24 Goals Update

So it is now March...3 months into my 24th year on this Earth.  Figured I'd update you on what I have accomplished in the last 90ish days.

1. Rock my student teaching semester. Conquer it. Learn. Become a better teacher.This is definitely happening! I start my next placement on Wednesday but I rocked my first student teaching placement.  Both my cooperating teachers agreed I have chosen the right profession. My supervisor even said I am well on her [my] way to having her [my] own classroom." :)

15. Gain a more professional demeanor.
Still in progress, but I have certainly come into my own professional demeanor. This was specifically pointed out to me when I presented at a Social Studies conference this past Friday to veteran teachers.  Yes, a student presented to teachers.

On an unprofessional note, I'm totally bad ass & def got sawg.

17. Try 24 new beers, rather than the old standbys
Ok, I haven't gotten to 24 yet, but I'm working on it. What I've tried:
Ithica Smoked Porterhouse- tastes burnt/smoked. No thanks!
Sweetwater Brew 420- ehh it's all right
Sierra Nevada- LT said the draft was old, so I don't think I got the real flavor. Definitely have to try it again.
Brickyard Porter- pretty nice, I'd drink it every once and a while
Sam Adam's Pildsilfjdfj- I can't remember the name, but it's new & I don't like it. Too much after flavor.
Smithwycks- Had this on St. Patty's Day...definitely better than that first Irish beer I had that night!

I know I've tried a few others, but seriously I haven't been impressed. Molson Canadian is still #1 in my book.

22. See Luke, Lady A, and Dierks in concert.
Well I saw one of them- LUKE!! Actually won the concert tickets at the end of January! Freaking awesome experience! Read: Meeting  & Greeting Luke Bryan blog post.

24. Bring my 1.5mile time down from 13:30 to 12:00.I have brought my time down at the gym when I time myself on my sweet Ironman 30 Lap watch.  Currently running about a 12:05 1.5mile and a 16:25 2 mile. Go me!

Bryanites

I find solace, inspiration, and my true emotions in music. The lyrics, the beat, the tempo, the instruments, the voice.  Certain songs pull on my heartstrings the way nothing else can. (Hence the "troubadours" part of the blog.) 

Less than a week ago I drove down to Georgia for a concert.  Now normally this wouldn't be a big deal, going to a concert. However, this concert, I HAD to go. I was attempting to find peace and happiness, while attempting not to feel heartache and sadness. I stumbled upon the answer, or what I thought was the answer, after class.  I was online and happened to go on the Luke Bryan website. There it was! My ticket to happiness-- 4 concerts in Georgia around the very same time I planned to visit my cousin in Atlanta.  DONE DEAL. I bought the ticket for the Thursday night concert in Carrollton, a town I had never been to before in my life, packed up my car, and made the estimated trip of 15hours 22minutes in 14hours.

Luke Bryan entered the stage around 9:30pm.  It was amazing. He came out fire blazing. The entire night was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  I felt alive again. I felt invigorated.  I felt like ME.  I felt whole.

Since the concert I have become more thoroughly obsessed with this country star. I haven't felt this way since I was in 5th grade, my room plastered with Backstreet Boys posters and fan club merchandise.  I was gushing and blushing as I retold Thursday nights events to Carina.  She laughed and said I was smitten. It was true! I was absolutely smitten with this image of Luke Bryan- his words, his smile, his boots, his jeans, his voice.  I guess its probably a more safer rebound relationship!

I think what I'm so smitten with is his way wording everything and the way it spoke to me in my desperate hour. I've seen him in concert before, which was amazing as well, but not in the way in which  it was this past Thursday. His last concert, the one I drove 14hours to see, was akin to a religious experience for me.  I felt passion, life, and contentment flowing through my veins. I felt safe, as though I could find protection from his lyrics of wisdom.

Yes, I realize how goofy all this sounds, and I promise I am a sane woman.  However, to take my smitten-ness further Carina and I have decided to become religious followers of Luke Bryan, calling ourselves Bryanites. We plan to make a statue in his likeness, take a pilgrimage to see him and hear his word, and celebrate him and his mantras with feast days. To add to the silliness I have organized some Bryanite mantras, in case you readers are interested in following the new found religious order.

1. Rain makes corn. Corn makes whiskey.

2. Wish this high noon Georgia sun could melt what's been done, make it disappear.

3. There's only one thing you can do. Don't worry about nothing. Let it go see what tomorrow brings. Don't worry about nothing. Pray about everything.

4. You're like a early morning Monday, bringing me down, messing with my mood.

5. Some folks aren't happy the way they are. Some just wanna take things just a little too far. I am just what I am. I'm just what you see. So I'll make it easy, I'll stay me.

6. You need hands, rough not soft, to come and warm you up in that cold hayloft. Let me hold you little darling, in my big strong arms, can't get these kind of muscles anywhere but a farm.

7. Love is blind. Fate don't care.

8. All I know is we went out and done it up right.

9.  Well I worked all week, so I could come here, and have a nice cold beer. But 1 turned to 10 and 10 turned to 20, and 20 plus an empty bottle is too damn many.

10. I ain't got a clue what went down, so I started calling around. And all my friends say...

Road Trips

When I was younger our family vacations started with a road trip; all 5 of us and our stuff piled up in our garnet and grey van.  When I was in high school I never went on the road trips that my cousin & I or my friends & I dreamed of finally being able to go on when we turned 16. But my sense of adventure, or rather, burning desire for adventure has never subsided.

I first started conducting my solo road trips when I was a freshman in college. I drove from Brockport to Allegheny nearly every other weekend to visit my high school boyfriend.  During the summer of my junior year I would travel to Pittsburgh to see a boyfriend.  Later in my senior year of college I drove to North Carolina to see Zach who was stationed in Fayetteville. 

I guess I started falling in love with driving.  I bought a new car that got better gas mileage so that it wouldn't cost so much.  I remembered the fun I would have as a kid, cruising along the road, seeing what was out there, listening to the radio (which is how I can sing along to all the Oldies songs my parents listen to). I was out there on the road by myself. I controlled my own destination.  I felt free.

There is something that makes me feel alive when I'm out there on the road. I love feeling the sun beat in through the windshield. I love the sound of the wind gushing through the open windows.  I love turning the radio up as loud as I can make it when I find a station with one of my favorites. I love the way I can scan the radio and hear a song that I haven't heard in awhile, years perhaps, that immediately puts a smile on my face. I love not having a GPS system guide me. Yes, I have the directions written down, but the way "going with your gut" when it comes to directions gives the instant gratification of strength and courage that nothing else has ever compared to in my life. I love stopping in new places to get gasoline.

I think that the road trips I have been on are a mirror of my life.  Obviously they are moments in my life, but more than that the road trip itself is a mirror of my inner being and situation.  I have had my share of boyfriends, but all for one trip, it has been a solo journey.    I have made wrong turns. I have stopped and asked for directions.  I have nearly run out of gasoline.  I have had the anxiety of whether or not I actually took the correct exit.  I have discovered a place I had only heard of in books.  I have taken pictures. I have seen battlefields. I have crossed over plains and rivers. I have felt alone and scared. I have journeyed through mountains. I have felt happy and exhilarated.  I am always the driver.  I am in control.  I look forward to the drive to my destination, but typically dread the return home. I have felt like a pioneer. 

For those reasons above, it only seemed appropriate that after my recent heartache I take a road trip. However, this was no ordinary breakup. This was not some boy I just needed to get over.  This was a man I thought I was going to spend forever with.  So, I decided I needed, my soul needed, my heart needed more than one road trip. 4 to be precise. In the span of 5 weeks. To help me, my soul, and my heart to move forward and forget the past with new, bright, and happy moments. 

Maybe then, I'll find peace. Or at least the start of it.