My Love Affair With ONE DIRECTION

Yes, One Direction as in the boy band One Direction.  I would say don’t judge me but I know that you already are, so what’s the point?  But honestly… I don’t care.  I like One Direction!  I don’t have an obsession with them – it’s not like I have banners on my walls or anything – I just have a thing for cute, funny, British guys who can sing.  Yes, I know I’m 25, but again, I don’t care. 

Now that that’s all sorted out, let’s continue…

One Direction’s ‘This Is Us’ movie is now out in theaters and I am so excited to see it!  I tried to talk Michael into taking me but he wasn't having it – like at all.  I even tried the whole ‘if you really love me then you will take me because you know how happy it will make me’ bit, but nope, he didn't budge.  So I moved on to Plan B - my girlfriends.  Unfortunately, that was a fail too.  Why does everyone have to be such haters?  I didn't have a hard time at all getting people to see the Justin Bieber movie with me... Yes, I saw the Justin Bieber movie in theaters too,  you really shouldn't be surprised by this by now.  Well, you know what they say, third times a charm - or in this case, third plan.  I officially have movie companions! (Whoop whoop!)  I was able to talk my mom and two youngest brothers into going to see the movie with me tonight - although the boys are less than thrilled about it.  I told Dustin that if anyone finds out that he went to go see it then he can just tell them 'my sister forced me to see it and I hated every second of it' even though I know he will actually will end up liking it. 

Stay tuned for an update with my review of the movie and a recap of the night! 

The Reason Behind the Sparkle

"Have a Super Sparkly Day!"

It's kind of my thing.  I say it to everyone - males and females.  It's a lot of fun to see peoples reactions to me telling them to 'Have a Super Sparkly Day' - especially the men.  It started Christmas of 2012 when I was sitting in my mom's living room reading with the TV on in the background when all of a sudden I hear my seven year old brother say 'Have a Super Sparkly Day' and seconds later the girl on the TV says the same thing.  

Citi Card stared airing a commercial about this mom who is going shopping for her daughter for Christmas and she's kind of stressed out and not really in the mood for shopping.  The girl behind the counter who is ringing the mom up hands her her purchase and with a huge smile and a peppy attitude tells the mom to 'Have a Super Sparkly Day'.  It's a funny commercial but even funnier, was hearing my youngest brother quote the commercial in his own mock peppy high pitch voice.  Ever since then, I adopted the phrase and although I can't take credit for starting it, I am definitely taking credit for keeping it alive!

The 'Sparkly' phrase has already become a common and often used phrase among my friends and family - even my boyfriend has adopted the phrase, although he would never admit it.  He was very much against it at first but it's catchy and contagious so he didn't stand a chance.  It has also caught on at work.  It started in just my department but I worked my sparkly magic and it's quickly spreading throughout other departments.  I can't lie, it's pretty exciting!  The best part - I even have men in my office signing off their emails with the phrase... Ok, just one man.

Every time I tell my parents to 'Have a Super Sparkly Day' they both respond with 'Shine Bright Like a Diamond' which is a Rihanna reference - my parents are so hip.  One of my brothers ends every phone conversation with me by shouting 'SUPER SPARKLY' into the phone and then hanging up... It cracks me up every time - never gets old.  Every morning when I come into work one of my male co-workers greets me with 'Good Morning Sparkle' - that never gets old either.  I'm telling you guys... It's totally catching on!

So now that you know the how, when, where, and why... I encourage you to go out and embrace the sparkle in you and continue to spread the sparkle love!  I know it sounds crazy, cheesy and ridiculous but I promise you, you will get lots of smiles and laughs from it - from both yourself and others as well!

SUPER SPARKLY!  

My First Blog

It's crazy to me to think that people actually get paid to blog.  What an amazing job that would be!  Imagine being able to wake up whenever you please, make a pot of coffee, enjoy a nice breakfast and then plop on your couch - still in your pajamas - flip on the TV to old Friends reruns, start up your laptop and start typing away to your hearts desire.  No set hours, no dull office, no rush hour traffic.  Wow, I'm quickly becoming very jealous of paid bloggers.  Where can I sign up?

Unfortunately I don't get paid to blog - in fact, this is my very first blog and blog post ever.  I have never really put much thought into blogging before.  It isn't something that I have been wanting to do forever and just never found the time.  It isn't something that I have always wanted but was afraid that people would judge what I had to say.  It's actually just something that I decided to do on a whim after reading my cousins blog.  She just got engaged over Labor Day weekend (congratulations Kandi and Matt) and so of course she wrote about it on her blog.  While I was reading through it I started thinking 'wow, how awesome is it that she has this blog that I am able to read and keep up with her on, even though I don't get to see her all the time'.  Yes, I know we have Facebook and Instagram and so on but a blog is so different.  It's much more personal and expressive and it allows for more than 140 characters.  So I decided that I too would start a blog.

I like the idea of being able to write down my daily activities, opinions, complaints, current struggles, life updates, happy moments, sad moments, random thoughts, funny stories, and so on.  I suppose I could sit down and write in a journal but I like that I can use this open forum to put it all out there - for friends, family, and even strangers.  Now, I am by no means claiming to actually have something interesting to talk about but for those who know me, you know I love to talk and what a better place to babble than on a blog.  Who knows, maybe my blog will take off and I'll become one of those paid bloggers someday... HA! Joking!

Don't forget to laugh a little, love a lot, and have a super sparkly day!