The Midol Effect

Have you ever examined a Midol bottle? I mean reallyyy looked at it. Do you ever wonder what that magic little pill is made of?

(Hello boy readers-I apologize for the ‘girly’ topic…..stop reading now, or ummmm, enjoy?…)

The one thing I do know about Midol, is that it contains a LOT of caffeine. I mean, A LOOOOT. About 60 mg per pill. Thats a little more than a cup of instant coffee, way more than a can of Coke (or diet coke, or pepsi, or whatever), about twice as much as a cup of black tea. Let me just say, I do not handle caffeine well. I took Midol before a soccer game in high school once…..Ehhhhh. My coach pulled me out for a water break, and I literally could not sit down. I was jittery, and anxious, and fidgety, and couldn’t stop moving. It was ridiculous. And this is when I realized that me and midol might not have the best relationship.

Every time I take it, I get sick. I have this weird reaction to it, and my throat feels stuffy and my head feels heavy. It’s like the onset of a head cold, that never quite develops.

Yet we keep having little affairs. It’s like that secret crush you just can’t get enough of. You want the good feeling, you want the excited high (i.e. “fighting fatigue” with a huuuuge caffeine buzz), you want your pants to fit you like they are supposed to, instead of feeling two sizes too tight (thank youuu bloating. Gah.).

I don’t get it.  I feel like crap about six hours later, and yet I can’t give up the amazing five hours in between. It’s totally worth it. As a girl, you need those five hours.  No cramps, no fatigue, no bloating, and loooots of energy to make up for all of it. Thank youuu Midol.

Running uphill against the wind

Don’t worry, that’s not a metaphor for my life. It’s just what I did this morning

A work day starting at 9 feels like sleeping-in to me. And instead, my body decided to wake up on it’s own at the regular 6:15 a.m. I’ve always had that “internal” alarm clock. Although it’s not flawless (very far from it), it does surprise me sometimes.

Like this morning. When I was awake and alert at an early hour, when I certainly did not have to be. So I took advantage of the extra morning time, and the cooler morning temperatures. I went for a run. I decided to try out a new route, one that was being mapped out in my head as I went. That will either make your run seem  a little bit shorter because of the adventure feeling….or it will make it seem painfully long because you realize “Ehh, this is a lot harder than I expected.”. This morning was somewhere in the middle. But do-able.

Random: We went and saw “Get Smart” last night. Hilarious. Three thumbs up (oooh, take that Ebert)! Seriously, we were all laughing so hard. And I must admit, Mr. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one good lookin’ fella. I find it kind of hard to take him seriously, because..umm..he was “The Rock”. And now he’s an “actor”. Hmmmm.  Plus, how can you resist anything with Steve Carell (we’re going to forget about “Evan Almighty” here…) ?! Aaand Anne Hathaway. She’s so cute. Yup–good stuff, great movie, good laughs.

For my next three days off-starting tomorrow-I’ve decided my Mom & I have a project….re-doing the Study. It’s awful. Seriously. If I get really into it, I might even take before-and-after pics. We’ll see how that goes. I haven’t had a decorating project in quite some time. Living in a furnished apartment with limited time (and moneyyyy) really puts some restrictions on what you’re able to do.  So instead, I’ll spill my creative juices on our downstairs, and see how it turns out. And I loooove decorating/rearranging/all that stuff. And it probably means another trip to Target!

An Unexpected Day OFF

As a part of my screening process last Monday, I had to get a TB skin test. This being because they don’t want diseased people infecting the already-ill throughout the hospital. However rare TB is….we must be tested. And not just once, no no….twice.

Guess what they do for this special little test….

The only thing they can do….inject a (very VERY) small amount of the TB antigen itself right into your poor little arm. With a needle. Yup yup. Fun stuff. Then, as we were told, “within a few days”, you have to go back and get it read (checked) by the nurses.

Somebody should always specify what they mean by “a few days”. Because apparently, what they actually meant was 48 hours. And past that, nothing is accurate. Nothing. Ehhhh. My logic=Clearly I do NOT have TB, because my arm didn’t freak out from this little dosage. Well…apparently that wasn’t enough to convince them that I’m just fine.

Instead, my supervisor was contacted due to the fact that I did not go back and get my arm “read” within the 72-hr MAX. And that means I might have TB. And that means I can’t work! Well, I can’t work until I have another test and I go get it checked WITHIN 48-72 HOURS (not days…). So I marched myself back down the Nurse station, got another dose of TB injected into my arm, and now I wait…because it can’t be read until Friday. Gah.

Point of this story–now I have today off! Which obviously works out pretty nicely, because ummm who doesn’t enjoy a random day off? I do! When you work 10 hours in a day, you come home and do preeetty much Nothing. So I made myself a “to-do List”, which I love doing (in fact, I’ll probably cross it off the list. To-do list made….CHECK). And I will get things done. And then I’ll enjoy some afternoon sunshine. And then maybe even an afternoon run. Followed by a late-afternoon drink while i cook up something delicious for dinner. Mmm hmmm. Lovely.

I wasn’t supposed to have today off, but since there’s a possibility that I am deathly ill with TB an nobody was aware…. I can’t work until my arm tells everybody otherwise. Til then…..

(( I do feel as though I should mention that I’m not by any means mocking the health care system. I am fully aware that you can have TB and not know it, and yes, that would be very bad. Very bad. So I am happy to spend 48 hours outside of the hospital until they know I’m good and healthy. ))

One more trip

Today marks the last leg of the journey. I am finally headed to the airport to go home. 

The last 2+ weeks have been spent doing a lot of moving, packing, unpacking, traveling, etc. I hate (hate!) living out of a suitcase, so I make sure to get everything out and get “settled” wherever I am.  

I’ve gone from PA–>FL–>Jack–>back to PA, and now I’m headed across the country to the Southwest. Gah. It already feels like it’s been at least a month (instead of only 2 weeks) since graduation, and moving and all that jazz. Makes me wonder how “old” I’ll feel next Fall when I make my first trip back for a football weekend. Ehhhh. 

 

On another note, I’ll be spending approximately 3 hours in the Chicago airport today.  I don’t really mind lay-overs, mostly because big airports have a lot of places to explore and weird people to watch.  As long as I can resist spending ridiculous amounts of money on a snack or a magazine, I’m good to go. 

Today I’ll be looking for a Sports bar, so I can sit down, have a drink and possibly watch my cousin on ESPN. Why would my cousin (13-yrs old) be on ESPN? Well, well. Interesting story. He’s in the semi-finals for the National Spelling Bee for the, ummm, 4th? year in a row. Every year the finals are televised Live by ESPN, and every year I am baffled by this. Are people really spending their afternoons watching this? Is there honestly nothing more exciting that could be covered by a Sports Network? Apparently not. And I’ll be that person, actually watching the Spelling Bee. Oh man. 

Oh yah, and it’s Friday? I feel out of the loop. Buuut I do know about one thing- Sex & the Cityyyy!

Happy weekend!!!

 

Back to Reality

Vacation time is over.

A get-away week with the fam in FL was much needed, not so relaxing…because Disney could never be “relaxing” (too much to do!!!)….but veryyyy fun. 

And now it’s back to reality-and out of that ‘magical’ world.

I flew back to PA today into some beautiful 70º sunshine. Em did her lovely thing where she picks me up from the airport, because she’s awesome. We proceeded to completely unload my car and all my crap stuff down into her basement, which is my make-shift storage for the summer.  I really can’t believe all the things one person can accumulate in four years. Whoa. 

Tomorrow morning I’ll be braving the Memorial Day traffic and visiting Jack for the week. Then it’s allll the way back to the desert to work and be home and save some $$$ until August. 

Reality-this is the last “summer” break I’ll have. Scarryyy. Hopefully I take advantage of it and actually stop and take it in every once in a while.  I know I’ll be busy working, and it will go by fast, but in the meantime I hope that I also have some of these things here & there….

Pile by Pile

Confession: I am a huge pile-maker.

I don’t make huge piles. I just make them over and over. I clean them up, and I make them again in the same spot. They mainly take over two places: my desk, and the space next to my bed. Well, plus the bookshelf above my desk. But that’s going to take a whole day of devotion. Because then I’d have to also go into how I save EVERYTHING from my classes. Which I proceed to NEVER look at again. Until I throw it away. Gah.

Knowing that I have to pack up my room next week means that these piles need to be gone. They consist of pretty useless stuff, so this isn’t a big problem. However, I have to look at everything before I throw it away, because the theory here is that I saved these things for a reason. “Theory” being the key word in that sentence. Why do I have the syllabus from last semester’s class? Why do I have grocery receipts from February? Why do I have notes from my Elective sophomore year?! This could go on for a while….

Tonight I cleared off my desk and nightstand. Tomorrow I might move up to the bookshelf, but that is a daunting thought. Maybe I should study for that last final instead? Ehhhh, I’ll take the non-existent option 3 please.

I did finally put away the laundry I did on Friday. We’re making progress.

“The Wake up Call”

I’m starting the week off strong; tomorrow morning I’ll be making my first radio appearance!

From 7-9 a.m., every school day, a small group of students run a radio show, “The Wake Up Call” (90.7 FM). They chat, and joke, and entertain us early risers in the area. A friend of ours (me & the roomies) is one of the DJs, she goes by “DJ Tomorrow”. She holds her own as the only girl, contributing her wit and charm with daily amusing anecdotes and commentary.

Last week, in a random side-note, she mentioned LB & I, and the company that we both did an internship with two years ago. It’s basically how we met (and fell in roomie-love), and we still “work” for them to this day. We had to thank her for the shout-out and she asked if we wanted to come on the show and elaborate. Yesssss!

So tomorrow morning, bright and early, we’ll be driving to campus to make our radio debut. It will be another thing to add to the list of “things I got to do at college”. Never thought I’d be on the radio. Maybe I should come in with a bang and think of my own DJ name. Hmmm, that might be going a little too far.

Alas, another realm of technology to conquer. Happy Monday!

Hi, I’m _____ & I “blog” because…

Last summer LB had a job working with these two fine people, M & M. They “blog”. She came to visit me for a weekend and let me in a little secret….she started blogging. My initial reaction was…..surprised? I thought it was pretty cool, but not something I could ever do. I’m not a “blogger”. I mean, it’s like ‘personal’ right? Like an online “journal” or something? What if people you know read it? What if you reveal too much about yourself?

Well, I started reading her blog, and I really liked it.

*wheels start turning…*

I had always said I wanted to be a “writer”. Not as in short stories and novels, not as in flowery fiction romantic whatevers, and not as in memoirs or biographies. I wanted to be a writer as in, I Love this website and I want to write stuff like THAT! And it hit me, if I want to write for a website, why not start by writing for my own??

That’s basically what these blogs are, right? This is MY page. My website. This is Me, now. I put whatever I want on this little thing. I control how it looks (ummmm…to an extent. Hi, I have no idea how to write a CSS code, but I would LOVE to know) and I make it purple, because I like purple. Sure, it’s not going to show up if you put my full name into a “google” search, but it’s here and it’s mine. Some people who know me know about it, but I’m not passing out fliers to advertise it.

I will admit, it took me a while to actually do it. It scared me that my writing would be accessible to the public. It’s here for all to see, which also means it’s here for all to criticize or to love. But that’s the reality of writing, is it not? If I want to have opportunities to do it in the future, I have to have something to show for it, right? I have to know that I’m okay with knowing that anybody can see these words. That’s the point of having websites and magazine in the first place. You want people to read them!!

So this was born. It started off a little rough, but I’ve gotten more used to writing about the ‘everyday’ things and the ‘cooking’ things and the ‘little weird things about me’. I don’t go too in depth about anything personal, and probably never will. I’m not sure why, maybe it’ll come at some time.

Now here I am, seven months later, and I “blog” because…..

::I have moved on to step 2! I was contacted by a fabulous person and now I write for this site once a week, about my life now & over the next year or so. Graduating, job-searching, baking, working, shopping, running…..the things I learn & want to pass on in the process.

::Now I am addicted to writing and reading a lot of other great blogs!

::It allows me to meet some pretty fabulous people, like this girl. And exchange fabulous e-mails! Because really, who isn’t addicted to e-mail? Don’t lie. And someone else who gave me tips while I was training and loves Stacy & Clinton as much as I do!

::Umm…I’m really entertained by the random things people type into a Google search. Seriously, weird. For instance, today I saw “adding chili to brownie mix”. What are you doing adding CHILI to BROWNIE mix?!?! Please stop now!! Because, ew, that’s not right. Chili to cornbread maybe? Chocolate to brownie mix?? What are you trying to do?? Agh, I’m so confused.

Anyway. Hi, I’m Heather. I’m totally a blogger.

117 points

If you were watching the Oscars last night, you may know that Heidi Klum is auctioning off the beautiful red dress she was wearing online at mycokerewards.com. This is a site where you take the caps off of any Coke product and enter the “code” underneath into your personal account.

I’m a little bit ashamed to admit that I have a personal account. On mycokerewards.com. I have good reason (if you can have any good reason for something like this…)!! They only sell Coke products in the vending machines at our apartments. The vending machines located next to the pool. In the hot summer, a girl has no choice. Must drink something icy cold and refreshing! Right? Ehhhh.

Normally I would much prefer Pepsi, but I had no choice. So, I decided if I had to drink Diet Coke because of it’s close proximity and convenience, I will reap the rewards. I have accumulated 117 points. To break it down, that says I have consumed approximately 40 Coke products since June 2007. Although, Jack saves his caps and gives them to me, so you could probably cut that number in half.

Point being, I am probably about 100000000 points away from being able to “Bid” on Heidi’s dress, but here’s what I can buy with my points:

-movie rentals at Blockbuster
-ring-tone song downloads
-20 ounce Coca Cola product, or a 12-pack Coca Cola (Yea, that’s what I need.)
-Diet Coke Picture frame (Which is actually 125 points. Which tells me that the people at Coke value my purchasing 42 of their products as much as a plastic picture frame. Great.)
-One digital issue of various magazines
-One year subscription to CosmoGirl, Redbook, SEVENTEEN, or Esquire
-Josh turner or Sugarland poster
-Adidas sports towel
-Rent-a-Car single upgrade coupon

Yea, I’m with you. Not surprised, impressed, intrigued, or interested. The magazine subscription thing I could go for, but I still need about 20+ points before I can get the “good” ones. Unless any of you are interested in re-subscribing to SEVENTEEN? In which case, let me know, I’m on it.

On to browse more possibilities. And sticking to Pepsi from here on out.

Collages

I love love love to make collages. I have been perfecting the art since middle school. Although, in those days, the canvas consisted of an entire wall in my room (oh, how very stylish my room looked too). And the “art” consisted of things I tore out of “SEVENTEEN” magazine that I thought were supposed to be cool. Things like pictures of Freddy Prinze Jr., Clinique Happy ads, lists like “17 things you should do before you’re 17″, etc.

I moved on to pictures. I took a lot of them (still do). As they piled up, I would spend one Saturday in front of the TV with my “supplies” spread all around me. I would make a complete mess of paper scraps while I watched “Save the Last Dance”, or “You’ve Got Mail”. The end product would be something I considered wall-worthy and beautiful. I’m totally a scrap-booker, although there are piles of pictures in my room that would argue otherwise. However, to this day there is a collage of pictures from freshman year of high school hanging on my wall. We look like babies, but I can’t take it down.

I started making cards. I cut out good quotes or words to put together to make a quote, and saved certain days from tear-off calendars. My collection makes it easy to create a card that says anything I want it to, in a collage of words. I save small scraps of paper to add to the mix, making it look less “formal”, but still well put together.

Bulletin boards that slowly fill up (and eventually, overflow) with random memorabilia, pictures, post-it-notes, etc are my favorite. This is not to say that I want my room full of them, but they have such personality.

A few weeks ago I decided to cut out some ‘outfits’ and ‘trends’ from our collection of magazines. With four girls in one apartment, we have our fair share of GLAMOUR, In Style, People, Cosmo, etc. The basket next the couch often overflows, but we rarely throw them away. I made a collage of things I liked; shoes, dresses, jackets, outfits, casual tops, a few accessories. I thought I could use it as a guide when planning outfits, shopping online, etc. but it served more as something to entertain me for a few days.

It will always go back to pictures and cards. And after four years of college I’ve realized I’m a little bit of a science nerd, but this will always be there to balance it out.