Sad, sad, sad...

The top picture is me at Twenty. The bottom picture was me at Seventeen.

The Four Years Ago Survey from myspacefunsurveys.net
How old were you? 16 years old, about to be 17. =)
What school year were you in? It was the summer before my Senior year.
Where did you go to school? Curry High School
Where did you work? For my dad at Pine Valley Landscaping
Where did you live? Arley, AL
Where did you hang out? Jasper, AL
How was your hair style? Very, very short.
Did you wear braces? Nope
Did you wear glasses? No
Who was your best friend? Rachael Hambric
Who was your boyfriend/girlfriend? Dustin Cagle
Who was your celebrity crush? I don't remember. Possibly Orlando Bloom?
Who was your regular-person crush? My boyfriend at the time.
How many piercings did you have? My ears, just two each.
How many tattoos did you have? None
What was your favorite band? Barenaked Ladies
What was your worst fear? Not getting into college
Had you smoked a cigarette yet? No
Had you gotten drunk or high yet? No
Had you driven yet? Yes
...and now in 2010
How old are you? 20, less than a month until 21!!!
What school year are you in? Senior in college
Where do you go to school? UAB
where do you work? At a computer lab.
Where do you live? Around UAB
Where do you hang out? In the Education Building. =)
How is your hair style? Should length, minimal layers. Natural color.
Do you wear glasses? Not at the moment.
Who is your best friend? Lots of people. But especially my mom and Garrett.
Who is your boyfriend/girlfriend? Garrett Matthew Schrader
Who is your celebrity crush? Don't really have one right now.
Who is your regular-person crush? Garrett
How many tattoos do you have? One
How many piercings do you have? Just one in each ear now.
What is your favorite band? Train
What is your biggest fear? I won't get into TEP
Have you driven yet? Yes
Have you smoked a cigarette yet? No

The fact that I took time out of my day to fill this out saddens me. Where is my life??

The start of June

Boo!

Quite frankly, that is how I feel. And I assume that is how I will feel for a chunk of this month. Last month went quite well, or as well as the life of a boring college student can go.

I had class, I worked, I ate, and I slept, and then I repeated. I have found that living with Gabby, there is a three to four minute hot water limit. Not that she set it, that's just the amount of time you may or may not get hot water. If you get four minutes you are lucky. My hair needs deep conditioning, and four minutes does not cut that. I actually broke a comb in my hair because its gotten so rough.


The highlight of my month was going to the Gulf Shores over the weekend of May 16th. This was pre-BP blunder. My boyfriend and I went to celebrate our 1.5 Anniversary. It was the only way I knew I had a chance to see him for a long period of time this past month. Although we got lost on our way down to the beach (there is only one turn and we missed it by a lot), it was a nice and relaxing vacation. We had "date night" in which we both dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. Of course we also took the time to go see a movie, Iron Man 2, which really wasn't all that bad. I enjoyed it quite a bit. There was only an hour of beach time, however. Garrett burns easily, and is not a sun fan. Nor a sand fan. Nor a ocean fan. Soo...the trip to the beach seemed a bit silly after we established that information.

On the subject of Garrett, I have been a little stressed lately. Not only did I see him a sum total of twice in the past month, I fear I won't get to see him very much coming up as well. He has not had any sort of job since December of 2009. He was recently hired by a form of a temp agency, used by three different event planning companies. Yet he has not gone in to work for them yet. If he doesn't make any money its only me driving out to go see him, and I can only do that so many times over the summer. The last time I saw him I drove up to him. I stayed the night at his mother's house and we went out to watch Prince of Persia. (Also a decent movie.) The job thing has caused us a lot of stress. I am a nagger. Since I have nothing to do most days, I will call and complain to him about various things, most toply the job situation. Poor, poor Garrett.

In other news: I leave for New Orleans in 18 days, in which I will be gone 14 days after that. I am going there for a NEA Conference. NEA is the National Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the nation. Below the NEA is the AEA, our Alabama Education Association. For students they created the SAEA, Students of Alabama Education Association. I was one of eight people who ran for a NEA Student Delegate position through the SAEA, and to my great disbelief I recieved it. There are only six of us going. I thought I would be one of the two who did not recieve such an honor. The only issue is that this honor puts me in New Orleans for two weeks. Which would seem like a totally cool, interesting thing. Other than it is a teaching conference, and I will be supervised. Oh yeah, and my birthday is over Independence Day, and I will be turning 21. By myself. Fun.

It is actually a little bit of torture. I had wanted so badly to celebrate my 21st birthday in New Orleans, and I got my wish, just not to my specifications. I am a huge birthday person. I enjoy family and friends being around to party with me. And I am a huge Independence Day person, I need lots of fireworks. But I will be doing neither of those things. I will be in a conference room until 5pm, and I am supposed to stay in my hotel for the rest of the evening. How droll.

And for my conclusion of the start of June.

This past Thursday I left for the beach. I had work until 4:30pm, so I left right after that. It is a five hour drive to my parent's condo, so I arrived shortly after 10pm. Everything closes at 10pm, so I couldn't reall go out and do anything. I was tired anyhow, my bedtime is about 10pm. =) So Friday morning I get up at 6am, because my body is screwed up and doesn't understand what it means to sleep in. I go to a store to buy a hat to wear on the beach, so I can go layout, at around 9am. (I read my book from 6am to 9am and finished). I get to the store and my Wachovia card is denied. I pay with another card and move on. Curiousity strikes and I call about my account number. I had overdrawn, by a bit. Which of course is depressing, so I went back to the condo and sulked for the rest of the day while watching the French Open. I don't normally watch Tennis so I had no idea who those people were, or what was really going on. I had actually gone to the beach right after that, stepped onto the sand, felt stupid that I was by myself, and then gone to the condo. Loser, right?

So my parents get in that night with my brother and little sister. My dad and I went to eat at this place called the Shrimp Basket, and then did a tour of the local Wal-Mart. Am I sounding any more fun?

Saturday was spent in the rain. I did finally get to eat at the Hangover. I believe I was the absolute last person to do that out of the people I know. Always behind everyone for some reason. But we also went to the bookstore, and I got a new book. I have been meaning to read "I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell" and I was quite excited to pick it up. I have read many of the Tucker Max stories online already, but I always enjoy reading more. He lives the opposite of my life. Its like looking into a mirror of everything my life is not. Which is actually a good thing for most daily situations, but I would like to be a little more interesting.

Sunday I drove home by myself. They will be staying at the beach until Tuesday, but I had to be home for work today. On my way home I went to look at my watch, my new Bulova watch, and realized I didn't have it on. I stopped and looked in my car, it was no where. I tried not to panic, and assumed it would be at the apartment. Unfortunately it was not there either. I went through everything last night and this morning looking for it. I even went through my car again this morning. No watch. Its not at work, and my mom looked around the condo and said it was not there as well. Where have I placed that darned watch?

Ohhhh, how I dread the start of any month, but I especially have come to despise the start of June.

The Bulova Watch

How do you celebrate? I celebrate by going shopping. I might buy books, shoes, clothing, games, or possibly even a Bulova Watch.

The reason for the season of celebrating? Me, myself, and I.

When I do something good, accomplish a job well done, or have a good week I feel it is reason to go shopping. There is something hypnotic about going into a store to make a purchase. The item is new, be it for me or someone else. Normally I get my kicks out of shopping for other people. I bask in the idea of being seen as thoughtful, generous, or giving.

So after a week of finals and moving into my friend Gabby's apartment, I decided it was time to go shopping for my friend Bobby. Bobby has been my friend for nearly three years, I met him at my first job in college. While I haven't seen Bobby much lately (life happens) I've always had a special place in my heart for him. He and Lauren (another friend from the first job) come as a pair, and I consider them a best friend. While Lauren graduated last year, Bobby's graduation is a big deal. He's graduating with a History degree in pre-Med and will be moving to Ohio to attend Medical School. That's pretty far from Alabama.

I don't believe there is a perfect graduation/going away gift for any best friend. Nothing can ever be good enough for that person. I had the same problem when buying a gift for Lauren last year. It was hard to decide what would say, "Thanks for being a great friend and congrats for accomplishing this goal."

So I bought Bobby two different cards. One for graduating and the other for going away. I then bought him a book that you can customize, and did just that. I put him in there, Lauren and myself, and references to our friendship and the Rec Center.

I also bought my mom a mother's day card (seeing as that is this coming Sunday) and a card for my boyfriend who is now living two hours away. A part of moving out of the dorms meant finding someplace new to live. Two days ago I moved in with my friend Gabby. She lives three blocks away from where I was just living.

Garrett moved out and back into his dad's house over two hours away. We did this last summer as well, it really sucks. And it makes for very boring weekends. Any possibility of me not being an incredibly boring college student went out the drain when I found out he would be living in Huntsville this summer. I mean, I turn 21 this summer and Gabby doesn't drink. Who else am I going to go party with? No one.

Okay, so back to why I bought the watch.

Finals are out of the way, I've moved my stuff, and I've bought my sob gift for Bobby. I've taken care of everyone else, but I'm still feeling a little blue. So I wander around looking at clothing. Which is a bad idea since I need to lose about twenty pounds before I look like a normal human being... The Disney store moved so I didn't want to go there, I have no one to buy anything for at Build-A-Bear, and I don't need any new books or shoes.

I did need a watch though. I've been wanting a good watch for nearly a year. Or really just a decent one. I've had my eye on small watch with a white leather band from Fossil for ages. I believe its only sixty dollars or so. I've mentioned this to Garrett on multiple occasions, hoping it would be my birthday gift this year.

But despite that fact, I went in to Watches Unlimited just to browse. I really did only go in there just to look around. I was hoping to find the perfect watch to beg for. Instead I fell in love with a small Bulova watch. Its got a square faceplate and a brown leather band. Very, very vintage and beautiful. And sadly, that is the highlight of my week. The purchase of a semi-expensive watch. Not even really an expensive watch, just a lot more than I planned on spending.

p.s. Tonight is Friday night and my plans include: nothing. N-o-t-h-i-n-g at a-l-l. Yeah... fun. I guess I can play with Gabby's cat, who hates me. What to do?

I guess just watch time go by on my new Bulova watch.

that's how life goes...

I attend a University in a "city" composed of just over 200,000 people, which means its not exactly large or active. But it is a far cry from the town I was raised in. Yesterday was Friday, and after a round of last minute extra credit and a final I did not go out with friends and party, celebrate the end being near, or enjoy the non-existent night life of the city... I went home to babysit my little sister, Sam. It's an activity I enjoy doing, and its more of hanging out than babysitting.

After eating pizza at the house I asked Sam what she wanted to do that night, and her response was to go to the local town fair. This is the third year its come to our town, and I've only been once before. The fair really wasn't that bad the first time so Sam and I loaded into the car and drove the four minutes to our downtown area.

Lady Gaga came on the radio and Sam sighed, "It's not even that late but they have club music on already." I started to laugh, because while Lady Gaga is upbeat she isn't exactly club music. But then I realized that I didn't know if that was actually club music or not. The only club I had ever been to was two years ago, a few months after my eighteenth birthday. I couldn't remember what music played that night, I only remembered feeling uncomfortable in the room of sixty people or so. It may have been an off night, or the clubs in my city are just honestly nothing like the ones in movies and TV.

At the fair I saw the kids I had gone to elementary school with (I had transferred out for high school). I realized that many of them were engaged, married, and some even had kids. When walking around the parking lot of the Dollar General, where the fair was held, I tried to avoid certain parents and peers. Everyone knows everyone in a town of 300 people, and I believe every single citizen was there. I used Sam to help me slide around several people I really didn't want to talk to, including my first real boyfriend. He got married, served over seas in the army, and got a divorce since I had seen him last. Awkward...

After making three of four circles of the fair, in a total of ten minutes, I realized Sam wasn't really going to ride any rides or playing any games. But she kept requesting we make a stop at the concession stand for cotton candy, so we did. I believe I got tricked into going to the fair simply so she could have cotton candy. I believe I would have denied her if I had known her real intentions. I guess she knew that too.

We finished the night in front of the TV, watching the movie Whip It. What a glorious Friday night, a prime example of how boring my life is as a college student. That's simply how life goes.