bucket list: summer travel

the summertime is travel time.  since i have a monday-through-friday, 9-to-5 job, i can't jet off around the world for months on end (as much as i would loveee to do that!)  instead, i must settle for weekend trips in places that my wonderfully amazing friends live; they offer me a spot their lovely couches for nothing but laughs and snuggles in return.  oh the life broke post-grad...  but i am definitely not complaining.  these trips are fucking awesome!

summer 2014 weekend trips:
1. martha's vineyard, MA
2. burlington, vt
3. Philadelphia, pa
4. atlantic city, nj
5. baltimore, md
6. new york, ny
7. montreal, ca
8. washington d.c.

do you have any fun trips planned for this summer?

excuses, excuses, excuses

reasons i didn't start a blog sooner:

• all the good names were taken.
• i don't have a fancy schmancy camera and i'm too poor to afford photoshop.
• sometimes my thoughts are too dark for the frilly and light-hearted world of blogging.
• sometimes my thoughts are too superficial for the smart and noteworthy world of blogging.
• everything that's worth writing about has already been written about at least 10 different ways. if i read one more article about embracing your twenties, i'm going to pull my eyebrows out (just kidding, i love those articles! keep 'em coming)
• writer's block leads to random content. exhibit a: this post that you're reading right now.
• would it be distracting if i use all lowercase letters? ...but i like lowercase letters.
• choosing a theme is difficult for an indecisive soul like myself. lifestyle? preppy? weight loss? food? fashion? travel? #toomanychoices
• i'm a perfectionist and rarely satisfied with anything i do/create.
• and of course, the dreaded... what if people don't like me!?

oh! and another major dilemma: how do people find time for blogging? it's like a full-time job... except i can't add it to my resume ...and i don't get paid. the struggle is real.

but first, let me take a selfie

before i add any additional posts, i should probably put a face behind the blog. at first, i liked the dark-and-mysterious vibe of anonymity (a big part of me wanted to stay anon) but then my narcissistic side advised otherwise. so here i am.

without further ado... i present to you... me, Ani! in all my frizzy-hair-and-90's-turtleneck glory.

// EDIT: // selfie has been removed - i decided that i prefer to be dark-and-mysterious. hence, i have decided to slip back into the wonderful world of internet anonymity.

#allaboutme

• i have a 22-pound cat named lilo, she's a maine coon.
• i am addicted to coffee; it is my heroin.
• i'm an infj on the myer-briggs scale.
• i have a bachelor's degree in economics.
• i spent a full semester in melbourne, australia. my dreams were in an australian accent. yes, it was wonderful.
• i'm a libra (and have the same birthday as eminem).
• i am german, english, Irish  Portuguese, dominican, french moroccan, and cuban. people always ask.
• i was born and raised in new england.
• i love listening to national public radio (npr) and freakonomics podcasts.

do we have anything in common?

a versus blogging

in an attempt to be proactive, i've created a list of things that i need to work on.  these topics will appear in most, if not all, of my posts.  after all, this is a lifestyle blog. and yes, a = me...

a vs. the world

a vs. finances

a vs. fashion

a vs. friends
a vs. weight

a vs. family

a vs. travel

a vs. goals

a vs. likes

a vs. food

a vs. boys

a vs. music

a vs. dreams

a vs. thoughts

a vs. a

a vs. life

a vs. ?

i feel like i'm in one of the most difficult stages of my life right now [ed. note: i'm pretty sure 99% of the population says this, regardless of age, gender or status in life].

as a twenty-something college graduate, i realize that there is a whole world of possibility out there. now if i could only get my shit together.  because right now, it is not together; not professionally, not socially, and definitely not financially. it's kinda, sorta freaking me out.

coming up with a blog name is hard to do

over the past month i kept a list of potential blog names on the back of receipts, in the notes section of my iphone, and on random memo pads at work.  other title considerations for this space included, but were not limited to:

• not another twenty-something blog
• my life as mrs. netflix
• caffeine-fueled ramblings
• ani versus life
• lifestyle of the broke and the obscure
• make mine a double
• how to fake it in the real world
• a girl and her coffee: a love story
• #nevergrowingup
• does this blog make me look fat?
• insert explicative here
• cat lady in training
• nutella is a food group
• do they have this in black?
• generation double-u tee eff
• overweight & underemployed
• Freshman at life
• crumbs in my bed
• do it for the blog post
• all this happened, more or less

so yeah, after all that time brainstorming and trying to come up with a title that screamed read-me-i'm-witty-funny-and-cool, i decided to keep it simple. and that, my friends, is how the ani project was born.

i'm curious: where did you get the inspiration for your blog title?  what were some alternatives that didn't quite make the cut?