Jan4

Ringin’ in 2012

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Ringin’ in 2012

…three days late.

My favourite people in the WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE came up for New Years :) Most of us didn’t watch the ball drop; we watched Friends instead. (Best moment ever? When Sarah told us all about the funniest episode ever, “Where Rachel holds up her underwear and goes, ‘does this go with whites or delicates?’” SIX YEARS OLD. Love.)

—

Favourite movie: Crazy. Stupid. Love. Ryan Gosling IS MFH in this movie. You have no idea.
Favourite song: Never can pick just one. I’d have to say it’s a tie between “Elevate” by Rachael Lampa, “Angel With a Shotgun” by The Cab, “Book of Days” by Enya, and a few others.
Favourite line: “Bite me.” Hahahaha.
Favourite trip: TORONTO. OMG. I wrote out this huge paragraph about how all our trips this year have sucked until I remembered uh duh, I WENT TO TORONTO. WHAT WHATTTT.
Favourite moment: When Marlowe learnt to smile. *cue awwww here* and when Tori came to visit :)
Favourite holiday: NEW YEARS/every holiday spent with my cousins.

Something bad: Not being careful enough.
Something good: I still have things to smile about.
Something you regret: Anger/irritation/sadness WAY too much of the time.
Something you learnt: Life is too short.
Someone that changed your life: D. For better or for worse, I’m not too clear on yet.

Go back and change something: Don’t give up so quickly.

Subtractions from your life: Skating. MFH. Freedom.
Additions to your life: Marlowe. Maturity. School. Assertion. CPST certification.

I wrote 2011 resolutions (sort of):
To get through the first few months with an infant.
–> Well, we’re here, aren’t we?
To kick school’s ass.
–> Actually, yeah, I did. I graduated JCCC forrealz and decided to switch my major to what I really want to do in life.
To ‘be a better person’.
–> Umm, I’m still working on this.

My one and only 2012 resolution is not to shop for ‘extras’, because I have everything I need.

♥

Sep30

Everyday I’m shuffling

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Everyday I’m shuffling

3am… beyond frustrated with insomnia and my lack of motivation.

-Apparently, my shampoo isn’t doing its job and caused an insane amount of buildup on my scalp. This resulted in me maniacally itching it whilst trying to fall asleep, and I ended up in the shower at 2am. Conclusion: organic shampoo sucks.

-Since I’m awake, I figured I’d get some homework done. HAHAHA yeahno.

-Even though I’ve taken giant steps in getting over MFH, he still ends up in my dreams. I continue to feel very done, angry, over it, but that doesn’t mean all my feelings are instantly gone. A four-year infatuation will do that to you.

-I miss Tori. And Canada, eh?!

-Marlowe really, really wants to crawl, but she seems to have inherited my laziness. She’ll just sit on the floor and play with my iPod cord instead of getting on her hands and knees. Sign of things to come [procrastination].

-On the topic of missing people, I miss my cousins. We went to Oklahoma last weekend (I have to stop saying “Tulsa”), and it was so wonderful seeing them in their new house, safe in the country. The older kids can ride their bikes around the neighborhood alone, the younger kids can run on the two acres of land, and the door doesn’t have to be locked every time someone arrives or leaves. The town is cute, the schools are great, and the closest big town has a Target and drive-thru Starbucks. What more could one want? I managed to squeeze M outboard in her Boulevard 70, K in the middle 5-stepping, and S outboard in the Nautilus in my Prius. HOLLAAA. Sarah also got to test out the RSTV (she prefers the Nauti.) J is such a lightweight that he doesn’t even turn on the front passenger airbag at age 13.

-FALL SHOWS ARE BACK! My must-watch list: New Girl, NCIS, NCIS: LA, Unforgettable, Raising Hope, Modern Family, The Middle, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Community, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother, Against the Wall, House, Up All Night, and Revenge. Shows I wish were returning soon: Fairly Legal, Mr. Sunshine, Cougar Town.

-My dad’s cousin’s third baby was born a couple weeks ago, and her name is Emma Katherine. A perfect combination of my pseudo-little sister’s name and my name.

-I’m thinking of switching my major to Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology. Thoughts?

-Who needs a pediatrician?? My mom opens her practice November 1st (when Covert Affairs comes back!) I get to play web designer and receptionist.

-I accidentally skipped a season when I bought Marlowe’s clothes. She has a bunch of awesome fall/spring-appropriate 12-18 month clothes, but the temperature is already dropping and she’s still wearing 6-12 months. So, she and I (ok, me) went on a shopping spree at Carter’s and 77kids. I also got The Littles some cute pieces.

-Did I mention I broke my windshield? Actually, some douchebag in a truck broke it. I WASN’T EVEN TAILGATING. I was being a good girl, following the 20mph school zone speed limit, and he was zooming ahead at 40mph. He either hit a rock or it came flying out of his pickup, and I guess it was a bigass rock because it made a nice big spiderweb thing on my windshield. The “SAFELITE REPAIR, SAFELITE REPLACE” guys tried to fix it, but alas, Toyota installed a new one. Which meant I needed a new sticker tag PikePass (and I happened to call like, a day before the fire), and new velcro for my KTag. (Finding the right velcro is harder than you think, BUT I DID IT!) And now all is right in the land of the Priuses. Will even cleaned out his 50 empty Evian bottles from his backseat.

-My current favorite baby items: Inglesina Fast Chair. Uppababy G-Lite Stroller. Graco Pack n Play. Fisher-Price Stride n Ride Dino. Fisher-Price Apptivity Case. Leapfrog Activity Table. Little Tikes Swing n Climb Castle. Fisher-Price Smart Screen Laptop. Skip Hop Penguin Backpack. Tadpoles Playmat.

-My laptop is SUPERCLOSE to dying. It has gotten insanely slow and heats up to a scalding temperature (no joke) after only being open and used for five minutes. However, we are too broke for a new one, so I’m being super careful and only opening necessary items.

I think it’s clear that I’m officially tired, since I’ve begun to ramble. 4am, WHAT’S UP!

xx

Sep11

September 11, 2001

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September 11, 2001

Ten years ago today…

I had turned eleven years old only five days prior and was in the fifth grade in Lawrence in Mrs. Waters’ class. My mom drove us to school that morning, as not only were we living in Topeka, but it was also my second grade brother’s “Student of the Day”, and we had to drag in a bunch of stuff to put in the display case in the hallway (holy run-on sentence, Batman.) School started at 8:45am CST, so the horror that was 9/11 had already begun to unfold as we were driving on the highway to school. I don’t recall much about it; I’m sure my mom was listening to the radio after my dad called her, but I had a Walkman and headphones and the Princess Diaries soundtrack.

Once school had started for the day, my teacher turned on the TV for our split 4th/5th grade class to be connected to the outside world. We all just stared as fire and chaos flashed on the screen. We were young and living in Kansas; this didn’t directly effect us. Weeks later, we would get out yardsticks and measure how tall the World Trade Center towers were, all around the school and roads.

I don’t remember anything from later that morning til after I had arrived back in our Topeka apartment. I wrote in my diary- even then understanding how monumental that day was- about how terrorists had flown planes into NYC towers and the Pentagon, planes had gone down in fields, and how our President [Bush] was going to declare war. I saw pictures, I watched the news, I listened to the radio, but it never really sank in.

And it never really did until this year. I don’t know if pregnancy screwed up my hormones and made me a weepy woman or if I just am able to understand the world around me a little more, but every time I think of the terror of that day, of how it changed the lives of even the unborn Americans for forever, I cry. I tried reading the issue of People last week at KCI where they went back and reinterviewed the kids who had lost their fathers, and I had to stop before I started to bawl in front of the entire terminal. (I finished it later in Tori’s house and cried then.)

I wish we didn’t have to live in fear. I wish I could be strong and courageous and say I’m not afraid of what may happen today, but I can’t. Everyone’s attention is on the news, on the country’s threat level, on airport security, on what the FBI and CIA have to say, on what could be. I’m terrified to even step outside today. I was terrified to fly to/from Toronto last week because it was so close to 9/11 and I was on a plane and Marlowe wasn’t with me and what if I died and left her all alone. I’m sad that she has to grow up in a world filled with so much anger and hatred.

Facebook statuses keep popping up, “9/11/01… never forget…” I can’t imagine anyone ever forgetting.

Sep7

Things I learnt about Canada!, v1

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Things I learnt about Canada!, v1
  • Plastic grocery bags cost money, so bring your own.
  • Drive-thru banks and pharmacies are rare.
  • Debit cards here don’t have VISA also stamped on them, therefore you can’t use your American debit card if the place doesn’t accept VISA. Pretty much everyone accepts MasterCard, though.
  • You hear Asian/Middle Eastern languages more often than English.
  • Stop signs are just a formality; no one ever actually completely stops.
  • On that note, don’t get in the car when Tori’s driving.
  • Whilst ordering beer, “Canadian” refers to Molson.
  • Sometimes the subway driver/patrolman will make you switch seats so he can open a bunch of doors and windows for seemingly no good reason.
  • EVERYTHING IS REALLY EXPENSIVE. And I’m not even referring to sales tax.
  • It’s cold enough in early September to need the heater turned on in your car.
  • Data costs $15/MB on iPhones.
  • The whole country is a weird cross between America and the UK.
  • Swiss Chalet is not the same as Boston Market.
  • Bus fare is in tokens, not cash.
  • Apparently, people still use Netscape.
  • If you look like me, you’ll be questioned about your age at the movie theatre rather than at the pub.
  • McDonald’s doesn’t know how to make iced mochas properly, and they don’t offer honey mustard.
  • You have to stalk people at the mall food court for a table just like you have to stalk someone in America for a parking space.
  • I would totally live in Toronto.
Me: “Hey, that’s a pretty nice graveyard.”
Tori: “Yeah, people are just dying to get in.”
Nathan, a Brit: “[spoken in a British accent] First they take your taxes, then they take your foreskin!”
Ben: “What qualifies as a town in Canada: a church, an ice rink, and a Tim Horton’s.”
Tori, via Facebook: “Can you hear my gangsta rap? I just downloaded it to prep for my Caribbean Lit course.”