Diet Update

I am currently at my lowest weight. I'm seriously zoned in on reaching my target weight and I really feel like I can do it. Every other time I've tried I've been my own worst enemy. I just couldn't find enough excuses as to why I couldn't lose weight. I realize now that the only excuse is that I was too damn lazy to do it. I really feel proud of myself for this recent weight loss though. I can tell you the weight watchers points in just about everything without even using a calculator. I know exactly what I've eaten every day. I know how much exercise I've gotten and whether it was enough to spend a few extra points on the weekend. I know every freaking detail about dieting.
I think my biggest downfall is smoking weed. Munchies really put a damper on weight loss. It's like pot shuts down the part of my brain telling me to get outside and exercise and the part that says eat the apple instead of the french fries. Instead, it lights up the part that says these chips are worth every pound you gain, or Ramen noodles really aren't THAT high in salt. Oh well, such is life.
By the way, that's me in the orange-ish shirt with the goofy smile. I wanted to find a better picture to show you guys the size I am now, but I couldn't so this what you get.
So there's the summer diet update. The next post I write will probably be about Blissfest because that's next weekend, unbelievably.

Summer To-Do List

I feel I have been putting off making a summer goal list. It's strange because when I was in high school my friends and I would spend weeks and months perfecting this magical list of highlights. But I think our lives are less predictable now. We also have much more to fill our days leading up to summer break so we don't have as much time to think about it. Nonetheless, here is my own little list. (The completed ones are in red)

1. Spend less time on the internet
2. Eat healthier
3. Take more bike rides
4. Watch a sunrise
   
5. Stop worrying about money and enjoy the free time
6. Write more
7. Draw more
8. So something creative each day
9. Read a few new books
10. Buy a new article of clothing that I feel good in
11. Take a trip to Lake Michigan with my friends
12. Go camping
13. Go to California, take a million pictures and blog about it
14. Cut back on the cigarettes
15. Take a deep breath once in a while and just be happy
16. Get to my goal weight
17. Once at my goal weight, get my tattoo to celebrate
    

The Laws of Stoners

So my friends and I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to make a book full of rules and guidelines for people who smoke weed. Just the type of stuff that you learn along the way, the little things, the habits you pick up. So here are a few we came up with along with a few of my own ideas.

1. Bring a drink with you when you go to smoke. Especially if you're going to someone's house where you aren't comfortable helping yourself to a glass of something. Bring something like water or iced tea, not pop because it will only make you more thirsty. My personal favorites are Mucho Mango Arizona Tea or Vitamin Water.
2. Bring some eye drops. Not only will it cover up the red eyes it will also feel awesome when your eyeballs feel like the Sahara desert. Plus, then you can offer to everyone else in the group.
3. If you're buying from a 'friend of a friend' try to have your middleman go with you to avoid awkward vibes and a general threat of being kidnapped.
4. Learn to break it up and pack a bowl. You don't have to know how to roll joints (I sure don't) but it's nice to have the basic skills in case you end up in a group of people, then you can politely offer to pack a bowl.
5. Own your own smoking device, whether it's a bong or a bowl or a one hitter, to avoid having to use a pop can or bottle.
6. The first time you smoke, you should be somewhere chilled out. You shouldn't be worried about your friends parents walking in and you shouldn't be with a bunch of people you vaguely know. You should be on a couch with your friends and a marathon of movies.
7. Hit the gas station or a fast food place before you smoke down. Because that cheeseburger or bag of chips will sound better than you could imagine and you won't have the motivation to go afterward.
8. If you're going to a party and bringing your stash, expect to have people asking to smoke it with you. If you want it all to yourself or to your small group of friends, smoke it before you go.
9. Do not smokebox anything if you are planning on going into public at any time in the near future.
10. Don't try to plan everything. By this I mean, don't plan on smoking and then doing something specific like taking a walk because after you smoke something else may sound way better. Like sitting around listening to music or laying outside and stargazing. Just leave it up to chance.

Prose

Wow it has been quite a while since I have updated this blog. I finished my first year of college recently, which is weird and feels strange to write out and to say. I earned pretty high marks I suppose. I really haven't been curious enough to check my grades but got a letter saying I'm on the Dean's List which I assume is a good thing. I have been doing typical college kid things since summer is upon me. Going to parties, hanging out with friends, being broke, bumming around. Still no improvement on the topic of romance, which I'm sure is a dissapointment to anyone left who kept up with this blog.

I have mostly been relishing how easy life is while simultaneously worrying about the future, which is sort of waste. I recently read a series called The Hunger Games and afterward I became obsessed with it. I forgot how much I love reading.

Instead of quitting smoking I switched my brand, to American Spirits from Marlboro Special Blends. Exciting news indeed.

I bought a new wardrobe at Goodwill.

I hung out with my friends on top of a roof at a party.

My brother went back to jail, but on charges unrelated to drugs for a change.

I looked at apartments in East Lansing and pretend I can afford them and I even go with my friends and tour them and we make vague pipe dream plans about living there but then we leave without signing anything.

It dawned on me today how long it's been since I've done anything creative like write or draw or play my ukulele or listen to really good music or watch a really really good movie. I miss being blown away by art.

I went to see Middle Class Rut play at the Loft.

I smoked and then tried eyedrops that made my eyes feel like they were minty fresh.

I went to a new hookah lounge where your group sits in cool little tent/ rooms with big floor pillows and they put fruit on top of the hookah.

I had relentless dreams about John Lennon so I took down my John and Yoko poster.

I ate a grapple, which is a grape crossed with an apple.

I had a tornado go through my area. The power went out and a I played blackjack with my dad and we bet pennies and I won because I have an awesome poker face.

I spend way too much time on Tumbr and not nearly enough trying to find a job.

AND THAT'S THE NEWS FROM MY LIFE.

Protesting the Outdoors.

I woke up today, cracked my eyelids as the sun assaulted my vision, and realized that outside my window there was a layer of snow covering the ground. I rolled over, groaned, and cursed Michigan for it's fickle sense of weather. I mean really, it's almost May! So I've spent the day pouting about it by refusing to go outdoors. I started the day by learning how to use the new french press we just bought, and smoking a cigarette inside (breaking my own rule). I then proceded to watch 3 episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and applied for about ten online jobs. I am now watching the U.K. Skins and getting on Tumblr. Later I'm going to make spaghetti and then finally I will venture outdoors top go to my sociology class. So until then, I will stay snuggled up in my freshly washed blankets watching crappy overindulgent tv shows on Netflix.

I find myself...

I find myself so often scrambling to finish my homework at the last minute. Admittedly, procrastination is one of my greatest faults! But this time it was kind of justified. Michigan had it's first warm day in about five months today. And I'm not talking sorta-kinda-maybe warm enough to go out without a jacket kind of warm, no no. I'm talking about 82 degreesunshine so bright you need sunglasses and shorts kind of weather!
So instead of sitting inside dying but responsibly completing my assignments, I went kayaking for over three hours on the Grand River. I got sunburned, I look like a lobster, but it was so beautiful. It's almost indescribable the kind of view you get from a kayak. We also stopped for lunch on the bank of the river and had crackers and strawberries and cheese and drank orange pop and just let the sun warm us up and it was so PERFECT.
It really was a beautiful way to spend an afternoon. The only problem was I had to come home and dive into the intimidatingly large pile of homework that I put off and though I am now giving up, I have been working on it since about 8 and it is now almost two in the morning. WOW. And I'm still not even all the way done! Yay college!

Oh College, You Fickle Creature

College is such an enigma to me. Sometimes I feel right at home amongst all the coffee drinking hipsters, the loud talking party girls and frat guys with their hats turned sideways talking to their bros about god knows what. Other times I'm thinking...what am I doing here? Especially when I was going to school at Central I was always at either end of the spectrum, either really happy to be out of the house, or really misplaced and lost feeling. And it wasn't just that I was living off ramen noodles and cigarettes. Things were just weird in general.
And it's not just the social aspect of it, the academia sometimes feels over my head. Other times however, something clicks and I actually feel like I'm being challenged and I'm learning something interesting and useful.
Now that I'm back at the local community college I feel like I'm cheating and taking the easy way out even though I'm told that it's the same education for a lower price. Which is probably true. But I can't help but feeling that it's the simpler option. Not as much thought and effort involved. But maybe that's good. I have always preferred doing other things with my time instead of going to class. Even in high school my attendance record wasn't great. My problems are many, they include not going to bed until very very late at night, not waking up until very late in the day, procrastination, laziness, failure to plan ahead, and the general assumption that the things I really need will find me and fall into my lap.
For these reasons and many others a four year university was a waste of money for me at this point in my life. I'm unorganized, and I'm kind of a stoner. Since getting this job I have been feeling a little more responsible but even so I'm nowhere near as prepared as I should be. Anywho, I'm applying for another job tomorrow but I also have a huge amount of work due for my writing class that is all scattered across my desk. Oh well!