If I could meet myself at 16...

So if I had the chance to meet my 16 year old self, I'd have lots to say but I am going to limit this post to only five :) So let's go back to 2005 when I was in my junior year of high school. 

And what fun would this post be without a photo of myself at the age of 16?

1.  You know that boy you have known since you were 5? He loves you as much as you love him so stop pushing him away. Trust me because he's pretty amazing.

My 1st Car! 1995 Pontiac Grand Am

2. Failing your road test two times is not the end of the world and some day you will joke about it, especially when Tori fails hers. Remember, the third time is a charm!

3. You know that really cute faceplate you just HAD to have for your "oh so cool" flip phone? Yeah, keep walking by that kiosk in the mall because the guy that works there is a creep. He will take your number from your cell phone and call you at strange hours of the night which will force you to change your cell phone number.  Not worth it. Besides, it was ugly.

4. While this may seem, like your hardest year of high school, you'll get through it but let's just put more effort into it! You can really surprise yourself because you'll kick butt in college :)

5. So Anthony is going to ask you to junior prom and when he asks what color your dress is, (now this is really important) make sure you emphasize when you say "light green". Why may you ask? Anthony thought you said "cream" not "green" and when you find out two days before prom, ya won't be too thrilled.  

One more thing, your "sweet 16" birthday party will actually be a barbie themed surprise party, thanks Tara for that!

shopping when you're 4'9"

Being only 4'9", I am often approached with the same question, "where do you buy your clothes?" and it is typically by another petite girl who is no stranger to my struggles. My struggles with clothing usually arise when I am looking for dress pants, jeans and shoes and is extremely frustrating.

So here are my tips for my fellow petite girls looking to buy cute clothes and shoes that fit:

Dress Pants

When I was an undergraduate student, I had to complete an internship as a graduation requirement and I was faced with the challenge of finding dress pants that were not a mile too long. And after walking around the mall, I quickly came to the realization that clothing stores do not typically carry a large variety of petite sizes in stock so they have to be ordered online (but they do exist!).

To date, I have found three stores that carry dress pants for us petite gals: Express, New York & Company and Banana Republic.

Express and New York & Company offer their petite customers a "short" size in their dress pants which is convenient because it takes about 2 inches off their standard sizes. The only problem that I have come across from these pants is that the leg width is often rather big but other than that, they fit rather well. In addition, both of these stores often offer great sales and coupons!

My favorite store to buy dress pants has to be Banana Republic because they have a separate clothing line designed for petite women in mind. As opposed to purchasing dress pants in a "short" size, Banana Republic's petite dress pants are specifically made for women who are 5'3" and under. If you do decide to purchase pants from Banana Republic, take the drive to one of their outlets as you can typically save up to 50%!

Jeans

Similar with my dress pants struggle, I had a difficult time of locating the perfect pair of jeans that I was not stepping on. My favorite jeans are found at American Eagle and while the short size are still a little too long for myself, they always shrink in the dryer. If I am unable to find jeans at American Eagle, I turn to Abercrombie Kids. Yup. While they are considered a children's clothing store, they are one of the few stores where I can find a simple pair of jeans that fit perfectly.

Shoes

Here's my pet peeve about shoes, people think that because I wear a size 2 shoe, my shoes are cheap. Sure, if I want to wear light up sneakers or sandals with butterflies on them they might be cheap but come on now. While I never seem to have difficulty finding cute sneakers to wear thanks to Nike, finding casual shoes has been a nightmare ever since I can remember. Once in a while I would come across a cute pair of flats or sandals at Famous Footwear, Payless or even Target but I could never find cute heels to wear to work or out until I came across Cinderella of Boston.

Cinderella of Boston is a shoe store that specializes in providing petite women with fashionable footwear. More specifically, Cinderella of Boston offers sizes 2 to 5 1/2 in both medium and wide widths in adorable styles.

I strongly recommend checking the size chart prior to ordering as a kids size 2 is equivalent to a size 3 1/2 on their site and even then, I ordered a half size up and the shoe fit perfectly.

I hope these tips help and if you have come across any stores that I did not mention, please let me know!

twenty random facts

I suppose that this will be a good time to sort of introduce myself through 20 random facts :)

#1 I love to take pictures. I love to take pictures of anything and everything. I have over 2,000 pictures on my iPhone alone. I can't wait to go on vacation just to take pictures of the ocean.

 #2 If you ask me, Starbucks has it all over Dunkin donuts. I swear that Starbucks coffee is better than Dunkin Donuts, trust me!

 #3 If I could wear a dress everyday, I would. And one time I went about 2 weeks wearing nothing but summer dresses and it was amazing :) Now that I work in an office setting, I find it more difficult to find cute dresses to wear.

#4 I wish I could marry Andrew Garfield. O.M.G. I love this man and if given the opportunity, I'd marry him. Ha! only in my dreams though. Some day?

#5 I could watch friends everyday. Okay, I do watch it everyday. I wait until 11:00 at night to watch Friends on nick@nite. Even though I know some of the episodes word for word, I can not help but watching them over and over. Did I mention that I own the COMPLETE series??

#6 I am a HORRIBLE speller. If it was not for spell check, I would not have graduated college. Hell, I'd still be in high school.

#7 There is nothing I love more than getting lost in a great book. I could sit and read for hours on end without getting bored or even become aware of the environment around me. I find that getting lost in a great book is a perfect way to escape from reality. Although I do become a little too attached to my books and I hate it when I finish them.

#8 I want overalls. More. Than. Anything. Okay, maybe I'm being over dramatic. If I had overalls, I'd wear them everyday. Okay, at least once a week!


#9 I. Am. A. Slob. I can't help it!! I don't know if it's because I'm lazy or what but I have always been this way. It's a terrible habit that I am trying to break.

#10 Family is everything. I do not know what I would do without my family. They mean the world to me

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#11 I swear I have the best boyfriend in the entire world. He is truly amazing and he has been with me for almost my entire life! At least 20 years and I can't imagine my life without him. He is my everything. And he's a cutie ;)

#12 I have to sleep with the television on. And yes, it is always to an episode of Friends.

#13 My nails must ALWAYS be painted. I enjoy spending time painting my nails every color under the sun and I can't remember the last time my nails were not painted.

#14 I am rarely on time. It's a problem really. It is horrible and I believe that it is getting worse! I need to start getting my ass in gear and faster!

#15 I'm terrified of turning 25. Turning 1/2 of 50 is crazy! If these 25 years flew by, what about the next?! I don't want to be old!!

#16 I have my father's sense of humor and my mother's determination. My dad and I have identical sense of humors and it drives my grandmother insane. I can see why it is obnoxious I suppose. On the other hand I believe that I have my mother's determination and it is what drove me through college.

#17 When I'm alone in my car, I sing obnoxiously loud. It truly is embarrassing. I am serious. I'm sure the people in the car next to me are wondering what in the world is wrong with me but it's something I look forward to. Have I mentioned that I am a TERRIBLE singer?

#18 My hair maybe blonde but I swear if I never started dying it when I was 13, I'd be a brunette. My roots are brown as brown can be and since my hair started to turn darker, I have been in absolute denial. Blondes have more fun :)

#19 Butter creeps me out. Seriously. I can't stand looking at it, I think it stinks and I refuse to even touch it. Ugh. I'm getting the creeps just thinking of the yellow substance sitting in its wax greasy paper now. Gross.

# 20 My favorite place to be is on the beach watching the waves. I could sit on the beach and just watch the ocean for hours and hours and not be bored. I don't know what it is about the ocean but I am absolutely memorized by it.

my three wishes

So, you're given three wishes, what are they?

To be able to fly

Regardless of the fact that I am afraid of heights, my first wish would to be able to fly. I feel that there cannot be anything more amazing than having the ability to fly. 

To travel the world

I would love nothing more than to be able to travel the world and since I can now fly, I would not have to pay for airfare (which is why I strategically asked for the ability to fly first!). The first stop on my list would be the Paris! All I want to do is see the Eiffel Tower in person and then I would forever be happy. My second stop would then be the Outer Banks, odd I know but I have wanted nothing more than to return since I was seven years old.

To have the time to take a nap everyday 

Just imagine how less grumpy everyone would be in the afternoon if nap time was required during the day. I believe that people would become more productive and overall, happy after taking a power nap. 

But mainly I wanted to use this opportunity to post pictures of freaking adorable cats taking naps!

He's mine ^^ :)

childhood dreams

Every child is encouraged to answer the ever popular question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and if you had asked me when I was 7 years old, you might be surprised to hear what I had to say.

The first profession that I swore that not only would I obtain, but be exceptionally successful was an artist. Yes, I was one of those children that could not wait to watch those television shows on PBS every Saturday morning that instructed their viewers on how to draw. And while my drawings rarely looked anything like the artist's finished product, I was still determine to become a professional artist. I still remember my mother recording these drawing tutorials on a VHS so I could draw at my own pace.

After my dream of being an artist quickly disappeared, I decided that I wanted to become a storm chaser. Random as it is, I was absolutely amazed by seeing images and footage of large and powerful tornadoes and once again, my mother entertained my dream and insisted that I read books and watched documentaries pertaining to tornadoes. I remembered being glued to the Weather Channel when they ran television specials regarding storm chasers and I longed to become one of them.

So here I am, all grown up and needless to say, I cannot draw and I am terrible at science so here I am, a recent MBA graduate and happy as can be. But I must say, I did have two unique dream jobs.