Day 2: 19 things I love

Day 2 is not much of an article but rather a list of some random things that I am fond of. This is a chance for people to get to know me, as well as a chance for me to share my current interests.

1.     Rain: I have always found relaxation in the sound of rain. I highly recommend listening to the sound of rain while doing work. This website is awesome! 

2.     Learning from other people: I love learning from people; it’s how I best remember things. Sometimes I wish our lives were like movies, so that I could see what everyone experiences on a daily basis.

3.     Walking: One of the most therapeutic things for me to do. This is one of the reasons why I love cities. There is always a buzz and somewhere to be, and walking is the best mode of transportation.

July 2015- NYC is a great place for walking! 

4.     The Ocean: Another therapeutic experience. I love how small and alive I feel when I am near an ocean. It gives me a chance to forget about my day-to-day worries and I can just take in the waves and the salty ocean air.

Summer 2015 Newport, RI

Favorite quote! 

5.     Dancing/watching Dancing with the stars: I love to dance, but don’t know how. I like to lead when I dance, which doesn’t make sense since I do not have a dancing bone in my body. I basically make a fool out of myself every time I get on a dance floor. But that’s okay because it’s fun. The great thing about dancing is that anyone can do it. You might not be good at dancing but give it your best. If you are on the same dance floor as me, trust me you will never be the worst dancer at the party. *I should probably take some dance lessons.

One of my favorite dances on the show, very cute!

6.     Sleep:  If I do not get enough sleep I turn into an angry lion. Runaway!

7.     Coffee: I love it so much that I have written poems about it and compared myself to it. I’m at the sad point in my life where I get a headache if I do not drink at least one cup a day (a.k.a the point of no return).

8.     Spending time alone: I am learning to become a more social person, and am genuinely enjoying spending time with others. But by nature I am an introvert and still need some alone time to recharge.

9.     Baseball: It is the one thing in my life that always makes me feel young. Every game, whether I’m watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio, I feel like a five-year-old kid at their first baseball game.                                          

My 2014 High School senior quote 

Summer 2015 first time at Yankee Stadium

10. Frank Sinatra: He is one of my favorites on this list. I love his music and personality. 

11. Musical theatre (appreciation for all theatre and performances, really): I get nervous from simply giving class presentations. I will never be a performer, but, boy, do I appreciate performances. I get a rush whenever I watch musical theatre.

"Nowadays" -Chicago (film 2002)

12. The East coast: I haven’t visited much of the world, or the U.S., for that matter, but I’ve been fortunate to visit some Northeast states and I loved them! I would actually love to move out there sometime after college.

13. My family: (Immediate and extended) although I may have trust issues, I have learned to trust my family members and have found that they truly have my best interests at heart. *I need to tell them that I love them more often.

14. Movies: This quote from Martin Scorsese sums up my admiration for movies: “Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life time, we need to keep them alive.”

15. Bagels and Donuts: No words. (btw, NYC Bagels are the best!)

16. T.V. shows: Sex and City, Mad Men, Gilmore Girls, Friends, Cheers

One of my favorite scenes from Mad Men

17. Navy blue: My favorite color and my go-to neutral. So many times I have to stop myself from wearing navy because of how often I wear it.

18. Holidays: Easter, Mothers/Fathers day, 4^th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas

Christmas 2015 

19. Brunch: I get to sleep in and still have a filling meal. I don’t have brunch too often, but when I do, it is quite a treat.  

It wasn’t easy to come up with a list of 19 of my favorite things; it required a lot of brainstorming. I’d love to hear from anyone who likes some of the things on this list too J

-Diana 

Day 1: 19 and Crazy

My 19^th year of life has been one of the best yet! I cannot remember the last time I had an entire year of happiness. That’s not to say that I was in a good mood every day; I still had bad days and sleepless nights. However, good doesn’t mean perfect. And my 19^th year has been just that, good but not perfect.  For the next 19 days I will be writing daily articles that will lead to my 20^th birthday. I will be sharing things about my life that I feel have had an impact in making me who I am and who I hope to be as I get older. I share these articles in the hopes that the people around me might get to know me better and that maybe for a while, see what goes on in my head. I mostly write the articles for myself. For the past 19 years, I have been selfish; I won’t lie, sometimes it’s in a bratty way but it’s mostly in a healthy way. I have learned that being selfish is good because I have to love myself before I can truly care for the people around me. I have noticed that many people (myself included) don’t value ourselves as much as we should. We deny ourselves the love that we so rightly deserve. When really we should be our own biggest fans. So I hope that as I grow older I can continue to build myself up and love myself for my own good, as well as the people around me that need to know they are loved.

My 19 and Crazy project is not only inspired by my awesome year, but by my fear of growing up and my decision to embrace change.

So here I am life, writing about things that matter to me. Some of the articles I write will be shorter and silly, while others, more personal. I have never shared my personal writing publicly with my family and friends so this is a big step for me, and honestly I am scared, but this is a step I need to make.

Song of the day

The title for my “project” comes from an old country song that I loved in middle school. I belted it at the top of my lungs waiting for a day in my life that I would feel alive. And who would of thought that my 19^th year would do this for me? The words in this song don’t all ring true to my life, but I can definitely relate to the feelings.

Some lyrics:

Being free, being wild, being bulletproof

Back then we were rebels without a clue

Nothing in the world that we wouldn't do

Didn't give a da*n what people say

We were doing it, doing it our way

I wish that we could always stay

Nineteen and crazy

My lingering thought of the day:

“My happy year doesn’t have to end. I learned that life can be good; if you put in the effort, it can be. So often I would stand waiting for an amazing moment that would change everything. But I had to go out and make the changes, I had to search for the ways that my life could be good.”

*Disclaimer these articles will serve as a sort of scrapbook; I will probably be clipping songs, videos, pictures, etc.

-Diana 

Mini Easter Haul

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! The weather in Chicago wasn't very "springy," but it was nice to celebrate the holiday with family anyways! I did a bit of shopping and got a gift from the Easter bunny!

Saturday morning my family and I headed to the outlet mall. As a college student I appreciate shopping discount and it was great that J.Crew Factory was 50% off! Unfortunately I didn't find much, but I did find a couple of things that I LOVE --> Navy Blue Chino shorts (where are you warmer weather?) and a flower "clusterish" necklace with gold hardware. I have been eyeing the necklace for months and feel that it is very versatile. The chinos are also a great addition to my wardrobe because Navy is my neutral and I just know I will get a ton of use out of the shorts once the weather is appropriate. 

Target is always promising and on my latest trip this past Saturday I picked up a Burt's Bees lipstick in the color 532 Russet River. I love everything about this new product and plan on getting more shades. The lipstick is moisturizing, color is lightly pigmented so it's easy to build up, the packaging is sleek, eco friendly, and fun! The second item I purchased is an exfoliating body scrub AND wash! It is genius that this product is two in one. The brand You are Amazing had about 6 different scents to choose from and the tube of 8oz was $3.99. I loved the scent I picked up and the price (again broke college student-wants a bang for her buck.) This product immediately smoothed out my dry winter skin after one use. It is a quick and easy product to use that made me feel like I put much more effort into my shower routine than I really did. 

You are never too old for a teat from the Easter bunny! As a girl with super stick straight hair I have found myself with a plethora of curling irons, some got old and thrown out, others lost, some broken, and others I gave up on. I somehow am always looking for my next go to curling iron. I have a 1in, 1.5 in, and a curling wand, but oh no I was now missing a 1.25in! I justify each heating tool because hello, they all do something different. So the Easter bunny heard my cry and got me a curling iron! I was way too excited about this. I tried it right away and loved it. It is a Pro Beauty tools 1.25in curling iron and is fairly inexpensive. It gave me the loose bouncy curls I was looking for and was easy to use. I highly recommend this curling iron because you are given full control of the heat temperature (also heats up fairly quickly,) the cord is long and rotates 360 degrees, and the handle is thin and easy to grasp. 

Sometimes you just need a few treats to perk you up and I am so happy with this mini haul because they are all products I will get much use out of! 

-Diana 

The blog post I promised would be up, or something like that.

My explanation for this short and random blog post:
So today I planned on posting something, anything, but something. I had two great ideas and started both, but they both turned out to be more complex, they will go up within the next week or two, but not today. I found that I got really into the posts and they were becoming longer than I planned and needed to be proof read. And tonight I do not have time to write a long post as well as edit it all in one sitting. I will make time to blog, yet in order to make time I realized that I have to schedule things out more and work little by little. My blog posts will not be well done if I rush them.

At least I did't waste my day:
But on the other hand I wanted to update everyone with how my day went. I was more productive than usual and instead of spending time on social media all day, I actually completed an assignment and felt that I worked really hard on it. I was also able to concentrate on it with out distractions. I read the WSJ, made a smoothie (haven't done this in months,) and I met for coffee with a friend. These are things I usually don't have time for. But I'm learning to make time!

Last tid bit:
I have been obsessed with Amos Lee's song Learned A Lot. I'm inserting it below, I hope you enjoy it too. I came across this song on The Bachelor-- I can't believe I just admitted that I watch that.

Baby steps, I can't become a different person in one day.

-Diana

In the spur of the moment, I Promise!

Oh goodness, I was so proud of how usual the blog posts were, and so disappointed when they stopped. I got "busy" but the truth is that I should have made time. I let social media control me, I want to stop using it so much, I want to be a more productive person. I promise that I will start blogging again, about whatever I want and I will keep blogging even if this blog does not get too many readers. But I will do this for myself. I'm going to do better, I Promise. I will keep up with this blog, I Promise.

So here's to me sticking to something and being consistent. Because, I know that I can do better and if I don't force myself to do better, who else will?

Who knows what I'll post tomorrow, but something WILL be up!

-Diana

December on the Beach with Vogue

Happy New Year!! I have been meaning to put up some blog posts in the past weeks but I have been so busy and I am finally able to put up a quick post today.  I was in Puerto Vallarta about a week and a half ago and I thought that today I would share that small trip with you all.

I had a great time at the beach.  It was nice to get warm weather in the middle of winter.  I sat under the sun the entire time that I was there because I really wanted to get tan.  Safe to say that I did get some color!  I am definitely not looking forward to the freezing weather that I will return to on Sunday night.

One of my favorite things that I did while on vacation was drink fresh coconut water.  I love everything coconut and I had never drank water right out of the coconut.  There were many coconut vendors on the beach.  It was really cool to see them open the coconut right in front of me, then they would come back and take out the coconut meat so I could eat it-- may I say it was delicious!

I am so thankful for the vacation that I was able to take with my family this winter break.  When I went to Cancun this past June I fell in love with the ocean.  I love going to the beach and cannot wait to return.  The beach is a great place to really relax.  I love looking out to the ocean, it allows me to forget about my everyday worries like school and work.  We all need a break some times.

After my last few trips to beautiful beaches I have found that this quote is true.  Sometimes we have to let out emotions out, other times we have to work hard, and if not sometimes we just have to get away.

-Diana