Starting April Off Right

Laying in Central Park

What better way is there to start off April than to go to New York? I can't think of any. Here's what I'm ready for:

seeing family

first meal: village pizza

mohonk mountain

newburgh waterfront
excercise = walk to dunkin, reward = donut

west point

cornwall trestle
driving
visiting friends

jones' farm cookies

billy joes!

woodbury commons
jana!

grandma's crazy comments

broadway

hacienda

running through the golf course @ 7am

galleria

As of Late

Things that have been making me happy lately:

the warm, sunny, shorts & t-shirt weather

my sketchbook

my mother's camera (don't ask what happened to my father's)

the food network

long walks in the fields

random texts

exploring castles

funny skype conversations

fashion blogs

mail

tickets to New York

Stories to Tell

flowers coming up

the morning doves on the windowsill

the sunset

My Life in a Song

I haven't done one of these in SO long. Partly because I'm not in middle school anymore and partly because it takes up so much time. I wasn't going to post it either except I think this one turned out pretty great. Some are funny, some are horrifyingly true and others are just plain wrong. In case you haven't done one before and have no idea what I just did, here's how it works: put your iPod on shuffle and, for every question, write down the song that comes on. No skips, no repeats. Here's my results:

If someone asks, "Are you okay?" you say?

Everything's Right - Matt Wertz

How would you describe yourself?

S&M - Rihanna

What do you like in a guy/girl?

The Fighter - Gym Class Heroes

How do you feel today?

Sweet and Low - Augustana

What is your life's purpose?

Body Language - Jesse McCartney

What's your motto?

Cool - Gwen Stefani

What do your friends think of you?

Your Body is a Wonderland - John Mayer

What do your parents think of you?

Believe Me I'm Lying - Forever the Sickest Kids

What do you think about very often?

Seventeen - Dave Barnes

What is 2+2?

Everybody - Ingrid Michaelson

What do you think of your best friend?

Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard

What is your life story?

Friday I'm In Love - The Cure

What do you want to be when you grow up?

No Envy No Fear  - Joshua Radin

What do you think when you see the person you like?

Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk - Plain White T's

What will you dance to at your wedding?

I Won't - Colbie Caillat

What will they play at your funeral?

Sister Sunshine - Five For Fighting

What is your hobby/interest?

Break Up to Make Up - Jeremih

What is your biggest fear?

Hey Stephen - Taylor Swift

What is your biggest secret?

You and I - Lady Gaga

What do you want right now?

Come Away with Me - Norah Jones

What do you think of your friends?

Here's To the Night - Eve 6

And I thought this would be a good time to share what happened earlier last week. A song was sent my way with the message "You need to listen to this. It's you." This song was Emily by Marc Broussard. Thaaanks. But really, thanks. I haven't laughed so hard at a song in a looong time.

There is another song titled Emily that I actually do wish was mine. If a boy sang this song to me, I'd die. Or just melt then run away with him and live happily ever after. Oh, but if my man calls it "this damn song", we're gonna have some problems.

Snip, Snip, CHOP!

You know that feeling you get when you're waiting in a doctor's office? How the minutes feel like hours and the panic slowly increases? And how, for some odd reason, the fluttering butterflies in your stomach feel the need to turn into hopping frogs? Well, I get this feeling. Only I get this feeling while I'm waiting for my turn in hair salons.

I love my thick, unruly, sometimes wavy, sometimes curly, all the time frizzy hair. It may have taken me years to figure out how to manage it but I can now...and I like it. When a hairdresser, who has never even met my hair before, calls me over to sit in "the" chair, I panic. What if she cuts it too short? What if she doesn't follow the picture I give her? What if she has her own idea of what to do with my hair?

Yes, I worry way too much but I am the one that will have to live with the end result. Today, I heard the hairdresser say, "It's just hair. It will grow back eventually." Holy moly, I don't like the way she thinks. I let her cut my hair anyway. I showed her a picture of how I wanted it done and she agreed that the style would suit me well.

I sat there watching the hair fall down in front of my face. I watched as it fell unto the "cape" and slid down to the floor. Little pieces in little chunks. Then...BAM! A good four inch piece just fell from the front of my head. Ohhhh nooo. I'm sure my eyes were huge at this point because the lady says, "It's okay!! I just needed to cut more for your bangs. It's okay." Talk about heart attack. I didn't like that feeling one bit.

She finally finished cutting my hair and she asked if I wanted it straightened. Of course I want it straightened. I don't want to go outside looking like an angry bird. It took a while but, once it was all straightened, I got to spin around with a mirror and look at it. It's so short! Or at least it's a lot shorter than I'm used to, but I love it! The lady also thinned it out so it's more manageable. I guess I should just trust her next time and save myself from the panic.

Spring 2010

I was going through old pictures on my camera and found these. I love them. I'm so excited for spring to be in full bloom once again.

Soo Long Florida

I've been back from Florida for about a week now and, of course, I'm missing it like crazy! There's just something about being by the water that makes life feel a million times better. Siiigh. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my favorite moments from the trip with you.

Let's start from the beginning. My first day there was a Sunday. My dad and my uncle went out fishing but my cousin, Eva, and I stayed in. It was meant to be windy and rainy that day and we are both too familiar with the torment that results from boating in such conditions. Brrrr. As we are laying in bed after our dads leave we hear, "Get your cameras! The peacocks are right outside!" We fumble out of our beds looking a bit dishevled, disheveled being the understatement, and head outside. We take our time getting the pictures and, while doing this, an elderly couple comes riding down the street in their golf cart. Oh, lovely retirees and their golf carts. They wave and we wave back wishing we had at least combed our hair before going outside. Ohwell.

"Can peacocks fly?" "...And there's your answer."

Later that night we had a fish fry. Some friends of our dads came over to eat with us. Eva and I ate in the dining room, which is where we came up with our plan to steal some oranges from the neighbor's orange tree. Wholesome Sunday family activity. We waited until dark and put on our black hoodies. Not that they helped with my legs being as white as snow. We headed out saying we were going for a walk. "This neighborhood is safe. Little crime," said my uncle. Hmm. We get to the orange tree and my strategy is to grab as many oranges as I can in the shortest time possible and scram. Eva's strategy is to grab the oranges that are at the top of the tree and not give up until she gets them. It would be a good strategy...if she were tall. I'm running back to the street and I hear *thump* ...*thump* ...*thump thump*. The oranges are falling out of the tree as she is jumping to reach the ones at the top. "What the hell are you doing?! Let's go!" And back to the house we go. We get inside and my uncle is standing in the kitchen sneaking food. "You caught me," he says. Our hoodie pockets and hands are filled with oranges. "You caught us," says Eva.

"Girls, those were ripe in December.." 

Fishing. Florida = fishing. I don't mind fishing, I really don't. What I do mind is reeling something in and not knowing whats at the end of my line while being in waist deep water. I could be reeling in the death of me for all I know. My first day out I caught one fish and two rocks. That night I caught a stingray and an oyster bed. Score.

Beach day. Who doesn't love a beach day? I love them. My dad, Eva, and I headed into Vero for a day at the beach. I've been to the beach plenty of times growing up but I've never actually gone into the water. I'm standing in the sand all hesitant and Eva just jumps into the waves. "That girl is freakin' crazy," I thought. "Come on!" said Eva. No. "Let's go!" she says. No. Then she grabs my hand and pulls me in. I'm glad she did. I loved it. Then all the worrying came back. "Evaaa, what if a shark comes?" "The water is crystal clear. The lifeguard will see it and say 'Get out! Shark!' and we will. Besides, there's no sharks here." Okay, works for me. After a while we get out to dry off. She stays at the towels and I go walking down the beach with my dad. He stops and talks to a guy fishing. It was all very uninteresting until I hear, "Yeah, we caught a bull shark right out front here. Took three guys to bring him in. Took us all the way down to that pier." Say what? I went back to the towels to have a little chit chat with that girl.

So pretty!

I think this next story will be the last for tonight. Stingrays and I aren't friends. Unless, of course, I'm just watching them swim around at the dock. Then it's okay but if I'm in the water...no, no, no. So we are on an island..fishing, of course, and I'm doing pretty well. I see a stingray out in front of me and I freeze. I try to be like a statue when I see these things. It didn't move. I stomp my foot down in the water hoping to scare it. Usually they swim away when you do this. This one came towards me. "Ahhhhhhhhh!" I said as I walked closer to where my dad was. I was trying to stir up sand along my way to blind it. I don't even know if you can blind stingrays but I was trying. I look behind me and don't see it. Thank goodness. I cast my pole and start reeling in. I look to my left and there is the stingray. Dear goodness. "Dad! Do stingrays follow people?!" "No, they are scared of you!" This one wasn't. I walk a bit further down, stepping over rocks that are in the water. No way the stingray can get over those. I cast out again and start reeling. Look to my left and there the lovely thing is. "Daaaad! It's FOLLOWING meeee!" "Emily! Stingrays DO NOT FOLLOW PEOPLE!" Apparently you're meant to be quiet when fishing and my hopping around trying to lose the stingray didn't quite fall under the 'quiet' category so he was frustrated. Instead of arguing, I decided to walk by my dad. I purposely walk in front of him and wait. "Geez! It is following you! Get away from me! Get!" he says. Point proven, time to skedaddle. I went on shore for a bit and waited for it to leave. I guess it's not just the boys that can't get enough of me, eh?

Stingray!

The best story by far was Eva having to pull the boat to shore. Such a typical "Rice" moment. It was so sad that it was funny. Us Rices have learned to just laugh at the craziness that comes our way. We can't avoid it so why not laugh?

Who Freakin' Knew?

I always wondered how they got coffee ice cream to taste exactly like a light & sweet iced coffee from Dunkin' Donuts. Oh my yumminess! I thought it was magic. I thought it was heaven. I thought it was flavored. Turns out it's not magic at all. They use milk, sugar and coffee in this ice cream. The same ingredients to a perfect iced coffee. I didn't realize any of this until Breyers decided to advertise "now with rich, roasted Colombian coffee!" on their box. So I'm standing there in the kitchen at 12am, in my BYU-I shirt no less, thinking, "what are the chances of this being false advertising?" Please be false advertising. Please, please, please.

Not this tooooo.

Moving Forward

Let's rewind to the summer of 2009. I was in New York when my friend messaged me on facebook and said, "My mother is annoying me. She keeps telling me to get a start on my college essays. I have six months until they're due. So annoying." Yeah, that would be annoying I thought. My parents weren't pressuring me to start any of mine yet. They knew I would do it in my own time. They didn't need to get on my case about it. I knew what colleges I was going to apply to. I knew I was going to get accepted to my first choice and I knew I would attend the following fall. Plain and simple. Nothing was going to get in my way. 

Then senior year started. I had this thing where I didn't care about much. Maybe I said that wrong. It's not that I didn't care, it's more that I knew things would get done eventually and I didn't stress to finish assignments or study for tests. It was senioritis at its best. I'd rather go out and be with friends than study for that upcoming statistics exam. And, hey, if it was a nice day, why not just skip band & seminar and go into Ramstein Village for the afternoon? Mmm, doner & gelato beats school food any day. 

Needless to say, motivation kind of turned off. I was having a great year and I wasn't too worried about it. I was still getting my A's...that's all that should matter, right? I wrote my college essays last minute and sent in my transcripts only a few days before the deadline. I still wasn't worried. Basketball season was coming up!

It was no secret why the girls wanted to manage the varsity guys' team. Can you say 'Mista Watson'? Because I can tell you the whole cheer team could. "Oh boy I just can't wait for history class..." Ahaha, but no joke, basketball season was too fun. Who wouldn't love getting out of school early for games, hanging out with the guys afterschool, getting free food from the coach...etc. So many good memories but it was just another distraction from what should have been one of the busiest times of the year. Four AP classes and no time for homework? I'm just happy I got through it.

Acceptance letters started arriving in the mail. One after another. Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. Waitlisted...WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN?! Just as a side note, 'heck' was not the word I used at the time. Of course this was my first choice college that I just got waitlisted for. Ew. People sugarcoated it. "They only accept 990 students out of 22,000 applicants." "You got accepted to a lot of great schools! Any of them would be a great choice." All I knew was I wouldn't be going to my dream school. 

I got over it after a while. There was so much to distract me. Everyone was taking advantage of their last few months together. I didn't even think about which college I was going to choose until last minute. If you know me at all, you know that making decisions is my least favorite thing in the world. I wish somebody would just tell me what to do sometimes! Sometimes. Anyway, with some other things going on at the same time I decided to take a year off.

Graduation kind of snuck up on us all. Yeah, everyone was excited for college and talked about it constantly but no one could hide how much we'd miss our friends. Everyone was making plans for last minute trips together to Europa Park, Paris...wherever. I had different plans to make. Where was I going to be after graduation? I had no idea. 

I think I zoned out for most of graduation. Everyone's eyes filled with tears from the speeches being given. I sat there thinking, "All of these people know what they're doing. I messed up!" I walked across the stage receiving my fake diploma and putting on a fake smile for the photographer. If I sound depressed right now..know that I wasn't. I was just scared. Scared out of my mind. 

Graduation night was spent at my best friend's house. A few people were there and there was food. Food is always a plus. When just us two were left, we talked and talked avoiding anything about boyfriends, college, or the future in general. It was basically talking about the goodtimes we've had through high school. It was great. 

Time went on and people started heading back to the States. I went back too only to return to Germany three weeks later. After a few going away parties, everyone was gone. It was so sad! I stopped doing so much of what I used to enjoy. I don't think one flower in my backyard escaped the lens of my camera the spring before. Now there were no new pictures to be found on it. Music? I gave that up entirely. I still can't recall half the fingerings for some notes. My journal that I used to write in everyday slowly came to an end. I knew it was dumb to sit around feeling sorry for myself but I couldn't help but wish to be anywhere but where I was. 

After about a month of this moping around I decided to get a job. And by "decided" I mean forced by the parental unit. I started working at Cinnabon where I met some great people. 

Things started looking up fast. I was starting to like being in Germany. I started going out after work with some friends and even going to church with one of the girls on Sundays. I think that shocked half a population. The same girl had a passion for photography. I watched as she took pictures of everything...people, places, events. It almost motivated me to pick up my camera again. Almost. Her brother had a talent for music. When I say "talent" I mean TALENT. He almost got me into wanting to play again. Almost. Then there was another girl who worked there that would write in her journal on her break. Everrrry time. It was like somebody was screaming at me to be me again.  

But I thought too much about how my life would be different if I was just brave enough to make decisions. I was set on believing that I had made a huge mistake that could never be fixed. All I did was overthink. My brain became my problem and it didn't stop being my problem until last week. 

Last week, I was talking to two of my friends on skype. I forget what we were talking about..just kidding, I know exactly what we were talking about but I'm not going to tell you..ha :) Then all at once it hit me. Life isn't complicated. I'm making it this way. All at once I realized that if I could just let go and stop thinking about the past, I could easily be truly happy and enjoy the present. I have received so many blessings in my life and I just overlooked them because I go straight back to that moment when I decided to stay in Germany. When I look forward from that point, I can see that it wasn't a mistake at all. So much has happened because of that decision, things that changed my life for the better.  All I had to do was let go of the past, learn to enjoy the present, and look forward to the future.

There's so much coming up in the next few weeks. Euro Disney, New York, a new semester at school. It's going to be fun, but, until then, I sit here writing my little heart out, posting pictures of where I've been and being thankful for how great life is! :)

Camera Dilemma

I have a problem when it comes to my dad's camera. That problem is the fact that I cannot work it. The moon was shining so brightly tonight. I wanted a picture that showed this. I did not get that. I got a million blurry pictures of the moon...and the camera made it look like the sun. All orange and yellow. Somebody would guess that it's the sun rising..not the moon.

The sky was not smokey. The moon was not sunny. Real life isn't blurry.

I was having a fit. "Why can't the camera see what I see?!" I kept asking my dad. "Shhh! You're scaring the fish!" he said back. I also think I was giving the old people next door a heart attack. They probably thought WWIII was happening with all the camera flashes going off by their house. And that's when I realized...turn off the flash.

So I did. And though I'm pretty sure I'm not taking the picture on the correct settings for night time and all...I got a semi-decent picture. I really need to read the manual. Not that my father did. And he has had this camera for years. Anyway, try to imagine this picture with a moon that's a million times brighter and bigger and with non-blurry lights in the background.