Today Was Hosted by The Lumineers

As an insecure extrovert, I spent my day completely alone and wearing barely any clothes, and here's what happened.

Some of my church go-ing followers (if I even have followers) are probably thinking "*gasp*! barely any clothes?! good gracious dear, you should go back to church".

I hear you, but that's not what it's like.

I hate spending time alone. I love people. And if I could, I would be around people constantly.

But I'm trying to learn how to be alone so that other people in my life who DO need their alone time, can actually have that without me smothering them to death.

Wow Anna, dramatic.

Always.

So here's my day in a nutshell.

I woke up wanting to stay in bed and mope all day because I didn't want to be alone all day.

But 10:30am rolled around and I decided that I was going to try and enjoy myself today.

So I went to church alone.

Now, like I said earlier. I hate being alone. But I've gone to church alone before. And it's not the worst thing. But it's not very fun when you wish you were going to church with someone. But hey. We aren't called to live in our comfort zones, right? So I bucked up. Chatted with a few people. Ended up really liking the church, and the message was great.

Success #1

But on the way home, I started to mope again. But it was a BEAUTIFUL day out, so I decided I would go on a walk.

I almost didn't take my headphones. But boy, am I glad I did.

Today was literally sponsored by The Lumineers. I was telling a friend the other day that their music is the kind that makes you want to hop in a convertible, drive along the coast with a cool hat, cool friends, and end up at some great beach, and end your day with a bonfire and beer and cool people. So basically, you want to be in every Indie music video ever.

Anywho. I went on a walk to a coffee shop. Still mopey. Sat there for a bit. But my dirty chai cheered me up, as they always do. And as The Spotted Cow always does.

I then took my coffee and walked on. Now. For a while, it was pretty depressing. All of these couples were walking, holding hands, laughing, goofing around, having a blast with each other. And I kept thinking that that was all I wanted to do. I kept thinking about how much I hated being alone, and how I just wish I had someone with me.

But something happened as I kept walking. Call me dumb, but I'm one of those people who, if it's sunny, will walk for a bit with eyes closed and feel the sun beat down on me (super movie scene like with my cool music in my headphones). And as I did that, I suddenly felt great. Maybe it was the Vitamin D kicking in, because hey - it's Washington in "winter". But I all of the sudden, was so inspired. I started enjoying myself.

I felt independent. I felt fine with me and my thoughts. I started to happily plan what all I could do today. And thus began my day.

When I got back to my apartment, my mail had come! Now, I recently went out on a limb and chose to hear out one of those Instagram girls who sell all of those health products and such. So...

So let's see how this goes!

So feeling all cool and what not, I decided that it was time to sell a few things I had been meaning to sell for quite a while. So I went down to my garage, and set up a staging area. It was pretty decent, for a blanket in a garage. I put a whole mess of things on Offer Up, and I ended up selling one of them today!

So that was a major success. My roomie is going to be thrilled when she sees that's gone. On top of that, I consolidated my stuff in the garage, and put some more stuff away, and now we can use our garage (again - the roomie will be ecstatic).

So then, I decided it was time for me to make myself a drink.

Guys this honey flavor is dangerous. It's so good. Sweet. But really good. 

So with my drink made, and my windows open, I was feeling pretty good.

Now let's go backwards a second. 

Anna, you mentioned at the beginning you were naked all day, and you haven't said anything.

Guys, come on - I wasn't naked. 

Here's the thing. After I got my thermofight, I of course had to take before pictures, and as I took them, I thought. Okay. You know what. It's hot today, and I'm just gonna go with the whole confidence thing today. 

Have you seen those posts or articles about "power poses"? Well, that's a real thing. I even did a few power poses in my booty shorts and sports bra, while sweating just from bringing two boxes up from the garage. (I'm out of shape, alright?)

So I went for it. And I shamelessly loved it. I felt great. I was getting so much done, I wasn't all self conscious about what I looked like, cause who cared? I was alone! 

So then here comes the cooking. I got out a cookbook to get me inspired. And. 

I'm not even gonna try and be humble. I was impressed with this one. Homemade mac n' cheese (from no recipe, it's no big deal), lemon garlic chicken, and onions. 

There is something so powerful about homemade meals that take time, but there's absolutely no rush in making it. This whole process took forever, because partway into making the peppers (wait - there's no peppers. I know...we'll get to that in a second), there's a knock on my door.

BUT ANNA YOU'RE ALONE!

Chill out guys. It's Mill Creek, on a Sunday afternoon, on a really sunny day.

Turns out it was some people wanting to talk to me about Jesus. So I thought, yeah alright, let's chat. It ended up being a really frustrating conversation. I'm trying to be a lot better about not judging people, and seeing things from others' perspectives. And let me tell you. Apparently the Lord was like, alright Anna let's give you a lesson in this today.

They were decently pleasant people. And honestly, I could see where they were coming from. I was trying to understand what their thoughts were, and where they were getting their theology from. There were a few points where I definitely thought their Bible was making up some things. But it was actually neat because a few things that the pastor had talked about in church this morning, ended up coming up in conversation.

I tried to not be judgmental, and tried to listen. But I also wanted to try and communicate what I believe. Well. They weren't too happy with that. They ended up telling me I wasn't going to Heaven because I celebrate Easter, and because I take communion instead of ONLY celebrating the Passover, because if you drink wine and eat bread in that manner any other time than the Passover, you're sinning and you aren't following Jesus, and aren't getting into Heaven.

I'm not exaggerating. They had a few other quirky things, but I was trying to point out the true message of the gospel story. That Jesus came to wipe out our transgressions. That legalism isn't right. But that I could understand where they were coming from. But they just told me I was wrong and wasn't going to Heaven, and so I need to think about it and contact them.

So honestly, that was frustrating. I knew I should have prayed for them, but I was too upset, and it wouldn't have come across in the right heart.

So that took a while. Like. A while. So my peppers burn to a crisp.

Anywho.  

After I finished cooking, I allowed myself to watch one episode of Friends while eating.

Then I cleaned everything. Re-organized my room.

And then. I finished all my choreographing. Which I should have done forever ago. But I told myself that by 8pm, everything I HAD to do, needed to be done.

And guys. I did it.

I even took a new picture for my blog!

So I learned today that being alone is okay. Healthy even. And now maybe I can stop smothering people with my constant need for love and attention.

Maybe.


So to my extroverts out there: alone time every once in a while is actually really good.

It's refreshing. You get a lot done (if you want to). And who knows! Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight!

HA

It's already 10pm, and I still have to watch AT LEAST one episode of Friends.

Priorities.

And a book length blog post later...

Maybe I'll actually be better at blogging if I have all this alone time...

With all the accomplishments,
      the girl who's learning to not be afraid of time with her own thoughts

P.S.
    If you have Offer Up downloaded, and live near the Mill Creek area, check out my stuff! It's on my Facebook page.