TGIF

T.G.I.F. An acronym that just about everybody is aware of. The four little letters that are a way for people to express their excitement that it is in fact, Friday. Whether it's a casual tweet, text, facebook post, or something you say out loud, TGIF is an understood American staple to celebrate the end of a long week. But today, on this Friday, I'm thanking God for more reasons than the simple fact that the long week is over. Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with my excitement for the weekend.

"12 dead after Colorado theater shooting at Batman premiere" is the first thing I read when I open my internet browser on this Friday morning. Sadly, with the amount of horrific events that happen every day, I have become desensitized to a lot of tragic stories that happen across the country, because of the volume in which they occur.

But this one stood out to me. Not because it was yet another shooting in Colorado (seriously, is it something in the water there?) but because it was something so incredibly random. Not that any shootings are ever not, but to think that someone opened fire at a movie premiere is just maddening. What has this world come to?

However, the bulk of my emotional investment with this tragic event doesn't even have to do with the events that occurred in theater 9. It has to do with one of the 12 victims killed in the shooting, Jessica Redfield, and the strangely eerie blog post that she published a little more than a month ago.

I discovered this blog post via Facebook, from someone else that shared the story. As I read her story, I couldn't believe it. She posted on June 5, about a shooting that took place in a mall food court where she had been moments before the man opened fire. She wrote about how she planned to get sushi, and suddenly changed her mind and got a burger. She suddenly got an overwhelmingly sick feeling and had to step outside for some air, unknowingly escaping danger.

Exactly three minutes after she had purchased that burger in the food court, a gunman opened fire and an innocent victim fell to the ground in the very place she would've been, had she ordered sushi and sat down to eat it as planned.

I have always been a person that believes that everything happens for a reason. Things like getting stuck at a red light, only to later find that had you made the light, you would have been involved in a fatal accident.

Or things like ordering a burger instead of sushi.

Reading Jessica's story was another reminder that when you experience something like suddenly feeling sick, or changing your mind to order something different, it may be saving your life.

But that's not what I'm struggling to understand. What I can't wrap my head around, is how someone could be so fortunate to be "told" to leave the area and escape the shooting unknowingly, be a victim of a shooting just a month later? In her post, she talks about how precious life is, and how that experience changed her life forever, and yet her life had to end just a month later? I just don't get it.

It doesn't seem fair that someone who understands the beauty of life, and someone that learned not to take life for granted, has to be a victim of such a tragedy so shortly after.

Aside from the unfairness of her situation, the whole thing is just creepy and makes you really think on a bigger level about what your last words could be, or your last blog post, for example. I mean, her last blog post was about a shooting that she witnessed, and then she was killed in a shooting. It just blows my mind.

On a whole seperate level, this also plays into the power of social media. She was a blogger, who shared her story. Her story was passed through Facebook, where I found it, and now I'm blogging about it. Provided people actually read my blog, it will be spread and shared even more (I hope). And hopefully people can not only learn to listen to those little voices that tell them to go outside and get some air, or they can simply thank God that they weren't in Colorado at that movie premiere.

Of course I'm thankful that I wasn't at that theater last night, and my heart goes out to those who were, but there's no way I would've been at that premiere, I live in California.

So yes, TGIF, it has been a long week. But more importantly, Thank God that I'm here, that I am safe, and that I got to read that incredible story by Jessica.

"I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath." - Jessica

Read her story here.

http://jessicaredfield.wordpress.com/?ref=spelling

Eat when you're hungry, and sleep when you're tired

"Eat when you're hungry, and sleep when you're tired. It's as simple as that."

My dad, like most dads, is full of wise words and pieces of advice from previous experiences. But this one might be my favorite. I know it's not Father's Day, and my dad's birthday was almost a month ago, but I decided to dedicate this post to him and take one of his classic lines into consideration. For once.

Considering my time in San Francisco this summer has been primarily spent with my family, I can't help but gain some quality bonding time with my dad. My friends and I have always laughed at some of the ridiculously over-exaggerated things that he says (i.e. this is absolutely out of control - with reference to a sunset) and the dramatic tone he often uses to describe things, but some things he says are actually quite noteworthy.

Like, "eat when you're hungry, and sleep when you're tired." I mean, it's such a simple sentence, but it really does have a lot of meaning. So many people force themselves to starve to look good in a bathing suit, or stay up late to study for a test. Or we eat excessively when we're not really hungry, and suck down heavy amounts of caffeine to fight off the z's. But why can't we just do what our body wants?

Why can't we just eat when we're hungry and sleep when we're tired?

I don't mean to sound health-obsessive or preach about sleeping (even though they call me POG for a reason...) but it's just a thought-provoking concept that we never seem to listen to. And it goes beyond eating and sleeping.

I don't know if it's just human nature, but we always seem to force ourselves to fight against the grain. Obviously, being lazy wouldn't get us anywhere, but it's just interesting to think about how people are constantly pushing themselves, both good and bad.

It's almost so simple, that it's hard. I mean think about it, we can't exactly take naps on our keyboards at work or only eat when we're actually hungry. (who knows the difference anyway? if there's food, there's food and we eat it) But maybe if we did, we'd probably be a lot more successful and alert.

So thanks dad, now when I fall asleep after a couple glasses of wine I don't have to feel bad about it, (not that I ever did) but let's just hope the "venue" is out of sharpies. And the next time your roomies go on a late night McDonald's run, for goodness sakes, if you're hungry just go.

You can thank my dad later.

(more wise words by John Tutora to come)