One Letter That I Wish I Could Send

So, I stumbled across this awesome blog, Letters from a College Student, where Faith tells it how it is, with the kind of honesty with which we all wish we could speak freely. I figured I'd try a letter of my own, since I'm anonymous anyway, to get a few things off my chest.

Dear Friend,

I had trouble addressing you as "friend," since I don't really consider you that anymore. I'm sorry for that, but I just don't think that we are. I'm sorry for everything that I did wrong, because I know that I had a part in it. I'm sorry that I didn't handle things the right way when I did finally stick up for myself. And I'm really sorry that it took me so long to do so.

I do, however, think that there a few things that you should be sorry for as well. The list goes on and on, but I'm trying desperately to forgive you for all of it, so I will keep it short. I wish that you had apologized for all of the times that you tried to rob my joy. I wish that you would apologize for all of the times that you pretended you didn't see my frustration and my hurt when you manipulated me. I wish that you would apologize for all the times that, because of your many insecurities, you tried to make me insecure as well. I am happy to let you know that even now, it hasn't worked. Despite your hardest efforts, I haven't let you affect my confidence. I wish that even after I confronted you, and laid everything bare so that we could work it out, that you had actually listened, actually apologized for your fault in the situation (I don't claim all of it), and that we would have been able to reconcile.

I am really sorry that we haven't been able to be friends lately, and that I doubt that we will ever be again, but I don't regret distancing myself from you. It has been one of the best things that I have done for myself, and after 20 years of letting you walk all over me, I vow never to let you, or anyone else do that to me again. Thanks for teaching me that, it was obviously a lesson that I really needed to learn.

Sincerely,

Me.

I needed that.

Closing in!

Well, officially 7 days (that's one week, people!) until my first-ever move away from home, and the beginning of my (real) college career! I'm nervous! And excited. But mostly nervous at this specific moment because this is probably the biggest change that I'll experience thus far in my life. That's pretty serious! It sounds so silly in comparison to actually growing up (which I've sort of done backwards anyway, since I've been working full time the past 2 years in order to be able to go to college full-time now), but it's going to be way different from what I'm used to, although I'm definitely excited to see where things go! Now it's just a matter of getting everything I need packed up in my car, which in itself will be a small miracle.

I'm beginning to think my new roommates will start to make regular appearances in my blog posts as well, as I'm living in a house (which I like to refer to as The Dollhouse) with four other girls. Something blog-worthy (and probably very dramatic) is bound to happen, but I'm hoping that it won't! Wish me luck ;)

Totally Awkward Tuesday!

Oh my word! It's Tuesday again already! And I almost missed it...I completely forgot that today was Tuesday, until I noticed that everybody else is writing out their totally awkward stories (check out Tova's blog for all the details)! Ahhh!

This awkward story actually happened to my mom way back in the day before she married my dad. She was over at his house, playing Pictionary with my dad and his parents. She and my grandfather were on one team, and my father and grandmother were on another team. So it got to be my mom's turn to guess what my grandfather was drawing (contact lense, by the way). So everyone was guessing words related to the eye, pupil, eyelash, etc., and my mother blurts out, "UTERUS!!!"

My stunned grandfather must've dropped his pencil and my dad and grandmother stopped in their tracks. Apparently, my mom had meant to say iris and that other lovely body part just slipped out in its place. Apparently, the group laughed for about an hour. I'm glad it was her and not me, though, but they can all laugh about it now :). I love my mom!

100% True!

I have a baffling but 100% true, happened in real life, story to tell you. I wish that I could say that something like it happened to me, but 1. I have an amazing boyfriend already and 2. it just didn't. It happened to my roommate, who seems to be a magnet for situations like this.

So let me start at the beginning. She and I are avid baseball fans, although for different teams. Well the team that she loves was playing the team that I love, so the two of us went to see the game. She noticed a guy standing around before the game, sporting her team's jersey and said something along the lines of, "look at the guy with the eyebrow ring! How cute is he?!"

Without thinking much of it, the game starts, and we all return to our seats. His is a section over from ours, although not really close at all. After the game, we continue on with our lives, all but completely forgetting about the guy with the eyebrow ring.

Fast forward to yesterday, when my roomie gets on a plane headed across the country to visit a friend of hers. I got a text from her asking if I remembered Guy With Eyebrow Ring from the baseball game, which I did, because by some crazy odds, he was on her flight! Seriously...the very same flight she was on, headed across the country! At first I didn't believe it, but she swore that it was true and even claimed she'd try to talk to him and ask if it was him to make sure.

Then, she calls me today to tell me that, not only were they on the same flight, they had the same 3 hour layover. She said that for a little while, they were waiting, and kept catching each other awkwardly stealing glances at each other. Finally, she boldly walked up to him (I can't say that I would've done the same, to be honest), and says, "You may think I'm an idiot for saying this, but did you go to the such and such baseball game this summer?" To which he replied, "Yes! That's where I know you from!"

What are the odds? Apparently, they continued to talk for all of the remaining layover, and he even asked the person sitting next to her on the flight to switch seats with him so that they continue to talk for the second half of the flight.

That being said, I've come to the conclusion that my roommate's life would make a much better blog than mine!

Things I'm excited about

a handy-dandy list for your reading convenience:

1. moving to VA to go to Liberty (less than 2 weeks left!)

2. Preseason football begins tonight!

3. I just entered Rachel at it's a hero's giveaway for a Starbucks cup!

4. I'm not going anywhere out of town this week and I just get to spend time at home hanging out with my brother.

5. I rented "The Good Life" with Zooey Deschanel, who I have an intense girl crush on

I'm pretty sure that's all for now. Hope you all had lovely weekends :)

Happy.

Well, I'm back from the last vacation-ing that I'll be doing for a while! Yes, very sad, I know. I completely missed this week's Tova's Totally Awkward Tuesday as well, and I'm very sorry about that! But what's done is done. I do have a fantastically funny (now, anyway) story from vacation for you though.

First, you should know that I went to the beach this past week with my boyfriend and his family. And I mean his whole family. Let me break this down for you...the boyfriend is the youngest of four siblings, who are all adults, 3 of which are married, 2 of which have families of their own. One of these families has 4 kids and the other has 5, making a total of 9 youngsters ranging in ages from 1-14. In addition, both of my boyfriend's grandmothers and his parents accompanied us on vacation as well. In case your head hurts, or your math skills are comparable to my own, that equals 19 people. Not such a big number, you might say? Did I mention that all of these 19 people (including small children) stayed in the same, 3 bedroom beach house?

And actually, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be! I'm usually pretty optimistic and I like to think that I have a good attitude most of the time, but I'll be the first to admit, I was not thinking that having so many people in one house was going to be a good idea. But everyone was somehow fit in (including people sleeping in sunrooms and attics, on couches and air beds) and everything went pretty well.

My boyfriend's mother instructed us that I would be sharing the laundry room with my boyfriend's 13-year-old niece. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I would be sleeping in the laundry room. On vacation. Once I realized there was an actual bed involved, this was not so surprising to me. Due to the rather large size of the laundry room, a full bed was pushed into the corner of it. While I was frustrated at first to have to share a bed, since I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep recently, it ended up working out fine since I really enjoy his niece and we had a grand old time. Well, if you're ever seen Dan in Real Life, then you have the perfect picture of the situation I found myself in when my boyfriend's mother decided that a load of clothes needed to go in the dryer at 7 o'clock in the morning on our vacation. I probably don't need to remind you how noisy dryers are (not the new, nice, quiet kind), especially when you're sound asleep less than three feet from them.

Needless to say, I was not thrilled when it happened. But now I think it's pretty funny, so no harm done.

Ebony over at Sizzling Publications tagged me in Six Things That Make You Happy, so here you are:

1. my turtle

2. my boyfriend

3. my bed...ahhh

4. the beach

5. my family

6. new furniture

I'm also supposed to tag 6 people whose blogs make me happy, but I don't follow enough blogs apparently, because many of the people I would have tagged have already been tagged. So until my blogging popularity increases (or if it does...), I'll have to remain tag-less. Sorry to disappoint!

Vacations galore!

I apologize in advance for the inordinate amount of parenthesis used in this blog entry

Well, I got back from vacation number one a few hours ago (thank God for the end of the longest car ride ever), and overall it was great! I went surfing for the first time (loved it), got a nice starter tan, and even sent a post card to my pen pal! I felt very accomplished. It was also my boyfriend's first vacation with my family (even though he's been around for a while) and the extended family loves him, the immediate family loves him more; it's really great for all parties involved.

There is some sad news :(. I have (had?) a pet zebra finch, and literally a few hours before we got home, a freak near-tornado swept through our town, with wind speeds we haven't seen in...ever (seriously, one of our trees was completely uprooted), and knocked over the birdcage (they like being outside), causing it to collapse, and allowing my favorite bird-friend to escape! So I was pretty upset upon discovering this, but I'm holding out hope that she'll fly back unharmed when she gets hungry. Or that she at least enjoys her new found freedom to the fullest.

I'm also feeling really productive because my arrival in good ol' Lynchburg, VA for college is closing in and I'm being really good about deadlines for things related. You're allowed to be proud if you want.

And lastly, I leave for vacation numero dos in less than 48 hours (you're allowed to be jealous)! I'm just taking advantage of finally getting to act like a student and have summers off again, so don't judge.