Rainy days

*I wrote this last Thursday and forgot to publish it. Ooops. *

I technically have today completely off, so I slept in a whole hour and a half. I woke up to the sound of little raindrops hitting my window and the birds chirping away, enjoying the little shower that was falling from the sky. Spring has definitely arrived and I couldn't be more excited. (I could do without the allergies though.) It's days like today that make me remember why I love New Mexico and Albuquerque so much.

*sidenote* I'm at Satellite and there is a man next to me who's eating with his mouth open and it's seriously grossing me out. I'd move...but not only was I here first, but I like the spot I got. Eh. Maybe he'll be leaving soon. Very soon. GROSS. OMG he is literally smacking his lips...eeeewwwww!

Back to why I love it here. When I lived in England I swore to myself that if I never saw another raindrop in my life I wouldn't mind. THANK YOU GOD for not listening to me! The difference between the rain here and the rain on the other side of the pond is that here it seems to bring new life to everything it touches. People are happy, our cars are shiny and clean and even the brown grass even looks slightly greener.

Don't get me started on the smell! It rained so often in England that I never enjoyed the one perk of having water fall from the sky - the fresh, clean and almost indescribable sweet scent that comes from rain. My brother once told me (and he could have been making this up for all i know) is that the reason it smells when it rains is because when the rain hits the ground, and the dirt, it sends particles in the air that mixes with the water...giving it that scent. I like to think that living in the dessert has its benefits sometimes.

Another thing I always forget about when it's cloudy outside is how mysterious and peaceful our mountains look. They even look somewhat powerful when they have clouds covering different peaks. I don't know what I would do without the mountains to our east. Not to mention when the sun peaks through the clouds and reflects to the west and you can see the mesas on the west side completely illuminated. Tis beautiful!

This is what makes me happy. Days like this. Days where I can come to a coffee shop, drink some tea, listen to good music and type away. I am in my own little world and I love it. I think everyone needs to slow down now and again and take in the beauty of their own location - wherever it may be.

Know what else makes me happy? Knowing that I'm content with where my life is right now. I'm exactly where I wanted to be and I couldn't be more thrilled. In the next few days I'm even going to start figuring and planning out a way for me to visit England for a few weeks.

In the mean time....it's time for me to stop procrastinating and get to work on my...well...work.

My car got broken into :(

The subject of this blog is not a lie. I was woken up this morning not by my alarm around 8:15, but by my mom an hour earlier telling me that someone had broken into my car. Great. Fantastic. ASSHOLES. I struggled to find some pants so I could go outside and see what had been taken.

*Sidenote - Chris, Natalie and I (Laura's coming out tomorrow) are driving to Vegas today. We were going to take my car until my mom said we could use hers. Yesterday we both cleaned out our cars. Mine was a little more ambitious to clean because I don't think stuff has been removed for months... seriously... Anyway, I cleaned my car almost completely out and took it to Octopus Car Wash for a wash that made it look just as new.

So I found some jeans and took my barefooted self outside to see the mess. My mom, who was taking my car to work today, showed me the hole - about the size of a grapefruit - the tiny window on the back left side.

*sidenote - one of the reasons my parents are letting us take their car to Vegas is because my passenger front window regulator is broken and I need to get it fixed. So, now I currently have two broken windows in my car. Will it ever NOT be ghetto???? *end sidenote*

Then I open the doors and start looking for missing things.

Radio - check
CDs - check (apparently these guys don't want to bring sexy back, get down with the Shins, meet Mr. A-Z, sit under a cherry tree w/ KT Tunstall or check out Corrine Baily Rae)
laundry detergent - check (these guys must have been smelly)
graduation cap - check
ipod headphones - check
ipod charger and transmitter - UNCERTAIN ( I can't remember if they were there or not...will confirm later today)
Registration and insurance - check
tampons - check (which makes me suspect these guys were actually guys. If it was a girl they may have taken them.... just saying)
Change - check

Like I said...I didn't have much in there, thank goodness. Here's the thing that pisses me off though - WHY BREAK INTO A CAR AND NOT TAKE ANYTHING? It's not like there was some crazy annoying alarm that went off. Granted I didn't have much that was valuable, but it still really doesn't make sense to me.

I probably shouldn't have touched everything, but I was pretending to be CSI while I was rummaging through my things. This is what I have detected thus far:

HOW THEY DID IT: They used a grapefruit to break the window, then got the grapefruit out of the back seat and ate it once they discovered there was no food in my car.

WHO 'THEY' WERE: They were boys. They did not take the tampons or any of my somewhat girly music.

WHY THEY DID IT: They didn't think the Mercedes across the street would have anything 'good.' Or, someone's been stalking me lately and noticed I keep a lot of stuff in my car and wanted something from it.

That's all I've really concluded. I tried to use my hot breath on the condensation on the car door (as I've seen in CSI) to find fingerprints...but it didn't work. I think their breath must be hotter on the show.

In other news: I'm excited for Las Vegas. Woot. Woot. Las Vegas.

Lame.

Turns out that there's nothing even remotely exciting going on in my life at the moment. That's a lie. Sorry. On Friday, Natalie and my brother are driving to Las Vegas, NV to spend the weekend there. Laura's flying out on Saturday and then we're all driving back on Monday. I can't wait for this weekend...I'm so excited to go on vacation and spend it in Vegas over St. Paddy's day with the girls (my brother can come too). Besides that...there is something ridiculously awesome going on in my life...but I'll spill those beans in July...

I know what i can do to make this longer and maybe (?) more interesting, I'll put a blog I posted on myspace in here. Read it:

Since you are all my friends I feel the need to share a very big secret with you. There is a web site out there on the ginormous internet called Student Universe. The one, and only, catch I've seen so far is that you HAVE to be a student. I know this because I tried to buy a ticket even though I just graduated. The company (a real person even) has actually called me three times and e-mailed me about 5 times asking me to send in varification that I am at a university. I can't figure out a way to give them the proof they want without committing fraud. With that said, I want to pass this great way to save money along to you. I've never received junk mail from them, only amazing deals for places I wish I could go. I've bought several tickets on this and have never had a problem. Ok. I could literally go on and on about Student Universe. Just go sign up!

While I'm on the subject of travel... IF you're planning on going overseas, or even traveling around America, check out Hostel World. This has a listing of just about every hostel, discount hotel and cheap B&B. It's fantastic...I've used this more times than I can even count. There's another website, Couch Surfing, that sounds cool, but I haven't used it...yet.

I have the itch to travel SO bad. Right now, which is probably why all I want to do is talk about the places I've been, where I've stayed and help other people with their adventures. You can take all of this with a grain of salt, I'm only one person and I've only been to a few places, but if you're reading this and going to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Florence, Ireland or Wales.

If you're still reading then I'm going to gush about my upcoming trips, all of which I am ridiculously excited for!!! The day before St. Patty's Day, Natalie, my brother and I are going to drive to Las Vegas, Nevada. The next day Laura is flying in and we will be partying like rock stars. Laura's never been to Vegas, and I've never been with just my friends. I've had MORE than a blast going with my cousins, but this will be great too. SO EXCITED. Then, in May, I'll be flying to Orlando to hang out with Kenny. While this may be on my list of craziest things I've ever done, I couldn't be more happy or excited to go out there and see him and his friends. Not to mention, Jeff and Mike are about 99% sure that they'll be out there at the same time too! I just wish May would get here a little faster.... Flash forward to September when my friend Kat from England makes her trip over the pond to visit America and the Southwest! I'm already planning on taking her to see the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Disneyland, San Diego and maybe Mexico...I can't wait for her to come over! Lots of stuff on my plate, I just wish I could get myself back over to Europe. One of these days....hummm....I need to invest in some lottery tickets!

Till next time... Ciao, Adios, Bye, Latah.