Once Upon a Time...

..there was a girl named Molly.
She worked two jobs and hated it. She never got enough sleep and felt stressed out constantly.

Then one day, someone told her about their job and he whole world changed; the loved what they did. Loved the people they worked with. Loved their boss. Loved their coworkers.
And best of all, it sounded like a job that Molly would be really, really good at.
Was this company hiring? she asked.
Her friend said that they were, and told Molly to e-mail her a resume.

So Molly did just that and a few days later, she got a call.
Can you come in for and interview? the person on the other end asked.

During her interview, Molly thought about working in this office. She thought about the people who might be her coworkers and what her job would be like and what her days would be filled with.
The number one thing about this job that appealed to Molly: it would be making the world a better place.
She had always wanted to make the world a better place, somehow.
Can you see yourself working here? they asked.
Yes. Yes she could.

Then there was another interview.
And a job-shadow.
And a third interview.
Throughout this experience, Molly learned more about the job- how it would help people and make their lives infinitely better. How there was a high need for communication and interaction with others on this particular occupation.
Molly liked that.
The people in the office were nice, friendly, and had good senses of humor.
Molly liked that, too.

So when they offered her a job, Molly of course said yes.
She was very excited.
She couldn't think of another job she'd rather have.
And it didn't hurt that they were paying her more than both her other jobs combined.

Molly adored her job.
It was the happiest she'd ever been.

Until yesterday.

Her boss called Molly into her office.

We have to let someone go.
We're not making enough money to pay the whole staff.
You were the last one hired.
We're sorry.

*Poof*

There went Molly's awesome job.
And her awesome paycheck.
And her awesome ability to help others.

So the question is....
Where do I go from here.
Because I'm not sure.

How does this story end?

I ALMOST FORGOT!

How could I?

In June, Blake and I went here:

Atlanta, in case you're not super-smart and can't identify US cities by random pictures of their skylines.

It was super-hot.
Like, really.
And I had a mint julep.
We also ate A LOT.
But that wasn't the best part.

I got to see this little chicken:

Molly-Squared Reunion Tour.

I was so happy, I almost cried.
Wait.
I actually did cry.

In case anyone was wondering

Some things about my life at it's present state:

I joined a gym.
So that I don't look like this:

It should be of note, however, that on Tuesday evening I spent 45 minutes on the elliptical machine because I thought, "I'm relatively fit. I can handle it" and proceeded to pull both my calf muscles and am now forced to hobble about like a 103 year-old.
Which kind of supports the notion that I needed to join a gym in the first place.
If you ask me.


I just spent a gloriously relaxing (...right) week with my charming family here:

That's me and my wonderful cousin, Jenny.
Here we are acting all nonchalant around the paparazzi.
Being famous can be sooo annoying, don't you think?
Photo-essay on our fabulous adventures soon to come.


I also got a new job.
Like, as in one that involves and office and a desk and company.

Pretty groovy, right?
I enjoy it.
And I will tell you all about it.
Soon.
My life is only so interesting.
I have to milk sources for bloggin material when I can.


Also, some people had some birthdays:

photo from here.
Their names are:
Mom
Dad
Blake
Gramma
Grandpa
Marie
Lara
Amber
Aunt Jane
Danny
And I owe them all special birthday blogs.
What?
Shut up.
I've been busy.
That doesn't make me a bad daughter/granddaughter/niece/cousin/girlfriend/BFF.
Okay. Maybe it does.


So what was the point of this post, you ask?
Mostly to make my grandmother happy because she keeps whining about how I never blog anymore.

Old family photo found from here.
Looks good for her age, doesn't she?
I'm actually kind of impressed that she can still use a computer.
Way to go Grams!


Stay tuned for more awesomeness.

...But now I see.

Earlier this evening, I was driving home from my weekly visit with Marie and Wrigley the Schnoodle in Virden (Oh, you didn't know that Marie moved to Virden? More on that later.) I was mildly drowsy with DiCarlo's pizza and strawberry-banana ice cream from Whirl-A-Whip. I hurried down Route 4, anxious to get home to me sweatpants and clean sheets.

As I hit a patch of road between Thayer and Chatham, there were no other headlights in sight. No fellow travelers in front or behind me. Kings of Leon found it's way from my iPod to the speakers. I smiled to myself and let the late summer breeze sweep through the open windows tangle my neglected hair into impossible knots. Air that smelled like fresh-cut grass, sweat, and burning leaves.

On the shoulders of the blacktop, the fireflies danced in their nightly testimonial to the impending dark. Deep indigo paint bled across the sky into a canopy in front of me. Corn whooshed by me on the left, soybeans on my right.

Above the fringe of the tall stalks of corn lay a strip of sky still untouched by night. The sun was melting into the horizon in a glowing ball. The atmosphere around it looked as though a child had seized a treasure-box from his grandmother's bureau and scattered it's precious contents across a quilt; sapphires faded into emeralds, emeralds into golden pieces of amber, amber into deep amethysts, and amethysts into brilliant rubies.

The corn's feathery fingers stretched towards the jewel-box sky, silhouetted by the disappearing daylight. Skeletal outlines of trees, set aglow by dusk, dotted the approaching landscape. Modest houses surrounded by fields of vegetative wealth sighed as they settled in to sleep.

I have seen a lot of breathtaking things in my life: the Eiffel Tower, the Trevi Fountain, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the ocean. I have never considered this place to be "beautiful." Desolate, barren, forgotten...maybe. But never beautiful. The place I grew up is populated by spires of metal and glass, twisting upwards into the gray-green mist, created leftovers from an ungrateful population. People congest the streets, moving and breathing as a single organism. That was beautiful to me. It still is.

But there is beauty in this place, too.

Sometimes the light just has to disappear for it's magnitude to be realized.