I'm FREE!!!

Location: Brad's Couch
Listening to: Supernanny

I'M FREE!!!

You guys, today is the last day of BEDA and I could not be happier about that. I love blogging every day, but I honestly need some time to take a day or two off so things can actually happen in my life that will give me ideas for things to write about. Because I pretty much have no brain right now.

Anyway, I made it pretty much. Which is an accomplishment.

Um. Yeah. I really don't have anything to talk about.

More some other time.

Someone You'd Admire

Location: Brad's Couch
Listening to: "Someone You'd Admire" by Fleet Foxes

I was just listening to the new Fleet Foxes album ("Happiness Blues") to review for our campus paper and one of the songs is absolutely gorgeous. It's called "Someone You'd Admire". It's about wanting to change and trying really hard to, but not really being sure if you've changed at all or what kind of person you're changing into. Like, not knowing if you'll be the kind of person people will want to be like or the type who would betray and hurt people and not even care.

It's really a gorgeous song. Like, absolutely beautiful. Anyone who likes Mumford & Sons or The Swell Season or other folk-esque bands will like it, I promise.

Who is the type of person you admire? What traits and characteristics do you find admirable in others? What kind of traits do you think you have that others admire?

BEDA - Blaghhghgh Every Day's Angsty

Location: Dorm Desk
Listening to: One of those sad Humane Society commercials with the Sarah McLaughlin music.
Days Since Last Workout: 1


Blagghghghghghg.

You guys, I'm cranky today. I really don't want to bring you all down with my mildly negative mood. I had a weirdly emotional night last night (entirely due to my ridiculous/poor sense of perception and lack of ability to clearly communicate feelings) and I'm drained today and little things keep upsetting me.

I will give you a nice, fun, happy post tomorrow. I promise.

I'm Boring

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: That 70's Show
Followers: 36

Yayyyy two new followers! Welcome Anna and ylrocgirl!!!

You guys have no idea how boring things here are right now. Like, I'm totally happy doing what I'm doing, it's just, I really doubt you want to hear about how I spent my free time yesterday sitting on my boyfriend's couch watching Best In Show and then wasting time on Facebook while he went and did things that might actually actually influence his future career.

Boring, right?

Anyway, Cal, I broke my Lenten Fast Food Fast with some Culvers chicken tenders and fries. Yummmm. Over the course of the past 40 or so days, I cheated a few times by snitching a few fries or a chicken nugget from people, but I never went out with the intent of buying myself fast food. I'm pretty proud. I went out to eat a lot this semester and I was feeling kind of gross. After a month of not eating out once or twice a week, I feel much better.

Yesterday, Brad had me try the work out regimen thing he does a few times a day and today my arms feel like they're in a constant state of falling off. It involved a lot of lifting a medicine ball and doing crunches and I'm pretty out of shape. I have literally no upper body strength. It's rather sad. So I'm definitely feeling that today.

My goal for this summer: get in shape. I'm pretty happy with my physical appearance, but I know health-wise, I'm really out of shape. The other day I ran from the parking lot my car lives in to my dorm, which is roughly a quarter of a mile, and I felt like I was dying by the time I got back. I want to be able to do that without feeling completely winded. And I want to be able to lift things without feeling like my arms are getting ripped off. And getting a little more toned wouldn't hurt anything.

Two questions today.

1.) Do you have any goals for the summer? Do you want to learn something or achieve something or do something cool?

2.) What kind of work out things do you do? And what would you suggest for someone who doesn't have a gym membership and isn't really in the habit of doing a lot of physical activity? How can I get started in a way that won't discourage me from trying to work out ever again and that will motivate me to keep going?

More tomorrow!

Why do some things matter?

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: Still Standing
Days Without Fast Food: 0

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

So, it recently came to light that the judge who overturned Proposition 8 in California (the law banning gay marriage) was gay. And people are making a huge stink about it. I understand that people think this is a conflict of interest and stuff but I have a question.

Does him being gay really make any more of a difference than if he was a straight guy who just simply supported gay rights and equality?

I mean, if it had been a civil rights law that had been overturned by an African-American person, would people be making just as big of a deal about it? Or would they be seen as racist or prejudiced?

If it was a law that banned guns that was overturned by a gun owner, would people care?

Do you guys think it makes sense for people to be making a big deal out of this? I just don't really understand why his sexual preference should exclude him from being able to make that decision. Because wouldn't anyone who overturned it have supported gay rights? What would it matter if they were gay or not?

More tomorrow.

Last Week of BEDA!!!

Location: Dorm Desk
Listening to: Gilmore Girls (the one where Rory gets the job)
Days Without Fast Food: 31ish

You guys! I practically made it! Sure, I missed a day, but there is only one week left of BEDA! Honestly, I am pretty glad that it's almost over. I love writing every day, but there's so much pressure to write about interesting things and my life is just so...not interesting. I can't think of things to write about and I'd rather write good posts every few days than write half-assed posts every day.

The semester is winding down and I feel weirdly unstressed. Normally I would be buried under final projects and studying for exams, but I wrote my big papers last Thursday and I don't have anything big or stressful to do yet. It's pretty nice. I also found out that I'm getting a scholarship for next year, which will be nice because I totally got ripped of for financial aid.

My plans for the next few weeks: Spend as much time with my boyfriend as possible and enjoy the nice weather. I don't know how I'm going to handle this summer. Brad has a job down here and, well, lives down here, and I have a job back home, so we'll be 3 hours apart for most of break. I'm going to drive down and visit him a lot and he's going to come up and visit me, but it's going to suck being so far apart for so long. I guess that's what Facebook and phones and Skype are for, right?

Have you ever had to do the long distance thing with a relationship? How did you manage it? What types of things did you do to make sure things didn't fall apart while you were apart?

More tomorrow.

No time!

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion (yucckkkk)
Days Without Fast Food: 29


Hey guys. I'm back at school, but I have about two seconds to write this post and I'm pretty sure I won't have any additional time to write tonight so this is gonna be it.

My Easter was lovely. I got to see all of my family and the weather was beautiful and now I get to see my wonderful boyfriend. I hope you all had a great day!

More tomorrow!

Tradition

Location: Home
Listening to: The Ten Commandments (movie)
Days Without Fast Food: 28

Lately, I've been really curious about other people's holiday traditions. It all started last Wednesday when I was at the elementary school visiting my lunch buddy. I asked her what her plans were for Easter and if she got an Easter basket. She told me she always gets a basket full of cool stuff and I asked if her parents/the Easter bunny hide it and she has to look for it in the morning and she looked at me like I was crazy!

Ashley: What?
Me: Well...my parents always hide our Easter baskets in weird places and make us look for them. It's really fun.
Ashley: That's weird.

Then it dawned on me that hiding Easter baskets is not something that every family does. For the past twenty years, my parents have been hiding our Easter baskets every Easter Sunday. They get really clever about it, too. We always get a parameter of where they're hidden (like, they're all on the main floor, or some might be in the basement, but none are upstairs). Once mine was hanging from the shower head. My brother's was crammed in the kitchen cabinets one year. A lot of times they're just stuck behind the curtains. But even now that my siblings and I are adults, we still make them hide our baskets. Heck, we still insist on getting baskets.

Do you guys do anything like this? I know a lot of people do an Easter egg hunt, but do you hunt for baskets, too? Or do you have any cool/weird/unique traditions for other holidays? For Christmas, my grandpa used to dress up in a cow suit, call himself the Christmas Cow, and pass out string cheese.

I'm really interested in what you guys do to celebrate things! Let me know, and I'll see you again tomorrow!

I'm A Wanderer

Location: Home!
Listening to: Demi Lovato be dramatic on a 20/20 interview
Days Without Fast Food: 26 or so.

You guys! I'm home! I mean, I still have three or so weeks left of college left, but I'm home for the weekend which is kind of awesome. I spent yesterday writing three, yes, three, essays in a row so I don't have to do any homework this weekend. Considering that for the majority of my college career thus far, I haven't done any homework until 24 hours before it was due, this is kind of a huge accomplishment for me. All of the papers are worth a pretty large chunk of my grade in various classes, and it's a big relief to get them out of the way and just be able to spend the weekend relaxing with my family.

My parents just got back from a trip to Italy, so we spent a while looking at their photos and getting souvenirs (that word is not spelled at all like I thought it was). They brought me back a gorgeous scarf.

I really hope that one day I can travel a lot. Maybe I'll write for a magazine and get a chance to go all over the world. I'm looking into doing a semester abroad in Dublin, which I think would be a fantastic experience. Ireland is number one on my list of places I want to travel to, so getting to live there for an entire semester would be awesome.

I don't really have much to talk about today. I'm exhausted from driving and the weather has been gloomy all day and I think I'm probably going to go to bed soon. I'm going shoe shopping with my mom, grandma, and sister in the morning.

Where is somewhere that you really want to travel? Or where is the coolest place you have ever been? I love hearing travel stories.

More tomorrow!

Overwhelming

Location: Desk
Listening to: Gilmore Girls (the one with Lane's baby shower)
Days Without Fast Food: 26ish

I'm going mildly crazy, so just bear with me, Internet. I'm overwhelmed. Today was sneaky and pulled a bunch of crap that made me go from, "Tra la la...everything is easy." to "Mmfpfhfhfhhff!!!!"*

I have three papers due next week, two of which I've known about for a month or two, but which I waited until last weekend to start. So today I've been cranking out essays and stressing over sources and facts and interviews and quotes.

Then I got my financial aid information for next year and, surprise surprise, the government suddenly hates me and decided I'm only worthy of half of what I got last year. They're giving me two loans and that's it. Last year I had several loans, multiple grants, work study, and lots of other helpful things.

Fortunately, I also got news today that I've been awarded a $500 scholarship. Which will help...a little.

I also got offered a position to work at a front desk in one of the dorm buildings...if I had work study next year. Which I don't. Lammmeee.

I'm going home tomorrow for the weekend to hang out with my family and do Easter-y things. But right now it feels like today is never going to end. I have no clue how today got to be so incredibly overwhelming. I feel like I'm stuck. Or drowning. But not normal drowning. Like, I was laying in my bed and someone suddenly started raining pillows down on me and I slowly just got buried under this massive pile of pillows and they're still soft and cuddly but I'm kind of in shock because I can't comprehend how they got there or what I'm doing under all of them.

Blagh. More tomorrow.

*Those are the sounds I make when I'm buried under tons and tons of stuff. Like, a massive amount of stuff.

High School: Killing Creativity One Step At A Time

Location: Brad's couch
Listening to: A commercial
Days Without Fast Food: 25 or whatever it was earlier

This really ridiculous picture is from a production of Seussical my high school put on my junior year. The boy with me is named Ian, and he is the absolute sweetest person in the entire world. He has a mild form of Autism. He's really shy and has a stutter sometimes, but he's always nice to everyone and would comfort people who were upset and stand up for people who were being picked on.

I know I'm in college now and this doesn't really affect me any more, but my old high school just announced some major cuts and changes to the theater program they offer. Now, our drama program was pretty high quality. We did some difficult shows (like Aida and Seussical) and sold out every night. Eventually, we had to add an additional performance to the schedule to accommodate audiences. Our middle school also did a musical every year, and our high school put on a three-act straight play.

Now, due to the changes, the middle and high school will have to alternate years to be able to perform. The three-act play will no longer exist. Budgets will be slashed.

I know budget cuts are a necessary measure all public schools are facing right now. Economics suck. But they didn't approach the drama department and go, "Hey, guys. We have to make some changes to a bunch of programs. We have this much money that we can no longer allocate to you, so we will let you determine how and where you want it cut from." Instead they went, "We have to make cuts, and this is what we're doing. Deal with it."

I know that other programs are probably getting major cuts, too, but does anyone else think that arts programs should be some of the ones kept around? Arts are sooo important in education. I used to have a really low self esteem and terrible confidence, but being involved in theater helped me to get over that and become who I am today. Theater gave kids like Ian and other kids who have a hard time making friends a place where they're accepted by everyone, and everyone loves each other like family.

Arts programs give kids an outlet for their creativity. They help kids develop talents that may otherwise go unnoticed and might even lead to future careers. They give kids something to do after school that doesn't involve drugs or crime. They help build friendships and confidence and leadership and self-esteem and all kinds of other great skills. I know my life would be so much different if I'd never been able to do theater. Almost all of my favorite moments from high school either took place during or because of a show.

It just really bums me out that things have to come to this. Sigghhhhh.

What do you guys think about things like this? Do you think that it makes sense for arts programs to get cut first, or do you think that other programs would be better candidates for changes? What programs were you involved with in high school that you would hate to see butchered like this?

That's it for tonight. More tomorrow.

Oops!

Location: Radio Station
Listening to: Last Night by Ancient Astronaut
Days Without Fast Food: 25ish
Followers: 34!!!

Welcome Jen!!!

Sorry for not posting yesterday, guys! I failed at BEDA again. Galdfskjasdlfkja;sdfj. I will post again later today to make up for it. I really need to go back to paying attention to my radio nonsense, but I felt bad and wanted to apologize.

Thanks! More later!

I PITY THE FOOL!

Location: Brad's Couch
Listening to: How I Met Your Mother
Days Without Fast Food: 23

Internet, I know what you're thinking. "Really, Abbie? You're still at your boyfriend's apartment? And you're posting pictures of babies dressed up like Mr. T?!?* What has gotten into you??" To which I can only reply, "Um. Nothing? What part about that surprises you?"

There's really not a lot going on in my life right now, besides a lot of essay writing. And contemplating giving this blog a revamp. I'd really like to redesign the background and header and stuff, but I'm exceedingly crappy at the whole graphic design thing and I don't know what I want it to look like besides pretty and classy and not like a 13-year-old is writing it.

Any suggestions? Or better yet, do YOU want to come up with a cool layout/header/design for my blog? You would get all the credit for it, and my everlasting gratitude!! Let me know in the comments!

Really, though, I have nothing to report for today. So, more tomorrow!

*Whoever took that baby-in-a-Mr.-T-costume photo is a genius. I'm not sure who it was, but I Stumbled that picture and spent the next five minutes trying to catch my breath from laughing so hard.

Lazy, lazy, lazy weekend

Location: Brad's Couch
Listening to: 16 and Pregnant
Days Without Fast Food: 22

(Someone else took this photo. I just thought it was nice.)

Well, hey there, Internet. How are you today?

Not gonna lie, I'm still in lazy mode. I've been working on my paper off and on all day, but mostly I've been watching the 16 and Pregnant marathon on MTV. That show is one of those reality train wrecks that I can't help but kind of love. I always feel kind of sorry for the girls, because obviously they weren't planning on getting pregnant. Some of them were even using protection, but it just didn't work. On top of all of that, there's always someone on the show who is trying to make things difficult for them. It might be her parents or the guy's parents or the guy himself or a friend, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen an episode where everyone was supportive.

But in the end, when the girl is in labor and her family/friends/boyfriend/fiance/husband/whoever are all there cheering her on and finally the baby comes out and she sees it for the first time, I always get a little teary.

Is that pathetic? I feel a bit ridiculous admitting that other people seeing their baby for the first time gets me misty-eyed. But it's just such a nice moment! Even though it totally wasn't their plan, they're just so happy to see their baby and there's just so much love in the room.

(I also really like when the grandparents see the baby and get teary. That's nice.)

Pretty much, today has been another successful day of procrastination for me. Yes, I wrote two more pages of my paper. I also did some cleaning around Brad's apartment and took a shower and ate some food.

I haven't been in my dorm room for more than ten or fifteen minutes since Thursday, I think. Which is kind of odd, because usually I spend most of my time there. But this weekend I've been living out of Brad's apartment. It's kind of cool. I like it.

Well, I'm running out of things to ramble about. So...um...more tomorrow?

Top 5 Favorite Things About The Internet

Location: Brad's couch
Listening to: A Benefiber commercial
Days Without Fast Food: 21

Well, Internet, today is half way between being a semi-productive day and being an incredibly lazy day. Since my road trip got cancelled, I've been lounging around Brad's apartment and occasionally pretending to work on a paper that's due in a week or two. Every few hours my conscious starts to guilt me about my perpetual procrastination and I write a sentence or two and go back to doing online crosswords.

It was in the midst of this procrastination that I realized how much I love the internet. So much, that I want to make a top 5 list about it. Just for you.

Abbie's Top 5 Favorite Things About The Internet

5. It helps me procrastinate. Seriously. I know that's a terrible reason to like something, but on days like today when I know I should be working on things but I have zero motivation, it helps to have something that completely steals my attention. Because I feel a lot less guilty for not doing the things I should be when I don't remember that I'm supposed to be doing them.

4. It is full of wonderful things. Sure, the internet is also home to lots of awful things, but there are so many awesome things on it, too. Like this video. And this photo. And really nice people who write really funny things that make people smile. Like you guys!

3. StumbleUpon. If you guys have never experienced the delights of Stumbling, I highly recommend you go and download the toolbar RIGHT NOW. Pretty much, you fill out a survey of your interests, download the toolbar, and hit the "Stumble!" button, and you are taken to a website that you will probably enjoy. Warning: Stumbling is a hugggeeee time suck. If there are things you really, really, really, no excuses, absolutely have to get done, you might want to wait on trying it out.

2. Social Networking. This is also one of the things I hate about the internet. I love that things like Facebook and Twitter make it so easy to connect with people and stay in touch with friends you don't see all the time. I hate that I can get so sucked into just staring at my Facebook news feed and waiting for my friends to do interesting things that I don't do anything interesting myself.

1. Did I mention procrastination? Without the internet, I would not have been able to start this blog and consequentially write this list and share it with you guys in order to put off working on my paper. I really, really don't want to work on my paper.

Have you guys ever been in one of those moods where you just don't feel like doing anything, even though you know you have stuff to do? What do you do to get out of them? Or do you just embrace it and go with the flow?

That's it for me, today. More tomorrow!

I Believe

Location: Brad's couch

Listening to: Commercials on TBS

Days Without Fast Food: 20

Hey Internet.

Well, my awesome road trip got cancelled. It's been raining like crazy and I have two big papers to do. Do any of you know of any small magazines in the U.S. that I might be able to contact someone at for one of my classes? I've been trying to get a hold of someone so hard, but no such luck.

A few days ago, Allyson suggested I write a blog entry about my beliefs. I'm assuming she meant my faith or my religion, but I'm going to throw a curve ball with this one.

I was raised Catholic. My mom's side of my family is all very Catholic, so I grew up going to CCD every Wednesday night and Church every Sunday, giving up things for Lent and all of those types of things.

Now, I believe that there's a God. I'm not sure if it's because so many things seem like they'd be impossible without one or because life would be a lot more scary without the promise of Heaven and happiness after death. But a lot of things about my religion don't make complete sense to me. I've always been a pretty open minded person, but my religion isn't exactly the same way. I don't want to get into details, because I don't want to isolate myself from those of you who may feel differently than I do, but I'm just more open minded than the religion I was raised in. Because of this, I don't really identify with a certain religion. There are parts of each one that sound nice and reasonable and good to me. They all teach great values and emphasize love and peace and justice, but some express it in ways that I understand easier.

Religion isn't what defines my beliefs, though. Not at all. At one point in time, I think for my creative writing class last year, I wrote this:

I believe that everything happens for a reason. That all the events that occur in daily life are connected. There is something strong. Call it fate or destiny or God. But there is something that makes us look back and see how the good and bad are connected, and without one, we never would have experienced the other.

I believe that the things you want happen when you stop wanting them so bad. When you realize you can't make things happen and you don't have any control over the outcome of many situations, you start to see possibilities you never thought of before. New doors open. Light shines in through the windows. And suddenly you realize what you wanted wasn't really what you wanted and what you want is easily within your reach. You just have to relax and go with the flow and stop trying to force life to happen.

I believe that love is the strongest thing in the world. It's a feeling that never entirely goes away and is capable of inspiring people to do great things. You never hear of someone creating something beautiful and amazing out of hate. Love makes us treat others better and bring beauty into the world and help others to be happy. It can't be forced to end or begin, but starts of its own free will, often when least expected or even wanted. It's a feeling everyone desires, but no one can exactly describe. Somehow, though, we all know what it is.

I believe that mellow music is best played in the background. And everyone should have their own soundtrack. There are songs that fit every situation, mood, and thought. It would only be appropriate for them to start playing when they are really needed.

I believe that there is someone for everyone. It may not be love-at-first-sight, or even romantic love at all. But there is someone out there who will make someone else feel complete. Someone who fills in all the lonely places and makes you smile no matter how you feel. Someone who just always knows what to say and when, who never lets you down, and who would never do anything to hurt you. Someone who you can trust with everything you have and know that they won't screw you over. I need to believe this. Because if there's no one out there for everyone, what's the point?

I believe that forgiveness is the only way to get over things. It's ok to be angry or upset, but holding grudges doesn't accomplish anything except for bringing you down. Everyone needs to face their issues, take a deep breath, and let them go. It feels a lot better for everyone. When you forgive someone, it feels like a weight is gone. It's the same when you're forgiven for something you know you did wrong.

I believe that every person we meet teaches us something. It may be a literal fact, something about ourselves, other people, or the world in general. But there is a purpose for every person who has ever impacted our lives.

I believe that, at some point in life, each person needs to tell someone exactly how they feel about them. Preferably in a constructive or non-aggressive way. If someone is oppressing you or holding you down, you have a right to let them know how they're making you feel and how you don't appreciate it. Likewise, if someone makes you feel like the center of the world and like nothing could be better, they deserve to know.

I believe that feelings are not meant to be kept inside. They are meant to be expressed. If you love someone, tell them. If you're sad, cry. If you're angry, yell. If you're happy, smile. There's no reason not to.

I believe that risks are meant to be taken. That every thing that seems to hard or scary to do needs to be done. It helps us see what we're capable of. Plus, you never know the outcome of something until it happens. No one is happy sitting alone wondering what might have happened if they'd tried something different or said something they were afraid to say. You may be afraid it will end one way and be completely taken by surprise when it happens. But every risk is worth it.

I believe that beliefs are necessary. Without them, there's no way to have hope. And without hope, you may as well be dead.

What do you believe? What is important in your life? What kind of things do you think are necessary to be happy and peaceful?

That's it for me today. More tomorrow! Have a lovely weekend. :)

According to Plan

Location: Dorm Desk
Listening to: Commercials
Days Without Fast Food: One more than yesterday

Hey, Internet. How are you today? I hope you're well. Because I would be so upset if you were upset.

This weekend, if all goes according to plan, I will be blogging either from my friend Jess's dorm and possibly the future birth place of Captain Kirk. We have planned an epic road trip. Pretty much, I'll drive from my college to her college. And we'll drive from her college to this other place. And then we'll drive from that place back to her college, and then I'll drive back to my college. All over the course of the weekend. And it will be wonderful.

We've been planning this since seeing the movie Fanboys and thoroughly enjoying this scene.

Unfortunately, it seems like everything is conspiring against our trip. I have two papers due soon that I have yet to start and they're stressing me out. The weather during my travel time tomorrow is supposed to be stormy, and I'm bad at navigating roads I know well during nice weather. My car needs an oil change, and gas is freaking expensive, and my work study job doesn't give me nearly enough hours to have built up any sort of funds in my bank account.

Hopefully some kind of beam of sunshine will work its way through these clouds that are dampening both my spirit and my chances of seeing one of my best friends and doing some super cool things.

Have you ever gone on a road trip? I want to hear your stories! Did you get lost or meet anyone cool or have any crazy experiences?

That's it for me today. More tomorrow!

Quick! Think of Something!!!

Location: Brad's Couch
Listening to: How I Met Your Mother
Days Without Fast Food: Like, 18?

[insert photo here]

Hey guys. I'm just writing this quick while Brad is occupied trying to treat a sunburn he acquired at a baseball game today.

Alyson, thanks for the great idea about writing a post about my beliefs/faith/etc! I never really thought about that, because I don't really discuss those things that often, but I am totally going to use that some day soon!

Um. That's really it for now. I haven't done anything exciting lately, nor do I have any fun/creative thoughts at the moment, and I really don't have a lot of time to brainstorm things.

So, that's it.

More tomorrow!

Cop Out

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: Seinfeld
Days Without Fast Food: 17

Hey there, Internet. I bet you thought I almost forgot about you today. Well, you'd be correct. Which is why the picture I took for today is of a drawing my friend Lauren made me for my birthday (with my millions and millions of fortune cookie fortunes stuck in the frame) and you can clearly see the beginning of this blog post in the background.

I'm not gonna lie to you, Blog Every Day April is starting to become a challenge. I mean, I usually have a hard time coming up with witty/relevant things to talk about or tell you guys. And that's when I only update once or twice a week. Doing it every day is exhausting my brain.

There's also the fact that this weekend, I'm taking a road trip with my friend Jess and I have no clue if I'm going to be able to update while I'm visiting her. But I really don't want to fail BEDA like I did last year. So I'm facing quite the dilemma.

I think I might resort to doing daily lists. Or those stupid (but addictive) surveys that were popular back in the Myspace days that just ask the same five questions in slightly different ways. I feel like I'm in eighth grade every time I do one (and I still do them sometimes), but they're a nice cop out for when I'm feeling completely uncreative.

Is there anything you guys want to see me talk about? I'm open to just about any (not perverted) idea. If you guys really want to listen to me ramble about something in particular, let me know and I would be more than happy to oblige.

I think that's it for now. Brad's news show comes on soon, and I always watch.

More tomorrow!

Housing Update

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: NCIS
Days Without Fast Food: 16
Followers: 33!!!!

AHHH MORE NEW FOLLOWERS!!! Welcome Mallory, Julianna and Lucie!!! It makes me super excited that people actually like to read this. And I know I say that every time someone new starts following, but honestly, I get extremely excited when I see that you guys find me entertaining enough in whatever way to constantly get updated of my nonsense.

Today's picture: My roommate got more Easter-y window clings and decided to rearrange them to tell a story. The butterflies hate the bunnies, so they are bombing them with colorful eggs and flowers. One butterfly is dive-bombing. It's intense.

I don't remember if I ever gave you guys an update on my living situation for next year, but everything got worked out. I told the girls who were trying to foist me out of the room I signed up for that, sorry, but I wasn't willing to leave because I signed up for that room for many reasons. They were pretty understanding about it, which made me happy, because I felt like a huge bitch for unintentionally complicating things for them.

A few days later, they both e-mailed me and said that one of their mothers had spoken to the housing director  and apparently a lot of people had been having the same problem they were (where someone stubborn accidentally signed up for a room with someone who already had a roommate in mind and then refused to leave) and he got them a room on a different floor of the building we all wanted to be in.

So they're happy. I'm happy. And we all live happily ever after.

I haven't met my real roommate for next year yet, but I've e-mailed her and she seems like a nice person. I hope we get along in real life.

I think that's it for today! I'm prepping for tonight's radio show and researching* for a paper and waiting to get an interview for a second paper, so I'm kind of busy.

More tomorrow!

*Researching = highlighting almost the entirety of each document I'm using and then claiming I read and understood it before totally B.S.-ing my paper.

Grease 2: More Euphemisms, Less Fun

Location: Dorm bed
Listening to: A song about bowling from Grease 2
Days Without Fast Food: 15
Followers: 30!!!!

Yayyy new followers! Welcome Danni, R. Ortiz ,and Lex!!! :)

First: If you didn't get a chance to read my post from yesterday, I got to write a guest blog for Keltie Colleen which you should totally check out HERE! You could help me win some cool swag if you check it out yet today, and I would love you even more than I already do.

Right now, I am watching Grease 2, purely because it is on ABC Family and I'm bored. Thirty seconds in, I already decided I didn't like it. From what I can tell so far, there's a British exchange student guy who wants to get with one of the Pink Ladies (possibly Michelle Pfeiffer, I wasn't really paying attention when hey was swooning over her). Frenchie has returned to graduate so she can go and get a chemistry degree and make her own cosmetics, and she is pretty much Brit Boy's only friend. The Pink Ladies are all revamped and sassy and kind of...manly. There's some sexy music teacher who all of the guys are trying to get with.

That video is the scene I just saw. Don't ask me why they were bowling. Don't ask me why them bowling turned into a huge euphemism about having sex. I clearly have absolutely no understanding of this movie except for the fact that I don't like it.

At one point, Michelle Pfeiffer was giving the Pink Lady's Pledge and all I could think of was the musical Cats.


It appears that there's some kind of school talent show going on. And the British guy wants to be a T-Bird to win over the Pink Lady of his dreams. I really don't understand what is going on here. I am so lost. Do people actually like this movie?!?

Now Michelle Pfeiffer is singing a song about how Brit Boy isn't cool enough to hang out with her. She'll only date a "cool rider." She wants "hell on wheels." I'm not making this stuff up, guys. I don't think I could if I tried.

Oh. My. Dear. Sweet. Baby. Jesus.

NOW THEY ARE SINGING A SONG ABOUT SEX ED. SERIOUSLY, GUYS!!! A SEX ED SONG!!!

I can't handle this. I'm moving on to other things.

Thank you all for your support yesterday! Don't forget to check out my post at Keltie's Blog, and to let me know if you have any good ideas for themes for my radio show!

Also, you should check out my friend Dani's blog. She's just set it up and I'm sure she would love if you awesome folks gave it a look. She's super sweet and funny and I'm sure if you like my nonsense, you'll love hers.

EDIT: Ok, so I kept watching Grease 2. It was like a train wreck. I couldn't look away. The British guy got a motorcycle for doing some guy's homework and everyone thinks he's super mysterious now because they can't figure out that the new motorcycle guy is just the British guy in a leather jacket.

And one of the T-Bird guys is trying to convince this girl to have sex with him in a fall out shelter. He's literally singing, "Let's do it for our country, The red, white and blue, It's not too much to ask of us, Our parents would approve." and "Let's do it for our country, our country wants us to."

Seriously.

This is beyond ridiculous.

EXCITING NEWS!!!

Location: Dorm bed
Listening to: Can't Buy Me Love (the movie)
Days Without Fast Food: 14
Followers: 27!!!!

YOU GUYS! YOU GUYS THIS IS SO EXCITING!! LOOK AT MY FACE RIGHT NOW!!! (Ignore the fact that I just woke up and am still in my PJ's and look mildly crazed).

First, I have a new follower! HI AMY!! THANKS FOR BEING COOL!!!

I don't know how many of you have heard of Keltie Colleen, but she is a dancer/writer/awesome blogger with a super cute blog about love and life. She's pretty well known, and I AM HER GUEST BLOGGER TODAY!!! You can read my post on her blog HERE!!

Make sure to check it out, because she's having a whole month of guest bloggers, and the one who's post gets the most unique hits gets a bunch of cool swag. And also, it's a pretty cool post, if I do say so myself.

I'm really excited just for the opportunity to blog on her blog, because she's kind of an awesome person and a good role model and it's just nice.

In other news, I'm not sure how many of you got around to reading my post yesterday, but I am putting in a call for help. Brad and I have a weekly radio show where we choose a theme and then pick our music/news stories/segments based around it, and I am running out of themes to use. In the past we've done things like family, love, weather, people, places, our state, and other stuff along those lines.

If you guys were listening to something like that, what kind of themes would you want to hear? Let me know!

Thanks! More later! And don't forget to check out my post on Keltie's Blog!!!

Passive-Aggression & Radio Shows

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: Bruised by Jack's Mannequin
Days Without Fast Food: 13

This is my bust of Abe Lincoln. Two of my (super awesome) friends got him for me as a going-away-to-college present when they spotted it at a garage sale. Actually, he's an Avon men's aftershave holder thing, so if you take off his head, he smells like really bad cologne.

I was totally surprised (and amused) at the number of you who commented about your love of ANTM (and other similar reality shows) yesterday! I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who enjoys the trashy drama and pretty pictures. I usually make Brad watch it with me every week, but he works on Wednesday's now.

Well, today I am just counting the hours until the weekend. Things have been getting slowly crappier since last night. I usually don't spend a whole lot of time in my dorm because I have a very conveniently located boyfriend who has his own apartment. But he works on weekends, so I spend Saturday and Sunday in my room. My very tiny room. That I share with a friend who tends to have a very pessimistic attitude, which wears me down.

Last night was one of those nights when little things were just annoying me, so I started playing the Passive-Aggressive Roommate Game. It's not a fun game, except for the small amounts of petty satisfaction it gives you, but those are short lived. It's played by defying your roommate's tendencies by doing things that flagrantly disregard their unstated wishes (such as leaving the door wide open when you leave the room or keeping the volume of the TV one notch louder than necessary or blow drying your hair while they watch TV).

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm kind of a pro at this game. Don't get me wrong, if something rational is bothering me, I'll talk about it. But when it's just little things that are irking me that I know are silly, this is how I handle it. It's immature. It's stupid. It's not even very cathartic. But I do it anyway. And she plays right back. And then I get cranky, even though I totally brought it upon myself. And then my bad mood carries over to the next day and puts a damper on things.

Grumblegrumblegrumble.

So, I've mentioned before that Brad and I have a radio show on campus. Each week, we come up with a new theme and base the music/news stories/segments we do on it. In the past, we've done things like food, animals, weather, people, places, our state, love, and some other things.

What do you guys think would be good themes for us to use in the future? We usually try to keep it light, so we like themes that lend themselves towards funny or weird news stories and interesting facts or top 10 lists. We only have a few more weeks left in the semester, but I'm starting to struggle to come up with themes that I can find enough music to fill two hours with as well as stuff for segments.

Let me know what kinds of things you think would be interesting to hear!

That's it for me today. More tomorrow!

America's Next Top Drama

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: That 70's Show
Days Without Fast Food: 12
Followers: 26!!!!

NEW FOLLOWER!!! Cruella Collett, thanks for the follow! I always feel so special/lucky/awesome when I see that people actually like to read this. :)

I don't know about any of you, but I am absolutely addicted to America's Next Top Model. I love to watch the process of how the (usually gorgeous) photos you see in magazines and stuff get made. The interactions between the models are kind of entertaining, too.

Last night's episode was the most dramatic thing I have ever seen. For those of you who don't watch, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version of this season, so you can understand what I'm talking about. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)

ANTM is about girls who want to be models (obviously) who have to live in the same house and share rooms and then do challenges and go to photo shoots and learn model-y type things. There's usually one or two girls who have kind of antagonistic personalities who cause some drama in the house, but this season is especially dramatic. One of the girls named Alexandria has been kind of a bitch from the beginning. She's constantly bossing around the other girls and trying to direct things on set at photo shoots and pretty much just driving everyone insane.

The other girls are always, always complaining about her. The judges called her out for directing on set when she shouldn't have been. It seemed to me that since the last time a week or two ago that she was critiqued for her bossyness by the judges that she got a lot better. And this week, she won the photo challenge - the prize she got: a new car.

The other girls were all super, super jealous. One girl in particular, Brittney, could not stop whining about how Alexandria didn't deserve to win. They got in a huge cat fight in front of the people they were doing the challenge photo shoot for.

At judging, Brittney blew up. Tyra Banks criticized her for fighting in front of the employers at the challenge and Brittney just started blaming Alexandria and saying how no one liked her and how it's her fault that she (Brittney) acted the way she did at the shoot and how she didn't deserve to win the challenge because she wasn't a good role model.

Of course, with that kind of attitude, she wasn't being a good role model either. And Tyra started yelling at her (more or less) for her behavior. So Brittney just starts bawling and runs off set. Eventually she comes back and takes her critique. She was put in the bottom two (one of whom gets eliminated at the end of the episode) simply because of how she acted.

To make things even crazier, Tyra went on a big spiel about how she's not the only one who decides which girls stay and which girls go. They vote, and she always votes last. This time she was outvoted and Brittney stayed in the competition. TYRA TOLD BRITTNEY SHE WISHED SHE HAD GONE HOME.

It was ridiculous. And extremely entertaining for me.

(END SPOILERS!)

In other, more happy news, today on campus, there is a group of kids hanging out by the university center holding signs advertising "Free Hugs". It makes me happy. They were ambushing people and demanding hugs from passers by. I wanted to take a picture and use that for today, but I didn't have my camera.

Today's picture is Fluffy, my stuffed dog. I've had him since 2nd grade. My friend Gina moved away, and she had a dog just like it, so my parents got it for me to remind me of her. Sweet, right?

Again, thanks for the awesome comments. Allyson - I know exactly the feeling you're talking about! I felt like I was going to throw up when I figured out I left my car in the wrong lot all week, and I was soooo relieved when I only had the one ticket.

That's it for today! More tomorrow!

The Parking Gods Smile

Follow my blog with bloglovin
Location: Dorm Desk
Listening to: That 70's Show
Days Without Fast Food: 11
Followers: 25!!!

AAAHHHH!!!! I have two new followers!!! HoofprintsAndFootprints and Jamie Kaiser, thanks for following this! I'm excited to share all of this nonsense with you. :)

I don't know what good parking lot related deed I did in a past life, but I'm sure as hell glad it's there sending me good parking karma. Because today, I faced a very unpleasant parking situation.

Every Wednesday, I go to a local elementary school to have lunch with my Little Sister, Ashley. I usually drive because it would be a long walk and my classes and stuff don't give me enough time for a leisurely stroll, so today after my shift at the radio station, I walked to the parking lot like normal.

Something you should know: I park in the least convenient parking lot for my side of campus. It's half the cost of parking in a lot that is close to my dorm, and I don't use my car all that often except for when I go home and go to the elementary school, so it's usually not a big deal except that it takes a good five minutes to walk there and I always forget to plan for that time.

Anyway, today I got to the parking lot and scanned the row I usually park in for my car. And...it wasn't there. I clearly remembered parking in the same spot in the corner that I always park in, but someone's green Jeep was there instead. I was totally confused, so I started searching the parking lot, thinking maybe I forgot that I parked elsewhere. I walked up and down just about every row of cars, but mine was no where to be found.

I was texting Brad that I lost my car, my brain frantically scanning through everything that could have happened (Did it get towed? Did someone steal it? Did I even have a car, or was it all just a figment of my imagination?!?) when I remembered.

Last Friday, my roommate really wanted to go to Culvers. I gave up fast food for Lent, so I wasn't going to go with, but the weather was rainy and cold and gross and she offered me a free Concrete Mixer (yum!) if I would drive her. I never turn down free ice cream, so we went and got my car and got ourselves some Culvers. By the time we got back, it was down pouring and gross. I did not want to walk the five minutes from my car to my dorm, and on weekends we're allowed to park anywhere on campus, so I parked in the lot nearest to my dorm.

And I forgot about it.

My car had been sitting there all weekend, as well as Monday and Tuesday. At my college, your car gets towed after three unpaid tickets. If the parking attendants had been doing their jobs correctly, my car should not have been there when I (frantically, crazily, frustratedly) ran to where I'd left it once I remembered that I stupidly left it in the wrong lot.

Instead, I had one $15 ticket. From today. From two hours before I got to it. (That's todays photo).

Someone with some kind of power over parking is looking out for me.

I hope you all had pleasant surprises today! TS - Thanks for the comment yesterday. I had no clue Angry Birds was going to be a movie. That's insane! I guess if it's a kids thing (which I'm sure it will be) it could work. Brad downloaded it for his iPod and is letting me borrow it, so I've been playing for the past hour while I've been watching Top Model. Ahhhh, this is the life. :)

More tomorrow!

Kitty Purry

Location: Brad's Apartment
Listening to: Scrubs
Days Without Fast Food: 10

Yesterday it hailed. And rained. While the sun was still shining. I tried to take a good picture, because the view through our window (with my roomie's cute spring-themed window clings) was pretty gorgeous. This photo doesn't do it justice.

This week, I have been introduced to two things that I'm kind of addicted/fascinated with. The first is Kitty Purry. Katie Perry has several cats. Most of them have normal, cat-sounding names. And then there is Kitty Purry. I find this both hilariously funny and mildly narcissistic or the obvious reasons. Who names their cat after themself, but changes some vowels so the names are cat-related? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Katie Perry. A lot of her music is catchy and fun. But this just cracks me up.

The other is Angry Birds. Brad downloaded it on his phone the other day when we were at a restaurant and I was bored because I finished eating before everyone else. I have the lowest threshold for puzzle game addiction. You should see me play Bejeweled. It's rather insane. So I immediately was hooked on this game. Honestly, I'd heard about it before, but I never really knew what it was. Let me give you the run down.

You are a bird. You're kind of cute and fluffy looking. And then these evil green pigs steal your eggs. You are pissed. You want your eggs back, dammit! So, you go off on a mission to get back your unborn egg children. You do this by slingshot-ing yourself at various structures made of stone and wood and ice, trying to knock things on top of the pigs. You have to obliterate all of the pigs before you can clear the level.

It sounds stupid, but it is one of the most obsessing things I have encountered recently. To make it worse, my phone doesn't have a touch screen, I don't have an iTouch, and they don't have a flash version for computers, so I can't play it unless Brad let's me borrow his phone. (Which he does, frequently, because he is kind of the best boyfriend ever).

In slightly more personal news, I scheduled my classes for next semester today, and I got all of the ones I wanted! I'll have all of my Gen. Eds. out of the way (except for one that you have to be at least a junior to take) and several credits more towards my major and minor. I'm excited. It'll be a pretty heavy workload, but I think I'll be able to handle it. Hopefully.

I hope you are all having a great week so far. Thanks for all of the wonderful comments! TS - Thanks for the blog birthday wishes! And Heather, it was the Gilmore Girls episode where a pickle train overturns by Stars Hollow and stinks up the town and Logan comes back from London and surprises Rory for a day and Lorelei and Christopher decide that they're going to go to Paris. I loovvveeee that show so much. :)

More tomorrow!

Happy Birthday!

Location: Dorm desk
Listening to: Gilmore Girls
Days Without Fast Food: 9

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Blooogggggggggg! Happy birthday to you!

That's right! One year ago yesterday I started this little venture. I was bored and recovering from an abrupt (but not altogether upsetting) breakup and I got inspired and heard of Blog Every Day April for my first time and decided, "You know what, I want to do that."

And then I met all of you charming and wonderful and incredibly friendly people. I have not received one mean or negative comment the whole time I've been doing this, and that kind of astounds me. Because I know that there are more good people than bad in the world, but in my experience, the bad have always been so much more vocal. So when I started getting all of these supportive and happy and kind comments, I felt so special.

Thank you. :)

Sorry for the very, very short post yesterday! I wanted to make sure I didn't miss a day and I was hanging out with Brad and time got away from me. So I just jumped online for literally 30 seconds and spit that out so I could at least have something posted.

Today's picture: My desk in my dorm, sans laptop. This is what my (incredibly unorganized) workspace looks like. Note the stack of textbooks to the left, the shelf of novels above, and the Star Wars bank in the upper right. Those things pretty much define my life.

I schedule classes for next semester tomorrow, and it looks like I'm going to have a busy, busy fall. The maximum credit load we can take per semester is 18. I'll be taking 17, but one class is only half of the semester and supposedly really easy. I'm hoping I don't get too stressed with all of that work on top of my job on top of having a boyfriend and a social life and visits to home and all of that. I have my wishful-thinking classes planned out, but I don't want to share what I hope I'll be taking in case I jinx it and a class is full or something before I can sign up.

All of your awesome comments about how cool Harry Potter is made me really happy. I can't imagine a life without Harry Potter, which may be just a little bit sad. But thanks for your awesomeness!

More tomorrow!

Quick!

Location: Brads

[insert picture here]

No time for a real post! Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

Hogwarts, Here I Come!

Location: Bed
Listening to: Zoolander
Days Without Fast Food: 7

That's right, folks. I have officially been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. How jealous are you?

I remember first reading the Harry Potter books when I was maybe in first grade. My mom had heard about them from Amazon.com and ordered the first and second books to see if they were any good. Of course, they were absolutely phenomenal and somewhat life changing.

As a kid, I was a huge nerd with a surprisingly high reading level. I was able to read and understand the books more or less by myself. I mean, I thought "Hermione" was pronounced "Herman" and was completely baffled about why a girl had that name. But no one knew how to pronounce it until Jo Rowling was interviewed and said it.

I have been reading the HP books ever since. Many of the multiple times. In third grade, I met one of my best friends because his family moved and he started attending my elementary school, and we both loved Harry Potter. He and I and two of my other friends would play Chamber of Secrets at recess, usually with me being Ginny and sitting slumped against the playground equipment until someone came to save me. Other times, I would beg to incorporate Hermione into the scene so I could save everyone with my mad logic skillz.

Anyway, my life would be pretty different without the influence Harry Potter has had on it. Two of my favorite nights were midnight premieres of HP movies. Another time, my friend's mom won tickets to the first showing of Sorcerer's Stone in our town, and I won a full sized movie poster. It was super cool. It got lost somewhere in my house when we painted my room about seven years ago, though. I really should try to track it down again. It would be a nice touch to my dorm room.

Mostly, when I said I was a huge nerd as a kid, I meant, "I'm a huge nerd."

Recently, my friend Jess and her boyfriend, Joe, went to Harry Potter world at Universal Studios in Florida for Spring Break. I was hugely jealous, but Jess is an awesome person and brings me cool things from her vacations. Last year for spring break, she went to Disney and brought me back a Star Wars bank with Mickey and Minnie as Luke and Leia. This year, I asked for her to send me a Hogwarts acceptance letter from the Owlery in Hogsmeade.

And she did.

It was really clever of her. She wrote it as McGonagall, apologizing for losing my original acceptance letter eight years ago and mourning the loss of my contributions to Wizard society. And then Jess wrote a bit about how I'm awesome and magical, even though I never got to attend the (fictional) wizard school of my dreams.

Pretty much, my life is awesome. I'm really enjoying BEDA so far. I love that everyone is posting every day so I have more to read! Thanks to Kal and Allyson for the awesome comments! You guys make me smile. :)

More tomorrow!

Wrong Way

Location: Dorm desk

Listening to: That 70's Show

Days Without Fast Food: 6

It's here! It's finally here! That's right, folks, it's BEDA time! That's how my blog got its start almost exactly one year ago. I stumbled across Hayley's blog, got inspired, and got one of my own. Ever since, I've been a blogging machine. I've been more dedicated to this little project than I have to any journal I've ever kept, and I have kept many, many journals. I think if you guys weren't there giving me support and inspiration, I probably would have quit this, too.

So thanks for giving me a hobby. :)

For BEDA this year, I wanted to do something different. So, each day, I am also going to take a picture and post it. Just a random picture. Some days it might be me, some days (like today), it might be random things I find amusing. Those are some signs I can see from my window. The street is a one-way. Somehow, though, they still decided to put a No Right Turn sign going in the wrong direction. Like, the only way you would see that sign is if you were driving the wrong way to begin with. And if you were driving the wrong way, I highly doubt you carry any sort of regard for road signs.

The other day, I was reading Allyson's brilliant post, and it kind of inspired me a lot. Her post was all about her Facebook fast, and wouldn't it be interesting if there were a Facebook-type thing that only displayed your faults? Because, online, you can portray yourself however you want. You can edit your pictures so you have flawless skin and look 20 pounds skinnier. You can say you speak Finnish and Lebonese and spend all of your time volunteering for good causes, regardless of whether or not it's true. Pretty much, you can make yourself look like some crazy, ideal version of yourself, and those who don't know you that well would never know the difference.

What Allyson asked was, what if Facebook only displayed your faults? If it only showed pictures of you at your early-morning worst and your "About Me" section was filled with embarrassing or shameful facts that you try to hide.

That really got me thinking. How different would the world be if all of the things that make us vulnerable were just out on display for anyone and everyone to see? If everyone knew everything you always wished no one would ever find out? Do you think people would continue to go out of their way to protect their pride? Or would things like pride and vulnerability just cease to exist?

I mean, I think things would be a lot more boring if that were the case. Our deep, dark secrets are what give us depth as people. Everything would be all two-dimensional, like watching a movie, if we already knew everything.

It's just interesting to think about things like that. Allyson, thanks for the inspiration! What do the rest of you think? What would the world be like if we had nowhere to hide?