Senior Ball And Sunburns!!

Hey everyone!!!! :)
I just had my Senior Ball!!!! And I have some pictures to share with all of you :) :)
It was so much fun, and so much better than last year :)
So, instead of being in a tent sorta thingy on Treasure Island like last year, it was at a top floor penthouse at the Metreon in San Fransciso!!!! So much FUN!!!
Now, I could show you all what my dress looked like instead of just the design like I did a few blog posts ago :)
Oh, and you wanna know how we got there????? My date, my sister, her date, and a couple other friends, all met up at another friend's house to meet up with about 42 more people to get on one of THE biggest party buses I've EVER SEEN!!!!  :) Totally cool :) Haha.
Ok, I'll get on with the picture sharing :D

Best Picture Of My Dress :) You all remember my valentine, Andrew right? :)

View from the top of the Metreon

(left to right) Jesse, Mary (J.B.), Tyler, Mikayla, Andrew, and Me! :)

This is one of my most favorite photos of the night :)

Sorry it's kind of blurry :) but we're standing in front of the bus in this pic :) Andrew had to hold my purse because the chain kept getting caught in on my dress hahaha

Now, I don't have the official Ball pictures yet :) but I should be recieving them soon which I'm really excited for :) There are other pictures I'd like to post as well but I have to scan them into the computer still. :) haha.

Onward to the SUNBURN explanations....
well, it's kinda embarassing, but I blame it on the really old SPF 30 sunscreen we were all using hahaha.
Monday, was kind of a national holiday for the Seniors in my high school, *cough cough* Senior Ditch Day *cough cough*
DON'T WORRY!!! I turned in all of the assignments that were due that day a week before it was due. :) I'm still a good student.
Anywho!!! Andrew and I came up with this wonderful idea that we should take Mikayla, Tyler, Mary, and Jesse, to Santa Cruz so that we could all hang out on the beach :) Cool idea right??? It was a Monday so who would really be hanging out at the beach. I'll tell ya, not many people :)
So, we started off the morning early, just like we were getting ready to go to school, then Andrew came by the house to come pick up me and Mary, then we drove over to Jesse's house were we all drove over to Denny's BECAUSE they're having this really cool thing were you "Build your own Pancakes". Oh yeah :) It's just as wonderful as it sounds :). Not the most healthy breakfast though hahaha. :)
Unfortunately, Tyler and Mikayla couldn't come with us because Tyler had to go to first and third period (monday schedual is 1,3,2,4,5,6) for an in-class essay assignment. But Mary, Jesse, Andrew, and I had fun pigging out :)

 

So, :) at about 10 a.m. we all met up at Jesse's house again and OFF WE WENT to Santa Cruz!!!!
It was really funny when we got there though because we had to park by a parking meter and every dollar was about 40 minutes so we put like four dollars worth of quarters in and started to walk down the street when we found a change machine! So, we all thought "How handy?" and put in a dollar expecting four quarters to come out. NOPE. Instead, one coin came out, and it was a dollar coin! HAHAHAHA!
We didn't read the bold letters on the machine that said "change exchange for dollar coins only" hahahah!!
Luckily though, the meter took it as an actual dollar amount.
And with that situation fixed up and a little more than five hours on the meter, we set out for the beach with our coolers full of flavored waters and sandwiches!
Now, like I said, we were only armed with this really thick, old, SPF 30 sunscreen.... and we weren't to religious about putting it on every hour and a half hahahah. Our fault. The result of about 5 hours in the sun was really bad sun burns on all of our backs (except for Tyler), and even worse sun burns on mine and Mikayla's behinds. O_O I was completely unaware that a bottom could be sunburned!!! Please don't ask me why, but I just didn't think it was possible haha. I'm dreading the day that that particular sun burn starts to itch. That'll be very lady like of me.
:) Bottom line of this whole past weekend??? SUPER AMOUNTS OF FUN!!!!!!! :)

AND just for a good spot of randomness, I just happened to be scrolling through the t.v. channels when I ran across my most FAVORITE episode of The Big Bang Theory, but only because Sheldon says my most favorite thing ever! So I typed down the quote word for word (minor typo in it that I noticed after I created the image, supposed to be "brought you five", not "brought you a five") and put it together with a picture of a disappointed Sheldon. :) So here you all go :)

HAHAHA I love Sheldon!
BAZINGA! :)
Be safe everyone!!!
<3 Patricia Carrigan

 

Awesome surprises, ball dresses, and... more dresses :)

Hey everyone!
Haha, I had the hardest time finding my computer this morning so I could do this post. :) I felt like a dummie when I finally found it. I apparently fell asleep with it on my bed last night and it was next to me the whole time. Haha!
But now, I am back again to tell you how my week has been :)
I've told a few people on twitter that my special someone and his friend were planning a surprise for me and a friend of mine on Saturday :)
Well, they planned a very wonderful surprise :), Mikayla and I showed up at Tyler's house were we noticed that the big red truck had bikes piled into the back and they took Mikayla and I to the Marina for a bike ride and a cute little picnic down over by the water. :) It was adorable. The spot where we ate had "the carcass of a small cargo boat that went from australia to china and back" or something like that :) haha.
Don't worry I took pictures:

Andddd! as you all know, I am a senior in high school which means.... I WENT BALL DRESS SHOPPING :)
and I found the perfect dress. :) i love it.
Unfortunately, I cannot post a picture of it, just in case my date sees it. BUT I can post a pic of the design. Haha, it's not much but I could tell you that I really can't wait until I could wear it. Oh! And I definately cannot wait until I could shop for the shoes to go with it! Yay!

And, as for the "and more dresses" part of the title, it is "Dresses Theme" Weekend at A'GACI, so I bought a new dress and blazer yesterday that I wore, and I could easily say that it is my new favorite dress, (other than my ball dress) haha. But today I'm just wearing a skirt and blazer. I'm not buying another dress for work haha.

Oh! and be sure to check out Foghat's new tour dates! Try and find one closest to your area and go see them! I know I will! :)

Be Safe and Have Fun everyone!!!

<3 Patricia Carrigan

80s Dress Up, Haunted Hotels, Adventures, Clay, and Lovely Surprises!

Heyyyyy :)
Sorry for such a long time in between posts :) I've been a busy bee.
But! I do have a few interesting stories for all of you readers :)

First off! My dad and I have officially purchased a small propane tank, the thingy that you screw onto the top of it to help shoot out a flame, a thingy that makes sparks (I could light the sucker), and a pair of safety goggles. :) "What for?" You ask?
Well that's a wonderful question! We have purchased these items because I am going to be making glass beads and necklace pendants at home. :) No worries! I know what I'm doing!
I have four years of glass experience and 3 years of bead making experience!
Unfortunately, I have not been able to purchase ALL of the supplies that I need for this hobby.
I already have the glass rods to make the beads/pendants, spaghetti rods (really skinny glass rods) to decorate them with, and all of the other stuff listed above, BUT I still need the Sludge (a.k.a. bead enamel..... the stuff that prevents the molten glass from sticking to the metal rods), I also need the metal rods, and then the soft insulation stuff that the glass rests in while cooling.
So! That means, I am making a trip to this really cool glass place over in Berkeley called The Stained Glass Garden and picking up all of the things I need :)

Next! I recieved a wonderful Valentine from someone very special. :) I found it on my front porch waiting for me after dropping off my sister with my mom. :) Here's a pic:

I had my older brother put his hand next to it to show how big it is.... haha :) It's quite large to be honest. And full of sugar! So. Hard. To. Resist.
And what makes it harder to resist is that it's sitting in my room with me, *looks over and eyes giant shiny heart*, No, I musn't. Anywho, it is up here with me because I told my family that they could have a piece whenever, as long as they ask first. :/ pieces started disappearing so I decided to hold it hostage :D

But! I have an awesome picture of me and my most favorite peoples with me (my valentine included)

(left to right) Mikayla, Tyler, Andrew :), and Me!

That picture was actually taken at Tyler's (first guy on the left) wrestling match. :) He got third place but wrestled like a winner :D I took a really awesome picture of him in action.

He's the guy on top :)

They've been keeping me out and about whenever they get the chance, and I completely thank them because I find that having a social life inbetween writing, twitter, linkedin, facebook, google+, and my part-time job at A'GACI,is a really good and fun thing to have! Haha.

And speaking of A'GACI, it has been decided that we are now going to have themed weekends and this weekend iiiiiiisssssss *drumroll* 80S THEMED. Yes.... we all have to dress up in 80's style clothing.
I, luckily, have mine all planned out and will.... reluctantly, post up some peppy pictures of my carefully planned 80's outfit hahaha. Some of my coworkers and I found it a lot harder to find an outfit than we originally thought, so much so that we had to look up "80's clothing styles" on google.

What else was there to tell you all... hmmmmmmmm. Oh, yes! The HAUNTED HOTEL!
Remember a few months back when I mentioned going trying to go to a bridge haunted by a dead witch?? Yeah? Maybe? Well, all of that goes out the window when I say, I WENT TO A HAUNTED HOTEL.
I was super excited to go out with a few of my friends (Mikayla, Tyler, Andrew :), Carl, and Deshawn). We all decided to go Sunday night after I got off of work which was at 8:30.
I decided to ask Mikayla to come and give me a ride home (considering she was already on her way over to my house with Tyler), so we got home when Tyler decided he needed to talk to Mikayla, which left me walking up to my house by my lonesome. But just as I get to the beginning of the pathway that turns up to my front door, I notice Carl, kneeling in the bushes, recording on his phone.
Weird right? Of course, my automatic response is to ask him what the heck he was doing, to which he replied, "I'm just, recording this beautiful night."
That just made me a tid-bit confused so I carefully stick my head around the corner of the house to see Andrew, down on one knee, holding a bouquet of roses. :D *blush* Needless to say, I said "Yes." to his very special question. :D

Aren't they so pretty?!

Haha, :) it was a great way to start off the night, ANYWHO! After I changed into the appropriate adventure clothing (tennis shoes, jeans, hoodie, and a leather jacket for even more warmth), we were all off to be spooked!
It took about an hour or so to get there haha but once we did we had to walk a really long ways down this dirth road that was oober dark (we didn't have our flashlight on so that we didn't call attention to ourselves). Luckily, the cow dung on the road was darker so we could easily walk around them.
We must have gotten half way down the dirt road when we all noticed a couple (with their flashlights on) coming down the road toward us. So what do we do? We go into STEALTH MODE and hop the barbed wire to our side and scrambled up the hill to spy from a safe distance.
It was kind of a big hill with a pretty view acutally, haha. But it took about five minutes before the couple got in plain view of us. We were all laying on our backs... trying to blend in I guess.
Andrew and I started howling. (my howling was really bad considering I had lost my voice a few days prior), but the couple turned and shined their light on us. But I'm guessing they only saw Andrew and I  because they seemed really spooked when they saw Tyler, Deeshawn, Mikayla, and Carl get up to chase them, howling and growling.
Hahahaha. It was funny to see.
After that interesting event, we started back down the dirt road to lead on to the hotel. Originally, I was going to take a picture of the hotel with the night vision on my cell phone, but there were two problems that prevented me from such actions, 1, the flash on my night vision only reaches about a maximum of 4 1/2 feet, and 2, my phone was dying and wouldn't allow me to get to my camera.
Totally unfair, but I could tell you firsthand that this place was creepy and very intimidating to even walk up to.
It is surrounded by palm trees that were swaying and rustling in the breeze and all of the windows and doors were gone.
The place was basically rubble all on the inside with rusty cables sticking out everywhere and dirt covering everything. There were 3 floors and the stairs were totally creepy and sketchy.
To be honest, I don't think I would have gone into the place if the floors were made of wood because I would have thought that we were all going to fall through. And that's just not an option to me. But this place was all cement and the whole time I was in there and walking down the narrow hallways, I just kept thinking of all the scary shows I watch were there's someTHING in the doorway that you pass just staring at you. Goosebumps were present!
Haha. Don't worry, I stayed safe and kept away from the gaping holes in the walls where the windows used to be. :)
Rumor has it that the man who owns the property will fire off a few warning shots at people who go there. And I have to admit that I was super weary about that just in case it was true; it kept us from wandering too far around the place. haha!.
But all in all, I really liked the place even though I ended up slipping down the last couple of steps to what used to be the main floor. I caught myself :) but followed it up with a "It felt like I was pushed!"
I'm a little jokester :))

Anyways, that is pretty much it for my scary adventure. Other than that, the next day, Andrew :P, Carl, and I, went up to the national park down the street and ACCIDENTLY went on a 3 hour hike.
I say accidently because we didn't have any water with us or any other source of hiking gear that you might like to have with you.
All we had was a box of Gobstoppers and our sense of adventure. WOO! :)
By the time we got back home, we were dying for water and had to get ready for work hahaha.
We did, however, manage to find a lot of beautiful places there and are planning to go back to discover some more.
One of the places we found was what my brother describes as a "Thinking Maze" (something along those lines), where if you have a problem that's bugging you, you start walking the maze in the circle while thinking of your problem, and by the time you reach the center, you find your solution. :) pretty cool.

And I have finished working on my new ceramics project which is a Lidded Container, all that it needs now is to be bisque fired and then glazed, then fired again, and then I could finish painting it the way I want :) but for now I'll show you how it looks at the present moment.

I've been working on it for a couple weeks. :) adding feet on the bottom gives me extra credit.

Well! That's all I have for you awesome readers. That's all for now, that is :)
I'll be back to update you guys some more.

Be safe and awesome!!!
<3 Patricia Carrigan

I am now.... wait for ittttt.....

I am now a student ambassador!!!!! People to people accepted me and a girl that I met who was interviewed with me, her name is Melanie and after hearing that I am really into writing and am a published author she told me that she wants to be an author too :) yay! I hope she does because I think it's really fun to do haha.
Anywhooooooo, :) I really like my group leader, she seems really nice. I also found out that my group leader used to do Drill Team as well :)
If you don't know what drill team is, please, do not think of a military colorguard. I am talking about a type of dance group that does a variety of dance routines. :) I found it to be really fun. My drill team did a military routine, kickline, lyrical, bellydance, prop/novelty (our theme was aliens hahahaha O_o), and then just a 'dance' routine that was mainly for the captain, co-captain, 1st and 2nd lutenents, and some of the older dancers. haha. oh well. but yes! it was so much fun.

I can't really remember if I told you guys that I was originally a dancer. :) I started cheerleading when I was five, and continued with cheerleading until my 6th grade year when I tried out for the school's drill team, I also did basic ballet that year, afterwards, I moved my 7th grade year to the bay area and into my 8th grade year I joined a new cheerleading squad where my twin and I were two of the 3 fliers :)
Being a flier is fun, but can be very VERY painful :)
But after my 8th grade year, my sister and I stopped cheerleading and did something completely random.... We joined roller hockey... on a boys hockey league with one of our other friends. hahah. Very random. I know.

Okay, now that I'm done with my tangent.
I can't lie, I was very nervous with my interview because I knew they were only accepting 20 more people into the program. I swear the whole time I was hidding jitters. BUT DON'T WORRY!
I was smiling the whole time!
And afterwards I couldn't STOP smiling! I was so happy!
That is until my mom mentioned, "You realized you just signed all of your money away right??"
Haha, jk, I was still smiling.
Who wouldn't be? I'M GOING TO EUROPE!!!!!

I swear its a dream come true.
I just hope I could meet some of you wonderful people while I'm there. :) I'll be with the group of other people exploring the place hahahahahhaha. :)

Well, I hope all of you guys enjoyed your weekend :) I know I did!!!!!

<3 You all!!!

Patricia Carrigan

Guess What!!! Meaningful Rambles!

Okay, FIRST OFF, if you didn't see this video, I suggest you see it right now :) Larry said something, I said something, he said something, I sent something, and the ending result is, A Man... And His Man Rug.... A nice.... Gold.... Shiny... Mullet.
Watch O_O

Did I mention the video was ALSO INSPIRATIONAL??? *Punches hands up in the air in celebration* Raise the roof!

HUGE THANK YOU TO MY GOOD BUDDY 'OL PAL LARRY HOCHMAN FOR BEING A MAN WHO IS DEFINATELY TRUE TO YOUR WORD.

Onward with the rest of the message!

Yes, I bet you all are thinking "Of course it's the new year!" :) But still! It's wonderful.
Anyways, I wanted to tell you all that I recieved a Writer's Digest Magazine in the mail and I read over a few articles that I happened to really like :)
*grabs Writer's Digest from her side*
So, if you're a paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy writer, *flips through a few pages*, I strongly suggest that you give this article a good read, *finally finds the right page*, I couldn't help but giggle my way through it.
It's called 4 Rules for Sci-fi & Fantasy Protagonists by Steven Harper.

I have to be honest, I loved it!
It's a really informational but up beat article that I think a lot of you peoples would like a lot AND it keeps you interested. How great is that???

Well, it's not really an article. It's an excerpt! Haha. I was happy to find that out too because I think I just might go out and buy the book just to see what else he wrote. *does the 'happy dance' for emphasis*. The book is called Writing the Paranormal Novel.
READ the excerpt.
And if you like it.
READ some more! :)


Anywho!!!!! As some of you may know, I just recently had my 18th birthday!!! (January 2nd). That's right! I was ALMOST a new year's baby BUT I was stubborn and decided to stay in the womb ONE more day. I Love My Mommy THAT much! Hahaha. But I still think that having my birthday be the SECOND (literally) day of the year is a great way to start things off. Especially now that I've reached adulthood.... age-wise I mean. :) I got my career started pretty early hahahaha. That's not a bad thing though, I love that I started it so early because I feel like I've met so many wonderful people because of it. :) That's right... I'm talkin' about all of you guys hahhahahha! *HUGS!*

Did you get the virtual hug? No? Maybe? :D It was worth a try.

Bottom line is that I'm trying to say (in my own rambling way) is that the past year of marketing my book and connecting with so many wonderful people on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, is so incredible and unbelievable, that I just wanted to say THANK YOU for supporting me or just being a good friend.

I hope that this is just as awesome (or maybe) better for everyone.

<3 you all!

Be safe!

Patricia Carrigan

Merry Christmas!! And Happy Jellybeans!!!

Jellybeans?? You ask???
Well, I just happen to be sitting here with a small back of jellybeans that were given to me by Santa :)
.... I just wish there weren't any black licorice jellybeans... blech!
I also cannot decide whether or not I enjoy the toasted marshmallow jellybean.
Don't worry, :) I eat them anyways :))

Anywhooo!!!! I hope all of you people had a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic and merry Christmas!!! I know I did!
Thank You to everyone who wished me a Merry Christmas!

But!!! A new and fabulous year is to come! So get ready everyone and whip out those New Years Resolutions! It's time to promise yourself ANYTHING for a whole year!
I managed to keep my grades up like I promised to myself. I hope your old resolutions were conquerable as well.

Blech!!! I keep grabbing a black licorice jelly bean! If only it were a red licorice :))) particularly a pull-and-peel one :)) then I'd eat it.
Shhhh.... I'm an inner food junkie. BUT ONLY ON THE HOLIDAYS!!!...... and whenever I have a hankering for marshmallow popcorn... BUT WHO'S KEEPING COUNT! :D I know I'm not. Sorta. Haha.

Don't worry. I do try and stay healthy as much as I can. I even stopped drinking soda in July :).

Okay people!!! I am quite LITERALLY about four chapters away from finishing Part II of Antiserum! I'm excited! I hope you are too!!!

Now! Go get a-munchin' on some of those Christmas Cookies before I get to them first!!!

Be Safe!
<3Patricia Carrigan

HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON EVERYONE!!!
I love the holiday season :)
Although, it seems like one of my neighbors is trying to compete... light wise. haha. It's really funny because where I grew up, the streets would be shut down because so many people would be walking around looking at the Christmas Lights :) it's my favorite part.
But, when we moved up to the bay area... let's just say that my neighborhood (except for a select few) doesn't dress up their houses as much :). So in return my family and I always do our best to light up our house. And usually a handful of other neighbors dressed up their houses in their usual way but THIS year, when we added a few more strings of lights around our yard, the other neighbor added twice as many lights than they originally had AND an inflatable snow globe!!!!!
There are so many more lights on between our two houses that our newest neighbors across the street was joking about how they had to get in on the competition. Haha. :)
Unfortunately, our own inflatable snowglobe with the cute little penguin on the inside "broke"... or that's what my sister told me. I personally think that she wants a new one. But I say, "The more the MERRIER!"
Haha... Christmas Pun.

Anywhooooo, next Wednesday, my school hosts a Winter Festival... aka WinterFest. And the choir, the band, and the art class, glass class, and the ceramics class, all display what they could do :)
Guess who has some stuff going on display :)
I DO!
For glass, I made a dream catcher :))))

The whole top part and the feathers are made of clear glass and decorated with glass spaghetti rods.

I will show you the finished product of my ceramic piece which is the Secret Container. Haha I made a big 'ol penguin with little fat rolls over his toes and a beanie. The secret conainer part of it is that it's head comes off and you could put stuff in his body :D it's so cute but it will be done by next week. I'll take a picture of it then and post it :)
Oh! Speaking of my penguin, when you're glazing, you can't get any glaze on the bottom of it or else it will get stuck on the kiln shelf and that's a big no no. So I was scrubbing the booty of my penguin when I suddenly get a phone call, now don't get all upset because I answered it in class, don't worry, my teacher said that she understands if people have to take a phone call if it's work, family emergency, etc. Now, because I get different phone calls from Trafford, I can't always save the different numbers that they use all the time. This phone call (I at first thought) could be just like the last so I answered and MY GOODNESS, I was surprised! It was actually someone from the college that I REALLY want to go to! And apparently, a couple weeks ago, when I went to the meeting for the college at my school, the lady I was speaking to told someone else and now they invited me to go to a dinner that they're hosting next week!!!!
I'm so happy about it!!!! yay!

Haha. Other than that, I've been working at A'GACI and writing away, as well as working on homework and coming up with more glass projects AND perfecting the art of throwing a pot. I think I got the hang of it now. :D If you haven't tried it, then I must say, it's a lot harder than it looks :)))))

Anywayyyyysssssss, I once again say, HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ME AND THE REST OF THE CARRIGAN FAMILY!!!

Oh!!! and guess what!!! NOT ONLY is Christmas in about two weeks but guess what is 7 days after it????? MY BIRTHDAYYYYY!!!!!!! That's right, January 2 is my birthday, as well as my twin's birthday. :D

Alrighty, I WILL post again soon!!!

Be Safe and Cheery!!
<3 Patricia Carrigan