estink eye

i am in the u.s. commonwealth of puerto rico. and i didnt even need a passport to get here!

the family bizness, power and telephone supply company aka power&tel and p&t, has sent me here to spread some good will among our customer base in latin america. if you know me at all, you know i love latin america.

why? you may ask. is it because of the nearly constant smell of trash/diesel? possibly the struggling infrastructures? the keep-staring-even-though-i-caught-you-staring-and-we-are-making-eye-contact-now policy? maybe even because of the ladies' affinity of lycra and over zealous cleavage? nahhhh. i love it because of the culture, for its commitment to family, food, and naps, three things i myself am also a big proponent of.

1.family. if i could live on a pitts-pentecost family compound, i for sure would. dinners together lots of nights, only having to walk a few hundred feet to all of my babysitting jobs, it would be an oasis! i dont know how my future husband, cam newton (please, jesus!), will feel about this potential living arrangement, but he'll be gone during football season anyway so nbd.

2. food. are there words to describe my deep and passionate relationship with food? soul-warming is the only phrase that comes to mind, but similarly when describing most things that are truly good and wonderful (relationship with jesus, love, a national championship), words fail.

3. naps. yeeeeessss.

anyway, back to my trip, real life. time to stop fantasizing about my three aforementioned loves (four if you count cam). so, i'm going on sales calls with my new bffl ernesto, meeting clients, smiling a lot and trying to hang on and comprehend español puertoriquennse while they are using legit spanglish. when i asked about the blatant mixture of languages, ernesto and some of the customers we were meeting chuckled and said "of course, we can say "estoy 'daddy day care' or 'vamos a parquear.'" i laughed along and nodded thinking of course i would say something like 'i am daddy daycare-ing in my real english-speaking life. the real word meaning to park is estacionar, but who doesnt like making up verbs. we in america are just as guilty. just go and ask your grandmother if she has defriended one of her sunday school classmates or bridge pals lately.

what i'm getting at is that languages are living, growing organisms, much like the bacteria growing in my eye as i type. i woke up with what ernesto has dubbed my "estink eye"

so here i am, in my hotel watching jersey shore reruns and nursing my estink eye back to full whiteness. thanks be to ibuprofen for reducing the inflamtion so goopy tears arent running down my the right side of my face while representing my beloved uncle jim.

hasta luego.

twas the night

twas the night before graduation and all through the mag house

not a creature was stirring, not even the dead mouse*.

all my roomies have gone back home to their fams

martha and ned checked into the heart of auburn, cuddling in their 'jams

i'm still waiting to hear a grade from my multinational class

if i dont get a C i might kick some black ass.

i find myself in a pensive, nostalgic mood

leaving auburn tomorrow has given me quite the tude.

i never thought i would come to love this tiny town

but now i cannot think of it and frown.

it has given me collectively a host of great things

the least of which, a diploma and a song to sing.

the highest of these is a reason to celebrate,

to give praise to the King of kings, a song that will resonate.

blessings abounded on these plains this year

a heisman, a championship ring, and real reasons to cheer.

cam's smile melts my heart, i think it always will

when i spotted him in the haley center, i got quite the chill.

but my time, my friends, is drawing to an close

while i sit and ponder as the north wind blows.

what are the truths my Father has taught me here?

He only has his best for me and i should never fear.

His will, through me is always done

i am not to worry, squirm or run.

to quote the hymnal i must "trust and obey"

for to live, to love, and to grow, there is no other way.

*in the mag house kitchen behind a cooler that had been there AT MOST for two weeks, my mom and i found a dead rat. at first i thought it was a rat, then i was convinced it was a potato. then, flipping it over to reveal four feet and a white belly we called in ned. we poked and prodded it with a spoon (which has been disposed of). collectively, we came to the conclusion that it was fake. may dad had a ziplock in hand to save it and take to scare the ladies he works with until he squished it down a little with the spoon and RAT JUICE came out. real times on magnolia avenue.

nothing

my best friend, elise, and i have talked a lot about writing blogs for the last couple of years. since they came into vogue, we have been hooked and mutually wasted a lot of hours scanning various blogs (her favs are design and clothes, i love food and cooking). she recently suggested that we start where larry david and jerry seinfeld started. so here we go, blogs about (drumroll) nothing. my hope is that i'll get back into the swing of writing and a topic or an inspiration will come from my ravishingly interesting life.

as some background, i'm a senior at auburn university, but because of a semester i took off to work in colorado and some pretty lax semesters, i'm not graduating until december. i really don't know what i am going to do after i graduate (tentative plans are to go on an adventure, to serve and to improve my spanish abroad for a couple of months then apply to the Memphis Teachers Residency), but since the majority of my friends are graduating in may, future job talk is at peak high. it gives me a false sense of urgency that i don't absolutely have to experience for at least another couple of months. so, daily, i pray for a calm heart, to live fully in my life here in auburn, and to not be distracted by things i can't control.

as a post script, today i tried kumquats. it is like nature's gusher.

the beginning

It absolutely is the gospel for talented, capable, and committed persons to run to places of NEED (despite the sacrifice) in order to attack the enemy (injustice) in response and recognition that CHRIST has run to us in our NEED (despite the sacrifice) as an attack on our enemy (Satan).

memphis teacher residency?

makarios?

what does my future hold? what am i called to?