#14

sorry, hotel valley ho.

cheers,

lauren, cayla, & sydney

things that are great

obviously i'm obsessed with making lists, so here's a collection of things that we think are great:

1. ben & jerry's straight from the carton
2. SNL videos on hulu
3. lava lamps
4. pebble sign language
5. blasting a good song
6. starbucks made by andrew boyfriend
7. cloudy days
8. tie dye
9. fleece blankets for watching movies on the couch
10. chai tea
11. pop culture references
12. derby's ears
13. writing with a good pen
14. shopping at target
15. soft t-shirts
16. christmas lights
17. accents
18. top hats
19. awkward family photos
20. sundresses
21. fruit juice
22. windows down
23. perfect tanning weather
24. weird picture frames
25. clothes that hold the smell of perfume/cologne

happy birthday to me :)

cheers,

lauren

(RED)

So we've added a new application that highlights the word red & will take you to the (RED) organization that works to fight against AIDS in Africa. It's a worthy cause that you should look into joining!

cheers,

lauren & cayla

p.s. red. we're still trying to see if this works

happy birthday

Tomorrow is my 19th birthday. Usually the day before my birthday I start to panic and wonder if I have lived enough in the past year or was just wasting time. I'll never be 18 again, did I miss out on opportunities that I'll never encounter again? This year the feeling of panic and regret is the farthest thing from my mind, because I've really lived a lot in my eighteenth year. I've learned that if opportunities don't present themselves you have to make your own. I've grown up a lot since last May, and high school graduation seems like it was decades ago. The months that have filled the time since my last birthday have been full of new experiences, some that have been fun and others that have been really stressful. I don't have a lot of pictures on my new computer, but here are a few from the last year;

Here is where I should say something catchy and maybe even a little lame about hoping that 19 is just as good as 18 or whatever, but to be honest I'm super excited to leave 18 behind and see what kind of adventures and disasters I can create before I hit 20. Not so lame?

cheers,

lauren

reflections on a year

Since I have grown up a lot this year, in respect to the fact that I have read so much classic British Lit (as my teacher calls it) and can now recognize an allusion to almost any Brit poem, I have noticed something. Besides the British Lit I have been reading for the past year, everything I read seems to be so transparent. Like I can just see them pulling out a thesaurus or discovering a new word and using it over and over again. Literally my English teachers have destroyed pleasure reading for me. Do you want to know what I am reading for fun right now? The Complete Sherlock Holmes. That isn't fun. And this summer I was considering buying The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Seriously? I'm 16. I know it is a good thing that I am enjoying fine literature, but I would really just like to go back to my old books that I could finish in 2 hours and not have to contemplate the situational irony or deeper meaning. But now when I open those books, they sound whiny and pretentious and remind me of those trash romance novels that old people read on airplanes. I will read someone's whole deep entry and just think "wow someone in the 1800s has already said that and they put it a whole lot better, so have you ever read the funeral blues by w.h. auden?" No, because they are probably a normal teenager. I mean I feel very luckey to have read so many classics and actually enjoyed a lot of them, but I really just wish that I could still enjoy my old stuff. Or at least not have to snub everyone else's work because I have been spoiled with the finest prose and novellas. Here I am complaining that I have learned too much when I should to studying for all those other classes where I have not been so fortunate.
Speaking of learning too much, but still needing studying: What can I say about World History? That class has probably changed me the most this year. I know so much about so much. I don't even really want to say exactly how much I know about China and Japan, because it pains me. I actually had nightmares about kamikaze pilots the night before my Japan unit test. That's super normal. I have never felt so informed about the world in my life and I feel like if someone asked me anything pertaining to history from Mesopotamia to WWII I would totally have an answer and that feels good. Trust me, you should try knowing more than the people around you, I do it all the time and it feels awesome.
I don't really have anything to say about my other classes other than I AM ALMOST DONE AND THEN I NEVER EVER EVER HAVE TO DO THEM AGAIN! and I can confidently say that because I have A's in all my classes so even if I bomb them I will still pass. HA! Next year at this time I will almost be a senior and then I will be done with high school. Kind of a creepy feeling because I'm not quite ready to be so old, so I'm hoping junior year will go a little slower than this year which completely flew by and I barely had a chance to accomplish anything. I am really planning for junior year to be absolutley amazing, so stay tuned for that!
I started writing this entry because I read someone's post and my reaction to it really bothered me because I have become a literay snob and have hence stripped down my writing to the simplest words I can use to convey my message (and a few ostentatious words that I actually know the meaning of so I don't have to look up so it doesn't make me a noob for using them) which totally means Orwell which was right, which also bothers me because I just made a reference to Orwell, BUT I got wrapped in the thought that school is almost done! So here's to that amazing summer that I have been anticipating since Christmas.
Cheers to only two more days of school!
Cayla

i regarded the world as such a sad sight

until i viewed it in black & white

why yes, boston, i would like to stay forever.

cheers,

lauren

from where I'm swimming

arizona looks pretty good in the spring. it's the only time that anything actually looks alive. the bushes all have their little drought resistant flowers and all our weird colored trees are dropping irritating pollen everywhere. there is about 450,076 birds running around my yard and tweeting at the top of their little bird lungs. A mommy bird is settling into her nest, taking a well deserved rest after raising 2 babies in a matter of weeks. I know this because I was watching them everyday. bird stalker. well anyway I went swimming today, which is when I made all of these observations. through sunglasses of course, because everything seems to look a little bit better tinted. maybe it is because the sun is blinding coming off of the pool decking, so that is the only way you can see, or maybe everyone just feels better/cooler when they are wearing sunglasses. I believe it is the latter.
see, ahwatukee is surronded by big brown mountains, and after about 14 years of staring at the same brown mountain and the same gray bush and the same pale green tree you really start to get sick of it. there are very few spring weeks when everything is in bloom and everyone is having allergy attacks, so you really have to savor them.
While there is always a shortage of green here, there is never a shortage of birds that want to hurt me. It seems like every bird in AZ is somehow plotting my demise, be it those terrifying crows that are getting just a little too close (and too big), those kamikaze pigeons that dive bomb me at lunch, or run-away parakeets that send me on a wild parakeet chase around my dad's neighborhood, they all have it in for me.
let me take this moment to tell you how much I love Pandora radio. I just type in the artist I like- Owl City -and it picks out other bands that I will like - Death Cab for Cutie and Relient K -unfortunatley it does not always follow this path, occasionally it will play some not so great bands- Boys like Girls, All Time Low, JUSTIN BIEBER -I know, I was just as shocked when it happened too, I couldn't get to the thumbs down button fast enough and I actually had to stop listening to Pandora for a while. (AH you though I wouldn't recognize a RUN ON SENTENCE!) but usually I really like it and have discovered a lot of new bands! Always good!
so this has been sufficiently random, probably all that cough medicine I took for my Tb-esque cough. it's awesome. I guess I'll be signing off now, hi to lauren in boston!

cheers,
cayla

from an empty room on the first floor

we all know my room isn't really empty, but you can't ever argue with andrew.

what is it that makes andrew so great? as i told sydney, he's everything a boy should be, but why? he can play the piano, he can write words that give your whole body goosebumps and force your eyelids to close and make you forget where you are for a second. on a day when you feel like everything is going wrong for no certain reason, he steps in with a song that explains exactly how you feel even though you can't put words to the emotion yourself. he transformed from a shy, silly boy with big glasses and gorgeous wavy blonde locks that would make any girl envious to a slightly more sophisticated boy that, even though now lacking in an eyebrow piercing, is still a little crazy, is a step towards handsome, and dare i say sexy? there's

something about the voice that is a combination of almost every accent in the u.s. and maybe a broken nose, but slipping out of that side smile it's everything you've ever wanted to hear. maybe it's the side smile that really does it. it's just so cute, and i can't sing a song without at least part of it being repeated in andrew-esque form. it's been six years since andrew appeared in my life in a little puff of magic and miracle, and through my bouts of fall out boy and emo screamo, he's still remained the tired and true best. what would i do without adorable little andrew! forever and always, andrew mcmahon, here's to you.

cheers,

lauren

like yellow does on blue

this is also from a while ago:

Sometimes you look at people and you think, Wow I can’t believe how much they’ve changed. Usually, you don’t look at yourself in mirror and think that. And, if you do, it’s going to be for a positive reason, like you lost five pounds or finally dyed your roots. There’s that kind of change that sneaks up on you and kind of takes over your life the way anesthesia slowly fills up your lungs like someone blowing up an inflatable toy. You’re not going to realize it until someone holds up the mirror and says Hey, this is what you used to be like, and now the old you wouldn’t even recognize who you are. It definitely takes you a second to realize what has happened, because all along you’ve thought that everyone else has been changing and you’ve been the one staying the same. But you’ve been buying the aviator sunglasses and painting your nails the highlighter colors, wearing the hipster clothes and beachy waves. Suddenly the frat boys are so cute, and the indie boys are kind of weird? Once again, and, as always, Andrew steps in to save the day.

Something Corporate reunion show means drop everything, put life on pause, and travel any distance to see it happen. So that’s what I did. Cayla and I bought the tickets as soon as they went on sale, without the returnable insurance so “we’d have to go” as she said. Then dad decides he won’t take us, and Cayla says it’s okay, she didn’t think it was going to work anyways. $120 later, I’m still left with two tickets, no way to get there and no place to stay. Enter Kristen. We drive over and stay with her uncle in his million dollar condo in Dana Point. He asks us how much it costs her to fill up a tank of gas for her truck. When she says $50, he tells her that his bmw is about the same. His girlfriend says her Bentley is about $70, and her friend agrees that her Ferrari is about that too. They don’t have McDonalds, and the teenagers don’t go out on the weekends. Bagels cost $9. After this weekend, I vowed to never return to Dana Point or Laguna Beach as to never be shunned in such a way by the rich and snobby again.

The mirror came in as soon as we got into the Bamboozle. In my hipster ignorance, I had forgotten about the scene, and instantly felt out of place in my short-shorts and oversized tank. Where were my skinny jeans and black shirt? For the first time I was an outsider in the place where I had once claimed was where I really “belonged”. It sounded dumb even to me, but the feeling was a little surreal. It took me a few minutes to settle in and get back into the feel of things, remembering how to act and how it felt to not have to try. Two hours before Something Corporate hit the stage, Kristen and I scanned the booths and tables. Number forty-two on my list: walk a red carpet, presented itself in a way not exactly appropriate to allow it to be crossed over, but nonetheless, we walked the plastic “red carpet” that had been taped to the ground that led us directly to the Epitaph Records table. A boy with sweet eyes and brown, almost Andrew-hair greeted us and gave us samplers as I asked about The Matches. Two hours later, we’re still talking. The conversation just comes, we talk about college, tattoos, the lack of talent that Never Shout Never possesses, and our dislike for the Peta booth next to them. I start to remember what I used to be like, before I had pushed myself into the mold that college had presented. The forced conversations with boys that I meet at school seem foreign in this situation, and it seems like I’ve known Epitaph boy for years. I have to take a step back and I finally realize that I have really changed over the past year, and I really miss how I used to be. In the time before I tanned for hours and had the LMFAO cd on my ipod, when I really didn’t care about what other people around me thought, because I surrounded myself with people that truly liked me for who I was. The mirror was a big slap in the face that I wasn’t expecting, because, everyone else had changed, not me. Right?

cheers,

lauren

pebble is a friend of mine

hey
I don't know if you know about pebble. She is small and friendly and kind of smells, but she is soft and cute so we put up with it. Pebble is my dog and she is currently collasped on my lap in her afternoon nap, but then again everytime one of us gets near the couch pebble goes to sleep. Pebble is now awake and is getting very nervous because lauren just brought sloane onto the couch. Sloane isn't really going much of anywhere these days because she just had a mass removed from her arm, but pebble is terrified of sloane because sloane chews on her ears and toes. It is very cute, but also a little ironic because sloane is a rat and pebble is a dog.
tomorrow is derby's birthday, she will be 2. Derby is our other dog and she likes everybody.

i wrote this like two weeks ago, but it was on my phone and once I got to a certain length it wouldn't let me keep typing, lame. But I have noticed that it is borderline impossible to do normal things on a cell phone, I guess a gentle reminder that you still need a computer every once in a while.

school is almost over and personally I am thrilled, this year went by pretty fast, but I have been ready for summer since winter break, no joke. seattle, virginia, maybe boston and san diego? my vacation plans sound like an indie song.

cheers,
Cayla

A+

Things That are More Interesting/Important Than Finishing My World Literature Essay:

1. Facebook
2. Watching What Not to Wear
3. Looking at condos for next year that I can’t afford
4. Drinking Arizona Green Tea (No, this cannot be done simultaneously with finishing an essay)
5. Deciding what color Mac case I want to buy
6. Panicking about how I’m going to pay my credit card bill next month
7. Debating whether to go out for lunch or get creative
8. Contemplating what I have at home that would supply creativeness for lunch
9. Wii Fit yoga
10. Being a pillow for my puppy
11. Giving Sloane her piña coloda antibiotics
12. Remembering how to enter a ñ on a Mac
13. Planning my outfits for Boston
14. Planning what I’m going to do in Boston
15. Watching the Buried Life attempt to tell a joke on late night television for at least the seventh time on my DVR
16. Sifting through me, Sydney, and Cayla’s numerous, ludicrous plans to meet them and figure out which is the most realistic
17. Deciding what I want to do this weekend when I should be studying for more finals
18. Checking my email
19. Taking a nap (this one should almost be omitted because it is so obvious)
20. Texting Sydney about the boy that showed up in a tuxedo for a presentation in her humanities class
21. Attempting to set up a study group for my Anthropology class
22. Making yet another bracelet or anklet
23. Looking up non-profits I’d like to work for, if I ever finish this essay and graduate
24. Watching the Family Guy when Peter gets injected with the gay gene
25. Looking through Victoria’s Secret online so I can spend my money there once I pay my credit card bill
26. Trying to decide if I should just go get a tattoo
27. Sending people Family Guy videos on Facebook
28. Eating snacks instead of going out to lunch or getting creative
29. Planning my extreme birthday party
30. Looking up music to buy with my itunes gift card
31. Deciding whether to spend or save my visa gift cards from Chegg
32. Deciding what to spend my visa gift cards from Chegg on
33. Tanning
34. Making brownies
35. Creating a list of random things I may or may not actually be doing

you just might find, you get what you need

i always catch the clock, it's 11:11, but cayla and i make wishes that are too predictable.

people are always really excited when they find out that i go to asu, but as soon as i tell them i'm an english literature major they get a look that's a mix of disappointment and confusion. english literature? so you read books... and then what? it's frustrating that people think than an english major can only be used to be a teacher, and if i don't stand up in front of poorly behaved children for six hours a day trying to cram the elements of handwriting down their throats i'll be living on the streets. sometimes i think it would almost be worth seeing the look of surprise on the persons face to follow the imminent "oh, what do you want to do with that?" question with, oh you know, some writing here and there, but mostly just living in a small apartment where i can decide which bills to pay each month until i can marry someone rich enough to support me. little do these housewives, who probably have been out of college for a good fifteen years, know, that i have endless possibilities in front of me and plan to take advantage of every single one of them. no, i'm not going to be a neuroanatomist because i don't want the three am phone calls for emergency surgery, the constant stress, or the money. why should i dedicate my entire life to a career that will give me nothing in return? you can enjoy a job and truly love it, but ultimately it will give you one thing: money. money necessary for survival in the way that the world has become today, but money that will only provide you with the shell of a shelter and pretty, empty things to fill it with. growing up and going to a high school overflowing with students stuffed to the gills with more money than they knew what to do with, i have never been more sure of anything when i say that money will not make you happy. it's the most cliche saying ever, but people spend their entire lives in a quest for dollars and cents that always leave them empty handed. beautiful houses, shiny cars, pretty paintings and rugs will not give you the warm, loving feeling that a family does. this is a broken record of what a million have said before me, but it is just my attempt to justify why i'm not desperate to get the highest paying degree and land a job with a huge, domineering company right after graduation. as long as i'm happy, i don't want the money and beautiful houses and shiny cars.

it's such a nice day outside but i'm stuck inside writing an essay (for my english class). three pages down, seven to go..

cheers,

lauren