Food Food Food

One of the toughest things about working in a office is when there are random office parties! My department celebrates all birthdays, so every month there is cake. Sometimes a couple times in a month! Then some days there's pizza, or candy, and just random chocolates and other forms of delicious food! I can't escape!

Today, we are celebrating two birthdays, so thankfully there is only one cake this month! I swear my office is trying to get me fat! They are always saying things to me like, "Oh Mary, have a cupcake, you're so skinny you can have it!" Okay, I love the compliment of being called skinny, but my body doesn't look like this naturally. My body looks like this because I DON'T eat those things all the time. Everyone's body is different, and mine definitely cannot handle eating all this delicious, but junky, foods every day. I have many friends who can eat whatever they want all the time and not gain a pound. Me, on the other hand, cannot do that. On top of that, I am only 5' 2", so if I was to gain 5 pounds, it would show on me more than it would on a woman who is 5' 9". So in other words, I have to be careful with what I eat.

I am not, however, a health freak at all. I try to eat as healthy as I can, but I think that it is a little too stressful to be counting calories, or reading every label because you are trying to keep track of every little thing going into your body. I would rather just eat in moderation, and exercise as much as possible. I can't make it to the gym all the time, and especially during the summer right now I am busier than ever, but I think as long as I make it there as much as possible, I am in good shape.

I do, though, think I need to work a little harder. See, with summer comes BBQs, and get togethers, besides salad, there are not too many healthy choices. I am a lover of food. I cannot go to a BBQ and not stuff my face. Basically, I have no will power. I guess I would rather just workout a little harder the next day than not eat and enjoy myself with friends and family. I am just not overly concerned with my weight. I know that I am at a healthy weight, and I am happy with the way I look. I know that once I become older my metabolism will change and I will eventually have to be very cautious with my food choices, so I am really just trying to enjoy it now while I can!

Speaking of food, it is time for me to go on my lunch break now, in which I will try to eat a nice big salad seeing as I will be having dessert today! I am apologizing to my stomach and insides in advance! ;)

What's The Buzz?

I like to keep current about what's going on in the world. In the morning when I am getting ready for work, I like to watch the local news channel for things such as weather updates and other breaking news stories in the local area. During the day, I like to hear about what's going on around the world and such, but I don't just want to look at the popular places like nbc.com, foxnews.com, or cnn.com. Those places I just mentioned obviously do tell you what's happening and many serious breaking news stories are reported there, but I have to say, if you are looking for some entertainment news, but you also want to get some "real" news at the same time, check out buzzfeed.com.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/

Now, I really like buzzfeed because during the day when I am bored or at work, I'm looking for something funny, and every day there are brand new stories and articles on this website and most of them are pretty entertaining. Like today, the top story on the website is about Soprano's actor James Gandolfini, who just recently passed last night. That is hard news, but if you scroll down to the other stories, there's funny, gross, and even disturbing stories. For instance, I literally saw a video on this website this morning of a giant yellow snake opening a door. What?! I already hated snakes with a passion and now I discovered today that the damn things can open doors. No thank you! Not too comforting.

While Buzzfeed has many hilarious and sometimes totally weird articles, they also turn back the clock and post articles about history. Today, there is an article on the website that has 20 black and white pictures from American life throughout the 20th century, and it's really powerful. There's stories like that every day that are entertaining, but at the same time teach you something you may not have known before. Some journalists or other writers out there may not see buzzfeed.com as a website that is very professional, but I think they are. They realize that people want to know the serious issues that are going on around the world, but at the same time there are so many other stories and interesting things going on in the world that, while they may not have to do with war, drugs, and the economy, they still hold importance in every day life whether we even know it or not.

To me, Buzzfeed is a great place to go to learn about what is going on in the world, without getting depressed over it. When you turn on the news right now, you don't need me to tell you that most of those stories are sad, and negative. Buzzfeed is going to give you news that you can smile at, and honestly, some of the stories on this website will even restore your faith in humanity. If you read this post, all I ask is that you check out this website. I came across this website by chance a few months ago, and now I check it every day. I have made this website part of my day and one of the main sources where I find out what's going on out there. And I have to say, I don't think you are going to regret checking out this site, because there is something there for everyone.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/

Tales From The Office

I ranted earlier this morning about my blog, but I am in a funny mood, so I thought I would share with you some of the every day, typical things that I have experienced in the office. For any of you who work in a office, maybe you can relate to this!

• Oh, working in an office. It really is such a dangerous job. You know, you have so many opportunities to stub your foot on the corner of a filing cabinet. Let's not even touch on the subject of paper cuts. Who would have thought that putting a piece of paper into an envelope and sealing it could cause an injury with soo much blood! ;)
• Hello, yes? Person in the cubicle five rows over from me? Yes, the entire office can hear you loud and clear talking on the phone to one of your clients. You are literally louder than the person right next to me. Also, you may or may not have blown out the ear drum of the person you were on the phone with.
• And you, Mr. Car Sale's Man? Is that your name? When I ask you how your day is, you don't need to talk to me like I am one of your clients. You don't need to convince me that today is a perfect day for a walk, or how I should open up the windows in my house on this beautiful day. Trust me, I know, and every time I look out the window I am reminded of it... so thanks for stating the obvious.
• If this one person coughs ONE MORE TIME, I will lose it. I will. Every 2 minutes. I have documentation of this from using my phone's stop watch. How about this, DRINK SOME WATER.
• This next one is an unwritten rule for women's bathrooms. I know bathrooms are set up differently but here is the situation of the bathroom at my work. there are 4 stalls all next to each other. It is a secret unwritten rule of womanhood than when someone is in one of the stalls, don't go in the stall right next to them. Choose the next one over so that there is plenty of space between you two. I feel very uncomfortable when I know I am the only one in the bathroom, and you waltz in and take the stall right next to me, when you have two more stalls to choose from that are farther away. Unless you don't have any other option of stalls to choose from, don't be weird!!
• They should be giving out free gum at the door when you walk in. Enough with the coffee breath people. Seriously. I worked at Dunkin Donuts for 3 years and I still don't like coffee, so no, I don't reallty get a high off of smelling your old coffee breath. Tic Tac anyone?
• How about that awkward moment when you have to walk by someone. You see each other walking at each other. Mentally you are preparing for what you have to do. Say hi? Wave? Smile? WHAT? WHAT DO I DO???? Personally, I always smile and sometimes say hi, which still feels awkward. Immediately upon walking past them, I think of about 3 other things I could have done better than just smiling, and possibly saying hello.
• Whenever I wear a pencil skirt, I know I am subjecting myself to a day of torture. Men, I hope you don't know what I am talking about. Literally, the second I put on that skirt I am in for a day of walking blunders. Getting into a car is more difficult, walking up and downstairs, making any sort of large stride while walking is not possible. WHO INVENTED THESE THINGS?

These are just some of the typical office blunders I can think of. I am sure during my lunch today I will think of more, and in that case, I will be adding more to this as I think of them! Beware of office blunders!

Hear Me Out

So, since I have started up this blog I have had many viewers and it's growing every day. I love it! I love that people check out my blog and come back for more. I even like it when anonymous people e-mail, or comment on the blog posts to tell me what they think. Key word here... anonymous. The whole reason I started this blog in the first place was so that I could write whatever I am feeling and have people enjoy it, and that has definitely happened. However, I have had people I know personally start to text me telling me they liked my post, or what they thought of it, and I don't like it.

I don't want to know who reads my blog, when they read it, what they think of my post, or how much they agree with me.

I don't mind an anonymous fellow blogger sending me a professional e-mail and having a discussion about blog topics there, but that is it. If I have people I know texting me about my blog, I will just be forced to move my blog to a place where it will be private. Which I don't want to do. I want to be able to keep everything right here, but having people I actually know texting me about my blog has started to kill it for me. How could this be? Let me explain. When I open up a blank page and start writing, I don't want to write differently or censor certain things because I know certain people are looking at my blog. If I have people texting me or whatever telling me they read a certain blog post, then the next time I write, that person is just stuck in my head, and then it actually hinders my writing. This blog is like a diary to me, the only difference is I am sharing it with the world. That being said, I know that people I know are going to stumble across it, but please, just enjoy the blog, don't text me or call me to comment on a post I made.

I do, however, accept e-mails from people who are anonymous and wish to talk about a blog post, and I also accept people leaving comments on a post.

I really didn't want to make this a blog post today, because I like to write about stories and what not, but I just had to say this now, because it has already started to hinder my thought process when I try to write. Thank you everyone =)

What Grinds/Greases My Gears

Normally when I make post, it's usually a story, or an opinion about something, but I decided it would be cool to change things up. If this idea goes well with all you viewers, then maybe I can try to make it a once a week post. I call it, What Grinds My Gears, and What Greases My Gears. When I was on my high school newspaper team, we used to do this in each edition, and it was actually really fun to write, and people who read the paper seemed to like it too!

What Grinds My Gears, are things that are annoying to me in some way. What Greases My Gears are things that make me happy in some way. So here it goes!



What Grinds My Gears:

• When I put in my contacts in, and there in a tiny piece of dirt inside that makes my eye feel like it's been stabbed 5 times (For anyone with contacts, you can relate)
• When the salad bar at work uses old wilted lettace
• When cars go 10 miles under the speed limit
• When my USB cords break after about 2 weeks of getting them

• When I'm at the gym and someone takes the last bench and uses the bench to put their weights on and doesnt even use the bench to sit
• When someone says how they "bet all the members of Radical Something smoke weed" (that is false by the way. Only one of the band members do)
• Putting on jeans right after they have been dried
• Getting in my car when it's 114 degrees (Hello suffocation)
• When customers at the Casino complain about our high prices (Welcome to the beach)
• Animal print
• When someone doesn't text me back
• Drunk idiots
• New speed bumps on the road my office is on
• Sitting down all day
• The fact that Cosmo magazines cost so much

What Greases My Gears:

• A warm chocolate chip cookie
• The feeling after a workout
• Jumping in the ocean
• Eating fried dough from Blink's
• Walking into work at the Casino Ballroom
• Ice cold water
• Ending the day a little tanner than before
• A well made bed
• Air conditioning
• Good morning text messages
• Getting paid
• A full battery on my phone
• When a song comes on that is perfect for the mood I'm in
• Wearing my favorite romper
• Ice Cream Tuesday at work
• Bonfires

Well, there you have it! These are some of the things this week that have grinded, and greased my gears! Until next time! ;)

Social Media Kind Of Life

Happy Monday! I normally don't say those kinds of things, but since I have been sitting here at work trying to send a fax to someone for like the 5th time and it still won't go through, I figured maybe I should try to stay a little positive about the day.

I had a busy weekend, but not very eventful. Although, when I was hanging out with a group of people, somewhere between all the food and small talk, there was a conversation that came up that kind of got me thinking. Somehow the topic of Myspace came up. It was brought up in a joking way and after a couple comments that conversation died and we were on to a new topic. Most people I know never had any type of social media account until Facebook, and they never even really knew what Myspace was, let alone have an account, so it's kind of weird when I talk to some people about Myspace because not many of my friends really relate to it. 

Myspace getting brought up the other day made me think about how my life has been shaped around social media. For those of you who do not know already, I am currently 20 years old. Are you ready for this? I created a Myspace account when I was 13 years old. That means since the year 2005 I have been on social media. That is almost 10 years, which translates to almost half of my life. Initially, taking in this realization I was kind of in awe, because I am part of the generation where our teen years were spent on the internet. Then I got to thinking, if my generation has essentially spent half of their life thus far on social media, does that mean the generation of children right now are growing up on social media? The answer is yes, and I'm not really sure how to take that because I see the good and bad from it.

I'm not going to lie, at 13 years old I probably shouldn't have been on Myspace. After all, I did have to lie about my age to even create the account to begin with. I don't want to say that Myspace made me be more mature than I had to be at 13 years old, but at the same time I was being exposed to adult language and adult ways of thinking. As much as I had "learned" from Myspace as a young teenager, it never made me a different person or made me act like I was 20 years old. In fact, it was a place where I could write my thoughts and opinions, and as a result inspiring me to create a blog someday, like right now. 

Many adults at the time would say that a child had no place in an online world like that, but if they spent a few days in a junior high and heard what kids talked about on a average day, they would see that unfortunetly there's no way a kid can be protected from it. They are either going to hear it from social media, or they are going to hear it from kids at school. I am not a parent, so I can't pass judgement at them for wanting to protect their kids from "adult content", but what I do know is that they have to be realistic. Kids nowadays are talking about this stuff because it's a different world. Even if your child doesn't have a Facebook account or some other social media account, their friends and classmates do, and those kids will talk about it and what's on it, so at the end of the day, they are still being exposed to it on some level. 

On the bright side, I have seen a change in the past 7 years as social media has become a part of almost everyone's lives. When I was 13 and on Myspace, it was before Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and before parents and other adults were on it. Before parents and older people were on social media, they really didn't accept it, and I could see that in the way parents were so strict on my friends about it. Now, however, there is a very different attitude towards it. I see parents who have kids around the age of 11 and 12 not making it a big deal that their kids have social media accounts, and I think that is a tremendous step forward.

I have to say that for the most part I am pro social media, and I guess that's true based on what I have talked about so far in this post. While I think social media has so many beneficial aspects to it, I do worry about the future of kids. I feel sorry for them because they do most of their communication through texting or through social media and I fear that they will not have good comunnication skills when they are face to face with someone. I think my generation is kind of on the boarderline regarding this because we weren't exposed to social media our entire lives. Those kids growing up right now though, social media is all they are going to know, and it is a little sad to think about. We are all living in a social media kind of life, and I am very interested to see how the future will shape kids growing up today.

Looking To The Future

Truthfully, this is probably going to be my last post until Sunday or Monday. Even though the weekends are meant for relaxation, they always seem to be the busiest part of the week for me. Working two jobs, (one full time and one part time) is very exhausting and basically everything that I don't have time to get done during the week has to get done on the weekends. Thinking about my upcoming busy weekend, it kind of makes me realize that I am definitely not a kid anymore. I remember like, back in high school and even last summer, when I had different jobs, I was able to hangout on the beach all day, and work some shifts at night. I had it so good. I slept in most days, hungout, got all my stuff done, and then would work at night. Since I have an internship that is Monday thru Friday during the day, I have to prioritize my time better, and truly be an adult.

I've had to be an adult for a while now but I really don't mind it. Honestly, I like it. I don't like being lazy. It's extremely hard for me to just sit and not do anything, because I guess in my mind I always feel like there's more to be done. Running errands, cleaning, making phone calls, etc. etc.

The only time it really gets hard is when a lot of my friends and people my age have so much more freedom to just do whatever. They get to go to all these cool places over the summer, or just like chill at home and not really do all that much. Maybe they have a summer job for some extra cash, but that money can just be spent on whatever, because they have parents that help them. Don't get me wrong I am NOT COMPLAINING, because I know that all the hard work I'm putting in right now is giving me an advantage over everyone else. The struggle makes me stronger, wiser, smarter, and it teaches me how to be more independent and support myself without anyone else's help. I actually feel really good knowing that I pay for everything on my own. I am very independent and no matter what happens, I am always OK.

I'm excited for what the future brings for me because I know that it is all uphill from here. Now that I am older and have a "big girl job", I have been more confident in the fact that I can support myself better financially and it's a really good feeling. I have two years of college left, and I am working really hard at securing a full time job in my field by the time I graduate. If all goes as planned I hope to have my own place on the NH seacoast. I was born and raised there, and even though I went to college a few hours away from home, it has just made me realize how much I want to stay there and have a family there someday. You read that correctly, I am going to be a towny. I grew up in such a great area, and the people in the area are just so nice. I feel that I got a great base growing up here, and I can't think of anywhere else I want my future children to grow up. Of course I am not in a rush to have a family, but I think it's important to always plan for the future because then that way you aren't stuck or caught off guard when all of a sudden that day comes.

I am going to end this post with a quote.
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -Will Rogers.

I always loved this quote because it kind of reminds me to always be working towards getting to where you want to be. I am naturally always on the move trying to get things done, or getting internships, or just bettering myself in some way. I don't want a summer to go by where I am not making the most money I can make at a job that is teaching me so many skills I will use in the professional world someday. This quote reminds me to ALWAYS KEEP MOVING. Sometimes people tell me to JUST HAVE FUN NOW, and DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE. Of course it is important to have fun, and I do have a lot of fun, but if having fun is all you care about, you may find yourself at a stand still because while you were having "so much fun", life kept going. I have fun in moderation, because everything is good in moderation. :)