I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell

Let's back it up to last Thursday, when Sydney and I ventured out into the world of culture and sophistication. We are taking a Theatre Appreciation course where we are required to go to 3 plays/musicals on campus and this was the first one! We went to go see The Glass Menagerie and it was awesome! I can't wait for the next two shows :) 

Alright so then on Friday, after dollar lunch, I came to the realization that literally all of my usual friends were going out of town for the weekend. Which would have left me home alone. So I made an impromptu decision to "roadtrip" to Mesa and spend the weekend with the Richardson family. Lauren and I made our way to Mesa with Hung on Friday afternoon. 

We got to Mesa before Syd did, so we decided to play in Ikea since I had never been there before! Whoa I could definitely spend all day in there. We also played hide and seek - a la 500 Days of Summer. 

After Ikea, we headed over to the SanTan Village to shop at Romy, which has apparently closed. Instead, we got cupcakes! They were awesome. 

After that, Lauren and I split up and I headed off to party with the Richardsons! We went to Chipotle for dinner, and Avery posed like a model. 

This was a groundbreaking moment because it was the first time I met Syd's boytoy! Hello Zach. 

Later that night we went to Comic Relief (an improv show at Syd's old high school) and then I went home to bed. On Saturday I went to lunch with Lauren and then we ventured on out to Nordstrom Last Chance (I've always wanted to go!). We didn't buy anything, but it was definitely an awesome experience. After that, I went back to the Richardson house and watched the U of A (U love A as Avery calls it) game with Avery, Rory, and their dad, Jay. Avery and I cheered on the wildcats and put our paws up in true wildcat fashion. 

Avery takes awesome selfies, in case you hadn't already figured that out. 

On Sunday morning, I drove back to Tucson with Lauren, Hung, and Rory. I was in charge of Break the Fast so we had to get back early. I always love Fast and Testimony meeting - it's so awesome!! Anyways, I was rather proud of my super tall tower of buns. 

While the rest of the weekend was great, Sunday night was not so great. I came down with a stomach virus at some point over the weekend and it hit me around 11 pm on Sunday. I was out of commission all day Monday, but I sent my mother this lovely selfie. 

Tuesday I had really bad heartburn, so I stayed home again all day. On Wednesday, I thought I was feeling better, so I went to class and work. I had already reserved my basketball ticket for the game that night, so I decided I would go to at least see how I felt while there. Oh I had salad for lunch on Wednesday....worst idea ever. Like ever. Salad isn't good for sensitive stomachs you guys. Anyways, the game. It was an awesome game and we totally creamed Cal! 

I left at halftime due to not feeling so hot, but the part that I did see was really good!!

When I got home, I was really not doing so well. That carried on to this morning and inspired the following snapchat. 

As of now, I feel a little bit better but I have learned that this stuff is seriously no fun. As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've ever had a stomach virus, and it sucks to be learning how to deal with it away from home. Unfortunately Lauren has caught on to it too. Hopefully it will go away soon! 

Party all the time

It's been said before but I'll say it again, songs make the best blog post titles. And this one will cover my amazing birthday week that was so great thanks to my awesome friendaroomies, my best friends, and my family.

Saturday, February 1st:

So I did something that I never thought I would....I went caving/spelunking. I'm pretty claustrophobic but it actually wasn't that bad! I felt super adventurous. Sometimes it's therapeutic to just get dirty and not care about what you're doing or what you look like. It was so fun but I was oh so sore afterwards. I took a pretty rough fall in the cave so I believe that contributed to the soreness.  Here are some beautiful pictures from that day.

We got super super dirty in there. 

Sunday, February 2nd: 

SUPERBOWL Sunday! We went to testimony meeting in both 5th ward and 3rd ward, and they were both amazing. I love hearing other people's testimonies because it strengthens my own so much. I am so grateful for the fact that we get to hear from other members of the church every month. After church, Sydney and I went home to clean up the house and prep food for the big party! It was a huge success full of food, friends, and fun. And some major predictions for the game. The game kinda sucked, but that's ok. It happens again next year. 

In honor of the game, I did Superbowl nails! No - those are not Seahawks colors, the green is simply grass haha. 

Sunday was also the first day of my official birthday week! My cute roomies gave me a Toblerone, my favorite candy, and a super cute notepad and pens. 

And here is a picture of me at the Superbowl party - Diet Coke in hand!

Monday, February 3rd:

So Monday was my Dad's 51st birthday! Shoutout to him for being the best guy I know. A while ago, Lauren asked me what I wanted for my birthday. My only answer was a new phone and a boyfriend (somewhat kidding). While my roommates couldn't give me either of those things, they gave me the next best thing. I got a cute gift every day and a date Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights! For the first one, they told me I was going out with Jared, but they didn't tell me what we were doing. All I knew was when he was picking me up! The rest of the nights I didn't even get to know who the guy was until he rang the doorbell! Anyways, on Monday I got a pack of Diet Coke and a note explaining the date deal! I didn't get a picture with Jared that night, so this one from my birthday party will have to do :) He took me on probably the most fun and unusual date I have ever been on - we went to the Dollar Store and had a contest as to who could find the best and worst things in the store, and then we went back to my apartment and colored pictures for each other from a coloring book. It was a nice change from the usual dinner date and gave us a chance to get to know the sillier side of each other. 

Here's the lovely coloring that Jared did for me - it's the black version of the ringmaster from Dumbo. 

Tuesday, February 4th:

Tuesday was pretty normal to begin with, school and all that jazz. My day 3 gift from my roommates was a Chipotle gift card! They know how much I love it. I also got an awesome gift in the mail from my sister this day - she got me a bluetooth waterproof speaker for my phone! Anyone who knows me knows that I sing in the shower - a lot. This is perfect for me because now the music can be even louder which means that I can be even louder! Thank you Katie, I am sure my roommates will love it ;) it's already a hit around the apartment. I honestly had no idea who my date would be on Tuesday, but I was so nervous! I have really bad anxiety so I was basically a nervous wreck all week long (in a good way though). When EJ showed up I was so happy! A fun dinner with my best friend was just what I needed :) He's such a sweetheart - he took me to the Cheesecake Factory because he knows that I always joke that my favorite food groups are steak and cheesecake. 

Here's us being hotties before our date. 

Mmmm we split red velvet cheesecake and it was divine. 

Wednesday, February 5th: 

On Wednesday my hot date was Matt! Shoutout to all these Canadian boys. He wasn't so excited to be taking pictures so we got this awesome pose. He took me to Brushfire BBQ which has been voted best barbecue in Tucson!!! Afterward he came back to my apartment and we watched The Bachelor. If that's not love then I don't know what is. Day #4's gift was a fanny pack!!

Thursday, February 6th:

Day #5's gift was two cat shirts!!! On Thursday night, I answered the door to a Mr. Travis Bailey! He is such a cutie pie and so gentlemanly. He brought me beautiful flowers and even made sure to get them in my favorite color! Props to him; orange flowers are hard to find. We went to Oregano's and split a pizza and pizookie and it was amazing! Out of all the guys, Travis and I had the most to talk about since we hadn't really gotten to know each other much so it was nice to have typical date conversation. 

Friday, February 7th:

PARTY DAY!! My day #6 gift was a cute new nightie :) Here at 1320, we are known for our kick butt dance parties. But I wanted to switch it up a little bit and throw people for a loop. I don't even know why or how this crazy idea came to be but somehow we decided on a paint fight. It was exhausting, freezing, messy, painful, and probably the most fun thing I've done in a really really long time. I got ganged up on because it was my birthday but I didn't even care because it was so much fun! 

Mid-action shot

Ok, so maybe I wasn't that happy at the time....

Any activity isn't complete until my roommates and I take a booty pic.  

And one more picture with Jared from the party to make up for us not taking one on our date. PS this picture is a big deal because Jared doesn't like to show emotion so it's rare to catch him smiling. 

Saturday, February 8th:

My actual birthday! The last birthday week present was a cute framed photo from my roomies! Man oh man I felt the love big time on Saturday. I slept in until around 9:30, then woke up and had a lazy morning. Around noon, Lauren took me and Annabeth to get our nails done! Lauren was so kind and treated me for my birthday :) I don't get my nails done too often while I'm at school so it was a really nice treat. 

Annabeth is a very good nail salon photographer. 

The roomies got me a princess crown to wear although I only had the courage to wear it in the car and to the church activity. 

 Car selfies are always a must. 

And oh my lanta I am obsessed with my nails! To anyone in Tucson who wants good gel nails or a cute design, Final Touch is your spot. I've tried others and nothing compares. I show them pictures I find online and they will do it perfectly no matter what. 

After nails, we met up with Sydney, EJ, Rory, and EJ's cutie pie friend Shannon. She is seriously the kindest person in the world! We went up to La Encantada and had lunch at RA. So much fun :) 

Lauren and I couldn't pass up sitting on these turtles. 

I got a birthday dessert for free at lunch and they brought out 7 spoons. Umm excuse me but do they think I was gonna share? Don't worry, I did share. 

After lunch, my super kind roommates stuck with me through the tumultuous task of going to the AT&T store to get my birthday present from my presents....a brand new phone! We had a horrible experience at the first phone store and I felt like crying but luckily the lady at the second AT&T store was seriously the nicest lady in the world. I loved her. Shoutout to Lauren Seaman. Here are some pictures of my new phone for your viewing pleasure. For those of you who are out of the loop, I've been using a black iPhone 4S for a while. 

Needless to say, I'm in love. After the phone store, we went to the regional YSA activity which was zombie themed. It was so fun and there is no way I'd rather spend my birthday than with a rocking dance party with my best friends! We definitely bring the party with us wherever we go. I was also really obsessed with how crystal clear the camera is on my new phone so I took a lot of random pictures. 

Sunday, February 9th:

We went to sacrament meeting like usual, after having a long and fun morning of cleaning and eating and singing. Then it was time for the men's basketball game against Oregon State! It was an awesome game and I am so proud of our team, as always. 

Enjoy this picture of Sydney being the world's cutest person ever. 

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday or who has put up with me over the years. Your friendship is greatly appreciated!!!!

I'm a Diet Coke addict, a student at the University of Arizona, and I'm a Mormon.

I'm not really in the mood to hash out all the things that have happened in the past week or so, so we will save that for a later blog post. I was inspired by my roommate Annabeth to write a blog post about myself for those of you who have only gotten to know me on the surface. Also, I'm slightly bored at work so I decided to blog.

Here are maybe 20 things about me and maybe more depending on what I feel like:

1. I was born in Houston, Texas and I consider that to be my "home". It confuses me when I have to tell people that my family currently lives in California.
2. I spent 2 and a half years living in Johannesburg, South Africa due to meeting the needs of my father's job.
3. I have one older sister named Katie who lives in Richmond, Texas.
4. My family has never had fewer than 3 pets since I've been alive. We currently have two dogs and two cats (I'm basically obsessed with Dewey and Charlotte).
5. I think I could live off of steak and cheesecake alone.
6. I came to the University of Arizona for their Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences program, only to switch over to Elementary Education this semester.
7. I grew up with a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, and somewhere along the way I became a Mormon.
8. If I have any free time (and motivation) I like to make things. Food, crafts, friends, etc. I'd rather make something than buy it.
9. Being in control of things gives me peace and comfort. That's why I like driving so much.
10. I started kindergarten a whole year early so I have always been a year younger than my classmates.
11. I love to sing in the car, shower, and in my house but I'm terrified of singing in front of large groups of people. Even after four years of choir I would still have panic attacks before each performance.
12. I've been told quite a lot that I am a loud person. I get that from my family - when we are together we all yell over each other in an attempt to be heard when in reality no one is listening.
13. My mother lost 50 pounds a few years ago and she has become a fitness queen ever since. Go mom.
14. I'm only somewhat addicted to Diet Coke.
15. I live with three awesome girls who always keep life interesting and fun.
16. I don't do things halfway. In my life I'm either all the way in or all the way out.
17. Did I mention that I'm in love with my dapple dachshund, Dewey? He makes me so happy and he's probably the best cuddle buddy I've found so far. I've never met a dog who wants to be near people so bad in my life.
18. My roommates and I used to have a fish until Annabeth took it to her parent's house over Christmas break. We have yet to see Opruh again.
19. I don't know what I would do without my friends that I've made here in Tucson. They help keep me grounded and provide comfort and joy during the crazy school/work week.
20. I worked at the Gap for about a month and a half in October. It sucked so bad. I quit and now I just work at the SALT Center on campus as a front desk assistant. I basically greet people as they walk in and deal with phones and mail.
21. My bucket list is made up of things that I want to do, but I know I will have to make an effort for them to happen. There are only two things on it: 1) visit all 7 continents in my lifetime (4 down, 3 to go) and 2) find a Greek restaurant/club and break plates (even if it means going to Greece).

I made the list 21 facts because I wanted to be rebellious. Props to you if you read that whole thing. I will include a wonderful picture of the love of my life as a reward for reading it.

Too school for cool

HELLO everyone!! Yesterday was my first day back at school and it rocked!

To start out, Sydney and I headed over to the institute to park and take a first day of school picture.

Then I went to my Spanish class and my teacher was so cute and nice! She's a little Mexican lady and her accent is the best. I'm excited for that class.

The next class I went to was Sociology. I'm not going to talk about that one much but we'll get to that later.

After Sociology, I ate some lunch and then went to the SALT Center for my shift of work. After work, I brought EJ something he left at our house, and then I went home. Since we didn't watch Pretty Little Liars on Tuesday, we celebrated it yesterday. In our house, PLL night means Chipotle. So we got Chipotle, brought it back home, and then ate it while we watched it. We had some technical difficulties getting the show to work but it was all good in the end.

After PLL, I got everything organized for today and then went to bed. Unfortunately, I didn't go right to bed, because Sydney and I stayed up late having roommate chit chat. It was worth it for the bonding though.

That brings me to today! My first class of the day just happened to be with my BFF Sydney! We are taking Theater Appreciation and so far it is like the coolest class ever. We have to watch plays and attend performances on campus and talk about them. For two theater/musical/choir/play nerds, this class is perfect. Here is a picture of us enjoying ourselves before class started. Oh and it is in the nicest building ever! I want to be in that class simply because of how cool the classrooms are.

After class, I went to meet with an advisor because....drumroll please....I switched my major! I am now technically a Pre-Education major and I will be able to apply to the program next fall. My advisor was super nice and I found out that I'm not as far behind in the Education program as I thought I was, which was super nice. My advisor also told me that two of the classes I had signed up for were useless so I didn't go to my next class. That is why I didn't talk much about Sociology - it has now been replaced by a Religion class. My other class is about Italian authors and Renaissance works and I have yet to go to it since I only enrolled in it this afternoon, but my first day will be on Tuesday. 

After meeting with my advisor, I had a lovely lunch with my friends Sydney and EJ, and then Sydney, Lauren, Matt and I went to Institute class! We are in Doctrine and Covenants, which is a continuation of the class I took last semester. For those of you who don't know, the "Doctrine and Covenants" are a set of modern-day revelations for our Church. They are from the 1800's and they are really fun to study because it's really cool to get to see how revelation and doctrine changes as the world changes. It is definitely easier for me to relate to the Doctrine and Covenants because I feel like it's more relevant in my life. Sydney was kind enough to be our pianist in class. I think she's a cute pianist. 

School seems to be really good this year - and I'm excited to keep going! Tomorrow I have Spanish again, then my Religion class for the first time. Then I have Devotional (a lecture series class at church), Dollar Lunch (also at church), and then a SALT Center shift. This weekend is extra exciting because Taylor and Natalie are having their Tucson reception, and we have no school on Monday! 

Canvas and Cabernet

As one final hoo-rah before Katie went back to Texas, the girls went out to one of our new favorite places - Canvas and Cabernet! Only one of us was into the "cabernet" part of the night, but that's ok. Basically it's a place in downtown Walnut Creek where you go to a painting class and the teachers are really fun and they walk you through a painting step by step. You're there for 3 hours so they added a booze element to loosen people up a little bit. We are dying to take my dad there and see what he comes up with... My mom and I went there for the first time over the summer and we loved it so much that we decided to go with Katie over Winter Break!

Before we went to our painting class, we stopped at one of my very favorite restaurants around home, Jules pizza! They seriously have the best gourmet pizza ever. It's inexpensive, close, and super yummy. I got the veggie pesto pizza and the barbecue chicken, as always.

This picture is sideways but I think you get the gist. 

Painting time!!!! Our inspiration was Van Gogh's Irises. Here is a picture of that painting so you have a reference. 

Here's how it started...

The instructor had her own up at the front of the class so we could watch as she painted along with us step by step. 

My cute Mom and sister painting away. 

Roughly halfway through...looking a lot like kelp. 

Action shots!

This was during our drying break. Unfortunately I had a searing headache the whole time and I was quite grumpy. Around the drying break I forgot to keep taking pictures so this is the last one...it was also a late class so it was hard to stay focused and awake. But I managed to take a picture of the finished product....

Ta dah!!!!

Since then, my break has been full of Netflix, food, sleep, friends, dogs, family, and all the other good things in life. I've got doctor's appointments and old high school visits lined up for the rest of this week as I get ready to go back to Tucson and have a fresh start at school this semester! I could not be more excited.