Blogging Makes Me Uncomfortable

So far I'm 3 for 3 posting for Jenni's Blog Every Day in May Challenge. I've never blogged every day in a month, so this will be quite the feat if I can actually do this. We'll see how I feel after a couple of weeks. Alright, now for day 3.... things that make you uncomfortable.

It took me a while to think of something that makes me truly uncomfortable. Not because nothing makes me uncomfortable. "Au contraire, mon frère!" There's a decent sized list of things that make me anxious, but it was tough thinking of something that makes me truly uncomfortable. I love using humor to diffuse nerve-racking situations, but this time I wanted to be honest instead of funny.

After coming up with heaps of things that make me only mildly uncomfortable, I realized the thought of sharing my life with a bunch of strangers on the Internet freaks me out. It's a nice little catch 22, because blogging is about sharing your life. However, I don't always want to share for fear of not being liked.

You're probably wondering why I even bother with blogging if sharing with strangers makes me squirm. Sometimes I wonder that same thing too, but sometimes we need to force ourselves to do things outside of our comfort zone. As cheesy as this sounds, there have been plenty of times in my life where doing the uncomfortable led to a great breakthrough and personal growth.

I'm definitely guilty of not sharing everything on this blog. The funny thing is, all the blogs I love the most share everything. It's a nice little catch 22. Now I'm a total goofball, but usually only my close family and friends get to see that side of me. Letting everyone see who I really am makes me plenty uncomfortable. Over the years though, I am learning to worry less about what others think of me. Maybe blogging has helped me at least a little. I suppose it's not all for naught.

I hope you'll like the nerd I am, and if not... that's okay too. Once a nerd, always a nerd.

Road Trip Do's and Don'ts

As the wife of a pilot I obviously support travel by air, but there's also nothing like getting out on the wide open road! Yesterday you may have caught a glimpse of our road trip. I wanted to share with you some do's and don'ts for your road trip. Which may or may not be all that helpful, depending on how you look at it. Either way... I love a good adventure.

{ the second day of our road trip started something like this }

Do sign up for those hotel rewards cards. They're free to sign up for, and you can accumulate points for usually as long as you'd like until you have enough for a free stay. My husband's been stockpiling points over his years as a pilot. He finally had enough points for free nights, so we used them during our drive between Michigan and Florida. You might even get some free chips and water out of the deal... just for being a Priority Club member. Talk about big ballers here. Ha, yeah right!

Do have some plans, but don't be too rigid. Definitely look into some things you'd like to do during your drive. I'm often content just seeing new places from the interstate, but it's nice to get off the highway and get a little closer to a new town. We had couple of different routes mapped out, but we ended up taking one that took us off the interstate. I'm so glad we did that, because we ended up coming across a humongous Christmas store. And you know how much I love a good Christmas store.

Don't forget the souvenirs! I'm not talking cheesy souvenirs that you'll never see again after your trip but the functional kind of souvenirs. We bought a nice little hand painted ornament from a store we stopped by in Tennessee during our last trip. We love buying things like note cards, postcards, or anything handmade by local artists wherever we go. They can be framed and used as decoration for your home, and those items usually serve as great reminders of your trips too.

Do enjoy yourself. A road trip is basically a microcosm for life. You're trying to get from point A to B, but you need to have some fun along the way too. There is so much to see out there, so have fun on your road trip. There might be setbacks or bad weather, but all you can do is stay safe and enjoy yourself.

How about you... do you like a good road trip, or do you prefer flying and getting to your destination quickly? I think that road trips are great for learning cultural differences within our very own country. We live in such a varied land. It's amazing what's out there right outside your own backdoor. Now go get out there and have fun!

. . . . : : : : . . . . : : : : . . . . : : : : . . . . : : : : . . . . : : : : . . . .

If you're interested in more travel related posts, I've got a travel link up in my navigation bar.

You can also read my posts labeled with the keyword travel. :)

I'm linking up with Jenni's #BlogEveryDayInMay challenge

Blog Every Day In May!

I'm sure you've already caught wind of Jenni's #BlogEveryDayInMay challenge, but if you're like me you probably found out in the most roundabout way long after everyone else already knew about it. Well isn't that just the story of my life. Earlier today I posted about the road trip my husband and I took a few weeks ago, but I found out about this challenge after the fact. So here goes nothing.

My Life in (Hopefully) 250 Words or Less

My name is Ashley. I was born in Texas and grew up in beautiful northern Michigan. My parents never had any other children, so I learned to entertain myself from a young age. You could find me building cities out of legos, tunneling through snowbanks, and swimming in the lake all summer long. I'm a self proclaimed dork, and I diffuse nervous situations with humor.

Middle school brought on that awkward phase. I immersed myself in learning and playing the saxophone in band. Volleyball eventually became one of my biggest loves. Senior year, I graduated as valedictorian of my class. After high school, I went off to college and earned an architecture degree. I found myself wanting something different and drove off to Colorado with my belongings in the back of my Jeep.

I met my husband in Colorado. We enjoyed living in Denver as young 20-somethings. I worked for an architecture firm, and my husband flew for a regional airline. The economy tanked, and my architecture job didn't stick around for long. I found myself frustrated with our mountains of debt and no job, but isn't that the way life works.

We moved to Florida when my husband was hired by a different airline. Together we're learning to be content with what we have, what the heck love really looks like, and trying to learn from our mistakes. All I know is that life is crazy, fun, exciting, and you must be kind to yourself... and others.

Did you link-up with Jenni today too?

Road Trip: Michigan to Florida

Earlier this month my husband and I road-tripped from Michigan to Florida, and sharing this with you all has taken far too long. My grandpa can no longer drive, so after picking up his car in Michigan we now finally have two cars again. We flew into Michigan, picked up the car, and drove it back to sunny Florida. Nothing like a beautiful drive across part of our country, right?! I love traveling and seeing new places, so this was right up my alley. My husband and I both saw quite a few new states during our trip! We even found a couple places we'd like to visit again some day soon.

{ some of the states we covered on our trip }

I'm always game for a fun road trip. Smart phones would have been helpful, but we managed to navigate ourselves all the way from the Mitten State to the Sunshine State with minimal trouble using only paper maps we printed the night before. We even squeezed in a few fun stops along the way.

Come back tomorrow for more
from the second day of our trip!

Confessions

You guys, I've got some things I need to confess.

I'm terrible at keeping in touch long distance. Thankfully I have some really great friends who always welcome me with open arms when we finally do reconnect. I wish that I called people as often as I thought about them, but I'm not sure there would ever be enough time for that. Thankfully our new iPhones make it a little easier to keep in touch!

Blog Lovin' confuses the heck out of me. You guys! How did you learn to use this? I imported the blogs I follow through Google friend connect, and somehow I'm still finding that some of my very favorite blogs are not being followed in Blog Lovin'. This is such a learning process for me. Sometimes I think social media is personally out there to confuse me.

Last week I was pulled over at 12am. I was driving back from Disney World with a friend who was visiting from Colorado, and we got pulled over about a half mile from my apartment. I've only been pulled over by the cops twice in my life. Both were for the same thing. My license plate light was burned out, and both times resulted in a warning. Thank goodness.

Creativity runs through my veins. There is nothing I love more than art, music, dance, photography... basically anything artistic. Art was always one of my favorite subjects in school. Back in middle school I played the saxophone in band. I graduated from college with an architecture degree. Lately I've been spending quite a bit of time painting. I often dream about making a living, or least a little cash, from my creative endeavors.

We went on a road trip earlier this month. I cannot believe I haven't even shared a single photo from our trip. My grandpa gave us his car, so we flew to Michigan and drove it back to Florida. My husband and I both saw plenty of new states. I spent some time browsing one of the biggest Christmas stores ever, and we enjoyed a few hours in Savannah, Georgia. I swear one of these days I'll share pictures and stories.

I miss Colorado way too much. Unfortunately, missing the last state we lived in, and the people in it, doesn't help me or my husband to be more content in Florida. This whole moving thing is really harder than I ever thought it would be. Living in Florida is teaching my husband and I both to expand outside of our comfort zones and also to depend more on each other rather than doing things our own way. Sometimes our plan isn't always the best one. Have you read Michelle's post about this?

The power went out while I was writing this. Last night we got a nice big Florida thunderstorm complete with a little bit of hail. The storms here are way less scary than the thunderstorms that built up over the Rocky Mountains, but they seem to bring much more rain than we're used to seeing. Maybe this will subdue the pollen that's attacking my sinuses. One can hope.

rainy Florida evening

Do you have any confessions to make?

I hope you'll follow me on Instagram

I promise, I'll try and follow back if I can figure it out ;-)

{ leave a comment with your blog lovin' link }

A Day Late...

playing around with the new iPhone... and Instagram of course

reading last night I picked up Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods from our bookshelf... just might re-read that one. We recently visited some of the places mentioned in his book, so it's fun to revisit them in someone else's humorous writing.

writing not much. I did recently write an impromptu journal entry into the notes on my phone. I've also been painting a lot lately... I like to count that as writing.

listening to my husband repeatedly tell Siri that he loves her, because he's enjoying her off the wall responses to his profession of love.

thinking that I cannot wait until mid May for my visit to Colorado!

smelling nothing... guess I should plug in my Scentsy warmer.

wishing that I wasn't allergic to everything in Florida. I feel a sore throat creeping up on me, and I wish to not get sick again.

hoping see above. I also hope that we manage to get through the Florida summer heat without too much complaining ha!

wearing       . . : : see photo above : : . .

loving that we finally got iPhones. Sadly, it's like a whole new world was unveiled for us. We plan to keep our ancient cell phones and give them to a museum some day ;-)

wanting to be better at contentment. Yes.

needing same as above. You see, it's funny that my husband and I have been talking about this lately. Tina has a really great blog post about this... go read it!

feeling happy to know that others go through similar struggles and that they can be (and will be) overcome. Build others up, don't tear each other down.

clicking through some Instagram shots (this is a great reminder), a few blog posts, and emails. Then I'm going to go enjoy a popsicle! Yessssss.

* If you missed previous editions of The Sunday Currently, you can see them all here

Now link up your edition of The Sunday Currently with Lauren

Hope you had a great weekend