Monthly Archives: January 2015
Social Media and Trivia Night
Good afternoon, friends! I began typing up this post on Wednesday, but I drew a blank and deleted everything. Then I started again this morning and here we are 6 hours later with little more than a sentence. Time to buckle down…
Yesterday in my digital marketing class, my professor made the entire class create a Twitter account. For some reason, this really annoyed me. I have avoided Twitter, kept my Facebook page private, censored my Instagram posts and limited the Snapchat selfies. ;) This blog is my main form of public media, and even then the content is filtered for what I will and will not share. I didn’t want my name attached to Twitter and I didn’t want one more dumb social media app on my phone!
Practicing social media modesty is important. It’s so easy to share every aspect of our lives with hundreds of “friends” down to a picture of the breakfast we just ate, detailed statuses about our love life (or lack thereof), and tweets of self-congratulations or self-pity. I think social media is a great and wonderful way to keep in daily contact with the people you care about, but there is definitely a point to where it becomes obsessive or intrusive. Privacy is a powerful thing. I’m not too sure about using Twitter, how many different websites do we need to use to talk about ourselves?
So what do you think, am I totally backwards? Should I be embracing the social media platforms? I may need serious convincing before that takes place. Actually I have been making a conscious effort to put the damn phone down more often. I always refuse to keep the phone in sight while I’m driving or sitting in class. Usually I try to limit it while I’m hanging out with friends too. The whole Be Present thing. But I think I can do a better job of finding an alternative activity when I’m bored than just scrolling through Pinterest. Speaking of which, last night was a fun, phone-free time….
Team “Berries and Beer” (formerly known as the “Sangria Sweethearts”) dominated Trivia Night at the country bar again. (And by dominated, I mean performed mediocre-ly and avoided last place.) One of the rules of trivia night: NO cell phones (their rule, not ours.) Three hours passed by after 8 rounds of trivia questions covering sports, 90s cartoons, classic movies, famous soundtracks and Mario Bros.
Before we were seated, our group sat outside around a fire. I felt a hot spot on my leg, looked down to see an ember had BURNED A HOLE through my skirt and tights. The little orange fleck was still sitting on my thigh when I looked down, so bummed that my brand new skirt had a peanut-size whole in the front. (My roommate Bri cleverly ordered me to cover my ash hole -_- )
Trivia night also revealed that we have no expertise in video games and only a slightly better-than-average recall of any pop culture before 2011. However our riddle skills were on point and we were, in my opinion, the best dressed. ;)
I was the designated driver for the evening to I kept it to one early glass of sangria before the games. We finished up around midnight, and I couldn’t wait to fall asleep. Such a fun way to kick off the LONG holiday weekend with my friends :)
Okay I think I’ll take my own advice, unplug for the rest of the afternoon and go for a walk.
What are your thoughts on Twitter? And how much phone time is too much?
Sharing Recent Inspirations
Throughout winter break, I saw and read plenty of things that got me inspired in all sorts of ways.
First, Wild. The book by Cheryl Strayed has been on my reading list since Julie at PBFingers.com posted a book review about it a while ago. I didn’t get to it before the movie came out, but after seeing Reese Witherspoon’s performance of the true story, I can’t wait to read the book for more detail. This story is incredible (Reese’s nominations are certainly deserving!) and I was inspired by the fearlessness of Cheryl.
The film didn’t exactly spark my interest in backpacking and I won’t be crossing the Mojave on foot any time soon. But I liked the idea behind her journey and the fact that she challenged herself to make a healthy change.
Another Reese flick…..The Good Lie was possibly even better than Wild. I enjoyed this movie so much, I could’ve turned around and watched it twice in one sitting. We rented this to watch before it is released but I can’t wait til it comes on DVD to rewatch. The story of the “Lost Boys” follows three young men whose tribe in Sudan is massacred during the civil war. They, like many others, travelled on foot for months to Kenya where they live in refugee camps. Years later, many are granted residence in the United States to restart their lives with a job and a home. However many have never experienced electricity, modern businesses and stores, or even telephones. This movie highlighted how foreign our American culture is to these refugees and how assimilating to American life isn’t necessarily the right way to help them. I thought the actors did a fantastic job. Watching their reactions to our commonplace items like utensils, toothbrushes, and light switches was a great reminder to appreciate even the ‘simple’ daily conveniences we get to enjoy.
The latest novel I was able to finish over winter break was American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. The fictional first-person memoir of a first lady covers her childhood in the 1940’s, high school in the 50’s, love and marriage in the 70’s and entrance into the public eye in the 90’s. The author attributes Laura Bush with her inspiration for the main character Alice. Alice was an inspirational character for how kindly she treated everyone. During a time period when segregation was still prevalent, Alice defied her mother-in-law’s disapproval and invited the “help” to family events and theater performances. She treated everyone equally. She kept everyone’s secrets. She supported her husband even though his political agenda was completely different from her values. She bought books and read to underprivileged children. And she made several sacrifices to care for her aging parents and grandmother.
All equally entertaining and inspirational :) Let me know if you’ve seen or read anything especially great recently!
Southern California Hiking
TGIF! (2 posts this week? Maddness.)
Southern California doesn’t have “winter.” (One of the things I miss most since relocating to the mountains!) Our Christmas Day was sunny and 75, tank top weather. My little family was a bit untraditional this year and decided to make December 25th a beach day! We opened stockings and made a yummy breakfast before driving to the Newport coast. First we hiked the Crystal Cove State Park trails, about 8 miles of hills and canyons in the glorious heat.
I feel blessed for everything I have and had a hard time asking for anything in particular for Christmas this year. I just wanted great warm weather and some beautiful scenery. Crystal Cove did not disappoint.
Mom in her Fabletics gear!
When we planned our beach day, it wasn’t even a question of what we’d do for lunch: picnic on the beach. We made turkey sandwiches and sliced apples, and I found some adorable old-fashioned sodas in seasonal flavors to add :)
We definitely appreciated the warm weather, laid on our blanket for a bit and watched the waves roll back and forth. My mom would love to experience a “White Christmas” with a blanket of snow and a fire in the fireplace but I’m trying to thaw out before I head into single-digit degrees so an untraditional holiday was fine by me ;)
We had a similar day just before New Years as well. We met our friends in the San Diego area, Lake Poway to be specific. The trail begain around a lake where old men sat in little fishing boats and trees were still dark autumn colors even though it was almost January.
The path became narrow and steep QUICK. We zig-zagged up the switchbacks on Mt. Woodsen Trail for over an hour until we came to: Potato Chip Rock (I love that name!) Again, we packed a picnic. Walking straight uphill for over an hour requires a little nutritious re-charging at the top. I was hungry for our healthy snacks after about 4 miles. But not before we snapped a picture sitting on the edge of the thin rock….
Unbelievably enough, there was a huge line of hikers wrapped around the trail waiting to take the same picture. (Just search #potatochiprock on Instagram and you’ll see.) We would have been in line for easily over an hour….forget that! We were too hungry and tired to wait. :( Instead we had a picnic at the summit with a view of the ocean.
Aside from our hiking treks, I tried to run outside during my time here instead of at the gym. I’ll be getting plenty of treadmill time in the coming weeks as the temperatures hover around 20 and ice covers my trails.
My winter break is quickly coming to an end; classes start on Monday. My LAST FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. What?! Naturally my mom and I have to do some shopping this afternoon then ;) Shopping, lunch, gym time, and homemade pizza fill the agenda for the rest of the day. I’m also determined to finish the book I’m reading (American Wife, highly recommend) and download a few podcasts for the car tomorrow. Can’t wait to get back to my own little apartment and see what this next semester has in store <3
