.Thursday!.

Today is yet another of my relaxing family days that I can never get enough of! We are all seated in our favorite places clicking away at the computers or in my sister's case putting together yet another puzzle. The only difference today is that we are officially snowed in! The city hasn't even really bothered to snow plow the roads and I for one am a-ok with it. I have never liked driving in snow. If by chance while I was in high school I woke up to a white morning I refused to leave the house. I considered it safer just to stay home and watch Oprah.

This trip to Prescott has been amazing! It has been solely about family and close friends. No parties, no drunkeness, and definitely no hangover regretfulness. I prefer it this way. I have become a glass of wine type of girl and I think it's all for the best. I hate self induced headaches and being bombarded with all the "crazy stuff you did/said" last night texts. Gross. Even in Austin I really don't drink at all, because you always have to drive (or at least I do) and I refuse to drive with more than two drinks coursing through. Never more than a healthy buzz for this gal!

Speaking of Austin, I really feel a bittersweet pull towards my new home. For the first time in a long, long time I really feel that I have found somewhere I can stay for a long period of time. I have been really lucky to meet a couple really great girls and that reallly makes all the difference. I have my job to thank for that and honestly I look forward to going back and seeing all the new stuff I've missed out on!

BUT, no rushing home for me. I want to enjoy and soak up every minute in my sweet little hometown!


Happy Thursday! <3

.End of an Era.

That's me on one of the most fun days that I've ever spent with myself. I was left to my own devices in a town with a lot of weird memories and after several intense conversations. My remedy to clear my brain consisted of malt beer and dancing down the streets.

I learned a lot about myself over the weekend and finally began recognizing wonderful qualities in someone I can absolutely call a friend from now on. He removed the blindfold I had placed over my eyes many years ago and to finally see everything for what it really is was difficult, but necessary.
At the moment I am in my hometown visiting family and relaxing. Danielle will be over at 7 p.m to pick me up and we are on our way to Phoenix for my tattoo appointment tomorrow! First one and I am super excited about the whole thing. The appointment is coming at a pivotal point in my "growing up" process and I am so happy that it will commemorate this time for me. I still have a lot to learn and the meaning behind the tattoo is hopeful and contains a lot of elements that are important to me.
It's the end of an era and time to stop putting energy into what happened in times past and start looking forward.

<3 A.Joy

.Please Excuse.

My pajamas and entirely too low quality photo! A friend of mine bought this little book for me and I am SO excited to read it. When school is in session I have a TON of required reading being a History major. So, I can not wait to read something entirely for pleasure and spend some quality time with Bob! Thank you Lance!

Other than enjoyable reading material..I am leaving Prescott way too soon. Good things always come to an end. I will be back "home" in Santa Barbara on Friday and back to work on Saturday. I checked online and Anthropologie has a lot of fun new things in, so I can not wait to get back to work and try it all on! I do not start school until the 25th and this semester's schedule is really intense. I have no idea what I was thinking. Between two History courses, anthropology(the class, not store), geography + lab, and political science....I am going to be a busy, busy lady. I am so excited.

.4 days!.

I cannot believe how fast November is going, it makes me both happy and sad at the same time.

I leave for Prescott in 4 days and I have some stuff I need to wrap up before that happens. The more I've grown up the more I realize how much I have to plan to feel good about things. My planner is always full and with the smallest things,"Fly Home, remember to check in online, you leave at 12:40, pack pajamas" and thats just part of whats written for that day! I am absolutely not good at the whole "flying by the seat of your pants" movement that my generation loves so much, I need spontaneity, but it gives me anxiety! Then again all these traits come straight from my lovely Mom and I love when I do something that she would do so I don't feel an urge to change it. One of my favorites is how she would get the suitcases out probably 1.5 weeks before the actual trip and proceed to pack them so carefully throughout the whole time span(that I don't do, I pack the night before and like she always warns me I pack FAR to much)! Speaking of Mom, I am so excited to see her I could burst! Living at home over the summer for the first time since I was 18 was so much fun, made me miss being young, and it all made me really miss my Mom. I can cook ok, but not like her and her meals are something I dream about. I have probably 4 recipes I can call go to recipes, but thats about it. None of these recipes include baked goods. I love cooking and hate baking, and strangely enough my two best friends adore baking so it works out!

Alright off to finish my project that I wrote a paragraph about in my planner!

.Back to the Beginning.

This is my little Lilly, she is a rescue mutt I was able to adopt this summer. Here she is doing what the rest of us wish we could have done through the last few days. I am all the way back in Arizona trying to recoup before round 2 next Friday. Also later today I will be calling to argue with Expedia AGAIN, adding to my bad karma.

Onto other things, not any better, but other things! Have you ever found that the things in life that hurt the worst, last for a long time? You wear your friends out, talking and venting over and over. Pretty soon, you can't even bring yourself to let it out anymore, you keep it trapped and it just hurts like hell. The Internet has become a serious agitator of these situations, I know this from personal experience. Information is overly accessible, people just put it out there, everything you want to know but, shouldn't. You know the answers you'll hear already, "let it go", "it's been to long", "there's someone out there for everyone"...blah blah! I am not really a believer in the term "soul mate", I'm a little negative on the matter...I'm not afraid to say it! I appreciate positivity, but I really appreciate someone who can say "well, you know what %^&% it, it isn't working"!

What a mish mosh this little entry is, but that's about how I feel right now. I'm feeling just about everything and that's life, love it or leave it.