Learning to slow down.

This weekend, Ryan and I visited his parents in Fort Myers while his aunt & uncle were in town from New York. We had a lot of down time, and I forgot my laptop at home so no GRE studying was going to happen (ohhh, darn). After scanning through Pinterest over and over and over again, I decided to open up my iBooks app and finally get down to reading Dark Places, a book written by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, duh).

It's a relatively captivating book. Creepy, very dark (ha, puns)...almost the kind of story I don't like to read at night because it's basically nightmare food. Anyway, while I was reading over the weekend, I noticed that I could feel my eyes glazing over long paragraphs of descriptive words meant to "paint a picture of the scene," and found myself skipping right to the dialogue. Cutting to the chase, if you will. Literally glancing over three or four lines, assuming I got the gist, I would move on to the next paragraph, hardly internalizing what I'd just read.

I then realized that this is something I do this almost all the time, in every aspect of my life. I assume I'll "get the gist of it." Whether it's putting together an IKEA dresser, or looking over an apartment lease, or practicing reading comprehension for the GRE. In a nutshell: I suck. And I suck because I'm constantly "on to the next." I want to finish this book so I can start a new one, I want to finish this set of reading comprehension questions so I can move on to the shift sentences, I want to hurry up and find a new apartment so I can start moving out of my old one.

On the whole, I need to take a chill pill.

Does anyone else have this issue? I feel like I'm wishing time away, trying to start the next phase of my life. Or in this case, the next book. Side note: any book recommendations?

24 is Here to Stay.

24, I love you already.

Shortly after composing my last blog post regarding all the lessons I learned at 23, my boyfriend picked me up to embark on our trip to Orlando with a brand new cooler of margarita mixings in tow. If you know me personally, you know this was probably the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. Extra brownie points: check. 

We arrived to the hotel in record time and immediately got to sipping homemade birthday eve margs. From there, I was treated to Yard House (Tampa needs one...real bad) where we hit it off with our server so well, we invited him for drinks with us across the street after he got out of work. We only hung out with him for about an hour, but how cool is it to make friends on a mini vacay? 

Ryan didn't believe that I was actually going to wake up at 7:30 the next morning after a night of drinking. Clearly he still has a thing or two to learn about me, because I don't mess around when it comes to Blizzard Beach. Sure enough, I was up and at 'em bright and early. We got to the park just 30 minutes after they opened and got to the best slides with next to no wait. Our tickets were good for Typhoon Lagoon as well (another water park on the Disney grounds), so we headed there halfway through the day. I've been to Blizzard Beach close to a dozen times in my life, but never to Typhoon Lagoon, so that was a sweet little surprise. 

What isn't surprising, however, is how much my feet are killing me this morning. It hurts to walk. It hurts to drive. It hurts to everything. But it was all so worth it, as I had easily one of the best birthday celebrations I've ever had. 

24 already has a lot going on. I'm taking the GRE in a few weeks, going to my first bachelorette party, being a bridesmaid in my roommate's wedding, moving in with my boyfriend, starting school again...seriously, SO much going on. I can already tell time is going to fly by and 25 will be here before I know it. But until then, I'm going to make the most of these next 364 days. 

XO

15 Things I Figured Out at 23.

I will officially be entering my 'mid-twenties' as I turn 24 tomorrow, just in time for all of my friends to turn 25. Oh, the highs and lows summer birthdays. I always envied the kids I went to elementary school with whose birthdays would fall on a school day. Moms would bring in party hats and Publix cupcakes into class and we'd all party for the last half hour of the day. On the flip side, I got to have pool parties every single year until I was 16 (or 17...? What? I like presents.)

Anyway, as 23 comes to a close, I've been thinking a lot about what a whirlwind of a year it's been. I think I might actually be turning into a real live grown up? That doesn't bear thinking of. Can't I just be a kid again? No? Fine, but I'm still going to Blizzard Beach with Ryan tomorrow and you can't stop me.

I decided to take a little time to reflect on the last year and figure out what lessons I've learned that have really stuck with me. Thus, I bring you:

1. If you're not happy, change it. It really is that simple. People make it seem like it's not that simple, but to an extent, it kind of is.
2. Make time for what matters. Family time, boyfriend time, friend time, study time, reading time, you time. Block it out, and don't change plans.
3. I don't actually need that dress. Or swim suit. Or top. Or anything. Spending money is fun, but saving money is always better. 
4. Some people are just assholes. Oh wait, I've always known this one. 
5. Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff. In regards to the former, less is more. Spend less time worrying about shit that doesn't actually matter in the grand scheme of things. 
6. It's okay to have unproductive days. Go ahead, binge watch five episodes of Parenthood. You deserve it.
7. Having a dog really is hard work...but it's so worth it.
8. Love doesn't have to be dramatic to be passionate. Real relationships aren't supposed to look like the movies. How exhausting would that be?
9. Comparison is the thief of joy. You can't compare your beginning to someone else's middle; you'll never be satisfied.
10. Just be nice. I've found this to be true in every situation. As the saying goes, "better to be the one who smiled than the one who didn't smile back." Life isn't an episode of The Hills, and we don't get paid extra to make others feel uncomfortable.
11. Perfection is boring. Stop trying to make your Pinterest Perfect Home happen. It's not going to happen. (LOL jk, I'm going to keep trying...)
12. Spend less time worrying about what your next step is supposed to be. Every big decision starts with a hundred small decisions. Focus on those small decisions, one step at a time.
13. Eat the donut. Seriously. The world will not end.
14. Stop reading Buzzfeed articles about how to live your life in your 20s...or at least stop believing them. This kind of falls under the whole 'comparison is the thief of joy' bit. No two journeys are the same. 
15. Don't apologize for being a "basic bitch." I haaaate that everyone uses the term 'basic' in a derogatory sense. Sorry I like popular things!!!! Or you know, sorry I'm not storry. Now let me drink my holiday themed Starbucks drink in peace while I listen to Taylor Swift ad nauseum. It ain't none of yo' business.

Anything in particular I should know about turning 24? Does this mean I have to start 'adulting' forever?! 

You Probably Don't Know...

Since I've never participated in a blogging Link Up, I decided to join Helene In Between with "You Probably Don't Know..." with a few things you might not know about me. Enjoy and link up! 

[My sister and I on Zuma Beach in Malibu, CA!]

-I rarely drink coffee. It makes me break out if I drink it regularly, so I just don't. Chai tea for me, please.

-My sister and brother-in-law live in Bulgaria. Whether I'm over in Europe with them or she's visiting  us back in the states, she is forever my favorite travel buddy!

-I wake up almost every morning hoping it will be overcast outside, especially in the summertime. There isn't much that I love more than a summer storm. Unless I have outdoor plans for the day. In which case, it better not be raining.

-Two and a half months ago, I decided to change my life and quit my job and go back to school to do something completely different from my first college degree. Some days I have really mixed feelings about it, but most days I couldn't be more proud of myself.

-My rescued pup, Einstein, is the first non-poodle I've ever had in my life.

-I think Christmas lights add a little slice of perfection to every room in every household, no matter the time of year.

-When I was 14 months old, I tripped over a rug and bit my lip almost completely off. Like, it was legitimately hanging by a corner, inside my mouth. I still have a scar from plastic surgery, and to this day, I pick at my bottom lip as a nervous habit.

-I met my boyfriend at a bar and got his Snapchat name before I got his phone number. I downloaded Snapchat for the first time that same day, just hours before I met him. I don't think this was a coincidence.

4 Easy Ways to Declutter Your Life.

Even though it's summertime and the living should be easy, sometimes it isn't. I get caught up in stupid stuff, I get caught up in important stuff...on the whole, I just get caught up. Much like how it's necessary to take time to myself to simply relax, I think it's equally as necessary to take time to 'defluff the excess' in your life when things get just a little too hectic. In the words of Ing from Uptown Girls, "Downsize, Molly. Purify. Streamline, find your center." (If you don't get that reference, you should probably get on that). As of late, I've been trying my best to do just that. Whenever my head is in a spin for one reason or another, I take these three small steps declutter my mind. Trivial as they may seem, I feel strangely refreshed after completing each task!

| one| Streamline any and all social media. The other night I noticed that my Facebook "friend" count was just over 1,100 people. Um, what? I hardly have a group of 10 people that I hang out with regularly, let alone share my life with via social media. Scrolling through, I realized that I hadn't spoken to more than half the people on my friends list in more than a year, sometimes two years, often three or more. I try to actively do this with Instagram as well; if it's getting to the point where I don't even enjoy taking the time to scroll through my feed a couple times throughout the day, it's time to streamline my list of following. And Pinterest? If I don't see myself ever making it or eating it, it's gawwwwn gawn. Okay, mostly gone. Kind of.

| two | Donate. Not just money, but belongings. As a teenager, I was never allowed to sell my gently worn (or just straight up used) clothing to secondhand shops like Plato's Closet. My mom always made me donate the clothes I didn't wear anymore to Goodwill or other local charities, and it's a habit I've never been able to break no matter how old I get. So at the start of every season, I take a couple hours to root through my closet, try on items I haven't worn in awhile, and decide whether or not they'll get the boot. Not ready to part ways just yet? Stash your unworn clothes under the bed or some place you won't notice them for six months. If after six months you haven't even thought twice about that old sequined top you weren't ready to let go of just yet, donate it!

| three | Clear out your computer. Okay, I mostly started doing this because good ol' Maxwell the Macbook kept telling me that I was almost out of storage. I've been carrying over old items with every change of laptop over the last 13 years of my life, so you can only imagine what kind of files I had stored. Old AOL instant messenger conversations, pictures of ex-boyfriends I haven't seen since I was 15, class notes from every single college class I ever took. So unnecessary! So after a few quick trips down memory lane, I 'emptied the trash,' if you will. And voila! So much room for activities.

| four | Bring your room 'back to ready.' This is more of a preemptive step, but there is nothing I love more than walking into a clean room after a long day or trip. Make your bed every morning (or most mornings, in my case), throw away clothing tags as soon as you cut them off (oh, thats just me?), put away remotes you aren't using and clothes you're not wearing. I'm not a perfectionist by any means, but a decluttered (not necessarily clean, but decluttered) living space leads to a decluttered mind.

What do you do when you need to "declutter?" Let me know in the comments. I'm always down for new tips and tricks!