Sometimes the best time to write is when you feel as if you have nothing to say, because, if you do end up saying something, anything, it's a refreshing experience, as you've exceeded your own expectations.

It's kind of like the one day of the week in college when I didn't wear sweatpants. Everyone in class would be all "Oh, my gosh, Joyce, you look so gorgeous in those jeans." Just kidding, that never happened. I went to Bucknell.

If you didn't wear a dress, pearls, and carry a $250 bag to an 8 am class you better reference your summer home or we're all totally going to assume you're white trash. However, when I did wear skinny jeans and my hair down rather than the Nike sweats-ponytail failproof combo, all my teammates would eagerly ask "What's the occasion!?" So that was essentially the same thing as getting hoardes of classmate compliments.

Speaking of my alma mater, I posted this pic spring of my senior year and recently was reading through my old blog posts (duh! you should too ;) -  so I made this my background:

I have gotten 4+ compliments on how pretty the picture is from random customers/co-workers. Even if I'm wearing sweats! The campus was breathtaking in the spring.

Speaking of college, my baby sister went to school Monday. I never felt old when I graduated, but the fact that the youngest is off to college makes me feel ancient. Like, a fossil. If she's in college, I can't be too far off from retirement. I remember distinctly WHEN SHE WAS BORN. It's one of those things about being the oldest child - it is a surreal feeling remembering someone's birth (since you of course can't remember your own) and then watching them go to college. Of course, if you're a parent reading this I'm sure you're thinking "You have no idea."

Brings me to another point: You know you're old when your friends start having kids on purpose. I mean, when did facebook turn into document-life-milestones-including-engagements-weddings-and-babies-book?

No fear though, I'm still using FB exclusively to post stupid statuses and blog posts. Like this one. You're welcome.

(p.s. The title of this post was originally "Elder" due to feeling old with Baby leaving the nest, but obviously that was kind of weird so I made it into a random Harry Potter reference. Equally, if not more, weird - but unarguably better. Thus, more evidence of my hypothesis "Harry Potter references are better than non-Harry Potter references.")

Nomadic

Why even have the death penalty when you could force criminals to take early ass flights with crying babies and tight connections?

Even worse, when you get to your connecting gate and your plane is delayed because of "maintenance." Honestly, I'd rather hear "hurricane" over the loud speaker than "maintenance." At least you know a hurricane will pass.

Delays for maintenance are your cue to find another flight or, better yet, method of transportation. Maybe it's finally time to take up horseback riding. Michelle made it look fun in Full House, before the whole traumatic series-ending accident. (Is too much FH knowledge embarassing?)

Is this so-called maintenance delay really worth the next 4 hours of your life where, every half hour they'll come over the loud speaker screaming about another 30 minute push back until HEY-OH it's 11:55pm, there's no plane, and spending Christmas Eve in a Detroit hotel isn't that bad, is it? Here's a $6 meal voucher to compensate. I'm still bitter about that, DELTA.

I understand in the intereview they told me I'd be traveling and I said I liked travel. But you know what, I also said I was organized.

The long-awaited honest opinion on whether or not I like traveling is finally here: "I suck at driving, and do I look like I fit on an airplane?!"

New addition to my bucket list: fly a round trip without banging my head at some point.

I know this blog post is coming off as whiney and complainy but I just consulted my calendar and I've traveled for work 15 of the last 18 weeks. You should do that without complaining, and when you do, I will erect a statue in your honor and put it in the Parthenon because you're clearly a divine being, and too bad polytheism isn't all the rage anymore or we would totally all worship you. And you could bless us with on-time flights, short security lines, close connecting gates, and an endless supply of Biscoffs.

My favorite part of flying! :) Right when you thought I could go a whole post without mentioning desserts.

The World's Greatest

The Olympics always make me wish I was the best in the world at something. And then I remember my ability to eat obscene amounts of candy and ice cream on a daily basis.

In a moment of impressive domestic accomplishment, I went grocery shopping today.

Phone conversation:
Me: Dude, I went grocery shopping and didn't buy any candy, fruit snacks, or frozen meals.
Stephen: What the hell did you buy?

True answer: not much. But walking past the candy aisle scotch-free makes me feel like I'm either some sort of all-powerful being or, like, I don't know, 23 years old.

In another domestic feat, I did a ton of laundry today while watching the Olympics, including my towels and sheets, and came to the conclusion that putting a fitted sheet on a mattress in 30 minutes or less without falling over should totally be an Olympic event. Bonus points if when you're finished it doesn't look like an absolute wrinkly mess.

But seriously - I love the Olympics! Watched a lot of swimming and synchronized diving today, which are super fun sports to watch once every four years. So that's convenient.

I can't wait to get into track and gymnastics. But my absolute favorite this year is women's indoor volleyball because my friend from high school, Christa Harmotto made the team - and did awesome yesterday in a win over South Korea! I "played" volleyball my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and when I was a sophomore, she was a senior and led our team to a Pennsylvania state championship!

She and my twin sister were our starting middles and I kept their blocking stats from the bench! I still made it on the front page of the sports section the next day, blowing celebratory bubbles. HOLLER AT ME.

But seriously, she's such a great person and it's awesome to see great things happen to great people - so everyone cheer on USA Women's Volleyball!

Also, celebrate the fact that you are not representing your county in a high-pressure athletic competition by continuing to eat dessert :)

In my younger and more vulnerable years

I'm going to try this new thing where I'm going to start enjoying my days. Not just my weekends. Not just the bars on Friday nights, yoga on Saturday morning, Church on Sunday morning, and sand volleyball games on Sunday evenings. Basically, I'm hoping to make it so I'm happy in a more consistent way - not just in the designated times that I block off my schedule to "have fun" or "be social."

To make stride towards doing this, I have one first step: start obeying random signs hanging in my apartment. Namely, this one:

I know most of you probably read the first paragraph and had one take away -- "you do yoga?" I know, a weird image for my PA friends who never saw me workout in a form that didn't involve lifting weights, running, or elbowing somene in the face for a rebound. Also, I admittedly am not the most coordinated of humans. But, yes, I found this great *free* yoga on Saturday mornings here in Madison that I really enjoy. (True story: bought $100 yoga pants (prior to ever doing yoga), forced myself to go to free yoga at store location to compensate for ridiculous pant price, now - I basically look like this:)

It's kind of a cool concept to workout in a non-competitve way. Never tried it until this year. Who would have guessed working out is more fun when you're not getting screamed at.

Back to my new "action plan" (if I must use terrible project manager terms in everyday blogging...) - basically, the concept hit me a couple weeks ago at work. I was on-site at a customer. Which is par for the course these days. (I essentially "weekend" in Madison.)

One of my analysts, who's hardworking, and probably about 40 years older than me said, "You know, I try to work hard, and I work a lot, but everyone keeps telling me the same thing. No one goes to the grave and says to themselves 'I wish I would have worked more.'"

On that note, and right before a very important meeting with high-level executives - we decided it was time to go out to lunch and dessert:

The meeting went well. I doubt I'll remember the contents of the meeting a year from now. I will remember the charming gelato place in Chicago and the importance of valuing how you use your time.

One Year

I'm lying on a king size bed in a Chicago hotel room, and I have to choose between doing my one year self-review or taking a shower. I thought it was a good chance to blog.

This is the longest I've gone without blogging a post since the inception of Rejoyce in January of 2010. I'd start talking about why I didn't blog (i.e. too many work trips), but a Whitney Houston song came on my Pandora about 10 minutes ago, and I swear, you guys, I almost started crying. And I don't even know why. I'm not even sad. Especially considering the new lululemon yoga pants I bought today. Regardless, I need to start injecting testosterone. But then those pants might not fit right.

Fortunately, I was reading through hilarious tweets when the late Whitney started singing her heart out, so I dodged that bullet. Nothing quite says "pathetic" like crying while scrolling endlessly through twitter, listening to sappy Pandora lying in a bed covered in the crumbs of Cheddar Harvest Sun Chips.

Thankfully, I didn't cry, so my situation now seems quite glamorous.

For those of you who read "lying on a king size bed in a Chicago hotel room" in the first sentence and didn't assume I was eating, congratulations on never having hung out with me.

It's hard to sum up my life in the last few months, so I'm going to do it in a super positive way, because I'm pretty much a ray of sunshine:

Accomplishments Since May 1:

1. Had an awesome vacation with my family in Wisconsin - and only suffered minor zip lining injuries!

2. Did NOT ruin the surprise when I went to the beach with Stephen's family and his beautiful sister Becky got engaged! (Check her super cute fashion blog here)

3.  Attended my first wedding in Des Moines as a *plus one* and wasn't even asked if I was a lesbian. (Though my date was asked once, I'm sure on my behalf)

4. Went boating on a boat that doesn't have a working motor.

I hope that all of you are enjoying your summers! I'm going to try to blog more, as I miss it, and it helps me put things into perspective :) I know some people can't see the forest through the trees, but I've been known to obsess over leaves and twigs.

For those of you who have been lacking reading material due to my lack of posts, I recommend Divergent for all young adult fans...very good! (If you like Katniss, you'll love Tris!)

Also, I just began re-reading The Great Gatsby and I think I'm falling in love with every sentence. That's the type of book that made me major in English (Despite my Elvish Writing's professor's beliefs, it was not The Canterbury Tales.) I highly recommend it for anyone who hasn't read it (it's much better when they're not forcing you to read it in high school, I promise) ...also, the movie's coming out in December, with Leo as the starring role!

My first ever Rejoyce post post was ended with a quote, as was my one year anniversary post ... so might as well end my one-year work anniversary with a quote as well:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." - F. Scott Fitzgerald.

On the Verge of being Responsible

I make a ton of to-do lists - on my white board, my computer, on random post its that I lose behind my desk. I follow a few fashion/interior design blogs (yeah, I know, you can't tell from looking at my wardrobe) and one blogger always post cute pictures of her calligraphy to-do lists on expensive stationary paper - they're like, works of art. Part of me is like, if you dedicate that much time to making  to-do lists, I can only assume you don't actually have anything to do. The other part of me is like, you're such a hater.



considering buying this as a more realistic task-tracker

 Anyway, everyone knows the best part of making to do lists is CHECKING SHIT OFF. And the best part of checking shit off is checking shit off that has been on your to do lists FOR COUNTLESS MONTHS.

So yes, that's right, blogging community, I went to the mother f-in DMV. I am now a legal Wisconsin resident, a mere10 months after moving here. It's true that living as an illegal fugitive for nearly a year has been quite the rush, but it's time to put my bad ass ways behind me and move forward as a law-abiding citizen.

I had literally been writing "go to the DMV" on every task list I made since October. (yeah, it didn't cross my mind in July-September - it was warm outside!) But, I kept finding more and more ways to put it off (and, in my defense, I did get in a car wreck in February so my car was in the shop for like a month) Does anyone else think that the DMV just seems like a place where dreams go to die a slow and painful death?

Anyway, I finally did it Thursday morning before work. My roommate came back from a business trip Thursday night:

Her: So, how was your week? What did you do?
Me: Good....good....Oh, I went to the DMV on a whim this morning.
Her: On a whim?!?! You've been planning out that trip for months! You're not fooling anyone with this "on the whim" crap

And, she, of course, is totally right. But now that I'm transforming into an adult, I have to nonchalantly mention adult-like tasks as if they part of my casual routine. It's part of being responsible. I would know. After all, I have Wisconsin license plates now.

Weekend Activities

My boyfriend is in the process of flying back home now after spending a weekend in Madison. He, my roomie, and I ran an 8k together on Saturday morning! Don't worry, it was chilly and raining, in true Wisconsin-style! But we had fun and we all finished in under 45 minutes - yay!

And now I'm blissfully living in that 48-hour grace period after a long race where I can eat whatever I want and not exercise because, I just ran 5 miles. (Well, technically 4.97).

My youngest sister is an awesome track star (will be beginning her collegiate cross country/track career in the fall) and when I told her I ran 4.97 miles her response was:

"4.97? That's the most ridiculous length ever. Why didn't you just keep running after the finish line and make it to 5?"

To which I answered, "Because when I crossed the finish line the absolute last thing I wanted to do was run one step further." 

Regardless, when had a fun weekend - and it made me think of the last time he was here and we went skiing for my first time ever! But I never blogged about it - though I had meant to. It was my first time skiing in my entire life, so I'll let you imagine how well that went, considering I'm 23, 6 foot 2, and not the most coordinated of humans. Let's just say I'm lucky I did my first time in Wisconsin and not Colorado. And I'm lucky I had a boyfriend who patiently helped me down bunny hills a ridiculous amount of times. 

Conversation when going up a lift for a slightly-bigger hill:

Me: I don't think I can do this one. It's much steeper. This lift is terrifying.

Him: Joyce, just look at the four year old in the pink coat down there who seems to be doing perfectly fine.

:)

I hope you all had fun weekends, and that the last week of April warms up for you - wherever you are :)