Long time, no post

Hello All...All 6 or 7 of you. :) I am tired. I'm a tired girl. I need to be sleeping right now, but I rarely have computer access through any avenue except my iPhone, and let's be honest...who wants to write a whole blog post from their iPhone. Not me.

Why am I tired, you may ask? Well I suppose I will tell you. I'll try to keep it brief and non-complainy. I work a lot. I love my job and 95-98% of the people I work with/for, but I do spend just about as much time at the restaurant as I do at home...wherever home is... haha. I'm a bit of a nomad these days until I figure out the grad school/student loan/whatever else situation.

After I graduated from Belmont, I moved home. I knew that wouldn't last long, so I started staying at my sister and brother-in-law's house in April. What started out as me staying there when I worked late and had to be back early the next morning turned into me having 2 crazy little roommates who were married and related to me. It was an adventure... one that ended with Amanda asking me to move to New York with her and Chris when they go so I can be their roommate. No thank you. :)

When they left the country for their current escapades in Central America, I moved back home for about 3.5 days. Since then, I've been living with Chris's parents. Yep. My sister's in-laws. They're out of town a lot this summer, and it works out better for all parties if I just stay here. It's closer to work, closer to friends, and they don't have to pay a house-sitter or ask a neighbor to feed the cat every other week. So it works out.

Now that the story of my nomad-ness is complete (for now), I'll continue the "why is alicia tired?" saga:
For the past 3ish weeks, my sweet little grandmother has been battling pneumonia. She was sick at home for a week, sick and then recovering in the hospital for a week, and then came back home to continue her recovery on Friday. She's lost a significant amount of weight, and is all around pretty weak...so it helps her out to have someone at the house with her. She can't be up all day fixing her meals or doing laundry and the dishes, so my mom and her brothers and sisters have all been taking off work so they could stay with her and help out. Yesterday and today, I took my turn. My days went something like this: get very little sleep, help fix breakfast, try to eat my breakfast while running back and forth to Nanny's room getting her whatever she needed/wanted, fixing lunch, eating lunch, sneaking little naps, running some more, answering the phone, calling my mom to see where to find something, making sure the chickens and the dogs and the cats are fed and watered, etc... and on Tuesday, I got myself ready and to work on time where I trained a new server and then did cashouts--meaning I was there from 4:45 until 11:45. It was a lengthy day, and Wednesday I got to do it all over again minus the job. Don't get me wrong. I love my grandmother very, very, very much, and it physically pains me to see her so weak and frail. I can definitely understand why my mom and aunts have been taking shifts though. Taking care of any other human being is hard work and does not include instant gratification.

That's a lot like life in general though when you're just taking care of yourself. Dieting and working out brings delayed results. Studying for classes and exams...delayed results. Investing in the lives of those around you...delayed results. Being faithful in my relationship with Jesus...delayed results. In a society that is so obsessed with instant everything, it's ironic (but also a bit exciting) that the best things in life--the blessings--rarely come instantly. That proves the faithfulness of God (as if He needed proof). Just another picture of how deep and wide and great the Father's love is for us...and how intricate and perfectly designed. Thank you, Jesus.