vineyard vines and sweet summertime.

ok, admit when that you giggled when you read this rhyming title. i know, i know, i'm a poetic genius.
it's finally summer and y'all, i have my first real job! previously, the extent of my business ventures has been purely babysitting or teaching cheerleading lessons. last summer, i was a...i guess you can say nanny?...to some family friends that i absolutely love. so for june, i babysat them and in july, when i went to camp, my mom told them to use my friend, anne. well, now anne's their primary babysitter (hmm hmm JOB STEALER) but i'm still on good terms with the family and i still teach them cheerleading, which i am SO much better at than babysitting, so  i guess you can say we split amicably.


so for this summer, i am working at a children's clothing store in crestline that sells baby/toddler/young boy clothes. it's not that difficult, and trust me, i somehow can always find a way to mess something up and i have yet to on this job. i'm relatively good at talking to people i don't know, i enjoy folding and organizing clothes, and the math part of you have to use when checking people out is - dare i say it?- fun. i get to help moms pick out vineyard vine's clothing (LOVE) for their kids, while their children are mesmerized by the train that runs along the perimeter of the ceiling. i swear, that thing is a better babysitter than i'll every be. i look at outfits i would dress my children in (see below). also 80% of the time you are sitting in here alone so i plenty of time to do my summer reading, blog, facebook, watch lizzie mcguire episodes, read magazines, and watch dr. phil. i promise the later is not something i do regularly, but the store tv only gets certain channels and that happens to come on in the afternoon and its SO entertaining.

my child will wear these every day until he is 17 and can do what he wants, with exception to the days he wants to wear an alabama football jersey. actually he could still wear these with a jersey and i will be cool with it.

the whole being alone aspect didn't bother me as much as i thought it would. for someone who has to constantly be around people, i have enjoyed the solitude greatly. audrey hepburn said it best when she stated, "i do not want to be alone, i just want to be left alone." i leave the door open and i see people walking around going to otey's, the pant's store, and snap kids (every single preteen in mountain brook goes there, it's the limited too of this generation). i talk to the occasional customer and enjoy my "allison" time.


did i mention that i'm also home alone this week? yeah goob and my dad are in north carolina playing golf and mi madre is working at alpine. so i'm riding solo this week and it is awesome. i wake up, don't have to talk to people in the morning, go on a run (kudos to aldog for teaching me how to love running), make myself breakfast in the microwave that i have moved downstairs, make small talk with bucky and the cat, who i have renamed from tiger to waffles for this week, and play music as loud as i feel like it being. at night, i do whatever's going on and i'm such a goody goody (curses) that i don't really do anything rebellious or out of the ordinary than when my family's home. in other words, i do what i want 24/7. and wayne left home his macbook pro...the same one i asked for for years and never received and he got randomly one friday. #hatedchild...so i get to take it work and use it all the time. hola! i just have to remember to get the mail, take out the trash, and feed the animals, which is easy because my dear friend aaron (fondly known as ayron) texts me daily to remind me.


tomorrow, i'm going to alpine (aka the single greatest place on earth and i dare you to tell me otherwise) to visit my mom with anne and i'm driving so pray i don't fall asleep at the wheel like i almost did coming home from ttown on thursday night. so between the lake, being home alone, alpine, not having to go to school, and doing what i want, the summer at 17 score board is most definitely saying allison ingram for the win.


to the moon and back,
ali


"I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year."

true life: my friends live at my house.

ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you that i ALWAYS seem to have people over at my house. which, i have to say, is totally true. and not in a "omg y'all, i'm so popular" way, just my parents are cool with people randomly showing up unannounced plus we always have a plethra of soft drinks stocked up, so our house is just usually the gathering place.


for example, my cousins graduation party. my cousin (who my mother wishes was her child. instead she was stuck with me and wayne) just graduated from law school at samford so my family, my aunt, uncle, and cousins were coming over to eat. i was upstairs "babysitting" my younger cousin, emma kate, also fondly known as EK (pronounced eeek). and when i say babysitting, i mean my friend anne and i were drawing pictures to put on our fridge while my more responsible and caring friend alston (she is fondly known as aldog) was doing the babysitting.


anyways, anne's boyfriend, connor, texts her and says, "is it cool if we come over?" there are a couple of points that need to be made at this time...1) we don't know who "we" is. 2) we didn't feel like going downstairs to tell my parents that people were coming over. and 3) we didn't tell our friends that there was a graduation party downstairs. so, 15 minutes later, 10 guys come busting in through my back door since no one bothers knocking any more, walk through the party, and go upstairs like its no big deal. my parents, who are used to people filtering in and out, didn't see it as anything strange or unusual, but needless to say, my cousins were slightly confused.


another time, i told my parents, "oh by the way, i might have like 5-10ish people over tonight to watch a movie." lo and behold, people tell other people to come over, and by the time we turn off the movie, not only are there about 7 people there that i didn't know about, there were probably a grand total of 35 people there. and let's not forget the time when we hosted about 40 people at midnight after holiday assembly with only 12 hours notice. yes, at 10 AM my friend called and said, "yeah we kinda procrastinated planning the after party until now...so can we just come to your house?"


and finally, last thursday, i went to chez fon fon for some classy mother daughter bonding time with my mom, laine, and her mom. that night, i was also going to see the midnight premiere of pirates of the caribbean 4, so hannah and anne were spending the night. i had told them earlier to just let themselves in (they know where the spare key is) and when me and my mom pulled up, there were about 5 other cars there that we didn't know about that belonged of some of my guy friends who decided to come hang out until the movie. also, my brother was just getting dropped off, and we pulled in right in time to see him running in the house, banishing a full sized american flag (?). this is my life.


my friend, laine, tells me all the time that there's no way i could ever feel unloved or lonely, because i'm always surrounded by people. which is partially true. i love having people over, i love having my friends know my parents, my pets, and even extended family members, i love having my friends go upstairs and grab a coke the second they walk in, and i love keeping around old clothes that don't fit anymore because they fit my friends and i know when they come over, they will probably borrow them. i'm pretty sure my family likes them too. on christmas night, my mom even wanted people to come over because the house felt too quiet. so anne and two of my brothers/my friends came over and played ping pong and ate elf shaped pancakes with wayne's brand new pancake stencils.


i think my favorite part, though, of having my house as the gathering place is that people who normally don't hang out, do. for instance, my friends who i went to church with for years and are in college now live at my house when they're home on holiday so of course my friends in my grade have met them and even befriended them. so once again, my selfishness wins out because i get to have everyone i'm friends with get along and hang out with me at the same time. and have i ever mentioned that i absolutely adore my friends and that i have the best ones in the world? 'cause i do. y'all, my life rocks.


until next time, or until you drop in to my house,
ali


"Without my friends, I would have a slimmer figure, a higher GPA, and more money in my bank account. And I would be miserable."

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." -C.S. Lewis

#i'm17andidowhatiwant

ok, I'm not usually one to enjoy this sort of thing but OH MY GOSH THIS IS ADORABLE!!! personally, I don't think I would particularly want my marriage proposal to go like that, but I think it's so creative and so cute!
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2011/05/17

it just so happens that one of my friends' favorite topics happens to be their ideal proposal. for instance, over Christmas break, my cousin Lindsey took me and four of my friends to the fabulous New Orleans, inspired by one of her late night, spontaneous college adventures. at night, we were eating at this place called pizza pi...as in the math pi symbol. nerdy, yes. mediocre, slightly. 2/5 people in the group annoyed that they couldn't find a place that served fried oysters within a mile of our hotel IN NEW ORLEANS, pository. so anyways, as we awaited our geeky, decent, and non seafood pizza, one of our dinner topics was an ideal proposal. 3 of my friends launched into elaborate plans involving rooftops in Paris, a "lock of love" (?), bridges, twinkle lights, and songs especially written on the guitar for the occasion. well, to each her own.

meanwhile, my other friend's involved hiking to a waterfall or at the hunting camp and mine was either Christmas morning in the "why did I get up so early to open presents?/ its HOW long until lunch?/ nap time and watch Christmas movies" time frame or at an alabama football game. ok, I know the later sounds a tad redonk but just think; alabama is singing rammer jammer after beating auburn or tennessee or any other team for that matter, and you turn around to a marriage proposal. yeah I know, ultimate "love my life y'all" moment. also, i can pretty much quarantee that everyone (even the pinky-less elderly man who sits next to my family and who high fives us after every first down) would give us high fives and roll tides in full jubilation.

also the proposal trailor idea also got me SO PSYCHED about tomorrow night. I'm going to my first midnight movie premiere! we're seeing the 4th pirates of the carribean movie and I could honestly live not seeing it the second it came out, but were just going because we can and because we're 17 and we do what we want. I know I will probably regret this decision when i have to go to school the next day for 7 hours, then work right after, and then go to the lake with my friends. in other words, starting tomorrow night, I'm throwing it down* all weekend. heck to the yes.

*throwing it down: (N, V, exclamatory expression) to let loose, go crazy, have a rockin awesome time, do what you want, exc.

and while were at it, I should probably explain my colloquial expression "I'm 17 and I do what I want". a couple of months ago it hit me, why do I put myself through so much unnesscessary stress and worry about things that I 1) dont care about 2) don't want to do 3) don't matter? life's just so much easier if I do what I want and not in the selfish way, just in the way to not do worry about things that, in the long run, amount to nothing and to do what I actually want to do. for instance, I tried out for choir. sure I didn't make it, but I wanted to do it, so I actually did it. it makes sense in my mind just not when I try to explain and put it into words. it also serves as a very witty comeback to anything. example: "allison, why didn't you read that required book for english?" "cause I'm 17 and I do what i want. and the AP test is over, therefore all I am required to do in this class is play angry birds." best lifestyle option ever.

to the moon and back,
ali

"Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live." -Henry van Dyke

is it football season yet?

so last night was the spring game and even though it was 45 minutes away at hueytown and technically it wasn't a real game, i still absolutely LOVED it! first of all, it was my first official game of sort of being a senior. meaning we got to be in the middle for green and gold forever, got to run out when the football team ran through the run through sign, and got to be front and center for squad lines. 90% chance if you're reading this you probably have no idea what this is or it's significance, but trust me, its kinda a big deal. in other words, last night was easily the highlight of my week. maybe even my month. 

did i mention it was the debut of the brand spanking new MBHS cheerleading hats? we're only usually going to wear them for cold/rainy games or race for the cure but it was sunny and we were excited so we broke them out. i know you're thinking what i'm thinking...heck to the yes. work the hats.  




one of the things i take pride in about myself (besides lazor tag and angry birds) is that i look good in hats. trust me, i don't regularly more like never say that i look good in stuff, but i can rock a hat. so you'll be seeing this when i go to the lake, go to the beach, go to the cheer carwash (which is tomorrow...hooray for fundraising!), on the occasional walk this summer, and any other place i can find an excuse to wear it.

also during the game, i got to discuss alabama football with my friend next to me in squadlines, watch football being played, AND cheer for football. it was kind of a psych though, because this morning when i woke up 1) it wasn't football season yet 2) it wasn't the weekend, it was a friday. and 3) i felt like i had been hit by a train. so needless to say i slept until 9 and went to school late. being 17 and doing what you want is great. i highly recommend it.

to the moon and back,
ali

coach boone: "why don't you get this little girls some dolls or something, coach?"
coach yoast: "i've tried. she loves football"
-Remember the Titans

my struggles with standardized testing

out of all the things I am forced to go through during my academic career, standardized testing is definitely top of the list of things i absolutely detest. personally, I just find it stupid and ridiculous to spend an entire year in a classroom or pay hundreds of dollars in tutoring just to take a 4 hour test. and then that one test is all the colleges seem to look at.


honestly, tell me one person who can sit and focus for a test that long and that boring? literally during the essay part of the AP history exam, I was thinking of ways that I could prevent me from having to finish the entire 3 essays in a 2 hour time frame. they ranged from just drawing a smiley face on the sheet and leaving it at that to hyperventilating and staging a dramatic faint (along with topling a few of the tables over in the process. you know, just to add to the effect). I also honestly thought about writing, "I DO NOT CARE ABOUT THIS AT ALL AND I JUST WANT TO LEAVE THIS ROOM" because I'm pretty sure both myself and the person grading my wonderful exam probably feel the same way.


after all my years of standardized testing, from SAT's and ARMT starting in 3rd grade all the way to AP tests and the ACT currently, I realize I follow the same process of test taking...
stage 1: motivation. "I can do this. 36 all the way. college here I come!"
stage 2: continued self encouragement. or also known as #20-40 of the math section of the ACT. "oh no this is getting harder. don't worry Allison, you know this. you didn't go to all those study sessions for nothing."
stage 3: just push through. "ok this sucks. I realize and I accept that I probably will not reach that orginal highly overexaggerated goal. just try to focus for the next 2 hours and then you'll be done and you can go eat.
stage 4: angry depression. "I hate everything. I hate the little girl in this passage that I am reading. I hate the silence. I hate the supervisor in here who gets to play angry birds the entire time I am being tortured."
stage 5: delirum/ musical stylings. (while humming the entire aaron carter soundtrack) "long hair, don't care. I don't need college anyways. I'll just be an air traffic controller and live off airplane peanuts."
and finally stage 6: I'm 17 and I do what I want and I do not care anymore. "time to play the 'how many words can i make out of the letters A, B, C, D, and E' game!"


so this week, between the hours of 8 AM and 11:30 AM on wednesday, think of me as I take my AP english test and make up metaphors and plotlines that do not exist in order to make my essay sound slightly more credible. and just in case you were wondering, I did in fact make up a tax break for Nixon's presidency, along with the entire history of slavery in the US for my history exam. rty.


deuces y'all.


"Life's more painless for the brainless." -Wicked, the Musical

recap of this week

let's take a glance into my life this week...

• got hit drilled by a baseball thrown by our high school pitcher. thus the giant bruise on my arm the size of kingdom come. but don't worry y'all, i didn't even cry! my dad told me that he was proud of me for staying tough, but he seriously doubts my judgement in scenarios like this.
• also was umm...i guess violated would be a good term for this?...at the sophomore ball saturday. while some friends may offer encouraging words or warm hugs to show their love, mine pefer to mosh pit around me and make me feel uncomfortable. how did i get so lucky?
• goob's (wayne's) stride team took over so i got to eat all their food and paint their sign. best big sister ever right here.
• i didn't study for that AP history exam tomorrow. long hair, don't care.
• i had some of my wonderful friends come home from college early, which was so exciting but bittersweet at the same time because of the circumstances...(see below)
• a tornado hit tuscaloosa aka my second home since i was born/ my grandparents and great aunt's place of residence/ home of the university of alabama. it also hit birmingham just miles from my house. talk about a traumatic event, even though all of my family and friends were safe. the way my state, though, has rallied behind those hit has made me overwhelmed with pride to be an alabamian.
• osama bin laden was killed. oh. my. gosh.
• ROYAL WEDDING! best excuse there is to get up at 3:30 AM
• finished planning out all the run-through signs for football
• also finished my pop art project of Emma Watson. love.
• went to milo's covered in ice cream. if that doesn't say that i do what i want, then i don't know what does.

to the moon and back,
ali

"And at the end of the day, you can either focus on what's tearing you apart or holding you together."

Blog?

How in the world do I start a blog? I've been sitting here for about ten minutes typing out completely different options, all of them slightly worse than the previous. So I'm going to start out with some totally fun and cliche facts about me! Hooray for blogging!


1) Name: Allison Leigh Ingram. Also known as Ali (sometimes spelled Allie), Ali-cat, Waffles, Ainglesonge, Tina, and as my history teacher calls me, Big Al. Trust me, it's as awkward in real life as it is in blog life.

2) I'm a JUNYA at Mountain Brook.

3) I try to be involved at school, but I have this disorder called "never-make-anything-i-tryout-for-itius". But I'm a cheerleader...GSG y'all!

4) One of my life dreams is to be a hipster. Current status on said dream: pending.

5) I have lots of catch phrases that I either steal from others or make up myself. So if I ever write something and you question it, it's probably one of the phrases.

6) I abolutely ADORE my friends.

7) The University of Alabama. Caaaaaan I get a roll tide?

8) I'm obsessed with the whole France thing and am currently trying to learn to speak French. I mean, I've taken it for five years so far in school, but I'm by far the dumbest in my class. Whatevs.

9) According to my friends, I have a problem with "fantasy worlds". I have all three stars on every level of angry birds yes that's right, every single level, I love Harry Potter, and I want to be a mermaid. Sue me.

10) I'm good at: angry birds, lazor tag, blowing cards off glass bottles, and Jai Ho on JustDance 2 (I can win blind folded. nbd.).

11) Football season is my favorite season.

12) I love quotes. I even have a 54 page word document that has been accumulating since 8th grade.

13) I have chronic indeciveness. We're talking 20 minute breakdowns in the local CVS while trying to pick out a shampoo.

14) Ideal night: Indiana Jones movies, chinese food, and my santa is my homeboy shirt.
 15) Though I'm frequently ridiculous and stubborn and selfish, I am redeemed and beloved by Christ.


To the moon and back,
ali

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold." -Zelda Fitzgerald