Positive Image

My laptop battery's about to die and I haven't blogged in DAYS!

I saw Divergent spontaneously last night. I really was not impressed. I went with two friends. One of them had read the book and one of them hadn't. The friend that had read it and I agreed, if we hadn't read the book we'd be confused. You miss so much of Tris' thoughts and why she does what she does. And the whole Four storyline is just kind of forced and just... not very exciting I guess?

ALSO! Kate Winslet makes some random huffs and weird panting sounds at the end which made me think... was she even trying in this? I mean, I feel like the people that made Divergent were maybe like... what big name can we get to be involved in this?! KATE WINSLET SAID YESS!!! Give her as many lines as possible! Even if it was a bit of a hindrance to the plot. WHATEVER SHE DESERVES IT.

What else is new? I realized that maybe my reading taste is becoming more defined? Because I started reading this book a friend gave me and it's AWFUL. Hang on... Did I blog about this before? Let me check...

No, I just THOUGHT about blogging about it. OKAY. SO. A friend gave me a book to read. Just some light chick-lit and I have since started to read it and it's AWFUL. Like... I'm sorry, Stephanie. I just can't keep reading it. Everything is so over-the-top cliche and it's just not well-written. Which is a bummer because I've read some other stuff by the same author and I remember liking it a lot. But apparently there's well-written cheesy (a la Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, and Helen Fielding) and then there's BAD cheesy. Where the characters flip flop in motives, the plot points are laid out so plainly there's no way you can miss it, and the terrible similes abound. I'm not really sure what was going on there. A Billion Reasons Why? More like A Billion Reasons Why Not to Read This.

This post has been pretty negative so far. Let's lighten the mood, shall we? HAHAHA! I searched "positive image" and this was one of the first results:

"Positive image."

Trying to be Helpful

Haha, wow. I was clearly... distracted last night. But look at my dedication, still blogging away!

Tonight I realized that I think I'm the most unhelpful helpful person. I saw this guy on the sidewalk walking home and I offered to give him a ride (after much deliberation and multiple U-turns). But I was so so happy he was accepting the offer and that I could even BE helpful that I shoved open the door as he was getting in, basically pushing him back into the snowbank he just finished climbing over. CLASSIC. Then he had this bag of (presumably work clothes) and I chucked that into my backseat panicking that this wasn't going at all like I expected it to be. BUT IT'S WHATEVER. At least I got to drive him home.

He turned out to be a co-worker of my housechum, Hannah. So that was sweet. But I felt bad about pushing him into the snowbank. He seemed pretty grateful despite having to make sure all of his clothes were in the bag when I handed it to him. I was just REALLY excited!

ANYWAY, it's way too late and I should clearly go to bed so... GOODNIGHT!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's day!

I worked for about six hours before I realized that it was STP day and I could use that as a greeting. Good call, Abby!

I'm not really sure what to write about. We watched Laws of Attraction and by watched I mean, we paid no attention for the entire hour and a half. Good call guys!

And now everyone's singing Frozen. I think it's time for bed. Sorry, this is terrible.

Exhaustion

Exhausted.

Today, I just don't even know what to write about. I feel like this is the time in my life where I'm doing so many different things. And I just don't have time to relax. At all. I just don't even know.

Let's try this again, but less whiny??

Today I had church, got lunch at the Chatterbox with friends, met up with Brynn, and worked at the radio station. Solid day.

We also have another house guest with us! Another one of Jami's teammates. Woo! I tell ya, by the end of this month I might actually like a little piece and quiet. But for now I like having people in our house! It's so much fun being able to hang out with people I haven't seen in a while and building on those relationships.

Today Brynn and I talked about our future and I was like, "I don't even have to say I wonder what life will be like in ten years. I just wonder what we'll be doing a year from now." This is such a weird time for both of us because I don't think either of us is ready to be committed to anything for more than a year. Like, working at the bookstore for more than a year is boggling my mind. It could happen, but I don't feel ready for it right now.

Well, clearly I can't think straight right now so I'm saying goodnight.

what an exhausting life

So Abby, the beautiful child of God, just handed me her tablet so that I would blog for her since she is having a pretty exhausting day today! Seriously, this hard working girl had to get up at 6.50am and just got home ( it's noon now) to go to her other work in less than an hour ...to spend there the rest of her day. Kind of at least because she will have to close up ...so please, people be nice to her and should you read this before the day is ober , feel free to send her an encouraging message!! Thanks for your attention! Have a great, hopefully not as exhausting day as Abby!

Peace out!

Experiences and Thoughts

Have you ever been told to enjoy your food? I was talking with some friends and one of them talked about a food course that they took. One class they had to eat one bite for a few minutes and try to appreciate what they were experiencing with all of their senses.

Well, guys. I tried to EXPERIENCE my food this morning. I took my bowl of cereal into my room (Anne was sleeping in our living room, like a beautiful, resting butterfly), sat down on the floor and.... Kept repeating "Everybody (yeah, yeah)! Rock your bodyyy!" while eating my Frosted Flakes.

I think some people are more introspective, and I'm not one of them. Which is okay! I've accepted that. In fact, I like it! I don't get bogged down with doubt or worry or too anxious about anything. Sure, there are times when it happens, but then I start wondering about how delicious pepper jack grilled cheeses are and then I spot the book I checked out at the library and think about how I should renew it so I don't have to pay the lost fee and then I'll maybe never go back there so I don't have to face the librarians that love me and think I'm being a successful adult pursuing a career in radio and not a bum that's too lazy to even sign into the library website to renew my books.

My thought processes are pretty similar to what shows up on these blogs.

Woopsie Daisies

Thanks for the encouragement, Beth! I really like your comments. It makes it more fun when I check my blog!

Speaking of, guys! I forgot to blog yesterday! I vaguely thought about it last night while we were watching Head Over Heels and that was it! So silly of me!

Also speaking of, don't you hate it when you watch a movie from high school and it turns out that it's actually a terrible movie and you don't know what charm you thought it had? That happened last night and when I watched The Sweetest Thing with Jami. Why was everything in the early 2000's so gross?!

Anyway, I'm off to work, but I'll probably post something else later, gators.

Debriefing: The Sleepover

I'm texting with my brother, so that's weird. We're just not really friends, so it's always weird when I find myself having a conversation with him. It's great, but just so abnormal!

Anyway, Beth wanted to know how the SLEEPOVER went. Well, it was pretty different. I knew one of them better than the other so I felt a little weird at first. But then we did facials and made drinks and started watching The Mindy Project. And it felt more comfortable. To be honest, they were (self-admittedly) SLIGHTLY lame and fell asleep at like 10:30 (after having gotten lost, I arrived at like... 8:00) so there wasn't really a lot of bonding time the night of. But in the morning we watched a movie together and dissected Laguna Beach/The Hills dynamics. So obviously a great time for me. I think we all have a lot in common, but it was the first time really hanging out with them not in a Youth Encounter setting so it makes sense it felt a little weird I guess...? Anyway, now I know that if I'm going to hang out with them we need to start the festivities a little bit earlier.

Tonight I realized that I was actually excited to go to class tomorrow! Isn't that weird? Me? Legitimately excited about learning! Jami asked why I was excited and my response was, "I'm just excited to learn more about Motion." To which everyone was all, "What a nerd!" and "That just sounded really nerdy." What can I say? Apparently I really care about editing! WHO KNEW? Well, probably a lot of people in my life. Just not to what extent.

Yet again, I wish one of my friends also liked editing so I could have discussions with them about what I'm learning. At least Hahnnah likes YouTube so I have an outlet for YouTube-yness.

I think when I start making up words and adding random suffixes it's time for bed. NIGHTSKIES.

Thin Mint Creamer

I talked on air today for five minutes solid. What a rush.

Jami's warming up the kettle and then I'm consuming some hot chocolate with Thin Mint creamer and it's gone be good, y'all!
I don't know if you can see the photo of glory that I posted. Enjoy it, my friends.

Grace Helbig said there was such a thing as Tagalong creamer, but I'm not sure if that's real or not. Let me go make sure. Yeah, I think the beautiful art of hilarity told me lies.

Whenever I watch a livestream with Hannah, Grace, and/or Mamrie I feel so inspired to do something creative. I've decided to invest in a narration mic and next month will be a podcast a month! But first I have to actually import, edit, and upload them all. But then! Narration mic! Moving on up! To the east side! To a deluxe apartment in the skyyyy.

I really hope you can see the picture I found. I mean, I scoured the first page of Google results for you guys!

I can hear the kettle warming up! Jami's getting up! Things are progressing in a favorable manner! And I'm going to leave now.

EDIT: Jami made my hot chocolate and it's delicious. According to Anne, "it's just so delicious!"

SHOUT OUT TO ANNE FOR BEING A WONDERFUL HOUSEGUEST.

Easy A

We're watching Easy A. So just prepare yourself for lots of random quotes from the movie and many disjointed thoughts.

The "Pocketful of Sunshine" montage is so good.

"Do you know Glade candles? Those kind, but they were sexy Glade candles...

While I was working today I saw a girl that I went to college with. It was kind of weird, seeing someone from a specific part of my life. Like, what's the protocol? I asked her if she had my number and she did. That's gotta mean something? Probably some purging of her phone happened over the past three years. And I made the cut? Somehow? How? I don't know. But I hope that we can hang out someday. I've really been pushing myself to hang out with people I wouldn't normally. Like, I asked a girl from Bible study if she would want to hang out.

I read this book where the author meets a new friend a week, or at least tries to. It's really interesting! She talks a lot about the value of friendship for people both emotionally, mentally, and physically. You should totally read it. You know, when I know the title of it I'll let you know.

Right now I'm too distracted by, "here's the sitch, Melanie Bostick."

"I always thought that pretending to lose my virginity would be more... I don't know... special? Judy Blume should have prepared me for that."

"I knew he wasn't Latino, but for some reason all these shady backdoor deals had me talking like Carlito. Beat it, esse!"

DIS MOVIE DOE. I can't. Okay, I'm going now.

Confession Session: SLEEPOVERS!

Workin' 9 to 5 what a way to make a livin'! Or something like that. I don't know. Jami always sings that.

But today I am working 9-5. So that's weird. I'm home on my break and figured I'd better churn this one out before I have dinner with my parents and then a SLEEPOVER! Yeah. A real life, sleepover. Man, I love them so much. I don't think people understand it.

Some nights I sleep in Jami's bed purely because it's like a sleepover. I don't think I'll ever outgrow them. And I feel like that's a good thing! To want to spend time with friends? That's good, right? Me, Anne, and Jami are in the midst of planning a "sleepover" where we'll all sleep in the living room. I'm telling you, it's just great having a sleepover! I'm not sure what it is. Maybe because you stay up late talking? You're probably more prone to have weird bizarre conversations right before you're about to nod off than you would for a 2:00 coffee session. Look at me, sounding like I get coffee on a regular basis. Haha! Yeah, right!

WELL. I have to go pack. For my sleepover! YES! I'll debrief with you guys tomorrow.

Ninja of Motion

I would like to shout out the two people who have commented on my actual blog. Props to you, Beth and Tillie. However, I'm a bit upset that both of your comments revolved around a certain houseguest we have. Ummm, hey. I'm here too!

MOVING ON.

Today in class my professor called me a Motion ninja (Motion's a program to create motion graphics. To be honest, I don't really know what it is)! I'm going to take that as a compliment even though all I was doing was following the book at my own rate instead of waiting for him to explain everything five times over. I take it as a sign that I clearly enjoy what I'm doing because otherwise I wouldn't even want to work ahead.

I don't even know why, but I have such a passion for editing. I think I like being precise and creative. And editing is pretty much a 50/50 split down the middle. You need to have precision to make each edit hit the exact right frame. And you need creativity to know what frame you want. You have so many options to choose from, but having an image of what you want the scene to play like really helps make every decision.

Guys, I wish I had more people in my life who cared about stuff like Motion and filters and transitions. But, alas... I'm a lone wolf. Theoretically I'm in a class of people who DO care about those things, but the reality is pretty different. I'm not so sure the professor even cares. But at least he called me a Motion ninja. I'll always cherish that moment.

WELL. Now I have the WHOLE DAY---- to apparently read Hayley G. Hoover's articles for The Gloss and peruse through Facebook profile's of former high school classmates! SOLID USE OF MY TIME, I'd say.

Well, our house guest has woken up and I fear it's time to end this shared moment we had. Today's book will be Wicked by Kristen Chenoweth (with Joni Rodgers).

A Conversation

According to Anne I have to blog again, because this morning I was just making up for lost time. I didn't realize that myself.

So, we have a fake fire. And even though it's in the right place (see what I did there?) it doesn't emanate heat. It's pretty useless. But the rotating light and the orange-y glow it gives off are extremely cozy and soothing. It's not even real!

Ugh, how easy it is to be lured into comfort by artificial light in this culture. I hope I always know the one, true Light that can set me free.

Well, this took an unexpected turn.

Can we say that my jaunt into the intellectual deep provided enough content that I can stop now?

We can? Wow, for once we agree on something! What do you mean?! We ALWAYS disagree! Remember? The only thing we agreed on how devastatingly abrupt Selena Gomez and the Scene's career was together! I wonder how The Scene are doing without her...

Tramp for the Lord

Ahhh, already falling short. Oh, well. It happens.

Guess what I'm reading now... Tramp for the Lord. The story of Corrie ten Boom's life after she comes back to Holland. This lady though! She has shaken my faith. If she can find happiness in witnessing in a concentration camp? Who am I to avoid talking with people about Jesus because it might get awkward? Really, Abby? How selfish are you? I'm going to politely refrain from answering that question.

Anyway, today I have to head to ole Century College to make up for the class I missed yesterday. Woo. No, it'll actually be kind of cool! I'm learning how to make my own custom title screens. That's actually pretty awesome, right?

Well, I think I had better get a JumpStart (I don't know why it's spelled like that. Autocorrect believes it deserves it, I guess. Hope it's not copyrighted) on the day. But first to read my Bible. The book which Corrie ten Boom fights for and hides and cherishes her entire time in prison and in the concentration camp.

In Tramp for the Lord, she talks about her house (the Beje) becoming a museum for her and her family. I couldn't imagine what I would do if I got to see it. I thought I would probably cry if blessed with such an opportunity.

The Hiding Place

Okay, if Esther is reading this she would be so proud of me. I'm all about The Hiding Place! It's so good. If you've never heard of Corrie ten Boom don't feel bad because I hadn't either. But she's this awesome lady who helped hide Jews during World War II. Well, her, her family, and their house. Gosh, I can't stop thinking about it! She and her family have this amazing faith in the middle of these amazing horrific circumstances. I just can't believe it! Every time I think about them I ask God to give me such a brave faith. I feel like such a coward in comparison. In so many sense of the word. Like, I don't think I could handle the pressure of hiding people and having to run drills and organizing hundreds of citizens in a secret underground ring of people to help Jewish people flee the town into (relative) safety. And I also don't think I could handle having to trust God that much. I feel like my faith would shatter when faced with such genuine hardships. But maybe I don't give God enough credit. I don't know. A good quote that I've read out loud to my house chums and guests:
Her sister is comforting her after she found a metal shard on her pillow where not an hour before she left her bed to join her sister downstairs to pray during the night as planes fight each other overhead.

"'Betsie, if I hadn't heard you in the kitchen-'
But Betsie put a finger on my mouth. 'Don't say it, Corrie! There are no "if's" in God's world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety- O Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it!'"

Ugh, I just admire them so much. It's so crazy! And here's another thing her sister says after Corrie says she's had a vision of her family and townspeople being led away from their town.

"'I don't know,' she said softly. 'But if God has shown us bad times ahead, it's enough for me that He knows about them. That's why He sometimes shows us things, you know- to tell us that this too is in His hands.'"

Okay, I know I have my class tomorrow morning, but I think I might just have to finish this! Ugh, it's so good!

Also, Ashley came over for dinner and we had Jami's homemade pizza for the first time since the fast. Dat dough doe.

Today: A List

Haha, do you guys remember last night when I thought I had to blog super late at like 2 am even though I had already made a completely coherent post earlier in the day? Good times, am I right?

What I did today:
Π Blake (not Shelton. My other friend Blake) and I went to fill my tired with air!
Π I was then gifted with a tire pressure gauge
Π I was taught how to use a tire pressure gauge
Π I watched as someone (probably Blake) filled up my anti-freeze
Π I forced someone to watch two too many YouTube videos about a truly inspirational movie
Π Borrowed ice skates and went skating for the first time in eight years
Π Drank some delicious Nestle hot chocolate which is the best brand of instant hot cocoa and I will no longer drink Swiss Miss the same way.
Π Gently encouraged/guilted some children into listening to me read Dr. Seuss books in celebration of his birthday at the bookstore I work at.
Π Ate bites of several donuts, some homemade cake, and chocolate as a delicious dinner
Π Sat around an empty studio for three hours while scrolling through tumblr.
Π Came home to a German girl in my living room.
Π Remarked about the amazing ability to touch her because for a while I couldn't do that.
Π Ate some delicious German chocolate provided by the German girl.

And now we're pretty much caught up on my day. As you can tell the Seven fast has made a huge impact on my regular diet. I'm pretty much a changed person.

Goodnight!

Party

We had a party. It was fun. Although I had to close at the bookstore I work at so I missed quite a bit, but that's all right. We played this really awesome game that's like Catch Phrase. But it's on a smart phone and you hold it up to your head and it records a video of everyone saying random crap trying to make you guess. I hope I never have to see them because I know that I completely lose myself in those games. I'm completely unaware of how loud or obnoxious I am.

And I think that's a solid post. So let's post it! Motivational speech, done!

Take Three

Back to the grind.

Yesterday was the last day of our fast. It feels weird seeing a box of chocolate, knowing I have the capability of eating it, but not really wanting to! I had two truffles last night and I'm still kind of full. Like, I don't really want to eat any right now because I kind of think that's a little gross. Who am I?

Tomorrow at the bookstore I recently started working at I get to read books out loud to children! It's Dr. Suess' birthday! I'm going to try and find a little costume I can cobble together! My fallback would be my safari hat with the premise that, "when you read you go on an adventure." Why do you think safari hats signify adventure. Why not a baseball hat. Me sitting inside a baseball stadium surrounded by baseball fans is an adventure. Especially if one of them is there with me due to obligation and he knows a lot about baseball so I incessantly ask him questions trying to learn about the game. Then it's an adventure for everyone around us too!

Okay. I know what I need. Striped leggings. Who knew stripes were Suess-y. I'm going to pair them with my black dress with weird tufts that look like truffala trees. It's not really a specific character, more just really wacky. Which I think of when I think Dr. Suess, you know?

If Esther's reading this... I'm finally getting around to reading The Hiding Place! It's really good, but she keeps hinting at the tragedy that's about to unfold. She'll be describing her sister's house and then all of a sudden it's "if only I knew the darkness that would fill the house as I stood outside of it filed with fear." Or something like that. Then she'll go right onto discussing her favorite nephew like nothing happened.

Tonight's our house's birthday for the Han's/break the fast party so I'll let you know how that goes.