A Big THANKS!

Today is Memorial Day; a day where we reflect and thank the service men and women who fight for our freedoms.  When I was younger, I didn't really understand the importance of Memorial Day.  Sure, we learned about it in school, we did a coloring activity/read a short story/etc.  But now that I'm older, I see how greatly these people and their families sacrifice to fight for my freedom.  My good friend Kathleen's whole family is in the military and they've had to sacrifice birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries, etc in order to keep our country safe.  One of my dearest friends, Kristen, well her fiance is in the military and is getting ready to be deployed for the second time since I've known them.  He's missed her birthday, Valentine's Day, Christmas and all those important times to build a relationship and some how despite all of that, they have one of the BEST relationships that I've ever seen.  Being involved in Special Education, I hear "Bless your heart, that takes a selfless person" and where that is true, it's not near the kind of selfless person it takes to serve our country.  Thank you to all those in the military who fight to keep me and my loved ones safe.  

Just when you thought Jersey Shore couldn't be topped...

Normally when you hear of a popular television show from Britain to the United States you think of a good comedy with dry humor.  Your first thought, or mine at least, isn't a wedding show about Gypsies or as they like to be called Travelers.  So I flip to TLC and this is exactly what's on "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding."  The best way I can think to describe it is a mix between, Toddlers in Tiaras, My Super Sweet 16, Say Yes to the Dress, and throw a little bit of Jerseylicious in there too.  First of all, I must give credit where credit is due: the show is actually marginally informative about the Gypsy culture.  Like, did you know that Gypsies prefer trailers (mobile homes) sans commode to track houses?  And that being devout catholics, their children at about 8 years old take first communion in dresses that must cost more than I've spent on clothes...ever. And also, they get married young. VERY YOUNG.  I'm talking one girl was 16 and this other girl is 17.  I just learned that women Travelers "would die before swearin in front of a man."  Needless to say, I wouldn't fit in.  The rest of the show is rather trashy.  The one wedding reception that I've seen so far was pretty classless and I'm honestly just shocked that some people wear clothes like that.  A tradition that girls have to worry about at weddings is called "grabbing." My understanding of this tradition is that a guy Traveler "grabs" you and tries to kiss you.  The one girl I saw getting "grabbed" was reminiscent of the opening scenes of Law & Order SVU.  What's worse is her friend walked by the scene and didn't try and help.

I am intrigued to say the least and will probably tune in again...

Weekend Update

This weekend, I spent  all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday watching Grey's Anatomy.  Go ahead, make fun of me.  This coupled with my amazing feats of domesticity (cleaning the apartment and laundry) has made me realize I really am the housewife type.  (unfortunately not the kind of housewife that gets compensated by BravoTV, but a housewife non-the-less).  

With my sister gone (no offense Emma, I know you read this, you may just want to skip to the next part), I can finally clean the apartment to my liking.  I went through the magazines and cleaned our bookcase and I must admit, my (because with Emma gone for 3 months, it is indeed MY apartment) apartment is looking a little bleak.  I'm thinking about using Emma's Silhouette machine and getting some vinyl from Hobby Lobby to make some wall art!  I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I'll keep ya posted!

I've also been working out!  I try and take a nightly run and do a little cardio from one of the Self workout videos available on Netflix.  I am thinking about trying pilates today or tomorrow... Thoughts??

Ennui

Yesterday I had a case of Ennui.  If you haven't seen Gilmore Girls for the excellent explanation of this affliction, let me explain:  It's when you have an off day and nothing seems to be able to cheer you up.  The thing is, is that I've had these days before but, I can always pinpoint the reason for why I feel that way.  But for the first time, I'm just really happy.  I thought that maybe just taking a nap would help me feel better, but every time I crawled into bed, I couldn't get to sleep.  So I spent most of my day trying to sleep and when I finally did get out of bed I tried to pick up around the house a bit but just couldn't get motivated.  So I talked to my friend Jessica and she said that maybe taking a walk would help.  It was getting late, but I was just going to take a walk around our neighborhood.  I got outside and walking wasn't helping so I decided to run.  Now I am by NO means a runner. I sincerely dislike running.  But for some reason, the run was great!  It was just what I needed to get rid of my ennui.  After my run I was finally able to go to sleep and wake up feeling at least a little refreshed.  Today I'm determined to have a better more productive day!

Simplicity

It really amazes me how the simple things can totally make your day and today was filled with them!  First of all, I worked a full day and honestly, it was incredible!  I had a ton of stuff to do and stayed busy the whole day!  I absolutely love having things to do and staying busy!! When I got out of work, I realized that I have no groceries at the apartment and I needed to fill my gas tank up.  In order to make only one trip, I decided I could get what I need from Sam's Club.  I love Sam's!!  I can get a ton of things and all for a generally reasonable price :)  I filled my tank with the cheapest gas in town and then headed inside.  I knew that I wanted to get some mixed lettuce and this is what I came up with for my dinner:  A Strawberry balsamic salad.  My friend told me that it sounded really fancy, but it's only four ingredients:  Strawberries, mixed lettuce, slivered almonds and balsamic vinegar!!  All you have to do is wash the strawberries and cut the tops off  and then I slice them into quarters.  After the strawberries are sliced, you rinse off the lettuce and put it in a bowl.  Add the strawberries and then put a splash of balsamic vinegar on top.  Sprinkle a few almonds on the top and you've got yourself a nice simple little salad.  While I was slicing up the strawberries for the salad, I cut up a few extras and put them in a tupperware container in my fridge with a couple teaspoons of sugar.  This way, the strawberries will macerate and form a simple syrup that will be great over a bit of vanilla ice cream! :)  I'm looking forward to dessert tonight!  Before dinner, I got a chance to skype with my sister and now I need to just finish (read start) unpacking from my week back at home!

Get it Together. Please and Thanks

A quick true and false quiz:
The sun rises in the East.
The sun sets in the West.
I'm addicted all things Real Housewives.
Boys can be platonic friends with girls.
If you answered True to all of the above, you'd be me, about a week ago.
I'm one of those girls who makes friends with guys, one of my best friends, until recently, was a guy.  I don't think there is any problem with it.  I think that there are occasionally times where boundaries get crossed and friendships get blurred but in most cases I think that women can be trusted to respect if a guy has a girlfriend or not.  One of my best friends would text me all the time and we were in constant communication.  His girlfriends NEVER had a problem with it.  They all accepted the fact that we were just friends and more like brother and sister than anything else.  Now I don't even talk to him because he's too preoccupied with work and school and his girlfriend.  I don't know, and I don't want to presume, if this is because his new girlfriend has a problem with him having friends who are women or if he's just too busy for his old friends.
I'd just accepted this as a case specific incident.  Little did I know that this is a common occurrence. I recently started talking to an ex of mine, completely platonic and no hidden agenda, and we were getting to be really great friends.  I truly love those friendships where you can be totally honest and open with one another and I really thought that's where this was headed.  So one night I got in a fight with my roommate and needed someone to talk to so I called him.  We ended up meeting up and talking for about 3 or 4 hours!  I laughed and cried and laughed some more.  It was great..... Until I got home...  About a half hour after I left I got a message about how "we need to be careful because we don't want anything to be misconstrued." Since when is two friends talking something to be worried about?  And again this happens.  I went to San Antonio and wanted to hang out with a really good friend of mine.  Well he couldn't hang out for long because he needed to call his girlfriend and smooth things over for hanging out with me.
LADIES.  Are you listening???? Because you really need to listen up here.  TRUST YOUR MAN
If he wants to hang out with someone he was friends with before you started dating, you should trust him to respect you.  And MEN.  Are you listening??? Respect your women.  If you don't trust yourself hanging out with an ex tell the ex upfront so she doesn't get all confused.  I'm telling you, I would rather be told "I don't trust myself hanging out with you" or "My girlfriend would rather us not hangout because she doesn't know you"  HOW HARD IS THAT? Not hard.
So PLEASEE GET YOURSELVES TOGETHER out there.  It's very simple.  Thank you!

Growing Pains

This past week we went back to good ol' San Antonio for some much needed R&R.  All semester I've been swamped!  If I wasn't in class, I was at work and if I wasn't at work, I was doing school work at home.  In addition to my classes and part time job, I had a TON of volunteer projects:  I worked with international students for most of the semester, worked as a tutor in a second grade class full of kids that I adore, and worked with Special Olympics in addition to working with the special needs baseball league here in town.  Needless to say, I needed a break.  

One of the things that was completely evident to me when hanging out with my friends is that we're all growing up now.  All of my friends have their crap in order.  I hate to pull the peter pan card out but, I don't want to grow up.  

As my mom and I were cleaning my room out to make it "look like a grown up lives here," I realized, I don't live there anymore; I only live there maybe 2 months out of the year.  Then I got to hang out with a bunch of my old friends and they all have a direction and know exactly what they want out of life.  I feel like I'm there to an extent but not to the same extent that they are.  I know that I want to teach and that eventually I want a family but I still feel like I'm 18 years old.  It's weird to think that I'm in my 20s (a fact that I've been avoiding for 6 months now) and that the next decade is where so many new and exciting things are going to happen.  

Mother's Day

I have officially lost my faith in new moms in America.  With Mother's day quickly approaching, I am all of a sudden thinking that in my card to my mother, I need to thank her for not only being a great mom to me these past 20 years, but I also feel compelled to thank her for naming me appropriately.  I'm thrilled my mom didn't name me after a popular character in a Danielle Steel novel or some popular character from a new movie at the time.  For goodness sakes, Dances with Wolves was popular the year I was born, I could have been Runs With Scissors, or something like that.  You think I'm kidding here but the office of Social Security posted the top ten baby names for boys and for girls this week.  Here it is:

Top 10 Names for Boys

1. Jacob
2. Ethan
3. Michael
4. Jayden
5. William
6. Alexander
7. Noah
8. Daniel
9. Aiden
10. Anthony

Top 10 Names for Girls

1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Emma
4. Olivia
5. Ava
6. Emily
7. Abigail
8. Madison
9. Chloe
10. Mia

The top name for both girls and boys, are both from the horribly written Twilight series.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love the name Isabella and the name Jacob.  But come on, if I met you and you told me your child was named Bella/Isabella/Jacob/Edward/Cullen/etc. I'd immediately lose a little respect for you.  I'd still be friends with you and I'd still talk to you but I'd be disappointed.  So this mother's day, make sure that you thank your mother for naming you appropriately.  Happy Mother's Day!! 

(List courtesy of Yahoo! news.  Link to full article click here)

Professionalism

Here is a Miss Manners post for the week.

Professionalism is something that I take pretty seriously because I have always presented myself as a professional individual.  I am frequently in situations that require a certain level of professionalism.

Professionalism Maxim #1:  Dress Appropriately

When I was observing in an elementary school class, I was a student observer and there was a student teacher also in the classroom.  I showed up in professional attire: business pants, nice blouse and flats.  The student teacher showed up in a jersey/cotton dress from Old Navy that was WAY too low cut.  When attending a professional event, do yourself a favor: DON'T wear CFM heels, DON'T wear something too low cut, if you bend over and fall out, change your top, DON'T wear a short skirt.  What is short?  If you have to take caution walking up stairs, change, If the slit is so far up that you have to take caution when crossing your legs, change.

Professionalism Maxim #2:  Be Careful with your Facebook

This rule is two-fold.  First of all - let's use caution when posting pictures and statuses shall we?  A status like "SOOOOOOOOO Hungover from last night.....wish I could remember the night"  is inappropriate.  Convey the same message a little more covertly like this "woke up with a headache, hate when that happens"  people who were with you the night before will know what you're talking about and people who weren't won't think you're an alcoholic.  Also, potential employers are getting more and more access to your facebook.  Just DON'T do it.  It's not cute; it's trashy.  Now with the pictures.  Do you have pictures of you drinking underage on facebook?  Take them DOWN.  Not making you look like a responsible person.  Got pictures of you making out (or more) with boyfriends/exboyfriends/etc. on facebook?  I'm not saying don't keep pictures like this, just don't post them for everyone to see.  Take them DOWN.  Got pictures with you (or others) using illegal substances in them?  Take them DOWN.  Be responsible here people!!!

Second part of this maxim:  LOG OUT.  Always log out of your facebook page when on someone else's phone/computer/laptop/iTouch/etc.  Where as you might be a responsible person, you might be friends with immature people.  I'm not saying don't be friends around them, I'm saying be responsible about it.  When you leave yourself logged in on public computers, you are asking for someone to post something dirty and awful.  And please, PLEASE don't post statuses for other people.  And especially NEVER EVER post statuses having to do with bodily functions that are typically reserved for the bathroom.  It does NOT make you look like an adult.  It makes you look like a child.  Seriously, I don't want to read about it, NO one wants to.

Professionalism Maxim #3: Always Smile

There may be times when you don't particularly love your job.  It may be doing a task you feel is below you or dealing with unsavory people.  Suck it up.  At the end of the day, that is what you're getting paid to do so you might as well do it with a smile and make it enjoyable for everyone else around. Now, I'm not saying that you should approach work as a Stepford employee.  You can certainly go and complain about your day to your boyfriend/fiance/husband/children/girlfriends/etc.  You want to switch up the group every once in a while, because if all your conversations at home turn into you complaining about work, your family will start to tune it out and get annoyed very quickly.  If you go out for margaritas and a complain fest, be careful; you never know if the boss's best friend/sister/mother-in-law is at the next table.  For those really terrible days, think about a girls night in with margaritas to complain about the boss.