How Karli Amuses Herself

I wrote this over a year ago and never finished it:

"The question I've been pondering lately: Is it bad that I'm alone so much?

I know "being alone" isn't a bad thing. Some people can't handle it. Some people thrive on proximity to other human beings. Sometimes, I envy them.

And other times, I don't. I can honestly say I enjoy being by myself 90% of the time. I find that I'm one of those people who likes to just sit and think. Yes, I know there are better things I could be doing. But are they really better? I'm not sure. Haven't quite come to a conclusion on that one. I like sitting and doing things just by myself. Watching movies. Reading. Writing. Drawing. Talking to myself. None of those require other people. But does that make me a loner?

Coming to college, there are so many new people. Wonderful people...."

It was going to be a full blog post about my selective hermitude.

And now here I am, living alone for a month, and I begin to drive myself absolutely bonkers. Turns out I might be more social than I thought. I can't be alone with myself for too long or I start to go crazy. Literally. I caught myself talking to my fish the other day and not just the normal "Hi, Fish," as I feed him but actually having a full conversation with him. Problem.

I got back from England, and my schedule was as follows:

7 AM - wake up, eat breakfast, shower. Alone.

2 PM - go to work and sit there. Alone.

5 PM - go home and eat dinner. Alone.

10:30 PM - fall asleep. Alone. I secretly really miss Maddy, ok? :)

P.S. This schedule has now switched to where I go to bed at midnight and sleep til 11. Bad. And I'm not sure why I'm sleeping that much...

And as you can see, there are lots of time gaps, which are also full of alone time in which I need to find ways to amuse myself. Listening to music started to drive me crazy. Listening to my own thoughts drove me crazy. Watching mindless sitcoms is just stupid. So what to do?

Well, here's what I've done.

1. Threw a party for 25 crazy, boy-less girls. I hosted, and the wonderful Brittany planned the whole thing while I was in England. She's kind of awesome like that. I was celebrating 1 year, and she was celebrating 1 month. Check out her blog for pictures from it. It was actually a blast! 

2. Instead of watching mindless TV (Say Yes to the Dress and A Baby Story don't count as mindless TV), I watch documentaries so that I'm actually learning something and being productive. Hooray for Netflix. Except the parental controls are preventing me from watching the cool anatomy ones with guts. I'm not trying to watch anything dirty!!!

3. Bike rides! Sure, one of the times was down the street to get a hot-n-ready and 2 crazy-breads to feed me for 4 days, but still! Chelsea was lovely enough to leave her bike for me, and I have definitely put it to good use. As long as I don't try riding it up the hill and causing an asthma attack, I'm good. 

4. Adventures with Tera-lynne. I think everyone should know a Tera-lynne, especially this one. We had a class together over a year ago and have been friends ever since. It's impossible to not have fun with this girl. We've learned Balinese monkey chants, went to a Sri Lankan festival in Salt Lake, had crazy raves in her bedroom (don't worry-just the two of us), went hot-tubbing in 30 degree weather, and this past week, we rode bikes up to the river and played Survivor. In other words, I found a 7 ft. stick, so we braided some reeds, sharpened a shorter stick, and turned it into a bow and arrow. Cuz we're cool like that. We're making a summer bucket list.

Told ya she was cool...

sharp stick

5. Read Stardust, since the movie is one of my favorites. Interestingly enough, I still like the movie better. The book had added detail that was fun to know, but the two are different enough, and I liked the ideas the movie adds and focuses on. Plus, honestly, the movie is way more romantic, and well, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. :)

6. Painted nails. Duh.

7. Rearranged furniture. Ok. It was for the party, but I've kept it this way, and will do so until my roommates return and disapprove. :)

8. Write letters on parchment with my fountain pen. Don't worry, this baby has a post of its own coming up.

9. Witness an eclipse. I've always wanted to see one of these! 

Yeah. I took this, right as the sun was reappearing.

10. Avoiding males. I'm not as good at this as I used to be. I can't be nice without guys taking it the wrong way. And I won't go into detail just in case these guys are stalkers and read this. But last week, somehow a guy weaseled his way into my apartment and was trying to pull moves big time. He had the gall to tell me that I'm "the worst cuddler in the world." Well, uh, yeah buddy, did you ever think maybe I was doing that COMPLETELY ON PURPOSE?!? He was seconds away from losing his manhood. Really. Finally, I stood up, and he left. Maybe he'll read this. Then he'll get the hint. Ewe.

11. Start a 3'x5' chalk pastel collage. I've never really used chalk pastels, and it's looking awesome! Here's a sneak peek! 

my baby picture. I was a fatty. :)

12. And finally, I've started ending each night listening to the Mormon Channel on my phone. Talks, interviews, radio programs from the 1930s, calm music...It's quite a nice way to end the day actually.

If you have any other good ideas to keep me busy, let me know!