If I had a million dollars, I would probably spend it on buying a modest home with cash, so I wouldn't have to owe the bank anything, and then I'd buy a nice car with power locking, a CD player, and a digital clock inside. If I have any leftover, I'll split it 33/33/33 with a savings account, a luxurious travel trip to Europe, and the beginning of a college fund for my future kid.
I'm pretty practical about it, I think, so I don't really have anything else to say about the million dollars except for where it may come from. Did I save it all up, or did I acquire it suddenly? Like through an inheritance or the lottery. I don't think I'll ever win the lottery, you know. My luck just sucks that way. But if there's a lottery pool at work I'd definitely join. I mean, someone has to win, and playing the game sounds like a fun way to get together and frantically check out the pile of tickets.
A lot of people who suddenly obtain money often waste it all and then lose it all. I've learned from all those TV shows about people who won the lottery to know better than them - at least I should. Maybe I'll even go a little crazy with my house and buy a nice TV or something. And I would definitely buy a game console! Even though I suck at all really competitive online games, it'd be nice to have the option. I'd buy an Xbox AND a Playstation. But not a Wii.
Anyways, if I had a million dollars, I would be a very happy person. But there's no way I could ever retire safely on that kind of nest egg - nowadays, you need 2 million stocked up to retire comfortably at 65, and by the time I'm 65, I'm going to want to have a much higher standard of living than just barely living through everyday.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Dear mom
Dear mom,
Thanks for everything. There are so many things I want to thank you for, but a lot of them wouldn't be appropriate to announce to the public. We've had our personal spats and needless yelling, but more than that, we've had our fun times together, dancing in the living room and making fun of Abby.
But everything goes way beyond just simple things. I know that everything you and Dad did was for me. So I could grow up happy and secure in a big home that loves me for who I am. You always push me to do my best, even if I don't feel like pushing too hard a lot of the time. You encourage me and you didn't get mad when I said I wanted to go into art.
One day I'll make you proud. Make you know for sure that I wasn't just some mistake, some nobody kid. I want to be somebody for you; to make you smile at me and brag to people that hey, Amy is my daughter, she has done this and that and so on and so forth. Everything I've accomplished is all thanks to you really, even if you didn't really like me at first.
I know sometimes I may stress you out and gnash your teeth, but you got to admit, you do that way more with Abby and Adele, so I am obviously your favorite. We've had our ups and our downs, but overall, it's the ups that keep our house a home.
I used to want nothing more than to leave our family and run to the states for college. Now that we're finally at that point, I don't want that anymore. I'm going to miss you mom, and hopefully you'll miss me too (nah, I know you'll miss me for sure). You're the best mom a daughter could ever ask for and more. You've done a great job with me (I mean, look at how awesome I turned out!), good luck with the three other ones (especially Abby). I don't know if I've said this yet, but I love you mom. You're the apple of my eye, and the best - booboohead? - in the whole wide world.
your "sweetheart",
Amy
Thanks for everything. There are so many things I want to thank you for, but a lot of them wouldn't be appropriate to announce to the public. We've had our personal spats and needless yelling, but more than that, we've had our fun times together, dancing in the living room and making fun of Abby.
But everything goes way beyond just simple things. I know that everything you and Dad did was for me. So I could grow up happy and secure in a big home that loves me for who I am. You always push me to do my best, even if I don't feel like pushing too hard a lot of the time. You encourage me and you didn't get mad when I said I wanted to go into art.
One day I'll make you proud. Make you know for sure that I wasn't just some mistake, some nobody kid. I want to be somebody for you; to make you smile at me and brag to people that hey, Amy is my daughter, she has done this and that and so on and so forth. Everything I've accomplished is all thanks to you really, even if you didn't really like me at first.
I know sometimes I may stress you out and gnash your teeth, but you got to admit, you do that way more with Abby and Adele, so I am obviously your favorite. We've had our ups and our downs, but overall, it's the ups that keep our house a home.
I used to want nothing more than to leave our family and run to the states for college. Now that we're finally at that point, I don't want that anymore. I'm going to miss you mom, and hopefully you'll miss me too (nah, I know you'll miss me for sure). You're the best mom a daughter could ever ask for and more. You've done a great job with me (I mean, look at how awesome I turned out!), good luck with the three other ones (especially Abby). I don't know if I've said this yet, but I love you mom. You're the apple of my eye, and the best - booboohead? - in the whole wide world.
your "sweetheart",
Amy
Graduation
We're graduating this Saturday! I can't even believe it, it feels so surreal. Next Monday I should be waking up at 6AM, like I have been doing every day Monday - Friday for 13 years, but I won't be. And I never will be ever again. Instead of coming back to Saipan and dragging my feet to SIS, in the fall I will be studying animation in Savannah, Georgia, at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I can't believe it. I just... can't believe it.
We got our gowns today at lunch. Mine is size 5'10" - 6'0", so we'll see how that goes. Maybe we'll be swaggalicious and krump all the way to the stage. Have you heard about the senior prank where all the students gave something to the headmaster in exchange for their diplomas? They handed him rubber balls, paperclips, loose change, and other odds and ends when they received their diplomas. I think it's pretty funny.
Diploma... It all sounds so formal. And I guess it should be, since we've been working for this thing practically our entire lives. I mean, this is where our real lives start. After this, we'll all be figuring out who we are, and after that, we'll be getting jobs, getting married, and raising families. It's so weird. So you're telling me that I'm going to be independent from now on, and that I won't be living with my parents? I'm not sure how I'll be able to take it...
I'm excited, to say the least. Enthusiastic, enthralled, practically bursting with ambitions and dreams for the future. All of my hopes are riding on this diploma Dr. Jenkins will be casually handing to me as he reads off all of our names in alphabetical order. I am #5, not too early, not too late. He'll call "Amelia Faye Costelo Hudkins" and I'll push and shove everyone out of my way to get my diploma and out of here.
I wonder if people will remember me fondly. How will they remember me as? Abel's girlfriend, Abby's sister. I hope more people know me as the tall girl, plays basketball. Moreso as the girl who does art and all of the school t-shirts and yearbook pages. But what I really really hope people remember as Amy. Plain and simple, with too many words to describe me in just an offhanded phrase.
I want to make all the people I know here proud. I want to be so many things. Graduation is only the first step on the ladder.
We got our gowns today at lunch. Mine is size 5'10" - 6'0", so we'll see how that goes. Maybe we'll be swaggalicious and krump all the way to the stage. Have you heard about the senior prank where all the students gave something to the headmaster in exchange for their diplomas? They handed him rubber balls, paperclips, loose change, and other odds and ends when they received their diplomas. I think it's pretty funny.
Diploma... It all sounds so formal. And I guess it should be, since we've been working for this thing practically our entire lives. I mean, this is where our real lives start. After this, we'll all be figuring out who we are, and after that, we'll be getting jobs, getting married, and raising families. It's so weird. So you're telling me that I'm going to be independent from now on, and that I won't be living with my parents? I'm not sure how I'll be able to take it...
I'm excited, to say the least. Enthusiastic, enthralled, practically bursting with ambitions and dreams for the future. All of my hopes are riding on this diploma Dr. Jenkins will be casually handing to me as he reads off all of our names in alphabetical order. I am #5, not too early, not too late. He'll call "Amelia Faye Costelo Hudkins" and I'll push and shove everyone out of my way to get my diploma and out of here.
I wonder if people will remember me fondly. How will they remember me as? Abel's girlfriend, Abby's sister. I hope more people know me as the tall girl, plays basketball. Moreso as the girl who does art and all of the school t-shirts and yearbook pages. But what I really really hope people remember as Amy. Plain and simple, with too many words to describe me in just an offhanded phrase.
I want to make all the people I know here proud. I want to be so many things. Graduation is only the first step on the ladder.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
seasons
My favorite season is... wait. Wait a second. There are no freaking seasons here. There's just freaking hot season and freaking even hotter season. So what the heck is this topic all about?!
Well... I guess out of the two seasons we have here, my favorite would be typhoon season. That way the typhoon would come and we'd all get to skip school and go surfing. And when typhoon season rolls around my mom stocks up on junk food and we get to eat it all and watch it pour outside.
For those of you who aren't in the know, Saipan's typhoon season runs from July to January - most of the nasty stuff happens in September and October though. We're so relaxed about typhoons because 1, there's no way a tsunami would hit us because of the Marianas Trench, and 2, all of the buildings here are required to be made of concrete, so when it hits, we can barely feel it.
The worst that can happen is maybe some power outages and being stuck in the house for a day, but that's all not too bad. I guess then I'll just have to talk to my family instead of logging ont to Facebook. We turn on the radio, light candles, and cook pots and pots of soba on the gas burner. The real big thing about the power outages that sucks would be the lack of water, which means flushing the toilet is limited to one flush per toilet, and then after that we have to find some water and manually put it in the toilet - otherwise we just hold it in. But yeah, other than that it's fine.
It's kind of romantic, actually. Being holed up in your house with candles burning and the rain hammering outside. It's something that could definitely be used for some sort of novel or something; maybe I'll sell my typhoon stories with bored, suburbanite writers with lackluster lives, searching (and paying) for inspiration.
I wish we had all four seasons here, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of calling this place a "tropical island paradise". In Georgia there will be some more variation, I think, but it still won't snow. I'm thinking of going to my aunt's place in Oklahoma sometime this winter to make snow angels and such, but I'd definitely have to save up to go skiing anywhere. Maybe I can get some people together and take a few trips, but who knows what will happen.
Well... I guess out of the two seasons we have here, my favorite would be typhoon season. That way the typhoon would come and we'd all get to skip school and go surfing. And when typhoon season rolls around my mom stocks up on junk food and we get to eat it all and watch it pour outside.
For those of you who aren't in the know, Saipan's typhoon season runs from July to January - most of the nasty stuff happens in September and October though. We're so relaxed about typhoons because 1, there's no way a tsunami would hit us because of the Marianas Trench, and 2, all of the buildings here are required to be made of concrete, so when it hits, we can barely feel it.
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| Super Typhoon Nabi hit in 2005 |
It's kind of romantic, actually. Being holed up in your house with candles burning and the rain hammering outside. It's something that could definitely be used for some sort of novel or something; maybe I'll sell my typhoon stories with bored, suburbanite writers with lackluster lives, searching (and paying) for inspiration.
I wish we had all four seasons here, but I guess that would defeat the purpose of calling this place a "tropical island paradise". In Georgia there will be some more variation, I think, but it still won't snow. I'm thinking of going to my aunt's place in Oklahoma sometime this winter to make snow angels and such, but I'd definitely have to save up to go skiing anywhere. Maybe I can get some people together and take a few trips, but who knows what will happen.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
the one and only song
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| Beethoven being a sexy beast |
Another nice thing about it is that it has no lyrics that will get old or repetitive to annoy me. I mean, let's face it, the lyrics we hear now are probably going to be old in 10 years (aside from the Sinatras of our generation - if there are any). Lyrics won't get stuck in my head, which is always a good thing.
Because it has no lyrics and it's like classical music, I can easily tune out of the symphony if I wanted to. But that's only a good thing if I have to listen to the song on repeat forever - if not, I guess I could just turn off my iPod or whatever I'm listening with.
But I really hope I don't have to listen to only one song for the rest of my life. Well, actually, I'm pretty sure I don't have to. Instead, I get to listen to awesome bands like Foo Fighters, Panic at the Disco, the Civil Wars, and so on and so forth. B)
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