An Introvert Day.

It’s over and I made it.

Finals week has come to an end and I feel as if I’m coming back to myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love school as much as the next girl and actually probably just an itsty bitsy bit more. School brings out pieces of my best self, but finals week? Now that’s a different matter entirely. It’s been over two weeks of long library hours and short sleepy nights. Each morning, I could feel the tension as I walked through the library doors. No, I was not alone in my stress and the silence of that looming room told me so.

But. Now it’s over. I finished my last paper, wrote my last reading report, and turned in my last exam, walking out of the room like a champ. [I actually considered doing a victory lap around the library, but the girl growling in the corner dissuaded me]

Yesterday I woke up slowly and immediately decided that it was Saturday and it was Introvert Day. I laid in bed just a few extra moments because there was no rush. I got up and made me a little Starbucks Christmas Blend french press and sipped it with some Peppermint Mocha creamer. I ate dark Chocolate for breakfast; you know, the 90% cocoa kind that makes for a yummy start to the day.

I read old journals and wrote a new entry. I read some of A.W. Tozer’s The Persuit of God. Oh my soul has been longing for that. I gave some attention to my long-neglected friend, Emily Dickinson, and read each poem out loud with savoring cadence.

I did some crafty little things with some bottle caps I brought back from Haiti. And I finally learned how to make paper cranes.

I did a little Christmas shopping – “little” because I have a microscopic budget and one really cool sibling to buy for – and was reminded how much I dislike it. I wandered around several stores for several hours [okay, only two] and all the price tags and sale signs and people telling me what I needed made my sick. No, seriously. I literally got nauseous and left the mall with many listed items un bought. But, before the queasiness set in, I made two purchases that are pretty super stellar, if I do say so myself. First, I got my selected sibling an awesome gift, just right for them, that they will love. Big whooping yesssss. Second, I bought myself a killer pair of heels. Now, I’m not a heels wearer on a day-to-day basis. But every once in a while, I like to slip a pair on and rock it like it’s 1999. And these, my friends, are instant favorites. Why? Because they’re nude and will go with everything and because they were originally $49.99 and I got them for $29.99. Word.

Won't my strippidy feet look super cute in these pups? Can't wait to try them out.

After my minor vomiting incident [well, I didn’t really blow chunks at the mall. I just got a little overwhelmed and overheated and overshopped. Nothing a little Chic-fil-a couldn’t fix.] I walked around my favorite little sea port town, Gloucester. Oh my, how I love that place. I dream of living there someday. It's probably one of the most festive towns around, and, full of town personality, they have a crab cage Christmas tree. How excellent.

Tearing myself away from Gloucester, I went home and cuddled on my couch and watched Five Hundred Days of Summer. Sigh. I have a love-hate relationship with that movie, you guys. I love that they tell you it’s not a love story at the very beginning, that by the middle of the movie I’m hoping it will be a love story, and that at the end I’m disappointed, once again, that it was, indeed, not a love story. I love the timeline and the sound track. I love Summer’s clothes. But I hate how Summer has no personality, how she is completely selfish and apathetic, how she says she’s aimless but is really just self-obsessed, and how she reminds me of myself every single time. Sigh. Yes.

My night ended with a group of lovely, silly people playing goofy games in a boy’s dirty dorm room. And I just keep thinking how much I love it here. I love this life of mine. I’m genuinely happy for one of the first times in my life [Wow. Okay, Summer. Simmer down there…but really…] I’m so content here. I take so much delight in these people and these places that are all becoming so familiar. I’m full and excited and giddy…

And it’s not even Christmas yet.