holiday happy list

I bought so much at Gap.

     As I use FaceTime for the first time with my sister Jessyka in Alaska [avoiding school work as well as job applications], I'm mourning the end of my Thanksgiving break from classes [and practice!]. With a week of morning practices, long classes and even longer study hours hot on my heels, I thought I'd remind myself of the great things of the holidays [if only to get me through these last two weeks before winter break].


10 things I am awfully thankful for this holiday season:
+ watching way too much television [the History Channel and RuPaul's Drag Race!]
+ family dinners and holiday traditions
+ not having an emotional breakdown when Black Friday shopping in Union Square
+ turning a year older [no longer a teenager!!]
+ buying a harmonica [and maybe even learning to play it!]
+ leaving all my school work to the last day of break [and still avoiding it now]
+ new Candy Cane body wash :]
+ my ducks winning the Civil War and clinching the Pac-12 title
+ peppermint mochas
+ getting some early Christmas shopping done [earliest I've ever done it!]

Adorable little mannequins at J.Crew!

currently listening to... "C'est Démodé D'être A La Mode" by Les Escrocs

happy list :]

     

     I'm going to a cocktail party tonight! :] going to the mall soon to get me a purdy dress! Hopefully it'll look like the one pictured above and only cost one dolla if only if only.

But back to the main point: happy list. 
     I think that I'm back on a bi-monthly track for these happy lists with this one. ahha probs not though, I'm awful at keeping up on these things. Well eeenyway, here's my happy list no. 4 :]


1] Abesies giving me old Halloween candy because I was in a bad mood
2] Conor not being mad at me forever for me taking my bad mood out on him
3] stealing stuff from the chemistry conference I went to, so now I have a National Chemistry Week pencil to use on my next chem midterm. [How can I get a bad grade with a chemistry pencil?]
4] The Kia commercials with the hamsters [I fucking love that commercial wayyyy too much]
5] consistently getting off the dock first, even when my boat was last to get on the dock 
6] seeing Footloose with Karla last night and falling in love with old southern chivalry and boys who can dance [honestly, if I could teach a class for guys on how to make a girl fall in love with them, teaching them how to dance would be lesson one]
7] eating a super duper crunchy apple today. it was amazing. even though Jasper threw it away before I could finish it.
8] figuring out housing for next year and this summer [well... figuring out who I'm living with.. not where.. hahah]
9] watching Selena. 
10] listening to old songs that I used to listen to all the time, but had forgotten how much I loved them. like these:

Usher- U Remind Me

Mario- Let Me Love You

Usher- U Got It Bad

     Oh god. I fucking love Usher. 

P.S. seven days until Head of the Lagoon. 

So excited/ friggin' terrified.

happy list!

     So I should have posted this on Saturday, but alas, I was too busy being a badass coxing then being Alice.

Ballerina!

1) falling asleep on one of my boys or having one of my boys fall asleep on me on the ride to or from practice

2) looking exactly like Alice in Wonderland for Halloween

3) Halloween. period.

4) having Halloween on a schoolday, so I can go to classes dressed as a ballerina

5) spending time with my parents and my aunt and uncle

6) going to see In Time, even if the plot of the movie was too good to have Justin Timberlake star in it

7) having my first head race, my first varsity race, and my first first place finish all being the same race

8) having a story flow out of my head and onto paper and having my characters come to life

9) discussing philosophy with a couple of my boys in the Dunne basement, then watching Once Upon a Time with my girls

10) getting a super great grade on my chemistry midterm!

happy list!

     Okay so this weekend was/has been fabulous. I had some girly time with Kendra, Lauren, and Meggan on Friday night, but still got to bed early enough to not be awfully tired at practice Saturday morning. Practice was great even if we spent most of the morning doing phantom drills [please pardon the crewspeak], then we had breakfast at Abraham's house. It was fun to just kick back with some of the guys, eat and talk some crew. Next was the day party, which was doubleplusgood. My first day party of the year! 
     Then we were just chilling at green, working off the buzz from the jungle juice [sorry I'm not sorry] when Carly called me informing me that she was on campus and I ran outta that house so fast. I ran in circles around campus, trying to figure out were she was! I found her and the rest was history. We got some Stuft Pizza, chatted with Eric for a while [he and Carly have the same birthday, November 25, but a year apart. Eric's a baby.] and then went back to my room to take a napsies [hey. we're busy girls. we wake up at the buttcrack of dawn, so sometimes we need a nap to rally!]. Then we got cute again [well Car got cute, I put on a t-shirt and called it good. considering we were going to a party with boys that have seen me at 6am when I had gone to bed at 3am the night before. I've lost the urge to try to impress them with my feminine wiles.] and went over to green to see what was up. And green was its crazy self, so we bummed inside and then went to TBell with some of the guys on my team [who were super drunk (and all over 21!) and super duper hilarious] then we old ladies called it a night.
     This morning we woke up and drove over to Santana Row. We were the first customers of the day at the Counter and I got a super yummy candy milkshake and a pretzel bun for my veggie burger. Then we came back to campus, I showed Car Leavey Center, where we do afternoon land workouts on the ergs [the boys work out their bodies and Karla and I work out our vocal cords! hahaah] and then we went to the SCU Men's Water Polo game. It was my first ever water polo game. It's a pretty interesting sport I must say, and I absolutely adore the SCU water polo players with all their chlorine-damaged hair and ironic moustaches [we lost, but there were some pretty excellent goals on our side].  
     Next we went to the Halloween shop off of Winchester. Car got a tribal cutie [I made up that name. the costume wasn't embarassing, it's friggin' great] and I got some random pieces I thought I'd use some other time if I don't go out for Halloween [we have a regatta that Saturday and my parents while be in town that weekend] and lots of fake eyelashes! 


    Ummkayy. That was the lowdown of Katie and Carly's Excellent Adventure. Now here's my happy list of the week :]


1) when you call a power ten to finish a race and you can feel the boat jump ahead on the first stroke and you know that your guys are giving every single last bit of themselves to these late few strokes and you can feel the boat just fly through the water
2) when you hug a boy around his waist and squeeze him so tight
3) when your best friend comes to visit you and gets to meet all the crazy boys you deal with on at least bi-daily basis
4) finding a tutu in a Halloween store that actually covers your ass
5) watching a water polo game and getting to see a bunch of guys in teeny-tiny speedos [and not having to pretend to wipe down the ergs to do it]
6) four of my favorite boys singing slightly off-key, but on the top of their lungs to "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + the Machine.
7) coke Slurpee on a hot day
8) getting new G02 water bottles [D1 athlete, bitches!]
9) getting the new Cosmo
10) "Hell on Heels" by the Pistol Annies [see the music video below]

happy lists!

     My absolute favorite blogger [more like only blogger I check in with daily] Naomi from the rockstar diaries posted her own happy list earlier this week, so I thought I'd take a whack at it. I found myself with so many things to be happy about that I had to whittle it down to ten [or eleven]! It was such a refreshing experience to just sit back and think about the great things going on in my life [as opposed to thinking about how crazy busy I am with my school schedule], I think I'm gonna do this more often! Like maybe weekly? ;]

1) when a boy flashes a smile reserved especially for me

2) waking up early Saturday morning and finally getting back in the boat with my boys

3) going to see the latest romantic comedy with my best friends, laughing hysterically and crying uncontrollably in the same movie

4) listening to boys' talk when they're so comfortable they kind of forget I'm a girl [even if it can get a little dirty]

5) creating a character in a story that does all the things I wish I could do, but never would

6) listening to my favorite album [currently Taking Back Sunday's Tell All Your Friends] at full blast, windows rolled down, wind blowing through my hair, California sun warm on my skin

7) finding old lists that I wrote and never crossed every thing off of

8) my mother saying 'good night' to me each evening [via text] even though I'm away at school

9) getting lost and finding something even better than what I was looking for

10) being able to text my best friend anything and knowing that she'll understand even if I haven't seen her in months and we're a time zone apart

11) somehow catching the clock at exactly 11:11 at least once, if not twice almost everyday [and making a wish each time!]

here are some photographs that I took today that I'm terribly happy about:

cox box :] #coxswainlife

grapes at a farmer's market? I don't think we're in Oregon anymore

Brooksies, here are some heirloom tomatoes

I love the perspective of this shot

this kitty's name is Scar. he's not as nice as he looks

the mission gardens are so bee-e-ay-you-tee-ful

the squirrels on Santa Clara's campus are insane

I love the sun just peeking through in photographs

my awfully cluttered desk. makes work kinda difficult to do when there are so many other
fun things within reach :] and I love the purple flowers I got from the market