So, this is me. I’m blonde (well, I dye my hair blonde, anyway). I wear makeup every day, and I have a wardrobe that mostly consists of professional office attire. However, this wasn’t always my fashion statement. When I was in my first semester of college, I faded to black, so to speak….I was what would be best described as Goth.
Gothic fashion is a clothing style that consists of a dark, sometimes morbid, style of dress.Typical Gothic fashion would include a pale complexion paired with dark hair and nails, dark makeup (worn by both men and women) and dark clothes. During my Goth phase I had quite a few male friends that would sport black nail polish and even black eyeliner.
 

 
 
This is a picture of me at the height of my Gothic phase. Although I never dyed my naturally-light hair black, I did sport all-black clothes, dark makeup, and black nail polish. I loved the style and thought it was very freeing to shake up my girl-next-door image with band T-shirts and pants with chains on them.
Although my look was dark, I was far from depressed. In fact, I remember this period in my life to be one of the most carefree and fun times I’ve had. It was the first time in my eighteen years that I’d done and worn what I wanted without caring at all what others thought of me. It was during my Goth phase that I realized that fashion was fun, and that clothes could make a statement about who I am instead of helping me blend into the crowd. Daring to express myself in a not-so-common style helped me come into my own and develop a sense of self-confidence and individuality.
The black clothes and dark makeup are long gone, and over the last ten years I’ve experimented with many different hair colors and dress styles. I’ve found that I ultimately prefer my nails to be manicured to acrylic perfection, and I would rather sport light, pretty makeup than I would thick black eyeliner. But I still look back fondly on the days when my wardrobe came from Hot Topic and I delighted in being different.
How have you experimented with different fashion styles over the years?
 

Last week I wrote a scathing open letter to Good Morning America after they did an “interview” potraying Internet celeb Jenna Marbles in a not-so-kind light. One example of why I love Jenna so much is that she comes off as confident and comfortable in her own skin. Her most recent video, Things I’m Awesome At,  lists some of the not-so-ordinary things that she’s really good at, and encourages her fans to make lists of their own and post them in a place that they’ll be able to see them easily when they’re feeling sad.
I’ve been really stressed out lately. This coming week, I have finals (if you know me, you know the mere mention of the word “test” is enough to make me run for the special stomach-flu bucket), and my oldest cat Angel has surgery scheduled to clean and possibly extract two of her teeth. I’ve had to manipulate my work schedule so that I can take time off for Angel’s vet appointments (because of her age, she’ll be having a round of pre-op labs to make sure that she won’t have adverse affects to anesthetic), and I’m feeling stretched incredibly thin. So, with a rough week up ahead, I thought it might be a really good time to make myself a pick-me-up list of my abilities. So, I present to you, Things I’m Awesome At.
 
Googling Things
Is ‘googling’ a verb? Well, it should be, because I freaking rock at looking things up on Google. If you need to know something, and it is present anywhere on the Internet, you bet your ass I will find that shit for you. People text me and instant message me all the time, asking me if I know things. Need to know when the post office closes? I can find that for you! Want to know the calories in a Dairy Queen mini Cookie Dough blizzard? I’ve got that right here (I’m not going to put it in this post though, because trust me….you don’t want to know. Just eat the thing and enjoy it). I think my amazing Google search skills may have come from my job doing directory assistance. I learned to isolate the key words and phrases in order to find the information I wanted, and to find it quickly. Or maybe I was just born with fabulous Internet-information-finding skills. Whatever the origin of my gift, as long as I have access to the Internet, I will be able to Google myself into or out of anything I please.
 
Remembering Phone Numbers and Addresses
The other day, Paul and I went to Petsmart. As we were checking out, the clerk ringing me up asked if I had a reward card. I’d lost the little card ages ago, but I told her I had a phone number and rattled off my old California home phone number. “I can’t believe you remembered that,” Paul had said to me as we walked through the parking lot. See, I have a mind like a steel trap for phone numbers. I also retain addresses. I could still tell you every address of everywhere I have ever lived, with the exception of the house I was born in (we moved away from there before I was old enough to remember much of anything). My knack at remembering phone numbers far predates my employment at the phone company: I still remember a fourteen-year-old me, in the backseat of my parents’ car, rattling off the realtor’s phone number for my mom as we were house-hunting. Of course, this may be a dying skill, because nowadays I just enter people’s phone numbers into my cell phone and never look at the actual number in the contact again. But any number that I physically dial, I will remember.
 
Making Ordinary Things Sound Dirty
Ever seen one of those bumper stickers that say, “If it weren’t for the gutter, my mind would be homeless”? Well….yeah. That’s me. Call it immaturity, but I just think I have a way with words. If you’re telling me about your wood, your bush, or how long something is….I’m probably going to giggle and I may even reply to whatever you’ve said with , “Heh, you said *insert word I’m making dirty*”. Luckily, most of the people I choose to be in the company of, appreciate this skill or have it themselves. Yes, it may be slapstick humor at best, but if I’m going to do it, at least I ROCK it.
 
Making Random, Senseless Music Playlists
When I was growing up, my parents primarily listened to country music, and although I tried to deny this part of myself for years, the truth is that I do enjoy some of the artists and songs. To go to the complete other side of the spectrum, I went through a brief semi-Goth phase during my first semester of college, during which I painted my nails black, wore all-black clothing, and tested the limits of the speakers in my ’99 Mustang as I blasted metal as high as I could stand to listen to it. In the middle are several other non-related musical genres that I have loved: my high school obsession was with the Backstreet Boys, my brother got me into Green Day, and in my twenties I fell head-over-heels in love with Pink. Now, all my varied tastes are incorporated into my iTunes library, and even though I’m getting better about making playlists grouping artists whose sounds are alike, there still remains a large variety when I hit Shuffle. Would Metallica be happy knowing that as soon as they play the last strains of Wherever I May Roam, that I will be belting out a Carrie Underwood song? I don’t know, but listeners beware: my playlists are eclectic. You’ve been warned.
 
Making Delicious Desserts
I wouldn’t say I necessarily suck at cooking. I haven’t put enough effort into it during my lifetime to know whether or not I suck at it. I do know that I don’t particularly enjoy it, and since I was lucky enough to find a boyfriend that does, I’ve pretty much managed to stay out of the kitchen during meal preparations.
Surprisingly enough, even though cooking does absolutely nothing for me, I looooove to bake. I used to really enjoy making cookies or brownies after school when I was younger, and that passion was reignited when cupcake places became trendy. Paul and I have sampled quite a few different cupcakes from different bakeries, and a couple years ago I thought, hey, I can do this. So I started whipping up cupcakes and taking them to work. Paul indulged me and bought me a really nice Kitchenaid mixer for Christmas so that I could do my baking. Then I sort of drifted away from the hobby as Paul and I began watching what we ate, and I stopped baking until last fall, when I discovered Pinterest. At first I had no clue what the point of the site was, but then I had an aha moment when I found that I could pin recipes for desserts. For some reason, I was instantly drawn to the cookies. There are just so many cool ideas out there! I resumed my baking hobby as the weather turned cold, and have produced some really fantastic treats. I’ve made pumpkin spice thumbprints, red velvet cookies, Andes mint cookies, cake batter cookies…the list goes on and on (I’ve taken pictures as I do the recipes, but I rarely getting around to actually posting them on my blog…I need to get better at that).
 
Well, that’s probably a good start to a list of things I’m awesome at. I’m posting it here not only to brag (I am bragging just a little) but also to have it nearby if I ever feel sad and need to look at it for encouragement.
What things are you awesome at?

Dear Good Morning America,
Let me start by saying, I have a huge girl crush on YouTube sensation Jenna Mourey, aka Jenna Marbles, the 26-year-old woman who couldn’t land a steady-paying job after earning her masters degree, but became famous by posting funny videos of herself on the internet. Jenna’s weekly videos range from rants to updates about her life to comedic craziness.
I only recently discovered Jenna, and it was love at first click. She’s an animal-loving, foul-mouthed girl who, although reportedly shy in person, gets in front of her webcam and spews forth all sorts of opinions on the world that, quite frankly, a lot of us are thinking and just don’t have the guts to say out loud. The New York Times recently described Jenna as “The Woman With 1 Billion Clicks” for her widespread internet fame. Although her YouTube channel was new to me, it appears I live under a rock because pretty much everyone I’ve asked has heard of her. The reactions are mixed – some people find her hilarious, while others are turned off by her swearing and sometimes-racy content – but I find her hysterical and have spent more hours than I care to admit watching her videos. So, I was excited this week to see that one of your reporters, Cecilia Vega, sat down to interview Jenna, and was looking forward to learning more about her.
Quite frankly, GMA…to say I was disappointed is an understatement. The footage that actually aired on your show sucked. All Cecilia really did is add a tick counter tallying the times that Jenna said the word ‘ridiculous’ when describing her fame and fans, and asked her questions about whether she thought she “deserved” to have as many fans as she does. Although I read on Jenna’s blog that she spent about an hour talking with Cecilia, nothing of substance made it to airtime. Instead, Jenna was left looking like a ditzy blonde with nothing to say (you can watch the video here).
What the fuck, GMA? If you weren’t interested in hearing how this girl rose to fame by making videos on the internet, then don’t talk to her. Don’t waste your time or hers if you’re not actually interested in reporting about her life. If you don’t find her achievements newsworthy, then don’t put her in a segment.
Airing that “interview” was a major dick move on your part. I get that Jenna’s sense of humor isn’t for everyone, and that’s totally okay with me. What’s NOT okay with me is to feign interest in a person just so that you can interview them for an hour straight, hack up that interview and select a few minutes’ worth of footage (tops) to air out of context, and make your interview subject look like an idiot. Your passive-aggressive mocking of Jenna Marbles would piss me off even if I didn’t adore her, because it was shoddy reporting. You took an opportunity to reveal a more vulnerable side of someone who made her success by being funny, and instead you mocked her and made her look like a joke. Jenna’s fans are fierce, and I’ve already seen Cecilia Vega suffering the much-deserved backlash on Facebook and Twitter.
What we Jenna Marbles fans want, GMA, is for you to stick Cecilia in front of a camera, and tell her to publicly apologize for that ridiculous (yes, I said ridiculous…twice!) report that she broadcasted. If you do that, if you admit that it was a stupid and pointless segment that you shouldn’t have allowed to air, if you force Cecilia to do the right thing and apologize, I think you could probably recover a bit from this misstep. But if you just march ahead, and pretend this never happened, you’re going to offend Jenna’s fanbase….and I must say, it takes a pretty sleazy act to offend us.
Best,
V

Yesterday morning, after lamenting the trials he’d experienced prior to arriving at work, my boss commented, “You know, I try to keep perspective. I try to keep in mind that somewhere, there’s someone wishing they were having my bad morning.”
I appreciated the sentiment of his idea – that there were people all over the world facing far worse than he was, wishing that their biggest problem was bad traffic or car trouble or sleeping through an alarm. I had no idea just how much his words would ring true to me by the end of the day. But as our Monday unfolded, I was faced first with the not entirely unexpected but still saddening passing of a coworker’s mother, followed of course by the bombings of the Boston Marathon. The news trickled into us, and we first learned that there were explosions at the finish line of the race, then that people were gravely injured, and then that there had been fatalities. As the afternoon gave way to evening, there was nothing whatsoever about my day that could seem bad in comparison to what was going on in Boston, or in the home of my coworker as he coped with loss.
I continually find myself horrified at the violence that’s becoming more and more commonplace in this country. Anywhere we go – to the airport, to school, to the movies, to run marathons – we run the risk of someone harming us. I don’t understand it. I look at all the violence and I feel like I’m in a world I can’t possibly comprehend. But then, I see the people who are working to help the injured, to aid the victims, and that sentiment, that feeling of community and helping those in need…that I understand.
There are some bad people in this world. There are people who are mentally ill who don’t or can’t get the help they need, so they end up doing terrible things. There are people who do awful deeds in the name of a god that they believe they are serving loyally. And there are evil people, people who do cruel and sick things because it brings them pleasure to do so. What comforts me is that there are also a lot of good people in this world too. There are people who run towards gunshots and explosions to save others, at their own expense. There are people who give of themselves, their time, their money, to make a difference for the better. The good people bring me hope that there’s more to expect from our future than just senseless hate and violence.
There’s a quote I love from the movie Where the Heart Is, and even though the situation in the movie surrounding the quote is totally different than the situation we face in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, I still found myself mulling it over yesterday and thought it worthy of sharing.
“You tell them, we’ve all got meanness in us. But we’ve got good in us too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. And that’s why we’ve got to make sure we pass it on.”

 

Last Thursday, I decided to take a day off from work so that Paul and I could go to Mt. Vernon and enjoy the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. I’ve been a big fan of the festival since Paul took me to my first one back in 2008, and I was excited to see the beautiful gardens again.
A little history: the Tulip Festival began in 1984, and now runs every April 1st-30th. Thousands of people come to see the tulips, journeying from different states and even from different countries (in 2012, there were visitors from 53 foreign countries!).
We picked the Roozengaarde garden. There is an admission fee of $5/person, but I felt it was well worth it as they had a great variety of tulips in addition to fields of daffodils. Paul caught me in a photo as we checked out the daffodils.
 

 
 
I took some amateur photos with the camera Paul got me for Valentine’s Day, but the pictures Paul himself shot were the most breathtaking ones. His gallery is available here.
After we had toured Roozengaarde, we drove to La Conner for lunch. We were both pretty hungry, and were drawn in by the smells of the La Conner Pub and Eatery. Paul had a burger while I enjoyed a French Dip.
After lunch, we walked out to the waterfront and watched as seals frolicked in the waters of the Swinomish Channel. When the seals went on their way, we did as well, stopping in at the Courtyard Gallery on our way back to the car after some of the glass art displayed in the windows caught our eye. When we were in Hawaii, we had gone into a Wayland gallery which also displayed glass art, and Paul had seen some glass waves that he absolutely loved. We were excited when we saw that the Courtyard Gallery also had glass waves, undoubtedly made by the same artist we’d seen the work of in Hawaii (I did some checking and the artist is David Wright). While in the gallery, we also fell in love with a Red Salmon Chandelier made by artist Scott Chambers. I would definitely recommend a trip to the gallery to anyone. They have beautiful pieces!
We moved on from La Conner, making one more stop at Deception Pass before we headed home. I love Deception Pass! On a sunny day, the views of the turquoise water and surrounding scenery are fabulous!
Our day out was fabulous. It was a great way to spend time together and enjoy spring!
 

This week marked two very special anniversaries for me. The first was my three-year anniversary as a Washingtonian. Yep, it’s been three whole years since I packed up and left California for the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and three years in I am still loving it! The second was my two-year anniversary with Customer Relations. This is the only job I’ve ever had that continues to challenge me and lets me learn new things all the time.
In addition to my two anniversaries, this week was also my very first time instructing a Zumba class. I am psyched! My awesome friend Kate and I are teaching Zumba on Tuesday evenings at the gym in our office building. Although the turnout at our first class was small, we hope that we will generate more interest as time goes on and that attendance will grow.
                     Me, on the day I got my Zumba Instructor License
Now that it’s April and we are having some milder weather, I am excited to start enjoying some outdoor activities! Paul and I will be going next week to enjoy the tulip festival in Mount Vernon, and on April 27th I will be participating in the March of Dimes. Click here if you would like to donate to my team, Ounces of Love!
Happy spring to all! What fun things do you have planned for April?

I’m back in the Northwest after a very relaxing vacation to visit my family in Southern California. Our trip was fantastic! Paul and I had a great time visiting with our families, and even spent a night in Las Vegas with our parents (in case I haven’t mentioned it before, I looooove Vegas!).
While I was on vacation, something very important was happening in the country: the Supreme Court was hearing arguments for same-sex marriage. Since I avidly support the right of consenting adults to marry, regardless of gender, I was hopeful. Last fall I was among the majority in Washington state that voted to legalize same-sex marriage, and I felt strongly that while my state was making progress, the country as a whole was not. This week’s proceedings may pave the way to changing that.
I was surprised and excited to find that several of my Christian friends support the movement to legalize same-sex marriage and have spoken out for it on Facebook and other social media sites. I genuinely believe that most people recognize this for what it is: a civil rights issue. The trouble is, a few religious people get the issue of ‘marriage’ in the current context confused with the holy matrimony they seek in their churches.
What I don’t understand about those who don’t support gay marriage for religious reasons is that they ought to be able to see that we are talking about a government issue, not a religious one. No one is advocating to make an amendment to the Bible. We’re advocating to make an amendment to the United States Constitution. There are other things, such as divorce, that the Bible says you’re not supposed to do….yet they’re legal in our society. I believe this is because we enjoy freedom of religion (or freedom from it, in my case) and that just because one religious sect believes divorce is wrong, doesn’t mean it should be outlawed in our society.
How is gay marriage any different?
Now, I understand that part of the problem is that the word “marriage” is used in this country to represent two completely different sets of ideas. The one in question is the legal term marriage, the contract between two consenting adults that allows said consenting adults benefits under the law. The other idea of marriage, the one that you are tying yourself to another person in the eyes of your god, is an entirely different thing altogether and we are not discussing that one. If the church one was called ‘marriage’ and the legal was called ‘bibbidy-bobbidy-boo’ or ‘civil union’ or really ANY other title, I don’t think we’d even be having a debate here. But alas, we use one word to identify two completely different things, one of church and one of state, and this has led to, well, a mess.
Well, then what if we let gay people get married, but don’t CALL it marriage? I’ve heard this suggestion – give gay couples equal rights but call THEIR union a ‘bibbidy-bobbidy-boo’ or a ‘civil union’, and let the heterosexual couples be ‘married’. This to me is close, but not close enough. See, during the civil rights movements, black people were allowed to ride the bus – in the back. They were allowed to get drinks of water – from their own fountains. If you’re going to change the name from ‘marriage’ to ‘civil union’ (which I am not opposed to), then you need to change it for all couples, regardless of gender. A name change for all really would simplify things, in my opinion. You want a civil union, with all the legal rights and benefits? Go to the government. You want a marriage recognized by the god of your choice that affords you absolutely zero legal rights or benefits? Go to the church. You want both? Have at it.
I’ve heard the same-sex marriage opposed people declaring that we cannot “redefine marriage”. But I think that in society, we redefine things all the time. Back when the Founding Fathers wrote out the Constitution, black people were only considered two-thirds of a person (oh yeah, remember that?) and were property to be owned, bought, and sold. Women were barely more than property. Over the years, slowly women and minorities have fought their way to equal rights. If you had asked Ben Franklin what he would have thought of a female Supreme Court Justice hearing a gay marriage argument while the black President urged support of said gay marriage, he probably would’ve thought you were insane. And yet, that very thing has happened. Things change. People and ideas evolve. I’d like to think we get smarter as time passes.
I don’t go around telling people that I don’t think their religions are right. I embrace diversity and if you want to believe in something that’s different from what I believe in, good for you. But your religious beliefs have no place in our legal system, and this is not a religious issue. This is an issue of civil rights, of equality in our country, of discrimination based on sexual preference. We should not be basing legal rights on what one religion believes.
I hope we in the United States legalize and embrace same-sex marriage. To those who oppose it based on religion, fear not: you will survive this, as you have survived the legality of abortions and divorces. It will be all right. No plagues have struck Washington since the legalization of gay marriage. Nothing in your world will change. According to a pastor friend of mine, all human beings are sinners, and no one sin is greater or less than any other. Since it says in the Bible “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, and since you are not without sin, how about you worry about your own self and let the same-sex couples do what they wish and be happy.

 

“I think it’s important to get your surroundings as well as yourself into a positive state – meaning surround yourself with positive people, not the kind who are negative and jealous of everything you do.” – Heidi Klum
I recently wrote about my realization that I needed to take more time to actively appreciate all the great people and things in my life. An unexpected side effect of really taking a step back and looking at my life was that I saw not only the good, but the things that were bringing me down. For the first time, I began to see that some of the reason that I was unhappy and stressed out was that I allowed people to be in my life that were consistently negative and dragging me down.
I think we’ve all had someone like this in our lives:the person that claims to love you, yet drowns you in their negativity and endless demands. It can be a family member, a friend, or a significant other. I’m not talking about someone going through a rough time, or having a bad day – what I’m referring to are people that are always unhappy, or telling you what you’re doing wrong, or attempting to manipulate you into doing what they want you to do. The person who makes your head pound when their name shows up on your Caller ID.
I initially wondered whether I was just crazy for allowing someone that toxic to be in my life, but when I started talking to my family and close friends, many of them had tales of similar experiences to tell. I heard stories about people that only called when they wanted money, friends that disappeared off the face of the earth until they needed someone to drive them to a doctor’s appointment, and even a friend/business partner who resorted to bribes and finally insults to get her way.
So once you’ve identified that you’re dealing with a person who is toxic to you, how do you deal? One friend told me she simply changed her phone number…but she doesn’t recommend this approach. “Looking back, I shouldn’t have just changed my number. I should have dealt with it directly. I just couldn’t do it at that time,” she revealed to me. Advice I got was unanimous: if someone doesn’t have your best interests at heart, and isn’t really there for you – cut that person loose.
Cutting ties with someone who isn’t necessarily good for you is easy advice to give, and incredibly difficult advice to follow through with. After all, just because you’ve identified that someone is dragging you down, doesn’t mean it’s easy to turn your back on that person. More than likely, you’ve kept them around for a reason – usually, because in spite of bad behavior on their part, you still care about them.
A few weeks ago, I went through my contact lists on my phone and my Facebook page, and started deleting. Then I had a couple awkward conversations with people.  I didn’t do this because I was mad at anyone or to be hurtful. I did it because I needed to put myself first, to surround myself with positive people who had my back no matter what. I’m twenty-eight years old and I don’t have time to waste with people who make me feel bad about myself or who don’t support me in my endeavors.It’s cliche, but life’s too short to spend it being made unhappy by people…by giving people who make me unhappy enough importance in my life to let them make me feel that way.
It can be very difficult to identify and end a toxic friendship. But in my opinion it’s worth it to purge the negativity in order to move forward in a more positive and supportive environment. My ultimate goal is happiness, and I knew I couldn’t get there with people who weren’t there for me. Now that I don’t have to waste energy on someone who really doesn’t value me anyway, I can invest more time in the people that do.

“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.” – Martha Washington
I believe that as human beings, sometimes we can fall into a pattern of behavior gradually, so that we do not realize the depths of our change until someone points it out to us. This happened to me recently, when in the span of just a few days, both a very good friend and a family member pointed out to me that I’d become easily irritated and that I was complaining a lot over silly things. Since one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to “stress less, smile more”, once I was (metaphorically) slapped in the face with my bad behavior, I was instantly motivated to change. I had to get over myself, fast.
Being a methodical and research-minded person, I downloaded The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. My hope was that it would be a good guide to figuring out what was lacking in my life, what was causing me to be so cross and disagreeable, and that it might offer me some direction in rectifying the issue before I drove my loved ones crazy (or, even worse, right out of my life). I started reading the book, and to my surprise I had a huge revelation by the end of the first chapter. The writer talks about how, on a  bus ride, she fully realized that she has a great life but wasn’t enjoying it. To say that I’ve been the same way is an understatement.
I have so much of what I’ve always wanted, and yet I have taken it for granted and not enjoyed it. While it’s good to be ambitious and want more, I know that it’s harmful to spend so much time focusing on what I do have that I completely forget to stop and appreciate all I do have. We’ve all heard the old saying about stopping and smelling the roses – isn’t it beyond time that I did just that?
I have a wonderful boyfriend and I love him with all my heart. Our schedules are complete opposites right now, and we don’t have any days off from work together. I miss him terribly. And yet, I come home from a long day at work, I find myself getting cranky with him instead of just enjoying my time with him.
Paul and I have been together off and on for nearly nine years. Back in 2006, we split up and I thought we would be out of each other’s lives forever. I missed him terribly, and the time spent apart just made me realize how important he was to me and how much I loved him. I vowed that if I ever got another chance at our relationship, that I would remember how I felt when he was gone and never take him for granted again. Happily, by the fall of 2007 we had gotten back together, and we’ve lived together this second time around for just over five years. I’ve learned that memories fade, and it’s not so fresh in my mind anymore just how much I missed Paul when he wasn’t a part of my life. Despite the fact that I should know better, that I should have learned, I still haven’t been treasuring my relationship with him as I should. Even though it’s not pleasant, I’ve forced myself over the last several days to think back to the time of our breakup, and to try and relive just how awful that was for me. And then when I go home to him at night, I am all that more grateful for the time together and just for who he is as a person.
There are changes I can make at work, too. I have a stressful job, and I’ve been working long hours to stay ahead. The thing I’ve forgotten to consider, is how badly I wanted this job and how lucky I am to have it. When I moved to Washington from California, I was beyond burned out with being a call center employee. I hated being on the phones all day long, taking call after call. I hated the mandatory overtime, the erratic schedules, the sales pressure. Then, in July 2010, I was offered a six-month offline project and took it enthusiastically. I worked very hard to prove myself, and caught the attention of my current boss, who offered me the position I am so fortunate to have now. My schedule is consistent, and I’m given a lot of flexibility.I imagine myself from a few years ago, working in the call center, and I imagine how elated my former self would be to know that there was something better on the horizon for her. And I know she would bludgeon me with a shoe if she knew that I complained about any aspect of my life. “This is what I dream of!” she’d shout at me (my younger self was a shouter). “How can you waste time being unhappy over little things when your big picture is so, so good?” And she would be right. I’ve been ungrateful. I have everything she wanted and I need to remember that.
There are a ton of other things in my life right now that I am so happy for – amazing family and friends, and my happy healthy kitties. I’ve found hobbies like Zumba that I’m passionate about and enjoy, and that keep me fit and feeling fabulous. And of course I have a warm home, good food to eat, my every need (and most wants) cared for.
So, more or less, my newfound mission in life is to savor the joy of the moment, to look around me and truly embrace all that I have, all the dreams that have come true. Because when I sit down and really let the gratitude wash over me, I have nothing at all to complain about, and everything to rejoice about.
 
 
 

I’m not a fashion blogger, and normally I don’t write about what I wear because I don’t consider myself to be all that stylish…and I’m certainly not a trendsetter. I work in an environment that requires professional dress, so my outfits usually consist of dress slacks and a sweater in the wintertime. But when I read my friend Kate’s post Menswear Inspired, I decided  to give the look a try.
I built my outfit around a red blazer that I’d gotten years ago to wear with a skirt to my sister’s high school graduation. I’d kept the blazer, in spite of the fact that I’d never worn it again after that day. For the menswear inspired look, I decided to pair the blazer with a lacy cream-colored top and skinny jeans. I finished off the look with a pair of cherry-printed flats. I kept my jewelry minimal and opted for a pair of dangly earrings. Here’s how the look turned out:

 
Interestingly, though I bought the blazer in 2005 and the lacy shirt in 2012, both are designed by Wrapper. My flats are Melrose Ave, and they are old…I bought them from Mervyn’s before it went out of business.
This outfit was definitely out of my style comfort zone, and I was pleased with the good feedback I got and with how comfy the outfit was! I also liked that I was able to put together a brand new look with pieces I already had in my closet instead of going out and buying all new clothes (not that I don’t enjoy getting new clothes, because I definitely do!).