Crazy People at the Airport

The airport is one of the most ridiculous places I have ever been.

You’d think I’d be used to it by now, I’ve been flying since I was two months old.

I’ve been on more planes than probably just about anyone in my school. When I was little we would go on vacations at least three times a year, plus all the trips to Georgia. We would pretty much always fly and never drive. Who wants to sit in a car for 18 hours when you could just fly for 4? Not me. I hate car rides.

So the other alternative is to fly. You get to go to the airport and see all the sites from other cities. Sometimes it’s super frustrating, but not as frustrating as your little TomTom GPS telling you to go down a one way street the wrong way and getting you lost every time you turn it on.

Lately I haven’t gone on as many vacations. I haven’t been flying as much as I used to, but I am flying alone a lot more. Pretty much every time I’ve been on a plane in the last year and a half, actually. I  often go by myself to see my relatives in the south, like Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Georgia. I’ve gone all of those places by myself this year.

Almost every time I have flown recently I have gone through the Chicago O’hare airport. I have that place memorized. There’s a Starbucks right after security and a Johnny Rockette’s just a little ways down. It also has this place called Argo Tea. It’s delicious and I always have to go there to try some weird type of tea and eat some macaroons. I was stuck in this airport for about four hours coming back from Mississippi last summer, so I walked around while I was bored.

I also know the Atlanta airport pretty well from flying there so many times. There’s a Popeye’s on concourse B. That’s really the only thing you need to know.

There are some crazy people in the airports. Foreign people seem to be the craziest. I’m sure I’d look just as stupid as them if I was in another country and could barely speak the language…but man do they annoy me. They always seem to walk so slow...RIGHT in front of you. This is only a problem in big airports really, but it’s so annoying when it happens. They walk slowly in front of you and then turn around and run into you. Or they walk the wrong way. This is America people, we walk like we drive. It’s the opposite of Britain. They also seem to talk louder than everyone else. They get on their phone and start yappin’ in their foreign language. They also just cause problems. Again I’m sure I would too if I were in a foreign country. I wouldn’t know how everything works. But it seems like every flight I’m on they have to go up to the counter and make sure they have a seat, or on the flight they are trying to talk on the phone while we’re in the air and the flight attendant has to come tell them they can’t do that.

The other annoying people are first time fliers. I mean, it’s kind of cute if it’s a little kid. But if you’re a teenager or adult and you’ve somehow never flown before, you need to understand that you have to follow directions. In security you have to take off your shoes and jacket. You need to get rid of any metal on you. Like, how stupid are people? There is a sign RIGHT there and they don’t read it and then they hold up the line and have to go back through the security thing three of four times. It also makes the people working very grumpy, and they’re already scary enough. They also are people who walk very slow in front of you, looking at everything they pass by. Sometimes they freak out about flying. THAT is super annoying to someone like me who passed that scared stage 15 years ago.

Also big families at airports are annoying. Especially ones with small children. The kids scream and cry the WHOLE plane ride. Big families = big migraine for Jessie. They are constantly talking or just making some kind of noise. The kids electronic games are making noise, the husband is on the phone, the teenager is yelling at the 7 year old, the baby is screaming and the mother is yelling at everyone to be quiet. It’s the worst.

There are also crazy people who wear heels at the airport. Like sorry but I just don’t get that. I understand if you have to dress nice because you have to go to a meeting as soon as you get off the plane or something, but don’t you have time to change your shoes woman?! I could not handle that. There’s so much walking in big airports, and standing and waiting.

Crazy crazy people. 

The End of Junior Year

Here it is.

The end of junior year.

Summer is just around the corner.

You would think that means it’s time to relax, but my summers are busier than the school year. Sure, I don’t have to worry about due dates and homework. Overall it may be less stressful. I’m doing fun things instead of boring school, but there’s still so much going on and it’s hard to plan it all out!

I have journalism camp for a week, then church camp the following week. I’m hopefully going to Colorado to look at colleges and have a little fun, then traveling to Oklahoma to visit my family and possibly get a Mustang. I think I’m going on a trip with my boyfriend’s family sometime. That’s already at least four weeks gone out of the summer.

My cousin from Mississippi might also come for a week, or I may go visit her-but that one is less solid than the others because she’s getting ready for college and whatever else.

Between all these trips and camps I’m going to try to find time to hang out with friends… and my boyfriend who will be leaving for college in a mere 3ish months. That’s terrifying. And even THAT time is extremely limited because he’s going to be working 6 days a week. That’s even more terrifying.

And with all of this, I think I am somehow expected to get a job. HA. No one is going to hire someone who can work literally like 2 weeks out of the whole summer. I’m not going to waste the tiny bit of free time I have WORKING. I’m already stressed out enough about this crazy summer!

During that tiny bit of free time I want to have bonfires on our new land, and go mudding and camping and swim in the creek at night. Wow I just sound like a redneck don’t I? Oh well. It’s true. I also want to go to Adventureland and maybe Chicago for a weekend. I want to take art classes somewhere and do lots of photography stuff. I plan to try to get really skinny this summer (which probably will be pushed down to the bottom of my priority list.) I was going to go to Farrell’s or some gym.. I guess I could just save some time each day by not eating! Just kidding. I love food that’s like my MAIN priority. Ha. I’m going to have to start working on scholarships and figuring out what I want to do with my life. I have to/would like to go to about 20 grad parties, 8 of which are on the same day. They’re all important people to me… I can’t leave one out! There’s so many things to do and such little time.

MAKE IT STOP. How do people do this? I don’t understand how some people can be involved in sports and clubs and choir AND have to do all this! Perhaps their summer is not filled to the brim like mine. Because this just seems ridiculous.

I’m going to be so white this summer because I’m never going to have a second to just lay outside in the pool and tan.

I would love for this summer to go by slowly, but I know it won’t. It never does. I’m saying goodbye to junior year, soon I’ll be saying goodbye to summer and all the things I hoped to achieve in it. 

Random Acts of Kindness

Yesterday someone did something nice for me. 

I was at Barnes and Noble, trying to relax and do something I like before the dreaded AP Lang test the next morning. I wanted to get a National Geographic book on photography, but it was 30 dollars and I was pretty sure I only had 27. I ended up just getting a magazine on photography and a magazine on weddings. The cashier smiled and winked and sang, "Someone's getting married!" I just awkwardly shook my head and said no. It's weird how often I get asked that. Do I look like I'm in my 20's? Anyway, the total was about 11 dollars so I was sure I'd have enough. I gave her my debit card, and apparently, there was only 4 dollars on it. I told the cashier that I'd just come back and she said she would hold it for me. All of the sudden the woman behind me asked the cashier how much the difference was. The cashier told her 7 dollars. The lady and her young daughter walked up and she said that she would just pay. It was so nice. I didn't even know how to respond... I just said, "Oh no you don't have to do that..." The lady insisted and I just thanked her over and over. The cashier said "Wow that is so nice!" I didn't know what else to say. Maybe I should have gotten her name so I could send her a thank-you note with the 7 dollars somehow. I know it was only 7 dollars... but still, a total stranger just offering to pay because some teenager didn't do her math right after she bought two Starbucks frappuccinos earlier? (She didn't know that...but still) Who does that? Getting the magazines isn't even what made me happy... I really could have survived without them, but just a random stranger being unimaginably kind to someone made me feel happy. 

Though they are rare, I've heard of these random acts of kindness a lot. Once when I was little some random man in a restaurant paid for me and my parent's meal. I've heard of a friend or two of mine paying for the person behind them in the drive through line. This is more common, but if someone's car breaks down or they slide into the ditch in the winter, people pull over on the side of the road to help them, and even give them their coat while they wait. My boyfriend and I dug someone out of a snowbank once. My dad's pulled people out lots of times. But paying for someone's meal (or magazines) purely out of random kindness? 

That's just wonderful. It makes me want to get a job just so I can do things like that for other people. I want to buy breakfast at Perkins for some old lady sitting all alone. I'm always tempted to leave random notes of kindness around at school or on people's cars, but I don't want anyone to see me do it or recognize my handwriting. I'm also tempted to create a twitter account that just tweets compliments at random people in the twittersphere but I feel like that might just be seen as creepy... 

I always see people tweet about random things that they want... or about how happy they would be if someone brought them food. Of course no one ever does that. But imagine of someone did? If someone they may not even be good friends with showed up with exactly what they wanted... just to be nice. Or if someone mailed them something they really want with no return address so they have no idea who it's from. I want to do that for people. I just want to see how they react... but I mostly just want to let everyone know that people care about them and notice them even if they aren't friends or close friends. People like that lady at Barnes and Noble care about people. Just people. Complete strangers are still people. I love that and I want to be that kind of person too. You can make someone's day.. maybe week or even month- just by a simple random act of kindness. 

A Love Story

One of the greatest love stories I have ever heard happened in my very own family. All of this is 100% true. 

It began in a little schoolhouse in Mississippi during the 20s. Just a boy and a girl in elementary school, passing notes and talking constantly. To solve all of the disruptions this little boy and little girl created in class, the teacher separated them. Jack Lee and Ouida Waldrop were just children, growing up together in the tiny schoolhouse but they didn’t know they would grow old together as well.

They both had grown up poor. Jack came from a family of eight children. His father was a train engineer, but his mother wanted to settle in the country. They moved to Brookhaven on a farm where Jack and all of his siblings worked. His father was gone to work on the trains a lot, but him and his siblings made the best of it swimming in a creek or playing ball.

Ouida was the oldest of nine children and grew up in the country in Mississippi with her family who sharecropped. Everyone in the family helped, and eventually they had enough to buy their own patch of farmland near Brookhaven. Despite all the hard work, the children still had fun picking blackberries and reading by the fire.

As they entered high school, they remained close and became even closer. They were dating one another and as the Mississippi weather heated up, so did their love. Ouida had to move with her family for a while because they were out of work. The couple was devastated. Jack couldn’t go without seeing her. This is where it begins to sound like something straight out of a Nicholas Sparks book. Ouida was sitting in the sand in her yard looking at the dry cracked road and thinking of Jack, when she suddenly saw someone walking towards her. Her wonderful boyfriend had walked and hitch-hiked about 150 miles across the state of Mississippi to see her!

 Jack was still in high school and Ouida had just graduated from East Lincoln High School. Their love had grown to where the only thing they could think of was to get married. Only 17 years old, they came up with a plan to elope. The couple said that they were going to a play at school, when really, they were about to leave and go to another county. They borrowed someone’s car and five dollars and drove to a preacher’s house where they got married. They were just wearing their normal clothes so they wouldn’t be asked any questions because they told no one. Jack drove them back to Lincoln County and the two parted and went home to their families. Their wedding was on October 24^th 1940.

It became difficult for Ouida and Jack, hardly spending time together and keeping their marriage a secret. The only option was to tell their families. Once they did, they moved back and forth living a few weeks with the Waldrops and a few with the Lees. Shortly after that, they moved to Savannah Georgia where Jack’s brother lived. Jack worked at a paper company and Ouida attended secretarial school. Also during their time in Savannah, they went to the Church of the Nazarene which influenced them in the rest of their lives.

Sadly, more separation was to come for Ouida and Jack. He served in the Navy in 1942 to 1945 and was soon sent overseas to the Philippines. They sent each other letters and pictures; Jack sent her one on July 24^th 1945 and wrote, “I love you darling, Jack.” Later during the war Jack was stationed near Savannah but was sent to Texas and Florida. Ouida found time to go visit him, and when she wasn’t there, she worked for an Army General. On December 5^th, 1945 Jack was off duty and could be back with his true love.

One year later they began attending Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma. They made many friends and began to become established church members. Ouida worked in the church office while Jack taught a Sunday school class for 12 year old boys. Jack decided to become a preacher, and they received their first pastorate in the town of Hooker, Oklahoma.

At the age of 28, Ouida had her first child, Dinah Kay. Not long after, they moved to Kansas City to work at another church. They then had another baby girl, Jennifer Gay. Their church, family, and of course their love, grew. Again they moved, this time to Newport, Kentucky. The church was sad, but new opportunities came and so did a new baby girl: my mom. Rebecca Lynn was born on December 24^th, 1959. They moved to Baltimore, Maryland and pastored there for a while next. Constantly moving around, they arrived in Kankakee, Illinois in 1964 where they lived for about 5 years. The girls made a lot of friends, and another daughter was born: Jacqueline Beth. Jack and Ouida were 46 years old!

The church in Illinois threw Jack and Ouida a party for their 25^th anniversary, but they soon left for Georgia. This was their most beloved church family and it was hard to leave them, but Jack was called to be District Superintendent of Georgia. He spent a lot of time traveling and meeting people of the churches around Georgia. Ouida stayed home with her girls during the week, and on weekends they often visited nearby churches.

Dinah soon graduated, as well as Jenni who graduated early. They went off to college and it was just Becki and Jackie at home. But a tragedy soon arose. Jackie crawled into the street while a babysitter was taking care of her and was hit by a car and killed at 22 months old. Even though everyone was sad and grieving, the family loved each other and Jack and Ouida never became unpleasant with one another.

The family went on several little vacations, even though the girls were all growing up. Becki soon went off to college and in time, all three daughters were married. They had a special day to celebrate Jack and Ouida’s 41^st anniversary in 1981.

Just months later Jack became diagnosed with mesothelioma. He could no longer fight the horrid disease, and died on March 14, 1982. Him and Ouida’s love stayed strong through all those years, and in the last moment she is what he was thinking of. With his last breath, he whispered, “Ouida.”

This is the true love story of Jack and Ouida Lee. My mother typed it and created a scrapbook timeline of their romance. I’m retelling it in my own way, but everything I wrote is absolutely true! It sounds just like something out of a movie. If every married couple had a love like this there would be no divorces. This is the kind of love everyone should wait for and find; one that will last through pain and separation, and grows after fighting these battles. I want a marriage like theirs. They made it seem easy, though I’m sure at times it wasn’t. But pulling through is the most important thing. You have to remember what you love about someone. 

The Job Question

I don't think teenagers should have jobs.

But this summer I might get bored. And I might want some extra money. Or money to save for my wedding some day. 

So I'm considering getting a job... I know.. It's a really big shock. I'm not sure how I feel about it. 

I've thought about a few options... And I should probably find out more about them. My main concern is the hours. I do NOT want a job that will schedule me to work during a time I requested off. My boyfriend is working as a lifeguard nearly full time...so I have very limited time left with him before he leaves for college and I am not going to have my time with him taken by some stupid job. So. That's why pretty much any job that teenagers could have won't work for me. Those kinds of jobs are always scheduling you for whenever they want or people call you into work... I just could not handle that. I have higher priorities than some worthless job that pays $7.50 and hour. 

I've considered working at Starbucks. But my friend who worked there said the hours were bad and sometimes they'd schedule you for bad times. And I can't have that! However, I loooove Starbucks. I like to make smoothies and I'd love to learn to make their delicious drinks. I'd be a coffee snob, and know what everything is, and I'm okay with that. I'd see lots of people I know and that's alright too. I'd probably get really fat though. Just being around the drinks would make me crave them even more than I already do. I feel like I'd purposely mess them up just so I can drink the mess-ups. 

My friend has also offered me a job at her parent's warehouse. They own B&H Factory Outlet. They actually used to live across the street from me and began the business in the basement of that house. They are the largest clothing store on Ebay which is crazy. They have a big warehouse somewhere nearby and they have many employees. She said I could work as a photographer and take pictures of the models and mannequins, or someone who does inventory or a desk job or whatever else there is in a warehouse. I think it might be kind of fun because many girls my own age work there... but they're all from Linn Mar and are friends so it might be kind of awkward. It could also get kind of boring if I was just stocking shelves or typing in numbers on a computer. It doesn't sound that bad though, and she told me the hours are pretty flexible especially since they know me. Plus you get free or discounted Victoria's Secret swimsuits I'm pretty sure! So perhaps I'll work there.

Another job I wouldn't hate would be working somewhere like David's Bridal. I love love love weddings and wedding dresses and just everything about it. I love the emotion the brides-to-be have and hearing the comments from the friends or family they bring. Of course being one of the consultants would be the best, but I don't think they give those jobs to teenagers. I wouldn't mind just doing inventory of the dresses though. I'd still get to see some brides and I'd constantly be looking through all the beautiful dresses. Maybe they'd even let me try one on. I really want to try on wedding dresses... I suffer from addiction of Say Yes to the Dress and it's making me want to work somewhere like Kleinfeld or Bridals by Lori. (I'm watching that show as I write this). I'm not sure that they even hire teens, or if they are hiring at all. But it'd be fun. 

The main thing I am thinking about doing is interning for a photography company. Photography is my thing and I enjoy it no matter what. I don't want a job that I won't enjoy, and this would be wonderful in advancing my photography career. It would give me experience and help me in the future, even if I am not getting paid. I could learn new techniques from the other photographers and I would get my name out there for business as well. Perhaps I would get to attend weddings (which I would love) to take pictures or set everyone up for their group photos or something. I'm not really sure what all I would do. My only concern is that I would work Saturdays. That's the only day my boyfriend has off of work... and that's more important. I would love doing this though.

So those are my options. If anything else comes up I'll consider it, but this is all I can think of that I'd be willing to do. I absolutely would not work at a fast food place, or probably any food place other than ice cream or smoothies or something. I could not be a waitress. I'm way too clumsy. I couldn't work just typing in stuff on a computer all day. It'd be too much like school. I wouldn't like working at a store like Hy-Vee and dealing with old people who tell you their life stories as they are checking out. I wouldn't like stocking shelves all day either. Nothing involving math...so not a cashier unless it told me the exact change to give back. So yeah. I really don't know if I want a job or not. I will probably find out some more about each one I'm considering and we will see if I decide to get a dreaded job!

PROM

I finally was asked to prom...! 

And I went.

So one Thursday after my guitar lesson, I was driving home with my dad and when we pulled up there was a huge banner in front of my garage that said "Prom?" Jared then drove up and got out. I hugged him and said yes. (Obviously). 

We went with a vintage look. I spent hours searching antique stores for the perfect vintage hair piece for the 20's hairstyle I wanted. I never found one so I settled on a broach that my dad turned into a hair clip. My dress was long, classy, and red. It had sparkly capped sleeves which inspired the whole vintage thing we were going for. I got my makeup done at Estee Lauder- winged eyeliner and classic red lips. I think Jared looked better than me though. I made him wear a bow-tie, which, despite his pouting, he deemed a "good call" after looking in the mirror at his attractiveness. His tux was black with a white vest. The only red he had was the flower. It was perfect. 

My dress was a bit too long, and I was really scared of tripping going down the stairs at Grand March. I didn't so yay. They have dinner at the school, right after pictures and the grand march. It was pretty good; chicken, ham, and potatoes. During dinner they showed seniors who won random awards, like "bluest eyes... Best smile..." Well, my awesome hunk of a boyfriend won "most smokin' car". I was prettttttty proud of his sexy Mustang and him!

Personally I like the CPU dances more than Kennedy's. I don't know anyone really, so I can dance like a complete idiot and I don't have to face the people who see me every day. Jared does, but he doesn't care. Plus, everyone else dances crazy anyway because most people at his school don't grind. I like that because you aren't pressured to. At Kennedy you look like a weirdo if you don't. At CPU you look like a weirdo if you do. Almost right after the dance started, Jared went up and requested "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. He sings that to me sometimes and we danced to it before and it was really romantic. It was so sweet that he did that. We had fun... even though my dress kept getting stepped on. 

Post prom surprisingly went by really fast. Really the whole night seemed to go by way too fast. They had bouncy inflatables that were fun... no mechanical bull this year but oh well. There just weren't as many fun activities as the year before, but we were still occupied pretty much the whole time. You get tickets for every activity you do, then you put them into buckets to win prizes. Jared didn't win any-he wanted the TV. Every student from his school wins a smaller prize, he got gloves or something but gave it away. They had extras so I got perfume. There was a hypnotist which was fun to watch. Jared went up to get hypnotized  but it only worked on him for like 5 minutes then he fell out of it. I was sad... I wanted to see him dance like Beyonce and be silly. Overall though, it was really fun and exhausting. I'm still recovering from all of this fun craziness. 

The Perfect Date

I would be so good at giving some girl the perfect date.

If only I were a dude.

Oh well, maybe my boyfriend will read this and get some ideas ;) I'm just going to write about things that can be done here in Iowa... this would be much more exciting in other areas. 

It would start out before the sun rises. We'd drive out by some lake or somewhere pretty in a pickup truck. He would have piled the bed of the truck with blankets and pillows and brought some breakfast to go. He wouldn't have even told me he was coming, just show up at my house with flowers and drag me outside and into his truck. He wouldn't even let me get out of my pajamas or put on makeup. We'd go drive up close to the lake or wherever and then he'd make me get out. I'd crawl up into the back and see the perfect cozy place to cuddle and eat breakfast and watch the sun rise. And we would do just that. Then we'd fall asleep for a little bit since it was so early.

After that we would come home and he would tell me to go get ready, like shower and all that. While I'm in the bathroom he would pick out the perfect outfit for our date and lay it all out on my bed so I know exactly what to put on. He'd tell me to get my swimsuit and some towels and put them in a bag, and maybe some extra clothes too. Next we'd just stroll through a park, maybe go in some little shops. We'd act silly and try on weird hats and glasses and things. We might even go to a museum or just somewhere we can walk around and look at things and people can look at us and how cute and awesome we are. We'd have lunch in a simple little place, maybe even take it to go for a picnic  We'd get dessert and share it and sit there for a little bit and just talk.

Then we would take a boat or canoe out into the lake or river and ride around for no reason. We'd reenact the scene from The Notebook just to be weird. And we'd drink sparkling grape juice in a wine glass packed in a picnic basket. In fact, maybe we'd have our lunch picnic on the boat. 

It would be during the summer when it's warm and nice. If there was a local fair or anything going on we'd go ride some rides for a bit. Definitely the Ferris Wheel. By then it'd be about time for dinner. He would have made reservations for some really nice place and surprised me. He would just have the whole day planned out. That's the most important thing. 

Next we'd drive out far away and lay in the bed of the truck and look at the stars some more. It'd be pretty late by then, and he'd drive us to a creek and we'd swim under the stars. It might be a little cold but it's still fun to swim in a creek. No one around, just the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking. 

Reluctantly, we'd head home. He would come and open the door of the truck and walk me to the door and kiss me goodnight. A great ending to an exciting day. *Sighh.....*

Old People Taking Over Facebook

The 40+ generation has taken over.

Taken over Facebook.

Has anyone noticed that the only posts they see are from angsty freshmen/middle schoolers and middle aged adults posting every detail about their day?

Adults have always criticized teens for posting every detail of their life on Twitter or Facebook. Now they do it more than us. They don't just post the acceptable one-sentence "Just got coffee from Starbucks yum". They post a PARAGRAPH about their trip to Starbucks, other miscellaneous errands they ran, the conversations they had with each person, and how their dog peed all over the couch while they were gone. Do they think people care? Like, get a diary Uncle Darrel. I'm fine with SHORT posts about something funny your small child or pet did, but we don't care about how your dog is doing three weeks after it was neutered. We don't want to read a 5000 word paragraph about your day at the airport. We don't want to see a picture of the dinner you make every single night. We don't want to scroll through all of your reposts of a political ad. We don't care about how you wish things were back to how they were in the 60's. We don't want to read about your new "pain or ache of the week". We really, really do not want you to comment on every picture we post and say something embarrassing. We don't want you to post on our page about something stupid we did when we were little, or how much we've changed, or grown up. We don't want you to comment on our weird facial expressions. We don't want you to write a paragraph in the comments of our changed relationship status. We don't want you to post 83578926359 words about your time at the Gather's concert.

THEN these old people say "LOL." They think it's all hip and cool to type like a middle-schooler. "I had fun with u 2day, thx 4 spending the day with me and i hope ur dog gets better LOL!" Please stop. Please. It's just annoying and stupid and weird. It bothers me when people my age do it, it bothers me more when old people do it. Especially when they capitalize LOL every time. I wish they just wouldn't say "lol" but why capitalize it if you must? I mean, I get it's an acronym, but capitalizing it just makes you look way overly excited about something that probably isn't even funny.

So please stop, dear elderly people. We love you, yet, we really don't want to know about every minute detail of your life. And then you make fun of us for doing that.... Look at yourselves! You people are on Facebook more than most teenagers I know. What's next, Twitter? The old people will be "twittering" (as they call it) about their aches and pains. Their dog's aches and pains. How they accidentally spilled coffee on their carpet. Please understand, we appreciate you... but WE DON'T CARE. xoxoxo

The P-word.

Number one word I hate- pickle.

*shudders*

I can't stand that word. I don't know why really... but yep. I just can't stand the word pickle.

Perhaps it has something to do with the awkwardness of it. Think about it. Pih-kal. "pi-kəl". It's just so weird sounding. I hate why people use it like "I was in a pickle". I know they do that in baseball and softball... and they should call it something else. Yuck- thinking about this word so much is making me sick.

Pickles are really disgusting vegetables. Cucumbers are fine... but for some reason I just can't stand to look at pickles. They're ugly and awkward looking. They were once a nice cucumber shade, and now they're a dark ugly poop green. They have warts on them and bumps like they have some disease. In my opinion, they look like frogs or toads in a different shape. They're the same color and texture and have that cold moist feeling like frogs or toads. The taste is disgusting. I don't see how anyone likes them. There are even some psychos who like to drink pickle juice. Ew! That's just so nasty! How can one torure themselves like that? They make this terrible crunching sound when you bite into them. It's like it's crunchy but it's juicy. It's not normal. Pickles are just drunk cucumbers. They sit for a long time in some kind of smelly solution until they are ruined and sickening. It's like making beer, but with a perfectly good vegetable. They also smell terrible and give you nasty breath. Then people ruin their sandwiches with them. It's one thing to put a small pickle slice on a sandwhich, but some people even eat them PLAIN. That is disgusting. Then people fry these ludacris vegetables (if you can even call them that) and pretend to ENJOY eating them. Fools.

I would even go so far as to say I am afriad of pickles. They're like.. wet and slimy and warty and weird and gross and smelly and disgusting. I don't want that thing near me! Someone once put one on my plate and I had to look away while they got it off. I often cover them with napkins or hurry to throw them away if they come on a dish I have ordered. I just really hate them. 

Django Unchained

"The D is silent hillbilly"

Django Unchained was a great movie. It was full of history and dialogue and action. I'm a girl and I actually like action movies. Not all the time, but I enjoy them most of the time. I liked this one because it wasn't fighting constantly..it was mostly just at the end. 

Anyway, a short summary of the movie:  A German man (Dr. King Schulze) rides up to some slave traders, kills one, takes Django, and gives the other slaves a gun to kill the other slave trader. The German dude was a bounty hunter and he needed Django's help to figure out who three guys were that he needed to kill for the bounty. They go into a town, kill a sheriff who was also wanted, then make their way to the plantation where the three men are that they need to find. Anyone who sees Django is shocked because he is a black man on a horse and he is free. Schulze didn't believe in slavery so he said Django and him were more like partners. Django killed two of the guys, whipping one of them to show him how it felt since he had just been about to whip a slave girl. The main part of the story is that they were trying to get Django's wife back to him. They had been separated after they tried to escape together and had been caught. They were sold to different people and when Schulze found that out he wanted to help Django. They figured out the plantation Django's wife was at. The owner of the plantation (Calvin Candie) was also the owner of many Mandingo fighters. Schulze and Django claimed to the owner that they wanted to buy one of his fighters and they would pay a great price. Django saw his wife, Hildie, and they had to pretend like they didn't know each other. Candie's butler, Stephan figures out that they know each other and informs Candie. They end up all shooting each other. Schulze gets shot and so does Candie. The few people left take Django and then sell him to slave traders. He tricks them into releasing him and he kills them. Then he goes back for Hildie. He kills the few white people left, then shoots Stephan in the leg and lights the house on fire and throws some dynamite in there. It blows up, and him and his woman ride away into the darkness. 

It was a really cool story with some great actors such as Jamie Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, and Leonardo DeCaprio. They could have sworn less, and maybe not shown so much blood shooting out of the people when they got shot. Overall though, it was a great movie and I've watched it twice so far.

If I Was a Billionaire

If I was a billionaire I think I would have some fun and do some good.

I would buy a ranch in Colorado, get some cows. A hundred horses. Some ranch hands. And a huge log cabin house looking out over a lake. It'd pretty much be a mansion of a "cabin". It'd have a big porch all the way around and lots of windows and sky lights. The back overlooking the lake would have a big deck with a grill and rocking chairs. There'd be a slide into a pool under the house off of the deck. There would be a glass room that would be like my studio...for art and writing. There would be perfect places around the hundreds of acres of land for me to take pictures and go four wheeling. 

Also, I'd buy a penthouse apartment in Chicago or New York. It'd be all fancy and urban with a huge closet. I'd buy boatloads of clothes in the upscale stores lined in the streets of the city. I'd go to fancy dinner parties and fashion shows and work some at the New York Times or Chicago Tribune. I'd have a chauffeur drive me around in a limo just to be awesome and feel important. People would know me and I'd get invited to parties and stuff but I'd just shop instead. 

I'd also have a little beach house somewhere. It wouldn't have to be big, just enough for me and my husband to stay and keep some surf boards and a boat and a convertible corvette.

That brings me to my cars. A mustang-red Shelby with white stripes. An awesome big truck. An old convertible stingray corvette. A limo. A jeep. Those are just mine...my husband will have his own awesome cars too. We'd have an underground garage thing and show room in our main house in Colorado. 

We would always be going on cool trips to different countries and staying in the nicest hotels. We'd go to the famous restaurants shown on the Travel Channel. We would also get VIP tickets to some very cool concerts, and be some of Maroon 5's groupies or something. We would get tickets to the World Cup all the time too. We would get to meet a lot of famous people and go to movie premiers just because we're that rich. 

I'd also give a lot to random organizations like JDRF and cancer organizations. I would donate to Children's hospitals, missionaries, and I'd try to help homeless people find jobs. I really love sea turtles, and I would contribute a lot to efforts to save them. I'd also go volunteer to help them myself. I would put a lot of my money in the bank for my kids later on and I'd give a lot to my family too. 

Just Wait, He's Somewhere

So many teenage girls I know are freaking out about being "forever alone."

Well stop. 

I know, easy for me to say right? I found the love of my life at the age of 15. 

But I wasn't looking for him.

There's this thing called serendipity which means good things happen when you don't expect them to. I think that these girls (or even boys) need to stop complaining about it and just let it happen when it does. If they don't want to just let it go, then maybe they should actually try to look for a guy instead of  writing about how they are oh-so-lonely and in need of a cuddle buddy on Twitter. 

When my boyfriend and I began talking, I was not really looking for a relationship. I had been for months (maybe years) before that. I had liked this guy at my school for almost two years and he was still only my best friend. And even that was falling apart. I finally gave it up. I mean, I had said that sooo many other times but I always just fell back into liking him again. This time, I left for church camp right after I decided that. I thought "okay, I just won't worry about boys for awhile. I'll be with friends and worry about that later. If one shows up, then so be it, but I'm not going to waste another two years of my life going after some guy who will never like me." And guess what. That very week at camp I started to get to know Jared. It usually won't happen that quickly; I was lucky. 

My point is, girls need to just relax. Most people don't find their soul mate in high school! And you shouldn't become so desperate that you'll date just anyone because you want a boyfriend THAT badly. You have years ahead to find the perfect one not just someone. 

Dating is all about finding the person you want to marry. You shouldn't even consider dating someone if you could never ever see yourself with them for the rest of your life. And frankly, most people aren't ready for that in high school! I'm just one of the weird ones who likes to start planning the rest of my life wayyy in advance-and I found the boy I want to spend it with too. Most people, on the other hand, really can't handle that kind of commitment or planning at this age. So don't worry about it. This may be cliche, but God will find you the one when the time is right. 

I see girls post that there are no good guys left, they're all jerks, no one would ever love them, guys like the ones in movies aren't real.
THAT is why I encourage these girls to wait. Wait until you find a good guy. Wait until you find one who proves to you that all guys actually aren't jerks. Wait till one loves you more than you could have ever imagined. Wait until one is crazy about you like those guys in movies are with their girls. 

It isn't easy to find. Sometimes you just have to sit back and wait until one comes along. They do exist. Nice guys do exist. I'm not just saying that because I have the perfect boyfriend. In fact, he's not always perfect. Sometimes I wish he was more romantic. We all have these super high expectations and they corner guys and make them look like jerks because they aren't exactly like Noah in The Notebook. But when they truly do love you and want to be with you they will show it in some way. Maybe not exactly like the guys in a Nicholas Sparks movie or Taylor Swift song like we wish, but they'll show you. 

My advice to these girls is make a list of everything you want in a guy. It can be hundreds of things. Then order them in importance. If you meet a guy who you think is interested in you, first make sure he meets your top ones. Until you meet someone though, don't say all guys are jerks because that is only hurting the guys who could have been attracted to you. It makes them think that they could never get close enough to you because you'll just hate them because they're a guy so they're obviously a jerk. When you do meet someone don't push them away. But before you even start dating you should hang out some to see if he really does meet your criteria for a good future husband. If he doesn't, why waste your time? Save yourself the heartbreak. And if he doesn't seem at all interested, don't go after him for too long because by running after him you could be missing someone amazing standing on the sidelines waiting for someone like you to see them. So just don't worry. It will all work out if you give it time. 

Ew children.

I hate kids.

Okay I don't.

I love the ones I know. I love my little cousins and I love my boyfriend's little brothers and sister. But those little random kids in public, I just can't stand.

 They're gross. I see kids walking around the store with their hands in their nose or mouth then they touch everything. There's always kids sneezing or coughing. They smell. Some kids really need to start using deodorant at the age of like 9 and not wait until they're 12 or 13 because they stink. There's always random kids wandering around. Especially at the pool. Those kids are oblivious to everything going on around them and the end up running into you. They accidentally touch your butt. They say random things to you like they think they know you. Crazy kids. I always seem to get sick when I'm around them. They scream and throw fits and are bratty and obnoxious. They can be fun. But not random ones in public. They're sometimes cute from a distance. As long as they don't grab my leg with their snotty hands. 

Diet Time

I am getting more crap for being on a diet than for being fat.

Why is our culture so messed up?!

I want to start eating healthier so I feel better, look better, and have more energy. And people are telling me I don't need to do that. They're saying "Oh shut up, you're beautiful the way you are, don't listen to society!!!" Well yeah, it's not all about that. I think I look fine. I just don't fit in clothes that well and I want to be healthy. 

Now a days people give you more of a hard time for trying to be skinny and "conforming" than they do for being fat or eating three meals at once. 

I don't eat enough vegetables. I eat lots of fruit so that's good. I eat quite a bit of meat. I eat way too much grains and pasta-y stuff. I started this soup diet where you basically only eat vegetable soup, vegetables, and fruit. As the week goes on you can begin having a small amount of poultry or yogurt. The soup was pretty gross. My friends told me I was crazy for doing that and that I didn't need to. Well I just wanted to. I wanted to get a start on trying to eat less. It's not even so much that I eat unhealthy things, it's just that I eat a lot. 

I want to be in the healthy range for my height. Being short means I have to weigh a lot less than most people to have the "healthy" BMI. Really, it isn't about the number on my pants, it's the number on the scale. It's gone up. A lot. My size hasn't changed a ton, my pants are bigger because that's where I tend to gain my weight: thighs and butt. It's a lot healthier to be bottom heavy than top heavy so that's good I guess. I don't think I look that bad. Seeing myself from the top you'd think I was an average weight girl. Just seeing me from the bottom you'd think I was a fat girl. That doesn't bother me too much. I'd just like to be a little slimmer so I look better in a swim suit and I don't have to wear Spanx with all my tight dresses. I hate running but I know that's the best way to lose lower body weight. Well. The truth is, I don't want to lose my butt. I like it. People say it's one of the best things about my body. So I obviously don't want to lose it. Just a little on my thighs. That's one reason I hadn't started trying to lose weight and I haven't exercised in a long time. Now though, it's to the point where if I lost a little bit I think that'd be good. I just don't want to be another flat bottomed white girl ya know? But I want to fit into my shorts from past summers so... it's time to lose a little I suppose. 

 #thestruggle :(

Why I Hate the North

I HATE IOWA.

Actually just the north in general.

It's cold. It's ugly. Winter lasts for 6 months and there's only like 3 or 4 months of beautiful blooming plants and time to tan and swim. The people here don't have cute drawls when they speak. They don't have that southern charm. 

Now to the things I hate in which I feel I must type in caps lock. 

THEY CANNOT COOK. THESE DANG YANKEES CAN. NOT. COOK.
THERE IS NOT SWEET TEA AT EVERY RESTAURANT.
THERE ARE HARDLY ANY POPEYES!!!!!!!!
(OR GOOD FRIED CHICKEN PLACES OR BARBECUE PLACES.)
THEY GUYS HERE ALL HAVE BUZZ CUTS AND NOT CUTE LONGER HAIR LIKE THEY ALL DO IN THE SOUTH.
NOBODY KNOWS WHAT FRIED OKRA OR GRITS ARE. (IGNORANT YANKEES WHO DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT REAL FOOD!!!)
PEOPLE WEAR SHORTS WHEN IT IS 40 DEGREES OUT.

Whew. That felt good. Now I'll continue.

Not everyone has a gun! You get judged if you have a rebel flag on anything (or everything). Not everyone goes to church like they do down there.

 It snows. A lot. 

Like really, I'd be fine if it snowed for a week or two over Christmas, but FIVE OR SIX MONTHS?! No. It is (technically) SPRING. THERE IS SNOW ON THE GROUND. And then there's these fools wearing shorts all around and breaking out their flip-flops as soon as it's over 32!

The houses here are ugly. They're all plastic siding with no brick and hardly any wood. The dirt is sand. Not clay. Your car gets rusty from all the salt and ice and slush from the endless winter. There are no beaches. Palo does NOT count. There are too many tight neighborhoods where you can reach out your window and touch your neighbor's house. There isn't hanging moss from the trees. There's just not enough trees in general. I mean, I love corn but I hate cornfields and that's all I see here. The land is just boring and flat. There are tiny hills. There's no mountains or huge lakes in Iowa. There's no cliffs or sharp zigzag roads. The cars here suck. In the south there are soooo many mustangs, which I love. Everyone wears cowboy boots and all the men hunt. Did I mention how good the food is there? 

I need to leave. 

Write

I love to write.

Lately, I have no idea what to write about.

Whenever I blog I feel like it must be about something important. I don't like just writing pointless filler blogs to get to my 3 blog or 1200 word minimum. The word count isn't hard for me because I usually write one super long blog about something I feel strongly about that reaches 1200 words alone. The problem is thinking of shorter topics for my other two. I don't want to waste a topic that I could write 2000 words on and go way over the word count, I'd rather save it for my long post the next week. 

I've loved to write since I was little. I would always be writing short stories or little songs just for fun. I was so creative and imaginative. I had the widest vocabulary of anyone close to my age. I read thesauruses for fun. I knew more about grammar than most adults. Now we don't learn about that. I'm losing my abilities. High school has trained the creativity right out of me. Now we write about real things, not made up and imaginary things. It's harder to use imagery in non-fiction writing. I was always so good at that. It sucks that my talents are being wasted. Now I am told to write critically, don't add fluff, don't over-exaggerate.

But I liked that. 

I loved letting my imagination run wild and make up crazy fictional stories. I'd write about things I wanted to happen or things I dreamed about. I hate being a teenager. I used to read and spend time before bed making up stories in my mind. Now I read Twitter and newsy stuff online. Boring. I just want to be creative like I used to. I want to describe the scenery of a made up place and create some perfectly silly made up character. 

I wish there was an AP-Creative Writing class. Not everyone grows up to be journalists or adult authors. There has to be some children's authors. That's what I used to always want to be. That's what I was good at writing. I'm afraid that now that I'm not practicing my creative writing skills, they are disappearing. 

Thanks high-school, for taking my imagination away.  :(

Once Upon a Time I Stated My Opinion

In America, there is such a thing as freedom of speech.

We are free to share our opinions openly, and we should be able to do that without people calling us names and saying we are "ignorant." People think different things, that doesn't mean they are stupid.

Yesterday people were encouraged to wear red to support gay marriage. Everyone was tweeting about how our country is so stupid and horrible for this not being legal by 2013. I am one of the few people who does not believe that. I decided my side's voice should be heard. I said a few things, not at all hurtful or rude in my opinion. Yet, within a couple minutes of tweeting that marriage is supposed to be a religious event and such, I was BOMBARDED with replies back. Most I decided to respond to, so maybe they could understand what I was saying better. Others, (specifically some girl who called me an "ignorant bitch" for stating my opinion and sharing what I truly believe is right) were not worth my time or worries.

They misinterpreted what I was saying completely. I was in no way discriminating against gay people. I was saying marriage in general is supposed to be a religious event. Unfortunately in today's society marriage has lost all moral value. Marriage is ALREADY sooooo corrupt. The number of divorces is sickening, both in and outside the church. Why add one more wrong to what is already falling apart? Marriage now is seen as legal matters and the commitment of love.

It's so much more than that.

 Marriage is an idea that was brought up by the Christian church. It's a Christian tradition and ceremony. It's the joining of two bodies in Christ. Marriage takes God. Actually, love takes God. There would be no love without God, and there should be love in a marriage. I'm not saying gay couples don't love each other, but that is not how it is supposed to be. Marriage today is really not marriage at all. It should probably just be called something else. I understand the legalization of it is important, and I'm not saying gay people can't have that! Politically, they should have the legalization of their commitment. It just shouldn't be called marriage. Neither should non-religious weddings. It's missing the main part of an actual marriage which is the spiritual bond. It takes God to have a successful marriage (and I mean real marriage, not what society calls marriage.)

I know this is hard to grasp for non-Christians, it's even a little confusing for me to put together and make sense out of because I am so used to just thinking of marriage as a husband and wife. I'm kind of just appalled that people erupted on me so much. It's not like I was being one of those people saying, "Being gay is wrong...God hates gays....Gay people are gross." That would be a very horrible thing to do and those people that say God hates gays are SO very wrong. God loves everyone. It makes Him sad that people go against His will and choose to be gay, but He still loves them. So next time, you can call those people who say such horrid things "ignorant bitches" and not someone who was trying to reach a compromise and not being at all offensive.

I love gay people. They're still people. We should still love them just like everyone else. The fact that I think it's wrong to be gay doesn't mean that I dislike them. I'm friends with a few people who smoke or drink at this age-all of which I think is wrong. I still love them. I just hate their sin. That's also hard for non-Christians to grasp. However, the fact that I think it's not okay to be gay had nothing to do with what I was arguing-but people seemed to think it did. I was just simply arguing that, since marriage is a holy and religious thing, something unholy and nonreligious shouldn't be included in it. Sure, there is separation of church and state, but there is NOT separation of church and marriage. (Again, I'm talking about the REAL meaning of marriage.) I was not saying that you can't be gay because it isn't right according to MY religion. That would violate separation of church and state. In America you can be whatever religion you want. So if you think it's okay to be gay, that's fine. Just don't take OUR special meanings and ceremonies and place them into your secular culture. 

Mostly, I was offended at people criticizing me for sharing what I believe is right. I'm worried about the future of this country and the future of families. I was gone that morning from school to take me dad to the doctor when that whole Twitter thing happened. I didn't want to go back. I was afraid of the glares and nasty whispers from person to person that would go on about me. I'm not the kind of person who stirs up anything. This idea of causing drama or getting into an argument over Twitter is foreign to me. I just mind my own business. If I get chastised and if I am literally scared to go back to school the ONE time I speak out, what is that saying about our freedoms? How am I supposed to feel encouraged to be heard? I don't want people to hate me just for trying to get my voice heard ONCE. They thought I was being judgmental when really, others were judging ME for sharing the unpopular notion. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to teach my children the ways of the popular culture in fear of them being bullied if they do not conform to the opinions of others. Everything is so reversed right now and I'm afraid it's going to continue in that direction. If a kid speaks out against homosexuality, THEY will be called the bully because it isn't "socially accepting" or whatever. How are we supposed to share our views and faith then? That's part of what we believe, we aren't being mean about it. If someone is being mean then yes, they are a bully. But if someone is just simply sharing their opinion they should NOT be scolded and told that they are a horrible judgmental person, and then be hated by everyone else for having different opinions than the popular world. It's going down a path where, instead of someone getting beat up for BEING gay like they used to, someone will get beat up for merely SAYING that they disagree with homosexuality. 

Neither one of those occurrences is okay. 

Vote No!

If you live in Linn County, all we've been hearing is "Vote Yes for the Linn County Casino!" "Vote no!" 

Blah Blah Blah.

Well, I say vote no. 

Casinos are horrid places that ruin people's lives. They are full of alcohol. BAD. You can smoke in them. VERY BAD. People waste their life savings which leads to financial problems which leads to depression which leads to drinking/smoking and trying to gamble the LITTLE money you have to win big again, which you don't and so this HORRID cycle all begins again. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD. 

The "vote yes" ads all say it would bring jobs and prosperity to our town. But let's look at the facts. It would bring jobs, yes. But mainly all low paying jobs-which means it attracts unsuccessful and unskilled people to our town. They say it will attract out-of-town people and their money which will help our small businesses. Uh, no. It will help the casino and the casino only. People will go out to eat at the casino because apparently they have great food. They won't go to our little Cedar Rapids restaurants as much, so that will hurt small businesses-not help them.

 It will bring drunkenness into this city, which is always bad. More drunk drivers. More deaths. More depression. More addictions. More gambling. It's terrible that THAT'S how the casino gets it's money. By hurting people. By taking their money and serving them alcohol to feed their addiction so they don't know what they're doing and they spend more money than they can afford. Casinos really just ruin people's lives, and why would we want our city to support such a thing? It also causes suicides because people get so depressed and angry with themselves for being such fools and spending the money they worked their entire life for in hopes of winning big.

The casino really won't bring the city much prosperity in comparison with how much devastation it will create. Yeah, it will indeed bring some money to our city and keep the money here, but is it worth hurting people's lives and creating addictions and crime and pain?

The answer is no, so my dear 18 year old friends and older, vote no.

Traveling

It's always been a dream of mine to see as many places as I can in my lifetime. 

We're only given a certain amount of time on this Earth and I want to soak up as much of it as I can. I want to go to places like the Maldives, Barcelona, Cairo, Sao Paulo, Paris, Sydney;the list goes on and on. Like the age-old saying goes, "life's too short to waste away your time monotonously going through the same routine, day in and day out and never actually enjoying it." Or something like that. And for all the people that say they enjoy their jobs, you can't tell me you wouldn't rather be relaxing on a beach somewhere or hiking through the Grand Canyon or exploring an Alaskan wilderness.

The easiest way to achieve this dream would be to win the lottery, obviously. However, we can't all be that person (unfortunately), but (fortunately) there's a plan B! You can get rich through good ole'-fashioned hard work. However, hard work tends to take a long time, and by that time you may have children. I'm not saying you can't travel when you have children. But a romantic trip to Cancun has a tendency to become less romantic with a couple of kids yelling all the time and needing help going potty in the pool without anyone noticing. And children usually don't really want to go on a hike in Alaska with their parents. So for that reason, there's a plan C! You can get a job where you actually get paid to travel, such as a photographer for National Geographic or, if you're really ballsy and don't care if people hate you, a diplomat/politician. However, the latter of those options really wouldn't be the type of traveling I would enjoy. And there are a limited number of good traveling jobs out there anyway, but I think I could be some kind of photographer if I really wanted to. I'm good at that stuff.

So the bottom line is, I may not get to travel as much as I would like to in my lifetime. That doesn't mean I won't keep trying to get rich so I can travel, and that certainly doesn't mean that if I don't get rich, I won't still go on a lot of vacations. But even if I never get rich and I end up never seeing half of the places I want to, I'll remember that there are things more important than experiencing different places, and there are ways to enjoy life, even in the dullest of towns... Unless they're in Iowa. 

My Disappointment in The Beibs.

In 8th grade I fell in love with the cute little boy dancing around with a hoodie in Usher's house.

Justin Bieber.

It was his first song "One Time" that really gave the baby-faced star instant fame. Of course, people knew about him because of his Youtube fame-the videos his mom put of him singing in his Canadian home. He was cute and innocent, with his swooshy hair and pre-pubescent voice. He always wore hoodies and he always seemed grounded. He played sports and talked about how much he loved his fans and Jesus. He didn't grow out of his high-pitched voice right away, and some people hated on him for that. (Mostly jealous guys who were angry because girls were in love with someone who couldn't even grow a beard.)

But I thought he was cute, just like millions of other girls. I was one of his first fans and I felt like I had a love-hate relationship with the little fella. I actually liked his songs. He was the first pop artist I really liked. I had only listened to country and oldies before that night in 8th grade after a football game when my friends opened me up to the adorable world of Justin Bieber. I went in close-minded, hating it automatically for being pop. After they played it about 17 times, I started singing with it and I realized I liked it.... And he was pretty cute after all. Only about a year older than me too.

Since then, he's gained popularity all around the world. I think even if you lived under a rock in Siberia, you would have at least heard the name Justin Bieber by now. His fans are crazy, trampling people and Tweeting at him 800 times a day, just to try and be noticed by him. It seemed impossible for the boy to stay grounded, but somehow he always did.

Until now.

Justin is now 18. I guess he wants to appeal to an older crowd than 10-14 year old girls. But he's doing it the wrong way.

He is now recording songs with rappers such as Nikki Minaj, Kanye West, Drake, Big Sean, Ludacris, Usher, Chris Brown, and Busta Rhymes. I don't like any of these people. They're rappers. They rap about nasty and perverted things. Why would they be in the same songs as innocent Justin Bieber? Well, now he's not so innocent.

There are multiple pictures of him grabbing girlfriend Selena Gomez's butt, which whatever I don't care just don't do it in public and get pictures taken of you doing it. He now has 11 tattoos I believe, something "innocent" little boys like 2009 him wouldn't usually have. His cute swooshy hair-do he was known for, is now a stupid faux-hawk with more product in it than a girl at prom. He's gone from sweatshirts to bro-tanks and skinny jeans below his bottom. He wears gold chains. HE HAS HIS EARS PIERCED. I hate ear piercings on guys, I guess that's just something that bothers me personally. Anyway, what I described is basically a douchebag. If you saw him walking down the street with his "swag" and his crew in their douchey attire, you'd just roll your eyes thinking about how cocky they all are.

The worst of it of course, is the weed. There was a picture of him smoking weed in all the tabloids and news, all over Twitter, Facebook-everywhere. Then there are these STUPID teenage girls. They began cutting themselves to get him to stop smoking weed. WHY. Why would they base their lives off of some celebrity like that? No one should be that consumed in another person, especially a celebrity they've never met. It's so ridiculous. He also just acts kinda mean in public now, so I've heard. He used to go up and talk to random people and be friendly to everyone. Now he's flipping the bird at the cameras like he thinks he's better than everyone else.  Which he's not. His music is not near as good as it was when he was a child. When he was a kid, it was amazing how much talent he had. Now, he's just another fame-consumed star. What really sucks, is that he acts this way, and then has a Jesus tattoo and tells everyone what a great Christian he is. He's ruining it for others.

I'm just very disappointed in Justin. I had so much faith in him. I still listen to his music, I still watch videos of the old him, but now I try and avoid getting sucked into reading a whole magazine solely about him like I used to. He's not worth my time, and he shouldn't be worth that much of anyone else's. Fame has led him and many others on a downward path.

Justin Bieber 2009. Adorable.

Justin Bieber now. Um no thanks. 

Our Dream Life

First off, we will go to Iowa State for one year. Then we will leave this little horrid state called "Iowa" and go to Colorado. We will finish college there. Jared will propose sometime while we're in college so we can begin planning our wedding. Probably towards the end of his senior year so then we can plan the whole big shindig when he is done with college. I'm not even going to cover what our wedding plans will be because... well, I have a lot. I'll just say it's gonna be huge and extravagant and I've been planning it since I was like 7. Once I graduate college we will be finishing up our plans and we will get married probably in the fall of 2018. Possibly even on the anniversary of when we started dating, September 22nd. It's a Saturday in 2018. That'd be perfect. 

We will have a honeymoon in Italy and Spain and other places we've always wanted to go in Europe. 

After that we'll probably live in a small apartment around Denver or Colorado Springs. Of course we won't have much money coming out of college, but I'll have a little at least from being a wedding photographer during college and until I found a permanent journalism or photography job. It'll be easy for Jared to find a job right away because he's really smart and people automatically like him when they meet him. He'll work at an architecture company for a while, then realize he's better than the people he works for. Then he'll create his own business and he'll begin to get rich. He's great at planning out homes. And by then we'll have enough money for our own home.

Our house will be on 500 acres with a mountain, a pond, a river, and everything we could ever want. Our house will be a ginormous log cabin. Rustic, but very modern. Our room will be the best room in the house. The ceiling will have a sunroof type thing that we can open to let in the cool nighttime mountain air (with a screen to keep bugs out) and it can also close so the sun doesn't wake us up. It's cover will be like a tv screen so we can just stay in bed and watch The Vow, then Live Free and Die Hard all day. Our room will have a deck/porch/balcony type thing behind it. That will be my art room. It will be overlooking the lake and stream below the mountain and it will inspire me to take pictures and read and do pottery and write and whatever else I decide to do. It can be closed up with glass so in the winter it stays warm and also so the wind and rain doesn't ruin any of my work. Next to our room will be Jared's office. It will be there so I can always remind him not to stay up working too late and so I can drag him to bed when he's being too hard on himself. Our bathroom will be connected to our room and it will have a giant Jacuzzi tub and an enormous shower with one of those lit up-color changing shower heads. It will have plenty of counter space because I tend to use a lot. Next to the bathroom will be my giant closet. It's almost as big as our room. It will have soft plush carpet and a big mirror. There will be room for my 95 pairs of shoes (hopefully triple that by then) and my ever-growing clothes collection. Jared can have a little space too, I suppose. The rest of our house doesn't even matter because that's all we really need until we have kids. Well, I guess we need the kitchen. It'll have granite counter tops and low shelves so both Jared and I can reach. We will have all stainless steel appliances and a whole fridge of Mountain Dew, sweet tea, and lemonade. I will make fried chicken and a lot of smoothies. And I'll also make Jared pancakes at least twice a week, and spaghetti whenever he wants it. Not because I'm conforming to the stereotypical role of a woman, but because I love him and I like to make him happy and serve him. He'd make me food if I asked too because he loves me. He will grill me burgers and steaks and we'll catch salmon in our river and cook it on a cedar plank. Our house will have a ton of windows. It will have a movie room for about 8 people. It will also have a secret panic room/bomb shelter that I'm not going to say a lot about because it's a secret and we don't want the zombies to know where we are when the zombie apocalypse happens. We will have a giant garage thing for our cars below the house. It can lift one car up into the living room. It's like our car show room thing. I don't really know, this is Jared's part. But his workshop will be down there somewhere with all his and our wonderful cars as well. 

Our cars will consists of at least two Mustangs, one or two Jeeps, a truck or two, and some really fancy car like a Ferrari, and Jared's favorite, the Aston Martin. The mustangs will be red and maybe blue, with racing stripes. Shelby's, of course. Oh, and we'll have a retro Corvette- a 1969 Stingray. The Jeeps will be awesome and fun to ride around our property in. The trucks will just be necessary for where we live, but still super awesome and huge. And a Ferrari to show how rich we are. Duh. 

We'll have some horses and cute miniature cows as pets. And some ducks and kittens. A few turtles. Maybe an elephant? Is that legal? Oh well. We'll have a wiener dog named Spud and a beagle and a Rat Terrier. 

We'll have a maid to take care of the smelly pets and clean our giant house. Ain't nobody with our high paying jobs got time for that!

When we feel like it we'll have kids. Hopefully first we'll have a boy. His name will be Sam. That's a family name of Jared's. His middle name might be Lee because that's a family name of mine, but I might save it for the girl. He'll play soccer and be nice to girls and learn to play the guitar. He'll look out for his little sister(s). Next we'll have a girl. Her name would be Annie or Averie or Andrea-Andie for short. We haven't really decided, but I mean, we're only 17. I think we have a while to figure it out. But I like all of those names. We might have one more kid if we feel like it, we don't really care if it's a boy or a girl. They'll all be in sports if they want, but I'll encourage them not to ever get too competitive and show them that their life really does not depend on whether they win or lose a game. They will learn to play at least one instrument. Probably guitar or drums or piano because those are really the only useful ones unless you're going to be in marching band. When they're old enough they'll all have decently nice cars and will be perfect children. We will be great parents. Jared will be a better parent than me. I have no idea how to deal with kids. He's had four younger siblings to watch out for. He'll be a natural and perfect dad. Our kids will be beautiful. They'll have our dark curly hair, and hopefully their father's tan skin and blue eyes. They'll probably be kinda short, but that's okay I think. 

We'll spend a lot of time with our kids and also just each other. We will always have dates: that won't stop once we're married. We will be successful workers but still always go to church together just like we have since we were born practically. Everything we've thought of may not work out perfectly how we planned, but our lives together will still be as perfect as two people's lives together can be.