And we're back!

Oh wow! It's been about two weeks (at least) since my last post! Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not ignoring you. The reason for my absence and lack of posts? My devil apartment. Before I get to that, I feel like it's very much needed to do a small summer re-cap.

My summer was pure excellence. I worked, made some money, spent a lot of time with my sister, got even closer with the fam, hung out with friends, and got to really connect with the boy and realize just how great being together all the time feels. We basically started our relationship on long distance, so being together for those four months was exactly what we needed. I wouldn't say I did anything super significant, like skydiving or taking a road trip across the country, but I wouldn't trade this summer for anything in the world; it was understatedly perfect. That's the thing about summer: it comes in quickly and in the blink of an eye it's gone. One second you think you have all the time in the world to bask in the summer sun and the ones you love, and the next second it's time to pack the summer away and leave it behind as you move forward into the routine of classes, homework and tests. That's why you have to make it worth while! Spend as much time with the people who are the most important you - that time will be gone in seconds. I hope everyone had a beyond excellent summer and did everything you wanted to!

Being that it is back-to-school time, I have moved back to PA and into an apartment with three other amazing girls. We are loving the freedom and ease of living on our own, but there has been qute a few obstacles so far! (All very minor, but inconvenient all the same).

1. Devil toaster. This toaster literally goes from braed to burnt in the matter of four seconds. You have a four second window to grab your toast before it turns into this:

I almost burnt the apartment down on the second day. Not my finest moment.

2. Devil cable. This isn't a huge problem for the house, but more for me. The living room and the other girls' room cable is working fine, but of course mine is completely out. For a while my TV wouldn't even show a picture! Now, we got it to turn on, but I can't turn the channel and I can't get the closed captioning off. Wonderful.

3. Devil internet. We. Have. NO. Internet. Hence the lack of posts and what not. I've been living off of the internet on my phone which is not an easy thing to do! Apparently, the internet was never even streamed to our apartment! Luckily, they aren't charging us for internet for the first month because we simply haven't had it. The Comcast people will be there to fix it up (and hopefully my TV as well) tomorrow.

I know there's a few more "devil" things in the place, but for some reason they are slipping my mind. Those are the major ones for now.

So, after five hours of travel and two trains, I'm home for labor day weekend. I have another doctor's appointment later today and my Goddaughter's 1st birthday is on Monday so my aunt is having a little party for her on Sunday. I can't even believe how much time flies. It's unreal!

After I arrived home yesterday, the boy had planned on taking me to dinner. When he came to pick me up he brought these beautiful flowers!

Then we went to get some sushi and came back to hang with my fam and what not. It was definitely a great first night back!

Alright! Well, I wanted to leave you with Beyonce's amazing performance at the VMA's when she sports her baby bump. So presh! However, I can't seem to find a good YouTube clip of it! Bummer. So, I'll leave you with another song that is right up there on my list lately. Once again, it's Lady Gaga! I'm not a huge fan but for some reason her new album is totally on my good side!



No coffee rips out my soul

It's 9:30 and I've been awake since about 7:30 or so. I guess that 2 hour nap I took last night really affected my sleep. Anyway, I'm drinking my morning coffee, watching Will & Grace and laughing to myself like some kind of crazy person. This show always cracks me up.

This summer has been nonstop to the doctor and back, checking iron levels, blood work, back to the doctor and so forth. The (semi) verdict? Acid Reflux. Hi, I'm 65.

Yesterday I went for my last doctor visit of the summer. Sad, I know. He ended up putting me on higher dosage Reflux medicine because apparently I need a stronger acid blocker. The good news? He thinks my Esphagitis will clear up soon...hopefully in about three months.

The bad news? He basically ripped my soul out when he told me to cut out certain foods from my diet. Here is what I CAN'T have:

1. Caffeine. For those of you who don't know, this includes COFFEE. Flashback to what I said earlier? I am drinking my MORNING COFFEE. Fast forward to about a week from now? School. You know what that means? COFFEE. I may not make it past the first week without this precious element to my everyday life. 

2. Spicy Foods. Hmmm. It's Wednesday. What happens on Wednesdays? WINGS with the boy. I love spicy food. All kinds. I even put hot sauce on my eggs, hot red pepper flakes on mostly all things salty, and I love wings. The hotter the better. 

3. Acidic Food/Beverages. Example: lemon, orange, tomatoes. Basically anything that I love. Pasta, lemonade, pizza, orange juice. COME ON.

4. Soda and Alcohol. Eh, really not a problem.

5. Chocolate. Aside from carbs, chocolate is my favorite food group. 

In addition to cutting perfection out of my life, I also need to:

   

A. Eat smaller portions. I am KNOWN for overeating. I am over-indulgence girl. PS: Sorry for showing you those pictures. I'm disgusting.

B. Not eat before bed. Just last night I scarfed down about half a thing of goldfish about 20 minutes before bed. 

Ya know, the last two things really aren't that bad; I think I can handle it. As for the minuscule massive changes to my diet? Not so much. There's just no way! I guess I'll give it a try if it'll heal me faster. Key word: try.

*All Food images (minus the first coffee image) from Pinterest. 

Why do I suck?

I can't even begin to tell you how much I have to do. WARNING: here comes a semi-large rant-sesh so if you're not up to hearing some bitching and complaining then feel free to X out of this post.

I go back to school in 8 days. EIGHT. DAYS. That is not nearly enough time to get all that I need to get done and/or enough time to sit back and do nothing before this crazy semester starts.

As of now I don't have a bed. I don't have room decor. I don't have any regular life supplies. No food (for the apartment, obviously). No books, school supplies, cleaning supplies. I don't have nearly enough khaki pants. I have about one pair of good jeans. Andddd...I don't have any money to purchase anything on the list of things I still need to get. Well, I have some money but I must use it VERY sparingly and wisely.

I also need to clean my room, do my laundry, shower and get a grip. Mostly get a grip. I'll be working on that one indefinitely.

British Pop Stars

Okay, so how do we feel about British pop stars? I just heard a song on @efosta's blog by Kate Nash called The Nicest Thing. Brief sidebar: Follower her on twitter. Follow her blog. Read both everyday and bask in the excellency of her wittiness. You'll want to know her. Better yet - you'll want to be her.

Anyway, enough ranting and raving over my Cyber-BFF who doesn't quite know it yet. Let's get back to the British pop star bit.

So, The Nicest Thing by Kate Nash. I'm kind of a fan. It's really heartfelt and the live version is raw and honest and I'm all about it. She sings about the "nicest thing" she's seen and all of the things she wishes he would see in her. How she longs to be the "nicest thing" he's ever seen. It's one of the more honest songs I've heard; she makes you feel what she's feeling. We've all felt this at one point or another and she brings you right back to that very place.

After I listened to this, I came to a preconceived conclusion: British (and other non-American) pop stars are deep, deep human beings.

Okay, so this isn't always true. Lily Allen's F*ck You - not so deep. Some of Kate Nash's other songs - really not that deep. But then there's Adele and Duffy. Now they are kinda deep.

I am not a British pop star expert by any means, but I have been YouTubing quite a bit of them. I want to love them. I feel like they're all really awesome and trendy and have that cool accent. However, I can't really find anything that I'm super in love with (besides that one Kate Nash song, Adele as a whole and some Duffy). Maybe it's not meant to be. Maybe I'm supposed to stick to the AMURICAN stars. Maybe my love affair with British pop stars ended before it even started.

I'll continue to look for another few days, but then I think my quest must end.

Do you guys have any British pop star songs that you love? Not a fan at all?

Don't judge a book by it's cover...or so they say

How many times have we heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by it's cover"? Our parents and teachers have been preaching this to us from the time we can speak. Sometimes even earlier. They want us to grow up to be upstanding human beings, not judging the "book by it's cover". Just because the book has a giant raging shark on the cover doesn't mean it'll be about a giant raging shark that sweeps through the town's waters and eats every single child one by one. It could be about a boy who falls head-over-heels, cross-his-heart, painfully beautifully in love with the girl of his dreams and they live happily ever after. The message: just because a girl is wearing a red push-up bra, teenie-tiny leather skirt, fishnets and 6-inch clear heels with her hair knotted around itself (looking like it hasn't been brushed in weeks), heavy black eye liner, and glitter just about everywhere doesn't mean shes a hooker (or Ke$ha). 

Honestly, I think it's BS. I don't know about you, but I always judge a book by it's cover. If the cover doesn't look appealing to me, I'm definitely not going to pick up the book and see what it's about. We're visual people and that's just how it is. If something looks good, we're more likely to be drawn to it and engage ourselves. Whether that be a book, decorating ideas for your room, movies, an album cover, right down to people themselves. 

Parents and teachers try to teach  us to do the "right" thing and not judge people, and in a perfect world that would be great. But guess what? We all judge people. And if you say you don't then you're lying to yourself. People make an impact on you based on how they look. You're going to remember that your cousin's boyfriend came to the family party with shoulder length hair and a handlebar mustache, wearing eyeliner, skinny jeans, a bow tie and a top hat. And you're going to have a preconceived notion about him before he opens his mouth. That' just life and there's nothing wrong with that. The people who dress like that know this and to be honest, that's probably the exact reason why they dress like that. Hey, HandleBar Jim might end up being a great guy, somewhat normal, and really interesting. But you're still going to be waiting for the day that he pulls a rabbit out of his top hat.

Have there been people that surprise me? Of course. Then you end up being sorry for the fact that you judged them in the first place and tell yourself over and over that the next time someone walks into a backyard BBQ wearing a ball gown that you won't think they're absolutely out of their minds. That's how the cycle goes and that's how it'll always go. I'll be real: when I get older and have kids of my own I'm probably going to teach them the old Book-Cover phrase. But when a kid shows up to my house for a playdate sporting a comb over, wearing plaid shorts, a tucked in pink polo, sparkling white tennis shoes, and tells me his name is Preston, I'm going to be judging the mother. In my head she'll be a snooty country club wife wearing a black collared dress and pearls, hair slicked back into a perfectly crafted ballerina bun at the nape of her neck. When she walks in to pick little Preston up wearing exactly that, I'll smile to myself and continue to make up a big story about her in my mind.

...then we'll end up being besties and the cycle will continue. 

Look forward to a Here I Go: Promoting Mat Kearney post in the near future. He's great.

Glad to be back

After 3 delays, a mini panic attack on the plane and finally landing down at MacArthur, I'm home.

I'm so glad to be back to normal food! We've had some excellently delicious things while on vacation, but I can't keep feeling guilty for eating things like this every day!

Amazing. Chocolatey. Smooth. Perfect. And yes, that is a chocolate covered cherry on top. Like I said, it was great eating things like that every single day, but man do I feel like I need a straight week at the gym. Nothing but treadmills and ellipticals forever. It's back to whole wheat bread, Wheaties, grilled chicken and various broccoli recipes. Well, not all together obviously. 

Last night after I got home I hopped straight in the shower; planes just make me feel gross, even if I just showered right beforehand. Then the boy picked me up and took me to a beyond excellent dinner at Mama Lombardi's. Fried calamari and bowtie pasta with salmon. Absolutely delicious. Then we went back to his house, hung with his parents a bit and then had a low key night in, watching The Office and chatting. Oh! And how could I forget? He also brought me these amazing flowers:

Beautiful, right? He's kind of an excellent guy. Just a little though; don't want to think he's doing that great ;)

I'm in a really John Mayer-y mood lately!

Why am I not surprised?

Alright so here's the deal. We just finished out longggg week in Florida and I think we're all ready to get back to the routine of normal life. Not ready to get back to work - that's for sure - but I'm ready to get back to my friends, the boy, and just the little things about home that makes it, well, home.

We get to the airport and look at the departure schedule...our flight: delayed. Of course. All I want to do is get home and have a nice big Subway sandwich and our flight gets delayed. Andddd it doesn't say til when....just yet.

After we go through the security, get body scanned, and sit at terminal 122, I took out my trusty lap top to see if I can find out why we're delayed and what our new departure time will be. What happens next?? No. Internet. Why am I not surprised? So, the boy looked online for me and it said we would be delayed 55 minutes. Not too bad, right?

Wrong. about ten minutes later, they made an announcement that our flight would be leaving at 1:30 and not arriving back home until 4:30. Why in the hell is it taking three hours? I have no clue. Then about 15 minutes later, another announcement was made about the final details about flight 1300. Departure: 1:40. Arrival: 4:15. Better than 4:30, I suppose, but it's still over two hours after we were supposed to get home.

Luckily, I now have internet so that will keep me occupied for a bit. However, I have this family sitting next to me who has three little boys. I'm going to say 4, 6, and 8 years old. The parents are trying to play Uno with them and screeeammminggggg at them because they don't know how to play. Then they bicker among themselves. Trouble in paradise? Talk about parents of the year.