End of Times

This is it.

The end of my blog.

Not that it's the end of me in anyway.

Mom and I are in my room packing for Alaska and Gretchen is talking to Dad from her bedroom door.

I'm leaving them each a present on my bed, then when they come home they'll see them and I'll have already left.

Love you all.

liz

Done With Dance

A La Past

At the end of last week I happened upon a few old photos of Gretchen and I on the home server. The picture above is of Gretchen playing mini-golf in Arizona. I thought it was perfect considering she spent the last week in Arizona.

I'm above, not sure where it is exactly. Just that I had those shoes and that swim suit top when I was in second grade. (making the photo from the summer of 2002)

Gretchen arrived home tonight, or well day now. I haven't gone to bed yet, so I'll say she arrive home tonight. She had a few stories and a few things she had gotten for herself, but nothing for the family. I know this sounds a bit greedy, but this is a blog and I want to express my feelings. I really wish she would have gotten something for us. I always get my family something when I go on vacation without them.

Though I should have seen this coming, when I went to Florida with Courtney and they went to Texas I got nothing where as I gave them gifts. I don't know about you, but I feel that it's a nice thing to do, buying a gift for the poor family members left behind during your vacation. Perhaps I should just suck it up. Okay.

Clothes and Punch

The above picture is of me today, wearing Sonia's scarf that she lent me. Her choice in clothing she bestows upon me is 'what pieces do I not know how to wear' and then she watches how I wear them. Here I have on dark skinny jeans, a white t-shirt pared with a brown jacket. I then went with a gold long necklace so people could see it under the scarf, and long dangly gold earrings which you can't see in the picture. Also not pictured is the boots I wore, the ones I'm always stealing from Gretchen. (and hair is left messy, it would look better with longer hair, kinda' biker chick vibe in a way)

Mom and I had Punch Pizza today for lunch. It's been forever since I've had it! Gretchen doesn't like it so my family never goes there. Gretchen's in Arizona until Thursday, so we took this opportunity to have Punch!

On our way back to the car we stopped in The Red Balloon Bookstore. I just love that little shop, such a cute place to sell books. Note: it's a children's book store, but there is also Young Adult books, just not a wide variety.

A little boy with a red balloon!

Here we saw a druggie, an old man,
and two college students hanging out smoking.
Odd group...

Cousin Chris

My cousin Chris and I have a good relationship. We are about 12 years apart, so our relationship didn't really start until I was at least in the sixth grade because I was too worried about children things and he was too worried about teenage things.

I identify the most with him out of all of my cousins. He and I are both very driven and end up doing homework over the long breaks when the family gets together. The rest of the cousins make fun of us, but hey, they can do their homework super late at the last possible moment. I don't care.

That being said, I haven't seen him in two years. (See he moved to Washington) Sure, there is Facebook, but he's not really one to go on often, nor am I really. There is also Skype, and we've only done that maybe twice.

So, at the beginning of the school year I devised a plan which was dubbed acceptable by Rudy, Chris's younger brother.

While cleaning out his mom's (Nancy's) house I found a good number of postcards from really random places. And this is the least random thing we found in her house. That lady has moved so many times, but this time Mom put her foot down and the two of them (over the course of 3 weekends) cleaned her whole house. That was a project.

It became a thing to call for me when a postcard was discovered and at the end of the house cleaning I had a good pile of odd postcards. While the pile was forming so too was an idea in my head.

I decided to smoke Chris out of his 'hole' in Washington by sending him a postcard each week. I figured this worked with Tekla (to an extent) so why not with Chris.

On Friday I received a package in the mail from Chris. It wasn't a huge surprise because I had talked on the phone with Chris a few times since I had started my project and I had gotten the word from Grandma and Nancy that he loved the postcards, but it was still fun to have solid evidence that Chris has seen the postcards.

In the package was the new Brian Selznick (if this name rings no bells google him!) book titled: Wonderstruck, a puzzle postcard, and a note from Chris.

Plus a poem, which I'll end with.

A Note From a Friend

-H. Hensher

When you are weary and sick

at the close of the day,

And things don't seem

to be going your way

When even your patience

seems near the end

What a wonderful lift

that note from a friend

With a troubled heart

and a heavy load

Perhaps he, too, may have

travled the road,

And you find real comfort

in the end

As you read the lines

in a note from a friend.

What a welcome, the few

words of cheer

Received from this friend

you hold dear

No troubles so great

God and time cannot mend

After you've read this note

from a Friend.

Rap-ing

So, yea. Can we talk about the fact that I just went Christmas shopping for my boyfriend...dude, weirdest thing ever!

Well, I take that back, I've done a lot of weird things.

This whole thing in uncharted territory. And not thanks to Nora and Ragan. Those two are about as helpful as two bumps on a warthog. And for those who don't know, that's not very helpful.

It's also awkward at times, but it really shouldn't be. I've just never been in this situation before. I think I share to much about it, because people in lunch were making fun of him in regards to our first kiss....I think it was cute, and great. All they did was laugh at him. (I stood up for him, no worries)

I have become a shy person when around him. It's an odd feeling, I've never been a fan of being shy. Plus I get nervous a ton...man, SOMEONE NEEDS TO GET ON THE SAME BOAT AS ME!

I also shopped for everyone else on my list. Then I came home and started the long process of wrapping the gifts.

His is SCARY! I'm super embarrassed about it, but I'm to lazy to redo it, so he's gonna have to deal.

And then....Moms....is....

I'll give you a picture, I can't explain it in words.

University of Minnesota

This is long in the works. I know I told Meghan that I was going to make a vlog about it, but then...

I forgot my charger to my video camera up in Alaska this summer and I didn't realize it until a few weeks ago. And my family is very messy up there, and not very relabel (I still love you!) which means i'll never see that charger again. I have been bumming one off of Mrs.Drew the past few weeks, but for school projects.

No video sorry.

But I can still talk about how much I loved it!

Tip: When I go to schools I look at bulletin boards to see if I would want to do anything on them. The social aspect it a huge part in picking a college. It could be great for your interestes, but if there is crappy people then their is some other college that can give you both. Believe me, there is a ton of colleges out there.

 The rooms were the best i've seen so far. Air conditioning, heat, cable, and wireless internet. The washing machines can also text you when they are done with your clothes. It's pretty awesome.

My Grandpa's building!

This is the main square where they have a annual snowball fight. The college has a ton of clubs to join. Like the sweatpants club, where you only wear sweats because your sick of wearing only jeans in high school. Or the 'Hi my name's Mike' club. You don't even have to have the name Mike to join. But the BEST part of the whole trip was that they have a college quidditch team. They were flown out to New York to play in the championships last year. Apparently a cross country player dresses in all yellow and runs around the college campus playing as the golden snitch. I so want to join!

Mom, Dad, and Gretchen came with me. The above photo was taken inside a completely green building on the campus. It was fun walking around with them, we had lunch afterwards and it was a good Saturday. I really liked the college, a lot more then I thought I would. I was happy with that surprise.

A Night To Remember

My night started at three, when mom told me that I was to start getting ready. I was sitting in our living room in my pj's and my Northern Arizona University sweatshirt on, sporting crumbs and remnants of the cupcakes I had gotten at Ragan's the night before. Cupcakes are great for breakfast.

So, at 4:10 we were picked up for dinner by Grandma and Grandpa. I had fought with Gretchen half shaved my legs and taken so long to find an outfit that I didn't want to go.

Yet, there I was sitting in the back of Grandma and Grandpa's car last night typing away on my new iphone this post channeling my inner teenage angst.

Hump!

The only thing I don't agree with Gilms: there stance on South Dakota. (Neither would Mom or a chunk of my family)

G to a T

Now we're just mothers, and we're just fathers of Teenage Daughters.

She rolls her eye's when I'm funny

But she's sweet when she wants money and her freedom

Wha-

Dad cracks open the door and tells me softly that dinner's ready and that I should wake up from my nap. I try to not move knowing I'll be super sweaty from hibernating under four layers of covers. I make my way down stairs to the kitchen.

Dad is finishing up his spaghetti and while I dish mine up he says, "Hey, Anne you should tell her where you found Gretchen."

From down in the unlit family room, Mom's disembodied voice says, "I found her with her head in the kitty bed sleeping on the kitchen floor." Apparently she let her continue sleeping like that.

When I asked Gretchen what she thought when she woke up in the kitty bed she replied, "I thought 'I want to go upstairs because this it will be more comfy."

Mumford & Sons

This past Friday my family went out to a movie, but we were an hour and fifteen minutes early, so we decided to stop over at target instead of hanging around the movie theater.

Dad made a b-line for the music section as Mom, G, and I tagged along, stoping only to lay down in some outdoor chairs. As we chilled, being all hip in the music section, Mom found the Grammy section and announced that she was going to get the Mumford and Sons cd, because (as she put it) "They're supposed to be good."

Now, I knew the songs on the cd, and Mom isn't one for swearing (or unintelligent language as she calls it) so the song 'Little Lion Man' (which is the BEST) wasn't going to fly in Mom's world.

Mouth open I asked Mom if she had even heard them play before. "Yea. Think they played at the Grammy's. One of them has a bald head right?"

Oh, god.

We played the cd in the car, but it was too loud that Mom didn't catch the swear words (yea...not sure how she didn't) and so it wasn't until Saturday morning (before my ACT prep-class) that Dad asked me why Mom had gotten the cd. He said he was surprised that I had let her buy the explicit one. So, I ended the whole thing by playing Mom 'Little lion Boy' so she could hear the chorus.

Tut, Tut

On Friday during current events in history (where all students share an event each day) someone talked about the King Tut exhibit at the Minnesota Science exhibit opening up this weekend. I was interested and ended up writing it down in my assignment notebook.

Then later that night I told Gretchen and Mom about it, they were immediately on the computer check out the times for Saturday. Waking up the next morning Mom asked if I wanted to go. Duh! I thought. I was the one to tell you, of course I want to go! I invited you!

During the tour of the museum area, I came across a statue of a women Pharaoh (who's name I can't remember) who was on her knees with a basket on her lap as an offering to the gods. I then noticed out of the corner of my eye a couple who was in my group giggling quietly to themselves.

I looked back at the statue then at the couple looking at it and back again. The description said that the ball looking thing on her lap was a basket so I hadn't looked at it as anything else. But if you were to think of the basket as a head, it looked like a sexual act that i'm 100% sure the couple was thinking about.

They were odd, Gretchen was freaked out by them because they followed her around the entire afternoon. They both must be attracted to curly blonds.

Knuckle Sandwich

Yesterday Mom, Gretchen and I went out to eat at Punch! a pizza restaurant on Grand Ave. which is to die for. It's super thin pizza cooked in 800 degree wood oven. Everything originated from Naples, Italy and uses the best produce for the pizza. The techniques haven't changed for centuries.

I love it, we don't go as often as I wish, but it's kinda' nice to have a fun and different place to go unlike Woodbury's wide variety. What's sad is Gretchen doesn't like it at all. She claims she can't taste anything, which it weird considering it's a taste i've never encountered in any other pizza place.

Mom says every seven years your taste buds change, I guess that's why Gretchen has been so picky about her food lately.

Friday Night Movie

Tonight Mom, Gretchen, and I went to No Strings Attached. Which I have to give a very good rating to. It's completely different then most romantic comedies, yes they get together, but not everything is like the usual 'recipe' for a movie like this.

My favorite line: "If you come any closer, I'm never going to let you go."

Also, something funny, Gretchen read in the news paper (after we had seen the movie) that Calvin Kline played Natalie Portman's father in the movie, when really Calvin Kline played Ashton Kutcher's father. I don't know it was weird, the newspaper getting in wrong....sad really, that's what it is.

Give Me A Gift

Today when I got home I went to bed right away, just for a little hour nap. I told Dad to wake me up in an hour and I preceded to sleep for two and a half hours. Yea, Dad left for his hair appointment without telling Mom to wake me.

The next thing I know I'm being jolted awake by Mom saying it's six. I thought it was morning, and was depressed until I wrapped my mind around everything. Then I was sad that I hadn't finished my dream. Nora had sent me a big package with tons of presents (all for me), but I hadn't gotten to the opening part before I was awaken.

Down In History

Tonight the vikings play.

I'm not even a fan, yet I know this.

Me Pelo

I had decided before school to grow my hair out. For normal people that would be growing her hair to her shoulders and then cutting it short again. Not for me. I don't do anything half way. I'm growing it all out! And if any of you remember my hair back in eighth grade then you'll have a mental picture for how long I want my hair to be before I even think of cutting it. Now, I'll be trimming it to keep the hair healthy, but no drastic hair cuts for a while.

I kept it a secret because I thought Mom would hate the idea. She hated it so much when I had it long last time, but I've learned to properly wash my hair since then. I know that sounds bad, but I have super thick hair that has to be washed twice in the shower and I have to flip my head over when rinsing the shampoo out, then hardly any conditioner. It's a process. It's either that or dousing my head in vinegar every other month and people don't react well when I smell like vinegar.

My little cousin, Renae, also thought it was a bad idea. This was when I announced it over Thanksgiving break. Apparently she has this girl in her sixth grade class that has stringy long hair that she doesn't take care of. She's also Hawaiian, which means, because of her religion, she can't cut her hair. Not even a trim. They look at hair as the soul. Quite deep.

I have been thinking about it a lot recently because I watched The Kids Are All Right and the teenage girl (bottom right) has long blond hair that I was mesmerized by the entire movie. Then I watched Grey's Anatomy via Hulu Plus on our new TV in the basement and this weird Pill commercial was on every time! I really didn't listen after the fifth time and I just concentrated on the girl's (top left) red hair trying to figure out if it was dyed or not. Then I thought of the other celebrities with long hair. Lisa Kudrow, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Beyoncé Knowles, and Joy Bryant (from Parenthood). I hope my hair will look as good.

DotA

This Saturday I might be going to my first ever concert. Yep, I'm 16 and have never been to a concert. Well, a real concert, I don't think Lori Line and her Christmas concerts count. The concert is for Basshunter (swedish singer of DotA and Boten Ann) and is at the Epic Event center downtown Minneapolis. Dad will be going with me (if he gives the okay to go), which won't really rain on my parade because it's Basshunter and that's all I'll be focusing on.

In other news, I need to talk with Sonia. What's up with the Harry Potter thing? I want to go and Mom says it's fine so I need details yo!

I heard Christina will soon be joining our ranks of bloggers. She want's Sonia to help her with starting it, but at this rate it won't be anytime soon. Get your rear in gear Sonia!

Blogging with no structure after the past 100 days of movies is a bit odd. It may take me a bit to get back into the grove, but I'll be back to my old self and posting every day.

Seems like a me and Meghan type of thing <3

Jeg-a-what?

Tonight, while back to school shopping, I discovered two things.

1. Nine at night on a Friday is a perfect time to shop because there is nobody around except for the sales people who cater only to you.

2. Jeggings!

Isn't that word just fun to say! Jeggings, jeggings. I think the sales guy thought I was weird. But come on! It's like wearing sweatpants that look like real world pants. I could sleep in these babies!