I Like My Blog How I Like My Blog

When I read this post by Jenn last week, I was jumping up and down in my mind saying, "yes!!! that is exactly how I feel too!!" Here's what Jenn had to say that was so well put I can't even try to put it in my own words:

Sometimes the pressure to write something great keeps me from writing at all. After doing this blogging thing for more than 3 years, I sometimes feel like I should have evolved into this skilled writer, perfectly parlaying my thoughts and feelings into beautiful words that tug at the heart strings of anyone who reads it and makes everyone want to be my best friend.

And then I get shoved off my high horse for being so pretentious and I remember it’s a blog. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular. It’s supposed to be fun and a sort of Room of Requirement for me – whatever I need it to be at a a given time, it is.

I absolutely love this for so many reasons.  I started blogging for me and I will continue blogging for me.  I'm so happy it has allowed me to connect with others, but if I get too caught up in blogging what people expect me to blog about, I can literally feel the genuine-ness slipping away. And that's no good for me or for the people who read this blog.  Sometimes you might think what I write about it super boring, and sometimes it might be.  But writing this blog is supposed to be cathartic for me. And if the only people who enjoy reading it are my best friends, that's okay sometimes.  If other people enjoy it too, that's just the icing on the cake. [Yum, cake.] 

Anywho, I say all of this to preface the extremely random post that will follow. 

• I don't think there are many greater feelings in the world than going to sleep with a clean kitchen and waking up to a clean kitchen.  Brings me so much joy to have a fresh start in the morning.  And I can sleep with a dirty kitchen (some people cannot) but only if I am extremely tired. 
• I am totally back on the smoothie train and I'm not sure why I ever got off because this smoothie I'm drinking is deee-lish. I started using frozen fruit instead of fresh fruit (cheaper now that berries are going out of season- at least I think it's cheaper...) and let me just say- YUM.  I love fresh berries but the frozen berries make the smoothie so. cold. without watering the smoothie down with ice.  I'm totally down with that.

• If I don't have my gmail open in the left-most tab of my safari window, I will open another tab because I think it isn't open.  Old habits die hard.
• I'm not sure if it is great or awful that Whole Foods- my most-frequented grocery store- does not sell velveeta. Sometimes there is nothing better on gameday than some velveeta queso. I'm pretty sure there's also little out there worse for your body, so maybe it's not the worst thing. 
• Speaking of velveeta, I recently tried this recipe for cheese dip. I left out the bacon because I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to buy any, but yum-o! The addition of the worcestershire really kicked up the flavor.

via pinterest

• Although I'm not sure that Columbus Day is a holiday that makes a ton of sense, I am very glad I had the day off from work.  I had to write a paper that was due that night and it was so nice to be able to do that without having to work through both Saturday & Sunday- especially since I was working on other papers and projects on those days. The to-do list of a grad student never ends. I know we all feel like that sometimes.
• Speaking of grad school, I'm about to start on my paper about a Congressional hearing and my background noise of choice is season 6 of The West Wing. I know I am such a cliché right now and I couldn't be happier about that. I like what I like.