Hey Everyone, Ok I'm a little ticked at my computer. I had like half of the fix written and it was pure genius (actually no) and then AOL jacked up and I crashed. I hate that. But anyways how are you guys enjoying the weather? Summer? Finals? Fun times...except for maybe the finals part. Melanie's finishing up her year and it's going well. She's still cheerleading with the new squad this year. She has twice as much than I ever had as a cheerleader. She's getting new uniforms every year, doing more stunts, and getting better. It's really cool because it's fun seeing her grow up and stuff. Cheerleading is a tough sport man, so many high risk things and stuff makes me nervous. This year Mel's squad has her friends on it so it should be cool. The new girls are really cool since I've known them since they were in like Kindergarten. This past year there were some cool girls but they've graduated and moved on. I hope this coming year they can use their frienships to make themselves a good squad, most of them like each other (more or less, less for some) and can get along with each other so its shaping up to be pretty cool.
Speaking of my little sister I do plan on putting pictures up and I ran across a few of her and the guys. She has one with Rye, one with Matt, one with Nick and me, and one with the group. I also found my pictures from many moons ago and I'll put those up as well.
I've been packing packing packing. I wish I could tell you all I did something that everyone's supposed to do during summer like sit in a hammock with headphones on while i sang enjoying getting a tan. Nope, try loads of tape, lots of packing peanuts, newspaper, labels, and more cardboard boxes than you had to build a fort when you were 6. I painted...well prepped and painted. Saturday I had to wash down the walls and start sanding it. Then on Sunday there was MORE prepping and then painting. In actuality the painting part doesn't take that long. It was fun though, I played the Townsend CD really loud...my new neighbors don't care. Townsend is fun to play on a beautiful and warm day in Daly City (which is rare) but it's more amusing when you're painting. Painting can be boring at certain points. You know how we all say "It's like watching paint dry" when we get bored of something? That's how it gets sometime when you paint. Luckily I had the tunes of Townsend playing which made it fun. Gave me stuff to think about since all I was really looking at was a wall and my hand going up and down it with spackle, sand paper, chisels, paint brushes, sponges and rollers all day.
I was REALLY tired Sunday. I was at the park with friends for a get together and was tired. I was in Mtn View and everyone found it more than funny when I told them I was about to pass out from the 70 something degree heat. I had a blast though, I don't get to hang out with them enough. Amy rolled down a hill and some how I got suckered into rolling down the same hill...I wasn't successful I don't think but my butt hurt today and I found a twig in my shirt when I changed. I also, with the help of Sara started our own fashion company...hey Sara...I'm thinking "Streamer Skirts R Us." I also discovered that I never want to play sports with Kaitlyn because she makes me look terribly weak....especially in football. I got to Daly City to start up on washing the walls for Sunday and nearly fell alseep with rag at hand.
Everything as far as this house goes is amazing. When we first bought it I didn't really like it at all. I had no imagination and no faith that everything would work. There was wayyyyyyy too much to think about. Any of you who have moved and can remember it well remembers how much work there is besides just shuttling boxes and putting them in the right spot. Now things are working, we have a dining room table that will be delivered next week, washer and dryer, a fridge, we have painted the upper level of the house, and eventually will have hardwood floors in the bedrooms and new carpet throughout the rest. Everything is falling into place, day by day, week by week. Things just are working now. I painted today with my sister in our new bedroom. We both decided (along with the advice I picked up from Court, Sara, Amy, and Pam) that yellow would really be a cool color. So picture this, about a 10x15 room with yellow and white trim and pink curtains. Cute huh? Now, to see if we can get all our junk to fit. We did two coats and surprisingly...it doesn't look bad at all. It's the ONLY colored room in the entire house and it looks really cool. I'll take pictures of it for you.
Hard to believe that in a few weeks the house will be complete and we're left with actually living in it. Besides the fact that there's a massive dog across the street that stares at me through my living room window, I think I'll survive it. Change is good. I'm a lot closer to the coast of the ocean though so it's windier.I'm currently just as close to the bay as i am to the ocean but the weather's a bit warmer. (Geez imagine the next summer trip to Mountain View.) But yes i do believe that I will be able to live in this house. Once I do I'll be able to have a lot more people over. My mom decided that instead of a house warming (since the house won't be completely done until we put an addition to the house and remodel the kitchen over the next 2 years) I'll just have a bunch of friends over to hang out before the summer ends. It's all fitting like a puzzle now.
As my puzzle's beginning to fit...so is someone elses' . In fact, 5 someone elses'. The guys'. Their puzzle's beginning to fit. Quite well actually. I'm sure you've all heard about the guys shooting their video for PSSOM. With cameos, a classic loveable song, the help of MTV, and just the right amount of talent, their puzzle will have it's edge pieces and will be left with just filling it in. As those pieces fill in and form the picture on the box (aka: Their goal as a group), we're going to see that it looks a lot better as we see it put togther than just the picture on the box. That's the whole point of a puzzle, to make us work for the satisfaction of doing something right. Sure we could just go to Kinkos (which I recently discovered is 24 hours) photo copy that picture and frame it, and call it done but all you did as far as work went was to pay someone 5 bucks to do all the dirty work of perfecting it FOR you. (See where I'm heading here?)
The guys are putting their puzzle pieces together, maybe slowly, but definietley surely. They knew at the beginning that they would need the edge pieces...the guides for making the others fit. A manager, a support group, a street team, websites, and other elements that simply are nececssities. Then after that it was all about trial and error. Either it was good or it was bad, people liked it or people didn't, they looked the part or didn't look the part. Every piece that didn't fit in a spot went somewhere else (or maybe it was one of those trick pieces that don't even go in the puzzle). There were people that helped find some pieces that fit in random places and eventually they were able to connect it with something else. In no time, their picture has now begun to take it's place for us to see.
We look at this forming picture and we see a story. We remember when the four corners were put down and that's all there was. There was no edge pieces, they had to find them first just like they found the corners. Over time the edge pieces formed their support and everything else started to work. After we had noticed the edge pieces, a whole chain of events happened faster and more efficiently with the frame of it in place. What if they started in the middle with a couple pieces they found that fit together? It would be a lot harder. With the edges and corners sorted they made it all fit to form the structure of the puzzle. But not only did the guys take the smart attempt, they took it safe. They didn't take pieces that didn't fit and like a two year old smashed them together, they looked, patiently as a group and together, found the correct piece.
Just like a regular puzzle, it feels like you've accomplished something, even won something when you found that illusive piece that fits in your personal puzzle. Our life's a puzzle that WE have to assemble. We can't make a piece that doesn't fit sit perfectly in the puzzle. When we eventually start to see an image appearing, we know that we're getting closer to a goal that we set when we first started and that we did it. The guys are beginning to see the picture on the box, and instead of making other people do it for them, they did it themselves (mostly of course...they did get some well deserved pointers here and there) which makes the sweetness of sucess all that much sweeter to enjoy together with well earned recognition.
Stay Safe & Stay You
Love Always,
Kristen
xoxoxo