Stephany Writes

Categories: Recurring Series

Ten on Tuesday (Vol. 20)

I realize I left you guys hanging about the accident itself. Basically, we’re dealing with a lot of issues since my mom did walk away from it, without getting any names or information. (She was in such a state of shock, that thought didn’t even cross her mind until later.) They did get out and tried to help, but have not reported the accident (although we have). And we could run into problems with medical bills, since her health insurance may not cover them. As they say, when it rains, it pours.

On a lighter note, let’s do a “Ten on Tuesday”!

1. Where did you go to college?

University of South Florida. And I’m still there. I’ll be here forever, quite possibly.

2. What did you study?

Cute, you think I graduated! Ah, I wish. Currently, I’m studying Journalism & Media Studies. It’s fun, although I’m more into the media and marketing side of things than journalism.

3. Was college really all that it was cracked up to be?

It’s not anything like they show you in movies, that’s for sure! No crazy parties, late-night studying, or classes with a million students. I’ve had maybe 2 or 3 classes where I’ve had 50+ students. (I think this also has to do with the fact that I go to a smaller-sized school, and took all my general ed courses in a community college.)

Still, I like college. I’ve been challenged and have had some amazing professors. I’ve met some great people and I just generally like learning. (Super nerd alert?)

4. How far were you from home?

In my first year, I was about 30 miles away but then I started commuting in my second and third years. When I changed my major from Education to Journalism, I switched over to their St. Petersburg campus, which is where I am now. It’s only 10 miles away from where I live.

5. Did you have the same roommate all four years?

I had one roommate in my first year and it was the worst living situation in the history of college dorm roommates. We were so different and barely spoke one word to each other. Thankfully, she moved onto another floor with another roommate by the Spring semester so I had the dorm to myself for 5 whole months. It was great!

6. Where did you order food from at 2am?

I don’t. I’m asleep at 2am. Always.

7. Did you date in college or were you tied down?

Here’s a fun fact: I haven’t been in a relationship since 2004, and really, we can’t even call that a relationship. To answer your question, no.

8. Funniest drunk college moment?

I’ve never been drunk, actually. While it seems like it might be a fun time, I’m not too keen on the hangover the next morning. I try to avoid all possible situations of vomiting, thanks.

9. Did you make it to class on time?

Usually. Last semester was hard with my Tuesday/Thursday class since I got off work at 10:30am and had to rush to class, which was at 11. I usually made it a few minutes before, or a few minutes late. And since I like to be at least 10 minutes early to class, this was not acceptable for me.

10. What was your favorite class in college?

My favorite class has probably been Magazine Design. If you read my blog any time from January – May, you know how much stress it put on me. I went from feeling as if InDesign was going to take my life to feeling as if I totally owned that program. My first assignments were total duds but my magazine turned out so super awesome, that I have to credit it as my favorite. I’ve never learned so much, or put so much work into, one class.

Categories: Recurring Series

Ten on Tuesday (Vol. 19)

1. Do you have an innie or an outie?

I have an innie. I would also say I have a cute belly button, but nobody ever gets to see it. That is all.

2. What kind of milkshake do you order?

I don’t order too many milkshakes unless I’m at Steak-N-Shake. And then I go a little crazy. At Steak-N-Shake, I like to order their Double Chocolate Fudge milkshake. Oh, it is good! (Also, I just looked at their website, and now I really want a steak burger, some fries, and a milkshake.)

3. How often do you repeat outfits at work?

Considering my work attire is khakis and work shirts, weekly if not daily. During the winter, I wore the same khaki pants every single day. (They were my only pair.) I do have 5 different work shirts (3 polo’s, 2 t-shirts) that I rotate through. It’s never anything spectacular, though. I can’t wait to have a job where I can dress cutely!

4. What are your feelings about thank you notes?

I love receiving them, but I’m horrible at writing them. Writing them is the hardest part! Sometimes, there is so much you want to say, but you don’t want to get too mushy or cheesy. And other times, you have no idea what to say! It’s definitely not a fun process, and I don’t envy anyone who has to do it. (I’m looking at you, Kelly!)

5. Do you like spicy food?
Not particularly. There isn’t too much spicy food my mouth can handle. I like chili but I’m not a big fan of wings. Heck, I can only handle half a piece of Big Red gum! (I’m dead serious!)

6. How many toilet paper squares do you use?

Usually, during this most personal time for me, I just take hold of the hanging toilet paper and pull until I get a good number of squares. There’s no set number, just whatever feels right.

7. Were you in Girl Scouts?

No, though I desperately wanted to be one!

8. Notebooks/Journals: College ruled? Wide Ruled? No lines? Spiral Bound? Plain front? Decorative?

College-ruled, spiral bound, with some sort of decoration on them.

9. Do you snack throughout the day? What do you pack for snacks?

I do. I’m bad at snacking. I’m trying to get better at snacking healthy but it’s hard to break bad habits. Some common snacks: string cheese, yogurt, chocolate, 100-calorie packs, crackers, ice cream.

10. What is your favorite month? Why?

November! It’s my birthday month, Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), football is on, and it’s a precursor to the holiday season. Everything about November is great!

Head on over to Roots & Rings to read more answers & submit your link.
Categories: Recurring Series

Ten on Tuesday (Vol. 18)

1. What is your current favorite television show?

Big Brother. It’s total trash TV, but there’s just something spectacular about this show. If you’ve never seen the show, the basic premise is that a bunch of strangers move into a house where they’re secluded from the outside world – no TVs, no cell phones, no radio, no books. Every week, there’s a competition for a new Head of Household, who then has to put up 2 people for eviction. There’s a lot of gameplay involved, as well as some spectacular catfights and yelling matches. There are people you absolutely hate, and people you just fall completely in love with. This season, my favorites are Ragan, Lane, and Britney.

The show is amazing. If you’ve never seen the show, you’re definitely missing out!

2. Apple juice or orange juice?

Orange juice, no question. Apple juice is just plain nasty! Plus, OJ is good for your immune system!

3. It’s Shark Week on Discovery Channel. Do you watch? Why or why not?

No, I don’t. I never understood the big deal, or why I want to watch a week full of shows centered around sharks. Sharks don’t interest me that much.

4. What are the non-blog websites that you visit regularly?

Twitter. Facebook. Swagbucks. Good Reads. Gmail. My school’s website. My bank.

5. What is your favorite way to prepare green beans? Asparagus? Potatoes? Carrots?

I don’t cook asparagus or carrots so we can just throw those off.

I’ll admit that I don’t like fresh green beans. Canned green beans just taste so much better to me, and I like them with some squirts of butter & pepper, cooked in a pan on the stove.

I love potatoes. Mashed potatoes and new potatoes are my favorites. I make mashed potatoes just any old way, nothing special about it. With the new potatoes, I cut up the potato in large squares and put as much as I want in a bowl. Then, I pour in some olive oil and sprinkle some basil which I stir together until my hand gets tired. After that, I just arrange it all on a baking sheet, put it in the oven at 375, and wait until they’re golden brown. So flippin’ delicious. My favorite.

6. What is your favorite flower?

Tulips.

7. How do you feel about handkerchiefs?

Uh…two thumbs up? I don’t really have an opinion. They have their uses.

8. If you could only shop at 3 stores for the rest of your life, what would they be? (You probably should include a grocery store.)

Target for all my clothing and household and personal care needs. Publix for my grocery needs (and because I can’t go a week without getting one of their subs). And Ikea for my decorating needs. Perfect!

9. If you could only use wine for one purpose for the rest of your life, which would you choose? To cook with or to drink?

Hm…well, I don’t cook with wine and I don’t drink wine so this is hard for me. I guess I would choose to drink it, because I’m hoping my palate will become sophisticated enough to actually enjoy a glass of wine. So far, it’s not happening.

10. What’s your bedtime?

Ideally, 9:30pm, but I usually never make it to bed before 11. I do need to get on a more normal sleeping schedule when I go back to school in 4 weeks. Right now, my afternoon naps take care of my sleep needs, but it’ll be back to the grind soon!

Head on over to Roots & Rings to read more answers!
Categories: Recurring Series

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind, Part 1

Right now, I’m in Orlando! It’s Friday, so I’m hopefully still sleeping when this posts and gearing up for a day at Disney World! Be jealous.

A while back, Ashley linked to this survey on her Life List and it looked like a really interesting survey to take, with questions that were different and introspective. So, here you go, my first 5 questions on this list answered:

1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

I would never put my age at 22, or older. I think many bloggers would easily be able to say they act a lot older than their age indicates, but it’s not so for me. I would pinpoint my age around 19-20, with the fact that I’m still in school, still live with my mom, have a part-time job where I’m only responsible to pay our phone bill + gas when needed, and have seemingly no responsibility for important issues.

I’m not saying I’m not responsible or mature, and I do think there are certain areas of my life where I do act way above my age. It also doesn’t help that I’m constantly mistaken as a high-schooler. But there are some areas of my life that I think I could take a bigger step toward fixing and proving myself to be the 22-year-old that I am.

2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?

I think they both are pretty bad. In both instances, you’re left with regrets. You’re left with what-ifs. Failing makes you feel like a loser and never trying makes you feel lazy. I will say that the horrible feeling I get in the pit of my stomach from not trying is way worse than the pit I get when I fail. When you fail at something, you learn. You grow. You move on, knowing you won’t make that same mistake again. (Hopefully.) But when you live a life of never trying new things and experiences, you can’t learn or grow. You become stuck on a stagnant path of nothingness. It’s a terrible feeling I know all too well.

3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?

I’m having a hard time with this question. I’ve typed and deleted an answer about 5 times because it’s a hard one to answer. On the one hand, it’s just life. Sometimes, you have to do things you don’t want to do, like work commitments and spending time with your in-laws. Sometimes, money issues and fears get in the way of things we like but don’t do, such as traveling. On the other hand, I think it’s because we become comfortable in our shallow worlds where we sit in our bubble of containment, not venturing out to make a difference because we’re afraid of what will happen. We’re afraid we’ll grow and change and become a person with a whole new set of goals and ideals.

4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?

I think that’s natural. There is so much I want to do, so much I want to see. At 22, I feel like my future is wide open. I feel like I have so much time to do everything and it fills me with such excitement. There are some Big Life Events that I want to happen (such as getting married, becoming a mother, and graduating college) and then there are life experiences that I want to enjoy (such as traveling, getting published, running a half-marathon). I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and come up with a Life List, which is something I should do.

At the end of my life, I hope I can say I lived a fulfilled life, where I touched people. I want to be surrounded by loved ones and know I was happy with myself.

5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?

Judgment. I would like the world to have less judgment. I think we too quickly judge others by outward appearances too easily. I know I do it. If I kept a tally of how many people I judged in one day, I would be a little embarrassed by the number. I see it all the time at work, with people judging how others dress and take care of their children – even if they have “too many” kids. I see it on TV and in magazines and blogs. I know change has to start within. It has to start with me. If I started judging less, maybe it would spark others around me to start judging less. Food for thought, at least.

Categories: Recurring Series

Two Game Nights, Two Sets of Twins, and a Lazy Sunday

I don’t typically do weekend recap posts, mainly because my weekends usually consist of a lot of sleep, blog reading, and cleaning. But this weekend was drastically different. I actually did stuff. It felt great.

Friday night was, by far, one of the most fun nights I’ve had in a very long time. Here’s the short back story: Tamy is a good, good friend of our family who used to babysit my mother and her brothers when they were younger. She used to live in St. Pete. Tamy then went on to marry and have her own kids. My mom babysat for her kids. My mom went on to marry and have my brother and I. One of Tamy’s daughters, Talyse, babysat for us. The last time I saw Talyse, I was five years old. About a year or so ago, we all reconnected on The Facebook. Then I found out Talyse has a BLOG! So while this isn’t technically meeting a blog friend (since she’s actually a real-life friend, first), it was my first experience of meeting someone via the blogosphere. Everyone always talks about how meeting someone whose blog you read is different than meeting someone any other way because you know them already. This statement is totally true, social disaster that I am. I felt immediately comfortable and at ease with Talyse and meeting her babies felt like meeting celebrities I just read about weekly! There they were – in person! (And, ohmygod, they are adorable. I just wanted to gobble them up.)

We spent some time with the babies, who are amazing miracles born at 29.5 weeks. They spent 55 days in the NICU and are just proof of God’s grace and mercy of how far they’ve come since then. They’re 18 months now and so darn precious. Kyran is a flirt and has no problem attaching to other people. He’s silly and goofy and cuddly. Karyssa is a lot more reserved than him and is very shy. Surprisingly, she warmed up to my mom rather quickly – proving that she’s still got it. Karyssa was still a little unsure about me, but Kyran became my new BFF within 5 seconds so it’s all good.

Once the babies were asleep, it was time for games! For the next four or so hours, we played Apples to Apples. We had a good-sized group of 7 people, which I think makes the game a lot more fun. I’ve been wanting to play this game but we never have enough people to play it the right way. It was such a fun game! I had a blast reading the ridiculous answers, giving ridiculous answers, lobbying for my ridiculous answers, and laughing way too much. My face and sides hurt from all the laughter!

We didn’t leave the condo until 12:30am, which is LATE for me. I felt like a wild woman! Since my mom had to be at work early in the morning & Talyse and everyone was leaving to travel back to South Carolina the next day, we had to pack it in early. (Well, early for all normal 20somethings.) It was a fun night and I wish Talyse lived around here so we could visit more often. Just having a few hours was not enough.

 

I slept in until 12:30pm on Saturday, which felt AWESOME. We ended up having my 15-year-old cousins come over for a game night, which was loads of fun. I love these girls fiercely and I don’t spend as much time with them as I should. They’re growing up and are so much fun to be around. We can be totally sarcastic with one another in one breath, and in the next, totally deep and introspective with our thoughts. My mom and I want to make this a more common thing and have made some plans for the future. They are awesome girls, with the same issues and thoughts that most fifteen-year-olds are dealing with, and I just want to be there for them when they need a soft place to land.

We ordered pizza. (Yes, I had pizza two nights in a row.) And then settled in for a night of games. We played Buzzword, Mad Gab, and Clue. We also talked a lot. I think they needed a night like this, so I’m hoping to do it more and more so they know they have my mom & me if they would ever need anything.

 

Sunday was a lazy day, where I talked my mom into skipping church and going out to breakfast. And then we basically watched some TV, read, and napped. I love Sundays where you can just be lazy and recharge from the weekend to get ready for a busy week ahead. It felt wonderful.

 

I’m starting back at my internship this week, working for 3 hours, 2 days a week. I’m excited to get back and feel the energy and challenge from the projects again. And I miss the atmosphere and people! It’ll be nice to not be so lazy every day. I’m looking forward to it, even if it does mean missing out on afternoon naps.