~REALISTIC~ RESOLUTIONS

Hey what's up you guys. Sorry I never actually did #BLOGMAS. Here's what happened: during finals week, I couldn't update cause I was too busy studying. During winter break, I couldn't update cause I was too busy relaxing. Y'all know how that goes. But here we are, a new year. ICYMI, I turned 20 on Wednesday and ICYMI again, I absolutely hate New Years resolutions. Instead, I do birthday resolutions. But my birthday is two days before the new year so it ends up basically being New Years resolutions. WHATEVERRRR. But, I'm back on my blog right now to give you my list of BDAY RESOLUTIONS. This year I really made an effort to make resolutions that I'll actually keep beyond January 2nd. So here it is.

1. Only use the purple heart emoji (unless I'm talking about BYU sports in which case it is acceptable to use the blue heart emoji)

2. pack a lunch everyday (aka no more great harvest everyday lol)

3. branch out on types of noodles I make (not just spaghetti, but elbow, rigatoni, penne, etc..)

4. finish all of the books I started in 2015 (so like 24)

5. be more active (on social media)

6. put my phone away when I'm at dinner or lunch w/ someone (but leave the ringer on, just in case)

7. finish criminal minds

8. start + finish another really long, intense crime drama that gives me nightmares

9. rewatch criminal minds

10. make a master list of good TV shows so when people ask for recommendations, I'm prepared

11. use my planner (I have a really cute one for 2016, so I'll definitely use it more than once every 3 weeks like last year)

12. say yes to fun things

13. but also say no to fun things if I don't want to do them

14. 25 squats a day every day no questions asked

15. put myself first (I already do this, it just felt right to put this on my list again)

16. create an instagram theme and frickin stick with it

17. compliment other people more

18. also compliment myself more

19. snuggle with a puppy once a month

20. go to bed BEFORE midnight on school nights (maybe we'll see)

21. less swig, more sodalicious

XOXO,

gabs.

I SURVIVED | BLOGMAS DAY 9

^^^^ ME RN ^^^^

Guys, in the past 24 hours I have written 12.5 papers. I'm almost done with the last paper of my marathon from hell night of homework. My brain is mush. My eyes are bloodshot. My fingers can't even type words properly anymore (this is taking painful concentration to make sure I spell nothing wrong). I almost fell down the RB death stairs because I closed my eyes and got lightheaded and lost my balance. Am I even a human being anymore? I'm not sure. Pray for me. I love Fetty Wap also I ordered the Rap Year Book last night in my drunk-on-caffeine induced haze. It looks frickin hilarious (thanks @blymanwarrior for the recommendation). I can't wait to get it and read all about the moost prominent and influential rap song of each year. I'm pretty typed out at this point, so I'm gonna go finish that last .5 of a paper (it's on saving the whales) and then close my eyes for a half a second before I have class and then work. Don't worry though, I have absolutely no plans tomorrow except for the plans I have made to stay in bed all day. CAN'T WAIT. Criminal Minds.......here I come. 

XOXO,

gabs.

MY WILL | BLOGMAS DAY 8

Hey guys! Taking a quick little break to let you all know that I'm alive and probably will not be alive tomorrow. I got a cute lil email from my TA at 3 today saying that all the assignments that previously thought were due on Friday are actually all due tomorrow which means all nighter for meeeeee! I'm doing mad work tho, cranking out these papers like it's my frickin day job. But just in case I don't make it out of this night alive, here's my will:

My money - there's none of it, so it goes to no one.
My clothes - try to sell them on eBay like the Kardashian's do with all of their old clothes. When that doesn't work, give them to Plato's Closet so I have at least a little bit of money to give to my parents from the grave. My sisters/close friends are allowed to pick 5 items each before this happens.
My shoes - separate from my clothes, for SURE. Bury me with my shoes. THX.
My social media accounts - the passwords are mine & mine alone, but please don't do that lame thing where you report me as dead so my account gets taken down. Leave my social accounts up so people can scroll through & remember me for the hilarious pop culture icon that I am. Also make sure to go back and RT my old tweets at random times. Thanks guys.
My Spotify playlists - once again, don't touch these babies. Make sure to archive them and then go back and listen to them every once in a while in my memory. My ghost will come jam with you.
My signed copy of Selfish by Kim Kardashian - bury me with this also.
My books - give 'em to my mom cause I mark them up like crazy and I think she'd like that.
The pan of fudge on my counter - give it out to people on campus outside of the library because my fudge is frickin' fantastic. Don't give any to my game night friends because they didn't appreciate my fudge while I was alive so they don't get to enjoy it while I'm dead.
The expired gallon of milk in my fridge - mail it to my enemies.
My phone/iPad/laptop/etc.. - destroy them. No one can see the screenshots I have.

K THAT'S LITERALLY ALL THAT I OWN, SO THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR HONORING MY REQUESTS. LOVE YOU GUYS. MAKE SURE TO USE MY BEST SELFIE AS MY OBITUARY PICTURE.

XOXO,

gabs. 

SPOTIFY YEAR IN REVIEW | BLOGMAS DAY 7

I missed yesterday but sometimes bad things happen to good people and it's how we get through those challenges that define us as people. 

Today I got my Spotify Year In Review music analytics, so I thought I'd share with you guys what I learned from that. Some of these will be surprising, some will be not surprising at all. 

The first song I listened to in 2015 was How To Be A Heartbreaker by Marina & The Diamonds. Obviously I learned nothing because all of 2015 was very #single.

My most listened to artists were: (1) Halsey, (2) Kanye West, (3) Big Sean, (4) Rihanna, and (5) Shawn Mendes. Kind of surprised about the Rihanna one, but then again I listened to American Oxygen on repeat for like 3 weeks when it came out, so not really surprised I guess.

My most listened to albums were: (1) Dark Sky Paradise by Big Sean, (2) Handwritten by Shawn Mendes, (3) BADLANDS by Halsey, (4) BEYONCÉ (Platinum Edition) by Beyoncé, and (5) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. All of these are phenomenal albums.

My most listened to tracks were: (1) Monster by Kanye West (guys I can rap this like nobody's business), (2) Ugly Heart by G.R.L., (3) The GRAMMY NOMINATED (!!!) Back to Back by Drake, (4) Bad Intentions by Niykee Heaton, (5) Feeling Myself by Nicki Minaj ft. Beyoncé

My top genres were: (1) Pop, (2) Dance Pop, (3) Pop Rap, (4) Indie R&B, (5) Hip Hop. Not many surprises there lol.

My top 3 listened to artists of each season are as follows:

Winter - Kanye West, Halsey, Avril Lavigne (LOL angsty phase maybe??).

Spring - Kanye West, Big Sean, Shawn Mendes.

Summer - Rihanna, Halsey, Big Sean.

Fall - Halsey, Drake, Shawn Mendes.

I listened to 739 different artists. 

I listened to 2,378 different songs.

I listened to 46000 minutes of music. 769 hours of music. 32 STRAIGHT DAYS OF MUSIC. Can't wait to break that record next year. 

XOXO,

gabs.

JUST A LIL QUOTE | BLOGMAS DAY 5

"It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined."

- John Green, Paper Towns

XOXO,

gabs.

WATER | BLOGMAS DAY 4

Once again this is gonna be a quick lil post. I talked about this last year on my blog, I don't like the concept of New Years resolutions, I think it's dumb to wait til the beginning of year to change something about yourself. I am, however, a huge believer in birthday resolutions. You grow a year older, your goals and motivations grow a year wiser. Unfortunately for me, my birthday is December 30th aka right before the new year, so my resolutions are basically new years resolutions. Meh. Still counts as birthday resolutions. ANYWAYS, this year one of my birthday resolutions (cause I plan them far in advance, I take them very seriously) is to drink 2 quarts of water every day, which is a LOT but it's how much you should be drinking you guys!!! In order to accomplish this goal of mine, I bought a quart smart water bottle. This thing is HUGE you guys.

The past few days I've only drank half of one bottle (so basically 1/4 of what my goal is to be drinking) and it's definitely way harder than I was expecting! This will be an interesting goal to accomplish hahaha I'll keep y'all updated on my daily water intake. The purpose of this post is to remind you guys that drinking water is important especially in these winter months when it's so dry and also when everyone is so sick. Drinking more water fixes all yo problems! Let's make it a goal TOGETHER to drink more water. IT'S IMPORTANT.

XOXO,

sorry this sucks I was just really excited about my water bottle that's bigger than my face lol,

gabs.

PONDERIZE | BLOGMAS DAY 3

I am currently sick AF and tired AF and have like 3 papers to write so this is gonna be a really short post :) I considered not posting anything but I made a commitment to myself to write everyday and I'm gonna write everyday, dang it. So here goes. STORY TIME.

Last general conference, we were all introduced to the word Ponderize. This week is the first week that I've actually picked a verse and really tried to study it. It started on Sunday night when I could NOT fall asleep for the life of me. My thoughts were racing and I just couldn't calm down enough to fall asleep. I was getting up really early the next day and had been sick so I knew I needed a good night's sleep. I prayed asking Heavenly Father to help me calm down and fall asleep quickly, and had a really strong feeling that I should read a quick scripture. At first I was like "no way José" cause I have read COUNTLESS articles about the blue lights from your phone being so bad for your eyes and waking you up/making it so you can't fall asleep and how this generation have so many sleep problems because they're on their phones too much too late at night. So I was pretty hesitant to follow that prompting. But, I eventually gave into the feeling I was given and opened up my scriptures app. Now that I'm thinking back, I totally could have grabbed my hard copy of the scriptures hahaha I'm such a millennial you guys this is so embarrassing. In my defense, my lights were already turned off and I didn't want to get out of bed to turn on the light and grab my scriptures. But now I know what to do in the future hahaha  OKAY ANYWAYS, I grabbed my phone, opened up my scriptures app, and remembered there was a verse that I read a while ago and really liked that was in Romans. I couldn't remember the chapter or verse numbers though, so I just started skimming through Romans trying to find the scripture. I never found the one I was looking for, but I did come across a scripture that really stuck out to me. It's Romans 12:21. It says, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." As soon as I read it, I just kept rereading it. It's short and simple but I love how it says that we need to overcome evil with GOOD. A lot of times I think of temptation and how we're just supposed to just avoid it and not do the thing. But no, we need to not do the evil thing and then do good things instead. Sunday night after I read it, I just kept reciting those words to myself, and I actually fell asleep really quickly afterwards. Promptings are real, guys! I wasn't planning on ponderizing this scripture throughout the week, but all day Monday it kept popping back into my head. That night I did the same thing, I read the scripture right before I went to bed and I was able to fall asleep right away! Which isn't a big deal to most people but I have such a hard time falling asleep, it's been a huge blessing for me. This past week, I've found that I've been more positive and not as anxious as I usually am! By taking temptations and focusing on good things instead, it brightens your whole day and gets your priorities where they need to be.

Kay, hope you enjoyed my little story time! This is the scripture I'm focusing on for the rest of this week, I'll let you guys know what scripture I choose for next week. Message me or comment if you have a favorite scripture, and why it means so much to you! I love hearing from y'all. 

XOXO,

gabs.