Winter Formal

You met my date, 

so here's the rest of the story!

We met at my house to have a "fancy" dinner. Lasagna and apple juice and king Hawaiian deliciousness amazing rolls. props to my main girl Mo for those bad boys.

After dinner came the awkward picture taking ceremony.

I hate taking pose-y pictures.

they're terrible and torture.

maybe i'm scarred from being in weddings since i was a small child...

so.

we didn't take any 'real' pictures.

we're just crazy

so we laughed and freaked out over stupid Facebook drama and drank way too much juice.

Ernesto and i were silly, like usual

Michael and Marissa were classy as always.

yeah.

then finally, after goofing around and gossiping some more we left. like an hour late :)

and we literally danced the night away.

I was really embarrassed for a few people. Because they're not gonna be with that person after high school, and then they're gonna regret gettin' all nasty.

And i was embarrassed for myself the entire time because i can't dance.

and that doesn't matter at church dances because hardly anyone can dance, and no one is judging my flailing arms. But at school everyone dances exactly the same as each other so i feel stupid. because i'm tall. and white. in a flapper dress.

sticking out like a sore thumb?

my life story.

I like it.

most of the time. ha

I loved my date, he was literally the best ever.

I love my friends, they're hilarious

This picture.

 I died.

not staged at all.

and i love it because it completely describes our friendship. with no words.

she is always the proper, cute, classy, girly one.

I'm always the crazy, random frumpy hyper one.

That's why we're best friends.

I dang love this girl.

oh yeah, and this is me.

Dead. dying inside after I saw something sad.

my hair is getting darker, hehe.

Meet Ernesto

I'm going to winter formal tonight.

Last year's winter formal was...awkward...interesting...

in any case i'm crossing my fingers for better luck and so far every thing has gone without a hitch!

I got my dress for VERY cheap. like, $2.95 cheap.

I actually got asked! miracle, right? and he paid for the tickets! and we're gonna match and we're having a 'fancy' dinner at my house and I'm going with my best friends. I'm excited!

so i wanted you to meet my date!

Hello Ernesto.

I'll spare you his last name in case of random creepers.

we do all the same stuff; like pretending to be ghetto. we have all the same friends and the same sense of humor. he's one of my best friends, as made certain by his non-existent dancing skills.

just like me. He's ridiculous and always reminds me that punching people in the throat is not the answer to my problems. aaaaand he helps us get over stupid boys.

 He gets me. and i love that. 

I spend most of my time awake with him and marissa, and i don't get tired of them so obviously i like them.

so, i'm off to get ready.

I skipped rehearsal this morning to clean the house.

I'll take the rest of the after noon to get all snazzy and cute.

minus the cucumbers.

Happy Saturday!

Being Replaced

Things that should be replaced:

eaten cookies with new ones

NSYNC with The Backstreet Boys

Spanish with ASL

old light bulbs

empty toilet paper rolls

things that should not be replaced. Ever.

my Newspaper Articles

 loved ones

real, handwritten letters

 best friend

Harry Potter

sweaters

God.

The End

Bike Rides

For the past couple days, I've miraculously evaded rehearsal and came home early.
My mom is in Utah, so i had no one's ear to talk off as soon as i walked in the door and ate my marsh mellow mateys on the TV chair.
and Facebook can only entertain you for so long before you start to feel your brain melt.
The weather was lovely so i used Derek's bike and went for a ride.
The first couple cars that passed me freaked me out because I live in a quiet neighborhood and they looked kind of creepy.
HOWever, i kept riding.
and i'm glad.
the sun was that warm yellow orange color that says the moon is almost here, and the shadows were stretching taller the longer i rode, melting into one another as the sun sunk behind the trees.
The first day, people stared.
I wasn't surprised. what 17 year old girl just rides a bike around the neighborhood now a days? And the fact that i have long blonde hair and there was a perfect bike riding breeze to toss it gently as i diddled past didn't help.
I smiled when i passed a dad holding a little girl up to a tree to grab a leaf.
I laughed when my fourth grade teacher drove past me. And when i rode past my kintergarden teacher's house the next day.
I waved at the old man sitting on the porch with his dog.
no stress, just happy.
Happy wind, happy hair, happy sun, happy me.

Sweater Friends

So first off I'd like to say 2 things:

1) I pretty much don't care what I wear to school. 

I know, I know, Marilyn Monroe, Chanel Coco, Betty black and all those other important people say that a girl should never leave her house without the classiest shoes, well fitting jeans, wind-swept hair and an arrogant smirk.  i don't care.

"But Melissa, everyone cares what other people think about them. don't act like the thought has never crossed your mind."

Yeah. 

It does.

 a lot.

But i think that the prettiest people are the ones who are happy and comfortable and confident with themselves with or without the newest clothes, best make-up or most volume-ized hair.

Don't get me wrong, I have friends who are gorgeous and wear gorgeous clothes and look perfect everyday and are amazing, nice, friendly, wonderful people. (Taylor Veator, Marissa Gonzales and Blia Thao to name a beautiful few...)

And yes, i know that wearing nice clothes, always having your favorite lipstick and quoting Marilyn Monroe aren't bad. I admire people who take the time to look perfect everyday because i definitively do not have that kind of stamina. I also don't feel the need to impress anyone at my school...pretty sure I'm not meeting my future husband any time soon and besides, the cutest guys in school are off limits sooo...yeah.

2) You are 18 years old and a senior in flipping high school. you should know how to attach a file to an email. I'm giving you an F on your peer group grade. tough.

now that that's out of the way...

Welcome to the real post!

For the past couple of weeks I've been conducting an experiment. secretly.

Mainly because I wanted to wear sweaters for a month and have an actual reason for it.

But also because i was really curious about it's results...

I have a thing for sweaters. I own WAY too many, let me tell ya.

So i decided to see how my peers would react to a wide variety of them.

I made sure to switch it up and not wear a whole week of one kind or wear a certain one too many times.

Here we go:

Exhibit A: the "cute" sweater

They're not amazing, but for me? they're fancy.

 *gasp* Melissa has cute modern clothes? Yuppers. I have a few. and sadly, i didn't take a picture everyday like i had planned, so you'll just have to do with these pictures that you've seen a million times :)

when I wear cuter sweaters...weird things happen.

people talk to me. But not just normal people! attractive people! 

You know, the ones who usually only give a quick polite wave in between classes? only, they stopped and talked to me. teachers joke with me, I got asked to Winter Formal, I even get mistaken for Justin Bieber...

 just kidding. But really. sometimes.

 Cute sweaters= conversations with cute people

Exhibit B:

The Ugly/came out of Dad's old wardrobe sweater

I know somewhere in San Diego Oscar Bolanos is throwing up at his desk right this moment.

I've been wearing these sweaters for awhile. October of 2010 to be exact...So don't confuse me with those cheapo losers who are ripping me off and stealing my ugly knitted sweater/outrageous 80's windbreaker glory. anyway...

Because I wear these often, people didn't really react differently during my test period. those polite pretty people still graced me with a slight hand wave in my general direction. My teachers still pretended to chuckle while i pretended to have a mustache or told an elephant joke. and my days were normal.

 normal Melissa sweaters= normal Melissa days. cool.

which brings us to the final stage:

Exhibit C:

'I can't believe you're wearing that in public' sweaters.

Snuggy. thanks Rebecca :)

Eskimo/Ice caps/polar bear hunting coat. thanks dad :)

Stacy and Clinton are weeping 

For the past two days I wore that giant blue/gray thing

and not exaggerating?

no one has spoken to me.

My close friends still did. and my teachers, but i think that was mostly guilt.

But attractive people waving like princesses? nope.

telling jokes that get the whole class laughing? nah

not even a good morning from Joe the janitor?! nope.

ugly sweaters = no friends 

I wasn't really surprised with the results. Because I always hear that people judge you by what you're wearing. I guess I had just never really thought about it like that before.

and now that i know my true friends, the rest of you can crawl way and eat figgy pudding.

who likes that stuff?!

you really never can judge a book by it's cover.

Or a girl by her sweater?...

Donny & Christine

Meet Donny:

Suave. Smart. athletic.

Probably one of the most "people-person"-Y people I've ever met in my life.

Great with old people. and little kids. and everyone in between. 

Donny is 6 years older than me, so unfortunately we didn't hang out much before his mission because we were so far a part. When he was in high school he did a billion things and was super busy all the time. And then he went on a mission and I missed my big brother/hero! Then he came home and we became best buds. plus Curtis. I loved our inside jokes and our identical humor and his willingness to listen to my boy drama. And then!

The dang sneaky snake met a girl!

A pretty one!

They met at a Young Single Adult dance for church and well....obviously the rest is history!

She's an amazing girl and I've never seen Donny so happy!

they are pretty much the cutest dang couple on planet earth:

They both went to school at BYU-Idaho where there little love flowers blossomed. 

They are absolutely perfect for each other! I'm so excited for Christine to be my sister! she's the first girl-in-law (is that a phrase?... I'm making it one...)  and i'm glad, because she has just the type of welcoming personality to make the other two future sister-in-laws feel super comfortable!

I love them both and i am beyond happy for them to start their life together next month! 

Congratulations big brother! :)