Moving on... Again.

This past week has been completely packed, in more ways than one. Moving, planning a baby shower, and preparing for camping all at one time is a little much to add to my already busy schedule.

I know, I know. Boohoo. I'm not the type of person who likes to have something to do at every second of the day. I relish in my me-time. I like to be able to spend time doing what I want (reading, catching up on my YouTube subscriptions since I do not have tv, organizing my desk, cleaning). So when I say I have a busy schedule, it includes doing all of those things that I want to do.

After I came to the realization last week that I had to be out of my current apartment on the same day I would be returning from a long weekend camping trip, I started going a little crazy. Moving is one of those things that I like to take time to organize and plan. However, I didn't have time to do that. I started deciding right away when I had to do things and I realized I would have to move this week and be out of the apartment by Thursday night (tonight) because we are leaving directly after work Friday (tomorrow) and electric will be disconnected Friday.

Starting Saturday, I began packing all of my things. Sunday we moved some of my large furniture like the dining table and my desk. It's complicated because I'm not taking much of the furniture to the new apartment, some of the things belong to my sister, some to my parents, and some to my grandparents. It was important to seperate all of these things into the necessary piles.

The other important thing was keeping in mind that I would be staying at my parents for about two weeks. I needed to keep out my work clothes, some casual clothes, and keep camping clothes packed up in a different place. I like to have options when it comes to dressing and it is very difficult for me to plan for two weeks worth of outfits, not to mention the makeup, jewelry, and hair tools that I had to decide what to do with. What can be packed for two weeks? Will it melt? Do I need it for camping? Will I have room for it at my parents?

Yesterday was the first day that I felt I had things under control. I have been packing up things as I finish with them and taking them to storage this week. The plan for today was to move my dresser, nightstand, makeup cart, and bed out tonight. I also have to clear out the refrigerator and quickly clean the entire place. Also tonight I need to make some food for camping that we offered to bring and I need to have all of the camping supplies gathered in one spot so Kyle can load up the car after school tomorrow. I was relying heavily on Kyle's assistance with everything since my brother has to work, my dad has back problems, and Pop isn't supposed to lift anything over like 30 pounds. Kyle then let me know last night that he would be unavailable because he was invited to a Reds game in Cincy. Grrr...

I know that I will get everything finished. I just feel frustrated that I won't have much help. And really I just wanted someone to be there to make me feel more confident about getting everything done. HOWEVER, I will do it on my own and then feel proud that I can be independent.

Along those same lines, I was able to really reflect last night on my first-time-living-alone experience. I had vinyl letters above my bed that I had to peel off. I'll attach a photo. As I was peeling them off, I started thinking about how I have been an example of this exact phrase. I feel like a completely different person than I was a year ago. Having to make my own choices and kind of figure things out myself, I have become much more confident. I feel like I have experienced so much and learned so many things by trial and error- or trial and success -which really makes me feel good.

After peeling off half of the phrase, I really thought about the person I have become.

And what I finally realized is in the last photo...

until next time... x's and o's!

The art of making… decisions.

*********BEWARE! This is a long post.*********

I am not one who has regrets. I stand easily beside any decision I have made in the past, whether I think it to be the “right” decision or not. This is not to say that I think I am the model of perfection but an example of feeling secure and confident.

A lot of my time lately has been spent thinking about decision making. Why do people make bad choices? How do they know if they are making right choices? Why do we punish ourselves for making poor choices but do not reward ourselves for making good choices?

For many things we choose, there is typically a strong right or wrong decision, which typically comes down to courtesy or truthfulness. Help someone with a heavy load, return a lost wallet, brush our teeth in the morning –yes that comes down to civility, too.

It should be easy for people to make these choices and if everyone made the right decision, the world would be a much nicer, cordial place. This is the part where I’m daydreaming about a perfect world.

The other choices we make are evidence of who we are as individuals and may or may not affect others. While I may choose to wear dangerously tall shoes while walking the streets of NYC all day, it does not affect anyone else but is a choice I would make. A bad choice to say the least; although I know I would do it again, which is a reflection of me. (Sometimes fashion decisions can be both bad and good at the same time.) Or I may decide to not stop for gas, resulting in the need of someone else’s assistance. This is a bad decision that affects someone else and is clearly something I would do. **Side note: this only has to happen once to realize it will never happen again.

Choices I make for work usually fall into the latter category. Building codes, fire safety codes, ADA codes prohibit me from making terrible decisions that are harmful to the public. The choices I make about carpet patterns, wallcovering texture, and paint color are generally simple choices because it either fits together or it doesn’t. Other decisions like furniture or light fixture selection is typically pretty simple, too. Does the chair sit comfortably? Will this pendant produce enough light? Is the style appropriate for the interior architecture? These choices affect others productivity and it is extremely important for clients and their staff to feel comfortable in their surroundings and have things at their convenience.

Back to the topic: feeling secure and confident in decision making. When making decisions that affect others it’s important to ask ourselves one simple question: how is this decision more beneficial than the other option? A client might ask me why I recommend a particular chair over another. If the decision I made was truly the right one, it should be easy for me to rattle off why this chair is the one for them. "The chair is perfect because it is has pneumatic height, has strong casters that will not track the new carpet, has an ergonomic back adjustment to be personalized for each user, has adjustable arms that slide under the table, and comes in a wide variety of upholstery options." I can make my choice sound wonderful, even if it is not the right decision. This chair could be too modern for the space and could really change the appearance of the room but it has so many other wonderful qualities that it cannot be overlooked. It sounds like I’m suggesting lying but I’m really not. It’s about backing up decisions with a solid foundation.

Personal decisions I make are generally more difficult to support because my needs and wants are skewed, as they are for many. I may feel that I need to buy a new lip-gloss because I do not have a particular color or one with such glitter, but do I truly need it? Or do I just want it because it’s pretty?

The reason for this post is because I have had to make a lot of decisions lately. A lot of decisions at work as well as a lot of personal decisions that I wish I could share. I made a pretty poor decision that I should regret because it does affect other people. I told myself a long time ago to live life in each moment and not to be disappointed in choices I made and I have held to that, which makes me feel confident in myself. For this decision, I considered the consequences and was aware of what could happen with this bad decision but still made the bad decision, which I have realized is the wrong decision. (There is definitely a difference between a bad decision and a wrong decision but that is a completely different post.) Not once did I think about what would happen if I made the right decision. I did not take my own advice and see both sides of both choices- the pro’s of the good decision, the pro’s of the bad decision, the con’s of the good decision, the con’s of the bad decision. I only considered the bad decision. It’s like I already knew what choice I was going to make…

Anyways, I just really needed to let my fingers type for a long period of time because it’s kind of like therapy for me. Hopefully one day I will not be as embarrassed by this decision and I will be able to share it more openly.

x’s and o’s

Soap in my coffee???

Today is one of those blahh days. It's rainy outside and cold. I do not have any work appointments today so the day is going to drag on. (It's never a good sign when I'm blogging at 10AM on a Tuesday.) I do have a hair appointment at 1 so hopefully the afternoon will go quickly.

Fun story that prompted the title of this blog post... My co-worker did all of the dishes in the breakroom yesterday and I very rarely trust anyone else to do my dishes. That is one thing I'm picky about- probably unneccessarily. This morning I didn't have time to stop at Starbucks or Blue Bottle so I was going to make myself a cup of coffee at work. She had washed my favorite mug yesterday so I just checked it out and decided it was probably fine. After I made my drink and I was letting it cool, I realized it tasted a little off. I assumed it was the water because I am pretty picky about my water, too. I didn't think much of it until I realized that there was a film on the top of my coffee and the bubbles that stick to the side of the mug sometimes were a pretty irredescent color. I thought to myself, 'Hmm. That's strange.' I got a spoon and skimmed the top of my drink but it just came back. My stomach started churning but I assumed that it was in my head. But the more I drank, the more I realized what the strange taste was: SOAP. Majorly gross. Apparently the soap didn't get rinsed out well. From now on, I will be washing my own dishes.

The purpose of the post!: I'm planning a weekend trip to Atlanta in June to see my favorite baseball team play on their home field. I've been wanting to see them play at home for as long as I can remember and I decided it was time to do it. It will be a super quick trip because we will be driving. We will leave Friday afternoon and drive down, spend the day out and about, go to the game Saturday afternoon, go out Saturday night, hang out Sunday for a bit, and then head home. I would love suggestions of places to visit, eat, and things to see. Have any?! Let me know in the comments or tweet me at www.twitter.com/thecourt_ney

Camera frustrations

I'm so incredibly bummed right now because I cannot get my photo's to upload to my computer. I was able to upload a couple last week to my computer at work and add them to Facebook but now when I hook up to my computer, it says it's loading and then never does. I tried a different cord, a different USB spot, restarted both my computer and camera and still nothing. I'm not too upset because I did get all my photo's off but I am upset because I had filmed a lot in NYC and Chris's performance that I wanted to edit into a short video and post. I'm not giving up though!

In the meantime, I highly recommend the following awesome musicians that I either met or learned about through Chris on the trip: The Melillo Brothers (favorite song is "Fairytale"), L2 (favorite song posted is "Good Times" but they have one they performed called "Boys or Girls", Ballas Hough Band (fav is "Do It For You"), Jessie James -just do not listen to "Blue Jeans" because it has to be about the worst song in the world and copied after more songs than I can list, and Simon Curtis, (fav song "8Bit Heart").

I am going to now figure out this camera situation and post a new blog with the video! Wish me luck!

x's and o's

Quick Update

WOW. This past week and weekend has been incredibly crazy and busy. I'm going to do a full NY post later but I wanted to quickly update and mention a couple of things.

1. I'm incredibly tired but I'm not sleepy.
2. I'm incredibly hungry.
3. I have a ton of new music finds that I loooooove.
4. NYC was amazing.
5. I hate long car rides but love roadtrips. Yes, there is a difference.

I am at work right now and about to fall asleep so I need to find something to keep me awake. The coffee isn't working today.

Speak soon!
x's and o's

Hair Ramble

I am really in the mood to blog today but I don't really have anything to blog about. I'm going to NYC this weekend and I am so excited and distracted that I can hardly work. I keep thinking about what I'm going to pack, the roadtrip... etc.

So, I curled my hair with my GHD flat iron this morning. For anyone that knows me, it may seem ridiculous for my to have curled my hair because I have natural curls. But these curls are sleek, shiny, and smooth curls - much more relaxed than my normal curls. They are really more like heavy, big waves. That sentence may also seem like a contradiction because I used a flat iron. I swear though, I won't go back to a curling iron.

My GHD curled my hair into tight curls and I ran my fingers through them a couple of times to get the type of curl I wanted. The result is posted here. The picture isn't great because I was at work and the light right above my desk doesn't work. Here is another photo of my hair, right after I finished it (pretty bad quality as well). My fringe didn't stay as curled as I would have liked but it was my own fault because I kept messing with them to lay down better on the way to the office. Then I realized I should have left it alone. Oh, well! I still liked it a lot anyway!

I always knew that I could curl my hair with the GHD and I had tried it a couple of years ago when the iron just came out and I paid a ridiculous amount for it. But it didn't go well so I hadn't tried it again. But I came across a video posted by Elle Fowler, Allthatglitters21 on youtube. She curled her hair with it for a costume party and I realized I had done it all wrong. Check out her video here: How To Curl Your with a GHD -Pirate Look Part 1 Thanks, Elle!