Bella Soul's blog

I am so thankful for so many things.. it's hard to boil it down on this post but I will just say the ones that come up off the top of my head.

I'm thankful for;

-My recent promotion at work (though not quite a promotion but I'm a little higher than before)

-Having my car back in mint condition after my accident

-Getting well after having horrible allergies a week ago

-Being able to finally see New Moon!

-My family & friends ..throughout hardships because not every relationship is perfect, I love them regardless of what happens

-Being single because I can work on me now & not have to pull strings to try to make a relationship work when it was already broken

-This playlist I made, music has healed my heart in a million ways; Heartbreak Hotel Listen to it & tell me which ones are your favorite

-Finally having cable & a new TV after a year of not having cable

-Starbucks holiday drinks

-4 day weekend this week!

What are you thankful for? comment or blog it!

P.S. Add me on LastFM if you haven't already: last.fm/user/lauramelanie

I can't believe today is the day we will get to finally watch this movie! OMG, I am beyond elated.. beyond ecstatic!

I'm going to the gym right after work.. then meet up with my friends at the media center in our apts to have some Thai food & then head over to the movies & wait in line around 9:30pm. We're gonna have wine in cups & mix it with Sprite, so we'll have wine spritzers! We'll play games & eat some snacks, yup that's how we do.

Are you going to see the premiere tonight?! Anything you hope to see in this movie? such as scenes from the book? I don't really have any expectations because if I do, then I would be setting myself up to be disappointed. It looks like it's gonna be a good movie though. I love Jacob {Taylor Lautner} & I can't wait to see him strut his muscles.. he really bulked up for his role.

I leave you with my lovely Twitter avatar with New Moon logo representin'!

Some days I think I can make it through this.. some days I wonder how can I make it through this when my home is no longer there. You were my home, and it was long ago when you shut me out before I realized I could no longer come back in. Love is so blind that I didn't see how far we grew apart from each other to where you became a stranger. My world has been turned upside down, even though I've coped as best as I could to hold my life together. Sometimes it is so hard to rebuild it that I start to crumble inside & I feel like I'm caving into a dark place where no one can find me to help me out of it. You were always there to help me out of my dark hole & now you are no longer there. I don't even remember how your voice sounds, & that is a voice that I knew so well. I start to feel for the most part like I am fine with it all, but days like today I still feel the pain lingering deep within & I know I need time to myself in order to heal.

The holidays are especially the hardest because all these memories flood in & then the pain comes alive when I realize I wasn't that happy around this time last year with you. I am usually a happy person, yet I would find myself crying over the smallest things because I felt the distance within your heart & mine. I think I realized then that I wasn't the one for you, because if I was, then you wouldn't have hesitated. I feel good about the outcome, but at the same time it hurts like hell because I could see you as my future. I waited & devoted so much time into us, that now I no longer want to do that again. I feel so broken that I just don't see any way that anyone could ever make me love like I loved you.

You broke my heart, you really did. It sounds like you've moved on quite smoothly & you definitely got a head start.. but I'm getting there too, slowly but surely. Now I will seek to get myself out of the dark hole on my own because I know I am strong enough. I don't need you, & I don't need another to fill in that role. I need myself, my friends & family because they are the people who truly matter.

{Feeling better already after jotting this down}

I can't believe this month has already flown by.. Thanksgiving is just around the corner! wow, I'm speechless. Like many of you, I am also ready to put a close to 2009, & happily welcome 2010! We all need a fresh start & I am so ready for it. The next few days I may not be on Twitter as much as I'd like to because lately I've been doing some training at work to get possibly promoted for a new position that will be starting in mid January. I really need this promotion so we will see!

Other than that, I've been doing my book club & we are now reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. The movie is coming out in a few weeks so we wanna read the book & finish it in time to watch the movie. I didn't even get to finish the last book the book club read because I had way too much stuff going on.

I bought my movie ticket today to go see New Moon on Thursday night at the midnight show. I am soooo pumped up for this movie, I can't believe it's finally a few days away.

Gotta get to bed & read some of my book. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Vamp Brittany, me as the french maid & Judy as a sexy cop at many of the house parties we crashed on Halloween.

Hey hey, what's happening! I'm sorry I have been M.I.A, but it has been CRAZY this last week.. I still don't have my car, but I've definitely been staying strong & making things happen.. all the while having fun with my friends & I am so thankful for every breath that I take.

Sexy mamas

Me & Mario.. he was dressed as an 80's cholo, haha.

Me & Lady Gaga {from the VMA's} (aka Rosa); I didn't even know this was her house we were going to! I haven't seen this girl in 5 years! such a small world!

I feel October was such an eventful month because good things & bad things happened. I'm just ready to bid 2009 goodbye & start fresh. I've lost 17 lbs the past 3 months & I feel like a new woman. I can't believe my trip to California is only 3 weeks away! I can't wait to see my friends & family over there.

I finally got cable service, AT&T U-Verse with DVR! It's amazing to have it after not having any type of TV for a year & 2 months!

I decided I'm going to join a bellydancing class starting next week! I'm really looking forward to it & I think my friend is coming along.

I GET MY CAR BACK TOMORROW! thank you Jesus! It costs $9,500 to fix, ouch! So thankful for insurance!

Until next time..

I have to say this was one of the best birthdays ever! I got soooooooo much love on Facebook from my friends & family wishing me a happy birthday.. I got plenty of birthday calls, including one from my real dad. I remember last year I got emotional 'cause I didn't hear from him on my bday. This time he was so sweet when he said, "This day was really special for me because it's when I found out you were a girl & out of my other kids who were all boys, I was happy that you were finally born" Aaawwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! I almost cried when he told me that, so sweet!

I got treated to a birthday lunch by my guy friend. We went to Taco Diner & sat outside. I was so glad that it was a gorgeous day! I felt like God gave me a sunny day just for me, hehe. My parents came over & we went to have dinner at Olive Garden. It was so good! I've missed that place. We had a really good time & pics to come.

Pic taken by my friend, hehe.

I took a nice 2 hour nap to get me ready for the night & I'm glad I did because we partied hardy boy! We went to club Wish since we heard it's a good place to go on Tuesday nights & man, it was crunk. It was so packed, it felt like a Saturday night. On Saturday, we celebrated my birthday early & had the VIP treatment at club Plush! We had such a great time, see for yourself in these pics on my Vox. {They're also on Flickr}

Going out again tonight & I can't wait for this weekend to celebrate Halloween~! Not sure if I'll have my car back by this Friday (they said it could be a possibility I get it back on Friday), but if not it will take 2 more weeks, sigh. I miss my car so badly.

Let me know what you think about my pics :) Later!

Originally published at Laura Melanie Is Love. You can comment here or there.

I just want to thank God that I'm alive & that I walked out of this accident without a scratch. It seems so surreal how fast everything can change, I've taken a lot in from this experience & I hope to share with you what I learned so that you don't find yourself in a situation like I was in.

It happened on Saturday night as I was coming back from my parent's house & I was on my way to my place to get ready to go out for my friend Mayra's birthday dinner. I was on the far right lane getting ready to exit the Tollway, when all of a sudden this Ford truck got over from the fast lane, to the middle lane & I'm right next to him, probably on his blind spot & I saw that he was about to get over, so I honked & I had to pump my breaks because if I hadn't, he would've side swapped my car against his bed trailer. I was so angry I honked at him for like 2 or 3 seconds, & he break checked me.. by this time the exit ramp was there & I was following too close to him & when I saw his break lights, I swerved to the right where the exit ramp is & all of a sudden my car fish tailed ... left, right, left & I saw the huge concrete wall on the right & I knew I was going to hit it. By this point, I wanted to be stopped so that way I wouldn't go into a full spin & probably merge back into the highway & do more damage, so I saw my car go to the right & I took my hands off the wheel & it hit, BAM! I saw the guy in his truck on the exit lane too because he was going to exit, so he must've seen that I hit the wall, & he got back on the tollway & ran. I didn't even have a chance to get his plates, it all happened super fast.

My side air bags deployed, my windshield cracked from the far right, & at least I could drive away from the freeway but I knew there was some damage to my tire because it was wobbly & I could hear it screeching. I got back on the tollway to follow the guy, but he took off really fast & I knew I couldn't drive at a high speed because of my tire, so I took the next exit & I couldn't see anything on the right because my airbags were just hanging there so I blindly took a right at the light, & thankfully there were no cars on the service road & I got back to my apartments a minute after I exited.

I called my insurance & told them what happened. I was so calm throughout it all, it's so weird. Normally, I would've been crying & been hysterical but I was just thankful that I was okay. When I got out of my car & looked at the damage I was amazed that it wasn't as extensive as I thought it was gonna be. I think I was going about 65 mph when I hit that wall so it was a miracle that my car only had the damage on the right bumper & the rim was ripped. My car is a trooper! if I would've had a Ford Focus or something, I'm sure it would've been more wrecked.

Here are some pics I took the morning after:

So what I learned from this is that you cannot control what people do, especially not on the roads.. but what you can control is yourself & your vehicle because you are accountable if something goes wrong, especially if you end up losing your life because of it. It made me realize that I need to be more patient & be aware of any possibilities where things could go wrong & know the right approach I need to take from there & not act on my emotions. IT'S NOT WORTH IT! especially since my birthday is coming up & now I have to pay my deductible to get my poor little car fixed. This is not only a hard lesson learned, but an expensive one for sure. Not to get all spiritual, but I think the main reason why I was so calm throughout this whole ordeal when it happened, was cuz I felt like God, or an angel, was protecting me.

I talked with my insurance people today & they said that I was not at fault.. this really made me feel better because at least my premium is not going to be substantially high because of this.

What's really interesting is how I renew my lease next month & I got a special so all I pay is half of November's rent, which means that I have the extra money that I would've used for shopping, drinking, what have you, but now I can use that to fix my car.

Here's my car on its way to the shop

I don't know when I'll get it back.. I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow or the day after. At least my boss is letting me work from home this week so I'm thankful for that too.

I have another post to post, lots of pics from Mayra's birthday party so stay tuned for that too.

This weekend my mom told me she won tickets to go to Paris, France for MLK weekend! so she asked me if I wanted to go along, & I said "hell yeah!" LOL.. I meant to update about it on my last blog post but since so much has happened, I forgot.

We're going on the 16th through the 19th of January I believe. I seriously cannot wait! & I also need to save money for any shopping, or travel expenses.

Oh & I'm still going to Mexico.. at the end of January. My friends & I are going on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico the last weekend of January.

Looks like 2010 will be starting off great with traveling to places I've never been before.

This past week has been so eventful, I can't even imagine what the weekend has in store for me. Monday I went to this live show taping of this show called "Inside The Huddle", & my friend Michelle invited me so I went to meet her there. It was held at the House of Blues & they were doing a meet-&-greet with Miles Austin & Tashard Choice, Dallas Cowboys players. I didn't get there 'til late because I get off work at 6pm. I somehow got there in time to see Miles & I made my way towards him & got Michelle to take a picture of us!

Gorgeous man! OMG.. he looks like A-Rod too, & it's funny because I also met A-Rod way back in the day when I used to work at Six Flags. What was even better was that I got to meet him briefly after his big game the day before. I told him "You're awesome!" and he goes, "Thank you!" This dude made my night.

Me & Tashard Choice.. this was also a brief picture because he was headed downstairs to start the filming of the show. I don't know why but I forgot to take a picture with my girl Michelle! but anyway here she is with Miles..

We were just hanging at the Foundation Room, which is upstairs.. I was surprised there were no hukkas around cuz it had that middle eastern feel in that room.

Mike Jenkins & I.. this dude is such a sweetheart. We talked for awhile & hung out afterwards at BlackFinn, which is a bar in Addison. I grabbed his iPhone & added my Twitter account to his Twitter! LOL.. I'm crazy I know. My girl Leona came with me to BlackFinn & I was glad because I didn't feel like going by myself.. Michelle had to work back at the radio station so she couldn't swing it. It was so packed there at the bar too, it felt like a Saturday night.

Moving on to other things..

My book club started back up! We met up last night at this bookstore in our neighborhood & we were trying to choose which book to read next. We had like 4 or 5 of Jodi Picoult's books, The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks & some other ones I've never heard of. I spoke up & said, "Family stories are fine & all but I'm newly single & this ain't gonna do it for me, sorry to say" & all the girls agreed with me! haha. So in a way I persuaded them to choose this one book about mystery & it's called The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. The author happened to be there at the bookstore, so luckily our friend bought us all the books & the author signed it! How neat is that?

I can't wait to dive into this book.. I've recently neglected my reading so I'm happy to get back into it again.

So glad tomorrow is Thursday.. oh yeah & it's my little sister's birthday! she's turning 12! my God, where does the time go?! I can't wait 'til the weekend <3

This weekend was full of all around fun, laughs, crazy moments, & great memories were born.. along with great pictures. It was my dear friend Beth's birthday celebration weekend so we went out on the town & had a fabulous time dancing the night away.

I did a little shopping at this store because Beth found some great jeans for a reasonable price, & since I've lost weight I've been needing some nice jeans that fit so I got these really cute jeans! & 3 tops.. including the one I'm wearing.

We had dinner in downtown Fort Worth at this pizza place called Uno's. They had the best deep dish pizza, it was yummy. Then this guy sang Happy Birthday to Beth in his Opera singing voice, it was impressive! We each had like 2 or 3 bites of the chocolate cake they gave her.. I had worked out for 45 min on the elliptical that day so I didn't feel bad having a tiny bite.

We made out way to this club called Vice.. I hardly ever go to "Funkytown" aka Fort Worth, so it was a nice atmosphere & the DJ was playing a lot of songs that we remember from back in highschool! haha.

Sunday I was bored so I styled my hair in curls with the flat iron & I love how it came out. I used Photoshop to make the background from beige to black. Me likey!