weekends

This past weekend Ryan's parents and his sister came in town. Of course, with Jacqui comes the adorable Isaac! He has taken very well to Ryan and I in the most recent visits. It only takes about 5 minutes for his royal cuteness to want to enthusiastically play with both Ryan and I, which is a huge change from the whole day that it used to take to squeeze a hug out of him. Anyway, as an effort to make my blog more aesthetically pleasing, here is a picture (totally stolen from Jacqui's blog) of the 2 handsome boys!

Birthdays

This past Wednesday, I turned the seasoned age of 23. However, I do not particularly like odd numbers, therefore this entire year will be officially known as the 1st anniversary of my 22nd birthday. Or I am 22 for short while (1 yr) longer. The celebration of said birthday began on Friday, Feb 9 and ended yesterday (Feb. 18).
I believe I must have gained about 5lbs during the course of the celebration, but sometimes your just gotta live a little, you know? This week I will be re-doubling my efforts toward fitting into my bridesmaid dress on March 23. I've got about a month to re-lose 2lbs and lose an additional 5. Realistically speaking, I can do it. Unrealistically speaking, I would like to lose 15lbs by the wedding, but I've been living a lot instead of a little.

Today was supposed to be my first day at the Dermitology office. Instead I am working at UF as a lowly Secretary. However, this lowly Secretary position is paying me more than the crappy bank and giving me better benefits. I just have to adjust my attitude and set my pride down a bit and realize the benefits rather than acknowledging the desire to massage my ego. Eventually, I will get to a point of satisfaction in my job, position and salary, I just have to start at the bottom of the ladder to get there. I'm one rung higher in pay, the rest will come in time. I like the job so far, in that I am constantly busy, but still have some time to do things like post a blog. I don't like it so far, in that the day starts at 6:15 for me and I am sitting 85% of the day. I will have to find a way to incorporate more movement, i.e. more bathroom trips, water re-fills, and standing in general.

my boyfriend is better than yours

My birthday is the same day at Valentine's day and my smallest pet peeve is when special days land on the same day, they get one single celebration in honor of them both. However, each day is special on its own regardless of them both landing on the same day. Ryan has always found a way to make my birthday & my Valentine's Day equally special & important.

<-----These beautiful roses were delivered to me at work. He sent them to me in honor of my upcoming birthday and Valentine's day. It also happened to be my last day at a job that I loathed. Which means we have been celebrating my birthday/Valentine's Day since Friday the 9th! Flowers on Friday, shopping and dinner in Orlando on Saturday, dinner at Stonewood on Monday and presents, and tomorrow is going to be pizza, pajamas, hot chocolate and romantic movies of my choice all day long! On this Friday or possibly this Saturday, we are going to dinner at Olive Garden with my friends and on Sunday we're driving to Jacksonville to have dinner at P.F. Chang's with the family. It's been the absolute best birthday week ever. Ryan has indulged my every whim and every change of mind I have had in the last week (in the last 2+ years really). He's great.

Now we're watching Clerks 2, the present I got him for Valentine's Day. We're having a lovely week. I'm so crazy happy right now and it's not just because I'm full of yummy pizza and cake.

P.S. I went Brazilian and I like it. a lot.

shall I tell the world?

In the past, more specifically during high school, I blogged on livejournal. For some reason my life seemed much more interesting and journal provoking. I had a small network of friends who frequented the journal and frequented theirs. As I transitioned into college life, I continued to breath life into my livejournal as I fumbled my way through freshman year. My circle of friends grew further when I joined GCL. After a while, things got out of hand with who was reading and commenting on it. I just felt like too many people I never spent time with were reading it. It was like they were spying on my life and pretending to be a part of through my blog. A lot of the problem also came from seriously bitter feelings toward GCL. I ran from GCL and will never look back. Since then, I have been sensitive about who I'm comfortable with reading my blog. I know it's silly to want some semblance of privacy on a public blogging service. I might be brave enough sometime to let people know I actually have a blog, but not just yet. we shall see, we shall see...

Google is my best friend

Often times throughout the day in conversation with one person or another, something is said which triggers my mind to make it a blog entry title. For example, I just got off the phone with my beloved Ryan. I was telling him how utterly bored I am and how much I hate my boss. I've taken to searching blogger and looking at different people's blogs and their friends' blog and their friend's friends blogs and so on. Other times when I am bored, I search through Wikihow and go from one link to the next. I've searched for things like "how to excercise while sitting at your computer" or how to make an excel spreadsheet" and who knows what else. As I was telling him this, I realized I found all of these wonderful things through the magic of google. Anytime someone says something I don't know about or don't understand, I go straight to google. Anytime I can't find something in town or just feel like reading up on a topic, I go for google. It could really be my best friend. Google keeps me from being bored at work, it always give me answers and makes me think and it is always there. I heart google.

I am so bored and also rather hungry, but it is only 1:00. If I go to lunch now then I will still have to be at work for 3.5 hours, and that's just painful. I don't think I'll make it until 2 though. I will be employed at this hellhole for just long enough to have to go through another damn Finap Frenzy, our days where we have to call as many people as we can and ask about their financial needs. My boss has a screw loose in her head if she thinks I am actually going to call anyone. Those are the days when anytime the phone rings, I pick up immediately and fake a chart on the caller. I put them on my little list of "outgoing" calls and call it a day. I hate soliciting people and interupting their lives. No one wants their bank to call them and ask about their money situation. I will not do it, not now - not ever!

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

This is a question I have been asked many times in the last few months. I went to (::counts on fingers::) several interviews in my quest for a new job. I interviewed at: a daycare, UF's housing office, UF's Admissions office, a dermatology office, UF's College of business, a museum (for a volunteer position, and finally the dept. I will be working for starting Feb. 12. There may have been at least one other interview that I can't recall at the moment, but definitely every interview that I listed, the Interviewer asked me where I see myself in 3-5 years. Mostly, he or she just wanted to know if I was going to be in town long enough for them to be interested in hiring me.Usually, my answer was half-catered to my actual feelings toward life in the future and half catered to the type of job I was applying for. Sometimes I wanted to be a teacher at an elementary school or other times in some sort of healthcare administration position.

The truth is, I only have a vague idea of what I would like my future to hold. If I look back to where I was 5 years in the past, I remember being elbow-deep in my senior year, trying to arrange projects for National Honor Society, wondering whether my relationship with J.B. was going to work out, fighting w/my parents over why I didn't want to live at home for college, and loving life as Senior, dying to be a Freshman in college. I had no inkling of an idea of the lovely life I would lead at UF.
For example, I didn't know I would hold true to my feelings against being memory-erasing drunk and partying all the time. I enjoy a glass of wine a couple times a week, but am very rarely drunk. I didn't know I would find a church that I felt accepted me, but then 1.5 years later want absolutely nothing to do with said church. and I certainly would not have said that I saw myself staying in college town for any amount of time after graduating, much less planning on being here for probably another year or so.
But that still doesn't answer the question of my life in 5 years. My dream to be married, own a home (condo or house, I'll take either one really), maybe be a mother, have a good steady job which I enjoy and happy. I would like to live in Colorado at some point in my life. I want to travel in Europe.

I have some short term goals, some long term goals and some eventual goals in mind. The project I'm really turning over in my thoughts lately is flipping houses. For my first attempt, I would like to purchase a home here, live in it for about a year and work on the house's value, then sell it for a profit. The goal is to save about $10,000 for a down payment and still have a bit of emergency cash. I don't know very much about buying houses or flipping them for that matter, but it feels like a good project. Besides that, it would feel nice to actually own something like my very own home.
The kink in the plan has to do with my feelings toward actually owning my very own home. I have always felt that I didn't want to own a house or any property before I was married. I just thought that buying a home was something you did with your husband, not your very serious boyfriend whom you live with. My goal clashes with my dream. I'm not quite ready to wear a ring on a choice finger on a choice hand, but I feel like I am ready to buy, improve and sell (mentally, not so much financially).
So where do I see myself in the next 5 years? The answer is: I don't know.