Red Hot Salsa (Mar 21)

• Finally went salsa dancing with Jayme and Nikki tonight! They ask/remind me every week to join them but I'm always hesitant because of work on Fridays. This week though, I took Friday off (and I'm headed to Chicago with Anna to see PP!) and on Monday I realized this would be the perfect time for me to go! It was SO much fun! We definitely pre-gamed before we went and that was fun (and necessary) ;) And once we got there, it was great! There were tons of people and a lot knew exactly how to salsa. I danced with a few guys, eventually coming to a guy who was taller than me (I was wearing heels too!!!!) and liked that I was tall. We danced really well together and we definitely exchanged numbers - I can't wait to dance with him again! :D I also met a guy from the Middle East who was very funny and very nice but AT LEAST a head shorter than me - he was very disappointed when I frankly told him that there was no way I could date him, because of the height difference. Just call me a Heartbreaker ;)

Best Of What's Around

• Okay, there are tons of things that suck about being an adult. Or an "adult". (They aren't the same but either way you still have to pay bills.) One the best things? Eating dessert for breakfast if you want to. But that's not the point. No, one of the other best things? Sleepovers during the week. Seriously, Monday night sleepovers with Jayme and Nikki are my favorite. I dancing with them in class, having people think we actually live together, going to my car together after, drinking whatever beverage we come up with that night, eating whatever snack we come up with that night, girl-talking and most of all laughing like crazy to New Girl. It's the best and I'm so grateful to be friends with them :)
• (Also, I just realized I basically wrote this same post last week. That's how much I love New Girl Mondays.)

Sister Act (Mar 16)

• Erin and I had a great day together! We ate at a vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor for dinner (I had vegan pizza...for probably the last time. I NEED REAL CHEESE.) and then headed to Pontiac for the Lindsey Stirling concert at the Crofoot. We drove up and saw a ton of people waiting in a line. We very much hoped that we wouldn't have to join them, but we soon realized that when they said the show started at 7, it really meant that doors opened at 7. So, since it was 6:45, we would have to que up too :/ It wasn't horrible though and the people in front of us were amused by our conversation about gingers (and dating them). Plus, I saw Erica! :) Once inside, we decided to head up to the 2nd floor balcony for the show. It was all standing-room only, but at least up there we had some room to move freely. The opening act was weird. It was a 2-man rap group - one guy played trumpet and the other played acoustic guitar. And the rapped. The trumpet guy was actually really good (at both singing and playing) but the whole concept was weird. Plus, I expected a more folk-y act to introduce Lindsey. (If you haven't seen Lindsey Stirling's videos, start here.) We made it through though and soon she came out! We really couldn't see so Erin convinced me to go to this part of the upstairs that was blocked off by a fence - but that had a small space between said fence and the wall...large enough to sneak through. About 3 pictures and 3minutes later, we were kicked out - it was for people with VIP passes :/ So we went back to our original spots and mostly just listened. It was great though :) She's pretty awesome. Not as funny as JG in concert, but very talented :) Throughout the down time of the day (getting ready at my apartment, the drive over, waiting for the bands, etc.), Erin and I talked about all kinds of things. She complimented my apartment by saying I was a hipster :) And was impressed that I go to bars/clubs relatively awesome. Apparently, that makes me cool! WOO! To finish off a great night, we decided to go out to a couple of places in downtown Ann Arbor when we got back. I took her right to Conor's, where there, surprisingly, wasn't much of a line. However, while we were waiting, a drunk ginger sorority girl walks past the line to the manager/bouncer and starts trying to convince him to let her in because she has red hair and it's St. Patrick's Day. He looks over to me and Erin (indicating that there were other gingers waiting) - so I leaned out of line and said, "What do you think we're doing?" I got a laugh out of him and several others in line. The girl totally ignored me, but also went back to her friends...standing in line :D We hung out there for a while (I gave her some pro-tips about avoiding or catching attention at the bar...and increased my cool status) and then we headed to Rush Street. There, we danced on the incredible crowded dance floor for about 10 minutes, cooled off and left. It seems short, but it was great. We just saw a little bit of the bar scene, took in our fair share of the color green and inappropriately-dressed-for-the-weather girls (I mean, come one - you can still look slutty in jeans, if you really want to!) and headed home/to bed before the sun came up. We popped in The Prince & Me when we got back but neither of us made it all the way through. It was a great day and I'm so glad we got some quality time together :)

Live From New York (Mar 12)

• Spent the evening cuddling Chloe, attempting to cook and oogling Adam Levine, Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake via the following SNL episodes: Season 38, Episode 12 (Adam Levine hosts) and Season 38, Episode 16 (Justin Timberlake hosts...and sings). They are so funny. And beautiful :D

The Happy Mondays (Mar 11)

• I think I'm going to try to restart the "one-good-thing-per-day-no-matter-what" posts. I feel like I could use those right now. In light of that...
• New Girl Mondays with Jayme and Nikki have quickly become a huge highlight of my week. First, I love that I have New Girl nights on Mondays AND Tuesdays. Second, I love that the 3 of us have become friends. Making friends is fun and I did it so much in Korea - I'm glad this is something I've "brought back" with me. Plus, it's a really neat experience becoming friends with people I have many things in common with, but not everything. And it's fun when people notice - a few weeks ago, a girl in our dance class asked if we all lived together :) Third, laughing at New Girl, eating whatever snack we've come up with and drinking whatever drink we've concocted is an amazing way to spend Mondays. (If I could bring Chloe, life would be perfect.)

Disappointed Type

• Tonight, I'm feeling very disappointed. Today, I was planning to take a mini-road trip to see these ice boulders that have appeared on the coast of Lake Michigan, near Traverse City. Even though it was almost 4 hours away, I thought it would be fun and random and memorable. I'd been planning to do this for about 2 weeks (and Anna said she could accompany me) - but when the weather warmed up on Friday, I started to question my decision. Doing a random road trip 2 weeks after you first think of it lends itself to more over-analyzing than is necessary. And that's what happened. I over-analyzed my way out of doing it. I could have woken up early and called the Sleeping Bears Dunes Info Center to see if the boulders were still there. I could have just gone up there anyways, and had a fun story to tell, even if it would have cot me about $70 in gas. But I didn't. Anna and I stayed at her house and watched TV and did nothing on our computers. We did end up getting out of the house for a little while (we were jolted into action when the tree fell on her house and scared the bejeezus out of us). And we headed to Lansing's Old Town and Downtown to wander around. Both of which turned out to be quite boring and a bit depressing (I mean this with no disrespect to the people trying to make Lansing nice - Lansing does not have anywhere that's really walkable and enjoyable). We ended up getting ice cream at the Dairy Store, which was definitely yummy. And it was relaxing to sleep in and do nothing. But I don't need to sleep in and do nothing. I need to be awake and doing things! My job does not render me so exhausted that I need the weekends to catch up on sleep and me-time. No, my daily activities render me itching for something more adventurous. And I - kind of due to weather, mostly due to myself - turned that opportunity down today. I hate that. It may seem like I'm blowing this out of proportion. Except that I've noticed myself doing this in many different situations lately. I'm flaky, even in plans with myself. I don't do things that I need to because I'll have time to do them tomorrow (whether it's finishing projects or doing chores). I don't make plans because they almost never come to fruition (like this weekend). I over-analyze until I've talked myself out of doing something (this is a main reason I didn't think when I made the decision to go to Korea...I just did it). I'm particularly frustrated by this right now because I'm trying to make a decision about my upcoming vacation days, and I can't even figure that out. I was supposed to go to Florida to see Carlee next weekend - but it's too expensive. So then I thought I could go to Toronto, to visit Monique and Richard and Sai, and maybe hit Niagra Falls too - but I also have the opportunity to spend some extra time with my sister, and I can't decide which I want to do more. I'm also feeling helpless in many other parts of my life, so I'm frustrated that I can't take control of these little decisions. I'm also tired of living alone. And I'm tired of having no money to save. And I'm almost 25.

The Rainbow Connection

• Almost all of my physical Korea connections are gone. I've eaten most of my Korean snacks (although I do have some coffee left), I've deleted the last of my pictures off my memory card, soon I'll be done uploading pictures and blog posts, my Korean facewash is almost used up and, today, I got my hair cut for the first time since Mi Bon (it doesn't look as good and was more expensive :/). I feel like I'm losing touch with everything from that part of my life! And I don't like it. It's hard that I want to be back there so badly too :( I'm grateful for my blog posts, pictures and memories though. And for surprise visits from Ashley :)

Let's Have Church

• Today, I had the experience of attending a small mega-church (oxymoron?) with Jen, Krystle and Jen's mom. It was really interesting. I appreciated that I was able to go about it objectively - it made for an interesting (at least, I hope) analysis:
• I think part of why the environment of this church (and similar churches) was hard for me/us to accept was that it's really a combination of several things that are usually not associated with chruch: a cafe, a mall-ish atmosphere, a music concert and a university lecture/recitation. Those are the parts that make up this church, rather than more traditional things: casseroles, social halls, youth group rooms (with weird couches), coffee hour, chancel choir, etc.
• No one greeted us - as one of thousands who came in that day, it was easy to get lost in the crowd, and be overlooked as new.
• I did not like the announcement that was made at the beginning of the service, asking regular attendees to pray about and consider attending a different service, to make room for more visitors at the popular 10:30 a.m. service time. I guess I understand the need for this, but it was really weird to hear it as a church announcement.
• The people around us were really nice - the greeting time allowed us to see that.
• We did not sing any songs during the service. This probably would have bugged me a lot more had they not started with "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons. One of my favorite songs. It helped make me see the service more neutrally - if I hadn't liked that song, it would have been easy to make fun of the fact that they didn't have any (for lack of a better term) sing-a-long songs, since that is one of my favorite parts of a service. But it sounded amazing (the band was fantastic) and fit really well with the message.
• There was a lot of talent displayed - in the band, the dramatic performance and the pastor's message.
• The pastor was very dynamic, but also personal - I really did feel like he was speaking directly to me or a a small group of people, rather than the large auditorium we were in.
• A favorite quote from the sermon: "You can't work your way closer to or sin your way farther from God."
• On the other hand, I also felt like the pastor only spoke to a specific demographic - the people who have really messed up and made huge life mistakes, particularly recently (i.e. 20-somethings and recent college grads).
• However, ironically, in my post-service research about small groups, I was told that there is not a general small group for 20-somethings who aren't college students. There are "probably" a bunch that have to do with the message series, as those are chosen based on interests, age, occupation, location, etc. But those groups were selected at the beginning of said lecture series - over a month ago.
• And when I "stepped out" of the experience of listening to his message and looked around me, I realized that we were basically in a church lecture. Hundreds of people listening to the main points and then you split into your appointed/chosen small group throughout the week (one of hundreds) to decipher more meaning and take the concepts further. We were even given paper to take notes on.
• Another thing I noticed about the service - the auditorium setup was a little weird. Although setup like other contemporary churches and auditoriums I'd been to (3 sections, 4 aisles, in a semi-circle), the middle section was extremely large. Such that if you sat in the middle and needed to use the bathroom or decided you didn't want to finish the service in the middle of the service, you had to climb over at least 50 people on either side of you...or stay put.
• The whole experience was very individual-oriented, as Krystle pointed out. They talked a lot about "you", in several parts of the service. And, with so many people, it was hard to feel a sense of belonging. There was little emphasis on the faith community as a whole and, considering that's where a lot of my personal faith has its foundation, I had trouble with that (as did Krystle).
• Overall, the service was quite good - but the pre-church atmosphere and pre- and post-church parking issues and considerations were enough to make me not want to return. Actually, I wouldn't mind going back to see what a second Sunday would be like (especially without one of my favorite songs as the focus). But I prefer a place that knows me - and sings traditional songs at worship :D

I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell

• Happy March!
• Today, I slipped on ice and fell onto my right side. Twice. I scraped and re-scraped my right hand and will most certainly have bruises and/or sore spots on my elbow, hip and knee for the next several days. Ouch. (Oh and the first time, I was carrying my lunch, which had my yogurt in it, which had an unbeknownst-to-me-loose lid...so that exploded all over my lunch box.) The kids were very interested in my bandaged hand. Will (the one that calls me "Eh-moo") told me that it's alright, he'd make it feel better and then blew on my hand several times :) Eden told me her dad could fix it :) Jeremy asked me "Why did you fall?" so many times that eventually I just wanted to shout, "BECAUSE GRAVITY HATES ME!" I didn't though. Don't worry. Ah well. The best remedy for all this pain and suffering? A weekend with/at the Eischeids, where I'll get to see Krystle and which will be concluded with a visit from my dad :)