Personal Update

This post is a personal update, if you couldn't tell from the title. *aside: my computer has started making noises like it's propelling into space again. I want a new one now!* I'm currently drinking coffee, in my sweatpants, at 10:10 pm, pretending I'm in Starbucks, or the Lowry Cafe. I do prefer coffee shops over my bedroom, but hey, when you're in the midst of a hurricane and coffee shops are closed, what's a girl to do?

I feel like I'm coming down with my mom's cold (which I think sounds like consumption; tuberculosis to those from this century), so I took a benadryl and am drinking that hot beverage. This past week has been tiring! Besides my normal working and classes, Bron was on her way home and stopped in town for the week! I was very excited to be reunited with my roomie, so we hung out most days (along with Katie and Joe, a little Reed House reunion), and I woke up tired most mornings. Needless to say, I understand why adults don't hang out too much. They get worn out!

This past weekend was family weekend, so the four of us went down to Wooster to be with our "families." It was a lot of fun to go to a football game and be a part of the band again, even if it was like 40 degrees and a little damp. Saturday was the Halloween Get Hep dance, and Adam came with me! We dressed up as a nurse and a hospital patient. I think our costumes were a hit! I was really excited that he came with me. Even if he didn't have that much fun, it's the thought that counts. He even slow danced with me!

A couple weeks ago, I accompanied Adam and his parents on a little birthday trip to LAS VEGAS!! This was my first time being west of the Mississippi (river, that is), and my first time flying in about 15 years. On the flight there, I passed out during the landing. I think it was caused by the pain in my ear, since it was almost unbearable. On the flight back I had no problems whatsoever! Random fainting! Vegas was not what I expected it to be. When I think of Vegas, I think of glamor and fancy things. What it really is, is drunk people and girls dressed skankily, everyone smoking cigarettes, and illegals working on the streets for some tips. It is an experience! The weird part was being able to smoke indoors, and carry around open containers of alcohol outside. Just plain weird. But I guess it's some people's paradise. I ended up losing $200 to stupid slots, and stopped my spending there. We went to a night club, saw Elton John live, saw a topless show, and rode a gondola in the Venetian. It was a really fun trip, and I wouldn't mind going back again!

Our gondola singer! She had a beautiful voice!

Riding on the gondola!

Well, that's about it for my personal update. My hospital job is going very well, and my Victoria's Secret job is finally picking up again (the new manager thought I didn't know how to run the cash register, or do floor sets. What did she think I was doing the past 2 years?!)

Until next post, I'll be riding out hurricane Sandy!

Katie’s Summer Ambitions 2010

       I was going through my old files and I found this list:

   Be able to touch my toes

       Learn to play guitar

       Be more athletic

       Drink more water

       Go camping on Kelley’s Island

       Get a tan

       Read a lot of books

       Keep up on my Spanish

       Find something to write about for Jr. IS

       Go lindy hopping

       Hang out in Cleveland

I think I have achieved like 5 of those things. You can try to figure out which 5. It won't be hard :) 

Writing

Every now and then (today included) I get this really big urge to write. Like physically hold a pen in my hand and just write. With the age of technology, I'm finding it harder to do that easily. I've decided that I want to get a journal that I can carry around with me in my school and work bags so I can write down all of my ideas. I don't usually have profound thoughts, but I just really like writing. Sometimes I even write out song lyrics because I like the feeling of the pen moving over the paper. I prefer to write notes over typing them. During my whole Independent Study process, I took handwritten notes on all of the articles that I used in my literature review (over 40). When I was younger, I wrote short stories all of the time, and I was on the Power of the Pen writing team in middle school (I made it to Regionals during my second year!).

I've found that writing things down helps me remember, which is why I like to take physical notes. For example, when I was at Starbucks today (when I had the urge to write), I wrote down notes for this blog post, and most of them are coming right back to me.

At one point in time, to satiate my urges to write, I signed up for a kind of freelance internet article writing site. Problem is, it's mostly "How To" articles about random things out of left field that you would never want to know how to do, and you only get to the good projects once you've written a crap ton of those crappy "how to" ones. I've since strayed from the site, but I've considered going back every now and then. I'm constantly looking for little things to write, and sometimes this blog helps me, but I'm never quite satisfied.

Not only do I like to write, but I LOVE to edit. I consider myself a grammar nerd, though I've lost a lot of it. I always offer to edit my friends' papers, must be hard copies and using a pink pen. I can't edit on computers. Now that I'm out of college, I don't really have anything to edit. I had a random thought a few weeks ago about if my career in speech therapy never works out, how I wouldn't mind being an editor of some sort. I really would like to get back into the good grammar person that I was, so I might take on the form of a nerd and pursue some books on editing and good writing. But I think the SLP job is a really good fit for me. The science and logistics of language just amaze me, and writing and reading sometimes cross into the job description of therapists. I think I'm set.

Do you want to know how big of a dork I am? I REALLY like pens (I know, it looks kind of like penis). I have SO MANY. When I was school shopping this semester, I seriously stared at all of the pens in the pen section for about a half hour, trying to decide which ones I wanted. They have to come in a pack with at least some fun colors, they MUST write very smoothly, and they have to be comfy! I think I have a problem.

*Side note* Tumblr is down. Everyone is about to freak the shit out. *End side note*

Here ends my post on writing. If you ever have anything that you want me to edit, please let me know. I'm bored and would love to do it. If you have any suggestions on something I can write, or a freelance company I could hook up with, also let me know!

Until next time!

Our 7th grade Power of the Pen team (Jason, Katie, and myself), and our two coaches. I had really good hairstyles.

A Personal List

I frequently find myself thinking of things that I want to get better at. I've decided to compile a list of these things that, sadly, I may have hit my peak of ability and/or knowledge.

1. Lindy Hop
2. Spanish
3. Grades
4. Singing
5. Crafty things
6. Saving a lot of money
7. Solo jazz

I'll probably add more later. This is all that's been on my mind lately though.

Cereal for Dinner, Tacks for Snacks

That title is a subtle shout out to one of my past favorite, long lost bands, Panic! at the Disco.

I'm currently typing this while dodging the tail and backside of my cat who feels neglected because my father is out of town (seriously, she can't stay off of my desk while I'm using it). Now you may ask, "Katie, why is your father out of town?" and my answer would be "celebrating his big 5-0 with my mother, as well as their 23rd wedding anniversary." They're in random parts of Arizona, currently Sedona, while my sister and I chose to stay home to work, chill, and celebrate my own birthday (woo hoo, big 2-2!).

Living alone with no parents has been, interesting. It's been a really big look into the real world of adults. As you can figure from the title, I've been eating cereal for dinner, and leftover penne chicken alfredo that Adam and I made on my birthday. I did realize that living alone inspires me to do the dishes right after using them (hooray initiative!). I'm also realizing that having a cat is more work than just cuddling. She's gotta eat, poop, eat, poop, claw on your door at 5 am, jump on you at 5:05 am, and sneak out of the house at least 12 times when your friends are visiting. I've also kind of been keeping up with the list of things my parents left me to do, like feed the fish. Watering the plants is also on there, but it rained yesterday, so, done! I tend to just ignore the list. Well, not ignore it, but treat it as a guideline. Plus side of being home alone, I get to drive my mom's new car around *thumbs up*

Being alone at home, with my sister here sometimes, is incredibly unnerving. While I realize that the actual chance of a strange man breaking into my house in the middle of the night, and stabbing me/raping me/staring at me while I sleep, and taking the $30 that currently resides in my purse is very slim, the chance seems more slim when my dad is sleeping upstairs. Just last night, Alyse and I were in our respective rooms after hanging out for a while, when a loud banging noise came from the basement. We both jumped and exclaimed "what was that?!" It sounded like the washer/dryer, so I figured that Lillian had jumped on it or something, but I still hesitated walking down the stairs, and thought about grabbing a giant knife for about 10 seconds. My heart was racing, and I think I overreacted a little bit.

Who knows, there could be a bed intruder climbin' in my window!

I have two more days of alone-ness, mostly taken up by class and work, so we'll see how it goes. Soon my mommy and daddy will be back with presents from the far west!

Picture posts to come soon!

I'm having a huge craving for blues/acoustic/R&B music. I'm gonna go clean my room to that now. Clean rooms are adult....ly....!

"When I grow up and get married, I'm livin' alone!!" ~Home Alone

The Trouble with Blogging Is...

Is it a good thing that keeping up with my blog is my biggest problem in life right now? I'm gonna take a stab at it and say yes. Another problem used to be that I thought my computer was going to blow up. After two minutes of sitting there, scrolling through Tumblr, the fan would begin doing this incredibly loud roaring thing, the whole machine would get about as hot as, well, Ryan Gosling (and that's pretty damned hot). I decided that it was probably almost time for a new computer, so I promptly told my parents I would like to get one, and my mother replied with "How much money do you have saved for one?" My response, this face:

Oh yeah, I'm not in college anymore so my parents don't pay for my electronics

So I promptly decided that I would clean out my computer fan (like last time this happened) with canned air. Last time I did it, a crap ton of dust blew out and onto my belongings. This time, nothing flew out (that I could see at least), but I've been sitting here on my computer for at least two hours, and it's still purring like a kitten. The temperature of my computer is no longer at "Ryan Gosling," but more of a "fairly attractive guy you see on the RTA but don't want to waste time talking to him" temperature.

The whole point of that little story is that for a while, when my computer wanted to blast off into space, I would get really annoyed by it, so I decided to stop using it and just utilize my smartphone for its internetting abilities. But since I miraculously cured my computer (for now), I'm going to attempt to blog again.

Topic of the day: The Trouble with Blogging Is...

1. I sometimes don't know what to write. I don't know how these weekly bloggers always have things to write about! Maybe they're just more adventurous than I am and have a lot more going on in their lives.
2. I've mentioned this before, but I feel like my blog is pointless. It kind of functions as a journal, but if it's a journal, why make it public? I'm not living the life of Anne Frank, or Bridget Jones. I'm not that interesting. Or so I think.
3. I don't think I'm good enough to read. Lately, I've been reading a fellow classmate of mine's blog. She's a writer, a hilarious one at that, and has awesome stories about her move to Chicago from Akron as a new graduate. I enjoy reading it so much because it's funny and relatable (Blogger says that's not a word. I beg to differ).
4. MOTIVATION. Motivation to sit down and blog for however much time it takes. Motivation to actually be there and publish a post for any devoted followers (raise your hands). Motivations period. 

Why I'm going to say "Screw all of you troubles, I'm bigger than you!":

1. I'm going to try to write down a topic to write about throughout the week. I'm at the point in my life now where I feel like I'm an adult, and actual functioning human being with things going on in my life. Discovering new things daily. There's got to be something to write about. If I need to steal inspiration from other blogs, then so be it (not actually stealing, just idealizing) (Wait, idealizing is a word?)
2. People actually yell at me when I don't publish new posts for a while. I guess people are reading. Cheers to you. Let's go out for drinks and celebrate. For real though, I want to go out like real people and step away from the internets.
3. I've been feeling incredibly witty with my words lately, and a tiny bit creative. Therefore, I think my posts might be a little bit more interesting to read. With a little inspiration and a lot of, well, other inspiration, I too can be interesting!
4. I've been motivated to work out weekly, and I've been motivated to study, so why not be motivated to blog on a more frequent basis? My life is currently filled with all of the motivation.

I swear, this is the last post about me keeping up my blog. I'll have some more posts coming up very soonly about my classes at "Not Wooster" aka Cleveland State University. Just to be on top of everything, feel free to follow my blog publicly. I know you're reading it! Now own up to it! Do it!

I might try to fancy up my blog by linking it to others. Help me out Fenna, and teach me your ways!

Until next post, here's some positivity for everyone:

I've got all the money I'll ever need, if I die by four o'clock.
- Henny Youngman

I'm Not Dead

Hey guys, I know it seems like I'm dead, due to the lack of posts, but I'm back! I've been kind of having a slump figuring out what to write about, when to write, etc. But now my life has a steady flow, so I'm writing now!

Let's see. Let me mentally list the things I need to talk about (CSU, UH, boyfriend, money, summer)= basically everything I always talk about. I seriously need to learn to break things down into separate posts.

Well, I was accepted as a non-degree student at CSU! The acceptance feels really good, although it's really easy to get into and I'm pretty sure they don't turn anyone down, it's much better than the rejection I had been getting. I think I need to take about 6 credits, or 2 classes a semester. I'm having a little trouble trying to figure out which classes to take, since I'm kind of limited to Tuesday-Thursday mornings. I might not end up being able to take a language course (I'd really like to take Italian), but I'll probably just end up taking a course that I really liked again, such as Phonetics or Language Development.

I've started working on my own at my new secretary job. I really like it, and I feel independent and like I'm really able to do everything. I truly enjoy my job. And this will get me through grad school. Hopefully I can start volunteering at the Rainbow Speech Therapy clinic during my free time.
 

Adam came and visited last week! We were able to spend the 4th of July together, and almost an entire week after that. We went shopping, to the parade and a pig roast where he played with my cousins (so cute!), watched airplanes, and he waited at home for me while I was at work (like real life!). It was so wonderful, and he got to spend some bonding time with my parents as well. I like that. I don't get to see him for another two weeks, but when that comes around it will be wonderful! We're going to Kelley's Island, and an Indians game, and we'll just have a blast. I'm so excited.

Adam was very happy with his surprise of watching planes!

Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the St. Charles Carnival tonight, or maybe go dancing. Katie and I went to Tremont yesterday (I bought a dress and a cute bag for school), and we found all kinds of events going on this summer. Like I said before, I really want to keep up with stuff like that and go do artsy things. There's an exhibition at the art museum that I would like to go to. It's about the 1920's. There's just so much to do. I also have a wedding next week, in Chicago, I'll definitely blog about that! All of the things!!

I'll try to keep up on this blog a bit more. I'm sure I'll have individual things to talk about soon enough. I'm not going to write about money or summer, though I am saving my money for trips with Adam, as well as spending it on a passport since we all know he loves to travel. I'm really excited. He also sent me this article, which added to my motivation to travel with him: http://convergemagazine.com/featured/travel-young/

Stuff just works.

Oh, I got a smart phone. I'm moving up in the world. It's a Droid Razr. I'm going to be taking lots of pictures with it.