The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Earlier this week, as members of my family started coming home for Thanksgiving, I sat on the couch next to my sister agonizing over a blog post. One post in particular had been bothering me all day: I couldn't take any photos that looked right, my camera's battery pack died, and I was running out of time to post something that day. "I can't post this yet," I grumbled. "It's not good enough."

"Don't you know that the perfect is the enemy of the good?"

Birthday Snapshots: 22

I'm sure you're all extremely intrigued as to what I did for my 22nd birthday, so I'll enlighten you. You'll love it.

It's my Birthday!

No, this really isn't a bragging blog post. I've never been one to religiously count down the days until my birthday, celebrate the whole week, or use my birthday as an excuse to be a butthead. (Last year, I barely even recognized that it was my birthday.)

Graduation Thoughts

This is a picture of me that was taken just a few days ago. I was sitting near the stage in a crowded arena with roughly 8,000 people in it. I look pretty calm, but boy, was I terrified.

My Tea Collection! (The Obsession Continues.)

If you know me in person, then you're probably rolling your eyes at the fact that I made this blog post. And you know what? I don't blame you. 

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with tea. My friends and family like to make fun of me because I will probably never drink everything I had even if I tried. But you know what? There are different teas for different scenarios--you definitely don't want to have one all-purpose tea. Would you really want to relax before bed with a caffeinated cup of tea, or try to wake yourself up in the morning with a soothing bedtime  tea? What if you want to settle your stomach? You probably wouldn't want something crazy-flavored, would you? Of course you wouldn't. 

Yes, I know I have a lot of tea. I have more tea now than I could probably ever use in my entire lifetime, and I have more than I did a year ago. I know I have a severe problem. However, I'm sure there are people out there with more than I have. Let's all just get along for a second and admire the pretty pictures I took of my tea collection, conveniently broken up into categories. (You're welcome?)

13 Things I Did in 2013 ☆

A lot of crazy things are going to go down in 2014. I'm going to graduate college, leave all the friends I've made, hopefully get a big girl job and my own apartment and start a life on my own. But before all the madness happens in May, I'd like to take some time to reflect on how wonderful 2013 was for me. So, without further ado, here are 13 things I did in 2013:

The Liebster Award!

Hello, everyone! I hope you're all having a nice weekend. I took a nice drive through some nice scenery this morning with the radio on and my windows down. It was really nice!

I was recently nominated for a Liebster Award by handful of  lovely bloggers! Before this, I had seen this award floating around, but I wasn't really sure what it was. I did a little poking around and found out that the Liebster Award is more like a tag than an actual award for bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. I did some research on it, and I tracked down one of the original posts--it used to be for blogs with fewer than 3000 followers! I guess this "award" is just a bit like a big game of Telephone... it means a little something different to everyone. 

Because of this, the rules were different from each person that I was nominated by, so I just decided to mix them all together. Here are the rules: 

So, I had knee surgery.

Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, I haven't been active on the blog recently (save for posts that are automatically scheduled to post at 5 AM). This is because I had some knee surgery on Tuesday morning.

In the car on the way home, still wearing my surgery swag. (Pardon pulling the photo right from Instagram--I've been bedridden all week and not up to taking real photos.)

I have what my Doctor says is plica - a buildup of tissue in the knees that easily become enflamed. I've been dealing with painful knees my entire life, and only in the past two years has it gotten so painful that I've had to see doctors about it. I was first diagnosed with patellar tendonitis, and as a result was given pain medication to ease inflammation of the tendon. Unfortunately, whenever I would try to wean myself off the medication, the pain would come back. In addition, I've been to physical therapy several times to strengthen the knee, but to no avail. In the meantime, I had lived for two years with constant chronic knee pain. 

Finally, when the same pain started happening in my other knee, my Doctor gave me an ultimatum: he told me that I could have surgery, or I could deal with the pain for the rest of my life. 

Being only twenty and already depressed enough that I could no longer walk extended distances, run, dance, or climb stairs without suffering and needing to rest for the next few days, I knew what the right decision to make was. I was terrified, of course--but I had hope that my quality of life would significantly improve afterward. 

Has it yet? I'm not entirely sure. I've spent the whole week bedridden, hobbling to the bathroom on crutches, being uncomfortable all the time, taking intense pain medication, sleeping for maybe two hours at a time, getting migraines, and vomiting. I start a summer full of physical therapy on Friday (today) and have a followup appointment with my doctor next week. However, I was able to hobble over to a different room in the house to sit on a different sofa for a little while yesterday. Little victories!

Hello, toes. 

In the meantime, I'll post updates as I see fit. Thanks for your patience and your continued support! 

Also, shoutout to my mom and dad who's been here to wake me up at awful hours to take medicine and have been coercing me to eat when that's the last thing I want to do. You guys are real pals. Thanks for dealing with me! 

Thanks, everyone! See you soon,

Em

Moving madness--and why unpacking is the worst part.

I recently moved back home from school for the summer. I was originally supposed to stay there for the whole summer to work and to be a summer Resident Assistant, but that's a story for another day. The point is, I needed to step down from both positions, pack up my entire life, and move back home. 

In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how any of my things fit in the car. But today marks the start of putting everything back where it belongs. I don't really know where most of this stuff came from, let alone where I'm going to put all of it, but here's what I'm dealing with so far.

Oh, okay. A few boxes. Not bad.

Oh. It spread to outside the bedroom. Well, it's still not as bad as it could have been...

I--Oh gods. Why.

It was even worse a few days ago, but since I've managed to put some things away. This will be my project for the next few days. The struggle, my friends, is real.

Anyone else moving home from school feel my pain right now? 

What should I do with the rest of my life? A post of discernment.

I've been thinking a lot recently about what to do with my life. I suppose that's to be expected, because within a few short months, I'll be starting my Senior year of college. This brings up a lot of questions, especially what to do afterward.

I really, truly love to sing. Not just singing in the shower--I love singing opera. I love finding an aria, struggling through melismas and difficult passages in languages that I barely speak and, and coming out at the other end of the tunnel completely nailing it. If I go for an extended period of time without singing, I get cranky and physically hurt. I honestly can't see myself not singing in my future.

That being said, I would love to be able to go to graduate school for Opera. There's a really great opera studio program at University of Maryland that my mentor has mentioned (that he said would be a great fit for me), but I can't help but worry at the competitive field I would need to break into after two more years of school. In addition, with my knee injuries and recent awful flare-ups of chronic knee pain, I worry that I won't be able to do much moving at all. Finally, I worry about paying out of pocket for graduate school. I will be lucky enough to graduate from college debt free next spring, but I am anxious about how to accumulate funds for the next step.

That being said, there are also a lot of other things that I would love to do with my life: achieve financial independence, start a small soap and cosmetics company, and be able to support myself with freelance blogging, artistry, and video-making. I can't see myself doing one thing for the rest of my life, but I don't know what I can fit into my future.

Anyway, I know I have a lot to think about. I really just needed to write these things down, and I don't anticipate making a decision any time soon (although I really, really need to), but I have hope that one day I'll know exactly what I want to do with my life--and that I'll run right out there and do it. 

Tea Collection 1.0

Hello, all!

It's that time of year again: finals are over (or still happening for some!) and it's time to start packing everything up to move out of the dorm! Well, in my case, I'm moving from one room into another. I'll be staying at my college this summer as a summer RA!

I had to say goodbye to my MicroFridge rental this morning, and I was so sad that I turned to a cup of tea to cope. (How else can one cope, right?) I couldn't find a cup that I was interested in, so I dug out my whole collection and figured it would be a good opportunity for a photo! I love taking a peep at other peoples' collections, so I figured my blog might like it too.

The ones I love are Sleepytime, Sleepytime Peach, chamomile, Sleepytime Vanilla, Orange Pekoe, and French Vanilla Chai. Right now I'm drinking a monstrously big cup of the chai and it's absolutely delicious. This enormous mug I'm drinking it in is my personal favorite:

Are you a lover of tea, too? What's your favorite kind? :)

Tiny things: stocking up for summer!

Yesterday, I managed to acquire some new, non-beauty related things. I felt like sharing them anyway!

In case you didn't know, I am very much a tea addict. Not only did I pick up some of my favorite tea (Sleepytime, which I had just run out of), but I also picked up two new boxes of tea for me to try! I'm pretty excited to try me some Mandarin Orange Spice. I couldn't help but to rip into that box of Sleepytime Peach... That stuff is tasty. I'm enjoying a cup of it right now.

I also got a crochet hook! I'm so pleased. I misplaced mine and haven't been able to do any crocheting, so I'm excited to get started again. Especially now that I'm essentially done with college for the semester and won't have many exciting things to do for a while besides summer classes and a job.

That's all on my end! Have you guys picked up anything fun recently?