Life with Madi

Oh, man.  It's numero 300 and I'm already thinking about starting a new blog.

I don't know what it is about me.  I've just been having so much trouble keeping this one alive and keeping myself interested in it.  I want something simpler, something cleaner...and i'm starting to hate my URL.  'She's a Calamity'?  I just don't know.

Well, someone talk me out of this.  The new one would still be a lifestyle blog, and focused more around the videos I do for my school's newspaper.  I just feel like this one has run its course- this one still feels like High School Madi and not College Kid Madi.  I feel like I'm starting another chapter.

I'm honestly surprised I kept this one going for so long- nearly four years.  If I do start a new one, I'd want beautiful photography, blogging traditions, and, of course, my videos to reign supreme.

Gimme some advice!

Posting this because during Christmastime, I listen to this song on repeat and it is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.  Now, it's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS and good luck to everyone who is participating in finals next week (like me!)

So tomorrow will be a day filled with snow tubing and fun galore, and that's because it's my older sister's 22nd birthday!!

So I'm incredibly proud of myself.  My freshman year, I hardly read at all for fun because I was taking a bunch of lit courses and had to read for that class.  Over the summer, I got lazy and read maybe one book a month.  Lame.  This semester, however, has been different.

I think it's the fact that I'm nannying now.  When I pick up the kids, I read until they're out of class.  While they're doing their homework, I read.  While Meg's at soccer practice, I read.

I'm inhaling books like crazy and IT FEELS GOOD.   It's the beginning of a good year, y'all.

What I've read: Summer to Now-

1.  The Host- Stephanie Meyer (Stefanie?  I don't know.)  So anyone who knows me knows that I hate Twilight with a burning, fiery passion just because I feel like Meyer's writing is akin to a 4th grader's (harsh but true).  However, my Swap.com profile kept telling me to read this and I did and it was surprisingly quite awesome.  Cheesy, but awesome.

2. Looking for Alaska- John Green  Tears.  Tears everywhere.  But JESUS CHRIST this man knows how to write a book.  John Green is my writing idol and I strive to be just like him one day.  Including the hilarious YouTube channel with his brother.  BY THE WAY, for those of you who have read this book and want to know the background on the pranks, watch this video of a young college-age Green talking about his boarding school experience:


3.  An Abundance of Katherines- John Green Yeah, I was having a Green phase during the summer.  But he's just fantastic, and this book is my favorite of his just because it's so hilarious and good and I love road trip novels, I do.

4. Saving June- Hannah Harrington  .....Meh.

5.  Fireworks over Toccoa- Jeffer Stepakoff Okay, so this book is a little predictable and your basic love story, but damn if it isn't delicious.  PLUS it's set in the '40s and the main guy is italian and it's in the South and it's just so lovely.

6. My Name is Memory- Ann Brashares This is another love story, and this one tackles reincarnation and past lives.  It's pretty interesting, and I've read books like this before and this was far better than the others.  That said, it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be and I had a hard time getting through it.

I read others, I'm sure, but I can't remember the rest and also I'm tired and it's late and I have to read this stupid book that I don't want to read for history.  Life is CRAZY.  Not really.  But I gotta go do that so that's what I'm gonna do.

I really have to stop blogging when I'm this tired.  My paragraphs are such gibberish.

Later,
Madi

Something I've struggled with a lot as a college student is the notion of going home for the weekend.  Social cues and media examples always show how teenagers are supposed to hate their parents and, once they fly the coop, never want to come home again.  This, I say, is ridiculous. 

I love my parents.  My sister is my best friend.  This is why last year, when I spent over three months at a time away from the people that I loved the most (I was in Colorado for school, my family in Texas- such is the life for any out-of-state student) it was a wake-up call for me, but a much needed one.  I learned how to live by myself and I made a few close friends and basically, just kept myself busy.  I got a job at the newspaper.  I got involved around campus.  I learned to love my school.

Now, though, it's so much different.  My parents are here, and the friends I choose to spend time with these days are few and far between (don't pity me- I'm not spending my nights curled up on my bed alone, crying myself to sleep out of loneliness.  I've got my people but just not as many as I would prefer).  My weekends are a little bare, so lately, I've been taking the 2 hour trip between FoCo and Parker and using the weekends to spend time with my family. 

I do this a lot, and one weekend, it really got to me.  I stayed in my apartment and when my mom urged me to come spend the day with her and the family just for a Sunday, I felt wrong.  I looked back on all the interactions I'd ever had with friends where they mentioned how terrible it was to constantly head home on the weekends, and what was 'normal' and 'right' and 'good'.  Needless to say, I got in my own head. 

This weekend, I may stay and I may go, the choice is kind of up in the air.  But the fact of the matter is- I realized that the only person who really cares how often I go home on the weekends or not is me.  I need to stop judging myself for things that, in the end, don't really matter at all.  So I want to spent time with my family.  Big whoop.  I may be lame and the most nontraditional college student in the world for that reason but honestly, I don't really care. 

This uncaring attitude of mine may not last for long and I may go back to my old ways of constantly self-judging, but the fact of the matter is is that right now I need to realize that nothing in today's society should be considered 'normal' or 'right'.  Everyone is different and no one has the exact same college experience.  Some people go home on the weekends, and some people party until their brain hurts. 

And you know what? I'm going to do both. 

No, this is not some new disease that I invented/am plagued with.  Actually, this just means that I'd really like a dog and I've been obsessed with the idea lately.

Now, don't fret- I realize that I'm most likely not prepared for single dog ownership yet and besides, my apartment complex doesn't allow dogs anyway.  However, the idea is super-enticing.  I've helped raise dogs my whole life, but I'd need to think about the economic toll a dog would take on me, along with other things.

BUT STILL,  I'd love someone to walk through campus every day and take to the Oval and take with me to my parent's house to run around in the backyard and take up to Horsetooth to hike with me and basically just love.  Maybe this means that I'm more obsessed with the idea of a dog than what it would take to actually care for one, but I know that if I ever did become a single dog owner (and I keep saying that because my family already has two dogs, but I hardly see 'em since I live two hours away) that I would be an incredible caring owner.  I would freaking SPOIL that dog.

Plus, overcrowding in shelters is a huge deal, and so many dogs are being put down every year.  If I did get a dog, I'd get a shelter pup- that's the way to go.  No pet shops!!!

Anyway, this is just an idea for now.  I've heard a lot of bad experiences of young dog ownership from a lot of people so I'm just going to keep the idea in my mind for a while.

P.S...I totally took a quiz online on what breed would best match my personality and this is what came up:

But it's leaving me!  All the leaves have fallen, the weather is turning from chilly to downright cold, and it's set to snow tomorrow.

NO FALL DON'T LEAVE ME MY INSTAGRAM WILL NO LONGER BE BEAUTIFUL

In other news, I saw Looper today and it was 50 shades of AMAZING.  If you don't know what my threshold for amazing is, think about it this way- it's right up there with The Dark Knight Rises.  And THAT'S serious.

I really thought Joseph Gordon Levitt's prosthetics were going to be distracting in the movie, but they actually weren't.  He was still his handsome self, as ever.  I'm always in such awe of actors like JGL- just years ago, he was this little indie movie actor and now he's an enormous star.  Plus he created and runs HitRecord.com, which is the coolest site ever.  I just love his passion for everything.



In other, OTHER news, I did the perfect pen bun today.  That's when you stick a pen in your hair.  Ah, the life of a writer.

I've recently become super obsessed with a show lately- and by obsessed, I mean I stay up until 1 or 2 A.M. watching episodes since I can't go to bed not knowing what's going to happen.  It's Hart of Dixie, starring Rachel Bilson, and I didn't really like it at first since the acting is not amazing and the storyline's a little cheesy...

But DAMN is it addicting!!!  Plus, there are a lot of secondary characters that I've been loving, most especially the 'villian': Lemon Breeland. I mostly just love her because she's like a southern, mean Charlotte Charles and while her accent is a little over the top, she is just one classy individual.

I am seeing a group of amazing, talented irish men....



Oh, boy.  They love their hipster dance teams.

I think it's the fact that this week has been cold and it snowed today, so I've been listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album in my car for a solid week now, and also I watched While You Were Sleeping (BEST) with Sandra Bullock in it with my folks and it totally made me jones for the holiday season.

Above is my favorite Christmas commercial of all time.  ALL TIME.  Of course, it's from Great Britain.

MERRY MERRY TIDINGS OF JOY AND SAINT NICHOLAS'S SMILE

Okay, I need to pump the brakes here.

BLOGGER STOP BLOCKING MY PHOTO UPLOADS My apologies for the lack of posts lately. Blogger is being a total douche, as well as the rest of the free world. In the meantime, click on 'my vlog' in the upper right hand corner- I've got a new one this week. Posts to come soon!!

So today, I was regaling a story about a friend of mine to the kids I babysit, and they wouldn't stop badgering me about why I wouldn't marry him, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to tell them that he only likes guys.

Maybe that was a bad decision.  The kids are 8 and 12, so I figured they've heard something about homosexuality before, especially in today's world when everything you see on TV has some sort of innuendo written in- but anyway, I mentioned it.

"Wait, only guys?" The boy I babysit was so confused.  So I told him, yes, only guys.  He's gay.
"That's so weird."  That was both of the kids' reactions, and they were so confused, in the worst possible way.  They were almost...disgusted.  I have to say, I was kind of disappointed.  Well, really disappointed.

The family these kids are a part of are extremely christian, and there's nothing wrong with that.  I definitely understand raising your children with a belief set in mind- that's your perogative.  It's not my place to tell you how you should raise your children.

But just a thought- whatever you believe in, whether gay marriage should be legal or not- shouldn't you raise your kids to accept others, no matter who they are, no matter what your belief system is?  These kids are going to grow up in a world where being gay is celebrated and something to be proud of no matter how old you are (as it should be), and they can't be unwilling to like someone or get to know someone just because they can't see past their sexuality.

I know things aren't going to change overnight with a blog post that probably no one reads, but I felt like it was important to get this out there.  ACCEPTANCE, PEOPLE.  Teach it, spread it, yada yada yada.

Btw, here's a fun video about a little boy meeting two husbands for the first time:

AND IT'S SO GORGEOUS

Yesterday I was revisiting all of my old high school music memories- We Are Scientists, Hard-FI...basically, Spotify was about to blow up with nostalgia.  And then I remembered this spectacular little snippet of music magicality (is that a word?  I don't care.  It is now) and watched it like four times. Instead of writing my essay for class tomorrow.

But God, it's SO GOOD.  It's pretty much Dirty Dancing mixed with Fight Club, and the lead singer is my kind of guy...sexy, bespectacled, and incredibly tall.

ENJOY

So, a lot of exciting things happened this weekend.  For one, my sister came down to visit me at my apartment and we had a total girls weekend- we watched the movie Tonight You're Mine which was AMAZING and I plan on buying with my next paycheck:



And then we went to get sushi at a place near my apartment called Suh Sushi.  But here's the thing- they refused to serve my sister a drink because they didn't know how to read her Texas license.  It was ridiculous!  We ended up going to a place called Jeju in Old Town instead, and sat outside and ate sushi and watched the sun go down.  Oh, and watched a girl pass out in front of the restaurant out of drunkenness.  It was lovely.

OH YEAH- and then there was that time this weekend when my parents got my NEW CAR.  Well, not completely new.  I've had some money saved for a while and my dad agreed to spend all day Saturday looking at cars from Craigslist for me as long as I sent him a list of my favorites.  The first one he looked at was grand- white, clean, but totally greased over by a creepy car dealer.  Then they looked at one right after that was being sold by this guy that was going into the military and eventually going to become a priest.  He was so nice and honest, and the car had been so well taken care of that my parents told me they couldn't pass it up.  PLUS it's red, which my mom insisted was more 'me'.

Which means goodbye to my precious Yunioshi:

This weekend was...a weekend.  My grandfather came over (the one that yelled at me on mother's day) and I had a good time attempting to be nice to him despite the fact that I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm the devil's spawn.  Families suck sometimes, am I right?

And then my sister, my mother and I all went to Estes Park yesterday to get some distance from Sir Shouts-a-lot and we had an amazing time (even though I was being kind of a poopy head at the beginning of the day since my sister stole my shoes...obviously, I am very passionate about footwear.  Haha.)

It was one of those weekends where you're handed a bad situation and you make the best of it, and it actually turns out really great.  This weekend was really great.  Pointless post over :)

Toodles,
Madi

Wow.  This week has been intense and stressful and emotionally exhausting!

First of all, there's the fact that Obama came to my university yesterday and I didn't get to see him because I had to work (whine whine whine, I know...but whether you like him or not, who wouldn't want to see the POTUS in person??)



And then there's my first foray into dating.  There's a guy that's into me but I really just want to be friends...and I've never had to deal with anything like this before.  There's gonna be some feelings hurt and I may lose this guy as a pal....UGH I'M SO BAD AT BOYS.

And, of course, the clincher- it's finally time to say goodbye to Yunioshi:

Between balancing a video blog for my school newspaper, moving into my new apartment, packing for said apartment, and moving my sister to Colorado, it's been awfully hard to vlog lately.

I will tell you, it's been quite an eventful few weeks and I guarantee that the upcoming weeks will be just as stressful.  But stressful in a good way, if that makes any sense at all.  Stressful busy, stressful accomplished, stressful independent.

The only bad part of these last few weeks has been my lovable junk-heap of a car.  It was my first car, a lovely old 1990 Volvo, and I've had it for the past 3 years, driving it between states and to school and with my windows down with music blaring and up and fogging with the cold.  It's been good to me.

That is, except for lately.  It's been smelling of gas every time I drive it and last week, when I was nearly in the middle of an intersection, it shut off without any sort of warning, leaving me stranded in a turn lane.  This scares me, if you can imagine, mostly because my dad looked it over and thought he fixed the problem but the uncertainty carries between us both.

So, we thought it was fine, for now.  Then today, I try to turn it on and I discover the battery is flat dead.  No lights were left on, nothing was plugged in where it shouldn't have been, nada.  A mystery.  And this is the second time it's died in two weeks.

I'm nervous because if I get a job that's not walking distance from my apartment this semester, I'm going to have a big need for a car.  Especially since my parents live two hours away from campus and I tend to like to drive down to visit them.

UGH.  This car.  So lovable but so unreliable.

And ready to move into my apartment tomorrow!  I am so excited, and I've been jangling my new keys in everyone's face lately:

Hey, remember this blog post when I talked about the Paula Deen tea kettle I've been lusting after for my new apartment?

WELLLL....

But here's what I've been up to:

#1- Trying to get a job, though the only plausible field I can think of that will hire me for a month and a half of work (until I head back to Fort Collins for school) is babysitting.  So I've been trying to babysit.

#2- Preparing for apartment life!  Me and the Mom went to Kohl's yesterday and got EVERYTHING for my bathroom...light blue and ivory is the color theme.  I think I want to escape to Cape Cod every time I...you know.

Speaking of apartment life...you guys know how much I love decorating.  I've got my very own space to play around with this time around, which means I'm taking this VERY seriously.  How seriously?  I'm making an inspo board with pictures and furniture and color swatches that I want to influence my space.   Here are some pictures that are going to inspire it, and you see if you can guess the theme:

Today my mom really wanted to get out of the house, and I know she's been wanting to go antique-ing, so we headed out to Centennial to a really swanky store called Old Glory.  It was amazing- and EXPENSIVE.  I wanted everything but alas, I am poor.

So, what to do next?  Well, head over to Goodwill, of course!  We immediately grabbed, like, five things as soon as we walked in the door, and everything was so cheap.  My mom found this for me:

Check it out, friends.

It's so good to be home, even though I had an amazing time in Destin.  Here are some pics from my super awesome vacay with my best friend.