New Year's Resolutions

I promise I will get around to posting a proper set of New Year's Resolutions...also, it might be interesting to see what I resolved to do last year and if I accomplished anything. Stay tuned!

Social Gaffe Cafe

Sometimes I wonder why I'm even allowed out in public. But, really.

I was eating a late lunch at Panera. After I had finished my meal, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and I had my purse in one hand and the discarded lunch tray in the other. I walked to the trash can, promptly dumped all the contents of my plate into the trash and set the plastic plate in the bin for used dishes. As soon as I set my plate down I realized that I had just thrown out a metal spoon and knife. And NOT in the washing bin where they were supposed to go, where there was already a nice little pile of silverware.

Luckily, I am quite skilled in the art of social gaffes. I quickly glanced into the trash can, saw it was only half full, spied my spoon and knife, and did one small peek to see if anyone would notice. Acting as if everything was normal (I mean, who doesn't reach inside public trash cans?) I grabbed my two utensils and placed them safely in the washing tub. With one quick sweep of the room I convinced myself that no one had seen or truly cared about what I had just done, since there were no collective shocked faces or rude stares and angrily pointed fingers. Pulling my backpack higher on my shoulder, I trudged out the door and into the rain.

Snapshot: hilarious conversations

So here's three conversations that made me smile. (also, I've decided to stop apologizing whenever I haven't posted in a while....kinda makes me feel guilty and then I REALLY don't want to write a blog post. So I'm skipping it!)

I recently chopped off 12 inches of hair and donated it to Locks of Love. I work with kids and sometimes they say funny things. The day after I've cut pretty much all of my hair off, I'm playing with a child when out of the blue she said to me, "Who are you?" I guess she didn't recognize me....it was so random.

And then the other day, I was at a concert, standing in line to buy a t-shirt and there were these two guys behind me, being macho and tough. I wasn't really paying attention to their conversation until one guy exclaimed, "There's an app for YOUR FACE!" and the other guy (without missing a beat) said, "Isn't that the camera app?" Gotta love eavesdropping.

And the last conversation happened just a couple of minutes ago. I was talking to my sister and said, "Yeah, I'm definitely not a romantic person." to which my sister said, "Duh." with no hesitation whatsoever. Smmmooooottth.

An Update

Lately I've been really busy. Crazy busy, actually. That's really no excuse for updating my blog, but it's the only one I have. I mean, I'm in a Creative Writing class right now, so I'm doing a lot of writing, and I'm also in a Lit class, so I'm doing a lot of reading. But I'm not reading any fun books. And when I say "fun" I mean dystopian YA books. Ha. 

The other day I did something I've been meaning to do for a long time. I bought a journal. Oh, I know what you're thinking - this girl already has a shelf full of journals, what could she possibly do with another one? But I needed this journal. Truly. I had a specific image in mind and I found one at Borders the other day for only $3.50. Score!

So, the reason I bought this journal was because I had been looking for something to carry in my bag wherever I go to write stuff down. I mean, I love eavesdropping on conversations, and when I hear something that's especially clever or poignant, I want to write it down...except sometimes I don't have anything but a wal-mart receipt. So I wanted some small, compact, but resourceful and big enough to write even poetry/short stories in. That way, whenever a thought flits through my head, I can write it down immediately and keep track of it. Now it stays in my bag and I've already written down a poem. I'm kind of excited. I used to carry a notebook around with me, but I changed bags (that one fell apart) and this one doesn't really have room for a whole notebook. But this journal I got is perfect.

Classes, club activities, conferences, productions, and homework have all been consuming my life at this moment. That's why I haven't been blogging as diligently. I can't promise I'll have more posts soon, because I'm leaving for two different conferences in the next couple of weeks and then it's the long stretch towards finals, but I'll do my best.

My finals are DONE!

And all I shall be doing is READING! Okay, that's a slight exaggeration...I do need to get some sleep and eat sometimes as well. But seriously, if there was one thing that I highly neglected that should never be neglected, it was reading. Man, the day I was done with my last final I went to the library and maxed out my library card. It was great.

Now I have this glorious stack of books sitting next to me and I just can't help but beam with happiness. Okay, I've painted a picture of me with just a tad bit too much cheerfulness. I'm actually more subdued than that because I'm in the process of getting over a cold and I don't particularly feel like smiling at the moment, much less beam. So I guess here is a more realistic portrait. I'm laying on my bed, surrounded by piles of books, and while I'm not actually smiling, I am picking them up one by one and trying to decide which ones to read first. So now that I don't have that obnoxious thing called school in my life I have all the time in the world to get other things accomplished.

I actually have a list of things that I want to do.
1. Clean my room. This sounds petty and slightly insane, but because homework has been eating my life I've kind of let things go in my room and the messiness is starting to drive me insane.
2. Read, Read, Read. This is a no-brainer.
3. Write. I feel like I haven't written anything good at all. So I'm going to change that by keeping a journal with me at all times and jot stuff down in it...hopefully this habit will be so well-formed that by the time school starts I'll be able to keep it up.
4. Eat better. I need to work on eating a good breakfast every morning.
5. Exercise. I want to be healthy.
6. Get organized. This kind of goes along with my room, but also the files on my computer, the clothes in my closet, and the books on my floor. I want things that I don't use/don't need out of my life.

And I think that's all I can think of. But I'm off to read some more books and update Goodreads. I cannot believe that I only checked that website 5 or 6 times during the semester. I feel like I'm missed so much.

~currently obsessed with: The Tangled Soundtrack by Disney.

Horrible blogger...

I have 2 more weeks of school. Then finals. Then I'll be done. This is absolutely crazy! I have so many things and projects that I have to do! I feel like this semester has been one of the hardest and most busy semesters that I have ever had. I'm probably involved in too many social activities and clubs...but I can't imagine dropping any of them. This semester is also different in that I did not READ ONE SINGLE BOOK at ALL! Normally I'll break away and read at least a couple every month of some YA book that looks cool or something like that....but not this semester. I only read textbooks. I am SO looking forward to Christmas Break when I can read books! I haven't even hardly checked goodreads! This is just crazy.

All this to say...I'm a horrible blogger. Hopefully I'll get better in the future. I mean, at least I'm starting early right? Wwwaaayyy before New Year's resolutions.

BUT! I almost forgot! This is on a completely random note! But have you seen the movie Tangled? My oh My! I LOVED it....and I kind of don't want to say anything else because I'll set up preconceived notions in your head....you should just go see it...and I'm kind of obsessive because I bought the Soundtrack on amazon.com for $3.99! Booyah!

-This is me, being insane....listening to Mother Knows Best from Tangled.

Remember when I used to blog?

Seriously. Life has been super crazy since school started. I am running around non-stop, doing homework, being involved in clubs, having social activities. It has been one thing after another. I love school because it is such a social setting and I see my friends every day and we bond over crazy homework assignments...but I also don't like that when I am in school it almost completely consumes my life. I don't read books. I don't update my blog. I only do things that are related to school. So, if you have been wondering where I've been since September, now you know.

College Always Consumes

So I've been pretty negligent in my posting lately. That's because college has consumed my life entirely.

2nd week.

I'm in my second week of college classes. That's my only excuse for my sudden disappearance of postings and whatnot. I've been completely absorbed by the upheaval of college and the crazy social atmosphere it contains. Needless to say, I've also been overloaded with homework. I may go slightly mad this semester, what, with taking 3 art classes. I'm not sure whose idea this was (mine).

But I'm in a lull right now. I could actually be doing some homework to get caught up...but I just want to sit in the silence and contemplate life. Okay, that sounded really deep. What I"m really doing is sitting on a bench staring off into space and wondering why there is nothing interesting to read on twitter. Lame. Hahaha.

Actually, now that I've made my life sound so pathetic, I'm going to do my homework now.

Mockingjay

I have just finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

My mind is reeling and I am still trying to combat my overwhelming emotions and figure out the ending. I can't think. I have to go blow my nose. I've already cried several times. It didn't end how I thought it would at all. I am confused. I don't know what I will do with myself for the rest of the day.

I have the best Papi

So I was surfing the web when I noticed a slight stirring in my stomach: a sure sign I hadn't eaten in a long time. I hesitated because it was almost midnight and I didn't want to get out of my comfortable bed and go make a snack...

...when my father got home from work and announced, "Guess what leftovers I brought home?"

Perfect timing.

And since I know my father well, I knew by his proclamation that he had brought something home I highly prized AND he was willing to share his food with me.

So I hopped out of bed and high-tailed it to the kitchen.

Turns out Papi had brought home some home-made tortillas from a Mexican restaurant we sometimes frequent (because of the tortillas) and was already heating them up on the skillet.

These tortillas are amazing because not only are they home-made from scratch and preservative free, but they are so thick and FLUFFY.

Divine heavenly goodness.

Hot and fresh tortillas with melted butter? Yeah, probably one of my all time favorite foods.

What a nice Papi.

Kleptomania

You probably didn't know this...but I'm a kleptomaniac. I steal. All the time.

Really.

Not in the way you'd imagine though. I steal words. Phrases. Odd gestures. Weird mannerisms. Funky personality traits.

I think I do this compulsively because I'm a Writer and I'm always picking up things that I can work into my writing. That's why people fascinate me so much. I love people-watching. I also love how people talk, what they say, what riles them up. It's great.

Today for example, I saw a flustered mom who had a handful of children who were misbehaving. I was trying to remain inconspicuous because I was already feeling like she was going to be embarrassed by her son's outburst. But I almost lost my composure and smiled when she exasperatedly said,

"I'm fixin' to hang you on a clothesline."

I had never heard someone say that before and I loved it. So of course I'm stealing it. I'm adding it to my bag of trademark phrases and southern sayings.

Chapstick.

I have a thing about lipstick.

Really, I can't stand the feel of lipstick on my lips. It has something to do with repressed childhood memories, but I won't get into any of that. I don't like anything on my lips: lip gloss, lipstick, and even...chapstick. I almost have a phobia about this.

I've finally gotten to the point where I can wear chapstick when my lips are dry and on the verge of bleeding, because I know that is the only thing that will save them...but even then, it is a battle.

So why am I mentioning all of this? Well, the other day I noticed that my lips were a little dry...but I ignored them, because that's the type of person I am and I like to be delusional and convince myself that I'm paranoid and leave matters unsettled. Well, the next morning I woke up and my lips were completely chapped and stinging. Great.

So I had to find some chapstick. Okay, here's the deal. I own 3 bottles of chapstick. All of them are organic. (I kind of have a thing for organics. And hey, I don't want Red dye #3 hanging out on my lips. Um, gross.) So I pull out organic chapstick #1. There's nothing left.

That's okay, I'll just find organic chapstick #2 which also includes spf 15 sunscreen. I can't get the lid off so I pull harder and the complete top of my chapstick just goes flying across the room. Now, this is the part where germaphobics should stop reading. Even though it had fallen on the floor and I didn't know how clean it was, I was desperate for something to put on my stinging and about to fall of my face lips...so I brushed it off and blew on it (because blowing on imbedded-into-the-chapstick Dust Particles will do any good. uh huh.) and used the extreme last of my supply.

I needed to break into my stash of organic chapstick #3. But it was nowhere to be found. I'm not sure where it meandered off to, but it is somewhere in my room and I have little hope of finding it.

The moral of the story: I have no chapstick. I don't EVER use chapstick. And who on earth gets chapped lips in 90 degree weather in August? Really?

Seriously, I only own 3 chapsticks and all of them are unavailable.

As a side note, do you know how unlikely it is that walmart carries organic chapstick? Very unlikely.

Man, I need to buy some more chapstick.

Flipped

I'm so excited for the new movie Flipped to come out! I knew they were making a movie, but the trailer seemingly came out of nowhere and I'm positively hooked. I've already watched it several times. The movie is based on one of my all time favorite books by Wendelin Van Draanen. This book is amazingly sweet and wholesome. It's one of the few books I've ever read twice...and I'm thinking about reading it a third time right before the movie comes out. I can't believe that August is so fast approaching...the sixth is not so far away. I am so going to see this movie in theaters...preferably during its first day of showing. From what I've seen of the previews it looks like it is pretty close to the book. I just hope that I'm as smitten with it now after I've seen it.

Psyched cannot even begin to cover my emotions. I'm practically beaming with anticipation and adoration.

Good friends, good conversations...

I was talking to my friend that I've known since high school late-ish last night and our conversations were off-the-wall funny. I'm not sure if we were just so excited to talk to each other (we live in different states and hadn't had a chance to speak for several months) or if the late hour was warping our thoughts or what...but we were giggling up a storm. I also managed to type down some of our funniest bits because they made me laugh so hard. I realize that these might not make complete sense to an unknown reader, but I'd still like to save them on my blog for posterity's sake.

Her: "It's like chick-fil-a skype?"
context: I was explaining how the drive-thru worked.

Me: "Why did you yell? Is my face really That hideous that you had to scream?"
Her: "It just scared me because I wasn't expecting your face to completely fill up my computer screen!"
context: she pushed a random button and my face took over her computer, consequently making her yelp.

Her: "What if we had a skype moss pit?"

Me: "This is my petrified wood look! *poses spastically with one arm raised and eyes frozen*
My response (once I saw how I looked): "I look socially inept!"
Her: "Is that going to be your perpetual face when you're old?"
Me: "I HOPE NOT!"

Me: "I look like I have two front teeth!"
Her: "You do have two front teeth."
context: I had meant to say, "I look like I ONLY have two front teeth"

Obviously we are a little crazy, but it's okay because we understand each other fairly well and we're planning on taking over the world some day.

Whoops!

I've realized that I've been a pretty neglectful blogger as of late. This could be for various reasons...but I'm going to blame laziness and my summer job.

The other day I wandered past the kitchen to see most of our oven in pieces assembled across the floor. I didn't make much of it until a couple of hours later I walked by and it was being put back together. I walked by it a third time about 40 minutes later to hear my father mumbling, "Hm...it looks like I forgot to put some screws back in..."

Needless to say, the mother wasn't too pleased. Haha!

(He found where the screws went.)

And for some odd reason, our microwave convection oven is not working. I guess that was the reason my father took the two ovens apart in the first place. The oven light went off and so now it won't cook anything but just says "door" on the screen like we've left it open.

It's funny how you don't think you use something very often until it disappears. Or how you want to eat lunch but everything conceivable to eat seems to need the microwave to cook. Annoying.

Teletubbies.

So my mom and I were driving down the road when I saw these oddly shaped humanoids on the corner of the street. They were still fairly far off, so I couldn't quite make out what they were, but as they got closer, I realized they were Teletubbies. People had dressed up in remarkably realistic (and creepy) Teletubbie costumes to sell fireworks. When I saw what they were, I loudly exclaimed, "Are those Teletubbies?!"

You know what my mom's first reaction was? She looked at where I was pointing, took a sharp intake of breathe and immediately locked all the car doors.

I laughed for a full five minutes after we had passed them...I couldn't stop saying, "That was your first reaction? You locked the car doors?"

Just thinking about it cracks me up. Oh man...

Children will always make me smile.

Something I overheard at the Museum today...

After they had been in the exhibit rooms for 10 minutes:

Kid: "Mommy, I want to go now."

Mom: "Sorry hon, but we're going to be here for hours."

Kid: "How long is that?"

Mom: "A really long time."

Kid, pauses to think and takes a deep breathe: "Mommy, are we going to die here?"

I should mention that we were looking at egyptian mummies, so the kid's reasoning wasn't completely unfounded because there WERE dead bodies hanging out.

~Currently obsessed with:
Welcome to the Masquerade by Thousand Foot Krutch

Misplaced IDs, janky wallets, and creepy strangers at the gym.

Yesterday I was in a bad mood. It was like I woke up and couldn't shake this grumpy feeling that was settling over my body, trying to consume my being. I think my mood was brought on by staying up until 2:30am finishing a book. Normally this does not warrant a bad mood, but let's just say the book I finished reading wasn't worth it. I also didn't wake up until 12:30pm the next morning, er, afternoon. Now if there is one thing I hate it is waking up so late that I feel like I've already missed half of the day. I also woke up with a headache. And I couldn't find any lizard stickers! (That's another story, but it lead to me being disgruntled.)

So at the end of the day I'm headed to the gym with mom. Looking at my gym bag I make sure I've brought my wallet. Last time I completely forgot my wallet and had brought my camera instead. Needless to say, my camera did not magically turn into my much-needed gym card and I had to have the gym people look me up. So I was happy to see that I had brought my wallet this time, but my happiness soon turned to dismay when I opened my wallet and saw the slot that held my library card, gym ID, and driver's license was completely empty. Confounded wallet!

I've been having some issues with my latest duct tape wallet. I'm not sure if it is because I made it in a hurry and didn't take enough time to carefully craft it or if it's just old, but it is not holding things properly and my cards keep falling out of the pockets. Normally, this is just annoying and tedious, but when I'm in a hurry and grab my wallet to deposit it into another bag and leave half the contents of my wallet in my previous bag, it becomes downright frustrating.

That would make it day 2 I'd shown up the the gym without an ID. I was already mad at my pesky wallet for gleefully leaving things behind and now I was mad at myself for not double-checking before I left the house. And now I had to go explain again to the gym people that I did not have my ID. Great.

I told the guy that I didn't have my ID and he admonished me for forgetting it and told me sternly that I needed to bring it next time. I was already stewing and his comment only made me more annoyed. Unfortunately I didn't realized until later (and after my mom had told me) that he was only harassing me and wasn't nearly as serious as I had first imagined him. According to my mom he had seen that I was annoyed and had decided to poke fun at me, but I just did not see the subtle nuances that he was only joking and wasn't really mad at me for neglecting to bring my ID. I'm the kind of person that is seemingly gullible, especially with people I do not know well and so I cannot tell when they are joking and will think forever that they were severely disappointed when I didn't bring my ID. It was only my outburst of "Do I really look like the kind of scatterbrained person who forgets their ID on a regular basis? Do I have to be told that next time I need to bring my ID?" that my mom said he had only been pulling my leg.

So this was the kind of mood I was in when I walked upstairs and heard Creepy Guy talking loudly to someone else about sports.

Okay, so I haven't yet introduced you to Creepy Guy. I know, I know, way original name right? But seriously, he is creepy. I don't like him for a number of reasons.

1. He walks funny.
2. He has an incredibly annoying and grating voice.
3. He has a bulbous head.
4. He appears to be full of himself and pompous.
5. And the REASON I DISLIKE HIM THE MOST: I feel that whenever I'm working out he is staring at me. This is majorly creepy and slightly disturbing.

Now I know that I'm paranoid, but I've grown up with paranoid parents who've instilled in me a healthy distrust of strangers. So a part of me is wondering if maybe my overactive imagination and writer tendencies has exaggerated his staring and he's really just looking around the room in a bored manner. And how can you really tell if someone is staring at you all the time unless you stare at them all the time?! Which is something I totally do not want to do. If I'm wrong and he's not staring at me, I'll be staring at him and he'll start to think I'm The Creepy One. And if I'm right and he IS staring at me, I've only given him further encouragement and he might come over and Talk To Me. Both of those scenarios are not good, so I've been doing a lot of eye avoidance.

Now the only reason I think he's staring at me is because I've scanned the room a couple times and he's been staring in my direction, which is just unnerving. And as soon as I see someone staring at me, I immediately look away and pretend to be busy with something else until I can sneak another glance at the person so see if they are still staring at me or if it was just my imagination. When I did this he was still staring in my direction.

So after my day of grumpiness and then coming to the gym to find Creepy Guy there I was not in a good mood. But surprisingly, I just plugged in my iPod and listened to some Thousand Foot Krutch and tried to ignore him and by the time I was down with my workout I was relatively calm. I didn't have a headache and I had almost completely forgotten about my wallet mishap. I've read that exercising relieves stress and boy did I need that after the day I had been having. I'm glad I went.

Yesterday was just kind of crazy.

~Currently listening to:
Welcome to the Masquerade by Thousand Foot Krutch

Debating.

You know how you hear a song on the radio and it strikes you as interesting, but you soon forget about it? And then the next time you hear it you perk up and realize that you really like that song? Well, I heard Trinity by Paper Tongues and I just couldn't get it out of my head. But unfortunately I kept missing what the band's name was and couldn't find any more information about them. When I finally figured out who they were I searched youtube to find a full-length video of the song and I just kept listening to it over and over. I think I might be slightly addicted. But now here is the dilemma: should I just buy the song that I've been playing ad nauseam or should I buy the whole album because it's only $5 more? Gee whiz, I hate these kinds of questions. I just listened to all the samples of the other songs and I'm not in love with those...but I have this sinking feeling in the back of my head that I could grow to love them later. At this point I'm kind of leaning towards the one song because I'll only spend $1 instead of $6 and I'm not sure I'll like the rest of the songs...or I might even grow out of this song after several months - who knows.

~Currently obsessed over:
Trinity by Paper Tongues

Sarcasm much?

My father uses sarcasm on a regular basis. It's just built into his personality or something. I'm pretty sure that he's more sarcastic then I ever was as a teenager.

Me (seeing Papi grilling): "What'cha doing?"

Papi: "What does it look like I'm doing? Greeting aliens on another planet?"

See....I was just asking a simple question. Of course I knew what Papi was doing: this was a conversation opener, a chance for Papi to tell me about his life and not be a weirdo. But did he?
No.

Reason #239 of why I love children...

In Nursery today, (I heard this story from a coworker who witnessed the conversation - I wasn't in that particular class room) this delightful conversation took place.

Teacher: "Sometimes, on special occasions I use butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookies..."

3-year-old: "I don't like butterscotch. Well, I don't like butter, but I do like scotch!"

It still makes me laugh. The 3-year-old of course was talking about scotch tape. But I loved his reasoning for not liking butterscotch. 

Hunger Games Movie Please Come Soon

I'm about to go on a Hunger Games craze.

I was looking at people's cast lists for the movie and I've been seeing some pretty interesting choices. But this only made me realize that I need to give MY input. So, of course, now I have to assemble a cast list. Yep, I'm going to be writing another blog entry up soon.

Confessions of a nursery worker...

Some of the things I think/say while working with small children. Italics are obviously in my head.

"Hey, it's okay, your mommy is just in church...she's going to be back in a bit, don't you want to play with the trains?"

"Oh man, why do you have colored snot? That's gross. Now I have to get you a tissue. Oooorrrr you can just wipe your face on my shirt. That eliminates the whole mucus problem because it isn't in on your face anymore. Well, I guess this shirt is going into the laundry when I get home. Thanks, anytime you don't have the time to wait for a tissue, just use my shirt/arm/leg/shoe, really, I don't mind one bit."


"Don't hit her. Go over and say you're sorry. We don't hit people because that's not nice. Do you want to go to time-out?"

"Drat, now he's smiling. It is so hard to discipline a child who's doing something bad when he just looks so cute. Argh, I can't smile because then he will know I'm not serious and he won't listen and he'll think he can get away with that kind of behavior...don't smile...don't smile..."


"Yeah, you...uh huh, I'm talking to you bud. You don't have to look shocked, I saw you shove him. You think your innocent little face will prove you not guilty? Nope, it won't."

Yeah, I love kids...but some times they frustrate me/make me laugh. It's funny how you can be mad at them one minute for completely disobeying everything you've told them and then they are hugging you and saying, "sorwy" and you can't help but think of them as angelic. Funny that.

Some people need to pay attention...

So I was driving to the gym and I saw a small mound on the road ahead of me. I was trying to figure out what it was when I suddenly realized it was a small turtle trying to cross the road. I swerved my car a little and went a bit into the other lane to avoid hitting it. I was congratulating myself for successfully saving the little guy's life when I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the car behind me drive right over the turtle. Really? REALLY? I had swerved...majorly. And they didn't even see that? They didn't notice that I was driving funny? What on earth were they paying attention to? Do they like driving over turtles? They were only a little bit behind me and they couldn't even watch out for the turtle?

Sigh. This is the kind of stuff that makes me depressed.