9 hour vacay for the vacay deprived.

I had a lovely Friday in San Fransisco with Mr. Glover.

[thank you jeff for taking my shift so i could have some fun, you are da best.]

Suuuuper bummed my phone died only 2 hours into the day, i missed too many great pictures and was forced to take them with my imaginary camera I will one day have instead.
None-the-less, it was such a fun day spent with fishies, good food, good coffee, good laughs, and good the best company. The city is one of my favorite places EVER. I could live there and be quite happy.

See you soon san franny! xoxo

Normal?

I have been extremely absent from you blog, apologies. I've just been so busy, doing what feels like, the same old shiiiiii...cago [gotcha, didn't I?]. I feel like daily grind has been wearing on me. My "normal", boring, daily grind days, have seem to become everyday. Nothing new, no sign of change. Not even the seasons! It's almost October and its still 100 million degrees out.

My daily routine, which goes something like this:

{4:20am/5:50am : Alarm. Open eyes. Sigh. Groan. Get out of bed and ready for work.
Work: Pull shots of espresso, ring people up. Clean. Listen to entitled customers complain. Clean more. Pull more shots of espresso. Multi-task being a slave while trying to have fun with my dear co-workers. Clean more.
Off work.
Race back to the house. Change clothes. Grab my sketch book from under my never ending pile of dirty laundry and complete my incomplete homework just quick enough to finish but slow enough to look like i "took my time with it".
Race out the door.
Im late to school, as usual.
Draw for 3 hours (I guess I can't complain much there...I could be doing something wretched like math)
Come back to the house, shower. (Dont worry, usually i shower in the mornings if i dont open, but when i do...dont expect much outta me)

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. }....okay obvi not everyday is like that. But mostly.

This boring same-old, same-old has made me crave change, and I think has worn on my appreciation of my life in general. This is kind of a blessing and a curse. For one, the fact that Nicole is ACTUALLY wanting something to change is incredible in itself. I am a creature of environment. And I need my environment to be comfortable and normal and the same. Mix it up on me without asking permission, and i have a mini freak out. Okay...a big freak out. So you can imagine how much of big deal it is that I'm finally at a point where I'm fully trusting and ready for God to move in my life.

As good as wanting change is, I think it is a shame I allowed such a bitter seed to grow in my heart that made me unappreciative of my "normal days". This year has been hard to say the least, and I've spent most of my time just waiting for the days when things get better and disregarding the day that I am actually living in.

That is a shame.

And let me tell you why:

Any day, normal or not, is a blessing. I have been given X amount of time on this earth. The fact that I have a new day to be alive and well is incredible, and that shouldn't be forgotten.
Just because I want some things in my life to progress and change doesn't mean one day it's actually going to happen like POOF!..out of no where everything is AMAZE-BALLS!

Mmm...no. I have to work for that. I have to use those normal monotonous days to get to the exciting days. Use those days to work to save money to be financially stable, to go to school to work on improving my artistic abilities to get a job i can one day use them for.

And besides that, I have some pretty awesome people in my life and some 100,000 blessings I dont deserve, to enjoy on those "normal" days.

Life will get there, I have to believe that.

Moral of the story:

Let's all remember to enjoy our normal day today while we are waiting for our AMAZE-BALLS day. Mmkay?

Today I made this earring slash jewelry holder. Making it made my normal day a little bit more fun.

Blue skies are coming, but i know that it's hard.

"Dont worry about the wicked,
Or envy those who do wrong,
For like grass they will soon fade away.
Like spring flowers, they will soon wither.

Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord,
And he will give you your heart's desires. "
Psalm 37: 1-4

Im no photographer by any means but for some reason I get a strange joy from editing pictures.
I'm a sucker for changing the contrast and giving a picture cool effects.
I cant stand normal,untouched photos for some reason.

ANYYYWWAAYYYYY.
My cute little iphone has this app called Instagram and it's become my favorite thing ever.
Basically you take a normal picture and it supplies you with like 12 different filters to make the pictures look cooler.
Love. Dat.
So here's a look at what I've been up to lately via Instagram.

Hello Sunset.

Chick-fil-et with my buds makaela, alex, and danny.

Funny story, I accidentally bought John a girl Harry Potter T-shirt.
[still handsome as ever, none-the-less]

Man P.D.A. = More awkward than the normal kind.

I like my sharpies.

Sorry Mak, this picture was bound to surface at some point..... :)

Gotta love Rosie. And Tyler with the doritos. [fire pits at dannys]
I love him.
[Risking his manhood to come WATCH me get a pedicure.]

Jordin. Age 3. Beating me at bowling

Alicia LOVED wine tasting...

No really she did.


We all did. :)

Crocker Art Museum.

Shady.

A picture, taken of an extremely attractive other picture.

Alex comes home!

I enjoy pretzels . Mostly because I like salt.

Downtown.

Go.

XOXO

This morning I woke up with 11 zits on my face.
11.
11 red, repulsive reminders of how stressed out I am.
I just recently learned that my sister (the only family I have here) is now moving in about 4 weeks to Indiana. What? Whats in Indiana? Free Chipotle? SERIOUSLY?!?! STOP MOVING THERE PEOPLE.

I know, I'm dramatic. But seriously...I'm not a happy camper. The thought of being 100% by myself does not exactly sit well with me. It's scary. And it's sad. And it sucks. I know I can do it. But I don't really want to.

I can.
I can.
I must.

I know there's people out there with cancer. I know there's people out there with no home. I'm very aware that there are people out there worse off than me. I don't mean to act like I am dealing with the hardest situation on planet. But just because it's not the hardest, doesn't mean it's not still really hard. I wish people had an easier time understanding that. It's hard enough for me as it is to tell people how I am REALLY doing, but on the slight chance someone asks and i do open up I feel like most people just say "awww that sucks" give me the sad puppy face, and then expect me to automatically turn my frown upside down and live in their world of sunshine, flowers, and magical sparkly bunnies.

Sorry.
I don't feel like a sparkly bunny.
I feel like a stressed out bunny with a saggy,wrinkled, tired face complete with under-eye bags and of course my colony of awkwardly atrocious pimple mountains . Gorgeous, I know.
And this bunny does not want to be sad because ANOTHER person is leaving her.
This bunny doesn't want to be all alone.
I know I will get used to it. I know everything will work out in the end.
But waiting for things to get better is just so so hard.


Thank God for my bible and my sketch pad.
xoxo

I'm back!

It's been a solid 6 or 7 months since I've been on this thing, sorry!Life has really just made me a busy lady these days. So here's a readers digest version of Nicole's life thus far. With pictures. Because i love pictures.It's been a little over a month since my mom, dad, and younger brother have moved to Indiana.

(Which is located here, for my fellow dummies who didn't know where it actually was.)

And what a month it has been.I am so thankful to be living with my best friend. She's a doll. Really, she is made up of 100% incredible. She will be in my life no matter what. Because she is honest and genuine and knows me more than 99% of the world.

But as much fun as living is a new place is, I honestly would have never guessed how difficult it is to be separated from your family. Thankfully both my sisters are still here in CA, but I only get to really see one of them because the other lives in San Diego still. The past month has been especially hard because although I am surrounded by all the wonderful people in my life, I have been battling feeling really alone. And it's not the "Hi-I-am-socially-awkward-therefore-i-have-no-friends" kind of alone, its a different kind of loneliness. It's hard to explain but something along the lines of I am not really sure where I belong anymore, because right now I dont feel like I actually belong anywhere. I really feel like I have to make my own space in the world and I actually have to grow up. I came to this realization when I had to ask where to buy stamps because I didnt actually know how one was to acquire such things. I came to this realization on the side of the road at 5:20am when my tire popped on the way to work and no one would answer my phone call to come help me so I had to YouTube how to change a tire and do it myself. I realized I can't flip out over the small bump on my head thinking its some sort of strange tumor because my mom isn't in the next room to run to and have repeatedly tell me not to worry because it's probably a mosquito bite. My family was my comfort, and by removing that I feel like God is teaching me what it really means to trust him. And as great as it is to have your family around, I can't always rely on them. But I can ALWAYS rely on him.

Another silver lining of this situation is it has really brought me closer to boyfriend. (Who, by the way, is genuinely one of the biggest blessings God has ever given me.)

He's a keeper. Trust me.I really don't think I could have done this without him. And honestly, I really don't want to do life without him. I have a place with him. He never fails to encourage or comfort me. And right now, that sense of "home" seems to be where ever I'm with him.On to a less mushy note....I intend to keep updating as much as possible. I feel like there is so much in store for me and I would love to continue to share all that God is doing in my life.

xoxo