Oh The Places I Go!

This weekend is pretty exciting. It's the annual Calf Fry (Testicle Festival if you well). Every year I buy tickets for Matt and I for Matt's birthday and we enjoy this fantastic 4 day concert of Red Dirt greatness. Wednesday night I headed up to Stillwater to see the Turnpike Troubadours (a local favorite) and Eli Young Band. This required staying up wayyyyy too late but it was very worth it.

Now it needs to be said that the weather at Calf Fry rarely cooperates. So far, we are practically getting swept away by tornadoes (see hair left)

One should always pack their rain boots for the weekend, because if it rains the place will be a total mud pit. Guess what happened this morning? Yeah... it rained. Water boots are sexy? Right? I especially love the girls that wear the heels or flip flops in the mud pit. I'll try to catch a picture or even video of that if I can.

This is the lead singer of the Turnpike Troubadours. They are very very talented and I hope that they go far. You should look 'em up!

Now I am back to work to wrap up a few things and go to a meeting- then back to Stillwater to continue in Calf Fry! Next up is Cross Canadian Ragweed and Miranda Lambert.

The best part of calf fry is getting to spend some final moments with friends before they leave. There's a lot of people leaving and I'm so sad to see them go. Good friends keep in touch, so I suppose this will just be a test of our friendship.

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People You Can Joke With

After a little bit of thought, I have come to realize that there are some people with whom you can joke and it's no big deal, no hard feelings, everyone has a good laugh. And then there are those who you cannot. Now I would give myself credit for having a pretty good sense of humor. Upon first meeting someone, I generally give them the benefit of the doubt in the humor department and assume that they can joke too. Now when reading these posts you have to remember that I write these from my own perspective, but I also realize that I am completely imperfect and I am certain that I can offend people just as often as they offend me. Just so that we're all on the same page. So anyway, I was thinking about the very different relationships that one can have with others simply based on humor.
Here's some examples:

Danielle and I are basically sisters. We can joke together all the time and no one gets hurt. Most recently I've been giving her a hard time about this crazy chair she puts the baby in, but she knows I am kidding and I realize the utility for this strange looking chair (it helps the baby sit up). She'll also be the first person to let me know if something I am wearing is strange or if I need to be nice, and she LOVES a good laugh at my expense. She and I have established this relationship and it's great, and it really helps our friendship. She is also my rock when I have a disagreement with someone else. She has the superb ability to always see my side and where I am coming from and tell me that I am right. What are friends for??!? As you can tell, I cherish Danielle. She's pretty much the perfect person for me in the friend department.

Now with Matt.... our "humor" relationship is completely variable- almost always because of me (You see Matt, I am admitting it!). A lot of times, I really think Matt's a funny guy. His mannerisms are hilarious. However, sometimes he doesn't have a gauge for "it's not time to joke right now". To a degree, it's really not fair to him that he's only allowed to joke when I am in a good mood, because when I am in a bad mood.... oh my goodness... jokes are not funny. They're a very very bad bad idea. I guess that's something we'll have to work on together. But, if in the end, a humor gauge is the biggest thing we have to fight about, I suppose in the world of relationships, we're doing pretty good. I love you, Matt! (See I'm in a good mood- joke away!)

I have no idea how Laura and I are friends. That started off wrong. I mean, I really like her and we talk a lot and get along, but we are extremely different people. I talk all the time and she thinks before she says anything. Sometimes I don't know when to joke with her. Sometimes I don't realize that she's joking with me. I feel like that drum sound (bah dum dum ching) should come after her jokes, just so I am sure. She's so quiet sometimes, that I find myself over analyzing the things that she says. She probably finds humor in the fact that she gets into my head.

Now her friend Christiane (she's my friend now, too). I can't joke with her at all. No matter what I say, I inevitably end up putting my foot in my mouth. Within like the first 30 min of meeting her I said something along the lines of education majors not being that hard (there's more to why I said that... not just being a jerk!) and she was like "yeah... I am an early childhood education major." Well crap. Then I start talking about people who can't just spell their name normally and how it makes me crazy. Then she says "My name is Christiane, spelled with an e at the end" Geez! I'm really not that easily embarrassed, but I felt terrible. It's even worse because Christiane is just so darn nice and it would break my heart if I hurt her feelings. Luckily, she actually does have a pretty good sense of humor.

Now there's a person (it would be rude to mention their name) that THINKS we can joke, when actually, we cannot. Everything this person says just crawls up my skin. The worst part is, I don't think they realize that they aren't saying humorous things. They are just saying things that are either self righteous or completely rude. The confrontational side of me wants to just tell this person off. But the Christian side of me says I shouldn't. This is hard. You know, I realize that the Lord would not want me to tell this person what I think. For a moment, it would make me feel better to put this person in the position they have put me in for quite some time now. However, about 5 min later I would feel awful. Making someone else feel small does not make me feel big. Also, I might need this person's 2nd cousin to give me a job one day and because of my poor relationship that I developed I might get passed over. This could cause a major ripple effect that I have not anticipated. Being the bigger person is one of the most difficult things I struggle with in so many dimensions of my life, and I AM big enough to say that more often than not, I fail. However, every day is a new day, and I am going to do better.

I think the greatest thing you can do for another person is to make a conscious effort in your relationship with them. It's kind of easy to do things like buy something to make them feel better, but what is a greater gift than meditating on your relationship and doing everything you can to build them up emotionally?

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Earth Day!!

First off, Happy Earth Day! I wore my "Earth Day Every Day" T-shirt to work to celebrate.

Monica sent me a cute little saying: " It takes Earth to have Heart and Heart to have Earth!"

I loooooooove Earth Day because there are generally cute little festivals going on and it's good to see people coming together and appreciating the Earth.

If I find something to do, I'll post pictures tomorrow. I know the Driller's are having a game tonight and giving away free totes annnnnnnnnnnd it's Thirsty Thursday.

At the very least I may go run at the river and then pay a trip to Whole Foods.

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Probably Should Update

I'm so exciting these days, I don't feel exciting at all! There's planning, and there's just being swamped. I'm grouchy today because I am so tired and can't see the end of my "to do" list. I went to Illinois last weekend with my family to celebrate my uncle's 50th birthday. We drove there, so it was a lot of time in the car. I had a good time and I'll post some pictures from my trip to the John Deere headquarters. Part of the problem of the trip is that I was not very productive this weekend, and I have so much to do! So secret readers (and my 7 loyal followers), I'll post something interesting when I have the energy. Right now I had better get back to work. Feel free to send me caffieinated happiness.

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Food Diary

So I get a cool benefits plan with my job that helps with co-pays and various things that my primary insurance may not cover. Sometimes being a grown up actually has it's benefits (no pun intended... well maybe a little). So, I decided to go see a dietitian because I don't want to be some unrealistic paper thin human. I just want to be the best Shanna that I can be. I also think fad diets are ridiculous and I don't want to participate because they're not sustainable. I've been working pretty hard the last year or so to get into shape and just be healthy, really a preventative action because I have a very poor family medical history and I'm getting older all the time. Well one thing that my dietitian has me doing is keep a food diary. She doesn't have me count calories or anything. Mostly she wants me to be able to meet fruit/veg, carb, and protein goals each day. I have found this helpful because it helps me plan my meals better because I have to meet all these goals, but I'm not supposed to eat when I'm not hungry.

But- there's more to this. This is accountability. Ya see, I want to do this right because even though my job pays for this, I am paying a silly amount of money to do this, and I hate the idea of wasting money. I really think everyone should try this for a week. Just write down everything you eat, the time, and rate how hungry you were when you ate it. Know the whole time that you're going to let someone at the end of the week look at it. You'd be surprised at what you'll avoid because it turns out that I randomly eat some strange things.

For example: This morning I ate an egg, a hash brown, an organic all fruit smoothie w/ protein powder..... and two oatmeal cookies. Now I have to write this down and I'm going to look ridiculous.
I got in lots of protein and fruits... but those cookies! I'm not even a sweet junkie. But those cookies were callin' my name so I ate 'em. Give this food diary business a try and see what you think.

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When You Think Tim McGraw

I had a very cool experience last Thursday.

About a week ago I got one of those campus wide e-mails and I like to stay on the up and up on events so I read through it and notice they posted a job for "promotions" at an upcoming event at the BOK center. I looked at the date and realized.... that's the Tim McGraw concert. I wanted to go to that concert... but wasn't willing to put up the cash. After some investigation, I put together my resume and what not and sent it to the "representative" for the promotions company. About 15 minutes later I had the job, so I called the guy, worked out the details, and even got my best friend, Danielle, involved too! Basically we just worked from 5-10 p.m. and we were just supposed to show up and they would tell us what to do.

So we go there, got our shirts, and they told us we were just going to take pictures of people in front of a green screen and those people would have a picture they could look up on-line with them and Tim McGraw. If you know Danielle and I... then you know that we took full advantage of this opportunity. We had SOOO much fun! And we got to meet some really cool/absolutely INSANE people.

Picture 1: Just testing the waters. Seeing what this thing is about.

Picture 2: Trying something cuter. You have to realize how awkward it is to take this picture because Tim isn't actually there as a prop. It's just you and your best friend making a kissing face at each other. I made Danielle close her eyes- ha ha.

Picture 3: We even got the cops involved! ( Little did this man know that he would end up on my blog)

Picture 4: These people were... really excited about this experience. They had all kinds of "vision"
Picture 5: These women were by far my favorite. You see, before this picture ever happened, there were a few events. First these women were trying to take a picture in front of one the posters that Outback had. Really nice, tall, posters. Then they decided to take a souvenir. So, right in front of a police officer, one of them began to unapologetically roll up this 7 ft long poster to take with her. I pointed it out to one of the cops and he said "Oh no, they work for the BOK" and a couple of minutes later, a different cop took it away from them. They look surprised! Oh it was hilarious watching them get caught. Then they came over to the Outback representative and tried to talk him into letting them have one. Of course it didn't work. After all of their ridiculousness, we had to take a picture with them. Alcohol really works wonders on some people.

After we were done working (which, we had an AWESOME time!) we got to go down to the floor and watch the rest of the concert for free!!! It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, not only did we have fun, but we got paid, got to see a FREE concert on the floor, AND I got to spend some much needed time with my best friend. I can't wait to do it again!!!

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What a Weekend! Easter & More!

Last weekend was a whirlwind... but in a good way! I had lunch at El Guapos with my good friend Laura which satisfied the craving I was having for their chicken tortilla soup- and fellowship with her! Immediately after work on Friday (once again, I'm NEVER working on Good Friday again) I headed to Stillwater to meet up with Matt so we could go stay with his parents. As soon as we got there we ate take out from Giuseppe's and that was the perfect end to the day. Seafood lasagna? YES, PLEASE!

On Saturday we golfed (and I use "WE" loosely, I hit the ball a few times when we had some extra time) and I was captain of the golf cart. I'm sad to say there aren't any pictures. Matt said I did pretty good for my first time, and with clubs that weren't made for me or my height. I really think I may get involved with golf just for the outfits.

THEN we went to a wedding reception for Grady and Erin. It was a barn themed wedding reception... not so much "themed" per se, because it was actually in a barn... It was pretty cute though and it was really nice to celebrate the recent marriage of Matt's (and My!) good friend Grady. We also got to meet his new wife, Erin, who seems like she may very well be the nicest person on Earth.

So here we are with the happy new couple. It was fun to get to dress up to a country theme, not that we don't live in Oklahoma and no one would even notice if we did this on a daily basis.

The next morning was Easter and we got up bright and early to go with Matt's mom to their church's Easter Sunday Service. It was really nice, and I haven't been to such a "traditional" church in a while, so that was a nice change of pace. We never cracked open the hymnal, but maybe next time!

Here's Matt and I right before lunch at his parent's home.

Immediately after lunch we headed to Midland, TX (about 6 hours- but Matt will say it's like an hour and a half- don't listen to him). Matt and I love to ride in the car together! It's weird, but we always have our best (and sometimes worst) conversations when we get to be alone together in the car with nothing else to do and no where else to go. I think this is a sign that our lives are too busy, but at least we always have road trips to look forward to!

As soon as we got to Midland, we had to go check out Matt's new house before we met up with his friend, Ben, for dinner. The whole reason we went to Midland was to do the "framing inspection" on the house, which is a mandatory meeting. After lots of research and looking and prayer, Matt found a great house that is currently being built.

This is my first look at the house (well, not the full look, obviously he's not going to live in a garage)! In this phase you really get to use your imagination, but still, I'm really happy for him!

First self portrait in front of the house! It had to be taken! We'll look back on this one day and say "awww"... well, I will, Matt might still think it's silly.

One of my favorite features are the several sustainable building practices that the contractor uses. I'm sure that this is growing more and more universally across contractors, but ours put a sticker on it, and I love it!

Here's Matt the new home owner. I am really happy for him. This will be part of a great start to his adult life in Midland. Furthermore... I love that the house is new so it will be marketable to buyers in a couple of years when he moves back to Oklahoma! I'm an Oklahoma Girl and that's just the way it is. When I end up moving down to Midland (don't ask me when- in God's perfect timing. I've been trying to plan this one out for a long time and the Lord is teaching me patience- but believe there will be a blog about it!) I am going to buy and Oklahoma flag and wave it high in the yard, then and OSU flag below it. I wanted to gag after all of the Texas flags I saw down there.

One really cool thing about the drive down to Midland???

The windmills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They go on for miles and miles!! I could not have even imagined so many wind mills. We stopped in a restaurant in Anson (not recommended) and they had a picture of a couple who climbed to the top of one and got married. That's kind of neat. They said it was a 30 story climb though. Those things are so much bigger than they look. You have to see a tractor next to one or something to get the full effect.

This is the restaurant that we ate at in Anson. We were supposed to go to this place that Matt allllllllways wanted to try, so we waited about 2 1/2 hours after lunch time to go to this great place... that was CLOSED on Mondays. So, down the road was the Fish & Chick. The food wasn't too bad, but they used red duct tape as decoration. Seriously, they made stripes out of red duct tape. I think it was multipurpose though- essentially used to hold the place together. Grey duct tape would have been tacky.

Well we got home in good time. We even made it in time for me to see the adeepi/phi delt Spring Sing practice. They're looking pretty good! The show is this weekend and I can't wait!

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