Lace & Roses

Quick Write

2010-05-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is a quick write piece that I wrote in my journalism workshop last week. We had about ten minutes to write about an anecdote, including two paragraphs of introduction/storytelling and two paragraphs of reflection. It's silly but I haven't put anything on here for awhile... so why not?!

Third grade was a pivotal year for me--I mastered multiplication up to four, I learned that gay meant something other than happy, and I got hit in the head with a dodgeball by my crush, which of course meant he liked me. I was young and free with only one problem-- I did not have reading glasses. It wasn't that I needed reading glasses, but my cool friend Kristen had arrived at school one day with the cutest tortoise shell Laura Ashley glasses and I knew I had to have some too. I asked her how she had gotten them:
"Mrs. Burke noticed that I was squinting in class. She told my mom and we went to the doctor and he said I needed them. I really don't though."
She as in denial and I was green with envy. That day, I made a point to squint every time my teacher looked at me, which was often because I was raising my hand at every opportunity so that she would notice me squinting. My efforts paid off and she asked me to stay behind after class. I stood next to her desk casually, trying to hide my sincere glee as she wrote what was bound to be an urgent letter informing my parents of my blindness and urging them to get me some glasses-- Laura Ashley, preferably, with tortoise shell frames.
When we got to the eye doctor my mom was pleased to see that I passed the first few sight tests easily; the death grip on her credit card must have released considerably. I knew time was running out--the last sight test was upon me and I had to make it count. I missed a whole line on the chart. The doctor gave me an opportunity to try the line again, and again I failed to respond with the letters in their proper order. The doctor told my mom that he couldn't figure out what had happened on the last test; I had gotten several other lines with much smaller fonts correct. He prescribed very mild corrective lenses that he said I should only use when reading. I cherished my beautiful, well-earned Laura Ashley glasses for a good three days before I became embarrassed to wear them in class. Mrs. Burke would tell Kristen and I to put on our glasses every day during free reading, until the day, a few weeks later, when I respectfully informed her that my corrective lenses had done the trick and I no longer needed their aid.
In retrospect, I was a devious, superficial eight year old. Now, I embrace my good vision because I am one of the few people I know who is not bothered with contact lenses and lens cleaner on daily basis. I do occasionally wish I had a pair of glasses to make me look pensive and well-read, but I realize that it would be ridiculous and expensive to indulge such a petty desire.
As I have gotten older I have learned to appreciate the parts of my life that are in perfect working order, rather than hoping for some obscure ailment for people to acknowledge and pity. Third grade taught me that there is always more to look forward to. I went on to master complex multiplication AND division, and I learned that being bombarded by your crush is not the best foundation for a relationship. Such clarity could only come from experience and I still have my tiny Laura Ashley glasses to remind me to appreciate the good things in life and to be grateful for what I have.

Bring on the Cheese!

2009-12-08T15:11:00.000-08:00

WARNING: The following blog post may be cheesy. Approach with caution.

I try to avoid highly sentimental and/or cheesy blogs, because I tend to think that people don't really like to read about other people's epiphanies (or maybe just mine). But I'm in a grateful mood so I felt like sharing some perspective.

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I try very hard to avoid making mistakes at all costs. Not that anyone tries to make mistakes (I don't think anyone does anyway...), but I really HATE making mistakes. Most of the time I feel like mistakes are avoidable. If you know that you shouldn't do something, it's usually pretty easy to acknowledge that beforehand and not put yourself in a bad position where you are likely to make a mistake. But, while mistakes are often hurtful and typically avoidable, they do have one quality that I appreciate: Mistakes are educational. If you make a mistake, you are being given the opportunity to learn from it. The guilt or dissatisfaction that you feel after making a mistake is sometimes enough to keep you from making the mistake again, and that is a wonderful thing about life. You will not be condemned for every mistake you make, only if you fail to learn from the mistake and use your knowledge in future endeavors.

Some mistakes are bigger than others and harder to rectify, but if handled properly, you may be able to show people that what you did really was a mistake; one that you will do your best to never make again. In order to correct your mistakes, you must acknowledge that it was in fact, a mistake. Some people are unable to do this, and it takes them much longer to learn their lesson. One of the hardest things in life to do is to admit that you were wrong. People do NOT like to be wrong, and they especially do not like to admit when they're wrong. If you are able to admit it, however, you will reap the rewards. You will earn the respect of your peers, co-workers, teachers, and family members if you are able to admit your errors and do your best to fix them.

I am grateful that my parents taught me to be honest, and to admit my mistakes. They also raised me not to regret things, but to learn from them and make the best of all situations. I am grateful for those lessons above all, and for the kindness shown by those who have forgiven me for the mistakes I've made in my life. As much as I hate to admit that I have made mistakes, I am willing to do so because I've learned from them and they will make me a better person in the future.

I hope that you all are as lucky as I have been in my life, and I hope that you're able to forgive yourself for the mistakes you've made in your life; because if you can't forgive yourself for your mistakes, how will anyone else?

Cotillion Update!

2009-11-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

The 3rd grader known as "Timmy" in my last blog changed his tune at the last cotillion.

I saw him the moment he walked in. There he was, acting all nice and innocent. When the kids were numbered off I kept an eye on him to see if he tried to switch numbers with anyone, in case he had ended up in my group again. He looked suspicious, but did not try to switch numbers with anyone. That was a good sign. He did not end up in my group, but I was told to tell his group of children what to expect as they approached the snack table on this particular day. They were to introduce their partner, thank the snack patrons for inviting them to the cotillion, and tell the patrons what they would be doing for their "Winter Break" (I prefer to call it Christmas Break but soon found that children who do not celebrate Christmas were confused, and I had to correct myself by saying, "Oh. I mean WINTER Break." I miss the good old days.)

I walked up to "Timmy" and his partner and tried to act casual. He gave me a look like "C'mon you. You know me!" So I looked at him and said, "Hi 'Timmy.'" I was very casual. Very cool. He said hi and started GUSHING about his pets and his partner's pets and how "[His] best friend is dancing with [his] MORTAL ENEMY!" It was precious. And I felt silly for getting flustered over an 8-year-old.

That's my story.

Happy Reminder

2009-09-16T23:22:00.001-07:00

So tonight, as I shuffled busily around my place of employment serving fantastically profitable amounts of alcohol to my party of 30, Boyfriend reminded me that I have this blog! I tend to forget about writing on here, but each time I remember, I vow to improve my loyalty to my beloved blog. So once again, I will say that I WILL TRY to be a better blogger!

In other news, I started assisting at a local cotillion/school of etiquette last night and it was so much fun! The kids were all so cute, doing their little formal introductions, and tiny merengue dance steps! I did, however, scare a child.

The evening began with the 3rd-4th graders. We numbered both the boys and the girls off one to four and told the children to go the corner with the corresponding number. From there we had the girls get into a circle facing outward and the boys get into a circle facing inward toward the girls. My group was short a girl, so I stepped into the girl's circle. As I expected, none of the boys wanted to be partnered with me for too long, but most of them were relatively nice about it. They would quietly tell the boy next to them "I hope we rotate soon..." but they made the effort to spare my feelings about the matter. All except for "Timmy" (Name has been changed... just because I felt like changing it). "Timmy" did NOT want to be my partner. Unfortunately for him, I ended up being his partner for snack time. This meant that he would have to offer me his right arm, take my gloves (if I had been wearing any), introduce me to the Snack Patrons, get me a snack, and converse with me for the ten minute snack period. He wouldn't have any of it. Reluctantly, he offered me his arm, and I tried to assuage his disappointment by telling him that unlike the other boys, he didn't have to take my gloves, because I didn't have any! This did not make him happier. We waited in the line--almost silently, except for my futile attempts to make small-talk-- until we made it to the snack table. The Snack Patrons prompted "Timmy" to introduce his partner to them, to which he said, "I don't have a partner." He kept his head down all the while, as he poured himself some lemonade and grabbed himself a cookie. The patrons, bless their hearts, tried once more to get him to perform properly, and they asked him if he would like to offer his partner a snack. He simply said, "Nope," and walked away.
I was not going to give up. I followed him to his seat and sat down beside him as he scooted as far away from me as he possible could get on his two foot-wide seat. He tried to talk to the couple next to him, who clearly sympathized with his having to be paired with one of the patrons. So I talked with them. The other little girl was perfectly amicable while the other boy made a point not to make eye contact with me. "Timmy" begged the girl to switch seats with him so he could sit next to the other boy, which she politely did. The girl was nice and tried very hard to make me feel better about the situation, but then she decided that it was best to return to her proper seat and follow the rules that had been set forth by the coordinators. So "Timmy" slunk back into his seat beside me. I tried again:

Me: "'Timmy' why won't you talk to me?"
"Timmy": "Because you're scary!"
Me: "Oh I'm not scary. I really don't mean to be scary."

::SILENCE::

Me: "So 'Timmy,' do you play any sports?"
"Timmy": "Soccer."
Me: "Oh I love soccer! I used to play every year. What position do you play?"
"Timmy": "Defense. And offense."
Me: "It sounds like you like to play all over. Do you like to play midfield?"
"Timmy": "Yes."
Me: "Midfield was always my favorite position."
"Timmy": "I don't like it."
Me: "Oh okay. So how old are you 'Timmy'?"
"Timmy": "Almost nine."
Me: "Wow, that's cool! I'm 20."
"Timmy": "THAT'S WHY YOU'RE SO SCARY!"

Luckily, at this time they called the end of snack and said that we were about to begin dancing. As I expected based on his snack time behavior, "Timmy" did not want to dance with me. He would not grab my hand and he would not move his feet as the dance instructor began explaining the simple steps of the merengue. I told "Timmy" that he didn't have to hold my hands, but I tried to get him to move his feet. He wouldn't. Well, that's incorrect. He DID move his feet, but only to get as far away from me on the dancefloor as he possibly could. I finally decided to recruit another patron to get him to dance so that I would not scar poor "Timmy" any more on his first day of cotillion. He was a very cute boy and I am determined to become his friend within the next 6 months of classes! I guess I'll just have to be less "scary"-- less... 20.

Sore.

2009-05-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Three nights in a row of 6 hours of serving plus two hours of softball and going on 1-2 walks per day, while getting very little if any sleep has left me a bit tired and sore.

But luckily everything else is beautiful at the moment! It's a gorgeous, sunny day and I will most definitely be spotted lounging around the pool reading "Down and Out in Paris and London" within the next two hours :)

Divine Intervention

2009-03-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

You can try to convince me that there is no God, but I'll never believe you.

3 Hours and counting...

2009-03-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Some people might say that I'm pathetic for sitting at home on a Friday night, eating Dove chocolate and Jolly Ranchers and watching the Disney channel. Lucky for me, I have an excuse! As I mentioned in my last post... BOYFRIEND COMES HOME TONIGHT! I turned in my last poetry essay, took my poetry final, washed my car, got the sparkling cider and champagne for my WONDERFULLY ROMANTIC scheme tonight, and I had RA for dinner :) Today is basically the best day ever!

I do have a moderately exciting story from today as well!

As I'm driving home from school, I come across a small queue of about three cars that seem to be stopped at a green light. I began pressing down on my brake pedal about 100 feet behind the car in front of me and come to a stop a safe distance away. Had I been in a hurry I probably would have changed lanes and avoided having to wait behind the stopped cars altogether, but I was in a good mood, a good song was playing, and I wasn't in any rush. I had been stopped for all of five seconds when I look into my rearview mirror and see a cream-colored '66 Mustang driving full speed towards me. I saw the old man's face as he realized that my car was not moving, and he quickly pulled the e-brake and fish tailed to avoid rear ending me. My heart stopped. I can only imagine what his poor old heart was doing. Luckily there was no one behind him or to the right of him, so his maneuver didn't affect anyone. It's times like those that you realize how lucky you really are. Worst case scenario the man could have slammed into me, causing me to hit the car in front of me, possibly causing any other number of cars to hit each other (yeah, he was going THAT fast) and any one of us could have been seriously injured. I drove away from that intersection feeling even more refreshed than I did yesterday when I had had no "near-death" experiences.

I attribute my good fortune to my safety shell. If you're ever in my car feel free to ask me about it. I'll show you :) It has protected me since I was sixteen (aka no accidents/tickets/etc.)

Good story. I know.

Life should have a "refresh" button.

2009-03-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

There has been something about this week that has been oddly refreshing. It could be because of the fact that despite the oodles and oodles of things I've had on my agenda (daily)I haven't felt stressed. I've forced myself to stay awake all day (meaning none of the naps I love so dearly) in order to be productive. I've been more actively engaged in school, my sorority, and my family life this way. It's weird how the busier you are, the happier you seem to be. You would think that a busy person would knock himself out trying to do EVERYTHING and be EVERYWHERE at the same time, and that having a full schedule would be tiresome-- but it's oddly refreshing.

The other refreshing aspect of this week could be due to the fact that Boyfriend will be coming home TOMORROW and I successfully avoided getting sick all week! [I felt the sickness coming on last Friday, so I let myself sleep approximately 30 hours over the weekend to get my energy levels back up. I also have been taking my Esberitox every day, as well as daily multi-vitamins, using the Neti pot, and avoiding milk products.]

It's a weird coincidence but every time Boyfriend is close to coming home either he gets sick, or I do. Without fail. OR on the off chance that neither of us gets sick before he gets home, one of us gets sick WHILE he's home, which is even worse. No matter. This time will be different. We will both be healthy and happy and productive and everything will be wonderful!

But before he gets home I have to write a poetry essay, study for my poetry final, turn in my essay and take my final, finish the part of his belated Valentine's gift that I'm making, buy the part of his belated Valentine's gift that I'm buying, buy a Coke in a glass bottle, buy champagne and some Martinelli's, and wash my car.

::Refresh::

Death by Peanut Butter.

2009-01-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

If you've been hip to the latest news, you may be aware that there have been over 400 salmonella-related illnesses in the U.S., and three deaths. What do all of the victims have in common? They have all consumed peanut butter. Now before you run to your cupboard and evict your jar of peanut butter, you may be interested to know that most of the cases involved peanut butter that was distributed from food service providers, not directly to consumers. King Nut and Parnell's Pride peanut butters and suspected to be the culprits. Two years ago, ConAgra recalled Peter Pan Peanut Butter for causing over 650 cases of salmonella food poisoning in almost every one of our 50 states.
I was thankful to find that my favorite peanut butter brand's (Skippy) reputation appears to remain untainted, and I intend to continue eating the Duane ____ Burger as often as possible.
In lighter news, the mayor of Guanajuato has declared Mexico City the "kissing capital of the world." He did not do this to encourage romantic PDA, however. He did it to prove that he had not, in fact, placed a ban on kissing in public as it had been rumored. He set an ad campaign in motion with a picture of a couple kissing that says, "Guanajuato, the kissing capital." This is a sweet idea and all, but couldn't he have just denied the kissing prohibition? Does he need a full-fledged campaign to prove he's not the anti-cupid? Whatever his reasons, it looks like Rome and Paris are being given a run for their money ;p ...or not.

The Funny Thing About the Flu

2008-10-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

The flu does a lot of things to a person. There are the obvious symptoms: congestion, cough, sore throat, all over body aches, fatigue, etc.

But beyond the less than pleasurable symptoms of the flu, you may find yourself deliriously hopeful of doing two things: 1) being outrageously productive in the downtime you now find yourself with since you have missed all of your classes for the day or 2) wanting to sleep the day away, turn off your phone and become a complete recluse.

Well I have found myself feeling both extremes in the now three days that I have been sick. Sleeping has, of course, gotten quite old and I daresay I will most likely avoid sleep at all costs for the first week of my improved health. Perhaps two weeks. I also have fluctuated through the cycle of wanting to be productive and rationalizing that I needn't be, because, well, I am sick after all. I have work to do for all four of my classes and I feel that it would be advantageous to my mental health (though maybe not my physical health) to get it done. Advantageous or not, I predict that I will get very little done in the coming hours of illness and I probably also will not sleep.

A third symptom of sickness has suddenly become apparent. The desire to watch endless hours of television while snuggled comfortably in my bed drinking ginger ale and texting all of the exciting folks who are out living their exciting lives on a Saturday night.

The third will reign victorious tonight.

Bizzwords

2008-08-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

I got an e-mail from my dad that contained a little snippet from a review of a book by "Mr. Bergman." In it, he mentions a few words that I definitely think should become a part of everyone's daily life when they become part of the workplace.

chainsaw consultant, "an outside consultant brought in to fire employees"
brightsizing, "downsizing by laying off the brightest workers"
layoff lust, "the desire to be fired from one's job"
to Nasdaq, meaning "to sharply decline in value or quantity."
bozo explosion, "a rapid increase of incompetent employees at a particular company" mucus trooper, "an employee with a cold or the flu who insists on showing up for work"
prairie-dogging, "the sudden appearance of people's heads over the top of the cubicle walls when something interesting or noisy happens."
jetiquette, the flyers' code of polite behavior.
clickstream, "the virtual path a person takes while surfing the Web"
Zen mail, "an e-mail message without text or attachments"
Dorito syndrome, dissatisfaction felt after wasting time surfing the Net and accomplishing nothing

"There are also a number of entries whose business connections are tenuous. For example, negative patient outcome (the patient died) is medical jargon. Voluntary simplicity (avoiding luxury and pretense) smacks of New Age patois. And ohnosecond -- "the little bit of time it takes you to realize that you've just made a huge mistake" -- has far too much potential to be confined to the workplace."

My favorites are bozo explosion and mucus trooper. C'mon, you know we've all tried to think of what to call those people that make you gag day after day with their constant sniffing and hocking. Ta-da! Now if we could only introduce these people to another highly used bit of necessary jargon. Antibiotics.

Twilight

2008-04-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting around to reading the first book in the Twilight series! I read the second one in the beginning of my senior year but I just now got around to reading the first. My inspiration? I want to have all the books read before the movie comes out (and also because I saw it on display at my school's bookstore for 20% off the display price... only SEVEN dollars!). I really can't stand it when a movie ruins the essence of a book. I find that if you've read the book first and the movie is awful, at least you know that you can always return to the beloved text version of the story. But if you see the movie and THEN read the books, you are often forced to think of all the characters in terms of how they are portrayed in the movies and these depictions more often than not are different from how your imagination would create them to be.

So I am reading the book first! Unfortunately, I know who is going to be playing Edward (the really gorgeous guy who plays Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!) so I already am starting to envision him in the role. Sad.

Springtime!

2008-03-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

It is officially Spring! I realize that technically it has been Spring since whenever the hedgehog... wait no, it's a groundhog, so since whenever the groundhog poked his little head out to announce the arrival of springtime. Not really sure when that was to tell you the truth. What's the difference between a groundhog and a hedgehog anyway? As far as I know hedgehogs do not live in hedges (the only ones I have ever known of lived in Alli's house actually) and I have never seen a hog in the ground. Who names these animals??

Anyway, the first day of Spring Quarter is tomorrow and I am stoked. Why am I stoked you ask? Because I am determined to be SO organized and SO on top of things this quarter that I cannot help but get ALL A's! Yes, that's right. I'm aiming high.

I'll keep you posted on the likelihood of me actually achieving my goal.

HAPPY SPRING!

Cheerful post!

2008-03-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't like having a negative post as my last post... so I decided to write a cheerful one to top it off!

I'm in a good mood! I have Fruit Punch Gatorade and I'm having a wonderful week with Boyfriend and I went to Disneyland and Malibu and Balboa and I'm going to a Ducks game tonight and the super secret Valentine's Day date is in THREE DAYS and basically... everything is wonderful!

Yay for happiness!! Eat your heart out negative blog post.

P.S. There will be a post about Malibu, with some of the wonderful pictures that we took that day :)

I cannot describe...

2008-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

...how awful the past week has felt.

Porgy and Bess

2008-02-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Back in the day when I would hear mention of "Porgy and Bess" I had no idea what people were talking about. Not only did I not know what they were talking about, but I actually suspected that it had something to do with a pig and a cow (I heard "Porky" and Bess, not Porgy). Turns out the story doesn't have anything to do with farm animals! I just thought this was an interesting fact. I now know that it is a folk opera (not to be confused with an "opera") written by the infamous George Gershwin. I feel very enlightened!

Off topic. I think I am going to begin another blog. The subject is yet to be determined. I'll keep you... blogged? Haha ♥

15 Minutes Means So Much.

2008-02-25T10:46:00.001-08:00

I have found myself with 15 minutes of free time. This has not happened in I don't know HOW long! I'm sitting outside my lecture hall, having finished the assignment that isn't due until 4pm! That's pretty good for me, as I usually wait until the last possible moment to start such things. But I'm done! I just got a chance to catch up some e-mails and my dad sent me the link to this really great website! So I'm sharing it with you.

Check it out!

Basically you just put in your birth date and it tells you a world of information about yourself! Including the approximate day of the week you were conceived and how old you are in dog years! (I am still but a negative exponent)

It's fun. I recommend that you check it out.

Off to class! What a wonderful 15 minutes it has been :)

Myspace Is Your Space

2008-01-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

So today I got to work, after having a particularly stressful morning taking care of my sick mother. I say it was stressful because I would have much rather stayed to take care of my mother than go to work, but my dad and aunt were able to stay with her so she was well taken care of. My amazing manager Kris (28, successful, blonde hair, blue eyes, 68" High Def television) allowed me to come in 45 minutes late to work until someone could be with my mom. When I got there Kris had already done all of my opening sidework (thank you Kris!) and all I had to do was cut bread and put out butter. How nice!

There was no host today, so we servers seated customers ourselves in our sections. A man walked in by himself and most servers do not like to take single parties (smaller checks I suppose...) but I like solos, so I greeted him and sat him in my section. Little did I know that this man was the founder of myspace! (No, he's not Tom or Chris, the two guys who came up with the idea and were the essential brains of the operation.) This man owns and operates the media company under which myspace was run. HOW EXCITING! I didn't know that he was who he was, but he looked familiar so I made a point of looking at the name on his credit card. B_____ B_____. I assumed he was a football player because he looked like he could have been and the name fer sure seemed like a pro athlete. So I got home and googled him and found out who he was... so so SO exciting! And for the record, he tipped me very well. Hope he comes back!

Caught!

2007-12-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

So the other day as we were on our first of two weekend phone dates, the boyfriend found my blog.

Now, I'm not entirely sure how he came upon it, because he CLAIMED it came up on the 15th page of the google search for Emmanuel Lewis. I know, this whole thing sounds entirely random, but I didn't believe him so I proceeded to copy the google search and went the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th pages to see if there was any possibility that he was telling the truth. Nothing. So I think he was trying to fool me and really he just typed my name (or some variant of my name) on google and it came up.

Either way, he knows about it and regardless of whether or not he'll ever look here again, I thought it should be known that another person has sneakily discovered my blog (which is far less exciting that Miss Alli's, for she is much better at maintaining her blog than I am).

So boyfriend, if you are reading this... HI! If not, then I'll tell you hi next time I talk to you :)

It's Christmas Break! I'm stoked. ♥

Procrastination Proclamation

2007-11-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

If I know that I'm procrastinating does it make it better or worse for me?

On the pro side, I tend to work best under pressure with the clock ticking.

On the con side, I stress myself out when I don't allow myself to be productive.

I went to Six Flags today for the first time EVER! It was great (except for the part where the security people stole my flower highlighter, fat sharpie, and tiny keychain sharpie for "graffiti prevention" as I entered the park. Bad first impression.). Tatsu is my favorite ride cause it feels like you're FLYING and it's amazing. Deja Vu hurt my head like none other. X hurt pretty bad too but it was fun besides the splitting headachiness. Goliath was pretty darn fun too, that is a FABULOUS roller coaster. It was good to get to hang with Ben and Ryan again, I've missed them dearly :(

Thanksgiving is in a week and two days! People are starting to return home on SATURDAY which is in four days, and I seriously cannot WAIT! Although i will be very busy until that time with server training/shadowing, school, and making a paddle for my Big Sis (whom I love dearly, even though she led me to believe she was NOT going to be my big)

Can I fast forward to Saturday please? Great. Thanks.

And for the record, I have decided that as long as I know and acknowledge the fact that I am procrastinating it's not such a bad thing, because I am not lying to myself and pretending to be productive. At least I realize that I am a ridiculous silly fool lacking the motivation to write an essay about Descartes...

Train Station Observations and Random Thoughts

2007-10-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

Train station.

Aggressive pigeons.

Ew. A guy spat. I hate it when guys spit. Why do guys spit? Is it a masculinity complex? It is SO not attractive.

Homeless man with the Bible. I want to buy him a sandwich.

Woman checking her face in a compact. Maybe she’s going to see her boyfriend. Maybe they haven’t seen each other for days or weeks or months. She looks excited. I’ll bet she hasn’t seen her boyfriend for a long time.

Boy with mini faux-hawk and UCSD sweatshirt tapping his feet and hands to the upbeat music coming from his i-Pod. He looks bored. I would talk to him but I would rather watch people.

Ooh! Guy in a Navy (?) uniform (it’s tan with the little sailor-like hat… I think it’s the Navy’s new uniform). I’ll bet he’s going home today! He looks excited too.

Old man picking his nose. His name is Andres. Well, his hat has “Andres” embroidered on it. I will call him Andres regardless of whether it’s his real name or not.

Policeman! R. Anderson. I like policemen. I hope Tyler’s dream of becoming a cop comes true. He would be such an amazing police officer.

Navy man looks tired now. I’ll bet he wants to go home really badly.

Cute couple sitting behind me. The woman is crocheting something blue. I’ll bet she has grandchildren. She looks like she would be an excellent grandmother.

I probably should be writing my essay for humanities.

I like San Diego. It’s a really pretty city. It’s a mix of city and country. There are SO many amazing trees—I love it. Greg does too, which is great because he lives here now.

I’m not sure how the whole train thing works… this guy told me I don’t buy my ticket until I board the train. I hope I understood him correctly. It would suck to miss the train.

Trains are loud. Who rides the train in California nowadays anyway? I feel like I’m living in the 20’s. I’m going to board the train and Humphrey Bogart is going to run alongside it telling me he’s in love with me and doesn’t want me to go back to my home in Georgia. He’ll keep running until the train reaches top speed, and he’ll slowly stop running as a single tear rolls down his face. I’ll look on him with sadness as I kiss the glass window. My ruby red lipstick will stain the glass and then the credits will roll.

The woman sitting next to me has a really cool straw baseball cap. She’s the same woman who was looking at herself in the compact a few minutes ago. She works here collecting trash. She’s putting on lipstick and eye liner now. She’s really pretty. I feel bad that she has to collect trash. Why can’t people just pick up after themselves? Local governments have supplied us with a surplus of trash receptacles; is it that hard to walk an extra five feet to a trash can? I think not.

My Monster isn’t cold anymore. I want water. My texts aren’t going through to people so no one is answering me. I’m listening to a song that reminds me of my ex.

Isn’t time a strange thing? Six months ago I was nowhere near as happy as I am now. I felt like there was just something missing but now I seriously feel so content and so complete. I seriously have such an amazing life with such amazing friends and family. I’m so lucky!

The Navy man got on his train. There he goes, heading home to his long lost love or his mother who has secretly cried in the bathroom every night over his absence for two years while he’s been away at war. Actually he’s probably just been at Camp Pendleton for basic training, but that’s not as exciting of a story.

Super cute little boy weather a turtle shirt. His grandma is holding a white and a purple balloon. Maybe it’s his birthday. Or hers?

I can’t read what I’m typing. The sun is really bright. There are probably a lot of typos. I think I’ll post this as a note on facebook. I’ve never posted a legitimate note. Has anyone really? Facebook notes aren’t really a popular thing.

Clarissa told me I’m “prec” (pronounced like fresh but with a ‘p’). She’s a cute girl. I like the sound of that. You’re so prec! People at UCSD are super cute. I have a new twin. Her name is Lis. We don’t really look all that similar—we determined that the similarity pretty much ends at our round faces. She has really pretty blue eyes and I only wish I did.

A really nice woman with red streaks in her hair just asked me about my computer. She liked it and didn’t mock it for its size like boys do. Boys are just jealous cause I can say, “mine is bigger than yours.” Haha I’m so funny. Not.

I love seeing couples. It makes me happy to see that love actually does exist. Although not all couples you see are necessarily in love, you can expect that they have the potential to be—I think that’s such a great thing to be capable of. I love loving people. I love being loved too.

Text to Tyler isn’t going through. I would resend it but I feel needy and lame when I do that and I don’t want to.

I just had a lovely conversation with the train station officer and R. Anderson (the aforementioned police officer). They are super nice and fun to talk to. I was sitting on the total wrong side of the train tracks and had to walk a really long way around to get where I’m supposed to be. I’m sitting with the grandmother of the little boy I was talking about earlier. Their whole family is here now and they’re all super cute together.

It’s weird how I have now interacted with almost all of the people I was writing about in the beginning of this ridiculous little montage. It’s like life—we’re all interrelated in some way. I think that’s fabulous. It’s the whole six degrees thing. I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Brad Pitt. I do not particularly care about Brad Pitt, but Greg does, so this association could make him happy.

I think Crocs are such silly shoes. They look super cute on babies and toddlers though. Perhaps my children will wear Crocs. I am so excited about the prospect of getting married and having a family. I think it’ll be so much fun. Hopefully by then I’m mature enough to take both advancements seriously rather than pretending like I’m playing house. I loved playing house when I was younger. My preschool boyfriends got very used to playing house every day before school, at school, and after school.
What lucky kids those boys were. Not.

I wish writing essays for school was as easy as writing random thoughts and observations. If that were true I would be almost done with my humanities essay which needs to be at least three pages by Tuesday. It is currently less than 0 pages. I say “less than 0” because I haven’t even brainstormed for it yet. I’m such a failure. It’ll be good though. I’ll find some inspiration.

I have had the urge to listen to my old Avril Lavigne CDs for a couple days now. Why? I don’t know. It’s a strange urge to have at age 18 when the world is at my feet. I could be out traveling to exciting new places, meeting exciting new people, and learning new languages—but no. I would prefer to stay at home and listen to my old Avril Lavigne CDs. I love college.

Wouldn’t that be cool if someone read this blog and decided that I was this amazingly talented, innovative person whose thoughts and ideas could change the world, and they paid me millions of dollars to go sit in various random public locations to watch people and ponder the ways of the world? I think I would quite like that. My odds are probably pretty good too, considering all the ridiculous things people are paid to do nowadays. Unlike some of the random weird people in reality tv shows, I will not flash people. I will make my money and claim my fame honestly and conservatively with my top ON, thank you very much. ♥

Recap of my week...

2007-09-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Monday: I went to the fair in the park on campus to check out all of the sororities that I will be rushing (beginning tomorrow). I narrowed my prospective list from 8 to 5 in a mere 20 minutes. One of them (I'll refrain from using their name) was just psycho. Each sorority is responsible for putting their top 3 members in the booth to recruit girls-- if these three girls were that sorority's top 3 I feel sad for them. These girls were weird, I honestly thought one as a trekkie and they all looked like they hadn't done any form of grooming in weeks. That statement was my mean quota for the day. It just had to be said. I backed away slowly (but not smoothly, I hit my head on one of their Greek letters on my way out) and pretended to get a phone call.
That night I met up with Danielbeast at the ARC for a big Late Night thing which I ended up leaving after about a half an hour. I did, however, meet a lot of the boys from the Jewish fraternity that are trying with all their might to recruit Danielbeast. They're nice and they really like me :)
After leaving the ARC I went to karaoke as I have done for the past 4 or 5 Mondays, but this time was different. I finally got up the courage to sing! BY MYSELF! People got up and sang and danced and swayed and totally got into it so I was really stoked :))))))

Tuesday: don't remember.
Wednesday: don't remember.
Thursday: First day of school! Parking is miserable, but hey, it's a commuter school-- I should've expected it. I have to park on the OPPOSITE side of campus from where my classes are, but I'm hoping it will prevent the whole Freshmen 15 thing from getting me within its horrible, chubby, stereotypical grasp. I also went to a recruitment meeting and watched The Office tonight. PB & J forever. It's about darn time!
Friday-Monday: Rush!
♥♥♥

Shopping!

2007-09-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

So I went shopping today and got some really cute stuff! I got two longish top/dresses that I plan to wear with leggings and a belt. Do you care? Perhaps not. But that could be because you're jealous that I bought cute new clothes and you didn't. BUT YOU CAN! I was perusing the H&M website so that I could post pictures of the clothes I got but I couldn't figure out how to just look at clothes... I ended up making my own virtual model and it's super fun. You make the model to have your body style, hair style, face style, EVERYTHING and you try clothes on her to see how it looks. If you're bored or don't want to take the time to go try things on, I definitely recommend it. Check it out!

More sap than a Maple tree

2007-09-19T00:31:00.001-07:00

After talking to a few people at work tonight about high school I came to realize just how amazing my high school experience was.
First of all, I had the most solid close circle of friends, plus a lot of casual ones. My close inner circle included Deannie, Alli, and Lindsey-- three of the most amazing friends and people ever. One was a four year varsity softball player, talented saxophonist, and one of the funniest girls I've ever met. Another was a beyond talented performer; whether she was singing with the top singing group at our school or dancing in one of the many shows she was in, she stood out like no other. The last of the three was a total animal lover, adopting her science teacher's frogs and looking for any opportunity to take another science class to put forth for credit to become an animal trainer. All three of them are amazing listeners (and talkers), hard workers, and entirely devoted friends. I think in a way we take our friends for granted, but I am SO grateful to have had all three of them all four years of high school (and two of them since age 5!), it wouldn't have been the same without them.
I also realized that the activities I chose to participate in really shaped who I've become. I did color guard for the first two years which really taught me about discipline, hard work, and dedication. Cheer taught me that you can love a person, but hate their drama. It turns out even Link Crew was worth something! I discovered that the people that bring you into a new environment and show you the ropes really can have an effect on the way you approach your new surroundings. Journalism taught me everything I needed to know in order to choose my potential career path-- I learned so much in my time in journalism I can't begin to write it all out.
Basically high school was amazing! I feel fully prepared to head into college and learn more. I know how to deal with people and situations that I could never have without my high school experiences. Who would have thought I would appreciate high school so much after an extended summer away from it?

I'm starting a new diet I think. Not like a crash diet. In fact, it's not even because I feel like I need to lose weight, I just want to see if I have the will power to cut out certain wonderful (but unhealthy) foods. I haven't worked out the details quite yet... but I'll post the rules when I set them.

Happy 18 years and 100 days to me!

2007-09-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

As of today, I am officially 18 years and 100 days old. How do I know this you ask? Because I added the Countdown application on my facebook and upon entering in a countdown for my birthday, it told me that it was 100 days ago. This means that my next birthday is in 265 days! We'll forget that little number. I think I'll turn 18 again this next year, sound good?

18 sounds like a good age-- what's so great about 19? It's not even an even number.

PICTURES!

2007-09-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

You may or may not have noticed that my last blog was the first in which I uploaded pictures... WELL THIS IS THE SECOND!

I am posting this post for the sole purpose of uploading pictures that I have not shown anyone yet. They're from Ben's going away party...

Time share

2007-09-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here on the balcony of our villa in Newport. I love time share time. This resort is the absolute best home-away-from-home. The weather is basically amazing! It's 101 degrees back home (which is only about 10 or 20 minutes inland) and it's much cooler here, but still warm. It's perfect.

The main reason for this post is so that I can post the pictures I just took of our view. See for yourself!

"Why not two??"

2007-09-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

So last night I went to a movie at the dollar theatre with my good friend Matthew. As we walk up to the ticket window the ticket salesman looks at me and says, "You wait there." Matthew and I exchange confused glances and Matthew approaches the window.
"One ticket for Ocean's Thirteen please," says Matthew.
"Why not two??" Says the ticket salesman.
Matthew makes his 'I feel awkward' face (he's a shy boy) and says, "Why NOT two?!" very enthusiastically.
(At this point I'm trying to contain my laughter...)
And ticket salesman says, "I mean c'mon, it's not like it's very expensive..."
"True," says Matthew.

As we walk away from the window I can't help laughing. And I don't stop for ten minutes. During this time my dear Matthew is trying to un-awkward-ify the situation, saying things like, "I don't know why I didn't just say two in the first place... it's cheap... and it would have been faster."

I'm still laughing about it as I write this.

I mean c'mon... WHY NOT TWO?!

51!

2007-08-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

This is my 51st blog entry! It seems like I've written a lot more over the year(s), but apparently Alli is right. I don't write very often.

But I'm writing today! I think I'll write about my exciting visit to the post office yesterday.

I don't know how many of you are experienced post office visitors, but I assure you I sincerely lack in the area of post office experience. I've been twice in the past week and I've never felt more lost or confused in my life (that's a lie; precalculus was no picnic.) But I really felt like I was drowning... sinking, deeper and deeper into the inescapable black abyss... sinking... sinking... until the guy at the desk called me over.

I was carrying an unclosed box (aka an OPEN box) which had no postage and no sending/return address. I asked my savior ("guy at the desk") for some packing tape and he said "I'm not supposed to give you any" and handed me the tape. He told me to just write the addresses directly onto the box and seal it up and come back. I followed his directions and returned. "Guy at the desk" reprimanded my taping skills (I had merely sealed the box along the open gap) and taped it across the other way "for security purposes." Then he saw the black X's on my hands and said, "Straightedge?"

This comment reminded me of precalculus (because it was the last time I was required to use a staightedge... mine was Kathleen's boyfriend's middle school ID card that I found). I said, "No...?"

"The X's, on your hands, are you straightedge?"
"Oh... no those are from Hogue's. I was there last night."
::Big smile on "guy at the desk"'s face:: "Who was playing??"
"Um... no one. It was karaoke night actually."
"Oh right on. I used to go there all the time (mumbles something under his breath) before I got into a fight there."
"Ummm... got into a fight?'
::Big awkward, guilty smile:: "Goodbye, have a nice day."

And that was that. And with that I left, and my box was sealed and sent.

I intend to return for further questioning. He got off easy that time.

Refusal to fall behind...

2007-08-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

I am writing this blog for two reasons:

1. Because Alli would get mad at me if I didn't :)
2. Because I'm on my BRAND NEW laptop :) :) :)

I love this computer. I've only had it for about an hour at this point but I am so incredibly excited about it. I can't wait to put all my music on it and pictures and start writing the screenplay that has been brewing in my mind for the past few weeks.

The only problem? For a few weeks I've put certain things off, saying that I didn't want to worry about them until I got my new computer. The time has now come to get down to business and do the things I have so irresponsibly put off...

the only problem is--I can't remember what they are now.

Anyway, Deannie left for school on Wednesday, Cassie left today, Shirine leaves in about a week, Alli leaves super soon (I really hope I get to see her before she goes to school, whether I have to drive up north or she gets to come down... ALLI YOU CAN'T LEAVE WITHOUT SAYING BYE!) Oh. But for all of you college-bound friends of mine who have webcams on their BRAND NEW laptops... I have one now too :) Let's chat.

I regret to inform you all that I will not be living in the dorms this year after all. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it yet... I was sad at first, but after letting it settle in my mind a bit I realize it's not that big a deal. I'm going to school five minutes from my house, why pay an extra $10,000+ a year to live in a dorm five minutes away? I think this is the more practical option. Think of all the shoes I can buy with the money I'll be saving! ♥

First SINCE the Last (kind of like "Firsts and Lasts" but not)

2007-08-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

The date of my last blog? June 10 (as you can see if you scroll down a bit). My life has seemed far too chaotic and, I want to say "exciting" but I'm not sure that word is completely appropriate, to take the time to blog about.

But here I am.

I think I'll start my first blog in two months with today's events. I woke up to a scratchy voice (a variant of the scratchy voices that I have had for the past three days). I have to say, I like today's version a lot better than the other days. I got myself up at a decent hour, took a shower, and got to work! I cleaned the kitchen, family room, living room, my brother's room, and my bathroom. Then, I walked my dog and got dressed to go out for the day! I drove to CDM to pick up the lovely and fabulous Alli and we headed to our beloved Wing Stop. Neither of us had been to The Stop in over a month (almost two for me :/ ) so naturally we were SUPER EXCITED! Yuki, our dear WS friend was working, luckily, and he gave us (get this) two drinks, an order of fries, two types of wings, and extra ranch for $1.82. That's an INCREDIBLE value and I feel permanently indebted to him. We tipped him five dollars though so I think he felt it was worth it.

The rest of my day hasn't been all that excited, except that I cleaned my room! Fun. Oh. And I have a boyfriend again ♥

I've missed blogging. I think I'll do it more regularly again :)

First and Lasts

2007-06-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

This has been a very strange week for several reasons:

1. The Ducks won the Stanley Cup! (It's fabulous but it's so special that it makes the week abnormal)
2. This weekend was the last real weekend of our high school lives... at least the last one that had a full week of school following it.
3. CPK, my place of employment, was flooded yesterday. Apparently a pipe burst above the women's restroom, flooding the ceiling and filling the entire restaurant with water knee-deep. This meant that I didn't have work tonight and I may not the rest of the week! (Which would be fab because I have finals this week...)
4. I turned 18. I didn't feel different until Friday night when I called to ask for a ten minute extension to my curfew and I was granted an extra 30 minutes. That was fab too.
5. My car got washed... YAY!
6. I was sick for a week straight. That really hasn't happened to me in awhile...
7. Friday was our last pep rally EVERRR. My last time doing the color shout EVERRR. My last time dressing up for spirit week EVERRR! A lot of lasts.
8. I got mad at my brother for the first time EVERRR. I never get mad at my brother but he was terrible. Not nice.

Yeah that's about it. I also spent a lot of time on projects today. I'm so ready to go to bed and be done with them (but they all turned out FABULOUS!).

Success! (The Sequel)

2007-05-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

As if it wasn't fab enough that I had a successful night at work LAST night, tonight was even better!

I got to work and was told by my favorite(x1000) boss to go check the scheduling board in the back, read the flyer, sign it, and bring it out to him. So I sachee (yes, sachee, I didn't just walk) to the back room where I discover a flyer that says MY NAME in big letters talking about how fantastic I am. Now that sounds conceited, but it actually said that. It was basically a write-up about the bussing incident last night, making me seem like I was a lot more gallant than I really was. It honestly wasn't a huge deal... but I don't mind the fuss ;) So I take the sheet out to my boss and thank him for acknowledging me or whatever and he tells me he has nominated me for a ROCK Star award. (ROCK being our philosophy at CPK) So I filled out this questionairre and put in my t-shirt size and it was done. And it set the tone for the rest of the day.

That whole transaction took about 30 minutes. Then, for the next hour I basically did...well...nothing! There was a fire at the nail salon in our center so the fire department blocked off the whole parking lot... so business was crazy slow. Luckily, they killed the fire and opened the lot back up so business returned, but it was a fun little respite while it lasted.
While the fire escapade was still going on my boss asked me to walk over to investigate the situation. So I casually walked out, went up to these two police officers. Here's the convo:
Me: Hey, so what can you tell me about what's going on here?
Cop 1: Well (looks at nametag) Legacy. I mean... Lacey... from Newport Beach? Very nice. What we have here is a classic case of... combustibles (mumbles a bit)... combusting. It's called a fire.
Me: Oh gosh! That's awful! How long do you think it'll take to put out?
Cop 2: Well...
Cop 1: Well Lacey, the fire is out, but they have to clean it up.
Me: (Frustrated like crazy) So how long do you think it'll be before you can reopen the parking lot?
Cop 1: Oh yeah I'll bet business isn't exactly moving like wildfire HAHAHA. Get it?
Me: Oh AHAHAHAHA! So it'll be open again soon then?
Cop 2: Well...
Cop 1: Yes, it'll be open again soon.

Ridiculous. And rude.

But work was good :)

Success!

2007-05-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

What constitutes a "successful" day at work? I will tell you... since I had a totally, completely, absolutely successful day at work.

I arrived feeling, well merely so-so. I had had a relatively eventful day prior to my 4 o'clock clock-in time (and by eventful I mean I had attempted to clean a couch, gone to Disneyland, sat on Lindsey's car while waiting for the Disney courtesy car-openers to come and open her car, and rushed to make it to work on time... so not ALL that eventful I suppose). So I got to work feeling sort of tired and basically dreading the next 5 hours of my life. It wasn't until 4:30 that I sat my first table (or tried to anyway). It was a party of three women who were dissatisfied with the first two tables I tried to sit them at. They finally said, "Haven't you got a booth?" To which I said "I'm sorry, we only have two full booths in the restaurant and they're both occupied at the moment. I've got this half booth..." and the chicks in the full booth behind me said "Oh we're leaving!" and they got up, making me look really lame. So I turned to the three ladies and said, "I'll bus this booth right up for you!" in the cheeriest voice I could muster. I mean c'mon, first freakin table of the night!

So I juggled two phone calls, the arrival of two more parties, and bussing the coveted full both for the next few minutes before seating the frustrating party of three at that beautiful newly-bussed full booth. And they were happy. So I was happy. Then Lauren (the other host) arrived and time started to move faster. The customers started being friendlier and easier to please, AND I discovered that Juan (the salad/dessert man) respects me! (Apparently it is because he respects me that he always insists on giving me free dessert at the end of the night. I like the idea of being respected AND getting free dessert, don't you?).

Then my boss comes up to me and says that I can leave (mind you, it is only 8pm and I am scheduled until 9, so I was excited!), but he asked which of us had bussed a full booth for a party of three ladies earlier in the day. I got worried. I assumed one of them had complained about me for something or another because people ALWAYS seem to find something to pick at you about, even if you're as nice to them as you can possibly be. But no! They had called in to our corporate office to commend our restaurant on the excellent service, giving us a score of 5 (which I guess is the best?) and they specifically mentioned ME! So my boss was happy with me. So I was happy.

And then I went outside and ate my happy little salad and my happy little slice of key lime pie (thanks Juan!).

Successful night at work? I think so!

Awkward much?

2007-05-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

It's official. I am offically awkward. I remember the days, not so long ago, when I would laugh with Alli about how much fun it was to be in "awkward situations" that you really didn't think were awkward but you knew the other people did.

But now I am awkward... and they're not so funny.

Where did this awkwardness come from? Good question! Perhaps it's the series of awkward encounters with the 'Latino' (not 'Mexican') dishwashers and bussers at work. Apparently they say a lot of things about me that I am completely oblivious to... smiling and saying 'Si' is no longer appropriate since APPARENTLY they are saying rather inappropriate things to me.

So now I'm awkward. If you have any other insight into my newfound awkwardness feel free to share. ♥

It's a B-E-A-UTIFUL Day!

2007-04-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today has been... FANTASTIC! I really can't recall what I did before 12:45pm, which is okay cause it was neither wonderful nor horrible... so I'm happy! But at 12:45 I got home, ate half of my full-sized Waldorf Chicken Salad (copyright CPK) and my DELICIOUS slice of Chocolate Banana Royale Cake (copyright CPK), while watching the latest installment of House. So I was happy. Then I perused my e-mails and comments for awhile before watching Hannah Montana with Lindsey and my mom. My friend Bret's girlfriend was on so we had to watch her. She's a fun girl. Very enthusiastic. Then I went to work, where I hosted alone for the first hour and a half (I seated about 5 tables total in that time and only took about 4 take-out orders... it was QUITE slow), after which I was joined by Nikki, a new-hire. We worked together for a half an hour before Shadee showed up. By this time business still hadn't picked up a whole lot, so my new temporary manager told me that I could leave work early (this was at 6:15! I wasn't supposed to be off until 8:30!!). So I got my Thai Crunch Salad (copyright CPK) and children's sundae which Juan surprised me with :) and FEASTED! I then drove home in my grandfather's luxurious car, rolled the sunroof back, turned the music up, and cruised home.
I just finished my current event (only real homework for the night) and will be leaving in a few minutes to go to the jacuzzi. It's been such a wonderful Wednesday. Tomorrow will be good too! I know it.
♥

Only semi-original blog : )

2007-04-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

I kind of stole Alli's blog idea... but instead of things that make me happy it is going to be a list of

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE
1. Songs by Jason Mraz :)
2. Funny faces :)
3. Silly laughs :)
4. Caramel frappaccinos :)
5. DINGS! (texts) :)
6. Alli, Lindsey, Deannie, Emily, Greg, Matt, Ricky, my parents (sometimes), and a lot of other funny and entertaining people :)
7. Gaby and Prancer :)
11. The fact that I actually typed the number 11 after the number 7 :)
9. Boys :)
10. Old pictures that remind me of funny times :)
8. Glennykins :)
12. Writing exciting horoscopes :)
13. Going to Ducks games :)
14. The Guacamole Bowl :)
15. Seeing cute couples :)
16. The silly little pictures and animations on my phone for text messages :)
17. Every single installment of the Confessions of a Shopaholic series :)
18. Seri and Dom from work :)
19. When I make a fool of myself :)
20. When people think situations are awkward and I know that they do but I actually don't think they're awkward so I milk them for all that they're worth :)
21. Thin Mints :)
22. Lying to protect my Thin Mints :)
23. When I lie... :)
24. My lime green bed sheets :)
25. Seeing/hearing cute boys play guitar *sigh* :)

Countdown to college

2007-04-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

Realization: I am college-bound.
Reaction to Realization: Oh my God.

It's a weird feeling, realizing that your life is going to be REALLY different in just a few months. In two months' time I will be graduating, leaving high school (and unfortunately a lot of really cool people) behind. Until today I felt really unsure about which college I wanted to go to. I felt the most pull toward Wisconsin because I absolutely fell in love with the school (and for you skeptics, my love affair with the city had nothing to do with a certain guy I met there).

After a long, enlightening conversation with my second cousin Sean, a successful attorney (who recently made partner at his law firm) about the consequences of student loans, I decided to rule out the college that would cost me the most money. Not only because of the cost, but the distance, the weather, and the fact that I would not be able to afford coming home more than once or twice a year.

That left me deciding between 5 other schools, a few of which I had ruled out a few weeks ago (ASU--because I don't want to become a wild lush, BYU---because I don't want to fall in love with a man who may or may not be interested in marrying me unless I convert / Not sure I could handle a lot of my friends getting married their first and second years of college, UC Davis---I heard it smells like cows. I also heard that there's nothing to do up there except for drink and go to school. Again, I don't want to become a wild lush, but I also do not want to be a reclusive 24/7 student)

So now I was down to two. Cal Poly SLO and UCI. I think if I hadn't taken a roadtrip up to SLO this week with my mother, I would have registered at SLO for sure, without taking a second thought. Luckily we did, and although I absolutely love the town, the people, and the beautiful drive up there, I did NOT like the campus. It was extremely small, not good looking, and I didn't see much that attracted my interest. I also learned today that their writing program is not very good, which is not okay considering I would be in that department.

So I toured UCI today and I love it. I took the campus tour and then met up with my brother's girlfriend, a third-year there and she took me to a few of her classes and showed me her dorm. Basically with all the information I got about UCI, I really want to go there, I don't even mind that it's so close to home. The way I see it, if I find myself wanting to go further away after a year or two I still can. I'll just keep my options open.

So that's where I'm at now, however, everyone's input is pulling me every which way.
"Don't go there... GO HERE!"
"The weather there gets pretty intense, try this place, it's a lot more comfortable."
"Who cares if it smells like cows? Cow tipping is FUN!"
etc...etc...etc...

We'll see.

To be tolerant...?

2007-03-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a very tolerant person.

I tolerate it when people tug on the phone cord as I'm trying to take a take-out order.
When old men are dissatisfied with their dining experience (or their seating experience) I tolerate their ridiculous criticism and crude remarks.
I tolerate mini vans (it's taken years for me to come to terms with the fact that they will ALWAYS BE THERE, so there's no use complaining about them).

Sometimes I wonder if people take advantage of my tolerance.

Oh look, she's smiling even though I'm insulting her and making her feel like pond scum... perhaps I'll throw in a mean comment about her shoes just for the heck of it.

Hey she doesn't care that I'm pulling her hair... perhaps I'll continue and ALSO stomp on her feet!

Well last time I flaked out on her she said that it was okay and not to worry... why don't I do it again? She'll understand...

(Examples are taken from real-life experiences that have taken place in the last week. I'm not bitter or anything...)

Is it worth it to be tolerant when people are going to try their damndest to be intolerable?

These are the questions that haunt me...

What do chow mein, shark diagrams, and depression have in common?

2007-03-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

Me.

Today, I ate chow mein. Ooh! Exciting.
Today, I colored several shark diagrams.
And today, I was approached (for like the millionth time) by a depressed friend who doesn't listen to me and doesn't understand what I tell him. *sigh*

Nothing too exciting to report.

Lost my wisdom teeth on Friday--gained about two inches in cheek volume (that doesn't make sense in scientific terms... but basically it means my cheeks have been crazy puffy for the past 3 days).

Gosh, my life lacks excitement. Goal for tomorrow: Make life exciting.

Scooter: Vehicle of Violent Serial Killers

2007-02-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

So, to continue the series of "Why I am afraid to live in Irvine"-themed blogs I will mention something that surprised me tonight. As I am walking down my friend Deannie's driveway after watching yet another exhilerating episode of 24 at her house I hear voices. The voices of two males. I strain my eyes to look all the way down to the other end of the block where I see two dark figures in the shadows-- and I suddenly feel very afraid for my life. The funny thing about me fearing for my life is that these boys are on scooters. Even once I realized that these boys are on scooters I still felt the need to power walk to my car. Just as I was getting into my car the two boys on scooters rode right past my closing car door and, instinctively, I locked my car door.

I can't really explain why I felt so afraid... I know, I know. I'm lame.

On a brighter note, I finished Shopoholic Ties the Knot, baked brownies, watched Aquamarine in its entirity, and edited lots and lots of really perfect photos for a project which I feel the need to keep under wraps for the time being.

With love ♥

Fearing for my life.

2007-02-11T23:30:00.000-08:00

Only sort of fearing for my life actually...

You see, I worked take-out tonight at work (did a pretty darn good job of it if I do say so myself!) and I had the unhappy job of telling this eager-to-order woman that she could not place a take-out order, as it was 9:11 and we closed at 9. She said "It's 9 right now."

To which I said, "Actually, it's 9:11. I'm really sorry about that."

To which she said, "Are you serious?!?!"

To which I said, "Yes, I'm really sorry. Our kitchen closes at 9 o'clock on Sundays."

After which she turned on her heels and stomped out of the restaurant saying "Ugh!"

Too bad I'll probably get in trouble for this. I always seem to be the one put in the uncomfortable situation where I have to break bad news to a could-be patron.

That's pretty much the extent of my day's excitement. I'm going to go read and go to bed. No school tomorrow! Hooray!

The dangerous streets of Irvine.

2007-01-29T00:22:00.000-08:00

I was planning on writing a big long blog about this weekend's events but I decided that since I had a conversation about it with someone while I began writing it, I might as well just copy, paste, and censor it here. Beware! You may be compelled to move after reading this entry... scary stuff man.

MK (12:13:03 AM): I have to ask, how is woodbridge scary...?
Lacey (12:13:12 AM): OH MY GOSH
Lacey (12:13:24 AM): do you really want to know? you might be too afraid to leave your house...
MK (12:13:32 AM): haha, im intrigued, yes
MK (12:14:02 AM): what could be so scary in woodbridge...?
Lacey (12:14:06 AM): okay
MK (12:14:16 AM): too much sameness?
Lacey (12:14:20 AM): it all began on a friday night like any other
Lacey (12:14:21 AM): no no no
Lacey (12:14:35 AM): this weekend has shown me that no town, even irvine is truly sheltered
MK (12:14:38 AM): it was a calm and quite friday night in Irvine C*********..
MK (12:14:43 AM): yeesh ok
MK (12:14:45 AM): splain
Lacey (12:14:56 AM): k.
Lacey (12:15:11 AM): so i was at "dj ****'s" party
MK (12:15:22 AM): right..
Lacey (12:15:29 AM): (i only recently discovered that he is called "dj ****" in all seriousness, i find it funny.)
MK (12:16:02 AM): anyone who calls himself that needs to be laughed at
Lacey (12:16:02 AM): anyway, so i get to his house, music's blasting, marijuana's burning, alcohol is being consumed
Lacey (12:16:07 AM): ya know, a "normal high school party."
MK (12:16:10 AM): right
Lacey (12:16:32 AM): there was a whole lot of annoying drama going on and slutty dancers all over the place, so i stayed outside most of the night with my sober friends
Lacey (12:17:11 AM): fortunately, my curfew had been shortened to 11:30 on this particular evening because i was being punished for being late all the time
MK (12:17:22 AM): haha alright
Lacey (12:17:36 AM): so i left at 11:20, driving like crazy to make it home on time. the moment i arrive home i receive a text message
Lacey (12:17:41 AM): "someone just got stabbed!"
Lacey (12:17:43 AM): it reads
MK (12:17:49 AM): ...
Lacey (12:17:54 AM): i get online to talk to the person who sent me the text
Lacey (12:18:12 AM): she didn't know anything other than the fact that a huge fight had broken out at the party and someone got stabbed in the eye
MK (12:18:20 AM): whoa
MK (12:18:25 AM): who stabs someone in the eye..
Lacey(12:18:37 AM): the next day i find out that that was not the only abnormal thing that had occured on this fateful evening.
Lacey (12:18:40 AM): (i know seriously!)
Lacey (12:18:55 AM): turns out the kid wasn't stabbed IN the eye, just in the general vacinity of the eye. the face, if you will.
MK (12:18:57 AM): this was in woodbridge?
Lacey (12:18:58 AM): yes.
MK (12:19:20 AM): pathetic.
Lacey (12:19:30 AM): so it turns out that TWO kids were stabbed, there were TWO huge brawls, someone got hit by a car, and a girl went to the hospital from alcohol poisoning.
Lacey (12:19:47 AM): this same evening my friend B** got in a car accident
Lacey (12:19:57 AM): the next day he sprained/broke his ankle
MK (12:20:10 AM): unrelated to the accident?
Lacey (12:20:20 AM): yes, unrelated
Lacey (12:20:23 AM): totally different accident
Lacey (12:20:24 AM): BUT
Lacey (12:20:34 AM): also friday night (in utah) my friend is at a dance party...
Lacey (12:20:37 AM): AND THE FLOOR CAVES IN
MK (12:20:47 AM): hot damn
Lacey (12:20:52 AM): but no no, that's not all that has occured this weekend.
Lacey (12:21:15 AM): tonight i'm at my friend's house playing Guitar Hero and eating chocolate chip cookies when i receive a call from my concerned mother telling me not to come home
Lacey (12:21:45 AM): apparently a criminal was on the loose in our neighborhood and there were helicopters and cop cars and everything all over the place
MK (12:22:03 AM): what no way..
Lacey (12:22:18 AM): anyone who claims woodbridge is safe is sincerely mistaken. it is just as prone to hysteria as any other small-town community.
MK (12:22:32 AM): lol, i think ur overreacting a bit
Lacey (12:22:36 AM): haha
Lacey (12:22:49 AM): well, i'm making myself sound dramatic for... effect.
MK (12:22:55 AM): haha
MK (12:22:56 AM): i know
Lacey (12:22:56 AM): but it's been a really weird weekend.
MK (12:23:06 AM): yeah that is for sure
MK (12:23:17 AM): do u know how the whole fugitive thing went down?
MK (12:23:35 AM): did they catch him?
Lacey (12:23:40 AM): when i finally came home all the cop cars were on m***/**** yale ****
Lacey (12:23:50 AM): i'm pretty sure they must have because there were a ton of them all there
MK (12:23:57 AM): i see
MK (12:24:20 AM): irvine cops finally earning all that cash.
MK (12:25:06 AM): so did the stabbing kids go to whs?
MK (12:25:30 AM): either the stabbers or stabees?
MK (12:25:32 AM): lol
Lacey (12:25:48 AM): i know haha
MK (12:26:02 AM): ?
Lacey (12:26:04 AM): well apparently the fights involved kids from uni who invade all the woodbridge parties to get into fights
Lacey (12:26:18 AM): all i know is the kid who was stabbed in the face's name was ***.
MK (12:26:28 AM): thats a very stabbable name
MK (12:26:29 AM): figures
MK (12:27:03 AM): don't uni kids have anything better to do? Like, math problems or something?
MK (12:27:46 AM): god humans are so dumb
Lacey (12:28:32 AM): haha
Lacey (12:28:33 AM): seriously.
Lacey (12:28:41 AM): i just don't understand...
MK (12:28:57 AM): i'll never be able to comprehend such behavior
MK (12:29:26 AM): and I will always wish I had the power to sterilize people with the snap of my fingers
MK (12:30:00 AM): sadly, however, those kids will probably procreate one day soon, when they knock up some drunk chick at a party, and the cycle will continue.

^Well put MK, well put.^

* Names have been changed to protect the identities of mentioned people and places in the story.

Apparently it is Jesus who sits in the old gum tree

2007-01-21T23:16:00.000-08:00

While washing my face tonight I was reminded of a song I used to sing back when I was a child going to a Lutheran preschool (not to say that children who went to Lutheran preschools were the only ones who sang this song... I just included that little fact as a detail). I began singing the song and was slightly appalled at the rather skewed and somewhate humorous version of the song that came out of my mouth...

Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but he is strong
Laugh kukaburra, laugh kukaburra
Save some gum for me

(Now, I advise you to sing the words as I have written them before you write me off as a psychopath. I think you'll find that my confusion was completely justified.)

The Big Bear trip of a lifetime... and almost a deathtime

2007-01-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

I will explain my blog title at the end of the blog. This is going to be a long blog by the way, because I took a lot of pictures and I may end up interjecting little bits of commentary.

That's Kyle inside THE CAVE. Yes, there is a cave that we tend to visit in Big Bear, only to smoke ourselves out minutes later (not like WE smoke, we set fire to a piece of paper and are smoked out... did I really need to explain that to anyone on here? Probably not.)

John... also in the cave.

That's the fire that smoked us out of the cave, with the fire starter himself.

I just thought this picture was cool cause you could see the smoke in the air through the flashlight light. Maybe it's just me.

SMOKED OUT!

Kyle with his expertly-built snowman.

Alright, so my snowwoman isn't all that well-built... and my eyes are closed... oh well. We can't all be so photogenic as Kyle.

The snow covered creek bed outside John's cabin.

Footprints Kyle and I left on our hike. I thought it was pretty? Maybe it's just me again.

I actually didn't take this one. But I took the next few because, well. I got a little bored on the hike... shhh! Don't tell.

I took it. It's goofy. I looked goofy. Whatever.

I didn't mean to take this one. I was about to take another one of myself but I tripped on a rock and... well. There ya go.

There were footprints leading into this log so I took a picture of the inside to see if there was an animal inside. It kind of looks like there was, maybe?

The last one I took of myself, I swear.

Kyle's and my snow people having a snowball fight. Can you see the tiny little snowballs??

So now for my near death experience. John and I began our descent down the mountain and got about 10 minutes away from his house when he realized that he left something back at the cabin. He made a u-turn and was about to made a right turn onto the main road when a cop drove by and saw the very dangerous turn John made onto the road, in front of oncoming traffic. Seconds later the cop turned on his sirens and John and I started freaking out that we were going to get a ticket. The cop was driving the opposite direction so we figured if it was enough of a big deal to him he would turn around and follow us. He didn't. So we got to the cabin, got the forgotten items, and heading back down the mountain. When we got a little further down there was a huge queue of cars and an orange sign that said "Accident Ahead." We were waiting in this line for nearly 20 minutes before we started moving again. It turns out a car had driven over the side of the mountain, right in the part where the railings end (what are the chances??). When we drove past the parked ambulances we saw the very same cop that we had seen before. It occurred to us that if John had not remembered to go back to the cabin we would have been a couple minutes ahead of that policeman when he got that fateful phone call, and granted the exact same circumstances, the car that went over the edge could have been us. Trippy to think about.

That's my story.

I'm ba-ack.

2007-01-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

I decided that it's about time I post a new blog. The only thing is, there are a lot of things I don't want to write about because there are so many people that have access to my blog now. I don't really like that. Originally this blog was a place for me to write about random things, knowing that only Alli, Lindsey, and Glenn would read them. Now that that isn't the case I feel a little bit... cautious. So from now on I will choose my words wisely.

Ooh. Just not right now. I'm going to go dry my hair.

It's OVER!

2006-12-12T23:08:00.000-08:00

Writing I is no more! The good news (besides the fact that it's over) is that I got 100% on my last quiz, 100% on this huge vocab assignment, and I think I did REALLY well on the final. I'm so excited. That is all.

Monday's over... another Tuesday.

2006-12-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

This particular Tuesday is actually quite special to me. This Tuesday marks the end of my Writing I career with the semi-despised professor whose name shall not be revealed for fear of angering him before final grades are posted. That's right, I have my final in exactly 2 hours and exactly 2 hours later (well, maybe less than 2 hours) I will be done. I will be done and my fate will be in his hands. That's a really scary thought come to think of it...

The rest of the week looks promising. True, I have a big test tomorrow and a big test on Thursday but after school on Thursday will be fantastic! I'll watch a bit of tv before practice, I'll go to practice, I'll come home, I'll work on/finish my layout and then there's a pep rally Friday!It might not sound exciting to the rest of you but I'm completely thrilled. Plus our first basketball game (or at least the first one w/ cheerleaders) is on Saturday. I haven't decided whether or not I like the idea of cheering at basketball games yet, we'll see.

My advice for the day: Sit back, relax, and have a nice cold glass of orange juice.

The thing about Tuesdays...

2006-12-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

The thing about Tuesdays is they never seem to be significantly... significant. Freshman year "Only on Tuesdays" was my main response to, well, every question or statement.
"Do you wear yellow?"
"Only on Tuesdays."

"We go to knitting festivals a lot."
"Only on Tuesdays."

It was just a fun thing to say that made people laugh. Today I realized how mundane most Tuesdays are. I mean, c'mon, they're NOT Mondays. Mondays are the days we dread on Fridays. Wednesdays are the half-way mark-- you make it to Wednesday and you know you can get through the rest of the week. Thursdays are often stressful because everyone wants to get to Friday, but all of Thursday you know that Friday is only one day away. The significance of Fridays is obvious and I don't feel the need to describe them. Saturdays are great days to catch up on sleep, get some work around the house done, and stay out late with friends. Sundays tend to be relaxing. People go to church, finish up some homework, watch some movies, and mentally prepare themselves for the coming week. Then you get back to Monday. Tuesday doesn't fit too well does it? I suppose the only thing that can really be said about Tuesdays is that it's the day AFTER Monday, so you've become used to the idea that you're back in the weekdays.

So I know what you're thinking. "You write blogs about the days of the week?"

Only on Tuesdays.

Last night...

2006-12-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

ended very well thanks to Glenn :) I enjoyed sitting on the curb outside of starbucks fearing the closeness of the headlights of cars going by. You made my night!

Lonely Day

2006-12-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

A good song by Phantom Planet. I'm a bit lonely right now. It's only 8:37 and my night has ended before it has begun. The usual suspects are busy: Alli's in a show, Lindsey's at a show, Deannie is having dinner with her family, Kyle and John are in Big Bear, Emily is busy, Cathy and Jeannette are probably cruising, Ryan is at a modeling thing with his girlfriend (which he made VERY clear, almost defensively, as if i was interested in him or something...). Blech. I want very much not to have to be home in an hour. I want very much not to be here now. But on a happier note, I'm taking the SAT IIs tomorrow morning. Sad that that's the happier note, isn't it?

If I'm not alive in 24 hours...

2006-12-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

it's because I've died of a malignant ear tumor. I have this strange knot in my earlobe (I'll give no more details, other than the fact that it HURTS like crazy) and while discussing this issue with Alli it was suggested that I may have a tumor. We were throwing the idea around as a big joke, whatever, but I did a bit of research and it turns out there IS such a thing as an ear tumor. Check it:

Tumors of the Middle Ear

Polyps and Granulation Tissue of the Middle Ear: Polyps can develop in the middle ear. As such, these are not necessarily benign tumors. They look like balls of inflamed tissue which form grape-like clusters within the confines of the middle ear and mastoid. These polyps generally are reddish and bleed easily on vacuuming or any manipulation. They may be indistinguishable from more serious problems of the middle ear and mastoid. If they do not respond to medical therapy, polyps should be biopsied. In most cases of advanced polyps and inflammation of the middle ear, surgery of the middle ear and mastoid will be necessary.

Oy.

Correction.

2006-11-27T16:43:00.000-08:00

Really, really, really sorry about this guys... it turns out I made a serious mistake in my last blog. There are more than 18 days until winter break. I decided that rather than count days for the fifth time (I get a different number every time... I'm having an off day), I'm going to leave it up to you to count down. I tried to make one of those high-tech countdowns online but couldn't figure it out. I'm having an even more off day than I thought. Sorry. It's about 24 days until winter break (20 w/out weekends). Not TOO bad if you think about it... right??

What I love about Mondays...

2006-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

1) Yes, I have a long practice but I do not have work or class.
2) They force me to reenter reality (some people do not like this detail, I think it's necessary)
3) This particular Monday goes perfectly with the song "Rainy Days and Mondays" by the Carpenters, in that it's a rainy day. Luckily it hasn't gotten me down yet... (listen to the song if you don't follow my reference)

Yes, it's Monday. It's the dreaded Monday after a lovely four-day respite from school. The weekend went more or less according to plan. Thanksgiving was a success (my cousin and Lindsey's cousin are now in love, go figure), Friday I went folfing with Chad, Alli, and Kailee (others were there but they were competing for the hefty $5 prize and couldn't be bothered with our naive perspective on the game... Chad boldly faced our naivity.). That night after shopping and getting dinner with Lindsey we came back to my house to watch Center Stage. We were joined by Deannie, and later by (get this) Bruce, Cory, Matt, Adam, and Nick. Exciting! I knew 3/5 of those people, so it was fun. They left at around 12:30 and I got a whole 5 1/2 hours of sleep before waking up to go to San Diego with Lindsey, Bruce, and Cory. Fun day. We saw lots of animals, had a few laughs, nothing to complain about. It was interesting in some ways... ways that I am not willing to reveal via blogging. That night I went to dinner w/ my cousin, ate some cheesecake, met up with Lindsey and Bruce, went to John's, left John's, came home and went to bed.
Yesterday, Sunday, was less eventful. I woke up a bit past 11, worked on my vocab assignment until 1:15 (only got through 9 out of 45 in that time... not so good!), went to the Veggie Grill with Lindsey, John, and Bruce, came home, got to number 32 of my vocab assignment (now THAT'S more like it!) and went to work. That was my weekend. Exciting, I know.

I have found it hard to withhold the juicy little details from this weekend, but was instructed that it was probably best to do so. *sigh*

18 days until winter break. Happy trails.

Is this what I really have time for?

2006-11-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

Yes. As of 10:49 this morning I have four days of relaxation and glee ahead of me. Okay, so yeah I've got to write this big, several-thousand word story for the newspaper and I have to do this HUGE vocab assignment for my writing class that I've put off ALL SEMESTER, but I'm trying not to think about those until I absolutely need to.

This break came at the perfect time. Tensions were rising all over the place: poli. sci., AP stat., the love life area, and unfortunately, the editor room. I prefer for all three to be completely lacking in tension, but you don't always get what you want, right? Anyways, that'll all be behind me when I return 5 days from now. And perhaps by that time I, too, will be engaged (Lindsey and Bruce got 'engaged' last night, I'm not being TOTALLY random).

I have an exciting weekend to look forward to. Thanksgiving plans are the usual Turkey Bowl, baking/cooking, and going to a family member's house for a huge dinner that I hardly partake in (I'm more fond of the desserts to be quite honest). I am looking forward to making super exciting Tuxedo Brownies tomorrow after playing an exhilerating game of football. I'm not sure I even want to think about how the family dinner thing is going to go down... drama, drama, drama. It shouldn't be dramatic, right? Family is supposed to be the safehaven from drama. So not the case. Oy. But on a brighter note I have been promised an enjoyable day in San Diego with Lindsey, Bruce, and Cory at the wild animal park. Should be ten hours of good fun.

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy lots of pumpkin pie :)

*My mom and I made two pumpkin pies and two cherry pies today. They look fantastic.*

Fantastic weekend (so far...)

2006-11-18T17:07:00.000-08:00

The night began as any other...

Lindsey, John, and I went to the Spectrum for our oh-so-exciting dinner (date) with Bruce, Ben, Matt, Cory, and some other kid who didn't end up coming. It was really, really fun. I haven't talked to Bruce in ages so it was nice to catch up with him. Ben and I were fighting, which wasn't so great. It was my first time meeting Cory... he's such a cool guy! He's in a band and after a lot of coaxing and convincing (except not really) he has agreed to give me a free band shirt. There are conditions however. I had to pinky-kiss-promise that I will wear the shirt and go to his upcoming concert. A small price to pay for a free shirt.

It was really cold while we were walking around so Bruce gave Lindsey his jacket and Cory gave me his. Don't worry, we didn't leave them without collateral. They held/wore/tried to hide our purses. I have to admit, they looked a little bit gay but, being the comfortable guys that they are, they didn't mind. Cory rescued a little boy who was lost, only to receive strange looks from the boy's father when he finally came to retrieve his son (he was grateful to Cory until he saw the purse on his shoulder... awkward?).

Afterwards we went to Ben's house and hung out. The lovely Alli joined us and we all sat by the firepit for awhile and talked. Always good times.

This morning I awoke at 6 am to go to UHS to be in the movie Bruce and his fellow film crew members are working on. They're involved with this film festival in which they have 40 hours to turn a script into a movie. They got the script last night and they have to turn the movie in tomorrow morning I think. Anyways, we were done with my scenes and voiceovers by 10:30, leaving Lindsey and I feeling like our day was half done. But it had only begun...

the rest of the day so far hasn't been too eventful. Took my dog to the vet to have this strange lump on her stomach checked out. They think it's just a little infection and gave her medicine. We went to the new Veggie Grill with my mom and it was SO good. I really want Lindsey to work there.

I took a nap, and now I'm here. Ready for the rest of my weekend :)

College apps and cold caps(ules)

2006-11-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little under the weather today. Not a big deal, I've taken lots of pills (echinecea, garlic, cold capsules, esberitox, and vitamins) and eaten lots of fruit (cherries, apples, and kiwi!). I'm sure I'll be okay in the next few days.

More importantly, I am currently applied to six of the eight colleges I intend to apply to! It feels like only yesterday that I was stressing about college applications (well, it sort of was only yesterday considering that I sent in five of those six applications today...).

I feel really good about all of the colleges I'm applying to. Sure, I want to go to some of them more than others but I feel like I have a pretty good chance of getting into at least one of eight right?? I hope so.

I'm off to bed. Sleep is also a very important aid to illness. ♥

Apologies.

2006-11-12T00:42:00.000-08:00

I never finished my last blog. I had intended to, but I'm beginning to realize that, although I did learn a good number of things that weekend, they can be summed up into one realization.

Guys can be boring/annoying/immature/anything no matter what age they are. I had a few run-ins with drunk college guys which made me realize that my desire to find a "mature older guy" was in vain-- there isn't necessarily such a thing. There are some guys who are really mature when they're young, and there are some that are still really immature when they're older. It all just depends.

Our last football game (ever. of our highschool lives.) happened last night. I'm not gonna lie, I was emotional about it. I had said before the game started that I would be the last to cry, that I am physically incapable of crying when things really mean something to me. I was wrong. I was bawling! All the football boys thought we were crying because they lost the game (23-24 against Northwood... we were supposed win without a problem!), at first I was sad because we had lost the last game of our highschool lives, but then it hit me that it was the last game of our highschool live. Being a cheerleader has had a huge effect on the overall meaning of "last" things for highschool... it's strange.

Our wonderful three-day weekend is 2/3 over... so sad to think. Would you believe that I've had a great weekend? I sound so sad...

I'm actually quite happy.

Alli works for Disney now. Good food. It was fun seeing her work. ♥

Fights, fights, and fun.

2006-10-30T11:55:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been rather exciting on all fronts. The weekend began, for me, with a nap. I was awakened by my loving father, who, after gently pulling me from my slumber, slipped me $100. He said it was for gas, lunch, dinner, whatever I needed it for. That doesn't happen to me anymore. Since I have a somewhat stable income I usually don't get any money from my parents, so this was a pretty fantastic start to my weekend (and I only spent $15 this weekend for dinner at CPK before the dance).
After waking up, I took a shower and headed over to Lindsey's to get ready for homecoming. We got all pretty, took LOTS of pictures (yes, we took some mirror pictures too. We are horrible at taking mirror pictures by the way...)

More later.

Stop! Before you speak.

2006-10-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

So I was at Rite-Aid tonight, purchasing goodies for my beloved cookie boy. After I had collected a large bagful of king sized candy bars and other fun things, I proceeded to the check out station--station 5. There were two checker-outers there, and as I walked up one of them (we'll call her Sandy) was beginning to talk to the other (we'll call her Ginny). The whole conversation went something like this:

Sandy: Hey, have you seen the movie Click? If you haven't you should come watch it with me and my friends. My friends and I just rented a bunch of movies and Click is one of them. I haven't seen it yet but it looked pretty good. Have you seen it?
^^before I continue I want to point out how wordy that was. Keep in mind that Ginny hasn't said a single word yet.
Ginny: No.
Sandy: Oh yeah, you should totally come watch it with us. We also rented (insert bad movie title here), (insert other bad movie title here), and Final Destination 3.
^As she said the last part she was scanning my items.
Me: Oh, have you seen Final Destination 3?
^At this moment I am preparing to say exactly what I thought about the movie Final Destination 3. Luckily I gave myself a minute before speaking...
Sandy: Yes! It's such a great movie.
^I paused while staring at my wallet. I could not believe she thought that was a great movie. It was quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. Ever.
Ginny: I never saw it. I only saw the second one and it was really really good.
^I had heard that the second one was horrible too. Go figure.
Sandy: I never saw the second one. The first one was so good I was afraid the second would kill it. But then I saw the third, and it was amazing.
Me: I couldn't handle the third one. Especially the tanning salon scene... I had to walk out.
Sandy: Yeah that part was crazy. So well done though...
^No, it was not well done.
Me: Well have a fun time with your movie night!
Sandy: Thanks!
Ginny: Have a great night!!

These two talked with monotone voices until they said "Thanks!" and "Have a great night!!" They really were something else. I'm glad I didn't insult them...

even though they have horrible taste in movies.

I feel fizzy and fuzzy and fine

2006-10-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

For some reason that phrase has stuck with me for several years. I think I read it in a magazine once-- it just sounded so wonderful to me. And I do actually feel quite fantastic today. I feel accomplished: we finished our homecoming routine today in practice and I am finally getting the hang of the senior dance segment; I finished ALL of my homework and organized three binders tonight; and I cooked dinner tonight!

I think John Mayer was my inspiration. I was listening to his new CD while I did everything on my list of today's accomplishments (except during practice, although I had one of his songs stuck in my head, so it still counts).

I'm feeling pretty okay about my 'romantic' situation at the moment as well. I discovered that that might be exactly what I need-- a bit of romance. Romance has never been high on my list of qualifications but I'm thinking it should be (John Mayer, again, is an influence).

So, to recap this blog real quick: John Mayer is my muse.

And on the 7th day (s)He rested.

2006-10-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

I have decided that today, Sunday, I am actually going to rest. Every Sunday I find massive amounts of things to do to get things done and keep me busy. Well I don't want to be busy today. Today I am going to rest.

I really have nothing to say today. I'm sort of in an apathetic limbo-- I can't find the energy to care about what I should care about. Feel free to psychoanalyze me... if you have the credentials.

Yep. I'm done.

Frazzled.

2006-10-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

"Frazzle" is officially my favorite word today. I love it. It sounds like "dazzle" which was my favorite word like, forever ago.

So there are about ten other things I should be doing right now (actually, only two... wait no, three), but my attention span today has been zero, so I don't feel too inclined to do them. I've been really anxious all day. Like jumpy kind of anxious. Like the anxious where you can't sit still. Like the anxious where you yell across classrooms, failing to acknowledge the fact that the teacher is talking to you and telling you to get out your homework. That kind of anxious. Could be because I have a million and one things to do in the next week and a half. Could be because I had lemonade today instead of iced tea. Whatever it is, it's making me anxious.

Plus, I had a really weird dream last night that seems like it would be easy enough to interpret, but the various people I've told (only three) have all given me different responses. What could it mean? I would post it here but it includes two guys whose identities must remain secret. So yeah, that's my story. I have to go to practice soon (which I'm actually not dreading), then class (which I dread on a weekly basis... twice on a weekly basis in fact), then open mic night (which I'm excited about), then home to shower/clean my room/write my restaurant review/do cookie boy stuff.

Busy night? I think so. Busy-ness makes me...

frazzled.

Disappointed times a thousand.

2006-10-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

So I just took the "Odds of Marriage" quiz. Would you like to know what my odds of getting married are? 24%. TWENTY-FOUR PER-FREAKIN-CENT. I am so disheartened. Take the test, I hope you have better luck than me.

So in a few years from now when I am alone at all of your wedding receptions, sitting at a table (alone), eating excessive amounts of cake (alone), not dancing with anyone (because I'm alone), you won't be surprised because you will have known since October 17, 2006 that Lacey only has a 24% chance of getting married.

It's long but totally worthwhile. Maybe...

2006-10-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

For today's blog I'm going to do it in a minute-by-minute format. Except not actually minute-by-minute since there are a lot of minutes in the day (1,440 to be exact), and that would be a crazy long blog.
7 a.m. - Wake up. Tired? Yes. Pumped for the imminent SAT test-taking experience? Not particularly.
7:30 a.m. - I made toast. Yes, that's right. And I have a witness to stand by my claim that I did NOT burn it (since some of you have absolutely no faith in my cooking abilities. Psh! I can make freakin' FANTASTIC toast. And jell-o.).
7:50 a.m. - Arrive at test room. I know no one, which is fine since I'm wearing a big sweatshirt, super-stretched out jeans, and an unpleasant SAT test-taking face.
8:15 a.m. - Begin test. Cute boy in the desk next to me. Refocus attention on test. Cute boy sitting behind me. STOP! FOCUS! Re-refocus attention on test. Complete test segment. Look at cute boy #1. Nice style, cute shirt, acceptable shoes. Can't really look at cute boy #2 since he's sitting behind me... slightly disappointed.
From around 8:45 until 12:45 - Take 9 more portions of the freakin' SAT which I freakin' hate more than anything. The old lady giving the test got mad at me for reading a book during my break inside the classroom. I had to go outside the classroom to read a freakin' book. I didn't do it. I went outside in protest to the absurd suggestion that I go outside to read. How was this a protest? you might ask. Well, it was more of a personal statement. I don't care if the old Irish woman got my point. I'm pretty sure she was Irish--she had a slight twinge of an accent I think.
1:15 - Arrive home. Eat leftover slice of pizza. Take shower. Dry hair. Get ready for Little Warrior Cheer Camp.
1:40 - Arrive at Little Warrior Cheer Camp. Make friends with adorable little second graders. Teach cheers, play about a zillion rounds of Duck, Duck, Goose!, play one round of Down by the Banks (I got out early on in the game...), hear disgusting secrets of 2nd graders (had no idea they could be so gross. Apparently some can.)
Sometime before 5 p.m. - Perform with all the cute Little Warriors. Good times.
Sometime after 5 p.m. - Carry really heavy case of water bottles across campus. Significant amount of pain...
Around 6 p.m. - Went to costume castle with Lindsey. Found a really really really cute costume that I intend to buy either tomorrow or the next day. Inquire for details and/or to see the picture.
7 1/2 p.m. - Went to work to get people's phone numbers to see if they could cover my shift tomorrow night. After 10 unsuccessful phone calls (and several different attacks from Taylor and Rikard, both of whom I love and adore), someone who was ON SHIFT volunteered to cover it. She's not a host... but she can do it :)
8:30 p.m. - Went to Diedrich's and made myself hot chocolate. I still make a darn good cup of hot chocolate if I may say so.
9 p.m. - Embark on an ADVENTURE with Ben (which basically means we went to the movie theatre to see American Hardcore and decided not to...). We saw a coyote! I called it ugly. I just realized that it's like "coyote ugly." That's actually not what I was going for, but hey! It works. Then we went back to Ben's and watched Can't Hardly Wait. Amazing movie. One of my new favs. Alli came and watched the end with us! Then we left.
11:46 p.m. - Start walking home from Ben's (just fyi, he lives PRETTY DARN FAR from me). He picked me up about two blocks over. I walked fast :)

And now I'm here. Writing. To you. The reader. Sorry.

Careful, you might stumble.

2006-10-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Well I have stumbled across quite a few things today.
1) Apparently Lacey sounds like a slightly stripper-ish name. Not particularly thrilled to hear that...
2) I should never become a window cleaner (In fact, I shouldn't go into any profession that relates to windows in any way.). I'm horrible at cleaning windows.
3) When the word "jerk" is included in the name of a food item it means that it's spicy (ie: Jamaican JERK Chicken Pizza = SPICY!!)
4) Not all boys are horrible, insensitive, jerks. Some are super sweet. <----I kind of already knew that but there hasn't been much proof lately.
And last but not least
5) No matter how "adventurous" I try to be, I will always end up with a BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad at the end of a work shift (don't tell anyone that I had one tonight... someone didn't pick up their take-out order so I was told to take it... very stealthily.)

Very productive weekend if you ask me.

BEWARE! VERY SERIOUS BLOG!

2006-10-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Please please please vote for the El Toro vs. Woodbridge game. Here's the link. It's really important that you vote for EL TORO vs. WOODBRIDGE. You have no idea what is at stake.

http://www.cox.com/oc/cox3/gotw_pick.asp

^Click it to pick it!^

Thank you.

The NON-SERIOUS blog.

2006-10-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I'm capable of making a non-serious blog. I like to add bits of humor where possible in my blogs but I cannot make an entirely non-serious blog. The strange thing about my inability to be not serious is that I really am not a very serious person.

I had intended to blog about my super exciting day but 1) It wasn't super exciting and 2) It would have come out sounding too serious.

Alli, I'm having a really hard time making this a not serious blog.

Well, it looks as though I'm going to have to end this pretty soon because I really have nothing to say... a shocking and rare occurence.

Oh! Before I depart I could mention the fact that I seem incapable of attracting guys my own age. Yes, tonight the only male attention I got was from men between the ages of 29 and 33 (I'm guessing). It wasn't even the perverted "I like checking out younger girls because I'm nearing middle age and I feel insecure about my own attractiveness." These men actually, truly expected me to be at least 21. I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or disheartened. It either means I look mature for my age, or I look tired... beat if you will. I'm going to go with the first one because I'm an optimist.

We'll Never Know

2006-09-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

I love the song "We'll Never Know" by Lifehouse. It's great... so great, in fact, that I decided to make it the title of today's post. I haven't posted in awhile, for a few reasons:
1) Nothing particularly blogworthy has happened to me in the past week
2) There have been a few angry moments that I have had the urge to blog about, but I decided that I should abstain from venting on the world wide web for everybody's sake.

So to catch you up on this past week's events... I officially do not like my writing professor, I officially do like a certain boy again (formerly referred to as "Red Sub"... and when I say 'again' I really mean 'still.' Those of you who talk to me on a regular basis know how indecisive I have been about the whole situation. Well I'm back to being decided... quite pleased with my decision actually), our football team lost last night (they played an AMAZING game though, you should all be very proud of our boys), I have a layout due by next WEDNESDAY so that the Golden Arrow can go to print next THURSDAY (stress! Except not really... I have Pagemaker at home so I should be able to get it done, no prob.), and I OFFICIALLY have tonight off! That simply means that I do not have to be cheering at a football game for the first time in a month! It seems like it's been way way way longer than a month, come to think of it. Anyway, I'm just thrilled to have tonight free. Alli and I are going to do something WAYYY FUN and I'm totally stoaked! Oh yeah, and apparently I'm dating 4 or 5 different guys right now. Yes, that's right, I am dating 4 (or 5) different guys. Except really I'm not. There have been a lot of really random speculative rumors going around... don't buy in. I'm actually quite single at the moment.

And my car is stoaked because it is getting washed tomorrow! Tell me if this makes any sense: I washed my car last Friday (one week ago today). By Monday it was FILTHY, so I washed it. Today it is dirty again. What part of that makes any sense?? It's not like I've been doing any hard-core off-roading or anything... in fact, I'm pretty sure that the furthest I've driven in the past week was to work which isn't even five miles away. Strange.

The worst is over

2006-09-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

The worst day of my week has now come to a close. When I say worst I don't mean that it was BAD, it was just busy and stressful and it turned me into an obsessive-compulsive freakish weirdo that I never want to be reintroduced to ever again. Every time I tried to do something I couldn't get my mind off all of the things I had to do after. I don't know if you've ever been in a similar situation, but when your mind is working like that it makes it VERY difficult to get anything done. Practically impossible. Luckily I was able to learn from this experience and I feel like I am better equipped to deal with similar situations in the future.

So in reality, the most meaningful and enlightening day of my week has now come to a close. Go figure.

Tomorrow I start my day as a cheerleader and end my day as a cheerleader. I'm still not sure if being a cheerleader has given my life any new insight or anything, but it sure does keep me busy.

Lacey needs... (a knock-off of "Lindsey needs...")

2006-09-26T22:56:00.002-07:00

Lacey needs to be forever remembered as groundbreaking television.
Lacey needs a crate that she can stand up in, turn around in and lie down stretched out.
Lacey needs horse boarding in exchange for barn help.
Lacey needs to settle water issues.
Lacey needs a stronger tax base, plus the creation of additional jobs.
Lacey's needs are met in a moments notice.
Lacey needs to pay her phone bill.
Lacey needs an intermediate to advanced rider who can and will take her to the top.

Good stuff. That entertained me for a whole five minutes.

Free time

2006-09-26T22:56:00.001-07:00

As I am writing this I am thinking of a million things that I am going to have to do in the coming months. Football games every week, random cheer functions (most of which I am currently unaware of), the first issue of the newspaper, taking the SAT and ACT, applying for college, working, getting a good grade in my writing class, getting good grades in my classes at school, etc. There's a lot going on, but for some reason I feel like I have even more spare time than I had last year when I wasn't on cheer or an editor or anything. Not quite sure how that makes sense...

Not to say that I don't like having free time. I love it. But how does this all add up?? I guess what I find so funny is the fact that I actually INTENDED to be busy this year. I joined cheer so I would have something to do. I became an editor to keep me busy (and for the experience I suppose). I'm working more than I did last year. PLUS I'm taking a class outside of school. Where is all this time coming from??

Whatever. I like my time. I can use it to get a head start on the things I have coming up, right?

Which brings me to my next point of mention. WE GET OUR PLANNERS TOMORROW! For the past few days I have felt completely jumbled. It is absolutely imparative that I have a universal means of recording everything that I have going on, otherwise I know I'll forget things. So my life is going to be nice and organized as of tomorrow... I hope.

I really hate this entry. It's repetitive and I structured it badly and it's not really my style. However, I'm not in the mood to fix it. Sorry reader(s).

Hope for a better tomorrow.

2006-09-26T22:54:00.001-07:00

Me: ugh, have you ever had one of those days where you feel like no one wants to talk to you?
Lindsey: uhm... awkward...
Me: ?
Lindsey: haha now i feel bad, i was about to say gtg to school

'Nough said.

Tomorrow will be better.

Epiphany!

2006-09-26T22:53:00.001-07:00

I had an epiphany the other day as I was washing my car. The funny thing is that washing a car is not a particularly emotional action, nor is it deep or in any way meaningful (to anything except the car, I suppose). But here was my epiphany:

Girls make a huge deal about their boyfriends/husbands/etc. making them feel like "the only girl in the world." What the heck? Why would you want to feel like the only girl in the world? It seems to me that we should not want to feel like the only girl in the world when we're with a guy- I personally want to feel like I am one of millions of girls in the world. And out of millions of girls I am the one that the guy wants to be with. To me that sounds more romantic/realistic. I sincerely prefer it.

My last-few-months-of-the-year resolution is to start writing short blogs every once in awhile so that I 1) Do not waste too much of my time writing an online blog and 2) Do not bore the people who may or may not care about what goes on in my life.

Mission semi-accomplished. This blog has been significantly shorter than my others so far...

Getting back into the swing of things...

2006-09-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

or trying to at least.

Take it from me-- it's not as easy as it may sound. Having to go from a care-free summer setting to a knuckle-down (sort of...) school setting is trés difficile ("very difficult" for you non-french speakers). I thought I had everything ready too. Last night I was relaxing, embracing my last night of summer while just about everyone else I knew stressed about getting their summer projects finished for their AP classes (I'll admit, I felt guilty that I didn't have a single summer project to worry about, but I was able to overcome that emotion rather quickly). Then today I woke up and was suprisingly tired-- not a good way to start the first day back at school. It was okay though, I overcame my fatigue and was on my way to the first day of my senior year. I picked up Ms. Ford and the younger brother and we were headed for the coveted SENIOR PARKING LOT. Full. The lot was full. First day of senior year and the senior lot is full. Figures.

So I drive out of the lot (behind Ms. Perino) and OF COURSE she decides to make a very sudden, completely unpredictable stop at a NO STOP ZONE to drop off her friends. So naturally (given the circumstances) I bumped her. Complete accident, I felt completely horrible about it (until I realized that it really wasn't my fault) and I spent the first 3 periods trying to figure out when I would be able to apologize to her. Luckily she ended up being in my 4th period class so the second she walked in I yelled (quietly-ish) across the room "I'm so SO sorry Kristen!" and she said it was fine. I don't really believe that she's forgiven me, but we'll see how the year rolls out.

My classes are all pretty good. I have 3 of 4 classes with Lindsey (as opposed to 0 of 6 classes every other year in high school). I have one with Deannie but she sits on the complete opposite side of the room from me (which is not good, considering the fact that Jeff [ugh] sits behind me slash WINKS AT ME in that class! Not okay.) And I have ZERO classes with Alli. So not cool. Sure, we only had one class together last year, and it was the absolute worst class ever to have with one of your best friends because it was precalculus, but we made it fun and got through it together.

I absolutely love getting out of school at lunch. It's amazing. It enabled me to get home in time to write a two page essay in a half hour before going to practice for 2 and a half hours before turning in my two page essay (which took me a half hour to write).

But I suppose none of that is really significant when you know about the rest of my night (which was by far more exciting than the rest of the day. So I leave class a bit before 7, head over to Office Depot to do some last-minute school shopping and then I go home to bake cookies for my beloved Cookie Boys. Burned them. Decided that I had cooked them for too long so I attempted to make a second, hopefully more scrumptious and slightly less rock-hard batch. Burned them. So on my way to Albertson's to buy the PERFECT COOKIES I phoned up Alli, who invited me to go to her house to bake cookies (she makes amazing cookies btw). By this time I was already at Albertson's, which proved to be fortuitous since I needed to pick up some chocolate chips before going to Alli's house. So after an eventful trip to Albertson's (didn't know where to look for chocolate chips... baking aisle... duh!), I got my Cookie Boy jerseys and school supplies and headed over to Alli's. Alli equals a LIFESAVER. She definitely baked all FIVE batches of cookies herself while I got my stuff ready for school tomorrow. Good friend? THE BEST. Not to say that the ability to bake well is an indicator for how good a friendship is... it just helps. Kidding. But I really am forever indebted to her. Especially since I will have cookies at my disposal for the rest of the football season and I won't have to burn any more innocent, unsuspecting cookies! (thanks again Alli).

So all in all it was a successful day. Tomorrow will be amazing. I will be exhausted, but it will still be amazing.

Survival of the Fittest

2006-09-26T22:39:00.002-07:00

I am proud to announce that it is the first of September. Do you know what that means? AUGUST IS OVER! Ordinarily that would make me pretty sad... August is the last month of summer. 31 days of pure, unrelenting freedom. Except for me it was somewhat the opposite. The first couple of weeks would have been perfect, had I not been dreading the last two weeks. Unfortunately, I found myself counting the days until cheer practice, Link Crew, and work all started up (which conveniently enough was in the same week and a half).

In that time I was busy learning and mastering (sort of) cheers and band dances for the cheer check that determined my fate as a varsity cheerleader. Had I not passed I would not be prepping myself for my first football game of the season- I would be prepping myself for the humiliation of being a senior sitting with all of the underclassmen cheerleaders at the first football game of the season. I also had to pass my work test for CPK (which I did, thank you very much). I also had to quit my other job (R.I.P. job at Diedrich's). I also had to go through Link Crew training (second year in a row) and Freshman orientation. I also began my writing class at IVC (which I love by the way). My mother's birthday was this past week as well. It was an incredibly busy month, but I am so looking forward to this coming month.

Especially since my time share starts today :)
And the stake dance is tomorrow
And I'm going shopping at some point this week
And I have a really good class schedule
And I am in a blissful state of Like (not Love, just Like)

I hope you all have that many things to look forward to this month. If not, find some. It'll make you happy.

Two-fer

2006-09-26T22:39:00.001-07:00

I know what you're thinking- two posts in one day, you're psycho! Except in reality my first blog was written yesterday but it had been written in my other blog. I had no idea that I had two blogs, but when I discovered that I did I decided to merge the two, and here it is. So yes, it appears that I have written two blogs today, but I really haven't.

As I sit here, sipping milk and basking in the majestic glory that is my large slice of chocolate Costco cake, it has occurred to me how materialistic people are. I already was aware of this severe human flaw, of course, but it became more apparent to me as soon as I saw this amazing cake. Walking into my kitchen I had no expectations for the night-I planned to eat leftovers, practice cheers, and maybe go to the jacuzzi. Then my eye met with the large plastic platter containing none other than the most incredible seven pound chocolate chocolate chocolate-shavings cake I have ever seen. My mind was suddenly swimming with glee and my mouth was watering like that of a person stranded in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by water yet unable to drink it. I obsessed over the cake for a good five minutes (partly as a means of messing around with my brother's friends) before I pushed it out of my mind and ate pasta. By the time I was finished my mind had drifted back to that darn cake and I knew that I was going to have to eat some of it. I took a conservative slice (unlike my brother and his friends) and poured myself a small glass of milk to keep the cake company on its journey.

The fact that I was so consumed with the idea of having something proves that materialism is very evident in our everyday lives. I just felt the need to share my experience... partially because my assignment for my writing class is to describe an experience and I decided to do a mock run before I get serious about it.

This cake is fantastic.

Are things ending... or just beginning?

2006-09-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Registration. Registration for senior year. My senior year- I can't even believe it. It feels like just yesterday I was registering as a wee, 5'2" freshman. Going through the motions without really understanding what was going on. I did what I was told and didn't ask questions (except when I had trouble opening my locker or when I couldn't find the next step in the registration process). Each year registration seemed to be worse and worse. Sophomore and Junior registrations were a blur because I was so absorbed in the mentality that I was going to die due to excessive amounts of homework and annoying drama. I am proud to report that I am alive and well despite both unhappy occurences-and yes, there was a bit of both.

Today was almost magical. True, I had to wake up way earlier than I've grown accustomed to over the summer to wait in a series of less-than-exciting lines, but it felt better today than it has any other year. The PTA parents were nicer and more understanding than they've ever been, I took a pretty decent I.D. picture, and I got a really great, easy to manage schedule. Not only that, but it was super easy to drop the classes that I don't need to take, I only have three books, AND I got Roberts for Poli. Sci. and Econ. That, to me, spells out magic. I was desperately dreading the idea of getting submerged in another year of Hanley's wrath.

Another amazing thing? Everyone seemed so much more in tune with one another today. Cliqués and stereotypes didn't feel like an issue... everyone talked to everyone and seemed happy to. And there weren't any awkward "Hey! How has your summer been??? I can't believe we're going to be [insert grade level here]s! We totally need to hang out before school starts!" conversations. Alli and I were talking before registration about how awful and fake those converstaions are, and I was pleasantly suprised to see that they didn't show their evil faces at this year's registration.

Registration is a bitter-sweet thing. It's a reminder that summer is winding down and school is coming on stronger than a hurricane in Florida (or an earthquake in California... I don't want to discriminate against any state in particular). No one likes going to registration for that reason but sometimes it's necessary to pull everyone back from the glorious two and a half month haze we call summer. Don't get me wrong, I love summer. I just know that we all fall into our comfort zones and if we didn't have to deal with things like registration and school we would never leave the places that make us feel safe and comfortable. It's kind of an empowering thing if you think about it. So yes, it signifies the end of summer, but it also encompasses the beginning of a new year with new teachers, classes, friends, clubs, sports, tragedies, and blessings.

I need to reiterate how happy this day has made me. I feel like our senior class is going to be strong and united. This year is going to be fantastic. You just wait.