Snail Mail

Rifle Paper Co

When I was a kid, I had a pen pal. I had met the girl while on vacation in the Virgin Islands and she lived in New Mexico which I thought was SO exotic. 

Having a pen pal was awesome. I remember coming home from school to find a letter addressed to me and I was beyond excited. 

I am now (very recently) 26 (eep) and I want another pen pal! I realize people don't really do this any more because there is e-mail and all other sorts of technologies so that I can instantly get a message from anyone, anywhere. But I want the excitement of letters. I want the excitement of one in the mailbox. And the excitement of writing on cute stationery. 

I don't know about y'all but I am so sick of screens. Sick of computer screens. Sick of phone screens. Sick of TV screens. 

Yes, I realize I sound like someone from a completely different generation. But they run our lives now. Literally.

Who else misses snail mail? Anyone else sick of screens? 

Who would love to open their mailbox to something other than bills, junk and credit card offers?

Limbo

So I haven't blogged in a very, very long time. I just got really busy with the end of my degree, raising a puppy and just life in general. I don't know how people blog everyday, it seriously amazes me. Like how do they come up with enough topics?

Anywhos, to sum up the past few months:

1. Finished my law degree (YAY)

2. Went home to the US for a month

3. House trained a puppy (that's hard, y'all)

And that's about it :).

Right now I am back in Australia and waiting to complete another graduate diploma type thing called Practical Legal Training that's required to be admitted to the bar in Australia. The course hasn't started yet so I have just been hanging out with my dog basically. Most my friends have moved back to North America so there hasn't been much to do. This is when I realized that I am kind of just living in a limbo - just waiting for stuff to happen. Waiting to be admitted so I can work, waiting for April for when we move to a different (and more exciting) city. Waiting for the next chapter of my life basically!

Anyone else in a limbo? Been in a limbo before? Any tips on how make the limbo stages more exciting?

Training

So all seasoned bloggers, like Carly over at College Prep, always advise that a new blogger should set out to blog about what they know and love. 

Well, I know a lot about the life of a law student. Boring.

I know a lot about living as an 'ex-pat' in Australia. Boring because currently all I do really is go to school. One day, though, I hope to include travel posts and such once I am free of the law school chains that bind me. One day soon (eeep!). 

I am not into music enough to blog about it, nor do I keep up enough with the latest fashion trends to really talk about that.

So what in there world is there for me to talk about that anyone could possibly want to hear? 

For starters, I am awkward. I could talk about the regular awkward things that happen to me. 

My family is also slightly nuts (in a good way) so I could share some stories.

Therefore, I guess what I can really aim to do as of now in my life, is to offer the reader a smile, laugh or just mindless break from whatever obligations they have.

So with that, I am going to tell you about the time my dad tried to train our cats to use the toilet. Yup, true story. Believe it or not, there are special litter trays that you can put on your toilet to slowly and successfully train your cat to go to the bathroom in the toilet. It's a tray the fits the bowl and you fill the area of the toilet seat hole with litter. Then ever so slightly, you cut the tray regularly until it reaches the same size as the actual toilet seat hole. Your cat slowly learns to balance and do its business without ever knowing. Genius or crazy?

These are not my cats but I felt a picture of a cat using a toilet HAD to be shared. I also love the fact that his friend is watching. Poor kid can't get any privacy.

Seriously, could you imagine walking into the bathroom in your house to find it already occupied by your cat? The whole process was actually pretty mortifying for my 12 year old self. Not only did I have to remove a litter tray every time I wanted to use the bathroom, but I had to do it for my friends when they visited! I am pretty sure people thought we were the craziest family in all the land. 

The training was successful with one of my cats but since we had to keep a regular litter box around for the other cat, she just ended up resorting back to that. Fail.

5 Things I am Grateful For This Very Second

I don't like corny blog posts, so this one won't be corny! But I am just in a mood where I have felt like reflecting on things I love in my life right now.

1. Shhh don't tell him but - successfully planting the idea of getting a dog in Mr Aussie's head without him even realizing it.

2. The sales guy who talked me into NOT getting dinky little Apple like headphones and getting these babies instead:

Sennheiser and adidas teamed up to make some awesome headphones. These headphones are 'sports' headphones so they come with special attachments (which you can see in the pic) that keep the ear buds actually in your ear when you're doing anything active! They come with a few different accessories to change the ear buds including just regular squishy padding. They're also much more durable than other dinky Apple-like headphones and are sweat proof! Pretty cool. And most importantly, the sound quality is great.

3. That college football is in full swing and exciting as ever. No explanation needed there. Roll Tide. Go CLEMSON Tigers.

4. Tickets to go home for a month are BOOKED. See ya soon, America! :)

5. My silly little cats

Yes, I am cat and dog person. They do exist.

Anything your feeling extra grateful for lately? Or just loving in general at the moment?

Conversation 1

We may both speak English, but it doesn't always seem that way

Mr. Aussie: "Will you open the boot?"

Me: "I will if you call it a trunk"

Mr. Aussie: "You bloody American"

Missing Fall

This is what it looks like where I live right now.

For those people who don't know, the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere are complete opposites when it comes to seasons. So right now, it is Spring here. Plus, where I live it is never really Fall. I live in a state that is essentially the same climate as Florida where the seasons are comprised of warm, warmer and warmest. To say I miss actual seasons is the biggest understatement of the century. I practically yearn for seasons. During 'winter' I would just pretend it was colder outside so I could actually wear wintery outfits. I'd say things like 'brrr it is cold tonight' and 'ah the air is so crisp' in hopes of tricking my mind into actually thinking it is winter weather. Nevermind the fact that it was June/July/August  and all my mind could really think of was summer (I will never get used to that). .

It is killing me seeing everyone and their mom (literally) obsess over pumpkin everything! I find myself longing for cool weather, riding boots, sweaters, pumpkin patches and good ole American Halloween.

What I miss dearly:

And finally, but certainly not even remotely the least, CLEMSON FOOTBALL:

Don't even get me started on fall outfits and college football or I will just spiral into a lack of sweater/tailgating induced depression!

Are you suffering from a lack of fall? What are your favorite things about fall?

Small Changes

Well, we all know that is true. 

Awhile ago I read an article in some women's magazine which featured a few different women who each made a small change in their life for 30 days. I remember one writer decided to wear red lipstick every day, and discovered she found a new sense of self-confidence from just wearing red lipstick! People noticed her new confidence too and soon the red lipstick led to other small changes that made her feel great.

So I have decided to make a small change for 30 days just as an experiment for myself.

As background: I do not exercise regularly. I used to but some how I just stopped. I blame the old age (alright, I am only 25).  

Before you worry, I am not about to be one of those bloggers that SUDDENLY has a new found love for running and has to talk about it every 2 seconds. No one likes that, do they? Unless you're a runner, then you can like that. But for the rest of us human folk - running sucks and hearing it about almost sucks even more.

So, for 30 days I am going to do 10 push ups a day. Not a big change, but enough to likely see a change. Let's face it, after this month I will probably be a bikini model.

So the challenge starts TODAY. That's Oct 25 Australia time. Join in on the challenge if you want!

I will be reporting periodically on how this challenge is unfolding. Until then, happy small changes!