"Show us what you GOT or Show us what you Learned"

I knewww this would happened if I "blogged" (I use the term loosely.. 3 posts in like a year so. not winning any marketing or consistency awards) but whatever- when I feel inspired either by food I eat or real things, I will write about them and if that's every three months so be it.

This time- I'm inspired by an African dance class I took on Tuesday with some friends at Carnegie Mellon.  A lottttt of the class revolved around us making fun of ourselves and the instructor yelling at me to smile more, but it was the END of the class that has stuck with me.  At the very end, the instructor made us all get in a circle and said with a smile "ok - now's the time where you show us what you GOT or show us what you learned"... Obviously at first I was instantly MORTIFIED. Every single move we learned was gone- out of my head.  My friend and I seriously  eyed up the door for a minute wondering if we could make a quick get away but there was just no way out- that'd be more humiliating.  So one by one, people jumped into the middle of the circle and just did it.

Anyways, all week now I've been saying "show us what you got or show us what you learned" around my apartment in a prettttty terrible imitation of the instructor's voice.  But today, when thinking through my daily frustrations during some quiet time in the morning, I realized that that could be the motto of this stage of life I'm going through.

My friends and I have had about 78 zillion discussions about this "quarter life crisis" we all seem to be going through.  No matter WHAT we are all doing now after college- we are all unsure and stressed out about it.  It's the first time in our lives our peer group isn't entirely comparable to us in some way.  We can't ask each other what classes we're taking or what teachers to take or avoid.  We can't confer about meal plans or weekend plans.  Some of us are married, some happily single; some of us in grad school, some across the country.  There is no standard to compare ourselves to and I think we're all going a litttttle crazy over it.

I've been thinking about this all in every aspect of my life- job, school, marriage, faith, friendships, and I've come to the realization that that era of safety and comparison is done. We went through each grade, school, and class adding to our experience and knowledge, and now- it's time to circle up and show everyone what you got and/or show them what you learned.  I'm expected to be a PERSON now- to have my own opinions and goals and schedule and to be confident in that and its terrifying- maybe slightly more so than the african dance circle I guess- but a pretty good comparison none the less.  There's no eyeing the door, there's no choosing to let your turn go by, and yeah there are times when I can look dumb or forget what I'm supposed to be doing, but for right now- I just have to realize that I've "got" and "learned" a lot of things over the past few years and now it's time to just buck up and DO it.

....this is all obviously way easier said than done and I can promise I'll have 10-20 more mini breakdowns before 2013 is over about life and direction and blah blah blah- BUT hopefully those can be curbed in the future by remembering that those 3 seconds of horror preceding my time in the dance circle were followed by the fact that yes, I lived through it, all was well afterward, and I even decided to go back to the class next week to do it all over again.

I've got apartment decor on the braiiiiin...

This spring has been crazy and I was recently hospitalized (nothing serious- minor surgery) and then laid up in my teeny 1 bedroom apartment for a WEEK.  Last week I got news I'd have to go through the process again, but seeing as I am pretty sure I was bordering on clinically insane last time I was home for a week- I'm being very intentional about giving myself projects and goals to keep myself busy on this unwanted time off...

LUCKILY we have also decided to move to a new apartment and the move in date is May 1!  We're only moving one street down from our current place-we love Squirrel Hill and couldn't bring ourselves to leave quite yet...especially the food.
 While we like our current place- I was officially accepted to start my masters program at Chatham in the fall and I know myself well enough to know that for my sanity, Brian's sanity, and our marriage, I'm gonna need my own space to do schoolwork and Brian will need his own space to hide while I'm doing said schoolwork....That sentence makes it sound like we're moving into separate apartments... rest assured, we are not.  Anyways, timing really worked out on our side and we were super blessed with getting a great two bedroom apartment with a sunroom/office that should be a great space to put down some roots while I go through my masters program and Brian adjusts to his new job.

All this to say-- I've decided to make this new apartment my main goal for the next few weeks.  Last year when we moved into our new place I was so focused on wedding planning that I put little to no effort into the apartment and I've never really felt like it was "homey" per se.  I am determined to put more thought and effort into this place so that I love every inch of it.  I'm planning to use my upcoming time off to toss everything in the current apartment that we dont use or need.  Small spaces are just made smaller by extra stuff, so its time to purge!  I'll also be scouring blogs, pinterest and etsy for ideas for the new place...

So far these have caught my eye....

Brilliant
^ so cute. love the idea of fresh flowers but hate the fact that I always leave them around till they're dead and falling all over everything. these seem like a longer lasting idea.. I love the "field harvest"for our bedroom!

This color scheme for a bedroom
^ we have black furniture and a gray quilt already so we are dying to add some gray paint and yellow accents to a bedroom

These helpful color schemes
^ we are supposedly allowed to paint in the new place.. this is a great place to start.

With so many new changes happening I'll try to update this space more as more ideas come to me... and seeing as I'll be bored out my MIND by the end of next week I can't imagine it'll be tough..

City Livin.

Despite our typically low-key lifestyle, we have really been living it UP these past few weeks if I do say so myself.  We live pretty much right in the city and we have really been taking advantage of it in the month of January!  Like I said- typically we sit around and reallllly take advantage of Netflix and Mineo's Pizza. But we are becoming regular CITY slickers. I don't really know what that means I just know that I've seen those movies... So for here it means we are going to cool things in our city sometimes.  

Les mis! Ok so my totally awesome Christmas Gift this year from Brian just happened to be two tickets to see Les Mis live when it came to the Benedum Center! Huge. Amazing. And he's been singing "One Day More" ever since so... success.

Next up on the agenda? My mom and dad took me and new PGH resident best frannnn Joe out to the Strip District for BOTH of our first trips out there! Crazy that I've never been down there before, but my parents are old pros and took us under their wings for the morning.  It was a beautiful day and I went crazy buying produce, homemade peanut butter, and anything else I saw. Joe was responsible and bought one lonely box of tea. Bored. 

Finally, Last night Brian took me to my first ever pens game! It was sad because we lost but crazy intense and super fun to be at the Home Opener and enjoy the free food and Half off Gear!

As you can tell we've been a littttle more adventurous than usual and it doesn't stop there! Not trying to give anything away but let it be known our weekend plans involve rock climbing. Stay tuned.

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First Post For the New Blog!!

Before I go any further, I have to credit Ms. Christie Miller for the title of this blog.  Once I knew I had to start to learn to use blogger I needed a new name for a personal blog.  I texted Christie the Sage and said something like "ok- you're a writer, so just think of a clever blog name for me.  It will basically be about like... how I don't know how to be an adult and I act like an old woman and it'll probably be boring".  Amazingly, from that poor piece of direction, she came up with the title which sums up my life.  I just got married and I already feel like I need to join a bridge club. Intrigued? Good. read on.



Here are some of the most exciting things happening in my life RIGHT NOW.

• I just turned 23. Officially too old for anyone to ever think I could still be a college student. ever.
• Destiny's Child announced they will be reuniting at the Superbowl this year. So I have a reason to watch.
• I'm in the process of applying to graduate programs for counseling and hopefully plan to start next fall.
• I started watching Downton Abbey yesterday- and keep watching and liking it, though I couldn't give you one real reason why.

Ok so two actual big exciting things and two somewhat less important things- you decide which I'm talking about for each.

I'd say this was a pretty good post to get you all caught up to my here and now.  Stay tuned for future posts from this weekend- some super exciting things happening that I can't wait to write about!