June Bug

June was a whirlwind of 80 degree weather, sun, rain, birthdays, and travel.

I kicked off the month in Cancun with my roommate's family. It was my first time in Mexico, and it was an absolute blast! Unfortunately there was little sun; it was pouring rain most of the time we were there. The resort was really great though, and one of our rainy days turned into a spa/massage day. I can't be upset about that!!

As soon as we got back, it was time to celebrate my 23rd birthday. Co-workers spoiled me with ample amounts of sugar, Italian food, and love. That night I enjoyed a family dinner where we ordered in steaks and had a relaxing night. My presents were:
        -an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer from my parents
        -the most beautiful bouquet of flowers I've ever seen from Jared

That weekend I enjoyed time celebrating with my friends, including a Drillers game, Skee-ball at The Max, and some two-stepping at Caravan. I even got to swim a little with Kara and her sweet daughter, but it wasn't quite warm enough to swim for long.

The following weekend brought on my favorite activity of the summer: Floating the Illinois River! Now, if you aren't from the Tulsa area, you might not know about this river. The portion we float is about 1 hour away in Tahlequah, OK. It isn't a white-water-rapid adventure, but a relaxing/fun float for either 6 or 12 miles. We were going to camp out that night, but it started pouring rain as soon as we were finished with our float. What did that mean? A stop through the McDonalds drive-thru and a drive home. I was sad to not be camping, but very happy to have slept in my warm, dry bed!

The rest of the month involved lots of swimming, meetings, and celebrating birthdays (my brother Clark and Abbey).


June will always be one of my favorite months! June brings the beginning of a great summer: time with friends, swimming, and longer days. It is still strange not having a 3 month break in the summer, but I think I am getting used to it!

:)

Weird Wednesday, Birthday Edition

In honor of my birthday...

So true.

Let the vacations begin!!

First stop: Manhattan! 

My first trip to New York City, and I couldn't be more excited!! It feels awful leaving Oklahoma after our tragic round of tornadoes, but I wont let that get me down. Found a free place to stay AND a cheap flight. Thanks to that (and the fact I'm not going to see Justin Timberlake in Tulsa), I've decided that I will be seeing Book of Mormon and maybe/hopefully one other show.

I'll be sure to blog about my trip with pictures of my adventures in The Big Apple!

(Still accepting advice/ideas of where to go/hidden gems/ things I shouldn't miss!)

:)

NYC Advice!!

Okay bloggers,

I just found out that my Chinese sister is graduating from her Master's program in two weeks. She has no family attending, so I desperately want to visit her. I found the cheap flights, but now I have to find the cheap/affordable places to stay.

I need suggestions, please!! I obviously didn't have time to save up, so the cheaper the better.


Also, I'll only get to spend 3-4 full days there, so I need to know the places I definitely shouldn't miss for my first trip to NYC.


Thank you, friends!! (And strangers, also.)

I've got the Blues

The "I'm a working adult and not a college kid anymore" Blues.

With all of my college friends getting ready for Summer Break, it is quickly sinking in that I won't be getting to join them. However, it IS helping that people are drowning in Finals Week studies and I am not. There are some perks to being an adult!

I would rather have the "Kraft Macaroni and cheese" Blues...

Birthdays, Cinco de Mayo, and Wal-Mart Galore!

This weekend was extremely eventful and definitely exhausting! I had 4 birthdays to celebrate, errands to run, and  (very little) sleeping to do.

Friday was my day off, making for a great kickstart to the weekend. I ate Jimmy's Egg for breakfast (which, if you haven't eaten there, you MUST go right now and try their pancakes-- I also recommend the Angry Burrito) followed by seeing Iron Man 3. I was originally supposed to see it at midnight Thursday night, but the old lady inside of me turned my 15 minute nap into a 9 hour slumber. The rest of the day involved chores/errands/bathing and reading outside for an hour. Then I was off to dinner to begin the birthday weekend festivities. My friend Kathryne was celebrating the beginning of her birthday week with dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Cocina. I was able to get a free margarita out of the deal, which was a great surprise! After dinner I went and picked up my friend Kara to head to our friend Nick's birthday party. We both thought we had to be home early though, so the party was short lived for us. 

I was supposed to wake up bright and early the next day, but with it nearly sleeting outside (IN MAY) the volunteering was cancelled. Since I was already up, dressed, and sporting my snow boots, I decided I still needed to go out and about. Mallori and I went to Wal-mart so that I could by some paint to fix a dent in my car. While at Wal-mart, we realized we needed toiletries, then that Mallori needed things for work, and then I needed groceries. During our adventure we decided to throw an impromptu Quatro de Mayo dinner and have Tacos and Margaritas. After a long brunch with my brothers at Leon's, we hurried to the apartment to clean and start making margaritas cooking. We had quite a few friends head over, and it was a very fun night! Around 10 we moved the gathering to Caravan to celebrate Mallori's boyfriend's birthday (3rd one to celebrate this weekend). The Caravan wasn't as busy as usual, but that didn't stop us from line dancing, two-stepping, and dancing ridiculously.

Some Boot Scootin' Boogie:

Sunday I was up early for church, even though I forgot to set my alarm. Gotta love that internal clock sometimes! After church it was time to celebrate my brother Evan's 30th birthday with a crawfish boil. If you haven't been to a crawfish boil before-- you are missing out!! This crawfish was flown in fresh from Louisiana  and it made my stomach very happy (maybe since it was my first non-Mexican meal since Thursday). We got to eat, watch the Thunder game, and enjoy 60 degree weather that did NOT include rain! I didn't get home until night-fall, and all I wanted to do was watch Grey's Anatomy and sleep. 

  

This weekend was one for the books, but I am ready for another weekend just to recover!

Weird Wednesday

The other day I walked into the restroom at work and was very surprised to see this:

So, this was't the actual scene, but it was almost this exact situation.

Why would anyone ever shave their legs in the bathroom of their workplace? I felt uncomfortable and couldn't look at her. I felt that this person probably felt enough shame already, and I couldn't add to it by showing her my judging eyes, staring making eye contact. When I went into my stall, I almost peaked through the crack to see if my eyes had lied to me. I did refrain; instead, I took out my phone immediately to share this situation with a coworker.

Has anyone seen this happen? Is this normal? I know I am new to the working world and all-- maybe I am unfamiliar with the ritual of taking care of your personal hygiene at work. Please educate me.

Lesson of the Week

This week I learned that you can't use wax paper in the oven instead of parchment paper.


"This week's lesson is brought to you by Smokey the Bear. Only YOU can prevent kitchen fires."

Dating is Bizzare

Since I started my first serious relationship at 16, I really haven't dated, and have only spent 2 months truly being single (until now). You may call me a Serial Monogamist. Now having had two relationships that lasted about 3 years each, I have been determined* to stay single for a while.

I said in a previous post that dating is fun, but man is it strange.

Some things I have realized:
-When you change your FB status to single, single guys will "like" it.
-I'd never gone on a date with someone I didn't already know very well.
-How guys act when (I think) they "only want one thing."
-Boys will stop talking to you if you fail at texting them.
-The word "boyfriend" now terrifies me.
-The first time texting an ex shouldn't be tried after a round of margaritas with old friends.
-The first time texting an ex should just be never.
-Random and spontaneous activities should always be accepted.
-I should never hide a thing about myself.
-Trying to date guys who work a night shift just isn't going to work, but they make for fun weekends!


*My best friend might have made me pinky promise to stay single for at least 6 months. That is just how pathetic I am at staying single.

The Real Work

It's been quite a few months since we "graduated" from the Orientation Program and separated off to our separate jobs. My job? Developer working with Oracle ERP Financials software/databases.

For you non-IT folk most of you, that basically means that I use programming to work with really GIANT and complicated spreadsheets. Sound complicated? It is. My internship at OU was working with these databases. It was difficult there, but I worked in my own pretend database that was all make-believe with chocolate and gumdrops. At my job now, it is not pretend and it is big and scary, almost like Mordor (and there are definitely no gumdrops). 

I LOVE everyone I work with; a team of about 8 people that have all worked here over 10 years. The tricky part is learning everything. Some days I feel like I am doing great, and others I feel like I am trying to navigate the Pacific Ocean under overcast skies without so much as a compass. This is a really hard feeling for me. I am usually great at the work I do, and generally do more than is expected of me. At my D.C. internship, I was re-named the Energizer Bunny because I did so much in so little time. These databases are just so extensive and there is so much to learn, that I know it will take a long time before I really get into a groove. I still love my job and am very happy to have it, and for that I will always be grateful!

Outside of the actual work I do, there are lots of fun things. Our IT department has holiday meals, fun fundraisers, and our team occasionally does lunch or happy hour. I even got to help plan our Christmas progressive lunch and fundraisers; it made me happy that the department wanted us newbies involved! Most days I eat in our cafeteria with about 5 other new hires from the orientation program, which makes me feel like I have a life is always a nice break from the cubicle.

Speaking of cubicles, I don't hate mine! I always imagined the cubicle life as something from a nightmare, but I don't mind it at all. Mine is pretty close to the window, and so I get to see what is going on downtown/ look at the weather as it changes.

Last of all, I walk to work. Which is AMAZING. I've lost ten pounds since moving downtown, which I directly attribute to walking so much more. Losing weight is always a happy thing!

Truth is...

The strangest part about ending a relationship is not talking. After 4 years of being great friends and 3 years of dating, we have stopped talking.

I keep thinking I should send him a text and find out how he is doing. But then I just feel like I'll be interrupting his life and I don't want to do that. I already did that by bringing our break up out of left field. I've been dating, and I won't lie-- I'm really enjoying it. It is nice to not be in a long-distance relationship. It is nice knowing that I don't have to worry about the future so much. It is nice to hang out with someone whenever I want.

Truth is: I think I made the right decision. Truth is: I still worry about if I did. Truth is: I miss him.

Truth is... I'm happy. But I am a mess.

Unfinished Posts and a Healing Heart

Over the past few months, I have started many posts that I just couldn't finish. I don't like to be super emotional on my blog, and that's what my posts were going to be. It has also just been something too difficult to write about, so I didn't.

In the beginning of November, the boyfriend and I broke up. It was primarily led by my fear of the future, which for us seemed too uncertain (from my perspective, at least). It was something that I couldn't get out of my mind, and it was affecting my ability to enjoy the relationship at its present. He was to be completing his Master's Degree at the end of this year, and then would be moving away to pursue his dreams. They used to be dreams that I shared, but over the past year and a half that dream for me has changed. I wanted to stay in my hometown of Tulsa and continue pursuing the dreams that have been developing for my life here.

As you can see, those two dreams don't match up. It was the first real, true, and difficult "adult" decision I have ever had to make. And it killed me.

The healing process has had its ups and downs, I just try to focus on the ups and ignore the downs. Even still, this is hard to write about. However, I want to get it out of the way so that I can start (inconsistently) blogging again freely.

Despite the sadness and heartbreak, I have been enjoying a new lease on life: to pursue my goals in Tulsa 100% and to never hold back. I have been focusing on whatever makes me happy, and to not think too much (as I always get caught up doing). I want to live freely and flourish. I don't want to miss any opportunity, and I want to shoot down any chance for me to live in regret. I must keep reminding myself that I am young- I am allowed to make mistakes and I am allowed to do what I want. This will be a hard one for me, but I can already tell that the happiness is worth it.

And that's all I have to say about that.