I Never Thought Blogging Would...

I never thought blogging would be so.... hard, fun, and creatively challenging.

Blogging at work while the baby is napping! 

I decided to start blogging when I moved to Chicago right after graduating college. I figured it would be a way for me to document this huge new adventure in my life and maybe even shed some light on post-college life for those who were still in school. To be honest, I was surprised when people, besides my mom and grandma, would tell me that they read my blog and loved it. I truly thought that nobody cared and nobody wanted to read about my life. Turns out I was wrong.

In the beginning it was a lot easier to write because I was constantly discovering new things about the city, about improv, and about the people I was meeting. As I started to settle into life as a bill paying, 45 hour a week working adult I found it harder and harder to write. It all seemed boring and like nobody would care. I am slowly learning that if I care it doesn't matter if anyone else cares. Plus I am super forgetful so every time I thought of a good topic to write about I would promptly forget it. But now I have the blogger app on my phone so if I think of an idea I can write it down some place I won't lose it.

Now I finally feel like I am getting the hang of it! It took me over a year to reach out to the blogging community. And frankly if it wasn't for this blogging challenge and link up it might have taken me another year. Seeing so many wonderful blogs with creative and thoughtful content has helped me to push myself during this challenge and hopefully after it as well.

Best Halloween Memory

First of all I am on Bloglovin now, I think!!  Follow me and if for some reason I did it wrong let me know!

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays as a child! I can't actually remember having a bad one! (Well that's not entirely true, my freshman year of college I ended up falling asleep while watching Nightmare Before Christmas because nobody wanted to go out and do anything with me.) But that is besides the point because childhood Halloweens were the greatest. Trick or Treating in our neighborhood was like a game that, by the time we were in middle school, we had mastered. We had the neighborhood mapped out with a plan of action year to year. We knew which houses to hit early in the night because they had king sized candy bars that went fast, which houses to hit later in the night because they would want to get rid of the candy they had left, which houses to skip entirely, and when to go home and make a candy dump grab a snack and head back out. We would each haul in over 10 pounds of candy! Plus, in my neighborhood it was totally acceptable to go trick or treating even in high school so long as you dressed up and put an effort into your costume!

Senior Year!

I don't even think I have a favorite halloween though! All of them have such good memories for me! 

Forest Family Halloween Traditions: 

-Almost every year we would choose a pumpkin from my dad's garden, and on a good year there were pumpkins for all of our cousins as well.

And other years apparently only a few measly green ones

We are clearly a very photogenic family

-Sometimes we had big block parties for carving pumpkins.

-My mom always had a big taco bar at our house and all of our friends would come over for tacos before going out Trick or Treating.

-If we Trick or Treated to often at our own house my mother would start giving us fruit. 

-And at the end of the night organizing, trading, and eating our loot! 

#TBT I don't have any pictures from earlier than my junior year in high school because none of our old photographs on film are digital but I will provide you with a list of some of my favorite Halloween costumes. 

-Witch

-Hippie Fairy

-Baby

-Dorothy

- M&M (or Em & Em, with my friend Emilee)

-Four Peas in a Pod (with 3 friends)

-A Thingamajig (my best friend was a Thingamabob)

Last year I was Rachel Berry from Glee... Still haven't decided what to be this year, and time is running out. 

Letter to Myself in 10 years

Every time I have thought about this post I get that Brad Paisley song "Letter to Me" stuck in my head, that song is about writing a letter to your younger self though, and that seems to be easier. The thought of writing to myself in 5 years is overwhelming, so how am I supposed to articulate feelings to a 33 year old me.

I am only just barely an adult, and I can't seem to fathom a life that doesn't consist of trips the grocery store only once every few months, doing laundry only when I have run out of absolutely every pair of underwear in my drawer, or binge watching pretty much any TV show until 3 in the morning.

So if I wrote a letter to myself it would probably say something like this:

Dear 33 year old me,

Don't forget to water the plants on Sunday, I know that it is probably still hard for you to remember to do even though you have been watering the plants on the same day every week for 10 years. Congratulations on surviving your 20's hopefully with most of the few remaining marbles you survived your teens with.

I expect that if you are reading this you are sitting on a porch, sipping a glass of wine, while your children play in the yard. And you are quietly chipping away at a block of marble on your way to creating a sculpture so elegant and detailed it will rival the work of Michelangelo (If this isn't your life you have greatly disappointed me). But I can't imagine that with the stunning good looks, quick wit, and creative problem solving that I already possess at this young age you are creating anything less than the next great masterpiece.

All joking aside, though, I don't know what the last 10 years of your life looked like, but I hope they made you happy. I hope you decided on what you wanted to spend your life doing. And I hope it was something that challenged you creatively, intellectually, and maybe even physically (although physically seems highly unlikely to me on the young end of this 10 years).

Keep living the dream, that's all I ask!

Love,
22 year old me

Best Vacation Ever: China

The prompt today is best or worst vacation ever and I have been racking my brain for a story about the worst vacation ever and strangely enough I don't think it exists. I was privileged enough to have parents who took us on road trips and vacations all over the country. We visited numerous state and national parks as well as family along the way. However the absolute best trip I have been on has to be China.

6 years ago I was lucky enough to get to visit China with my family. My Uncle received a fullbright scholarship to teach in Xiamen for a year. My parents thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get to visit a country we would have never otherwise travelled to.

We spent a week in Xiamen with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Followed by 3 days in Xian (where the terra cotta soldiers are located) and lastly Beijing for 4 days. The trip was an incredible two weeks of seeing the iconic sites of china up close and personal as well as eating lots of food. Sometimes I dream about eating all that food again, I didn't have a single bad meal while there.

Instead of rambling on about my experiences I figured I would just post some of my favorite photos from the trip (prepare yourself I am not good at choosing).

Before and After our 2 week adventure

We ate so much yummy food except the sea worms (top right)

Buddhist monk from the temple next to my Aunt and Uncle's took a particular liking to my cousin.

Tea shop, not only were the walls full of tea but a we had a whole tea tasting before our purchase

We visited "The Round Houses" which are old villages in rural areas.

The Terra Cotta soldiers in Xian

Xian is the only city that still has it's complete city wall in tact. You can ride bicycles all the way around the perimeter (1 mile). This photo was taken only about 5 minutes into the ride and my sister already had her feet up... it was a long ride. 

Our overnight train ride in a sleeper car from Xian to Beijing

The Great Wall of China, it was as incredible as you think it would be. 

We went on a Hutong petticab tour in Beijing. Some very strong gentlemen pulled 3 of us in each of their carts.

You can actually buy luck crickets in the marketplace.

And my favorite.... American's aren't the only ones who put their kids on leashes!

My Aunt and Uncle are back in China this year and my little brother is going to be there for school next summer, I would give anything to go and visit all of them, if only I had thousands of dollars laying around.

10 Things I'd Tell Myself When I Started Blogging

I started blogging just over a year ago and it's been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I feel like I still don't have a good grip on what my blog is about or a good routine to write consistently. Despite all that I have grown a lot as a writer and a blogger in the past year.

So here are the 10 things I wish I could tell myself before I started blogging:

1.  Proofread! Proofread! Proofread! My first few posts were rife with grammar and spelling errors.

2. Always be drinking a glass of wine while blogging. It makes me feel fancier and more like an adult.

3. Don't "forget" to blog. There is no way for me to practice writing if I don't ever write.

4. Make time for writing. Along the same vein, I am finally figuring out that I have to schedule writing time the same way I schedule my work outs.

5. Write all your blogs at 3am. Because I am funnier and have no filter.

6. Be Patient. Don't feel intimidated by all the blogging culture. I am still taking the time to figure out my voice, and it's so hard not to compare myself to established bloggers who have been blogging for years.

7. Take Photos. Blog posts are more interesting to read and more personal if I could just remember to take more pictures of my life.

8. When an idea comes to you write it down. I can't tell you how many blog ideas I had that were lost to the black hole of my mind

9. If you can't drink a glass of wine at least have a cup of tea. It's just cozier.

10. Write for yourself! I sometimes get so caught up in if people are reading my blog, if the like my blog, if the care about what I am writing about, or even if they are annoyed by my Facebook posts about my blog. But then I remember that I started blogging for myself (and so my mom and grandma could keep up with my life) so it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks or if they even read it, because it's for me.

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, 

than to write for the public and have no self" 

-Cyril Connolly

My Fall Bucket List

Oh gosh, I am blogging so late at night!! Today was another crazy day mostly because I slept in and let myself have a lazy morning. But I did work out and went to my Level 4 conservatory show followed by seeing the Musical Improv Conservatory Level 6 show. 

I had a blast today performing with Bad Reunion! We had some weird shit happen on stage, which is pretty par for the course for shows with this group! I am so glad I get to perform with all of them and keep trucking along through this program and growing as an ensemble.

Now for my Fall Bucket List (which will be relatively redundant from this post earlier in the fall, but I will try my best)

• Get a Pumpkin (preferably from a pumpkin patch) and carve it up real nice. 
• Buy a nice good pair of boots to wear with all my peacoats and scarves. 
• Bake fall themed cookies. 
• Throw or attend and Autumnal Party. 
• Come up with a really bomb ass Halloween costume (this almost never happens). 
• Have an even more festive Friendsgiving than last year. 
• Take a really "artsy" photo using the fall foliage
• Drink A LOT of Pumpkin Beer
• Buy a bunch of cute scarves and sweaters to bolster my already large collection.
• Find a really good recipe for alcoholic hot apple cider
• Cuddle up and actually watch Beetlejuice and Hocus Pocus without falling asleep. 

But most of all brace myself for the inevitable cold that is going to rip through the charming, slightly chili fall we are having. 

Favorite Instagram Post

First of all, last night I had an incredible time performing in my first sketch show with a group of incredibly talented individuals who also happen to be my best friends. I am super duper excited to continue working with them as we continue to write sketch show for the coming spring!

My Favorite Instagram Post

It's so hard to choose a favorite instagram post. I feel like most of the pictures that I post on instagram have some significance to me even if it's just a small significance (hence why I post them, I guess). After looking through all my posts for quite a while trying to narrow it down to my favorite I decided on this one:

Working at the Lookingglass Theatre was one of the greatest theatrical experiences in my life, and to be honest was a life changing experience. Seeing so many talented artists working together and collaborating as a brand new play gets brought to life was so incredible. And Megan was so supportive of me during this show. I spent more time in the theatre than I did at home and so I didn't get to see her very often. But she was so great about meeting me for dinner, coming to see the show and all around supporting me and putting up with me coming home at midnight and being exhausted.

This one was a close second:

A moment of quiet escape from the bustle of the city.

Tomorrows prompt is going to be a lot of fun! You know how much I love fall!