me and him :)

call him "magic jimmy h"

he has stolen my heart. i put up a good fight but in the end i just didn't want to fight anymore. i'm in. his name is james.

so, yep, i got a boyfriend. he's pretty amazing. and i feel like a queen. he's so good to me.

the story. i've taken on the wide world of internet dating in this past year. a girl's gotta put herself out there. i had a few dates to the consistent dating relationship. after my more consistent dating relationship basically ended, i put myself out there yet again. i wanted to swear off dating until i finished school. i didn't. then one day i got winked at. a wink from a match.com boy. now i had been on this particular site for awhile but did nothing due to several reasons. mostly because i was winked at by 45 year old jewish men from the east coast whose profiles was in all caps. i mean no problem with that but just not my type. yet i was intrigued by this gent. we started emailing back and forth. from the first email that said he was up for anything except eating brussel sprouts to the end of our first phone call (the one the lastest about an hour and a half) where he said if he didn't get to bed he'd turn into a pumpkin. i HATE brussel sprouts and the rest of my family LOVES them. i thought i was the only one who said they'd turn into a pumpkin if they didn't get to bed. those were just the first things that made the fight to not be swept off my feet even harder.

our first date rolled around. i was all dolled up. he arrived promptly... with flowers! PINK flowers. first time boy has ever brought me flowers. PINK flowers. in one of our email conversations he asked me my favorites flowers and we talked about colors. he actually tried to get my favorite flowers for me. out of season. second best. lovely flowers that were PINK. fight. hard to get. slow. come on zoey. then we went to zankou chicken. local 'dena favorite. yum. and we just talked and talked. then we headed to the city of alhambra where we watched a beatles cover band called the fab four. it was a street festival kind of thing. it was great. i got a lovely pink bracelet. the band was great. very fun. we ran into someone i knew from school. oh, james is a magician. a very good magician. he's already amazed and wowed several of my friends and my family... oh, and me... anyway, this friend that we ran into was a magician as well. they exchanged magic stories, etc. it was fun. it was great to see james interact with people. amazing listener. very nice. genuine love and interest in people. polite, respectful, etc. after the concert, we stopped at a local starbuck's for coffee. talked some more. laughed.

thus began the whirlwind of trying not to fall head over heels and yet doing just that in the end. afterall it has happened so fast. it was in the heels of ending another relationship. yet i couldn't help how i felt. i couldn't get away from the things of who he was as a person, how easy it was to talk, how he was able to articulate what he liked about me, how he views life as a big playground... a big kid at heart... he brings out the lighter side of me... i just love it... and yet responsible, determined, motivated, a great work ethic... how he makes me laugh... amazingly honest and self-aware... how he cares for his family and those he loves... that he is crazy about me... that he shows it in so many ways... that i am crazy about him... that i could stare into his eyes and look upon his face forever... i love just being with him... in spite of our differences and the challenge that life is... it just WAS and IS...

i really did try to fight it. instances where i knew i was done for. he had been sending me an email around 8:30. the wednesday after our first date i didn't get an email. it was surprisingly sad. darn it! we had a date to meet up in the OC for downtown disney. that is all i thought of that day and i just couldn't get there fast enough. crap! package in the mail while he was out of town. poem, music cd filled with amazing songs. this man knows how to woo a girl. ok, fine, i'll stop fighting it.

anyway, i could go on. more flowers. cards. personalized magic trick just for me. bear. long, long talks. wee hours of the night. all that romance should be. i'll take it because well i can't get him off my mind.

the update on me

Here's the quick update on what is going on with me:

* I 'm finishing up my MA in Theology this year and will be conferred the degree in Spring 2007. Wow!

* I officially start my MS in Marriage & Family Therapy this fall and will finish it Spring 2008. I will be doing the bulk of my course work in the next three quarters and starting practicum as early as Spring 2007. The last year of my program will be a light course load with continued practicum hours. Then I'll graudate, look for an internship where I'll finish up my hours and hopefully sit for my MFT license within a few years. It's a long road but right now nothing else makes sense for me to do. All the MFT courses I've sat in so far have confirmed to me that I love this stuff. It'll be great to get to practicum to see what will happen when the rubber meets the road in an actual client relationship.

*I quit my job on campus. I'm pursuing my floral business to support me. I am hoping to work on the foundation and infrastructure of my business this summer and in the fall in the hopes of really seeing a lot of floral jobs come my way next year. The flexibility that being a florist for special events and weddings will offer will be great with meeting my education/career goals. So, keep me in mind if you or anyone else has floral needs for a wedding or special event!

*My family is doing great. My niece is a little over 4 months old and pretty precious. Her mom and dad are enamored with her as is the rest of the family. She has a sweet disposition and just laughs and smiles. My mom is working on moving to be closer to her granddaughter and just enjoying the mid-west lifestyle. That'll be weird for me but I think it'll be a great move for her.

Other than that life is pretty good. It's been a transition of sorts to be a full-time student. I am enjoying my education but look forward to its end result. I turn 30 in a couple of months and welcome that as a big milestone that appreciates all that the 20's has been but looks to the 30s with eager anticipation.

That's it!

a pretty exciting week

Today is Wednesday. It has already been a pretty exciting week.

I started a class this week called, Narrative & Family Life. I believe that Narrative Therapy will pretty much determine my approach to therapy. It will at the very least be my base. It fits who I am as a person and it makes sense to me. It ebbs of humility and keeping the person a person in the therapeutic relationship. I love that it doesn't pass judgement on people or dissect them and their problems into a million pieces but stands in humility to them, in partnership with them and challenges us to be curious and care enough to step inside their story and understand their past, present and future from their perspective. It keeps them whole. I will have to blog more on it another time and my education in this approach continues and as I let it settle into my mind.

I met with my MFT (that's Marriage and Family Therapy) advisor. He gave me a rough sketch into the courses I will be taking this next year. Yah, I was pretty much on cloud 9 after that. I am just so thankful that the "meat" of my program is within sight, smell and touch distance. It is providing me the extra push I need to get through a heavy academic load this quarter.

I met with my SOT (School of Theology) advisor for the last time today. I actually applied for graduation for my MA in Theology. THAT was so weird and unexpected. I will have my MAT Spring 2007. Crazy!

Tonight I finish up my Pentateuch class. It's be a five-week intensive. It's been a GREAT class. Biblical studies are always challenging for me but I really learned alot in studying the first five books of the Bible. I learned how much I had been missing in not only understanding my faith through an accurate understanding of its history but also how I've approached my faith in terms of only viewing the New Testament and maybe Psalms and Proverbs as important to faith. THAT is so wrong. We have much as evangelicals to learn from the Old Testament. In the weeks to come, and specifically as I do my two papers for this class, I am sure the application will become more and more clear. Another post?

It's been a GREAT week and although I have a TON, TON, TON of work to do...it's all coming together. GOD is faithful to me.

blogging again

i am blogging again. yipee!