Labels

I'm so cool I'm making a blog post about LABELS.

Seriously though-my blog needed some cleaning up.  I knew what labels were used for, but I didn't know how to use them effectively.  I'd use them to highlight the main points within my blogs instead of recurring themes throughout.  Perhaps through this process I will discover something new and exciting to blog about, or to find some common theme to string all of these posts together other than the fact that all of my posts thus far are about the meager details of my life which many of you probably don't care much about!

I'll keep thinking and get back to you!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Today is Christmas!!!!

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, etc. that you have had a fabulous holiday season!

My Christmas was actually quite nice this year.  I spent Christmas Eve with Ryan and his family.  We knitted, watched movies, had a HUGE meal comprising salmon, steak, and assorted veggies, and went to church to carol and remember what Christmas is really about.  Now, I'm not a devoted Christian.  I was baptized Catholic as a child, however once my mother and I moved to Lyndonville we stopped attending church and that part of my life sort of closed.  I'm a cautious Christian now I suppose.  I am picky and choosy about what parts of Christianity I believe in, so I don't feel comfortable calling myself a true Christian.  I believe that there is some higher power, and that perhaps there is a sort of destiny for everyone.  However, I don't consider this as an excuse to lay back and do nothing with my life.  I am still the highly motivated individual I have always been, and always hope to be.

Anyways, moving along.  This year my family and I decided to open presents Christmas Eve as we had extended family coming on Christmas day, and it would have probably been a little awkward for them to watch our family hold our Christmas.  I believe in a small family Christmas-immediate family and a few close friends whom everyone knows intimately.  I feel awkward crashing someone else's Christmas when they are opening presents, and I don't like being put on display for others outside my immediate family and inner circle of friends and having to show and tell each of the gifts I receive.  It just feels weird to me.  So, we had our own intimate family Christmas and then hosted a few family members today, Christmas Day.  It worked out quite nicely!

Here is a list of some of the awesome gifts I received this year from my family (this isn't to brag-I'm just excited about what I've been lucky enough to receive!):

• My own personal Susan (a name Ryan and I have given the voice of the GPS put out by the "For Dummies" company)
• A car radio with a CD player, conversion kit, and CD holder for the car!  Space (my car) came without a CD player-just the radio.  This way I can make my own mixes again and listen to my own music whenever I want!  I just need the money to get to a garage to have a mechanic install everything for me.  :D
• A Tazo Tea kit with 2 tea mugs, Zen tea, and Calm tea (all of which I love).
• Clothing from Lane Bryant!  
• FUZZY SOCKS!  (My fave).
• Earrings from Lane Bryant.
• A necklace and earring set from JCPenny's (I believe).
• Candy dots.
• Hershey's kisses (already eaten).
• A few purses (that I think I am still trying to decide whether I like).
• Twin XL Sheet Set
• A flower-shaped cutting board, lady bug hot plate, and a strainer serving spoon (which is awesome!)
• Bath and Body Works Enchanted Life body spray, body lotion, and body wash.
• Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom Body Butter (I have used this every day since my sophomore year of high school and I looooove it!)
• 2 little Peppermint and Cotton Candy hand sanitizers from Bath and Body Works.
• Gift cards to the Mobil station and Price Chopper (Yay for gas to get back to Burlington and money to buy enough food to hopefully feed me until my refund check comes in!)
• Dermalogica Wash off, Bedtime for Breakouts, and Ready, Set, Scrub! products (which I also love.  I have tried them for the first time this past semester and they seem to work really well with my skin!  Hooray for gentle ingredients that don't actually do more damage to your skin than good!)

And from Ryan:

• A new pot to cook with since the Teflon was coming off from an old pot I had which necessitated my throwing it away.
• An amazing book he created full of memories between the two of us.  :)  <3

And from Ashley:

• A pair of earrings from Forever 21.
• A small clutch purse (which I love).  
• Yarn to aid me in my knitting endeavors!

Thank you to those of you who have exchanged gifts with me.  I love you all.  <3  Please go into the New Year safely, warmly, and heartily.  Drink and be merry-but also please be safe about it.

Safe and happy expeditions to you all!

xoxox

<3 Megan 

Being Human

Over break I have spent some time watching this British series called Being Human on Netflix.  I'm in love!  It's a little like a mashup of another British series, Misfits, with a little bit of Buffy thrown in.  Mitchell is a vampire, George is a werewolf, and Annie is a ghost.  The three find themselves living together due to circumstances of fate.  Together they help each other come to terms with what they have become, and inevitably become close friends who stick by each other with each other's respective baggage and sets of personal problems.

Each episode is a straight hour long, but it's worth every minute!  Check it out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hqlc4

Its Been A Really Long Time...

Hello, everyone!

I haven't really posted more than one or two blog posts this past semester.  The truth is, I haven't really had much to say!  I've been too busy actually enjoying my life and having a great time of it to actually sit down and take the time to share.  So, here is an overview of important things that have happened this semester:

• Straight As!  Whoo hoo!!!
• Internship at The Arbors has been going well!  I'll be ready when I get back for next semester to pick up the pace a little and continue making my time there as awesome as possible.
• Making leaps and bounds through the Netflix queue.  Since Netflix split up its plan with the price increases, I've been subscribed online to the stream online plan.  Once I watch everything I can get through instant streaming, I'll switch to the physical disc mailing plan.  My most recent love has been How I Met Your Mother.  Words cannot describe...
• Grocery shopping and paying bills worked out awesome with my refund from the school up until the last 3 weeks.  I'll need to rethink that for next time.. Haha!
• Ryan and I are still going strong!  We sailed through our 5, 6, 7, and 8 month anniversaries.  April 5th of 2012 will mark our 1 year as an official couple!  YEEAHHHH!!!
• I bought fish!  I started off the summer with 5 guppies.  One died from the stress of the transfer from the store to my tank.  Then there were 4: Cappie (the only one with visible distinguishable marks), and "The Supremes" (the other 3 look-alikes).  Unfortunately now we're down to only two of the Supremes left (whom I have now dubbed Killer and Donna).  **Note, all my guppies were males--however, you have to admit that Cappie and The Supremes is kind of catchy...**  AND the newest addition to the family is a beta named Emmett.  He has his own tank and his own life, and I think that makes him happy.
• Space (my car) has thrived and deteriorated and thrived again!  We're hanging in the balance at around 160,000 miles.  We have winter tires but no snow....and we have oil and antifreeze that remains within the inner workings of the vehicle.  Win for all involved.
• Excellent drunken house parties have occurred: the very realistic Prohibition 1920s Speakeasy (where many of the attendees were underage [of course, this is college] so we all hid in the basement to manage the noise levels-good times), the famous Mustache party (yep-you guessed it. Mustache mandatory for attendance), ALL of Halloween weekend (3 parties in 2 days-not bad!), the quietish Christmas party between close Burlington-bound people in my life, and of course the other various nights that involved going to bars or staying in and mixing fun drinks by ourselves!
• Very few stressful nights worrying about homework and how I'm going to manage all of my classwork plus life in general.  4 classes per semester is PERFECT!  I'm so glad I put in all my hard times my Freshman/Sophomore years.  Senior year is a breeze so far, and I'm loving every second of it!  Sure there have been a few downs or hiccups in the general flow of things, but speaking overall, this has really been my best semester at Champlain so far.
• Oh, and I totally taught myself how to knit over Thanksgiving break via YouTube videos.  Oh yeah.  New life skills FOR THE WIN!

I'm so happy that this year has been going so well.  I can't imagine what this year would have been like with a schedule like my Spring semester of Sophomore year.  (That was when I broke up with Luke, was managing a 12 hr/wk unpaid internship, working as a Peer Advisor for as many hours/wk as was necessary, as well as working ~10hrs/wk for my mandatory work-study hours so I could have a paycheck).  I really wasn't sure I was going to make it that semester.  BUT-I did, and I'm stronger for it.  

I'm proud of myself for all I have accomplished so far.  I work damn hard and I deserve a lot of respect for all I do.  What is next on my list is to start applying for grad schools:  Boston University, Springfield College, University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire.  I'm working on getting all of my required application materials together over this break, and sending them out quite soon once I return to Burlington/Winooski.  

Lastly: I have been a busy beaver over break.  I got home on Friday evening, and it is now Tuesday.  In this time, my mother and I have switched bedrooms.  I'm enjoying being home SO much more.  I don't feel so depressed and aimless as I thought I would.  A big project like this is just what I needed to keep myself busy and motivated.  I seriously got rid of about 5 bags of garbage, and donated another 5 or so to the Salvation Army.  The reason for this is that my old room was about 1/2 the size of the basement (about 1/4 of the entire house).  I moved from this big room to my moms normal-sized bedroom that actually has windows!  She moved into the bigger room.  Therefore, I needed to really focus on getting rid of a lot of my old stuff so that it would all fit into this new, smaller, more manageable room.  I cleaned out everything: stuff from past boyfriends that have been sitting or buried in my room, things I haven't touched or worried about in years, stuff I thought I would definitely need/use but never got around to, and even some stuff I had been emotionally attached to.  However, it was time to let it all go, to let it be free.  While I may still have another bag or two of trash to take out, I feel great!  Cleansed.  Like I'm getting rid of everything so that whatever comes after Champlain will have room to take hold and lead me to where I'm supposed to be-without leaving too much behind.  So far both my mother and I seem happy with the trade.

Well, this wraps everything up rather nicely from the past 4 months of my life.  I feel like I need to find a new purpose for blogging again.  I wish I could be as dedicated as other folks in writing a fabulous blog-stuff other people actually care about instead of something that looks like a journal of my life.  I will gladly accept any and all blogging ideas and suggestions below.  Tell me what you'd most want to hear/learn about!  If it is something that lines up well with my interests or knowledge and expertise, I will try to move the blog in that direction--and work on posting more frequently.  :)

Auf Wiedersehen!