The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

There's a quote from C.S. Lewis on one of my Pinterest boards that says, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "What? You, too? I thought I was the only one." This has proved true time and time again, and most recently, the other night. My new small group is not exactly all I'd hoped it would be. I'm not connecting to these girls as quickly as I did to the girls in my other small groups. There's one girl in particular who I just kind of want to punch in the face. And the terrible part is, there's really no good reason for this. She's pleasant and sincere and enthusiastic. But the things that she loves about the book are the same things I hate. Which is pretty much the whole book. This week's chapter was about dealing with our pasts to become more emotionally healthy. Or, as our leader called it, "My family is jacked up." And boy, do we come from some messed up families. It's actually kind

St. Patrick's Day was a blast. I really wanted to go to the parade, but my friends who were downtown for the dyeing of the river all said it was too chaotic and crowded and left. So, I ended up at a bar in West Loop with Nancy and some of her friends. Even that was crazy! I can't imagine what some of the more popular areas were like. It was pretty much the warmest St. Patrick's Day ever, which was part of the problem. The first few weeks of warmth make everyone crazy. Luckily, things were pretty chill at our bar, and I had a great time with Nancy. But all day, I just had this bad feeling. I even sent a text to a friend that evening saying that trouble was afoot. (Can you tell I'd been drinking for 10 hours at that point?) I had a few guys walk me to my car that night, which I pretty much never do. There was just this negative undercurrent. Sure enough, the next morning I saw in the newspaper that there were 16 shootings that day. 50 people total were sh

*I will edit this later and add pictures and video. Right now, all I have is what's on my phone. Thursday night Hannah and I are on the same flight out, which she almost misses, but makes it in the nick of time by sprinting barefoot through the terminal. We meet up with Whitney in Vegas, and then Kristin's flight arrives and there is a joyful reunion. I've missed that girl so much! We catch up over drinks while waiting for Nina's flight to come in. Friday We all pile into the minivan (the "standard SUV" we reserved didn't really resemble an SUV) and head outside of Vegas to the Anniversary Narrows, a short slot canyon near an abandoned mine that is apparently illegal to hike now. The hike is a gleeful romp; we treat the canyon like the playground it is. As usual, there is a mishap. My scrambling skills are a little rusty, and I sit down in a plant while climbing down to the ground. Since all desert plants are assholes, I'm left with prickly g

I will blog all about Vegas later, when I have the pictures to go with the story. But this song/video pretty much embodies what the weekend was all about: http://youtu.be/DHEOF_rcND8 Sadly, it won't let me embed the video. But this is what the weekend felt like: literally running around the desert with my best friends. I'm so thankful. I'm so blessed. I'm excited to be 30. Some of my friends are freaking out, but I say bring it. Is my life anything like what I thought it would be? No. But by not having the husband and kids I'd hoped for, I've gotten to experience greater things than I'd ever imagined. God has a plan. Of that I have no doubt. If a husband and kids are in the cards, I'll figure it out. But for now, my life is completely fulfilling. Sometimes I feel so much joy, it's just overwhelming. There were a lot of those moments this weekend. The other great thing about 30 is that I feel like this is the age where I can say, "I