Whirlwind Waco Weekend!

I can't even begin to put into words the amount of fun I had this weekend!!! On Friday after work I drove home really quick [as quick as 5 o'clock traffic allows], threw a bunch of clothes in a bag, and hit the road for Houston. A couple of weeks back, Catherine and I had decided that I would meet her in Houston and then she and I would take her car the rest of the way to Waco (for those of you who don't know who Cat is, she is one of my amazing roomies from college and will be one of the house party ladies in my wedding!). I was already delirious at this point due to an extremely long week at work, but I made it to Houston in 3.5 hours thanks to Taco Cabana, Celine Dion, and way too much coffee. Cat greeted me at her cute little house with another skinny vanilla latte for me, and we were off to Waco!

{Of course, we had to take a picture at Cat's favorite gas station on the way to Waco. This was at about 11:30 p.m. Goodness, our hair...}

We arrived in Waco at our old college house, now my little sister's college house, at 12:30 a.m. and crashed. I hardly remember walking up the stairs to bed and I don't know if I've ever slept so hard in my life. Pitiful, I know!

{We've all lived at "ten-oh-six" at one point or another. We love this house!}

We woke up Saturday morning and headed straight to Panera to meet up with Kristin and James. Panera was our favorite place to study when we were in college. Aww memories! While eating breakfast, we ran into my Tri Delta little and future bridesmaid, Kelsey! It was so fun to see her and her momma pre-graduation. Kelsey graduated this weekend from Baylor with her masters in accounting. I'm SO incredibly proud of her and excited she'll be working in Houston now! 

{Love Panera Hazelnut coffee!}

After breakfast, we stopped by Rack Room Shoes in the Central Texas Market Place because I needed a pair of black dress sandals. This was my favorite place to get a good deal on shoes of all kinds in college! I grabbed not only one, but two pair of dress sandals in black and teal. They were buy one, get one 1/2 off so I couldn't resist! After shoe shopping, Cat, Kristin, James, and myself picked up Claire and we all headed over to Bloom and Bee Swanky, an adorably vintage gift shop in downtown Waco. How had I never been to this gorgeous place?!

 {Artsy chandelier at Bloom and Bee}

This little shop is the kind of place that carries old photographs, picture frames, glass figurines, house decor, luggage, linens, etc. I bought a couple of vintage pieces to use as decor for the wedding and I'm super proud of myself for picking them out on my own. I'm not naturally very good at the whole artsy/vintage thing, but I'd like to think that I'm getting better due to the many artistic friends in my life. :)

After our adventure to Bloom and Bee, we decided to go for a little ride through campus. I had only been on the Baylor campus once since my graduation a year ago and was really excited to re-live student life, even if only for a few minutes. I made a special request and we stopped by my old stomping grounds, Castellaw Communications Center. I took all of my major courses in this building and it really felt like a second home while I was in college. Many late nights were spent studying in this building, which smelled like freshly printed newspaper all the time (since the school paper is printed in Castellaw). I walked in for just a couple of minutes while we were on campus and it smelt so wonderful, so familiar. 

{"The house that built me."}

After our trip around campus, poor James had had enough girl time. So we dropped him back off at his car and went to grab lunch. We decided to eat at Food For Thought, a local Baylor college student favorite. This hole-in-the-wall health food restaurant serves salads, nachos, burritos, smoothies, etc. Cat and I split the chicken nachos and they were so good! I had forgotten how much I love Food For Thought. After lunch we made a quick stop by the bookstore to pick up an alumni sticker for my new car.

{Food For Thought's chicken nachos}

{Alumni sticker on the new car--taken after I had already gotten back to CC}

You would think that at this point we had to be too stuffed to eat anything else all day. Nope, it gets worse. I don't know what our deal was, but apparently we had all missed our favorite college foods so much that we decided to subconsciously eat as much as possible in 36 hours. It's sickening, really, the amount of food we ate this weekend! Well, after FFT, we went on a little shopping spree to Ann Taylor Loft. I'm guessing the "30% your entire purchase all weekend" sale had something to do with motivating four very full women to try on clothes. We all walked away with something too! Got to love those ATL sales!! After shopping, we took Claire to 3 Spoons Yogurt, a new fro yo place in Waco that she had been wanting us to visit. We really had no room for fro yo (obviously!!), but we did it anyway and again, so good!

{I didn't get too much, but what I did get was gone in about 14 seconds!}

We FINALLY went back to Claire's house and all I wanted to do was take a nap. However, my sweet friends (Lord knows I wanted to hurt them...) did not let my napping last long. About 30 minutes later I was woken up and told that we were going to Common Grounds. Ohmygoodness. I had been wanting nothing but a cowboy coffee for weeks and now I was too full to even look at coffee! But we went and had a glorious time. I ended up ordering an Arnold Palmer (Luke's favorite) and buying a bag of coffee beans to take home.

{Our drinks}

{What a lovely place full of coffee-stained memories}

{CG to-go!}

Alright, so this blog post covers about the first 24 hours of my whirlwind weekend in Waco! But it's midnight and I'm falling asleep at my computer. I'll tell you about the rest of my weekend tomorrow. I also have so many wedding updates to share! But again, these must wait until tomorrow when I've gotten enough sleep to remember it all. 

Sweet dreams,

Sara

Feeling blessed, giving back, and living with compassion

I've been feeling very inspired and blessed lately. After what couldn't have been a better 24th birthday and looking through pictures of my first bridal shower, I am reminded of how wonderful life truly is. I'm not living in Japan with the threat of radiation poison looming over me, I'm not an orphan without family, I'm not physically sick or hurt in any way. I'll be the first to admit that I can let the little speed bumps in life get to me and forget how lucky (this is the only other word I can think of besides blessed!) I really am. This makes me think of Francesca Battistelli's newest song, This Is The Stuff, where she sings, "In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I'm blessed." I am so grateful for the countless ways God shows His love, even when I lose focus!

A couple of weeks ago, my director at work sent me the link to a speech called, "This Is Water," by David Foster Wallace, which was given at the 2005 commencement ceremony Kenyon College. It is a wonderful 20ish minute speech about living a conscious, compassionate life, both as an educated person and as a Christian. If you haven't heard this speech, please, please let me encourage you to listen to it! I'll post the links below. It is absolutely motivating and is the best commencement speech I've ever listened to. One line in particular really stood out to me and challenged me in my daily life, in the way I work with clients, in the way I communicate with friends and family, etc. Wallace said,

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad, petty little unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated and understanding how to think.

You have to listen to the entire speech to fully understand this statement in its context, but for some reason this quote hit me like a ton of bricks. Freedom isn't money, fine clothes, or prestige. It's about being aware of those around you and striving to make a difference in their lives. As previously stated, I've been feeling incredibly blessed. But what does any of this matter if I'm not giving blessings back to others and showing them the love that Christ has so graciously shown me? This is where the inspired part comes in. God's blessings have now inspired me to give back to others in "petty little unsexy ways every day." Just some food for thought.

"This Is Water" links:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5THXa_H_N8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSAzbSQqals

And now I'll leave you with this, my favorite passage that I read as a religion minor in college (and I read A LOT!). It is from The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), a document of the Reformed Christian faith. It says,

We learn that we are to be patient in adversity, grateful in the midst of blessing, and to trust our faithful God and Father for the future, assured that no creature shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot even move.

I just love this quote. It doesn't quite go with the rest of the blog post, but I don't care. I love to share it with people any chance I get!

  

How has God blessed you lately? How have you given back? Are you striving to live a conscious, compassionate life on a daily basis? Again, just some food for thought. :)

In the grip of grace,
Sara

Bowlcoming 2010!

My first homecoming as a Baylor alum was good for my soul. Last weekend was one the of the best weekends I've had in months. Here is an extremely long a recap of my time in Waco:

My manager let me take off of work early on Friday, around 3 p.m., to eave for Waco. I had packed the night before and was ready to leave from work. I was so thrilled to be driving to Waco and was singing at the top of my lungs to the radio that I completely missed my first exit out of Corpus. This caused me to have to turn around multiple times and added 20 minutes to my drive. I was SO frustrated! But this feeling was quickly overshadowed, once again, by my excitement for my first Baylor homecoming as an alum.

I made two stops in my five and a half hour drive from Corpus Christi to Waco. Once outside of Victoria because my car said I had 4 miles worth of gas left in my tank and once in Hallettsville at my parents' house to use the rest room and grab a drink/snack. I made it to Waco by 8:30, just in time to sing the last three songs with the BRH Alumni Choir at Singspiration (my old choir, a huge Baylor traditional worship service).

After Singspiration, I met up with my old roomie, Catherine, and my baby sister, Claire. We headed over to the bonfire to meet up with more friends and hear the results of the homecoming float competition. I saw so many old friends there! The weirdest part of being on campus for the first time since graduation was that I still felt like a student. After seeing and catching up with many college friends, Cat and I snuck into the 9 p.m. Pigskin performance to watch Claire perform with Tri Delta. (When you've performed in Pigskin and Sing many-a-time as a student, you feel as if you've earned the right to sneak in. And hey, I bought a ticket for Saturday. It all evens out.) I cried watching Claire perform for the first time. I didn't think I'd get so emotional, but it's the coolest feeling in the world to watch your baby sister carry on your Baylor/Tri Delta legacy.

 {At the bonfire}

Saturday was busy is the best way. It started off with the Tri Delta Homecoming Breakfast in the chapter room and reunited, again, with college friends. After the breakfast, we walked over to 5th Street to watch the homecoming parade. It began to sprinkle, which should have been a fair enough warning (more rain to come), but it didn't phase me much at the time. After the parade, Cat, Kristin, James, Renee, Amy, Michael, and I headed over to George's for a few pre-game margarit-Os. How I had missed a good margarit-O! For those of you not from Waco, George's is known for their Big-O's, which is cold beer served in a large, round glass. I'm not a fan of beer, but margs? Yup!

 {Imagine this guy, but with a margarita in it. The best way to prep for a Baylor football game! And thanks for the picture TSP!}

After George's, we all got ready and headed over to the stadium for the big game. If you hadn't heard, Baylor's homecoming football game was a bit unusual. The game was supposed to begin at 2:30, but after about two plays into the game, lightening was spotted and a delay of game was called. For about the next 45 minutes to an hour, the teams hung out in the locker rooms while the fans either went under the stadium or waited it out in the stands. My friends, parents, siblings, and I all decided we'd wait it out in the stands. That it, until the torrential downpour began. We all rushed the field and were soaking wet in seconds. Umbrellas broke, rain jackets failed, and no one cared. It was so fun!

 {On the field during the storm! And yup, that's my dad in a trash bag.}

After about another hour, the rain stopped and the game started back up. I don't think it ended until closer to 8:30 p.m. But no one cared because Baylor WON! 47-42, this game made Baylor bowl-eligible for the first time since 1995 and ranked us #25 in BCS. Holla atcha Bears! This was, without a doubt, the most memorable first homecoming football game an alumni could possibly have.

After the game, Cat and I picked up some Food For Thought. Oh, how I had missed those chicken nachos! (I may try to recreate them this week, but I highly doubt I'll be successful.) After dinner, my family and I went to Pigskin (legally) to watch Claire and Tri Delta perform their act, "Come On and Swim!" Claire made us laminated maps of where all she'd be on stage during the performance. She's such a smart little fishy! They did a great job and once again, Tri Delta laid to rest a magnificent act. I can't wait for Sing 2011!

 {This picture was actually taken on Friday night, but I had to show you a picture of the fabulous map Claire made for family and friends. She's pretty legit}

A few of the girls from my Baylor in New York group reunited for about an hour after Pigskin. We got to hug each others necks, reminisce about our adventures in New York, and laugh about our all too many evenings at The Heights Cafe where we poured out our fears of life after college over bottle(s) of wine. Now look at us! Employed, out in the real world, kicking butt! I so proud of us ladies. Love you girls! P.S. Helena and Lindsey, you were dearly missed!

On Sunday morning, Cat, Christine, Kristin, James and I had brunch at Panera. I made sure to pick up a copy of the Waco newspaper (Baylor football on the front cover!) and bought a Baylor Alumni sticker for my car. And last, but certainly NOT least, I bought a cowboy coffee from Common Grounds for my long ride home.

I loved Baylor when I went to school there, but I can honestly say that I think I love it even more now. I finally get why parents want their kids to go to college where they did: because they had some of the best memories there! I definitely want my kids to have all of the amazing opportunities that Baylor offered me. I want them to wear green and gold proudly. It's about tradition, a perpetual bond of friendship (Delta love!), and family. My first homecoming as an alum was perfect; I couldn't have asked for more.

Sic 'Em Bears!!!