Surviving Syllabus Week

Happy Friday, Blogland!!! I've never been happier to see a Friday, even though I have to head to work at 4 o'clock. The first week of school is almost over. And my sanity remained intact (for the most part). Tonight, I'm gonna get drunk go home from work and get my shit together for Tuesday so I can make the most of the long weekend.

Since I'm in my 19th year of school, I think it's safe to say that I'm an expert and getting the first week of school overwith. So I thought I'd put together a little how-to on making through the first week of classes, otherwise known as syllabus week. Read this, and then go grab a drink because the weekend is here and it's time to celebrate!

Step One: Books
Before you even think about buying your books from the school store, check out the plethora of rental and buyback sites to see if you can get it cheaper anywhere else. My friend Megan at Yammering Yankee wrote an awesome post about CampusBookRentals.com. I legit saved myself $280 by renting this semester, and I don't have to worry about burning the textbooks when I'm done with them (kidding...kinda). Your school bookstore is going to charge you the absolute highest price because they know that college kids are lazy and don't want to do the footwork to find the cheapest price. RENT RENT RENT!

Step Two: Syllabi
If your professor posts the syllabus on Blackboard or whatever site before the class starts, print it! It makes it easier to follow along on the first day and it makes you look like less of an asshat because you don't have to raise your hand to say you don't have one. Also, you don't have to spend the entire first day of class by frantically scribbling notes about office hours and assignments. It's all in front of you.

Step Three: Be early
During the first week of classes, get to your classroom as early as possible. Make sure you get the seat you want and put up your flag to claim your territory.  No one wants to be stuck in the corner behind the tallest kid in the room, or in the dreaded front row. My chosen seat is usually in the second row (so I can Tweet unnoticed) in the left-handed desk (lefties ftw). God help the person who decides to take my seat after the first week of classes YOU WILL PAY.

Step Four: Make friends
If you're lucky like me, you've already scoped out which of your friends are in your classes so that when a professor says "find a partner" on the first day, you can happily avoid the creepy mouth-breather next to you. If you're not so lucky, start a conversation with someone who looks kinda decent before the professor even gets there.
  
Step Five: Caffeine!
We all know that when school starts, your sleeping schedule is going to make you hate your life be a hot mess. 5 days in and mine is not back to normal yet. I've been going to bed between 10 and 11 pm and my body still wants to stay up til 2 am. NOT COOL. I found out the hard way that it really, really doesn’t like waking up at 5 in the morning. To beat the morning and afternoon sleepiness, make sure you find the nearest Starbucks, Saxby's, or Seattle's Best and introduce yourself to espresso drinks. Or if you're cheap like me, you can be bff's with your travel mug and Keurig and save a shitton of moolah to use at the bar.

If all else fails, Google tropical beaches and cocktail recipes or take a nap. Sometimes it’s easier to pretend that it’s summer. Have a good semester and try to keep your cool. 14 weeks until finals!

Linking up with Whitney for the first time. It's Friday so #backthatazzup ! Gatsby came out on DVD this week so it's only fitting to use one of Jay-Z's new masterpieces.

XO - Monny

Gratitude: week 5

This week has been crazy, with getting ready for school to start and failing trying to get back into the swing of things, I haven't been posting to Instagram with my usual enthusiasm. Also, this post is a day late (blame the interwebz). Better late than never, amirite?

I love doing this prompt every week or so because it helps me to appreciate the little things in my life. Even when I think I don't have much to be grateful for, I can look back and realize I'm being a spoiled brat and quit it.

One. Old school diners with soda fountains and wall postings being snarky...and bacon pancakes. BACON. PANCAKES.

Two. Grateful for the fact that I'm actually really good at painting my own nails. It saves me a ton of money, not having to get a manicure every 2 weeks.

Three. My sister and I can look like idiots and still have the best time. Also grateful for 25 cent mustaches from gumball machines. HOLLA.

Four. After 5 and a half years, this guy still likes me no matter how many times I make this face/yell at him. True love.

Five. Friends who stick around for 16+ years no matter how often we see each other.

Six. Late night trips to the diner with my favorites and for bread pudding, which never fails to disappoint.

Find your peace of mind.

XO - Monny

Where is the Wifi?!

Guess what! I survived the first day back to school. I love love love my American Sign Language class and the fact that my friend Kim and I get to be partners for every task. I learned how to ask someone for their name and to tell them mine. And shapes and stuff. The entire class was taught in ASL so it was very quiet. I didn't realize how difficult it would be for me to keep my mouth shut the whole time. Thank God for a 15 minute break in the middle. I needed to exercise my mouth haha. I'm so not used to not talking. Like hello?

Here's a little preview of me having no clue what I'm doing practicing.

I should probably work on my facial expressions since I look like a zombie.

Also, since I can't live-tweet my Statistics class due to NO INTERWEBZ in the basement, I wrote down all my thoughts yesterday.

• Why are most non-traditional students so weird?
• WHERE IS THE WIFI?
• If this asshat behind me doesn't stop kicking my seat, I'm gonna curbstomp his face.
• Look at those ratchet nails on the chick next to me.
• "Humans are bad at math."
• People still use the Cornell method?
• "Zeus could tell you the parameters, but we don't know for sure."

I know you're sad that I couldn't tweet all that.

Hope you're enjoying the last couple weeks of Summer!

XO - Monny

P.S.- Happy 15th anniversary of the release of  HP and the Sorcerer's Stone!

Someone's Got a Bad Case of the Mondays

It's Monday, bloggers and bloggettes! Today is my last first day of school for my undergrad career. It's bittersweet (mostly bitter). The sweet part is when Megan wished me a happy first day on the Twitter. She's the best.

Since I decided that the only way to get through last night's VMAs was with alcohol, I did not have my head in the blogger game. So as a cop-out, I'm accepting another Liebster award! Thank you to one of my bloggy bffs, Ashten for nominating me. ♡

Since I did this pretty recently, I've only found one newish blogger to nominate. Hello, Allison!

Also, since I'm writing this post in the shitty Blogger app on the train, I'm skipping the rules and 11 random facts part. You can find out some weird stuff about me here.

Interview time!

1. How do you handle managing you blog and "real life" ? I don't tell my mom cuz she'll probably think it's weird. And I'm not entirely sure how it's gonna work out with school just yet. Will keep you posted.
2. What is your biggest pet peeve? People who mispronounce ask as aks.
3. What is the best blog post you’ve written so far? I'm fond of this one when I complain about kids and this one where I complain about work and this one where I tell you awkward things about myself.
4. What is your favorite movie and why? The Sound of Music because Julie Andrews.
5. What is your favorite social media? TWITTER Why is it your favorite? Because I can post how often I want And no one will judge.
6. Tell me who your hero is and why. My mom because she always puts everyone before herself and does whatever she can to make sure her family is taken care of.
7. Wizards or vampires? Wizards duh. If you say vampires, you can't sit with us.
8. When are you the happiest? When Kris and I talk about our future.
9. What is your favorite quote? Since I can't think of anything else, "Winter is coming."
10. Why did you start blogging? Because I was bored, and needed a better way to procrastinate my school work than watching the Steve Wilkos show.
11. Favorite food to eat on your “cheat” day. I have the kind of metabolism that lets me eat whatever the hell I want and not gain an ounce. So I guess I'll say my favorite food, which is mashed potatoes. :)

Time to do the whole go to classes and learn thingy. Have a great day, everyone!

XO - Monny

I'd Rather Be Naked

Hey y'all (did I say that right?)

Monday is the first day of school so I figured I should probably do my wash considering how I have nothing to wear.

Since I have to sit and wait for my wash to be done, I figured I should write a post about my love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with laundry.

LOVE:
I love to hold clothes when they're fresh out of the dryer.  Mmm toasty.

I love smelling the fabric softener scent leftover from the wash.

I love being able to look at all of my clean clothes and making outfits in my head.

I love arranging my closet by type and color so I know exactly what's in my inventory.

I love looking fabulous and posting that ish on Instagram in an #ootd post.

HATE:
I hate sorting laundry. Darks? Whites? Nah, throw it all in the same load. Ain't nobody got time for that!

I hate folding. Period. I just hang as many pieces of clothing as humanly possibly.

I hate matching socks. I just throw them all into my drawer and hope it's easy to find a match when I'm in a hurry. Also, the sock monster? He's real.

And if I didn't throw a first world problem into the mix, it wouldn't be a party so here's one for you. I hate that even when all of my clothes are clean and neatly hanging in the closet, I still have nothing to wear.

Whoops, the washer beeped just as I finished "airing out my dirty laundry." Just in tiiiime.

What's your least favorite part of laundry day?

XO - Monny

Rhymes with Bendy's

Hey Peeps!

I've been kinda bummed this week because my summer officially ends on Sunday night. Classes start on Monday. This is the first year I'm not super excited to get back to school. LAME.

I was organizing my Google Drive files when I came across something that made my week 10x better. I found a note that I wrote about work in 2011, about a week before I quit my last job. It makes me happy that I'm not in a place like this anymore. I may complain about my job now, but at least I feel safe when I go into work every day (usually). And I can tolerate my coworkers (usually).

Keep in mind that I was with this company (and their annoying redheaded mascot) for almost three years. I had seen and heard everything I needed to. Even from my first week there, I thought that it was "beneath me," but I was 17 and desperate for a job that would mold the schedule to my every whim when I went away to school.

So here it is. My angry, fed-up "time to find a new job" letter.

Calling all strippers, ex-cons, and drug addicts: WE'RE HIRING!

I'm sorry, but I don't think it's too much to expect a little more from a company whose slogan claims 

that they're "waaay better than fast food." 

Apparently re-frying chicken that is more than 5 hours old and passing it off as fresh is acceptable now.

Using dirty utensils to serve cheese sauce? Acceptable.

People who steal multiple chicken sandwiches to bring home to their family everyday? Acceptable.

Hiring heroin addicts who are exotic dancers as their night job and letting them handle money? Acceptable.

Dumping buckets of water on the toilets to clean them at night? Acceptable.

Centipedes crawling around the floor and flies landing on condiments? Acceptable.

Shift supervisors with parole officers who drop the f-bomb in front of customers? Also acceptable.

Restaurant managers who get high on their smoke break? Acceptable.

General Managers who see all of this and ignore it? Definitely acceptable.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!

It's pretty sad when I can't even trust my coworkers to make a sandwich for me during my break. I won't even eat something unless I know I've personally prepared every single ingredient. I can't even wrap my head around the fact that this is okay to them.

Eat at your own risk.

This totally makes me appreciate my current job and everything it allows me to do. I know this kind of stuff doesn't happen everywhere, but I'm sure it happens in a few places. Always check your food before you eat.

What are your first job horror stories?

XO - Monny

P.S.- Since this post is photo-less, here are some rare gems from the "pictures that should probably never meet the internet" file.

being gangsta  //   in the wardrobe of my dorm room

Gratitude: week 4

Every time I look through my pics for Insta-gratitude, I realize that I post really weird/random shiz. Anyway, here is everything I'm grateful for this week as shown through Instagram photos.

One: Irish heritage and the chorus of angel voices that is Celtic Woman. And tea....lots of tea.

Two: Almost edible pasta dinner that cost less than $2 dollars. Desperate college cooking for the win!

Three: 4gLTE internet on my phone for when the home Virgin Mobile internet shits the bed(which is often).

Four: Happy I still have my toes even though the Pillsbury dough boy has it out for me.

Five: Booboo bunny for the next time the Pillsbury crescent rolls jump out of the fridge

Six: Buffalo bites and hard cider

Seven: No students were injured.

Eight: Ice cream with a fork is still better than no ice cream.

Nine: 80 oz. of my one true love Ranch!!!

Linking up with Steph for Insta-Gratitude. You can follow my Instagram posts here.

XO - Monny

Boozeless Baby Showers and Back To Blogging

Hello my chickadees! Did you miss me?

I took a mini vacation from blogging on Friday to work on my clickable image-mapped blog header which I had to Google for about 3 hours to get the answer I wanted. Too bad, I didn't wait another day because then I could've used Sarah's Saturday Sessions tutorial and saved myself a lot of F-bombing anguish. For real though, go check it out because she makes it easy peasy to understand.

Anywho, this post is probably gonna jump around a little bit because I have a lot of random things to talk about. First up, I started reading the book Sarah got me for my birthday. Do yourself a favor and pick up Bossypants by Tina Fey. It will actually make you laugh out loud while you're reading. I'm less than halfway through and I already have a list of people I'm going to lend it to. I even laughed reading the dedication at the beginning.

Next up, I had an awesome sleepover with my aunts, cousins, sister, and mom on Saturday night, except for the part where the Pillsbury Crescent roll can dropped on my foot and dented my toe.

We had margaritas and brownies and watched The Watch with Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. We all hated the movie, I don't even know why we finished it. It was that bad. Probably why it was free on demand. We had a great night and a great morning, but then it was the part we'd all been dreading. It was time to get ready for the baby shower. I knew that it's going to be a girl so I wore blue. Nice.

I hate baby showers. I've never liked baby showers. Everything about them bothers me - the pastels, the annoying games, the fake oohing and ahhing as the mom-to-be opens presents I don't give a fig a bout. It's boring and I'd rather be shoving my face full of buffalo chicken dip and alcohol.

Here is my shower favor. - a booboo bunny. I kinda can't wait to stub my toe and use this.

In all honesty, it turned out better than I thought it would be, but it's still not my favorite kind of party to go to. At least I looked cute.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who hates showers.

XO - Monny

P.S. - I was right about failing at the August Blogging Challenge. Dammit.

Never Again

Day 15: Today's Prompt Is: Somewhere new you visited in your town.

A few weeks ago, I went out to lunch with my mom at this little cafe she kept saying she wanted to take me to. She had been there for breakfast before and said it was cute and cheap. Well walking into the place, "cute" isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe it. If anything, it was dusty, outdated and dumpy.

When I looked at the menu, nothing really popped out at me, but I wanted to eat something substantial so I ordered something I thought would be a safe bet -- meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Not so much.

When we were waiting for our food, the waitress (who was kind of an old hag) brought us rolls. They were really doughy and while some were overbaked, the others were undercooked. They didn't taste like anything except flour. Gross.

After choking down some "rolls" our food finally came. I was expecting meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but what I got looked like an alcholic's damaged liver.

 I took one tiny bite and I was D-O-N-E done. I gagged. I thought I could at least be able to eat the mashed potatoes aka my favorite food in the whole world. Nope wrong there too. The texture felt like someone had put rubber cement in them. They were sticky. MASHED POTATOES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THAT WAY.

Needless to say I didn't touch my plate after that and my $4.50 lunch was worse than I expected for that price. We went for frozen yogurt to fill mah belly.

Let me know about your restaurant horror stories!

Lieby Lieby

I've been nominated for two, count'em TWO Liebster awards! I'd like to thank Kelli and Lorelai for being so sweet and nominating me.

There are too many sets of rules floating around for me to follow any of them so I'll just do what's easiest. The Rules:

1. Answer the 11 questions the person who tagged nominated you asks
2. Tag Nominate 11 other small blogs
3. Create 11 questions they will answer
4. Let them know you tagged nominated them

...and I'm adding the 11 facts from Lorelai's rules.

Eleven Random Facts about Me

1. Last year When I was younger, I punched a kid. 
2. I get itchy when I'm tired. Like I scratch my torso before I go to bed and when I wake up.
3. My big toes stick up like hitchhiker's thumbs.
4. I like to sing people's names when they don't hear me say it the first time.
5. Some textures and consistencies of certain foods make me gag.
6. When I get super stressed out with school, I get really bad panic attacks where I black out.
7. I stopped using shampoo in the beginning of July and I love my hair now. No-poo for the win!
8. I like characters in Harry Potter more than some of my own family members.
9. I made a promise to myself yesterday that my future home will not have carpeted stairs.
10. I don't drive. I can't afford it and to be honest, it scares the crap out of me. After being a passenger in an accident 6 years ago, I still tense up when I other vehicles driving towards the car I'm in.
11. I can't stand it when people tell me they don't like to read. I just don't get it.

Now for the interview (I'm using Kelli's because she nominated me first).

1. If you could live anyplace in the world (or not) where would you live? I'd love to spend some time in Spain, Rome, and Ireland for a little while.
2. What is your dream job? Audiologist! Hopefully I get to realize that dream after applying to grad schools this semester.
3. Why did you start blogging? I needed a new hobby and I loved reading other people's blogs.
4. Where did your blog name come from?It came from me drinking tea too fast to enjoy it and then looking down into the empty teacup
5. What is your favorite cold weather activity? Snuggling up in a blanket with a cup of tea and reading a book.
6. If someone gave you $1000 what would you splurge on? (You can’t pay bills with this money) New clothes or Lasik Surgery if I'm brave enough.
7. What is one beauty staple you can’t live without? Eyeliner
8. What is your favorite blogging tool? PicMonkey
9. Do you read the book or wait for the movie? Read the book always.
10. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Hmm, when school starts, I'll be a morning person, but in the summer I'ma major night owl.
11. Coke or Pepsi? Not a fan of soda, but Pepsi

 Blog Nominees! Oops! It's 2 am so I'm gonna say please use the questions I answered :)

Margaret
Jessy
Heidi
Kailagh
Emily

PA Meet Blogland, Blogland Meet PA

Day 13: Today's Prompt is:Introduce us to the state you came from

My state is kinda awesome if you're a history buff. It's even awesome if you're not. Someone once told me Pennsylvania has four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction. I laughed. The sad part is that it's kinda true. We do experience all four seasons, except this year which is weird because Spring didn't happen. Also Philly cheesesteaks and soft pretzels and Tastycakes.

So anyway, before this turns into a Philly appreciation post, I'll get back to history. History happened in PA. Like the BIRTH OF OUR NATION. That shiz happened in my city. Go Philly. Also, although I don't live in the city anymore, I still spend half of my time there for school. My hometown is also historical. Like Ben Franklin harnessed electricity THREE BLOCKS FROM MY HOUSE historical. People say on foggy nights, you can still see him walking in the field with his kite.  The Battle of Gettysburg AKA the BLOODIEST BATTLE AND TURNING POINT IN THE CIVIL WAR happened like 3 hours southwest of here. Boom!

I've visited all of these places so here is a photo dump!

liberty bell, duh // home of the 1st Continental Congress (Carpenter's Hall) // Betsy Ross's house

360 degree piece of the Battle of Gettysburg painted as it was happening

So my state is pretty awesomesauce. Yous should come visit.

XO - Monny

Hot Bloggers and Best Friends

Hey all, I've been slacking in the blogging department for the last few couple days so it's time to get back on track. I'm behind on the August Blogging Challenge so I'll abbreviate this post and give you a two-fer.

Day 11: Today's prompt is: Your 5 Favorite Blogs (a.k.a. blog crushes!)

Lord, I crush on everyone in Blogland. How can I pick just 5? Alright first, I love all the ladies on my sidebar. I click over to their blogs all the time. Go check'em out! 

Here are the five blogs I can't go a day without reading.

1. Erin at Two Thirds Hazel makes you feel like you're one of her friends just by reading her blog. She's so down to earth and her tweets make me laugh out loud all the time.
2. Erin's best friend Whitney blogs over at I Wore Yoga Pants to Work and this chick seems like so much fun to drink with. She probably has Fireball and Miller Light running in her veins and that's fine by me. Also, every Friday, you can #backthatazzup with her.
3. Adriana at Dog Hair is an Accessory is also hilarious (see a theme here?) She has a ton of awesome tutorials that helped me out when I started getting serious about this blog.
4. Sarah at Venus Trapped in Mars is like "ESPN for girls." Get your education on. Also, check out her Saturday Sessions. THEY'RE GOLD.
5. Shane at Whispering Sweet Nothings is adorable and I love that she understands the "not being able to gain weight" thing that I also deal with. And she writes a lot of lists! 

Day 12: Today's prompt is: What 5 words would your best friend use to describe you?

I asked 5 of my best friends to get some variety for this post. (And because I need some reassurance that people actually like me sometimes)

The most in-depth response I got was from my gingery cousin Greg so his gets the spotlight.

1. Compassionate - you're always considering others' feelings in situations 
2. Scholarly - you take school very seriously and are amazing at it (shut up, you are) 
3. Tenacious - you're so strong in your beliefs and what you want 
4. Spunky - you're very spirited when it comes to blogging and books 
5. Delightful - there's nobody else quite like you, definitely a pleasure to know

Peggy said I am musical, caring, giving, fun, and loving.

I had to drag an answer out of the boyfriend, go figure. He said beautiful, nerdy, smart, sarcastic, and loving.

Sarah said intelligent, supportive, thoughtful, goofy and fun. I'm hoping she means the good kind of goofy though.

Last but not least Amy said beautiful, smart, fashion-forward, silly, and (absolutely) lovely.

AW YOU GUYS MAKE ME BLUSH. I love them.



XO - Monny