So 2013 is in 2 hours in my timezone and I figured I'd wish anyone that reads my blog a Happy New Year! Also I thought I'd share some of my "resolutions." I put quotes around this because when people hear resolutions they think "Oh you'll never stick to it." These things are more like goals. For me, goals are things that I will actually work towards.
1. Lose 100 pounds. I'd like to get down to 130 pounds. Even if I don't get to that by the end of 2013, I'd like to have lost a good amount of that 100 pounds.
2. Finish the first draft of my novel and start revising.
3. Get a job and keep it.
4. Save money for our wedding.
5. Be happier.
6. Do something crazy just for the fun of it.
7. Write a little bit everyday. You can only get better with practice.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Best birthday ever
Friday was my 20th birthday. I
woke up the morning of my birthday especially early. I'd fallen asleep
earlier than normal the night before and woke up unable to fall back
asleep around 4 in the morning. I was turning 20. It was all I could
think of. I was no longer a teenager. I was growing up. Josh snored next
to me and I smiled as he mumbled something in his sleep. Around 7 he
got up and got ready for work. We had a cup of coffee together and
kissed goodbye. The morning past rather uneventfully. Josh's mom, Ann,
took me to Coopersville and I filled out applications for apartments and
we got lunch at Taco Bell. We did a little shopping for my birthday
dinner, picked up my cake, and came back to the house. Ann wouldn't let
me see the cake. It was a surprise. She was mad because the bakery had
apparently messed up the colors on the cake. She started dinner and Josh
got home. I chose Stir Fry and onion rings for my birthday dinner.
(Don't judge. It sounded good.) Then they unveiled the cake. At first I
didn't know what it was. They finally told me that it was supposed to be
the main character from the book I'm writing. I was so surprised. I
didn't care that the bakery had messed up on her hair or her gun. It was
awesome. I blew out the candles and finished eating. Finally, it was
present time. I ripped the wrapping off of the big box. Inside was a
bunched up plastic grocery bag and a bunched up paper grocery bag. I
pulled them out. Inside the paper bag was a smaller box. I opened it and
inside was a smaller box. I pulled it out and opened it. Inside was a
little angel pin. Josh said it reminded him of a character off of Doctor
Who (my favorite show). I was looking at it, wondering when I would
ever wear it when I looked up. Right next to me was the sliding door to
go outside. It was dark outside so I could see our reflection. Out of
the corner of my eye, I saw Josh's reflection and he was getting on one
knee. I slowly turned and started crying.
"Will you marry me?" he said.
I cried harder and said "of course I will!" I pulled him into a hug before he could even stand up. I was crying and shaking as he put the ring on my finger.
Ann was crying. She was recording the whole thing. I laughed when I realized the angel pin was just a decoy gift to the even bigger gift I was about to receive.
If you would like to watch him propose, you can watch it here.
"Will you marry me?" he said.
I cried harder and said "of course I will!" I pulled him into a hug before he could even stand up. I was crying and shaking as he put the ring on my finger.
Ann was crying. She was recording the whole thing. I laughed when I realized the angel pin was just a decoy gift to the even bigger gift I was about to receive.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
21 Things to do in your 20's
So, since I'll be 20 in less than a week, I thought I'd read an article about things to do in the 20's. I like most of the things on the list. If you want you can check it out here.
These are the ones I really liked.
1. Don’t feel the need to respond to every text message, phone call, and email the second it reaches you. Once upon a time, it took longer than a minute to reach someone. People used stamps and envelopes; they had answering machines they didn’t check for hours, sometimes days. No one will die if you don’t immediately respond to every message you receive.
2. Ask for what’s owed to you. Half the time, you’re not getting your needs met because you’re not making them known. Your employers, romantic interests, and friends are not going to read your mind and give you what you need unless you speak up.
4. If you’re unhappy and someone offers you a way out, take it. You don’t owe your first job years of loyalty and your first-born; you don’t have to stay in your city just because you’re on a first-name basis with the bodega guy. Do what feels right; the initial fear will give way to excitement.
8. Learn how to cook. Here’s an idea — instead of spending all your money on ridiculously marked-up restaurant food, save your money by buying non-processed WHOLE FOODS and LEARNING HOW TO MAKE A MEAL OF REAL FOOD. A meal of real food is not a box of Annie’s Organic Mac and Cheese — that’s PROCESSED FOOD. A meal is something like sauteed brussel sprouts with onions and pinto beans garnished with salt and pepper. You’ll thank yourself for learning how to cook when your metabolism catches up to you.
9. Keep making friends. Everyone complains that it’s hard to make friends after college, but we still manage to find new people to flirt with and date, right? It’s not that hard. You know yourself better than you ever have before, and your friends can finally reflect that. Don’t cling to old friends because it’s too frightening or ‘risky’ to make new ones.
11. Stay up late. In your 20s, you’re all, “Let’s go to another bar!” “Who wants to eat at a diner?” “Have you guys seen the sun rise from the High Line?” “In this moment I swear we were infinite!” When you get older, this becomes, “What are you doing? Go home. Watch Parks and Rec and go to sleep. What is wrong with you, staying up all night? Who has time for that?” If you’re in your 20s, you do. You have all the time. Do it now and take advantage of how not tired you are. You think you’re crabby now when you stay up too late? You’ll never believe how terrible you feel when you do it in your 30s.
13. Indulge in diner/ fast food at 4 a.m. This is considered depressing behavior once you become a real adult.
14. STOP PROCRASTINATING YOUR TRIP ABROAD. YOUR CHANCES OF TAKING A LONG VACATION ABROAD DIMINISH AS YOU BECOME MORE SET IN YOUR WAYS AND AS YOU GAIN MORE RESPONSIBILITY.
18. Walk into Forever 21 and grab every single crappily-made floral dress available. Is every other girl on the street wearing it? Is it literally falling apart at the seams? Is it also actually five dollars? BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. When you get older, your clothing becomes all expensive blazers and tailored khakis and other pieces that won’t break while on your body. That will be a great day — the day when your closet starts to look respectable. Though those outfits are more expensive, they also last longer and look better on you. You will be a classy human ready to take on the future. But as long as you’re still in your 20s? You know — the demographic of Forever 21? Game on, stretchy black dress with pockets that lasts about a week. Game on.
19. Take road trips. Sitting in a car for days on end isn’t something your body was designed to do forever.
21. Go to/host theme parties. Once people age out of their 20s, no one’s trying to wear pajamas or Saran Wrap out of the house. The only theme parties that exist after your 20s are ‘Wedding,’ ‘Baby Shower,’ and ‘Funeral.’
As for the others, I liked them but I didn't love them. I'm determined to make the next 10 years of my life fun. No more sitting around feeling like I'm in my 40's. There's a lot that you can do in 10 years, and I'm going to do as much as I can.
These are the ones I really liked.
1. Don’t feel the need to respond to every text message, phone call, and email the second it reaches you. Once upon a time, it took longer than a minute to reach someone. People used stamps and envelopes; they had answering machines they didn’t check for hours, sometimes days. No one will die if you don’t immediately respond to every message you receive.
2. Ask for what’s owed to you. Half the time, you’re not getting your needs met because you’re not making them known. Your employers, romantic interests, and friends are not going to read your mind and give you what you need unless you speak up.
4. If you’re unhappy and someone offers you a way out, take it. You don’t owe your first job years of loyalty and your first-born; you don’t have to stay in your city just because you’re on a first-name basis with the bodega guy. Do what feels right; the initial fear will give way to excitement.
8. Learn how to cook. Here’s an idea — instead of spending all your money on ridiculously marked-up restaurant food, save your money by buying non-processed WHOLE FOODS and LEARNING HOW TO MAKE A MEAL OF REAL FOOD. A meal of real food is not a box of Annie’s Organic Mac and Cheese — that’s PROCESSED FOOD. A meal is something like sauteed brussel sprouts with onions and pinto beans garnished with salt and pepper. You’ll thank yourself for learning how to cook when your metabolism catches up to you.
9. Keep making friends. Everyone complains that it’s hard to make friends after college, but we still manage to find new people to flirt with and date, right? It’s not that hard. You know yourself better than you ever have before, and your friends can finally reflect that. Don’t cling to old friends because it’s too frightening or ‘risky’ to make new ones.
11. Stay up late. In your 20s, you’re all, “Let’s go to another bar!” “Who wants to eat at a diner?” “Have you guys seen the sun rise from the High Line?” “In this moment I swear we were infinite!” When you get older, this becomes, “What are you doing? Go home. Watch Parks and Rec and go to sleep. What is wrong with you, staying up all night? Who has time for that?” If you’re in your 20s, you do. You have all the time. Do it now and take advantage of how not tired you are. You think you’re crabby now when you stay up too late? You’ll never believe how terrible you feel when you do it in your 30s.
13. Indulge in diner/ fast food at 4 a.m. This is considered depressing behavior once you become a real adult.
14. STOP PROCRASTINATING YOUR TRIP ABROAD. YOUR CHANCES OF TAKING A LONG VACATION ABROAD DIMINISH AS YOU BECOME MORE SET IN YOUR WAYS AND AS YOU GAIN MORE RESPONSIBILITY.
18. Walk into Forever 21 and grab every single crappily-made floral dress available. Is every other girl on the street wearing it? Is it literally falling apart at the seams? Is it also actually five dollars? BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. When you get older, your clothing becomes all expensive blazers and tailored khakis and other pieces that won’t break while on your body. That will be a great day — the day when your closet starts to look respectable. Though those outfits are more expensive, they also last longer and look better on you. You will be a classy human ready to take on the future. But as long as you’re still in your 20s? You know — the demographic of Forever 21? Game on, stretchy black dress with pockets that lasts about a week. Game on.
19. Take road trips. Sitting in a car for days on end isn’t something your body was designed to do forever.
21. Go to/host theme parties. Once people age out of their 20s, no one’s trying to wear pajamas or Saran Wrap out of the house. The only theme parties that exist after your 20s are ‘Wedding,’ ‘Baby Shower,’ and ‘Funeral.’
As for the others, I liked them but I didn't love them. I'm determined to make the next 10 years of my life fun. No more sitting around feeling like I'm in my 40's. There's a lot that you can do in 10 years, and I'm going to do as much as I can.
Friday, November 30, 2012
New year, New me
My birthday is in 2 weeks. I'll be 20 years old and 235 lbs. That's scary. I'm coming out of my teenage years weighing more than I ever thought I'd weigh. I know some pretty amazing people that are over 300 and I watch them struggle all the time. It's hard and I don't ever want to have to go through what they go through. I'm already seeing my body start to do not nice things. I have a hard time walking up the stairs at school. I have been sick a lot lately. I'm always tired. I'm done feeling bad every time I say "I'm going to workout today" and then don't. So to bring in the start of my "grown up" years, I'm going to start working out for at least 30 minutes every day. Whether that means taking a walk, going for a bike ride, or just walking around the house. I'm also going to start taking my vitamins every day and eating more fruits and vegetables. My goal is to lose 100 lbs total. I know it will take a while, but I know that I can do it. I'm going to make small goals and have big victories when I hit those goals!
These are my starting pictures. Kind of embarrassing to be honest but I feel like if I post it, it'll keep me from back sliding.
Monday, November 26, 2012
angry does not describe how I feel right now
*WARNING* There will be very angry and possibly very inappropriate language in this post. If you don't like it, then don't read it.
So today was the first day back to school. As if that couldn't ruin my day enough, I came home to something that made me want to throw a refrigerator (Timmy reference for all my NaNo readers). I said goodbye to Josh and watched him leave. *sad* I went to the fridge thinking I'd get a piece of chicken and pop it in the microwave for a bit and have some chicken and rice for lunch. I opened the freezer and grabbed the french fries to move out of the way and realized that they were not frozen. Not even a teeny tiny bit frozen. I began to panic as I grabbed my FULL bag of chicken and my untouched hamburger. All squishy and unfrozen. I was livid. I thought at first that maybe somebody had unplugged the fridge over our WEEK LONG break. I called my mom and cried over all of my food being destroyed for a minute and then I called Campus Safety. The lady said that it shouldn't have been unplugged. I hung up and went to see if my roommate knew anything about it. *This is where the bad language comes in* Some dumbass decided it would be a good idea to turn the fucking temperature of the freezer down to COOL!!! They messed with my fucking freezer and now my food is ruined! Now my mom has to come and spend money that she doesn't fucking have to buy me food so that I don't go hungry. I am super pissed and somebody is going to pay. I don't know who did this yet but I will find out. And you don't want to be around me when people ruin my stuff.
*End rant*
So today was the first day back to school. As if that couldn't ruin my day enough, I came home to something that made me want to throw a refrigerator (Timmy reference for all my NaNo readers). I said goodbye to Josh and watched him leave. *sad* I went to the fridge thinking I'd get a piece of chicken and pop it in the microwave for a bit and have some chicken and rice for lunch. I opened the freezer and grabbed the french fries to move out of the way and realized that they were not frozen. Not even a teeny tiny bit frozen. I began to panic as I grabbed my FULL bag of chicken and my untouched hamburger. All squishy and unfrozen. I was livid. I thought at first that maybe somebody had unplugged the fridge over our WEEK LONG break. I called my mom and cried over all of my food being destroyed for a minute and then I called Campus Safety. The lady said that it shouldn't have been unplugged. I hung up and went to see if my roommate knew anything about it. *This is where the bad language comes in* Some dumbass decided it would be a good idea to turn the fucking temperature of the freezer down to COOL!!! They messed with my fucking freezer and now my food is ruined! Now my mom has to come and spend money that she doesn't fucking have to buy me food so that I don't go hungry. I am super pissed and somebody is going to pay. I don't know who did this yet but I will find out. And you don't want to be around me when people ruin my stuff.
*End rant*
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Busy busy busy!!
I think the last time I wrote was when I was having a job interview. I unfortunately did not get the job but I am still looking. I've been crazy busy with school so I haven't written anything on my book in like 2 weeks and I haven't worked on school work at all over my Thanksgiving break. The last couple days I've been sick and feeling really bad so I've just been laying around. I started making bracelets again yesterday and remembered how much I liked doing it. I'm gonna teach myself how to knit sometime soon and maybe start selling my stuff on Etsy.
Anyways, it's bed time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Eat lots!
Anyways, it's bed time. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Eat lots!
Monday, November 12, 2012
What the heck happened?
I've been slacking on my novel. I haven't even hit 11,000 words yet and I should be at 20,000 words. Kind of depressing but I keep telling myself that, even if I don't win, at least I'll have a great book to start getting my name out there. I try to write a little every day. Even if I can't get my 2,000 words a day in. Plus, Thanksgiving break starts on Friday, so I will have that whole week to try to get caught up.
Big news!! I had an interview with a temp agency of Friday! They offered me a second interview on Tuesday (tomorrow) at 5/3rd bank's call center and I accepted (obviously! What unemployed college student wouldn't?). So I'm going in at 11:00 tomorrow because Josh has his interview with them first and then I have mine at 11:45. Josh has this job in the bag because he has previous experience in a call center and his best friend works there, but I'm going to have to work really hard to get this job. We both really need jobs so I'm praying that I get this.
Well, I will update tomorrow after the interview. Love you guys.
Big news!! I had an interview with a temp agency of Friday! They offered me a second interview on Tuesday (tomorrow) at 5/3rd bank's call center and I accepted (obviously! What unemployed college student wouldn't?). So I'm going in at 11:00 tomorrow because Josh has his interview with them first and then I have mine at 11:45. Josh has this job in the bag because he has previous experience in a call center and his best friend works there, but I'm going to have to work really hard to get this job. We both really need jobs so I'm praying that I get this.
Well, I will update tomorrow after the interview. Love you guys.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Election day and NaNoWriMo
Yesterday was election day. I finally got to vote in my first election. It was pretty exciting. My mom took a picture.
So onto NaNoWriMo. I am a whole day behind on my writing and I'm not going to be able to get caught up today. I have class all day today so I'm not going to have a whole lot of time to write. I will get caught up though. Whether I finish in time to win or not.... This book WILL be completed. Today is going to be a crazy busy day. Wednesdays for me are worse than Mondays because I have 3 classes. Anyways, I will write more later. I love you guys.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
It's not a job when you love what you do!
Hello everyone. I've been writing all day and just been feeling really good about my book. I finally reached 7,000 words. I'm above that now. I'm not quite to 8,000 words though. I'm so excited about my novel. It'll be my first novel so it is definitely something to be excited about.
I'm super happy about the fact that my book is basically writing itself. It has gone so many places that I didn't expect it to go. My story has done a really good job of surprising me on a few parts. I just hope it continues to be this easy to write. I really didn't think I'd make it passed day 2 of NaNoWriMo but it's now day 4 and I woke up this morning just as excited as on day 1. I hope it continues throughout the month. Well, I think it's time to do a little bit more writing. Love you!
I'm super happy about the fact that my book is basically writing itself. It has gone so many places that I didn't expect it to go. My story has done a really good job of surprising me on a few parts. I just hope it continues to be this easy to write. I really didn't think I'd make it passed day 2 of NaNoWriMo but it's now day 4 and I woke up this morning just as excited as on day 1. I hope it continues throughout the month. Well, I think it's time to do a little bit more writing. Love you!
Saturday, November 3, 2012
NaNoWriMo
November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is where people all over the world write a novel that has 50,000+ words in 30 days. This is my first year and I am super excited. It is day 3 and I have over 5,000 words. I don't think I realized just how much I adore writing until I started my novel. Now all I want to do is write. I'm calm. It's like my antidepressant. To all you other NoNoers out there, good luck!! Be strong. Stay Sane. And keep on writing!
A little about me
For those that don't know me, my name is Cari. I am 19, going to be 20 on December 14th. I am a student at Baker college of Muskegon. This is my first year and I am studying Elementary Teacher Preparation: Language Arts. I am also planning to write on the side. I am a lover of all things literature. I love to either curl up and read a really good book or do some major writing on any given day. A cup of coffee and my computer are my best friends when it comes to my writing. I dream of one day being a bestselling author and seeing my books on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and doing book signings and all that jazz. It's not about the money for me. It's about inspiring young writers to follow their dreams no matter what anyone says or what their background is. My biggest fans are my boyfriend, Josh, my momma, and my grandma. I don't know where I'd be without them. They are the reason I write and the reason I never give up. When I've had a bad day I like to just throw myself into my writing. Writing makes me happy. It calms me. It's my lifeline. It keeps me sane. I will write on here as often as I can while still trying to pass my classes. I love you all. :)
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