Valentine's Day.

I've never personally been a fan of Valentine's Day but this year I actually had someone to spend it with so naturally, I decided to enjoy the holiday for the first time ;) I don't know if it was because I had a Valentine this year, but the cliché negative posts about the holiday really started to irritate me. People posting countless Facebook updates saying "Single Awareness Day!!!!" or "I have two valentines this year: Ben AND Jerry!!" SHUT UP. Valentine's Day is really just a holiday that card companies made up so they could make more money. Although it's fun to give and get gifts, it's completely commercialized and it shouldn't matter in the least if you're single or not. You're single every other day of the year, so it's just another normal day for you and if you really feel that bad about not having flowers or chocolate, go out and buy some for yourself! I'm really not that bitter but when people are annoying, I feel like calling them out on it. I made Mike a candy love letter, which you may have seen on Pinterest, but I got the idea a while ago when my mom received one from one of her coworkers. It's just a display board with a love letter on it but you substitute words for actual candy, and glue or tape the package onto the board. It's a really cute and unique idea so I went for it. I also got him a lady(love)bug pillow pet. Originally I got the bee and wrote "Bee Mine?" with red fabric paint but I accidentally set something on top of it while it was still drying and it got messed up so I went out and bought the ladybug instead. The pictures to the right are what he got me :))

Deciding What's Important

I've been wanting to lose weight for as long as I can remember, but the whole reason I've decided to actually start eating healthier and exercising started a few days ago when I noticed giant black circles under my eyes when I woke up one morning. I started googling ways to get rid of them, hoping some magic cream would come along and solve all my problems. I read that the reasons for under eye circles are: lack of sleep, poor diet, and dehydration. I was getting enough sleep, so that led me to the conclusion that I need to be eating healthier and drinking more water if I want the bags under my eyes to go away. I just felt so ugly when I looked in the mirror and I knew I had to change something if I wanted to look at myself and be happy again. Every day after that initial realization, I would see myself in reflections of windows or glass doors and hate how wide I looked from far away. When I look in my full-length mirror at home before I leave for school, I only see myself from about a foot away and never realize that it changes my perception of myself. When people see me from far away, they see the huge, wide angle of me, the one I don't see in the morning. But I've been looking at my reflection a lot more and noticing that I hate how big I look. Both of these things were what finally convinced me that I need to change something if I want to be happy with the way that I look.

However, eating healthier has been extremely hard for me. I've had numerous thoughts about just stopping at McDonald's or Taco Bell on the way home and pigging out to make myself feel better. Like I said in my last post, food has always been a comfort to me. It's the only thing I have when I'm sad. It's like the snowball effect; I get sad because I see myself in mirrors and absolutely hate the way I look, and then I get even sadder because I don't have food to cheer me up. I just have to keep asking myself, which is more important: the food or the perfect body?

More Change.

Something I'm trying to change about myself is my weight. I've struggled with this problem like more than half of America for my entire life. I used to be really self conscious about it in elementary school because I would get made fun of. I was always the biggest girl in the class and eventually, by my junior year of high school, I learned to deal with it. My junior year was the first year I ever had a boyfriend. It sounds sad, but having a boyfriend actually gave me confidence. It showed me that a boy actually liked the way I looked, even though I was fat. My self consciousness started going away, I was beginning to be more outgoing and I didn't let the way that I looked stop me from doing anything I wanted to do. I used to always tell myself that I don't deserve this body. I'm a good person, why do Ihave to get made fun of because of my weight? I played soccer for ten years before taking a year off and then starting up again this past fall. I've always enjoyed being active and exercising, as long as it doesn't involve running... But food was the thing I turned to when I felt like I didn't have anything else. It was, and still is, a comfort to me. Starting this month, I've been trying to cut down on unhealthy foods and start eating more fruits and vegetables. No more soda. No more processed chips or candy. Three years ago, I would've wanted to do this so a guy would like me. But now that I have the guy and the friends, I'm doing it for me.

Change.

I'M NOT A BLONDE ANYMORE! The last time I dyed my hair this dark was 8th grade so I was hesitant about doing it again for the sheer fact that I've changed a lot in 4 years. I stood in the hair color aisle at Walmart for a good 15 minutes trying to decide what color I wanted. I knew I wanted it to be dark, but I haven't had much luck with dye out of the box. It never seems to turn out how the box says it will. The same held true for this instance, but I'm surprisingly happy with the outcome.

A Craving For Music

I've always considered music one of my passions but recently, I've noticed that all I want to do is listen to it. These past couple of years I've gotten into going to shows and discovering new bands. It sounds cliché but my life has changed because of it. It has gotten to the point where whenever I meet someone new, the first question I ask them is what their favorite music is. I will admit that I judge the answers I receive. "Oh, I'm into everything really. Except country... ew." or "You know, I really just listen to the stuff they play on the radio." would be considered "incorrect" answers. I want an answer that will intrigue me. Someone who is really specific about their taste in music is intriguing. It tells me that they are just as passionate as I am. Even if our taste in music differs, I appreciate the specificity in hopes that they can introduce me to bands or artists they like. Now that I've gone off on a tangent, back to my craving for music. Liking your favorite bands or artists on Facebook or following them on Twitter is a great way to find out about upcoming tours and show dates for your city. I've noticed a ton of good tours popping up for winter and spring this year and I'm so excited. For example, A Day To Remember is coming back to Washington this Spring. The last time I saw them was March 31st of last year and it was one of the best nights of my life. However, ADTR is not headlining this time but it should still be awesome. The tickets are a little pricey, but it's worth it to see my favorite band again. We Came As Romans is also coming back to WA next month I believe. I really want to go, but I have to start thinking more about the money I spend. That's a totally different blog post, though. Another way I've been filling my craving for music recently is downloading music. With the new SOPA/PIPA bill on the front burner, people are freaking out about file sharing websites being the first ones to get taken down. My music downloader of choice is Mediafire and I know tons of other people use it so it'll probably one of the first to go. I'm looking up bands and downloading their music by album so I'll have all of it just in case. My boyfriend Mike has been introducing me to a lot of bands too which has helped me decide what to download. I've been listening to a lot of The Wonder Years, You Me At Six, Title Fight, Major League, and Of Mice & Men. I have my iTunes on shuffle constantly. Especially these last few days when I've been stuck in the house because of the snow.

Snowpocalypse & Ice Storm 2012

Starting this past weekend, Washington has been getting slammed with snow and ice storms. We had a day off of school for MLK Day and the only school we've had all week was the 4 or so hours on Tuesday because of a two-hour delay. Everyone anticipated no school on Wednesday because the news (like always) had winter weather advisories for basically all of Western Washington. I woke up Wednesday morning to about 4 inches of perfect, powdery snow. It was exciting for a few hours before I realized that I'd be stuck in the house all day.

By 4PM, the Puyallup School District had already canceled school for the next day due to the ice that would probably be covering the snow overnight. I woke up Thursday morning to tons of Facebook posts about people's power going out and trees falling in the middle of streets. Our precious snow storm had turned into an ice storm.



As you can see from the picture, my poor car that sits in the driveway 24/7 turned into a virtual popsicle. There were little icicles all over it and the doors and windows were even frozen shut. This didn't really affect me, though because I'm not allowed to drive in these weather conditions anyway. Not that I particularly want to. That's a recipe for disaster. The trees and bushes were also covered in icicles, making for really cool pictures.

Lip Piercing: Yay or Nay?

Just recently I've been craving a new piercing. For those of you that don't know, I currently have three lobe piercings in each ear and one cartilage piercing on my right ear. I've been going back and forth between different piercings and finally decided on the infamous lip. I was just experimenting one day when I took the ring from my cartilage piercing and put it on my lip (as shown in the picture) but found that I really liked the way it looked on me. Before, I always thought that I wouldn't be able to pull off a facial piercing, but I was proven wrong by myself! Here comes the tricky part; I knew my mom would never take me to get my lip pierced, claiming that I'll "never be able to get a job". So I had to get creative. A while ago this guy added me on facebook out of nowhere. I e-stalked him (as usual) and found that he was an amateur tattoo artist and piercer. Later on when I decided I wanted to get my lip pierced, I sent him a message and he said he would do it for $40. Meanwhile, I was talking to my boyfriend Mike who got his nose done by one of his friends. I sent him the picture above and he really liked it and said he could get the girl who pierced him to pierce me as well. She would do it for $10. The facebook guy never responded to me being interested, so I assumed he didn't want to rip me off anymore and set up a date to get my lip pierced by Mike's friend Natasha. We were supposed to get it done today, but the inches of snow that decided to fall last night and this morning are stopping us from making it happen today. If the snow melts by the time I get off work, I'll get it done but I heard it's only supposed to get worse.
Anyway, this is the story about my new piercing I'm hoping to get done as soon as possible, hope you enjoyed!!