Well, I did it!

Okay, I did it. Finally bit the bullet. I joined the gym. Planet Fitness to be exact. I am not sure what my excuse was so long for procrastinating. I actually requested a gym membership for Christmas but didn't get it. I was a member of a gym until I hurt my back at work and had to go to physical therapy for it. You could actually join over the internet. While I realize it is probably packed now with all the people working on their New Year's resolution,hopefully it'll stop soon! I don't want to join and then not use it because that's a waste of $. Plus, with going on the cruise in May, I need to look hot in that bikini! So, here's to hoping this goes well! I am going to go use it tomorrow...let's hope I don't die!

One of the things I would like to work on this year is not letting stupid things get to me. A customer gave me a $10 tip today at work and the other host wanted to split it. I was told I didn't have to split it but she didn't agree and told another manager (who wasn't there when it happened). Basically, the whole situation blew up out of proportion, I cried because I was either PMSing or just super emotional and I essentially gave in to give her the $5 so she would stop talking about it....but threw it at her, which yes I know was not right. I just think if she really felt that way she should have said something earlier and not after the manager left (which is my fault I guess since I said it after the manager left). I realize (and so does she) that the whole situation is stupid (I mean really, over $5 u are going to make a stink when you'll get more tips that night serving) but we both agreed to forget it, stop talking about it and move on. I was more than willing to go home because it wasn't busy (I was going to go home at 7 anyway, 6 if it wasnt busy and I left at 5) and I felt like crap. My neck has been bothering me today...so much I cried the entire 20 minute drive home. I used a heating pad and Advil when I came home but it still hurts. I took a muscle relaxer a little while ago so hopefully that will stop it. I dont know why I am having these pains all of a sudden.

I admit....watching this show is one of my guilty pleasures.

So when this video of a little beauty pageant queen came up on my Facebook newsfeed, I spent the two minutes watching it. Oh my word it is HYSTERICAL! I can safely say when I have children (and hopefully daughters) I will not force them to do beauty pageants.

And seriously, I want to go to Staples. I love office/school supplies. I get a little "high"/energy from them. Like I am a pen hoarder! I don't know what it is but I just love roaming the school supplies aisle in Target/Wal-Mart/K-Mart/anywhere that has them. Lord help me when I have a classroom!

Um hello winter?

Let's face it. I am not a winter weather loving person. Sure, the clothes are cute. And as a future teacher, if I live in a state where kids (and teachers) will wish for snow days, that is an added bonus. What is not an added bonus? The frigid cold weather! I really should not be complaining since it was warm out on Christmas, but come on! I was not happy with myself that I left my gloves *in* my car last night so when it was sitting outside for 9 hours in the cold, they were like iceboxes! If we do not have any snow (or very minimal) this winter, I will be a happy camper.

Going back to work after a week off was not so bad but I was glad to have a week off from the rude people. Seriously, did you not learn manners when you were little? I love how people can't simply read the sign on the front door that tell the hours. It's 11:40 and we open at noon on Sundays so, no we will not sit you until noon. Stop being mean to us. And because you're sitting at the counter/bar with your son and have drinks, how am I suppose to know you want to be sat in the dining room? Luckily, one of the servers dealt with this nasty lady for me because I had like 6 other people to sit. Seriously, people are just dumb. I even got yelled at because it's ridiculous we won't put a high chair at the end of a booth. Oh, I'm sorry..what if a hot drink or soup was spilled on your child? Yeah, it's a fire hazard and so no, if you don't like it, talk to the manager. Oy vey. At least I am not closing tonight...only 7 hours today because I switched shifts with someone.

And to top it off, I got home and at 10:30 realized my wallet was missing...as in I left it at the host stand because I thought I had to pay for my employee meal for my break but I didn't. I never put it back in my purse. *Insert freakout here* I tried calling to see if the manager was still there but she wasn't. So I texted one of my friends to see if she was working tomorrow morning (I know theres like 3 kids parties going on today) and asked her if she'd put it in the safe for me. Thankfully she's working and I'm going in at noon. It would suck if I had to replace EVERYTHING in there...although my license picture is horrendous so that would not have been such a tragedy.

Will tomorrow actually be the day when I will get the rest of my room clean? Sure hope so! I miss the days of college when I was actually productive because if I didn't clean up my room, I'd trip over something.

Last night were the Golden Globes. I didn't watch. Oops? Primarily because I was at work/on the way home. But here are some of my FAVORITE looks:




Time to go get ready for another fun-filled day of work. I hope y'all had a fun weekend and enjoy your day off thanks to MLK! :)

Tale as old as time

Last night, my friends Zach and Amanda came down to come see "Beauty and the Beast" with Olivia, Shannon and I. And of course, it was in 3D! We got to wear those spectacular fun glasses...except they weren't working at first. Shannon and Zach went to go complain because it was $14 a ticket (which is outrageous!) but they fixed the focus. Thank goodness. I was so happy to see it on the big screen. Beauty & The Beast is my FAVORITE Disney movie and I think was the first one I owned. The fact it came out in 1991 makes me feel SUPER old. I cannot wait for The Little Mermaid (which came out in 1989) to come to the big screen in 3D!

After, we went back to Olivia's house to hang out and spent the night playing Taboo. I am SO bad at that game. Whenever it was my turn, I always seemed to get the difficult ones. My friends were cracking up at some of my answers so I am glad I can always provide the entertainment.

I got my Erin Condren planner in the mail yesterday! OMG I was so excited! It was totally worth the full $50 I spent and the long wait. I got a $10 off coupon in the box that never expires so I am going to try and save it for the end of the year when I go to order one for next year. I'll post the pictures of it...once I find my camera cord.

I am not looking forward to going to work all day tomorrow, especially after I went to bed at 6:15am this morning, ha! No one's fault but my own. I woke up to an email this morning that my schedule was modified for next week and instead of working 4-9:30 Mon, 5-9:30 Wed and 11:30-4 Fri, they switched it to 4-9 Mon, 5-9 Wed and 12-3 Fri. My Sat & Sun shifts stayed the same. I "lost" a total of 2.5 hours in my schedule but it's okay. If it's really busy, I'll have to stay anyways so whatever. I wonder if it has to do with labor costs or if its just because it'll be slow. Whatever.

I also like how banks are charging you for your $$ now, essentially. I have a secondary checking account at Chase that was a college checking account. They started taking $6 a month out which doesn't seem like a lot but little by little, it adds up! So when my mom had me deposit money in her account yesterday, I asked and in order to get them to stop withdrawing it, I had to have my checks from work direct deposited into my account. That's just an annoyance. Oh well. It's also annoying that I couldn't pay my Old Navy Visa bill online without a fee. It's due tomorrow and my bank would not have gotten it there until the 17th or 18th. So I had to pay a $15 fee on the phone to have them do it today...that sucks too! Lesson learned---pay them as soon as they come in!

I am off to go finish cleaning my room. It always seems like I am cleaning because I am...I get distracted easily. Oh well!

It's Okay! Thursdays!

Link up with Neely @ A Complete Waste of Makeup and Amber @ Brunch with Amber for "It's Okay Thursdays!"

It's ok...to still be in pajamas at 12:45pm! I did so much yesterday I really just need to focus on cleaning my room.

It's ok...to enjoy grocery shopping at age 25 (my mom hates it!) and want to have a coupon binder. Hey, free stuff is great and all that money I save is wonderful!

It's ok...that I am EXCITED beyond measure to see Beauty & The Beast in 3D tomorrow with my four friends that I went to Disney with last year. Seriously, we're all in our 20's and are going to be singing at the top of our lungs. Sorry to anyone that ends up in our theater!

It's ok...to just be starting on watching Glee. I know, what is my problem?! Olivia is going to Puerto Rico with her boyfriend next week and is lending me her DVDs!


It's ok...to just want to go spend the $100 to get that darn iphone as opposed to waiting til April. Thanks to the waitress at TGIFriday's for really messing up my phone. Ugh. I just need to get my butt out to Verizon and ask them what they can do.

It's ok...to wish I could live in the South. I feel like I am a Southern girl at heart!

It's ok...to be obsessed with Jenna Marbles. She is HYSTERICAL. I love all her videos. Check out her latest one: Why Girls Hate Each Other.

It's ok...to vent about how much your boyfriend was whining the other night to your girlfriends because they can totally sympathize! I had a much needed GNO last night with Shannon and Olivia!

It's ok...to eat Combos dipped in french onion sauce, cream cheese, etc. No, they were not combined but it was SO yummy. And these are my new favorite:


It's ok...to want to go back to Target (or maybe Wal-Mart) and buy a new alarm clock because the one you had since college (almost 7 years) randomly dies on you. I have to play around with it but I think it's dunzo. And I need a new one stat because I need three alarm clocks to wake myself up!

It's ok...to be addicted to Diet Dr.Pepper Cherry. And when you mix it with Swedish Fish Flavored vodka, SCORE!

It's ok...to have so many books you want to read. I need to start "The Hunger Games" ASAP!

Sometimes speaking up works

I have never been a person to complain about a class or a professor to anyone at a college. As in lodging a formal complaint. I was at New Paltz for four years and I only fought with a professor once from my French Lit after 1800 class because she didn't show up the day of my presentation (no email or anything). I then got sick and missed class (of course emailing her) and my friend Christina in the class told me the professor was making me do a new presentation which was SO NOT NECESSARY. Fought tooth and nail and got to do the original one. That's it.

Studied abroad for a semester at the Universidad de Sevilla and had no problems.

When I started grad school, I chose Dowling based on their reputation for a good education program. I chose it because I could finish the program faster than I could at Stonybrook. It was going to cost me a buttload in loans because Dowling is a private school and Stonybrook is a state school. However, I was willing to take the risk. I was so determined I took a winter class in January 2010, three classes that spring semester, a summer course, 4 courses and part time student teaching in Fall 2010 and finished in May 2011. A total of a year and a half.

Towards the end, my classmates and I were informed we could take four Special Education classes and the autism workshop along with the Students with Disabilities CST for certification and get a Special Education certification. With this job market, you want to be as marketable as possible so of course I did it! I took two classes over the summer and two in the fall, one of which was the WORST EXPERIENCE EVER. The professor was completely unprofessional. I know as students its easy to get bored, get distracted by your iPhone, Blackberry, etc in class and text. But to text/play on your phone while a student is presenting and NOT EVEN MAKE EYE CONTACT? Rude rude rude rude. When students asked for help on the final project (which was writing an IEP), she was like "Well I guess I can give you a set of scores." Umm, if we are not in a school and these are confidential, how in the world do you expect us to get them?! Ugh.

So when I received an email last night from the Dean of the School of Education about why I hadn't registered for spring classes, I explained why and then wrote a really long message about the class. I didn't mention the teacher's name in the email but I guess it showed him how pissed off I was because he forwarded it to the Dean/Director of Special Education and if necessary, she'll contact me. I'm glad I didn't chicken out because they need to know how horrible this professor was. It was a COMPLETE waste of $3000 for the glass (grad classes are like $900+ a credit!) and my time. I hope to hear from the Special Education chair and something is done about this!

Well, now that I spent three hours of my way watching movies as I boxed the Christmas decorations up, I am off to go shove them in the attic!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday y'all! Why does this week feel like it is dragging by?

Time to link up with Jamie and show what you're loving this week! :)


I'm loving the movie "The Help." Yes,I have mentioned it before but my mom and I saw it when it was in theaters. I asked for it for Christmas and got it and popped it in my computer as I wrapped all the Christmas ornaments to put away. Now if I could only finish the book!! (Half-way done!)

I'm loving that tonight Shannon, Olivia and I will be having some much needed girly conversations, dinner, drinks, and just hanging out. Who would have known that all three of us going to college would become best friends and live within a 15 minute drive from each other? :)

I'm loving that Dance Moms came back last night! The teacher on the show is absolutely crazy but it makes for some good reality TV. Thank goodness I went to a dance studio where the director was NOT like that. Tune in to Lifetime at 9pmEST on Tuesdays if you wanna check this out!

I'm loving that this will be mine...soon. I am trying so hard to wait to renew my contract and upgrade to this in April because it's only $100 with a 2 year contract. But texting on my Blackberry is becoming a nightmare!

I'm loving Jodi Picoult has a new book coming out soon. She's my favorite author.


I'm loving this quote by Walt Disney. It's my philosophy in life.


I'm loving that I am DETERMINED to have all that Christmas decor packed up and away by tonight (tomorrow AM if necessary). It's a big pain to do when no one helps and quite depressing but it'll be nice not to have the boxes taking over the living room.

Top 5 Tuesday: School Supplies

Link up with Rachel @ Just Peachy!

It's no longer Tuesday....can I still link up? Well of course!

I am a TOTAL NERD when it comes to school supplies. Dude, walking through Staples gives me a high. I just love pens, paper, binders, etc. My mom always used to buy a lot when we were younger and then we'd "shop" once we got our supply lists from our teachers.

Sadly, I am no longer in school (until I find another extension/certification I want to get!) and won't be buying school supplies. Insert sad face here! But being that I am a teacher, I will always have an excuse to love them. So here are my top 5 school supply items:

1. Planner

I am ALL about writing down assignments, due dates, birthdays, etc in my planner. Whenever I got a syllabus, I would write down all the assignments and color code with a highlighter for each class. Course this stunk when the professor changed dates but having everything in front of me helped a lot. I did not use an Erin Condren planner in college (HS they gave us one and college I bought them myself from Target) but I am excited for the one I ordered to get here. Should be here by Friday!

2. Post Its

Another life saver! I still use these by putting reminders on my mirror using them, flagging bills, etc. Plus they come in so many colors that make looking at assignments bright & cheery! One good use I found for them when writing papers that needed quotes was the tabbed ones because then I could flip right back to it, plus sometimes I wrote notes on them.

3. Notebooks

I was NEVER able to have one big notebook for school. Each class had to have their own notebook and own folder. It made my life easier that all the papers for each class were together. I also do not like wide ruled notebooks or paper. I need the college ruled lined paper/notebooks.

4. Highlighters

They are a life saver! Each class was color coded so I knew when I had a quiz/test in a class. Birthdays were in another color. They were also helpful with color coding my classes when I student taught. I bought a ten pack (I think) last year of the retractable ones by Sharpie and LOVE them!

5. Big bag!

I stopped using a backpack after I think my first semester of college and used a tote bag. I used a Vera messenger bag for awhile in college. When I started student teaching, the Vera Bradley "Vera" bag was my bag of choice. So many pockets on in the inside AND outside. I love the fun colors and was able to switch them a few times while student teaching...because I just have that many.

Thank goodness I am a teacher because I get to buy school supplies forever. :-D