note to self

dear cold sore,
go away!!!!!! please.

dear asu,
the fact that your degree program for an english major is only at the phoenix campus is really making this switching majors thing difficult. also, tuition is too much.

dear costa vida,
i've asked you before and i'll ask you again. please move by my house. they just cut down the corn fields and there is plenty of room. don't forget about the drive thru.

dear creator of the credit card,
what were you thinking?

dear paper chain on my wall,
i'm happy there are only 297 links of you left. but there are (approximately) only 271 days left, and i can't decide how to go about fixing that.

dear dad,
i'm happy you only changed your work schedule for 6 weeks. i'm not feeling the whole me getting home after you've already left for work and going all week without really seeing you thing. and, i still want to go to ah-so's.

dear taco bell,
if costa vida does move closer and gets a drive thru, don't fret. you won't be replaced. though i am kind of annoyed that you were closed when i went to go get food tonight and it was only 11.

dear upset client,
i hope you weren't trying to be professional in that letter you sent us. as a general rule, the phrase "pull the trigger" is never really appropriate.

dear bedroom,
i promise i'll get around to cleaning you this weekend. maybe...

dear arizona,
i don't know why everyone is complaining. i quite enjoy your heat. though to be totally honest, i would cheat on you with california if i had the chance.

dear insomnia,
we've never been friends, and i prefer to keep it that way. any time you want to leave, let me know. i don't like tossing and turning all night. i miss sleep.


love,
me

the good life

kelly and i went to the american idol concert this week. call me a dork, i don't care. it was cool :) i took a plethora of pictures (mostly of adam) and video, but i'll spare you. here are some favorites.


when i woke up monday morning, i had a really bad cold. but the tickets were a lot of money and well, let's face it, we all know how much i love adam. there was no way i was missing it. i had a bad runny nose all day so we went and bought those little mini tissue packs to take with us. i went through about 4 of them. YEAH. it was miserable. i look ridiculous in all the pictures because my nose is bright red and my eyes are super watery, hence the black and white & funny angle of my face. i was trying to hide it.

bottom 6: michael, lil, anoop, matt, megan, scott


ah, i love it! adam & allison.


we waited after to get autographs and had 40 year old women trying to get in front of us via shoving, standing uncomfortably close, & saying, "can you move so we can stand next to each other?" uh, no. they already were next to each other, they just weren't at the front. it just made me laugh. yeah, we went out there but we didn't push our way through, we just waited. funny people.

most of them were really nice, and we got autographs for my mom from all those ones :) these are the only good picures i got of them outside during the signing and whatnot. my camera was close to dying so i wasn't taking pictures at the beginning.. those people just weren't as important. ha ;)
danny.

matt.

kris.

ADAM!!!!!!!

...again.

it was fun, definitely glad i went. they all sound so much better live. i'm actually looking forward to all of their solo albums.


california post coming soon. i don't have the pictures yet.

let me just bare my soul via blog post

i'm changing my major.

to what? english. i've always had a passion for writing. and reading. so i figured, why not? i haven't gotten too far in school to switch. its now or never. i choose now.

i've gotten a lot of different reactions to it (seriously, there was a little debate on facebook between two friends, my mom, my beehive leader and myself) but my mind is made up (for now, at least). i've been thinking a lot about it lately and i really don't want to do nursing. i was looking for the easy way out when i chose that (shorter time in school, job security, good pay) but its not what i really want to do. i know some people think i'm crazy. did you see those things i just listed? who wouldn't want a career with those as elements? well, me.

ever since pres. monson's talk finding joy in the journey, that is all i've thought about. i've never been one to live in the now. it was always future or past, but never the present. i'm not spontaneous. i think through every decision i make, very thoroughly. i make little pro/con lists in my head and debate with myself. i fear the unknown. i have to have some sort of a plan or i stress. even if i don't stick to it, a plan of some sort is a necessity. i've never been an optimist (someone actually told me the other day that i am cynical... but i prefer to call it being realistic ;) ) and i'm sort of a paranoid person. i assume the worst in anyone and anything so that just in case i'm right, it will be less of a shock. less disappointing. i told my dad that once and he told me that was a sad way to live. i didn't agree with him before, but i do now.

i've learned a lot this year. remember my dreamer post? that list keeps getting bigger! some are serious, some are silly, but i'm serious about all of them. they say the first step in accomplishing a goal is writing it down. check. right after i wrote that post, i thought of so many other things i could have added. such as lines like, "don't let your dreams be dreams" (jack johnson) and "i'd rather sleep my whole life away then have you keep me from dreaming" (sara bareilles). oh well. maybe i'll do another one someday.

so what does me changing my major have to do with all of this?

for the first time in my life, i don't have a plan. an english major gives a lot of options and not a lot of job security. i don't know what i'm going to do exactly, but i'm going to do something. living the dream, baby! ha ha ha :)

and if i fail? well, then i fail. but i gave it a shot. (the format)

move along

today, bethanie and i went to in-n-out for some fries. we went in the drive thru, ordered and pulled up to the next car. two cars in front of us there was a woman in a huge truck. when the cars in front of her pulled forward, she didn't move. you could tell she was in park so i thought maybe she would just wait for the cars to move one more time. well, they did and she still didn't move. not only did she not move, she opened her door, stuck her head out and screamed "they aren't working. just turn your car off." the guy in the car in between us, aka tattoo man, was talking to her but i couldn't hear him. she just kept saying "they aren't working." and the whole time this is going on, the cars keep pulling forward. there was a car behind me who wasn't quite up to the thing to order so i yelled and told her that the guy couldn't order until she moved and all she would say was "but they aren't working!"

finally, the guy behind me backed out of the drive thru so me and tattoo man could get out too. we parked so we could go inside to get the food since we had already ordered it. when i got up to order i said, "uh, i just ordered fries in your drive thru and there is a crazy lady who turned her car off and she won't move and she is claiming that you guys aren't working." one of the workers turned around and said "i know! i went out there and she started screaming at me telling me we weren't working and i just kept asking her to pull forward because we had her food." tattoo man came inside too so we all started talking about how bizarre it was. in the mean time, she had finally decided that yes, the people at in-n-out are working and that she could pull up to the window. i didn't notice she was there until tattoo man yells, "yeah, if you don't want to hear it just close your ears! don't even serve her you guys, just close the window." so apparently she heard us, which i did feel bad about but i was watching them talk to her and she was definitely on something. it was so funny. she was seriously CRAZY.

anyway. i needed something to do to help me avoid doing laundry/packing, so i thought i would share that fun story. why can't everything i need just magically show up to california? i hate packing and preparing for trips- too much stress for me. but don't worry, i will be in heaven come saturday.

goodbye 110 degree weather. see you in a week.

next stop, VEGAS please.

i should warn you now, this is really long. i just couldn't take stuff out. i want you to have the full effect of the vegas.

about a month ago, i learned that the all american rejects were playing in the vegas on july 3, leaving us to party it up in the vegas on the fourth (yes, we call it "the vegas"). since my friend bethanie and i were trying fit in a trip there this summer, we were stoked. after reactions from parents however, we kind of just let it go. then on wednesday (july 1), we just decided, why not? by the time we decided that we could do it and once we got our parents to agree, we had just over 24 hours to put together our 3 day trip. after a lot of phone calls/texts and even more stress, we figured it out. we didn't actually have a confirmed place to stay until about 11 on thursday and we left friday morning. hence the stress. BUT, we went and we loved it. our friend ashley came with us and it was seriously so fun. i think the most common phrase used was "i love the vegas!" the traffic on friday was no good. my dad wanted us to drive thru flagstaff to get there, which was okay except it took us over 4 hours just to get to flagstaff. YEAH, it was ridiculous. after that the traffic was normal. and then it started raining. at first it wasn't bad, but then it started pouring and i literally couldn't see the hood of the car. we pulled over twice and just sat hoping it would light up and it really didn't. we finally said a prayer (seriously, i've NEVER seen rain like that. i was scared to drive) and it became light enough for us to feel comfortable driving in. then later, there was a truck with a motor home attached to the back. we were about a half mile behind it when we noticed the motor home swinging back and forth. it wasn't bad, but we thought it was weird that the guy wasn't pulling over. about 2 minutes later it was swerving so bad it was going over both lanes and came extremely close to hitting the car next to it. if that car hadn't been paying attention and slammed on its brakes, the thing would have hit him. we had to slow way down for that and thankfully the guy finally pulled over. it was scary. i really wanted to get a picture or video of it but i was preoccupied with terror. after all that and with 6 stops (including when we pulled over because of the rain) it took us NINE hours to get to the vegas. yes, 9. needless to say, we took the normal way home :)

we got there so late that we had to get ready and eat really fast to make it to the concert. the show was at mandalay bay (if anyone has been there) but it was outside, something we were not aware of. they have a little wave pool/fake beach with sand and everything. they put the stage in the middle of the pool, but since we were all wearing jeans, we just stood at the edge of the sand. of all the shows i've been to (and i've been quite a few because i love it), it was probably one of the best. i don't know if it was because it was outside in the fake beach or because it was the vegas, but it was the most fun i've had at a show. the lead singer was so funny to watch. he would just dance and it was hilarious. my favorite time was during the song "fallin' apart" but sadly i do not have video of it. i do, however, have video of part of "gives you hell." you have to watch the whole thing to see the funny part.

seriously entertaining. we kept looking at each other and laughing and saying "i love him" because he was just good. the whole thing was amazing. i wish they would have played longer though, they only played for just over an hour. it was so worth it though.me, ashley and bethanie just before we left for the show

our feet in the sand at the fake beach.

happy!

he used two microphones for a couple songs. it sounded sweet.







yes, he had his shirt off the whole time.
yes, we enjoyed that.
yes, we (bethanie and i) have found our new obsession.

saturday we woke up and headed to the strip. we walked around the mall for a while and walked through the venetian. that place is amazing. if you ever go to the vegas, the venetian is a must see. its gorgeous. friday night we stayed at someone's house, but saturday we had a hotel. we left to go check in and freshen up. we went to dinner and watched fireworks sitting on a wall next to our hotel. that was cool because we could see the whole strip so we watched about 10 different fireworks shows at once. then we headed back to the strip. there were SO many people. we didn't take many pictures that time because we couldn't really stop, and we didn't want to make one person stand too far away from the other two, and no way was i trusting any of those people with my camera. our rule was to never separate, no matter what. we walked through the bellagio and that is really cool too. the water show there is awesome. we really wanted to go to caesars palace and the forum shops but when we walked up the fire alarm was going off so we voted against that. sunday we woke up and just drove home.waiting to get on the tram to take us from treasure island to the mirage.

on the tram.

me & ashley at some fountain.

wax version of michael jackson.

blue man group. we tried to copy the faces. i failed.

we think we're funny :)

yeah, they were getting married.

that was a real person. it freaked me out.

me & ashley and the umbrella room in the venetian.

me & bethanie at treasure island.

fashion show in the middle of the mall.

they were fighting over that spot on the bed. i, being the good friend that i am, took pictures.

our elevator had a mirror for a ceiling. a picture was necessary.

on the wall watching the fireworks.

me & ashley

me & bethanie

the trip was amazing and i loved that it was a last minute, "hey, let's go to the vegas this weekend." the AAR show rocked and i recommend their new cd to any and all. i will say i was shocked at the amount of people that had kids with them on saturday night. it was 11 at night and there were kids everywhere on the strip. i thought that was weird. the vegas is dirty and a little scary, but the hotels are beautiful. the only bummer thing is we were booked to stay at the bellagio, but since none of us were 21 we couldn't stay there. since every hotel has a casino in it, the person checking into the room has to be 21. bummer deal. it was a blast. we're hoping to go back to another show at mandalay bay. don't know when, but we'll be going because we love the vegas!