youthmystique

During the holiday, I had time to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in a long time. Some of them I had not seen in months. Others I had not seen since a year or more ago.

These people were girls I was friends with in high school. We have all gone our separate ways and had a lot of different life experiences.

One friend has moved the whole way to Connecticut. It seems like the farther someone moves away, the harder it is to keep in touch or see them. We were friends since first grade but it’s nice to see that her personality hasn’t changed really since high school.

Actually most of my friends I hung out with are pretty much the same. Just older.

It was great to have that comfort that although our lives change with engagements, new homes and careers that we’re still the same people deep down inside.

Of course we all wanted to see success and mature. And we’re all there or just about there.

It’s interesting that some friends have stayed in our hometown. It’s a nice place. I may have stayed if I could have found a job in that area. I just didn’t want to live in the country because you have to drive so far to shop or do fun things.

I love that whenever we get together we like to talk about people we used to go to school with. Not in a bad way. It’s just more about updating each other with how our old friends and acquaintances are doing.

This weekend I read that a man was trampled in Wal-mart on Black Friday.

(You can read for yourself by visiting: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008448574_shop290.html)

He was an employee there and he was trampled when shoppers came through the doors.

I was very disgusted when I heard the news. Obviously getting bargains is all these people cared about. They could have just waited instead of rushing in.

This incident shows what kind of society we have in our country today.

What kind of deals can you get super early in the morning anyway? I don’t know what it’s like to be poor but I think children would rather get one toy rather than have their parents be part of an incident like this. These people should be ashamed of themselves.

How far would you go to get that perfect gift?

Fortunately, I have off of work today! I’m very thankful for that.

 I could have worked and saved my day off but meh, what’s the point?

 I like Thanksgiving a lot more than Christmas anyway. Plus, I did a lot of traveling yesterday. I have even more today. Driving from my future in-laws’ house back to my parents’ house to see old friends. It’s about a two-hour drive. I haven’t made that kind of trip by myself in a long time. I used to drive that much a lot because of my fiance and my long distance relationship.

Why is the day after Thanksgiving called “Black Friday”?  Who wants to get up at 4 a.m. to get the sales at Kohl’s? Not me, my friends.

As much as I love bargain shopping, I’d rather not have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get a deal. Maybe when I have children I will go to Toys R Us early but not at 5 a.m.

I haven’t been shopping on a Black Friday in forever but I remember it being chaotic. You pull into the mall’s parking lot and everyone is looking for a space. Then you have the idiots who make their own spaces and then you’re swearing in the car at people walking and trying to park. Then you face long lines and cranky shoppers. Ugh. That’s not for me. I’m glad I’m going to dinner with friends instead.

I have grown up hating mornings. I remember for school my mom had to pull me out of bed. I was like a zombie.

In middle and high school, I spent more time on my morning routine. Of course I would shower and all of that good stuff but I’d also spend a good amount of time curling my hair and putting on makeup.

In high school, I would also plan out my outfits. I wanted to make sure I was wearing a variety of clothes instead of the same shirt every week.

Now, when the alarm goes off, I mope around  a bit. Every now and again I will plan out an outfit if I am doing something special. I always want to look nice but not too nice so that I have a bunch of people asking me why I’m dressed up and where am I going. That is so annoying.

I don’t spend a whole lot of time on my hair. Usually I blow dry it and brush it and I’m out the door.

With makeup, my mood reflects how much time I spend. If I’m exhausted or in a bad mood I’ll just put foundation on. If I’m more awake, I’ll take the time to work on more details.

Sometimes I think that people who have to wear uniforms to work or don’t have to dress nice are lucky. It seems like I can hardly ever figure out what to wear.

Then I don’t know if people are judging me if I don’t dress as nice.

Then again, it’s difficult to dress nice when your salary is low. But that is why I bargain shop.

Accessories help too. I feel like I can give outfits a little flair with a scarf or dangly earrings. I don’t spend much time thinking about those either. Kind of just like “Oh, this would be nice,” and I’m on my way.

What’s your morning routine?

I was reminiscing about college life the other day and I realize sometimes I miss life living in a dormitory.

Most of my friends live at least an hour away from me so hanging out can be difficult sometimes. It’s not as convenient when you’re living in a dorm and you can just walk down the hall and hang out.

I still used instant messenger to correspond with people even if they did live a few doors down the hall. A lot of people did it. Call it college laziness. Haha

During my first semester at college, my roommate and I had bunk beds. I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea but everyone was making their beds into bunkbeds then. I ended up sleeping on the top bunk. It was not easy to get used to at first because I’m afraid of heights but once I got over the fear I was going to roll out of my bed while I was sleeping, I was ok.

Unfortunately, when you were drunk, it was difficult to hide the fact in a dorm.

I remember the second time I got drunk was during a Labor Day celebration. I came back to my dorm all happy and giggling. My roommate looked at my guyfriend and was like, “What did you do to my roommate?”

You see, my first roomie was the opposite of me. Drank, smoke, joined a sorority. I ended up liking drinking but not the other things my roommate did. But this was the first time she had seen me drunk because it was only like a week after we had moved in.

Another time it was difficult to conceal my intoxication is when I was in the girls’ bathroom. When I had been drinking, it felt like I was peeing forever. I came out of the stall and my friend was like, “That was you in there? Man, you take forever to pee.”

I didn’t want her to say anything because I didn’t want her to figure out that I had been drinking. Plus, I didn’t know if the RA was around. Then I would be busted.

The thing I miss most is bonding with people that lived in my corridor. I’d hang out with my friend and watch movies. She and her roommate would come to me after they would have fights. I’d be stuck in the middle, not knowing what to say.

Ah college life. It just goes too fast.

The Internet can be good and bad. Sure, perverts trying to hook up with minors hang out in chatrooms, trying to attract minors and of course there is identity theft over the Internet.

But in most cases, in my life, the Internet has been positive.

Using social networks like Facebook and MySpace have definitely helped me keep friendships or helped my friendships along. Working full time makes it harder to call my friends like I used to in high school. In college, I used instant messenger to talk to most of my friends.

When I come home from a long or bad day, I don’t feel like calling people.

The Internet helps keep me updated with my friends’ lives with no trouble at all. I can log onto Facebook and see who has a baby. Or see what my friends are doing at this exact moment with status updates. I can invite my friends to a party or a night out with www. Evite.com.

Don’t get me wrong. I still like to talk to my friends over the phone. It’s always nice to hear someone’s voice when you haven’t talked to them for a while.

Sick days aren’t fun like they used to be.

When I was in middle school or high school, staying home was a blast. It meant sleeping in, eating soup and watching TV all day. Sure there would be homework to catch up on, but that didn’t worry me. I was just thrilled that I wasn’t in school.

Now sick days are more worrisome. I have the kind of job that if you miss a day, it could potentially put you far behind. I work on deadlines so some of the time when I’m sick, I’ll work from home. Just like today.

Unfortunately, 99 percent of the information I need to do work is at my office. I was thinking about driving there this morning to get the information and then coming home. But why put that extra stress on me and put my coworkers at risk for getting my flu?

It would be nice to be able to freeze time so I wouldn’t fall behind in my work. No such luck though.

I don’t know where I picked this sickness up. I was at a mall and a restaurant on Saturday. I’m thinking I probably got it from one of those places.

I constantly wash my hands because I conscientious about germs. I even have antibacterial lotion at my desk. I don’t always get the right amount of sleep so I guess I have to work on that.

Need advice to stay healthy this winter? I found this article pretty useful: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/nov/24/healthy-habits.

I think it’s very important for people to learn about responsibility at a young age. Although I am the youngest and may have been a little spoiled, my family didn’t hinder this kind of learning. I learned from my mother how much work it takes to make your house look nice and I learned from my dad that jobs don’t always have hours that are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

My first job was babysitting. My mom’s friend needed someone to look after her son during the day and since I was 14 and someone she knew, I was the person for the job. It was kind of fun because it didn’t really feel like a job since I was playing.

The kid’s mother would drop him off at about 6:30 or 7 a.m. That was the tough part. I loved to stay up really late during the summer like until 2 or 3 in the morning. It was tough to drag myself out of bed.

I remember playing a lot of board games while babysitting. Luckily, my dad’s really into board games so we had tons to keep the kid occupied. We liked to play the Trouble game which is like Sorry except it has this cool bubble thing you press on to roll the die.

The kid was pretty behaved for the most part. He is a boy so he did act up every now and then. Unfortunately, he got into what I like to call my mom’s junk food drawer in the kitchen. That’s where we had a lot of candy and whatnot. Man, I had to hide it from him because after he had sugar he was bouncing off of the walls.

I can’t complain about the kid I babysat for because since I had no sleep, I’d fall asleep while he was watching Scooby Do and he still behaved. He could have really caused trouble when I was asleep but he didn’t. It was definitely a fun first job and it taught me responsibility.

Every family in this country has different Thanksgiving traditions. My family’s is definitely out of the ordinary.

Most people go to their parents or grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving. My family goes out to eat for Thanksgiving lunch. Don’t be misdirected by the term “lunch.” It’s quite a feast. It’s a place where it’s like a Thanksgiving buffet but servers bring the food to you.

My parents have been following this tradition since I was three. We skipped one year, the same year one of my grandpas died because we wanted it to be ok for my grandma. (We didn’t want my grandma to think of memories and get upset.)

I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You don’t have to worry about buying presents, just making and eating food. Family is very important to me and I enjoy seeing my parents, my grandmothers, my brother and sister-in-law, my cousins and my great aunt and uncle.

After we are done eating at the restaurant, we go home and eat again a few hours later. I get really stuffed.

In celebration of Thanksgiving, I made turkeys out of cupcakes a few weeks ago because my fiancé bought me a cupcake decorating book. It was so much fun making them. They were pumpkin spiced and tasted really good. Maybe making those kind of cupcakes will be a Thanksgiving traiditon for me. Who knows.

I’m engaged to be married so I’m thinking that pretty soon traditions will be changing. They already are starting to because we have been seeing both families on Thanksgiving. It’s a lot of driving but it’s worth it.

I can’t deny it. I love to shop. I mean what woman doesn’t?

My mom took me shopping a lot when I was little. If I was behaved and patient, she would let me go to the toy store and pick something out. I guess it was supposed to be an incentive or maybe even a bribe.

I don’t think that shopping at a young age made me materialistic or high maintenance.

Now, with a salary I can’t do much with and a failing economy, I try to go shopping only for things I need. I can rationalize spending $100 on clothes as long as they are warm sweaters. Unfortunately, I have more spring and summer clothes than winter clothes. It’s probably because winter clothes are more expensive and I hate cold weather.

Shopping is also an escape for me. I feel like I’m fighting stress if I’m at a store, browsing the items. It’s especially helpful for the stress level after a bad day or when you’re shopping on your lunch break. (I need to take more lunch breaks.) Shopping is a temporary high. I’m happy when I get new things but sad when my credit card bill goes up.

I’m also a bargain shopper. I love finding fashionable stuff on sale. I like to shop at Marshalls and Kohl’s. Sometimes clothes at Kohl’s are tacky so it all depends.