The Most Embarrassing Thing I'll Ever Write

Before I begin, I have to say that this is hands down the most embarrassing blog post I've ever written -- which, really, is saying a lot considering I've included stories about dropping my Jimmy John's sandwich behind the store's stove, accidentally washing all of my clothing in oil, crying on the Fourth of July in England because the KFC rolls were too good and, of course, when I did this:

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The Bird Funerals

When my family moved to Massachusetts three years ago, we bought a house that was much too large for us.  More specifically, the yard was too large: every week, it takes a full day for my father to mow/garden/weed/whatever it is that people do to keep yards looking acceptable.  Because my brothers and I had grown up in a house confined by a fence and also because we knew absolutely no one in Marshfield after moving from Idaho, we spent most of that summer exploring our yard.  We didn't find much: besides an old chicken coop and an abandoned tire swing, our findings in the backyard only led to us finding empty spaces to put our slack-line and hammock.  

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The Day We Said Goodbye to Grandma

One thing that I've learned about writing is that it's hard for me to motivate myself to formulate complete thoughts on my blog posts.  On the back end of my website, I have at least twenty drafts of stories I want to tell that I haven't found the correct words for them to be completed.  There's empty posts with titles -- "Hats," "The Bird Funerals," "Home Is Whenever I'm With You," -- posts with loosely formed ideas that I don't yet possess the correct words to tell the full story.  

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Call Me (Maybe)

We were finishing out our sophomore year at the same place it started: our friend Ian’s house.  This time was different, though.  Instead of the raging parties that Ian usually had, there were only a select few of us at the house.  By that point, most people had already gone home for the summer.  Actually, to be completely honest, even Ian had already left Muncie, but he had the type of house that was “open-invitation” for his friends.  (He also had the type of house that, at one point in the middle of that year, did not have any functional working doors, so in order to get in and out of the house, you’d have to climb through either the front or back window.  It was the definition of a college party house and I can literally feel my mother’s horror at reading those last few sentences).

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Three Things for An Unobvious Life

Whenever I travel, I always have three items: Puglee, my Five Year Diary and "The Manifesto."  Granted, I usually have a plethora of other things as well, but at this point, I would bet that it is physically impossible for me to get on a plane without knowing these three items are in my carry-on.  While I'm a firm believer in the fact that material objects should have a low ranking in the scheme of life, I am attached to these three things beyond belief and they are, each for their own reason, my favorite items that I own.

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13 Things I Learned in 2013

While I firmly believe that in the future, I will refer to 2013 as "The Year I Sprained My Ankle So Many Times That My Left Foot Couldn't Fit In My Boots Anymore," it was also a year of wonderful experiences, new opportunities and incredible memories.  I definitely think I was able to become a better, stronger person than I was in 2012 and here are thirteen things I learned that helped me get there.

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The Unhealthy Love

People don't believe you when you say you're in love in tenth grade.  It's dismissed as something small and insignificant: something you'll grow out of the way you grew out of Barbie dolls and pink dresses, of crayons and playing tag.  And, most the time, it is small.  It is insignificant.  But, sometimes, it's something more.   Sometimes, it really is love.

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8 Things I Learned While Visiting NYC for 2 Days

I was born in New York.  For the first few years of my life, I pronounced "dog," as "dowGUH" and spoke at the speed of lightning, which, hey, was pretty impressive for a two-year-old with freakishly tiny ears and a minimal amount of hair.  After moving to Idaho and living there for 17 years, I lost the New York dialect and, thank God, my hair grew in (I still have awkwardly tiny ears), but, despite the loss of my accent, New York has always been my home.

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Life is Beautiful

I could fill books about everything I think is wrong with me.  For example, I have awful nails and hands the size of a medium-built five-year-old.  I'm terrified of ketchup.  It's impossible for me to transfer people to voicemail on the phone at work.

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Five Boys You Will (Almost) Date in College

This guy is pretty much a huge tool, but it takes you awhile to see it.  He's a bro and he tries too hard, but you weren't looking for anything serious anyway and it's kind of funny how he tries to be so cool.  Eventually, though, he stops the player act around you and starts to be sweet.  So, so sweet.  He doesn't have enough confidence to be this way around anyone else, so you're the only person who sees it.  No one believes you that this side of him exists. 

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Sandpoint, Idaho

Today was a pretty gross day in Massachusetts and I had no energy because I spent all weekend at a music festival and apparently, being twenty-one constitutes me as being an old person now because my knees hurt from standing and jumping and doing all of the things that make concerts so fun. So, I spent the day making Mac & Cheese and deleting old emails while singing really loudly to myself.  In the middle of all that excitement, I found the speech that I wrote about Sandpoint and why it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.  

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The 5 Types of Kisses You Should Experience

Mike and I dated from April to June of my eighth grade year and when we broke up, I was devastated.  I'm pretty sure this was the first time my heart had ever been broken and I hated it.  It was the worst, especially because we broke up over some dumb misunderstanding (which, let's be real, is what most middle school break up's are over).  Because we had started out as best friends before we dated, Mike and I tried to hang out after our break up, which was kind of hard because I was still pretty upset that we were no longer together and I also still hearted him big time and I was 99% sure that he wanted to get back together too.

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I Couldn't Think of 5 Songs I Liked, So I Did This Instead

I was trying to do this thing where every Friday, I posted five songs that I liked and why I liked them and why people should listen to them, but then I only ended up doing it twice, because Friday's were surprisingly busy days for me during junior year and, also, I went through this pretty embarrassing phase where I only listened to One Direction and Nelly, which was a confusing time period in my life and I didn't want to subject anyone to that shame and horror.

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Cannonball

I was on dance team a long time ago, but it was an experience that completely changed my life.  Coach Smith is a woman that transformed who I am and I will always admire her.  She didn't only teach us how to be strong dancers; she taught us how to be strong people.  There's no way that I could have gotten through high school without her love and support.  Coach Smith is retiring this year and I feel so lucky to have been able to be a part of her team for six years.

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Free Will & Determinism

The following was written as a problem set for my Honors 296 class, a class that focuses on the differences between the quantum world and the Newtonian world and how that is interpreted in our every day lives.  I think.  I'm not really sure, most of the stuff goes pretty far over my head, so I spend a fairly large amount of time waiting for 1:00, when the girl that sits behind me and Emily starts eating every day.  But, I got a pretty good grade on this paper, so I guess I know what I'm talking about.  Kind of.

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