Loving Texas right now

So this week has been great! Could not be happier... well snowboarding would make me happier, but still I am pretty excited about this week. Here is why:

1. I got a free piercing! Sounds sketchy I'm sure, but I promise it was a legit shop! I got my cartilage done and the cutest guy did the piercing. I might have to get my tattoo there just to see him again... haha

2. I think I know what my tattoo will be... not telling ya yet, but I promise to post photos when/if I get it done

3. The weather finally cooled down! Its been as low as 75* at one point this week. AMAZING!

4. I have been working out with a woman here for the past few weeks so I'm feeling great. I have finally figured out how to stay motivated btw! here is my advice:

• work out with an engaged woman. She will be more motivated to look good in a dress than you could possibly imagine
• work out with someone with a child because if she is paying for a baby sitter during the work out then she is gonna make it worth her time
• work out to build muscle for a sport or activity you like. For instance I started researching how to train for snowboarding and I feel way more exited about my work outs now than when it was about looking thinner.

5. Last but not least work has been great! I had a full house this week with 4 camps in my building. I loved it because I was busy, got to meet a lot of interesting people, and I got a lot of compliments on my customer service ;) This week at work has also included me giving tours of the residence hall and show room to orientation students. This has been really bizarre because everyone asks what my favorite thing about the school is or my best advice about the school, so I always end up explaining where I'm from. Its great though because in  the process I've met one vegetarian and two people from WA! (from WA as in lived there 5-10 years ago, but still!). Best part about work though is that I am working with a RC to set up and affiliate RHA for their campus! How legit is that!?! What an amazing resume bullet point. Where there was once no RHA there now will be one because of me :) boo-freaking-yah! 

I am happy to report that it has been great here in Texas! Today was the first time I fully realized with sadness I was going to have to leave this place (something I never felt when living in Cali, so you know I'm more a Texan girl at heart). That said I still miss everyone a ton and will be excited to see your smiling faces when I return! 

I have a few more photography jogging classes to show ya too! 

So these sky / cloud pictures where during the beginning of a storm. They started white and gray then became vibrant pink in the sunset! It was pretty amazing looking the pictures don't do justice. 

These last four photos I took while on my jog. Its the older less developed side of town and I just thought it was so interesting how run down everything was. A lot of places are closed or for sale. Pretty sad since this side of town is WAY cuter than the other side which is walmart and mcdonalds. 

Heat

I was warned again and again about how hot it would be when I got here. Then once I was here everyone and their mom warned me again. I think I prepared myself mentally for the heat during the day. This week it has been over 100* everyday and I think I have handled it quite well, however I did not prepare for the heat in the night...

Every night I look outside and its dark and  I think Ill just go outside for a walk or open a window to cool off. NO. bad idea. Its always hotter outside! For instance right now it is 12:30am and 87* outside. No one can warn you or prepare you for the unsettling discomfort of opening a door or window at night to get a breeze of hot air. It is the worst. It makes me sad. At least there is air conditioning inside though. I do miss a cool breeze, but I am sure the second I get back to WA I will miss the warm sunshine of Texas haha. Just cant win no matter where you go.

I checked in a 4H Roping team to my building today and boy are they a reminder of where I am! Never seen so many cowboy hats and belt buckles in my life.Plus they all smelt like a barn in my opinion. Also earlier this week I learned that everything in Texas really is bigger including bugs. Bees and Moths are the size of small birds! kinda scary...

Only New terminology in a while:
Cray-Cray = crazy

Anyways I hope to be checking things off my bucket list this week so I will keep you updated! Hopefully some more photos will be added in my next post too.

Bucket List

So guess what I did today?! I sent my boss my Texas Bucket List! :) He did ask me to so it isn't super awkward that I did this I promise. He, and many other people, keep asking me what I want to do while I am here, but not many of them have happened so far and I'm already 1/3 done with my time here so he asked me to write it all down and send it to him so he can make sure I get it all done. Great idea in my opinion! So here is what I sent him (I added some descriptions for you guys)

Texas Bucket list

• Visit Dublin (where Dr Pepper is made! Its a big deal here, everyone drinks Dublin Dr pepper!)
• Go to a rodeo
• Go line dancing (I think that is what it is called...)
• Float the river
• Eat BBQ (I have agreed to eat meat on one day if they take me to a super legit BBQ place)
• Shoot a gun
• Rangers game
• Sixth floor museum
• Visit Baylor
• Visit UT/Austin
• Eat breakfast at Whataburger (this is the coolest looking fast food place because it is ORANGE AND BLUE! :) but I cant eat anything there since its all burgers so I must go for breakfast one day)
• Try any important local foods or beers (they have a few unique brands such as Blue Bell Ice Cream that are really good. I haven't tried a lot of the ones that people talk about so I wrote it on the bucket list.)
• Go horseback riding (not as important sense I have done this in WA before, but it’d still be fun)

So yeah that is my list! I will let you know when I start crossing things off! 

Artistic Challenge numero uno

So my first week of art is over. The assignment was photography, which I thought would be a good place to start since its the one I appreciate most and it would be super easy. Just take photos right? wrong. I suck at this.

• First of all I have little to no creativity so I literally walked around one day for hours trying to become inspired. Really all it did was get me a little tanner.
• Second of all any time I did have an idea I had no idea of how to take the photo to capture what I wanted. I have no concept of lighting, space, angles, etc.
• And last off I have a really crappy camera. I actually used my phones camera for most photos because my real camera dies and needs new batteries every 5 minutes, not to mention it just isn't a great camera.

However not all is lost! In the process of trying to take good photos I found a new joy. One night I wanted to go on a walk so I took my phone just in case I saw something interesting. About 2 minutes in the walk turned into a run! Yay for me working out! haha. Well anyways, have any of you seen Yes Man where the girl teaches a jogging photography class? That is basically what I ended up doing. It made photography and running much more fun in my opinion! I had also ended up running along the railroad tracks so I saw a whole bunch of new stuff in the area I hadn't seen before (by new stuff I mean trailer parks and old barns). I would stop and snap a quick photo whenever something interesting came up. It ended up being a lot of fun, and if it wasn't for a lock out call I would have gone a lot further into town. Maybe I'll do it again this week ..

Here are the photos from the run. I am posting these more to show you Stephenville, not to show you how great my art is. so please don't be too critical :)

Old country looking mill. I don't know what they are used for, but you see them everywhere. Wheat probably...

Another old barn or mill. Just thought it looked cool.

Old railroad tracks. There are new ones about 10 feet from them.

Random abandoned and wrecked bathroom area. This like the others was taken near the rail road tracks so I think this used to be a stop for the train, but now it isn't... not sure though.

These are probably the most artistic/cool looking photos I took all week. I was just messing around at the rail road tracks trying to get a good photo.

Anyways my next challenge is even harder so I better get working on it. Oh and I am looking forward to this photo scavenger hunt Soul Sista! :)

I will never nap again

So today... actually this week has sucked, but not really for me more for everyone else. Today however the suckiness was my fault, at least for one girl. Here is how my Saturday has gone so far:

I woke up this morning at 9am to work out then did a little TV watching. It was a good morning, then around 12 I got a text from my supervisor asking if I was ready for check out today. Checkout? what checkout...? I was 99% sure I did not have a check out from my building for another week and so we argued back and forth about who was right until out of fear that she was I jumped into the shower, threw on some business casual clothes, and got my stuff together for checkout. Then about 30 minutes later she texts me 'oh we are jumping the gun that checkout isn't until next week!' I was beyond frustrated, but it has been a crazy week for Res Life here including a flooded res hall, a resident death, and a employee having a psychotic break and being taken away to a mental institution (not exaggerating). So I really just felt bad for my supervisor having so much on her mind and decided to just let it go and not be frustrated.

A few minutes later I receive a text from one of my peer Conference Directors asking if I wouldn't mind helping with her check out this afternoon. Sure why not! I mean check outs are very very easy, but yes I can be there to hold your hand again (I know I sound like a huge bitch right now, but you have no idea how many people it takes to do such an easy job here, it gets old). Basically the plan was to head over to her hall at 4pm. So I did some more tv watching and web surfing before I decided that since I worked out and woke up early today I deserve a nap! I was bored and tired so it seemed like the perfect solution! It is about 2:30, maybe 3:00pm at this point.

Well for those of you who don't know me I will let you know I am very good at sleeping, not very good at waking up. Apparently during my nap the peer CD that I agreed to help had texted me and asked me to bring over the check out forms she had left in our office. I didn't wake up until 3:55pm so I texted her back then saying 'yes! where are they? BTW running a little late be there in 10!'. she texted back 'nvm'. I thought she was annoyed at me, as she should be since I am always running about 5-10 minutes late, but I really didn't feel too bad since it would be a 2 second drive or 2 minute walk to get the forms herself, plus me being at this checkout as I said was not that necessary so I didn't feel like my tardiness would be to big of a hindrance on her. So I walk up to Traditions at about 4:08 and see there is a decent size line for check out. I jump in and help put keys away while she checks names off. In 10 minutes we are completely done! yay! success!

Well here is when I get an earful. Since I didn't text her back for 20 minutes about the forms she being overly stressed decided to run and get them herself. The camp was already outside waiting for checkout so she felt extra pressure to hurry and decided to take her car to be quicker. She was in such a hurry that she hit another car on her way out! Apparently her headlight and bumper on this car that she just finished paying off are totally fucked. and since she had to give her insurance info to the other driver, she was also late to the checkout by a few minutes. So she was extremely pissed, she did keep her composure during check out, but the second they left she went off about it. I apologized a bunch and feel awful even though she didn't directly blame me and it isn't exactly my fault, I still feel I could have not taken a nap and this never would have happened! I even offered to buy her dinner, but she said she already had plans.

So that is my day. I feel so bad. I have a check in I am helping with tomorrow and you best believe I will be napless! I will be 30 minutes early! Anyways I just wanted to share with all you guys since I don't want to be telling people here what I did, next thing you know napping will become a WA stereotype! So I am going to hide out in my room now and hope that I don't cause any more problems. :(

made it!

Guess what y'all?!?!
I've officially made it an entire month in Texas!! I have even come to appreciate the school, the people, and the state. I have learned to ignore the judgmental annoying ass people I work with and spend more time with the nice happy people instead! I also have found differences in our systems that I actually think are better here... didn't think that would happen. Don't worry though WSU reslife still beats em about 90% of the time :)

So far my only excursions out of Stephenville have been to fort worth, Gransbury, and a lake 25 miles out of town...oh plus a trip to the liquor store on the county line about 15 miles out of town lol. I so far have eaten many meals, watched many movies, traveled, and even played drinking games with the locals. I could just about walk around naked and look like I'm wearing a white dress since my arms, back, and legs have gotten much darker in the past month. I have finished 3 books and I'm in the middle of my fourth! I have also had two camps in my building already and finished a few projects for RL&L. oh and I have started saying y'all... it just seems more natural than 'you all' now.

I can't think of much more that I've accomplished in the last month... but this next month should be full of exciting adventures! I have plans for 4th of July and I have plans to visit Corree in Austin! :)

Miss you guys!

its friday friday friday!

So its Friday and I'm bored as can be so why not blog a bit?! Lol g a
So I am sitting at a table out side in the 90* weather waiting for cheer camps to check out of their rooms. Check out is from 11am-1pm and its almost 12pm and no ones checked out yet.... which means either its gonna get crzy busy here in a few or I'm gonna be sitting out here an extra half hour because they are so late at checking out!! Stupid cheer leaders...

But really its been a great week thus far. I have officially started camps, projects, one on ones, etc. The work pace is very different here.. a lot slower... but its also summer so that could explain it too. I have decided to take a road trip at the end of the summer so I've spent a lot of my free time day dreaming and researching about that.

Well not much happening outside that.... I guess I should get back to work.

Also more texan terminology...
I'm fixin to ____ = I'm trying to ____ (this word fixin is used a lot and I don't always understand what word its replacing)
That's just hateful/he is hateful = that's just mean/he is mean
I feel like I'm lookin at jesus = its sunny outside..? (This ones weird)

And no one says dude here but me :(