My heart belongs on Bourbon Street

I am my mother's child. There is probably a really good reason that she never took me to New Orleans until this sumer. She knew good and well that I would become obsessed.
My room is adorned with picture of New Orleans, Mardi Gras beads, fleur de lis, and masks. But that's not even close to the extent of it. New Orleans is somewhere in the back of my mind 95% of the time. The French Quarter is my favorite place on this earth. I am addicted.
I'm sure you can relate my experience today with the experiences of a drug addict. At lunch today, I just started craving an oyster poboy. Cajun food sounded absolutely delicious. I could taste it. I started thinking of the absolutely fantastic oyster poboy I had at this place called Johnny's in NOLA. Mouth. Watering. Then I started just thinking about the city. All of a sudden I just had this urge to go there. So I made plans for spring break. In September. I'm going, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Back to my story though...I had this itch. I couldn't get it out of my head, and I just had to go.

It's only gotten worse.

I am currently googling hotels in the French Quarter, how much gas money it would take to get there and back, and listening to a "New Orleans by Louis Armstrong" Pandora station and pretending I am there.
New Orleans has a way of stealing a piece of you and never giving it back. I love Texas more than anything, and I absolutely love Texas Tech, but I have come to the conclusion that my heart belongs on Bourbon Street.

Here are some pictures I took during my French Quarter expedition. They don't even do the place justice.

We might be saying bye to the Big 12

With my job, I know what's going on with Texas Tech. And the Big 12. And of course I have opinions.

A&M wants to go to SEC. A&M denies ever sending a letter to SEC. A&M leaves Big 12 (conditionally). SEC invites A&M as long as there are no legal issues. Baylor threatens litigation. And now Iowa State is thinking along the same lines too. And Kansas, Kansas State, Mizzou, Baylor, Iowa State, and Tech aren't signing the waivers required to A&M to SECede. This has been my life the last week.

OU is now thinking about leaving if A&M gets to leave. If OU leaves, OSU will leave, and we'll be stuck without a conference. If this happens, the rumors are that OU, OSU, Texas, and Tech will all go to Pac-10(16) and create a superconference. This might be cool, because Texas would be forced to share their network with Tech half and half. But at the same time, a superconference would have it's downfalls. There would have to be a ton of money to keep that thing alive.

Scatterbrain moment...let's just talk about why this whole thing happened. Simple reason: The Longhorn Network. Ok, here's the somewhat more long winded version: A&M has always been really jealous of the Texas Longhorns (and I am by NO MEANS a longhorns fan). I mean hell, they dedicated their fight song to the Longhorns. They won't admit it, but they're really jealous.

So here's what could be happening.

Baylor is threatening to sue. They're terrified the Big 12 will fall apart, and for good reason. Baylor has the worst conference record in the Big 12. No one like the Big East or Pac-10 is going to pick them up. They're going to be stuck in a horrible conference like the C-USA or Mountain West. Or, even worse, forced to go independent. They won't make enough revenue to keep their current large program up.

Texas will most likely go to the Pac conference, in which (as long as invited) Tech will most likely follow.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will probably also go. Rumors are spreading that OU is currently already in discussion with the Pac-10/12/whatever number it will be. OSU will most definitely go wherever OU goes.

Mizzou, Kansas, K-State, and Iowa State remains up in the air. Albeit, Mizzou, Kansas and K-State probably won't have any problem being picked up by a decent conference. Some may even join us in the Pac if we have to go over there, and we would then create the Eastern Division along with Arizona and some more.

Let's just say OU doesn't leave and create a big clusterfuck. We would need some more schools to build up our diminishing conference. We talked to Arkansas, that won't happen. They left us for a reason. BYU? SMU? Houston? Louisville? SMU and Houston seem the most probable, and both are good schools; it wouldn't be bad to have them. The Red River Rivalry could continue, the Tech/Texas rivalry could continue...everyone would be happy.

But if A&M leaves Big 12, and they no longer play Texas, what happens to "goodbye to Texas University?" They're gonna sound like huge idiots singing that when they're playing Ole Miss or Bama. Oh wait...they kinda are huge idiots. If they would've just sucked it up and dealt with Texas being the powerhouse that they are, we wouldn't be in this giant dilemma right now. I mean hell, even with the Longhorn Network, they would have increased network coverage because of the big rivalry between the two schools.

So within the next week or two, Big 12 might disappear. Tech might be part of the new Pac-16 Superconference. Or, we could get new members of the Big-12. We will see.

Football is back!

Ahhh, football season. So glad you're back. And let me tell you, yesterday was one hell of a return. I honestly think yesterday was one of the funnest days I've had while at college.

I woke up, got ready, and waited to tailgate. Yeah, I was ready way before I needed to be because I was so extremely excited.

Got to the tailgate. It's the first time I've tailgated with this group of friends, and I love it. They're the best. Everything needed for a tailgate was there. Food, fun, friends, and of course some other liquid essentials. Mom and Dad even joined in for a bit! It was so good to see everyone decked out in red and black again. Game days rank right up there with Christmas and my birthday on my list of favorite days. It is a glorious sight.

We finally started walking to the game, which was quite a walk since we tailgated so far out. We had to make a few stops along the way, which made it take a little longer. We got to the game at the beginning of the second quarter. By halftime, a dust storm had blown in, and between people wearing contacts and my dress blowing up, we decided to leave. We went back to the tailgate for a while, and then started making the rounds needed for people to clean off and change. We all met up at my house, and then went back to the tailgate. And yes, the game was way past finished at this point. We won 50-10. Sorry, Texas State.

Last night was part of the reason it was so fun. We had a party in the parking lot. Cops didn't bug us, either, which was really cool. We had loud music, and plenty of people. Everyone was dancing and having a good time. It was so much fun! If this keeps happening every game, which is a good possibility since everyone loved it, I will earn as many degrees as possible just so that I can stay in college forever.

Anyway, here are some pictures of yesterday!

Sadly enough, we're more together than my cheer team in high school ever was, and we weren't trying.

This is my favorite picture taken all day. And I don't even remember why we were doing that.

New!

New semester. New job. New a lot of things. And I love it.

I finished the first week of the new semester! Well, two days, but whatever. So far, I really think I'm going to love my classes. I'm taking Communicating Ag to the Public, Consumer Meats, Photography, Video Production, and Intro to Public Relations.

Another rant...I'm so happy

I swear if I see one more status on facebook saying stupid stuff like "I don't need to wear makeup to look pretty. I'm real, I don't need plastic surgery to feel good about myself. I don't believe in name brand clothes. etc. etc." I. will. go. crazy. It's really funny when you think about it though, because the majority of people that post that (actually, everyone I have seen that post stuff like that) wears makeup and does their hair and tries to look cute. But that's not why it makes me crazy. Here's the deal, while you may feel good enough about yourself to not have plastic surgery, others do not...like me.
I am a strong supporter of plastic surgery. Why not fix something you're not comfortable with? I mean, it's so easy these days! And yes, I'm about to rant, but I feel like I have a respectable opinion because I have had plastic surgery. And guess what, I'm still a real person. People don't realize how much it sucks to get picked on because of physical characteristics. People also don't realize how heartbreaking it is to find the cutest dress ever just for it not to fit right in one area. I was unhappy with something that no amount of exercise or makeup could fix, so I got it surgically fixed. You know what? I am happy. I have so much more self confidence now. So will someone please tell me why you have to brag that you haven't had any work done? I will gladly tell anyone who asks that yes, I got a boob job. I will also tell them it's because I knew guys with bigger boobs than me before I got them done, and I'm talking normal sized guys, no man boobs. I am happier and I am WAY more confident than before. So what's the big deal here, people? Girls who post that nonsense as their status, here is what mine would say:

I wear makeup. I spend way too much money on pretty clothes. I have had plastic surgery. I own more shoes than anyone I know. I am proud of it, because you know why? It's a girl's right to make herself feel beautiful.

Boredom.

Boredom strikes once again. Unfortunately, that's a pretty common thing for me. Even more unfortunate, that's when I start disliking myself. Don't worry, it's not like a self-loathing thing. I love me. But when I'm bored, I'm bored with me. I'm not ok with my appearance. I love my hair now, but every time I get bored (like right now), I think "hey, I wonder what it would look like darker/lighter/shorter/without bangs/with bangs/insert any possible hairdo here. I consider going to extreme lengths when I'm this bored, which is fun and all, but anyone that knows me knows that I'll do something just to say I've done it, and a mixture of those two things could very easily equal up to some trouble. When I'm bored like this, I've considered dying my hair brown, bleaching my hair, or just completely redoing it. I've considered taking out all of my piercings but my ears, but I kind of like them, so I don't know about that. I've considered getting a tattoo, but I couldn't imagine anything I wouldn't get tired of within three weeks. I start thinking of all of the things I could possibly change without surgery, and think what all I could do to push the limits that would still look good.

Here's the deal, I want to be a flapper, and a pin up girl, and to live in a time where everyone dresses up their best to go out. Guys wear suits, girls wear pretty things. I want it to be perfectly normal for someone to show up somewhere with freshly done pin curls and red lipstick. I want someone who will accept the fact that this is what I want. That's just not found around here now days. But hey, I'd probably get bored with that too.

What is wrong with me? Why can't I just be happy with me?

I'm back.

I'm back. I'm back blogging. I'm back in Lubbock. I'm back. So much has happened to me this summer while I haven't been writing, and some of it I can't even begin to explain.

I'm finally back in West Texas. Sometimes I think that this feels more like home than home does. I'm completely moved in to my new place, which I love. I would post pictures, but I've been too lazy to take any. I get to see my friends on a nearly daily basis, and I get freedom. Moving in has been tough, since we had to bring all of our own furniture, but it's so worth it. My bedroom set means more to me than almost anything else I own. It was my great-grandmother's. It used to be in my bedroom at home before I redid it and switched out to a different furniture set we had in storage. Well, Gommie, I'm using your stuff again. I stripped it though. My Gommie bought this bedroom set in the 40s, I think. My grandmother said it was the only thing she knew of Gommie spending a good amount of money on, which made it even more special to me. It's not exactly how it was, because I stripped it and painted it black and silver, but I know Gommie would be so happy I'm using it. She'd be even happier that it was a family affair redoing it. My mom, my grandmother (Gommie's daughter), and I stripped it. My grandfather repainted it, and my friend and I added some finishing touches on the painting as soon as I got to Lubbock with it. I never plan on getting rid of this. Ever. It means the world to me.

I found out just how horrible people are. Someone who claimed to love me and someone who claimed to be my best friend are together now. But don't get me wrong, I wasn't very upset when I found out. I knew it was coming. It was actually a huge relief. I could no longer be lied to. And you know what, I think I might've found someone new to try a relationship with. I didn't just meet him, but I'm just getting to really know him and spend time with him, and I like him. I really do. Fingers crossed that this turns out how I want it to. It's such an adjustment to me to be back just flirting and just starting to like someone. I like it. For the first time in months, I don't want to go to sleep at night because I don't want to miss talking to him. For the first time in months, I get butterflies in my stomach. I smile more than ever. For the first time in months, I have a crush on someone, and I'm seeing where it will take me.

I'm inspired again. I am back. Hopefully for good this time.