Inside Kimmy's Mind

Bloggers occasionally update with a current blog entry so since I just want an excuse to update my blog again before the new year I’ve decided to write another one. 🙂

attempting to write out interview questions for Gulf Coast. But my brain is just being lazy and avoiding it.  🙂

listening to Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. My sister was given this cd when she was in junior high and I’ve been thinking about these poems recently and how the voice of Silverstein totally brings them to life. This is one of my favorites, but I have several favorites so chances are I’ll share those as well. 🙂

loving my time at home. I’ve been pretty lazy, but it is so great to just relax and not worry about deadlines.

reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I’m just about done with it and I absolutely love it. Saw the movie as well and was pretty satisfied with it.

watching a ton of Christmas movies on TV. They aren’t the greatest but since they are practically the only thing on, and my mother loves watching them, I don’t mind watching them with her.

knitting some new hand warmers and hopefully starting a new scarf. So time consuming, but Texas weather is so fickle. By the time I finish the scarf I won’t even get to use it.

hating that my sleep schedule is so screwed up. I keep trying to get it back on track but that is easier said than done. :/

And on that note I should just end this post. I plan on updating again soon, the year is coming to an end and I want to squeeze in some last minute entries before it’s 2013. I feel like I didn’t blog enough towards the end of this year or even just this month so I want to make up for that.  I have several topics I wish to discuss so look forward to that.

Another Christmas has come and gone and no matter how old I get, I still anticipate the opening of gifts. I see no point in waiting until midnight, seeing as no one in my family expects an actual visit from Santa.

 I can’t remember the exact age I stopped believing in Santa. It had to be around 4th or 5th grade, my younger sister and I would wait up until around 5 in the morning because that was the earliest my parents would allow us to open gifts. My older sister stayed up to assist with the wrapping and the consuming of Santa’s cookies. She was also there to make sure we were in our rooms and “sleeping”.  I always tried to actually sleep on Christmas eve so Christmas would hurry up and arrive. But try as I might, that never happened. Now we open presents pretty early, it took a bit of persuading but my mom finally caved. What? Just because I am 23 doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the holiday and act a bit childish. We waited until after dinner to open gifts on Monday. The Weirdos were in New Orleans for the holiday so they opened gifts on Friday and we got to open our gifts from them. Our parents were given a record player. We went to different record stores to find them both albums. My favorite record store in Houston is Allrecords the owner Fred is just wonderful. He knows practically everything about music so he is always helpful. His store is down the street from Mija’s office so Kat and I went to visit her and made a trip to his store last week. If you haven’t got the time be careful because Fred the music man will talk your ear off. Anyway, back to the gift opening. I have basically everything I could ever want/need. So when my mom asked me what I wanted this year I just said whatever is fine. I was totally surprised to receive the gifts I did. My parents bought both Kat and me a new laptop. Windows 8 is completely different from Windows 7 and Vista. It will take some getting used to but I love it.  Now if only they made cool cases for it like they did for macs. -.-  Along with the new pc, I got a few ds games, I already finished playing Resident Evil Revelations. The damn zombies would fall from the ceilings and scare the heck out of me. But still the game was pretty fun to play, of course I nick named a bunch of the zombies after genitalia. i.e. penis tongue and vagina cockroach. Lovely images no? XD

She & Him- Christmas Day- I don’t like too many holiday songs after being in choir for four years. So I thought I’d share one that isn’t a classic. [audio:http://numb.honey-vanity.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/SheHim-ChristmasDay.mp3]

It’s weird updating my blog on another laptop. I spent most of the day logging in to all of my social networks, and let me tell you remembering certain passwords was tricky. I usually add my age to the end of a special word and use that as a password. The dumb thing about this is the fact that I do age. So that number changes. -.- So I sat there typing that word and ages 18 to 23 hoping it was one of them. I’m an idiot. It was brilliant at the time, now I it just leaves me feeling frustrating. I managed to figure out all of my passwords minus my Skype one. So I had to update that one with a new password…I already can’t remember what I used. -.- So bad. The best thing about this new laptop is no more alien sounds! My past two laptops both made alien noises whenever I used Skype. So I’m excited to know that those sounds are gone. Now I may Skype in peace.  Christmas was fantastic, dinner was great and spending time with my family has been so much fun. I’ve done nothing but sleep late oh and read…for fun! I had to read so much over the semester that now I can actually read for fun and not worry about a quiz. So nice. Oh and I just found out my grades for the semester…not all good news. Two B’s and D…plus. :/ I knew passing that class would be impossible. Good thing is my GPA is still in good standing. I’m upset that I didn’t pass this stupid class. The most annoying part is, is that I just needed about 5 more points for a 73. That would mean passing. This Spring I need to really study more. There is always one class that I let fall on the back burner. I can’t allow that to happen anymore.

Classes for the Spring:

• Literary Studies- Mon. 4-5:30
• Cr. Writing…the one I somehow managed to skip-Tues and Thurs. 11:30-1:00
• Contemporary Novel – Tues and Thurs. 2:30-4:00
• Gulf Coast …not a class but I’m interning again, this time on Wed. 1:00-3:00

And that is my schedule, Monday’s I can sleep in and I don’t have a class on Wednesday’s aside from interning so that leaves plenty of room for reading/writing and studying. I need to hurry up and graduate already. :/ pffft Anyway, I hope your holiday was splendid and may your new year be just as awesome.

Thanks for reading.

Holy crap, it has been far too long since I last updated. Several blog worthy events have been piling up. But when I finally get a chance to update, I get like two lines in and then have to either finish reading a book for my lit classes or I am too tired and save it for tomorrow. But “tomorrow” never seems to come. I still have to finish writing about my sister’s wedding. :/

I spent this holiday at my parent’s house, I haven’t seen them since Mija’s wedding so we definitely needed the family time. I’ve been super lazy, I didn’t do any reading like I should have. I just watched movies and ate….a lot. But I have been knitting. I’m knitting a scarf for a friend as a Christmas gift. I’m trying out a new pattern and so far it looks really good. I am pretty proud of it. XD I’ll share pictures over at Mind-Speaks…after I give it to her of course. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing and I hope everyone else had a great holiday. Both my parents worked on Thursday so we had our dinner on Friday. But we also went to Walmart for Black Friday. And people are insane. They were similar to zombies feasting on a body. I was shocked. You should have seen how crazy they were over just pillows and towels. I think some people were just grabbing crap just so someone else wouldn’t get it. They took some satisfaction in seeing a person disappointed because they didn’t get what they were aiming for. How sick is that? Other times I saw people eyeing carts, as if they planned on grabbing things out of them. O.O Why are people crazy? There was even a bit of drama while we waited in line for a TV. It involved people who let family members cut and a woman who would leave her cart in line to save her spot. As long as my mom got her TV and we weren’t injured, I didn’t care what other people were doing. My siblings waited in line for movies and video games. They managed to grab two copies of Dishonored, two of Black and White Pokemon, Dance Central 3, Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption. And then several dvds, great loot all in all.

So now that my lazy holiday is over I now need to concentrate on finals and essays. My last final is on the 14th and then I’ll be done for the semester. I have two essays to write, due next week and two tests this week. Oh joy. I wish all my essay writing for the semester was done. I have no idea what to write. I need to start planning it out seeing as they are both due next week. Pffft great. This sucks.I can’t believe it has taken me this long to post another entry. I plan on making haul video soon. After I finish writing essays and whatnot, so look forward to that. I’ll try to update soon, I still have a lot of drafts to finish.

So, what did you look forward to eating this year at Thanksgiving? Mine was pumpkin pie and green bean casserole. :9 Thanks for reading, next entry I should have pictures and music to share.

So we brought him home on Friday!! And he is doing much better now that he is.

So we picked him up at 7:30 am. We waited while they finished with the paper work and then finally we were escorted to a room where the nurse talked about how he hasn’t been eating and that if he doesn’t eat by Saturday then we would have to bring him so they could force feed him. If he doesn’t he it could result in liver failure. >.< So it is quite serious. She asked one of us to come and retrieve him because he was still being very aggressive to the doctors/nurses and she wasn’t his favorite person. So I volunteered and followed her to the back. She tried to corner him in his kennel and was hoping to force him into his carrier. He started growling and hissing at her and retreated further into the corner of the kennel. She sighed and got up to look for the kitty gloves. So after she walked away, I decided to give a more delicate approach. I kneeled down and called his name. He immediately perked up and came to the front of the kennel. I kept talking to him and petting his head. I put the carrier in front of him hoping he would get in on his own. He kept trying to go around it to get to me. It was the cutest thing in the world. He recognized me and knew that I meant home. I rubbed his chin and he rested his head on my hand. It was as if he was saying, “I know you. Please take me home.” My heart melted when I saw the the look on his face. He doesn’t really have expressions but right then and then he did. I tried putting the carrier in front of him again and he finally understood what I wanted him to do. He started going into the carrier himself but was having trouble. I didn’t want to touch his backside because I didn’t want to hurt or alarm him. So I pulled him by his upper body and slowly slid him inside. I thought he would have put up more of a fight but he knew I was there to take him home. The nurse came back with the gloves and said, “Oh he loves you.” I’m sure she was just glad that she didn’t have to touch him. Not sure if Közi scratched or bit any of the nurses he’s never used his claws on humans before so I’d be surprised if he did. I rejoined my father and sister and the nurse then gave us instructions and his medication. The ride home took awhile but he slept most of the way. Once we got home he came out of the carrier and started walking around the house. Even though he spent most of his days outside we occasionally brought him inside and he would snuggle with who ever was around. We prepared a corner for him and tried feeding him. He ate a few pieces of kibble and then a bit of ham but still it wasn’t enough. He has to stay inside for the next couple of weeks so I went with my mother to buy a litter box and a kennel so we can make sure he won’t get into anything while everyone is sleeping. He has to use special paper like litter because the other kind might irritate his wounds.

Oh I guess I should mention that I still had my road test to take that day and….I PASSED!!! I officially have my license. Now if only I could already be an excellent driver. -.- If only I could get rid of my fear of driving in Houston.

Mija and I had to return to Houston that same day. I felt bad leaving Kat with the responsibility of taking care of  Közi but I’m happy to report that he did much better Saturday. He ate more and he used the restroom. He even sleeps in his kennel. He is such a well behaved cat, I’m sure he was only aggressive at the hospital because he was unhappy and in pain. Once he was in a familiar place he was able to relax because he knew he was safe. I’m just glad he is eating. I love this cat!!! In 14 days we do have to take him back so they can take out the sutures. I didn’t want to have to take him before we had to.

So before the incident I had filmed and was editing a haul video. I finally finished it up today and now can upload and share it. I tried not to make it too long but that is hard to do when it comes to hauls. Classes start on Monday and I am excited. I’m also excited to hang out with friends Thursday night. I will be going to Poison Girl for the Poison Pen reading series. I haven’t been able to attend all summer so I’m happy that there is one the first week of classes. Monday and Wednesday I have one class from 4 to 5:30 and then Tuesday and Thursdays I have two. One class starts and 1 and finishes at 2:30 and then the second one is also from 4 to 5:30. I’m happy that I have time available for my internship. I’m attending the meeting this coming Wednesday. I will be meeting the new editors so I’m a bit nervous. But hopefully my past experience with the journal will help me snag a spot on the team. 😀

Thanks so much for the kind comments in my last post. I really appreciate them and I’m so glad that you understood where I was coming from. I hope everyone is well, and if you’re going back to school what is something that you look forward to a new school year? And if you are not in school, then what is something you are looking forward to this week?

Közi is the sweetest cat in the world. We’ve had him for about 6 years and he just fit right in with us.. He’s a fatty but a gentle giant. Unlike the diva Misto, Közi has never been aggressive towards us. He’s just a really great cat and I love him to pieces.

Disclaimer: What I write from this point on is just me venting and I apologize to any dog owners.

… continue reading this entry.

Believe me when I say I enjoy living in the digital world. I do. I love that I can send someone a message via the internet, but that doesn’t mean I do not enjoy sending/receiving normal cards and letters.

I joined a few pen pal groups, hopefully these work out. The last time I joined a pen pal swap none of my assigned pals ever replied to my letters. I didn’t want my letters to make them feel obligated but I guess it was too much for them to keep up with. I mean I know sending things via mail can be hard to keep up with. I used to swap a notebook back and forth with my best friend but I haven’t sent it back to her in awhile. Now that I think of it it was sort of like a SMASH* book. We would write, doodle and smash stuff in it.  I’m planning on sending her more letters, I miss her.  Oh some exciting news, so there was this blog hop, with amazing prizes, and I won one of them. I will have my very own Amy Tangerine–The Little Things Day Book. I’m just so excited, I’ve never won anything before. So again a thank you to Kellie for hosting such an awesome blog hop. I love her blog.  Continuing on with mail, my swapbot deadline is coming up next week and I finally finished gathering my 5 items to send to my partner. Each item has to be something she can use when smashing so I’m hoping she likes the items I’ve chosen for her. The other is a card I made for a SMASH*aholics pen pal. I had a lot of fun making it. I got to use my new typewriter stamp. I love it!  I really love stamps and on my last visit to Hobby Lobby they had a bunch of new stamps. I’m hoping to send these out sometime this week. Speaking of this week it’s my last week off. Classes start next Monday, and I’m not exactly looking forward to getting back on schedule. -.- I’m already having problems with this semester and financial aid which I hope to clear up in the morning. Also Friday is the dreaded road test!!! I’m still as terrified as ever. I really wish I could have practiced parallel parking some more. Blasted  parallel parking! I’m trying to be calm about the whole thing, I mean I’ve talked about getting my license and always blamed my parents for not getting it sooner. I just have bad test anxiety and the fear of failing doesn’t help. The other day my 16 year old cousin got her license so that should motivate me to do my best on Friday. I can do this! I know I can, I’ve been driving for awhile now and I should hurry up and just make it legal now.  No more excuses.

Today’s song is Polaroid by Skyler Stonestreet

I love this song, I’ve been obsessed with taking pictures with my instax and then I found this song and I can’t stop listening to it. It features the newest Fuji digital Polaroid camera in the video. 

So have you’ve you ever had a pen pal before? If so, how long did you trade back letters? Do you prefer the convenience of email or text messaging? Let me know. :3

Look forward to a new haul video sometime this week. Thanks for reading. :3

So I’ve received  my first SMASH Book*. I was going to save it for my next haul video but I couldn’t wait to share. Doesn’t mean I can’t include it in a video next month or whenever I do a haul again. :3

So I have the Eco Green Book, Kat has the Pretty Pink Book and Mija has the Retro Blue Book. I’ve already started SMASHing my first pages. But I’m a little hesitant, I know there is no wrong or right way. But still it doesn’t stop me from over thinking things. I’ve only started to decorate the corners. I think I’ll get the hang of it eventually, I just need to stop being so timid. I mean the whole point is to be fearless and just go with it right? Right. It’s supposed to be fun and maybe I started it on a night when I didn’t have many things to SMASH. I am just getting started and I am already in love with it. Yes it is basically a scrapbook but something about this SMASH book just screams more fun. Or better than the regular fun scrapbooking brings. Does that make sense? Not that scrapbooking is below this or anything. I envy the scrapbookers who can take any book and transform it into something amazing. When it comes to this I need a helping hand and that is what the pages in these books give me. The pages are sort of decorated for you and you just embellish and add things to it. So I’m really happy these books exist. I first noticed them back when my sister Mija worked at the lovely store Paper Source. They were hot items and constantly being sold out. They first branched out to arts and craft stores and then recently I noticed them appearing in regular stores such as Randall’s, Walmart and Target. What luck! I’m thinking of making it for ideas and inspiration. I totally wish I had started this project in the beginning of the Summer that way I would have had more time with it. But summer class would have gotten in the way. I hope this fall semester allows me time to be creative. I’m not taking any creative writing classes this semester so I’m going to to through withdrawals if I don’t have something to entertain me.

Quick announcement: I Kim am finally taking the last step to getting my driver’s license. -.- Yup I’m 22 and still haven’t gotten my license. But hopefully that will all change this Friday. If I pass the road test. I’m nervous as hell. I don’t do well on tests. Horrible test anxiety. >.< Wish me luck.

Pet History

Oh I also wanted to mention that my parents somehow got another cat. We named him Willow and he is a whiny chi chi baby just like their old man cat Mr. We got our first cat Mr. back in 2000. I was 10? And he was a bitch. -.- I kid you not. He still sort of is, but now his bitchiness is due to jealousy. He doesn’t like sharing my parents with anyone cat or person. He’s had to get used to two cats since he’s been with us. Nao was our second cat. He was great the perfect lap/pillow. He disappeared one day and never found out what happened to him. I like to think someone picked him up and he’s living with a wonderful family right now. Our third cat is Kozi, he is strange. The only reason he works so well with Mister is because he stays away from him. Kozi always looks like he’s had a few too many shrooms or something. They both stay away from the new kitty. Mr. is the only one who starts shit but Willow is not completely innocent. He’s still recovering, I hope when he’s healthy again he doesn’t fight with our other cats because then we will probably have to find another home for him.

I’m sure I’ve asked the pet question before, but if you have more than one do they get along? And if you don’t have any pets, what kind of pet would you want? In a magical world I would want something that can fly so I wouldn’t have to drive.

Fruit by Brian Francis

I bought this book at Kaboom, one of the best used book stores in Houston. I fell in love with the place, and their prices are fantastic. I enjoy Half Price, but Kaboom has them beat. It’s own by the greatest couple too, they hold readings in the back of the store and it’s just a really nice place. I mentioned it in this post awhile back but deleted the pictures because I went with the ex. I just never got around to adding different pictures to that post so I’ll do that here as well. But first, back to the main reason of this entry. A book review. Now I’ve discussed books that I’ve read before but you can’t really call them reviews. You would think after 3 semesters of creative writing and I would be able to write an awesome book review. Well it’s my opinion about it so here it goes. I purchased a review copy, so I’m not sure how much of the story was changed in  the actual published version. But I absolutely loved this book. Both as a reader and as someone who enjoys writing. As I’ve developed my writing skills, I’ve discovered that I enjoy writing coming of age stories. So when I read a book that has taken something we have all gone through and made it relatable while at the same time different, I can’t help but swoon.And that is exactly what this book did for me.

Synopsis (found on the back of the book)

Thirteen-year-old Peter Paddington is overweight, the subject of his classmates’ ridicule, and the victim of too many bad movie-of-the-week storylines. When his nipples begin speaking to him one day and inform him of their diabolical plan to expose his secret desires, Peter finds himself cornered in a world that seems to have no tolerance for difference. Peter’s only solace is “The Bedtime Movies”- perfect-world fantasies that lull him to sleep every night. But when the lines between Peter’s fantasy world and his reality begin to blur, his hilarious adventures in overeating, family dysfunction, and the terrifying world of sexual awakening really begin. 

After reading that I just had to buy it. I love the style that Francis wrote this book in. It’s in first person from the POV of Peter. Although it is relatable, everyone experiences adolescence in their own way. This story was entertaining and it definitely made me think a lot about my own experiences, that awkward stage in life. While reading this book I laughed a lot…and out loud. I feel as though I should actually get my hands on a published copy so I can compare the two. Another thing I found interesting was the fact that it was about a boy and not a girl. As a female, the male mind is somewhat out of bounds so reading this from the perspective of a thirteen year old boy was another reason I enjoyed it. After reading this book, it made me want to start working on some short stories. I might share a few that were inspired by this book.

So if you are looking for a fun book to read I highly recommend Fruit. What style of books do you find yourself drawn to? And if you have book suggestions, let me know. 😀 Thanks for reading.

Concentrating is difficult when there are a bunch of things I’d rather being doing.

This semester is the first time I’ve had such an overload of crap to get done. Here is my current list of stuff to get done.

Nonfiction:

• 2 Peer critiques- due 4-30-12
• Paper 2 revised-due 5-2-12

Shakespeare:

• 10 pg paper- due 5-2-12
• Test (in class)- 4-30-12
• Test (take home)-5-7-12

Fiction:

• Portfolio- due on 5-1-12
• Reflective 4 pg Essay (included in portfolio)

Math:

• Final- 5-10-12

-.- I’m tired just thinking about all the things I have to do. I just can’t wait for this semester to be done. I want to enjoy the month I have off before I start classes over the summer. :/ That’s right…more school. I go home every summer and take a few classes at the community college in my home town. It’s cheaper and my parents enjoy having me home. Of course this is the first time I actually have a bigger reason to want to stay in Houston. Sadly, staying isn’t an option. But hey that is when technology comes in and helps make things easier.

Anyway, I jut finished putting my portfolio together and now I am working on my reflective essay. And then once that is done I can start writing my Shakespeare essay, I’m thinking five pages tonight and five tomorrow, but I also have a Shakespeare test to study for. I’m freaking out about that. The plays I should be re reading are….

• Henry The Fourth
• Macbeth
• Antony and Cleopatra
• Coriolanus

And then my 10 pg essay has to be over a specific act out of all of the plays we’ve read this semester. >o< And then of course there is the take home test that is due on the 7th and that i essentially an essay in itself. My professor is a horrible person!!! There are so many things I’d rather be doing, like figuring out what to get my sister for her birthday. She is turning 19 this year.

I just needed a break from writing. Yeah and I decided to blog as a break? I dunno, I’m weird that way. Once finals are over I’ll post more exciting things along with cute make-you-sick date pictures. I’m happy. XD

Do you follow a study schedule when finals roll around? Or do you just wing it and somehow make it out unscathed?

If you love to write then you should  totally sign up for this conference. There will be craft talks and workshops where you have a piece of your writing critique by fellow writers. Choose from poetry, fiction or non-fiction writing.

I plan on signing up as well, I’m so excited. It will be held on the UH campus and anyone 18 and older can join…unless you are currently in a grad program. :/ All the information can be found HERE. If you register before Sunday it only costs $75 after that it will be 100. That will only cover food and registration not room and board. They will have rooms available so if you are interested in staying on campus for the week that option is available.Now this is pretty cheap compared to some writing conferences so I can’t stress how amazing this opportunity is…especially if you live in Texas. If you do consider coming then leave me a comment so we can get acquainted I would love to meet you and read your writing.