high five friday!

Today is fantastic for two reasons.  First, and most obviously, it's Friday.  Amen.  Granted, I only have Saturday off, but it's still nice to experience 1/2 of the normal Friday bliss.  And anyway, I have Monday--Wednesday off to galavant around the beach so, I can't complain too much!

The second reason today is fantastic, is of course, it is the first day of summer!  Ahh!  Finally!  While it has felt like summer for the past couple of weeks, it's nice to be able to now call it summer and not know that you're still in the middle of spring pretending it's the best season of the year.

Anywho, onto high five Friday, shall we?

1.  I had my first 6-month review at work today.  I just came from it in fact.  Along with the review comes a raise, and the opportunity to hear what the boss thinks of your work and progress.  It went well, and gave me an opportunity to sort of voice some of the things I wanted to get off my chest about my experiences in the last six months.  It was nice to hear she agreed with a lot of what I said, and I left feeling better about our employee-employer relationship.  Up until now it has been kind of a love-hate thing, but it's good to see that she notices more than she lets on.  Maybe I misjudged her.

2.  This week I finally finished up my social media icons.  They had been MIA from my blog for a while because I was trying to make new ones, and had run out of time to do so.  They are a little larger than I originally envisioned, but they will do until I can find time to cut them down to size.  Are we friends on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, or Facebook?  Do you follow my blog on bloglovin'?  No?  Well now you can and we can be!  Take my new buttons for a spin!  Mostly because I love tweeting with ya'll and Instagram is like crack for me... hehe.

3.  I purchased and downloaded a new tutorial based program to help me get better aquainted with my camera and photography without having to pay a bunch of money to take a class.  Maybe not anytime soon, but I hope this at least brings me closer to the photography business!

4. My car went in and was repaired after a recall notice regarding my air bag.. Yes!  Finally I can drive without fear of my airbag going off in my face and breaking it or my arm or worse.  But, let's be honest, I had this fear for a total of about seven days, after I finally received the recall notice.  For all I knew, this could have happened anytime in the last four years of owning the car. ;p

5. I have found a new TV addiction.  Don't judge me, but embarrassingly enough, I have become quite into a new show called Pretty Wicked Moms.  Another form of a "real housewives" show?  Reality garbage?  Wasted money and time given to a bunch of catty women flaunting their money and mean streaks?  Yes, it is all of those things.  But for some reason, it sucked me in like the typical American reality trash whore young adult.  I wish I could say it didn't.  For some reason, I enjoy a lot of these shows chock full of people I love to hate.  What's wrong with me?  Lol

What about you guys?  Any fun plans for the first real weekend of summer?  What were the high points of your week?  Head on over to Lauren's blog to link up!

friday's letters...

Dear March,
Where did you come from?? It feels like it was just February 1st! But, as long as you're sticking around, I was wondering, can you come in like a lamb and go out like one? While I was on the deck this afternoon, I had a weird "flashback" type moment like any given character on LOST (sound effects and all) when I saw patch of grass finally peeking through the melting snow. Okay, so it wasn't a flashback... more of an "oh my gosh, I just remembered what it felt like to be warm!" and the smells of spring and summer came flooding in.... Enough of the description. It's making me sad. My point is, I had a feeling that spring will be closer than we think.... don't make a fool of me, March.

Dear English Teacher,
So um... about that homework I submitted last night... I'm sorry if, in an attempt to put a lot of thought into the poem called "My Papa's Waltz", I over-thought and took from it that "Papa" had a drinking problem, and his "waltz" was another word for "abusive tendencies". Turns out it was actually about a kid dancing with his father. Whoopsy. In my defense, I was on a lunch break at work, and was far more focused on my oatmeal and Facebook than I was the book of poems. But anyway, sorry "Papa" for accusing you of being an abusive alcoholic. My bad. Drink your whisky without further judgment from the peanut gallery over here.

Hey... I hate poetry... what can I say?

Dear Coworker,
I realize I'm still newish, but I must say, while sometimes I like you, most of the time I just stand there and silently analyze your very obvious self-esteem problem while you babble on and over-share thinking you are impressing me with who you're currently hanging out with. I am new. Don't you see? You all look the same to me.

Dear Fellow Bloggers,
Question for you... speaking of work... I have been invited to a couple little things lately by my new coworkers. While I want to be social with them, and I'm not looking not to be friends... I did that whole thing with my last job, and well, it got to a point where I wished I had been a little more removed from the place during my four years there. Anyway, there is a little shindig happening on Sunday, and I don't feel like going. I'm going to make a sincere effort to be the person I wished I had been at the CB: the one who comes to work, does their work, has fun with coworkers while at work, but then returns home to her real life when the day is done. So here is my question: should I straight up say I don't want to go? Or should I make something up, like I have too much homework? I do have quite a bit, but, I also don't want that to sound like a go-to excuse. While I like the people there a lot, I am just not really looking for a social outlet outside of work, at the moment. Know what I mean? Not to mention there seems to be a boatload of drama involved with the people here too... so do not miss that aspect of my last job.

Happy Friday!

By the way, I am one follower away from the big 1-0-0! If I get there before Monday, I will include the Mark-Out Monday coffee giveaway in a bigger giveaway to celebrate, woohoo!

tuesday topics

Heya folks! Linking up today with Lauren and Tiffany for their awesome Tuesday Topics!

This week's topic (five activities to do in your hometown) should be interesting, considering my hometown over the last 23 years of my life has proven to be the most boring town in America! ---->


But for the sake of this challenge, and you lovely reader(s) of mine... I'll try.

one. You can wash your car
two. You can sit in the Starbucks parking lot trying to think of things to do.
three. You can mow your lawn or shovel your driveway... weather permitting, of course.
four. You can spend $10.50 to see a movie after driving 20 minutes to the other side of town to get there. And ultimately the gross waste of a grand total of about $30 really makes it seem like too much of a process to go through with.
five. You can get gas. Across the street from Starbucks.

In neighboring towns, however, we have Mohegan Sun (by neighboring, I mean an hour away :p), the mall (25 minutes or so), another Starbucks, more ice cream places, Walmart... you know, all that ordinary stuff.

Don't move to Connecticut.

Unless of course you like more or less nice towns with low crime rates. :p

Happy Tuesday! Hopefully yours will be more eventful than mine! :)