and when i saw it, it was pure magic.

Reader, I am loving what you have going on with your hair right now. I am jealous.

I came home for lunch today.

My lunch was toasted bread with chunky peanut butter on it. (freaking yum).

While I was waiting for my bread to toast in the toaster machine,

I was looking out my kitchen window down into the street by my apartment.

And what did I see?

Well I will tell you right now what I saw.

Four men walking across the street in a perfect line.

You are probably thinking this has zero significance because people walk across the street every day.

BUT.

This is what it looked like:

Identical.

I knew that if I had some food or drink in my mouth when I saw this, I would have spit it out in disbelief for sure.

It was crazy how similar it looked.

I may just be insane, but from the appearance of the fellows crossing the road, they looked like they were in a band too.

Reader, it was pure magic.

I wish  you could have seen it, too.

things i don't suck at.

Being paranoid.

I am probably the most paranoid girl named Kaleena there is.

For example:

My boss asks me to go to her office when I get a free minute. I am getting fired.

I have to sleep with my blankets covering me even if I am hot. I can't take the blankets off because that's how they get you.

Person doesn't text me back in timely manor. They hate me.

Set alarm on phone. Check 8 separate times before I fall asleep to make sure I did.

When I use CTRL+C to copy. I hit CTRL+C 10 or more times to make sure I am actually copying it.

Need to use calculator. Hit clear numerous times before entering equation.

See a cop car/cop walking down the street. Act more normal and innocent than I already am. 

Hear unusal noise at night. I have minutes until my death.

See what I mean?

This is my life.

a day in logan, utah.

A day in Logan, Utah is a day too long, that is for sure.

Once upon a time, I really, really liked the city Logan.

Whenever I went up there as a kid to visit, I would declare I was going to move there when I was old enough and I loved everything about it.

Now when I go up to Logan, the only thing I think of is how insane I was as a child for thinking that.

Logan isn't that bad, after all, I am the queen of exaggeration.

My camera on my phone is highly unimpressive. But I really wanted to take a picture of how pretty the snowy hills and mountains looked when we drove through Logan Canyon.

In Logan we:

+Ate at Formosa. A delicious Chinese restaurant. My fortune cookie actually had a fortune, it said: your efforts in a certain area will soon pay off.

+Saw some people/friends I haven't seen in forever and a day.

+Went to the Utah State University basketball game. 

+Sat in the most uncomfortable seat.

+Went to Coldstone to get some ice cream. I got cake batter with oreo.

wait...what?

I saw a woodpecker in the parking lot of my work today.

I've never seen one and honestly wasn't expecting to see one at work let alone in the winter.

I tried taking a picture but as soon as I got my camera out, the bird flew away. 

Animals never cooperate.

So I found this image on the internet. 

Replace the leaves with snow and this is basically what I saw.

Also, I've noticed the the most common phrase in my vocabulary is... "wait... what?"

Want to know how it was a slow/boring day in the life of Kaleena? Because the only thing I came up to post is a bird that I saw. Ha.

photo by: me.

why don't you tell me that 

'if the girl had been worth having, she'd have waited for you?'

no, sir, the girl really worth having won't wait for anybody.

f. scott fitzgerald.

name?

Good ol' Tyler, a silly co-worker of mine, sent me an email today with 'Name?' as the subject. He wanted to know where my name came from and what it meant. Completely random but okay.

When I asked my mom when I was little where my name came from, she said she got the name from a Leave it to Beaver episode or the ending credits to an episode (I can't remember). So that is what I told Tyler.

Tyler and I were both curious what it meant and the originiation of it, so we went to the trusty Google machine.

This is what we found out:

It actually means "flower" and it is from Russia.

I am 22 years old and I just barely found out what my name means and where it is originated from. Ha.

*Also, in case you are curious how to pronounce it, it's Kuh-LEE-nuh. But some strangers like to pronounce it: Kale, Kaylee, Kaloo, Katie, Kathleen, etc. They basically see the K-A and just let their imagination do the rest.

the newest owner of a VW bus.

I, Kaleena, am proud to announce I am now an owner of a VW bus.

!!!

This is the part where I should probably tell you that it's just a toy VW bus.
But I want a real one so bad that I had to settle on this little toy one and it's probably the closest I will get to owning one.
I still wish my future husband and I can buy a real one and take a road trip across the United States for our honeymoon.
Awww.

snow.

It snowed a lot this weekend.
And it's snowing again right now.

My favorite thing is how pretty the snow looks sitting on the tree branches.
photos by: me

make me a bird...

Things I know:

Life is funny.

Life can be ridiculous.

Weekends are short.

I need more hobbies.

I like to do nothing.

Cleaning out your closet is hard when you keep memories on all your clothes.

Monday is tomorrow... Or right now if you get technical.

I still haven't been to New York.

People are nice.

I can be an idiot.

Making certain decisions is never easy.

Nothing worth having comes easy.

People say I'm creative.

the end of missing someone.

photo by: me.

This is my friend Kramer and I miss him a lot.

At one time in my life, he was my best friend. 

We lived together for a few months in Sugarhouse.

Living together as roommates consisted of:

Him moonwalking by the bathroom door while I was doing my hair.

Eating lots of Oreos and drinking lots of grape soda.

Watching the TV show Weeds.

Me driving him to and from work.

But my favorite memories of Kramer is going to the bookstore, Sam Wellers and hanging out at his apartment after I moved back in with my parents. He was always there for me when I needed a friend. 

Everyone should have a friend like Kramer in their life. He is/was one of the greatest friends I've ever had.

expectations vs reality.

What I wish would have happened today:

-Wake up comfortably warm in my bed without a pounding migraine.

-Go to the basketball game.

-Not get my jeans and shoes soaking wet from the snow.

-Go to Barnes and Noble and spend hours browsing the books.

-Walk around town and take pictures of all my favorite places covered in snow.

What really happened: 

-Woke up in my bed all kinds of crazy-sweaty hot with a pounding migraine.

-Went to the basketball game but didn't enjoy it cause of the migraine.

-Got my jeans and shoes soaking wet because of the snow. This is the worst part of winter.

-Didn't go to Barnes and Noble and spend hours there.

-Didn't walk around town and take pictures of all my favorite places covered in snow.

-Went to sushi with my sister.

What is the lesson that we learned by reading the difference between these lists? That migraines DO in fact ruin everything. 

the internet rules.

Guess what? My neighborhood is cooler than yours. And this is how I know:

You can't really tell, but that is a photo I took of a movie being filmed. Yes. Just right around the corner of our apartment. Don't get too excited though because I have no idea what movie it is. The only person I recognized is Angela Kinsey from the Office, so that is a dead giveaway that movie won't be great. At all.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Anyone who uses the internet as much as I do or listens to the news has heard of SOPA/PIPA by now. For those of you who haven't heard, it's basically the government trying to make the internet less awesome and more censored. January 18th will forever be the day that I was most productive at work... only because my favorite websites (Reddit, Wikipedia) were blacked out due to protest. I signed two different petitions to stop the SOPA/PIPA bills from being passed. I got an email today that said this:

"A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.

The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game.  You were heard."

So YAY! I was apart of history because I participated in the largest online protest. Can I get a big raise the roof?

what's going on in my life part 3.

Update #1 - Bad hair days. Have you not had a bad hair day in a while? Well, don't worry, it's probably because I have been having them for everyone on the planet. Yes, I do know that there are larger issues in the world to be concerned about, but honestly, my hair is behaving in ways I didn't know hair could. Part of me is honestly impressed that my hair is capable of doing what it's doing.

Update #2 - I've been dreaming about ice cream lately. I'm confused why I was dreaming of ice cream considering I don't really like it and it makes me cough and cough and cough. And cough. According to the handy-dandy internet that I would surely die without, this is what it means to dream of ice cream:

To see or eat ice cream in your dream denotes good luck, pleasure, success in love and satisfaction with your life. You need to savor the moment and enjoy it.

Update #3 - I've been watching the Friend Zone on MTV. Basically, it is a show where two (male and female) people are BFF's and one has strong feelings for the other. They eventually share their deep feelings for them and pour their hearts out to them in hopes to take the relationship to the next level. Some say yes (wahoo!) some say no (eff that). If I poured my entire heart and soul to my BFF in hopes to be his girlfriend he said "no we are just friends, you are in the friend zone." I would retaliate by putting him in the dead zone. Ha. Not really, but who knows. 

Update #4 - Saw this picture of this girl and it made me really miss my bangs. I came this close to cutting them. But instead I just put the scissors down and ran away...

how to know you have an awesome sister.

This is a way to know you have the coolest sister around:

1. You get into your car.
2. You notice your gas light is still on after a day of driving.
3. Panic. Remember how much of an idiot you can be.
4. Call her up.
5. She says she will leave work and come put gas in your car after she finishes eating her donut.

Want to know how I know? Because my sister Shandey, did this for me today. My other sister Lacey is pretty cool too.

kaleena then, kaleena now.

Hi hi hi!

So, pretty much, if I could go back in time and do anything I wanted, I would go back to like, fifth grade and write myself a letter to myself to read in the future. Just a letter to myself saying what I would wish for my future self at age 22.

Since I didn't think of this idea back then, probably because I busy collecting Pokemon cards and making my Leo book (a book made up of Leonardo DiCaprio magazine clippings) I am only left to wonder what fifth grade Kaleena would have put in that letter. And here are a few things that would probably come up:

Fifth grade Kaleena would want present day Kaleena to...

Be married to Prince Eric from Little Mermaid.

Living in California. (I was obsessed with California back then).

Owning a pet hospital where I was a veterinarian.

I'd be driving this purple Eclipse. My fifth grade dream car.

Being a mom of six kids. Yes, once upon an insane time, I used to want six kids.

Well, fifth grade Kaleena would've been severely disappointed because right now 100% of what she wanted in fifth grade is 100%  close to not happening. In fact, the only thing I still want is to be married to Prince Eric from Little Mermaid.

just an old fashioned blog post.

This post would have been brought to you 40 seconds sooner, but I just spent the last 40 seconds choking. I guess I ate that E.L. Fudge cookie too fast and drank a sip of water even faster. This resulted in me involuntarily spitting it out and continuous coughing.

I am fine now though.

I bought some new face moisturizer at the store and I'm now super excited to shower tomorrow morning. I love trying to new face wash, shampoos, etc. It makes me feel giddy. And me feeling giddy over trying new face stuff makes me feel silly.

So if you see me tomorrow with a new looking, glowing face, just know the new face moisturizer worked.

Goodnight.

I want a steak.

Oh, the guy from apartment #1 (the apartment below us) moved out today. I feel kind of bad, I feel like it mostly our fault because we are known to drop things often, bounce toy bouncy balls, and wear our shoes on our hardwood floors. I already feel sympathy for the person who moves in.

Goodnight for real this time.

awesome and not awesome.

Awesome:
1. Monday off of work. MLK, you the man.
2. Freshly painted nails.
3. Waking up to lots and lots of snow.
4. Grape soda.
5. Memes. If you don't know what a meme is, go here: quickmeme.com
6. Babies.
7. Eating cooking dough.
8. These shoes I really want!

I know that looks like a baby shoe, but it's not.

Not awesome:
1. When my favorite long gold necklaces gets snagged and broken.
2. The ghost that I think is living in the apartment, ruining my sleep one night at a time.

i'm way too paranoid to handle friday the 13th.

I somehow knew today was Friday the 13th before I looked at the calendar and saw it actually was Friday the 13th. And here is why.

I have three alarms set. Mainly because I love setting them earlier than I have to wake up just so I can feel the lovely feeling of falling back to sleep... and because I'm paranoid I won't hear them and I will sleep through work.

Well low and behold, I slept through my alarms and woke up TWO hours late. This meant I wasn't able to shower and take time to pick out a decent outfit. I hit every red light on the way to work. I couldn't find a parking spot so I had to park far, far away.

Those are all the ingredients to knowing it is Friday the 13th. The only thing left to probably happen is a shark attack so good thing I don't leave near an ocean.

Here is a little conversation exchange that just happened between my sister Shandey and I via Googletalk:

Me: Hunger Games is boring so far.
Shandey: What chapter are you on?
Me: 2.
Shandey: Just keep reading, it gets better. I think the next chapter is when she is called to the hunger games.
Me: Speaking of which, my stomach is growling. I'm experiencing some hunger games of my own.
Shandey: Oh brother.

the day my favorite pair of earrings ruined my day.

R.I.P earring.

 :(

Today when I was at work, I lifted my left hand to play with my earring in my left ear and felt nothing.

Felt nothing but that terrible panic when you realize you lost your favorite piece of jewelry.
So now my earring is looking lonesome. I really need to make an earring graveyard for how many earrings I lose. It's ridiculous.

:( :( :(

However, a blessing did come out of this sadness. After looking at that picture, I noticed I really need to go paint my nails right now.

if you are having a bad day....

Just look at this photo of this dog and you will no longer be having a bad day.

I don't know who that dog is, what the name is or why it isn't mine,

but I am grateful I got to see this picture.

Why isn't hugging through a computer screen a thing yet? It's 2012! It should be a thing by now!

kaleena's bookshelf: invisible monsters

Did I just finish reading Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk? Yes.

Is it now probably on my top 4 favorite books/things ever? Certainly.

Do I just want to call everyone I know and talk and talk and talk about this book? Oh yeah.

Do I love this book so much it hurts? Hell. Yes.

Did this book have many, many quotes I adored and wrote down? Yeah, here they are:

“The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.” 

“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness.
We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.”

“What I want is to be needed. What I need is to be indispensable to somebody. Who I need is somebody that will eat up all my free time, my ego, my attention. Somebody addicted to me. A mutual addiction.” this one is actually from his book, Choke.

“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”

“No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention.
Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day.
This is all practice.” 

“When we don't know who to hate, we hate ourselves.” 

“You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it's just teeth.”

"The best way is not to fight it, just go. 
Don't be trying all the time to fix things. 
What you run from only stays with you longer. When you fight something, you only make it stronger."


She says, "Don't do what you want." 
She says, "Do what you don't want. Do what you're 
trained not to want."


It's the opposite of following bliss.
"Do the things that scare you the most."


-Invisible Monsters
Chuck Palahniuk

surprise in the mail.

That awesome thing hanging from my rear view mirror is my latest surprise in the mail!

It's the Bee-otch air freshener from the Transformer movies. 

Today I am thankful for... the Neti Pot.

queen of irrational fears.

I have countless irrational fears. 

Literally, countless.

One of my bigger (and more stupid) irrational fears, is getting old. Just the idea of getting old stresses me out. But I recently read Tuesdays with Morrie. I feel like if everyone in the world read this book... all the bad stuff going on would just go away and everyone would just hug and buy each other dessert. I'll explain the book in the most shortest version possible. Morrie is quickly dying from a rare disease. One of his students, Mitch, comes and visits him every Tuesday before he dies. Morrie talks about and teaches him so many simple things about life that everyone forgets about. 

After I read this book, I was no longer afraid of growing older. And this is the line from the book that made me no longer afraid to get old:

"As you grow old, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, its also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life 

because of it."

being sick in bed.

That is what I look like with my new hair color (intense auburn) standing in Chinatown, San Francisco. (2011)

I took down the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations today. (waaahhh) So now the apartment looks about as bleak and bare as January usually looks.

I'm still pretty sick with this annoying chest cold. Annoying doesn't really describe it, but I can't think of a better word.

Since I was sick this weekend and spent a buncha time in bed, it gave me a lot of thinking time. I thought about what noises giraffes make, what I would be like if I was a boy instead a of a girl, why I can't go to the airport and watch the plane after plane take off and fly over my head without getting arrested.

Etc.

But I also thought a lot about what I've been through. Isn't it amazing how time really does heal and fix everything? I was thinking back on what was the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life. I don't like to think about it much, (because duh) but when I do, it doesn't hurt as much as it once did. Even though during that awful time it seemed like it would never end, it eventually does. And you are a different person because of it. Wow, sorry for the cliche overload.

the king lives.

Happy Birthday Elvis!

In honor of your birthday,

I will wear my Elvis shirt.

Listen to all your CD's.

Watch your movies.

Elvis, I love you.

If I was alive when you were alive and famous,
I would definitely be one of those insane girls at your concerts trying to climb on stage and fighting the security guards.
I would be the reason they would have to invent a restraining order.

dinner.

This is what I had for dinner tonight.

If my day was a sentence, this wonderful corn dog would definitely be the explanation point to end the day that I spent in bed and/or laying on the couch being sick.

I don't know if I'm going crazy or if this apartment is just haunted. Probably both. 

LA trip 2011

Remember how we went to L.A. California in September 2011? And remember how I took more pictures of L.A. than parents do of their child's first day of kindergarten? But I wasn't able to upload them since my laptop wouldn't let me? Well Steve is letting me use his computer to store all my photos now. So I finally can show my photos from L.A. I only chose my favorites.

(above) That is me so not looking like a model. I do look learpy though. Yay!

immune system : you're doing it wrong.

Thursday I felt like I might be getting sick.

Yesterday I felt kind of sick.

And today I feel really sick. 

I am officially sick.

I woke up and my throat hurts to swallow.

When I cough it feels like my lungs are being grated by a cheese grater.

So, if you need me, I will be sprawled out on my bed, complaining. 

Looks like my big plans to do nothing tonight will not be interfered.

so, a girl named kaleena walks into a bar...

I bet you thought this was going to be a joke... nooooooooope! Just another one of my stories.

Last night, I was getting ready to go to bed a little early but I ended up going to a pub called The Republican with Steve and his brother, Brian.

I was the designated driver, so I was mainly there for the company and the people watching. While we were sitting at the bar, we kept noticing a very tiny, bleach blonde girl that kept glaring at me. It wasn't the normal mean girl stare, it looked like she wanted me dead. When she wasn't giving me death glares, she was on her phone and at one point, I was almost certain she was on the phone with a sniper.

Anyway, instead of me giving mean glares back or walking over to her and starting a fight or finding a sniper for myself, we decided the best way to approach this sitation was in a funny way. That meant me sending her a drink and having the bar tender say it was specifically from me.

After I told the bartender to send her a drink of whatever she was drinking (which turned out to be Diet Coke) I was preparing myself to give her a cheesy smile and wave when she looked at me like 'wtf??'

INSTEAD! She walked over to me, introduced herself (Jessica), thanked me and sat by and talked for about fifteen minutes. Didn't see that coming. I still don't know why she was giving me mean Hitler looks, but I guess I made a new friend.

I now can add that to my 'Ways I Didn't Know You Could Make Friends' list.

spooky stuff.

Sunday.

I've never been known to do much on Sundays. I rarely even get out of my pajamas on Sunday. Yesterday, I sat on the couch, read Tuesdays with Morrie (more about this book later), watched Storage Wars, and drank FOUR Red Bull energy drinks. 

I thought drinking four Red Bulls would be pretty harmless. But at about 4:30AM I was laying in bed, wide awake, letting my imagination imagine the worst scenarios possible that could become of the creaks I was hearing. I laid there... covers tucked up to my chin, and my eyes as wide as they can go just hoping I could not be a scaredy cat and fall asleep like a normal 22 year old.  I eventually fell asleep and no monsters or ghosts came and got me.

The lesson I learned was... drinking four Red Bulls seems pretty harmless... but it will come back and bite you at 4:30AM when all you want to do is sleep but your imagination keeps you awake.

P.S.

Steve and I saw Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol yesterday... my response is.... YES.

Enough said. 

R.I.P. 2011 (2011 - 2011)

Last night... the Christmas tree got tipped over.

Last night... I had to watch Justin Bieber perform Let it Be by the Beatles on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve. I thought everyone knew that was something you just don't do...

Last night... I counted SIXTEEN cars that were pulled over on the freeway, probably for DUI's, when I soberly drove my friend Brian home.

Last night... I listened to Let's Twist Again by Chubby Checker and decided it's my new freedom song.

Last night... I said a lot of weird words and bizarre sentences right at midnight so I could be the first person of the year to say them!

Last night... was a blast and a half.

Cheers to 2012 and to this being my first post of 2012!

YAY!