7.17.2012

Blogger 411

I saw a few of you in my G-Reader this evening (okay, it's technically morning, but whatever - I haven't been to bed yet =) ) doing this link-up and it looks pretty fun!

1. How long have you been blogging? And what got you started on blogging? Has your blog changed?
This blog has been around since 2008/2009 but I actually started blogging back in 2003 when I was in college, on an old school Diaryland journal before switching to Livejournal for the majority of my college years. From there I blogged on Myspace for a bit and eventually I settled here on Blogger. I started blogging just as a way to share what was going on in my life, my thoughts, fun events and memories, etc. My blog has changed a lot - originally, back in college, I used to blog almost daily about my day to day adventures (or lack thereof). Then I started adding in movie reviews and thoughts on this and that. Then when I became pregnant I chronicled that whole adventure and now, being a mommy, a lot of my posting includes things about my son.

2. Did you go to college? If so where, and what did you study?
Yep, I went to NIU - Northern Illinois University - in good ol' DeKalb, IL. I started out as a journalism major, as I wanted to go into newspaper layout and design, however after working a semester on the school's newspaper doing just that, several of my fellow designers suggested I switch to the Visual Communications (VisCom) program. So I started art classes my 2nd year there, going through the art school program's prereq's for any art major, and began my VisCom classes my 3rd year. Due to stupid department politics though, I didn't pass my portfolio review. Since I already had half the requirements for a BA in Art done, I decided to just switch to that and do a journalism minor. I took every non-VisCom program graphic design class the university offered and eventually graduated (studio art classes were not my thing but unfortunately I had to take a certain number of them). I'm 3 classes shy of finishing my minor as 2 of the ones that were more design/art focused had to be taken consecutively and the 1st one wasn't offered the semester I had intended on taking it as the professor that taught it was on sabbatical or whatever that year.

3. Where have you traveled?
All over the US - growing up we always took a family vacation every year. I've done Disney World 3 times, Disneyland once, various trips to Pittsburgh area Pennsylvania to visit relatives (with stops in West Virginia as my grandparents like a few places just over the border there), St. Louis, CedarPoint in Ohio, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach several times, Mall of America, Pikes Peak in Colorado, Louisville Kentucky, the Wisconsin Dells... hubby and I have gone to Vegas and Dallas together... recently we just took a mini family vacation (Jay's first overnight trip!) to Madison, Wisconsin. I also took some school trips - 8th grade class trip to Toronto Canada, High School Band and Choir trip to Georgia (we visited Atlanta and Stoneledge Mountain), and our Senior class trip to Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak.

4. If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you would buy?
I would pay off our debts first - hubby's car, our house, our credit card, outstanding medical bills, payback my parents money they've lent us over the years, and then by myself a newer car that has air conditioning. Then I would probably pay for an addition onto our house so we can stay here much longer and get our landscaping/yard fixed. After that... probably save the rest, sitting some aside for Jay's private school tuition in the near future and some in an account for college tuition.

5. What are your 3 biggest pet peeves?
Having to repeat myself, people not picking up after themselves, people who suck at driving

6. What is your favorite movie?
I can't pick just one - here are some of my favorites though:
The Wedding Singer, Eurotrip, 300, Fight Club, Napoleon Dynamite, Zoolander

7. What is your drink of choice; wine, beer, or liquor. Or Water, Soda, Tea?
Usually water, or flavored water/lemonade. As far as alcoholic, I prefer mixed drinks (lately I've been enjoying TGIFriday's pre-mixed Mudslide mix, just pour over rocks!)

8. What is something you enjoy to do when you have me time?
Reading, watching TV, and doing stuff online like blogging

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, which store would it be?
Target

10. Share with us an embarrassing moment of your past? Or present.
I thought I blogged about it, but I guess not... years ago, I had a pair of jeans that zipped all the way up the outside of my legs. Now it was just a fashion detail, not intended for use, but the zippers really did work. I was making a quick stop out at the mall when the zipper broke at the top of one of my thighs! I noticed quickly and since I was heading to Victoria Secret to redeem a coupon for free underwear I showed the sales clerk my "problem" and asked if I could use one of their fitting rooms to try and fix it. It took a good 10 minutes or so until I got my pants back to a less revealing state. I quickly made my purchase and headed straight home, throwing out those pair as the zipper somehow was busted and wasn't really staying shut! Having to walk through the mall with nearly my entire leg hanging out (in winter no less!) was a bit embarrassing!

11. What day would you love to relive again?
Probably my wedding day - we had a lot of fun!

12. If your life was turned into a movie... what actor would play you?
Maybe Kate Hudson...? Or Avril Lavigne if they were documenting my high school/college years

13. What are the jobs you had in high school/college/the early years?
Like most girls, my first actual job was babysitting for families in our neighborhood. My first "official" job was for a market research company where I would sit in a cubicle, my computer would call consumers from all over the country and I had to persuade them to take a survey for research purposes - many people thought I was a telemarketer, but it paid really well at the time! The summer before college I worked for my aunt doing apartment maintenance work on several buildings her in-laws owned but her and my uncle managed. When I went off to college I started working for the school's newspaper doing design and layout which I worked at several nights a week all throughout college save for my last semester. I spent a summer as an unpaid graphics intern at my hometown's newspaper. I started working at the movie theater down at school and was there for several years, eventually joining the management team (this was my favorite job ever - if I wasn't a mommy I would totally go back to it!). 6 months after college I got a job for a small, family owned furniture sales promotion and consulting firm doing graphic design work for the business as well as for the stores we worked with. The poor economy affected that job though and my hours got cut to just being on-call and I haven't heard anything from them in nearly a year. When they first cut my hours to 2 days a week I got a part-time seasonal cashier job working for a Sears Essential store for a few months, but they couldn't afford to keep any seasonals on as they barely had enough hours to go around for their full-timers. Right before the next holiday season was when my hours got cut to the on-call so I went out and applied for jobs and being 5-6months pregnant, The Children's Place hired me for seasonal and decided to offer me a part-time position after the holidays. I'll have been there 2 years this November and am basically the senior associate on staff as the store manager is the only that's still around from when I 1st started. I don't mind it most days now that my schedule is to my liking (2-3 days a week), it gets me out of the house and around adults to somewhat socialize with, plus the discount is a great perk of the job, having a toddler who needs clothes, and it's a little extra spending money that we can spend on Jay or myself or housewares! They've talked to me about moving up to the management team several times now, however I'm not really interested in that - I was working 30+ hours a week during the last holiday season and as a mommy, it was killing me giving up that much time with Jay. Since hubby is the "bread-winner" in our house, I technically don't need to be working so I really don't want those kind of hours; 2-3 shifts a week (10-15 hours) is just fine for me.

14. Show us a picture from high school or college.


Move-in day my first weekend at college, August 2002, in my dorm's lobby
That's my 1st ever roommate, my little sis
(with the Huskie dog mascot she gave me that I *still* sleep with) and me


15. If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?
Europe! I would LOVE to visit Europe someday - especially France, Germany, and Czechoslovakia (specifically where my family's "motherland" Bohemia used to be)

16. Show us the most current picture of you or you and your family.
 
 Me, hubby and Jay at my sis's wedding back in March

And our pets:

Tiger 
She's a domestic Egyptian Mau who will be 4 in October
(hubby gave her to me for Christmas 2008)

 
Lady (aka Lady Girl) 
She's a super sweet 3 or 4 year old Border Collie/Lab/Australian Shepherd mix
whom we recently took in from my in-law's house

17. Where do you see your life 5 years from now?
5 years... I'll be on the verge of turning 33... similar to where we are now but hopefully we'll have another child added to our family and hubby will be full-time at his job at UPS so he he won't be working the crummy day job he hates and will be around more and our finances will not be so tight.

1 comment:

What's your thoughts?