Apartment Style – A Work in Progress

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On Pinterest, “Home Decor” is one of my favorite categories to browse. I love seeing the perfectly put-together rooms and the features that no one would actually ever implement in their house, but they look fun to have (like a slide from your bedroom to the living room, or a trash chute that leads outside and puts the trash right into the garbage bin). I love dreaming about my own future house and imagining color-coordinated furniture or boldly painted walls. I picture myself, someday, having a home where things are new and perfect.

It’s fun to dream about this because right now, it is very difficult to actually accomplish. I suppose your first apartment is supposed to be crappy. It’s supposed to be a little run-down, a little worn around the edges, a little small and a little inconvenient. When I am older and living in a big house with a yard, I will remember this one bedroom apartment and I’ll appreciate everything that much more.

I’m okay with living here right now. I’ll accept that we have to wash every dish by hand and that the cupboards don’t have knobs and that the bathroom light switch is all the way over by the towel rack instead of right next to the door. It’s only two rooms, but it’s spacious enough and the carpets are surprisingly well-kept. It’s okay that all of our furniture either came from my parents or Jim’s parents, or Craigslist. But what I am struggling with is how to decorate. Continue reading →

Waiting for the Perfect Post

Posted in Lessons Learned by

WritingPerfection

After a two month hiatus, I have returned to the blogging world. When I entered Jessica Lawlor’s Get Gutsy essay contest at the end of 2013, I thought it would be the beginning of another great year of blogging. But I read the entries from so many other inspiring and accomplished bloggers and I started to wait for more inspiration.  I was waiting for some divine, fabulous, unique idea that I would just have to write about. And then one week became two and two weeks became a month and now it’s been over two months without a word.

At first, I was waiting for something great to write about, but then I had too many ideas. I had too much to say and not enough time in the day to write it. Therefore, I kept putting it off, waiting to be overcome with a brilliant stroke of genius. I told myself I was waiting for a whole uninterrupted day when I could just put down every thought onto paper, or digital paper. And then I would get that whole day and spend it reading or catching up on Netflix shows instead.

I wanted to see the whole post formulate in my mind, fully played out, before I committed to writing it down. I wanted to write something that would have meaning for every reader and would strike a cord in every heart and perhaps change the world. Continue reading →

Getting Gutsy – It’s All About the Journey

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The year of 2013 was big for me. I’ve probably said that about many other years, though. The year I started high school, the year I graduated high school and went away to college, the year I discovered television production, the year I graduated college… I keep thinking that those years where all the big stuff happens all at once are behind me. I keep thinking that life will level out and I will find my niche and all will continue smoothly without surprises or upsets. I keep thinking I’ll find that comfort zone.

I believe that I am a person who likes to have things figured out. I like plans, to-do lists, and the predictability of a schedule. But when I think about this past year, nothing I did was in “the Plan.” I’m not even sure what that plan was or where it originated, but I know that I never saw myself here.

After this year, though, I’ve realized that life is not about finding your comfort zone. It’s about getting away from it. Life is about change and struggle and loss and love. It’s about the journey. This past year held many firsts, was full of uncertainty and doubt, and overflowed with changes. I was as far from my comfort zone as I could be, and yet it was one of the best years of my life.  Continue reading →

Facebook Star Ratings Create Cause for Concern

Posted in Advertising & Social Media by

facebook starsIf you are in advertising and marketing, then you know that Facebook is constantly making changes to its site, pages and policies, and the company is not always perfectly transparent about these changes. You also know that within the past month star ratings on a scale of one to five have begun to appear prominently on business pages, right under the name of the business. Individual reviews and ratings also appear on the page, in the right-hand column for desktop and above page posts on the mobile app.

When these ratings first appeared, I saw several articles and blog posts talking about how these ratings could be good or bad. HubSpot argued both ways in an attempt to remain neutral, as did TechCrunch, while InvestmentNews tells advertisers they should be concerned. Business Insider says that the ratings will put Facebook in direct competition with Yelp and FourSquare.  Other sources, like Social Media Today raised the questions we should all be asking.

Although the Facebook star ratings are supposedly still in the “testing phase,” I see some major cause for concern as an advertiser if they continue with this rating system. Continue reading →

How to Land the Job of Your Dreams: The Arbitrary Interview Process

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interview_blogI have been working at Beyond Spots & Dots for two full months. It feels like a lifetime. How did I get so lucky, when some people struggle to find a job they love?

I have been thinking  lately that the whole job search process is a blend of luck and strategy and wit and formula–therefore it is entirely and completely random. There is no “process.” No one is right or wrong, no one has the advantage. It’s everyone for themselves. Yet we try to help each other out by doling out these rules and say that they will work if you follow them to a T.

Like little robots, college students come out of graduation with resumes and cover letters in hand, and carefully practiced answers to interview questions. With a degree, some activities and an internship, they all look the same on paper. What it comes down to must be the interview. Continue reading →

Choosing to Face the Ocean

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There were two ways my life could’ve gone. Be comfortable and complacent, taking the easy, known road, however unhappy I may be. Or step out of that comfort zone and dive into completely new waters, struggle through the unknown to discover something I love. I hope you can guess which one I chose. Continue reading →

My First Netflix Binge: “Orange is the New Black”

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We all know that Netflix is the future of TV. Maybe not Netflix exactly, but TV in the form of on-demand media. Someone might build a new platform or come up with a new payment system or call it MiTV, but the idea is that people can watch a story, from beginning to end, in increments, at their own pace, on a device of their choosing.

This idea is not new and I am certainly not the first person to discuss it or write about it in a blog post.

But this idea became abundantly clear to me last week, when Jim and I sat down and watched four episodes of “Orange is the New Black” in one night. And then two more the next night. And we finished the season by the end of the week. This raises two questions for me. Was the captivating allure of “Orange” so compelling that I couldn’t tear myself away? Or did I watch thirteen episodes of a show in one week just because I could?  Continue reading →

A Snapshot of the Past Four Years

Posted in Life's Adventures by

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A relationship is one spectacular journey. It is putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes uphill, sometimes down. There are rocky pathways and blue skies and lessons learned along the way. My journey has so far taken four years, side by side with the most amazing person I know.

When I was in high school, if someone told me I’d someday be dating someone for over four years, I’d say they were crazy. Back then, we thought that four months was a long time. In high school, you think the person you like to spend time with will become the person you date and then the person you marry, but the whole relationship escalates in just a few weeks and then there’s nowhere to go, so you both explode in an earth-shattering fight and call the whole thing off.

But real relationships are different.  Continue reading →

Cooking lessons from Pinterest

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I owe my newly discovered enthusiasm for cooking in large part to Pinterest. And also to the fact that if I didn’t learn to cook by now, I’d go hungry or become morbidly obese from eating Wendy’s new pretzel bacon cheeseburgers every night.

Now that I’m on my own in the real world and my parents aren’t here to cook and clean and shop for groceries, I have come to the terrible conclusion that I must, at long last, learn to feed myself. This is something that most people figure out before the age of 23 and should actually be recommended, but I have scraped by on macaroni and cheese and Spaghetti-O’s. At this point, it’s been long enough. There’s only so much Ramen noodles and thin, watery sauce I can take.

So now that I’m in my new apartment, here goes nothing. Continue reading →

7 Awesome Things about Running in a New Neighborhood

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As you may or may not know, I have been haunting a new neighborhood lately. One more urban, more crowded and certainly more interesting. I’ve come to this neighborhood with plans and hopes and fears and dreams. I have ventured out into this unknown…

Part of my plan for exploring this vastly unfamiliar area is to run. After my first (and last) 5K, I stopped running for a little while. I figured I could celebrate my small and insignificant victory by taking a break. When I tried to start back up again, I was out of shape and my knees were bothering me. I needed to start slowly and that is hard. All I wanted to do was pick up where I’d left off.  Continue reading →