Thoughts on 2011

Tomorrow marks the first day of a new year.  A fresh start.  A clean slate.

You would think that after the last two months, I would be ready to say, "Good riddance, 2011!"  But I'm not so sure that I am.  I may even be a little sad to see it go.

2011 was a big year for me.  Yes, it ended on a really long, low, bad note. My break-up was an unwelcome shock that left me in the greatest pain I've ever known and with a lot of emotions to sort through.  I feel like I'm still in the first stage of grief: Shock and Denial.  I find myself thinking so often "Oh my gosh...that really happened.  He really doesn't want me anymore.  This isn't a nightmare.  This is my life.  And I'm expected to get used to this.   How did this happen?"  I feel like I've barely made a dent in working through this mess.

But the reason I am in so much pain is because, throughout the entire relationship up until the moment before he said "I love you but I have to break-up with you," I was so unbelievably happy.  Like, giggly, smiley, singing all the time, butterflies in my stomach, doing cartwheels, this-should-be-illegal happy.  I miss that happiness so much. And I really miss my ex-boyfried. Not just the companionship. Not just having someone to call boyfriend and kiss on New Years Eve. I miss him: his quirks, his flaws, the entire package.  And that happiness is the reason I'm not ready to "kick 2011 to the curb." 2011 brought me the greatest happiness I've ever known.  Despite the pain it's also brought me, how could I say good riddance to a year that brought me such happiness?

Also, I was not prepared for how difficult the new year would be post-break-up.  I knew that spending New Years Eve without him was going to be hurt.  I was not ready for how starting the new year without him was going to hurt even more.  New years are always kind of scary for me.  On January 1, you face 365 days of unknowns.  You may have some specific plans like "Go to New York" or "Buy a house" or "Start college," but as for your work, your relationships, your finances...you really have no clue what is going to happen.  You may get laid-off or lose a close family member or have to pay a huge unexpected medical bill after falling or get dumped.  After being in a relationship where I felt such reassurance and comfort and love and trust, facing that uncertainty without that person there is even scarier.  Part of me wishes I could just hide under the covers with a flashlight and my teddy bear until I'm given the all-clear.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could do that and just have someone come along once the bad stuff is over and say, "You're safe!  The scary part is over.  Now enjoy the rest of your year and this complimentary ice cream cone"?

I learned a lot in 2011. I changed a lot in 2011. I gained a lot in 2011. An then I lost a lot in 2011.

Tonight, Times Square will be filled with crazy, intoxicated partygoers. Parties will be thrown, champagne will be drunk, sparkly dresses will be worn,  people will proudly and loudly demonstrate their ability to count backwards from 10, and people all over the world will kiss the person they love.  I will crawl into bed early, write in my diary, say a prayer, and let my 2011 leave quietly.  I will wake up on Sunday morning and begin working my way through 2012, one baby step at a time.

Of course, this wouldn't be a new years post without some mention of a resolution.

This year, I resolve to take better care of myself, both physically and emotionally.  Plain and simple when you put it on paper.  Not so much when put into action.  I'm not very good at making myself, my health, and my well-being a priority.  If you could be a fly on the wall inside my head, you would probably agree that I could definitely makes some improvements in that area.

I would also really like to do a better job of keeping up with this blog.  I know I put some very personal, emotional things on this blog and some people may think I'm crazy or dramatic or just seeking attention.  But writing here has helped me work through so many rock bottoms the past 11 + weeks.  Being completely honest on here means I have to be completely honest with myself.  A lot of the time, I don't even realize that I'm feeling something until, suddenly, there it is all typed out in front of me. Blogging is therapeutic.  I know a lot of bloggers will probably agree with me on this.

How does the New Year make you feel?  Am I the only one who thinks it's scary?  Do you make New Years resolutions?

How I Found My Christmas Spirit

This Christmas season was really tough on me.  That's no secret.  No matter how hard I tried, I just could not make myself care about Christmas.  I was a Scrooge, a grinch, a Debbie downer.  I was no fun whatsoever.  In short, I was miserable.  And I was frustrated.  Yes, I was hurting, but my goodness! Don't I deserve to be happy about something?!

Luckily, I was not a completely hopeless case.  My Christmas Spirit finally showed up.  It was very late, but it was there.

On Christmas Eve every year, my family goes to the 11:00 pm service at church.  We go to our home church, St. Paul Lutheran Church, the years that we're at home.  But this year we spent Christmas with my grandmother, so we went to St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Charlotte, NC for their late service.  Normally, I love the Christmas Eve service (we had been to this church once before for Christmas Eve).  But this year, I was tired and not feeling very well.  This combined with my apathy toward Christmas made me pretty grumpy.  But once the pastor started her sermon, I started to loosen up a bit.  I love sermons in the Lutheran church because they are less about teaching the Bible and more about teaching how to use what is said in the Bible to live a more fulfilling life.  The Bible is used as a guide, not as something to be taken literally (because, let's face it: a lot has changed since Jesus was walking around doing his thing).  Her sermon was insightful and downright funny at times (she used anecdotes.  I love anecdotes).  I wish I could find the e-mail that she read to us so that I could share it with you.  After the sermon, I felt myself opening up to the songs and prayers and letting my guard down.  Then, as the they were preparing for communion at the altar, the church bells started ringing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  This happens to be one of my favorite Christmas songs, probably because my high school choir used it to open our big Christmas concert every year.  Hearing it brings back the excitement and adrenaline rush that I always felt at the beginning of that concert.  As soon as it started ringing, I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 12:00 am—officially Christmas!  "Away in a Manger" followed shortly after.  I loved that the church rang in Christmas like this (no pun intended)!

After communion, ushers walked down the center aisle and lit candles.  Everyone passed their flame down the pew as the lights dimmed and the organist played the intro to "Silent Night."  We do this at my home church as well and I always love it, but there was something extra special about this experience in this church.  It was extra magical.  Then on the last verse, the pastor lifted up her candle and everyone else followed suit.  That, my friends, is when my Christmas spirit made its entrance.  I felt warm inside and even kind of relieved.  It was like we were taking whatever was hurting or stressing or saddening us and lifting it up, letting it all go.  It was that moment that I remembered that Christmas is not about me.  It is not about Christmas movies or Christmas cookies or even that warm and tingly feeling you get when you put a present under the tree.  It's about hope.  It's about the fact that however many years ago,  all was not right on Earth and God sent someone down to make things better.  God sent his son down as a physical manifestation of the hope he provides.  For me, Christmas this year was about realizing that no matter how much pain I am in, no matter how sad I am, no matter how many tears I shed,  somehow, someway, at some point, something will get better.  It won't happen all at once and it is going to take time, but there will eventually be some improvement.  Until then, I need to use this time for me.  I need to learn patience and really think about what it means to love someone.  I have absolutely no doubt that I love my ex-boyfriend, but it was never an emotion I was able to quite put into words (which I know a lot of, if not most people can't).  I'm kind of figuring out what that word means to me; what loving someone means to me.  Does that make any sense? Haha.  And I need to learn how to take care of myself–how to make myself take care of myself.  It is going to take a lot of time before I am able to open myself up to someone the way I did to my ex-boyfriend.  I still can't imagine loving someone in the way that I love him.  And that's ok.  I probably never will love anyone else in the way that I love him because I believe that we cannot love two people in the same way.  Every person is different, every relationship is different, and every love is different.  Like snowflakes.  When my heart is ready, I will begin to take the steps toward being able to open up again.  But to pretend all is well before I am healed would be unfair to me and unfair to any man that tried to pursue a relationship with me.   It is ok that I can't move on from this yet.  It is difficult and painful. But it is ok.
 "Give me pain if that's what's real.  It's the price we pay to feel." (Brownie points if you can name that musical!)

Right now, I am just thankful that I was lucky enough to get to spend Christmas with family that gives me their love and support unconditionally—no questions asked.

Just a friendly sword fight between siblings..

See all those nutcrackers on the mantle?  My cousin Kevin is obsessed with the ballet The Nutcracker and has amassed quite the collection.  Here, we're trying to show him the 5 ballet positions of the feet, but he's more interested in reenacting the battle between the nutcracker and the mouse king. And he has just stabbed me.  A dramatic death followed shortly after this picture was taken (cause it's not ballet if it's not dramatic!).

The Adams and Wright kids.  Cool cousins.

I think we were trying to do some sort of Abbey Road thing here.  As you can see, we were wildly successful.

The Wright family.

See the woman sitting on the walker?  That's my great-grandmother, Nana, who celebrated her 99th Christmas this year.  How amazing is that?  She seen Christmas through the Great Depression, the Roaring Twenties, two World Wars, Pearl Harbor, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Men on the Moon, The Gulf War, 9/11, The War on Terror and 17 presidents.  The Christmases she enjoyed as a child seem almost from a completely different world than the Christmases she has now.  That just completely blows my mind!

The entire Wright/Adams bunch.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my readers!

I hope you've all had a perfectly lovely Christmas morning.  I know I have :)

I found my Christmas spirit late last night.  Better late than never!  It's still going strong.

 Here are a few scenes from my Christmas Morning:

Last night, my brother and I were at the grocery store and decided we wanted to get something nice for breakfast for our parents and grandmother on Christmas morning, so we started a new tradition: Bagels and lox on Christmas morning!

Ribbon Mustache :) 

Good haul :)

New Christmas pajamas :) And my new North Face headband that I'm kind of obsessed with.  No more cold ears while waiting for the bus in the morning! 

I think my theater-going and movie-going readers would love this!  It's like a photo album with pockets for ticket stubs and a spot to write about the show next to each slot.  I can't wait to start filling this up!

I can't wait to start reading this book my brother gave me!

Every single episode of Sex and the City.  I have officially earned my Girl Card.

It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Can't wait to get started on this in the new year!

I hope that Santa treated you well and that you get to spend the day with with friends and family who love you as much as mine love me.  And don't forget to watch A Christmas Story on TBS today! 

Once again, Merry Christmas!  Don't shoot your eye out!
And enjoy some of my brother's Christmas music!

  

My Love Letter to Amazon.com

I'm here!  I still exist!  Don't forget about me!

Sorry for my unexpected week long absence!  I'm spending time with family for the holiday season and anticipated being out of touch for a few days, but some how a few days slightly out of touch turned into an entire week with no wireless or reliable cell service. I've been doing absolutely nothing but eating Reese's Cups, making Christmas cookies, playing iPad solitaire, doing crosswords and watching Gilmore Girls.  It's been pretty freaking awesome.

But I've missed wireless and I've missed my blog!  I'm super happy to be back :)

I would like to take a moment to write about something that would have been of much more use to you had I written about it a month ago.  I didn't write about it because I've always just assumed that this was something everybody already knew about.  But lately, I've realized how many people have no clue what they are missing out on.

My friends, with 3 days to go before Christmas, I am going to tell you about the Amazon Wishlist.

I'm a scrooge this year.  I'm not going Christmas crazy.  That's no secret.  But even when I am in the Christmas spirit, there's still one little phrase that rears it's ugly little head every December that drives me absolutely nuts:

"What do you want for Christmas?" 

I. Hate. That. Question.  I'm not one who wants for much.  And when I do want something, I tend to go out (or online) and buy it.  And there's often research involved. So when someone asks me that question, I never have an answer.  It makes me frustrated.  It makes the question asker frustrated.  There's frustration all around and it makes everyone grumpy.  

This is why the Amazon Wishlist makes my life so much easier.  

I personally believe that everybody needs an Amazon Prime account.  Around $80 a year gets you unlimited free 2 day shipping on most of the items for sale on Amazon.com.  I use my Amazon account for everything.  Cds, Books, Clothes, Gifts, Phone Cases, Water Bottle Filters, Toothpaste...anything.  One of the features of your Amazon.com account (Prime or regular) is the Wishlist.  

Basically, on every item listed on Amazon.com, there is an "Add to Wishlist" button.  If you see an item you want but don't want to spend your own money or that you think you would like as a gift, you just click that button. And if you use Google Chrome, you can download a "Wish List Extension" so that you can add items from other websites onto your wishlist. This makes Christmas (and birthdays and other gift giving occasions) so much easier for me because I add items to my wishlist throughout the year.  Then when that ugly little question rears it's ugly little head, I actually have an answer: "I have an Amazon wishlist."  All someone has to do is search my e-mail and there it is.  No hassle.  No fuss.  No stress.  Just a Merry Christmas.

Another similar feature that Amazon offers is the gift organizer.  This makes gift giving much easier for me because it allows me to "save" an item that I think might be a good gift for someone.  I adore this because I always come up with the best Christmas gift ideas in July.   Or May.  Or January.  Or September.  Or any month that is not December.  And as soon as December comes around, I forget all of them.  This feature allows me to make a gift list for any person I need to that I can add to throughout the year.  I also really love it for budgeting purposes because you can put several things on a list for a person throughout the year and then, when Christmas rolls around, you can use the list to choose the item(s) that best fits your budget at the time.

Of course, I do still do a bit of the walking-around-the-mall-looking-for-the-perfect-gift-for-the-perfect-person thing.  But I tend to get distracted by shoes or clothes or a pretzel about 10 minutes in and after about an hour of walking around ignoring the clothes and shoes and pretzels I want, I get kind of grumpy.  If I want to be productive and actually have something to wrap and put under the Christmas tree, Amazon.com is the way to go.  

Like I said, this post is a bit late for this Christmas season.  But hey, there's no time like the present to get started on NEXT Christmas!  :)

No More Blog?

Not really!  Well, not yet, at least! But under the SOPA and Protect IP Act, the government and corporations could shut down any site on which its users post content that infringes on copyrights, meaning, if I understand this correctly, Blogger (my blog host) could easily be shut down.  Which would make me very sad.  And I would have no where to write about this sad.  And that would make me more sad and it's a vicious cycle.

Therefore...

I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/21080/uncensor



███████: No ████████, ███████, ███████, █████...████'s the ██████ it ████ ██████. Say "No!" to ██████████ in ███████!

Day 28: Daily Routine

I hate mornings.  Hate. Hate. HATE!

So it's a good thing that today's photo fell on a day that I got to sleep in until 11 :)

So, mornings.  Daily routine.

Wake up.  Snooze.  Curse the sun. Crawl out of bed.

Brush Teeth.  Weigh myself. Shower (sorry, you don't get to see a picture of that).  Isn't this riveting?

Then I turn on Disney Pandora and make myself pretty. (Please excuse my dirty mirror in these pictures.  I accidentally washed it with OxyClean instead of Windex.)

 I can't operate a camer and a hairdryer at the same time.  

 If I'm lucky, I end up looking somewhat like this:

Then I'm off the sell jewelry at my wonderful job!

My goodness, that has to be the most boring blog post I've ever written.  Sorry, guys! 

Here's something really not boring!  My brother is a fantastic musician and made this awesome Christmas album!  I'm so proud of him and I love how it turned out!  You can listen to and download it here!  

Emily After Dark

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 27: After Dark

I gotta tell you guys, after dark is when I really let loose.

I get home from work.  I kick off my shoes.  I hang up my coat.  I slip off my work clothes and on come the pajamas!

I open a Caffeine Free Diet Coke, plug in my laptop, and turn on Gilmore Girls.  I crawl into bed, and pretty soon the silly faces start.

The sleepier I get, the sillier the faces get

I browse Pinterest and read blogs and eat Sweet Tarts candy canes.  

And then, when this episode of Gilmore Girls is over, I'll play Zelda: Twilight Princess for a while (speaking of, does anyone know where I can find a fishing pole?) watch some Whose Line Is It Anyway?, say my prayers, and drift into a peaceful sleep where I'll dream about the McDonald's cheeseburger that I plan to eat for dinner tomorrow. Mmm...Cheeseburger....

I am really enjoying this "No school" thing.  No stress, no anxiety.  Just me, my comfy bed, and all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls.  And Zelda. And Pinterest.  And some of that leftover cheesecake from Ruth's Chris.  Tonight is my last chance for a night like this for a while and I am loving every minute of it.  Some people need wild parties and bars to keep them entertained.  Not me.  Just give me a pair of pajamas and an evening by myself.  I'll be happier than a bunny with a carrot.  

And because last nights post was a bit heavy, I am going to leave you with a meaningless little survey:

Who will you be sleeping with tonight? 

Lots of pillows.

What are you going to do tomorrow?

Work and (if I'm really good) McDonalds.

When do you plan on having kids or your next kid? 

I've always wanted to be a young mom, so I was hoping in my 20s, maybe around 27?  But that's not looking very likely.

Do you know a secret about your last ex that would embarrass them? 

I don't think so.  He never seemed to get embarrassed.  That was something I really admired about him. Still do.  It doesn't take much to make me blush.

Can you use chopsticks? 

Well enough to eat sushi without looking like a total goon.

How old were you when you lost your first tooth? 

7 or 8-ish?  I really don't remember.

Were you a hyper or mellow kid?

I've always been pretty mellow.

Why did you throw up last? 

Because my stomach made me.

What are you excited for? 

Callbacks for Almost, Maine on Thursday night.  I love any bit of theater I can get.

What's for dinner? 

Tonight, I had a turkey wrap from Jason's Deli, same thing I had last night.  The woman at the register remembered my order and everything.  It was kind of embarrassing.

Ever been to the Statue of Liberty? 

I have been on the Staten Island Ferry which gives you a great view of the Statue of Liberty.

How many e-mail addresses do you have? 

Two. One just for school, another that I made in 8th grade that embarrasses me every time I have to give it to the woman at the Ann Taylor Loft register.

Do you HAVE to have brand name stuff?

I try to buy generic most of the time (but I will buy name brand if it truly is a better product).

Do you like Oreos?

I adore oreos.

What was the last ice cream flavor you ate? 

Vanilla with Chocolate Syrup from Jason's.  I love vanilla ice cream :)

What color is your car? 

Pearl White.

Got a boyfriend?

I don't like this question.

How many siblings do you have?

1.

Ever been abused?

Never.

Are you on drugs?

Never.

Do you know anyone on drugs?

Not that I'm aware of.

How many kids do you want?

Two.

Were is your home town?

Baton Rouge. 

Ever had something serious happen to you or a close friend?

Yes.

Do you get along with your extended family?

For the most part, yes.

How many cousins do you have?

Four.

Who are you closer to your mom or dad?

Equally close to both.

Are your parents married?

Yes.

Do you have step parents?

Nope.

Name 5 people that mean the world to you?

I have to choose only 5?! I can't do that. 

Mom, Dad, Brother, Grandfather, a few friends, and a person I can't have anymore.

Name one person you could never live without?

"I've pretty much promised God I'll choose to live no matter who I do or do not have.."

I really like the answer that my friend who took this before me put, so I'm copying her :) 

Favorite color?

Purple.

Do you have an ipod?

I do.  It's purple :)

Do you have a phone?

Permanently attached to my hand.

If so who was your last text message from?

Dad.

Has anyone close to you ever died?

Yes.

Have you ever been dumped?

I DON'T LIKE THIS QUESTION.

Have you ever dumped someone?

No. (Note: There is a big difference between breaking up with someone and dumping them.  Breaking up implies that respect was shown.)

Have you ever seen someone just before they died?

Yes.

If you could go anywhere right now were would it be and who would you take?

Does the person have to be willing?  And would we have to pay to get into Disney World?

If you could change anything right now what would it be?

I think I've made this pretty obvious on my blog for the past 8 weeks.

Have you ever cried because you were laughing so hard?

Several times.  I haven't in a while though.

Have you ever cried because you were sad and not because you hurt yourself?

Yes. A lot.  I'm learning that it's ok to cry even when everyone else thinks it's time to stop.

How old will you be this year?

Turned 20 this year.  Next year will be the big 2-1. Yay?

Bah, Humbug!

I am the definition of Scrooge this Christmas.  Seriously, take a minute and look it up in your dictionary and you'll find my name there.  I'll wait.

....See? I wasn't kidding.

The closer and closer that Christmas gets this year, the more I wish I could just skip it.  For the first time ever, I actually have an anti-Christmas spirit. I'd rather just pretend it doesn't exist.  I'm not excited about Christmas shopping.  I'm not eagerly anticipating opening presents on Christmas morning.  Christmas Carols put me in an awful mood.  I don't have warm fuzzy visions of watching A Christmas Story around the fire.  In fact, I haven't watched any Christmas movies at all this year.  In past years, I have been known to start the Christmas movies in August.  Even The Polar Express, which is my absolute favorite Christmas movie and one of my favorite movies in general, is collecting dust on my shelf.  I just can't make myself care this year.

Christmas is such supposed to be such a happy, joyous time.  And honestly, I am not happy.  I am going through a really difficult, stressful, painful, sad time right now, and I still have a long ways to go.  Christmas seems to just exacerbate all of that unhappiness.  I have a wonderful, loving family and more incredible, supportive friends than I deserve.  Despite that, I'm very lonely right now.  I'm still deep in grief over the loss of someone that meant the world to me.  I still feel like a huge chunk of me is missing (apparently, the chunk of me that was Christmas crazy). There's only 1 thing that I really want right now.  And it's not going to happen.  Christmas spirit just feels so wrong and out of place right now.  I almost wish I could just crawl into bed and say, "Wake me up on January 2nd.  Save me a slice of Honey Baked Ham."

I'm finding little ways to help me through this.  I have a tree up in my apartment.  I'm doing Christmas shopping on the internet instead of going to the mall. But mainly, I'm praying.   I've never been a person of super mondo strong faith.  It was definitely there, but not something I've ever really been comfortable talking about with others.  For me, my faith is a very personal "me" thing. Then it kind of fell to the wayside when I started high school.  But for the past 6 weeks or so, I've been praying.  I pray every night before I go to sleep.  I thank God for all that I've been blessed with and that I'm thankful for, and then I pour out everything I'm feeling.  Sometimes, I can remain calm.  Sometimes, I lose all composure it turns into a bunch of garbled Whys and Pleases and "What do you want for me?"s.  Sometimes, I pray and cry until I fall asleep. Sometimes, I just sit there and cry.   But whenever I'm done, I always feel a profound sense of calm and release.  I don't feel quite so lonely.  I feel hope that things will be resolved. I feel loved.  And sometimes, I even feel like maybe that Christmas spirit isn't quite so unattainable.

Sometimes, we can be the pig of happiness.  Sometimes, we really need a pig of happiness.

Santa Claws is Coming to Town

I've been having a lot of trouble getting in the Christmas Spirit this year.

But this certainly helps:



Animals are awesome.

And this "secret" from the PostSecret app makes me giggle.

She's Back!

Hello interwebz!  After a busy week, I am back and blogging!

My finals schedule was rough this year.  I had one on Wednesday, THREE on Thursday, and one today. Luckily, the highest grade I needed to make on any of the finals was and 82. I've gotten 2 grades back so far....A's!  Woohoo!


To keep myself sane this week, I baked and made cake pops!  The process is such that I could spread it out over the course of the week.  I would explain it to you, but every time I make them people go so nuts over them that I like to "keep it a secret recipe" (even though all you have to do is google "How to make cake pops" to learn how to make them...but you didn't hear that from me).  I've made cake balls before and have really been wanting to try to make them as pops, but haven't really had an excuse to make them until now! Tonight was the opening night of A Christmas Carol at Baton Rouge Little Theater!  I'm not going to get a chance to go see the show, which I feel guilty about because I know and love several people involved in it.  So I decided to make up some cake pops to send over as an opening night treat!  I thought the "pops" part would also be better for a theater group because they would be less messy to eat than cake balls (less risk for chocolate on costumes).  I think they turned out really great!  I hope the cast/crew/creative team enjoyed them!

 I wrapped an old box in some Christmas wrapping paper to make a more festive container :)

I'm so happy with how they turned out! And I got to see a couple of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time when I delivered them tonight, which was a great plus!

I als0 got a chance to celebrate the end of finals with my family tonight!  My grandfather's birthday was in October and my parent's promised him a steak dinner for it!  But schedules are hectic and life is crazy and we didn't get a chance.  So tonight, my parents, my grandfather and I went out for an end of finals/Birthday dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House! Yum!  And it was a great excuse to dress up!

We started off with crab stuffed mushrooms:

The for the main course I had the Top Sirloin with a baked potato:

And then I finished off with cheesecake, the leftovers of which are waiting for me in my fridge!  That will be a nice treat for tomorrow :)

I'm a cheesecake purist.  Don't put anything on it! Just give it to me plain! 

It was a fantastic dinner!  Everyone deserves a Ruth's Chris dinner every now and then!

So what's up next for me now that this semester is over?  Well, this weekend I am excited about getting a manicure (I really need one), getting some laundry done (I'm running out of clean underwear) , going shoe shopping (Hooray for DSW Rewards Certificates!) and getting started on playing Zelda: Twilight Princess (It's been sitting on my shelf mocking me for over a week)! I'll also try to pick up the 30 Day Photo Challenge again tomorrow.  And then on Sunday, I have auditions for Almost, Maine at Baton Rouge Little Theater, which I'm both really excited and really nervous about!  I haven't done any theater in about a year, so I'm excited to do any sort of acting, even an audition!  But I'm also nervous because I haven't done it for so long and I really want to do this show!  Fingers crossed that it goes well!

It feels so good to have this semester and finals over and done with!  It feels so great to be able to go to bed without any school work hanging over my head!

Speaking of going to bed...I think it's time for me to say goodnight! So....Goodnight!

When Finals are Over...

When Finals are Over...

...I can watch lots of Gilmore Girls.

...I can sleep in.

...I can try to crochet again.

...This feeling of imminent doom will go away.

...I can start watching Modern Family.

...I can focus on auditions for Almost Maine.

...I can do Christmas shopping.

...I can work out.  Or at least think about working out.

...I can spend time on Pinterest without thinking about all of the schoolwork I have to do.

...I can get a manicure.

...I can get my hair cut.

...I can blog on a daily/regular basis again.

...I can catch up on the 30 Day Photo Challenge.

...I can do my laundry.

...I can read all of the books I've waiting all semester to read.

...I can play Zelda: Twilight Princess.

...I can relax again.

...I can drink caffeine again.

...I can stop studying.

Finals have consumed my life, mind and focus, so blogging is going to be a little sparse this week.  But to tide you over until Friday, I leave you with this:

 I can be silly when I'm avoiding schoolwork.

So silly...

When finals are over, I will give this blog and my readers the attention they deserve.  I'll be back Friday (at the latest)!  To my student readers: Good luck with finals!  To my non-student readers: Have a fantastic week!  

Later, taters! 

Peeq A Boo!

Look what came in the mail today!

These are wineglasses with the bottoms covered in slate so that you can write on them with chalk!  So cute! They're made by the company Chalkboard China. The retail value is $32 for both of them, but I got them for $5.  How did I get such discount?  One word: SneakPeeq.

I discovered SneakPeeq last July. It's a flashsale site.  Everyday, SneakPeeq posts new stores.  Store sales generally last  about 3 days and range from homegoods to food to clothes to purses to whatever you can imagine!  They generally try to feature lesser known pruducts and companies.  In order to see the price of a product, you have to "peeq" at it. You can only peeq a certain number of times per day, but the more you peeq, the more peeqs per day you get and the more "badges" you get.  Badges give you discounts.  Discounts give you deals—deals like $32 wine glasses for $5!

Take a look at all of the discount badges I've learned!

I don't buy on SneakPeeq incredibly often, but I stop by and check out the new stores everyday.  There's always a ton of really cute stuff!  I've loved all of things I have bought (and it's all been under $15)!

My first purchase was this adorable Crow Watch! 12 Bucks!

Lunchskins followed quickly after!  They're cute little reusable bags that you can use in place of ziploc bags.  I got this one and a smaller blue polka dot one! $4.22 :)

The Tickled Pink scarf I got next is one of my favorites now! $9.91!

It does take a while to get your items after you order them because they don't ship items out until after the sale is over and they have all of the orders in, but it's always worth the wait. 

So, that's the gist of SneakPeeq!  It's shopping, it's a game and the sales are great! I love it.  You should too :)

Day 26: Something Old

I know I still owe you guys Day 25, but sun was not happening in Baton Rouge today.  I promise as soon as the sun comes back and I actually remember to take a picture, you will get Day 25.

This is Teddy.  My Mummum and PaPaw gave my Teddy on the day I was born 20 years ago.  Rumor has it that he used to be shiny and fluffy, but I don't believe it.  His eyes are hidden behind his fur and  I've only ever known him as flattened from using him as a pillow.  In fact, I still use him as a pillow because one pillow is not enough and two pillows are too much.  One pillow plus Teddy is perfect and my neck and I are not ashamed to admit it.

After I grew out of the shirt I'm wearing in this picture, Teddy wore it. :)