Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 30!

I made it!! :) I am honestly shocked that I remembered to blog (almost) every day this month! It's been a lot of fun writing down these little thoughts about things to be thankful for, and hopefully whenever I'm feeling down I can look back on this blog and remember them!

So, for the last day of the thankful series, I am thankful for my blog, and other blogs! I love sharing things with people through my blog, and I especially like looking at other people's blogs for ideas and inspiration. It's been a lot of fun discovering new ideas and interests this way, and I hope to continue blogging (although with the retail holiday season upon us, you may not hear from me for awhile...lol).

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 29

I can't believe today is the 2nd to last day of this series!! It has been both helpful and personally challenging to think of all of these things to be thankful for, and has definitely helped me realize that even when things seem bleak, I still have SO, so much to be thankful for!

So, today I am thankful for fun art! I have a few artsy things hanging around my room that bring me lots of joy :) #1 is definitely the beautiful picture of a bird that my friend Lindsay took and framed for me. It's a robin, one of my favorite birds, and the red of the bird really pops against the green of the background/trees it is sitting in! I also have 2 awesome pictures I got from this year's Chicago Comic-Con, 1 of Sheldon wearing his Flash t-shirt and saying "Bazinga," and another of the full cast of The Big Bang Theory (Leonard is wielding a light saber, and Penny is holding a carton of Chinese take-out!). I also have this neat little plate that I've had since as long as I can remember that has a baby's room/stork on it, and has my time and date of birth :) It's fun to have these little things around to look at, they really brighten up my room!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 28

I am having a little bit of trouble thinking of something that I haven't already mentioned! Let's see......ahh, I know! I am EXTREMELY thankful that the repair of my car is hopefully not going to take very long, and that it might end up costing much less than originally quoted thanks to a very nice mechanic! Yay!!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 27

Today I am extremely, extremely thankful that no one was hurt in the car accident I had yesterday. Though my tire was messed up, and my axle is broken, it is getting fixed, and for that I am also thankful for my amazing, amazing boyfriend, and our awesome friends Cody and Lea, who came to the rescue and helped us put on the spare tire at the scene. Long story short, the road was slick from the rain and I spun out, hitting a median but nothing and no one else, thank God!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 26

Today, I am thankful for my awesome mom and dad. Even though they are included in my friends and family, I feel they deserve special recognition for everything they have done with me. Neither of them makes very much, but even so, they do whatever they can to help me both financially and otherwise. I am so lucky to have parents who support me in all I do and who have helped me along my entire life, especially the past couple of months of job searching. I love them both!! :)

Friday, November 25, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 25

Today's post will again be a short one, since it's Black Friday and I'm sleepy and I have to work later, lol. But, today I am thankful not only for work, but for schedules! I got my schedule for Lush through Christmas Eve yesterday. Despite 2 small conflicts, which I hope to resolve, I am SO happy because between Lush and Barnes I will now be working EVERY DAY (seriously, 7 days a week) until Christmas!!! This is a LOT, and I'm a little scared of burnout, but hopefully the payoff (literally, payoff) will be worth it!! :) Yay for being able to pay bills! lol

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 24

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to spend the holiday with my mom and my boyfriend while visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins in the city :) I am so glad to have such a wonderful and supportive group of family and friends surrounding me. I love you all!

I also really like this verse that was featured on BibleGateway:

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5 NIV

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 23

Today, I am thankful for the beautiful music of The Nutcracker and for my parents, who took our family to see the Nutcracker ballet (always Joffrey!) almost every year when I was a kid (even though I was pretty much the only one who wanted to go...lol!).

I have the entire Nutcracker ballet basically memorized. I know the music, and I have committed to memory so many details of the Joffrey's incredible production. I love the oversized dolls that Uncle Drosselmeyer brings to delight the children. I get sad when the Nutcracker's jaw is broken, and a little scared when Drosselmeyer appears above the clock with the owl on it. I am ENTHRALLED by the Christmas tree's magical growth (my favorite part!), and enchanted by the magical world the Nutcracker brings Clara to. I am so thankful that I have been able to see this ballet, and that I can continue to enjoy the music and be transported by it to the world I remember :)



Monday, November 21, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 22

I know it's a little early, but tomorrow is going to be a busy day and I'm not sure I'll have time to blog, so this post is going up now :) I have cheered up a lot since earlier today, and am so glad to be doing this series, since it continually reminds me that I have so much in life to be thankful for.

For example, today I am thankful for my computer! This may surprise some of you, because my computer has given me a lot of trouble since I bought it in the beginning of 2008. The USB ports did not work, the internet randomly cuts out, and I get the blue screen of death every now and then. But a few weeks ago I plugged my iPhone into the computer (just to see if I could get it to work) and, miraculously, the USB port recognized that the iPhone was connected! So I can use this computer (not my ancient Dell) to update my iPhone! And just today I decided to take things a step further to see if my computer would recognize my roommate's printer, and it installed the software and was ready to print in mere minutes! I'm not always the most tech-savvy person, but I am very thankful for this computer and the many drops, spills, and other semi-catastrophies it has weathered over the years :)



Not my actual computer, but pretty much what it looks like :)

Thankful Series-Day 21

I can't lie....aside from an awesome lunch with my awesome roommate, today I am having sort of a rough day. My back hurts, I got yet another rejection e-mail from a library job I thought I had a decent shot at, and I am starting to feel really downtrodden.

But, despite this, I am still thankful, and today I am thankful for the fact that everyone at my new job/Lush has been so nice to me so far! Sometimes starting a new job, especially a retail job where people can be gossipy and mean, really stinks, but everyone I have met there has been so great and helped me so much on my first day yesterday! I am so glad to have found a fun place to work :)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 19 and Day 20

Sooooooo I definitely did not have time to blog yesterday. I worked from 7am-7pm at both of my jobs, and was so exhausted that I went to bed at like 11 (which is REALLY early for me, considering I am usually up past midnight). I also worked my first "real" day (not a training) at Lush today, and it was so much fun!!

But, on to the Thankful series. Since today I need to name two things, I will choose two things that go together: bread and peanut butter! But not just any bread. Today, I am thankful for the invention of white wheat flour. I used to HAAAAAAAAAATE wheat bread when I was a kid, but thanks to the new white wheat flour (and my discovery of honey wheat bread) I can finally enjoy wheat bread for its slightly healthier properties! As for the peanut butter, I am thankful for it because I never really have been before! I NEVER ate peanut butter growing up, and it is only in the last year or so that I have eaten it on any sort of regular basis. I am thankful for it because not only is it tasty, but it provides me, a mostly-vegetarian, with another source of protein. It also fills me up and is easy to take to work as a sandwich :)

So there we have it! Hopefully I will not forget any more days this month, but if I start working more it may happen again...lol

Friday, November 18, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 18

Today, I am thankful for long baths and showers :) I am so grateful that we live in a place where we do not have to worry about whether or not the water is clean, and that we have hot showers available too!

Today I used 3 samples of very fun Holiday 2011 LUSH products in my bath/shower. The first was the Three Gold Rings bubble bar!



It smells like vanilla and is a little bit glittery, leaving the water a pretty gold color with lots and lots of delicious smelling bubbles!!

I followed that up by washing my hair with the Snow Fairy shower gel (yes, it is "meant" for your body, but you can also wash your hair and even do your laundry with it!).



This one literally glitters, and smells like candy! It left my hair feeling super soft and great-smelling :)

I finished up by using the Snowcake soap to wash up.



Snowcake smells like almonds and paired really well with the Three Gold Rings bubble bar scent! The soap also made my skin feel really soft, and the fragrance has lingered (so I still smell like cake! score!).

This post is NOT meant to be an advertisement for LUSH, although I do looooooove all of their products (hence wanting to work there!). I love taking baths and showers and all of these things helped to make today's bath/shower particularly enjoyable :)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 17

Today, I am thankful for cupcakes!! I loooooooove cupcakes :) they make me so happy. Here is a list to better quantify why I love cupcakes:

1. DELICIOUS! They are delicious. lol I love to eat these little sugary delights.

2. Baking them! I love baking pretty much anything, but especially cupcakes. It is a fun way to relax and end up with something pretty and yummy at the end of the process.

3. Sharing them! Cupcakes make people happy, and they are easy to transport and share. I also love sharing them by going to different cupcake stores (like the cupcake hunt that my friend Jessica and I went on a couple of years ago! too fun!)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 16

Today, I am thankful for my own stupidity. lol this may sound weird, but hear me out. Last night I was FREAKING OUT because I entered my work schedule into my phone wrong. This error led me to believe that I was going to have to find people to switch with, at both jobs, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, in order to make it to both jobs. Luckily for me, for some reason the date had been entered into my phone wrong, and I do not have a conflict at all!! For this, I am EXTREMELY thankful :)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 15

Just in time!! I ALMOST forgot to write an entry today :) But, today I am thankful for something beautiful: movie scores. I loooove classical music of all kinds, but I especially enjoy a good movie score. Some of my favorites are the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. One of the songs from The Chronicles of Narnia score came up on my iPod's shuffle on my way home from work, and after a kind of cruddy day at work it was nice to have something relaxing and beautiful to cheer me up on the way home :)

Monday, November 14, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 14

Today, I am so so thankful for free laundry!! Monday is usually my laundry day, and I am so thankful to live in a place where I do not have to pay for my laundry, worry about having quarters around/procuring said quarters, or walking up and down multiple flights of stairs and sitting in an uncomfortable laundry room keeping watch over my clothes and bedding while they get all clean. It is so nice to be able to walk down the hall and to be able to hear the buzz of the dryer when it is finished from my bedroom! :)

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 13

Today I am thankful for gift cards!! My boyfriend's friend gave him a gift card to TGI Friday's that he found the other day, and it enabled us to go have a dinner out, something we have been avoiding doing to save money. It was great to spend some quality time together and enjoy some delicious dishes :)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 12

Today, I am thankful for something that actually happened a few days ago! I am thankful that I was able to finally get my hair cut and dyed! My red hair is unfortunately not natural, but I loooooove it and I actually get kind of depressed when I don't have it/it has faded out :( But, thankfully, the other day I decided to go to the Tricoci University salon that is right by my house! Since the students of the school are the ones performing the haircuts/other stuff, it is WAY cheap, and a haircut and color that normally would have cost me over $100 only cost about $50! So, I am extremely thankful that I found this salon, because I was able to afford to get my hair done (which sounds silly but a haircut can really make a difference, especially on a job interview!)!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 11

I thought it was going to be hard to come up with things for this series! Maybe as we get closer to the end of November I'll have a harder time......but today, given my plans, it was pretty easy to come up with something! Today I am thankful for book signings!

Later today I am going to a book signing. Christopher Paolini is one of my favorite authors. When he was only 17, he wrote and self-published the book Eragon. Through hard work and a little luck contacting a publisher, the book became a worldwide best-seller, and since it was the first in a series ensured that the rest of the series would get written and read! I jumped on the bandwagon of this series pretty quickly (unlike Harry Potter, which I didn't read until the 5th book had just come out). The advantage of this was the excitement of getting to wait for new books to come out.



The disadvantage was that the series, originally intended to be a trilogy, got expanded into four books, and the fourth book took FOREVER to come out! But it is finally here, and I am going to a book signing later today to get my copy signed by the author :) squee!!!


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 10

Today, I am thankful for something that I didn't think I'd get to be thankful for until a little later: snow!!

I looooooooooooooooooove snow! I love the cold, I love staying inside and being cozy, and I especially love a good excuse to drink more hot chocolate :) I think I might have reverse seasonal affective disorder. I hate summer (spring I don't mind too much), but I LOVE fall and winter! I am so glad that the days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler, and that the holidays are almost upon us. I can't wait until some of this snow actually sticks and I can build snowmen and hopefully go sledding like I wanted to last year but didn't have a chance to. Or, maybe if I'm REALLY lucky I will FINALLY get to go ice skating outside in Millennium Park! :)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 9

So I am posting this a little early (by 15 minutes and technically the night before), but I want to get it out before I forget! Today, I am thankful for my roommates :) I know that they are included in the friends and family I have already been thankful for, but they did something really nice for me that I'd like to share. A few weeks back I got a parking ticket for parking my car on the street during hours when the street sweepers were driving by. I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be on the street during that time, and Lindsay and Carl very graciously paid the parking ticket for me, since at that point I was even more broke than I am now!!

So, every Wednesday I have been trying really hard to wake up before 8 (setting my alarm and/or playing musical cars the night before) to move my car so I don't get another ticket. Well. Tonight I came home to find that Carl has parked on the street so that I can park in the driveway, so I don't have to get up early to move my car in the morning and I will not get a ticket! This may seem like a small thing, and it may not even have been on purpose, but I am extremely thankful to have such thoughtful and generous roommates who have my back :)



The best roommates ever! :)

Thankful Series-Day 8

Today I am thankful for something that may seem strange: conferences!! I am thankful for conferences because my dear friend Maralee, who lives in California, was sent here to Chi-town to attend a conference for her job. This conference being here means that I get to see her tonight, and I am sooooooooo excited!!! :) So, in short, YAY CONFERENCES!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 7

What a great weekend! :) Today, I am thankful for something that might seem kind of strange: raking leaves. I've had a little trouble with being lazy lately, but today it is very nice outside and I thought to myself "hey, self, let's go rake those leaves!" It was a fun way to get outside, enjoy the weather, and move around without feeling like I was "working out" (which I haaaaate). Leaves FTW! :)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 6

Today, I am thankful for my cat :) If you are reading this and you also know me in "real" life, then you know how much I love my cat! I rescued Rory from the Chicago Humane Society in July of 2008. She is my little cat-dog, always meowing and rolling around on her back for a belly rub, and she comes when she is called. She brings me so much joy and happiness, and I am especially thankful that when she got sick with pancreatitis and had to be put in the kitty cat hospital last year that I was able to find a way to pay for it (a 3 day stay there did not come cheap!). I love my little fluffball! :)





Saturday, November 5, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 5

Most people have pretty regular schedules. They get up every Monday-Friday at a pretty set time, go to the same job, come home around the same time, go to bed, rinse, repeat. They always know that they will do this, they always know that they will have the weekend off, and they know that they will probably not have a problem taking a day off for vacation pretty much whenever they want.

My schedule is not like this.

But, today at least, I am thankful that my schedule isn't like this. Even though I without a doubt need a job that will enable me to pay my bills, I am thankful that if I want or need to sleep in until 11 am to feel rested, I can. I can hang out with my friends during the day (if they're available), I can cook or bake, I can watch tons of TV and read books, and go shopping at odd hours when most people can't shop so the stores aren't super crowded! Although the stability of a "real job" and the routine are something I look forward to, until then I am thankful that I can sleep as late as I want (unless I am opening....booo........lol).

Friday, November 4, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 4

Today, I am thankful for heating pads. Again, this may seem like an odd thing to be thankful for. But without my heating pad I would have no relief from the random, debilitating back pain I sometimes experience because of my herniated disc. I am very glad to have had physical therapy, which taught me other ways to relieve/prevent back pain, such as sleeping positions and at-home exercises. Without these I'd be in big trouble!!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 3

Today, I am thankful for something simple: sweet potatoes. Why, you may ask? Well, I LOVE potatoes. Mashed, boiled, roasted, baked, sauteed, fried, I love 'em all! But, often these delicious delights are not necessarily the best for you nutritionally. Enter the sweet potato!



Prior to about a year ago, my only experience with sweet potatoes was the casserole my mom makes for Thanksgiving. It's loaded with brown sugar and marshmallows, and to be honest I don't really like it much. But when I decided to try to eat more healthy foods I decided to give the sweet potato another chance, since they are much better for you then regular potatoes. I like to boil and mash, or bake and mash them, with a little butter, salt, and pepper, and they are delicious! I am thankful to have found a food that is both tasty and good for me :)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 2

Yesterday, I was thankful for jobs. Today, I am incredibly grateful for my wonderful friends and family, and especially for my amazing boyfriend Eddie. I don't know what I would do without each and every one of you, as you all bring me the greatest joy and happiness that I could ever imagine! :)









Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Thankful Series-Day 1

As usual, it's been awhile! I am a pretty lazy blogger. To be honest, I just haven't had the motivation, as I've been hitting the job search pretty hard. Before I talk more about that, I would like to introduce something new! I have decided to join my awesome friend Jessica (click her name to go to her blog) in doing a Thankful series! How it works: every day during November I will write about something I am thankful for. It may be short, long, fun, serious, or heartfelt, but I am going to try to do it! :)

So, for today, I am thankful for jobs!! At the beginning of October I started working at Barnes & Noble, and have also just been hired for the holidays at Lush, one of my favorite soap/cosmetics stores! Even though both are extremely part time, I am thankful that I have this income and hope that soon I will be able to find a full time job.