This is a Hymn to the Garnet and the Gold

SHE DID IT!! BRANDI GRADUATED!!!MA DFGKSDJFGKLSDFHG

Two years ago I was in her shoes and I felt the exact same way she did today: content. Her and I are good friends because we're similar. We acknowledge that the Bachelors degree was an achievement but we also know that we have more to go. Graduating from Florida State was a good day for both of us and I am so excited that she finished! She worked so hard and she's come so far!

Driving to Tallahassee was not fun and I don't want to do it again any time soon but I did miss being in Tally. It was weird to see the city again. It looked so similar and yet so different! Until next time Tally!

Sweeeeeeeeetttttttt Emoooooootiooooooooooonnnnnn

I fully admit that I should not have gone to Disney. I should have stayed home, told Peter to go back to his house, told Ilysa I couldn't help her family go to Disney, and been miserable working on all my homework.

This did not happen. Instead I spent my day (and so much money) at Hollywood Studios. We Rocked on a Roller coaster and fell down an elevator shaft. We meet some Jawas and a Kylo. It was a good time. And now I get to work.

Oops, I Did It Again

I did it again!!! Dang it! 

Yesterday I went to Disney with Matt and Ilysa to look at the Easter eggs before the disappear. I also got to wear my new Beauty and the Beast dress :)  The eggs are created out of chocolate and edible art supplies and it just isn't fair. 

Cake By The Ocean

Okay, it wasn't actually an ocean but there was cake!! I was able to celebrate Danielle's birthday with her and her friends! It was so nice to see her and to celebrate with her. I really need to try to find more time to spend with her. I was also able to play with my new Urban Decay pallete and dress all fancy which was fun. 

Prior to the party, I worked on my client notes and files. Sunday I will have to go back to the clinic and finish the rest but four hours today was rewarding!!

You'll See Boys

I should have been more productive today. I should have studied more. I should have prepared. I should have woken up earlier and gotten back to my house earlier today than I did. I should have done more to make today a useful day. 

But I didn't. I moped. I hurt Brett's feelings by bailing on plans I set up with him. I wasn't smart about sleep decisions and that made other people mad. 

Guess we'll see how tomorrow goes? 

Because I'm Happy

Day was a good day! I ended up not having to go to work, I was able to hang out with Peter and his parents, I did my case notes, and Catherine got her yoga certification and… 

SHE GOT ENGAGED!! 

She called and told me and I freaked out! I'm so happy for her and Alex, I can't contain myself! I wish them the best of happiness and all the love and I cannot wait to see what happens next in their adventure.

Congratulations guys!! 

Lose Track of My Lifelines, Lose Track of Myself

This week has been a week of early wake up calls which results in not a ton of sleep for someone who has night classes. That being said, I could learn to appreciate that routine if I could figure out how to fall asleep earlier. Anyway, today's work day was very long (9am-6pm) and resulted in three hours of playing the Sims in order to decompress (I MADE A KILLER WEDDING PROPERTY I AM SO PROUD). 

I then got to talk with Peter, Kayla, and Harley who shared their support and checked on me. My co-workers Lindsey(I don't actually know how she spells it) and Lori also checked on me today just to make sure I was doing okay. The answer is I'm doing better with things/ at handling my life, but I'm not okay yet. Words cannot express what it means to me to have so many supportive humans. I am so incredibly grateful. 

No Time to Say Hello, Goodbye! I'm Late! I'm Late! I'm Late!

I missed a daaayyyyyyy ughhhhh. I knew it would happen but I was hoping it would be after January. Oh well. 0 days without incident. 

Anyway, prac went well yesterday and my supervisor liked my outfit so that made me happy. Then it was time for Disney Quest with Ilana and Peter! It was a fun little time. Disney Quest isn't exactly an awesome thing anymore but it is entertaining. 

Hit Me Baby One More Time

With playing cards that is! After my grandmothers party I played some games with my nephew and then I walked the dog. Catherine had a game night tonight and I was able to join her for some card games and that is about where we're at.

Celebrate a World Filled with Magic

It is not a secret that "Celebrate the Magic" and "Wishes" are my two favorite things that Disney has to offer. There is something about these two shows and all of the people watching them being completely transfixed on the magic happening in front of them that just makes me happy. 

Originally, this Disney day was going to be spent with my old roommate Danielle but her job hates us so she couldn't come. Peter and I decided to use the fastpasses I originally planned for her and I making this the third day we have visited a theme park. Three date nights in row? What?! Hopefully these helped to make up for some of the date nights that the holidays interrupted seeing as this next semester starts on Monday and it is going to be so busy! 

The Grad School Chronicles

My first week in grad school has come to a close and I celebrated by going to Magic Kingdom with some of my old Cast Members and then coming home for my grandmother's birthday. Magic Kingdom was oodles of fun and I cannot wait to go back soon! I also cannot be more excited to be home! I was able to sit down with my grandmother for a class assignment where we had to interview a grandparent  and learn about her life. Hopefully tomorrow I can play with my nephews and work on some assignments. 

School wasn't hard necessarily, just frustrating. It started with a monsoon and a bus ride to class. I was three hours early so I could go get my UCFID card and then navigate my way to the psychology building while the weather gods took their revenge on Orlando in the form of sheets of rain. Class was interesting. We introduced ourselves to ourselves and talked about theories of counseling.  These kids act like they are full grown established adults and half of them aren't. So you got in to the program, good job! That doesn't mean you get to act like you are better than the other 30 of us who also got in to this program. I wish I felt like being friends with these people and I wish I knew how to be friends with them. How does one make friends? Ughhhh. 

Anyway, three hours later I made it home and unpacked more of the boxes before the first night of insomnia kicked in. I was supposed to go see Brett and go to the grocery store but I overslept by six hours. Fast forward through unpacking, some studying, watching the Avengers with Kayla over the phone, and another night of insomnia and we reach Wednesday. It felt better than Monday but it still didn't feel right. Everyone feels like they are trying so hard to be there and like they are still in an admissions competition. They can't revoke your admission on the second day guys, relax. Hopefully it gets better. I made a wish during Wishes on Thursday that I would be able to get through this and make friends, I want to do well in this program and I want to look at my cohort and feel just as proud of them as I am of myself. I'll just keep my fingers crossed for next week.

A Special Surprise

I was able to do more laundry today!! But I did not get to sorting through the boxes like I wanted because I had to watch children before I went to go hang out with Ilana! We went to the mall down the street from my mall (they are literally mile straight mile down the road from each other) where we gossiped and I was able to have my favorite Chinese food. We shopped for shoes and new scents and I was able to FINALLY give her back the two dresses she lent me for my sorority functions.

Then it was time to go :( I will hopefully see her again for a Disney World trip though!!

Work was busy and kind of obnoxious but...  THEN BRETT SURPRISED ME WITH GREG! They drove here from Orlando and we all went to Brett's mom's house to have a slumber party.

Post for Catherine

**NOTE: Somehow I wrote over or saved over this post with my Christmas Eve post so the date of this post is actually 12/26/14 but I have changed the date to accurately reflect when it was originally posted. Since I am having to rewrite it three days later I don't exactly know what all happened. ALSO: Wall of Text.

I didn't have to work so I ended up hanging out with Catherine at some point because it could end up being the last time we get to have best friend time before I move to Orlando. This thought is so scary. Grad school is right around the corner! AHH!!

We ended up going to shopping in order to try and find something for me to wear to Christmas eve dinner but we didn't find anything unfortunately. EVEN IN THE 80% OFF DILLARD'S WHERE WE SPENT FIVE BILLION YEARS!! We also made mini pumpkin pies for me to take to work.

Then she gave me my Christmas presents and they couldn't be more perfect! She bought me Pyrex casserole dishes (EEEPPPPPP!!!), measuring cups and spoons, and a scrub brush because she knows I hate sponges. They are perfect, she's perfect.

You know, when I joined my sorority it was to kill time. I was just out of IB where free time did not exist and I had so much time on my hand that I had to find something constructive to do. THUS, I joined DNZ. I didn't really know what to expect from such an unknown organization and I certainly did not expect to find the girls that I have! Of course I have quite a few favorites but I won't list them all because that would make this post a lot longer than it is going to be already. Alexis, Lauren, and Deviyani are absolute darlings and I am so incredibly grateful that my sorority brought them into my life. My big is the best big on the face of the planet and I love her so much and now I get to live near her and her sister who is also amazing! Kayla is probably one of the best friends I have ever had in my life when you look at things on paper. We balance each other out and we don't put up with nonsense from each other and I am so incredibly thankful to have her help in a few weeks!

Then you get to Catherine. In the beginning, I wasn't quite sure what to think of Catherine. She seemed queit and like she had a "type" for her friends but I was obviously wrong. I don't quite know when we started to hang out and I don't know how we became such fast friends but we did and I am so overwhelmed about thinking about much I am going to miss her in a few weeks. When she graduated and we did senior fly ups for her class, I was choking back tears talking about her in my send of speech. What was I going to do without her?? And then I managed to get through my semesters, graduate, and come home. We've seen each other and had girl time and giggles and nonsense at least once a week since. She's like family! It is so easy to be friends with someone who has nothing but honesty and light and every other personality trait with a positive connotation!!

There are people that you meet in your life who change it and Catherine is definitely one of those people for me. I've learned so many things just from being friends with her. I can't wait to continue to learn things from her and see what life has to bring this amazing human being :)


 

Vegetable Pot Pie

Yesterday was full of good things which I had hopes would continue through today. Knows kind of correct. My day did not start early with laundry and packing duties like I had planned. Instead, my phone ended up under my bed so instead of waking me up it just made me mad that I couldn't find it. So when I found it,  I hit snooze. Rather I thought I did because I slept for two hours before being locked in my room by my broken door knob for another two hours. It is safe to say I was not able to get any more laundry done.

The rest of the day was spent doing odd ball things like sitting with my nephew at his dentist appointment and trying to explain to him how to play with an Xbox controller as well as planning an impromptu sleepover with Catherine and helping her making vegan vegetable pot pie with homemade biscuits! Bread dough has an awful texture just so everyone knows. 

Suzy Tuesday Reprise

It looks like I am again off on Tuesdays so Catherine and I were able to bring back our day from summer and make it so that we got too lend sometime together today! We were able to use my groupon for a Tampa staple called EATS American Grille! I think its really yummy and Catherine seems to be a big fan of their fish tacos which means you should also go if you live in the area. Then we headed home after searching for a Christmas music station and attempting to make it to the bank before it closed. Once home (and being the avid OUAT fans that we are), we decided to watch last Sunday's episode and it made me mad. Luckily, I had homemade popcorn ala Catherine to help!

Now, I know I swore off sweets for December but today my sister brought home pumpkin pie and because I only have it maybe twice a year I decided that 1 piece would not hurt me. I have not had any candy or chocolate or cookies or doughnuts or the like which is really what I am trying to wean myself off of for the spring. I'm not worried about my resolve falling and me going and buying a whole pie. 

I ALSO FOUND A POLE STUDIO IN ORLANDO!! And it is near campus! I am so excited! 

Taking The Blame

I've always known that I was a procrastinator. Even from a young age I waited until the night before to do my book reports or find magazines around my house to cut out pictures from. I couldn't be bothered to do anything until it absolutely had to be done. Not because I didn't want to do it but because my motivation to do things was tied to the stress of only having a small amount of time to do things. 

If anyone tells me I'm not good at time management I tell the, they are wrong. I am good at time a management just maybe not the way anyone would think I should be. I find the things that have to be done because there is no time left to do them and do those first. That's the logical thing to me. I'm 10,000 percent sure that it isn't actually the logical thing to do but that's how my brain works. Doing things in advance doesn't make sense to me. A sense of urgency doesn't come with those plans to me. It has to be down to the wire for me to function apparently. I'm not necessarily okay with that but it is all I know how to do and I wouldn't even begin to know how to change it. That's me. This whole time I've been writing about how I want to change aspect X and Y. I didn't obviously. I don't think I can. Or maybe I just didn't try the right method. Either way, I blame myself for every single thing I didn't accomplish or every single thing I put off. I don't know anything different. 

I got to see Brandi today which was fun. She hitched a ride down from Tallahassee for Thanksgiving week and her chauffeur dropped her off at the mall my job is located in which meant that her and her family were able to stop by and say hi. That was about the only good thing that happened today. Everything else resulted in a mental breakdown for the last two hours which I had to be talked out of by Greg and Brandi. One day at a time from here on out I guess. And focusing on the little things.

Stress, Sleep, Repeat

I will open every Sunday for the rest of the year and that it totally fine with me. What I am not prepared for are the crazy hours and amounts of people that are about to come pouring in. On top of the stress I already have from work and the big move that is going to be here so much quicker than I know it, now more stress is about to come from higher guest counts. I will find a way. I will figure out how to balance  guest servicing and tasking and trending and accountabilitying and Merlin knows what else.

Today I got to see Catherine!! Yesterday was her birthday and I heard she had tons of fun! Today I went over to her house to make apple crisp stuff which was yummy and to watch like 4 hours do food network shows. We're fantastic.

CELEBRATE THE MAGIC

We started our Disney adventure by waking up at 6:20 this morning ... And I will post all about tomorrow because I'm so incredibly tired!

So like I said, we started our adventure really really REALLY early in the morning in or to get to the parks to use extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom between 8-9. This however did not work due to leaving late, having the guard tell me that my castmember ID didn't get me free pairing (I had a back up plan though!) and there being traffic for my Big on her way to the park. I did get a massive donut out of it though! IT WAS THE SIZE OF MY HEAD!

Now, this is where the first hijink of the day occurred. I had already linked my paper tickets to my account and the lady at the AK GS counter said that if she converted them to plastic that it would be fine. So we did. We were wrong. My ticket then didn't scan at all that day. They eventually just gave up and flagged me through. So I essentially got free admission all day. But we finally got in to animal kingdom right at 9am and we booked it to Everest. Only to learn that it was closed. A castmember named Steve told us to stay updated on the MDE app so we decided to head to Dinosaur in order to give Everest some time to recoup. 

We got to Dinosaur and my Big handed me a really pretty Tinker Bell bracelet as a birthday present. I am still so shocked by this! Thank you so much again! Ten we got on the Dinosaur ride and barely escaped with our lives. It was awesome. Everest did not open so we said goodbye to Animal Kingdom and headed to Epcot!

I don't tend to spend a ton of time at Epcot but I knew it would be Catherine's favorite! We had reservations for lunch in France so we spent the time before that watching the "SAVE THE PLANET FEATURE THE LION KING" show, going on Living with the Land, and pin buying/trading. I ended up getting the pins and lanyard pictured below because the FSU was the last one and everything was on sale. We did have an interesting adventure on Test Track because of this really nice man who gave us his fast pass! We made a pretty kick ass car and it was tons of fun! Definitely doing it again!

Then we headed around the world and almost stopped to meet Mulan in China. Eventually we found ourselves in Japan and Catherine and my Big were in heaven! I'm not big in to cultural experiences but it was still fun to watch them go all wide eyed over everything! I feel like there will be many more adventures in Epcot!

We finished our journey with lunch in France! The actual lunch part was pretty good but the dessert was the best. I would seriously go back to Epcot just for the chocolate mousse. Ohmygoodlord.

.

Disney Vacation Planning

THAT IS LITERALLY ALL CATHERINE AND I DID FOR TWO HOURS TODAY! I will see my Biggles and the castle in approximately 9 hours! So excited!! 

For My Birthday...

YAY IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!! This time last year Brett, Catherine, my little Alexis, and I were roaming our way through Disney world with Biggles! Catherine and I partied all night so today was spent pretty lackadaisically on my part. I was collected from Catherine's house by my brother in law and then we went to lunch at Outback. Normally I would have chosen Miguel's but the night before I went (READ: I drove!!) to Taco Bus so the constant hunger for TexMex was at bay. We came home and we had birthday cake and then I took a three hour nap.

That nap was not planned but it was glorious! Afterwards I am plans with Catherine and Co. and Amanda to go see The Maze Runner because Dylan O'Brien. Amanda has read the books and says that they are good. The movie was okay. Definitely not a Hunger Games level dystopia but it was alright. I mean there are a group of characters that are banking on a bunch of teenage looking humans not to investigate and ask questions in order for their plan to work. All it would have taken was one of them to go investigate and they would have known it was all a lie! Logic people! 

Anyway, after the movies I went back to Catherine's to play board games and then my birthday was over. I hope that 22 will see me do new things and meet new people. I hope that 23 for Catherine sees amazing things because she is amazing and gives so much to everyone!