The Alphabet of ME

As I mentioned in my very first blog ever, Imitation is the Greatest form of Flattery, so in upcoming entries I've decided to adopt things from other blogs that I read and enjoy and bring them over to my side of the blogosphere. I came across this in a new blog I started to follow and it reminded me of those chain emails friends used to send in middle school and early high school (which I loved, btw) so I thought I'd slap it on my blog and let yall learn some fun random facts you may or may not know.  

Ambition: happiness and security
Bad Habit: picking at my cuticles
City: Tampa

Drink: Chick-fil-a lemonade
Education: BA in Psych and BS in Nursing
Food: Mexican food or chocolate dessert with nuts
Guilty Pleasure: bad tv
Hometown: Tallahassee, Florida
Ice Cream: prefer fro-yo esp TCBY or my new fav Yogurtology
Jonesing for: a "big spoon"
Kryptonite: having my hair played with
Look-a-like: Amanda Bynes
Movie: The Departed, Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook, Mean Girls
Nickname: Krys, K, KC
Obsession: all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer or written/created by Joss Whedon
Perfume: Provocative Woman by Elizabeth Arden
Quirk: if I drag one foot or bump one arm, I have to do the same to the other side to make it "even"
Regret: For me to know...and to not repeat in the future
Starbucks: Iced Skinny Caramel Macchiato or Nonfat, No whip 3-pump Mocha

Thrift Find of the Year: I don't think I've left Express this year without getting at least 60% off everything I bought
University: UCF! Go Knights!!
Vacation: EUROPE!! 9 days away!!
Wine: Riesling please!
X: On to the next!
Years: J'ai 26 ans. (Just felt like busting out the french for some reason)
Zen: is in my king size bed with sateen sheets and my animals curled up next to me

The Perfect Man

So they say if you put things out into the Universe, oftentimes you get them back. So Universe, this is what I'm requesting of you: my perfect man. He should have these qualities:

*6'0" - 6'4" tall
*brown hair
*brown eyes
*lean, athletic build (think basketball/baseball player)
*great sense of humor
*confident
*ambitious
*intelligent
*loves animals
*liberal political mind
*environmentally friendly
*loves to travel
*extroverted
*good cook
*amazing lover
*enjoys public displays of affection
*wants a family, but not any time soon
*close with his family
*Christian
*a decent dancer
*will pick up a book at least occasionally
*loves surprises (giving and receiving)
*honest
*reliable
*generous
*faithful
*open minded
*good dresser
*passionate
*think I'm pretty much the hottest thing since sliced bread

Not too tall of an order, right? Alright Universe, I'll be waiting!

Dealing with Disappointment

I'm an angry blogger. I know this. The unspoken rule with facebook statuses that sometimes carries over into blogs and other such public forums is to post when your life is going particularly well so everyone sees just how fabulous it is to be you. Or to write about something so maddening that everyone can't help but chime in on and once again...oh aren't you so popular with your 50 replies.

I'm the opposite. I love sharing good news and writing about the highs in my life. But I'm most inspired to blog, or just write in general, when I'm sad/upset/mad/hurting. It's like I mentioned a couple entries ago...for some reason my thoughts and feelings feel like they carry more weight when I can see them spelled out in front of me, whether or not they're viewed by anyones eyes besides my own. And I preface this entry this way because again tonight I was inspired to write because I was hurting. I want to get it all out of my system and just leave it on the page.

I won't describe tonight's inspiring drama. In fact I wrote a few paragraphs before this one and just deleted them because they weren't the point of this entry. My question is...how do you deal with the disappointment? I've never been good at that. I feel like I'm perpetually starting over (in all areas of my life) so why aren't I an expert by now? Shouldn't there be a check list someone's developed by this point? Complete steps one through eight and you're done. I'm impatient and I admit it. I'm tired of going through the trial and error of dating. I'm tired of putting energy into a friendship only to be told my effort into keeping lines of communication open are causing her stress. How do you remind yourself that is all part of a plan when you've never truly, completely believed things happen for a reason? How do you accept being let down and move on from it, a stronger person? How do you remind yourself that the fault is with them, even though you're the one wounded? When someone figures all that out, I'd love to be let in on the secret.

Seventeen days

In seventeen days I will be leaving for a glorious 2 and a half weeks traveling to:

Dublin, Ireland

Barcelona, Spain

Athens, Greece

Santorini, Greece

London, England

Edinburgh, Scotland

Excited doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling!!

New Name, New Outlook

So this blog started out as a list of 25 Things I wanted to do while I was 25. Well, 25 has officially come and gone and I'm now living in the land of 26. So to embrace my introduction into my mid-to-late twenties, I figured I needed to rename my blog and once again start anew. As I mentioned a few entries ago, I went to a Natasha Bedingfield concert in July. Well, one of my favorite of her songs has a chorus that reads:

And if you strip me, strip it all away,
If you strip me, what would you find?
If you strip me, strip it all away,
I'll be alright.


Take what you want,
Steal my pride, 
Build me up or cut me down to size. 
Shut me out, but I'll just scream
I'm only one voice in a million, but you ain't taking that from me

And haven't we all felt that way before? Anyway, the song has been resonating with me for awhile and I've finally decided to adopt it for my blog. I'm only one voice in a million, but its mine and I intend to use it.

Now, to address some things that have been neglected as I've been (unintentionally) neglecting this blog in recent weeks.

First of all...my list of 25 things. You've all seen the list before so I won't list them all out but I need to own up to the ones that I did not accomplish in the last 365 days.

10. Complete 3 consecutive months of p90x/get back into a regular exercise routine.
15. Get SCUBA certified.
16. Finally get that last tattoo I want.
19. Kiss in the rain.
20. Be an extra in another film.
22. Go horseback riding on the beach.

So only 19 of 25 was accomplished. Which equals out to 76%. I'm a little disappointed, but at the same time still very proud of what I was able to take care of. So those last 6 now go on my Lifetime Bucket List which I am currently in the process of making. Luckily I expect to cross a few of those off my list very soon. I am getting that last tattoo and I know what and where but unfortunately I've lost the exact design so I'm in the process of trying to find it again and then I'll get it done. Definitely by the time 2011 is over, but I'm hoping maybe before Europe next month. Also, my friend in small group was talking about going horseback riding on the beach with her friend in Jacksonville sometime in the future so if she makes that happen I may just have to make a trip as well, if only to cross that off my list. And finally, I know I talk a big game about this all the time, but I've been continuing to surround myself with fitness and exercise oriented people lately so I am absolutely determined to resubmerge myself in a regular fitness routine. It will happen. It will it will will. It must. So hopefully those 6 things I wasn't able to cross off my list this year will very shortly be down to three.

Speaking of fitness...my Europe diet has not exactly been going as planned. As my lack of blogging in the last few weeks probably indicate, I have been extremely busy, have had very little time to work out, and have been eating out way too often. So I am now embarrassed to say I am officially back at my starting weight. Europe is 3 weeks and 3 days away (!!!) so while I may not be at my goal weight, I am determined to get back on the bandwagon and at least lose and maintain a 5 lb weight loss by then. I'm trying to set realistic and attainable goals here. So here goes...

When I say I've been busy these past couple weeks, its not a lie. TGH goes live with an electronic medical record (EMR) on October 1st and the whole hospital has been getting trained on that so I've been going in an extra day each week for classes. Plus my birthday was 2 weeks ago and I took some time off to celebrate with friends and my family who drove down to spend the weekend with me. I took them to Busch Gardens where my lovely roommate gave us the opportunity to chuck meatballs at tigers (who hasn't wanted to do that? lol) and we intended to go on the safari so my mom could feed the giraffes but unfortunately the typical Florida mid-afternoon monsoon occurred and we weren't able to do it. But we had a good time regardless. Here are a few pics from the weekend:

A few of the girls after dinner on our way out for drinks

Mom and Dad at Busch Gardens

My birthday cake :)

Another super fun thing that happened recently is one of my good friends from nursing school got hitched! Three of us from my nursing class drove down to Captiva Island last weekend to watch her tie the knot with her man on the beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous wedding and she looked beautiful. I've missed my nursing girls since I moved to Tampa and I love any opportunity I have to catch up with them. A couple pics from the eve:

Beautiful ceremony on Captiva Island

Terri, me, Kathleen, and Erin

I caught the bouquet!

Alright, thats enough from me for now. But I promise it won't be 3 weeks until you hear from me again!