wait… I said WHAT?!

Some things in life never change…. ah, cliche! But it’s true.

What I’m about to talk about here in this blog is something so embarrassing that I will probably regret revealing it some day.  Or tomorrow. Either one.  
It’s a part of my past that I’ve managed to bury in such a way that it has gone undiscovered for some time….
until tonight.

that is my old myspace.

Tonight I found myself curled up in the Great Room of the sorority house with Christina.  It started out harmless enough. A little facebook creepin’ here and there… just to check up on everyone. 
That was when it happened. 
One thing led to another and before I knew it my myspace profile was up for the world to see.  After we drug Katie, the innocent bystander, into the mix, things began going downhill, FAST.

To reference my first cliche line, there are some things that I’ve observed in social media that never seem to change…
let’s think back:

That satisfied feeling of typing out what you did on Wednesday, and posting it to you xanga account and getting at least six comments
(I’m pretty sure six was my max.  Maybe I just wasn’t too popular.  I deleted that account a long time ago, thank goodness!)

The satisfied feeling of changing the layout on your myspace and getting comments about it.
Then seeing your ex-best-friend the next day with the EXACT same striped layout in a different color scheme… the nerve.

Or what about when you were the rebel, and you were never going to get a facebook.
Or maybe you liked facebook before it was cool?
Don’t even get me started on people with Twitter accounts….
omg my blog got like, 120 views.
Yeah, it’s pretty much not changed at all.. We’re all guilty of it.  The fact that I am posting a BLOG about the ridiculous things that we, as young adults, do post online for the world to see makes me guilty of it.  Some of us are just worse than others. 
Mostly, it’s just funny to go back and see the things that were a big deal in your life then… because Lord knows you posted about it.  And it’s strange to think about what will be a big deal when I’m, say, 24?  Will I post about it on facebook.  Will I be all snooty with my linkedin profile? Will I look back at this blog and be like, “what a dork.”

It’s good to go back and creep all of my friends and see that they were equally ridiculous with their myspace profiles.  My “about me” section is so “deep” that you would think I battled the odds for survival over the years, helping out others only to be stepped on along the way.  I’m not even sure who I was trying to convince…   My friends were equally lame, though…  What a relief! 

If you want to waste countless hours, track down your old social media site profiles. It’s a great feeling. And please, I beg you, let’s bring xanga back!

Also, for a good laugh, here’s my “about me” for myspace. 

My name is Aaron Chaney ((and I am obviously better known as Chaney)) ♥In my life, God always comes first. ♥I’m a brunette, hazel eyed. ♥I’m a little on the short side, and if I said I didn’t love it, I’d be lying. ♥When you get to know me, I’m really outgoing and social. ♥I don’t believe in fake smiles, ever. ♥ I’ll be a BIG SENIOR this year on campus [woot]. ♥ I am Captain of the Strutters Danceline and the Sabine Cardinal Band. ♥ I am a Varsity Cheerleader and love cheering for my Cardinals! ♥ I’m O.C.D. about a lot of things, and sometimes I can get overly organized. ♥ I’m beginning to think I have a slight obsession about the appearance of my car. ♥ I hate not being prepared or not knowing what to expect. ♥ My greatest fear is dissapointing my family. ♥ I have many regrets, however I believe everything happens for a reason. ♥ I can be a very deep person ♥I have a very unique style and personality ♥ I play the Saxophone. ♥I love music, but I can’t sing. ♥ I want to learn to play piano. ♥ I love my small town and wouldn’t trade it for a city lifestyle. I would absolutely love to spend some time in New York City, though. ♥ I love my family and my pets more than anything. ♥ I’m allergic to cats, but I have 3 dogs, and one cat anyway. ♥ After high school I plan to attend TJC and try out for Apache Belle and continue on to Texas A&M. ♥I have amazing friends whom I love dearly [[Sarah Gayle, Shelby Kay, Holley Brooke, Michael James, and Noah Ryan]] ♥ Marie and Sarah are quite possibly the most entertaining people I know. I love them both dearly. ♥ My mom is my best friend, no doubt about it. I tell her everything and she knows me better than anyone else in this world ♥ If you want to know more about me, go read my “interests” or leave me a nice little comment and show me some love! ♥

Who I’d like to meet: I would ♥ to meet: Jesus someday,John Mayer,Kenny Chesney,Channing Tatum,Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Buble,My Grandfather that I was named after–Aaron,myself, about 20 years from now, and you ♥

I’m so ashamed.

always,
Chaney

I just found out there’s no such thing as “The Real World”

well, hello

I haven’t blogged in a very long time.  By “very long”, I mean since the beginning of my fall semester (2011, yeah).

I kind of just ran out of things to say along the way. I used to compile all of my wedding thoughts here, then I found pinterest, and suddenly Wedded Wednesday wasn’t that much fun anymore.   

But, I’ve actually decided that I might start up something again. For whatever reason it’s more fun to write something and post online about it rather than just writing it in my own journal…

So, maybe this can be a place to keep all of my recipes that I try! Most of the things I cook/bake I end up changing… I never actually follow a recipe… and my dad likes it that way 🙂 He tells me I’m gonna be on cupcake wars one day.

So yeah, I’m still wedding obsessed.
I still have a ton of crafts that I’ve successfully completed and I want to post on here.
And I always have a ton of recipes I want to share… always. always. always.

so, we’ll see what happens.

always,
Chaney

life happens

It’s been quite sometime, and I feel like I’m losing my creative touch…
I actually have a week that isn’t dedicated to a “business law” book and an economics spiral, so I guess I’ll share a bit of my boring life with you:

This past weekend was parents’ weekend at Texas A&M University along with my sorority’s philanthropy fundraiser event–
Aggie Gamma Phi Crescent Classic raised money for Camp for All, all while offering barbecue, t-shirts, a concert lineup, and a bake sale to it’s patrons for a $10 ticket.   We had an amazing turnout this year!

My parents came out for that and reminded me of how comforting it is to have them around.  Sometimes I forget how much I miss home. 
The next day we passed up going to the A&M vs Baylor game to browse Houston.  (We did listen to A&M BTHO Baylor via radio, don’t you worry.)
I managed to find a dress to wear to my semi-formal in December, which is extremely exciting… for me at least.

Now to the good stuff…
I baked “Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting” for the Crescent Classic bake sale, and I’m pretty sure some boys fell in love with me after taking one bite… In fact, that was confirmed in a text message sent to one of my sorority sisters… sorry, bud. I’m taken.
So, for all of you who wish to win someone over by cupcakes alone, I have a recipe (partially from bits and pieces of stuff I found on pinterest, but mostly by my own experimentation…) that I used to make these lovely cupcakes. HERE GOES!
(and yes, I’m quite proud that I practically made this up on my own!)

-1 box of supermoist yellow cake mix
-1 can of pumpkin pie filling (you know the kind, “Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin”)
-Vanilla Extract (this is all pretty much to taste… I have no exact measurements)
-1 cup of Whipping Cream (get the heavy stuff)
-1.5 cups of powdered sugar
-16 oz. cream cheese
-1 jar of caramel sauce
AND THAT’S ALL YOU NEED! woah. let your mind be blown for a second.

–mix the box of cake mix with the can of pumpkin. I would definitely suggest using a mixer rather than a whisk or a spoon… it takes awhile to get the mixture to fold together.
–into this mixture add a few spoonfuls of caramel and a splash of vanilla. Like I said, I’m pretty much adapting this recipe from others that I have read, so I did all of this to personal taste.
–Spoon into cupcake liners (your mixture will be pretty thick, and because you have no raw eggs in it, it doesn’t hurt to taste test and see if you like how it tastes!) and bake as the box directs (350 degrees) for about 12 minutes… When these “cupcakes” are done, they will look more like cornbread or muffins and may brown a little bit on the top.
–While letting the cupcakes cool, I mixed the cream cheese, whipping cream, powdered sugar, and another splash or two of vanilla together to create the best cream cheese frosting everrrrrr. Seriously.
— Using the hanlde of a butter knife, I hollowed out my cupcake and poured the remaining caramel sauce into the center, creating a sticky caramel core! Make sure you don’t take out too much of the center of your cupcake. The caramel gets soaked up a little by your cupcake, so the hollowed out part doesn’t have to be huge. 
–I topped these off with my cream cheese icing (actually, my roomie Christina did, because she does frosting like a PRO) and then enjoyed one warm just to taste-test.

They’re delightful, if I may say so myself.

home away from home :)

Howdy! 🙂

I guess it’s about time I post pictures of my new room here in the Gamma Phi Beta house!
I’ve been promising these pictures for quite some time, so here we go!

Here’s the view from our beautiful landing down into our Great Room

Here’s the panoramic view of our room! You’re looking at my side! I DIY Crafted most of my decorations (and will post about them all in the future!) My dad made the headboards for Christina and me so that we could be super-coordinated!

Here’s part of both of our sides! *Notice the coordinating “Keep Calm and Have Southern Charm/Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake” Posters!*

So YAY for updating alla my girlfriends at home on my NEW ROOM! 🙂 Look out for tons of DIY: Fabric Balls, Clothesline Picture Hangers, and Handpainted Sorority Canvas Plaques 🙂

always,
Chaney

 

Too much of “The Office”

Tonight, I’ve watched entirely too much of The Office…

It was playing quietly in the background while I productively read my two chapters of economics, while I fell asleep for twenty minutes on top of my covers, while I blow-dried my hair, and now it’s on while I’m typing this blog.

I could say that I’m drawn to The Office because of Michael Scott’s (Steve Carell) humor or Jim Harper’s (John Krasinski) dashing good looks, but I would be lying. I am simply in love with The Office because it reminds me of home.  More importantly, it reminds me of my very best friends in the whole world.

It takes me back to the backstage area of a dingy auditorium… stage right, I do believe? (Correct me if I’m wrong, Holley!), periods of lunch wasted watching episode after episode, the catchy intro and credit song playing and all of my best friends cozying up on One Act Play set pieces and broken auditorium seats saying “dude, what are we gonna do when we all go to college in different towns?”
That was never going to happen, as far as I was concerned.  It was inevitable, but we were suspended in an absolutely perfect time.  I suppose that’s arguable, but I’m almost sure that all of my friends will agree with me (with maybe the exception of one).  In this blog, I’m going to tell all of my “new college friends” about the best friends who have defined me since around 8th grade (some even before then), and just why they are worth missing every minute of every day.

Michael Nichols

photo courtesy of Shelby Taylor Photography

Status: The Boyfriend
How We Met: We were in band together from the sixth grade, but probably had our most memorable “first” conversation over the Steppenwolf song Magic Carpet Ride our seventh grade year.  I’d say we’ve been dang-near inseparable ever since. 
Most Known for: Musical Talent, Photography Capabilities, Computer/Technology Savvy, Creativity, Sense of Humor, the “smirk”, love of Metallica
What I Miss Most: Sitting next to him in every single class/lunch period, making bucket lists with him in Kilgore College dual credit classes, Having him help me on my calculus homework during music theory senior year, getting walked to class by him, “goodmorning” hugs, the smell of Nautica cologne, “chill” dates.

Holley Truitt Gee

Photo courtesy of Shelby Taylor Photography

Status: The sister, my “Thin-mint”
How We Met: A fuzzy time of the awkward middle school stages… Shelby, Holley, Lindsey Bryce, and I became inseparable by eighth grade.  When everyone else had the “clique 1-0” we had “PIC” (remember that, y’all?!)… It just kept going from there.  I was even the Maid of Honor in her wedding.
Most Known For: Artistic Capability, “Free-Spirited” Attitude, One Act Play Expert, Photography Skills, Wife of Gavin Gee, Animal Lover, The “Honk”
What I Miss Most: “Girl talks” about everything under the sun while we were locked in Mrs. Barnes room, getting submerged in her hugs (she’ll know what I mean), the “HONK”, hearing her call me “B”, her always having my back, seeing her every single day and still getting hugged like it had been a lifetime.

Shelby Taylor

Photo Courtesy of Shelby Taylor Photography

Status: The Bestie, The Redhead
How We Met: If you wanna take it way back, go to Mother’s Day Out Days… But honestly, we became besties back in 5th grade, Mrs. Lane’s Class, even closer in middle school, and it kind of just grew from there!
Most Known For: Being the Redhead, Musical skills/amazing voice, Photography skills, Being Inspirational, Creativity, Cooking Skills, Having the Best House to Hang Out At
What I Miss Most: Making jokes about the fake drug ring that the “redhead” sisters ran, hearing her sing and still being just as amazed every time, her incredible tales of Ike the Cat, slumber parties, her mother’s cooking, Mario WII parties, occasional “beep-boop” conversations.

 Noah Jackson

Photo courtesy of Shelby Taylor Photography

Status: The Asian
How We Met: Again, middle school band saxophone section… I have very fond memories of passing the 45 minute band period by playing rock-paper-scissors with him…
Most Known For: Being the Asian, Athletic Capability, Awesome-status in Basketball, Shared Love for Metallica with Michael, Labeling People as “Tools” at the Most Appropriate Times
What I Miss Most: Always getting made fun of for being “short/midget” by him (as much as I hate to admit it), hearing him say, “Get to the CHOPPAA!” in his Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, his random sense of humor.

Chase Eddington

Photo Courtesy of Shelby Taylor Photography

Status: The other Aaron (with the running joke of, “if Chaney and Chase got married, they’d have the same initials”)
How We Met: Somewhere between middle school/high school. My earliest memory of him is 8th grade Pre-AP English and singing that ridiculous “I’m Cryptozoic” song.
Most Known For: Sense of humor that most people didn’t understand, which made it even better, being the debate-kid, the lead male role in most of our One Act Plays, the guy that ate a Twinkie onstage for his talent at the Womanless Beauty Pageant
What I Miss Most: His random outbursts of dancing, having him disturb every single english class I have ever been in, seeing him harass Mr. Gatons.  

So, there you have it– the people that I graduated with that I miss so much every minute of every day.

Now that The Office officially off, and I’m officially tuckered, I’m going to actually sleep so that I can go be a college kid tomorrow.

Always,
Chaney

cravin’ home cookin’

It’s been awhile– and for good reason…
These past three weeks have been so extremely busy that I haven’t had time to do anything relaxing since I’ve gotten to College Station.
This weekend changed that, though! I finally got my much-anticipated beach day with Michael, and I’m back in my room from Galveston and he’s on his way back home (unfortunately)– but it was an absolutely perfect weekend 🙂 I can’t wait to blog about it soon!  Maybe when he gets some pictures up!

I was doing a bit of reminiscing just a bit ago, and thought of a particular weekend that I spent at home with my family and friends that makes me smile 🙂 I thought I would share it with you!

I discovered an amazing thing called pinterest through my bestie, Shelby, and I started using it religiously when I got my iPhone.  I started pinning everything from dream houses, favorite quotes, dream WEDDINGS, and FOOD. Lots and lots of food.

So before I got ready to move back to College Station, I wanted to have a cooking day to put my new pinterest recipes to the test!  So Texas Tech-bound Marie came over to assist me in my cooking, Mom, Dad, and Nina lent me the kitchen for the day, and over came Michael to be the true taste-tester!  He actually even helped me cook 🙂

With these recipes, you will see the link to the site that they came from, but also my little side note of what me and Marie changed about the recipe. We rarely followed the rules.

Tonight I’m just doing the main dishes. I’m saving the desserts for a later date, so stay tuned for Oreo Cream Cheese Brownies and Apple Braid recipes!  Here are my main dish recipes and some pictures to go along:

Main Course:
Baked Ziti Pasta from “The Girl Who Ate Everything”
Ingredients:
1 pound dry ziti pasta (we actually used a pasta that wasn’t “ziti”… but we   made sure it was still tubular shells.
1 onion, chopped (we actually used onion powder, and it still gave the same flavor)
1 pound Italian sausage or ground beef (we used ground beef)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons Italian seasonings
2 (26 oz) jars spaghetti sauce (we used 2 different flavors)
6 oz provolone cheese, sliced (9 rounds)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
grated Parmesan cheese

**we used about THREE times the amounts of cheese that this recipe called for, and it was absolutely delicious. I feel like there is NO such thing as a cheese overload in this recipe.

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes (or until Michael says, “it’s good, babe!”); drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion and sausage (or beef) over medium heat.  Add minced garlic and cook for a minute or so.  Add spaghetti sauce and Italian seasonings, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9×13 inch baking dish.  Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, 1/2 of the sauce mixture, provolone cheese, sour cream, remaining ziti, remaining sauce mixture, and then mozzarella cheese.  Top with grated parmesan cheese.
4.  Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.  You may want to cover it for the first 20 minutes with foil and then let the cheese melt and brown for the last 10 minutes.

My personal favorite, the BREAD:
Parmesan Bread Knots from “Real Mom Kitchen”
Ingredients:
1 tube (12 ounces) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (we got the super buttery Texas Style, and bought 2 tubes and doubled all of the following ingredients to make 2 batches)
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (the recipe online says you can use the canned kind, but we used a bag of the grated kind that we used with the pasta)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

Directions:
1. Roll each biscuit into a 12-in. rope and tie into knot; tuck ends under. (Michael helped me do this part. It really doesn’t matter how your knot looks, but it was really funny to watch him try to make the perfect bread knot!)
Place 2 in. apart on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; brush the warm knots with the mixture.

Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Always,
Chaney

Gamma Phi Beta House– 1st Night Experience

HOWDY,

I feel obligated to say this now that I’m back in Aggieland and well on my way to starting year #2 at Texas A&M University.  With 59 hours under my belt, I feel like I’ve finally gotten the hang of all of this college business, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for this year!
Saturday was the start of the official move in day for the AggieGammaPhi House, and I was pretty much here as soon as the doors opened!!!
After a lot of packing (both super-in-advance and super-last-minute)  I finally got mom’s tahoe and my mustang packed to the max. I almost sacrificed leaving one of the parents at home to get one more box… But I felt like I needed the extra man-power when toting all of the boxes upstairs. (which are only 17 now. Goodbye, Underwood 414’s 48 stairs!!!!!)

I can’t wait to blog about our NEW ROOM!!!! And give you the GRAND TOUR (via photo) of my new home-away-from-home. Look forward to that– it’ll be coming up this week!

But for now–I want to tell you about my FIRST NIGHT in the house with my supa-awesome-roomie: Christina Tharp 🙂

cloudy skies at HEB

We have our priorities straight, clearly. Decorate the room. Fazoli’s. HEB for groceries–  Our afternoon sky was filled with a very strange, dark covering… I almost remember something like this from my childhood. Clouds, maybe? And rain falls from them?! Crazy stuff.
Apparently it rained a lot in Colorado this summer, so Christina was unimpressed with the overcast.

Our kitchenette, which is available to us to cook pretty much whatever we want, is fairly limited- as in toaster oven, toaster, ice boxes, and microwave.
So, to Pinterest I go to find a good microwave cupcake recipe, and BAM, there it is. So we scurry around to find our easy set of ingredients:
Cake mix of your choice
(ingredients to prepare cake mix)
Water
Oil
Eggs
and that vanilla icing with those little sprinkles included. Ohhhh, yessss.

 

and the adventure begins!

notes from mom

Our house mom leaves us sweet notes. Like this one. We can’t say that we were never warned!

We realize pretty early on that we don’t have measuring cups. Or a mixer. Or even normal food containers/utensils.
So with a coffee cup that Shelby Taylor (whoop, shoutout, bestie!)  got me, a tupperware tub, and some creative thinking, we got to work.

 

With some plastic spoons and forks, we finally get our batter mixed to a questionably smooth consistency.
We followed the directions from the online recipe first- grease a coffee mug (we used butter), fill it about halfway full with batter, and microwave 2-3 minutes (we did a safe 2.5)
and this is what it looks like while it’s cookin’:

If you squint, you can see us admiring our creation, this large glob of cake rising out of this coffee mug. 2.5 minutes ended up being perfect!!
We took it out of the mug immediately and plopped it out onto a plate to cool.  I figured that cutting it in half made it look more like a cupcake.  We decided to get adventurous and fill our tupperware tub with batter, and microwave it for the same amount of time. This created small “cakes” that could be layered to make an adorable, bite-sized tier cake! Another house resident, Courtney, came along to help us eat everything that we cooked. Microwave cupcakes for the WIN!  Enjoy these pictures 🙂

always,
Chaney

if i could keep it to myself

I truly feel like I have been an awful blogger this summer, especially after I left my easy job behind the desk at my dad’s office and started my summer classes. (which end tomorrow, by the way)
I run out of time every day– between class consuming 7am (when I have to leave my house) to 3ish (when I usually get home), and seeing Michael/all of my friends before we all go our separate ways for college again (me being the first to leave– on Friday), and actually getting ready to go back… I just don’t have time to sit down and write, not even for my blog commitment that I have for sorority.
The good thing about all of this is that I already have so many ideas about what I’ll be writing come this fall when I get settled back into my dorm, for both my personal blog and the AggieGammaPhi Blog (which I would love for you to read!)

Today, I want to write about something that I love, dearly. And that I know all of my friends will truly appreciate.

photo taken by Michael Nichols

A few years ago– my junior year in high school (correct me if I’m wrong, guys!), I believe, Shelby Taylor told me about this amazing coffee shop in downtown Kilgore called “Goodday”… I hadn’t been much of a coffee-drinker before then. Not much of one at all, actually. Brandon Lummus took me to a Starbucks for the first time when I was in 8th grade, and I drank a white chocolate mocha. Although it was delicious, I wouldn’t go as far as saying it would have been included in my “I can’t live without this” list. 
I don’t really remember the transition between Goodday being the “new thing” to the “most-amazing-go-here-officially-our-spot-now” place… but it happened. I remember taking Michael, Holley, and Gavin there for the first time back during one of our KC breaks… Holley and Gavin weren’t even official then, I don’t think. And it blew up from there.
My latter high school memories are filled with thoughts of acoustic music, lattes and frappes, and the unmistakable smell of new books and coffee beans– most of the time scattered all between my emotional ups and downs. Go to Goodday to meet friends and make memories. Go to Goodday to be by myself and cry over my over-dramatic, seemingly awful high school life.   Go to Goodday to mend things and to recreate moments. Go to Goodday to bum off of their high speed internet and read. And write.

One pleasant night in September of my junior year, I let my best friend take my hand and walk with me under the derricks that line the streets of historic downtown Kilgore. I let him kiss me for the first time. And we finished off the night with the most amazing Death by Breve. I experienced the most perfect moment of my life, thus far.
That’s been almost 3 years, now… which have been filled with many more coffee-flavored kisses and hand-in-hand walks…

Goodday doesn’t feel so much like our secret anymore. The cozy chairs and checkerboards are gone, replaced with different furniture. The books have changed. The menu-boards have been updated. People come in and out to grab their coffees, but never seem to really sit down and appreciate the raw brick walls or the cracked cement floors. But, I’ll always think of it as mine. And if I could keep it to myself, I would. With the exception of my very best friends, of course.

I wrote a paper senior year about Goodday– a pretty descriptive, spot-on paper, if you ask me… I plan to find it and put it on my blog, eventually.

Goodday has seen my friends grow up–Cross into that stage of “branching out” and “finding ourselves”… It’s seen surprise parties and late-night study sessions and friendships take the turn to love stories. It’s been the backdrop of many pictures…. many, many pictures, and the base of many stories (Shelby Taylor wrote an excellent blog-post about Goodday some time ago, which I’m still trying to find).

So, as John Mayer’s voice echoes off the walls around me and the sun streams through the lofty spaces, I sit at Goodday Coffee & Books and spend my next-to-last day of my summer enjoying my blended Death by Breve and reminiscing on coffee-flavored kisses, memories of what used to be, the most amazing friends anyone could ever ask for– and my favorite place in the world, the building that brought them all together.

always,
Chaney

Soundtrack

There’s something about music that falls into the “coffeehouse” genre that makes my mind wander and race… and at the same time it feels like I’m not thinking about anything at all.
The kind of music that is full of soul, and the meaningful lyrics twist and become meaningless as they wash over you and become your life soundtrack. Where you read into the lyrics and interpret the song differently than the person next to you. Depending on your mood, you find yourself smiling or crying over the same song, time after time.
Music that can be considered folk and blues and acoustic all at the same time- the kind of music that plays in the back of my mind when I’m in a pleasant mood, or a bad mood, or when I’m drifting off to sleep.
And as lame as this may seem, I picture myself in my future Dallas studio apartment- I’ll even be bold and say New York instead- with the rain sliding down the windows and the sounds of these songs resonating off the walls.
Don’t get me wrong- I love country music, and the angry, get back at someone-type rock music, and the occasional inappropriate rap song that is fun to sing along with. But I’d like to think that this other genre is a bit less discovered. Not mainstream by any means, but my little secret. Secret like the corner coffee shop that faithfully plays their albums.
And in my mind I have this ultimate playlist that encompasses every aspect of this perfect genre, but I’m too afraid to share it in it’s entirety because I like that it’s mine… I like to know that if my life were every interesting enough to have a movie made about it, that I could confidently name each song that I would want to represent each phase/event.
My list grows daily. A lot of it thanks to Michael. Some of it thanks to sirius acoustic coffeehouse radio, and another portion thanks to pandora and old limewire finds (before limewire was awful).
One day I hope to share this ultimate playlist– maybe while I’m blogging from my Italian leather sofa in my New York City high-rise studio apartment eating Chinese takeout.

Or maybe I finished reading “Something Borrowed” today and am a little obsessed with the idea of small-town girl gone big deal. Either way.

always,
Chaney

for lack of a better title.

I’m pretty sure it’s been 2 weeks since my last blog… and a lot of semi-exciting things have been going on lately, so I guess it’s only appropriate to update on my summer a bit– and I have some exciting news about another blog at the end, so just wait up for that part. I think it’ll be worth it!

First, I finally got my beach-fix in! My family and I+Marie had a lovely time at Padre Island, I was finally reunited with my ex college roomie, Eileen, and I finally got the summer tan that I’ve been waiting for! It was everything that I was looking forward to! 🙂 So here’s some pictures from that. I edited everything with picnik!:

Day 1  in Padre was spent grocery shopping and car unloading and all that good stuff, so I have no pictures worth posting to document that day, really. There are a few on my facebook, though! Day 2 was spent at the beach right in front of our condo.

After we twice baked, we got cleaned up and ready for dinner. My parents went to Mustang Island and Port Aransas for dinner and Marie and I met up with Eileen and her friend Kammie for the night.

I woke up early on Day 3 to watch the sunrise with dad. He was definitely the only one awake. This is the only picture I didn’t edit (minus the vignette option so it would look framed)For the rest of day 3, we spent our time on the Padre Island National Shoreline, which was pretty nice! The tides were fairly high the whole time we were down there, but out a little ways in the water was this massive old tree that had washed up. It looked like it was growing right in the middle of the ocean! I got some better shots of it, but have no way of getting them on my work computer right now, so this will have to do!  
Day 3 was also mine and Michael’s official 1.5 year anniversary, and I missed him a lot…

Day 3 also got me extremely sunburned… which led to not so much sun activity later in the afternoon…. We went souvenier shopping and to a nice seafood restaurant, where I managed to accidentally capture this moment… and now it’s my favorite picture of our whole trip. Oh, and ask Marie about her one-man-band lover.

By the morning of day 4, I couldn’t stand the feel of the sun on my shoulders, so we went and did some sightseeing! Here are a few aquarium shots:

If you know me, you may or may not know that sea creatures and the thought of the ocean kind of freaks me out… but I think sea critters are super amazing. And I took an oceanography lab in the spring and actually put some of that knowledge to use!
 After our aquarium adventures, we finally got around to taking pictures on the beach like mom had been wanting to do. This is my favorite 🙂
I bought dad this hat for father’s day and he wore the mess out of it the entire week. I thought we looked cute in our little sunhats, here.

Late that afternoon, we went fishing– kind of a Padre tradition that we have! It was defintely the perfect end to the perfect vacation.

Friday was set aside for the reuniting with the boyfriend. My 4 day vacation is the longest I’ve gone without seeing him all summer– I don’t mind that at all considering that Fall semester is looming here lately. Kevin had just gotten back from some Army Reserves training stuff (correct me if I’m wrong, Michael) and we had a lovely dinner with him, Lindsay, and Michael’s parents. And later I got to hang out with Jennifer and Abby! I even drooled over the main character of Sons of Anarchy with Jennifer. Here, drool over “Jax” or Charlie Hunnam. He’s attractive.

Another random thing worth posting about is the book that I read while we were in Padre. Now my favorite book. EVER.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

I wanted to read the book before I went to see the movie, and never got around to the book while it was still showing in theaters. I absolutely loved it! Now let’s just hope the movie doesn’t disappoint.

In case you didn’t know, it’s hot out, and Six Flags Over Texas is the place to go if you want to spend a day in the sweltering heat. Saturday after our vacation, my group of lovely friends formally celebrated Michael’s 19th birthday with an extremely eventful trip to Arlington! Shout out to my boyfriend, who is now the same age as me for  about 3 months! Enjoy these photos:

YAY! I stole this from Shelby’s facebook.

5 deep in a log flume was the best plan ever.

…and again.

So, seeing as this blog is starting to turn into a photo-blog and those weren’t my intentions, I’ll go ahead and tell you the news:
If you don’t know, I’m in a sorority at Texas A&M University– Gamma Phi Beta. And recently an official blog was started for our chapter and I’ve been asked to do the writing for it! YAY! They practically set up the page for me and all that good stuff and all I have to do is write! I probably won’t get started until after my little recruitment workshop that I will be attending this weekend, but I’m really excited about it. So, even if you don’t go to A&M or if you’re not in my sorority (I’m mostly talking to my friends back at home), I’d really like you to read every now and then…. It’ll be cool for y’all to kind of see what my organization is like! Here’s the link and some information! I can’t take any credit for what’s on there now, because, like I said, I haven’t even written my first post yet. I’ll keep you updated on what that experience is like, though!

http://aggie-gammaphibeta.blogspot.com/

This week so far has not been my favorite– so here’s to hoping that Friday brings something exciting.

always,
Chaney