Movies with Insight

These are just a few of my favorite movies that I feel lack the credit they d e s e r v e .

Penelope:

I sit and watch this entire film just for this  b e a u t i f u l  final scene. One of the best on screen kisses and stunning background music.


Tuck Everlasting:

This is one of the most .a.m.a.z.i.n.g. love stories. It's honest and genuine. Everything isn't tied up in a perfect little bow at the end. Although the movie is mystical, the continuous  w a i t i n g and obstacles through love are very real.

Big Fish:

I named my car after this song and movie. It's such a unique way of viewing life's journeys. I love this summary of the movie. The ending always gives me  c h i l l s . 

So What Do You Do?

Those of you who are seniors in high school, and older, know that that most asked (and annoying, after a while,) question is: So what are you going to do? What's the plan for after graduation? What are you doing this fall? etc.

It's actually been nice to have the answer, "going to study f a s h i o n design at an art school in Georgia". When my original plan would have been more like, "living at home and going to community college". Not that there's anything wrong with that. My parents would appreciate me saving the money. And a lot of people find it weird that I'm going to an art school. Everyone assumes I'm at BYU in Utah or Idaho, because that is the norm in my culture. I guess I prefer to be one for surprising.

I've noticed this question hasn't gone away though, it merely adjusts to the .p.r.e.s.e.n.t. situation. It's changed from "What are you going to do?" in high school, to "What are you up to?" in college. And I've noticed even with my dad and adults, they all ask each other, "What do you do?" 

Although I've grown tired of being asked this question, it's hypocritical of me. I know I ask tons of other people my age this very thing; there's really no avoiding it when catching up or getting to know          s o m e o n e . Maybe facebook is a convenience so we can post all of our personal business and not have to ask one another and make small talk. Hey, why don't we all wear signs with a brief background history? 

Uhhh, y u c k .

I suppose this question isn't going anywhere, so it's time for me to get used to it.

Soooooo, what do YOU do?

Bye, Bye Beautiful

What I've learned about l o n g - d i s t a n c e relationships:

sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

Period.

(My sissy and her fianc'e)

A girl in my hall is from a town four hours away. She leaves school every weekend to go be with her boyfriend. I see good and bad points with this. Yes, it's sweet and romantic and they must really love each other to make that kind of effort. But at the same time, she is missing out on so much. She has no time to get involved in school clubs or go out with .f.r.i.e.n.d.s. from the dorms on the weekend. She also said she won't go out while she's at school because it'd make her boyfriend mad. Sounds a little controlling to me.

Another friend of mine had been with her boyfriend for three years before coming to college. They starting fighting because of the distance, and broke up a few weeks later. They continued to talk though, and mentioned possibly getting back together come Christmas break. A week before break, my friend received some .a.w.f.u.l. news from a friend back home. Her boyfriend (although technically ex) had been cheating with her best friend while she'd been at school.

As for myself, I had been dating someone around eight months before leaving for c o l l e g e. Even though I couldn't have imagined being with anyone else, we gradually broke up before I left. We decided if it's meant to be, than eventually it will be. But for now, we should live our separate lives and not hold each other back. It sounds like taking the easy way out, but my situation was a little different. First of all, his family had just moved to Utah while mine moved to Arizona. Therefore, even when I return home for breaks, I wouldn't be seeing him. Second of all, he's still in high school and he should finish his senior year having fun and getting the full experience. Likewise me experiencing college. 

We've stayed good friends throughout the months and talk every so often. But lately we haven't been as close. I blame myself for that. I have a tendency to get a n g r y with the people I care about most and .p.u.s.h. them away. I don't know why. I always regret it immediately. It sounds juvenile, which is probably a reason why I'm not ready for a long distance relationship.

The point is this: if it's meant to be it will find a way to be. Whether it's tomorrow or thirty years down the road.

Everything happens for a reason.

Martha Stewart Is My Homegirl.

I've been testing out cupcake recipes all month to decide the best ones to make for my sister's bridal shower. My family has gotten a little "cupcaked out", so they stopped eating them after a while and it was too depressing to see them go to waste, so. . . let's say I ate a few more than I normally would have (ughh, Freshmen Fifteen).

 Her shower was last week and I made about 200 cupcakes for it. The flavors I ended up going with were chocolate chip, devil's food, german chocolate, red velvet, white chocolate, and my personal favorite, boston creme. I used variations of chocolate mousse filling, vanilla custard filling, white chocolate cream cheese frosting, chocolate buttercream frosting, buttercream, and chocolate ganache. 

If you're interested in a recipe, let me know!

A Few Dorming Tid-Bits

1. Get a real broom. Swiffers  s u c k  in my personal opinion.

2. Meet your neighbors right away! I knocked on all the nearby rooms with cookies the first night, like a chipper woman in a welcoming gated community. Everyone remembered me as the cookie girl and it was an easy way to break the ice. If you wait too long you may never get to know your neighbors. Since I've moved rooms, I've never even seen the boys next door. It'd feel awkward to go over this late in the game.

3. Have a cleaning schedule with your roommates. Otherwise you'll either be living in a .p.i.g.s.t.y. or you'll end up cleaning everything on your own, like me.

4. If you don't have carpet in your room, get rugs to cover the floors. MUCH more home-y. 

5. Your school will probably tell you no nails in the walls. I g n o r e  them. Thumbtacks and nails are the most efficient way to hang things up. You WILL want to cover up that barren wall so it doesn't feel like you're walking into a jail cell. You can always use toothpaste to fill the holes at the end of the year.

I used tape to put my pictures up, but the humidity has been pulling them off.

I used a nail for my name plaque and tacks for the plastic black flowers and they've stayed perfectly!

6. If your roommates have memory loss whenever they use a dish and the dirty dishes pile up in the sink, get your own dishes and silverware. Keep it out of sight too, so they won't dirty all your dishes.

7. Don't keep too much junk food in your dorm room. Two words: FRESHMEN FIFTEEN. 

More on this important s u b j e c t  later. . .

Winter Break: Don't Become A Couch Potato

I had a countdown going at 58 days left til' Christmas Vacation and the end of my first college quarter. I would have made one of those fun little elementary school style chains where you pull a link off every day to count down, had I not been in such an artsy area where everyone is g o i n g green. 

My plans for Winter break consisted of sleeping and not doing homework (of course), spending time with my family, hanging with a few friends, reading, starting a blog, baking (primarily cupcakes for my sister's wedding shower, I want the perfect flavor and design), writing a song or two on the piano (ha... good luck to me), practicing the piano, helping with the wedding plans, and that's about it. 

I didn't realize how much .t.i.m.e. that would still leave me, and how ready I would be to return to Georgia! 

I was afraid once I got home, I'd never want to go back to school. Thankfully, that is not the case. Let's be honest (my dad hates when I say this lately, he says it sounds like I'm not normally honest), I love my family and it's great to be home, but I'd be such a loser if I stayed here too much longer. Blogging, baking, reading, and piano? Ideal to me, but it still sounds pretty lame. 

So many of my friends are still gone to school or on missions or who know what, since I just haven't kept in touch with many since moving to Texas and it'd be odd to call them up now.

Winter Break has been excellent and I am enjoying the lounging around and free time, but don't let yourself get too bored like I almost did.

I'm a person who can't stand to be too idle. Therefore, I got a part time job at the Gap, and I'm taking a cake decorating class twice a week. My break has felt so much better just by having a few planned things.

Happy Christmas vacationing! So pysched for the start of my second quarter of college :))

The Secret Behind the Dream

During Freshmen orientation I went to some comedian's, from LA, seminar. He went off on this huge kick about how lucky we all were because less than one percent of the earth's population gets to attend college. Therefore we are living the dream.

He also ranted about how laaaame it is when someone asks how you're doing and you reply, "Good". Which is true! Sure, some of the time we're good. But often we're amazing, horrendous, okay, tired, hungry, excellent, depressed, or sad. 

But we're in college! Living the dream! So let people know.

When someone asks how you're doing, don't say good. 

Say "LIVIN' THE DREAM, how are you?"

I Know Me Better Than You Know Yourself

Sometimes I'm afraid I'm changing. I don't know if it's for the worse or the better, but I'm afraid of losing myself and just not being "me" anymore. Afraid that I will no longer recognize myself. 

Tonight I discovered I know myself much better than I remembered, which pushed asides my doubts.

At the beginning of the quarter, I went on a leadership training camping trip for school. We wrote letters to ourselves, and the school just mailed me mine. I had completely forgotten about it. I received it several days ago, but didn't open it. The time just didn't feel right.

Lately, I've been a little anti social. Arizona doesn't feel the same after graduating and being gone for a year in Texas, then being away at school in Georgia. I seem to have forgotten who my friends are here and have lost interest in participating in very many social events. 

I've been avidly planning my future. I don't even know why. I've been thinking about internships, future jobs, studying abroad, serving a mission, becoming an EFY camp counselor, going to pilot school, teaching English in Russia, and most recently, I've been on a kick about backpacking through Europe. There's so much I want to do, and only so much money and time to do it. After researching tips on backpacking in Europe, I finally opened my letter.

I admittedly teared up when I read:

"If you don't have everything planned out, don't worry! Just go with the flow. Do what feels right for the time being. You don't need to plan your entire future right now, because it will change. Everything happens for a reason. Everything you do will occur for a reason."

It gets even more mushy, but I'll go ahead and leave out those more personal parts.

It felt like such a wake-up call. I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that to myself, back in September. How did I know I'd be going crazy planning out my life? I've never been an organized planner or anything. 

Sometimes you know yourself better than you think. Stop and listen to your thoughts. Write them down. Your wisdom should be valued, especially by yourself. If you can't give advice to yourself, then who can you give it to?

Listen.

It's nice to know I'm still here. It's still me. I know myself.

Ice Cream and Movies!

Quick thought :

I'm currently watching Flipped and eating chocolate Mochi Japanese ice cream. If you've never tried Mochi, stop! and get some now. It's a little piece of Heaven on earth. Perfect late night snack to keep in your dorm freezer. They are little balls of ice cream with a sticky rice coating. Not as weird as it sounds, I swear! I get it at Trader Joe's, but I'm sure it's also sold elsewhere. 

Also, movies have been an awesome study break for me at college. At first I watched zero tv, since I had no access to one. I still don't watch very much, but my awesome new roomies have a shnazzy flat screen tv with Netflix. It's great background noise to put on a movie while we're all working on drawing homework. It's also excellent for social gatherings when things like the VMAs and Oscars are on. Plus, who doesn't love taking a study rest for a good chick flick and some delicious Mochi!?

Rocky Roommates

I didn't expect to cry when my mom left me outside the airport alone in a strange new city. But I bawled.

After eighteen years of guidance from my parents, teachers, and a house full of siblings, I was finally alone in the world.

For a while I thought I was the only student in the dorms feeling so homesick and acting like such a baby, but I recently found out my roommate had been going on shopping splurges alone to cope with her depression and homesickness.

It's a scary time, but it's a necessary step in growing up and becoming an adult.

If you're crying yourself to sleep in a dorm room, thousands of miles from home, with some crazy roommates, and no friends, don't worry.

I've been there (surprise, surprise, right?) and lived through it! It didn't last me more than two weeks. The friends will come! You just have to find your right cup of tea. Patience. And stepping out of your comfort zone. Talk to people you wouldn't normally have been friends with in high school. It's college. We're accepting of all!

Of course, I've continued to get homesick throughout the quarter. Who wouldn't miss these gorgeous people?

It was particularly hard to come home after a long day into a far from homey dorm room. The silence bugged me sometimes also, considering I'm used to a house full of nine kids (not that students living in the dorms don't make a lot of noise).

It got much easier once I switched rooms. There was off and on drama with my first roommates. We were all so different! Yes, on the one hand, we're adults now. It's time to start working with people you don't like. But on the other hand, this is my place of living we're talking about. My home! I wanted to feel comfortable in there. 

After my roommates tried to kick me out, I decided it was time to leave. 

And luckily, two girls down the hall needed a third roommate and welcomed me with open arms.

I couldn't have picked two better roommates! A word to the wise: if you're having roommate problems that just can't seemed to be solved, find a way to move out! It may seem extreme, but it will take an enormous load off of your back.

Welcome, We're Glad Georgia's on Your Mind

Two and a half months ago, I arrived in the beautiful state of Georgia, two thousand, one hundred, and sixteen miles away from my home in the Grand Canyon State. Although, I'd already been used to being away from home. My family decided to move to Texas just in time for my senior year of high school. It sounds like any high school student's worst nightmare. 

But it was a dream come true. 

Living in Texas for a year made me realize that there is so much the rest of the country has to offer, outside of Arizona. I also learned I can make amazing friends anywhere I go and it can become a home. 

Which is why, even though my family moved back to Arizona this past Summer, I chose to go to school across the country to study art and the marvelous world of fashion.

I have just finished my first quarter of college and am home for Winter Break.

I'm already full of lessons and tips!

ARIZONA.

TEXAS.

GEORGIA.

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