Ending in Small Town Rhode Island

This morning Rae and I got up early to get a head start on our last day of the road trip. We departed Akron at 7am and drove more than half of the day through Pennsylvania. The drive through Pennsylvania may be long but it is beautiful. I cannot believe I forgot how pretty of a drive it was. It is lush, green, and mountainous. I would love to make that drive in the fall and see all of the different colors the forests would turn.

After getting through PA, the rest should have felt like a breeze...false. We ended up driving through the "garden state" part of New Jersey which was scenic, but once we crossed over into New York it turned a bit stressful. I have been home way too long, I have forgotten just how aggressive and plain rude drivers are up here. The culture up here in the northeast has fallen under and transformed into a complete lack of respect for authority and lack taking responsibility for personal actions. It's a vicious cycle. The speed limit is marked 45 mph, everyone drives 70+, what is a cop supposed to do? Pull everyone over? So then there is no reason to follow the law or even recognize the posted speed limit because you pretty much have to speed to keep up with the flow of traffic and the police can't really punish anyone for mild speeding, only if it is really ridiculous. Now, I am not ranting about this because of the speeding but just the lack of respect for the posted speed limit. Why have a speed limit at all if no one obeys it? When driving through Ohio, when there were additional signs saying "stictly enforced" underneath the speed limit sign, just about everyone drove the speed limit. The funny thing is we did not see a single patrol man but everyone respected the speed limit and drove the appropriote speed. It definitely has to do with culture. Is it something that can ever be changed? Or is it just how it is?

So after all of the stress and frustration driving through New York, we entered into Connecticut. No this time last year when I was driving up for the first time with my mom, CT was where I started panicking and wondering what I had gotten myself into. This year, just the nostalgia of that freshman feeling made me panic all over again. What did I get myself into? People here are so different than what I am used to. Should I have to harden myself to tolerate cold people? My life is completely different up here than at home. We have driven WAY too far to turn around now. To make it worse, traffic on I-95 was bad, not terrible, but it did delay our trip.

After crossing the Rhode Island border, somehow all of that anxiety subsided. We arrived in South County Rhode Island (Wakefield) as planned, right around dinner time. Tonight we are staying with some of Rae's old family friends in Wakefield, Mariam, Ben, and their two young children. I am so thankful for having a house to stay at outside of the city. It is nice to have a peaceful night here out in small town Rhode Island. The GPS took us through South Kingstown and the quaint neighborhoods, we rolled the windows down and enjoyed the warm breeze and scenery. After arriving we chatted and ate dinner all before 9:30pm, I was shocked, it felt like it was so much later. Since we got an early start this morning, we got here early, and now I have showered, blogged, and I am ready for bed before midnight. I need all the rest I can get because of a big day of moving into my apartment tomorrow.

Well this will be my last post on this blog for a while, maybe forever? I thought it was nice to start and end this blog in Rhode Island. You will be hearing from me in my mini-city as soon as I get settled in and I will have a whole new year of exciting adventures up here in my mini city of Providence, RI. Thanks for keeping up with my blog this summer, goodnight.

Travelling in the Midwest

After enjoying a cup of coffee this morning, Rae and I headed out for day 2 of our road trip. After typing in our next destination, we discovered that we would be getting to Akron, OH a little earlier than expected, so we decided to make a stop at the St. Louis Arch and take a look from the top. So glad we did it! What made it better was that we got there early so there were hardly any other people in the observation area and we could move through the tour quickly, plus we got an early bird parking discount! 

After our little tourist stop we headed across the heartland of America: the midwest. We drove by nothing but corn, corn and more corn. It was very pretty through southern Illinois, but then it started to get monotonous once we passed through Indiana and most of Ohio and still saw cornfields. After passing the Indiana border, we made a lunch stop at Cracker Barrel. I had my chicken and dumplings and even had room for some carrot cake for dessert, then back on the interstate. We arrived in Akron, OH at around 8pm. After eating dinner at Chipotle and dessert at Coldstone Creamery we finally checked into our favorite hotel chain (Holiday Inn Express) and now I am currently laying in my nice queen size bed relaxing. 

Not too exciting of a day. Tomorrow we'll be driving through Pennsylvania for a large portion of the day. We should be in Rhode Island around dinner time! I will be keeping you posted. Thanks to those who have kept us in your prayers, we have had an incredibly smooth trip. Unitl next time...

Meet Me In St. Louis

The time has come for me to go back to school. It has been a fantastic summer as I have expressed all summer on this blog. Saturday my mom and I headed down to the Dallas area to meet up with Rae Sunday. We made a stop in Plano to see one of my mom's classmates from China and then headed down to Danell's. Danell has been a long time family friend and was sort of my nanny when I was a kid. She used to live in my neighborhood and she is the reason why I am a Christian today ( long story short). She is a preacher's wife so her and her family have moved around the country a lot, but I think that they have finally settled down in Dallas, and are there to stay. It was very nice to catch up with her as well as go to Sunday worship services with her in the morning. The congregation they have down there is truly great. They are everything a church is supposed to be, a big loving family. After lunch, we headed back up to Plano to get Rae, we packed up the car with her things and made the trek back up to Oklahoma. Rae has finally met Shirley in person and I think she got a kick out of her. After getting home, my mom made steaks for a late dinner and the guys came over one last time. I'm glad they had a chance to meet Rae, I feel like I have talked about all of them to each other so much, we were all old pals. 

This day has gone so smoothly, exactly as planned.This morning Rae and I got up and got organized. We had some extra time before we needed to leave, so I took her around town and showed her the important things and stopped for some coffee at Espresso 911 and said good bye to Micah. Then we headed over to Grand China to grab a bite to eat and say good bye to the Grand China gang and my mom and Charles. Then Corbin met us there in the parking lot to see us off, then we met Trevor at the Log Store to get gas on the way out and have him see us off. Our stop for the night was only in St. Louis so we did not do as much driving day one. Rae has an old family friend here in St. Louis, Stacy, and she has been kind enough to let us stay in her home for the night. We got into St. Louis around 5:45ish, so it was still daytime. Stacy took us to some St. Louis classic places. We had dinner at J. Bucks and then went to Ted Drewes for some frozen custard. I had actually seen this frozen custard place on the Food Network not to long ago, it's Bobby Flay's favorite. They make what they call a "concrete" as mixture so thick you can hold it upside down. 

Tomorrow we're planning to be back on the road at 8am on our way to Akron, OH. Keep us in your prayers, and lets hope the trip continues to be smooth. I'll be keeping you posted, until next time...

Cool, breezy, summer night.

Here goes another late night blog post. All great bloggers or writers must be insomniacs, because I cannot imagine writing anything during the day. The end of the month must be approaching because my free Pandora radio hours are running low. I am sitting out on my back deck once again enjoying the cool summer evening. It is cooler tonight than it has been all summer, it's "Ooh I need a sweatshirt" weather.

Today has been a pretty nice day. Since we have guests staying at our house, the tv has stayed off, meaning I have gotten a lot accomplished. This morning I had to take my car back to the shop because there is still an oil leak in it, which is bad for the upcoming road trip up north I am about to take. When I came back I grabbed my laptop and a cup of green tea and headed out here to the back deck. I did the usual, checked Facebook, voted for Art Feeds, checked my JWU email, then checked my Gmail. After that was done I decided it was time to respond to all of those emails I read on my iPhone but forgot to respond back later on and email the list of people in my mind I have been meaning to email. If I learned anything from Rae this past school year was that you never get anywhere in life by not asking for what you want, so I emailed one of the head persons of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) requesting that I be given more responsibility and more access to the media this year when I volunteer. I got a reply soon after and I got what I wanted. I also conducted some UIB business as well.

I have been very Chinese these past few days with our guests here. We went over to a family friend of ours for lunch, she made us "Shanghai" food. Being in a Chinese environment forces me to use my Chinese which is a challenge. We also played a little ping pong while we were there. I also spent a lot of time out in nature these past few days. Today, we picked pears from a pear tree and then we all worked together pruning my mom's garden. Quality time with the fam was pretty fun, I'm finally to the point where I appreciate it.

Charles set  up his big telescope and told me to invite my friends over to look through it. The sky was so clear and the moon was so bright. We took a look at the moon, a nebula, Jupiter, and other things (I don't remember). It was fun. We spent about 2 hours looking at stuff and by then it was midnight. No one really had anywhere to be too terribly early so we decided to go do something else. This is very difficult in a small town like this one but we settled on finding a spot to sit by the river. While sitting by the river we were all trying to figure out what our spirit animals were. One had decided quite a while ago his was a frog but no one else really had any idea what ours would be. Apparently you don't chose your spirit animal, it choses you. It reveals itself to you throughout life but you don't realize until you are open to looking for the signs. I guess my spirit animal hasn't revealed itself to me yet, or has it? There was discussion about mine being a spider since there are always spiders in my room and bathroom, I'm still wrestling with the idea of my guiding animal being a spider...yuck.

Sorry for the lack of really exciting or useful information, I suppose that is what's expected from a blog titled "Small Town Livin'" Unitil next time...

The end is near, but the beginning is nearer.

I don't know why I always get inspired to blog late at night. I always think they are so brilliant at this time too, and I read it the next morning and wonder why. I am currently sitting on my back deck enjoying the cool breezy summer night. It is perfect right now, I only wish I had someone to join me. I miss my roomie, ya know that automatic friend that's with you all the time? No worries though, I drive down to Dallas this weekend to pick her up and to begin our trek back up north.

My mom's old college classmate and her son randomly passed through Oklahoma and is visiting us for a few days. It's nice to see my mom interact with her old friends and talk about the days when she was in college. Her son is just a few years older than me, so right about the age of people I tend to hang out with. They got in last night and we all stayed up late talking about politics, religions, and everything in between. They live in Canada and we compared in contrasted the two countries. I really forget that Canada is a completely different country. In my mind it must be just a really big state or something. All of you liberals out there reading this should really emigrate to Canada, you would love it. Everything that the liberals are trying to do here in the states, Canada's already been there done that. Today I played tour guide and took them around the restaurant and the rest of town. She was very intrigued by the Native American culture so we went to the Heritage Center and took a tour of the village and museum. It's funny how I remember pretty much everything I was taught about the trail of tears in elementary school. I'm glad our schools took the time to take us on field trips to the historical sites around here. I'm glad that they are here but it is sort of throwing off my last week in town. I had big plans of seeing everyone and tying up all lose ends and packing, but I feel obligated to play tour guide and show them the sites. Rae kept telling me that this weekend would creep up on me but I didn't listen.

I am starting to get more excited about going back to school. It's not that I was dreading it or anything, I was just not dying to leave home just quite yet. I know I'll feel better about it when I get to say a proper good bye to everyone. The longer I stay here the more people think I am going to NSU and not going back to RI. Nothing against NSU, I just don't want to be perceived as someone who went away their first year of college, couldn't handle it, and ended up back at home. I refuse to be that person because that is not the case for me whatsoever. I have been asked countless times, "So are you going to school here now??" because I am still here and August is almost over. Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing others who have gone to college elsewhere and then decided to come back home. Every individual situation is different, mine is just not that way.

This may have been my last summer at home. I would really love to do something next summer, whether it is staying in Providence and working or an internship in DC. This summer has been the best waste of time ever. I thoroughly enjoyed not having any responsibility and doing whatever with no guilt of any other obligations and hanging out with all of my old friends. That was what this blog was all about: me doing nothing. I can only live like this for so long, it is time to be back in reality. It's time for me to look at life through a windshield instead of a rear-view mirror, and move on from the past and what is here at home and look towards my future again. The good things in my life here at home will stay with me, all of the others will melt away.

I wish I could stay out on the porch all night, but my laptop is about to die on me. Until next time...

When I grow up, I want....

Cool bike

Real strand of pearls

Classic black Louboutin pump

Perfectly tailored power suit

I'm a sucker for infomercials

A beautiful laundry room to hang out in + steam washer

Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer

It never loses suction

A basset hound of my own

Despite the corruption, I left my heart in DC

The Joys of Life

From time to time I feel heavyhearted, down in the dumps, not quite myself? Sometimes there is a reason, other times it happens for no reason at all. Sometimes it has to do with being home and bored. If I have a schedule that does not get filled I tend to get depressed. That must be why I'm in such high spirits at school; I am so busy. Some of you  must be thinking  I am crazy for getting depressed when I have no obligations, no real responsibility, no nothing. It was nice for about a month. I need to feel needed I suppose. The summer required nothing from me. When this happens I cannot handle sitting around and dwelling in it so I find things to keep me occupied and these are what I found joy in doing.

Exercise
Some mornings, it takes so much motivation to get myself out of bed before 11am to go to the gym, but when I do, my days went so much better. A little light exercise in the mornings is the best ways to start off hot summer days (especially for those you who have nothing else better to do in the summers). And on the days I really had nothing to do I would go back in the evening for a more intense workout. The days I didn't make it to the gym or did anything active were the worst. I always knew that exercise made me feel good but I had no idea it could have such an impact on my daily happiness. Remember: "Exercise creates endorphins, endorphins makes people happy, and happy people just don't kill their husbands." -Elle Woods (Legally Blonde)


Food
Eating is so much fun! In almost every culture, social activities revolve around food. Eating is the best excuse to get together with old friends, making new friends, and building relationships. This could be hazardous to one's health and wallet  if one doesn't make smart decisions as to what you order to eat. Since I didn't work so much this summer, cash flow was slimmer than usual. Instead of eating out, I started eating in. I am a believer in family dinner. I am to the age where I enjoy sitting down to dinner with my mom and stepdad and Bill O'Reilly. Also having cook outs and dinner parties are other great ways of socializing.

Did you know that there are actually foods that make you happy? There are certain foods that are capable of fighting depression and fatigue naturally? Basically all of these foods can be found on other lists of foods that are good for you in other ways. Essentially if you feed your body healthy foods, not only will you be better off physically, you will also be better off mentally. Simple lifestyle changes such as cutting caffeine, drinking for water, eating more whole grains and fiber, eating less processed foods and more fresh produce, cutting down alcohol intake, eating more omega 3 fatty acids like tuna, salmon, and nuts, and the list can go on and on. Healthy people are happy people.

Friends

Oldie but goodie
(have not taken a single picture this summer)

Friends sort of coincide with the other two subjects above. You can eat and exercise with friends and it makes it all more enjoyable, but there are also so many other great things to do with friends. I got a wall hanging last year with a quote on it that I always believed in firmly, "Wherever you are, it is friends who make your world." No matter what it is you are doing, if you are with friends, it's always a good time. I didn't do anything exciting this summer. We played cards and watched movies all summer. I was kind of bummed about it until I thought about how much fun we have just playing cards. We don't have to go out and do extravagant things to have a good time or create good memories. As we get older life is bound to get more complicated and more stressful. Make sure the people you voluntarily surround yourself with, ease the stress instead of create the stress.

Self-Improvement
This also coincides with the subjects discussed above. Don't get too comfortable with yourself. Set goals and expectations for yourself and no one else. Always be objective in the way you see yourself. Make sure you notice both strengths and weaknesses. Don't forget to give yourself credit for you strengths and don't let pride get in the way of noticing and fixing your weaknesses. Yes, it is easier to gripe about things that aren't going your way, but it is more productive to fix it to where there is no reason to gripe. Feeling unhappy? Do whatever it takes to make you happy. If you are happier, your world is happier.

Also, never underestimate the power of prayer. Sometimes I catch myself doubting or getting impatient with my prayers but it always pays off in the end, God willing.

My name is Joy, and it is just wrong for me to not be joyful. This is what I find peace and joy in. May it benefit you the way it benefits me. Until next time...

"Be joyful always." 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Fire, Spades, and Starry Nights

A cold front blew in and I am loving it! Sunday was Ben's birthday so we went to Chili's to celebrate...where else? After dinner we walked outside and it felt like it was at least 15 degrees cooler than when we walked in and the sun was setting. Gorgeous. We stayed out in the parking lot for a good while then made our way over to my house. After watching all that Laguna Beach I really wanted to have a bonfire, I had to sacrifice the beach, but my backyard sufficed. I think I was way more into the spontaneous cool weather and bonfire more than anyone else, but it just put me in the best mood I had been in in a while. It wasn't too different from any other night hangin out with the guys at my house only instead of playing spades in the sunroom, we played outside on my back deck. After a while we headed inside and watched the Marx Brother's Duck Soup, so funny. Comedy just isn't the same as it used to be by any means.

After the guys left, I took my medicine and expected to go to sleep, wrong. A crazy case of insomnia kicked in instead. Instead of laying in bed and starring at the ceiling, I decided to go out in my backyard and lay and stare at the stars. I could not get over how wonderful it felt outside. It was 79 degrees and breezy. I must have had a lot on my mind because I was out there for about 2 1/2 hours just sorting all my thoughts into neat folders in my head and listening to music I hadn't listened to in over a year. Ya know those songs you listened to a lot during one specific time in you life? I listened to the playlists of all of those specific time eras. Some songs were songs that I listened to on bus rides from band trips, football games, or airplane rides. Other songs were sad songs I listened to over and over again when I was feeling sad about certain people, and some songs were from tv shows that I used to watch a lot. I guess when I'm home for the summer, my life is at a  bit of a stand still towards the future so all I can do is be nostalgic. So crazy how music can bring back such explicit memories. Some songs can just bring me right back to a specific moment in time, it's almost like a time machine. Sometimes it's a little too much to handle listening to old music, but last night I was in the perfect to dig up all of those old emotions again. I stayed outside until about 4:45am. After laying in the itchy grass I had to take a shower before I finally went to bed.

Tonight I am actually sleepy and ready for bed, so goodnight all. Until next time...

Liquid Diet, Chubby Cheeks, and Laguna Beach

ednesday I got my bottom two wisdom teeth removed. Recovery hasn't been too bad aside from  having a face shaped like a squash. I spent days on the couch with an ice pack plastered to my face and the remote control glued to my hand. During the day I hung out at home by myself and the evenings were the usual, the boys came over to watch a movie with me but they also took care of me. I am so thankful to have such good friends checking on me, keeping me company, mashing bananas for me, and making sure I take my medication. 

I have spent so much time on the couch in front of the tv, I have watched just about everything on my DVR and Netflix Instant Queue. After my options got slim I started browsing through the newly added stuff on Netflix. Guess what I found...Laguna Beach. Now I wasn't a super big fan of the show while it was on. I watched it, but I wasn't proud of the fact. I watched the entire first season in one sitting, it was ridiculous. It was actually pretty fun and nostalgic. It is obvious that there is some manipulation of situations to make a story line, but the majority of it is deliciously real. I know that it is real because the dialogue is oh so teenage-esque.  The last time I watched the show I was in the 8th and 9th grade. It's crazy how watching their drama brought me back to the drama in my life at that time. It's also fun to watched because in the show, all of the characters are either juniors and seniors in high school. It was definitely more relevant to my life now that I have gone through pretty much the same thing they did in the show. The students at Laguna Beach High School are really not too different from here, the only difference is that there homes over look the beach and they have an obscene amount of money. The kids and emotions are the same regardless. Bad relationships are everywhere, mean girls are everywhere, and the weird sadness/happiness/excitement/fear of graduating high school and going to college is exactly the same. They even experience the same weirdness of being reunited with your old high school friends when you come home for Christmas and summer. I could relate 100% when it came to that. I guess this could be title Trashy Television pt.2 if you read my blog entry about The Real Housewives of New Jersey. 

The swelling in my cheeks has started to go down and I'm pretty much back in the usual routine. I get my stitches out Wednesday so maybe I will be able to eat solid food next week if not earlier. Yay! Until next time...

Retail Therapy...check.

After thinking all summer that I was broke, I realized that I wasn't. It pays off to pretend that you are poor because you end up with a nice surplus of money, at least more than you though you had. Since it was my Dad's birthday Saturday and Tax Free Weekend I took a solo trip to Tulsa. I never really think about if my dad wishes I was a bigger part of his life. I haven't been the best daughter but he hasn't been that great of a dad, I think that's how I prefer it. I decided to do something out of the ordinary and go see him on his birthday and I think it made him so, so happy. I gave him a gift card for his birthday and then he gave me a Promenade gift card for my birthday from a month ago, so it was pretty much an even trade. 

After I had lunch with my dad and stepmom I was off to do some shopping. I went to Old Navy and finally found some workout attire that I have been searching all summer for then I went to Woodland Hills mall. It was packed. So many people. I spent the minimum amount of time needed in there, but it happened. I got sucked into Teavana with their delicious samples and before I knew it I bought $85 worth of tea. So instead of waiting in the ridiculous lines at the American Eagle at Woodland Hills, I decided to spend my gift card and shop in peace at the Promenade. I've never done too much shopping at the Promenade, I never think to go anywhere else but Woodland Hills. Apparently I am not the only one that thinks that way. I got to the Promenade and it was pretty much empty compared to the other mall. After that was one, I stopped in Academy and went home. 

I really love going on shopping trips by myself, especially if I am on a mission or ready to do some serious shopping. I enjoy it because I can go where ever I want, when I want, and stay however long. Some people like to take a buddy so they can get a second opinion, but I usually never take their advice anyways. I also like going by myself so I can eat where ever I want, whenever I want, and drive completely out of the way if I want. Unfortunately I was pretty full from having lunch with my dad that I didn't fully utilize that. I had big plans of getting frozen yogurt, eating dinner at Chipotle, and getting a Jamba Juice before heading home but I was just not hungry enough to go back to 71st street to do all of that. 

Along side all of that shopping I did in Tulsa, I bought a new duvet set to match Rae's for our room in the fall (yes we're those roommates that have coordinating bedding) and Misty had a Premier Jewelry party tonight. I hadn't planned on buying much at the party, I don't wear much jewelry at all. But there were these 3 necklaces I just loved! I could not decide which to buy so of course I bought all 3. All 3 are just so "me". I'm predicting that I will actually have occasions to look nice once I'm back at school, unlike here, so I figured it would be a worthwhile purchase. I also haven't bought any jewelry in years, literally. I guess the money I spent makes of for all the years I hadn't made any jewelry purchases. 

Besides playing cards with the guys on a regular basis, buying new things is the most exciting thing that has been happening lately. I've got a big week coming up sort of. I am getting the exterior of my car fixed up hopefully tomorrow and then getting my wisdom teeth pulled Wednesday. I have put it off for about a year now so I better do it now before it gets more complicated and I will have it done before I head back to Providence. 

Until next time...

Moving On...in a month.

Today I received an email from the Resident Director for The Cove saying that my move in date has been pushed forward to Thursday Sept. 2 instead of Sunday the 4th. I requested that the date be moved earlier because I have already committed to helping with Freshman move-in that Saturday and Sunday. Deep down I was anticipating that the request wouldn't be processed and I would have as long of a summer as possible, but it is just now dawning on me that I just get to see Rae even sooner then planned.

Alright, I admit it openly here on my blog that I really miss Rae. Today I was talking to a few of my guy friends and I was asked if I were to get married tomorrow, who would be my maid of honor? I answered Rae without a doubt. Interesting how I have known her the least amount of time out of all of my friends, but I feel like she is going to be my close friend for a very long time. We are those sickingly close roommate/best friends. We are almost on the same level as those couples that just make you sick because they're such a good match. We motivate each other to be better, harder working people in every aspect. 

I decided to blog this right after I made the gushiest comment on her blog just now. I was slightly embarrassed about it after I posted it, but now I'm wondering shouldn't all friends be this way? Real friendships should be encouraging and supportive and be able to subject yourself to a little vulnerability. Do I have these same friendships here at home anymore? No one really needs me here anymore, they've adjusted to me being gone.  Most everyone else has obligations here because they live here full time. I have none. They have full time jobs, significant others, and even families of their own. This may very well be the last summer I spend at home. I think I needed this last summer to solidify that I will probably never live here for this extended bit of time again. It's been a pretty fantastic summer, I have been able to relax and do whatever I wanted to. It'll be good since my schedule will be CRAZY once school starts. I'm going to be a busy busy girl, I should take full advantage of this month of nothing to do.

So I've ended up going a bit of a different direction with this post. There's a little thoughts out of my head for the moment. Until next time...

Lessons Learned: College Freshman Edition

1. Time management is key to success.
2. The difference between an ordinary student and an extraordinary student is that while they both procrastinate, the extraordinary student will not only get in done in time, they will get an A on it too.
3. The key to happiness is refusing to be unhappy.
4. You get nowhere in life by staying in your room and feeling sorry for yourself.
5. When you are employed as an adult you are no longer reprimanded for not doing your job well, you will just be judged silently...which is worse.
6. There should be a logical reason why a certain class in found in your degree plan, make sure you know what that is. If you learn that, there is no reason to fail.
7. Check your email and respond to them. You will forget about it later.
8. It's harder to keep up with your friends or become better friends when you are guaranteed by law to see them at school everyday.
9. Just because no one is telling you to go to bed doesn't mean you can stay up all night and not face the consequences.
10. Read you syllabus, good professors won't remind you about your midterm.
11. Network, network, network. How else will you get a job in this economy?
12. Learn to ask questions.
13. If you want something, ask for it. The worst thing they'll say in "no"
14. Volunteering is the best way to get experience, network, and a good reputation. (and you get free stuff)
15. The best way to adjust to new surroundings is to get involved.
16. With great power comes great responsibility.
17. A friendly email to a superior can open many doors.
18. Go to class. You paid for it.
19. There's nothing worse than being responsible and buying your textbook for class and finding out that you will never use it.
20. Always have a No. 2 pencil on you, you never know when you need one...and it comes in handy for when you have that surprise midterm you didn't know about because you didn't read the syllabus.
21. Get a real alarm clock. It's embarrassing to oversleep and be late.

I hope those might be of use to you. Stay posted for next year's edition of Lessons Learned. It's officially a tradition. Until next time...

Nostalgic

I had every opportunity to be in bed early tonight, but of course I got sidetracked and ended up staying up as usual. I finally got my room clean to where I can actually stand to be in here. Since there was nothing on tv, I decided to dig through all of my cabinets in my room. For those of you who haven't known me forever or been to my house, my mom went through a period in time where she was obsessed with built in cabinets...I have a lot of cabinets. The last time I had gone through them was prior to leaving for college last year. I haven't opened them since then until tonight. There is still a lot of junk to deal with. While I was digging, I came across my old journal...

My big plans to journal have always failed until I started to blog instead. This journal was from winter of senior year. At that point I would've told you that that was a very trying time in my life. That was when I was dealing with my first real heartbreak and my stage when I decided to act like a teenager for once in my life. It was humorous/embarrassing to read. I picked out a really beautiful deep red snake skin cover journal to write in and I don't mean that sarcastically, I really do think it is a beautiful journal. I had big plans of this being a really inspiring journal where people would find it after I died and they would publish it because it was so brilliant. Not quite so brilliant after re-reading it, I actually find myself to be quite arrogant and narcissistic.  Maybe it's because it was me expressing everything that I didn't want to burden others with or it's the only child complex spilling out on paper.  Since those events in my journal it's amazing how some things have changed tremendously and others have stayed pretty much the same in my life. After reading the journal, I remembered that I went through a stage where I would post notes on Facebook that I thought was quite brilliant at the time. Remember the time when we all went through and wrote 25 things about ourselves, then tagged 25 friends, those 25 friends would have to do the same thing. It was quite a big deal at Tahlequah High School at the time. I decided to name mine 25 Love Affairs. I still think it's a fabulous title, I went through and read it and I am pretty much the same person according to that. I remember being really proud of that post as well as one I posted almost a year ago my Lessons Learned note. 

Lessons Learned

I have grown as a person tremendously my senior year of high school. So much has happened. But fortunetely I've been able to take the bad things and turned them into a lesson learned.
1. No one can truly mature until they have been hurt by someone they care for and thought they cared for you too.
2. The nice guy won't win until the end.
3. There are always two sides of a story, and I can never seem to get the two to match up.
4. It is nearly impossible to just to get the facts.
5. Once you develope feelings for a person, the tendency is to stop being honest with that person.
6. All through school we are taught that there are consequences to our mistakes and carelessness, but in the real world, there are government programs to "fix" any of those mishaps.
7. Is life always going to be a popularity contest?
8. Everyone can benefit from taking a psychology class.
9. Bad timing has been a reaccuring relationship set-back.
10. You get from it what you put into it.
11. Life is what you make it.
12. Does it really matter if God exists? It is comforting to just have faith in something that is greater than life itself. Why does it really have to be proven as fact?
13. Most restrictions in life that come from religion are usually done for ones own good.
14. Nobility usually goes unnoticed.
15. Life is a balancing act.
16. Troubles come from doubting your own instincts.
17. Has anything ever gotten accomplished without drive and passion?
18. Too bad it is a bad thing to love blindly.
19. Less is more.
20. No one ever got anywhere by blending into the crowd.
I don't know if these are even true, I'm sure some people will disagree with me. This is just what I've gathered from my short 18 years of life.

I love this to this day, I can't believe a forgot all about it. There might be a few to add to the list now that I have finished my first year of college away from home. I'll have to think about it and get back to you next time. So unitl then...

It's not a hobby, it's a privilege.

Here I go on another rant. Lately I have been seeing a few campaign signs popping up around town. The signs around town are all the same people who have been running for the same office practically every term. Lots of them are running for re-election or currently in an office but are running for another office. Most of them don't really seem like they make too much impact on our daily like. Inez Peace has been our county treasurer for as long as I can remember. I'm not even sure what all of the county offices are, I suppose that's something we didn't cover in civics or at Girls State. What really astounds me is that I have only seen several Re-elect Dan Boren signs up and one Jim Wilson sign (both Dems) for US Congress. Not really a huge deal except primaries are in a week. I had no idea who was even running as a republican. Once I realized this, I went on Google and searched who all was actually going to be on the ballot next Tuesday. For one, I had no idea primaries were next Tuesday, if I didn't Google it I would have never known. So that means that your average Tahlequah citizen neither knows or cares that there is an election going on. What average citizen even takes the time to Googles their candidates? More Americans vote for American Idol and Dancing With the Stars than they do for the President, let alone smaller elections. Ridiculous.

Our founding fathers did not come over here to passively end up with a leader. They fought hard for the power of the people to chose their leaders. Does anyone really understand when they mean when they tell us to thank the troops for  fighting for our freedoms? No one cares if their freedoms are slowly being taken away. No one really understands that they can chose who their leaders are, no one really understands that if they don't like the leader that is currently in power, they can work to change it. As long as their food stamps are renewed every month, the unemployment check is directly deposited in their bank accounts, Cherokee Nation gives them a place to live, and they can go to Hastings to pop out their babies for free, Cherokee county is happy.

My interest in politics is by no means entertainment for myself, it's actually quite frustrating. It's not a hobby, it's a privilege. Unlike many other countries, we are not designed to have some power hungry monster just take over power without anyone's say in it. Power hungry monsters are put in power in our country by the small percentage of people who do get out to vote. Now lets think about how many people actually vote for someone because they themselves believe in them. How many people go out and just do a straight ticket to whatever party they are registered under. How many people vote for whoever is more attractive, has more money, appears on MTV, is endorsed by your favorite celebrity, the list goes on and on. I'm blaming the entire system for this one. We're are not educated in school about our country anymore, history books twist the events of the past, civics classes seem irrelevant when they are actually very relevant, it is not being stressed to vote, and there is no encouragement to establish your own personal values, ethics, morals, and opinions. Think about it, what do you believe in?

I know this isn't a fun topic or one that anyone cares to discuss, but I think Americans would be happier with their country and their leaders if they actually played a role in it like it is designed. At this point, I don't even care if you have different political views than I do, I just urge you to have a view on it. Ignorance is what gets societies into trouble, stop being ignorant. I don't believe that I have any more resources than any of you out there. Take advantage of the free resources around you. Go expand your mind on something.

That is all for now, until next time..

Favorite Things...

I am doing one of my favorite things as we speak. Sitting in the sun room, listening to music, and blogging with the sun shining in through the windows. The only thing missing is a tall glass of water with a twist of lemon or lime. It doesn't take much to make me happy obviously. It's the little things in life that counts.

Maybe you knew that I just had a birthday a few days ago. I am 19 and I feel pretty much the same. Is that how birthdays go from now on? If it is thats fine with me, I like any reason to entertain, eat cake, put on a dress, and hang out with my favorite people. I had big plans for my birthday party, I wanted to get fancy light other fancy things. None of those bigs plans played out and it didn't make a single difference. Pretty much everyone that makes an effort to see me and I make an effort to see them came to my party. My mom grilled food and we ate outside on our new deck. It was great except for the bugs, which I guess is just life. The tiki torches didn't really seem to bother the flies, they feasted on my party food regardless. The funny thing about this year's birthday party was that babies, families, and weddings were a hot topic...at least for half of the crowd. Emily brought her baby Declan and her husband, strange. And Misty and Kyle are getting married Saturday! Slowly weddings and babies are going to be a big part of my life I think. Theres still some time before I will be going to weddings every weekend but it is going to be in the near future.

I figured out why I was feeling a little down for awhile. Exercising really brightens my mood, a lot. It's true what they say. I had quit going to the gym since my instructor went on vacation but I started doing "INSANITY" with Marc and Evan the other day. It is insanely hard, I'm sore, but in such a good mood. It's time to get back to the gym, Kim should be back from vacation now. So for those of you who are a little down in spirits, try getting active. Just a little exercise makes a difference. Do some stretching, take your dog out for a stroll, I'm not a big believer in treadmills or cardio machines anymore. It's much more fun to do other things than stare at the calorie counter. I have also noticed that I can't really handle eating junk food anymore. It's too hot to eat heavy food and it's just not a good feeling afterwards.

I miss taking pictures. I really need to replace my camera that I dropped in the Walmart parking lot somewhere in Massachusetts a few months back. I don't have a single picture from this summer. I look at Rae's Facebook pictures and I just want to die. Whoever would like to contribute to my new camera fund, please let me know, I would appreciate it greatly.

That's a piece of what's running through my mind lately, until next time...

Long Time No Blog

Hello all, I apologize for not blogging lately. I wish I could say I was just way too busy but that would be very false. I actually have had extended amount of free time. Just over a week ago I got the opportunity to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to go to a NACA Concert Management Institute. It was great. The Mindiola's returned the favor for staying at my house for a week by meeting me at the airport and taking me to where I needed to be as well as pick me up and drop me off at the airport for my departure. We stayed at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. I met some great people, learned some extensive things about major concerts, got to tour several different concert venues, and go to Summerfest (the largest music festival in "the world") courtesy of Johnson and Wales University. I even got to see the lovely Katelyn Spurr. Katelyn is doing her internship in Chicago at a talent agency for the summer, so she drove up to meet up with to at Summerfest. There weren't any bands at Summerfest that I was just dying to see but it was very fun going from stage to stage and people watching. There are some freaks that attend music festivals, there could be a whole blog just about music festival people. Coincidently the people that I had been hanging out with at the institute, a few of them had gone the year before and were friends with Kate too. Another coincidence was that my suite mate, Jamie, is the new main stage coordinator at Quinnipiac Univerisity in Connecticut who took the place of Meg Doyle, Katelyn's roommate from the institute last summer. Key highlights from Wisconsin would be: scavenger hunt, The Fonz, Pabst Theaters, drunk people on the way, at, and coming back from Summerfest, Noodles & Co, frozen custard, and Alterra Coffee.

On the plane back I did some extensive amount of thinking. Due to a crazy thunderstorm at home, the dinky little Delta Connection plane was in no hurry to get me back to Oklahoma. I have some big plans for UIB next year. I would like to re-brand UIB, make our posters simpler, less graphics, and straight to the point. I would like to advertise and reach out to other students who major in other things besides Hospitality to get involved with UIB. We are in need of some Business and Technology students, they're major plays a big part in UIB, it's more than event planning. We need some advertising and marketing students to effectively reach the student body and we need some tech students to make some more promo videos and maybe an UIB App in the future. I need to get that message out clearly to everyone this coming year. As for Wahoo, I am interested in getting some sponsorships, 1) they mean free stuff or 2) they give us more money to get a bigger name performer to appeal to our painfully mainstream student body.

At the beginning of school last year, I signed up to be a campus representative for TOMS Shoes in hopes of starting some sort of TOMS Campus Club, fail. Elise from TOMS shoes has contacted me letting me know that the Cultural Life Committee has gotten Blake Mycoskie (TOMS Creator) to speak at JWU this coming fall. This would be a great way to spread awareness on our campus about TOMS shoes. It is definitely not as big of a deal in the northeast, TOMS shoes that is. Of course out of the 5 or 6 campus reps at JWU that received the same email, 2 of us emailed back expressing interest and excitement. Great, I needed another responsibility to take on! Hopefully I can get some support and hopefully someone else more capable than me and head this one. I love TOMS and would love to do an internship with them one day, but I'm afraid of spreading myself out too thin. I have an education to get on top of all my extra curriculars too.

So much nothing has happened at home since I've been back from Wisconsin. My life pretty much consists of gym, class, wedding talk with Misty, watching The Bachelorette, Secret Life, Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, Mad Men, and Pushing Daisies, and some working at the restaurant is sprinkled into the mix too. I am enjoying my time off, but you know me, I get restless and a bit depressed due to lack of activity, I must get it from my mother. Sorry for the long post, I'll try to get back in the habit of blogging more often so I can keep them brief.

That's all for now! Until next time...

Restless.

I have been home for about a month now. Probably the longest month that has ever flown by. I say that because when I think about my road trip home, it feels like all of that happened so long ago. But, I'm also wondering where June went? Don't get me wrong, It is nice not doing anything of importance on a daily basis. I have a very nice little daily routine set up for myself that involves improving my mind, body, and soul. I have been taking classes, waking up and going to the gym daily, and trying (not hard enough) to improve my relationship with God. All of these things are great and I love having a routine. I haven't been spending enough time with people that I have missed while I was away though. This may very well be the last summer I am home, I really plan on being off and doing something epic the next summer ahead. This is really the last time I have time to spend quality time with life-long friends here and it's just not the same. Some things never change, but we do grow up and maybe grow apart. Most of us have taken the last year to get out and see other places and experience new things and new people that they haven't known almost their entire life. We've seen that the world is larger than Tahlequah, OK and while it is home, there are better things out there. On the other hand, some of us have gone out there and stumbled a bit, now they have returned home a little more jaded than before. Life is stagnant here, change is not welcomed, people may not be happy with their lives, but they're going to continue living the same way in most cases. It's not a very inspiring environment for an ambitious dreamer like me. Now I see why Rae thought I was so passive aggressive in comparison to her. Everyone has that attitude here. In some cases I am the pushy one, because someone has to be to get anything done around here. People operate on "Indian time" which is basically a synonym for sometime, eventually, or lets just sit and watch our lives pass us by. 

I am starting to miss my somewhat glamorous life or at least eventful life away from here. I miss dressing up and going places, I miss having a full calendar, and I miss feeling like a grown up. I do have to admit that this trip home has been a lot better than others when it comes to my relationship with my mom. I finally figured out that being a mature adult requires me to follow by the rules of the house. When I respect the parents and their rules, they respect me. Yes, I have to be home at midnight but we get along and that is better than staying out at all hours. 

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Milwaukee, WI to go to a Concert Management Institute for the weekend. UIB is sending me on an all expenses paid trip to learn some skills for Wahoo next year. I will also have the opportunity to tour some concert venues and behind the scenes Summerfest, as well as see the Mindiola's and Kate Spurr! I am in total denial of my trip, that is why I am blogging instead of getting things ready for tomorrow. 

That's my rant for the day, until next time...

Summer (because I can't think of any other title)

For the past week I have been housing 2 of the Mindiola's here while their father was down working at Hastings. The family has very recently moved up to Wisconsin. I love having house guests. It makes me realize how I am so accustomed to having a lot of alone time in my house. It's fun to have people to sit around and watch Instant Netflix with me all day long. Netflix was great for keeping them entertained while I was in class in the afternoon. We also had to incorporate some key Tahlequah things before they left. We ate at Kelly's Tea Room, went to Sonic Happy Hour, ate at Sam and Ella's, got snocones and went to the park, and of course went to the river. The first day we went to the river, of course it started to rain. The second day was a success though. Marissa and I adventured down the flowing river, certain parts got really rough, we left with a few battle wounds but all and all it was fun.

Saturday I went to Tulsa to see Toy Story 3 in IMAX and 3D! It was AWESOME! Did you know that Tulsa Cinemark is the only IMAX theater in the state of Oklahoma? I can walk to an IMAX theather in Providence. I went with Ceyeli, Ben, Brenda, and 2 guys I didn't know, Michael and Levi, along with Ceyeli's 3 little nephews. I loved the movie, I can't even explain it. I love when things that we liked when we were younger have a way of growing up with us. I love that when we were kids, the characters in movies that we watched were kids like Andy. Now after all of these years, Andy has grown up right along with us. This movie was about him going away to college and deciding what to do with his beloved toys. While the little kids in the theater might have enjoyed the movie, I think we enjoyed it tremendously more because we could relate. I have the same theory about Harry Potter. Harry Potter books became popular right when I was 9 years old and Harry was 10 years old in the beginning of the series. Ever since then, then story kept progressing and Harry, Ron, and Hermione grew up right along with me. The older the characters got, the darker the books would get and the more age appropriote it would get for my generation.

It's fun hanging out with some different people from time to time. Coincidently Levi lives in the Carolinas and is here visiting Michael for a really extended time. Levi was at the same concert I was at when I was in Charlotte on my roadtrip. Turns out he's a huge Switchfoot fan too. He was actually one of the people with the VIP pass that I was extremely jealous of. If I learned anything this past year, I learned that it is an incredibly small world and crazy things do happen by chance. I think that that is one of the coolest things about life. How if you would have made any other decision than the one that you chose, your life could potentially be completely different.

Time For A Routine

Today was my first day of summer school! I have class Monday through Thursdays from 1:30-4:30 from now until the end of July. I am going to do my best to not sleep the entire day and then go to class. I plan on waking up and going to the gym at 9am, go home to shower, lunch date with someone, then go to class. I had intentions of doing that this morning but the morning started with rain and it through me off of my game. I went to the gym after class today, that could be a Monday thing possibly so I can do yoga at 6:30pm. I really enjoyed doing yoga today, it had been a really long time. I am definitely out of shape and not quite as limber as last summer. I finally got some new tennis shoes, my last ones were from the 8th grade, it was time for an upgrade. Running on the treadmill is very different than running around Providence. I used to think it was easier to run on it but now I am used to actually running outside. Too bad it is way to hot and humid here to run. 

At JWU we are required to take 2 arts and sciences electives, if you pick 2-3 class in the same department you can claim a concentration in that area. I am getting my psychology concentration here at NSU thins summer. Mondays and Wednesdays I have Life Span Development with Beth Bowin. She was my Intro to Psych professor my senior year and I just love her. Her class lectures are always so interesting, but not necessarily correlated with the exams. At the beginning of each section she gives us the 100 question study guide for the exam. She picks 50 of those questions to be the questions for the exam. I remember doing these back in intro and they are difficult, but the actual exam only takes me 10 minutes to finish. I can already tell I am going to love this class. It should be mandatory for parents to take a developmental class before pro-creating. Today we went through a list of age old parenting myths and disproved them. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Personalities with some professor I don't know. I really hope he's interesting because I am fascinated by personalities, I hope to actually learn something. 

We'll see how class goes tomorrow. I'm going blueberry picking tomorrow if weather permits. Gotta be up bright and early. That's all for now, until next time!

Only in Tahlequar

This has felt like one of the longest weeks of my life. I'm not sure if I am complaining or not. I feel like I have done a lot, but I have also done nothing. I can't believe I have only been home for a week. It has been such a great week though. I have gotten to spend time with pretty much everyone I cared to see once I got here. I have gone a few places while I was here too.

Tuesday I had a little cook out for some of the girls (Misty, Linsea, and Emily). I am so over eating out every meal, it's fun to have a home cooked meal. It was fun to catch up with them. It's kind of a random bunch but we had so much fun, we decided to make it a weekly thing. I had my mom around to help me with the grilling but I would really like to be able to get the hang of it soon. I don't like when she has to help.

Yesterday Madison, Marissa, and I went to Joplin, MO to see Darien and help the Art Feeds people splatter paint t-shirts and make bracelets. My GPS was still set to avoid toll roads and traffic from the road trip so it took it the craziest way on curvey and hilly county roads and small highways. It wasn't terrible because we drove that during the day so it was pretty scenic compared to I-44 which was the easiest way to get there. The GPS also took us on the dirt/grass road to get to Darien's grandmas's house instead of just staying on the road we were driving on already. We literally drove on grass, but the GPS thought it was an actual road. It's so strange that Darien doesn't live in Tahlequah or Oklahoma anymore. It was fun to sit around and talk in funny accents play mad-libs, and make up stories about trolls and whatever shenanigans we talked about. I don't know anyone else who isn't from here who could do that and be perfectly entertained for hours. I laugh more with my home friends. It's most likely things that are only funny to us. We develop a strange sense of humor living here, it must be in the water or something.

Today, the Mindiola girls and I went to Fayetteville, AR to hang out with Beki. We went and ate fro-yo at Orange Mango, then we went to the farmers' market. Instead of going out to eat dinner we decided to buy produce and cook dinner. Beki's boyfriend just recently bought a house so we used his kitchen. We had a salad, pan seared chicken, mashed potatoes, and sautéed carrots and snap peas. I really love cooking for people, I still need some practice with timing of when to cook what so that it is all done and still hot at the right time.

I have to earn my weekly spending money in the morning. Good night! Until next time...

Trashy Television

Today has been a quintessential summer day. I woke up late, put some laundry in the washer, and turned on the TV. The TV theme for the day was New Jersey. I happened to stumble across True Life on MTV while I was flipping through the channels. MTV and VH1 are like train wrecks, you know you shouldn't be watching but you can't look away. True Life: I am a Jersey Shore girl is pretty much the story of my life in relation to some of the people I go to school with. Watching that would give a pretty accurate representation of some of the student body I deal with. Terrifying isn't it? After that ended, I flipped on over to Bravo to watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey for the remainder of the day. This gives a full circle of the two types of Jersey people. It is much more fun to watch these shows now that I can sorta relate them to my life and realize that these people are real. Some of the places they drive, I have driven before. Some of my classmates live in those communities where these shows are shot. I love it because they find the most "Jersey" kinds of people to be on these shows. They are Italian and they are flashy. If there were a show about people in Oklahoma, the people would probably be missing teethe, Indian, and probably a storm chaser. 

Yes, my entire day was consumed by trashy television. I hope to have more exciting things to blog about but I am in the middle of nowhere, I can't make any promises.