Sunday, January 31, 2016

S.O.B.

After a ten day hiatus, I've decided to blog again. I've been thinking a lot about what I've talked about in my blog. It's been brought to my attention that some people may not appreciate what I've had to say so to avoid any (further)  issues arising, I will no longer be talking about my work life at all anymore. Instead, I'll just blog about whatever (non work related)  the hell comes to my mind

Bonding with my bestie
I could blog about today, for example. I went to the Radio 104.5 Winter Jam at XFINITY Live! and had an amazing time. Here's a few things I learned from this experience:

1) You most likely will get a contact high at any concert event in Philly

2) Drunk people are assholes, even more so when you aren't drunk at all

3) People are rude and will push you out of the way to get where they want to go when you're in a pit

4) Day drinking is a blast, but you have to keep it up or else you start to get really sleepy 

5) Drunk people love crowd surfing and taking videos on snapchat as they are falling into the crowd

6) It's harder than it looks to climb onto a giant lounger 

7) Elle King is hilarious and is a drunken asshole like everyone else (but the good kind)

8) Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats are some talented S.O.B.s

9) Andrew Mcmahon loves crowd surfing almost as much as drunk Philadelphians (see below)

10) Philly knows how to throw a fucking a concert

That's all I've got for today, but I'm sure I'll be blogging about some more random shit sooner or later.


Sunday, January 17, 2016

Happy as a Clam

Today, my laptop decided it didn't want to turn on. Then once it turned on, it decided to freeze every time I tried to do something. Now it is working for the next few minutes so I've decided to blog while I have the chance.

This weekend has been wonderful, aside from the slow and painful death my laptop is currently facing. On Friday, I spent time with some of my favorite people at Mad River. (Yes, I am aware that Mad River is trashy, but I love dancing so I will continue to go there until I find another close bar to dance at on my off weekends.) After a fantastic night out and some heart to hearts, I woke up the next day as if I hadn't gone out the night before. I woke up to a wonderful human being cuddled up next to me in my bed and I took some time to reflect on how lucky I am. 

The last few months have been tough. I've been beaten down by life more times than I could count, but each time I've stood back up (sometimes limping) and continued pushing on. Despite the awful luck I've continued to have, surprisingly the universe has surrounded me with some amazing people and good opportunities. I know I've blogged about this before, but I just wanted to say "thank you" to the wonderfully amazing people who continue to keep me around, even when I am miserable. You all know who you are and I can't thank you enough for being my support system. I love you all dearly. 

Recently, one particular person has made me happier than I've been in a while, which is what prompted my reflection on my luck. For some reason, this amazing guy waltzed (typed?) his way into my life and hasn't run away screaming (yet). I'm so lucky to have such a lovely gentleman in my life who has a miraculous way of calming the storm that is always in my head. Thank you for being so damn wonderful, Steve. You have no idea how much it means to me. Also, thanks for prompting my internal (and slightly external) reflection on life. Despite the hurdles I keep getting tossed, I'm still smiling and it's because of you. 

<3

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

True Life: I'm Dating an Alien

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to take a minute to apologize for my lack of posts as of late. Life has been wonderful and busy and I just haven't taken the time to write anything down. I spent my winter break at home for three weeks, sleeping on my parents' couch, spending time with amazing people, going ice skating, seeing Star Wars (three times), and then returned to campus last week. The last few days have been consumed by RA training and students returning to campus. It's been chaotic, but definitely productive.

Not so awful ID picture

Aside from the PhilaU chaos, yesterday I started my first ever grad class at Temple University. Before that I had never even set foot on Temple's campus (unless you count the times I went to the Pearl Theater or the Liacouras Center). Despite me being directionally impaired, I made it to the train station in East Falls and then to the building where my class was held, with minor GPS usage. After speaking to a few kind students on campus, I was able to find out where to get my ID and actually took a decent picture. (Thank goodness I was actually prepared, unlike when I took my picture for Arcadia and PhilaU...) After doing all of this, I still had a half hour to kill before class. I made my way to my classroom, sat down, and waited for everyone else to arrive.
Grad school notebook

Overall, class was a success. It was basically a syllabus day (which I thought ceased to exist after undergrad), but with a few notes. I quickly learned that I will probably be the only person in my classes taking notes the traditional way: with pen and paper. This might change over the course of the semester, but in an effort to avoid pissing off everyone in class with my laptop who likes to sing everyone the song of its people, I'm going to stick with paper for as long as possible.

After class was over, I called a friend to keep me company on the phone until my train came an hour later. (This would usually be the part where I tell you all about how wonderful this person is and that I've been talking to him for a while and that he is such a gentleman and I really enjoy his company and blah blah blah, but he and I have an image to keep up so I will spare you the details (for now...). All you need to know is that he makes me happy and I have these weird things called "feelings" for him. Gross, I know. Oh, and he is an alien. That's another important thing.)  My wonderful parents offered to drive about a half hour to the East Falls Station to pick me up and drop me off on campus so I didn't have to walk at night in the cold. I told my mom it was because they missed me, but she insisted that she just wanted to keep me safe. (She just doesn't want to admit that she misses having me around the house...)
Thursday is my next grad class, which is actually going to be challenging because it is an accelerated course. Fingers crossed it goes as well as my class on Monday.

After a long and somewhat stressful few days of RA training filled with printer issues, staff conflicts, and meetings, I get to spend time with my fellow RCs by going to dinner in Manayunk followed by a night of catching up with one of my absolute best friends who is in town from Portland. To say I am excited for this evening is an understatement.

Here's to a wonderful evening and productive week!


Friday, January 1, 2016

Hangovers: The Only Way to Kick Off a New Year

2015 was one hell of a year and I definitely ended on a high note. (However, it did result in me feeling awful for most of the first day of the year.)

Here's a recap of my 2015: I fell in love (twice), strengthened relationships with friends (old and new), held a new position at one of the greatest summer jobs ever, met incredible people, started a new job I absolutely love, was accepted to grad school, was dumped on facebook messenger, realized my self worth, and moved out of my parents' house. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly, I made it through the year I thought was never going to end.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want out of 2016 for myself, but I'm never any good at making resolutions (and sticking to them). This year I've decided that instead of making resolutions, I am just going to focus on being the best person I can be. I'll be starting grad school and working pretty much full-time so I want to make sure I am doing what I need to do for myself (for once). Typically, I am focused on helping everyone around me instead of taking care of myself. While it is important to play nice with others, it is also incredibly important to practice self care. Since I have not had the best track record with that, I am going to work hard at taking time for myself. How can I help lift others up if I am constantly dragging my feet on myself? I have to practice what I preach, right?

This is not going to be easy, but I am determined to at least try. Lucky for me, I have some wonderful people in my life who will definitely hold me accountable for this.


                           •                           •                           •


Thanks to everyone who has stuck by me in 2015 and has dealt with my bitching. 

Cheers to happy, healthy, and exciting adventures in 2016.