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Wednesday, November 30

organic chemistry

...in case you wanted a glimpse into my alter-ego pre-med life apart
from the blogging gal around here.
i just so happened to do about everything you could do wrong in this lab. spilled the 18 molar concentrated
sulfuric acid (corrosive; toxic; ouch), added the acid too quickly to the solvent so all of the reactant was
used up, forgot to tar the conical vial, and managed to burn myself on the hot plate a few times. i hate organic chemistry. although, as it is turning out, it happens to be my best "pre-med" subject currently and is going to save my little butt in a few weeks time. oh, pre-health sciences, how i loathe but will continue to study you until i graduate with the option of attending any sort of professional health school. i will more than likely change my major (biology), but i'm staying in the health sciences program. at the end of the day, i can actually see myself working in a retirement home with the oldies as some sort of doctor or with little kiddies as some other kind of doctor. 
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Saturday, November 26

to my favorite people in the world...

to mom and dad...for being the best parents in the entire world. to dad for coaching me and going to every single one of my soccer games and creeping on my soccer practices. you'll never know how much it meant to me that you've been my life long cheerleader. to mom for being the kind of mom i can trust to tell anything and everything to. it's gotten me through the past 6 weeks and i love that i'm growing up and our relationship is, too. thank you for having my back when i've come home from soccer games sobbing because of mean people. i'll never, ever forget what you did for me.

to ardina boll... for truly being the kind of person i wish i could be and being the best substitute me anyone in the world could ever be for soap. you're ridiculously cool and savvy and intelligent and the kind of teenager i wish every teenager could be. (but then you wouldn't be ridiculously unique and awesome, so no thanks).

to steve jobs...i love your little devices so much.

to the renner family... i always feel at home in your kitchen. and on your living room floor. and in your cars. i love having a second family i'm not related to.

to jillian edwards... "birthday" has touched me where nothing else has (that's what she said) and i couldn't love your voice and lyrics more.


to margaret behre...for being the best and most mature 19 20 year old I know. and the best person i know. and for always letting me send 10 page long texts in the middle of the night. and responding with 12 page texts. for being what a best friend should be. for making me cry as i write this. for being guiltlessly there for me no questions asked... all the time. together, i feel like we can conquer the world and you define the word badass. i love you.

to grandma...your phone calls keep  me sane. i know for a fact i'm probably the only 19 year old in the world who would call her grandma in the car on the way to a party to say hello. i wouldn't know life without you.

to bloggers... more specifically: amber, jasmine, nicole, kylee, kate, sydney, erin, hope, eleanor, and kenzie. i'm so inspired by you guys and it goes beyond just your blogs. as people, you're all beautiful, beautiful people.

to sophie... there. is. no. one. else. that. will. ever. mean. more. to. me. than. you.
to my roommates... we're ridiculous and crazy and weird but we're all ourselves together and for that, i couldn't be more thankful that i found you and that we found each other. there truly aren't other people on campus quite like us and we're perfect together.

to niklaas... i believe in you more than i think you do yourself. you've made every day apart for a year worth it. i'll never know someone else like you and i'm so thankful to be a part of your life.

to myself... no one can be stronger in your life than yourself.

*most of these people will probably never read this.

Thursday, November 24

Thanksgiving!

i'm thankful for:

-my sister, who will forever be my favorite human being 
on the planet
-the two most amazing parents that i could have been blessed with
-going to an amazing college that i've fallen in love with
in 3 semesters
-cozy socks and flannel christmas pjs
-taylor swift's christmas album
-....and taylor swift
-having a best friend that i couldn't have lived without
for the past two years
-being just two weeks away from christmas break
-my glasses
-making it home a full two days earlier than last year
-blog friends like you
-being happy

Thursday, November 17

jillian edwards

I've listened to more music in the past month than I have in the past year. I like it. I like it a lot. My new iPod touch has definitely been worth the investment. You guys might remember me in previous posts saying that I'm a playlist whore. It's true. So true. I have playlists for everything. For a specific day. For a month. For a week. For a single moment. For a season. For a person. For a mood. It just happens that way. There are some songs, however, that are found in every single one of my playlists and especially lately, that song is "Nonfiction Love Song" by jillian edwards. I first found Jillian Edwards years ago during the old days of myspace. I took notice of her adorable profile picture immediately and fell in love within seconds of listening to her. My sister and I shared a love for her adorable songwriting and angelic voice for two years and we both tell everyone we know to listen to her. Well, our little lady Jillian just released a new album and much to my surprise and excitement, she not only was in the iTunes top 10 this week, but she is featured on their homepage and her album is #1 on the song-writers page. Eeeeep! I love seeing her doing so well. Do yourself a favor. Put on some fuzzy socks. Make yourself some tea. Download both of her albums and just enjoy.

Wednesday, November 16

18 hours later

Holed up in the library for eighteen hours in two nights, I realized two things: a) our library is seriously lacking in the coffee cart/coffee/snack compartment (only ten hours later did I find out that our library is, in fact, building one)(...which won't be finished until 2014) b) I've made some pretty awesome friends in the past-two-and-a-bit-more-than-a-half semesters of college. As a freshmen, I walked into my first pre-med required chemistry course not entirely unsuspecting of the hours I'd spend in the library and tears I would shed in that first semester over one five credit class but completely unsuspecting of the friends I'd make and people I'd get to know. Seriously. If you ever want to make some friends, register for a pre-health required chemistry class and you'll make some blood brothers for life. It was in the library over the past couple of days that it really hit me how "special" my major is in this aspect. For those of us that are able to scrape by in our mind numbing courses, most of the people I met in that freshmen chemistry course will be the people that I take the same classes with for the entirety of the four years spent finishing my undergrad. And it seems like every day I meet someone new that is a friend of a friend that knows so and so who dated this person that I had in my workshop at this time second semester of freshmen year. We're all interconnected, but more than that, we're all studying for the exact same tests, writing the same lab reports, and barely passing together. If I make it through these four years, it will be because of the Tuesday nights I spent in a reserved room of the library with seven other people in my class.

I probably (definitely) didn't do great on my biology midterm today. But neither did the rest of us (cue some cliche high school musical song about being in all of this together).

Sunday, November 13

iHop2iHop

the very best way to start a four day weekend?
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skip class and go to ihop
excuse me while i go and think that i want ihop to cater my wedding someday.

Saturday, November 12

CD swap

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Several months ago, I came across a wonderfully adorable, quirky, hilarious, and downright perfect blog written by an equally wonderfully adorable, quirky, hilarious, and downright perfect girl. I started reading her blog and fell bit by bit more in love with this girl's witty posts about her life that included everything from family nights to date nights gone wrong to stalkers to sorority events to loving Utah. I decided to admit my frequent visits to her blog and emailed her and found her to be the sweetest girl ever. We had a CD swap last month and it was utter perfection. I am so thankful for the blogging world and the people I've been introduced to through blogging and I am taking today to thank all of you for letting me be a part of your story and for those of you who have been a part of mine. There are so many of you that I adore and have loved getting to know through emails, letters, and tweets. Go visit Kylee's blog. You will not be disappointed. This song is maybe one of the cutest I've ever listened to and I have Kylee to thank for it.

Friday, November 11

11/11

HAPPY 11:11:11 on 11/11/11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what did you wish for?

Thursday, November 10

if this was a movie

I was sitting in the passenger seat of one vehicle called 'Arthur' a couple of weeks ago when I was hit with a (very obvious) thought: movies aren't real. Duh? Yeah. It should be a 'duh'. But I was sitting there, thinking about my best friend next to me who waited months for a boy to sweep her off her feet and thinking about myself and all of the crazy ups and downs that everyone inevitably experiences in life and realized that more often than not, things really don't just happen to you. How often does someone just "get" everything they want? I looked at her and I looked at myself and all I could see were two people that had been waiting. Waiting. Waiting for what they wanted to happen to just happen to them. Waiting for them to just "get better". I don't know what exactly it was, but I suddenly visualized what I wanted to happen as if it were a movie. And the more I thought about what I wanted to happen and what I expected to happen if I sat it out and waited, the more I realized just how ridiculous it was that I expected to wait for it to happen. Maybe the best thing I realized was that we have to make things happen for ourselves. The second I realized the moment I wanted was never going to happen the way I wanted it to happen was a really liberating one. We have to go out and get what we want. We have every ability to change things for ourselves but only if we make them happen for ourselves. Text that person first. Change your major. Study abroad. Write the letter you've been wanting to write. Reach out to a person first. Do something you've always wanted to happen. Your movie moment will never happen if you sit and wait for it to happen for it. Don't wait for a kiss, go get that damn kiss instead of waiting for the boy you love to come to his senses because that scene from the movies is never going to happen where he shows up outside your window throwing pebbles and apologizes. Do exactly what it is that you need to do to make yourself happy first. There's always something you can do and always a part of fate that is in your control. I firmly believe this...as of right now. And I'm happy.
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Sunday, November 6

Remi

When one of your best friends buys her mom a puppy for her surprise birthday present...
what else is there to do but volunteer to babysit the adorable little pup?
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Saturday, November 5

Unofficially Official News

Now that I am financially committed...I feel like it's time to share a bit of news with you that I've been working on for a few weeks. A few weeks ago, on a particularly not so good morning, I made myself stop feeling pathetic and got on my computer and googled "travel". That's all. The first picture that came up, remarkably, was a picture from Bali, Indonesia. I laughed. Shut my computer. And dragged myself to organic chemistry. Ironically, Bali is the one place I can say I've traveled internationally aside from my volunteer trip to Mexico to save sea turtles. In the middle of yet another pathetically horrendous waste of my time lecture, my friend nudged me and pointed to a page of the school newspaper advertising study abroad programs seeking interested students. At the bottom half...long and behold... was an ad for a study abroad summer program in none other than Bali. Seriously. I practically tore the newspaper out of her hands. I don't know if I necessarily believe in fate...but really? That was pretty close. After some deliberation and a run to the bank to collect a lot of twenty dollar bills in cash, I committed myself to the reservation list with said friend from organic chemistry. If it were a facebook relationship, we wouldn't be official, but it's pretty close to being an affirmative yes that I'm going provided I apply for some scholarships and work my tail off all of winter break to scrounge up the money. But as of right now, I'm signed up and I'm attending meetings and organizing myself to spend one month in Indonesia. And I'm willing to do anything it takes to get myself to Asia.

I'm going to Bali kids!
* bali *
Hindu Temples Of Pura Ulundanubatur

Thursday, November 3

Hi, November

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1) year and a half anniversary
2) the infamous night with a nearly nude abercrombie model
3) cutest polka dot skirt ever from shop ruche
4) halloween rave night
5) one heck of a messy room
6) organic chemistry is quickly becoming a waste of time
7) popcorn & movies
8) roommate post-it note reminders
9) new eyeliner
10) fall is slowly fading
11) movie night with my sister
12) my parents came