Time: The Most Precious of Elements

I was recently asked in an interview how I juggle my busy schedule. I told the interviewer, "I'm constantly going. I use every spare second I possibly have." It got me thinking about how crazy my final semester of college has been; about how crazy my whole life has been, really. Ever since I can remember I've been involved in something that requires a 100% investment. I spent my middle school days attending three-hour practices, 5 days a week, and shows on the weekends for Entertainment Revue, a song and dance performance group. I then turned my attention to the H.B. Plant High Rowing Team, a highly competitive team in which my boat was nationally ranked. But that didn't come without practicing two and a half hours a day, 6 days a week. Upon entering FSU, I quickly joined Gamma Phi Beta (who ironically holds the phrase, "A Lifetime Commitment") and threw myself into a whirlwind of obligations. That leads us to where I am now in my last semester: trying to keep up my involvement in the sorority, maintain my 3.56 GPA, get a job, and still squeeze in a decent social life. A typical weekday looks something like this... wake up, breakfast, return emails, job search (submitting applications, researching, networking), lunch, class, gym, shower, class, dinner, school work/projects, more job searching, bed. On weekends I follow a similar schedule, minus the class and adding a night or two of "socializing" with my friends. I have never regretted having this type of lifestyle; I prefer to do something rather than just sit around twiddling my thumbs. But the one thing that I will say about always having something to do is it makes time fly by! It feels like I was just putting up posters and organizing my room in Degraff Hall and here I am about to graduate. The lesson I've learned is that time is a very precious element. If I could, I would add at least eight more hours to every day so we'd have time to stop and think about all the good things we have going on in our lives and so we don't wake up one day and realize we're 80 years old! My word of advice is to soak it all in. In these next two months before I graduate and in whatever lies ahead, I'm going to make sure I appreciate every day and even with my busy schedule, make an effort to stop and smell the roses...

-LFH :)

Spring Break

There is one time each year in which gyms everywhere experience a steep increase in their members' usage. It is the period of time between Winter and the glorious Spring Break. It doesn't matter what we look like the rest of the year, but during the week of Spring Break, we must be in tip top, bathing-suit shape, and preferably tan. I've had a countdown on my dry-erase board going since at least 65 days till. It really is inconvenient that everyone else has the same idea right before Spring Break because it's nearly impossible to get an elliptical or treadmill without waiting in a line, you have to work out your arms in cramped quarters, feeling self conscious about exposing your armpits with people so close to you, and I try not to think about how horrid my face looks when I'm doing abs in an area with twenty others. Perhaps the most laborious part of preparing for Spring break is the diet. I have never been one to go the extreme diet route (I have absolutely no self control when it comes to food) but the fact of the matter is that getting a good body depends 80% on what you eat, and 20% on gym time. Trying to eat healthy in my sorority house is almost absurd. While you do have a select few who are content eating celery and carrot sticks all day long, you also get a fair share of moody, PMS-ing girls eating their feelings away in pizza bagels dipped in ranch. Despite the difficulties at hand, my roommate, Kelsey, and I decided we would stick together and ignore all of the high-carb, high-calorie temptations Gamma Phi has to offer. From the day we got back from Winter Break, we started going hard in the gym and easy on our stomachs... for about a month and a half. Kelsey and I are very similar in the fact that we both happen to idolize food. My boyfriend tells me I get cranky when I "diet" if that tells you anything. The struggle to abstain from eating all of our favorite things eventually became too hard to bear, and we started splurging. I'm talking worse than we were eating before we had Spring Break on the brain. Fortunately, with three weeks left until Spring Break, a reality check hit us and we jolted back on track. With ten days left until we board the Majesty of the Seas, I am seeing the positive reinforcements of eating healthy and making my way to the gym daily. I even made a special trip to Publix today to buy yogurt, almonds, fruit, and other healthy foods for my snacking habits. But don't let that fool you. With the all-inclusive buffets and all the fruity little slushy drinks I will be consuming once I get on the ship, it won't take long to get me back to my old self, and maybe worse. Kelsey and I have a list going of all our favorite things we are going to indulge in once we're back to Tallahassee: Gordos, Piteria, California Chicken Grill, Olive Garden, Coldstone, Tijuana Flats, etc. I can't wait!! I'm going to ignore the fact that soon after that we will have to start this process over in anticipation for Summer. For now, I look forward to looking good at least the first day or two of the cruise...

-LFH :)

The Starbucks Phenomenon

There is no business more profitable than a Starbucks in a campus library. As I stand in line writing this- yes the line's taking that long- I wonder what it is that makes the Starbucks brand so popular. Yes Atomic Coffee and the crappy brand I get for free at my sorority house is just as effective at waking me up, almost just as tasty, and considerably cheaper. So why do we as consumers break out the dough for the cups with the green lady? I'm not sure to be honest. Is it the same force that brainwashed middle-schoolers to think they wouldn't be popular unless their clothes bore the Abercrombie moose? Whatever this "brand mojo" is that makes even the most sensible of people turn into relentless buyers, I am going to figure it out and use it to become a very successful businesswoman one day. That's it from the 10pm FSU Library Starbucks line!

-LFH :)

Mom's Weekend

This weekend, my sorority (Gamma Phi Beta) hosted it's annual "Mom's Weekend." Since my mom hasn't been to Tallahassee at all in the past year, it was the perfect chance for me to show her my room in the sorority house, give her a little taste of Tally nightlife, and get in some good bonding time. After giving her a private tour of the 5x5 foot room I call home, we went downstairs for the first event of Mom's Weekend: "Mock-tail Hour." While I thoroughly enjoyed the cheese & cracker platters and the virgin sangria I sipped on was refreshing, we politely dined-and-dashed. Happy Hour was the real start of our weekend. My mom and I, along with a few other mother/daughter couples, toughed out the rain and made it safely to Standard, the driest Happy Hour location. We enjoyed our time there, staying until the lights turned down and the dub step music turned up, officially starting the night shift. That was our cue to head down the street to Andrew's Capital Grill and Bar for some dinner. After sufficiently stuffing ourselves, we made our way back to the sorority house to freshen up. A few minutes of rest on my top bunk proved beneficial in rallying my mom up, because around 10:30pm, we were headed off to AEPi's fraternity house for some beer pong, which ironically was an event for AEPi Dad's Weekend. After waiting a round or two, it was finally our turn to go up against the winners of the table for "Man Pong," a larger version of beer pong that's played with three or four people on each team. My mom, my boyfriend Brad, and I made up our dream team. I had hoped we could make the game last, assuming we would lose the first round and not want to wait in line to play again... boy was I wrong. It was not Brad, not me, but my mom who carried the team! We won the game and continued to run the table for three whole rounds! I was very impressed to say the least, and suggested to the boys that they consider changing the name from "Man Pong" to "Woman Pong." The next morning, I introduced my mom to the joys of the ham breakfast wrap from Bagel Bagel. The pet shop was conveniently next door and we planned to go look at the puppies but they didn't have any at the moment. It was probably for the better; my mom and I have a tendency to never walk out of a pet shop empty handed. We spent all of Saturday on a shopping spree! It was a wonderful way to spend the rainy day and apparently everyone had the same idea because we ran into a lot of moms and daughters at the mall. Dinner was at 101 Restaurant, a trendy place where I get my favorites- Bruschetta and a Bellini. After dinner, we moved the party to Proof, one of the more classy places I spend my nights out now that my senioritis is kicking in and I'm long over the days of sweaty clubs and gross freshman bars. The grand finale of our weekend was brunch back at Andrew's. I think I'm STILL full from it (eggs benedict, french toast, hash browns, grits, spinach & mushroom quiche, the list continues...).  I had such a fun time with my mom! It went by too fast as weekends tend to do... hope everyone has a happy (not-too-miserable) Monday and a fast week so we can be back to the weekend! ;)

-LFH :)

Day Trip

This morning, I just happened to wake up in one of those moods. It was beautiful out- not a cloud in the sky, the weather at a perfect chill- a day not to be wasted inside. I was in the mood for a spontaneous day trip, and luckily, Brad agreed to accompany me. Usually, when I get this feeling, my first instinct is to head towards the beach. But something told me that St. George's Island in a low of 39 degrees might not be too pleasant. Then I remembered what was in the opposite direction: Thomasville, GA. Having never been to Thomasville before, we had found our winner! 50 minutes later we arrived in a quaint old town and parallel parked in front of Frank & Cindy's Consignments. We spent the afternoon holding hands and walking up and down what was named, "A Great American Main Street Since 1998." Most of the shops we were in and out of within a matter of minutes. Mimi's The Look For Less was a different story. Poor Brad waited patiently on the couch as I perused through jewelry heaven for about 30 minutes and then purchased a bracelet for myself. My favorite part of the day, however, was our stop in the Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Shop tasting different cheeses and eventually picking out a nice wine to go with our favorite one. Perhaps the most memorable part of the day was when we were lured into Harden's Taxidermy by the huge deer out front. Of course, I had no idea it was a Taxidermy shop, I just liked the deer. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the animal-filled room, but I was. Very surprised. And the front room probably would have been plenty for me, but the shop owner kindly invited us into the back to see the fresh deer and diamond-back snake he was working on... we'll leave it at the fact that we weren't hungry anymore when we left there. On our way out of town we drove past "the big oak tree," one of the tourist attractions we had been hearing about all afternoon. Not that I was disappointed by it, but for some reason I was expecting more that just a big oak tree. Regardless, the tree was beautiful and we had a really fun day! Now I'm off to enjoy that wine & cheese!

-LFH :)

V-Day

Valentine's Day: almost as catastrophic as the end of the Mayan calendar... or so you would think from reading all of the Facebook statuses and depressing tweets. Single girls everywhere are wearing black and discussing drowning their sorrows in an extra large margarita (or two). While the past two years I have had the pleasure of celebrating February 14th with my wonderful boyfriend Brad, it hasn't always been that way. My middle and high school Valentine's days were spent holding my breath as candy grams and flowers were delivered in the middle of every class. Of course, the one's I did get were from my girl friends but I still wasn't bitter! What could possibly be so bad about a holiday dedicated to chocolates and the color pink?! This year I discovered another thing to get excited about on Valentines day- Chickfila gives out heart-shaped chicken biscuits! Chickfila breakfast happens to be one of my favorite things in the world, so I'm sure you can guess how I started off my day. I still am a little upset that classes aren't cancelled on this lovie-dovie day but at least I have hibachi dinner to look forward to! ;) Happy loving!

-LFH :)

The Search

There is a point in all of our lives where we must graduate from college and begin the excruciating process we call "job searching." Due to an ultimatum set by my father and a high GPA, my job search is beginning much earlier than I would like it to; after all, I only spent four short years at FSU. Deciding a major was complicated enough, and now I have to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life?! (Fingers crossed that I still like Communications 30 years down the road.) And that's not even the hardest part. In this day and age, they say it's not what you know, it's who you know... so needless to say I've been spending a lot of my time networking. I can only hope it works as well as they say. Leaving out the details, my search is going well, but time is ticking! In roughly two and a half months, I'll be handed my diploma, and packing up my things from the sorority house. Then, the unknown. Oh, the joys of job searching...

-LFH :)

Finally!

Sooo- starting a blog is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now. I've been teased by blog after boring blog for school, having to write about changes in technology, "about me" blogs where I censored myself for my professors, and blogs about my professional life. Don't expect to find any of that here. This is the start of my official, personal blog. To be honest, I have no idea where this is going to go, but I'm excited to find out. That's it for now!

-La Fille Heureuse :)
   ^^^ the happy girl