Thursday night at 8:00 PM, I will officially be on spring break. I honestly can’t wait…I want it to be right now.  I’m annoyed with my classes…and I’m annoyed with parking garages…and I’m annoyed with campus just in general.  I really have no plans for the week, I’m boring like that…but um, for any of you wondering…here are my non-plans.

I’m gonna work out a lot.

I’m going to sing….maybe even with Becca.

I’m going to sleep forever.  The whole time.

I’m going to enjoy quiet/alone time while my family is out of the house. (this may be the most important thing that I do.)

I’m going to watch over 40 hours of Justified.  Because it’s like the cowboy version of Dexter.  Only completely different.

I’m going to dance a lot.

I’m going to take photographs.

I’m going to do homework.

I’m going to draw. (Disney??)

I’m going to enjoy time with my family and my boyfriend.

I’m going to wash my car and possibly even clean out the inside.

I’m going to look for nude shoes.

I’m going to TRY…..to blog every day or every other day.  But who knows?  Really, cause it might end up being every other week, in which case, not at all.

I’m going to never leave the house.  Not even once.  Except for when I do of course…but it will be very reluctantly.

I’m going to sit out in the sun.

I’m going to waste an hour or more of my time on Pinterest…because only having a total of 2,869 pins is NOT enough.  I’m seriously slacking in my pin-age, humans.

and did I mention that I’m going to sleep? Cause I mean, I am going to SLEEP.

I went to Tennessee last summer for a week..or maybe longer.  I can’t remember exactly, but for all of those days, including the night we arrived, my good friend Cassie and I sat in the pool for hours.  Since then, I have wanted to go back and sit in that pool every. single. day.  I actually have dreams of it.  There are no other pools I know of that relieve MASSIVE humidity mixed with hundred degree weather, with such beautiful, clear, chlorine filled ease as that one did.  There are also no other pools that I know of that show the movie Madagascar on a big screen right by the pool at night, AND have karaoke by it during the day.  Oh, how I miss it.

Next, I’m sorry that I don’t blog consistently.  Even though I’m sure for some of you that may be a relief.  I can be exhausting sometimes.  The truth is though…consistency hasn’t been my thing for the past two years.  Except for my grades, thank goodness..Those have been consistently good, everything else though, nope.  Ask when the last time I washed my car was.  Ask.  I dare you.  Actually don’t..because I can’t even remember.  But you know what??  I used to wash it once every two weeks…and then I went to school.  Also, you know that trip to Tennessee I mentioned above?  Well….I took hundreds and hundreds of pictures with the intent of showing the world, and they are just sitting on my computer getting dusty because I don’t follow through…same with an under water wreck the dress photoshoot that I did with my older sister Amanda in August.  School has killed me.  Not to worry though, when I finish in May, I’m gonna edit them.  And then maybe show you guys some around July 15th…..when I left for Tennessee last year….uhg.  That POOL!

Last thing, it was almost 80 degrees at school this week, spring is in full force in San Jose and Salinas, and you know that means?  Spiders.  We live near a creek…or something that is supposed to be a creek but hardly ever is. Except for that one time when it rained FOREVER and it got so full that I went swimming in it with the best friend (don’t worry, that was before I knew what germs were…and spiders apparently.) So…back to what I was saying, we live near a creek, and from that creek…come gigantic, size of a vehicle, spiders.  Some of them are normal shaped…but some of them have butts the size of marbles.  I don’t like their big butts, and I’m not lying.  One time I found a plump and juicy one in my room the night before I went on a missions trip to Mexico with my church…and it took me almost a half hour to muster up the courage to kill it.  Maybe I’ll write a story about that someday.  It was a super stressful situation for me…and we have video of it.

Yep! I think that about sums it up.

On Thursday last week, something completely out of the ordinary happened to me.  I started my day off earlier than usual by watching a little kid at a playground while his parents went to a meeting.  He’s adorable and obsessed with the sand…I’m not sure either.  Around ten his parent’s showed back up and his mom nicely asked “So, you headed off to school now?” “Yep!” I replied.  “I have class from 12 to 9 PM.” A few minutes later I was off to the gallows…Er, I mean…School.  But unfortunately I was tempted by being a little too close to Santana Row, and by the fact that I needed to return a pair of jeans to H&M..So instead of going straight to school…I decided to stop by the mall first.  But to be fair, Santana Row isn’t really a mall.  It’s just a beautiful shopping center.  And I want to live there.  But that’s not important.  Anyway! So I went to H&M, exchanged my pair of jeans for a skirt, (score), and walked around for a little bit wishing that I could steal the electrical car that beckoned me to it.  It’s amazing and pretty and sleek. 3 things that on school days, I am not.

Back to the point, again.  I left Santana Row at 11:00 thinking that there was no way I would find parking in under an hour for my class at 12.  Seriously guys, parking at school is the worst! I drove straight to the West Garage because it’s usually the most neglected of the parking garages, and because it’s literally right next to Duncan Hall, where I live during the week…And guess what! I found a parking spot! ON THE THIRD LEVEL! NO WAY! I then decided to adopt the West Garage and show it unconditional love for being so nice to me.  It’s now my child.

Back to my day though! I walked into the studio ready to work and be a photographer, when Fergus, the TA came in and told me that the class we both have together AFTER our current class, was cancelled.  I immediately responded with “Really?! Wow, I’m kind of excited but kind of bummed too! I have a class from 6 to 9 tonight so now I have a huge break.”      Feeling a little sad about my predicament I went to the window, which is where we check out all the equipment (camera, strobes, reflectors, soft boxes, etc.) and my classmate Clara was working in there.  It’s always awkward if you don’t talk to the people who check out the equipment for you because it takes kind of a long time.  So I started in…”Isn’t it nice that our afternoon class is cancelled?” “Yeah I’m glad we don’t have it” She responded.  “I’m so sad that we have class later though! I kind of want to skip” I said.  “Oh, we don’t have class later.  He cancelled it too!” She replied. I then had a heart attack…“Um….what?? Are you serious?  Ohh my gosh I’m so excited!” This meant that BOTH my late classes were cancelled. By then it was only 12:20 and it looked like I was going to be out of my studio class around 1:30.  This does not happen to me people. I don’t have good days while I’m at school.  It’s not in my description.  In fact! What IS in my description is this: “Candace does not have good days at school.”  That’s what it says…believe me now?  Good.

I really didn’t believe that this was all happening.  It was way too good to be true…on my Friday, I get out of school over six hours early!!

About an hour later, In the midst of floating on those cute little puffy clouds, my studio partner and I started to pack up all our gear, and in the meantime, I started to need to use the bathroom.  And by started, I mean I went 0-60 in 3 seconds.  I had to go to the bathroom BAD.  But I wasn’t going to be rude by ditching my partner and making her clean up all of our equipment alone.  No, I was determined to tough it out.

After all the equipment was packed up and we were ready to leave, my partner and I started walking toward the elevators together.  Which was super convenient for me because the bathroom happens to be on the WAY and I could just hit it on my way down.  Just kidding though because I didn’t want to be rude and ditch my partner while she was talking to me…So I though eh, I’ll just use the bathroom downstairs before I go back to my car. 

See, here’s the problem, or more like the BEGINING of the problems that followed this decision: I had never used the bathroom on the first floor of Duncan, so I didn’t know where it was…or if there even WAS one down there.  Desperate, I started heading for the north exit of the building.  When I was about ten feet from the exit I started to lose hope.  I had passed the men’s restroom and there was no sign of a women’s restroom anywhere.  And then I saw it, no…not a women’s restroom, but a unisex restroom about five feet away from the men’s.  Ok I thought, this is it..this is all I got so I just need to make it work.  I skeptically entered the bathroom.  To my surprise it looked pretty clean and normal.  It had a sink (duh) and then a stall inside of the room.  I assumed that the stall had a lock on the door, but there was also a lock on the actual door that lead into the bathroom itself, so I decided to go ahead and lock that too, to avoid specifically two things:  One, a guy entering and listening to me while I use the bathroom, and two, a guy entering and raping me…because obviously every male stranger is also a rapist.

So! With the door tightly latched, I quickly headed for the stall.  Without hesitation I shoved, and the door pleasantly swung inward.  Then something horrible happened, something terrible and horrible and terrible.  To my horror, there was a guy sitting on the toilet and I can only assume he was in the process of pooping…Cause I’ve been told that guys don’t sit when they pee…I mean it’s what I’ve heard.  As soon as I saw him, a few things happened at the same time…It went something like this:  I gasped louder than I ever have in my life and I also managed to jump ten feet in the air, which hurt because the ceiling was probably only about five feet above my head.  I also managed to sputter out “Oh my GOSH!!!!  Sorry!!!” While I was frantically struggling to get the stall door shut again I also started to run for the exit.  BUT! I forgot that I had locked the door.  To say I was flustered would be the understatement of the year.  My heart was palpitating and I was shaky from the shock of finding a man in the stall, and worst of all, I COULD NOT GET THE DOOR UNLOCKED! By now I was launching into full panic mode.  I kept thinking How did this happen?! I specifically locked this door to keep men OUT! Not lock myself in with one…who already has his PANTS OFF! After what seemed like seven hours, I was able to get the door unlocked and opened, and I proceeded to calmly exit the bathroom and walk at a moderate pace to the nearest exit.  Please note, by walk at a moderate pace I mean I was practically running.

While I was in the middle of fleeing the building and trying to figure out what the HELL just happened to me, I remembered that I had to go to the bathroom.  But SCREW IT, I thought, I’ll just go when I get to the Miller’s house because this guy is totally about to chase me down and punch me in the face for walking in on his poop-sesh. Yes, yes I did just say poop-sesh.  Unfortunately, on the way to the Miller’s I almost turned my driver’s seat into a toilet seat, and I experienced a certain level of pain that I don’t particularly wish to experience again, but I made it.  After I had relieved myself, I was finally able sit down for the next 3 hours and ponder what had happened to me earlier.  Here’s what I took away from this whole, dude sitting on the toilet thing: A) Who……in the world…uses a unisex bathroom when there is a men’s restroom right next to it…I mean come on.  B) I never, ever, want to make eye contact with a stranger in the midst of extricating themselves again.  C) Unisex bathrooms are so not my thing.  In fact I think I will avoid them for the rest of my life.  D) I KNEW my day was going too smoothly.

Love, Candace