Things I have come to Realize

• That I have lost 50 pounds! I am so proud of myself. I don't dwell on it, and I NEVER say that I'm on a diet. I only step on the scales once or month, if even that. Today was the day, and there it was, right in front of me... 50 pounds. I bought new pants this weekend that are three sizes smaller than the pants I bought this time last year. Just 25-35 pounds more to go. Guess I need to start walking again, huh?
• I need to start walking again! I love walking with friends. I usually walk either in the parking lot at D.A.R. or around the sanctuary at church. But I can't seem to make walking as important as it needs to be. I let everything else take precedence over the walking. Hmmm...
• It's only 7 days until Christmas! And I still have four more presents to buy! And I have a ton of presents to wrap, too. This just reiterates how badly I procrastinate. I'm not even sure when I am going to have time to shop for the last four. Thankfully, two can be bought at the same place. But still, there are three different stores I have to hit before the weekend. How will I get this all done?
• I am in the Christmas Spirit!!! It hit me yesterday just how excited I am about Christmas this year. I don't know why I am so much more excited this year versus other years. The weird thing is that my sister and my cousin, who are normally the ones to get me pumped up about Christmas, are dragging this year. I guess I need to spread some Christmas Cheer!!!
• I want what I can't have. This one is deep. I filled out a survey on Myspace the other night. One of the questions was "do you want what you can't have?" My answer was "yes." A few questions down the list was "What do you want?" My answer was "what I can't have." So the short version is that there is this guy. I met him when I was a teenager. I had a crush on him, but would never tell a soul b/c he was 10 years older than me and recently divorced. Nothing was going to come of that so I let it go. 10 years down the road (10 months ago to be exact) I ran into him again. sidebar: I would see him from time to time during the past 10 years, but this time was different. We were both single and searching and began dating. Through a series of events, I had to find out the hard way what a jerk he can be. But... there was something there in the beginning. We have been broken up for 6 months. And I just can't quite let go of him. I'm not sure if it's just that I don't want to or if I just can't. I think I need my rich and handsome future husband to show up on my doorstep. HaHaHa!
• So there is this one Hott guy... I met him right before I started dating the guy mentioned above. That turned out to be a horrible day. However, now we are friends. We have lunch together once a week. It was easy to be his friend b/c I decided that nothing was ever going to happen there, so things were cool. Then one day he started flirting with me. Just like that. Out of the blue clear sky. I was surprised and flattered. And I flirted back of course. And then yesterday he sent me an email. It say "hey stacy. his phone #. his name. That was it. So I called him tonight. We only talked for a few minutes, but I have to wonder what all that was about.
  
• Just when you think something has gone so terribly wrong, you find a blessing waiting on you. I could be talking about the previous two bullets, but I'm not. This weekend, roommate and I went to Pigeon Forge to do some Christmas shopping. We drove up late Friday night, went to bed, woke up and shopped to we dropped! Then we headed home. We were kind of quiet on the way home. Well, kind of quiet for us anyways. We were both really tired! We were making good time and were ready to be at home. We also both had to use the bathroom very badly! We were almost to Chattanooga and the traffic just stopped. Great. We sat there for a few minutes, then finally put the truck in park. A few cars were trying to pull off on the shoulder to see what they could see. After a while, people were getting out of their cars and walking around. I, myself, was eyeballing the trees to see about relieving myself. I played a few games on my phone. I tried to talk Roommate into asking one of the truckers why we were all stuck here. After a while I was getting restless and mad. What on earth could be taking so long? I was so impatient. Finally we moved a little. The lady in front of us bumped into the guy in front of her. I nearly lost my mind. Great, I thought. Now we'll be stuck behind this too. They got out and examined their vehicles. Both were OK and I'm sure they didn't want to wait either, so they got back in their cars. Finally, the traffic started moving. Flashing lights soon came into view. As we approached, we were mesmerized by what we saw. There was what appeared to have been a car. It was so crumpled and scorched that it was hardly recognizable as a car. We couldn't tell what kind of car it was. It had been so badly burned that all that was left of the driver's seat were the metal bars of its frame. Today I was thinking. That could have been us. Or that burning car could have been a few miles ahead of where it was and come burning and crashing into our truck. Then I was thinking about whoever it was in that car. I will never know what happened to them, but I imagine that if they are still alive, they are not doing well right now. How selfish was I to be so impatient! And how selfish am I to go around feeling sorry for myself, or griping about mindless drama, instead of being thankful every second of every day for God has blessed me with. I have a wonderful family, a wonderful group of friends, a great job, and countless more blessings. I am smiling.