I'm On A Boat.

Well...I was.

A BIG one.

For realz.

Look how big:

 

Not impressed? How about adding some perspective. Look a little closer in the photo (like at the thing circled in red with the arrow pointing at it):

That's me! The little itty bitty thing inside the circle! Looks a lot bigger now, right?

So last week I went on a Caribbean cruise! I've never been on a cruise before...in fact, my family never really goes on vacation...but it was SO FUN. I shall now relive it so you can all rage with jealousy.

We left early Monday morning (and I do mean early) to drive to New Orleans, where the ship was docked. We got there around 2:30 and boarded the boat, which left around 4. Monday and Tuesday were spent sailing.

The cruise line was Carnival, which is known as the party boat. So there were constantly activities going on. Dance lessons, parties, contests, games, karaoke, shows to name a few. There was also a swimming pool, a water slide, a mini golf course, hot tubs, ice cream and frozen yogurt available 24 hours (!!!), and more.

The first day we didn't do much. We hung out in our room, explored some, ate dinner at the restaurant and went to bed. The second day, we pretty much did the same thing except we went to a comedy show before dinner, which was pretty funny.

Day 3 we made our first stop in Progreso, Mexico. There's not much to do there so we mainly just did some shopping. We also grabbed lunch and got a massage on the beach. :) That night, we went to a dance class and learned the moves to Thriller. We also went to a game show and the crew talent show.

Thursday was Cozumel and the beach there was gorgeous. In Cozumel we went snorkeling and...

 

...SWAM WITH DOLPHINS!

And you know what that means.

Yep.

I get to cross off my first bucket list item of 2013.

That was probably my favorite part.

After we got back on the boat, we had a little time for R&R before heading for dinner and the guest talent show afterward. I actually got really seasick after boarding the ship again. The boat was moving A LOT and apparently my stomach didn't like it. But I ate some Saltines and all was right again.

Friday was another day at sea, during which we just chilled. I watched some TV in the room, ate some ice cream. They opened up a chocolate bar and I got a piece of chocolate cheesecake that was really gross so I didn't finish it. Now that I'm talking about cheesecake I reeeaaalllyyy want to go to the Cheesecake Factory...

We went to a different comedy show that evening and then to our final dinner on board. We also went to an "end of the cruise" show which was pretty cool. Lots of singing and dancing and a lady making us sit far away because she was reserving seats that nobody ended up sitting in.

Now please enjoy a few more pictures so you can get the full experience.

 

 

I hate formatting pictures on here. It never works for me the first time. It always gets messed up and then I try to fix it and it still messes up and GRRRR. So because I had problems, you'll notice there are no captions. The captions you can find below, in consecutive order.

1. Looking at the Caribbean at the front of the ship.

2. Kissing a dolphin. Best. Day. Ever.

3. The dolphins did something called a foot push where they push you by your feet and you fly.

4. Snorkeling with a fish.

5. At the comedy show, drinking a non-alcoholic daiquiri.

6. My dad's zombie pose for the Thriller dance. :)

7. All the towel animals the turn down service did for us! So fun.

I highly recommend a cruise and swimming with dolphins if you get the chance. It's a ton of fun. Next time, I want to do a Royal Caribbean cruise. Just do a google images search for it and you'll see why. 

Also, as a side note, I think I'm going to expand my bucket list. Because there are a gazillion other things I keep thinking of that I want to do that aren't on there. And I may throw a few on there that I've already done just so it looks like I've done some. :) So if you want to check that out...then just click the tab at the top that says "My Bucket List." It's really that easy.

Until next time.

Peace out, yo.

It's a Brand New Year.

Happy January 1st, everybody!

Another year has gone by. And if you've been reading my posts all year, you know that I had some major disappointments earlier in 2012, but at the same time, so many great things happened in the year as well. To recap:

I participated in a mud run,

I went to prom,

I graduated from high school as valedictorian (also, here),

I went to San Antonio on a senior trip with my good friends,

I participated in a 3 week long training program with some girls in my youth group,

I started college,

I turned 19,

I saw Les Miserables TWICE (at the Bass Hall and at the movie theater),

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time,

I had a merry Christmas,

And a happy New Year (to be blogged at a later time).

2012 stretched me, challenged me, humbled me, encouraged me, made me cry, and made me smile in so many different ways. I crossed three things off my bucket list, I made some new friends, I joined the "adult world" for the first time. And I missed a lot of things about high school, but I still enjoyed my new stage of life.

This year, I earned about 70 college credits, putting me at a total of 84. (If I pass my test this Thursday, I'll have 90 and officially be a college senior). And I survived the end of the world.

I'm definitely going to miss parts of 2012, and I'm definitely NOT going to miss other parts. But I'm definitely excited to see what 2013 has in store for me. Some things I know will be happening:

• I'm going on a cruise next week!
• I'll be finishing college in May and graduating in September.
• I'll be starting and hopefully finishing getting my teacher's certification.
• I'm entering a new decade this year! 20 years!
• And then of course Christmas and New Year's are always something to look forward to.

I rung in the New Year by throwing the first party I've ever thrown in my 19 years of life...and I do believe it was a success. I will post about that tomorrow or another time this week.

But until then...I wish everybody the best in 2013. I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve, and here's to a brand new year.

P.S. I had the exact numbers of posts in 2012 as I did in 2011. I am way too consistent.

My Week With Shamu.

Okay, so in actuality I only really spent about 30 minutes out of the whole week with Shamu. But it was a better title than "My San Antonio Trip," which was the other option. I'm not good with titles.

Anyway! I will now recount the events of my senior trip to the best of my ability. Don't worry, there's pictures, for those of you who hate reading.

We left the morning of Saturday, June 2nd to begin our epic adventure of initiation into adulthood in none other than the very city that marked the turning point of the war for our beloved state of Texas' independence! Others who journeyed here before us include Samuel Houston, William Travis, and Jim Bowie. In fact, I probably set foot upon the exact place where Davy Crockett's lifeless body laid...cool, right?

(Please excuse the history lesson. My mom's an American history teacher. Though I may or may not have had to turn to google to check the accuracy on a few of those facts...shh. Don't tell.)

Anyway, my faithful companions on this adventure were my good friends Meagan, Ellen, Christopher, Luke, and Stephen! Now, take a break from reading, and enjoy these pictures:

 

Ready for a week of epic awesomeness.

Remembering the Alamo...or, trying to remember, at least.

 This was Luke's idea. I think he was the only one who knew what we were doing. 

Something about a line...?

Okay, so that was day one! Well, and the second half of day two...we went to the Alamo at the end of the second day after we got back from Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. But I don't actually have any pictures of Schlitterbahn cuz, you know, it's a water park, and iPhones don't take very high quality pictures in water.

Actually, I didn't take any of these pictures...so you can blame the friends I stole these pictures from for not taking pictures at Schlitterbahn. Which is a German word, pronounced Sh-litter-bon. In case you read that, and thought I was crazy.

Anyway, day three, and my personal favorite day (:D) was dolphin day! Also known as Sea World day. If you don't know, my favorite animal is a dolphin. Shamu was cool too, but he is also capable of eating people. Dolphins just want to play with people. They're pacifists. And much less risky.

Also, there are about five killer whales at Sea World, and they are ALL named Shamu. Even the baby is "Baby Shamu". Such a scam. I hope the kids never find out. Because when I found out, it was like my whole childhood was a lie and I could never trust Shamu again.

Dolphins don't lie to little kids.

Anyway, picture time!

 

Waiting for scam artist Shamu(s) to come out.

 

So Shamu can pose. Big deal. Dolphins can do flips. BACKflips. That actually

requires talent. 

 

I look a lot happier in this picture. Probably cuz we were waiting for the DOLPHIN

show. 

 

Reason #52 why dolphins are better than Shamu: That mouth is open for a fish.

NOT a human being.  

I fell asleep in the car on my new pillow.

 And there's the pillow. It was too perfect that the dolphin one was purple.

Okay, I think I'm done ragging on Shamu now. 

Tuesday we didn't do much. We were going to a fancy steakhouse for dinner that night, so we didn't want to do anything that would make us look all gross for that. Sooo...we went bowling! And then the BOYS made us go SHOPPING for like TWO HOURS. First time ever I have been stuck in a mall sitting on a random couch in the middle of the building waiting for a boy to finish shopping. And hopefully the last time; it wasn't too fun.

They had to buy a sweater vest for Christopher, but it was some big secret so the girls had to go away. And it took them FOREVER to find one.

So then we got back to the hotel and had like 45 minutes to get ready for dinner. And then we went to Chamagaucha steakhouse which was AMAZING. I've never eaten so much meat in my life. It's one of those places where they just keep bringing out more and more and more and more meat until you're about to die from fullness and then they still bring more.

 

Bowling!

 

In the elevator in our pretty dresses :)

 

At the restaurant.

 

 We told them we were celebrating our senior trip, and they brought us a free

slice of cheesecake! It was gone in 30 seconds. So good.

 Us in front of the restaurant. Christopher is wearing the vest that took two hours

to find. I hope it was worth it.

Day four was Fiesta Texas day! I LOVE theme parks and roller coasters, so that was fun. It was really hot, though. I was so dehydrated by the end of the day...I think I walked around for about 20 minutes (or it felt like it) looking for a water fountain...only to find out there was one like five feet away from where I started searching. We left by mid-afternoon, and just hung out at the hotel the rest of the day. Then, that night, we went to the Chart House Restaurant in The Tower of the Americas for dessert. It's a really fancy restaurant in downtown San Antonio that overlooks the city and actually revolves so you can see the whole city and not just a quarter of it. I tried creme brulee for the first time and I will definitely be getting that again. It was so good.

 Waiting in line for a ride I don't remember the name of. But whatever it was, it

 gave me whiplash and a headache.

On "The Scream"! About to shoot up 5000 feet into the air! Or whatever a 

more realistic height is. I'm not good with numbers. 

 At the Chart House. Isn't that view amazing?

Our last day, we left in the morning and then spent part of the day at Schlitterbahn again before heading back home. It was sad that it was over. Because it was fun. And who likes it when fun ends? 

  The only Schlitterbahn picture we have.

All in all, it was a really fun trip. I especially appreciated it because I didn't get to go on my school's senior trip and I had been pretty bummed about that. Then I found out the possibility of a smaller senior trip with these great friends of mine and I was super excited! So glad it worked out, and that we got to do everything we wanted. :)

Oh, and in case you were wondering or concerned...we did have parents with us. Mine and Christopher's were there, but they didn't go anywhere with us. They were just there in the same hotel/city with us, you know, in case of an emergency. It was fun!

So yeah, great time with some great people! And then I came home, had about three days to re-coop, and then I had to pack all over again for the three week summer training program I went to next! I will have a post about that up...later. As in, like early next week later. Like Monday or Tuesday. More likely Tuesday, because I'm a procrastinator. But we shall see.

Did you go anywhere this summer?  

The Class of '012.

Yes, I did realize I wrote "'012". I did that on purpose. "Class of '12" sounds like it's missing a syllable.

Sooo....I'm graduated! That wonderful day that you all heard me talk about way too much...it finally came! I graduated Tuesday, May 22nd, and boy does it feel grand. Cue the music... "I feeeeeeel good! *duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh* I knew that I would! *duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh*"

 But in all seriousness, I am so glad it is over. It has been so stressful the last several weeks, as you may have guessed from my lack of presence in the blogosphere. I have pictures, which I know you are dying to see...but if I put them in this post, this post is literally going to be a mile long...so, I will dedicate a separate post to them later, but here's a preview:

Oh yeah, things got crazy.

So, you may be wondering...now what? I think the question most commonly heard by new graduates is "So, what are your plans for your future?" Ah, the future. I am a future person. I have my wedding planned. Heck, I have my funeral planned. (Have I mentioned I'm a planner?) I like to think ahead. However...my future is kind of hard to explain....

"I'm going to be enrolling full time at UTA in the fall, because I was valedictorian and have a scholarship I can only use if I enroll full time. However, I'm also going to be testing out of various courses through CLEP and DSST and also taking some online courses. Then I will take all the credits from UTA, the testing, and the online courses and transfer them to this random state college in New Jersey that you've probably never heard of called Thomas Edison and receiving my diploma from there with a degree in liberal studies. My goal is to finish in two years, then go on to get my teacher's certification."

That's the true answer to that question. But what I actually say is,

"I'm going to UTA."

It saves a lot of time and I don't have to answer a gazillion questions about why I'm doing it that way or how we heard about the college or the tests or whatever. Occasionally, people ask about my major, to which I say "liberal studies" and then pray that they don't know that UTA doesn't have a liberal studies program because that just brings up a whole bunch of other questions that I really don't want to answer.

In the much nearer future, however, I have some exciting things going on as well. For instance, I am leaving in the morning to go to San Antonio with some of my best friends for about a week. We're going to Fiesta Texas, Sea World, and Schlitterbahn while we're down there. We're also planning on a fancy dinner at an expensive steakhouse and dessert in a revolving tower overlooking the city. Can't wait! :)

(Don't worry...we have parents going with us, they just won't be hovering.)

Then, a few days after I get back, I am leaving for 3 weeks to go live in/renovate a house with a bunch of other girls from my youth group. We will also be learning life skills like cooking, cleaning, budgeting, laundry, etc. It should be a lot of fun, though it will definitely be challenging as well. So just a heads up...I will be MIA for most of June as I can't bring a phone, a computer, or anything like that with me.

July, I plan on working more, and doing some school (I already have 27 hours! That's almost a year of college...and I just graduated! Woohoo!). Hopefully I'll still have some time for fun though...I don't want to be the boring person who works all the time... :) Anyway, I'm bringing my laptop to San Antonio so you may be hearing from me there. I am definitely most excited for Sea World. When I was little I wanted to be a marine biologist, because I love dolphins so much. Haha, can't wait!

 Oh, on a side note...my phone and charger mysteriously moved outlets last night. My parents said they didn't do it. I have come to the conclusion that someone in my family is a sleepwalker, and I intend to find out who. The culprit will NOT get away with this...unless of course it's me, in which case I forgive myself.