first world problem

   Today was starting out 100% normal (save for the fact that I randomly woke up literally two seconds before my alarm went off. Not normal.) So I guess it was 99.2% normal.

   Grabbed my “usual” of yogurt and granola, meandered into my room to watch the update on Hurricane Isaac, and then this sound emanated from my bathroom:

Glllluuuuuuuggluggluggluggluuuuuuguuuuglgluglglug.

   Um?

   So I peeked in there out of sheer curiosity to discover that water was filling up my sinks at an extremely rapid pace via the drains.

   I frantically ran into my roommate’s room and said something along the lines of “help-something-is-flooding-and-I-don’t-know-what-to-do-come-help-sinks-ah!” with a mouthful of yogurt/granola mixture nonetheless.

   So we raced to my bathroom and realized both my sinks were going to overflow soon if we didn’t do something to stop it.

   I grabbed the nearest item that could hold liquid and began scooping water out of my left sink with a plastic cup into a blue day cooler. She grabbed a cup and a giant mixing bowl and got to work on the right sink.

   Pretty quickly we also realized that the water was warm. And bubbly. And smelled like Tresemme products. And that our upstairs neighbor was in the midst of a shower.

   So there we were at about 8:00am, simultaneously scooping our neighbor’s shower water out of my two sinks with plastic cups for twelve to fifteen minutes and taking turns sprinting to the backyard to dump it on the lawn because what they hey do you do with used shower water?!

   Now I sit here as a RotoRooter man uses some crazy pipe-cleaning machine on my sinks to pull out massive amounts of hair and…such. I don’t even let my hair go down the drain! Why is this happening?!

   Oh and did I mention that it also flooded the cupboards underneath?

   It also flooded the cupboards underneath. Yay for wet feminine products!

   But, as with most things, I have tried to find the silver lining. Thank goodness I was home and could stop it from becoming a very wet, soapy, nasty disaster.

   Also, I’m very glad she didn’t need to, ahem, use the toilet.

sayonara

   Congratulations, summer! You officially win the Shortest Season Ever award! Leaves are falling, it fell to 42 degrees last night and I ordered my first hot spiced chai. Hello autumn!

   I actually really love fall. I especially love the colors – I even have a leaf collection from around this time last year!

See?

   I love the crisp, clear air and the earthy smells of…well…decomposing leaves. I love pulling out my warm jackets and bringing a thermos of coffee to school. I love cuddling up in a blanket in front of my fireplace. So much seasonly love! But I’m still sad to see summer go. Come back soon…?

   Today was a super awesome way to end Summer 2012 however. Woke up almost too late to make it to the 9:00am church service but made it out the door with just enough time to grab the usual “iced coffees with a little bit of cream” from City Brew with my crew (see what I did there?).

   After church, we three amigos went to breakfast at our favorite joint “The Western”. Brief descriptive picture to follow:

For those of you that are thinking "what in the world are those lumpy, brown flying things?" or "what's with the letter U...?" it's simply my attempt at drawing mounted antlers and horse shoes. Be jealous of my skillz.

   I ate my meal in approximately eight minutes. Nothin’ but class.

   Garrett and I convinced our fellow Sunday comrade to join us in a casual hike to celebrate the last day of summer vacay. She agreed so we headed up the canyon to trek up an easy but beautiful path to Palisade Falls. Little did she know it was all just part of her boyfriend’s EXTREMELY elaborate proposal plan! It worked flawlessly and I felt so honored to be a part of it. I’d give all the details but it’s not my story to tell ;)

   The day ended with some relaxing, room cleaning and first day of school prep. These next sixteen/seventeen/eighteen…? weeks are going to be a major test for me. I plan to keep at least 73% of my sanity at all time for the sake of my roommate and fiancé. But if I don’t then, well, I guess you’ll know because my posts probably won’t make any sense.

   That being said, bring it on senior year!

Thursday Thoughts III

Linking up with Sar again for another weekly dose of:
Thursday Thoughts!

   Last Thursday before school starts up again – I can’t believe it. I was just skimming through my day planner from last semester and the last thing I wrote was “let the 113 days of summer begin!” It blows. my. mind. that those 113 days have already come and gone. Why doesn’t time fly this fast when it’s cold out?!

ONE

   Spent a lovely almost-week at home! Talk about going by fast. It felt like I was there for maybe two days. But I got to spend time with my college bound sibling, good high school friends, parents and my favorite pup in the whole world so it was well worth the trip.

Ah, friends...

Ah, sibling...

TWO

   Got my air conditioning unit fixed in the ol’ Santa Fe! Thanks Dad! The drive home was horrifyingly hot and I drove part of the way with my shirt tucked up (like when you were little and pretended you were some sexy islander in a bikini) and my hair pulled up off my face. The way back to Bozeman was much less of a trial – I simply pushed the AC button and voila! It’s the little things.

THREE

   Spent a good two hours on Tuesday trying on weeeeddddiiiinnnnggg gggooowwwnnnssss! I couldn’t believe I was actually getting to model those beautiful dresses for my friends and family. Even when I saw myself in the giant cluster of mirrors as I walked into the room, I had a hard time accepting the fact! My mom brought champagne with blueberries for a toast and 2/3 of my bridal line were there to help weigh in. It was a ton of fun! I didn’t find anything that majorly tickled my fancy but luckily there is plenty of time...kind of.

FOUR

   A NEW BUNNY FRIEND!!! Saw this lil’ guy/girl yesterday right after I got back from my trip home. I opened up the drapes in the living room and could NOT believe my eyes! I think this is the deceased's sibling - I guess I’m just meant to have a furry companion. 

FIVE

   Kind of had a sad spell last night because once I leave home I never know when I’ll get to go back again. This year is so different from my last three years in college because nothing is predictable. Garrett graduates in December, my sister is starting her first year of college in a different town, I don’t know what I’m doing with my nearly completed degree…blah! My biggest fear is that from this point on, everything I’ve ever known will be completely different.

SIX

   I have a couple busy days ahead of me but am hoping I can keep Sunday completely free to savor and celebrate my last day of summer vacation before I dive face first into another crazy and hectic fall semester. Luckily this semester tends to go by quicker than the spring!

SEVEN

   Oh, and before I forget! A couple pics from the engagement photo session with my sister last Saturday! She is awesome.

Wishing you all a great rest of your week and an adventurous weekend!

picture this.

   Say Yes to the Dress has ruined society.

   

   Picture this: It’s the day you have set an appointment (or had your mom do it) to try on wedding dresses for the first time in your life, excluding that one time you awkwardly modeled wedding gowns in 8^th grade for a bridal fair because you live in a small town and happened to be the height of the average woman of marrying age.

   Now picture this: You walk into said bridal shop and the first thing you see is a girl/woman paying for her wedding dress with a too-small tank top on that provides a lovely view of her dual tramp stamps reading “Brian” on the right and “Damien” on the left.  My sister’s an optimist and said “well maybe they’re her kid’s names…?”

   Moving on to this: You gleefully make your way into the gown section and begin perusing the lacey and shimmery numbers only to discover they all cost about 30x what you set your internal price limit at and the more “perfect” they are, the more they cost and the more they cost, the more you consider going to JoAnn’s Fabric in the mall and buying a few yards of off-white synthetic cotton and a Do It Yourself bridal pattern.

   So now: Here I am in the back dressing room facing twelve of the most beautiful wedding gowns I’ve ever seen, dressed for the first time in a corset and nude-colored slip, while being questioned about my wedding colors and what style of shoe I’m wearing.

HALT!

   All I can think of is Is this really happening? Am I really about to try on wedding gowns that cost more than what my car Blue Books at? Why didn’t I wear seamless underwear? Am I seriously trying on wedding dresses?!

   Tried on wedding dresses I did. All twelve of those puppies were at one point slipped over my head, laced/buttoned/zipped up, twirled in, and admired. I loved all of them.

   Wait a second. Aren’t I supposed to be tearing up at The Perfect Dress? Shouldn’t I get butterflies and feel like everything that could possibly go right in the world has just occurred and life is grand? That’s what Randy on Say Yes to the Dress said! WHY ISN’T THIS HAPPENING TO ME?

   Could it be because little-old-naïve-me thought I could find my Dream Dress with a $300 price tag from a bridal boutique? Could it be that I’ve ruined myself and all my reaction expectations due to excessive TLC watching? Could Kleinfeld be lying?

   These thoughts running and running through my head during the 42 minute drive back to our small town after Wedding Dress Shopping Day. No butterflies, no fireworks, no tears. A little bit of nervousness and a smidgen of self-pity for not being born into money but that was about it for emotion.

   Until we got home and my dad asked to see my memory card from my camera I remembered to bring along today. As we started clicking through the pictures my sister snapped of me, I noticed something.

   I was only smiling in one dress.

   Not the “hey look at me! I’m taking a picture of you!” smile. Not even the I’m relatively conscious of the fact that a camera is pointed in my direction so I am going to smile-smile. It was the I feel extremely beautiful and confident in this wedding gown and I never want to take it off smile.

   No, I didn’t buy it. It was out of my price range for one and not 100% what I picture for myself, but the process helped more than I could have hoped.

   Next time someone asks me what I imagine for my special day, I’m going to remember that look of thrill and glee on my face in that badly lit, slightly out-of-focus picture taken today and say “I’m not sure yet, but I’ll find it”.

Thursday Thoughts II

Linking up with Sar from [life of love] again for my new weekly feature:  

Thursday Thoughts!

ONE

   So much has happened within the last week! Most importantly, I have a new job. Well actually I have two new jobs. I took an opportunity to jump departments at my current workplace and am now part of the accounting team! I’ll probably just be the accounts payable clerk but at least it’s something. I also started my part time job at After 5 and Weddings as their bookkeeper! Super excited. It’s going to be hard juggling two jobs, school, homework, wedding planning, friends, club activities, exercise, and God knows what else but I can do it.

TWO

   It’s that time of year where I realize I didn’t make nearly as much money this summer as I had anticipated. Therefore dishing out almost $400 for three textbooks this week was quite the blow to my (already moth-inhabited) wallet. At least I only have to do this three more times…ugh. I see the light kind of.

THREE

   I had to say goodbye to a dear friend this week.

FOUR

   I get to go home today and I can hardly contain my excitement. I get to see all my lady friends tomorrow night, attend a wedding on Saturday, have a Sister Day, get my engagement pictures done (!!!) and try on wedding dresses (!!!)! So much to be excited about!

FIVE

   Got my toes all shellac-ed up because I am lucky enough to have friends who keep up on all the latest nail trends. It’s such a weird process! If you haven’t had the chance to get that type of manicure/pedicure you should totally do it. So worth it because it lasts so much longer!

SIX

   I’m officially a senior in college now…so crazy. I searched myself on the student directory yesterday and literally squealed when I saw my new “title”. Yay for almost being out of school!

SEVEN

   Just a quick thought for my best friend who continues to surprise me every day. I love you.