longboarding and first black out.

HA MY LIFE! so let's just say my balancing skills aren't the best. i find this story quite hilarious so guess what? i'm going to share it.

this week has been unbelievably beautiful--80's in march???--so yesterday i was sitting outside studying with some friends. our other friend mark comes along and he's on a longboard. now i've been "longboarding" before, but i was holding onto somebody's shoulders so i wouldn't fall over. i wanted to take a study break, so i take the longboard from my friend isaac who had just been using it. we kind of joke that i should go down this mini hill so he can watch me wipe out. i put my foot on the board and take a huge push, go about 2 feet and GUESS WHAT?! the board goes flying out from under me..like legit flying. i was facing sideways so i landed hardcore on my side; first my elbow hit and then the lower side of my head. ohhhh man i REALLY wish there was a hidden video camera because i'm sure it looked like what you would see on america's funniest home videos.

i kinda just laid there and was cracking up because it was such an awkward situation that you just kind of had to laugh! i look up and this is what i see: isaac is staring down at me looking real concerned, mark is staring squinting because he's looking into the sun and my other friend dan has his head buried in his arms because he's laughing so hard...typical dan. isaac goes, "man claire, are you ok? i feel horrible. i said you should go down the hill so i could see you wipe out but you didn't even have to go down the hill to wipe out!" i was just laughing uncontrollably at this point.

i felt a tidge bit faint so next i go sit down and call my roommate (kayla) and best friend at school because it's hilarious and i should share the humor, right? meanwhile dan is getting band-aids and neosporin from his dorm. kayla doesn't answer but she walks by literally 2 minutes later and i tell her through giggles what happened. i show her my bleeding elbow and she gasps. "CLAIRE we need to get that taken care of!" dan shows up with the supplies and kayla pours some water on my elbow. i have no idea why but it stung a ton and i got light headed again. kayla left and then i asked dan to put the band-aid on my elbow. so he puts it on and i get SUPER light headed. "ohhh my gosh, i'm gonna pass out."

i start to lay myself down and then all of a sudden i'm dreaming!! i couldn't even tell you what it was about, it was just really frantic and chaotic. then i remember gasping and sitting straight up and all the guys are looking at me. i totally did not remember anything for a minute, just thinking that i had fallen asleep for a few hours. "wait guys...did i pass out?" they are all kind of freakishly looking at me and then they're like "yeahhh, you were out for at least 5 seconds." HAHAHAH so my first experience of blacking out was from a band-aid..go figure. i'm guessing that hitting my head may have contributed too :P i talked to my anatomy professor today and he said technically i have a concussion because i blacked out sooo there's my first concussion too!!

no worries, as of now i'm completely fine. my head's just a bit sore and my elbow is scraped up. but hey, i hope it scars because that is a story for the memory books!!

candle warmers.

so i probably SHOULD be doing homework right now, but this thought crossed my mind like 2 minutes ago and i thought i'd share it with you, world! yay

a few minutes ago i was just chilling in my room and noticed that my candle warmer wasn't plugged in. i go to plug it in and one of the things i think is this: "dangggg, the green candle doesn't really smell anymore when we melt it on the candle warmer. should i change it? but if i change it to vanilla will the vanilla one still smell since we've melted it before? i don't want our room to smell weird.." you know, just a normal everyday decision.

then i started thinking a little more about it...a candle? i'm seriously worried about a CANDLE? hashtag first world problems. i remember when i bought that candle warmer...got it on ebay for $5 and i was feeling pretty solid because i had saved $10. one of my friends just got back from a missions trip to haiti..did you know that i can send 2 kids to school for a year there for $5? and here i am buying a candle warmer because i don't want our room to smell weird.

it reminded me of the book of ecclesiastes in the bible, when the writer is just crying out saying everything is meaningless. wisdom, pleasures, toil, advancement, riches...all of it is meaningless. it's like when jesus talked about gaining the world and losing your soul..what's the point? who really cares about buying a candle warmer? this isn't to say that i'm not going to make impulsive or pointless purchases in the future, i'm just asking myself why i'm so concerned about how our room smells when there are SO many other and better things to be thinking about!!

in ecclesiastes, the main point is that everything is meaningless IF god is not in the middle of it. if god IS in the middle of it, well then imagine the possibilities! i think of what god could do with my attention, my time, my money and i get excited because god can do SO much more with all of that than i can! everybody always says they want to change the world. i'm fine with letting god use me to change the world, and i believe he can do that by capturing the meaningless thoughts that so often fill my mind and transforming them to his beautiful vision.

"may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, oh LORD my rock and redeemer!"