Tuesday, July 30, 2013

I've been bitten.

This summer has been work work work all summer. Of course, that was expected since I just started my first job out of college. I obviously don't have any PTO or stored up sick days I can use for anything. I was completely prepared for that, but right now I just have an itch to get out of town; even if it's just a long weekend (which, of course, I don't have). 

I've been bitten by the travel bug. 

Since I can't actually go anywhere until at least September and I already know where all of my PTO for the year is going, here are some simple places I really wish I could go for an extended weekend. Maybe this will cure my itch. 

Washington, DC


I went to DC as a class trip in high school and I just really loved the city. I love history and being surrounded by all of it was awesome. Christian's sister lives in DC and I keep begging him to let us go visit her. I really want to do all the cheesy, tourist-y things! 

NYC 


My family surprised me and took me to NYC for my 13th birthday for the weekend. I absolutely loved it. But, I really need to experience it now that I'm all old and stuff. I'm sure I would find even more to love about it. 

Chicago 


I've never been to Chicago, but the way Stephanie talks about it, we all need to get there immediately and apparently get drunk on a trolley!

Charleston, SC 


Again, I've never been here but I have always, always wanted to. I really hope I can make it next summer.

And, if I had an entire week of fun, I'd really love to be here: 


Christian and I are talking about going on a cruise next summer, but it would probably be in the Bahamas just since it closer/less expensive. But, we have talked seriously about a Mediterranean honeymoon cruise!  

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Monday, July 29, 2013

Ouch.

Where do I even start with this weekend? All I can think is ouch. It was a rough one. 

Let me set you up here with the weekend's original plan: my little brother and his girlfriend were going to come up Thursday afternoon to stay the weekend with me. Friday we were supposed to go to Carowinds with them since it was "Bring A Friend" week for $19.99. Saturday we were heading up to Boone to finish moving me out. I had a bed, dresser, nightstand and desk that needed to get out as well as the rest of my stuff like books, winter clothes, etc. The furniture belongs to my parents, so he was going to take it back to Georgia with his truck. 

Here's what really happened...

My brother didn't come up. So Christian and I still went to Carowinds Friday and spent half the day riding roller coasters. I really love the whole season pass thing because we can go early, spend half the day and then head home when we get too hot or annoyed with people. 



After the most glorious afternoon nap I've had in quite a long time, we decided to go see Pacific Rim. I wanted to see The Heat, but Christian wasn't having it so I caved because he heard it wasn't a typical action movie. 

Okay, totally a typical action movie but it wasn't a typical alien movie. It had a slightly different take on the whole thing and it totally made me cry. That's the second action film this summer that has made me cry so I'm thinking I might be losing my mind. The first was Star Trek Into Darkness. 

Friday night rolls around and my parents aren't coming up to help me move either. Christian drives a Mazda 6 and I drive a Civic coup. Yep, we can totally move an entire bedroom in those cars... 

This wasn't even half of it... 
I. Was. Livid. Even if I could have figured out a way to get everything to Charlotte, I was not paying to store it or taking up my entire living room with it until they  decided to come up and get it. Luckily, Christian's dad let us use his station wagon and we were able to move my stuff I needed to Charlotte. But, I wasn't able to bring any furniture down so we tossed the mattress, donated the dresser and someone snatched up my desk off Craigslist while we were driving up the mountain. 

It wasn't the fanciest place and I'm definitely liking Charlotte's "fanciness" more, but it was home for two years.
But, since my family didn't come to help like they promised, this also meant Christian and I had to do all the moving and cleaning of my room. I also ended up with a TON of kitchen stuff to move out. I had already moved out all of my dishes/silverware/food/etc but somehow there were tons of things left in the kitchen for me to clean. I had to clean the counters, empty the pantry/fridge and clean out the freezer and fridge on top of getting everything out, steam cleaning the carpets and deep cleaning my bathroom.

I made so many memories here, and I'm very sad this chapter has ended but I know the next one will be great, too!
I've never been up and down three flights of stairs more in my LIFE. There were so many trash runs to the dumpster, so many heavy things to throw away and so much stuff to get into that car. I don't know how I got Christian to help and do so much of the heavy lifting for me. I guess that's how I know he's a keeper?! 

It was 6 hours of non-stop moving, cleaning and errands and I was absolutely famished by the time we were ready to leave. Luckily, there's a Cook-Out on the way and we definitely sat our tired butts down and inhaled some greasy yumminess and a milkshake. 



Once we got back to Charlotte and moved everything into my apartment, I was left with a giant pile of crap in the middle of my living room and very tired boyfriend. We made a beeline for the bed and went straight to sleep. When I woke up Sunday morning, my whole body hurt and the idea of going to work was physically painful. 

Sadly, I did have to go and it was a decent day work-wise and a great day "entertaining co-worker" wise so it helped a little bit. I'm so glad I get along so well with everyone around me to break up the sometimes blah work days. 

On a side note, Christian and I bought a fancy new vacuum for our new place! We did some research, compared what would be a better value for us and bought a pretty fancy Bissel. Only, Zuko thinks it was just a toy for him. 


Sami's Shenanigans

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Friday, July 26, 2013

It's Friday, It's Friday!

Today's High Five for Friday is going to be short and sweet :)

one. I had an awesome week at work. Wednesday was super rough but other than that, it was awesome. We have a contest going on based on performance and I was number one all week! I'm in second right now, but I have until the 31st to get back to 1st! 

two. It has been another great week in the blog-o-sphere. Every day I just became so much happier that I took a chance and started blogging back in January. And I'm SO happy I'm getting to know so many great ladies!

three. We are at Carowinds today and I just absolutely adore living in Charlotte and having Fridays to spend with my boyfriend. Especially since I don't see him Sunday-Thursday right now. 



four. Christian made me brownies Saturday night and they have been the perfect treat to get me through this crazy, awesome week!



five. I got dressed on Tuesday in 14 minutes. From shower to out the door. And my hair was dry/looked presentable when I got to work and my outfit was cute. Talent. 



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Thursday, July 25, 2013

AW, really?

I originally had a "dream bar crawl" kind of post planned today, but after the day I had, this post has just headed a different direction and I'm going with it. And it got a lil serious, so I added some somewhat relevant gifs. 

Compliments. We all love them right? Seriously, the simplest compliment can make my entire day. Take Tuesday, I was in the Chick-fil-A drive thru before work, and the girl taking my money told me how pretty my nails were. Then the girl next to her comes over and tells me how much she loved them, too. It was seriously the smallest thing in the world but it really just made my morning. 



I've been told a few times at work by customers what a pleasure it was to speak with me and how happy they are that I answered the phone. But then you get those people that can just completely kill your whole day because they're so rude for absolutely no reason at all. 




Yesterday, everyone was writing their inspiration posts, and there was so much love going around. I had some of the sweetest comments left on my post and it just made my heart smile all day. Even though I was an awful day at work, I kept seeing these sweet comments in my inbox and it kept me chugging right along. 



It amazes me how much someone else can just completely lift you up or tear you down with just a simple sweet comment or rude remark. It's not that I care what others think about me, because to be honest, I think I'm awesome. I mean, I definitely have faults, like we all do, but I try so hard to be my absolute best self all the time. Totally not trying to be full of myself, I think every single person should think this way about themselves. 

My whole point of this rant is that I think we all need to focus on the positives every day and not let those people who can't see that get us down. I'm also making it a point to compliment someone every day so that I can lift someone else's spirits like you all did for yesterday and the sweet girls in the drive-thru did on Tuesday. 

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

What Inspires Me

Look at me writing something with substance on a Wednesday even if it is almost noon again! This never happens. But, when I saw that two of my favorite bloggers were hosting a one time link up, I had to get on board! So I'm linking up with Helene and Sarah to share what inspires this little corner of my interwebs.

one. The crazies out in public. Every day I am shocked by the general public and this of course leads to great blog post material. Things like their terrible driving skills, the really really dumb things they say, and weird fashion trends I just do not understand at all. I could probably write an entire post about the confusing/amazingly dumb/rude things people say to me on the phone every day at work. And let's be honest, you can expect that post in the next few days. 

Every post needs a Snap gif.
two. Christian. If you've been hanging around here any amount of time, you know this one. This guy inspires the mushy gushy I sometimes come out with and even though he doesn't understand why in the world I would want to or like blogging, he tries very hard to be supportive and I sometimes bounce ideas off him. I also needed his help with this post, since I can't always remember exactly what things I said...


three. Other bloggers. There are certain blogs that I just cannot miss reading every day. There are the humor bloggers like Helene, Sarah, Nadine and Taylor that always make me wish I was funnier. I'm constantly wishing I was living the life in New York city when I read Erin's blog and it makes me want to travel so much and  I would definitely have blog topics if I did. Stephanie inspires almost every one of my list or drinking posts. She was also the first big blogger who ever followed me and I have NO idea how she found me, but I've been pretty obsessed with her ever since! Bloggers like Alexa and Erin inspire me to attempt to actually save my money or eat healthier.

Drink.Drank.Drunk.
four. Animals. Mainly Zuko and Emmy since they're the two little nuggets in my life. I'm definitely a crazy cat lady and I try not to scare you guys with it, but with that really awesome Tall Tail's linkup , it's bound to happen even more often. Sorry not sorry. At all. Zuko just does the strangest things and as soon as he does, blog post topic. 



five. Life in general. I know that sounds pretty broad but a lot of times someone will make a comment to me, and I'm off on some deep tangent about body image. Sometimes I like to talk about how much I hate heat and how I deal with the beauty issues that come along with it. Other times, I talk about my obsession with Lady GaGa. That's the great thing about falling under this "lifestyle blogger" category. I can get my inspiration from pretty much anywhere, turn it into a post and hopefully you guys will read about it ;)




Helene in Between

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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Kids these days.. And a giveaway!

Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep and somehow started thinking about all the wonderful shows kids don't have access to these days. Back in the day, our cartoons were da bomb.com (as cool things were) and I'm just sad for what my kids will have to watch one day.


Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers


Does it really get better than some chipmunks, a couple of mice and a big fly fighting crime together? No, no it does not. And is there a catchier theme song around? Again, the answer is no.

Gullah, Gullah Island


In pre-school we had half days. We went to school in the morning and then my mom would pick me up at lunch time. I would come home and sprint straight to my parents room, turn on Gullah, Gullah Island and jump on her bed while singing the theme song. If she picked me up late, I was devastated because it meant I would miss part if not all of this show. 

The Big Comfy Couch


I don't even know what part of this show I loved more: the clock song thing, the dust bunnies under the couch, her awesome doll or the guy on a unicycle. Regardless, they just don't make quality TV like this anymore. Upon researching this show, I discovered this show ended in 1996 but they tried to revive it in 2005 and 2006. Oddly enough, it didn't take off the second time. Weird.

I'm participating in Chelsee's July giveaway! There's tons up for grabs so enter away! 


What's Up For Grabs:
Re•solve(Bekah)-Ad Space
JustJacq(Jacquelyn aka Princess Kate Middleton)- Ad Space & Pair of Earrings
Rhyme & Ribbons(Amanda)- Ad Space
At Home with the Hinkleys(Natalie)- Cash
The Party Girl's Guide(Erin)-Ad Space
Hopelessly Ever After(Kristin)- Cash
He Calls Me Grace(Katie)-Cash & Large Ad Space
Sunny Tales & Happy Mail(Brittany)- Ad Space
With a Side of Chocolate(Leslie)- $15 Gift Card to the Store of your Choice
Wonder What's Next(Jessica)-2 months of Ad Space & $10 Target Gift Card
Believe in the Sparks(Morgan)-$10 Gift Card to Starbucks
Rachel's Country Roots(Rachel)- 2 months of Ad Space
Southern Beauty Guide (Chelsee)- In Post Ad Space
a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Monday, July 22, 2013

Lazy, Lazy Weekend

Well this weekend was pretty lame. And I really didn't hate it one bit. It may not make this post very entertaining for you, but I appreciated the rest.

Friday 

After being stuck at work almost an hour later than I was supposed to be on Thursday, I didn't get home until after 11:30p and I was exhausted. I ate a snack and headed straight to bed. Friday morning, I slept in decently late and Christian woke me up with a phone call telling me he's on the way over.

Trying to help dad work
We headed over to Chipotle for lunch and walked around Southpark for a bit. After that, Christian had to finish up working so I walked across the street to get my nails done! The first place I tried in Charlotte was AWFUL. Four fell off in the first 5 days and another 5 fell off the day after they replaced the first 4. Never ever will I go back again! Luckily, I can literally walk across the street and into a fabulous nail salon, so I'm happy!!

New nails and my ring is back!
After being lazy for a couple hours, we headed to dinner with some friends and over to their apartment for drinks! We let the boys sit inside, watch baseball and talk sports while Sam and I had some girl talk outside. It was great since we're both with our boys most of the time, it was so nice to have some girl time.

The puppy dropped her penguin in her dad's beer...
Saturday

Christian really likes to sleep on Saturdays. I don't wake up as early on the weekdays so I was ready to get up and get the day going but it took serious work to get him up and at 'em. I finally got him up and we ran a couple errands before posting up at the pool for a little while. I also did a TON of laundry. I don't have a washer/dryer in my apartment but the laundromat is right beside the pool so I kept running in to switch over laundry while laying out.



After the pool we grabbed dinner and tuned into an Adam Sandler marathon going on. Thanks to a special friend we girls like to call Aunt Flo, I forced Christian to take me to Harris Teeter so I could buy brownie mix. We spent the rest of the night fighting over brownie batter from the bowl until the brownies were cooked.

Sunday 

Sunday I had to work. My weekends end at 12:30p on Sunday afternoon and man, do I hate it. Yes, I work the same amount of hours as everyone else and I get the same length of weekend every one else does, I just so happen to hate Sunday afternoon when everyone else hates Monday morning.

Here's to another week! Happy Monday everyone!!

Sami's Shenanigans

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Friday, July 19, 2013

Oh hayyyyy Fridayyyy!

OH hay friends! While you're reading this, I am (hopefully) sound asleep curled up in my cozy bed with Zuko the Great. And around the time I wake up, there will be a sweet Christian greeting me.

I love Fridays. 

And of course, I'm linking up with Lauren for High 5 for Friday!

one. Have you SEEN this beautiful new blog design I have courtesy of Erin?! I have been looking forward to having her make this lil ole blog pretty for a couple months now and I was finally able to do it and I'm obsessed with it. I stare at it more than I think you're supposed to stare at your own blog... But if you're looking for a new design, e-mail her NOW. I'll wait...



two. Okay, another blog win, sorry 'bout it! I've had more page views this week than I have so far since I started! And yesterday had my highest pageviews!! It's still a lot less than I know other bloggers get, but it made me so happy to know that you guys are actually liking what I'm writing about!! You guys rock :)

three. Tuesday, I had a pretty good day at work, only to be ruined by my last customer. He was just plain awful. (Rant. If you ever pick up your phone and call someone, you should probably be nice to them seeing as YOU called THEM. And you shouldn't scream at them and tell them they're lying to you. Trust me, I want you to buy what I'm selling so I'm going to make it as cheap as I can, but sometimes you actually DO have to pay for your shit. Rant over. ) The point here was that I treated myself to cupcakes and Luke Bryan so my day was instantly better.



four. I pretty much love having Friday and Saturdays as my weekend. And I kind of love going into work at 2p because the line for me to receive this doesn't exist.



five. My parents crack me up.



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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Flirting with Disaster {Link up!}

I interrupt your normally scheduled party post because I just had to link up with Erin for this one time link up! I haven't dated much besides Christian, so at first I didn't think I'd have much to say. But two big things finally came to mind and since one was just plain depressing, I decided I had to share the other story.

Let's travel back to my Freshman year of college. One of my best friends was attending App and I decided to detour on my way to Charlotte to pay her a visit. It was obviously a very wonderful 24 hours since I ended up transferring there a couple months later! I also met Christian on this visit :)

First trip to Boone!!
Anyways, this post is not about him, it's about a teammate of his. We'll call him M. We went out to a bar with the rugby team. Christian, another teammate and M are sitting directly across from me, but Christian wouldn't really talk to me. So, I started talking to the other two. They're both flirting some and after a few rounds of liquid courage, I was flirting back.

After the bar, we headed back to a player's apartment to continue the party! Everyone's hanging out, playing beer pong, etc. and I'm officially doing some serious flirting with M. Standing in the middle of some strangers' living room, with plenty of people around, the dude tries to kiss me, but I walked away.

Obviously, this is Christian but his face is how I looked at the guy.
After that, I somehow still gave him my phone number and proceeded to start texting him after we left the party. My friend and I weren't...uh.. all there.. so who knows what kind of crazy things we were texting him.

The next day he starts blowing up my phone. I texted him some over the weekend but realized he was a complete creeper and tried to stop answering him. He would text me multiple times in a row and I finally told him I just wasn't comfortable with the way he was texting me... He apologized and then asked if he could take me on a date.



Now let's be clear here: I lived almost 5 hours away. I was 18 and eventually found out he was almost 25. Yes, that's not a big deal as you get older but where I was in life, that was a huge difference. Yet, he's trying to get me to come spend the weekend with him so he can take me on a date, even though we had known each other for a solid 3 hours. Creeper alert.

Still, after refusing to visit him and telling him how much I wasn't interested, he continued to text me. I would go into a 50 minute class and come out with 5 texts and multiple missed calls from him. I started completely ignoring him and he continued texting.



Every few days I would get "hey, what's up?" or "hey, we haven't talked in awhile, how are you?" texts from him. For. MONTHS. We met in April and I was still getting texts from him in September after I was living in the same town as he was. He didn't stop texting me until a football game when he realized Christian and I were dating.

The worst part about the whole thing was that he had apparently been telling the rugby team lies about me/our relationship that didn't exist so Christian had some preconceived notions about me. Once I explained everything to him, the entire team found out how he basically just stalked me and everyone thought it was hysterical.

But, the best part was, we saw each other pretty frequently for the next two years and he pretended I didn't exist. As in he saw Christian and I in a coffee shop where he stopped to talk to Christian for 10 minutes and never even looked at me. He also came over to Christian's apartment to watch a football game with us one Sunday and never spoke to me. There were maybe 8 people there and nada. We all found it absolutely hysterical that his ego was bruised THAT badly just because I ignored his creepiness and dated his friend instead.

And thank God I did!