In the last 2 days i have spent 20 hours at Kentucky Kingdom Six Flags :) Now nothing can beat Six Flags New England but this was very close! The line were so short they let us stay on one ride 8 consecutive times...grease lightning. You were strapped in and shot off into a loop and straight into the air, then went backwards through the loop and back into the air...8 times. So amazing. Another ride we went on multiple times was tornado, and i think this could have been my favorite ride ever (other than superman)... you start off in water and swim to the tub, then once in the tube you are dropped about 50 feet at close to a 90 degree angle and into a funnel that spins and throws you up against the wall...needless to say SO fun. However the best of them all was the Sky Coaster which somewhat simulated skydiving (hopefully something ill be blogging SOON ;) anyways Abbey me and my father were strapped into stray jacket type things and then hoisted 187 feet into the air. The guy that worked it said that it was the second tallest in America, the first being one in Florida which my dad and i had already been on. Anyways so 187 feet into the air then 3...2...1..go! and i had to pull the lever that plummeted us into the ground and back again, kind of like a huge swing.
Therefore in spite of this wonderful experience i have made it my mission to ride the following roller coasters before i die... i know somewhat cheesy and cliche but still thrilling! here they are...anyone want to come along!
Kingda Ka Jackson Township, New Jersey
Top Thrill Dragster Sandusky, Ohio
Millennium Force Sandusky, Ohio
Goliath Valencia, California
Superman: The Escape Valencia, California
Son of Beast Mason, Ohio
El Toro Jackson Township, New Jersey
So all in all ill be spending my next few summers in Cambodia, New Jersey, Ohio and California...right after i win the lottery :)
When I was a kid I had a really good friend, Hilary Gumely, and when I was like 9ish she moved to Cambodia with her family...permanently. Ever since then I have always had some sort of fascination with Cambodia, but it wasn't till about a year ago that I was determined to travel abroad and live in Cambodia.
The summer before my freshman year in college I received my summer reading assignment, Lucky Child, needless to say I was less than enthused to spend my hot summer days reading a, what i thought would be a dry and utterly boring book. However I was enthralled with everything in the book, from the style of writing, the descriptive nature of the text, even the explicit pictures throughout the pages...Quick little synopsis of the book...Two sisters get separated during the Kumar Rouge in Cambodia, one escapes to the states the other is a prisoner in her own country...all in all two VERY different life experiences. But what was more interesting about the book was the vast cultural differences between America and Cambodia, something I too hope to experience...hence the title of this blog! Come summer of next year I have decided to take off 3 weeks and travel to Cambodia with "A Broader View" volunteer program. IM SO EXCITED! nothing is finalized yet (aka i haven't paid yet lol but SOON!)
Its a very well planned out program. Most days ill be at the orphanage but the program also provides a few "free" days where i can go sightseeing!
The program I'll be apart of is technically called- Orphanage and Child Care Assistant meaning tutoring, cooking, playing, and teaching English! The orphanage provides a home and education to over 100 children, which I thought was surprisingly low. From my understanding most of the children previously worked as garbage pickers at a landfill in PhnomPenh.
I don't think this could be a better opportunity for me, just as a future teacher but also just as a person...I'm hoping it will be a fun and humbling experience! ...who knows maybe ill never come back:)
I think that it is interesting how, as a family, we grow and become closer by the activities, tragedies, laughter and fantastical times we encounter. For instance, the majority of Benjamin and Becky’s vacation here in North Carolina was full of fun and laughter, but I also cried harder and longer with Becky, than I ever have in front of anyone else, and although the circumstances of the crying still suck, I feel that it brought us so much closer. One of my favorite things about Becky is our “woodette-code” or “sister-code”. It goes without saying the “sister-code” is a code of secrecy and I know no matter what I say or how honest I am, Becky is never going to judge or hate me, which is the best feeling in the world and i would go as far to say she is the only person i feel this with(well Lauren too.). I cant think of any other person that has gone through things Becky has gone through and who still has such a strong faith in God and in people. As much as it amazes me I still find it incomprehensible. anyways Becky I love you and am so lucky that you are apart of our family and my life :)
Another person i am so greatful for in sad times is Smelly, or as many others know her, Abbey, my baby sister. Through this past week she was everything a pain, adorable, annoying, funny, comforting, etc. When my "crapppppy" situation happened abbey did everythingg she could to make me happy, rubbed lotion on my arms because it "makes you feel good", she brought me diet cokes, she even crawled into bed to rub my back when i could hardly move, even had a good attitude about all the pranks!! I realize she is only 11 and cant really understand the exact things i am going through but everything she did and said was so perfect and really did make me so much more happy. Another attribute of Smelly that i love is her candidness. My dad always said think before you speak, well that life-lesson is beyond Smelly, she says what the truth even if its not what you want to hear. She is so honest and the most hysterical child i have ever encountered. I cant wait for her to grow up and get in a crappy situation so i can crawl in her bed and rub her back! :) Love you Smelly.
The last but certainly not least Wood is the WOMAN, or my mom! The only people who read this silly blog know we never got along until i moved out of the house...and thank God i did! I have never been happier with the status of our relationship as i am now. She goes above and beyond to make mehappy (PM medicine to knock me out...amen to that!) but just little things she does, like bake my 4Th of July cake and breakfast casserole or scratch my back when I'm pathetically crying on the bathroom floor ha ha :D... overall i think that it is just comforting to know that my mother truly does love me and want the best for me. I think it is comforting that she knows i will make mistakes and will be a crazy indecisive child, but she still loves and supports my every decision. Love ya mama!
All in all i think its needless to say I love the wood gals :)
Everyday i find myself doing a variety of things, working, taking care of children, then picking up after them, cooking dinner, not to mention life's fun surprises, a death, a birth, a broken bone, car accident, traffic ticket...etc. However, when i come across those "simple pleasures" i cant help but smile! I love mail, i think there is something so fun about getting a letter or package and not knowing whats inside or what the piece of paper holds until you open it! not to mention that it is solely for me and i can either choose to show or not show whoever i want, its like my own fun little mystery!
Anyways, i decided to go through my day today and keep in mind all the simple pleasures that i came across...so here they are!
when the right song comes on at the perfect moment
watching someone im walking with tripp :)
pull through parking spots or when i PERFECTLY parallel park
when i have a good idea and make it work
the smell of my flower shop
The look on Ella and Ace's face when they get something i am explaining
laughing so hard you get awesome abs
laying by the pool wearing sunglasses so you can see people but they cant see you're staring (kinda creepy i know)
holding hands (these next two didn't really happen today, but i was thinking about when it did so they can stay on the list.)
kisses on the forehead
the silly kid questions i get
letters or packages--not bills
finding the perfect peach
when things go exactly how i plan
when things go the exact opposite of how i planned BUT they still work out in the end
good book
taking a flower order in FRENCH! wahoo me
AND ITS NOT EVEN NOON!!
I am no longer going through the motions of life. i realize there is a lot more than just waking up, going to school, working, and sleeping...there is mail :)
Recently I have been playing with the idea of studying the bible, more so to learn what everything is about. My mindset has always been that in order for me to commit to that process and feel Gods power, or whatever, I have to act like God would want me to act...hence the What Would Jesus Do title :). To some extent this is in fact true, turn the other cheek,treat others how I want to be treated, eye for eye tooth, etc. However, something has sort of in a sense clicked. It's not merely taking actions and living how i would think God would want me to through my daily life, but thinking (whether its a possibility or not) that God has something planned. To clarify I see life's misfortunes, uncertainties, afflictions, sufferings, whatever, as God punishing me (bad i know). The easiest example that comes to mind is North Carolina. My family moved here for the church, no other real reason, yet to this day my family has not been happy, even content, with any church for the past 5 years. Normally I take this as a slap in the face from God, kinda like he is messing with my life, again bad I know. However, I'm realizing that my parents don't view it like this at all, they view it as God working a plan that is beyond anything they can comprehend...I'm honestly still struggling with how they could have such strong faith and trust but nonetheless they do. When i am feeling like pain or misfortune I get selfish and blame God for making me suffer rather than see it as a learning experience to make me a stronger person. So back to the "clicking"- I think it would be good for me to think that god does have something planned rather than just being bitter and angry with god. Something possible that seems impossible, ay! I think for anyone this may be hard to carry out on a daily basis. By that i mean thinking that God is constantly in control and constantly does have something up his, metaphorical, sleeve. :)
I came across a quote in this book I'm reading..."It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply." A.W. Tozer. In one sense I'm cynical thinking why hurt me at all just bless me. In another sense it makes total sense..oh sense :) i think especially for me I need to see and feel Gods power or plan before i can jump in...but I'm trying to have the attitude and mind set that if i need to suffer in order to see or believe bring it on...And to be honest with my self, and whoever else wastes their time reading this :), I don't exactly know why all of a sudden my view and attitude has changed from very pessimistic to very optimistic. In addition, knowing me its bound to change a trillion and one times, but for now I cant say i hate this optimistic view!
I think when I am feeling overwhelmed or confused or just uncertain, I have a three step reaction process.
resentment
isolation/pushing people away
I doubt everything I once believed was true
However! I believe that I am starting, at least trying, to realize that the most incredibly horrid place on the planet to be when I am doubting stuff-is alone. But you know what they say... better late then never :)
All in all I think I am coming to the recognition of a few things. A. I need not only to act how God would want me to act but also think and try to believe that he is doing what is best for me, whether or not it seems so. B. my life at the moment isn't going to get easier, and rather than being resentful, isolated, and doubtful, I need to suck it up buttercup and truck on through! and lastly C. I , and I would think others, avoid the truth when it is painful and hard, but nonetheless I cant avoid it any longer!
Quote of the Moment: "Scepticism is the beginning of Faith" Oscar Wilde
After working an 8 hour day alone at my flower shop I was inspired to write a fun blog about the idiotic and down right dumb customers i see on a weekly basis...
Every day for the past four and a half years I have asked myself, “Why am I still working here?” Granted in the past one year i haven't worked nearly as much, at least in the customer service aspect of the store but nonetheless i have been working for my parents shop for almost a full five years. Do you know what type of people order, receive, deliver, grow, or wholesale flowers? I do...
On any particular day I find myself wondering how it is possible for so many people to act with such ignorance, incompetence, and pathetic desperation at the same time they are also wanting to do a “good deed.” For instance, I remember a time when I tried to wire a floral order to an out-of-town florist for a frequent customer of ours. The order was for an arrangement of flowers for $40.00, with no special flowers identified. Within ten minutes I received a “reply” message that stated, “We are unable to fill this order.” I called for clarification and the filling florist shop owner explained, “We have no flowers.” Incredulously, I asked, “You are a flower shop, aren’t you?”
“Oh yes,” she sweetly replied.
“You’re a flower shop, but you have no flowers,” I asked with confusion.
“Yes, that’s right dear.”
Oh jeeze! Can someone explain to me how you can call yourself a “flower shop” but have no flowers? Are there auto parts stores that have no parts for cars? Or clothing stores that don’t sell clothes? I dont think so!...get some fricking flowers.
I love it when the phone rings and someone says, “Hello, I would like to send flowers. Do you deliver?
“Yes sir, we do.”
I spend three or four minutes gathering his billing information, what he wants a card message to read, what he wants to send, and then to whom he wishes to send the flowers.
“And her address, sir?”
“Oh, I don’t know where she lives.”
I mean, really!? What does he think, that I know where she lives, or that the delivery driver knows all the names and addresses of DurhamCounty residents?
In the years I have worked with my parents, I have received at least a dozen calls similar to this:
“I received a beautiful plant from your shop a week ago and it looks terrible today. The leaves are drooping and the flowers are falling off.”
“How often have you watered the plant?”
“Oh, was I supposed to water it?”
Dah!
In addition to the customer service aspect of the retail flower shop, there is the arranging, processing, and delivering of flowers. I never thought that by the time I was nineteen years old I would have lifted the dead heads of multiple corpses to drape flowers in hair or across the heart. Can you even imagine? At those moments, I think, “Elyse, you should be feeling very sad, or sympathetic at very least.” Instead, I am either grossed out by the whole scene, or wishing I could try pinching the dang body to see if it really was once alive and real. Like, I’ll never forget the time I walked into the funeral home to lay a casket spray atop a box only to notice the face of the same old man who had come to order flowers from me the week before! Impossible, he was just here in the shop. I just saw him. The family is just trying to get sympathy from the community. Or maybe he staged the whole thing himself so he can collect his own insurance money. Really, the floral business really makes you wonder about people.
Men come looking hung-over or high in to order flowers because “I fu**ed up real bad,” hoping that tonight they’ll be able to climb back in bed with their wife...I have even had a gentlemen ask if the arrangement is alive. I mean seriously!? Are you seriously asking me if I’m going to send a dead arrangement?And today…Oh, Boy. I stole the title for this non-fiction essayblog right from the mouth of my last customer, today. Can you imagine!
“How can I help you sir?”
“I WANT SOME CHEAP FLOWERS FOR MY WIFE.”
And all this is as if the daily work involved in the floral business is not hard enough. When Fed-Ex delivers twenty four-foot long boxes that I (or we) need to haul through the narrow two foot wide hallway to stack six feet high on our metal table at the back of the shop, it then takes me hours to “process” them. Translated in the most simple of ways, to “process” flowers means to freshly cut the stems ½ inch so they will drink water, and then to drop them into a bucket with fresh water. This does not account for the thousand scratches from rose thorns, the green stains on my hands, my ever broadening shoulders from lifting buckets with water and flowers to place on high shelves and the effects of the Fahrenheit 40 degree cooler the flowers are stored in
Of course, there has been a lot of value to the experiences in the shop. I know how to gracefully handle a rude customer while giving him/her the finger behind my back. I know how to nod my head at the customer who wants to send yellow roses because they mean “I love you,” even though it is red roses that really send that message. And I understand the teamwork required to run a successful business, even if half the employees my parents decide to hire are incompetent. I have learned a lot about working in retail, working as part of a family-owned business, how to balance jobs, schoolwork, and teenage life, and more about flowers than I will ever want to know...yet i still love sending and receiving them (as long as they are not roses). And in (somewhat) retrospect, I'm sure the moms, daughters, and girlfriends that are lucky enough to have a man who sends flowers, are pretty lucky.
I stole this picture from Google, but none of the ones I had was as pretty.
Quote of the moment...
"It is not about possession and limits. It is about giving everything until there's nothing left to give, and then searching and scraping until you find a little bit more." --Harvesting the Heart, Jodi Picoult
If you are ever stuck in an airport alone for 15 hours i would suggest you make some lists, of anything! This recently happened to me and i made an assortment of fun little list that i hope to check off some day...they are as follows.
Places I want to visit slash live before I die...
Australia
Egypt
Cambodia (live)
Romania (live)
Mexico--3rd world part
Italy (live)
St. Thomas/ St. Martin
Jerusalem
Paris (live)
Africa--again the poor parts
Hawaii
Bucket List... (Cliche i know but again i was at the airport for 15 hours...)
Bungee Jump off a bridge into water
sky dive
get married
fly first class
have at least 3 kids
go to ever continent
go to another Celine Dion concert
go to a john Mayer, Jason mraz, taylor swift, sara bareilles, sugarland, and kanye west concert
kiss a dolphin
buy a house
fly in a helicopter
have an all inclusive vacation
be a good teacher
ride on an elephant
adopt a child
swim with sharks
join the mile high club :)
camp in Africa
start and complete a wine cellar
see a tornado up close in person
trash a hotel room
go blueberry picking
go to a drive in movie
write a children's book
learn french...fluently
learn sign language...fluently
live in a 3rd world country
ride on a Farris wheel
be the first person on AND off the plane
spend an entire day just at a theme park on one roller coaster
love god
learn to play pachelbels canon on the violin and piano
scuba dive
see the northern lights in Alaska
be in NYC on new years
see at least one of the seven wonders of the world...preferably the pyramids
get my fortune told.
learn to make a cheesecake without it cracking down the middle
donate blood and eggs
have a garden
Reasons I hate to fly...
so stinking expensive
could crash
seats are always too straight for my back
nasty when people cough or sneeze...
flights are always delayed
the flight attendant never gives you the whole can of soda
so boring (hence this list by the way)
my ears always hurt the entire duration of the flight
ginormous people crammed into tiny seats
its loud, dark, and smelly
the sky mall magazine never changes it always has the same stupid pointless gifts no one needs but would be so cool to have---like the motor boat cup holder for the pool :)
hate peanuts but i hate it even more that there are only like 5 in the stinking tiny bag they give you.
either too cold or too hot
takes forever for people to get in their fricking seats!
creepy old men hitting on me
I'm scared to use the bathroom or sleep
First 10 things that come to my mind that I want
a vera bradley duffel bag
elijahs MP3 player
a college education
the perfect fathers day gift (i got this one already)
professionally framed pictures
a car...like one that isn't tore up!
original flavored chex mix
******a reading light!
every Jodi Picoult book ever written
season tickets to a sports event (baseball or basketball)
Top 5 questions that i want answers to at this very moment...
How can someone know me better than myself?
is there a God?
Where will I be in 5 years?
Will I be a good teacher?
Whats his favorite Disney movie?
Silly questions I want answers to before i marry...whoever.
What is your favorite Disney movie
least favorite food
will you get mad at me if i change the channel during your sports game on accident
how many kids
where do you want to get married
do you like the name Oliver
do you like pickles
what is your favorite color
do you like when girls wear perfume
would you rather me be all done up or bummy
favorite meal i could cook you, including drinks dessert and main dish
favorite song, movie, and music genre
will you sit through i musical with me
can you handle seeing a chick flick every now and then
what do you want to do that you would never actually do
can you kiss me
can you build things or i guess are you creative
what will our pet be and what will its name be...boy and girl
least favorite thing a girl does
favorite outfit...mine and yours.
Does it annoy you i cant spell and will ask you how to spell simple things
does it annoy you i spell out slash instead of putting the... "/" thingy?
So, once again, another pointless and waste of time post :)
In the last 2 days i have spent 20 hours at Kentucky Kingdom Six Flags :) Now nothing can beat Six Flags New England but this was very close! The line were so short they let us stay on one ride 8 consecutive times...grease lightning. You were strapped in and shot off into a loop and straight into the air, then went backwards through the loop and back into the air...8 times. So amazing. Another ride we went on multiple times was tornado, and i think this could have been my favorite ride ever (other than superman)... you start off in water and swim to the tub, then once in the tube you are dropped about 50 feet at close to a 90 degree angle and into a funnel that spins and throws you up against the wall...needless to say SO fun. However the best of them all was the Sky Coaster which somewhat simulated skydiving (hopefully something ill be blogging SOON ;) anyways Abbey me and my father were strapped into stray jacket type things and then hoisted 187 feet into the air. The guy that worked it said that it was the second tallest in America, the first being one in Florida which my dad and i had already been on. Anyways so 187 feet into the air then 3...2...1..go! and i had to pull the lever that plummeted us into the ground and back again, kind of like a huge swing.
