Love the One(s) You're With....

This year is quickly coming to an end. Christmas is a little over a week away, and 2014 is right there on the horizon. As I look back over this past year, I can say that there were truly a lot of lessons to be learned. One of the main lessons is to genuinely love and appreciate the people in your life...both family and friends.

It is my personal belief that we are all placed on this Earth to complete a certain God-given assignment. Be it work related, or even just to give a kind word to a stranger to motivate them to create some work...we are all placed here for a reason. While we are here completing those assignments, I think we are also given the gift of the human experience. The ups and downs of life, the pleasure, the grief & everything in between is all set forth for us to go through to gain valuable lessons or to be shaped in some form as to assist us with completing our assignments. Although the true reward will be in heaven, I do think we should enjoy and bask in these lives while we have the chance to. We aren't promised forever, but we should make the best of every moment we get.

With that being said, here's to this past week & weekend....

Wednesday night, I celebrated what I do believe to be the official LAST 30th birthday celebration for at least another year(s)... My remaining friends are all between 26-28, so I have a while. My girlfriend decided she wanted to bring in her 30th with merlot and painting, so we went to Pinot's Palette for a drink/paint party. We had fun trying to keep up with the instructor and enjoying our beverages... After we finished we walked next door to a bar and chatted a bit before I left to get prepped for work the next day....

Work, was work. I had anticipated the remainder of my week to be uneventful, until the unimaginable happened. I had just finished reading my latest book selection, The House Girl by Tara Conklin, which is awesome by the way... when I rolled over to go to bed. Something told me, "check Instagram Fal" so I scrolled through my timeline and saw a post by The Dream congratulating Beyoncé on her new album. I immediately sat up straight in the bed dazed and confused. By that time it was almost 1 am, so I thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me.. but, no. Shock, surprise, bewilderment and amazement....flash forward to about 2:30am and I have completely downloaded all songs and videos on the new CD. The next few days are a blur. I can only remember choreography, fierceness, and memorizing song lyrics. I seriously think every conversation I had the next few days revolved around Beyoncé.

I considered changing my name to Falyonce at one point. No joke. I love Beyoncé. I love how she represented our hometown of Houston so well on this album. I love all of her outfits. I love most of the songs (not all, but the majority) I just. Yeah. I know some people do not like her, or have strong opinions that she is not that great...but I respect her as an artist & performer. And that's all I have to say about that....

Moving along.......

I spent my Friday in the house relaxing, reading and just enjoying me time. I woke up early Saturday morning to get my hair done, then hurried back to meet up with my family to attend a memorial service for one of my mother's good friends. I tried my best to be strong for my mother when I heard about her friend passing away, but I must admit the memories flooded my mind and I had my moment of emotion while at the service. One thing I did find comfort in is knowing that she lived such a full life, and genuinely loved the Lord. I want to have a full life. I want to leave a legacy. I want to be so steadfast in knowing that regardless of how good or bad times get, that my only purpose here is to serve the Lord. She is going to be truly missed, and I can only imagine how it feels to lose a close friend after decades and decades of them being in your life, but my mother is happy that she has gone on to live an eternal life...

Another reason why I am so gung-ho about loving people while they are here. No one is going to be here forever, and I want to have an abundance of memories left to cherish. And now I shall lighten the mood before I start crying with pictures of my lovely family...

After the services were over, we went to eat and run a couple of Christmas shopping related errands. I then napped until it was time for part two of my friends birthday celebration.

It was FREEZING last night, so we braved the cold to have dinner and libations at Straits.

Beyoncé joined us for dinner, as she was the topic of discussion as we streamed her videos at the table. Obviously we talked about other important topics, but I digress.

I woke up just in time for church at Bedside Baptist, and enjoyed service via the internet. I then went to meet up with a new acquaintance I made at an event I went to last week. She and her husband have been living in the United States for a couple of months, after deciding to relocate here from South Africa. We had a lot in common, and had a great time chatting it up over brunch on the patio at Empire Café. It has been a long time since I have made a new acquaintance and actually clicked with them so well. We plan to meet up more in the future.

After my brunch meeting, I did a little shopping and retreated into my pajamas for the remainder of the evening. It's back to business tomorrow. Four days of work, then our office Christmas party, then my week long vacation & Christmas. I am looking forward to resting up the remaining days of the year and working on my game plan as to how I plan to concur 2014.

I want to spend the remainder of the year in prayer for a multitude of things. God has been so good to me this year, and I am looking forward to his grace and mercy in the upcoming season.

Countdown to Christmas in full effect!!!!!