Thanks for Littering

As I visit my grandmother's beach for Christmas, I noticed all this..trash. And it's really sad. What causes someone to throw their crap in the ocean instead of their recycling bin? Not only does it clutter our beaches, but it harms the animals living in the sea. Have you ever thought that the plastic holding your cans together could choke a sea otter? Or that your mostly-empty bottle of dishwashing liquid could be swallowed by an animal and kill it? Yeah, didn't think so.

A study by Mary Crowley, documented by CNN, revealed that in every sample of ocean water, there are tiny particles of trash and plastic. Think about it - we're told not to use plastic water bottles because plastic particles get into the drinking water. What would happen if a bottle was floating in the ocean for months? Those tiny particles, which are carcinogens (something that causes cancer), could cause cancer in the animals. And that is not okay. This means more wildlife dying, disrupting the food chain, and ruining the ecosystem as a whole. We eat seafood, but if more of it is dying, the seafood business will tank. And even ignoring the technicalities, the simple beauty of the ocean will be compensated. I don't know about you, but bottles and wrappers on my sand is not pretty.

A simple solution to this is to recycle. Some of you are groaning, I hear you. And a lot of you do recycle. Ku-dos. But if you're one of those that just toss it, take this into consideration: every bottle that you don't recycle could end up killing more than one animal. Talk about weight on your shoulders. If your garbage people don't do recycling, then find some place that does. In most places, there is a dump or recycling center where you can take your plastics, paper, and cans. You can find out here where yours is. Do it now, and start making the earth healthier.

Peace and Love,

yourgotogirl

I'm sorry, but I didn't hear the sarcasm in your text.

Lately I've really been thinking about the way technology has made communication much more..flat. And don't get me wrong, the internet and cell phones and everything make life easier in many aspects. I love them, and that's why I use them. But occasionally I wonder how life would be if we lived before computers and cell phones came out.

Sometimes I think I should have been born in the early to mid 1900's. So if a guy wanted to talk to you, he either had to stop by your house or call your house. Either he called, or he didn't. If you wanted to talk to someone, you usually spoke to them on the phone, in person, or sent them a letter. Everything was so much more...personal. And formal. And people went on actual dates to get to know each other, instead of just texting them and then hanging out. Nowadays, everything is so much more rushed and tossed around like it's something that doesn't matter very much. Instead of asking someone out to dinner, you'd probably text them for awhile, hang out, still text but talk on the phone occasionally, then you're together, which means you're not official but you're considered to be with the person. Once you've been together for awhile, then you're official - but it's not official until it's Facebook official. At which point you are then "dating", but actual dates don't really happen.

When you're texting, there's no person sitting across from you that you're having a conversation with - you have time to think of what you want to say and how you want to say it. People get to know each other on a deeper level than you would if you only had face-to-face conversations. There's not as much awkwardness, and people allow themselves to let out some feelings that they might not want to talk about out loud. You can get to know someone faster, which can be good and bad. Good in the sense that you can get some awkwardness out of the way, and bad in the way that it can be rushed and that there's also the intensity of talking to someone so much that you get overwhelmed with it.

When I mentioned earlier that technology has made things more flat, I mean in the sense that the typed word doesn't hold much emotion. When you tell someone you love them in person, you can tell whether they truly mean it or whether they're just saying it. But if I were to text a boyfriend and tell him I loved him, he doesn't know whether I'm joking, passionate, or saying it because it's routine and with an angry undertone. You never know. Or if someone were to say something as a joke, but you thought they were serious because you couldn't hear the way they said it.

It would be nice to feel the breezyness of having a boy call you out of the blue and ask you out to dinner, instead of them texting "hey" from the day they meet you. Instant gratification has become into something that's expected. Did chivalry die?

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Just a thought

I think "shy" is a relative term. Looking at the kid who might seem antisocial or quiet..might in fact be something more complex. You may think that they don't like to talk, but maybe they just like to listen.

A little disappointed.

As I was watching Anderson Cooper 360 with my aunt last night, a segment came on that was about how the Skinheads/Nazi party and the Black Panther party (both racial supremist groups) had risen again and are now fighting in a racial battle in the town of Paris, Texas.

I can't even begin to describe how I felt at that moment. Kind of like the mother of a child who had stopped doing something bad, and then all of a sudden, years later, they start doing that same bad thing. Like being disappointed in someone. The reason I felt this way was because, in the third grade, my class had studied the Civil Rights Movement. I became fascinated with it, and was extremely against any form of racism. I read every book that I could lay my hands on (and was at my reading level), and my parents would have to listen to me talking about it all the time. I knew that all of the lynchings and segregation had stopped (for the most part), and the groups had left the public eye. Hearing that they had come back, it felt like we had taken ten steps back. In my head, I was thinking one thing...Really?? Did they really just take us back forty years? I thought my generation had gotten over it. Guess not.

Living in the northeast, I don't see racism. I can't remember even one incidence of seeing racism. So imagining people who had differently colored skin being treated like trash wasn't a realistic idea to me. I couldn't see it happening, and it still doesn't make sense to me. What kind of deep-set anger could someone have to have to feel the need to drag someone on the back of your pick-up truck, and kill them, just because their skin is darker than yours? Why does the pigment of someone's skin have anything to do with their worth as a human being that walks this earth? Everyone on this planet was born the same as everyone else, and the same effort was put into each child being put on this earth - so why can't everyone be seen the same way when they walk down the street?

Come on, people - we have a BLACK PRESIDENT. He's taking our country in his hands and making it something better. We all thought the racism issue had died out. But these groups that are talking about the Nazis and the Klu Klux Klan, are back from the '60s and the early 1900s. This is...simply rediculous. If there is truly anger coming from the white racists, there must be something truly wrong in their lives that they feel the need to take out that anger on African-Americans - and that anger resulted in the death of Brandon McClelland in 2008. My family has always been strong against racism, and my family has preached it in their churches and communities. Everyone deserves the respect our mamas taught us to give. Why does the shade of our skin make that any different?

It's just wrong.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Will it all get better in time?

Visiting family, I can't help but look through old photo albums. I love old pictures. But I've been noticing that everyone looks so happy in the old pictures, and now some of them are just old grumps. What was once a glowing face that couldn't stop smiling is now a scowl at the dishes that need to be done.

Where did the bliss go? Maybe the glow of youth went out at a time that no one can mark exactly, or maybe it went slowly like a trick birthday candle.

My parents' wedding pictures are of a particular interest to me. My parents used to be so..cool. And that coolness has clearly diminished into the type of marriage that happens when you have kids. My parents used to have fun together, and there's a great picture of this at their wedding shower where you can tell that my dad took my mom by surprise and scooped her up. Does having kids suck the spontaneity out of life?

One of my sets of grandparents are as lively as they ever were. They travel the world and when their birthdays come around, they don't get embarrassed and refuse to celebrate - they have multiple birthday parties, and have started counting their ages backwards. They're the poster-couple for spontaneity and life. Can every couple be like that? Or are they the exception, like the couples from He's Just Not That Into You? If there's any hope in the world for couples, I'm going to look to them for how I want to be when I'm old and withering - exploring like a fake hip and hearing aids don't matter.

Peace and Love,

yourgotogirl

There's a volcano on my table.

Tonight I enjoyed one of my favorite types of restaurants - Japanese hibachi. You know, when you go to a restaurant and there's a guy in a samurai outfit throwing knives around and cooking your food in front of you? It's good stuff.

At one point, Jason (our cook, I thought he would have a cooler name) chopped up an onion and made a volcano out of it by stacking it so that when he poured oil into it and lit it on fire, a flume of fire came out the top. It was pretty legit. The food was amazing of course, I love Asian fusion food - but there was so much of it. I couldn't eat it all and I felt kind of bad for Jason. He was a sweetie. When he made the volcano, he brought out this little toy that was a little squishy plastic boy (it must have been a bath toy) and squirted water all over us. He said, "he is peeing".

I'm definitely going back.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

An Arizona green tea, please.

I've finished my first day of driving - yum. I love going places..but I hate the whole traveling thing. Essentially, the being there part is all good..it's just getting there that sucks, especially if you're spending quality time with mom and pop in a 5-seater for hours at a time. But stopping to look at scenic views are my thing. Me, my camera, and something pretty..is the best combination. If I've got my huge can of Arizona green tea with ginseng and honey in one hand, and my iPod in the other - it can't be too awful.

I always try to sleep during car rides, but it never works. Maybe it's because of the seats of the car that are clearly made for people who sit with perfect posture and their feet on the floor..or maybe it's because I get so distracted by what's outside the window. License plates are pretty cool - I like seeing weird ones like Hawaii and Alaska when I'm on the East Coast. But my favorite is when someone has a custom word on their license plate, like NOFATCHX (for you guys that have seen Sex Drive). The road gets pretty boring, but rest stops along the way with cranky middle-aged woman that's been working at Subway since she graduated high school keep me from losing my mind. They piss me off at first, but then I have to hide my giggles. Sorry to anyone who can identify with the cranky lady, but it had to be said.

This is random, but the song Lovebug by the Jonas Brothers..is really good. I've always been a Jonas girl, but that song is really different from their usual style and it's been stuck in my head for two weeks now. A friend of mine did an acoustic version that was, in my opinion, better than the original..and that's how I first heard the song. And it's so true to feelings that it's not like the usual cheesy love songs. It's also adorable. Give it a listen.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Hey Y'all

So I'm going to be road tripping to visit family..blog posts will probably be scarce for awhile, but I'll do my best to keep new ones getting up.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Say it with me

Okay, so you've had a bad day, something happened that just plain sucks, whatever. It's time for my personal mantra:

Shit happens.

Say it with me. Shit happens. Say it again. Shit happens. (If curse words scare you, you can say "it happens.") Add a little shrug to it if you want. It's my favorite way to shrug off something that happened or bothered me. Use it. Embrace it. Let it help you to just let it go.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Let's go Ozone

So with all of this commotion over the depletion over the ozone layer, everyone's "going green". I personally am very pro-environment; I recycle, yell at my friends when they don't recycle, and turn off the lights when I leave a room. I try to be environmentally friendly. But many people don't believe that global warming is actually happening. Some might argue that the temperature is not increasing, and they just ignore it. WAKE UP PLEASE. Because the truth is, global warming isn't just about the warming of the earth and increasing CO2 levels..it's also about the weather becoming more extreme. This means bigger hurricanes, more storms in general, when it gets cold it will be really cold, and when it gets hot it will be really hot.

In Al Gore's book and documentary An Inconvenient Truth, there's stuff that's so true it's scary. A chart of his shows how drastically the carbon dioxide levels have increased within the past 500 years. Within this time, the industrial revolution began (sparking pollution). From then on, our environment got worse every day. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are the main cause of ozone depletion, and they come from our four-wheeled vehicles that don't appear harmful - we usually get a car because it looks cool, doesn't cost too much, or is big enough to haul our boat to the lake. But who stops to think, how much damage am I doing to the earth by buying this car?

Well, maybe it's time for us all to think about this. Gas mileage is a nice guage of fuel emissions. A Toyota Prius gets around 50 mpg. If we all had a car that was closer to that gas mileage, not only would you save money on gas, you'd be saving the earth. Higher gas mileage means you can drive farther on a gallon of gas then a car with a lower one. More money in your pocket, and less smog. Good deal, right? Another (and much less expensive) way besides buying a more eco-friendly car would be to walk, take the bus/subway, or ride your bike that's probably been sitting in your garage for a few summers. You'll get a good butt workout from biking, guaranteed.

So turn off the lights when you leave the room, recycle, use transportation that's good for you and the earth, and please..be kind to our mother earth, and that means using your good judgement. We've only got one planet.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

The King of Pop: Let's Get Controversial

Child-lover or child-molester?

Creep or genius?

I think there are two sides to this story.

When I was a few years younger than I am now, I remember seeing Michael Jackson on the news, holding his baby over a railing like he was in the Lion King. I thought to myself..this guy clearly has some issues to work out. Sure I loved dancing to Thriller now and again, but I saw him as the guy who got surgery so he could change his skin color, and then got a nose job, and then he just looked weird. This is one of those cases of "don't judge a book by its cover". I heard about his court trials for child molestation, and I didn't question what I was hearing because, well..he didn't make a good image for himself in the public eye. And I didn't hear anything other than what the tabloids made of him.

When Michael Jackson died on June 25th, I thought..how could he die so young? And then I remembered hearing about all of his drug abuse, and I thought..he deserved it. Wrong. I never really took the time to acknowledge what he had done in his lifetime, because I never knew about it. I just took what I already thought of him and left it at that. But then one day, a friend of mine posted a YouTube video onto my Facebook. It was a documentary made in 2003, reflecting on the child molestation charges, and discussing the instances where he had children in his bed. Now, making a list of the things that he's done, would create a list of some pretty shady-looking stuff. But when I watched that part of the documentary, a little thing inside of me understood him.

In A Separate Peace by John Knowles, it is said that in order to enter adulthood, there must be a loss of innocence. Now, Michael had been in the public eye since he was just shy of 10 years old. When you're a child star, you have to learn to be a public figure; you grow up much faster than someone who gets to sit at home, have family dinners, and go to public school. He mentions that he had children under the covers with milk and cookies, and read them a story. Interviewer Martin Bashir asks him about this issue as if he has done something very wrong. I truly believe that he had a good heart, and good intentions - but that the mature, public eye saw that as something that could and would become dangerous. Did Michael never lose his innocence? Or did he lose it too quickly, and he wanted to help children to retain their innocence?

He also mentions that children don't have dinner with their parents every night anymore. This claim..is very true. I can't speak for America, but I think the majority of us can agree with that statement. I think that in his heart, he saw what he was doing as helping kids to have a fuller childhood. Many kids don't get read to every night. Michael sought out to change that. And not only did he love children, he wrote some pretty powerful lyrics.

So read this again if you need to. Maybe your opinion didn't change at all. But the King of Pop had a truly special heart, and as many mistakes that he did or did not make..he created a new era of music and music videos. Many people started to dance because of him. I really hope that people don't judge him based on rumors and foggy stories. Because that's what we all fear will happen to us, isn't it?

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Update your iPod with this

Summer is my favorite. I love sunshine, friends, good memories, and meeting new boys. Over time, these songs have stuck as the ones that make me think of the smell of Australian Gold on the beach. So, want something summery?
Try my playlist:

Summerlong - Kathleen Edwards
Ave Maria - David Bisbal
La Camisa Negra - Juanes
Lovebug - Jonas Brothers
Summertime - New Kids On The Block
Back in June - Matt Wertz
Fallin for You - Colbie Caillat
Back to You - John Mayer
That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
Cobrastyle - The Teddy Bears
Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
One Headlight - Wallflowers
Come on Get Higher - Matt Nathanson
Sweetness in Starlight - Matt Wertz
More Time - Needtobreathe
Pony - Erin McCarley
Skyway Avenue - We the Kings
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Lucky - Jason Mraz feat. Colbie Caillat
Acoustic #3 - Goo Goo Dolls
Fire Burning - Sean Kingston
Summer Sun - Matt Wertz
Skippin - Mario
Gravity - Sara Bareilles
Summer Girls - LFO
Check Yes Juliet - We The Kings
Wonderwall - Oasis

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Not a morning person.

You know how some people are just GET UP AND GET READY in the mornings, like there's something really important to be done? Yeahh I'm not one of those people. If I have the opportunity to sleep until 2:30 in the afternoon, then word, I'm doing it. I don't get that scary feeling of missing most of my day. I'd rather have enough beauty sleep after a night out than be falling asleep all day, and I usually don't have plans until the afternoon. What do people do in the morning, anyways? Do the puzzles on the back of their cereal boxes and plan out what they want to do that day? That's another thing. Planning. Why spend all of your time planning when you can just live it? Maybe I can be irresponsible sometimes with my lack of planning..but hey, what's wrong with some spontaneity?

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

Pipe down english muffin!

The name of this post is a quote by Mary Murphy, who is one of the regular judges on So You Think You Can Dance. She's pretty uhh..obnoxious. But we love her for it. She said this to Nigel Lythgoe, the British judge and producer of the show. He can be a riot, but definitely has a highly respected opinion. If you watch the show, you know what I mean. And if she tells you you're on the Hot Tamale Train? You're probably on your way to win.

SYTYCD has been one of my favorite shows for a couple years..I'm addicted. Even some of my closest guy friends watch the show..boys, it's not just for girls anymore. The past couple of weeks, there have been a few really good dances. These were by my favorite couples - Randi & Evan, Kayla & Kupono, and Jonathan & Karla.

My favorite dancer is definitely Kayla. She's got pure talent, and she portrays her character so well, you'd think she was living the experience herself. During her performance of Gravity with Kupono..I cried. It was a Mia Michaels contemporary piece on addiction, and if you look at Kupono's expression..it's so incredibly sinister, it gave me chills.

Randi & Evan did a hip hop choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon. I love them. It's kind of like a lyrical hip hop - it tells a story, and you really feel emotion when you watch their dances. They did a piece where they were portraying a young couple in love who just found out they're expecting a baby. It's adorable, and it's what everyone wants love to be.

One of my favorite songs, "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard, was used in a contemporary routine performed by Jonathan & Karla. When I saw that they were using that song, I thought to myself..they better not butcher this song. It's filled with so much meaning and emotion - and they lived up to it. Get the kleenex out, you might need it.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

This is very necessary

Weird and creepy..but hilarious. Watch it.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl

The First Apple

I know there are lots of blogs... but I'm out to make something that can really help people. There are lots of things that I've seen and been through, and I feel like if someone were to hear about it, that maybe some of the gears inside of their head would start to move. Then maybe they'd do something in their life a little differently, start talking about the problems in the world that people might not know about. My friends looooove to come to me for advice, and I feel like I give some pretty good advice. I have a weird taste in music... I listen to almost every style, and my iPod (Celeste) is stocked with almost 10,000 songs. There's so much of me to come, but to start off, I'd really like to talk about a cause that has become very dear to my heart.

Last summer, I went to Nicaragua on a mission trip with my youth group. I had never really heard about Nicaragua before, and when they told us about the dump in Managua, where people live, I thought... well that sucks. That's awful. I would hate to live there. They also told us about the project where we'd be working - Project Chacocente (www.outofthedump.org). They take families out of the dump and give them a place to live, land to work on, and a place for the children to learn. They are taught how to make a living so that once they leave, they can support themselves.

Any amount of money you are willing to donate, please do. Their cause is so unique, and it makes an impact that goes beyond paying for food. This organization teaches them how to live in a beneficial way to themselves and their community. After spending a week with the families of Chacocente and painting their houses, I realized how completely selfish the people of America can be. I completely took my hot shower and all of those things that I feel like I can hardly live without, like my cell phone and computer, for granted. They have virtually nothing... yet they never stop smiling! They emit such happiness that we couldn't help but smile too.

When the day came when we would drive through the dump, I knew it would smell bad and it would be sad... but I didn't expect to be so emotionally overwhelmed. Driving closer to the dump, I saw people digging through the trash, sometimes eating what they found. Many adults were sniffing glue under a handkerchief. Trash was combusting everywhere. The stench floated in with flies, and made our eyes water... the smell so bad that we had to cover our noses and mouths. Seeing all of this, and realizing how drastically different this way of life was to mine... moved me to tears that didn't stop for hours.

When I got home, I felt so incredibly guilty that I started to not use some of my modern advantages. Instead of a hot shower, I took a cold one. I didn't touch my computer, TV, or cell phone for weeks. I felt like there was sooo much to be done, and maybe if I began to make changes, other people would too. I'm going back to Nicaragua in February. There's so much that needs to be done, and Project Chacocente is already starting to make that happen. That's just some of my experience from Nicaragua, and I hope that maybe you'll give a little bit of yourself to help people who really need your love and if that means giving them some of your old toys or old clothes, please send them.

Peace and Love,
yourgotogirl