- Sitting in the empty silence of the mountains overlooking the warm winter sunset.
- Friends that don’t mind going out of their way to buy dinner and drop it off at practice.
- Getting a text from the person I was hoping it would be.
- Walking my dog along a tree-lined street, with soggy, but crunchy leaves, and [homey houses with windows displaying largely decorated Christmas trees,] with the refreshing scent of rain still in the air.
- The social butterfly sophomores that have never failed to make me laugh each day in Spanish class.
- Caring friends that IM me every night just to tell me to sleep early.
- Learning a new piano song and playing it a hundred times over in the middle of the night, instead of doing homework.
- Sticking to our promise of no regrets, [and totally embarrassing ourselves yet having so much fun on the dance floor.]
- A home away from home that is still loud at 1 in the morning, with sixteen people and two dogs sleeping over.
- Praying, talking and thanking God every night before I sleep.
- Friends that visit and make me tea when I’m sick at home stuck on the couch watching Food Network for five hours when I can’t even eat.
- When staying up until 3 am pays off after getting an A on my paper.
- Daily questions and “fun fact of the day” to get to know more about the other person.
- Indulging myself in worship music, and Ghirardelli brownies in the middle of the night, while studying or doing homework.
- My two best guy friends that come over to help me bake for a color guard bake sale.
- Running back into the North Gym to hug everyone that came to watch our performance.
- Coming across old favorite songs, and falling in love with them all over again, leaving it on repeat for the rest of the night.
- When six hour study sessions are actually productive.
- Coming home to homemade brownies and cinnamon-topped blueberry muffins that my mom made because she was bored.
- Hanging out with color guard girls outside of color guard, despite how much we already see each other. Late night dinners with color guard girls in celebration of our debut performance.
- Waking up at 5 in the morning, and seeing the world from a different perspective, admiring the chromatic sunrise and fluorescent blue sky hovering above. [to spoil a best friend for her birthday.]
- Webcamming with my best friend who is feeding me a bunch of pick-up lines at 2 in the morning.
- Late night movie nights after an eight hour rehearsal.
- Going to church and still being welcomed to help despite my long-term absence.
- Cute little notes left on the white board from friends in the previous class.
- Two orders of Gin Sushi’s tempura ice cream on a rainy day.
- Random texts reminding me to stay warm, or have a good practice.
- Being in a room of 300+ talented and dedicated band members singing together.
- Leaving class to walk around only to bump into a bunch of other friends doing the same thing.
- Solving a ridiculously hard chemistry problem and feeling amazingly accomplished afterwards.
- When six hour study sessions are actually crazy, and a bit productive.
- Blogging late at night with calm acoustic music quietly playing throughout my room.
- Catching up on four hours of One Tree Hill on a weekday and not worrying about studying, but whether Brooke and Julian will stay together.
- Realizing that I’ve known one of my best friends for more than half my life.
- When friends leave little notes on my paper after grading my quiz or borrowing my homework.
- Friends that I never see anymore that pop out of nowhere to save me from the rain, share their umbrella and change their route to walk me to class.
- The butterflies and adrenaline rush throughout my body before a performance and that proud confident feeling walking off the floor. Making our instructors proud. Saber line practicing the opening six together and hearing the sharp crack of each catch. Random strangers that come up to you expressing how much they loved the show.
- Friends that bring me breakfast because they know what kind of cereal I like. / because they know about my obsession with Starbucks’ java chip frappucino.
- Friends that refuse to sleep until I’m done with homework and ready to sleep.
- Minute long hugs in the middle of a crowded room.
- Random phone calls [after practice] to simply say, “I miss you.”
- A game of monopoly and pigging out on Carls Jr at 4 in the morning.
- Reading birthday, Christmas or Valentines Day cards over again.
- Sitting next to a guy singing and playing one of my favorite songs on guitar.
- Being in a room full of guys screaming and watching the All Stars / Finals basketball game.
- The sound of my dog’s soft footsteps as she walks into my room and jumps onto my bed to sleep underneath my blankets and warm my feet. When my dog jumps onto my bed to sleep by my side.
- Enjoying a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with kit kat pieces after six straight hours of homework.
- [Teachers that share funny old stories from when they were teenagers, such as hitting four stationary cars in their first year of having a license.] Teachers that feel the need to promote good morality, in addition to a school subject. Teachers that lecture the class about appreciation and opportunity and end up crying to express their care.
- Funny attempts to draw out and explain a math problem over the internet.
- Watching A Guard perform, continuing the show when the music stops, and still winning first place.
- Being productive and finishing homework that’s due Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on a Friday night.
- Reading GMH blogs for hours on end when I’m stressed out and worried about other things.
- Being on a dance floor with more adults than people my own age and still having fun.
- Three guards bonding on the third floor of the hotel despite being national competitors.
- When people IM me to say goodnight, even though the conversation died three hours ago.
- Coming home to a nice, comfy made bed.
- Sitting in Borders on a Friday afternoon, reading books that I actually want to read.
- When my parents drive all the way to San Diego just to help out the guard and watch our five minute show.
- Visiting other teachers and classrooms during class.
- Chilling in the car for half an hour before school with Starbucks and red velvet cupcakes.
- Playing games in Chemistry without the sophomores that dominate 2/3 of our class; Team Jicole redemption.
- Dominating those school days with three back to back tests.
- Spontaneous and adventurous Friday nights, meeting new people along the way and hanging out with them, talking as if we’ve known each other for a while.
- Watching old colorguard dvds and still screaming and getting excited when we’ve seen the show and heard the music a hundred times.
- Waking up to freshly made chocolate chip pancakes.
- Playing basketball and knock out at guard practice.
- Random video calls over AIM just to say hello.
- Fish Taco Tuesdays, and no homework.
- Visiting three ice cream shops in one day; Fosselman’s, Coldstone’s and 21 Choices.
- Leading the way for our roll out crew, getting lost and screwing everyone over.
- Watching a DVD of our performance and hearing one chaperone cheer over the rest of the audience.
- Convincing a teacher to let me sit next to a friend, in spite of the fact that we already talk halfway across the room everyday.
- Buy 1, get 1 free.
- When teachers suddenly get on the topic of dumb college stories and then try to get back into how to find the vertex of a parabola.
- Huddling and crying together after our WGI finals performance and hearing a poem that reminded our instructor of us.
- Singing and screaming our lungs out to old Avril Lavigne songs while driving in the rain.
- Talking about prom with Mr. Woodin, instead of discussing whether the American dream is attainable.
- Seeing “Thank you, Nicole” on my graphing calculator after lending it to my neighbor.
- Ditching class after AP tests to eat Chipotle & roam around PetSmart.
- 5:30 am adventures and senior kidnapping, feeling as if the juniors are on a mission.
- Skipping out on the first ten minutes of class because the sub didn’t have a key to the classroom.
- Watching Spanish movies and getting confused because I couldn’t understand it.
- Holding hands in the other person’s jacket pockets.
- Spending Friday night playing Call of Duty [at a friend’s house].
- Inspiring optimism.
- “I’ll pray for you.”
- Walking around with linked arms.
- Being stuffed in the third row of the car for six hour road trips.
- Hearing my grandma sing Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, ra ra oh la la.
- Bargaining for the parking fee with a $5 coupon for Fresh n’ Easy.
- Using a cake for four different people’s birthdays within the span of four months.
- Being a kid and playing on epic castle-like playgrounds.
- Surprises when someone comes from behind and covers your eyes.
- Power outages in the school and convincing teachers that it’s too dark to learn anything, even though we could see the board clearly.
- Squeezing my dog like a teddy bear when I lie down.
- Guys that help me carry stuff when my hands are full. [Stanley, Elliott, Josh]
- “Hope you’re having sweet dreams” texts when I’m already asleep.
- Secret handshakes.
- Night drives in my dad’s car, with the top down.
- Friends that decorate and write funny jokes and little notes on random pages of my agenda.
- Camera whoring with a webcam during the car ride home from San Francisco, with freeway traffic as our background.
- Driving to Lower Azusa just to tp a friend’s car for the hell of it.
- Wearing converse shoes to dances and banquets.
- Pizookies that are bigger than the size of my head.
- 11:11 wishes.
- Friends that offer to tutor me and make sure I don’t give up, even though it’s 2am and past their bed time.
- Random acts of kindness.
- Going off campus to buy Starbucks for my teachers just because.
- Dipping fries into my McD’s ice cream cone.
- Talking to a random stranger in the car beside us because his windows were rolled down.
- Texting my brother and asking how everything is going.
- Family parties w/ sushi chefs, bartenders, waiters and a dance floor.
- Crazy volleyball games with the boys, then fail volleyball games with the girls.
- Spontaneous adventures to Petco and buying two fish for my best friend.
- Unrelated second mothers that always drop off homemade baked goods.
- Car wash parties.
- Hanging out with my brother and his friends since middle school / that I’ve known for about ten years.
- Waking up to a good morning text. / wake up call
- TP’ing wars.
- Laker parties and incessant screaming and cheering throughout.
- Chilling in the backyard furniture section of Target.
- Filling out forms and applications.
- Crossing out everything on my to-do list featured on colorful post-it notes.
- Picture texts of my name written inside of a heart drawn in the sand.
- Parking in the Mayor’s assigned parking spot in City Hall just to feel BA.
- Sin Bala shaved ice after a long afternoon of errands.
- Splurging on concert tickets because my dad believes that it would be a good experience for me.
- Chilling by a waterfall after a long, tiring hike.
- Laughing so hard that my abs hurt.
- The fact that my uncle that shaved his head because my aunt was going through chemotherapy.
- Being around tipsy people who still have an idea of what’s going on.
- Taking two cars to go to the same location, secretly racing home, and winning.
- Find the most random/weird thing in your room game over webcam.
- Being responsible for half the noise in the restaurant with my family.
- Rushing to an interview and making it back with time to spare.
- When people remember the little details. / When a guy remembers that we were supposed to watch “The Hangover” together exactly one year ago, but that we never had the chance.
- Going to a restaurant and telling the waiter that it’s someone’s birthday, when it’s not.
- Being dragged to take cha-cha classes and realizing that it was a good experience.
- Playing random games at the table while waiting for our food to come.
- Turning to friends who always have a funny, but rational way of dealing with complicated situations, and asking, “Do you want to know what happened?” “Yes, always.”
- Those days when you wake up feeling good and productive and immediately think, “Today is going to be a good day.”
- Mistakes in the restaurant bill when we’re charged for a cheaper, to-go sized shaved ice, rather than a small.
- Thugging it at 12am / midnight and eating Kogi on the streets with my brother & his friends.
- “You think he’s cute huh? Pound it.”
- Starting off a productive morning by going to the gym.
- Phone calls and voicemails from my little cousin singing and screaming at Chanel to answer the phone.
- Owning at dodgeball games during practice.
- Reparking the car after the free 90 minutes, so that we wouldn’t have to pay the $2 fee.
- Surprise water balloon fights.
- Backyard bbq’s and chilling on the bench swing.
- Summer picnics at the park.
- Spending our whole lunch reminiscing about our trip to the Philippines with my brother & dad.
- Weekly cha cha classes with my dad, Michael & Katie.
- Watching the season dvds of Entourage.
- Meeting nice, random strangers at the dog park. / Visiting the dog park and letting Chanel loose.
- Reunions with SAT class kids from the previous year.
- When everything is normal despite not talking or seeing a friend for almost a year.
- Sitting in Borders’ coffee shop, reading and researching about colleges.
- Canceled practices, but still practicing.
- The thrill from trespassing a gated community and getting shot at with a bb gun.
- Understanding talks and sharing the same perspective with my mother.
- When items that I order online finally come in the mail.
- Enthusiastic hellos in the hallway.
- Promises dedicated to the one person that has made a tremendous impact on my high school career.
- Small weekend getaways.
- Going to Costco to walk around and eat the food samples.
- Knocking out on blankets in the middle of a park right next to the beach.
- Watching a friend stop and get out of the car to chase a deer.
- Funny street names.
- Playing with fireworks in the front yard, despite it being completely illegal in our city.
- Seeing / hanging out with people once they’ve come back from a month-long vacation / trip.
- Getting spoiled with little gifts when a friend comes back from a foreign country.
- Driving two hours there and back just to spend the day at Santa Barbara.
- Downtown and old town environment / street / night life / atmosphere.
- Boston cream pie.
- Bonding with the squad leaders, and introducing them into Jollibee.
- When we eat out at restaurants, and my mom says, “I can make that!” and the next day, she actually does.
- Satisfying my random food cravings.
- Color guard squad dress ups.
- Weighing bags of candy to see which is heavier and has the most gummy worms.
- Cleaning out my closet & color coding my clothes.
- Going through a bunch of old cd’s in the car and finding good old middle school songs that we used to love.
- Sitting in a circle in the guest house and just having a deep conversation.
- Free Thursdays.
- Writing letters to people, and not sending it, but rather just saving it on my computer, or in my drawer.
- Outlets and good sales.
- Family parties complete with karaoke, back up singers, random vocals & dance moves every so often.
- Going down the laundry aisle in the grocery just to smell each bottle.
- The friends we make from guard that are out of state or region and still talk as if we’ve known each other for longer.
- Rushing to finish getting ready and getting my hair curled in a record time of ten minutes.
- Saving someone from getting pulled over by the popo’s at 11pm by screaming “stop!” in front of a stop sign.
- Friends that name their WoW characters after me and our girl group.
- When my phone made it out alive after being dropped into frozen yogurt.
- Acing my 400 point Chemistry final which bumped my B up to an A, woohoo!
- How everyone wakes me up from my nap once the stuffed crust pizza arrives.
- Study sessions at 2 in the morning.
- Watching two people jokingly bicker over stupid things.
- When people call me "Nic"
jul 20 2010 ∞
jul 20 2010 +
jul 20 2010 +