(02/02/12)

1. having a snuggle/dance/ebony crawl/tickling/winking/singing at the top of our lungs party

2. my floormate staying up until midnight just so he could play “Birthday Sex” and we could all dance to it

3. Happy Birthday videos from far-away friends (again here, “Birthday Sex” was a pretty common theme…)

4. getting a call from my brother in Copenhagen to tell me that the Danish word for birthday is “fødselsdagen”

5. finding the HUGE bag of skittles a friend hid in my backpack:)

+6. my favorite bday present, my sharks lanyard. YES. GUISE I AM SO EXCITED. SERIOUSLY I CANNOT HANDLE THIS RIGHT NOW IT IS TOO AWESOME.

Happy New Years!! from 2011, a list of moments…

- 18th birthday

- Rory Gemini, b. January 25

- kayaked

- lost my grandmother

- rollerbladed ten miles through beautiful wheat fields and hilly small-town roads

- lay in the sun on the frass and napped, A LOT

- graduated high school

- omnommed some coconut rice (and wrote a lot on this blog about it)

- continued my passion for teaching by acting as a mentor, teacher, and friend to a bunch of wild little ongoing 6th graders for five weeks

- started my freshman year of college

- made many pizza bagels at 1:00 in the morning

- saw a water vole (and felt like my childhood spent reading “Redwall” had been validated)

- met awesome new people at school and now looking so so forward to four more years together

- got a thrill out of checking my mailbox

- epiphanies with great friends at midnight while eating pretzels and sweet potato fries

- worked really hard academically

- got a chance to come back to california, work some, bike with my brothers, reunite with my cats and dogs, visit high school (and middle school) friends and talk for hours

- realized a lot about myself

- strengthened my relationships with a friend I’ve known since 5th grade, my best friend since 9th grade, and a surprising new friend from senior year: three amazing people I cannot imagine not having in my life and three friends I picture by my side (even if miles and miles away) as I pass all those upcoming important milestones in my life

- getting PSYCHED to go back to school in three days!!

Bring it on 2012.

(12/02/11) 

the first five that came to mind after a particularly stressful dinner out with just the two padres…

1. I get to watch my brothers play in two soccer games and three futsal games tomorrow, and watching them do something they love makes me so happy

2. I get to listen to the canadian announcers speaking french when the Sharks play the Canadiens

3. Australia is one huge step closer to legally embracing marriage equality

4. my fat cat MoMo, who = a warm, purr-rumbling blanket while we’re watching TV

5. I found my spongebob band-aids (yes, I am 5 years old)

(11/29/11)

1. sneaking into my brother’s old room in the middle of the night to play the piano and sing

2. seeing a professional athlete in your local starbucks (aka PATRICK MARLEAU. yes this happened today. i am quite literally freaking the fuck out and dying of happines)

3. the way the mountains look when they’re shrouded in mist and instead of being able to see all the trees, they’re just this bluish gray silhouette in the distance, so beautiful to run towards

4. talking about something that makes you SO FRICKIN HAPPY that you are just smiling like an idiot and you just can’t control it aakjsdjgljgljhg

5. reading in Spanish (currently, Los hombres que no amaban a las mujeres)

(11/24/11)

1. my brother anj and our shenanigans:)

2. holding the door open for a stranger and having them look you dead in the eye and say quite genuinely, “thank you. I hope you have an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving.”

3. seeing a friend you haven’t seen in ages smile (seriously though, why is his face so cute??)

4. awkward family friends gatherings where someone always ends up saying something embarrassing, but we end up laughing about it for hours (this time, it was me…)

5. I am thankful for my friends, my family, my pets, having the opportunity to go to my school, food, clean water, and for growing up with a high standard of living in a country that is relatively stable and free. and I am thankful that I know that no matter how difficult or impossible a situation may seem, we are always strong enough and we can make it through anything.

(09/29/11)

1. me: I need someone to take a picture of me in a cute outfit to send to a friend

louis: but katherine, all of your outfits are cute

me and moose: niiiiice, bro

2. skyping all my best friends in the same week <3

3. I finally got the application for a mentoring program I am SOO excited for, I secured my references, and I am almost done filling it out; I cannot wait to turn it in and just thinking about the program has made me so happy!

4. classes starting after 12, seriously what would I even do with myself if I had a 1a class??

5. walking back over the wooden bridge and having the wind tunnel up and woosh over the lake straight against you: terrifying, but somehow just freakin amazing at the same time

(09/26/11)

1. not getting my ass kicked quite as bad at racquetball (7-11 is definitely a step up from 3-11!)

2. my brother sent me the recipe for my FAVORITE almond poppyseed bread, it is so good and I could really just eat it forever, so the 1H lounge better watch out, imma be baking up a storm this weekend

3. receiving a surprise compliment while waiting for the bus outside of target, always makes my day :)

4. getting shit done at the library

5. realizing how different my life is now, and how that is such a good thing

(09/25/11)

1. I know I haven’t done one of these in forever, and the reason behind that is kind of a two part thing: first off, I have no time. seriously. busy as fuck. but the second reason is that I don’t really need them any more. writing these 5 positives over the summer kept me in the “ok zone”, but now that I’m here, every minute of my day is a positive. but I’d still like to do them anyway now that I’ve got more of a handle on my schedule.

2. finally watched Lord of the Rings (only the first two, we’re doing the third tomorrow). absolutely amazing. I cannot believe I’d never seen them before. protect the babies!

3. getting mail<3

4. having everyone admire the softness of your blanket

5. Moose: ”You’re pretty ballsy.” 

Me: “Really? Why?”

Moose: “Because you care about animals, you eat a shit ton of candy, and right now you’re in a completely straight man’s bed, and you just don’t give a fuck.”

(08/29/11)

1. finally got my stupid traffic ticket paid and taken care of, but damn those things are expensive! at least now its off my plate

2. TANGLED. omg this movie is so great omg the best thing ever in my life right now. I was soooo happy just watching this, grinning from ear to ear. It was funny, adorable, super cute, beautiful, ughh I loved every minute, and Flynn Rider mmmm, just so fantastic, I don’t know HOW I hadn’t seen this

3. my mom made me my favorite meal tonight, so I didn’t eat any food all day to prepare. But then, when she got home, I ended up drinking two glasses of chocolate almond milk and eating a baguette of bread anyways…but still, the dinner was amazing, this fake mac n cheese stuff is so fucking great, I have my lunches until I leave all set now

4. got to hear from my best friend and all her crazay stories from this weekend (and tell her for like 20 mins how much I loved Tangled)

5. I finally got my hair to look the way I’ve been wanting it to look for ages, and I was bouncing around so happy and confident and giddy all day:)

(08/26/11)

1. Woke up late today and I still feel the sting of the pain, But I brushed my teeth anyway, I got dressed through the mess and put a smile on my face, I got a little bit stronger…I’m telling myself I’ll be okay, Even on my weakest days, I get a little bit stronger

2. so I go outside, and that song is the first one that comes up on my shuffle, and the sky is a beautiful blue, no clouds, and I’ve got my dog by my side and we’re going to the library, and I literally just looked up and thought: how could this be anymore perfect??

3. this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_XF1IYNtxM

4. CVS checkout guy: *scanning my items, notices curling iron/hairspray* hmm, looks like you’re having a curling day tomorrow!

me: yup

him: but your hair is already really nice and wavy!

me: awww, thanks

I walked out of the hair salon feeling like a boss with my hair, so damn right its nice! but seriously, surprise compliments are so sweet :)

5. I was happily hyper after I got the feeling back in the left side of my face (damn you, Novocain shots)

(08/25/11)

1. having just an over all good day :)

2. jamming to the country strong album while cleaning the kitchen. for some reason, this is actually when i’m happiest. just me and music and something productive to do. 

3. the first harry potter movie. like actually, they are the CUTEST. i was talking to myself in a british accent for the rest of the day because i just want to be their best friends. hermione’s hair is so eleven-year-old, huge and pouffy and curly, i feel like so many kids looked like that when we were little. and ron and harry are just so adorable, its fantastic. plus its like getting a glimpse at the beginning, what started it all, and then thinking of the final part of the last movie and how much they’ve grown and matured and how we’ve grown with them. re-reading the books/re-watching the movies has been a powerful experience.

4. after yesterday’s argument, I had a good time with my mom today. that’s always a positive.

5. running commentary on project runway with my little brother while watching it. i’m going to miss joking around with that kid when i leave, he’s actually really funny

(08/24/11)

1. wearing my favorite pair of shorts, even when its just around the house

2. Country Strong. This movie was fucking sad, but man, it was so good. Loved every minute of it. Now I really feel like I need more country songs on my iTunes.

3. taking my little brother out for a last-day-of-summer lunch

4. so I’m kind of freaking out tonight and struggling to come to terms with all this shit, and then I get a message from him: “how was your day? :)” so sweeet, can’t wait to get to school, he promised to show me around the town and all the cool spots

5. knowing that I’ll figure it out, and that I’ll find people who are willing to put up with the craziness, the ups and downs, people who I’m not afraid are going to stop caring as soon as they realize how much of this there actually is.

+6. registered for my classes. got such a fabulous schedule.