Attitude Adjustments

“If you don’t like something change it, if you can’t change it, change your attitude about it”

 – Maya Angelo

I love this quote and I agree with it wholeheartedly, but I know at times it’s hard to change your attitude or maybe you’re just in a bad mood that day or whatever the case may be. Apparently I am very guilty of walking around with an angry look on my face because I can’t tell you the amount of times that I’ve been stopped and told to smile (don’t get me wrong, I’m sure half of the time this is just a poor attempt for guys to talk to girls, but I agree). Why should I be walking around with a stank face on?

***Side Note: Stank face is absolutely appropriate when doing certain dances such as the dougie and the stanky leg, and if you just smelled something that had some stank to it***

So I propose the Smile Strategy….

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight” - @RevRunWisdom

If you feel happy then you look happy right? Well what if we swap this around and start from looking happy to actually feeling happy inside. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that you would look like a crazy serial killer if you walk around alone with a big ol’ cheesy grin on your face, however what about starting your day with a smile. When you first wake up and no one is looking or when you’re in the shower… just try it. You will probably feel like a fool and that in itself might make you laugh and smile harder. If that sounds too dumb for you hard asses then I suggest thinking of something really funny that happened to you recently or watching a funny youtube video just to get a good laugh in before the day starts. I think my most favorite thing to do in the world is laugh, and if every day I wake up and I still have the ability to laugh then it’s a good day no matter what happens.

If you don’t think that this is too crazy of an idea than some of you might enjoy a couple of books I’ve read over the past couple years:

The Happiness Advantage (The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work) – Shawn Achor

                The Strangest Secret (How to Live the Life You Desire) – Earl Nightingale

So in order to make myself sound even crazier I’m not going to end this post there….

What if we flipped Maya Angelo’s quote around a bit? What if we feel too positively about something and we want to feel negative about it? (Yep, here I go talking all crazy again, but seriously…)

Two main examples of this are FOOD and RELATIONSHIPS. I will relate more to the food portion because let’s be honest me and relationships haven’t quite worked out in the past (no worries, still got my hopes up). Anyways let’s get down to business.

As a 24 year old female I spend my days with 2 things on my mind: Sweets and Sex (apologies to the adults who will always consider me ‘sweet little innocent Dana’ for the second one, but I’m just being honest).

We grow up viewing sweets as a reward. If we clean our plate and eat enough carrots then we can enjoy some ice-cream for dessert, or if you got a good grade then your parents might celebrate with a cake and same for birthdays and any other big occasion.  So now every day in my adult life after I finish lunch or dinner I feel like I deserve to treat myself with a sweet. This does not go well with trying to stay healthy and fit (especially when portion control goes out the window when you take your first bite). So to get to my point: HOW DO I START HATING SWEETS? I would give a lot to never crave a brownie, cupcake, or ice-cream again.  I hear that the less sugar you have the less you crave it, but I just don’t know how to get to this point. My mind becomes weak and gets overtaken by the cravings. Sometimes I fight and sometimes i fail, just depends on the day.

The same can be said for certain relationships (I suppose friendships could be included too, but I think this is more of a ‘more than a friend’ ordeal). So what happens when you have feelings for someone, but you know that they aren’t good for you or the feelings aren’t reciprocated? Unlike the sweets I don’t want to figure out how to start hating people, but seriously how do you stop the “cravings” that you have for certain people? Is it like what people say about sugar (I still don’t know if I believe that though) and if you don’t see that person than you won’t think about them? Or do you need something else to occupy your mind completely until the feelings just don't exist anymore or you become less aware of them?

I wish I did, but I have no answers for this portion of the post because I’m still looking for the easy fix. Where is the pill that controls my sweet tooth and where is the pill that keeps us from thinking about people that really aren’t even worth our time? I do believe that time helps reduce feelings for people, but man I’m screwed with the sweet tooth part. So I’m up for any suggestions.

Overall after reading this I hope you all realize a couple things: 1. how important smiling is in order to have a positive attitude, and 2. that every day can be a battle of attitudes, thoughts, cravings and so on, but you just have to decide what’s best for you and fight on your side of the battle. Oh and 3. a stank face is okay when dancing lol.

Well that’s my food for thought for the day. Now I’m headed to bed because sleep always murders my cravings for a few hours, but like most villains they will be back for a sequel tomorrow.

Night Night J

- D

Teen TV

So last night as I was watching the ever so classy show, Teen Mom 2 on MTV, I began to think about what life was like when I was a teen. Even more so I thought about the types of shows I watched and what they represented. Lets take a short trip down memory lane shall we...

Starting with my early teenage years:

Before Jessica Biel became the luckiest lady alive and got engaged to Justin Timberlake the other week, we used to all know her as Mary Camden in a little show called 7th Heaven.

The Camden family was the family of America. The Camden's went through everything, but in quite the PG version. Life issues were constantly happening and being discussed, but the family always came together at the end of the day. The show shined light on a strong family structure.

Now as I started to grow up a little when I turned 15 and 16 my biggest guilty pleasure of them all was show that based itself on what life was like in Cali. The O.C., man this show was epic. So much drama, lies, secrets, and scandals(later on it turned a little to drugy for me). Girls having  love issues, guys getting in fist fights, and trying to figure out what crowd they fit in with. Everything we all actually do go through in high school just over dramatized for a prime time spot on TV. This show might have gotten sort of crazy but as the show got older so did I, and I wasn't influenced by it anymore.

The last major show I got into towards the end of my teen years was Laguna Beach, which was basically a reality spin off of the O.C. Laguna was structured around real teens (including the soon to be on again off again Mrs. Cutler), and followed their lives. The drama was very petty and the kids were pretty clean cut. They had their love triangles, but they also got together for charities and were pretty close with their families. Eventually the show followed the main character as she pursued her dream job and became a successful business woman.

Anyways back to today's world...

Nowadays teens have these reality shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant that, in a way, glorify kids having kids. Last time I checked it wasn't a very positive thing to get pregnant in high school and miss out on so much of your youth. I'm not here to discuss abstinence, birth control, or abortions, because lord knows I would piss a lot of people off with those topics, but I do want to point out what these young impressionable girls are seeing in this society.

 They are seeing these girls the same age as them getting famous from having babies at a young age. I get that the show might be trying to display the struggles the girls are going through with their families, relationships, school, and finances. But seriously what high school girl doesn't want to have her own TV show or be on the cover of a magazine? Well MTV is basically sending out the message that if you have a kid while you're young you could get that chance.

How messed up is this? Where is the praise for the girls who aren't getting knocked up and are living as responsible teenagers? I mean really though could you imagine what the MTV producers would say if someone suggested a show that was based on a group of high school virgins? I'm sure the response would be somewhat like "where's the drama in that" or "that would never get good ratings" because that is the world we live in today.

We love to see drama unfold before our eyes (I'm very guilty of this), but maybe we should step back and really look at the messages we are sending out to not only our youth but to everyone who is watching. Hopefully things don't continue to get worse with this situation because I hope to have a daughter someday in the not so near future and I really want to be able to let her out of her room sometimes, but with stuff like this for her to look up to she might just be grounded forever.

Did I just ground my future kid? Yep. On that note I need to go to sleep.

Goodnight

-D

Clearing things up...

So while I was reading my last blog post out loud to my roommate who's also a teacher I realized that I need to make a few things clear. ...

First of all I encourage all young kids to stay in school and to work hard. Secondly, of those famous people I listed, there is a list far greater than that of those who did go to college and that's how they became so successful. Thirdly, I misquoted myself by saying that you don't learn anything from a classroom. You learn a lot and a lot of important things. My post was mainly directed at post college, but I do think that colleges need to reevaluate some of their courses to help prepare people for whats to come in life.

I went to KU for 4 years and got my degree in psychology. Now if you sat me down and even asked me to list out every class I took while I was there I would laugh because I probably only remember a third. So considering I don't even remember the classes, its safe to say I don't quite remember what I learned in those classes. However, just by being in college I learned so much about life and about myself and I would never take those years back.

So my main pet peeves about school (and by this I mean college and post college) are for starters the cost. Tuition prices are just getting waaaay out of hand and it's becoming impossible for people to leave school without being tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Also, I think more internship and shadow programs should be available and for credits. In addition to those programs there should be classes teaching you basic things about life: how to take out loans, pay mortgages, understand health insurance, budgeting daily expenses, fix a computer when it crashes on you. Yes I know some classes do touch base on these, but it never seemed to mirror real life so it doesn't stick with many people. Some of these things might also sound really basic, but shoot I remember helping a girl who had graduated college address an envelope because she didn't know which side the stamp went on and which side the return address went on (this is not a joke).

Anyways just wanted to clear a few things up. I encourage everyone to get as much education as they need for their dream job (and if your dream job is to be a singer, professional athlete, or reality TV star, well then get as much education as you need for your back up dream job, because not everyone is cut out for those positions in this world).

I'll be back with new topics in a day or two

Thanks
-D

Experience vs. Education

About 20 weeks ago I signed up to be a graduate student at Keller graduate school. From the minute i paid my application fee I had an unsure feeling in my gut. Was I wasting my money? Do I even know what I want to do? If not then why would I get a masters for the hell of it? I pushed these thoughts aside because i figured hey, there's no harm in being educated. I still fully agree with that statement, but for some reason America has put a price on knowledge and its a HUGE price!! So tonight while I sat through half of my Finance/Accounting class, i realized this is not for me, or at least not right now and I don't want to continue to increase my debt while I am so uncertain about everything. (My parents will probably read this and be slightly disappointed but I'm 24 so I can no longer do things in my life for them, I have to do whats right for me.)

So while I was sitting in this class realizing everything I hated about school I decided what I would blog about tonight.

I have come to the conclusion that sitting in a classroom gets you nowhere in life. Now I'm not saying that people shouldn't go to school. I think everyone should go to school, but its what you do with what you learn that makes you successful. (In all honesty though, some classes are just straight up pointless). I also strongly believe that experience is the greatest knowledge of them all and that classes can't provide that for you.

So in light of tonight's post I thought I'd share some fun facts about the Richie Rich's of America and how a lot of the big dogs never even got a degree or didn't receive one in relevance to their career.

When you think of the words "rich" and "successful" who are the top men that pop up in your brain?

I'm going to guess most of you included big papa Bill Gates on your list as well as the biggest influencer in our generation, Mr. Steve Jobs (R.I.P.).  If you didn't include these two well then apparently rich and successful have different meanings to you. So lets start with Big Papa....

Bill Gates is a G.. and by that I mean a GENIUS. The man scored a 1590 on his SAT (its out of 1600 for those who don't know) and decided to attend Harvard University. However, Mr. Gates dropped out to pursue what we now know as Microsoft. His partner in crime was Paul Allen who never went to college. I know that not many people can say they are as smart as Bill Gates, but I'm sure there had to be some other nerds making software around the same time that did not become as remotely successful as Gates. Those people probably focused more on the class projects than their own. All I'm saying is that if little Billy at Harvard would of focused more on his school work, we probably wouldn't have the software that we have today.

Next up, the late great Steve Jobs

If you don't know who Steve Jobs is, I'd like to jump through this blog and slap you, and for those who don't know who he is and are playing on their mac, ipad, or iphone, I ask you to please slap yourself. Okay but really Steve Jobs changed technology as we know it, he was the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios as well as Apple. Jobs went to Reed College for a whole semester, but while sleeping on friends floors continued to check out some classes around campus. I love this, I wish everyone would do it. Take classes and not pay for them. I mean really we aren't paying for the knowledge we learn, we are paying for the title we get after completing it all. Whats funny about Jobs is that he literally credits taking LSD to much of his success (not promoting drugs here, just reiterating what I've heard). So to cut this portion short all Jobs really did was think outside the box using his own creative ways and used some of the free knowledge he gained on the way and used it to become overly successful.

A few other bad boys without degrees are:
   Richard Branson (Virgin Brand)
   Michael Dell (Dell - bet you couldn't guess that one)
   David Geffen (DreamWorks)
   Ralph Lauren (Polo Ralph Lauren)


HEY LADIES......


No I did not forget the Richie Richita's of our time so lets get right down to business...

No introduction needed, Miss Oprah Winfrey (I would call her big mama since I called Gates big papa, but I feel like that's kinda rude due to her constant weight battle). Oprah attended Tennessee University, but guess what, she did not get her degree until 12 years after she left! This woman has done it all, and I bet you she didn't learn any of it in a classroom. She started doing local media gigs when she was young and well we all know what she grew up to be, one of the, if not THE most successful female in not just America, but the world. Oprah left Tennessee 1 credit short of a degree for a job offer, but eventually went back to finish up. However, like I said before I'm sure she learned far more through her experiences than what she did in a classroom.

The other woman I'm going to discuss is Bethenny Frankel. Some of you might wonder why, but she is my idol and this is my blog and I'll do what I want. Yes Bethenny did get a degree, but even afterwards she was struggling in her 20s to find her way like most of us. Bethenny tried many different adventures including acting and her own bakery delivery service. Both of these did not go over well for her. Bethenny really got her start on the reality show Real Housewives of New York (but she was still struggling during the taping of this). Bethenny always drank the same drink every time she went out... clear tequila, triple sec, and some freshly squeezed lime. Then BAM realized that this was gold and decided to bottle it, market it to all us skinny girls (and wana be skinny girls) and sold it for a reported $100 million. Ummm Brilliant. She took something so simple and made it the most profitable it could have possibly been. Had she learned to do that in class I bet she would of done it years ago.

Other bad mamajamas with no degrees:
   Rachel Ray
   Mary Kay
   Beyonce (yes I know we all cant sing like her, but she is quite the business woman)

For the few of you who actually read this all the way through, thank you. I would like to point out again that I'm not encouraging people to drop out of school, but I'm just saying don't focus your life around it. Realize that LIFE is what happens when you are trying to ever so diligently plan it out. Most of us will gain far more knowledge by making mistakes and falling on our faces in the real world than by getting an 'A' on a test or an assignment. But hey many of us will get those experience from our first job, and that we may only get because of our degrees.

To each his/her own, I'm out.

- D

Snapshot of 2011

January 2011 

Jena came to visit!! I cant wait for her to come back, but I dont blame her for never wanting to come in the winter again

February 2011

The snow storm of ALL snow storms!!

People stuck all over LSD but we all got a snow day from our jobs!!

Erica and I were a lost cause trying to get her car unburied.

I took a little trip down to D-town to visit Shanny and Leigh came out to take some shots-skis with us! For some reason this is the only pic i have of that trip lol but i remember alot of good food, drinks and seeing an interesting character from my past (no need for details)

Side Note: At the end of Feb I decided to wash some dishes and slice the crap outta my thumb! My poor roomie had to find me passed out on the kitchen floor because apparently I'm a fainter lol. Anyways, I had to have surgery on my tendon and wear a sweet cast for a couple months to follow.

March 2011

The AZ girls came to visit for St. Pattys Day!! I'm so grateful that I have remained close with these girls even after moving away in the 9th grade. 

Although I had my cast there was no stopping me while they were in town, and hey i had 6 extra sets of hands to do my hair so that was great, but the best part about this is that the week before, there was a fire at my work so i got 2 weeks off paid and never had to miss out on any time with them. (Dont worry no one was injured in the fire, Im not that big of a 'B' to be thankful for a fire if ppl were hurt)

April & May 2011

Ummm to be totally honest April and May are kind of a blur or nothing to specific was happening. Oh well I know the weather was finally getting better and I'm sure we were having fun around the City. Here's just a cute and a very odd pic that happened around this time. Enjoy lol. 

June 2011

My Norwegian bro came to visit! Joakim lived with my Dad and Stepmom 2 years ago and has been family ever since. My Dad, Stepmom, and her daughter Hayden all came up for the weekend! It was lovely, I got verbally assaulted on the street when we were walking back from dinner 1 night... oooh Chicago you never cease to impress the guests.

1 Word: VEGAS!!

(Pools. Drinks. Dancing. Late Nights)

Again I got to hang out with the AZ girls for a weekend, this time in Vegas and for a very special occasion: The Britney Spears Concert!

July 2011

We Moved!! After spending 2 years using a living room as a bedroom me and my fabulous roomies upgraded ourselves and got an actual 3 bedroom apartment downtown! Oh and can I please add that we have a dishwasher now (winning!) so hopefully there will be no more glass cuts in the future.

 

Also in July my best friend since 3rd grade had a beautiful baby girl who I am madly in love with. Welcome to the world little Mila Monster. I got to meet her over Christmas and she is probably my favorite human on this earth, shes perfect!

Like April and May, August 2011 is quite the blur as well and I dont even have any pictures around so I'm really not sure what happened... On to the next one...

September 2011 

Jacki came to visit again and I met Ronnie from Jersey Shore... yah you guessed it, he is an even bigger douche in person, and those dance skills... oh man.

 

October 2011

My Momma came to visit me, but sadly I have no photos. I really need to start taking more snapshots of my life! Hopefully she will be out here soon and we can take lots of pics!

 Halloween!!! Both Fri and Sat night we had to dress up in 80's attire at the bar I work at. So if anyone decides to throw an 80's party let me know bc I have the gear and nothing to do with it now!

November 2011

I made a mini Thanksgiving dinner. My Dad and Stepmom drove out and I cooked for once. Made a ham that was big enough to feed 30 people, a hashbrown casserole, green beans, rolls, and some bomb a** brownies!

I also experienced my 1st black friday shopping... I bought a waffle maker and a griddle (guess i was still in cooking mode when i went)

December 2011

For my besties Birthday we did a wine tasting which was a lot of fun (we need to go back) and then we grubbed on some pizza. It was pretty low key which was pretty perfect!

I came home to KC for a full week! It was sooo great to get home and see some friends I hadn't seen in so long as well as all of my familia. We went out in KC my first night back then I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with my family and I even got to get out to Lawrence for a day w/ Jena! Overall this was the best trip home I've had since I moved to Chicago

 

After I got back, Clara came to visit and since I had to bartend for NYE we went out the night before and also went to see a psychic... ill let u guys know if any of her predictions were correct for 2012 later on, but it was a great night to end 2011 with 2 of my best friends!

And thats a wrap for 2011. Great Memories.

I be Bloggin'

Hey Hey! So I never thought that I would create one of these so called Blog thingys but I figured Hey its 2012 and time to try some new things. I have no idea what I plan to talk about and discuss on here, but I'm sure I'll be able to entertain the 2 or 3 people that might read this as well as myself.

So since this is my 1st post and it is the beginning of a new year I guess I'll be a little cliche and let you all know my major goals of the year, ok here we go:


NUMBERO UNO: Get my booty out of America (dont worry, not forever just a trip). The only place I've ever been that was outside of the US was Mexico for a spring break trip and lets be honest that does not count, its just an excuse to drink under the age of 21 with other very drunk American college students. So needless to say an overseas trip is far overdue. A trip to Italy w/ my best friend has been discussed so we will get the ball rolling on that and hopefully make the 10ish hour flight sometime this summer.

DOS: Get my booty back in shape. Along with the rest of the world (except maybe the 4% of people born with good genes) I have a strong desire to get back to business on my workouts and figure out a way to control my outrageous sweet tooth. I bought P90X awhile ago and uhhhh well i did about 15 of the 90 days and then i had a minor surgery on my thumb and used that as an excuse to do nothing for 2 months, and then well it was the holidays and blah blah blah (excuses excuses excuses). Anyways, I plan on starting it back up tonight and replacing some meals with my isagenix shakes. Overall weight goal is between 115-120 (I'm only 5'2" for the record).

TRES: Figure out what the F to do in life. This has been an ongoing goal of mine since I was in college, and I have yet to come close to figuring it out. I'm only 24 and I know I have time to figure stuff out, but I wana know NOW. I'll be patient though and explore my opportunities and hopefully one day it will all click together.

So lets see my 3 main goals are travel, get in shape, and figure out my life... Yep I'd say those are every 20-something year olds goals. So good luck to you all (yes all you 2 or 3 ppl reading this) on all your goals and a happy happy new year!

-D