Looking Back: 2013

It's been some year, right? Right. I can't believe it's over already though. Overall it's been a great year. It had it's good moments, and it's bad moments, and a lot of in-between moments. I graduated, I interviewed, I traveled, and more. In some ways I'm glad it's over and in some ways I'm not ready for 2014. A year ago I rang in the new year with good friends in Connecticut. This year I really don't even feel like ringing in the new year. Guess I'm getting old.

Jar full of great moments of 2013. Time to crack this open and share some of the highlights.

Looking Back: 2013

• Presented at a conference! I enjoyed the experience and met some cool people! Learned a lot from that conference too. 
• Graduated with my master's! My family came down to celebrate my birthday and my graduation. It was great to show them Pensacola and to introduce them to crawfish at the Pensacola Crawfish Festival!
• Ran my first 5k. The Pensacola Sunset Run, 40:37.
• Got to travel to Vermont for a campus interview at a very unique college. Enjoyed the experience and the change in scenery.
• Interviewed at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Enjoyed traveling to Hawaii, enjoyed meeting great people at UH Manoa, and got to spend a day visiting Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona memorial. Amazing experience.
• Interviewed at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (the very same week I interviewed in Hawaii). Incredible place and some awesome people too. I also got to reconnect with a FIT friend and have some wonderful boring adventures in Fairbanks.
• Went back to work at Panera and enjoyed it quite a bit. 
• Got to experience a wonderful wedding in St. Augustine Beach. Very happy for my friends and I was glad I got to share the day with them.
• Got a job with Housing and Residence Life at UWF. It was a journey going through my job search process. I wanted to get out of Florida, but in the end I'm happy to have stayed in Pensacola.
• Got to reconnect with a sister who was visiting Pensacola for work.
• Had a great FIT alumna moment when I met with the director of the new extended studies site. Enjoyed making a new connection.
• Adopted my adorable cat Bailey (who I think is plotting to take over the world).
• Started playing in a kickball league. Met some great people and had a blast! Can't wait for the next season.
• Ran my 2nd 5k. I was sick but still ran it in 38:04, a new PR for me.
• Learned how to curl with a couple of awesome FIT friends. Great times with great friends.
• Took some chances that didn't really work out, but the things I've learned made it worth it. 
• Started to bake a lot more and try some new baking adventures, and overall increased my love for baking.
• Met a lot of great people this year. Said goodbye to some friends. Made some new friends.

Cut 13 inches off my hair last December, and it's getting close to it's original length.

Looking Forward: 2014

I'm not one to make resolutions. I think last year I gave up on giving up things. Maybe? I don't know. I never was one to make realistic resolutions that I could stick to.  Well it's about to be a new year, so a new beginning, perhaps? Here's what I'm hoping to do this year.

• Spend less, save more. (Though now a lot of my spending goes to loans, so that may be tough...)
• Eat healthier. I'm toying with the idea of going vegan, but easing into it. So I'm cutting back the dairy. I want at least 3 dinners a week to be vegan.
• Cook more and bake more (but make it healthy)
• No more soda. I haven't been drinking much of it anyway, so it's time for it to go.
• More working out. More running, but also mixing up my workouts. Pilates, maybe some yoga, considering swimming. Just wanting to be more active and reach some fitness goals.
• More time for me. Sounds selfish, but I just want to focus on doing some things that I've been wanting to do for a while. This includes vacation and traveling. I'm hoping this year to make it to one of these places: Washington state, Salt Lake City, or Maine. 
• Unclutter (declutter? unclutter?) my life. 
• Blog more. [laughter]. See what I mean about unrealistic? Thought I'd throw that one in for kicks.

Some positive energy for the new year.

Crazy days = Brain overload

Okay. So here's the deal. I posted yesterday my post for Halloween right? Since my internet was down I couldn't do it on the right day. So then I was going to do a 2nd post later on at some point. Well obviously I didn't manage that. I had this massive paper due today, and despite starting it well in advance it still came down to the wire for some finishing touches and editing. So before I realized it, it was a new day and I hadn't done my second post. I chose sleep (key to success) over doing another post. So I figured I would play catch up today and write two posts. Well that's seems pointless because by the second post I would have nothing to say. So I'm just going to put both videos into this one post. Got it? Plus, I don't have much to say anyway because it's getting to that point in the semester where life is hectic and my brain is on overload. Can you tell? Oh, and Happy Hump Day.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Days 18 & 19

Okay so this first one goes with my whole environmental theme. I was talking to some people today about my passion for the environment so this seemed kind of fitting. This one is interesting because it is a talk by Mitchell Joachim about combining biology and architecture to make organic, green homes. It is a very interesting concept. I love biology (I do have a degree in it after all) and I am fascinated by architecture (my brother is an architect) so I find it fascinating to combine the two. Enjoy!




Okay so for this second talk, I chose a talk by Derek Sivers about how to start a movement. It's kind of interesting because he includes some rather interesting footage to support his ideas on how to start a movement. It makes valid points, and is pretty entertaining. Enjoy




Now, I promise that every thing will go back to the daily normalness (except for my hectic life right now, that won't change.)