A Book You Can Finish In A Day

It took me a while to decide which category I wanted to place this book under. Did I want to put it under the author I never read or a book by a female author? I couldn't decide how to classify this book, so I went with what was the most accurate statement. A book you can finish in a day. 

Because I did finish it in a day. 

I've walked by this book many times at my library and have toyed with the idea of checking it out. For almost a year now, debating over this book at become part of my routine. I finally pulled the trigger on it, and I was NOT expecting the lesson that I got from it! 

First, this book is a Christian novel. This wasn't something that I gathered from the cover, but to me this fact isn't a turn off. In fact, I feel as if God may have led me to pick up this book because it had a message he wanted me to hear. 

The general story line is that Meg, the eldest in her group of sisters, finds out she has a brain tumor. She has to have surgery, which leaves her in a moody, angry, all around fowl disposition for a month or so. The doctors had told them that this may happen, and that she needed time to recover and eventually she would return to some sense of normal, or perhaps she wouldn't. Funny how brain surgery can mess with your brain!

Her husband ends up taking care of her and the kids, and he gets to the point where he needs a distraction. He ends up at a diner in another city where the waitress/owner looks JUST like Meg did before surgery and has the same attitude that Meg did before surgery. He continues going to the diner and flirting with the waitress, getting caught in the act once by his step-mother-in-law and eventually caught in the act by Meg herself.  

He doesn't realize he's been caught though. 

The SMIL tells her husband, Meg's dad, aka the town preacher about what they saw. He then preaches a sermon on affairs. Not just of the physical nature, but affairs of the emotional nature. He discusses in the sermon how many people will justify emotional affairs by saying they did nothing wrong since no sex was had. However, emotional affairs are just as volatile to a relationship as a physical one. 

I sure know that from personal experience. My ex spent a solid portion of our relationship investing his intimacy emotional with other women and by the time he realized it was a problem and not something he should have been doing, I didn't trust him not to do it. However, God didn't want to remind me of my ex's mistakes. 

After a powwow with her sisters and SMIL, Meg realizes that she also made the mistake of asking her husband to be God to her when she was recovering. In the end, Meg tells him that she forgives him of his transgressions and everyone lives happily ever after. 

The message God wanted to send me? I haven't forgiven my ex for what he did. If I'm being honest, I'm having a hard time forgiving him for it. The fact that he never complimented me, but saved those for other women has left me the most insecure I've been in a long time. 

My ex wants to be friends, and I'm trying to be a friend to him because he's going through a rough patch right now.

 But if I'm honest with myself, I'm not putting forth the effort of a true friend because I won't let myself forgive him. When he talks to me, I want to tell him to go run to all those women that he spent so much time fawning over when he was with me. He wanted attention from them over attention from me when we were together, so why would he come to me? 

I can't answer that last question. All I know, is that I need to get myself to a place where I can forgive him. Not for him. I learned a long time ago that you don't forgive someone for them, you forgive them for yourself. With this book, God gave me the nudge that until I can forgive E, I'll never experience the next level of happiness. 

Looks like I have some work to do. 

Thanks, book. 

B Star Rating      

What Do You Do?

"I get that you're a Ticket Chick, but what do you DO? You just sell tickets, right?"

This is a question that I, and others who work in ticketing, get asks often. It's definitely a profession that until you've lived it, it's difficult to understand. Even when you are currently living it, it's a little difficult to describe. If I handled sales, people could understand it. But what exactly does "ticket operations" mean?

Every Ticket Chick and Ticket Dude has different responsibilities, but almost all of us will tell you that no two days are the same. I think that's what makes it difficult to explain to people what we actually do all 9 hours that we are in the office.

Let me take you behind the locked doors and bullet proof glass, to give you a glimpse into a day today.

The morning HAS to start off with my coffee. Our office opens at 8am, and while I will help any customers who come in person at that time, I do not answer phone calls until 9am. My boss laughs at me when I tell him that it's just better for all involved if I have that extra hour to drink my coffee, catch up on emails, and organize my to-do list for the day.

After my coffee, I did one of the more essential, yet seemingly boring parts of my job, I updated the office whiteboard calendar with all of the events for this semester. Now, some people may not need to see their life in massive sections of time, but in ticket operations, it's handy to be able to glance and see your semester in one look. All games, special events, deadlines, days we're taking off, etc. are placed on the white board. It's the brain of the office for days when we can't remember our own names!

Next, I set up templates with all of the games for our monthly worker schedules. One of my duties is staffing for each game. We have some amazing people who work for us on game nights, and our jobs are so much easier because of them! Many of them have been with our office for years and can handle minor problems without us intervening, so it lets us sit back and take an extra breath on game nights. After  tackling the templates for our February, March, April/May schedules, I printed out the February template. Since next week is slammed for us event wise, I want to try and get a solid base of this taken care of this afternoon. Usually, I draft a couple of worker schedules before I get to one that I feel comfortable with. I need this schedule to go out after MLK Day, so it's time to start thinking about it.

Before stopping for a lunch break, I jotted down a tentative to-do list for next week that only involved our special events. We have 4 events next week, so I jotted down generally what needed to be done for each event. I went a head and made up my bank sheets for those events (bank sheets are what let my sellers know how much money they have in their starting bank, and then they fill out their sales on the sheet at the end of the night.) We have a game on Saturday, so I also went ahead and filled out my bank sheets and created my banks for Saturday night. In our line of work, anything that can be done in advance gets done in advance so you don't have to stress it on game night!

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LUNCH BREAK

Ate, finished a book, snuck in a quick workout, started drafting this blog post

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I started after lunch reviewing the emails I forced myself not to review while I was technically at lunch. When your box office doesn't close for lunch, sometimes it means you're eating while answering phones, or being available to answer phones or help any customers that may show up over lunch. This makes it difficult not to just take care of small projects during lunch, but I try hard to give myself the hour of NOT having to do anything that isn't necessary right then.

I reviewed the email containing all of the particulars for our basketball games this month, and took care of anything that needed to be taken care of on our end. I made notes of things that were noteworthy on the calendars to serve as reminders.

The afternoon seems to be when people come in to ask questions, so some of my well intentioned plans for the afternoon have been tabled until tomorrow. Sometimes the chats are about work, sometimes they're just to catch up. I think it's important to have the relationship with your coworkers where they feel they can come to you about anything. Everyone knows when it's time to get stuff done, so if people see you're busy, they usually don't stick around long. However, I had a few visits today that were partial work discussions, partial life discussions, and partial brainstorming sessions. I love when all three can be combined into one!

I printed our player pass list tickets for Saturday's game while one of my coworkers was chatting with me. (Two birds, one stone...and anything that can be done before game day is always helpful to get done before game day!)

I spent the bulk of my afternoon reviewing my plans and ideas to bring forward regarding group ticket pricing and group experience packages and then drafting a document to present to my boss. I also continued to do some research on something new that we plan to try next year. I spent some time jotting down notes and brainstorming our plan of action for this initiative and basically trying to think of all of the questions my boss would ask, so we can have answers going into the discussions.

Toss in some phone calls and assisting customers at the window, and you basically have my day today in a nutshell! I like the lazy days that let me catch up on paperwork and all the stuff that tends to get overlooked when I'm in game mode. Ask me this question tomorrow, and the answer will be totally different! Ask me next week when we have games galore and it won't look anything like this. That's what I love about my job. It's structured enough to keep me sane, but not so structured enough to keep me interested. Tune in for more looks behind the locked door later!

How The Sisterhood Encouraged Me To Get My God Groove Back

I didn't think that I would get into The Sisterhood. The concept was intriguing to me. A reality show following around wannabe nuns? How could the concept not be intriguing? 

I thought I would only watch one episode before I gave up, but I stuck through all 6 episodes. (Maybe because it was short enough to hold my attention?) 

There were a few things that stood out to me about the show. One was that some of the girls seemed surprised that they would have to give up their phones and makeup while in the convents. (I'm not Catholic, but I could have guessed that one.) One was how Claire was edited to remind me of all of the uber-Baptist that I went to college with. (I have the intellectual relationship with God, and if you don't then you can't be on my level attitude.) But there was one thing that stood out to me more than anything. 

The main thing that stood out to me over the course of the show was Christie's sincere faith. She may have come off a little out there from the editing, but I fell in love with her early on. She may not have worshiped in the way that some people felt she should have, and some cast members made comments about it that upset me more than I thought they would. 

Her sincere faith made me realize that I wanted what she had. I want a faith as strong and sincere as hers. I want to go beyond the intellectual faith, and develop that sincerity in my beliefs. 

In a way, this show has given me a goal to commit to more than just the hours at church during the week. I've been slack on my own devotional time, but this year, I will make more of an effort to study the scriptures on my own. I think it's no coincidence that the devotions I've found to start this year after watching this hit hard on your relationship with God v. your religion. 

 Here's to a closer relationship with God in 2015. 

A Book With Nonhuman Characters

I set the goal of this Reading Adventure as a way to work down my Kindle library of free e-books that I've managed to download over the past two years. However, it's also going to be a way to explore my library.

The first book I've read in 2015 is a book that I carried around the library for an hour before deciding to finally check it out. The teaser on the back of the book didn't fully prepare for what the book was going to be about, and that helped keep me reading.

Maybe the title should have led me to believe that this book involved clones, but I thought that perhaps Prototype was a metaphor.

The back of the book teases that Emma is looking to let go of her past - both of them. (Intrigue!) But her past comes back to haunt her. She returns to face the past, and realizes that she is more afraid of the present and the future it potentially represents. (So it's basically like my life, only she's a clone and I'm not.)

Running away from one husband, while running back to the other leads Emma on a journey toward a new life that I couldn't fully see coming from any angle. I still saw it as a tossup on which life she would end up choosing, but I'm glad she chose the one that she did. All any of us want from our past is a little closure, and I was glad that Emma was able to get that.

There was only one twist in this book that I expected, but the many that I didn't expect made this book an amazing library find. I normally don't enjoy books with nonhuman characters, but I'm glad that I didn't know about that part until I was well into the story.



B Rating:

Just One Yesterday - Fall Out Boy

I've been listening to Fall Out Boy's Save Rock and Roll album since my TX bestie found it on the internet. I popped it back into the rotation on the cd player this week, and as I was driving home from work Saturday night, "Just One Yesterday" came on. As I was belting it out these particular lyrics hit me right in the gut:

If I spilled my guts
The world would never look at you the same way
And now I'm here to give you all my love
So I can watch your face as I take it all away, away, away, ay ay ay

Those are some deep lyrics. 

And some that hit a little too close to home for me. I've been in that position before. I may have even uttered words very similar to those. 

As I pulled into my parking lot and realized that I don't think I've ever actually listened to the lyrics of this song. I waited until late Sunday to play the song for myself, this time TRULY listening to the lyrics. 

I sat on the floor, with my back against the wall, stunned. 

This song describes my first relationship in a nutshell. My first relationship, ever, wasn't until I was in college. It was extremely dysfunctional, highly destructive, and sometimes abusive. More so verbal and emotional, over physical. (Although that happened until I fought back.) It took me 9 years to finally fully leave. 

9 years?

Off and on again over the course of 9 years, I would go back. Until you're in a situation like that, I guess you can't fully understand when someone tells you that they really don't know why they kept going back. I knew what to expect there. It was familiar. There were times that I started to believe what he said about not being able to do better. Even today, it's hard not to believe it. The only difference is that today, I don't go back. 

Anything you say can and will be held against you
So only say my name
It will be held against you
Anything you say can and will be held against you
So only say my name

In my situation, those words were so true. There were things that I did during that time that I'm not proud of. There are things that I did because I felt like I had no other choice. I felt like if I didn't do them, I would be tossed aside. I felt that if I didn't do them, I'd be rejected, just as I would have been if I left because of what I had done.

It was a double-edged sword, just like those lyrics say. Anything I said was held against me. Being associated with him was held against me. I couldn't win. 

If heaven's grief brings hell's rain
Then I'd trade all my tomorrows for just one yesterday
(I know I'm bad news)
For just one yesterday
(I saved it all for you)
I want to teach you a lesson in the worst kind of way
Still I'd trade all my tomorrows for just one yesterday
(I know I'm bad news)
For just one yesterday
(I saved it all for you)
For just one yesterday

Even for as horribly as he could mess with my head, on some level he did care about me. If I had a problem, he would put aside his agenda to take care of it, to offer a shoulder, to offer advice. After I finally told him that I couldn't do it anymore, the look on his face when he left my apartment was one I'll never forget. It was the first time I had genuinely seen him look sad. 

Some days, I feel as if I would trade things for one more yesterday, if it was a good one. 

Then I remember that to get to that one good yesterday, I'd have to go through too many bad ones. I'd rather live my todays, as they are shaping up to be more awesome than I could have imagined when this song fit my life so perfectly. 

The Weekly B

This week has been difficult without having kiddo here with me, but it gave me time to get some much needed things accomplished around the apartment.

I spend a good portion of the week doing some organizing and cleaning. I organized and cleaned my bathroom. While some people may not realize what an accomplishment that is, I must admit that I am a bath products hoarder. It wasn't until tackling this organization project that I realized the extent of my hoarding. (It's slightly embarrassing) Everything now has a place, and perhaps I can hold off on buying any products until I actually need them now.

Look how clean that counter is!

Box for shampoos and body sprays

Box for face products

Box for shower gels and lotions

All travel toiletries I've collected, samples received, 

and other misc bathroom products accounted for

I also began reorganizing my bedroom. I'm about halfway through with this project, and hopefully will complete it over the course of this next week.

I spent New Year's Eve with my TX bestie. Our party consisted of sitting around her apartment in pjs while we ate pizza and Rice Krispie treats. We also enjoyed a few adults beverages while we watched the 1D Special that aired last week, The Road to the Winter Classic, Bad Neighbors, and The Fluffy Movie before watching the ball drop in Times Square. We managed to stay awake until One Direction's performance on the after party, but we rang in 2015 the only way party animals like us could, from our sleep!

After watching the Winter Classic, which was an AMAZING game, I came back home and began to debate taking my Christmas decorations down before the Epiphany. (They're still up. I could never take them down before!)

The highlight of the week for kiddo was our mascot's birthday party at work. She was sad when he left her to play with other kids and had a little meltdown, so we had to leave, but all in all it was a fun time.

Family selfie!

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WEEKLY GOALS 

One thing that I'd like to do this year, is to start being more diligent about setting some weekly goals for myself. Some weeks there may be more than others, but I want to at least go into my week with a game plan for things that I'd like to accomplish. I do this at work, so why not do it at home? 

Here is what I'd like to accomplish this week: 

- Complete Blogilates Beginners Week 1

- Select and begin reading a new book

- Cook one new meal 

- Post three blog posts 

Have a great first full week of 2015, y'all! 

Meet the Bs

I haven't really mentioned much about the B family on the blog, but since some of you are hanging out and reading about the cast of characters that live here, I figured you would probably want a little more info on us.

STARRING: 

B 

I grew up in SW Louisiana, but am currently stuck in SE Texas. (So close, yet so far!) I'm a single mom to a 3 year old (kiddo), who lives part time with her parents (Daddy B and Momma B) due to my work schedule.

 I'm a 30-something who always gets asked when I'm graduating, what my major is, and what my plans are for graduation. I still get invited to frat parties, but once they realize that my bedtime is 10pm, those will stop. Some people say that I'm an 80 year old trapped in a 30ish year old body.

I work in tickets for a college athletic department and love every minute of it. I had a 9-5 that paid me very well, but I wasn't happy, so I gave it up to work in sports. I make half of the money that I made, and work more hours than I used to, but I'm happier than I've ever been about going to work in the mornings. My only regret are the student loans that I have to pay off now for that master's degree! 

I love pizza, reality tv, and have an unhealthy (as some people would describe it) obsession with mascots. My sports teams of choice are the LSU Tigers, New Orleans Saints, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, Boston Red Sox, and Houston Astros. Add to the list the team that pays my bills (which you'll probably figure out from some pictures )

Oh yea, I'm the baby in my family. 

ALSO STARRING: 

Kiddo 

Kiddo just turned 3 in September, and is probably the smartest person I know. She's a bundle of energy who won't stay still for any period of time. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it. She has an active imagination, and commonly refers to herself and those around her as characters from her shows and books. Kiddo is also trying to avoid being potty trained and plans to go straight into Depends from Pull-ups.

Kiddo's favorite thing is music. She loves music, and sometimes it's the only thing that will calm her down when she's upset. She loves to sing and dance, Her current favorite cd is the Veggie Tales Christmas cd.

Kiddo is a fan of Frosty, and doesn't understand why our neighbors will be putting their snowman family up soon. She also loves the Veggie Tales, Thomas the Tank Engine, Sheriff Callie, and watching Switchmas on Netflix.

The biggest love of Kiddo's life is the mascot at the college I work at, Big Red. Her room is basically nothing but pictures of the two of them at various sporting events, and she tends to have a hard time accepting that Big Red has to see ALL of his friends at ballgames, and occasionally has to leave her to go visit them.

She is also a MASTER at taking pictures and has the art of the selfie down. 

SUPPORTING CAST;

Daddy B - Best grandpa in the world (aside from mine). Vietnam Vet. Retired high school English/History teacher, and former guidance counselor. (Don't say "ain't" around this man!) Ordained Baptist deacon.

He spends more time on Facebook than anyone else in the family, but don't think he'll ever admit to it.

Loves the Chicago Bears, Chicago White Sox, and his alma mater the Ragin' Cajuns. He is also a huge reader and is never seen without a book.


Momma B - Best grammy in the world (aside from mine, of course.) Retired kindergarten teacher. Amazing baker.

Her favorite thing in the world is spending time with kiddo, and she tends to claim her as her own. (I don't mind.)

Momma B hates sports, but puts up with them for Daddy B and me. She is the person to talk to about the best concession stand food. She has attended the Kentucky Derby, the Breeder's Cup, and MLB Opening Day with me.

Momma B is an avid fan of Amish romance novels, the Pioneer Woman, anything chocolate, and shopping (even if its just window shopping).


Welcome to our life! Enjoy poking around here, and we'll see you again soon!