Days 71-73 (Apr. 23-25): Friends & He's Just Not That Into You

The theme is contained in the above title, especially the "Friends" aspect. Not just because of the Friends Marathon I had with a few friends. It was a great weekend filled with various wonderful people. The movie title bit (He's Just Not That Into You) is because of...well, I finally saw it.

I'm excited to be that much closer to being caught up, I must say. So, here goes Round Seven:

Day Seventy-One (Friday, April 23)
One of the first things my Mom and I talked about in the morning/afternoon was love languages. She knows that mine is words of affirmation and so she told me hers, which is acts of service. I basically knew this about her, but it reminded me to go the extra mile when I cleaned the condo while she was out. It was so rewarding to be able to do that for her! She and Dad do so much for me, so it's honestly the least I can do...

I used to HATE talking on the phone, and there are still more moments than not where I'd rather not, but when it comes right down to it, I really do find myself loving phone conversations, even when it's with people who I live nearby. So, it was so good talking on the phone with 3 wonderful people, such as Danny and Andrea who I hadn't talked to in AGES! Andrea was gone on a worktrip for about 2-3 weeks, and despite talking via gchat, it's not the same. As for Danny, it'd been about 2 weeks since we last talked so it was good catching up.

I especially loved talking to my cousin Jennifer though, as I always do. She's so affirming and AMAZING at reciprocating our friendship/relationship. That means the world to me that she takes time out of her SUPER busy schedule to see how I'm doing and to catch up. I miss her sooooo much :( As wonderful as Florida is, I do often miss my relatives in Illinois.

Jenn and I talked on the phone while I was on the way to an evening worship service at Harbour church. Andrea had invited me and it was the first time I saw her in weeks! (She just got back into town from a business trip.) The service was beautiful too. I spent that time praying for a dear friend of mine, and was just reminded how much I love this person.

After worship, I had planned on going dancing with some friends. I know, I know; random and maybe not the best combo lol. But it doesn't matter since I actually had a change of plans. I felt like I needed to be with a friend of mine instead, so we met up at Barnes and Noble a little after the worship portion of the service was over. (It was cool seeing Emma there as I was leaving though.) Alli and I met up in Boca, and had coffee together as we talked various things out with each other. One of the many things I love about this woman is how much we seem to get each other. It's a huge blessing in my life, for sure. Doesn't hurt that we have so much fun together. Haha, and I found out we both loooooovvve notebooks to journal in. We're hoping to have a 2-person retreat sometime. The details aren't formed yet, but I'm so excited!!!!

Lastly, I sometimes talk with the last guy I dated. We had a horrible breakup and didn't talk for a looonng time, but randomly do now from time to time. Well, I haven't been sleeping before 3am almost anytime for the past month. So, he and I happened to be online at the same time, and we talked. It was a surprisingly wonderful chat, because in it we got to (nicely) confront each other about problems from the relationship. It was very tasteful and I even got to confront him about some deep-seated things he needed to change. He asked me straight up about it, so it wasn't like I was bringing it up out of nowhere. He seemed to take it to heart too, or at least that's what his online persona made me think. Hopefully that conversation was able to be used for good.

Day Seventy-Two (Saturday, April 24)
This was a very straight-forward day. I invited 4 people to the beach who live nearby, but that didn't pan out. It really was just as well though, because I think I needed that alone time outside. It felt so good!

I must also notate a sweet text my brother sent me outta the blue. He wrote, "Love u Laura! Enjoy ur day" and it made me so happy! I love that man.

As planned about a week ago with Alli, the Friends Marathon was still on. I am a fan of smaller groups of people, and so it was particularly enjoyable eating cheese pizza from Pizza Hut with vino and cheesesticks on the balcony. It was a gorgeous night out, and just so serene being able to talk and laugh with these wonderful women. (Alli, Val, Risa, and me.) Afterwards, we partook of a nice spread of dessert: homemade brownies and chocolate mouse cake with some milk while we watched about 3 episodes of Friends (season 3). And of course, there were pics (which I still have to get from Alli). To top an already wonderful night off, Risa, a massage therapist, gave both me and Alli massages. Oh. My. Gosh. That was amazing.

You know, I used to prefer hanging out with guys, but these days, it is just such a (newfound) joy to invest myself in wonderful women who affirm me and make me love God more. Not that guys aren't wonderful as friends, but I wish I would have realized much earlier just how important it is to have strong woman relationships in your life.

Haha, oh yeah, on the way back up from seeing the girls off, I suddenly got in a dancing mood and just started doing so in the elevator for about 20 seconds. I immediately stopped when I realized that my condo building had just installed cameras in the elevators lol. Ugh, so embarrassing.

Day Seventy-Three (Sunday, April 25)
I tend to run a little late to church. Bad I know. So, I snuck in the back, and it just so happened that some of my friends were back there too. So I got to sit by Alan and saw that Jim was in front of me. It'd been awhile since he and I had last spoken, and he caught me up on things after service ended. He told me about XEE, which stands for Generation X Evangelism Explosion. I was part of regular EE back in high school (and once or twice in college) so I hadn't known about XEE until then. It's a cool thing, because instead of just approaching random people about the Gospel, you are supposed to spend time with people on a regular basis and invest in them before telling them about God. (Unless of course, it comes up on it's own.) Well, as has become tradition, I will write a few of the wonderful insights Pastor Tullian preached on.

"When we divorce the Gospel declarations from Gospel obligations, we're practicing legalism. Outside cleanup can never cure inside cleanup."

"It's not whether we'll buy or not, but about our motivation behind it."

"We're to approach the Gospel to ourselves everyday because we'll never be sinless."

"Why do we try so hard when we've already been qualified, accepted, and forgiven? We need to understand what's already ours in Christ."

"God doesn't parent us by using legalism, the way most parents do! ('You're being bad! Shape up and be a good little girl.') Instead, He loves us and that won't change, no matter what we do. It's not dependent on our behavior."

I had a therapeutic time at home after church. I had emailed a married couple back in Chicago who had agreed to pick up my Grandpa Dunn's sermon reels from my old apartment in downtown Chicago. And then I found out later that day that they had gone to pick it up! Oh what a relief! It had been crowding the newly-occupied apartment for awhile, and I know all parties involved wanted it gone. Thank goodness for friends back home who still do kind things like that for you.

I also got 2 very sweet text messages from my dear Jaclyn and Andrea. Jaclyn sweetly told me that I was pretty (AWWWW!!!) and she was sorry we hadn't gotten to really talk after church. That melted my heart, I must say. Andrea invited me to a party for the upcoming Friday, which also meant a lot to me since one of my love languages is definitely quality time. I love my friends so much.

Before going down to the beach, I ate lunch and also watched He's Just Not That Into You. People have been telling me how good it is, and Alli lent it to me when I found out she owned a copy of the movie. Oh. My. Gosh. I freakin' LOVE that movie!!!! It was just what I needed to watch. I'm risking a lot of vulnerability here to admit that I am a little too much like GiGi in the movie. I realized this very thing a month or more back, and have been re-evaluating my interactions with people in general. This movie helped reinforce the importance of doing that very thing. I also ADORED the relationship between GiGi and Alex, as well as the relationship between Mary and Conner. Oh wow, so cute!!! There were so many great moments in that movie! I should probably be ashamed to admit that I watched it twice that day.

After watching Not That Into You, I called Alli up to rehash on the amazingness of the movie. We got to talk for awhile about it and other things, and I was reminded why I love that woman so much. Oh yeah, and her sweet blog shoutout later that day also made me feel good :) Though I referenced that blog link on Friday the 23rd, here it is again.

As mentioned, I went to the beach and pool area. I was there for about 2 hours until 5:30pm. It was sooooo nice!! Oh my gosh I love living in Florida! And the staff at my building are SO nice! A little while ago, I went into the cafe but didn't have enough money to get a snack. (I didn't know it at the time though.) Instead of sending me away, the woman told me I could pay them the $5 back later! I knew I wouldn't be able to forget that kindness, and I didn't. Before going back up to the condo, I paid the person at the cash register my $5. I asked how they could do that sort of thing, and if people were good about paying them back. He said in general they were, with the exception of one woman who always takes food/drink without paying, saying she will later. Ugh, what is wrong with people?? Having said that, I appreciated my building staff's kindness.

But let me back up to my time on the beach. I sat on a towel, facing the ocean and reflected on the things my pastor preached on that morning. It was a gorgeous day out and made it that much more enjoyable. I thought about how much a Gospel killer living a "Christianity and ___________" lifestyle. I'll admit that I tend to turn to my friends, family, media, and food as a means of escape and comfort. *Sigh* I have this nasty habit of wanting others to make me happy and to cheer me up when I'm down, or even when I'm happy, if that makes sense. I want to be everyone's best friend and have no enemies at any point in my life. Absurd to want to be the first person in existence to be enemy-less. Not going to happen.