Day 19, A Talent of Yours

Talents talents talents... Well let me think. I suppose I'm pretty good at making my room look like a tornado hit it! My desk is always a disaster. I don't suppose I've shown anyone pictures of my room have I. I think I shall do that, after I clean it of course. I'll try to have some pics up within the next couple days. Probably tomorrow since it will be the weekend!!

Today, I actually used the heater in my room since my room has been so cold. With the big field outside my window, there's nothing to block the wind and the windows don't keep much of the cold out, so my room hasn't been the warmest.

Today I had 2 classes, a test in both of them. Well, a quiz in Biological Anthropology, which really threw me off guard because all our quizzes in that class have previously been all multiple choice and then this one today was all very specific short answer questions. I'm pretty sure I didn't do too hot on that one, but luckily the professor is offering extra credit, so Kara and I are going to be doing that for sure. In English, my professor gives us the option to either write a paper or take a test. I was planning on writing the paper yesterday, but I wasn't feeling motivated so I took the test instead. It was pretty easy, I think I did well on it.

My friends from high school Nolan, Erin, and Michelle are coming to visit this weekend. Nolan got accepted into Western and Central so he's trying to decide where to go. He's more of a country boy, so I think he should go here instead of Western, but we'll see. I'm afraid that if he goes here, then it will just feel like high school all over again because I'll be hanging around with a lot of the same people I did in high school. I already hang out with Kara and Rose, but that's no big deal to me because I never really hung out with Rose that much in high school anyway. I'm excited to show them around and hang out with them since I haven't really seen them since Spring Break.

Oh, and also, Rose and Nathan have been having a lot of fun with this typing test. I just did it and got 55 the first time and 63 the second time.

Day 18, Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Ok, so I'm getting really sick of having to write "whatever tickles my fancy". That phrase just makes me want to gag, I'm so sick of hearing it. I guess what "tickles my fancy" for this installment is my English teacher. She's the head of the English department here (at least I'm pretty sure she is. I met with her to talk about being an English teacher back in fall quarter). She's really interesting and makes the class interesting too. A lot of the kids in class don't like her because they think she's kind of sappy, mainly because of the way she talks about the things we read in class. But I think she has such great insight into the poems and plays and stories that we've read. I mean, of course anyone can BS insight with a poem, but it's just interesting to hear what she thinks the author meant by the word choice, and how the situations in plays we've read can be transferred into metaphors of our daily lives. People think it's cheesy, but I think the things she says are pretty deep actually.

In other news, it has been so horrendously windy here I can hardly sleep at night. The wind whistles through all the nets at the batting cage thing right outside my window and it sounds like someone's being murdered out there! And also last night I got to bed at midnight and was sleeping quite nicely, when my neighbor and her boyfriend had a tickle fight on her bed right next to the wall that my bed is on and so I was awakened by shrieks of laughter. Better than shrieks of pain, although I would've preferred no shrieking at all.

I have an English paper to write that is due tomorrow but I haven't started because it's a paper about personal experiences which I have no shortage of so I'm not too worried about it.

Day 17, An Art Piece

Ok, this one might be hard. I like art and all, but I can't think of anything that just pops into my head as being SUPER AMAZING ya know? I would probably call Lady Gaga's outfit designer an artist, and in that case I would call Lady Gaga and her outfits a work of art. Sad, I know, that this is what our youth has come to, however I really think a lot of the clothes she wears are just amazing! So that is my piece of art. Lady Gaga. Sad.

In other more exciting news, today I learned to longboard. I started practicing yesterday, but by early afternoon today, Kara and I were tearing up the campus on our friend Nathan's longboard and skateboard! So then we drove to Yakima to look at longboards in a skate shop there and we found a nice one and now we're going to save up to get it and share it for awhile until I can get one. I'm really excited about it, longboarding is so fun!

Tonight I'm going to ride the longboard down to Kara's for our weekly South Park party :) hopefully I don't crash super bad on the way there!

Day 16, A Song That Makes You Cry

I don't think I have a song that makes me cry. When I was on my way to college, for some reason Gift of a Friend was making me tear up in the car. But that doesn't do that anymore. So I guess I don't have any songs that make me cry. Why should I?

Today was a pretty good day. I took some Nyquil last night, but didn't sleep a full 8 hours, so I was pretty delirious. I probably looked hungover or something walking to class since I was stumbling more than walking - I was THAT tired! And then I sat through class almost asleep, and then Kara and I went to get coffee and I got past the point of tired, ya know, where you get so tired you're delirious and everything's funny? Yeah, I was laughing at ANYTHING. And then we went to our bowling class and I bowled one of the best games of my young life. 2 strikes in a row, and a total score of 107! Hopefully I'll do even better on Thursday :)

Blah I'm so tired. I'm never taking Nyquil again. That stuff messes with your mind, mannn!!!

Day 15, An Embarrassing Fact

I can't spell embarrassing without looking it up. There's my embarrassing fact. I'm sure there are a lot of others, I just can't think of them right now.

Today was pretty boring. Spent most of it watching movies. Went to class, went to Kara's, watched a movie. Went to class, went to eat, went to Kara's, watched a movie. Went to eat, went to theater class and watched an episode of The Simpsons and an episode of Wallace and Gromit to study voice acting for class. Sooo boring. And then I came back to my dorm with the intention of watching The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, but realized that I've had enough movie time for one day. Probably more for 3 days. Blah.

So now, I am sitting around contemplating perhaps GASP reading. Psh, we'll see. Maybe I'll just go to bed.

Day 14, Non-Fictional Book

I don't read too much non-fiction I don't think. But I would recommend The Essential Writings of the Thich Nhat Hanh. I think it's awesomepossum.

I am back in Ellensburg, and it is 61 and sunny and not too windy and tomorrow is supposed to be almost 70! So that's all good.

Day 13, A Fictional Book

Blarg another book one? I don't want to do Dandelion Wine twice in a row! So I guess I'll go with something else... Umm... Well I haven't finished Anna Karenina yet, but so far it's pretty good. It's a nice book to read when I want to escape what's going on in the real world and get sucked up in some other family's problems.

I definitely didn't miss the west side's weather. Rain rainrainrainrainrain. Ellensburg is so much nicer. Sunny and dry. The only downside to Ellensburg weather is all the crazy wind. It gets so windy over there that when it gusts I literally have to fight to walk in a straight line. And with all the construction going on near my dorm, the wind picks up dirt and stuff and it blows right into everyone's face. I need ski goggles to walk to class with almost!

Later tonight is Skyline's final play of the year. Kara and I are planning on going, although My Fair Lady doesn't really sound like a play I need to see... I'm mostly just going because it's Skyline.

Day 12, Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Well, I know I already used this for favorite book, but I just started rereading it and it really is just as fantastic as I remember. Dandelion Wine is a book that I've decided I should reread every couple years or so just because it's a good reminder to really enjoy living and not take anything for granted.

In other news, I am officially sick. Could have been either Loren or Rose who gave me their illness, but either way I have it now and it's pretty sucky. It's just a headcold, but those are my least favorite because you feel crappy, but not crappy enough to stay home. But then you don't really feel good enough to want to go anywhere or do anything either. Blarg.

Today after my English class, Kara and I are going home for the weekend

Day 11, A Photo Taken Recently

Hmm...

This was taken a couple weekends ago when we all went hiking at Untanum (Umtanum? I never know how to spell it). Bandana guy is Jarrod, Loren's in the red, and Caitlin is the one closest to the camera. It was a really fun hike! Although when it gets warmer we're going to have to watch for rattlesnakes and ticks. Ick. That's one thing that's definitely nice about hiking on the west side, no snakes! Or at least if there is a snake they're just tiny little harmless ones.

Yesterday the weather was all crummy so nothing too fun happened. We had our weekly Southpark Party at 10, and then I went to bed. Oh, but I did go to the job board here at school and they posted a whole bunch of stuff for summer jobs. Kara and I applied to be camp counselors at a few camps, and now we're trying to be counselors at Camp Sealth, which is on Vashon, so that would be kinda cool. On our days off we could just go hang out with Nathan and Loren!

Day 10, a Photo Taken Over 10 Years Ago

I don't have any digital pictures that old! Bummer.

I'm sick of this crummy weather! Today is rainy and windy and cold! Ugh! Today I only have one class, so I'm going to be done by 10 and there's not even any sun that I can go sit in, and since it's so windy there will probably be no frisbee today either... Blarg.

Yesterday Kara and I bought out a lot of the milk cartons and cookies out of the cafeteria thing and had a milk and cookies party with Rose, Nathan, and Ian. Also rode Nathan's longboard back and forth across the balcony of Kara's dorm! I even got to the point where I can push myself without holding on to anything! I'm going to try and learn to longboard over the summer I think.

Day 9, A Photo You Took

I've taken a lot of pictures. This one will be difficult... But I think I'd have to go with this one

I always seem to catch him mid-yawn in pictures! Silly dog. In other news, my left shift key was broken but I literally JUST fixed it with a hairclip so nevermind.

Today is they  first day in about a week that it's overcast with temps in the 60's. And windy too. They say it's supposed to rain later, which is probably good. I think my body needs a break from the vitamin D...

 Today is bowling class again! It's a litttllle depressing because my best score so far was the first day we played and I got like a 98 or something like that. Every time since then my score just keeps getting worse and worse.. And today we're actually starting a tournament so I'm a little nervous about that. People take these things waaay too seriously. Like dudes, come on, it's beginner's bowling class. jesus.

Day 8, A Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad

Well, I can't think of too many of those. Why take pictures of sad times? But one picture that does make me pretty sad is a picture that I have somewhere of me and Lani where we look almost exactly the same. I miss my little Mini-Me.

Anyways, so far today has been pretty blah. Although it's still early in the day. I'm sure something fun will happen sometime between now and bedtime, which has been getting increasingly later for me. I try to go to bed at a normal time, but somehow I haven't been able to get to sleep until midnight or beyond. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the amount of daylight. Like it stays lighter longer, so maybe my body just is having a hard time getting used to it or something.

This morning I woke up and my room was warm and the light was shining through the window and I almost forgot where I was. Something about the light and the warmth made me think I was back at the house in Issaquah and that I shouldn't sit up too fast or I might hit my head on the ceiling like I used to. It was kinda weird!

Nostalgia overload! Next time I go home I'm going to go to the craft store to get some canvas to paint on. I've been having creativity/inspiration overload and nothing to paint on.

Day 7, A Photo That Makes You Happy.

Yeah, those three are the ones that make me happiest I think. Or at least for now.

Today I sat in the sun and played Frisbee and for the first time in probably about 2 years I actually put on sunscreen although it didn't seem to do much good because my chest is about as red as red gets. But my shoulders didn't get any redder so that's good at least!

I'm about to go see How To Train Your Dragon with my peeps!

Day 6, Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

So I'm not entirely sure what that means. But I'm just going to say that this blog tickles my fancy I suppose. It's kinda sappy and sometimes cheesy but whatever I find some of the quotes inspirational.

Today I got up, had lunch with Loren, watched my friend Brandon pole vault at the track meet, drove around with Kara and bought a giant badminton set, watched a movie and a half, had a pizza party, hung out with all my friends, and I plan on doing mostly the same thing tomorrow.

Kara and I were playing with the giant badminton things outside though, and it's quite a workout. It feels more like playing tennis since the birdie is so big that you have to swing REALLY hard to get it to go anywhere... I'm actually kind of sore from it... Tomorrow morning (or I suppose later this morning since it's 12:05) I'm planning on getting up to go for a run since I haven't in awhile and I feel kinda lazy.

As for now, I must go to bed.

Day 5, Fave Quote

Alright so I have liiike 3 favorite quotes right now. The first one is one that I've just been writing everywhere. And I'm sure someone else has said it, but I'm not sure if it was said quite the same as the words I say it in. But whatever. I've been writing "Don't let life keep you from living" all over everything. I actually drew a picture to go along with it.

The next quote that I have really been liking right now is a quote from Dandelion Wine. It goes something like "Isn't life a play? Don't they play it well?" That quote just stuck with me from that book. I'm actually thinking of getting it inked on me but that probably won't happen since I have no idea where I would put it. And the third quote is from Thich Nhat Hanh who says, "Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile. But sometimes your smile is the source of your joy". Love that lots. Oh and one more from Born to Run, "They were expected to accomplish nothing, so they could try anything". I love that quote too.

Today I spent a good 5 hours in the sun with my friends, playing Frisbee and blowing bubbles and jamming to music again. But then it started to get cloudy so everyone ran off to do other things. I was pretty proud of myself because I'm starting to get sorta good at frisbee! I was really bad at first, but today I was actually able to throw it and catch it and occasionally catch it with one hand :) haha... Anyway, I'm going to take a nap now before all my friends reconvene to play card games and board games and ping pong and whatnot. So much vitamin D!

Day 4, Fave Book

I'm not so sure if I have a favorite book. I definitely like Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. I'm not sure if it was just the stages I was going through when I read it the first time, but I really got a lot out of that book in the ways of inspiration. I haven't read it in a while though, so maybe it's not as inspiring as I remember. I also really enjoyed reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse back in 9th grade, although again,  I haven't read it since then so I might have a whole new take on it now. Who knows. As for books that I've read recently, I loved Born to Run because even if I'm not in the mood to run, it still inspires me to get outside and move around at least a little and to enjoy what I'm doing even if it's not the most desirable thing.

Today I completely misjudged the weather. It looked cloudy and not so nice out when I left for class, but by the time I was done with my classes it was sunny and almost 70 degrees! So I went back to my dorm and put on a nice summery dress and went to Kara's and sat on the big grassy field and blew bubbles and jammed to music played out of my backpack and watched all the shirtless boys play ultimate frisbee :) It was a lot of fun, although I did get pretty sunburnt since we were out there for probably a good 3 hours or so. We also put on some rockin' fake tattoos. I made mine snake bites! Here's a few pics of the fun

 Me and my snakebite tats :)

Left to right that's me, Nathan, Rose, and Clair

And there's Loren hiding behind his frisbee

Twas a good day, although I got a ton of sun and now I'm super tired. Going to go to bed now. I have a Biological Anthropology test tomorrow morning at 9. Bleh

Day 3, Fave TV Show

Favorite TV Show would have to be either Dexter or The Office. Dexter is a good crime/mystery series that still manages to be clever (unlike CSI) and The Office has gone downhill quite a bit but I still like it. It has its funny bits. Also I've been watching a lot of South Park because I find the offensive-ness really funny. A new episode is on in about an hour actually. We're all meeting at Kara's to watch it :)

Today the weather was suuuper nice. It was like 67 degrees or something like that. Tomorrow is supposed to be about the same. Since Kara and I were both done with classes at 10 this morning, we drove around town looking for some new bubble wands. We went everywhere before we decided to try the Dollar Store and that was the only place that had any. Then we blew bubbles for a loong time and layed in the sun on a blanket in the grass. Had dinner with a whole bunch of friends, saw Loren for probably a collective total of 15 minutes today. But that will change when we all go watch South Park!

Blahblahblah all that sun made me sleepy

Day 2, Fave Movie

Hmmm... A favorite movie. I don't even know. Probably Airplane or some Monty Python. A favorite to me is something I can listen to or watch over and over again and never get sick of it, and that's how those movies are. Other than that I can't think of any extremely moving film that I absolutely love. OH Boondock Saints. That's a great movie. Although the second one was not nearly as good. In the first one it was like the Saints weren't trying to be badass, they just were. But in the second one they just tried way to hard and it was stupid.

In other news, I tweaked my neck either sleeping on it weird or from doing yoga this morning. This morning while I was doing yoga I stopped my routine to smash a spider that was on my mat. I thought that was kinda funny since yoga is a "peaceful love everyone" type thing and then, "oh wait I have to kill this spider!"

Today I have 3 classes. Yesterday I had 3 classes. Tomorrow I have 1! Wednesdays are the best. Although Tuesdays and Thursdays I have bowling which is pretty fantastic. Would be MORE fantastic if Nathan and Kara would stop making fun of me for how slow I throw the ball. It doesn't even matter how hard I throw it, by the time it gets down to the pins, it's going pretty slow. But at least I don't get gutter balls every other time like Kara does. It's just frustrating that she says stuff to me about it going slow and then she doesn't even hit a pin. At least mine hits pins.

Day 1, Fave Song

The 30 Day Challenge

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — An embarrassing fact
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

For the next 30 days these are what I'm going to talk about. Starting today. So Day 1. Fave Song:
My favorite song changes almost everyday. But right now, I suppose I'd go with either Travel Light or Falling Slowly. I can't decide which. I like Travel Light because it's a good reminder to me that I should really start getting rid of a lot of the crap I've acquired. I'm planning on taking a lot of my stupid little knickknacks and things to Goodwill pretty soon. I really like Falling Slowly because it's from a movie called Once that I watched with Loren and his parents at his house and I just really got sucked into that movie. It's a good story and a good song and I just love this song. OR my other fave song right now that I could listen to a million times is When I Look At You by Miley Cyrus. When I saw her play it live, I just got hooked to it.

More Hiking!

Today friends Eric, Caitlin, Jarrod, Loren and I decided to go hiking. The original idea was Pete Lake, but when we got ALLL the way to Roslyn, the road to the trail head was snowed in for a good five miles, so we turned around and came all the way back. Drove past Ellensburg, until we got to Umtanum Recreation Area, which was very cool! We hiked all along Umtanum Creek and apparently there's waterfalls at the end of the trail, but it was going to get dark and none of us were prepared with flashlights so we decided to turn back.

The trail was super cool, it went all along the creek, and then there were a couple places where we lost the trail so we just walked around until we found it again. Crossed the creek on rocks and fallen sticks multiple times! It was a great hike! Although apparently once it starts to get warmer there will be lots of rattlesnakes out there, so now I'm nervous about going off trail when we go again next week.

I forgot my camera, so no pictures of this one, but Jarrod had his camera, so hopefully he puts the pics up on Facebook soon so I can take a couple and post them here!

Hike Report/OneDayWithoutShoes

Alright. So hiking up Manastash Ridge was fun and also a little scary. I have to say, that was the only hike I've ever done where going up was more fun than coming down. The trail is very very steep, and it's mostly loose rocks and dirt so there's not much to grip on to. On the way down I slipped several times and was afraid I was going to land flat on my face on the freeway below us!

The view was fantastic though once we got to the top

That picture was taken about halfway up. It had started raining by the time we got to the top, so I didn't want to take out my camera. On the way back down, things started to get muddy and slippery so I booked it down in front of everyone to get to the bottom before it got too bad (after taking TINY little babysteps on the steeper top part, of course). I was wearing Vibrams, so I was nervous about that.

Over Spring break we all hiked up Rattlesnake Ridge, and then Loren and I ran down, which is very fun, but since we were both wearing Vibrams we really had to pay attention to where we stepped, which was fine until I stubbed the bottom of my foot on a big rock so my foot has been hurting from that off and on. The hike up Manastash exacerbated the problem, so I wasn't able to go barefoot today! Which made me pretty sad because all my friends did it and they gave me crap about it since I was the one who told them about it and I wasn't even doing it myself. But hey, when your foot hurts, your foot hurts, right?

Anyway I'm trying to listen to more classical music, piano mostly, because I really like having it on in the background while I'm doing homework and stuff like that. So if anyone has any suggestions for good pianists to listen to, let me know in e-mail or something. I found a classical piano podcast on iTunes, but it's not the best, and it's pretty much just the same 4 composers over and over so there's hardly ever anything new.

TOMS shoes

So there's these shoes that I've been looking at, and I actually decided to buy a pair because they're cute and comfy and they go towards a good cause. They're called TOMS shoes, and for every pair you buy, they give a pair to kids in Africa who need shoes. Tomorrow TOMS is sponsoring an awareness day all over the country called One Day Without Shoes. Basically, you walk around barefoot all day! A ton of my friends and I are going to do it, and today I'm spray painting/painting two shirts (one for me, one for Loren) to wear. They say TOMS on them, and then I'm going to paint on the front or back "Barefoot so they don't have to"

This is what I have so far, just have to do the second part now.

 I'll be sure to post some pics from the fun tomorrow!

Today I'm going hiking at Manastash Ridge with friends Rose and Nathan! Then on Saturday an even bigger group of friends and I are going hiking to Pete Lake. I've never heard of it, but apparently the elevation gain is pretty easy so should be fun!

Happy Easter :)

Yesterday, Loren and I walked to Safeway and bought a big tub of plastic Easter eggs, and then we bought some candy here at school to fill the eggs with. At first we were thinking we'd just hide them all over campus, but then I decided to use 17 of the eggs to make a scavenger hunt with in Kara's dorm. So when Kara and Rose get back from being at home, they're going to have to hunt for all the eggs in their room! I can't wait to see if they find all the eggs!

Then this morning we got up early to hide all the leftovers around campus. It was so fun! We put them in trees and in bushes and pretty much anywhere we could. Some are in pretty plain view, others you have to look harder to find. I can't wait to go around and see if all of them have been taken yet.

Yesterday I did my homework, which consisted of reading 10 pages about literature and reading a poem and that's it. So now I'm kinda bored, just sitting around thinking about cleaning my desk.

I just recieved in the mail 2 paychecks from when I was still working at Snoqualmie. 2 months after they sent them. Jeez, mail in dorms really sucks!

So. Dramatic.

So today (since it is APRIL FOOLS DAY), I posted on Facebook (AS AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE) that I broke my ankle on the stairs on my way to English class and was on my way to the hospital.

Now I realize that this could be a potentially very serious situation, but I mean come on. We don't have to be dramatic about it! I told everyone it was a joke shortly after posting it! Apparently, the JOKE made my stepmom so mad, she defriended me on Facebook. I think that's actually pretty funny, really. Come on, it's April Fool's Day! All stupid jokes made should be automatically forgiven. That's kinda the point of April Fool's Day. At least I didn't say I was pregnant, or that I was dropping out of school to become a vegan hippie and live in a commune, or that my dorm burned down and I lost all my belongings. There are many much worse things I could have come up with. Apparently she didn't keep that in mind.

But anyway, in other news I have these new neighbors who are Japanese foreign exchange students. And they're great and all, but for some reason or another they feel the need to blow dry their hair right outside of my room at odd hours of the night. And play loud J-Pop. And have long Japanese conversations. Really? Did no one explain the concept of QUIET HOURS?

sheesh.

:)

Today in Bowling, we actually bowled! I haven't bowled in quite awhile so I think my score was liiiike 89 or something like that. It's so much fun, I can't wait for next Tuesday so we can all bowl again!

I have English class right after lunch, which is a really difficult thing. I was so close to falling asleep in class today! But I didn't, even when we watched a video. Going to take a nap soon.

So Loren started this group on Facebook called CWU Night Runners! It's really fun, because everyone who joins the group, we just tell them to meet up at a certain place at a certain time and then we'll all go running together. So far we've done it twice, although the plan is to continue doing it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I've been pretty excited that I can actually keep up with them. We run about 4-5 miles each time, which is probably the most I've ever ran without stopping for a break. My body is just so used to sprinting from track I guess, haha! But it's super fun, we meet at 9 p.m. and go run for 40-60 minutes! Last night after we ran, we chilled and watched a movie so I didn't get much sleep since I didn't get back to my dorm until midnight...

I think I'm going to take a nap now