What's Shakin' at the Beagle Bagel

I thought my "funny" things from working at beagle bagel were going to be coming from customers, but for the most part, it's been from people I work with. They are all trying to convince me that I am not white. They're like, "you can't be that color and be a white person, you have to be something else" and so I say, "nope I'm as white as they come, sorry" and they say, "I don't believe you, you have to be hispanic or something, but you're not white." Ummm, last time I checked, I most definitely was white. It's all good natured teasing so it's funny. Someday, maybe, they'll believe me.
This week was a bit hard. I got plenty of hours in, but I got called at 6:15am one morning saying someone had quit and I needed to go in if I could. I needed hours, so I went. Then I was asked to work at 6am the next day. Usually, I can plan better if I know ahead of time, but I'm really supposed to be a lunch person.
If you think of it, pray for me this week because I am on the schedule at 6am every day this week and that will be extremely difficult for me especially because I don't get home from ballet until 8 or 8:15pm and I need to go to bed by 8 or 8:30 to be ok to get up that early. But, I can't go to bed right after ballet so I'm unsure what I'm going to do. Hopefully it's just like this this week until they hire someone new.

MYB Debut

I have to figure out where I last left off. It's been a little while and I'm sure lots of things have happened. I can assure you that last week I was not able to be in three places at once so I ended up performing...since that was the required thing, and I really wanted to. We had a fun time, but it was a little weird because only part of the senior company got to perform and so it was different not having everyone there. But we had a good time. The performance went well and it felt really good to be dancing on a stage again. Here are a couple of pictures from our evening...

My friend, Bethany, putting in my hairpiece into my favorite hairstyle ever - the slicked back bun. Please note the greenery growing out of my ear. PS - Bethany and I are the same age, such a wonderful friend.

Most of MYB senior company with our teacher, Ms Tracey, and our red lipstick. I know, I don't need to point it out because it's kind of obvious.

Me with Bria and Chandler, just hanging out and waiting backstage, I'M the white one...can't you tell.

Massage train!!!!!!! I know, super flattering picture of myself, but I thought the overall picture was cute.

Look at what I can do!!!!

We really are very focused when it's necessary, but other than that, we really enjoy each others company and have a great time together. It was really fun to perform and I am so blessed to be a part of this group. It's such a wonderful group of girls of all ages and I'm so glad I was invited to join the company!!! God was really with us in this performance because one of my friends had a three ring binder prong go through her foot the night before and was not able to walk Saturday morning, but she was able to do the performance. My shin hurt, but not to the point where I couldn't do stuff and he was working in other ways too. It was just a fun time to share the stage with these girls and see what can happen when you trust God. One of my roommates and a few of my friends were also in a different dance so it was really fun to be able to watch them do their dance. I'm so thankful for this opportunity.

Have you ever wanted to be three places at once??? That's me today. There are so many spectacular things happening this very day and I only get to do one of them because I have this problem called a body and it only allows me to be in one location at a time. Anyone else like that? Ok, that's rhetorical cause I know the answer.
Well, tonight is my debut with Magnificat! Youth Ballet. I'm so excited. Yesterday, we had ballet class, then we went to dinner at a really good restaurant. We headed over to the theater to touch up our make up, put on our RED lipstick and get our costumes on. We warmed up and then did a very quick dress rehearsal. It went well other than the fact that the floor was really slippery, but we will fix that problem today. Yes, I am very excited about this, about performing with all of my friends from my class and then also some of my friends who are trainees are performing as well. It should be fun!
The other place I'd like to be is in Houston, Texas. It's my sister's birthday today and so I'd like to celebrate with her. But, I suppose I'll have to celebrate from afar. But, they're doing all sorts of fun stuff and it'd be awesome to see her. But, that will have to wait for another time and maybe we can have a party just cause I'm there, who knows?
I would also like to be in Rockford, Michigan right now. It is homecoming in Rockford and some of my favorites are going to their first homecoming dance ever! I so wish I could be there to do their hair and help serve them dinner, drive them to the dance and most importantly of all, TAKE PICTURES! I'm really sad I'm missing it and there won't be another "first" homecoming. They have all promised me pictures though, so we'll see what I get. The last time they said they'd take pictures for me, this is what I got...

 

 This was when I left them in charge of the camera, though. Hopefully the parents will do a better job about taking some nice photos. I mean, I love these and it shows who they really are, but it'd be nice to have some "organized" photos. Which, if only you could see my albums you would be able to see all of the poses and stuff I put them through. BUT, now we have the pictures and they made me this beautiful photo album before I came to Mississippi and I just looked through today. Now, I'm so glad I made them take all those pictures :) So, girls, have tons of fun tonight! I miss you and love you and can't wait to see you in not too much longer.

Pray for my team and our performance tonight. We are prepared and very excited!!!! But, we definitely need God's help. My leg hurts a lot (not different than the usual stuff, but it's just pretty intense right now) and there are a couple of other things that we could just use some prayer for. Thanks!!!! Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pictures of us in our costumes :)

Church Giggles

Have you ever had the church giggles before? Do you even know what church giggles are? My sister, Melissa, defines church giggles as, "finding something really funny, (that's not necessarily all that funny), at a very inappropriate time such as in church." In other words, everything is funny, but it's really not a good time to be laughing, but you just can't help yourself so you try to keep it inside. But then that makes your body shake because you are laughing internally and that's even more funny - diagnosis: church giggles. I have learned that it is not good to come down with a case of the church giggles in ballet class. Church giggles and ballet are not a good combination. I'm just saying, don't do it...NOT that I've ever experienced this, I was just, ummm, thinking about it.

So, I spent the night at my friend, Rachel's, house Saturday night. I suppose you could say it's fun, but we basically got to her house in time to go to bed. So, she's in her bed and I'm on the floor and we sleep, I guess that's considered fun. Haha, just kidding. Anways, I found the morning quite hilarious. So, I'm sleeping on the floor and for Rachel's roommates to get to the bathroom, they have to go through her room. I'm sleeping and I'm having a dream about someone back in Michigan (Erica Daniels, this is you) and all of the sudden someone starts coming in the room. I get startled and sit up "who's coming in my room!?!?" because at my house here in Mississippi I have my own room that connects to my own bathroom, so my roommates never come in unless I'm awake. I look around and I'm like, "Whoa, where am I? I am way not at home. Oh yeah, this is Rachel's house, I get it now. That was her roommate walking through the room." It was so weird because I was so confused. I was in like three places at once, dreaming about Michigan, thinking I'm in my room in Mississippi, but in reality I was at Rachel's house. Thankfully, I was able to figure out where I was and ease my mind and go back to sleep. It was like 6:30am on a Sunday morning and there's no way I'm getting up at 6:30am on a Sunday morning when church isn't til 11:00!!!!!

The Fall

And NO, I did not fall in ballet class. At least not yet. Although, yesterday we had a substitute teacher and she gave us this combination to purposely make us really dizzy. I know it was on purpose cause she told us. I'll have to show all of you sometime and have you try it and see if you can stand on your own two feet.

Anyways, the fall. I miss the fall. It's beginning to feel like fall here because the mornings are cooler. But, it will still get up to like 85 degrees in the afternoon. Some days, it stays in the 70s. But yeah, there's nothing really too fallish here. Most all of the trees are still very green; there's none of those pretty maple trees changing colors or anything. Apparently the tree in my front yard gets really pretty, but that doesn't happen til December. There's not really any apple cider, no apple picking, caramel apples, apple pie, hay rides, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, it's just not the same. I won't really get to see fall though, because I am sure it's happening right now in Michigan while I am here. And then when I come to Michigan in December, fall will be over there but it will be going on in Mississippi so I'll miss it here. Oh well, it does happen every year, so I am certain I will see it at another time in my life. I am not too sad about missing all of the snow, though...*And there was much rejoicing*

So, at work this past week, some of my co-workers were asking me what I was eating. I was like, ummm, a sandwich and carrots. They were like, "that ain't no lunch, that rabbit food" and I was like, oh, well it fills me up, what's wrong with it. "what kind of bread is that? that no bread" and I was like yeah, it is. "oh, girl, no. We gonna teach you to be black. You're too white. We're gonna have a big southern fry and make you try everything. You be anorexic eating like that." I was like, we can't be anorexic at the ballet company I'm with and so they were like, "Ok, you're malnourished then, is that better?" I was like Oh no, I'm not! But they didn't believe me. It was funny. I'm just waiting to see what the cookout is like. It probably won't happen. They like to tease me and my healthy eating habits. Every one there likes to pick on me, it's really funny.

The meow is Re-located

I'm in my kitchen after ballet making my dinner. Two of my roommates were home and the other wasn't yet. Ballet was hard, but good, so I was really focused on making my dinner. Oh yeah, this is late at night like 8:15ish because I get out of ballet at 7:30, so it's dark out. All of the sudden, I heard a meow from outside. I was like, "whatever" and kept working on dinner. I thought it was maybe just some people trying to be funny; interesting folks we have here in Jackson. But, the meow happened again and it had been a little while so I didn't think strangers would still be hanging around outside. So, I was like, "Very funny, Squirt, stop trying to make me think you're a cat outside" because she would stay out there long enough til I looked. I still refused to look because I thought she was going to pop up from the bushes and say she tricked me. It kept meowing though, so finally I opened the kitchen blinds and there was a cat sitting on my window sill.
It had a collar on, so then I started thinking, "what if someone planted the cat there just to get me to go outside??" So I texted my roommate and told her I was going to see the cat outside and I walked closely to the fence so I could grab onto it if necessary. Thankfully, all of the outdoor lights were on and there was no one there, just the cat. I looked at the collar and got a number off of it and called. I was thinking, "someone is gonna answer and just wants my address so they can come and get me!!!" The number was out of service and I was like, "Oh great! This poor cat is at my house and my roommates are allergic and I'm not allowed to have pets in the rental house, what am I going to do?!?!?! I can't just leave it outside." But, there was another number, so I gave that a call and this young, sweet girl answered...so relieved. I was like, "Are you missing your cat?" and she was like YES!!! A black one? And I was like, yeah, his name is Leroy. It ended up that she lived on the same street as me, but the cat had been gone for like a week.
So yes, she was very excited to have her cat back and I felt like a hero! It did make me miss my little kitty, Meow, back at home. But I'm sure she's doing just fine.

How to update you?

Hmmm, it's about time to update the blog, but what to say???

I think the best way to start is to say that this was a challenging week. But, God helped me get through it. He gave me the strength to do things by the end of the week that I thought impossible at the beginning. He gave me the courage to keep trying. I worked really hard and had encouraging friends who helped me gain confidence. The week ended on such a high note and I am so thankful. "The Lord is My Strength", right Ms. Tracey?, and he was this week and I needed Him.

I had three days off of work in a row which was a blessing in one sense and not so much in another. For some reason, I was not able to sleep well at all this week. I would wake up during the night and then also be up early in the morning. You all know how well I do with little sleep, haha, enough said. Anyways, so it was great to have some time off of work and I could go to the gym and lay out by the pool there and that was really needed. At the same time, time off doesn't pay the bills. Hopefully, this does not become a regular occurrence because I can't afford that. We'll see what happens.

We've finished one month of ballet, three weeks of pointe. It's so crazy that it's going by so fast. I can't believe we're already done with one month and we perform in two weeks!!! If you wouldn't mind, continue to pray for my body. It's doing a lot of things it hasn't done before. So far so good still, but I still need help staying healed and healthy because I am not yet doing everything I would like to.

Oh, but I can throw in a funny story here, because things still do happen. So, I was over at my friend's house, I think I was just hanging out. I don't think it was for any particular reason. Then I stayed for the family birthday party even though I'm not technically a part of the family, but I am in spirit. Anyways, I was there later than anticipated and, once again, we know what that means. So I decided to stay the night. I go to bed just fine, get up in the middle of the night, and then go back to bed. When I wake up and get out of bed, there is a dead cockroach under me!!!! It was so gross, I slept on a cockroach. I am so glad I didn't know it was there until I was done sleeping.