14 days and counting

ohhhh maaaan, you should have SEEN me when I got home after watching Gilmore Girls with my mother ( seriously, it was a WONDERFUL episode...) I tried to check my email and my internet didnt work...meeeeh....after several hours and finally giving up-its working again. who knows why. meh. but, thankgoodness...right?

So, today, I got one of my birthday presents in the mail...from my dearest friend Penny. Yeah, she'll be mad at me that I unwrapped my book before my birthday-but she had already TOLD me what the book was...and besides, I was desparate...I didnt have internet and i recently threw the book I was reading across the room ( remember: A Severe Mercy)...anyway, there were two presents in there, and I'll keep the other one until my birthday ( sorry Penny!)
OK, now to the book...Its called Captivating its by John and Stasi Eldredge...ooooh maaaan...I've just read the first two chapters and I feel so happy! :-) this book is wonderful, I recommend it to everyone! I mean, sure its about 'unveiling the mystery of a woman's soul' ...but I've been delighted at the approach taken...and I think even a man's man could find something in this one....but, I'll wait and hold off on ordering you all out to buy the book until I actually finish reading it ;-) ( oh, by the way..these authors also wrote the best seller: "Wild at heart" which is the "guy" version of this book...) interesting...that after that anti-relationship ( well, it wasnt really) post a few days ago, I would be given a book to ease me back into NOT hating relationships and those in them ( not that I ever did).

OK, so I'm in a good mood...and I feel like after finding this little gem of a book ( see, what good books do to me?! ) I am totally happy to bring my inspirational, influencial post of the day...

The DBM
Yeah, so I've totally given up on having just one person a day...besides, my life has really been influenced by lots of groups...and here's one of the best examples of that: The DBM is the affectionate name for my girl friends from high school...specifically my girl friends from my senior year. Meredith, Katie, Asa, Nancy and sometimes Amy...hehehe....yes, this post is dedicated to them.
( DBM stands for "Dirty British Magazine....its a long story...)
I spent just about ALL of my free time with these girls for about five months straight-which, isnt actually that long...but some how we were able to cram a LOT of memories into a short period and to this day I always feel like we've some how miss counted and it was actually a longer period of time...
Each one of the girls brought something special to my life, each one of us being extremely strong willed and extremely different-sometimes I think it must have been an act of God that we were all able to BE friends! But, I think some of the major things they brought to my life, specifically during those months together were:

I think its only natural in high school ( and probably before) to be wrapped up in a very SMALL world, specifially revolving around yourself and those who relate directly to you....I was no different. And while I always wanted to do something "different" with my life...I give a lot of credit to my dear friends for opening my eyes to "the world" so to speak...for one thing, Nancy is from Mexico and Asa is Swedish...so they practically brought me my own little piece of the "outside" world...and well, Meredith is, to this day, a Europe-loving girl....which continued to add "outside eyes"... I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but I really do feel like it was important that I was given such unique friends to prepare me for moving OUT of my "little world"....I learned so much about different cultures from these girls-even if it was just a taste...and even if it was still from the comfort of my little texas town...it was a start, a start of something bigger.

I was talking to a girl a few weekends ago and she told me the story of her senior prom...it was a very loooong story, but the gist of it was " I had no date...ended up getting a pity date....he left me at the dance....it was horrible." At the end of the story I said, "where were your friends?! could you not hang out with them!?!?" I was in such shock at horrible the story was...and that there had been no way to fix the situation at the time....I guess, I've never given credit where credits due when it comes to how much FUN I had in high school...I had wonderful friends, they all had very good heads on their shoulders...none of us had dates to our senior prom...or homecoming...or any other social event for that matter. Now, I have nothing AGAINST dates-not at all...its just that I am grateful there wasnt pressure to have boyfriends or dates...or whatever. I often wonder what guys actually thought of us, and I bet we were pretty intimidating at the time....five( totally hot...hahaha) girls who were so close we could practically finish eachothers sentences...and who had innumeral inside jokes....yeah, not good for the guy-social life. But, I am grateful for that. I am grateful that I didnt have boyfriends in highschool...I am grateful that instead I have wonderful memories of late night slumber parties...making dinners....reading magazines in Hastings....watching foreign movies....lots and lots of laugher. Ok, so the major lesson I learned here was that I didnt have to put my self-worth in guys...nope, I had support when support was really needed.

I am pretty lucky that I am still good friends with four of the five other DBM girls-I still smile at the memories, I now live with Katie...and we've had several hiliarous "remember when" conversations...
Ultimately these girls were the perfect "send off" to my grand adventures in New Zealand ( and beyond) sort of the in-between... between being a kid and going out on my own....they were confidence boosters, the perfect test audience, great idea givers and hilarious story generators....I really do not know what I would be today without my time with each one of them....