In Honor of Cesar Chavez

These past few days have been surprisingly nice considering we just started a new quarter of classes.

Sunday was nice because I got to spend some time with my family before driving back down to school. I got pedicures with my younger step sister and my step mom, got lunch with two of my sisters and my parents, packed, and headed down to school. Even though I don't normally like driving by myself all the way to school, the drive on Sunday was surprisingly nice. The weather was beautiful, I played my country music loud, and got lost in my thoughts. It was very nice.

Yesterday was nice because, even though I had classes and stuff, I was done at two. I had Macroeconomics and Contemporary Advertising. I tried to nap, but was unsuccessful (for like, the first time in my life) so I decided to figure out how many classes I need to take before I can graduate. I've decided that I not only want to double concentrate in Journalism (Public Relations and Print) but I also want to double minor (Spanish and Business Administration). Ambitious, I know. If I end up doing all of those things, I will be in college for at least 5 years. I need to meet with my advisors and stuff, though, before I make anything solid.
Yesterday, Nikol and I also went around and put up posters for the Magazine Club that she is starting (I'm trying to help her, but I don't know how much help I actually am... I do what I can though!) I think it will be really cool once we get this club started. I admire Nikol for all her hard work and dedication.
On top of all those things, I also applied for ajob with ASI Human Resources. We'll see what happens with that.

Last night, we had a party at the guys' house. My future room mates came and I had so much fun hanging out with the friends I have now, as well as the girls I will live with next year. Even though there were a few bloody incidents (Cullen's head from laughing too hard... and Tad's finger slicing incident with the knife...), we celebrated Cesar Chavez day and had a blast.

Today we didn't have class, so we woke up, ate french toast, and headed out to the beach. We had a wonderful day building an amazing sand castle (most of the credit goes to Gideon and Nikol, but Kat and I helped by collecting rocks for the cobblestone pathway). We also read magazines, went on walks, got snow cones (our favorite: Watermelon and Green Apple), visited with Kat and Nikol's WOWies, and just had an all around great time. I even remembered to put on sun screen so I wouldn't get burnt... which was ultimately a wonderful idea considering we were out there for over 4 hours!

Tonight we also got Fatte's pizza, went to the school baseball game for five innings and watched "Guess Who" with Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac. We all had so much fun just hanging out and relaxing. By the end of the day, though, we were all exhausted. I was ready for bed at about 9.

I just cleaned my room because Luke and I are going to rearrange it tomorrow so that I can maximize my space and put a TV in my room. Hopefully it will work out.

As for now, I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted and have class at 8 in the morning. I'm looking forward to lunch with Brittany and Kathryn (and hopefully Stephanie and Christine) at eleven tomorrow at Sandwich Factory. I'm also looking forward to my nap tomorrow afternoon which I'm hoping will be much more successful than my attempt yesterday.

I think Cesar Chavez would be pleased at how my friends and I celebrated and honored his day <3

Lions and Tigers and Friends, OH MY!

These past few days have been so wonderful. I went shopping (and spent way too much money), I got to eat at The Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco with Luke (and ate way too much food), and I got to visit two of my best friends from high school, Kenneth and Katelin, at UOP in Stockton.

Katelin and I started out the evening by watching part of the UOP Tigers v. Davis Aggies baseball game. We talked to Alex for a little while (I hadn't seen him since he came up to visit Mike for Thanksgiving during our Junior year of high school). He was so friendly :)

Kateline and I were Kenneth's dates at his fraternity's cocktail party. It was so much fun. Everybody was dressed up, we danced, we talked, met new people, and just had a great time. Kenneth, I was constantly shocked at your dancing abilities. There would be no way I could keep up with you even if I tried.

After that, we went and hung out with some of Katelin's other friends. Jim, Andrew, and Amy were all very nice. Too bad there was a creeper guy who made me very uncomfortable. Jim, thank you for saving me from that.

We stayed up until 4 in the morning at Jim and Andrew's house. Then went back to Katelin's, went to sleep, and woke up at 10 in the morning. I'm exhausted.

I had wonderful time though. Everybody at UOP was so nice and friendly. I had so much fun meeting you all. The campus was beautiful.

In honor of reconnecting with old friends, watch this video. It is heart warming and will make you cry. There is nothing like the feeling of seeing somebody you haven't seen in a long time and reconnecting, even if it seems as though so much has changed.

Never give up on old friendships.

And in the honor of old friendships and maintaining connections through the years, I'm off to watch The Notebook.

Where The Wild Things Are

I was on Facebook and I was noticing that a lot of people were posting things about the movie adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are." That was one of my favorite books when I was younger and so I went to YouTube to check out the trailer. I'm a little nervous about the fact that it will be very different from the book. I just don't see how they can make that book into a full length movie that will captivate the audience. I guess we will see. In any case, I'm very excited to go see it when it comes out. Here's the trailer:


I just finished putting together a resume for the job I will be applying for within the next few days/weeks. Now, I am going shopping because I am need of new clothes for the spring/summer. Hopefully I'll find something cute to wear.

Love.

no sugar coating

So I just wrote an extremely long blog here. I copied and pasted it to Microsoft Word. It was 4 pages long. I think that's too long for here.

It felt good to write it. It was a lot of venting about my mom. Long story short, my mom and I fight a lot and it really wears me down to the point that I can't really function for the rest of the day once we've had a fight. There was a lot more to it than that, but that was the basic idea. I still want to post it on here, but I saved it in Word because I'm nervous that if I do post it here, I'll regret it. At least if it is just in My Documents, I haven't made the conscious decision to put it out to the public. If somebody happens to read it, that's not my fault.

I know I sound like I'm complaining a lot about my mom (which I am) but it is more than that. It is me trying to make sense of why our relationship is the way it is. It is me trying to figure out why I care so much what my mom thinks of me and my actions/decisions/whatever.

Everybody else's blogs I read are all happy and up beat and stuff. Mine won't be like that. If you are reading this blog to see how happy go lucky somebody is, this is not the blog to read. Sure, some of my blogs are happy. I am hoping that most of them will be. But I'm not the kind of person who can be happy and full of energy all the time. There are things that really get me down, there are things that happen that make me sad, depressed, and cry. I will write about those things. I'm not afraid to share them. I will write about the crappy stuff that everybody thinks about, but nobody wants to write about or read about. Unfortunately, though, this blog is more for me than it is for you. This blog is real. It's not sugar coated (for the most part). Life is not sugar coated, why should my blog be?

Just being honest.

And just to be clear...
I really do love my mom... I just wish she made it a little easier to do.

Right Now

Right now....
I am watching Dancing With The Stars. I wish I could dance! I love watching the football players because they are so dedicated. I love watching Shawn Johnson because she is so cute (and her partner is so hot! check him out by clicking here). And I love watching Steve Wozniak; he is hilarious!

Right now...
I'm laughing because Shawn Johnson was just called "a beautiful bedazzled hummingbird," how great is that?

Right now...
I'm so happy that I got to go snowboarding today with Luke... and I landed a few jumps that I've been way to scared to try in the past!!!

Right now...
I'm relaxed because I'm just lounging around the house in sweatpants, exhausted from snowboarding, watching TV and writing in my blog.

Right now...
My knee hurts from boarding, my feet hurt from boarding, my shoulders hurt from boarding, and my elbow hurts from slamming it on the refrigerator door. Smart.
This might be why...


Right now...
I'm happy that I get to go to Panda Express with Colin and I finally get to meet Bobbi on Wednesday.

Right now...
I'm SUPER excited to go visit my best friend, Katelin, at UOP on Friday.

Right now...
I'm looking forwards to next quarter and Nikol's wonderful ideas. Weekly photo shoots, a school magazine, Mama Mia!, and hair curling lessons :)

That's about all I'm up to right now.

Do I write in my blog too often? Hmmm... maybe people will get sick of reading it :(

Spring Break

Since my school is on the quarter system, I have Spring Break this week.

My friends and I were supposed to go to Mexico this week, but that all fell apart in a very depressing manner. Even though I am sad that I am not going on that amazing trip, I am not going to sit around and pout that I'm not spending the week on some beach sipping on mojitos, margaritas, and coronas. Instead, I'm going to fill my week with fun this!

On the list for a fabulous spring break in the Bay Area and surrounding areas....

1. sit on the couch and watch endless episodes of Seventh Heaven (check! did that today)
2. figure out which classes I need to take and when for the rest of college
3. apply for a job for Spring Quarter so I can start earning money for my trip to Spain in the Fall (preferably on campus)
4. go snowboarding at least one day... tomorrow!!!, and hopefully on Thursday as well
5. start looking at furniture for the house next year (Kathryn has a very nice brown leather couch that I actually really really really love)
6. go to Panda Express with Colin and meet his gf Bobbi -- so excited!
7. convince Angela to come to Cal Poly next year -- encouraged by her father of course
8. golfing with my step sister (I've never been... this should be interesting)
9. visit the high school and help my step mother with her class (I always love doing this when I'm home)
10. HAVE FUN!!!!

Today is only Sunday which means that I have a whole 7 days until I head back to school.


I already found a desk for my room on Craig's List. I love that tool. Here's a picture:

What do you think??


Also, as a post-finals present to myself, I am going to order myself a pair of red Keds. Keds are so comfortable! I love them. Plus, red shoes are always a plus.

Spain

So, I just got an e-mail from one of the professors in charge of the fall study abroad program in Valladolid, Spain annnnnddddd.... I GOT ACCEPTED!!

I was so excited and I just thought I would share. I was a little bummed because there were some people who didn't get accepted who I definitely thought would get accepted, but I'm sure they'll figure out a way to study abroad if they really want it. I do feel bad though, and I don't want to brag about it, but I'm just so excited!

Also, I didn't quite get the classes I wanted to take. For one thing, I need to change the Spanish classes I'm signed up for because I will have already taken one of them by the time I go to Spain. Also, I did not get signed up for the cultures of Spain class that I really wanted to take. I sent him an e-mail to see if there was any way I could possibly switch into that class instead of one of the classes I'm signed up to take... we'll see.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. I'm so excited!!!

And on a different note... as of tonight at 7 p.m. we will have signed the lease for the house for next year! Anybody wanna sublet for a quarter? Haha.

Okay, it's a beautiful day outside so I will not waste any more time sitting inside. Off to a bbq in shorts and a tank top. WELCOME SPRING!!!

Missed Connections

So I was at Nikol's apartment tonight and we were talking to her sister Page about the different websites and stuff which take up all our time. I said that I spent a lot of time messing around on Craig's List looking at random stuff like cars, furniture, and all the free stuff they have posted.

Page said that another thing that would suck up my time was the "personals" section of Craig's List. Under the personals there is a link to "Missed Connections." It is random things that people post on Craig's List when they see somebody they think is cute, beautiful, handsome, doing something dumb, etc.

The things that people post are so funny/sweet. Like, seeing a cute girl in the library while you're studying. Or noticing the hot guy grocery shopping at Ralph's. Just random people noticing other random people and really feeling a connection.

It really makes you wonder what people notice about you. Like, has somebody in your English class wanted to talk to you but never got the guts to go up and say something? Has somebody ever seen you walking to your car in the parking lot and thought you were absolutely beautiful but didn't want to seem like a creeper by asking for your number? Things like that. Maybe it's a little weird to think about the fact that other people actually notice us doing every day things, but they really do.

The smile somebody gives you from the next car over at a stop light can make your day. The cute girl handing you your burger at McDonalds can make you feel happy. The hot guy buying his Friday night 30 pack at the grocery store can make you smile.

Maybe there is something to be said for being spontaneous and talking to that random person on the street. If you don't, maybe you've just passed up the person who could make you the happiest you've ever been or ever will be.

Even if you're not looking for somebody to date or whatever, it's still nice to know that other people notice you. I mean, don't we all want to be noticed? Don't we all want to know that somebody is thinking about us? I don't think the point of that section on Craig's list is supposed to be for people who are looking for an honest to God relationship.. I think it's more of a way to let somebody know you're thinking about them. A nice gesture.

There's also something to be said for dressing a little nicer when leaving the house/apartment/dorm rom. I mean, I'm notorious for doing nothing with my hair in the morning, throwing on jeans and a t-shirt, a little mascara, and heading out the door. But what if I, and every other person who does that same thing, were to change that? Who would notice us?

Don't get me wrong, I love my white t-shirts, blue jeans, and flip flops... but what if I tried a little harder? Who would notice me? Who would think I was beautiful?

Not all of us were blessed enough to have naturally good looks. Not all of us can walk out of the house wearing whatever we want and still get noticed by every person we pass by.

Craig's List, however, offers a place for ordinary people to post little things they've noticed about other ordinary people. Even if the posts aren't about you, it's still nice to know that those things run through people's minds. We all know we think them, why not write them down to share with others? You might make somebody's day... like mine.

Who knows, maybe one day there will be a post about me or you.

Maybe I'll try a little harder just to see what happens....

I'm not kidding. Go check it out. Missed Connections on Craig's List. You never know, somebody could be noticing all the wonderful little things about you.

House Happiness

So I just went with Luke, Christine, and Kathryn to look at our house for next year!

It is so big and so nice. It needs some work, but the lady said she'd have everything pained and done by the time our lease starts in June.

My room is HUGE!!! but I will need to get a lot of furniture in order to fill it. It doesn't have a closet, but I will try to find a wardrobe and stuff like that.

There is a huge yard outside and the lady and her son are redoing it so it will have a lawn and she planted fruit trees and berries and stuff like that, so by the time it's all done it will look very nice. She is picking up the water bill for a while so that is nice... and there's some weird thing with the cable so we might get it free or super cheap? I don't know. In any case, utilities shouldn't be too bad.

I took some pictures on my camera but I don't have a USB cord to connect it to my computer. Mark is bringing one over to Luke's house tonight so I'll upload pictures and post them once I have that here.

I'm so excited to live with Kathryn, Christine, Stephanie, and Brittany. I'm going to miss living so close to Kat, Nikol, Ashley , and Cassie though (maybe they can find a house near me? haha). Also, I'm going to miss my room mates I have now.

Still a few months until we move in though. We sign the lease on Thursday or Friday.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!! <3

not as good as I thought I was

So today I met with my English professor about a grade I got on a paper.

I spent so much time writing, reviewing, editing, and fixing the paper to the point that I honestly believed I'd receive a very good grade on it.

I didn't.

I talked to him about it today and he told me it was my writing style which lead to my bad grade. He even told me that I'd actually gotten 5% lower than he gave me on the paper because he felt bad that I didn't do so well. Wonderful... I got a pity grade.

My entire life I've been told that I'm a good writer and that I formulate my ideas very well. The last English professor I had even asked me if she could post one of my papers on her website as an example for future students.

Apparently, I'm not actually as good at writing as I thought I was.
If I'm not good at writing... then what am I good at? Because I can't think of anything...

I hate finals.

and on that depressing note... goodbye.

Prom, Play, Spiderman, and the P

Today was prom. I didn't go... but my little sister did. She was beautiful. I took pictures of her every step of the way. She hated me for it. I have over 300 pictures of her. Here is the finished product:

I love her.

Also, I went to see Luke's little sister in a play at her high school. It was "Godspell" and she did amazing. It was so much fun to watch. She's a wonderful performer. The whole cast looked like they were having so much fun.

Then Luke gave me a t-shirt that he bought me today. I love it. It has a bunch of Spiderman comic stuff on it. I love it. I love Spiderman. I'll post a picture today.

I'm exhausted because I've been up since 7 this morning and I didn't get too much sleep last night.... but I've still got to work on my media law final for a little while.

After that, I'm off to bed.
Good Night <3

P.S. If you go to my school, check out this "On The P" video based off of the SNL short "On A Boat" ... it's pretty good :)

a not so little bit of late night thinking...

So last night I had a really tough time falling asleep. I stayed up late doing who knows what and ended up going to bed at around 1 in the morning. I laid in bed for an hour and a half, wide awake, because I couldn't fall asleep. It was awful.

Finally, at two in the morning, I decided that if I was going to be awake, I might as well do something productive with my time... so I did the sudoku from yesterday's student newspaper haha. Very productive, I know.

Lately I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping. It has really sucked. I don't even know what it is, stress from school, stress from other parts of life, what is it? I really can't figure it out. I do all my homework at night, I always read what is due the next day in class, I've been to every single one of my classes this quarter. It's weird, I just have the hardest time sleeping. I can't sleep because I get anxious, but then I get even more anxious because I can't sleep... Definitely not fun.

Last night, another thing that was keeping me up was that I was thinking about writing. I was thinking about why I have this blog and the fact that I actually enjoy writing in it a lot. I almost feel empty when a day goes by that I haven't written. I know, I know, I haven't actually written in this blog too much... I mean I just started it recently. But for some reason it offers me a sort of escape.

I used to keep journals when I was younger. In middle school and highschool I had notebooks that I would write in. I wrote in a journal on a regular basis for a few years but then I stopped (for a few reasons that I won't go in to on here). I've realized something recently, though, which may be why I will actually make a decent journalist of some sort.

I've realized that I like my voice to be heard. Now, I know that sounds weird.. But hear me out. I used to write for me. I used to write poems, I used to write in a journal, I used to write stories, but the things that I was most proud of, the things that I felt the most accomplished of were the things that other people read. Maybe its some sort of thing that I just enjoy hearing people tell me I'm a good writer or something... I dunno, But I actually really enjoy writing for my English classes and what not. This blog offers me a sort of way for me to offer my writing to other people without being graded for some sort of class or whatever.

Now, depending on who is reading this, people will have different opinions of what I am saying in this blog. One specific person might roll their eyes at me and not quite understand why I got so mad at him all those years ago. I had a journal, you see, and I wrote in it every day I could. I wrote my personal thoughts and everything. Then, somebody read that journal and I nevever wrote in it again. I tried writing occasionally, but I never stuck with it again. The reason I got so mad was because that stuff was supposed to be only for my eyes to see. Of course, we've all learned something from Anne Frank... and that is that you may right a diary or a journal for yourself, but some day the entire world might know your name and might read your inner most secrets without you even knowing it. But really, my journal was just for me. What I am writing here, I know other people will read it, or at least I know that there is a possibility of it being read by others so thats why I feel comfortable sharing what I do.

Anyway, last night I was lying in bed thinking about writing (of all things). I was thinking about different topics that I've wanted to discuss with people or write about. I was thinking about different things that I like to do and that I am interested in, and I was thinking about sharing those things with the world. This blog is my way of sharing those things.

So I came up with a plan.

I'm the kind of person who can't sleep if I have something on my mind. I can't sleep if I have something to do or something that I think I'll forget. I just keep running things through my mind which keeps me awake. I've gotten in to the habit of keeping a note pad next to my bed so that if I ever have one of those moments that I can't go to bed because I have too much on my mind, I just write it down on my note pad so I don't forget it... kind of like a journal of lists, ideas, and things to do.

Last night was one of those nights. I got up at 2:30 and turned on my light. I wrote down all the ideas I had for getting my voice to be heard. I wrote down the ideas I have for my blog. I wrote down different topics I'm interested in discussing and writing about. And I decided that I'm actually going to write about them.

My blog offers a place for people to read my opinions and stories and thoughts if they want to. If not, then they can just avoid it. It offers me a chance to be argumentative and voice my opinion without any immediate opposition. If people want to argue with me or tell me what they are thinking, they are more than welcome to, in fact, I'd greatly appreciate it. But at least when I'm writing my blog, it's just my thoughts - not what other people are saying, not me trying to convince somebody of something, not me faltering in my opinion because I don't want to sound dumb, it's just ME.

So here's what I'm going to do:
I am going to pledge to write in my blog at least three times a week.
One entry will be just random, whenever I feel like writing something random (like my Sydney White posts) I will.
One entry will be a picture of the week. I have an amazing camera, a Canon Digital Rebel, which I absolutely love to use but I have no chance to go out and use it. So I'm going to take pictures every week and post at least one of those pictures that I take per week. That way I get to use my camera more often and I can get more in touch with my creative side. Because I love photography.
The other entry will be a topic of the week. I will pull a topic from the list I wrote down last night, and I will write about it. Those blogs will probably be long (kind of like this one) but they will be my opinions and thoughts beyond my every day life. As I come up with new ideas, I'll write them down on my bedside notepad and then I'll write about them on here. I already have so many ideas.

So there you have it, regular and random posts, at least one picture post, and one deep thought post every week. I'm going to try to come up with a creative name for my picture and deep thought post series, but we'll see.

Okay, I'm pretty drained right now considering it is 1:30 in the morning; and as I said before, last night I didn't get to sleep until after 3. Plus, this blog is long enough. I tend to write more than anybody else's blog I've looked at. Maybe they're supposed to be short and sweet? I don't know. I'll learn though. I'm still new to this whole "blog" thing... so we'll see how it goes. Like I said, I'll learn.

Anyway, that's more than enough for now.

Good night, sleep well, until next time.

Oh yeah, and one last thought, I'm SO excited to go home tomorrow for 24 hours to help my little sister get ready for prom. I'm taking pictures and helping her get dressed and all that good stuff. I couldn't be more proud of her... she will look absolutely beautiful, I have no doubt.

My Own Lazy Sunday

So today I have created my own Lazy Sunday.
I didn't wake up until 11:30(ish) - which is 10:30 if you don't count daylight savings time.
I lounged around in bed, took a shower, went on Facebook, read a little bit of "I Am Legend" for English.
I have been lounging around my apartment for a while, checking what was on TV, messing around on different websites like:
Facebook
www.Fmylife.com
www.epicurious.com
and a little bit of Blogger.

Then I had the urge to cook so I made myself a Tuna Noodle Casserole. I know, it sounds weird, but for some reason I really like it. It is the only way my mom could get me to eat tuna when I was little. It is still the only way I eat tuna.

Then, I got a text from Cassie telling me that "Sydney White" was on HBO. Perfect, huh? Especially after last night when I said I wanted to watch it! I got so excited. (Just a quick note: You know how "Cinderella Story" with Hillary Duff is a modern day Cinderella? Well "Sydney White" with Amanda Bynes is a modern day Snow White.. pretty cool.)

So now I am sitting on my couch, typing this blog, eating popcorn (not the bagged popcorn, but the kind that you actually pop the kernels and put the butter on yourself, it is much healthier than bagged popcorn. Try it sometime), smelling my casserole cook in the oven, and watching Sydney White.
Perfect.

Sometimes days like these are needed so that I can just relax and not worry about things I need to do. I do have al ittle bit of homework to do, but it's just reading and I can always work on it later. I'm loving this day.

I highly encourage everybody to go rent Sydney White. I love it.

I know, I'm a nerd.

But seriously, take a day like today to just relax and enjoy yourself. I promise you won't regret taking some time to just sit back, eat some popcorn, and chill.

Love.

P.S. Last night when I was getting dressed in Kat's room for 80's Aerobics, I hit my forehead on her bed post (which is about 3 feet off the ground, how did I manage that?!). I have a bruise on my forehead. It hurts. I'm a klutz.

Don't Stop Believing

So tonight was a party at Ryan's house. The theme was "80's style aerobics." Everybody was dressed up. Kat, Nikol, and I danced a lot. At one point we climbed up on the couch and sang to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." The entire house was singing to it. It was so much fun.

The outfits that people were wearing were so cool. It makes me wonder where they get stuff like that. Thong leotards? Hot pink tights and spandex? Neon high top shoes? Oh yeah, that's right... "they got it at Ross" (Remember those old school "do you like it, i love it" commercials for Ross? Amazing).

Too bad the party got broken up early. And by early, I mean like, before midnight. But it was still fun none the less.

Even after that though we had a blast. We went back to Kat and Nikol's with a bunch of people and we made chocolate chip pancakes and watched half of "She's The Man" which is such a ridiculously dumb movie. The fact that it is so ridiculously dumb makes it so much fun to watch with my group of friends. Mark especially enjoyed it.

Next Amanda Bynes movie to watch? Sydney White. Check it out.


Enough said.

My clock says it's 3:39 a.m. right now. It's daylight savings time. It should only be 2:39. Oh well. I'm going to bed none the less. I'm exhausted.

Love.

redecorating via the internet

Since I have started writing this blog, there is no need for my Facebook page to be so cluttered. This blog is just a list of all the quotes I had posted on my Facebook page. Lets be realistic... nobody looking at my Facebook page is going to read all those quotes. Maybe I'll keep one or two of them on there, but for the most part I'm just going to move my quotes to my blog. I have some time to myeslf this afternoon so after I post this blog, I'm going to redecorate my blog and make the appearance say more about me.

Anyway, here are the quotes I have posted on my Facebook page as of now. I have so many more quotes and stuff saved on my computer, I love quotes so much. I think the words of singers, poets, television shows, and books can say so much about life. I love them. I will include more in my blog at some other point. As for now, here is what I've got so far...

"It's twilight," Edward murmured, looking at the western horizon, obscured as it was with clouds. His voice was thoughtful, as if his mind were somewhere far away. "It's the safest time of day for us," he said. "The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way.... the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don't you think?" He smiled wistfully.
"I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars."-Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, p 232

"You can drive at 16, go to war at 18, drink at 21, and retire at 65. How old do you have to be before your love is real?" -Haley's dad, One Tree Hill

If you're lucky, and I mean the luckiest person in the world, the person you love decides to love you back. -Nathan, One Tree Hill

Nathan: You were right Peyton, people always leave.
Peyton: Yeah, but sometimes they come back
-One Tree Hill

Things will happen in life that you can't control but that's no reason to shut out the world - Crazy Pete, Now and Then

"I came here, because I have to tell you. You have to know. You're smart and funny and sweet, and your eyes make me melt, and I feel something with you I've never felt before, ever, for anyone. Something real. " -Becca, Bass Ackwards and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain

George Michael: I have Pop-Pop in the attic.
Michael: What? The mere fact that you call making love "pop pop" tells me you're not ready
-Arrested Development

Unfortunately the hard part isn't making the decision, the hard part is living with the decision you make. - Casey, Greek

Casey: I know where I want to be in ten years, do you?
Cappie: Yeah, I want to be with you
-Greek

Polar bears are the einsteins of the bear community! - Charlie, LOST

I would rather fight with you than make love to anybody else - Nick Mercer, The Wedding Date

The perfect words never crossed my mind because there was nothing in there but you. - Snow Patrol

The best kind of love is not always an easy road because life will throw you curve balls- people change, people grow and sad things happen sometimes. I think the greatest loves are those that have overcome obstacles because they have withstood those things that life can throw at them. That kind of love is beautiful. -The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones that don't and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it and if it changes your life, let it. no one said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it. - Unknown

It's not that I can't live without you, it's that I don't even want to try. -Unknown (I am trying to remember where this one came from, when I figure it out, I'll post it)

Education... through comic books?

So this week has been kinda stressful for me. I found out on Tuesday that the six page term paper I spent 4 hours writing for my British Literature class was just the rough draft. The final is due tonight at midnight. Also, I spent Monday-Wednesday worrying about my take home Media Law mid term that was due about 8 minutes ago.

I know what you're thinking, take home mid term? That's easy!
No. It's not. I spent about 8-10 hours working on a 6 question mid term for that class, and I probably won't even get that great of a grade on it. Ha ha... oh well.

These are actually two of my favorite classes. Even though Media Law is an extremely hard class, I am learning so much about things that I would have never even thought about had I not taken this class. Yeah, the grades on the first mid term were not very good (everybody I know got below a 70...) but if I were to take the class again or from another teacher, most likely I would be bored and I would definitely not learn nearly as much as I am in this class. The lectures are pretty long, but he includes random little jokes that give them comedic relief (I won't write them her... he has his lectures copyrighted... no joke). Even if I don't understand some of his jokes, I can't help but laugh at them.

My English class, on the other hand, is always interesting. It's a British Literature class, but not the type that you'd think. We don't read Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Charles Dickens (although I would love to read some of their books at some point in my life). Instead, my class has a theme. The theme my professor chose to teach this quarter is "Dystopia and Apocalypse." Every book and poem we have read this quarter has been about the end of the world, destruction of government, etc. Even the forms the books are published in are not your normal English books. We have read chapter books, short stories, poems, and eve comic books.

I highly recommend reading the books that I've read this quarter:

• The Last Man - By Mary Shelley (1800's, harder to read, author of "Frankenstein")
• The Time Machine - By H.G. Wells (very short, movie adaptations- "The Time Machine" and "Omega Man")
• The Chrysalids - By John Wyndham (religious commentary, creepy, but good)
• I Am Legend - By Richard Matheson (haven't read it yet, this is our book for next week)
• V for Vendetta - By Alan Moore (comic book, creepy, movie adaptation)
• Watchmen - By Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (comic book, very interesting, in theaters now! - I'm going to see it tonight!!!)
• --Other books that people in the class are reading as their assigned small group readings--
• The Children of Men - By P.D. James
• A Clockwork Orange - By Anthony Burgess
• 1984 - By George Orwell
• Memoirs of a Survivor - By Dorris Lessing

I have greatly enjoyed my English class. I love the stories we've read. I love the class conversations we have. I love the way my professor gets us to think about what we have been reading. I love when I say something in class and he gets a look on his face like he hasn't thought of it that way, and then thanks me after class for my participation and contribution of my ideas. I love that a requirement for our final is to go see "Watchmen" in class. I love that he has the opportunity for extra credit; beyond that I love that the extra credit opportunity is to watching one of the movie adaptations of one of the books we've read.

Hopefully I'll get around to reading the other groups' books at some point. I've seen the movie "The Children of Men," but I would really like to read the book.

I enjoyed reading these types of books so much (even though they gave me nightmares). I hope that I will continue reading these types of books on my own time. Maybe I'll go invest in some comic books of my own. Don't worry though, I'm keeping the ones I bought for this class. They were that good!

As for tonight, I'm going to see "Watchmen" with Brett, Luke, Gideon, and Mark. I'm not sure if Nikol, Kat, Cassie and Brian are coming, I hope they are, but it would also be okay if it was just me and the boys. I'm excited to see how closely the movie follows the comic book. It's supposed to be very true to the novel.

As for now, I'm done writing. After my term paper and my Media Law mid term, and then this blog, I think I've written my fair share in the past few days.

I will most likely post another blog tomorrow or Sunday about the movie tonight.

I also have other blog ideas but I don't want to overdo it and write so much that people don't want to take the time to read my blog (even though I'm pretty sure that Nikol is the only one who has actually ever checked it out). My blogs up until now have been pretty long as it is. Hmm... maybe I'll work on making them shorter.

Love <3 http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

oh yeah, just an afterthought. Yesterday, Luke and I went with Kathryn to "Boot Barn." I love that place. I want a cowboy hat and cowboy boots so bad! Sucks for me that they are super expensive!

another thought... I cancelled our spring break trip to Mexico yesterday. So sad :( Oh well, at least I'm getting $300 back. I could definitely use that kind of money.

thing's I've discovered

So the other day, Nikol taught me how to add things to my blog and make it interesting with things called "gadgets." I'm able to post blogs that I read (so far, only Nikol's, but I'm hoping to read a lot more once I get used to the site). I also added a "photo tips" thing so that I, and any one of my readers who is into photography, can check it out and maybe try something different with their photographs.

I also flipped through the gadgets I can theoretically add in the future, some of them look pretty cool. I really like the photography ones so that I can have a slideshow or whatever on my blog. That was really cool because the only other place I have to post my pictures is on Facebook. I feel as though my blog is a more artistic place to post photographs. I'm looking forward to going out more and taking pictures, of anything and everything. I'm not on my computer now, but when I turn it on later I'll look through my pictures and start a slide show of photos so people can look at them.

On another note, I was extremely productive the past few days. Yesterday, I started and finished my 5 page term paper for English. It is based on John Wyndham's science fiction novel The Chrysalids. The book was very good. My paper was about how the book is a polemic aimed at the reader which makes comments about the intolerance and malfunction of the way our society is run today. I think it turned out pretty well... I'll just have to wait to see if my professor thinks so too.

I also wrote my "statement of purpose" for my application for studying in Spain during fall quarter. That didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but I only had a page to put down EVERY reason I think studying abroad would be productive. One page is definitely not enough.

Kat's best friend Eryn came this weekend. I had so much fun talking to her and getting to know her a little better. We had a very funny conversation about parents and their advice to us. Her mom's advise: Eryn, be a lady. My mom's advice every time she can relate it to the conversation (and even sometimes when she can't): Now honey, you know you never leave your drink unattended at a party, right??
Yeah... thanks mom.

Last night was also a lot of fun. It was my friend Kathryn's birthday so we went out to dinner and went to her boyfriend's house afterwards. It was so much fun to hang out with those girls like Kathryn, Stephanie, Brittany, Christine, even Claire was there (which was great because I could thank her AGAIN for giving us a ride on Friday night when we were still out at 4 in the morning and didn't want to walk all the way home from Taco Bell).

Last night I also talked to Ashley for a while in the car because she wanted to borrow my snowboarding gear so we were going to pick it all up. We had a really good conversation and I'm glad I got a little bit of time to talk to her because I normally don't.

I know probably nobody else cares about this, but it is kinda a way for me to let loose and reflect on what happened this whole weekend. I guess when I start writing more, I'll be able to figure out what I actually want to write about. Until then, I'm just going to write whatever comes to my mind while I'm sitting in front of the computer.

That's about it for now. I've got a little bit more to do tonight so I can say I was 100% productive this weekend. That would include:
1. Reading my Ethnic Studies book "A Different Mirror"
2. Getting the Media Law book from Nikol so I can read before tomorrow's class
3. Proofing and e-mailing my essay to my Brit Lit professor
4. Reading "Watchmen" for my English class (yes, we are reading coming books in my Brit Lit class, more on that later)
5. Finishing my Spain application so I can turn it in tomorrow

Until next time <3

oh yeah... Last night I stopped by Kat, Nikol, Ashley, and Cassie's apartment to give Ashley the boarding stuff. Cassie and Brian were playing around on a cool website. Check it out: www.sporcle.com

another great one is: www.fmylife.com (this one is super funny)