Day 06

Hello!

London is ever growing ever closer and I'm beginning to get a bit nervous about the whole ordeal. I'm still very excited, but I suppose back in January it was just one of those unattainable goals that I'd set and now it's all finally working out. I know for sure I'll have fun, but it's in my nature to worry about the silliest of things, so I just simply go with the flow and acknowledge that everything is going to work out fantastically!

Back to our challenge:

Day 06: What band or musician is most important to you?

This question is a bit of a tough one, as I have a very wide spectrum of what I listen to and find important. There was a small part of me that wanted to write a sarcastic blog post about how much One Direction meant to me, but honestly even pretending to write about that was a daunting prospect so I decided against it.

Instead I'll write about my top 3 that I can think of at the top of my head.

1. Murray Gold.

He is the music director for the revamp of Doctor Who. Ever since 2005 this man has been pumping out beautiful songs like a well oiled machine. There was even a special event DEDICATED to his musical score for Doctor Who. This man is a genius. I respect him, and admire him and wish I had his amazing talents. Thankfully, I can listen to his beautiful music via Spotify or youtube.

Melody Pond

The Mad Man With A Box

The Song From The Rings of Akhaten

2. Fun.

I've always really enjoyed this band. I love most of their songs and they make me really happy. They're particularly important to me because of a particular song called The Gambler. I'm not really sure if it's because if I could have the life described in this song I could live happily or if because the piano is amazingly beautiful. But I love them so...

The Gambler: "Even if the sun stops waking up over the fields, I will not leave, I will not leave 'till it's our time. So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side." 

Yes I just used a Doctor Who fan video...this is a no judgement zone here. Besides, I like it when people combine some of my favorite things to make fantastic things.

Carry On: "May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground, carry on." 

3. Kate Nash

Look how cute she is!! Gah. I love her so much. She's delightful and British, and her songs are some of my favorites. The one that really got me hooked was Foundations, as I found it at a time in my life where my best friend had a boyfriend that wasn't quite good for her and so I secretly listened to this song to know it would work itself out. Sometimes it was not so secretly, but things are well now and they did, in fact, work themselves out. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but it helped me and we could laugh about it later. Also, another song that really helped me out a lot during my teenage years of unrequited loves was The Nicest Thing. It's a slightly less upbeat song, but it's cute in its own sad sort of way. 

Foundations: "And every time we fight, I know it's not right. Every time that you're upset and I smile, I know I should forget but I can't."

The Nicest Thing: "I wish my smile was your favorite kind of smile. I wish the way that I dressed was your favorite kind of style. I wish you couldn't figure me out, but you'd always want to know what  I was about." 

I could keep going, but I have six minutes left of Monday. And I'm sorry I couldn't pick one, but they are all important to me. There are still some that I didn't even get to mention that are important to me. But this will do for now. It's time for me to sleep now.

Goodnight and Thanks for Listening!

-Pat

It's Time For A Change

Hello!

London is 65 days away. Two months and a little bit extra. Goodness gracious. The trip itself has been paid for as of last Thursday. I'm beginning to worry about the little things now. When is the refund check coming in so I can order train tickets and book hotels? What am I going to eat? I've seen some of the food...dear God, I don't even like fish. How am I getting to the airport? What am I going to pack? I'm going to have to pick shoes to take. I love all of my shoes. I want to take them all. I also love all of my dresses. I can't wear dresses every day in London...can I?!

It's all happening faster than I thought it would back in January! But underneath all of that silly worrying I really am very excited! My refund check went through, so in about 5 days time I will be able to purchase all of those pesky things like train tickets and hotels that are important to the traveling experience.

I'm really a very laid back kinda person, so the planning aspect of this blog has kinda gone unused. I'm more excited about doing than planning! It's nice to have a plan, but once I'm there I think everything will hit me and it will be amazing!

But until that time, I think I'm going to do some rethinking about the things I'll post here. I mean, I'd love to keep this a strictly study abroad blog, but I'm having so much fun posting things! Even though I don't post all the time, I'd like to make a habit of it. It's very relaxing to write this way, and I mean, I was never one to keep journals as a kid because I always ended up doodling in them and then forgetting about them.

I also don't like the feeling of being constricted to one category. Not to say that doing that is bad or anything, I just do a lot of things and I mean, sharing is caring right? So that's why I'm going to try this 30 Day Blogging Challenge as an attempt to:

A. Post more often! (A post a day?! What the what?!)
B. Expand what I post about
C. And get used to the posting once a day like I ideally would like to do in London, even if it's just a picture or two as a sneak preview for a bigger blog post ;)

In all serious though, I really do want to expand on my posts. I like a lot of things and it'd be neat to find the people who like the same things I do! So let's kick of that challenge now, shall we?

I know, I know. It's made for tumblr. I'll probably indulge there as well while I'm at it. Yes, I have a tumblr. It's mainly me fangirling over Alex Kingston. You thought I did it here? You haven't seen my tumblr page. It's quite scary actually. Oh! And inappropriate jokes! Maybe not inappropriate in the way you're probably thinking, just bad taste jokes that make me smile.

Anyways! On to the challenge!

Day 1: Write some basic things about yourself.

This won't be too difficult. I'm 20 years old. I currently reside in Boring Small Town, Texas. Yes, you could probably find it on a map if you tried hard enough. Anyway, there's really not much to do in Boring Small Town, so you make your own fun. And when that doesn't work you go to Boyfriend's swanky lake cabin. Guess which one I do more often? Anyways, I'm going to school right now and earning my Bachelor's in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. I'm kind of a nerd like that. Psychology and sociology are really the only things that interest me in school nowadays. I work at the local Jimmy John's as a delivery driver. I've been searching for new work, but to no avail. But the tips can be good and the managers (for the most part) like me enough that my schedule is catered to my needs. Like I don't really work weekends. Or nights. That's nice. And in return I try to cater school to where I'll have decent hours for them. It doesn't always work out, but I do try. I also enjoy doing community theatre in my spare time too. There are two theatre's in town, and I jump back and forth between the two. I haven't done anything since the Christmas show Miracle on 34th Street. I played a legal secretary named Clara. I had about four lines. I'm kind of a big deal. Haha!

Playing secretaries seems to be a trend though. As in Zombie Prom I played Eddie Flagrante's secretary, and then in Thoroughly Modern Millie I played Miss Flannery who is head of all the secretaries. It was the year of secretaries.

That's me as Miss Flannery!

From Boyfriend's Blog

That's the dress I wore as the secretary in Zombie Prom. That's another thing I do enjoy. I've recently found myself loving vintage clothes more and more. It doesn't help that I follow a lot of fashion blogs that take adorable pictures of the cute outfits they wear. I'm not very photogenic or else I'd really like to turn this into one of those kinds of blogs. I'll see how London works out and if I can get more photogenic between now and then I'll try it out. 

I do like to dress up. Getting all fancy (even if it's just a sun dress and heels) always makes me feel good. It's right up there with bubble baths, chocolate, and Doctor Who. Not necessarily at the same time, but individually. I used to hate dresses, but I really don't know why looking back. I mean, you don't have to wear pants! It's quite magical actually. My closet is overflowing with all of my dresses. Someday I'll have racks for my clothes, those always look more neat and I can see everything. Closets and dressers and trunks aren't working out for me. 

I'm 5'7. When I wear heels I'm even taller. I like being taller, though not necessarily the bigger boned aspect. Do you understand how hard it is to find vintage dresses in my size? It's really hard with my Mexican hips and boobs. Oh yeah, I'm Mexican. Mexican-American technically, as I wasn't actually born in Mexico and have never been. (Though I suppose I should make the journey someday). I speak awful Spanish. 

I like musicals. They're fun to listen to and be in. Singing and dancing and fantastic costumes really just need to be a part of life full time already. I like to bake. I've gotten into a habit of buying old cook books. Someday I'll actually cook from them. For now I just pick and choose the recipes that sound good. Maybe it'll be like a Julie & Julia thing. That could be fun. If I had the time. Or the money. 

My favorite color is purple. I have a dog (corgi mix named Corabelle). She's precious and socially awkward. Kinda like me! Except I'm not so much precious as I am feisty. My favorite food shall always and eternally be grilled cheese sandwiches. I used to be a sort of vegetarian. Bad experience with hamburger meat as a child, I still don't eat hamburgers. 

And there ya go! That was fun! I apologize if it was basically me rambling, but it feels like a hundred degrees in my room right now and the windows are open and the ceiling fan is on and nothing is working. It's really sad actually.

I'll let you be now...but if you got this far congratulations! Stay tuned for Day 2 tomorrow!

Thanks for listening!

-Pat

Reasons

Hello!

I turned in my application today...or technically yesterday, but I've never really liked technicalities. So for all intensive purposes as I have not slept since I turned it in, it was today. This is going somewhere I swear. Well, when I went in the lady that I've dealt with the only time wasn't there, so instead I had to deal with the older gentleman who is more...loud? Boisterous. Let's go with that.

The older gentleman then interrogates me and long story short, I pass his test. He explains how I need to get an unofficial transcript and then we talked about Sociology for a little while and I went on my merry way. Well, after my second class of the day (as I had turned it in after my first) I printed off my unofficial transcript and went in the second time that day.

Luckily, the quieter lady was there and she had me sign a few papers and what not. She also gave me the letter they were going to send off in the mail, but since I had come in at just the right moment where she was printing it off I got in while in the office. This same thing happened when I first went to her office, and asked about financial aid. She called the financial aid lady (who is apparently always busy) and my timing was perfect so that I went in that day and got the estimates of how much I was getting.

No worry, no fuss. That was it. This whole experience has been surprisingly smooth which for me, is an oddity. The way things work in my world, things go wrong. That's what happens. It's to the point I expect it ahead of time to avoid disappointment.

I don't want to tempt fate, but I honestly feel like I'm supposed to go on this trip. I know that sounds odd coming from someone who's been so excited it's all she can talk about on facebook, but not in the: 

Well, kinda in that way, but it's mainly because I'm getting antsy. See, I've lived in this town all of my 20 year except that little stint at a University two hours away for 3 months. I've always wanted to get out, it's still happening. I just realized in that 3 month time period at that time, I wasn't at that state of mind that could be described as ready.

Little did I realize the novelty would wear off after the first six months of being back. I love it here, these are where my friends are. My life right now is here. And I accept that, but recently there's just been a part of me that wants to get up and leave it all. While that's a very rash choice to make, and I don't make it lightly, I figured this was the tamest option I could pick.

And so far everything is just kinda falling into place. I've turned in my application. Oh! And my friend and I reserved our tickets for Highclere Castles!

With our tickets we'll get to see the gardens and the castle. They've also currently got an Egyptian exhibit there as well, and while that would be interesting to see my main focus is the gardens and the actual castle. It's going to be marvelous!

In my time away I've also found a few places that I'm going to bookmark as possibilities of places I might like to visit. The first place I'd like to discuss is a Cabaret/Bar called CellarDoor:

Photo courtesy of their website.

The description: Imagine 30s Berlin meets New York basement dive. Sold. Here's there website. The music on here entices me, and their list of cocktails does not sound half bad. A few such drinks include:

• Never Trust A Flamingo: Premium Plymouth Gin shaken with fresh Watermelon,  dash 

of Lemon Juice and dried out with a touch of Campari.

• Honey (I drank the) Daiquiri: A twisted classic with Appleton Jamaican Rum shaken with 

homemade Honey Syrup and freshly squeezed Lime Juice.  

• Pin Up Review: London’s very own Beefeater Gin complimented by Elderflower, Raspberry, fresh lemon juice, and soda
• Simone De Beauvoir: The sweetness of Strawberries combined with the dryness of 

Perrier Jouet Champagne.

I'm not an alcoholic, I swear. They just sound really really good! The bonus of going here would be seeing the show. Entrance is free, so I don't see how spending an hour or two here could really cause any harm. It looks nice! Perhaps not the kind of place I'd get to go here, so it sounds like an adventure waiting to happen! 

Anyways, I'm rambling at this point. 

Thanks for listening!

-Pat-

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