Finding My Place

I'm finally doing it - going to college! I've had to put this off for too many years, and now that I'm finally feeling good and up to doing things, I can actually consider driving to and taking classes.

Throughout the years, I've been playing with wanting to do various programs and different colleges, but I've never felt good enough to do much of anything or that they weren't for me. Maybe this time was for really pinpointing what I'm supposed to do and where God wants me to be, where I'm going to attend school, what I want to study, etc. 

This past summer has really shown me where I can thrive - in the dirt. :P I was looking at the Urban Agriculture program at a local community college for a little while, but I just tucked it into the back of my mind for another day. Then I got the job at the farm store down the road from my house. My favorite part of the job is all the work I get to do in the greenhouse(s). Yes, it's stuffy and humid and hot, but I get to work with plants and get my hands dirty. I've unknowingly become the 'plant girl' since day one, and if neither of my bosses are around to answer questions, customers are directed to me. Now, I am FAR from being the all-knowing horticulturalist, but if you have questions, I just might be able to answer them (or look them up on the internet). Where I'm supposed to do has become more and more clear to me throughout the summer -  it's time to start the farming program. 

So I applied to the college, took the placement test (which landed me exactly where I needed to be for the program), and registered for classes. The best part so far in all of this was ordering books, rather, getting all the books. For six credits this feels like a lot of books.  

But they look amazing! (Yes, I've quickly read through all of them already). 

Needless to say, I'm really excited about all of this. :) 

This has all has felt rather like Rapunzel getting out of her tower for the first time, but instead of a super-imposing 'parent' keeping me back, it's been my health. If I start singing 'That's When My Life Begins,' you now know why. :P 

Until next time!

SG

Farm Girl Fashion

 Or 'lack there-of' is more of what I should say. Just humor me for a moment - think of all the things that are fashionable or in style. Could you walk out to the barn in those cute heels without making a llama look at you funny? Could you climb the barn ladder in that adorable dress? Are you able to easily move around and get work done in skinny jeans? Are the chickens chasing you around trying to peck at those manicured nails? (PS - red is their favorite color)

Photos courtesy of Christi

Needless to say, I think you're right to assume that 99% of my wardrobe is purely practical.

- Thrift store denim. Even if those $60 jeans fit perfectly and look simply amazing, I can't justify spending more than $10 since I'm just going to have them completely worn out and stained in a week... I just filled a bin with jeans that I've destroyed. I'll have to come up with different uses for all that denim.

- A lot of old t-shirts. And new t-shirts. But those become 'old' very quickly. Have you noticed how flimsy t-shirts have become lately? They're already thread bare before they even hit the store shelves!

- Every farm girl needs a canvas coat. I've killed countless other coats and sweatshirts, but my old faithful Carhartt has yet to give up on me.

- Boots. Not the fashion boots either. I kinda need my footwear to have tread so I don't slip in the mud and muck. ;) I've got leather boots, muck boots, rubber boots, slip-on wanna-be-boots...

- Everything in the closet is fair game for working outside. You never know when something might happen, and you won't have time to change out of your 'nice' clothes. ;) Heck, I've been out there checking on meat chickens in the field in my pj's. I've been picking out dry grass particles ever since.

- I just got my annual pair of flip flops. My impractical chore shoes that I treat like they're indestructible  Can't wait for the warmer weather! Once the sandals decide to go belly up, summer is done. If they don't last that long, I blame the manufacturer for making them cheaply and buy another pair from the clearance rack.

What about the last 1% of my closet? Well, after that shpill, rant, whatever you want to call it, I have something to add:

I. Love. Dresses.

I even have shoes to go with those dresses that make getting from the house to the car  a tripping hazard waiting to happen. I will pull the 'I can't check on the critters right now because I don't want to get my clothes dirty' card.

So, yes, even if most of my clothes make me look like a tomboy, there is still a girly-girl in me that loves feeling pretty and feminine. Maybe it's because the rest of the week I look like I live in a barn. And that's not very far from the truth. ;)

Gorgeous

Blue skies. 

Fluffy clouds. 

Fields of crimson clover. 

Lush green grasses. 

Orange poppies.

Flowering trees.

Mountain views.

Winding back roads.

Rocking the bling-y sunglasses.

Shorts and flip flops.

Country music blaring and singing along. 

Windows rolled down. 

Warm sunshine.

And a sun halo. 

It's a good day.

You're a Character.

Well, aren't we all? A character that is. I'm sure that there is a part of you that would certainly make an... interesting... persona in a novel of some sorts.

Then you start looking at yourself. Oh my. I can identify with parts of characters in books and such, but never have I related to an entire personality. Does that make me a character? What about my family? Those are both a rhetorical question by the way.

I'm sure people look at us (the whole clan) and say, "Wow. Those crazy G's. There they go again! What are they doing now?!" We stop to ask the tree trimmer guys working on the trees that have encroached on the power lines to see if we can have the wood chips. We can thoroughly pick apart your choice of a fancy car while crushing your ego in the process. We clear an entire area to build a shed that has a tall face. We usually have the same thought at the same time and then continue to say what we were thinking, at the same time. We haunt Craigslist for chicken butchering equipment. We tease each other relentlessly but never take it to heart. When we clean, it's usually cleaning the entire house in 5 minutes before company arrives. We can't fence to save our lives even though we have a lot of it in the 'dream farm' plan. We can quote movies out of the blue - we can even hold a conversation using movie quotes. We 'garden' if you include growing a jungle of weeds. We can even be seen chasing various animals around the property, be it fearless coyotes (I'll have to tell you that story later. I'ts  actually kinda funny), a tank of a goat (we no longer have goats, but maybe with some back massages, that will change), the 7 year-old puppy, maybe even a herd of llamas. And I'm talking about getting into rabbits. I'd love to see the scene of trying to chase a renegade rabbit! " 'No, you idiot! My hair is in your machine!' 'Oh, we only have rabbits in here. You'll find that the hare is a much larger mammal.' " - Curse of the Were-Rabbit

What inspired this post? We started describing a neighbor a 'character' and then the thought came to all of us in the car - we're characters, too, aren't we? Then Mom had Dad pull over to ask the tree trimmer dudes for their wood shavings. Yep, we're characters!

~*SG*~

Technology

 Oh, the bane and temptation of my existence! Why is our world so interconnected now? Thank the invention of the interwebs. The source for all the great gossip, coot kittehs, pop culture sensations, annoying ditties, stalking your friends and staying up to date on just about everything else going on in the world at that very moment that you had never really paid much attention to anyway.

I've had enough. My brain is loud enough without all the extra distractions. Honestly, it's really noisy in there all the time; my 'mindless' thing to do is listen to music. I have plenty going on and don't need to fill any extra time blocks. Those have been taken already. My brain is on overload, and things need to quiet down even just a little bit.

So, that's why I'm seriously cutting back on facebook, gchat, etc. Cutting back even more than once a day. I'm too ADD to handle all this. I don't hate you; I'm not avoiding you. If I feel a need to electronically connect with friends, I will log on. I'm realizing how much I relish the opportunity to have a real face-to-face conversation with someone. I won't be deleting accounts because that's how I'm able to get a hold of people about events, pictures and such. Email is still a viable form of correspondence as well. I'm still going to there in your computer, there will just be much less of me haunting the pages and connections of your world.

I'm also realizing how much privacy has become a nostalgic word. There is none of it in this overly-connected world. I can be having a private email conversation, and the ads pertain to what is in the email. Doesn't that raise some red flags? That annoying 'ticker' thing in the upper right-hand corner on Facebook? Do you really need to be able to see how your friends are interacting with their friends. You don't even know who they are, and you can see their lives per Facebook  Viruses, hackers, malware are all out there to get personal information and make your (electronic) life miserable.

Laptop, you are hereby exiled from my room. No more sitting there ever so slyly on my desk right next to my bed. No more shall you annoy me with your 3 AM installations of the latest Windows updates that you decided that I needed. Text speak? Puhlease... Use correct grammar and punctuation in all forms of communication - your future employers will thank ye.

No, I won't shoot the computer - yet.