A Very Lucky Girl

Not mine, rude.  The Oklahoma City Thunder are losing the hirsute beast, James Harden, to the Houston Rockets. Several other players were negotiated in this trade, but they weren't key components of the USA Olympic team so I'm not as devastated about their loss.  The news broke on Saturday evening, as the Sooners were beaten down by a series of unfortunate plays, bad calls, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Needless to say, it was not a great night for Oklahoma sports.  As I learned more about the trade, I grew progressively disappointed in the decision Harden made. ESPN reported that, " The Thunder offered Harden $55.5 million over four years -- $4.5 million less than the max deal Harden coveted and will get from the Rockets." Harden abandoned his team and his OKC family for 4.5 million dollars. Obviously, I've never been in Harden's position. So I don't fully know his pros and cons list, but neither do I understand the observed greed in this trade. ...

Who else misses gazing at Chris Harrison on their TV screen every Monday night? Sean Lowe is currently in the throes of filming his season of the Bachelor, surrounded by seemingly lovely ladies that I plan to detail in an upcoming post.  For those of you that haven't yet celebrated the news: Bachelor Ben Flaskaflfsjnek and Courtney Robertson have officially called off any future knot tying activities. And Courtney was seen smooching Arie the race car driver from Emily Maynard's season mere days after the news broke of her and Ben's broken engagement. Speaking of Maynard, Emily also terminated her plans to waltz down a flower-strewn aisle to her future groom, Jef Holm. Emily has now worn and taken off THREE different engagement rings in her lifetime. I feel for her ego, I mean Ben and Courtney at least lasted almost a year, but mostly, I hurt for her daughter Ricki. The 7-year-old has witnessed her mom's two broken engagements, and as much as Jef and Emily like to ...

The long wait is finally over and Taylor Swift has released her newest, fourth album, "Red." As opposed to, you know, yellow, green, or blue. Because obviously, "loving him was red." And so begins the frantic search to discover what each of her emotion-packed lyrical songs REALLY mean. We all know that Swift writes with a motive, outing past relationships in her chart-topping hits. Already, fans online are alive with speculation, grasping at small hints in each song to reveal its inspiration. So I followed suit, grabbed a pen and paper, and painstakingly picked out the capitalized letters in Swift's digital booklet that accompanies her album. Until I realized Google would make this process way easier: State of Grace: I love you doesn't count after goodbye Red: SAG Treacherous: Won't stop till it's over I Knew You Were Trouble: When you saw me dancing All Too Well: Maple Lattes 22: Ashley, Dianna, Claire, Selena I Almost Do: Wrote this instea...

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to regret the hold that sites like Facebook have on my life, despite how much I admire the purpose behind Mark Zuckerberg's idea and the other social media that have latched on, like Instagram and Twitter.  Paul sent me this link via email yesterday, the coincidence is seriously astounding as I had already written this post Personally, I think social media's designated purpose is to make it easy to share your life with those that live farther away. You have the prerogative to share written updates and pictures about what is important to you, whether it be a cherished person, a prized car, an unbelievable experience, or a beloved pet. But lately Facebook seems to have taken a more twisted turn, as most of my interactions involve my friends that I see more regularly.  I don't foresee any drastic action occurring soon, I still use Facebook for the more useful purposes of sharing this blog, connecting with my Gateway class,...

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."-Someone Really Smart I honestly don't remember who said the above, but it resonated in my head all day last Monday while I mulled over a possibility. It was a possibility that I was hesitant to share with anybody, because what if it didn't pan out? But I realized that the people in my life are here to share in the joys and the disappointments.  So here goes *virtual deep breath*, I sent in a piece to the Glamour essay contest.  Please ignore the blurry: I was struggling for breath on a 15.0 incline and 4.0 speed during my treadmill workout. I thought, what could it hurt? And took my hands off the heart rate tracker for a split second to snap a photo of a possible future.  I debated with myself all afternoon, but finally forced myself to submit a very revised version of my Addison's Disease essay that evening. I'm a realist; I don't expect anything to come out of my meager offering to the written wo...

One particular detail of the human memory fascinates me. The ability to commit hundreds of songs to memory, so much so that one can recall all 3 verses, the chorus, and the bridge of a track after hearing only a few musical notes. Tyler was mesmerized in awe (or maybe something akin to car wreck curiosity in standstill traffic?) as I nailed most of the words to Wiz Khalifa's "No Sleep" during a drive to OKC. It's unfortunate that my knowledge of every Taylor Swift song will not be able to help me with my next HES test. The endocrine system just doesn't have a catchy tune to commit various hormones to memory. Where's Miley Cyrus when you need her? Oh yeah, trying on wigs to cover up that monstrosity of a haircut. I'm going to have to get back to y'all; "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line just appeared on iTunes shuffle and all of A Very Lucky Girl's focus is on belting out every single word since roommate is go---BABY YOU A SONG YOU...

You could say I'm a little bit passionate about gender equality. In fact, people have labeled me a feminist in some respects in the past. So Sharbear wasn't surprised when I leaned over, harshly whispering in angst over the wording of a particular Life Church bullet point during the final installment of the series, "Strapped." Is that image big enough for ya? I went with extra-large photo sizing to encompass my extra large problem with this phrase. To be fair, the finale of the financial sermons was a Q&A wherein Craig Groeschel and money guru Dave Ramsey addressed concerns that had been sent in throughout the entire 5 week series. So I'm going to give Craig the benefit of the doubt here and assume that a masochistic jerk in the congregation sent in the loaded question.  I don't have a problem with the concept behind the querie. However, the phrasing can be much improved upon. For example, "What is the best way to correct your SPOUSE IF they spe...

Sharbear asked me a hard question the other night. I had just finished holding a two hour review session for my Gateway kids. Two hours that absolutely sped by, I had so much fun with them! I answered their questions about the study guide with some help from the book (but seriously, I probably could have aced this test with minimal outside studying) and created a jeopardy review game to further insure knowledge that would STICK.  The best part was the last 30 minutes or so. I had promised to stay from 7-9 so I didn't feel right about leaving early, just in case someone else showed up. Two students hung around with me, talking about everything from home to dirty roommates. I was so honored that they would sacrifice some of their own free time to continue keeping their TA company.  Anyway, back to the tricky Sharbear question. I spoke to her on the way home (almost cementing my demise: cause of death? by bicyclist) and apparently something in my voice when I recounted the ev...

Have you ever noticed that some people are just BORN to do something? That they have a unique talent that they have discovered and are utilizing said ability in ways to impact the world around them? You don't listen to Norah Jones sing and think, "wow, that girl woulda made a great zookeeper. It's a real shame." You don't hear Justin Buchanan speak to you as your youth pastor and ponder, "man, he really could have made a great astronaut." You don't read Miranda's  blog  and say, "She missed her calling. Dental hygienist was right up her alley." You don't view Megan's photos  and lament, "it's too bad the Jamba Juice career is over, she could swirl a Strawberry Surfrider like no other." They have all discovered what they do with unabashed excellence, and they do it to their full potential. Doing your best at something doesn't make you THE best. But excelling at your unique skill? There isn't anot...

Approximately 5 months ago Tyler asked me on what I consider our first official date. We had hung out prior to this evening, but this is the first time that he took me anywhere. He texted me on Thursday, May 3, "Victoria's tonight? :)" Before you ream him for texting an invitation, don't. I found it perfectly acceptable, especially with the smiley face addendum. It took me less than 3 seconds to say yes and I spent the rest of the afternoon finalizing an outfit, traipsing up and down the hall to Natasha's room to get feedback and snapping countless mirror pics to garner Sharbear's opinion. I bet he doesn't remember this, but I wore white jeans, a navy tank top with flower embellishments, and navy sandals speckled with multicolored flowers. He picked me up in his too-hot-to-handle Honda Civic and took me to dinner at Victoria's, an Italian place on Campus Corner. We sat at a little two-person table to the right of the door and I tried to cross my le...

My competitiveness brings an interesting dynamic to relationships. Especially the one I have with Tyler. I've recently been paying more attention to my dictionary word-of-the-day notifications and tweeting a sentence a day using the new syllable(s). Today's word was "hamartia", a noun meaning "tragic flaw". It's hard to narrow it down when you have lots, but my tweet today read: "I have countless imperfections, but one glaring #hamartia is my extreme competitiveness when it matters least. #wordoftheday"-@AVeryLuckyGirl   It all started a few weeks ago with a trip to OKC to see my family one Sunday. I challenged Tyler to a game of Battleship. He was convinced that he could probably beat me. False. From the bonus room emitted a symphony of "hit"'s from Tyler and "miss"'s from me, followed by a few muffled choice words as Tyler realized he was losing to the Battleship Queen. I sank all of his ships with only minor s...

Life Church has been doing a series on money management for the past 4 weeks. Certainly not a bad thing for a college student like myself to learn more about. Paul and Shari did a wonderful job of instilling the value of saving in me at a young age. From the time I began to receive an allowance (a monthly stipend of my age at the time didn't really go that far...), they required that 10% be placed in the offering plate on Sunday and 20% went to my savings account. That left 70% for me to do with what I pleased.  I'm still a great saver. I've saved up enough so that I won't be stressed out when I have an insurance bill for my car and the financial pull of a gas tank next year. I'm comfortable. But I fell off the tithing bandwagon probably a year ago. I owe God a lot, not just in the way of money, but also in the way of abilities and talents.  Craig Groeschel's comments about the importance of tithing and what I've been reading in Steven Furtick's ...

Carly Rae Jepsen is my current musical obsession. It all started with "Call Me Maybe", which I covered  here . And by covered, I mean wrote about. My talents don't include excellent singing. Miss Jepsen is a genius for releasing only a single for a few months, making fans clamor for more and guaranteeing at least a success in that one song. "Call Me Maybe" launched Jepsen into stardom, and to a relatively high spot on my iTunes play count. 44 isn't too shabby. "Ours", by Taylor Swift, is hovering at second place on the list with 1,731 repetitions, but that's beside the point. When Carly Rae and Owl City collaborated, a "Good Time" was had by all (the duet eclipses "Call Me Maybe" with 259 plays). "Hands up if you're down to get down tonight" said the whitest people in pop music. But somehow it worked for them. Jepsen released her full album, "Kiss", 2 weeks ago and I have yet to take it off repeat...