A Very Lucky Girl

Delay isn't denial. It's often hard to accurately express what I'm feeling. I've been working at it. It's difficult to enunciate what I need from people. Something about putting musical notes to words makes them easier to understand and connect with.  Winter has come back again Feels like the season won't end My faith is dying tonight And I won't try to pretend I've got it all figured out That I don't have any doubts I've got a busted heart, I need You now. I'll show them I'm willing to fight And give them the best of my life So we can call this our home Lead me, cause I can't do this alone I got a front row seat To the longest wait And I just can't see Past the things I pray Today. I don't know, I don't know What tomorrow may hold But I know, but I know That You're holding it all So no matter what may come I'm gonna fix my eyes on all that You are 'Til every d...

The final day was upon me. I woke up to no alarm and a last breakfast of bacon and sourdough rolls. A stranger in the Windjammer mistook me for a high schooler (typical) and I quickly corrected him. I read some more Bleak House on Deck 12, while Tyler finished Alter Ego by Craig Groeschel. This was my last shot for the perfect tan to prove that I sprung broke (the past tense of Spring Break) to perfection.  We alternated between the cold pool and the boiling hot tub, marveling at the water-ception. We were in a vat of water, in the middle of the ocean. Just let that sink in. I spent several afternoon hours trying to fit all of my clothes back in my suitcase, the hardest game of Tetris I've ever played. It never fails, every vacation I end up with more luggage at the end. I blame it on the shot glasses that I collect from every destination.  I took a nap, collected my bravery, and ordered two entrees at dinner without shame. In the words of Jesus, this was the last supper a...

For the first of our last two days at sea, Tyler and I quietly met in the library in order to hike to Deck 12 for the 6:29 AM sunrise where we watched pink and yellow streak across the sky as a fiery orange ball inched its way from the depths of the deep blue of the ocean.  We attempted a few sunrise selfies, but Tyler suffers from "squinty eye disorder" when it comes to pictures with flash so most of them were immediately deleted, and judged others for their obvious sunrise selfie taking in a truly hypocritical way. However, we were following the  rule of having another person in your selfie, transforming the image into a groupie.  We graced the Windjammer for an early breakfast and made the exciting discovery that the sourdough rolls we'd been devouring at every dinner also were available for breakfast. I stocked up.  After an invigorating nap, I recovered from such an early morning by laying out and soaking sun into my already slightly sun-blistered skin....

I'm in love with Jamaica. I would absolutely go back there for a week or more. It was a perfect mix of lovely beach with regal hills in the background that reminded me of Roatan, Honduras, another of my favorite places. My first view of Jamaica was from the treadmill where I spent the beginning of my morning, but only for a mere 10 minutes as I had completely forgotten that I had Addison's Disease and totally skipped every pill necessary to expend energy. What.Was.I.Thinking!? After fueling up on legal drugs, I found my way onto the dock and we located a cab to take us to the prettiest beach I've ever seen. Along the way we passed several resorts, coexisting next to huts, and Usain Bolt's high school. The beach was utter perfection. I could set up a tent in the sand and live there forever. This was my last legal day of drinking before July 1 so I made the most of it. I partook in two Sex on the Beach's (the drink, not the activity), a Long Island Iced Tea (holymol...

We arrived off the coast of Georgetown, Cayman Islands on Wednesday morning. The Island was so small that there was no dock so tender boats brought us to shore in groups. We set foot in Georgetown around 11 AM, after eating a bacon heap for breakfast and marveling at the miniscule Island, and immediately found a cab to take us to a portion of 7 Mile Beach. here you can see the water BEHIND the island! mojito First things first: I hit the bar and ordered my very first mojito. It was DELICIOUS. Seriously one of my favorite drinks I've ever had. Tyler and I hung out in the waves with his step-family and I wandered back to the bar every so often to take advantage of my legal drinking age. I can vouch for the Cayman Lemonade, a second mojito, and a Cayman Crush that accompanied my lunch. I had sips of Tyler's Caybrew and White Tip beer, and immediately regretted them. We ate lunch at a water-side cafe called Paradise where Tyler and Hunter ordered turtle burgers and I c...

If you've missed Day One and Day Two , you can catch up! We docked in Cozumel, Mexico at 8 AM on Tuesday morning, stopping at the first bar we saw in order to partake in a melon ball and strawberry colada before deciding they were best mixed together. Before swimming with the dolphins at Dolphinaris, Tyler and I documented our first international kiss in order to keep our reputation as "cutest couple ever" alive. At Dolphinaris we interacted with a female dolphin either named Marci or Maci. The accent of our dolphin trainer was imperceptibly thick. We accepted cheek kisses from the M named dolphin while the paparazzi photographers shouted commands to kiss her back. So I can check making out with a female dolphin off of my bucket list. There was a boy in our group that couldn't have been older than 5 that got his first kiss from a dolphin. We also got "belly rides" which Tyler likened to a jet ski ride...Only the real deal, on a dolphin. We were both t...

The thing about inner staterooms on board a ship is that they are extra dark. It could be 3 PM and it's as dark as if it were 3 AM. So on Monday morning I woke up well-rested around 9:30 AM and immediately scouted out a lounge chair in a sunny corner of Deck 11. I regret to inform you that I did not don any sunscreen on this day....which in hindsight was a poor decision, especially considering I spent approximately 5 hours laying out. I do this every year. Foregoing sunscreen for the inaugural tan time, but then religiously applying SPF 4 for the remainder of the trip. During one of those sun soaked hours on deck a busybody chair neighbor pointed out my jewelry: "I notice you have a medical alert bracelet on, what's wrong with you?" Several things actually, sir....Are we talking mentally? Physically? Emotionally? Narrow your nosiness, if you please. I stealthily crept away from the gentleman and continued to furiously read the novel Sharbear supplied me with before m...

Once upon a time (a week ago), in a city fairly close by (Norman) a girl and a boy woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:15 AM to begin the drive to Galveston, Texas in order to embark upon a dream cruise. Tyler and I met the rest of his family across from Riverwind Casino and fought the urge to get caught up in some wake-up slots. I settled into the front passenger seat as Tyler's brothers, Josh and Chris, slid into the back. I attempted to nap in a few unnatural positions, but to no avail and grew increasingly frustrated. My mood is often directly related to the amount of sunshine in the mornings and the pitch black night sky made Tyler's typically endearing air guitar tendencies begin to grate on my nerves. As the McKee brothers began to quote Arrested Development among each other, I jammed on my headphones and jabbed at the volume to wake up Carly Rae Jepsen. Could I get a girl to call me maybe? I knew the exact moment that we hit Houston, not only because of the HEB on ever...

This time last year I was prepping for an excursion to the Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, THE New York City, with Megan to visit Hannah. And now I'm going to embark on another adventure, this time with Tyler and his wonderful family. I'm taking my bikini collection, several books, and SPF 4 on a cruise to Jamaica, the Grand Caymans, and Cozumel.  It is a long overdue break. When I come home I will only have 8 weeks left of classes this semester. And then I'll (finally) be a junior, with only 3 semesters left at OU and one semester overseas in DUNDEE, SCOTLAND.  I won't be posting during this cruise so it truly was God-ordained that the Bachelor ended on this previous Monday so that I was able to keep my recap commitment. 7 days of rest is just what A Very Lucky Girl needs to tackle the world again. If you need me I'll be on a lounge chair somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean sea. Just look for the Tyler-lobster nearby. 

I heard an analogy recently about sin that I wanted to share as a caution against judging others. I searched online for someone who could put it more eloquently than I, but my google search came up empty.  Imagine that every time you did something wrong, a penny was stacked against you. You lied, you cheated, you drank in excess. Those are pennies stacked against you. Then someone you know committed a more "grievous" sin, according to what some in the world may think. They partook in adultery or gave in to a harmful addiction. In our human minds, those sins deserve higher stacks of pennies. But in God's eyes, He looks down and just sees the fact you both have pennies stacked against you. He doesn't see the height of the stack the world sees. He only sees the one coin on top indicating your imperfection and need for redemeption that you share with the person who sinned "more."  Sin is not measured in degrees "None is righteous, no, not one....

Last night, Sean Lowe's journey came to a close. His betrothed was a toss up between Catherine Giudici or Lindsey Yenter. And I decided at 7:36 pm CST that I thought the mystery letter was from his mom. Just a hunch. Chris Harrison welcomed us to the LIVE bachelor finale with some teasing information about late-breaking news that we would want to endure all three hours for before directing us to the giant television on the wall of the studio that we plunged into to locate Sean Lowe. Sean wandered around Chaing Rai, Thailand, musing that "although I see Catherine as my wife I equally see Lindsay as my wife, as well." And therein lies the problem with the Bachelor franchise. Sean Lowe's family caravaned to Thailand, complete with Kensington and Smith, his niece and nephew who would make an excellent law firm together. Smith helpfully piped up in the midst of the reunion, "Emily didn't pick you!" What a time to open up old wounds, little buddy. Sean...

I discovered an incredibly inspiring exercise through my friend Kelky's instagram. I asked her about it and learned that it's her way of recognizing all the good and happy things in life, no matter how small, especially when she feels like the world is pummeling her with hard experiences.  I've decided to follow her example and create my own list of happiness that I can update consistently. Because as cliche as I sound right now, and as much as I'm making myself cringe, there's little sparkly bits of happiness in a lot of minute details of life.  Without further ado, My Experiment in Happiness: used books with a stranger's thoughts in the margin random texts when someone is thinking of you Fat Amy days with no plans rainy afternoon naps tie blankets sparkles old pictures handwritten notes mail brown paper packages tied up with string Troy Bolton flawless cinema romance quick wit bold colors the euphoria after finishing a morning run putt...

Last year I suffered through British Literature from Beowulf to Paradise Lost  and this semester I'm taking the infinitely more interesting second half of the course. This time period of British Literature includes the feminist movement and it has been really interesting to discuss the expectations of females then and now especially since I'm contemplating a Feminist Philosophy class and a Women and Film class for my fall semester. photo from images4.fanpop.com It seems as though from the beginning of time women are taught to equate success with marriage to a male counterpart. Disney movies and other romantic films teach young girls that brides are valuable and a worthy goal to strive for. 5 out of the 7 girls in my first grade class dressed up as brides for the Fall Festival one year. One of my old bosses used to ask me consistently if I had a boyfriend and would purse her lips disapprovingly when I answered negatively. Am I not complete with a boyfriend in my...

Let me preface by saying that I had a truly fantastic Monday. I partook in a 2.4 mile run (at 8:14 pace!), finished my British Literature midterm, received an email and subsequent CHECK from the bursar (they owed ME money for once!), and consumed two cocktails at dinner. Needless to say, Women Tell All was just the icing on my Monday cookie cake.  I settled in on Natasha's couch in between her and Tyler with her boyfriend on her other side. Those men are very patient with our addiction to the Bachelor.  The long-awaited show opened with glimpses of Chris Harrison and Sean Lowe crashing Bachelor watch parties throughout the season. Unfortunately, their caravan never made it to lowly Oklahoma. Natasha and I would have welcomed Sean's abs and Chris' mischievous grin with open arms. Chris invites us to meet the rejected ladies--Chris, we've met them. Although I could use a re-introduction to some. Were they even ON the show? This happens every season. Tierra isn't off...

February 26th is when I wrote my very first EVER blog post a year ago. You can read it here . 217 posts later I don't know that I've grown as a writer, but I can claim with confidence I've grown as a person.  But maybe that's the exact same concept. Because this person is a writer. Sometimes. I'm also a reader. An eater. A runner. A sleeper. A giggler. A tweeter. A Facebook-er. A studier. A dreamer.  A daughter. A sister. A girlfriend. A friend. All in all, quite a multi-personality Very Lucky Girl.