Packing for Boxtel: Clothes

I still haven't finished unpacking my dorm, but as I go through my boxes I'm trying to get an idea of what should go and what should stay. The plan is to take as little as possible, but even that seems like too  much.

The hardest part will be clothes. Normally this is my season for picking out some dresses and getting a few cute outfits together, but I think I'm going to do my best to just take the important stuff (jeans, favorite dresses, blazers) and then buy everything else when I'm there. This last semester I hardly dressed up at all, so now I'm lusting over outfits that I never made.

Basically, if I can wear nice flip flops or a pair of riding boots and a scarf, I'm happy. I've also got a thing for earth tones. This year, I'm going to find more bright greens and blues (I feel like I say this every year-- it seems like every dress I own is blue, but I'm still just wearing the same grays and forest green tops).

3 Things Today

1. Theraball classes might be my new favorite- it's a mix of pilates and weight training and a little yoga, and it was hard without being too frustrating. I will definitely be sore tomorrow, and I was going to play with my new jumprope but I gave that up after about 2 minutes. Breakfast before working out is also probably a good idea.

2. Finishing To Do lists- I have now watched all of Orange is the New Black, and gotten quite a head start on my Dutch. Next week, I even have my online video chat with my dutch tutor! I've officially learned enough words and grammar that I can hold toddler-like conversations with people that talk slowly, so cheers.

3. Having Visitors- Thursday Becca is visiting for lunch to see me before I leave, Friday my aunt and I are going kayaking, and Sunday Maggie is coming to visit me. I have a weekend planned in Ohio to visit people, and another weekend with the english majors in late June. Feeling very loved right now.

Steps to Making a Hammock

Step 1: Wander around the yard looking for a place to put your hammock. When your father asks you what you're doing, tell him your plans to set the hammock up between two unsupported posts on his very weak porch.

Step 2: Celebrate that your father is going to help you, and show him all the things you have bought in preparation for this day.

Step 3: Read the directions inside the hammock, and recognize that everything you know is a lie. This hammock is not 13ft long, and there are no installation hooks included. 

Step 4: Accept that you cannot put a hammock in the sun, and find a spot under a tree that is acceptable. Get out your fancy bungee cord straps (that you bought because you were prepared!) and tie them to the tree and the random street light you have never questioned. 

Step 5: Recognize step 4 is harder than it sounds, and the first time you sit in the hammock the straps will stretch. You will probably find yourself on the ground. Rejoice that you're father is helping you, and stay out of his way while he fixes everything. 

Step 6: Enjoy your new hammock! Invite company to sit with you so they can recognize how superior your new seating situation is. 

Cooking, Caribiners, and Weighted Jump Ropes

1. I wanted to make a blog with a list of dutch meals I was going to practice this summer, but it has become increasingly apparent that any cooking lessons my roommates taught me have been forgotten. I made a mess of the kitchen trying to boil pasta (my mom made the actual meatball/ spaghetti sauce, but I still needed help with the noodles. From a box.) and have since then stuck to my breakfast foods/reheated frozen dinners. Last I checked, I could still make cheeseburgers, but I'm going to start back at the beginning with that before I start with the recipes in foreign languages.

2. Since I can't cook, instead I'm going construct a hammock! I bought the hammock, and tree straps, and extra caribiners, and I won't give up until I have a place to read in the sun. Pictures of the process to come.

3. Weighted Jump Ropes- my friend Ryan has a weighted jump rope, and I have been secretly lusting over it for weeks. I asked for one for my birthday but Mom told me they didn't exist so I couldn't have one. But today, on the hunt for a hammock, we found one! It was near the clearance shake weight (which I obviously also bought).

Goals for Next Week:

1) Finish Orange is the New Black. I only have a few episodes left, and I fell way behind the rest of the world with this show. I can't get over how beautiful all these women look in their very unique ways.

2) Get signed up at the YMCA, find my new workout routine. I love my zumba at school (usually) but I've finally become that obnoxious gym person that would rather lift and run then do a bunch of grape vines to latin music. But today, I am sore, so maybe there is more to that girly nonsense than I thought.

3) Get 3 hours of Rosetta Stone in. I need to learn my Dutch!

4) Drink more water! Every time I come home terrible things happen to my body while it adjusts to different water softness. My hair is easier to manage, but the only solution for my skin is to chug as much water as I can and take my vitamins.

5) Read In Cold Blood. The english majors are working on a book club we can do together, and since it was one of the ones we all were somewhat interested in, it makes more sense to start there than anywhere else.

Only a few weeks of summer for me this year, I need to make them count!

Throwback WEEK.

Do you remember when facebook (and myspace) had people doing the 25 things Challenge? It's odd that I can find NO online mention of my anxiety for leaving for college (although there are probably some heart wrenching emails) but I did find some other fun stuff that is worth enjoying the walk through memory lane. Some of it was boring, so I cut it out. This would have been the summer before my senior year of high school:

1. I'm intimidated by kittens. I've never been responsible for one (I have never actually held one) and they just seem really fragile in comparison to puppies.

• I've held one, still don't see the fuss. Kittens are breakable. Points to young Paige. 

2. I have gone through 4 digital cameras in the last 4 years. I sold one to my brother, I gave one to alec, I threw one away, and I bought myself a new one this summer. I have bad luck.

• I think I only had two more after this-- I'm pretty sure Stanley is the one I mentioned buying though, and he's still kicking. 

3.When I grow up, I'm going to live off the paleo diet.

• Still true. Food is hard. 

4. I'm awful at buying clothes. Other than jeans, I can't make an outfit work. I just throw stuff together. I have this weird idea that moving to a big city will solve this, but I'll probably always be a fashion failure.

• I joined a sorority and made friends with fashionistas. I'm lazy now, but not ignorant. 

5. I'm completely fascinated by baby food. I think it's awesome, how a whole meal can fit in a little jar. and that they have so many varieties.

• Still true. I just want to feed all babies everywhere. 

6. I have never in my life been on a boat. [insert pop culture reference] This excludes paddle boats and fairies (which are mostly just big paddle boats).

• Aha! I have since been on a boat, multiple times. I can even wakeboard. 

7.I think food is disgusting. There are probably only 3 or 4 meals that don't gross me out.

• Friends, are you laughing now? I didn't make this up. 

8. I want to own a bakery when I grow up. go figure. I love to cook.

• Hahahahahaha. I'm over that. Cooking makes everything hot, and I get bored too quickly. 

9.I took piano for 10 years, but only really liked it for 2.

• I miss piano, so I have break up goggles over this. 

10. When I was younger, I was awful at naming things (moosey, fishy, kitty...) so now to make up for it I have ridiculous names for my pets. Like Walden Chandler, shakespeare amadeus, and Ricecake Eloise. If Godzilla was more mine than alecs, I would have given him the middle name Albadore.

• My rats names were Moose and Elk, and my roommate let me name our fish Gertruida. Still true. Also, Ricecake Eloise is a boss ass name. 

11. I spend more money on my skin than any other part of my body. body gel, lotion, perfume, makeup, nail polish- none of it comes close to the amount of face wash I've tried.

• And yet, I still look like I'm in highschool. Sorry to disappoint you, younger Paige. 

12. I'm self concious of people thinking I'm an attention whore, so I only play piano with headphones plugge in.

• Still true, although it extends way beyond my piano playing. 

13. When I grow up, I would be perfectly content to become my Grammy.

• duh.

14. Alec's house is like a vacation for me. My house is always very high energy and tense, where as his is very chill. Also, my hamsters live there, as does Scooter, who is quite possibly the most epic cat in the world.

• That relationship, those hamsters, and the cat are all dead, and yet I still don't disagree with this statement. I love me some sturtz family. 

15. More than anything in the world, I hate the minivan. Not because it looks dorky. Never in my life have I been concerned with that. But because it is so big and unbalanced that a short clumsy girl has no place in it. Everytime I get in that car, I feel out of control and uncomfortable. This is why i don't have my license.

• WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING BABY PAIGE? That mini-van rocked. The only thing good that came out of losing it was that we got Jarvis in the process. 

16. I have a dorky rockstar crush on Max Bemis. He's not even pretty; I'm just a sucker for tortured guys that can play guitar.

• Well, good. Some things never change. 

17. I've always wanted to be a bartender. I think it would be trendy.

• Girl, you so trendy. You also came home smelling like beer every night. So less trendy in that regard.

TBT: Beginning of Freshman Year

Apparently, I took a lot of selfies. This time with pink hair.

Why? Because I was a freshman, I guess. I do
remember trying to be ironic about it, so that
counts for something. 

My first trip home to visit Conneaut and rep my
BW gear

Biffy's and I had a room mascot- I don't remember his name

The first weekend of freshman year, when there was nothing to do and no one
to do it with. 

This was taken during orientation- I didn't even know it existed
until today!