NaNoWriMo -- Day 22

Life is joy!  My one year anniversary with Brady is coming up in just a few weeks and I'm so excited.  I suggested to Lizzy that we could go out on a double date the week before, since that's when I met Brady and when she and Zach got back together, but she's too busy prepping for the second annual college beauty pageant.  She tried to get me to compete again, but I politely declined.  She seemed pretty upset and for a second I thought she might smack me or throw a tantrum, but then she just laughed and said that it was probably for the best anyway.  I certainly agree.  Not that I'd ever expect to win that thing again, but if I did by some happenstance happen to beat her again, well, I don't think our friendship could recover from that.  Best to just leave it alone and hope she doesn't think I'm bowing out because I think I'd beat her.  Let her think that it's because I don't want to lose, which is what I'm hoping she thinks, or that it's because I'd rather focus on Brady, which is closest to the truth.

But anyway, back to the joy!  Brady won't tell me exactly what he has planned, but he says it's going to be great.  Our first "date" was sweet but simple - we went out to get ice cream at this cute little shop near campus.  I told Brady I'd be happy to just do that again, but he says he wants something more special than that for our anniversary and that we should have had something more special for that for our first date.  I assure him it's fine, that I just want to be with him, but I think he thinks it's some sort of feminine trap or something, because he still insists on doing something fancy and grand.  Not that I mind too much.  I mean, I would be content with just going for a walk and getting ice cream, but I'm not going to object to a more romantically extravagant adventure either.

Oh, and speaking of adventures, I nearly skipped over the entire track season in my excitement to tell you about our anniversary!  Needless to say, this year went colossally better than last year.  No injuries for me and more trophies and ribbons than I ever expected to receive!  Considering that I expected to receive at most three and I got six, it might not sound that impressive, but I'm still off to a great start in my collegiate career.  Granted, half of those I did get at this one super easy meet where I even placed in an event I don't usually run, but that still leaves the three I expected to get, so at the very least, I did as well as I wanted to.  Brady told me I did fantastic.  He was at every meet within an hours drive (there were four of them) and even went with me to one of the further away meets, even though I didn't get a single prize there.  He still told me I did great and that my determination and my speed were inspiring.  I laughed that off a little, but it really did mean a lot to me that he would say something like that.  Brady isn't the most outgoing guy, but he manages to often say really nice things at the right time.  I like that a lot.  He doesn't have to be super talkative; he just needs to know what to say at the right time, and he does that pretty darn well.  Better than I do, I think.

And I just can't wait to see what he has planned for our anniversary!  I know he and Zach have been conspiring and trading ideas, and I've managed to get from Zach a little of what he has planned for Lizzy the day after the beauty pageant (there re-versary as he calls it), and based on how much thought he's put into that, I'm sure Brady's plan will be wonderful.  And even if I've gotten my hopes up too high, I'll still be enjoying a night with my favorite guy.  What more could a girl want?

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I want it all:  fame, fortune, and a good man.  I'm well on my way.  I think that after I win this next pageant, I might actually try for the big show.  I recently got a promotion at work, which I managed to pull off in the middle of my classes and pageant preparations, so I'm pretty sure I can do anything.  I'm locally famous for my pageant performances, was even before my most recent wins.  That's how I met Zach after all.  And with him by my side, I've got a good man.  Now I just need to work on the fortune.  I've started to learn that Bridget's family is a little filthy rich.  I've considered how maybe I could use that to get me started, maybe get a foot in the door somehow, but I'm not sure how that would work.  I think it might be better to just focus on the pageants and let fame develop into fortune.  I know just winning pageants won't do it, but I'm thinking I could go into modeling.  I'm not sure why I never considered that before.  People have mentioned it to me before, but I always kind-of blew it off.  I wanted to focus on live performance, but modeling could bring in a lot of money, and there's a modeling school where I could perfect my techniques just a few hours away.  I ran the idea by Zach a little nervously and he seemed to think it was a great idea, or at least that I'd be great at it.  He seemed genuinely excited for me.  He responded quickly so it didn't seem like he hesitated or anything.  That made me feel pretty good.  Zach's a pretty smart, fun guy.  Even though I didn't originally get back together with him to be with him, I'm enjoying spending time with him more and more.