2010: Do one thing. And then do one more thing.

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I was planing on doing a year in review post, but honestly 2009 was not my best year and I just don't want to think about it right now. I don't want to sound ungrateful because nothing terrible happened during the year, but it just wasn't that great of a year. 2008 was by far better, and I'm hoping that 2010 will top every other year in the past.

So instead of looking back on the past, I decided to do a little brainstorming for the future!

Here are a few of my goals/plans for 2010:

Run a half marathon 
Find a race - DONE! 
Create a training program - DONE!
Run, run, run!

Study abroad in Italy 
I can't wait for this! I picked out a program and all that's left to do now is wait until they post the dates and the application materials. And then when (if) I'm accepted I'll have to choose a topic for my independent research project.


Spend the summer in LA
As we get closer to summer I'll have to find an internship, which could be quite a challenge this year. I guess this is where networking skills come in handy?


Have a reunion by December 
90% of my closest friends are long distance, which can be really hard. I'd love to be able to go on a trip with friends from school somewhere fun, or even just fly to Memphis to visit them. I did that last time though, so it's their turn to fly to me! ha


Graduate college by summer of 2011
Okay, so this is a 2011 goal, but I don't care! My mini goal for this year is to finish my junior year in June. I'm beyond excited to be this close to the end of school.


Read 24+ books by December 31, 2010
I'd also like to become an eclectic reader, so they'll have to be 24 very different books. What are you planning on reading in 2010? I need ideas!

I  also want to…


Learn some Italian before I spend a semester abroad
I got an amazing Christmas present from one of my best friends...Rosetta Stone! I have levels 1, 2 & 3 for Italian and hopefully I'll be able to stay on top of things and work on them this year. I'm really nervous about spending 5 months in a country where I don't speak the language, so hopefully this will help!

Go to church
I have no religious background whatsoever and I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to church. I'd like to spend some time this year exploring religion.


Cook one new recipe a month
This should be fun! I haven't decided how I want to do this, but I'd really like to turn it into some kind of fun project for the blog. I know the whole Julie & Julia thing is way overdone by now, but it sounds like so much fun!


Go to at least one: book club, knitting club, running group, cooking class, swing lesson, salsa lesson, spin class, yoga class


Take better care of myself 
I'd say I do a pretty good job of taking care of myself right now, but I could always do better! My two big things are flossing and wearing sunscreen 24/7.


Write
This scares me. A lot. For some reason it has entered into my head that I'm not a write and that I cannot write. I know this isn't true, I used to write so much when I was younger! I'm taking a writing program for both winter and spring quarters, so hopefully I'll be able to overcome all of this blocked thinking. 


Go somewhere FUN for spring break
I've never done this! Somewhere warm and sunny with good food and cute boys. Probably can't be found anywhere near the Northwest, and I'm okay with that.

Whew! Lots of stuff. I'm excited for summer and the second half of the year, but the next few months just feel like they're placeholders to pass the time. I hope these goals will help change that!

What are you doing for your New Years Celebration? I'll be home with my parents, probably watching The Hangover and whatever NYE stuff they have on TV. One of these years I'll be in the same city as some people I know so I can go out! I don't mind staying home, but it'd be nice to see the other side of things too.
Do you have any goals for next year?

Grown-Up Things

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I may be 19, but I sure don't feel grown-up. It's weird, I always thought that after my 18th birthday I'd become all adult and mature. Yeah, totally didn't happen. I'm fine with that though, because I really do love going to Disneyland for my birthday. But even so...

Here are some of the 'grown-up things' I can't wait for:

I'm excited to graduate college! I've been in school since I was at least 3, so it's been quite a long time! Elementary,  junior high, high school, online classes, proficiency exams, online college classes, community college classes, REAL college classes...I've tried it all! One day I'm going to have to do a post explaining it to y'all, because my schooling experience has been SO insane. This is the 4th college I've attended in 3 years, and I don't even have a high school diploma! I actually tested out of high school when I was only 15. Crazy, right? That's a long and complicated story for another time. But for right now, I can't wait to be done with school so I can move on to a career!

Cooking! I'm so excited to cook for myself (and eventually a family). I have a feeling that for at least the first few years after school I won't feel much like cooking after a super long day at work, but at least I'll have the skill in my back pocket. I made eggplant parmesan for dinner this week and it was delicious. It only took me two grocery trips and four extra hours. Hey, we can't all be Julia! I'm not sure what I'd do without the internet, because I can't tell you how many times I've googled crazy things like 'how to chop a tomato without chopping off your fingers'. I'll get there one day.

Along with cooking, I absolutely can't wait to live by myself. And along with that, I'm actually really looking forward to being responsible for my own messes. Mommy, you were right. It's really gross when you don't put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher. And it's even worse when you let them stack up in the sink for a week. I was a messy child. Living with roommates for the past year and a half has made me the biggest neat-freak ever. You should see our kitchen right now. It's an absolute disaster. And I promise, none of it is mine! I don't even have any dishes in my room! I really can't wait until I can have my own bedroom and living room and kitchen that I can clean and organize however I want, whenever I want. (Let's see how long that actually lasts.)


And speaking of living areas, I get my home-decorating fix via HGTV. But when I grow-up, I'm going to decorate the shit out of my house! I'm going to paint the walls pretty colors, and have comfy furniture and pretty artwork. And of course, I'm decorating for the holidays! It starts in September with the fall themed decorations, continues through Halloween, goes back to the fall theme plus a cornucopia for Thanksgiving (poor Turkey Day, no one decorates for it!), and then we're going ALL out starting the day after Thanksgiving. It's going to be fabulous for sure. And of course, for the rest of the year it's going to look absolutely precious and colorful and maybe beach themed? Don't even get me started on this! (Let's also see how long this lasts. I'm a former messy child, remember?)

Okay those are my five things! I guess I'm just trying to say I can't wait to be a domesticated career woman? Lauren Conrad meets Martha Stewart meets Oprah? I'm going to have to think a little bit more on that one.

You make me happy!

Guess what! I have received my very first ever blog award! I'm so excited about this.

Tahh dahhh!

It's the Happy 101 award from one of my new favorite blogs, Perfectly Pleasant. (She's absolutely precious and if nothing else you should go check out her glittery pinecones. I'm talking Christmas decorations, people!)

So for this little thingamabob, I'm supposed to tell you guys about 10 things that make me happy! I picked things that are a little bit out of the norm. :)

Here we go: (in no particular order!)

Oregon Chai. More specifically, Oregon Chai lattes from concentrate. I know they make a powder that you can add to water, but I've been looking everywhere for them and not a single store in the area carries it! Anyway, this stuff is SO good. I tried it for the first time a few months ago, and I've been hooked ever since. I swear, I'd probably bathe in this stuff if I could. But that'd be weird. And I'd rather just drink it.

One rainy day after lots of sun, sunny days after lots of rain. Best thing ever. When we lived in Los Angeles, rain was a big deal. We'd have Storm Watch on the news, and one time they even cancelled school because of an inch of rain! It was always so exciting and such a great change of pace. And up here in the Pacific Northwest, well...sun is treasured.

Anything Southern, New Orleans, or Mardi Gras related. Can I be an honorary GRITS please? I was born in Missouri! I don't know why, but I've always loved the South, even before I had ever visited there. Spending a year in Memphis for school was absolutely amazing. I couldn't get enough of Sonic and Chick-Fil-A! And the people were so nice! New Orleans captured my heart when I visited for the first time in 2006, and I've loved it ever since. And of course, there's Mardi Gras. I know most people consider it to be a time just for getting drunk and catching beads, but I'm more interested in everything else that goes along with the season. There's so much culture and history behind it!


Friends, family and bloggers. Obviously. All of these people (you, too!) make my world go round. Fo reals.

Kitty/puppy/baby Youtube videos. My housemates and I sit around the kitchen table with our laptops watching these types of videos all the time!
Some of my faves:
Surprised Kitty!
Ethan Laughing
David After Dentist

And then, while I was writing this post...the fire alarm in our apartment building went off! (This isn't apart of my top 10, ps) Funny story, because a) I wasn't wearing pants b) it's so loud I almost peed myself c) they went into the apartment that set off the alarm wearing oxygen tanks and carrying axes and d) this was the second time in a month that it's happened to that apartment! They kindaaaaa suck at cooking. I'm back though, and I'm now wearing pants. Hopefully they'll give up on trying to use the stove and go back to microwaving easy-mac. I say that with love. Tough love.


Back to the countdown...

Nail polish. If you know me at all, then you know I love nail polish. Seriously. I've got like, 200 bottles of the stuff! I've been collecting it since I was little, back when I used to play school with them. The nail polish remover bottles were the teachers, naturally. (I was about to put natch, because I feel like now's a good time to use it, but that word just looks wrong to me.)

Watermelon and pineapple. Idk. I really like fruit? It reminds me of summer! The artificial pineapple and watermelon flavors are okay, but nothing can beat the real thing.

The holiday season from September to January. We've got fall, and then Halloween and Thanksgiving, and then the big long Christmas season! I'm so ready for it to all be over by the time it's Dec. 26th, but until then I think it's absolutely magical. And I love the decorations, of course.

Being single. Maybe? I think I like it. For a while I was a serial monogamist. Okay, not really, but it kind of felt that way? Right now it's all about me, so I can be selfish and do whatever I want, whenever I want. Not that I can't do that in a relationship, but it's nice to know that you can depend on yourself, rather than relying on a boy to be there for you. Not to mention, it's so freaking hard to buy Christmas presents for boyfriends!

Books. When I was little, I was a huge bookworm. And then...I just stopped. Getting older is partly to blame for that, because it can be hard when you're right between the Young Adult section and the actual Literature section. There's the 'I don't have time to read!' excuse too. It's hard to convince myself to read for fun when I'm reading 400+ pages a week for school, but now that I'm about to do a 2 quarter writing program I figure the more reading I do, the better! Plus, I'd forgotten just how fun reading can be. I love getting lost in the story!

Okay, that's my 10!

Now, I'm supposed to tag ten more people to list their top ten lists (wordy, much?). I know every single blogger in my Google Reader has already done this, so if it's okay with the Happy 101 gods out there, I'm going to tag everyone that wants to do this! We all need a little bit of happiness, right? Take some time to reflect!

12 Random Things

• I really miss southern boys. Actually, make that southern gentlemen. We don't have that here in the Northwest, at all. It's all for one and one for all! Woman powerrrr! I'm all for female independence and empowerment, but come on!

• I'd take a stereotypical southern boy over a mountain man any day.

• I miss having boys open the door for me, or pulling out my chair. Okay, the pulling out the chair thing has happened maybe ONCE in my life, but STILL.

• Memphis taught me to love BBQ, Sonic, Chik-fil-a, and Elvis. Okay, I've always loved Elvis.

• I pick up accents VERY easily, especially Southern accents. People frequently ask me if I'm from the south! Weird, isn't it? A friend of mine once described my accent as a "southern valley-girl". I wonder what I'll sound like after I spend three months in Nawlins!

• I can do a wicked Jamie-Lynn Spears impression, as well as Sarah Palin.

• I prefer a dry rub over wet. I'm talking about RIBS, people! Minds out of the gutter!

• Skype is amazing, even if it does make me feel like I'm on a 15 second time delay for the rest of the night. I spent an hour talking with two of my best friends, and it was almost like I was back with them! We made plans to reunite this summer, which I'm very excited for! And yes, they're both from the south, and yes, I probably have a twang right now.

• We've now entered week 10 of fall quarter, which means we're THISCLOSE to being finished! I just have a few more things to go (group presentation and prospectus, seminar, and a paper) before I'm all done. And then I have a week to twiddle my thumbs before my very first evaluation conference. We don't get grades here, we get evaluated!

• Which means instead of getting a B instead of an A, you'll earn 12 instead of 16 credits. We can't let this happen. I don't anticipate losing credit over anything, but it's still a little nerve-wracking.

• I register for classes for winter quarter in a few hours! I'm hoping to take a writing program, as well as a psychology class and ballet. Yeah, I'm cramming as many credits as I can because I'm SO ready to be D-O-N-E!

• 5K is 10 days away! Hopefully the only snowflakes around here are the ones my housemate and I cut out tonight.

(As you can tell, I'm a bit scattered right now but I'll be back to normal after this week...gotta love finals!)

Top 10: Songs for 2009

Warning: LONG post ahead!


I know the year isn't quite over, but it's my party blog and I'll do what I want!

I've been a Last.fm user since 2007, and I absolutely LOVE their site. If you haven't heard of it or used it before, it's basically a program that will keep track of (scrobble) the plays for all of the songs you listen to on iTunes or with your iPhone or iPod (iThink that's a lot of i's).

Now that I've finally gotten over the whole omg someone's going to see that I've been listening to Hilary Duff's CD ALL day long! issue of mine, it's been really fun to look back and see what my listening treads have been. They have charts that show you your top artists or songs for certain periods of time.

Anyway, long story short, these are my top 10 (ish) most played (therefore they must be favorite) tracks of 2009!


Numberrrr 10:
Club Love by 99 ALLiNS

This song is the. bomb. My best friend Austin found this last year and we had it on repeat for the entire spring semester. I love Tswift. I love Usher. Twsift + Usher = Ahhmazing. My only complaint is that the last 30 seconds or so they totally lose the Usher portion of the mashup, but other than that it's perfect.

Number 9:
Two-way tie!
Funny The Way It Is by Dave Matthews Band and Love Game by Lady Gaga!

I'll always remember running around my dorm singing the first few lines of Love Game (Let's have some fun, this beat is sick...) with my roommate late at night. The Dave song is near and dear to my heart too, because it reminds me of one of my best friends who may just be the world's biggest Dave fan.

Number 8:
Starstruck by Lady Gaga


Seeing a trend yet? Such a good running song, even if it does make me dance and therefore trip.

Number 7:
P.Y.T. by Michael Jackson

I was never a huge fan of his music, but I do love this song. He really was an amazing artist.


Number 6:
Let The Dummer Kick by Citizen Cope

Heard it for the first time in a CSI rerun. It reminds me of a boy I dated for much of the school year, and it also reminds me of summer because it was on my favorite mix CD I listened to in the car.

Number 5:
Level by The Raconteurs

One of my favorite songs in the world. It's simple, but I love to sing along to it and I love the guitars. It will always remind me of one of the best weekends I've ever had - Memphis in May! Musicfest was rainy and muddy, and I had a Spanish final the Monday afterwards, but it was completely and totally worth it. They didn't play at Memphis in May, but I remember hearing this song in the car when we were driving around Memphis at night, and it just clicked perfectly in my brain.

Number 4:
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty


I love this version, as well as the John Mayer version too. I think this might actually be my theme song for the past year.

Number 3:
Just Dance - Lady Gaga

Yes, it truly was the Year of the Gaga. This song was our anthem for our freshman year fall semester! My roommate (and best friend at the time) and I went absolutely nuts over this song, and then Lady Gaga started to become super popular right afterwards.

Number 2: 
Explicit content warning, uh-oh!

Pleasure Fucker - Maroon 5

Um, so, this is kind of scandalous. But I like it.


Number 1:
Drumroll please.........

Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) by Lady Gaga! 

Anyone surprised it was Lady Gaga? I had NO clue this was my most played song! Then and again, it was on my epic break-up playlist that I made (and shared with everyone, so I kinda feel like a pro playlist maker now). And we pretty much had The Fame on repeat for the entire year at school.

This list was really surprising! It seems like my most played songs are all from a few playlists, which would make sense. I also have a huge music library (3,000+ songs) which I listen to on shuffle instead of picking a single song to listen to on repeat.

I actually think my most played artists are a lot more representative of my music for the year! Maybe I should have done a post on that instead. Buuuut to save you from running away screaming, I'll just do a mini recap!

Most played artists for 2009:
Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, 311, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Kings of Leon, Lil' Wayne, Glee Cast, Gym Class Heroes, John Mayer, Umphrey's McGee
Love them all!

One last thing. Don't tell anyone this, but I'm kind of Gaga-ed out now. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

Isn't it amazing how certain songs or artists bring you back to a memory or a moment in time? What are your definitive songs for the year?