Turning Old

Today I blog as an old and wise woman...I am a WHOLE QUARTER of a CENTURY OLD! Ok, so I'm grossly over-exagerating things. However, I do have to say, in all honestly, it feels kind of good to be 25. Why? Well, I always hear people saying to me "Welcome to the real world" or "Welcome to adult-hood" as if I just arrived. Even more annoying to me is the frequent comment "Oh, you think THAT's BAD, just wait until you are my age!"

With all due respect to my elders I must say, getting old has a lot of advantages! I know I know, I'm still very young and really have no right to be talking about what being "old" is like, but I can speak with experience about the maturity I have seen in myself in the past two or three years. I see things I like about myself and hope will continue into my adult-hood. Some of these things include:

1) Learning to be more patient and forgiving of myself

2) Learning to be more accepting of others for who they are and patient with them.

3) Learning to see other's point-of-views and respecting them for those views without fearing a loss for my personal beliefs and values

4) Adding "enjoy life" or "breathe" to my endless daily to-do lists

5) Learning to recognize that when others try to make me feel insecure or inadequate, it's only because they feel that way about themselves

6) Realizing that the journey of learning, as a musician, Christian, person, whatever, is more important than the ultimate goal. And often times, leads to more rewards and joy than I originally expected anyway!

7) Beginning to see that not only am I not who I was, but I will not be who I am now, and by this knowledge, coming to a deeper understanding of the phrase "God loves you just the way you are, but too much to let you stay there"

Now. On the turn-side of things, my dear friend Jaime has "tagged" me. What do this mean? Well, first of all, it means I should say something nice about her blog-page :)

Jaime's page is unlike anyone elses I have been to for one simple reason. She doesn't just tell you about the day-to-day events in her life (although some are quite amusing and others are quite inspiring). She makes you a part of it so you feel like you are right there, experiencing it with her. Jaime, if I have not said this before, let it be said now. Your blog page always inspires me and makes me laugh and often times helps me see some aspect of life with more faith, because of the way you see God moving in your life and that of your families. It's more than a blog page. It's a ministry!

Ok, secondly, since I have been "tagged" I now have to give you all a few quirks that I have...I'm not going to ask you not to laugh, because I'll probably be laughing at myself anyway!

1) I am OBSESSED with to-do lists. I cannot go to bed at night until I write one for the next day. It is always very detailed. Right down to the 8:15am-Wake up, brush your teeth, make your bed, read your Bible, eat your breakfast
**To help you understand the depth of this addiction, one day, rummaging through my child-hood boxes and memoirs, I found a to-do list from when I was in elementary school! It looked very similar to the ones I write now, and even included, "Practice, Practice, Practice!"

2) I have this weird thing I do with my eyes sometimes, kind of like a nervous twitch, but it's not a twitch. Sometime during my teen-years I started squinnting my eyes ( I have no idea why) but now I catch myself doing it now and then, kind of like how I chew my nails (that doesn't count as #3) and have to tell myself to stop! It's not as bad as when I used to curl my lips too....that HAD to stop because every time I did it my mom started cracking up!

3) I am a super-duper neat freak. I have to have all my makeup organized, clothes in neat little piles or in categories on hangers, I have all my piano music alphebatized, spent an entire evening the other day cleaning the ENTIRE house (my mom started feeling guilty and cleaned the tub for me which was about the only thing not already clean). And one day, while living with a roomate in Morgantown, I spent 2 days in my room re-organizing my entire photo album collection, trying to remember every last detail, down to the pictures from when I was 7 years old in Disney World, trying to recall, "Does the Alice in Wonderland picture or Dumbo ride picture come first?" Yup, I have serious OCD issues :)

4) As a kid I had the worst hair imagineable. I got all kinds of weird nick-names like "Frizzy Lizzy" "Frizabeth" "Annoying Enoyer" (Yes, the t was left out of my last name), "Energizer bunny"...ok, so some have nothing to do with my hair...but the pictures (Which, NO I am not going to share with you) pretty much say it all

5) I keep a devout practice log. I can tell you almost any day, in the past several years, how much I practiced on that specific day, and how much I practice that week, that whole year, if I didn't practice, what I was doing instead, etc....back to the OCD issue...

6) I once got lost in Paris France, got into two very uncomfortable situations with two different men who were complete strangers (ok, it was bad but not as bad as it probably sounds), and lost in Rome, all in one week!!!...oh yeah, and got to see David Helfgott and chopped off all my hair in France by a French woman who dyed my hair blondish orange, due to a major miscommunication and then looked at me with a great big smile and said, "You look like sunshine!!" I also became completely broke and ran into people from my group at the Louve and was graciously given a loan to hold me over, and I saw the Pope as well as a Catholic church which claimed they had the manger of the baby Jesus, which I should mention was gold covered!...yes, all in one week!!

That is 6 things...you probably don't want any more than that right now :)

Back to my 88 keyed friend! :)