My Christmas Wish List

The My Favorite Things list seems to be all the rage in the blogging world so I thought I'd jump in on that bandwagon as well. Some of these things are out of my price range, but this is more of a hypothetical type of list. Happy Christmas!

This super cute and super cozy looking cashmere pillow and blanket would be perfect for traveling.

I love love love to travel, and packing all my toiletries for the plane can be a nightmare. These two travel kits from Philosophy and Bliss would be really helpful.

These travel slippers are cute and compact. They would be very easy to tuck in to my overstuffed suitcase. Because who really wants to walk around barefoot on hotel carpet?!

I love to cook but don't get the chance to do so too often. When I do, I always drive myself crazy trying to read a cookbook and keep it open all why trying to stir and saute. I think this cookbook holder is very pretty and would look nice in my kitchen

Due to my extreme lack of funds, I'm still driving around my old car from high school/college. And it has served me well. Gotta love Hondas! But from time to time my check engine light pops on and since I'm broke as a joke, It drives me crazy to have to take it in for a diagnostic test at $100 a pop when whatever is wrong is something minor that doesn't need to be repaired. I drive my dad crazy too because I'm always calling him to ask him what's wrong. Like he can tell from 3 states away! Anyway, I think this CarMD system would be very handy and would save me a bit of cash. And save my dad's sanity!

I have almost no use for this, but I don't care, I love it. Because who doesn't love cute, animal shaped chalkboards? Maybe for somewhere in the kitchen?











It's official. I'm a nerd. I really dig the History Channel and the Discovery Channel and all of that stuff. And seriously, this earth is totally fascinating! Good work God! To fuel my love of knowledge, I would love to receive the Planet Earth DVD set. And it's one of Oprah's favorite things too, so you know it's cool.







I heart Paris, and I heart this umbrella. Too too cute!




This list could honestly continue on for pages and pages, but in the spirit of our current financial situation, I'll cut it off here. I don't want to lead you all in to temptation. Heaven knows I've been drooling over Gifts.com all day today but have managed to restrain. My credit card thanks me.



Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

If You're Bored...

Via Toujours Complexe, I found this really fun, new personality test. You don't have to sign up or look at ads or any of the usual stuff that comes along with the internet personality tests so if you're bored, I definitely recommend checking it out! My results are very spot-on.

Her Favorite Things

That Girl is having an awesome giveaway of her favorite things. Check it out here. I can't wait to see what her favorite things are! I'm almost as excited as I get for Oprah's favorite things!

Jealousy is the Worst

Do any of you have those friends who lives are seemingly perfect in every way? Where things just seem to fall in their laps? The ones who's lives just make yours seem so lonely and mundane? And just not successful?


I have a dear friend who is married to a WONDERFUL man who loves her so dearly. She got a pretty decent job right out of college. And when she realized she didn't like that job, her company promoted her to a fantastic job that suits her personality perfectly. She makes pretty good money for being only 2 years out of college. And she keeps getting these opportunites through her job to meet top people in her industry. To travel all over. To get to work with wonderful non-profit organizations. Everyone loves her. EVERYONE. I seriously don't know one person that doesn't love her. I don't know one thing that she's done that hasn't turned out so perfectly for her. Every project she does makes her bosses, co-workers, co-organizers, friends, family, or whoever else fall more in love with her. She works hard, but things still just seem to come so easily to her.

I HATE that I feel this way. But eveytime she has a new phenomenal experience, I feel a tiny stab of jealosy. I want nothing but the best for her. She deserves it all. But it just hurts because I feel like my life is just so far from that. I don't know what else to do differently. Like I said, I want her to be happy and definitely don't want her to not have great things happen, but sometimes, it's just hard to hear about another victory.

I feel so selfish and guilty and I would just die if she ever knew I felt this way sometimes. We're very close friends and I think it would hurt her terribly to know that I have these thoughts.

Ugh, just had to get this off of my chest.

Rude Awakening

I might be in for a rude awakening when I get to Chicago. Today in Dallas, the temperature dropped pretty rapidly in a few hours. It went from being in the mid 60's to about 39 degrees. On my way to the second job, it started sleeting pretty heavily. The wind was blowing like crazy. And I was freezing!

I usually have a good laugh at the Dallas folks because being from Kansas originally, where we have some pretty brutal and windy winters, I've got pretty thick skin compared to Texans. It hits like 60 degrees here and people are freezing and wearing coats. If it rains too hard people slow down to about 45 or 50 miles per hour on the highway. If there are light flurries, people absolutely flip out and don't go in to work until noon, or work and/or school is canceled all together. Pretty funny if you ask me because at home, work and/or school is NEVER canceled. You learn to drive in ice and snow. Sure you take it easy, but there is rarely a time when you can't make it to work.

But I must've been living here too long. Tonight I was shivering and freezing. So I think moving to Chicago in January is really going to be quite the shock to my system and will definitely take some getting used to.

Speaking of Chicago, I've pushed back my move by a few weeks. It turned out that I was going to be paying rent in both Chicago and Dallas for the month of January (which really sucks for my budget!) and I figured I might as well stay down here where I've actually got 2 jobs and make a little extra money before heading up to the Windy City where I do not have employment. The whole moving thing has become very stressful and quite the money suck. Logistics are a nightmare. I have to go back to Wichita for the holidays, then come back to Dallas for 3 days of work. Then fly back to Wichita to meet up with my dad, my future roomie and the moving truck to drive to Chicago to move in to our place. Then drive back to Wichita and fly back to Dallas to work for a few weeks. Then will drive back to Wichita, pick up the future roomie (who is also staying at her job for a few extra weeks), and drive the rest of the way to Chicago. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it.

The money thing is killing me too. We found out last week that our landlord wanted the other half of the deposit (We only put down a 1/2 months rent deposit, $750, originally). We were under the impression that the $750 we put down was all that she required for a deposit. So we had to send in another $750 last weekend. We are also responsible for 1/2 of the rent in December and all of January. With the rent that I also have to pay here in Dallas for January that puts me at a grand total of $2,505 in the next two months. Add on to that credit card bills, student loans, car insurance, gas, utilities and I've got myself quite a bit of money that I'm going to owe. And since I'm living pay check to paycheck as it is, coming up with that money is seemingly impossible. I live in mortal fear that I won't be able to come up with the money and then I'll really be screwed.

I know once I get there it will be fantastic. It may be tough at first trying to find a job, or working a random job (as opposed to a career), but just getting out of Dallas and having a fresh new experience will be good for my soul. But the getting there and getting back on my feet is REALLY stressful. Ugh.

Any tips or suggestions for making the transition a bit smoother?

If anyone out there works in Media/Advertising/Marketing and/or Non-Profit and is aware of a job opening please let me know! I will happily apply!

A Fun Contest

I'm super excited to have stumbled across the new contest that "Lipsmacker" is having over at the Lipstick Diaries. She's giving away some fabulous goodies from Sephora. And what girl doesn't LOVE makeup?

Make sure to head on over a sign up. And do some reading, cause the Lipstick Diaries is sure to keep you entertained!!!

9 Long Days

It's been a long, fantastic break from work and real life. I went home last week for Thanksgiving and took the rest of my vacation this week. Tomorrow I have to go back. It's a weirdly bittersweet feeling. It's been 9 days without work. 9 days of family, friends, a long mind-numbingly ridiculous argument with my mother that kept circling back to the point we started, 2 6-hour drives, a broken car, and attempting to pack up some of my stuff for the big move. 9 days is nothing. But it feels like forever. Tomorrow I have to go back to work and I know that I'll be dealing with that weird, split personality feeling that I get at work where I both love my job and hate it. Where I feel tied down to the corporate world and where I find interest in some of my new responsibilities.

My original plan was to spend a good majority of my break searching for advertising/marketing, event planning, or non-profit jobs in Chicago. And to figure out my financial situation and how I'm going to make this move work in a few short weeks. And getting all of my non-essential items packed. Of course, as always, I didn't get half of that accomplished.

I'm really excited for this move. But for some reason, I'm also dragging my feet. I'm sad/scared to quit my job. It just feels reckless in this economy. Now that I'm thinking about leaving, it suddenly seems great. I'm really, really sad to say goodbye to my friends. I love my apartment. And my roommate. And being in my comfort zone. I'm really, really concerned about my financial situation and how I'm going to pay for everything. I'm scared I won't find a new job. I'm worried about making friends.

This is so unlike me. Normally I'm the first to plan and take a trip, or move away without a fear or care in the world. Maybe it's being older. Maybe it's all of the responsibilities I have now. Maybe the older you get the harder it is to leave the relationships you've made and maybe it's harder to start new ones. Maybe I'm just a huge bundle of stress, nervous and fear and I'll get it over it in a second. Who knows?

All I can tell you is that I feel extreme excitement and dread at the exact same time.