Sunday, March 30, 2014

Off to Indy!


As this post goes live, I will be somewhere in the sky en route to Indianapolis! I'm attending the ACPA National Convention for the next few days so my blog will be a bit quiet, but I will be very active on Twitter, Instagram, and will be attempting to post up daily vlogs over on my YouTube channel as well, so be sure to follow along!

I hope you all have a wonderful start to your week! Be back soon!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

#overoccupied

As usual, I have been so crazy busy these past few weeks - even during Spring Break! Meetings, work, duty, travelling back and forth - and that's all before homework and class! Yikes. I thought it'd be a good time to give y'all a little update on what I've been up to.




Getting ready for my trip to Indianapolis. Because I'm getting funding from my College of Graduate Studies to attend ACPA, there have been a lot of hoops to jump through (filling out forms, finding transport to the airport, etc). I'm finally finishing everything up and tying up all the loose ends and am pretty much all set to fly out Sunday!

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Crying over the fact that How I Met Your Mother is ending. I can't believe there's only one episode left! The last episode airs while I'm at ACPA, so I'm predicting I'll be crying in front of thousands of future colleagues and employers.

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Working my booty off on multiple projects. I have 3 major projects due in my future and they've all been haunting my dreams these past few weeks. Luckily, all of the topics I'm exploring are pretty interesting so I've been enjoying working on them. They're just running my life at the moment!

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Seeing my sister go through her C-SOG training. My sister is kind of a badass and is one of very few women who is part of the US Corrections Special Operations Group. The other night she sent us a video that she and other members at the jail she works at is a part of that gives you a little glimpse into what her training and job is like. Check it out! (She appears around minutes 6 and 9!)
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Reading Orange is the New Black. It's been sitting on my Kindle since December. I intended to read it over winter break, but then I was assigned to read an entire textbook within the span of about 4 weeks (and I'm a very slow reader) so my attention shifted to that. I just recently started to read it and I'm loving it! I can't wait to finish so I can finally jump into the series on Netflix.
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Getting excited for the return of Game of Thrones and 24. (Yes, two of these items have to do with television, haha.) Even though one of my favorite shows is coming to an end, two others are making a return withing a month of each other, and I CAN'T WAIT. #goodbyeproductivity

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I hope you all have been well. I'm sorry that I've been neglecting this blog, but there's only 6 weeks left in the semester, so things will be slowing down soon! :)

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Happy Birthday, FivEleveNinety!

Today is FivEleveNinety's first birthday! Yes, today is this ol' blog of mine's bloggeversary. Jeez did that go by fast! In honor of this special day, I decided to make a special video for you all. I hope you all enjoy! :)

 

Thanks to the bloggers who tagged me!
Check them out below! :)
 
Fiona @ Fiona's Bubble
Ellie @ Looking for Love Online 
Julie-Anne @ Just Julz
Alexia @ Infinitely Indecisive
Kiran @ Piece of the Net

Monday, March 17, 2014

On Sexual Abuse

**Trigger Warning**: Discussion of sexual abuse, misconduct, and rape. If you'd like to read on, click "Read More".

Monday, March 10, 2014

Getting Back on Track

Hello, lovely readers!

It's finally spring break, and I couldn't be happier. I feel like this break has been needed more than any other break that has ever been on my academic calendar. The beginning of this semester was rough - personally, professionally, educationally... EVERYTHING. I feel like I fell so far behind from where I should be in all of those aspects, so I'm thrilled that I finally have the chance to play some catch up.

I've thought about it, and here's what I need to do this week in order to get back on track:


1. Practice positive thinking. I've been getting down on myself so much these last few months. I don't know what it is, but I've been letting myself slip into these really low confidence states of mind, and I really need to cut it out. I've been perusing the quotes section of Pinterest lately for a bit of daily motivation and it's helped, even if it's just by a little bit. (And I've also been watching a LOT of Parks & Rec lately, and Chris Traeger has become my new role model.)


2. Get back on my exercise game. Not having a whole lot of spare time in my schedule has allowed me to make the excuse to not work out. My view on exercise has shifted a little bit since completing my first marathon in October. To be honest, I was feeling a little lost not basing my entire exercise routine around a 6+ mile run. Now, I'm focusing more on strengthening my upper body and core in addition to running 1.5 - 3 miles each time I work out, as well as incorporating some impromptu stretching throughout the day. It's been a tough transition, but it's something I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with.

3. Catch up on school work. With all that I have going on with my assistantship and RD position, it can sometimes be easy to forget that there's more to grad school than professional development and attending class. Though I haven't missed any assignments, I've definitely procrastinated on a lot of my reading and larger projects that could use a jump-start. I'm hoping to use my free time this week to catch up on work before the whirlwind that is the second half of spring semester begins!

4. Keep my apartment organized. Since I spend a lot of time at home by myself now, it's pretty easy to just let my personal space turn into a giant pigsty. Keeping things organized will give me less to worry about when I make it home at the end of the day, and will give me a nice relaxing space to focus on item #3.

5. Stop worrying about the things I can't control. Let's be honest here - I have never been good at this. For those of you who are familiar with StrengthsFinder, Restorative (one who thrives on solving difficult problems) is my #2 strength. Though it's often great to have this as a top 5 strength, it's also very difficult for me to set any problems I'm having aside and focus on other things. When I'm going through a difficult situation, it's all I think about until it's resolved. Trying to let things that I can't control resolve themselves is something I'm constantly struggling with, but it's something I want to continue to work on.

There is SO MUCH lined up on my schedule for after spring break, so hopefully this week will allow me to get my life back on track a bit. 
What do you do to get back on track?

Friday, March 7, 2014

25 Before 25: Hit Triple Digits for my YouTube Subscribers (#11)

Saturday, after writing my previous 25 Before 25 post, I logged onto my YouTube channel and saw this:


I officially have over 100 subscribers! Never in a million years would I think that 101 people would want to watch videos about my boring life, but it happened! A lot of people might argue that 101 subscribers is not a lot at all, but seeing that number grow and grow over the last two months while I've been vlogging pretty regularly has been so encouraging and awesome and definitely makes me want to make more videos. If you're a viewer, thank you so much for watching! (And if you'd like to check out my YouTube videos, click here!)

*I'm attempting to reach 25 goals before I reach the age of 25! Want to see the whole list? Check it out here!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

25 Before 25: Play in a Lacrosse Game Again (#4)


I got the awesome opportunity to participate in my very first alumni lacrosse game! Lasell (where I graduated from) has attempted to organize an alumni game for years now, and it seemed that every time that one popped up on my schedule as an undergrad and as a  post-grad, we couldn't generate enough interest to make it a reality. This year, that finally changed! We could actually put together an entire team of alums to take on the current team (who, side note, are defending conference champions)!

CJ, who was a senior when I was a freshman, made the alumni team awesome pinnies (which the undergrads were very jealous of), and the current head coach (who was my coach for my last two years!) ordered all of the alums shirts as well! So sweet of both of them!

The shirt Coach gave us on the left, the pinnie we wore during the game on the right.

Coach even added in a personal touch to the back of the shirts - the cheer we *always* did at the beginning of each game!


Even though our team got beaten down pretty badly (again, we were playing the defending conference champs), it was such a great experience seeing all of my fellow alums, and seeing some of the girls that I played with two years ago that are currently on the team! I hope this becomes an annual tradition - I'd love to be involved for as many years as I can still play!

*I'm attempting to reach 25 goals before I reach the age of 25! Want to see the whole list? Check it out here!