lovin' my vida loca

lovin' my vida loca!

 I dedicate this post to you Allison, as I know you will fully appreciate it.

That awesome pen

You know when you have that really great pen that is such an enjoyment to write with and you can't get enough of it?  And you compare every pen you use to it and everytime you have to use a different one, it's just not the same?!  Sigh...

"it's all about perceptions"

How many times have you heard that one?!  Jeez.  We are all SO focused on looking good all the time, because we all judge and know it.  But imagine a life where you didn't concern yourself with looking good, where you didn't care what people perceived you as, you just acted as you wanted.  That would be pretty liberating wouldn't it? 

FREEDOM!!!

Gotta plug Brave...my friend Sheryl's been working on its PR.  :P

Banker shitting on kids

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/ally-financials-self-mocking-ads-a-funny-money-withdrawal/article4673282/?cmpid=rss1

I personally loved those banking ads where the banker is talking to kids and then screws them over some how.  Although I can see how it can be perceived as not the best way to represent a banking brand, unless they are adhering to a no "fine print" type of approach.  I will miss seeing these ads on TV...

How to take full responsibility for your actions

What You Should Stop Doing In Your Twenties 

REALLY enjoyed this article.  Brings a new perspective to looking at things and puts all the authority and power in your hands.  Being accountable and accepting while living the life YOU want.

No Doubt!

It's been awhile since I've listened to No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom and on a whim decided to download it on iTunes last night.  Started listening to it on my walk from the subway to work this morning and can't turn it off!  SO many memories...and I love how I still remember all the lyrics!  SO pumped for their new album and hopefully a T-dot concert soon!  Tough to not be in an ecstatic mood this morning when listening to them!  I actually read an article today in Chatelaine that music helps work productivity, so nobody can tell me to turn it off!  :D 


Ok so I was wrong, Push and Shove was released on September 25th...I just didn't see it in iTunes.  Downloaded and soon to be enjoyed!

Growing up

You know, ever since I can remember I thought that I was grown up.  I was grown up when at age 11 I started wearing ripped jeans to picture day, shaving my arm pits and listening to Boys II Men.  At least I thought I was.  I won't write all the other ways I thought I was grown, since this is a public blog and I don't want to devastate my parents or any other family members. ;)  Although I did get caught for everything...  Anyways, it's only recently that I've realized how non-grown up I am.  I look at responsibility and cringe.  What?!  Pay bills?!  I'm too young for that...I'm not ready...I want to buy pretty things and party, not pay for my car and the roof over my head.  I've been looking at life as forcing me to do be responsible and it's made me frustrated because I don't feel ready.  But there was a reason that youthful me wanted to be seen as a grown up.  It was the appeal of saying "this is who i am, this is what i do and it's all my choice."  Well I realize now that the roof over my head, my phone bill and all the other costs existing in my life are my CHOICE.  I love my life and I have to be responsible in order to continue loving it.  If I were to say F it! to all the responsibilities, where would that leave me?  Probably squeegying (sp?) some windows downtown while trying to figure out what the next fun/unhealthy thing there is to do.  So I have decided to embrace responsibility and be grown up, because it allows me to do whatever I want, when I want. 

30 before 30

What?  I'm going to be 30 one day?!  Really in less than 3 years?  (Response reflected above.)

In order to avoid being absolutely devastated when the time to be old comes about (sorry for anyone 30 or above reading this), I am going to post 30 exciting things I would like to do before I am 30.  That's 10 things a year...on average...but knowing me and how much I love procrastinating, I will probably do all 30 when I'm 29.

1. Have a child

2. Get married

3. Go on a fabulous honeymoon

4. Have a job that I love...in other words, get my dream job (in the works)

5. Run a 10KM Run (scheduled for May 2013)

6. Go down 2 pant sizes

7. Have my parents do Landmark

8. Help SIPO expand into a new country

9. Be a PR wiz

10. Have at least 30 blog posts and 30 comments on here

11. Be doing yoga at least once a week

12. Take a boxing class

13. Learn how to jump on my snowboard...and land without hurting myself.

14. Learn how to barefoot ski

15. See my 2 grandmothers

16. Visit Poland twice (once will be in 2013, the second in 2014 for my 2nd wedding)

17. Do 2 more LM courses

18. Be in the best shape of my life

19. Get a tattoo

20. Take a 3 week trip somewhere awesome with Jay

21. Have a new sexy hybrid car

22. Win another best costume award

23. Break into a Spice Girls routine at a bar

24. Achieve inner peace

25. Medidate everyday

26. Have a pot luck

27. Convince Jay to get a tattoo of me

28. Go on a trip with both my parents

29. See Asia

30. Be debt-free

I have to say that I didn't think as BIG as I could have on the above.  I'm still stuck in the head space of only committing to things I actually see as being possible and envisioning how they'll come about.  Big things happen when you think big and don't limit yourself.  Who knows, maybe I'll come out with an even BIGGER list.

How life decisions impact your face

Do the decisions we make in life and the things we go through impact how we look?  Or does it not make a difference at all?  Click the link below to read and look at soldiers before, during and after the Afghanistan war.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2012/10/17/claire_felicie_s_photographs_marines_faces_before_during_and_after_afghanistan.html

Hooray!

HOORAY FOR EVERYTHING!

Yes, how did you know, this is another quote by my lovely friend Annie.  Who is SO inspiring.  She has recently been laid off of work and has she taken on a bad attitude about it?  Told herself that she sucks and will never get another job?  Hell no!  Instead she is saying stuff like the above.  Incredible. 

A quote about those beings that brought us into existence...

Parents - the people we have the most vulnerability for and the least amount of tools to behave as mutual adults with

- Annie's Words of Wisdom 

 

Bailing

Is it just me?  Or do you get excited making plans, but the second they're supposed to happen, you feel like bailing?  This happens to me all the time.  Call it laziness or tiredness, either way, it's just how it is.  I tend to think that being a bum on my couch will be more satisfying than seeing a person I care about or doing something good for myself or something that's fun. BUT I will usually continue with my plans and end up having a really great time.  I'll learn something new about myself, feel better about things I'm going through, have some laughs with some friends...  So in the end I'm happy I didn't bail...now I need to remind myself of this every time I commit to doing something, as I really don't know how the plans will go and it's very likely that they'll be more fun or enlightening than watching vampires seducing humans and beating up werewolves.  That's what hangovers are for anyways...

cartoon doughnuts

there's just something about those pink frosted covered in sprinkles cartoon donuts...

lampshades

"lampshades?"

"you know, you wear them when you are toasted?"

-- Another lovely quote by Annie that made me giggle. This was the pic she sent me along with it...

Oh to be "cool"...

Cool.  What does that even mean?

According to freedictionary.com/cool it means:

cool  (kl)

adj. cool·er, cool·est

1. Neither warm nor very cold; moderately cold: fresh, cool water; a cool autumn evening.

2. Giving or suggesting relief from heat: a cool breeze; a cool blouse.

3. Marked by calm self-control: a cool negotiator.

4. Marked by indifference, disdain, or dislike; unfriendly or unresponsive: a cool greeting; was cool to the idea of higher taxes.

5. Of, relating to, or characteristic of colors, such as blue and green, that produce the impression of coolness.

6. Slang

a. Excellent; first-rate: has a cool sports car; had a cool time at the party.

b. Acceptable; satisfactory: It's cool if you don't want to talk about it.

7. Slang Entire; full: worth a cool million.

We use the world so freely to describe things/people/events/actions/etc. that we like.  Freedictionary.com  says it means "excellent".  So when I think a person, let's say Arlene Dickinson is cool, am I thinking she's excellent or am I thinking "I want to be like her"?  I feel like cool is often used to describe something we consider to be unachievable or difficult to become.  It's like you're either born with or not.  Or we simply reject what we would define as being "cool" because we have negative associations with it and we don't feel like we should try and be a certain way.  So we do what we think is the opposite of what others would consider being cool is.  It's like we have this love/hate relationship with the word.

I have definitely heard before "stop being cool", so in that case is being cool not a good thing?  Do we want to be cool or not?!  I would say the best way to define it is that if we describe something as "cool", it either means we really appreciate what that thing/person/event/action/etc. is about.  And when it is used in a "don't be that way" fashion, it is simply sarcastic and a person is telling you to not be fake and to be yourself. 

I say we all be ourselves and not worry about how others will judge or define our words/actions.  In the end we'll only feel fulfilled if we are true to ourselves and not trying to be a certain way. Obviously coolness is completely subjective and not a clear cut adjective that everyone will understand the same way.  Or at least in my opinion it is...

Congrats!

A little something I came across on Pinterest....what a great way to welcome a baby into the world, by giving this sweet note to the parents.  So sweet.

Words of sweetness

So Annie is the best...today she expressed to me a very sweet compliment after my shitty ass morning and questioning my capabilities as a leader.  Best!!

you are shaman able to shake a stick and get people complete with their own shiz

Note this...

Okay, so I'm a big note taker.  Never was in school, but now that I'm older, wiser and more forgetful, I realized that if I don't write something down, I will most likely forget it.  Unless it's like buying something that I really want like a cute pair of shoes or booking a vacation.  But when it comes to the mundane life things like remembering what groceries to buy or gift ideas, etc. I need to log it in a place I can easily reference.  I struggled with the "Note" app on my iPhone and it was not doing what I needed.  So I found out about Awesome Note and downloaded it...and yes, it is awesome! with a capital pink.  For an app, it's pretty premium...$3.99.  But honestly, how much is that?  Like the price of a Starbuck's Latte?  And since it's helped me stay more organized, I say it's worth it. 

Quote of the day

My dear friend Annie said today:

our characters are like the titans and we haven't found the parts of us that are like the gods to take those bitches down.

Doesn't matter how many you pop out, there can always be a mishap

Tori Spelling has been hospitalized after the birth of her fourth child.  Scary stuff!

 http://www.tmz.com/2012/09/18/tori-spelling-hospitalized-pregnancy-baby-finn/ via @TMZ

Good tunes randomly stumbled across

Not sure if download worthy, but def enjoyable.

http://grooveshark.com/album/Seeds/5647214

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuup

Hi.  I'm Maria.  And I decided I have a lot of random things to share and I need a place to do it.  I can't post everything on Facebook, because then I spam people's mini-feeds.  And Twitter...not feeling it, I'm too limited in how much I can write on it.  Here I can blab on for as long as I want...and you get to read it.  :D  Or not...  So, yeah, I created a blog to mainly keep myself entertained and secondly, if anyone else wants to read, then entertain them (you) as well.

Anyways, a bit about me.  I get bored easily.  I have a tough time focusing on things and constantly distract myself from my responsibilities.  I normally have at least 15 windows open on my computer and jump through them all, depending on what I feel like doing.  I am an app junkie, i love games, i thoroughly enjoy drinking (especially wine), eating, reality TV, fiction novels, shopping, self-development, psychology, music (espesh alternative), photography............the list goes on and on.  I'll probably write about most of these things.  Hope you enjoy! 

P.S. Playing McPixel on my phone in this.  It's a pretty sweet app.   It's in old school comp styles...all pixelated and you basically try and get this dude to diffuse various scenarios so that they don't explode.  It's pretty funny if you like minor violence, randomness and thinking games (not too much thinking).  Let's just say most times you try and touch a person, your immediate first move is to kick them.  I know randomness, but I enjoyed it for like 15 minutes!  Which is pretty long compared to most other apps.