I'm allergic to my work??!

Okay, so this post may not be filled with anything that insightful, but I'm feeling in the mood to blog so here I am. About the blog title...I really am allergic to my work, well sort of. For anyone that knows me, I've always had trouble with my sinuses and allergies...i'm sick year round (or at least it seems that way!) So I broke down and had allergy testing done yesterday. Come to find out, I'm allergic to both kinds of dust mites, seven different types of grass, ragweed, oak, and get this: Pecan trees! The problem here: my agency is located on 80 acres of pecan trees!!!!! That's right, 80! Since obviously I can't quit my job, allergy shots are next. I'm not looking forward to it at all, but hopefully, I'll start to feel better..in general. Being able to breathe would help! So tonight I'm home when i could be out with my friends, but I'm having side effects from the predisnone i have to take for 5 days...i'm all red faced, itchy and feel like I've been hit by a mac truck! But I had some comfort food tonight--Popeye's biscuit and mashed potatoes!

Lately, I've had so much fun with my friends. Last night, we celebrated Cinco De Mayo, at a restaurant which probably had the slowest service ever, but the food was good and the company greater. We just laughed and talked and laughed some more. I really want to be more intentional in having fun and just enjoying life. When you work in the field that I do, work is not often fun. It's very easy to bring work home with you, or just get bogged down with the pressures of trying to be all things to all people or to fix everything. I'm often the bad guy, having to say no or confront things about issues that they don't want to talk about or help people who refuse it (while I go out on a limb to help them!) But that's okay.

My 27th birthday is looming around the corner. Yikes! I've been doing a lot of thinking lately...i usually get this way as my birthday approaches. Life looks nothing like I thought it would at this point..nothing! Here was my plan for the way I wanted life to look at this point: done with school, gone to seminary, married, family on the way, working in ministry, in a house (or something that I don't pay rent on!) So here is how my life looks like 3 weeks away from 27: done with school, got my master's-but not from seminary, single, working in ministry, living 200 miles away from my family in an apartment. Now, it may seem like I'm complaining..i'm not. Just making an observation. I was talking to one of my mentors the other day and I was telling her about my reflective state of mind lately. Then I realized something: in a way, I'm thankful that my life hasn't turned out the way that I wanted to. Huh? Thankful? Yes, thankful. I've had some of the most incredible experiences in life so far, for me. I don't think that I would have gotten to experience them if life had gone according to Ashley. I probably wouldn't have the job that I have today, live where I live today, or met the friends that I have if life had gone my way. Shane's death was one of the most hardest things I've ever faced in my life, but I experienced God's love, His faithfulness, His sovereignity, and His healing in ways that I never thought were possible. Yes, it was difficult, but that experience helped me to own my faith- to find out what I believe and why. I experienced Him first hand....it wasn't my parent's experience, anything that my pastor or youth minister told me, it was mine.

Okay, I said that I didn't think this was going to be insightful, but maybe I lied. The words just flowed out Not that anyone reads this anyway, but like I said before, it's my therapy!