Addicted

I absolutely cannot get addicted to one more TV show... I will never leave my house! It seems every day something else draws me in and I'm hooked. I won't even lie.. I am a celeb gossip junkieeee! I can't help myself. Ever since I was a little girl, it has been a ritual to buy the gossip mags on Thursdays when they hit stores and spend all weekend reading about other people's lives. When I went to college, the ritual changed just a bit; mom buys mags on Thursday, reads them and mails them to me. Saving poor college girl about 30 bucks a week. My dad has always detested this habit, he would always say, "you don't even know these people." Yes, dad, I actually feel like they are my friends.

Lately my obsession has evolved into reality TV. I just can't help myself, it's my drug of choice. My absolute favorite obsession? The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I love love love this show. I want to be friends with all of them... except Camille, but that's a different story. And I fully plan on getting my own personal Giggy one day.

My strangest addiction? Tabatha's Salon Takeover. I have no clue why I love this show, seeing as it's about hair salons, but I just love it! I think it's because Tabatha is so fierce and tells it like it is. She's quite intimidating, but in an extremely sexy way.

Among my other fave watches? Holly's World, Real Housewives of Atlanta, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, House Hunters... listing all of these out makes me realize how bad my addiction is. You would think I never got anything done.

I have serious day dreams about my own reality TV show. I mean, I think I'm entertaining? Obviously I'm not famous and people have no reason to want to know me.... but still. It's my day dreams, I can do whatever I want in them.

Basically my TV constantly stays on BRAVO and E!, with the occasional jump to HGTV. Case in point, I'm currently watching the latest episode of Holly's World on E!. Oh, my life.

I also think this makes a great case for why I need TiVo or DVR or something to help with my addiction. Just a thought.

The year I didn't hate Valentine's Day...

This was my first Valentine's in a looooong time that I wasn't spending the day cursing all of the happy couples in the world. As you all know, I do have a significant other, and therefore I had a Valentine. But my Valentine's date was about as far from conventional as you could imagine, but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

February 2010 I traveled to Washington D.C. with the other members of Auburn College Republicans for CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference.) Not only did I come home with a fire in my heart to fight for what I believe it, I came home with a boyfriend.

One year later, I traveled back to D.C. for CPAC once again, but this year it was extra special. Not only was I at my favorite political event of the year, but I was celebrating one year with my love. We celebrated our first Valentine's by listening to Ann Coulter, Gov. Rick Perry (TX), Rep. Allen West (FL), Donald Trump, and many others. We also spend a day on Capitol Hill visiting our beloved SC congressmen. During the day, we bonded over our love of politics, and at night enjoyed dinner and fun with friends. 

His mother probably describes it best as "two nerds at the nerd convention." But you know what, this is what I consider a fairy tale. Sure, Cinderella got to go to the ball and dance the night away with her prince. But my prince comes in the form of a "nerd" who will do "nerdy" things with me and then take me to dinner after. 

I've been looking forward to having a Valentine for quite some time now, and this was worth the wait.

Cupcakes.

If you know me, you know that I have an unhealthy affinity for cupcakes. More specifically, vanilla cupcakes with buttercream icing. Yum. I truly believe that a cupcake is the greatest medicine and that it could probably cure cancer. (OK, maybe not, but you get the idea.)

Ironically enough, on my first date with my love, I realized that the restaurant we were at gave you a free cupcake for your birthday. So I did what any other normal, mature 20-something girl would do... I completely lied and told them it was my birthday (it wasn't.) We laugh about that now because it was the first sign he got of just how obsessed with cupcakes I am.

I have a soft spot for single girls. Hard to believe that just one year ago I was a bitter single girl. And as a former single girl, I know the last thing single girls want to hear from me is, "Don't worry, you'll find someone!" So I won't do it.

But, you should know that while single, I literally read every book out there about how to find a man. Literally. You name it, I read it. And of course, they all promised to help me find true love, they didn't. But they did all offer the same advice that I hate to admit is actually really good.

Single girls, write this down: You must be happy with yourself before someone else can be happy with you.

Allow me to illustrate.
I love cupcakes, but I love the icing more. Nothing makes me happier than good buttercream icing, preferably pink. Even though I love the icing, I still eat the actual cake part. The icing is so sweet that if I ate just icing, I would get sick. But eating it with the cake is perfection.

Think of a boyfriend as the icing. It looks pretty dang good sitting in the bowl, but without the cake, it's just icing. It's still wonderful, but it isn't complete, it isn't right.

You have to be the cake. You are always good. Cake is good with or without icing. If you are a confidant, strong women, you don't need icing to make you fabulous. But who wants a cupcake without icing?

The biggest mistake girls make is to think that a boyfriend will solve all of your problems. Believe me, SO not the case. They bring problems of their own (that's another story.) You be you, and be the best you that you can be. Then you will find the icing to make you a fabulous cupcake.

If you love me, you'll lie to me.

The other night, my roomie and I decided to watch a movie. We decided on watching, He's Just Not That Into you, and I hadn't seen it in awhile, so I was excited! I also realized, I hadn't seen it since I was in a relationship, this could be interesting. I remember watching it as a single girl and feeling bitter. I only remember being reminded that I was "that girl."

After watching it again, I'm not really sure what I did that was "right" to attract the right guy! I also realized that I have many friends who say they are looking for Mr. Right, but their actions completely disagree with them. In the movie, all the friends continue to lie to each other, simply encouraging insane behavior. Why do we lie to each other? Because it makes us feel better! But it's insane! We lie to our friends and tell them what they want to hear rather than what they NEED to hear, the truth!

Since I have become the girl in a serious relationship, (again, not sure how I managed to do that!), friends have started coming to me for guy advice, assuming that since I have a Mr. Right, I must have some answers. Well, I like to think I am OK with advice, so I have been trying my best! I give different advice than other friends though, and I don't know how well it goes over with the people I'm giving it to. I give them the truth. The cold, hard, honest truth.

Let's look at this scenario. A friend of mine went out, met a cute guy, had one too many drinks and went home with home. Whoops. Of course, he said all the right things, acted interested in seeing her again, and even took her to class the next morning. Well, she was beaming as she told me how wonderful he was. Honestly, I couldn't help from laughing and shaking her to death. I learned something a long time ago: upon a first impression, guy will place you into one of two categories, girls they sleep with, and girls they take home to Mom. Once you are categorized, you don't really switch teams, your branded for life. Of course I wasn't surprised when she didn't hear from him the next day. I also wasn't surprised when she did hear from him a few days later. He said all the right things like, "I knew you were busy this weekend, so I didn't want to bother you by texting you." What a prince charming. Truth is, he didn't think about you all weekend and probably shacked up with another drunk girl. And of course, the playboy asked if she wanted to, "come over and watch a movie, or something." OK let's stop. Here's the kicker... OR SOMETHING. Girls tend to overlook this as they dance around their room because he wants to hang out. He doesn't want to hang out with you. He wants you to come over, start a movie and then end up in his bedroom. So of course, I said OK, redeem yourself, do not spend the night with him. Would any one be surprised if I told you she didn't stay at her own place that night? She's also convinced that they have something and he genuinely likes her for who she is, because he told her so.

Here is my new pet peeve, girls who go on and on about how they want to find Mr. Right, they want to be in a serious relationship with a good guy, but their actions tell a completely different story. They call me and wonder why they can't be in a relationship too. Well, I'll tell you. I decided I wanted to be serious. Going out was no longer a priority. I spent my time doing things that would help my career and just help me in general. I got involved in things that interested me. I met a boy at a conservative conference, we began talking and getting to know each other. We talked for weeks before our actual first date. We figured out that we liked the same things, had the same morals, and truly enjoyed talking to each other, and thus, a relationship was born.

If you are telling me you want to be serious, get serious. Stop going out, drinking like a Freshman and going home with guys. Guys won't take you seriously until you take yourself seriously. The right guy will come, but only when you're ready. To put it simply, nice guys want to date nice girls. The end.

Service without a smile

As a senior (ish), I'm starting to pay more attention to how people act at work. Whenever I go somewhere I'm constantly watching how people do things, simple and not so simple. Well, often times I get really irritated. It's the same rant we have all heard a million times, it's a bad economy, someone else would do your job better! Well, most of the time I don't get too irritated, but since I am in the PR world, I ALWAYS focus on how people treat others on the job. How you answer the phone is so much more important than people realize.

Since I am moving into a new apartment, I needed a new TV. After searching all the stores here, none of them had my desired one in stock. Well, I could have had it delivered to my apartment, but there's this thing called sorority recruitment (aka: hell week for girls) that wouldn't allow me to actually be home while the sun was shining. So, I opted for Walmart's really helpful site-to-store. You buy it online, they send it to the store and ta-da! Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. My TV was to have been delivered last week/weekend, and I have yet to see it.

I ventured down to Wally World on Saturday, not to mention I am sick as a dog, hoping to pick up my TV. This lady was very nice, even thought I could tell she didn't want to search for my TV, she did. Devastated I returned home with no TV. So, the next day was the last day it was "guaranteed" to be in by, surely it will come, right? HA!

So instead of driving the 15 minutes to Wally World just to be told they don't have my TV, I decided to call. Well, after being hung up on three times, I finally got a human being on the phone. I told the gentlemen what I was looking for and he proceeded to ask me if I had the tracking number, I replied no but gave him my name. He then puts me on "hold" but instead of actually pressing the hold button, he simply put the phone on the counter where I could heard every word in his little rant about how annoying it is when people call and ask him to do things. Right, it must stink working in retail and having people ask you to do things, hmm. (Note: it takes half a second to push a button and actually put someone on hold, it's so rude to allow someone to hear your awful conversation.) He then picks up the phone and says, "I'm gonna have to go into the system and look this up, it might take a few minutes..." Well, yes, I did call with the intention that you would look up my order and I knew it might take a few minutes... he then says, "I mean, like, it could take five minutes, I guess you could hold on-- or why don't you just call me back later." Umm, I'm sorry, but I just need to know if my TV is there or not before I drive 15 minutes to your store. At this point I was so blown away by his laziness and lack of work ethic that I really didn't want to be on the phone with him anymore. So after this I said fine, I will go into my mom's e-mail account, find the tracking number and track it myself.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people act so annoyed that you have asked them to do their job. I believe this young man was being paid to work in the department I needed help from. I don't think I was asking him to do something outrageous either. Here's a helpful hint. If someone "bothers" you at work, and you really don't want to do what they have asked, there are better ways of getting out of it. For example:

"I'm so sorry Mr./Ms. so-and-so, we are really backed up right now and my hands seem to be tied, if you could give me your name and number I would be happy to get back with you as soon as possible"

I mean, you should never avoid doing your job, but if you must, be nice about it, please?

I'm sorry for the rant, but bad customer service is my ultimate pet peeve!

It has begun.

For months now, I have been doing a "long distance relationship," but not really. While at the beginning of summer, I thought I would never see my Prince Charming, but in fact we have managed to see each other almost once a week. Wow, I drove to SC entirely too much this summer, (but totally worth it!) So while we have had the joy of starting our relationship actually spending time together, I now realize summer is almost over and I won't be able to drive back and forth as I please, and neither will he. Sigh.

I cannot believe it is almost August, where did summer go?! In just a week I will be moving into a new apartment, most likely the last place I will live in Auburn. Talk about a reality check. After that, the chaos will begin. A week and a half of sorority recruitment, my last one ever, and I will officially start my senior year of college. OK, senior-ish year, so I'm doing an extra semester, I get an extra football season!

Needless to say, the upcoming fall is bittersweet. I will want to treasure every moment with my friends, doing the things I have taken for granted over the past four years. The most difficult part will be knowing that my best friend is 8 hours away. He will go back to school (prison) right after I do, and after that, who knows when we will be able to see each other. He will be busy playing toy soldier, and I'll be experience my senior year of college, two lives that don't exactly overlap.

I guess you can say that this reality has finally hit me. I realize that it will be a true LDR, more time spent apart than together. And my ever so logical father has already informed me that, "You can't be driving up every weekend to go see soldier boy." Yes, Dad, I realize. While it will be tempting to hop in my car and go visit, since he can't exactly come and go as he pleases, but I have to accept that's not logical.

I knew when I met him, my life is in Alabama, his is in South Carolina. So yesterday while I was bored and feeling a little sad over my recent revelation, I decided to Google, I was sure someone had some great LDR advice, or stories that would comfort me. Well, while I did find some helpful hints (but nothing I didn't really already know, use Skype, talk a lot, etc.) there was also really crummy advice!

1. Have a "movie date." Pick out the same movie, pop some popcorn, curl up on the couch, get on Skype and 1-2-3- PLAY! Ta-da, you're watching a movie together. Orrrr, you're feeling like an idiot.

2. Daily Report Cards. (Note: this would be a good idea if you were in separate countries and phone use was limited.) At the end of the day, type up a synopsis of what you did. Include as many pictures, videos, etc. of your day! Yeah, I pretty much do this on the phone already, minus the pic messages.

3. Spend 1-2 with no communication. Take a few days and completely cut off all communication with each other, no phone calls, texts, e-mails, nothing. Doing this will make you miss each other and remind you why your in it. Um, every time I hear my sweet toy soldier on the phone, I am reminding why I'm doing this, I'd rather not ignore each other, but thanks anyway!

So since my search left me with nothing, I came to this conclusion. Jump in head first. Just figure it out as you go along. I may be biased, but we have a great relationship, we will be able to figure this LDR out. I didn't say it was going to be easy, but I know it will definitely be worth it.

My senior year is supposed to be the best, and I'm going to make sure it is. I want to enjoy every piece of Auburn before I leave and return home to my beloved SC.

21 going on 12

In high school, I did some baby-sitting just like most girls do. I remember one particular horror story that I will never forget. I was at the beach and a family friend asked me to watch her children at the pool for a few hours. No problem. Well, it was a 9 year-old-girl, a 7 year-old-boy and a 2 year-old-girl. Sounds like a handful, right? Well, to make it even better, the 2 year old (who obviously can't swim) didn't have any floaties with her, so I literally had to hold her the entire time. She was absolutely convinced that she could swim and she didn't WANT me to hold her. She kicked, screamed, hit, yelled, anything she could do to get me to let her swim. Well, as the person in charge, I knew if I put her down, she would drown. Needless to say, it was a very long afternoon. She thought I was being mean by not letting her swim on her own, but I was simply protecting her! That was my job, to watch the children, make sure they didn't drown!

Lately I've been realizing that we never grow out of that. A 2 year old thinks they can swim, a 16 year old thinks they rule the world, and a 21 year old thinks they are an adult. I have two brothers and we are all at different and interesting ages. My older bro is 22 and my younger bro is 17, leaving me in the middle at 21. Even though my oldest bro is only a year and a half older than me, I always thought he was sooo cool and mature (yeah, right.) I always thought, in a year when I am that age, I will be grown up too! But the older I've gotten, I've yet to feel "cool" and "mature". My younger brother provides a lot of entertainment because as a 17 year old between high school and college he obviously thinks he's grown up and invincible. I know that I know better than he does, but he thinks he knows everything, and there's no telling him otherwise!

You know how it goes, you think you know everything, and your parents laugh at you. The older you get, the more you realize that your parents, in fact, aren't crazy and that they actually DO know what they are talking about. (I hate that I'm admitting this.) I think the older you get, the more you realize you know nothing and have nothing figured out.

I thought at 21 I'd be all grown up and have it all figure out. HA! Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't have all the answers, I'm still making mistakes, I'm still figuring things out. But I keep having to remind myself that it is OK to not know everything, and it's always OK to ask for help along the way. No one can get through life alone, that's why God gave us a family. No matter what you do, they will always be there for you, and even when you don't think so, they might be able to help you along the way.

I don't think I'll ever have all the answers, I'll always be a 2 year old girl trying to swim when I can't, but I know that I have people in my life to stop me from drowning. So I'd say I'm doing just fine.