To My Future Self

I must only speak in vague references, as I do not wish to give my intentions away, but....

DEAR FUTURE SELF:

DO NOT FORGET YOUR PLANS CONCERNING EASTER. Reminder: It is in conjunction with your Easter Dress Dream. Remember this, and you will be so awesome.

That is all.

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Once upon a time I got an angel barbie for Christmas.
This one. Mattel's 1996 Angel Princess Barbie.

The thing is, I knew I was getting her for Christmas... my parents "hid" all of our presents in the same places every year. Since there are eight of us children, it was a bit difficult to figure out whose present was whose. But I looked under the bed, found this Barbie, and then left the room.

When I opened her up on Christmas morning, I acted as surprised, excited, and grateful, as I deemed would be expected. No one knew. And I still loved her. We have family photographs (taken with my very own disposable Kodak camera) of my older sister and me playing with her on my pink plastic salon chair (it came with a plastic shower head, combs, fake hair attached to a barrette, bottles...) which we had, I assume, transformed into a castle of sorts for her.

I have changed very little since then.

In one month and thirteen days, Colin and I will have been dating for one year. He and I are both narrowing down our gift for the other, and I figured out what two things he was choosing between to give me. One was fairly obvious. I was going to buy it for myself and he told me to wait. The other he'd told me about in vague terms for a different occasion that never actually happened. But his clues were too good, and I used Google to help decode them.

The thing is, I didn't think I was actually going to get either thing... at least not yet. It was more wishful thinking... crossing my fingers that my present would be either of those two items. But then Colin was proposing ideas to a mutual friend, and I told her my guesses (she told me I was wrong and I believed her) and then she told Colin that I knew... and then he told me that I had guessed right. And commenced searching for new options.

So now I feel like a four-year old that sneaked a look at her Christmas presents and got lectured for it. Except that I never got lectured. But I feel awful. Because he's disappointed that my snooping ruined his surprise, and now all my wishful thinking (that would have actually been a reality) really is/will be just wishful thinking after all.

But. He's good at presents. I've never guessed what he's gotten me before, and I've loved it all. (Although I did have sneaking suspicions about the nine-month flower delivery.)

Lesson learned.

And satisfaction never brought him back.

Then Sings My Soul

I have uncovered a fondness for hymns sung by popular artists.

Like this.
Mumford & Sons
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

& This.

Carrie Underwood
How Great Thou Art

Hey, Big Spenda

I figured that if I bought cute running shorts, I would be motivated to run.

So I bought cute running shorts.

Let the exercise commence...


Soon. (ish)

Real World

When I went job hunting at the mall, I guess that I'd forgotten about the real world. Getting ready for eight o'clock classes at school involved as little preparation as possible. I basically lived in the basics. Jeans and V-neck tees. That is what I wore job hunting. Jeans, a V-neck tee, cute flats, and neat make-up done in natural colors- a minimalist approach. Make-up was a rarity in college, and my hair was up as much as it could be so that I wouldn't have to deal with it, but for job hunting I went the extra step and straightened it!

Then I got to the mall.

My senses were assaulted (ok, mostly just my eyes, but I liked the alliteration) by bright colors and cute trends. Trends. I'd forgotten about those. Styles. Fashion. I felt terribly unprepared.

I think I like the college world better.

We Meet Again...

While I did say that it was an "End of Orientation Dance," Orientation wasn't quite over. Our orientation groups assembled the following morning, first to learn about the honor code in a meeting on the lawn in front of Main Hall, and then to perform service projects in downtown Buena Vista (BV).

The front of Main. The speakers were on the steps and all the new students sat on folding chairs.

After all the speeches concluded, my group helped put away the chairs, and then shuttled up to the dorm to get our wallets (so we wouldn't have to take the time to climb the aforementioned hill), and then shuttled on downtown, where we picked weeds to beautify the streets in preparation for the Labor Day Parade. (I learned later that Colin's group just helped put away chairs and considered that the extent of their "service.")

There was a lot going on in downtown BV that day.

This is downtown BV. And a beautiful friend who, while a lovely person, is completely irrelevant to my story.

To thank us for helping out, as well as to advertise, business in BV were offering special discounts to SVU students. I went to lunch at the local Italian restaurant ("the" being singular, because there's only one...) with a couple friends from the group. Kasia is kind of a big deal in this story, so I will show you her.

This is me with Kasia. She lived next door and was in my orientation group.

So I ate lunch with Kasia and Josh, and then we went to Battle of the Bands in a nearby yard. I looked absolutely disgusting, by the way. I was wearing ill-fitting jeans and the bright green orientation t-shirt, accented with grimy streaks from weed-pulling fun.

Orientation T-shirts! (And just hangin with my roomie...)

And Colin was at Battle of the Bands! While he hadn't made it down for the service, he did manage to be there to jam out. Kasia and I decided to see if he had made good on his promise to remember all of our names. He managed to prove himself (and possibly guarantee himself a couple more votes for Freshman Class President in the process). So Colin was hanging out with a group of guys from his orientation group ahead of us. Kasia and I were both kind of checking out this fine fellow in Colin's group, Patrick.

Patrick. Also answers to Pattycakes and P-Nasty.

We were clapping along to the music, but when boy-whose-name-we-didn't-know smiled, Kasia's clap got a little delayed and totally off-beat. It was embarrassingly funny.

When Colin was over talking to us, Kasia asked him if he could introduce his friend (Patrick) to us. Colin's man-ego sprung a bit of a leak, and that's how Kasia got dibs on Pattycakes, who had JUST gotten back from his mission. So Colin called the tan, well-dressed guy over, and the four of us started talking. It was around the middle of the afternoon.

The First Encounter.

So. You know this kid?

He's been on here a time or two before.

I met him on this night:

It was the end-of-orientation dance. August 26th. But, no, we're not THAT cliche--- we didn't meet at a dance. pshhh... no offense to those of you who HAVE met your significant other that way, of course. It wouldn't be a cliche if it wasn't adorable! And note that I didn't say Colin and I aren't cliche, just that we aren't THAT cliche. We met after the dance. Here's my version (the accurate version) of the story:

My friends and I were walking back to our dorm from the Student Activities Center where the dance was held. Colin and his buddies had just escorted a different group of girls all the way up those obnoxious stairs and were heading back towards the rest of campus. They hailed us, "Good night beautiful young daughters of God!" Just corny. EFY corny. Of course, Colin was the one that yelled that out. I responded with, "What, you're not going to walk us up the hill, too?!" It's funny because... walking up the hill twice would suck. 

The infamous stairs.

But anyway, the guys met us at the corner by the stairs. Lax bros. They introduced themselves. Mack, Garrett, Colin, Jake... So many faces. And it was dark. And they were awfully sweaty. Colin told us that he's an eagle scout and is running for freshman class president. And that we should vote for him. Pompous, right? Or "confident." We all talked. I said that I'm from Detroit, and that's why I'm so thug. I did a Girls' Camp rap to prove it. They weren't buying. Colin performed a rap, too. It was mediocre. Mine was clearly superior. But I thought... this boy is confident and cocky and running for Freshman Class President. I want him to like me. Colin promised to remember all of our names. I doubted his abilities. But he was majorly networking back then. Anyway, sweaty hugs around and we parted ways. For the time being.