Rookie Blue, Thoughts on Television, plus some Tunes

                                                         source:pinterest

Television. A lot of people view television as simply entertainment. I don’t disagree that television certainly provides entertainment, but I feel that it also goes beyond that. Like a good book, a television show captures emotions that viewers can relate to. In a great television show the storylines and emotions the characters go through provide a source of comfort to viewers who have gone through similar situations or who can imagine going through something similar in the future. There are shows out there that have extreme storylines that aren’t realistic and therefore not as relatable, and those shows are more purely entertainment, they also can serve as an escape from stress, whether it be school, work, family, whatever. 

A show that falls into the first category is Rookie Blue. It’s a cop show on ABC during the summer. I have watched it half way regularly since the beginning but last weekend I watched pretty much every episode of the series online. Even though it is a cop show there is a huge focus on the relationships of the characters. Because of the focus on relationships and on the characters themselves there is a lot that the audience relates to. Real human emotions and experiences- being drawn to someone but having your guard up, not being sure of yourself, being scared, knowing when ‘breaking the rules’ is doing the right thing, being let down, making mistakes, learning to trust your instincts, etc. 

There are a lot of negative connotations out there about television. That it is bad. Kids shouldn’t be allowed to watch it. People who watch a lot of television are just a bunch of couch potatoes. Here is my position. Moderation is key in pretty much everything. Yes I watched 26 + episodes of a television show last weekend and I am talking moderation. Those kind of weekends are clearly not every other weekend. They can be fun and captivating but after awhile you definitely can almost feel the need to go do something active! I am definitely of the opinion that there is a huge global movie and television industry for a reason and at the heart of that is what I was saying about real human emotions. I love television because I love storytelling and story-watching, I love connecting, relating, empathizing and sympathizing. Kinda like why I love blogging. 

Quote from Missy Peregrym, Andy McNally on Rookie Blue. I just love this quote so much. I feel viewers can go through the same thing, experiencing something in real life that they have seen play out on tv or vice versa- seeing something play out on tv that they have experienced in real life 

I leave you with some great music (which I happened to hear on Rookie Blue).

Summer Pen Pals!

Elizabeth from E Tells Tales hosted a summer pen pal exchange. She had anyone who wanted to participate leave a comment with their age, location, favorite things, etc. and their ideal age, location and favorite things in a pen pal. She then worked her magic and paired the participants up! Well I was excited to be a part of this pen pal thing and thought E would do a great job at matching us up, but it turned out even better than I had hoped. In the end I ended up not getting a pen pal as much as a new friend! I love stumbling upon new blogs in this big old blogosphere and I had started following Amy at Sweet Home Santa Barbara. She seemed to be in a similar place in her life as me, she is a year older but started her blog to document her post-college life. A year really isn’t a big difference at all, especially when it seems like a big chunk of the bloggers out there are in their mid to late twenties. Well anyways Amy and I started commenting & emailing back and forth and... 

It turned out that we were Pen Pals! E had given Amy my mailing address and when I said something along the lines of “I love how blogging can bring people who live across the country from each other together” and she said something like “ Wait you said you live in Georgia right? ... this is gonna sound weird but I think you are my pen pal from E’s Summer Pen Pals!...” Amy then preceded to tell me my address and sure enough we were definitely pen pals! It was crazy and awesome that we connected on our own before we ever sent a letter! Now we have become pretty good friends on this little blogosphere and I love it! 

This past weekend I got my Pen Pal Package in the mail and it was so exciting! I got home Saturday and my mom had gotten the mail and there sitting on the couch was this beauty! 

      1. A Gourmet Easy Dinner's Book. I am pretty picky but am trying to try new things, and I love cooking!

      2. A Santa Barbara Postcard and sweet note from AMY! 

     

      3. Alba Cocoa Butter hand and body lotion. 

   

      4. Loreal nail polish in pink me up! 

     

      5. Burt's Bees chapstick. 

      6. A Dove Chocolate Bar that I immediately put in the freezer! 

Thank You so much Amy! I am so glad we “met” and can’t wait to get to know you better and of course will be sending you a package soon! 

A Mountain Morning

I figured I should recap last weekend before this weekend starts. Last weekend I was in North Carolina at my Grandfather’s. My mom and I went up there and my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin were also there for a visit. Saturday morning we woke up and went to Joey’s Pancake House. It is a local and tourist favorite, always crowded because it is pretty dang good. We got there early enough where we didn’t have to wait but about five minutes. Breakfast was delicious and afterwards my cousin wanted to go driving up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He’s from texas and doesn’t get over to the Mountains nearly as much as we do. It was something my mom and I don’t do often since we are there so much. It is always refreshing how beautiful the Mountains are. By 11 o’ clock we had already had a pretty great day in my book.  

 view from the top of an observation tower. allegedly the most photographed view in the smokies. 

 not the best picture but not the worst. it should be noted we woke up, threw on some clothes and went to breakfast! 

 waterrock knob- a little over a mile high. 

 I love the way the clouds are floating

 this side was really foggy and the sun was peaking through! 

It's Not the First Day Of Classes

So today is the first day of classes At LaGrange. But I’m not going to any classes. Why? Because I graduated. Oh Yeah that’s why, I knew there was a reason. So as I have seen many a facebook status talking about it being first day of classes, I got sad. Right Now, I really am honestly sad that I don’t have any classes to go to tomorrow. That I won’t see everyone.  That I won’t be going to the caf and eating the crappy food. That I didn’t spend this past weekend moving all my stuff back to school. My Dad said to treat the summer like a regular summer. It was hard but that’s pretty much what it was. But now summer is over and where does that leave me? I miss being in LaGrange. Being on my own. Lots of people all around, but a lot of just me time too. There is something so special about living on campus. You have your own space but you aren’t alone. It is much different being back at home. For someone who often times feels like a little girl, living at home again after four years at college really magnifies that feeling. I am trying to enjoy this post-college life even at this starting point when it seems really hard to appreciate and enjoy. But there are hard days when I just wish today I could say it’s the first day of classes. But it is not. 

Sometimes & Always Vol. 9

Sometimes I am all talk and no action. I have good ideas of what to do but sit around and don’t put them into action. 

Always it is because I worry that my plans will fail and I won’t know what to do. I need to pray for courage and confidence. 

Sometimes, okay a lot of the time I worry about money too much. It is an issue but I freak out about money because I really want to be great with my finances. And I am really great with my money. I need to loosen up a bit when it comes to money. 

Always, I know if I spent money like it seems most people today spend money then before I knew it I wouldn’t have any left. 

Sometimes I go shopping. I’d say 90% of the time I don’t buy anything, get frustrated and go home. If I find something I like, I usually talk myself out of it with the line “oh I don’t need it, It can wait.”

Always, well at leat most of the time this is because of the whole being anal when it comes to spending money thing. It isn’t because I didn’t find anything cute, just not cute enough to buy. 

Sometimes, I read a book and would just love to talk to people about it

Always, I end up telling my parents or friends about it in conversation. But now I will be able to talk to other bloggers about great books. We are having a Blogger Book Club. We are deciding our first book by wednesday night. I can’t wait! Check it out here!

Friday's Letter's- Late Night Edition

friday’s letter’s - late night edition 

Dear Me, be proactive and go and do something next week. Dear blogger book club, I am looking forward to getting to know y’all and reading some great books. Dear Mom, happy birthday weekend! I am so sorry you got transferred to a new school, but this new school is so lucky to have you! Dear Daddy, I hope you have great luck at the big book sale in Greenville tomorrow! Dear Buddy, I wish you would sit down on trips. I don’t know why as you’ve gotten older you have stopped sitting down on trips. I know you have to be awfully tired standing the whole way! Dear weekend, I am so glad to be in the mountains and spend some time with family! My aunt and uncle just got back from Switzerland for the summer and Whit, my cousin is up here as well.  It is always fun seeing family that you don’t get to see all that often! Dear readers, I hope y’all had fabulous fridays and have wonderful weekends! 

a pic of buddy in a car ride this summer where I sat back there with him and actually got him to sit down! 

Isn't he precious?!

Biscoff!

Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post for biscoff even if it may appear to be!

               If you’ve ever been on a delta flight you know the goodness that is biscoff cookies. just the right amount of cinnamon without being a full on cinnamon cookie.  well my dear friends if you are unaware let me let you in on something amazing. there is such a thing a biscoff spread. it is the biscoff cookies melted down into a peanut butter like smooth and amazing spread. my best friend erin found the spread sometime last fall and it changed our lives. okay so not that serious but it is seriously amazing. but the amazingness doesn’t come cheap. it is around 4.69 a jar and for the recent college grad that is a price I can’t afford often. i bet my hips and thighs are thankful though. but whenever I do splurge on biscoff i end up battling myself to savor every morsel of yummy goodness there is in the jar and not consume the whole thing in one sitting. It is a challenge. my friend madison and I would watch pretty little liars and get the jar of biscoff out. we’d sit there glued to the tv while eating spoonful after spoonful before one of us would call it done for the night. 

          So I haven’t gotten a jar of biscoff in a long time. it’s been months and for my birthday one of the things my mom did was let me pick out a bunch of stuff at the grocery store to buy for baking. (well mainly the stuff was for my birthday cakes, but i threw biscoff in there too!) So I’ve had the jar for almost two weeks now and I’m trying not to just consume the whole thing spoonful by spoonful. I want to bake something with it! I have looked on pinterest but haven’t found what i’m looking for yet. there are so many amazing biscoff related recipes out there but it is still difficult eating post surgery and so I want to make a biscoff mousse like creation. I have biscoff and cream cheese right now as my starting blocks. i’m still looking! and will be sure to report back here what I come up with! 

No More Wisdom.... Teeth

To anyone that noticed my absence from blogging this past week I am back! Bright and early last wednesday morning I got all four wisdom teeth out. It went really well and the office was amazing but the next day reality set in and recovery was not super easy. Overall I guess it wasn’t that rough considering I had four teeth taken out of my mouth ( 2 pulled and 2 cut out). But I guess that’s exactly how I felt. And I really didn’t feel like doing much at all. I slept A LOT and didn’t wake up till about noon almost every day and as silly as it sounds I didn’t even have enough energy to type a whole blog post. Eating soft stuff got old quick, it just isn’t very filling. And for some reason cold stuff made it hurt, so I didn’t even eat much ice cream. Now I have my energy back and feel normal again but the right side of my mouth is still sore and opening my mouth wide enough to eat and chewing is difficult. Most people I know had their wisdom teeth had their wisdom teeth out in high school, so I guess I am just now getting to experience the fun times they did then haha! Well I am going to my follow-up appointment this morning and hopefully I will get great instructions on what to do now to kick this recovery into high gear! And please ignore my super puffiness!

here I am in all my post-surgery glory. the oral surgeon's office gave me this snazzy ice pack wrap that as a life-saver the first couple of days. As was my columbia jacket immediately afterwards, I was shivering when I woke up from the surgery! 

Sometimes and Always- Olympic Edition

Sometimes & Always - Olympic Edition

Sometimes, (okay every four years) people all across the world come together for the Summer Olympics!

Always, I get into watching sports, many that I don’t watch regularly, but also I love the heartwarming stories. If you haven’t heard the stories of Kayla Harrison or Oscar Pistorius. Read about them here and here. 

Source- HLN News

Sometimes, there seem to be pre-set Olympic Hotties. Like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. 

Always, I prefer the vastly underrated hotties. I mean y’all can have lochte, I will gladly take Nathan Adrian! 

Source- Pinterest

Sometimes, a sport that I usually find to be a snooze for the most part proves to me it is definitely not! If you missed the US vs Canada Women’s Soccer Semi-final you missed one heck of a soccer game. Alex Morgan scored on a header in the 123rd minute of the game to win it 4-3. 

Always, I love that the Olympics can make me get excited for sports I usually don’t pay any attention. I don’t know what I will do when the olympics end! 

source- USA Today Sports

22

Last Thursday was my 22nd birthday and I celebrated in Atlanta with my cousin katie and my best friend Erin. Before heading to katie’s apartment my parents and I had a late brunch at J.Christopher’s and it was delicious. At brunch my parents gave me a card which included a $50 T.J. Maxx gift card and $50 dollars. The money was in different bills which included a 20 and a 2! 

When I got to katie’s we hung out for awhile. She showed me her apartment, it is really nice but I just don’t know if I could live downtown! It is so busy and I hate driving downtown! It was good to catch up with Katie in person, we hadn’t seen each other since Easter. Erin made it up there around five and it was great to see her too! I hadn’t seen her since the Gavin/Colbie concert, so it had been over a month! Erin got me a cute blue purse. I like the idea of having a secondary pocketbook but would never by one myself! 

We went to Tin Lizzy’s Cantina for dinner. It started raining right after Erin got there and then it really started pouring for a minute there but we made a run for the restaurant when the rain had died down. As we were walking from the car to the restaurant we saw a rainbow but since it was still raining and we had umbrellas in our hands we didn’t get a picture! oh well. My birthday present from katie was drinks and dinner! So nice of her. Katie got a regular margarita, Erin got a strawberry margarita and I got a TL Infusion margarita - mine had strawberry, pineapple, kiwi and some other fruits I believe. My drink was def good, but I have just decided I am not a big margarita fan. crazy I know. Dinner was delicious, I got a Chicken, Bacon, Ranch quesadilla, but the ranch was to the side and I didn’t try it haha. Erin got a Barbecue Chicken and Goat Cheese Salad and Katie got a regular salad. When we got back from dinner we watched as much of the olympics as we could before we had to leave! 

To Cap off my birthday I had two amazing cakes. Instead of getting a traditional birthday cake, my mom and I baked. I made a reeses peanut butter pie and my mom made a chocolate chip cheesecake! mmmm both so good. But especially my mom’s cheesecake! I’m practically licking my lips just typing this. 

I had a great birthday and I hope and believe that 22 will be a great year! 

Family Reunion.

It’s My Birthday! So next week I will post about my birthday festivities. Today I’m recapping last weekend’s family reunion vacay. 

Last weekend my parents and I went to South Carolina for a family reunion. It is my mom’s dad’s side of the family. In our family going to the McNeill reunion is a summer staple. I have been to the reunion every year I have been alive. My parents went to the reunion the year I was born, that year the reunion was on Sunday and I was born the following thursday! 

Our family reunion is always great time. At lunch people update the reunion about the goings-on in each part of the big family. This can drag on and I tend to agree with the young ones who leave and go play in the ‘big room’. Of course there are a lot of people that I have no clue who they are or how we are related. Even the ones I’m close with it took me a long time to figure out! Now as I am getting older it is neat seeing the little ones grow up at the reunions, especially looking back and remembering when I was part of the ‘little ones’. 

Now for PHOTOS!

1. Andrew and his little vehicle. 2. Andrew and Papa Jim 3. Andrew and Alex Friday night we had a little pre-reunion and had a get together at one of our close cousins' house.  

1.Levi- blue-eyed cutie 2. Playing Pool 3. Sherri, Ashton and Mary-Mac playing with their American Girl Dolls. 4. Sherri blowing a bubble

Me with Ashton and Mary Mac. These beautiful cousins were adopted from Mexico and they recently turned nine! I was the flower girl in their parents wedding when I was 8! 

Me and Sherri. Sherri and Mary-Mac and Ashton are first cousins and Sherri is just three weeks older than the girls! 

Me and Levi. Levi is Sherri’s little brother. He has bright blue eyes and is turning 6 in a couple weeks. 

My mom with the girls. She is known as the crazy and/or silly aunt, but she told me that hurts her feelings so now she is the ‘fun’ aunt. 

And that ends another great year at the McNeill Reunion! 

How I Make That Money Honey- (How I hope to!)

So I planned to write this post on monday, and then didn’t cause I was tired after getting home from a family reunion. Then I started debating whether I should participate at all. Because I don’t currently have a job to tell y’all about! But Lindsey had said I should participate anyway and write about what kind of jobs I’m looking for and how I hope to make money soon! 

I just graduated from LaGrange College in May. I loved LaGrange- a small, private, methodist college an hour southeast of Atlanta, Georgia.

 I love sports and for the last six or seven years I have wanted to work in the sports industry. In high school I was a manager for my high school’s boy’s basketball team, then in college I worked with the women’s basketball team. I was the manager of the women’s basketball team for all four years of college. Of course I filled water bottles but that is far from all that I did. I helped implement recruiting mailouts, filmed practice, and worked with food vendors. I also helped the girls out during practices and games. If they forgot something in their dorm or apartment or even downstairs in the locker room I’d go down and get it for them. For some reason I enjoyed getting things they needed. At least most of the time I did, I admit that sometimes it could be a thankless job! But the rewards were great. I made friends and it was a definitive part of my college experience. 

Last summer I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I interned in the Sports Information Office at Duke University. It was summer and there weren’t sports in season but it was still absolutely amazing. I had some tedious tasks, such as archiving past seasons schedules online and working on the records section of the women’s basketball media guide. And then I had some really awesome tasks, particularly writing three releases for GoDuke.com. I was only there a month and the time flew by. Looking back I wish that I had done a longer internship but the career center at my school and my parents advised doing a month. 

(I blogged about my internship at duke. you can find it at juneatduke.blogspot.com)

I was very pro-active in my job search looking at the NCAA and CoSIDA websites for sports information and marketing/promotions positions at colleges and universities since last August. I have applied for many different positions but have not had much success. I haven’t been able to land a face-to face interview yet and believe that I will be able to make a great impression once I get in front of people. As the summer winds down I am trying to expand my search and explore other options. In the meantime I am considering working a a substitute teacher. 

If any of y'all have advice on the job search, about staying positive, about how you ended up doing something completely unrelated to your major, how you got your foot in the door, etc. let me know!