Music.

I was reading a girl's blog a little while ago, and she had a little blog outline, where every day she would write a post about something different. Like, one day was posting pictures of your friends, one day was writing 25 random things about you. It had I think 30 different things to write about, so a month's worth, but she didn't keep up with it so I don't know what the last 2 weeks' posts were supposed to be about. Ha. The last one she posted was about music, and what songs she listens to when she is in certain moods. And I thought that would be fun, because Jael says I have a very diverse taste in music. And I agree. And I do listen to certain types of music when I'm in certain moods. Here is a general idea of my music-listening habits:

When I'm happy: Country seems to be my happy music lately. I didn't get introduced to country until fairly recently, so I mostly listen to modern country. I'm not the biggest fan of older, super-twangy country. But country music is the perfect music to listen to when I'm in a good mood, and driving. It's the crank-it-up, roll-the-windows-down, sing-as-loud-as-you-can music. Some of my favorites are Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Tay Tay Swift, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, etc etc etc.

When I'm mad: I was discussing this with Jael while we were driving recently, and Mr. Brightside by The Killers is my angry song. It always has been. When I'm mad, I turn that song up, head bang, and just yell to that song. I don't know how it became my angry song, but for some reason it makes me feel better when I am angry.

When I'm frustrated: Rap (and some hip-hop) is my go-to music when I am frustrated. My two favorites are probably What's Your Fantasy and Money Maker, both by Ludacris. I know it's not the most appropriate music, probably not appropriate at all, but I know just about every single word to both of those songs. In fact, I listened to them on the way home from work yesterday. Yesterday was one of the most frustrating days I've had at work in a very long time, and rapping those songs to myself always makes me laugh in the end. I also like listening to Lupe Fiasco, Gym Class Heroes, Jeremih, 50 cent, Wyclef Jean, etc. It's a good thing I'm happy/content more times than I am frustrated, because I understand that this is not very clean music to listen to. Haha.

When I'm nostalgic: A lot of people know that I love to talk about my childhood. My best and favorite stories are about growing up. So, naturally, I get very excited when I hear a song that I used to listen to religiously when I was younger. For example, when I hear the song "Angel" by Shaggy, it reminds me of an experience I had in 6th grade, when that song came out, that I will never ever forget. Or, the other day, Jael and I were walking through an outdoor strip mall, and a BSB song came on. We started jamming out, of course. I also love the songs from Britney Spears' first couple albums, N'Sync, Disney songs, Christina Aguilera, Blink 182, etc. AND, I love hearing songs like the Electric Slide or other songs that remind me of stake dances, old hula songs, stuff like that. Gooood times.

When I'm content: When I'm just kind of content with life, I love listening to alternative, indie, pop, that kind of music. I don't like that classification of music because it is confusing to me sometimes. Sometimes I don't know what genre certain artists would fit into, or what "indie"or "alternative" even means. But when I just feel like listening to good music, I listen to artists like Plain White Tee's, Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, Hellogoodbye, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Michael Fronte, and other chill, lay-in-a-hammock-type music.


Something to keep in mind, though, is that I name all these artists I love, but most of them I only know a few of their songs. I hate the question, "What is your favorite band or artist?" because I'm not a die-hard fan of anyone, really. I listen to their songs, and if I like it I'll listen to it, occasionally buy it. But I don't buy CD's because I usually have a hard time sitting through a whole album, because I know that there will be songs I don't like. When I was younger, my first and favorite CD was NOW4. It had a bunch of music from a bunch of artists. I loved it. But I've acquired a pretty diverse taste in music. And I like that. People always ask me what kind of music I listen to, and I can literally listen to any kind of music. Well, except rip-my-hair-out screamo. And annoying techno crap.

Las Lomas

Yesterday I needed my social security card yesterday to run an errand. I keep my social security card in a sleeve holder, along with my birth certificate. When I got home I went to put my social security card away. Just for fun, I took my birth certificate out and started reading it. Upon reading it, I discovered that I was not born at 7:31pm like I had previously thought. I was born at 7:38pm. In case anyone was wondering. Anyway. Not many people know that I was born in Las Vegas, where I currently reside. Fewer people know that I was not born in a hospital. I was born at home. On the couch. I found the address of the house my parents lived in when I was born. I looked up the address on Google Maps, and found that the house I was born in is about 10 minutes away from where I work. So I thought, hey, I'm gonna go check it out after work tomorrow. So I did. This is what it looks like now:



Yep, I was born in that thing almost 23 years ago. It looks goooood. I remember my family was visiting Vegas several years ago, I was probably 13 or 14. We stopped by this place and my mom took a picture of me in front of it. It looked so trashy, and there was a big bright orange eviction notice on the door. Good memories.

i've found it.

I want my wedding band to be made out of a quarter! This is sooo cool. Partly because it has to be made out of an all silver coin, meaning 1968 or earlier, but also because it would mean it would be homemade! I think that would be so cute. It would be like a country song fairy tale. I also want to make one. That would be fun.

I will also have a chalkboard wall in my house. Probably in the playroom or kids' room, but I WILL have a whole chalkboard wall. And lots of colored chalk. And it will be awesome.

I LOVE!

I love rain and everything about it. I like walking in the rain, driving in the rain, making out in the rain (<-best!), running in the rain, I JUST LOVE RAIN. I want to live in a town that I fall in love with. I want to live in a cute, little, comfortable town. I think I am more of a small town girl. I've never lived in a small town, but there is something cozy about towns, I feel. I generally get excited about anything that falls into the "cozy" or "cute" category. I like cute things. Like children's clothing. Or handmade quilts. Or pictures of cute couples. I want to have my own kitchen. I love water. I love swimming and boogey boarding in the ocean. I love wakeboarding or water skiing or just hanging out in the boat on a lake. I love having picnics by a river or creek. I love swimming. I love trees. I want to live in a small town where I am surrounded with trees. I love going exploring. Whether it is wiggling through a dirty tunnel in a cave or driving until I get lost, I love looking at new things. I love rainbows. I love bright colors and anything that makes reality seem more whimsical than it is. I love riding my longboard. Not because I like to try anything fancy like the pros (my scars prove that I will never be anything close to pro), but because I just like cruising down the sidewalk and catching the breeze. I love pictures of old buildings. I like looking at pictures of downtown Tucson (it looks better in pictures). I love playing the piano, especially when I'm mad. I love to watch people dance, especially hip hop dancing. I wish I could say I love to dance, but I don't dance. I want to get back into hula dancing. I danced when I was younger, but I stopped several years ago. I love driving with my windows down, except for when it's 12,000 degrees outside. I love driving manual cars. I love playing board games. I'll play any game, from Risk to Uno to Catch Phrase to Life. I love shooting pool and playing foosball. I love playing kickball. Kickball was my favorite P.E. game in elementary school. My favorite playground game in elementary school, besides soccer, was tetherball. I loved tetherball. And I was good at it. Probably because I was a giant tomboy in elementary school. I was a giant, and a tomboy. Not a giant tomboy. I love going to U of A games. Basketball, football, volleyball, whatever. I love UofA! I love being outside. I love nature, and watching animals, and trying to catch animals. I love fire. I love building fires and cooking in fires and talking around fires. I love the dark, and nighttime. I love going to barbeques. To me, for some reason, barbeques scream patriotism. And I love it. Maybe it's the hotdogs. An American icon. I love my crazy heritage. I don't even know what I am half the time, and the other half of the time my grandpa is feeding me load of crap, telling me I'm part Indo-Chinese or some other lie. I love kids. I've always loved kids, and I can't wait to have some of my own! I love watching live musicals. I love listening to music that reminds me of my growing up years (Shaggy, Will Smith, Christina Aguilera, N'SYNC, BSB, Destiny's Child...). I love thinking about the future, and getting old, and wondering what my life will be like. I love looking at cute clothes. I don't buy a lot of clothes because I don't like spending a lot of money on clothes, but I enjoy walking down every aisle of a store and looking at cute things. I love laughing. I laugh about a lot of things, sometimes at things that aren't even funny. But I love when I find something genuinely funny and can genuinely laugh about it. I love people who make me laugh. I've always been a sucker for funny people. I love working. I hate feeling lazy. I love being productive and feeling that my time has been put to good use. I love candy! I love anything sweet, really. I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world. I love baking. I like cooking too, but I can remember loving to bake since I was little. I love fruit. Certain fruits remind me of certain places or seasons. Like, cherries and strawberries and grapes and watermelon remind me of summer. I've been eating a lot of those lately. I love watching movies. I watch a lot of movies. I love chick flicks, action movies, comedies, sports movies, historical movies.. Pretty much anything. Speaking of movies, I'm about to watch a movie with my sister right now! Ahh!

JIGGLES.

Jael and I were talking last night on the way to get Chinese take-out. I was telling her that when I was younger, I completely, honestly, wanted to name my first born girl Jiggles. I thought that was the coolest name ever, and I was set on having a girl named Jiggles. Jael argued that Jiggles is not a name for a person. I disagree. I think it's a perfectly fine name. The only reason I have decided that I will stray away from the name Jiggles and think of something more... "traditional" for my daughter is because it would be impossible to seriously discipline a child named Jiggles. "JIGGLES, come clean your room!" "JIGGLES, why aren't the dishes done?!" It just doesn't seem like it would work out.

I can't wait to get old.

I meet some pretty interesting people at work. Most are the undelightful kind of interesting. You know, the smelly, dirty, hairy, perverted kind. I meet tons of those people every day. Those people don't really tickle my fancy, so I kind of get them what they need and move one. I work in customer service, so naturally I spend my day talking to people and meeting people. When I'm on my register I usually ring up customers' merchandise pretty quickly, make the typical small talk, and then tell them to have a nice day and send them on their way. But sometimes I'll have an actual conversation with people, get to know them a little bit. Sometimes I meet people who have the coolest stories, or life. For example, at my store in Tucson, I once was ringing up a guy who was buying two of everything. I just asked him, "you like the number two or what?" He said, "ha, no, I am buying things my home in the states and my home in Costa Rica." I said, "you have a home in Costa Rica?" He told me how he stays in his house in Costa Rica for half the year, and in the states the other half of the year. He said his house in Costa Rica is right on the beach, and he hangs out on the beach all day and sleeps in his hammock. And I thought, how cool are you. Here he is, this 60 or 70 year old man, and he spends half his life in Costa Rica! I asked if he had kids, and he said they come visit him all the time. I asked if he's retired. He said, "I'm retired from my career, but you have to have an income to live in Costa Rica. It's not cheap." So he has hobbies, but they're hobbies that make him money. So it's not like he's a bum living on the beach, he's a working bum. Don't get me wrong, living on the beach and not having to work would be bliss, but that's only stuff in the movies. After that man left I thought to myself, 'when I retire, I'm going to live on the beach in Costa Rica.' HA. Wouldn't that be something.

And then today, at my new store in Vegas, an older lady came in with her 6 or 7 year old granddaughter and tried to return something. I couldn't return it because she didn't have a receipt (store policy, not my rule). Well, she got mad at me and said, "well I'm not gonna get the other thing I was gonna get cuz I'm a little pissed off!" And stormed out of the store. About 2 minutes later she came back in, apologized to me, and said, "Sorry, my day is really hectic and I'm cranky. It's not the easiest thing getting ready for a 6 week camping trip." I said, "you're going camping for 6 weeks? Like, in an RV?" And she said, "no, my granddaughter and her grandparents are going to go camping in Oregon for 6 weeks. In tents." And I told her, "that is the coolest thing I've ever heard of." And she said, "yeah we're pretty excited." And then I said, "shoot, I want to go camping in Oregon for 6 weeks." She said, "become a math teacher, get old, and you can do whatever you want." Then I thought, if she's a math teacher and she's going on adventures like this, I can do it too. So, folks, that's what I'm gonna do. If you need to get ahold of me in say, 40 or 50 years, you can find me in a tent in the middle of Oregon. With my granddaughter. I'll probably be somewhere around the place that's in my picture down there. I CAN'T WAIT.

i've discovered something.

My siblings are really freaking funny.

I love talking about my childhood, and the things I used to do with my siblings when we were younger. But I've realized, when I talk about my childhood, the stories I end up talking about always end with us getting in trouble, or us making someone else cry, or us doing stupid things. Like, going out to the desert every day during summer and catching lizards and snakes in an abandoned pool that was filled with big cement blocks, trash, and beer bottles? Probably not the best idea. But we did it. I LOVED catching lizards. It wasn't so much about having pet lizards, but it was about the whole catching experience. We had strategies catching these lizards. We'd stand on the ledge of the pool, look 13 feet down into the pool til we found one, then stalk it for a little while, get in the pool, corner it, and catch it with a littered cup. Then, we'd ride our bikes home with it, name it, and put it in our big glass aquarium my mom got from DI or something. Then when it would escape overnight, which they always did, we'd go the next day and do it again. I caught so many different kinds of lizards. i had two identical geckos once, one was named George and the other was named Clooney. I could never tell them apart, and I don't know why I named them George Clooney. Once I caught a big lizard with a red stripe on its back, and another one just like it but the stripe was blue. The red one bit my finger real hard. I never caught that kind again. And one time we found a big snake, went home to get a 5 gallon bucket to put it in, caught it, brought it home, and showed our parents. My dad was pissed. Haha.

One time, Kimo, Kendric and I were playing outside in the front yard. Sometimes we would take a skateboard and "bobsled" down the driveway and see who could go the farthest down the sidewalk. Sometimes we would play HORSE or Around the World. Well, one time, for whatever reason, Kendric decided to climb into Aleigha's red and yellow Fisher Price car. This thing:

Notice how in the picture there is a child no more than 3? Well, Kendric was a little more than 3 when he decided to play in this thing. I was about 15 or 16, so that would put Kendric at about 10 or 11? He thought he was so funny scooting around in this car on the driveway. But he was actually stuck inside. Kimo and I were doing something else on the driveway, who knows what, but then Kimo whispered to me, "I dare you to push him down the driveway." So I said, "Okay." So I went and shoved Kendric, and he started plummeting toward the road. Kimo and I started laughing, but when I realized he was going pretty fast and was going to hit the curb, I started running after him to try to stop him. I couldn't. Kendric hit the lip of the curb, and flew into the road. All this, while he was still in the car. He landed face first into the road, and his face slid across the road. All I heard next was a yell. It wasn't a scream like most kids would do. It was a yell. Kimo and I were so scared. Mom was going to be so mad at us. We helped him up, shimmied him out of the car, and snuck him into the bathroom to try to clean his wounds. Obviously Mom heard the wailing. She came in, Kimo and I told her what happened, and then the weirdest thing happened. Mom grabbed KENDRIC by the ear and told him he was so dumb for playing in that car and blah blah blah. Kimo and I just looked at each other like, did Kendric really just get in trouble for this? And that was that. Kimo and I never got an ounce of punishment. Kendric got it all. We felt bad, and of course we ended up laughing about it later. Well, everyone but Kendric. Kendric still gets mad at Kimo and I whenever we bring it up.


Then there were the times where me, Tallen, Jael, and Kimo would play roller hockey on our patio in the back yard. Tallen played hockey one year, and after that we all got hockey sticks for Christmas. We taped the bottoms with electrical tape to make them look legit, then we would get our rollerblades on and play hockey forever. Either til Tallen pushed me or Jael too hard into the wall and made us cry, or until we hit the puck at the window one too many times and mom made us stop.

I'm bummed Maile is so young compared to the rest of us, and didn't get to grow up with us. Maile is seriously one of the funniest people I know. And she's only 7. She is witty, she's crazy, she's hilarious. Sometimes she tries to be, and that usually works, but she is funniest when she doesn't mean to be. For example, the other day, me, my mom, Maile, and Aleigha were waiting in the parking lot at the Excalibur hotel for the tow truck man to come pick up my car. We had to wait foreverrr. So we finally went inside Excalibur and looked around the gift shops. We ended up buying a mini CatchPhrase game, to pass some time. We went back out to the car and started playing it. It was Aleigha and I versus my mom and Maile. My mom was trying to describe to Maile the movie "Men in Black." Maile had guessed two words, "Black Men," but my mom was trying to get her to reverse the order and to throw the "in" in there, so she says, "Maile, flip those words and put a small word in between." So Maile says, "Black AND Men... Black THE Men.... Black OF Men!" And then the timer went off and Aleigha and I got a point. And by that time, me, Aleigha, AND my mom were all rolling off our chairs laughing. Maile is so funny. If you want to laugh, hang out with Maile for a couple hours.

I dunno why I'm thinking about all this. Kimo called me today from boot camp or basic training or whatever it's called. Maybe that's why. Kimo was always my LITTLE brother. Not my younger brother going off to the Air Force. It's crazy! Kendric is a senior this year, Aleigha is starting high school. What happened to childhood! I'm not homesick, I think it's just that I miss hanging out with all my siblings. They're all hilarious, we always just tell stories and make fun of each other's awkward stages. Tallen's wedding was the last time we were all together, but it was only for a couple days. Buuuut I guess that's part of growing up. The end.