RIP

Sorry for the melodramatic post title, but this is a sad day for me. My CHI has gone to flat iron heaven. I was forced to slum it and buy a ConAir at the grocery store last night while I do some research into what brand to invest in next because this was my third and final CHI that I will be laying to rest. They are great while they last but then they just break without warning. Ive only had this one for a little over a year, because my hot pink {and obviously better than basic black} flat iron broke last summer and now this one is no more as well. I have come across two brands, Sedu and Solia both via Folica.com. Anyone have any experience with either brand? This website is actually great. Customers have put up pictures and videos of their before and after looks, so you can really get a sense of what the iron will do for your hair. GENIUS! There is also a pretty good sale going on right now. 15% off and free shipping for their top brands, and no one can pass up a good sale, right?!

Speaking of which... I have a package that should be arriving today, fingers crossed, from Sephora! Had to hit up the 20% off Friends and Family sale. I purchased the Benefit Confessions of a Concealaholic palette for my tired eyes and the Boscia Luminizing Black Mask because I am so curious about it! Literally, online shopping is the best of both worlds, new things and mail all in one! Any other good online sales going on now? I know you all are the queens of the interwebs! ;) 

Nothing much to say today.

It is that kind of Monday and there's nothing really worthwhile swirling around in the brain. My weekend was pretty uneventful. {Forget the fact that I was talked into spending a pretty penny on mineral make up. Clearly it says chump across my forehead.} It culminated with my Sunday night television experience being rather boring without Mad Men. That show is a great weekend wind down, but alas it wont be on again until next July. I am hoping this week goes by quickly {although I am already doubting that will actually happen} because this weekend I am headed back to College Town, PA for my first Homecoming as an alumnus! I guess it is fitting that I had my dad change my license plate holder this weekend from one with my sorority letters to one that says ALUMNI in big orange and blue letters {hint, hint except you'll never guess because it isn't a big school}. It should be a fun filled, jam packed weekend. Friday night this guy and this girl are performing...

 

Happy Monday to you all!

   

Brain Dump

- I despise those family member decals on the backs of cars. It really doesn't matter to me that your son plays baseball and your daughter is a ballerina. I just wish you would drive quicker.

- What's so smart about a Smart car? I think they aren't smart at all considering if you were to get in an accident with any other car you would certainly lose. Is the amount of gas you are saving worth your life? I'm going to say no on that one.


- While it may not be all that athletically significant, I have now gone to Zumba the past three Wednesdays. Going to progressively add another day a week until it becomes a part of my routine.

- I cannot decide which is worse, doing the dishes or doing the laundry.

- My cable company is fighting with Fox so I am without channel 5 until the situation is resolved. That had better be before next week's Rocky Horror episode of Glee.


- I am bummed that ABC canceled My Generation after only 2 episodes. I really liked it and found it to be very relatable. 


- Mad Men finale... WHAT THE HECK?! Oh Don, you've really shocked me this time. As Joan put it so well "It's not like he is the first guy to marry his secretary." We will see how long this lasts. Poor Dr. Miller, I really liked her and she was good for him.

- LOVE LOVE LOVE everything about this look. Must invest in a pair of oxfords as soon as humanly possible.

 -image via The Zhush

*Found a cute pair on Piperlime, they may find their way into my closet very very soon! 

- Seeing as how the majority of things on this list deal with television, it may be time for me to reevaluate myself and my pastimes. ;)

Getting over the hump...

Oh hey Wednesday, I wish you were Friday, but I guess that's not your fault. Here it comes again, Wee Bit About Me Wednesday! Enjoy :)




{one} have you ever crawled through a window?when i 'snuck out' of  a friend's house in high school. when it came to sneaking out of my own house i just went out the door, my parents never knew.
{two} what’s one subject that you wish you knew more about?presently it would be pension plans so my job would be less stressful. every time i understand the rule, along comes 500 more exceptions.
{three} who’s your favorite villain?cruella deville
{four} have you ever hit a jackpot on a slot machine?never, wouldnt that be great though?
{five} what is your favorite disney movie?definitely the lion king.
{six} if the whole world were listening, what would you say?just because people have different or conflicting ideas does not make one right and one wrong. differences make the world go round.
{seven} if you could choose one song to describe you or your life, what would it be? I've lived in this place and I know all the faces
Each one is different but they're always the same
They mean me no harm but it's time that I face it
They'll never allow me to change
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong
I'm movin' on-Rascal Flatts
{eight} your desk: messy or organized?when i am in the middle of 10 things at once, papers get all strewn about but when the tasks are finished, everything goes back to being orderly.
{nine} have you ever had surgery?i had really bad ear infections as a child so i had three sets of the little plastic tubes that they put in kid's ears.
{ten} if you could have any animal as a pet, what would you have?polar bear for sure, i love them. and i would build him a big ice playground.

Can You Hear Me Now?

No one talks anymore. Literally. You can have an entire relationship with a person without ever actually hearing their voice. I think it is crazy that people have gotten married or been in long term relationships with people that they met on the Internet and have never actually spent any real live human time with. Webcam chats do not count as hang outs, thank you very much. I can understand meeting someone and then entering into something long distance and that being the only source of communication for a while, but to strictly know someone only through electronic means? Strange, very strange. 

I remember being in middle school and really wanting that cute boy from math class to call me. It was such a traumatic experience regardless of if he called or not, because if he did call you had to put yourself out there and carry on a conversation. I feel like now with text messages you don't have to be vulnerable, no one can really sense your emotion because all they have is typed out words. I think it was in the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" where the character had a similar rant. Lately, this boy from home and I have been texting. We have known each other since high school and we always sort of get to this point. A few weeks of flirty text messages and then the novelty wears off. I can't really asses whether I like him or if I just like the attention because all I have to go off of are impersonal text messages.

I think I feel the same way about text messages as I feel about electronic readers. Are we really so lazy that we cannot turn the pages of our books anymore? Some of my most treasured pieces are books that my grandmother gave to me for my birthday where she had written a message to me. You certainly won't get that from a Kindle. And what about bookshelves? No one is going to need those anymore. And now they have the e-readers for kids, are you kidding? No more Bring Your Favorite Book to School Day. Obviously there have been some great advances in technology over the years, but do we really need to automate every single detail of our lives? This coming from the girl that majored in Computer Science, but really I think we are getting to the point of insanity. I don't know a single person that really NEEDS an iPad. 

ETA: I know that most of what we do in this bloggy world is create friendships with people we may never actually speak to, but I like you all so much that you are exempt from this philosophy :)

Injured bad.

Anyone remember this adorable commercial?

 

Well, I did injure myself this weekend. I don't know if it can be classified as bad, more as pathetic. 

Senior year of high school I dislocated my shoulder while cheering at Friday night football game. It was the week before our first competition so my coach told me if I went to a doctor I would end up in a sling. Fast forward a few years, and my shoulder will sort of sneak its way out of the socket every now and then. I was cleaning the huge window in my apartment so I was reaching and stretching when my shoulder decided to take a little time out. Between the burnt rice and the window cleaning injury it is REALLY not looking up for me in the future housewife/domestic goddess category. Who hurts themselves while cleaning windows? Only me. 

Friday night I headed into the city (surprise surprise). I was adamant about coming home, which I should have done but was persuaded into staying. I was too tired to really have fun and the man scene was less than stellar. Saturday I woke up, headed home, stopped at Home Goods to check and see if they had any nice canvases for the big wall above my couch and LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND!

It matches the throw pillows perfectly (mainly the green and the turquoise) and it is very "me". I will still be doing a full apartment tour, but I am waiting on my parents to bring up my dining room table next weekend then I think it will be all done! The wall is still very big and empty. Any suggestions of what else I could add that wont clash with the painting or look too busy? Eventually to the right there will be a mirror and then to the left on another wall will be a mini gallery of black and white photos and prints. Any help would be appreciated since we have clearly seen my lack of domesticity as of late.

Happy Monday to all and to all an awesome week ahead! :)

Wed-nes-day.

So what if I am 22 and I still have to pronounce that damn word phonetically every time I type it? A similar thing happens when I type veggie-tabble. And does anyone else remember the little mnemonic device that Danny Tanner gave to Stephanie when she was trying to beat Danny Chu in the spelling bee? {The saddest part of that sentence is that I didn't even need to look up the plot line, I have literally seen every episode ever made of Full House and I am in no way ashamed}. Well, Papa Tanner says to her "Double the c, double the s, and you will always have SUCCESS!" And that has literally gotten me through life to this day. 

So I decided last night after a month and a half to actually make a non-microwaved dinner. Man oh man... I feel as though I need to write a warning letter to my future husband because a domestic diva, I am not. My younger sister A is going to culinary school in a couple years after she finishes undergrad so she got all the skills in the family. My mom never ever cooks, so I don't have much of an example to go off of. I bought a $5 wok from Ikea before I moved, so I figured why not try and make some stir fry... cant be too difficult. Unless yours truly happened to by regular rice that takes 40 minutes to cook and subsequently burned it. Whoops. In my defense, rice is a tricky little devil. Or so I believe. Anyways, not to be defeated by the rice, I went back to the store and settled for the 90 second microwave kind. Much more my speed. And voilaaaa! Not too shabby!

So for those of you who are good with numbers, days of the week, those sort of elementary things know that today is in fact WEDNESDAY, which is TWO days before FRIDAY, which is a HUGE deadline for me at work. So one would think that all my clients would be getting in touch with me, making sure I have all the information from them to do my job? Right? Well of course not. This aint a perfect world now is it? So in light of the wrangling I am going to do today, I figured I needed to do something to set myself up for a good mood this morning. This was obviously the ticket.

 

Who says that girls with neon pink hair pins and matching scarves aren't tough and business savy? ;) Probably a lot of people actually. And sorry for the Blackberry quality of picture, and also the claw that looks like its popping out at you in a sort of 3D Imax screen way. I guess have yet to master the art of the mirror picture.

Here Goes.

Second post today, bet no one saw that coming.

As has been expressed countless times on this blog, I am pretty in the know when it comes to celebrity gossip. I wish I cared less, really I do. But alas, I am a habitual People.com checker and I love the E! Channel. Apparently when it rains, it pours in Hollywood in the area of couples splitting up. First Courtn*ey C*0x and Dav*id Arq*eutte and now Christi*na Ag*uilera and her husband. So then I got to thinking, about something that I feel very strongly about and have yet to delve into on this blog for fear or some people going off the deep end. But here goes anyways, because this is my party and I'll stand on my soap box if I want to.

Marriage is no longer what it used to be. Half of marriages these days will end in divorce. While it goes without saying that I've never been married, or anywhere near the end zone of matrimony, I grew up with parents who have been married for almost 24 years and my maternal grandparents were married for 62 years. 62 years, can you even imagine? I knew that the day my grandmother passed away that my grandfather would never be the same. He didn't want to, and to be quite honest, couldn't live without her. Does a love like that even exist anymore? I can barely stand the same guy for 62 minutes much less 62 years. It was that day that I decided that if I could ever feel half the love that they had for each other in my life that I would be okay.

So why do I bring this up? Well yesterday was Nati*onal Comi*ng O*ut Da*y, it is being celebrated today in the UK. It saddens me that there are people in this world who have that same love that my grandparents had and are looked down on because of it. I have always been a strong believer that we would all be a lot better off if we were more concerned with ourselves and less with other people. If  all the people out there against gay marriage put half of that energy towards something else, think of how productive they could be. How someone else chooses to love has no bearing on my happiness, so why would I ever think that I have the right to deny them happiness? If you're a man, and you don't want to marry another man, THEN DON'T! I really feel like it is that simple. Everyone deserves to be loved and to be happy.

Good Stuff.

Happy Tuesday all! Hope your weekends were wonderful. I spent mine in the city spending and drinking too much but it was just what I needed. The weather was perfect. Saturday took a walk with a friend through Central Park and it was so therapeutic. We saw 4 brides which reaffirmed my already well in place dreams of a fall wedding. The weather was just perfect and they all looked stunning. I'll take one Virginia winery wedding in October, please. Ironically enough yesterday I was wearing an olive green shirt and my eggplant colored Tory B*urch Revas, the color combination that I would use for this would be somewhere off in the distant distant future wedding. And then I ate a lunch consisting of mostly green foods, which was just plain creepy. Haha.

*Any Gossip Girl fans out there? Am I the only one confused as to who this guy is that is in prison and trying to take down Serena and company? I feel like I missed a vital chunk of information somewhere.


*Also, I cannot remember who blogged about these previously but my lovely new bookshelf is in need of the pretty canvas books that Ant*hropologie sells but I remember someone mentioning getting them on Amazon... Any ideas as to who publishes them?

 *ETA - anyone who is curious, they are the Penguin Classics. Just ordered Little Women and Great Expectations from Amazon!

thank God its friday night...

And at midnight I will be paid! Thank you direct deposit! This week has been dragging on and on. On Tuesday I was talking to a client and telling her I would speak with her again on Monday because it legitimately felt like Friday. Ugh. Last night was stellar. My friend M's mom got her tickets to see the SYTYCD Tour at Radio City. It was so amazing. I danced for the better part of my youth, nowhere near the caliber that it takes to dance on television obviously {or I may not be sitting at this desk right now} but every time I see them dancing I always have this slight urge to pick it back up. Tap was always my favorite. Maybe I could find an adult tap class somewhere? Haha, wouldn't that be a trip. Tonight I am going to head back into the city and see some friends. I literally haven't been here in three weekends. Last weekend I was in Virginia for a hair appointment, {Do not judge me for this. I love my stylist and it took me A LONG TIME to get her to know exactly how to do my hair and I really can't even think about starting that over}, the weekend before I was in Boston visiting a friend from home, and the weekend before that we took a quick trip back to College Memory Lane, PA. The weather was absolutely perfect last night so I am looking forward to a nice autumn weekend in New York City. Perhaps I will snap some photos? I realized that one of the big reasons I have never shown you guys pictures is that I NEVER TAKE ANY! I almost always have my camera and I just don't take many pictures. I have resolved to work on this a million times over and yet I think I have the least tagged photos on F*acebook out of everyone I know. 

In light of everything that I have been working through lately, as I was getting ready for work tomorrow I really stopped and thought about it all. I am exactly where I wanted to be... I might have had help along the way but this is MY accomplishment. I may not be completely financially dependent but I am closer to being on my own than not. I have a job that I enjoy in this awful economic state that we are in. Maybe not a total Op*rah moment {she is a goddess in my eyes}, but definitely a mini ah-ha. 

Stay tuned next week for the apartment tour! Youve already seen the bathroom but there is more to come and I NEED ADVICE! Lots of empty walls, but I don't want things to get too busy and all that, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. 

Hope you all have fabulous Fall weekends! I am so excited to bust out my scarves! Ah! :)

Wee Bit!

Hopping on the Wee Bit of Me Wednesday train this week! Here goes...



{one} grilled or fried?grilled. i try to stay away from fried food but sometimes its just too yummy!
{two} if you could change one thing about where you live, without worrying about money, what would you change?i just moved into my apartment about a month ago so i dont think i would change much! i need to get something to hang over my couch though, the wall is huge and bare.
{three} what is your favorite time of day?i am definitely a night owl. especially now that i have a huge window, the night time view of the skyline is awesome!
{four} what’s your favorite cereal?i have never eaten a bowl of cereal with milk in my life. im weird, i know. but i do like the kashi go-lean almond flax cereal, i usually have that with vanilla yogurt for breakfast.
{five} do you open your mouth when you put mascara on?yessss.
{six} if you could make any fictional character come to life, which would it be?don draper, but only if he would love me and ONLY me and we all know that he is not capable of that.
{seven} what are your favorite pizza toppings?pepperoni and veggie. i did have a stellar meatball and ricotta pizza last night though, YUM YUM!
{eight} are you a heavy or a light sleeper?i would say medium... i usually stay asleep through the night but sometimes my internal clock wakes me up.
{nine} what is your favorite board game?anyone else remember dream phone?! i loved it. "he is NOT at the mall."
{ten} what star/celebrity do most people say you look like?jordin sparks. i dont agree with that one though.

Tell Me What You Like About Yourself

Such a dreaded question. I kind of cringed even typing it out, but that is what was asked of me last night. And I really am not sure how to answer it. Then she asked me what my friends would say about me, and when I said I wish I knew she suggested I ask. So there you have it, my therapy homework assignment. So I awkwardly went about asking my besties "Why are you my friend?" The thing that hurt me the most was when I talked to my mom she said "Well don't put down that you're a good sister." I know that my siblings and I have gotten in arguments over the years. WHO HASN'T?! I think my sister has this unattainable idea of us frolicking through the pansies together and never fighting. That's called unrealistic. We are too close in age, too alike, while also being too different to get along perfectly all the time. And that's completely boring anyways. A lot of you have been saying that I shouldn't be so hard on myself but I've always been my toughest critic. I would cry in second grade when I didn't finish my timed multiplication quizzes. I had to do everything right all. the. time. And as you can see, a lot of that self criticism comes from the criticism from my mother.  I know she knows a lot about me and that she doesn't sugar coat things, but that doesn't stop her words from stinging every now and again. So I decided that I will be putting on my list, along with whatever else I come up with between now and next week, that I am the sister I know how to be, and that's the best I can do.

ETA: This blog will not be turning into a self help column, that I can promise and assure you.

Today.

I dont really know what I thought I would gain out of writing this blog, but I can assure you that it was never support from people that I had never, and possibly would never meet. Thank you for the kind words on my last post. Tonight is my second session with my therapist and I really think that this is going to be a positive step for me. As crazy as it my sound, I can already tell that I am thinking and feeling more and asking those tough questions that need to be asked of yourself during a time like this. How did I get here? Where am I going to go from here? I think I have been hovering over the possibility of what this blog can be, and quite possibly who I can be. I don't know that I have been my true authentic self on here and I think if I let the walls down, this could actually be a great vehicle on my path to wherever it is that I am going. So today, not sure why today, but I want to rip off the blogging band-aid and just be me. So this is me.