nostalgia.

i've been going pretty nuts with nostalgia lately.  it all started when i was putting together a recent "four things friday" post about places i have visited.  i started going through the pictures i have saved on my laptop, photobucket accounts, flickr, facebook, livejournal...  it made me so nostalgic for my late teens/20s when i was in-between responsibilities and could take a week off and follow my favorite band for a handful of tour stops or the time i spent updating the pretty popular website i ran for my favorite band.  i spent hours chatting with my friends on aol instant messenger, had weekend-long sleepovers with girlfriends, etc.

i also did one of those photo a day for a year challenges during grad school, which prompted to take me so many more pictures of my daily life that i'm so glad i have - no matter how odd the pictures were.  i lived alone in my grandpa's townhouse for the majority of my two years of grad school and oh lord, i sure found ways to entertain myself!  i am so glad i have those pictures because i think remembering your day to day is just as important as remembering big events.  maybe in 5 years time i'll read through the archives on this blog be reminded of where i was in my social work career or what i was doing certain days (i can still look back through my posts and remember exactly what i was doing based on what i was wearing).  i'm sure i'll also remember the good friends that developed through this hobby!

do you like reminiscing about the past or does it make you sad that those days are over?

here are a few fun memories i came across...

{painting a banner to hang on the balcony at a hanson concert in 2005}

{i was selected as the reporter for a hanson concert and got to interview them!}

{playing mah jong in my college apartment in 2005}

{a friend & i hanging on the tour bus with bryce from the rocket summer}

{a rare icy/snowy day in georgia in 2005}

{last moments with my cat musa before i moved to minnesota in 2007}

{this is one of the ways i found to entertain myself when i lived alone during grad school...}

{raspberry picking in 2008}

{a january stroll in 2009}

{my cat & i needed a lot of fresh air after winter ended in 2009}

{this picture is like, what the what, right?  with the all-american rejects in 2009}

{passing my social work licensure exam; this was such a big day for me!}

okay, enough reminiscing from me!  thanks for letting me share some of these memories i stumbled across :)  back to another "four things friday" post (with more pictures, i am sure) tomorrow!

20 things!

i had to jump on the bandwagon and do one of these video posts of "20 things that you may not know about me" after my pal kate at a journey in style tagged me.  i'm always looking for opportunities to have blog posts basically written for me and to share more of myself with you all, so i figured why not do so in embarrassing video form.  you'll have to forgive me if i don't list out the questions and the time stamp for each one but watching this video once was enough to suffer through myself and i didn't want to watch it again to write down the times, so now i'm going to make you suffer through it as well, heh heh heh... enjoy!! 

(here is the link if the embed doesn't work... again!)

a couple things... 

> when my eyes keep going to the left i'm looking at the time wondering how the heck i am talking so long!! 

> links: gleeful peacock 

> i'd love to see caroline at tasteful style & alice at happiness at mid-life answer these questions, either in written or video form!

golden blog award.

my friend jess at j's style recently nominated me for the golden blogger award, and since i haven't done a post like this in a while i thought i would participate!

the rules:

• either use the award logo in the post or create your own
• link to whoever nominated you
• write 10 facts about yourself
• nominate bloggers
• tell the bloggers so they know they've been nominated!

here are my ten facts:

01 / even though i love sharing my thrifted finds here on my blog, i hesitate to tell people in real life how much i love thrifting, especially coworkers.  there's always a line at the door before the goodwill opens on sunday mornings so hey, people here like to thrift, but sometimes i still think the general public may have a skewed opinion of shopping secondhand. 

02 / i used to journal in a major way... like, nearly every day, pages & pages.  maybe i just had more emotions soaring through my veins or events to talk about in high school through college (okay, yeah, that's probably true), but now i can barely write a couple lines in my five year diary.

03 / i thought it was a silly joke when i first learned about it around seven years ago, but now i'm obsessed with the secret.  i don't know that i am that good at putting its methods into practice, but i'm always thinking about it... so actually, maybe just by doing that i am?

04 / i always brought my lunch to school (elementary school through college) and i've continued doing so since i've become a working adult lady so i guess you could say i've eaten the same meal for lunch for nearly my entire life: a sandwich and crackers.  it only took about twenty years to get tired of eating so much processed lunch meat and sandwich bread, so now i now spread hummus on a tortilla and layer on sliced cucumber, shredded carrot, lettuce, and shredded cheese.  as for crackers, i eat a lot of cheez-its and pretzel crisps.

05 / when i print, i never dot my i's or my j's.  this must have started sometime in middle school?  surprisingly, i don't recall any of my teachers ever having anything negative to say about it.

06 / aren't you always kind of curious about what kind of cars other people drive?  i used to have a little two door silver honda civic, but after it was stolen i bought myself a honda cr-v.  i hope i never have to go through either of those situations again (having my car stolen or trying to negotiate with a used car salesman) because i really didn't come out ahead in either situation!

07 / i don't care so much about traveling overseas, but i worry that there are parts of the united states i will never visit.  it just seems a shame to stay in my bubble for my entire life and never experience driving down the pacific coast highway in california, looking across the grand canyon, or seeing a fish get thrown across pike place market.  can you tell i want to visit the west coast?

08 / this probably correlates with #7, but i love following instagrams that show me other parts of the world and amazing photography.  my favorites that i've discovered so far are beautifulplanett, sweatengine, and benlowy. 

09 /  i am positively certain i will never get sick of listening to the following songs:  "some nights" by fun., "royals" by lorde, and "diane young" by vampire weekend -- sometimes i put "diane young" on repeat and listen to it my entire commute.

10 / i kind of used to be a library-hater because i wanted to own all the books i read but i've recently been converted because my two bookshelves are more than full.  the last books i checked out were: the interestings by meg wolitzer (kind of amazing) and how to say it to seniors by david solie (i won't bore you guys with a book review of that one unless you have an aging relative/friend/coworker/neighbor and need to consult!).

phew!  if only you knew how long it took me to write this post -- why is it so hard to come up with ten facts about myself?!  either way, i hope you made it this far and enjoyed learning a little more about me.  i've seen this going around a lot so if you're interested i think anyone should just do it!

wednesday.

here's fact two of my week-long facts to help you get to know me!

#2: i'm a social worker
i realize now that my post from yesterday may have come across as though my favorite band rules my life, but my career as a social worker actually (usually... there's paid time off for a reason...) takes precedence.  i have a masters degree in social work and my job is to support older adults to remain living successfully and independently in the community.  i also provide care coordination to some members of a state-wide health plan.  i was blessed to find a part-time job in my field six months after completing grad school, and through some pretty early-on networking i landed a second part-time position that went full-time a couple months ago.  i work in a small, but close-knit office with four amazing women.  i would love to talk more about  my career in the future if anyone expresses an interest in learning more about my field.  until then, here's a nice segue into what i wore to work today:






cardigan: merona
white cami: old navy
black belt: merona
navy skirt: banana republic
black heels: unlisted

i started doubting this outfit after i glanced at myself in the bathroom mirror a couple times today, so it felt good when one of my coworkers said how nicely i looked!  she asked if the skirt was new and i stated that it wasn't... new to me, yes, but actually my entire outfit is from the goodwill except the white cami!