My favorite little cousins

Here is a shot of the three cutest blondies I know. They are my second cousins and are turning three really soon. This picture is from when the whole family was down for the wedding in August.

Note to self: Family is amazing.

Learning things the hard way is... hard

An interesting fact of the world is that some people learn from examples and other people have to learn the hard way by making the examples that the "smarter" people learn from. Now, I have no idea why this is the way of the world but it is. Why you might ask, am I wasting my breath (or the minimal amount of energy it takes to type) on this subject. Well today I read a friend's blog and it broke my heart. You see she isn't one of those people that learns ever lesson the hard way, but unfortunately one of those people are in her life. Sometimes it is no big deal to know those people, and truthfully I think that everyone is "one of those people" at least once in their life. I think that what counts is how often you ignore good advice and do the dumb thing, only to regret it later. Anyways, back to the breaking of my heart. I am so saddened that she has to be involved with someone who is only going to turn around and wish he could change his actions. It drags her down and brings someone else into the middle who doesn't deserve that at all. The actions of this "dumb person" will be his regret to carry one day, when he finally wakes up and realizes that he missed so many important things in his life and there is no way to get them back. I could strangle him right now, but I think that might be a little forward of me since I have only met him once. I wish I could show him a slide show of everyone I know who has been affected by the same circumstances and tell him to wake up, stop being immature, and start living the life he made. GRRR! He is so dumb, so selfish, and so going to regret this. Boo on him, that is all I have left to say.

I know that this has been a little ambiguous, but it isn't my story to tell so I leave anyone who doesn't know the details slightly out of the loop but so be it. The basic gist of my rant is such, learning life lessons the hard way is hard, so if you can at all avoid it do so. I know that this is how some people grow, but come on.

On a happier note, but still the same subject, I am so proud of my friend. She has so much strength and will go so far. I have worried about her and her situation a lot, hoping that everything was going to work out but after reading her blog today I know that my worries were silly. She has overcome so many obstacles already and doing the best thing for herself and everyone involved. I love her dearly and am so glad that I know her. :)

Today I was also introduced to a very humorous website so I figured I'd put it up here. Unfortunately the person who showed it to me is probably the only one who reads this... Anyways, go check out Surviving the World and laugh because I sure did!

Well that is it for today, I vented my frustration, expressed my support for a dear friend, and shared a little laughter. More to come later.

Note to self: Learning life lessons through osmosis is much easier.

I write tragedy and try to find the comedy...

It is about time I write again and finally I have some inspiration, if you can call it that. Like I don't have enough on my plate right now, life threw me another curve ball. I guess I just needed to be reminded that it can ALWAYS get worse, so you better start looking on the bright side of things. Before I rant further, I better lay out the story of the day first. Hang on for the ride folks, it gets twisty and curvy and I end up with the short end of the stick.

SO, picture this. Kara is spending a few hours in her condo before she has to get back to campus for meetings and study session. She needed to wrap up a package and mail it off soon so she starts getting it ready. However, she realizes that she is out of packing tape so she decides to pack up her materials, go get the tape from the store, and then head to the post office where she can finish up. Next scene. Kara driving down the semi busy road, softly listening to music and being happy because it is a pretty day. Flash to image of green light turning yellow. Kara decides that she can either slam on her brakes or keep going, so she keeps going. Then Kara is almost entering the intersection when a truck turning left DIVES across in front of her, phew they made it. BUT WAIT! Little silver Oldsmobile who also wants to turn left doesn't make it and there is Kara, slamming on her brakes with all her might but sadly beautiful Santa Fe collides with dumb silver car. BOO, very bad ending I know. So now poor little Santa Fe has a few scratches but thankfully she can be thrifty in a fight. Oldsmobile is very sad and unhappy and had to get towed away. But that is what you get for trying to turn on a yellow light. There are traffic laws for a reason. Granted, if I had selected to stop I wouldn't be writing this at all BUT I still was in the right. The driver of the other car was VERY nice, which makes it a lot more sad. But the cops came, got our statements, and gave her a citation. *Kara does happy dance because her insurance doesn't go up AND she gets her car fixed by the other insurance* All in all it was a day I could have lived without but I gained some experience and probably will be the safest driver on the roads for the next few months.

So back to the "moral" of the story. I have been fighting a lot lately with all the "curve balls" I have been thrown and frankly I was getting really sick of it all. But thanks to this little mishap today, I have turned a new leaf (for now) and am looking on the bright side of things. I am lucky that the accident was so minimal (for my car) and I am thankful that I can even sit here and write this. I have been looking at my glass as a little less than half empty lately but it is time to remember half full is always the better outlook and there is always a bright side to everything. Take my car accident for example. While we were sitting in the turn lane (where the cop moved us), with everyone rubbernecking at us, a trucker drove by. Now maybe he was having a bad day or something but whatever it may be, as he passed us he laughed. Now this wasn't just a small chuckle, because I heard it as he passed. Frankly it was rude, but if I brightened his day a bit then I guess I can deal with the laughing. But honestly, who laughs!?

I digress. So I am glad to be here, glad that things weren't as bad as it first appeared, glad that everyone was so nice, and glad that I handled the whole situation alright. Things could be worse, I could not have a car, or a leg, and that would stink! But if that was the case, then I guess I would need to find the silver lining in that situation as well. Anyways, here are some pictures so everyone (if anyone reads this) can see the pretty car.

Pretty car before damage

Minor dents. Luckily the damage was confined to this area only!

So there you have it. My tragedy that I found the comedy in. Until next time, hopefully it won't have to be another tragedy!

Note to self: Things can always get worse, so focus on the good.

Long time, no write...

I am pathetic I know... With my slow internet at home and everything else this summer being crazy busy I had no time to write. Now that I am back in Fort Collins, I am going to make an effort to keep on top of things. I am still crazy busy (and it is only the first week of class), but I will try my best.
I am now the proud owner of a Hyundai Santa Fe. It is pretty exciting for me, I have wheels now! I got all my stuff comfortably put in my new condo and I think that I will have a good year, at least leaps and bounds above last year.
Anyways, I am going to have to work back into this slowly but I will write more later. Off to homework, what fun!

Note to self: Get it together!

Almost home...

I have one more final tomorrow morning and then I am home free. Home sounds so lovely and perfect and just the opposite of here. Thank goodness. So far finals have been good but I have been so unmotivated to study for any of them, which has been bad! Oh well, I feel okay about most of them.
I have got my room almost all the way packed up, I've come a long way since last Friday where everything was a disaster! I am sleeping in a sleeping bag tonight with one pillow, everything else is packed. I just have a massive amount of cleaning to do tomorrow before Lauren and I head out to the airport. It is going to be so nice. She is kindly letting me stay with her and her dad over night before I fly out bright and early Friday morning.
Well, I don't have much else going on really right now. Finals are almost over, I am almost home, and I am getting happy. On another great note, Rita should be a mom sometime really soon or maybe she already is. I am so excited for her! :) Welcome to the world Ethan!!
Alright, I am done for now...

Note to self: You can do it if you set your mind to it.

The calm before the storm...

Lauren and I hit Old Town tonight, one final evening of freedom before the storm that is finals. We got some good food, shopped a bit, got some more food (ice cream) and then came back to my apartment. I failed miserably at my goal of finding presents, which is what we set out to do. Instead I came back with a full stomach and a much needed Nalgene for myself. I have been going all semester without a water bottle even though I spend ALL day on campus. Seriously, going to school has become my 9-5 job except it starts at 8 and goes to 4. I digress though. All in all it was a wonderful evening spent relaxing with a great friend. It was desperately needed because both of us are stressing out big time because of all the stuff we have to do between now and next Thursday when we both leave. It was good to destress a bit first, regain our steam before we have to plow ahead.
On another note, I had a really good day. I have a job for the summer and a research volunteer position for when I come back here in the fall. I am working for Fish & Game doing a sonar project on the lower Kenai River. It is definitely a new experience for me, I haven't ever worked shifts before. But I have decided to stop worrying over it and be more positive, because there is a bright side of everything.
Well, this is just a short and sweet summary of my day. I needed to do a bit more relaxing before I start making progress on my list of things to do. I feel like I need to share my list, so here it is.

Kara's big list of things to do before summer is finally here and she is finally home:
1.) PACK
2.) Study for finals (x4)
3.) Write 10 page paper
4.) Clean apartment so she can leave

It may not seem like a lot but you haven't seen my room! :P Anyways, I am making this short and sweet post very long. Farewell for now, more later when I can check something off of my list!

Note to self: Look on the bright side, it is always much happier!

I have a dream...

No, scratch that. I have a goal. This goal consists of writing on my blog more than Rita. I know, I know that seems rather silly of me to compete over blogging but the thing is since she is having a baby and all you'd think that maybe I'd have a bit more time on my hands. So far I am losing this race by a long, long ways. Basically how every other horse except Rachel Alexandra lost the Kentucky Oaks (which is the girlie version of the Kentucky Derby). Actually for the whole 2 or 3 people that read this blog, probably no one will get it. So I'll explain. Key facts that are important to know:
0.) I like horses (I wanted to make this one first but I already started my list. It is time consuming to change numbers.)
1.) Rachel Alexandra is a horse, she won the Kentucky Oaks race on 5/1/2009
2.) R.A. won by 20 1/2 lengths. That is a LOT! A length is one horse body, so she beat the second place horse by 20 horses (basically...)
3.) I realize now that this comparison is probably really lengthy and makes no sense to anyone but me
4.) I'm stopping now
So, back to the competition/goal/dream thing that I started with. I set it for myself because I felt like this was a good outlet for my random thoughts in my head. Rita does not know, until now, that we are in a race that she has already won. Congrats to the winner!

Now that I have lost everyone, on to talk about my day. I have finally, yes FINALLY, started packing! Yay me! I got one whole box, some misc. stuff, and a shelf into my storage unit today. While it may look like nothing is gone from my room, I feel very accomplished. I have been dreading this task for a long time, I don't really know why though. Weird how somethings just seem so daunting that you don't even want to begin. The weirdest thing is that once I am packed, I am one step closer to home. So why didn't I pack weeks ago? Beats me!

Today Lauren and I hit the bike trails around campus. It was an awesome day with awesome weather that got up to the high 70s. We biked for about an hour, just meandering around through trails that took us by some horses (of course, of course!) and then we made our way to Dairy Queen! Yum, yum... After a tastey Blizzard we headed back to campus, making plans to bike once more this weekend. The best part of the ride though is when we stopped at a playground at the end of the trail and messed around on the swings for a while. While we were climbing the slides Lauren eagerly said "You'll have to come to my house this weekend and we can go play on the swings." Seriously, despite what it may sound like we both are in college. It was probably the funniest thing I had heard all day and it made me feel like we were 5 and she was asking if I could come over to play for a while. All in all it was a wonderful way to destress after making it through humpday.

When I got back to my apartment there was a package card waiting for me. Unfortunately it is not as fun to pick up a package here in Colorado because I don't get to drive to the little post office and see my Pita's smiling face. However, I did get a pound of cheese curds in the mail today. There is not one thing in the world that could have made me happier than the moment I opened my box to find cheese curds! I think that my mom has had some time on her hands if she found a place to order me some yummy cheese curds! :) I love my mom by the way, she is so awesome! Another exciting thing that I got in the mail today was a pretty little card from Rita. It was almost like I went to the good ol' Nikiski post office back in the day because of that card. Rita is wonderful as well.

Well, I have pretty much wrapped up everything. I hopefully will be more on top of things despite the dreaded finals week approaching quickly (it is next week!). Only 8 more days and I am home. Actually I should say 7 because today is almost over. For those of you who don't know my counting system you may wish to correct me and say I actually have more but you are wrong! You can't count the day I get there, because I see the people I care about on that day. Plus, you can't count today because I am already living it. And since today is almost over, you might as well not count tomorrow because I am almost living that day as well. See, it makes perfect, logical sense! I am done now, off to bed and sweet dreams...

Note to self: There is not a monster in the storage unit, so start packing!