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New year, New apartment?

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Hello, internet void! I’ve returned again after another 10-month hiatus with some more lovely tales of strange misfortune. Currently, I’m relocating to a new city AGAIN. Which means more apartment hunting and let me tell you I have some feelings about this.

Apartment hunting can be is a stressful process. You’re usually on limited time, in a new place, with limited funds, all while trying to avoid scams, crime, and creeps! This is my second time searching for an apartment in the past year and I’ve had my share of weirdos, false alarms, and wins.  I am certainly no expert but I do have some tips and tricks I’ve used to hold on to what small amount of my sanity I have left.

#1 Make a wishlist……even if your budget is for a tin can.

help me im poor kristen wiig GIF

GIF via Giphy

Working with animals I don’t make very much money at all. When I started looking for apartments I had my budget and I figured I couldn’t afford much anyway so I didn’t make a list of things I wanted in an apartment. I would go to viewing after viewing and walk away uninterested because all the listing had offered me was being in my budget. I became frustrated with myself because I was spending hours meeting landlords and potential roommates, driving all over the city without any leads. I realized I wanted to be close to work, live alone, and have laundry on site or in the apartment. These were things I decided were worth putting my rent towards the top of my budget. Once I realized this I felt more confident with the listings I saw.

#2 Take a buddy or two with ya.                                                                                                          Having a second set of eyes to look at things is really helpful. A friend or family member is able to look a little closer at things while you are talking with the leasing agent. They also might pick up on things you didn’t notice. I really liked one apartment until my mom pointed out how badly the hallway smelled of cigarette smoke, being on the second floor all the smoke would rise….right into my apartment. Something I am not interested in. Or how my dad pointed out how overgrown one complex was. This shows maintenance and groundskeeping might not be the most attentive.

#3 Pack snacks. 

hungry 30 rock GIF

GIF via Giphy

Most people I know get hangry, without even realizing it. This can be a real hindrance to apartment hunting. You might not ask questions or notice important details if your stomach is growling. Having some fuel to help you get through apartment hunting can keep you going long enough to find your future digs.

 

#4 Take notes and pictures.                                                                                                               Visiting multiple places over a short period of time can get repetitive. At the end of the day all the apartments kind of blur together, taking photos of potential pads can really help in your decision making process. I also like to jot down notes. When Tammy from leasing tells me the monthly average for utilities and then jumps to discussing the parking policy my memory will not keep up. When it comes time to make a decision you can reference pictures and notes in addition to a slew of maps and rental quotes.

#5 Don’t lose hope. 

why me crying GIF by Team Coco

GIF via Giphy 

I’ve been experiencing a lot of false alarms-great apartments in my ideal location and within my budget…..then someone else locks it down before I do. This has led to me being rather cynical about the apartment hunting process as a whole. But patience is key, my new apartment and my previous apartments were both some of the last places I looked.

 

These 5 tips are pretty much all the advice I can offer as a twenty-something who really has no idea what she’s doing. I really lucked out and finally, am done hunting. I no longer have to find character references or let ANYONE know my credit score. Tune in next week where I give advice on how to do your taxes! Just kidding….. 🙂

 

It's okay to have feelings Leave a comment

It’s okay to have feelings

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Good morning to friends, family, and internet trolls alike. Today’s post unveils a new segment I like to call “It’s okay to have feelings”.

These are posts where I dive into any sort of raw emotion I might be feeling that week or even that hour (let’s be honest I could be in laughing and 30 seconds later crying, who knows why?). I’ll talk about ways to deal with said emotion and how I try to keep it all together. I do have to remind you lovely readers I am not a doctor, or therapist, or a psychologist but I am, a feeler of emotion and a half decent friend sooooooooooo that is how anyone should interpret my “advice”.

I’m a very relationship based person, as most humans are. My family and friends are the most important thing to me so it only made sense that when I went away to college I was homesick, like really homesick. I cried constantly, my eyes were so swollen it looked like I got in a boxing match and lost (My best friend can confirm this). I ended up trying to transfer out during my first semester. But my support system was still my support system even though they were X amount of miles away. They helped push me to stay at a school I would come to know, love, and thank for introducing me to so many amazing people. Flash forward to today. I’m sitting in my apartment before I rush off to work wondering why I crave the sound of my dogs snoring while they lie on the floor next to the couch or the half-asleep conversations I’d with my parents before they’d leave for work in the morning. I’ve conquered homesickness before, why is it coming back again?

In the article “The Science of Homesickness” by Elizabeth Van Brocklin, homesickness is defined as “a state of distress that people sometimes experience when they are separated from supportive friends or family members in an unfamiliar environment.”

Many people think homesickness is limited to children leaving for sleep-away camp, or first-year college students a few weeks after classes begin, this is not true. Adults can be homesick too, even celebrities like Emma Watson! If real life Disney princess and Harry Potter queen, Emma Watson, was homesick then I think it’s safe to say everyone misses their family or friends from time to time.

 

 

 

 

How to bounce back.

Working through homesickness is different for each person. One of the most important things is to recognize it’s normal! Everyone misses home or family at some point in their life. Find a routine to help your new home be a home. I personally love waking up early and having a good breakfast. It’s silly and some days I feel too tired but taking my time before work helps me feel more at home.

OWN IT. You probably made a choice to be where you are. It might have been a hard decision to make but you are where you are for a reason. For school? For work? Maybe just for an adventure? no matter which, embrace what you are there for and the choice you’ve made.

Lastly, if homesickness is becoming overwhelming reach out for help. Heck even if it’s not homesickness, if you just feel like you’re in too deep, reach out! There is no shame in talking to someone, a trusted friend, adult, or professional. Like really it’s totally normal.

I hope today’s post reminds you it’s okay to feel things. It certainly reminded me and made me a lot less homesick along the way. ANYWAY enough of that. I’ll get back to the sarcasm and bad jokes in the next post!

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One Eternity Later……

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It’s 2018 and I’m back bitches.

After a recent FaceTime chat with two very special friends, I felt I had more stories to attempt to tell and I’d have at least two readers, well three if I count my mom!

 

Obviously, with more than a full year passing since my last blog post, a lot has happened. Including but not limited to, graduating college, getting a job, having a whirlwind romance, starting a conspiracy theory, my sister getting married, getting a different job, moving to a new state, and general shenanigans. Today’s story takes place this past October.

I was picking up extra hours at my job as a “Scare Actor”. After working a full day as an animal trainer (I have a whole lot to say about that, but that’s another post) I would go to wardrobe, sit in a makeup chair for 20 minutes and emerge as a ghoulish character ready to scare the crap out of whoever I could. Now, this was probably some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Getting to be spooky is very liberating and empowering. For 8 (long) hours a night, I was no longer polite or quiet, or even awkward! I got to scream and drag my feet, slam doors and be loud, basically  I became a moody teenager again.

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Me in my most ghoulish form. Though that dirty mirror might be scarier.

 

I was working a Sunday night in a graveyard themed area, My character for the night was a phantom-ish statue. Gray makeup, white wig, and a cloak. I was using the trick of staying very very still then following guests with my eyes or screaming. I could see my bosses boss coming my way which wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. The heads of the department made regular rounds through the different “scare zones” to make sure everything was as spooky as possible. I noticed some security behind him as well, and a large group of people who were talking loudly. I decided they were my next target. See, typically if people are talking loud, they’re trying to distract themselves from the scary thing that is happening. Just like if a person says they’re not scared usually they are the most scared.

I held as still as possible, locking my eyes off to the side so I could have the group in my peripherals. One of the men in the group was walking backward facing away from where I was standing. I held my breath, I was within seconds of pulling off a great scare or totally flopping.

 

 

The group had a lull of silence right as they stepped in front of me and I let out a scream thrusting my arm forward towards them. The man facing away whipped

around, shoulders moving up to his ears, eyes wide, and his hand over his chest “She really got me!” The rest of the group laughed and they all continued onto their spooky way.

As I was resetting myself for the next scare, I couldn’t help but think about how familiar they man was. He looked a lot like Pete Davidson. But there was no way it could’ve been him, that would just be too wild.

WELL.

I got home that night and mindless scrolled through social media from the sweet comfort of my bed. Then I saw it. A coworker posted a photo talking about getting to scare the cast of Saturday Night Live tonight. My heart started racing, no fucking way. I clicked the picture, it was a large group of people on the main stage of one of the Halloween shows the park had, they were surrounded by some of the park’s best scare actors. I zoomed in. Sure enough, kneeling in the front row was Pete Davidson with a slightly terrified look on his face.

 

 

I started to laugh because I had scared the crap out of Pete Davidson! The next day, I arrived at my ~normal~ job and shared my story. Though my coworkers were a little jealous, they were not jealous I worked at 15 hour day, gotten home at midnight only to be back again the next day at 8a.m. Which did suck, but was soooooooooooooooooOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOOooO worth it.

Thanks to that night, I now have a new fun fact to share whenever I’m forced to do those terrible ice-breakers. “Share your name and a fun fact!” *barf* at least “I scared Pete Davidson, of SNL” is better than “My dad and I have the same birthday.”

ANYWAY, I hope y’all enjoyed this post, there is so much more to come in the next few weeks, or at least within this next year……hopefully.

 

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Mostly just me Rambling

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It’s 2017 and I’m still kicking, just not blogging regularly (which isn’t much different than before).

ANYWAY I’ve been itching to write up a new blog post since the Christmas however, I have had the longest stretch of writer’s block. I keep getting ideas and then I start writing and they turn out so dry, just like I can feel myself becoming less and less interested in this post as I keep writing it! How fun is that?

 

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GIF via Giphy  

 

 

I’m back and it’s no longer January wooooo!

This idea isn’t super great but you will all have to suffer through it or go read something else. No, really go read something else. If you don’t leave you’ll just have to hear a…LIFE UPDATE. Thrilling, I know.

Actually though a lot of weird things have been happening these past few months, including but not limited to; beer drinking, game nights, accidently ruining someone’s weed, cat sitting, frequent encounters with people being super passive aggressive, a renewal of my love for pop punk, people trying to return to my life who had LEFT (like no, bye bitch!), doing too many pull-ups at a party, lots of sage wisdom  (both given and received), lots of crying, lots of laughing, and a conference about sustainable farming. Again this list is not exhaustive but it covers the basics.

Due to poor planning, I am now realizing I have a lot of good stories to tell from the past month or so. This post will serve as an introduction of what’s to come soon. If you want a to read a specific story from the list above comment below and if you don’t want to read any of them then why are you still reading this?  I’d promise to have another post up soon but I am unreliable, so I *should* have another post up soon. Until then-

 

 

 

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Finals are over

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yippee-ki yay mother fucker. (Die Hard is considered a Christmas movie)

Monday’s blog post was going to be title “All hope is lost…” Tuesday’s was going to be “Hope was back but then lost again.“. Basically, the past two days have been like a shady carnival ride, everything smells weird and you can hear people crying in the distance. But now finals are over and I am FREE ONCE AGAIN. Not really, I still have a paper due but I can write it from the comfort of my home and that’s really exciting.

^^^^^^^^^^That was written on Wednesday. It is now Friday.

I’ve given myself a few days to just sleep the semester off and it’s been great. I just have one problem. I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO WRITE. SO today’s post is short and to the point.

happy BLOGMAS day 16.

 

Blogmas 2016 Leave a comment

How to Survive Finals

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Pro-tip: you don’t.

Just kidding! Being a senior Biology major I’ve been through my fair share of finals, and as I write this I can hear the little voice inside my head reminding me I should be studying.

But the important thing to remember during this week of sleep deprivation and caffeine is that you will survive and get a WHOLE MONTH of recovery before spring semester.

 

But in case you are looking for a way to self-care or just step away from the textbooks, papers or practice exams for a little bit, here is a list of some of my favorite distractions this month!

  1. Find a good podcast. Podcasts are really versatile because you can listen to them before bed or when you are working out, or my personal favorite, while walking outside. Also, there are podcasts for anyone. I am really into true crime so I LOVE My Favorite Murder, it’s hosted by two awesome women, Karen Kilgariff, and Georgia Hardstark. They talk about famous murders and remind listeners to “fuck politeness” and “Stay out of the woods” which I am all about. It was named one of iTunes “best podcasts of 2016”.
  2. Write for fun! One of my favorite things to do at the end of my day is journaling. The nice thing about it is that there are no expectations, due dates, or word limits. Journaling can really be whatever you want it to be, but if it’s not your thing expressing yourself in some way can be great stress relief during finals. Maybe painting, photography, coding something, listen or making music, or even working out. There are tons of ways to release pent up energy and stress and doing that is super important during finals.
  3. Netflix. There is nothing more relaxing than making a cup of tea, curling up in bed, and putting on Netflix. Sometimes you reach a point during finals where you just

    have to chill and give your brain some non-thinking time to process everything you’ve been studying or preparing. Parks and Recreation and Bobs Burgers are two great shows, they’re funny and usually 25-minute episodes so perfect for short study breaks

  4. Bake something. Baking or cooking can be a fun way to get away from your books while still being productive plus you’ll get something delicious from it too. With Tasty videos taking Facebook by storm it’s not hard to find a simple recipe to cook!

These are just some suggestions for finals survival, I’ve been using podcasts and Netflix as stress relief these past few days. That’s it for BLOGMAS today, I’m hoping to have another post up tomorrow but it is the first day of finals soooooooooooOOOOOOoOOoOOoOOO who knows!

 

 

Blogmas 2016 Leave a comment

T-Minus 3 weeks

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So I can fully support Newton’s Laws when I say an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest- yay physics! But actually, I missed BLOGMAS on Wednesday because it was my busiest day of the week. Then it was Thursday, and suddenly Friday. Now it is Saturday evening and I finally tore myself away from procrastinating studying for finals to write this blog post.

For me, today has been a day of reflection on this *almost* over semester. Which my roommate and I have named “The Semester From Hell”.

This semester has been filled with some crazy highs and lows, but I wouldn’t change a thing….NICE ONE I would actually change a lot.

 

When given the option to change the past, I respect the answer many people give. “I wouldn’t change the past because it’s made me who I am today.” -I have given that answer many times too. But deep down we all have something we would really like to change even if it’s small like not ordering the coffee you ended up spilling on your laptop, holding the door open for the person behind you, or cursing someone out when you had the chance.

Ultimately thinking of the things you’d change doesn’t matter  because it’s not like you can actually do anything about them, but it can change your outlook on choices you make in the future. You know, the classic “If we don’t learn history we are doomed to repeat it” scenario.

I think this rambling of a blog post is especially relevant as 2016 comes to a close. I mean, Donal Trump is the next President for fuck’s sake.

Luckily a new year is upon us, we can start fresh praying for someone to rescue the White House while simultaneously pretending we all will finally go to the gym regularly.

I’m not trying to be super pessimistic, I do have hope that things will turn around soon if they haven’t already (at least on some level-I don’t know what we are going to do about the angry toupee..). I mean for one, my classes are all done which just means studying for 3 days and then I can finally watch HGTV guilt free while shoving my face full of Christmas cookies.

ANYWAY, that’s my train of thought for today, I think quite a few people I know can relate to this so don’t lose hope out there friends! 2016 is *almost* over.  P.S. follow the hyperlinks hidden in this article to some A+ BuzzFeed articles, I promise will make you laugh.

Blogmas 2016 Leave a comment

Day 5

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It’s Day 5!!! To be honest I didn’t think I would make it this far but hello, again.

Today is Tuesday and I’ve spent most of the day studying physics and fungi- thrilling I know. But night has fallen and OH GOD IT’S ALREADY 9P.M. I don’t really know what to write about today so I googled ideas for BLOGMAS posts. (SIDEBAR-Normally, I’d be totally against this, my writing process doesn’t really mesh well with the idea of BLOGMAS I prefer quality over quantity-BUT- with that mindset I’m barely uploading once a month and this is supposed to be a fun challenge. So bear with me till Christmas. )

I found a bunch of post ideas like gift guides, favorite Christmas recipes, Christmas traditions etc. but I realized these blogs were writing BLOGMAS posts that were just lists of ideas for BLOGMAS posts! That is like re-writing a question in a confusing way to “answer” another question! Sneaky, I like it.

So then I thought I can make a list too, but I don’t want to make a BLOGMAS post idea. No, instead today’s post is a list of my drafted tweets. One of my favorite things to do is write a tweet I think is funny or relevant and then not tweet it so I have built up a database of golden rejects to share with you today.

“My dad just sent me an e-mail and signed it “regards, Chris”. So professional.”

“Okay, raisins are underrated and I stand by that.”

“I’m just a really big fan of bears”

“you know you went to Atlantic City when confetti falls out of your dress…….”

“Had a dream about physics last night and it wasn’t a nightmare”

“I’ve tweeted this before and I’ll tweet it again, there is not a thing I don’t like about bears!!!!!!!!”-Okay, I obviously like bears.

 

 

“Me: I should really get my life together.

Inner me: hahahaha good one.”

“I ordered a large eye-opener and this lady looked at me”-is that it past-self?

“*lots of the upside down smile emojis*”

“In the library for 10 minutes….realize”-What did I realize?

“It’s 5a.m., I’m watching a documentary about bears and I’ve never been happier”-Like I said I really like bears.

 

“October is normally my favorite month but so far no.”

“The one time during the year my hair is straight I brush it a lot because I can’t for the rest of the year.” -Curly hair problems.

“I can” -I can what???

“I swear this one squirrel is out to get me.”-Still do.

 

“Professor: Does anyone have any questions on the homework?

 

me: First of all, how dare you?”-Physics…….

“When you don’t want to go to the gym but you really don’t want to write a paper and suddenly you’re on the stationary bike….”-This is very very real this next week.

 

Those are my rejected tweets! Maybe one day I’ll share some of my best tweets that have made the cut. I hope you enjoyed today’s post, catch on the flip side. Just kidding, you’ll hear from me tomorrow. Or will you? Yeah probably.

 

 

Blogmas 2016 Leave a comment

Blogmas day 3

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Hello again internet void!

Today is Sunday and I’m feeling super lazy which isn’t any different from any other day of the week.

 

Todays BLOGMAS post is going to be short but do not fret, there are still 3 more weeks until CHRISTMAS.

As the end of the semester comes to a close, most college students (including myself) look forward to the wonderful and forever important course evaluations. I’m not being sarcastic here ( I know that’s rare but just keep reading), course evaluations are a powerful tool that when used properly can bring justice to our professors, get them the recognition they deserve or remind them where they are lacking.

I think this is a great thing because I have had a few amazing professors and course evaluations are a chance to say

“Hey, you did your job well and I’m not just saying that so you’ll have mercy on my final grade.” or “You messed up, please change these things so other students can learn more than me.”. Some students don’t feel this way about course evaluations, they just fill out all the bubbles and write no comment in all the boxes just to get it done. But I hope as we enter course evaluation season that if you are the latter you consider using your power to its full potential.

 

 

I know this wasn’t really a story but it’s inspired by one that I may tell in more detail at a later time.  BUT the gist of it is I’m stuck in a class with a really bad professor, like reading word for word off the powerpoint and SUPER passive aggressive bad. I’ve been d-y-i-n-g to do my course evaluation for the past month and finally I got to do it the other day, which was a Christmas treat for me!  Also, this rant was just what I wanted to write about today so happy BLOGMAS consider this story a piece of coal.