I like dinner parties. More specifically, I like hosting dinner parties, because I love to cook. And when I host a dinner party, as most of my friends would attest to, I usually do most of the work myself, even if others offer help. It isn't because I don't want help or think you incapable. It's because I like to do it. I also like birthdays - mine and other people's - I'm not picky. Last Thursday night, I had about 8 girl friends over for a dinner party to celebrate Jaclyn's birthday. She is such a special lady and I really wanted to make a big deal of her birthday because I knew she wasn't going to. Plus, I always jump at the chance to cook dinner for people!
The point is this: I love using my gifts, talents and passions to serve other people. It makes me happy; it fills me up. I guess that's how God created it. And yet at the same time, I feel like some people use their gifts and feel drained afterwards (and I can feel this way sometimes, too). I wonder which is more common: feeling full or drained after using your spiritual gifts?
On another note, I feel pulled in a lot of directions in friendship lately. There are so many people I genuinely want to spend time with, and yet it is so hard to schedule time to see all of them. I am a quality time person, so just seeing someone is not enough. I want to really spend time with them - to know them deeply. It is especially hard because not only am I just plain busy, but, many of the people I would love to spend time with are from completely different areas of my life (old friends, FBC/O friends, Status friends and my HC family, work people, roommates, random friends, etc.). It isn't even like I can combine hang out times when people are not in the same groups of friends at all... Ugh, if only I had more time in my week. I'm sorry if you feel like I haven't been spending enough time with you lately. I want to. I just don't know how.
All of the sudden, I'm finding multiple worthy blog topics...after a few weeks of nothing.
Recently, I have expanded my music library by quite a bit. In my "Recently Added" playlist on the iPod:
- Five Times August - Brighter Side
- Augustana - Can't Love, Can't Hurt
- OneRepublic - Dreaming Out Loud
- Gavin DeGraw - Gavin DeGraw
- Death Cab - Narrow Stairs
- Jason Mraz - We Sing, We Dance, We Steal
- Warren Barfield - Worth Fighting For
This weekend marked the beginning of my training for a sprint triathlon. Quite a few of my friends and I are all going to do the event in downtown Orlando this September. I want to give myself plenty of time to train and June 1st was my official start date, though I actually started on Saturday when Cara and I went on a 10+ mile bike ride (my first on a road bike) down Cady Way Trail. Running after the biking felt super weird and Cara was feeling lightheaded, so...we decided to walk for 3-4 miles instead of running. Definitely going to have to work on the transitions from biking to running! Last night I went on a longer run than my usual, and pushed my time as well, so that felt good. But, dang, it's hot here - even late at night.
I figure there are a few factors keeping me from coming up with any excuse to back out of this thing:
I am doing it with other people.
I just wrote about it on here and I've been telling people my plans.
I spent money this weekend on new running shoes (which I needed anyways), running tops, socks, goggles and a lap swimming suit.
This is only the beginning...I've got a long way to go until September.
