Well Call Me a Coinstar, I'm Loving All This Change: Part 1

It is hard to believe that it is now June. Just yesterday I was ringing in the New Year, wishing it was June. Now I'm sweating off body parts I don't even have, wishing it was the New Year. Funny how that works.

Life has changed so much for me over the past 6 months it seems like the roadrunner from the old cartoons whizzed by, spun me around, & somehow I landed on my feet suddenly engaged, welcoming my fiance's neice into this world, graduating from college & looking at houses! All amazing things, but what a year.

Since it would be a bit much to cram all of these life changing events into one blog post, so I will break them all up. Here goes #1:

I think in order to look forward, or even appreciate the present, you have to look back. I believe that God designed life that way for us, this complex wonderful mixture of memories, emotions, thoughts, & actions. If we can't learn from the past, or even appreciate the steps it took to get us where we are, then our future is hopeless. As my sophomore year economics professor said, but I digress.

I look back at when Chris & I first met. I was 19, he was 23, and I was wearing a vest. One that he liked of course. I caught his eye & he was sneakily talking to my roommate, meanwhile he caught my eye & was praying about him for four weeks before I let myself talk with him.

Back to the vest, I came in late to the Element college group after work one Thursday night. I was worried I looked like a mess after rushing to get there, since there was this "cute name-tag guy" who wouldn't leave my thoughts or prayers. I was one of the last people in, & up to Cute Name-Tag Guy I went, and he said to me, "I like your vest."

Now, there's more to that story, but we've been inseparable ever since. And now, over two and a half years later we are engaged! It still seems hard to believe he proposed hundreds of feet in the air, in an airplane just for us, at sunset over Lake Pleasant.  Say wha?!

Your whole life you wonder who "the one" is. You picture some faceless guy with brown hair, who loves God, who is at least 3 inches taller than you, who doesn't have a drug record, loves his parents, and will love you for the rest of his life. Everything else is a variable, and you wonder which guy will fit the mold.

I just remember looking at Chris, in an airplane, with a ring on my left hand, and that guy wasn't such a mystery any longer. The faceless man disappeared, and here I was looking in the eyes of my future husband.

Now, some of you may be going, please tell me you wanted to marry this guy before you got in that darn airplane. Yes, of course I did! But I also believe, that we are supposed to not look for the perfect future spouse, but instead try our best to BE the perfect future spouse for someone, and let God do the picking.

If you're wondering why Mr. Perfect hasn't waltzed into your living room, while you're sitting there using your Bible as a coaster and not paying attention to any flaws that God-forbid you might be harboring, then there is a sense of full delusion that you seem to have a firm grasp on.

I don't know how Chris & I found each other, I dont know why I couldnt get him out of my head for a whole month before we even spoke more than 3 sentences, or why we ran into each other in the middle of one of the largest Universities in the country. All I know, is that I focused on myself, focused on the woman God wanted me to be and the kind of wife my future husband needed me to be, and let God do the picking.

Needless to say, this worked out great for me, and if you are in the aforementioned situation above, I highly suggest you find a different coaster, and try the same thing. God is a nice guy, and unlike your cat, He listens and even responds (Don't worry, I have a cat. Yes, yes I know he really does listen to you. It's that blinky look he gives you, isn't it?).

Well, as I'm giggling at my little title of this blog, I'm also realizing how late it is. Until the next day when I have free time to reflect on life, adios.

Why I Wont Be Purchasing a Nissan Leaf

I am graduating college this year in May, and like many college graduates, I am shopping for a newer vehicle. For the meantime, I will be driving approximately 9,000 miles per year just to work, so I need a reliable, fuel efficient vehicle.

Nissan has recently come out with an amazing new vehicle that requires no gasoline, and solely runs on electric and solar power. The Nissan Leaf really is the gateway to the future of automobiles. As political events in Egypt take way, gas prices in the U.S. are elevating with each passing day.

Sooner or later, America will no longer wish to be so reliant on the Middle East for our fuel, hence the hybrid cars of the future. As a person that lives in Arizona, where there is little practical public trasnportation offered, and everything is extrememly spread out, fuel efficiency, as well environmental impact are key concerns for me in my car-buying adventure.

Sadly, I was cut short of hoping to own such a vehicle, seeing that the costs of the Nissan Leaf are just too high at this point in time in my financial life. I find this interesting, seeing that I am smack dab in the middle of Nissan's target market, according to the interview Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn did with Fast Company magazine in the March 2011 edition.

"Fast Company: Who are your prime targets?
Ghosn: Women and young people. Our problem is not selling the car. This is something people have been asking for...[The first electric cars] were selling for $100,000. Who's going to buy that?... This is $25,000 [after Government incentives], but even that I consider expensive."

After reading this interview, I was really excited about the Nissan Leaf. I jumped on my computer and started crunching numbers. I wondered, with the approximately $130 a month I pay for in gas I would  be saving by purchasing an all-electric vehicle, I wondered if I could afford it...

My car is 11 years old, good shape, but 11 years old. I'm being realistic in saying that I will get at least $1,500 for a trade in for my silver hot rod.  I also figure that a decent down payment on a car is at least 20% of the car's purchase price. The national average for a car payment is approximately 10% of your take home pay. If I were to purchase the Leaf, I would also be saving approximately $130 a month in gas. 

Here is the breakdown for the Nissan Leaf SV:

Purchase Price: starting at     $32,780 MSRP
Max Government Incentive: $7,500 off purchase price
Arizona Incentives:               $100 off purchase price
(see the Nissan Leaf website for State Incentives that apply to you)
_______________________________________________

Cost thus far:                        $25,180  (not including tax, title and licensing fees)

Break down of the payments:
Down payment of 20%:       $5,036.   
Trade In value:                     $1,500
(With a sales tax of 8% and an interest rate 6%)


With these numbers, if purchasing my payments would be as follows:
24 month loan: $933/month
36 month loan: $640
48 month loan: $495
60 month loan: $407
72 month loan: $349

I would basically have to put $13,000 down in order to afford monthly payments on this car...no thank you. Looks like green isn't the way I'll be going.

Wiki wiki.

Someday all there will be of me are pictures and old possessions that my loved ones will cherish. Maybe there will be a paragraph about me on Wikipedia or some other news article, maybe not. But if there is, I have a chance now to write what it will say by how I act and what I do.

More deeply engraved than words on a page ever will be, are the memories of me that people will hold. Those are all guided by my choices as well. I have a choice between the good and bad, the judgmental and non, the confrontational and the peaceful. I will remember this as often and as much as I can.

East Coast

© Briana Thomas

A few months ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Cape Cod, MA and New York City with a great friend of mine, Taylor. It was an amazing experience, and today I was missing it so I thought I'd share.

Heather & Taylor in Martha's Vineyard, July 2010

Cape Cod, & Kathy Lee
Cape Cod is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been too, it's stylized houses and scenery makes you feel like you've stepped back in time to the 1800's. On the 4th of July we were in Nantucket, and while looking in a cute jewelry store I heard a voice that sounded very familiar...I turned and it was Kathy Lee Gifford! She was helping her daughter pick out a bracelet, Taylor was standing right next to her and didn't even realize it! I pulled her aside to "show her something" and pointed out who was in the store with us. We were too nervous to get her autograph, but it was a fun little moment standing next to someone I watch on television almost every morning on the Today Show.

 Taylor & I in Nantucket on July 4th, 2010

Taylor & I took beautiful pictures of the ocean, hydrangas, and all the cool buildings and architechture that we saw. I remember lots of green tea being drank, and lots of bathroom stops! We definitely stimulated the economy with how many trips to Starbucks we made! We saw Dunkin Donuts EVERYWHERE, and finally Taylor needed a donut

 She finally got her donut :)

New York!
It was Taylor's 21st birthday while we were in New York, and we celebrated by eating about five slices of cheesecake, one at every single restaurant we ate at within two days of her birthday. I had never eaten so much in my entire life on this trip, I literally went home expecting to have gained about eight pounds, but nothing...which isn't a bad problem to have.

We were on a double-decker bus the day that New York experienced the largest heat waves since the 70's, to say the least, we were dying! I wore a kelly green dress, and when I stood up it looked like someone had splashed water on me (gross) because it was soo humid and we were on plastic seats on the bus. Taylor was laughing & taking pictures, I was fanning the bottom of my dress back & forth like it was on fire.

I could write about nine pages about my wonderful trip, but I will resist. It was a refreshing experience being on the other side of the country, seeing historical sites and getting to spend time with Tay. I want to go back NOW!


(All photographs are © Briana Thomas)

10,000 views celebration: about me, the one with the keyboard

I look at my ‘views’ count, and I think I’m stunned that it is almost at 10,000! Well, I decided to share a little about me to those of you who find my posts interesting enough to read. And I want to say thank you, whomever you may be, for humoring me & reading my stuff. Maybe I’ll write a book & you can say you read the original ‘Bri Blog.’

(Comment @ the bottom & tell me who you are & where you come from! I would love that.)

Well, here goes nothing. My name is Bri, I hope that I am many things and most, if not all, of them good. I am a Graphic Designer, writer, future entrepreneur, lover of God, green tea and creating things with my hands. Sometimes people overboard with how amazingly unique they are, which is fine, but I will spare you with any comments pertaining to that.

I am who I am, I have gone far in life & I plan to go further. By this I mean I have educated myself (finishing my last semester of college as we speak!!), thanks to my parents I have traveled, and seen parts of the world filled with either extreme wealth or extreme disparity. While the former seems to be everyone’s goal in life, the latter changed mine more than words can describe. So maybe instead of trying to gain a lot of money, we should be spending time helping those less fortunate in order to gain the true riches in this life.

I only write what I feel is worth saying, so if I do not post anything for a while, it means either I have taken a lot of credit hours, or I have not been in a situation truly worth telling the world about (I say world, because I’ve gotten quite a few responses in Chinese…haha maybe I’m a celebrity in China & don’t even know it.)

I am not a feminist in any way, harping about one problem in this world will only cause distaste about that person & disrespect for the ‘problem’, however I feel that I have a job as a female (AND a blonde one!), to not just slide into the ‘housewife’ role & do something with my life and have own dreams and aspirations separate from my future husband’s.

I am currently a nanny while I am in college, and at times I think about writing a book or even some blog posts about the things I have found helpful in raising someone else’s children. I am not a pushover, I probably put the kids in more timeout then both of their parents do, combined. But at the end of the day, I managed to see three sad little faces when I leave, I see this as a huge accomplishment. Ok, done with tooting my own little horn.

I am currently beginning multiple businesses. I am securing web-domains, LLC licenses, going through logo development and writing out full plans for each individual business. And I’m 21, I think it’s all pretty cool as I watch plans come together. (Come back soon to hear more!).

My personal life is personal, however I do have a wonderful boyfriend who means the world to me. He is, as people call it, a ‘keeper.’ For over two years he’s been my long-boarding buddy, the cynical voice next to me as I watch the Bachelor, the kiss on the forehead when I’ve had a tough day. The voyeur in all of you wants me to say more, but I shall not! Maybe later. I am blessed. That is all.

Well, there is more about me, but I will save it for another time. The end.

No New Year's Resolutions, Just Old Year's Accomplishments

I refuse to take away from my accomplishments any longer. If we are all beating ourselves up for the things we didn't do, we will never full give ourselves credit for the great things we did do.

It's the new year. While there is a lot of people making the ol' 'New Years Resolution,' I refuse. I feel like there's this notion about making resolutions that makes a person feel that there is something horribly wrong with them, and all these things to fix.

Yes, there are things I look forward to in 2011, and my own personal goals that will be met this year. I will celebrate one of my best friend's 21st birthdays, I will celebrate 22 years on this planet, I will celebrate along with friends the birth's of their four little bundles of joy (Willa, Gage, Tenley, & Kingston!), I will watch as three couples (so far) tie the knot and begin their lives together as newlyweds, I will graduate with my Bachelor's degree, & I will begin my professional journey as a Graphic Designer & Etsy artist, not to mention celebrate three years of dating my wonderful boyfriend Chris.

These are all wonderful things, and I will choose to focus on them instead of picking apart everything about myself. I know the things I need to improve on, I make a mental note on them daily. But if I look back at a list from Jan. 1, 2011 at the end of the year, & I have not completed all the things on the list, I will be disappointed.

This negatively connated action takes away from any accomplishments made the year before. I will be so focused on the fact that I didn't actually start yoga this year, or I didn't actually work out three days a week, and forget that I completed 36 hours of college credit while working 25 hours a week, or the fact that my room is more organized than ever, or that I have written out my entire business proposal for my companies that I will start in the near future.

So this is my resolution, to not have a resolution. To look to the future in optimism & hope, that all things bad will fall by the waste-side and all things positive will rise to the top.

Twas the Night Before Finals...

Twas the night before finals
And all through the house
Not a student was stirring
Not even a mouse

The note cards were written
So neatly with care
In hopes that a 4.0
Would soon be there

Oh where were they?
Where could they be?
Only a crabby professor
Could solve this mystery

Were they snuggled and tucked
Tightly in their beds
Oh no....
They were at Hayden Library instead

Studying and racing
Only hours to go!
Would the curve be big enough?
No one would know.

Economics, Sustainability
Legal Issues, Art History
The classes were lined up
From A to Z

Don't forget a pencil
Don't forget your ID
Don't forget, no hats!
Don't forget to pee!

Rushing and rushing
Yet still sitting still
The clock kept ticking
Only 3 hours 'til

My professor hates me
That's what I'll say
When my parents ask
Why I didn't get an A

I sit down in my chair
Quiet in my seat
I swear the whole room
Can hear my heart beat

I bubble and I bubble
I bubble away
30, 40 50 questions
Too many today

I walk out of the room
Into the light of the sun
I cannot cannot believe
That I am finally done.
-Bri