Tattoos

I always think about things that I want to blog about when I'm not by my computer.  Then later when I sit down to write, I completely forget what I wanted to say.  I was just on Pinterest and pinned something about tattoos, so I've decided that until I can remember what else I was going to write about, I will write about tattoos.  

I have a strange fascination with tattoos.  Whenever I see someone with one, I immediately want to know the story behind it.  Even though I am all for tattoos, my belief is that they should be in moderation and that they should have a good reasoning behind them.  Whenever someone sees one of my two tattoos, I feel the need to go into the whole, long story behind each of them.  As much as I love the actual tattoo, the story behind it is just as important.

Without the meaning behind it, the anchor on my wrist is super cliche and unoriginal.  I will always associate the anchor with certain aspects of my past though.  It started off as a joke between Kaity and I because I would always wear Alyssa's anchor shirt and necklace.  Over time, the random text messages of anchor accessories or clothing items from both Kaity and Alaina lead me to associate the anchor with my childhood friends. The rose on my ankle with the Spanish word "Fuerza" (strength) is more original.  I love that Alyssa, my mom, and I all have some sort of rose tattoo on our ankles.  Since Rose is my middle name, my mom and cousin's middle name, and my great grandma's name, it definitely has significance in our family. 

Unfortunately, I am secretly very judgmental and particular when it comes to tattoos.
Tattoos on the back of the calf are just awkward, especially for guys.
I don't like infinity tattoos, or one of the 594 variations of them.
I don't like super cliche tattoos (except I'm a hypocrite because I have one).
I don't like when people have too many tattoos (except in some cases).
I don't understand why if people only have one or two tattoos they would get it in a location where they can never, ever see it (like on the back of their neck).  

Here are some wise words about tattoos. 

Love (continued)

Like vs. Love. For starters, the word love.  It seems a little silly that you can use this word to describe a food, a color, a sport, a family member, a friend... the list goes on.  I love ice cream.  I love to run.  I love my fish.  I also love my friends and I love my family. My love for ice cream is in no way the same league as my love for my family however.  My love for my fish isn't on the same level as my love for my friends.  To what extent do you have to like someone or something before you can say that you instead love them/it anyways?  

Sometimes I love my family so much that it hurts.  That sounds weird and cliche and dumb and impossible and I am almost tempted to delete that statement. But I'm not going to.  I can't think of a better way to say it.  For example, when Alyssa had a bad race last night and texted me saying how disappointed she was in herself, my heart truly ached for her.  Whenever her or my mom or my dad are sad or troubled, I want so, so bad to be able to ease there pain.  No, I want to take the pain away from them.  I want to somehow, magically, be able to suck away their suffering and distress and transfer it to myself.

Just how much I love and need both my sister and my parents is really confusing when I attempt to analyze it. Lately any little thing that they do for me means the world to me.  When my dad picks me up from school or the bus, after I haven't seen him for weeks or months, he always brings me sparkling water and a piece of fruit.  I have never asked him to, but he know that I'm addicted to sparkling water and that I always eat fruit as an afternoon snack.  It's little gestures like those that make me teary eyed and I don't even no why.  As a girl who has cried from probably only two movies in her entire life, it's a bit odd that these things have that type of effect on me.  So for future reference, bring me a pear and a bottle of sparkling water and I will love (like?) you forever. 

True Love?

I feel like I have become somewhat desensitized about the idea of romance and love. I am in no way saying that I don't want to someday fall in love and get married, because I do.  I am pretty sure that my parents think that the fact that I am single depresses me.  I don't know where they got this idea from.  To be honest, I am perfectly content with being 22 years old and having absolutely no love life. For the time being, I am content with focusing on school, my friends, my family, running, etc. 

Lately the idea of having a boyfriend doesn't even sound appealing to me.  Also, when I see couples, either in real life, on TV, or in a movie, I don't even envy their relationship or find myself wishing that I had one like theirs.  I am not sure why I am able to observe these couples in such an emotionless manner though. I used to see cute couples and think "awwww" and now I'm just sort of like "Eh." 

The other day I asked my mom about her good friend Eileen (Wow, how in the world do you spell that name?).  She is my mom's age but has never been married,  Instead, she is the favorite Aunt, who is always taking care of and doing things with her nieces and nephews.  I have met Eileen several times and she seems like such an awesome woman.  Hey, if it came down to that I could totally be the favorite aunt like she is.  

Like I said, I am not saying that I don't want to find the love of my life.  I am simply saying that NEEDING to find your soul mate and needing to find them in your 20's is overrated.  Everything happens for a reason.  Therefore, I am going to just going to continue to live my life and embrace whatever the future has in store for me.  

I wonder how doable it is to adopt a baby from Spain. 
Is doable a real word?
Because it is not marking it with a read line underneath. 

Cute Old Couples

I have a soft spot for cute old people.  There are definitely two extremes with seniors though.  On one hand there are the seniors that are cute and friendly.  Sadly however, there are also those older people who haven't aged so well and, I hate to say this, are more on the creepy side. Although I love cute old people in general, the best are cute old couples.  They make my heart melt.  Whenever I see one, I can't help but think about how much they must have been through together.  I picture them as young lovers, starting their own family, going through middle aged struggles together, seeing presidents, wars, and other major events come and go, starting a family, and then later watching their children start families of their own.

Marriage is such a crazy thing.  To commit yourself to spending the rest of your life with one person is HUGE.  Especially considering the fact that most people are settled down with their life partner by the time they reach 30.  Whoa, that means that you have two-thirds of your life still to go at that point.  The other day when I was working at Dairy Queen an adorable old couple came in.  The wife ordered an ice cream cone and her husband ordered a banana split.  They cheerfully took their ice cream and sat at one of the tables in the store.  Of course I watched them creepily for a bit.  

I wanted to know their story.  No, not the story of why they came to DQ to get ice cream, but their story that probably began way before I was even born.  The woman got up to leave but her husband insisted on eating every last bite of his banana split.  I watched him scoop out the melted ice cream that had accumulated in the cracks of the bowl as his wife hovered over him.  It was pretty funny.  I wonder where they were off to next...

I want a bunny.

My new fish Peli is doing swimingly well (hahaha a little fish humor for you). As you may know however, I LOVE bunnies. I really want one but since I am jobless during the school year, I don't really want the added expenses of taking care of a pet. Today on Facebook I saw the most adorable rabbit ever. His name is Gandhi.  He is at a pet shop called Premium Pet Supply in Bloomington, so back at ISU. Gandhi is four months old, a mini lop, and was abandoned at the store by his owner. Ahh I want him so bad. I'm never going to be able to convince my mom to get him though. Here he is:



As a was using google as my spell check earlier, I was typing in "spontaneous" and I got some entertaining results.  The first thing that came up was a website with a list of 100 spontaneous things to do. I'm not gonna lie, it is not the most exciting list of "spontaneous" things. Especially considering that the top five on the list are go for a walk, canoe, watch a film, go camping, and go fishing. Number 13 makes me laugh. It says "light a fire (in a fire place)." Good thing they specified where to light this fire.

The second webpage is a WikiHow titles "How to Become a Spontaneous Teenager." This page was enjoyable to read. One of my favorite parts is where it says:

"If you think about doing something fun, do it right then if possible! For example: It's 3:00 o'clock in the morning and you really want some ice cream! Sneak out and go to a Open 24 hours place like McDonalds and buy you some ice cream or sneak into your friends house and eat their ice cream! Even the littlest things can make you spontaneous! This is a life style. You can fit it into everything you do."

hahaha. Excellent advise.  I wish that I was brave enough to live a spontaneous lifestyle.  I wish that going on a random road trip sounded fun and not stressful and costly.  You know what, I've been having some pretty random good luck lately.  If I can remember to do so before or after work today, I am going to go and buy a lottery ticket (or two?).  As much as I hate this saying, YOLO right? For now, that is the extent of my spontaneity.

   

Right vs. Wrong

As I was showering an hour ago, I was pondering what I wanted to make my next blog entry about. I am seeing the Dalai Lama tomorrow in Madison (I can't wait!) so I starting thinking about religion. On the Dalai Lama's website, I found this great page where he talks about religious harmony. He says...

"I always say that every person on this earth has the freedom to practice or not practice religion. It is all right to do either. But once you accept religion, it is extremely important to be able to focus your mind on it and sincerely practice the teachings in your daily life. All of us can see that we tend to indulge in religious favouritism by saying, "I belong to this or that religion", rather than making effort to control our agitated minds. This misuse of religion, due to our disturbed minds, also sometimes creates problems."

I don't understand how people can be so set in their own religious beliefs that they proclaim that all other religions are wrong and that their's is the only "correct" one. At the same time, someone else who follows this "wrong" religion is claiming that their particular religion is the only right one. Here is my current thoughts in regards to religion: Religions are a belief system. Therefore, you can't judge if one religion is right and one is wrong. 

This leads me to another right vs. wrong debate that has been very prominent lately, gay marriage. Gay marriage is only legal in 11 out of the 50 U.S. states. How ridiculous is that?! Why in the world should two people who are in love not be allowed to marry. Here's the problem, people are weird. If there were no restrictions on marriage what so ever, the next thing you know you have someone marrying their cat and someone else marrying their lawn furniture There are so many weird religious practices. Just google search it and you'll see what I'm talking about. Here is an excellent example:

Kaparot is a traditional Jewish religious ritual that takes place around the time of the High Holidays. Classically, it is performed by grasping a live chicken by the shoulder blades and moving around one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor, preferably eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast. In modern times, Kapparos is performed in the traditional form mostly in Haredi communities. The ritual is preceded by the reading of Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24.

It's hard for me not to say that this is wrong, but I don't believe that I am in any position to judge this. I know that my views on these right vs. wrong debates are also connected to my personality too though. I am an extremely passive person. I am not one to form an extremely strong opinion about a particular matter and fight for it with all my might. My theory is that it's great to have your own standpoint, but you should ALWAYS listen to and take into consideration all of the other's that are out there too.

Completely irrelevant to this topic, I randomly decided to buy a Beta fish today. He is red. I am going to name him Peli which is short for Pelirrojo which is redhead en espanol.

Childhood.

I played a fun game this morning during my long run.  I asked myself, If I had to take the five senses and pick an example of each of them that best represented my childhood, which ones would I chose?  Here is what I came up with:

Smell-Maple sausages. They must be maple flavored though. Whenever I smell these, which isn't very often, I think back to Saturday and Sunday mornings when I was a kid.  My dad would make Alyssa and me maple sausages to go along with pancakes.  Whenever we had our friends sleepover, there would undoubtedly be a hot, steaming plate of sauces ready for us when we got up in the morning.   

Taste-Tombstone pizza.  Tombstone pizzas for me represent the countless days spent on the beach at our cottage during the summer.  My dad would make a Tombstone pizza and walk it down to the lake so that we could eat it shore side.  My family also usually ate a Tombstone pizza for dinner on Halloween.  It was a quick and easy dinner that didn't take away from our Trick-or-treating time or from my dad's handing out candy time.  

Sound-This one was easy.  The voice of the radio station WXRT DJ Terri Hemmer's voice along with the Beatles' songs that she plays during her Sunday morning special, "Breakfast with the Beatles."  Although her voice is the one that is particularly strong in my mind when I think back to my childhood, all of the DJ's voices on that radio station remind me of childhood,  since this station is always playing in my house.  

Touch-This one was a little more tricky to think of.  Do you remember those "touch and feel" kids books where the dog feels like a dog, the snake feels like a snake, etc?  My grandma had one of those books in her house.  I loved that book as a child.  I can still picture the page of the dog and remember how the little chestnut brown circle of its "fur" felt.  

Sight-When I reflected back on some of my strongest childhood memories, one thing became very clear that I honestly did not even realize before making this list.  Out of all the people in my life, my dad is the one that is most prominent in my childhood memories.  In my high school and my college memories, my mom is the dominant figure (along with Alyssa), but this is definitely not the case with my childhood.  One of the most comical daily routines of my childhood occurred in the mornings and went like this: My dad would wake up Alyssa and me and ask us what we wanted for breakfast.  He would then prepare our Poptart or bowl of Oreo O's or whatever other terribly unhealthy breakfast item we decided on that morning.  Then, as we sat at the breakfast table to eat, he would put our socks on for us.  This legit happened every single morning.  It felt so normal for him to do this back then, but it seems so comical now.  

I am so extremely lucky to have been raised in a home with such loving and caring parents.  I sometimes forget that not everyone's childhoods are so memorable and carefree as mine was.  I do know however, that although Furbys are back (why?), my children will not be getting one of those annoying creatures that are impossible to turn off.  

Yourself.

I can't think of a better way to word this, but have you ever truly stared yourself down?  What I mean by this is not just glancing at yourself in the mirror, but intently looking at yourself, dead on, eye to eye.  If you haven't, try it right now.  It's strange, but isn't doing so almost creepy?  I don't know about you, but when I do this, I get a weird feeling and an unexplainable confusion.  Okay so this is me, the me that controls every thought and action that I have.  However, most of my thoughts and actions are almost just mechanic.  I  simply go from day to day, living life, eating, sleeping, etc.  

The only time that I ever actually get to see myself is when there is a mirror around.  On the other hand, everyone else, especially those who I spend a lot of time with, are able to see me constantly.  It is way easier to associate people with how they look than with their personality.  Think about it.  If someone said "who's Kristen?" you would respond, "she's that skinny girl with the long brown hair." How weird would that be to respond "she's that girls who is pretty concerned about the environment and has always casually forced her roommates to keep a recycling bin and ALWAYS uses both sides of the paper when printing."  

I think it is the most terrible thing when someone says that they hate themselves.  You can't hate yourself.  Seriously though, if you are going to be on this earth for 80+ years, you have to love yourself.  You don't have to love EVERYTHING about yourself.  There is always going to be little things that need improving or changing. It sounds selfish, but it's the truth.  I think that so many people forget how important this is to do, me included.  So as my blog headline says love life, and life will love you right back.

I saved two lives today

except they were the lives of ants.  It was team effort between me Iolanda and during breakfast time.  I set them free into the wild of Normal Illinois.  Our ant situation got better for a few days, but for some reason became worse again.  I still usually just watch them casually crawl all over the kitchen though.  Today I caught one hanging out in my fruit bowl. ew.  I wonder if ants have thoughts.  I mean, if I saw a living creature 68 times my size hovering over me, I would be really scared.  

Without a doubt, breakfast time is one of my favorite times of the day.  The day is young and I feel awake and ready to take on anything.  I can sit at the island in our kitchen, read the paper or a magazine, drink a nice warm cup of coffee, and relax.  Today's breakfast reading material of choice was my health ed. roommate's book about drugs.  The coffee/tea section was particularly interesting to me.  One part talked about how some Muslims in the Middle East used to use coffee as part of their religious ceremonies.  They would drink massive amounts of coffee and stay up all night praying and chanting and such.    Yes, I am every so slightly addicted to coffee, but there are worse things in life.

  

Vagabond

My two new favorite reading materials are blogs and the Travel section of my Sunday Tribune.  Here's the thing... 1. The two blogs that I am always reading belong to two people that I barely know from high school.  Do I feel slightly like a creeper? Yes. But I'm okay with that.  One girl is a very talented writer and the other in in Europe and therefore living a much more fascinating and cultured life than I currently am.  2. As I established in my previous post, I am not sure how I feel about traveling the world, so why I am so obsessed with reading the travel section, I don't know.   

This Sunday the cover photo of the Travel section is a man with his backpack and hammock standing in a lush green jungle-like forest.  The article is titled "The Vagabonds." The subheading says "They leave everything behind for life on the road; what they find is priceless."  The man in the picture is Matthew Karsten.  When he was 29 he sold his car, bought a bicycle, and created an online website business that he could take anywhere. When he had $7,000 in savings, he sold everything that he owned that he couldn't fit in his backpack and flew to Central America with pretty much no plan.  

Am I the only one who is finding some creepy coincidences here?  Not only does Karsten sound almost identical to Kristen, but 29 is my lucky number.  I thought that I had $7,000 in my savings.  I just checked and it's actually $8,000 but still, pretty close.  As most people know, I have an obsession with my bikes (now I have two since I won another one) that I have at school.  

"This lifestyle allows me to live in the moment with a freedom I've never felt before" he said.  I checked out Karsten's adventure travel site, expertvagabond.com, and it's pretty awesome.  Is this some subliminal message telling me to get out of my damn comfort zone?  Although it is unlikely, It is not impossible. 

"Do one thing everyday that scared you"

Sometimes I really feel like I'm caught in between two worlds.  
I'm don't feel like a kid, but I definitely don't feel like an adult.
I'm don't feel like a Catholic, but my attempts at being a Buddhist have been a fail.  
I'm not simply a casual jogger, but I'm not really much of a competitive runner anymore.  
I'm not a real vegetarian because I still eat fish.
I don't stay up late and I don't sleep in.
I'm not a fan of action movies and I'm not a fan of predictable, cheesy romantic comedies.  
I stress out when I have too much too do, yet I don't know what to do with myself when I finally have down time.  
I say that I want to travel, but packing and getting out of my daily routine causes me stress and anxiety.  

I'm living in this little bubble of reality called college, where although I am "on my own," I am not an adult.  I am not paying rent or taxes or even for my groceries. 
I'm a Cath-uddist and a Pescatarian.  I'm simply a dedicated runner and college student who actually enjoys getting up early.  The list of movies that I think are truly great is a somewhat short one.  Deep down inside, I don't think that I actually want to travel.  I want to continue to wake up at the same time every morning, run, go to class, do homework, go to bed early, and then do it all over again the next day.  

I'm not sure where I am going with this post.  But I know that this quote is one that I really should try to utilize in my life.   

Verbing

I love how you can make just about any noun into a verb.  You can fork things with a fork and you can comb your hair with a comb.  Technology has made this "verbing" even more easy and fun.  For example, friending (making someone your Facebook friend), tweeting, and skying are all pretty legit verbs if you ask me.  The most common one that I can think  of is "googled," which I do on a daily basis.  I, however, enjoy using uncommon verb creations such as ellipticizing AKA using the elliptical (the spelling is debatable). I need to think of more fun ones and try to incorporate them into my everyday vocabulary.  

As I was googling earlier today, I stumbled across a web page titled "100 Funniest Words in English." Ohh this is going to be fun.  Gardyloo!- A warning shouted before throwing water from above.  I need to remember that one so I can use it in the future.  Another fun one is bumbershoot, which is an umbrella. Hah fartlek is on the list.  Also on the list is discombobulate (to confuse) gobbledygook (nonsense).  Love it.  

Verano is summer in Spanish.  I find it so entertaining that there is a legit verb that means "to spend the summer vacation," which is veranear. iQué gracioso! Summer is sooo close. One week and three finals away to be exact.  At the moment, I'm indifferent about summer.  Kaity and Alaina aren't even going to be home.  They are staying in Iowa to work.  At least I'll finally get a break from schoolwork.   

May Day

Happy May Day! I was curious as to exactly what "May Day" is, so of course I googled it.  According to Wikipedia it is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Today feels more like summer though, since it is 80 degrees out.  Uhg, I do not do well in the heat.  

I took two showers today.  Like always, I showered in the morning after my run.  This afternoon I felt so gross/sweaty/somewhat sick from the heat that I decided to take a nice, refreshing shower.  It was wonderful.  A few days ago, I decided that I should make a real effort to take extra time and appreciate the nice warm shower that I am able to take each and every day.  It's really crazy how much we take for granted, like having warm water to take a shower in or consistently having our stomachs satisfied with three meals a day.  

That is why it kills me when people complain about the smallest, most insignificant things.  Oh you have three research papers to write?  Well guess what, there are so many people out there who would absolutely love to be at a four year university getting a college degree. Instead of stressing about my final that are next week, I am going to do my best to embrace the studying.  Whatever happens, as long as I try my hardest there is nothing else that I can do.