I Love Being Tagged : )

What were doing 5 years ago?

Hmm I was 15 and it was the end of my freshman year in high school so I was probably dreading the end of school (I've never been a summer person), celebrating the end of track season, and since none of us could drive yet we were probably at my house since it was the closest to the school talking about how excited we were for drivers ed, gossiping about who we liked, and lip gloss was probably involved somewhere. 

What are five things on your to-do list for today?

1. Plant some flowers

2. Read more of Northanger Abbey

3. Write a blog about my weekend- last weekend

4. Clean up my room a bit

5. Read all of the funny stories in my June cosmo. I saved them for last weekend because I know the BF is a fan of them, but we never got to them : (

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Hersey Kisses

2. M&M's

3. Cereal- I loooove cereal

4. Chex Mix

5. I usually have a seasonal snack, which is weird, but that's how I roll, my summer snack tends to be crackers with salami, which is also kind of weird...

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire? (in no particular order)

1. Figure out who I would want to be president and then give him so much money he's sure to win the election. Or maybe I'd just run myself.

2. Travel everywhere, constantly, and bring all of my friends and family, or just my friends, or just my husband, or just myself. 

3. Donate lots of money to cancer research and harass the scientists till they figure it out. 

4. Have a closet that looks like it belongs to Carrie Bradshaw or Charlotte Goldenblatt (nee York)...

5. I would have the planned 2 kids of my own, and then adopt bunches more a la Brangelina.

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Worrying about silly things, I'm not much of a worrier, but there are a few specific things that I always worry about it. And they're mostly pretty silly...

2. I pout a lot, not gonna lie. I mean I'm really cute when I do it, it usually works, but I should stop, it's not fair to others. 

3. I can be pretty lazy when I want to be. 

4. I have trouble putting my clean clothes up sometimes...

5. I sometimes pay a little too much attention to things that don't matter like celebrity gossip and clothes and what not...

What are five places you have lived?

Ooooh I've only lived 3 places, 4 if you count college. I lived in southern Indiana until I was 8, then two places on the region, one of which I still live in, and then college. 

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1. Columnist for the News Dispatch

2. Office Assistant for my high schools office in the summer

3. Day Camp counselor for the YMCA which I loooooooove : )

4. Hmmm that's all I got...

5. 

What five people do you want to tag?

1. Austin : ) You better do it! Still haven't done your 7 things...

2. Josh

3. Dave

4. How sad, I don't really have any more blogging friends... : (

5.

Quarter-Life Crisis? Perhaps...

I've gotta say, I've been feeling kind of weird for a few months now. I first noticed it when I was not at all motivated by my history quizzes or excited by the bits of  knowledge it constantly throws at me that I normally rattle off to my boyfriend and family while they roll their eyes and appease me by telling me how insanely cool it is that the influenza epidemic wiped out millions. There are just a lot of things that I want and with the decisions I've made in the past it doesn't seem likely that I'll get them. For example, I really want to live in the city for awhile, and I'm not sure why, but it's really important to me. When I go to Chicago with people the first thing they say when we get back to Westville is that the city is nice but it really makes you appreciate how great such a small town is. I never say that. I love the city and if anything getting back to Westville makes me miss it. Now if I had gone back a few years ago and picked going to Purdue for fashion merchandising that dream would be almost a certainty in the very near future. But I didn't, I picked social studies ed at Manchester which seemed like a really great decision at the time, but now sometimes I question it. On a somewhat smaller note, I'm also conflicted about my friends. I've got two really close friends and neither of them are very much like me. Now I see Sex and the City and how different those girls are and how it makes their friendship better, but sometimes I just want someone to really understand how I feel because they feel the same way too, not because empathy allows them to figure out how I might be feeling. Well anyway, things have been weird and I felt like letting a few of them go. Maybe I'm going through a quarter-life crisis. Does that exist?

What Happens When People Pretend To Know Things

N: "So did you hear about that whole MySpace issue with the mom and that girl?"

C & M: "Oh yeah" "That was terrible" (general mutterings of agreement)

N: "Well she was indicted. "

C & M: "Oh woah, that's serious." "Mmhmm, wow." (general mutterings of agreement)

N: "Yeah I can say stuff like that because I just took government! haha"

C & M: Laughter and then silence...

... long pause...

C: "Ok well I haven't taken government in a long time, so what's indictment mean?"

M: "Yeah actually I don't know either, fill us is."

N: "Well I'm not going to tell you!"

C & M: "What?" "Why not?" "Come on!"

N: "Nope, not gonna say a word..."

C & M: "Nikki! Come on."

N: "Ok yeah I don't really remember what it means either..."

*Overheard*

Scene: My friend and I are lugging boxes through the hall way of our dorm and I am trying to get through her doorway after her when I notice that I stomp when I walk...

Char: Alison do you hear me? I walk like I weigh like a hundred pounds!

Alison: Char, you do weigh like a hundred pounds you goober!

Char: Ohhh (laughter) I meant like four hundred pounds! (more laughter)

And then I walked into the  door frame, and then because I was still laughing I got myself stuck in the doorway. Maybe you had to be there, but it was great. 

Not Optimistic

Tonight is not fun, I am not happy, and I am not anything even slightly resembling optimistic. I kind of really want to throw something. 

I AM As Cool as LC!

Now don't judge me. But a year or so ago I was watching The Hills and Lauren was AIMing Heidi and it was all super dramatic I'm sure but what I noticed was how freaking awesome her chat box was, every time someone said something it was in a sassy colored speech bubble and it just looked so cutesy. I thought maybe AIM had just gotten really cool and I was left behind because Macs don't support a very high version of AIM. So I spent some time on the AIM website but I couldn't find anything like what LC's computer had so I begrudgingly let it go. Well. I have just discovered ichat on my beautiful PowerBook. I always knew it was there, but I thought I had to have a camera to use it, and since I have an older mac I am without a camera so I thought I was without ichat. But not so. A fellow mac user filled me in and now I'm in love with it. And I was playing with it for a few hours when it hit me. Speech bubbles? Check. Sassy colors? Check. Cool enough for Lauren Conrad? CHECK! LC uses ichat! 

This makes me instantly cool just fyi.

Look how pretty!! Mine is blue and purple right now : ) 

WHY??

Why didn't any of my friends ever watch Sex and the City?? I want to see the movie and they don't even know who Big is!!!! And my absolute WORST pet peeve is having to explain movies to people as I'm watching them. This is NOT ok.

The Date

Soooo I said I'd blog about our date and that sounds much better than studying for finals, so here goes. Well I was looking very sassy, and my hair was pretty much perfect, and I know it's true because even before I got out the door I was told I was looking very "Chanel", only one of my fav designers! An even bigger compliment because nothing I was wearing cost more than $20! Oh and of course the bf was looking devastatingly handsome! (sounds like a romance novel!)  Anyway, we went to Casa's and had our favorite dishes and chatted, my favorite part however was when our waitress told me I looked just like "that girl in The Notebook!". Now I've gotten this before, a guy on my track team called me Allie my whole senior year, but it just makes me smile every time : ) So then we went and got our tickets for "Made of Honor" and had a mishap with the little machine that can give you your tickets, buuut it all worked out. We had some time so walked to some peanut shop and got some "oo-la-la" chocolates and chatted with the owner who was very nice, then it started raining so off to B&N, which truly is "our place". We walked around for a little while but soon it was time for the movie! Just for the record, there is no reason a large pop should cost $5.50, and even though the cashier guy was super nice I was not a happy camper. So the movie was adorable and McDreamy was as McHandsome as ever, not as funny as I had originally thought it would be though. But it's very good nonetheless! The guy McDreamy was up against is literally the perfect guy, pretty much, however sometimes perfect just isn't what you want! Just ask the bf! haha (That's supposed to mean I'm not perfect, not him, he is def perfect... : -D) The only problem was that there were three teeny boppers behind us that giggled and gasped and awwed louder than could ever be necessary and mainly just annoyed me, luckily the bf seemed to think my getting angry was funny which somehow kept me from saying anything to them, which I appreciate, sometimes I need someone to keep my passionate self quiet... So after the movie back to B&N because everything else was closed. Normally at B&N we have a routine, we look at the books in the circular display in the front, then go off to the right and look at coffee table books of castles and nature scenes and then to the dog section and nature section. Then philosophy and essays, then fiction and lastly whatever floats our boat that particular night. Yesterday we skipped the front and beelined for a table of books about Indiana's history (for both of us) and geology (for him). Then off to fiction for me and poetry for him. Then came the bathroom incident... After that we met us at travel and looked at Germany books because that's where I am going for Jan-Term junior year (I'm trying my best to get him to go but no luck so far... He's only wanted to go there since forever!) Lastly, the wedding section (not for us!!) so I could look up ideas for my friends bridal shower. Anyway, when B&N closed we went home, only the best ride home ever, and the night was over. But it was a wonderful date, and it's the last one we get before summer where dates last for a weekend and only happen every two weeks... 

The Bathroom at Barnes & Noble

So last night the bf and I got to go on our first date in about 3 weeks I think : ) and I have every intention of writing a very long blog about it later today, but right now I want to tell a little story. Well on this date the bf and I went to Barnes and Noble because it is our absolute favorite place in the world (well maybe it's my absolute favorite place, but he really loves it too!) Anyway, so while we were there I needed to use the bathroom, so I go and do my business and as I turn around to flush my hand hits my necklace and I hear something hit the floor. Well I only like to wear jewelry that has meaning to it generally, and I looove charms. My favorite necklace is this skinny gold chain with a gold cross from my grandparents, a charm that I found when we cleaned out my grandma's jewelry box after she passed away, and this little heart. That last one is my favorite. It's a tiny plastic heart with a mustard seed inside of it from my Pa. He gave it to me when I was very little and he told me that the mustard seed stands for eternity and that he would love me forever and that it's a symbol of Christianity. It's not a particularly nice piece of jewelry and the gold band that runs around it has been silver for years, but I still love it. Well that was the charm that hit the ground in that dirty B&N bathroom. It had skidded along the floor into the stall next to me. Well there was a girl in that stall so I couldn't very well just reach under a grab it, that might freak her out... So I left and washed my hands. Of course her snotty little high school friends were standing there waiting for her. I hate high school girls sometimes, I didn't even like them that much when I was one. Anyway so I waste as much time possible, I fixed my hair and put on some lip gloss but they still wouldn't leave! So in an effort to not look like a freak I left (and I swear they all broke into titters as I walked out and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, I was looking especially sassy that night and there was no toilet paper stuck on my shoe, I checked!) and stood close to the bathroom looking at stationary, waiting for them to leave. Well of course, right as they left another lady went in! So I groaned and followed her in. She was in the stall I had been in so I went into the stall my charm was laying in, but I couldn't grab it because she would see my hand, and really, that would just be awkward. So I waited. This lady took forever! I played on my phone for awhile and when she finally left I grabbed my charm and ran for it!

Maybe you had to be there...

Not-So-Dandy Dandelions

Dandelions are the Rambo of weeds. There is nothing that gives me more satisfaction then grabbing that little weed and feeling those little roots give way and pull out whole. Now if you've ever tried to do this you know that this is not easy, but I have a particular knack. This past weekend when I went home my dad and I weeded and even though he was on the other side of the yard he said he could tell when I got a whole one because I get very excited and I "woo-hoo". This is quite a turn however because just 10 short years ago I was yelling at my parents when they pulled them or mowed because I thought they were pretty.

Spring is Lovely

Ah glorious spring. You don't have to know me very long before I will tell you that I hate the heat of summer, the sun, the dust, the dry grass, there is nothing good. However, all you have to do is see me in the spring to know that I love it. I find it almost impossible to stay mad in the spring and so I am bouncy and lovely for 2 months. It just fits me, a new beginning, wonderful weather, green and blue and pink and purple, tulips and lilacs and hyacinths, rain and thunderstorms, everything good is in the spring. And there is nothing I love better than my own backyard in the springtime. My yard is filled with crab apple trees and dogwoods and a redbud, it has a beautiful lilac bush and I've planted probably hundreds of tulips (fun fact about me, my thumbs are stubbornly green). We don't have a huge yard, but it's gorgeous in the spring. So when I went home for my sister's senior prom I just had to take as many pictures as possible. So now I'll share, don't mind my rudimentary photography and don't mind the funky ordering, it's too hard to move them around. 

First, my dog...

He was waiting for me to throw the ball

Yeah, he's pretty much obsessed...

He sniffed the camera. This makes me one of those crazy dog people huh?

This tree looks just like cotton candy in the spring

One of my special tulips, I think it's an Angelique?

I loooooove tulips

My favorite tree, the Redbud, got hit in a tornado two summers ago and we had to cut it down, but miraculously this offshoot started growing and it gets bigger every day!

My favorite crab apple, it's blossoms are such a rich pink and it's leaves are a saturated dark green color

This Maple was so small when we bought the house, now it's the same size as the house!

 I like this picture because the dogwood blossoms look like snow : )

One more of the cotton candy tree

No pictures of the hyacinths because they've already come and gone, and no pictures of the lilac bush because it's too early, but don't fret, they will be here soon and so will pictures!

Utter Randomness

OVER 1000 VIEWS- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Well obviously I am just super cool. And equally obviously, I am obsessed with my view count. But really though, this means that my blog has been viewed over 200 times since last Sunday! That's only a week and a half! And whether I was half of those views or not is irrelevant... Anyway, today I had my first official act as President of RHA and I slept through it. I was up all night trying to understand how to write a lesson plan correctly so when I sat on my bed for a moment I conked out for 2 hours thereby missing our little e-board meeting... Not good...  Ok so right now I'm watching Hotties of the 90s on Vh1 (their 90s shows are my kryptonite) and they're showing what the "hotties" looked like then and what they look like now and I'm a little amazed by the differences. Well first I was surprised by how massively popular the Rachel haircut really was. But then my Friends obsession cleared and I thought about it and I was like, "Dude that was only a few years ago, how can they have changed so much?" and then I thought, "Oh that's right, it's 2008, 1995 was 13 years ago. Wait, WHAT????" Craziness I'm telling you. Oh my goodness, Brittney Spears just came on as 90s Jailbait, she wasn't even old enough to be a "hottie" yet. This is nuts. I've got to go, my world is currently imploding. 

MySpace and Blogger Collide

I really really don't want to do my final for Education right now so here is my wonderful way of pretending it doesn't exist. I'm pasting a MySpace quiz here and doing it. I love doing quizzes, but I hate MySpace and I love Blogger, so this seems logical.

If I were a doll,​ the acces​sorie​s packa​ged with me would​ be:
Wicket and a MacBookPro

What type of food do you eat at your grand​paren​ts house​?​
Whatever is in the cookie jar.

What did you do yeste​rday?​
Went to church, went to a church luncheon, planted Delphiniums and Shirley Poppies, packed up and came back to Manchester, hung out with Austin, hung out with Michelle, blogged, went to bed.

What would​ you do if you were stran​ded on an islan​d with the perso​n you hate?​
I'd probably end up liking them, I have a hard time disliking someone consistently, it's draining.

What would​ you do if you found​ out you had been cheat​ed on?
OMG buddy you would be in so much trouble.

I find the thoug​ht of child​birth​:​
Unfortunate.​

Next door to my house​ is:
My Elementary, Middle, and High School all conveniently packaged in one building and located in my own backyard!

Know how to cook?​
Certain things I make very well. But for the most part I'd say my domestic capabilities are pretty limited. 

I am annoy​ed with:​
The Education Dept and the huge waste of my time that it is. 

What was the last thing​ to make you cry?
Fizzy.

My favor​ite shoes​ are?
My sassy little open toe stilettos from Spring Formal.

Can you use chops​ticks​?​
Nope, not at all.

Do you prefe​r beach​es or fores​ts?​
Forests most definitely. Beaches have sand which gets in all sorts of crevices and it generally has the sun which burns me almost every time.

Do you belie​ve in thing​s that last forev​er?​
Like diamo​nds?​ Sure.​

Somet​hing irrit​ating​ about​ your livin​g situa​tion:​
When it rains my room still smells like Anna. And that is not OK.

Where​ are you right​ now?
My dorm room.

Of your frien​ds,​ who has the best boobs​?​
My friend Karissa always had fabulous boobs. 

What were you doing​ at midni​ght last night​?​
Blogging and chatting on AIM

What were you doing​ 3 hours​ ago?
Sitting in an E-Board meeting with the new E-Board of RHA, of which I am now President!!

What was the highl​ight of your week?​
Well it's only been two days. But I had a good time taking an unplanned walk today with the BF. In a week and a half I'll only get to see him every other weekend.. : (

When was the last time you hyste​rical​ly cried​?​
Hyste​rics aren'​t reall​y my thing​.​ But I did cry really hard last week when I found out Fizzy died. 

What was the last thing​ you got in the mail?​
Somet​hing from EF Tours about my Germany trip!!

Who/​What do you sleep​ with every​ night​?​
Just pillows, but I sure wish Wicket was there.

What was the last compl​iment​ you recei​ved?​
I was told I was looking very sassy today. And I was.

Not Too Important, It's Only What I Live By...

So I came up with so many blog ideas this weekend and they've just been sitting there forming and growing and then tonight the VP brings another topic to my mind, one I've thought about quite often in the far past and so here I am, writing a blog that is completely unprepared. That is so Char. Anyway. I'm hesitant to even write this down because it's truly what I live my life by and so I want to say it just right, but in all my years of trying to explain it I'm not sure I've ever been able to really make people understand it the same way I understand it. So here it is. Sometime in high school, amidst cheerleading and prom dresses and girl drama, life kind of clicked into place for me. One day things just made sense. My friends and I, up to this point, were always complaining about boys (particularly finding one) and friend drama and grades and the normal high school stuff and I always had trouble identifying why it was all so important and what it all meant. And somewhere in there I found my own way of dealing with it all. For me, I just have to trust that everything will work out. And really, even though I don't consciously do it, it's me putting everything in the hands of God and trusting that He will get me where I need to go. Everything happens for a reason, everything you do is done to get you where you need to be- bad things and good. But it's not like God is controlling it, or not in my mind it's not, and to me it's not even like he's gently steering things, he's just watching. Every move that I make was known a long time ago, and that is how I know that things will always work out. My story is centuries old, and even though I don't know how it will end I know it ends happily. It's not at all like God is making my decisions for me which is what some people think when they think of fate. The thing is, my decisions are completely my own, I have every control, I can pick A and then B and then at the last moment I can pick D, the only difference is that God knew a long time ago that I would go through that exact list and that I would ultimately pick D. It's kind of like in His mind everything happened at the beginning, absolutely everything, and now we are playing out what he already knew was going to happen. And I'm having the same trouble explaining it, as always. It just makes so much sense in my mind and I just so badly want people to understand. But anyway, every time I am faced with a big decision I go ahead and make it and try not to stress about it because I know that that was the decision I was suppose to make, even if it turns out horribly it will eventually lead me to where I need to be. When bad things happen to me I do my best to sit back and let them  happen and wait them out because I just know that it will work out. Maybe it's this undying optimism that earned me my Blog's subtitle, but I'm not sure this is optimism so much as it is trust and possibly even a survival technique. I honestly don't know how people survive if they aren't able to take all of their fears and worries and put them in God's hands, I don't think I could ever handle them if I kept them completely inside me, all of my problems and worries and hopes and dreams.  And I guess not a lot of awful things have happened to me compared to some people, so maybe I don't have a right to preach. But life has not always been easy for me at all, I've seen a lot of death and stress and big decisions and due to my friends dealt with a lot of issues that were way beyond my years, and this was my survival. This got me through it all and it kept me sane and it kept me OK. It's so hard to explain but in my head it's just so obvious and so clear and I wish I could help you understand because I feel like it could maybe help people.