and how can I stand by idly when his life is at stake with people making fun of him?

That's just a glimpse into all the thoughts bouncing around in my head about this verse.


Which ties right in with the next verse: Leviticus 19:18 Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's the pinnacle of the Christian faith. It ties right in with everything I said above, but it also surprised me. When I think about God in the Old Testament, I think of a strict Dad with lots of rules and full of fire and brimstone. He's the strict Daddy teaching His kids how to live their lives right, and once we enter the New Testament, He's still the same strict Daddy with the same rules, but now He also shows His loving and compassionate side. But here it is, the number one theme of the New Testament sitting in the third Book of the Old Testament. I didn't even know that was part of OT Doctrine, and I consider myself well-versed in Scripture. I guess it's true when they say you learn something new everyday.

Take no revenge and cherish no grudge. Again with the kindness and compassion. What happened to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Well, that make the whole world blind and in need of dentures. I think it just goes to show that there is no two Gods, or two different view of God from OT to NT. It's the same God with the same teachings all throughout, it's just us that don't pay attention to all the details, only the ones we want to. God had been teaching these things long before He sent Jesus down to drill it into our heads.

I am the Lord. This phrase is repeated tons of times throughout this chapter and I'm not sure why. Just some food for thought for later...


Those are my thoughts on the first reading for today (the 18th). Maybe I'll do the other two readings tomorrow, or I'll just skip over to tomorrow's readings, but now... It's 2am and I have an 8am class tomorrow.




Good night and God bless