Meeting Kris Allen

       Yesterday, Kris Allen came to the University of West Georgia's bookstore. He had a concert at the Mill Town Music Hall which is in Bremen, Georgia at 8 PM last night. 

   

 For those of you that don't know who Kris Allen is, he won season 8 off American Idol.  Truthfully, many artists from American Idol aren't really recognized as much anymore and the most successful people that people still remember from the show are Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson from previous seasons of American Idol. Because Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul had left the show, things have started to go downhill at that point. But Kris Allen is famous for the song "Live Like We're Dying" and Kayne West's "Heartless".  (He did a cover of Heartless while on American Idol) 

Yesterday,  I randomly went to the bookstore to look at the new merchandise that I had gotten an email about. while I was there, I saw a poster on the door saying that Kris Allen was going to be there at 3 PM. I looked at my phone and the time said 2:50PM. I had nothing else to do that day because I didn't have any Friday classes. so I stuck around and waited to meet him. 

While I was waiting to meet him (He didn't arrive until about 3:20), I meet some really nice people. Brenna, Erica and Evan. We struck a conversation and all came to the conclusion that we had no idea that he was coming to campus but we all knew American Idol (it is going downhill in my opinion). It was really fun and we bonded over the weirdest things. 

Finally, Kris Allen shows up and we were one of the few people that actually got to meet him. He was such a sweetheart and took the time to take pictures with everyone and even signed autographs for us. Granted that there was only like twenty of us that met him, but it was so kind of him to do so. 

We all waited for him to be done taking pictures of everyone and so that could get a group picture with him. 

One girl even asked if Kris remembered her because she has met him on several occasions and been to many of his concerts. Unfortunately,  he didn't which was pretty awkward because she's met him many times. It was pretty ironic because when we went to his concert that night he said that he would remember many of our faces and stuff like that when he was singing a song he created for the end of his shows) 

I let Kris take a selfie of us

Before Kris left, we asked him if he still watches American Idol, to which he replies "he doesn't have cable." You don't need cable to watch American Idol because it is a local channel; it was funny because once we told him that he, goes "I don;'t have time and I don't really have a television". Once he left, we knew that he didn't want to bad mouth American Idol because that's what gave him his career, but in reality American Idol is going downhill.  

     

From left to Right: Evan, Brenna, Kris Allen, Me (Jenna), and Erica

Later that night, Brenna and I went to see Kris Allen at his concert. It was only a 20 minute drive from campus and they sold us tickets for $15 dollars at UWG (Tickets are normally 0-45 dollars). It wasn't so bad. The venue is smaller than a Walmart and about the size of a Walgreens which is quite small for a venue, 

The opening act, Ivey Redding wasn't too bad. She only preformed for about 10 minutes before there was an intermission. When Kris came on, he did a lot of covers of songs (such as "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift). I'm not a fan "Shake It Off", but I have to say that he did a really good job! He also did a some of his music, which was pretty neat because the only song of his that I know is "Live Like We're Dying".

It was so fun because he was involving the audience (even though there was a lot of older people and not many young people)  and was creating improv songs and stuff. But He definitely was showing off and being himself.  Overall I had a really good time for $15. The show lasted for maybe two hours (it started late because their was an accident on I 20) 

The pictures were taken on an iPhone 5S andI took the ones of Kris Allen. 

Thanks for reading!

Jenna 

A New Haircut

I can't remember the proper time, I have actually gotten a haircut without donating it. When I was younger (maybe six or seven years of age), I had a haircut that was just shorter than my ears... .It was frightening.

 I have been donating my hair to Locks of Love since I was in 4th or 5th grade. At first the minimum to cut your hair with them was a twelve inches. Since then, they lowered the standards to ten inches.  For those of you that don't know what Locks of Love is,  it is an organization that people donate their hair to so that they can create wigs for people with cancer. I've donated my hair four or five times with them. But instead of giving their wigs away for free, they sell the wigs to people. Unfortunately, I just learned this today or I would've never started to donate my hair to them. I know its going to a good cause but I don't exactly agree with that and it saddens me that not many people know that they sell their wigs for a profit.

For the past few months, I have had my hair up in a bun, braid or even a ponytail and when I would wear my hair down, many people would comment how long my hair has grown. It's not a bad thing, but at points it would get overwhelming to get that same comment over and over again.  To be honest, I would rarely have it down because it got in the way and was a distraction for me and I began to think of cutting it off again. So on 18 January 2015,  I cut my hair off again. 

Getting a haircut for you might be normal and you may get it every couple weeks or months. But for me, I get a haircut maybe once every year or two. Because it takes so long for hair to grow to be long enough to donate but not coming to my ears. I remember the last two times, I had my hair cut, I cried. Yes, I cried when I got my hair cut but when you loose ten inches of hair that has been attached to your head, you will feel quite emotional. 

Today, I cut my hair for a different organization. An organization that I know that doesn't sell wigs for a profit. They give their wigs to people battling cancer for free. This organization is Pantene's Beautiful Lengths. They have the same requirements as Locks for Love except the amount of hair you can donate would be eight inches. Two Inches shorter than Locks For Love. 

This picture was taken hours before I cut my hair

After eight inches of hair had been cut off & the eight inches of hair in my hand

Even though I will miss doing things with my hair, I know it will grow back and there are many cute short hair styles out there. I just need to explore the options. I know I will have less hair maintenance and that may be a good thing because it won't take my long for me to try and curl my hair these days. Once I get tired of short hair i know it will grow back. 

   

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015

2014 went by quite quickly. 2015 is here. Wow and even though I am writing this post in the middle of January, I can't believe how quickly time has gone by. 

    

 Why I started blogging: 

         To begin why I am even blogging, I first started to read blogs by others in 2014 and by reading this one bloggler, Ella. {Big thanks to Ella for blogging because her blog is fabulous and she is a great inspiration} I never even thought of starting to blog until I learned that I must blog for one of my core classes in education in college. Between the class that I have to blog for and the inspiration from reading Ella's blogposts have encouraged my decision into start blogging. I know that I will make mistakes along thawed but as time goes on, I hope to start to improve my writing skills and this will give me a way to express and to share my ideas and inspirations and what I am thinking in a form of writing.

          Goals for 2015: 

             Because this is my first blog post, I want to share some of the goals that I have set for myself. Some people would call these New Year Resolutions, but personally, I hate New Year Resolutions. To me you can always be changing so why do you want to wait until the New Year to change? Can't you start in July? What about March or October? Why wait until January of the New Year to create something?
            I want to enjoy the finer things in life. Because I am in college, it can be quite stressful. With homework, studying and juggling everything that life throws at you, it can be challenging. By enjoying the finer things in life such as maybe going for a walk in the park to enjoy nature or even by smiling more, I know it will make me happier and help me become less stressed and help me enjoy being in the moment instead of worrying about the future. Because we are a technological world, it gets tough to step away from social media. To help me enjoy the finer things in life, I want to take a step away from technology for a bit and spend time doing something else.
           Make more time to spend with my family. As my brother, CJ, and I get older, we get busier and busier than ever and we tend to spend more time working or hanging out with friends. That's not a bad thing, but sometimes we forget to spend time together as a family. Especially with me being away in college, it gets tough because I don't see them as much as I would if I were living at home.
            Finally,  I want to blog. I know this sounds quite redundant as I am blogging right now but I want to blog when I come up with an idea or something that i feel like I should blog about instead of blogging because I feel like I have to and need to. I created this blog so that I can express myself in writing as I am thinking about minoring in English. I don't want writing this blog to ever feel like I have to write, but because I enjoy writing this blog. This blog will help me improve my writing skills and even help me find a new hobby. :)

Thanks for Reading! Have a great weekend. :)

Jenna