Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Reminder...

...that even when things are hard, I truly am blessed!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Be Carefree and Sparkly in 2012

So, Shoot for the Sun in Twenty-One-One ended up being a really great theme for 2011. The year started off in the most amazing way possible---my incredible boyfriend Eddie told me he loved me at about 1 in the morning on New Year's Day :) (and I said it back since I'd been holding it in too!).



In February I spent the first Valentine's Day I've ever had with a boyfriend (well, with a *real* boyfriend, since the only guy I dated in high school during v-day COMPLETELY ignored it) with my sweetie, and it was super duper fun! We also celebrated Eddie's birthday, and I dug my car out of the snow when the blizzard hit (ugh!).



All the while I was working hard in my classes and shooting for the sun by applying to an internship program at the Library of Congress, never dreaming that I'd get in. Eddie and I also had a BLAST when he took me with him and his friend to go see Monday Night Raw live at the Allstate Arena.....never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would watch WWE wrestling, let alone be seeing it in person, but it was SUPER FUN! :)





Spring finally came, and I again spent my birthday with my incredible friends and boyfriend! I also got some unexpected news: I'd gotten into the Library of Congress internship program! Thanks to the most amazing best friend in the entire world, I was able to go to DC and spend the summer working with some of the most intelligent and professional people I have ever met, learning SO much and seeing some truly remarkable things. I earned my Master's Degree, and right before I left for DC I took a super fun trip to Florida with my family :)



And after Florida and a somewhat tearful goodbye, I set off for DC not knowing what to expect from the Junior Fellows program. I had a BLAST!!! From seeing Abraham Lincoln's draft of the Gettysburg Address to making pigment samples to experiencing my 2nd 4th of July in DC, it was a wonderful summer. Another highlight was definitely getting to show Eddie all my favorite places and spaces when he came to visit for our exhibit at the end of the summer :)



So, shooting for the sun was going pretty well! I had a couple of job interviews and was feeling confident that by the end of the year I'd have a job and be able to reach my goal of starting to pay off my loans and becoming fully financially independent. Then, in September, I experienced one of the most exciting events of my life: the birth of my nephew! Little Judah was born on 9/10/11 (so easy to remember, awesome! lol), and it has been so much fun watching him grow up so far. I can't wait to read him so many stories!!



And then life started hitting me a little hard. I hadn't been getting any job interviews, and so I decided to go back to working at Barnes & Noble. I also had tons of super fun fall times with my man and my bestie, including going apple picking and especially carving pumpkins together!



So, even though I hadn't gotten a "real" job yet, I was surprised and delighted to get a holiday job working at 1 of my favorite stores, Lush! I also LOVED bringing Eddie to Thanksgiving and continuing to get to know his family as he got to know mine. Spending our 1 year anniversary downtown was definitely one of the highlights of my year, as was spending Christmas together :) Finally, for Eddie's Christmas/anniversary gift we got to go see Monday Night Raw AGAIN, making it the 2nd time I've been and the only time Eddie has ever been to see it twice in one year. Score one for my present buying skills! lol.

Overall, I feel that Shoot for the Sun in Twenty-One-One was a success. I learned that no matter how hard things seem, they could always be worse. I learned how to lean on my friends and family during hard times, and to celebrate with them when good things happened (which was a lot!). I somewhat failed at my goal to eat better and to exercise more, but I'm learning a lot about what discipline means in that respect and hope to improve this year. Even though I am not fully financially independent yet, I continue to strive for that goal and feel that I did everything in my power to meet it this year. Like my friend Holly said, shooting for the sun is not about being perfect, it's about doing everything in your power to make good things happen for yourself.

This brings me to our theme for 2012: Be Carefree and Sparkly! I'll leave you all with what Holly said on her blog (http://meatlesswithmia.blogspot.com/) about our theme, because I could not agree with her more!

"I can worry & obsess over my future all I want, but I only have so much power. If something is meant to happen, it will happen. Being carefree and sparkly is about enjoying life for what it is. It's about working hard toward my goals, of course...but it's also about giving myself a break. If my plan B doesn't work out, hey, at least I did everything in my power to get there. And if plan C doesn't work--then I'll come up with something else."

LOVE it!! 2012, here we come! :)


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Things That Rock

So here's a secret that's not really a secret: I don't like medicine. I take it as little as possible, and even though I am lucky enough to still qualify for my mom's health insurance, I very rarely go to the doctor. I also haven't been sick that much over the past year, which has been a blessing in and of itself!

But all that changed with one little itch.

Well, it started as a little itch. Then it turned into an uncontrollable itching/burning feeling covering literally my ENTIRE body! Maybe this is an overshare.......lol oh well. I share this because, for once, I am SO GLAD that I "gave in" and went to the doctor! With the prescription and advice he gave me 2 days ago, my itch has almost completely disappeared.

So, this is a post in which I humbly admit defeat. I don't have anything against modern medicine, I believe in it and I think it works, but I think some part of me wants to believe that I'm always strong enough to fight things on my own. In this case, I definitely wasn't, and that is a lesson I definitely need to remember in other situations!

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 :)