I haven't written anything in awhile and it's not really because I haven't done anything that’s worth writing about, it's because I don't feel like I have the time to take the time that it takes to write. I think this is because of the way society conditions us to think; Society tells me that I have to go to work every day and then I have to come home and work out, get things done around the house, run errands, etc. So I go to work, I drive home in rush hour traffic, I come home and I exercise and by the time that is all finished I am ready to take a shower and get in bed.

I read all the time that you need to take an hour for yourself each day and i think about this often. What do I do for myself each day? I forced myself to exercise because I've been told to think that that is what I need to do. But if I don’t necessarily enjoy exercise, then is that really taking time for myself? I don’t really think so.

Little bits and pieces of my blog have been popping up here and there; at a graduation party one of my quotes from I Don't Mean to Brag But I Be Like...Doing It Anyway was displayed as a centerpiece on the table, and that’s a nice reminder that this blog, my very own little escape, still exists and maybe I should make time to write more often.

A few days ago my super talented friend took time out of her life to paint me and asked if she could post it on her design Instagram. She said that she usually posts the photo with a quote said by that person and asked for my favorite. Because I haven't written in so long, the only quote I could think of was the one from the graduation party, so that is the one I provided her with. It reads “When you’re happy with what you’re doing and where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how many bad days or how many rough moments you have, because the good always outweighs the bad”. 

She said it took her awhile to finish the paintings of me because she hasn’t been home a lot. But the point of it all is that she still started them and finished them because she made time to do it. She said she didn't mind that it took her awhile because she had fun doing it and she loves to draw and create. Despite being busy with whatever life would throw at her, she still took the time to do the thing that she enjoys doing. 

She inspired me to take at least some time out of my life to write. Because even though it is so easy to fall into the routine that is almost robotic of going to work, coming home, working out, doing things around the house, running errands, etc., I still need to do something for me, something that makes me happy. Even if I can't have a full hour out of every day, I'm still taking the time. 

You can check out the drawings below and check out more from @designsbycaitb by clicking the link!

I’m really happy, it’s not because of a man and it’s not because I won the lottery, and I just want to brag about it a little.

In the past month I’ve saved so much money on Starbucks because I don’t feel the need to “treat myself” every other day of the week just for surviving one day. I used to literally bribe myself with coffee.

In the past month I’ve spent so little time scrolling through social media. In fact, I hardly have time to touch my phone throughout the day. Sometimes I’ll hop on Instagram just to see what my favorite celebrity is up to or to see if there’s a new giveaway I want to enter or I’ll get on Twitter just for a quick laugh. But over this past month I haven’t sat and scrolled through social media longing to have someone else’s life because I have been so caught up and so busy with my own life.

In late February, about a month ago, I started a new job and the next chapter of my career. It has been a major adjustment. The hours are different and the job is demanding. Every day is a challenge, every day I struggle and I make mistakes, and every day I get stronger personally and professionally. I don’t find myself bitching and moaning constantly, I don’t find myself complaining. I literally find myself laughing and smiling and thinking to myself “I love my team and I love this place”.

Never in my life have I thought I would be that person who says “I love my team” and I certainly never thought I would be that person that wants to purchase for myself a company sweatshirt, and yet, here I am. I think it’s because for the first time in a while I’m genuinely happy and proud of where I’m at.

This is not to say that I wasn’t happy before the job change. But I do think before I was just going through the motions of life. Waking up, going to work, coming home from work, going to sleep and doing it again the next day. I was spending a lot of time with my head down either just getting the day’s tasks done or looking at my phone and not enough time enjoying my life and being present in the moment, even if in that moment I am in an office working.

In the past month I’ve had a lot of good days and a few bad, and a lot of rough moments and a few great ones. But what I’ve realized is when you’re happy with what you’re doing and where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how many bad days or how many rough moments you have because the good always outweighs the bad.

SO- I’m sorry if I don’t snapchat you back, if I don’t like your Instagram post, if I take 3-5 business days to text you back. I’m just really busy focusing on my clients, my career, and probably making snarky comments and laughing with my coworkers. And most importantly I’m just really busy being happy.  

I have literally been trapped in my house for 2 days because of this snow storm that I was convinced would not come. I have done a lot of moving from my bed to my couch and from my couch to my bed. I've scrolled through social media, cooked, cleaned, and did laundry out of boredom. I decorated my room and rearranged my closet more than once. I finished a series on Netflix and I've watched a few too many romantic movies to the point where my personality is now a little bit Rachel Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) and Tami Oldham (Adrift). 

If you've seen either movie you'd know that these characters are opposites, and in the most extreme ways. Rachel is from New York City and is dating the Prince Harry of Singapore while Tami Odham's wanderlust leaves here trapped on a sail boat and forced to survive for 41 straight days. While these two leading ladies are living out opposite situations, they have a few things in common and these similarities are just a few of the most unrealistic ways women are portrayed in movies.

1. Women are confident 100% of the time.
Love stories always seem to portray women as confident and having it together all of the time. They move so gracefully, they never stumble over what to say, and they always know what they want to eat, where they want to go and how to dance.

When in reality, women [and being in love] are not always that graceful. We stumble over our words and say they wrong things, or write the wrong things. And sometimes we don't know what we want to eat!! And sometimes we don't know how to dance. Sometimes we need a little help from our friends or vodka in order to get us out on that dance floor.

2. Women know exactly who they are.
Sometimes we just don't, okay? Sometimes we are still figuring our shit out. And I'd love to see a movie about this. A realistic movie, not a comedy. Most story lines involving figuring your shit out turn into comedies, when in reality it isn't always funny.

3. Women don't have neck rolls when they're laying down. 
Out of all three points I have and will mention, the way women are shown laying down or sleeping, is by far the most unrealistic. I've never seen a person lay their head down on a pillow in real life and not have their cheeks get all squishy or their neck get all rolly. Come on Hollywood, do better. We are all laying down and looking like egg-heads or potatoes. Show it on the big screen.

​aaannnd that's really all I have to say about that. Try not to think about this too hard because it's really meant in a lighthearted way. 

​The job wasn’t perfect, management wasn’t perfect, and I wasn’t perfect either. I was reaching my breaking point, but I had never quit a job, or really anything in my life so I didn’t want to give this up either. But I was pushed to my limits for so long, I was exhausted, and I made a mistake. I will fully admit to making a mistake regarding a guest’s experience. I know this was my fault.
 
The guest was visibly upset and raising their voice at me, but I had not yet realized the mistake I made. All I could see in the moment was this guest leaning over the counter to get closer to my face and yelling at me. Instead of remaining calm and trying to understand what he was trying to tell me, I raised my voice back. Strike 4.
 
I raised my voice at a guest. I raise my voice at a guest at the Happiest Place on Earth. This is coming from a girl who worked at a Call Center. Yeah, I was the person who calls people at dinner time and begs them for money. People would yell at me and tell me I’m worthless and won’t go anywhere in life and I would just hang up the phone and laugh at them unbothered. Because I knew my worth.
 
But at Disney it was different. I had been talked down to for so long and looked down upon that I put myself on that same level and yelled back at a guest. Because at that point I didn’t know who I was, let alone know my worth.
 
After that shift I was terrified the guest would go to management and I would get a reprimand. But nothing happened, no one ever found out and I never got in trouble. So, I started breaking more rules because I knew that nothing was going to happen to me. I snuck into resort pools and stayed there all day, I called in and went to the parks, I took days off just because. I could see these changes in myself and I knew something wasn’t right, because I never break rules over fear of getting in trouble.
 
I continued work as usual just because I didn’t want to be weak and quit. Then, I came in for a 2p.m. – 11:45 p.m. shift as greeter. Greeter is essentially hostess, you’re the person who greets the guests, takes their orders, and then report them back to the kitchen. Greeter will stand there for their entire shift because it is the one position that does not have someone who can be their back up, unless a manager or supervisor is free and can take over for a short minute.
 
[This is a warning: if you get grossed out by that thing that happens to a woman once a month, stop reading]. Greeter was my favorite position because it was outside of the kitchen and I actually got to talk and interact with the guests. However, I was not feeling well that day, even before I had arrived at work, I had a headache that just wouldn’t go away. I kid you not, not even a half hour into this shift, I could feel it; I got my period. While standing in a position with no back up person, a line out the door, and wearing Khaki pants. Yep, khaki.

I think that the older we get the harder the holidays get. Or the more meaningful they become, in turn making them harder, especially when it comes to gifts. For me, it’s twice as difficult because my birthday is exactly a week before Christmas. So I have people asking me “what do you want for your birthday? What do you want for Christmas?” And year after year it gets harder and harder for me to answer that question. Because what I really want is not something you can buy in a store and wrap in a bow.

My birthday falls in this really awkward time period. Back in grade school, while most students got to celebrate their birthday at school with their friends and hand out treats to their classmates and teachers, I never got to do that because my birthday always fell during Christmas break. The same thing happened when I went to college, I never really celebrated my birthday with my friends because we were all on break and in different places.

So finally, not in school, when someone asks me what I want for my birthday I always think to myself “people to spend it with”. Of course my family. And I do have some amazing friends who will go out of their way to make that happen for me. It is hard not to be around the people I love who love me back but I have my best friends who live hours and states away who may not be around but will think about me and do whatever they can to make that day special to me. 

Sure, unwrapping presents is fun. I think that parents, no matter how old their kids are, still get a thrill watching them walk down the stairs Christmas morning, or walk in the house, towards the tree and unwrap a gift. But all I really want for Christmas is to not be afraid to walk outside after dark, I want the wars to be over, I want there to be a cure for cancer, I want friends to stop dying young, and to stop seeing people I care about heartbroken, I want unconditional love and commitment, I want people to stop tearing each other apart and see them come together again, I want women to stop hating men and to somehow stop feeling victimized, I want more experiences, and I want to find that place in my life where I can be truly happy.
​
So if you’re like me, on Christmas [or your birthday] you’ll probably unwrap the material gift that you wanted the most and you’ll feel so grateful for it and you’ll be happy. But part of you will still feel empty inside because that material thing can’t take the place of some of the things that you want the most.

Something I’m really quite sick of is when people make assumptions about what I do or don’t eat. I really don’t get offended easily but MY BODY IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS. For every time I say “oh, I have a headache” or “I don’t feel so great” the automatic response to that is “well, it’s probably because you haven’t eaten today”.

First of all, you have no right to assume if I have or have not eaten. And second, you can feel unwell for multiple different reasons and it does not always stem from your diet. Which, again, I remind you that you know nothing about.

If you feel the need to concern yourself so much with what I do or don’t do with food and my body then maybe you should take up another hobby.

While I have your attention, saying “you look so skinny” is NOT a compliment! Stop commenting on people’s body size.

Here is a recommendation - Any time you want to say “you look so thin!” or “your curves look great!”  try changing the way you think and saying something like “Wow, those jeans look great on you!” or “that shirt is an incredible fit!” Expand your thoughts. 

I’m literally so sick of feeling bad about myself and my body. I’m finished pretending that I enjoy a meal more than I do just to make other people feel comfortable. And you should be finished commenting on people's body size as if that doesn't make them feel UNcomfortable.

MY BODY IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS!!!!

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 

Anytime someone asks me what my hobbies are, I always give them the typical answer: I like to hike, travel, collect local art, I coach volleyball, Twitter, I write, and I keep a blog.

But lately, I've realized I have a new hobby. And I like to call it "hobby supporting". I spend a lot of time supporting my friends and their hobbies. You can literally do anything and be anything and as long as you aren’t harming yourself or anyone else and as long as you are happy, I will do whatever it takes and whatever you ask of me, to support you.

It can be a hobby as big as photography and wanting to turn that into a career. I will model for you whenever you need a model, I will recommend you to others, and I will even suggest places and things for you to take photos of. 

It can be a hobby like reading. I will read the books you suggest, I will talk about the characters with you like they're my best friends, I'll connect with you on Good Reads, I'll buy you books and I'll follow your book blog. Maybe you don't like reading but you're a TV fanatic. You bet I will start watching that TV show you love just so you have someone to talk about it with.

Maybe your hobby is something small, like just loving Instagram. I will come up with captions for you, I will tell you when the best time to post is, and you know you will always have a like and a comment from me. 

I’d like to thank all of my supporters for supporting this blog. Sometimes you keep it going better than I do. Life gets hectic and it’s so easy to ignore what I’ve already created, but when I receive encouraging messages from strangers, or people I don’t usually talk to, that kind of support is what keeps me going. It brings me back to reality and gives me a reminder that writing is my escape from this hectic life.  

It is so important to support the people who make you happy when they do the things that make them happy. If you don't, you're probably just an asshole. 

 These photos were taken by my friend, Joe at Trilogy Photography. if you're ever looking for a photographer in the Cleveland area I would strongly suggest looking there. Not only because he is my friend but also because he has worked on everything from surprise engagements to first birthday parties. He knows how to make you feel comfortable in front of the camera and makes sure you're having fun the entire time. 

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I haven’t written anything in a while but I constantly feel the pressure to since now I own this website. I haven’t even written about my recent trip to Spain yet, I could easily say that I’ve been uninspired or blame it on the jet lag, but the truth is, there are a million things I’d love to write about but I’m unable to. I even have to be careful about how I word this sentence because big brother is always watching (I don’t necessarily mean the government).

I’ve been listening to showtunes every morning. I find that nothing gets me going early in the morning quite like showtunes do. A song from Hamilton came on and one lyric stays ringing in my head “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?”

Current events have taught me a lot about myself. I know what I stand for and I know exactly what I would fall for. But those things are difficult to discuss on the internet, in writing, with my name all over it.

So, I’ll end this post on a lighter note. Speaking of needing inspiration, I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. She’s a real weirdo, that lady. But the 7 month wait for the exhibit to open and the countless hours I spent waiting in line to buy tickets were all worth it.

You can check out the photo gallery below:

If you hate working out, don’t have any motivation to work out, or simply don’t have the time, CycleBar might be for you. I told myself that I would never be one of those “cycling girls” that this is just another trend that will pass. Yet, here I am.

I don’t really enjoy working out. I was an athlete my whole life and I ran track and cross country for 12 years. I ended up getting really sick and it is hard to bounce back to running 10 miles a day after suffering from mono for 6 months and being anemic. On top of that, going to college and discovering alcohol. All that being said, I was never able to bounce back.

Anyway, I still stay active. I like to go for long walks or hikes and if I’m feeling up to it I’ll go for a run, but I don’t like to push my body to do things that it isn’t up for doing. And I have to say, running and hiking are the best sports in the world because the people you meet along the way are the best kinds of people. We are all just out here doing our thing to better ourselves. And there is not a person I pass who doesn’t offer up a smile, wave, or even a “good job”.

My sister, on the other hand, loves to work out. Like, genuinely enjoys being sweaty and in pain. And I wish I could be more like that.

She is a member of the Beachwood CycleBar. Back when they were celebrating their 2 year anniversary and offering a week of free classes she dragged my mom and I, who usually go to Zumba classes, to CycleBar.

The last time I cycled (or went to a spinning class) was when I was in college. They offered free classes in the rec center and it was quite literally the worst thing to happen to me. You had to arrive 30 minutes early just to get a spot in the class, the bikes were impossible to adjust to your specific settings, and everyone was judgmental and far from helpful. So, when my sister told me I was coming to CycleBar with her, you can imagine how hesitant I was.

As soon as I stepped into that building, my entire idea of cycling changed. Everyone was smiling and friendly. The owner came right over and helped me sign in and got me the right size shoe. He showed me to my locker and was patient when I didn’t understand how to make a locker combo. And he said as soon as I was settled he would help me find my bike and adjust it to my needs.

We strapped on our shoes and then headed into the cycling room. It was dark, lit by candles and a few other spotlights in the back. There were rows upon rows of bikes. My sister and I purposely reserved our bikes next to each other (this is something CycleBar offers when you sign up for a class so that riders aren’t fighting to get a spot) and I watched as she adjusted her bike and I did the same to mine. Then she says “okay, get on and click your feet in”. I literally had no idea what this meant other than the fact that my shoes would then be attached to this bike. My sister had no problem getting her shoes to click in but I raised my hand for help and the class instructor came trotting over with a smile ready to assist. THE PEOPLE ARE SO AWESOME.

We got to class early, obviously to get adjusted and to ride for a few minutes in peace for ourselves. I was sitting there thinking “the workout hasn’t even started yet and I’m already loving it. Maybe I will even purchase a package.” Then the workout started and it was hard.

The cool thing about CycleBar is that they dim the lights during the ride, so you are aware that you are surrounded by people but you can also focus on being there for yourself. There is of course an instructor leading the class, but the atmosphere is so free that you are encouraged to do the workout but modify it to meet the needs of you as an individual. You are encouraged to sit back in the saddle to regain strength, take a breath, get some water, and then rejoin the group in the ride. But never stop pedaling as you do this.

Yes, there were points in the class where I thought I might die and towards the end I thought I was actually dead. I was back in the saddle feeling like I couldn’t finish the class and then the instructor said “For some of us, this might be the only 45 minutes we get to ourselves during the day. This is for you.” And at that point, I pulled myself up back into third (out of the saddle, hands on the very front bars) and I pedaled it out for the last interval. Because this is for me, I deserve this. I deserve to show myself that I can rock my ride and finish as strong as I started. So I did.

I left the class on a total high, a high that I haven’t felt since my running days. I don’t like working out, but my ride at CycleBar was a great work out and I left feeling good and feeling good about myself. I will most definitely be back again.

I rocked my ride for myself and you can and should too!

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