summer 09... so far

Went camping in Austin with some really good people.
















Trey turned 22.
We went to a winery.
















I survived my first tornado.
Alone.
Actually, it barely missed Denton, but it was still scary as hell.
Things are 10xs scarier when you're alone.
















Trey + Emily = 3 years
We spent the day at the arboretum.
















I've been going to school and living alone.
Just me and the cats.

















I don't like being lonely.

the best 4 years of my life

Sometimes I get bored with life. The routine of class, microwavable dinners, homework, etc gets old. I enjoy my routine, but it's a routine (they can be a bit repetitive). The newest addition to my routine is not sleeping. For awhile I had been going to bed at 10:30 and waking up around 9. Then one week I just couldn't sleep, I tossed and turned in bed until I got out of bed and stayed on the computer until 2am or so. And so it continues.

So life... I should be graduating this week, but I'm a bit behind in the whole college time-line thing. That's ok with me, I guess. The economy sucks anyways, my school wont even hire me to file papers or sort library books. The real world can wait (even though I want to get married so bad, but I know I should wait just a bit longer).

I like college, despite the routine, and the effort, and the time.

Sometimes I think about all the people I know back home who never went to college, or just went to community college while living at home (or even the people who looked forward to each weekend just so they could go home again).
And then I think about how much I have changed since I've left home, and how much those people are the same. When I think about that I'm ok with my routine, because I've made it what I want it to be.
Those people still in Katy never ventured out on their own and got the chance to become someone other than a copy of their parents. They think they've grown up, but I think I've experienced something they never have, and possibly never will experienced by going to college and truly living.

Sometimes I want to ask those people who stayed behind if they have regrets about not leaving. Don't you wish you got out on your own with no one looking over your shoulder, asking where you are, telling you to wake up, and feeding into you only what they want you to hear? What about going to a town where you know no one? How will you ever hear a point of view other than your own if you don't get out there? Maybe you could surprise yourself by finding something you didn't even know existed, or learning something your parents never knew. I know I have learned more and changed more than I would have thought 4 years ago when I was graduating from high school.

The excitement, the unknown, the experience of it all (the good and the bad) are so valuable to who you are, that if you don't get a chance to get out there and live, you might never see who you could become.

SXSW

So my ambitious dreams of begin healthy didn't work out quite as expected. I was doing impressively well. I went running a lot, ate lots of salad and Special K.

SXSW totally ruined healthymonth.

All I ate this week:
Free beer, Chips Ahoy, Cheetos, pizza and an occasional meal or water bottle.
My body has no idea what happened, haha.

I did a lot a lot of walking though, and that's cool.

SXSW was so much fun and worth every minute of it, btw.

Who is coming next year? SXSW 2010! Get ready!

changes

I'm not big into New Year's resolutions or anything, mostly because I don't stick with things for very long, and partly because I don't like to acknowledge the fact that I failed at something. So here goes a month-long test in lifestyle modification.

A few things I want to accomplish in March:
-Go running 10 times
-Eat more fruit
-Drink less beer
-Go to bed and wake up at normal hours (at least sometimes)
-Finish a book


Let's see if I can finish what I started.

lolz, cows

It seems like I always write more when I am at my parent's house, I guess it's because I'm alone and have more time on my hands.
And possibly because I'm bored to death.
I just thought I'd share some pics, of course.




By the way, it's super hot outside.
I think it will be in the 70's on Christmas Day.















I'm working on my 2008 list of things I liked and didn't like. It's not done yet, but I'll finish it before the end of the month, hopefully.






So I guess I should explain that picture, huh? Well, my neighbor's cows got loose (somehow) and trampled through the yard and drug the Christmas lights across the grass. I thought it was funny. My dad already fixed it once, and they came back, so he's not fixing them again, lolz.



Also, I have reason to believe Santa will be bringing me a new camera. I'm super excited!

the holiday list: best / worst

The best things about Thanksgiving:
1. desserts
2. my bed
2. no class
3. free food
4. my whole family acts like they actually missed me
5. free laundry
6. my parents aren't that bad









The worst things about Thanksgiving:
1. no Trey
2. too many people over at once
3. hyper-conservatism
- a. blaming everything on the wacko liberals
- b. glorifying everything patriotic/ war-related
4. no wine with dinner
5. my whole family acts like they actually missed me
6. fighting grandmothers
7.spoiled brat cousins
8. the fam hating UT (see #3) for killing A&M
9. getting fat

3 long days

This semester of college life started to make me feel fat, so partly inspired by Cayla's lemonade experiment, Trey and I decided to go on a juice diet. We kicked it off with pizza patron Sunday night, to compensate for our future lack of solid foods.

(slightly inaccurate, I ate pineapple pizza)

This is a cleanse diet, so in order to go though with the whole thing, we had to take a laxative before bed and do a sea salt water cleanse in the morning. The herbal laxative tea wan't bad at all, but the liter of lukewarm saltwater was terrible. Withing an hour of drinking it all, well... I'm sure you can guess what might have happened. The outcome wasn't that bad, just the act of drinking it all was disgusting.

(gross, gross, gross)

After 3 days of only water, juice, herbal tea and salt water the cravings (and headaches) took over and I caved for chips and salsa. The hunger wasn't even that bad, it was the desire for taste and texture that killed me. Juice is boring. Call me pathetic, but I look forward to every meal, I love food.

(best snack ever)

By the end I lost 4 lbs and Trey lost 7 lbs, which is awesome. What I learned most from my experience is self control. The cookie dough in the fridge has been tempting me from day one and the absence of caffeine (tea) from my life about killed me, but I made it!

(a shrine to tea)

Maybe after winter break I'll be strong enough to do the lemonade diet. That one is much more intense. It might depend on how much I eat over the holidays.