Holy Moly Me Oh My

It's 50 degrees outside today. Yes, you read that correctly: it's 50 degrees and not -50 degrees! Can you believe it? It's actually a miracle. I'm wearing my winter coat with a dress and Birks. It's totally normal, I swear. Great weather almost always means increased positive mood. I just woke up this morning feeling super happy, and I think many agree with this feeling. Spring is by far my favorite season. I can't wait to sit on the rocks by the lake and finally learn how to ride my long board (read: fall off of my long board a million times and get a million bruises). I'm so excited to wear shorts and skirts and dresses and sandals. It's going to be so fantastic.

So, today is Pi Day. Huzzah! I'm going to say something that is probably going to get me boo-ed at: I'm not the biggest fan of pie. I mean, maybe it's not pie. I just have a weird thing about fruit in desserts. I feel like it's wrong, you know? If I'm going to have dessert, I feel like fruit just shouldn't be there. Because of this, it turns out that I don't like many pies. Chocolate and pecan pie, though: I approve of those. As an early pi(e) day celebration, my roomie/bestie/partner-in-crime and I ventured to Hoosier Mama Pie Shop on Main Street. And oh, was it amazing.

A match made in heaven, indeed.

Doesn't it just look like a happy place?

The menu was insanely awesome, we learned that our super cool friend Alison works there, and everything was just so happy inside.

The options were endless, but eventually we decided on our pie choice and it didn't disappoint. It was amazing. Almost better than my mom's pies. Almost. (You still hold the top prize, Mama, don't worry).

A Nutella Mocha with a foam heart. Who needs love when you have this?

Chocolate Chess Pie.

And what better company than my fabulous best friend? Isn't she adorable?! That's right boys, she's cute AND extremely intelligent (she's a Chemistry major). Get. At. Her. ;)

Resident badass/queen of adorableness: Sarah.

We killed those pieces of pie like warriors. (*no shame*)

Clean plate club!

I felt bad about gorging myself with the decadence of a mocha and chocolate pie, but then we had to run to catch the intercampus shuttle, so we technically burnt the pie/coffee off, right? That's totally how it works. I'll just keep telling myself that...

Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts, everyone. Who knows, we may get another Polar Vortex tomorrow................................

Yay, Chicago! 

If Emma Stone isn't your girl crush, then there's something really wrong with you.

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"There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty."

-Steve Maraboli

This One Is For You, Matt Amrofell

As I sit here in my over sized Strokes t-shirt under my heated blanket (it's reading week, I don't need to be a real person yet), I realize it's time for a little story time: a couple blog posts ago, I discussed how I spent the weekend hanging out with my best guy friends. In this blog post, I made a fatal error: I failed to mention one of my very best guy friends: Matt Amrofell. Of course, he read this post and proceeded to give me crap about it. I felt awful that I didn't mention him, so, because I made a fatal mistake, this blog post is for you, Matthew. 

Matt, Sarah, & I are Wayne's World enthusiasts.

For those of you who don't know Matt, he is like a brother to me. I know a lot of people say that about their guy friends, but Matt is actually like a brother to me. Many of my guy friends here are super close to me, but Matt is one who treats me like a sister in almost every way possible. Why do I say this? Well, the reasons go on and on, but for the sake of time, I'll just talk about last night. 

The Three Amigos

My roommate Sarah had an SAI music recital last night, and Matt and I went to support her. While sitting in the pews of Alice Millar Chapel, Matt began to nudge me in the side with his elbow. The nudging became more and more frequent, and our battle began to rival those that I had with my own brothers during the long, Catholic masses every Sunday of my childhood. Yes, we are both 20 years old and we got into a nudging fight in a church. We're mature, I swear.

Such trolls, but you gotta love 'em.

Then, when we got back to my room, he began taking unflattering photos of me sprawled out on the ground and threatened to send them to the guy I've recently been crushing on. What would a normal reaction to this threat be? Probably a calm conversation about how I would really appreciate it if he didn't do that. What was my reaction? Jumping on him, attempting to pry his cell phone out of his hands while screaming, and proceeding to realize that he didn't send the picture to anyone but some close friends of mine. Matt loves nothing more than to troll me. And oh boy, does he succeed at it.

Matt, you should've known that if you take like 50 selfies on my phone, I'm going to post at least one on my blog.

So art. Much beauty. Wow................you're welcome:

"Moisture is the essence of wetness and wetness is the essence of beauty."

In all seriousness though, Matt is an amazing person. Although we bicker like six-year-olds and rag on each other like true siblings do, he is one of my very best friends. I can always count on him as being one of the first people to check on me if I'm having a bad day or join me on Asian food adventures. He's extremely smart, funny, and such a frat bro, it's hilarious (and of course I mean that in the very best way possible. He is in my favorite fraternity, after all). Fratty Matty, Matthew, Matty, Matt: I'm sorry that this is the first time I'm featuring you on my blog, but I hope this makes up for it. Youda best, and I'm hella lucky to have someone at school who is like a brother to me so someone can call me out on my shit and keep me grounded. Keep on playing Fratty Bird and teasing me about my awkwardness because I wouldn't want it any other way.

Are they not the cutest pledge couple you've ever seen ever?

Mmm, this is mighty fine water!

Now that I've given the appropriate tribute, it's time to gush about all the other cray that has happened in my life this past week. First of all, I'm an aunt...again! 

Lil bby

That's right, I have another nephew! Porter Stephen Lindsey, son of my goofball brother Sean came into the world this past Thursday, and although I have not met him in person, he looks adorable and I can't wait to meet him this summer. He's gonna be a stud and Auntie Syd is gonna have to scare away all of the girls pining after him a couple years down the road. 

What else has happened, you ask? Well, I danced for 30 hours straight, that happened. For the second year, I participated in Dance Marathon, raising money for Team Joseph. The kids were beyond adorable, there were some baller celeb videos throughout the 30 hours, and I loved being able to display my awkward dance moves to the world. 

Oh yeah, and the freakin' President of the United States wished us good luck. No biggie. Go 'Cats.

We chilled with El Presidente, Morty, took a bunch of selfies, and tried not to die. It was rough at times, it was a blast, and it was definitely a memory that will always be associated with my college years.

Talk Morty to me.

Block 2, Characters Welcome: Leslie Knope and Jessica Day.

Allie delivered Jamba Juice to us and actually saved our lives. Does it look like she was visiting us in prison? Yeah, because she basically was. Allie is a goddess, but everyone already knows that.

We've got that crazy look in our eyes.

Taking selfies in K$'s hats is a sport, it really is. Damn, I look exhausted.

Oh yeah, and then there's this photo that North by Northwestern took, which everyone likes to haunt me with. My friend Shelbie told me to make a sad face and I complied, okay! I wasn't actually as miserable as I look!

S/o to the photo bomber in the background.

And as we approached 30 hours, the excitement grew, as did the extreme exhaustion and foot pain.

30 tally marks for 30 hours.

And $1,385,273 was raised. I love my school so much, and in times like these, I love it even more. It's so great to know that we made a difference in the lives of so many. Dance Marathon is a fabulous experience and I encourage all to participate at some point during your college years.

Besides all of these happenings, I've just been on that end of the quarter grind. Studying and staying up late and writing papers and praying for the cold to stop being a thing. To help me get through this last week of the quarter, I've been making playlists of some favorite songs. Because there is truly no other way to survive writing papers without some good music. A lot of people don't notice that at the top of my blog, I have a thing that says "Jammin' Tuneskies". I update the songs listed here whenever I write a new blog post. They're usually just the songs I've been listening to a lot lately. Sometimes they're new songs, sometimes they're oldies. Either way, they're some really great songs and I suggest you all check 'em out! If you're struggling through finals and papers like I am, here's a premo playlist for you to jam to. 

Enjoy:

"Harper Lee" by Little Green Cars

"Ask" by The Smiths

"Isoprene Bath" by Reptar

All of Real Estate's new album Atlas

"Porcelain" by Moby

"Birth in Reverse" by St. Vincent

"Here Comes Your Man" by Pixies

"Home" by LCD Soundsystem

"Zero to Love" by Say Hi

"Wonderwall" by Oasis

"Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears For Fears

"Hearts Like Ours" by The Naked And Famous

"Never Enough" by Eternal Summers

"Flux" by Bloc Party

"Graceless" by The National

"Open" by Rhye

"Extreme Ways" by Moby

"Head Over Heels" by Tears For Fears

"After the Disco" by Broken Bells

"Budapest" by George Ezra

"Kids" by Mikky Ekko

"One Day" by Kodaline

"Wake Up Shake Up" by Blair

"It All Feels Right" by Washed Out

"Icarus" by White Hinterland

"Winter" by Daughter

"Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid Michaelson

"Young Hearts" by Strange Talk

"Someday" by The Strokes

"Paris" by Magic Man

"Dance Yrself Clean" by LCD Soundsystem

Follow me on Spotify if you want more playlists! (Yeah, shameless plug, whatevs). Good luck studying, my friends. This hellish quarter is almost over. 

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"In a gentle way, you can shake the world."

-Gandhi

Staying in My Shell

For so long, I've been wanting to write a new post, but inspiration hasn't struck me and my horribly busy schedule has prevented it from happening. So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, but I just couldn't get myself to write. Why? Maybe it's the winter blues, maybe I've just been too busy? Who knows. But either way, I'm back.

I've had a lot of successes in the past week, which I am so grateful for. Not Our Forte is a legitimate group with such talented singers. They're all hilarious, too, which is definitely a plus. I've been contacted by multiple news sources on campus to be interviewed about starting the group with my friends, and it feels so great! I honestly feel so flattered that other students think we're a worthwhile story and that we've actually succeeded in our pursuits. We have had, what, three practices at this point? We're already a family, and I love it. I feel like I've known these crazy kids for years. I'm so excited to see what we accomplish and what beautiful music we create over the next couple of years. Side note: word on the street is that people think because our name is "Not Our Forte" that means that we all can't sing. That is false. We can, in fact, sing, and we would happily challenge any non-believers to a sing-off a la Pitch Perfect.

<3 NOF Love <3

Dan and Matt can whistle and hum at the same time. My mind is blown.

Our game of telephone charades took a dark turn when I interpreted "wizard" as "masochistic prostitute"...........don't ask me what goes on in my mind, I have no answer for you.

The laughs are endless and at rehearsal. It's the best.

NOF Love: from our family, to yours. (This picture is missing our newest boy, Ben. Sorry Ben!)

Another recent happening has made me just as happy: I was appointed to be the Managing Editor for STITCH Fashion Magazine on campus! This past year, I have served on STITCH Exec Board as the Director of Fundraising & Advertising. When I applied to be on STITCH Exec again, I honestly thought I didn't even have a shot at Managing Editor, but I went for it any way. And I got it! I'm so excited to serve on STITCH exec again and to work with some really amazing people.

We have some big editor shoes to fill after these amazing people.

AND, as if that wasn't enough good news, I just found out that I've been approved by Northwestern to study abroad in London for Fall Quarter!!! I still need to apply to Goldsmiths College individually, but STILL! I'm almost there!

Cue The Clash! 

So, why do I still feel like I'm in a funk? I know I shouldn't be. This quarter has been damn long, but I've enjoyed the majority of my classes. I've had no major, distressing conflicts with anyone, and I feel like everything is going pretty well.........except for my love life.

Now, I don't want this to turn into a whiny journal where I bitch about how I don't have a boyfriend. I'm pretty happy being single, actually. That's not my problem. My problem is that I physically cannot talk to guys who I find really attractive. Either that, or if I do talk to them, I come off EXTREMELY sarcastic (like, more than I already am), and I'm sure that scares them off. My crippling anxiety with guys has always been around. In high school, I was a really shy person in all aspects. I had a small group of friends, never talked up in class, and most people didn't know who I was because I just kind of hid in my shell 24/7. When I came to college, I decided I wanted to be a different person in this respect. So, I forced myself to be really outgoing, and thus, I transformed. Most people here at school know me as being outgoing a lot of the time. 

But the one area where I never changed was with boys. 

I have a lot of guy friends, and I have no trouble talking to guys in different contexts, but the instant I am super attracted to a guy, I freeze. I actually become a deer in headlights. This realization came to me when I went to a Sigma Nu party last night. 

In case you didn't know, New Girl is based on my life.

Sigma Nu is without a doubt my favorite fraternity on campus. The guys are all very sweet, a bunch of my guy friends are members, and I am extremely attracted to a solid 80% of the guys. Which makes last night all the more crippling. As a single gal, all I wanted to do last night was hang out with friends, relax after completing a slew of exams and papers, and flirt. There was one guy in particular who I really wanted to talk to. Having never met before, all I wanted to do was introduce myself. But I just. couldn't. do it. The whole night I could see him looking at me and I at him, but neither of us actually interacted. It sucked. My awesome friend Matt even tried wing-manning for me, and every time I felt like the guy was about to talk to me, I ran away.

Why?? Just, why?

How can I beat my social anxiety with attractive boys? Am I doomed to a life of writing anonymous NU Crushes and spitting out sarcasm and physically running away from all guys I find attractive? 

Who knows. 

Maybe one day I'll be able to do more than introduce myself, shake a guy's hand, and run away. But as for right now, it seems that that is all I am capable of. Damn anxiety.

Also, I swear to God that someone who works for Buzzfeed stalks my life, because this article is just my life, 100%:

9 Foolproof Flirting Tips For The Socially Awkward

I know that I should be happy with who I am. And I really am, honestly. I feel like in this past year, I have accepted myself even more, I am finally pursuing my dreams (sorry for the cliché), and I am succeeding at the things I am doing. If I can just gain a bit more confidence with those cute guys, I feel like I'll feel much better.

Oh well. I guess it's best to keep on focusing on the positives. And, to blog more. This really is the perfect therapy for me. 

Hey, since you read through all of my whining/celebrating, enjoy this: 

Wait, I just realized you could have easily just looked at the pictures. If you did that and didn't actually read my post, well, I honestly don't blame you because I wrote a lot. I was gonna yell at you, then I realized I barely ever actually read things that people write..........so, this is awkward.

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"If it's both terrifying and amazing, then you should definitely pursue it."

-Erada