attention target team members.

i would just like the merchandising people of target [and so many other stores] to know that it is not time for swim suits yet. it is still january and we are not in sunny california or florida. i would prefer not to be going out in a hoodie, scarf, and jacket to pick up some essentials only to see skimpy bikinis at the front of the store and be reminded of how cold i am. thank you.

on another note. i am currently enjoying a glass of milk and a cookie. yum. i am going to flip through the latest issue of scrapbooks etc. when i am done writing this. i had to make a run to barnes and noble tonight to pick it up because during my pondering about whether or not to submit, i decided i should pick up the latest issue and see if i think my stuff "fits" the style of the magazine. but either way, i think i will submit. [thanks Alyssa!]

otherwise, not a whole lot to talk about. i didn't get as much done today and i intended, but i had a good day. kind of nice to be lazy for a day since i know the opportunity will be scarce once school is back in swing.

laundry.

i swear laundry is just a losing battle. last semester, i pretty much gave up on it and just bought new clothes really often so i didn't have to worry about it. yeah... i know... bad idea. bad on the bank account and bad on the already massive dirty laundry pile.

so this break i made the goal of catching up and cleaning/organizing my room. today i got in the cleaning mood again. i did 4 more loads of laundry, in addition to all the loads i did before i went on vacation. i still am not caught up. ugh.

so laundry and i just don't get along. i am beginning to think we never will.

but on a good note, my sister walked in my room today and said "whoa! your room is clean!" :] my bed is made with clean sheets, my floor is nearly clear, my closet is organzied. i still have a few more piles and bags of random things to go through and sort, but i am making progress. plus i cleaned up my scrap area and organized some things up there. i bought some cute boxes at micheal's on sale. i love them and i am going back tomorrow for more. :]

and in my little scrapbook world, i have made some progress too. i managed to get my photos printed. when i got home with them i realized how many i forgot to print... so i will have to go back, but i printed about 50 so that should be enough to keep my busy for a while. plus with school starting monday [eeek!] my scrapbooking time will pretty much go away. i am trying to do a couple pages for a magazine call. i am debating about whether or not to submit them though. i'm pretty sure they won't get picked, but of course, there is that glimmer of hope. so i just have to keep my expectations non-existent and i will be ok. [yeah right. i'll probably be a bit crushed by it, which is why i don't think i should submit.]

ok. well i am off to clean some more. first, my smudgy glasses and then more work on my room... maybe i will tackle my desk. ha.

la de da.

i made it home. sunday night. but i just wasn't in the blogging mood.

so to give some details of the trip:

the park was pretty empty, especially towards the beginning of the week... so i was able to snap this picture of the castle without too many people in the way. i like how you can see the popcorn stand too. :]

there were no fireworks the whole time we were there. friday and saturday there were supposed to be some. friday we got to see like 4, but they were canceled due to wind. saturday they were also canceled due to wind. [note: it was cold, but i did not feel said wind when i was outside.] it was sad because we had a perfect view from the balconies of our suite. [you can see the view on the photo i managed to get.]

tuesday-thursday the park closed at 8pm. lame. but the pool was open until 10pm. i did not bring a swim suit. i had to buy one. $90 was the going rate in the quicksilver store. [note: i really don't like roxy at all. the suit is cute, but only because i was able to find one that isn't blatantly roxy.] i used it one time. my sister and i went down one night and sat in the hot tub for an hour. i was feeling a little crappy, but that hour made me feel glorious.

i probably consumed over 50 chocolate covered strawberries during the week. yum. only one chocolate covered banana. sad.

we wanted to wait for my brother and sister-in-law to arrive before we went on splash mountain, so we could have a good photo. well the only days it was warm were the first two. by friday, when we were able to go on the ride, i was wearing two shirts, a scarf, and my snowboarding jacket. i have been permanently assigned to ride in the front of the boat because i am the smallest. the boat is rather heavy with 6 adults in it. i believe the water level of the ride was also a bit high. this made for water splashing over the front of the boat and down my jacket. i screamed. a lot. this was early in the ride. i was cold and miserable the entire rest of the ride. including the big plunge. in my opinion, the picture is horrid. but since we weren't going again we had to buy it. splendid.

i didn't go on california screaming. we went right when the park opened on the last day, but it was closed because some of the track cameras weren't working. i wanted to wait it out, but eventually i gave in and said we could leave. mom and dad had already left. on the way back to the room i heard this woman screaming bloody murder. turns out she was just excited because she got a dream fast past. i ran after her and got one myself, then katie got one also. a manager-type man noticed that paul and amanda didn't get one [the only give out 100 and katie and i got the last two.] so he went and got them each one, but said he couldn't do anything for mom and dad. that made it bittersweet for me. plus the fact that we were going to the room to pack up and leave. [paul and amanda stayed an extra night, so it could have been useful for them. katie and i just have some unused keepsakes.]

space mountain has music from the red hot chili peppers now. it doesn't feel like space mountain anymore, but it's still a good ride. we have a picture from that also.

there is this new buzz lightyear ride where you shoot at targets and get points. [i took this of mom and katie the first time we rode, before we discovered that you were supposed to use those guns to shoot things.] it became a favorite. especialy for dad. we went on that ride a lot, and there was generally only a 5 minute wait. it was nice. for the most part we didn't have to wait more than 10 mintutes for anything. so rare and so nice.

we ate at the rainforest cafe. it was pretty good. i got ribs and ordered the full rack because i knew my dad would have some. well we put all the bones on my plate and the server seriously thought i ate the whole thing. it was funny. we also saw this huge eel in the big aquarium that you walk through to get to the tables. he kind of freaks me out.

i was bored one night and made two silly videos on my camera. somewhat embarrassing clips of me dancing to the radio. i left my camera out when i got home, and while i was in the shower the next morning, james decided to look at the photos from the trip. awesome. i'm still not over the embarrassment. [no i am not sharing them on here.]

dad wouldn't talk to katie the whole trip home because she was being slightly bratty before we left. so he would say things and then make a point to address it to me... like, "where do you guys want to eat... AMY?" katie and i would look at each other every time and laugh.

i only ate bangel barbeque one time. sad.

i guess that's all i can think of for now. i don't have a good picture of the whole family. i am sad about that. we did the whole disney photopass thing and had their photographers take some of all of us, but none of them turned out very well. [they have these amazing digital cameras and still the "photographers" suck at getting a good picture. go figure.]

next time, i want james there. and i want to fly. i don't like driving, especially when there isn't much room.


in other news, i finished my book while i was there and the 4th sisterhood book came out. i need to go to the bookstore! there is a second book for the one i finished... so now that school is starting and i have no time to read, there is plenty that i want to read. i think i will take a saturday and read each one maybe.

i need to go to micheals today and also get two more text books that weren't available when i went to buy mine.

i might go home with james to visit his parents tonight and eat and this place i love. seriously the food is so good!

i can't believe i am going to be 21 so soon. i still don't know what to do for my birthday. ideally, i would go to the city, but i might go the weekend before.

achy feet.

well i am still in disneyland. we are heading home tomorrow. i don't quite know when, but i am ready. i miss james. my feet hurt. and i'm slightly bored. can you believe i am sitting in the hotel room on the internet because this is what i want to be doing right now? ha. i went to the park for a bit today, but it is just so cold. i had two shirts, a hoodie, a scarf, and my snowboarding jacket and i was still feeling too cold. i don't want to sound like too much of a whiner. i am having fun. i like spending time with my family and getting away from home. i like the rides and churros and popcorn too. plus the chocolate covered strawberries and bananas are just YUM. i'm just ready to be home i think.

i don't have any fun pictures to add because i don't have my computer, but i will add some when i get home. james said he is going to try to take monday off work so we can spend the whole day together. how fun. i think i might try to convince him that in the midst of our day together, i need to print some photos so that i can scrap. i have tons of san francisco pictures to print and some from this trip too.

anyway, because i am pretty bored, i'm going to do this little survey:

A= Available~ nope.
B= Best Friend~ many. james. sissy. lots more.
C= Cake or pie~ ice cream cake is good.
D= Drink of choice~ tea.
E= Essential item you use everyday~ cell phone.
F= Favorite color~ i like teal lately.
G= Gummy bears or worms~ sour worms or else mini bears.
H= Hometown~ reno.
I= Indulgences~ going to the ocean. movies [for the popcorn.]
J= January or February~ february [my birthday.]
K= Kids and Names~ secrets.
L= Life is incomplete without?~ family.
M= Marriage date~ who knows.
N= Number of siblings~ two. plus brother got married = three.
O= Oranges or apples~ apples.
P= Phobias or Fears~ a few that are unreasonable.
Q= Favorite Quote~ lots. brian andreas has some really good ones.
R= Reason to smile~ having fun with james.
S= Season~ i like different things about different ones. maybe fall though.
T= Truck or car~ mmm. suv. :]
U= Unknown fact about me~ i hate the tower of terror at california adventure.
V= Vegetable you don't like~ tomatoes [i don't care if it's a technically a fruit.]
W= Worst habit~ procrastination.
X= X-rays~ a couple. chest when i was 3. foot and cat scan and dentist ones.
Y= Your favorite food~ i like desserts. steak. fruit. lots of foods!
Z= Zodiac Sign~ aquarius.

city. happiness.

so i'm going to share tons of photos and the story of the weekend. first, we stayed an extra night! we had to. the traffic was just too bad going in, so we didn't get checked in and whatnot until about 7pm. so we just needed another day. :] made me happy. so the first picture we took in the car. i think we were near davis maybe by then? i'm not sure. but we seriously were in traffic from auburn to davis. usually i don't hit it until past roseville. i was not a happy camper, but i tried not to flip out too much.

so once we were settled into the room and whatnot, we decided to venture to north beach for italian. we took a taxi, and while it was still a cab ride, it was more mellow then some i've had. ha. we walked down columbus for a while trying to find this place recommended by a guy at the hotel, but we gave up after it wasn't where he said it was. so we decided to just pick some place and ate at this little restaurant [caffe delucchi] and it turned out so well. first, we got to sit in this little window/corner booth. it was kind of private and just mellow. the food was good and the prices were fair. i wouldn't mind going back there. [the photo was actually taken today... it was cuter at night with all the lights and whatnot, but i forgot to take a picture! so i snapped this one from the car on our way out of the city. ha.]

after that we walked down columbus some more. we went by city lights bookstore and the green george lucas building. i don't know what it is, but i am just fascinated by the beauty of this building. i mean... i find the whole city beautiful, but this building captivates me.

after that, we met up with andrew and a bunch of his friends/coworkers. we decided to walk to the club he was at... it was an interesting walk through the tenderloin. there was only one point where i honestly felt like i might get shot. other than that, it was ok. i certainly wouldn't have wanted to be alone or with just another girl, but it wasn't too bad. i find the homeless folks pretty harmless for the most part. so the club was a hipster place, as andrew explained when we got there. just dance music, so there were some interesting dance moves going on downstairs, but upstairs was pretty chill. i think it was my style. james said it wasn't really his style. i felt kind of bad... but he was good about it. we kind of called it a night early because we were tried from tons of walking and the drive and not getting tons of sleep the night before. plus poor james had been up since 6:15 because he had to work.

saturday we really didn't do a whole lot. i woke up to get breakfast at 9:30 and brought some back for james... then we just kind of slept/watched tv until we decided to start the day. so we were kind of on a mission to find james a pea coat. we went to macy's and checked in at the cheesecake factory then headed over to men's macy's to look. no luck. so we just went back and waited for our table. our meal we pretty good, but james ordered an appatizer and it took a really long time. i didn't notice so much, but at the end of our meal, our waitress told us we could have dessert on them since the meal took so long and we were so patient. ha. the whole reason we went was for the cheesecake and then we got it for free. delightful!

the rest of the day, we just kind of shopped around on the pea coat mission. no luck. bummer. we did quite a bit of walking and our feet were still pretty sore from friday's walking, so we called it a night early and went back to the hotel around 11pm. [after stopping to get me a toothbrush. yes. i forgot it. lame.] i couldn't sleep as usual, so i kind of bothered james [who fell right to sleep when we got to the hotel] until he was awake enough around 2am to go for a walk with me. we just did a little loop around. we went by ruby skye just because and stopped in union square for a while to look at the big tree and we went to starbucks on the way back to the hotel.

this morning, i made james wake up early to go to breakfast with me. the freaking key would not let us in. i have no idea why not, but i didn't feel like complaining. since we were up, we just decided to pack up and checked out. we went to the ocean first. tons of fun pictures. this one was actually taken by someone. gotta love the "we'll take yours, you take ours" photo exchange. :] then we went through golden gate park. stopped at the big windmill. the street we wanted to take through was closed, so we didn't get to see what james wanted to see. [i guess that's why there will just have to be another trip.] then we went to fisherman's wharf to get a bite to eat. james kind of wanted to see what it was all about, so although the parking was a bit of a situation, we made it there. ok. well i sort of gave up, but then we ended up driving down lombard st. and i thought we should park to figure out a new plan... well we just decided to walk from there. it worked out well. we ventured down to pier 39, but i only wanted to get some doughnuts and show james the sea otters. he liked it because there is a part in a video game that is from the pier. ha. after that, we left the city. it was a good trip. it was a great drive home. not too much traffic and the roads were pretty clear. i did manage to obtain a little crack in my mom's windshield because a rock flew up. grr. the roads were so sandy from the storm. so that was sad, but she wasn't really mad about it. all in all, i am just a happy girl right now. the trip was amazing.

tomorrow i leave for LA. i am going to miss james. i am excited to see paul and amanda though and just have some family time. i am off to play with my video camera that has finally been uncovered after 3 years. ha. i'm going to see if i can make it work and maybe i'll take some film in disneyland.

this one makes me smile.

i just wanted to add this photo. it's from a little while back... right before christmas. james and i went to an ugly sweater party. i would almost say that i had more fun searching the thrift store for ugly sweaters with james then i did at the actual party. i just think this photo is so random... antonio's head is just floating at the bottom. ha.

but really... what can i say. i love dressing up in the most silly things. ask erin and robin. :]

goodnight now.

ehh.

ok. just to update:

1. i went home this week with my mom for a couple days. it was nice. except while i was there, she informed me that my birthday is super bowl sunday. that is just a bummer. oh well. i'm going to still try to do something fun. hopefully people will still be interested.

2. i've been trying to create lots lately. i don't think i am going to post much of my new stuff on twopeas. it's just a little bit of a downer and i am so happy with my stuff. that's all i need. :] i'm still addicted to that site. i've been praising the gallery as much as i can lately. something along the lines of kill them with kindness? ha. i don't know.

3. it snowed snowed snowed today. i hope the roads are clear by tomorrow so i can go to the city! i am going to be so sad if i don't get to go.

4. during my perusal of the message boards at twopeas i found a photography challenge on the photography message board. it's like a scavenger hunt thing. kinda cool. there are 26 different words that you have to capture in a photograph. i am going to try to do it. i think the city would be a great place to accomplish it!

5. james is passed out in my bed. he had to use his chains to get here so we could watch the challenge on tv tonight. it was a double episode, so it wasn't over until 11. the roads are just too bad when combined with the fact that he was falling asleep towards the end of our tv watching. he has work at 6:30 so based on my sleeping schedule, he will probably be up before i go to sleep. terrible. i know. but i am getting a lot of reading done in my latest book. :]

6. i was in a total cleaning mood today. it started off as a drag. i knew i had to do laundry, but wasn't in the mood to at all. well i just started and things kicked off from there. i cleaned out my closet. totally amazing. so i was making some tentative new years resolutions, but now my concrete resolution is to keep things clean... keep my floor clear... keep up with my laundry... you know. just stay organized and neat. i can be such an organized person, but when i start to let it slide, i get totally messy. ack.

7. i am off to go scrapbook. i really have a good feeling about 2007. i am just going to make it be a good year!

i hope the weather holds. [but you don't need the sun to make you shine.]

i am so excited right now. i think my creative block might finally be leaving me. i sat down at my desk tonight and began the usual struggle to create something. anything. i've been hung up because i was trying to just make something and i ended up doing something totally cool to the photo i was going to scrap and it froze me. my photo suddenly seemed too good for what i had planned to do with it. i tried to come up with a new plan, but every time i laid the photo on a piece of paper... it just didn't look good enough. yes. it was annoying. i'd already been suffering from a bit of a creative block, but now it was full on.

finally tonight i got over it. and in the process of trying to figure out something to journal on the page i came up with an idea for a whole album i am going to make. ahh. i am so excited. journaling is usually the hardest part for me. i think it's important to the page, so i have a hard time just leaving it off usually. but now. this idea. it just makes it easy. every time i look at a photo now, i instantly think of something to say. i really cannot explain to anyone who knows me just how exciting this is. i flipped through all the photos i have in my little photo file and i had something for all of them. [let me say. i don't have that many photos in my photo file. i think this little situation has been adding to the creative block. my dad bought a nice photo printer for christmas, so i am reluctant to go and pay to print photos now... but who knows how long it will take for him to actually remove the printer from the box.] yeah. all i can say is that i am excited. i'm not going to say the creative block is 100% cured, but i think it's going away a bit.

i suppose i should update about new years. i decided to go out with erin. neither of us drink and neither of us felt like going to a party or paying too much money to go out some where. we were thinking about going to a movie and then watching the fireworks downtown. well the movie times didn't work out... we would have still been in the movie at the stroke of midnight. we are lame. we know we are lame. but we are not that lame. we could not allow ourselves to sit in a theather to bring in the new year. so instead, we walked around downtown. we laughed at the drunk people. we laughed at the wardrobe choices of many people. we tried to count the massive amount of tacky new years hats walking around. we got really cold. so we went into the silver legacy. i got to see james for a bit because he was there with his friends. then erin and i walked back to the car at about 11:40. on our way, some drunk girl followed us and tried to talk to us. she was interesting. she told us she could get us vip at vino's. she was just really strange. we ended up driving up by the university to watch the fireworks. erin happened to pull over on the side of the road by the bus stop. this became a problem when the bus pulled up. so we left about half way through the fireworks and went home. all in all, it was an interesting, but good night.

i am excited for double oh seven. i have the typical resolutions... take care of myself by eating better and going to the gym more... keep my room clean... do my laundry. who knows how successful i will be.

if the weather is good, i am going to the city on friday. just for a night. but i am excited. it's my favorite place ever i'm pretty sure. and if we get lucky, we might get a room upgrade. haha. i signed up for this thing so that for $15 extra, if the rooms aren't sold out, i get an upgrade which if booked to begin with was $50 more. haha. i don't care either way, i just really want to be in the city! so i am really really hoping that the storm on the ocean either doesn't come or passes by friday.

anyway. time to go read and try to fall asleep.