Fictional Characters I Want to Know in Real Life

Recently, I re-pinned a "some e-card" that said "Finishing a TV series on Netflix and thinking 'I'm really gunna miss these guys,' as if the characters are somehow now your friends." That pin was far more true than I should ever publicly admit. Seriously, it's embarrassing. When I finished the series finale of Greek, I bawled my probably-too-old-to-enjoy-this-show eyes out. I'd like to think that it was because it was the same week my former roomie moved across the country and I was relating my real-life sadness to the characters' moving on and away. But realistically, I know that an equal part of me knew I was going to miss those characters and watching every single detail of their fictional lives. Hey, don't judge.

Anyway, it got me thinking to how many fictional characters I feel like I know in real life. Or for that matter, wish I knew in real life. A significant portion of these characters are because the script or book is so incredibly well-written that I feel like they are actually people. Patricia Cornwell has her characters so strongly developed, she talks about them as if they're real people and I don't give it a single thought. Sometimes it's just because I really enjoy the characters because they're fun. And want to be their friends. If I had it my way, I would make these people be my friends, whether they cared to or not.

Here are some characters I either feel like I already know, or wish I could be BFFs with:

• Scarpetta, Marino, Lucy and Benton from Patrica Cornwell's Scarpetta series
• Casey, Rusty, Cappie (ahh I'm swooning), Ashley and Calvin from ABC Family's Greek. Actually, almost everyone from this show except Evan Chambers. He's a douche and I hate him.
• Benson and Stabler from Law and Order: SVU. Kragen too. He's pretty bad ass as well.
• Savich and Sherlock from Catherine Coulter novels
• Nina Reilly from Perri O'Shaughnessy's series
• The How I Met Your Mother cast: Lily, Marshall, Ted, Robin and Barney. (My life would actually be a thousand times more awesome if I was part of their friendship.)
• Most of the Walking Dead cast, but particularly Rick, Michonne, Daryl and Hershel. Well, really anyone aside from the Governor. That psycho does not need any friends.

Becoming a Big

Hello dear readers! About two months ago, I had come to the decision I wanted to become a Big Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters. I had never really considered the idea until my cousin mentioned how much her friend loved being a Big. Why this had never occurred to me, I don't know. But it was almost like a light switch had gone off. If I was a cartoon character, a nifty little light bulb would have appeared over my head. I just felt it in my gut that this was what I needed to do. The number one thing on my bucket list has been to make a difference in someone's life, particularly a young girl. Working with adolescent or pre-adolescent girls is what I've wanted to do with my Women's Studies minor. This could be it; this could be my calling.

As many of you know, I've done quite a bit of volunteering for the Y in the last two years. I love it fundraising for the Strong Kids Campaign, and GNO has made a tremendous impact in my life. As much as I love working with the GNO girls, though, I was starting to feel like I wanted something more. I wanted to have a more one-on-one experience, or be able to directly impact someone's life. I decided that this could potentially be the perfect opportunity for me.

At the beginning of the year, I made a vow that this year I was going to stop "talking about it" and start "being about it." Becoming a Big was my first stop in the Be About It journey. I knew that if I didn't jump on this desire right away, I would put it on the back burner, never do anything about it, and feel lousy. I looked up BBBS online, gave it less than a week's thought, and called the Green Bay office. I went in for an orientation meeting, and two weeks later, I had an interview set up.

I knew the interview would be pretty intense since it was for the responsibility of taking care of a child, but holy shit. It. Was. Insane. I think it's fair to say it was the most intense interview I've ever had, far more so than any job interview I've been on. It was super intimidating, and by the end, my nerves were shot. The questions were far more difficult than I ever could have anticipated, and were pretty loaded.

After three agonizing weeks, I got a call that not only was I accepted, but they had found me a Little right away! The enrollment specialist at BBBS told me a little about her, and I couldn't have been more excited to me her. She's an only child who is adopted and has been struggling emotionally, particularly with being adopted. I personally don't have any experience with adoptions, but my parents divorced when I was in middle school. I struggled with it a lot and eventually went to counseling. I hoped with my past of questioning parents and my position in the family that I might be a good resource for her or might be at least a little relatable. I accepted the position and antsily waited another week or so to meet her.

Last week we were officially matched. The "match" is mostly paperwork. A lot of paperwork. It was actually kind of dull, but absolutely necessary. The enrollment specialist went over the organization's rules, guidelines and policies and Little, her parents and I signed a rain forest worth of documents. After we had signed our names so many times I was fairly certain I had just signed my life away, Little and I got to hang out for the first time. I took her to experience Smart Cow yogurt bar for the first time and she loved it. Naturally, as any other nine year old would, she dumped in so many sugar-coated toppings that she couldn't come close to finishing her portion.

Before meeting her, I was told my Little was a little on the shy and quiet side. I was fully prepared for her to not talk to me at all, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much she engaged in conversation. She answered all of my questions and even initiated a few of her own. I had quickly started to learn about her and she is pretty damn awesome from what I can tell so far. She doesn't like Bieber, but does love P!nk (one of my all-time favorites), hates swimming (samesies) and likes Monsters, Inc and Despicable Me. She's self-proclaimed obsessed with horses, loves bike riding and Social Studies and hates Math. I know next to nothing about horses, but I'm excited that it will give her something to teach me. All in all, we're pretty much a match made in Big Sister heaven.

Things My 15 Year Old Sister Will Never Understand

Hello dear readers! A few weeks ago, I saw a picture on Pinterest of something from the 90s that kids now will never get. And it got me thinking. There's so much that has changed in the last decade and a half in our world, particularly with technology. Although I'm sure my grandparents and parents would say the exact same thing about my generation, technology has very rapidly come such a long way that nearly everything (or at least everything awesome) about my childhood is obsolete. I've come up with a list of things that teenagers and especially children today will never know, understand or appreciate. So here's to you, kids of the 90s (and early 2000s). Let's reminisce, shall we?

A work in progress:

• Rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil eraser
• Listening to the radio all day waiting to record your favorite song. On said cassette tape, of course.
• Or just a cassette for that matter.
• The inevitable skip while listening to your disk-man in the car
• The anxiety of not feeding your Nano Baby/Tomagotchi for the whole eight hours of school 
  
• Pressing the tracking button on your VCR to get the lines to go away while watching a movie
• Recording a tv show onto a VHS
• Or a VCR and VHS
• Watching TGIF, going to bed, and then waking up to One Saturday Morning
• Snick. I don't care if it's still on. Is it still on? Anyway, nothing will be better than All That, The Amanda Show and Keenan and Kel
• Also, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Land of the Lost, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Clarissa Explains it All, Aaah Real Monsters, The Secret World of Alex Mack, and the Adventures of Pete and Pete
• 
  Stick Stickley
• Floppy disks
• Waiting for dial-up to connect
• Making someone get off the phone so you can use the Internet and vice versa
• Having a complete AIM profile
• Setting your AIM away message as seemingly deep lyrics
• Matinee movies for $5.50
• Having to blow on a video game console for it to work
• The satisfaction of angrily slamming a flip-phone shut
• How indestructible the Nokia brick/flip phones were
• the epitome of boy/girl groups. Hello... BSB, Hanson, N*SYNC, 98°, Britney, Christina and the SPICE girls
• MTV actually having music videos
• TRL, Daria and Beavis and Butthead
• Calling your parents from a payphone to pick you up from the mall
• Gellies, platforms, belly shirts and one-shoulder-hooked overalls
• Lee Pipes, tech vests and "The Rachel" haircut
• Lisa Frank
• Trolls and beanie babies

• Having every color of gel pens on the face of this earth
• And lastly for now, but certainly not least, actually having an imagination and creating fun for yourself without technology!

Finally Settled In

Hello dear readers! It has been a while since the last post, but I am finally all settled in to the new digs, minus a few boxes left at my grandma's. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of moving, unpacking and setting up our new place with everything exactly where we want it. Oh, and no Internet for a week. Can't forget that First World Tragedy. Anyway, now that almost everything has found itself a home and I missed work today because of the weather, I finally have the time to sit down and write. Which, by the way, is being done from my and Man Friend's office. I've never really had an area outside of my room to be able to write in peace and I'm wicked excited about it.

Since we're on the topic of the office, I must say it's one of my favorite parts of the apartment. Man Friend and I were lucky enough to find a two bedroom in our price range and this room was one of the big selling points of the place. Man Friend and I each get half of the room: his half for his gaming and my half for writing and possibly scrapbooking. Also, it has my magnificent walk-in closet. Seriously, it's huge. And alll mine. As I was unpacking my plethora of clothes boxes, Man Friend told me he was astonished that I hadn't finished yet. At that point, I was a good three storage bins in and had at least two more to go. I actually get to have all of my clothes up at once without packing away out of season outfits. I didn't even realize how wonderful it was until I had everything all hung up.

Although moving in general stresses me out more than I'd like to admit, this was by far the smoothest move I've ever done. Since I had been temporarily staying with my mom's friend in between moving out of Roomie's house and into the apartment, a good majority of my stuff was already packed and ready to go. The day that we moved the most stuff, Man Friend and I had three people helping us move which helped tremendously. My cousin spent the whole day with me going back and forth from Temporary Residence, my storage shed and the apartment. It saved so much time having two people load and unload my car. It would have easily taken an extra day without her. Man Friend's best friend and his brother helped move our furniture. Since all three of them have trucks, they were easily able to each grab some pieces instead of Man Friend needing to make close to four trips by himself. Plus, carrying heavy and awkward furniture up a flight of stairs singlehandedly would have proved to be nearly if not entirely impossible.

One of the most exciting aspects about moving into your own place is being able to put everything away the way you want. Man Friend and I have been able to set up everything exactly the way we want. I didn't realize how exciting it would be until we were able to do so. Who knew deciding where to put the pots and pans and how to arrange furniture would be so exciting? Holy shit. I just came to the terrible realization that I am frickin OLD. See ya later, early twenties. Hello, being a grown up. Guess there's no way out of that one, huh?

Welp, I suppose on that note, I should go do something else grown up with my time. I'm sure I can find something else to put away...

My "See You Later" Letter To A Close Friend

I'm not entirely sure why I feel so compelled to share this. Perhaps it's because I made a vow to myself earlier this year to start acknowledging my emotions, and in order to deal with them, I need to share them. Perhaps, it's because I don't think anything else could describe my emotions and struggles right now quite so effectively. Perhaps it's because I don't think anything else could describe ME quite so effectively. Nevertheless, I hope you dear readers enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here's a little nugget of depth into my life (of course altered a little for Friend's privacy).

My dearest Friend,

Since the very first day of sixth grade when I was stunned by your ‘tude about “not coming from Elementary School EITHER,” I knew we were destined to be friends. And basically, we’ve been inseparable ever since.

You are one of the most incredible women I’ve ever met, and one of the best friends I could ever ask for. For the last thirteen and a half years, I have known I could always count on you for whatever I wanted or needed. From the divorce of my parents to break ups, I always had your shoulder to cry on. Likewise, some of my greatest laughs have come from our times spent together. We developed a passion for music together, which started with Backstreet Boys and progressed into pop-punk and eventually grew into wider genres. Part of the reason Blink-182 will forever have such a special place in my heart is because we discovered them together and lost our concert virginity to them and Green Day. You are the only person to send me a Halloween card every year, and every single year is makes my whole day. You have helped fuel the fire that is me becoming a wine-o and are someone who I can always count on to truly enjoy food and swapping any recipe.

I am so very lucky to not only have a friend like you, but to have stayed so close after so many years. We are both such different people from when we first met, and yet, remarkably the same. When so many friends drift apart throughout their lives or lose touch after high school or college, we have grown even closer. And because of this, I know we will forever be inseparable, no matter how much distance physically separates us. We damn well better be 85 years old sharing a glass or three of wine laughing about the past and the present, and maybe making new friends in each other if we’ve forgotten who we are.

When I first found out that your promotion was official, I had a few teeeensy tears. And as I write this, I continue to fight back an ugly cry. I will miss you more than you could ever know and learning to have a long-distance friendship with you will be quite the adjustment. However, despite my tears and selfishly wishing you’d stay, I am so incredibly excited for you and just about to burst with pride. I couldn’t be any happier for you to pursue a career that you are excited about and that you will be just phenomenal at. You are going to rock that account manager job and I am sure that everyone in City will love you. In the few short months that I worked with you in Wisconsin City (which, by the way, was one of my favorite jobs ever. And I’m not just saying that.) I very quickly learned what a hard and dedicated worker you are. You take great pride in your work and hold a respected yet approachable and relatable authority.

Although I am sad to see you leave, I am wicked excited to have a great new place to add to my list of vacation spots. I cannot wait to come see you in City, and I cannot wait to hear how much you’re enjoying yourself. We have a very unique and special friendship that I am confident will survive through any curveball life throws us. Congratulations on your new adventure!

Love,

Mon

Two Birthdays, One Weekend

Hello, dear readers! I have had one of the best weekends I've had in a while, probably at least since Roomie moved away. It was also the first time going out both a Friday and a Saturday in a very long time. I had a blast at two separate birthday parties, and it came at perfect timing. Next weekend, Man Friend and I are moving into our apartment. In case that won't be busy and crazy enough, we have to make sure to have mostly everything moved by Saturday because Sunday we'll be spending the afternoon with family for Easter. After we finally have our own place, we won't be going out too much. We will definitely be staying in quite a bit more to save money, so IRL friends, feel free to come and drink with us at home.

Friday one of Man Friend's close friends turned 22. We started the evening off in the hotel room he rented, and worked our way to some of the Stadium bars for him to drink for free. We ran into some other friends with whom we were able to chat a little. I got to meet some of Friends' friends from work and college and we overall had a pretty good time.

Saturday, Man Friend, the birthday boy and two of their other friends went up north to finish the birthday celebration with a guys' night. Although I really wish Man Friend could have joined me for the second birthday party, I'm glad he got to spend time with his friends. They were excited to drink and hang out without interruptions and have an all-you-can-eat prime rib at one of the area restaurants. It sounds like they all enjoyed themselves, so even though I missed having my guy out with me, it was really good that he joined his friends for guy night.

Snapping a pic while we not-so-patiently waited for dinner

My coworker turned 30 last night and had a huge celebration with dinner and drinks planned. I didn't think I would be able to afford both, so I had only planned on meeting everyone out for drinks later in the evening. Much to my surprise, one of my coworkers asked me to come with her to dinner a few hours beforehand and offered to pay for me so I didn't have to miss out. I couldn't believe the offer, especially because the restaurant is decently pricey. But I really appreciated the offer and was excited to join so I accepted. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a sushi/hibachi bar. The service was less than phenomenal and there was a minor disaster with the bills at the end of the evening, but the food was absolutely amazing. I had sushi for only the second time and am still surprised at how much I enjoy it. Not because of the raw fish or seaweed thing. I just don't like rice. I also enjoyed more than plenty of hibachi veggies, chicken and shrimp and was pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed the green tea ice cream.

After dinner, we headed to one of Birthday Girl's favorite bars to finish off the rest of the night. Not only did she handle 30 very well, she was actually incredibly excited to say goodbye to her 20s and turn 30. I've been dreading turning 25 for a solid seven months already, and here she was throwing a huge bash for 30. Um, what? She had a gorgeous new outfit, got all kinds of "30" accessories and photo props for picture-taking-wonderfullness. The best part of her ensemble was her brand new diamond...her boyfriend proposed right before dinner! There was no questioning how happy she was and just glowed all night. She also got a keg so we drank for free for the rest of the night, brought in cupcakes to satisfy our sweet cravings and we danced all night to N SYNC goodness.

I always enjoy having nights out with my coworkers, particularly because it doesn't happen very often. Most of them live in the Fox Valley, and with me in Green Bay, we don't get too many opportunities to hang out after work. We've had a few happy hours after work, but this was the first time I was able to participate in a Saturday outing. My coworkers and I get along so well and are some of the greatest coworkers I've ever had. If I ever get a permanent job, not seeing them every day will be the hardest part about leaving the job I'm in now.

With some of my coworkers

The Birthday Girl and me

Happy birthday once again to both friends. I hope you enjoyed your days!

The Best Songs to Blast

Everyone, myself included, has about a million songs that are "their songs." There are so many that I love for so many different reasons. My favorite kind of song is one that you can do some major jamming to. If you're in the car, you crank the volume up and belt it out at the top of your voice because no one else can hear the atrocity that's coming from inside your vehicle. If you're at home, you have a solo dance party and rock out. Ok, let's be realistic here. You have a jumping around, lyric shouting party. And when you hear a dancy song at the club, you are on the dance floor like no one's business. I've come up with a list of my favorite songs to crank and belt out. I don't think I could ever get sick of any of these.

In no particular order, my list of the best songs to jam out to (a work in progress):

• Simple Man - Shinedown cover
• .45 - Shinedown
• Bad Company - Five Finger Death Punch cover
• Remember Everything - FFDP
• Freak Like Me - Halestorm
• Don't Stop Believin - Journey
• Wannabe - Spice Girls
• Liquid Dreams - O Town
• All or Nothing - O Town
• As Long as You Love Me - Backstreet Boys
• Bye, Bye, Bye - *N SYNC
• Mmmbop - Hanson
• No Scrubs - TLC
• Bad Girlfriend - Theory of a Deadman
• Low Life - Theory of a Deadman
• Hate My Life - Theory of a Deadman
• Porn Star Dancing - My Darkest Days
• Love Song - Sara Bareilles
• So What - Pink
• Perfect - Pink
• Without Me - Eminem
• My Name Is - Eminem
• Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland
• (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party) - Beastie Boys
• Chicken Fried - Zac Brown Band
• Fake It - Seether
• Right Here - Staind
• White Trash Millionaire - Black Stone Cherry
• Miami - Will Smith
• American Idiot - Green Day
• Minority - Green Day
• All the Small Things - Blink-182
• Rock Show - Blink-182
• Sugar, We're Goin Down Swingin -Fall Out Boy
• Fat Lip - Sum41
• Say My Name - Destiny's Child
• Jumpin' Jumpin' - Destiny's Child
• Why Don't You Get a Job? - The Offspring