Friday, December 30, 2011

2012

So my 2011 goals were:
1.  At the end of 2011, I want to have 365 pictures showing my life in a year. 
2.  I want to start a dailybooth! 
3.  To exercise sometimes maybe, I don't know.
4.  To be less lazy and do more things even if they do require getting out of bed.
5.  To read twenty books.  I don't really read at all right now so this is probably the one I'm going to have the most trouble keeping.
6.  To start a collab channel on youtube with my big brother, Beau!
7.  To get into college.


anddddd 
1.  Nope.  Never did this.
2.  Nope.  Don;t need more social networking.  At aaaaaall.
3.  Yep.  I worked out definitely more than the year before soooo awesome.
4.  Yeah netflix really killed my ability to do that
5.  I'm not entirely sure if I quite read twenty.  I kept track but then I lost my list.  I recently found it and I believe I read about 18 but I may have forgotten a couple that I read.  Either way I read more this year than I have for a long time so I achieved my ultimate goal anyways!
6.  Nope.
7.  Nope.


Okay so I kind of failed at new years resolutions.  I'm not really the type of person to be particularly harsh on myself about that though soooo... yeah whatever.


I do want to make some for next year of course, although probably less ambitiously considering t hat I now know better what I might actually do.


1. Read twenty books including the three Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books and Sarah's Key and 3 classic, boring books.  Holla.
2.  Get into college. 
3.  Work out a lot, be able to do multiple pull-ups without kipping
4.  Watch Archer.


That's pretty much all I really care about doing at this point because I'm a bum.


I'm watching the Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from 2009(which proves both my exceptional ability to type as well as my exceptional ability to multitask) and I have some observations already between the Swedish and the American movies.


1.  The Swedish actors are far less exaggerated looking than the American ones. For example, American Mikael, played by Daniel Craig is obvies, mega-attractive looking, whereas The Swedish Mikael is really just an average looking guy.  And American Lisbeth is exaggerated in that she is so strange looking and you've really never seen anyone who looked like her before, while Swedish Lisbeth is not particularly normal looking but also isn't shocking to look at, she just has a few extra piercings and an edgier short haircut than the average 24 year old.


2.  The fact that they had swedish accents in the American make of the movie is just fairly ridiculous.  Like it's not like they were speaking English when it happened, they were in effing Sweden.  They were speaking Swedish.  You don't have to pretend like an accent increases the authenticity of the spoken language, because it doesn't.  It's just sort of hokey and convoluted.  It almost seems a tad bit insulting to the Swedes that an American version was made so soon after theirs.  It kind of reinforces the ugly American outlook because whoever decided to make this one decided that either a)the swedish Dragon Tattoo wasn't good enough or b) that Americans shouldn't be forced to read


3.  That would have been really cool if some of the actors had been in both... like the guy in Batman


Yay for pretty bland boring posts wooooo

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Ahhhh Winter.  You are still not really here.

List of thoughts:
1.  If you haven't already clicked this link from my last post, you should go ahead and do that because it is the truest thing ever said.... there ya go.  Also read the comments because half the fun of imgur is comments.  I like my job and retail and all but this week was just tooooo much.  I feel like I just sold a week of my break and I only have a week left to use it but I don't really because of gymnastics and work.  Just because I don't have school doesn't mean I don't still have to lie to people in order to get free time unfortunately.

but anyways yesterday, I was working because we are a kind store who stays open for all of the jackasses who want to shop on Christmas Eve.  So I am just being the most helpful and quick salesperson ever trying to get people in and out as quickly as possible because nothing is nicer than a little lull in which I can go have a few bites and sips of sustenance and whatnot.  BUT I would walk up to people all smiley and adorable and say "Are we looking for anything special today?" and people would say no, JUST LOOKING.

EXCUSE ME IT IS CHRISTMAS EVE AND I AM HERE SO IF I CAN'T FUCKING HELP YOU YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GET OUT.  NO LOOKING ALLOWED UNTIL DECEMBER 26TH.  assclowns.

2.  I've been waiting for Winter so that I can secretly curl up with twilight and listen to John Mayer in my bed with the lamp on.  I haven't even cracked open a Twilight book since I finished the last one 2 years ago, but it still kind of serves as a guilty pleasure for me.  Like I would enjoy just reading something lame with lame music and not think about it and just believe the love as it is.  The reason I always put Twilight with John Mayer is that when I first read them, I was also first listening to John Mayer in bulk.  AKA I had recently downloaded all of his works.  But if you think about it, John Mayer is kind of the Twilight of music... just me? Yeah okay.

3.  Because I have been working my butt off this past week, my next pay check is going to be, I believe, the biggest paycheck I will have ever gotten.  And because I feel self pity on my busy little self, I definitely am just planning on buying myself presents.  And that's kind of just how I get through so much work.  I just fantasize about the things I will irresponsibly buy.  iPhone?  Sure!  Lita boots?  Fuck yeah!

4.  Christmas was fun!  My favorite presents are the ones my friends got me.  Sam, Laura, Riss you all did lovely this year and I love you so much <3333 yum.
If there has EVER been something that described my life perfectly at a particular moment it is

Thursday, December 22, 2011

college essay

This is the college essay I am submitting to Loyola.  You might notice that at the end I didn't exactly come up with a conclusion so I just left it... hahah definitely my writing weakness


Sitting in the lifeguard chair around noon on July 2nd, I watched kid after kid jump from the diving board into the pool and swim to the ladder.  Sitting by the diving well required much more vigilance than anywhere else for a few reasons, the first being that only one lifeguard sits by the diving well at a time, as opposed to the five or six usually guarding the main pool.  The second reason is that although the diving well is much smaller and always has fewer occupants than the main pool; people struggle to swim in there more often than they do anywhere else in the entire aquatics department of Westlake.
Although I could usually get a sense for whether or not kids were able to handle the diving board, Steven had a certain confidence that made his ineptitude at swimming elusive to me.  He was 12, and he was only a little shorter than five feet tall.  He simply gave no signs that he did not know how to swim.  I watched him coolly climb up the three-step ladder onto the board; I watched him calmly walk to the edge of the board; I watched him extend his legs and jump right into the 12-foot abyss below him.
As most kids do, he sunk a few feet down but then floated back up to the surface, though he was not moving his arms or legs in a way that indicated he was trying to swim; his movements were more random and spasmodic.  I waited a moment for him to get his bearings in the water, but he did not.
I threw the lifeguard tube that I was supposed to use in these kinds of situations to the side and I dove into the pool.  I grabbed him around his torso with my left arm and used my right arm and legs to propel us to the edge.  Steven was not even shaken up, and he climbed out of the pool like everything was normal.  I however, must have looked white as a sheet, as one of the nearby parents asked me if I was okay.  I said yes, but as I looked down I noticed that my hand was trembling.
Only a month later, I chose to leave my lifeguarding job to work at a local boutique owned by a friend of my mother.  I liked lifeguarding, but I do admit that it was dull at times and that I was looking for something more engaging.  In the few months I have spent working at Cara’s Boutique, I have still been dealing with emergencies, although they tend to be on a much smaller scale and they tend to be along the lines of “what color bracelet should I get for my wife.” 
Between the two jobs I have held, I have learned that most of the important things in life are less likely to be nouns than they are to be verbs.  It is important to love yourself and others; it is important to be generous; it is important to smile.  

Thursday, December 15, 2011

George Mason, I will never attend you.

George Mason admissions officers keep sending me e-mails telling me about why I should go to Mason and how awesome it would be.  They do it all the time, and upon reading this little gem of a paragraph, I figured it's about time I analyzed my life:

"I can only imagine how you're feeling right now, senior year is flying by, and you're trying to succeed in what is likely the toughest course load you're experienced in high school.  ON top of that, you're also taking standardized tests, participating in endless after-school activities, and let's not forget, trying to actually enjoy your senior year with your friends.  It's difficult to balance it all, especially when you have to start thinking about college."

Alright George Mason, let's be real I'm getting a tab bit sick of you pretending like you know my life, so:
1.  Senior year is not flying by.  It's kind of trudging along a path made of knives.
2.  I'm not really trying to succeed honestly, just trying to pass
3.  Not my toughest course load.  Probably the least tough course load I have ever had including middle school sooooo
4.  and possibly including elementary school.
5.  You are right about one thing, the after-school activities pretty much just keep coming.  Unrelentlessly.  Sucking out my soul.
6.  Real talk, I'm not really trying to enjoy anything so much as get through it as painlessly as possible, which, might I add, is not going super well
7.  Enjoyment is for Summer.  Not for school.
8.  Start? thinking about college? START.  How could I possibly just be starting now when not only is it December of my senior year but it has also been about 7 months since you started all of this emailing so you should probably just leave me alone my GOD TROUBLE IN THE WATER

Yeah I just thought that everything they said was wrong.  And they do it a lot.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Blair Waldorf

So for old times sake I am just going to type and complain.

Is it still old times sake if I just did it like 2 weeks ago (probably- not actually sure).  I hate google and gmail so much though, like to the point where I am considering switching over to tumblr full time because I can't even handle all of the signing out and signing in it takes.  That and as soon as I get into college I am deleting all of my gmails because I HATE THEM.  For all of the maneuvering of accounts it takes just to log into blogger I'm so mad by the time I'm logged in that I don't even remember what I was going to talk about.

I'm making a lot of different playlists right now soooo I will probably post them on here so that you may enjoy what I am listening to as welllllll.  I've pretty much just been listening to unseasonally happy music so that I don't claw anyone's eyes out of their skull.  I mean it's strange but it works so there ya go.

I remember Iz's summer-nostalgic post last year and I can barely even fathom what nostalgia of summer must feel like.  I mean I'm so deeply entrenched in the trials and tribulations of high school and job-holding and gymnastics and college searching and stuff that I can't imagine being care-free so I don't really try to be.  Last week I had a hysterical, screaming and crying "I wish I was lying in a field surrounded by daisies and kittens and no fucking people" type of a moment but I'm past it and now I'm just excited for winter break.

Not that I actually expect anyone to let me really enjoy winter break but ya know, it's nice to dream.  I've recently realized that the only way I get free time is if I lie.  I have to trick various people into thinking I am doing something else in order to not have to do their thing which is horrible but also works out very well sooooo.  That or I have to lie to myself and just be like nahhhh you don't have homework.. no way.

And that's how I end up watching Gossip Girl and blogging at 11:12pm on a Sunday night.

My english teacher hasn't posted our grades up yet since the quarter began, which was a solid month ago, so I have kind of taken to lying to myself and pretending like Lang isn't really a class anymore.  For example I had an essay due on Friday.  Wasn't really sure how to start it so I just didn't write it.

Although to be honest, my assignment was to write a column in the same style as Robert Fisk and basically I already write tersely and lack transitions so I basically have just written this column... too bad I am too lazy to print it and turn it in.

SPEAKING OF BEING TOO LAZY TO PRINT IT AND TURN IT IN I have a C in French right now basically for that reason.  Much love to Mme. Miller and everything but it's just kind of cruel to assign a weekend homework assignment as an essay worth 40 points without at least telling us it would be worth 40 points.  So I didn't do it for the day it was due and then I just sort of blew it off a few days until after Thanksgiving break and I wrote it and probably still could have gotten half credit but I just didn't ever print it. It was actually pretty good though.

I'm glad that all of this "hayley skips class and the entire world flips their shit on her" thing is over because- no offense to adults and basically everyone who has been concerned about me this past week- my life is none of the business of all of the adults in my life, and whether they think that's true or not, I don't owe the entire planet an explanation as to why I skipped class.

But really- you're asking me why I skipped class? Once?  You mean literally you want to know why I skipped class one time?  YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I DECIDED TO TAKE FREEDOM OVER BOREDOM FOR 40 MINUTES OF MY LIFE?  Are you kidding me?

Sorry for all of those rhetorical questions but honestly I feel like asking me that emphatic But why, Hayley? is nothing more than condescending and ridiculous.  Sometimes I feel like adults get so wrapped up in the formality of the manufacturing of teenagers into adults that they forget that it's not important anyways.

(feel free to skip this part and just go down to the capital letters)
And I'm really sorry to deviate into philosophical shit right now but the truth is that none of this will ever be important.  not me, not you.  And I know that it's horrible to think about and I'm sorry for bringing that up while you're probably just intending to read the normal satirical and lovely writings of Hayley S. Hartman but you could also just be optimistic and realize that that idea alone takes a lot of pressure off of your shoulders anyways.

And I should also probably remind you that just because it isn't important doesn't mean it shouldn't be important to you.

I've been battling a lot lately with the realization that you only live once, which is an obvious and true fact that I have known for a long time but one that I have also not realized until recently.  So now you know my current philosophical reasoning and I am have a less than quarter life crisis.

BUT THE POINT OF IT ALL IS

that I think that adults lately have been rather intrusive and nosy about my life and I would rather them not be so.

And actually not just adults, but more than that- schoolmates of mine.  I don't care who you are or how good of friends you think we are, there is a rule surrounding questions regarding state of being, and it is such:  These are questions for which the answer was written millions of years ago and it is transcribed into caves in France and it is "Arbitrary answer expressing a state of content."

So if you see someone, and they are clearly not okay, and you know that they can not actually answer that question with "I'm lovely, what about you?" honestly, the correct question to ask is "What happened?" if you're close with that person, and you're probably not, in which case the correct question is not a question at all. At that point you should probably just turn around and walk away because I guarantee that whatever is making that person upset is both

1.  Not about to go away because you were there for them (sorry- it's just true. you guys aren't that close, remember?) and
2.  Not about to be solved by the simple "How are you?" because if you're not close enough to skip the delicacies and the formalities, you sure as hell aren't close enough to get that person to admit their problems to you.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

Now, granted, like 69% of the people who like me enough to read my blog are definitely people who I would tell my problems to.  But of the general population, I'm sorry occupy movement, but you favorites of mine are the 1%

I love making Occupy jokes.

Also the other thing is that I always cry about my problems when I say them out loud (and now you know why I just discuss them in a typed form) so I pretty much just prefer to avoid talking about them at all.  WHICH ISN'T ABNORMAL AT ALL I JUST KIND OF WISH PEOPLE WOULD HAVE LEFT ME ALONE ALL WEEK

Good.  So.  Now you're pretty much caught up in a truthful and possibly but probably not eloquent way.  I've been wanting to talk about all of this but I was having a hard time getting the words out without being angry but now that it's all over I think it all came out better than I expected it to.

This has nothing to do with this post but I have been watching Gossip Girl lately and sometimes it skews my own perception of my life.  I just love to pretend I'm Blair Waldorf- what can I say.

A Christmas List for Winners

This is for when you don't know what you want for Christmas.  Christmas is an annual opportunity in which you can ask for gifts- just because you don't know what you want does not mean you should waste that opportunity.  This is the list of things you did not know you wanted until right now:

The Jammy Pack
Rollerblade around in musical style with this awesome hands free, speaker-equipped fanny pack.  Fill it with candy!
Clocky
I know, I know.  The Clocky (red) was in Seventeen this month.  But I swear- I have been wanting this tricky alarm clock for over a year now, in fact, it may have even been featured in a post before this.  Basically, the clocky is everything I have ever needed in an alarm clock.  It has wheels, so when it goes off, it rolls away and you have to get up and find it to turn it off!  It's extreme, but let's be honest, I am late to school/very close to late to school almost every day.
Headphone Splitter
Let's be real, if you have ever been forced to do the one-for-you-one-for-me method of headphone sharing, you have invented this in your mind.  You need this.
Like/Dislike Auto-Ink Stamps
How funny.  The dislike stamp isn't pictured, but they come as a pair!

The Dunk Mug
I know I just posted about the excellency of this mug- so technically, you did already know that you wanted this, but nevertheless.  This is a fantastic reminder.
Honey Badger Mug
 While we're still on the topic of mugs- it's the honey badger mug.  This chick on etsy made a whole series of them- and they're perfect.  I have a developed a small obsession with mugs and I really want to start a collection of them.


Oh god- these boots.  These boots.  I've pretty much been salivating over them since I first read this article about them on CollegeFashion.net.  They are so tall and stylish I can hardly stand it.  And the best part, as was pointed out by college fashion, is that it's a five inch heel but has a two inch platform.  Translation? It only feels like a three inch heel- and is therefore a great ratio of comfort to height gained.
This is honestly just the coolest piece of clothing I have ever seen and I think everyone should have one.  It might only come in kids sizes, AKA I would have to be anorexic for 3 months in order to fit into it but... it would be so worth it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS LOVIES!

things I like

  • clocky alarm clocks!!! *mom, christmas?!
  • L4D2
  • squirrels
  • gilmore girls, I watch it. All. The. Time.
  • thanksgiving
  • tv
  • acoustic music
  • singing loud
  • my best friend, Laura