These are a Few of my Favorite Things

When thinking about some of my favorite things, I realized that a lot of them start with P. So, P is for Positive and P is for...

1. Pancakes- Who does not love pancakes? Pancakes are one of my favorite foods. I had a stack of pancakes with peaches on them at Cracker Barrel a few weeks ago. I could have died a happy girl right then and there.

2. Peanut Butter- The only food better than pancakes is peanut butter. Peanut butter is my absolute favorite food. Add a little PB to anything and it's better. If you are looking for the way to my heart, give me some peanut butter, especially when added to chocolate.

3. Popcorn- I also love popcorn. Thanks to the lovely Sarah Rankin I was introduced to the WhirlyPop. Popcorn made with the hand cranked popcorn popper is the best there is. Plus it is healthier!

4. Purple- My favorite color is purple. You wouldn't know that by coming into my bedroom because it is done in neutral colors, but purple is by far the best color. Every shade of purple is fabulous. The color purple makes me happy! Purple nail polish, clothes, jewelry!

5. And last but not least on the list of favorite things that start with P is of course...PENGUINS! As I have said before, penguins are awesome! There is no better animal. They are just adorable. I got a penguin finger puppet in a toy store downtown Wilmington the other day. I could have died!

So, there are a few of my favorite things. P is not only for Positive Pamela, it is also for the things that make me happy- pancakes, peanut butter, popcorn, purple, and penguins!

Penguins are Awesome

Today I just want to say, PENGUINS ARE AWESOME!

They are by far the coolest animal ever. The males and the females work together to take care of their egg and have high levels of social interactions. Plus they are just adorable. If I were going to be an animal, I would be a penguin. How can you be sad when you see penguins?! Penguins are just AWESOME!!

My recent realizations...

I have recently realized how bad I am at two things.

I STINK at staying in touch with people from college. I always SWORE I would stay in touch with my friends from college. Now, I've stayed in touch with my closest friends and see them every now and then. But, there are people who made big impacts on my life who I have failed to stay in touch with. I have decided to be better about it! From now on, I'm going to better at staying in touch with important people from college. If you were a big part of my life in college and I have failed to stay in touch with you, I'm so sorry! I promise to be better!!

I have also realized that I'm not very good at keeping up with this blog. I am going to start being better about this too. I created this blog to help me keep my eyes focused on the positive things in my life. Recently I have not been very much of a Positive Pamela. I've been more of a Sullen Susan and it is time to get out of this rut and back into looking at all the wonderful, positive blessings in my life.

So, from now on I promise to myself to be better at staying in touch with people and be more positive!

One Proud Daughter

Today is a great day to be me. Today I am one happy girl. Today I am one proud daughter.

After three and half long years, my Dad has completed Divinity School! I am so proud of him. After not being in a classroom since he was 18, my Dad pushed through the long rides to Campbell from Richlands, long days of lectures, midterms, term papers, and final exams. No easy task! While pursuing his Master of Divinity, he also began pastoring a small church. For the past three and a half years, my Dad has been one busy man.

Although he often got extremely busy and probably had too much on his plate, his faith never faltered once. He always relied on God to bring him through these tough years. He has perserved, he has found his strength in God, and today he will receive his diploma! I'm so proud of him and he has been such an inspiration to me! He doesn't like to have the spotlight put on him, and he will probably KILL me for writing this.

Today on his graduation day, I want everyone to know what a proud daughter I am.

Congrats Daddy!

Benches, Beverages, and Bathrooms

Writing a blog has proven to be more work than I thought. I have sat down at the computer to try and write one and nothing good comes out...hopefully this one will go better than my previous drafts. Last week was Spring Break for me and most of my family. It was a much needed break from school and work for a lot of us. It was a special Spring Break because it was the first time I ever went on a Spring Break trip. While at UNC I always just came home for Spring Break and relaxed. This year, I went to New York City! It was a great trip, but definitely the most exhausting vacation I have ever been on. Along with my mom, two cousins, an aunt, and a family friend, I spent four days jetting around the Big Apple. I think we did just about as much as you can do in New York City in that amount of time. While I'm sure we didn't do it all, we did most of it! We saw Central Park, went to the Statue of Liberty, visited Ellis Island, went to Ground Zero, shopped in Times Square, SOHO, and Chinatown, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, saw a show on Broadway, went to Rockefeller Center, and did A LOT of walking.

It was a great vacation, but New York is a very different place than the Good Ole South. We had a lot of fun, but we were all so exhausted when we got home, we felt like we needed another vacation to recover from our vacation! In New York you do a lot of walking, but there doesn't seem to be any benches to take sit down and take a load off anywhere! Even in the airport on our way home, we didn't find very many seating options. After walking around so much and not being able to find a place to sit down anywhere, it would be nice to have cold drink. However, if you want one, good luck finding one that is reasonably priced. I got a bottle of Diet Coke from a street vendor, it cost me 3 dollars! When we went out to eat, we each got a very small glass of water, about the size of a small drink from McDonalds. We didn't get refills. From the few drinks we did get to have, of course our bladders filled up. Well like benches and reasonably priced beverages, a bathroom is hard to come by in New York City. If you did find a place with a clean bathroom, you had to buy something in order to use the bathroom. So, usually you bought an expensive drink, which then made you have to use the bathroom again later. What a mess! Well returning to the airport in North Carolina, we saw bathrooms and benches everywhere we looked! Going through the drive-thru to get a drink for the car ride home, we found reasonably priced beverages. I've been home from vacation about six days. I'm back in school, which is no fun, but there are plenty of benches, beverages, and bathrooms. Thank God for the South and our need to sit down, have a drink, and relieve ourselves!

More Than an Ordinary Friday

Overall today has been a pretty long day. I'd say at moments it was very hard for me to remain positive and I even slipped a few negative comments in here and there. So how do you have a rough day and then sit down at the computer and write a blog about being positive? I have been wondering the same thing most of the day. I knew it had been a while since I posted, but I just couldn't come up with something positive to write about! As the day wore on, I realized that today is not some ordinary Friday. Today is a SPECIAL day! And to my fellow students at CCCC and the faculty at Onslow County Schools, today is not special because it is the first day of spring break. Today is a special day because it is Good Friday. After dwelling on the negative things most of the day, I thought to myself, why on Earth am I focusing on all this negativity. Today is NOT about me, it IS about my Lord and Savior. Today is the day that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for me on a rugged cross. Today is the day that Christ died for my sins. Today is the day that it was finished. Today is the day that God gave his Son so that I might live! It is a day for spiritual reflection, sit in quiet and worship God. Instead of being focused on me, I need to focus on what God did for me and you! So if the rain and cold weather has bogged you down, take time and reflect on the sacrifice that was made for you on this day many years ago! This music video, "It is Finsihed" by Matt Papa, helps me to remember what was done for me. It helps me take the focus off of me and put it onto God. I pray that everyone has a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend.

Raging on the Road

I spent 18 years of my life living in a slow-paced town where traffic jams where a very uncommon thing. On that rare occasion that you did run into a traffic jam it was usually because there was a tractor on the road. When I went off to college, I went from driving in a slow-paced town to a town where the meaning of speed limit is non-existent and traffic jams are an everyday occurrence. After braving the roads of the Triangle, I finally adjusted to the traffic patterns. I too became a road rager. I had no patience for the Student Drivers, the I think I'll go the speed limit drivers, or I'm from a small town and have no clue how to drive here drivers! Well, after 3 years of the Triangle conditioning me to the road rage (no driving for Freshmen at UNC, so I only had 3 years of driving experience there), I have moved back home. However, my town is not so slow-paced anymore. The increased size of the United States Marine Corps has added about 20,000 plus people to the Jacksonville area over the past 3 years. If you have ever visited Jacksonville, NC, you know that it was not built or designed to hold that many people. Most of the roads in the area are only two lanes. There are 3 or 4 main drags that have been increased to have 4 or 5 lanes, but still the roads are still too small to hold all the traffic. Many of the locals from this area are not accustomed to driving under such conditions, making things all the more congested. I drive from my home in a small town outside Jacksonville into the thick of Jacksonville traffic almost every day for school, appointments, or errand running. I find myself yelling at the cars in front of me to at least go the speed limit, that slow cars drive in the right lane, and that coming to a complete stop is not necessary for turning! Before I leave the house, I anticipate the rage and stress that I will encounter each day. But really what is the point in getting so mad? There is nothing that I can accomplish by yelling at the car in front of me, honking my horn, or getting worked up about arriving at my destination 30 seconds later than if I were in front of this car. While driving home the other day, behind a car going 45 in a 55, I thought to myself, why am I letting this bother me so much? I should be thankful that this person is driving at a comfortable speed for him or her. If they were going any faster, they might lose control and get in an accident. I should be thankful for the traffic laws that our country is smart enough to enforce. When I visited Kenya this summer, the only times I were truly scared were when I was riding down the road. Traffic laws are not enforced in many third world countries. Speed limits are not enforced and people drive much too fast. Stop signs? Yeah right! People just pull onto the road without looking at oncoming traffic. It is madness!!! So, in my attempt at being more positive, I try to remember these things while driving down the road. Instead of giving into my road rage, I say a prayer, take a deep breath, or count to ten. Amazingly, my road rage has gotten much better. So the next time you are driving down the road, be it in a big city stuck in 5:00 traffic, on a country road stuck behind a tractor, or just stuck behind that car that refuses to go the speed limit, remember that it isn't the end of the world. You will get to your destination at about the same time, you will probably arrive at your destination more safely, and even if you are a little bit late, you won't be furious when you get there. Use the time you spend in the car to reflect on your day, talk to God, or just relax and listen to a little music. Instead of giving into your road rage, practice a little Road Relaxation.

Every Thorn Has its Rose

"Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its dawn, just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song, every rose has its thorn." These are the lyrics to the chorus of the popular 1980's power ballad by Poison. What a sad thought, that behind every beautiful and pure thing is a thorn waiting to prick you. Well, like the writter of this song, Brett Michaels, I too have spent many years finding, even looking for, the thorn on the rose. Over the past eight years, I have developed into a pretty negative person. Some would even say I can be hard to live with at times. Instead of looking at the big picture and seeing how beautiful the rose is, I focus on the little things. I put all my focus on the thorn. But why do I do this?! I have NO idea why I do this, but I have decided to stop. As a young adult, I am in the midst of a lot of life changes. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life, trying to figure out a way to not live with my parents forever, and trying to figure out the answers to a bunch of important decisions. I decided to write this blog to help me stop focusing on all the negative things and put my focus on all the wonderful things in my life. God has blessed my life immensely. He has given me supportive parents, a college education, a wonderful boyfriend, and fabulous friends. I hope to use this blog to connect on a deeper level with Christ and to change my outlook on life. As I mature in my relationship with Christ and become a more positive person, I will become a better example of Christ's love to the people I interact with everyday. So heres to many days of beautiful roses. Beautiful roses that might have thorns, but are still beautiful roses! Instead of saying every rose has its thorn, let's say every thorn has its rose. The ROSE is the important part!