5 Things You May Not Know About Me

There is a lot of negativity online today so I thought I'd lighten things up a bit with 5 random things you may not know about me. I've done this 3 times in the past (in 2009, 2011, and 2013) but these are new facts for y'all. ;)

1. In recent months/weeks, I entertained the idea of moving to a foreign country to work with a well-known company as a writer for a popular TV show. I have to remain vague about the details for many reasons but it took me a good week and a half to talk myself out of it earlier this month. I considered it very seriously but ultimately decided that it was not the right time. Actually, I don't think it'll ever be the right time or career path for me. I know myself well enough to know that, while it would be an amazing opportunity, it would derail me in major ways. I saw myself defaulting to some of the terrible habits I had pre-reversion. I didn't want to throw away all the work I've done in the past decade to better my relationship with God. Yes, working for their company would be a dream -- as would the opportunity to write for a living -- but my life is taking a different direction. I'm still trying to get over it. lol.

2. This one is for you sports fans: I have a favorite football (soccer) team in almost every major league. FA Premier League (England): Liverpool F.C. Scottish Premier League: Celtic F.C. La Liga (Spain): Barcelona. Bundesliga (Germany): Bayern Munich. I don't watch League 1 (France) or Serie A (Italy) so I don't have one there. In the MLS, I fear my loyalty to the L.A. Galaxy might be wavering with the Seattle Sounders looking like a possible replacement. In the Mexican Primera Division, I'll be disowned by my brother if I don't root for Santos which is the sister club on Scotland's Celtic FC so it works out for me. lol. Liverpool and Celtic are the two I follow the most closely and will actually get up at 4 a.m. (Pacific Time) to watch a match. Also, fun fact: Celtic FC is considered the Catholic team in the SPL as opposed to Rangers which is considered the rival Protestant team. I may write about this in the future. Hint, hint.

3. Despite being an academic nerd and working hard towards my current degree, I'm not actually career oriented. That doesn't necessarily mean that I don't want a career; I've just chosen to not make my career my life. I'll be honest and admit that I would rather be a homeschooling stay-at-home mom who writes or works as a photographer in the free time I'd find. However, I'm still going to pursue my current career path (as a speech-language pathology assistant) because I love that I'll be able to help others and I adore working with kids. If I have to stay at home with my (future) kids and take care of the house, I'd love it. If I have to be a working mom, that would also be fine... but I'll never put work ahead of my family. It's not who I am. This will surprise no one who has known me long enough; I passed up the opportunity to study in both England and Canada to stay home and help my parents, both before and after my father passed away.

4. Although I don't often share what I photograph, I'm constantly taking pictures. No, not selfies. I actually don't like selfies all that much and I actually challenged myself to get over my dislike of them last year. Those who follow me on my (private) Instagram account are probably going "Ohh!" right about now. lol. My father got me hooked on photography at an early age and I even took a photography course as my elective my senior year of high school. I like taking pictures of things that inspire me; that I find beautiful. Most of the ideas I get are spontaneous and are usually detail oriented. I don't think I will ever make a career out of it but I love it either way. I'm actually saving up for a high-quality camera so that I can do it more often in my spare time.

5. I have the weird (but true) reputation of being a "husband maker." Meaning my ex-boyfriends (and, apparently, guys who've had crushes on me) have married the next girl they've dated after me. It started with my childhood sweetheart who married young (as soon as we turned 18, I believe) and it's continued as recent as a year ago. I apparently help prepare them and we always end up good friends but we're never right for each other beyond friendship. *shrugs* I don't even know. lol. I've also been the "wing-woman" to many of my guy friends and have helped them plan their proposals to their (now) wives. Maybe I should consider becoming a wedding planner. Ha!

And that's it for now. My rainstorm-induced headache ('sup, built-in weather predictor?) is keeping me from studying and I think the light from the laptop is making it worse so I'm going to take a break from staring at the screen and enjoy an audiobook and a cup of tea for a little while.

I hope you all have a lovely end of the week and a great weekend! :D

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Trip Down Memory Lane and World Youth Day '08.

Today I received an e-mail (from the website photobucket) letting me know I still had pictures in an account I had forgotten about. It'd been a little over 2 years since the last time I'd been on the site so I decided to go look at what I had. Wow, there were a lot of pictures from 2002 - 2005 that I'd forgotten about. I did delete most of them but saved a few before deleting the entire account. The ones I did save were uploaded to my facebook account where, I know, a couple of my friends will get a kick out of seeing them. I've changed a lot in just the last year alone, so I can't wait to hear what memories my friends have about certain photographs. The thing that was most interesting was how much I've physically changed in 2 years. I still look younger than I am (and am often mistaken for a 16 to 18 year-old by those who meet me for the first time) but I have changed quite a bit. I seem to look younger, and slightly different ("But in a very good way" according to a friend, lol) than I do in photographs. Honestly, I don't really care how I look... I just like pictures because they're a snapshot that captures a particular moment. It's always fun going down memory lane and seeing how much you've grown (not just physically) as a person. The pictures made me very happy, which is always nice, and I hope some of my friends also get lovely memories from a couple of them.

And while I'm on the topic of looking slightly younger than I am... I'm starting to save up for, hopefully, a trip to World Youth Day in Australia this year. I wonder, though, if I may be slightly too old for it. Okay, so I took a moment to google the answer for that, and no, I am not too old for it. The official age range is apparently 16 - 35 years of age. That means I can squeeze in about 4 - 5 more WYD's before I hit 35... and that's assuming it's every 3 years. Although it doesn't look good (my possible trip this year) you can bet I will save up for the next one... whereever it's held. I really hope I do make it, though, because it's something I'd love to experience. Of course, I am going to see if any of my friends would be up to go with me because I don't want to go by myself. Although I do have experience being in a different country by myself, I always have back-up nearby if needed. I don't know anyone in Australia, or New Zealand, so no nearby back-up. If my bro wasn't married with kids, he would've gone with me. Hmmm... I've got some thinking to do about this thing. Luckily, since I'm on the West Coast of the U.S., it won't be terribly expensive (or at least I hope it isn't) for me to fly out there. No, I still haven't looked at the prices but when I planned my trip to New Zealand a year ago, it wasn't that bad. Okay, I just checked it out... it's $1727 USD for a round trip from Sydney to LAX. If I register for WYD at the official site and get one of their pilgrim packages, I don't have to pay too much for food, health cover, transportation, etc. Not only do I have some major saving up to do (medical bills last year took out a huge chunk of my savings), they flight to Sydney is 15 hours; the flight from Sydney is 17 hours! Blimey! Well, I will try and if not, I will just watch it was much as I can on EWTN (assuming they'll broadcast some of it).

Hmm... I've got some number crunching and planning to do so I'll end the blog for today.

Thanks for reading and God Bless. :D