I Hate Facebook

Happy Friday!

I'm so happy I made it through this week! All that's standing between me and Irish Shenanigans Celtic Fest 2013 is Stat class, work, and one sleep!

Back to today's #Blogtember post. I'm supposed to be writing an anonymous letter to my Facebook friends, but I hate letters. Instead you get

THINGS I HATE ABOUT FACEBOOK

"Click LIKE if you love God, keep scrolling if you love the devil." These posts drive me batshit insane. If I want to prove I love God, I'm sure I can find another way to let Him know. I don't need to use Facebook to do it. I'm pretty sure He doesn't have a Facebook anyway.

Math problems. If I want to do math, I'll start my stat homework. I don't need to put my answer in the comments for no one to see. This is social media, not Algebra I.

Game requests. No I don't want to play Candy Crunch, Shitville, Diaper Dash, or Vampire Mafia. I have more important things to do than sit on my ass racing to serve fake customers lemonade or burnt souffle.

Drama queens. There is nothing worse than the girl/guy who starts shit on Facebook, only to post a status saying that they're "so done with people who cause drama." YOU CAUSE ALL OF IT. If you don't want people to know about how much drama is in your life, you probably should post every insignificant life problem on Facebook.

Diary entries. We the people do not need to know every single detail of your day. This is the real world - people just don't care that much. If you want to document your day, create an online diary and write in it for you. We don't care how many calories you consumed today or what color your underwear is. Anyone who cares that much will text you or call you on the phone. Spare us, please.

My brain has it's own file folder for stuff I hate about Facebook, so this probably won't be the last post you'll read about it. And as usual...

I know you hate Facebook too, let's talk about it in the comments!
XO - Monny

Linking up with a hungover Princess Whitney for #backthatazzupFriday !

In honor of the Irish Weekend I'm about to experience, here's one of my favorite Celtic Woman songs!

Tea Makes Me Happy

Good morning, loveys!

Today's #Blogtember prompt is to go to a coffee shop and write about what makes me happy. The baristo just called me for my salted caramel mocha and I am ready to roll (I started this post last week, so I'm not actually at a coffee shop this morning).

One thing that makes me happy is a bangin' list so guess what format this post is going to be?

TEA - I love anything and everything to do with tea. (Duh, I named my blog after it)From pretty teacups to dinosaur shaped infusers, I pretty much go bananas over anything tea-related.

BOOKS - They make me happy, especially the ones that I formed my childhood around. I'm looking at you, Dumbledore. I'm pretty sure the only thing I talked about from 1998 to now 2008 was Harry Potter. P.S.- I'm currently reading The Casual Vacancy. Can't get away from JK Rowling!

BABY FEET - I can't look at baby feet and not smile. They're tiny and pudgy and I want to bite them, end of story.

OLD PEOPLE - Not the bitter ones. I love the ones who tell you you're pretty and smile even when it's raining. I love the old couples who walk the mall, holding hands 50 years later.

OFFICE SUPPLIES - I want all of the Sharpies, binders, staplers, and Moleskin journals...always. It's a disease. If you buy me a pretty pen, or a new pack of Post-Its, I'll probably have a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

BROADWAY/OFF BROADWAY SHOWS - I love a good sing-a-long. You can read about my love for Wicked here or my mini advertisement for My Mom's Italian, Dad's Jewish, and I'm Still in Therapy here. My sister and I have yearly subscriptions to the off-Broadway theater near us so we get to see a lot of shows.
Grab your favorite drink and tell me what makes you happy!
XO - Monny

Monica Lately

Not to be confused with Chelsea Lately (who is awesome btw).

It's Monday, y'all!Today's #Blogtember post is to talk about life lately.This is good because I really don't have too much time to dedicate to blogging this week.

My weekend was pretty uneventful, except the part where I went to see a one-man play...twice. My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, and I'm Still in Therapy was the funniest show I've ever seen. We laughed almost non-stop for 105 minutes. If you ever get the chance to see one of Steve Solomon's shows, go see it, I pinky promise, you won't be sorry.After the show on Friday night, I went home and helped my cousin start her blog. She's only one post in, but she is very excited to be writing and sharing her life with all of you in Blogland!

Saturday night I saw the show again (just as funny the second time) with Sarah and we laughed our butts off before running back to her car in the pouring rain. We went back to her house and she microwaved made me some pancakes(YES!). Then I forced her to watch an episode of My Strange of Addiction about a dude whose in love with his car and a chick who's been snorting baby powder for 16 years. Then we watched the next episode where a girl kept digging in her ears and and a different girl drinks (yes, I said drinks) nail polish.

COULD NOT HANDLE IT. I just made this face the whole time.

ANYWAY, my week is gonna be a hot mess so I'll be reading, analyzing, and reviewing articles for my research paper, working, and packing for the Bethlehem Irish Festival!!!

Lately, I've been trying to get my assignments and to-do lists organized. 

Lately, I've been drinking pumpkin flavored coffee.

Lately, I've been switching my summer and fall wardrobes.

Lately, I've been sneezy.

Lately, I've been achey(sp?) from lifting heavy boxes at work. Hello exercise.

Lately I've been anticipating the return of my favorite shows!

Linking up with Sami and Jenni.

See ya on the flip side!

XO - Monny

Blogging About Blogging

Happy Thursday, Bloggers!

Are you ready for today's Blogtember prompt? Discuss ways that blogging or social media has changed you. I'm gonna keep this short and sweet because I have a special visitor today.

Since I started blogging, I've learned that I can actually write stuff worth reading. I also use social media way more than I used to. I mean I was always kind of addicted to Twitter and Pinterest, but blogging has allowed me to become friends with girls all over the country. Since we're all on Twitter and Snapchat all day, erryday, we can talk to each other, no matter what time zone we're in.

I'm also less afraid of putting myself(my weirdness?) out there. I definitely am more comfortable with myself, knowing that everyone else is kinda weird too.

I mean, who wouldn't want to receive Snaps like this?

 And now for today's special guest, drum roll please! I'd like you all to meet my gingery cousin Gregory. Greg and I have been best friends since the day I was born. We have more inside jokes than anyone I know and I know I can talk to him about anything and he'll always have my back(even when I'm dressed like a boy).

Thank God for puberty.

Notice: we're still both blind as bats.

Ohmygosh, his post is so cute. STAHP!
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#12 – How has social media changed my life?

Greetings, internet! The Soulless Avenger here! My name is Gregorius (Stop lying, it’s Greg), Monica has mentioned me a few times before (I’m kind of a big deal) and she has given me the privilege to guest post on her blog!

Social media has recently made my life 95% better. I’ve met this girl on Facebook through my buddy, Mike, a few years ago. It started out just commenting on the same pictures and posts but as the years went by she and I started talking more. Her name is Katie, and I finally had the chance to meet her in person about a month ago! 

A few days after we met I invited her to attend a Harry Potter party with me that my friend and I were throwing. I could go on and on about her and that night but I don’t have time to write a novel! We shared our first kiss that night, this girl who I’ve had a crush on for nearly 2 years! So, how has social media changed my life? It helped me get my first real kiss, and with a girl who I think is wonderful!

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Can You Hear Me Now?

Good morning afternoon!

Today's Blogtember Prompt is Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.

Since I was a senior in high school, I wanted to be a Speech-Language Pathologist. I wanted to work with stroke and accident victims, administering speech therapy and teaching them how to talk again so they could regain some normalcy in their lives. I decided that I didn't want to work with kids because they were so young and they didn't know what they were missing out on, whereas adults were used to talking their entire lives just to have their voices taken away from them. I wanted to give a voice to those who didn't have one.

When you're an undergrad for Speech Path, you don't only learn about speech stuff.  There are two branches of Communication Sciences --speech and hearing. You need a graduate degree to get a job in either field so I always knew there was even more education ahead. I never wanted anything to do with hearing science (audiology). I thought, "the ear is gross and boring. I wanna help people talk." And I thought this for years. Three years.

Fall semester of last year, I had a really difficult class. It was writing intensive and I could. not. deal. I was working 25-30 hours a week, plus coming home and doing schoolwork after being out of the house for 16 hours. I dropped my availability to just weekends and I still couldn't catch up on my homework. I had a nervous breakdown and after having too many panic attacks in one week, I talked to my parents and then my adviser for advice. I dropped the class that was giving me such a hard time and I felt like a failure. How would I ever survive graduate school when I couldn't handle one stupid undergrad class? I looked at application requirements for graduate programs for speech and seeing the 3.8-4.0 average GPAs of the acceptees, I freaked out.

Then there was a moment of clarity...

I decided to Google audiology and I fell in love.  I wanted to know everything about it -- the anatomy of the ear, hearing aids, sound waves, cochlear implant videos on Youtube. I looked up schools with Audiology programs and found that they were less competitive than the speech ones. The degree is a four-year clinical doctorate(scary!), but I finally found my calling in life.

I'm graduating in January so I'll be attending grad school next Fall. This semester is going to be rough between work, classes, taking the GREs(yikes!), asking for recommendation letters, and applying to the 10 schools I have on my list.

So this is the most long-winded post I've ever written. Here's a baby hearing his parents' voices for the first time. Love it.

Funny how one freak-out can change your whole life.

XO - Monny

I Light the Night

Happy Monday! I hope yous had an awesome weekend!

Today's #Blogtember post is about analyzing your results of a personality test. I for one, think personality tests are a crock of crap. My answers for yes or no questions depend on how I'm feeling about that subject in that moment. My "personality" based on that moment will change the very next time I take the test. To me, it is bullshiz. I know my personality, I don't need to see it on paper.

That being said, I wanna talk about something my Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging (ISFJ) personality would want me to mention. "ISFJs are characterized above all by their desire to serve others, their 'need to be needed.'"

Light the Night

In October, my family and I will be participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk in honor of my Aunt Theresa. My aunt was diagnosed with Ph+ CML (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia) in 2008. She will be on medication to regulate her chromosome alignment for the rest of her life. The medication makes her nauseated every day and she still manages to work full-time and raise her two kids with my Uncle Tom. She is one of the strongest women I'll ever know.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) raises money for programs that fund treatments that can manage a person's condition with a daily pill, therapies that seek out cancer cells and kill them, and the use of a patient's own immune system to eradicate cancer.

I'm hoping to raise awareness and funds to kick the cancer that affects 35,726 people in the United States. About 14,590 will be diagnosed with CML in 2013. Please consider donating to support this awesome charity (tax write-off...whoop!).

The Light the Night Walk for the LLS is a truly beautiful and inspiring event. The event is at twilight and walkers receive light up balloons. It's awesome for people with Leukemia and Lymphoma to look to the parkway and see the lights of everyone who walks in support of them and it shows how many people want to make a difference.

Look how much fun it is saving lives!

Please Consider Making a Donation

Thanks!
XO - Monny

Monica Means 'Advisor'

Happy Friday, bliggity bloggers!

Today’s Yesterday’s #Blogtember post is about the best advice I’ve ever received. Considering the fact that my name literally means "advisor," it's weird that I receive advise more that I give it. People have been giving me advice my whole life. “Do this, say that, don’t wear white after Labor Day, kick’em where it hurts, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.” Out of all the advice I’ve ever received, a few tidbits have stuck around. Here I am, relaying them to you. (Maybe I do have the right name after all.)

Don’t take sh*t from anyone.

My parents taught me from a young age that I am free to be myself. No one but God can judge me and I should never let what a person says define me. I was taught to stand up for myself and to stand up for those who can’t. I don’t know if they ever explicitly used these words to get the message across, but that was the first phrase that popped into my head.

If you can’t do something right, don’t do it at all.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean you can’t make mistakes. It means that if you’re gonna do a half-assed job, don’t even bother. Because of this advice, I will always try my best at everything I do except cleaning my room. I know that if I make a mistake, I will fix it and do better the next time around.

Pray about it.

No matter what the situation, I know I can always rely on God for help. Whether He answers my prayers with yes, no, or not yet, I know he’s always listening. Prayer is the best way to sort out my thoughts and to find the answers I’m looking for.

The best you can do is doing your best.

Whenever I feel bummed about a test result or a final grade in a class, my mom or dad always asks, “Did you try your hardest?” When I can confidently answer with a “yes,” I know there’s no way to change the situation and that I shouldn’t keep worrying about something that I have no control over.

These pieces of advice will forever be mantras repeating in my head to use whenever I need them most (like now, while I’m searching for grad schools).

XO – Monny

P.S. – Linking up with Princess Whitney

#Backthatazzup with my favorite band since I couldn't be at their concert in AC tonight.

This is What Dreams Are Made Of

Good morning peeps!

I hope you've all had a wonderful sleep and woke up feeling refreshed this morning. It is HUMPDAY after all. HUMPDAAAAY!

Source

I finished yesterday morning's post (at 10:45 pm) and I felt like a shithead bad blogger because it should've been up 12 hours before. C'est la vie. Here is today's #Blogtember post topic if  you're not following along with Jenni: If you could take three months off from your current life and do anything in the world, what would you do?

Honestly, I wouldn't be able to take 3 months off from my current life because I'm tired of undergrad BS and I'm so ready to graduate and get to grad school. Buuuut if I had to pick something else to do, I'd love to travel to Ireland to drink, learn to correctly pour a Guinness, and see the place my ancestors lived. I want to see all the places that Celtic Woman sings about and hang by my feet to kiss the Blarney Stone.

I'd love to go to Italy to eat, shop, and visit the Vatican. I'd take a romantic gondola ride with Kristo and drink tons of wine and eat gelato("it has twice the SUGARRRRR of American ice cream") until I get sick. I'd also pretend to be an international pop star like Lizzie McGuire.

Please excuse my terrible photoshop skillz.

Then I'd pop over to Spain to eat, watch the bulls run, improve my Spanish, and take in all the sights.

I really want to travel to all of Europe someday.

What would you do if you could live an alternate life for 3 months?

XO - Monny

Who Am I?

I decided at the last minute to join the Blogtember challenge with Jenni at Story of My Life. I think with school starting, it'll be a great idea to have my post topic picked out in advance.

So on with today's topic, the post is about where I come from. I'm gonna be a little different and avoid talking about my family or hometown. I'm gonna talk about how I attended Catholic schools from Kindergarten to 8th grade.

Yes, plaid skirts and knee socks we're my uniform for 9 years. Sexy. I had such a different experience growing up in a Catholic school than all of my public school friends. When I started 9th grade at my public high school, it was complete culture shock.

first Communion  //  confirmation pic with the bishop  //  dressed as St. Monica  // first day of school (circa 1997)

Catholic school has made me the person I am today.

I always write in cursive. Being graded on penmanship and only being allowed to write in cursive for the majority of my academic career means I will probably never break the habit. When I started high school, my friends were baffled that I would write in cursive even though I didn't have to anymore. Honestly, it's easier to write this way. I don't have to pick up the pen for every. single. letter. It's also awesome to write my notes in cursive because it means no one will every want to borrow them. Apparently it's hard for people to read? I dunno.

Sample of my lovely cursive

I respect authority figures. When I started high school, it blew my mind that kids would talk back to the teacher or give a principal attitude. It still kinda blows my mind, actually. I see it at work too. I have no idea how people think it's okay to backtalk their manager or supervisor. When passing professors in the hallway, my automatic response is to say good morning or good afternoon, so and so. When I was in grade school, we'd stand up and chant good afternoon, [insert name here] whenever another teacher, principal, priest, or other special visitor entered the classroom. Respect.

I have pretty decent grammatical skills. I'm not saying I don't make a mistake every now and then, but I'm fantastic at proofreading. I actually enjoy it (I should've been a book editor). The first time I proofread one of Kris's term papers, I laughed out loud. When I asked him if he'd ever heard of run-on sentences, his response was "they don't care about that stuff in public schools!" It took every ounce of my self-control to not strangle him. In third grade I knew what a preposition was, how it was used, and was able to recite them in alphabetical order. In 10th grade, my teacher made me explain prepositions to the class because they'd never learned about them before. WHAT?

I have Faith. It is an experience like no other, that I got to learn about the history of what I believe in for 9 years. It's hard to explain, but there is a pride in knowing you went to a school with people who believe in all the same values as you do. Without Catholic school I'd never have caught the liturgical music bug that keeps me close to my faith through my "job" as a church singer today.

I hope this post shows a little more of what makes me me.

XO - Monny