reality bites.

for real, though. 

my lovely, week-long hawaiian vacation is officially over. gone are the days of sleeping in, lounging in the sun, and wearing shorts 24/7. back to work and crappy weather. but that's how it goes. if it lasted forever, it wouldn't be a vacation. 
though the scenery was beautiful and the weather was wonderful; it wasn't all roses. i had been sick for about a week going into the vacation, and wasn't getting any better. finally on thursday, i went to a walk-in clinic in maui close to the condo we were staying in. after an hour of waiting, i was finally called in and examined. i ended up having acute bronchitis, conjunctivitis (aka pinkeye) and general sunburn-itis. not the best combination, and especially not on a tropical vacation. but what could i do.....
that same day i went to the clinic, my grandmother passed away. she hadn't been in the best of health the last few months and had been in hospice for a few weeks. so it wasn't completely out of the blue; but never the less, it was still difficult. to paraphrase my sister; it's hard to live in the world without the people that brought you into the world. it's got to be so much harder for my mom. i can't imagine what it would be like to live without a parent, or parents, but that's something everyone has to deal with in life, i guess. her memorial service is planned for september 10th, and the whole family is planning on going to michigan for it.
through all this depressing-ness (both mentally and outside in WA), there is a light.....a few, actually.
4th of July is right around the corner (one of my favorite holidays!) my birthday is in two weeks, and my brother is coming tomorrow night for 10 days. i can't wait to have him around again....can't believe i haven't seen him in 6 months!!
but for now; enjoy a hawaii montage. live vicariously through them. i am.....until there's enough sun here.

[condo beach]

[at the blow-holes!]

[the trek down....]

[& again...]

[i love hearts if you couldn't tell....such a photo op.]

[ziplining!]

[ziplining!]

[rainbow.....it rains somewhere other than the NW....]

[my niece harper didn't want to look at the camera haha....]

[breathtaking.]

[love these colors....i want them for my wedding ;)]

[i love shadow pictures]

in remembrance.

June 5th, 1925 - June 23rd, 2011

love you grandma Bev. 

we're sad you had to leave us, but we are rejoicing that you are in heaven with Jesus.

i'm so happy i was able to know you and be your granddaughter for almost 19 years.

you will be missed so much!

the sun will come out tomorrow...

literally.

tomorrow is the day i have been looking forward to for 6+ months! HAWAII! and even though i'm battling a cold (and not winning) i am determined to make the most of my week there. i would be perfectly happy laying out on the beach the whole time. honestly. it doesn't take much to make me happy. tomorrow is an un-godly wake up call.....5am. since we're leaving out of portland, we have to leave extra early in order to get there in time and still have time before the flight at 10am. i've got waaay too much to do before then. i worked until 5pm and didn't get home until 6 so i haven't even thought about packing. plus, the bachelorette is on tonight (!) maybe i'll just pack during the commercials. i'll make it work. tim gunn style.

i know you're dying to know about my haircut, right?? ha. well i just got a trim....nothing too bold. which is fine with me. i love the ends right after you get it cut. it's like paintbrush. here's photographic evidence of what i'm alluring to: 

[ps: my hands are not as manly as they look in this picture....promise.]

also on friday, i hung out with my niece, pearson. she loves loves loves the photobooth option on my macbook and always wants to "do the funny face game" which is where you use the crazy options that photobooth has. here is a sample of our fun:

i can't believe she's almost 4! yikes. that means i'm getting old.....

well i'm crunched for time (when am i not?) so i'm gonna make this short and sweet.
hopefully the next time i blog i'll be in the airport killing time (likely) or be in beautiful MAUI!

til next time, ALOHA!

i'm alive....

.....but barely. although i do feel dead in the sense of blogging, having a social life, and getting adequate sleep. i am so exhausted. i suppose that’s what working full time does to you. so if i forget to call/text you back, i'm not ignoring you. i'm probably sleeping. adding to the cold i have picked up, i could not be more ready for saturday. i feel like such an old person. scratch that. i feel like an adult. a real, working, independent adult. i am almost nineteen. crazy.

some things of note:

-lately i’ve been into a country kick - do not ask me why. if i knew, i would probably not be listening to it. maybe i appreciate the simpleness of it. and feeling like i live in the country when i don’t. i’ve always wondered what that would be like. living on huge acres of land, possibly having a farm, needing a tractor to mow your lawn, and having a well for water. i’m not expecting this to last for much longer......there’s only so many topics to sing about in the world of country music.

-i’m getting my hair cut on saturday. i know i need a trim for sure, but i might cut off a few more inches. i figure it’ll be easier for summer. my brother told me to not get it cut past my shoulders. but what does he know? ;) not that i’m going to get a butch cut.....just in case you were wondering....

-i hate hate hate being sick. i have eaten more cough drops than actual food today. i don’t know if it’s being in a new work environment or carly’s doing. or maybe both. my throat feels like sandpaper when i swallow, sneezing is a common occurrence, and i currently can only breathe through one nostril. oh well. hopefully it will pass sooner rather than later....

i’m getting tired and lacking energy. like my grandma says, “i’m not worth a cent right now!” so....i am signing off. 

til next time.....hopefully with more enthusiasm. 

and something more exciting than getting my hair cut.

working girl.

as of thursday, june 9th at 8am, i am officially a working girl.
where do i work, you might ask? 
the answer is complicated. and unconventional for a summer job. but that's ok.
i work in ft. lewis. yes, the army base ft. lewis.
going into it, to be completely honest, i wasn't sure what exactly this job would entail, but i found out on thursday morning.....


let me rewind a little bit. my last final was on wednesday morning from 8-10am. once i was done, i had to pack up my room so i could check out. while my roommate and i were in the middle of packing, (it looked like a tornado....i have photographic evidence to prove it). when you check out, everything that is yours has to be OUT of the room and every surface has to be spotless. right before (literally, like 2 minutes) before my roommate's checkout, the fire alarm went off. this could not have been at a worse time, because if you have ANYTHING out in the hallway, you get a crazy fine from the fire marshall. so we were all freaking out, trying to move everything back into our room and trying to get outside. my roommate is from california and was flying home that day, so she could only take like 30% of her stuff on the plane, which meant the rest of us had to bear the burden of taking the rest of her crap home.
that's a story for another day, though.
so in the midst of packing, driving to the airport, more packing, having the last supper with my friends, lots of tears, and goodbyes, i slowly realized my life was transitioning fast. whether i was ready or not.
i got home around 11pm that night, unpacked, showered, and went to bed. my wake-up call was 6am.
ok, let's be real, i can't even remember the last time i've been up that early. at that point, i would have given ANYTHING - i.e. my right leg or my unborn first child - to have slept in. i am NOT a morning person. i was given a map, some instructions on where to go (which were not helpful considering my terrible sense of direction), my lunch, and out the door i went. i ended up getting lost in a parking lot where the buildings are all have names with letter and number combinations, i.e. "09D40" and such. 
being on the base is like being in a foreign country. you have to go through an inspection gate, the buildings are different, etc. plus i had ABSOLUTELY no idea where i was going. i was supposed to get a parking permit that morning, and i somehow got let in without one. so in fear of being late on my first day, i called our neighbor who works on the base and told me about the job in the first place for assistance. he graciously drove to the parking lot where i was and i followed him to where i was supposed to be. 
the place where i ended up working was....unlike anything i've ever seen before. it was one of the "barracks" and has likely been there since WWII. there are few doors if any, the paint is chipping off the walls,  and the floor rubs off onto your shoes in a lovely rust color. naturally i wore my white tennis shoes on the first day. typical. since the woman i was supposed to meet to find out my job assignment was sick, i worked in the building i just described. 
little did i know that on the second floor is where i was going to be my entire job....i filed some folders, and organized some other folders.
there was a lot of things about this job that were surprising, and one of them is....um, how "laid-back" the people that work there are. they text when they want, listen to music out loud when they want, and use the language that they want. colorful language. it makes sense because it's the army, but still.....it was a shock. granted, it isn't the office environment i had envisioned, so it makes sense. after leaving on thursday, i was in such a rush to leave, plus my lack of sense of direction, i ended up somewhere in steliacoom. i decided i should turn around. i got lost in du pont, which i did not realize was GIGANTIC. add to the forest of trees i was trying to navigate through, and you have one lost and frustrated chandler. finally i made it to the freeway.


on the second floor, there is a large room with about 8 desks in it. what i did on friday was in-processing. which is probably what i'll be doing more than anything. basically, an almost-lieutenant comes in after their "debriefing" from the colonel, sits at your desk, and you grab their folder. in this folder, there are 4 separate packets. i knew from applying to this job that the army loves their paperwork, but that was nothing in comparison to what everyone else has to deal with. EVERYTHING is documented. there is everything from tax forms, to marriage certificates, to orders, to clothing forms, and beyond. my job was to make sure they had all the forms they needed, make copies if needed, make sure they were in order, make sure they all were signed, etc. so the colonel could finally officially sign them off.
i was given instructions on how to do this, and then literally thrown in to the wolves. 
the thing is, they do the debriefing in groups. so you'll have a group of like 10 people to process, and after that's done, crickets. there is literally nothing else to do. so there are times of intenseness and then the complete opposite within minutes of each other, which i was not expecting. this is when the texting, music, and smoking breaks come into play. i'll save my co-workers for another post, because this is already excruciatingly long.


i also wasn't aware going into this job that i would have to work on the weekends....i just thought it was an 8-5 M-F job. wrong. when i told the woman in charge that, she quickly responded that "this is a 7 day a week operation." she gave me today off, but i get the pleasure of being there on a sunday morning at 8am tomorrow. how joyous. 
yesterday, i was so overwhelmed that i wouldn't have a summer, and i would waste it working. which i still feel like a little bit. but it's money, right?


today i am going to unpack, melt my brain a little bit with some trashy TV, and enjoy not working....until tomorrow. i have already begun to enjoy my free time SO much more now that i realize it's a rare commodity. i decided that i want to stay in college forever. my brother told me to do the same and to never graduate. now i understand why he said that. at least i know now that this is something i DO NOT want to do for the rest of my life. the 8-5 days on the other hand is something i'll just have to get used to. for the rest of my life.


if you read all of this, or even half, i congratulate you. have a wonderful rest of your saturday! i know i will.

coming attraction.

once i get enough energy/time to blog about my job, i will definitely let you know.
i could seriously write a novel about it and it's only been two days......








stay tuned.

weekend recap.

the last weekend here has been one of the best weekends ever. i am so thankful for the wonderful weather, fun times, and tons of laughs i was able to share with the best girls ever. on friday night, we went to golden gardens (see last post) which was great. saturday afternoon, we went to alki beach which was crazy packed, considering it was 75 degrees. it was SO beautiful. i love seeing the mountains on the horizon on the water. it truly felt like summer. we came back around 5pm, got ready, and then went to red robin on pier 55 by the water. the sunset was ridiculous.

i am so lucky to have been a part of first west this year; i feel like i have made such solid friendships. these last few days have been so bittersweet for me; on one hand i can't wait for summer and to not have homework all the time, but on the other hand i don't want to leave all of the people i have grown close to this year. it's also going to be an adjustment not living with my friends and living at home again. but i am definitely appreciative for my mother's cooking and not having to pay to do my laundry :) it will just be different. i am definitely planning on getting together with my friends that live semi-nearby this summer. now that the fun is over for now, i have to get down to the books. i have my science final (kill me.....seriously) from 1-3pm on tuesday and my ufdn final from 8-10am on wednesday. i'm filling my study breaks with packing, and lots of it. i somehow have more stuff than i came to college with originally. you know how that goes, right?

[L to R: Emily, Abby, Lindsey, Victoria, Stephanie, Hope,
me, & Kimberly]

[L to R: Lindsey, Victoria, Abby, Hope, me, Emily,
Kimberly, Susannah, and Stephanie]

the "turn-around"

Katie & I. love this picture. and the background!

floor shot.

G is for Golden Gardens

tonight, we went to Golden Gardens in Ballard. since I have my car (and a GPS!) this week, we decided to finally check it out. this is probably the closest thing to a "beach" from spu. i've been wanting to go the whole year and have a bonfire. while we didn't have one of our own, we did crash emerson hall's bonfire and snatched some s'mores.....and they were delicious. (i of course managed to light one of my marshmallows on fire...typical.)

other items of note: we were offered questionably illegal substances, invited to a "party" by some other questionable characters, and danced to the music from the wedding reception held in the building on the beach...the only downsides to the night were the smell of fire burned into my clothing and sand in everything....and i mean everything.

nevertheless; it was such a wonderful time to explore and spend time with some of my favorite people :)

enjoy this photo montage below:

 the beautiful landscape....and the 63 degree weather we were blessed with!

 frolicking.

 the view was incredible....love the sailboats!

 twins.

 hope, emily, & victoria

 my california baby didn't appreciate the cold water....

 northwest born and raised....note the long pants and jacket

 roomie.

 emily & I didn't get the "strike-a-pose" memo...

 attempt at getting all of us....

 winning.

 epic fail....can we please look at my face?? hahaha

 another failed attempt.

 ugh....so beautiful.

 :)

sunset.

[one week].

and no, i'm not talking about the barenaked ladies song.


i have exactly one week until i'm done with my first year of college.
this year has gone by SO fast.
wednesday, june 8th, at 10am i will be free of school.....for 3 and a half months.
i can't wait....but at the same time, i'm sad to leave all of my friends. it's so weird to think at the beginning of the year when all of the girls on my floor were strangers, and now they are the best of friends. i couldn't ask for better sisters and appreciate every single one of them.


what does this next week entail?
[lots of craziness, including but not limited to:]
a trip to essential baking, "night at the drive-in" (movie on the bball court), bonfire at golden gardens, dinner at red robin, movie nights, etc.
oh and i guess i have some homework sprinkled in there too ;)
tuesday: science final 1-3p
wednesday: ufdn final 8-10a 

i want to make the most of this week; and enjoy every minute i have left with everyone.

h e r e ' s   t o   7   d a y s !