Back the Eff Up Dude.

Mess with my mama, mess with me. Seriously. Don't eff with her, or I'll eff with your face. 

Somebody hurt her feelings today and consequently, I wanted to tear his face off and send him a text that said something like ...

Hey Dude ... you messed with the wrong person's mama. You're gonna have a really lonely life if you're such an a** hole to everyone all of the time. GROW UP! 

This guy? He's my cousin. And he's a grown man. And he's rude and immature. 

He asked me to go to Holiday World with one of my other cousins and him one day this summer. I woke up that day to a black sky and thunder. No way I was going. I called him to tell him and I just got a huffy, "WE'RE GOING!" So I cried. I didn't want to go. And I certainly didn't want to spend my day in a car because we drove there in the storm like idiots and the park was closed. Finally, my mom called for me and said I wouldn't be going.

Needless to say, he was pissed. 

My mom tried to call him on Thanksgiving, no response. She tried to call on Christmas, no answer. She even sent a gift to him for Christmas and while he took the gift, he told my uncle that he had "written my mom off".

My mom is one of the sweetest, most compassionate women out there and for him to be a jerk for no reason makes my bear claws come out. NOT OKAY.

But, I decided that calling or texting him would do no good, so I'd do him one up and not say anything at all.

So I'm ranting to you guys.

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But I have some happy news!

I'm going to dance in Butler University's 2011 Dance Marathon that supports Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

The hospital is a great place for sick kids - a place that commits to help them, no matter what their financial situation is. 

What better way to help than to dance in honor of the kids who can't? 

However, I need to raise $150 in order to participate.

So if you feel led to help a really awesome cause, you can visit my fundraising page

The kids thank you and so do I!

Matchbook Creative Contest

Ok guys, I need your opinions.

Yesterday, I got a message on Facebook from a friend of mine who works at a local advertising agency, Matchbook Creative.

Matchbook is hosting their first ever, "Fall into Creativity", a creativity contest. One can enter a photograph, drawing, painting, card collection - anything.

The entry fee? is just one non-perishable food item to be donated to a local food bank, Gleaners.

How easy is that??

So anyway, before I got the message last night, I had gone on a walk to take pictures and begin looking for things for next week's scavenger hunt.

Except, next week's items are a lot more challenging than they have been in the past, so I didn't find a lot of them, but I found myself just snapping pictures of everything that caught my eye.

Consequently, when I got the message, although the contest isn't until November 5th, I had lots of options to choose from already.

& although it's not really a super serious contest - more of a charity thing, I thought I would ask your opinion on this picture & then what you thought of the different touch-up techniques so here we go:

I could use just the plain one:

or I could use the "1960" one:

or I could use the cinema scoped one:

or I could use the boosted one:

or, I could always wait & find another one.

What do you think?

Which one should I use, or should I just find another one?

also, if you'd like more information about the Matchbook Creative, "Fall in to Creativity" contest, check here.

What better way to support a food bank than through a fun, creative outlet?

& Lastly, I'd like to apologize to Megan over at Life's a Dance for not recognizing the fact that last Saturday? SHE GAVE ME MY FIRST BLOG AWARD!! Megan is an absolutely fabulous girl - sweet & adorable & her blog follows suit.

Thank you Megan, it's quite the honor to get an award from you ... I may or may not pass this on, but if I was the one giving away the award at first, I would've totally given one to you too.

Keep rockin' girl!

Excuses.

I have been slacking on blogging & I have an excuse - my camera is broken. Like seriously, when I can't use my camera to inspire blog posts, I have zero inspiration at all.

It's not really my camera that's broken - its the memory card. My mac told me a hundred times not to eject my camera without pushing the eject button on the computer & of course I didn't so now I have a Sony Cybershot that keeps saying, "reinsert memory card." Even though it's in there right. Frustrating.

Also, on the budget of a college student I can't afford to just run out and buy a new memory card right away. & Deb (aka: mom) for some reason, says that after paying tuition she just doesn't want to contribute to the "Ali needs extras" fund. I know, weird.

Anyway, I just want to apologize for not being my normal, picture crazy - creative blogger with a promise that I will put out at least one good & creative post this week & I'm going to try to get a memory card next week.

XOXO lovies.

Ps. If anyone has any ideas about how to fix the camera by all means, let me know!

Balance.

Tonight, I'm deciding that as the 18 year old girl I am, where I am in life, the hardest thing to grasp is Balance.

Throughout my entire life, I have had to deal with things that should've been way over my head at my age. First, it was my alcoholic dad. "Where is daddy?", "Why isn't daddy home for dinner?" and my mom who was wondering the same thing & 100% frustrated would say, I don't know, why don't you call him. That was when I was really little. Around 8, I learned about the "bars" & his lying. When he lost his job, I learned about dealing with going from being comfortable, to having to be extremely frugal & even borrow money from family. Later, I had to see my dad go to jail for a DUI & then eventually, my parents divorce.

So, because of all of these things, & because of having a mom who raised me to be very cautious of other peoples feelings, to be overly responsible & caring, Im just that: overly mature & responsible. I worry about things that most 18 year olds would never dream of worrying about.

But at the same time, then, there are nights like tonight where I'm so pissed at myself for being overly caring & responsible & wish I could be that crazy, doesntgiveashitaboutanything, 18 year old bimbo.

Here's my question, How should I go about finding balance between still being lady like & responsible, but at the same time, not losing self & doing those "right of passage" things that make this the summer of 18??

I guess this is just the day of needing advice.

Still in the Dark About These Things

There are so many cool things that I want to do with my blog & while I am hoping to sometime get a web designer on here, it's just not going to happen right now. The Nordstrom sale did me in!

But, I figure that some of the fabulous broken-in bloggers can help me out with these questions.

1.) How do I add a button & Where do I put it?

2.) How do I re-sisze my pictures after I edit them on Picnik? ... Sometimes they end up tiny on my blog.

3.) Is there anyway I can not have those question marks on my pictures when I take them from the internet?

I'm anxiously awaiting your advice! Hopefully Young & Restless is about to get a lot cooler!

x's & o's