One of my boyfriend Michael’s absolute favorite movies would have to be Beerfest. Every time it comes on TV he goes crazy and we must sit down and watch it. I can’t even count how many times we’ve seen it together. Not that it’s a bad movie, but you can only watch it so many times before you know all the lines and it becomes too predictable to be enjoyed. But I sit down every time and watch it with him because its something he loves. More than once I’ve had the urge to run out and buy him a german beer boot because I know it would be something that he would treasure forever (even though he’s not that big of a drinker).
I love buying things that remind me of my favorite movies though. I’m pretty sure that when I get a job and have some extra money that my house is going to be filled with odd teacups and teapots as a wonderful homage to my beloved Alice. Right now I buy posters like its my job, but they get ruined so easily and it makes me sad. Having more permanent, stable things that remind me of the stuff I love is much better. I’m hoping to get Michael hooked on buying show memorabilia too, so I may have to make that purchase sometime soon.
With the potential big move to Pittsburgh coming up, I’m starting to dread looking for a new place to live. I’ve never had to apartment/house hunt before and I’m more than a little nervous about it. I don’t really know what I’m going to be looking for, and I don’t know what questions I should be asking before signing a lease, but hopefully it will go well in the end and I’ll end up living somewhere great. But since my mother is bound and determined to help me at all times I think I’ll be okay.
A friend of mine is also in the process of moving from her parents house back to school. She has decided that she doesn’t want to live in a privately rented apartment; she wants to be in a managed building complex. After talking to her, I’m pretty sure that’s what I want to do as well just because there are so many things that can go wrong and it would be nice to have 24/7 maintenance if needed.
However, finding places like that are easier said and done. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of searches that I’ve done and even though I’m searching for Pittsburgh, I get results from all over the country. Though, if you’re looking for Property Manager in Columbus, I’m your gal and can probably point out a few!
Just don’t ask me where you can live in Pitt!
I don’t own my own business, but I seem to be drowning in files – mostly word files or PDFs – that I can’t delete because I need them. No matter how hard I try I can never seem to get things organized in a meaningful way. Then, if I need one of them it takes me hours to find them and sometimes I never do. I’ve ended up accidentally deleting important things before because they were out of order and I thought they were just extra files that I didn’t need. More than once I’ve lost extremely important documents, including project PDFs which contained all of the information I needed for a particular project.
I never knew that a document management system existed, but I always thought that life would be easier if there was one that I could use. I’d give anything to not have to worry about where my important documents are and whether or not I’ll be able to find them when the time comes that I need them. Especially now that I’m applying to Grad School at Duquesne University, I’ve got a lot of information that I need to keep track of including my transcripts, recommendations, portfolio, GRE scores and the application itself. Pretty much all of these things are digital now and I need to know that when I have to send them along, I’m going to be able to find them.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my dream home and whether or not I’d ever be able to find an already built house that I would fall in love with as much as the idea of my dream house that is in my head. Even though I’m years away from being owning my first home, it’s still something that I think about really often; probably more than I should. I just can’t wait to have something all my own that I can decorate and add all my personal touches to.
Thats probably why I also have spent countless hours looking at house plans online and in home-building magazines/flyers. I’m like a woman possessed; completely obsessed with getting my own home. I think one of the biggest reasons is that I LOVE to decorate things and I just want to be able to go shopping and pick out cute things that will go together. I love seeing a room come together into something elegant.. But I also don’t like decorating spaces that I know will be temporary living quarters for me. That’s why I need my own home.
For now I guess I’m just going to have to keep playing The Sims and designing my dream houses in-game. At least in the virtual world I can use cheat codes and have enough money for everything I want!
I drive a fancy yellow Chevy cavalier.. The only problem? It’s not my car, it’s my mothers. Everything is in her name; the title, the insurance, etc. So even though it is my car in every sense of being and I’m the only one who ever drives or uses it, it’s not my car and my mother could take it away any time she wants.
So I’ve been looking into ways to either purchase the car from my mother, or purchase another vehicle that would be completely mine. Problem is I would rather have a truck than a car… I love trucks and I love driving them. They’re so much bigger than a car and I feel like I can see much easier out of a truck than a car which is lower to the ground. So I’ve been looking at trucks as well as other cars.
But, once a car is in my name, then I’m going to have to worry about everything relating to it. I’ll need to register it, get a license plate, have it inspected, get insurance, etc. If I lived in the UK, I’m sure I’d end up going with some place like HVG insurance for my insurance needs, but since I’m here in the US I’m going to have to do some shopping around.
Hopefully soon though I’ll be able to label myself as the proud owner of a car or truck!
I’ve been in a lot of clubs and organizations over my years in high school and college. But perhaps the best experience I ever had was working on the Public Relations group for my school’s FIRST Robotics team. We were in charge of community outreach, fundraising, events, etc. It was a lot of work, but I really learned a bunch of new things about Marketing and how to publicize events. We did hit a few snags here and there though.
One of our most daunting tasks was to create signs for all of our events and for the team in general. And we ended up getting a local business to donate a wonderfully-made banner which had our team name, logo, and our sponsors on it. Only problem? We didn’t know what to do it. At competitions we’d end up tie-wrapping it to bleachers and stuff and as a result it got dirty and started to tatter a bit on the edges. But we didn’t have anything else to do with it, so we had to deal.
If only we had actually looked around and purchased something to help us hang that banner. We could have easily gotten a retractable banner stand that we could have set up at competitions. It would have allowed the banner to hang freely and not get pulled on or ripped if people bumped into it while they were passing by. The team still has that banner today, and it still is in good condition, but I bet that all of our signs would be in great condition had we actually bought stands for them instead of using our tie-wrap approach.
I’ve always thought about starting my own business. I’d love to own a web hosting company or a design firm. But it’s always been something that was just at the back of my mind because I don’t even know the first thing about how to start a new business. Sure, I took business classes in college, but they were mostly just Marketing classes, and the one I took which was actually about entrepreneurship, I only really learned how to create a business plan and forecast profit margins over a 2-year period… Not that knowledge such as this is necessarily a bad thing… It just doesn’t really help me get started (except for the business plan part).
A lot of my friends have Incorporated themselves as a business for various reasons, but not even they fully understand what they’ve done. Some of them are actually breaking the law by the way they’re operating their business, because they don’t understand what incorporation is. If they’d worked with a startup company, such as Incparadise, they might be more in the know with what they’re doing. But all of them did this themselves, so they’re basically taking the “hit or miss” approach. If it works out, then they’ll be okay and if it doesn’t, then they could be in a lot of trouble.
I know that when and if I decide to start a business, I’m definitely going to be talking to as many people as I can and maybe enlisting the help of a start up company. I want to make sure that everything is done 100% by the book and will be all proper and legal when everything is said and done.
I will be the first to admit that I don’t know that much about hardware and construction things. I used to be quite a tomboy and was always helping out my aunt build things in our basement. We made all sorts of holiday decorations, and even a little sailboat once. But that was about the end of my knowledge.
Then in middle school I got back into being Ms. Handy when I had to take shop class each year. It was fun getting to use large-scale saws and other equipment for the first time. I loved working with wood, or any construction material really. I built shelves, made little carvings, learned how to stain things properly, and generally had a good time.
My aunt is still a big time wood worker, but sadly I don’t help her out as much anymore. And I’ve noticed that I really do miss working with power tools. I loved the feeling of actually building something on my own that I could be proud of.
Now I’m more of a girlie girl, but there’s still that little bit in side of me that always wants to run into the nearest hardware store and buy some powder tools or other building materials. I can’t promise I’d know what to do with them, but I’m sure that in the end it would be mighty fun!
