Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Totally Awkward Tuesdays!

In case you're new here, Tova Darling started Totally Awkward Tuesdays, where we all share are incredibly awkward life stories.

Today's is actually an awkward moment for my lovely boyfriend, which I enjoyed very much, but must have been mortifying for him. We're on a family vacation right now and we invited him to join us. Unfortunately the car ride involved with this family vacation was extremely long, and at some point, he, my mom, and I were all sitting on the back bench of our family's humongous conversion van chatting and somehow the subject of plants came up. My mother was mentioning something about a certain plant and the boyfriend began to make a witty comment about organisms (somehow associated with said plant) and instead it came out "orgasms!" He immediately covered his face, embarrassed as all get out as my mom and I launched into hysterical laughter. It was great! And thankfully I have a very easy going, cool mom who was not offended in the least by the use of the word "orgasm" by her daughter's boyfriend. We're just thankful my dad wasn't within earshot ;).

In other news, as I said before, we're on vacation, and my internet access is limited, so it will be a little while before I'll be able to catch up with all of your TAT stories. It will happen eventually though :) Have a great week!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Totally Awkward Tuesday!

It's Tuesday again, and you know what that means! Totally Awkward Tuesday, of course, which you can learn more about by visiting Tova Darling. Basically, everyone just shares their awkward stories so we can all laugh together about how awkward life is.

This is probably the single most awkward thing that has ever happened to me.

My wonderful boyfriend and I had been dating about six months when we went to a friend of mine's graduation party. She lives about an hour away from us, and we had a ton of other things to do that day, so we ended up arriving late and then just staying and hanging out with her and her boyfriend after the party, which was at her grandparents' house. The rest of the guests had left, which left the four of us, plus her parents and grandparents, who were all upstairs cleaning up after the festivities.

The four of us decided to go downstairs to the basement and play ping pong for a little while. She and her boyfriend were not very shy (in front of us anyway, I'm not completely sure why) about displaying their affection, and rather than playing ping pong, they decided to go off to the couch in the corner and get affectionate. Since my boyfriend and I were not too interested in watching whatever was going on (I've been assured since that they were "just talking," although I don't know how much of that I believe), we took to the other corner of the room, out of sight from the two of them and got a little more cuddly than we probably should have in someone else's basement, where we had no idea where entrances to the outside were or whether or not someone may decide to walk into the basement whenever they pleased. Almost exactly on cue, just as we began to kiss (and by kiss, I mean contine to holding hands, since I strictly adhere to The Liberty Way);), my friend's father comes busting through the door, right in front of us (nope, that wasn't a closet), catching all three of us off guard. He then felt the need to announce his presence, making the situation even more uncomfortable. To this day, I am still embarrassed every time I see the man. Although I guess it would have been more awkward for my friend's own father to see whatever was going on over there with her, so taking one for the team isn't too horrible. Thankfully now we're all able to laugh about it.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I Don't Like Chick Flicks...

You what? That's right, I don't like chick flicks. I just don't. I'm all for love and romance, and I think it's a wonderful thing, but there are very few full-fledged chick flicks that I appreciate. I'm not sure exactly why, aside from the fact that love usually is not the way it's portrayed in movies and many movies portray it in a very unrealistic light. Sometimes that's great and I'm all for it, but most of the time it doesn't work for me. Many people think this is really strange, and I think even my boyfriend wishes that I would drag him to a few so that he could complain about it later, but that's just the way it is. However, I do have a small list of a few that I actually enjoy.

1. 10 Things I Hate About You -- The classic high school romance/comedy, based on Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," and starring Heath Ledger pre-Brokeback, so what's not to love? It's pretty hilarious (which can make anything bearable)and I first saw it when I was pretty young, so there are good memories attached and all of that.

2. A Lot Like Love -- This one wasn't especially popular, but I really liked it. Not your average love story, but it is really funny and a has a little bit of a "different" feel to it, so it's not just your typical, utterly predictable, boy-meets-girl-fall-in-love-happily-ever-after movie. Plus Ashton Kutcher just cracks me up.

3. Any of your 80s teen movies (ie- The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Say Anything)-- All classics about life for the American teenager and impossible to hate. I'm not sure if they even qualify as chick flicks, but I've been told that they do, so I'm going with it.

And now I can also add

4. Definitely Maybe -- I just saw this a few nights ago, even though it came out a while ago and I liked it a lot! I didn't hear anything about it, which usually indicates a movie that's not really worth seeing, but it's really cute, atypical plot, and I liked the not-so-predictable ending. Plus, there's an adorable reference to penguins and Ryan Reynolds surprisingly doesn't do too bad of a rendition of one of Nirvana's classics (don't worry, he only sings one line of "Come As You Are"). Any movie where Ryan Reynolds and Kurt Cobain can coexist peacefully is okay by me! Plus, Abigail Breslyn is adorable and the soundtrack is pretty awesome.

I'll let you know if I can think of any others, but honestly that's all I can come up with right now. What's your favorite genre or movie?

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Whole Story

Let me first just say that, to be completely accurate, this is actually just the beginning of this particular story, contrary to the title of the post. Although, it is pretty long, which I felt warranted adding the "whole" rather than the "beginning of." You were warned.


Thus far, the majority of my blog entries have not really been related to "the big adventure," (aka going to Liberty University this fall) as it has not actually started yet. But I realized that this particular adventure has a lot of background information involved and that I should let you all in on it. So, here is my effort to explain my thought process on the whole Liberty thing.

First off, I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ's crucifixion, and subsequent resurrection, saved me from my sins and that I would be hopelessly lost without His grace and love. I also love church…I think that coming together as a believing community to care for each other and for those outside of the church is really important. That being said, I also think that there is a lot of bad that has been done by members of the church in the name of God, which shouldn’t have been done in association with God at all. Actually, some of it just shouldn't have been done at all.

This has forever frustrated me because it gives all Christians a bad name and it is not an accurate representation of what we believe (this subject could fill many blog entries, so for now I'll leave it at that). Some Christians are extremely judgemental and unforgiving.

If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have told you that Liberty University fell perfectly into this category. For those of you who aren't familiar with the school, it's a very conservative, Christian university located in Lynchburg, VA (I know, the name couldn't be worse, although I hear it's actually named after John Lynch, the founder of the town). This is Liberty's offical code of conduct, known as "The Liberty Way." All students are expected to follow it and there is a reprimand system in place for broken rules. A student receives a certain number of reprimands or "reps" when caught breaking a rule, depending on the gravity of the rule and the situation.

Before I knew very much about it, I had no desire to be involved in anything that was remotely close to fundamentalist, and on paper, Liberty sounded like just that. I had heard horror stories of extremely strict rules that had to be adhered to, and that sounded to me like a huge lack of grace, which seems a more than a little hypocritical since, as Christians who recognize how much grace Christ has shown to us, how ridiculous would it be not to show some of the same to others? Needless to say, I was not interested in attending a school like Liberty, and I didn’t understand why so many people did (approx. 13,000 students will be joining me this fall).

Fast forward a few years to high school graduation time. Everyone was frantically trying to decide what to do with their next chapter in life…which school, which job, etc. By this point, it hadn’t worked out for me to go away to the school of my choice (way too expensive), so I went with Plan B: get a full time job and save some money and enroll in community college part time. A lot of my friends chose to go to Liberty. And strangely enough, by a very complicated turn of events, I became friends with a few current Liberty students who lived near me, including my very amazing, very handsome now-boyfriend (seriously, he's the best).

From their stories, this school that I thought was a big, judgmental group of faculty exacting their over-the-top rules on a bunch of college kids, actually sounded like a pretty good school. Their academic programs were far-reaching and highly acclaimed, their student activities were extensive, exciting, and fun, and their rules were not nearly as bad as they seemed (it’s all in how strict your RA is).

After visiting my boyfriend and friends there many times over the two years following my high school graduation, the whole idea didn’t seem nearly as bad. I learned that Liberty's administrators actually do show a lot more grace than they get publicity for, proven by a few first-hand accounts of students that I'd met who should have gotten kicked out, but were given second chances.

Still, I wasn't completely convinced. Personal freedom has always been something that I think is extremely important, and while I have always tried to use a reasonable amount of self-control and to live a Christian lifestyle, the rules at Liberty still seemed a little too intense. However, after a couple years of working full time and studying and going to community college classes in my spare time, going away to a four year school college and having that whole experience, even at a school like Liberty, was looking more and more appealing. So, sometime last fall, I filled out my application.

After I was accepted (not a difficult task, by the way), I found out the Liberty has a huge alumni base that donates a lot to the school, which, combined with co-founder Jerry Falwell’s (I know, I know, more on that later) multi-million dollar life insurance policy, allows the school to give exceptional financial aid. It turns out this was no different for me, and going to a private, out of state school would end up costing me a quarter of what it would cost to go to any state school in my state. This came as a huge surprise/relief since I've often been frustrated that so many other Christian colleges cannot or do not give nearly this amount of financial aid.

So there you have it, I guess. So many thoughts, prayers, and scholarships later, I found myself confirming my attendance for the Fall 2009 semester as a Liberty student. So we'll see how things go.

I’m not living on campus, so I won’t have a RA (resident advisor--the main source of rule-enforcement within the student body), but I’m still a little bit nervous since Liberty’s ultra-strict reputation precedes it. I also know that there have been a lot of doors opened for me to go there without taking out any loans thus far, and I don’t believe that that’s a coincidence. Besides, if an ultra-liberal, Brown University student can do it, then so can I! I’ll keep you updated on how it goes once everything starts up! For now I’m going to enjoy my summer!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

My First Blog Award!

I am very excited to share that I got my first blog award thanks to Ebony over at Sizzling Publications! So now I have to follow all the instructions and pass it along!





1. “The Honest Scrap” award is not one to hold all to your self but it must be shared!

2. First, the recipient has to tell 10 true things about themselves in their blog that no one else knows.

3. Second, the recipient has to pass along this prestigious award to 10 more bloggers.

4. Third, those 10 bloggers all have to be notified they have been given with this award.

5. Those 10 bloggers that receive this award should link back to the blog that awarded them “The Honest Scrap’ award.


Well, I don't think I even have 10 things to list that no one knows, but I will list 10 things about myself, so here goes...




1. I love avocados and I could eat them with nearly everything, or just by themselves.


2. I am in love with a wonderful man :)


3. I would like to live either at the beach, or in Colorado one day.


4. I love reading and I really wish I had more time to do it (right now I do since I'm off work! Yay!).


5. I really like adventures.


6. I really like Ikea.


7. I'm not very good at accessorizing, but I'm working on it.


7. I've kept a pen & paper journal since the 2nd grade.


8. I have a really high tolerance for physical pain (emotional, not so much...)


9. I'd like to have a ton of kids whenever I get married somedayyyy


10. I love my bed-related items like pillows, blankets, covers; anything comfy and wonderful.



I know this is lame, but I think that almost all the blogs I follow have already been awarded this, and most of them pretty recently, so I'm not going to be tagging anyone :(. I guess I'll have to go make some more blog friends :)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

This calls for a celebration!

Today was my last day at work! That's another perk of going away to college; you get to quit your job and start over somewhere new. I am really excited about that! And my now ex-coworkers are great and gave me some nice going-away things.

I've also decided after hardly any deliberating at all that I'm keeping the name la aventurista. Thanks for your input, ladies. I realized that I picked the name in the first place for a good reason and that I like it a lot! So I'm keeping it :)

I'm currently on a housesitting adventure for the owner of two boxers. While I generally have nothing against boxers, I'm thinking this may begin to change, because one of these has diarrhea on the carpet literally every time I leave the house, no matter how short an amount of time it is. It's getting really old. Usually, I'm not too easily grossed out, but cleaning up somebody else's dog's crap is one of the lowest points that a person can get to.

I also figured out how to post on the blog via text message (no data plan for me yet), but at this point I don't see how it would really be worth it since you can only successfully post 160 characters or less. So maybe I'll use this for very short blog entries when I don't have computer/internet access. Otherwise, I don't really see how it would be helpful.

Beach vacations begin in 9 days!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I'll get to that...

So, I realize that the bulk of my blog entries to date have been Tova's Totally Awkward Tuesdays. While there is no doubt that TATs are great, I'd just like to put it out there that I will get to more about my actual "adventures," etc.

I'm also thinking that I need a more name-like pseudonym? But I kind of like my sort of made up "la aventurista." Maybe I should just take off the la, since that's more name-like anyway. Thoughts on this?

Totally Awkward Tuesday!

It's Totally Awkward Tuesday again! If you don't know how it works, go visit Tova!

My story for this week actually happened a few weeks while I was housesitting. The owner of the dog had me over to the house on two separate occasions the week before the housesitting actually started and gave me extensive directions for her dog's care. The dog, who was actually really sweet, is named Katie and is an older dog, but she seemed easy enough to care for. The owner instructed me that she did have an electric fence installed, but that the neighbors and their dogs would be out of town that week, and since they were the only reason that Katie ever ran out of the yard, having her electric collar on would not be necessary while I was there.

So, I arrived Friday afternoon and let Katie out, sans collar, as instructed. While we were outside, the other neighbor came over wondering if I could let her dogs out while she would be gone the next day, which I agreed to do. She asked me to come over so she could give me a key and show me what to do for her dogs. So, we go over and she explains what to do, and after no more than three minutes, I leave to go back over to where Katie is. Well, instead of finding Katie anxiously awaiting my arrival, I find a panicked neighbor lady has driven up and is screaming for Katie's owner. When she finally breaks for air, I explained that I was housesitting and her owner was out of town.

"Katie is down the street!" she yelled, still panicked. "The neighbors are with her, you have to go get her right now!"

So I'm thinking, oh great, the dog that supposedly never runs away is off like a shot as soon as I take charge. Thankfully the nice neighbor who had been distracting me from watching Katie in the first place (I'm currently housesitting her dogs actually) hopped in the car with me to go find Katie down the street. We drive up and are greeted by a whole throng of overly-concerned, retiree neighbors who immediately display their disapproval of that fact that I came so close to losing the dog and trying to hide their rejoicing that something actually semi-exciting happening in the neighborhood for once. Since I'm young, and actually reasonably responsible, I'm always frustrated by older adults who think "those crazy teenagers are up to no good," which was obviously the mindset here. One lady even had the nerve to ask if I was the one in charge of watching the dog and when I answered that I was, she replied "well, where were ya?!"

Thankfully, I quickly retrieved Katie, put the collar back on, and didn't have another problem the rest of the week. And when her owner returned, she apologized for ever telling me to leave the collar off in the first place. Take that, meddling neighbors...

In other news, in preparation for heading off to Liberty in the fall, I had to take an online computer assessment before my classes start. I did it a couple days ago, assuming that it would be really easy and that I'd pass with flying colors, since I consider myself to be pretty computer-literate. Well, apparently, I'm not up to Liberty's standards! I didn't completely fail or anything like that, but I definitely didn't pass (75% or higher). I'm slightly ashamed, but not too much, since, in my defense, they asked some of the most obscure questions about Microsoft Word that anyone could ever come up with. (Example: How do you make formatting marks visible? First of all, what exactly qualifies as a formatting mark? And secondly, why are they invisible to begin with? Anyway, apparently they're those backwards P's that symbolize a new paragraph. I'd have a much easier chance of passing an html proficiency test, I guess) So, quick poll, who thinks that it's a good sign that I'm failing tests before classes even start? ;)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

8 Things!

The lovely Frannie tagged me in this fun list, so here goes!



8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. two back-to-back beach vacations in a few weeks (I love having a boyfriend who takes me with him and having all that time off work before I...
2....go to real college)
3. Andy Davis concert!
4. my Ikea-furnished basement apartment with my awesome roommate in a few months
5. seeing my awesome boyfriend later this evening

6.getting off work (oops I'm slacking...)
7. being DONE with this job, only 4 workdays left!
8. being a new blog-ista!!

8 Things I did Yesterday:

1. Worked
2. had an awkward Tuesday!
3. hung out with some friends
4. watched Man On Fire (Yayy Denzel!)
5. ate popcorn
6. woke up way too early
7. got really excited about being finished with work!
8. talked to the lady I'm housesitting for next week

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Go to Italy
2. Finish school completely debt-free (might still be a possiblity...pray for me...)
3. break dance (or any kind of dance)
4. play guitar reaaallly well
5. decorate and accessorize well
6. be better at math (it's terrible)

7. publish a book (or many)
8. surf

8 Shows I Enjoy:
1. The Office
2. NCIS
3. GossipGirl (I know, so embarrassing, but very addicting!)
4. The Bachelorette (also embarassing, although I'm fed up! Jillian needs to stop picking losers!)
5. Prison Break before it got cancelled:(
6. Full House (I cried when that one went to reruns, but hey I was approximately 7 years old)

7. that's probably all the tv i watch...
8. If you had a TV show I might watch it though...

Since I don't really even have 8 followers or "blog friends" yet, then whomever would like to can repost this and pretend I tagged you :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Totally Awkward Tuesdays!

For an explanation of what Totally Awkward Tuesdays are all about, visit Tova Darling!

My story for this week actually just happened yesterday and did not happen to me at all, but it is so good that I have to share it! I currently work as a receptionist in a physical therapy office (only a week left!) On a pretty regular basis, we have patients that come to their appointments straight from work in their business clothes, so they change into gym clothes in one of our appointment rooms before they exercise. Yesterday, one guy did this very thing, and for whatever reason, not only did he remove his underwear (I don't know about you guys, but I don't really consider it necessary to go commando while exercising, especially in a medical setting), he proceeded to accidentally drop his boxers and leave them in the middle of the floor in the room when he left. We then had to strategically explain that he had left something in the room that he had just changed in and watch as the poor guy figured out exactly what he had left.

Let this be a lesson to all to keep better track of undergarments...and judging by the short, tight gym shorts he opted for, he really should have just left those undies on!

promises...

Soon I will update my blog with something exciting and/or informative. Promise! :)