15 INCHES

Interesting fact about me: I can be very impulsive.

This past Tuesday was a busy day for me. I'm currently enrolled in 6 classes at the University of North Florida and after having 4 of those 6 classes back to back, I was shattered. (At least that's how the Irish people say it.) I hadn't eaten all day, the weather was ridiculously HOT, and my hair which touched just above my bottom was making it even hotter for me. I was miserable.

So, my first order of business. Food. I took care of that at a Panda Express close by. Double Teriyaki with extra sauce? Oh yeahhh.

Next order of business was a haircut. I had been throwing around the idea of getting a haircut with my husband and of course as supportive as he always is, his only response was, "Not too short, ok?" I reassured him, but I forgot about the haircut and I hadn't brought it up in weeks so I knew that if I got it cut, he would be shocked. I had my fingers crossed that it would be a good shock.

I get to the hair salon and tell the lady I need a change. I asked her to cut off all my ombre because it had really dried out my hair.

Then "impulsive me" thought to myself, "why not cut it all off?" I reasoned with myself that my hair grows fast and it'll grow back before I know it. I also thought about donating it and helping out someone through Locks of Love. So I told the hair stylist to just cut it all off. She looked at me and she said, "Well, let's just do a little at a time. You don't want to make a drastic change or you may not like it." I smiled sweetly at her and "impulsive me" chimed in again and said, "No, cut it all off." 

Well I ended up cutting 15 inches off my hair and donating it to Locks of Love.  

Pictured is only the 12 inches I donated. The other extra 3 inches was more of an impulsive move. Again. 

I already miss my long hair sometimes, but I love that this new hairstyle feels lighter, I use less shampoo, and I take less time to get ready. Oh! And it's a plus that my husband LOVED it!

Well here it is. Short hair, don't care! :)

Current Read

I am currently reading, The Dark House, by John Sedgwick. This is the first of his books that I've read and it's the first mystery that I've gotten into in a while. The book is basically about a man, Edward, who has a hobby of following randomly selected vehicles to their destinations and he records the details of his pursuits on a handheld recorder. After the car he is trailing reaches its' destination---he leaves. Sound boring? Well it gets interesting when one of the people he trails acts sketchy and it brings Edward to break his biggest rule: Never go back after following someone. He breaks that rule and the man that went into that house is somehow acquainted with Edward and  is following him, in a sense. Edward is on a journey to uncover what this man knows and wants. 

So far, (I'm only 60 pages into it) the character development has been very thorough, but slow to get going. The author did really well on portraying the Boston setting. I've never been to Boston, but you can tell that the author either did thorough research, or he has previous experience with the location. The development of Edward's past and the use of flashbacks is also done well, but slow. Slow isn't necessarily bad though, sometimes it makes for a more suspenseful book and in this case, it works well for the author. 

                       I'll let you guys know my thoughts when I finish reading it!

This book is one of my all-time favorite books, written by one of my favorite Christian authors. It will always have a permanent place on my bookshelf. I re-read it last week and just wanted to give it a shout-out for all of the avid readers out there.
Brief Synopsis: College student, Seth, has an IQ greater than Einstein and somehow acquires the ability to see various futures. He uses this ability to help a runaway Muslim princess thwart the dangerous people pursuing her. (For example: In a situation where he could be killed, he sees hundreds of possibilities in a split second. If he takes a step left, he sees the outcome versus if he runs out the door, etc.) And of course, what sealed the deal for me; the love story that Dekker tied into it. It's a must-read!

3 Year Anniversary

My husband and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary this past August 14. They say that that's the end of the "honeymoon" stage, but I disagree. We've been together for a total of 6 and a half years and I can honestly say that each day we fall more in love with each other. Cheesy? It might be, but it's the truth.

When we first met, we were freshmen in high school. We didn't start dating until our sophomore year. This is the very first picture that we took together. I'm pretty sure this was taken in January of 2007.

WOW...I know, the hair. We looked so funny back then. Thank goodness it only gets better with age!

                I had to throw this in. I haven't seen Brendon in glasses in FOREVER.

2008 was a little better. This was our first movie date. And if you know us, you know we LOVE movies.

              Even though this was only a year later, the lack of hair makes it look like years had gone by!

This was a picture we took at the movies. 

And then came the long awaited senior prom. I was so excited, by then, we had been dating all throughout high school and we knew we were going to go together....it was kind of understood. So there was no sappy "will you go to prom with me" thing, but our prom pictures looked great!

And after that I was off to college! This a picture from our early college days. 

GO GATORS!!!

Brendon proposed on March 19, 2010. Here are two pictures from our engagement photos. 

Let's just say we were soaked  by the end of the shoot. 

We were married 5 months later on August 14, 2010 at the Budder Mathis House in Glen St. Mary. The venue was beautiful and the day was just perfect! Here's a link to our awesome venue, The Mathis House! http://www.theglenvenue.com/

Love this picture!

I asked Mom and Dad to walk me down the aisle. 

                                                 And...3 years later, this is us:

I'm certainly looking forward to many more years together. I'm so thankful God brought us together at such a young age!

"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies."  Song of Songs 6:3

"What's in a name?" -Shakespeare

One of the biggest regrets of my life is my name.

Not in the sense that I hate my name or the way it sounds, but the fact that I have SO MANY. I was born Maria Angela Avendano. Plain enough. But the family decided to change it up on me by nicknaming me "Angeline". (Nicknames are very common in the Philippines, which is where I was born) So for the first years of my life no one even mentioned my given name, I was Angeline. Then my mom and I moved to the United States right before my 6th birthday. I was still Angeline---to family, at least---but when they enrolled me in a public school for first grade, my name on the roll was Maria. I honestly don't know why I didn't let the teacher know that I didn't go by Maria. I'm not even sure if I knew what was going on because Tagalog was still my primary language. But either way, I became known as Maria to my fellow first graders and that, my dear friends, was my second experience of an occurring identity crisis.
My third came just months later when my parents built a house in another city and they transferred me to a private school towards the end of my first grade year. I was mildly devastated, at least as devastated as a six year old could be, but it ended up being pretty neat. Except for one minor detail....they called me Angela. Now I don't know how this happened or what conversation transpired between my teacher and I that caused her to call me by my middle name. Maybe I was embracing the changes that were occurring in my life and I decided another major change wouldn't hurt. (I highly doubt this theory) Or maybe my teacher just had something against the name Maria and she thought Angela sounded better. I don't know. But it was a life changing day because from that day on and for the next 7 and a half years after it, I would be known as Angela Avendano. Mind you my family still called me Angeline, but my teachers and friends from school now referred to me as Angela. Thus, comes my fourth experience with an identity crisis.
I transferred to a public school in 9th grade and throughout the four years of high school I was highly involved in the AFJROTC. (Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) I was still Angela for the first few months of my freshman year, but the more I got involved in this new program, the more friends I made. And as most friends do, mine gave me a nickname. My corps commander that year started calling me "Angie" and just like that---the name stuck. After awhile even the teachers were calling me Angie, but as much as I wish it was, it's still not the end to my dilemma of names.
And this is where I will introduce my husband, Brendon. I met Brendon through his girlfriend, who happened to be a close friend of mine at the time. She introduced me as Angela, but after glancing at the school ID hanging around my neck, he saw that my given name was actually Maria and he insisted that he was going to call me by my "real" name. This might not have been a big deal if he was the only one calling me by a different name, but a few years later we started dating and he introduced me to his family. The name that he introduced me as? Maria, of course. So now I was known by Maria by not only him, but his family and everyone else he introduced me to as well.
So my husband, his family, and our church members know me as Maria. My post high school friends refer to me as Angela. My family has always called me Angeline and my most current friends and high school classmates call me Angie. Sometimes....most times...it gets confusing. What do I introduce myself as when I'm meeting new people? Well it just depends...in the most famous words of Shakespeare, "What's in a name?"

Inception

Halcyon: (hal-see-yon)
It means happy, peaceful, gentle, and calm.

I named this blog Halcyon because I wanted a word that describes the way I feel when I write and I want readers to share the same feelings when they read what I've written. This blog, unlike many, won't focus on a specific topic, but rather on various topics that seem to interest me. I plan to expose the inner workings of my busy mind and often as a writer the most random thoughts inspire me. So read on if you will. I encourage you to take this journey with me. A journey through the mind of a busy, aspiring, 22 year old. It's my hope that you find yourself enthralled. :)