It's a hairy story...

This is it, folks. After months of careful deliberation, I made the decision. I decided that long hair was really just the think for me.

Until last week when I went to the salon with the girls in my family. As I watched Mom and Britt get their hair trimmed, I got that tickly kind of sensation that I needed a change. So today at the salon I boldly declared, "I think I might wanna donate it, maybe. But if not, it's no big deal. Really, whatever you think would be good."

Okay, I firmed up the statement a little to, "I wanna donate it," but choosing a style was hard. Mom and Angela (dearest cousin)decided that A-line would work for me. Okay, I said. Results....

BEFORE

Except brown.

*Sad realization!* I have no pictures of my gorgeous long hair!! I always have it braided or in a bun, so no one can see that it was really to my belly button! This is really kind of sad. Remedy: I must grow it out again. It only took two and a half years...

AFTER

Sorry for the lousy computer picture. As always, my camera battery is dead.

Anyway, I chopped it. A little over a foot of hair, gone. There are pros and cons, of course.
Pro: I like how swishy it is.
Con: I feel like I look five years younger, but also mom-ish.
Pro: It's swishy.
Con: I felt more beautiful/hot/sexy/cute whatever with long hair.
Pro: Potentially easy to care for.
Con: But easier than my everyday long hair dance bun?
Pro: No more split ends.
Con: I feel a little like Jo. I miss my hair.

On a kind of funny side note, Lu did the exact same thing. Poor chica, she's not happy, but I think it's adorable.

Anyway, that's the long and short of it.
Pardon the pun.

Gold Flecks

Step 1: Go to this link.
Step 2: Watch the Youtube video. (Spoiler Alert: It's a Mormon Message...)
Step 3: Read this blog. Even if you didn't follow step two.

Tonight at Family Home Evening (...get-together for friends, food, and churchy stuff) we were shown this video. In a nutshell: we are blessed with a million little flecks of gold (blessings) daily, but we don't always notice them because we're so busy working/looking for nuggets. By collecting the flecks, we can make our own nuggets.

I'm going to create today's nugget right now for you, my adorning readers.

• I got to dance with tons of cool people for four hours!
• Curry rice for dinner. Yum…
• Spinach salad with FETA! Double yum…
• Lovely back massage from lovely Russell.
• A fun FHE activity. Besides the video we made Thankful Turkeys, giving me ample opportunity to think of more things I’m thankful for.


And my little brother is a riot.
Step 4: Think of some of your flecks. And see if you can give some flecks to others.


On a completely different note, I found out today that I didn't make SPAC again...Not sure how I feel about this.

Forget Me Not

College is stressful. Life is stressful. Last night, during a Spanish-induced panic attack I felt rather hopeless. Spanish is kicking my butt. It's a pretty strange feeling for someone who used to have the will power to pull all-nighters for school. Okay, that still happens, but not as often. Even going to bed at one and waking up at six has drained me. And my shoulders and lower back ache.

When I first got up today I considered calling in sick, being sick, "accidentally" falling back asleep...anything to avoid Spanish. I didn't, though. I got up and saw a golden ticket on the kitchen table. That is, a chocolate bar that said golden ticket. It was from Relief Society's chocolate night, which I did not go to because I was at a tap concert.

Anyway, I'm waxing long. The point is what this ticket/chocolate bar said:
1. Forget not to be patient with yourself.
2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice.
3. Forget not to be happy now.
4. Forget not the "why" of the gospel.
5. Forget not that the Lord loves you.

That's President Uchtdorf, by the way. See? Read it.


I think each of these "petals" apply to me and my ridiculous relationship with Spanish, but it's time for me to Go and Do so I'll leave you to ponder how they can be applied to your life.

Love,
Erika

Oh, and the forget me not is the Alaska state and my high school class flower. How cool is that?

Italy

I need to go to Italy. Magic happens in Italy. The lost, confused,and alone flock to Italy and come back with renewed vigor and true love. Chick flicks are evidence of this.

Think about it:
Letters to Juliet, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Roman Holiday (sob!), The Italian Job, Much Ado About Nothing, and Return to Me. And these are only the ones I've seen.

Speaking of Return to Me, it's quite possibly one of my favorite movies. Grace and Bob are at very different points in life. He's grieving a recently dead wife. She's getting used to life without heart disease (courtesy of a new heart.) Their paths cross in an Italian restaurant, and thus begins one of the purest, most romantic relationships I've ever seen on a screen. In middle school my journal heard all about how I wanted one of the "smiley kisses" Bob and Grace shared. Their kisses were not lust-driven, passion-filled maulings. Their first kiss was short, slow, awkward, and sweet. As they stepped back they were both wearing dopey grins. Smiley kiss.

Predictably, a conflict had to be introduced to the story or it wouldn't have been a good story. Tears were involved. Bob went home and Grace went to....you guessed it: Italy. There she painted and sat on rooftops and road her bicycle. And of course Bob realized what an idiot he had been and went to Italy, effectively crushing all doubt of their love. They lived happily ever after.
I think everyone has days when they want to go to Italy. To clear their heads. To change it up. To fall in love. To get over love.

I want to go to Italy because I think it'd be fun to red a red bicycle on cobblestones.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

Halloween weekend. Some college girls are at the dances in tiny skirts and high heels. Some are cuddling up with boys in front of a scary movie. Some are sleeping. Some are doing homework (ick.)
I'm not.
I had planned on sleeping by midnight, but GI Jane and my roommate distracted me. That and my new nail polish. I bought some crackle nail polish tonight to help my Halloween costume out a little. Of course, I got the cheapo kind, so the results aren't great, but hey, it was fun for $5. ($3 for the crackle, $2 for the regular.)

Sorry for the lousy quality. I'm a wee bit too lazy to take a picture on my camera to post tonight.

These nails will go with me this weekend as I bake three pumpkin pies, possibly go to a corn maze, get visited by my hometeachers, study, write a paper, take a psych test and dress up as a spider web because I have no creativity and feel like decorating my dance clothes.

What are you guys doing for Halloween?

Restless

I'm restless.
You can take that in a couple of ways, I guess. There's the actual definition of restless: you know, restless. Unsettled. Ready to do....anything crazy, but without any idea of what.
Or you can read it as rest-less. Like I've had less rest than I should, which is very true. I had planned on sleeping until about 10:30am this morning--it IS Saturday after all. Instead, Emily (wonderful roommate) unintentionally woke up me at 9:30 while she was getting dressed to go to Stake Conference. I didn't know we had it today, which is why I was going to sleep through it. Well, I got up and went to SC. It was a good meeting, and ended with me feeling restless.

A couple of hours later, Russell and I rented a tandem bike. Aren't we cute?

Well, that's not quite us, but it's the same basic idea.
Getting started was a little shaky, but I'm amazed at how quickly we figured it out, and even more so at how we seemed to pedal and stop pedaling at the same times.
We costed along the bike path, enjoying the gorgeous 66 degree weather. Really, Utah, it's almost November! But I love this weather.

With all that goodness in one day, why the heck am I so restless?

Act-Cow-Mermaid Feet

Once upon a time, there lived several crazy college students. One (obviously exhausted)night they got into a massive leg massage chain. Oh blessed mermaid, how good that felt! Push came to shove and twenty minutes later, roommate Natalie (who for the sake of the story shall be called Natalie) started to draw on roommate Russell's feet (who for the sake of the story shall be called Boyfriend. Also, he's not actually our roommate.) Other character: Erika (otherwise known as Me.)
Well, Natalie was using her superior artistic powers to drawn this immodest and freakishly tinied rib caged creature on Boyfriend's foot. Me was laying with me's head on Boyfriend's belly, texting long and outrageous stories to Boyfriend's phone. The story goes as follows:
Once
upon
a
a
time
a
act-cow-mermaid
love
in a pond of
fell.
Pie
drowned.
Pie
and
ate
Russell's
tickly
face.
It
was
delicious.
Love,
Erika.
Maybe we should get married
Said the mermaid.
but apparently pie was a liar
So pie learned to text
And vowed to learn
English
and stopped speaking
because her man
sounded like a
creeper helium guy
with hairy...everything.

The only clarification Me can offer is that Me's brother took her phone and texted Pie so many times in place of She that whenever she wants to text she, pie shows up instead.

And that is why college is dangerious, folks. Girls who used to be somewhat normal and intelligent (for example, a girl who for the sake of the story we'll call Erika) go crazy.

Today I'm Thankful For:

Today was pretty rough, probably because I had to work even though it is the Sabbath. Life does that to me sometimes, and it's really hard to keep it from messing me up. As I get more and more upset over things that aren't part of my perfect Sunday (not hanging out with family, not meeting with the missionaries, listening to country music, going to work) I try to glom onto all the little things that do make me happy. It's not easy, and sometimes just makes me want to cry, but in the end, I do have those little things I'm thankful for.
Here are some from today:
1. The two gentlemen at the lodge who took the time to shake my hand and introduce themselves.
2. That we had pre-made cranberry juice.
3. Sister Pratt and I made it through our duet in Sacrament meeting.
4. At least my job's at night so I could still go to church.
5. The kitchen staff made sandwiches before service so I didn't have to stay as late.
6. That I got to wear a pretty new (hand-me-down) skirt to church.
7. That Brittany is so talented that she can give Thai massage and generous enough that she does.
8. There was salad left over from service so I got some green in my dinner.
9. My iPod was charged enough to let me listen to music while I vacuumed.
10. Mom picked me up from work so I wouldn't have to bike home in the dark.

My family's awesome. My job's pretty good (normally I'd say great, but given my mood pretty good is, well, pretty good.) I'm fairly healthy. I have to pack before Saturday morning and I have four twelve hour work days before then, but I'll survive. Yeah, I'm trying to find the positive. See everything as half full.

Harry Potter!!

24 hours from now I will be sitting in the theater watching Harry Potter. Midnight premiere.
YES!

Raindrops on Roses

I'm generally a pretty happy person. I have my ups and my downs of course, but I usually try to smile. (Okay, not entirely true. Ask my family.) Last week, however, I hit a low that made being in the trough in a kayak in ten foot seas seem tolerable.
Being back at the top of the swell again, I've compiled a list of things that make me happy (in no particular order).

1. My bike and my work

Yes, this is the time than Charlie saran wrapped my (sister's) bike to the post at Kingfisher. If you're having a bad day, you can be glad that at least your coworkers don't do that to you, or that maybe you have a car, or maybe that you do have to bike or walk and are in better shape because of it. See that, folks? We're finding the silver lining.
Lucky for me, serving at the lodge really does put me in a better mood.

2. At least my bad hair day is better than Alexa's.

This is Alexa, Brittany's kitty. She has (had) the world's worst matts and Mom recently took the clippers to them. Poor thing.

3. My family.

With them around, any grey day can be an adventure.

Here are some more ideas for cheering yourself up:
-Go on a hike. Watch out for bears.
-Get certified in something. It takes just $10 to get a State of Alaska Food Handler's Card!
-Dye a strip of your hair purple.
-Read a good book.
-Read a better book.
-Read a best book! Haha...gotta love the Scriptures.
-Cut up a t-shirt into something exciting.
-Sew beads onto your normal clothes so they're a little funky.
-Try making syrup over the stove. It's really pretty....

I've obviously lost it. I'm happy, but pretty sleep deprived, so enough of these musings.

Mucho love-o.

E

Stolen Pictures

Every since discovering the joy of posting pictures (what, two weeks ago?) I've had trouble not copy-and-pasting half of the images on the web onto my blog. I'm still feeling slightly guilty for not giving proper credit for the last pictures I stole. Here's a quick fix:
Locks of Love logo--Locks of Love. Duh.
Keira Knightley--I dunno. Google Keira Knightley bob and you'll probably find it.
That picture of me--my cousin Jamie. Thank you, Jamie, for not yelling at me because of
the stolen picture!
I'll tell you, Jaime takes great photos. Somedays when Facebook has sucked me in yet again, I look through her pictures. When she's behind the camera, the pictures are great. When she's in front of the camera, the subject matter is always beautiful. It makes it fun to FB-stalk her.

Occasionally my random picture need is greater than just Facebook, however. That's when I get crazy with Google images. For fear of being accused of stealing pictures, I'm not posting my favorites. Darn you, conscience.
Instead, this is what I searched today:
"bicycle wedding"

And the results are AWESOME! Whether is the groom in biker shorts and the bride in a white poofy mini dress, or a scenic countryside couple holding hands while biking, I love the images. Thank you, Google.

To finish up, I can't resist.


This is Emily Browning. I got this picture from http://cdn.blogs.sheknows.com/celebsalon.sheknows.com/2011/03/emily-browning-hair1.jpg. That's as close to a Works Cited as I'm going to get.
And I love her hair. Probably too short for my criteria, but I LOVE it.

I still haven't cut the blasted stuff (my hair, that is.) Instead, I dyed a teeny streak purple. It's barely visible and will wash out in the next couple weeks, but cooled my short-hair craving for awhile.
What to do?

Telling Secrets

I'm good at keeping secrets, unless they're my own. There are some things that I'd really like to keep quiet until I decide what I'm going to do about them, but I can't!
Here's a spoiler to my secrets.



Ten inches would help build a wig for a child without hair and give me the change that I'm so desperately craving.
I have long, shiny, healthy hair. I might be bragging a little bit, but it's a fact pertinent my story. You see, it is lovely, and I'm a little sick of it.
Or maybe I just need change. You hear about girls who have a bad break up and snip go the scissors or they break out the dye bottles. I don't want to dye this mane of mine anymore, so maybe it's time for a change.

It's not a break up that I'm trying to cut out, I think. It's just the crazy in my life. I'm crazy busy (I worked eleven and a half hours yesterday)crazy confused (school. duh.) and just a little crazy. And sometimes change is just a good thing, no?
And a new look would just be fun, I think. I've been rocking long and straight for AGES.




This is one idea. Maybe with some bangs, or as they say in England, "fringe."

Some things to consider:
*I am as low maintenance as they come. I don't curl, or straighten, or blow dry, or add ANY product. This morning I didn't even brush my hair. It's straight enough that I can comb it with my fingers and braid it and no one's the wiser. (Well, unless my boss noticed. She should comment if she did.) ;)
* I have to be able to get it into a single French braid by mid August. My folk dance dreams are loosely tied into my braid. Really. It's that important.
*I'm poor. I'll splurge for a good cut, but not to get it re-cut and re-cut and re-cut and re-cut so I need something that grow out decently.

What do I do?

And for one last piece of my mind:



I look cute with short hair. Relatively.

Rooooooaaaaadtrip!

Since I've discovered I can now post pictures, I'm going to put some up for my few, but loyal readers. ;)







I'm not sure why they went up in an order opposite of what I wanted.
The one of Russell and I was taken in a tree, thus it is cool.
The one with three people has Russell's little sister Jenny in it.
The view and road was just driving in Montana where the sky and land stretched forever in all directions.
It was a lovely trip, but it's strange putting pictures up and writing about what you can't see, so that's it for now.

This is it

This is it. Here I go. I'm finally going to stop procrastinating putting a picture on this blog by procrastinating my run. I'm going to find a picture.

Here goes:





Woah! It seems to have worked! Yay!!
So why the seal?
I decided it'd be a leeeeetle too self-centered to post a picture of me first. This beautiful seal posed for Russell and I as we stood on the ferry dock in Prince Rupert, Canada, hours before we departed for Alaska after our roadtrip. Russ and I were looking out over the boats when the seal started lazing at the surface. I got a couple of good shots, then he swam back down.

Thank you, Mr. Seal. And welcome to my blog.

Dodging Bricks

Do you ever feel like your life is barreling towards something and you're about to hit it head on and you still don't know what it is?
Yeah, that's me.

Today was the annual dance recital, but for the first time since fourth grade, not counting Bolivia, I wasn't in it. I did my best to be included but not annoying. I showed up at the same time as the performers and volunteered my expert bun-making services. I wielded hairspray like the pro that I am. I found loose strings to tuck in and runs in tights to stop with the ever-so-magical clear nail polish. And when I was done with all that I sat down in the audience and wondered what the heck I should do with my life.
Class after class, these beautiful, strong girls and boys sparkled and sweated and grinned onstage. Some looked scared, and more than one looked a little uncomfortable in their body/shoes/hair piece. Dance isn't always a beautiful experience for dancers. There were a couple of years that I cursed my body every time I had to get into a leotard. On the whole, however, it does wonders for them. It might be that when the lights mix with applause and strength, superheros are born. I have never felt so beautiful as I do on stage. Never so special. Never so wonderful. And there were a couple of people tonight that felt the same; I could tell.
I have a mental image of bricks flying at my head with words spray painted onto them: major, minor, school, degrees, money. And then a million question marked bricks. To avoid being knocked out/potentially killed, I jump side to side. I duck and weave and swerve. Maybe it's a dance. Maybe it's all dancing and that's what I should do.

The recital was beautiful. The dances were great. Could I create that experience for others? Should I go in for teaching? I'm not deciding yet.

Road Trip! Day 1

Day 1 April 26, 2011
11:36am. On the road
And we’re off. This is the grand record of the adventures of Russell and Erika as they drive through three states, two countries, and who knows how many water bottles. Yep, we’re driving home.
Brief history of us: Russ and I technically met at Youth Conference about four years ago. I danced the Gangsta Macarena with him. He doesn’t remember me at all. His loss. I knew who he was; I was friends with his sisters Jenny and Amanda.
Fast forward to Christmas 2010. We were both at the Y and heading home to Southeast on the same day. I met up with Russell and Jenny in the SeaTac airport and we watched The Transporter the whole plane ride home.
I’ll skip all the mushy details of how we met again in February and started dating in March. Suffice it say that start dating we did, but before we did, he invited me to drive home with him. Figuring that we’d be friends whether we dated or not and that the trip would ultimately save me money (not knowing that my passport was MIA and I’d have to pay oodles to get a new one expedited) I decided to come. And here we are. Adventuring.
Today the plan is to get from Clearfield, Utah to Rexburg, Idaho and then onto Idaho Falls. We’ll be staying the night with Russell’s aunt and uncle after we pick up Jenny at BYUI and make homemade macaroni and cheese with her milk. Tonight might involve a hot tub to soak out the muscles sore from sitting, and some good ol’ family time. (Okay, I’m not a part of this family. So sue me. Artistic license.)
So far, half way between the Idaho/Utah border and Pocatello, the hills are…well, were pretty: some rolling and soft and others jagged and rocky. Now it’s raining/snowing and we’re so enveloped in clouds that I can’t see any hills at all. In fact, it’s hard to see anything as we’re caught behind a truck and all the water coming off its tires is getting our windshield pretty well.
That’s it for now.
Much love from the road,
Erika


9:32pm Reed and Connie’s house
After racing through much of Idaho, passing nine government vans and semis, we made it to Rexburg and Jenny’s apartment. It was 2:03pm and we made it to the Devotional before the main speaker had begun. I felt a little unorthodox in the Center full of kids in Sunday dress. They were in skirts and flats; I was in jeans and moccasins. And then there was Russell in his fully-bearded glory. (Secret: I love his beard.) We stuck out a little amongst the ultra-clean-cut BYUI students, but as we go to Provo, we are allowed to stick out.
Jenny had chemistry class after Devo (a coinage that I’ve only heard at BYUI) so Russell and I explored (got lost in) the library and then picked up travel foods at Albertsons. We returned to Jenny’s apartment and made homemade mac n cheese then headed out to get Jenny shopping.
Side note: BYUI is cheap. I’m jealous. Jenny’s apartment is muuuuuuuuch bigger than my future abode and it’s muuuuuuuuuuch cheaper. And the couches are nice, the bathroom large and the roommates pretty cool. It’s a good deal.
Now we’re at Uncle Reed’s and Aunt Connie’s house (relatives of the Youngbergs,) well fed off Domino’s pizza and looking forward to a hot tub. After about three hours driving my lower back started cramping uncomfortably and now my shoulders feel out of wack. It’s time for a soak.

You’re probably sick of…well, whether or not you’re sick of me, I don’t have much more to say today that I want the whole world to have access to, so I’ll be passing the laptop to Russell now.
Goodnight, sleep tight, kill bedbugs, and sleep with the angels.
Erika

Hello all! Today was a great day. I slept in until about 9:00 and woke Erika up around 9:15. Grandma Wilcox had a sinus infection so she told us we were on our own for breakfast, which really wasn’t a bad thing. I had cheerios and Erika had some type of flake things.
After breakfast we synced my ipod with her itunes music (so we would be able to listen to it on the road) while she worked on getting ready for the day. We also made sure to check off the things on our list of things we needed for the trip and things we didn’t need so that we would be able to shop for what was needed.
After we had our list completed and we were both ready to go, we took everything out to the car, loaded it up, went back in to say good-bye to Grandma and then headed out the door to hit the road. Grandpa was just pulling up so we said our good-byes to him and then we hopped in the car and were on our way.
Once on the road we started cycling through the different ipods and listened to all sorts of different songs. We saw all sorts of beautiful scenery, got a truck driver to blow his horn for us, hit a few storms, and had a great time enjoying each others’ company. We drove a little over 100 miles and then stopped for gas, a bathroom break, and to get food out of the cooler at a place called “Freeway Oasis.” It was a nice gas station and a good, quick, uneventful break. (Sidenote from Erika: The bathrooms there were strangely good, clean etc. for a gas station.)
After that we got back in the car and continued our journey towards Rexburg. We went a little over the speed limit to do our best to make it to “devo” with Jenny which started at 2:00. We ended up getting to her apartment at 2:03 and walked straight from there to “devo” and made it just in time for the opening prayer. I felt a little out of place since I was probably the only person there with facial hair, but that’s ok. The whole point of making it in time was to spend time with my little sister though so it was ok.
After “devo” Erika and I had to kill some time while Jenny went to a class so we got lost in the library for a little bit and then we went on to the campus store. After that we went back to the car and then went to Walmart and Albertsons to get our shopping done. Then we went back to get Jenny 
With Jenny in our company again we went back to the stores to get her grocery shopping and personal shopping needs taken care of. Then we went to a frozen yogurt place called Twizzleberry and had some incredible frozen yogurt. They have a promotion there that if you can guess the weight exactly you get it free… Jenny was only off by .2 grams! From there we took the yogurt in the car and came out to Reed and Connie’s place.
Here at Reed and Connie’s Uncle Reed showed us how he makes pens starting from the very beginning, which was totally awesome! He had Erika and I each choose a block for him to make us a pen out of which will be ready next fall. After that we ate Domino’s pizza and then Erika and I went hottubbing while Jenny worked on homework. I helped her where I could, but other than that we didn’t get to do too much unfortunately.
Now I’m sitting in Jenny and Erika’s room at 1:04 a.m. and, having brushed Erika’s hair, helped Jenny with homework, had a heavenly back massage from Erika, I think it’s about time to go to bed. I most definitely didn’t get sick of Erika in the least bit today, so we should be in for a nice, relaxing, fun roadtrip. But now I bid thee all goodnight. Dormen com os anjos!

Finicky Finals

I have all these wonderful dreams for sprucing up my blog. For one, I'm going to learn how to put pictures on it. Well, I'm going to find my camera, take pictures, and then post them. Then I'm going to add some nice music.
Then I'm going to write somewhat regularly.

Why the new resolutions?
Probably because I'm in the midst of finals.
AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

Okay, not that bad yet. As of half and hour ago, I've become done with two of the six little buggers. I say "become done" because nobody showed up to give the written ballet final. Today at seven to eleven I entered the RB and started reviewing French vocab for the test that was to start at eleven on the dot. At eleven on the dot my entire class entered the studio and got cozy as the proctor wasn't there yet. And we waited. And waited. And waited. And talked about boys and husbands and missionaries and hands and standards and....yeah, girl talk. :) The MDT majors started playing the piano and singing. The nervous kids (yeah, we're still kids) reviewed vocab. The confident and slightly apathetic talked. Definitely me on that one. And at eleven thirty on the dot there was still no proctor. Somebody wrote all our names on the board with a note: "We were here for the test until 11:30. Suzi's 291 Ballet Class." And then we left. On the dot.

I guess that means they're going to drop the final. Could they really make us all take it after the appointed time? I doubt it.
I'm not too devastated at this turn of events. I studied for it, but got real satisfaction out of the dance final. Now that was AMAZING!

I'm not going to make my blog more snazzy after all. I'm going to go read The Book of Mormon. :)

Love,
Erika

leading them on....vending machine style

I only have five minutes to write this before I have to head to American Heritage, but....yeah. You know.

Coming out of folk team today, I went to the vending machine. As I turned from the machine with my granola bar, a guy smiled at me. So I said hi. And then we talked for a couple of minutes while he microwaved his food. It was a nice conversation. Nothing too important (considering this was a vending machine conversation, that makes perfect sense.) When I was about to walk away he asked if I'd ever want to do anything and, "No, thank you. I just liked talking with you." I told him I have a boyfriend. He did not look happy (confused more like) and I felt a little bit like a witch. Leading that poor boy on by talking to him at a vending machine.

So I ask you, to spare all men that may want to talk to me in the future, should I just walk away because I have a boyfriend? Not talk? Who's more in the wrong here? Me or this culture?

Aggh.
And you can answer that question honestly. I won't take offense.

A tidbit...

My blog is highly irregular. I know.
It's also not particularly relevant. I know.
But right now I feel like sharing one little tidbit about myself before I go shower:
When I carry my pink, plastic shower caddy into the bathroom, I will hang my lavender towel on the hook closest to the shower curtain, then set my red Wells Fargo iPod player on the little shower shelf. I'll set my iPod to random, then turn the music on. Every time a song that I don't want comes on, I'll reach through the curtain, dry my hand off, then change the song.
Tonight I'll probably listen to Reik's and Julieta Venegas' slower stuff, and maybe some Yellow Card and Dixie Chicks.
Showering is necessary me time. It's needed for the obvious reasons (baby power and dry shampoo only work on greasy roots for so long), but also for more empty-headed reasons. Mostly to empty my head. With my music playing and hot water everywhere, I don't need to think for twenty minutes. It gives my brain a break.
So that's all. Just a little tidbit.