Goodbye to Life Of A Blogger

Some of you may have noticed a particular feature missing from my blog these last few weeks. The Life Of A Blogger meme has officially ended. Jessi at Novel Heartbeats has decided to stop running this meme, a decision I cannot help but agreeing with. You can read what she has to say here, but basically the interest has dwindled. My own posts have been rather lackluster for the past month or two of the meme. I couldn’t really muster up the enthusiasm for the recent topics as I could for the ones in the beginning and it’s a bit of a relief to not have to try to write a post about something I don’t have much to say about, if I’m being completely honest.

As this meme draws to a close, I find myself feeling sentimental. I have been doing that meme almost since the start of this blog. Jessi started it up just a few weeks after I made the decision to start blogging and I jumped on it. When you first start blogging, you look for things to help fill in your days and this meme was perfect thing for me. A day with the explicit excuse to discuss music or movies or whatever else prompted by the meme? Bring it on. But now it’s over and I’m a little saddened by that. I’ve been thinking about picking up another meme, but I seem to have enough content that I don’t need to do a new one. And some of them seem like a lot of work. Top Ten Tuesdays are so much effort and I don’t think I could ever narrow down a list of anything literary to a mere 10 items. Waiting On Wednesday is a possibility, but I just don’t know right now.

Regardless of all my ramblings, I want to thank Jessi for running a great meme. It was a wonderful year and a half and I truly enjoyed not only sharing my posts but reading everyone else’s. Scheduling posts for Thursdays will feel weird for months without this to fill that space!

Life Of A Blogger #5

Weekly feature created by Jessi at Novel Heartbeats to discuss one non-bookish topic per week. For more information about this feature click here?

This week’s topic: Significant Others

This adorable mug face belongs to my husband, Russell. He’s so fucking sweet that there aren’t words. You know that saying “nice guys always lose”? Well, he disproves it. He’s the nicest guy I know and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He’s likes to read, though he isn’t as obsessive about it as I am, and video games. He’s a nerd to the core, thoroughly enjoying Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. He shares my love of loud rock music, though has lately been going pop-ish with an obsession with AWOLnation and Imagine Dragons. I’ll spare you the long details and break things down into short, digestible pieces.

The Beginning
My best friend basically forced him on me. She kept pushing and pushing and pushing, with little “hints” like he’s taller than you and he plays DDR (which I was OBSESSED with for a while) and so on until I finally gave in. It’s really completely unromantic, but I remember distinctly thinking I’d give it a try because if I hated him we could just breakup later. So on December 28, 2005, I agreed to date him. He was so terribly nervous that he kept repeating himself. It was a bit annoying, but completely adorable. We had more in common than I realized and soon became inseparable.

The Middle
We dated for a year and a half until I graduated from high school and then moved in together, both working part-time jobs to pay rent. It was difficult, but great. We lived in this itty bitty one bedroom house. We vaguely discussed the possibility of marriage, but never settled on anything. We lived pretty contently in that situation for well over a year. Then, sometime in February 2009 (I believe on the 16th, but I’m not positive), Russell proposed. He took me to my favorite restaurant and got down on one knee and asked for my hand in marriage. It was nothing like the movies, I don’t think anyone even noticed because it was over so quickly.

The Wedding
On Friday, May 13, 2011, we got married. Yes, the Friday the 13th thing was intentional. It was a fairly small ceremony in a gazebo at a local park. I was in my poofy white dress and he looked dashing in his tux and it was absolutely perfect. I worked so hard on that day, planning and paying for everything myself and when it all went rather smoothly. It was supposed to rain, but turned out to be sunny and warm.

The Happily Ever After
We’re still working on that. No plans for kids in the immediate future, just wanting to finish up school before we start that chapter. We are just trying to work and save and be the ridiculously happy couple that we always have been. I can’t imagine my life without him. 🙂

Now, for a few more photos! I’ll spare you the really old ones where he actually had a curly afro….not his most attractive look, but I swear it happened!

Life Of A Blogger #4

Weekly feature created by Jessi at Novel Heartbeats to discuss one non-bookish topic per week. For more information about this feature click here?

This week’s topic: TV Shows

That’s a big subject! I used to be one of those people who tuned in every night to watch one show or another, but not anymore. I don’t make time to watch live for a combination of reasons, but the main one is I hate cliffhangers and episode to episode ones make me cranky. I also like to buy the seasons on DVD and then binge on them. To make this simplier, I’ll break this into two categories: live action and cartoon.
Live action
~ Veronica Mars – The fact that they is going to be a movie had me high for days. Veronica is that snarky kickass heroine we all sort of want to be because of her sleuthing prowess. Not to mention, if we are Veronica, we can be with Logan and DUDE, who doesn’t want that? I completely ignore the Piz bullshit of Season 3. Actually, I ignore season 3 in general because it was a bit of a letdown. Season 1 is probably my favorite. I love Logan.

~ Gilmore Girls – Does this really need explaining? Lorelei & Rory? Best mother-daughter relationship ever? Enough pop-media references to keep everyone fangirling? Not to mention the whole Luke and Lorelei romance. They are so different, but somehow it works anyway. Then there is Jesse, who Rory *should* have ended up with. Not to mention Rory herself, with that obsessive love of books! Hello? Pretty, socially comfortable girl who genuinely loves to read? I’m so there.

~ Once Upon A Time – Again, does this really need explaining? A new twist on fairy-tales every week, with Rumplestitstkin (sp?) fucking with everyone’s head? I loved that they made him the Beast, it was absolutely perfect.

~ White Collar – Two words: Matt Bomer. He is probably the prettiest guy ever. If that wasn’t enough, this show is all about a criminal working with the FBI to catch other white collar criminals. If you’ve seen the movie Catch Me If You Can, it’s something similar to that. It’s always got an interesting twist, keeping poor Neal out of prison just by the skin of his teeth.

~ Dead Like Me – Very short lived Showtime series. It’s about George, a girl who gets hit by a flying toilet seat (seriously) causing her to die whereupon she becomes a grim reaper. What makes this show awesome, besides the gruesome hilarious deaths, is everyone’s attitude. George is such as smartass that I can’t help relate. She’s pissed off about her lot in life (or afterlife) and she isn’t afraid to rant about it.

~ The Big Bang Theory – Sheldon people, SHELDON! It’s so smart and so dumb at the same time. There just aren’t words.

~ Castle – Nathan Fillion! It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s steamy. It’s all I could want in a show. Plus, I love Castle’s relationship with his daughter. So weird and sweet.

~ Supernatural: Seasons 1 – 4 – I love the beginning. I even adore Castiel, but somewhere in the last couple seasons they have lost the magic. They are now less funny episodes and more serious ones. Not to mention, they have killed and resurrected Sam & Dean so many times that I’ve lost count. And they killed Bobby, which was beyond unacceptable.

~ The Vampire Diaries – I debated on listing this one. I know everyone is in love with it, but I kinda have a love/hate thing going. I LOVED the original book series and they have butchered that shit beyond repair. Elena alone is so entirely different, and not necessarily in a good way. It’s so much drama and so over the top and they keep fucking killing people, but I just can’t stop. I blame Ian Somerhalder and his pretty face. Despite the changes they made to Damon, I still think he is the perfect Damon…except that “I miss my humanity” bullshit. Hell no, the real Damon LOVES being a vampire. He wants Elena to be his Princess of Darkness. ::swoons::

~ Community – Recent obsession. How can you not love a show that does this in the beginning:
“What makes humans different from other animals? We’re the only species on earth that observes Shark Week. Sharks don’t even observe Shark Week, but we do. For the same reason I can pick up this pencil, tell you it’s name is Steve and go like this ::breaks pencil:: and part of you dies just a little bit on the inside. Because people can connect with anything.” Seriously, that was in the first episode and I’ve been obsessed ever since.

Cartoon
~ Daria – How can you not love Daria? She’s so cynical and sarcastic as was seriously my role model when I was in high school. Well, her and Katarina Stratford from 10 Things I Hate About You (the movie, not that horrid show).

~ The Animaniacs – Hands down, best kids show ever. I can’t put that awesomeness into words. If you haven’t seen it, remedy that.

~ Batman Beyond – I love (almost) all incarnations of Batman, but this has to be my favorite. Terry McGinis taking over for Bruce when Bruce gets too old to keep kicking ass and taking names. I loved how dark it was and Will Friedle’s voice action is amazing.

~ Courage: The Cowardly Dog – MURIAL! Poor guy, just wants to keep his owner safe and she just walks straight into danger every time.

~ The Powerpuff Girls – Saving The World before bedtime

~ Invader Zim – This one has a bit of a cult following, but it is pretty awesome. GIR is so fucking adorable, how can you not love him?

~ Dexter’s Laboratory – If you don’t know why this is awesome, I can’t help you.

~ Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends – It’s Bloo! And Cheese! And Eduardo! It’s a show where imaginary friends are real and you can actually adopt one someone else has outgrown instead of creating a new one!

~ My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic – A friend of mine forced suggested I watch this and I’ll admit I was mildly curious before because of the monstrous amount of gifs I see from it all over the interwebs. Dude. There are some episodes that are a bit over the top kiddie, but there are some that are downright hilarious. Not to mention, the first character you meet is a book obsessed unicorn who would rather study in her library than make friends!

I’m sure there are many more, but those are the only ones coming to mind. Do like my shows? Have any suggestions for something new I might obsess over? Let me know in the comments!

Life Of A Blogger #3

Weekly feature created by Jessi at Novel Heartbeats to discuss one non-bookish topic per week. For more information about this feature click here?

This week’s topic: Career

Okay, so this is a bit of a difficult topic for me. Career implies that I know what I want to do with my life and I don’t have a fucking clue. For the past 5 years, I have worked for a company that sells and rents storage containers. We also deliver our containers and do deliveries, pickups, and moves for other container retailers in the area. I started out as the receptionist, just answering the phone and mailing invoices, and anything else the owner required of me. Now, I am also the dispatcher. I schedule and manage the driver’s day to day activity, doing everything from inputting the job orders to assigning jobs to handling any issues they have while onsite. I do the dispatch on top of my other responsibilities. Mostly, I enjoy it. Scheduling jobs is pretty simple, once you get used to it, but some days the problems we encounter are too much. I’ll have days where things go smoothly and then days where every single driver has issues and I have to call customers and explain that, yes we agreed to deliver/pickup/move your container today, but due to technical difficulties, we will not be able to. I hate those days. I hate dealing with irate customers.

I enjoy my job, most days, but I don’t know if it’s were I want to spend the rest of my life. What I want to do with my life has always escaped me. I truly enjoyed learning about psychology while I was in high school, but a career in psychology implies a job helping people and I’m not people friendly. I’m more than a little awkward around people and find I have little to no sympathy or empathy for them. It’s funny because I can become very attached to fictional characters in books or movies or shows, but real live people escape me. So psychology is out. Obviously I have a passion for books, but I’m terrified to turn that into a career. I don’t want to turn my passion into something I’m forced to do, if that makes sense. I’m terrified if I turn reading into working that I won’t enjoy it as much. I put serious thought into trying to open a bookstore. I even enrolled in my local community college with business classes, that I’m still taking, to learn more about how to do that. The problem? The more I learn about the responsibilities of owning a business, the less I want to do it. One of the bigger hurdles is the amount of money it would take to start a bookstore from scratch and keep it up and running until it became profitable, if it became profitable. I don’t have a rich uncle hiding in the woodwork, so even getting part of the money would be a problem. Then the day to day of dealing with all the problems doesn’t sound like my particular brand of fun.

I’m starting to think accounting may be the answer. I had to take an accounting class this semester as part of the business degree program and, surprisingly enough, I have really enjoyed it. I’m not sure what I’d do in the accounting field, but I’m going to look into it and see what I find.

What is your day job? Do you enjoy it?

Life Of A Blogger #1

Weekly feature created by Jessi at Novel Heartbeats to discuss one non-bookish topic per week. For more information about this feature click here?

This week’s topic: Favorite bands

I’m a big music junkie and picking my top five was exceedingly difficult. It’s like asking me to pick my top 5 favorite books. There are too many amazing bands out there to limit yourself to just five, but I’ll do my best. I’ll admit compiling this list did make me feel quite a bit like Rob Gordon, bonus points to anyone who understands that reference. But here it is, my top five bands, in no particular order, are as follows.

Name: Sick Puppies
Favorite song: Too Many Words
Favorite album: Dressed Up As Life
Explanation: I’ve been in love with SP since the first time I heard All The Same. Shim has a gorgeous voice (and the face to match) and always manages to wow me. Then I saw them in concert and if I wasn’t a goner before, I definitely was after. How can you not love a band that takes an early 2000’s pop song, puts it too wailing guitars and adds cursing just for effect? They performed their version of Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name and I was obsessed. In concert, they are just full of energy and they are always so grateful to the fans, making a point to stay after any show and give autographs. Oh, and don’t forget that tempting Australian accent. 😉

Name: 3 Doors Down
Favorite song: Changes
Favorite album: Seventeen Days
Explanation: These guys will always (always always always) be on my top list because they were the first rock band I truly loved. I was in my early teens and had copied a friends The Better Life cd (shame on me, I know) just because I liked Be Like That, which is still one of my favorite songs. I was just letting it play in the background when a song called Down Poison played and I was enraptured. So THIS is why people were obsessed with rock music. In that one simple moment, I completely understood and I’ve been following their music ever since. There is just something so realistic about their lyrics. It got me through my teenage years, helping me feel like maybe I wasn’t so alone.

Name: Seether
Favorite song: Fine Again
Favorite album: Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray
Explanation: Is there anyone who can’t relate to Fine Again? That feeling when everything’s shit, but you’ve just got to keep going because it’ll get better, but you aren’t really sure that it will? They have a talent for writing angsty songs that appeal to the masses, but still manage to have enough humor to produce Fake It and Country Song. I’m vaguely toyed with the idea of getting one of their lyrics as a tattoo, but can never settle on which one.

Name: Marianas Trench
Favorite song: tie between Cross My Heart & Ever After
Favorite album: Masterpiece Theatre
Explanation: These goofy guys are a recent discovery for me. They have that perfect blend of rock and pop that I cannot seem to resist. They is no logical explanation, but I just love their upbeat sound.

Name: Evans Blue
Favorite song: Dark That Follows
Favorite album: The Melody And The Energetic Nature Of Volume
Explanation: In the beginning, what drew me to EB was their incredibly unique sound. Kevin Matisyn’s lyrics were…well lyrical. They had this beautiful poetic quality that I haven’t found anywhere since. Yes, I am aware that he created a new band after leaving EB, but it’s just not the same. Parabelle has a definite unfinished feel to their songs that I can’t get over, though Eternity’s Behind 4 Hours is great. Even after the lead singer change over, they are still awesome. Dan Chandler’s lyrics are great in their own right, even if they don’t quite measure up to Matisyn’s and you’ve got to hand it to the other members for refusing to quit.

Those are the top five, but I’ve got an few honorable mention. They didn’t quite make the list, but it was hard as hell to cut them.

Name: The Pretty Reckless
Favorite song: Cold Blooded
Favorite album: Light Me Up
Explanation: I realize that this band is mostly successful because to Taylor Momsen’s sex appeal, but I love her voice. Plus that have some pretty epic guitar riffs.

What do you think? Am I crazy for loving these bands? Do you love them too? If not, then who do you love? Let me know in the comments!