Yummo!

Know what I love most about my year-long blog adventure?  It's forcing me to at least once a week try something new.  Even if it is something that I don't like, at least I'm making efforts to spice up my life and make it just a little more interesting!  There is nothing better than living life in an exciting, enriched way.  The things I have done so far this year may not seem like much, but even the smallest changes have made me so excited about my life!  Its even better when I have a blog and people to share this excitement with.

Well, my challenge for last week was to "order food I had never tried before."  This didn't seem too difficult, as I am always pretty adventurous with my dining (minus really spicy food and odd body parts of animals.)  Also, I knew that I was going on a date to a new restaurant I had never been to before.  Remember the date-ditcher from blog post #1?  Yes, the one that cancelled on me an hour before.  He asked me out again, and because I believe in second chances, I gave him another shot.  Best decision I could have made, not only because he is a great guy, but the food we ate that night was beyond blog-worthy!

He took me to a place called Blue Koi.  He asked me what my favorite food was, and since it's Chinese he suggested this restaurant.  It was great!  To begin with, I'm a sucker for a man who knows how to order food, but he blew me away!  He offered friendly suggestions of appetizers, fun bubble tea drinks, and even offered to split two different entrees so I could try them both. 

Here is what we ordered (all of which were new experiences for me):

Bubble Teas

Crispy Tofu with Awesome Sauce (which is truly AWESOME)

Pan Fried Pork Dumplings

Firebird Chicken--it was sooo spicy, but so good!

Blue Koi didn't have the duck entree that we ordered on their website, so to follow suit, here is a picture of a duck.  Hey, I'm sure the duck we ate looked like this at some point in his life...

All of these new foods were sooo yummy!  They even made great leftovers...twice.  I would really like to continue my adventurous spirit throughout the year and order new things, even at places I eat at regularly. 

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I'm giving myself four stars for my week of ordering new food!  I would give myself five, but my report out is way late so that resulted in a one-star deduction.  Thank you date-ditcher-turned-out-great-guy for an awesome new dining experience! 

This week, the theme of my life comes from Kathleen's "Pointers for Purposeful Change," and I am going to spend time with the people who make me laugh.  I am very excited for what I will be doing in my next post. 

Thanks for reading this week, and here is my song of the week:

"Snails" by The Format 

Making Lists

Well, I'm two days late this week.  It usually wouldn't be a big deal, except my New Year's resolution is to be on time so I'm a little disappointed in myself.  Oh well, here is my blog about making a list.

At the end of my last post, I noted that I didn't know what kind of list I wanted to make; that I would just let it happen and see what the week brought me.  Now let me tell you, this has been a week FULL of lists!  This week I made a grocery list, a list of things I wanted to work on in my apartment, made a list of personal goals for my job, started a list of goals for the accounts I manage, I even made a list of friends/family that I have been neglecting and I need to call/call back!  However, when it came to making a blog-worthy list that I thought would interest all of you, it was very difficult.  I started to make a real "wish-list" of things that I hope to accomplish/do, such as ride in a hot air balloon and go visit Portland and Boston and all the other cities I have yet to see.  It quickly became a bucket list, and that's not something I want to put on my blog--too unoriginal. 

Thankfully, my dad came to the rescue today.  My dad is VERY smart man.  Although I don't give him as much credit as he usually deserves, he has always known exactly what to say to help get me out of the heartbreaks and sticky situations I've faced in my life. 

He sent me an email this morning, and at first I wrote it off.  I mean, in the title it said "Please Read--DO NOT Delete!"  You can be sure that I'm not a fan of chain emails.  However, this afternoon I gave it a read and it was EXACTLY what I needed.  An amazing list!  It had some great advice, some of which I really needed to hear this week.  Thanks, Dad!  Here it is:

Feng Sui

1)      Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.  

2)      Marry a man you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other. 

3)      Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want. 

4)      When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.  

5)      When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye. 

6)      Be engaged at least six months before you get married. 

7)      Believe in love at first sight.  

8)      Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.  

9)      Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.  

10)  In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.  

11)  Don't judge people by their relatives.  

12)  Talk slowly, but think quickly.

13)  When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'   

14)  Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

15)  Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.  

16)  When you lose, don't lose the lesson.  

17)  Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.  

18)  Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.  

19)  When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.  

20)  Smile when picking up the phone.  The caller will hear it in your voice.  

21)  Spend some time alone. 

Yep, a list of ways to live your life through Feng Sui.  Great list, right???  So this week I'm giving my successes to my dad, and I'm giving him FIVE STARS!

Check back in on Monday to see what I have to say about my experiences ordering food I've never tried before, from Kathleen's "Pointers for Purposeful Change" list. 

Song of the Week:  "Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root

Holding Myself Accountable: A Week of No Complaining

Well, this week was a learning week.  The task I set before myself was to go a week without complaining, and that was not as easy as I was expecting.

It's funny how setting goals for yourself and monitoring the actions you take can really make you aware of your faults  more interesting traits.  I've always deemed myself as an optimist, one who truly believes that complaining doesn't accomplish anything so why do it?  Turns out I'm more of a whiner than I ever imagined.  Not to mention the things I choose to whine about are just plain silly!  This will definitely be a work in progress, as it is something I would like to improve.  I would like to challenge you to pick a personality trait that you have that maybe you aren't the most proud of--spend a week monitoring yourself and try to make a difference!  It's very rewarding.

Okay, so before I reveal my goal for next week I would like to implement a new idea into Just My Type.  At the end of each week, as I blog about my successes and challenges, I am going to rate myself on how well I did.  One, this will help track my progress, and two, will help me hold myself accountable for my actions.

This week I am giving myself:

Two stars.  Why only two you ask?  Well, I do believe I made a genuine effort to decrease my complaining, but I can do much better.  "And a wish," you ask? Well thank you Google Image Search for giving me this picture, because it has to do with my post for next week!

My challenge for next week is from Kathleen's "Adding Joy to Life."  I am going to make a wish list!  I haven't decided yet if it is going to be a wishlist for 2012, for my life, or maybe it will be what I want my future husband to be like.  We'll see what this week holds for me.  Until then, thanks for reading and I will leave you with a song of the week that I have personally been playing on repeat this week.

"Beautiful Mess" by Jason Mraz

Week One: Taking Control

Well, I'm officially a week into my blog-venture and things seem to be moving pretty steadily.  In an effort to take control over my life, my first mission for the year was one of Kathleen's tips: "Get rid of stuff you don't want or need."  I thought this was going to be easy for me--but I was very wrong. 

I live in a two-bedroom apartment and since moving into the place in October, I've settled in really well and have most of my things unpacked.  However, the second bedroom is still full of a bunch of random stuff.  My plan was to completely clean up the room...get rid of the useless crap that is taking up space, organize my thousands of pictures I just have sitting around in boxes, sell/donate things that I am not making use of...ugh, talk about overwhelming.  While I spent probably a total of 10 hours working on this project throughout the week and I was able to throw away five boxes/trashbags of stuff I didn't need, I have yet to make up more than one box of things to donate.  It was a good jumpstart to my year, however, and will definitely be an ongoing project.  Before and after pictures coming soon.

Regardless of whether or not I was successful in cleaning up my old crap, I did learn a few lessons in taking control of my life--and THAT is what this year is all about!  This week I have reminded myself of a lesson I learned back in high school.  No one can make me feel anything.  I choose my own emotions, regardless of the action that inspired them.  There were a few times this week that I was reminded of this but here's one specific example: I had plans to go out on a date for drinks with a friend of my co-worker.  An hour before the date, I got the dreaded, "I really hate to do this, but..." text.  Got the message as I was mid-curl doing my hair.  Ugh.  The emotions that you feel right after being ditched for a date are terrible!  Not to mention the hit to your pride when you have to tell your friends, who knew how excited you were for said date.

However, the next day (yesterday) I reminded myself of the great lesson, which also comes in the form of the famous quote "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent," and I knew it would be great blog-material.  Just because one random guy decides I'm not worth a date, doesn't warrant me to think less of myself or feel defeated.  I am taking control and it feels good!

Keeping my blog in mind every day is a bit of a blessing in disguise.  I love how already it turned from cleaning up my apartment to loving myself more and more! 

This week, my blog-venture takes a great turn as I jump to one of Passanisi's Pointers for Purposeful Change: "Go One Day Without Complaining." However, I will make this a weekly challenge and see what blog-worthy life stories it brings me for next week! 

Song of the Week: "Domino" by Jessie J

A New Blogventure: Adding Joy and Making Purposeful Change

I love my life.  I have a good family, job that I love, and friends that mean the world to me.  I live in an apartment in my favorite city, drive a reliable car, and have enough money each month to pay my bills, get groceries, and have a little fun on the side.  I am an incurable optimist to begin with, but I'd say I'm very blessed.  Although I am very satisfied with who I am, I will always believe that every small change made to improve my health, perspective on life, and overall happiness can make a huge difference.  Which brings me to the purpose of this post...

For the past few months since I got this blog, I've been looking for my niche--something I could blog about on a regular basis that is actually interesting and attracts the bloggers out there to come back week after week.  Have you ever heard the term, "go 100 mph for 100 yards?"  Well, that is me.  When I get a new idea, I tend to get really excited about it and jump right in, but quickly lose interest.  This of course held true when I got the urge to blog.  I think maybe I've posted five times on here since March.

Well, believe it or not, I have decided to make a commitment to "Just My Type!"  I have an entire year, yes an ENTIRE YEAR of blog posts lined up for 2012!  All thanks to one of my favorite women of our time, Kathleen Passanisi.

I had the privilege of attending a women's health seminar with my mom this fall, and Kathleen was the keynote speaker and I instantly fell in love!  She is an amazing woman and I encourage all of you to check out her website and her books.  I will be telling you more about Kathleen as the year progresses, but let me just tell you--you are all in for a treat.  She is an amazing woman--did I say that already?

Each week I will be taking one of Kathleen's tips--either from her "Adding Joy to Life" or "Passanisi's Pointers for Purposeful Change" and challenge myself (and sometimes my friends and family) to take some of Kathleen's advice in an effort to improve our lives. 

Look out for my weekly happenings in 2012.  I am very excited to start my new blog-venture.  Until then, head over to Woodn't Ya Know It or The Cheese Thief (two of my favorite blogs). 

Kids, Stay in School

 For those of you who don't know, this week has been my first week at my new job.  My first day was a little crazy...I left feeling scared, nervous, and very unsure.  However, my second day was a true success.

Today, as I was sitting at my desk workspace, I had an overwhelming emotion come over me.  It wasn't one of those creep up on you kind of emotions, nope- it hit me so hard I thought I was going to fall right out of my chair.  This emotion was quite unique when considering the other emotions that go along with the first few days of your very first job; or at least not an emotion I anticipated feeling.

Today I felt proud of myself.  As I sat down in my cubicle workspace, checking my emails, studying up on the mile high stack of booklets and papers that really tell me what I've gotten myself into, and just absorbing this new title that I hold behind my name, I caught a glimpse of my diploma.  Yes, its only the second day and I've already decorated my office workspace.  And yes, the first thing I put on my shelf was my diploma.  Thank goodness I did because as I looked up at my diploma, the feeling I got is one that I hope I will always remember and one that I for see getting me through these next few weeks of brutal training, and probably other rough patches in my future as a career woman.

I remember countless occasions where I was ready to give up on school.  I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, I was spending thousands of dollars on a "piece of paper" that I was sure was going to get me nowhere.  Now, I had some AMAZING mentors in my college years.  Advisors, professors, bosses...I wouldn't have made it through college without them.  They all warned prepared me for a lot of those times in life that I would have otherwise said, "I wish someone would have told me this was going to happen."  However, no one ever told me how proud of myself I could be for what I have accomplished.  (Probably because they were always so busy telling me how proud of me they were).

A lot of people complain about having to grow up and move on from their college years.  "Life in the real world and all the things that go along with it suck."  However, the optimist in me is loving it and soaking it all in.  For example:

Waking up early:  my roommate bff who is letting me take over her basement as my living space for the moment and I have started working out together every morning at 6 am!  It's a great way to get ourselves going in the morning, and there is nothing better than having someone to share that with.

Traffic: okay, so maybe my car doesn't have AC and I sit in stop and go traffic for 45 minutes in 90 degree weather.  So what?  At least I have a car that gets me there.  Plus, its perfect time to listen to my new favorite station, NPR. (Insert completely inappropriate hash-tagged comment: #lookatmeallgrownup)

Working: as much as I am already missing my daily routine that always included a nap, the feeling of having a great job with great people around you who encourage you is irreplaceable.  On another note, I am luckier than most to have found a job right out of college-and that is something to be proud of.

I'm a pretty lucky girl, I'd say.  I am 23, living in my favorite city, and am in the first week at my dream job.  This makes it very easy to be so optimistic.  I love my life.

Song of the day: "Collie Man" by Slightly Stoopid


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How I Got to Where I Find Myself Today: Inspired by Calvin and Hobbes

For those of you who have never read a Calvin and Hobbes comic, I highly suggest you do so immediately.  Not only will you be expanding your cultural diversity, but you will learn a few good life lessons in the process.  Some people consider it the best comic of all time, while others rate it #7 on a top 100 list.  For those of you who are a fan like myself, I hope you can appreciate this post.

Before I get started, I would like to apologize for my lack of blogging in the past month.  Some of you might understand when I say that the last  month of your college career isn't an easy one.  But I'll get to more of that later.  Anyway....

Yesterday, my senior seminar class and myself were at an elementary/middle school waiting for a staff meeting to end so we could give our final presentation.  We were waiting in a classroom that had one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes books:  The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes, a treasury of Bill Waterson's best work.  It opens with a poem, one that is especially moving at this particular moment in my life.  It goes like this:

I made a big decision a little while ago.

 I don’t remember what it was, which  probably goes to show

 That many times a simple choice can prove to be so essential

 Even though it often might appear inconsequential.

 I must have been distracted when I left my home because

 Left or right I’m sure I went. (I wonder which it was!)

  Anyway, I never veered: I walked in that direction

 Utterly absorbed, it seems, in quiet introspection.

 For no reason I can think of, I’ve wandered far astray.

 And that is how I got to where I find myself today.

Pretty good, right?  Maybe it doesn't strike the same chords for some of you who aren't in the same transitional phase of you life like I am, but I am hoping some of you can relate.  

The reason this meant so much to me is because in 2 days I will be graduating from college.  After 5 of the most amazing, yet most difficult years of my life, I have finally finished my degree.  I can remember other transitional times in my life similar to this one--my transition from high school to JCCC, and then my move to the middle of Missouri for William Woods.  I'm never been one to hate change, and I am always up for a new adventure.  I am so thankful that I made the decision to choose those two schools, and I would never trade one minute of it.  I just wish I could go back to my then 18 and 20 year old brain and remember what it felt like to be so carefree.  Back then I would have traveled with the circus if the opportunity was presented to me and it sounded fun.  My brain wouldn't have been flooded with worries of bills and family and friends and a significant other.  

I have a few job interviews coming up and I am so excited for this new adventure in my life, but I am getting so nervous!  In the next week, I will be making some pretty substantial life decisions and I feel like I am being dragged by my mother by the back of my shirt with my feet dragging behind me through gravel.........I don't want to make a decision! 

Wouldn't it be great if when we were faced with important decisions in life, we could choose them all and live in 2 or 3 separate universes until we figured out what we wanted?

I know some of you are thinking I am absolutely crazy.  You are probably sick of reading about me complaing that I have jobs to choose from and I can't make a decision!  I am completely aware that in today's world, I am lucky to even get one interview or one job offer--And I understand that and feel beyond blessed that in a week I might actually have some jobs to choose from!  However, that doesn't change the fact that I will be facing some pretty important decisions very soon... 

Hopefully with the newly acquired free time I will have soon, I will find more time for blogging.  Just simply having a blog with more than one post is a huge accomplishment for me so cut me some slack!  If you are looking for a blogger who posts frequently, with a lot of hilarious stories--go here.

Before ending this, I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me get through these past 5 years.  I don't know how I would have gotten through it without you!

Mom, Dad, Stef, Brian and the fam--thanks for always encouraging me and supporting me even when my dreams and ideas seem outrageous.  Its the best feeling in the world knowing that I have such a great family to come home to.  I love you all so much.

Sarah--thank you for being my best friend in the whole world.  Our first 2 years of college spent together were the best ever.  From signing on the playground, afternoon bike rides, living with possibly the world's worst roommates, to 6:3o a.m. phone calls, I can always count on you to be right by my side.  Even though I'm the worst at returning calls and being 2 hours away, I am so lucky to have a friend like you.  I can't wait for you to get here tomorrow and help me celebrate such a big weekend :) I love you!

Homies--thanks for being my constant group of friends to come home to over the past couple years.  From hours of playing spoons, munchkin, that fun zombie game, pit (1!  3!  2!  1!  4!!), Are you the traitor, and even Risk and Trivial Pursuit, I am never disappointed in the amounts of fun and random shenanigans we find ourselves getting into.  Can't wait to be home and have more YouTube nights, emarrassing act bets, and random food and drink challenges.  You guys are the best!  And special thanks to Brian for encouraging me not to drop out of school.  

The Alpha Chi girls--you all make me want to stay in college forever, I even stayed an extra year just to be with all of you! :)  I have made the most incredible memories with you all and even been lucky enough to travel the country with some of you.  Thank you for showing me that I can do anything I set my mind to, and for always bringing out the best in you.  You all have something really special and I can't wait for future reunions!!

Sharon, Scott, Casey, and Mysti--my career counselors!  Thank you all for your advice, counsel, direction, and encouragement over the past year.  The words of wisdom I've gotten from all of you is INVALUABLE.  I am a better person because I have been able to work with all of you.  

To anyone else who is feeling offended that I didn't mention you but I probably should have--thank you for being a part of my life up until now!  I know for a fact that everyone has been put into my life for a reason and has helped make me who I am today.

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Enough of the sappy stuff, I just wanted to give the long, overdue credit to those who deserve it.  I'm going to call it good on this blog post, I don't even want to see how long it is.  So from Calvin and Hobbes, to my rant about choosing a job, to my random list of thank you's,  thanks for taking the time to read this.  Hopefully the next blogpost will be my new job description and location.  

Time to pack up some more boxes...

song of the day:

"This is Why We Fight" by the Decemberists

--an album I've been listening to non stop for the past few weeks