blates, happy hours, and my new calling

Happy Friday!! Today's a particularly happy one because it begins the week-plus of daily Starbucks Frappuccino Happy Hours! Half price frapps? I think yes. Naturally my co-workers and I will be there the minute happy hour begins today. A fantastic way to finish off the work week slash begin the weekend!

Yesterday's blogger lunch date (blate!) was fantastic (as though there were any doubt)!

So far my 'are blog friends as great in real life as they seem on their blogs?' experiences are 100% positive. Matt's like what do you TALK about? Isn't it WEIRD? and it's like...no! It's NOT weird at all! I mean, it's not like a blind date or meeting with someone you barely know...it's merely a formality that this is the first time we've met face to face...but we've been friends and regularly in touch for quite a long time! We know what's going on in each other's lives! It's just a different medium, but the relationship carries on just the same! So anyway. Once again I prove that all people you meet on the internet do not turn out to be serial killers. Shockingly.

At any rate- Amanda's having surgery today (same surgeries and doctor as me!) so if you have a minute, say a prayer that a) she doesn't freak out, and b) she doesn't die. Those are her main concerns, which seem pretty reasonable to me!

So yesterday I came across the best thing ever (for me): an entertainment webpage hiring freelance writers/bloggers to write episode recaps of summer reality shows. Wanna know a few of the shows they're specifically looking for? Oh, how 'bout The Bachelorette and Real Housewives of New Jersey?? I KNOW! Have I or have I not basically spent my whole life preparing for this honor??! Here's the tricky part, though: to apply you have to send in a cover letter (not hard), link to recent writing samples (haha, not hard), and resume (possibly hard). Obviously I have my normal resume I use(d) when applying for full-time jobs. But this is different...this is for a freelance writing gig. I don't have any writing gigs on my resume, nor have I ever written professionally or in any capacity that would make sense on a resume (unless we're listing small-beans personal blogs on resumes now, which I assume we're not...)...so...what to do? Any ideas? I mean, I have a very good idea of what kind of writing they're looking for (duh, you can just go read their current stuff, current show reviews, etc) and the job description/'application' makes it clear it's just freelance, no-contracts, pay-per-episode work...so maybe the resume is just a formality and they don't really care what's on it as long as you can prove elsewhere (in your cover letter and writing samples) that you can get the job done? Who knows. But if you know, then help a girl out. Because clearly getting paid to blog about reality TV for a legit webpage is my calling.

Alright. Only six more hours til Frapp Happy Hour. We can do this. Happy Friday!

trying to make up for yesterday

Alright. Thanks for joining in my angry shock-and-hate-fest last night. Glad to know I'm not alone. Sorry if I ruined your evening and made you angry cry at the injustices of the world...I'll try to make up for it today.

Because prior to seeing that horrid piece of trash blog yesterday, I'd actually discovered the best and funniest blog (Tumblr, really) EVER. I mean, ever-ever. Which is bold words, I know, but I feel confident they're not overstating anything. I seriously laughed about this page for hours. So now I will share it with you (although maybe you've seen it before...it's apparently not new, but somehow I never heard of it til yesterday) in hopes that some laughter will help negate the sadness of what I shared last night.

I present to you: Text From Dog.

source

In summary: It's an entire blog comprised of nothing but screenshots of a British guy texting with his dog. A dog that believes himself to be Batdog, actually. And the dog alternately passionately loves/is extremely disdainful of his owner. Basically it's the funniest thing ever and I hate myself for not thinking of it first. But props to the guy that did. So go read a few pages of it and have a hearty laugh. Try to forget about the jerks in the world. Focus on the dogs.

OK sorry. I could keep sharing my favorites for like...hours. 

So if yesterday's ridiculous brought your mood down about 20 points, this should bring you up by at least 20 points...putting you at somewhere near neutral to start your Thursday. It's the best I can do.

My day's gonna get even better-- I'm (hopefully!) meeting Amanda G for lunch today! Despite living in roughly the same town and being blog friends for a long time (almost a year, I think?), we've never met in real life! But now our jobs are about 3 blocks apart and really there's no excuse for not hanging out on our lunch breaks. So that's gonna change today! WORLDS COLLIDING-- blog and real life...an amazing thing for sure! So...happy Thursday!

jerk of the year award

My apologies for posting twice in one day, but you know that feeling when you read something that makes you SO MAD and you're like OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO BITCH ABOUT THIS WITH MY BLOG FRIENDS and there's just no way you can wait til tomorrow to do so?

Yeah, that's the feeling I'm having right now.

If you haven't already (and I'm guessing most of you haven't, since none of you have blogged or Tweeted about it, and this is not the kind of thing you can read and then NOT blog or tweet about), go read this HuffPost blog: My Wife is Expecting Twins and I am Not Happy About It. 

And then pull your earrings off, slip out of your heels-- we are still ladies, ladies-- and tell me: WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY??!?! He's man enough to profess that he's the biggest asshole on earth to the whole internet, but not man enough to use his real name with it? I mean, I don't normally engage in a lot of 'hate' on blogs/bloggers, opinions I don't agree with, or what have you, but ARE YOU FOR REAL DUDE? There are some thoughts that are not meant to be shared with the world. THIS IS ONE OF THEM, unless you were planning on concluding with something LOGICAL, like therefore we are choosing to place our sons with adoptive parents who will pee their pants with excitement over the unbelievable gift of children, who will love and cherish them from the minute they hear about them until the minute death parts them, who would give anything for the blessing of two baby boys (even if they really just wanted one baby girl)...I mean, you know, maybe THEN I could not hate this guy. As it is...nope, I just hate him. And I want to cry. And I really hope that maybe the whole article is just a joke because surely no one is actually that heartless-- especially someone(s) who went through some measure of infertility. Surely.

Commiserate with me, please. Tell me this makes you as angry as it makes me. Also let me know if you want to join my special mafia that I am forming for occasions like this, when Supremely Jerk-faced people need to be hunted down and...umm...spoken with.

getting (p)inspired

 Yesterday I mentioned that I had the great fortune of accomplishing the good hair-makeup-outfit trifecta-- today you get the proof! Although by the time we took these pictures, the hair and makeup were mostly gone...so just pretend they look a lot better and you'll be fine. It's all about using your imagination.

And so is Pinterest. Because unless you're mega-rich, you're never going to actually be able to BUY all the cute outfits you pin. But with a little imagination (and some key accessories), you can create an outfit inspired by one of your favorite outfit-boards or fashion-model-blogger-people and it's just as fun! That's the idea behind the "Get Pin-spired" link-up party. Take one (or more) of the outfits you pinned and use it to inspire an outfit created out of things you actually own. This month I decided to step up to the challenge.

                                                                                             Source: pearlsandpaws.blogspot.com via Erika on Pinterest

Like everyone else in the world, I went ga-ga over brown-and-black-together last fall. I had so much fun doing that all winter. But I hadn't quite figured out how to bring that party to my spring/summer wardrobe. It's easy when 90% of your outfits start with black leggings and brown riding boots. But in the Georgia summer? Not so much.

                                                                                         Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Erika on Pinterest

And I'm also a big fan of the bright 'pop of color' (although I'm slightly over that phrase...it IS a good way to describe it!). Like the scarf in the top inspiration photo...it totally brings a springy feel to the outfit! So I rummaged through my closet and my jewelry box and finally came up with a black-and-brown-and-pop-of-color outfit that made me smile (and didn't make me have a heat stroke).
 

And before we go any further, I must point out that the tree/bush behind me is totally trendy with its ombre foliage! Check out those lighter green tips on the end of darker green branches! That tree was pretty pin-spired itself!

 Dress & Bracelets: H&M (2011) | Belt: Target | Scarves & Earrings: Sam Moon | Shoes: Rock & Candy

I particularly love that everything in this outfit was already hanging in my closet, just waiting to be remixed! I mean, this is the third summer I've worn that black dress...but the first time I dared to slap a brown belt over it and a scarf on top! So fun!

 So there ya have it. Proof that you can re-mix things you already own to kinda sorta resemble a trendy outfit you found on Pinterest. Boom. Fashion on the cheap, people. It's how I roll.

Linking up with: Mix & Match Mama, Pinterest Told Me To, and The Larson Lingo. Go check out those blogs to see more girls (and guys could, I suppose?) linking up their own Pin-spired outfits!