I missed blogspot.

New blog...after spending some time trying out tumblr, I sincerely missed blogspot. Follow my new blog at ameliatritico.blogspot.com.

I promise I'll stick with this one for a while. :-)

Love and peace,

Amelia

A new leaf.

This blog has served me well, but it's time to be moving on. Check out www.ameliatritico.tumblr.com to see all future posts, pictures and links. Thank you so much for reading! You have no idea how important your support is to me. :-) I won't delete this blog in case I ever want to look back on what I've blogged in the past, but from now on, I'll be blogging at the new address. Take a look!

Love and peace,

Amelia

Four days 'till Pura Vida!

That's right...four days until I get to see the gorgeous shores of Montezuma, four days until I see how much Spanish I actually remember, four days until I get to experience Pura Vida again....I pretty much can't wait. I can't believe it's taken me two years to make it back to mi segunda patria (my second home), but I'm finally going back. I'm a little apprehensive...kind of afraid it won't live up to the grandeur I've created for it in my mind, but I always knew that I would have to go back someday, just to see. Maybe I'm prepared for its shortcomings, though, since I've moved so much. Every time we move and then go back, the location itself never does a whole lot for me. The people and the memories...that's where it's at. There are definitely some awesome memories that I can't wait to share with my family. Like the place on the side of the road on the way to Montezuma where my friends Brittney and Renee' and I stood for three hours waiting for a bus...yeah, I can't wait to see that place again, lol. I think the number one reason I can't wait to go to Costa Rica again, though, is that I get to see the smiling face of my bro!!! I can't wait to see how living in CR has impacted him over the past six weeks, and I can't wait to spend some quality time with him and the family. The picture to the right was taken while I was living in Costa Rica and he came to visit me. The tables have turned now, and I'm so glad he loved Costa Rica enough to go back there to live and study. It really is an awesome place...one that I have a feeling will hold a special place in my heart forever.

So, my mind is currently consumed with Costa Rica, as you can tell, but other stuff has been going on. I went to the Summer NAMM 2010 show yesterday and had a blast! I was able to attend a workshop on using GarageBand, and I got to see Victor Wooten play live!! For those of you who have never heard of him, check him out. He's quite possibly one of the best bassists to ever live, but he's not like any other bassist you've ever heard before. He's probably most well known for playing with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, but he's becoming quite popular for his solo work including writing a book on his philosophy of teaching music. I'm going to be checking that out myself soon. The NAMM show was definitely a success, and I'm really glad I was able to go again this year.

I've had a couple more articles published with Strum Magazine...I put the links on the righthand side underneath my picture again. I'm still really enjoying seeing my name on the byline. :-) Makes me feel like a real journalist...

Time seems to be flying by this summer, and I can't believe that we're already over halfway through June. Honestly, I'm kind of thankful that it's flying, though. Maybe that means I'm that much closer to figuring out where to go next, lol! I wish there was an easy answer to the question: what should I do with my life? I suppose that if it were easy, though, I wouldn't appreciate the journey near as much.

Hope everyone is doing well! I'll try to post again while I'm in Costa Rica so my blog will actually be accurate again...ameliaincostarica.blogspot.com...ha ha. I really need to do something about that...

Love and peace,

Amelia

I feel like something good is about to happen. :-)

It's been a majorly productive week so far in Ameliaworld, so I've been feeling pretty good! I started out the week in Nashville, catching up with my best buddy, Ellen, and I was able to go to church with her on Monday night at this place called Emanate...great service and for the first time in a long time, I'm starting to feel God's love again. The light is starting to shine in on me again! :-D I feel like I've been wallowing around in the depths of darkness for months, and I'm finally starting to pull myself out of it. It's about time, lol...6 months is way too long to be depressed.

So, yeah, good things are happening...I've been writing even more articles for Strum, I'm starting to consider Nashville as a possible jumping off point for the next chapter of my life and my family and friends are being extremely supportive. I'm a blessed gal. :-)

This weekend is going to be jam packed with several funtivities. (Fun activities...an Office reference for all my fellow Office fans out there. I'm amazingly not working tomorrow, I never get Saturdays off unless I ask for it, so I'm going to be attending my dear friends', Brad and Macey, wedding! I'm excited to be there for their special day! (Is it just me or are there a lot of weddings going on right now, lol?) After a fun-filled evening under the stars for Brad and Macey, I'll be headed to Nashville on Sunday to help my boss at Strum at CMA Fest. Yes, I know I'm not exactly gung-ho about country music, but I'm excited to shadow her and learn some on hands stuff about magazine journalism. (I might get to meet some big name artists, too, so that would be pretty sweet!) It's going to be a busy, but fun, weekend!

I'll also be headed to Nashville again next weekend to attend Summer NAMM 2010 with my uncle! I'm always so appreciative that he gives me a pass every year. I get to see all of the newest most innovative products in the music biz, and this year...I get to write an article about it! How cool is that?!

So...yeah...exciting things are happening, and I feel like I'm on the precipice of something really great. God is good, life is good and it's summer, so the weather is good. Also, I get to see my bro in 13 days!! :-)

Hope everyone is doing well! Check out my articles and let me know what you think! (Every time I get another one published, I add it to the righthand column underneath my picture.)

Love and peace,

Amelia

P.S. The new Rooney album, Eureka, is now available on iTunes. If you're looking for some good summer tunes, check it out! :-)

Anticipating vacation...

So, I've changed my blog's background to express my extreme excitement that I will be on the shores of Costa Rica in three weeks enjoying the gorgeous waves, sun and sand! Okay, maybe not so much the sand part, lol. I think it's ironic that I absolutely LOVE the beach, but I'm not a big fan of sand...it just gets everywhere! I will definitely pay that price, though, because beaches are so beautiful!

Things have been going well since the last time I posted. I've been writing several articles for Strum this week, and I'm working on a few more. I added the links over on the righthand side along with links to articles I've written in the past for The Oracle, the Tennessee Tech newspaper. Everything seems to be going swimmingly in the writing department for me. My boss at Strum has been really pleased, and I might try to do some of my own interviewing pretty soon. The articles I've written thus far have just been me listening to the interview and then writing the story. Interviewing is a little intimidating, so I haven't asked to do any yet, but some of my favorite bands are playing this summer, and I would LOVE to interview them. Just to name a few...

The Dirty Guv'nahs are playing this Friday night! I can't wait to hear some good ole Southern Rock...I think they're a mix between The Allman Brothers and The Rolling Stones. I posted a link to their website on the right, so everyone should check them out! I've already gotten the go ahead to write an article about the concert, so I'm pretty pumped about that!

Also playing this summer: Rooney, and I might try to venture to Alabama or Kentucky to see She & Him. Two great musical acts! Rooney is the quintessential summer band, and She & Him plays a distinct brand of folk/country music that is truly their own. I would love to interview these two bands as well, but we'll see.

So, everything is going well then! My friend and roommate Bailey is back after being stuck in Guatemala for the past couple days due to the craziness that has been attacking Central America, so I'm glad she's back safe and alive! Frank is doing well in Costa Rica, soaking up the Pura Vida life, and learning Spanish like crazy, and I can't wait to see him in three weeks!

Other than that, not much excitement...just working and writing. Oh, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my life. :-)

Hope all is well for everyone!

Love and peace,

Amelia

P.S. If you're looking for a summer read and haven't read it yet...try Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Incredible writer and amazing book!

Savannah, GA

The past couple of days I was lucky enough to be able to get away from Cookeville and head down to Savannah, GA with my parents. Savannah is a gorgeous city, and it was nice to spend some quality time with the 'rents.

If you ever have a chance to get down there, I highly recommend it! For a semi-history buff like me, it was extremely interesting. We got to see several pre-Civil War houses, and I absolutely loved the architecture and stories behind them! The weather for the most part was agreeable, and as always, I loved being able to walk everywhere. I think the main thing we did, though, was eat, lol. There are so many amazing restaurants in Savannah, and of course we wanted to try as many of them as possible! I'm thinking of entering a major diet mode actually to cleanse myself of all the great albeit rich food we had. Of course we ate at the Lady and Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant, and had some of the best pecan pie I've ever had. We also had some great seafood along the riverfront, and we sampled incredible fried chicken at Mrs. Wilkes! All in all, it was a pretty successful trip I would say, and I'm in love with the deep southern mystique that Savannah has to offer. What a great little vacation, and a great place to brush up on my Civil War history! :-)

So, now I'm back in Cookeville and getting into the swing of work again. I'm writing a few more articles for Strum Magazine this week...y'all should check it out, I added it as a link on the righthand side of the page, along with all of the articles I've written for the magazine thus far. I'll also be continuing to work at the Market on the Square while I make a decision on where I'm going at the end of the summer. I think I've given myself an August deadline to make a decision. One last relaxing summer in Tennessee, and then who knows where the wind will blow me! I do know that I'm headed for Costa Rica in 4 weeks!!! 4 weeks until I see the beautiful shores of Montezuma while spending some quality time with my family!!

Hope all is well for everyone! I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of a ship docking in Savannah at sunset.

Love and peace,

Amelia

Can't sleep...I want a pinwheel.

So, it's 2 a.m., and I am yet again wide awake. My attempts to become an early bird have obviously failed thus far, so I guess I'll just have to try again next week. All of you people out there who don't have sleeping troubles...any suggestions??

Tomorrow, though, I will be forced to be an early bird. My dear friend Jess Padgett is getting married tomorrow, and she asked me to do some singing at her wedding. I'm pretty excited and honored to be a part of her big day! The wedding is in Kentucky, so I'll be getting up bright and early, along with my buddies Kristen and Jacquie, to head north to celebrate Jess's big day. I'm excited to spend quality time with some of my UTRI sisters. I met Jess and Jacquie last summer while I was interning at UTRI, and I love it when I get to spend time with them. :-) So, we're off to see Jess get hitched tomorrow, and we're praying for no rain because the wedding is supposed to be outside. No rain please!

On a more sentimental note, I said good-bye to my bro tonight for 6 weeks. I always get sad when I know I'm not going to see him for a while. Of course, he's not exactly sentimental, lol, guess it's not very cool. Him leaving, though, means I'll be chilling at Montezuma in 6 weeks...this makes my heart happy. :-)

So...lately I've been trying to be less thoughtful and more surface level. This sounds shallow, I know, but the more thoughtful I am, the more I analyze things, and the more I drive myself crazy. Anyway, the highlight of my day today was extremely thought-provoking, and today I was okay with that.

While I was at work, my boss's granddaughter was frolicking around the store just being a normal 6 year old. When she goes to the downstairs part of the store, she's always supposed to tell someone so that we can keep track of her. Today, as she was about to head downstairs, she yelled, "I'm going downstairs!! Hey, wait...what's that?"

She was pointing out the front door and windows, made entirely of glass, at a black and white polka dotted pinwheel stuck in a large flower pot right outside the store. She said, "Come hold the door for me!"

So, I followed her out the door and stayed there to watch her. The wind was blowing because it was pretty stormy this afternoon, so the pinwheel was spinning wildly. She just watched it for a while, then when the wind died down for a second, she blew on the pinwheel and moved it with her hands to make it spin again. This is where the highlight of my day comes in...

The wind picked up again, and the pinwheel started to spin. She looked at it, looked at me, and then just started to clap her hands, jump up and down, and laugh happily. I wish I could have taken a picture of her face. The sheer look of joy was indescribable and for what? A pinwheel? How many of us would be excited or happy to see a pinwheel spinning in the breeze?

I want this childlike fascination in my life again. Can you imagine how much happier our lives would be if we enjoyed little things more? A pinwheel...I want one...just so I can see that little girl's face in my mind and know that happiness really can come from the little things.

Well, I guess I will attempt to fall asleep now. 6 a.m. is going to come really early...

Hope all is well for everyone!

Love and peace,

Amelia

Writing and working!

Hello to everyone! It's been an exciting last few weeks since my last post! I completed one semester of graduate school, and I pulled straight A's! I was pretty pumped about that! Also...I can't remember if I mentioned in my last post that I got an internship with an online magazine out of Nashville called Stum Magazine. Today, my first article was posted online!

Click here to check it out.

I'm extremely pumped about this as well! I'm padding my portfolio! Things are going pretty well. Other than writing and finishing up my semester, I've just been working a lot. I'm working at this little shop on the square in Cookeville called The Market on the Square. For the time being, it's a pretty good job, though I'm definitely still ready to start looking for a grown-up job lol.

So, things are going pretty well I suppose. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer. My bro is leaving for Costa Rica on Saturday, so I'll be sad to see him go, but I'll be headed to there as well at the end of June to visit him, so that's exciting!

Hope everything is going well for everyone else! Enjoy the beginnings of summer!

Peace and love,

Amelia

Up and at 'em!

Up and at 'em! (The phrase I heard every morning for most of my growing up years...I love my mom, but I think she knows how I feel about it, lol) So, I'm up early...okay, maybe 8 a.m. isn't very early for all you morning people out there, but for me that's pretty impressive! I'm going to try this whole getting-up-early thing for a while to see how it works out for me. I've always been a night owl but the phrase the-early-bird-gets-the-worm is starting to appeal to me. I'm about to start hardcore looking for jobs, but my current job occurs every afternoon. If you know me, then you know that doesn't bode well for my new job hunt. (Unless I have something important to get up for, I usually won't get up.) However, in order to facilitate said job hunt, I'm going to need more hours in the day, so it looks like getting up earlier is the answer! I know this isn't rocket science, but I've been fighting early morning wake-ups since I was probably 2 or 3 years old. I think it's time for some changes. :-)

I have one final this week, and then I will be finished with one semester of graduate school. As previously stated in my last blog, I'm taking some time off from school. So, after this week, you would think I would have a lot more free time to dedicate to job searching...it seems, however, that my class schedule is just being replaced with a new schedule. Instead of working for Habitat for Humanity and going to class, I'm going to be working at a new internship with an online magazine and studying for the GRE. So, no free time for Amelia! It's okay though, I prefer to be busy these days anyway...makes me feel productive. :-)

Travel plans have changed slightly. I am still going to Costa Rica at the end of June! Woo hoo!! I'm super excited to go back and see mi segunda patria (second home). I need some pura vida in my life again! Family vacation plans to the gulf coast have changed due to the oil spill...such a sad happening. I feel terrible for all the poor animals and shrimp fishermen down there. :-( It also looks like I might not be going to New York either. This saddens me, but I know I'll get up there someday. So, new family travel plans are in the works, not quite sure where we're going yet, but I'm already excited!!

Hope all is well for everyone out there! Enjoy the glorious spring weather!

Peace and love,

Amelia

Future?

Hello to all...I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted. I've been slammed working 2 jobs and taking 6 hours of graduate courses. It's been a crazy semester thus far, and I'm no closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life, but...I do know that I'm not ready to be a full-time graduate student. I am tired of school, folks! I would absolutely love a master's degree and maybe eventually a doctorate, but for right now, I need a breather.

So, what's next you might ask? I have absolutely no clue. I'm in the process of trying to figure that out actually, and honestly, it's been pretty frustrating. I have this whole "fear of failure" thing looming over my head, and I don't want to look back on this time of my life 20 years from now and think, "Man, you really screwed that up." It's stressful, annoying, frustrating...in all honesty, I'm ready to be out of this chapter of my life.

My general "plan" for the time being is just start applying for jobs in any place I can think of. I'm open to any suggestions or thoughts on the matter as well. :-) I'm thinking that I like the journalism/public relations field since that's mostly what I've been learning in school recently. I've had an internship with Habitat for Humanity this semester, and I've loved that! Since that doesn't necessarily involve my degree though...I'll take any type of job that combines the two, lol. Seriously...I'll take any suggestions anyone might have... I'm willingly to move almost anywhere, and I absolutely LOVE to travel. Ha ha...I feel like I'm selling myself to a potential employer. Oh goodness, I think I've looked at my resume a little bit too much lately.

In other news, my current travel plans for the summer include Costa Rica, the beaches of Alabama, and hopefully New York and Maryland. I'm going to visit Frank while he studies abroad in Costa Rica, and this will be the first time I've gone back since leaving so I'm pretty excited. The beaches of Alabama will be our family vacation for the year, and it's always nice to spend quality time with the fam so I'm pretty pumped about that, too. I'm really hoping that New York and Maryland work out, though, because I've never been to New England. Travel plans make me oh so happy. :-)

Three weeks left before finals, a month and a half until I take the GRE, and two months until I'm chilling on the beach of Montezuma in Costa Rica with my bro. The summer's going to be amazing...just hope the rest of the year follows suit...

Love and peace to all,

Amelia