the 23 year old with 6 phones.

Ah. Here I am, fresh faced after just over one week of being twenty three years of age.

Well, well, well. I have seemed to acquire one thing-a thirst. A thirst that I cannot seem to quench, which is really the best kind when you're not actually talking about being parched. I just mean I cannot seem to get enough of absorbing new ideas, learning how things work, and setting my standards a little higher. I don't know what that means, really. I'm not one to constantly measure my standards to see if they need adjusting. I think I just have that "Blair Waldorf" surge running through me at this moment (yeah, yeah, Gossip Girl reference) Describing yourself as Blair Waldorf is always a risk and most likely a huge stretch. She has this overwhelming desire to obtain a position of power; one that is all her own. She's also kind of bat shit crazy, but sometimes this is to her advantage when she tackles 595481 things at once. She just has her standards set-HIGH. I just feel like I'm working towards something, I can only hope that the future holds bigger and better things. 23 is so young-I'd like to think that there is still so much time to accomplish what I want, I just feel..behind. I'm not sure if it's necessarily "power" that I'm after, but I'd rather be influential. I'd like to be in a position that puts me in a comfortable place financially and emotionally. I'm adaptable as all hell, I just want to find something that provokes more drive.

I attempted to write this post on Tuesday and it is now Friday. I won't let this fact get me down. Today is April Fools Day and on this day last year you could find me near the stage at the Aragon watching Spoon. If it were four years ago you could find me calling my manager to put in my two weeks, in which she started crying. ha ha what a great day of trickery. This morning Google put out a hilarious joke and I'm trying to figure out what XRT announced this morning as their prank. One of my favourite websites, thinkgeek.com did their own fake merchandise that was actually extremely appealing. I'm bummed I couldn't think of something a tad more epic...or well, anything at all for April Fools Day! I'm sure I will think of something brilliant tomorrow. Of course.

In other news, my new ThunderBolt should be here sometime next week. After recently switching to Verizon, I initially chose the Droid X. Then four days later the ThunderBolt came out. The new 4G LTE amazingly fast blah blah blah phone that was so close to my old beloved evo. The phones I've had in the past year's time have been quite crazy. I'm a new technology snob/we switch providers all the time. I like it when my phone is efficient and fast just for the mere fact that I use it for many things. Meet the lineup

iPhone 3GS

I liked this phone a great deal and I remember upon receiving it I was out of my mind excited.

Eric got it for me after one week of dating (August 2009) because he always saw me eyeing his. This phone was super efficient and crisp. The OS got boring. I really like the iPhone, but I love android.

the Nexus One

I liked this phone. This was my first introduction to android. Eric let me use it to see if I would like it because we were planning on switching to the Evo. This phone was "cute". Much smaller than a lot of the other phones around. The buttons also made it difficult to use this phone. I was always hitting the wrong things due to bad placement/design. This was back in May of 2010.

The Evo 4G

Aw, then there was perfection. Almost. This is my favourite phone I've owned. Just holding it makes you feel majestic. It felt like a fine piece of technology that you had to have. The search on this phone sucks beyond believe. I've encountered so much frustration as to how it navigates the search. It's hard to explain unless you have the phone. I loved so many things about this phone. But then we switched to Verizon and after 6 months of having a phone I welcome change, so then I got this on June 6th 2010. The day it came out, I think. That was the goal. & no, I didn't wait in line for it.

The Droid X

This is what I chose when we went to Verizon. I like this phone, there was nothing really wrong with it, I just liked the Evo better. The ThunderBolt will pretty much be the Evo, but with faster LTE technology. So while we are ordering the ThunderBolt, I'm using;

BlackBerry Curve 8330

I actually kind of like this phone and how it is wired for business. I will only be using this for about a week or so.

ThunderBolt

One of the biggest reasons I got this phone is because since I'm still new on my plan I had a chance to get this phone for $125 instead of the outright purchase of $700. I decided to go for it since it was available. I'm anxious to get my HTC back, but I'm not looking forward to the shitty battery life.

I know it's a tad ridiculous to own this many devices in a year's time with three different carriers, but eh, what are you gonna do?

Where are all those snowmen?!

It's always a little sad to see Christmas go...

But then again it's fun to get into the mood of a new year.

I love those weeks of building up the holiday hype.

The stress we welcome in with open arms.

My Christmas Eve and my Christmas Day were just wonderful this year.

For Christmas Eve we went over to Eric's parents house for dinner and gift exchange.

They got me some awesome gifts and seemed to really like what I got them :)

For Christmas Day my parents, brother & sister-in-law, & I

do our gift exhange in the morning

That normally takes about 2 hours to get through.

There are a lot of gifts to go around.

I was so grateful! I got so many great things and all of them are useful.

Another year of good gifts and I got a lot of gift cards! This was very good.

A particular favorite which i have not used is...

my new Crayola Glow Dome courtesy of my mom! See here!

It was such a random gift to get that brought upon great results ha ha ha.

I cannot wait to use it.

Normally we go to my Cousin's house after our family exchange

and do the exchange all over again with my mom's side.

We hadn't had it at our house in years and Eric would be spending the day with my family.

We are a pretty crazy bunch, but I knew he would have no problems getting along.

I was so excited that we were having the Christmas party at our house this year.

I mean, it's always more comfortable to spend Christmas in your own home, right?

I even got a bit dressed up for the occasion!

So all in all we had about 15 people at our house on Friday.

I love when our house is filled with laughter and loudness.

It's such a contrast to the norm.

Here are a few shots from Christmas Eve/Day:

(thank you again, Eric for having to go through the pain in the ass process of converting the file!)

(Christmas Eve --what's up, mermaid legs! ha ha ha.)

(Christmas; Side profile of me sporting a new scarf my Uncle Dave gave me

& of course, my Santa hat!)

(Christmas; an awesome shot Eric took of the festivities!)

(Christmas; our festive wear with a little pizazz on my feet!)

After all the holiday hype was done we retired to Eric's for the weekend & did not do much.

We even slept in until 2pm today.

Which is absolutely disgusting but it was awesome at the same time.

Today was a day of football (bummer, Colts) and Saturday was a day of cleaning.

It was a productive, yet relaxing weekend & it doesn't get much better than that.

Although, with the snow we got, I was a little bummed we didn't make a snowman.

But let's be honest, I cannot stand the cold for more than 2 minutes...(or less)

So it's really my fault. Maybe I will have to throw on 5 sweaters and get crafty.

:)

iPhone/iTouch users!

DOWNLOAD THE APP: The Moron Test!

Don't ask questions!

Tomorrow I am seeing my friend Adam who is on leave from the Navy.

We are going to lunch with my friend Cady & that should be a great time!

For now I must go to bed if there is any hope of me heading into the gym tomorrow!

Don't forget to drink lots of water! ;)

xx

listening to: (nine) by Ratatat

Purple is the color of the season--EVERY SEASON.

Wow!

It has been too long since I have last blogged.

There are many reasons for this, I suppose

first off, I'm totally playing up the excuse that I've been pretty busy.

With me not being home on weekends, taking five classes, and working 25+ hours a week, it gets tough to sit and blog when all I want to do it study or simply just relax instead of re-hashing various events that occurred over the weeks.

Hm...

What to talk about?

I could talk about my feelings about going into the winter months

I could talk about the adoration I have for a few new apps.

I could talk about my choice to stop eating meat.

I guess I can roll these all up into one--I mean, it's not like anyone reads this thing! heh

First I will start off by saying I am enthusiastic about the winter months. At the same time I am dreading them. I love the way the snow rests on the limbs after a heavy system moves through. I love waking up and seeing things sparkle. I look forward to bundled winter walks and the refreshment of the cold air. Things that make me want to get out of here faster than a bullet are things such as remembering how long it takes my car to heat up and how my hands, even when placed in gloves, will be freezing while gripping the ice cold steering wheel. I will not look forward to shivering violently after walking from here to there in 10 degree weather. I also do not anticipate the constant thinking of "WHY THE HELL DO I LIVE HERE?!" I will never know. I hate the cold weather, but I adore a change in season and everything that goes along with it. Hopefully, just hopefully, my excitement for the winter spirit will ward off my feelings of disdain for the frigid. Unfortunately, I just do not see this happening.

Apps. Apps. Apps. Can you ever REALLY have too many? Well, yes, which is why I carry out my strict rule of deleting before adding. Its been working, but when you have so many applicable apps, deleting becomes a little emotional. iTouch/iPhone users...you get me on this. I only wanted an iPhone in the beginning for its conversational texting layouts and the use of radar on the damn thing. After being surprised with receiving it, I have fallen in love with the device. So after going through that "app crazy" phase, you learn to dwindle it down to what is worth it. A few really neat ones I have come across have been

1) HELLO VINO: This one is so neat! It's so good if you're looking for new wines or into pairings. It has lists of reasons of why you will be purchasing wines, for dinner, occasions for gifts, for anything. You can punch in what kind of dinner you're going to have (pizza, pasta, salad, meat, whatever) and it will get a little more specific until it gives you a list of wines that would pair with your meal. It will give you three recommendations where when you click on them it will show you the label of the wine, the price, the year, and what flavours it has. It's remarkable and convenient for those Saturday nights staying in where all you need is some company , good cooking, and vino.

2) GRATITUDE: This app is adorable and it's such a great idea. It basically is just a little list page where you list five things throughout the day you are grateful for or good things that have happened to you. It allows you to rate the day and it saves them so you can go back and instead of reflecting on the bad, you can reflect on the good. It also is equipped with cute/spiritual little quotes to get you back up on your feet :)

3) GOOD GUIDE/VEGEBLOGS: Perfect for the activist, vegetarian, or vegan. Good guide categorizes various things (food, personal care, household cleaners, etc.) and it will tell you which products haven't been tested on animals, natural products, and environmentally safe. This is just useful and promotes a better choice, I suppose. Vegeblogs is neat because it is just a blog app that allows you to read blogs of vegetarians, vegans, and news regarding the issues. Very interesting and very.. Applicable if I do say so myself :)

Also check out; Urban Daddy, Awesome Facts, & Shazam if you have not already :)

Ah. Now on to the big one. A simple change driven by random force. I've cut meat out of my diet once again. Once again was really about two years ago when I went vegan for a very short period of time (2 months), but cut meat out of my diet for about 5. Now, back then I went vegan for the main purpose of cleaning out my body and it being healthier. Now the picture is a little different. I have never really thought meat was "healthy" for us. In fact I believe it really slows our system down and is just dirty. I mean, have you SEEN the way those animals look before they get slaughtered? It is just repulsive. Of course, notice how I'm not linking PETA videos like a nutcase here. I don't think that is what I'm trying to push. I am choosing not to eat meat for two reasons; because I don't believe its very healthy and also because of the mistreatment the animals undergo. But more specifically how run down, sore ridden, and sickly these animals are at time of kill. I'm not against animals being killed for meat, PER SAY. If you are a farmer and have fifteen cows grazing on open land, and he kills the cow, breeds two more, and then preps meat for his family, that is one thing. But mass breeding lil moo cows and piggies so we can torture them like crazy and then kill em to fill our stomachs doesn't scream appeal to me.

It's kind of topsy turvy with me. I'm a big food person, I love to try all different kinds of foods. Luckily, I feel like I have tried so much in my young age (my parents always were taking me to different restaurants growing up). Although there are things that contain meat that I absolutely love, I just cannot bring myself to eat it right now. One thing for sure is that I go in phases. I talk something up, I devote myself 100% to it, then it gets old and I change. I cannot say that I will never eat meat again, but for the time being I'm definitely content with not doing so. Plus, I just FEEL better. I am not into pushing anyone in vegetarianism. I believe it is your body, your choice. I just feel bad for the animals and I just wish people cared more.

Ah--this weekend brings some exciting things! Thursday kicks of the College of DuPage SEVERE WEATHER SYMPOSIUM! I am pretty revved about it! I cannot wait until my school ends where I can really crack open my weather text and notes and delve into it. I also want to get some good books on winter meteorology and mountain meteorology. The symposium is three days, T, F, Sat. Eric and I also plan on seeing An Education this weekend! I really want to see it and it has such limited showing and it's quite a trip to the theater, but we are going to make it happen because he is the best :)

Work tonight for the last time this week. I am so tired today, but it will be a good shift..it always is. I love trying my hardest to progress on each cookie and fill in. I put a lot into it--most of the time. Heh.

Enjoy your day and your weekend!

"I think of having tea everytime I see the shoes too."

Hello there!

I am starting to forget what the weekends look like in Naperville. Trust me, I'm not complaining!

I spent this weekend in Indianapolis. Eric and I stayed at the Westin downtown.

For dinner was Capital Grille.

We were both expecting it to be better for its reputation it has of being a great place.

It was a good night overall though.

In the end we'll probably blame it all on Indianapolis and it's cluster of chain restaurants.

Ha ha. Poor Indianapolis--It hasn't been doing too well on the score card...

However, Greenfield, Indiana was quite the pleasant suburban area. Pretty Indiana. There we go! There was a suprise party for his cousin and that was a good time. It was nice to meet family, mingle, and see different faces. It was nice to spend a weekend away somewhere new too. Last weekend was Chicago, this weekend was Indianapolis, and we're still trying to muster up something for this weekend! I'm determined to pick out something fun to do because it's my turn to pick. EEK! Pressure, pressure! :)

So I've been dying to talk more about my adoration for tea. It has been increasing more and more. It's most likely because that visit I had to Tea Gschwendner got me all crazy hooked on seeing it and smelling it before I buy. It's also a huge perk not to have to pay shipping like I was when I was ordering offline. I've tried about 4 new teas in the past two weeks.

Blood Orange

Peach Melba

Earl Grey Creme

Anna's (a raspberry yogurt flavor)

I love getting people on the "tea train" too, as I like to call it. I think it's much easier to drink than water most of the time and with all the unique flavors I've been getting my hands on, I'm practically boiling a new pot of water every hour when I'm home. I think I should wait awhile before I head over to Teavana or Tea Gschwendner anytime soon considering I have about 6 tins of tea in my cabinet...not a bad thing!

I am also an official member of the American Meteorology Society; the student chapter. Today was our first meeting. There is a symposium coming up in November--a 3 day event. I really want to go but I just am not sure if I could get work off and it's kind of pricy. However, it's all related to severe weather so I think I would really dig it. We will have to see. If I request off now, i might be a lucky duck and get the time off. I bought a new radar (RADAR SCOPE) application for my phone. That makes 6 weather apps. It's making life a little easier. I was always wanting radar on my phone, especially with base velocity. Good stuff!

This week brings the usual; classes, ballet, skating, and work.

Ballet and skating are both going pretty well. I'm happy with ballet especially. I have really fallen in love with it. I love the movement and how tough it is and how much strength it requires, but how beautiful it looks. I am going to start going to a school for it and take longer classes. I have ballet tomorrow night. I skated this morning though for an hour and a half. I guess it went pretty well. My jumps were really good today and my spins were just okay today. I'm focusing a lot more on edge work these days. I feel that if I rely more on my edge and learn how to use them more efficiently then I would be able to make things more sharp and consise with elements. I want to get into ice dancing. Take a look at some good ice dancing HERE. Impressive stuff, folks!

I'll anticipate the weekend for a nice break from the usual! Have a great night!

-Tessabee