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This Year, New Year

31 Dec The fam decided it would be "fun" to see the botanical gardens in 11 degree weather

First off, I want to take a brief look back at this year. It has FLOWN by.

Today marks the exact one-year mark that I’ve lived in Chicago, and to say that’s surreal would be a gross understatement. I remember coming into Chicago a year ago, in the pouring rain, and coming up to my apartment for the first time. It was shockingly small, and looking around at the tons of boxes was overwhelming.

The first day!

Now!

The way my life has changed in the past year is just beyond mind-blowing. I know I’ve been a bit remiss about blogging, so here is a very quick trip down memory lane.

Oh, yeah, I moved to CHICAGO–and started Grad School (the view out of the student center in downtown

I discovered Sprinkles Cupcakes (if you have any locations near you, definitely look them up, best cupcakes of my life!)

Chocolate and Red Velvet

I explored Chicago

There was a blizzard!

Brr--my street is covered!

I visited the Anti-Cruelty Animal Shelter for a school project!
 

 I went to visit my mom in Colorado!

On the drive to Boulder!

Downtown Golden

Oh, yeah, I worked at GROUPON and made some AWESOME friends!

 

Annalise came to visit for July 4th!

Blurry fireworks picture!

Can you see my sunburn? The WORST of my life!

 

I went to visit my friend Nancy in NYC–for the first time since summer 2002

On the roof of the Met--very edited because it was so bright!

Times SquareWTC

 

My friend Amanda came to visit!

 

My friend Joanna and I went to see Bon Iver!

 

I went to visit my friend Melissa in Richmond, Va.

Downtown Richmond

Downtown Richmond

 

I went to Colorado to visit the fam for Christmas!

The fam decided it would be "fun" to see the botanical gardens in 11 degree weather

 

 

 

 

There was SO MUCH more that happened–including late night house parties with friends, new jobs, great meals, fun adventures, etc.

 

Now, on to resolutions. I’m a big believer in them. I think it’s helpful to set them, and then, at the very least, revisit them at the end of the year to see if progress was made/if you’re setting the same resolutions over and over again, etc. One thing I’ve been reading more and more is that it’s really important to set DETAILED resolutions and goals. So, for instance, instead of just saying “get healthy” or “lose weight,” to quantify that so you have a concrete goal to hold yourself to. And/or, to also be SPECIFIC. So instead of just “get healthy” say HOW you want to get healthy…that way you’re not setting yourself up for failure.

So….here they are!

1. Get healthier–however, in the spirit of being more specific. I’m going to say practice yoga regularly (once a week, preferably). I’ve thought about yoga for a while, and have been researching places and prices. It’s expensive, but I think it will be worth it.

2. Be less sarcastic. I don’t really have a problem with my sense of humor, but I do understand that sometimes people that don’t know me as well could be offended. Obviously, I would never want to hurt anyone intentionally, so I’m going to try to be careful with what I say, and maybe stop a beat before I speak (very hard!). I don’t want to lose my sense of humor, but it probably won’t hurt to be a little more sensitive to those who don’t get it.

3. Find a job! I will be graduating a little early this March (YAY!) and I am very, very nervous about finding a job. It took a really long time last time, and I’m hoping it will be easier this go-around!

4. Take more photos/blog more. This is similar to last year, but I want to quantify it. Right now it’s hard to take photos, because my phone (which is a 2 year old free Verizon basic phone) has the WORST CAMERA ever. It doesn’t zoom, or even have a flash. This February I will *hopefully* be getting an iPhone, which I think will make this easier. There are so many moments I wasn’t able to capture this year, hopefully next year I won’t miss out on as many!
Blog-I want to blog at least once a week.
Photos-I know this is ambitious, but I want to take A PHOTO A DAY for a whole year, and then hopefully put them in a book/blog them when I’m done.

5. Travel somewhere new–hopefully out West or abroad.

6. Double the amount currently in my savings account.

 

So…what about you? What are your resolutions? Any good ones I left out?

 

 

 

 

An Update on my 2011 Goals

28 Dec

So, back in January I wrote this post on my aspirations for 2011. It’s always fun to look back and see how you did, so here goes it….

1. Lose weight. This is a cliche, I know. But there’s a reason this is on everyone’s list. I mean, it’s an important goal. I want to get healthier, slim down, and get back to my more comfortable self. Well, technically this one was KIND OF a win. I did lose a pound or two (maybe three), but I’m not sure that really counts in the grand scheme of things.
2. Make new friends, but keep the old. I can’t wait to meet more people (more, meaning more than my building manager) in Chicago. And I want to make sure to foster my long-distance friendships. ACHIEVED!! Total win on this one. I have some AWESOME friends in Chicago, and I have been doing pretty well with keeping in touch with my old friends, too! I feel very lucky and fulfilled in this category!
3. Travel somewhere new. I don’t know where. Although San Francisco sounds appealing right now. I’ve never been to the West coast. Also a win–although I haven’t made it to SanFran yet (and it’s still on the top of my list!), I did make a few visits out to Golden, CO, the Continental Divide, Richmond, VA, etc. I’m still itching for a big trip, though! Maybe after graduation?!
4. Take more pictures. For someone who loves photography, I am really bad at taking photos. It’s always a production to use my nice camera. So right now, I have it sitting out on top of the fridge so I can grab it at a moment’s notice. Eh, this kind of happened. I was doing better at it and then life got a hold of me. I recently got a new point-and-shoot camera–so this goal will be reappearing next year.
5. Blog more. I’m bad at it sometimes. Technically this one I did achieve–but my blogging definitely took a back seat to life the last half of the year. in 2010 I wrote: about 13 and in 2011 I wrote: about 23. Definitely an increase–but I’m hoping for a bigger one next year! 
6. Do well in grad school. I want to kick butt. ACHIEVED!! I’m looking at an overall GPA of 3.7–yay me!
7. Get more relevant experience. I want to really get in to the journalism field, learn technical stuff (“stuff”), and get in the “know.” Whatever that sentence means. Definitely achieved! Although my definition of what “relevant experience” has changed a bit, as have my career goals, I worked at Groupon and Scripps this year and loved it!
8. Explore Chicago. Concerts, picnics, bike rides, restaurants, movies, festivals–done! Can’t wait to do more of this nest year.
9. Be more financially stable. Pass? I’m a financial work in progress–but I’m headed the right direction!
10. Read more. I just got a Kindle and hope to get through more books this year. I’ve really been a slacker on my recreational reading. Complete fail! I think I read like two books this year (horrible, I know). I loved Tina Fey’s book Bossypants and would recommend it to anyone. I just found out you can check out digital Kindle books for free from the public library, though, so hopefully I can do more reading!

All in all, a lot of these will probably show up in my upcoming “Resolutions” post again–but that’s ok–I’m working on them and that’s all I can ask of myself!

Worst Commercials…

25 Jun grouponparty-409

I haven’t blogged in months! I’m such a bad blogger. I guess there hasn’t been a ton going on. Here are some quick bullets before we get to the commercials:

  • Work at Groupon is going well–I’m making friends and finally settling in
  • Groupon had a giraffe-themed party in a mansion for the Editorial department.
    Here are some pics:

  • It was a good time!
  • I am determined to learn how to rent a bike and ride it along the beach…I’ll get back to you on how that goes.
  • Annalise is coming to visit! Next weekend!
  • July 4th is coming up–yay America! I’m excited because I’ve never been in the city for July 4. I’ll make sure to take/post pics
  • Along the picture lines…I need a new point and shoot camera! I love my huge DSLR, but when I got out I can’t take it with me! My party pics from the Groupon party were only good when we were posing. My old camera couldn’t handle action shots–boo. Also, when I bought it in high school (for $400) it was top of the line. Now it looks ancient and clunky…can’t wait for an upgrade!
  • I’ve walked to work a few times now—it seems to take a lot longer than it does when I walk home (which I do almost every day), but I’m going to try to do it as much as possible.

SO–On to bad commercials. I got this idea after seeing some of the same commercials over and over and thinking how absolutely insanely stupid and annoying they were. Here are my top three at the moment:


So this is a commercial for Windows 7 and Staples. And it is stupid for so many reasons.
First, what the hell kind of robbers come in and take not just the expensive electronics, but literally EVERYTHING? Like completely clean out your house? What? This makes no sense. They took every object?
Also, what kind of neighbors do you live next to? They didn’t notice what had to have been literally a moving van to empty the entire house? And obviously these people were supposed to have been on vacation as evidenced by the bags they carried in.
AND, did you notice the beginning of this commercial where the lights are on? What? They robbed the whole place and left the lights on?
But then–the best of it–they left the computer? And you’re upset about it and have decided that next time, you’re going to have a nice computer for them to steal? Seriously? That’s your catalyst for buying a new computer?
Ughh–such stupidity. Not to mention it’s just insensitive towards people who’ve had their homes robbed.


This is a commercial for Samsung. UGH. This is just annoying. What kind of a douche has a tarantula as their screensaver? And puts it on the table in the middle of a business lunch? And what kind of dumbasses don’t realize it’s a phone? The most annoying thing is the girl…that scream is just obnoxious.

This trailer makes me laugh. Around the :13 mark, the woman’s voice is looped so she says “No NO NO NO” Hahha. And it’s in some weird voice effect. This just makes the rest of the movie look so silly. Why would they do that? I don’t know–but it makes me laugh.

What are your least favorite commercials? Do you agree with mine?

Tina Fey, my hero

16 Apr

I don’t get to read a lot for pleasure any more. When you haven’t read a book of your choice in a while, you can forget how enjoyable it is.

When I read that Tina Fey had a new book out called Bossypants I knew I had to read it.

I dusted off my Kindle and downloaded her book. Literally within the first page or two I LOVED it. LOVED it.

I have considered myself Tina Fey’s long-lost soul sister for a while now. I know that pretty much every single woman in the world thinks that. But seriously, it’s true. When I watch 30 Rock the words coming out of Liz Lemon’s mouth are things I think or say. Here are some samples:

“Lizzing is a combination of laughing and whizzing.”

“Can I share with you my worldview? All of humankind has one thing in common: the sandwich. I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich.”

“Sometimes I pee in the shower if I’m really tired!”

“If I have learned anything from my SIMS family: When a child doesn’t see his father enough he starts to jump up and down, then his mood level with drop until he pees himself.”

“My mom used to send me articles about how older virgins are considered good luck in Mexico.”

“God, three weddings in one day, I’m going to be in Spanx for 12 hours. My elastic line is gonna get infected again.”

“There ain’t no party like a Liz Lemon party ’cause a Liz Lemon party is mandatory!”

Can any of you read these and NOT think of me saying them? Especially that sandwich one. All of you know I love a good sandwich. It’s all I eat.

Anyhoo….so not only is Tina Fey’s book just hilarious so far, but it’s touching, too. And you know what, it speaks to me. I really feel like I have a soul sister. Here is an excerpt from her book that I instantly knew I wanted to share. She’s taking the words out of my mouth.

“I’ve always been able to tell a lot about people by whether they ask me about my scar. Most people never ask, but if it comes up naturally somehow and I offer up the story, they are quite interested. Some people are just dumb: “Did a cat scratch you?” God bless. Those sweet dumdums I never mind. Sometimes it is a fun sociology litmus test, like when my friend Ricky asked me, “Did they ever catch the black guy that did that to you?” Hmmm. It was not a black guy, Ricky, and I never said it was.

Then there’s another sort of person who thinks it makes them seem brave or sensitive or wonderfully direct to ask me about it right away. They ask with quiet, feigned empathy, “How did you get your scar?” The grossest move is when they say they’re only curious because “it’s so beautiful.” Ugh. Disgusting. They might as well walk up and say, “May I be amazing at you?” To these folks let me be clear. I’m not interested in acting out a TV movie with you where you befriend a girl with a scar. An Oscar-y Spielberg movie where I play a mean German with a scar? Yes.

My whole life, people who ask about my scar within one week of knowing me have invariably turned out to be egomaniacs of average intelligence or less….”

–Tina Fey in Bossypants

This is a pretty good interpretation of how I feel about people who do/don’t ask me about my neck. There are dumbasses that walk about and are like, “Why are you holding your neck sideways? Does it hurt?” Uh…no you idiot. I usually then tell them I have scoliosis and then they ask what scoliosis and so on…yadayada.

I guess it’s kind of a lose-lose situation, though. I mean, if you ask right away or at a weird time I’m going to think you’re an asshole. But if you never ask I’m also going to think you’re an asshole. Are you really going to pretend like there’s nothing different about me? Come on.

I understand that some people think they should wait to for the other person to bring it up. But I think that it shows an interest and sense of caring when you wait for the right time (after we’ve known each other maybe a few weeks) and just ask.

So if you have a friend that you’ve noticed something different about–wait for the right moment and ask them! Do it in a nice way and they’ll appreciate it, promise!

Oh, and also, buy Tina Fey’s book Bossypants.

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