Chicago - Week 1 Complete!

WAZZZZUUPPP!?!!

Hello friends, neighbors, acquaintances, buddies, roommates, future husbands, haters, and everyone else! How are things going in your neck of the woods?

After 5 days outside of Kansas, I find myself doing much better than I had expected. My training class is going remarkably well. I'm learning a lot and having tons of fun with really crazy people from all over the Midwest. There are Iowans, Minnesotas, Illinoisians, and Wisconsonians. We have 8 girls and 5 guys in our class and of those 13, there are 8 of us in the hotel.

My hotel pretty much rocks. They provide free hot breakfast and free hot dinner on monday-thursday... plus we have full kitchens in our rooms. It's kinda odd to think how much money Hertz is investing in me already. Being Corporate Rocks!

I haven't gone out to see the city yet. We have big plans for the weekend though. There are 2 girls from Kansas City and I think I'm going with them this weekend to see the sites. It should be a grand ole time.

I found out a couple nights ago why God's timeline put me in Chicago this week. There was someone in my training class who needed some support... and fortunately enough, it dealt with something that I'm very passionate about. So God rocks my face off as much in Chicago as he does in Kansas. He also happened to put this ministering type opportunity in front of me on the same day that I decided to go to Daily Mass. Yeay for extra grace!

All in all... things are good here but I do miss home. I miss having my awesome Catholic community all around me. I miss my roommates and my friends and my boyfriend like CRAZY. I've talked to all of them nearly every night... but it's amazing how much stuff you miss out on when you're not living in the same city.

Anyhoo... I love you lots and i'm praying for you! Have a wonderfully fabulous weekend!!!

Chicago - Day 1

Hey all,

I have arrived safely in Chicago. Though I cried much in anticipation of my flight, everything went well once I was in the air. I got to sit between 2 11-year olds who were flying by themselves. It made me feel a bit braver.

Then I had to hassle with Chicago traffic. No one drives the speed limit here and it seems like the have a toll booth every 3 miles. But at least it was a Sunday afternoon so not too many people road-raged at me.

I'm now sitting in my hotel room chilling out and hoping that the i,k, and 8 on my keyboard keep working (they weren't working at first). :) My hotel room is nice. It's a 2 bedroom suite with a fireplace and a full kitchen. I have a roommate from Minneapolis named Jen and she seems pretty cool. It's nice to not be completely alone.

I miss all of you terribly already. So if you get a chance, drop me an email so I can stay connected.

And also... a special thanks to all of you who were in on my airplane carepackage. That was the sweetest thing ever!!!

Until tomorrow... Kiki OUT.

She's All Growns Up

Before this post goes any farther... let's all say a prayer for Pope John Paul II.

Just like Lisa mentioned on the Daisy House blog, I too did not understand how wonderful this man was until I saw him at World Youth Day in Toronto. Every time I saw him bless one of my fellow young adults, my eyes were flooded with tears. He has spent his entire papacy loving the whole world. He's traveled more than any other pope ever. He speaks so many different languages that there's hardly a group of people in the world who need an interpreter to understand him.

I love Papa, and I pray that God relieves his suffering and his burdens and his sacrifices here on this Earth and finally brings him into the Glory that he has always strived to reach. I'm so excited for him that he'll finally get to meet Jesus and Mary and all of our wonderful Saints in Heaven. I pray too that in his final few hours or days, that each of us who love him so much may take a bit of his suffering away from him. Let us experience some of his pain so that he may die in peace. God, please grant him peace and joy in his final hours. And protect your Church as we struggle to lose such a wonderful leader. Amen.

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In reference to the title of this blog... I leave for Chicago tomorrow. I'll be there for 13 days, and it's a trip that's starting to make me feel like a real actual adult. It's bizarre to me that I'm spending today packing up a whole slew of business clothes for a business trip. Only big people go on those. Um... I guess I'm a big person now, though I still frequently feel about 15. As for flying, I'm still freaked out a little, but I'm a lot better than I was a few weeks ago.

I'm going to have a laptop with me in Chicago, so I'm going to do my best to keep in touch and update my blog with stories of Chi-town and new job training.

I'll miss you all lots and lots and lots... and if you're a Wichitan, I'll see you somewhere around April 15th when I return.

Love and Hugs to All of YOU!

Sorry I'm not Home Right Now

I'm walking in a spider web so leave a message and I'll call you back.

Okay, so this is probably the longest I've gone between post in a super DUPER long time. I don't have a great reason, but I think that one good reason may be that I'm afraid if I post right now y'all will be sickened by my happiness.

I'm like the bubbliest I've ever been as of late. That is partly due to the fact that my last official day at the Mid America Network was TODAY!!! So I no longer have to deal with yelling people and unfun moral dilemmas and such.

But I'm mostly happy because someone else. His name is Andrew. And for those of you NOT from Wichita who already know this, he's great! I can't really say too much here about him, because once I start talking... it's very likely that I won't shut up for quite some time. Suffice it to say, his personality matches mine so wonderfully well that we even enjoy each other's annoyingness. (It doesn't happen every day that a guy comes along who actually enjoys when I'm manically giggly and happy.)

As for other things... I start a new job at Hertz Local Edition this coming Tuesday. I'm a "Manager Trainee". I'll be doing all the normal rent-a-car stuff, but I'm excited to be joining a national well-established company which offers me a few benefits and at least makes me feel a wee bit more secure about my job. Plus, next Sunday, they're flying me to Chicago for 2 weeks of training. I'm pretty much horribly terrified of flying, so if ya'all could say a couple of prayers for me, I'd be very much grateful. I'll be without my Daisy House people for 12 whole days... and I'm flying by myself for the first time ever. It's going to be a growing experience I'm sure.

Welp... I need to get on the road. I'm going home for Easter to see my amazing parents, my wonderful brothers and their fiance & girlfriend.

Just a side note... it's way exciting to me that pretty soon I might not be the only child in the family who hasn't brought someone home for a holiday. :)

Love you all!!! I'll update in a more fun way soon!! I promise!!

Ah.. Sweet Spring

Do you know what happens in the Spring? Daisies blossom.

Okay, guys... so it's like 2 in the morning and I'm still awake and still smiling ear to ear. Reading your comments to the last post were just about enough to make me burst.

But enough of this sappy happy snappiness... let's get to the point. The Winter of Anticipation has been good for us all. Perhaps we did not know what we were anticipating every moment of the day... but God knew... and He was ready to make it happen.

Things are changing in my life ALOT these days. And things are changing for a bunch of the people around me. So far, all of these changes seem to be good and wonderful and exciting. And the weird thing is... I had a pretty good idea of what to theme the Spring about 4 months ago, and it has just fallen right into place.

So without further ado (and in fact with as little ado as possible since i'm about ready to pass out from being tired)

... this SEASON'S THEME IS....






THE SPRING OF NEW BEGINNINGS!

Take advantage of it! Enjoy every minute of it! Smile from your head to your toes like I am! Life is Beautiful!

Teekee Bon Mokee Bookoo

...That title is alien talk for something...

It's time to update, and there's so much to say that I can't even really think of where or how to begin. And for that matter, I'm not sure how much of it I can say right now anyways.

This past weekend was the first weekend in 5 in which I didn't have a darn thing planned. And for not having a darn thing planned... I sure as heck did a LOT of stuff. Here's a rundown:

1) Friday: Stations of the Cross, Movie night at Rita's, Game night at the Daisy House
2) Saturday: Slept in, BBQ at Danny's, Karaokeing with 20 friends at the Jukebox
3) Sunday: Tridentine Mass, Brunch with Young Adults, Pseudo Cozy Day Action, Red Robin for Dinner, Many people over for chatting and fun all evening.
4) Monday: Date.

Yup... that was the weekend. It was very busy for being so unplanned. But excellently fun as well.

And here's the best part about it: Something happened this weekend that caused everyone to spew their feelings out of their heads into the air and into everyone else's ears. We found out who liked who. Why they like that person. Who they used to like/date/drama with. Rachel spent an hour and a half Sunday night filling our new friends in on the drama that has happened over the past year and a half (you can catch pieces of it looking back on my blog... but she told the WHOLE story.) The story was filled with love triangles, boyfriend/girlfriend wannabes, massive dramatic fights, and other such matters. I think the new friends might be a little scared of us now. ;) Ooops.

In other news, I'm about as happy as I've been in the last year and half. And God is absolutely blessing my house and my life with unbelievable smiles and love.

**By the way... the spring theme is created and stewing. It shall be presented before 7 days has past***

Did someone say "Date"???

So y'all seem eager to learn 'bout my little adventure at the National Catholic Singles Conference. I suppose I shall expound on the things I learned a little bit (though they will surely not have the same charisma that they had coming from the likes of the speakers that we heard.) All of this info come of one or more of the following people who you should DEFINITELY google if you get a chance: Dave Sloan, Dr. Phil Mango, Mary Beth Bonacci, & Katrina Zeno.

1) Ingredients for a "date": a) Must involve a Man and a Woman, b) Must be a date "on purpose" - in other words, you can't just have run into eachother at Borders and sat down for coffee and called it a date, c) There must be attraction to the other from both of the daters, d) You must be open to the possibility of marriage with the person you're out with.

2) How to keep from kissing frogs (what to look for in the opposite sex): If the man you're interested in makes a good brother, father, and son during his daily activities he is a wonderful man to date. If the woman you're interested in makes a good sister, mother, and daughter in her day-to-day activities, she's the girl you should be wanting to take out!

3) You should always see the person you are interested in as first and foremost a child of God. In other words, she is your sister before she is your girlfriend. He is your brother before he is your boyfriend. If you can't handle that, then you're NOT ready for a real relationship.

4) Our society is all about "Serial Monagamy" - aka sex within a serious relationship that is not marriage. What does Serial Monagamy say? It says "I promise not to have sex with anyone but you until I am through or almost through having sex with you." Serial Monagamy goes against everything we were created to be, and yet we're so great at rationalizing it. - Just FYI, Dave Sloan, the guy who said this in his talk was a victim of serial monagamy for a LONG time. Check out GodofDesire.com for more info.

5) I can't begin to delve into the differences between men and women... cuz it was a great talk that was very informative. But I will say this much: Women are, by nature, receptive creatures. We GIVE by receiving. Men are, by nature, focused hunters. Men RECEIVE by giving. Women are not built to be passive. We're supposed to be ACTIVELY RECEPTIVE. Men are built (like God the Father) to start, sustain and protect things (like a family). All of this stuff ties into our hormones and our brain structure and I bought a CD of Dr. Mango's talk if anyone is interested. It's FAB!!!

6) Man is the only creature created for his own sake. (All other creatures were created for man's use.) SO... since he was created for his own sake, man ONLY finds himself in a total and permanent gift of self. Just look at how our bodies were created - They're made to find fulfillment through self-donation. Our bodies are a sign that we're called to live as self gift. Which is why single life (without consecration) is NOT a Vocation.

7) And this is probably not so intriguing for my guy readers, but in the talk for the ladies we learned how to be Ladies in Love. Ladies in Love with God, with our Bodies, with our Friends and With LIFE. And being single is so much better when you're a Lady In Love!

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Okay, so now you saw some of my notes and got to see a piece of what I learned. I had these grandiose plans to write "Kristi's Treatise on Singlehood and Dating Relationships" at the end of this post... but it's 11:30pm... and I think I gotsta get to bed. Hopefully I can post THE TREATISE *which promises to be a fun and bitter diatribe* tomorrow!

Love you all!

Kiki