Relevant.

We’ve had a busy week! Interns leaving, Ed graduating, saying goodbye to my lovely hair… it’ll definitely be nice to have a break for a week or so.

Over this past week, I unintentionally completed some additional items on my list, which is very exciting. Cross off #19 (chop all my hair off) & #24 (change a flat tire!)

Although my hair isn’t completely gone, it’s significantly shorter than it was before, which is the longest my hair has ever been. We cut over six inches off, into a new hairdo that is “much more Meg”. 

Ed was extremely  helpful with the flat tire debacle; while I am confident I could change a tire now, I definitely would have been up a creek if he hadn’t been there to sit with me and help me navigate the police/roadside assistance/pouring rain.

I now have crossed off six things on my list, leaving only 24 to go! That’s still a lot but I am confident I can accomplish them in the next eight years. I am still hoping to go horseback riding and fruit picking this summer, as well as ride in a hot air balloon. Then I’ll have crossed off nine! Pretty solid start if you ask me.

1. Take a professional cooking class
2. Live outside of Illinois
3. Go white water rafting
4. Travel somewhere on my own
5. Go skydiving
6. Visit Barcelona and Rome
7. Run a 5K
8. Learn how to play tennis, and then play someone in a match well
9. Cook every dish in a cookbook
10. Get a makeup consultation from someone professional and then buy the makeup they recommend
11. Buy something ridiculously expensive and frivolous, just because I want to
12. Swim with dolphins
13. Have my palm read
14. Go to one new restaurant or coffee shop a week for one year
15. Take an art class
16. Ride in a hot air balloon
17. Visit a spa for an entire day and get the works
18. Watch a meteor shower
19. Grow my hair out really long and then cut it all off
20. Throw away all my clothes, then completely redo my wardrobe from scratch
21. Go horseback riding
22. Golf a complete 18 holes
23. Find my perfect shade of lipstick
24. Learn how to change a flat tire
25. Swim with sharks
26. Go fruit picking in an orchard
27. Watch a movie at a drive-in
28. Visit Sanibel again and see all the sights I saw when I was a little girl
29. Go scuba diving
30. Attend a professional sporting even

Let the to-do lists begin! My annual tradition of making a list of all the things I want to do during the summer continues with the following:

• Visit Starved Rock and go hiking
• Play tennis with Ed
• Take a day trip to Springfield, visit the Lincoln Memorial & Lincoln Museum, visit the capitol building and eat a horseshoe
• Go canoeing/fishing/camping
• Go golfing with Ed
• Grill out CONSTANTLY
• Go horseback riding (30B430)
• Pick some live fruit from an orchard of some kind (30B430)
• Take an art class (30B430)

Wahoo!

You can tell a lot about a person by how well they tip someone.

Who knew, that first weekend when we met, that a year and a half later we would be still be so crazy about each other.

So glad I found my sappy, loveable, goofy, funny and wonderful best friend, and so thankful to celebrate one and a half years of being together with him.

Is there anything more annoying than someone who goes all through dinner texting? I have been in several different situations this past month, whether it be dinner, drinks, or just hanging out with someone, and they won’t get off their phone.

It honestly offends me. If you’d rather sit on your computer than talk to me or do whatever we’re doing, go home and do that. It’s rude that you can’t spend one hour focused on our conversation and you have to check in with someone every five minutes. Tell them you’re busy!

The worst is when someone answers their phone while you’re eating or hanging out with you. And you know it’s coming, that moment where someone asks them how they are and what they’re doing, and they reply, “Oh nothing, having lunch, I’m free though go ahead.”

No, you are not free. You’re having lunch with me! 

If your Pinterest page is that important or your Twitter feed is that engaging, why did you even come out with me? If you really need to talk to that person who keeps texting you and interrupting our conversation so badly, step outside, call them, put your phone away and come back to dinner. 

Whatever happened to the days where people would just talk to each other? Am I really that uninteresting that people feel the need to check in on every social media platform while they’re talking to me?

tyleroakley:

Love takes you where you’ve never been before.

I have seriously been slacking on updating this, and that sucks because I know that I’ve been doing it. Hopefully I can remember to keep this current!

1. Imperial Buffet, Bloomington-Normal
2. 3030 Coffee Shop, Peoria
3. Jimmy’s Deli, Schaumburg; Mongolian China Buffet, Buffalo Grove; EP’s Timeout, East Peoria
4. Uptown 138, Normal
5. Famous Dave’s, Bloomington
6. Good Tequila’s, Peoria; Gigi’s, Fairragute, Tennessee; Tomato Head, Knoxville, Tennessee; The Half Barrel, Knoxville, Tennessee; Coolato Gelato, Knoxville, Tennessee
7. Corky’s, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; Brixx’s Pizzeria, Knoxville, Tennessee
8. Great Harvest Bread Company, Peoria
9. Crusen’s Bar, Peoria; Richard’s, Peoria
10. Some extremely authentic Chinese restuarant, Urbana; Frank’s Place, Northbrook
11. Martini’s, Peoria; The Burger Barge, East Peoria
12. Bogie’s, Peoria
13. Smashburger, Peoria
14. Cracked Pepper, Peoria
15. Michael’s Italian Feast, East Peoria
16. Donnelly’s Shamrock Pub, Peoria
17. Hacienda Fuentes, Morton
18. Rhythm Kitchen Music Cafe, Peoria; The Congress Hotel, Chicago; Yolk, Chicago
19. Kiwi Fresh Frozen Yogurt, Peoria
20. La Cantina, East Peoria

Everyone should listen to this.

Something I’ve been needing to remind myself lately.

Something like this really makes me remember my strengths and be proud of why I was hired & the job I have. Go Millennials!

videttedatingblog:

If you were to ask me any year besides this year, I would tell you that i think valentine’s day is stupid and sappy and I hate it. But now I have a boyfriend, and I think valentine’s day is awesome and sappy and I love it.  

Although I will admit that it is a stupid hallmark holiday, and it is meant to force americans into buying tons of shit we’ll never use again, I still cant wait to celebrate it. You better believe I’ll be handing out transformers valentines to my friends and wearing this awesome red dress with a pink bow in my hair.

I know that boys get the short end of the stick when it comes to VDay. They’re expected to do everything in the world for us, the whole nine yards, and we’re just expected to sit there and giggle and blush and enjoy it. As a boy with a girlfriend on valentine’s day, you are expected to, at the minimum, get me flowers, dinner, and a heartfelt card. But my boyfriend, oh no. He is expected to do much much more. 

Boys always talk about how they’re “romantics at heart” because they think it’ll get girls to like them and make them seem sexy. They just imagine all the girls getting wet left and right, talking about how sensitive he is and how they would totally get with him. My boyfriend is no different. He’s spent the past five months talking about how much he loves love and how he’s a romantic and loves to pamper girls.  

Well unfortunately, the day has arrived. Time to put up or shut up. I am seriously expecting the full nine yards, and if i don’t get it, he has no right to ever play the sensitive card again.  

Good luck men.

Written by: Melissa Maris
Daily Vidette Blogger

Relevant.

Another one bites the dust!

1. Take a professional cooking class
2. Live outside of Illinois
3. Go white water rafting
4. Travel somewhere on my own
5. Go skydiving
6. Visit Barcelona and Rome
7. Run a 5K
8. Learn how to play tennis, and then play someone in a match well
9. Cook every dish in a cookbook
10. Get a makeup consultation from someone professional and then buy the makeup they recommend
11. Buy something ridiculously expensive and frivolous, just because I want to
12. Swim with dolphins
13. Have my palm read
14. Go to one new restaurant or coffee shop a week for one year
15. Take an art class
16. Ride in a hot air balloon
17. Visit a spa for an entire day and get the works
18. Watch a meteor shower
19. Grow my hair out really long and then cut it all off
20. Throw away all my clothes, then completely redo my wardrobe from scratch
21. Go horseback riding
22. Golf a complete 18 holes
23. Find my perfect shade of lipstick
24. Learn how to change a flat tire
25. Swim with sharks
26. Go fruit picking in an orchard
27. Watch a movie at a drive-in
28. Visit Sanibel again and see all the sights I saw when I was a little girl
29. Go scuba diving
30. Attend a professional sporting even