my knees keep finding tables

Just take that title at face value, folks. Considering that I managed to whack my knee on the table about five times immediately before I began to write this, it's basically the only thing I can think about...

This has been an exhausting week, but definitely an interesting one. For anyone who doesn't know, I began my first job this week (and by first, I mean first "regular AND paid", because there's been irregular babysitting and regular running of sites for free). I'm working with the custodial staff at my university, and it's been an absolute education already, both on people (it's illustrated some of the things my Accounting teacher talked about, actually, like how rules should be carefully considered because of their unintended consequences) and on actual cleaning. Also, it's really made my desire to smack all the idiots that dismiss custodian types of people as "morons" who "don't know anything" rather more fervid, but y'know... I work with some incredibly intelligent and interesting people, and anyone that thinks poor English grammar or doing a physically demanding job somehow makes a person less intelligent should seriously reconsider their lives.

...soapbox over, though, this post is actually to talk about things I've loved from this past week (besides Taco Thursday, our second-to-last lunch of Training Week). Despite exhaustion, I've managed to be online enough to discover quite a few things I absolutely love, so!

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Obviously, I love shoes. These kind of hit everything I love - the larger heel, the rounded toe, ANKLE STRAPS, they remind me of the saddle shoes I was cruelly denied as a small child. (Okay, it wasn't cruel, but it's so upsetting to be told you can't have something you love just because your mom hated wearing them as a kid...) Basically, I want these a lot. (Sidenote, I will someday actually buy myself saddle shoes and take great pleasure in wearing them around my mother. Someday I will also sound less crazy because I won't still be upset at not getting a pair of shoes I wanted like eleven years ago... Sadly, today is not someday...)


Considering that most humans struggle with trying to be liked by other people, I think this is a good reminder for everyone. I know I was linked to the article I found this quote in by a blogger I follow, though I've forgotten who, unfortunately. (Ivana of Macarons and Pearls, maybe? I've noticed that she tends to be responsible for a lot of things I wind up pinning...)
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I debated on leaving this to you guys to figure out, but I'll be honest, probably 50% of the reason I love this picture as much as I do is that I have a bit of a celebrity crush on Miley Cyrus... The other 50% would be that dress. But yeah. It looks like Elle made an interesting shoot.

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This=the way I would like to look when I wear pigtails, rather than slightly insane young adult.

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...I have very strong emotions about chickens. I don't honestly know why. They're one of the most ridiculous things I could possibly be obsessed with...and yet, here I sit, age nineteen, looking at this picture and thinking "I could totally take over the world if I had an army of giant mutant chickens on jet-powered skateboards." I don't know what I'd do once I'd conquered the world, I just want the giant mutant chickens. ...yeah, moving on.

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I'll be honest, I don't care that much about Duchess Kate. She seems like a cool person, but I'm just not that interested in seeing every single outfit she's ever worn since she and William were married or started dating or her maternity style. I think the obsession with her is beyond ridiculous (but then again, I'm obsessed with chickens, so am I really allowed to talk?) Probably the main times I get excited to see things pertaining to Kate are things like this - designers designing hypothetical outfits for her. (I was more interested in the concept art some designers made despite not being hired for her wedding dress than I was interested in the dress, so...) Karl Lagerfeld's is probably my favorite, because of that dramatic neckline.
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Four words: I want this dress.
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Another fun fact about me for the day: I've always wanted to wear ridiculously heavy, ornate earrings. My childhood aspiration, before I decided I couldn't be interested in fashion because of stupid stuff, was to have massive hoop earrings down to my shoulders. Alas, my ears don't like to be pierced, so I'm stuck with clip-ons. These. Are clip-ons. Too expensive, and yet, I keep looking at them and wanting them.

What were your favorite things this week? Any interesting obsessions that beat chickens?

I Can't Believe...

Well, today is Thursday, and I'm officially tired enough to not really be able to write a decent introduction or lead-in to this. Not that it really needs one exactly, but y'know. First week of work will be done after Friday. It's definitely been interesting thus far...

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I can't believe...that I'm working. Better than last summer, though, when I couldn't get a job...

I can't believe...that people are doing AP exams around now. Where did high school go?

I can't believe...that recycle bins can get so dirty. You'd think it would be trash cans, but dorm recycle bins can get pretty nasty, often they're nastier than the trash bins. It's so weird!

I can't believe that...Cleveland decided to be nice-ish today, weatherwise.


What can't you believe this week?

No Wednesday Post

While I do have a video that could technically work for my Wednesday post, thanks to upload issues, it doesn't. I'm switching to midnight upload times, as that's more convenient to my job than the noon upload times. (Also might be more conducive to my paying attention in class...eep). So, today there's no post, that way I can easily join the "I Can't Believe" linkups when I post on Thursday. I hope everyone has a lovely day and that they all appreciate this majestic work of art that was on facebook yesterday!

Fifty Shades of Bread (Source Unknown)

Tuesday Tunes

Work is exhausting, and I've only done one day. Here's to hoping it gets easier!

I'm on a real Florence and the Machine kick right now. I don't think I've managed to find a song from her that I don't like. Some of my current favorites...


What are some of your current favorite songs?

it's not feeling like summer

Cleveland's spent the past three days raining and being cold. Upside - the winter clothes I was about to pack don't have to be packed, thus saving my effort. Downside - it's cold, so I can't run around like an idiot in the rain, because COLD.

The outfits today include one from the week before last. I know, yeah...

That outfit was worn on a day when Cleveland was being so nice to spite all of us who had finals. April 30th. I had an event party thing to go to for some graduating seniors, so I dressed up for it (and I was just happy to be fancy...)

Dress/hairthings/bracelets - F21 | Belt - DEB | Shoes - Payless | Necklace - gifted

A week later, after a lot of stress, I

Shirt/bracelets - F21 | Belt - Papaya | Skirt - TJ Maxx? | Necklace - thrifted

Then, sadness occurred as friends left, I might've had a meltdown, basically ALL THE SADNESS happened in the span of a few short days (I am still dealing with the sadness... Don't go to college only to realize that one of the reasons you've been unhappy all your life is that you're an extrovert who's been trying to force yourself to be an introvert... Well, DO realize it, but realize it before college so you can relearn how to function, don't be me...)

Saturday was crazy busy, and I ran all over the place doing things on errands. (And I watched My Neighbor Totoro!) It was tiring enough that I went to bed at 9PM on Sunday, still tired.

Chambray - JC Penny's | Shirt - found (it's college, don't ask questions) | Skirt/boots - F21 | Socks - Gap

Also, does anyone else ever find themselves rushing to get a post done before work? Or is today just a first-timer's thing for me? At least my work is very close...

How was your past week?



I Guess I'm a Sophomore

Well...the year's over, I know some of my grades, almost everyone I live with has moved out and gone home, and the rest will follow shortly, and... Yeah. I'm in a rather melancholic sort of mood, and I might have spent significant portions of the past two days crying at how long it's going to be before I see my friends again. (I also have a somewhat irrational fear that there'll be a repeat of what happened at the end of last semester, which I am desperately hoping will be proven as irrational, since, you know, I'd like to not melt down after each time I hug a friend goodbye. At least I have a ticket to go to one of the museums that requires a ticket, and there's a festival in University Circle today, so I'll have a bit of a distraction. And I'm going to either Target or the mall area at some point this weekend to get some storage containers. At this point, I think getting off the floor as much as possible is going to be the only way I stay a functional human being. There's far too much temptation to just sit on the couch and cry or just stare at the wall, which is even worse than playing Skyrim for eight hours on end because I don't even want to do it. Bluh.

I'll quit rambling now - not that I'm much in the mood for it - and show you things that have made this week sort of better.

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I don't think you can understand my reaction to these shoes. It was over-the-top dramatic. I gasped really loudly and started fanning myself. It was actually probably hilarious, but no one witnessed it.

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Earring magnets = perfect way for me to deal with my intense lust for earrings.
So...after finals, my planned reward was a pair of sandals. And then these shorts happened. $75 is now the most I've ever spent on a piece of clothing. And I actually don't regret it. Kate Spade Saturday is kind of my new favorite thing. And also may eventually kill me because it's all so expensive but I want it all so much. (Also, the package came with this adorable bright yellow card that said "Make Every Day a Saturday", or something like that, which my roomie happily relieved me of, because she LOVES  yellow). Good purchase? Hell yes. Just don't be like me and order it and realize three days later that you also have to feed yourself until your first paycheck. Thank goodness I have parents who find it funny when I do stupid shit... I'm adjusting to this adult thing, I guess.

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I'm the custodian of my friends' xbox, tv, and computer over the summer (along with a dozen other things), and it's all going to be in a single room. I'm going to have to become a boss at organization. Step one is cords, because god only knows how awful a room is when it's already small and then has cords everywhere. I'd imagine it would be worst when coming home from work and not wanting to deal with shit... So cord control is step one.

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Can someone just turn me into Emma Watson or something? Please?

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This is such a cute idea, and I'm motivated to try it primarily by the idea of being able to make my own cards and stuff for people's birthdays and still have them be sorta unique and interesting and distinct from one another. (Also monetarily motivated...) I already tend to make my own cards (or I did, until I stumbled upon the five things of stationary I had leftover from middle school and decided to put all those dolphins to use...) and so having some sort of vague idea of what I want to do with them is always a boon.
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Hello English language, how ya doin'? Stuff like this is why I giggle when someone says that learning Arabic must be so hard for me. I speak English, which doesn't follow any of its rules in the slightest. While I don't know if the numbers on this are true, I don't doubt that it's a close ratio, because please, English.

What are your favorites for the week?








Tuesday Tunes

I finished all my finals, and all I have left to do is...nothing! Nothing but sleep, and get as much time in with my friends before they leave. I pretty much spent the past week listening to certain songs on repeat while trying to focus. One of them, which gets to be today's featured music, was "Past Lives" by Ke$ha. It's not really a homework-y song, but sometimes it's just nice to listen to something a little different from my standard homework fare of "screw everyone".


What's your current favorite music?

one more week!

I honestly just have one more week till finals and freshman year are done with. I'm really happy about the idea of finals being done with, and really upset that freshman year will be over, because pretty much all my friends will be leaving. At least some of my friends are staying over the summer like me! But it's definitely going to be weird. I hope it'll be fun, though...

Some of my favorites for the week (other than finishing my Accounting final...) (Also wow, I've totally given up on transitions, what would my English teachers say? Probably something about finals killing brain cells, I dunno...)

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This belt is absolutely adorable.

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I think I've got one project I need to do this summer, now. It's so cute!

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Can I become Zoe Saldana? Because seriously, she's so amazing and gorgeous and talented and I would very much enjoy being her. (Alternatively, can I have this dress and actually look as good in it as she does? Please?)

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Refinery29 is basically one of my favorite spaces online, because they post an absolutely lovely mix of silly things, awesome things, 'need-to-know' things, news, and really useful things, like this. It's a guide to how to start running as a kind of serious thing, and I hope it'll help me as I try out one of my summer goals - "find a type of exercise that I like and can do regularly". I know that I hate running, like, with a fiery burning passion, but I hope that maybe I can figure out a way to like it, because you can do it anywhere and any time, which, y'know, is a good thing.

What are your favorites this week?

need a little neutrality

I said on Twitter, in a fit of upset early this morning, approximately two am, that I wouldn't have a post today. However, with a final at 12:30 PM and my studying finished an hour and a half before that, I realized I could post...and that I should really make an effort to breathe normally, considering that grades are not the end-all-be-all of my life, and the fact that about 95% of why I'm stressed is that everyone else is stressed and I feel like I'm not being a good student if I'm not intensely emotionally distressed right around this time. I hope that I don't regret not trying to cram more, once I start the exam, but it's a chance I'll take right now.

One of the things that I really want, and which I'm using as an incentive to study and work hard and not collapse into a wibbling pile of sobbing student is neutral/brown-ish sandals. Yes, I know. Standard staple. For everyone but me, I think. I don't believe I've ever owned a pair, but they look marvelous, and they fit with my whole 'making an effort to wear something other than black' thing. The one I've been failing miserably at, since even my sundresses are black. (No, seriously, they are - they have floral patterns, but they're black, and I barely have anything colorful, though all the colors I do have are super-bright).

1. American Eagle / 2. F21 / 3. Zappos / 4. Steve Madden / 5. Alexander Wang / 6. F21

I know, not entirely neutral, but I can't resist some bright stuff with brown. I need to have something familiar with it, right? I think my favorite of these is probably the Alexander Wang sandals, but I'm equally certain that I can't afford them, alas. I'm definitely using some pair of sandals as a finals reward, though, because I honestly need the motivation.

Are you significantly lacking in any serious summer staples? Got a wardrobe kick like my basically all-black one? Ready to learn to murder abstract concepts like finals and economics like I am? (Yay finals...) Lemme know (especially if you want to learn how to kill abstract concepts or know how, because I think I need that before Monday, when my econ final is... I'll survive. Maybe.)


I Can't Believe

It's Wednesday, and I have a final tomorrow, and I'm actually writing this on Tuesday, at which point I haven't yet done any studying or started work on either of my ten-page papers yet. I'll be a good student eventually, maybe?

Anyhow, onto this topic... (Have I ever mentioned how happy I am that link-ups are a thing? Cuz I truly am...)



I can't believe...that it's finals time already. Seriously, where did this semester and year go? It's so strange and crazy and weird. I've done so many things this year that I never expected to do or to be able to do, and life looks like it might keep going that way. I don't think I can explain how excited I get when I realize that I have no idea what comes next, and that I can't really predict my day-to-day life.

I can't believe...that I'd never seen washi tape in person before. I talked about ordering it in my March Shopping List and finally did and it's so cute! (Also, totally didn't remember to do one for the second half of the month...or any for April... Ah well!)

I can't believe...that I'm going to turn 20 in November. Yes, I'm thinking about this just a little early, since this is just barely May, but still. Nobody can dismiss me as a dumb teenager now! (Instead, they'll dismiss me as a dumb twenty-something, but at least it'll have a slightly different sound for me to be vexed by).

I can't believe...that I've never used spotify before. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to things I haven't heard before and it's pretty neat.

I can't believe...that I'm still writing this instead of studying. EEP!






What can't you believe this week?

Tuesday Tunes

Guys, I have a Gatsby problem. (Gatsby, what Gatsby? I'm not obsessed at aaaaall...) Seriously though,  about all I want to do right now is watch the trailers for The Bling Ring and The Great Gatsby and just have fangasms over how cool and exciting everything is. I really like what I'm seeing (and hearing) for these movies. Gatsby fever is probably more intense right now, though... (I know I should be excited for Iron Man III, but considering I was introduced to the whole series by someone who has since decided that our entire friends group isn't even worth the time required to tell us that she doesn't care, I'm kind of feeling a little sour about it right now... I'll recover, but it's definitely not on my priority list right now).

Probably my favorite Gatsby thing out right now (besides those trailers, because damn, those are intense) is the Lana del Rey song. I can't stop listening to it. It's definitely an addiction.


Are you excited for Gatsby too? What are you especially excited to see? (Any tips for dealing with irresolute friendship breakups? Cause I could use those...)

leather skirts and excitement

Well, last week was the last full week of classes, and it saw a great resurgence of energy. I even got started on my papers this weekend, finally! I'm excited for doing things with my friends (in-between studying) and getting done with finals. I managed to be decently fancy this week, so I'm pretty pleased with myself! Now if I can be fancy while I'm doing nothing...

Monday was a somewhat uneventful day, just the standard class, work, Skyrim kind of day that I seem to do.

Shirt/skirt - F21 | Tights - WalMart | Shoes - Target

Tuesday was similarly uneventful, just projects and more of the same as Monday.

Sweater - The Limited | Shorts/bracelets - F21 | Necklace - Claire's | Shoes - Payless

Wednesday was...more of the same.

Headband - ? | Necklace - gift | Shoes - F21

Thursday was more of the same, until about 4AM (okay that's 4AM in what was technically Friday, but I was doing laundry, so), when I hurt my knee trying to kneel to put stuff in the washing machine. Apparently I screwed up one of my tendons somehow, so I've started doing exercises to try to make this stop being a thing, since this is the second time I've had that issue.

Cardigan - Deb | Shirt/necklace/pants/boots - F21

The weekend wasn't particularly fancy or outfit-picture worthy, but it was spectacularly fun - I went to dinner with my friend Ally's parents and a bunch of my friends, since they came up to see us, and then I smashed cars and played a boardgame at a frat (it was an event for smashing cars, they like, picked them up from the junkyard and basically best stress relief EVER). Saturday, I worked at Springfest for my fraternity for a few hours, went to Writer's Club, did homework, and wound up at another frat playing card games. Sunday I went to a concert, and here we are now, Monday, looking at a week where I go to even more events, even though I'm also frantically studying and writing papers. This is the kind of busy I like.

How was your previous week? Does this week look like a good one?

almost there

Next Monday marks the end of classes. I'm kind of sad, kind of relieved. My freshman year of college is almost done, and it's been such a roller coaster of just...everything. I never knew how much I could miss a person, before this year, nor did I anticipate that people could manage to become even more confusing as I got to know them better. I also completely underestimated how easy joints are to injure just doing normal things - here's looking at multiple sprained ankles and my second knee injury of the semester (how do I keep doing this???). Hopefully this means I'll get better at taking care of my body this summer - it's a more low-key environment, I hope? One of the things I want to do this weekend, in between papers and helping my friend update the site we run, is to draw up a list of what I want to do this summer. A list of summer resolutions, I guess, to build off what I've been doing on my New Years' Resolutions. There's always room to grow, change, and transform, and I think my favorite thing in the world would be to able to say that I'm a better person each day than I was the day before.

Speaking of favorites, here are a few of my favorite things from the past week. (Look at that smooth transition... I actually can't tell if it's smooth or not, honestly, I'm writing this at 2AM and occasionally having to deal with tears because I injured my knee just an hour ago so it hurts a lot right now, so I may come back to look at this at like, 3PM to wonder how I thought this ramble was a good idea... We'll see!)

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These come in a roommate-approved color, for the record. My roommate really loves yellow, and so the only fashiony-ish things I show her are yellow. The actual thing I love about these is that they're really cute little sneakers, which I'm really craving right now, for some reason.

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This is pretty much what I had to tell myself constantly when I made the decision to not live with my friends. It was really difficult, but even now, I feel wonderful about having done it. It's definitely something for me to try to always remember - if I'm not wholeheartedly giving myself to something, I shouldn't be doing it.

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Florence Welsh's house. Need I say more? It's amazing.

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This picture of Lily Aldridge is 100% the reason I'm contemplating finding pleather shorts. The article/interview with her is really cool, too, so you should read it!

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Taylor Swift's outfit here is absolutely gorgeous. It's a pretty cool performance outfit, shiny and hopefully comfortable. I definitely love the shoes and shorts!


ps: I did look at this again this afternoon...and I'm okay with that ramble, I think, even though it's super ramble-y.