purekatherine

…and ladies don’t kiss and tell.

The original plan to meet The Professor on Tuesday didn’t really work out. It would have been a little too forced and probably not as much fun as we were wanting.

We’d originally figured we’d find time to get together either today or tomorrow. Then, when I was having drinks with my dodgeball team last night, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was brought up. The Professor and I had talked about how he needs to see that, but I wanted to watch it with him.

Dr. Horrible is the kind of thing that I really want to watch when it gets mentioned, so we ended up hanging out after I left the bar.

It was awesome, and that’s all that you really need to know.

We’re going out tomorrow to see Source Code and have some food. I’m excited.

To be 100% honest, I mostly wrote this because he likes being mentioned here. There won’t be too much shared, I’d rather just let it happen. Besides, most of you reading this can probably get a real life conversation out of me about it in Vegas in May!

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This is a continuation of the writing prompt project that I am officially naming Writing is Elementary. I first posted about it a few weeks ago, but the basis is that there’s this fun Write Source site I found with writing prompts for elementary school grade levels.

A few ladies have joined me in writing these, check out their posts and then come back to read about My New Friend!

Kaci and what’s under her bed
Germana and who is at the zoo!
I feel like there are more, but I’m totally drawing a blank and I dropped the ball with keeping up with them as I hot links before. Please let me know if you’ve posted as well!

And now here’s my entry for the Second Grade week.

My new friend

Usually when someone is a new friend, it’s someone whom you have recently met. Someone you didn’t know before. I have some great friends that fit that description and I’m rather tempted to write about them right now. I’ve got someone else on my mind lately though.

No, it’s not The Professor.

This new friend is amazingly inspiring. She’s recently taken the biggest leap in life that doesn’t include a ring or fertilization. The thing is, I’ve known this friend for about two years.

This friend and I were both English majors, and when another English major pulled me into the swing dance community, the amazing dance skills and striking beauty of this friend totally intimidated me. At first I thought that she didn’t like me, and later I found out there was kind of a legit reason for that. Lucky for both of us, for more than our friendship, that reason is definitely not a reason anymore.

The past year has been crazy for this friend. She’s gone through some serious loss and even though we still weren’t close at all, it pained me to see her hurt and not know how to help her. She had some good friends around her though, so I just put faith in them to get her though. Man did they ever!

She graduated last semester and had about a million jobs while she was in school. During her last semester, she and I got a bit closer. I went through some stuff that really brought me down and she was so amazing about letting me go on about it even when I’m sure she wanted to tell me to shut up. I mean, I wanted to tell me to shut up! Twitter definitely helped with this new connection for us, though I don’t know that either of us really knows why.

We’re both glad it happened though. Especially in this last month.

I was lucky enough that this awesome friend took my advice and signed up for a dating site. She wasn’t looking for anything too serious (but please don’t read that as she was looking to hook up) because she already knew that it had to be short term. There was a guy who kind of stood out and she took a Chance that I’m super proud of her for!

Even with that distraction, she and I managed to sneak in a lot of time together in the last month. A week and a half ago we met up, for what we thought would be the last time, for lunch on a Friday only to find ways to see each other on Saturday and Sunday, and then again on the following Thursday!

Sadly Thursday was the last time I will see her for a little while. But her recent (as in she left the Friday after our last drinks – that weren’t even drinks by the way new friend!) move to South Korea will definitely get me some stamps in the passport I need to get ASAP!

Most of you reading are probably already familiar with Gina but if you’re not, check her out now. Her blog is sure to get extra good now that she’s got so much new happening with teaching English in South Korea!

I love her and I already miss her! Gotta get my butt to South Korea like, now!

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I came across some awesome camisoles at Forever21 a week and a half ago when I went to exchange some tanks that were too small for me. The tanks were $4.50 each, but the camis were only $2.50, so I got four camis for only about a dollar more. I’ve never been a big cami girl, but I totally fell in love with this color.

Since I was so drawn to that color, I decided to grab another great blue, a grey and a black as well. Forever21 doesn’t do refunds, so it’s easier to get more than I brought in for the exchange.

I wore them pretty much non-stop last weekend. I had to warn both Diana and Ashley that they were new and I wasn’t sure if they were too stretchy to sleep in without having any wardrobe malfunctions, but they were way too comfortable to sub out for a t-shirt. (Last weekend was also the super sleep-over weekend, which is why I slept next to both of those awesome ladies. Lucky Poor Bri slept in a different room the night I was at her place and there was no risk of unintended flashing.)

They are the perfect length to peek out from below a t-shirt or sweater, especially on a cooler day that could use another layer. When I realized how much I love them, I decided I would go back and get more. I walked out of Forever21 having bought $36 worth of them.

Please remember that these are $2.50 each. I now own 16 of them, though 2 are black, because why not? Can you really blame me though? Look at all the colors it comes in!

To be honest, the picture I have up there with the girl in the tank is technically the v-neck version. I have the scoop neck in most of the colors I got because that’s what they had in my size.

I guess it’s a good thing that I just bought a couple dressers to make pretty, I need somewhere to put these! (More on the dressers later, and that’s not quite the colors I’ll be using.)

I’m looking forward to layering these like crazy this summer. Two camis and a cardigan and I’m good for any day of a Sacramento summer!

Now, how many are you going to get?

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It’s almost 3:30 in the morning. I got off the phone about an hour and a half ago and I haven’t had any caffeine today, but I’m still awake.

Why?

Because I would like to let you know that the date I had tonight was fine, but neither of us is truly interested romantically. Fortunately for both of us we were really honest about it and we both have someone else that seems to have more potential for us.

I never really even got to use his nickname though! That name would be Target Dog, since he, you know, has a Target dog.

I’ve been talking a lot with a guy who is on spring break and out of town. It’s been kind of awesome and I really hope that our first meeting goes as well as our phone conversations. I’ve been having a rough time coming up with a blog name for him, though I actually asked him if he had any recommendations/preferences if I were to ever mention him. Tonight I came up with two!

He can either be The Professor or Mr. Hyperbole. No, he is not one of my professors. Do you really think that I would be posting about it publicly if he was? He is currently studying for his PhD in Literature at a local school though. Awesome, right? The hyperbole comes into play when he likes to talk about everything like it’s the best thing ever in the world. Totes normal, I know.

So, knowing nothing else about this guy, which is a better name to use?

The Professor or Mr. Hyperbole?

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Things have been pretty crazy lately. Apparently even when I’m on spring break and should have plenty of time to not only post a couple times throughout the week, but also maybe write a few posts to use later, I actually get more busy and can’t do anything!

This whole dating thing has kept me pretty busy. I will be going on my sixth first date tonight. This guy had to postpone from Tuesday night because one of his best friends went into labor! For those of you (Christa) who think that’s bull, she was engaged to his other best friend last year, and he died right before she found out she was pregnant. Also, he wanted to reschedule pretty much right away, so he wasn’t trying to blow me off, obviously.

I’ve been texting, and now actually talking to another guy quite a bit this week, I don’t really want to go on the date tonight. I’m trying to keep my options open though, because it could turn out that the guy I’ve been talking to more and I don’t actually have chemistry in person.

I went on a date on Monday with a guy who I think I will have a second date with. I had a lot of fun considering that he was pretty much force feeding me beer. (For the record, I’m not a beer fan.) I don’t know if it will go further than a second date, because to be completely honest I am feeling the vibe better with both of the other guys, but again, not wanting to close any doors until I’m sure I don’t want to walk through them.

Wish me luck, I think I’ll need it.

Oh, did I mention that tonight’s guy happens to have a Target Dog? Yeah, he does. I think I get to meet him tonight. I’m stoked for that alone!

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I’ve gotten used to the guilt associated with not posting, and I’ve gotten over the wanting to apologize for it. I wouldn’t do it today, but there are other people involved. I should have posted this last week, but I had some trouble.

I’m having trouble writing this piece.

When I first decided on this topic, it’s because it sounded like the most fun. Nothing else has seemed like it would be better, and for some reason I’m being stubborn with this, so here I go.

Get ready to know that I’m actually really boring.

When I was younger, the space under my bed was a great hiding place. My comforter was long enough when I made my bed wrong that my parents couldn’t see that I had simply shoved everything under there instead of really cleaning my room. I’m sure they were never fooled though, but I didn’t care then, I was still allowed to go to Paige’s house to sleep over as long as my floor was clear!

As I got older, I would do the same thing from time to time, it just wasn’t my parents I was trying to look neat for. I’d say that it was for a boy, but in all honesty, we ladies tend to be harsher to each other than any boy I’ve wanted to impress.

And now that I’m growing up once again, that fabulous hiding space is changing yet again.

I moved about 5 months ago, and in that move I got a storage space in which I’m storing a lot of things that it seems I should probably just get rid of. This means that I don’t have to shove anything under the bed. I also am not using the risers I used to for my bed, so the legit storage that I had been using there no longer fits. Again, it’s stuff in storage. I could probably toss a lot of it.

I know exactly what is two feet below me as I sit on my (of course unmade) bed right now to write this. My relatively new cutting mat for sewing projects I’d like to start and a box with scarves in it.

Totally crazy, huh?

If I didn’t have a date to get to in 26 minutes I might explain how it’s actually terrifying because there’s so much room for monsters down there now!

Check back later when I’ll be linking the other ladies who are participating in the writing prompt project that started this!

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I was supposed to write this post yesterday, but then my 5 month old niece was at my house and then I went wine tasting, so I got a little distracted. For those of you following along with this plan, sorry for the delay.

Just last week I posted about a new fun writing prompt I found and the semi-group project of using these silly prompts for blogs.

I thought about whether we should all pick our own of the prompts, or whether we should write about the same one and I’m thinking that picking our own is the best. Some of these things I really have nothing to write for, so why would I expect everyone to have experience with one I picked?

I’m going to do this for Thursday this week, and hope to keep it up for Thursday each week after that.

So this week will be a topic from “Grade 1″ on the Write Source. The options are as follows:

A special birthday
I’d like to see . . .
The biggest thing I ever saw
Noisy times and quiet times
I like to make . . .
What if toys could talk?
My shopping list
Don’t litter!
Big pets and small pets
Insects, insects everywhere
I’m happy when . . .
How plants grow
My adventure
Friendly places
My favorite foods
I know a lot about . . .
Picnic fun
Who’s at the zoo?
What will I share?
I rode on a . . .
The parade
I wonder why . . .
What’s under my bed?
What if I was 10 years old?
What makes me laugh?

I think that I’m going to go with, “What’s under my bed?” Though I won’t be writing it for a day or two, so that may change.

Let me know if you’re going to write and I’ll include a link to your blog! What topic do you think you’ll go with?

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I have awesome hair. Like really. I got really lucky with my locks. I did pretty much nothing to them for the first 23 years of my life, at which point I met one of the most important people in my life. My hair stylist. This was the first time that I had a real style to my hair. Courtney added layers and eventually got me to try bangs and I have never looked back! Since then I have had highlights, and continue to try to get Courtney to take me shorter two or three times a year. It’s kind of awesome and Courtney and I have actually crossed paths socially, which is really awesome except when…

I dye my hair green and I don’t want her to know about it!

Ok, so actually that first paragraph is a little misleading. I dyed my hair a few times in junior high and high school, but considering the lavish amount of conditioner that I use and the low frequency of the dying, it didn’t leave any lasting damage. This is why I had no hesitation when I wanted to be an “army girl” for Halloween of 2009 and decided to do the hair green too!

I’ve also done some drastic cuts before, doing a bob at my chin from cutting off about 11 inches and donating it to Locks of Love.

It’s been more than a year now since Courtney and I have been dying over and trimming off the green and it’s finally gone!

That means that I’m back to a place in which I can donate my hair if I wanted to. Supposedly it’s not supposed to be dyed, but lots of people tell me that they don’t believe that my hair currently has highlights, which is just dumb of them.

I don’t have the length to donate my hair right now, but that isn’t the only way that I can do some good with my hair. Especially with St. Baldrick’s Day coming up. For those who are unfamiliar and too lazy busy to click through, St. Baldrick’s is an annual event in support of finding a cure for children’s cancers. Participants in the event shave their head for donations and the proceeds go toward research that will hopefully find cures in the near future!

Don’t worry, I don’t plan on participating by shaving my head this year. It’s something I’ve thought about though and will probably do at some point. I’ve always wanted to try a short hair style anyway, I might as well go all out and style it as it’s growing back in, right?

One thing that seems a little odd is that I’m not seeing anything about donations of longer hair, just about the money coming in from shaving. I would definitely want to donate what I could to Locks of Love, so I hope that they do suggest that to the participants with longer hair!

How about you? Ever thought about a drastic change? Would you go as far as shaving your head?

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If you blog, you understand the frustration of not knowing what to write about. There are probably things that you thought of only hours, maybe even minutes ago, that totally escape you now that you’re in front of a computer and able to get them into a more visceral form. If you’re on twitter, you’ve probably posted about it, much like Lauren did the other day. It started a fun conversation between she, Kaci and I, which ultimately ended up with me Googling “what should I write about?”

Well, just like it always does, Google came through for me!

Write Source was one of the first things to come up, and it’s kind of cute. It’s got really short prompts designed for journaling, and maybe for use in the classroom? It’s set up as though it could be for the classroom, so I went into teacher mode!

I suggested that Lauren, Kaci and I take on a grade a week for inspiration. Even though I was pretty sure that it was just the future English teacher in me who would be excited about this, and I promptly prepared myself for them to ignore the suggestion. They both went for it! Just another reason that I love the internet!

The “Grade 1″ suggestions are as follows…

A special birthday
I’d like to see . . .
The biggest thing I ever saw
Noisy times and quiet times
I like to make . . .
What if toys could talk?
My shopping list
Don’t litter!
Big pets and small pets
Insects, insects everywhere
I’m happy when . . .
How plants grow
My adventure
Friendly places
My favorite foods
I know a lot about . . .
Picnic fun
Who’s at the zoo?
What will I share?
I rode on a . . .
The parade
I wonder why . . .
What’s under my bed?
What if I was 10 years old?
What makes me laugh?

I can’t wait to pick one and get started. I might even go for two! I’m way behind on reading blogs, so these ladies may have already gotten started, but I’m going to start my more formal structure of this next week. I’m not sure exactly how it will go yet, but I’ll explain it all then. Everyone is welcome to join, how fun would it be to jump back to elementary school writing prompts, but now write about them from an adult older perspective!

Who else is joining us? Any suggestions on which I should write about?

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Friendship is a really tricky thing. Many friendships I had over the past two years have been revealed to be much less substantial than I’d thought them to be over the past 6 months. A couple though that I thought were rather superficial have become much more genuine and hopefully lasting. And then there are the new friends. Mostly made online due to the BiSC attendee list, then fostered through twitter and blog posts or chatting.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ll be going to Bloggers in Sin City this year and I’m totally stoked about it. If you follow me on twitter you already know the love I have for the awesome people who will be putting up with me hanging out with me for four of the most awesome days of the year.

I’d like to take a few more than 140 characters to share my appreciation for some of these folks today.

There’s @terrabear and @suki, both of whom I find myself replying to a lot on twitter, and who are also both awesome with comments on my blog. These girls are so amazing with saying something so little that totally makes me smile, I can’t wait to give them hugs or have time to give them the same attention!

Then there is @nicoleisbetter and @livitluvit. The reasons that @sincitymeetup is happening/exists in the first place, and that I know about it, respectively. Also, Nicole is close enough to me that one day we will find a time for me to get to the city and have a gin night before BiSC.

Dudes, I know most of you have no idea what a Nerdfighter is, and that’s totally ok, here’s a video to explain…

Well, there’s a good amount of people going to BiSC who also happen to be Nerdfighters! This means that awesome people like @writetoreach, @nicopolitan and @phampants have convinced me to go to VidCon this year! Unfortunately, Pham will not be joining us in Vegas, but we will have an awesome birthday weekend for him in July!

Ashley (the aforementioned @writetoreach) also has totes awesome conversations with me about the ridiculousness of online dating and watches! Oh, with talks of N Sync and Josh Groban thrown in constantly as well. Maybe I like to curse her for tricking me into using the word “totes” on a regular-ish basis, but one day I will make her dance and I will forgive her.

There are so many people I’m so excited to meet! @ihatesomuch and I are totes having a slow motion run hug! @brandyismagic has also promised hugs, and she wrote a pirate story for her students this week. A pirate story!!! I know there are so many more people I need to hug, but I’m distracted by thoughts of the pirate story.

Not all of these great new friendships are happening online though. My friend Gina and I met when we were both English majors, and then I started to swing dance. She’s danced for a while and I was totally intimidated by her. She’s gone through some stuff and has totally inspired me to pull through my way less intense stuff and focus on what is in front of me rather than what’s been taken away. I’m so glad that she and I have gotten so close lately. I hate that it’s right before she’s going to be moving to South Korea, but that’s the beauty of this here internet thing. We’ll still be able to keep in touch with the details of each other’s lives through not only our blogs, but email and twitter and all that awesomeness!

Plus, Gina totally validated some recent major friend frustrations when she told me that she never liked that particular friend of mine. All of the flaws I’m pointing out are totally things she has noticed without knowing this girl, well, at all really. Score!

There are so many people I am excited to meet. Please don’t take any offense if your name is not on here. I love you all, but this post is so long already! There will be more blog posts though! And so many hugs!

Lastly, for those of you who think that Hank and John were a bit nerdy for you, but you like the crazy Sheen or Gaddafi stuff happening right now, I give you the game that John made a few days ago. His toddler son makes an appearance at then end, you should play!

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