TOO BUSY

So since school started it's been REALLY hard to keep posting.

Mostly because it's been really hard to do anything.

Other than work and study that is.

Remember back when I went applying to tons of places at the mall?

Well, I started at Teavana a bit over a month ago!

Which means that all the time I'm not spending at Chick-fil-A or school, I'm spending selling people 98 different kinds of teas (which can be blended into hundreds of different combinations to create thousands of tea drinks, it's crazy)

And I talk about cast iron so much that it's ingrained into my poor little head that it's the best, most efficient way to brew the most delicious cup of tea!

Not to mention that 16 different artisans have touched this pot and it's super rare and used in all kinds of Japanese tea ceremonies, and these things are actually a status symbol in Japan! They also cost about $650-750 a set for a pot, a warmer, a trivet, 10 cups, 15 plates, and the tray. Great deal (;

And if I can't convince people to drop the $180 for the tea pot, I'll convince them to drop $30 on the finest, highest quality loose-leaf tea!

It's fun, and I'm learning a TON about all kinds of different types of tea (not to mention that it's totally healthy and supposedly good for me!).

But even better than free healthy tea is...

A 30% discount on totally unhealthy and fattening Starbucks coffee!!!

And a free pound of coffee once a week! It's awesome! My mom and I are totally enjoying this perk!

So between the 40ish hours a week at Chick-fil-A, a few less than 20 at Teavana, and my 5 classes, I'm a little swamped!

Especially now that my Chick-fil-A is being remodeled (you'd think that my store being closed down would mean more time for me, but nope!).

I have the amazing opportunity to be working a Grand Opening over the next two weeks as a trainer!!

Which means teaching a brand new team how to do everything the Chcik-fil-A way!

Which means:

Dealing with this huge crowd on a daily basis

While keeping the store looking impeccable like this

And dealing with HUGE drive thru lines like this

So people will keep coming and wanting to

As well as teaching them all how to use and clean all of our equipment.

Like the awfully beloved Ice Dream Machine

And breaking down the lemonade machines at the end of the night without getting pulp on everything in the store

It's really fun and I hope I get to do more grand openings in the future!

And meanwhile, in the process of getting ServSafe certified at Chick-fil-A

And learning about 98 different teas, a dozen different types of pots, and all their symbolisms

I've also been going to school full time!

Which means learning everything I can about financial accounting

And business statistics

And constitutional law

And the International Political Economy

And Microeconomics

And getting good grades in all those classes to keep my GPA high!

And that's why I haven't been posting as much about... well anything really.

So let's see if I can get back on track, but if I don't... You guys know why!

MIA

So I've been MIA for a couple of crazy weeks.

And by crazy, I mean insane. Like not a second to spare insane.

Since I got back from Florida I've gone out a few times with friends, gone to the doctor, threw the baby shower, worked a TON, got a new job, worked some more, learned a whole new work environment, did some marketing stuff with CFA, finally started closing as a shift leader, reconnected with an old friend, moved back into my dorm, hung out with my mom, went back to school shopping, hosted a Girl Scout reunion, started school up again, and started working out. So yes, I'm exhausted and that's my excuse for not updating.

So now that I'm back, expect to hear about all that's been happening, because these past two weeks have been insanely full of goodies!

The Worst Fourth

I definitely wasn't expecting anything grand out of my Fourth of July this year.

Last year I worked all day, got a flat tire, set off a few fireworks with Alexa, packed for my upcoming drive to Florida/flight to Nicaragua, then set off fireworks in Luis's backyard with a bunch of his friends. We crashed early because we had to leave for Florida in the morning (I promise to explain my love for Nicaragua on a later post, because it will be a loooooong post)

This year, it was a little more.... exciting, for lack of a better word.

Once again, I worked, but only half the day. Then I headed on to Kennesaw to shower and get ready for a, hopefully, fun Fourth. I felt terribly sick and we had zero plans, but I demand to be fabulous anyways.

Then I went over to Luis's house, and guess what? I got another flat tire!!! I seriously hope that this isn't about to become some perversely tragic Fourth of July tradition for me, because I simply can't deal with that every year.

Lucky me, I was probably less than two miles away from Luis's when it gave out. So I just pretended to ignore the extremely bouncy drive to his parking lot. Finally, I got there and he stepped out to look at the car. Oh, did I mention that it was raining??? Last year too.

Check out this flat

How does that even happen??? I didn't hit anything or run over anything. I was just driving (at a safe speed too) and boom, all of a sudden the bumpy, uh-oh-I-think-I-have-a-flat driving started.

Anyways, the story gets better. Luis goes and tries to change the tire himself (because he's a man and for some stupid reason, men refuse to call professionals to fix things when needed, regardless of the pretty dime I pay my insurance company for unlimited roadside assistance) and he spends probably over an hour playing with the lug nuts and different tools.

Finally, Rodrigo and Jessica show up. Jessica and I leave the boys to their play mechanic games to work on an essay, and eventually, after another hour of playtime, they come back in defeat. Apparently, one of the lug nuts is 'stripped' (whatever that means) and normal tools can't get it out. So FINALLY, the boys let me call Geico to get this thing sorted out.

I explain to the insurance lady exactly what the issue with the bolt is and everything. The man she sends had no idea that the bolt was stripped before coming and he didn't have the tool for it. He leaves, being of no help other than to tell me to curse out my insurance lady (but she's so sweet I could never. Plus, call center people are only human! They make mistakes too!). I call Geico back and explain to the lady again everything that happened. This time she calls the companies around and asks about my specific problem. None of the companies do what I need. Great.

At this point my only option is to get a tow to a tire shop to fix my poor baby Lulu. The only problem? It's past 10 PM on a holiday. So I just get a reference number and leave it to deal with later. We finished the paper then went to Waffle House (because nothing is more patriotic in the South than Waffle House at midnight). It was too rainy to enjoy fireworks, so we settled for just listening to the loud bangs outside.

Yesterday morning I left for work with Luis's car. After work I come back and we tow the car to the tire shop, wait for a good 45 minutes in the lobby, and pay 9 bucks to find out that the bolt wasn't stripped at all, it was just differently shaped. Great.

So now I'm driving around on a spare until I have time to go to a used tire shop, because I have two more tires that look like they're about to give out too so I might as well replace them all.

Yay for car troubles, which I apparently have way too many of.

It's Graduation Time

It's that time of year again.

Everyone is talking about graduations and going to graduation parties and crying because they're all going their separate ways after graduation.

It is also the one year mark for when my life got flipped around.

About a week before my birthday last year, my mom announced that she was moving to Florida. Of course, my brother and sister were going with her, but I had already paid the deposit on my dorm room in Kennesaw and was registered for my classes. I had a great job at Chick-fil-A and had just been asked to start my leadership journey to become a team leader. Not to mention that I also have Luis and all my friends here. Leaving Atlanta was definitely not in my plans.

The final decision ended up being that they would be moving and I would be staying. The incredible irony of this is the fact that I always said that I would be going as far as possible from Georgia when I graduated. I didn't want to stay here. I wanted to travel and go to school in another state and start my life over from scratch. I wanted to live that American college dream.

But no. I stayed, and my family left. At the time, it hurt. I couldn't even imagine living with my mom in Florida and me in Georgia. Mind you, that does not mean we had a great relationship. We have an amazing relationship now, and we had one before high school, but something happened in high school that just tore us apart and by my senior year, we couldn't hold a conversation for longer than 10 minutes without it turning into an argument. I was glad to be getting away, but I didn't want to be SO away either.

The announcement came right before my birthday, so I had a month to prepare myself. I planned with friends to stay at their places over the summer. I told people at church, so I would have them to rely on if all else failed. My mom would be leaving on the last day of May, and my dorm would not be available until August 14th. I had a summer of house-hopping ahead of me.

During that month, I had to learn how to drive. I had never seen the immediate need to learn how, and I personally hate cars and driving with a passion, so since I had my mom and Luis to drive me around, what did I need to know how to drive for? So I bought a super old and beat up 1998 Ford Explorer from my cousin for $900 and I started my struggle to learn. It's a good thing my first car was that super big metal box, because I crashed into so many poles and ran over more curbs than I can count.

My Explorer's name was Shelly, and I don't think I ever took a full shot of her. She was kind of ugly *cough really ugly cough* so she didn't get pictures. Here are her tires. One is from a particularly high curb, and the other from a tree.

And after she was completely totaled in September (that's a story for another time) I only kept the decal on the front of her, as a souvenir and reminder of how she saved my life.

I also got a second job working as a waitress at a Mexican restaurant down the street from Chick-fil-A. On the day of my graduation, May 25th, I drove my mom's car to get my liquor license so I could work at the restaurant.

This beauty sparked up a lovely conversation about how at 18 I can die for my country, and I can serve people alcohol, but I can't drink it myself. Not that I particularly care, but Facebook blew up on this one.

I then I drove to the DMV, and butchered my test. Fortunately, the guy giving me the exam passed me with a 70. A few tears were involved, but I got the license, which is what mattered.

From there, we went home. I put on my dress, cap, and gown, and we went off to graduation. I graduated with the Magnet Seal and with Honors. I also had cords for French Honor Society and one more that I can never remember what that last cord was for.

This is the only picture of me from graduation on Facebook, and I didn't even post it. I'm sure there are more pictures on my sister's laptop, but I never got to see them or get them for myself to post them. Because three days later, we were finishing up our packing and moving everything away. It was a good thing I had bought the Explorer, because it did all of our moving.

Here I am in the passenger seat, all cramped up next to boxes. We moved everything into a storage and my family only took clothes and necessities with them. My whole room and bathroom was fit into the back of the truck, with clothes in luggage, cosmetics and toiletries in laundry baskets, and everything else in boxes. I was also given an air mattress. So with everything in my back seat, I spent the summer living at Luis's and my god-daughter's, Alexa, mostly.

I got a third job halfway through summer and just worked everyday. I took a few short breaks from work: a one day vacation to be whisked away to Tybee Island by Luis, and two weeks in Nicaragua on a mission trip. The rest of the summer was working until school started.

This is one of those things that I look back on today and I can say both "Wow, it's already been a year?" and "Woah, it's only been one year?" because I feel like just yesterday I was sharing a room with my brother, getting yelled at for coming home past 11 after a date with Luis, and telling my mom to go buy me conditioner because I ran out again. And at the same time, it feels like that was a lifetime ago, and I have been living on my own for ever.

My life is so different now, and it has been through all kinds of twists and turns throughout the past year. And despite everything that has happened, I think I'm finally at a point where I am truly becoming happy with my life and the way I'm living it. I'm not quite there yet, and I still have no idea what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, but I'm figuring it out little by little.

No one said life was going to be easy. In fact, they told me that growing up was going to be very very hard. And they didn't lie, it has been. This past years has been the hardest year of my life, but if I could go back to April of last year when I decided that I was going to stay in Georgia, I would make the same decision once again. This is my life now.

A Love-Hate Relationship

I have an extremely emotional and wearisome love-hate relationship.

It's tiring and amazing at the same time.

And it's with my hair.

I am extremely vain and my hair is a huge source of my vanity. It is long, dark brown, and full. And it's naturally very very curly. And here's where the love-hate part comes in. I like my hair curly sometimes. It's a fun, bouncy look for me, and great for when I want texture,

But my hair looks so much better straightened! My hair in the above picture looks like it just goes slightly below shoulders. False. In this picture, my hair length was well below the bra line, but it curls up so much, it looks short. When I straighten my hair it's loooong and sleek and shiny. So pretty.

Both looks are so much work though!

To wear it curly, I have to wash it and drench it in hair mousse while it's still wet. And by drench it in hair mousse, I mean make sure every single strand has hair mousse in it. EVERY single strand. And then I can't brush it or tie it back well, and it sits there bouncing against me and getting in the way.


To wear it straight, I have to wash it, dry it, and spend the next two hours straightening it strand by strand, layer by layer. If I miss one layer or strand, my hair turns out poofy and has bumps in the back. But once it's straight, I can do everything and anything with my hair, and it's great and easily managed until my next wash.

The struggle is real.

Here comes the hardest part of this relationship... I absolutely 100% despise haircuts!

No one understands my plight! They see my hair, understand it's hard to handle, understand that I wear it straight most of the time, and they want to take the easy way out and perm my hair! NO!!! I have virgin hair and I'm not changing that anytime soon! It has never been dyed or permed or chemically anything. The most I have ever done to my hair is deep condition and relax it. Stay away from me and your confounded chemicals!

But I hate my hair, I do. It's so thick and hard to handle and it takes forever to fix! I love it as soon as it looks good though! So cutting it off is not an option. Especially since I look like I belong in the 90s with the extreme poof of my short hair.

As much as I hate hair cuts however, they are necessary, or else my hair ends up looking like this

The dryness and split ends makes me nervous

That is simply not acceptable. I haven't cut my hair in almost two years. I hate everyone who approached my hair with clippers, and I feel like no one ever does a good job. I have only ONCE walked away from a haircut that I liked when I left the salon and I liked a week later after all their salon magic potions had been washed out of my hair.

Me in 2009 after my happy haircut

I went to Brasil in the beginning of summer, got my hair done there, and it looked great well into the fall. It was the only time I have ever been truly happy with a haircut.

My next haircut was so bad, I had to leave the hair salon while my mom was paying so I could cry over how terrible my hair looked. (I actually have quite a few hair salon crying episodes, ranging all the way back since I was 5 years old. I told you I hate getting my hair cut) We went to another salon to fix it less than 3 months later. I have not cut my hair since, and have ever since then been convinced that I would only ever cut my hair again in Brasil, because every American salon had ruined my hair.

This has led to me not getting my hair cut since Luis's senior prom. As in over two years ago. My hair is a disaster. So finally, I have been cajoled and tricked into getting my hair cut. As soon as I stepped foot in Florida this time around, my cousin took me straight to his friend's house, who happens to be a hair stylist. Yay...

Of course, I was super nervous, like heart palpitating nervous, but I know that my hair is in serious need of some treatment. The split ends are taking over me. So I let them take me in, with the agreement that the hair stylist would not cut a millimeter more than I said was okay. That's another big issue I have with hair salons. I say only two inches off and all of a sudden they think they work for Locks for Love and are chopping all my hair off. I have a really bad story about going from waist length hair to above the shoulder... I started crying in the salon that time.

So here I am super nervous at the hair salon

She was pretty nice. She kept checking with me on the amount of hair to cut off and asked me about style and framing at least half a dozen times. THANK YOU JESUS! Finally a hair stylist that cares about how I want my hair! She did try to push a hair treatment on me, which I adamantly said no to, but she did semi-convince me. If my hair turns out good this time and after I do some more research on this treatment, I might cave in to what she wanted. It sounds like a relaxer to me so if that's what it is, bring on the relaxing!

I only got a deep conditioning this time though. And she snipped away, styling. And after 4 hours in that salon (I told you I have a lot of hair...) here's the final results:

My hair is so shiny, I had someone ask me on Instagram if I dyed it. My hair is still lovely and long. It feels great and soft. She layered the front almost perfectly. I'm happy! I just hope that it still looks and feels this good after I wash it on Saturday. I have to spend 3 days without wetting it to let the deep condition really set in (Which totally sucks because we're going to the beach today!) So if on Sunday, my hair still looks good, I may have found myself a keeper in a hair stylist!

Here's my post-haircut glam shot!

Organized, Yet Messy

I am very OCD about most things.

My drawer at work must always be organized, with all the bills facing the same way. My earring holder is perfect for me, because the design separates it into thirds, so one third is for my studs, one third for dangling earrings, and one third for pins, earrings I have lost the pair for, and seasonal earrings that I only wear during specific times of year. The top of my drawer is organized into sections with nail polish in one corner, organized by darker colors to lighter colors, perfumes under that, organized by brand and size, with lotions under that organized by size, and makeup beside it, organized by type of make up, color, and size. I also have a wardrobe that it organized by type of clothes, color, and how often I wear it. So party dresses on the top, with normal dresses next to it, with long shirts next to that, with long-sleeved shirts next to that, and jackets on the end. And on the bottom row I have blouses, which are organized by the length of the sleeve, from no sleeve to half sleeve (long sleeves are up top remember), then t-shirts, which I don't really wear t-shirts so the ones I have are all event related with memories attached to them, so those are organized by time of event. Don't even get me started on how the files on my computer are organized. Let's just say that anyone that got my computer would have no problem pinpointing exactly what they wanted to find. I could keep going and describe my shoes, books, and desk as well, but I'll spare you the details.

The moral of that story is that I am SUPER organized, except for at certain moments. And those certain moments are in the mornings when I'm getting ready. This gives me an infamy for being messy. Because I'll have a super clean room that will have a dozen different articles of clothing on the floor by the time I'm done getting ready. Now, I do go back and re-organize everything afterwards, but sometimes I'm in a rush and it stays behind, thus the messy label. But everything goes back into place soon, or else I can't function in the mess.

This little clothing problem of mine has extended to Polyvore.

See Exhibit A

I pick one thing I want to wear (in this case it was the skirt) and all of a sudden, several blouses, jackets, shoes, jewelry, etc are thrown all over the place, as I work diligently to find the one that will create the cutest outfit. (Ignore all the open tabs, that is just another part of my messiness) It's just so difficult. All the endless possibilities are overwhelming, and I have to find the perfect outfit, or else I can't walk out the door/hit publish. It's just a perfectionist problem I have.

In this scenario, this is how it ended up looking

See? The mess is all worth it in the end. The final look is always polished, and no one can tell there was ever a mess involved.

Just another battle I must undergo to find the perfect outfit

Damsel in Distress

This weekend has been absolutely insane!

And yes, I know that it's already Tuesday.

I don't even know where to start.

Probably Friday morning when I got woken up 9am with my boss calling me. So I wake up at nine, answer her questions, then I can't go back to sleep. So of course, I start net surfing (which consisted of lots of blogging, Polyvore, and Pinterest) until 10 30. Then I get ready to go to my 11 45-close shift. At 11 30, as I'm about to pull into the store, another manager calls me, says we're super slow, and asks me not to come in until 2. So I turn around, spend more time surfing, then head back to work. From there on, it was a normal work day. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but since it happened on disaster weekend, I'll include it.

Then Saturday morning, I wasn't supposed to get in until 2, but a third manager calls me (again at 9am) and asks me to come in early because we're dying. So of course, great little busy bee can't say no me goes in at 9am... until close. Still not a bad day, just long, and I've worked longer shifts many many times. Now, I had plans to see Luis after I got off work. We were meeting at Kennesaw after I got off work, but that was a LOT later than I thought it was going to be. I got of work at around 11 30, then I volunteered to take this kid home, who happens to live 45 minutes away from work, and another 30 minutes away from where I live. Great. It was a nice ride though. I got to learn a little about my team member and he got to know a little bit about me and that's pretty much what building relationships is about, right? But then of course, Luis was upset, but he got over it soon and everything went back to normal.

Then Sunday... Oh boy Sunday. First, I had a meeting at noon, but it got cancelled because the other person overslept and we rescheduled for this upcoming Sunday. Then Luis and I took my car to get washed (oh yea, I forgot to mention that I spilled milkshake and sweet tea all over my car Saturday night after I dropped the kid off) which cost more money than I was willing to spend, but those carpets needed to get shampooed and I sure wasn't about to do it. Then we went out to eat, went to church, all that fun Sunday stuff.

Then the real disaster starts. At 11pm, as I'm driving home from church, some idiot decides that he's not going to check incoming traffic before making a right turn. He pulls right in front of me, and I was too close and going too fast to brake and avoid the accident. So I swerve to avoid hitting this guy's car and driving him off the road into the ditch, and I end up in the ditch instead. And now my poor baby girl Lulu is hurt ):

I got her all cleaned up and pretty, just to get her all dented up and muddy.

No more driver side rear view mirror

No more front bumper

All these cracks

And dents

And I even busted up her inside too

My poor Lulu ):

And her radiator got busted from the bottom, so I can't even drive her until she gets fixed. Luckily, Luis has a mechanic friend who's fixing her up for me (at least the radiator and maybe the mirror). So she'll be drive-able again by tonight, hopefully. Yesterday I went around and talked to a couple of different mechanics at Firestone and some other mechanic places, but the quotes I got were between $300 and $900, and I work fast food, I don't have that kind of money!

And my Monday was probably the worst, just because of all the stress I was under. I didn't go to any of my classes because I ended up spending the night at Luis's, because that's where the car was closest to and I wasn't about to drive 40 minutes to Kennesaw without a mirror (this was before I knew the radiator was busted). Plus, I had a ridiculously painful headache and was a little disorientated from the accident. So Monday morning, Luis and his mom are playing mechanic with my car, looking at everything that got damaged. Finally, they notice that the radiator is empty and there's lots of green liquid under my car. So they go ahead and fill the radiator up with water, and it takes all of 5 minutes for the water to end up on the floor. Which is a good thing that they played with it first, cause I was totally about to drive the car without the mirror.

Luis has to go to school, and I have to go to work and talk to mechanics. So he drops me off at work, which is conveniently located next to a mechanic. I walk on over to talk to my lovely Firestone mechanics, and the price range is WAY above what I can afford, even with the birthday splurging money I had set aside. So I go back to Chick-fil-A and chill in the office until Luis comes back from school. Then he picks me up, takes me to Kennesaw to pick up my uniform (and apply makeup, because up until this point, I looked like Medusa), then we turn right back around to go back so I can work.

I stay at CFA working and he goes back to his place to call the tow truck to take the car to Sam's house. Now, I only had a short 4 hour shift until 8. Sam got out of work at 6. So at 6 30ish, Luis calls the tow truck and they tell him that they'll be there at 7 30. I get off of work at 8, call Luis to come pick me up, but he can't because the tow truck STILL isn't there. The tow truck is TWO WHOLE HOURS LATE!!! I sat in the office for two hours doing nothing, being absolutely bored out of my mind, waiting for the tow truck to show up and Luis come pick me up. I am super frustrated at this point, because I wanted Lulu repaired yesterday, so I could go on my birthday shopping trip today, but apparently no one is working under my schedule! The frustration was overwhelming and I got very very snappy.

Finally, Luis picks me up and takes me to Sam's house. It was 10pm and cold and I had a headache and was way past my snappy point, but of course I put on a smile and was very cordial. Of course, the guy can't fix my car that night. Especially since it was 10 and all the auto repair parts stores close at 9. So Sam told me to buy a new radiator and antifreeze to put in it. Then, he tells me even more bad news. Apparently the part of the car that controls the air conditioning got broken too, but he's not 100 per cent sure if it's broken broken. So tonight when he comes home from work, he's going to fix the radiator, turn on the car, try out the AC, and let me know if that needs fixing too. We are a month away from summer and my air conditioning is busted. Could this get any worse??

Of course it can. The bumper is also hanging off, so I need to take the car to a car body shop and the whole bumper replaced, and I'm sure that's not cheap. So I'll be driving around with a ratchet car with a broken bumper for a while, cause "ain't nobody got money for that." My life.

And to make matters worse, my shopping trip today got cancelled, because the friend I was going with doesn't have a car and I was the ride... But obviously that didn't pan through. We're rescheduling for next Tuesday, so hopefully everything works out for then.

And now, I will sit in my bed, web-surfing for the rest of the day because all my plans have been cancelled (and I had quite a few plans too D:). No more shopping, no more mani-pedi, no more lunch with friends, no more Scrappy the Owl, no more anything. Just loneliness and my laptops.

And yes, I am being a drama queen right now. I'm a damsel in distress, what else am I supposed to do??