Weekend Vacation and The Man I Love

People often ask me if I'm a Daddy's Girl. I don't exactly understand what that means, but I guess according to most I seem to fit the definition. Apparently, I've been told, the majority of girls my age don't get along the greatest with their dads. Or at least they don't talk much. I'd like to think I talk to my dad about life and such more than the average girl. We've always been pretty close. I grew up having him call me his angel. To this day, I still consider myself his angel. Sometimes he teases me. Sometimes he pees in public areas. Sometimes he changes my favorite song on the radio just because it's my favorite. But I know he does all these things not just to make my face go a little red, but because he loves me. He's the guy that tried to teach me to drive stick (failed). He's the reason I know ACDC so well. He's the reason I love snacking on red meat. He's the reason I never have to worry about getting my tires changed. He's the reason I'm so competitive and hate to lose. He's the reason I've ever succeeded at anything because he's provided in a way that I have the means to succeed. I love him. This past weekend (Father's Day Weekend might I add), I was reminded once again of why he's such a great man.

I had quite the exciting weekend. It's been fun when people ask, "How was your weekend, Kels?" To say, "Pretty great. I went to California." Instead of the usual, "It was good. . .What did I even do?" This is why I love my family. We're all completely random. We do spontaneous things sometimes like take off for the weekend to California. We left Friday afternoon and got home Sunday night. The main reason for making the trip was for a big horse race. My dad and grandpa's horse, Leave The Scene, had made it into a huge race. Not only did he make it, he was by far the favorite. He was the horse that no one could stop talking about. How big was this race? Oh, just a little over a million dollars. Just part of the Triple Crown in the quarter horse racing world. Leave The Scene had an amazing shot at winning this million dollar race. I figured it would be the best Father's Day gift ever. To have my dad standing down by his horse to take that champion picture. I wanted this race for my dad so bad. Because a guy like that deserves it.

The race wasn't until later Saturday night, so we spent the day at the beach. Huntington Beach. Gosh, I love it there. I just love the ocean. My whole family does. My parents always told me that Kelsey meant "dweller by the water". My mom said they liked how it fit with my dad's name since his name is Brooks. So I guess you could say I dwell by my dad, which I like. My mom always joked that I should someday live in a house by a body of water. My pick would be the ocean. I'd be content just sitting in the sand with a little fire. No house needed. Like the hippie child I truly am. After Lex got hammered by a few huge waves, and we felt bad for Jace who sat with his crutches in the sand with a garbage sack on his broken foot, we decided to leave the beach for our hotel. We got ready. Ate an amazing dinner with my wonderful uncle and aunt. Then off to the races we went. With all the hopes in the world.

Everyone at the track was talking up Leave The Scene. I read an interview they did with my dad about the race. He sounded great. He's a smart guy. Those college degrees are overrated. It was almost Race 9. Our race. The last race of the night. The million dollar one. My dad wasn't near as nervous as he usually is before a race. He actually told me he was excited. So was I. The horses were loaded into the gates. Leave The Scene looked as good as a race horse can. His head was held high. The gates opened. Leave The Scene came out first. He was ahead. He stayed ahead. We had this race. My heart felt like it might pop out of my mouth. But then Leave The Scene started falling back. That wasn't normal for him. The last of the race is always his strong point. He fell back to sixth place. I looked over to the board to see where he placed for sure. When I looked back, I saw two horses falling and rolling. One was ours. Leave The Scene. I clutched onto my mom's head and we both started freaking out. It looked bad. Leave The Scene was kicking his legs. He forced himself up. He tried to run off the track but couldn't. His front legs looked broken. He collapsed. The fight in him was about gone. The workers ran out to cover the scene. The horse would have to be put down. It was one of the saddest things I'd ever seen. Then the next thing I saw made me even more sad. My dad's face. He was down by the track. Pure agony was all over his face. He looked sick. He walked away and motioned to us it was time to leave.

"Dad is going to be mad," Lex said through tears. He wasn't mad. He was too heartbroken to be mad. I could tell. The worst thing that can happen in horse racing just happened to him. And the next day would be Father's Day. How horrible.

On the ride home we said it was too bad the horse didn't at least win. "I wouldn't feel any different today had the horse won and that happened after," he said. I knew he meant it. I realized last weekend what a selfless dad I have. He's the type of guy that would do anything for anybody. He has a good heart. We need more people like him in this world. Even though the weekend didn't work out like we wanted, I hope he still had a Happy Father's Day. And I hope maybe he's reading this, computer illiterate as he is. Dad, I love you.

"If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail..."

We've all heard this popular quote. And I'd just like to say. . . .I hate it. I probably hate it because it makes me feel like I'm bound to be a failure. I'm horrible at planning things. So I usually choose to just not plan at all.



I remember one Friday night my senior year of high school, Catherine told me I had to "plan" beforehand what we were doing that night. No spur of the moment stuff. Catherine is a good planner. Don't ask me how our friendship has lasted so well for so long. Ha. So I tried very hard to do as I had been told. And this is how the night ended up going:



First, we ate food from Pizza Villa on the decorative bench in front of the court house. I'd always really wanted to. I never understood why they just had a random bench in their flowerbed. So we sat there and ate as the sun went down. We sat and ate until a cop kept watching us. Then we got nervous and fled.



After that we purchased treats from our childhood, such as: Bottlecaps and Cowtails.

Basically the kind of candy you remember being so delicious when you were about six, but it's really quite nasty.



To end, we sat in the slides at the grade school playground and told secrets.



Overall, a pretty lame plan. We do really cool things when the group lets me plan in-the-moment. So cool I can't even say on this blog. You'll just have to wonder the rest of your life I guess.



I really hope that it's a huge lie that you'll be a failure if you don't have a plan. Because to be honest, I don't have a plan. I'm just trying to find things out day by day. I've always felt bad for the poor people that are always sticking to their grand life plan. . But I'm starting to worry maybe I'm the sucker. What if I'm suddenly 80 years old, still not going anywhere? Gah. So many people have their occupation planned out, they know when they want to have a family, they know what size of family, they know where they want to raise this family. They probably even have their funeral planned for crying out loud. I don't even have the rest of my day planned out.



The other day at work, one of the other staff asked me a question, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you apply for this job if you're majoring in journalism?"



Back up off me, woman.



But seriously, being a journalist you always have to expand your horizons. . . .so I can do anything and it applies to my major. So take that.



Also, I don't even know if I'll be a journalist for sure. It's fun stuff. I've loved the classes thus far. So as for now, it's journalism for me!



And the optimist in me says, "You don't need a plan. Plans don't work out any ways." Plus, even if this job doesn't apply to my major, maybe it applies to something in my life down the road that I can't see yet. You never know.



The other night, I was telling Shay about some difficult incidents that happened at work and I said with confidence, "This job makes me feel like being a mom someday will be a piece of cake!"



Wise Shayla said in reply, "Maybe that's what this job is for. To overcome your fear of one day being a mom."



She's so smart.



Of course I want to be a mom. I think. Do I? I like kids. A lot. But it freaks me out thinking of having kids that are "my kids". Scary. And it's not even the giving birth part that gets me (don't get me wrong though, I don't even want to think about having a baby come out of me). I don't want to fail as a mom. And honestly, I wonder sometimes if I'd be any good at raising a family at all. At least I can put it off for a good 10 or 15 years more. And let's hope Shayla is right. Which she usually is.



Shayla also freaked me out the other day when she randomly asked, "Kels, what do you want your wedding dress to look like?" Wedding dress? Whaaaa? I want a white one?



"You can't tell me you've never thought about how you want your wedding. At least a little bit."



Never have.



"Not ever?"



Nope.



She laughed.



She also said she'd help me plan everything if I ever do get married. Either that or it looks like I'm getting married in an XXL white t-shirt. I think I can find one for pretty cheap.



I guess I'll keep going on with no plan. But you know something? I'm determined to put all the people that do have plans to shame. Take that. Ha! And besides, if you don't have a plan, you never fail really. Since you never planned something that might be failed at acting out. I basically plan on being happy. And I know I won't fail at that.

Sorry Girls, Your Life is Not a Chick Flick

Last night I went and saw a movie with my dear friend, Shayla. It was a chick flick. It was entertaining. It made me laugh. But as all these chick flicks are, it was very predictable.

• The couple thinks they're "in love" after about two days of knowing each other

• There is some pathetic problem that arises and about breaks the couple up after about a week. The couple freaks out more than needed and they usually say something along the lines of, "I hate you and never want to see you again."

• Then I swear, the very next day, the couple gets back together and says, "I love you again." They kiss, get married, everyone is happy. Woo hoo.

Girls: Stop wanting your life to be a chick flick. It's what I'd call fake love. If you want to watch a movie that shows you what (I think) true love is, then you choose the most unreal movie out there. It's a cartoon for crying out loud. But when I find the right person, I want to live a life similar to Carl and Ellie's from the movie "UP". If it turns out that way, I'll die happy. I put this clip from the movie on. Watch it. And I'll tell you a secret about this clip. . . . .I cry every time I watch it. I can't help it. It's pretty embarrassing really. But I cry. Because I love Carl and Ellie. I want what they've got. Someday I want that. I don't need to be swept off my feet. I just want to someday marry my best friend. I want every day with them to be a grand adventure. I want my Carl to love me so much that he'd live in a colorful old house with me too. I want to grow old with him. This right here is what I want:

Yep. That's what I want. It's perfect. I've been accused before of not being romantic. And it made me depressed because I thought, "I am toooooo romantic," until I realized, "Ugh. I'm not romantic at all." But I'd like to come out and say, I AM A VERY ROMANTIC PERSON. It's just a little different than other's ideas of being romantic. And I actually do believe in love. Even though I do make fun of it basically all the time. Let me rephrase that actually: I make fun of people that think they're in love. Too often in the world now, people fall into this "fake love". The kind you see on chick flicks. It makes me sad. Because geez, the world is missing out! They're missing out on the real deal.

I told this guy I liked once upon a time that I wanted to one day marry my pal. He told me that was stupid. You don't marry your pal. You marry someone you're in love with. Well, I got news for you. I've got lots of pals, but I'll marry the pal that I fall in love with on top of that. Because if we're pals that are also madly in love. . . .we've got it made, folks. All those people who are madly in love and get married, but they aren't pals. . . .they end up getting sick of each other after a few years. Or months. So the joke is on you, guy I liked once upon a time.

Years from now, that old colorful house is mine. You have my word.

I Can Save Lives Now. Pretty Much.

This is what I've been doing all week long. . . .












Except it hasn't been quite that exciting. I'll admit. All of us actually wanted to pass off CPR and not destroy the CPR dummies. I have been going through CPR training. First-aid training. Just every possible training. I swear. But it's worth it. I survived my week of training and I finally get to start my job on Monday. SWEET. I'm stoked. I'm also very nervous. I already love the rest of the staff, so that's a good sign.



On top of surviving training this week, I've also been surviving allergy season (barely). It's been rough. I think I finally found some allergy medicine though that works and I don't have an allergic reaction to it. So that's a very good thing. I took the first pill last night, not knowing quite what would happen. Luckily, my face did not swell, I did not act goofy, and I actually felt a little better. I wish I could say the same about the time I took Benadryl, but this is not so.



I'm glad it's the weekend. Weekends are the best drug out there. These allergies will be history in no time.