SOCIAL MEDIA

Crazy little thing called LIFE. And traveling

Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Hey. It's been awhile. And when I mean awhile, I just mean a few days.

Like I (maybe) said before... I'm not going to be a consistent blogger on here. I want to try to be, but we'll see how well that'll work. Like most hobbies I've taken up, they never last long. Except my photography. That's stuck around for awhile, so mayhaps blogging will also do that. Public blogging, I mean. I've been private blogging for coming up three years.

Anyway.

I've been busy (and that'll be my only excuse for not cranking out blog posts, honestly. Unless I'm on vacation. More to come about that!) with stuff. College and work and people and life. But that's okay. The reason why I haven't been on the blog lately is because I have my best friend Hannah in town visiting me and we've been doing some catching up.

Which basically means eating ice cream, trying Japanese food (!!!!!!!!!), crying about Hannah's boyfriend who's on his mission, me crying because Hannah was crying, flight plans, vacations, talking, and laughing.

And playing lots and lots of Mario Party. Like honestly, you can't get much better than that!

Okay... maybe you can.

Over winter break, we wanted to plan a trip somewhere in the States and we came close to figuring out where we wanted to go, but by the time we mutually decided, it was too late and she had to fly back home and I had to start up work and classes again. Sigh. So we took a raincheck and that raincheck was booked yesterday! So Hannah and I get to spend the end of March in the wonderful little place of Cancun!

And to say we're excited is an understatement. We're stoked. I've never been abroad with Hannah before (Brooklyn and I went to Australia at the end of September/beginning of October), so I'm happy that I'll have that with her. Plus Mexico like you seriously can't get much better than that!

OR MAYBE YOU CAN....??????

Today (Wednesday) I'm flying to Arizona because I'm going to get a jump on the Super Bowl.

FREAKING STOKED OKAY LIKE YOU HONESTLY CAN'T KNOW HOW EXCITED I AM.

Or maybe you can. (;

But I really am excited. Getting to root for my Hawks (I know for sure that I'm at least going to be outside the stadium tailgating, but there is a very small chance that I'll get to actually be inside the stadium so I'm not counting my blessings right now but I also am counting blessings because just being there is awesome) is going to be rad.

And then two days from then (Tuesday?) I have to travel again. This time to France.

The city of love is calling my name (only because my friend asked if I wanted to go) and I RSVP'd.

Then at the beginning of March I'm going to Norway.

All I do is travel. I don't live in one place.

What's that called? A Nomad? Yeah, it's called a Nomad. Okay, not really, but it would be really fun to pick up your life and just travel around with it. Maybe I'll write a book about that. Has that been done yet?

Later skaters.

Instabusiness

Friday, January 23, 2015
It is here, that the elusive Lily is out of her cave and is blogging in the afternoon instead of at night. You must be careful as you can't stun her or surprise her, as she will quickly retreat back into her cave and refuse to come out for a dew days, as she is anxious from a blog reader screaming.

....I wish I was kidding.

Anyway, Happy Friday! I hope the weekend will treat everyone well. We survived the week and I'm so proud of everyone for getting through! Sleep in and hang out with friends! I don't have too many plans besides going to Provo to visit my cousin Hannah who moved back to Utah from Texas. I almost forget I lived there, honestly. It seems like it was so long ago, but I was there only a year ago.

I had an actual blog post thought of, so I should probably do that.

I love Instagram. I don't spam post my followers like most of the "Instafamous" people do. I generally post one thing once a day, but I never delete anything. I saw a picture about a week or so ago on the search page or whatever it was. It was from an LDS account and she would make her own little edits with an app, and I realized after awhile that I wanted to do that, too. Not specifically LDS edits like I see a lot of Mormon girls do (not saying those aren't bad because I freaking love those so much and they are nothing but cute and adorable and happiness).

So I made a little change. I deleted about 900 pictures from three years ago to now. It was weird to look back on what I would post all that time ago. Stuff was way too personal on there. Plus I realize that I had less followers then, but now I wouldn't want people to have seen that stuff, so it's all gone. And I replaced those posts with cheerful and happy things! I always want to have happy and positive and uplifting things on my account.

It's probably more fun that I expected it to be, making cute things like that. With an app. For those wondering, I use the Rhonna app that you can get in the App Store. I *think* it's free, but all the fun packs and stuff cost $0.99 each. I'd love to actually turn this into something that's almost like a business. A friend of mine and I were talking about it last night, but I said that I wouldn't want to sell those things that I made because even though I made them myself, I used someone's app to make them and I wouldn't feel right doing so. Plus it's probably not legal.

But I'd love to try it! I like to think of myself as a creative person who loves making happy things for people, and if I get a couple extra dollars in the process of doing so, then bring it on. I just don't really have any materials or a starting point. Go figure, I suppose. (; If anyone has any experience with things, please shoot me an email! Email link is on the blog's sidebar.

I love Instagram, I love making things, and I love making people happy with my things.

Time to grow up

Wednesday, January 21, 2015
I don't know why I only blog at night. Deal with it. (8 <- wearing sunglasses while smiling. Wow I'm an idiot.

Okay. Real talk for a minute or two. Warning: this may be an "all over the place" post because I'm literally just now realizing it and I'm wanting to document it for me and the world to see. Maybe others need this nugget of knowledge (I say 'nugget of knowledge' a lot, you've also been warned) or need a little reminder. One more warning: this also is a little bit personal, but I tried to not delve into details or anything or name drop because dat ain't classy. Or maybe it is, who knows. But here it goes.

Ready?

I need to stop being so mean.

Many many people might be med to believe that I'm a super nice, uplifting, and positive girl. And not to sound cocky, but I am. I like to think of myself as uplifting and positive. That's another reason why I chose to go faceless when it comes to social media. I want to make others happy and remind people that it's not always a bad life. That doesn't require my face. That requires words. Maybe that's answered your undying question of "Lily, where's your face? Were you born with one?" and the answer to the second question is no, I was not born with a face*.

But seriously. I don't often think of myself as super nice. I can be really mean, especially to one girl in particular. And you know what's disgusting about it? She and I have never once met, and I don't even think that she knows I exist. Yet I'm so mean to her. I'm extremely bitter and have nothing but awful things to say towards her and I'm just now (sadly) realizing that it needs to stop... especially when I've had words to say to her since like.. August.

I know her name (which won't be said) but I call her the wonderful** name of Skank Bitch. Which is even more mean. I have never once said one nice thing to her. And you know why I don't like her? It's because of a stupid freaking guy. I'm letting an idiot guy be my excuse as to why I don't like her. She has never flat out given me a reason to hate her (I'll say it again: I truly don't think she knows I exist) and here I am, spouting off hate and rudeness to her.

She shouldn't have those words be said to her by me and the fact that I haven't let it go yet even though I've moved completely on says a lot about my level of maturity. You're generally thought of as more mature when you've actually moved on and not held any anger, right?

Well... call me an immature thirteen year old, I guess. Because it seems to me (literally just now) that I haven't allowed myself to fully move on. And some of that is the guy's fault, but I can't really blame anyone but myself because putting full blame on someone else makes it worse. The way he did the thing that he did was extremely short and to the point, and I compare it to ripping off the bandaid really quickly and then you're left to deal with the pain for a little bit.

The idiot jerk I used to like tore the bandaid off really slowly. This guy didn't. He ripped it off, held out his hand to help me up, and then walked away completely and I wasn't ready for that. Rather, I wasn't used to it. I didn't know how to deal with it. And I guess I'm still sort of lost, wandering around and not knowing what to do.

Letting go completely is what I need to do. Be happy for him that he found someone he likes. Just because a guy doesn't like you doesn't mean you're not beautiful or anything of the sort. I am beautiful. Who cares what ONE PERSON thinks about me? Just because someone who used to like you isn't in your life anymore doesn't mean you're not beautiful because you are. Me. I am. I am beautiful and I don't need someone to tell me that.

His girlfriend. She's beautiful too (see, this is me trying to drop the 'Skank Bitch' stuff and just say 'his girlfriend'). And I should be happy that he's happy. We all deserve happiness and someone who makes us happy. And I found someone who makes me happy. And he's really super awesome! And there are people out there who are probably happy that I'm happy and who aren't bitter in the least.

Twenty one days into 2015 and I finally figured out what I want to accomplish this year.

Be less bitter and be more happy for people. And move the heck on! Grow up and act a little less like a thirteen year old and more like a twenty year old!

* = I was born totally faceless, like in that Doctor Who episode where the chick in the TV literally sucks everyone's face off right before Queen Elizabeth's coronation? Definitely like that.

** = more like wonderfully rude and horrible.

Rock out with my... hawk out?

Tuesday, January 20, 2015
I'll admit: I have no idea how consistent this blog is going to be. So I hope that's okay. I honestly will have no excuse unless I'm sick (which is pretty often), stressed out with work, working, doing stuff for classes, or in classes (all also very often).

Or a more better excuse....... I'm watching Seahawks games on my DVR and watching (and every once in awhile sending) stupid Snapchats from friends and Vine famous people.

Holla @ me through email or a comment on any social media for my Snapchat name and I'd be more than happy to give it to you if you want really random and stupid Snaps involving things in my life. That are extremely pointless. But seriously, let me know somehow if you want it.

And speaking of Seahawks games (also because it's one of the only things I'm good at talking about unless I'm talking about myself)... DID YOU WATCH THAT GAME ON SUNDAY AGAINST GREEN BAY? HOLLLLAAAAAA!!!!!

Oh my lordy me, I'm still emotionally hungover after that game. Honestly, everyone who watched it witnessed history*, I shiz you not. I have never been more happy and proud of a team before in my life until Seattle did that to me.

Would you like to see one of the greatest comebacks and collapses in playoff history?

Click here and be amazed. I know the video is a little longer than you might want it to be, but please stick through it. It sets it up really nicely. Pretty please with a cherry on top. (:

So many people doubted that team. But all Seattle does is silent the haters.

I've grown up being a Seattle fan, as I never lived more than an hour away from Seattle until I moved to Utah. I've basically only lived in suburbs of Seattle until late 2011 when I moved about an hour or so away from there, but it was still a quick drive to get there. My dad has been a season ticket holder for years and years and years and it got to the point where I would go to church in morning services instead of afternoons because Seattle always plays home games in the afternoon (unless it's a night game, then it's in the evening time).

I liked a guy a few years ago (my friends know this guy to be the one who was a jerk to me before my nineteenth birthday and my most recent twentieth birthday, also the one who is out of my life for good, and I mean that) who is a massive Chicago Bears fan. No real problem there until I realized that he has a huge disliking for my Hawks. So you know what I did? I pretended to like the Bears for so long just so he would like me. To this day, I think that's one of the worst things I've ever done. If that experience taught me anything, it's to NEVER like something you really don't like, just to make someone like you even more. It's stupid and not worth it. -100/10 would not recommend.

Except he's an idiot and his team sucked major booty this season and missed playoffs when my team is awesome and is going to the Super Bowl! My friends and I have some bets going around, so that's fun.

I hope people liked this post. I don't know if many people who read this are into sports, but here's something just in case! Major bonus points if you like the Hawks as well!

#gohawks

* = well... sports history

My very best friends

Sunday, January 18, 2015
-- I just want to start this out by saying how thankful and happy I am that people have been asking to read this. It truly means a lot to me that people care enough to ask to read my words, however lame or unlame they may be. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you all so much --

Anyway, let's cut the sappy talk and spew out more sappy talk.*











Although I think I'm going to talk anyway, so here we goooo.

Are most of us familiar with Brooklilannah? Well if you aren't, Brooklilannah is the "ship" name that my two very best friends, Brooklyn and Hannah, and I made up. Now that that's been settled, it's just been "Lilannah" for awhile because Brooklyn is on her LDS mission (hi Brooklyn if you're reading this in the future!!). Anywho, Hannah's visiting for a few days! She flew in this afternoon and she's here until Wednesday. How fun is that?!

Like... super fun.

We, as in Brooklilannah, have our own song. You know how when you listen to a song and you think about your OTP or a certain person? Well, we have one. It's not by Eminem, either.** So we've been jamming to it together, but it's just not the same without Brooklyn. However, that's okay. She's not gone forever, thankfully. (;

If it's one thing I've learned from Brooklyn and Hannah (and my friends here, Laurel and Sierra... and yes, we're called Laurelilierra. Honestly, we're all so great), it's that you don't have to know someone for most of your life to be best friends with someone. I've honestly only known Hannah and Brooklyn since summer 2012. And we've been super close ever since. Even though we're scattered around and Brooklyn is a year and grade younger than Hannah and myself and the fact that we didn't go to the same school or even lived in the same town (we all lived a town or two away from each other), we're all joined at the hip.

And it's like.... you don't even have to have the same interests and things in common with someone. Brooklyn, Hannah, and I are miles apart on things we like sometimes, but we also have a lot in common. If you stood each one of us side by side together, you wouldn't think that we would be friends. But we are. We click. We connect. We understand each other. We're in tune with one another. We can tell when another one of us isn't okay. We're there for each other to the best of our ability.

I'm so blessed that Hannah is here and I'm so blessed that she's my best friend and has stuck by my side. I'm so blessed for Brooklyn and how strong and spiritual she is. I'm proud of her for serving an eighteen month mission when many girls her age aren't. I'm happy that they haven't given up on me when they could have walked away. They're the most amazing two people you'll ever meet and I'm so happy that they're my best friends.

* = it took until just now searching for that gif to see that Brad and Angie were right in front of Jonah.... awwwk.
** = it's a #brooklilannah thing. You wouldn't understand.
Gif is not mine.

An introduction, of sorts

Friday, January 16, 2015
To start out, I really don't like introductory blog posts. I honestly don't. They're usually all the same thing ("Hey, I'm Lily! I'm twenty* years old and I live in Utah!") and pretty... generic.

But at the same time.. I really like them. They're also sometimes raw. I relate them in a sense to someone's first vlog post if vlogging and YouTubing is someone's way of going at getting things out in the open. They're so real and they haven't discovered how to edit anything (another reason why I could never vlog. I'd have to edit out all my "uh's" and "um's", etc) but at the same time, isn't that what makes it more real? Like you can almost feel how nervous they are (if they are).

It's impressive.

So here's a small "introduction" that will probably be generic, but hey. It's something. Actually.. no. It's basically a background story of how this came to be. But you can also call that an introduction.

Most people probably already have a general knowing and understanding of me, so I can spare most of the background stuff. If anyone has questions, I have hella links in the sidebar. They're actually social media icons that I purchased on Etsy for a small price. I really like blogging. Blogging is a really good output for me. I had been in therapy for awhile and I was writing in journals (I still write in a journal every day, my goodness you should see all my journals) but I still wasn't putting out what I wanted to get across. My therapist (he was seriously so awesome) suggested that I try a blog. I told him that I had a Tumblr blog which I used to post happy things to keep me happy and that I would make text posts on it.

He told me that making a blog could perhaps help me get across what I wanted. And almost three years later, here I am still blogging. Granted, that's the blog I keep private (every time I say "blog" or "blogging" in this post, take a shot) and don't show anyone. I have a lot of stuff on that thing. A lot of hurt and heartbreak and all around bad. But there's also a ton of good things, especially right now with how things in my life are going. It's not all bad. But it's not all good. People on Tumblr sometimes ask about that blog, and I tell them that it's for my eyes only because it's essentially an online journal that's very very locked down and private.

But I wanted a blog that I could let others see; maybe to cut down on text post making on Tumblr (lol jk I'll always make text posts on Tumblr, don't let that fool you) so I started this after I got to thinking about it in the summertime, rightabouts. I had originally created an actual Facebook page for that blog (the private one) and very soon after that, I thought "no, Lily. Don't do that. Don't let people see all that private stuff. Those words are words that not everyone needs to see on a daily basis. Don't do it". So I never let that Facebook page go out (it's still on my actual Facebook because I don't know how to get rid of it) and a little while later, I fixed the privacy settings on it so NO ONE can see it now except for me.

It took a lot of weighing options for me to decide to public blog, but here's the finished result. It's not the cutest blog in the world, but it'll do. It's simple. It's not ugly. But it's okay. Nothing is perfect.

* = I had originally put down 'nineteen' instead of 'twenty' because I'm still getting used to the fact that I am twenty..... almost a month later. #old

Well hey

I'm trying something new this year. Whoa, total shocker. If anyone knows me, they know that I really don't like trying new things. So everyone sort of finds it a little... weird.. when I say I want to try something new that no one pressured me to do.

I am starting a new blog.

Okay, not really new to me, but new to you.

This ain't my first rodeo. I have blogged before. In fact, I still blog here on Blogger! Except that's a super private blog that I don't let anyone read because how would you like it if random people you don't know read your journal? You probably wouldn't like it. That's how I feel.

So you get to read this (more public) journal instead!

This might be boring, this might be great, this might be everything in between.

So hey, I'm Lily! Pull up a chair and make yourselves at home. I'd love to entertain y'all with good stories and good memories and maybe a rant here and there. (;

Stay tuned!