A Few of my Favorite Links {#21}

April....PHEW. 

It's been a whirlwind y'all, as it usually is. If you've been following this blog for a while now you can totally tell when things are crazy for me at work because that's when posts get a bit more infrequent (usually September and April every single year). I guess that's just the trend in my life! Anywho, we had our final *major* event of the year - Pangy Day - on Friday and it was super successful! We were gambling hard with the weather. All week called for rain and even thunderstorms but kept going back and forth on when the rain would actually begin. We had outdoor activities planned from 10:30AM to 3PM, and according to all of the weather sites rain wouldn't start coming down until right around the time we would be packing it in for the day, so on Friday morning we made the official call to stay outside and we. hit. the jackpot.

While it was quite humid (we were expecting thunderstorms, after all), the sun was shining for most of the day, everyone was in their summer clothes and summer spirits, and everyone was having a blast. It was truly such a perfect day (I keep joking that Mary Lyon was looking out for us) and the weather held right until we got the last person and last piece of equipment inside after breaking down at 4PM when it immediately started pouring, thundering, and lightning-ing. Perfect timing, to say the least! With a smattering of other weekend events, we closed out our year of student programming Sunday afternoon and I can officially say I made it through my first academic year as a professional! We only have Senior Week and Commencement to worry about before we can officially call it summer time! :)

I have a few really awesome links for you today which (per usual) involve 3 of my 

most favorite things in the world - food, dogs, and Game of Thrones. I hope you enjoy!

Super Filling Sweet Potato Tacos

If you've been following my weekly vlogs or if you were around for this blog post, you'll know that I've been making a bit of an effort to be a bit more conscious when it comes to eating meet and dairy products. I by no means have cut them completely out of my life, but lately I have been pausing to consider possible alternatives, often making the decision to take a vegan or vegetarian option when it's available, and have recently made the choice to completely stop eating pig meat all together (yes, including bacon) which was a pretty easy choice as I never was too crazy about it in the first place. It's a journey and while I don't think I'll ever go completely vegan or vegetarian (then again, who knows?), making these decisions little by little will help in the transition.

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Enter, this recipe. I just stumbled upon it yesterday and it is completely vegan! It looks freakin' delicious and honestly not that much different than a regular taco recipe. Just really replacing the meat with sweet potatoes which sounds pretty amazing in my opinion. I definitely want to try these out the next time I'm in the mood for homemade tacos!

Pet Portraits by Incandescent Design

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As I've come to find out, I'm all about customized pet products that create a fun memory of your beloved furry friend. Incandescent Designs offers up these fun pet portraits for a modest (sarcasm) $200. With a finely detailed drawing, a pop of color, and a little twist to show off your pet's personality, I think this would be a fun addition to any room in your home!

Chart of 40 Different Kinds of Pizza

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I'm not sure when I came across this chart but I do know that I came across it when I was borderline hangry and of course fell heart-eyes-emoji in love! There are some items on this list that I wouldn't really want to try, but the vast majority of these pizzas - sign a lady UP. I think the top three pizzas I would need to try at some point in my lifetime are the Scottish Pizza Crunch, the Pizza Cone, and I really want to try Cauliflower Crust Pizza as well! What one would you want to try?

9 Times Actual History Was More F*cked Up Than Game of Thrones

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In honor of Game of Thrones finally returning, I obviously had to include a GoT related link of some sort! This one showed up on my Facebook feed, as most BuzzFeed articles do, and I had to click on it because I love when fictional stories are put into historical context. It's crazy just how messed up the world was back in the day and it was just considered to be normal. I mean, could you imagine hearing about a party reminiscent of the Red Wedding happening in real life?! Yikes.

What links have you been loving lately?

A Few of my Favorite Links {#19}

Hello everyone! I took a little (unintentional) week's break off from the blog last week. I was feeling very exhausted throughout the week as a lot was weighing on my mind, and when that happens blogging is typically the last thing I'd like to do, but through journaling and creativity and of course the incredible support from B,  I've been able to process through it and I'm feeling much better. Sometimes you just need to take a mental health break!

Activities and events are back in full swing at MHC and it feels like I'm finally settling into my routine. My colleagues and I have come up with a solid plan so no single one of us is always caught at work late on Fridays or Saturdays. It seems like things are progressing forward in a very positive way which is always a glorious feeling to have while you're at work. I'm very lucky to be a part of such a cohesive staff! #blessed #sockgameonpoint

I'm creeping up toward a butt load of travel in these last weeks of winter and I'm super excited about them! First off I will taking a vacation down to Fort Lauderdale next week (!!!) with my friend Rob while Brett is recruiting for work. We found some really cheap round trip flights (Under $200 to get there and back! Uhm, yes please.) and I'm staying at this cute little Air BnB that's not far from the house the coaches are renting, and about a 10 minute bike ride from the beach! I'm definitely planning on renting a bike for my time down there so I can travel around in the warm Florida air easily. I'm looking forward to spending time far away from stress. I'm (of course) planning on hitting the beach, but in my down time journaling, drawing, reading, filming videos, and blogging. It's going to be so niccceeeee. Cannot wait.

Shortly after I return I will be travelling to the exact opposite climate - Canada. My friend and colleague Erin and I are going up to Montréal for the ACPA International Convention which will be so much fun! I'm excited to attend some educational sessions, network, and eat lots and lots of poutine. We're planning on doing some touristy things in our down time as well as Erin's never been to Montréal and the last time I went I was about 14 years old and was there for my sister's softball tournament so I don't remember too much of the city. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Now that we're all caught up on my life, I'm going to hop right into my favorite links as of late. First of which is very exciting... I'm published, y'all!

Changing Campus Traditions

My two BSU counterparts (my former supervisor, Matt, and former co-advisor, Casey) and I wrote this article that was finally published in the first 2016 issue of Programming magazine - the publication for the field of Campus Activities! We've been working on this initiative to make our Homecoming pageants more inclusive since I arrived as a graduate student in 2013, and thought that sharing our experience - both the challenges and the successes - would be a great thing to contribute to our field. I'm really proud of this article and proud of OSIL for being courageous in the face of changing a beloved campus tradition!

$100 Donut Iced with Cristal Champagne and 24k Gold

This.... this is ridiculous. I can't decide if I hate this because it's so ridiculous or love it because it's so ridiculous. I mean, the donut is $100 and made of gold, but it sounds pretty disgusting if you ask me. "It's a donut filled with ube mousse, champagne jelly, and covered with a glaze made from Cristal champagne and 24k gold flakes." Probably not something I want to be eating. What do you think? Either way this was too out of control to not share, so it's making this edition Favorite Links.

Cocktail Chemistry - Ice Ball Cocktail

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while! While this is definitely not a super simple process to recreate, you can't beat the presentation! I mean, how cool would it be to be served your drink in an ice ball?! I have a feeling if I attempted this I would fail miserably, but the idea of this is so awesome.

I Tried to Become the Most Popular Person on a Cruise

I loved this little article! This is the story of a guy who went on a cruise on his own and tried to make as many friends as he could. Being very socially anxious and introverted, stories of people who have the guts to take on a challenge like this is so fascinating and inspiring to me! If you need a little pick me up or a cheerful story, give this article a read!

Cuddle Clones

I basically fell out of my chair when I found out that this was a thing. HOW CUTE ARE THESE?! This company will create custom plush replicas of your pet and I'm IN LOVE. Granted, they are quite pricey, but if you're far away from your pet or want something to remember a furry friend that you might have lost in the past, I think this would be so incredible. Whoever thought of this is a genius.

New, Female-Powered 'Ghostbusters' LEGO Set Unleashed

In girl power news, LEGO has released their new Ghostbusters set featuring the new cast of lady characters! I love when toy companies great "girl toys" that are more than just pink, purple, princessey, and stereotypically "girly". Love. It. I bet I would love to have some female LEGO characters to play with when I was growing up. My sister and I had a huge box of LEGOs that we always played with as kids and I can't really think of ever having a girl LEGO person. This set features exclusively female LEGO people and it's awesome and deserves to be praised.

THE EIGHTH HARRY POTTER BOOK!

My brain basically exploded when I found out about this earlier this week. I knew this play was being released but I had no idea that the story was also being released in book form! I'm still not entirely sure if this is a novel or the script to the play, but either way I'm excited AF and am obviously going to pre-order it. How could you not?!

What links are you loving lately?

Foamy Family Bonding

Saturday I ventured north to Haverhill to meet up with my parents and run the Foam Fest 5K! An entry to this race was a birthday gift from my parents and I was so excited that they were running it with me! If you can't tell, we went with a superhero theme :P I'm going to save a review of the race for my running blog (be sure to go check it out and follow if you haven't already!), but here are some of my favorite pictures to tide you over. ;)