Date: 1/2/2012 It is 2 am, well 1:57 am to be exact, but who needs exact measures anyways? I drove an hour away to visit a friend today. We had so much fun, it was simple, nothing extravagant and it was better then I planned. We walked around the downtown area and visited and art gallery of types. The woman is so incredibly talented, her brushstrokes were clean and simple. She makes painting look easy.

I'm very excited that I did the trip by myself. Normally I would be way to nervous and beg someone to go with me, but I had the choice this time of either a) someone going with me to pick up my friend and being embarrassed, because what 22 year old can't drive an entire hour to someplace new to meet a friend?, or B) go by myself, avoid humiliation, and feel a sense of appreciation that I did it all by myself and I am improving as a driver. I chose B. I'm very pleased.

I am pleased to say I did try something new also today, I had Thai food! I had a Papaya Salad with some sort of Peanut Dressing. It was very sweet but very spicy at the same time. The menu said Medium- Slight Kick, Mild- Tangy, American Hot- hot enough for most spicy enthusiasts, thai hot- extremely spicy. So naturally my friend I picked Medium. Yeah right, that was so not medium spicy. It was so spicy that my lips were burning, my nose was running, and my eyes were watering. Also, after a while it got to be too much and I just couldn't finish it.

We had some stress at the house tonight, I won't go into it, but I think another thing for me to improve upon is to handle stressful situations better. I can't really comment on how I am doing with that, considering I haven't even started. I do hope however, that sooner rather then later I can learn to not panic in certain situations that normally i do.

Date: 1/4/2012

I am telling you it was such a thrill to do that by myself. I think I may do it more often. Once I learn the route by heart I can sit back and relax, the drive takes forever, but it was so worth it to spend some time with a good friend. I've known her since high school. It's actually kind of a funny story, my Extremely Good Friend/Best Friend in High School was friends with the girl I met with on New Years Day, first. When my HS VGF(Very Good Friend) introduced us we hit it off right away. We did Art Club together and chatted all the time. My VGF introduced us because I needed someone to be friends with when she left to go live with her mother 2 hours away.

We had similar styles, and opinions. We had our differences, however, that was what made us unique individuals and such great friends. So when VGF moved away we hung out at school a lot. She helped me get out of my shell and make new acquaintances and lunch buddies. So when VGF moved back, I didn't need her as much, I wasn't as clingy, which was a very good thing.

After High School ended we lost contact for a while. It wasn't until I was working at Macy's my Freshman year of college did I see my friend from school again. We exchanged numbers, and unfortunately my BlackBerry Curve had accidentally deleted all my numbers and information from the cell phone. At this time I didn't do Facebook, it was just MySpace, so again we lost contact. But, my sister kept pushing me to get a Facebook account and I finally conceded, I'm not sure how much time went by, but somehow we discovered each other on FaceBook. Most likely through mutual friends. That's a story for another time.

But, we've been chatting back and forth for about a year now and I finally got the courage up to ask if she wanted to hang out on New Years Day, and well you all know what happened.

I'm telling you all, it feels good to go out an explore new places. As long as you have your handy dandy GPS on you, hopefully an updated version, you can meet people and maybe even try something new. We're even going to see each other again, I'm going to drive up again during the week next time, and we'll spend even more time together.

Onto the Music Portion and Books of My Blogging experience:

Books:

I haven't actually read any this week, I am again, re-reading, The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I wish I had more to give you today, but it's such a good book and my favorite that I can't stop reading it.

However, I do have a couple of suggestions.

Bloodlines By Richelle Meade, part of her Vampire Academy Series, but can stand alone. It's about Sydney the Alchemist that was introduced in the second to last book of the VA series. Could be the last one. I have not read it yet, but I am eager. I just need to save up and buy it.

The Art of Racing In The Rain- Garth Stein, it's about a dog who believes he will be human in his next life and convinces his Guardian that he is too old and needs to go to sleep. I have started it and it is a wonderful tale, but I can't bare to finish reading it since I have a 13 or 14 year old Beagle that is struggling with old age. It's too familiar for me, and I just can't finish it. Not right now. However, I do highly suggest it be read, it is written in the Dogs POV.



Music:

Meg & Dia - Here, Here, and Here (The Album, available for Download on their website.)

Michelle Branch's latest EP- Everything Comes and Goes. (Available for Download on iTunes or any music download website)



That's what I have for you guys for now, I'll try and post some more later this week. I'm going to try and work on another Resolution, working out more often.

Tootles for now,

The Authoress In The Big Bad World