So you can say it, I am the worst. I barely updated this blog at all this month. Where did July even go?
I will be honest, my sister and I did not spend any special amount of time together, though some effort did lead to quality bonding. We continued to work on watching Scrubs. Last Sunday, we scheduled time to spend together. My sister, having hurt her toe, was lying on her bed whining about how she wished she could just go out of the house. I told her that I was going to go get some options of activities for us, and she better get her butt up, like the leader that I am.
I went down to the basement and ventured into the possibly cobwebby closet where we keep our games and puzzles. I pulled out 2 puzzles (one easy and one hard), Battleship, and Checkers. I brought them upstairs and put them on the coffee table and yelled up to her to come downstairs from her room. I asked her to pick one of the options in front of her.
She chose Battleship and we embarked on a treacherous journey of hits, misses, and hit-and-sunks. I won, but by one tiny turn. If I had somehow missed that shot, she would have gotten my last ship put on the bottom of the ocean. Needless to say, I gloated.I then decided that I had 10 minutes before volunteering at my church’s Italian festival and we played a “speed game” of Checkers, which she demolished me in. Wins for everyone!
I scheduled out time to be with her on the last day of the month, which turned into visiting our brother. While I am disappointed that we didn’t really meet any goals, it did teach me the importance of planning things out and having a clear battle strategy and outcomes. Since I had to work with her on these “metrics,” it didn’t work out because another less invested person was in the situation. Why would she plan a month hanging with her sister? She didn’t have a blog to update. Ah.
I will not, in any way, however, discount this month as a failure towards my overall 2014 goals. And there’s a huge reason why.
I fed my butterflies in the biggest way possible.
I got into a relationship. This may sound not so huge to a lot of people, but for me it was. I rarely date and have been single forever, pretty much. I don’t mean to say this in a self pitying way. I just want to demonstrate that relationships and dating were something I had mostly shied away from because for whatever reason, they scared me. But for the first time , I found myself setting up situations that I couldn’t back out of, and saying “yes” when we finally discussed what we were doing. Believe me when I say, I usually respond with a “no.”
And of course, feeding said butterflies has done nothing but lead to personal growth, excitement and happiness. Few else scares me as much as this did, but this one time, it felt right. So I took the leap. And at first it was scary and I was usure and in shock. And then as the first few days passed, I got more and more comfortable. Shout out to Kieran for his saintly patience with my craziness. He seems to like me anyway. :) I am a lucky lady. I mean, we do crossword puzzles together, it’s pretty damn adorable.
Being in a relationship so far has taught me about putting others first. It makes me think about how my actions and words can affect someone so close to me, and it makes me think: how can I make this person happy? I have a feeling these concepts will run into other parts of my life. F yeah, Jesuit principle of being a woman for others!
Being in a relationship also taught me about being happy. I find myself scared to admit I am excited about this new chapter in my life. As optimistic as I am, I at first was uncharacteristically questioning what was going to go wrong to ruin it. And then something hit me. This isn’t out of my control at all. If I want things to work out, I will make them work out. I will put effort and love in to make this a healthy and awesome part of both our lives. Bam. I know this is right, I know he is right for me at this point in my life, so I am going to be happy and enjoy it. Screw being worried, that was never my style anyway. At least not for this current me. Today, I stayed home sick from work and he surprised me at home, told me I looked great (sans makeup!), and brought me a can of chicken soup because he couldn’t find any already prepared soup. Then he sat with me while I worked. I mean, can a guy get any better?
So that was my month, everyone. One of the most important months of my life. August will be even bigger, as I explore the “being a girlfriend” world more, turn 23, and also go full time at Swift Kick.
For my August project, I will focus on drawing. I am not the best drawer, but I am also not the worst. I know if I put a little time and effort into something, it will look good. So here is to one drawing a day, probably during my commutes. Time to go find all my art supplies leftover from college.
Thanks for reading, friends. Long post was long. I am off to go video chat crossword puzzle with Kieran, and try and get a drawing in too.
14 to the Fullest 