I suck at driving

Saturday morning I was supposed to work at 4 am. My alarm went off at 3:20 and I sprang out of bed. (Sprang is totally the right word because I am the greatest, happiest morning person you'll ever meet). So I sprang out of bed, got ready for work, and left my house at 3:40.

If you've never been to my house, we are on the top of a very steep hill, and all roads leading up to my neighborhood require you to go up a steep hill.  At the bottom of the steepest (but most convenient) hill, if you don't stay on the road you'll have a problem. You can either go careening down into the canyon, hit a massive oak tree, or plow into a concrete wall. So I'm driving down the road and I start to slip a little bit. "No big deal," thought I, "I'll just go really slow." I get to the end of the street and am still slipping, so I decide to turn around and go down one of the other, not-quite-as-steep hills.

As I'm turning around my car begins to go into death spirals, also known as 360 degree turns. I'm doing death spirals down this very steep hill and am FREAKING OUT. My hands on the wheel aren't doing anything, so I reach over and pull my seatbelt on. I come to a stop (practically in someone's front yard) in the middle of the hill. I turned my hazards on, called my papa, and just sat and took deep breaths.

While I was waiting for my dad to come save me, a car came around the corner and went up the hill. They clearly had superior tires and four wheel drive. One of the guys got out of his car and slid down the hill to mine. My first thought was "What on earth are these people doing out at quarter to four?!" Then I thought, "Wait. That's what I did my entire freshman year and I'm not a sketchy person. It'll be fine." He asked if I was okay, then asked if he could help. I explained that I didn't really know how to get down without dying.

He tried to push me out, but I just kept sliding sideways down the hill. Finally he said, "Look. I know I'm a stranger, but I'm really good at driving in the winter. Do you want me to drive your car down to the bottom?" Temporarily forgetting that my dad was on his way, I said yes. So he drove to the bottom of one of the hills. However, at the bottom of that hill IS ANOTHER HILL. I got to the car and he asked if I would be okay to go down the second, not-as-steep hill. I said probably, but he must have been dubious. He suggested that he could drive me to work and his friend who was waiting at the top of the hill could follow us and pick him up from work.  Here was my thought process:

"Well. I'm either going to die in a car accident on the way to work this morning or get ax murdered by this stranger. If I get ax murdered my friends will have a really cool thing to talk about for a long time. I'll let him drive me."

I agreed to his chivalrous proposal and he drove me the rest of the way to work. Didn't even mention axes.

So, random guy who lives on Summit Drive, thank you very much for driving me to work and not taking my life in the process!!

People can be great. :)

"Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions"-Will Smith, as quoted by Kim West :)

This idea has been on my mind a lot frequently. I try to be a good friend. I try really hard. If I consider you a good friend, I'll do as much as I can to help you out. And I'm tired of that not being reciprocated.

Don't get me wrong; it's not like I have some tally chart for each of my friends that says who owes more favors and what not. I don't. But when it gets so completely unbalanced, it gets wearying.

Thus, I'm stepping up my New Year's Resolution. I originally said something along the lines of "stop letting people you don't care about make you mad." But I think I'm ready for a route that's stepped up a little bit. I'm tired of being walked over. I'm tired of doing thing I hate doing to make another person happy. I'm definitely tired of feeling guilty on those occasions that I do turn those people down.

I'm also tired of associating with people who have no motivation or drive. We quickly run out of things to talk about when our lives are going in such opposite directions. I'm meeting all of these incredible people in the English program and I feel like I can't get close with them because I can't have too many good friends, or I can't give my new friends and my old friends equal time.

So. I'm done. :) I'm going to live for what makes me happy. If I can help someone out on the way, that's fantastic. I'm sure I'll be able to. However, I'm no longer going to sacrifice my feelings and my peace of mind to do so.

Call me selfish. Don't care. I think it's a necessary change that's been a long time coming.

Katy Anderson and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

It all started on New Year's Eve. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I chipped my front tooth. "No big deal," thought I. "I'll just go to the dentist and get it fixed. So that's what I did. Monday the 7th of January I got my tooth fixed, good as new.
Cut to Wednesday, January 9th. I'm in Kenzy's classroom taking some stuff off of her walls and I feel it. My tooth breaks AGAIN. No big deal. I'll just get it fixed again.
About an hour later I head home. I walk up to the front door to go inside and it's locked. As I'm walking back to the garage to go through the garage door, an icicle hanging from my roof breaks loose and nails me directly in the head. I was literally under the thing for half a second as I walked to the garage door opener. Just my luck.
Bad things happen in threes, right? Right. So I'm waiting on pins and needles for this third thing to happen. I'm convinced that my death is looming closer. It doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, I let my guard down.
So tonight, January 10th, I go to get in the bath, as per my New Year Resolution suggests. I have my book in my left hand at chest level, with my phone balanced on top of it. I step into the bath and trip a tiny bit, just enough to throw my balance off. My weight shifts, my phone slides across the cover of my book, and I quickly shift to keep my phone from plummeting to its watery, porcelain grave below. Long story somewhat short: I saved my phone from falling into the tub, but paper cut my chest in an incredibly painful place. Third bad thing complete.
Worst. New Year's Resolution. Ever.

New Year, New Resolutions

I probably should have written this yesterday, but I was super sick and had no motivation to do anything. Better late than never, right?
This year I have given myself five resolutions. To me, a resolution can either be considered something you want to become better at or something that will help you lead the type of life you want to lead. Thus, my five resolutions are:

• Stop letting people who don't matter to you make you angry; anger is a wasted emotion.
• Don't push yourself so hard; it's okay to take a break occasionally.
• Take more baths.
• Learn how to lose better.
• Hold more babies.

1: Stop letting people who don't matter to you make you angry.

My dad tells me all the time that anger is a wasted emotion. It's usually when I'm angry, so I just tell him to shut up or raise an eyebrow threateningly in his direction. But when I'm in a calmer state of mind I can see that he's completely right. I tend to let small things get under my skin, and they build and build until I am ready to LOSE IT. It's not a great quality. David already has my resolution perfected. He does not give a single shit about what anyone else has to say unless he wants their opinion. So I'm taking a leaf out of his book. If I don't care about someone enough to buy them a Christmas present or care to remember when their birthday is, or if they get hit by a train, why should I let their ideas and words make me angry? I shouldn't. 

2: Don't push yourself so hard.

I like to go and go and go and go and go until I'm sick in bed for three days, I can't talk, and my hair falls out. I just feel like I should constantly be doing more things and doing better at them. However, that's not the greatest plan of action for my mental or physical health. Thus, I've decided to take it easy on myself. I'm still taking 18 credits and working, but if something becomes too overwhelming, I may actually be willing to reevaluate things and see how I can change. That's the ultimate goal, anyway. Normally I just pull a "NO! I CAN DO THIS." And I really can't and I end up sick and further behind than if I had just started out in a reasonable manner.

3: Take more baths.

Baths are the single most calming things in the entire universe. I am a bath fanatic. I've been known to take upwards of 3 baths a day, several times a week. Nothing can better take my mind off of stress in my daily life than taking a bath and reading a book not related to schoolwork. Especially if it's an interesting book like a serial killer encyclopedia or a book about what happens to corpses (both have made excellent bathtub material in the past). 

4: Learn how to lose better.

This is not, as Kenzy thought when I first told her, about physically losing objects and not being able to find them again. That's counterproductive. This is relating to the fact that I am incredibly competitive and not a fun person to be around when I lose something, especially when I know I should have been able to win. I would really like to work on becoming a not-so-sore loser, and not beating myself up over my less-than-victories. We'll see how it goes, I think #4 is going to be the hardest for me.

5:  Hold more babies.

This is kind of along the same lines as number 3. Babies and little kids bring me so much joy and happiness and wonder and hope. They turn my usually very pessimistic world view upside down and make me feel so content. They're just this tiny, warm little human who is programmed to love anyone who holds and feeds them. What could be better than that? Especially when you can hand him or her back to the parents when fussiness or odor sets in.

So, there you have it. My five. What are some of your resolutions? I'd love to hear them :)