My "Before Graduation Bucket List"

1. Spend an entire day (until I'm so exhausted I can't see or think the concrete looks like a great place to take a nap) at the Ringling Museum taking pictures of the gardens, random people, and soaking up all of the knowledge I possibly can and learning to better appreciate some the artists I'm still rather confused with.

2. Enter a photo into some sort of competition or exhibition. We've been members of the LBK Center for the Arts as well as many other places like it since we moved here and I've never taken the opportunity to do anything like that.

3. Take a class at one of the many art centers that I happen to be a member of.

4. Go to at least one dance convention. I'm craving this so badly. I'm thinking The Pulse and Jump. I love Jump and have always wanted to go to a Pulse convention and unless I find loads of free time in college...this is my last chance.

5. Go to a drive in movie. Put your dirty minds away now, that's not what I do at drive in movies. There used to be a drive in theatre in a town about 30 minutes from Dubuque and for 4 dollars your saw a double feature and pretty much camped out in your car for an evening. It was so much fun and you always ended up meeting some rather interesting people.

6. Sell jewelry at a craft fair. Unfortunately I have a feeling it'll conflict with a Saturday dance class but...maybe I'll find a Sunday one. It might be hard for me sell my hand crafted jewelry but, I'll find a way to overcome that fear.

7. Not do any homework for an entire weekend. Yes, that includes Friday afternoon and evening.
8. Read 5 books that are not required for any of my classes.

9. Get a mani pedi...yes, I've only had one in my life and it was over a year and I half ago. It's just so hard for me to commit to sitting in a chair for more than an hour accomplishing nothing. (And yet, I sit here and blog...the hell with my priorities, haha)

There will be more to come as I think of more.

Cocoa, yoga, and Wiis.

I'd forgotten how much I truly love hot cocoa until this very moment. It all started this morning. Gina had come into my room and woken me up around 7:30...yes, for too early for a day with few plans, begging that I make her a cup of cocoa because her throat was killing her. Because I'm me, I began an argument with her that if her throat was in fact killing her, cocoa would not be the answer. However, because I'm the most amazing big sister ever (well, not always) I rolled out of bed and made my into the kitchen to make to poor, dying child some cocoa. Of course I had to test the cocoa. You know, make sure it wasn't poisonous or anything and the one sip...it did me in. So, once I got home this evening I decided to make my own cup. All mine. So, I'm sitting here, drinking cocoa, blogging, and attempting to organize my schedule for next week. It's looking super fantastic, let me tell you.

So, I've found the most amazing yoga studio. It's Body Heat on Fruitville. They have hot yoga, power yoga, and music yoga classes. The instructors are incredible and the studio is adorable. I took a power yoga class tonight. The room was about 95 degrees (I was next to the thermostat) and for the hot yoga classes the room is 105 degrees. It was hard, but so much fun. Definitely requires a different kind of strength and control than dance though.

This evening my mother bought a Wii. I never thought I'd see the day that my family purchased a video game system. She bought it with a Wii fit and supposedly that's all it'll be used for but...who knows if that will always be the rule.

I need to find a way...it won't all fix itself.

So I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that...all of this nonsense, I'm not going to wake up one morning and have it cleared up, gone, fixed, better, perfect, not a problem anymore.

For some of them I need to push them away. Get them as far from my happy place as possible. Not just pretend they don't exist, but make them non existent factors.

Others, I need to resolve. Make amends. Work on fixing. Heal. Find good in. Over look bad. Get rid of bad.

But some, I need to ride out. Hurt a little more. Find ways to fully understand why it's wrong or doesn't work. See to the bitter end. Fight my way out. Discover it's flaws. Make a scene.

Or maybe...maybe, I need to just let it all go. Forget salvaging, find new? But what if the second part doesn't work? And I'm left with nothing. Maybe nothing is better than "terrible somethings"... I don't know.

Wow, I just made loads of progress. Ok, I didn't.

Excuse me while I rant.

With my birthday coming up and my L.A. trip canceled...yes, don't get me started, my parents have decided that it would be a great opportunity to finally invest in the camera that I've been wanting for about a year and a half now. However, according to my mother, Mercury is in retrograde so it's not a good time to purchase an electronic or start something major like for instance a relationship. Well, the relationship nonsense has nothing to do with me but for the love of God, I want my camera. However, I guess if I wait and then something bad happens with the camera, she won't have anything to blame it on. She's nuts. I love her dearly and I actually believe in a lot of her madness but too much of it gets in the way.

So I'll try to do with this with out dropping any names but we'll see how it goes.
First of all, I'll never understand how people can demand so much respect when they have such little respect for others. Also, how people can carry on like nothings wrong after doing (or not doing actually) something that not only screwed over a couple people but also hurt them. I must say that while I've been losing respect for someone throughout this year, whatever was left just got flushed away. Nice one...thanks.

Oh a happier note. My seventeenth birthday is Saturday. Initially I was going to be on a plane but, who knows, maybe it would have crashed (sorry, not so light.) Friday night will be my first EVER birthday party and I'm rather excited. Nothing beats sitting around a hot top Japanese cooking table thing (yes, my vocabulary is lovely this evening) with your best friends, eating sodium saturated food, fumbling with chopsticks, and laughing about god knows what. Well, we actually do that almost every Tuesday only with tacos and without the chopsticks.

I had an absolute blast in class tonight. Not only was it amazing because I really needed to dance, for sanity reasons of course, but I honestly feel like I just got it tonight. Not all of course but I was picking up choreography better than I have lately. Both the across the floor combinations (which are always complicated and intricate in Melissa's classes) and the center set combination I actually picked up just fine, could work on the details, and even began to find some accents and stresses. Super cool....well I think so, haha.

The Adventures of Cat Sitting.

So as I probably mentioned already, I'm cat sitting until Sunday for the Covey's and well, the job that should be oh-so-simple quickly became a complicated mess this afternoon. For starters, I rushed over to their house at about 11 today as I was on my way to work and it was raining bears and hippos. Yes, not just cats and dogs, bears and hippos. Before I drove the entire length of their driveway (which is quite a lengthy one might I add) I got out of my car to check their mail, yes it was only 11 and I should have known that their mail probably wouldn't be there but I checked anyway, and to my surprise...no mail. However, despite that fact that I had used my rather adorable umbrella, I was soaked...yay! So I drive all the way up to their house and scamper inside, hoping not to get any more wet than I already was. I walk inside, greeted of course by the smell of sage (everyone's house smells like a different plant to me, mine smells like eucalyptus, Julia's smells kind of like grass...whatever) and wander into the room that despite the fact that I've seen humans in it before and have even hung out in it myself, is pretty much their cat's lair. Great, the food dish is full, the water dish is full, and I'm too short to see in or even bring down the litter box...ok then, back out into the storm.

Once I got off work, which was absolutely lovely as customers trudged in soggy and cranky all day, I stopped by the house again only this time it wasn't raining bears and hippos, it was raining elephants and dinosaurs. Seriously. Fortunately though, my trip to the mail box was worth it since their mail had come. I bolt to the front door and quickly find the key and let myself in where it's dry. Their cat, who had been no where in sight that morning, greeted me in the foyer and like I hadn't ever been their, led me to his lair. I put more food in his dish, measuring out their specified amount, half a mini plastic Halloween treat pumpkin bucket thing, refreshed the water dish, and strategically got the litter box down. Wondering where they kept the plastic begs, I ventured in to the kitchen, checking in places I thought most logical for them to be. As I began to feel like an epic failure for discovering no bags I went back to the cat's lair and lone behold, a long bag holder was hanging on the kitty condo...ok, so maybe I was an epic failure. I scooped the kitty poo into the bag, tied it up, and thought, good, just need to throw this away and I'll be out. Here's where the fun begins. Now, being a cat owner myself, I knew they must not throw the poo away in the kitchen garbage, that's crazy, so I go into the garage. After about three minutes of searching I come to the conclusion that there is no garbage can in here, well not one meant for this type of waste. As mentioned before it's raining like crazy outside but of course, that's where I go next in my search for the kitty poo receptacle. What do I find? Nothing. So, in my utter frustration I double bag the poo, put it in the back of my car, and head home where I plan to thrown it away in one of our outside garbage cans. Oh the things I do to keep animal feces out of the kitchen.

So, as it's raining harder than ever, I pull into my garage and dispose of the kitty poo. As luck would have it, my mother had just gotten home as well and was watching as I took an awkward looking Publix sack out of the back of my car and tossed it into the can. She then gave me strange look and asked me what was in the bag. "Cat poop from the Covey's" I responded of course. She gave me an even stranger look and replied with "Lauren, are you doing them a favor, or taking stalking to a whole new level?" I couldn't decide whether I was irritated with her or if I wanted to laugh but my response was sarcastically put. "Yes mom, I'm stalking the Covey's by stealing their cat shit." Oh the bond my mother and I have. Hahaha. What a day. Hopefully that was as difficult as cat sitting gets. Ironically, about an hour later, James responded to my text message in which I had asked him where they dispose of the kitty poo. He informed me that there was a trash can outside by the driveway...I probably passed it in my search.

The crazy fun that is having short hair.

Well in the 14 hours that my hair is been seven inches shorter, I must say I've become very fond it. Also, I continue to discover more examples of how much guys truly don't care about girly things.

Him: "Hey, did you cut your hair?"
Me: "Yes, a good seven inches actually."
Him: "Oh, it's very... ... noticeable."

Wow, amazing conversation if I do say so myself.

Reasons to love short hair:

1. You use a lot less shampoo, conditioner, and styling products.
2. The time spent blow drying, straightening, or styling in general is much shorter.
3. When I dance, it moves a lot more than my long hair did. (which is just fun)

Between girls day out with luch at Epicure and sprinting in the rain to girls night out eating tacos and hanging out at Starbucks, today was a rather lovely and calm day. However, once morning rolls around, I'll be back at work as well as practicing the art of cat-sitting. Oh the things I'll do for my friends. haha.