We-eee are never ever ever...

Hey friends!

Man I wish I could have blogged for the past 5 months...so much has happened! I wish I had 10 free minutes in any given day to just, ya know, breathe and think and that kind of thing. Even that would be nice. I AM SO BUSY ALL THE TIME. I hate that. I miss updating my life, even though y'all see it on facebook anyway (except my random viewers from Russia, Europe, the Middle East and else where...you guys have probably ditched me by now, whoever the heck you are.) But you don't know the nitty gritty and fun! So hopefully in the near future, I will update on the following: the engagement story, wedding details, adventures, being robbed (crazy story...sneak peak: some thug defiled my poor little car in broad daylight in a busy street, made off with $48 in Panera gift cards and the keys to my car...but left the car), achievements, disappointments, school, life, etc. etc.

In the mean time, here's a short story. Chase really likes Taylor Swift's music. I like it too. Neither of us really care about her as a person...living 30 minutes from where she grew up, I've heard it all. I don't exactly love her, but her songs speak to me and/or they're fun to sing along to. Chase thinks she dates people just to make money, but he likes singing along as well (especially making up his own lyrics) and he likes her hair. =) Annnyways, clearly we don't hate her, because we listen to her all the time and we're not ashamed. I'm also not annoyed, nor do I feel weird, that the middle schoolers I work with enjoy jamming to her music as much as I do. I'm just glad they're not listening to Little (wait...Lil?...don't care!) Wayne or Pitbull, or basically any music that screams "SEX SEX STRIPPERS WOMEN ARE OBJECTS SEX MONEY NAKED WOMEN DRUGS SEX STRIPPERS...SEX". You get the picture.

One day, my 10-year-old nephew Tyler was over at our house, running around and playing Wii and singing "WE-EEEE ARE NEVER EVER EVER, GETTING BACK TOGETHER, WEEE-EEEE". And I was kind of taken aback by it (and totally cracking up too cuz it was so cute). But THEN my dad, whose age I will not give, surprised and shocked me times 10 by saying "Tyler, do you know who sings that song? She wears red lipstick.....she has long blonde hair!" What?! Dad. Who are you? How d..you did not just say that...how...how did you know that? And then I laughed even harder. I love my family.

Without further ado, here are my top 3 favorite Taylor songs:

#3: Mine

#2: Red

#1: Ours

P.S. "Ours" is also my favorite vid. =)

Yep, I just went there

My election thoughts:

Disclaimer: I am aware that everyone seems to have election thoughts these days and everyone's getting tired of it, but it's my blog and I have some things to say. If you don't want to read them, I totally understand, you don't have to.

1.) It's over, shut up.
2.) Dems, not all Reps are homophobic white-supremacists who hate minorities. Neither are they uneducated trailer-trash who hug their guns and have five teeth. And even if they were, you have NO right to belittle them, make them feel foolish, talk down to them, and treat them like they're less than you. And don't try to feed me the line that Reps are SUCH sore losers and are the only ones who complain about wanting to move out of the country and refuse to support the president, but every person in your party is completely innocent and open-minded and would never dream of doing that if your candidate lost. PUH-lease. I lived through Bush being elected twice, you can't lie to me.
3.) On the other side of things, when a Rep wins, they make the same darn argument! "Oh Dems, they're so rude and such sore losers blah blah blah". RAWR! It makes me SO mad. Neither party is more of a sore loser. Both have equal amounts of obnoxious, loudly-opinionated ignorant losers who refuse to support  a president of the opposite party. Let's remember (and hope!) that this is probably a small minority in both parties, but it is indeed IN BOTH PARTIES. End of story.
4.) On a similar note, "Reps have soo much more of those negative awful ads on tv". FALSE. "Dems have soo much more of those negative awful ads on tv". FALSE.
5.) No, Romney is not some greedy soul-less zombie who thinks women should be barefoot and pregnant (from being raped, of course) in the kitchen. He does not stand on other people and say anything to get what he wants. He doesn't take advantage of the government and secretly hides money. Don't you realize how freakin ridonkulous that sounds? He's just a guy. He is a businessman. A very successful one. He is good at what he does, and if you know any businessmen, you know they are naturally money-minded, because that's what they know how to do. Are they normally a little shady and untrustworthy? (*Thinks of a greasy car salesman.*) Yes, definitely. Would he have made a good president with a mindset like that? We'll never know, so frankly I don't care.
6.) No, Obama is not Satan. He is not an all-powerful being who will take over our country and government and run it into the ground. He isn't pure evil...you don't need to use scriptural references to preach that he's the anti-Christ. He's not going to try to take away our rights. Don't you realize how freakin ridonkulous that sounds? He is just a man. Doing the best he can. And he is our president. He needs our sincere prayers, our support, and our unity. Could he be wrong sometimes? Yes, absolutely. No one is perfect or right all the time. Could he be deceived? Of course. But he DOES have just as much capacity to do good as to follow after the bad. I can relate with the fear that people have, but understand that this should not be candidate-specific. Everyone can be deceived and mess up. Obama is well-liked by the majority of people and he gives them hope. Please stop making end of the world remarks. God's hand is in all things and He knows what He's doing. Have some faith. Pray that Obama will be up to the expectations and hopes of those who voted him in. Stay involved; encourage him to do good.
7.) Along with the whole all-powerful thing...if you're upset about what's happening in your country, realize the impact and power YOU still have as a voter. Pay attention to decisions of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Our government is made of 3 branches you know. Our inspired forefathers knew power was dangerous and should be split, and they left the ultimate decision up to YOU. Vote in your local and state elections and realize the importance that those people also hold in the grand scheme of things. I repeat, stay involved. Stay informed.
8.) Staying informed does not mean 2 months out of every 4 years you should suddenly create an opinion BASED ON NO RESEARCH, KNOWLEDGE OR CANDIDATE STANCES/ISSUES/POLICIES WHATSOEVER and turn into a heartless inhuman monster, personally and viciously attacking your friends, your associates, political candidates who you have no idea who they really are as a person but will act like you know as if it were your best friend, etc. It disgusts me.
9.) Maybe I was just sheltered from it, but I was surprised to not see any negative comments about my religion this time around. Realize if you have said something, that in so doing you have just offended and insulted not just one political candidate or a few Reps in Utah, but 14-15 million people, Rep/Dem, men/women, gay/straight, black/white, old/young from ALL OVER THE WORLD who are members of the church. Get your facts straight, or show how ignorant you truly are.
10.) The presentation "Liberty Rises" I think it's called at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia is SO powerful. I love living where our nation began. People are so passionate about it here. Anyways, you should go see it.

Sincerely,

someone who knows its important to be involved, but hates politics for all the things just discussed especially #8,  is unhappy with the 2-party system and is neither here nor there but tends to stand slightly left on the political spectrum

Have a good day.

What to know about driving in Philly

I've lived in Philly for a couple months now, and here's what I've seen so far, several times.

Per day.

1.) Need to park? Stop right where you are in the middle of a busy road, put your 4-ways on, and leave your car there. Or, don't turn your 4-ways on. Just sit there and confuse the crap out of everyone.

2.) If you are the first one stopped at a red light, you will get honked at. There's no avoiding it. No matter how much you pay attention, watch the light, and according to your own judgment, gun it the second it turns green, there WILL be someone behind you with a super-human reaction time. And they will be completely irate that you are taking FOR-EV-ER to go.

3.) Come to think of it, a true Philly driver never stops at a red light. You slow down to .15 mph and inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch brake inch until the light is green and you're already basically through the intersection. Either that or you slow down to .0025 mph and c  r  a  w  l       s   l   o   o   o   o   w   l   y   until the light turns green.

3.) Never take 76 into the city. Just. Don't. Do it. Unless that is, you are very much not claustrophobic, have nothing to do, and enjoy heavy traffic moving 2 miles per 3 hours.

4.) Going straight and there's a long line of traffic in front of you going the same way? Look to your left and right. Are there empty left or right turn only lanes? An exit or on ramp? Or perhaps enough space at the side of the road to fit your car? Well, OBVIOUSLY you should swerve around and book it down one of these, pass 15 cars patiently waiting, and cut someone off to merge back in. Totally acceptable. Congratulations, you just moved 50 yards. Or in true Philadelphian fashion, don't bother to use the correct lane at all. Example: By PCOM, there is a stop light where most people turn right at, and so it has it's own right turn lane. Most of the time, a lot of cars are in that lane. I constantly see cars fly by using the straight lane and then turn their blinker on and expect everyone to let them in at the front of the line, like they didn't know better. And what's worse, people DO let them in. Sometimes instead of the "oh I'm in the wrong lane and I didn't know any better" act, they just squeeze through, fly past and go. On a red light, into oncoming traffic. Giving me panic attacks from all the near-accidents I've witnessed.

5.) New Jersey drivers. No, no they're everywhere! The horror! (And they are ALL, every last one of them, terrible drivers. This is no stereotype.)

6.) Look up an address on google maps, "oh, it's only 2 miles away from me, I'll get there in no time." WRONG. Give yourself half an hour. And even then you'll probably walk in 5 minutes late.

7.) Only in Philadelphia will you see Maseratis, Bentleys, and other "holy crap, a _____________" kind of car...pulling into a Target parking lot, or randomly driving around the ghetto. Umm, what?

8.) It doesn't matter if you're on a 4-lane highway and you're driving pretty darn fast, people walk across the roads EVERYWHERE. Standing in the middle, no cross walks in sight, acting like they own the road.

9.) Wanna go to some place that's located near center city? Legal parking is nonexistent, unless you're willing to parallel park 8 blocks away on some sketchy little side street in front of someone's house and walk, OR pay at least $20/hour. Moral of the story: if you can help it, don't drive.


And on a somewhat related note, what is with men in their mid-20s driving "pimped-out" Honda Civics around and acting like they're the shiz? I have seen 3 in the past month. No matter the size of the spoiler you add to it, the shiny-ness of your rims, or the decibel level of your muffler, this does not change the fact that you sir, are driving a girl car. And if you want to argue that it's not a girl car, it IS a reliable dinky little 4-cylinder with an engine the size of my fist that gets amazing gas mileage. So if that's what you bought it for, cool. It is NOT, however, a turbo-charged meant-for-racing Subaru. It's not even an Si. So stop driving around like it is and you think girls should throw their panties at you as you drive by. "Oh, a dirty old Honda Civic, be still my heart!" said no girl. EVER.

Annnyways, I still love it here. But driving to and from work each day sure provides some entertainment and/or heart palpitations.

Oh baby, let's go to the beach

Well everyone, I'm silly, but I only discovered about 10 minutes ago that when you add a picture on here they have different sizes and I can make all my pictures BIGGER haha. Which makes me sooo happy! I was totally annoyed that they were so small you couldn't see anything. But then I clicked on one, and lo and behold, different sizes! I should explore more often. I updated my last few posts so they're better now. =)

Second order of business: I don't get when people make fun of other people for taking pictures of food. A true cook and food lover knows that food is art. The colors, the textures...just looking at a picture can make your mouth water and your stomach rumble. Can you imagine a cookbook with no pictures? Do you think anyone ever says "ooh, this recipe calls for lemons, I'm going to make that!"? No! It's seeing the delicious-looking flaky powdered-sugary lemon bar in the picture (one of my faves, btw) that makes you want to try it immediately. So you see, you silly people, food is art, and when you cook or bake, you're creating something. And I like to take pictures of my creations!

I made a goal recently to try to cook one thing that I haven't tried before, once every week or 2. It always makes me feel happy (at least when it turns out good! haha) and let's face it, some days I need an extra little boost, especially when I'm in Philly and the bills are looming in front of me and I'm wondering if I'll ever have money again. Speaking of which, good news! I got my 2nd job officially, and the pay is most excellent! I'll be doing the same thing I was at New Story, starting in a couple weeks. I guess I need to remember to count my blessings. 

This was my most recent: home made bean and cheese burritos!

Annnyways, time for my real post. Chase and I got to spend a few days at Myrtle Beach with my fam this week and we had a blast! It was my one last summer hoorah before my fall semester classes really got started.

Between seeing gators and what we thought was Nessie and/or a seal at Barefoot Landing, 

longboarding on Chase's new board that he bought at Ron Jon, 

eating at Mexico Lindo and Benito's, 

getting a pair of sweet new running sneaks for half price while walking around Broadway, 

many a good chat sitting on the beach in the evening, 

and long walks down the beach in the mornings to look for shells and go exploring in tide pools...I can't tell you which was my favorite!

I must say the exploring might have a slight edge over the rest. We made some awesome discoveries! (Well, I thought they were awesome, Chase was more like "these things are in Oregon...everywhere" haha.) I found the first sand dollar, I was SO EXCITED! It's perfect. =) Chase found the pretty orange conch shell when he went out for a run the first day. Funny story, I went in his room to wake him up that morning, he was asleep again but I saw he had showered and changed so I say "were you up already?" and he kind of mumbled into his pillow "yeah, I went for a run...I found that shell over there" and gestured toward the dresser. I turned to look, expecting a medium-sized clam shell at best, certainly not a big honkin conch, so when I saw it I did a double take and said "you...you FOUND that?!" haha. I found the ugly gray barnacle filled conch shell our last morning there, and Chase found all those sand dollars, as well as the cool snail. We really liked his shell, but we didn't wanna kill him or keep him for a pet, so he went back in the ocean. We had a good time. And I had forgotten my love for that kind of thing. Fun fact about me: I almost majored in marine biology/ecology/oceanography in college because I love it SO much! Some of the most fun I've ever had was going on the ecology club oceanography trips to Delaware in high school. Even the smelly dirty mucky parts...I might not seem like the type of girl that likes to get my hands dirty and dig through mud and sand to find creepy crawly sea creatures, but I totally am! Not many people can say that they've waded and slid through the waste-deep thick gray stanky sulfury sludge of a salt marsh just for fun. Except for us ecology club kids haha.

I love the beach!

Oh, and I was so proud of myself! I'm kind of a little terrified of swimming in the ocean (swimming in general really, I'm not the best at it) because several times in my life I've gotten pounded and pummeled and beat by waves and felt close to drowning. So I haven't gotten in the water in...I can't even tell you how long. Years and years! But I braved the water and went for not one, but TWO swims with Chase, Keith, Daniel and Aubrey. =)

The 3 fishies of the family: Keith, Aubrey, and Daniel.

And the 3 fishies plus Chase the uber fish.

I wish we could have stayed there forever! Some day, I'll live near a beach.

Unexpected pictures

One of my favorite things in life is when you find pictures of some great memory that you never knew were taken. Well, this very thing just occured the other day, and it happened to be a bunch of pictures from "the fateful weekend" I wrote about in I'm BA-ACK when me, Chase, and some friends of ours went to a ysa dance in Virginia. This was the nite that started it all, and seeing these pictures was hilarious.

The 3 of us (on the right) drove all the way to Virginia for a dance and none of our friends had gotten there yet so we didn't know a soul. So naturally, we sat in a corner and didn't socialize or dance at all.

Immediately upon sitting (and I mean immediately...actually now that I think about it, it happened before I even put my butt on a chair) the man who is creeping in this photo began creeping on me. He walked over to our table,  put his coat over a chair, and came back every 5 minutes to "check his phone" aka check me out. Chase thought it was so funny he started keeping count of the times I got checked out. It was somewhere in the 20s. 

Back left corner. Proof.

Our first (awkward-looking) dance! We apparently can't look at the camera. What this picture fails to show is that 85% of that dance, Chase had me pee-my-pants laughing. 

We danced.

Chase checked me out.

Emily whipped her hair back and forth and looked awesome.

Ivan won prom king.

Who wouldn't be attracted to him?

Me and my date Ronnie haha.

Errbody.

It was a grand old time had by all. 

Except Jamison. ;)

A Poet's Walk

Something wonderful happened yesterday.

Once upon a time about 5 or 6 years ago, idk if they still do this, a poster company came to Millersville and set up shop for a few days in the multi-purpose room of the SMC. I would drop by every single time they came each semester and do one or more of the following: look around, and spend too much money on posters. I do not feel bad about that decision, as I still use them and am currently about to decorate my apartment with some of them. There was one that always caught my eye, a typical artsy-fartsy european urban landscape type of picture. Something about it sucked me in and made me do the whole *gasp* oooohh thing. I loved it. It was a more expensive poster, however, and despite the countless times I went in there and stared at it, I never ended up buying it.


Years have gone by and on more than one occasion I've thought about that picture and wondered where the real thing is located, what it's called, if I'll ever find the picture or see it again or recognize it when I do. I've spent time on google image search, looking up "stone walkway" "walking in the rain" "lampposts" and "tree-lined walkways" among countless others.

Well yesterday, I found it. This is ridiculous, but I don't even remember how. I think I may have lost my mind for a portion of it when I went on a frenzied google search rampage. I wasn't going to give up this time.




And I found it, I found it! Here it is:

Turns out it's called "A Poet's Walk" (I think the actual place is called that, not just the picture...I am not positive) and it's located in Central Park in New York City. Central Park! Only like an hour and a half away from me! I feel silly. But now that I know it's so close, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm finding it next time I visit NYC, and taking lots and lots of pictures.

Here are some more that I found:

A small, simple, and beautiful thing that made me really happy today. =) 

Somewhere, out there...

I wish more of my friends blogged. Or maybe you do and I just have no idea how to find your blogs. So tell me about them, and we can be friends! Email me a link. Or make one right now! It's fun, I promise.

I really really like blogging...now that I've had mine for 2.5 years, I've figured that out. Well ok, I already knew it. But the point is, I'm terrible at it. Not so much at the writing. I don't care if I'm terrible or not at that, I like to do it. I love reading about people and getting to know them and taking a dive into their lives. But only a select few of my friends blog. The part of blogging that I'm truly dissatisfied with is connecting, friendship, empathy. It's not there.

And when I try to find new blogworld friends, it's just a plethora of "look at me in my pretty clothes" blogs, or "look at all the delicious things I cook" blogs (now those I am ok with...many a good recipe I've gotten from them), or "look at how crafty I am and all the things I've made" blogs or "this is my sunshiney life where nothing ever goes wrong and I'm always pretty and happy and my bubble never bursts" blogs or some combination of every one of those blogs plus 10,000 followers and sponsors and money and here let me give away the things I've made or the clothes I'm wearing in this picture and force people to write completely insincere sickly-sweet comments on my page for publicity and follow me on facebook and twitter and pinterest and tumblr and every social networking website known to man and holy crap you have too much time on your hands *Sheridan takes a ginormous breath* and for the life of me I can't find any good, healthy, meat and potatoes, THIS IS MY LIFE blogs.


Where are you? Good bloggers of the world who admit to having normal lives where you're not always pretty and things go wrong and who appreciate and write about all of it, good, bad, beautiful, ugly, hilarious, simple, heartwrenching, giddy....WHERE ARE YOU?

I wish I could find you. =(



2.5 years and I still have no idea what I'm doing on this thing. Anyone more experienced and able to give me some advice? How did you find your blog friends?



Oh and don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the friends I do have on here. You are loved.