Miss Emma's Day Off

          It’s been over a month since my last post, and I haven’t even bothered to get on this page since, so that on my Chrome settings, Buzzfeed is suggested over this site. I think that sort of sums up how this past month has gone for me. My problem with procrastination is that I somehow end up with nine major projects due in the last week of school, and think I am probably going to fail until the very last day, when I check my grades and see that, for the most part, I’m probably okay. I took my last final last Tuesday, about 5 days after the semester ended, so “burned out” is an understatement about how I feel about school at this moment. I’m still in Flag, just to couch- surf for the next three weeks until the Montessori school gets out. And I hope to blog/ paint/ do stuff that makes me happy, in my spare time. Today was to mark the first official day of “Summer Happy Time”.

            The cool thing about my job, is that I am off by 5:30 and have both Saturday and Sunday off. Not many hard working college students can say that. Because of school, my Saturdays consisted of campus food, homework, and a little bit of “cleaning”. Today (Saturday the 18^th), was my first real day off, as I didn’t have anywhere to be, no homework, I could sleep in, I found out that I got paid 2 days early, and it was all about being care free, catching up on sleep, and gathering my bearings. It started off just right- I slept until 12:00, and went downstairs to make myself a small parfait. I’m staying at my two friend’s apartment this week- both of whom are out of town, so it’s been pretty laid back and solitary. At 2:00, I decided to drive my dad’s car (which he loaned me for the next few weeks), so I could air up Lizzie McGuire’s tires. She’d been locked up at the Student Union for about a week because I refused to ride her with her tires flat. Walking to the parking lot, I suddenly got a “funny feeling” about my Pop’s car. And long story short –the beautiful silver Honda Civic that I’ve been essentially living out of, was gone. Towed. I wasn’t as hysteric as I thought I’d be, but that was sure to come soon. I returned to my friends’ apartment and explained the situation to their super awesome roommate, Ashley. She not only drove me to the towing yard (about 20-30 min away) and waited for an additional 30 min to wait for the people, and drove me to the nearest ATM, but she, too grumbled and ranted about how stupid vicious the parking situation in Flagstaff is. GO ASHLEY! The towing man on the phone was a little less than understanding, but the dude who showed up knocked down the price a lot when I used my extremely genuine and innocent tears when realizing the initial charge was more than half my recent paycheck.

            When we got back, I got a new parking pass, and drove to the Campus Coffee Bean to sit and get- over the shock of having something I rely on taken away so easily because of an expired piece of paper. I had to rely on a semi-stranger’s kindness and a complete stranger’s kindness to help me get back something that I don’t own, but that I needed. I was thinking about how nothing I own is ever truly “mine,” about how it was way less painful for me to spend thousands on a computer, but agonizing to spend a significantly smaller amount to take ownership of an expired parking pass. I was also reminded of the large IOU I’ve accumulated over the past semester of tithe money from my job. I remembered how I have yet to fill out a support letter for a friend’s mission trip, I was also reminded of the “freebee” painting I’ve agreed to paint for an old family friend’s worship center somewhere in Minnesota. This lead me towards a more optimistic approach: I was blessed that I had enough money to pay towing fees, I was blessed that the guy gave me a discount, I was blessed to have someone available to drive me to the tow yard, I was blessed that I was able to retrieve the car today, I was blessed to have emotional support, that this happened on my day off -so I wasn’t missing work, and I am blessed that my parents lent me their car for this transitioning time this summer. This, mixed with a little too much caffeine, and the sweet tunage in my dad’s car, inspired me to go out and find some canvas for my friend’s Worship Center piece. I found smokin dealz at Michaels, and drove back to my friend’s place with 12 high-quality canvases for $40, which is stupid cheap, for those who don’t know. I went from thinking/ feeling like a victimized little girl, to once again claiming my larger purpose, and offering all I have to God. I decided to turn this experience of a “screwy day” into something a little more productive. All because I decided to buy myself a yummy coffee drink. The End.