It's great, but...

My friends and I have this joke that I have a tendency to say: "It's great, but…" Like I want to say something negative, but I can't, so I start it out with a positive then let it go downhill from there. Or I suppose if you want to be glass half empty about it, you could look at it like I'm just negative and have to ruin everything good. (I'd like to hope it's the first thing… where I want to keep things positive.) A few examples, "My weekend was great, but … it went by too quickly." "This dinner was great, but … I ate too much." "She's great, but … I wish she wouldn't clip her fingernails in public."

So, I've decided to do an installment of "It's great, but…" to tell you a little of what's been going on with my life lately.

(I no longer have a window seat, but I am trying to enjoy the light/shadows of a nearby window.)

I switched teams at work. New boss. New teammates. New "rules." New seat. It has been quite the transition but I know God is using it. I'm growing a lot and I think I'm adding something different to my new team that they didn't have before. It's great, but … my new boss makes us call ourselves "Team Xtreme" (no, I didn't' leave out a letter) and somedays (I mean every day) I have a hard time with that.

(This is my "I'm terrified but I have a bat and I know how to use it" face.)

I got license plates for my new car a couple of weeks ago and there was a man there asking for people to sign a petition to have this bill taken to the government (or something) that would change the way that teachers were evaluated. I kind of just wanted him to go away and also thought, "Heck, it can't hurt anything," so I signed the man's petition. It was great, but … the petition asked for my address, and me being dumb and naive wrote it on there without thinking about it, and now I've run into him two other times, and I'm a bit freaked out that he's stalking me. (1. I know, he's just an innocent petitioner and isn't stalking me. 2. I learned my lesson to never write my real address down on things like that in the future.)

(I love these people.)

I went and visited my friends Valeria and Jonathan last weekend in St. Louis. I had a wonderful time: we ate good food, we watched a good movie (yep, I was a little late getting there, but I am officially on the Frozen bandwagon), we baked some crazy food (Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed Soft Pretzel, anyone?), we shopped, we laughed, the list goes on… It was great, but … they may have proven me wrong after all these years that St. Louis isn't such a bad place after all. (Confession: I kind of like it a lot.)

(I love her, too. This is "post Brad.")

I came to Austin yesterday. I spent the first day with my friend Jessie and her family. Her husband had been gone on a month-long business trip and he said he would treat her to a day at the spa. She decided to wait until I came to town so I could join in the fun. I had my first ever massage. It was great, but … it was done by a man in his mid-forties named Brad whose voice was a little soften spoken for my comfort level. (Once I got over that, which didn't take long, it. was. awesome.)

Ha, ok, that's enough for now. Life is good. No buts. I just thought I'd give you a few anecdotes of the Life of Abby lately since I've been a slacker at blogging. Have a wonderful weekend!