Twenty Nine // My Travel Playlist

Day Twenty-Nine: Five songs or pieces of music that bring back a memory. I'm off to DC this weekend, so here is a look at my 5 current favorite songs that are on my travel playlist this week;

What is on YOUR playlist this week?

Twenty Four // The OTHER Side of Me

Day Twenty-Four: Your top 3 worst traits
I don't think that anybody actually wants to talk about the bad traits they have. I sometimes get really frustrated thinking about them because I know that they are not all things that I can change. Physical attributes aside, these are what I believe to be my top 3 worst traits;
Sometimes, when other people make messes at my house, I get really anxious about it, but wont clean them up. I hate mess. I hate other peoples' messes more. Whether at home, or at work, I can't stand disorganization. However, if it isn't my responsibility, I'll just stew over the fact that it is a disaster. I really should work on the fact that I need to put my big girl panties on and either tell that person to clean it up, or just do it myself.
I am a super procrastinator. Everything can wait until the last minute. Literally, everything. Packing? The night before -- or even worse -- the morning of. Ordering/buying gifts? We're lucky if they get to the recipient on time. I hate that about myself.
I am totally non-confrontational. I HATE confrontation. If I have an issue, I tend to be way more passive aggressive than actually face the problem or issue head on. When I have been confronted, it is never as bad as I had pictured in my head. I just don't have the balls to initiate the conversation.
What are your "worst traits" that you would like to get rid of?

Twenty Two // My Rant.

Day Twenty Two: Rant about something. Since over the last week I have spent more hours in airports than I care to admit -- I would love nothing more than to rant about airport/airplane etiquette.
Rant #1: Pay attention. Get off your cell phone. When the screen says "Now boarding flight to Orange County, California," that does NOT mean the same thing as "Now boarding flight to LaGuardia, New York City." Put your laptop, iPad, and iPhone away and get it together. Your boarding pass will not work to get you on that plane. Oh, and everyone around you is laughing at you because we all called it.
Rant #2: Pay attention to your children. When they are running around screaming and being destructive, make them stop. I can guarantee that you would be the first person to scream at someone else if their kids were bothering you.
Rant #3: Please don't recline your seat. We are all cramped in those tiny little seats, so please don't make it worse for me. I promise that if I can go 4 hours without reclining, you can too. Pinky swear!
Rant #4: Don't wear your pajamas. We saw Eric Trump in the airport on our way to Denver. You never know who you might meet and chances are, they're going to judge you if you're wearing your jammies. Does it really take that long to put on some real clothes?
Rant #5: There is an ORDER to getting off the plane. Please don't climb over the seats to try to sprint off the plane before everyone else. It is just going to cause resentment and angriness. Also, I may try to trip you if the opportunity arises. So, watch out!
What do you hate about airport/airplane behavior!?

Twenty One // Favorite Posts

Day Twenty-One: A list of links to your favorite posts in your archives.
Well. Since I only have a few (ehhh about 30) posts in general, I don't have too many to choose from. Here are the ones that YOU guys liked the best!
Welcome! What I'm Loving Wednesday Things That Make Me Uncomfortable A Trip To Mystic Ten Things That Make Me REALLY Happy

Nineteen // My Favorite Bloggers

Day Nineteen: Five of your favorite blogs and why you love them. A few days ago, I posted about my four favorite bloggers. Today I'll share the first five blogs that I ever followed!

Cupcakes and Cashmere was the first blog that I ever followed. I remember stumbling across her page and falling in love with her unique fashion sense, delicious recipes, and overall sense for a happy life. Through her site, I started to explore other avenues of blogs, and ended up where I am today!

The College Prepster came along sometime after I had graduated, and I found myself looking to her blog for fashion tips, fun deals, and organization strategies. Since Carly has moved to New York, I have loved following her adventures through one of my favorite cities!

Clare writes the blog Fitting It All In. She is at the same point in her life that I am, and I find her daily struggles and triumphs completely relatable! This was also the first "fitness" blog that I followed, and it was certainly her passion for running that kicked my butt into gear and made me choose to live a little bit healthier.

sCe, the author of Summer Wind, has recently re-branded her blog and I am in LOVE. This fellow Lilly-lover writes about her love for all things preppy! I adore her fashion sense, and would kill for a closet like hers!

Another fellow Lilly-lover and author of Nautical by Nature, Kate writes about her adventures on the West Coast as a Nanny to baby H. Has passion for the sea is contagious and sometimes I am amazed at all of the nautical things that she finds!!
Who are some of your favorite bloggers!?

Eighteen // A Childhood Memory

Day Eighteen: Tell a story from your childhood. 
I had a really hard time picking just ONE memory, because I have so many that I could share. While the one I picked isn't necessarily from when I was a CHILD, it definitely qualifies as one of the best/worst/most hilarious nights of my life.
I bring you... my family's finest moment in history: The Night "Eddie the Bat" Invaded Our House
It all started on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend (okay, maybe it was Labor Day weekend, I can't be 100% sure...). My whole fam damily was walking back from a neighbor's house after a BBQ. We are cutting through the front yard and my Dad, being the nice guy he is, warns my Mom to lookout for the curb so she doesn't fall. Cute, right? Well, he misjudges the curb, almost falls, but doesn't so he can save the beer in his hand. Classy. Dad twists his knee, can't bend it, and is in tons of pain. We get back to the house, ice it, and out of the corner of my eye, I see something dark fly through the kitchen. No one in my family believes me, so we go to bed and pretend like nothing happened.
After breakfast the next morning, Dad spends the next day at the ER while they put a huge immobilizer on that knee. Saturday night, he is on crutches, but we all go out to another BBQ. Obviously it is time to celebrate the gorgeous weather and the beginning (or end) of summer. We are all tired as we finally get back to the house, and as we walk in the door, this bat swoops down and scares the poop out of all of us. This is when our true colors came out.
I immediately run to the laundry room, and put every single article of clothing on that I can find in the dryer. I lock myself in there because I know that if that bat touches me, I will have to get rabies shots, and homegirl is NOT okay with that. Naturally, I start crying, and may have ended up in the fetal position on top of the dryer.
My brother runs down the stairs and suits up with all of his airsoft equipment. He grabs his lacrosse stick and pretends to be ready for battle. God knows that if the thing had actually come near him, he would have run away.
My Mom stands in the foyer just screaming.
Dad, without being able to move his leg, has to figure something out. Obviously the rest of his family is completely and utterly USELESS in traumatic situations such as this. He crawls up the stairs with his crutches, and starts shutting bedroom doors trying to eliminate rooms that this bat could get trapped in. The bat flies back downstairs and somewhat traps itself in the living room.
Now, there are no doors in the living room, just a big 'ole hole in the wall to walk through. Dad crawls (maybe rolls, who knows, I'm still sitting in the laundry room crying) down the stairs and uses a glass door (that we had just taken out/put in the front door) to essentially play ping pong with the bat so it can't get back out. Knowing that the bat is now somewhat contained, I emerge from the bathroom to yelling to get all of the shower curtains from the house. Mom and I run around and rip these things down, and start taping them up around the doorway. We almost seal it shut, get Dad out, and have that bat trapped.
Finally.
Now, we can walk outside and look in the living room window and see this icky creature flying around. It was terrifying. We get hold of "Billy the Bat Man" a few days later only to find out that we have an infestation on the outside of the house. After our experience with "Eddie the Bat," I think we would have paid him millions to get the things out of there!
To this day, I can't see a bat without getting the chills, and then the giggles remembering the night that the bat got into the house!

Seventeen // A Favorite Photo.

Day Seventeen: A favorite photo of yourself and why.

This photo, taken at the Luke Bryan concert last July has to be on the top of my list for tons of reasons. The biggest reason, though? It was one of the first pictures I have of myself after I had lost 30lbs last year. I remember looking at this after it had been taking and just smiling, knowing that I did it. I looked great, and felt great. That is something that I will never forget!

Sixteen // Overcoming Challenges

Day Sixteen: Something difficult about your "lot in life" and how you're working to overcome it.
I certainly wasn't dealt a bad hand of cards. In fact, I'd say that I am pretty lucky in that sense. My family has been able to provide me with everything I could ever want or need, and I could never thank them enough for that.
However, I would have to say that something that I'm working to overcome right now is discovering what it is that I want to do with my life. When I graduated 3 years ago, I thought I had it figured out. I would work for my sorority for two years, take some pre-requisites for Grad School, and eventually go to Grad School for Occupational Therapy.
Well, that plan didn't quite work out and the summer after I graduated, I found myself scrambling to find something to fill my time as I dealt with the depression of graduating and trying to get things together quickly. I found a part time job in retail, and started taking classes at a community college that fall to get a head start on working towards Grad School. As I completed my second semester of Human Anatomy & Physiology, I realized that maybe this wasn't what I wanted to do with my life, and I had lost the passion that I thought I had for the field. I ended up full time at my retail job, and figured that I would try to work my way up in the company.
That plan sounded great for a whole year. I was promoted a few times, loved the women I worked with, and fell in love with the company. I was happy to go to work, the politics weren't getting to me (yet), and I didn't mind working the crazy hours. It's not like I had a TON of friends in this area, so I was just happy to be getting out of the house.
It all changed in the fall of 2011. We got a few new people at work who changed the dynamics of everything. People were fighting over petty things, I had made a few friends and was happier with my life outside of work. I was being assigned the closing shift 3-4 times per week, and was just not enjoying my job anymore. I had to get out. I was applying to 15 jobs a day, working with recruiters, and just trying to keep my head above the water.
Over the last 18 months, this has been my life. My parents are taking the heat for most of it, having to listen to me complain incessantly about how much I hate going to work. I struggle with the fact that my Psychology Degree doesn't really get me anywhere except to Grad School which is something that I'm not 100% sure of. I'd really like to discover what I want to do with the rest of my life so I can get a move on it, but I just don't have the time for soul searching. 
I struggle with this every. single. day.  I make lists of fields that I should be looking into.  I apply for hundreds of jobs per week and receive absolutely no feedback.  I have no idea what I want to be doing in life, I only know what I don't want.
I know that I am not the only twenty-something dealing with these sorts of things, and while that does give me comfort sometimes, I really wish I could get things together.
What kinds of things are you struggling with right now? How have you dealt with it? And, how did you figure out what you wanted to do with your life!?

Fifteen // A Day In The Life

Day Fifteen: A Day In The Life

Because my work schedule is so crazy (and I could be closing one day, opening the next, working crazy hours the day after), I try to keep myself on as much of a schedule outside of work as possible. I try to get into bed at the same time every night, and wake up around the same time in the morning. While the stuff in the middle gets all mixed up day by day, it remains pretty consistent week by week.

What does a typical day look like in my life?

6:30 am Wake up call! Even earlier if I am trying to get to the gym before I open the store (yes, I have motivational quotes set to get me out of bed)!.

6:45 am (if I'm opening) 8am if I'm closing - Actually get my butt out of bed, make coffee, eat yogurt, and make my to-do list for the day

9:30am - 6:30pm work work work. Live my life in pink and green. Around 2pm take a break and grab some froyo if it has been an especially long day.

6:31 pm Get my butt in the car and go home. Jam out to my playlist of the week.

7:15 pm Get home, immediately take off bra (#sorrynotsorry) and put on yoga pants. Hair goes in a pony, and makeup comes off. Once I'm home, there is no going back out again.

7:30 pm Cook some sort of delicious dinner. My favorite lately has been chicken, broccoli, and brown rice. I could eat that all day long.

8:15 pm Catch up on blogs, write my post for the next day, watch Big Bang Theory incessantly. I have a problem.

10 pm Walk the dog for the final time with Daddy

10:07 pm Pick out outfit for work the following day, pack gym bag, make sure my room is clean. I can't fall asleep if there are things out of order. #OCDproblems

10:20 pm Get ready for bed, and read on my Kindle. Maybe turn the TV on if something fun is on, but not usually. I like my quiet time.

11 pm Set alarm, lights out, pass out. Get ready to do this all again tomorrow.

What does your daily routine look like?

Fourteen // Ten Things That Make You Really Happy

Day Fourteen: Ten things that make you really happy. One time, I made a list of over 100 things that make me really, really, really happy. Sometimes you need a reminder of what makes you smile.

My family. They are my rocks. When we all get together, it's wonderful. Little brother came home yesterday, and I'm thrilled to be traveling across the country with them this week! It will certainly be one hell of a ride.

The beach. There is something about setting foot on the beach for the first time in a while and just breathing it all in. Isak Dinesen said the most brilliant thing, "The cure for anything is salt water; sweat, tears or the sea." I believe it 100%.

Country Music. That first day of warm weather when you can open your sunroof, throw your sunglasses on, and turn the radio UP. Kenny, Blake, Luke, and Eric are all there with me and can instantly put me in a fantastic mood.

Christmas. I think the joy of the holiday started when I was little and the whole time from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day was just magic. Christmas cookies in the oven, the NSYNC holiday album on repeat, and just an overall mood elevation makes this the happiest time of the year. It is so wonderful.

Ice cream. The love obviously started at a young age, but after a bad day, I almost always turn to that cold concoction that is socially acceptable to consume while driving and operating heavy machinery.

Traveling. Is there anything better than exploring a new place? We've headed to South Carolina for the last 20+ years for our summer vacation. This year, throughout the next few months, I will be headed to Colorado, Washington, DC, and the Dominican Republic. I cannot wait to play tourist in a new place!

Fresh Flowers. They just make you smile. Bonus points if they're a surprise!

A Fresh Manicure. There is something so relaxing about a nice mani/pedi that instantly puts a smile on my face. I always know when my day has been exceptionally bad because usually the color on my nails is something totally outrageous and out of character for me!

The rainbow after a good, soaking rain. You know that smell of wet pavement in the heat of the summer right after a drenching rain? That is the best! Seeing that huge rainbow outside after the gloomy rain and thunder has got to be one of the best sights in the world. It almost serves as a reminder that even on the worst days, things will get better and be beautiful again.

Laughing so hard it hurts. How can you not be happy after a good laugh?
What makes YOU really, really, happy?

Thirteen // Issue A Public Apology

Day Thirteen: Issue a public apology.
I have a few apologies that I could probably make right now. It's been a long few weeks at work, and I'm sure there are tons of people in my life who deserve an "I'm sorry" and a hug. And maybe some chocolate chip cookies. Two stand out the most.
Mom and Dad; I'm sorry for all the things I say and do when I'm tired, fed up, and just want to complain about work. I apologize for my moodiness and plain old obnoxious behavior when I've had a bad day at work. There are plenty of other ways for me to deal with it, but naturally, you're the ones who take the hit.

Twelve // What Do You Miss?

Day Twelve: What do you miss?
I probably could have done this entire post in pictures, but I don't think that quite qualifies as an actual blog post.
What is the one thing that I miss? Especially during this time of year... VIRGINIA TECH!
I spent the best four years of my life in the little mountain town of Blacksburg. Filled with crisp morning walks across the drillfield (maybe most of the time they were arctic, not crisp, and there was some sort of precipitation falling horizontally from the sky), Tuesday nights at TOTS, Friday Happy Hours at Sharkey's, and Saturdays in Lane Stadium.

I miss living in a mini Hogwarts, spending countless hours studying (or pretending to study) at the sorority house, and taking hours to decide what to wear downtown on any given Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night.

I miss being surrounded by all my friends, and even when there was "nothing to do," there was always something to do. I miss theme parties (why are they so unacceptable in the "real" world?), formals, and even recruitment (never thought I'd see the day).

Most of all, I miss walking across the beautiful campus, taking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with my biggest worry being my next exam, and where on campus I should eat dinner.
What is one thing you miss?

Eleven // Sell Yourself in 10 Words or Less

Day Eleven: Sell yourself in 10 words or less.
I'm awesome. What else do you need?
That was 7 words. Boom.

Nine // A Moment In Your Day

Day Nine: A moment in your day (a photo).

As of 10am today, this is what I am surrounded by. 30-ish boxes and counting of brand new gorgeous Lilly. Be jealous.

Eight // A Piece of Advice

Day Eight: A piece of advice you have for others. Anything at all. Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and step up on my retail management soapbox and give you all a little piece of advice on shopping etiquette. 1. Please put down the cell phone when you are shopping. We can't help you when you're chatting away about the PTA meeting, or coordinating a playdate, or fighting with your boyfriend over where to go to dinner. And while you're on your cell phone, please acknowledge that someone said hello to you. We don't like to be ignored. 2. We have policies and procedures to follow when it comes to how to ring up each customer. If you are trying to return something without a receipt, chances are, you're out of luck. If you've taken out the sanitary lining of a bathing suit, it's not going to be returned. So please, please, please, keep your receipt and tags on your clothes until you wear them. It will save all of us an uncomfortable situation. 3. If you damage an item in the fitting room, please come clean about it. We're not going to make you buy it, but we'd much rather handle the situation rather than finding it somewhere later all ripped and broken. 4. A smile goes a long way. If you're nice, respectful, and appreciative, we will bend the rules. Plain and simple.

Seven // What I'm Afraid Of

Day Seven: The Things I'm Most Afraid Of
The obvious; Anyone who lives with me knows how much I just love bugs, and spiders. I can't even bring myself to google a picture to put on here because that is how much I am terrified of them. I just can't.
I'm terrified of swimming in the ocean when I can't see the ocean floor. Actually, let's make that I wont swim in any non-manmade body of water unless I can see the bottom. There are entirely too many creepy crawly things that I don't even want to think about nibbling at my toes or swimming by. I'll stick to pools, hot tubs, and jacuzzis, please!
I refuse to stay home alone overnight without a dog in the house. Obviously a cute dog is going to stop a scary rapist robber from coming in and getting me. Duh.
The not-so-obvious; I am terrified of losing the people I love. Sometimes I have terrible dreams where I wake up and everyone I know and love is gone. It has got to be the worst feeling in the entire world.
I am afraid of failure. The thought terrifies me. I think this is why I am such a perfectionist.
What are you most afraid of?

Six // What Do You DO?

Day Six: If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question "what do you do?"
For 8 hours of my day, 5 times a week, I play dress up in colorful clothing. I spend other peoples' money. I manage a team of eight. I organize product, I order supplies and replenishment, I work towards a daily, weekly, and monthly goal. I play mediator between co-workers, and sometimes I even play on my iPhone. I advertise, promote, and recruit.
The other 16 hours? I blog, I spend time with my family, and take lots of naps. I drive to and from Connecticut. I drink a LOT of coffee, watch too much television, and sometimes go for a run. I take day trips, I e-mail my girlfriends, I cook and I bake.

Five // My Love...

Day Five: Publicly profess your love and devotion for one of your blogger friends. 
There are so many wonderful ladies that I've been following through the blog world for a while now. I don't think that I'd be able to pick just one that is my favorite, so here are a few bloggers who have inspired me to write this little blog...

Charlotte

Lindsey

Ryann

Megan

Who are your favorite bloggers!?