drowning in christmas spirit.

I've been filling this week to the gills with Christmas spirit. As I've mentioned, I tend to overload early in the season, so after a week of taking a break, I'm back in the full swing of things.

Monday I hit the mall with Lynds to buy last minute gifts and cute Christmas dresses from Forever 21 (can't wait to show you!). Yesterday I was extra sniffly and was glad that my plans included snuggling under blankets and watching Christmas movies. Natalie came over and we caught up on each others' lives before settling in to watch Elf (which I've never seen, and now LOVE) and The Santa Clause. They were perfect get-in-the-spirit Christmas movies.

Today is dedicated to cleaning the house top to bottom and baking desserts for Christmas Day with Lynds. Then it's early to bed so that I (hopefully!) feel tons better for the festivities. We celebrate both Christmas Eve and Day around here, so I've got two days packed full of family, food, and of course, presents! (Which I'm excited for moreso because I can't wait to GIVE my gifts, not because I want to get gifts. Seriously, I did good this year.)

And because my hands have been busy wrapping gifts and gripping warm cups of tea, I've been slow on the 24 Days of Christmas pictures. But! I have been finding time to take photos, so here they are, all at once. Just a few days left!

a little stressed

Greetings from the land of The Week Before Move-In Day!

I've been squeezing every bit of fun I can out of the few days left until I move in to school. On Tuesday I hung out with the Former Roomies and we did what we do best: on-the-fly-back-to-school-clearance shopping! Yay! I came home with two new tank tops, a plain black tee, and a cute skirt I found at Old Navy. We ate at Panera in between (delish!) and spent a while there chatting about... our futures. Dun dun dunnnnnn.

I am extremely unprepared for The Real World, as I have mentioned several times. Where am I going to live? And with whom? Or maybe I should live alone? Will I get a job? Where will I work? How long are my parents willing to let me live here post-graduation? Am I going to be living in a cardboard box?

This year is going to be tough because I've got to suck it up and actually work really hard. I'm warning you now, this blog may turn into a place where I'm going to rantrantrant about schoolwork and be a baby about it. Feel free to, you know, completely ignore those entries when they pop up.

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In other news, I've been putting off going to the dentist for some time now. I had an appointment to have my pearly whites cleaned up back in July, and was told I have a billion problems some issues to deal with: four cavities (one of which requires a crown), my wisdom teeth need to come out, and I have receding gums that need surgery. BLECH. I can handle the cavities, even though it's been over a month and I haven't called to schedule my next appointments. But the wisdom teeth? Oral surgery for my gums?! I just about crapped my pants in the office when he told me all that. I know that wisdom teeth are.. not impossibly scary/painful, but I'm thinking I would feel much better if they weren't impounded and were instead already grown in. However. My mother had the gum surgery and CAIT DOES NOT WANT. No thanks, I'll pass. Too bad my gums are so bad in places that the roots of my teeth are exposed. Great.

So those are the two things on my mind when I have the time to think. Luckily I spent a wonderful day at the beach on Thursday and have dinner with my old high school gang tonight, so I have opportunities to take those things off my mind for a while.

social butterfly

What a week.

After resting for Monday and Tuesday (I can barely remember what I even did on Tuesday), I spent the following four days hanging out with friends.

Wednesday I went back to work and then headed over to Danielle's house for pizza and a movie. We watched 27 Dresses which was absolutely adorable. Loved it. I was so glad to see and talk to Danielle, because I had a lot on my mind about The Boy. She's our mutual friend and has been giving us both a lot of advice about this whole thing. It was just so nice to talk everything out and, in the process, figure out some things that had been on my mind.

Thursday was Roomie Reunion day, so Katie (my freshmen year roommate) and Melissa (my sophomore/junior year roommate) came over. We went to Friday's for lunch where I filled them in about The Boy and they gave me some stellar advice based on their own relationships. I actually learned so much from them because I was there for the beginnings of both of their current relationships. The most important thing I gleaned is that, in the early stages, changing your mind is pretty typical. That definitely happened to me, so knowing it had happened to my friends, I made sure to stick it out and realize what I wanted. Good thing I did.

We then roamed the mall, where Katie found a gorgeous shawl for the office. I picked up some earrings for myself and as a gift for Danielle, and got some goodies over at Yankee Candle. Yankee Candle is becoming a tradition with the three of us, and consists of us going into the store and smelling all the candles, deciding whether or not they truly smell like they're supposed to. We learned something new on Thursday - to get the best scent, you smell the inside of the lid on the jar candles instead of the candle itself. Now we know the true secret of becoming Candle Connoisseurs.

Friday was absolutely amazing, I must say - I went to see The Boy. We grabbed lunch at Panera, I met his family, and basically we upped our comfort level with each other. It was wonderful, but at the same time it's causing me to miss him a lot more. He's going to the city for research for about two months, and he'll only be home on the weekends. I'm either planning on visiting him in the city sometime, or driving down to his house when he's home one weekend. Still, it's probably going to be only once or twice over the next two months, which is definitely not enough. Boo.

Yesterday I actually got to sleep in. Thursday and Friday's plans were earlier in the day, and luckily yesterday's plans were for dinner and movie with Danielle and Natalie. We went to Applebees where I ordered that salad with the shrimp and avocado - I kept seeing commercials for it and was craving it. Then it was time for Sex and the City. It was fabulous! Even though I don't regularly watch the show, I have seen a few episodes and sorta know the characters. I thought the atmosphere of the theater was great too - everyone was watching it as if they were on their living room sofas watching the TV show. You could hear chatter, but nobody minded. Of course, the best part was when Carrie opens the doors to her walk-in closet; all the women in the theater gasped, ouu'd and ahh'd. It was great. I love movies that solicit a lot of audience response.

So I finally have a day to hang out and do nothing. Although.. I've already started trying to make more plans. What can I say? I'm in a very social mood lately. I think it's because I was so cut off from my friends, who were all on vacation earlier in the month. Anyway, today's plans would either be dance stuff with Ash and Cort, TV with Lynds, or a movie with Emily, so they would all be very laid back.

Alright, time for some sleep. While I'm catching some Z's and having a relaxing Sunday, tell me about your week/weekend! Did you see SATC? What'd you think?

endless possibilities

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My roommates are coming back to me. Yay! Melissa is back from her trip to Ireland and England, and Natalie's back from England as well. Danielle gets back this Sunday. So much has happened in the span of these past few weeks, and I'm starting to forget who knows what. I hate when that happens; hopefully soon, I can catch everyone up on my oh-so-exciting life.

So what's this secret story, you ask? Well, I'm very hesitant to talk about it at the moment.. as you can probably guess, it's about A Boy. And basically, I feel a little weird talking about him here because I'm only just starting to get to know him, and wouldn't that be great to have him find this and see that I'm divulging every detail of every moment I spend with him or talk to him. So for right now, expect only a few tidbits of general information.

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Ah, summer. I'm finally realizing that I'm actually on break, which means it's time for my annual Goals for Summer.

Goal #1 - De-Clutter My Room

I am a very nostalgic type of person. Unfortunately, this brings out my pack rat side, only with really stupid things. I keep wayyy too much stuff, the kind of stuff I really don't need, like glow sticks from my friends' high school graduation parties. On top of wanting to keep this stuff, I have this urge to display all of it, too. The result is a very, very cluttered-looking room. I've recently been on a mission to make my room look a little more organized, but I'm still having trouble. Hopefully I'll be able to let go of more stuff - I'm pretty good about getting in the purging mood and just tossing anything that isn't extremely sentimental.

Goal #2 - Organize the Family Photo Albums

Holy crackers. We are so behind on putting pictures in albums, and my OCD side has had just about enough of this nonsense. There are a million photo envelopes in our closet in the den, and all of these empty books, and yet nothing's been done. I always threaten to make it my pet project for the summer or winter break, but usually get scolded by my mom for wasting time on non-important things. Psh. Who needs to work and earn money when I could appease my organizational cravings? Anyway, this year I think I'm finally gonna just sit down and do it.. IN ADDITION to my job, of course.

Goal #3 - MAKE MONEY

This is a big one. Right now The Boy is looking into an internship possibility for me (he's coming in handy already! heh), so my fingers are crossed about that one. If not, I'm looking into being a temp, either just general office work or maybe even doing accounting-related stuff. We'll see. A little, teeny-tiny part of me also wants to try out waitressing, but I shy away from that in most cases because I would NOT do well dealing with unhappy people.

Hopefully I can accomplish at least one - if not all - of these goals. Let's see what I have to say in August, because right now I'm in that mood where I'm thinking, I have the whole summer ahead of me! ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES! Same as every year.

moving out

I'm pretty glad that I slept late today, even though I was frantically rushing to get to my final. I didn't get a chance to review the last topic in the morning, which hurt me in the end because there were five questions on the end of the final about it. Whoops.

Sitting and taking that final was the last moment of peace for me for the rest of the day. I rushed back to my house in the rain to start packing. I was glad to find Natalie still getting ready to leave, so we said goodbyes for the second time. I watched her walk all the way down the stairs, just like we had done for Danielle.

Packing the cars was hellish. Just when the rain seemed to be letting up, it suddenly poured as the three of us - my mother, my brother and myself - walked back from our first trip out to the cars. Considering my mother isn't the best candidate for walking to and from the parking deck, she was exhausted after the first trip. She was also frustrated with the parking situation directly outside of the house, which I could've told her would happen. Regardless, we were able to haul stuff out pretty quickly, and soon my brother and mom had left.

I spent a good hour taking down the remaining decorations in my room. A lot of people would probably have taken down decorations first, since they're the easiest. However, I would've probably gone crazy with bare walls and an empty desk. I took the ribbon off my lamp, turning it back into its ugly dorm-like self. The curtain came down, as did the scrapbook pages used to cover the less-than-pleasing cork board bordering the room. I finally got all my remaining stuff out into the common area, and making sure my window was locked, I stood for a moment to remember the view. Turning the lights out, I paused for a moment (as I've done every year) before closing the door for the last time.

Now came the hard part. I made one last trip to my car, returning to the house in silence (I'd had sappy songs playing on my laptop up to this point, you know, just to hit that emotional chord as hard as possible). Triple checking the drawers, fridge, and bathrooms, I threw out anything I wasn't taking with me and packed my last bag. Then it was time to take down the little verse I'd written about the four of us, about our experiences in this house. I ended up sitting on the floor, against the banister, and reading it again. It didn't take long before I was crying; I'd been starting to every couple of minutes, as I'd open the doors under the sink expecting the trash to be there, or as I stopped by Natalie's closed door and mentally pictured how many times I'd stood there, distracting her and Danielle. After I finished reading and took a moment, I packed the papers away and picked up my bag, and reached for the light switches. It was the most difficult part of the entire thing. I hit the first one, and the lights in the common area went out. I hit the second one and was enveloped in darkness. But the same familiar shadows of the house remained as I walked very slowly down the stairs.

Being the last one to leave the house was very emotional for me, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I think leaving while other people were still there would be equally emotional, plus, this way I had the opportunity to just take in the emptiness. I felt an attachment to leaving last, since I'd been the very first one to move in.

I am beyond excited for summer, and I know that I'm going to see my roommates a million times anyway (every two weeks, at least). But having to leave behind our home away from home, where we could see each other at any hour of the day.. it's tough.

beautiful day

The weather is a very strange thing. When I rushed out of my townhouse around noon, it was cloudy and cold, which didn't add to my horrible mood. I'd woken up late, and on top of that, I was having a bad stomach episode. Anyway, class was over in an hour and upon walking outside, I realized that all the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining. It's a little chillier than I would've liked, but it is gorgeous outside.





(some shots taken very lazily from my bedroom window)

I'm taking it as a sign. I tend to do that a lot, because it inspires me to find mundane things and pretend they mean something. See, I was ready for today to be crappy because of my unfortunate morning. Had I not had a presentation in class, I would've definitely stayed in bed. I was ready to crash into my bed as soon as I returned from class. The weather totally changed my mind. Sunny, blue skies are apparently medicinal.

Now I just have this positive vibe about today. That project I've been dreading forever seems like the easiest thing in the world. All those questions I had for RHA or for other classes are getting answered and stressing me out less and less. I have productivity running through my body. It's pretty crazy for someone who rarely gets that motivated to work.

Yesterday's weather was also indicative of my mood, I suppose. When I stepped out of my house on my way to meet my friend for dinner, the drizzling rain turned into a sudden downpour. It was strangely warm outside despite the rain, and I smiled at all of it. I have a very picky attitude when it comes to rain. At night, I adore it. During the day, not so much. Cold, rainy days make me really depressed and lazy. But if it's warm out, and the skies aren't too dark.. there's this strange appeal to it.

I better take advantage of this productive mood I'm in before it goes away, which could be in five days or five minutes. Let's hope it's the former.

Oh! And a quick Happy 3rd Anniversary! to my roommate Natalie and her boyfriend.