My List to Better Myself

Its been a stressful month to say the least but I did manage to get my book read for August.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Its a short read (I read it in 3 hrs) but a funny one. The book is a compilation of short stories surrounding holidays and gives you a glimpse into the lives of other people, and it plays with almost every emotion possible. It made me anxious for the holiday season but at the same time I dread it. Lol. It reminded me a great deal of the movie "The Ten" its a comedy about ten different stories that have to do with the ten commandments. If you havnt seen it you're not missing much but its good for a nice chuckle here and there.

Read this after the holiday season and you will soon realize exactly how effed up the rest of the world is in comparison to your family gatherings. haha

I have still managed to accomplish 2 goals.

I know I am really early on this one but since Im supposed to be moving this month I figured Id better get a head start so I don't have to worry about it later in the month. So this month I read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides

I am a big fan of this book. Its very unique and Weird and I love it. I defintely recommend this book if you're into that sort of thing.

After I read the book I watched the movie.. I had seen the movie a long time ago but couldnt really remember a lot about it. I was extremely pleased with how true to the book the movie was until the end. The movie left out what I believe a crucial part of the ending causing the movie to lack the true emotion the author was looking for.

With my Amazon gift card that I got from Andrew for my birthday I bought a bunch of books and one of them was Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. It pissed me off because when I ordered it, it said that it was paperback. When I got it not only was it a hardback book but it is also from the Orange County Library... barcode and all... annoying. So I told Boggan if he wanted it he could have it.

Anyway.......

so I read that as my book for June. It was kinda hard to read and made me feel extremely dirty the entire time.. dirty as in rolling in the mud dirty. Chuck is very good at detailing his scenes and this entire book is set in a basement full of half naked men waiting for their chance to screw a porn star... ya, gross.

I haven't fully decided how I feel about the book.. Im not sure that I fully understand what happened in the end. I need to ponder it some more.. It definitely wasn't my favorite Palahniuk but I enjoyed it I guess...

Kevin took me on a picnic today which means I have another goal to cross of the list!

63. Go on a picnic with a real picnic basket and gingham table cloth

It was a spur of the moment kind of thing... we woke up this morning realized we didnt have anything planned and decided to spend the day together. We went to walmart and picked up the red checkered fabric for our blanket and I packed the picnic basket. The menu consisted of..

Pita bread sandwiches
Grapes
String Cheese
Chips
Lemonade
Pudding

After we ate we played another really intense game of chess.. except this time we didn't get to finish it.... after having been at the duck pond for almost two hours the freaking Geese posse decided they didn't want us there and they literally pecked at us and squacked at us until we packed up and left. Ridiculous!!! I hate Geese.

Seeing as how I am a recent college graduate and am unemployed I figured I needed to do something so I didnt feel so worthless so......... Ive been working on my goals and I have THREE more to cross off. I feels GOOD! lol.

First goal;

39. Learn to play chess

Ive been going to work with Kevin at the athletic department the last few weeks (so Im not at home alone with my thoughts). Ive also been getting a few hours in here and there... *Its a long story* anyway... We are archiving the football footage from previous years and that includes converting all of it to DVD so while each game plays and is recorded to the DVD burner we have a lot of down time.. Plenty of time for him to teach me chess!

We've been playing on yahoo games against each other for the past week and then we went and bought a chess set last night. I have a really good understanding of the game and I caught on surprisingly quick! Im very proud. We just finished playing an intense hour long game. It was awesome! I owe it all to my Kevie poo for being such a great teacher! ( Him and the fact that I just finished reading Through The Looking Glass and its one giant chess game. *shhh dont tell him)

Next Goal;

51. Find a way to organize my craft supplies

I am and EXTREMELY crafty and creative person so I had TONS of stuff strewn about here and there and didnt really know where it all was. I was inspired to start organizing it all because my friend Allie started a goal list and one of her goals is to start a scrapbook so I decided I would clean out my stuff and put together a box of scrapbooking stuff for her that I dont need anymore.

It worked out pretty well because she has a giant box of goodies waiting for her and I know where all my stuff is! I organized all of it into 3 different tubs. Mission Accomplished.

Final Goal;

87. Get healthier looking nails and cuticles

It has been 3 MONTHS since I last bit my nails! Nail biting is something I have taken part in since I was about 4 yrs old. I used to be embarassed by my fingers because I barely had any nails at all and my cuticles were disgusting. Now my nails are long and healthy and Ive started keeping them painted and clean. Very exciting. Ive been trying to grow out my nails off and on for the past 3 yrs and Ive finally done it and kept up with it. Yay!!!!

I actually DID read a book for the month of April... AND I blogged about it... WHEW!!!

I read Invisible Monsters! So Im good. lol.

First off I completely skipped my book for the month of April... I dont know how this happened.. I think maybe I was just a bit overwhelmed with graduation and I had myself convinced that I had read one...

So to remedy the situation I will be reading two books this month. Its gonna be tough but Im going to do it. Seriously I dont know how I managed to do this... lol.

anyway.... The goal I completed was...

59. Host a themed party

That party was my 22nd birthday party and it was a FIESTA!!!! The decorations were awesome and I even hand made tissue paper flowers. We had chips, guacamole, salsa, queso margaritas, mexican beer, and Mexican Tres Leches cake. They even sang happy birthday to me in Spanish. It was definitely a success!

96. Read the annotated version of Alice in Wonderland

Finished! This goal also doubles as my book for the month of May.

I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed reading this and I strongly encourage reading annotated version of your favorite books. I learned A LOT and now have a better understanding of Lewis Carroll and his writings. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have been my absolute favorite books since the first time I read them and even though I read them like twice a year this time was it was different. My appreciation for his literature has grown tremendously.

Included in this book was a chapter that was cut from the final version of Through the Looking Glass and the original pencil sketches done by John Tenniel. If you have never read these books DO IT! You wont be disappointed! If you are a fan of chess then read Through the Looking Glass for sure!

So I decided that if I was ever going to complete the goal of writing in a blog/journal for 60 consecutive days then I better make it separate from my goal blog so....

I now have 2 blogs. I created another one for my personal blog posts and hopefully I can get some stuff written. Please follow me their too www.jesnu2.blogspot.com

Im gonna try to come up with a new poll each week for you peeps to vote one. This week is: What should I do for my birthday? So go vote and tell me what you think!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another goal complete!

5. Graduate from College

I am now the recipient of a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice. Graduation was on May 16, 2009 at 10 AM.



This post is incredibly late but I've been kinda busy trying to get my life in order. lol. I am glad to say though, that I am done with school and very proud of myself, Kevin and the rest of our friends that have graduated too. I wish us all the best of luck in the future.

These past couple of days after graduation have been crazy and some what sad. Crazy because since graduation a lot has happened... Kevin sprained his ankle, Charlie and Drew moved away, the Rangers swept the Astros (We went to game 1 and I caught a Josh Hamilton BP ball!), and the Bearkat Baseball team WON the SLC tournament for the THIRD year in a row!!!!!!!!!!!! (And we were there to see it happen!!!) and sad because we are finally letting reality set in.

28. Be a part of Relay for Life

92. Buy a fabulous outfit and shoes for graduation

98. Own a "little black dress"

Done, Done and DONE!

For graduation I got the cutest dress that doubles as my "little black dress" and a cropped turquoise jacket to go with it. The jacket was an awesome find because the jewelery I am wearing is the same jewelery I wore for my high school graduation and it happens to be a turquoise stone necklace with matching earrings. Im very excited about it.

now on to Relay...

I did Relay last year and had a blast so I wanted to do it again this year. Like last time I hung out with the radio kids from 90.5 The Kat. It was A LOT of fun. Collectively the Sam Houston Relay for Life raised over $23,000 for Cancer research that's almost double of what was raised last year. HUGE accomplishment. Aside from the good deeds and Cancer awareness Relay allowed us to spend some time together and have a good time..

Here is what happened in a nutshell...
-Cartwheels, soccer, throwing the F-ball....
-Dirty Scrabble
-Sammy the Bearkat stripped off his pants and danced dirty including grinding on some chicks head...
- The tent blew over, knocking down all the equipment :-/
-Natalie went off on the douche that started throwing away our stuff *HILARIOUS!*
and
-We all managed to stay awake, have fun, and managed not to get belligerent *Excluding Jimmy* haha.

I wish I was going to be around to do it next year. If you haven't done it yet.. you're really missing out.

I FINALLY got my Sam Brown print back!! In case you forgot.. we had to leave it in Arlington to get framed and matted. Kevin's parents came to Huntsville for Easter and brought it to me. I LOVELOVELOVE IT!

I have successfully finished my book for April, and 2 weeks early might I add. I stuck with the Chuck Palahniuk streak and read: Invisible Monsters.

This was the first book in a really long time to make me tear up. I've always said a good book will play with your heart strings and this one definitely did, but not until the very end. As to be expected the book was weird and really really reeeeaaaallllyyyyy fucked up. I really did enjoy it though and a lot of it I saw coming but was still really surprised when I read it on the page. I would definitely recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars. It has moved up to my second favorite Palahniuk.

I have also completed a goal:

67. Give up something for lent and keep with it.

Well I gave up cheese, beer, and red meat and the only thing I managed to keep up with was the beer. I know that seems really lame but when you have friends that play beerpong 3 times a week it can get tough. I did it though and I am proud.

Another thing to talk about.... my number 47 has been crossed out in red. This is because I failed to keep up with it. Thats the price you pay when you make a goal to do something once a month. O'well... all it means is I get to donate $2 to charity. woooo.. I donate to charity all the time so no big deal.

Lata!

I have offically finished my book for the month of March.

Survivor by Chuck Pahlaniuk.

I have to say that it wasnt was I expected and Im not sure that it was a good thing. I kinda lost interest halfway through and didnt really care if I finished it or not. Well since it was one of my goals I didnt have a choice. lol. It turned out not to be so bad. I would probably recommend it.

In other news, I let Bogen borrow Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk and he sent me a txt saying that it was the best piece of literature he has ever read. lol. Im glad he liked it. It is by far my favorite Palahniuk book so far. I think for my next book Im going to read Invisible Monsters. I am still waiting for Snuff to be released in paperback. I hate hardcover books. I think they are pointless and waayy to expensive. Anywhoo... until next time.

Ok so it hasnt been that long but ya know.. I kinda ran out of things to say. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.

Saturday was pretty much amazing. We finally got together a dinner date with Mattie, Allie, KP, Beth AND Max and Lacey! They came over for spaghetti, we played cranium and we hung out until two in the morning. It really was a lot of fun. I missed everyone, especially Max. I finally got to get to know Lacey too. I like her A LOT and I think that she is perfect for my maxie poo. I hope we can keep in touch and make a point to see each other every once in awhile.

In other news:

My mom is for sure coming for Ring Ceremony. She will get here day of and then leave Sat morning. Its ok though, Im just glad she's coming. I am really excited about getting my ring too!

Its March and you know what that means: MARCH MADNESS! In celebration for the NCAA tournament I turned the wall in my office into a giant bracket. Check out pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2159019&id=34411055&l=9b42cb52d2

Thats pretty much it for now... I think.

Here is a piture of the most adorable baby in the world.

So 12th street sports bar is on the home page of foxcollegesports! I dont think its actually hit me yet that my boyfriend is on a national sports show. Its pretty awesome.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/9323132/Catch-

The pics are kinda hard to see... but..

Here is a pic of the link to the story on the home page.



This is a picture of the story and circled is Kevin's bio. Its pretty awesome.

Today is our 3 year anniversary. We didn't get to do anything because of school and work.

Our baseball team beat Rice University 8-6. That's pretty awesome considering Rice is ranked #8. Our defense tonight was pretty solid. Our pitching wasn't bad either. We have a good coach and I can see us winning the conference this year.

I had nachos for dinner and a venti latte.. bad choice. My stomach is killing me.

Tomorrow we have the second to last Men's bb game against Northwestern State...

I really dont have anything else to say... lol. This was a pointless post.

57. Own a print of my favorite Sam Brown drawing

DONE!

Kevin bought it for me for our 3 year anniversary!!!! Its not until tomorrow but we have class and work all day so we decided to exchange gifts tonight. I am soooo excited about it. We are going to take it to hobby lobby when we get back to Arlington and get it matted and framed. Then I am going to hang it in my office!

Kevin really liked his gift too! I bought him The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Its a three book box set and it weighs like 25 lbs. No joke. Its really nice, I'm very glad he liked it.

I CANNOT wait until spring break. We are going to stay with Kevin's parents and celebrate our anniversary. We plan to get sushi at Piranha Sushi and possibly to to a museum or two. We'll see.