Word of the Week - Zealous

I have holiday brain this weekend so I am going to keep this post short and sweet.

Prononced: zel-uh s

Part of Speech: adejective

Definition: ardently active, devoted, or diligent; full of, characterized by, or due to zeal.

In a Sentence: She wore the most zealous costumes to themed parties.

The happiest foreign exchange student you ever did see at a high school clicks party.

Zabrina Secret Santa

I decided to participate in a secret Santa this December with Sabrina and Z. I sent a present to Mrs. Aguila and received one from Kate. I loved doing this gift exchange and hopefully can do one next year!

One. The outside of my package was decorated beautifully.  At first I thought this mistletoe was a snitch and squealed.  I think I have been reading too much Harry Potter lately.
Two. All of my little presents were individually wrapped.  I had so much fun unwrapping each of them.  That candy was gone in about 10 minutes.
Three. All of presents unwrapped.  I loved them all.  There was thought behind each one. Oh and they were handmade which I love.
Four. I didn't find the note until the very end.  I was worried that I wasn't going to know who my secret Santa was.  I am so glad!

one.  It feels like she knows me because I just lost my pearl earrings and bam there they are in the mail.

two.  This cupcake ornament is absolutely adorable.

three. Shiny, animal print, and stationary!  All of my favorite things combined. I cannot wait to start sending these babies out in the mail.

four. A stamp to put on all the letters I mail out.  This is perfect!  I just need some ink so I can go stamp crazy!

five. The cutest little lace bow (for my hair) that I ever did see.

six. A handy book marker that slides on the edge of the page.  And the other side is purple, my favorite color.

seven. A cute magnet for my fridge.

eight.  A button ring.

nine.  A cute Kleenex holder that is going to be perfect for my purse.  I hate not having a Kleenex when I need one.

I just loved all of Kate's presents.  A lot of them were hand-made, and I could just feel all the love and work she put into it.  Handmade presents are my favorite! Thanks again Kate!

Anyways, I hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas!

Word of the Week - Yuletide

Can you believe that there is only 3 days until Christmas?  Yikes, it is so close, and I still have so much shopping to do.  And without further ado, here is this week's word:



Who the heck even knows what Yuletide means?  I have absolutely no idea, except I know it is a good thing because I like the yuletide season, and I want yuletide treasures.

Prononced: yool-tahyd

Part of Speech: noun OR adejective

Definition: Christmas season OR of or pertaining to the Christmas season

In a Sentence: Alexandra was very excited to find Yuletide treasures under the tree on Christmas morning.

I hope all of you have a wonderful yuletide season and get all of your shopping done!

A Very Harry Christmas

I never read Harry Potter growing up (what the heck was I thinking?), but his summer I decided to start reading from the beginning.  I am in LOVE.  I talk about it all the time and have even named my fish, Dumbledore.  So obviously for Christmas this year, I need ALL things Harry Potter.  Here are some of the things that would bring a huge smile to my face.

1. A Wand, obviously from Ollivanders.

Any good witch or wizard needs a wand.  This wand will be my first step towards becoming a witch. I wouldn't mind a unicorn tail hair in my wand either.

3. My own knit sweater from Mrs. Weasley.

A nice deep purple would be a lovely color for me, but really anything from Mrs. Weasley would make my heart happy.

2. Chocolate Frogs.

I need the Dumbledore card that comes inside.  There is a candy shop near me that sells them, but I have only gotten two cards so far.  Silly Lockhart and some famous band. Clearly not on par with Dumbledore.

4. Ravenclaw Paraphernalia.

I have taken more online quizzes than I can count, and I almost always get Ravenclaw.  I am pretty sure I would bffls with Luna anyways. So I need some accessories to support my house! A scarf would be the logical first choice, but really anything will do.  Also, this card is perfect.

5. A Trip to Harry Potter World or London or Both.

I am dying to go to Harry Potter world so I can do all the Harry Potter things and drink butterbeer until I am sick.  If I went to London, I could head to Platform 9 3/4s and do the Harry Potter museum tour.

P.S. Has anybody seen the Harry Potter monopoly?  I saw it on Pinterest the other day and just discovered it wasn't real. So, so sad.

Word of the Week - Heinous

Hey!  So I finally got all of my computer back from Best Buy, and it is working like a gem.  I have had an this idea in my head for a long time, but I was always nervous about starting a series on the blog.  So here goes nothing, I introduce to you Word of the Week.

The idea for Word of the Week came about when I wrote the post about how my blog got its name and realized there are many words that I hear and I have no idea what they mean.  I also feel like my vocabulary is limited and some new words may help.



This weeks word, heinous, was chosen because I use it in a very different context then its actual meaning and outside of my close group of friends, people are confused when I use it.  If you are a fan of Law and Order SVU, it is also used in the opening credits.

Prononced: hey-nuh s

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: hateful, totally reprehensible

In a Sentence: Bob was put in jail for life after committing some very heinous crimes.

When I use heinous, it is typcially used to describe something outrageous, absurd, or unbelievable.  It is most commonly used when talking about events that happened after a night out.  These pictures would qualify as heinous in my book.

Thank you college for all these heinous moments.

If you have any words that you would like to see for Word of the Week, let me know.  I am sure eventually I will run out of new words.  Hope you have a great Saturday!

Looking Spiffy

I mentioned a few days ago that hopefully my blog wouldn't be looking so jank in the near future, well the time for looking good came sooner than expected!  I am absolutely loving how fabulous my blog looks, especially with all the purple sparkles.

Sabrina from Sabrina Dellinger Designs is the brains behind the new design.  She was wonderful to work with and worked very quickly.  She took what I was thinking and put it into a functional design.  So if you are looking for a new, spiffy blog design, I  recommend Sabrina.  She also offers a discount for blogs with less than 200 followers.

Now that I have a new design, I'm going to be making some other updates around here over the next few weeks. I am very excited for the new changes, and I hope you are too!  Let me know if there is something in particular that you would like to see on A Gregarious Mess.

Happy Monday!  I am off to gush over my new blog design.

P.S. With my new blog design, I am hoping to begin doing button swaps soon.  If you would like to swap, just let me know.

Are you going to vote?

If you read the title and have no idea what I am talking about, that is okay.  I didn't even realize that there was voting this year (maybe I'm a bad citizen?) until I received a brochure from the state about some state issues that were being voted on.  I have only ever voted when there was a presidential election or a major recall election and have never really paid attention to anything else.

After reading about the issues and deciding I gave a few shits, I realized I should probably vote.  Election day is November 5th.  I researched the issues some more, and by researched I mean read the brochure that the state sent me, especially focusing on rationale for or against a particular amendment or proposition.  I definitely did not over exert myself here.

Then I had to struggle bus my way to figure out where I needed to go to cast my vote, but I was saved when I received a mail in ballot.  Score for not having try and navigate government websites! Thank you Colorado for realizing how lazy I am and delivering my ballot to my door.

The main benefit of the mail-in ballot for me was that I was able to research every single issue and candidate before I cast my vote. I did my research on neutral sites and canidate webpages. I tried to stay away from the extremists on both sides of the issues. When all was said and done, I voted the way that I felt was right, and boy did it feel good to vote on what I thought was right and not what a political party was telling me to vote for.

Once I was done voting, I placed my ballot into the envelope, slapped 66 cents worth of stamps on that bad boy, and dropped it into the mailbox.  It was that easy.  For those of you who may be a little cheap, you could drop it off at select locations for free.

The whole process was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So if you haven't voted in a non-presidential election, I urge you to vote next week.  What takes a few minutes of your time could have a significant impact on the future, plus it is kind of your duty as a citizen.  And I recommend signing up for mail-in ballots, you will receive one every time there is an election, annnnnd if you feel like that time around you would rather vote in person for that election, you can discard your mail in ballot and do that!

Happy Voting!

Alexandra

Is Your Brain Plugged In?

"Is your brain plugged in?" would be what my boss asked me after only being at work yesterday for 45 minutes.  I had managed to screw up three different experiments, but at least two were fixable.  The third one was not, and it is a 14 hour experiment

So the moral of the story is when I screw up, I screw up big time.  I will be spending this afternoon from 3pm until Saturday morning at 5am at work.  Talk about a wild Friday night.  You better believe I am bringing along a blanket and using my second monitor to watch Netflix in my down time.

I should have known is was going to be a rough week when I read this fortune on Sunday.

Seriously, what the hell does that mean?  I am going to die soon? Am I going to get abducted?  Is it metaphorical? Is something terrible going to happen, and I'm going to have to work through it alone?  No matter what it means, I am going to live in fear for the next few months.  

Well I got way off topic, although I am not too sorry about it. I needed to tell somebody about my creepy fortune cookie.  Now back on topic.

Even if I am having a rough week, at least it is not as bad as the week this engineer had.  If you don't watch the video (which is a poor choice), he attempted to blow up a dead beached whale with a half ton of dynamite.  And it didn't quite work as he planned. Silly, silly engineer.  

Have a great Friday!  Hopefully it is better than the engineers!

Toodles.
Alexandra

Hello!

It has been a hot minute, or month, or months since I last posted here in my little corner of the internet.  I don't have a good excuse or reason, I guess life just took over.  I have moved into a new apartment, dealt with said apartment flooding, and started classes.  The weeks seem to be flying by, but I am loving every minute!

The good news is hopefully I will be getting a new blog design soon(ish) so it won't look so janky around here.  For those of you reading, I appreciate you putting up with my design talents.  Obviously I will not be opening my own design studio anytime soon.

I am going to try to blog more frequently.  One of the reasons for this is pretty selfish.  I am writing very academic papers and reviews right now, but I have trouble expressing myself concisely.  One of my college English professors always said that if you write every day then you will become a better writer.  So I am going to try to write something here everyday, even if it is not something really long or fabulous.  For the first few years months weeks, my posts may be a little rough, but I am hoping that you will stick with me through it!  The other reason I want to blog more often is because I want to become more engaged in the blogging community so hopefully by posting more often I can interact more with my readers and other bloggers!

After reading through some of my older posts, I realized that I sometimes write without much personality and that is nothing like me in real life. You can't talk to me for two minutes without getting sass or sarcasm.  So hopefully I can sass this place (is a blog a place?) up a bit!

If you have any suggestions on things you would like to see around A Gregarious Mess, just let me know!

Toodles!

Alexandra

5 Things

I was just tagged by Heather from one of my favorite blogs, From Here to There, for a 5 Things challenge. I was reading her post and was extremely surprised and excited to see my self tagged. Hopefully this will also help you to get to know me better.

5 Things I have a passion for:

-My family and friends

-Alpha Chi Omega

-Domestic Violence Awareness-Science-Traveling

5 Things I'd like to do before I die:

-Travel to every continent-Finish a half marathon-Be able to make a significant contribution to a charity that is important to me

-Have a family of my own

-Be the keynote speaker at a science meeting

5 Reads I love:

-Matched Triology by Allie Condie-The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

-Harry Potter (I have only read the first two, but I am obsessed) by J.K. Rowling

-Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright

-Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich

5 Favorite Movies:

-Step Brothers

-The Intouchables-Mean Girls-Beauty and the Beast

-The Secret Window

5 Places I want to Travel:

-Germany-Japan-Every state-Somewhere in South America

-Australia

5 3 Blog Friends I Tag:

Natalie @ At Home With The Hinkleys

Heather @ Soliloquies and Sass

Callie @ First Comes Love

Happy Thursday!  I will be up in the mountains at a retreat/orientation/conference for my department without any cell phone service and limited WiFi.  Hopefully I can make some new friends!

Weekly Wishes

I had a great weekend, but I am not really in the mood to do a weekend recap today.  So instead, I have decided to participate in a weekly wishes link-up over at the Nectar Collective.  I think this a great way to give myself some short term goals for the week.

-Make new friends.  I know this may sound dumb, but I have lived in Fort Collins for over a month, and I haven't made any new friends, unless you count the janitors at work.  But still, I do not really hang out with anybody on the weekends so I need to make more of a point to make some new friends.  I have a retreat/orientation for my department this weekend so hopefully I can make some friends there.

-Write my book club posts for Life of Pi and The Help.  I have these posts half written, but I have yet to sit down and finish them.

-Enjoy the beauty of nature.  This past weekend, Noah and I camped stayed in a cabin in Poudre Canyon, and all weekend I was amazed by the beauty of nature surrounding me.  I don't know if there will ever be a day when I am not in awe of these mountains.  The mountains are beautiful but so are all the plants and creatures around me.  I just need to be more aware.

At Lake Agnes, I am still in awe of how breathtaking it was.

Do you have any wishes for this week?

Packers, Sombreros, and Lil Wayne

Today is the first Green Bay Packers game of the year!  I am so, so, so excited.  I don't even care that it is preseason, it is a Packer game.  Tonight, you will find me sitting in a bar cheering on my green and gold!

Sadly, I cannot find any pictures of me in my Packer's gear.  I just got a new computer so they must be somewhere on the old one!  The good news, I just got a Green Bay Packers Mexican pullover shawl thing (great description I know).  It looks like the one below except it is green and gold with a huge Packer's logo on it.

It would go great with my sombrero, but I am currently missing my sombrero.  So if you have one that you would like to donate to me, I would love you forever.

To put you in the mood for the game, I bring you Green and Yellow by the one and only, Lil Wayne!



If you already weren't a Packers fan, I hope that Lil Wayne has convinced you to convert! I mean he even went on ESPN to talk about it.



I have no idea how I manged to talk about the Green Bay Packers, sombreros, and Lil Wayne in the same post.  My only explanation is that it is Friday! Linking up with Whitney for #backthatazzup and Sarah for Fan Friday.

Greek is Greek, Lyre Love

I have briefly touched on it before when I talked about my support system, but I was/am in sorority, Alpha Chi Omega to be exact.  Without Alpha Chi Omega, my collegiate life would have been completely and totally different.

I love each and everyone of my sisters, and if needed, I would stop writing this post and fly across the country to help them, and I know that they would do the same for me.  But today, I don't want to focus on my relationship with my sisters or even  Alpha Chi, but instead I want to talk about what it is like to be in sorority and why I encourage every person I meet to at least go through recruitment and to do so with an open mind.

My pledge class graduating.

When somebody asks me what being in a sorority is like, the best way I can explain it is that it is like having over 100 of your biggest fans who will support you no matter what you do.  My best example of this was that I was giving a brief seminar on my undergraduate research.  It wasn't even that interesting to most biology or chemistry majors, but when it was my time for my talk about 40 girls piled into the room, both science and non-science majors alike.  I doubt more than 5 of them knew what the hell I was talking about, but they showed up because they cared about me and wanted to support me!

My sorority family, The Octopus Family

Seriously, who doesn't want a support system of over 100 people?  So for anybody thinking about joining a sorority, I encourage you to go through recruitment with an open mind.  It is hard not to follow along with the stereotypes or what your friends are doing, but if you listen to your heart then you will end up in the right place and have the experience of a lifetime.

Personal space did not exist.

One of my good friends throughout college, lived near me in the dorms freshman year.  We had made a deal that we would not talk about what houses we had picked or what house we had preferenced until after the decision was made.  We ended up going to the same houses on pref night, and we both ended up preffing Alpha Chi as number one, but we the decision desperately.  It was so wonderful on bid day when we found out that we had both been given a bid at Alpha Chi.  If we hadn't been given a bid at the same house, we would probably have remained friends, but the sisterhood definitely strengthend our friendship.

So happy on bid day!

I love Alpha Chi Omega with all of my heart, and I would love to go back and repeat my collegiate years as an Alpha Chi.



I am joining the Greek is Greek link-up today!

Weekend in Denver

So Noah is in town again which means I have somebody to do fun things with!  This weekend we decided to head down to Denver for a few nights.  Neither of us had spent any time in Denver before so we decided to play it by ear and decide things on a whim!

I packed all of this for two days, but of course I only wore three things!

We stopped at the Outlet Mall on our way there on Friday night so we got there pretty late.  We walked down 16th Street and went to Maggiano's for a quick dinner.  I got a Bellini Swirl to drink and loved it!

On Saturday, we checked out the hotel restaurant's buffet.  I was pretty impressed, but I typically am pretty impressed with large amounts of food.  I also got my favorite drink in the world, a bloody mary!  Seriously, I cannot get enough of these.  I could drink them day and night.

Obviously, I needed time to digest after the copious amount of food we ate so I took a little rest and we headed to the Denver Botanical Gardens.  I could literally spend days here.  I also love being a tourist and taking pictures, and I took over 230 pictures of plants, just plants not people.  I hope that's not too weird.

Saturday night was kind of a wash.  We had big plans to go listen to live music outside and watch a Broncos live scrimmage, but the rain ruined our plans.  But we ended up sitting in a hot tub on the terrace in the rain, and it was absolutely wonderful.  Because of the rain, we ate dinner at the hotel (again).  There was supposed to be a prime rib buffet, but when we got up to the buffet it was all gone.  They ended up just letting us eat for free!  Otherwise, it would have been about $30 a person!

Sunday was spent exploring downtown Denver and drinking more bloody marys, but I did not take a single picture.  I guess those flowers really tired out my picture taking.  I ended the weekend reading Life of Pi. I am struggling to get into it but the more I read, the more I like it.  Have you read it before?  Did you like it?

Once again, linking up with Sami for weekend shenanigans!

Running Through My Head

I didn't think my life could get any crazier, but it has.  I moved out of my sublease today.  I literally packed up my things in less than two hours and have moved in somewhere else temporarily.  I am absolutely exhausted.  So today, I am just going to write a what is running through my brain as it comes.

-I am craving ice cream.  I have had so many cravings for it in the past few weeks.  No matter how much ice cream I eat I still want more.  Any ideas on how to stop these cravings?  And writing about it just makes me want it more.  Don't even act like chocolate peanut butter ice cream does not sound amazeballs right now.

-Automatic lights are convenient. I am fascinated that whenever I walk into my new room the lights turn on.  It makes me feel like a royalty or something.  And I can walk into my room with my hands full, and my lights magically turn on.  Or I am laying on my bed getting ready for a nap, and the lights turn off like they know that I need to sleep.  Seriously, go invest in some!

-I hadn't been able to eat much for the past two days, but today I finally got my appetite back.  I was driving past a Chili's on my way home and decided to stop.  I had their California Grilled Chicken Flatbread.  It was so good.  I could eat it every single day for the next year without any complaints.  Go through and try it, you will not be disappointed.

-I just noticed a downside to a touchscreen computer.  When a bug is crawling across your screen, and you try to kill it, you will accidentally press some buttons and your computer will freak out.

-Do I use too many commas?  I feel like my sentences have a lot of commas, but I think I am  following the rules of proper English.  Maybe I should sit in on a middle school English class and get a refresher.

-I need sleep.  Sorry for this rambling post and congrats if you have made it this far.  Also, sorry for the lack of pictures.  I have pure fatigue right now.  I promise to do better once my life gets back on track!

Focusing On The Positives

Going MIA seems to be a hobby of mine recently, sorry about that!  But some unsettling things have happened in my life in the last 40 hours.  I will hopefully be able to share some day, but I am not quite ready yet!  So today, I want to focus on the positive things in my life!

one. I am surrounded by people who love and support me, in everywhere possible.  Whether they be family, boyfriend, friends, and sisters.  They are all here for me when I need them.

 

two. Home made salsa.  I just made some delicious salsa!  It is definitely worth the 4 hours I spent cutting the veggies.  I need to get one of those choppy, spinning things for it. (I know that isn't helpful, but I don't know their real name).

three. Harry Potter.  I know I am about ten years behind, but I am just reading Harry Potter right now, and I am loving it!  Why did I not read these as a kid?  I cannot put these books down.

four. Science. NERD ALERT!  I know this a weird one, but I am thankful for science and my job/school.  It provides a great escape for everything.  I can get lost for hours in an experiment.

And that's all I have for today.  I am sure that there are plenty of other things that are making me happy right now, but I am tired.  Anyways, happy Wednesday!

Instagram Recap Week 2

Sorry I have been MIA lately.  I have had a busy few days!  The boyfriend flew out of town, a whole semi truck full of things  for my work came that needed to be unpacked, and I was feeling under the weather.  But here I am back in action.

Today, I am once again I am just going to share some Instagram pictures from last week.  I didn't take too many pictures this week, but I have lots Instas of watching the sunset and reading!

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Linking up with Sarah at Pearls & Curls.

I hope you are having a splendid weekend!

Why A Gregarious Mess?

I realized that I have yet to explain why I named my blog "A Gregarious Mess", so I am going to take this post to do explain it.  I am going to break and down word by word and seeing as there is only two words, this shouldn't take long.

First up: Gregarious.

So I don't like big words at all, and I actually had no idea what gregarious met the first time few times I heard it.  My co-worker repeatedly described me as gregarious, and I honestly thought it was a bad thing so I was afraid to look it up, but when I did I was pleasantly surprised.  Gregarious means fond of company or sociable which describes me pretty well.

After learning the meaning of gregarious and knowing I wanted to blog, they seemed like the perfect fit. I am very sociable, and I was about to embark on a journey across the country where I was going to need to be gregarious so it made sense.

Last up: Mess

Plain and simple my life is a mess.  I like to think of it as a beautiful mess but nonetheless a mess.  As my mom says, "There is never a dull moment when you're Alexandra" and she is completely right.  A little less than a year ago, I was settled in my house in Ohio and was planning to live there for about the next 5 years.  Less than 5 months later, I was planning to move to Colorado.  Nothing is ever as straight forward and easy as it seems, but that just seems to be how my life goes.

So there you have it.  That is why I am A Gregarious Mess!

Lazy Weekend

I did not have an exciting weekend, but that is not always a bad thing.  Sometimes you just need to have time to relax and gather yourself.

On Saturday morning, I got up and started my day with the farmers market.  I was able to get all of these veggies for only $10.  Seriously?  I am not even sure if I will eat it all in a week.  But at least they are pretty healthy so it won't be so bad if I binge on them.  I mean I haven't already eaten seven tomatoes.

I then ran to the thrift store to browse.  I was able to find 3 shirts, a scarf, and a dress that is going to need some remodeling.  Also, how come I am just now discovering head scarves?  They do amazing things for my thick and frizzy hair.

I got these three shirts for just under $8!

Saturday night was spent laying in my bed eating tomatoes and watching Netflix.  You don't have to tell me how cool I am.

Sunday was another lazy day spent going to church, writing letters, reading and watching Netflix.  Hopefully next weekend brings some more excitement!

What did you do this weekend?


Once again, linking up with Sami for Weekend Shenanigans.

Instagram Recap Week 1

Sorry I have been MIA lately.  I have had a busy few days!  The boyfriend flew out of town, a whole semi truck full of things  for my work came that needed to be unpacked, and I was feeling under the weather.  But here I am back in action.

Today I am participating in a link-up hosted by Sarah at Pearls & Curls.  I am just going to recap my week in a few Instagram pictures.  If you follow me on Instagram, sorry if you have already seen these!




Over the past week, I have rediscovered my love for grapes!  Cold grapes are the perfect snack on a hot day.

Last weekend, I was in Wyoming, and we ate at this cute little restaurant, The Chuck wWgon.  It was delicious food which I gobbled up before I could take a picture.  But they had these humor books at the table for reading.  The titles were funny as were the books!

We went to church while in Laramie.  I don't know what it is, but I love going to church in different places.

I was the prisoner for the day at Wyoming Territorial Prison!  You can go ahead and call me Gertie.

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And the only picture I have from this week, my lunch outside on Friday.  But don't let me kid you, I am not normally that healthy!

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I hope you are having a great weekend!