Now that you're gone, l can roll on to something good.

I'm not going to explain the title. Some people understand it, and if you don't, I'm not in the mood to be bitter. I'm in the mood to be HAPPY!! Because so many good things are happening right now, and all the bad things are in the past. Done for. See ya. Thanks for coming.

The biggest news is that one of my bestest best friends, Joe Petty, is engaged!!!! He's found his one, and I couldn't be more happy for Joe and his Savannah. Ryan told me he was going to propose, but when Joe texted me the simple yet profound words, "She said yes! I'm engaged!", I was at Chili's with friends and I mentally checked out of the table conversation. I felt like a blubbering sap and I just wanted to run onto the highway and start dancing. Good for him. I always knew Joe would get married before any of us, but I can't believe that it's actually happening!! We're getting to that age, the marriage age, then the having-a-family age, and then who knows what. Things are so utterly different since freshman year of high school, when none of us knew at all where our lives were headed. And look at us now. In college, Joe getting engaged, Ryan and I going to live on our own for the summer, Tim....being Tim, and Hillary interning with an editor!! Geez Louise. And despite all the changes, our friendship and bond has, if anything, grown stronger. I love them all so much!!

So... now that I've gone and said all that, it's time to move on to the next topic. And that is Las Vegas. In 10 days. Time is passing by soooo slowly, though, because I'm so freaking excited!! Seriously, yesterday alone felt like four whole days. I can't take the waiting anymore!! But I must. So, to pass the time, I've started to make lists. List upon list. I know what you're thinking, "Oh no, Stephanie and her lists". And you're probably right. I've made three lists so far: Places to Eat, Things to Do, and Snacks to Pack. And they're all fairly lengthy. I've got the portable DVD player and my handy dandy GPS, and we're pretty much all set. Wait, I have yet to print out tickets to the fan expo we're going to, but I've got plenty of time to kill, so I'll do it tomorrow. Haha I don't want to do everything in one day and have absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the week. That would be slow, painful torture. Not that it isn't already torture. Ughhh the waiting... just kill me. But not really. Then I wouldn't be able to go to Vegas! Hehehe.

Moving right along, I have more good news!! I'm learning how to cook! Hey, better late than never, and I've come to realize that cooking is something I really enjoy, regardless of the fact that I kinda suck at it. But I'll get better! Practice makes perfect, right? I'm adding to my mental recipe book day by day, and so far, this is what I can make off the top of my head: Omelettes, poached eggs, french toast, meatloaf, green bean casserole, creamy rice casserole, cornflake chicken, chicken salad, mushroom canapes, cucumber sandwiches, chocolate banana pie, queso, scrambled eggs, baked salmon with lemon butter, and... I think that's it. But that's pretty good for a newbie, if I do say so myself. 

So far, my Summer 2010 picture project, where I take at least one picture every day for this summer and posting it on Facebook (man that album is going to be FULL by the end of this summer), is going well. Of course, it's only been four days since my summer officially started, but still! I'm having fun with it. A lot of the pictures are of Indie, my big fatty cat, sleeping in various places around the house. I didn't notice the pattern until someone commented on it, but pretty much every day I have a picture of Indie sleeping on something new! First, it was the kitchen table, then it was a chair in my dad's room, and on a couch, and now he's sleeping in my laptop case! I cannot wait to take that kitty to Huntsville with me.

That's all for today. This is the first time I've posted two entries in two consecutive days... I MUST be bored.

Smile!

All shall know the wonder of purple summer...

Wow I have a lot of catching up to do. When did I become such a blogging slacker? Well, no more of that! I have a lot to tell you! And when I say a lot, I mean it's overwhelming me just thinking of how I can blog about all this without writing a novel!! I'll just take it one step at a time. Here we go.

I think the first major thing that happened since the last time I updated was my cruise to Cozumel!! I went with my mom, and man, getting away was so awesome. Just heavenly. And this time, we learned from our mistakes from our last cruise and actually went and participated in the onboard activities, as opposed to staying in our cabin all the time like we did on our last cruise. We went to many of the Las Vegas-style shows, ate tons and tons, and participated in some of the shopping talks that they had. Plus, at these shopping talks, they gave out vouchers for free stuff in Cozumel! I was simply ecstatic when we finally got to Cozumel. We were in a time crunch because our first excursion started at 11, and we didn't get on the island until 9:30, but we managed to get all of our shopping done just in time for the glass-bottom boat/snorkeling tour. My favorite store was Del Sol, a store in which all of the merchandise changed color in the sun! The shirt and hairclip I got from there are among my favorite things to wear!! The snorkeling excursion was a blast. We went to 3 barrier reefs in a glass-bottom boat, and then we geared up and went snorkeling! The tour guide was super nice and helpful, and I even saw a barracuda! That was pretty scary, not gonna lie, but it was the experience of a lifetime and something I never before thought I could've done. That's one thing crossed off my bucket list. After that, we had lunch at a cute outdoor Mexican restaurant and experienced some authentic fajitas. Twas glorious. Energized, we plunged onto my next excursion: The manatee encounter!! That was super, super fun and I even got my own manatee to feed and play with! His name was Angel and he was bigger than me and kept grabbing onto me in an attempt to take the lettuce from my hands! I loved it so much. It was definitely a day I will never, ever forget.

The next major thing was my surprise 19th birthday party that my incredible roommates, Ryan and Melissa, coordinated and planned behind my back! It was on Friday, May 7th (Dead Day) and me and Ryan had gone to see Experimental Theater together. Then, when we got back to the apartment, pretty much every person at SHSU that was important to me was there and I was so freaking shocked! EVERYTHING was Hello Kitty, and it took me a full 3 seconds to realize that the surprise was for me. There was all this food, and this gorgeous pink cake, and a ginormous Hello Kitty balloon that I will pin to my wall once it's deflated. I got tons of gifts, all Hello Kitty, and I loved them ALL. After the initial shock wore off, we played Apples to Apples and The Game of Things, and Jen spent the night. It was my best birthday party ever, and again, something I will never, never forget as long as I live!! The next morning, all of us roommates decided to clean out the fridge, and we found some nasty things. Ryan donned his bandana over his face to protect himself from the rancid smell and, equipped with his trusty Febreze, tackled the mess! What a hero!

The next week was finals, and my grades were okay this semester. An "A" in Spanish II (which was a shocker, let me tell ya), and a "B" in everything else. I'm so glad it's summer.

Yesterday, I went back up to Huntsville to pick up some stuff I left behind, and to celebrate Raven's 20th birthday. After seeing her show, "Crimes of the Heart", at Old Town Theater, we (me, Raven, Ryan, Michael Madro, Kyle, and Ashley) all went to dinner at Chili's and then went back to our apartment for ice cream and games. It was so much fun!!! I'm so glad I came back to Huntsville for it. Everyone left at around 2 a.m., and then Trang texted me to Skype. So I Skyped with her, which was also tons of fun, until around 4:30 a.m. That's unlike me, I know. But then I fell into bed, exhausted, and woke up at 10:30 ish and went back to Tomball where I belong.

I would fill you in on the exciting details about my upcoming summer, but that would be another novel. So I'll make it quick. In short, me and Trang are going to Las Vegas in a week and a half, then I'm spending two weeks in Northern California visiting family, THEN me and Trang are going to L.A. together to hang out with Lynn..... and last but not least, I'll be working at TADW, in L.A., all summer, living on my own! OH! And Ryan Anderson will be an hour away from me all summer working on his internship in Orange County! So we'll definitely be seeing a lot of each other this summer. I can think of three words that will describe my next three months, and those words are: BEST. SUMMER. EVER.

^..^