Parking Lots

I am typing this from the library at Tech.  I was going to come a bit early and work on some stuff, so I figured my best bet was to get here around 9:30.  The next batch of classes would be starting, so no one should be driving around the parking lot looking for a space.  Apparently though, everyone gets here for 9:00 classes, because there was not a single parking space.  I ended up driving and looping, turning and trying to get around people for 15 minutes.  Finally a car backed out and I pulled in faster then lightning.

I am very glad that I do not have a 9:00 class that I was trying to get here for.  I usually come at 11, and that is hard enough to find a place to park.

Not only are the parking lots here crowded, people seriously do not know how to park.  This is college people!  Pull all the way into your parking spot, but not too far, because someone might be  trying to park across from you.  If you pull too far in, then they cannot pull in far enough, and then no one can get through the aisles of the parking lot.

So that is my ranting and raving post for the day.  The end.

Journeys

I love journeys.  I enjoy getting in my car, and driving.  Somewhere.  Anywhere.  I especially adore long drives.  Today I took a journey all the way to Bennettsville.  I have never been there, so it was quite the adventure.  My favorite part of the whole trip though, was the drive.  Those back roads through the fields and countryside.. mmm.  Words cannot describe.  

It seems to have tapped into my artistic side.  On the journey there I loved looking at all the fields, the older buildings, the cute one story houses, some horses, etc.  As I started heading home though I was hungry to see all that, as well as the old rusty buildings and rundown shacks.  I loved it!  I know this might sound weird, but I was tempted to get out, and photograph it.  Every single rusty, rundown store.  However, due to the fact that I was alone, I did not.

There is something significant about seeing beauty and art in an old building or a pile of junk.  To me, it seems like the feeling God has when he looks at us.  Sinners.  Dirty, horrid sinners.  Every single one of us.  But God does not take notice of that.  He looks beyond all we have done, all the mistakes and regrets we have acquired over the years.  He looks deeper then the scars and shame, underneath the rusty layer of insecurities, and He sees beauty.

So that is my observation of the day.  As a result of today, I am now researching and looking into purchasing a nice camera.  If/When I get one, it is back to Bennettsville for me.  The end.

Smelly Shoes

This post is going to make up for the past few days.  I seemed to have come to a stand still as far as observations, because I was sick.  Nothing interesting to observe in sickness.  My brain could not function enough to come up with anything witty.  So I did not blog.

However, today, I observed smelly shoes.  Like my knock-off Bierkenstocks [which I will never be able to spell] that I got around 4 years ago.  I used to wear them all the time.  ALL the time.  The soles are wearing off on the bottoms, but other then that they are still in pretty decent condition as far as appearance.  I love them.  But they smell.  They are fine when they are on my feet, but as soon as I take them off, they smell.  They are just so old.

So here is my parallel.

Ready?

Some Christians are like a smelly shoe.

Think of it this way.  In our lives, we look great on the outside.  We really do.  The human race is beautiful.  Not only in appearance, but in actions.  When you walk into a church, we help people.  We smile at people.  WE have it all together.  The perfect example of a perfect Christian.  We might go to church.. a few times a week.  We see a lot of the same people, week after week after week.  But who are we when we are not at church?  All of that is just outward show.  When we take our spiritual shoes off, do they stink?  When we go to work, go to school, go to the grocery store, go to our homes.. who are we?  Are we someone different everywhere we go?

When we hang out with our family, when we hang out with our church friends, when we hang out with buddies from school, are we different then too?

All I gotta say is I do not want to be a stinky shoe.  Lately I have been evaluating and reevaluating every aspect of my life, making sure they all match up to who I am, and making sure they ultimately match up to who GOD is.  You might be thinking, "But Carissa, some shoes just can't help it.  They always end up stinky."  So here's my thought.  Either wear some socks, or throw them out.  The end.

Chick-fil-a

Today, I went to Chick-fil-a with some friends, and we got free chicken sandwiches because we wore a team logo.

Chick-fil-a can compose an amazing chicken sandwich.  I was watching a guy prepare one in the window.  Spread butter across the buns, slapped some pickles on, pulled some fried chicken out of the frying basket, tucked it into the bun, and slid it down the line to be packaged.  Yummy.

Another thing about Chick-fil-a that I absolutely LOVE.. is that they are closed on Sundays.  Plus, they play Christian music.  It is a great family restaurant, with decent prices and good food.  The end.

Respect

We live in a society where women have as much power and standing as men do.  We are equal genders.  The corporate ladder is overlapped between the male and female leadership that we find in businesses around the world.

I feel like that for these reasons, gentlemen are diminishing.  Chivalry seems dead [NOTE: seems].  But I think in this day and age, being a "gentleman" is different then it was in the days of escorting ladies by the elbow and opening doors [besides that most doors are automatic now].  Ladies who are bosses, CEOs, executive leaders, musicians, artists, authors, composers, etc., are independent.  We do not feel the need to let a guy pick up a pen when we drop it.  However, just as chivalry seems non-essential, apparently so does respect.

I have been observing that more and more these days.  I have learned a ton from my own past mistakes and regrets, and those of other women and girls around me.  Not all men are animals, in fact, most of them are quite civilized [haha].  But I have learned to be slow to trust.  I have learned that I am a woman of God who deserves respect, and am not going to settle for anything less then what I deserve in the way a girl should be treated.  If you are a girl out there, no matter how old or young, you should realize that too.  No one can define who you are but God, and no one can make you do anything you don't want to do.  You are an independent woman.  Do not let anyone, whether male or female, tell you that you are not worth anything, that you will never be good at such-a-such, or that you are a mistake.

I must say, this is the most random post yet.  I was about to write about healthy eating, and mid-way through my typing I switched over to writing about men respecting women [not quite sure how that came from healthy eating].  I hope nothing in this offends anyone.  I tried not to use dangerous words such as "all, every, never, always, etc."  And of course this whole post could be switched around the other way too.  Every single human being on this planet deserves respect.  From everyone.  An amazing person, and someone I look up to very much once warned me to "never sell yourself short."  Never settle for less then what you deserve.  :]  The end.

Internet Access Failure

Yes.  I am typing this on a measly 2 bars of internet connection.  It's not even our connection.  I'm mooching off of someone else.  Is that illegal?  Nah.

This post goes hand in hand with yesterday's post on technology.  Kinda?  Basically technology is not very dependable.  Sometimes it can go out at the worst possible times.  Like now.  I was so upset when I got home that I couldn't post my observation.  But I guess difficulties like this gives me something to observe?

The internet.  The internet can be a bad place.. if used for the wrong reasons.  However, it can be so amazingly helpful.  It keeps us all connected and plugged in.  We lose connection, and it is like a part of us is slowly being cut off.  Like a numb foot.

Well I'm gonna go ahead and post this.. so that Jaye.. whoever that is.. doesn't get mad that I'm on his connection.  Even though he will probably never know.. muahahaa.  I wonder why our whole house has no internet?  Go figure.  The end.  :]

Technology

The other night at work I watched a family eat dinner.  There were 3 kids, a boy who was around 9, a girl who was around 11, and another girl who was around 14.  Then there were the parents, an aunt or something, and grandparents.  A nice family dinner, at an amazing restaurant called Athens [sorry had to get my advertising in there].

So through the course of their meal, I was.. observing them.  The adults talked.  The kids talked.  But here's the kicker.  The adults talked to each other.  The kids were texting.  The 14 year old was typing away on her slide up phone.  The 11 year old was typing away on her zebra print phone.  The 9 year old was playing Nintendo DS.  It was driving me crazy to watch them.  Those kids are the reason I don't have texting!  But I'm not bitter.  Just saying.  ;]]  Love you Mommy...

It was just so sad to watch a family "be together" but not BE TOGETHER.  If you know what I mean.  So that's my observation.  I could not stop thinking about how frustrated those parents must have been.  Or how completely oblivious they are.  Of course I don't have much room to talk since I sit at the computer all day.  But I'm getting better.  :]

The end.

Busyness

Perfect example of today's random observation.. it is 11:57 and I'm just now typing this.  Now 11:58.  Cramming to get this up before 12 so it counts as today's observation.

I know busyness.  I have always been a busy body.  This summer, I was so busy I was hardly home.  I am one of those girls that never says no [in the right context however, I do.. but you get the point].

Today was class, running *coughwalkingcough* on the railtrail, home to do laundry, shower.. then Starbucks for a meeting.  Now I'm here.. typing this, and about to start typing some Biology notes.

Then I sit back at the end of the day, and now is the time I realize that I did not do my quiet time this morning.  I wonder how that affected me.  Did I miss an opportunity to speak with someone that could have made a difference in their life?  Did I miss a great blessing that God had in store for me, but He watched me say "I'm too busy to read Your Word today" and so decide that He was too busy to fulfill a blessing?  I know that is not the case, because God is never too busy for us, but if you think of it that way it really makes you wonder.

We are never too busy.  We need to pound that into our little human brains.. because think about it.  We can sit around on Facebook, hang out with our friends, stay up late and study, sleep, etc.. but we have a problem with immersing ourselves in God's Word every day.  Something is backwards.  The end.

Hangnails

I observed the inconvenience of hangnails today.  I had the corner of my nail hook onto my sweater.  That was painful, and ended up making the hangnail worse.  Later on this evening, I also had one pull through my hair.  Why oh why must pieces of fingernails just hang around as if they had a right to?  Because they do not.

On a side note, my shirt got hooked onto my earring tonight.   Go figure.

The end.

Secrets

Sometimes secrets can be harmful, but sometimes secrets can be fun.  Birthday surprises, inside jokes, crushes.. all of that is fun and harmless.

Why did I just post a random post about secrets?  I have two answers for that: 1) it's a random blog, so of course it's going to be random.. and 2) I can't tell you why.  It's a secret.  :]

The end.