Mundane.

Most of my blog post ideas come to me when I'm at the gym in the mornings. Mostly because I put all of my brain power into thinking about anything other than my workout because I just hate it so much. No, I still don't like working out. No, it isn't fun. All those damn healthy-living, weight-loss, workout bloggers are liars. Don't believe them.

Whoa, tangent.

So this morning while I was trying to pretend I was having a great time, even though my arms felt like they might fall off, I started thinking about the mundane. Bloggers don't talk about it, but it's one of the things I'm curious about the most. We're so busy trying to make our lives "blog-worthy" that we leave out some of the mundane details, and damnit, I love those mundane details. I'm overly curious about a bloggers LIFE, as in how they actually live and those little things they do.

Here's some of my mundane this week.

>>---> Speaking of "mundane", I love that word. If you've been reading this blog for a while then you know I have a "thing" for interesting, uncommon words. I heart them so much.

>>---> Sunday I took the hose attachment to my vacuum cleaner and cleaned all of my vent covers.

>>---> Sunday I spent a couple of hours editing a friend's paper for her persuasive writing class because I always tend to be everyone's go-to to edit papers. My mom was my go-to, so I guess everyone has to have one.

>>---> Sunday night I watched the movie Drumline on vh1. Okay guys, I know, Drumline is kind of terrible and Nick Cannon is.. really terrible, but I LOVE THAT MOVIE SO MUCH. I did remember however that watching a movie on TV is the most annoying thing. They stretch the last 30 minutes of the movie into an hour+ and it is so frustrating.

>>---> Monday night vh1 premiered the new sequel to Drumline - Drumline: A New Beat. In the most geeky way possible, I was pumped. BUT I didn't want to annoyingly sit through all of the commercials again, so I got smart and decided to DVR it so I could watch it another time and fast forward through the commercials. I outsmarted you vh1, and damnit, it feels good.

>>---> Monday night I also made a chicken and rice bake from a recipe my grandma gave me that never turns out as good as when she makes it. She doesn't add veggies, but I added a shit ton of broccoli, because I'm really into trying to add veggies everywhere now and eat them constantly. Small changes and all.

>>---> Tuesday I went to get a coffee at 2:30 in the afternoon because I thought I was going to fall asleep at my desk. Caffeine is the name of the game these days.

>>---> Tuesday night I got a little overwhelmed with the number of shows on my DVR that need to be watched, so I decided to watch a few shows live so that I didn't back up my DVR any more. I went with NCIS (8pm), Supernatural (9pm), then Chicago Fire (10pm). Of course, I still had 3 other shows that recorded while I was watching those, so my DVR still feels full. Sigh.

>>---> Wednesday I spent the entire day at work by myself, so I blasted my Spotify Christmas music playlist as loudly as possible. It. Was. Awesome.

>>---> Wednesday night I volunteered to work an IU volleyball game for "pink night" for Breast Cancer Awareness. The IU pep band played Talk Dirty To Me and Rebeeca Black's Friday. Which would have been even more hilarious had it been Friday, but it was Wednesday, so everyone (under the age of 25) just looked confused. Actually, everyone over 25 looked confused too, because.. obviously. But I liked it and I was amused.

>>---> Oh yea, and because I worked on Wednesday night, my Wednesday night shows? Didn't get to watch any of them. First of all, my TV watching and the number of shows I watch is beyond pathetic. It truly is. Feel free to talk shit about me. Second, my DVR is SO FULL. I have no idea when I'm going to get caught up.

Make-up Brush Cleaning Routine Update

Yesterday as I was getting ready to do something I do frequently, I realized I never tell you guys about it, so here I am, telling you.

About a year and a half ago I blogged how I clean my make-up brushes, and it is one of my most popular posts. This is kind of a follow up to that and a discussion about make-up brushes in general.

In my previous post I cleaned my brushes with a hot water, vinegar, and dish soap mixture. I still use that exact same thing. I know a lot of people use baby shampoo to clean their brushes and I have definitely done that (johnson & johnson tear free baby shampoo, in the yellow bottle, is what I used) and it works great, truly. I don't really ever notice a huge difference in how clean my brushes are between my cleaner and the baby shampoo. The biggest difference is that hot water, vinegar, and dish soap are things I always have at my apartment. Baby shampoo is something extra that I have to purchase.

*ProTip: When I'm cleaning all of my brushes, I go ahead and make up 2 jars of the cleaner. I know I'll need to refresh it at least once, so if I already make 2 then I'm saving time.*

I clean all of my make-up brushes every other weekend. Some brushes actually get cleaned a little more frequently than that, such as my blush brush, my foundation brush, my bronzer brush, my face powder brush, and my eyeliner brush. Those just get cleaned any time I feel like they need it, which sometimes is weekly, sometimes a few times a week. You never know.

My friends think I'm crazy for cleaning them so often, but about 10ish months ago when I started cleaning them every other weekend I noticed a huge decline in my breakouts. Those brushes are dirty and then we put them on our faces. My friends can think I'm crazy all they want, I'm still cleaning them obsessively.

Now, I haven't noticed anything wrong with my brushes since I've started cleaning them so often. It's not like I'm running them through the dishwasher. I'm cleaning them gently. Cleaning does not equal ruining.

As far as my brushes go, I have Bare Escentuals, Bare Minerals, Mary Kay, and e.l.f. brushes. I love them. The e.l.f. brushes are so good for the price, honestly, however they have the most fallout of all of my brushes. It's nothing crazy, but especially my face brushes you get some fallout. But again, for the price, they are so worth it. Mary Kay has the least fallout, except for one particular Mary Kay brush and it drives me absolutely crazy, so I have like 4 back-ups of that brush. The Bare Escentuals and Bare Minerals brushes are fine, but there's nothing amazing about them. I didn't buy any of them, they were all given to me.

I did have a Sonia Kashuk brush that I loved, but I dropped it in the toilet and there's just no coming back from that. I watch a lot of make-up tutorials on YouTube and honestly, a lot of them use the Sonia Kashuk brushes. Most of them do use the Sephora brushes, which I would love, but I also don't want to pay $20+ for each brush. Sorry.

So that's that.
Clean your make-up brushes.
Buy me some Sephora and Sonia Kashuk brushes.
Catch ya on the flip side.
Happy Monday!

Things That Are Unfortunate

It's unfortunate that my DVR can only record 2 shows at once. Which means if I am recording 2 shows, then I can't watch a 3rd program. So for instance, last night I missed the first 30 min of a show that started at 8pm. But I couldn't start the show at 8:30pm, because I have 2 shows that record at 9pm, so I wouldn't be able to watch the 8pm show while the 2 9pm shows were recording. Super unfortunate.

It's unfortunate that I put that much thought into my DVR.

It's unfortunate that my work schedule for November looks absolutely ridiculous. It's actually laughable how little of a social life I'll have the entire month.

It's unfortunate that for the month of November I'm mostly worried about how behind I'll get on my shows and not how little of a social life I'll have.

It's unfortunate that not everyone was in on the text conversation I had with my stepdad the other night. An hour and a half of only texting quotes from Ocean's Eleven back and forth. "Ted Nugent called. He wants his shirt back."

"he doesn't make me cry"

It's unfortunate that I have written a proper blog post to insert the following gif into, so I'm inserting it here, because it's amazing and amuses me and it just needs to be shared in general.

It's unfortunate that I'm not a huge fan of the Chandelier song by Sia, because it is played approximately 82,239 times on the radio a day. This is why I pay $10 a month for Spotify, because I can choose my own damn music to listen to 82,239 times a day. Also guys, the way she says "chan-DUH-luh-hhhhheeeerrrrreeee" and all the other parts where it sounds like she's actually losing her voice because she can't hit the high notes? Drives me bananas.

It's unfortunate that I have to end this blog post here, because I didn't realize what time it was and now I need to go not-so-fun adult things.

Catch ya on the flip side, friends!

Why Blogs Die

This has been on my mind for a while now. Really ever since Young House Love decided to say goodbye to Blogland.

You see, Young House Love was the first blog I ever started reading. The first one and I read it for years and years and through them ultimately found this thing I call Blogland. Finding Blogland and expanding my blog reading list ultimately led to my desire to start a blog of my own. To say that I'm taking YHL's goodbye hard is maybe a small understatement.

The last few weeks I've started thinking about why blogs die and I've got a few theories.

1. Critics
It happens to everyone at one point or another. You're putting yourself and your personal life and sometimes the lives of those close to you onto the internet where anyone and everyone can read it, critique it, and judge it. It happens. There are a hundred ways a blogger can handle the situation, but it basically comes down to if a blogger can deal with it or not. If they can't, then bye bye blog.

2. Privacy
Bloggers are typically straddling an invisible line of sharing too much and not sharing enough to please your readers. A blogger usually has a list in their head of things they can't share on the blog. Once that list becomes too long, it makes writing a post difficult and you stop getting readers because your post quality starts to decline. Eventually a blogger's need for privacy outweighs their need for a blog and then bye bye blog.

3. Expectations
Sometimes you'll get a blogger who comes on the scene who is in Blogland just to make money. Which is totally absurd. If this is you, quit now and save yourself the time. Yes, some bloggers can and do make significant money blogging, but that's oh so rare. When you consider how much time and money they put in to make that money? It's just totally absurd to get into this for that reason only. Usually when these types of bloggers don't see the results quickly then it's bye bye blog.

4. Inspiration
You've heard it before, a blog is only as good as its last post. Content, content, content is the key to any "successful" blog. You can usually tell when a blog is nearing its end, because there will be a uprise in guest posts and sponsored posts and very few original posts. Usually, at least in the few bloggers I've discussed this with, it's not that you have nothing to write about, it's that you don't have a creative way to write it. But also, sometimes a blogger just has nothing to write about. When the post inspiration goes, that usually means bye bye blog.

5. Fun
Honestly, for the majority of bloggers, blogging is a hobby. Sometimes a hobby that pays, but mostly a hobby. Hobbies are meant to be fun. Bloggers need to enjoy the whole process or things start to become a chore. Once they're a chore? Well then they aren't fun. Once blogging isn't fun, then it's bye bye blog.

6. Time
In my humble opinion, I think this is the big one. This is definitely the number one reason I see blogs die. I've said it before and I'll probably say it a hundred more times - Blogging is a time suck. Blogging is so time consuming. There is nothing quick about any piece of the blogging puzzle and typically you're "expected" to blog 3-5 times a week! I say "expected" because that's what a lot of bloggers do, but honestly, do whatever you want. I clearly do. I've seen blog after blog after blog end because they just don't have time for the whole blogging thing anymore. A blogger is getting married or having a baby or just got a new great job and suddenly Blogland becomes just a huge time suck and not much else.

These are my theories. I think that when a blogger ultimately decides it's time to say goodbye that it's a combination of all of the above. Even if you're a blogger and you aren't ready right now to say goodbye, I'm sure you've at least thought about it for one of those reasons or another. I know I have.

What do you think? Are there any more reasons that I missed? What's a blog you loved that has said goodbye? Are you as broken up about YoungHouseLove as I am? Because dude..

Let's Not Talk About It

Let's not talk about how I only blogged on Monday last week.

Let's not talk about how I didn't really feel like blogging today.

Let's talk about how I've had something on my mind, so I already wrote tomorrow's blog post.

Let's talk about how that means you'll for sure get at least 2 this week.

Let's not talk about how I just sneezed so hard my back cracked.

Let's not talk about how I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at ABC Family's 25 Days Of Christmas schedule and making my own color coded schedule for myself.

Let's talk about how I took zero pictures this weekend, except for Friday morning at my grandparent's house.

Let's talk about how Mike (Jonathan Banks) from Breaking Bad was at IU this weekend and my stepdad hung out with him during the entire football game and now they're besties.

..Actually, let's not talk about that.

Let's talk about how I personally know the photographer who took this picture of Jonathan Banks while he was at IU this weekend. I've known him since I was a tiny child and I house-sit/dog-sit for them when they go on vacation.

Let's not talk about how the most exciting thing in my life is what my stepdad did over the weekend.

Let's not talk about how I worked all weekend with a whole group of newbies, which meant I heard "Kristen, I need you" or "Kristen, can you help me" or "Kristen, how do I do this" or "Kristen, can you fix this" or just "KRISTEN!" every 30 seconds for 2 long work days in a row.

Let's talk about how I'm honestly not exaggerating.

Let's not talk about how exhausting that is.

Let's talk about how stupid it is that you have about a 6 hour window to eat an avocado when it's between not ripe and too ripe.

Let's not talk about how many avocados get thrown away at my apartment because I constantly miss the 6 hour window.

Let's talk about how I just took a selfie to procrastinate finishing this blog post.

KBye.

Nightmares On Oak Street

I wasn't going to blog about this today, because no one but myself is going to find amusement in it, but I'm so amused by it that I just have to. I have to.

Also I've been awake since 3:30am this morning, so that factors in. Guys, listen, I'm currently in a battle with myself, that I'm going to win, but it's going to take a few weeks of rough times. I'm battling my poor sleeping habits and my addiction to my snooze button at the same time. Which, admittedly, isn't my brightest idea. Ever since I wrote this post about not sleeping well, I've been working on this. Last week I was sick, so it kind of threw me off my game, but I'm back at it this week. It blows, but I'm pretty confident that it'll be worse before it gets better and then it'll be great. Or that's what I'm telling myself over and over again, especially this morning.

So today I'm gonna tell you about the 2 dreams I had yesterday, because they amuse me. They were less like dreams and more like nightmares, since they both woke me up.

First, yesterday morning I had a dream that I was sitting on my couch and I had decided to watch all of my DVR'd shows that I missed last week, which happened to be a lot of shows because of the sickness. So I clicked on my DVR and nothing. All of my shows had been deleted. My DVR is 35% full at the moment, so that's a lot of stuff that had been deleted that I wasn't ready to have deleted. And I was SO UPSET. In my dream I remember freaking out and trying to figure out where the shows went because I knew I didn't delete them and then I remember trying to figure out who could've deleted them. I forget a few things that happened at this point in my dream, but I basically went all CSI on it, and then I figured out, because apparently I had installed a security camera in my living room (????) that someone dressed all in black with black gloves and a black ski mask had broken in into my apartment while I was asleep on the couch, took the remote out of my hands, deleted my DVR, and left. Then I woke up, but I remember being way, WAY more upset that the intruder had deleted my DVR than the fact that he was an intruder. It was a lingering feeling, because even after I was awake I still felt upset.

**UPDATE: I wasn't going to add this part, because it just shows how truly ridiculous I am, however, you guys are my friends and you won't judge me too hard, right? Fuck it, feel free to judge. After I woke up, I went into my living room to check my DVR - just to make sure it wasn't real… **

That whole dream makes me LOL now.

Second, I took a nap yesterday. My quick 1 hour nap turned into a 3 hour nap by accident, because of course it did. I had a dream while I was napping that I was in some big house and for some reason I was helping someone take stuff up and down some stairs, but at the top of the stairs to get into the room you had to walk through like a curtain of that pink insulation. Do you know what I mean? Visual Aid:

Well it was like a really long, thick curtain of it, and you had to walk through it to get to the other side. Well in my dream I had walked through it several times, but this one last time I was walking through it and I tripped and fell down. But I feel into the curtain of insulation and it fell down with me. I got tangled up in it and couldn't get out and I started to suffocate and… Then I woke up. Panting. I woke up and my heart was pounding and I couldn't breathe and man, oh man!

So now I'm amused because I had two nightmares and I woke up really upset from both of them and yet they were totally different.

Someone who studies dreams should explain them to me.
Ready, go!

Benefits Matter - Aflac Open Enrollment

In the last 6 months I've mentioned a few times on the blog, okay I've mentioned several times, that I'll be turning 25 in January. I'm a little freaked. I'm also a little stressed. There's a lot that comes with this whole "getting older and growing up" thing. In the last year or two I've learned more real-life things that matter than ever before.

As you know I work in a CPA office, so every day I'm working on and surrounding myself with clients and taxes and accounting and a lot of other boring "adult" things. Because of this, in the last few years I have seen more and more people who are just completely unprepared for the unknown. Completely unprepared and in the dark about things that matter, such as health insurance and basic financial planning. More often than not, it's heartbreaking to watch.

Here's the thing about the unknown - you don't know anything about it. Scary, right?
Accidents happen.
Layoffs happen.
Sickness happens.
Natural disasters happen.
Emergencies happen.

They happen every day and I've seen them happen to clients and people I care about. The big difference-maker in all of the situations I've witnessed has been The Plan.

The Plan is having something set in place to protect yourself and your family in case something does happen. Because no one ever plans for a huge Emergency Room bill, but they happen! And they can be expensive! Don't let yourself become stuck in a finical situation that you have trouble getting out of, especially where there is help available to you!

Do you have the money right now to pay for an Emergency Room visit? Unfortunately, not many do, especially as Millennials. Most are One Emergency Away From Financial Disaster and the statistics are staggering. Fortunately, Aflac can help. Aflac has accident, dental, life, vision, cancer, hospital intensive car, and MORE insurance policies available to you. They're here to help. Aflac could be The Plan you have to fall back on when one of those bad life things happens.

I know financial planning isn't always fun, but I also know that having a health care plan in place could one day make all of the difference. Health care can be affordable AND still protect you. If you're already covered under health insurance, make sure you're aware of what exactly you are covered for. Those things matter! You have benefit choices, take advantage of them!

For tons and tons more information you can visit Aflac's website, Facebook page, or Twitter.
To also view some eye-opening statistics you have access to Aflac's 2014 Workforces Report. I spent over an hour looking through things and was blown away. Seriously. Millennials like myself need to read up on Open Enrollment so you can ask the right questions and get the right coverage.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Commercial Break

I have quite a few weird quirks and one of them is my love for commercials.

It's the weirdest thing and I have no idea where it came from, but I love commercials. I can even quote a large, large number of them. This quirk of mine drives my sister crazy. Probably because I send her links to commercials all the time and I'm always texting her like "did you see the commercial where.. " and I'm usually laughing hysterically. A commercial doesn't have to be funny for me to thinks it's funny.

So this morning as I resist the urge to send my sister these links to these commercials, I'm going to just share them here with you. Maybe you'll love my quirk a lot more than she does. The brat.

This commercial kills me. Killssssss meeeeeeee. "Let's hide behind the chainsaws!" I love horror movies, but I love to make fun of horror movies even more. Ya know?

I've seen this commercial about a billion times this week. So picture me saying "that's the stupidest thing I ever heard" just like the little boy does at the beginning. Picture me saying it over and over and over.. OH! And when the kid says "oui oui", HAHAHAH. It's not even that funny, but oh man.. tears of laughter.

This commercial.. Oh man. I saved the best for last. I actually texted my sister about this commercial earlier this week because I can't with this commercial. Not to be all #basicwhitegirl, but I can't even. First of all, the way he pets the frog with his pinky, LOL. Then when he pauses and says "I think we're on the same page.", LMAO. But when he makes the kiss noises to the frog? ROFL. I die.

Now I'm sitting here crying laughing at these commercials for no reason.
Okay, stick a fork in me, I'm done.
I'm a little sorry I made you guys read this, but also.. I'm not. Because ROFLMAO.

Rainy Days & Vacations

I mentioned this to someone on Twitter, but since I haven't participated yet, I wasn't sure everyone was aware, so I'm mentioning it here now. This month Melissa has a fun October Blogging Challenge going on and Helene and Tay have a Blogtober Challenge going on! Melissa's has a lot of Fall and Halloween prompts that I'm more than a little obsessed with and Helene and Tay's challenge has some broader, but still fun topics. They're also both really popular bloggers (for damn good reason), so if you're looking for exposure, linking up with them would be beneficial, I'm sure.

Because I'm still struggling to breathe and because I ended up with a killer sinus headache last night and ended up taking a 30 minute hot shower last night and then another 15 (okay, it was 20) minute hot shower this morning, I've decided to make today easy on myself and I'm going to do a little bit of both.

Melissa's prompt for today is "Rainy Day Ritual".

Well, I had to really think about this one, but I think the honest answer is that I don't have one. When I was growing up we never had a tradition or ritual that we did when it rained outside. In my family if things needed done, then they still needed done whether it was raining or not. My parents never let the rain stop them from getting things done. We always just worked around the rain. Occasionally when it would storm really hard my mom always seemed to declare that a deep cleaning day, so I guess I kind of still do that. Anytime we have major storms coming in I always do some kind of crazy cleaning.

For the most part though, I don't have a cute rainy day ritual where I curl up on the couch or always bake cookies or something. Nope. Instead I do whatever I was going to do anyway, because the rain can't hold me down, damnit! Right, Ma?!

#Blogtober14 prompt is your Best/Worst Vacation.

Oh man, oh man! I'm struggling with this prompt!

Honestly, I don't know if I've ever taken a vacation that I'd consider bad? At least I can't think of one. Okay, I just left this blog post to start getting ready and now I'm back and yea, I still can't think of a bad vacation. I didn't even know the words "worst" and "vacation" could even be added together.

Best vacations? Well, all of them! I could name a few of the absolute top vacations though.

First of all, Vegas this past July was fabulous. My sister and I are still talking about it and we both already want to find a way (read: funds) to get back. I knew I'd love it and I knew I'd have fun, but I had no idea how much I'd love that place. Ahhh, loved that vacation!

Second, anytime we go to New Smyrna Beach in Florida is the bomb. That's where my grandparents have a house and where we've gone since we were little kids. So all of those vacations are great, but last summer was the first time we had gone back in a few years and there were 9 of us that went including some of our friends and it was just so fun because it was such a big group and we all laughed so much and made some really great memories. Also my friend and I went to Harry Potter World, so obviously it was amazing. I also loved going to NSB this past June because it was just my mom, my stepdad, my little sister, and my little brother. So it was a lot more quiet and laid back and relaxing compared to last year and it was fabulous. It's really weird, but I actually like my family. Who knew?

Third, the summer after my senior year of high school and the August before all of us went off to college, a bunch of my friends and I drove to Chicago for a few days. This was the first time any of us had ever gone on a vacation without parents. It was just us 6 girls and we planned the entire thing ourselves and spent one whole day in Chicago wandering the streets downtown. Most of us have grown apart or fell apart, but I'll forever remember this vacation and how much fun we had. It was such a huge turning point for all of us and it was definitely the moment we all realized we weren't those high school kids anymore.

sorry for the poor picture quality, these chicago pictures are on my parent's computer and i had to have a friend send me this picture for this post!

So, TA DA! That's all I can accomplish this morning. I'm pretty sure I'm dying. BUT THE SHOW MUST GO ON!  Tuesday, I'm comin' for ya!

This Weekend Was A Cluster F..

This weekend was such a cluster F.

It was so ridiculous that I was in tears last night face timing a friend while discussing Friday-Sunday. Tears of laughter that is.

Friday night some friends and I went out to a bar to see this band that always comes to town. See, we live in a college town, so we always have a lot of different kinds of bands and musicians and DJs and things coming through town. Well this band wears tight, tight shirts and the shortest shorts they can find and they always have a stuffed tiger and bear on stage with them. They sing the most random and ridiculous songs including Under The Sea, Build Me Up Buttercup, and old cartoon theme songs. They have this whole thing where they say it's time to "hydrate" and you raise you drink and they play the Super Mario Brothers' song and you chug the whole time it's being played.

during the "hydrate" song

Anyway, they are a fan favorite. It's always packed when they're playing because it's always guaranteed to be a good time. These guys are good-looking, 20-somethings that don't take themselves too seriously, they're absolutely hilarious, and they get absolutely hammered right along with you.

just happened to find this picture on the band's Facebook. we're in the circle, hah! 

Sometimes a packed bar isn't that fun though and Friday night it was not fun. We almost had a situation where one of my friends was about to dump her drink on the girl in front of us. I don't think she'd actually ever do that, but I also didn't want to take any chances. So we left and went somewhere else.

At the next bar we ran into another friend's boyfriend, where he ended up telling us that they were "taking a break". He assumed we knew, but we had no idea, so we were totally blindsided by that little piece of information. I was playing DD, and my friend that rode with me and I decided that was our cue to go home for the night.

Saturday didn't get much better.
First, my power went out sometime in the middle of the night. This caused 2 things to happen. My phone died, because it wasn't on a charger, and my alarm clock didn't go off. I ended up being only 10ish minutes late to work the IU football game, but I had to get ready in the dark, quickly. I wasn't looking my best is what I'm trying to say. Also it was freezing at the game and I was shaking most of the day from the cold.

Oh, but then things just got so much better. During the IU football game I had to fill out my first ever incident report because someone under my watch sliced her hand and needed stitches. I had to call the EMT's and get the paper work and sanitize everything she touched and it was just a disaster.

Sunday, you ask?
I think it was a combination of being outside in the cold weather and wind for 9 hours on Saturday and my allergies that have decided to kick my ass this year, but I woke up not being able to breathe on Sunday morning. I honestly had a lot I needed to get done yesterday, but most of it just didn't happen. I went to my dad's house to pick up the Sunday paper ads (that he never uses and always let's me have for the coupons), I went to the store for a few essentials (24 eggs for $3, so if you need me i'll be eating eggs for every meal the next week. oh and grapes for 99 cents, holla!), and then to CVS for some MucinexDM.

Speaking of Mucinex, I swear by this stuff. I tell everyone to get it, all the time.

Then I tried to come home and be productive. I think I managed do the dishes and half-ass clean my bathroom, but that's about it. I can not breathe! I'm a total mouth breather right now and I was miserable. I spent the rest of the day yesterday taking a nap, trying to sleep some of this sickness off, and watching beauty videos on YouTube. Fun Fact about me: I watch a lot of makeup and hair tutorials on YouTube. It's an addiction.

If you need me today I'll just be sitting here at working, blowing my nose.
Happy Monday, folks!

Blogging Is A Time-Suck

Blogging is a huge time-suck.
If you're a blogger, then I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
If you're not a blogger, then just trust me, blogging takes up a lot of time.

That's definitely the number one thing I didn't know about blogging before I got into it. I had no idea how much time was involved in being a blogger. From brainstorming posts, to writing posts, to editing pictures, to publishing, to social media, to responding to emails, to reading other blogs, to commenting on other blogs, and to all of the other stuff, it's all just so time consuming.

So, I honestly don't know why I love it so much.
But I do, I love blogging. Anytime I tell someone in my real life that I blog the first thing I always say is that I can't believe how much I actually love it. I've learned so much from blogging and from other bloggers. I've figured out and learned so many things about myself through this blog. I'm thankful for it and I can't give it up.

But, it is very time-consuming. When I look back to the time before I started blogging, I realize how much free time I had. I've been struggling lately with my time management and I am trying to find a balance. 1st step was admitting I had a problem and the 2nd step was admitting I can't do it all. I'm working on the 3rd step now, but I'm not totally sure what the 3rd step is. Go figure.

Anyway, because I had nothing of real substance to write about today in the 20 minutes I have to get this post together, I'm going to talk about something that irritated me last night.

I saw another commercial for that new Nicholas Sparks movie The Best Of Me. I now feel the need to rant about it.

First of all, I'm definitely one of "those girls" and I love Nicholas Sparks. I have read almost all of his books and I've definitely seen all of his movies. When The Best of Me was first released, I had pre-ordered the book 4 months before. So when the book finally downloaded on my Nook, I read it that day.

Here's my issue, about 4 or 5 chapters before the end, I had completely figure out how it was going to end - and I was pissed. I finished the book in tears, but most of them were angry tears. I was so angry with that ending that it ruined the entire book for me. The whole thing. I'm a big re-reader, as in I'll re-read a book a hundred times if I liked it, but I refuse to re-read The Best Of Me. Actually I deleted it from my Nook. Anyone who has asked me about that book I've told them how much I hated it.

So needless to say, I have zero intentions of watching this movie. The only way I might see it is if I hear that it's been totally changed from the book. For the first time in my life I'm hoping that the movie is better than the book. I've never disliked a book so much.
I'm just throwing this out there in case you also have to suffer through the damn commercials on TV ever commercial break about that stupid movie. I ignore it as much as possible every single time.

And with that, Happy Friday!