My Back-Up Plan.

Graduation is exactly three years away. For the next six semesters, I plan to study how to be an un-stoppable PR person with wicked marketing smarts and cunning creativity. But, if for some reason the job market crashes and I'm left with an unused degree and an unlimited amount of time, I feel that I need a back-up plan of potential careers to support my addiction to anything silver or sparkly and frozen yogurt. 

Thus I have compiled a list of day-jobs that I would find enjoyable. 

(In no particular order)

1. Cat Walker 

Has anyone ever even stopped and wondered why dogs are the only pets that people walk? Maybe cats want in on the fun too. With my revolutionary training program, people will be able to stroll through the neighborhood with their beloved feline on a leash in 2 weeks or less.

Projected Salary:

Still working on it. 

2. Food Critic

Go to fancy restaurants and get paid to eat their food and write reviews on it? Yes please.

Projected Salary:

$65,873 is apparently the national average. I'll take it.

3. Professional Ballerina

I've been doing a workout program called Barre 3 that's supposedly derived from ballet. I'm pretty decent at it.

Projected salary:

$21,100

4. Personal Chef

I make a wicked PB&J and am unparalleled in the art of the scrambled egg. 

Projected salary:

$30,000-50,000


5. Award Winning Novelist


I'll publish my memoir and make millions.
Projected salary:
Millions.


6. Kid Chauffeur


Moms always complain about hauling their kids to soccer practice and gymnastics and back, so I'd just do it for them.
Projected salary: Still working on it.


7. Shark Forecaster 


Skittish beach-goers would pay me to scan the surrounding shoreline for sharks, using state of the art technology. Shark attack reports would disappear overnight, and I would get to live by the ocean!
Projected salary: Still working on it.


8. Tree Climber


Kids these days are always getting things stuck in trees: frisbees, balls, themselves. Using my agile climbing skills, I would heroically rescue these precious objects before the relief filled parents hand me a think wad of green ones.
Projected salary: Still working on it.


9. Party Planner


I would throw some pretty epic bashes while keeping bratty 16 year olds in check.
Projected salary:
$47,000


10. Firework Technician 


Cuidado con el fuego! 
Projected salary: 
$49,000. (Apparently it's a real job, I thought I had just made it up.)




I plan on mixing and matching potential careers to fit my monetary needs and lifestyle. Bring it on, adulthood.

#3. Me at one of my future performances. I'm not a fan of my partner though, he looks kind of creepy. 

My Current and Recent Obsessions.

Hakuna Matata.

1. Dreams. Dreams are like little movies you watch while you sleep. Except that they make no sense. 

2. Jaden Smith. 

Bethany and I watched the new Karate Kid the other night, and throughout the whole movie I was telling her how cute this kid is. If I could fix him up with one of my sisters I would. Plus, judging from this picture, he obviously has good taste in shades.

3. Listening to Disney music in the kitchen with my family.

4. The smell of laundry detergent mixed with sun-kissed grass. 

5. Having my ideal summer day. Tanning+a refreshing workout. 

6. Finding new bands. Thank you, "Listeners Also Bought..." on iTunes.

7.  Friends returning home from college! FINALLY!

8. Dark chocolate M&M's being referred to as "happy pills" in my house.

9. Good books. 

10. Spontaneous trips to Yogurt Mountain after picking up a sister from school.

We Live Our Lives Like We're Calling a Bluff and All These Miles are not Enough

When you're given a night in which you have the whole house and a spunky second grader all to yourself, what do you do?

I had a few ideas.


I decided to try and give Bethany a fun night to remember by giving her a mini makeover, complete with make-up, an up do, and a photoshoot in one of my old prom dresses. 

She ate up every second of it. 

As I was twirling piece after piece of black, shiny hair around the curling iron, I felt the familiar feeling of deja vu flood my senses. Even though I was only primping an 8 year old, the season and the time of day made me feel like I was getting ready to send Bethany off to prom. I remembered how every event in high school, be it homecoming or prom, I sat exactly where she was sitting in my parent's huge bathroom getting my own golden hair curled before slipping into a fancy dress and heading off to take pictures with my friends. 

As the memories invaded my consciousness in droves, I began to think to the future to when Bethany and Marissa will be getting primped and polished for their own big high school shebangs. I imagined my mom and me as a team in giving each of them a glamorous make-over and watching with a smile as they posed for pictures with their friends and dates. 

It was in this mental flashforward that I realized that once I graduate from college, there is no way that I can live far away from my family. I have said for years that I want to live in a huge city  after college, and have recently added warm temperature to my  requirements for a future home (Big city + Warmth = Tampa, FL or Atlanta, GA). But, being hundreds of miles away from home would mean missing out on many major milestones in my little sister's lives. Since they are still young, there are so many exciting things they have yet to experience that come with growing up. I am not planning on missing out on seeing each of them off to their first day of high school, first homecoming dance, first date (AFTER I make sure the dude is up to my standards), first time at the wheel, first soccer game as a varsity player, you name it. 

So, I told my parents today that, upon graduating from college, I'm either going to have to sacrifice my warm, big city dreams and move somewhere back in Ohio or they are going to have to sacrifice cold Ohio to move to the warm, big city in which I plan to reside. Sounds like a pretty easy decision to me. :)

I'm Begging You to be My Escape

Insecurities are a part of life. It seems like everyone has something about themselves that they don't like. I was watching a show on National Geographic the other day about a girl in some European country who wanted to be tall so badly that she had actually had her legs broken so they would heal longer, thus making her taller. Crazy! As I was watching, I had to stop and think for a moment about how over the course of last semester I was insecure about the very opposite feature of the European. Being on a college cheerleading squad, I absolutely hated my height. I was one of the tallest girls on my team, and I would have done anything to shrink about five inches.

When my insecurities threaten to steal my joy, I try to remember that God gave me the body I have for a reason, and I am a beautiful creation in His eyes. Complaining about the way I was made is almost like a slap in God's face. I'm choosing to love who I am and be confident in how I was created, because I love my Creator and know He made me exactly how He wanted.


"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
Genesis 1:31

A Peek Inside My Head

Some thoughts that have been mingling around my brain this week.

1. Of the past two weeks, only TWO DAYS have been warm and sunny enough to wear shorts. This is completely unacceptable in my book.

2. I love breakfast food.

3. I have the attention span of a five year old. Three times this week I have put on a movie or TV show and have gotten bored less than halfway through.

4. I wish Marissa and Bethany weren't in school. I could think of 472 fun things we could do together if they didn't just have to have an education. Kids these days...

5. I've re-discovered the fun in iPod touch games. 

6. I don't think my closet could contain one more article of clothing without busting. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed.

7. I can't wait to be a cheerleading coach someday. I'm majoring in PR only because the cheerleading major does not exist. (Yet.)

8. I would really love a new pet. Or maybe just a cool cactus or something...I hear they are very low maintenance and easy to train.

9. My prince charming is out there somewhere. 

10. My nails are orange.

If the cactus thing doesn't work out, this little angel would be the perfect new pet.

My Current and Recent Obsessions.

Life is made up of little things that make us happy. Here are a few of mine.

1. Nancy Drew Books. I read them religiously as a kid and recently purchased two old copies from the Unorganized Bookstore a couple weeks ago. Rain has been falling all day, so I feel that there is no better time to pick up a Nancy Drew mystery. 

2. Boat shoes. If I could own every style of Sperry's that has ever been created I would be a happy human being.

3. Yogurt Mountain. Brand new at the Greene! My first experience tonight was slightly overwhelming, the sheer number of toppings offered had my head spinning. Everything from crushed Poptarts to sour gummy worms to strawberries to pretzels was available to garnish the fro yo, and from the first bite of my crazy concoction I was a fan. 

4. Cologne. Ok, so this one isn't really recent, but I was at the outlet mall today and happened to be smelling cologne in a store when was reminded of how dang good male perfume smells. Good smelling boy is among my top five favorite scents, so if you are a boy and have not invested in a good smell, hold out your hand so that I may smack it.

5. Scrambled eggs. I make a mean scrambled egg. It's all about the delicate egg to cheese ratio.

6. Ballet. If I was not a cheerleader, I would be a ballerina. Ballet looks so fun. And I bet ballerinas have amazing calves from being on their toes all the time. 

7. Long hair. No scissors will be touching my locks for awhile. 

This will be me in a few months.

Fidget

I should have known that I would end up blogging quite a bit about my little sister Bethany. My AP English teacher senior year said, "an author repeats what is important to an author," and boy does Bethany keep popping up in my posts and BOY is she important to me.


Yesterday, I spent the latter part of the afternoon traipsing through the neighborhood with her at my side. She rode her scooter beside me as we walked to the park, singing me the songs she has learned for her school's performance of  "Suessical." She is simply adorable. When we arrived at the park, she made me spin her around on the tire swing until she described her current state as "barfy" and shakily climbed off. 


Feeling woozy and barfy wasn't enough to dampen this girl's spirits though.


After going to the park we headed down a trail to the creek in our neighborhood. Bethany's eyes twinkled with delight when I suggested we take our shoes off and dip our toes in the rushing water of the creek (I love these moments when I get to be the cool big sister and let her do things Mom normally wouldn't.) We explored a little more before heading home and playing volleyball in the yard barefooted. The day was warm so taking our shoes off seemed like the most appropriate way to play.


After we ate dinner that night, I knew that I wouldn't be content just to sit around inside since it was such a gorgeous evening. So me and Bethany headed to the OTHER park near our house. We swung on the swings and kicked the soccer ball around for a little bit before she decided she wanted to play "princess." She climbed up the steps of the jungle gym and began walking down with her nose in the air, saying "peasants...minions....servants.....GET BACK TO WORK!" as she descended. This happened three or four times, and I think I was referred to as a peasant at least once in helping her cross the mini zipline that the playground has. 


The last time she came down her "royal staircase," she did so yelling at her imaginary subjects as well as doing a little booty shake move here and there as well as gracing the kingdom with a musical number in which she would stick her hand under her armpit and make farting noises. 


A country being ruled by Bethany probably would have never seen a stricter ruler than she, and they CERTAINLY wouldn't have had a funnier one.


On the way home, she started singing again before trying to hold my hand and ride her scooter at the same time. I don't know how she does it, but not a day goes by when she doesn't do SOMETHING to melt my heart and make me laugh. Bethany Caroline Jin is an extraordinary girl who will absolutely do amazing things in life. 


I adore her.