I love to hate things and then love them.

I've come to the conclusion that I usually hate (or dislike - that's a nicer way of saying it) something...before I like it a lot. Here are some things that I didn't like before I loved them.
   
1. "Jasey Rae" by All Time Low
If you know me, you know that this is my favorite song...ever. I don't know why, really. (I'm shrugging.) It just is. It's literally my favorite song...ever. Ever? Ever. It's probably so silly and not as deep as everyone else's favorite song but...yeah. Anyways, before I fell in love with this song, I definitely made fun of it. The part where it's like, "I've never told a lie, and that makes me a liar..."? I made fun of that and thought it was embarrassing for a while. I still kind of am embarrassed by that part, it's not my favorite thing ever...but I don't mind it and the rest of the song is my favorite thing in the world. 
   
2. Forever 21
In freshman year of high school, I would say that I thought Forever 21 is stupid....and I did think it was stupid. I thought it had gross clothes (what did I know? I can't remember what I was wearing in 9th grade but I'm almost 99.9% it was probably actually pretty disgusting and weird). I didn't hate it, but I definitely did not shop there. Then...a friend of mine had to return her clothes to Forever 21 one day after class in 10th grade and from then on, I became a fan of Forever 21. I guess I never gave it a chance...either way... I didn't like it...and now I love it. 
   
3. The Hunger Games
This isn't really something that I disliked...but I'm actually noticing a trend here. It seems like I make fun of things before I love them. Shannon was obsessed with Hunger Games and before the movie came out, I would always make fun of the name Peeta and thought it was hilarious. I would correct her and say his name was "PeTER" because I think I'm really funny and also because really? Peeta isn't a real name. It's a British person saying Peter.
I love Peeta now. I am very attracted to Peeta now. I don't make fun of his name because now I'm in love with him. And the Hunger Games. I want to go see it again and that never happens to me with movies. 
   
4. Lizzie McGuire
I remember when they first started promoting Lizzie McGuire. I would see commercials for Lizzie McGuire and say to my friends at the time, "This show is going to be lame. No one is going to want to watch a show that has part cartoon - part real person. That cartoon girl is weird." Yeah, apparently I was a huge Negative Nancy. I remembered feeling like an big idiot once I loved the show like a month later. I still love that show. Hilary Duff is still f'ing cool as sht.
   
5. Recent boy bands
I never thought I'd love a boy band as much as I loved N*SYNC once they left the building. I thought all boy bands after that point, would never be as good as they were. And now I love Big Time Rush and One Direction. Definitely made fun of them both before I loved them. I'm seeing BTR in concert in August. What is life?
   
6. Harry Styles
Speaking of 1D...I thought Harry Styles was the second worst boy in One Direction. I really made fun of him. Harry...is hairy. He has a lot of hair. But now I'm beginning to like his hair. And beginning to like hairy Harry. I can't explain it. How did I go from thinking he wasn't cute at all to him becoming my 3rd favorite boy? What is my brain?
  
7. Taylor Swift
I think everyone, or most everyone, gets that I don't like Taylor Swift. She is still someone I don't like. I don't know that I'll ever like her as a person. But for the past long while, I've disliked her music as well. But...I'm beginning to like her music. This is the most shocking of all. We'll see how things go. Maybe in a few weeks I'll start liking her as a person...but probably not. I'll keep you guys posted.

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• drank way too much wine. Too much too much too much too much too much. Name that song.
• hung out with friends and played several rounds of Never Have I Ever. Hilarious.
• went to a show where kids who have lots of shin tattoos were hanging out. I felt like I was 15 again. Oh, what an adult I've become.
• went to McHenry Row with Paul and his family on Mother's Day - ate great food and hung out with a hilarious man. McHenry Row is awesome. I want to live in those apartments! 
• most importantly of all, lived like adults with Catie. By that, I mean, eating out every day and having frozen yogurt for dinner. We're awesome! 

I love cutting up t-shirts.

I've been trying to be more crafty lately. And by crafty, I mean looking on Pinterest for different crafts to do and then picking ones that seem semi-easy and not too time-consuming.

     

Last Saturday, I was sitting around after the Caps game trying to figure out something to do to keep myself busy before I left my house for the evening and I remembered that I had seen this tutorial on Pinterest that showed you how to make a racerback tank top (for working out) from a t-shirt. I figured since I'm trying to be more crafty AND I'm trying to drop some pounds and work out more AND Woodbine Hotline's new show is coming up in a  few weeks (May 26th - holla!), this was perfect.
    
I actually wound up using a combination of that tutorial and a video one by Cassie Po (both links below). 
    
I think it turned out pretty awesome. It looks great from far away but a little rough up close. I'll be honest. I was kind of rushing through it. Sometimes I'm so impatient, hahaha. 
I'm going to probably make some more in the future from other t-shirts that I don't really wear because it was incredibly easy and it's fun to cut up shirts and make them wearable when they weren't that wearable before.

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 2

I love these things (currently).

I love:

• remembering how truly lucky I am to have a full-time job currently. The past two and a half years of my life, I've spent countless hours worrying about how I'm going to pay off my student loans. It's caused me a ridiculous amount of stress. Today, I signed the papers to finally consolidate my loans and found out my first payment will be at the end of July. Signing those papers today made me realize that I don't have to be worried. I don't have to be worried because I have a way to make those payments! I know it sounds silly but I really do feel grateful to have a full-time job that will help me be able to make payments without any worrying. And to have a job with awesome people who are so nice and put up with me crying out of frustration today and looking like a baby (oh, life). Super, super lucky. I don't know if any of you guys read this, but thanks for being awesome! 
• Panera's new food. I haven't had any of it yet. And I'm really only talking about the Turkey, Avocado, BLT they're going to have starting tomorrow. Even after working there, I love Panera food more than most food. Definitely getting that new sandwich tomorrow after work. I earned it!
• wearing shorts. It's kind of ridiculous how I'm not a huge fan of my legs as of lately but I'd much rather wear shorts than wear jeans. I just can't do it. I am refusing to wear jeans moving forward until it becomes fall again. Or, that's a lie. I probably will. I just don't want to wear them anytime soon! Wearing shorts will force the weather to become awesome, right? Okay.
• Daily Grace's review of the Avengers (see above). She's hilarious. I feel like I need to see this movie but I probably won't unless somehow I can go with my sister, Catie, or maybe I'll just wait til it comes out on DVD. I've heard WAY too many good things to not see it at some point!
• that the Ravens got Jacoby Jones!

I love quotes.

"Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff.  Rule number two is, it's all small stuff."

- Robert Eliot

I love weekends.

This weekend I:

• voxed Jess + Kelsey for a few hours. A lot of it was just me saying "swaggie" (thanks Justin Bieber - this is my new favorite word) and them probably thinking I'm f'ing crazy. In fact, after me saying "swaggie" or "swag" a few times, they stopped responding to me. They definitely think I'm crazy, hahaha. 
• figured out what my May goals are going to be. They're probably the most difficult ones I've had this year. Mostly only going to Starbucks 2x a week (at the most - I'm really shooting for just 1x a week). I have been going 3x a week for the past couple weeks. That's almost $20/week spent on vanilla soy lattes. Gotta cut back! Losing 5 pounds will also be difficult buuuut whatever.
• got pumped on the Caps win. Mike Green is not only a hottie but he's also good - holla.
• hung out at the Wine Festival with Paul and friends. We got to watch Kyle play and walk around with James + Greg and eat at Beck's and eat (a lot) of kettle corn and hang out at Sydni and her mom's new store on Main Street (that has amazing candles, by the way. I want to buy them all!). It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. 

I love my birthday week.

I declared this past week my birthday week. It started on Sunday at around 9:30pm and it will continue until tonight at midnight. 

I can't remember (story of my life) if I've ever really celebrated a birthday week before. I probably have. Either way, I did it this year.

Not much was different. Other than my birthday being on Wednesday. I pretend other things happened because it was my birthday. For example - Rita's on Thursday with Paul. I pretended that was part of my birthday week. It wasn't...but I pretend that it was. Work was also pretty good this week. I pretend that was because of my birthday week too (part of it was, thanks to the cupcakes my boss brought in - oh, snap). It's been a pretty good birthday week, hahaha.

My birthday itself was awesome this year. I got a little sad the day before and a little bit during the afternoon. I couldn't tell you why. I mean, I could but it's not what you expect. I get too excited for my birthday (obviously). I'm not one of those people that gets really down about getting older - I don't care that I turned 23 reeeeally. The problem is that I get super pumped and expect it to be this amazing, crazy, ridiculously magical day but then I get scared that it won't measure up to my expectations. So...then I try to not have any expectations. Then...I get sad for no reason. Makes sense? Right? No, it doesn't. I don't get it either. What's wrong with me? 

Good news, though! My birthday, like I kind of said already, was really fun. I spent it with the people I spend most of my time with and it was great. Want to see pictures? Oh, you do? Great because here's some for you to look at:

I'd have to say the best part of my birthday was having to spend $10.00 on a small glass of sangria. Since when does sangria cost $10.00, Cheesecake Factory? Why do you gotta be like that? Then, they kept offering me another glass! Why? So I could spend $30.00 on three glasses of sangria, hahaha. They sure are sneaky. 

I love(d) April.

In April, I:

• Raised a total of $280 for the Maryland SPCA and walked in the March for the Animals. It seriously warms my heart (cheesy, I know) that I was able to raise that much. I could have raised more, I think, but in the beginning of all of this, I didn't even think I could make it to $50 or $100 and I almost got to $300. I've said it a few times already, but thank you to everyone that donated. It means so much. 
• Tried falafel for the first time ever. I think I may be addicted. I can't get enough. Falafel in all things. Falafel sandwiches? Falafel salads? Falafel cookies?
• Started running 3x a week. It's really not that bad actually running but it's been hard trying to find the time to run. When I get home from work, I don't really feel like running. I kind of just feel like sitting and being lazy. I'll just need to get over it and stop being such a bum bum.
• Got caught speeding by a speed camera. NOOOOOOO. The worst ever. It freaks me OUT to see pictures of my car mailed to me. It's like the government is out to get me. Or maybe I was speeding and a camera caught me and now I owe money. Lame. Just so lame. I guess I earned it but...its lame.
• Got an iPhone! AHHH. I love it. I'm so obsessed with it. It's one of the best things that has ever happened to me.