Ripstick Fail

WARNING: Extreme accents
After such a serious post, I’ll leave this here. Hurricane is coming and don’t know what to do?

1. Consume adult beverages
2. Steal kids toys
3. Embarrass self

LaLa, I hope this was at least mildly entertaining.

Make Hopes Happen

I once had a friend named Hope. It was her middle name. She may have been imaginary.

The first four words I thought of that rhyme with hope:

Mope

Dope

Grope?

Nope!

I hope I haven’t lost you.

I’m sure you haven’t guessed it yet, but this post is about hope. More specifically, this post is about hope and its wingmen, determination and perseverance.

There are many things that I am hopeful for in my life at present. I hope that I don’t have to go in to work tomorrow in the middle of a glorified thunderstorm ferocious hurricane. I hope that my check engine light will miraculously turn off without having to take my car in to the shop. But more seriously, as the time dwindles down, I find myself hoping that I will still have the courage to achieve my goal of moving out of Louisiana come next year. Even bigger, I hope that I can succeed at a career that involves writing, blogging, and social media marketing (all of the things I am passionate about).

Hope is present from the smallest victories, to the life altering, world flipping changes we look forward to seeing happen. But, hope without a catalyst is just a penny in the well. A wish is left to chance to come true. Hope, on the other hand, can differentiate itself from a wish by attaching to an obtainable outcome. People wish for a million bucks. People hope for financial stability. In order for hope to bloom in to reality it needs a continuous kick in the ass.

This is where determination and perseverance put on their steel-toes. You can simply hope something happens, or you can make a hope happen.

I’ll use this blog as an example. I never expected anyone (and I mean anyone) to gain any kind of interest in my blog, my writing, or my humor, but for some reason I began and maintained it. I just liked writing. From the first positive comment on, my wick was lit (did that sound dirty to anyone else?). I made myself keep posting even when I felt, dare I say it, hopeless. Some days, I couldn’t think of anything to write had someone provided me with a detailed outline of topics. Other days, I would write what I deemed a magnificent post only to realize that no one even took a second look. It didn’t matter. I kept pecking at my keyboard, because I want to make a hope happen. So, the blog? Definitely to be continued.

Remember, all experts were once beginners.

I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to a young lady who I believe is extremely talented, well spoken (written?) and beyond clever, who decided to flatter me on her blog yesterday. Kay, over at Have You Seen My Glass Slipper, is a typical high school student, but you wouldn’t guess it from reading her blog. Her posts have captured my attention as they always go a little bit deeper than their subject’s face value.

Kay participated in a blog relay originally started by Melanie Crutchfield that aims to inspire bloggers to write about hope. Her take on the theme deserves a “nailed it “, and I strongly recommend the read.

I want to mention that I have new blog crushes on Anxiety & Biscuits and Sweet Mother at the moment, and I am also excited that Agreycat has returned to the blog-itat. I am just going to leave this subtle hint right here and hope (cue punch drum roll) they may want to participate. Actually, I invite anyone reading this to participate and let me know so I can check it out. I understand this relay isn’t technically still kicking but why not keep it going?

Here are the instructions for the blog relay:

Step 1: Write a blog post about hope & publish it on your blog.
Step 2: Invite one (or more!) bloggers to do the same.
Step 3: Link to the person who recruited you at the top of the post, and the people you’re recruiting at the bottom of the post.

NOTICE: 25ToFly has a Facebook page now. If social media were alcohol, I’d officially have alcohol poisoning. “Like” the new page and I’ll have a drink in your honor. I’ve got to stop comparing everything to liquor.

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Dear Hurricane Isaac,

I can confirm this as accurate

Thank you for giving us a reason to miss work, stay indoors, and get paid to drink like it’s the apocalypse.

The new blog is currently under construction. I should finish at some point that is undetermined … if I survive Isaac the hurricane. What I really mean is if I survive the hurricane parties. The torrential winds, spawned tornado, possible flooding and frightening sized hail don’t scare me. Pshhh.

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I had fun participating in David’s blog. You should check it out and submit your own! Now, off I go to prank my way through the night. May the force be with me.

I had fun participating in David’s blog. You should check it out and submit your own! Now, off I go to prank my way through the night. May the force be with me.

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10 Things You Should Know About Your First “Real” Job

Not just some strange office supply guillotine

1. Go ahead and come to terms with the fact that after the initial month or so of getting used to your new schedule, you may never sleep past 8:00 again.  Also, your hang-overs just automatically went from a 3 to a 10 on the I’m-never-drinking-again scale, so be prepared.

2. You can be twenty minutes early every day to work, and no one will notice, but the one day you are late will live in infamy.

3. The picture up there? That is a letter opener. The only one I saw before looked like a dagger out of a scene from The Princess Bride.

4. Do not, under any circumstances, disclose information regarding your personal life unless you are one hundred percent ok with the entire office knowing about it. Your “work wife/husband” will betray you and  you won’t get half of his/her paycheck in the divorce. My advice is: be so vague that you are borderline vogue.

5. You are young, so if you have a significant other, you are facing two options. At some point, someone will inquire about your relationship status. If you claim single, people will either perpetually ask you how your weekend was with that insinuating eyebrow lift, or they will try to set you up with anyone with a pulse. This is usually accompanied by the same look one gives an orphan puppy. In the case that you do admit to a taken status, everyone will want to know your significant other’s entire pedigree. Cue advice you didn’t ask for.

6. No one is going to remind to take your vacation days. No one will nag you to join in on the company insurance plan. No one will automatically sign you up for that 401K plan promised to you. You have to keep up with making sure these things get put in to action.

7. The phrase “just kidding,” or “you know not to take it seriously,” or any such equivalent is simply a cop-out for people to feel like they aren’t really actually sexually harassing you.

8. You can’t just sit anywhere at the Christmas party brunch. If you are the newest member to ABC Inc., you sit last. Same goes with parking. On any day.

9. Never pay for coffee. My love affair with Starbucks is strong too, but for $4 a day, you mind as well be a pack a day smoker. Minus the whole cancer thing.

10. Be aware of the sneaky Bcc (blind carbon copy) in e-mails. If you are anything like me, you didn’t even know what the plain cc meant let alone one with sight issues. Bcc is a way of attaching multiple recipients to an e-mail without those recipients being able to see everyone attached. So, if Suzie isn’t getting her part of a project done, and I send her an e-mail addressing the problem with a Bcc to our supervisor, Suzie’s response could either doom or save her all while she has no idea boss woman is watching. Shady? Yes. Does anyone care? No.

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A Read For Writers and Other Passionate People

davinox comments on Tips for young writers, anyone?. (Reddit link – r/bestof)

I just wanted to share this in place of a forced post today.

Also, I wanted to announce that I am working on a possible second blog that I hope will be of interest. Sometimes I feel a bit narcissistic only writing here about things like my picture-taking preferences or hashing out how to avoid my cats’ excrement in vehicle rides. So, I have decided to try to see an idea for a supplementary, more focused blog to fruition. I have no time frame for when the launch will be, but I am keeping this blog as well. Don’t go binge drinking in depression tonight. In fact, better let me hold on to your liquor for you, you know, just in case.

In the meantime you could check out the Better Blogger Network. The featured member looks a lot like me, and I feel scared that someone has cloned me. Plus, you should join if you are a blogger and add me (or clone me) as a friend.  I have all of about five friends, and I think one of them is secretly my cat on a fabricated profile. You could also grab a button while you’re at it to flare out your page all Office-Space-Chotchkie’s style.

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Babies and Bourbon Street

No, this is not a post on the top places where breast-feeding your baby in public would be acceptable. It is also not about drunk babies, sorry.

I am one of those people who tries to multitask everything. I’d rather be multitasking than single-tasking any day. It’s practically a condition. For example, I’ll start off answering a phone call while sitting on my couch, and within a few minutes my neck hurts and I’ve muted myself, because I am holding the phone with my shoulder while eating a sandwich and mopping my floors. This condition can get extremely stressful. The worst is if I do not complete all of the tasks I am juggling, I feel even more stressed. This results in me being even less productive, and eventually I just end up lying on the floor somewhere staring at a ceiling fan. Wait, wasn’t this post supposed to have something to do with New Orleans?

I am blaming my lack of writing lately on my sideshow-gone-bad. Between getting back in to the swing of work, planning a trip to New Orleans (there it is), and arranging a baby shower, writing has fallen off the task wagon. I knew I should have put a seat belt on that one, or at very least, a helmet.

Helping to plan a baby shower while simultaneously planning a four night stay on Bourbon St. has been… interesting. It was quite like juggling two pink scarfs and a handle of Jim Beam. Trying to establish a rhythm using objects of such completely different dimensions is tricky. I felt doomed to drop the ball  scarf somewhere along the line (do you really think I would let whiskey take the fall?). Ultimately, I managed to keep my act together long enough to avoid any flying tomatoes.

Make Your Camera Disposable, Not Your Adventure

[Hey, remember me? I know that I am responsible for that embarrassing picture your mom found of you and your high school boyfriend making out, but Instagram still ain’t got nothing on me.]

If you want to successfully relive your escapades, my suggestion is to invest in a disposable camera. You’re welcome Kodak. I carried out this plan as I traveled last month. If you have trouble finding one of these at your local store, just look next to the fanny packs and pocket protectors. I understand that disposable cameras are equivalent to reverting back to VHS, but I do have a sound argument for resorting to something so seemingly obsolete.

My trip marked my second time ever flying in an airplane, my first time traveling out of the south as an adult, and my first big vacation that I have funded entirely on my own. Naturally, I anticipate taking photos of my time there.

I know what you are thinking. Does she not have an omnipotent smart phone or something? Of course I do. What am I a cave woman? In fact, some would say I qualify as a camera phone abuser as I even take pictures of pictures. This is where the problem exists, and upon admitting my denial of said abuse, I did reach an epiphany.