When I was younger, we went around the table at Thanksgiving and said what we were thankful for. Everyone said friends, family, children, their jobs, etc.. I, being a young, and I guess very sympathetic child, decided to be different from every one else. Before it got to me, I started to cry, and everyone at the table was probably like okay drama queen, it can be your turn. When it was my turn, I thanked the turkey for dying. So, that happened.

This year, I am thankful for Thanksgiving.

Yes, of course I am thankful for my family, amazing friends, my education, and all of the opportunities I have gotten this year, but I am so thankful for Thanksgiving.

This year, Thanksgiving could not come at a better time.

I am thankful 
for the time I will get to spend with my family,
for both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah,
for a much needed break from school,
for being able to go see my favorite singer in concert,
for being able to cuddle with my dog,
for seeing friends at home,
for being able to call Los Angeles my home,
for having a five person Thanksgiving (I love my small family),
for being able to say I am thankful.


Although I am only going home for four days, every day is going to be packed with things and people I love and am thankful for. And with that, I am extremely grateful, blessed, thankful for this blog, for creating it, for sticking with it, for the people I have met through it, for the community I am slowly being welcomed into. So I thank you, because I am thankful for you.

Now the challenge? To remember all of these things I am so thankful for as I head to one of my least favorite places (the airport) to do one of my least favorite things (fly) on the busiest travel day of the year. Wish me luck!

What are you thankful for?

Why Study Abroad?

Normally, you have four years of college. Sometimes, you have less, sometimes you have more. Life happens. Things get advanced, left behind, what else is new?
I always had a four year plan. I knew what classes I was going to take, I knew exactly how college was going to pan out.
False.
Freshman year, I came in undeclared and quickly thought that since I was undeclared I was therefore going to fail. So I declared a major I knew nothing about. Sociology. I took one class, and knew it was not for me. Granted, I got an A in the class and learned a TON of new things, I did not want to take classes over the next four years on this topic. Once again, I was undeclared.
The next year, I declared my major in what I knew, had grown up with, and could see myself enjoying. Politics.
I was not behind schedule because of my major change, rather I found out that I could graduate early! But, instead of saving money, sorry Mom and Dad, I decided to add on a minor in Public Relations. Now I would be graduating right on time. What did this mean? No semester abroad for me. But in all honesty, I asked myself in spring 2013, Could I actually spend 6 months in a foreign country without my parents, friends, or sorority? Probably not. This is why I started looking at summer programs.
2 weeks? 3 weeks? 4 weeks? 6 weeks?
Australia? Paris? Madrid? South America?
A conference? An internship? Spanish classes? Service trip?

When I texted my mom about the Madrid, four week intensive program, I knew I had enough information to justify going. I would finish my foreign language requirement while still studying abroad, and I would make it back in time for my summer job. It was perfect. All I needed to do was find the money and get accepted into the program.
I am lucky enough to thank my parents for funding me on my study abroad trip. I honestly would be even more broke than I am now not have been able to go if it wasn't for them. Spain took my money, Spain gave me memories, Spain gave me friends, Spain made me gain 3 pounds and then lose 10, and I gave Spain a part of my heart. I want to go back to Spain every day. I want to explore more. I want to show my friends and family my favorite places in Madrid and what to do and where to stay when in Barcelona for 3 days.

A month, I thought was the perfect amount of time. Yes, it was perfect in the sense that I was BEYOND ready to come home, but no, in the sense that there is so much more to Spain I wish I had experience. Which is why I want to go back.

I am writing this post as a reminder to myself why I studied abroad, and as an encouragement to everyone in college that if you have the opportunity, even for a few weeks, to take it, and study abroad. I made friends I would have never met, and now have memories to last me a life time.

These Are My Confessions: Instagram Addict

Hi, my name is Kathryn and I am an Instagram addict. My problem did not start when I first downloaded the amazing, incredible, genius app that is Instagram. Rather, it began a little under a year later, when I realized that Instagram was actually meant for photography and that I needed to edit my photos. Mind Blowing, I know.
If there was an AA meeting for Instagram, my friends would probably send me to it. And that intro you just read, would be my introduction. I would also add in there that sometimes I tweet the pictures that aren't good enough for Instagram because I'm afraid I won't get that many likes. I ADMITTED IT! I'm sorry. These are my confessions.

A few days ago, in my political theory class, we were talking human interaction and basic needs of humans, and after listing the basics, like companionship (that's you all for me), food, water (the real necessities), someone said Instagram. Hey, guy, we've talked like 3 times, but I feel like we could be really best of friends.

Supposedly I also have a really serious Instagramming face. It's serious business. I've come to the conclusion that Instagram and Twitter highly over rank Facebook, and I don't know why it has taken me this long to realize that.
I also have this new problem, where I have at least 3 tabs of Twitter open, and I check and tweet from all of them. But that doesn't really need a confession, we all know I tweet way too much.

Casual Trip To The Bahamas?

Today's post was going to be on why you should study abroad, but that can wait. Why you might ask? Because I have finally fallen victim to the "bad group member" problem that haunts group projects.
Normally I have no problems, but if you would have asked me at the beginning of the semester, I would have said that there is potentially a very small problem in our group, just one, but we would probably be able to work around it.
Well, we got this far in the semester, and completed one of the two projects we were assigned. Now all we have is the final project. The final project that is due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so I, along with the SANE members of my group, wanted to finish it this weekend, and give up our Saturday night, so that we could enjoy Thanksgiving break. Side note, my Thanksgiving break, if we actually do finish this weekend, which we probably will because we are rockstars (minus the one) will still consist of studying for a final and writing a final paper, but still. Less to worry about.
Continue rant:
So this morning in class, mind you this is my only 8 am. I am a junior and this is the only 8 am I have ever had to take, and I am still bitter about it, so I am not in the BEST of moods. It's early! Don't blame me. We were all working on the project, in a Google doc so we can see who is actually working (along with being rockstars, we are also spies) and guess who isn't in the Google doc? Let's call her, Patty Mayonnaise. She doesn't resemble any of Patty Mayonnaise's qualities, but just go with it. So who knows what she is working on, when she gets up and leaves class. Okay, BYE? She comes back, FIFTEEN MINUTES AFTER WE DECIDE TO MEET ON SATURDAY AT 3:30, and says, "just kidding, I can't do this Saturday! Something came up." I had no words. I actually had ZERO words. I have only been speechless one other time, but that is a completely different story which I hope isn't over, so I won't share it yet. That was very scandalous and secretive, and I am sorry, but welcome to the way my mind connects things. So one of my fellow rockstars, confronted her, asked her what was going on, and Patty Mayonnaise says, please brace yourselves, "oh, I can't meet because I am going to be traveling. I am actually going to buy my plane ticket right now! Isn't that perfect? My friend is getting me a round trip ticket to the Bahamas for the weekend!" IT IS NOVEMBER.
At this point, I was waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out from behind the podium, and tell me I had been punk'd.

But alas, he didn't. He's probably off being cute with Mila Kunis. It's fine, I'm fine. By this time I had managed to get words out of my mouth, and decided I would tell her all of the things we still have left to do, which is almost half of the project, and that doesn't include proofreading and making it perfect, because our professor is a bit crazy and expects nothing less than perfection. 

So what does she do? She starts writing everything down and says that she has until 1 today to do a ton of stuff, because she leaves tomorrow. FOR THE BAHAMAS.
So basically, this was my reaction:

Thank goodness that the other members of my group are rockstars, so I have no doubt we will kick this project in the butt, I had just never had a bad group project experience. But, I mean, I guess it was bound to happen eventually. 

To end my rant, I would like to show you the text she sent in our group chat, and you can leave your imagination up to the emojis we sent in the rockstar group chat, that has everyone else in my group except her.

The fact that none of us responded gave her a hint. She sent me this very professional email last night:

I'm sorry. I'm done. But I am curious, what are your group project disasters?! I know you've had some! I want to hear!

AND ON THAT NOTE! I would like to welcome myself to the Back That Azz Up club. YAY! My first song will be a classic, and it relates back to my post from earlier this week, which feels like ages ago. Clearly, I have been in a "Now That's What I Call Music from the 2000s mood this week, of course only when I'm not listening to Michael Bublé! And the second was sung on the way home from Target last night, and connects yesterday's post with today's about stupid girls (and boys).

   

Tinder and Fat Amy

I would like to preface this by saying that I have never been cat-fished, and that my "online dating disaster" is more of an "LOL that's interesting" story. 

(Co hosted by Rachael, Melissa, and Rachel.)

Let's start with freshman year when my roommate, Erika, and our friend Tokyo (no his real name isn't Tokyo but just go with it) decided to go on Chat Roulette. Why? I don't know. We were bored freshman in a dorm room at like 11:30 at night. What else to you expect? This was freshman year. Don't judge. Anyways, so I ended up getting asked out on a date over Chat Roulette which was really nice, I guess, minus the fact that this guy was not my type, at all, and his roommate was actually the cute one. But it was a decent conversation that wasn't someone naked or someone trying to scare us. We also met a really nice man who was a singer and he sang for us, so that was fun. 

Long story short though, I saw too many things I didn't want to see and haven't been on Chat Roulette since freshman year.

Then, last year, I decided to hop on the Tinder bandwagon seeing as everyone in my sorority had it and some girls had actually gone on successful dates. I wasn't about to do that. Most of the people I talked to weren't horrible, and I surprisingly didn't talk to any vulgar people. Clearly I could just tell from their picture if they were going to be a decent human or not. Or they just didn't click the heart for me. (I like to think the first one is right.) I almost got coffee with one guy, but the stars were not aligned and ended up he was going on his first Tinder date with my friend. SMALL WORLD, SAN FRANCISCO, SMALL WORLD. After that, I used Tinder once in a blue moon and it made me feel good about myself. I mean guys are literally telling you that you are pretty, but then they want to talk and that was just too much for me at the time. So I said goodbye to Tinder and now, here I am, single as can be, with no regrets, other than I really wish that I would have taken screen shots of some of the weird messages and bizarre pick up lines like Rachel did!

If I were to making a dating profile on any website, I'm pretty sure it would have to be on a Jewish dating site, just because I know people who have actually gotten married off of sites like Jew-Date or something like that. For now, I will continue to Facebook and Instagram stalk cute guys, and that will probably be the extent of my online action. But, in the wise words of Fat Amy:

To be honest, though, I want an interesting story of how we met. More interesting than, "one day, I liked your profile picture.. the rest is history." I'm not asking for a "we both went for the same jar of almond butter at Trader Joes, and from that moment on, I knew it would be love" but come on people, I want a little excitement!

Only because I want something like this:

And not like this:

Blogtastic Holiday Season:

Wishlist:

If you follow me on Twitter, than you already know, BUT this beauty came out today.

WHY MUST YOU BE $53?! Ugh, I have a feeling once it sells out, I am going to regret not getting it. Why? Because that has happened with the other 2 Naked Palettes. But alas, I have them both, I just get them like four months after everyone else. Oh well!

Oh and this picture justifies that all three are different...

http://www.urbandecay.com/urban-decay/eye-makeup/naked3/409.html

Have an amazing Thursday!

I Want Blog Friends & Another Onesie

I would like to start today's post by saying that I made a really delicious trail mix and it had neither m&ms nor chocolate chips and I still liked it, even though the cashew to almond ratio was off, it's okay. Wait, does this mean that I am an adult now? Is that what adult life is? Maybe I should go add some chocolate.

Also, this weekend I am going to read two books (Catching Fire and The Lovely Bones) WOO and then hopefully make time to go see Catching Fire, unless someone wants to go Thursday night, because that can happen too, even though the tickets might be sold out.

As exciting as my trail mix is, I have more exciting news! My blog is getting a mini makeover. Yay! I fell in love with one of Allie's, from Call Me Sassafrass, templates and figured it was time for change. I mean, why not? Also with the Holiday season fast approaching, one week til Hanukkah and Thanksgiving and 34 days until Christmas (not that I'm counting) I figured it was time to spread some of that Holiday cheer a bit early! Especially since everyone is already listening to Christmas music. (I just started too, so GUILTY, but ONLY Michael Buble and ONLY because I am seeing him in concert next week...) Justifiable.

Blogtastic Holiday Season:

Wishlist:

Another onesie (just don't even begin judging me because that's just not nice)

Blog Friends- Let's be honest. I am super a super amateur at this whole blog thing and just found out that you can pay to be featured on someone else's blog as like a "here are my favorite bloggers" section. Well, I don't know how to do that, so I just thought that I would show you bloggers that I am currently obsessed with and you should go follow like NOW because they are awesome, gorgeous, and hilarious. Maybe once I get real blog friends they can explain this whole process to me, but for now, I like the casual side (:

And no they are not in a specific order, it is just the order the tabs were open on my computer. Goodness.

Hannah from The Diary of a Poor Girl
She is hilarious and lives in Wales so I read her blog in an accent which makes it THAT much better

Rachel from Sunshine and Sinatra
I want to be her best friend

Juliette from The Other Juliette
She is perfect

I hope you had a magical hump day! *insert camel emoji here*

Netflix, Cupcakes, and Sushi

For the past week and a half Shaggy's "My Life Be Like" song has been stuck in my head. With that being said, I finally figured out how to get the link to my Spotify playlist after asking Google which made me feel like an insignificant 7 year old who doesn't know how to work a computer. It literally took two clicks. It's fine, it's in the past, I have the link. But now you have a playlist to listen to while reading.

Spotify Playlist: Fall 2013

Speaking about the past, I want to go see About Time. Does anyone want to come with me? I'm pretty free this weekend, which is surprising because I had two dates on Friday (don't get too excited for my love life, and just keep reading), and neither have called me and asked for a second date. Do you see how exciting and fun my life is? But actually, this past weekend (and Monday) were pretty fantastic, so I thought I'd share them with you.

On Friday, I did what I do every Friday, which is sleep in and eat brunch. By myself. It's magical, it really is. I love my Fridays because I always tell myself all the stuff I am going to do, and end up not doing any of it.

The only time I left my house was to get tacos from Tacolicious, which were delicious, and go to a meeting. I also slept through the BatKid festivities, which I was very upset about, but managed to find a crinkled up Gotham Chronicle paper on Sunday, but we aren't there yet. I have once again rekindled my love for Netflix, and it actually works as a great dating site, because I had two group dates on Friday night with Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman, and then another date with Liam Hemsworth and The Rock. My first date was better, and I didn't manage finishing my second date, but either way I didn't have to leave my bed. It was perfect. And yes, I do highly recommend Olympus Has Fallen, Gerard, Morgan, and Aaron recommended it on our date but they couldn't stop talking about the White House. Okay, I'm done. For now. I also fake-tanned, which I rarely do but only did for formal, and used a new lotion. Bad idea.

The shade turned out about 5 times darker than it normally does so I went to bed hoping that it would be gone by the morning. It was about 4 shades lighter and looked normal. THANK YOU TANNING GODS. And I got my present that I bought for myself in the mail, HELLO BEAUTIFUL.

Saturday was formal day, and I woke my roommate up with breakfast.

Don't you wish I was your roommate? Don't answer that, please. I then showered because I had to recover from my almost 12 hours of sleep (dates are hard work) and then painted my nails and LEISURELY got ready for formal. I wore my hair up in a sock bun because I was going for the ballerina princess look, which actually, to my surprise, worked.

After formal, a midnight Mel's trip was necessary, so at 1:00 am we headed on over. Erika and I ordered shakes and fries, and Gabbi followed through (good life choices) and Abbi got real food. Whatever, it was 1 in the morning. We then went back home, slept in our sweats we had put on for Mel's and woke up bright and early for brunch at Stacks. Yes, brunch is supposed to be a "sleep-in" meal but not if you want Stacks. Stacks did not disappoint, and we headed home with a tourist pit-stop at Alamo Square for a picture and to pet a French Bulldog. We then hung out at home, listened to music, and I made about 4 dozen cookies for a group of guys who at the time didn't know my name. Welcome to Greek life at my school. Sunday night was also the coldest night so far this year in San Francisco. Fun fact.

Monday was Erika's birthday, which if you read my previous post, you already know. That post also includes how I feel about living with my best friend, and some really embarrassing pictures. It's a good time.

I had the whole day planned out but sometimes life happens and other things become priorities. So we rolled with it. We showed up 30 minutes late to her "surprise" birthday dinner which is only in quotations because I am a terrible liar and she pretty much knew and was just going along with it. Sorry I can't lie. I then had a 2 second meeting, a catch up chat with Gabbi, and was then in the backseat of my friend's car going to get boba with bass speakers so loud I could barely hear Drake and Demi singing.

All in all, I had an incredible weekend, and realized I go home in 8 days, which makes me want to forget about the reason I am in San Francisco to begin with. School. Yay college! I only have nine more days of classes left, which makes me want to focus on finals but just kidding I still have projects and actual class. Oh the joy of being a student.