Hi there!Wow it has been over a month since my last post... I guess I just didn't think I had much to write about, but I finally made a list and realized I do have a lot I could've said! Go figure. Where to begin... I'll break this post into mini sections, so it's not so cluttered.
ROOM UPDATE
I guess I should update about my room, since that's what my last post was about. I haven't done as much as I initially planned, but I do have two new posters that I really like. They were having a poster sale at my boyfriend's school, so he got me the elephant poster as a surprise :)
Then I got The Dark Crystal movie poster, because well, I have loved that movie ever since I was little! There was actually another one I wanted to get as well, but they are pretty big posters, so I decided one was enough. Someday I really want to get the companion novel World of the Dark Crystal. It is pretty expensive, so I'll probably opt for a cheaper used copy, but I think it would be really neat to read. It is such a unique story and the movie is very strange and unusual, but oh so artistic and beautiful in my opinion. A sequel was supposedly coming out a few years back, but production has been delayed I guess, so it is estimated to be released in 2011. I can't wait to see it, and I am hoping it lives up to the first one.
Kira!Someday I would love to be a Gelfling for Halloween. A female Gelfling more specifically...wings and all! :) Definitely not this year, but eventually.
FUN STUFF
The good news is that I have been having a lot of fun lately :) Butte is home to the 2nd largest statue in the U.S. She is called Our Lady of the Rockies and she sits atop the mountain known as East Ridge. We had been wanting to venture up there for quite sometime, and every time I would see her lit up at night, I would say to Brian, "I really want to go up there!" So a little over a week ago we finally made reservations for a tour. It was so wonderful and I am glad we went! The driver/guide was really nice and funny, and he actually was one of the guys who helped build the statue.
Visiting this statue was actually on my list of 100 things to do in my lifetime, so I got to check that off and add something new, which is exciting!
Another fun thing that started up again is our weekly pizza night/group meetings. Last school year we had them every Thursday at Gary's (my roommate Matt's pastor) apartment, and we'd just sit around and talk, eat pizza, and watch Cash Cab. Now a woman and her husband run it and we have it every Tuesday in the Chancellor's lounge at the school. There is a lot more room, so quite a few more people come now. We still eat pizza, but we also play games and do activities, so it's something new and different. I do battle with my anxiety when we go, but I try to ignore it and do end up having a lot of fun. Last week we played a card game called Apples to Apples. I had never played that game before, but it is really easy and very fun. Not to mention everyone was being silly and it made the game really hilarious and we could not stop laughing!Speaking of laughing...Last Thursday we got to go to a free stand-up comedy show with Don Friesen.
He was so funny, and we laughed so much! I will definitely go again next year if we get the chance.
Guess what? It snowed last week, in September!... and it has been getting colder gradually each day. A lot of people would boo that, but I actually don't mind. I can be happy with all kinds of weather, and honestly I was looking forward to being able to wear warmer clothes. I like wearing hoodies, cardigans, warm cozy vests, and jeans. I don't know if the cold will stay, but I am not going to complain about it. I guess I would have complained more if it was like the old days when I had to walk 20 minutes to the bus stop for school, but I don't have to anymore, so it's all good lol.
On another note...Brian and I sometimes go for late night strolls together :) The other night we decided to go for a walk just around town. We came across these two adorable kittens and we stopped and petted them for a bit. Then we got up to continue our walk, but we heard little jingles behind us and knew it was from the kittiens' collars...We were being followed! Those silly kittens followed us all the way home! It was cute, but they had me so worried because they were walking across busy streets and I didn't want them to get hurt or lost. Since they did follow us all the way home, we were able to drive them back to where we found them, which really helped for my own peace of mind. They were a little confused about being in the car, but they were fine :) and I am glad we did that.
Hmm what else...
The new seasons of House and Dexter have started, yay! The premier of House was really good. It was like it's own little movie (not to mention it was about as long as a movie), which I liked a lot. Then the second episode was more back to normal, but still twisted and complicated a bit. Dexter is off to an interesting start as well, and I am looking forward to the next episode!
PLANS
Well, well, well...over the summer I was jogging every now and then to lose some weight. I told myself I would do it everyday possible...However, typical me doesn't really stick to anything. It's easy for me to start things, but I always stop eventually, and that is my problem. I was able to lose 10 pounds in the short time that I did stick to it everyday, but I definitely could have put more effort in. So, instead of making a promise I know I will probably break, I will just say this...
I am going to start jogging again, and maybe even start my ab-workouts again too. I will try to do it every weekday for as long as I am able to stay motivated. I might weigh myself now and then, but I don't really care that much about losing pounds. Instead, this time I would really like to focus on losing inches from different parts of my body. I want to feel more in shape and to look better in my clothes :) But I think my main motivation is going to be to be able to look wonderful in my anniversary dress.
Anniversary dress you say? Hehe yes ;) I can't give too much away right now, but December 15th is going to be our 2 year anniversary (dating) and I think it will be fun to celebrate a bit. I might write about that more in another post sometime, but I think it's too soon right now...but I am looking forward to it!
My younger cousin, Kelli, is getting married in December btw! It is going to be in upstate New York, so I am not sure if I will be able to go...but if some good fortune happens and I am able to go, I can wear the anniversary dress I'm planning on getting. Now this is all assuming I do not stay extremely broke! My financial aid is being confusing again, but I am hoping everything will be fine with that. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but for some reason it is not showing up right online and just being a pain like that. We'll see.
SCHOOL
I am taking two online classes this semester. Society & Environment in History and Website Development. I am really enjoying them, actually! I have learned a lot so far, and I actually really enjoy doing my Website Development homework. We started making this mini website, and each week we add to it using what we learned that week. It's a really good way to practice what we learn and it makes it a lot easier to understand everything. Especially with all the XHTML and CSS coding we are doing, practice makes perfect. Our final project is going to be to make a website about whatever we want, and it is going to be challenging, but I am looking forward to it :)
The fact that I enjoy my courses has really made me realize that I won't ever regret college. Every single class I have taken thus far has been valuable to me in some way. I have taken a variety of classes and have had lots of different experiences and learned a lot. It is very rewarding. Even if I never end up with a degree, or if I do but don't use that degree, at least I won't feel like I wasted time or money. I actually didn't have to pay anything from my own pocket for school. Grants always covered my full tuition. I do have quite a few loans, but I took those out by choice, and it is because of that and school that I was able to do a lot of things I wouldn't have been able to otherwise, unless I was working a lot, which I wasn't ready for.
So, in that sense, college has only had a positive impact on my life so far. It feels good to be able to say that now, because I used to doubt that. I kept thinking I was wasting time and money on this and I might not ever have much to show for it. Then I really thought about it and realized I haven't really wasted anything at all, and I have certainly gained a lot.
Now that I think about it, that wouldn't really have been true if I was able to go to a school in Montana, like I had planned. Then I would have had loans that were being used towards my education, so then I would feel obligated and pressured to attain and use that degree, or else what was the point? Maybe it wasn't meant to be, for that very reason. I don't know...but whenever something not so good happens in my life, after some time goes by I am able to look back and see the positives that came from it. I don't know if that makes the bad times okay, but it makes it a lot easier to move on without regrets. With each step i take, I discover new possibilities which makes me realize that it's not always about failing or succeeding. No matter what I do or don't do, life is a journey and every moment counts for something. You can't fail at life. For me, that little thought makes it all okay. :)
Essex Jct., VT Fall 2007 By Kayla Wood
oh boy! I loved reading your blog post. I love the way you write. You seem to write about something specific (and you write it well) or you organize everything (like the way you wrote it above). I really enjoy some of my own writings but overall, i don't really like them. And I want to delete them, change them, or start them over, but then Andy asks me "Why delete them? They are what you wrote at those times" And that's very much true, but I just don't like the way I wrote them. When I do end up writing something I really like, I take a while to write it. I take hours. And hours I don't always have, but I suppose if I want something to turn out well, I will have to take those hours.
ReplyDeleteAnywho, I really do love this blog post. And I absolutely love how you have a list of things you want to accomplish!!!! I've always wanted to do that.. and I did start one a long while back, but I never kept at it. Or went back to look at it.. and I never even finished writing it. I just wrote a few ideas here and there on different pieces of paper.. I'm not even sure where those papers are??? And every time you mention something about your list.. it makes me remember ohhh yeah! Then I go through the phase again, and I end up losing the papers and never put them in something together. That is one thing I want to change. I'm going to make a list as well, inspired by you! A list of all the things I want to accomplish and all the things I have accomplished once I can check them off. :D I looove it, it's just the matter of sticking to it. Making the list kinda reminds me of old movies, or stories about a girl who writes a list of things she wants to accomplish and she's a free spirit and just goes out and does whatever just cuz it's on her list and she wants to experience it. I mean, I'm not a person who goes crazy! but it would be a nice change to know all the things I want to accomplish. And it would help me to come up with new ideas. How much of the list have you accomplished if you don't mind me askin? :) Just curious.
btw, I loved the new Dexter episode as well! And I can't wait for the next! =]
ReplyDeleteI really like the posters tooo! esp. the elephant! Goooooood choice Brian :]
Yeah, school is tough. Me, I've taken out many loans.. loans that I probably shouldn't have taken out, but I took them out because I thought I needed to, because when i got finalized it said I still had a balance so I freaked out and took out more, and in reality I didn't have to take the loans out. The grants would have covered my schooling.. if only I would have called the school about the balance, or waited a little longer, and the balance would have been officially processed and it would have came to a zero percent with money still left over for my spending. But nope I was eager to get the financial aid processed and finished so I had no balance... so now I feel that I need to get a degree and work in the degree so that I can pay the loans back. And I feel that if I don't get that degree I will be a failure. I hate that feeling. And I feel that I won't be smart enough if I don't get the degree, but I'm not even 100% sure if I want to become a Respiratory Therapist. But I'm doing it because I'm eager to just get that degree, so I can start paying off those loans. And I want to travel and have a family and have money left over, that job will let me do all that. But I hate knowing that that's how my life is going to be. I'm going to be stuck like that. But it's not that bad I don't think, and I don't have to continue doing that as a career. I really don't have to. I wish I can go to school and take a variety of classes, whatever classes I want to just so I can learn in those classes, learn something new. What I really want to do is take photography, art, and history classes, but I don't think I'm good enough to get a good job, and my only other option would be to be a teacher. And frankly I don't want to become one. But I could like I said take those classes after I'm in my career for a while and paid off the student loans already. Gah. I don't know if I would like to go back to school by then tho.
Life is so busy! Never anytime to just stop, with everything completely caught up and nothing to do...There's always something that needs to be done, never just calm peaceful days where nothing is going on during your days. I wish I was a kid again, so I can do it all over, but I wish I was that kid with knowing all the things I know now. But then I wouldn't have that kid mindset. I would be a more grown up kid. And besides all the things I've been through has made me a stronger, better person so I guess everything is okay. I just hope it stays okay. Which I'm sure it will be, Andy keeps my heart happy.
bahhhhhhh.....whew lol. This is a lot of talking. Sorry I guess reading your blog just left me with so many feelings about my own life.
Thank you so much! That really means a lot! I don't always like the way I write either, but I notice if I do take the time to think about it and plan it out a bit, I feel less scatterbrained. But I definitely get the same way sometimes when I read things I wrote in the past. Sometimes I don't like the way I wrote or what I said, and I want to erase it too.
ReplyDeleteI had made these journals for people close to me that I wrote in whenever I felt like it until they were filled. I wrote about all sorts of different things to those people. I remember as I was writing, I would go back and read some of my old entries and I just wanted to scratch out what I wrote or rip the pages out because I didn't feel that way anymore, or I just thought it was pointless and didn't know why I would write that. But I told myself that is who I was and that was how I felt at the time, and it is not something I should be ashamed of and want to destroy. I should realize how much I have changed and grow from it. Besides, how could I give the journal as a gift (to my older sister, for example) if it was full of scratched out sentences and ripped out pages? I did give them the journals unaltered, but I feel like making a whole new one now because so much has changed!
It can be frustrating, but that is just a part of blog writing. You wouldn't rip out the old pages of your diaries, so why would you delete your blog entries? Please don't! Besides, I really like the way you write and I don't see anything wrong with it. You seem like you start your posts with an open mind and you write about anything that comes to mind, and I like that spontaneity. It's fun to read :)
As for keeping up with your list of things to do, I am with you on that kind of starting-stopping syndrome. I'll start things all the time, and then never finish them! All kinds of things that are really neat or just good for me to do, but for some reason I always quit after a while. Sometimes I come back to it awhile (usually months) later, but not for very long. When I do stick to things and finish things I feel really accomplished! My list of things to do in my lifetime is actually one of the things I have been able to keep up with for quite some time now, so I am really proud of it. It wasn't always like that though. I think I started this list when I was 14. Then when I was about 17 I changed it a lot because some of the things weren't important to me anymore. Then in 2007 I changed it yet again. Later I realized that wasn't fair because I wrote them for a reason and it is kind of like cheating to just take things off. Besides, the point of the list is to do the things I have really wanted to do at any point in time, and I don't want to disappoint my younger self, if that makes sense?
ReplyDeleteWell it is too late for me to add those things back, since I don't remember what they were, but now I try to stay true to it. From my current list, I have 15 things checked off, and 15 things I have started or am making progress on. I accomplished most of those in the last two years. Some of the things can't ever really be checked off, so that is why I keep some in bold so that I know I am at least sticking to it. Some of the things are really personal or wouldn't make sense to anyone but me, so I won't list them all here. Some of the things I have accomplished are to see a Broadway play, get my first kiss, be in love, visit New York City, start a blog, see a shooting star, and be with Brian.
Lol at that last one, but that was before we were dating and I didn't think I was even going to meet him for a really long time, if at all. I thought I would be too nervous to ever meet him, but what do you know hehe. One of the things I haven't done at all, is to climb the longest flight of stairs and watch a slinky go all the way down. That is really silly and I don't know if I will ever really do that, but it sure would be cool if I do haha.
Some of the ones I started or have made progress on are to write and publish a book, make a personal cookbook of my favorite recipes, step foot on every continent, visit all 50 states, conquer my anxieties, and to add more to this list as I accomplish things (so there's always at least 100 things to do). The one I added when I crossed off Visit Our Lady of The Rockies is to go on an Alpine Slide/Treetop tour and/or Zip-line tour date. Then there are a bunch of other things, obviously, but I thought I'd share a few of them :)
Anyways, good luck with school! I completely understand just wanting to get a degree, so you at least have it and then can do whatever you want. I definitely felt that way. I just wanted to get my degree, so I could feel accomplished and just always have that if I need it. But my situation is really complicated, and for now at least, I don't feel like I have that option. I couldn't get enough loans to cover tuition and living expenses, so I was just out of luck. Maybe I'll figure something out that would let me go for my bachelor's degree, but as of now I don't know a reasonable way. I might at least finish this Associate's degree, but who knows. I have so many different ideas and I wish I had the time and money to be able to pursue everything. I wish I could have like 5 different degrees just so I have lots of options! I know how often I change my mind so it kind of worries me that if I did get a degree in something, I will end up wishing it was something else. I really don't know what I am going to do, and I am just trying to enjoy myself while I can, because things might get a little rocky soon. If you want to be a Respiratory Therapist then go for it! :) You can come back later to learn the other things you wanted to learn, or you can learn them on your own too.
No matter what you do, you will always be a wonderful person and I am sure will always make good memories along the way. You are such a caring person, and you deserve the best <3 :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so awesome that you made journals for others that you love! I have written in 6 journal/notebooks so far. I don't like what I wrote in some of them, so I have been thinking about getting rid of them because they are very personal. I've written since I was in 6th grade. lol So lots of writing. Maybe I will keep them, who knows. :) And ok, I won't delete any of my posts :] Thank you for enjoying them, that makes me want to keep writing more! :D
ReplyDeleteyeah, come to think of it I had a list of things I wanted to do when I was younger, but I threw it away. :( hmm.. I shouldn't have. lol I totally agree that it's not fair on our childhood. But let's make up for it in our future.. and you of course already are! and as I've said many times b4, you are inspiring me to do so :D :D :D
I think that's so cute and awesome that one of the things you wanted to do was be with Brian :D I've always wanted to see a Broadway play too! I talked to my friend last month about going to one. :D that could be on my list I make. :) I've always wanted to be in love as well. I think everyone wants to be in love, it's a great feeling! I will definitely check out your cookbook if you write one! :D and whatever the other book is you write! :D That sounds like so much fun making a cookbook!
thank you :-] and good luck with school as well! I've been realizing a lot lately, that it's not the end of the world if you don't graduate college, or get a degree. It's really not the end. You can do many other things, and even in the future go back to school as well. :) and with my Respiratory Care program, if I don't get accepted this time, I'm just going to continue trying. Personally I think it's worth it. :) so if you feel that something is worth it by all means go for it! :D And if you at first don't succeed don't let it get you down, just pick yourself back up and try again =]
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