a good friday night.

If it was a perfect Friday night... 

I would have been sitting in Energy Solutions Arena 

watching Bob Seger sing "Night Moves" and "Against the Wind" on stage. 

But that didn't happen. 

It was supposed to. 

But it didn't. 

And I say fooey!

So, instead I was at Oasis with 

Brennin, Spencer, and Josh.

All in which are my friends.

I mostly hung out with Brennin because he was helping with some of my decks. 

I made the kid with red hair sitting at the table with us laugh 

when I made some joke where I called Brennin 

"Adolf Magic"

It's insane how much making a stranger laugh can make me feel. 

I love it.

Still, after all this time when I find myself somewhere like Oasis on a Friday night

I still think of how did i get here and what am i doing? 

i miss my old Friday nights.

Even though it was Friday the 13th and I'm only a little-stitious... I try not to be superstitious because that garbage is for the feeble minded. That being said, I will admit i'm always relieved when
Friday the 13th is over.
Whew.

merry christmas eve.

Have a Merry Christmas Eve and a Merry Christmas when it's tomorrow.

I plan to stay home tonight and watch Home Alone and Futurama.

Drink some Mountain Dew. Snack on some kettle corn.

Last Saturday, as a giant group, we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.
It was okay.
Then we walked around City Creek to warm up a bit and because what else were we gonna do?

But Christmas lights on a bare tree is one my favorite things and one of the prettiest things to me.

It never gets old.

I wish Christmas lights were on trees all year round.

Alysha on the left and me on the right.
If one good thing came out of 2013, it's that I became really good friends with Alysha. I wish everyone could have a friend like her.

Instagram: kaleena__

back from NYC... for now...

I am back. Have been back since Sunday night. And meh. 

I've never hated Utah, ya know? I've always liked it here. 

It's home. 

But after experiencing New York, even for just four days, that's all I needed to know Utah isn't where I belong. 

New York is obviously one of the most popular and amazing cities in the world, but as soon as I got there, I felt like that's where I belonged. 

It kind of felt like I was arriving back home even though I've never been.

I sat in the middle seat on the flight to New York. Alysha asleep to my left (by the window) and the old man in dad jeans who told me to elbow him if he started snoring, asleep on my right. I was listening to my iPod and I looked over out the window and I started to see countless shimmery lights all aligned in a grid. I will never in my life forget the way I felt when I saw the New York lights/skyline from the plane for the first time. I guess it felt like I felt every good emotion in a burst and my skin was holding them back to where my heart felt very full. 

Just walking down any street in New York, there is a lot to take in. I was constantly looking up and the building or observing the faces on the people I passed or looking for places that Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Lou Reed might have once been (kidding, but just little). But I feel like I didn't take it all in as much as I wanted because there was so much going on. I don't have any words to explain how I much I enjoyed New York and I guess that's why I'm a shitty writer. But those short four days in New York changed my life and I will go back. And I will live there.

I miss it. 

I missed New York before I even left.

NYC in three days.

Reader, guess what!

Alysha and I are flying to NYC on Wednesday and coming back on Sunday night. Well... at least planning to come back on Sunday. There is a chance I will end up staying if I love it too much.

I'm really excited. Not just because I'll be walking around NYC and hopefully running into Jesse Lacey (because he lives there), but because I love hanging out in airports (for people watching) and seeing the flight attendants doing their hand motions.

Here is a list of everything I want to see/do:

-Cafe Wha? -the cafe where Bob Dylan, Lou Reed/Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen were all discovered and first played.
-Statue of Liberty
-Empire State Building
-Central Park
-Madison Square Garden
-Tom's Diner -the restaurant from Seinfield
-Ride the Subway
-Go ice skating
-The Met
-Grimaldi's Pizza
-Brooklyn Bridge
-Ride in a taxi
-Hail a taxi

That's all I can think of right now. There will be lots more and I will be documenting every step and taking pictures.

some things just aren't worth the dollar.

You know when you are at work and you are hungry so you go down the street to the Albertsons? And you see this wrap thing that is a pita, peppered turkey, and swiss cheese and it's only a dollar, so you think sure, why not?

Well next time, think surely, hell no!

It wasn't that good. It tasted like the crusty ol dollar I used to buy it. Never again. I even did a dramatic gag/throw up gesture when I was done eating it. That's how much I hated the thing.

Last night, Kylee texted me and asked my favorite quote. She casually asked as if I didn't have 1,000,000,000 ½ to choose from. After I thought about it, I realized it was this one from my literary idol and all around hero, Jim Morrison:

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”

Followed closely by this one:

“That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is. Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending - performing. You get to love your pretense. It's true, we're locked in an image, an act - and the sad thing is, people get so used to their image, they grow attached to their masks. They love their chains. They forget all about who they really are. And if you try to remind them, they hate you for it, they feel like you're trying to steal their most precious possession.”

Kylee ended up loving these quotes and she sent back this:

He's very wise I see why you like him.

I need to look him up he's growing on me. I need to learn more, I like him, you sold me.

 
I converted a new Jim Morrison fan! Jim Morrison was a literary genius and I do my best to pass his legacy on so as much people know about him as possible. I miss him and I never even knew him.

day trip and long car rides.

Alex, Alysha, Jamie, Brennin, and I all took a day trip to Wendover on Sunday. Mostly because we didn't have to work on Monday because of Labor Day and had nothing else to do. Alex and Brennin played Black Jack while Alysha, Jamie, and I wandered to get drinks and check everything out.

The drive there and back was the best part, it's about a two hour drive, so four hours total. We goofed off and argued about the Eagles. We also, had a fun time picking out what our name would be if we ever started a band.

We stopped at the Nevada liquor store on the way home because they have cheaper stuff there and LOOK WHAT I FOUND! And Alysha is such a good friend that she bought it for me cause she knew I had been looking everywhere for it.

 

Speaking of Alysha, she got stung by a bee last week and her leg was swelling up. Look at the difference.

She's healed since though, so no reason to panic.

long train rides when you have nothing else to do.

Sometimes when your friend Kylee comes over and you have nothing else to do and you both feel restless, you decide to ride the FrontRunner train from one to the other to pass the time and to people watch.

And it turns out to be really fun and entertaining.

 Kylee pondering the scenery. 

We got off the train in Ogden and didn't know what to do once we go there so we just got on the bus. We really enjoyed the old lady who knew every possible news story and was sharing them with the people of the bus trying to start a debate. She was using phrases like, "if that were my child, I would be dead or in jail right now. STRAIGHT UP." - said the 60 year old lady.

When we decided to head back to Salt Lake, we had to wait 76 minutes. So we sat at the station and listened to music and talked about certain theories we had on people we knew.

My view from the window seat.

I thought this sign was funny in Ogden. 

BINOCULARS - TO THE RIGHT

(no idea what it really means)

life's about changing.

On January 18th I went to Petco to get some hay and bedding for my BFF bunny Lou. While I was there I saw a sweet little bunny who was up for adoption. I played with it for a bit and decided to hurry and leave before I got too attached. Well, right when I left I wanted to go back and get him. So the next day I went back and adopted the sweet little bunny. He was a Holland Lop, 2 years old, and came from an abusive home (grrr). I was so happy I would be able to save and rescue this little buddy.

I brought him home and it was kind of heartbreaking to see how timid and frail he was. You could feel his spine (and see it too actually) and his poor fur on his ears were matted. But he was lucky to end up with such an animal lover like me because he would see nothing but love.

I named him Murph. And Murph was a sweetheart. It was cute to see him and Lou chase each other.

However, something went terribly wrong on Sunday night. I was at the U of U basketball game and when I got home I went over to say hi to Murph and Lou and I noticed Murph was laying on his side which he never does. I laid there by him to see if he was breathing. After a while I started to panic and I shook him and his cage a little bit and said "wake up, wake up" The more moitionless he remained the more I knew the thing I was hoping it wasn't, was.

Little, sweet Murph had died.

I know it wasn't my fault but I feel so sad I wasn't there to be with him. My heart is broken. I looked on the internet and I guess it's normal for a bunny who was abused and to go from home to home is likely to have a sudden death. I wish it wasn't that way :(

R.I.P. Murph. I love you and I'm sorry you had such a crappy life that you didn't deserve. I loved the upside heart on your face.

 

ba ba ba bowling!

Last night was a fun filled night of bowling at the Bonwood Bowling Ally extravaganza!! Bonwood is the best for a lot of reasons... but the #1 reason is because you can bowl THREE games (shoes included, oh yes) for only seven bucks. I mean, for bowling you just can't get cheaper than that. Some would call it a steal.

My first game I took 3rd with the score of 137, second game I got 131 (tied at 2nd) and the third game... well let's just say I wasn't really trying and I only bowled a 92.

When we bowl, it's always my favorite thing to look at the other monitors of the fellow bowlers to see what names they chose. Sometimes it's just their real name but other times you'll see something like BUBBA, The Machine, Odessy, TANK, Playa420, etc. My name is usually Buckmister or Special K.

One day when I'm an old lady i'll have a bowling league with all my old lady friends and it will be a hoot and a half. Matching shirts and all. Looking forward to it.

 photo by: me

it's an intsagram photo actually.

username: kaleenajaneface



friendship rules.

I found out a kid I went to high school with committed suicide this week. 

I didn't know him personally, but I did know of him. 

Even though I didn't know him, I still felt really sad when I heard the news. 

So I went through my phone and texted or called all my closest friends and told them how happy I was to have them as a friend and that I was there for them if they ever need anything and that I loved them.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Plato

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.

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.

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...

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.

a whole lot of nothing can happen in a week.

So not eventful. But I still liked this week.

Monday - We go see the movie, Tower Heist. I go into the theater with zero expectations and leave the theater still laughing and ready to see it again.

Tuesday - I meet my Sisters at Subway for dinner. I try cucumber and tomatoes on a sandwich and become more obsessed with my nephews and nieces.

Wednesday - I go visit my friend, Dustin, who works at the Radisson Hotel downtown. We watched Llamas With Hats together on Youtube. While I was there, I decided I really want to work at a hotel.

Thursday - I wake up. I go to work. I come home from work. I don't do the dishes even though I should. I go to bed.

Friday -  I call in sick to work because of a migraine. I feel better around six PM. I go on a date with this guy again... we went bowling, he beat me and then we spend a few hours talking and people watching at the bowling ally.

Saturday - I go to TWO football games... BOTH involving snow. I stood a total of six hours outside this day, in freezing temperatures and snow. Later this night, I eat a piece of chicken with only a knife (cutting with it and taking bite with it) because I still haven't done the dishes.

Sunday - Harry Potter marathon on TV.

my friend mike.

This is my friend Mike.

This is my friend Mike laying on the street in the ally behind my apartment.

This is my friend Mike laying on the street in the ally behind my apartment fixing my brakes.

This a picture of my friend Mike laying on the street in the ally behind my apartment fixing my brakes that I took from my car.

Mike is a wonderful friend that I've known since 1st grade.

He's way funny and is superb at fixing brakes and even better at making horrible puns.

Here is a quote I like just because it's Monday and I feel like sharing a quote:
"Some people feel the rain, others just get wet."
Bob Dylan

a weekend i think everyone should experience.

This post is brought you by the girl (me) in the red, thick knitted beanie hat.

I have tragic and disappointing news. My laptop no longer reads my memory card when I insert it, so as of right now, you will never see a picture that I have photographed... again. So, since I cannot show the pictures I took myself, I will just have to explain them and find something similar on Google. Thank goodness for Google.

It snowed on Thursday, and that made me feel pretty happy and I took a picture to remember that day. The snow pretty much looked like this:

Then, that same day, it had the most beautiful sunset. If Gorgeous and Beautiful had a child, it would have been the sunset on Thursday night. The picture I found on Google won't do it justice, obviously.

 Since, my favorite thing to do on a weeknight when it's snowing/raining outside is to cuddle up inside and be warm... I put on my warm cozy, fuzzy socks. Which look a little like this:

Then, on Saturday night, we went out to Wendover. Basically, Wendover is Las Vegas' forgotten step brother who has to live under the stairs and do the chores nobody wants to do. We sat and played the blackjack tables and I turned five bucks into............ 118 BUCKS. You read that right, Reader.... 118 BUCKS!! I am basically a millionaire now. While we were out there, I was invited to a party by a... man. Room 311. I said no.

In conclusion, this weekend ROCKED! I'm pretty sure I haven't used that phrase since I was in 5th grade, but that just goes to show how awesome this weekend was. Still wish I could upload my own photos though....

the happiest of weekends.

If think back to all the weekends I've lived in 2011, this weekend was my #1 favorite so far.

Friday:
Friday was super rainy. People at work were saying, "it literally is raining cats and dogs!" so when I heard this, I left my desk at once, ran outside to see. Sadly, it was only raining raindrops, not cats and dogs. People really need to relearn what LITERALLY means.
I was supposed to go to a free outdoor concert but since it was "raining cats and dogs" I went home and had Mike, Tyler and Scott over. We went to a place that had breathtaking Philly cheese-steak sandwiches. I wanted to do something dramatic to show how much I loved the sandwich, but the only thing I could think of was... to keep eating it.
After the sandwich eating went down, we went to the store and got the most childish combination of purchases. The purchases uncluded:
1. Silly string.
2. Punch balloons ( balloons that have rubber bands so you can just punch it back and forth with yourself ).
3. Toblerone candy bar.
After being attacked by the newly purchased silly string, we ended up back at my apartment where we decided to see how long we could hit the balloons to each other without letting the balloon land on the floor. Our longest record was six minutes and fourty seconds. Our shortest record was two seconds. The game got so intense that I now have three bruises on my leg and Mike had a cut on his shoulder. It's not a good weekend unless you get a bruise or a cut.

Saturday:
Saturday was fully consumed by college football, obviously. It was the rivalry game between UTAH and BYU also known as The Holy War. (read about it here) We went down to Provo in all red to witness the game. The final score was Utah-54 BYU-10 So yeah, we spent a great deal celebrating and my voice is basically destroyed from cheering.

Sunday:
I bought a food chopper thing at the store so I can make homemade salsa. Note to self: DON'T USE ONE ENTIRE JALAPENO PEPPER. I think I'm slowly making progress on the road to being a great cook.

cars can have bad days too i suppose.

Reader. You are not going to believe the day my car had. I didn't even know cars could have such a bad day. My day was just jolly-good, but my car on the other hand.... it definitely did some suffering.

I was driving home to my apartment on my lunch break at. All of a sudden, my car didn't feel like it was riding smooth. I pulled over and discovered I had a flat tire. I sat there with my mouth open, almost like the longer I stood with my mouth open in disbelief, the greater the possibility of it fixing itself would happen.

I called my friend Mike, who luckily works, like, 2 minutes from my apartment. Literally. His sweet, baby, angel heart came to my rescue. I know how to change a flat tire (duh) but my car was on a hill and the tire was pretty much shredded so I was going to need some manly hands to fix it. You know, the same kind of manly hands that can open pickle jars and kill spiders with tissues. Mike is a wonderful friend. Everyone should have a friend like him. Anyway.

Ten minutes later, the mini donut spare tire, which made me hungry, was on the car and ready to go. I'm going to leave out a lot of details for the sake of not killing you with boredom. Steve (yes, the Steve you are thinking, also came to my rescue cause we still happen to be BFF) got the tire replaced as well as one other one that appeared like it was about to pop. Then, ANOTHER tire blew out on the freeway while he was driving it. Yeah, the BRAND NEW tires that were just bought. He didn't get hurt, but my car had some minor damage to it. I'm glad the car received the damage and not Steve. Cars can be replaced, bodies and lives cannot.

Everyone, including my car, is now safe and sound and ready to put this day behind us. I will post pictures of the car tomorrow or something cause I have a motto "show pictures or it didn't happen."

I'm still wanting a mini donut thanks to the mini donut spare tire.

Also, sorry if this post was a bore to you, but I don't care, because all this car trouble was like a mini soap opera throughout my entire day.

bits of my weekend.

 Coffee area at Nostalgia Coffee

 My  friends Mike and Tyler across from me at Nostalgia.

 Sunflower in the ally behind my apartment.  Say cheeeese little Sunflower!

 Tyler's dogs giving more love and attention to Mike. I could have doggy treats covering every inch of my body and these dogs would still ignore me.

 Flowers. Yeah, just some flowers.

 Scene from a corner gas station.

 Photo evidence that I finally painted my nails after thinking about doing it every day.

 Nostalgia, again.

 Just some fine dining on a Sunday night, single gal style.

Me giving a thumbs up to painted nails... and this weekend too.