Weeeeeee 2013

Source: lilluna.com via Denise on Pinterest

Ha, so maybe I'm a little late in writing the quintessential New Year's Day post---in which I share with y'all all the important life lessons I've learned throughout the year, as well as the resolutions I followed through on and what this new year's resolutions are---but it's okay because this is teenytinytidbits, and I do what I want and post when I feel like it. :)

At the end of 2011, I had the following not-so-obligatory resolutions set out for myself:

• to travel at least once in 2012,
• to go back to school in the Fall,
• to continue yoga classes,
• to find a better job, AND
• to learn how to ride a bicycle.

Oh, and I told myself it was quite alright that I hadn't learned how to dance. Hmmm, you know what, you guys??? I actually accomplished MOST of those resolutions in 2012. Well, except for the whole finding a better job thing, BUT as I stated back then, I wasn't in any real hurry to find one. I also travelled (not to Seattle) to Mexico at the end of the year. {don't you worry, my dear city, I will visit you this year.} With regards to school, we all know how that went: I started taking classes last summer, and now I've managed to get myself into graduate school (btw, classes start next Monday)! I also continued my yoga practice. AAAAAAAAAAND, crazy crazy crazy, I actually learned how to ride a bicycle. I think riding a bike is actually my most proudest moment of 2012. Like for-real-for-real.

Oh yeah, and while I still haven't formally learned how to dance, I have become more comfortable of just going crazy, letting go, and dancing my shoes off, and I've actually been admired and complimented for my dance moves HAHAHAHA.

Wow, when I look at all my accomplished resolutions, I feel, well, accomplished. Oh sure, 2012 had its dark moments (had my car totaled on the first day of 2012, found out the former-love-of-my-life got engaged, blah blah blah), but it also had magnificent moments, like going out with friends and lovers, listening to amazing new music, and forming new loving memories with really special people.

I still have a lot to learn and do in life, but lemme see, lemme see, what should my resolutions for 2013 be? Let's keep it simple and relaxed this year too, I give better results when I left to my own devices. Ok, well, I want to continue my yoga practice, but to be more specific, I want to be able to do the "camel pose" without getting dizzy. I want to have an awesome first semester of grad school, so I will strive to have all A's in my courses (we'll see how it all goes, I'm just gonna try my best). I also want to run a 5K...don't know which 5K event I will try to do, probably the balloon festival 5K this summer...Also, sure I've learned how to ride a bike, but I want to get better at riding my bicycle. Hmmm, and I should go to more concerts, if anyone good comes along :)

And...one last resolution...though it's not a mandatory one, but I really would like this one to come true this year...I want to move out and live on my own. Completely depend only on myself. Have a place to call my own, freely decorate it my way, have my own dishware, experiment with weird food concoctions (or eat cereal whenever I feel like it!)...

2012, I loved you. You were exactly what I thought you would be. I'll miss you, but I'm ready to meet 2013 and enjoy the new adventures that await. I'm ready to learn, love, and live some more. I hope everyone has a great new year!!!

P.S. My last post of 2012 mentioned an accident I was in. I'm happy to report that it has all been resolved: the other party's insurance paid for my Jeep's repairs and now I'm back to driving and singing my favorite songs! :)

Am I Learning?

I think I'm getting better at accepting the good things that have come my way lately. I can now officially say that I am in fact going to grad school in January 2013. I know, I'm still terrified out of my mind, and my feeling of terror reminded me of the mini panic attack I had in May, before I started the "summer of math" and all of the adventures I've had since then. However, the terror is made less, uhm, terrifying (forgive the unnecessary redundancy) by the fact that I am happy. I feel more confident too, confident in my intelligence and renewed hope.

There are a few minor differences this time around, regarding going back to school. The most important difference is I'm not afraid to admit that I don't know what I'm doing; I just know that I love Economics, I know what interests me in the field, and I'm just going to roll with whatever happens. Compare that to the start of my undergrad, boy was I crazy. 18-year-old Euni knew, just knew, that she was going to major in Marketing and get some fancy-schmancy job after graduation. HA. HA. HA. I do admire younger-me's passion though, and I feel like I'm regaining some of that passion and focusing it in a more positive way.

With regards to love, too, I've been struggling a bit more in accepting it for what it is. It's okay for me to love someone, and it's okay for that someone to love me back. I don't need to runaway or mask my fears with indifference. Like seriously, a really funny thing happened recently, in which God played a good-natured joke on me, just so I could realize that I didn't need to run away, but I'll relate that story another time.

Of course, being the overly cautious girl that I am, I can't say for sure that I've learned all that I needed to learn; there are still countless things for me to experience and learn from, and that is quite alright. Also, if I go through another rough patch, I'm okay with that, because I know things will always get better.

For this moment though, however brief or long it may be, I feel like my heart's in the sky, enjoying the warm sunshine in this cold weather...or like this song. Whichever image works best for y'all :)

Awesome Summer Blog Swap!

Greetings, Tidbits readers!

As y'all might notice on the right sidebar, I am a member of 20 Something Bloggers, an (you guessed it) online community for bloggers who are in their twenties. Anyway, through this awesome community, I had the pleasure of swapping blogs with this pretty cool girl, Domino J, who has her own blog at I AM ME, with this summer's theme being our most memorable childhood vacation. Enjoy her amazing post below, (and if y'all wanna read mine, y'all can visit her blog over here!)

As a child my summers were spent on the road. My mom was never one to take a plane, so wherever we went, she drove. We have been to New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and DC, all by car. We were always going somewhere for a family reunion but most of the time it was to visit my sisters. One of them was in the military and the other was married to a man in the Navy. So they both were stationed in different states. I can remember when my middle sister’s husband graduated from Navy basic training. His graduation was in a place not far from Chicago, Illinois. I was about ten years old and I can remember I was so excited because it was my first trip there. We stayed in this nice hotel by the water. I also had my first summer love and kiss there. It was my first look at boys (without the cooties).Ha!



After he graduated, they moved to various parts of VA. I actually stayed for the two months of summer vacation and it was the first time I had spent a full summer away from my mother. My mom raised me as a single parent so I was used to spending one month in GA with my dad. But I was a mommy’s girl and loved to be around my mother so it was very hard for me. After VA, they moved to Key West, FL. By this time I was fifteen, had already gotten my permit, and was ready for the road. This was my first long distance trip, where I actually got to drive. I was so excited; I ended up driving 11 hours of the 13-hour drive. It was beautiful. If you’re not familiar with the Florida Keys, they are a series of 5 islands, and Key West is at the southernmost tip of FL. Only 150 miles (a mere two hours) away from Cuba, it’s the last stop.


My most memorable trip was to San Antonio, Texas. I was about 7 or 8 years old and my oldest sister was graduating from the Air Force. She left after finishing high school. She had been gone for about 7 months (the longest she was away from home) and we missed her so much. We made that 2 ½ day ride through 5 different states and 2 time zones to get my sister. When we first arrived on base, we weren’t allowed to see her. So we just took our seats, a little disappointed, and waited for the ceremony to begin. I can remember it being a long drawn out presentation and I can’t remember what I did to occupy my time (I probably fell asleep). I just remember when they were about to start calling names and they asked the troops to stand up. I was the first one to spot my sister as she waited to be called. I told my mom and all we could do was yell her name, we were so excited to see her. She looked up and smiled at us with tears running down her face. It was a very emotional moment. The ceremony began, with my sister being in the beginning with her last name being Archie. She cried the whole time. After the event, we went to the famous Boardwalk of San Antoine, where we rode on the boat. Here we are all in this picture. (Front to back, left to right) My niece, me, my mom, my oldest sister’s bf at the time, my oldest sister, my middle sister’s bf at the time, my middle sister and her daughter.


 

 
Still to this day, I have a love for the road like no other. I guess this is how it all started.


A special thanks goes out to Domino J for this awesome post and for being an awesome blogger to meet and work with!!! :D

Best July EVER (...so far)

Happy July greetings to all!

I know we've only gone through like one full week of July, but man, has it been good to me. In the span of one week I did the following: signed up for yoga classes again, got a 100 on my latest Calculus exam, and got to drive around a few times by the end of the week (oh, and of course on the 4th of July as well). AND, I successfully drew a brontosaurus (long-neck herbivorous dinosaur) on green felt.

Anyway, enjoy the following pictures, as I do have a few new posts coming up in the next few days/week. I found these whale treasures, by the way, in the ONE DOLLAR SECTION at SuperTarget. (How does Target know that I love whales?)

Whale basket. Needs no purpose other than to be adorable.

I couldn't help myself. I bought ALL the $1 whales they had.

I LOVE WIRROW.

Oh yes, wirrow makes me oh so happy. Go check out his tumblr. So whimsical, nostalgic, and just plain CUTE.

And FINALLY...

MY FELT DINOSAUR. Don't know what I'm gonna do with it yet! :)

Music Monday: Venezia

Happy Music Monday! Thought it was time for some lightheartedness again, and I was in 1980s Spanish music mood---Hombres G to be more precise. The above song is titled Venezia, and this particular song has made a home in my mind as Texas welcomes the good old (infamous?) Texas summer weather. It is hot. Very hot, and it's gonna get only hotter as summer progresses, but it's all good, because that only means that autumn comes soon after. And y'all know how much I love autumn. (A whole lot, in case you didn't know.)

Anyway, GUESS WHAT!?!?!?

I finally....FINALLY....got a BICYCLE!!! I sure as hell don't know how to ride it yet, but this evening right after I made my two-wheeled investment, we stopped by the so-called COYOTE PARK (ok, really it's called East Hill Park, but I've seen coyotes and bobcats and even DEER in and around!), and decided to have my first lesson.

Me, with the highlighter pink shorts, and my mother, with a meme face for the sake of anonymity.

Yup, I got a PURPLE bike. It was either the purple girls' bike or the TONY HAWK boys' bike---now, I'm all for gender bending, but if I'm gonna look ridiculous while learning how to ride a bike, I might as well be as girly as possible....maybe I should have gone with a Barbie bike instead...

Anyway, I made a fool of myself in front of an Indian and a white family, for about half an hour. We had issues putting the bike back into the Jeep, so my mother decided my sister and I would ride the bike and/or run back home. OH JOY.

My sister rode the bike, and I decided to jog beside her all the way home, by the way. Here's a snapshot of our route. 0.6 of a mile, that's CRAY CRAY Y'ALL!

That's a lot of running on such short notice!

Anyway, now I'm home, tired. Glad to say that I'm FINALLY on the right track to doing what I want. Hopefully my bicycle adventures will get better! :) If not, y'all will sure get to witness my mistakes hahahaha!!!

Have a great day/evening/night (or whatever time it is)!

The Cat's Outta the...Envelope?

Happy Thursday (well, Friday, actually...) to all! I'm a terrible TERRIBLE person, first leading y'all to believe I was gonna write about something super AWESOME and PURR-FECT on my 100th post, and secondly telling y'all in my 100th post that I would totally share this particular something by Wednesday. But ya know, I'm a rebel, I take pleasure in NOT doing the things I tell myself to do. That, and you know, this thing called work gets in my way of what I really wanna do, and then I have dumb responsibilities (i.e. laundry and junk) that I have to take care of, blah blah blah, and then I also like to daydream and read Paul Krugman, you get the idea...but I am truly ashamed that it took me exactly a week to share this particular post with you all. I'm sorry. Please read this entire post and y'all will see it was worth the wait.

So let's start---I know, after a million years of me rambling on and on (stalling?), here we go. I'm a terrible storyteller by the way. I mentioned in my 100th post that in writing a blog, I have met some pretty cool people---like, super cool people, who enjoy writing (and do it well), as well as they enjoy the little and quirky things in life. {Note: by little I mean the underappreciated things we experience on a daily basis.} Woody, over at Woodn't Ya Know It, just happens to be one of these super cool people. Like, no lies, if you need to laugh or be lightheartedly entertained, you gotta check out his blog.

Anyway, Woody fancies thrift store adventures, and has a "Thrift Store Pen Pals" segment in his blog. The basic idea is he randomly (though in my case not so randomly) chooses one of the participating pen pals and sends them a thrift store "treasure." The rest of this post is about the totally awesome item I received and how it's found a new home.

Oh yes, brace yourselves.

I never get any mail, so imagine this pleasant surprise...

HELLO TABBY! My very own Kitty Photo Friends Photo Frame!! Just what I always wanted but never asked for!

Not impressed??? Just wait...look at all the amazing positions my HELLO TABBY can get into:

You really need to click on this picture to see HELLO TABBY in all its glory.

Naturally, since HELLO TABBY (as I decided to name it) is part feline-part photo frame, I decided to take a little tour around my work area and see what faces would suit him/her (this cat transcends gender barriers by the way)...Enjoy...

The instructions were a lot harder than I thought...

Starting off with POUTY TABBY, because all cats look good with pouty lips.

Or if you prefer tall, dark, and handsome---how about SULTRY TABBY?

Or how about some HELLO TABBY ala High School Musical?

Oh, Zac Efron wasn't the only celebrity to audition for the coveted role of HELLO TABBY, the Desk Companion:

No surprise that Ke$ha would wanna be HELLO TABBY, on the printer.

Khloe Kardashian decided to add an air of wilderness to her HELLO TABBY portrayal.

Ok, maybe---MAYBE---I'm a little biased, but I think Ryan Gosling is best suited for HELLO TABBY...

I mean, come on, HELLO [RYAN] TABBY looks good just standing next to the phone and office pens.

And he works well with his co-workers!

Nope, this is not Ryan Gosling, but to be fair, I had to let this horse join the competition.

A HUGE thanks goes out to Woody once again, for being awesome in sending out little treasures to his fellow blogger friends! If you want to participate in the project, head on over to Woodn't Ya Know It and check out the guidelines! (You won't regret it!)

{Not to make this post all pigtail-braces-glasses-nerdy, but this unexpected exercise was good for me---since I didn't know what was coming, I really couldn't prepare what I would say/write/do. I'm always insecure about my writing---is it good (i.e. well-written, worthwhile), and if it is, what I can I do to make the next one better, blah blah blah---but working on this allowed me to get out of my usual subjects/thoughts and go back to my more lighthearted and happy style.}

Anyway, thought I'd share the following icanhascheezburger cat video---I can't explain how I think it's semi-sort-of-related to this post besides the fact that it has cats. Enjoy :)

Music Monday: Meet Me On the Equinox

Two things: I'm a terrible person, and yeah, I totally am sharing a song that was on one of the Twilight soundtracks.

First thing first, some Death Cab For Cutie (looking forward to this Thursday!!!):



Second, so you know how in my previous post I was blabbing on and on about how it was my 99th---and that my next one (the 100th) was gonna be AWESOME and PURR-FECT??? Yeah, well, like always, whenever I make plans they don't work out. SOOOOO, now awesome 100th post. Instead you get another Music Monday post. BUT...the next one---the 101st post---will be great, and definitely worth the wait and worth a read once I publish it! I promise, it'll be here by THIS Wednesday. I PROMISE!! :)

Anyway, HAPPY 100TH POST, TEENY TINY TIDBITS!

I've never read this book, but it has its purpose.

It's been enlightening being able to write and share my thoughts, struggles, and daydreams with you all. And it's been interesting (to me at least) to see how I've evolved (a bit) in my writing. I'm getting better, though there is still a long way to go. I love having a bit of consistency---through the Music Monday segments---while everything else just kind of happens as it...well, happens. I also love how having a blog has led me to stumble upon other quirky, insightful, and really just great blogs and people. You guys are all awesome! :)

I'm looking forward to the next 100 posts (AND getting to meet new people and friends)!