In Which Kaylee Describes Her Awesome Week

Soooo, some pretty cool stuff happened to me the past two weeks. First is that I purchased a plane ticket for South Padre. I haven't been on a plane since I was in the forth grade, so this is going to be quite an experience for me. Luckily the flight is only about an hour and a half. I'm very excited to see my cousin soon. Though I only get a few days with her, it's going to be awesome. And hopefully, by next summer, I can make my way out there again. Then we can go out to bars, and have a real Padre experience.

Second, I got my writing mojo back. I'm actually writing again -sparsely- and it feels so good. I get excited to write these posts, and I write them early because I want to get it all out. This feeling, and energy for writing is so good. I hope it decides to stay for a while.

Third, I read two books in about a week and a half! I'd been nibbling my way through Remembrance (by Meg Cabot, http://www.megcabot.com/) and was under halfway through, when all of a sudden on Monday I started chomping at it. By Tuesday I was over halfway done, and then at 5 AM, early on Wednesday morning, I finished the book, tears forming in my eyes. By lunch that day, I was nearly halfway through another book. I didn't get much time for reading on Thursday or Friday, but between the hours of 12 AM and 3 AM on Saturday morning, I finished Howl's Moving Castle (by Diana Wynne Jones, it's also a Studio Ghibli anime). It was my second time reading this book, and god did I pick up on things a lot more clearly. I'd love to do a thorough analysis and critic of the book. I might start it later this week and post it on the blog.

Fourth, the most important.... Two of my famous people actually noticed me. I tweeted out after I finished Remembrance about how great it was, and Meg Cabot, the real one, actually liked my tweet. Not only that, but she also followed me! (I'm sure it's publicists or whatever, but let me DREAM.)

And then early this morning (it's currently 3:30 AM), I took a picture of a poster my friends found and tweeted out to Toby Turner (better known as Tobuscus on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/user/Tobuscus) and he liked it! I know it was actually him and not a publicist because he's not famous enough yet to need someone to monitor his social media. And that makes it even cooler!

While those things may seem small, they make me incredibly happy. It was such an experience to realize that people you consider to be rock stars and celebrities actually took the time to notice you for ten seconds. I felt so good, and that's what matters.

Y'all have a great day.
Kaylee

This is a Hard Week

So it's finals this week. Which means things are not good emotionally or mentally. I am preparing and studying right now for my political science exam tomorrow. I should've started studying a lot earlier today, but I was just not feeling it. First I felt physically sick, and then my head was so heavy. I stayed curled up in my bed until 2 this afternoon. Since then I've watched YouTube and tried to study. After this post goes up, I'll be back to actually studying. Wish me luck!

Most college students will tell you how hard finals week is. It's mentally and physically draining, leaving you feeling stressed and sick, just wishing for it to all be over so you can go home and curl up with your family. I know that when I get home Friday or Saturday, the first thing I'm doing is curling up on the couch with my mom and watching Netflix until I fall asleep. Then I'll sleep until Christmas.

My Christmas break is about a month, though it's shorter this year than last. I go home this weekend (I haven't started packing yet) and I'll be there until the Sunday after Christmas day. Jon and I are still trying to figure out what we're doing for the holiday, but he only has three days home so it's hard to decide what we're going to do. On that Sunday, I'll be driving out to San Marcos to spend a week with him. I'm mostly going because my mom will be visiting her family and I don't want to stay at the house. After New Year's I'll come back and spend the rest of my time with friends. Then I'm coming back to school as soon as the dorms open so that I can work a couple days before school starts.

Though finals can be a really tough time, it's important to stay confident and stay calm. Find the people and things that make you happy and focus on them when you get upset or stressed. For me, I have YouTube, Jon, and my friends... and my mom of course. I also try to focus on writing and reading because they always have a way of making me feel better, taking me to a whole other world where I don't have to worry about exams and packing and dealing with people in general.

Good luck to everyone else going through exams right now, or that recently went through them. Believe in yo fresh self.

Kaylee

This Week We Discuss Books.

I've tried over a hundred times to write a blog post, but nothing would come to me. It was like the energy to create just didn't exist for a while. But, while my writing has been on the fritz, my reading and photographing muses have been singing. At Christmastime, I started rereading one of my favorite book series of all time: The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, by the all-powerful Libba Bray.

http://libbabray.com/

This would be the first time I've read these books again, since I was in seventh grade. That's nearly seven years! It took me from Christmas until this past weekend to finish the first one, which is only 400 pages long! I imagine it took so long for several reasons: I got bored (hard for me to admit), I had school and sorority, and I was busy being with my boyfriend. Luckily, I did finish the damned thing and moved onto the sequel (600 pages), Saturday. I finished that this morning and then proceeded to grab the last book off my shelf (800 pages).

It's also very interesting that I'm reading this (my favorite book series) at the beginning of the semester, because last fall, I reread my second favorite book series, by a talented Mrs. Rosemary Clement-Moore (https://readrosemary.wordpress.com/). Who I actually have met! Almost all of the books that I own by her (which is nearly all the YA books she's published) are signed (in person!) copies.

Both of these women writers, Bray and Clement-Moore, are my role models. They're beautiful, strong, courageous, and they write in such a fashion and in such lines that I wish to be the main character. Not to give spoilers, but both series revolve around a young girl who has just discovered powers inside herself that she's not sure how to control. In Bray's trilogy, Gemma is a young girl (just turned 16) who was raised in Victorian era British-ruled India, but pretty soon in the book is moved to England for school. Clement-Moore's books detail a slightly older girl named Maggie who attends a present day high school. Both girls must battle demons, while facing rocky friendships, growing up, and finding out who they truly are (and romancing hot guys).

I love these books with all my heart. If posting this gets anyone out there interested in either the authors or the books, great! I would feel more than accomplished at getting these authors' names out there and these wonderful books noticed. Read them! Follow them! Live the lives of two young girls just trying to make their way through this cruel and craggy world. I love books, y'all!

That's it, rant over.
Kaylee

PS- I got a job!

Classes... Tomorrow

Well I'm back at school. Yay..? My room looks cute (of course), and my roommate (Chey again) is still basically moving in. Classes begin tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. I mean, my classes are fine, almost all of them are things I really want to take, but the problem is actually going to and sitting through classes. Of course I only have three classes and one of them is cancelled, but one of them is also a night class. For two hours. Ugh.

Also tomorrow we have our first sorority meeting. And like I said before, because of my night class, I won't be able to go to a lot of them. And tomorrow is the first example of that. I'll be able to meet with the executive board tomorrow before my class and get things done, but it's definitely not the same as actually sitting through a meeting with everyone and seeing them all again.

Saying goodbye to my mom was hard, like it always is, but she's already planning on coming and visiting soon. She also got to stay an extra night, which is amazing. But we aren't even able to talk because her phone bill wasn't able to get paid this month. Now we're just waiting for her to be able to pay it. I can't believe how much I already miss her and I just wanna be able to talk to her. Oh well, guess I'll just have to wait.

I think I missed Chey and Alex more than I thought I did. It's only the second day in and it's like the great times of last year all over again. Tonight we've laughed a lot, made great dirty jokes, and created a "Dirty Mind" headband. Mostly it's stayed on Alex's head, but once it almost made its way to my forehead. I think this might be a good year... besides, you know, classes.

Also, I posted this a day early so I wouldn't forget tomorrow.
Kaylee

Looking Up?

So last week kinda sucked. If you read my post, you know why. This week however, things might be looking up. I have gotten two responses for jobs. One is a nanny gig and the other is a clothing store. While the nanny job would pay more, and probably be loads more fun, I think the job will be during the school year, and I won't be here during that time. But the clothing store job will still be cool. And hopefully I'll get a discount.

Jon is still looking. We're hoping for a manager position at the movie theater, but if that doesn't work out, I have a lot of jobs saved for him to apply to. Now it's just a matter of him actually doing it.

I'm hoping either one of the jobs works out. I need it, and I'm tired of being afraid that we don't have enough for food or gas, or even a little for fun.

I've also been down on myself a lot more recently. I can tell I've gained weight, and it isn't helping with my already low view of myself. There's a gym in the apartment but I don't feel comfortable going alone, and he'd never go with me. The only thing he wants to do is walk but that does nothing for me. I need actual exercising and work outs. But he doesn't understand that.

Sorry for cutting it short, but the writing bug just has not bitten me today.

Have a good night.