Some holiday cheer...

This song is my dad's favorite Christmas song. (Which is ironic since he hates country music and it's by a country group.) But I've grown quite fond of it over the years and think it is quite lovely also.

Check it out here.


Happy holidays!

Don't I know you?

My world feels smaller and smaller everyday. I used to revel in the fact that connections between friends and acquaintances could be easily made. It was comforting in a sense and gave you an instant connection to the person you were talking to.

But as of recent, I find it a bit annoying. I like to be known by some, but crave some anonymity. I like to blend in more often than stand out. I've always been this way and blame in on my introverted tendencies.

These days, it seems everyone "new" that I meet asks me if I went to Augustana or swears to know me from somewhere. I guess it makes for good conversation and we can usually pinpoint some sort of common ground of how we know or might know each other (even though I sometimes want to scream that I did not go to Augie.)

Oh South Dakota, why do you have to be so small? Even in the largest city, I fail to find some anonymous serenity. I know I should be embracing this as a great networking situation for a young person like myself as it tends to be who you know instead of what you know that gets you places in life. Yet, my small reality just has been so much more obvious in the past week or so that I can't help but find it a bit ridiculous.

I don't really for see the situation changing for as long as I live here or in a smaller community. I also imagine in a larger community people tend to cling to a 'smaller community feel' like we have here anyways. So I guess I better adjust or become a hermit and move to the mountains.

wanderlust-ful

I'm going to officially add Chicago to the list of places I want to live. I recently spent some time in the heart of Chicago and I think I fell in love. I may not fall in love easily with other humans, but cities have a way of calling out to my heart and making my knees weak.

Enter my latest love: Chicago. It really is some kind of wonderful. So much going on, so many people, and some beautiful architecture.

I tend to have this feeling of wanderlust after basically every place I visit which leads me to believe that I'm not in the geographical place I should be. I think I need to try harder to make things in my life happen and pursue my dreams, even if I don't know what they are exactly.

Maybe I'm meant to figure them out on the way to some place wonderful, possibly like Chicago.

Wooo ee, what's up with that?!

I feel like I've encountered a lot of extremes lately with how people act and emotions.

I guess it is just a nice reminder that the rest of the world has its ups and downs too.

It definitely keeps things interesting and it also makes me want to strive for more balance in my life. Because I may not have any control over others and their emotions, but I sure as heck can try to keep my actions and emotions in check. At least until the situation calls for intense emotions and actions, of course. :)

Not so 'pawsome'.

Recently on 20/20 they did a story on crazy cat ladies. Apparently a documentary or something was going to feature these 3 women and their obsession with cats. They ranged in age from 30's to 60's. The number of cats owned ranged from one woman, the one in her 30's, having 16 cats to another having 123 cats. (Yikes!)

The experts claim that there are underlying reasons for why people become crazy cat ladies and these women just reach that breaking point and take up this attachment with cats. Whether it be relationship issues, family issues, or even self worth issues due to job loss or a major change in their lives, something just causes them to snap and try to get what they are longing for from cats. We all know that cats can't be a fix for issues of that magnitude, but these women seem to be oblivious to that fact.

Me and my baby Emma.

I am a cat lover myself and even have paw prints tattooed on my foot, yet I can't and hope I don't ever become a crazy cat lady. I can't see my life ever going that way, but if it starts to unravel and I start taking in as many cats as possible, please stop me at 5. Thanks in advance.

Peace.

Hopefully less is more.

I really love writing about my thoughts and feelings and putting them down right here in my blog, for you and the rest of the world to read. (Shout out to whomever visited my blog from Europe; you made my day.)

But there are some things I want to write about that are just too personal for my beloved blog. So to help with the craziness that is my thoughts bouncing around my head, I've purchased a journal. Technically it's a travel journal, but it has a map on it and I have a thing for maps so it was a done deal. Also though I am not currently physically traveling from place to place, I like to think I'm traveling through life. So it was a perfect fit.

It's my baby and I carry it around with me everywhere just in case inspiration or frustration hits.

She's a beauty.

I guess what I am trying to get at is that I may blog even less or when I do, it might have a different tone since this isn't my only outlet anymore. My posts will probably be less personal, but who really wants to read about my problems and frustrations in my life? My blog will hopefully be more positive and therefore be love. So keep reading and I promise to try and keep it interesting.

As always, thanks for reading.

Where am I?

My blog is having an identity crisis, not me. But therefore the name has changed and may or not change again.

It's my prerogative after all.