Summer 2015

I have been thinking a lot about Ireland lately (no surprise there). What surprised me the most about this was how bummed I was that I would not be able to drive all over the place this summer. If I go to Ireland, I will be gone for almost the entire month of June. That would be all of the time I could take off work. I have a car for the first time in my life and I want to explore.

I have discovered a new problem with this Ireland trip. There is another trip I have to go on this May. It is required for my major and it ends two days before I would fly out. I can't justify taking that much time off of work (it would be over a month). It is looking more and more like it is not going to happen. You know what? I am okay with this. It would be awesome to go with Jessica and Kathy, but I am pretty sure that this field school is offered every year. There will be other opportunities to go. I will go to Ireland someday. It will happen, it just might take while.

In the past couple of days I have pretty much given up on Ireland, but I have also started to think about where I can drive over the summer. Most of the trips will be for geology research. I need to do a directed study for my major and the summer is the best time to get all that research done. I know that I would like to make a trip to Utah to search for obsidian (volcanic glass). It is my favorite rock. Haha. Summer is so far away and I am already making plans. Oh, goodness.

Cars and Ireland

Hello all those who manage to stumble upon this blog of mine. A while ago (I'm not sure how long, because I have no sense of time) I told you all my story about my lack of a driver's license. Well I am pleased to say that, thanks to a wonderful friend of mine and my sister, I not only have my license, but a car! Exciting stuff. It is still a bit strange for me to be driving after so long of walking everywhere, but I am getting used to all of this 'having a car' stuff. It is very nice though, to finally be able to go where I want without having to rely on others.

So in other news, I have found another possibly out of my reach trip of a lifetime. It is a field school in Ireland (the place I want to go to above all others). Since it is a field school it will be constant geology work, which is fine. This is something that will put me ahead when looking for a job in this field. It would be a great experience and I am trying whatever I can to go.

Naturally I have a voice in my head telling me that it is too expensive and I shouldn't do it, but honestly I am tired of that voice. I am tired of these opportunities passing me by. I say that and I am very aware that there is still a good chance that I will not be able to go. *sigh* I am trying. I will know more in the next few weeks. I am meeting with someone in the International Studies office soon, so we'll see how that goes.

Until nex time!

What May Never Be

I am ready to move on with my life. It is time to move on to something bigger and better, though I still have no idea what that my be. I feel like I desperately need a change, but there is one major factor holding me back. I don't have my driver's license. 

This is a tough subject to bring up. What twenty-five year old doesn't have their driver's license? I have heard people laugh at this subject, apparently it is unacceptable to not have a license. The one question I am asked when it is brought up is why? There could be many many reasons why someone in their twenties doesn't have their license, and really, it is probably none of your business. Not everyone has the same circumstances. I am sure you would be surprised to find out how many people do not have the ability or the opportunity to drive. 

Regardless of reasons, the fact does not change. I am still without a license and with very very little hope of getting one in my future. This has put me into a very bad mood this summer. I live in Colorado and not having the ability to drive is not something one can do forever. I have gotten this far without one, but I feel like I am stuck until I manage to get one. 

I have had a few people tell me that they would for sure help me get my license and nothing (the real reason for my anger). This is not really something I can do on my own. It is so very frustrating. I don't want to waste a bunch of money on a junker I could use to teach myself to drive, but that is appearing to be my only option. I can't get myself a reliable car because no one would give me a loan or a car without my license. I really am stuck and I don't know what to do about it. 

I just want to leave. I want to pack up and go anywhere that isn't here, okay so I might also really need a vacation. 

I am tired of all of this. I am tired of not having a social life. I am tired of having to take the bus everywhere or relying on others to drive me places. I am tired of not even having the option of leaving. This entire situation makes me want to scream. I really don't know what to do.

I apologize for this rant. I have tried to keep this blog from being negative, but I just needed to get this out.

Another Bout of Craftiness

Okay, I am terrible at this whole blogging consistently thing. I have actually been meaning to make this post for a while now, but I kept finding things I wanted to add. But it is finally here! I have finished all of the projects I was working on and they are ready to be shared.

Whenever I want to do a craft project it turns out being cross stitch. A few years ago I decided I wanted to try something new and I discovered I loved cross stitch. I had tried it when I was little, but my attention span was not nearly large enough to complete an entire counted cross stitch picture--I still have the one I started all those years ago. Now I am more focused and able to complete multiple pictures, given some time.

I am currently working on a large counted cross stitch, which is taking me much longer than it should to complete. I am easily distracted and I do not work on it as much as I should. But when I do finish it  I am sure it will look amazing. It is a picture of a wizard fighting a dragon.

I like to work on smaller cross stitch projects that I am able to finish in a reasonable amount of time. I do not really know how to go about making my own patterns so I turned to the internet. I searched online for fun patterns and I have actually found so pretty nice websites. The first thing I found was a lovely blog called Dork Stitch. I discovered it when I was looking for some sailor moon patterns to make something for a friend of mine (which I finished a while ago and do not have a picture of). I found many adorable patterns there, and it also led to me making this:

 It is a small hand towel. I am quite fond of the Avengers so it seemed necessary to make something with them on it. I was very happy to find that she had posted patterns of them on Dork Stitch.

And after the Avengers towel, this happened:

 Key-chains! This is the first time I have ever made key-chains so they did not work out as well as I had hoped. Today, only one of these three is still attached to the ring. Sadly, I have been told that Sherlock is lost. He fell off into the unknown. Hopefully someone has found him and is enjoying a small cross stitched Sherlock Holmes. The other is still around, but in need of mending.

These two cross stitch projects actually came after another one. This first was from some patterns I found at The Leaky Cauldron. This website is a lot of fun and has many patterns that I have yet to try. This is what I made:

These are fun little coasters. I know it is not a complete set. I made these for a friend to complete her set. She already had Gryffindor and I told her that I would make her the other three. I altered the colors on Ravenclaw some. I did not like how the colors were on the pattern and I liked how it turned out. The cross stitch part of this was enjoyable, but making them into coasters was not the most fun and it is something that I will not do very often. 

And that is all of the projects I have to show for now. I will give an update if I ever make more progress on that wizard and dragon. And maybe someday, I will start designing my own cross stitch patterns. That may be a long time from now. I need more practice! 

Jumping Out of My Comfort Zone

Well first off, happy St. Patrick's Day. One of my favorite days of the year. 

Lately I have been feeling more adventurous than usual. I am doing stuff that is out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing, but it doesn't always lead to good experiences. 

My latest adventure was a date. Now I am sure that to most people a date is not an exciting new adventure. But I don't go on dates. I am not a very social person, so it is surprising to say that I did most of the talking on this date. 

So this date: it started with dinner (and I met this guy online so this was our first in person meeting) and he was awkward. I think at one point he said he was shy or something, I don't even know. He didn't know what to say to me when I met him at the restaurant (he got there before me and already had a table). I am actually surprised at how much talking I did the whole night. 

Back to dinner. 

It was nice. The conversation kept going and there were only a few moments of awkward silences. So I do not have much to compare this to, but he started at me a lot. Just looking while we were eating or walking around after we left the restaurant. I thought it was strange and really it made me feel uncomfortable. This date stretched out for a good three hours. 

I talked to a friend of mine before me and she made sure to tell me to never get into a car with a guy on the first date. Seems like common sense when it is said out loud, but I am a blindly trusting person. I never think the worst of people so honestly it wouldn't have crossed my mind that it was a bad idea until I was in the car with him. Luckily it did not come to that. She picked me up and that was when my date got to its peak of awkwardness.

We were standing outside the restaurant waiting for her to pick me up--and he was bummed that he was not going to get to take me home--I am so glad he didn't. While we were waiting he was staring at me, so much that he even commented that he kept staring at me. And I didn't really know what to say to that. Anyway, this whole time of waiting he was trying to get up the courage to kiss me. I knew it and I was avoiding it. Something I have noticed about myself lately is I can't stand still. I bounce around a lot (something else he commented on). And that probably made it more difficult to kiss me.  Well when she arrived in the parking lot he finally did kiss me. He was aiming for the lips, but I told him no. I was just not comfortable with that. And that was the end of our date. Not terribly exciting.

Over all, I am glad that I went on this date. It may not have ended well relationship wise, but I learned a few things about myself. It took me until last night to realize that I am perfectly happy with where my life is at the moment. I do not want or need to be in a relationship. I want to focus on my goals and living my life. I am content.

And this date led to a wonderful night with a friend. Sometimes all you need is to get drinks and talk with your best friend.

Of trains and tattoos

Hello hello!

I am still thinking about traveling because, well, I am always thinking about traveling. I have added another city to my travel goals: San Francisco. Okay, I didn't really just add it. I have wanted to go here for a while, but now I have decided that I want to take the train there.

I have never been on an Amtrak train before and, even though the trip will be super long, I want to try it out. I was looking at ticket prices and just general Amtrak information and it takes over thirty-four hours to get from Denver to San Francisco. I still want to do it. It'll be a good time. I am thinking I want to make this a winter trip.

This might actually end up being the next trip I go on.

And on to tattoos. I have one on my ankle and before I graduated college I was thinking about getting another one. I actually chose what I wanted and almost made the appointment, but I wasn't sure of what I chose. So I stopped looking and then I didn't have money so the tattoo plans went away for a couple of years.

Now that I have a job again I want to get another one. And everyone at work seems to be getting tattoos and that just makes me want to get one more. I know where I want to get it (behind my ear), but I am not sure what I want.  I am leaning towards a key of some sort, but I don't want a plain boring key. So I am looking into keyblades from Kingdom Hearts. Some of those designs are actually really cool and I did consider this before, but I am not sure that is what I want. And then there is the size. If this tattoo is going to be behind my ear, I don't want it to be really big and if I choose a keyblade it might be too small to get all the detail.

I don't know. I need to start a tattoo fund and maybe when I have saved up enough I will know what I want.

Getting Crafty with Maps

So after all of the talk about traveling I decided to try out some craft ideas using maps. I love maps almost as much as I love traveling and since I have some lying around I thought it would be fun to do something with them. I found a website with a few different crafts that could be done with maps. One of them was to use marbles and mod podge to make your own magnets. I thought the finished product looked really neat so I chose that for my craft project. 

This is what I started out with. The wood words were a different craft project, but I had today off so it became a general craft day.

I'm sad to say that I do not have very many maps lying around and the ones that I do have are not very colorful. Generally, I like those kind of maps, but they do not stand out very well as magnets. So I used the internet to download a few maps. I found some historic maps that were pretty cool, but since they were downloaded they are not the best quality. I decided that they worked fine and made a couple magnets out of them. Then I thought I would have fun and bring out my nerdy side and I found a map of Middle Earth. I think those turned out to be my favorite magnets. Here is the finished magnets. It was hard to get a good picture of them so you get the less detailed picture.

After I finished the magnets I moved on to the words. All I wanted to do with them was paint them. Nothing too exciting there. Someday I might actually hang them up, but I don't really have a good place for them at the moment, so they will just lay around my room. 

Those are the results of my crafty day. Next I will work on my dragon and wizard cross stitch.