Long Overdue

25 Feb Uncategorized

So, I’ve been meaning to update for a while, but I just haven’t had anything super interesting or exciting to say, or I just haven’t had time. But it was expressed to me early this week that I needed to update, so here I am!

Last time I posted about my unruly computer. Fortunately, I haven’t had anymore problems, and everything is running smoothly.

In the past month, Jenny came to visit for Martin Luther King Day (so much fun), I’ve babysat a lot, done a lot of reading, watched a lot of tv, exercised a considerable amount, and pretty much just existed in my normal day to day routine-ness. Nothing too terribly exiting.

Monday night I made a super quick trip to Murray to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at the annual Presidential Lecture Series. That was amazing. I wish I wasn’t so distracted by uncomfortably sitting on bleachers, but it was still fantastic. Truly a once in a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget. So, so cool. He’s had such an amazing journey, overcome tremendous obstacles (TB, polio, prostate cancer, not to mention apartheid), and never lost hope in humanity, the innate goodness in others, and his merciful God. Whether or not you share his beliefs, his enthusiasm for life, passion for people, and witty nature are completely contagious and inspiring to all.

Prior to hearing his speech, I met up with my Jenny Lou Who, her boyfriend Clay, my Bobyn, and her boyfriend David. These are some of my favorite Murray people/people in general, so it was nice to spend a little time with them while I was in town. After Bishop Tutu, I went to what used to be a pretty popular bar to meet up with some friends. Unfortunately, due to new management following the death of the original owner, it pretty much sucked. Let’s just say the odds were good, but the goods were odd. In other words, it was a total sausage fest, but it was hella awkward, and the boys were WEIRD! But whatever. It was good to catch up with Raye and my old roommate Glenna. I talk to Raye pretty frequently, but I haven’t seen Glenna since before I graduated, so it was nice to catch up with her and hear about her life. After we left, I went over to Robyn and David’s to hang out for a little while before going to spend the night at Raye’s. All in all, it was a pretty great night with lots of hilarity… most of which was provided by me, I’m sure.

The next day, I met up with my friend Mia for coffee at Fidalgo Bay and then drove to Sharon, TN to have lunch with my grandmother on the way home. It was about an hour out of the way, but it was nice to spend some time with her. She doesn’t get down to Memphis too often, unless it’s for a doctor’s appointment or a major holiday. Plus, she hasn’t been feeling super well, so it was nice to just spend a few hours with her.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I made it home in time to make it to my statistics class, but it would have been completely wasted on me being that tired. I took a little nap but couldn’t make myself get up to class. So I slept for a little while longer, then caught up on some tv and some time with Liz.

Yesterday was fairly productive, and today I ran a few errands. Tomorrow should be a fairly busy day with class, meetings, and babysitting. Saturday I’m helping with the Mid-South Psychology Conference on campus. I’m actually hosting a paper session, which sounds more impressive than it is; but it’ll look good on my CV! I hope to make it to the Tiger game Saturday night/hang out with my friend Rachel. We’ll see what happens!

In other news, I’m about 1/3 of the way to my weight-loss/health goals! I haven’t been to the gym this week because of traveling and fatigue, but I went everyday last week, and I’m sure I’ll make it up there this weekend. I feel like I’m eating better. I haven’t been keeping up with my calories as much the last couple of weeks, but I’ve continued to be mindful and make healthier choices. Either way, I feel pretty awesome, and I’m pretty proud of myself.

I miss my Murray people already, but I hope it’ll work out to make a slightly longer trip on one end of my spring break. We’ll just have to see! :)

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Cristin + computers = Bad Romance

21 Jan Uncategorized

As you can possibly tell from the title, computers and I have a love-hate relationship. Most of the time, we get along great. Smooth sailing. Everybody’s happy. They do what I want them to do, I take care of them, nobody gets hurt. Then every so often, somebody throws a wrench in the machine and all goes to hell. My computer will all of a sudden not work properly, or things will get mixed up, and it won’t do what it’s supposed to do, and then we just get mad and get frustrated with each other. Yes, I am anthropomorphizing a computer. I’m sure that most of you will agree. They have minds of their own, and every now and then them mess with you just cause they can.

I’m a hard core Mac user and have been for the past 3.5 years or so. I will swear up and down by them. If you have the opportunity to get a Mac, GET ONE! They really are so amazing. Every now and then though, like I said, something can get screwed up; but I’m usually quick to forgive Apple, because I can usually get the problem solved relatively easily, or talk/go to someone that can.

Because I’m a psych grad student, I’m taking advanced statistics and need to be able to run SPSS, a statistical program, on my computer. Now, because the overwhelming majority of computer users are PCs, this program only runs on windows. Now, thanks to advances in technology, Macs possess the ability to run two operating systems, the one for Mac and Windows. Since last week, I’ve been trying to make room on my 80 GB hard drive to install and run both Windows and SPSS. When I went to partition the hard drive to install Windows, though, it didn’t want to work. I had pretty much resigned myself to get a bigger hard drive, which I pretty much needed anyway. So, after spending literally two days of my life transferring and deleting stuff off my hard drive, and then it still didn’t want to work, I was pretty much beyond frustrated with trying to get this thing to work. I found some hard drives online at Best Buy for not that much money; the only problem now was trying to figure out how to get it installed, because damned if I know a thing about how to work on the inside of the computer.

Before cementing the decision to go this route, I made an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Germantown. I went down there this afternoon to try and figure out what was going on and if I could get a bigger hard drive. Turns out, upon further investigation, I needed a new hard drive anyway–that’s probably why it wasn’t partitioning and has been acting pretty funky and slow for a while. I was ok with this, because, like I said, I was planning on getting a new hard drive anyway. The awesome part though, was that my computer was still under warranty, which I figured had run up this past summer. So, as I was emailing myself some music and some notes that I hadn’t backed up yet, the Genius also told me that they could put in a 160 GB hard drive, when he had already told me that they can’t put in bigger hard drives but only replace them with one of the same size.

I’M SO SUPER PUMPED! Not only am I getting a bigger hard drive, but I’m getting it put in FOR FREE. I’m so jazzed right now. I had pretty much already spent the $60-85 in my head that it would cost to get a bigger hard drive, which would probably increase by about $100+ if I had to get it done at Apple or some other computer store. But now, I don’t have to, AND I don’t have to worry about getting it installed by a friend, or heaven forbid, me. There’s a reason why I’m such a devout Mac user. Apple is awesome. It’s not costing me a thing, and it should be ready in 3-5 days. This is now my third hard drive on this computer, and the warranty and the initial upfront costs have already paid for themselves many times over, I’m sure. Seriously, it’s amazing. If I have issues, I can take it in, or call tech support and speak to somebody in English that knows what they’re doing and not just following a script. I’m so excited that I’m not even stressing about the text book that hasn’t come in yet.

It’s all going to be ok. :) And thanks to my iPod touch, I probably won’t be too out of touch in the next few days. I’m actually writing this from the Mac lab on campus. But now I’m off to work out before the gym closes!

Today was a good day <3

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5 Ways Blogging Can Save Your Sanity

21 Jan Randomness

Now, I can’t take credit for this. It was in the “Staff Picks” bundle that I subscribe to on Google Reader–which by they way, if you’re on, we should be friends.

I found this here.

“5 Ways Blogging Can Save Your Sanity”

Author: Lisis Blackston

I love to encourage others to start blogging, even if it is just as a means of self-discovery and free therapy. It’s true… blogging is incredibly effective as a method for handling our daily sources of stress and suffering.

Here’s why:

1. You find yourself constantly emptying your brain.

There is nothing worse than getting stuck inside your own head, in endless loops of self-defeating thoughts. When you are blogging, you get in the habit of writing things down in journals, notebooks, in the margins of your books, anywhere really. You observe something that happens in your life (or in your thoughts), you react on an personal level, and you write it down for a release. This is infinitely healthier than holding it all in.

2. It changes the way you view the world.

Once you start blogging, you begin to pay closer attention to the world around you. You notice the details, live in the present moment, and relish the life lessons, because these become the themes you will write about. You stop going through the motions, living your life on auto-pilot, and instead fully engage in everything that happens. This simple shift in your approach improves the quality of your life in unimaginable ways.

3. Blogging reminds you that you are not alone.

If you isolate yourself when you’re feeling down, you might find yourself thinking no one else out there could be as unfortunate as you are. By comparing yourself to all sorts of unrealistic standards and fantasies, you could easily become convinced that your life is hardly worth living.

But once you start writing about your issues, values, and concerns, and sharing them with the world, you’ll soon meet all sorts of people who “get” who you are, and where you’ve been. Communities form, friendships blossom, and as you start to feel understood, you cannot help but feel better about yourself.

4. Readers hold you accountable.

If you announce to your readers that you are going to lose 50 pounds, or quit smoking, or give up drinking, or donate $100 per day for the next 30 days, you are far more likely to do it than if you just think about these goals. You don’t want to have to report back to your readers that you failed, or gave up, or just got lazy.

Your readers become your cheerleaders and primary supporters, so you find yourself following through on your promises, dreams and goals (for a change). You stop feeling like a quitter, or a failure, and start enjoying your small victories. This gets you well on your way to greater victories down the road.

5. Helping others distracts you from your own issues.

Soon enough you will find yourself in the position of being a role model, friend, or therapist. The bonds you form through blogging run deep, and you end up helping your readers as much as they help you. As you become involved in their issues and challenges, you think less and less of your own. Once again, getting out of your own head minimizes the power of self-defeating thoughts. By helping others you allow new thoughts, positive thoughts, to take the place of the old, unhelpful ones. Optimism becomes your new, every day way of thinking.

So, even if you aren’t looking to become a career blogger, if you are struggling through personal challenges, or stressful situations, consider starting a free hobby blog as one of many possible techniques to help you get back on track.

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Anyway, I thought that was kind of neat and that I’d share :)

I’ll post a Jenny-weekend recap/my bad romance relationship with computers soon.

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2010: The Year of Health

16 Jan Health and Fitness

My main New Year’s Resolution was to start getting healthy by eating better and exercising. For a while I’ve been working on “mind” and “soul”, and it’s finally time to add “body” into the equation. I’ve never been a good eater, usually indulging in too much of things that aren’t good for me. I’ve also never been incredibly active for a consistent period of time. I “played sports” when I was younger, usually church league basketball and softball and then for my school teams in middle school. In ninth and tenth grades I was on the swim team… but tenth grade didn’t really count. That was a super busy year for me, but I was still technically on the team. I think. I’ve had periods of activity when I would get motivated to work out, but I never really stuck with it. This year that’s all about to change.

I’m resolving to eat better and healthier, eating smaller meals and snacks throughout the day, keeping track of what I eat, making better food choices, and most importantly exercising. With the exception of today, I haven’t missed a day since I really got started. Granted, that was only about a week and a half ago or so, but still. That’s a big accomplishment for somebody who hasn’t consistently gone to the gym in Lord knows how long. Whatever. I’m super proud of myself.

I’ve been keeping track of my food and exercise by using the “Lose It” application for iPhone/iPod Touch. Based on your current weight, height, sex, goal weight, and number of pounds you want to lose a week (maintaining to 2, in half pound increments), it generates a daily calorie budget and an estimated date of reaching your goal weight. I’ve stayed pretty on top of it, and it has certainly helped me make better food choices. It has a database of foods, both from the grocery store and a limited number of restaurant chains, where you can find your foods select the amount you’ve eaten. If something’s not listed, there’s also a place for you to program the food and calories manually. Also, when you input your exercise, it lists how many calories were burned, thereby subtracting the calories burned from the calories eaten, and giving you a net number of calories for that day up until that point.

Did I mention that this application is also free? There are, I’m sure, other applications you can select to help you reach your fitness goals, but this is the one I selected, and I’m really happy with it thus far.

In just the short amount of time that I’ve started eating better and exercising, I’ve noticed a vast improvement in how I feel and my overall mood. It’s been really amazing. I’ve heard this for so long, but I never really believed it, because I didn’t realize how much better I could feel. I’m determined that this time, these changes are going to stick.

Especially because of how crappy I feel right now. Jenny’s been here this weekend, so we had Memphis Pizza Café last night and Huey’s tonight–two of my favorite (well, used to be) restaurants. Although, I can say that I ate less than I used to at these places, and made some different selections, after eating a healthier, relatively grease-free diet for the past week and a half or two, exercising and doing yoga, I’m definitely more aware of what I’ve been putting in my body and how it affects me. Though my mood isn’t suffering yet–because my bff is here! Yay Jenny!!–I can definitely tell that my body isn’t used to processing all of this crap. Sure, our bodies are very efficient and will take care of it, but I feel yucky. This alone is a great motivation to keep up with my “getting healthier” lifestyle resolutions.

I didn’t get to exercise today, because it was yucky outside, and Jenny and I pretty much laid around all day, which was totally fun and needed. If the weather’s better tomorrow, we’ll probably walk around the neighborhood. If not, I might go to the gym while Jenny does some homework. I know I won’t get to make it to the gym Monday, because the gym will be closed for MLK. It’ll be ok. I’m not discouraged. I’ve made great headway and will only continue to improve.

Thanks to all of those that have been supporting me thus far! I know I’m not the only one embarking on this endeavor this year, so it’s been nice to face all of this alone. It’s been great accountability and encouragement. I even read an article earlier this week that said that self-determination, or lack thereof, is contagious, so let’s keep the momentum going!

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Fall 2009

16 Jan Jenny, Liz, Murray, Music, Pictures, Randomness, Videos

So, to sum up this last semester (and because I finally found my camera cord), I’m going to share some of my favorite pictures and videos from the past three months. Yes, most of these are on Facebook… but who cares?

Jenny came to visit during her fall break. The following pictures are from a BEAUTIFUL Saturday afternoon that we spent at Shelby Farms :)

rainbow :)

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My cousin Charlotte was Princess Leia for Halloween and came trick-or-treating :)

She’s pretty much my favorite person ever.

Her mom told her no more candy. She looked right at her as she grabbed more out of the bag.

My roommate Liz and I went with my brother’s friend Lizzy to a concert at this random Christian school in Arkansas to see Owl City. It was about 2-2.5 hours away, but the show was only $10. It was without question the “whitest” place I’ve ever been. “Awkward” is a putting it mildly, but we still had a good time :)

Girlie Christmas Party! I didn’t take any pictures. Only videos… Enjoy :)

Mannheim Steamroller

Jenny Doesn\’t Know Bad Romance and Emily Breaks Things

Oops… Jenny Did It Again…

When I was in Murray in December, I went to one of sorority sister’s weddings. This is my sis-kid, Sara. It was a fun night!

Maggie and her husband Kyle.

Dancing with her brother Keaton.

Awkward People Dancing

A Mom Dancing to \”Crank That (Soulja Boy)\”

Last Dance Before the Honeymoon

Enjoy! Let me know if these videos don’t work. I set them as private for obvious reasons, but if I need to change them to public, I can.

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Ugh, I hate everyone right now. But not really.

14 Jan I have many trains of thought, Jenny, Liz, i hate everyone, people are stupid, pop culture inconsistencies drive me nuts, sexual innuendo

Ok, I’m kind of pissed off, for no real reason, but a lot of little things. But it’s not too serious. I mainly just have a bad headache, and I’m sitting in my living room, watching “Dawson’s Creek” with Liz, wearing my blue snuggie (it was a Christmas present from my grandmother–don’t judge me), and my purple sunglasses because I’m sensitive to light right now. I look like a total goober.

Anyway. This is why I’m pissed.

  • Pat Roberston is a giant douche bag. How the HELL do you say that a MASSIVE natural disaster that has caused possibly hundreds of thousands to die/to lose everything/to become seriously injured is a result of a PACT WITH THE DEVIL that ANCIENT Haitians made. ARE YOU SERIOUS???????????????? Ugh. That’s just the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard–this week.
    • However, here’s a blog by Donald Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz to more appropriately consider this heinousness. http://donmilleris.com/2010/01/13/1513/
      • But whatever. I’m still pissed.
  • I’m really, really pissed about Rachael’s job situation. See her blog for more. http://rachieann.com/wp/
    • (Rachael, can you instruct me on how to imbed links, er whatever? It won’t let me do it/I might just be silly. It won’t let me click on the button thing.)
  • My TweetDeck was bombarded with overzealous celebrities spreading trivialities or whatever in a matter of 1o minutes. I got annoyed and just turned it off. And I love Twitter.
  • “Dawson’s Creek” DVDs. From season 3 on they use a COMPLETELY different theme song than the original one that aired on the show. FOR NO REASON. AND IT’S STUPID AND GROSS.
  • My head really hurts :(
  • Echofon–Twitter application on my iPod touch–keeps crashing for no reason

Ok. That’s my rant. I’ve been angrier, and this was relatively silly. But I thought I’d just throw that out there.

In happy-go-lucky news, Liz and I saw a license plate that said “JIZ ###”. Liz immediately pointed and said, “OH MY GOD THAT SAYS ‘JIZ’ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA… It’s spelled wrong but still.” We tried to get a picture of it but were unsuccessful. There was too much glare from the headlights of the car behind the jizz car. But still. HI-LARIOUS.

Random fact for the day: Channing Tatum was a stripper before he became famous.

JENNY COMES TOMORROW!!!! but I’m not at all excited.

Things to look out for:

  • LONG overdue pictures from the past several months. Including the last time Jenny was in Memphis. In October.
    • This includes videos from the Girlie Christmas Party–hehe–blackmail :)
  • Other things that I can’t think of right now because my head hurts
  • A less rantful me

LOVE!!~

Edit. Excerpt from Don Miller’s blog that expresses how I feel about the Religious Right better than I ever could, from a legitimate, loving perspective, while still taking issue with what they have to say. This is one of the main reasons I love the Episcopal Church.

• I’ve also found that the more I trust in Christ’s redemption to be sufficient, the less overtly religious I am. And, quite honestly, the more suspect overtly religious people become to me. When I’m with somebody who talks zealously about faith, about Jesus, about the Bible, after a while, I find myself wondering whether or not their faith is strong at all. For instance, if I were with somebody who kept talking about how much they loved their wife, going on loudly and profusely, intuitively I would wonder whether or not they were struggling in their marriage. I would wonder whether they were trying to convince me they loved their wife, or if they were trying to convince themselves. (Now that I think of it, though, some of my favorite people talk about how much they love their wives, but these are less public proclamations and more sighs of appreciation.) Faith in Christ, for me, is similar. It’s intimate. I’m more comfortable giving quiet prayers, intimate prayers. Often alone, in fact. I speak of faith the way I speak of personal matters. Of course there is a time for proclamations, but that’s the key, isn’t it? There’s a time. Anyway, I love that the New Testament is mostly intimate letters written to small groups of people who met in homes. I like the quiet authenticity of our faith. Robertson’s loudness and shock-jock verbiage seems strange and oddly uncompassionate. It felt like he was trying to tell us how tough he was, not how compassionate God is.

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Welcome to Blogging, Cristin…

11 Jan I have many trains of thought, Jenny, Liz, Movies, Spirituality

Hi friends :)

Well, I finally gave in to Jenny Lou, and I have decided to blog. Thanks to my dear friend and now web designer Rachie, I have a soon-to-be-custom designed space for my rants, raves, ponderings, and praises in a small corner of the interweb. Now for those of you that are interested can perhaps get a slightly more detailed update or insight into my life, thoughts, etc. Although I’m not exactly super cool with random people knowing intimate details about my life, I’m writing this more for my friends and myself. Things that are a little more personal will perhaps be unwritten, private, protected, and/or with verifying information changed to protect the innocent–or at times the guilty.

I’ll try to update as often as possible, though as a graduate student, I’m not sure how often that will be… But I’ll definitely make a concerted effort! I know many of you will understand.

I will be sure to keep you all posted on my latest fitness/nutrition venture. I have dubbed 2010 as the Year of Health. I’ve never been a good eater or consistently active, and I hope to change that. So far, I’m happy to say, that I’m off to a good start. More to come on that later.

In other news, I’m super excited about this coming weekend! My bff Jenny Lou Who is coming in town for the pseudo-holiday weekend, and I can’t wait to see her! As many of you know, it’s really hard to go from seeing someone almost everyday, who grows to be one of your closest friends, to only seeing them a few times a semester. Sure, we talk and text and tweet and Facebook pretty frequently, but it’s not the same as cuddling and laughing and being silly, and watching the SAME movies over and over like only we can do so, so well. I just saw her a few weeks ago, but I don’t know for sure when the next time will be when we can spend time together, so it’ll be a great weekend to just be us and have fun for a few days. Plus, we’re exchanging belated Christmas presents (and a SUPER late bday present for Jenny…), so that’s always fun :)

In a totally different train of thought…

For those of you that follow the Liturgical calendar, today was the first Sunday after Epiphany, which is Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. Epiphany, from the Greek, means “to manifest” or “to show”. The celebration of Epiphany is the revelation of God in human form as Jesus, and also one of the only occasions in the Biblical tradition where all three parts of the Trinity are simultaneously present and apparent. Ever since I’ve started attending the Episcopal Church, my faith has grown and deepend in ways I couldn’t imagine. I really love my church, and every time I go, I’m reminded why, and that I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

Personally, I’m a big fan of epiphanies, and the past six months have definitely offered quite a few, and I’m sure they’ll keep on coming.Hope. Trust. Contentment. These are things I’m learning.

On yet another totally different tangent……

Liz and I watched “Life as a House” tonight… SUCH an excellent movie and totally ripped my heart right out. I’d never seen it, but it was so, so, SO good. Though I do find that since my Nana’s death, I relate to things on a totally different level, from a totally different place. I’m way more sensitive to grief and death and dying than I ever was before… I find myself thinking of her and missing her every single day… Something tells me that it won’t really get any easier…

ANYWAY

On a less depressing note, I’m really excited about blogging. Maybe now I won’t blow up your Twitter every now and then :)

LOVE!!! <3

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