#60.

Vegan dinner with Noriette.

My fellow staff member and I had a cooking adventure Friday night! I ripped a recipe out of some cooking magazine I read last weekend and wanted to try it merely for the fact that it just looked so pretty and colorful!!

Doesn't it?!

I had such a fun time talking with her and laughing together as we sliced, diced, and absolutely-obliterated-to-little-bits parsley, mint, and lemon zest. (By the way, if you have a dicer, it is a GREAT way to release anger. For future reference.)  It was a monsoon outside while we cooked but we couldn't care less. It was really fun to bond, discuss family and beliefs, and of course talk about the opposite sex. I mean, c'mon, we're women. It's what we do.

Here's how our dinner turned out, we're pretty proud of it and thought it tasted fabulous!!

#59.

Dr. Dinch and some encouraging words.

Lately, it has been difficult to appreciate the little things. Not gonna lie.

I was having a sad, "I-feel-so-blue", woe is me chat with my friend (who we will fondly call 'Dr. Dinch') the other day and he sent me some verses:

Numbers 23:19-21 NKJV
God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Behold, I have received a command to bless;
He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
The Lord his God is with them,
And the shout of a King is among them.

Dr. Dinch: He has blessed His people, so who can reverse that blessing? He is not a man that He should lie or change His mind. He has not observed sin or wickedness in His people. If God says you are blessed (and He does) then you are. No one else can change that. No one, even if they curse you with negative words, pointing out your failures, can change the blessings with which God has annointed our heads. He does not see your sin because He has already seen it on His Son. You are blessed, Beloved, and nothing can ever reverse that blessing.

Yeah! It is a fact. Not a future hope. A perfect tense fact. You have been blessed, and that implies a continuation of that blessing. When others come against you, you say, "I am greatly blessed, highly favored, and dearly loved." And the more you truly KNOW that, the richer your life becomes. He has blessed you!

Me: And that nobody can change that because he's God. My grandma used to say "he who pays says" when we went out to eat anywhere and I just chuckled thinking about that. God (through Jesus) paid and said how this whole blessing thing is going to go. He blessed. And that's permanent.

Dr. Dinch: Haha that's perfect. It is hard to be miserable when you know you're blessed...and you know a good future is in store for you. And when you speak blessings into your life, you might just see them come true. If you speak curses into your life ("my back ALWAYS hurts." Or "I'm always failing at that." Or "I'll never find a husband.") you'll probably find that the curses come true too.

I appreciated this conversation for a couple of reasons:
1. Obviously I wasn't in the most cheery mood and chatting with a friend made me feel better.
2. The words themselves encouraged me.
3. I am an eternal optimist (which contradicted my mood at that point and I realized that and quickly made a decision to be postive DAMN IT.)
4. I am a dreamer. If I dream about something I want happening, don't tell me I can't do it. If God wants me to have it, I'M GOING TO HAVE IT. Don't go all Negative Nancy on me.
5. And overall, this conversation just made sense to me. If you're thinking that you're not worth it, that you are NEVER going to do well on something, or you're NEVER going to make it......And that actually holds truth time after time....well, um, why are you surprised?! You said all those things would never happen in the first place. My last boss used to ask, honestly and not sarcastically, "How's the working for you?.....Oh, it's not? Hm. Looks like you got something to change." That 'something' was 9 times out of 10, attitude.

A some-what serious blogpost requires a little bit of humor!

Romans 15:13 NLT

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

#58.

It's my birthday!

21 Fun Facts About Me:

1. I spell things out in my head (though sometimes out loud) when I'm texting.
2. My screenname is ImmaSnappleFact because I collect snapple caps!
3. I learned to snap first-year of college.
4. When I was flying over Italy, after leaving Athens, I was listening to "Merano" from the musical "Chess". Irony? Love it :) Definitely intended.
5. I am hoping, praying, dreaming of going to Buenos Aires to study the Argentine Tango in April.....I plan on flying into Argentina listening to "Buenos Aires" from another one of my favorite musicals, "Evita".
6. The sound of someone texting can send me straight from a perfectly euphoric mood into a monster. It's really only the loud keyboards that do it. The soft keyboards of droids and such don't really get me.
7. Air Conditioning kind of drives me batty. I prefer to just keep the windows open and get a fan or two going. (My reasoning: It's summer. I've waited the whole bitter, miserable winter for this. I'm enjoying it while I have it!)
8. I'm a natural blonde. But for the past year I've been a brunette.
9. One day, I want to be the person to name nail polishes. Ya know the ones that are catchy like "I'm Not Really a Waitress" Red?
10. My common phrases are "hakuna matata," "I concur whole-heartedly," and "boo you whore" (props if you get the movie reference).
11. I also always have a song playing in my mind when I'm in a car with someone. As if there was a soundtrack to my life, that song would be the one that completely summarizes our relationship, the day, the moment, the experience.
12.  I don’t have an ipod and I prefer it that way. I am in love with my old-fashioned stereo.
13. One of my favorite gifts was a large bag of reese cups as a going away to college gift from my best friend in high school.
14. After college, if all else fails, I'm trying out for America's Next Top Model. (sorry Mom. And Glenn! You're still my favorite photographer. And I still wanna work for you one day.)
15. This is the first year since about the age of 5 that I won't be attending a baseball event of sorts on my birthday.
16. I wish 'pranking' was a skill I could put on my resume.
17. One big life lesson I've learned from the Argentine tango: slow down. There's no rush.
18. My college doesn't have frats or sororities. When I lived in Greece, 2 of the students in my programs were frat boys from Oklahoma. They introduced me to the phrase "take it to the face." I do not TAKE alcohol to the face, thank you very much. But I will most certainly ALWAYS take bread to the face :)
19. I appreciate opera music when I'm in bed and reading. Not even kidding.
20. I hate my boobs. I use to be such a lovely little size 32A because of dance and running. Now, I am a C, sometimes D depending on where I shop.
21. I completely forgot to update this ON my actual birthday even though I've had it typed up for a long time now. oops.

#57.

Riding in a convertible on a lovely summer evening, looking great with 2 other dolled up and ready to dance friends.

'Nuff said. :)

Note: This is not me or anyone I know. I didn't get to take a picture to document the event so I had to resort to a google image search :) This happens to be a picture from the magazine Marie Claire.

#56.

An awesome blog post from an awesome person.

I brought two of my friends to the Sunday night milonga at the tango school this week and my best friend, Kate (remember her from my 34th blog post?) blogged about her experience that night. I called her after reading it and got permission to repost it because she put into words how I have felt the last 2 years studying the Argentine tango. This in itself made me just so happy to know that someone else feels the way I feel!

Click here to check it out!

#55.

Just one of the little things I love about summer :)

#54.

I am a Psychology major with a minor in Theatre and (possibly after this semester) Religion. I've been asked quite a lot what I plan on doing with those three. I get the question, "How will you combine those?!" To me, it's so clear. I didn't exactly have evidence of it to tell people though.

Until now. I had an interview this week at the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School where I've been going for their milongas (social dances) a couple times a month.  AND I GOT THE JOB! Without going into much detail about the whole job, I'll be doing a lot of survey research and marketing for school (this is the psychology part) while learning a lot of Argentine tango (the theatrical part). So I am doing what I love and believing that fortune (whether it comes in some form of financial support, happiness, love, or something else) will follow :)

Oh, and mind you...this is the list of little things that went wrong the day I scored the internship:

1. Forgot my razor in the shower so I had to step out, get it in my slippery, soapy mess, and finish the job.
2. I had to walk a mile, take a train, walk some more, catch a bus, and get caught in the pouring rain before I walked a few blocks to the studio.
3. Didn't bring an umbrella either.
4. Oh, and my google maps directions were off so I had to figure out how to use my newly purchased smart phone touch screen (hate/love relationship with it already) in the rain to get to the studio.
5. Had some inconveniently-timed woman issues, of course.
6. Failed to have enough change for the other train so I had to do some quick exchanging with a few people that walked by.
7. Oh, and left my expensive ring I bought myself in Greece on the sink in the bathroom of the corner store market on the block of the studio. (but good news! I called them yesterday and they have it and I'll be retrieving it soon!)

So......I thought I was doing pretty well despite the little things, considering I did great on the big thing! And I was super proud that the momentary emotional break-down didn't happen until after the 7th little thing hit. Not a bad day in my book :)