21

Well its been a month since I turned 22.

So why not write about what the hell I learned in my 21st year of life.

I didn't get to go out like I had hoped on my 21st because of the damn snow. But I did spend it with my lovely family and the best roommate ever.

And I got my mermaid tail.

I didn't get my new years kiss which looking back now was a good thing.
I set it up perfectly and then he just walked away.
Oh well.

A few weeks later I went out with my friends and properly celebrated my birthday, and very safely drank until I threw up.
I didn't make a mess.
You would be proud.

I experienced my first snow down and it was amazing and insane and slightly drunken. But I was very safe.
If you learn anything from reading this know, I am always safe whilst drinking.

I had my first date with a man on Valentines day.
And to be honest, it was pretty great.
No pressure.
Just getting to know him.

A few weeks later I ate an entire pint of talenti gelato in one sitting.

I fell in love with the most beautiful little girl on the 1st of March 2015.
Abigail Alexis Cook came into this world that particular day.

I found out that I hate being the designated driver for a ton of drunk people.
Because they always forget to thank you.
But they are awfully funny.

I met the most beautiful little girl when she was roughly 3 weeks old.

I found I like the idea of cooking and food, but I don't actually like doing it.
I want my food now.
I don't want to have to wait for it.

I found I love to snuggle with my roommate.
And that isn't weird in the least.

I went out with a friend for a few weeks.
And then we were still friends after which I am so grateful for.

I found one of my favorite professors will give the stink eye to boys that are mean

I realized in less than a year that I would be walking across that stage at graduation.
And that scared the shit out of me.

And then I told the guys in my section this fact and Andy responds "well at least then we'll be in tune..."

I saw my beautiful, wonderful and witty little sister graduate from high school. I am so proud of her.

I found out what it's like to push the limits with your parents kindness and then get mad, get stuff done and find a job.

Actually I got hired by 2 in one day.
That is quite the accomplishment.

And then I found out what its like to be let go from one because apparently I didn't quite fit.
When you seriously thought you fit in like a glove.
And having to leave this place that is like a second home. All the friends that stayed.

Also found that my dad will go out of his way if I need answers.
Lets just say, crying hot mess Julia + protective father = a great story

And then exactly 2 weeks later I got a new job. I had dropped off my resume the same day that I picked up my last pay check at my previous job. That next monday I did an interview with the new place. That day was exactly 2 weeks since I had been let go from my other job. I was so happy and fortunate to have found a new place that wanted me even with my previous experiences.

I found what its like to worry incessantly about a mentor.

I found what its like to run from one job to the next.

I found what its like to have friends that you see nearly every day.

I got to celebrate the 21st birthday of one of my best and most beautiful friends, Miss Deanna.

I went drove to Mancos on the 1 year anniversary of Bri's death and drove around and made peace with it all. I finally put her to rest.

I took up running and started racing the train sometimes.

I found I like the feeling of wind in my hair.

My wonderful family came down to see me twice. And I was the happiest camper.

I got used to living alone for 3 months.

And I jumped for joy when the roommate moved back in.
Because I really really really missed her.

I had some great kisses and some really bad ones too.
What part of kissing is a conversation, do people not understand?!
Sorry, I have strong lips. It's a bassoonist thing.

I liked this man that moved away way too long until I had to be told to move on.

We celebrated my moms' 3 year survivor day. August 8th 2012 will always be ingrained in my mind.

I was an orientation leader again this year and I bribed my group with sugar. Like capri suns, ice cream bars and some chocolate.
I think they liked me.
I see some of them occasionally.

I got on the dean's list for the first time.

I am so proud to be where I am.

I found that being single is really pretty okay.

I found that masterdating is pretty great as well. So I occasionally take myself out on a date. And it is perfectly lovely and fine with me.

Grant and I occasionally talked and I feel like things are starting to get more normal. I am so proud of him and what he is currently doing with his life.

I went on some really good dates and some really bad ones as well.

I had to be extremely blunt sometimes with people and learned that sometimes you just have to say right out that you don't like a person a certain way for them to finally get it.

I might have actually screeched for joy over the phone one night.

I became oddly good friends with my Spanish professor...

I put my foot in my mouth so badly. I still feel so awful about what I said.

I went to the cardiologist and found out some answers.
Like if I ever want to have children it is not impossible, but it would be a high-risk pregnancy.
Also, I currently have a normal functioning aorta. Yay for me and modern medicine!
And I found out that I'm a little bit of a miracle child.
So this all puts some of my future plans for what I want to do in perspective and it answers some questions instead of just beating myself up with what ifs.

I flirted a lot.

My mom came down to see my Christmas band concert and we (well mostly her) cleaned my entire apartment.
It was amazing.
Thank you so much mom.

I found kindness and understanding are things I need most.
Kindness is one of the hardest things to find in this world.

I cried a lot this year.
I questioned my self-worth a lot.

I got told my designs had become stagnant.
I hate that word.
And that me of all people could ever make anything "stagnant".
So I revamped my style.
And I think its worked.

I found that I want to find a partner. Not a husband.
I don't want to be a wife. I don't want to be boxed into what I'm expected to do.
Whatever happened to teamwork??

I found that people that are not feminists are really hard for me to get along with.
Because I feel like men and women should be equal in all facets of society.
And people that put down other people or themselves because of their gender I think is silly.

I strengthened a few relationships.
KC you have been one of the hardest people to love but at the end of the day I love that you are one of my closest friends. You push me to get out of my comfort zone and some of my favorite memories are with you. I remember the day you told me he loved you. I am so happy for you.

I also got the idea that someday I want to get a tiny bassoon tattoo somewhere on my body.

I occasionally walk around naked which never used to happen.
My body is a work of art. Why should I be ashamed of my curves or my scars?
They show my character.

I wasn't home as much as I would have liked.

We got a new puppy named Jax. Not actually a puppy, he's 4 years old. He's sweet. Just not always the smartest.

I found Claire is so much more mature than I was at her age. She amazes me every day.
I found Owen has this adorable and very secretive romantic side. Thank you, Ashley for bringing that out of him.
I found my parents are full of surprises. They are some of the most loving and caring people i've ever met. I am proud to have their blood running in my veins,

My 21st year of life was a great and hard year of life.
But I would never change it.
I am so proud of all the strides I've made.
I got out of my comfort zone a bit more.
My 21st year was a lot better than my 20th year.
I am a lot happier.
I am so much braver now.

So 22 shouldn't be too bad right??

The things you do for band...

So friday was an absolutely insane day because I had a presentation AND a band concert.
So I had to leave class early as per usual to get to rehearsal.
Then get dinner and put on this make up.
This was not my idea of fun.

I love make up in general.
I love putting it on.
Hell one of my favorite parts of the day is when I put on my make up.
It changes everything.

But Walters wanted the entire band in black and white ghost make up.
The. Entire. Band. In. Makeup.

Nope.

So I had to put that on and I did not enjoy putting that on on top of the make up I already had on.
Only men think its a good idea to wear crazy stage make up.

So we do the concert.
Face paint and zombie walk and all.

And I go home and I scrub all that shit off my face.

Never again Walters.
Never again.

"This is going to sound weird, but do you possibly have seashells?"

Finding seashells in a landlocked state.

Good idea to be a mermaid for Halloween.
Yes really good idea Julia Grace.

Oddly enough tiny Durango CO does have seashells.
At the fish store.
Hermit crab shells.
At the cowboy store.
Abalone.
At pier 1
Decorations.

Let me just say, trying to find them was a journey at a half.
And I'm pretty sure I cracked up half the media center whilst doing so.

Because lets be honest, a woman looking for seashells, in Durango, for a mermaid costume.

Yeah that was me.
And I'm sure some of those people I called went home later that day and said something like...

"I had the weirdest conversation today. This girl was looking for seashells for a mermaid costume. She's going to freeze her ass off I can tell you that."

Stomping

So relationships are hard.
And the older I get the more I realize that I want to spend my time with people that do something for me.
Such as making me happy or engage me in unique conversations.
They give me something that I can't find anywhere else.
And that's a quality all of my friends have.

So why would I spend time with someone that I do not connect with on multiple levels and whom I don't really enjoy?

I have no idea.

But that happened and I realized that I didn't want to go any further.
So I stopped something before it got any further.
Because I realized my time was better spent elsewhere for both parties.
We weren't that connected.
I didn't have time.
And I just wanted to move on.

And I didn't want to hurt them.
So I cut it off before it went too far.

And I think that was one of my best decisions.
Why waste time on something that doesn't make you happy.

Life is only so long.
Why waste it on something that neither person enjoys?

That's not fair for anyone.

So moral of the story.
Always pursue happiness.

recruiting

So the indy was in desperate need of staff because lets be honest our current staff is quite small.
And no one came back this semester.
And so we had less people.
So I had this genius idea to send out a mass email to professors from some other departments that might have students that would be interested.
English, History, Theatre, Business and Art.

Let me just tell you Business has more professors than all the departments combined.
And maybe 2 got back to me.

Thanks guys.

Well I sent that out.

And then realized that I had a typo in the first sentence of the email that was sent to the english professors.
And then I realized I had sent it from my msn email and not my fort lewis.
So it could have ended up in spam boxes.


But I did get some responses.
And so we did get some people into classes.
So hopefully we will have a variety of people next semester and with different talents more than communications majors.

Bossy Pants

So when I need to get something done in a group project I tend to get a bit bossy.

Okay to be honest, I get really bossy.

Like no joke.

I will try to make the entire world revolve around me.

Yeah I am that diva.




So here is the deal.
We were filming for my social media marketing class.
And I was being excessively bossy.
And indecisive.
And hyper as hell.

But somehow with all the gibberish coming out of my mouth we filmed the entire thing.
Which only needed to be 50 -70 seconds.
But we all know we went over because our group or well the 2/3rds that showed up for filming day is badass.
 That one guy. Did not show up.

And that other guy was so freaking helpful.
Like we became buds.
It was so good.

"You have sushi, RIGHT?!"

So the roommate and I finally had our schedules open up enough that we could finally go on a sushi date.
These happened a lot more last year but this year they have been less and less because we are just both extremely busy.
Its not so good.
So we finally found a spare hour or so to spend together and eat food.

WELL it started out okay.
And then we got hangry

So our favorite spot Rice Monkey we had to wait for.
And we waited for like 40 minutes for a table.
And then we went back to check and found out they were out of sushi.

So I just went NOPE AND WALKED MY HAPPY LITTLE ASS OUT THE DOOR.
I  usually am more polite than that but we were hungry.
And I was damn determined to find some sushi.
Because it was our sushi date night.
And we cant have that with out sushi.

So we headed to East by Southwest.
Which we've never been to together.
But what the heck, were branching out.

So we walk in and with a crazy look in my eye I look the lady in the eye and say "you have sushi RIGHT?!"
And she answers yes.

We get seated.
Order a crap ton of food.
Eat all of it.
Then find out we get cotton candy too.
And then I am literally the happiest person ever.

So the moral of the story is, don't mess with me when i'm hungry.
Or i might just end up eating you.