The Hills

So I was watching "The Hills" finale and finale party... I know I'm lame!

Anyway, I realized while watching all of the highlights from the show that my relationship with a certain someone is very similar to the relationship between Lauren and Heidi. We were best friends and lost our entire friendship over a girl (boy in their case). I feel as though I was treated like crap and they think that I am a jealous bitch. If you've watched the show, those that sound familar?

In case y'all were wondering, I think of myself as Lauren not Heidi.

Again, I know I am totally lame for 1. watching "The Hills" and 2. comparing aspects of my life to it. :-)

Sunscreen

I found an old CD in my car while driving to Jackson, WY this week. The CD contained some random songs from my Junior year of high school (2001-2002, 8 YEARS AGO! Ahh I'm old!). One of the songs was The Sunscreen Song by Baz Luhrmann. The lyrics were originally written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997.

The lyrics are some of the most inspirational pieces of advice I have ever heard.

I will share them with you now...

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Something To Do

I need something to do in my spare time. I need a hobby.

I have tried cross-stitching and while I enjoy doing that, I have a number of unfinished projects. I find that I get bored and stop working on them.

I have no artistic ability so count out scrapbooking, painting of any kind, etc. etc. etc.

I would like to read more. I should start a book club. I've asked on Facebook but didn't really get a good response. I'm going to try again...

I want to be more crafty. I am open to suggestions!!!

Sigh...

Sorry to make my first real post a negative one... I need to vent to whomever feels like reading what I have to say.

I need something good to happen in my life right now. 2010 has not been a kind year so far.

Things seemed to be getting a little bit better until May 11th. I notice my chinchilla, Kirby, wasn't acting quite right. The next day I took him to the vet who thought it was because of his teeth. He didn't seem any better on Friday so I took him to the vet again. She sedated him and filed his molars. Sunday, Kirby still wasn't better so I was going to take him into the vet again on Monday. I woke up Monday morning and found that Kirby had passed away.

RIP Kirby May 17, 2010.

Wednesday and Thursday I had to go to Casper for work where I learned that I wasn't going to get any new responsibilities regarding the clinic we run (my co-worker was leaving).

Thursday I got back to Laramie to have my best friend tell me that he was marrying a girl he hadn't even known for two weeks. TWO WEEKS!! And they're getting married at the end of June 2010. In case you're not paying attention, that's a MONTH AND A HALF AFTER THEY MET! Now he doesn't understand why I can't be happy for him right now. I had told him the first time I met this girl that he should take things slow and what does he do... PROPOSES WITHIN A WEEK OF MEETING HER!!! He knew that I won't be happy about what he'd done. However, he still decides to tell me he was going to marry this girl the same week that my beloved pet dies unexpectedly and when I find out I'm not getting any responsibilities that I should have gotten. Then he can't understand why I can't be happy for him...

My "friend" now thinks that I am some sort of horrible person who doesn't want him to be happy. I heard him tell a mutual friend that I am only happy if he is unhappy since it means that my life is better than his. That's a load of crap. I have seen him in relationships and I've seen what happens when the relationships end. I told him that he shouldn't rush into a relationship with this new girl because he will end up getting hurt if he gets involved too quickly and things don't work out and I don't want to see that happen again.

I haven't spoken to my "friend" since that Thursday, two and half weeks ago. I don't want to be the one to give in. I don't want to break the silence and make him think that I accept and am happy about what he is doing.

Am I wrong? Should I be the one to break the silence?

Hey Y'all!

Welcome to my blog!

I don't know what I think about blogging. I always thought that it was a way for people to let anyone and everyone know anything and everything you were thinking and doing. I don't know if I will continue blogging or how often I will actually write posts. What I want to accomplish with my new blog is to establish a place to vent/complain and celebrate. I enjoy writing down my feelings and what I've been up to. However, I've never been one to get into journals or diaries. Maybe blogging can become my journal.

Just in case somebody decides to read this blog who doesn't really know me, let me introduce myself in classic grade school fashion...
My name is Abbie and I am 24 years old. I was born in Massachusetts, lived in Barbados for less than a year, lived in Bermuda until I was eight, and then moved to New York (30 minutes from Manhattan). I finished high school in 2003 and went to New Orleans, Louisiana to attend Tulane University. The day I was supposed to return to New Orleans for my Junior year of college in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit. I chose not to return to Tulane and started looking for a new school. I decided to head west and enrolled at the University of Wyoming in January 2006. Within two weeks of moving to Laramie, I met my wonderful boyfriend, Jim! We have been together for almost four and a half years. In December 2008, I graduated from UW with a BA in History. I now work for the Wyoming Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program.

With all of the different places I've lived I don't always have the same accent depending on what I'm talking about, who I'm talking with, or what I'm doing. Sometimes it's from New York. Sometimes it's British (Bermuda's a British Commonwealth). Sometimes it's Southern. Sometimes it's a mix of everything.

Anything else you want to know about me, just ask...