Why I Blog

Why did I start blogging?

Weelll, in high school I had a livejournal. Remember that?? I would write thoughts that to me were SO deep and through provoking. 

Actually they weren't. 

It was me passively trying to break up with my boyfriend (that was so terrible, i can't believe I did that) or being all moody and angsty about basic high school issues like heart break, friends, drama, you know.

I got back to blogging in college with some friends through Xanga. Same song different tune.  I was writing about what I thought was this deep, thought provoking stuff, a lot of it about faith and choices. I was going through a lot my sophomore year of college and it was a great outlet for me.  Not as embarassing as high school but still pretty uncomfortable. 

I've thought about blogging on and off for a really long time, and always have tons of ideas, because I always think my life is so interesting that I need to share tons of it with the world. In grad school my friend and I wanted to start a Maybe that's narcissistic  but whatevs I love writing it and I love sharing it! I love reading about other people's lives so clearly it's just because it's our nature to be interested in the human process!

I started my blog officially last summer. I started it under another blog name that I've now changed to this. I actually started the blog to keep our friends and family updated on our lives.  Steve and I moved to Georgia in July of 2011. When I graduated from grad school I searched everywhere for a job and I loved the opportunity I had here.  We both moved here while most of our family is in Ohio and Pennsylvania.  I wanted to be able to update them on what was going on. I also love to write. I was an English major in college and while this dream would never come true, if I could have one thing in life magically happen, I would write for SNL or be a writer on a TV show. So now the blog is kind of a modgepodge of life events and fun topics.  

Why do I keep doing it?

I keep blogging because I love it. It's  a great way to look back on moments in my life.  There aer some life events, like my wedding, that I wish I had been blogging through to have a documentation of that process.  I am really excited to blog about future life events, though. I know one day I'll blog about buying a house (if I ever feel adult enough to do so), when we buy a dog, or having a child, and so much more.  I'll have all of that written down. My friends and family from college read it, and it gives us a way to connect in life when we can't always call each other.

I also love connecting with other bloggers. I think it's hard to navigate at first but I've found some other bloggers that share a lot of things about life with me.  We get to know each other a little bit through reading posts, we encourage each other, and I hope I get to know some of these great bloggers even more.  

When I don't blog after a while, I don't feel complete. This is how I know I should keep blogging. While I may not update as often as I like, I know that I always try to contribute often and try to give all my readers the best  experience I can.

I hope this link-up gave you some insight into why I blog and I hope you keep stopping by!

When I Grow Up

When you're little and you think about who you want to be when you grow up it's usually fireman, fairy, princess, you know those realistic things.  When it comes to my life in general, goals and plans are important to me.  Right now my life is so up in the air it's fun to think about some of these fun things I want to be able to do when I grow up.  When I grow up:  I won't be so afraid of baby spit up and doing everything wrong as a parent I won't desperately fear having a mortgage I will be able to stand the taste of scotch

I will own a piece of furniture, other than my bed, that isn't from IKEA - don't get me wrong, I love IKEA but let's be real, you have to put it together and it's inexpensive, and not the same

I will be writing for Saturday Night Live on the reg.

I will drink coffee every morning because that's what grown-ups do

I will have an SUV full of broken bits of goldfish crackers and apple juice boxes Just a fun little post for today! Hopefully I can update you on Steve's visit tomorrow! Happy day before Friday!

I am NOT a Grown Up

Everyone visiting from Heavens to Meighan, welcome! Thanks for stopping by I'm so excited that you're here! Please follow me on GFC and Bloglovin (the b with the heart button on the right of the page).
If this is your first time you should read a little about me here, or read about me and my husband's "love story" here. 

So my posts are a little out of order. Normally  I'd post what I did this weekend, but since Steve is still visiting, I'm going to wait until his trip is over so I can do one brilliant post about it. Today I wanted to be fun and talk about how I think I'm an adult, but every day I'm reminded that I'm kind of not.

Ways I'm not a real grown up yet

1. I don't save receipts.  I throw them away,  lose them, it's bad. The only time I'm good at saving them is when I'm unsure about a purchase, but if I ever got audited, I'd have a problem. 

 

2. Other than our honeymoon we haven't been on a vacation just the two of us. We've planned on taking a small one to Chattanooga last October, but then life intervened last June when Steve left his job for 6 months. It gets pricey and I'm not even 100% sure how to plan a real vacation that doesn't include cramming as many people into a hotel room as possible and buying alcohol at the ABC store so you don't have to spend as much money at the bars when you go out. I have married friends that go on vacations with their significant other all the time. We'll get there eventually and I'll relish in the fact that I'll feel like an adult!

3. I buy most of my work clothes from Target and Old Navy. Don't get me wrong, they have incredible stuff but I don't own a bunch of fancy pencil skirts and shoes.  I pretty much rotate the same dresses and pants with cardigans every two weeks and do a little mix and matching.  I think my wardrobe is fine, but it's not very grown up, as in I have very few "dry clean only" clothes.

 

4.  Sometimes, I save bills and never really open them.  Oops. We pretty much pay everything through online bill pay anyways so the paper to me is just dumb. I should still open them, I guess. When Steve and I were living in the same place, he opened all that stuff, now it just sits in a pile that I decided I'll just give to him, because giving him a 3 month old bill next time I see him makes sense.

5. I keep nail polish at my work desk.  Yep, just in case I mess something up and need to fix it. It looks ridiculous.

6. I watch MTV on occasion and ABC Family. You might think "hey me too!" I'm not saying it's a BAD thing, but let's be real Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and Step Up are not what one would call quality adult television.

7. I have an amazing duvet cover, but have not decorated my room, bought sheets to go with it, or made any design effort at all.

8. I never wear heels unless I can guarantee I'll only be standing in them for about an hour.

9. I still live on a college campus. If this is your first time stopping by, I'll explain. I work in residence life at a college.  I am a professional staff member with a Master's Degree, but I live in an apartment in the residence hall. One of the reasons is because we are first responders to emergencies. We primarily build community, also, so being in the residence hall helps with that. It does not make me feel like an adult at all.

10. I get excited when I do "adult" or "grown up" things.

Ways I feel like a grown up

1. I get excited when I go to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy and it's totally covered.

2.  I am tired before 10:30pm every night. I get in bed and watch Dirty Jobs and fall asleep. Caffeine after 9pm? No thank you. Unless I have something to do after work, I put on my pajamas almost immediately when I get home.

3.  I have a 403B

 

4. I do my taxes in February.

the fact that I find this funny is very "adult" of me, I guess.

5.  I don't understand the thought process of the college students I work with. Seriously? I'm not that much older than they are!

6. I know my credit score.

7. 2 words. Car payments.

8. I watch Good Morning America as I get ready for work in the morning. My mom used to do this while I watched Adventures in Wonderland on Disney. Do you remember that show?? I know it's not like watching the news, like CNN or something real, but it's close enough to adult for me. 

9. This weekend, I cleaned my washing machine. Enough said about that.

10. I prepare everything for the morning before I go to bed. I pull out my clothes, but my water bottle full of ice in the freezer, put any breakfast/meal items together, put out my running clothes for after work. It's kind of ridiculous.

I have frequent moments where I question if being 26 really makes me an adult. I've decided it doesn't. I'm married, 26, have a Master's Degree, and still often feel like I'm no where near adulthood.  Do any of you have moments where you feel like a real adult? Maybe when I buy a house it will kick in??
Thanks for stopping by!

Confessional Friday (4)

Linking up with Leslie again at A Blonde Ambition for one of my favorite link-ups.

I confess that this weather makes me want to roll the windows down on my car, drive around, listen to country music, find a field, and stare at stars.

I confess that I used the last of my favorite OPI nail polish sample. It's one of those small bottles and I have no idea what the color is called. My manicure turned out all thick and chunky since it was the end of the bottle.

I confess that eating every sweet and carb insight was terrible for my weight loss but at least I'm back on track.

I confess that I used my credit card rewards to get some Old Navy gift cards so I could get more clothes.I bought like 3 dresses. I can't wait until they get here.

I confess that I want to try the new Wendy's flatbread sandwiches, but let's be real, I REALLY miss the Pita sandwiches they had back in the early 2000s. Do you remember those???

I confess that the paint chipping off my bumper from the hail storm a few weeks ago is really irritating me. I don't want to pay to get it fixed. I also feel that this is ridiculous and that half the issue is that the paint job must have been shitty but I can't complain to Toyota. WTF.

I confess that I did a Confessional Friday link up last week and forgot to actually link up!

I confess that I'm using this disgustingly high pollen count as an excuse not to run. But seriously, when I ran the other day with the pollen count at like 4000 my throat was killing me.It felt  like it choking me.  It's at like 7000 today so I'll be even worse.

I confess that I'm trying to be more proactive about my happiness. I am very lucky all things considered. I shouldn't be comparing myself to others and feeling so competitive with job searching.

I confess that Steve will be here in 25 hours (he gets in at 11:30 am tomorrow) and I can hardly contain myself as the hours creep by.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and a happy friday!

Throwback Thursday: Treats from Travels

Throwback Thursday!!
Here is a repeat post I wanted to post on here from my old blog.

One of my favorite things about traveling is the food.
I love it.  I remember watching $40 a Day with Rachael Ray and learning to "ask the locals" (which to her meant the receptionist at the hotel). Seriously, I will go online, find the restaurants that have been featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate from Food Network and make sure we eat something from at least one of the restaurants they featured. 

Sometimes the food just looks so enticing, I forget to take a picture first. Actually, this happens a lot.  I know, taking pictures of your food is something people love and hate - but I'll tell you this - if you're hungry, don't read this post. It will make you want to travel and eat!

Two years ago in my final year of grad school, we had a national convention in Baltimore, MD.  My goal, of course was to eat a crab I could smash with a hammer and wash it down with a Yuengling.  Mission accomplished.  We also went out to a sushi dinner one night and one of my friends was taken over to the dark side after enjoying sushi for the first time!

Steve and I went to NYC for our honeymoon.  I had a bit of a hangover after the most amazing wedding spent with friends and family so once we got there, we didn't even site-see.  We arrived Sunday, took a nap, watched a football game, and then went to get pizza at Lombardi's.  I actually planned the food we wanted to eat and days based on location. Monday, we had tickets to see a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman, so after sleeping in, we went to Carnegie Deli where I got a corned beef sandwich and Steve got Pastrami; we shared the two. I can tell you I only finished one half. It was unreal.  That night we got tickets to see Avenue Q for a great price. We had dinner at a Louisiana style restaurant called Delta Grill.  The next day, we had dim sum in Chinatown at The Golden Unicorn and walked around Chinatown and Little Italy.  Next we went to  Dylan's Candy Bar to buy some candy for our families.  We then were going to go to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate but they had a 3 hour wait and it was starting to rain, so we walked back to Dylan's and shared a HUGE ice cream sundae.  That night we had tickets to see Wicked, so we went back, did some shopping and then got ready to see the show.  We had reservations for an amazing steak dinner at BLT Steak, but I didn't think it was classy to take a picture of my $40 steak. Of course, before we left we had bagels. It wouldn't be a trip to NY without them.

Last year Airtran was having one of their crazy air travel sales and some friends from work and I decided we only live once, let's go to NOLA (pre YOLO).  We had a blast.  NOLA is so full of food options but we were all kinda poor.  We had beignets at Cafe Du Monde which I learned do wonders for a hangover after spending the night before out on Bourbon Street (also I realized two posts back to back talk about hangovers - it's really NOT a habitual thing for me).  We also walked around some shopping areas, went to Jackson Square, and just really took in the French Quarter.  It was amazing.  We had some fabulous Po'Boys at Johnny's and then had some fancy schmancy dinner that night. Fact - head cheese is ground up pig head, no cheese is involved (in the back of my mind, I knew that, but forgot, so when we ordered it, it all came back to me and I was really embarrassed). Also, I recommend The Court of Two Sisters for brunch.  It's pricy but the best brunch buffet I've EVER had.  That rounded out our exciting weekend in NOLA.  I told Steve we have to go back together.

My family and I went to Boynton Beach to clear out my great aunt's apartment after she passed away.  It was hard going to through a lot of those memories and saying good bye - but it was nice to be with family and share that.  Of course, my parents have the same food obsession I do - so we made what we could of it by having a few delicious meals.  We went to The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. while we were there. The bagels are amazing - like you're right in NYC having them. They treat the water so it is similar to that of NYC water.  They also serve iced coffee with coffee ice cubes - how Pinterest of them.  We also went out for Mother's Day to Abe & Louie's - an amazing steak house. Again, I only remembered to take a picture of the seafood tower and dessert.  The seafood tower was delicious and impressive! The cheesecake is shipped from Junior's in NYC. So delicious.

The past two years we've gone on vacation to Seabrook Island with Steve's family.  We have spent one or two of those days in Charleston, SC.  We like to go to the Old City Market, walk around and shop. The first year we were there, we went to Hominy Grill - because it was featured on Best Thing I Ever Ate for the grits and the chocolate pudding. Oh. My. God.  The grits were great - so delicious, but the chocolate pudding - oh my God, the chocolate pudding.  Get it. Just do it. It is SO good. It's thick and chocolatey and velvety - it's so rich, we share it.  Get it, for real. 

When Steve lived in DC, we waited about 20 minutes to get some cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes.  It was 100% worth it.  We got 1 strawberry, 2 double chocolate, 1 mint chocolate, 1 red velvet, and 1 vanilla.  UPDATE: Now that he lives there full time I can't wait to move so I can get some again!

So there are a few of our food adventures.  Some of them get posted on here periodically as they happen.  I know I overly used the word "delicious."  I'm sure it was a little out of control.  I hope it gave you ideas of places to go on your travels and even if you don't love to plan out your vacation with mandatory food trips. What's your favorite place you've eaten on vacation? Any go to places?