New Developments & Exciting Things

I know you're probably sick of me disappearing for weeks at a time and then coming back to apologize for my extended leave of absence. School for the past month got extremely out of control and that has been my entire focus for the past 30 days. But the semester is OVER and there are so many amazing things that has happened is happening and I'm just so excited to be apart of a lot of awesome projects. This week started off beautifully because I celebrated my one-year anniversary with the love of my life. Despite a one-thousand mile separation, we still celebrate it right: 

A Skype Date Celebration at midnight with my party hat and I came home to a beautiful hand-written letter and gorgeous bouquet of flowers. I seriously have the greatest guy, ever. <3
Other exciting news! I get to see this amazing guy in like, THREE days! It'll be exactly 76 days since our last encounter and I couldn't be more ecstatic to spend nine days with him and his family in Pennsylvania! Cannot WAIT to see the beaches of Jersey, Yankee Stadium, and so many other places! 


I also got a part at Daytona Playhouse in the summer One-Acts show so I'll be working on that for the first half of the summer and I'm so excited! I haven't been on stage since last summer and I need my fixxx. On top of that, it's looking like a full Summer A semester and I'm going to be a lab rat for the Daytona TRACON class, plus working and band-stuff! I was also asked to be a lab rat for the Daytona Tower class for fall, so definitely going to try and do that on top of 18 credits. Ah, so much good happenings happening! 


I guess the most exciting thing in my life at the moment is Native Tapestries. A folky/rocky/indie/bluesy sounding band consisting of myself, and my friends Logan & Ben. 

It's the closest I've been to music since high school and it's truly just, ah, making me the happiest person in the world.  We mostly just jam on Friday nights, but we're trying to get in with some Open Mic Nights. Last night, we played a few songs at Java Jungle and the energy and response was fantastic! Lots and LOTS of new things to come with Native Tapestries, I'm just not going to announce them right now because I want to build suspense like really famous bands do. Also, I think I'm going to start a blog for Native Tapestries and just update everyone with new developments and our progress and things happening. So if you're following this blog, be sure to follow that one, too! I'll post when it's up! Also-also, if you haven't already, make sure you check us out on Facebook! www.facebook.com/NativeTapestries <=== We've had the page for about 5 days now and reached the first 100 likes in less than 24 hours! We're now up to a little over 120 and we couldn't be happier. Make sure you guys check out our music; I promise it'll be worth the 3-4 minutes out of your life! <3


Summer is here and I plan to pick up my reading goal again and be in a play and singsingsing and go to school and do lots of summer projects! Thanks for putting up with my lack of blogging for a month! Pinky promise it won't be this bad over the summer! 


x


Books Read: 9

Spring Break: A Recap

One of my favourite things about spring break is the overload of mirrored statuses and photo captions that read, "No makeup, pjs, hair up, glasses: Spring Break 2012." As much as I agree with the aforementioned statement, why do over half of the female population on Facebook feel that it's such a cute way to kick off spring break? I, in fact, spent the majority of my spring break in my pajamas with my hair in a knot on the top of my head and my face refusing the perks of makeup. I also blasted indie rock throughout my flat and played an excessive number of board games and read a grand total of 787 pages this week. I really thought that number would be more impressive. In addition, I think I bettered myself at Mario Cart, placing in the top 4 every time, rather than pulling a sorry seventh through tenth. I officially earned one sunburn and gained three pounds: watched eight straight episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, 11 straight episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and six of the eight Harry Potter films.


I was really excited that I held the first of many board game nights on Monday night. The tiresome and grilling half an hour of grinding a 14'' pepperoni stick in a blender paid off: the dip was a hit. And I was surprised everyone showed up and had an awesome time playing Harry Potter: Scene It? and QWELF. I was so sure my team was going to win Scene It, but somehow, Ashley and Justin pulled this card and got to take the lead: finally winning the three hour long tournament. QWELF is this really awesome game consisting of weird characters like, "Mrs. Picklefeather," "The Dude," "Biscuit Farmer," and others. The point is to get around the multi-coloured spaces which correlate to a designated action card. Yellow spaces are the stunt cards; for example, one person had to make a mask out of household items. Red spaces are the scatter brainz cards, where each player writes down a word belonging to the chosen category on the card. Blue spaces correlate with the rules cards: the person who drew the card may have to talk like a pirate the entire game, or make a flush noise whenever someone performs a penalty. (Penalties are taken when a player refuses to act on their card or answers a quiz question incorrectly.) Some rules cards may be for the entire group; such as, whenever the phone rings, all players must jump up and scream "Pizza Party!" The last to perform the action takes the penalty. Green spaces are quizzle cards, asking ridiculous questions like, "Which one of these men was Reese Witherspoon not married to?" And finally, the purple cards. These cards are always the most fun: the action cards. For example, the person who draws the purple card may have to do a hula dance while singing Hawaiian music or mime taking a picture of each player while saying things like, "Work it!" "Bad kitty!" and "Show me the money!" This game was so much fun and is definitely recommended!


Now, all I want to do is have more of these themed parties. I usually have an annual Harry Potter party where guests must dress as characters or their house colours and wizard rock is played and the movies are watched with our wands out. I plan on having an Avatar: The Last Airbender themed party in May and of course, the fourth annual Harry Potter Party. I'm also working on a Hunger Games party.. but that will take an exceptional amount of planning. More details coming soon.

OH. AND THE HUNGER GAMES! I scooped up five friends and went to the midnight premier of The Hunger Games. My sister and I looked so fly in our Katniss braids and HG t-shirts:

I, along with probably a zillion others, have been waiting for this day forever. And just like a zillion others, I was nervous that the movie would not live up to standards. But I can honestly say, the movie was EXTREMELY well-crafted. I need to go see it again because I was mostly just stunned the first time I saw it. All of the characters were picked perfectly, and I really loved seeing the Gamemakers' control room. The scenery was exactly how I imagined it. Ahh, just everything about the film was beautiful. Some of the minor things that did bother me was that Katniss didn't wait in front of the fence to listen for the hum of the electricity. She kind of just dived through it without giving any regard to the possibly-humming-fence. I also didn't like that Madge wasn't the one who gave Katniss the Mockingjay pin, nor did her and Peeta put the berries in their mouths at the end of the games. I love that part because that line,

"'You didn't swallow any?' I ask him.

He shakes his head. 'You?'

'Guess I'd be dead by now if I did,' I say."

It's such a cute scene and I really wish they kept it. But other than that, everything else was just perfect and completely exceeded my expectations. Only 606 days until Catching Fire. I can do this. I can wait.


Spring Break was a success. And tomorrow it's back to the dreadful hours of class and work and I just need it to be April 26th already! I'm going to go bleeding mad.


Books read: 8

Response to "Dear Body"

Dear Body: A Letter of Apology and Gratitude

Dear hair, 

I love you. You always know exactly what I want and you never make me look ridiculous. Thank you for always being thick and blonde and have the ability to straighten, scrunch, curl, crimp, and still look awesome when I don't do anything to you. I'm sorry for thinking my hands had the skill to cut you in eighth grade in efforts to save me a few dollars. I promise to never torture you like that again. 

Dear skin,

I'm sorry for being embarrassed of you for so many years due to your lack of pigmentation and for spending so many hours in the sun without protection in attempts to change you. I'm also going to apologize for the rest of my peers and class mates for teasing you; you don't deserve that. Thank you for protecting me and keeping me cold and warm and never cursing me with more than one acne breakout per month. 

Dear teeth: 

Thank you for saving me from the social embarrassment of the paradox of crooked teeth. Ridicule for crooked teeth and then ridicule for braces. You're beautiful. I feel I've taken care of you over the years and you've repaid me. Perhaps I shouldn't have chewed so much gum pre-wisdom-teeth-surgery. I'm sorry for that.

Dear nose:

Thanks for being the perfect size. You're awesome.

Dear eyes: 

I'm sorry for coating you in layers of eyeliner for so many years and for never finding the will power to take out my contacts for so long; I know I'm guilty of damaging you. Thank you for putting up with me and still giving me a beautiful blue, green, and gold mix in my eye color. I owe you one. 

Dear arms: 

I wish I toned you better.

Dear fingers: 

You've held, touched, pointed, poked, picked, and grabbed countless things in my lifetime. I don't know how I would survive without each one of you. I'm sorry for cracking you for so long and caused you to swell three times the size of the average finger. 

Dear legs: 

I'm sorry for that year in high school when I covered you up with tight jeans out of embarrassment of you. It was my fault for pushing my leg muscles to develop so early; I shouldn't be embarrassed of thick legs. I think you're beautiful. I'm sorry for all of the bruises, falls, cuts, and scars you've had to endure. I'll try and be more careful with you. 

Dear feet: 

I wish you weren't so flat. But thank you for giving me foundation to walk on everyday and for being silky smooth even without moisturizer. 

Dear lips: 

You're perfect. I'm sorry for that period in my life where I bit the skin off of you and denied you chap stick. Thanks for your awesome kissing abilities, too. 

Dear stomach: 

I'm finally at a point in my life where I truly love you. I'm sorry for starving you in efforts to lose weight. I'm sorry if I destroyed any part of you. If I could take back that point in my life, I would. Thank you for tolerating my poor diet and excessive amounts of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Thank you for accepting the fact that I love cheese and ice cream too much, and even though it pains you, I cannot give it up. And thank you for giving me the line of freckles that look like The Big Dipper. All of my friends thinks that's pretty awesome.

Dear ears: 

Thanks for being the perfect size. I'm sorry I don't clean you more often and you had to go through hell when I pierced my second hole. But thank you for healing properly and not giving up on me. 

Dear knees: 

I'm sorry for making you grow weird from all of those Spread Eagles I did in figure skating when I was younger. I'm also sorry for hating you. And Left Knee, I'm sorry for permanently damaging you because I had to try and be cool that one day in rehearsal. Just don't give up on me yet. 

Dear chest: 

I have nothing to say to you except: THANK YOU. <3

Dear body,

I love you.  

Hollah-Dayzzz!

I really, really enjoy holidays. If there's an excuse to celebrate something, I will find the excuse to celebrate it. I've developed this unhealthy obsession with finding Unofficially Official Holidays. I've discovered that there's a holiday for everything; you just have to find out when the Everything Holiday is. 
So, starting this month, I have been, and will be, celebrating every Unofficially Official Holiday every Official Day in March! March 1st was "World Compliment Day," so I tweeted random followers and posted compliments on Walls! It was also National Pig Day, so I curled my hair in piggy tails and dressed in all pink. Yesterday was National Dress in Blue Day & Dr. Seuss' Birthday! This was definitely my favourite day so far: my brother and sister and I baked Dr. Seuss Cupcakes and watched all of the Dr. Seuss movies, AND made green eggs & ham!  

It was so much fun and I felt like such a kid again! Celebrating all of these weird holidays is definitely a contributing factor to me wanting to feel like I'm doing exciting things with my life. Doing this, along with reading 100 books, and attending Cons and watching my favourite anime shows, just makes me feel so young again. I've decided that I just really don't want to grow up. EVER. I just want to stay young and keep doing all of these weird, spontaneous things to stay alive and not be so focused on school and Financial Aid and work and icky Adult Stuff. It's official. I'm creating my own Never-Never Land. <3


In other news, I finished another book this week! As much as I feel I'd be letting my favourite author down by saying that Tell Me Lies by Jennifer Cruz was better The Fault in Our Stars, I, like Harry, "must not tell lies." It was truly an amazing book, dripping with suspense that literally made the hairs on my arm stand on end, constantly hilarious scenes, and perfectly-developed characters. Ahh, it was so gooddd. I really liked that the story kept switching perspectives, rather than telling the story from one particular point of view. The same scene would be told from three different people, which I thought was really interesting. The only other time I've read a book like that was Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, but it wasn't nearly as literaturely delicious as Tell Me Lies. 


As promised, my daily nerdisms from February 21-28. 
Tuesday: Wore my Firefly t-shirt to school!
Wednesday: Wore a Doctor Who t-shirt and watched Firefly
Thursday: Watched My Little Pony! :D 
Friday: Read my book instead of paid attention in class
Saturday: Played "Harry Potter Scene It?" for HOURS!
Sunday: Extreme Study Sesh 
Monday: Dressed as a "Slytherin School Girl!" <3
Tuesday: Organized myself a Firefly Marathon


I know this is an incredibly long blog, and I apologize. I just have so much stuff going on that I haveee to say! But that's all for now. Oh, and if you want to do the "Celebrate the Unofficially Official Holidays in March," click here!


<3


Books read: 3

Who's Patronus? Sailor PokeMoon's.

MEGACON 

& All of it's Fantasms. 

           It's so easy to fall into the routinely norm of school and work and family and significant others and time wasters, that we almost slip away from who we truly are. I know how corny and cliche that sounds, but it's true for everyone. I think this why I love going to Conventions & Conferences: I get such a high from them. Because you're surrounded by people with the same passions as your's and nothing else matters except participating in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament or taking a picture with a real-life TARDIS. 

          I go through these phases where I feel unaccomplished and bored and like I'm not doing anything meaningful or fun with my life. The feeling overwhelms me and I start an irrational project like wanting to read a hundred books in a year or up-and-go to an Anime/Comics/Sci-Fi Convention in Orlando to meet Tom Felton. I keep tacking things on to this list of things I want to do this year; and since MegaCon, I've compiled yet another list strictly of Cons I want to go to. My goal is at least 3 this year. 3 Cons, 100 books read, 1 book written, and re-watch all 83 episodes of the original Pokemon. 

          I feel like I'm rambling because I pretty much am. There are so many fantastic things I'm planning to do this year. Especially with La Band and reading and writing. The Nerd Cells in my body are so fully charged I feel like I'm going to explode. This is what I love about conventions - they fire you up because you're not worried about homework and workwork, just the things you're passionate about. All I want to do, and in fact, did do, is watch anime, play Mario Brothers, register for conventions, write & record music, and read as many books as possible until I sound like a pretentious know-it-all.  

          Maybe this is why I want to keep going back to cons - maybe I feel I need a constant reminder of who I truly am: A Draco Malfoy fangirl bleeding green and silver, a Doctor Who fanatic shipping Tennant & Rose, a secret Pokemon/Sailor Moon lover at heart who needs a convention to bring it out of her, a Browncoat without a show, a writer lacking a finished product, and a novel-addict with list of goals and accomplishments she keep's forgetting to refer to. 

          I'm making a promise to myself that I'm not going to let society cloud my vision of who I am. I'm going to try and not let myself get into the My-Life-Is-Boring-Rutt because I'm making a point to allow myself one Nerdism a day. Nerdisms will be posted at the end of the week. 

          Also, even if you're not a Nerdfighter but you have things you're passionate about, don't let Life trick you into thinking the things you're passionate about are less important than the things that unfairly prioritize themselves as "having" to be done. 

         


          PS: Tom Felton was absolutely gorgeous and despite the photographer attacking me when I attempted a hug, it was an amazing experience. Got some fantastic t-shirts and hand-drawn Doctor Who art, along with a mini-TARDIS. I'm so hot, wouldn't ya say? 

          PSS: Kind of completely unrelated, but some minor updates: La Band (Now referred to as "Native Tapestries,") is auditioning for Battle of the Bands this weekend; we also have a gig March 3rd. And I was nominated for Student Employee of the Year, so I've got a banquet for that March 28th, and I was invited to some Important Person Dinner Banquet in early March. Sooo.. March will be a good month and now you're updated.

Books read: 2

The "I'm-Single-So-I-Have-The-Right-To-Hate-Valentine's-Day" Epidemic

It's really exciting when something inspires me to blog about society's imperfections. Today's topic: Valentine's Day and Why Single, (or as I was informed earlier,) Cheap People, Hate It. Some history of Valentine's Day...
Valentine's Day originally was to honor Christian martyrs known as Valentinus in 496 A.D. and became the day of expressing affection to loved ones in the form of "courtly love." This was only exclusive in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of European Literature, until the 15th Century when the tradition of flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards became the expression of affection worldwide. 


What bothers me so much about Valentine's Day is infallible desire for people to criticize Valentine's Day because they don't have a significant other, or just for the mere fact of wanting to be "different" and go against society by expressing callused words like, "I don't need a man, nor a day of flowers and chocolates to be happy." or "Cuddling with myself tonight. Screw the Valentine's Day Commercialism." 


If you're going to hate Valentine's Day because you don't have a lover to spoil you, you might as well hate Halloween because people don't think 20 year olds in costumes is cute anymore..it's creepy and most often, unpleasantly suggestive. And you might as well hate Christmas because Santa doesn't exist, and darn it, "you're getting one big present this year." You better not even think about enjoying Thanksgiving because you hate all of your family members anyway, and the majority of them are in jail or on the pipe...and how could you be remotely thankful for that?


It's just wrong and discriminatory to not enjoy one holiday because you feel as if you don't have the right credentials. Suck it up, push up those girls, and find a man. Maybe if you spent less time on Facebook posting statuses about how much you hate Valentine's Day, you'd use your time more wisely and invest in a mate. 


Happy Valentine's Day! <3