Chrissy Renae

I leave in TWO WEEKS and the anticipation is killing me. I’ve been doing some serious google searching lately, so I feel like I’m slowly becoming more familiar with Korea. Of course it’s never the same once you’re there, but it’s nice to have an idea of what I’m getting myself into.

This is the fourth time I’m packing up for an overseas journey (how am I THIS lucky?), so I’ve been surprisingly calm about the fact that I’m leaving, and that I’m leaving for a whole YEAR. And that I’m going to ASIA, which is very different from other places I’ve been. It’s just hard to find the balance between stressing too much or too little.

In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying AUTUMN in a big way. I’ve always liked it alright as a season, but something about being back in Washington this year just makes it ultra spectacular. Nowhere else can pull off all four seasons quite as stellar as this state.

OK so I’m in the middle of BOOT CAMP WEEK and so far it’s going well.

The thing is that since I don’t have a job and I’m not going to school and I live in a city where i know less than 10 other people, I have a lot of this thing called free time on my hands. It’s pretty weird because I’ve worked full time and/or gone to school for the past….. well since I was like 4, so I guess it’s pretty cool to have the summer off.

The first few days of living with my Dad, I was super sick so I just sat around and watched 24 all day (Seasons 1 AND 2 in like 4 days. Gross), but I quickly realized that I can’t just sit around and do that all month until I leave for Korea. So I made a list of weird things that I always sayyyy I want to do, but then never put in the effort to do them. So I created BOOT CAMP WEEK, where I have been busy with 500,832 projects at the same time to try to feel as productive as possible.

1. Eat and cook healthier. That one is allllways a work in progress, but it’s easier to focus on with all this time. I’m on a recipe collecting rampage.

2. Learn spanish. I bought “Spanish for Dummies” so I’m well on my way to being fluent.

3. Become familiar with Korean. It’s too crazy to learn on my own, but I found this website (learnkorean.com…. imagine that) that makes me say stuff out loud and you can listen to the pronunciations, so I can at least get a feel for it. The numbers 1-5 are il ee sahm sah oh. SO MUCH PROGRESS.

4. Practice random healthy living activities such as deep breathing exercises for 20 minutes a day, spending an hour in the sunshine, power walking in the morning, afternoon AND evening, stretching, filing my nails incessantly, and maintaining a very clean room.

5. Writing letters. Like the snail mail kind. I was going through my stuff and realized I have an intense stationary collection… apparently I’m always buying it but never using it. Want one? Give me your address.

6. Those are the ones I’ve been working on so far, but it’s only Thursday and I have a whole weekend ahead of me, so any random ideas would be appreciated.

Well there’s another list for you. I’ve been trying to be less “flighty” so people will take me seriously (part of the be more smart thing) so I have been making LOTS and LOTS of lists. Like we’re talking almost a whole notebook full. I don’t know what the real purpose for most of them is, but IT’S SO MUCH FUN. Sorry if that carries over into blog land for a while. Hopefully I’ll normalize soon.

PS: Thanks for all the comments last time. You guys are great.

So it’s been well over 2 months. I realize this, and I apologize. What have I been up to for the past 10 weeks?

1. I moved to Washington. Don’t worry if you haven’t nailed down what city I’m in. I’ve been bouncing.

5. I’m really smart. I’ve been pretending not to be for the past 5 years, and I’m not really sure why. I went through college unmotivated and with a very low mental self esteem. Most of my Provo friends probably consider me of pretty average intelligence. But actually I’m smart and I’m going to start being cocky about it.

I don’t want to overwhelm you with how cool I’ve gotten lately, so I’ll leave it at that for now. I’m totally rededicated on the blog train, so it will be worth your while to start checking chrissyrenae.com again. Promise.

Love this guy. Miss this guy.

Here are his Top 10 videos, all in one place. GO HERE

(I tried to embed it directly, but it’s hating me, so click the link instead. Worth the trip.)

So the other day (specific time, place, people later) I was with some people, and they were chatting about set-ups and dating and typical Provo banter. And Girl was like “Hey, you should date my sister” to Boy. And then to prove her sister was awesome, she was like GO TO HER BLOG IT’S SO AWESOME. So then they go to her blog, start reading it, start laughing really hard, and obviously we can all tell that this girl is rad. BAM, all from a 2 minute blog scan. Wait, WHAT?!?! When did blogs start being used for and against people in proving personality and dateability? How did I not think of this? Apparently my blog can be used as a tool to get me dates and to make people think I’m cooler, and I am obviously not taking full advantage of that. So don’t you worry ladies and gentlemen and faithful followers, from now on you will just be dying to show all those hot single guys you know my blog, and then you’ll want to show their moms too and then EVERYONE WILL KNOW HOW AWESOME I REALLY AM. It’s going to be so great. I hope you’re ready for

SUMMER EDITION: CHRISSY UNVEILED

I know Mother’s Day was on Sunday, but I was out of town so my tribute is going to have to come a bit late. First, let me start by saying that I HAVE THE COOLEST MOM EVER. She is one of the most genuinely nice people I have ever met and has a natural glow all the time. Whenever I think of growing up out at the lake, I can imagine all of my friends being over all the time and our house always being full of extras. It was like a refuge for everyone to come to getaway, which is quite ironic considering the insanity our family was going through at the time. I don’t remember ever wanting to get away from my family or thinking I couldn’t handle it. I know that’s due to my mom making our house such a special place that we wanted to stick around as much as possible, and others could come there and feel at home too. I hope I can create a home full of as much love and laughing as hers is.

Aside from being nice and loving, my mom is also extremely supportive. She always encourages me in whatever crazy adventure I want to go on and never stands in my way. Sometimes I wonder how she isn’t a nervous wreck all the time, with 10 kids running in different directions with crazy aspirations. But she never freaks out and she never panics. She just listens to what my next plan is, and then says “Awesome, go for it.” Never pushy, never pushing her own agenda (ok, except maybe when it comes to church stuff, but that is probably for the best) and never ex-naying ideas. This has been so valuable in my growing up and helping me to become truly independent.

I realize this post is all extremely sappy and ridiculous, but really I feel SO lucky to have such an awesome mom. She doesn’t get enough credit for everything that she does and all that she goes through being the mother of so many crazy kids. But she rocks at her job and we all love her for it. Thank you Mom!!!

the day she dropped me off at BYU almost 5 years ago!

the fam

(check out our family blog for Annalicia’s hilarious tribute. my family is so great.)

I’ve been putting off blogging for the past week cuz I’m just not really sure where to go from here.  I don’t even know where I’m going with my life, so what am I supposed to blog about? Then I was thinking about how writing sometimes helps me figure out where to go, so here I am. Writing. Woo hoo. And now that I have my guaranteed fan base (Les, Lauren, Tor, Em, etc) I suppose it’d be worth it to be better about updating.

So here is the update. Job=gonzo. Weird week. The economy’s bad, I realize this. Companies everywhere have been struggling. People everywhere have been getting laid off. I get it. But somehow, I just never thought it would affect Utah Valley, OrangeSoda, or ME. But now it has and my job has dissolved along with many of my co-workers, and we’re all left scrambling not really sure what to do. I will be fine, I know, but I can’t help but have concern for other people with spouses, kids, and mortgages. I’m stressed enough as it is, I can’t even imagine being in their shoes.

There is some sort of weird emotion that goes along with being laid off that I can’t really describe. Everyone is so reassuring– it’s not your fault, it’s the economy. It’s not you– it’s everybody. We’re so sorry, it was a last resort. And as much as I try to convince myself of such things, it’s hard not to wonder otherwise. And then you get all day, every day to sit around and think about it… It’s really great.

Really though I’m not a depressive wreck about it, it’s just frustrating and discouraging and mostly I just despise job hunting. At the same time though it has opened all sorts of doors and options that I’ve been putting off because I didn’t want to give up job security. Things like moving overseas,  looking for jobs in other cities, and being a summer bum have all been reopened for assessment. So I suppose we shall see… maybe this could be a good thing?

I’m presently in the process of moving and I can’t decide if I’m happy or sad about it. So let’s take a look. I love visuals.

Why I’m happy

• I really love moving
• Packing can be exciting
• I always find random weird stuff in my storage boxes when I pull everything out to reorganize
• My life is not stressful so it creates make-believe stress to liven things up
• Greg and Alyssa are loaning me their house for the summer while they’re gone and it’s cute and I’m excited about it
• Living in Orem instead of Provo. Byebye BYUville
• Get to live with Leesh. Love her.
• Will have walking/biking access to the Farmer’s Market, Barnes and Noble, and Gold’s Gym. Bingo.

Why I’m sad about it

• My current roommates are the greatest. I rarely get that lucky.
• It’s going to be weird to come home to 1 girl instead of 4 girls
• My loft bedroom is really radical
• Easy roof access = gone
• How could I not miss the creepster secret-garden basement?
• Reading this move-in blog made me nostalgic for last September
• I have to finish getting out tonight, and then will be homeless for a week. Hmm…

Ok it looks like they are about even. That is why my charts and lists are useless.

Today is all sorts of grey, although a bit of sunshine might lift my spirits.

Today I remembered how much I love:

-Redbox. greatest invention.
-Thursday adventure tradition time with Peter. great days.
-this laptop. even though it’s so crappy sometimes.
-grey’s anatomy. sorry if you think it’s stupid, it blows my mind
-spoon me. very very much.
-this new quilt leesh gave me. it’s so great and warm.
-andre’s couch. andre how did your couch get so comfortable?
-frozen pizza. cuz it’s so good for you.