A long drive

Yesterday I had breakfast with my mom and my grandparents so I had to wake up pretty early for a Sunday. We were finished by 10:30 and I had nothing to do so I asked my bff to do something. I picked her up at 1 and we decided to just drive. We drove to Whittier and all through the hills and took some pictures. We then drove some more and ended up in cypress, then we drove to surfside beach to take some pictures. After that we went to long beach and decided to grab some dinner. We found a place on yelp and decided to eat there. We ordered our food online and went to go pick it up. It was on a very busy street and it took us 10 mins to find parking. We walked into the place only to find out we had to walk down the street to their other location to pick up our order. The food was really good but I doubt I would go there again. It was too much of a hassle to get there and it wasn’t worth the price. After that we went back to my house to watch Whip It and eat a pint of ice cream each. My tummy was stuffed after all that.

Traveling

I have been lucky enough to have been able to travel a little bit. When I was 10 or 11 I went to New Orleans, when I was 14 I went to Hawaii and when I was 18 I went to London then Paris. I have also been to Las Vegas, but that’s only a few hours away. I feel very lucky to have been able to travel because I know there are so many people who aren’t able to. My best friend for instance has never been on a plane and the farthest she has been is Arizona.
This summer since I won’t be able to take any classes I am thinking about going to Vancouver with my best friend. It’s not a very long flight so I think it would be great for her first trip. If we can save enough money then we would like to actually drive to Vancouver so we can make some stops along the way. I would love to be able to go from La to San Francisco, San Francisco to Portland, Portland to Seattle and then Seattle to Vancouver. I have never driven more than 2 hours at a time so I don’t know if I would be able to handle all that driving.
I have never been on a road trip before so I am pretty excited. I also here Vancouver is an amazing place to visit so I am really looking forward to going. We were originally planning to go to New York but I figure we can go to Vancouver for double the amount of time for the same price. We haven’t made any solid plans yet so we will see what happens.

CPK, Cats, and Trolleys

Yesterday was Presidents day so that meant no classes WOOHOO. I picked up my BFF at 2pm and we went to Michaels to buy some frames and then we watched the movie Nine. I was looking forward to watching Nine but it was a disappointment. Then we went to go grab some food. It took us forever to decide what we want but we decided on California Pizza Kitchen. We ordered the food online and we each got a salad. We also bought the shrimp rolls and the hummus. We did the curbside pickup and were about 25 mins late, we were worried they would throw out our food but they didn’t. We ended up spending about $47 plus tip. Really it wasn’t worth it. The salads were great! But the appetizer weren’t worth the $7 and $9 we spent on them.
We then watched Two and a Half men, and it was the episode were Charlie runs over a black and white cat which he thinks is his fiancés cat that has been missing. Turns out it wasn’t but she does have a cat just like the one he hit. After we watched the show we decided to drive around, it was about 10pm. We were driving and a black and white cat just like the one on the show ran in front of my car literally a foot away from the front of my car, I had to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting it. I had to pull over just so I could calm down. I always fear I will someday hit an animal and I honestly think I would feel worse about hitting an animal than a person.
After that we drove to another city and spotted a place with an old trolley. We tried to take a picture of it but it was way too dark and it wasn’t in the best area so we couldn’t stay long. There were a lot of guys walking around just staring at us so we decided to leave. Like 20 mins later I took my friend home and that was the end of my day. Nothing to eventful happened but that damn cat sure got my heat racing.

Just another day

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and I spent it at home. I have never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day, even when I am in a relationship. I always think it’s kind of dumb how people go all out and make a big deal out of one day. I much rather have a boyfriend who shows me he loves me year round and surprises because he wants to, not because it is expected of him. Anyways, I watched the Olympics pretty much all day while I worked on another art project. I finished the first one but now I need to buy a frame for it. That’s what I am going to do today.
My second project is going a lot better than the first, because I am finally getting the hang of the materials I am using. I will post a pic of the completed project tomorrow.
It’s funny how on this blog I write as if I am talking to someone but really there is probably nobody reading this but myself lol.

Flowers

Yesterday I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. One of my best guy friends wanted to meet up for lunch with a few of our friends. When we arrived at lunch he had flowers for all the girls. It was a very nice lunch at one of the local diners. The place isn’t anything fancy but they have some of the best food. It’s funny how you can get a great meal at a local place for $6 but having the same meal in the center of Los Angeles will cost me $20.
After we ate we all went our separate ways and I went home to work on a art project. Its taking me longer than I expected because the drying time between each step is pretty long, but hopefully I will finish it today. I also tried to make pesto pasta last night. It didn’t turn out like I wanted so I threw in an avocado and some mayo, it really turned out good after that. I spent the rest of the night just watching movies, I had to go to bed early because I was supposed to have breakfast with my mom and grandparents today, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Birthdays

In less than a month I am going to turn 20. I keep getting asked what I want to do for my birthday but I honestly have no idea. When I was younger my parents would always throw parties for our birthdays but we haven’t done that since I was like 15. Mainly because I kind of got tired of it. I remember on my 15th birthday my boyfriend at the time was supposed to meet my family but he got sick that day and was unable to come. This was probably just a lame excuse to get out of going but whatever. That relationship only lasted about another month after that.
So back on topic. I have no idea what to do for my birthday. I think it falls on either a Tuesday or a Wednesday and I have class both those nights. My best friend says we need to do something fun but I am out of ideas. I know I will probably have dinner with my family sometime before or after my birthday but I don’t know what to do with my friends. Birthdays just aren’t as exciting as they used to be. Probably because I realize that time is flying by and I still haven’t done much with my life. I am looking forward to leaving behind my teen years and hopefully my 20s will be the years when I really do the things I want to do and make the changes I need to change.

Neglecting my relationships

Lately, I have really been neglecting my relationships with my family and friends. Ok well not lately, it’s been about a year or this. In the last year I have seen three of my closest friends only a handful of times. A lot of this is due to them being away at school but even when they are home I don’t make much of an effort to see them. I guess I felt I needed a break from my friends because we used to go to school together and then do stuff together on the weekends. I didn’t think this break would turn into me seeing them once every few months. I have decided that I need to put more effort into seeing my friends. I have, however, been spending a lot more time with my best friend who I had kind of drifted away from for awhile. I am happy to say things are back to normal between us.
Now my family. I guess it all started when my brother went to jail a little over two years ago. It was a really difficult time for my family and put a big strain on us. I stopped going to family parties because I felt like if they wouldn’t go see my brother then why should I bother going to see them. I have never had a great relationship with my dad’s side of the family with the exception of my grandparents, so distancing myself from them wasn’t difficult. I am now starting to improve my relationship with my dad’s youngest sister, although it is kind of difficult because she can be a little too pushy at times.
Now that I am almost 20 years old I feel like I need to act like an adult. I need to work on the relationships I want to keep and cut off the relationships that are doing me no good. I have done this once before with someone who was once a good friend and it wasn’t easy so I am not really looking forward to it.

Explaining bad behavior

Yesterday in my speech class we had to write a journal about attributional patterns and how we explain the disappointing behavior of our friends compared to how we explain the behavior of someone we don’t like.
I personally often dismiss the bad behavior of a friend by saying something like “oh, she is having a bad day or week”. While with someone I dislike I contribute their behavior to them just being mean people. I believe I do this because I want to see the best in my friends. I am the one who picked these people as my friends, if they are mean people then what does that say about me.
When someone I do not really care for does something that is mean, disappointing or cruel than I usually say it is because that person is just a bad/mean person. I think people do this because we want to justify not liking someone. It is a lot easier to not like a person when we actually have a reason to dislike them. It is also a lot easier to say negative things about people we don’t like or even know. For instance, we see someone speeding down the street. Most people just assume they are speeding because they are impatient and have no regard for the safety of others. However, if a friend of ours is speeding somewhere then we are more likely to say something along the lines of “oh, she must have an emergency” or something like that. When it is people we care about we are pretty much willing to make up any excuse possible to make them look good.

Freeways, gun shots, and cops! Oh MY!

I spent the day with my best friend on Sunday; we went to a few places and then had Greek food for dinner. First, we went to Joann’s craft store, the closest one is about 12 miles away so I had to take the freeway. Yesterday’s trip resulted in us getting lost a few times. Taking the wrong exits, merging onto the wrong freeway etc. My best friend always says we need to record ourselves to capture all the stupid things we do. Once we got to the store it was a big disappointment, they only had one thing I needed, so we decided to go to Michaels instead. On the way we saw a car that was ridiculous. The pic in the corner. Again TOM TOM got us lost, well not really but we did turn into the wrong shopping center. After we went to Michaels we went to go get some food and headed to my house, that’s when all the crazy stuff happened.
At around 11pm 3 cop cars arrived at my neighbor’s house, this happens pretty often because they are always screaming at each other. My dad has a police scanner so we hear what they say. Every time the police are called to this house, all they say is “yup the couple on _____ street”. Well when the last cop pulled up we heard several loud shots, at first I thought they were coming from my neighbor but next thing I know all 3 cop cars are speeding off towards another part of the city. We listened to the police scanner and they had no idea where the shots came from or who did it. It was scary taking my friend home because she lives in the same general area the shots came from; we saw several police cars patrolling the streets.
When I got home I decided to do some homework and once again my neighbors started yelling. The cops came two more times and then there was silence for a good 2 hours. At 3am I hear them yelling again and the cops came again, this time they took the guy to jail. Before I went to bed I couldn’t help but think about how some people can remain in relationships that are so screwed up. I always fear that I will end up like them, but I don’t think my best friend would let that happen.

A little about me!

I am 19 years old, almost 20
I live in Los Angeles, Ca
I have an older brother who is 22
My parents are recently separated
My neighbors are my grandparents
I have 3 dogs, 1 tarantula, and 1 turtle
I go to a community college
I am a psychology major
I drive a 2001 Mustang
I am a DIYer
I love love love to travel!!!

And…..

I have had the same best friend for almost 16 years!