To start Operation Saturation we shall commence with the reason behind
this operation. When I first started Simply
Singing in the Rain, the goal was to encourage others. I dreamed big but
expected little. What a surprise for me to find out that people actually
enjoyed reading my blog and for the past couple of months the views per post
have remained steady. Right now the blog gains an average of 18-20 views per
post. (The Perfect Man Builder Part One post gained the most views with 50. I
honestly didn’t expect that! What a surprise!!) My goal is to reach 50 views
per post by the end of the year 2012. To put it quite simply, I am going to
need your assistance in helping me to reach my goal. I know there are others
who might enjoy reading my blog but how can they read it if they don’t know
about it? I would humbly ask your assistance to help me get the word out to
others about this blog. Now for the instructions:
Who? Operation Saturation is for everyone and anyone. It is not limited
to just followers of my blog.
When? Operation Saturation will run until June 12th. This
will give you one month to enter yourself into the drawing for the giveaway at
the end of the operation.
How? To start Operation Saturation, I would request that you spread the
news to others by sharing one post from this blog online. Any post will do i.e.
the post about the SNC concert, the post about My Alabaster Box, or the post
about My Resolution, etc. You can share it on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (does
anyone use that anymore?), mouth to mouth, etc. If you share more than one,
your name will be entered in the drawing as many times as you share posts.
(Does that make sense?) For instance, if you shared three posts, your name will
be entered three times. You must comment that you shared a certain post. You
may do this on Facebook, Twitter, or on the post you shared. If you comment on
Facebook or Twitter, please include the name of the post you shared. This is
the only way I can determine who to enter into the giveaway at the end.
What? At the end of the Operation Saturation, the winner of the giveaway
shall receive two gifts (I’m feeling very generous). Before I get to the good
part, once I announce the winner I would request that they share how they found
out about the blog. The winner will be announced on my blog and I shall write a
little biography about them. On to the gifts…Gift #1: The winner shall receive
an open invitation to write one post on my blog about anything and everything
at any time. The requirements of this post shall be that it is clean. Gift #2:
The winner shall receive a $15 gift card to whichever restaurant they choose
from McDonalds to Olive Garden.
So, let Operation Saturation begin…*Olympic Theme Music Plays* Good
luck troops and God Bless! Until next time,
“Blessed
is the influence of one true, loving human on another.”
George
Eliot
Influences…they are all around us. Some of them good and some of them
are bad. Some of them have a lasting impact on us while some of them just
influence us for a moment. Still some emphatically shout out at us to change
while others quietly slip into our lives unawares. If you've never heard the song For Good from Wicked then I would recommend that you watch this video.
Any one of us can point back
to a life-changing moment in our history that influenced us on a career path, a
hobby, or a passion. I can point back to a few life changing moments in my
history. I am by nature a very impressionable person. I don’t know if it is
because I have a more open personality or what but many things have left their
mark on me. But this post is more about people than things. Many people have
influenced me along the walk of life. I should note here that my family and God
has influenced more than anyone else in this world. My parents where the ones
that shaped me (blame them!) and God is the one who has helped me to grow in my
Christian walk of life. The people I am going to talk about are people may not
necessarily know about their influence but they have each helped to influence
me to become who I am today.
The very first influential person I can remember was back when I was
maybe 7 or 8. (I’m not very good at synching up times and ages in my past but I
know I was around elementary age.) Her name: Jill Roscoe (now Czekalski). What
did she do? Played the piano, sang, and was (and still is) a marvelous
Christian lady. I started playing piano at my Babchi’s (Polish for Grandma) house
on her big organ when I was 5 or 6. The organ keys and organ books were
lettered and I would sit there and play forever. I absolutely loved it and from
then on became interested in music. I never thought about playing the piano
until I met Jill. She was a kind lady in her 20’s or so who played piano for
our church. I adored her and wanted to do everything like her. I wanted to sing
harmony like her, play like her, and when I grew up I would be like her. I have
never understood why I took a liking to her rather than others but some things
will always remain a mystery. I talked to my mom and started teaching myself
how to play the piano. I also started teaching myself how to sing harmony
(altos rock!!!). She still is an influence to me to this day and I will never
play piano as well as her but I hope to make her proud. Thank you Jill!!
The next influential person I want to talk about is Jill’s mom: Mrs.
Kathy Roscoe. She was our pastor’s wife who served the church in many ways. Now
she is fading fast and I may never get to speak with her to tell her on earth what
an influence she was but I know I will get to tell her in Heaven. When I attended
Chili Bible Baptist Church she taught the Sunday School class for my age. From
there, she influenced me to be a teacher. She gave me some of her old
flannel-graphs and I remember playing with them and “acting” out Bible stories.
To this day, every time I see a flannel-graph I remember Mrs. Roscoe and those
times “acting” out the Bible stories. When I teach my Pee-Wee club members, I
remember her teaching style and how creative she was. I know I wouldn’t be a
teacher if Mrs. Roscoe didn’t influence me in the way she did. She wrote me a
letter once telling me how well I played the piano and told me to always play
for the Lord. I still have that letter and treasure it. She will reach Heaven
soon and it will be a sad for a brief moment but I will remember those happy
moments. Thank you Mrs. Roscoe!!
If you would have looked at my life 5 or 6 years ago,
you would have seen a troubled young lady unsure of God, unsure of who I was,
and unsure of what I wanted to do. Since then I have re-dedicated my life to
Christ and every day I’m finding out more of who I am and what makes me tick.
All throughout college I kept praying and searching for what God wanted me to do
with my life. I cried and begged for God to show me but God knew my heart
wasn’t ready for the answer. I graduated from a Bible College not knowing what
God wanted me to do. I was confused and not at peace with my situation. In the
fall of 2010, my brothers invited me to see a magic show. The magician was a
Christian and they had gone to see him before. I was interested and curious
because they mentioned he did some of Houdini’s tricks. Houdini was amazing and
anyone who could do his tricks was top class in my mind. So I went along for
the ride and was totally amazed by the tricks I saw. His whole “theme” for the
show was Mayhem and Misdirection. He explained that some magic tricks use
misdirection as a tool to make “magic”. He tied that into modern day life and
how we can be distracted by the main task with so many different things. I
honestly don’t remember everything he said word for word (this was almost 2
years ago) but I remember that he talked about how the devil distracts us. Those
15 minutes changed my life. I knew that I was being distracted by other trivial
things in my life. I wasn’t focused on what God was really telling me to do so
I started concentrating and really praying on a direction for my life. The struggle wasn’t over as my stubborn self
refused to look right in front of me. If I would have, I would have found the
answer much sooner. In January of 2011, I attended a Kingsmen concert and God
confirmed in my heart that He wanted me to serve Him with music. Now all of you
are probably screaming at the computer saying “I knew that! Why wouldn’t you
think that?!” Don’t scream at the computer, use your inside voice. As I said, I
was stubborn and refused to look at what talents God had provided me with. I’ve
never spoken (really spoken) with Harris the 3rd before and I do look forward to
the day that I can tell him what God is doing in my life because of those 15
minutes. However, I was able to help him in his DVD project. He was in
influence to me so the least I can do is be a help to him. Thank you Harris the 3rd!!!
(If you want more
info on his DVD project here’s the link:
So to you three, thank you for influencing me in the
right direction. I hope to tell each of you in person someday how much of an
influence you all have been on my life. For now, this blog will have to do. There
are countless others I can mention: Mom, Dad, Eric, Joel, Melissa, Shoshanna,
Mrs. Brock, Mrs. Stearns, Mrs. Hinds, Mrs. Cornett, Mrs. Richardson, Mrs.
Giallourakis, Mrs. Washington, Pastor Sexton, Pastor Wolvin, Mrs. Wolvin, etc.
The list is never ending and I could go on forever but my mom says I ramble too
much so I won’t. I’ll end with a little thought: A little girl came up to me 2
Wednesdays ago and told me she wished she could play like me. It took me back
to the days I longed to play like Jill, the days I longed to teach like Mrs.
Roscoe, and the moment in time God called me to serve Him with music. The cycle
never ends and I hope to someday teach her. It’s my turn to carry the torch. Until next time,
It’s been a wonderful weekend filled with activities as well as rest.
On Friday, I went over to my friend’s house for pizza and a movie. We watched
Something Borrowed (side note: Dexter is hot!) and discussed the issues of life
while yawning every 3 seconds. It was quite epic. Really, I’m serious it was.
You would have said the same if you would’ve been there.
Due to the previous weekend’s activities, I just hung around the house
on Saturday spending time on my computer editing pictures. (Fun!) Sunday was more
exciting in that my brother’s fiancée came down for a visit. We went out to
Olive Garden after the Sunday night service and I had a blast talking and
laughing with all of my friends. I’ve told you many times how amazing they are
so I won’t bore you with another story (today at least). That being said, I
already miss my friend from New York. I wish she could move closer so we would
be able to spend more time with each other. I thought of the concert, the visit
to the zoo, the time catching up, and the time playing Family Feud (I WON!!).
My mind kept drifting back to that Friday night we had a heart to heart talk
until at least 2:30 in the morning. I had asked her some questions and told her
to be honest. Well, she was honest and it was so hard for me to take it in and
not react negatively but I needed to hear it. She was right and I was wrong.
The worst thing about it was that I knew I had to change these things for a
long time but tried to hide behind ignorance. Ignorance only works if you are
truly ignorant. She told me of what she had observed and I was grateful for
someone to say “Hey! You need to change this to become better”. I have always
tried to be an open and honest person and request the same for those around me.
However, sometimes I’m too honest and that can create many awkward moments i.e.
Straight No Chaser concert but that’s a different story. I don’t like it when
people beat around the bush and hesitate to tell me what’s really wrong. Tell
me I’m ugly, don’t say you have a beautiful spirit and great personality and
maybe to someone you’ll be beautiful. I don’t tolerate nonsense for very long
or very well. I believe my friends would let me know if something’s the matter
because most of them are as open and honest as I am. That being said, when you
are around the same people for a long period of time you begin to think that that’s
just the way they are. For instance they might say this about me: She’s single,
a music lover, a sarcastic person who gets defensive, very open about her
feelings, and worries about what people think about her. I really don’t know
how my friends would describe me if they had to, I’ve never really asked. That
could create an awkward situation and I don’t want to knowingly create one. I’m
so good at unknowingly creating one that I don’t want to push things. I have
asked my friends if there is anything that might turn someone off from liking
me. The consensus came back the same time and time again: No. That really
frustrated me as I knew I wasn’t perfect and I knew something was wrong but
couldn’t pinpoint it (I thought). I had covered all my faults with excuses and
instead of changing them I embraced them as a characteristic of me.
Last Friday night changed it all. I haven’t seen my friend for a couple
of years and have never really spent an extended amount of time with her since
junior high or so. She had a fresh perspective on what was going on with me. I
asked her to be honest and she didn’t disappoint. I needed someone to expose my
true self and the excuses that I had used to cover it up. What was wrong? I
wear my heart on my sleeve and I let small things get to me. As you know, that
never turns out too good. Hearts are meant to be kept guarded inside of your
body. When it’s on your sleeve, it can get crushed so easily and it takes a long
time to repair it. The littlest thing could set me off into a flurry of
negative emotions and it would take forever for me to regain my composure only
to be set off again. I never learned. It was like I kept running into this
brick wall over and over again hoping it might change into a door. As if you
didn’t know, walls don’t change into doors. Walls are walls, doors are doors,
and no matter how many times you hope for change, walls will still be walls and
doors will still be doors. The moral of the story is: Don’t run into walls. You
get a headache and you look stupid doing it. I know that’s very deep isn’t it?
I realized I needed to quit being so sensitive and quit thinking
something was wrong with me all the time if someone didn’t say hi or shake my
hand. I needed to realize that people have bad days and sometimes they don’t
want to talk to people. I needed to quit letting other people’s happiness in
relationships bother me. I should be truly happy for them. I needed to quit
harboring things people said and analyzing every word and phrase. I needed to
quit asking people what they think of me because it only matters what God
thinks.
I decided I had to come up with a resolution. I took my inspiration
from the movie Courageous a few
months ago and absolutely loved it. They have come a long way with the acting
and story lines. One thing that really spoke to me was the resolution that all
the fathers took. Their resolution is a lot different than mine as first of all
they are men and second of all they are fathers. Mine is for me (a girl…bet you
didn’t know that gem) and for me as a single person.
I resolve that I will be pure until the
day of my marriage.
I resolve to search the Scriptures daily in
order to grow in the Lord and to become a better person.
I resolve not to be popular or famous but
to be a better Christian.
I resolve to tell others about Jesus and
the amazing works He has made in my life.
I resolve to not falter when life’s
earthquakes shake my core.
I resolve to not wear my heart on my
sleeve and resolve to keep it guarded from all things that seek to hurt and
destroy it.
I resolve to continue in the path that
God has chosen for me whether it lead me to marriage or to remain a single
woman.
I resolve to think on things that are
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report as mentioned in the book
of Philippians chapter 4, verse 8.
This is my resolution and before God I
promise to strive for these things.
(You are more than welcome to use this “resolution” if your heart so
desires.)
I am not perfect and it will take a while for me to work on these
things but I am committed. Until next time,
Be Happy Being Single
Always Remember to Sing in the Rain
Christa
P.S. This blog has now
received over 700 views!! I feel so blessed that I reached that many people.
For your faithful readership, I will soon be having a give-away. More
information is to come in the near future.
Oh my word, I don’t know where to start other than last night was
amazing. It left me almost speechless (quite a hard thing to do). Words cannot
explain how wonderful last night was. I know that must be the most overused
phrase in the book but I am utterly at a loss on how to portray last night into
words. I know whatever I say will not do any justice to what really happened but
I will try my hardest to paint a good picture. Let’s start at the very
beginning, a very good place to start…
My friend arrived Wednesday night at 9pm and after a brief meeting with
some church friends we headed off to my house to talk. We stayed up until
2:30am (sorry Joel!) catching up and talking about life so we slept in way late the next morning. We hung around the house until it was time to get ready. I told my other 2
friends to meet me at 2:30pm at the church and we would make the 2½ hour trek
to Toledo. We planned on eating at the nearest Olive Garden and then making our
way to the concert. When I arrive at a place I’m
either right on time or late. This time we were 15 minutes late to meet at the
church. It was ok though because we had allowed ourselves a nice cushion of
time. Yes, I had the tickets and showed them off proudly to my friends. They
were impressed and we all were so excited to finally get going. The drive up
was pretty uneventful and we listened to Straight No Chaser’s new EP CD with my
new favorite song Rhythm of Love/ Can’t
Help Falling in Love with You sung by (you guessed it) Ryan Ahlwardt. I absolutely love his voice. It's so mellow and very easy to listen to. Moving on, we arrived in Toledo around 5pm and found the nearest Olive Garden which was about 2 minutes away from the
theater. We were so excited and talked about what songs we would love to hear
(mine was The Lion Sleeps Tonight),
who we wanted to meet (Seggie!!!), and where we were sitting. The table next to
us was filled with ladies in their 70’s. They proudly announced to the waitress
that they were going to see Straight No Chaser. One of the ladies told her
friends “We don’t have the best tickets as I waited too long to buy them.” My
friends and I just smiled at each other thinking of those front-row seats and we
all thought that we probably would be the youngest ones there. We finished our
dinner and made our way to the theater. We were early (about 45 minutes or so)
and had a short wait until they opened the doors. The usher (usheress?) took
our tickets and told us to walk all the way down to the front. We followed
her instructions happily and after a brief hiccup (not on our part, mind you),
we found our seats. We were ecstatic because we didn’t realize that we could
even be so close. We were in the orchestra pit and could literally touch the
stage. See Exhibit A…
My friends kept giving me a time update…7:10pm then 7:15pm. I gave
them specific instructions to tell me when it was 7:25pm because every time
they gave me an update my stomach did a somersault and turned itself into a
knot. I was afraid I’d throw up so I had to calm myself down. I was really that
excited. I can only explain it by the feeling you get when you first get on a
roller coaster. It’s like your eyes see that big drop coming up and sends a
signal to your brain to release the adrenaline. My adrenaline was pumping so
fast that I couldn’t calm down. I took a deep breath and concentrated on trying
to keep my hands from shaking. They told me when it was 7:24pm and then the next
thing I knew it was 7:30pm (the time of the concert). You ask a friend to do a
simple thing and they mess it up. Oh well, I could overlook the mistake this
one time. Around 7:35pm we started seeing shadows behind the curtain and my
friend and I (yes, we are crazy) pointed and squealed each time we saw a
shadow. We couldn’t wait for the opening song. The lights went dim and the
awful music the theater was playing shut off. They played an opening video
(hilarious!!) telling of who SNC is, where they got the name, and how they
prepare for the concerts. Then it went dark and we heard “Ready, Ready, I’m
ready come on!” See Exhibit B…
My friend and I and the rest of the audience screamed for joy. We were flabbergasted at how close we were. We could
see their faces and expressions. It was amazing!! I was taking the above video
when I noticed that Walt was looking at me (or in my direction) and I gave him
a thumbs up. He nodded back. I think I died inside, because Walt actually nodded at
me. Swoon… We cheered at the end of the song and I stopped the video. All of
sudden, I heard “AH we-ma-wet…” I gasped really loud then said SORRY at the top
of my lungs. They were singing The Lion
Sleeps Tonight my all-time favorite SNC song!! I recorded it and tweeted
“My life has seriously been made. Ryansongs (Ryan’s twitter name) sang The Lions Sleeps Tonight.” I was that
excited and was so happy that they sang it. I’m a little embarrassed about my
reaction but hey you only live once, right? My only regret about the concert
was that I was so concerned about getting the right picture that I fiddled with
my camera a lot. I wish I hadn’t and just sat back and enjoyed. Here are some
of my favorite pics. See Exhibits C and D…
(Disclosure: While I was looking through my pics, I noticed that Ryan
was in almost every one and he was looking at me in almost every one. No, Ryan
I am not a stalker. It’s just the way it turned out that way I promise. He’ll
probably never read this but I just had to say that.)
The first set included songs like Summer
of ’69 (Tyler totally rocked that one), a
Beatles Medley, and Stayin’ Alive/Superstition (during that one Ryan hit a
high note and I think I screamed or nodded my head or both and he just smiled.
Cue swoon…) It was amazing the interaction from the guys to the fans in the
front seats. They smiled at us, nodded, pointed, or just looked our way a few
times. It was a totally different world from the front row of the balcony. We
will never be able to sit anywhere else again, seriously. Intermission came too
soon and we took a few pics. See Exhibit E…
Cool pic huh? I thought so. The next set of songs went by fast and
it included the SNC Movie Medley
(which if you ask me, they really need to record). Charlie did the intro (his
intros are awesome!) and the guys happened to have a popcorn machine with some
buttery, salty popcorn on stage which they promptly ate. (To go on record this was the first time they ever did this) If you’re any kind of
a singer, you know popcorn is one of the worst things to have before you sing. It’s
scratchy and those dog-gone blasted kernels always get stuck in your teeth. However,
they sounded amazing even after eating the popcorn. Most of them only ate a few bites
or in Ryan’s case, a few handfuls. Behind Charlie, Ryan was throwing pieces of
popcorn at Walt who was having extreme difficulty catching them in this mouth. Not
sure whose fault that was but one time Ryan mocked frustration and ended up
throwing a huge handful of popcorn at him. Walt just shrugged and his expression
said “Come on, man!” When they were just about ready to sing, the guys handed
out the popcorn to the middle and right front rows. We were in the left front row and they missed us! L We were a little
disappointed but nothing could crush our spirits. Then Jerome came over and
said something like “Come get some popcorn. It’s really good” and promptly
dumped half of it into our hands. Cue swoon… From then on, every time we moved
our feet we heard the crunch of popcorn. He made our night. As a total
surprise, Ryan came back on stage with this huge bag full of popcorn and gave
it to me. Cue swoon again… The popcorn was super delicious and I got the guys
to sign the bag after the show (Charlie laughed and said “This popcorn wasn’t
greasy at all” and all of the guys got a huge kick out of signing it). See
Exhibit F…
They sang a couple of more songs including Fix You. See Exhibit G…
I still get chills when I listen to that song. It’s so emotionally
moving and powerful. I will never be able to get over that sound. They ended
the show with a club-like medley that included Party Rock (and yes they shuffled). The crowd (did I mention the
venue was sold-out?) called them back for 2 encores. I need to tell you about the 70+ lady behind me. She a set of lungs that
could out scream me and my friends. I seriously could not hear anyone else but
her even when I was screaming. Their last song (the final encore) was Up on the Roof which is a very beautiful song and they did it
off-mike.
Straight No Chaser always has a Meet and Greet after the show so we
waited for a while until the end of the line for our turn. I had my Ryan
Alhwardt CD that I wanted Ryan to sign and my popcorn bag (I have a previously
signed ticket from them). When I handed the CD to Ryan, Seggie was like “Who is
that?” Ryan said “Oh, just some guy.” Ryan asked my name and I told him then
said “It’s spelled C-h-r-i-s-t-a” (everyone spells it with a K). Then Seggie
was like “I could’ve burned that for you.” I responded (so blonde) “Well, then
he wouldn’t get the money would he?” Stupid response. I should’ve said
something like “Well, if you would’ve followed me on Twitter then you would’ve
known.” I’ve come to terms that I will act like a blonde when I’m around people
I am anxious to meet. At least this Meet and Greet was better than the last one
even though I still acted like a blonde. When we got to Jerome he asked us if
we were in the front row on the left. Amazing memory and (you guessed it) cue
swoon… We talked to the security guard and asked them if they were taking pics
afterwards. He said “You didn’t hear this from me but wait around.” So we did
and we each got our pics taken with the whole group. See Exhibit H and I…
Side Note: (I think Walt missed out on the memo that the second pic was
supposed to be a non-funny pic. At least I wasn't the only one acting blonde.
Sorry Walt!!)
It was an amazing night and I came back home with a newfound respect
for SNC. I really love these 10 guys and their sound but the feeling was
different on the way home this time as I reflected on the whirlwind events of the
night. It was a feeling of respect instead of girly giddiness. I can’t really explain
it but I think I grew in my maturity just because of the night. I was more
content with life. I knew I hadn’t thought exactly right and I botched the
whole Meet and Greet thing again (When will I ever learn?! I'm such a dweeb!) but I came away knowing there was a connection. I
don’t know maybe I’m going crazy but it was just different. I cannot wait to see them again and maybe next time all common sense and sarcasm bestowed upon me won't abandon me again.
The best thing was this morning when I woke up. My mom came and asked
me a question and I showed her my popcorn bag. She was not as excited as I was
about it but asked me “So are you a groupie now?” I said “No, we’re called
Chasers.” Cue Big Smile…. I will remember and re-live this night for a very
long time. I can now say “Hi, my name is Christa and I have finally joined the
ranks as a Chaser.” Today we are going to the zoo, it will be fun but nothing
could ever live up to last night can it? I think that is the question of the
ages…
Today is the day that my friend is coming to visit me. Yay!! I
seem to remember that I promised you a story yesterday on how I almost lost our
4 front-row seat tickets. Well, as soon as I received the tickets I
automatically pulled them out and checked to make sure that they were right and
also that what I had seen on the website was correct. I still couldn’t believe
that we had front row seats. I took a picture (see previous blog post here) and
posted it on Facebook for all my friends to see (yes, I am definitely bragging
at this point in time) where they went after that I wasn’t sure. For some
reason, a few weeks later, I wondered where I placed those tickets. I looked in
all the usual piles of papers around my room and couldn’t find them. I wasn’t
worried as I sometimes misplace things and I knew I would eventually find them.
I continued looking throughout the week (off and on) and became concerned that
I couldn’t find them. I cleaned my room and two piles of trash stared me in the
face. I made up my mind to throw NOTHING out until I found those tickets. I
didn’t have time to look anymore so I waited for the weekend. I hunted through
every nook, cranny, pile, and purse and couldn’t find a trace of them. I
couldn’t even find the envelope they came in. I decided that I would look
through the trash although I knew I couldn’t have thrown something so important
away. You probably know the ending of the story by now but for those who don’t
I shall continue. I opened up the bag and what do you know there were four
front-row tickets staring right at me. To think if I didn’t look for those
tickets at that exact moment, I would have thrown them away and then what. I
shudder to think of it. I took a deep breath and immediately thanked God that I
wouldn’t have to tell 3 of my best friends that I had thrown away our $55
front-row tickets. I immediately placed them in a box and put them in my very
top drawer of my dresser. I got up the courage to tell all of my friends
(eventually) of the unfortunate incident. They were relieved but I could tell
that they had become concerned about my ticket handling capabilities. After
that I had three dreams where my friends were either late or that we had
forgotten the tickets. I think I’m going to have them text me tomorrow before I
leave my house so there is no chance I’ll forget them. I’m so excited to see my
friend today and to see Straight No Chaser tomorrow. If they only knew who
excited I am…
Although, I did not have time to post a blog for last week (my apologies to all concerned), I did manage to write down my thoughts and activites of the weekend. My weekend started at 8:00pm Tuesday night. Here is my diary of the first day...
4/17/12
So it’s the day before the day that I go with my 3 friends to see
Straight No Chaser. Why? They are awesome. Need I say more? No. If you follow
me on Twitter (hailcesar87) or are friends with me on Facebook, then you
already know that I am super excited about this concert. It seems like
yesterday that I sat at the computer waiting for the tickets to go on sale. I
had been given the solemn task to purchase the tickets. I was super nervous
because the pre-sale had ended a few days earlier which was before we could get
the funds needed to buy the tickets. I figured we might get lucky and end up in
Row D but more than likely we’d end up in Row G. All of us wanted to be on the
main floor if possible. Those were my orders: Get tickets on the main floor as
close as possible. I pulled up Ticketmaster.com and found the page to purchase
the tickets. I looked at the time and it said 9:59am. I had one more minute
until the tickets officially went on sale. I entered in the number of tickets
and chose the Best Available option. By that time it was 10am, so I clicked
Find Tickets. I nervously waited the results hoping that we hadn’t missed out
on some good seats by not getting in on the Presale. My heart sank as the
screen popped up and said Row XA. I knew we had waited too long. I looked at
the seat chart trying to determine if it would be better to sit in the balcony
instead of the main floor. I became confused when I realized that the main
floor went only up to Row DD or something like that. I frantically searched for
the row we had been given as the time ticked down in the lower right hand
corner. I had 3 minutes and counting to figure out where we were going to sit
or we would lose those tickets and I would have to start over. I reviewed the
chart again and couldn’t believe what I saw so I did a double take. We had
scored tickets in the very, very front row. The nervousness was quickly
replaced by giddiness. I hurriedly moved on to the next screen to secure those seats
before the time ran out. I still can’t believe that we have seats in the very
front row on the main floor. Last time I went to see Straight No Chaser (SNC)
we had front row seats but they were in the balcony. We were super high off the
ground and I had to sit sideways the whole time due to the railing being too
close to the seats. We were not going through that again. A few weeks later the
tickets arrived and I almost lost them. That story is for tomorrow. See you
soon,
Two days ago, I had to pack everything from desk at work and move it
all. It had been a rough couple of days and that was the last thing I wanted to
do. You see I had accumulated a lot of belongings. I can’t function at a desk
that’s not properly decorated. I had some flower arrangements, my Ted Dekker books,
some Beanie Babies, and countless pictures of my family, Pee-Wee club, Southern
Gospel groups, and the Straight No Chaser concert. My mind floated back to Monday
when I walked into work and…
“Christa, you need to clock in now!” My boss exclaimed with a look of
impatience on her face. I was walking into work feeling overjoyed as I just had
a wonderful weekend filled with spending time with my friends and family. I was
working the late shift and had an enjoyable night’s sleep. My boss looked a
little stressed and it concerned me. She told me that there was an emergency
meeting and that we all needed to attend. I walked in and everyone had pens and
paper ready. I was a little apprehensive about what was going on but I took my
seat at the front and waited for the meeting to start. Our HR representative
then explained that 4 people had been laid off from my department that day and
then tried to reassure us that the rest of us were safe from the cuts. I
resisted the temptation to look around to see who was gone. I immediately
became concerned about my position because he said I was safe but my question
was for how long. He continued to explain something about re-organizing the
team structure and told us that the company was financially sound but due to the
decrease in…. I didn’t hear the rest as I was still shocked by the news. Then
it was over with, a 10 minute meeting that changed the whole outlook of my day.
Four of my co-workers without any word of warning had been let go. Twelve
people lost their jobs that day. It could‘ve been me just as easily as it was
them. What would I do? Fear gripped my heart and I thought of the stack of
bills I had incurred. I wouldn’t be able to survive without any income. Then in
a flash I made the decision to praise God. I thanked Him for sparing my job and
thanked Him for His many blessings this weekend. I decided to place my trust in
Him and His promise. I have a verse on my desk from Psalms that states “I have
been young and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his
seed begging bread.” I remembered the saying “I don’t know what the future
holds but I know Who holds the future.” In my mind, my future is to be
determined but in God’s mind it’s all planned out. I originally started this
blog to say how wonderful of a life God has given me and now I definitely
realize it. I was being to get a little unconcerned about my friends, my job,
and my family. I was taking them for granted instead of thanking God for
granting me these gifts. It brought me out of the fairytale that everything
would remain the same and into the reality that everything could be gone in
mere seconds.
By the time this blog post goes up it will be one week until my second SNC concert, 6 days
until my friend Maranda comes to visit, and 6 days after the girl’s movie night
I hosted at my house. As I sit here looking at 4 front row tickets (no, I’m not
bragging…ok I’m bragging), I realize I am blessed. Three other girls paid almost
$100 (including tickets, gas, and food) to make a 6-hour round trip journey to
Toledo. Granted they are not going just to be with me but it makes me feel
blessed that they want to experience this with me. Another friend is coming
down in a few weeks just to hang out with me. I’ve never had that happen
before. I’ve always been the one to get up and go to wherever I needed to be
but she’s making a special trip down to Ohio just to see me. I am humbled.
Later last week, we had a girl’s only movie night at my house. I am honored to
have friends that want to hang around me. These are friends that encourage me
and help me. They are the ones that can go up to a rack of clothing and pick
out a random shirt and say Christa would like that. 99.99% of the time they are
correct. It’s amazing to know that they know my style and want to know what I
think or want to know what I like.
I don’t talk about my family much. In fact I haven’t really mentioned them
except the fact I have brothers. Well, consider this your introduction to my
family. I have two brothers: one older and one younger. My parents are still
around and are still married to each other (30 years this May). My family is my
biggest support network. They are the ones who are not afraid to correct me or
tell me how to fix something. I take high regard on what my family thinks of me
and I know that they are there to help me through the rough times. I can be
unpredictable at times but they don’t seem to mind. We have our fights and at
times we might seem like we hate each other but when it comes down to it we
love each other like not one else. I love my family!
Some people may be interested in what I do for a living. I work for a
non-profit credit counseling service that helps people with their credit card
debt. Non-profit meaning the business is non-profit…me, I am for-profit. Yes, I
do get paid money for my work and no, I don’t volunteer. Bills don’t pay
themselves, you know. I basically work with creditors in my areas. I won’t bore
you with the details so you can all breathe that sigh of relief. My job is
unique in the fact that most of my benefits are paid for and I have very good
work hours. My job can be unpredictable (hmm…who does that sound like?) and
there have been times where I wished I had a different job altogether. I have
prayed about it and God has stated that right here is where I need to be for
right now. I will listen to what He has to say for there was a time when I
didn’t listen. It was the most miserable 2 years of my life. Don’t ever stop
listening to God.
I am blessed in the fact that I have a loving family, caring friends,
and a paying job. I am blessed in the fact that almost 400 people have read my
blog in the past 3 months without me twisting their arm. Thank you for your
readership (is that even a word?). You are quite an awesome group. Quiet, but
awesome. In the words of Porky Pig “(Random stuttering) That’s all folks!!!”
Until next time,
