It's Okay Thursday!

Happy Thursday y'all! Who can hardly believe it is almost the weekend again? It's time for another one of my favorite link ups with Neely @ A Complete Waste of Makeup & Amber @ Brunch with Amber for It's OKAY Thursday!

IT'S OKAY.....

that I finally filed my taxes on Monday...while most people were done already! Ha!

...that I have to find of bribe myself to go to the gym today. I am telling myself if I go, I can go get my nails done...and go in Victoria's Secret because I want that free umbrella with the $65 purchase! 

...that I just sent my boyfriend, the computer guru, a text message that said "Help me. A screw came out of my computer and I need you to fix it later!" All because he has a small kit for it. :)

...that I am not a morning person.

...that my "Yummy Food" board on pinterest is filled with yummy foods & alcoholic drinks. Maybe I should rename it "I'm a fat kid at heart"

...that I don't want to grow up. The real world is scary!

...that I am REALLY excited to go see The Lion King on Broadway with my boyfriend in two weeks. SCORE!!!!! I will be singing so loud and he'll have to suffer. Hehehe :)

...that I am still upset Elliot Stabler (aka Chris Meloni) isn't on Law & Order SVU anymore. PS Where are all the new episodes of SVU?!

...to feel like everyone around me is getting engaged/married/having a baby. 

...to be ridiculously excited about the cruise and all the food/drinks I will be having on it.

...to wonder why my gyno's office sent me a card for an appointment when I'm not due to go back until October. I wonder if they meant to write it to my mom and made a mistake. Weird. Guess I'll be calling on Monday! I hate that visit. :-/

..to be upset that gas is over $4 a gallon in NY. Thank god I only have to fill up every 7-8 days. Love my little Corolla.

... that I enjoy taking naps. There is nothing wrong with admitting that at 25!

WILW

Happy Wednesday, y'all! Head on over to Jamie's blog at This Kind of Love to share what you're loving today!

I'm loving that next week, Dance Moms Miami premieres on Lifetime. I love the show Dance Moms (the one in Pittsburgh) but this one looks pretty good! I'm just thankful I never went to a dance studio with crazy moms or instructors like that!

I'm loving that there are so many good movies coming out soon! Just two I totally can't wait to see:

I'm loving that March is almost over which means it is April...which means I can FINALLY get my iPhone! YAY!! I may be switching to my own plan from my mom's but need to check because I was grandfathered in under the unlimited texting/data before Verizon changed it last July.

I'm loving  that tonight is one of the most profitable fundraisers ever at my job for the school/district my brother teaches in. So even though it may be crazy/there'll be cranky people, it means more $$!

I'm loving that my boyfriend is taking me to see The Lion King on Broadway after our fun day in the city in two weeks. I am beyond excited because I have been dying to see this forever. Plus, it is one of my FAVORITE Disney movies. :)

I'm loving  that my legs feel like jello today from the workout at the gym. As much as I feel like I don't want to go, I push myself and in the end, it feels good! 

I'm loving this pin I found. Not only does it describe how most mothers must feel at times, it probably is foreshadowing my future haha. 

Umm what happened to the warm weather?

Seriously, I feel like Mother Nature is just having a huge temper tantrum. Last week, it was in the 70's, almost 80's. I broke out the flipflops. You would have thought it was the middle of May to some people. And here we are, back in 40 degree weather. WHAT?!! I couldnt not believe a week after I was wearing flipflops, I was in my Uggs & North Face. Boo. Please come back warm weather! 

I went to the gym again today with Amanda and I cannot tell you how sad I was that my iPod was almost dead when I went on the treadmill! Oh thank god it lasted on my run. I am so determined to lose the fat/weight I have gained recently. I would love to have a 6 pack of abs. That is not feasible to have right before I go away in 2 months ha! Some days I come home from the gym and wonder if my workouts during the week are actually doing anything at all. I feel like I have a semi constant complex with my body. Even though John tells me all the time how beautiful I am and skinny, doesn't help with my issue. I just want to look good in that bikini on the cruise!

John and I were suppose to go to dinner & see "The Hunger Games" tonight when I got done with the tutoring at school. Unfortunately for him, he spent his night last night sick and stayed home from work. I told him to rest and if he still wasn't feeling better, we'd just postpone it. Because there was no way I wanted to get sick with whatever he had.

Since I ended up staying home tonight, I tried to be productive. I did 3 loads of laundry and dusted my room. There's still more I have to do, like totally go through my closet when I switch wardrobes (that won't be for awhile until the weather warms up!), pick up the stuff I just threw on the floor from my bed so I could lay down, etc. Anyone else feel like cleaning can be fun yet such an annoying task to do. Maybe this will be something I tackle on Friday since I have the entire day off from work. Go me. I really need to start these projects at like 9am and not 6:30pm. Maybe that's my problem.

I will soon be living at my job on the weekends, ha! There's only really three hosts and one of them put in his two weeks notice so I am going to get more shifts on the weekend. It's okay, as long as I get scheduled breaks. And it's more $$. Maybe less time to hang out but hey, it's all a part of life.

I think what I am most excited about is getting my hair cut on Monday. I haven't had it cut since June and I am in desperate need of it.

Also, I will leave you with this. I am currently obsessed with this song....I don't know why!  

The best four months of my life

I love to travel. Period. There is something I find interesting and relaxing about airports. Flying can relax me. I have yet to have a bad flight with turbulence. Only rowdy teenagers. One of the best times of my life was the semester I studied abroad. Spring semester (2008) of my junior year of college I studied abroad in Seville, Spain. I knew I had to go to Spain. No question about it.

It's hard to believe it was over four years ago that I boarded a flight from JFK on a Sunday night with 17 of the 18 other kids in my program for the best four months of our lives. My college was a SUNY school and there were other kids from other SUNY schools that came through our program. We would spend 2.5 days in Granada, Spain and then 2.5 in Marabella, Spain for our orientation before we took our Coach bus to Seville and went to our apartments!

Bear with me as I reminisce (and I am sorry for the overload of pictures!):

A portion of our group as we waited to board our flight! I'm in the orange sweatshirt.

Some of the girls in the Madrid airport during our layover and no sleep! It was like 7am in Spain at that point.

First stop in Granada, La Alhambra.

View from the top of La Alhambra. It makes me miss Europe so much!



Downtown Granada with Jessie, Jessie, and Allie


Pretty!

Then we went off to Marabella...

Yeah, this was the resort we were at....in January! Everyone at home had snow and we were on the beach!



The girls I lived with en apartamento 207: Me, Allie, Jess, Sam and Jessie (Fun fact...we had four Jessicas on the trip! 3 of which were named Jessica Lynn).

Arrival to Seville!
We had four apartments in a Spanish speaking building that was a 15-20 min walk to the university.

Our tiny kitchen. To the left was our washer...took ALL DAY to do laundry! Oh, and I was afraid of that gas stove.

We affectionately called the apartment "Grandma's Garage" because it was so eclectic!

Inside of my closet I shared with Jessie.

Our beds. Not as comfy as mine at home!

La Universidad de Sevilla!

The gardens of Alcazar

Easter Sunday in Spain!


Allie & I
Family dinner!

A bunch of us before our first night out in Seville (Stacy, Jessie L, Sam, Milena, Me, Jessie, Jessie G)


Celebrating Jessie's birthday at TGIFriday's (yes they exist in Europe!)

Fun story...there was a claim that our apartment was causing a leak in the apartment ABOVE us. They came and did this in the bedroom that I slept in. OMG it took a lot of b*tching for them to patch it up.

Pitchers of Sangria before class? Sign me up!

Plaza de Espana...my favorite place in the city!

There was a building there at the start of the semester....

And now travels!
Barcelona:
Fun with the street characters!
Park Guell (yes, where ANTM was!)



Top of La Pedrera

London: (My mom came to visit me and we went here too!)
We went to the wax museum:
(This totally does NOT look like Jennifer Aniston. Also, I'm really tan!)

Phone booth!

Outside Buckingham Palace


Ireland:
At Trinity College

We went on the tour of the Guinness Factory!




Amsterdam:

Went on a Tour of the Anne Frank House (you can't take pictures inside)
This was the coffee shop in Ocean's 12!

Cordoba:
Our study abroad group and our director Miguel (Top row on the left) and our tour guide Luis (bottom row on the left)

Shopping in Cordoba!

All in all, studying abroad was worth EVERY single penny I spent. I would go back in a heart beat! I wish I had traveled more but there is always the future! I can't wait to get back to Europe!

Welcome to the real world!

I'm such a nerd. I am excited because I finally filed my taxes!! I know most of you are probably thinking "What?! Why so late?!" Part of the reason was due to my procrastination. Another part was my claim "I can't do this!" Well, I did it on TurboTax online. Paid the $75 to for both state & federal and was quite pleased with my refund! I think once I am living in my own house and have a more complicated tax return, I'd have someone do it for me, ha! Welcome to the real world!

I plan on trying to save that tax return money to use for shopping on the cruise. Because let's face it, stuff is expensive right now! And I so desperately need to find a teaching job, in a downgrading economy. It's so hard. One of my brother's "regulars" (and I mean, they request to sit with him every time they come in) at work was having dinner with her sister & husband and he was a teacher in one of the districts. He was telling me how many more teachers are actually getting laid off then the local newspaper was saying. Isn't that always the case? I know this is a common thing because a few of my college professors in grad school said they were "excessed" and then rehired. One can only hope that the job market for teachers in New York will turn around.

I often say how much I want to move to the South, specifically Georgia or even the Carolinas. It's a combination of being depressed about the job market in New York, a desire of warmer weather, and a desire of change. My heart feels like it belongs in the South. I honestly think this frightens my boyfriend John that I could move away. I think it does because I accidentally saw it in one of his text messages to his friends yesterday on his phone. Oops, didn't mean to snoop (lol) even though it kind of did hurt/make me think when I read it. I say I want to move...because I am deeply afraid of never finding a job up here. I want one, but they are so hard to come by. I know of people who have been looking for a teaching job for three years! Ideally, I'd love to have a leave replacement at first and then fall into a full-time job but I guess we will just have to see what is in the cards. I am at the point where I feel like I am ready top make that transition into the real world/being an adult yet it's hard to do so. If that means taking a pay cut and leaving my friends & family to move somewhere, then so be it. If John wanted to come with me, that would totally be okay. I would want to live with him first. Because there has never been a discussion of marriage between the two of us and when I brought this up the other night, he said he doesn't want to get married for a long time, which is totally okay and understandable. As much as I love weddings and say I have mine planned out, I have no clue when that time will come for me. Right now, I need to focus on what is more important- GETTING A JOB!

I'm sorry if that was just a whole bunch of nonsense. It helps getting it out there thinking "What if?" I have lots to look forward to now that the CST is behind me and I can apply for jobs. I hope something will come my way in due time.

7 weeks from today I will be on my way to cruising to the Bahamas. 7 WEEKS! Holy cow!! Both John & I are really excited. I cannot wait to go. Who does not want an excuse to kick back for 8 days in the sun (I will cry like a baby if it rains), relax with a margarita and get tan with your boyfriend? :)

Last night John and I watched "War Horse" because he said it was good (done by Steven Spielberg) and there was an underlying romance in it. He knows how much I love chick flicks. Well, there was none of that! I literally couldn't stop crying at one point and had to start playing with his iPad because the movie was depressing me! Did anyone else have that reaction?

Time to go do something productive before work!

Life's Like A Box Full of Chocolates...

As Forrest Gump would say, "My mama always used to say...life's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Love that quote and movie! Such a classic. This quote is one of my favorites because I feel like it describes the people that come into my job. You honestly never know what you're going to get with these people. Like the lady that said I was rude because I told her she came in the wrong door and that our entrance is the revolving door. (Did you see other people coming in there?!) Or the lady that said I needed to "police" the kids in the revolving door that we have. Like they'll listen to me. And then you get the SUPER nice people that don't care where they sit as long as they get to eat. Seriously, you never know what you're going to get with these people. The joys of working with others. :)

Today actually was interesting at work. Since I work at the mall at my job, there are a few restaurants in the "outer" part of the mall aka the lifestyle village...one of those being Cheesecake Factory. They are usually busy and whenever there is a ridiculous wait there, the overflow comes to my job. Perfect for us. Except Cheesecake had an electrical fire or something today! So three local fire departments, ambulances, etc came and roped off the restaurant. It was evacuated and then everyone started coming into CPK. Yay for us! I hope everyone made good money tonight.

I had the fortunate Saturday night off because my brother asked me a month ago to babysit so him & his wife could go out to dinner and see "The Hunger Games." They very rarely go to a movie by themselves. They went with a big group of their friends. My nieces and nephew are currently zonked out in bed and I'm just chilling in the family room watching "The Blind Side" on ABC Family. I find it ironic/weird/hysterical that they change the word "titty" to "boobie bar" at one point in the movie but they wont change the word "b*tch" out. Strange considering it is on ABC Family channel.

I am so excited for the "Spring Break" I get from tutoring. I don't it since it is extra money but on the thursday of my spring break, John and I are going into the city to spend the day. We're going to go to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum! I went there back in 2007 with my best friend April and went to the actual original one in London when I was visiting there with my mom. I can't wait to see the new figures they have. We're also going to go to the Museum of Natural History and I haven't been there since 5th grade! Talk about a long time. I am excited and hope the day we go is a nice day out!

I am really excited that I have next Friday off from work. Nope, didn't ask for it. And honestly, I just might stay home and ask my mom to watch a movie. We always say we're going to do it and then never do. Maybe watch the newer version of "Footloose" since I have it. I like nights of not going out all the time. Now the Blind Side has ended and my favorite love story came one...The Notebook. "If you're a bird, I'm a bird!" i have not watched this in forever and obviously can't stay up til the 2am projected finish time since I went to bed at 3 this morning but oh, seriously, I want to have a love story one day like Allie and Noah's!

Sometimes when I am in a semi zone at the gym and running for as long as I can on the treadmill, I want to throw my hands up in the air and wave them around like I just don't care...all because an AWESOME song came on! I am always looking for jams to add to my iPod/workout playlist so if you have any, throw them my way!

It's Okay Thursday!

Who can believe it is Thursday already?! Holy cow. In ways, this week is dragging by but flying by as well! Link up with Neely @ A Complete Waste of Makeup & Amber @ Brunch with Amber to show what's okay with you today!

IT'S OKAY...

...that as I am writing this, my 2 and a half year old niece is in the other room watching a DVD we got from the library. It can be exhausting entertaining them all day!

...that I am still super happy I passed my certification test and can now apply for jobs.

....to be scared of applying for said jobs. Time to be a grown up!!

...to wake up and wonder at what time you can take a nap that day. Maybe I have some sort of fatigue problem but I have been super tired lately!

...to not have a CLUE what is going on with this political stuff for the presidential campaign. My brother Brian would be ashamed of me. Frankly, I don't care!

...to follow all the moms from "Dance Moms" on Twitter!

...to need a hair cut but be lazy in calling to get one.

...to think its hysterical everyone is so upset about Tim Tebow going to play for the NY Jets. This is why I dont follow football!

...to be planning a vacation now to the Dominican Republic (Punta Cana!) with your best friend instead of Mexico. Cheaper, still sunny and we're still going to have an amazing time!

...that honestly some nights I just want to go home and go to bed and not see anyone including the boyfriend. I love these nights!

...to feel fat in your clothes yet they are falling off of you even with a belt on! I feel like I'm stuck in between sizes in my jeans! I have what I like to call my "fat days" jeans and my "skinny days" and right now I'm stuck between the two!

...to keep saying "I will do my taxes!" and not have done them yet. Yikes, April 15th is soon! That's my goal for tomorrow before I go to work.

...to NOT be going to the Hunger Games tomorrow night...I cant imagine staying awake for three hours of it at midnight so I'll wait til the crowds die down (somewhat)

...to miss studying abroad and want to go back. Was I really there four years ago?! This needs a post in itself!

...to want it to be May so I can go on my cruise and June to go to Atlantic City with the girls!

...that sometimes I wish I was back in school for another degree...sometimes I miss class. WHAT?!

What's okay with y'all? Link up & share!