Wichita Mountains!

Last Saturday Jackson and I drove three hours north to the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma (which we've pretty much decided is the only place worth going in Oklahoma...)

We wasted no time and soon discovered that our camp site was the feeding grounds of choice to a mother deer and her baby!

(pictures coming soon.........)

Then we saw buffalo and more buffalo:

Drove to the top of the tallest and oldest of the mountains, Mt. Scott, to look out over all of Oklahoma:

And, after locking my keys in my car and learning that one of the jobs of a police officer is breaking into vehicles for absent-minded people like myself, we climbed (literally climbed) the baby mountain Little Baldy right near our campsite:

The next day, we woke up to a flock of wild turkeys harassing our deer friends. Unfortunately, they were gone before we could get pictures. But then we hiked up the ~600ft Elk Mountain, a long and arduous 4-mile round-trip journey of impressive views and massive rocks:

Finally, we packed up and left as quickly as we could, sore and dirty and sunburned and tired. Three hours later, after driving twenty miles in the wrong direction out of Wichita Falls and missing the turn off for Denton (seriously), we made it home and I'm pretty sure I died for twelve hours immediately afterward. 

It was fun and exciting and adventurous and pretty and buffalo-tastic, but Jesus, I am done with camping for the next several years if I can help it. Twice in one school year is more than enough. Bleh. 

Happy 2013!

My family and I hailed the New Year at our lakehouse on Lake Fork. It was wet and cold, but we celebrated the occasion with confetti fights...

Sparklers and fireworks...

And potato canons...

(video proof:)

I have spent the day or two since hangin' with my boyfriend

And shopping with the money my wonderful grandparents gave me for Christmas!

 I feel very proud of myself, too, because with 150 bucks I bought five dresses, a cardigan, three pairs of tights, and some red heels, and I have money left over to go to the movies tomorrow. Yay for Plato's Closet and Ross! I despise shopping, but clothes make me happy. :3

Oh, and I also (finally) got my car washed and took this trippy picture of soap. I'm pretty sure this is what space looks like. 

Yeah, basically.

Lastly, all of you should watch this video of thirteen interesting (but totally unrelated) tidbits in honor of 2013. 

PS - I have the book mentioned here (Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich) and it is definitely worth reading if anyone's interested. :)

All the Stars!

So the past few weeks have been exhausting and exciting. It's been super busy and crazy and aaaaaaah I can't wait for Thanksgiving break.

Two weekends ago I went camping at Ray Roberts with these awesome people.

 

Andrew, Jena, and I struggling to tame the tent. Ugh. 

All of our outdoor-culinary adventures. We got quite gourmet! Garlic-spinach chicken sausage with toasted asiago bagel, anyone?

We also had a beautiful laying-in-the-middle-of-the-street stargazing party, followed by a midnight glowstick rave and ridiculously aggressive card games. Fun times. 

I also took senior portraits for my friend Amanda. This is the first time I have ever been paid to take pictures of someone, and I admit I was quite nervous. I think they turned out well though! (Despite the enormous pain and frustration that inevitably plagues me during projects like this that actually matter. UGH TECHNOLOGY UGH.)

And finally, this last Friday there was an Honors exodus to Inwood Theatre in Dallas at midnight, where our collective favorite godawful movie, The Room, was playing--WITH TOMMY WISEAU AND GREG SESTERO PRESENT!

This is me standing between Greg Sestero (left) and Tommy FREAKING Wiseay (right. Obviously.). 

O-M-EFFING-G. There is only one word to describe how I felt, and that is starstruck. I'm not sure if Tommy is technically a celebrity, but in Honors he's like the second most important person next to Dumbledore or maybe The Doctor. Meeting him after watching his movie dozens of times was surreal to say the least. And honestly, having experienced the nearly incoherent way he speaks broken English, I'm impressed that his movie made any sense at all!

And he signed my spoon!

My favorite quote of the night had to be this:

TOMMY: People say my movie is "bad acting". But you know what we say about "bad acting"? Greg, tell them--what do we say is "bad acting"?

GREG: Uh... I think you people pretty well know. 

Ha! Poor Sestero. So much shame. But a top contender for best quote was when Tommy called up a girl to sing Happy Birthday to her, then started and completely made up the lyrics. It went something like this:

TOMMY: Happy Bir-day to you, Happy Bir-day to you, Yay, you have Happy Bir-day, Yayayayayay, that's it! Now get off the stage. 

Ooooooh my. It was an experience. A spoon-throwing, screen-yelling experience. But oh my god it was possibly the most awesome night of my college life. My life is a joke. 

Anyway, then today I went to see these fantastic boys perform at the Country Club:

Andrew Jackson!

And in two days I'm going to Houston for Thanksgiving. All I have to do between now and then is finish my obnoxious English essay, which I have written except for the last sentence, which currently reads: "AND THEN SOMETHING ELSE GOES HERE. BLAH." Probably not academic enough for my teacher. 

Ah yes. Good times, good times. 

Da College Life. Aw Yeah.

I definitely just made a giant un-muffin in the toaster oven I bought for twenty bucks yesterday. Somehow I think this means I'm a college kid.

Other things that have defined the first week of my college life:

Watching the Republican National Convention with a bunch of cool people, including the most awesome Scholar-Family-in-Residence ever. Because being informed is our responsibility! Also, Mister Mitt McRomneyface makes me laugh. Sometimes. 

Beautiful full moons over the nighttime campus.

Homework. Blugh. 

A cute little concert on the Library Mall. 

And a big concert on the fair grounds!

A somewhat crazy concert. 

With Reggie Watts. 

And The Black Lips. 

And VIP passes. 

And giant water slides. 

Oh, and flamingos of course. 

Because what is life without some flamingos along the way?

Upcycled Papier Mache Box!

This is my beautiful new box. 

I made it into art. 

A few days ago it was just a fancy cardboard box that was too nice to throw away. 

I knew it had to have some purpose. 

So I started cutting out a bunch of petals from old magazines. 

I ended up with a lot of petals.

Then I painted the box orange, just for kicks, and started papier-mache-ing the petals on to look like a giant, colorful flower.

And I just kept on papier-mache-ing!

And papier-mache-ing, and papier-mache-ing...

I even covered the bottom with newspaper!

And the inside with pretty paper.

So now I have this beautiful box. 

I think I will use it to hold my letters and nice cards and stuff, because really, what is one supposed to do with letters? But I don't want to get rid of them because they make me happy. Thus, my beautiful box. WHOO!