Sometimes you have to get the crappiness out of the way in the morning, so you can get to the better moments throughout the rest of the day.
That was definitely the case today. I had set my alarm for 8:30 (to Katy Perry's "Roar"), but I don't believe it went off at all. It was around 9 a.m. when my mom came in to get me. UGH. That usual morning groan came out, with a weird pain feeling in my chest (probably just nerves about the day) and I got out of bed, attending to my usual routine. Then, I remembered that I could officially enroll in my classes for next quarter, so I got online and tried to sign up, when I realized I hadn't made an appointment with my counselor, so I had a "hold" on my account. Just one more thing I would have to deal with, but didn't have time to take care of.
I finished getting my things together, then got in the car. Only to realize I had forgotten my binder for feature writing. A few minutes later, after returning to the car and making our way down the street, I realized I had forgotten my breakfast bar. So, I had to settle for some vanilla bean almonds, even though I was very hungry at the time. My mind was all over the place and I thought I might be a few minutes late to class. It was strange!
I made it to school and once again was dreading it all. Thankfully, I didn't have too much time to kill and went straight to Feature Writing. Today, we discussed our partner presentations, where we will have to present a feature article of our choice to the class and point out the techniques and writing styles used. After the professor told us what we needed to do, she gave us plenty of time to research and get started. Danielle and I decided to do a story that Taylor Swift did with Rolling Stone in 2009, which I'm really excited about. We made a plan of when we can meet up and glanced over the article, then we were free to go. On the way out, Nathan (the sports editor of the paper) asked me what he should Photoshop next. The editor (of the paper) joked and said, "Don't you want him to Photoshop your face in Carrie Underwood's body?" I laughed and agreed that I did. He was like, "You expect me to do that?" I gave him a hard time and said, "Uh, yeah..." and then said I just simply wanted a picture with Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley should be in the picture. I walked out with Danielle, as we talked for a few minutes, then went our separate ways.
We got out of class early enough, so I decided to stop by my adviser/counselor's office to talk about my schedule. I ran into my friend Brittany, so we had a chat for a few minutes, but then I needed to make sure I saw my adviser, before she took off. I walked inside and she told me to have a seat, and I explained my situation. She took the hold off of my account and helped me map out my classes for the next couple quarters. I was right on track. I could then breathe a sigh of relief. I was really starting to sweat it out that I might have to skip the next quarter if I didn't have my classes in time, but it all worked out..Just need to have a little faith and get things done sometimes.
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| Lunch :) My favorite time of day (at school anyway) |
When I was finished in the office, I met up with my friend, Sarah, for lunch again. We sat in our usual spot at one of the tables by the coffee shop. It's shady and there are only a couple of other tables around, so it's quiet enough to have some heart to hearts. I told her all about my plans for next quarter with the classes I'm taking, my doubts that I have with journalism right now, more life plans, guys...The typical stuff that every girl at this age vents about. What I've realized is how good it is to dream together and vent together. It has become an outlet for both of us to just be real with each other, and in this crazy "20-something" world, you need that, let me tell you. We also shared a few secrets about our high school lives that neither one of us ever knew. So weird how that happens,right?
After we finished lunch, I had newspaper production. I love Wednesdays in that class, because things are more laid back. We read the paper and critique it, have a pitch session for the next issue and just talk about what we can do to make the paper better. We spent the first little while talking and messing around, then the managing editor told the section editors to copy and paste our articles into the website folder, so the staff writers would be able to post them to the paper's blog later on. The managing editor also has an idea for a story he wants me to cover for features next week, which will probably be the the guitar concert series, which could be fun. I also talked to two of the editors about how to keep pressing an issue when people tell you "No" about a story idea....Basically, you bug them and do whatever you have to until they say "Yes"…Well, within reason of course. I might need some work in this department! GULP. When we were finished with planning, we looked the paper over and everyone gathered around to point out some of the things we liked and things that we didn't catch on the first go-around with copy editing. I was very excited when one of the staff writers said she "really, really liked" my review on Jennifer Nettles' "That Girl." Writing reviews and checking out live shows is absolutely something I want to do when I get out of college, so I'm always extremely proud of my reviews and feel so good when someone else likes it or makes them curious of who or what I wrote about. That's the whole point, isn't it?
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| Courtesy of Nathan! HA! Pretty awesome! |
After our critique, we threw around a few ideas of the events that are coming up or stories that others might want to be covered. The editors are planning on going to Homecoming, but I'm not totally sure that I'm up for that. After high school, I was sort of over the whole getting dressed up/going to a dance thing, but we'll see. It could be fun. We'd had a few other things planned to do, but by that time we were all tired, so our professor said we could wrap it up for the day. Class was officially over, but I still had an hour or so before my next class, so I stayed with a few of the other editors, talking over some of my story ideas that are coming up and other non-sense. I laugh SO hard with everyone in the newsroom. We're all a little crazy and always joking around, so it's not as stuffy as one might think. Robin, the editor-in-chief, asked me if I knew what I was getting myself into with the journalism program. I can honestly say I didn't really know what to expect, but it was very different from this. Our professor/adviser of the paper said that newspapers all over are all really like that, with people talking and joking around. It's great to know that you can still have fun and mess around, as long as you get the work done. It's definitely something to look forward to after I graduate.
Closer to 3, I left the room and walked to my next class. To my surprise, the back row where I usually sit was almost full, except for one seat, so I grabbed it. It's always funny how on midterm days, those who haven't been showing up are suddenly there to take the test...And take the seats of those who are there daily. RUDE! HA! I had tried to look over my notes on the way to the classroom, as well as studying in my seat when I arrived. I felt pretty confident, and then it was time to take the test. Our professor had originally said that we wouldn't be able to leave and would have a few more presentations, but luckily, he was nice enough to let us leave after the test. There were six essay type questions, which wasn't too bad. I felt pretty good, except for one answer, after I left. I have to say, it was also very nice to be leaving school when the sun was still shining. It has definitely been awhile since that happened! I walked around, taking the nice weather in, while I waited for my mom to pick me up. I also got on Twitter, to see whether Lucy Hale had said anything about being in town, since she was here.
My mom picked me up, we came home and I took a shower to start getting ready for the night. We still had a few minutes, so I watched the rest of Hart of Dixie with my mom, and then put on my makeup. I had been crossing my fingers to meet Lucy Hale and hoping that I would be able to ask her a few questions about her new CD/Pretty Little Liars for the school paper, since I wanted to write an article about her show for my college newspaper. I had been brainstorming possible questions or things I wanted to talk to her about...After all, a journalist always has to be prepared, and that I was. I listened to "You Sound Good To Me" to get ready, as I surfed the web, then put on my makeup.
Around 5:15, my mom and I were ready to go. Our reservation wasn't until 6:30 at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace, but we thought we might run into Lucy in the parking lot, like we did with Chuck Wicks at one of the last shows we went to. But, we ended up getting there a lot earlier and there wasn't much going on. I saw one of my friends I went to high school with working at the souvenir counter, which was cool! The hostess led us to our seat, which was upstairs on the second balcony, where we were supposed to be at a table, but six other people were already sitting there. Apparently, there was a lot of confusion going on, because they were placing people in different spots than originally planned and not by who called in first. So, the hostess went back downstairs to check on it. It was very weird and chaotic! We waited around for a few minutes, when our hostess came back up and explained that the people sitting our tables reservations had been lost and they had to move us somewhere else. Everything happens for a reason, believe me.
They moved us up to another raised level on the same floor, where a bar was wrapped all around the railing. We sat near the end and started looking at our menus. We had narrowed it down to what we were going to share, when I saw a small group of people walk by us. I started telling my mom, "That's Lucy!" in a really hushed tone and she told me I should go ask for a picture, but she was obviously in a hurry and wasn't stopping. But, no one else had even recognized her...Not even sure if the group of teeny boppers on the end saw her! Lucy and Steph (the friend she is always referring to on Twitter and Instagram) went into a back room, which turned out to be the restroom...I obviously hadn't been up there in awhile (HA!) and the bodyguard was standing outside. I was freaking out, wondering if she would come back our way, but figured since there was a set of stairs closer to her on the other side, she might just walk down that way. In the meantime, our salads came and my friend, Amanda, who I had creative writing with at the community college a couple quarters ago ended up sitting right next to us, which was awesome! I tried eating my salad, but was telling Amanda that we had just seen Lucy walk by! AH! We caught up for a few minutes about school and how it's...Well, school, so it's just going alright.
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| Me and Lucy! |
A few minutes later, I see Lucy walking out and was afraid she was going to walk downstairs. But, no, she kept walking towards us. It was close quarters, but I stood up and stood on the opposite side of the bar and chairs. Lucy seemed to see us, but it seemed that she was trying not to make eye contact...But, I knew it would really be our only shot to meet her, since she wasn't doing a meet and greet, unless you had won the contest through KUZZ. I wasn't necessarily a fan of hers when she was on American Juniors, but she started growing on me when she started doing some of the Disney spots, like "Wizards." I also gave Pretty Little Liars a chance because of her storyline on the show after my friend encouraged me to watch…And the rest is history. So, there was no way I was going to miss out on this opportunity. I said, "Hi Lucy!" and asked if we could get a picture. She quietly said, "Uh, yeah, sure..." and it seemed like she paused a bit, not really wanting to, but not wanting to say 'no' either. I'm sure it's really annoying getting asked for pictures all the time, so I tried to be as polite. It was incredibly dark in there and everything happened so fast, that I was acting incredibly awkward, I'm sure. Amanda was standing off to the side, then handed off the camera to my mom to take a picture with her in a bit, but Lucy took that as the signal for now, so she put her arm around her, too. My mom took the picture, but I didn't know I was already in the picture. My mom asked me if I had gotten one and I wasn't sure if I was in the other, so I said "No." I was going to try to take a selfie to make it easy, but her friend Steph jumped in with, "It's probably a little dark to take a selfie," and I could tell they were in a hurry, so there was no time for that. It seems like when I'm trying to go fast in a process like this, it never works out.
Alrighty, then....Think fast, Shelby...Now is not the time to freeze and act like you don't know what is going on. I tried to figure out what I was doing, then handed the camera off to my mom to take one of us, which wasn't going well, so Amanda said she could take one for me. Steph thanked us really quick and then they were off. I think she might have gotten stopped by the people sitting next to us, but I'm not sure. It all happened so fast, I didn't know what the heck was going on! Haha!
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| Amanda, Lucy and I :) |
After she left, we sat back down and went back to eating, while recalling what had just happened and Amanda sent me the pictures. Everyone has talked about how nice she was, so we probably just caught her off guard or she must have just gotten there. I guess I was just hoping to get a chance to talk to her more.
Our dinner came pretty soon, which was barbecue chicken pizza! I thought it was very good, but my mom didn't like the sauce as much. The show was supposed to start at 7, but Lucy didn't come on until after 7:30 and only played for about 25 minutes. She kicked things off with "Goodbye Gone," then "From the Backseat," "Kiss You," "Road Between" and "You Sound Good To Me." And that was it. It was pretty obvious that everyone (or most of everyone) was there because they're fans of Pretty Little Liars, especially when the high pitched squeals erupted through the room at the mention of the show's name. Also, when she mentioned one of the songs being about a relationship and bringing up Valentine's Day, someone yelled " Is it about Ezra?"...HAHA! She obviously responded with, "No, not Ezra!" People sure are funny.
I really enjoyed her songs; they're catchy and have some great messages, and I'm definitely interested to hear the rest of the album when it comes out. My personal favorite would have to be "Road Between" right now. It seriously made me tear up the first time I heard it. This whole college thing is tough right now, I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I just want to give it all up and start something else, because it just feels too hard to finish or not worth it at all. I'm still trying to figure out where I want to end up and it's okay to make mistakes, because I'm not at the finish line yet. I have plenty of time to get there. The road between/the journey is where all of the really good and important stuff is.
And I'm still getting to the good part,
The breaking down
Learning how to write my story
And I'm in the middle of the madness
The living loose
Finding who I'm gonna be
From the start til the end
I'm still learning the road between...
*chills*
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| Courtesy of KUZZ |
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| Courtesy of KUZZ |
Lucy walked off stage and so many people on the bottom fled, hoping to meet her by the side stage door or to catch her outside or just left, since she was finished. We waited around for a few minutes and payed our bill, then decided to head out, since nothing else would be happening. As we tried to make our way through the hallway of the palace, there were a lot of girls waiting around the door she had walked through, hoping to meet her, so we had to squeeze past everyone! My mom, Amanda and I walked outside and waited by the side door, where we met Eden's Edge last time and where most of the artists leave from, but after awhile of chatting and "casually" watching the door, nothing happened, so we decided to leave.
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| My mom and I :) |
We said goodbye to Amanda and came home, after a stop at McDonald's for dessert. I had a Shamrock Shake and it was so good! It was minty with a hint of lime. Refreshing! Go figure, a St. Patty's Day treat before Valentine's Day!
In the meantime, while the show had been going on, my Facebook chat had been blowing up about what I missed in Theories of Communication. WOW! It was pretty bad and I am SO glad I skipped for the concert. I also have no idea how I'm going to pass that class. But, I'm crossing my fingers and praying for good things. So far, we've all done pretty badly on the midterm and I've been getting B's and C's on all of my papers, so I'm not too sure what that will get me.
After I got home, I just kept talking with the editors in our group chat, watched American Idol, then somewhat (but not really) watched the Olympics and ate chips. I'm not used to eating earlier, so we were hungry around midnight...What can I say? Oh, and let's not forget the millions of Buzzfeed quizzes that keep circulating around and I always have to take. Yeah, that's very popular with the newspaper group.
I finally decided to get comfy and got in bed, after watching an episode of White Collar. I was seriously wiped out after the long, but wonderful day. I feel like things are changing. Each day just keeps getting better. I'm excited about wherever this road is leading. So far, so good! Change is scary, but I'm finally starting to accept it.
That's all for now,
Shelby :)
