Friends IRL

I’ve grown up online. I always attribute my fast typing speed to using AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), where I can remember my fingers flying with my pinky on the shift key as I got in arguments with my friends and “boyfriends.” I was one of the first of my friends to join Facebook when they opened it to non-college students, and I was one of the first with a Pinterest page too, which is why I have way more followers than I deserve for only pinning things once a year.

So it’s no surprise that I’ve made so many friends online over my 15 years on the Internet.

My first online friend is still someone I consider one of my best friends to this day. I “met” Shane through my friend Emily, who had met Shane online. Shane and I became close friends and he got me through a lot of hard times in high school, even though he lived a 12 hour drive away in Northern California.

It’s also fitting that Shane was the first Internet friend I met in real life, too. Shane drove through Arizona on his move to Nashville, and he stopped in Phoenix along the way. We got to hang out and while it was super weird to see him in person, it was so cool too. I got to spend more time with Shane when I went to Nashville for my Uncle’s wedding – I stayed an extra night at his place and he showed me the town.

Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to meet quite a few Internet friends IRL (in real life).

1: Shane AKA Shaneymcfizzle (his AIM screenname) AKA Shaners (as I have nicknamed him)
2: Danielle from Sometimes Sweet and my Internet friend JenCoen at the Arizona Bloggers Meetup in March 2011.
3: Mel — when she and her family visited California, my mom and I made the trip up to see them and spend a fun day in Pasadena!
4: Rinda, who my mom and I also got to hang out with on our fun California blog-friend weekend. I envy Rinda’s bookshelves full of art journals and scrapbooks. One of the most inspiring things I’ve seen, for sure.
5: Margaret Finnegan, who I was completely in awe of.
6: CRAFTING TOGETHER at Deb’s house with Deb(s14), Denise, Alison and Karen. How cool is that?! (I’m not in this picture, but I promise I was there and I took it!)
7: The coolest blogger meetup in history. We traveled to England and friends from all over Europe came to visit! It was the coolest thing ever getting to meet Ruth (and her The Boy Child), Alison, Jacky, Helena, Becky, Denise, Mel (again, yay!), Karen and Rhona.
8: All of the Stevenson girls are just so awesome. I loved spending an afternoon with Emily, Claire, Megan and Alice (and Rhona!)

…and now this story has come full circle. Shane became friends with this girl named Laura about the same time he and I became friends and get this – he met her online too! Laura and Shane are BFFs, and I’ve known OF her for years. We became Facebook friends a while ago when she moved to Nashville to be with her now-husband Jake (who I got to meet when I was in Nashville visiting Shane). Jake and Laura have the most ADORABLE five-month-old baby named Eli, and I have laughed and cried along with Laura as I’ve watched her life expand via Facebook. Earlier this week, I got to meet Jake, Laura and Eli while they were in Arizona for the weekend to visit Jake’s family. It was SO cool to see Laura in real life, and so now I have a new picture to add to the list of friends I’ve made via the Internet:

9: Jake, Laura and Eli.

Isn’t the Internet the coolest thing ever created?!

Love always,
Carrie

PS: It must also be noted that Shane’s wife Tiffany is one of my very best friends, and I have not met her in person YET. Plans in the very near future to do so, and you can bet there will be tons of squealing and maybe a few happy tears when that happens. Can. not. wait!

Currently: May 2013

wishing my favorite guy in the entire world a very happy birthday toady. Happy birthday Danny! I love you! ♥

looking SO forward to celebrating with the birthday boy this weekend and seeing him for the first time in a month!

having a hard time thinking about the age I’m going to be after my birthday next month (25! Seems so monumental!).

meeting my mom tonight for dinner and pedicures.

loving the A Beautiful Mess photo app. But aren’t we all?

listening to this awesome song mash-up multiple times in a row.

going through a John Lennon phase right now.

celebrating success at work after a particularly stressful project just finished.

trying to read but I just haven’t been into it lately. I blame Candy Crush Saga for distracting me. Hate that game.

taking this online class with my mom.

thinking. Always too much thinking.

My “Cool Mom”

Sometimes it’s hard to see my mom as anything other than just my mom. She’s always been a “cool mom” and while most of the time I love that, there have also been a few times where she’s shared a bit too much information for my liking, because we have a friendship that surpasses the mother-daughter boundaries.

On our seriously-amazing trip to England, I learned a lot about my mom. It was the best trip that we could have ever taken together, and it really solidified our friendship as I enter my “adult” years. Our relationship has changed with every new stage of my life, and I feel like I really saw my mom as a person for the first time in London.

One of my favorite parts of our trip was seeing how much people love my mom. I’ll admit it, she’s pretty freaking cool. People traveled quite a distance to meet us, and all of them were women that my mom has built strong relationships with, and they’re on the other side of the globe. This draw to be closer to my mom isn’t just over the Internet – people who know her in real-life are attracted to her just the same.

On our trip, we laughed together, cried together and shared many stories over wine…and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I love the person that my mom is so much. She really is an awesome woman, my mom AND my best friend.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, but especially to my super cool mom.

I love you mumfriend!

Love always,
Carrie

Random Friday Night Updates on My Life

I have reached my texting limit for the month. I didn’t even realize I had a texting limit, but Verizon so kindly let me know that I was 90% of the way there, and that I had better stop texting if I didn’t want to pay a million dollars. The new plan month doesn’t start until MAY 16TH. People, do you know how much I text?! It’s insane how much I rely on that…and now I find myself cursing at the phone when my hair salon texts me to tell me that they now offer text reminders! (Yes, that really happened.)

Speaking of which, my hair dresser lives 619 miles from my house. I just Google Mapped it. When I was in California for my Grandma’s funeral, I needed a hair cut bad, so I had my hair cut by Ricky – this guy that my Aunt Val recommended. While he was cutting my hair and talking about his upcoming Las Vegas Madonna concert he was going to, I told him, “Ricky, you can’t give me a good hair cut because you live too far away.” He laughed and said okay…but he LIED. He gave me the best hair cut of my entire life, and now what am I supposed to do? Since then, I went to another girl in my city and she butchered my hair. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to get my hair cut as I am for the time I booked with Ricky while I’m in Fresno at the end of the month.

Oh, so I’m going to Fresno in May. Very excited for this trip to visit my family, hang out with my cousins and tell my great-grandma stories from our England trip. My great-grandma is 92 years old, and she’s one of my favorite people on the entire planet. Her and my mom write notes back and forth to each other all the time, and I try to send as many as I can. Writing this post made me realize I haven’t done it in a while. I just took a quick break from typing and printed a picture of me in front of the Eiffel Tower to include.

I would love to tell you more about my trip to England/Paris on the blog, but I’m exhausted at the end of every day because I’m really busy at work right now. Picture above was taken of me today using the TimerCam app for iPhone. I blurred out my screen to be stealthy (but I swear I was working). The arrow shelf behind me is one of my favorite things I own – it makes me smile every time I see it. I bought it at a craft fair from my Future Wedding Photographer’s husband.

It’s 8:30 on a Friday night, and I’m going to sleep as soon as I publish this post. What kind of 24-year-old does that make me? Truth is, I’ve gotta be at work early tomorrow (yes, working on a Saturday – which happens about once a month). And I’m tired. And I just finished drinking a drink that may or may not have included birthday cake vodka. I really should not have bought that stuff randomly at the store last week, I do not need that around tempting me. But it’s Friday night. So it’s okay.

Hope you all have a good weekend! And thanks for always listening to my random babblings.

Love always,
Carrie

My Life in 250 Words

So apparently it’s cool today to post about your life in 250 words. So I thought I’d give it a try.

This picture of baby me is super random and has nothing to do with this post, but it’s adorable so go with it. I like cats.

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I grew up in Arizona as an only child, and my parents divorced when I was 5. My dad remarried shortly after and my mom later in life, but I am still the only child for both couples. I get very spoiled on my birthdays and Christmases.

I started playing the drums in 5th grade, and continued with band all the way through high school. I was a good kid – not the best student, but I was always more interested in hanging out with my band friends than studying. I have a natural talent for math but I had horrible math teachers most of my life.

After high school, I moved to Flagstaff for a year to attend NAU’s Elementary Education program and I loved everything about it. My dad had a massive stroke the weekend before spring finals, and I decided to move home to be closer to him. I continued going to college in Phoenix, but I didn’t love the idea of being a teacher anymore. I decided to get my Associates degree with the credits I already had, and I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

I love to be creative and have been creating masterpieces since I was old enough to hold a crayon. I’ve had a blog since my early high school years, and while I’ve changed a lot since those early days, I still get the same high from my fingers flying across the keyboard.

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I could write about so much more, but I finished with exactly 250 words and I figured I’d better not mess with that kind of fate. If you’re playing along with sharing your life in 250 words, please share the link to yours in the comments!

Love always,
Carrie

PS: I’d like to wish a very very happy birthday to my mom today! Can’t wait to spend the whole day celebrating with her!! Happy birthday, Mom-friend!