Tuesday, April 26, 2011

A Tour of Photos

Hey everyone! This past weekend my good friend Katie and I went up to Portland, Oregon (one of my favorite places EVER!!) and I thought I would share some of the highlights for me personally...ENJOY! :)





**Have wings. Will fly. :) **







**Our hostel!! It was AWESOME!!**








**I really do love Earth! PSU may not think so...but it's true! (If you'd like to hear the story, let me know! It's hilarious!)






**Beautiful weather.**







**A tandem bike ride...it was hilarious!!**







**The Portland Loo...and yes, I used it. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go! :) **







**Stumptown Coffee!**







*Yep.**







**Mother's Bistro aka Breakfast Bliss**







**The view of Portland from the tram**






**Enjoying some scenery thanks to the awesome ride in the tram!**








I LOVE PORTLAND!













**A little break on the trek up to the Rose Gardens and Holocaust Memorial**







*Hellooooo, Portland!**







**Goat Cheese Pancakes and Turkey Bacon...Yes, please!**







**Singin' in the Rain...**






**VooDoo Doughnuts. Enough said.**







*My first taxi ride EVER! I LOVED IT!!**





**On the plane, back to Dallas**

Monday, April 11, 2011

The Price of Some Sacrifices

A few days ago, I saw a movie screening of a Dallas Independent Film called "Between Notes" (If you wanna check out the trailer, here's the link!) : http://vimeo.com/21380581 To be honest, I cried...alot, during the film. I laughed at the scenes where a tandum bike was involved (seriously, what's NOT funny about that??), but there were definitely a lot more tears shed. I know that I'm kinda a sap about somethings..and I'm OK with that. But one of the main things that stuck out to me about this movie was how much I could relate to the main character. His backstory is that he gives up his dreams of being a musician for the sake of a relationship, follows the girl, ends up in corporate America..blah, blah, blah. But I know how that feels. I know it very well. There are things in my life I wish I could definitely change or go back and do differently. I think that if we were all honest with ourselves, we all would say that. Sometimes it's grace and a great thing that things are the way they are, and other times, we make decisions that seem to make sense in the moment, but we don't realize that we sacrifice our dreams in that moment. If I'm being completely honest, I really struggle with trying to forget the past and move on to things ahead. Maybe because I still have those dreams, maybe it's because I think those were better times, maybe I think that was a better me. Whatever the case, it's a tough road. But there's grace. There's always grace. And there's always the desire to want to make myself the best me I can be. And not in corporate America, big house, fast cars, American "dream" way, but in a way where I can use my talents to serve, to give hope, and to offer grace. I want what I do to inspire someone else to be the best them that they can be. Who knows...maybe I will post up some videos with me and my guitar sometime...maybe it will offer hope. Until then...