Pets hate Mondays too.

Max and Bianca on the left and Baby on the right, just hating Monday. :)

Ah, Morose Monday how I loathe you.

I have a pet Cockatiel named Baby. I'm 100% convinced that he hates Mondays as much as I do. Every Monday he throws a huge hissy fit when my mom wakes up at 6 to get ready for work. Mind you, it's pretty much the only day of the week that he throws a fit in the morning. Unless he needs food, that calls for a fit ANY time of day (or night for that matter).

Then there's the dogs. Max and Bianca refuse to get out of bed on Mondays. I basically have to bribe them with food to get them out of bed. Oh, and now that it's getting cold they refuse to go outside. Now I have to physically pick them up and put them outside.

Well Monday, it was nice seeing you, I'll be dreading our battle next week.  

Time Management?

Your first lesson in time management from Sam and I. 

The most important lesson we learn in college is a toss-up between two things. One would be how to eat through the week with only twenty dollars to your name. The other – equally important – is how to manage your time.

“Don’t wait until the night before to do this project” we’ve all heard this before and have responded with “Challenge Accepted”. Then you turn into Barney Stinson and all of a sudden it’s 3 a.m and you’ve drank a whole pot of coffee and magically there is a semi coherent project sitting in front of you. Every time we promise not to do this to ourselves again and every time we do the exact same thing.

Then we have the students that make lists and have each step of the project planned out in their planner; the Ted Mosby's. Hey, more power to you. I could schedule out when I'm going to post blogs and what they're gonna be about for an entire month... but nothing will get posted for at least two months. This is one hundred percent because I am a last minute crammer. 

So, how is this learning time management? In the “real world” no one cares how you get your work done, it just has to get done. In college we learn how we work most effectively. Some of us do our best work when we have it all planned out and can start a week in advance, while others do better under the stress of having only a few hours to finish their work.

Once you figure out what works best, stick with it. If you are a last minute crammer, don’t be ashamed of it, embrace it! Likewise, if your strong suit is micromanaging and planning things out, buy a good planner and go for it! The world needs a good balance of Barney Stinson’s and Ted Mosby’s.

The Cinderella Effect

Alright, I'm back from my hiatus. I know I told you guys there would be a post last weekend but once again, my life took over and I had no time to vent to you all (remember that whole having no time thing).

Done by the extremely talented Sam!

Look at her stuff! deviantART and tumblr! 

My most requested topic is dating (insert dramatic pause here). Well, more like a lack of dating.

I'm at the age where half of the people I went to high school with are either getting married and/or having children or they're more like me with no time to find someone to marry or to have children with.

During this wonderfully stressful time of life, relatives and those dreadfully happy couples seem to think it's appropriate to ask you why you are still single. Why this is socially acceptable, I still don't understand. All these sadists do is make you feel like it isn't okay to spend your very little free time watching Netflix alone. Side bar- it is a million percent acceptably to watch Netflix by yourself all nigh.

 There are a few issues with dating, First being there is no time for it. If I don't have time to eat on some days, I certainly don't have time to spend an hour awkwardly making small talk. I take four classes, work, write for the school paper, blog for all you lovely humans (well, maybe you aren't all human, you could read to your pets for all I know...) and I have a lot of family obligations. Now, after I complete all of these tasks all I want to do is snuggle my puppies and binge watch Gilmore Girls.

That being said, even if I did find someone I wanted to date the timing never works out, I like to refer to this phenomena as the Cinderella Effect. "Oh, Friday? Yeah, that will work. Oh wait... no I have four papers and a test on Monday." So on the off chance I do get asked on a date we'll have to schedule a few months in advance. Oh, you're looking for a relationship? I hope you don't mind only seeing me for about an hour a week since our schedules are polar opposite.

At least Cinderella was allowed a night off to go to the ball. Too bad Prince Charming was too stupid to recognize her and made everyone try her shoe on... I bet it was stretched out by the time she got it back, too.

The American Dream

Before we dive into this post, y'all need to know who is going to be doing the artwork for Absolutely Unsure from now on! 

One of my really good friends from school is an all around brilliant creative mind. One day she showed me her art and then boom! Here we are!She is a self described " nerdy, hobby-artist and writer." I love her work and I think you guys will too! So go look at some more of it! She has Deviantart and Tumblr!  

Okay! On to the post! Today while trying to read through some dreadfully boring homework (Environmental Biology might just be the death of me) my mind wandered to my American Literature class from last week. We read "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of my faves, btw) and had a very intriguing debate over what constitutes as the "American Dream". At first, most people responded with the typical "a house with a white picket fence, a family and a dog" (cat lovers, you can switch that dog out). 

Before I continue with my thoughts, it's important to have some plot information about "Winter Dreams". A young man, Dexter Green, grows up in a small town. He works as a caddy growing up, here he is surrounded by the elite members of society. This is when he decides that one day he will be a part of this upper class. As the story goes on our Mr. Green builds a laundry empire and makes his fortune. AND THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA TELL YOU! Go read it, it's phenomenal. (Here's a link to the story.)

Now that I went all English major on you...

The point is the story is about a young man works his way up to better his life. During my class discussion we concluded the "American Dream" is really just having the ability to better your life. The "American Dream" is all about chasing dreams. I believe that's always been the "American Dream", our country was founded on the belief that we could better ourselves.

My question for you then is, what does the "American Dream" mean to you?

Morose Mondays- 100% Humidity, 100% Awful

I burnt my grilled cheese today too, I don't want to talk about it. 

Hey everyone! I'm finally back after a week long hiatus! Unfortunately I have been really sick. The so sick don't leave the couch propped up on four pillows kind of sick. What's worse is I'm still not better. This garbage started last Sunday and I'm still coughing like I've got pneumonia. To top it all off the weather has given me a migraine, woo!

On this dreadful Morose Monday I have had to do laundry (ew), clean the kitchen (super ew), and let my dogs out in the torrential downpours that hit this afternoon (I'm not even gonna go there). That's not even the best part about this lovely Monday, my dog has been drinking out of my water all day so I keep having to get a new cup.

Now, on to something we all hate about today, the 100% humidity. WHY IS THAT A THING?!

Every time I walk out side these are the thoughts I experience:

1. Cool, now I look like a lion. Good thing I didn't do my hair. 
2. I feel like I need a boat to navigate through the air. 
3. Maybe a snorkel too, while I'm in said boat. 
4. What was the point in even showering today?
5. Maybe if it rains it won't be so humid...
6. Dang it I should have brought an umbrella. (Rain starts immediately after this thought, btw)
7. WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE I JUST NEED GROCERIES
8. Okay, calm down it's just rain. (Rain finally stops at this point)
9. Well, I guess that answers that question. The rain just made it even more humid. 
10. I'm not leaving my house again until Fall. 

How's your Monday going?

Morose Monday- Coffee was made for Monday.

                              

I am especially morose today. 

I am dead tired, woke up sick as a dog, and cranky as ever. The absolute worst part about all this is that my Keurig is out of commission at the moment because it is being cleaned. So guess who has no coffee today? That's right, this girl right here. 

Not to mention I have been on conference calls, emailing people back and just overall being annoyed by the general population. 

Talk about torture. Chinese water torture has nothing on getting through a Monday with no coffee. 

Coffee is like an antidote for coming in contact with stupid people. And I'm coffee-less today, watch out world. 

Insecurities.

The other night my girlfriends and I all decided we needed a girls night. I don't know about you guys, but when we all get together the most random stuff happens.

On our adventure we met some guys who were in town for the weekend to fish (we live off Lake Michigan, it's the only reason people come to our sleepy town). My friend and I walk into the bar and the first thing that happens is one of these men says, "You ladies are so beautiful!" and proceeded to take us by the hand and spin us around.

This was the point we realized we were in for an interesting night.

These men were all so adamant about telling us how beautiful we were. It wasn't in a creepy, "Hey girl, what's yo name, number and sign" (this has legitimately happened to me, seriously guys get it together. In what world would that actually work?). These guys were genuinely just complimenting us, expecting nothing in return (except maybe some fishin' tips).

Now to the point of this post. The next night one of the girls commented on how strange it was that those guys were so persistent while expecting nothing in return.

My thought here is that we all need these kinds of people. We need people to make us stop and realize that we are valued and that we are in fact beautiful. It"s depressing that we all get so insecure (sometimes with out even realizing it) about how we look and even who we are.

I don't care who you are this happens to everyone. 

So this is a thank you. Thank you to the people that go out of their way to make someone else's day. You're all absolutely lovely people, go compliment someone and make their day!

Top Ten Procrastination Tasks of the Day

Today I could not sit down and focus on writing a decent blog post. I did just about everything I possibly could to not write. So I decided instead of forcing myself to write, I'd just give you a list of the top ten things I so wisely spent my time doing today (with visuals, of course).

1.)  I started with some good ol' time killing with timehop. All this really made me want to do is watch Freaky Friday...

2.) Freaky Friday quickly lost my attention so I switched over to "Duck Dynasty". I watched half of a season today... but I was watching while completing procrastination tasks three through eight. 

3.) While I was watching "Duck Dynasty" I of course had to check BuzzFeed. 

4.) Then of course, Pinterest. This pin made me want cupcakes... 

5.) So I made a latte instead (oh and, Roll Tide). Cupcakes take waaay too long to bake. 

6.) I did some laundry. As happy as I would have been to leave the laundry on the couch, my dogs decided my clothes would be better if they smelled more dog-like. Hence why I had to put them away immediately.

7.) I then decided my desk needed some serious organizing. Logically, the pile of rubber bands became a rubber band ball. 

8.) Eventually I did indeed reorganize my entire "office" area. Not too shabby for a day of procrastination. 

9.) Once I ruled out napping (terrible decision, by the way) my brother asked me to put numbers on our spiffy new mailbox. Look at how perfectly straight those letters are. Go ahead, admire it. I did. 

10.) All that hard work procrastinating made me hungry. Naturally I had to make dinner. Mmmm Shepherd's Pie :)

There you have it folks! Ten things I did today instead of write a blog post. 'Tis the season for procrastination, the semester starts soon. I'm just preparing myself for the imminent last minute, up all night, coffee binge, homework sessions this coming semester will bring. 

My favorite way to procrastinate is to drink coffee and watch Netflix, what's yours? 

Morose Mondays- Drama Fiends

I'm one of those people that stays as far away from drama as possible.

That being said, the people I'm surrounded by have made it their life goal to be drama magnets. For the life of me I can't figure out why it's so hard for people to just let go of what other people do. Why would you allow someone to ruin your day?

It's just like what parents tell their kids “well do you think that? No? Then why does it matter?”.

But seriously, WHO CARES?! Who cares about what other people say or do? 

Get over it. Stop wasting your time, (cue the image chosen for today's post). Live your life and stop letting other people dictate your happiness. All you do when you obsess over drama is push people away. No one wants to be around someone who is looking for drama. 

Not to mention it's more annoying than being woken up to a gas powered hedge trimmer being used right outside your window. Side note: Yes, this is how I woke up today. I deserve a donut...

Remember "Hakuna Matata" or, "Let it Go"? Disney was trying to teach you drama mamas a serious lesson there. Stop worrying about other people and their problems. You are allowing these people to affect your overall happiness.

Drama is like an addiction, why else would reality TV be so popular?

On Mondays we rant.

Morose (adj.) sullen or ill-tempered.  

Due to the popularity of Clashing Personalities, I've decided to let you all get a weekly dose of my rants.

I know, I know I'm sooo generous.

They'll be called "Morose Mondays". Mostly because well, Mondays suck. 


I think we can all agree Mondays were made for ranting.

What are some topics you go on rants about? Or, what just really peeves you? 

We're Absolutely Unsure!

Okay so I'm sure you're wondering why I changed the name from "Absolutely Unsure" to "We're Absolutely Unsure".

It's simple- I just felt like it!

Just kidding! Well, kind of.

Since the address for the blog has always been wereabsolutelyunsure.blogspot.com I figured it would make more sense to change the blog title to match it's url. You're probably thinking "Duh Katie, why didn't you do that in the first place". The answer to that is simple too. I'm stubborn and to be honest I didn't think of it until last night... don't judge me.

I also changed the title to include "We're" because I want you all to be involved more! If it weren't for all of you absolutely lovely people I wouldn't be able to blog. From the beginning I wanted Absolutely Unsure to be more of a community for all of us who are still trying to figure life out.

I mean don't get me wrong, I could write all day everyday. But, to make "We're Absolutely Unsure" into the community I have envisioned I need you all to give me feed back.

Leave me a comment on any of the posts! Even if you want to comment saying "Katie, this is awful. Get it together" I promise I'll only be mad for like five seconds. I need to know what you all want to read!

Oh and by the way, you guys rock, we just hit 950 page views.

Clashing Personalities?

I've never read a quote so true. 

I don't know about you, but there are certain people that I just want to punch in the face.

Not that I ever would, but let's be honest, we all have people we are like that with.

I naturally gravitate toward a certain type of person and retreat (and some times cringe or run screaming) from others. I think we all do. We all have people we naturally click with and then there are people you think are just dumb as dirt.

Then there are the people who simply talk and you sit there in silence thinking:

1. How can I make them stop?
2. Why is this person talking to me?!
3. Maybe if I just run away they'll never talk to me again...
4. Still? You're still talking? 
5. When will this end?

The worst part about this is sometimes this person who annoys the hell out of you never did anything to deserve your irrational hatred for their over all being. 

I'm just going to clarify real quick, I would never just punch someone in the face and I would never be rude to someone for no reason.

To deserve the extent of my wrath you have to at least annoy me for reasons other than being alive.



Side note- this post was originally supposed to be about clashing personalities and how to deal with people you clash with. Clearly I'm a tad bit cranky today. 

Post Vacation Hell-Fire

Vacationing is such a double edged sword.

While you're gone it's relaxing, worries are at a minimum, and responsibility is at an all time low.

And then you come home.

I just got home from vacation. I swear the apocalypse could have happened and there would be less to do. This happens every time I go on vacation. I know it's coming, and yet I'm never prepared for the hell-fire that awaits me upon my return home.

There should be a rule that you can't deal with life until two days after returning from a vacation. A post vacation period, for adjusting to being a functioning member of society again. 

That's all for my rant today. I'm planning on having an actual post up tomorrow :)

What do you guys want to read, any post suggestions?

Craft Night

I know you guys are used to a picture here but the crafts aren't done. So you'll get a picture later. Don't be greedy!

Yesterday was such a great day. My cousin and I spent half the day lounging (this included minor housework, but lots of couchwork) watching some of our favorite movies. As always this was done while sipping, uh, chugging coffee.

The second half of the day was spent in paradise, commonly referred to as Target.

Although we had a screaming baby for some of the time (she was completely inconsolable, so we gave her animal crackers) we had an absolutely fabulous time.

A quick stop at Starbucks and we were ready for the craft store. This stop always takes a real long time for us.

Moral of the story is, we had craft night. When we lived fifteen minutes away from each other, as opposed to the twelve hours that separate us now, we had craft night almost every weekend. It was like we were never apart.

Craft night was what it always had been. It was great to pick up right where we left off.

Do you have any one that you can pick up right where you left off with?

Lazy Sunday

This isn't from today, but a lazy day nonetheless. 

I live for lazy Sundays.

I can't think of a better way to start my vacation than to spend all of Sunday morning in my jammies drinking coffee and eating Lucky Charms. All while cuddling with my puppy nieces.

I've watched three movies and read about four chapters of my book. All guilt free because it's Sunday and I'm on vacation.

Even when I'm not on vacation I try to take one day out of the week to do absolutely nothing. Sure, I might do a load of laundry or the dishes on this day BUT I won't commit to more cleaning or chores than that.

I'm a firm believer that taking time to do absolutely nothing is good for the soul. We are always so busy. With what? I'm still not entirely sure but we always have something to do or have somewhere to go.

In all reality it shouldn't be all that difficult to take one day out of seven to do nothing and relax. The dishes will be there tomorrow and laundry is a never-ending cycle so binge on Netflix, take a three hour nap just do whatever it is you like to do.

What's your favorite way to spend a lazy day?

Last Minute Mayhem

I don't know about you, but I wait until the absolute last minute to pack.

Clearly my methods are effective. 

It doesn't matter how long I'll be gone for. One month? Pack the day before. One week? Three hours before I hit the road. 

Procrastination is a fine art and I've perfected it. 

I just throw half my closet in a bag and hope for the best. I've never gone on vacation and left anything behind. If anything it's more like “Why on earth did I pack a wool sweater” when I'm headed to 80 degrees.

Let's be honest though, snacks are the most important part of any trip. Especially road trips. 

Now that I've made a post about it though I'll probably show up down south without a tooth brush or something....

How do you guys pack? Last minute mayhem or prepacked for a week?

Hiding Behind Others

Hiding behind others. It happens to the best of us, and sometimes we don't even realize it.

In this mess we call life we are faced with a lot of different challenges. Some of these challenges are as simple as “should I wear jeans or a maxi today?” whereas many of these challenges are much more complex.

The most complex is finding your identity. What makes you, you. Personally this has always been a struggle but recently I have seen many of the people closest to me struggle with finding themselves as well.

It's scary finding out who you are. What if your current friends don't like who you become? What if your family doesn't understand? These are all things that go through your head when trying to find yourself.

A lot of us will latch on to someone (a friend, a significant other, a family member) because it's just easier than finding out who you are.

STOP IT!

It's okay to have a best friend and it's okay to spend a lot of time with someone. It's not okay to hide behind them, or to hide in their personality. This is one of the hardest things to learn in life and unfortunately some of us never do.

Take some time to yourself. Spend a day just reflecting on what you like to do.

I'm challenging all of you to spend a day by yourself doing something you absolutely love. Let me know how it works out for you! Good luck!

Communication is key!

The title of this post is one million percent ironic.

I don't know about you all but my family has no idea how to effectively communicate.

Okay, I guess it is effective since we can accomplish things. But goodness gracious does it give you a headache.

Don't get me wrong I love my family and all it's quirks (a lot of the time I love my family for it's quirks). Sometimes I just wish things weren't so gosh darn complicated. Like why do we have to group text, why can't ya just pick up the phone?

Or, here's my favorite "Tell (insert family members name) that I need to talk to them". WHY CAN'T YOU JUST CALL THEM?! This one just blows my mind, I will never understand the need for a chain of communication.

Okay, okay I digress, my family can communicate- it's just a little dysfunctional. But really, what family isn't?

Tell me about your family! Is yours just as dysfunctional, or do you guys have a good communication system?

You're a what?

One hundred seventy three page views since I launched the blog yesterday.

WOW! 

You guys are amazing! Thank you so much for your support! I never could have imagined having that many people reading my writing, again, thank you so much.

I promised that I would add another post if we got to 100 today, and well you guys made it way past that! Granted this could be considered morning as opposed to the "evening" post I promised. But hey, things happen!

So here we are, second post (all because you all are SO awesome). While I was partaking in the "things happen" part of my night I had a few thoughts.

First, I have awesome friends. Sometimes we need breaks from each other (we're all pretty obnoxious) but, that being said, we are always there for each other.

One of the conversations tonight was about how I'm introverted. My friend didn't really know what the term "introvert" meant so I explained, "Well, it's like how I don't really like to have a bunch of friends and I kind of just listen as opposed to talking". (Don't judge my grammar here, it was late. I mean it is ONE in the morning.)

Now, I have a few friends who tell me constantly that I need to talk more or socialize more (or do whatever they currently need a wingman for) but her response was different. "Well, if you're happy with having four friends then I'm happy for you".

This is what friendship is really about. Not wanting to change your friends into something you wish they would be, it's about accepting them for who they are.

Even if you love TV shows like Doctor Who, Supernatural and Star Trek and your friend would rather watch Grey's Anatomy all day. You still love each other for your differences... okay except for Star Trek. Who has never seen an episode of Star Trek?!




Oh, if you don't know what an introvert is either check out this BuzzFeed post.
Problems only introverts understand.

Absolutely Unsure!

I have always wanted to be a writer. A few months ago I realized that I was sitting stagnant in life. I was an evening receptionist working 20 hours a week. I had to do something. What that something would be? I wasn't quite sure. 

As life went on and the road got bumpier I decided to quit my job and commit to blogging. 

"YOU WHAT?!" was the response from most of my family and friends. That being said, none of them were shocked when I explained why. I want to write. I want to share my life experiences with others. Maybe I can help others by sharing what I'm experiencing. I am so fortunate to have friends and family that support my crazy ventures. 

To be honest, the hardest part of this whole venture was coming up with a name. One day while brainstorming I looked up a list of oxymoron's (original, I know) and came across "absolutely unsure". Boom, a name was born. 

I felt that "absolutely unsure" was a perfect fit for what I want to write about. 

So there you have it! I want to write, and you want to read! I mean why else would you be looking at a blog, right? 

Stop by once a week for new posts! Let's be Absolutely Unsure together!