Inside Kimmy's Mind

Hurricane Harvey Day 5

Matt and I have been extremely lucky. There has only been a bit of flooding around us and it has already gone down. However, Houston has been hit hard.

I’ve dealt with hurricanes before but this is the first time I’m away from my family. My father works for the light company, he’s a lineman, so that means he climbs up the light poles and gives people back their lights. He’s been working through this storm, like every other one. Close to home or faraway he’s been through so much. He’s been keeping in touch and sending photos of what he sees. My father is a great man, and I hope he continues to be safe.

Before the Storm

Friday, I had to go into work so I stayed with Matt the night before. He did not have to work so he drove me to the museum and walked around until I was done, I left around 11:30 or so that morning. We got lunch, like it was any other day, and then headed back to his apartment. Saturday seemed normal that morning, so we walked to the nearest grocery store and got some last minute supplies. That night the first band hit and the road from the window started to flood. To our surprise there were a bunch of people still on the road. The next morning the water from the road was gone, but it was still raining. We both got the call that work was cancelled for Monday and that our coworkers were safe. Our friends and families were safe.

Safe yet dealing with the aftermath of Harvey’s beginning wrath. My sister hasn’t had power and has leaks in her home, one of my coworkers had to be evacuated from her complex, and my boss is afraid her roof is going to collapse due to water damage. I can’t imagine what they are going through. Most of the stores are still closed or are severely limited. Matt managed to go to Randall’s today for so more supplies. There was a line around the building and they were limiting the number of people in the store. It’s scary, but again, I am so lucky. I’m not too sure about the condition of my apartment, I believe that area is fine but I’m not certain. I’ll make a trip home after the storm has passed. It should hit more tonight but I think it won’t be as strong.

My prayers go out to my fellow Houstonians, my fellow Texans and neighbors who are helping us through this difficult time. And to my dad, and men and women like him, who are putting themselves in danger to help others. Please be safe.

That’s all for now. I’ll update again soon.

Last weekend my sisters, mom, and I went on a trip to Austin for my younger sister’s 24th birthday. She works at a hotel and she get’s mega discounts so she got us a room in a beautiful hotel in downtown Austin.

Two queen sized beds with the most comfortable bedding ever! This 4 day weekend was the perfect time for our little trip. I got off early on Friday and then Kat and I headed to Mija’s place to pack up in her car. (GPS and whatnot) We got to Austin late, so we had a burger at IN-an-Out and then headed to the hotel room.

We woke up early  and started off our day by, of course, going to Modcloth! And this time I tried on more clothes and….even bought something! I bought my first Modcloth dress and I’m hooked. I sort of wish I bought dress #2 that I also liked, but Modcloth is pricey. Even with the discounts, due to Memorial Day weekend, 15% off everything…20% off of things over $100, plush FREE shipping due to ordering in the store.

I loved wearing these dresses, but it was hard to choose between the two of them. They were the same priced and they both had pockets. POCKETS! We all know that makes a dress better. The yellow one was a bit tight fitting, had I eaten a meal, it would have been too tight for comfort. But the larger size was too big on the top. I’m in between sizes…so if they could have something in between a medium and a large…that would be great. Oh well, it also depends on the dress. Because the one I did buy was a medium and it was a perfect fit. Not too tight, not too loose. They made me feel pretty. Another reason I didn’t buy the elephant dress, was even though the print was pretty, I don’t think it was very “me”. I’d probably pair it with a different color cardigan. I may purchase it in the future… hopefully when it’s on sale. Or perhaps they will have the same style of dress in a different print that is more me.

We stayed in downtown for the entire weekend, walking everywhere! We even made the walk to Book People, a cool book store located not too far away, but in the Texas heat it was a bit taxing. Plus, we had to make the walk back to our hotel so we were pretty tired after that. We made our way back to the hotel to cool down and just relax a bit.

It was a lot of fun spending time with my sisters and mother, our schedules are so different that we don’t always get to see each other. I hope Kat had a great bday weekend, I was happy we got to spend that weekend with her.  That’s all for now…until next time. 🙂

Thanks for reading

 

Vera Rose Robertson turns 1 today! My adorable, hilarious, and beautiful niece turns 1! She turned 1, I cannot believe she’s 1! Ok, I’ve said 1 enough.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday, I didn’t take any pictures on my cell, I was in charge of using the big camera so all the proof…including a video of her vomiting after trying icing. Not full on barf, but she was definitely gagging after trying it. She’s never had sugar before so I guess it was too sweet for her. I felt bad, because I was the one who put the icing on her lips. >.< Sorry Vera. Her party was Moana themed! I love this movie so much, I’m constantly singing the songs, can’t get enough of the soundtrack. Vera only perks up during the songs, she doesn’t seem to pay attention to the rest of the movie.

She’s grown so fast and I can’t believe what a funny little person she’s morphing into and I can’t wait to see how her personality develops as she continues to grow. I love her so much!

Here’s to you my little Vera Rose <3.
When you’re old enough, you’re getting a dinosaur party at the museum and tons of summers away for Science Camp!

 

Quite a few lovely things have happened in the past week/weekend. And I’m just so grateful to be where I am in life.

Last Wednesday, my sister Kat and I got to see Tennis in concert at the White Oak House Music Hall. I LOVE this band and I didn’t even notice when their tour was announced or that Houston was on the tour list to begin with. But I thankfully I found out just in time to order tickets. It was a sold out show so I’m glad I was impulsive. Normally, I don’t really do any research on the opening act, so I didn’t pay much attention but I was pleasantly surprised. The Greeting Committee had such a great energy and you could really tell they loved making music. I liked their sound and they were so approachable even nice enough to sign the CD I bought and let me take a photo with them. (Minus one member)

Concerts aren’t something I normally attend, but Kat and I have made some very slow improvements in that area. For more rowdy bands, I prefer standing in the back but for smaller venues and slower rock bands I don’t mind, and Kat and I got spots upfront this time. I think all of the concerts I’ve attended in the past year or so she has accompanied me. Thank goodness because she makes it much more fun. Thanks Kat for coming with me!!! With her new work schedule, planning things like this is somewhat impossible. But luckily, she was able to come with me. I had a lot fun and I hope to see both bands again some day.

Do you like going to concerts, if so, do you enjoy getting a spot upfront or do you prefer standing in the back? I’d love to hear about your concert going experiences. 🙂

Thanks for reading

I introduced Matt to my parent’s. I know, some might consider 5 months of dating too soon, but I wanted my parents to meet him. He’s all of the above and so much more. ❤

My dad is a very hyper person, especially when he is having a good time.  If he likes a person, then he continues on with his hyper attitude and partners it with his mile-a-minute-talking. Something he and I have in common. Sadly, if he does not like a person then he remains quiet. Which is usually unheard of. He also met my 9 month old niece. She was so shy and it was so adorable. She clung to my shirt and just kept eyeing him. He would hold out his hand to her and she would reach for him then take her hand back. She let him hold her for a second, I guess she was just trying to figure him out.

Now, I was not worried about Matt meeting my family. He’s a great conversationalist, even though he feels as though he is awkward. I think, provided the people around him are actively including him, then he has no problem. Now he’ll be invited to family gatherings and weekend trips to my parent’s. He definitely made an impression. As for Matt’s parents, they live in Florida but will be visiting Texas next month. I’ll get a chance to meet them during their visit and I hope they like me, I have some concerns that I’d rather not type out let alone say out loud. -.- Just some run of the mill jealousy and nervousness.

Meeting the parents is a serious matter. But this is morphing into a serious relationship, and even though I have introduced two other boyfriends beforehand but I’m not going to let past relationships haunt my new one.

Does the idea of meeting the parents make you nervous, I’d love to hear your thoughts. That’s all for now.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

I love receiving/writing letters! As a child, I always wanted to have more people to send letters to.

The term pen pal was introduced to me in the 2nd grade, my class was practicing letter writing and we had been assigned a pen pal from a neighboring school. Sadly, I have no memories of my pen pal nor can I remember the gender or school my pen pal was/from. I can only recall the day my teacher told us that we would be paired up. I remember writing out my first letter to them, but again, no memory of what was actually said.

As I grew up, I still found joy in the idea of writing out a letter or sending a package to a friend. I exchanged letters with friends, whom I’d met at school from time to time but nothing that actually remained constant. It wasn’t until my first semesters at university did my best friend and I start exchanging a notebook where we would keep our letters in. She had moved to another state, me to another city and we wanted to keep in touch. Life got in the way but we kept it up for while and I was pretty proud of us. She and I still send each other mail from time to time and that always puts a smile on my face. And then this year for Christmas, the wonderful Whimsical Joy sent my sister and I a Christmas card with two crochet bookmarks. I just had to respond with my own handmade item so I wrote her a letter and made her a knitted mug cozy.

And when Matt and I first started to date, he went out of town several times during those beginning months and he would send me a post card from each place he visited. Such a thoughtful souvenir to receive from him. Also, a friend from college and I have agreed to write each other letters from time to time. He lives in Galveston, so we aren’t very far away from each other but he’s currently going to Med school and we’ve decided to stay in touch in anyway we can. Don’t know how he does it, but he’s always been a very positive guy and I’m glad to be reconnecting with him now.

I’m excited and hope to maintain a consistent back and forth of letter writing. It’s nice, getting a letter from a good friend. I plan on upping my card game. He’s in for a surprise.

That’s fall for now. Thanks for reading. ♥

 

Valentine’s Day: a day deemed the most important day to show your significant other that you love them.

False.

This shouldn’t be the only day you show your loved ones that you love them. This also shouldn’t only be a day for couples, it’s a day for everyone to show their love. My mother surprised me with a card, she was like a ninja and hid it in my room the last time she came to visit me. I’ve been saying this a lot, but love comes in so many different forms so why shouldn’t this day, along with every other day, be a day you show love?

Yes, I am in a relationship, but I don’t usually make a huge deal in doing the typical couple-Valentiney-things. I spent a lovely evening with the boyfriend, we ate dinner, dessert- he made me a strawberry cake- and watched Avatar. I loved it. I love him. He makes every day special because loving someone isn’t something that can be expressed once in awhile. It’s not something that is only shown in order to make a pretty instagram photo. It’s something that isn’t always seen but you feel it. I feel loved every time Matt looks my way, when my siblings tease me about something, when my mother answers the phone when I call, or when my dad saves the day when there’s a storm brewing. I am indeed lucky. And I bet, if you took the time to see all that is around you, you’ll feel the love too.

So please, treat this day like any other day, don’t let the candies and flowers make you feel as though you don’t matter. Relationships are great, but loving yourself is just as great. I hope you spent this day with loved ones, and I hope you spoiled yourself because you deserve it.

That was my 2 cents on this Hallmark Holiday.

Thanks for reading.

♥

This past weekend was wonderful.

For the three day weekend, I spent it over at Matt’s. Now, this isn’t the first time but I’m typically a homebody and enjoy being lazy, watching movies,  or knitting…you get it. But my weekends with him are always just so wonderful. So here’s a breakdown on our weekend:

• Friday: We went to a pre release for the new Magic cards at Asgard Games, ran into some friends there and I played one round. I’m not really that great at the game, but it’s fun.
• Saturday: We hung out with Matt’s friends for a bit, and enjoyed some yummy food and dessert. We also started watching the Netflix Original: A Series of Unfortunate Events. Loved the books, so I was looking forward to reading the books.
• Sunday: We woke up early, but didn’t really do anything until mid day. (Matt was also starting to get sick…which surprise surprise, I now have what he had/has)He was feeling up for getting out of the apartment so we decided to go to The Mad Potter to do some painting. He painted a mug and I painted a soup bowl. I forgot to take any before photos though. Very unlike me. Sadly, we have to wait until next week to pick up our master pieces because we won’t be here on Friday. I’m excited to see how they turn out. I might have put too much pressure on it, but luckily Matt was there to remind me that this was for fun. And it was a lot fun, when I suggested we go paint mugs, I didn’t think he would actually go with it.  Not because he wouldn’t want to, but because it was just so spur of the moment. And because of that we sort of ran out of time but I’m excited to see how they came out. Matt painted a mug, splitting it down the middle, one side with his white kitty Eve and the other side with his black kitty Marco. It’s pretty adorable. and I painted a mint bowl with white orchids. After that we went to Barnes and Noble where we picked up two new Magic decks and a copy of Stardust by  Neil Gaiman. We ended our night out with dinner at Sushi Choo Choo.
• Monday: Matt woke up feeling really bad, so I went and got him some medicine and cooked him some eggs. We spent the day watching movies and didn’t leave the apartment at all. We had our lunch and dinner delivered to us via Ubereats. Amazing! I’ve never used Uber before, but using it to bring food? So convenient and totally helps me maintain my hermit like behavior. The night ended with some reading and cuddles.

Such a great weekend, I hope my cold doesn’t last too long though. We have another wonderful weekend planned and I don’t want my boogers to ruin that. We have a trip planned, more on that next time. 🙂 How was your weekend?

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Above is my May book haul, but I also want to focus on the new love of my life. Vera Rose Robertson, my first niece. I absolutely adore this little baby and I cannot get enough of that new baby smell. She is beyond precious and it’s still really surreal to have her here. Ever since my sister got married, I’ve thought about the day they would have children. But now that, that child is actually here, I can’t believe it.

I knew she would be adorable and I knew that I would love her with all of my heart. But I never stopped to think about how much.  I mean, it’s love, you don’t normally associate an amount with it. It just is.

But I love this tiny person more than I thought was possible.

I also love this transformation that my sister has gone through, first with being pregnant and now as a full-fledged mother. She’s had motherly instincts all along, being the oldest of three girls, she’s watched over me and our younger sister for years. But now she’s the mother of her own child and motherhood agrees with her.

I hope to be as involved with my little Vera Rose as often as I can. Taking on the role of a tia has also changed me, there aren’t many children in my life. Aside from the many children I see when I work as a birthday party coordinator at the museum. Working there as giving me a soft spot for kids, but being an aunt is completely different. Especially, since this is my sister’s baby. I can’t express enough how warm and fuzzy I feel. My heart melts with every smile and fart this little person makes. I can only imagine how I’ll feel when I have a child.

I can’t wait to hold and inhale her tomorrow!!! They weren’t kidding, babies smell so good, new and like the color pink. That’s right, if the color pink had a smell it would be new babies.

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I finally graduated!!! I have earned my degree, and although it took me a bit longer than some, my experiences have taught me things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. This might just be me trying to make myself feel better about taking so long, but I continued on and didn’t quit. And that deserves some celebrating!!

I’m in the middle of job hunting and just spamming my resume out and I’m scared. I want a career, but since my degree is in English I don’t exactly have a set career. And I realize there are pros and cons to every degree, but when I look at others I feel as though mine is just all over the place. I can do many things, but then there’s that part of me that thinks, and there will always be someone who can do what I can, plus more. I’m trying not to let my negative thoughts and fears prevent me from applying to jobs.  Like I said, I’ve been spamming.

And aside from working and spamming potential employers, I’ve been reading a bunch and continuing my journey with the Booktube community. I’ve been enjoying it, I forgot how much fun I had updating Youtube. I have my next few videos planned out, and some of them have nothing to do with Booktube.  Here’s my latest video:

… continue reading this entry.