Riding Planes and Jumping Out of Them

I'm sitting in the Denver airport, waiting until my 7:00 flight - with seven more hours to go. Blurg! I'm coming back from San Jose, California, visiting Tiven. Before San Jose, I was in Tacoma with Lauren for a few days. I love traveling, except for the fact that it costs money. :)

While it does cost quite a bit of money - especially a trip to Ireland, Scotland, and England for two weeks - to me it's totally worth it. Since I'm going to grad school in the fall (from my keyboard to God's ears...), I know that it'll be a while before I can do stuff like this, flying all over the country and at least one part of the world. I love to travel, and I wanted to take the opportunities I received to do so.

I went skydiving in Hollister, CA, with Tiven on Friday. Holy crap. I was perfectly fine until we actually started moving towards the door; when we got there, I believe my brain shut down and all it could manage was thinking, "WHAT THE H-E-DOUBLEHOCKEYSTICKS WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!" I completely shut my eyes for the backflip we did out of the plane - at least I think I did, because I can't remember seeing anything at that point. The whole time we were freefalling, I tried to focus on breathing like Coach always told us to when we were running our butts off - breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth. I was freaking out. When the parachute came out, I was so relieved. That part was actually pretty cool. It was a beautiful view, of course.

I paid to have it videotaped, and my expression when we jump out is pretty priceless; you can see the terror on my face, and even see me mouthing some not so nice words when we got to the door. :( Sorry, Mom. However, I'm pretty sure you're going to say the same thing when you see it. It's pretty funny, actually, to see how terrified I was.

I think a lot of people are confused in this airport; I keep seeing a lot of the same people walk by with somewhat confused looks on their faces. And there's a guy trying to get people to sign up for a credit card. People are interesting to watch.

Anyway, the entire trip was fun, but I'm glad to be coming home. I missed Ryan. :) Now to get off and waste another seven hours...

Bowling Prequel

It's pretty sad that it's been almost a month since my last post. I'd hoped I would keep up with this better, and up until this semester I did. However...nineteen hours of school, a few hours of work a week, and a boyfriend I want to spend all my time with - add it all together, and you've got blogging at the end of a very long and time-consuming list.

Not that I'm complaining. Well, about school, yes. I am beyond ready for school to be over this semester. There is so much to do. Blurg.

I am currently watching the 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time on VH1. I LOVE watching the 100 whatever, no matter what it is. But I just keep thinking that it's incredible how influential music is. It's something everyone can discuss, whether you disagree with someone's musical tastes or are totally in sync with them. There are band names that everyone in the civilized world has heard, even if they don't necessarily know their music.

Going to concerts is awesome. Especially rock concerts. I went to a Flyleaf concert three years ago - incredible! I typically don't like to look like an idiot, but I had my hands in the air (mostly with rock hands), jumping like a loon, screaming the lyrics. Awesome. When Lavon and I went to see Paramore in Nashville, "Misery Business" had me dancing in public - if you know me at all, you know that's a big deal. Certain music apparently takes away my inhibitions. Haha. I definitely plan to see Evanescence and Yellowcard in concert; they are two of my favorite bands ever and would be amazing to see live.

I also enjoy the not-so-crazy concerts, like The Fray, KT Tunstall, and Sara Bareilles. I just enjoy good music. Ryan and I are going to see Adele in Nashville in like a week and a half, and I am stoked about that. Her voice is fantastic.

Hopefully I didn't repeat any adjectives, because I'm pretty sure I used a ton in the last two paragraphs. Lol.

Random thought: Wouldn't it be interesting to see our parents and other adults in our lives at concerts when they were our age?? Hm... I saw Lavon at Paramore, and she was pretty hyped. It was awesome. Haha.

Another random thought: You know everyone has a personal scent? I wonder what mine smells like. Once I was in Idaho visiting a friend when I walked into a room and got hit with the familiar scent of one of my good friends back home - far far away from Idaho. That was kind of strange but cool.

I'm going to quit forewarning for random thoughts and now spout without preamble.

I am totally having a library and a movie room in my house. Separate rooms for each, mind you. My dream library would be one modeled after the library in the Biltmore House in North Carolina. Go see it if you haven't. I love that entire house and its grounds. My family has been there at least three times. I think. I'm not sure.

I don't think I could write a whole album. Not an entire album of decent songs, anyway. Haha.

Seriously, Bret Michaels? This is getting sad. At least Tila Tequila decided to call it quits after the second season. Sorry, VH1 is ridiculously and tragically addictive.

We're going bowling tonight! Fun entails...

Apparently the way to find true love is to put suitors through ludicrous games that are degrading and without viable reason. Therefore...Ryan, prepare to go through an obstacle course which will possibly include jumping into a pool with some liquid not meant to be used for swimming, dressing up like a complete tool and explaining your dress incompetently, engaging in a game that has only slightly veiled sexual innuendos, and proving that nothing says love like showing me how absolutely ridiculous you can be. Of course, that last one is totally acceptable. :) I guess they're trying to take being a "fool" for love to an entirely new and never intended level.

Whatup, Brand New Semester!

I know it's been forever since I posted anything, but there's been a LOT going on! You gotta give me a break. Work has been almost erased from my life, a new semester has started, I now have a boyfriend...a LOT. :D This semester will be one of the hardest from an academic standpoint, but at this moment in time I'm also sure it's going to be at least one of the best if not THE best semester ever. As my last at good old Union, it needs to be. School will not be neglected (entirely), but I will not sacrifice spending time with the people who mean the most to me. These next few months will be the last real chance I have to spend time with these people for a while, and I mean to get the most out of it. There are many people I will miss when I leave here. There are also a few I will not - to be perfectly honest. Which is what I strive to do on here and in general. I hate lying. It never does anyone any good.

Adele won a Grammy for Best New Artist, which she so deserves. Lately her song "Right as Rain" has kind of been my anthem, mainly these words: "Who wants to be right as rain / It's better when something is wrong...Who wants to be right as rain / It's harder when you're on top." Those words are so true right now, when so much is going so well (cough*ryan*cough), but someone else is really worrying me. It's one of those situations where I want to help, to do anything to make it clear, but I'm not sure what the first move is. We all seem to have this mechanism that switches on when things seem to be going really great; this mechanism triggers that voice in our heads that says, "Something bad is about to happen, because all this wonderful can't last forever." Although it is true - everything can't always be fantastic - we should learn to sit back and enjoy the times that are. More than that, to enjoy the things that are wonderful, despite the things that are bad. Right now, I am enjoying the things - the people - that are wonderful, while not neglecting those that aren't. Ignoring it won't help either, although a lot of people like to adopt that strategy.

Anyway, school is going to be difficult, seeing as I'm taking nineteen hours - blurg! Nevertheless, I will survive. Lol. Only 102 more days, according to my graduation countdown. Sweet! :)

Trip Recap!

Right now I'm in one of those strange moments in time when time seems to slow down. I'm sitting here, basically ready for work, and it feels like it should have been time to go about thirty minutes ago. Therefore, to pass the time I decided to blog a bit about our trip!

We flew into Dublin (all at different times but within two hours of each other) on January 3. On the 4th we went on a day trip to Belfast in Northern Ireland. What an interesting city! Ninety-seven percent of the city is divided into Protestant and Catholic. Religious segregation in action, daily. There's even a wall that runs three miles between them. January 5 we left on our 3-day tour of southern Ireland. We hit a ton of stuff, like Galway, Killarney, the Blarney Castle, Cliffs of Moher...and so on. Our tour guide, Joe, was awesome. When we first boarded the bus, he said, "Is there anyone easily offended on this bus? If there is...here's the door." I loved all the stories and his humor. We got back from that on the seventh and had a free day in Dublin on the eighth. We took the opportunity to visit the Guinness Storehouse, the Long Room at Trinity College, and went on a pub crawl that night. On the pub crawl (which was a musical one), they asked three of us (the crowd) to get up and entertain them. I went second and sang "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)." It was a blast.

The next day we flew out of Dublin into Edinburgh, Scotland. Even at night we could tell that Edinburgh was an awesome city. Unfortunately, early the next morning we left on our three-day tour and never got to spend a full day in Edinburgh. Our tour took us into the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Skye. The Highlands were just gorgeous, and we all fell in love with the country. Glen Shiel was by far my favorite area to drive through. For the two nights we stayed in the Stationmaster's House in Stromeferry, basically out in the middle of nowhere. Two men live in the house and take care of, and one of them (Gordon) worked with Mel Gibson on Braveheart! He was hardcore, and we loved him. He now does a lot of scouting for movies all around Scotland. On the last day of our tour we visited Loch Ness - which I swam in. :D Yes, it was ridiculously cold, and, no, I couldn't feel anything when I got out. Haha. I know it was a crazy thing to do, but it was so worth just to say I did it. It was an experience, too, stripping on the beach when I got out. Lol. I had to get my wet clothes off and change, and I wasn't going to get very far. Meagan, Anna, and Tiven brought me all my stuff and covered me as best they could.

The day after we got back from our tour, we hopped on the train to London. I just realized that I stopped putting dates, but I think it'll be okay. ;) We checked into our hotel that evening, and quickly wished we were back in hostels. The room smelled bad, and Tiven's bed pretty much collapsed when she sat on it. After we got back from eating and walking around London, we ended up changing rooms - and arrived in a room whose heater was broken. The next day they fixed it, but it was dead again before the next night. Our first full day in London we went on a free walking tour (you could tip the guide) and went to see Sunset Boulevard, a musical production. It was a good show; we went in not knowing what it was about, but it turned out to be a good choice. We really wanted to see Dirty Dancing, but we didn't find discounted tickets until after we'd already bought tickets for the first one. We went to Dirty Dancing the next night, after we got back from our day tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford.

While we were in London, Tiven's flight got cancelled; she had to change her flight to the next day - MY flight! My original itinerary changed back in August, and I was already leaving a day later than the others. I was glad that Tiven ended up being on my flight and therefore being able to spend another day in Dublin with me. We flew from Luton Airport in England back to Dublin. Anna and Meagan flew out the next day, and Tiven and I had a free day in Dublin. We finished our souvenir shopping, watched Bride Wars in a theatre, and ate sushi for dinner. Ironically enough, that day was the only day of non-sunny weather we'd had the whole of our time in Ireland. Haha.

There are so many stories to tell, but I won't put them here. We all kept travel journals, which is great for remembering everything that happened - and there was a LOT. I also took about 860 pictures and video. I'm going to put SOME of them on Facebook soon; I had some serious issues last week just trying to get the data off my camera onto my external hard drive. Blurg. I do have it figured out now, though, so it's happy days. :)

Possibly a Product of Delirium

I don't have many crazy faces. It's just like the same three over and over again.

Creeper neighbor man is getting even more creepier as we speak. Is it possible he has multiple personalities? One that is anal about everything, specifically lights, and one that is just a nice old man who likes to randomly talk to you or help your grandmother sweep the leaves from your door.

I got kicked out of Career Services for not having slept in twenty-four hours. I would cry discrimination - or prejudice, because it was assumed that I was delirious. Not that it wasn't right, it was just assumed. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I passed the main point of delirium about six hours ago. Oh, well. Just more time to finish these ridiculous, agonizing, torturing programs sooner.

I plan on printing out another copy of each program just to BURN them. You may think I am kidding - but I am not.

There are still like seven meals left on my Dawg Tag. I doubt I will use them in the next two days. I did use it this morning, though.

Apparently even the Monsters with the sealed lid go bad after about three weeks if they were already open.

I hope I don't get dizzy like last time I drank an entire Monster. I haven't finished a whole one yet, but there's not much left of it.

The rearview mirror soccer ball hanging thing broke yesterday, which is quite ironic considering it's only been a month and a half since my soccer career has been over. Perfect timing...

I'M READY TO LEAVE FOR IRELAND!!! However, I have to get grad school applications in before we leave, which isn't very exciting. Well, it kind of is, but it also worries me. Like, a lot.

Graduation in May seems a long way away, but I know it's actually not. I truly believe that despite the fact that I am taking nineteen hours next semester there is no way it'll be harder than this semester has been. I refuse to see that as a possibility. If it is, I'm pretty sure I can't handle it.

I want a library in my house. With a full wall for my DVDs. Hecka yeah.

I knew Peter had to get his powers back on Heroes. It HAD to happen. I was furious when he lost them to his evil father, but I always held out hope. I wonder how things are going to go down now that it appears that most of the truly evil characters are gone. I don't think they really are, but I just hope the next volume the villains aren't all in control again - even though Nathan seems to have jumped off the deep end.

Grey's Anatomy better step it up as well. This Denny crap is just that - crap. Really? He's dead. Let it go. Let Izzie move on. I have no idea how they're going to rationalize this, because apparently they already squashed the rumor that Izzie would end up having a tumor. Alex doesn't need another crazy girl when he's trying to have a decent relationship.

Private Practice and 30 Rock are awesome. Maybe the Private Practice/Grey's Anatomy crossover will do Grey's some good. Btw, I'm glad Hahn's gone, but not real excited about Callie and Sadie. You can't help but get the feeling that it's anti-Prop 8 propaganda.

Now back to finishing this stupid, vile, venomous program.

BLURG and BOO.