life lately.

an update with pictures!!!

so i'm officially a california resident!! crazy, huh?

since kathryn was in sweden for her birthday, we had a joint celebration with glug and cake. yay for birthdays!!

i spent christmas with the treatches (and the hedbergs!) it was so good to be with people who know and love me when i couldn't go home. and it was SO good to see erikka and eric :)

erikka and me!! :)

i love sleeping.

i have NOT been getting enough sleep. that combined with staring at a computer screen, equals me trying desperately not to fall asleep at my desk...this is what i used to feel like when i was in class.

oh LA.

apparently i checked someone out at crate & barrel who is on Mad TV. haha. i don't really think this counts as a celebrity sighting because i didn't know she was famous until after someone told me.

in other news, i'm now 23!! and there are 10 days until christmas!! i cannot wait to see erikka and eric! what a great christmas present :)


ps. it actually does get cold in LA...seriously, i'm cold.

ahhh! i hate traffic.

oh. my. gosh. LA traffic is the worst. everyone warned me, but i didn't really understand until now! oh man. i miss the days when i would turn on my ipod and zone out on the El in chicago... but i do love having the radio in the car ;)

...

i miss my friends... very much.

rabbit, rabbit!

happy december!!

in honor of the christmas month, here are my top five christmas songs...

1. have yourself a merry little christmas- Sarah McLachlan
2. O holy night- Josh Groban/Mariah Carey
3. happy x-mas/war is over- Jon Lennon (and kids!)
4. all i want for christmas is you- Mariah Carey
5. christmas time is here- Charlie Brown

i love christmas music!!

there's no place like home for the holidays.

since i can't go home for christmas, i decided that i needed to get myself a christmas tree. so i did.

it's just a little guy...well as tall as me. but i like it. 

in other news...i''m still alive after working at Crate & Barrel on black friday and the day after.

in real life.

a lot of things are different in real life. the most different for me is learning how to make friends when you're not simply given a community. i call it making friends from scratch. but i guess i'm cheating a little because i knew people out here before i moved, and well, i have a church. nonetheless, it's still hard. how do you know if you're not trying hard enough to make friends, or if you're trying too hard...

in case you were wondering...

i had my first celebrity sighting this week! haha. well, kathryn really saw him first. if she hadn't been there, i totally would have missed it. but...we saw john stamos!!! that's right, uncle jesse in the flesh. haha. it was pretty cool. we were on the WB lot though, is that still just as cool?

happy anniversary.

so last saturday (november 8), california and i had our one month anniversary. yay. 

happy birthday laura!

november 4, 2008. it happens to be election day, a very important election day at that...but also it's Laura's 24th BIRTHDAY! yay. which makes her two years older than me for a little over a month. ha. so, happy 24th Laura!!! i miss you!

i like it when it's cloudy here.

i know that sounds crazy. but i can't help it, i miss fall. it's too sunny in california. which also sounds crazy i'm sure. i was talking to a friend on the phone yesterday telling her about the HOT weather, and at one point in the conversation i said "but it's going to get down to the 70's this week"... at the end of OCTOBER. this so very different. 

alas, it's starting to sprinkle right now and i'm outside. i should pack up my computer.

good thing i like pb&j.

we moved in!!! it feels so nice to have our own space. and it feels great to not be constantly worried if someone is going to break into my car and steal my stuff. 

so here is our living room right after we brought everything up from our cars. 

so we unpacked! ha. our apartment is a bit sparse at the moment...oh and that lamp you see, we found it in the basement by the dumpsters. now we actually have light when it gets dark! (although, not in our rooms yet...)

this is my room. huge, but empty.  

kathryn and i celebrated with some wine (in my awesome blue wine glasses) on our first night in our new apartment!

one day...

being in california has forced kathryn and i to live simply. now, that also has caused us to dream about the day we can have things again.

for example.

one day...when i can have cheese again.


in other news, tonight's dinner cost us 80 cents. we're living the life.

a couple road trip pictures!

so i'm still struggling to get my pictures on here, but i've got two! 

yup, my odometer hit 100,000 miles on my trip to kansas city, so i had to document it going about 80 mph....

this is the view from laura's apt! amazing right? i love kansas city!

we're here!

so...kathryn and i made it safe and sound all the way to california on wednesday night. yay. but we were shocked by how hot it was when we got here...i really don't know why, it is southern california. anyway, so we've spent the last four days searching for an apartment hard core, and today we found one! very exciting. now we're on to the job search...

so we're here.

(and i'm hoping one day soon blogger will actually let me put some pictures up here. i took quite a few while i was driving...i know, i know...bad idea. but they're cool pictures.)

lost in kansas city.

i made it to kansas city on wednesday night and i can't believe i'm leaving tomorrow morning already.

it's been so fun to see Laura, meet her friends, go to class with her (she's studying neurology right now...). and kansas city is great, i really like it here. gas is cheap and the city is beautiful. it's a lot smaller than chicago, which can actually be nice. and seeing as i was driving around by myself on thursday and got lost...but then proceeded to get un-lost (is that even a word?) pretty easily, i figure i'd do well here.

but it's onward for me. another day of driving here i come.

i love fall.

i'm leaving Chicago and driving to California tomorrow. i know right, it's finally time. 

so, here are the top five things i will miss about Chicago...

5. north park men's soccer games.

4. Lincoln Square.

3. down town...i love the sky line.

2. knowing my way around, and feeling comfortable.

1. morning sunrise runs to the lake.   

come on sammy!

if you're wondering...yes i named my car. and his name is sammy. i think i did it more as a legit way to talk to myself and calm myself down when necessary...ha. anyway, we made it to chicago! (sammy, cath and i).  so now in two weeks or so i'll be on my way out west, but first i get to experience chicago one more time for a while.

so this is my car packed up pretty tight. and yes that finding nemo pillow case is mine.

me and my NEW atlas. i've never had one before and i'm totally excited about it.

me, cathface and sammy at a rest stop...the sun was SO bright.

i found glasses!!

...to drink from, ha. no, but seriously i am so excited. my future roommate has dishes and now i have glasses, we're all set. haha well maybe not all set, but this discovery made me super pumped about moving. it's getting close too. i mean i'm leaving for chicago in a week and before i know it, we'll be on the road out west. so crazy.


on a totally different note, and because i love pictures...here's an awesome picture from camp.

i cut my hair.

i cut my hair. it's really short, so i hope they can actually make a wig for someone who needs it.

seriously, it's short.

soundtrack of my life.

wow. my last post was only two days ago, this is a first. but i had something to say, and i finally realized that this is the point of a blog. to write stuff you just want to say and it doesn't really matter who reads it, you just want to say it.

anyway, i was walking yesterday listening to music. pretty typical i guess, but i started thinking about how awesome it would be if life actually had a soundtrack. you know like in the movies or on tv when a character is in deep thought about something, staring out the window and some unknown band with a thought provoking song starts playing. life would be so much more dramatic i guess. maybe that's not a good thing. but as i was walking yesterday listening to my own soundtrack i thought it would be pretty cool if i were a character on tv. maybe i've been watching too much one tree hill and listening to bon iver a little to often. who knows.

also. a little while back i started working on a soundtrack of my life. i kind of forgot about it, but i'm pretty sure i should get back on that. you should try it too. it's pretty cool to look back and figure out which songs have been influential in your own life as time passes by.

home...

two weeks down, two to go.

to do: buy a car, get insurance, look for a job, pack up my room, visit with old friends, watch Alias season 3 (i love women who kick butt)... seems like a lot to do, but the time still feels slow. i hate being home by myself all day. i think that's the hard part about coming home in a time of transition. it's not a vacation for me, so i'm not really relaxed; and my parents are working all day, so i'm hanging out alone.

needless to say, i'm so ready for california. don't get my wrong, i'm totally nervous about all the logistics i need to figure out when i get there...but how exciting it is to be starting a new chapter in my life. and hey, i won't be translucently white this winter, if that's not exciting i don't know what is!

"i love it!"

my fourth summer at camp is over. so crazy. i can't imagine what a summer will be like not being there. but, it's time to move on, all good things must come to an end, right? and these days i'm trying not to be too nostalgic, because sometimes i forget to live in the now.

but i had a great summer with my TLCs. they were amazing and i miss them already. thankfully they took pictures to document the summer, because i didn't...

so here are the kids...
and their leaders... ha. oh, and do take notice that it's actually rob's fingernails that are pink...

yup, it actually happened.

so, erikka is married. yup my friend from freshman year is MARRIED!! ahhh. so great. my mind is having a hard time comprehending it though. haha. but i tend to be like that. i have to say things out loud so many times, and even then i don't think it actually sinks in. haha. so if you see me in the near future i may say something like "oh my gosh, erikka is married. i can't believe it!"... a few times while i'm in your presence.

in other news, the toast went well...nerves and all :)

back to camp tonight to start another summer.

goodbye to chicago for a while...

holy heat!

i don't know if you're supposed to blog about the weather...but it's so hot here. i feel like i'm slowly melting away into nothing. it's gross. and i couldn't sleep, boo.

i sweat the small stuff..and the big stuff.

i'm overwhelmed. it's that simple. i get so jealous of those people who can just say "don't worry about it, it'll be fine" because i've never been able to think like that. i tried it for a little while, but i was just fooling myself. ha. anyway, i do know eventually i'll get through this stressful time, look back and think about how i got so worked up for no reason...but right now, the present is draining me and exhausting me.

in other news, i'll be in chicago in 3 days. holla. and one of my best friends is getting married in a week and one day, including today. wish me luck on my toast...

i'll give it a try for now.

i'm not the greatest writer, but who cares, right? and what exactly goes in a blog? i'm not quite sure right now, but i'm guessing i'll figure it out.