Pre-Naming Babies.

Yesterday, my roommate and I got on the topic of names that we liked. That conversation turned into names that we would like for future children. We're only 20 & 21, yet we still have little note documents in our phones dedicated to names for babies we may have years from now. When I opened up my list, I think Chris was a little surprised. "I had no idea that either of you had a list like this." Then he eyed me up as if he was saying 'especially you."

I felt kind of freakish for even starting a list, like maybe I'd be jinxing myself or something. I also know that there is a "CREEP" sticker that gets slapped on girls who start planning their weddings before they even get engaged. But at least we're not picking nursery colors? Buying outfits?

To feel less alone, I asked my Tumblr followers if they also kept track of names they loved. Only five people responded, but the general response was that yes they kept track, and not just girls. One of them was one of my best GUY friends. Even women who weren't crazy about ever having children in the future had a stockpile of names somewhere. One of my roommates co-workers also confessed that she, too, had a list on her phone of names she likes. After we talked about this for a little while, even Chris admitted that there are some names that he likes a lot and keeps track of in his head (*swoon*)

I'm not sure what the deal with this is. Maybe it's something like getting a tattoo. You should think about it for at least a year before you put something on your body forever. Maybe we feel like we need to REALLY think about baby names before we give it to a kid for their whole life. Or perhaps all of us (female AND male) have a little maternal instinct inside of us that is just excited to have babies and this is the lowest form of planning.

As for me, I just have a horrible memory ;)

Do you have a list of names? What are some of your favorite names for your future kids? If you have kids, how did you EVER decide on a name?

New Ink.

As I mentioned in my last post: I'm currently unemployed after my job went out of business. I'd been feeling pretty bummed about the demise of my job for several weeks leading up to the doors locking for good, and on the final day of the job I've loved for nearly two years, I decided to book a tattoo appointment on a whim.

I'd been reading Harriet the Spy, and I started to remember little chunks of my childhood involving the book, and of course, the genius movie made by Nickelodeon in the 90's. Harriet is a child spy who carries around her composition notebook and scribbles in it compulsively. She spies on her classmates her parents, the owners an employees of a grocery store, a man who lives with many cats and makes beautiful bird cages, and a rich woman who is determined to stay bound to her bed. Harriet learns about life through her observations, and also with the commentary of her nanny Ole Golly. Some of her notes aren't the nicest, and leads to the anxiety inducing downfall of her relationships with her classmates, but she still warms your heart with her curiosity about love, growing old, and human life.

I remember once when I was younger attempting to be a spy like her. I had my mother buy me a black and white speckled composition notebook and tried to take down as many notes as possible. However, my surroundings weren't as lively as her New York City backdrop, and I ended up giving up on the spying. I did, however, keep writing little stories in diaries - which is what I'm still doing.

The tattoo was done by Dave McNair at The Chicago Tattooing Company. He was a stand up guy. He's been tattooing for quite a while and took the time to alter the illustration so it would look best on my skin (the original had a giant chunk of black where her shoes were). And as a bonus, he had a book shelf next to his bench so we got to chat about books while he was doing the tattoo. I'm extremely happy with her.

Have you gotten any tattoos recently? Can you remember a book/movie/TV character influencing you in any way while you were growing up?

I Love Girls.

I disappeared for nine days to Michigan last week. My job went out of business, leaving me unemployed and my parents thought it was the perfect opportunity to reel me in. So home I went. There's not a whole lot to do in my hometown, but I got to visit with family members, my best friends, and eat a ton of food from my favorite places that aren't in Chicago. And thankfully, to HBO On Demand, I was able to watch the first season of Girls with my sister. We watched the entire thing in TWO days.

The show has received a lot of critique for various reasons. The show follows four girlfriends through their triumphs and failures in relationships, finding jobs, unplanned pregnancies, STD worries, and of course, sex, in their post-collegiate lives. Personally I really connected with the show and found a lot of similarities between myself and the main character Hannah. We both have some problems with our bodies, we can't seem to find real jobs worthy of our talents, we're both wannabe writers, we're both from Michigan, we both hate running, and we both have a fear of diseases. Oh, not to mention we both come with a bit of snark & sarcasm.

I also loved how relationships and sex were tackled in a very real manner. In other TV shows, sex and dating seem so smooth, easy, and void of awkward moments. Everyone has had a boyfriend that's weird and treats you like shit, lots of us have had our naive stage where our worlds are saturated with doing the dirty, yet we feel like we know nothing about us, and some of us have even fallen out of love even when it seems like you'd be together forever.

Each character added another dimension to the show. Jessa, the naturally beautiful woman with the british accent, is a free spirit that 'cannot be smoted' or seemingly tied down. Marnie, the maternal one of the group, is driven, goal oriented, and tries to mother Hannah, and Shoshanna is the pop culture obsessed, virginal girly girl that adds comedic relief and a little sweetness to all of the girls. And then there's Adam, Hannah's boyfriend who you HATE at first (i seriously really hated him) and you question why she's with him, but by the end of the first season you can't help but feel oddly attracted to him and sympathize with his weirdness.

Lena Dunham also deserves a ton of props. She plays Hannah in the show, and also directed & wrote the entire series. She's young, and an incredibly talented writer (I also watched her film 'Tiny Furniture' on Netflix and once again appreciated her honest approach to post-college life and family relationships.) She's also as funny as the character she plays, and I love following her on Twitter/Instagram.  

I haven't written a review-y post in a long time, and this one is pretty awful, but I cannot get enough of this show. There are so many one liners, and my sister and I are constantly texting each other quotes from the show. I can't talk about this show enough, which is probably why I dedicated a whole post to it ;) Oh, and I forgot to mention that the soundtrack is fucking awesome.

Look forward to a book round up soon, and hopefully more frequent posts. I'm on a wave of inspiration right now, so bear with me.

Have any of you watched 'Girls'? What are your thoughts? Can you identify with any of the characters?

[Top image from prettygirlscreencaps.]

Insight From A Wannabe Novelist.

My future's lookin' bright. Better wear shades.

Routine.

I finally know what it's like to have an old lady routine. You know what I'm talking about, right? Those diners that the same old people frequent every single day because they have nothing else to do? My great-grandfather was one of those people. Every single day he went to Big Boy, all of the waitresses knew him by name, and knew his order by heart. I had this routine last summer, and now I'm back to the same routine because it feels good to not have to worry about things sometimes.

Life has thrown a big curveball at me that I'm having mixed feelings about. I'm not sure I want to write about it at the moment, but I'm sure I will at one point.

I had yesterday off, and I had today off. I wake up, watch an episode or two of Daria on my DVR (they play Daria episodes on MTV and I consider her to be my spirit animal), get showered and dressed, take the bus to my favorite cafe, sit by the window, order a bottomless cup of coffee, and a "morning bagel" - which is just a bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and cucumber. I sit there for two hours drinking cup after cup of coffee and reading. Yesterday I finished 'Evening' by Susan Minot (for my book club with Micaela & Jo) and today, I spent some time reading 'The Kid' by Sapphire. It's the sequel to 'Push' (or as people know it - Precious) and after two chapters I'm already nauseous by it. Yikes.

Today, I threw carrot cake into the mix. Just to keep the waiter on his toes and also because there was another curveball added to my morning. 

Having a routine is good, right? Normal? It's become a time for me to unplug, ignore my phone, get hopped up on caffeine, and enjoy a good book. I have fallen devastatingly behind in my summer reading and now I am trying to catch up. 

Do you have a routine for your days off? Also, are any of you on 

Bummer Summer & A Michigan Wedding.

At the start of this summer, I was expecting it to be the summer of more. More adventure, more money, more activity. Thusfar, none of that is happening. The amount of adventure is directly correlated with the amount of money I make, therefore, not a lot of adventure is happening. I am also supposed to be about 10 pounds lighter, but that hasn't happened either because it's also MORE hot this summer, and the last thing I feel like doing when it's 105 degrees is squats and crunches and running drills. This also supposedly effects my eating because Chris & I don't feel like cooking when it's hot which means cardboard-style pizza from the joint around the corner, and greasy burgers from the join around the other corner.

As you can tell, this is not the summer I was expecting/wanting, but that's okay. Next summer, I will be graduated from college, maybe have a Big Girl job, and that's just weird to think about - but also crazy exciting. This lack of excitement in Chicago made me even more excited to travel to Michigan last week. My cousin was getting married, and it was the perfect opportunity to make a getaway with the boyfriend.

I haven't been in a church in YEARS, and maybe this is an example of why. Lately, and maybe this is because I haven't been writing as much these days, I have been thinking people's thoughts in my head a lot. This is sparked by people's facial expressions or actions on the train, and it happened in church during the ceremony and I could not stop laughing. My sister had to be clued in, of course, so she slid her phone over and I hastily typed my thoughts. Everyone thinks I'm weird.

My brother, sister, and I after the ceremony. This will be the new picture I show people when I try to explain that NONE of us look alike. If you look right to left, we are in order by age. I'm the oldest: chubbiest, darkest hair/eyes, shortest. Then there's my sister who is a bit taller than me, skinny, sandy hair and hazel eyes, and the youngest is my brother: super tall, can totally beat me up now, and has blond hair/eyes. Apparently we are all biological ;) 

This picture is posted only for Chris' hilarious face in the background :)

The ceremony of the wedding was a lot of fun. They had a photobooth where we got to dress up in crazy outfits and take pictures. Their signature cocktail was dee-licious. And the whole thing was BEACH themed, which was really pretty. Blue paper lanterns, center pieces with goldfish, sand art, and blue stones, and their music was performed by dueling pianists who were able to play a TON of songs - have you ever heard Justin Bieber's 'Boyfriend' played on piano?

The day after the wedding, we headed up to the Family Cottage, which is something that I have been craving all summer long. I've been going to this lake since I was born, and it was so warm and perfect for swimming all day long. I got to spend a lot more time with my family, get some color, and enjoy the water. 

After some doctor's appointments, and a pit stop in Detroit to visit my dad's side of the family and some more family friends, my mom drove us back to Chicago to spend some time with us here. Her and I got to have some 'Girls Days' while Chris was at work. We got our nails done, drank massive margaritas, and spent lots of time in our pajamas watching Criminal Minds. It was awesome. We didn't go out a whole lot and do a lot of touristy things, but how often do I get to sit around and even watch TV with my mom? Not often at all. 

Now I'm getting back into the grind of working, reading, and HOPEFULLY doing some more writing. I'm also planning on working on this BOD more, since I'm having all these weird thoughts/feelings about my senior year coming up and I'm at my highest weight and have no personal style besides wearing jeans and t-shirts. Sigh. 

Hopefully my blog posts will be more frequent and regular coming up. And hopefully my head space will start to be clear and happier. I asked Chris to enroll me to his school of 'Always Remain Calm.' I don't know how he does it. Probably why I love him so much...

How has everyone been?! I feel like I've been gone for so long!

Put Me In A Bubble: Diary of an Always Sick Girl.

When I was younger, I used to LOVE staying home sick from school. I had free reign over the television, I could waste hours on the internet, and I could nap without interruption. Then, I moved to college, got a scholarship with high standards to keep, and I got a job. This makes sick days not so fun - and for some reason, I seem to need a lot of them.

Those of you who know me know that I'm always sick. Those of you who don't know me, know that I'm always sick. Or pretty close to always being sick. It went from serious illnesses when I was younger, and now I get this annoying sinus/head cold bullshit every time the weather changes ten degrees. I go through random bouts of horrible stomach pain, headaches, fatigue, sore throat, lost voice,  cough, a disgusting amount of phlegm, blah blah blah.

Sure, being able to catch up on reading Tropic of Cancer is cool, and so is watching my DVR stock of Criminal Minds, but it's not as fun as it used to be. I'm getting a complex. It sucks having to call in sick to your brand new second job that you're just starting to get to get the hang of. It sucks getting that rush of anxiety as you call them to tell them that you can't come in that day, and sure, you'll haul yourself to the doctor to get a note. It sucks feeling like you're missing out on everything because you're throat won't cooperate and let you communicate like a human. It ESPECIALLY sucks working in two food service jobs, because then you know that if YOU were a customer at a restaurant, and the person handing you/making YOUR food sounded like a frog, you'd think twice about enjoying that food.

Now that I'm 21, maybe I will finally stop having the immune system of an infant. If not, I need to start working harder at taking care of myself because this clearly isn't working for me. 

What do you like to do on your sick days? Is it also hard for you to want to call in sick?