The Blog-tember Challenge

10 Things…

September 10, 2014 MandyLeave a comment

Blog-tember Day 10 Prompt: List 10 things that you love about yourself! Let’s kick that negative self-talk outta here!

I’m not a picky eater.
I know how to dress for my body-type. Mostly. Yesterday, a co-worker did tell my outfit made me look like an Orthodox Jew, but in fairness, I’m not claiming how to dress for my religious affiliation.
I make an effort to stay up with current events/world news.
I make an effort to work out. Sometimes.
I’m a really good friend.
My childhood room is decked out in fuzzy zebra-print, and I will never admit it was a mistake. I will own that fuzzy zebra-print decision until the end of time.
Cats… typically like me (?)
I’m decently skilled at math.
My independence. Aka the greatest hamartia of all.
I consistently surround myself with pretty solid folks. The good people in my world keep me grounded and sane, and without those qualities, any and all of the above would cease to exist.

What my personality and The Lion King have in common

September 9, 2014 MandyLeave a comment

Blog-tember Day 9 Prompt: Let’s talk personality types. Introverted? Extroverted? Unsure-troverted? ;) If you know your Myers-Briggs type, tell us about it! If not, you can take this similar test and share your results.

I’d go into further detail, but I think this image pretty much says it all:

Guess I’m with Mufasa and Jesus.

Also, this is a fun (and maybe more reliable?) source. Looks like I’m cut out to be an Ad Exec or Sales Manager. Works for me.

Happy Tuesday, all!

When I Grow Up

September 3, 2014 Mandy1 Comment

Blog-tember Day 3 prompt: “When I grow up I want to be….” Feel free to answer as your 5-year-old self or as of now. This is a pretty generous guessing game, but what follows is the basic gist of me answering that question, mostly in relation to my career, as best as I can remember, in each year of my life. Enjoy.

5 – 8 years old: An artist
9 – 13 years old: A dancer
14 years old: The first female Pope
15 years old: Mmm I don’t know, but Rachel from Friends seems like she has it all figured out. So maybe her?
16 years old: A Journalist, like Angelina Jolie’s character in Life or Something Like It
17 years old: Broadcast Journalist who choreographs Show Choirs on the side
18 years old: Show Choir choreographer who dabbles in Journalism on the side
18.5 years old: When I grow up, I wanna be famous, I wanna be a star, I wanna be in movies
19 years old: Something to do with Business, I guess?
20 years old: Something to do with Business that’s creative. But not Sales. Definitely not Sales.
21 years old: Do I have any other options than Retail? Okay, so Retail.
22 years old: Anything but Retail.
23 years old: Someone who can wear jeans to work.
24 years old: A Writer/Lawyer/Journalist/Marketing Prodigy/Sales Guru/Television Enthusiast/Photographer/Cat-mom/Professional Sleeping Person
25 years old: Happy. Challenged professionally and satisfied personally — but mostly, I think I just want to enjoy the ride.

And on the note of growing up and careers, here’s one of my favorite Nora Ephron quotes, from her 1996 commencement speech at Wellesley College. This about sums up where my head’s at right now.

“This is the season when a clutch of successful women — who have it all — give speeches to women like you and say, to be perfectly honest, you can’t have it all. Maybe young women don’t wonder whether they can have it all any longer, but in case of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don’t be frightened: you can always change your mind. I know: I’ve had four careers and three husbands.”

I think when I grow up, I want to continue embracing the mess. Cheers to that!

Happiness Is…

September 2, 2014 MandyLeave a comment

Blog-tember Day 2 Prompt: Write about what makes you happy, from the little joys to the huge game-changers. Can-dosville, baby doll. Here’s a few thing that are making me smile, as of late:

The tried and true cheeseburger + beer combo
Spending time with good people
Sleeping in
Long car rides, open roads, and country music
Reconnecting with old friends
My birks. If someone wanted to gift me these as a belated birthday present, it would be happiness bullet worthy too. Just sayin’
The Wonder Years
Buckeye wins. And friends who live-text you updates when you’re not around a television ;)
Television
This quote from Girls: “You say yes, and then you figure it out”

About the Author

September 1, 2014 MandyLeave a comment

Blog-tember Day 1 prompt: Imagine the front sleeve of a hard cover novel. Give us your “About the Author” so we can get to know one another, and for fun tell us what your imaginary novel would be about.

Between “The Girl” page and my Twitter bio, you could probably collect a pretty nice idea of me and my sense of humor, but sure, talk about myself more? Twist my arm…

Mandy grew up in a small Ohio town that boasts local holidays such as Drive Your Tractor to School Day. Shortly after graduating from college, she made the move to New York City with a few dollars in her pocket and a drive in her gut that hasn’t dimmed since.

Mandy is equally reliant on strong coffee, thesaurus.com, and late night television. When she isn’t writing or making awkward small talk in bars, she spends her time volunteering with the Junior League, rocking purposeful messy hair, and adding items to her online shopping cart but rarely purchasing them. Needless to say, she’s never owned a tractor.

As for my imaginary novel… it would likely be a memoir, a la Kelly Oxford. Not that I’m as hilariously witty or have a cult internet following a la Kelly Oxford (yet), but I have enough embarrassing stories and quippy anecdotes to fill a few hundred pages. Also, weirdly, memoirs are my favorite thing to read, and as they say, write what you know. I’d probably only get a few pages into my melodramatic teen angst/love-story set during the Mexican Revolution before waving the white flag. You’re right, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Nor do I really care. Sorry, love babies of the Mex-Rev.

The Blog-tember Challenge

August 31, 2014 MandyLeave a comment

Hello, there! How’s your summer been? I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte today, and while the weather definitely wasn’t on it’s fall game, I’m very excited to be slowly segueing into my favorite season. The tail-end of last summer was when I really hopped back on the regularly-blogging bandwagon. I had every intention to do the same this year, but must acknowledge that jumping back into a routine is just not the easiest thing to do… thus, enter the #BlogtemberChallenge!

Bailey Jean from Brave Love thoughtfully crafted daily prompts for the entire month of September — designed to ease the struggle of coming up with something worthwhile to write about while uniting the blogging community in posting habits. She enforces a strict no-rule policy, and encourages bloggers to write as many times as they can throughout the month (and if it’s not everyday, still cool). I’m very excited that I found out about this in the nick of time and am excited for the adventure ahead. My only promise is to write more (which won’t be hard to do considering my past few months of absolutely nothing) and to read/connect more with other blogging participants. Good news all around.

To meet Bailey and check out her prompts for the months ahead, visit here. See y’all tomorrow, for post #1!