Friday Favorites (Halloween Edition)

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday or anything like that and if you remember, sweaters and colorful trees don't change my life, but Halloween weekend is always good. I mean right? I somehow always have a slammed schedule in October and the weekend of Halloween is peak fun if you play your cards right. I ran a 5K, went to a ghost story telling event and hung out with a green dinosaur, had some AWESOME bagel time with Grace, made homemade mac-n-cheese with Brandi for the Crott's BIG pig party, and dressed up as our Director of PRT at work today. Ed's a pretty quirky guy, so that one got a lot of laughs. I don't know when I'll grow out of loooking forward to occasions where I get to dress up. But in any case, you have to dress for the job you want, right? Also in exciting news, the Slutty Pumpkin returns on How I Met Your Mother tonight. If you watch the show, this is a big deal. Happy Halloween!

Quote of the Day. Girl talk for Grace and Katie.
Me: "Andrew Luck, he's apparently the best quarterback in college football, so you think he'd be cute, right? He's so not. He has a half-beard."
Grace: "Ew. Half-beard. That even sounds gross."
Me: "Right? It sounds like a pirate that sucks."

Money Ball

If you know nothing about college football, you can stop reading now. But for those who are mostly Gamecock fans or just want to learn more about how much money effects the sports industry, stay with me. They announced this week that Missouri will be joining the SEC conference. I'm assuming this is only in football, but I'm not totally sure. SEC stands for the South Eastern Conference and last time I checked, Missouri was neither Southern nor Eastern. Also, I don't think schools should just get to pick what conference they want to be in just for fun and switch when they think they deserve more money. The BIG 12 conference is actually looking at adding a couple more teams as well. How can the BIG TWELVE have more or less teams than TWELVE? exactly. And if the SEC keeps allowing any and every team in, they'll get too big and every school in the nation will try to join.

Example. Past 5 national football champions:

2011: Auburn
2010: Alabama
2009: Florida
2008: Florida
2007: LSU

I mean duh. Who wouldn't want to join such a great conference? The reason you see so many of these teams in the championship each year, is that their schedule is so strong. That's why Boise State, no matter how many games they win, will never go to the championship. They play teams like Utah while Florida, LSU, Alabama and South Carolina all play each other. So Missouri and Texas A&M (who also just joined the SEC) want a big peice of all this action. I hope all SEC fans like me out there are hoping these new teams don't bring down the level of awesomeness that already exists, which could happen. Do you feel educated yet?

Jobs on Jobs

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” -Steve Jobs

I haven't publicly noted anything related to the death of Steve Jobs, I mean, I didn't know him like that and I only own 1 Apple product. But this here quote is something he said while speaking at a graduation ceremony one time. This shouldn't be any new information to us, and Steve isn't the first one to think this idea up, but I most certainly agree with it. I have luckily found work that I love to do. This weekend was the Special Olympics Fall Games and this year I got to be a partner on our Area 11 Unified soccer team. We had a really great time, played some hardcore soccer, got some injuries and sunburn, and brought the silver medal home to Rock Hill. Something that I NEVER thought I would get to do with my life is work with the special needs population regularly. I actually never spent any time with them before I started working at PRT except for 1 week in high school on a summer mission trip. One thing I've noticed about Special Olympics is that everyone who volunteers or works with these types of people don't do it for a pat on the back. Just hanging out with folks with certain dissabilities is exhausting, it's a LOT of work. The amount of love and effort that you have to give makes me realize it's not about self-fulfillment. And it's also one of those things that puts you in a humble place and the more I work with them, the more I get put there. When I'm bowling or playing soccer or helping kids ride horses, it can't be about me. It's all about the high-five and the "good job!" and giving them the self-confidence that most people are naturally born with. It's pretty cool that I got a job in what I was wired for (sports) and then through that, I found a whole group of people to love on. God's plans work every time.

quote of the day

From the office next door. Another reason why I love working at PRT.
Hope: "I'm seeing how long I can go without brushing my hair. Day 6."

Running

Fact: You can tell how dedicated I am to something by how early I'll wake up for it. My really cool office-mate, Karen, is a runner. Her husband coaches cross-country, her daughter runs for Winthrop, and Karen runs every day. Karen is probably the happiest person I know. I don't know if this is a direct result of her running, since excercise produces endorphins, making you generally happier about life. But I do know that when I ran cross-country in high school, I took great pride in running 5-6 miles after school and then coming home to down an entire little ceasers pizza by myself with no shame. As of today, I have registered for the Rock Hill Great Pumpkin 5K road race. Sounds cool right? I've also talked my two Burns pals into running with me and I have to think we're all really excited. Laura and I have both been trying to run every day. Some days were more successful than others. For some reason running/biking/triathlon events are really in right now. Lots of my friends, after graduating college, decided that being addicted to healthy food and/or running was going to be their "thing" of choice, which is cool. I support health and the running culture is a great way to stay in shape, meet new people, and spend your adult money on new shoes. I'm doing it, I guess for all of those reasons and because I miss it. And because it's a cheap sport (and we all know how I feel about participating in sports/competition). I'm also scheduled to run in the Reindeer Romp 5K in Decemeber and obviously the Come-See-Me race in April. If one day you wake up and decide to take on this sport (just like I did) then let's get up. It means some early mornings and a lot of soreness in the first training days, but it's all worth it I think. Come on folks, let's beat the US obesity rate, one cool race t-shirt at a time!

"There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." --Linus

quote of the day

Felicia (explaining the new personal assistant app on the iphone): "You can tell it to remind you to e-mail someone and then it will as soon as you walk in the door to work! Our minds are slowly deteriorating, I can't wait."

quote of the day

3 people on a couch...
Me: "As of now I don't have anyone to feed Cali this weekend."
Erica: "Oh no! What are you going to do?
Heather: "I'll do it."
Me: "Hey I'm Katie!"
Heather: "I'm Heather! Nice to meet you."

I love my new church already...

A Few Thoughts on Compassion

This week has been cool (and its only Wednesday). God has reminded me in lots of different ways that He spends His time on me. He loves me with a love that I’m not capable of producing back for Him while in this life. I’ve been reminded of His compassion for people, that He is a Father, and that He wants to answer us. A lot of times when people say these general statements about God I usually let it pass through because I’ve heard those things a lot. But I’ve actually THOUGHT about that this week and let it sink in a little. I was reading in Hosea 11 and thinking about how ridiculous the Israelites were. They were being proven over and over and over God’s faithfulness, but they’re still a bunch of screw-ups. They still turn their back on Him, they still sin like crazy, they question everything. And then I immediately realize how well I relate to that. God has proven his faithfulness in my life about a million times per day and I still question His ideas. Over and over we mess it up yet God still says to us like He did to a whole nation, “How can I give you up?” “How can I hand you over?” I mean what the junk! I walk around demanding grace from Him, acting like He hasn’t been absolutely merciful to me. I love that He doesn’t stop coming after me, but just like with Israel, He won’t relent until He has all of my attention.

Why my dog is awesome

I had several parental expectations when I decided to take on a puppy 7 months ago. I wanted my new black lab to be the most well behaved, hardcore, social dog there ever was. Well, the more she grows, the more
I'm amazed at her social skills. This weekend, I had several different people over spending the night and such. Also spending the weekend downstairs was neighbor Steve's weimeraner, Ada. Calster woke me up several times throughout the night, once because she wanted to go sleep with Grace, and then again because she heard Ada went outside and this meant she should too. Every time someone spends the night, she forgets her bed in my room and HAS to sleep with whoever is on the couch. And if I won't let her, she wakes me up earlier than normal the next morning to go make sure they're still there. As inconvenient as her social life can be at times, I love this about her and I think it's what makes us a good combo. I could never have a dog that didn't like other people/dogs because I love people/dogs. It's really fun to watch her interact with other dogs because she demands their friendship, whether they're into it or not. This may get her in trouble one day. And while you're here, take a trip down memory lane and look at how cute she was the day I brought her home (see above). Can't decide if Cali or Savannah is the cuter one in this picture.

Giving In

I do not love the fourth season as much as everyone else seems to. Why not you may ask? I tell ya what, let's just focus on the things that are good about fall as to not offend anyone. Here's a Fall Top 10:

10. Football season.
9. Baseball post-season.
8. Things get haunted and I pay to go in them.
7. My dog is black, which is very similar to having a black cat....spooky.
6. Halloween Oreos.
5. Trick-or-Treating...I buy candy for kids.
4. 13 nights of Halloween on ABC Family.
3. Did I say football?
2. It's hot in the day and cool at night. Comfy.
1. Plaid.

Event news: The Rock Hill Parks and Recreation Department holds an annual ghost-telling event every year called Firelight Fright at Fewell Park in Rock Hill. This year it's on October 29th at 7:00. Bring a picnic, blanket, flashlight, your dog, and leave your money at home cause it's free. I'm in charge of the fog machine.

quote of the day

Believe it or not, there are still existing humans that have yet to see Dirty Dancing. Luckily, 3 of them were brought over this weekend. We gathered several gals together and watched the movie, the special feature music videos that were rediculously 80's, and then spent another good hour learning how to cha-cha thanks to the tutoring of Janna Reid. Was a swell night....

Janna: "Are you like, organizing our fridge?"
Natalie: "I'm making a sandwich!"

Me: "Every time you fall asleep I'm going to tweet so you'll wake up."
Grace: "I had a tweet in my pocket just now and I didn't wake up."

Rachel: "She has sleepy eyes because she had hungry eyes the night before!"