Do you ever just have one of those days where you get incredibly frustrated at the way the world seems to be working around you?
Today is one of those days for me. I’m getting really disheartened at all the dead ends my job search seems to be taking, and I’ve been glancing at my MacBook’s background between resume uploads and cover letter revisions all day.
I’m starting a new weekly feature where you can read a little bit about what’s piqued my interest over the past week, and what you can look forward to this coming week! It’s called sundown rundown, so you can expect it after Sunday’s sunset. If you’re a late-night holy day websurfer, you can read it during the last remaining weekend hours. Otherwise, this feature will maybe give you another way to procrastinate actually starting your Monday morning work.
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A senior LRA commander has surrendered to US forces. This is huge. As an advocate of Invisible Children (#KONY2012), it’s great to see that efforts are still being done to seek and apprehend Joseph Kony, and rebuild the lives of the children affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Eight reasons why childless young professionals make ideal foster parents. This post is about a month old, but my Facebook friend Katie shared it earlier this week, and I thought it was interesting. I’m a bit too young to be a mother of any kind – foster or not – but watching the family dynamic move away from the traditional marriage-and-kids model into something more modern is intriguing.
#jesuischarlie. A dozen individuals were killed in a newsroom attack in Paris. As a journalist, this really hits home. While motives behind the attack are not entirely clear, many speculate it was due to the content that Charlie Hebdo, a satirical publication, ran. My First Amendment rights, guaranteed to me by the United States Constitution, make my job entirely possible, and freedom of speech means the world to me.
It was colder in Michigan this week than it was on Mars. It was cold and painful. Temperatures have risen now, but if you’re still looking for ways to stay warm and comfy inside, you can read my polar vortex essentials post.
Corporette posted an open thread on fashion resolutions for the new year. I have two. First, I need to do a very big closet clean-out. I’ve been wearing the same size since high school, meaning I have a decade’s worth of clothing piling up. I installed a mini-clothing rack in my bedroom since my apartment comes with one massive closet for my roommate and I, and I started noticing how often I really re-wear my same favorite pieces in new ways, leaving about 70 percent of my closet untouched. And second, I really want to start investing in quality over quantity. It’s hard to do when you’re on a journalist’s salary, but hopefully cleaning out my closet will motivate me to start building up a collection of investment pieces.
I’m a fan of recipes that try to make use of common kitchen ingredients and fridge leftovers and this recipe from The Kitchn does just that. It’s lentil-based and can be made vegetarian so it’s pretty adaptable. I haven’t tried it yet, but I might give it a try later this week. If you want another lentil-based soup, my root veggie and lentil stew recipe is still a fallback I make every so often when I need a healthy bulk recipe for busy weeks.
Target announced that it has planned a collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer and the Internet went crazy.
Levo League posted a great article about resolutions for your first year in the professional world. Even being a few years post-grad now, so many of these resolutions ring true. I can’t even count the number of times I said “I should have majored in engineering.”
Obama announced his desire to see community college offered free of charge. I personally love this idea, with tuition rates inflating out of control and the value of a four-year degree declining by the year. I am a huge proponent of easily accessible education, seeing as how education is the best way of advancing society.
This woman kissed a stranger on the kiss cam after her date refused. My best friend texted me the link after I watched it go viral across Facebook. Is this real? A set up? I couldn’t tell you, but it is good for a quick laugh.
Forbes released its 30 under 30 list for 2015. It includes categories such as entertainment, law, healthcare, media, science, finance, technology, entrepreneurship and education, among many others. Lots of successful people my age on this list with good advice to heed!
A massive 150+ car pileup closed a portion of a major Michigan highway. The crash was fatal and a huge percentage of those vehicles were semis. One of the trucks that caught fire contained fireworks, and the video is absolutely insane.
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What’s piqued your interest recently?
Michigan is back to subzero temperatures! To say it’s freezing would be an understatement. The Michigan State Police actually issued a cold advisory to suggest that all mid-Michigan residents stay inside and avoid venturing outdoors unless absolutely necessary. So, it’s not only freezing, it’s dangerous.
Elise and I took heed of that advice. We had to go outside for 20 minutes last night, realized what a mistake it was (windchill was at negative 30, guys) and retreated back into our warm loft as soon as we finished picking her car up from the repair shop. Our living room is pretty great during the winter because it’s surrounded on all four sides, which keeps it pretty insulated. It doesn’t have windows, but eh, minor detail. It’s almost worth it for the Consumers savings in the winter.
We braved the cold with popcorn, chick flicks and a mini-spa night. Take that, Mother Nature.
I’ve been MIA from my blog for quite some time – my apologies.
Turns out, working full time and obtaining my master’s degree full time, plus maintaining a somewhat long-distance relationship was a bit more time consuming than I anticipated.
But, I graduated and have a little bit more time to focus on the things I’m passionate about (like this blog) and all of the projects, trips, experiences and little things that go into making my blog what it is.
SO, stay tuned. Within the coming weeks, you’ll see some long-awaited new content and a complete facelift in addition to the new brand and URL I’ve got going, which you might have already noticed.
Oh deer.
In early November, I was driving south on a major rural highway in mid-Michigan when I noticed a deer come flying into my line of sight. The sonofabitch was running east and I had no chance of avoiding it. I hit the brakes about .30 seconds prior to hitting the deer at 70 miles per hour head on. Ouch.
The airbags deployed and my sirens immediately went bezerk. I pulled my car over immediately and shut it off. I waved the smoke out of my face (goodbye radiator!), called 911 to file an accident report, called a nearby family member for a ride and watched as a wrecker towed my beautiful 2010 Ford Focus to a collision repair center.
Now, two months later, I’m just about finished wrapping up loose ends from the total loss that my car collision resulted in. While I’ve had some minor car repairs and bodywork done before, this is the first time I’ve ever totaled a car, and I’ve learned quite a few things along the way.
I’m a really big advocate of not celebrating Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. One holiday at a time, people! But once Thanksgiving is over and my fridge is filled high with leftovers from dinner, I’m all about Christmas. I can’t get enough of the season’s festivities! But I don’t want to ruin them by drawing Christmas out for too long – I’m perfectly content embracing Christmas for the short time it’s around.
And this year, we got to embracing it right after Thanksgiving. Elise had her boyfriend, Paddy, visiting from England for most of the month of November, and his flight is scheduled to leave tomorrow. I know it has to be a bummer to spend Christmas away from your significant other, so I set up a mini-Christmas party at our loft. Seth came up to visit and the four of us spent tonight decorating, watching Christmas movies and sipping on hot cocoa from the hot cocoa bar I set up!
Because I love all things glittery and trendy and fashion-y, I enrolled in a fashion class at my university this semester.
I needed a three-credit class for financial aid reasons, and rather than take another 700-level polisci class, I decided to take something a little more fun: AMD 256: Introduction to the Fashion Industry.
It’s actually a lot more informative than I thought it would be. We’ve already learned so much about the ins and outs of the industry, from terminology to how merchandising works to the design process timeline and how fashion forecasting works.
For an assignment, we were asked to look through publications — including magazines, trend reports and other fashion media outlets — to judge what the coming spring trends would be.
We had to make boards for color, silhouette, mood, fabrication and detail.
This is what my group came up with.
Another Lollapalooza has come and gone – and while the energy and fun level was still the same (ie: through the roof), this year’s festival was a little more successful than 2013.
I didn’t get dehydrated and pass out. No ambulances were called.
It was also more convenient.
I booked a room at the Congress (!!!) right across the street with several of my good friends for the weekend. Last year, we stayed half an hour outside the city and had to walk/ drive/ take the CTA into the city. This year, the festival was literally right outside our front door. I’m not even joking. The Lollapalloza sign was right across the street from our hotel.
Pausing on my world of cooking and DIY-related posts to give a brief update on something really cool I got to do on the clock today!
As a journalist, I often get to experience my community in a whole new way. Today, I got to visit the home of two local parents and entrepreneurs to see the inner workings of their start-up business, Narrativality Artisan Coffee Roasters.
Aaron and Christie Cromar bought an industrial roaster and placed it in their basement, which was quickly transformed into an entire fully-licensed business.
The two explained how they source their product and how the entire process works, and then walked me through a coffee cupping.
Hello all! Lazy Saturdays have kind of become a diehard habit around my apartment lately, with winter lingering way beyond its welcomed stay. After months and months of weekends spent cowering under a pile of blankets and binge watching How I Met Your Mother reruns on Netflix (Let’s not talk about that ending, by the way), I was beyond ready to welcome what was supposed to be a breezy and beautiful Saturday into my open arms to get some productivity in.
Unfortunately, I’ve spent the past two hours forlornly staring out my corner windows with a sad look of dejection on my face. It’s down pouring, we’re expecting hail, we’re in the middle of a severe thunderstorm warning and all thoughts I’d had about finally refinishing my old Ikea desk this weekend have dissipated much like the 60-degree temperatures.
I think this is Mother Nature’s way of telling me I need to finish up my indoor projects before embarking on my outdoor ones. And a great way of saving me $1.50 from the car wash that was on today’s “to do” list.
So, what are my indoor projects? I have a few. I’ve given up on any project that has to do with decorating my hellhole unique apartment, since I will begin a new lease across the alley next month, but I do still have quite a bit to finish up.
As your classic Type A personality, I’ve always been a bit of an organized control freak, so that’s where my new project comes in.
