#30 I Don’t Know Why I Blog

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

I think I’ve been having an identity crisis lately.

Well, a blogdentity crisis. (I am sorry but I will always, always take an opportunity to hybrid two words into one. Get used to it.)

I was talking with another blog friend of mine about this the other day and I said, “I still don’t really know why I blog.”

I mean I know I’m supposed to, as a writer. I know I enjoy it (sometimes). I know it has and will continue to make me a better writer. But some days it just feels pointless.

You see, I used to have another blog about being unemployed, where I wrote under the name of “Bob”, or Bob Loblaw to be exact. And I loved it. It was somewhat anonymous, I could just tell stories that made people laugh and fine tune my storytelling ‘voice’.

But then I got jobs, and I didn’t temp anymore, and I found work I loved.

So I started this blog. With the intention of forcing myself out of my 26-year old habit of turning everything into a joke, out of a desire to write about things that matter…at least once in a while.

And so here we are. At the end of my first series and I still don’t know who I am, or, rather, who Lyndsights is.

I guess I write this to say that its ok not to know. And its ok that I don’t care about numbers (even though I care enough to know that my current readership is 70% less than my old blog. So I guess I kinda care. So sue me.) And it’s ok that I will change my mind. And its ok that I want to make people laugh and its ok that I also want to make them think. And maybe change.

That’s ok.

I’m ok.

And I think that’s the only place I know where to be right now. With a pile of question marks in my hands and enough motivation to write every day but not enough time to have figured out who I am here, but with just enough determination to keep learning, trying, reaching.

Because luckily that’s a fair summary of my life in general. And luckily I serve a God who is more than OK with that.

LR

P.s. I wrote a Cheeky article on this last June, perhaps I should get some blog clarity (blarity? sorry.) from my thoughts on it a year ago.

#29 I’m Not Sure What to Dream (Part 1)

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

A fair warning before I get going:

These are just my initial thoughts on a topic that is going to take WAY more thought, research and prayer than I have been able to give it yet. And it may make some of you mad.

But, I thought I’d see what ya’ll think. (I’m such a risk taker.)

So, the other day I was talking with my crazy smart (emphasis on crazy) friend Dustin about what I want to do with my life, what my dreams are.

At one point in the conversation I stopped and said, “But ya know what? I don’t even know if I’m supposed to have a dream. I don’t know what God thinks about it. I don’t know if He cares.”

Now before I get into the biblical definitions and spiritual parameters of the question and concept, I want to pose a few questions to you and get a gauge for what people think about dreams.

So, here we go.

1. Do you think God created us to have dreams and to chase after them? Does he want us to have our ‘dream job’?

2. What role do you think God wants to play in these dreams?

3. Is fame good? Is greatness worth chasing after?

4. How do you define success in terms of your ‘dream job’?

5. Could it be God’s will for some people to achieve fame, greatness and mass attention? How do you know if you are one of them?

6. What does God want most from us in life? How do we balance that with what we want from life? Can the two co-exist?

Ok those are just some initial thoughts. Please give your input I am SO curious and there’s no wrong answer right now. Let’s just brainstorm.

I only started thinking about this as I have lived for 3 months now in a city where every single person has a dream they are chasing. Everyone has illusions of grandeur. It is second nature here to talk about those things and I happen to love those conversations…I just don’t know how or where God fits in. Or if He even cares?

Let’s talk.

LR

#28 I’m in a Hot Relationship

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

You may be noticing my lack of romance and dating stories.

This is for a few reasons.

1. I will never blog about my romantic personal relationships. Ok I may, but I won’t make a habit out of it.

2. I used to blog about real people using fake names on my old blog and it almost gave me a heart attack.

All of this aside, if you looked at the red blinky light on my blackberry (please send all ‘lack of iphone’ outrage emails to bigwoop@gmail.com) you would think I was getting email after email from potential suitors saying “Hey want to go on a moonlit walk through the park?” or “Can I buy you some cheese?”

Ya know, sexy things like that.

But, alas, it’s not.

Instead, these emails are coming from  my other boyfriends:

Borders Rewards

DailyCandy

Snapfish

Daily Bible Verse

Ticketmaster

Facebook

Linkedin

and believe it or not, Careerbuilder.

I know what you’re saying, why the pie haven’t you unsubscribed from most of these?

Because, my friends, if you don’t have it, fake it.

Orrrr if you keep forgetting to unsubscribe from spam emails, write a blog about it.

Everyone wins.

28 down, 2 to go,

LR

#27 I Observe.

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

I am an observer.

I observe.

I’m like one of those detectives from the 1940′s with a notepad, a pencil behind my ear, a bumbling assistant and a eye for solving mysteries. (Wait, am I Nancy Drew? Awesome)

What can I say? I’m fascinated by people. By human nature. By why we do what we do.

So I find myself spyin’ around every now and then. So what?

And most of the time this is a good thing. I find that the more you observe, the more you gain an understanding of things. You can discover a lot by taking it all in and paying close attention to the goings on of your surroundings.

But.

There are some instances when observing can be a bad thing, or–as is often my case–an awkward thing. Some instances that are nowhere near as fun as when you were 11 and you would hide under your sister’s bed and spy on her phone calls with your heart pounding, terrified that she was going to find you.

For example. Looking for your roommate in the gym locker room because you said you’d meet there at 530.

AKWARD. There’s nowhere more that I want to keep my eyes DOWN than in the locker room. But, unfortunately, this arrangement requires the unfortunate task of ‘looking around’ an otherwise non-observant-friendly environment. Woops. Girl’s gotta work out, ok?

Or another awkward one is observing your own reflection in a storefront window (don’t you dare say you haven’t done this) only to find that it is a restaurant  and you are making your mirror face to a table for two. Eek.

Or try this for size–ever accidentally ‘over-observed’ an attractive co-ed and been totally busted by a return observance? If I had a freaking dime.

So I guess for all of the good things there are to observe (the sabbath, your friend’s weird quirks, things in an observatory) I can handle the awkward ones thrown in every now and then.

After all, I have a feeling ‘awkward’ in my life is not going anywhere, anytime soon. I might as well learn to live with it.

Life lessonz.

LR

#26 Gwyneth Paltrow Loves Nashville

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

Well color me delighted when my friend Kelly forwarded me an email she got from her friend Gwyn in which she raves–in vivid detail– about her recent time spent living and working in Nashville.

Ok it was a newsletter.

And it was from Gwenyth Paltrow

But same diff.

Anyway, in this newsletter she says things like “Never have I met such warm people, heard such good music, eaten so much fried chicken…I could go on and on…” and “It’s pretty damn great”

That sounds like raving to me, yes?

And she then followed up with another post about MORE things she loves about my new town.

And goshdarnit she’s right.

It is fantastic here and I feel like I’m just at the beginning of exploring it. And if I had Gwennie’s disposable income and free time, I would feast on this town with as much vigor as she did.

In due time, my friends. In due time.

Celebrity-inspired lesson to start the week off? Don’t mind if I do.

LR

#25 There Are Some Things I Don’t Have to Pray About

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

Sometimes finding time to pray is hard.

Sometimes its tough to know how to pray, why to pray, and what to pray.

Well, I’m not here to give any sort of real insight into any of those.

I did, however, realize the other day that there are some things I don’t have to worry about praying over. (For those of you who are ready with a comment regarding the necessity to be on guard for things we think we have mastered because that is exactly the area will be susceptible to attack, please read the list and realize that this is 100% in jest and therefore exempt from said comment)

And since it’s hard enough knowing how to spend my prayer time, I thought I would take the load off of myself and highlight the things that I needn’t worry about anytime soon. Because I love easy. So sue me.

So, here ya go. Things I Don’t Have to Pray About

1. That my fame doesn’t go to my head
2. What to do with all my extra money
3. How to choose between suitors
4. That people would see me as more than just a pretty face
5. That my kids would obey me
6. For guidance in choosing a personal assistant
7. That Tina Fey would stop stealing my material
8. For advice on how to break up with male models
9. What to put on my vanity plate
10. Whether or not I should get botox
11. Help with picking out a house to buy
12. Choosing between working for Conan Obrien or Ellen Degeneres
13. Staying humble
14. How to pick a vacation home
15. When to retire
16. What to wear on the Today Show

Phew. There’s a few off the list.

More time for the real stuff,

LR

#24 I Think I Might Be a Self Starter

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

We all know that job hunting absolutely, royally, mercilessly SUCKS.

When we first moved down here we were knee-deep in job stuff and feeling every inch of the insecurity that comes from having to “sell yourself”.

To our continued horror, every single job online advertises the need for those hauntingly vague qualities that everyone says they have but no one is ever sure that they really actually have. We would practice our fake, exaggerated interview monologues:

“Well, Mr. Tillman, funny you should ask. Turns out I don’t like to set goals, I am habitually late, I have a tendency to dilly-dally, I spend roughly 10 minutes per hour on my personal email/facebook/twitter. I am not management material and I happen to have no plans ever of being a self starter…”

Woops.

And then suddenly I got two fantasitc jobs.

That both required me to be a self starter.

It wasn’t but three days into work that I realized quickly that I was actually going to have to self start. Crap.

Each day felt like I was proving myself over and over again. Walking the fine line between maintaining work/life balance and boundaries and going above and beyond so as to hang onto these jobs i loved and carve myself deeper and deeper into their team.

And over the past three months I learned something amazing. I am a self starter. Whether that is from pure, gut-wrenching necessity or I actually have it in me, I am.

I love seeing a big picture and breaking it into small, manageable pieces. I love finding ways to use my gifts to make a system or process better. I love learning how to prove to my bosses that I am valuable.

So, add that to my resume.

And if you find it, let me know. I haven’t used one since 2008.

LR

#23 Barefoot is Best

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

Surprise! Spring is here.

Yay and awesome and holy pie it’s about time.

And the first thing I do when the snow melts? Take off my shoes.

Because in my humble opinion, the best way to celebrate this time of year is to go shoeless. (Not to be confused with ‘topless’. Seriously. If I had a dime.)

Around springtime, no matter what town I’m in, the locals start referring to me as ‘Old Shoeless Rush. (No they don’t.)

So to illustrate this lesson, I took a picture of me driving home from work.

Because like I always say, if propping my bare foot on my rolled down window whilst driving is wrong I don’t want to be right. (I don’t always say that. It’s kind of a long personal motto to have. But I should probably start.)

There you have it. Your first spring lesson.

Is there such a thing as too much bare feet? I’m not sure….in college Briana didn’t wear shoes to the grocery store or to class….or to her first job after graduation. Thoughts?

L to the R

#22 No One Liked ‘Baby Phat Goddess’ So No One is Going to Love ‘Sexy Thang’

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

This lesson brought to you by the brilliant minds behind impostor perfumes.

LR

#21 Erin McCarley is Good

**Disclaimer: The following posts are lessons, tips, tricks, or just things I have noticed since moving to Nashville. I make no promises that this information will be relevant to you at all. In fact, some of the lessons are downright ridiculous. But maybe, just maybe we’ll learn something together.

I know, I know. You weren’t prepared for such a deep lesson on a Monday.

But it feels right. And it’s definitely something I’ve learned from living in Nashville.

And since I’m the boss of me, I’m going to write about it.

Erin McCarley is good.

So here’s the dirt. Recently I had my first experience at the infamous Bluebird Cafe and who was the special guest? Good ‘ol Erin McC (Yeah, I call her Erin McC. We’re close.)

Let’s just say after her first song, “Pitter-Pat” I was sold.

And while the other guys in the round were good, I kept wanting them to hurry up so it would be her turn again.

Then last weekend we were shamefully watching “Post Grad” (I know, I know, I don’t want to talk about it) and sure enough, Erin Mccarley’s song Pony (It’s OK) was on the soundtrack.

Boom: fate.

Is all of this borderline creepy? Nope. I just know talent when I see it. And I saw it. And she has it.

So there.

http://www.myspace.com/erinmccarley

Do it.

LR