Category: NaBloPoMo

Brand New World

Published on by AliciaLeave a comment

Nov. 4: Which fall shows should totally be canceled already?

Ok, BlogHer, what the hell is this? With Netflix, hulu, on demand, and my DVR, how does anyone know which shows are fall shows anymore? I just record stuff and then watch it months later and go on with my life. So, I have no clue which fall shows there are and which ones should be cancelled. If I don’t like them… I don’t watch them… end of story.

Okay, good talk. Anyway, now I am going to talk about what I actually want to write about.

My dad’s co-worker is from Germany and she immigrated from Germany to the United States 30 ish years ago. Her niece is in town from Germany, and Heike (my dad’s coworker) asked me if I would take Neele, her niece, and show her Chicago and all of its glory. We went yesterday and it was really fun and while I was able to teach Neele about Chicago and American culture, I learned just as much about Germany and its culture. .

I drove with my dad to work (tbt to those working days at the factory) and Neele drove with Heike. We then took the train downtown from the station by their work. Neele was telling me that where she lives in Germany, and most of Europe, the tallest buildings are nowhere near as high as the skyscrapers littering the Chicago lakeshore. In her town, the tallest building is student living at the nearby university and it is only 8 stories tall. The Sears Tower… has 110 stories.

When you are on the train, for the most part you just drive through suburbs and see graffiti marking the path of the metra. However, on the final turn as we approach Union Station, the skyline is in perfect view. Every beautiful building that makes Chicago such a remarkable city is in sight and the Sears Tower sits above all the others, basking in all of its glory. Neele’s jaw drops and the only words she can get past her lips are “Oh my god.” A long list of oh my gods to be specific.

Growing up here, it’s just Chicago. The Sears Tower, the Hancock, the Lake, etc. It’s normal for me to have it at my fingertips. But for Neele to never having seen buildings like this, she was in awe.

Upon dodging commuters and their pre-coffee attitudes, we made our way out onto Wacker drive, the same Wacker Drive that the Sears Tower is placed. As Neele takes in her surroundings, I tell her to look up and once again she is speechless. Yes, the buildings look unimaginably tall when you’re far away but being right next to the tallest building on the Western Hemisphere is surreal.

After admiring all of the buildings I took her to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. They are right next to each other and complete tourist hubs. Unless of course you go on a weekend, then it’s field trip city (yes I know from experience).

The Shedd is very cool in that, the fish, amphibians, reptiles, etc. are sorted by their natural location on the world. As we walked through all of the exhibits to the Great Lakes region (Chicago and the midwest area) she was amazed that these creatures lived in the depths of lakes and so close to where she was staying. Upon seeing the alligator snapping turtle that could easily rip off a person’s hand with its bird of prey like beak, she once again was at a loss for words.

The Field museum was decent, we were pretty tired because she was jet lagged still and I got no sleep after the world Series win last night, so we sort of just glanced around and then visited a really cool exhibit about tattoos which we both enjoyed.

All in all, Neele is super sweet and I think we’ll take another trip downtown, explore a bit more and such. I also learned that people outside of America think that Americans are Trump-loving, Twinkie-eating, rednecks. Seriously. Neele’s friends instructed her that she had to bring twinkies back so everyone could try them. I think I have eaten a single twinkie in my entire life.

Until tomorrow,

Alicia

P.S. Normally I would have taken loads of pictures but we were so captivated by each other and all we had to say the only time I pulled my phone out was to get an uber and to have my dad pick us up from the train station.

 

Don’t bite your tongue

Published on by Alicia2 Comments

Nov. 3: If you could be completely honest with no regrets, what would you say and to whom?

As I read this prompt, I really couldn’t think of all that many people. I mean, yeah I have had to bite my tongue on occasion instead of saying something I would regret later, but honestly, not that many. I have decided to write to a general population instead of just like my friend so and so or whatever. So yeah, let’s do this.

To Trump Supporters: You are all idiots. The fact that you want to elect this complete idiot for president is absurd and outrages me as not only an American citizen, but as a woman, as a Black Lives Matter Support, as an LGBTQ supporter, as a lower-middle-class citizen. A man who is going to court in the next few weeks for CHILD RAPE, a man who has said you can do anything to a woman, even “grabbing her by the pussy,” a man who is a complete racist asshole and A MAN WHO HAS EVEN SAID THAT REPUBLICANS ARE STUPID AND WILL LISTEN TO WHATEVER LIES ARE THROWN THEIR WAY… Yes he said that. While this election hasn’t changed my views on who can be president, it has changed the way I look at any human who has the audacity to publicly support this candidate.

To people who hate on other people for being ‘basic:’ Okay, I have been called a ‘basic bitch’ more times than I can count. Just because I like fall, and Starbucks, and I wear leggings, and listen to pop music doesn’t make me any less of a person than you. Fall is a cool season, so are all the other ones (not summer because humidity and hot). Starbucks is good, Dunkin is good, coffee and tea and frilly drinks are GOOD. LEGGINGS ARE COMFORTABLE. They’re like sweatpants but less ugly so while you talk shit about my leggings, I’ll leave all the fucks I give in the pocket of my jeans I don’t wear. I listen to pop music. I also listen to alternative music. It’s called pop because it’s popular. HATING THINGS OTHER PEOPLE DO DOESN’T MAKE YOU COOL. IT MAKES YOU AN ASSHOLE.

To every person that has ever been a bitch to me: I hate all three of you and I hope you rot in non-existent hell.

Until tomorrow,

Alicia

CUBS ARE THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS

Published on by Alicia1 Comment

Hi everyone, it is currently midnight and I am alive and crying and as happy as I have ever been. But THE CUBS JUST WON THE 2016 WORLD SERIES.

I have to be up in less than 6 hours and I’m exhausted, BUT I AM SO HAPPy

The Cubs won and I am crying, my family is crying, the entire team is crying and I am so happy.

It has been 108 years since they won and we are going to party like it’s 1908 baby. Congrats to the Cubbies and to all of the fans. We have waited so long to see this and I am still in hysterics. We danced around the house yelling and crying and being happy. I love life and I love the Cubs

Hey Chicago, whaddya say? THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES TODAY

I love my city and I love my team.

Alicia

Bravery

Published on by Alicia1 Comment

NaBloPoMo Day 2: When was the last time you did something brave? What happened?

For as long as I can remember, I have never been a quitter. I mean, I have quit things (who hasn’t) but not when quitting directly affects someone besides myself. My senior year, I quit water polo (due to my job and my knee) but it was out of my hands (the knee part) and I quit very early on in the season before anything was set in stone about starters and positions and things like that. It’s not that I have a problem saying no in general, per say, but once I am invested in something, I do tend to have a more difficult time getting the word “no” to leave my mouth.

If you’ve followed my blog for at least the past two weeks, you may have read my post about me quitting my nannying job. I feel like a broken record saying this but I feel me quitting was very brave of me, especially considering it is not something I do usually, or ever for that matter.

For the first time ever, I was able to stand up for myself when I wasn’t being treated properly and was able to make it out of a toxic environment before it got too crazy. Standing up for myself and being able to tell someone that enough I enough is not something I’m typically comfortable with and the fact that I did it shows great bravery, in my opinion.

While I am out of a job right now, getting away from that one is more important than the $13 an hour I was getting

Until tomorrow

Alicia

NaBloPoMo Day 1

Published on by Alicia2 Comments

Nov 1st Prompt: When you’re having a bad day with your mental health, what do you do to help yourself?

This is actually a funny topic (not funny per say more like ironic) because I’ve actually been having a bad mental health couple of days recently and have done just about everything I know possible to help myself mentally.

Whenever I think of having a bad mental day, the only thing I want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep all day. That’s nice to do every once in awhile, but when you have bad mental days as often as I do, it’s just not realistic.

The first thing I do is shower, or take a bath. Whenever I have a bad mental day, I typically cannot feel anything. I am basically the embodiment of an emotional void and the only thing that helps is feeling the warmth on my skin as the water cascades down my body. The cool air as I step out of the shower, and the same cold yet soothing feeling as I soothe lotion all over my body.

Once I’m soft and clean, I put on my comfiest pair of pajamas, twist my hair in a bun, and write. I write about my emptiness, I write about how I want to feel, I write about things that make me feel, anything. I listen to classical music to keep me calm and get my creative juices flowing.

While I write, I prepare some tea (Earl Grey is my personal fave). While my body still can’t feel emotion, the scalding tea reminds me that I do in fact, exist, and I’m alive. Just simply holding the mug, and letting the heat radiate onto my fingers, reminds me to feel.

I sometimes do other things like bake, work out, etc, but what I mentioned above is the gist of what I do most often. See you tomorrow

Alicia

P.S. For everyone who wants to blog along… Here are the prompts for the week

Nov 1: When you’re having a bad day with your mental health, what do you do to help yourself?

Nov. 2: When was the last time you did something brave? What happened?

Nov. 3: If you could be completely honest with no regrets, what would you say and to whom?

Nov. 4: Which fall shows should totally be canceled already?

Nov 5: Free Write

Nov 6: Free Write

National Blog Posting Month

Published on by Alicia6 Comments

Hi everyone,

In an attempt to become more consistent in my posting and from seeing a ton of blogs do this last year, I am going to be participating in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo).

For those of you who don’t know what that is, November is in fact National Blog Posting Month. A few years back, someone created the hashtag #NaBloPoMo and more recently, BlogHer took it over. BlogHer creates prompts for each weekday (weekends are free writes) to get people motivated to write every day during the month of November. You don’t have to use every prompt as they are there for just guidance and to get the writing juices flowing. The prompts will be posted every week (according to BlogHer’s twitter) so I will post them here as they become available or you can check out BlogHer’s website for the prompts.

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I encourage everone to join in on this with me as in the past, the prompts have been very versatile and it’s very interesting seeing each blog’s take on certain prompts.

Until tomorrow

Alicia