New Name, New Blog

As is very well known if you read this blog, I stink at staying current with posts! I lost my motivation for a while, but hopefully that has changed.

I started a new blog today. Please join me over there - I really have loved hearing from you, and I keep up with all of you through your blogs. (Except you, Ashley, you're kind of a slacker like me.)

So here's the new blog URL: http://shianastallard.wordpress.com/

Also, I have a Tumble blog that I use mainly for sharing short stories and quotes that I hear or read. I'll try to keep up with that one, too. If you're interested, the link is http://shi-town.tumblr.com/.

Thanks for keeping up with me!

Post from a Slacker

Oh my...an 18 month gap in posts? What a slacker am I!

In my last residential course of my undergraduate career I was required to take a personality test. I initially denied the results: melancholy. Me? Melancholy?!

Then I read things like this blog, or my journal, and have no choice but to accept the truth of that little test.

So, for the most part, I don't post when things are good. Sad, I know.

Update:

In the last 18 months, I was reunited with an old friend. We started dating in February, got engaged in August, and will be married on April 9, 2011! Yay! Between work, church, homework, spending time with Ben, and traveling all of central Virginia with Ben, I don't make much time for blogging. :)

So there you have it...my one solitary post in 2010. It's been a wonderful year!

I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!

To all my faithful followers, I'm sorry for leaving you with a depressing post for the last 3 months.

For as long as I've been able to express myself through written word, my strongest urges to write surface during my lowest dispositions. So, if you see a lull in posts, just know life is good. :)

And life is definitely wonderful.

For the first time in my life, I LOVE the summer. Could be the result of a beautiful juxtaposition (last winter was brutally depressing), or it could be everything about Virginia...but I'd say it's a little bit of both. I see mountains every day. I enjoy the mountains every day. The wildflowers, sunsets, waterfalls. The fireflies, wild rabbits, deer, and groundhogs.

Everything. I absolutely love everything about it.

K, maybe not the humidity. Definitely not the humidity...but it's easy to ignore in the grand scheme of things.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll just leave you with these. You'll understand why I'm in love with this place:

This little guy was on the side of the road. I see at least one every day. In fact, I was sitting on the porch this evening, and one ran across the yard. Scared me to death.
A stream running through Cave Mountain Lake park.
Apple Orchard Falls, Bedford, VA. By far my favorite discovery.
A wider view. You can actually climb all over the place. Duane and I climbed up to that huge boulder on the right. It was stunning...and terrifying!
Nate, Grace and me...taken by our new trail friend, Dave.

Dichotomy of the Mood

To be alone, or not to be alone? That is the question.

At least for me it is.

Escaping to a mountain top with nothing more than some chocolate, Coca-Cola, and a Bible is alluring.

And repulsive.

I've had an emotional weekend, 95% of it caused by loneliness. Why on earth would I desire solitude in the midst of loneliness?

Madness.

Reflecting on it now, I realize that my motives for desiring solitude are also the source of my loneliness.

So, how do I resolve this tension...this odd polarity of emotion?

Simple. Go to bed and stop thinking/whining about it!

Good night, friends! : )

Seriously contemplating deleting this blog. I'm on the computer all day at work, and the last thing I want to do is sit in front of it and be "productive" when I get home. Ergo, no blog posts, thus, no need for a blog. 

Plus I don't have anything interesting to write about. 

I work. 

I homework. 

I chill. 

I laugh. 

The absurd amount of laughter is definitely great, but I'm afraid that, when told, it would end up creating a "you had to be there" moment. No one likes those. 

So anyway. This is my post to satisfy the nagging feeling of a lack of posts.

I probably won't delete this blog...

I want to be free from this urgency... 

I want to be free from goals
    deadlines
 schedules
   obligations
    standards
 expectations
I want to be free of   s t r u c t u r e
    free to follow a still small voice 

            into an unknown future

       

       on an adventure so uncertain

                ...yet so secure

where logic cedes to confident trust, 

knowing that not knowing makes the most sense.

No, I will not blog about the 44th president elect.

Much has occurred since my last post about BIBL350.

Wait, who am I kidding? Life is exactly the same.

Ashley and Martha spent a weekend up here visiting. It was nice, but not long enough, especially since my job hogs so much of the wasted time I used to have.

My mom, Crys, and Amanda came up the following week, and we had a great time. We hiked Sharp Top...scratch that. Nate, Amanda, and I hiked Sharp Top. My mom and Crys lasted 10 minutes (and that's a stretch). The view from the top was stunning, but the extremely cold wind ran us off. We actually made it back down to the bottom in a little over 30 minutes (which, fyi, is quite impressive). We also captured some great pictures along the way. These are some of my faves...

I finished my BIBL350 class, and started two more; Intro to Missions, and John. I'm enjoying John about as much as I enjoyed 350...and somehow it's actually more demanding. It's also more mentally stimulating. For example: our professor believes that the water turned to wine was actually water turned to grape juice. His defining argument is that since wine can lead to drunkenness, Jesus wouldn't create it, because he wouldn't create something that is sinful...ergo, wine = grape juice.

Anyone else see the flaws there?

One last random tidbit. I learned how to play poker. Absolutely hated it the first time


but now


I'm in love.