Changes.

So today I realized it is almost my birthday. I'll be 25. Birthdays aren't even fun anymore. You know why? Because in 4.5 months I will be almost 30. Right now, if you use the principles of rounding I'm 20, but in just a few short months that number shoots up to 30! 3-0! That's old. Next thing you know I'll be finding grey hairs, have wrinkles, and tits down to my knees! I feel like I don't even know enough to be an adult. I always wanted my first child at 25 because that's how old my mom was when she had me. Plus, it's just a nice age to have children. You aren't too old, but you aren't too young. It's a respectable age to become a mother. That means if I were to become pregnant tonight, I would have the child towards the end of March. But there's a lot I want to accomplish before that time. That means that in order to have them accomplished by the time I pop one out (if I keep with my age of 25 to be a first time mother) I have anywhere between 9 and 16 months.

My Goals

1. Become A Health Freak.

I love running. I guess I shouldn't necessarily say "running" as much as I should say "running on the elliptical", it's a lot easier on my poor bad knee (which by the way is back to it's swollen, extremely painful state) I love running so much because it gives me "Me" time, it allows me to think, to destress, gives my knee a chance to get stronger and hence not hurt as much. I love how it makes me feel after a long run then a hot shower, I'm happier on days where I've ran, I sleep better at night, and it gives me something to look forward to when I've had a stressful day at work. And I won't lie I like how it makes me look as well. But I go through stages. Some weeks I'll go run 5-7 miles everyday, and the next week I won't go at all. I need to make it more for a routine thing. Maybe tell myself 3 days a week, and do it. I want to learn how to be more like my friend Jessie from high school. She hated junk food and would reach for an apple before she would anything not nutritional. I've been pretty good at this for awhile now too. I don't allow myself to buy junk food and I hardly eat fast food. I think about what I'm eating and how it makes me feel. I force myself to drink a ton of water as well. And when you actually pay attention to how doing all of these things makes you feel, you wonder why it's so hard for some people to do. But I want to know about different vitamins, what they do, which foods have them. I want to know more about living in a healthy manner in general. I want to eat a balanced diet at each meal. I want to learn correct portion sizes. I want to know it all!

2. Find A Job

Yeah, technically I have two of these right now. Two part time ones. One is a lot more promising than the other, and uses my Psychology degree. However, it's at the bottom of the totem pole. This company is known for promoting within, and advancing their good employees up fast. (I have all intentions of putting my everything into this job and building a career...hopefully). But I'm going to have to agree with Nate on this one. Right now I'm not getting paid nearly as much as I deserve. I have a Bachelors Degree, which I'm required to have for this job, yet they don't want to pay for me having it. So I need to push myself. Keep looking for other jobs. Step out of my comfort zone and apply for higher level jobs. I'll never get anywhere if I don't. I want a job that pays well, has good benefits, a job that I enjoy going to everyday, and has good hours, and hopefully no weekends, or at least not as many as I'm working now. I know, I know, that's what everybody wants. But I need to work harder at finding that for myself. Or at least finding the best match that I can. Like I said, hopefully I found that at my one part time job, but if not, I'm going to need to remove myself from the situation and not stay there forever, like I did with this job I took at the nursing home. 

3. Finances

The word "finances" isn't really a goal. Let me further explain. I want my student loans under control and paid off. I want to do better at keeping a budget, or for that matter, even balancing my checking accounts. I want to build up my savings account. I want to start putting money towards a 401k, and I want to start a college fund for my as-of-now-nonexistant children, because I don't want them to ever have to struggle with paying off their student loans like I am. And if that means that right now, at this point in my life, that I have to live with no cable, slow internet, and not live in a fancy dancy apartment, that's ok with me. However, by working on Goal #2 my finances goal should become a lot easier. 

4. Learn to Cook

I seriously think I was either A. Born in the wrong generation or B. Am secretly an older woman stuck in a younger person's body. Maybe I'm just an old soul. I don't know. But I like keeping a clean house, I like organizing and decorating and wouldn't mind being a stay-at-home mom. But you know what really bothers me? That I can't cook. Yeah, I make fun of myself for it a lot, and yeah, a lot of you do too. But really...I don't like it. I hate it. I want to be that lady who has supper ready for her husband when he comes home from work. Looking like an angel in a cute little dress and 3 well behaved children playing outside with the neighborhood children. So that's why I've decided I'm going to actually attempt to make a bunch of the recipes that I've pinned on pinterest. Of course I'll start easy and get more and more advanced the more comfortable I get in the kitchen. I want to have a signature dish, like my mom has her delicious macaroni and cheese. I want to learn how to grill (I've heard grilled watermelon is delicious!), and I want to learn how to use the broiler. This weekend I'll be at Nates apartment for the whole weekend, and I think I'll tell him I want to cook us supper. And lunch. Not breakfast  because I'm a cereal type of woman, but you catch my drift. 

5. Live Alone

My lease with Lilly and Nick will be up in September. Neither one of them live here anymore, but Nate and I travel between our two apartments and each practically have two of everything, one at each place, so I don't really live alone. I want to become more independent, rely on myself, and have complete decorating, rearranging, bill-paying, cleaning, EVERYTHING responsibility all on my own. Not for very long because I'm afraid it would get a little lonely (Unless I got my chocolate lab!) but maybe sign a 6 month lease, on my own. The problem right now is that I can't afford to live on my own. Going back to goals #2 and #3. Right now I live in these shit-hole apartments and I could probably afford to live here on my own, but there's no way in hell I would. Just last night there was a big fight outside the front door around 3 in the morning. Nate luckily got home from work about 2 minutes before it started. We were watching it from my bedroom window. There were about 12 men and they took this guy and knocked him to the ground and started kicking him. Hard. In the side. In the head. Everywhere. All in a giant circle around him. Then I saw a girl yell at them to stop and tried to break it up...and I'm going to make an assumption that it was a gun, but all I saw was one of the men open up his jacket and the girl threw up her hands and walked back inside without another word. This fight went on for a good 30 minutes. I was so scared I made Nathan hold me all night. Nate says him buying a gun had nothing to do with me living here alone, but I'm pretty sure it is. I don't know why else he would tell me he wants to teach me how to shoot it, makes me keep pepper spray on my headboard, to run the air instead of keeping my sliding door open at night (even if it's cooler outside than inside), and to not take the trash out at night without him. Now these apartments aren't as horrible as I'm making them sound right now, because this fight was obviously a first time occassion. But are they safe? During the day I'd say yes, but there are some pretty sketchy individuals around here the later it gets. Anyway, back to my goal, I'd love to live alone, but I don't want to live alone in the ghetto.

None of these goals are necessarily hard but they do all require discipline. I'll have setbacks, and some days/weeks/months I'll probably completely fail at them. And that's ok. This has been the worst year of my life (or scratch that, that would be my junior year of high school) but I wouldn't trade it for anything. One of my life long goals was always to move and live in Florida. No, I wasn't there very long, but I can say I did it. I accomplished that at the ripe young age of 22. I went from being terrified to drive around in a small hicktown, USA to driving a 16 passenger van on the interstates of Tampa. I've grown so much since this time last year and I love who I've become. Now I just need to add the icing on top of the cake. These few goals. I know I can do them, I'm not even worried about it. I just need to buckle down and actually do them. I'm obviously going to have to start with Goal #2, Finding A New Job, while at the same time, working on Goal #3 Financing. But just today I bookmarked a thousand (exaggerated estimate) jobs for me to sit down and write cover letters for and send my resume in to tomorrow. That's a start. It has to start somewhere! I'm excited for this next chapter.

Lucky Guy.

Even though I worked this weekend, Nathan still found a way to keep it fun filled! Such a keeper.

 On Friday, we actually got to spend the day together because I worked 2nd instead of 1st shift. It was nice to be working the same, instead of opposite, hours as him. Around lunchI told him I was craving Chinese food like none other, so he took us to this little Chinese buffet. That man eats so fast, and gets full because he eats so fast, that once he's done, I'm done too. It's awkward sitting there having him watch me eat all the time! But this was a buffet...and CHINESE! So I made him sit there, neither of us eating, until some room freed up in his stomach so that we could both keep eating. We weren't just sitting there in silence staring at each other though. Oh no. Well, ok, you caught us. That's probably what it looked like to everybody else in the restaurant. But really we may have been listening to the 3 middle aged guys' conversation at the table behind us. May have been. No confession, because that would be rude to do such a thing! But I bet if we accidentally overheard bits and pieces of their conversation we  would hear that one of them was clearly talking about how he was messing around with a senior in high school. Another "bit and piece" of the conversation I heard was as following:

"Yeah, she's easygoing, fun, bubbly, and a 7...unless I've been drinking, then she's an 8"

Wow. I didn't know what was more shocking. The fact that this 40 year old guy was messing with a girl who was probably underage (summers out, so at the beginning of their senior year, most people are 17, so that's how I got that assumption) or the fact that he had two different rankings for her! One while intoxicated and one while sober! Keep it classy, Nashville.

At the end of our meal, when we got our fortune cookies Nathan's package contained 2 cookies in it. Guess he was just double lucky!

After I got off work on Saturday, we went to the horse races with one of his friends. I've never been to horse races, but they were kinda fun. I only say kinda because I didn't understand the stats they were reading to place their bets I'm sure they'll be more fun once I get the hang of the stats and can help Nathan pick a horse based on more than the color of the horse. I was trying to understand the stats and kept asking the two about them.  After awhile I don't know who was more annoyed, me because I didn't get them, or them because I wasn't understanding what they were saying. I tried to make a bet on one race, because well, I guess I didn't really. Nathan made a bet and just had me place the bet. He handed me money and told me what to say when I got to the front of the line. So I go up and I'm very obviously carrying a margarita (MANGO!), and the lady won't sell me the ticket because I didn't have my ID on me. 1. You got ID'ed to get in to the area. 2. I'm carrying a margarita. I didn't have my ID on me because I didn't take my purse in, so I had Nate carry my ID and debit card in his wallet. I didn't know whether to be insulted or complimented! Nate found himself some good luck that night too! He won about $200. I guess we should have known  he was going to be lucky after those two fortune cookies he got the day before.

Sunday I snuck out of work a few hours early. My boss told me not to leave until my replacement got there, but quite honestly I didn't really care. I had picked up 16 hours of overtime last week, and we had been incredibly short staffed the day before (think 4 out of 7 of the day's employees didn't show up...it was a fun day, not) so I thought to myself "well, eff it, I'm leaving anyway" and I strutted out at 1:30 instead of 2:00. Such a rebel, I know. But It wasn't like it was for no-good-reason. It was because Nathan and gotten 3 tickets to a huge outdoor country concert: one for him, one for me, and one for his friend (the same one from the horse races). Did I mention he got these FOR FREE! Yeah. Lucky, much? So that day we went there. This was an all day concert. And by all day I mean all day as in it started at noon and ended around 10. Obviously, we didn't get there when it started because I was busy being a working woman!
We walked to the concert because it was being held only 2 miles from our apartment. Plus we knew we'd probably get a few drinks, we didn't feel like paying for parking, annnd why fight the traffic when it was over? So I got off work, walk in the door, and Nate handed me a mojito and had an outfit all laid out  and ready to go on the bed for me. I threw my scrubs off (in the bedroom...his friend was there afterall!), threw the cute outfit on, and we left. There we met up with my friend Melanie. It was hot out, the sun was beautiful, there were a ton of people, there was good music, good friends, singing, slight dancing, I got me some nice color, it was a wonderful day. The epitome of summer! After the concert we went and got some ice cream to cool ourselves off.

What I learned this weekend though is that I think fate is trying to tell us is that Nate is one Lucky Guy. Well isn't that convenient! I'm currently in the process of talking Nate into going back to Iowas during the state fair time. And you know what? "Lucky Guy" is the name of a song by Mockingbird Sun. It's a song that gets played probably a little too often on my iPod. And guess who will be preforming on the free stage at the Iowa State Fair this year. Mockingbird Sun. Coincidence? I think not.

A Real Kicker.

Need a good laugh? Read my post from exactly a year ago. If I only knew. I do still love swimming, and I am still very upset I am in Iowa. But jeez, times sure have changed in a short 365 days. Makes me wonder where I'll be in the next 365!

Exhausted...Zzzzzz

16 hour shifts. Ugh. Life, why must you be so expensive and force me into this? It's amazing how working that many hours can exhaust you for the next whole day...and it doesn't help when the day following that you do it all over again!

And why does the radio absolutely insist on playing Postcards from Paris 1,000,000,000x in one hour? Seriously? Play some of that Kip Moore. There IS something about a truck! But don't play him that much, I don't want you to ruin him for me!

On the bright side, Nate has a fun filled weekend planned for us! I work all weekend, yes, but afterwards. Saturday and Sunday. What a honey! Then Monday I have plans with Miss Nathalie! a  Sounds like a good couple a days coming up. Plus tomorrow is payday, one of my favorite days of the month!

+1

The family expanded by 1. My momma got a new dog. His name is Seeley. Welcome to the family lil guy! We still miss and love Cholo, and he is no replacement for him, (or Molly, Binga, Bandit, the whole gang) but mom says it's nice to have another chihuahua around again. So, Mr. Seeley, I can't wait to meet you!

Lyn and Seeley

Dad.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I don't think my dad will ever read this. He told me himself just earlier today that he hasn't checked my blog in about...oh, you know, a year. That's a long time. I wonder if he even read last years. Who knows. But, just in case he does read this: Love you Dad! Hope you had a good day and I didn't keep you up from your nap for too long when I called today. I'm sorry I wasn't there to go out to eat with you and Lynnie today for brunch. I wish I could have bought you a dog or something. I've always wanted to do that. Buy you a dog I mean. Bad idea?

TATTOOS on this town.

If I were to ever get a tattoo, it would be one of these three. What do you think?

5-1-5-0, Somebody Call The Po-po!!

Last night I tried so hard to stay awake until Nate got home from work. This is hard for me because I work at 7, and have a half hour drive to work, so I wake up pretty early. He, on the other hand, doesn't stroll in from work until after midnight every night. He came home around 12:30 last night. Which gave me less than five hours of sleep once we had talked for a little bit and I was able to go to sleep. Then he crawled into bed with the iPad,  started up Sons of Anarchy, and cuddled up with me until I fell asleep. This morning I was pretty drowsy. Who am I kidding? It wasn't just this morning, I was drowsy all day. I came home and passed out after work. I accidentally took a 3 hour nap. When I woke up from this nap I looked at the clock and freaked out! It was 7:00, I was late for work! Oh  God, I was in a panic. I had to get my scrubs, pack a lunch, do my makeup. Not only that but where was Nathan! Did he ever make it here after work last night? Is he ok? No messages from him on my phone! Is he hurt? Where is he?! We are talking straight up panic over everything. Then I heard a kid outside my window playing. Not what I hear in my mornings. Then I realize it's only 7 PM. After my heart rate went back down I fell back asleep. Pretty sure I just screwed myself over for getting any sleep tonight now.  Damn I was tired. But let me tell y'all, completely worth it to see him just a little bit more that day.    :)

Hey, I Just Met You. And This Is Crazy

But here's my number,

So call me maybe?

Guess who gots herself a second job? This girl. More deets on the job later. My life is going to go back to sucking. Being a workaholic. But right now I'll do anything to help get these student loans paid off and get my checking and saving account balances up higher. Not to mention I'll hopefully be getting my own apartment sometime in September/October. Which means I'll need to pay a deposit, rent on my own, buy some furniture, the whole shebang. Maybe I can drag Mr. Nathan to an Ikea? I don't even know where the nearest one is. Not here, I know that much. But that place is practically Heaven on Earth!

My knee is miraculously better today. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I didn't work at all today so I wasn't up walking around? Or the fact that I discovered Capzasin. Or that I slept with my legs elevated on three pillows. Who knows. One of those. Maybe?

Did I tell y'all that Lisa, Melanie, Nathan, and I got tickets to go see my future ex-husband (Eric Church) in concert? My plan is to make him fall in love with me while we are there. Have a shotgun wedding later that night. Then maybe wake up and be like "ohhh shit, what did we just do?" and probably divorce. Then I can knock "Marry Eric Church" off my bucket list. It won't be hard to do  because I'm sure it will be love at first sight for him. I mean, look at me. He can't resist this! Haha. We have over a month until we see him at the concert, but I'm counting down the days already. I'm sure he is too.

Went to a baby shower today for my friend Stephanie. That girl who was teaching me to cook. The one with the son I told you all about. The one who left me to live with all them hillbillys in the countryside of Kentucky. She's having a precious little girl. Being at a baby shower did not help my baby fever. That's normal for a girl my age, right? To be craving my own little one. Not to mention I spent the majority of my afternoon/evening with Emilee and her two year old son Devin. He threw a fit when we were in Target, and Em says to me "Do you still want one?" and my answer was still yes. All I hear all day is : tick tock, tick tock". I don't want to be the lady dropping off her kiddos at preschool and having people asking me if thats my grandchild. Um, no, that's my daughter actually, but thanks. Plus I want 3 kiddos so even if I were to start tonight, and have them two years apart I'd still be about 30 years old when I popped out the last one. That's getting a little too old for my preference. Blah, blah, blah, people are waiting longer these days. Blah, blah, blah, wait until you are financially ready. Guess what people...I don't care what other people are doing. I want them now. The younger I am the more time I get to spend with them. The more generations after myself I get to meet. And financially? If I wait until I'm ready, I can guarantee I'll never have them. Because with these student loans I'll never be ready. Y'all think I'm ridiculous now don't you? Not that I'm trying, you know because the whole I'm not married thing. I'm just saying my biological clock is ticking loud and everytime I see a baby or hang out with my friends who have them I get really jealous. I'd gladly trade in my nights at the bar to stay at home with a precious little one. Ugh, what's wrong with me?

Cinnamon Challenge.

Let's see, my weekend? I worked through all of it. Saturday after work I had a date planned with Nathan but I was late for it. Very late. We are talking about 4.5 hours late. I don't really want to talk about why, but I was. He wasn't very happy. We couldn't go any of the places he had planned on taking me because we didn't beat the crowd for after the game. So we found this little place that had great food. After supper he was going to teach me how to shoot his gun buuut like I said, I was late, so it was too late and dark to do that. So we went to Sarah and Frank. Frank taught me how to make homemade salsa, and then we played some darts. Sarah spent the night dancing around to some music and Nathan was outside doing Lord knows what with Frank's roommate. Causing mischief I'm sure. Sunday after work was Sarah and I's day to meet at the bar and get some Blood Marys. Nate joined us. Then Sarah had to leave so we went to a bar closer to Nates. We got home around 10 and I convinced him we needed to watch The Fox and The Hound. I forgot how sad that movie is!

For the past few days my knee has been killer! Oh my, I can't even put my weight on it. I've been popping naproxen, wearing my knee brace, elevating my knee, having Nathan massage it, you name it I'm doing it. And nothing seems to be helping. Work is especially killer because I'm walking around, bending at my knees, and lifting all day long. It's rough right now. Plus all the stairs I climb. Torture. I stood in the hall and fought back tears because it was throbbing so bad.  Once I met up with Nathan after work I pulled my scrubs up and he said "Holy Shit! Your knee is HUGE!". I couldn't tell by looking from my angle, but he said my knee was so swollen it was about twice the size of the other. And that was with my brace on all day. So today I asked if I could work in memory because there's a lot less labor. Everybody knows I HATE working in memory care because my patience level is so low. So when I asked that my boss replied "Of course, I know if you are asking to work there your knee must really hurt!" If it doesn't get better soon, I'll have to go to the doctor. Ugh.

 

 

 

What are your three favorite spices?

1. Pepper

I put pepper on everything. EVERYTHING. Cottage cheese, macaroni and cheese, popcorn, tuna, tomatos, extra peppery bloody marys, literally everything. I don't usually go after salty snacks, but when I do I go after the pepper flavored chips or the cracked pepper triscuits. Just love it.

2. Cinnamon

 I love cinnamon. The smell of it, the taste of it. Have you heard of the cinnamon challenge? It's where you take a tablespoon of cinnamon and try to swallow it. Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah,  not so much. that's what I thought one day when Lilly dared me to try it. I said I would, but I made her and Nate do it with me. That stuff instantly dries out your mouth making it impossible to swallow anything. I think Nate lasted the longest before choking/coughing. Lilly ran into the bathroom to spit hers up. I stayed into the kitchen and chugged a bunch of water. Then we were done and Lilly and I looked at each other and said "Attempt 2?". Nathan gave us the "you girls are retarded" look after that.

 

 

 

3. Garlic

No need to explain, I'm sure. Haha.

Isn't That A Type Of Fish Or Something??

Question: What Is The Worst Date You've Been On?

I surprisingly haven't gone on too many bad dates in my lifetime. None that particularly came to mind when I read this question. After I thought about it a little longer I remembered a few instances on dates that stick out. Some of these turned out a little better than the others.

#1

During college I once when on a date with this guy (whose name I don't even remember anymore) and he said he would take me out to eat anywhere I wanted. Naturally I chose Subway. :) I met this guy one night at Perkins. I was drunk, I was with four girlfriends three of which were also drunk. We were sitting at our table and had already ordered and we were just waiting for our food to get to us. We weren't exactly a quiet bunch, but what can you expect at 3 AM on a Saturday night (Sunday morning?). So we were sandwiched between two other booths of drunkards. The table behind us had a few dudes, and the booth in front of us a few chicks. Well the guys behind us somehow managed to squeeze into our already-full booth. To make the story short one of them left with my number. The fact that these guys sat at our table, instead of the other table full of drunk girls, must have pissed them off because after the guys left they came over to our table and started SCREAMING at us, pulled one of my friend's hair, threw a glass of water all over our table, basically just causing a giant scene. It was bad enough that an off duty policeman came up and escorted them out to their car and asked if we wanted to press charges. We said no we just wanted our damn bacon! Haha. Anyway, back to the story. That was the night I met this guy. So where was I? Subway, that's right. So then after Subway he decides we should rent a movie. So we do. I picked it, it was...oh I don't know, it's not really relevant to the story. So we are sitting there on his couch and he leans in to kiss me, and then instead of kissing me he backs away and says to me "You aren't really 21 are you?" Um, excuse me? Of course I'm really 21. He doesn't believe me and claims that I look way too young to be 21, that I look 17, maybe 18. He feels like a pedophile. I tell him "no dude, I promise I'm 21". That's when he asks to see my ID. That's when I also show it to him and leave. Awkward. Really? Who gets ID'ed on a date?

#2

I was in high school working my nights away at Hy-Vee, a chain grocery store in the midwest . My friend Liz got off work a few hours earlier than me and her bf and his best friend came in to pick her up at the end of her shift. Her boyfriend's friend? Total hottie. He must have thought the same about me too because they come back in an hour before I got off work, buying nothing but a pack of sharpie permanent markers and a TON of post it notes. They got all tight lipped when I asked what they were planning on doing with them. Once I got off work I figured out their plan. They had written on every single one of those post its and posted them all over and completely covering my car. They had things written on them like "XXX thinks you have gorgeous eyes" and "XXX won't take "NO" for an answer on your date tonight" etc etc. Then as I'm standing there reading all of these a guy jumps out of a car and throws me into the backseat and the car goes flying off. I've been kidnapped! Don't worry, it was just Liz, her boyfriend, and that guy hottie. He took me bowling. We had a blast. Later that night XXX joined into a conversation Liz and I were having about "Joella Day" (A day where all my friends gave me presents and tried to cheer me up because I was struggling with a bad situation in my life at the time). During a pause in the conversation he says "So what's a Joella? That's a kind of fish, right?" Um, no douche bag, that's my name. A type of fish, really? Wow. Never heard that one before. I still went on another date with him after that, and another after that, went to prom with him, and even continued dating him for a few months. He's married now, let's just hope he remembers her name a little better. Haha.

#3

Nate. Dear dear Nathan. My friend Sarah was dating/is dating this guy named Frank. Sarah and Frank had a date. Or so she thought. Until Frank told her he invited Nathan. Well, if "Frank thought she wasn't also going to invite a friend to their "now ruined date" he was wrong". That's where I came in. She gave me Nate's number so we could chit chat before that fateful night. So we did. A lot. We were all meeting at this little dive bar Friday night. Me, Sarah, and Frank were all there waiting for Nathan to get off work and meet us. He comes in...and ignores me for the first ten minutes. Awkward. Especially considering how much we had been talking the few days prior. Then the guys decide we need to play foosball. I just want to point out Nathan had maybe said a grand total of 10 words to me at this point. So what were the teams? Sarah and Frank vs. Nate and Ella. Lucky me. I suck at foosball. Hard. After we finish the first game, with us scoring a whole 0 points, he looks at me with a straight face and says "I judge people based on their foosball skills, and you  REALLY suck at it". I give him an angry glare and drag Sarah to the bathroom. "I don't like your little friend. He's an asshole, a real prick". "No he's not, Ella! This guy carried me up 3 flights of stairs last weekend, all the way into his bathroom because I was too drunk to make it on my own! Give him the rest of the night! You'll change your opinion I promise! He's probably just nervous or something!". Fine, Sarah, you win. But just because if it were the other way around I'd want you to stay. Next we play shuffleboard. I rocked at it. He was horrible at it. HORRIBLE! So I say to him "You know, I judge people based on their shuffleboard skills, and you really suck at it". Those must have been the magic words. He looked at me like "Wow, did this girl really have the guts to say that to me?". Then he asked me what I was drinking and if he could get me another. We stayed up until 7 AM talking that night. He took me out 27 of the next 30 days, planning all kinds of dates for us before finally asking if I would be his girlfriend. And he still takes me out to do fun things.Like, oh hey, want to go to Austin? And on Friday he's teaching me how to shoot a gun. Tonight he's bringing me ice cream when he comes home from work. He's been a key player in finding me a psychology job (probably putting more effort into it than me). We even have our own tradition: every Sunday (that I don't work) we have Bloody Marys for breakfast. He likes the bacon ones, I like the original ones. We always add extra pepper.  Him and my dad have drunkenly shared embarrassing-stories-about-Joella with each other after maybe one too many margaritas.  Dad went on vacation and bought Nate a present. And so Sarah, thank you for keeping him from being another story about a bad date. You were right. I would change my opinion about him. Good job. I knew we were friends for a reason.

Such A Risk Taker.

Question: Whats Your Favorite Kind Of Ice Cream?

 I get the same kind of ice cream almost every single time I go to DQ. I get vanilla ice cream mixed with the Mint Oreos and cookie dough chucks. Every once in awhile I'll throw in the banana cream pie flavor. I also always get the same kind of ice cream whenever I splurge and buy some Ben and Jerrys at the store, Cinnamon Buns. But when it comes straight down to plain ole ice cream, I always stick with traditional vanilla. Call me boring, I don't care. Back in the day, before chocolate made me sick all the time, I probably would have said chocolate. But now that I've been semi-successful in avoiding chocolate for 11 years now I just can't handle chocolate ice cream. The flavor just feels so intense for it being an ice cream flavor. Does that even make sense? Just follow along here, folks.

Some people say the flavor of ice cream you choose says a lot about your personality. Don't ask me which people say that because I don't know, I've just seen those little teeny bopper quizzes that say stuff like, "What does your favorite ice cream flavor say about you?".  Oh I can't hold onto the suspense! What does my favorite flavor say about me!! Please tell me! 

If you like the simpleness of vanilla, you are an impulsive risk taker. You enjoy close family relationships, set high goals, and have high expectations for yourself. (Find yours here).

Sounds semi right. I do enjoy close family relationships, yes. I do set high goals and have high expectations for myself, yes. Impulsive risk taker? Hahaha, um, no. You are talking about the girl who makes pro/con lists for any decision thats even halfway important in her life. 

Let's try another website. (Here)

Those who prefer vanilla ice cream consider themselves risk-takers and are extremely motivated in the workplace. They love the classics, whether it's listening to classical music or watching history shows and documentary films. They're even more likely than the others to choose classic ice cream flavors instead of being swayed by all the trendy concoctions in the market.

Um, actually I hate classical music, and I hate the history channel. And if I didn't like trendy concotions so much why would I find Orange Leaf to be so addicting?

Ok, one last try. (Here).

Vanillas are anything but, well, vanilla! These people are colorful risk-takers who set very high goals for themselves. This also impacts their romantic mindset: They much prefer relationships where they feel like they’re building a future together. 

Well, once again it doesn't really sound like me. Except the relationship part. I don't see the point in being in a relationship with another person unless I plan on building a future with them. Call me a romantic. I want that fairy tale ending just like every other girl.

But holy cow, what have they done? A scientific study on this? Or why else do they all have the same answers?!  Aren't you interested in knowing yours now? Go ahead and look it up. Does yours fit you too? Let me know! It's interesting!

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On a completely unrelated note, Subway started serving avocados on their subs! About time! I've been addicting to eating those suckas for a few months now. Totally worth the additional cost.  Speaking of subway, in Austin they didn't have the seafood sub. They looked at me like I was some sort of crazy person when I asked for the seafood sub. "Excuse me, Ma'am, the what?"   

It's Gonna Be A Long Hot Summer

So, I'm back from that trip to Austin, Texas. And damn do I look tan! A good tan, not a jersey shore tan. Want to know what this trip taught me? I do not like long car rides. Usually I'm all up for them and think they are a blast. Jam out to some music, chit chat, dance, an excuse to eat bad for you food, check out hotties in cars next to you.  But something about this trip was just not so fun. It was only a 15 hour drive, so nothing too extreme. This one felt much longer than that, it felt more like 15 days, I'm pretty sure. Nathan was such a trooper on the way! He drove the whole thing straight through, by himself! I know, I know, what a stud. He was completely loaded up on 5 hour energy drinks though, cheater. Like, multiple 5 hour energy drinks, plus a few monsters, plus some good ole mt. dews, plus some Big Red, which I have successfully gotten him addicted to by the way. Is that much caffeing even safe? I don't know, but my guess is probably not. I was afraid he was going to go into one of my caffeine seizures or something. In my defense I did offer to drive, he just always refused that offer! Something about "blah blah blah I'm so wired right now I NEED to drive!" On top of that, you just can't boss that man around. Hell, I can't even figure out how to get him whipped! Haha.

So we made the trip down there with one of his friends and came back with her plus another one of his friends. Then we all stayed at yet another one of his friend's apartment. Whew! Did you follow all that? That's a lot of his friends. Don't worry though I wasn't left out because I got to meet up with my friend Chrissy (from Cornell) almost every day we were in town. It was so nice to see her! I forgot how much I didn't miss going out with her because she's such a babe that I had to deal with guys ogling her every night we went out. I think I yelled at, on average, two guys a bar to leave her alone. One guy was such a sweet talker I almost fell for it and let him keep bothering her. Whoops. At another bar we found the intox box which was pretty cool considering a guy from our college invented it.

I can sum up everyday we were there with pretty much the same routine. Wake up, go to the pool, spend all day there, go out to eat, then head out on the city for the night. I once again had to refuse to play foosball because I'm too scared to play it with Nathan because he's so gosh darn good at it. So we played some shuffleboard. I do not remember being that bad at that game either. Then I played darts with some random guy I met at the bar. I lost that game too. I'm really good at bar games. Another day Christina took us to this place called Barton Springs which according to Wikipedia (gotta stick to those reliable sources!) is a man made swimming pool in the channel of Barton Creek and is filled by water from Main Barton Spring. The water was SO cold. All of us were just standing there until I decided, well, screw it! and just jumped in to the deep spot ( 9 feet). It was freezing! I surfaced and yelled out a very inappropriate word. I couldn't help it! It was SOOO cold. But worth the experience to be able to say I've swam there.

All in all the trip was fun.

Here's some pictures I've collected from our trip.

Missed her! :)

Aww. (Look at those arms!)

Look at that tan! Can you tell it's at the end of the trip?

Classy. Thanks Nate.