Ten Reasons I'm Happy Even Though School Starts Tomorrow and I'm Probably Going to Fail Everything

1. Since I make so many midnight runs to the 24-hour Starbucks on 82nd and Quaker, the barista who works the graveyard shift remembers me. We're basically best friends now. 'Sup, Thomas.
2. I've been rereading Magical Thinking because it's on my list and I'm falling in love all over again. It's my favorite book (that's not Harry Potter) and stories like "Beating Raoul" and "Mark the Shrink" are reminding me why that is.
3. I just bought this hoodie and this shirt for less than what the hoodie costs by itself thanks to a ballin' coupon I got when I was at Gap a couple of weeks ago. Constantly meandering through the mall has its perks.
4. Switched shifts with a girl at work so I can actually make it to volleyball this week! And we're playing two games! Yay volleyball!
5. I bought Two Door Cinema Club's album Beacon a couple of days ago, and let's talk about true love.
6. Denny and D-Dad treated my aunts, uncle, and I to dinner at Rosa's tonight. It was nice to sit and talk with them as I am generally too busy to see them ever.
7. Literally just got a free coffee. Like, as I was typing number five he was asking me if I wanted another white chocolate mocha and who am I to turn down a free latte? Honestly, this Starbucks has the best staff ever.
8. This is legitimately the best nonfat, no whip white chocolate mocha I've ever had. I told Ralph this and he said, "That's why I'm the master!"
9. A Very Potter Senior Year was FINALLY released on YouTube. I'm not finished watching it yet (as it's, like, five hours long), but it's so, so great.
10. This tweet.

-Maggie

Top Twelve of Twenty-Twelve

(I started this blog two weeks ago and somehow still did not finish it before 2013, so just for a little while pretend it's still 2012 and that you still care.)

To be frank, 2012 was just not my year and I'm not sad to see it go, but there were still good times. In fact, there were really fantastic times, so I have followed Mayte's lead and complied a list of twelve things that were fantastic about this year. I won't focus on the bad times when I look back on this year, so there's no need to think about them now–or ever again, for that matter. When 2012 makes its exit, its taking its baggage with it.


01. New York, New York

You all know my immense love for New York City as I literally talk about it all the time. Just ask Melany–she receives an "I JUST WANT TO MOVE TO NEW YORK" text at least once a week. I still can't believe that I went to New York this year. It feels like it was ages and ages ago. That week with Keren was one of the best of my life, and I cannot even begin to describe it to you. I just can't wait to go back.


02. Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Year before last, when I was still in Cisco and Melany at UTSA, the above mentioned and Old Crow Medicine Show went on their Railroad Revival Tour, which stopped in Austin. Melany and I desperately wanted to go, but money and time did not permit. We were devastated, to say the least.

BUT THEN last Spring Break, Melany and I heard that there was to be a free screening of the tour's documentary, Big Easy Express, with a short concert from Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe after during SXSW. So I drove to Austin, and then we experienced the best concert ever. Mumford & Sons is literally flawless, and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros is roughly five million times better live than on record–and that's saying something.

It seems that the best things in life really are free.


03. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Aside from being literally laugh-out-loud hilarious, this book is uplifting and hopeful in the best way. I happened upon it during a time that I was really, really down about school, myself, and life in general, and it was just what I needed. I would call it a godsend, but I'm probably going to hell for reading it. It's so worth it though.


04. Weekend of Buddies, or The Last Hurrah

Regardless of how everything has played out since then, I will always look back on this weekend fondly. We went out with a bang, that's for sure.

05. Regina Spektor's What We Saw From the Cheap Seats

I have always liked Regina Spektor, but I really fell in love with her music this year. (This probably had a lot to do with the fact that I had "Summer in the City" stuck in my head my entire stay in New York (because even though it's about summer, it feels like a winter song).) There is something about her music that is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time, and her new album was no exception to this. It is absolutely gorgeous, which is why it's made this list.


06. Apocalyptour

The fact that I have seen and met Team StarKid twice blows my mind a little bit. Apocalyptour was somehow better than S.P.A.C.E. Tour and they somehow managed to get even more attractive–feats that I did not believe to be possible. The fact that Melany, Britny, and I decided to drive to Austin, see the concert, and drive back in one day only made it better.


07. Ben Howard's Every Kingdom

The reason I even found Ben Howard was because my aunt wanted to show everyone this video of a beached whale being eaten by sharks and his song "The Fear" was playing over it. I don't know why that song was put with that video, but I'm glad it was because his music is amazing. I listened to this and Of Monsters and Men's My Head Is An Animal all summer long. It's really great music to run to.

I have a very specific and vivid memory of listening to "Old Pine" during one of my runs, and even though it wasn't a very happy time, this song means all the more because of it. It's my favorite from the album.


08. Seattle Trip of Dreams and Wonder, Part I: Cousins

For a very long time, Julia talked about Seattle. She said she didn't really know what it was (though it probably had something to do with her love of Grey's Anatomy), but she had always wanted to go. I knew I couldn't see Seattle for the first time without Julia, so the two of us planned to go a few days before the Blogger meet-up. I adore my cousin, and it was so fun to take this big trip with her. I hope that we get to take many more together.

09. Seattle Trip of Dreams and Wonder, Part II: Blogger Family

Those few days we spent together are difficult to put into words. Roaming the airport in search of lost bloggers, sharing food at every meal, buying flowers for Dillon's mom, wandering all over the city, witnessing Nicola's first s'more, meeting Sam and giving Shelby a group hug after he left–this list could go on forever. It was so much more than anyone was expecting. Life is cruel to place us miles away from each other. The good news is planning for the next meet-up is well underway.


10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The book is one of my favorites (honestly, it's everyone's favorite), so when I first heard news that not only was there to be a movie, but Logan Lerman and Emma Watson were to star in it, I was THRILLED. Then, like, two years later, it finally came out. It was well worth the wait though–it is perfection. I have never had a movie affect me the way this one did (like, my friends were kind of worried about me). It's probably the best of all time.


11. The Best Hair Cut Ever

My hair is kind of my thing. It and my handwriting are two things that I have always been very proud of and conceited about. So imagine my horror when the hairdresser somehow cut off six more inches than she was supposed this past summer, leaving my hair this awkward shoulder-length that didn't necessarily look bad, but certainly didn't look good either. I kind of had a breakdown–you may remember.

It's stupid, but I felt terrible about myself after that. It was about six months before I got my haircut again because I was emotionally scarred, but was sick of feeling like I looked gross. Then I got the best haircut of my whole life. I'm not even exaggerating. I have never felt so full of myself.


12. The Weekend of Mary's Wedding

I cannot convey how much I needed this weekend. School has this really bad habit of dragging me down and making me a very angry and sad person, but that weekend was a time that I chose to not be that person. The drive up there with KaCee, the bachelorette party, hanging out with the other bridesmaids, getting ready, crying at literally everything with Michelle, pulling out the sorority girl pose in the photo booth, laughing in Whataburger for four hours after the wedding–everything about that weekend was so fun and so happy. I would not trade it for anything.


-Maggie

April 14: Finally

The day has finally come. Pottermore has finally opened, and the existential crisis I have been going through since its announcement last June is finally over. I have been sorted, and I am in Ravenclaw. My life is not a lie.

I was genuinely nervous going into the Sorting Hat quiz, and may have almost cried when the result came up. This is very telling of the kind of person I am.

Anyway, it is late, so I am going to go brew some potions and watch Holy Musical B@man! again... and then go to bed. Priorities, you know?

I apologize for the lame post.

-Maggie

April 13: You should have expected this.

I just got home from work. I was so excited when they let me off that I literally skipped to my car, raced home, ran inside, and almost fell to my death running up the stairs. I am now in my pajamas and it is finally time for HOLY MUSICAL B@MAN.

You should watch it too because it is StarKid and WHY WOULDN'T YOU WATCH IT?



-Maggie

Bonjour.

So now that it's December it is officially The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. If you haven't been around my blog for Christmas before, prepare yourself. I really love Christmas, an obscene amount. And why wouldn't I? Christmas is WONDERFUL, not to mention all of the other things that come with this time of year–the cold, wearing scarves and boots, drinking coffee everyday. There's also the fact that I have half a week of regular classes and four finals, and then it's Christmas break, which not only consists of sleeping in and Christmas, but also of NEW YORK.

I can't believe it's already December though! This semester went by so fast. Does time go by faster the older you get? I feel like that's the case. For the most part, I have enjoyed it though.

Some really weird, wonderful, crazy things have happened to me this semester. A lot of things to be thankful for. Let's recap, shall we?

1. Melany and I drove to San Antonio to see Darren Criss in concert. (Technically, not this semester since it was in July, but we'll ignore that.)
2. I was hired as seasonal help at Aeropostale in August, but they kept me on as a regular part time employee. Although I greatly dislike Aeropostale as a store, the people were nice and I'm glad they kept me on even though I'd never had a job before.
3. Sometime around that time I bought mine and Keren's tickets to see Darren Criss in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and began planning my trip to New York in January.
4. In October, I stayed with Melany in Austin and her, Britny, and I saw Quiet Company in concert and went to the Austin Teen Book Festival where I met Corey Whaley, Maureen Johnson, Jackson Pearce, and Scott Westerfeld.
5. Three days after I returned from Austin (a.k.a. my favorite place), I found out I would be going back in a month for the S.P.A.C.E. Tour.
6. Not only did I get to go to the S.P.A.C.E. Tour, but I also got to meet and take pictures with some of my favorite StarKids even though I hadn't gotten VIP. My epic wish on November 11, 2011 at 11:11am had been to meet Joey Richter, which came true and increased sixfold.
7. Just the other week I took a math test that I didn't study for and therefore blindly guess on nine of the twelve questions, and made an 87.5.
8. I gave my two weeks notice at Aeropostale on Monday because so many hours were being cut (to the point where there were some weeks I didn't work at all), and by Wednesday I was hired as a checker at United where my pay will increase a little and my hours will increase drastically.
9. Last night, Corey Whaley followed me on Twitter. We had a conversation spanning several Tweets and he laughed at one of my jokes. Expect wedding invites soon.
10. And then tonight, John Green replied to one of my posts. Like, a two paragraph reply. Called me marvelousmaggie and everything. (Amy called me to tell me that he had and literally right after I hung up the phone Mayte called to tell me the same. I found it amusing.)

I don't know why all of these fantastic things are happening to me as I've certainly done nothing to deserve them, but I feel very blessed that they have happened. I'm very fortunate, and I should try harder to remember that when I start complaining about Spanish.

And now I bid you adieu. I'm going to watch Doctor Who and stay up extremely late because I get to sleep in tomorrow.

-Maggie

This is the story of how I died.

Last week started off badly.

I noticed that I could feel a thumping behind my gas pedal when I was in second gear, so I asked D-Dad to check it out since I was driving seven hours to Austin on Friday. When he drove it, the thumping turned into shaking, so we took it to the shop. The first place we went to couldn't diagnosis it without taking the axle off or something like that, so D-Dad took it to another shop the next day. The second shop was able to figure out the problem and went to work on fixing it.

I asked my mom what I would do if my car didn't get fixed and she said that I probably wouldn't get to go because plane tickets were far too expensive now. Cue my breakdown.

The shop called Wednesday afternoon and said they had fixed the first problem, but found something else. At this point, I was searching for buses and figuring how long it would take to walk there. I was desperately searching for some means of transport while simultaneously trying to prepare myself what seemed to be an imminent defeat.

But there was no need. My car was fixed and running smoothly by the time my school day ended on Thursday. I am very thankful that I have grandparents and parents that realize when something is important to me even if they don't understand why. My grandfather worked very hard to make sure that they fixed my car before Friday while my mom and dad were trying to come up with alternative ways I could get to Austin just in case. They're the very best.

So on Friday, November 11th I packed, stopped to make an epic wish at 11:11am, and then drove the seven hours to Austin–saved once again by an audiobook lent by Andrew (this time it was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). I was driving into Austin by the time the sun had set, and met Britny and Melany at Chuy's.

After we ate, we went to this toy store called Toy Joy, which was magical and had Spock and Kirk nutcrackers. Then we went to play putt-putt and walked around downtown, and had no ulterior motives for doing so.

The next day we got in line for the S.P.A.C.E. Tour at about twelve-thirty, which was later than we'd intended, but we always get places later than we intend. We had picked up McDonald's, but I was too anxious to eat my Big Mac, so I made Melany put it in her purse. Then we had to deal with Grumpy Line Melany, which is my least favorite Melany.

Julia Albain walked by at one point and I was all weird and loud when I said hi. Nobody else really noticed her, and I was all SHE IS THE DIRECTOR OF THIS TOUR. SHOW SOME RESPECT. Then I saw Liam White of Liam's Got A Phone Call fame, but I wasn't sure if it was him when I first saw him, so I didn't say anything.

When we finally got inside, we got in the merch line where I spent all of my money and saw Corey Lubowich. I bought the S.P.A.C.E. Tour shirt, Jim and the Povolos shirt, their EP, and two StarKid buttons. Money well spent.

While in the merch line, we could see Team StarKid walking around upstairs, and I nearly died the first time I saw Joey (and every subsequent time). We got a spot in the back on the left side of the stage as per Natalie's suggestion for maximum Joey viewing, and stared up at the StarKids chatting amongst themselves while we waited for the concert to start.

Charlene Kaye was fabulous, and I am looking forward to buying her new CD. Dylan Saunders came out to sing "Dress & Tie" with her, and we all swooned because he has the voice of an angel. Later on, he came back out with Jaime Lyn Beatty to sing "Animal Love," and it was FANTASTIC. They pulled a girl up on stage who Charlene recognized from covers the girl had sent her and she got into it. It was the best part of Charlene's set.

Then we waited and stared some more, until Brian Holden's voice came out of the speakers requesting no flash photography or video and then they went into this bit that was just so something Team StarKid would do. I cannot convey to you how wonderful the show was. There are not enough positive adjectives in the world to properly describe it. I officially declared it as the best day of my life before the  show was even halfway over, and after the show Melany said, "I could walk into traffic and get hit by four cars and have no regrets now."

LITTLE DID WE KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT.

So I found my friend Alissa (who I met at Darren Criss's San Antonio concert) outside after the show. We waited outside the doors with about ten other people and discussed the possibilities of polypolygamy. There was about thirty more people waiting across the street where the StarKids' trailer was, and we all stood there for the next hour watching them walk back and forth loading all their equipment. I was trying to gather the courage to ask Joey for a picture as he walked by, but couldn't do it.

Then all of them were standing by their trailer and some sort of signal was given that meant we could ask for pictures, so we ran across the street and I went straight for Joey. I kind of wedged my way to the right side of the crowd surrounding him, and then he turned to me and I don't know how I didn't throw up or faint, but I'm glad I didn't because then I introduced myself and got a picture with him.

No, I don't think you understand. I GOT A PICTURE WITH JOEY RICHTER. LIKE, I MET HIM AND HE SAID MY NAME. AND I LOVE HIM.

Anyway, I called Amy and fought my way back through the crowd to Joey. I told her to hold on just one second, called out to Joey, and heard her say, "JOEY RICHTER?" even though I was holding the phone away from me, which was really funny to me. After that, we made our way over to Joe who was trapped between a wall of a parking garage and a wall of fangirls, and then to Brian who is really tiny. Dylan and I bonded over the San Francisco Giants and he said his mom's name is Maggie, which I am taking as a sign that we'll be married soon, and Jaime said she liked my earrings.

I called Keren and she did not answer, so I called her twice more and she sounded flustered when she answered. She asked me if she could call me back in ten minutes and I told her to hurry as fast as she could and she said, "Okay, just two minutes. Let me get out of work." So she called me back and I said, "Sorry if I freaked you out, but I have someone here who needs to talk to you," and I handed the phone to Joe. I cannot remember exactly what Joe said, but this is the gist of it.

Joe: Hi, this is Joe.

Keren: . . .

Joe: This is Joseph Walker, and I'm here to tell you some bad news. We're all gonna die someday.

Keren: . . .

Joe: Well, you're taking it a lot better than I did when I found out.

Keren: . . .

Joe: If it makes you feel any better, you probably won't die for a long time. Don't die now or I'm going to feel really bad.

Keren: . . .

Joe: Okay, well, your friend just wanted me to say hi and please don't die. Here's your friend, okay, bye!

Then he handed the phone back to me and said he was so embarrassed and it was just really adorable. Also, we took two pictures with him because he made a weird face in the first one and said, "I don't think I look very–yeah, let's take that again." It was just funny.

In short, I am madly in love with every member of Team StarKid.

After they all boarded the bus, we walked down the street towards Melany's car, but ended up sitting on a bench across the street from it for a good fifteen minutes trying to take in what had just happened to us. Eventually, we got up to put our stuff in Melany's car and walked back down to Austin Java. I ordered a chicken sandwich, but couldn't eat because I was still reeling from everything that had happened and Britny said that I had "involuntary anorexia," which I think should actually be a thing if it isn't already.

So that's the story of how I died, and if any of you who are not in the blogging family caught that Doctor Who reference, then I love you.

Oh, and the wish I made on November 11, 2011 at 11:11am?

"I wish I could meet Joey Richter this weekend."

WISHES DO COME TRUE, KIDS.

-Maggie