school and cars, my life

i like school. i like going to class and i like taking notes and i like going to the library and i like learning new things. i like acing tests and i like getting papers back with a fat A at the top. and that doesn't make me a freak, it just means i like to learn. i like the feeling at the end of the semester when you look at a syllabus you could hardly understand at the beginning of the semester and suddenly know what everything means.

my car broke again. i say again because it's happened before. please enjoy this list of car breakages/problems in the last two years: a) months after i purchase my rav4, the transmission blew. b) one month after that i got a flat tire. c) five months after that the engine blew. as i was not about to spend seven grand to fix my car, i bought the corolla i drove in high school from my parents. d) three months after that, another flat tire. d) two months after that, the front bumper broke. e) and now, the car wouldn't start. we were worried it was the alternator. but bestfraaaand came over and fixed my car right up and now it has a new fresh battery and life is good. or at least it will be after i gas up.

other enjoyable parts of the last week have been The Spot at rock canyon, seeing david harrison smith in the parking lot, scott's razzmataz smoothie skills, art class last night, zupas at work (always a joy), heart to hearts with bee, accounting class (uhhh what?), finding out that people in america (minus minnesota) don't say "couple-three", and looking younger than the freshmen every single time i walk to bri's dorm.

today is

today is: the first day of classes.
my tummy hurts. i can't tell if it's because i'm, like, five years old and still get nervous for the first day of school, or if it's just my usual tummy ache. but really now. enough is enough!

today is: paige's last day in utah.
we've had a grand time, complete with crafts, shopping, drives, and long talks.

don't mind the tie-dye. i literally (literally) only wear it to bed.

today is: banana bread for breakfast.
can't wait until it's pumpkin bread season, and i wish i hadn't eaten all of the zucchini bread my mother brought me so quickly.

today is: not a day to wear new clothes.
i'm rocking a white v-neck and skinny jeans. cause i am an advocate of the "i'm-not-in-middle-school" look, which requires waiting until the middle of the first week to wear new clothes. which is a shame because a) mom and bri and i went on a shopping spree at gateway on saturday and it was the best. day.evahhhh, and b) brianna now lives in my town, which means my closet is basically twice as big. (DON'T BE MAD THAT I SAID THAT, BEE!!)

today is: the day aubrey probably comes home!
absolutely fantastic, i've missed that girl so hard over the last week while she's been working.

today is: a happy day.
i love being happy. and i woke up this morning with the sun streaming through my window, and even though it was 6:45, i was happy. maybe happy isn't the right word. maybe i'm just..content.

this is going to be one of those posts that is nothing and everything all at once.

it's been an interesting week, a week with a lot of changes and a lot of emotions. i think i expected our new apartment to change my life, and although i really love it, i'm still just the same amy, with the same challenges and the same weaknesses. that's been embarrassingly surprising. i've been feeling like i'm being pulled a lot of different directions, and i've had a hard time not stretching myself too thin. it's led to a lot of frustration and anger and impatience and unhappiness.

brianna moved into her dorm this week, so mom spent the night at my apartment on wednesday. we talked for three hours and it was exactly what i needed. moms are the absolute greatest, and they only get better when they stop being just a mom and start also being a friend. i think my mother is most incredible woman and i am so grateful that she's mine.

last night before chelschels came over, i pulled out my paints and brushes and my new easel and i set to work to the soundtrack of my painting music. my painting music depends on why i'm painting, but last night's was perfect. poison's every rose has its thorns, elton john's your song, journey's don't stop believing, pixie's here comes your man. perfection. with my brushes in a mason jar and my phone turned off, i felt happy. i felt right.

and i painted this, which i really like.

i think painting is the most wonderful thing, and i'm really excited for this semester's art & drawing class. it's going to be a challenge, because drawing is not my strong point, tracing is. but i'm looking forward to the challenge.

i wish i had something profound to end this post with, but i don't. i'm just okay. :)

this is what i like to do:

i like to walk michael's aunt's dog. she lives at his grandma's house. and her name is dakota. the dog, i mean, not his aunt. dakota's the best because she literally freaks out whenever i walk in the door. mostly it's because she loves going for walks and i'm her official walker. but it's precious. she starts hyperventilating and wiggling all over and it is wonderful.

of course the most wonderful part is just walking and thinking and calming down and being outside. i love walking dakota.

brianna does not love dakota. that's because one day, michael and aubrey and shawn and reed and i went for a hike.

and we brought dakota some water in a water bottle and a tupperware so she could drink the water. well, she didn't drink all the water. so we poured it back into the water bottle from the tupperware. aka, dakota's spitty dogness was in the water. fast forward a month. bri's in my bedroom. bri's thirsty. bri picks up the water bottle. bri drinks from the water bottle. and now brianna hates dakota. because dakota's germs are in. her. mouth.

gross.

also, i am at this moment watching yesterday's bachelor pad. could kasey please quit singing songs? not cool. "from this moment on, i can carry on, my love for you. i gave you a promise and put it on your finger, and all i know now is that you are my forever." really, kasey? really?

the day amy and aubrey get a new apartment

yesterday it was 97 degrees in provo. i celebrated by carrying box upon box of belongings up three flights of stairs in my new apartment. and oh what a joy it was.

i'm just kidding. it wasn't, really. but after a long day of working, aubrey and i are completely moved in. and now i would like to share the beauty of our new place, minus the basement room which i forgot to take a picture of, and the front door, which picture i accidentally wrecked on photobucket and then saved. so that's nice.

el room de living
(ps no tv. bummer? i'm going with yes. help? please?)


the kitchen with our welcome-to-our-new-home brownies on the stove. YES PLEASE.

two of the glorious wonderful flights of stairs.

and now welcome to the loft.


two of the three tiny doors. which lead to large storage areas. which i am basically treating as a second room.


aubs's bed.


our closet! please note the tiny door behind the clothes. behind that door lies storage area three, aka paige's bedroom.


my bed.

aaaaaand our personal favorite.

the bathroom. the sink, of course, is in our bedroom. (uhhh what?) shortest shower curtain rod in the world. also, cheapest shower curtain in the world, from honk's dollar store on freedom. the best way to describe it is tissue paper. we're hoping it lasts us until we get our butts to target for a real plastic liner...

so come visit us pronto. i mean that would be fun, right? right.

monday

one of the joys of provo is that apartment contracts end a week before new apartment contracts start, rendering people like me homeless. thus, i am staying at my aunt and uncle's house for a few days before i move into my new apartment (tomorrow!!!).

so i get off work yesterday after a lovely birthday lunch for brent and start driving to springville. (ps, i think i did a pretty darn good job at decorating the office.. particularly the shawn kemp poster. stephen, i'm sure, would disagree. oops.)

and then i realized i had no idea where to go.

luckily at this same time, i'm talking to michael. "i am completely clueless as to where i'm driving," i say. "turn right on 1300," he says in reply.

the boy has been there once in his life, a year and a half ago. impressive? i think yes.

maybe someday i'll be able to find my way around this world without using google maps every ten seconds. but i'm not counting on it.

i'm baaaccckkk

it's been beautiful this week and all i've wanted to do is write, but there have been too many thoughts tumbling around in my head. a hundred, a thousand, each one rising to the surface for no more than a brief mention before being washed away by the emergence of another thought.

we've been at the cabin, which is always a perfect week. i decided not to go on a facebook for a week, and it was surprisingly refreshing. there's something wonderful about not automatically scrolling through my pages of apps to find the facebook one, checking it, and then having to decide what to do with myself. it's equally wonderful to spend that wasted facebook time reading (latest book: quirk, hannah holmes), writing, painting, and snuggling with bri on the armchair that she would really rather have to herself.

(i think my father is cool as heck)

i welcomed myself back to the world of facebook by commenting on every single one of paige's profile pictures. so that was a nice surprise for her, i'd like to say.

happiness.

i've been having a little bit of a rough week. i've been stressed (about moving out, finals, assignments), i haven't been feeling well (my tummy, as always), i've been grumpy (pms, other factors), and i've just plain been unhappy. sometimes i get like that. sometimes everybody gets like that.

the good thing, though, is that it always ends. growing up, everybody liked me because i was (generally speaking) the cheerful, happy one. (when i say everybody, i mean my family, mostly. because in elementary school, the other kids don't usually care if you're cheerful and happy, cause you're just a kid. plus i was a chunk.) then my teenage years happened, and i became a little bit difficult, and even though i'm not difficult anymore (at least i like to think i'm not), being happy doesn't come quite so easily.

i'm a happy person. i like being happy. but more and more, i find myself feeling frustrated at the other drivers on the road and pissed off when i wake up to loud music at seven in the morning and mad when people aren't doing exactly what i expected them to do and irritated when i'm put on hold.

to counteract that, to remember how to be happy, this week i've tried to slow down. when i walk outside, i stop and feel the sun on my face. i went up to rock canyon on tuesday just to think and calm down and thank my heavenly father for the blessings he has given me. i've tried to put a smile on my face, even when i'm not feeling it. and i've tried to focus on the things i love--journaling, crafts, painting, reading and marking up philosophy books, organizing.

so i'm happy again. last night aubrey and i went to color me mine. we're making cereal bowls, but we didn't quite finish so we get to go back tomorrow. it was perfect. after we went home, we made muddy buddies (which gave us tummy aches.. hooray) and watched 500 days of summer (for the second time in two weeks).

life in our new townhouse is going to be wonderful, eating out of our cereal bowls, next to our blue walls and painting-covered walls. with aubrey. i can't think of anything better.

a few facts

1. i clean my room an average of twice a day.
2. not eating gluten isn't as hard slash bad as i thought it would be.
3. but my tummy still hurts, so me + gluten /= bad, i think. (that's supposed to be an equals sign with a slash through it, not a slash and then equals.)
4. speaking of equals signs, a tiny part of me is a tiny part excited to take my first math(ish) class(es) since ap calc. (accounting, statistics)
5. i actually read the aeneid yesterday, as opposed to sparknotesing it as i am prone to do. puhhhlease be proud.
6. making cookies with rice flour = utter fail. because a) it tastes weird, and b) baking soda is a no-no--hello gluten--and therefore so is cooking the cookies.
7. the one good part of that whole mess was that i only made 1/4 of a recipe.
8. aubski came home last night. hadn't seen that girl since tuesday, no joke. it was joyous.
9. cinnamon chex are the new love of my life.