30 Things I Vow To Do This Summer

I've kind of been thinking about this in my head for the past few days, so to have Mama Kat have it as one of her prompts this week was super exciting!


Without further ado, my 30 intentions for this summer.
1. Wear sunscreen
2. Write every day
3. Read books
4. Eat fresh watermelon
5. Take more pictures
6. Be in more pictures
7. Go to a flea market
8. Do some kind of bungee jumping/free-falling type thing
9. Go out for snocones
1o. Go on a boat at least once
11. Enjoy my 20th birthday
12. Do something awesome for Mr. Man & I's 2nd 6 month anniversary
13. Meet one online friend in real life
14. Hang out outside
15. Spend time with my family
16. Ride a ferris wheel
17. Learn to play poker
18. Swim in the ocean
19. Hike
20. Grill
21. Turn the computer off more often
22. Eat popsicles with friends
23. Get a tan
24. Get my sunglasses fixed
25. Play guitar some
26. Take pictures in a photobooth
27. Go to a museum
28. Roadtrip
29. Have fun
30. Laugh

What's on your list?

One last thing: Please, please, please go check this out and tell me about an organization you care about! :) Thanks!

More Social Interaction, Please

Okay, so yeah, fine, I admit it: I need social contact almost constantly. I need to be talking to someone, or at least be near someone almost all the time.

There are times when I don’t want people around of course – you know, when I’m going to the bathroom. Or in a really foul mood. Or crying hysterically. Or uh… That’s about it. And I’m even flexible on the crying thing.

Am I alone on this?

(Excuse the pun.)

It really doesn’t even need to be my friends or my family or Mr. Man 24/7. It just needs to be people. Really, honestly, we don’t even have to acknowledge each other all that much. Ordering something from a barista at Starbucks is good enough for me for a while. Hell, making eye contact is good enough.

I need a cat. Or a room mate that doesn’t hate me.

Oh God, I’m going to become that crazy cat woman that lives alone.

Plus, cats don’t like to cuddle. I like cuddling. I need cuddling. I was made to cuddle. I can only watch so much Friends or Sex and the City or dance around my room to music before I need to physically look someone in the eye or talk to them or hug them. Touch is my love language and I need someone to come home to every night that will watch TV or eat dinner or gripe about how much our lives suck as broke students with me. I realize that’s not cuddling, but I don’t cuddle with everyone. That would be weird. I mean, hello, I’m from TEXAS, we have this thing called “personal space” down here. We don’t just run around touching everyone, that’s why we all drive our own cars to work and don’t have any semblance of public transportation yet; we don’t want to have to touch people we don’t want to.

Anyways.

Maybe what I need is a puppy.

Except no, because I already have a puppy, and she’s getting really old and probably –gulp- dying, and let’s not talk about how I have cried several times since we realized she’s deaf and in a lot of pain on Sunday because I will start crying again.

It’s not even just seeing someone, or touching someone though. I just took a 30 minute break from writing this to talk on the phone to Mr. Man and already I feel less lonely. Talking to other people online, even people who I’ve never met or whose voices I’ve never even heard, is good, because it’s still a person who is talking TO me.

The funny thing is, I totally got myself into the situation that led to all this thinking and upset. I decided to stay in College Station for summer school until July 1, fully knowing that the town would be practically empty because all my friends would go home. I thought it would give me plenty of time to write and read (plus keep my job a little longer), except I have no drive to do any of that when all I want to do is cry because all I freaking want is a hug from Mr. Man.

Seriously, am I the only one that feels a physical need for hugs?

img cred.

One Day Without Shoes

Love. Love. Love.

It was definitely a sweats day last Thursday, haha. Yeah, I play in the dirt sometimes. :)

Did you go barefoot? If so, link up pictures! :)

San Diego, CA

I love the city of San Diego. I flew in Friday night and have been having a blast since. My cousin Jackie (pictured, left) lives here and as soon as she picked me up at the airport, it was just go, go, go. After a late lunch at CPK, we went to the Padres game. It was pretty touch and go for a while, but they won with a grand slam in the last inning. That night we rented movies -- The Sweetest Thing (hilarious) and He's Just Not That Into You (even more hilarious).

Yesterday we were part of one of the most out of control things I think I've ever seen. See, a year or two ago they passed a law in all of California saying that you can't drink of the beach, but drinking in the water (like, in a boat) is okay. So naturally, Californians have found a way to get around this: Intertubapalooza. Once or twice a year, a giant party is thrown in one of the bays where everyone brings intertubes or any kind of floatation device and beer into the bay. The law says that as long as your feet aren't touching sand, you're okay to drink. So, yesterday, about 500+ people got together in the bay at Pacific Beach (PB), tied their tubes/homemade rafts/inflatable dolls (yeah, really) to each other and to boats and commenced to party. It was out of control, the type of thing you really only see happening in movies. It was craziness. Jackie and I were so beat though by like 8 pm that we went to her house, got an obscene amount of food and just ate and watched Friends until like 2 am.

Today, Jackie's younger brother Jonathan and even younger sister Jovanna drove down from their parents house like an hour and a half north of SD to hang out. We got In-N-Out (best fastfood ever) then went back to PB and have been hanging there ever since. Blogging on the beach is possibly one of my favorite things ever. Though I'm getting kind of hungry... Maybe time for another In-N-Out run?

Happy July Fourth!

Tonight, I'm at grandfather's beautiful house right on the Arkansas River and doing lots of very necessary thinking as I watch all the neighbors do fireworks. Sadly, we didn't do any of our own tonight. But that's okay, because I'm getting to bond with my grandparents and our neighbors on the river that I haven't seen since I was thirteen (exactly five years today, actually). And tomorrow my two uncles, two aunts, and four other cousins will be joining us for fireworks and fun. We're having to do ours a day late because the second oldest of the five grandchildren, Emily, was performing at a baseball game tonight and wouldn't be able to even get out to the river before eleven. But that's cool, we'll just be the awesome family doing our fireworks a day later. They'll be jealous. :] Plus, just being out here is like the epitome of summer to me. When I think "summer," I think "the river house."

In the meantime, I've had a good Southern home-cooked meal and the neighbors, watched other people's fireworks, baked some cupcakes and watched TV. Now I'm going to finish editing those pictures from Munich and Prague so I can finally show you guys bits and pieces from our awesome trip.

road trip planning

Recently, my friends Cyndi, Katie and I decided that we're going to take a road trip to Austin and San Antonio sometime in July. We're pretty darn excited about it. I've spent most of this morning planning just how much it's going to cost -- we're looking at $160 - $210. I'm excited, because I can make that in one paycheck. Awesome! And if we do make it to San Antonio, I'll get to see the boyfriend. Excitement!

Other than road trip planning, sweet summertime is what's been keeping me from blogging as often as I was. Yesterday, there was a pretty sweet lake trip, during which I got a royally painful sun burn. I'll post a picture when Cyndi or Katie post their pictures, since I was silly and forgot to take my own camera with me. I've been working a lot as well, which is nice because that means dinero, which though I don't like in concept, I like in practice, because it buys me food. I've been writing a lot as well, which may be the biggest contributor to why this blog is being updated less. Writing my own novel has a tendency to take up all my creativity for the day, so I don't have anything creative to say when I log in. But I've been reading everyone else's blogs, no worries!

Other than that, I've been talking a lot on the phone to the boyfriend, who may or may not have heart surgery this summer -- I've nervous for him. He finds out for sure today, so I'll know soon. We'll all take it from there, I suppose.

How're you guys doing?

Sweet summertime

So, it's been too long since I updated. There's been a lot going on. =]

First, finals ended on Wednesday and summer has finally begun! Finals went well -- I got an A in geology, a B in Shakespeare lit, and I haven't found out the rest of them yet. But I think they went well too. I packed up that night and came home on Thursday, which was sad. As much as I was ready to get away from school, I wasn't ready to leave all the friends there, especially Ayla (roomie for next year) and Tony (the boyfriend). I miss them so much already! But Tony is hopefully coming to visit this coming weekend, which will be exciting! =]

I'm loving summertime! I'm totally broke and have been working like crazy, but I love my job (I teach swim lessons) so it's okay. Last night I went to my best friend's prom (with a guy-friend I've known for a few years) and today I went to a Renaissance Festival about an hour away called Scarborough Faire, which was so much fun. The picture to the left is actually of us (Ryan, Cyndi, and I) in the parking lot before we went into the festival. I got a little sunburnt, but it was such a blast! I've also been catching up on all the TV I've missed -- Grey's Anatomy for the win! The season finale was absolutely crazy though! (Warning, spoilers ahead) I'm so glad that Meredith and Derek finally got married but I can't believe what's going on with George and Izzy! I mean, we've all been expecting Izzy to die because...well, she has really bad cancer. And Katherine Heigl wants to move on to movies and such (I hear she's filming with Ashton Kutcher currently). When Alex started crying in the corner though, it became suddenly much more real (as real as a fictional TV show can be, I suppose). But George?! I almost cried at the end scene with him greeting Izzy outside the elevator. He's one of my favorite characters. I hope that this isn't his way of leaving because he's still getting harassed on set about being gay (if he is?). I can't believe I have to wait until next season to know if they actually died. =[

Okay, spoilers done. On the less happy and exciting scale, I had to get an MRI on Friday. I had knee surgery two years ago and recently it's been acting up and being really swollen so my surgeon thought it would be best to check that the cyst hasn't grown back or anything. So...we'll see what comes of that.

On another note, I haven't gotten to visit my great-aunt's grave yet, unfortunately, though if Tony doesn't come for a visit this weekend, I might take a lone road trip to Arkansas in order to do so. I miss her so much. =[


I'll update again soon, I promise!