1st Airhead Moment in New Zealand

So I was bragging to my good friend Michelle here on Monday how I haven't done one "airheady" thing since I have been in New Zealand. For years I hid my air head moments so well....ahhh those were the days (said in a sappy nostalgic voice)

Then all of a sudden it was as if I was doing one airhead thing after another. I spent a lot of my life being VERY controlled. I made sure what I presented to people was what they wanted to hear, see and/or experience. Therefore, it was much easier to not show airhead moments because I had thought through numerous times the way a situation or conversation would go. If I was going to say something dumb, or do something dumb I had already thought through it and just simply wouldn't do it when the conversation or circumstance happened.

Shortly after my explosion of airhead moments, some of my college friends and I were sitting around my parents kitchen table one Thanksgiving. My sweet roommate from college who I LOVE and am so glad has been in my life for almost 14 years (YIKES...did we really graduate college 10 years ago this April? WE DID!!!!) looked across the table with compassionate knowing eyes after my rant about how surprised I was at all the dumb airhead things I have done. In a gentle voice she said, "Well Dana I think that in your spiritual journey towards God and being a whole person you have just become who you are created to be and are finally okay with that person. So that is why all those years you didn't do airhead things, you weren't comfortable with who you were and who you were created to be."

Somewhere in there is a compliment....wait for it....wait for it.... :) I responded with, "So you are saying I have always been an airhead."

After our good laugh and me teasing her that she just called me an airhead, I did have to see her point a little bit. And to her credit she was genuinely trying to compliment me. She was so excited that I didn't have to calculate my life and give people what they wanted, but that I was just me.

Now I just know that there will be many airhead things I do in life and I actually kind of like them because they ALWAYS make for a good story. Like the time I got out of my car while it was still in DRIVE....Yep definitely did that and somewhere in the state of CA is a cute white Toyota 4Runner with a dent in the bumper to prove it.

On to my first airhead moment of my NZ trip. After I told Michelle on Monday that I was so impressed I hadn't done anything like that I had remembered that my friend Nichole's had just put a piece on her blog (she is in my list of blogs I like, but I don't know how to do that cool thing where I can make it so if you click on her name it will go to her site...) that if you want fuller hair put your hair up in a ponytail on top of your head and sleep on it, then presto! The next day you have full hair. So I tried that. Which meant that I didn't wash my hair that day. So while I was curling my hair, completely impatient about sitting there, I had to do something. I decided to read the back of the stuff on my counter. I was reading the back of my Anti Friz stuff for my hair that I bought in the states especially for my trip. It was a Beadhead product and it smelled SO good, and if I put it in while my hair was still a bit wet it would cut down on the friz. I definitely remember reading "when my hair was still damp."

As I glanced at the bottle this morning though, I realized it said a phrase I had missed--it's you greatest 2nd step....WHOA! Second step? What does that mean. Reading on I realized that it also said, "after shampooing put this great conditioner in and you will have no friz hair." I QUICKLY wipped the bottle around and read the front and it definitely said "anti friz" but not anti friz serum, but "anti friz conditioner" What the heck! Let me tell you that I thought my hair was a little weird and I also thought it was weird that Nichole puts it in when it is kind of dry when she does my hair at her salon. And what have I been doing for 6 weeks? Putting conditioner that is NOT LEAVE IN, into my hair and going about my day wondering why it felt a little weird, but chalking it up to being in a new environment. Nope I just read a part of the back of the bottle in my lack of patience and missed the most important part. Which to my elementary teachers (and my parents) credit, is what I was told my whole life: Dana is a great student but makes many careless mistakes because she rushes. Yep that is me still to this day. I have genuinely been working on this and know now that it is actually part of something that when used right I do well. In my need to do something fast,I can get things started right away when others won't start something or don't know how. Some call the trait "lack of patience" I like to refer to it as an "activator of society." Either way you say it it sometimes means that I do really "careless" (the nice way my teachers said it) or "airhead" (the more accurate description) things.

While I was so proud I had not done one airhead thing since I have arrived, in fact I had been doing it EVERYDAY for 6 weeks!!!

AHHH the joys of being okay with a little airheadness... Stacie was right. While in my journey to NZ and my journey in NZ I have felt the most alive, the most healthy, and the most ME I have ever felt in one place. I have had conversations I never expected to have in my own spiritual journey with God. I have learned so much about myself and so much about a God who is simply not spiritual and unactive in my life, but who actually is an active friend and father in my life. My life has been rich with learning about God, even though I grew up with an understanding of Him and at one point started a personal relationship with Him. At the same time, as that has happened I have learned so much about who I really am and who I am created to be.
So, at the end of the day does it surprise me that I do airhead stuff? Not really, because I think Stac was on to something. I am more okay with being who I am and part of who I am that might never change is funny airhead moments.

I am sure there will be plenty more "airhead" moments I have. (And I do have to be honest there is one that has happened here, but there is no way on earth I can put it on my blog...but it was rather funny, just not the most appropriate of stories for the blog world---feel free to ask me about that when I get home:)

Off for a jog and to enjoy the beauty of not only New Zealand, but simply the beauty of LIFE today.