Loving White Pants

Spring is here! Time to break out those white pants/shorts/skirts and give them some fresh air! It's no secret I love vintage fashion and right now I'm loving high-waisted white pants. They're so flattering and show off your girlish figure perfectly while being very modest and classy at the same time. Who doesn't love that!? So I thought I'd share some of my favorite looks. I have no idea where to find any of these - I'm on the hunt for a pair myself, so if you see some, LET ME KNOW! Thanks beautiful ladies. :) Hope y'all enjoy the eye-candy!



I know these are shorts, but how cute are they!?







Sigh...

And the changes continue...

Welllll... apparently MBA programs require a minimum of two years, post-grad, full-time, professional experience before admittance into their programs. So now that I've paid over $300 for the various entrance exams, have been studying my butt off, and have been freaking out non-stop over which school, online or on-campus, etc... I can't go for another year or two anyway. I talked to an FSU admissions officer yesterday and they want FIVE years minimum experience. I'm crushed. I would like to think I'm strong and that this is just another thing I can bounce back from, but I'm exhausted. From moving cross-country to California, to spending six depressing months looking EVERYWHERE for a job, to deciding to move back to the southeast and all of the unknowns that come with that, like where am I going to live, what am I going to do, is it going to take that long to find a job again, how long will I go without seeing NTP, oh yeah, and ANOTHER flipping surgery... I'm simply worn out. I obviously do not handle change or stress as well as I thought. I just want to know what I'll be doing in two months. I want that stability back. I thought I'd get it by going back to school. I'd be studying and working towards a goal. Instead, I'm studying for pretty difficult tests just so I can wait however many years until I have enough experience. And what really stinks, is by then I would like to think I'll have a full-time job and be married or close to it. That's not the time I want to be going back to school. Unfortunately, that's how these programs are designed.

I'm sorry to go on and on ranting. I have a lot to be thankful for. I really do. I'm just seriously struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

NTP walked in on me crying last night. He grabbed the car keys, told me to put on a jacket, and took me to Chili's for my favorites - a strawberry margarita, skillet queso, and a chocolate molten lava cake. It's the little things, right?

Big Changes

Oh boy, where to begin. Well I guess I'll just get down to it. I've decided to go back to school and get a Master's Degree. SURPRISE! I'm hoping to get an MBA. Another surprise coming from a girl with communications and poli sci degrees. I just figured that with my two bachelor's and with a Master's in Business, so many more doors will open, the potential for advancement will be greater, the PAY will be better (although just about anything would be more than I'm making now), there will be more stability, and I'll be more marketable! Plus, I'm a nerd and I miss school. I like learning. Sure, I complain as much as any other student, but I do enjoy it. Not sure how I'm going to enjoy accounting classes, but we'll see.

Unfortunately, I made my choice a little late. A lot of deadlines for my top schools have already passed. However, I think I've got it narrowed down to three choices.

1. Kennesaw State University outside Atlanta. From what I can tell this looks like a great school with a great program and the best part is I can finish in 18 months. LOVE that. I'm waiting to hear back from an admissions officer on exactly what they're looking for in an applicant. Website just says professional experience, undergrad transcripts, and GMAT scores. Since I was a business major in college, I'm just wondering if I need to take prereqs or anything.

2. FSU!! GO NOLES! Of course my alma mater is still in the running. I missed the deadline for their accelerated program on-campus, but I can still make the deadline for their online program. Only problem is it takes 28 months to complete because they only allow you to take 2 classes each semester. Boo. We'll see if there's a way around that.

3. And lastly, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This school would be great if I got a certain job that may or may not happen in Blue Ridge. (This job would include my own cabin in the mountains rent free!) However, I'm not putting all of my eggs in this basket (haha Easter reference. ok corny).

So that's how it's looking right now. I'm studying like crazy for the GRE and the GMAT and I won't lie, all of this math is super intimidating. I'm so lucky to have a math-genius mom and boyfriend.

Say some prayers for me! I'm really praying that everything works out just how it's supposed to and things FINALLY start falling into place. I'm so sick of instability.

Love, hugs, and getting my nerd on...

Kiss Me! I'm (part) Irish!

Happy St. Patrick's Day lovelies! I'm excited about today because it's one of the few days being fair-skinned and covered in freckles is celebrated! Woohoo!

I'm a little Irish on both sides. Daddy-O is half Irish, half Cherokee Indian. Yeah, crazy combo I know. He's super tan, black hair (before he went bald), and then bright green Irish eyes. I took after Momma - fair, freckles, and blue eyes. My aunt did some genealogy research a while back and discovered that my ancestors on my mom's side came to America during the potato famine in Ireland. The rest are French, although according to my VERY proud grandfather, "We're American, dammit." Gotta love him.

So kiss someone Irish today! And now I'll leave y'all with a wonderful Irish blessing.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Prayers and Santa Monica Sunshine

The texts and phone calls started rolling in around 4:30 a.m. this morning from concerned friends and family. At the time I had no idea the destruction that hit Japan and was just trying to sleep. After about the third call I realized what y'all on the east coast already knew. A huge earthquake hit Japan and a tsunami was headed my way.

I realized that my apartment is far enough away from the ocean, with a mountain in-between, so I stopped worrying that I would be swept away. However, where I work is about 200 yards from the beach in Santa Monica. I got online and reports said there should be little to no damage in SoCal, but that they were evacuating the beaches just to be safe.

Going to work this morning felt a little strange. It just felt wrong to head towards the beach when I knew there was a tsunami coming. Thankfully, by the time I got to work the waves had hit and caused no damage. It was about a seven foot surge and as far as I know, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. Whew!

Our Friday intern is from Japan and we anxiously waited for her to come in to see how her family and friends are back home. Everyone is ok! We let out a big sigh of relief and are now sending our thoughts and prayers to those less fortunate.

I thought I'd share a peaceful picture of the Santa Monica Pier. I think we've all seen enough images of destruction and it might be nice to see something beautiful.

Love, hugs, and prayers...

A Journalist's Red Carpet

I've got some exciting news for y'all! Well, it's exciting for me and I'd like to think y'all want to celebrate and share in an interweb toast with me. Anyway, I'm a finalist for an Associate Press Award! Woohoo!!! (Insert happy dance.)

Apparently my mentor from college, a news director in Tallahassee, submitted one of my sports reporting features to the AP, which has a big awards ceremony each year for tons of different categories. I didn't even realize I had been nominated, let alone a FINALIST until today! Myself and my amazing editor, Alyse Danikowski, are up for "Best Sports Feature of 2010." Pretty sweet huh!? And what's even cooler is that we're up against another FSU alum! 'Noles are sweeping the board baby! So regardless of who wins, the Seminoles rock. :)

However, I would really like to win so fingers crossed! (I'm a little competitive if you can't tell.)

The video in question is below. Please disregard the awful stand-up. It was about 10 degrees with super strong winds and the athlete kept flirting with me so I was little awkward. But the rest is awesome!

Have a great Thursday y'all! (Insert one more happy dance for good measure.)

Fat Tuesday!

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone! For all of you in NOLA today, I'm incredibly jealous. I hope y'all get plenty of awesome beads (without showing your goods, of course) and eat lots of yummy cajun & creole food! I'm craving a cupcake today so I thought I'd share some fun Mardi Gras cupcakes I found. :) Enjoy!