Price of Beauty

So I'm sitting here with hot rollers in my hair about to load on mascara for church as I ponder what I saw on "The Price of Beauty." Jessica Simpson's new show has Simpson and friends travel across the world to different areas to find true beauty. In America it's the size -2, super thin, makeup with the rockin' hair. The one and only episode I saw this morning showed her traveling to Uganda. The translater/guide there took her crew to a tribe where fat was beauty. When a bride has two months before her wedding, she is taken to a "fattening hut"--actual term--and she must constantly drink whole milk. In those two months, the bride gained 80 pounds. I'm just saying, if I gained 80 pounds (I did in a short amount of time once, but that was before being diagnosed with thyroid disease), I would undergo a major depression. Simpson even asked men of the tribe about beauty and they said they preferred very fat women, like their cows. Having a fat woman and having a fat cow shows wealth. In America it's if you have a Mercedes, huge house and the Chanel purse, you have wealth. What different lifestyles! I decided to rant about it an hour later as I procrastinate taking hot rollers out of my hair for church.

Oh and the bride on her wedding day must wear a black veil and not be seen by the groom until after the ceremony. CRAZY!

Awakening

Earlier this week, a friend of mine on the school paper invited me to go to a worship service with her on Friday night. I agreed to go, and I even felt compelled after she told me you are changed once you leave. I was curious as to how this would be, but I didn't want to judge the worship style. For instance, you say, "It was Pentecostal." What's the first thing people ask my fellow Baptist friends and me..."WAS THERE FALLING TO THE GROUND?"

I LOVE it. I mean it's sad that we have a way of categorizing religions (that's probably a reason I changed to Non-Denominational in April 2009), but the worship was totally different than what I imagined. Angela (my friend) and I went to dinner before going and we discussed what we think Christianity is: relationship, not religion. I told her I grew up Baptist but started attending a Non-Denominational church in college because I felt my fit. Everyone could worship how they wanted. The next part was the shocker. I asked her what kind of service it is, and she let out a laugh and said, "Assemblies of God."

What was my first response? "Oh my gosh, do yall speak in tongues and do that weird healing thing and knock people to the floor?"

After looking puzzled and laughing again, she said they speak in tongues but do not do the others listed because that would be the Pentecostals. See what I mean? Religion is categorized!

Anywho so we went to the service after leaving Logan's (FYI- best rolls EVER and good food...it was my first time going). Once we go to the church, we had well over an hour before the service. Angela's a happy greeter lady whose love language is acts of service (picked that one out in 5 seconds). She was the nicest greeter to anyone who came in. I met all of her buddies, but to be totally honest, I was worried about service. I was part of Chi Alpha last year, which is an Assemblies of God organization, but no one ever did that weird stuff. It was very laid back and very powerful worship. I loved it. No one spoke in tongues loudly- if so, it was to themselves and everyone was free in their worship. And this may be weird, but I get so much more out of a worship service at a Non-Denom or Assemblies of God church rather than at a Baptist. Strange, I know but why? Everyone I saw last night was so genuine. One girl danced her heart out. Another guy walked around praying rather loud, but he was sincere. A girl fell on hands and knees and people laid hands on her, but they were praying for her- I'd seen that done in Baptist churches, so I wasn't freaked out.

The main thing that freaked me out was the super long altar call. It had to be 45 minutes long, which is 15 more than my longest. In high school we had groups come in for Spiritual Emphasis Week (I went to a private Non-Denom high school), and my freshman year had a 30 minute long altar call. I left that week changed and a new person. My mom noticed an increase in my behavior and knew sending me there was the best thing.

The pastor went through 1 Peter 1, Psalms and Jonah. It was refreshing. He explained that if we are making excuses for not being intimate with God, we are sinking to the floor like Jonah. Even though we hit rock bottom, He is there. We sang Desert Song by Hillsong (just bought that good song this morning), and he told us that when we're in the dry phase of our walk, He is there. I won't lie, I felt like my toes had been stepped on and I had just tried to walk over hot coals when I left there. I had made excuses for so many things this past year and haven't been as strong as I was last year or even in high school. I'd pray to God as I fell asleep every night, but couldn't take 10 minutes to crack open my Bible.

It was like I was using God as Santa Claus or hoping that He would just guide me through the next day. I know that He has answered several prayers for so many reasons I cannot fathom. What really became evident for me was everytime before and during a date, I always pray that God guards my heart, allowing what needs to happen to happen. For that reason, the farthest I've ever gone with a guy is holding hands. I've never had the temptation to kiss someone 1. I don't know how and 2. I'm scared I'll mess it up (know what I mean?). Turns out Angela is a fellow virgin lipper. In her words, "My first kiss is going to be magical, and bang sha bang bang!"

It was like another prayer had been answered. I wasn't the only girl in her 20s that had never been kissed. A burden was lifted. I went through a phase where I was saving that kiss for my wedding day, but now I'm just holding off until there is a guy that deserves that part of me. As I was cleaning last night, I became aware that whatever you give your firsts to, your future spouse will never be apart of. I dated a guy in 2008 who held my hand for the first time and took me on multiple dates a week. I had never had that experience before. I broke things off because I went to a camp and felt God telling me there was someone else out there, someone who will blow me away. I was talking to a guy friend and when we went out a few weeks ago, he invited me to stay the night since it was getting late. I declined. I had prayed God would guard my heart that whole night, and before I could even process the though, my mouth blurted out, "No, I'll just stay with my friends. Besides, we still have some other stuff to do tonight."

By stuff I mean driving around.

People ask why I've never had the temptation to give in and kiss a guy. Well, when I'm one-on-one with a guy, I never want to do anything to tempt him. He leads the way physically. I'm not going to initiate anything. He wants to hold my hand, he'll do it. I mean a guy was popping mints and chewing gum the entire time, but he never leaned in or anything. I took it as a sign that the time wasn't right or he wasn't the one. A big thing for me is spiritual maturity, and honestly those guys fell short. I'm not calling myself high and holy, by no means am I, but I need a guy to read scriptures and pray with me. I couldn't trust them with that role.

But anyways, back to the service...it was amazing. A basic summary would be that we must be intimate with God in order to know God.

It was highly refreshing and just what I needed.

Saturday

This is the first Saturday in a LONG time where I have absolutely nothing to do. I was supposed to cover a tennis match, but after waiting 5 minutes and seeing nothing but old men coming up, I high tailed it to Starbucks. It's a beautiful day outside, though. I'm fixing to run to Wal Mart with my roomie and then probably come back to my apartment, eat some soup and finish Message in a Bottle. I'm on a new goal- read one novel/week. It's going to be hard, but I believe that reading more literature helps your speech and writing skills. Since I am a journalist, proper grammar is key.

I also need to clean my room...I scrubbed it down yesterday, but stuff is everywhere. Oy.

So yesterday on my way to class, I was thinking about the Christian vs. worldly path. When I was young, I was taught in school that the way of the world is a large and beautiful path, but the Christian path is short and winding. It made sense to me on my way to class. When I got out of my car, I chose to go the path full of pine straw, pine cones and more difficult to walk on. I could have gone the gravel path that led to a nice walkway to the sidewalk. Instead, I chose the sidewalk.

I guess that's how life can be at times. We want to go the tougher path because it's a shortcut when at times it can cut us, break us down. The longer path that's more safe doesn't appeal to us because it takes longer.

I do say that vice-versa to Christianity. The Christian path is in fact much longer and harder. I recall reading Pilgrim's Progress in third grade, terrified. All of these monsters came up out of nowhere and tempted Christian- the pilgrim, but he held true and at the end, he got eternal life.

Last night I dreamt that the world ended. It was a beautiful dream. It started off with hail coming down. My awesome editor last quarter, Angela, was reading from Revelation as we were wondering what was occurring. I dreamt I was raptured for a second then came back- totally weird, but it was cool. After the hail came down, fire started falling from the skies. It never burnt anything since it was raining outside, but it looked like fireflies and meteors. The dream itself was incredible. I know that no matter what, God has His hand on us, so why worry about the world ending? I have friends and a life I love. What more could I need?

Oh and the dream ended with my friends and me going to Six Flags in Dallas. And then we were raptured, living with Jesus forever.

Once Again Procrastinating

So I have the tabs open on my Safari for the info I need to do my journalism final, but I have no motivation. My 10.5 page Lady Gaga paper wore me out! NOT GOOD! And I'm doing laundry. I have this grand plan of completing the final, cleaning under my bed, refolding clothes then studying English all before The Bachelor, but I fear that won't happen. On the plus side, KissFM has commercial-free Monday, so it makes the day slightly better. And this is the best rainy day EVER. Here's why

1. I backed out of my phenomenal parking spot and got a good one by Keeney

2. My meds came in the mail...woo!

3. I turned in my Gaga paper and got my English notebook so I can officially study

4. I go home tomorrow!

5. The Student Center had BUBBLEGUM icees! SCORE!

6. I got my MySpace all updated...well most of it

7. I have the made the attempt to get my paper started

8. My bedsheets are ironed and clean

9. The bathroom is spotless

10. MY PARKING SPOT WAS THERE WHEN I GOT BACK!--I did a ton of praying for that! Hallelujah!

SO anywho I am going to finish my bottle of Dasani, drink my brewed coffee and fold my clean towels and washcloths...ahhhhh relaxation :)

All after my final is written, duh.

Current Song In My Head

I have 4 pages done, gimme a break.

So some recent events with a person have given me a blog to post about my current feelings.

Ever heard the song "Hung Up" by Madonna? Bam.

Here's the line that particularly has me right now: Waiting on your call baby night and day, I'm fed up, I'm tired of waiting on you.

I just had to throw that one out there. While I'm not going to directly say who or what the situation is about, I had to type it out...only my diary will get the good juicy stuff. Sorry, folks :)

Procrastination is....not good

I have a 10-12 page paper due on Tuesday and guess how much Sarah's gotten done? Half of a page. On the bright side, that leaves me with 9.5 pages left. On the bad side. I still have 9.5 pages of space to fill. Unfortunately there's a baseball game going on, so I am not moving my car. The library closes in 39 minutes and instead of going to the library to print my research earlier this week, I figured I'd do it this weekend. Lovely. So tomorrow after church, the library might be seeing me again.

I'm really pumped about my topic though. I'm doing a paper (I'm so used to saying story) on Madonna and Gaga. I would discuss both of the singers, compare/contrast them and discuss how Lady Gaga has evolved into a larger singer than Madonna. While Madonna is very popular and known for her great singing skills, Gaga has already sold over 10 million copies of The Fame, making it a Diamond album along with the most copies of a cd sold ever (so the radio said). I could honestly go on and on about Gaga, but the thing is that I don't know too much about Madonna and much of our info has to be scholarly. How can we have scholarly material on Madonna and Gaga?

Man I wish Ruston had a Barnes & Nobles. I LOVE that place. I want to seriously spend a few hours there someday and get a cup of coffee and read a book start to finish. After all, they have a calming atmosphere.

Back to the paper though...I keep thinking of all of these other things I need to do- like vacuum and clean the tub and sinks and do dishes and burn a candle when this is prohibiting me from getting sleep! Not to mention the fact that the announcer guy from the baseball game keeps yelling, "Hoooooooommmmmeeeeeee runnnnnnnn!" or "Striiiikkkkeeeeee threeeeee!"

Excuse me, sir, but this is FINALS week....as in we'd like to study. So please hold it down.

I think I'm going to wash my hair.

SO PUMPED!

So for the past year-and-a-half, one of my best friends Slater has been asking me to go to Dallas. Well folks, the time has come. I'm going to Dallas next month! My friend Ashley's older sister is dating a guy that lives downtown because of dental school. Ashley and I are going to Six Flags and let me just say, we are the epitome of fun. If you want crazy people, WE are what YOU want! Ever notice strange comments on the blog? Yeah, they're from her...but oh well. I still love her. Slight problem- we're trying to convince our friend Lauren to go..I mean tack her in and it's a BALLIN' weekend.

Okay I have no clue why I just used all caps for emphasis and why I seem so hyper. Pop Tarts might have something to do with the hyperness...and the cappuccino I just had. Bad Romance is on KissFM right now, and oh goodness. If you haven't seen the vid of Ashley, Lauren and me, you should. Go to youtube.com/gagainspired. We're finally getting views, but no new vids will be posted unless we keep getting views. Oh and let us know if you have a request. We plan on doing Alejandro sometime in the near future. It looks like Pokerface will be next. Our new quarter starts in 2 weeks, so we'll have more time to work. Be on the lookout!

2 Months?

Oh man, it's been two whole months since I posted something. Wow, I feel like a super slacker! Anywho, tons has been going on since then...Thanksgiving, start of winter quarter, Christmas and New Years. I intended on posting more on here between my last post and now, but time never allowed me to do so.

I've worked and babysat most of my time home, so it feels good to be back in school, in the swing of things and have more time to spend with my friends here. Usually it's vice-versa when others go home, but for me, I book up, I'm free only a few nights and my plans are always changing. Considering I'm a very scheduled person, that annoys me.

I had one of my best friends profess his love to me a few weeks ago, and frankly I was starting to feel the same for him. I'm not sure what this will turn into, but if I'm single at 25, we're getting married. We'll live in Dallas, he'll fly for South West and I'll be a journalist. When we have kids at 27, I'll be a stay at home mom.

My roommate and I have gotten close since the beginning of the year. Once we sorted through our differences, made some common ground and I adjusted to the fact that I'm not at home anymore, things fell into place perfectly. We still have our differences, but we've adjusted and it's a happier environment.

I cleaned my room last night, so hopefully I can keep it organized. I still have to go through my old clothes, pitch some and give them to Goodwill. Let me just say, I De-Jonassed it. There's one JoBro poster and that's it. My roomie thinks my room looks drastically larger. I have to agree. Tonight it's back to vacuuming and scrubbing it down/de-germing it (I have a sinus infection right now).

Toodles :)

A Night to Remember

Ever since I was in 5th grade I have been an avid football fan. I recall the first game I watched with my dad where he explained move by move, play by play to me. I was 11 years old and a 5th grader at the time. I was in my Saints skirt, shirt and had my lucky clip in. It was the playoffs and the Saints were playing the Vikings. The day before, we went to the airport and watched the Saints take off. I saw the reporters that covered the game and thought how neat that would be. I listened to the callers from the press-box who were elevated and could see everything and thought it would be really neat to be there. Since I decided to to journalism, I opted to either go with fashion or sports, but alas, I have found my calling.

Flash forward 9 years later. I'm 20 years old and at the Boise State-Tech game. I'm with my friends sitting in student section dancing around with our faces painted as I text my journalism professor, Judith. She asked what I was doing at the game and such and if I was painted up...then I got the text that would change my life. It read, "U can come 2 the press box and cover the last half if u want."

I nearly fainted when I read that. I told my friends I'd see them later because I WAS GOING TO THE PRESS BOX! No more drunkies, no obnoxious people, no more dumb blondes and I could see everything! I sprinted to the bathroom, washed my paint off (people inquired if I thought the game was bad enough to wash it off and my response was I'M GOING TO THE PRESS BOX, PEOPLE!"

I said it super excited with dance moves. Imagine that. Well I sprint over to the other side as fast as I could go (I didn't fall...BONUS!) and I see Judith at the elevator. She handed me my press pass and we got on the elevator...note: my stomach is in knots and I'm texting my parents ninety-to-nothing.

The elevator stops and the doors open. I had this incredible view of the field, my friends and the reporters around me. I took notes, absorbed every moment and cheered on, quietly. I felt like I was following my dream as I looked at stats, took notes on actions and felt so ESPN-esque up there.

And I got to thinking: had I gone to LSU, I would never have this experience, have my amazing friends or these opportunities at my feet. I love doing sports with a passion and hope to work my way in media relations or with a big company someday (unless I'm a stay-at-home mom, of course). I cannot thank God enough for opening all of these amazing doors. And the best part is that I was offered to cover the next game, which I readily accepted. I've realized this year that writing for sports is possibly the best thing that could ever happen to me and I cannot thank Judith enough for giving me this opportunity.

Besties

Lately I've been booked every night with my friends. I feel horrible because I have missed church Wednesday nights a few times lately, but at the same time I enjoy the company of my friends. I have been incredibly blessed with the best friends anyone could ask for. Almost everyday all of us get together and hang out. The best part is that we all hate drinking and surrounding ourselves with it as well as explicit language. We're all different, come from different homes and our parents each raised uniquely. We all have our quirks and what makes us tick. We all get annoyed by different things, but my life would be completely different without these people.