Every Day

So, my parents house got broken into... I walked into the house from my slow morning working out, just wanted to drop some stuff off and head out to lunch with my aunt and cousins but then I noticed my front door wide open. My first thought was, "oh shit, did I leave the front door unlocked??  My dad is going to KILL me!!" But then I saw the TV was gone and the back door was broken into... yup, definitely wasn't my fault. Nothing like this ever happens to me so I was walking in a circle for what seemed like 10 minutes but was probably only 30 seconds before I realized I should call 911 (for my first time ever) and report a break in. Next thing of importance, MY MAC!! It was pure relief when I saw my mac laying on my bed as peaceful as when I left it. Don't nobody take my Yoda Mac. Then I booked it outta the house and waited on the road for the cops. It was weird because they left a lot of things, only taking the TV and some money off my bedside table which was r

Christmas is a very special holiday for many people and I don't want to take it away from you. For me, its the most annoying day and I want to explain why. I don't like the stress of having to find the perfect gift for people. What if this person gets me something and I have nothing for them in return? And all the money you're spending on something they might not even like? What has this holiday of love and giving really turned into? Greed. I cannot stand the gaudiness that has surrounded the holiday either. Blow-up santas and expensive flashing christmas lights. Can you imagine the cost that some of these houses have over the holidays? The disgusting red and green color scheme and jolly tunes bombarding your eyes and ears everywhere you turn. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year? Yeah right, can you spell s-t-r-e-s-s for the majority of the adult population? The music is supposed to make you feel happy and joyful but its like going on the "its a

Sorry I haven't been posting! Its been a crazy busy week. I found out last week that I got a job in the USVI and they wanted me down there asap. Unfortunately, I could not afford anything until after the new year. (but thats also good since ill be around my family for xmas and, more importantly, friends for my birthday and NYE!!) So, I start in January! New life, new adventure. Its going to be strange working again. For the past four months, Ive been doing whatever I want, not what someone else wants. Ive been going on my schedule and exploring, doing yoga, hanging out with friends, sleeping in. Its been great. Ive also had a lot of time to get back in shape and eat better. I know, Im so obese. Kidding! Everyone tells me that I don't need to work out and i can eat whatever I want, but its not about losing weight as it is about toning up and being healthy. Ive noticed that my rock climbing has gotten better because Ive been working out. A lot has gotten better, actually. Im

The whole week in Vegas, my mom and I had been playing nickel poker. We knew exactly where all the "good" nickel poker machines were and I had been playing with my original $2.00 all week... until the last day :( I somehow lost all of my two dollars except for two cents. I have no idea how that happened because I was only playing nickel poker all week, but so be it. I printed my ticket with only two cents and walked away dejected... The rest of the evening, Mom and I spent some time at an Irish pub listening to great Irish music for the evening. After enjoying a Bailies on the rocks for me and a Guinness for her, we decided to leave and try our hand at video poker one last time. So we walk up to our poker machine and laying on the machine I usually play is a ticket for three cents. Not four cents, not two cents, but THREE CENTS. I pick it up, pull out my ticket for two cents and yell "TWO PLUS THREE EQUALS FIVE!!!! YAHHHH!" I can play one more game!!! B

Those people who are texting/on their phones and walking... Do you really think thats a good idea?? Ive been known to text and walk a few times but usually I step off to the side to finish a text and then continue to walk. This is something that really bothers me, though. Does it bother you too? Here is what you can do to potentially help stop the walking zombies: If you see someone walking towards you and looking at their phone, change your course and walk right at them. Don't back down, head straight for them and look right past them. Most of the time they  don't see you until that crucial moment when someone needs to move or theres going to be a head-on collision. This is what you want. You want them to look up, see you and have a mini panic attack (the panic is what may change their behavior). Then they will stop, jerk off to the side with a contorted, confused face and you continue to walk straight forward. Then, you must remember to stifle your laughter until you are ou

Even though I feel horrible, I've been continuing to do things. Yesterday, after eating breakfast, I went to the Titanic exhibit. It was amazing! I have been in love with everything Titanic since an early age (what is it about a sinking death ship that makes people so enthralled?), seeing all the artifacts and hearing the history was fantastic. What I got out of a lot of the stories was that the majority of people aboard that Titanic weren't supposed to be on it anyway. There was a strike that re-routed a lot of passengers who were destined for America on other ships, to the Titanic. What a stroke of shite luck?! Also, with few people in the exhibit, I was able to really experience it. There were rooms that were re-created to look like the Titanic. The first was a hallway that was supposed to be from third class and a door opening to a third class room. Then onto second and first class where there was a re-make of the grand staircase. It took my breath away. And a first cla

I'm in Vegas and I'm sick... Yesterday I was able to go to the Mandalay Bay Aquarium and it was really awesome minus all the dumb people thinking they knew everything (and obviously didn't despite the very informative signs posted everywhere...) Today are the Bodies and Titanic exhibits! Ive been gambling a bit. found a few machines that I like and have been coming out even! (yay nickel poker!!) Although, unfortunately I lost my bet not he Packers last night. I thought they had a two touchdown win against ATL in the bag! Unfortunately, no... but at least they still won! Despite the sickness, at least its warm outside... if there's ever an opportunity to go outside...

So, Ive been sick. Trying to deny it. Ive been taking all the supplements you're supposed to take when you're sick, all of them… but its not working! “Take lots of these, I SWEAR by it!” Nope. Saturday, I flew to Vegas and met my mom here. While I was waiting for my flight, I decided to close my eyes and hopefully feel better. While I was sloughing in my chair, I felt a hand on my arm. I opened my eyes to a bright eyed, large, loving, black woman. She smiled and giggled at my wide, questioning eyes and said “just wanted to make sure you didn't miss your flight, hun, saw you sleepin’ there for a bit.” I said “oh, thanks! Im not actually sleeping though, unfortunately…” She laughed again and walked away saying “alright then.” Then, while standing in line to get on my Southwest flight, the woman behind me and I bonded over our unfortunate placement in line, almost the last people on the plane. “Only middle seats are left by the time we get on there…” Oh, the dread

Hey y'all! I wanted to put together a list of things that YOU can do to save money and look after our planet earth. I try to do all of the things and more. After awhile these things become part of your lifestyle and it aint no thang. Good luck! 1) Dishwasher:          So, using a dishwasher is convenient AND can help save water but you gotta do it right. Only run a dishwasher if its full. Put as many dishes in it that you can! This helps to maximize the use of the water. Less dishes means you're wasting a ton of water. If you don't have a dishwasher, no problem. Instead of filling up the sink with soapy water, try just filling up a bowl or soaping the sponge/washcloth instead. Maximum suds and less water. Score! 2) Soap nuts:     http://econutssoap.com/what-are-soap-nuts/         These things are AMAZING! I just found out about them and am going to switch over immediately! They are all natural, cheap, three nuts can be used for up to 5 loads, and can be thrown out

Hey y'all! Hope you had a wonderful eating fest yesterday! I went up to visit my grandparents and family in the nort' woods. Its cold and theres lots of snow... Thanksgiving for our family means eating a lot of food, then waiting an hour and bringing out the PIE! This year we had 9 different pies for 13 people! All of the pie was gluten and dairy-free for all of our various diets. We cut a piece from each pie and had a "tasting" station so you could taste all of them and pick which piece you wanted to take. Pie for breakfast Pie for lunch Pie for snack Pie for dinner Pie for dessert So. Much. Pie.

So, last night my mom is boiling cranberries for the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. It starts to bubble up and almost over. She takes the pot off of the heat but its still boiling.  “How do I make it stop boiling!?” She asks. So I do what Ive learned in the past which is to blow on the bubbles to make the bubbliness go down. Only I lean over the open flame to do this and its HOT. I lean up and realize that I smell burning… and it was my hair that was singed. My bangs were all snagly and crusty. Well… I don't burn food in the kitchen, just my hair. So its a good thing that I cut hair cause I was able to give myself a nice trim. Needed to get my bangs cut anyway, I guess. They look nice. Speaking of cutting hair, anyone need a haircut while Im in town?!

This morning I went to the gym to do my morning exercising. I started off with yoga at 8 and then decided to bike for an hour until my core class at 10. I was just going to do a slow bike while reading but then got distracted the the little touch screen mechanism. Apparently you can do "bike tours" in France. Alright, why not? I had decided  to do an hour bike through  Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Roussillion in southern France. Even though it was all on a computer screen, the sights were beautiful and made me feel like I was there. At one point the camera panned past a group of people, some of whom waved and I brought my hand up to wave back but caught myself in time to play it off as a scratch, laughing at myself in the process. I was so enthralled! Facts also popped up on the screen to tell me about the area I was biking in. It was pretty neat. Now Im sore and that core class is a half hour of death. Hopefully I will get my abs back before I head back down to

We currently live in a world where people look to movie stars and musicians as their role models. This is what it is doing to our society: We focus on the superficial We worry about who's dating who We become more concerned about our looks then what really matters We know more about Kim Kardashian then simple math We knock others down to bring ourselves up We aren't thinking... Our younger generation is being blinded by lights to what truly matters in life: Learning, growing and loving. Once our role models change, we will see a change in our nation. What about Pope Francis? He spreads acceptance and love. What about Neil DeGrasse Tyson? He speaks with amazing knowledge. What about Bill Nye? The science guy? Have you known anyone who has made a difference who says their role model was Nicki Minaj? I just hope that people will learn to move on. Think about what really matters in the world. Move past hate, grudges and lies to open-mindedness, being present an

For the first time in awhile, I had friends over at my parents house for a movie and games. It was just a few of us and we hung out in the basement all curled up on the couch watching "A Knights Tale". After the first 20 or so minutes, I heard movement upstairs and assumed it was my parents who just got home but I was wrong and rewarded by the sight of my best friend walking down the basement stairs. "Wheres a pizza stone?" He asked. Our oven wasn't working so I went upstairs to help him out. He had brought over dinner to make. It felt like high school again! We put the pizza in the pizza oven and put the fries in the oven on broiler setting to see if that'd work. 15 minutes later, he went upstairs to check on the food and moments later I hear the smoke detector going off from down stairs so I run up to see whats going on. As I go up the stairs I hear the words "Its on fire!"... I make it to the kitchen and theres smoke everywhere. The frie

While eating my Turbana banana this morning, the little sticker thingy told me to "discover the origin". Since I do not have a smart device to scan the QR code, I decided to do some research on the good ole interwebs and this is what I found: The first link that came up on my google search was "Turbana brings consumers back to the farm". There has been a movement to 'know where your food comes from'. When asking many of the kids that I work with, they tend to answer "the grocery store" or "a farm" but they don't know much beyond that. Neither do a majority of American adults. There is such a huge disconnect between what we put into our bodies and where it comes from. This just doesn't seem right. I want to know that what Im eating and what Im spending money on is ok for my body and eases my mind. So, after clicking on this link and reading the article listed above, along with a search of Turbana's website, I was very impre

This would be me. Im a horrible person, indeed. Dad Films 6 Minutes of Kids Slipping on Ice with Running Commentary: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/19/alan-andersen-bacontfm-ice-slip_n_4816325.html Also, it is WAY too cold outside, It makes me want to head down to the USVI, like, now. Im cold except when Im exercising. Not cool WI, not cool. Or rather... Too cool WI, too cool.

I swear that I have the best friends on the planet and I know everyone is jealous. But Ill share them! Last night I went to Milwaukee to see a friends band play on Water St. It took a lot of energy to leave the house. Oh, how I wanted an early evening and to cuddle up in bed with a good book. We all know that those end up being the best nights out, when it was hard to get out in the first place! There ended up being a huge group of us. Ive always wanted a large group of friends and now Ive got it. And even more friends around the world. I can't believe how awesome that is and how awesome they all are! Anyway... We pretty much took over the dance floor with our crazy moves. It was so fun! I got a text from my mom saying that I should just stay in Milwaukee considering the bad roads after the first snowfall. I didn't argue. On the hike back to the apartment after the show, there was snow everywhere and it was cooold. Thank goodness my friends are so great and threw snowba

What a perfect time to start my blog!    ...after Im mostly done with my fall travels. But don't fret! Each day my life is an adventure and I hope to be having many more traveling adventures to come. Before I get started there are a few things you should know about me. 1) I LOVE to travel and explore new places. This may mean exploring the new restaurant around the corner, being a tourist in my hometown or going to far away places. Each new place is an adventure. 2) I get asked for directions everywhere. I will be walking around for the first time in a new city and someone will ask for directions... I don't even have any idea where I am, much less where you want to go. But when I can help someone out, it makes me feel like a local. And when you're a local, you can get away with a lot, like not getting pick-pocketed in the pick-pocket capital of the world! 3) I very much like being alone. I love to wander the streets of a city alone so that my feet can take me to