Public Service Announcement: Late Night Texties

Today's PSA is brought to you by a concerned audience for the benefit of single people, or people who do not live with their significant other. This threat is called the late night texties and can afflict us all. It happens late at night, when you're sitting watching tv or whatever, thinking about the person you'd most like to be with, playing up that dream in your head...we've all been there...I don't think I need to go on. And then you get this great idea, hey I can just text them! Texting is harmless because they don't have to hear the fear and nervousness in my voice, and because of that I can say exactly what I'm thinking with no filter on how this will look in the morning. It's the perfect crime! No kids. NO! Don't do it! Save yourselves! Resist the urge to share your hopes and dreams with someone you hardly know. Ya you're being flirty and fun and way more outgoing than you normally are, but you're coming off a little weird. Granted there are times when this can actually help your relationship, maybe after you've talked to the person more than once in a real live conversation, but mostly, you come off just a little bit creepy because you're thinking about that person a lot and you're telling them everything you're thinking. It's like drunk texting, but worse because you're coherent. Just say no to the late night texties.

*Ashamed as I am to admit this, I have actually done this so it's not totally bratty of me to say...haha it worked once and disasterously not other times.*

Thoughts of the Day

So today's post is separated into my thoughts of the past few days. They're incredibly random but that's just how I work I guess... Ha I have random thoughts during the day and since I have no one to tell them to they just get logged away until I can write there here : ).

Humidity
I have lived in two places in my life, New Mexico the driest place in the country, and Arizona the hottest place in the country. And although AZ is more humid than New Mex, come on, who are we kidding, it's so dang hot it doesn't matter. In fact, that there is any humidity at all really amazes me, you'd think water would be smarter than to hang around in that state. (ps this is not a bash on AZ, I love it there, but it's hot) But that's beside the point. The point is, that now I live in Michigan. Great Lake territory, the great North, whatever you want to call it, it is super humid up here. And it hasn't even been that humid since I've been here, weird summer I guess. But yesterday was different. Yesterday it was cloudy all day and rained in the afternoon, so really humid. I didn't realize this. I did my hair all up nice and then went outside and immediately regretted that I didn't have a hair tie so I could just pull my mess of hair back and forget that I had even showered. Because it was a disaster. So lesson learned...haha from now on I'll have to be more creative with my hair. Although I suppose it didn't look too bad...I don't know though because I have no one here to give me an opinion of it. *Cue singing of "I feel pretty, oh so pretty..."*

Regional Cliches
Cliches, ya know I love them. They work because they are true and even though we make fun of them relentlessly, they're true. That being said, they are at times the things that motivate me to wanting to punch people right in the face. I am so unbelievably tired of meeting new people and having them ask me if I like it here, yes I do, and then follow up with, oh just wait until the winter. It's like they're rooting for me to hate myself in the winter because I chose to come to this miserable state. How dare you even think of liking it here! The winters are terrible! Get depressed now! You have no shot at even having the will to live once October comes around. I'm sure they're just being good nice citizens warning me that Michigan has harsh winters. Well thaaaannnkkks, I got that part. We can move on to other topics. I've even tried saying, oh no I am excited about the winter, I love cold weather and I love the snow. Ha. HAHAHAHA. No they say, you don't know yourself, you sad naive little girl, what could you possibly know. There's no way to like this. So while I'm thinking of punching them in the face for the mere case of being in the wrong time after being the 10000th person to spew the same regional cliche, they punch me in the face for thinking I might actually like the cold. I know this happens in every place to every new person who moves, so I am speaking out for the masses! Ha no, but really, cliches are cliches because they're not original. Don't think you are.
And for the record I am excited about winter here.

Boys on Motorcycles
Everyone has their stereotypical 'dream' girl/guy. Guys have cheerleaders, girl in the school uniform, whatever. Girls have firefighters, some girls like guys in other uniforms, I don't but I know many girls who do, and then the motorcycle guy. Monday I drove kind of around town and saw so many guys on motorcycles and yup, still the 'dream' guy. And it's all because you can't see there face. I'm sure 90% of those guys are not good looking at all, but you can't see that. All you see is the leather jacket, or nice arms if they happen to not be wearing a jacket, and so you get to create your own guy. And who doesn't like create-your-own? Plus they all seem to be such jerks, tailgating you when you're going 15 over the speed limit and then powering around you. They think they're cool and since you've inserted your own hot guy under the helmet, you think they're cool too. It's a fascinating adventure in imagination. However, like all dreams, you don't really want to achieve it. If I was dating a guy who rode a motorcycle, and I cared about him at all, I'm pretty sure the motorcycle would eventually have to be let go. Because they're pretty dang scary. I think it would be SO much fun to ride one and go incredibly fast as long as I never had to turn. That would ruin it for me. So me thinking about a guy I cared about turning, probably going faster than me, wouldn't make me happy. So while I don't want this particular dream to come true, it's still fun to think about.

More Men's Fashion
White sports socks, are never okay with black flip flops. Okay, maybe that's too restrictive. Socks are never okay with flip flops of any kind. Ah I'm so glad we got that cleared up.
Although it should never happen, it never fails to make me happy when it does. But honestly how is it comfortable? I've tried to wear socks with flips before, when I'm in a hurry to go outside and grab something and then come straight in. And it's not comfortable. Who wants sock bunched up between your toes? The point of flips is to let your feet be free! Why go and make them more confined by adding socks into the mix? Ah well, I'll just have to accept that I will never understand this.

My skills at Mindreading and the Amazing ability of Hot Chocolate to lift your Spirits
I'm not a good mindreader. It's unfortunate because I have a lot of other skills but mindreading is just not one of them. Honestly though I think it's a really rare skill. I'm almost completely positive that there are way more people who can't mind read, than those who can. That being said, I think it's a really safe to make the assumption that people you meet can't read your mind, and you should act accordingly. It saves everyone time and frustration. I promise. So unless you meet Cris Angel, go a head and just let me know what you want me to do and I'll be happy to do it. It will get done SOOO much faster than if you just wait for me to read your mind. K? Thanks.

As to hot chocolate, it really does make everything better. It's all warm and chocolatey and doesn't expect anything from you. It's fantastic.

My new house!

Okie here are some pictures of my new house and some part of ann arbor.

So first this is my west wall of windows. It's really so nice, except in the afternoon when it kind of gets hot...but I'm sure I'll be loving that once it starts to get cold here!

This is my most favorite part, my wall of closets that can hold all my clothes and all my shoes and stuff. It's amazing.

And then the staple of every room... my bed. Haha love it.

I'm thinking because I'm pretty far North and it's the middle of the summer, it stays light so late here. This is 9:30 and the sun is just setting. I think it's so cool.

These are my new neighbors. To be honest they scare me a little bit...They are fun to watch though, from the safety of my living room.

So I think that's everything! I like it a lot so far, it's beautiful and green and humid and I love it. Although the humidity makes running harder than I've experienced...haha it's still a lot of fun to be in such a new place.

Men's Fashion

Okay confession: I love shopping for guy's clothes. I like to think that I have good taste and outfitting guys in really good looking clothes is my favorite thing. I LOVE when my brother-in-law's birthday or Christmas comes along because I always get him clothes and I love shopping for him. Haha while my sister is the easiest to shop for, I like shopping for her husband best. Too bad I've never had a boyfriend who would let me shop for them... : ). I also can't wait for my little nephew to get to be about 10 or 12, because then his aunt is going to get him the most amazing looking wardrobe. He'll be the envy of all the girls he will probably want nothing to do with. So because of this skill that I think I have, I happen to pay attention to guys clothes a lot... and this is what I see yesterday. At my school there are a lot of older men. They're all professors of engineering, 95% of the professors are men, and they're in their late 40's or older. Yesterday I witnessed a man, probably late 50's or older, wearing not just man-pri's (man-capris), but manpri sweats. And then the classic engineer knee socks and loafers. With manpris. Honey. No. Actually the no part was not my first thought. Ha ha my first thought was wow, now I realize why engineers have a bad rap. Ha and then I started laughing. It made my day yesterday to see this old man.

I have no forgotten...

I have not forgotten that I have written nothing about my new habitation, including my house, my room, and Ann Arbor, but I am waiting on pictures from my mom's camera to do all that. Hopefully by the end of this week : ).

First day of Kindergarten

My amazing friend Kara warned me that coming to grad school would be discouraging, that I wouldn't know anything and everyone here was smarter than me. Ha boy, I was hoping I wouldn't have to learn this lesson the first day but I did. Well not really but I did get amazingly overloaded with information. I was kind of already overloaded moving in and unpacking and making decisions about how my furniture would go, and trying to figure out what direction is which in a town with no landmarks. And trust me, that's hard. But I'm getting better and better everyday. So today was my first day. I met with my advisor and then with the post doc that I would be working with. I got my new id card and I got a TON of information about what (I think) I'm going to be researching. It was totally overwhelming though because I don't have an office, I don't have a computer, and I don't know what I need to be doing right now. I kind of felt today like I needed to know what I was doing and start doing it, be self-motivated. It was just way to much information to process in such a short amount of time. But after I got home, I was able to talk to Ab, who just listened to me complain. And I got to talk to my dad who said the only thing that I should be able to do on the first day on my own was find the bathroom. Haha I need to ask questions and not be afraid of anything like that or that I don't know what I'm doing right now (this statement is just as much a statement as it is a mantra I have been telling myself all night)

On the upside I am still super excited to be starting this new thing and I'm excited about the research I'll be doing. And I have all these awesome people in my head who know what they're talking about and ones who are completely outside the situation and can give me an objective opinion on things! So for a first day it was a true first day - fun and new but whoa! Ha pretty sure it will get better though.

Oh Goodness!

So I had Father's and Mother's day covered, and my mom's birthday for that matter, I got them both presents and made sure it was all taken care of. But I was kind of busy and completely preoccupied and just stopped with the present. I was thinking a lot about leaving though at the time so I was thinking about those people and all the things my parents have given me, temporally and otherwise. So here's a little tribute beginning with my mom. One thing that continously amazes me about my mom is how she brings people into her circle. If I tell her about my friends she remembers them and cares about them immediately. I also love that she gave that to me. We definitely have different ways of showing it but I love people and I love doing all that I can for them. Let me tell you, this is not bragging on my part. Ha I hardly do enough, but I do try really hard and I know that that comes from my mother. She also loves to learn about any different thing she can and she also gave that to me. I love every subject under the sun and when I was homeschooled together we saw many amazing different things together. We got to go anywhere that was interesting and even though I liked some things more than others it was still awesome. Another thing that I love about my mom is her talent for all things sewing. She didn't pass her patience for this on to me but I definitely respect it (especially since she is making me new curtains!). My mommacita.



Now my Papa Bear. Most people that know both of us would agree that I have my father's personality. And not just because we share the same career. Well share would be extreme. Technically I'm just following doing the same thing he does; engineering... electrical... mems. Yup I followed it all. But other than that I have the same sarcasm that he has and the same quiet observance. Most times we just like to listen, but get us started on a topic we like and we'll never shut up. Which is how we have conversations that start with me asking how to make his vegetable beef soup in the pressure cooker and end two hours later with a rousing discussion on not only how the pressure cooker works and the atmospheric pressure it works at but also how it could be better. Add Ben in and it's awesome. Those conversations usually end with Abbey asking why my mother asked the odds of anything in yahtzee and begging her to never do it again. We have fun though. I was spending the night at a friend's house recently and her dad said you probably took a lot of things apart as a little kid didn't you. I thought about that and said, well no, I had a lot of questions but I'd just ask my dad how they worked and then he'd tell me. If he couldn't tell me, then I took it apart. Early on I realized that I wanted to be like that, be able to answer any question posed to me. Haha I'm sure some people are annoyed by that though. Overall I am probably most like my papa, and I love it.



When I have a problem, I also ask my dad about it, and he tells me what to do, and how to handle it professionally. Then my mom tells me the other side of the story and that I should be more compassionate, or louder and more assertive as the case may be. It's a wonderful balance and I wouldn't trade it at all. I love my parents so much and miss them a ton. Luckily I have a webcam so I get to see them all the time but at the same time that makes me miss them even more. But like I said earlier missing them gives me an amazing opportunity to appreciate them.