62 Things that I Want to Do

I made this list during the first semester of my sophomore year (2012, aka forever ago) when I was almost 16 and basically the exact opposite of a ray of sunshine in every sense. It used to be 100 things but some of them are no longer applicable and/or I didn't want to share them on the internet. Mostly the second option. Anyway, it’s a bunch of stuff that I want to do in the next little while of my life and I thought I would continue to let everyone take a nice long look inside my personal life, so here we go.

1 learn to surf
2 go snorkeling
3 photograph lightning
4 hot air balloon ride
5 skinny dipping
6 go sailing
7 ride an elephant
8 go whale watching
9 kiss under the Eiffel Tower
10 sing in general conference
11 run through sprinklers at a golf course
12 go to an old person bingo night before age 20
13 photograph a hummingbird (done july 25, 2013)
14 sleep in the bed of a truck overnight
15 attend an Olympic event
16 ride in a helicopter
17 live a day without electricity
18 smash plates (done december 31, 2014)

19 touch an octopus
20 catch a firefly
21 learn to knit (done 2012)
22 make a quilt (done may 27, 2013)
23 build a snowman taller than me
24 build a clock (done january 11, 2014)

25 cut down a Christmas tree to use in my home
26 do yoga on the top of a mountain (done may 18, 2013)
27 go to a drive-in movie
28 swim in the ocean
29 dance with my dad on my wedding day
30 kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve
31 make a proper omelet
32 paint a mural
33 buy a Canon Rebel (done june 11, 2013)
34 swim with dolphins
35 work at a library
36 keep a goldfish living for more than two weeks
37 take a proper bokeh photo (done december 2013)
38 go mini golfing
39 learn to play the guitar
40 kiss atop a ferris wheel
41 become fluent in Spanish
42 meet a president
43 ride a trolley
44 cliff dive
45 wears jeans inside out for an entire day judge me
46 sew a dress for myself
47 learn to play chess
48 milk a cow
49 chase a rainbow
50 fast on thanksgiving
51 make a time capsule
52 have a 4.0 for the rest of high school nearly there thanks
53 volunteer at the food bank
54 egg someone's house
55 kiss a stranger
56 be in a community choir (done february-june 2013)
57 adopt a border collie
58 drive to Argentina
59 read the entire Bible
60 learn to read Braille
61 shoot a gun (done may 18, 2013)
62 leave notes in library books (done january 10, 2015)

My Bedroom

The title of this post is not misleading. This is my bedroom. (but it won't be for long because I'm moving in five months but no idea where, so minor freak out, thanks.) Anyway, I really like my room so here is the next-best thing to a virtual tour that I could muster up. 

This is my bed. It rolls. It's kind of a problem. If there is ever an earthquake I might be in trouble. Not to mention the heavy canvases hanging above my head. If there is an earthquake I am probably going to die. 

Heavy canvases. Mmm girl. 

Killer lampshade courtesy of World Market.

My dresser is probs my favorite thing in my room because all its knobs are different I mean how cute is that. Definitely cute. Also the coat tree was a must.  

CUTE. 

These knobs are on my closet doors. 

Above my dresser is a rad circular mirror and my photo wall of a bunch of photos that I like of my friends and stuff. Also a picture of Jesus which is legit my favorite. 

These are the top 2 shelves of my bookshelf, which really only contains books on the bottom half because I'm a fan of little decorative things. THEY ALL HAVE A STORY TOO LET'S TELL THEM.

The elephant belonged to my great-grandma who passed away in May 2013. She collected every possible elephant thing and her whole house was filled with them. When she died, all her family got to have one. 

The rock, I painted. That's all.

The jar of feathers is cool because it contains feathers from all over the world! Or at least feathers from Utah and Switzerland. But same thing. 

The teeny jar of sand is red sand from Moab. 

The marigold seeds don't really have story but they have been sitting on my shelf for some ridiculous number of years. Plus they add some nice color. 

The little blue cat rock, I also painted. It is seriously in the shape of a cat head so what else was I supposed to do with it?

Trolley music box from San Francisco, like 2001-ish. 

Roses from my sister, Candace, who gives me a rose periodically at my concerts and such. 

Little red hippo from ex-boyfriend's aunt's trip to South Africa... Really there isn't significance there but it's hand-carved from South Africa. so that's cool. 

German salt + pepper shakers from my dad's mother's collection (which was her mother's collection) after she died. 

Whoa that took a long time. 

Jewelry box that I took from my grandma's house after she died before anybody else knew it was even there mwahahaha.

This is my desk. Yes, it is a painted piece of wood with plastic office drawers. It has served me well for the past, like, 12 years, so don't hate. 

Also, yes, there are indeed 8 bottles of perfume on it. 

This is my clock. It's made from a plate. I bet your clock isn't made from a plate. And I bet your clock was more than $7. 

Window seats are basically a really cool feature in rooms and it took me so many years to make this look not ugly. The yellow burlap lace chandelamp was a fun project and it's very cute and actually useful when the blind isn't open. Good place to read, even if it's dark. 

This is my windowsill garden comprised of a mini rose bush, a crooked bamboo, and a weird hybrid succulent I don't even know what that is having serious issues because I cut the top off of it because it was super tall and falling over. And now it honestly is just pretty sad. But it's planted in a little mug with the Amsterdam canal houses on it AND it was my first plant so I can't very well get rid of it, you feel? 

Yeah, so that's the tour of my room. I hope you had fun. Or at least I hope you think I'm a really great decorator. Or maybe you just think I'm weird, and that is okay. 

27 Books

my favorite books (in order)
1 Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
2 The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
3 The Black Opal by Victoria Holt
4 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
5 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
6 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodson Burnett
8 The Help by Kathryn Stockett
9 The Giver by Lois Lowry
10 Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu
11 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
12 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Bonus sciencey book: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley

books I have read this year

1 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

2 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

3 Animal Farm by George Orwell (time #2 for me)

4 Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (time #2)

5 Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence

6 Miracles and Massacres by Glenn Beck (currently reading)

Also I’ve read The American Scholar and Self Reliance by Emerson, along with both Communist Manifestos and Humanist Manifestos. We read weird crap in school. 2, 3, 5, and 6 were all for school as well.

books I am going to read this year (not a complete list)
1 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
2 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
3 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
4 Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol
5 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
6 Contact by Carl Sagan

7 1984 by George Orwell (time #2)

8 Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (time #5)

Things Going Through my Mind as an 18-Year-Old Girl with Two Months of High School Left

"Do I really need to go to school today?"
This is so real. What sucks is when you have one important class every day and one mediocre class every day so you basically have to go every day or die. It's good stuff. 

"The only reason I'm here is because I have three friends and there's an attractive boy in my class."
Because even though it's kind of an important class, let's be real, the only reason I'm there is because friends and boy. 

"I hate all of my clothes so much."
GUYS THIS IS THE WORST. Essentially, every day, trying to decide what to wear, I want to wear the thing I wore the day before yesterday because it's the only outfit I even remotely like anymore. I seriously like only two outfits. And on A days I only have to be in dress code for one class period and then I have yoga, so really what is the point of even attempting to make myself look nice? There is no point. Just wear the same outfit every day. Good plan. 

"I have to start thinking about what to write in people's yearbooks."
Maybe this is just me, but it's already going through my head and I'm honestly a little worried about it. This is my last thing to say to some people, you feel?

"What am I even going to do in June?"
Does summer even exist when you're old? Because I'm pretty sure it's just like the rest of they year. Like, you wake up, you go to work, you come home. Wooo, yeah. Partay. 

"I should get a real job soon."
Oh geez. I need an adult job. Oh my gosh. Life. 

"I'm so tired of high school. I just need to be done here and go to college. "
I mean, when you've been here for four years, it gets old. Obviously. And I personally really dig it when things change and new stuff happens, so four years of no change is rough. I just want to meet new people and learn a bunch of awesome crap and explore new places and be awesome. But there's also this "oh, I'll never see some of these people again and that makes me sad and I won't see my friends every day and I'll have to do adulty things all the time and I'm not ready to be old yet." And that also is really dumb. 

"Please don't make me go to college and live on my own."
And then this happens.  Where will I live? Who will I live with? How will I buy food? When will I buy food? WHAT AM I GOING TO EAT? Will I get enough sleep? What if I fail college and become homeless? (I'm fully aware that these are not entirely rational worries, but they're real, man. They're real. I hear buying your own toilet paper for the first time is a really scary experience.)