Saturday, January 31, 2015

Skiing, Wings, and Deflated Footballs



I am more than half way through my first year as a 20 year old.  That is the reason why I began this blog, for those of you either can't remember my first post or if you're just starting to follow my blog now (check out The Beginning).

I will admit that I am probably not half way completed with my one-year bucket list - cut me some slack people! - and to be honest, I have been hoping even if I don't do everything on my bucket list, I would be inspired to do other things for the first time as well ... that's what this week has been dedicated to!


On Wednesday, I went to my first ever cross country skiing meet!  My cousin had her conference meet so I decided to go support her (and hang out with my grandparents and uncle!).  Here's a little something that people should know about cross country skiing because I had absolutely no clue what this sport entailed.


1) There are two kinds of cross country skiing - classic and skate.  Classic is where they constantly use their arms to push themselves across the snow and snow.  Skate is pretty self-explanatory as it looks like they are skating.  Basically it's this crazy workout - I think I'd rather do P90X (that's still around right?)

2) At the bigger meets, they do one of the types of skiing first (and they send the skiers off every 15 seconds from the start line).  Then, after getting every skier's time, they send them out to do the same course but with the other type of skiing and they start each person in their time placement so there's a true winner.

3) Cross country skiing is like cross country running but worse because it's icy and dangerous to go down hills, two 5K's have to be completed, AND it's super cold! Probably the worst thing about this sport is no concession stand, so I give my cousin a lot of credit for doing this insane sport.

Now comes the wings.  Thursday night, I went with two of my roommates to a restaurant known for their wings (no, not Buffalo Wild Wings) called The D-Spot. My roommate (her name is Nikki just for future reference so we don't confused ... also S/O to her!) found this place through some other friends and it's really hard for us to pass up wings.

So we get to the location and it's in this strip-mall type thing. It's an order when you get there thing, then you find your seat. Also, I'm going to be honest, I was slightly confused on the theme of the restaurant, but no worries, Nikki informed me it was "edgy-weird-yum" which I agree with (in the best way!). Other good things to know - they serve bottled water and canned pop so you can't drink a bunch before your wings come otherwise you have to purchase more, ranch and blue-cheese dressings cost extra, and the wings are traditional so this is not the place for a first date.  Try it on your tenth date or something! Since there was three of us, we decided to all order different wings and split them.  It sounds kind of weird, but we ordered French Toast wings, PB & J wings, and Teriyaki wings.

French Toast Wings
First, came the French Toast wings.  They were quite sweet, with a maple sauce (not as thick as syrup) and powdered sugar on top.  I would definitely give them a 6 out of 10. Jill (my other roommate ... S/O to her as well - congrats you two!) agreed with me and gave them a 6, but Nikki gave them a 5.  We all agreed though there was no way you could eat the whole basket of French Toast wings by yourself.

The second type of wings that came to our table were the PB&J wings. They were a little too weird for dinner - and I don't really think I want to eat wings for dessert, no matter how sweet they are.  It was almost too much to eat more than one of those wings.  The peanut butter taste was quite evident while the grape jelly was more of a subtle taste, but still very sweet - and it was agreed upon by the three of us that we were glad we jumped at the opportunity to try them, but we probably wouldn't order them again.
PB&J Wings

The Teriyaki wings were delicious and my favorite out of all three kinds.  In all honesty, I liked these teriyaki wings better than the teriyaki wings at Buffalo Wild Wings, which Nikki claims is blasphemy but I can't help it! I even gave the wings an 8.5 out of 10!!! Jill and Nikki did give them a 7 out of 10 though! Here's the deal - the sauce was tangier (that's a word, right?) than the ones at Buffalo Wild Wings and there was more sauce - what's not to like?!

Overall ... I'd go back there again.

And as for my third "first" of the week ... This is the first year that I have wanted both teams in the Superbowl to lose. I know there are many people shaking their heads right now.

I'm a Bronco's fan (mainly because Peyton Manning is my all time favorite football player) and as many of you will recall, the Seahawks destroyed my beloved quarterback and team last year.  It's painful still as I type this out!!! As for the Patriots, well, I'm (not) sorry, but I have never been a fan of Tom Brady (and I don't think he's that good-looking either like many women across America do) and the Patriots.  Needless to say, I don't like either teams in the Superbowl this year, and honestly, I don't even know if I am going to watch because I cannot stand to listen to all these darn interviews and ESPN reporters talking about these deflated footballs! Even if this is a real thing, lets just all accept the fact that 1) it's the referee's job to check the footballs and 2) the Patriots were going to beat the Colts regardless.

Happy week of firsts! 

And enjoy the Superbowl, if you decide to watch!




-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis
Lexi




Monday, January 26, 2015

I am a Photographer



I was reading another blog the other day (Rowdy Kittens - also, check it out in my Link Love sidebar) and this lady is just super sweet.  I love people who break stereotypes and one of the rules she breaks is this idea the world has about photographers.

She takes almost all of her pictures with an iPhone and still calls herself a photographer (and she's a good one, too!).

I think photographers are often classified as people who take fancy photos with their fancy cameras in their fancy studios.  While there is nothing wrong with that because I have that (and by that I mean the fancy camera, not a fancy studio, and I can only try to take fancy photos), I think that there are many people in this world who take great photos but wouldn't consider themselves a photographer.  I would say I am the same way, and I even have a slight "in" to the photography world as I am already a journalism major and will sometimes be taking photos.

This is all relative, because the point I am getting at is that I just took a Photojournalism class and I want to take the time to share the pictures I took for my projects, and some that I took this past month just for fun as well!

And, I am going to calling myself a Photographer.





























































-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis
Lexi





Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Diary of Fashionista



I'm sure many people are familiar with the famous Pinterest fail posts.  I think they are hilarious because while Pinterest has many great ideas (Example A: this mason jar candle thing I made over Christmas break), some ideas are - for lack of a better word - worthless.  Like, do people really believe that 30 jumping jacks, 10 crunches, and a 60 second plank a day for 30 days will give you a beach body? Please. 

That is all beside the point.  For those who know me, I hope you find this slightly humorous.  For those who don't know me, I'm going to be frank with you - I am not a girly girl, although my cousin will tell you my style is called "rural-hipster-Alexa," whatever that means!  I don't really mind dressing up, but Lord have mercy on the people around me if I were to actually get up early, do my hair, make-up AND dress up for consecutive days in a row.  Really though, I think the biggest setback for me is the idea that I would have to get up earlier! However, 2015 has changed me.

Just kidding.  But, I did come up with a great idea and I even had the ambition to try and follow Pinterest's ways of fashion for a week and here are the results!



Day 1
(Wednesday, January 7, 2015) 
This is the outfit according to Pinterest.



















This is my outfit.

I had to modify my outfit since I don't have the exact clothing (and by modify I mean I don't have any cardigans or flowery scarves, so good thing I can borrow my roommates clothes for this week), but I thought this went together nicely.  Plus, I decided I really didn't mind this outfit, which says a lot - it was easy to move around in and I didn't feel claustrophobic because of layers!!!




Day 2 



















Alright, so here's my selfie - it was a glasses kind of day!


Also, Pinterest is turning me into a diva ... Just kidding.  But in all seriousness, I am actually not a huge fan of this outfit.  I felt like a chunky monkey!!!  I've never layered a denim shirt and a sweater, and I don't know if I will do that again - it just felt like a lot stuff was on my body and it made me feel really warm when I was sitting in class today!




Day 3
So this is the Pinterest outfit on the top left, my now daily selfie on the top right, the full deal on the bottom left, and a little artsy pic on the bottom right.  I feel like I should be posting all of my pictures on Instagram!







Day 4
It's Saturday aka my lazy day, and apparently even lazy days are planned out on Pinterest too!!!  So don't mind me rocking my hipster world map watch and blue coffee mug all day - I'll probably even take it out to breakfast with me because I would hate to use a restaurants mug and when I go to Target I'll look exceptionally cute walking around with my own mug ... like, what?



However, I did go out shopping and to eat later that day, so I tried something I have never done before - two patterns.  Not going to lie, wearing another pattern with plaid completely freaks me out!!!  I am glad I tried it though because it's something I probably would wear again - it's super comfy and very casual and I am all about comfy and casual!!!






Day 5
Okay, so I found out today that I look really funny in a cutoff jean jacket.  In theory and in Pinterest pictures, it looks great ... BUT ... it just wasn't working out for me!!!  So, I just wore my normal denim jacket!



And the bracelets looked nice, BUT I DON'T OWN ANY (and apparently neither do my roommates so, no bracelets)!  Also, I just don't like things on my wrist because I write a lot and I'm at my computer a lot for all my classes and the darn things make noise and get in my way!  I wore my favorite (and only!) watch though!  I also am realizing I am a huge fan of the big "statement" necklaces as the fashion world likes to call them, so I wore that instead of the little one in the Pinterest picture!




Day 6
Today was a Monday and I saw this big soft sweater (left) and thought, "I will do whatever it takes to imitate this outfit." And I did.  It was an incredibly comfortable outfit so, no worries, I will continue to borrow my roommate's sweater ... and my other roommate's shirt ... and another roommate's headband.


I would also like to point out maybe the obvious, but nonetheless, it should be stated.  There are many hairstyles that Pinterest claims are "lazy day" hairstyles.  I am here to tell you that anything you have to try to do to your hair, it is in fact not lazy.  Lazy hair days are the picture below.  I woke up in the morning with a psychotic curly mess, took a hair tie and wrapped it twice around my hair, put in head band in and 30 seconds later I was out the door. 






Day 7
(Tuesday, January 13, 2015)
Today is my last day of Pinterest outfits!!!

















I definitely had to shift this outfit a little to make it work in my favor, but I feel very proud of my creative self and how it turned out.  None of my roommates had a tribal sweater and neither did I, but I did find this big striped sweater among our six closets!  I'm still trying to understand why someone would wear a feather necklace when they are also wearing a scarf, so needless to say I didn't do that.  I do, however, have feather-like earrings and I threw that in with the outfit! Then, I have the boots, which are my absolute favorite shoes right now - they are from Target (see my previous post!) - and I can wear them with just about anything.







In conclusion, I would like to point out a few things.

1) I have NO idea where Pinterest gets their winter fashion boards, but believe me, those girls DO NOT live in the Midwest Tundra because NO ONE wears a maxi skirt and only a cardigan as a coat when there is snow on the ground.




















2) I don't do crop tops, but Pinterest does.  All the dang time in fact.  Like, what?


3) I love sweaters.  They are big and warm and fuzzy and are meant to keep you from dying in the winter weather.  I understand that it's cute to have a heart cut out in your sweater BUT THAT IS THE MOST UNREALISTIC THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A SWEATER.  Your back will get cold.

















4) There was a Buzzfeed article on Pinterest and it tried to show me 20 Things I Must (as a college girl) Own.  Well, see more than half those items are owned by 90% of America.  And also, I will graduate college without a Power Suit.
20 Items Every College Girl Should Own


5) Some ideas that Pinterest has are just WEIRD! Example A ....























Lets all be real for a hot second .... The above picture is not a real thing.  And honestly, it's not even so much the outfit that just gets to me, it's the thought process of the caption below the picture!

And also, I don't mind bracelets but no one wears ten million of them and if they do, I don't understand them.  The whole world doesn't need to know every time I turn the page in a book because I'm wearing these clanky things on my wrist!


P.S. I would not have been able to make this week work if I didn't have five other roommates closets to choose from, along with my own.  Now, I think I am going to be wearing my pajamas to school for the rest of the semester.  Actually, probably not because in all honesty, I did like some of the outfits I chose but there are definitely other outfits on Pinterest that you couldn't pay me to wear!





-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis
Lexi