Catching Back Up

It's been a while since I've done a proper life update post! With the Richmond Marathon and Thanksgiving taking my full attention over the last two weeks, I've been too busy to sit down with a cup of coffee and update y'all on how things are going. Time to get all caught up!

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I loved this comic because the dog's name is Poppy and this is exactly what our Poppy does!

The week after the marathon was so insane at work. It happens every year - the two weeks before Thanksgiving Break and the two weeks before Spring Break just seem like EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING AND EVERYTHING IS 10X MORE IMPORTANT, when in reality, people are just stressed and need a break. :P That being said, I did have to deal with quite a bit more ~drama~ at work that week which is never fun, but something I've dealt with many times in the past so not something I'm not prepared to handle. It did make the week fly by, though, and I honestly can't remember much that happened that week (aside from it SNOWING OMG), so let's fast forward to the weekend! 😂

Snow + sitting in Boston traffic = my idea of a good time! #not

The 17th & 18th was a #ReadYourFaceOff weekend (if you're unfamiliar, the book club I host on GoodReads does a 24 hour readathon every month) and I was so excited to just sit and read and not deal with the stress of travel! I read (and finally finished!) The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin which I'm super happy about because it had been on my currently reading shelf since JULY. I also started in on Nice Try, Jane Sinner (which I finished early on the following week) which was a super fun YA contemporary about reality television. So, you know, right up my alley. :P Brett and I also went on a little birthday shopping spree that weekend. He had a bunch of gift cards from his birthday that he wanted to spend so we made several stops around the area to get him good and spoiled. You're supposed to be spoiled on your birthday!

Last week was, of course, Thanksgiving week, and luckily I only had to be at work on Monday. Our Director decided to let everyone choose either Monday or Tuesday as a comp day, and the university was closed on Wednesday, so I chose to take Tuesday off and get my vacation started a day early. Tuesday wasn't super relaxed as I had to take my car into the shop. It had been making beautiful scraping sounds any time I hit the brakes. Lovely! New brake pads, tires, a new ball joint, and $1,000+ later, Dory was good as new and we were on our way. I say it all the time - cars are sadly a necessary evil in my part of the world. Yikes!

Wednesday was very low key. We spent most of it at home relaxing and headed over to Millis to spend the night before Thanksgiving. We hung with Brett's Mom, sister, niece, and nephew and enjoyed some pizza while relaxing for the evening. Yum! Because of my weird AF work schedule, and because I had to be up for a Turkey Trot the next morning, I was passed out by 9:30pm. #grandma

Despite the 12° degree weather, I dragged myself out of bed early Thursday morning for the Holliston Turkey Trot. Brett was a trooper and drove me to the high school where the 5K was happening. We froze a bit before the race but I think that worked to my advantage - I ran FAST to get out of the cold and I managed to run a sub-30 5K which is something I haven't done in YEARS!!! I realized around mile 2 that I could run under 30 minutes so I really pushed my pace to the finish line and came across at 29:43!!! SO PUMPED!!! They had bananas, donuts, and water (albiet some of the cups of water were frozen solid 😂) at the finish which was so nice to reward myself with, and on top of that, Brett and I made a stop at Muffin House, one of our favorite local bakeries, on the way home after the race.

Brett deserves the Supportive Boyfriend of the Year Award for coming out in the cold this early!

Thanksgiving was great as always, packed with tons of people, tons of food, and tons of cheer. Thanksgiving (and the holidays in general) can be very overwhelming for me as an introvert, and this year was no different, but it's always nice to spend the holidays with others. :) I hope everyone else had a great Turkey Day as well!

Friday we headed home to relax for the rest of the weekend. I spent most of the weekend laying in bed, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and playing Hearthstone which is my new obsession. We also squeezed in two trips to the gym, so I'd call that a successful weekend! It's honestly all I ever want out of my time off, tbh.

Aaaand I think that just about catches you all up to where I am now! Unfortunately I've been battling a cold for the last few days. 😩 It's right on that level of being annoying enough to distract you throughout the day, but not bad enough where you need to take time off to rest in bed. THE WORST KIND OF COLD. (JK, I'd probably hate it more if I couldn't get out of bed. I'm just whining. But what is a blog for if not to have a place to whine? 😂)  Hopefully I can shake it off ASAP because Saturday starts December and the busiest month and a half EVER! No seriously, I'll be traveling every weekend in December (as most folks are), including a 3 week period where I won't be home at all. I'm excited and dreading it all at the same time. 😂

Anywho, this weekend Brett and I are planning to decorate the apartment for Christmas. I asked Twitter if they would be interested in watching a live stream of Christmas tree decorating on Saturday and I got a unanimous YES, so that's a thing that will be happening. I'm not sure what time on Saturday I'll be streaming, but I'm guessing sometime in the afternoon, so keep an eye on my Twitter/channel! I'll also be running a half marathon (the Half MerryThon, to be exact) on Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. 😂 With the way I'm currently feeling with my cold I'm really not looking forward to it right now, but hopefully I feel better before race day.

ALSO - I will be doing Happy Vlogidays again this year! I will be aiming to post weekly vlogs through Christmas & New Year's, hopefully on Saturdays, so keep an eye on my channel for those. I will post a playlist of all of this year's vlogs on the blog once it's all said and done, but if you'd like to see vlogs as they go live, check out my channel!

LINKS I LOVED THIS WEEK

Confetti Bucket Bag from Packed Party

Brooks Released an Ugly Sweater Levitate 2 - Just In Time for the Holiday Season from Runner's World

A passionate battle is underway to support the least used emojis from Twitter

Woman Beats All the Men by More Than a Minute at the Boise Marathon from Runner's World

Dog relaxing at the beach from Bluenjy

First day of training for this seeing eye pup from Animal Planet

"Pokemon Grandpa" Has Nine Phones Mounted to His Bike's Handlebars for Playing Pokemon Go from Geekologie

When your dog decides the walk is over from The Dodo
Gritty experiences first snow with childlike wonder ❄ from Twitter

Thankful | Blog Ahead #12

Blog Ahead #12
Originally written on October 23, 2018

The day this post will go live is Thanksgiving! It's good to be grateful every day, but it's nice that we have a day in our holiday calendar that reminds us to pause and appreciate the things we have and spend time with the people we love. I thought I'd write out a list of things I'm thankful for to share with everyone because it has been a while since I dedicated a post to the things I'm grateful for!

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1. Brett <3

2. Friends & family

3. Dogs

4. Books

5. Coffee

6. Binge-able TV shows

7. Podcasts

8. The Bullet Journal method

9. Having a warm place to come home to every day

10. Having a career I really enjoy

11. Having a body that can MOVE and get me through 26.2 miles on multiple occasions

12. YouTube & the BookTube community

13. Dumb internet memes

14. Pizza

15. Every one of you reading this post!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving/Thursday!

Thankful in 2016

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Let's face it - this year has been rough - very, VERY rough - for a lot of people. That's what makes it extra important to take the time to be thankful and grateful of all the things that I have in my life. I have many things to be thankful for in my life this year and what better time than Thanksgiving to share those things with you?

I'm thankful for...

My friends, colleagues, and students that are constantly challenging me intellectually, encouraging me to engage politically, and being genuinely awesome people that I can learn from each and everyday. Ever since I started working at Mount Holyoke I've become much more politically engaged and much more focused on issues of injustice and oppression, which of course has become exacerbated by the narrative of this past election cycle, the acts of hate committed since the results of the election, and human rights violations happening right in our faces without much opposition to those that are in positions of privilege. I have become increasingly confident in my political views and have been developing my political voice and while I never considered myself to be a political person before this year I'm continuing to realize each day the importance of political involvement in order to shape the country in a positive way. I have my friends, colleagues, and students to thank for that and I am eternally grateful for them.

My family and Brett for being a constant source of support and love throughout the year (and always). This goes without saying but it is ALWAYS important to say it - my family and my partner are unwavering sources of support for me through good times and bad times. I am very fortunate to have the comfort of knowing that these people are always there for me for whatever I need help with. I never have to feel lost or alone all that long with my parents, sister, and Brett by my side and it's important for me to acknowledge how thankful I am for them.

The discovery of BookTube and throwing myself back into my love of reading. After grad school, I admit that I was feeling a bit lost, a bit off, a bit not like myself. It was this summer that I realized what was missing - books. I was able to read for fun during undergrad but when I started graduate school reading for fun was put on the back burner. I've always read here and there but this summer when I discovered the online bookish community, readathons, and so many great titles that I had never heard of before, I kicked up my reading to another level and it has felt awesome. I am so happy I am back in he groove of reading regularly and it honestly feels like I've rediscovered a piece of myself that I forgot that I was missing.

Advancing professionally and feeling comfortable and secure enough financially for a change. This year I was promoted to a 12-month position at Mount Holyoke, I moved in to a smaller place, and kind of hit a groove in my financial balance for the first time ever. I can save money without feeling like I'm struggling for a change. Just this week I was able to do simple things like get a haircut and get my car's oil changed without feeling like it totally has broken the bank and I can't think of a time when it hasn't felt that way. I am so happy that I'm finally starting to feel more comfortable financially and I'm looking forward to continuing to move in this direction.

The home and life Brett and I are building for ourselves. While we definitely aren't in the situation we want to be in forever, I am so thankful that Brett and I have found a way to live together, to continue to build our lives together, and really just be happy together no matter how much or how little we have. We constantly are reminded how lucky we are that we get to see each other each day, that we have a roof over our heads and don't have to go hungry, and have a bright future ahead of us. I wouldn't trade that for the world.

What are you thankful for this year?

Holiday 2015 Recap

Hi everyone! I hope your 2016 is off to a great start. It's been a whirlwind, but the holidays are over and I have made my return to reality. I feel like so much happened during the holiday season. I can't think of one weekend when we weren't in the car travelling all over the northeast. We had so much fun though visiting friends and family, celebrating 3 years together, seeing the Patriots and Star Wars, giving each other gifts (seeing the look on Brett's face when he opened his big gift on Christmas morning was so much fun), and just enjoying each other's company throughout the season was so great.

In case you missed it, I vlogged throughout the entire season so check out the Happy Vlogidays playlist I've compiled for you! I vlogged from Thanksgiving (and my family's Christmas) through New Year's so you can see everything we got up to over the holiday season. I hope you enjoy - I got so much footage (this doesn't begin to skim the surface of what I recorded) and had a great time making these videos. I look forward to having these to look back on in the years to come!

A Snowy Thanksgiving

Hello friends and family! I've been extra busy with school work the past few weeks (#finals -_-) so I've fallen off my blogging game a bit. I am so close to the end of the semester, though! Today I finished coursework for 2 of 3 classes, and I only have two assignments to complete and two more classes to go to before I can officially be on winter break! I CAN'T WAIT! Anyway, here's what I've been up to while I've been drowning in homework.

I went up north for Thanksgiving and New Hampshire got hit with a nice holiday snowstorm. Of course, the power went out in the whole state (the news said about 200,000 homes lost power!) and we were without power for a solid 3 days. Luckily, we went to my grandmother's house in Maine, where they had  power, for the holiday. Though we were without power, the snow made for some pretty beautiful scenery the next morning!

We packed the car full of food, people, and puppies and drove to Maine on Thanksgiving Day! It was so good to see everyone (even though I was doing homework the entire time), eat some good food, and just catch up with everything that's been going on with the rest of my family that I don't get to see all that often. I also got to participate in a new family Turkey Day Tradition - the Silly String 5K! It's a fun run my family came up with last year. This year my parents made bibs for everyone, including Kiwi and Mikey! Such a fun way to kick of Thanksgiving (and not feel as guilty for stuffing your face)!

A little bit last minute, Mom, Grammy and I all decided to head out to the mall at 12:00AM for Black Friday! We somehow managed to avoid the crowds and waiting outside, and scored some pretty sweet deals at Macy's! I got a much needed new bed set (which I'm in love with... so comfy!) and the fact that I went out on Black Friday to get bedding made my childhood cry a little bit, haha. But it was fun to go and take part in a fun event with them!

Last week, I submitted my application for graduation! I don't finish my course work until May, but you have to let the college know that you're about to finish far in advance so they can include you in all of the graduation planning, prepare your diploma, etc. It's so surreal that all of this craziness will be coming to an end in 5 months!

I also finally got my Filofax in the mail! After a lot of consideration and research, I made the choice to make the switch from an Erin Condren Life Planner to a Filofax, and I'm loving it! I got the personal size Cover Story in Floral Burst, which I thought was the perfect starter Filofax. (I'm almost positive I'll graduate to the A5 next, and I've only had it for a week!) I can't wait to start using it on a daily basis! I'm definitely going to be doing a comparison and set-up post so you all can see how I'm going to use it!

PC had their Secret Snowflake gift exchange last night, and my student got me an adorable mason jar cookie mix! He also got me a Tina Belcher shirt (which I am PUMPED about) but it hadn't come in the mail yet, but I'm sure I'll post it to Instagram as soon as I get it! :) I made a arm knit infinity scarf for the student I had, and she said she really liked it! Very encouraging to continue to give craft gifts in the future.

Winter break is so close I can taste it, meaning I'll be posting more regularly, so look forward to that!
I hope all is well with everyone!

Thankful in 2014

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday, and for those of you who do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you're having a great day! This year, I'm heading up to Maine with my parents and pups to spend time with my extended family on my mom's side. It's great to be able to have time in my schedule this year to travel and spend time with them, because it's one of the only times of the year where I get to see them all at one time! As I mentioned last year, I always try to take a second to reflect what I'm thankful for. I'd like to just *ditto* everything from last year (I will always be thankful for friends, family, health, and jobs!) and also add a few things that are unique to this year in particular.

I'm on track to graduate with my Master's degree in May. At this point last year, the thought of graduation seemed pretty non-existent (I mean, even in the spring I still wasn't sure if graduating on time was in the cards for me). Now that my third semester is winding down and the assignments that I need to complete can be done pretty easily, it looks more and more that I'll be crossing the stage in the spring! It's a relief to be a bit more at ease about graduating on time as it was causing a lot of anxiety throughout my first year!

I've been able to balance everything in my life successfully this semester. Again, something I was very anxious about leading up to this fall! But I think I've done a really great job of taking care of all of my responsibilities, making sure my relationships are in a great spot, and also making sure I'm not losing my mind in the process. Taking things a day at a time and keeping a positive attitude has been extremely helpful, and I'm hoping it continues to get me through the rest of the academic year (even through the job/apartment search and an additional class during the spring semester!).

I've been given so many awesome professional opportunities this year and as a grad student, that's awesome. I was invited to present at a national convention and regional conference, I was offered a really cool graduate internship for the 2014-2015 year, I was offered a summer internship that allowed me to gain so much great hands-on experience with an orientation program, and I've been encouraged to do or apply to as many awesome things as I can get my hands on. It's really amazing to work with people who see professional potential in me in the field that I want to go into, and has really given me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone and dream big!

What are you thankful for this year?

Lately...

Hello friends! I know it's been awhile since I've given any sort of life update, so I thought I'd drop in and tell ya what I've been up to lately!

I spent Turkey Day with Brett's family! I mentioned a bit ago that I wouldn't be spending Thanksgiving with my own family, due to having extremely  busy lives and traveling far being a bit inconvenient because of that. Brett and his family gladly opened their doors to me and I spent a lovely day with them (rudely interrupted by a migraine -_-). Brett showed me the local Thanksgiving Eve tradition, we attended the Millis/Medway Thanksgiving Day football game, and I even got to try some deep friend turkey for the first time! :D Overall a really great experience, and I'm very grateful that they took me in for the holiday!

Brett and I braved the crazies and went Black Friday shopping! Being a retail veteran myself, I am not a fan of Black Friday starting at 6pm on Thanksgiving, as it prevents those who are working from spending time with their loved ones for the holiday. We waited like good customers until 1AM to get into Target for our brand new Nintendo 3DSXL's and Pokemon X & Y. It actually wasn't a terrible experience, either! We grabbed 2 DSs 2 games, paid, and were out the door in 10 minutes. Success!

I ran a half marathon and rocked an ugly sweater through the whole thing! Sunday was the Happy Holidays Half Merrython out in Gloucester, MA. Louie and I signed up right after completing Hartford, then promptly completely forgot to train. Well, I wouldn't say forgot, but life sort of picked up and I prioritized actually spending time on my homework over training. Pretty reasonable trade off, right? APPARENTLY NOT. My body was really mad at me, to say the least. Up until about mile 10 I felt generally good (which is still pretty decent!) but after that it was very difficult to finish the race. I know I made the right choice of prioritizing my school work, but I think I'm going to double check my schedule before signing up for a long distance race next time! Regardless, I had a wonderful time seeing my parents and Louie, so it all worked out in the end! (And I finished! YAY ACCOMPLISHING GOALS!)

What have you all been up to lately?

Thankful in 2013

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Thanksgiving this year is a little bit different for me. I'm spending it away from my family for only the second time in my life (the first time was when I was abroad in London in 2010), but I am spending it with Brett and his family which I'm sure is going to be great! One thing I always make sure I do, whether or not I'm home, is reflect on what I'm thankful for. (That's the whole purpose of the holiday right?) It's easy to get caught up in the negatives and the things that frustrate you on a daily basis, but it's so important to be aware that no matter how bad things seem, they could always be worse. Today is the perfect day to be Thankful for what you do have instead of focusing on what you don't. I thought I'd share with you what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving!

Everyone I know and love is healthy and well. The day of the marathon bombings was terrifying. Knowing that my students and friends were in the city near the site of the attacks was absolutely the scariest moment of the year. I am beyond grateful that everyone I know was okay and we all made it safely home, and continued to be safe throughout that crazy week.We are all extremely fortunate to have been so close to a scary situation and to come out unharmed.

My jobs at BSU and Dean. It's obvious that I would be thankful for them because they put money in my pocket and a roof over my head, but really, it's so much more than that. For the first time in my working life, I'm really happy to go to work every day. I'm interacting with some pretty incredible young adults on a daily basis and I learn something new about myself as a professional each and every day. I'm excited to read up and discuss issues in my field, and although it can be extremely stressful and difficult at times, my life in the student affairs field is so rewarding. I'm meeting new people and given so many new opportunities time and time again, and I don't think I would have gotten that anywhere else. I'm so happy I found a career path that is the right fit for me! :)

Having people to rely on. No matter where I am in life, I know that I have someone to turn to. Though I couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving this year, Brett and his family opened up their home to me. If I'm ever feeling overwhelmed, my family is just a phone call away ready with a listening ear. If I'm ever having a bad day, just spending 5 minutes with a student will make it all melt away (even though they may not realize it!). I have people all around me that will catch me when I fall, and I am so grateful for that.

What are you thankful for?