Homesick?

Lately I keep thinking about my hometown. Like, a lot. I don't really know why.
I miss it, but I don't want to leave this place either.
Its amazing how different it is here. I've lived here for.... at least four years, but I feel I'm still not used to some things. Like the cold. I don't think I'll ever get used to midwest winters.
I was born in Arizona, which happens to be significantly different than the midwest.
There have been times when I've missed Arizona, but not like this. I think about it at least every other day.
One thing I always notice is how green it is here. The grass is really green, and all the trees are huge and green. There's also an abundance of bushes and flowers of all colors. There's not a lot of green in Arizona, other than palm trees and cactuses, and a few littler trees and evergreens. But that doesn't mean its not pretty there, like people might think. There's tons of reds and yellows and oranges. Its kind of like a permanent sunrise. The rock formations are filled with warm colors, a good amount have them in layers. Just like a sunrise! :3
Here's some pictures of Arizona rock from Google images......

There always seems to be clouds in the sky here in the midwest too. Maybe there aren't always a whole bunch, but there are some. In Arizona, there tend to not be many. A lot of days there aren't any at all!
Arizona doesn't get a lot of rain either (being a desert and all, you know :3), so its a big deal when a storm hits. When we lived there (when we were little), my sister and I used to sit by the window and watch the storm. We thought it was so cool.
I still love storms. And rain in general. And cloudy skies. I guess being an Arizonan, I would love storms. Even after the floods I've seen, I still love them.
And tornadoes. I love tornadoes. We never had those in Arizona. We had sand storms.
We didn't really have snow either. Some areas get snow, but they only get a little bit. The midwest has mountains of snow. Arizona definitely doesn't.
Oh, but we had mountains. The places we lived in when we were in Arizona were always surrounded with mountains, like a big, natural wall. In fact, in order to get out (by car), you tend to have to drive through the roads cut in the mountains. They twist and turn with the mountain, and when you get high up enough the view is absolutely amazing.
Here's what it tends to look like..... (more google images pics)

An extra fun fact about this picture above- the truck in the picture is an Albertsons truck. Ablertsons is a grocery store in Arizona, and I totally remember that store. This picture get bonus points for having that memory in there. X3

Another beautiful Arizona sight would be the sunsets. The sun matches the reds and oranges of the rocks and looks beautiful.

Here's some more google images to give you an idea of what that looks like.....

         

 

You'll probably notice that a lot of these pictures have cactuses in them. Cactuses tend to be one of the things most people think about when they think of Arizona. And that makes sense, cuz Arizona has lots of different types of cactuses. The most well known is the saguaro cactus......

They're the stereotypical cactus, with their long body and "arms." Most have a few "arms." Some have just one. Some have a lot more.....

Most however, do not have this many. But I found this picture (I love google images, can you tell?) and I had to put it in here. :3

There are a lot of other kinds of cactuses in Arizona too. Like these......

  

 

There's a good amount of palm trees too. A lot of them tend to be more in town though....

Some people have short, stocky ones in their front yards.

That's another thing that makes Arizona way different from the midwest- the houses. They tend to look different, especially the yards. In the midwest, pretty much every yard is grassy. Some have trees, or bushes, or flowers, or a combination of the three. In Arizona, yards with grass are not nearly as common. Some people try to have grass, but it's a lot of work (you have to water your yard a lot). Its much easier to use decorative rock and cactuses instead....

Arizona's wildlife is also very different from the wildlife in the midwest. The place we live in has bunnies and deer and robins and squirrels. Arizona had geckos and roadrunners and coyotes and rattlesnakes and jackrabbits and such.....

 

This little creature is a Javelina.

We had black widows in one of the houses that we lived in in Arizona. It was kinda scary. Especially cuz my youngest brother was maybe three years old, and I was afraid he might find one and get bitten. But we got our house bug sprayed and never saw one again. But I still made him check his shoes before putting them on for a couple months afterwards. Just in case.

This is a jackrabbit. They have HUGE ears compared to midwest rabbits.

Coyote.....

Bobcat.... 

Rattlesnake.....

And last but not least, the roadrunner. They are small, they are NOT blue, and they do not go, "meep, meep." But they do run, and quickly too.

You know what else I miss about Arizona? The dry heat. Yes, its hotter there. It can easily reach one hundred degrees. But there's like no humidity. And that is awesome. The midwest is really humid. That means when its hot you get sweaty and sticky, and you feel nasty, and its harder to breathe.

I remember driving into the midwest and it being harder to breathe cuz of the humidity. I'm used to it now, but I when I visit Arizona, I can tell the difference.

Also, Arizona is waaaaaaaay closer to Disneyland. X3

I miss Arizona. But I don't want to leave the midwest. Everyone's so nice here. And I have friends here. And I have an awesome boyfriend here. :3

So I'm kinda stuck.

If only I could take everyone here and bring them with me to Arizona. Then life would be perfect. :3

I just need to go visit or something. Wish I could do that.

Maybe someday I will.

For now though, I'm alright with living here.

All these pics are from Google Images, btw. I know I've said that already, but I thought I'd say it again, just to be sure.

Okay, I'm done now. This is the longest post I've ever posted (only cuz of the pictures, but hey).

Hope you enjoyed this mini tour of Arizona! :3

Schooltime Mentality- the evil first stage of summer vacation.

I noticed that ever since I started high school, my summer vacation has taken on this general pattern:

1. It doesn't feel like summer, and I feel like I always have more work to do, even though I really don't. For the first couple days it seems as if any work is a lot of work. I want to relax, but can't, and I'm constantly attached.

2. I finally figure out how to relax, and it the rest of the summer ranges from:
    a) Actually planning out something to do so I can use the summer to have fun.
    b) Realizing there's nothing to do. Get really bored. Spend way too long on the computer and get a   headache from it.

Personally, I think the best way to spend summer is planning out a bunch of fun things to do. Sure, you'll be busy, but you'll be busing having fun. Unfortunately, my family is perfectly content to stay at home and do hardly anything all summer. I have no idea how they do it. I can handle it for maybe three days. Then I start getting really restless. They can go the whole summer, watching movies at home, playing on the computer, and occasionally using the grill on the patio, or going for a motorcycle ride. THE WHOLE SUMMER. And they would be perfectly content doing just that. We might take a couple days to visit family. Or we might spend a day at Adventureland.
One thing I do like is that we always go to the Iowa State Fair. I suppose its not the most exciting thing. But among the traditional things the fair has, it has different and new things.
I think I'm also kind of attached to the state fair cuz of the movie "Iowa State Fair" (yeah, they have a movie). I used to LOVE that movie as a kid, and I still like it. Its an old movie, but its good. An old romantic comedy, if you will.
But yeah, other than a day at the state fair, and visiting family, maybe a day at Adventureland, I'm kinda on my own when it comes to planning out the summer.

Right now, I'm in the stage where I don't want to do anything, but I feel like I have to have work to do.
I guess I should be using this time to plan out my grad party. But that strangely feels like too much work, even though its not.
I hate stage 1 of summer vacation.
O~O  <---(that's my version of :s btw)

G-force blackout

I've been trying to plan a trip to adventureland recently. I'm kinda in charge of figuring everything out (since it was my idea), so I'm trying to make sure I don't miss any details. Usually I don't, cuz I LOVE planning things....fun things anyway, like trips to theme parks. :3
But a few minutes ago I realized that I totally missed something. Something that, out of all the people going on this trip (assuming we get it all set up, of course), only affects me.
G-force blackout.
G-force blackout is a "lovely" occurence that happens when I ride theme park rides that have too great of a g-force for me. Just as the name suggests, everything goes black. I don't pass out. Everything just goes black for a few seconds.
I first discovered it when I was on vacation with my family in Orlando, at Islands of Adventure. We were riding the Hulk, a roller coaster that takes off suddenly and accelerates to its full speed in a few seconds. When the roller coaster took off, everything suddenly faded black. It was only for several seconds, but it still freaked me out. I researched it later on though, and found out that its not uncommon. I also found out that its much more likely for women to have to deal with that than men.
I can still ride roller coasters, thank goodness (I absolutely loooooove roller coasters), but I can't ride ones that take off suddenly, and I can't ride other certain kinds of rides that produce too great of a g-force.
It used to think that it took a lot of the fun out of theme parks. I can't ride some of the things my friends want to ride, and I have to be careful when choosing what I can ride. But I've come to realize that its not as bad as I used to think. I can watch my friends ride the rides I can't ride, and get some great pictures. There are still a lot of things I can ride, and I appreciate those rides more. And when I just don't want to ride something (I love thrill rides, but I can be a bit of a chicken sometimes when it comes to new rides), g-force blackout makes a great excuse to not ride. Especially since a lot of those rides are actually likely to be bad for someone who deals with g-force blackout.
Its an interesting thing to deal with. I guess its just a part of life's great adventure.:3

Snow "Art"

Calvin and Hobbes is a comic that has been around since I can remember, and they're still popular. There are a lot of different reasons people still like the comic. Some like Hobbes, some like Calvin, some like Calvin's creative daydreams. Some like reading about the relationship between Calvin and Hobbes and how even thought they fight a lot, they'll always be best friends. I like them cuz of these reasons, and for others.

Today I choose to talk about one of my favorites.

Calvin's snowmen.

Anyone who has read the Calvin and Hobbes comics remember Calvin's......interesting snow scenes. Most of them are quite gruesome, but pretty funny nonetheless. Its always been one of my favorite things about the comic.

Check out these examples of Calvin's "artistic style" (found on Google Images).

Treasure

Have you ever heard the expression, 'everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it?'

Or anything similar to that?

I think everyone has at least one thing that they just really like to hear, or see, or whatever else, even if they're not exactly sure why. They just like it. Some people like sunsets, or the smell of fresh bread, or the rain..... things like that.

It can be kinda hard to share these things with people sometimes though, cuz there are people who just don't see the beauty in the things you do. So it stays your secret. You have your own secret treasure.

But if you're like me, you would really like to share that treasure with someone else.

Here's some of the things I consider secret treasures......

.....Newly fallen snow underneath a full moon at night. When there's not a single footprint, and the gentle light from the moon touches the snow and lights up everything around you.

.....While we're on the subject of snow, next time the snow's coming down hard, think about the pounding sound of the pouring rain, and then open the door and listen to the silence of the pouring snow.

.....An empty stage. When you walk across an empty stage, you walk across countless stories that have taken place there. You walk across the thousands of thoughts, and dreams, and emotions every character has ever had, and that any actor has ever had as they performed. You walk across hundreds of different worlds and lifestyles that had been shown there.

.....Sounds. Maybe not every sound, but there are certain ones that I just really like. Like pencils scratching againsts paper, or flowing water......wind blowing through the leaves in the trees....the crisp sound of autumn leaves crunching beneath my feet........the clicking of the keys on a computer keyboard........things like that.

.....And how about laugher? I'm not talking about any laughter though- I'm talking about pure, real, innocent laughter. The kind that can't be muffled or held back...when someone just can't help but laugh. Its not as common as you would think.....

There are more, but that'll do for now. :3

Let it Snow....and snow..... and snow..............

Why on earth is there so much snow here? Kinda hard to believe in global 'warming' when you live in the midwest tundra.

Don't get me wrong.... I like snow. I love snow actually. Its beautiful. Its just that it has to be cold when it snows. Snow I can handle..... cold, not so much.

I've lived here for a while now, but I'm still an Arizonan, and therefore I can't tolerate below freezing temperatures very well at all. Or the humidity. I miss the dry heat.

I remember driving to the midwest with all our stuff to move there and noticing right away that it was harder to breathe. My dad told me that was the humidity. I don't even notice it now, but I remember it right away when we go back to Arizona to visit.

But anyway, this post is suppost to be about snow, not humidity. :3

Being a senior this year, I don't mind snow days. But I feel bad for everyone else, cuz they have to make it up.

The biggest downside to snow (besides the cold that comes with it) in my opinion is having to shovel it off the driveway. Our driveway is cracked and broken up so it takes extra long to shovel it. But I stay out there anyway because for some reason, once I start shoveling I end up wanting to finish it no matter how long it takes. I'll spend an hour or two out there, everyone else will be inside, and there I am.......... being incredibly OCD. Finally my parents make me come in.

Its kinda funny, cuz before I get out there, I'll try as hard as I can to find a good reason to NOT go shovel. Probably because I know I'll never come back in otherwise. :3

But I like snow. And I don't mind it, even if it comes by the skyfull, as long as it lets Spring come later on. :3

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first blog......again.

I'm moving my blog off of facebook, and onto here.
I still consider myself new to blogging, so I'm claiming this blog to be the real, OFFICIAL start of my blogging adventures. I hope everyone who reads my blog likes it.... I'll try to make it interesting......
Anyone who read the first couple posts on my facebook blog knows that I have no idea what my blog theme should be. I really feel like I need one. But there are so many that I really like! Change, poetry, dreams, stories, theatre, etc.
I suppose most people have an idea of what they're going to blog about when they start a blog.
But there are just so many things in life to write about. How on earth do people choose?
Maybe if I just post whatever I feel like writing about, a pattern will occur. It's possible....
But I'd like to at least have a general idea of what I'm going to write about.
I'm just gonna write my thoughts and observations.
Technically, that's pretty much what everyone writes, no matter what the theme might be. Its just that they write thoughts and observations that have to do with the theme they choose.
So, yeah, that's my plan. Thoughts and observations.

Enjoy! :3