Life lately…

Well helloooooo there!

I’ve gone pretty much this entire month without updating here and I kinda hate that but kinda don’t because I know how absolutely crazy this month has been for me and sometimes you need to just take a step back on some things to more intently focus on others and that’s what I’ve been doing. I suppose I could have mentioned I would be away before just seeming to disappear off of the face of the earth but to be honest, I haven’t really been able to see much in my life beyond a foot in front of me.

Over this past month, I have been smack in the middle of a job transition…or two…and things probably won’t officially calm down until – well… maybe 2016! Ha! I wanted to say middle of November but by that time, Holiday season will be in full swing and I don’t think anyone calls that time of year any word associated with “calm”. Not saying it’s bad, just fast paced with family gatherings and other events and whatnot.

So! I say all that to say that for those of you who venture here to see what I’m up to, I apologize for leaving you on the edge of your seat for so long but there hasn’t really been much to update other than the job stuff and I can’t even really update on that because I’m still in transition. BUT! When I’ve settled into my new routine, I would love to share and can’t wait to honestly :)

I have missed my blogging buddies, too! In addition to putting a blogging binder together and trying to figure out a course of action to keep this space updated more regularly (which made me realize how much I really have been collecting to share here!), I’ve tried to catch up on reading and commenting and all that a little bit last week but then went pretty much a whole ‘nother week without really having time to read any at all so I’m beginning to feel like I’m forever behind in seeing what’s up with everyone else too…non-blogging friends included! Hopefully as my new routine continues to iron out over the next couple of weeks I can get back to what feels on track with all of that.

There hasn’t been much time for extracurricular activities lately but that all changed this past weekend with a trip to my hometown! I got to visit Wilmington Friday-Sunday and it was amazing. I had a wonderful car ride there with my sister in law, checked a bunch of things off of my to-do list (like go see my Chiropractor! I refuse to change!) and even though things didn’t go exactly as planned, I got to spend time with some family and friends as well. Andre wasn’t able to join me on this trip but I still made the most of it and had a blast.

Friday after running my errands I went to visit a friend at the beach. The ocean, plus random fireworks obviously equals magic. Then I went downtown with my girlfriend Hayley to a trap music party. It was fun dressing up for the event and then continuing to bounce around from place to place dressed up. I didn’t know I would need a costume so I had to get something earlier in the day which ended up being a t-shirt that said “THIS IS MY COSTUME” and a pink wig. It was a big hit though!

cat women and pink haried girl1I look like a tiny little alien creature and my friend looks like a voluptuous goddess with mermaid hair.

club

selfie sessionSelfie session…

cute selfie

silly selfie

 best medicineThe best of times!

 Saturday I attended my very first Greek wedding with my friends Sarah and Patrick. Our mutual friend Alexii married her long time love Alex. Fairytale status right?! You may have seen my multiple posts on IG (@jlynnjustad). I don’t typically post there every day but I updated multiple times that night because I had SO. MUCH. FUN. They certainly know how to throw a party. Sarah performed a belly dance routine and it was amazing. Even with the back of her top popping open at the end of the song! Ha! Oops! After we decided to head out of the reception (that was going till 2am!) we found ourselves downtown before retiring for the night.

the crewThe crew otw!

the ladiesThe ladies

 beautiful weddingBeautiful ceremony

thebandhelping SKB get ready for her performance!

bffsBffs!

thecrewpt2The crew part 2!

20yearsest. 1996

Sunday I caught up on some sleep, went shopping for something I super excited to talk about in a couple weeks(!!) and spent some time at my grandmother’s house with my precious cousin, planning her Sweet 16 birthday party that is quickly approaching. It was so sweet to have dinner with them and chat about all the fun times to be had in celebration of her sweet little life :)

ILM

I love when I get to go back and visit my hometown even though it feels different every time, especially when Andre isn’t with me. I’m thankful though for every opportunity I get to go back and see as many of my loved ones as possible. Even though everything didn’t go as planned, I had so much fun and hope to see those I couldn’t see this time, next time!

I’m hoping to be able to update more frequently now…heres hoping. Ha! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend as well and you know that I love you tons and am sending you lots of good energy!

xx

 

 

 

Wedding crashing

Hello all!!

Did you see the super blood moon last night?! We made a couple attempts but it was pretty cloudy in our parts. We caught a glimpse of it while still eclipsed but it was no longer red. When we were going to bed around 11:45 I noticed how it look like dawn outside so I walked out only to see a gigantic fully round night light in the sky that was so piercing and crystal clear it was amazing. It was cool to see it go from what was more like a half moon to full in less than an hour. It was a beautiful sight. Andrew and I vowed to be somewhere with perfect viewing conditions for the next go round in 33 years or whatever :p

I hope things are going well for you! If you’ve been here recently you know I’ve been spending time accepting that summer has come to a close and watching fun girlie things on TV like the Miss America Pageant. I mentioned in that post that I had been invited to attend a wedding that weekend and I wanted to share a few snaps from the event because I had so much fun!

wedding

I was invited by one of my very best, Ashley, who was a friend of the bride. It was so fun getting all dolled up and hitting the town for a girls night out in downtown Raleigh! I did learn a few lessons about the importance of ALWAYS wearing comfortable shoes when attending a wedding and if you can’t, then making sure you have some easy slip ons to walk in if you have a few blocks to the venue.

Everyone is probably rolling their eyes at me right now like “DUHHHHH JLYNN” but I’m not from a city. I’m from the beach, and personally, I just don’t usually wear heels when I go out. I do sometimes but even then it’s usually like…hop out of the cab and walk up to the door to where you’re going. How all those celebrities get away with wearing those ridiculous shoes all the time totally makes sense to me now. They don’t actually walk anywhere.

streetselfiestreet selfie

Sex and the City has mislead us all! We had to go about 3 blocks from parking to the wedding  venue, 3 blocks back to the car and then 5 blocks from the car to the reception venue and that was all it took to give me blisters. All the girls had their shoes off on the outdoor dance floor by the end of the night anyway so I probably wasn’t the only one feeling the burn, but I was certainly super relieved to not be the only barefoot baby shakin’ it to Cheerleader [insert music note emoji here]. I can definitely see myself investing in some of those foldable flats I always see floating around on Pinterest. Anyone ever tired them before? Thoughts?

OK OK ALREADY enough of my painful shoe experience rant and enjoy some photos of me and my wedding date! Well, technically I was the wedding date ;)

wedding crashing

wedding date 2

bouquetShe caught the bouquet!

no shoesno shoes lyfe!

dance floor fundance floor fun!

I am so thankful to my sweet friend for inviting me! I had such a good time. Can’t wait for the next wedding we get to attend together! I wish many many years of happiness&blessings to the happy couple.

Sending you all lots of love and other good energy on this Monday morning!

xx

 

Navigating through weird

postivevibesVia

So, I just started typing out this blog post and the first paragraph basically turned out to be all about how crazy I am. I deleted it because, well, first off I don’t want anyone worrying about me and second I don’t want anyone having any ammunition should they decide they want to try to commit me as a part of some evil plan. Yes, yes, I watch way too many movies.

I don’t know though. I really have been feeling weird. Just weird. Not even sick or anything like that, just weird. No other word to describe it. It almost kinda freaks me out but at the same time, I think I’m just going to chalk it up to some crazy things happening out there with the stars and planets and see it as maybe I’m just becoming more..me. Does that make sense? Probably not. How about, learning me. That works a little bit. I don’t know. It’s hard for me to articulate how I’m feeling or anything really that’s going on in my head lately so I guess that’s why I’ve been MIA here (and everywhere else).

After our trip to the Dirty Dancing Festival, I just started to head into a valley I suppose. Perfectly normal, ah such is life kinda thing. Hopefully I will snap out of it soon but I’m certainly working my behind off trying to stay positive and really keep moving forward. I think a lot of times these valley times are hard to get out of because low can feel so low, it’s like…does this ever end?! Those thoughts perpetuate never ending low places I believe though, so I’m really trying to get out of that sort of mental behavior.

So enough with the deep stuff but that’s all I’ve got today! I’m crossing my fingers that this 3 day weekend will really give me some rejuvenation. I hope it does the same for you! Cheers to committing to positivity even when we’re in valleys or things seem super weird.

Happy Labor Day weekend all!

xx

 

Catch up on my recent trip to the Dirty Dancing Festival here, here and here

 

 

 

Another real time post.

So I talked yesterday about balance.

It was specifically in reference to finding balance between a strict structured lifestyle and a free flowing one. I read through that post and found that:

A. my posts tend to be a lot longer than I realize they are

and

B. I am not an inch closer to progression on the matter.

BUT- I also realized that I’m beginning to understand myself just a liiiiiiittle bit more, so hopefully that’s a step towards progression…which is progress I guess?

I’m started to sound crazy again.

I just think that as hard of a time as I have had trying to just get out how I feel about whatever it is I’m even talking about, it’s starting to make sense to me a little bit. It may not to you (sorry! ha!) but I’m starting to understand myself a little better and am learning how to build and improve in my own life.

This is why I came here to this blog in the first place.

It’s the smallest little flicker of light, but it’s there so I’m going to hold on to it and give gratitude so that this knowledge of self might spread like wildfire.

I’m happy to be here and I’m happy you’re here (if you’re here ;) ) and you might have ended up here for no other reason than just to see that you’re not alone in feeling like you have absolutely no clue what you’re doing. ♥

Lots of love to you

xx

Weekend Happenings!

dreamsVia

I can’t lie and say I know what legend that’s from or if it is a legend at all and someone didn’t just make it up for a pinterest graphic, but what I can tell you is that I love it. It sounds like it’s from a story I would have loved as a child or a sci-fi movie that I would love now as an adult (wait, am I an adult?).

I also can’t say that this post includes the entirety of my weekend happenings. I did something I’ve been waiting to do for MONTHS now and I just got home yesterday so the post will have to wait until a little later in the week. I’ve got sooo many pictures to go through. See, I’m doing much better!

What I can tell you that’s been going on (beyond this past weekend) is some seriously crazy dreams. So, no, I’m not awake at night possibly in someone else’s dreams but if you have been having a bout of insomnia…you are possibly awake in mine. The crazy thing is though, I can remember almost all of them in great detail. I haven’t been writing them down (I’m about to change that..) but I can still remember them so vividly. It’s weird.

I’ve even had a repeat of a dream I had literally years ago, that I still remember. What’s even more weird is that the scenery from that dream showed up in a movie a few years after I had it. I know that sounds like I borderline need to be institutionalized or maybe saw the movie poster and just didn’t remember, and that’s fine. I know, and I’m the only one that needs to know that I’m not insane. Unless I am?! Kidding. I’m kidding. About the insane thing, not the dream thing because I definitely had that dream about 2 years before that movie was even talked about.

And no, I’m not pregnant. When researching crazy dreams, you get many a article on how it happens in pregnancy a lot, but it seems it’s later on down the line anyway.

25

Today is my 25th birthday.

babyjlynn1new baby jlynn with her granny

For some reason I’ve felt the need to post something and even had some things to publish but…nothing ended up feeling quite right.

This morning, I happened to stumble upon a piece of paper from high school. In chorus my senior year, our director Mr. Bron had us write our name on a blank piece of paper and pass it around the room. We were to all write encouraging things about whomever had been passed to us. Everyone wrote something about everyone then they were retuned and we got to keep ours.

I have been feeling weird today (I can think of one reason..) but everything else is just I guess a range of emotions about what birthdays mean. I suppose they are the day (as you get older) the universe of culture has you stop to celebrate, only to leave you reflecting on what it means in the future. It’s overwhelming me a bit so I think it’s no coincidence I found these pieces of paper (actually 3 stapled together), today.

1yroldjlynn1Happy birthday 1 yr old jlynn! Smash cakes were a little bigger back in the day I guess. And No that’s not a ghost in the back that’s my granny ha!

I sat down on the patio and began reading through what the people I hung out with most in high school had to say about me. About this girl who was 1/2 100% real- totally there, and 1/2 hidden away. See, I was dealing with things but when I competed in a pageant or went to school, I could be myself more than anywhere else. I decided to stop competing in pageants when it got to be too much and luckily the year before that was when I graduated so it didn’t do too much damage on my grades. Although, if I’m being honest, I was a terrible student. Simply awful at math.

I’ve been talking a lot here on the blog about my past self and my new self – and then here on these few pieces of paper, they meet.

9yroldjlynn1Princess tea party for 9 yr old jlynn

I can see the life of that girl I used to be played out in the different fonts and ink shades that dance across the pages. The first, home to a gigantic, purple “JLYNN” right in the center. “Write your name big enough?!” begins one excerpt. It makes me laugh. They were all anonymous but some, I’m able to identify. I find a passage from one who stopped speaking to me years ago, promising eternal friendship. I see bits from people to whom I was not their cup of tea, obviously trying to find nice things to say about me, but succeeding. Even those make me smile. And then there are the glimpses into those pieces of me (no Britney pun intended) to which I wanted to keep.

I realized, spelled out on these pieces of paper was a phase of life.

Some things don’t stay with you through your life but some do. Some things we can choose, like whether to be a kind person or a mean person. And some we can’t, like a friend who is done with the friendship or the loss of a loved one. Today, I find it easy to think of a world of unknowns. A life lived without anxiety of my past (what does that even mean?!) but also without anxiety of the future. I know I won’t always succeed in that, but I do want to hold on to those pieces of me that I’ve chosen and always want to choose to keep, regardless of how gentle or rough the waters may be.

I have a heart filled with such gratitude for this seven year old reminder to stay positive, choose kindness always, and that life is an ocean of waves that just keep rollin.

JLYNN

(a few of my favorites)

“The representation of the meaning of the word ‘joy’ is what describes my perception of her.”

“You are so well spirited and it is amazing how you are so positive most everyday.”

“Your beauty is true, inside and out. I will never forget you and appreciate your listening ear and your heart.”

“You are such an awesome, caring person that would always stand up for the underdog and your friends.”

“You are incredibly down to earth and so sweet. You are never afraid to stick up for others.”

(This one might be my favorite. I’m pretty sure was written by my friend Matthew)

“You are one of the most kind hearted people I know.”

I’m looking very forward to my 25th year with great gratitude for where I’ve been and what I’ve learned. I’m proud of the understanding of myself that I have thus far and can’t wait to discover more as my world continues to change on the journey of life.

I hope you all have a beautiful May 27th. ♥

x

Hello 2015!

new watermark

I have been stifled. If by nothing first but my own self.

The end of December is often a time of reflection and in seeking out some of those reflective blog posts I found Casey’s. I follow her on bloglovin’ so it wasn’t too hard ;)

At the end she asked if we had ever chosen a word for the year before and my answer was no. I have known of other people that have done this before but I’ve never participated. That’s why I love Casey’s blog because she has such a gentle spirit and a kind heart that is so beautifully reflected in her writing. Even just in sharing a post from last year (before I started reading blogs really) my heart was blessed and inspired.

I decided that I wanted a word but I didn’t want to choose it. I’ve been doing too much of that in my life, trying to have all the control. I wanted the word to come to me and it did almost immediately. Like my spirit was trying to tell me I already knew what the year 2015 would hold for me.

Growth.

My word for 2015 is Growth.

I have felt at a standstill for so long. And lately, just stuck in the limbo between the girl I was and the young woman I am becoming. I’ve been able to feel the shift approaching but I’m ready to move through. I’m ready to let go of anxiety and expectation and just stay in the present. I’m ready for all those lessons I’ve learned to start showing themselves in changed behavior. A changed person. A woman renewed in love, faith and positivity. Renewed in Joy.

So I welcome 2015 with an open mind and heart.

Cheers to the new year and spreading love like wildfire.

xx