HOOTIE HOO! hootie who?

let me preface this story by mentioning that i have a cousin in federal prison serving 8-10 years (always a good start to a story :D). i love him more than anything, and i'd say ever person that meets him does as well.

i've visited him numerous times in prison, and let's just say... i'm pretty sure that guy runs the place. he's very well respected and runs a store out of his cell (shawshank anyone??) all this to say... he's such a baller.

well i moved out here and wanted to keep in touch since i couldn't visit him as easily anymore. i wrote him a letter telling him about goofy things that had happened within the week and just random updates.

i went to mail the letter and all i had was little cute pink stationary envelopes. so i put my letter in the pink and green argyle stationary, put it in the pink envelope and mailed it off. i didn't realize that sending pink envelopes, with pink and green argyle stationary is completely normal in my world, and a little less normal in prison. i mentioned this to the family at christmas and they are currently worried about his safety, haha... or at the very least, his pride.

that being said.... this past weekend was valentines day. not only valentines day but soon after (today actually, feb 20th) is national "hootie hoo" day, a national holiday i'm pretty sure celebrated by my family only. you celebrate hootie hoo day by drinking pink lemonade and eating vanilla ice-cream... then at noon, you step outside your door and yell "HOOTIE HOO" to "chase away winter."

here's where i tie my stories: my office is very very strict and the people i work with know absolutely nothing about my life... all they know is that i wear a suit and glasses everyday while sitting at my computer playing accountant. gauranteed anyone that is reading this right now knows me much better than that. so one of the receptionists comes up to me in front of a couple of my supervisors (imagine a very professional setting) and says "hey sarah, this came in the mail for you... it looks like a personal card" gasps ensued and everyone gathered to see who had sent the card...

don't worry - my aunt (love her, BUT) sent me HOOTIE HOO DAY CARD TO MY OFFICE.

i had to then explain to a group of north easterners what hootie hoo day is. it's one of those things that sounds so normal when you talk about it with your family, and then trying to explain it to a group of boston accounts... well it's a little less normal.

sorry matt for sending you the pink and green argyle card.

i love my family.

dee jay

there are numerous reasons why i love my brother, but the past 2 days i have added to the list:

my brother always calls me "shar" (derived from the character cher from clueless). tonight we were talking online and apparently his finger slipped and he called me shat.

while speaking at an elementary school chapel, he instituted "high-five fridays" as a way of showing god's love. i always knew we were related.

also - please reference a recent blog post of the christmas present he and my cousin were SO excited to give me: http://chapmionshipvinyl.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post.html

this is why we are best friends <3

the following events are all true...

1. i left the back off the juicer (the part that catches all the pulp) and pulp sprayed all across the side of my refrigerator. i had to clean up grapefruit/orange throw-up

2. the past two fridays i have been asleep before 10pm - last weekend i didn't get out of bed till 5pm saturday evening.

3. mallory and i consistently order a large pizza from roggies... and eat the whole thing. every time we say that we're not going to

4. i have recently been asked out by the following men:

-40 year old hawaiian man named paul

-awkward writer who i have yet to see without a bandanna on his head (but gives me free pizza at my favorite lunch spot)

-guy on the subway who asked me if i wanted to come over and smoke weed

-extremely creepy accountant (nothing against accountants) with bad breath and a huge mole bursting out of his nostril

among others that are less "interesting" and i have yet to accept any of these offers...

5. la bamba came on my shuffle while i was on the treadmill and i listened to it the whole way through. it took everything i had in me not to sing outloud and bust a move.

6. today is neil diamonds birthday. i still haven't seen him in concert - i definitely need to fulfill that life goal.

<3 life is good!

iPray

Man oh man... a lot of stuff has been going on lately with close friends that has been on my mind and I am praying for... I thought I might go ahead and write out a few things in case you readers need something to pray for :)

d.j. - resigned from his church and is looking for a job
jordan w. and family - mom's surgery
christina j. - graduating, where to live, job hunt... all that stuff (bleh)
chris d. - interviewed for a baller job and lots of exciting life changes going on (yay!)
dani k. - relationships
terry p. and family - wife's surgery for breast cancer
jen r. - school and friends
aaron d. - job situation

those are the big things on my heart at the moment :D while i've got you praying... haha, my big interview is tomorrow and i'm getting pretty nervous :\ how awesome is it that we can cast our burdens and be free to live aside from our fears. i love the god that we serve!

so life is good :D i played hostess at the restaurant i work at for two shifts now and that was fun... tonight i'm training to be a server, aaaaaaaaand that'll be funny.

hope all is well!! remember to send me updates on your lives as well <3

i recently pahked my cah in haavad

so i'm settled!! let me just start by saying that GOD IS SOOOO GOOD! i have a place to live for two months in quincy which is south of boston (not to be confused with south boston, ie: good will hunting, departed... yikes!) so i am completely safe and have made some good friends! i am living here with two roommates that i found using craigslist, and we hit it off so well that the three of us are going to move to the city on dec 1st!

this has REALLY helped because it gives me time to focus solely on job interviews rather than both interviews and apartments... that proved to be entirely too overwhelming :\ speaking of jobs... still jobless. BUT! i've had a lot of good interviews - i was turned down by one and i turned down another so i guess the score's even at this point. the job that i am REALLY excited about, i interview for next thurs. and would be a PERFECT career starter. hopefully something will come of that!

meanwhile, one of my roommates works at a restaraunt here called uno's, so i decided to pick up some night and weekend shifts to make some money and still be able to interview for career jobs during the day :)

so the short version: things are GREAT! I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

more stories to come, but that's the update! hope all is well :)

::insert Augustana lyrics here::

i'm leaving my house at 4am to catch my 6am flight and i'll land in boston at 1:30

AHHH!!!

do not confuse ROOMmate with SOULmate

i leave for boston on saturday... 4 more days! i have been job hunting like crazy and have three interviews set up for next week (YAY!) and i have about 15 appointments to look at various apartments.

that has been the real adventure- apartment hunting in an unknown city. in boston a more common thing to do is to live in those huge old houses and they're typically rented out by the floor, with 2-3 other roommates. this is also a cheaper option. since i don't know anyone, i'm having to search for rooms available that already have housemates. wow. who would have thought that people would use this roommate hunt as a dating service!? i'm being extremely cautious and have had skip over quite a few ads, haha but it's definitely an experience!

so yeah, that's that! things are looking good :D now all i have to do is pack. what do i take in 3 suitcases?? i guess i'll soon find out!

on a sidenote - i was taking dude for a scooter run last night. i've been doing this frequently... i hop on my pink razor scooter (thank you youth group!! i use it all the time!) and he runs ahead of me. we go all through the neighborhood. pretty much it just looks like i'm chasing my dog on a scooter, the neighbors love me i'm sure. so there was this crack in the sidewalk and i COMPLETELY ate it. i fell flat on my face and literally skinned my knees... and hands... and right ankle :( here i am trying to be all grown up and professional interviewing for jobs and whatnot and in my freetime i'm scootering. i'm just afraid that i'll go to shake a hand for an interview and i'll have to explain the sidewalk-rash on my palms!

lookout boston, here i come!! (i wonder if i have room for my scooter...)

my quarter-life crisis

my good friend the other day used the term "quarter-life crisis" and it really stuck with me... cuz I'M EXPERIENCING IT! it's that post-graduate-what-am-i-gonna-do-for-the-rest-of-my-life age where it's SO exciting because you have the whole world at your fingertips, yet supremely intimidating because you have the whole world at your fingertips... are you willing to settle and waste it??? meanwhile, you can't find a job and all your friends get married and start having children. thus the need for whiny acoustic complaint rock ;) it was a big revelation.

i'm coming off an AMAZING summer working with high school kids that changed my life. god worked in huge and incomprehensible ways by putting me in a ministry position (go figure) which has opened my eyes to the possibilities of how far god wants us to go and how much he desires to use us despite our failures and shortcomings - we all know that i am full of those, but at least they're entertaining right?? :D

so here's the plan: i have a one-way ticket to boston leaving next saturday (9/20) and as of right now i have a place to stay saturday night and that's about it. sounds crazy, but it's my quarter life crisis! it's called crisis for a reason right?? i'm still actively searching the area for friends... and friends of friends... and friends of friends of friends... etc. as of right now, i have two interviews set up with different accounting firms - i'm confident that god has something for me so i'm really not stressed about the job stuff (yet). i'm always open to networking and ideas so if you have any feel FREE to let me know what your ideas are!

i love you all dearly! please keep me in your prayers as i continue LIFE and its adventures!!

and something to think about... if a one-way ticket to boston knowing no one and having no place to stay is my quarter-life crisis, what's my mid-life crisis going to be?? lord help us.