Make mixtapes online!

Woo! There's a new (new to me?) website out there called Muxtape that lets you upload songs and create your very own online mixtape. And the best part is... I can share my creation with all of you!

It doesn't require any downloading or logging in on your part, just some speakers or headphones. (Use the arrow keys to skip between tracks) I've also been having a lot of fun listening to the random mixes that are linked on the home page. I could probably spend all day discovering new music, so if I fall off the face of the interweb again, you know where to find me :D

Take a closer look

As much as I am now enjoying living in The South now, it's definitely got an ugly side that gets too little attention.

Yesterday afternoon I left on my lunch break and headed up to the Food Lion grocery store on the next corner. When I pulled in the parking lot there were seven or eight cop cars and the store was closed. At the time I was curious, but unconcerned. Then today I learned about this:

Teen killed by taser

When I went to my usual friday afternoon lunch spot, Johnny Burrito, I got the rest of the story.

Side Note: I've been eating at JB's every friday for a while now so I've become acquainted with the staff there and we always make casual conversation/small talk while I eat. I say this because, while I don't really know these people, I feel like I've come to know them well enough to believe them when the filled me in on this story.

The short version is that this kid would never have gone after a cop. He had taken the sandwiches home with out paying because he was forgetful, not because he maliciously wanted to steal $3 worth of product from his employer. And why was the cop so trigger happy with his taser?

When I got back from lunch, my coworkers could see that something was bothering me and I told them what I had heard. I'm ashamed to say that reactions varied from "oh goodness, that's horrible" to "was he white or black? he probably had a gun." It makes me sick to my stomach to know that people I have previously gotten on well with could react like that. I didn't even have it in me at that point to be mad at them. I just turned and walked away.

Like I said, I'm enjoying my new Southern home, but I know I won't be able to just sit by and watch things like this happen. Sorry to post such a downer. It just doesn't seem right to sit here quietly.

Crack up

So whenever I'm feeling bored and in need of a good laugh, I head here:

XKCD

I linked one of my favorite comics, but really I just can just sit here and click the random button and crack myself up. Admittedly, they aren't all funny. But then when you least expect it, you get something like this and I'm seriously rolling on the floor laughing.

Yes.

I know.

Giant nerd.

But you still like me anyway :D

Play catch up

I have all sorts of pictures that never got posted after I first moved to NC. They aren't really organized too well, but I'll try to give a little back story with each of them...


Welcome to the South, where we will put lifts on any car you can think of. No lie, there was a little fold out ladder on the passenger side so that a person could get up to the seat. I cracked up.


Flying back into Chicago. One of my favorite things when I lived in Chicago was the flight in. Air traffic will inevitably back up at O'Hare every time and you'll be forced to circle the city at least once. It's really no hardship when I have the window seat.


Trader Joe's love at it's finest. On my last day at the Northbrook store I went out to lunch with Mike and came back to this.



Seriously, they did a great job. I laughed so hard when we pulled into the parking lot. I even left it wrapped like that all afternoon to entertain customers. I'd be ringing on a register by the front window, from which I could point it out to them, and they'd not know what to say.



Chicago in the rain the morning I left.


Christmas decorations traveling across Indiana



Kentucky? Somewhere around Lexington, KY the drive started getting scenic and fun to look at. (Indiana was horrible and rainy)



On long drives I get bored. This amuses me. It's surprisingly hard to do. Buck does not like matching 76 mph to 3000 rpm so I have to gun the engine a little and hope I can snap the picture at the right moment as the needle is falling back to about 2800 rpm. It took a few tries, but it keeps me entertained for at least 20 miles and that's 20 miles closer to where I'm going.




Tennessee. The most beautiful and scenic parts of my drive were unfortunately after about 7 hours on the road. I'm looking forward to the chance to go back on a day trip. There's supposed to be some great hiking trails and I can't wait to drive on the

Blue Ridge Parkway.

New Store!

When my mom visited in December she wanted to check out the Botanic Gardens at UNCC. They aren't huge, but they're definitely a nice diversion in the middle of the campus.




Now I know it's been a while since I had to think about scientific classifications, but this one seemed a little bit off to me.

I'll try and update more in the next few days. Blogging is tiring :D

Watch the Sunrise

I have this skylight window... (the high one on the right)



Which would be great if it didn't face east. So every morning I am awake by 8 am at the latest. Usually this isn't a big deal because either I'm up and ready to start the day or I go into the living room and fall back to sleep on my sofa.

Ironically, to fall asleep I often pull up pre-recorded episodes of Sunrise Earth. Have you seen this show? I love it. It's just a straight hour of nature goodness. Nothing but bird sounds and sometimes rushing water (depending on the location). Plus it's on Discovery HD giving it high quality picture as well.

Yes, I know I'm a pretty big dork.

Ponder

Sometimes I feel like I'm living two lives.

I don't mean this in a sordid, deceitful way. I guess what I mean is that I haven't fully committed to my new life yet. Part of me feels like I'm still living the same life in Illinois and this whole North Carolina thing is just one long vacation. Is that weird? I don't remember feeling like this when I first moved to Illinois, but maybe I've just blocked it out.

And don't get me wrong, I'm loving North Carolina. Today, February 5th, it was 74 and sunny and I went to the driving range. Seriously. Amazing.

When I was graduating from high school the questions were, where am I going to go and what will I be doing. When it was time to leave Iowa I knew I was headed to Illinois but the unknown was what I would be doing there.

Now I've moved to NC (the where) and I work for Trader Joe's (the what), but I feel like there's still a big unknown staring back at me. (does that make any sense?) Like, now what? Is that an ungrateful question?

I prayed to find a job I could enjoy, and He answered. I prayed for something to catalyze me, to convince me it was time to leave my parents house again, and He answered. Now all I can think sometimes is, this is it?

And then I wonder why I'm so impatient. What am I in a hurry to get to? The rest of my life? This is the rest of my life. Every day is the rest of my life. Why can't I enjoy that? What is holding me back from diving into this new life? Why am I so restless?

So I sit here and play some of my favorite "thinking music" and ponder....

"As I sit here and think
About all that You've done
About how You gave me Your one and only Son
And I'm trying to fathom
All that You are, but so far, Lord
You're so beyond me
I fall down in reverence
And I fall down in fear
And I'm asking You, Lord, won't You please draw near
Won't You open my eyes
So that I can see
The way that You are working in me

All I need is Your love
To come and fill this heart of mine
My heart is a desert that has gone dry
And I need Your love to carry me by

And I lay down my life
And I put it before You
All that I am is in Your hands
And I'm not going to question, why You're so faithful
Why that You give me the blessings that You do have
Let the glory be known, let the glory be shown
I just lift You up unto the throne

You are my God, You are my King
To You I give, I give You everything
All that I need is Your love, my God"

- Shawn McDonald - All I need -
(Big Hooray for Amy Van Gorp who gave me this cd!)

Play in the woods!

It was 65 degrees out today. That's still just blowing my mind. Unfortunately the rest of the week will be in the mid 40's so I knew I wanted to get outside to do something. Ideally I would have gone to play disc golf, but those plans fell through and it ended up being too late in the afternoon to be worth driving out to the park. Instead, my friend Chris and I just went to a nearby field and threw a disc around there. Conveniently there was a bit of woods near the field that we were able to explore. We found a nearly dried up stream and were able to follow it for what was probably a good half mile or so. After that it ran into a subdivision and we didn't want to be trekking through the backyard of strangers.

Sometimes it's nice to spend an afternoon in a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.

Recap

Wow, so I clearly am bad at this blogging thing. I haven't posted since I moved to North Carolina. Life has definitely been a bit of a blur since then... but here are the important highlights... in no particular order:

1) All my stuff arrived safe and sound. I'm definitely glad I went with the huge comfortable couch. I practically live on it.
2) I put up a bunch of pictures and some day I'll paint the walls... right now they're a neutral beige color. Which is neither horrible nor enjoyable. I did promise Kinsey I'd wait for her help/input. So no painting for me until Spring time.
c) I put up some chalkboard paint!!! Not a whole lot, but a big square in the kitchen so I can leave myself reminders and a big square above my shower for weekly verse posting.
d) I spent Thanksgiving alone in my condo watching movies and overeating chicken I grilled on the Foreman and mashed potatoes. It was awesome. It was my first day off of work in 11 days so I was really just enjoying the relaxation.
e) Just after Christmas I was back in Iowa for Jenna and Andrew's wedding (YAY!) and Chicago for some more relaxation. It was a bit weird to be back but I'm glad I got to see so many people. I ate way too much food that week though. Ugh. I don't think I got hungry again til the week after I came back.
6) I have bought dozens of DVD's since moving. Watching movies is pretty much all I feel like doing on my days off so I had to grow the collection.
7) Not to say that I've turned into a hermit who only leaves the house for work or anything like that. I've been pleasantly surprised by how well I'm getting along with my new co-workers. A group of us usually go out at least once a week. Some weeks more, some less. Most recently we got together to watch Football last Sunday. I had a ton of fun despite both my teams losing :(
h) I discovered the joy of online bill pay. It's seriously rocking my world. The only problem I've run into so far is a bit of confusion with a Mortgage payment. I somehow payed ahead a month so, oops! At least now I don't have to send them any more money until the end of February.
9) Despite being assured I wouldn't get to see snow here in Charlotte, it has now snowed twice! Both times the local media made it sound as if the blizzard of the century was bearing down on us. I think we managed to have about 1.5" accumulation over the course of both storms. No lie, they closed schools and everything on a day where we had a brief 3 hour snow flurry.
10) My mom became my first official house guest. She flew down for a couple of days so I could show her around the city.

I'm sure plenty more interesting things have happened, but I can't really think of them now. I promise to get pictures up and start updating more regularly. It's not as though I don't spend half my free time on my computer anyway :D

Move In

So I'm here. I now officially live in Charlotte. Let the freaking out begin. I promise to post more in the next few days but for now I just wanted to let everyone know I'm moved. Well technically my stuff isn't here until tomorrow morning. So I'm not done moving.

At this particular moment I'm sitting on my sleeping bag in the middle of my bedroom eating a hot pocket. Yes. I know. I lead a glamorous life. Also I finished my first day of work. For now I'll say it wasn't as bad as it could have been. In the next few days I'm looking to just put my head down and do what I do best. I'm not sure how all these personalities will mesh, but so far so good. I decided that the best thing I can do is stay behind the scenes. I don't need a lot of attention. I'm good at what I do, so if I just do it and stay under the radar I should be just fine.

For example.... We aren't actually allowed to be doing work in our store until the last permit gets signed (hopefully tomorrow). All morning I was feeling especially useless because we were making signs and I have bad printing. So I organized some paper work and helped where I could, but basically lunch couldn't come soon enough. After lunch we were able to "sneak" into our store and do some work on the down low. After doing a sort of group tour to catch everyone up on the progress I wandered off to look at the sections I was taking charge of and was able to feel at least some what productive when i started to move shelves around.

So like I said, day one is done and it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Finally get those pictures up

YAY! blogger finally let me post pictures of my new place! So check those out would ya?