so, you're probably wondering what I am doing with myself since I quite my job right? I knew you were. so I will tell you.

I am working as a fundraiser for World Vision.

So what does that mean? Well, it means the I get to learn all about what World vision is and what they do. Primarily, the sponsorship program. We will have 2 booths set up in 2 malls. Just to tell people about the sponsorship program, and hope that as many people as possible sponsor the precious children. (check it out. www.worldvision.ca)

It is so so so so so good, and refreshing, to work with people who are there because they are passionate about what they do. It's not just a job. It's a way to make a difference. It is people coming together for a common purpose, because they love people, love children, and want to make a difference in the world. THIS is what I have been looking for in a job. THIS is confirmation I am going in the right direction. TO work out of my passions and desires and the things that tug on my heart... and THAT be my motivation! Not the fact that I have to do this job so i can make the money so that i can do the things I'm excited about.

So why am I getting paid? I wondered how they could do that myself, but we talked about that. The fact that they pay fundraisers all across Canada to do these campaigns actually does more, for more communities, by getting more sponsors than they would have simply by scraping the bottom of the bucket trying to pull together fundraiser willing to invest the time in such a campaign. The fact that people need to make money is no small fact. So, it's win win. And that is how it works.

I love doing things I am passionate about.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.

love hate relationships cause dilemmas.

I dislike Love Hate relationships. Mostly for the matter that I cannot decide whether to love or hate. And I terribly dislike sitting on the fence. It's rather uncomfortable. Here is my dilemma. can you guess? It's rather anticlimactic.

Facebook. Yup. Just typing that word is kind of satisfying, only on account of that little red squiggly line under it that tells me its not a real word yet. phew.

About a month ago I said to myself that I would love love love to delete facebook. But then again. I would hate to delete facebook. Love hate love hate love hate. dilemma.

so why would i delete it?
1) to push better, deeper, realer, less virtual friendships. (you know... to plan and invite via telephone and face to face rather than creating an event hoping people see it)
2)to get rid of time waster. seriously. news feed. status updates.peoples pictures i don't even know. i read them. and i don't need to. (though i have gotten better... i can still subdue to its time wasting temptations.)
3) to stop filling my mind with random and pointless information about 500 different people that i wouldn't really care otherwise. like the fact that you're eating popcorn. or that you really like rainbows. or that you're waiting for a package. or whatever it may be.
4) to stop telling everyone else pointless and random information about my own life. like the fact that i am eating popcorn or the fact that i really like rainbows, or even the fact that i am expecting a package.
- to not have serious personal conversations on the not so serious impersonal facebook chat.
5) i really don't care what superhero, twilight character, movie star i am. i am not any of those thank you very much.
6) i really don't want to play farmville or fish tank whatever.
7) poking. really?
8) seeing events all the time that you can't go to or weren't invited to and kinda wish you were. or worrying about people who would be sad if you didn't/couldn't invite them.

i feel like i could go on. but for sake of time and your boredom i won't.

so then... why wouldn't i delete it?
1) out of town/country friends. so easy to keep in touch.
2) pictures! as much as they waste my time... i really do love looking at them! and its an easier way to share pictures!
3)...
4) should i take this as a sign?

so hate far outweighs the love. but the love ones... are biggies.
i don't know what i should.

so.

bah.

i think i will. or maybe not. that is where i am at.

Imagine... If i didn't have facebook? I would have so much extra time. I would listen in class more (maybe). Instead of needing to waste an hour and going to facebook, i could use that hour to walk, or scrapbook, or read, or anything else that is thousands of times more productive.

I think i may be mostly convinced.

What do you think? Love? Hate? Should I or shouldn't I?

Resignation.

Well.
I quit my job today.
It feels good. I have 3 more shifts. Ahhh. I can feel the freedom already.
This store... was... interesting to work in.
I loved and hated it every day.
So it was terribly easy and a little bit hard to fully decide to stay or go.


I wonder how many beverages I have made in my Starbucks life. Shall we do a little math? Friday we figured we made 2500 drinks, we rang through 1031 transactions that day. Of those, lets say I personally made 200 of them in my 8 hour shift. So that's 25 drinks an hour. Let's just use that as a guideline. Knowing that some hours would in reality be only a few, and others would be way more. So... hopefully this is a good guesstimate to get a sort of idea. So... 25 drinks an hour. I work approxamitly 30 hours a week (sometimes less sometimes more) for 36 months since 2006. Lets say 32 months... once you count vacations and such. thats 144 weeks. At 30 hours is 4320 hours. 25 drinks an hour... is... 108 000 beverages. wow.

lets go even further with this math fun...
lets say it takes 30 seconds to make a drink (once again, some take more... some less) thats 3 240 000 seconds which is 54000 minutes and 900 hours. in the last 4 years. I have spent 900 hours of my life... making a beverage. is your head spinning? cuz mine is!
That is a full month and a half of my life... of....just making drinks.

It was fun. I enjoyed it.
Starbucks must have been good to me. I was hired with them on 4 separate occasions.
But. For the 4th time... I am done. Will there be a 5th? Well. We will just have to wait and see. If there is... it better be in a different country!

a trip around the block.

or maybe a little more than a block.

as per requested, I thought I should share with you about my adventurous road trip I went on a couple weeks ago.

Destination: California. Route: Unknown. Timeline: 6 Days. Kilometers: 8000km. Sleep: 3/6 nights.
And this is how it went.

We began... with creampuffs. frozen ones of course. we thought this was a great way to kick off the trip. I am not so sure our stomachs fully agreed.

We picked up our dear friend Stacy in Lethbridge, and began a 27 hour journey to which we only ever stopped for gas. and food once... in Las Vegas. So we got really excited about anything and everything we saw out our window. and added 'in California' at the end of every sentence. You know. just to keep things interesting.
For example...
"Whoa... palm trees!!! whoooaaa... in California!...whoa!"


we also took pictures by every state sign (except we missed nevada and washington much to our dismay)


we swam in the ocean. and laid on the beach. and took pictures of ourselves making ridiculous faces. Such as the infamous 'barracuda'



and we drove. a lot.

we went to san Fransisco. at 3am. we ate breakfast at denny's. and got a parking ticket. and took pictures by the golden gate bridge. oh and we drove over it. and danielle and i stuck our heads out the window. kinda like this... only both of us.


oh... and you're probably wondering where the random guy came from? well.. he isn't so random. our purpose for destination California was to pick him up. he happens to be the fiance of our friend Stacy. He was working at a pretty sweet camp down there. They are getting married on Saturday. No biggie. It's just a week a way. So he traveled all the way back up with us.



So... continuing on with our trip.
We left San Fransisco and continued heading north. Eventually we drove through a redwood tree. Amanda was so calm as I squeezed her SUV type vehicle through. Little did she know, I wasn't really sure we were going to make it through. But we did! And a couple parked by the gift shop watched us intently, and then measured their vehicle to ours to see if they would fit.



those trees. were magnificent. majestic. awesome. insane. gigantic. crazy.
have you ever seen on?!?!?! I highly recommend it!
look how big this one is! ...
you could live inside one if you really wanted. there would be enough room.

we hung around in the redwood forest for a while. took a couple scenic routes just for fun. and hiked down to a little river to skip rocks. it was beautiful.



I stood in two places at once.
Oregon and California. Simultaneously.



We hung out in Portland for a couple hours. We didn't really do much there other then use the internet at a Starbucks downtown. and went into a lovely book store. It was delightful.

We then went to Seattle. This was definitely my favorite part of the entire trip! We saw the city skyline at night. Slept. Parted ways and Danielle and I spent the ENTIRE day shopping and exploring.




We did crazy things like try on awesome glasses in vintage stores.
Got our portrait drawn for way too much money. (That is a story in itself!)
And visited the first Starbucks ever! (Which is a pretty big deal for me, since I have given Starbucks almost 4 years of my loyalty and life.)
























and then. in a blink of an eye. it was over. just like that. 8000 km later. 6 days of very little sleep. and it was so so so so so worth it.


ps. Danielle is responsible for 99% of the above pictures. for taking and/or editing them. she is a really wonderful photographer don't ya think? I think so.

This. is. life.

So.
I want to be real with you.
Whoever 'you' might be.

I would like to share with you. My life. In a nutshell of course... because any other way would be a tremendous task. Bit by bit. Day by day.

Maybe, this blog could be for anyone who just wants to keeps tabs on me once in a while. (Once in a while because I cannot promise anything consistent).

Shall we begin?

First of all... you need to know a few of the majorly important things about me.

- I love love love love love God. I think He is so incredibly awesome, in the truest sense of the word. If you don't know Him... I highly encourage you to seek him out. He says those who seek will find Him, He has made himself known to us. That fact alone is crazy enough. Let alone the fact that He loves so crazily unconditionally us - crazy, tainted, rebellious, man-fearing, selfish beings - that he created for us a redemption path so that we could BE WITH Him. How amazing is that?

- I am so incredibly imperfect. There is a list stretching all the way to the moon and back again on the things I need to work on. But... I am working... that's the point. Working on things that need to be worked on. Some of which I will definitely share with you. I am so so so so so thankful that I can stand in the knowledge that my salvation and my righteousness is NOT attained by the works I do. But simply in my faith in Christ, I can stand before a Holy God and worship Him, with all my flaws fully exposed. Funny how much freedom there is in that.

- I am a crazy passionate person. I am visionary. I get really really excited. I will share BIG ideas with you. And small ones. BUT... that doesn't mean I am going to do them. Even if I sound like it... it's probably more like...'it-would-be-cool-if' type ideas. I just get... excited, and ahead of myself really easy. That's a heads up. And if you know me already... I know you're nodding your head and smiling. It's something I am working on. There are worse things.

- The little things: I am a student. Taking Human Justice. Second Year. I love it. I love to travel. (and am ITCHING to GO somewhere!). I love coffee. (and am unfortunately allergic to caffeine or something). I am working at a coffee shop. Surprise.

- I asked my dear friend to tell me some things about myself...here is what she came up with. (you know how sometimes your friends know you better than you know yourself)
~ you like people and love to be around them, BUT you also need need to make that time alone with God in order to feel whole and complete.

~you are good at wording hard things in a nice way

~you like to buy things.... :):)

~you like to be edgy... sometimes

~you say ha ha when it doesn't fit sometimes


- I am working on conversing with people. Well. About faith mainly (Perhaps because it is really what I am most passionate about). And life in general. Maybe I will share some of those conversations. I seem to have many interesting ones.

So... with ALL of that. You have an idea of who I am, and a hint about where I am coming from. Maybe I'll even share some of my past with you. We'll see ;)
For now... its 1230am... and I have a breakfast picnic date with my friend Carmen at 930. So... I shall be off.

Oh... one quick last thing. I LOVE to answer questions. So ask me stuff. Anything at all. About life, faith... really... anything! I am an open book!... or blog?

Goodnight! For real this time!

With Joy.

~ Cheryl