What is 2012's New Year's Resolution?

I woke up this morning and realized that a year (just shy of 1 day) has passed since I made the decision to start a New Year's resolution that many would never consider and actually stick to it. Some of you may not know, but my 2011 New Year's resolution was to not eat meat from a factory farm - something that my family and I have come to describe as "happy meat." For those that don't know, this whole idea began after I watched "Food Inc." - a documentary that opened my eyes to how our food gets from the farm to our plate. I will spare you the details, but as an animal lover and a very emotional person, I realized that by buying and eating these products, I was saying that what occurred at these factory farms was ok - and it's definitely not! 

I was hoping to keep this blogging thing a monthly endeavor so that I could document my progress the whole year. Well, as life tends to get in the way, things began taking priority. Sad to say, I let things like TV and pure laziness take over. To those who looked forward to my posts (if there any of you left!), I'm sorry. I honestly love expressing my thoughts and feel somewhat let down that I did not continue posting. That being said, I hope to post more in 2012 - maybe I should make it one of my New Year's resolutions???

2011 brought about new beginnings in my life. As if changing my diet wasn't a big enough change, I became a college graduate and one of many searching for a full-time job. I had hopes and dreams that I would find a job in the Nashville music industry and be on my way to a long-lasting career in Nashville by this time. Well....that didn't happen - not yet at least! I did find a job and move to Nashville late August - something I've been wanting to do for years now! Yes, it's not the "dream job," but I like what I do and who I work with and for. I absolutely love the city life - the big city lights, the fast-paced lifestyle, the music scene (and man it's good here!), the beautiful scenery and architecture, the fact that there's always something to do or somewhere to go, etc. I could go on and on about why I love Nashville! I guess I'm officially a city girl now!

2011 also brought about new struggles in my life. This new "diet" I adopted was something that required some research, extra money, and long talks with Lindsay, my sister-in-law, who's a vegetarian. I realized that buying non-factory farm meat was something that I'd have to seek out. I found a list online that listed meats that came from factory farms vs. meats that did not. Needless to say, the meat that did not come from factory farms was very short. I realized that only Publix (not all of them though), Whole Foods, Earth Fare, and Trader Joe's were my options for this type of meat...and as many of you know, it's super expensive! Therefore, my focus turned to only eating that meat when I could afford it, which left me with fish as my only means of protein. This ended up turing me into a semi-vegetarian as I like to say. I began eating a lot of Morning Star and Boca products and actually liked them! I began seeking out more and more vegetarian recipes, and before I knew it I would go weeks without meat. It became something that I realized I didn't need. 

I will say this, though. It is very hard to make sure you're getting the right amount of protein and vitamins. I almost fainted in the shower at the beginning of the year, and I came to realize it was probably due to me not getting enough protein. I also began craving sweets, which I never did before this year. I found out that was probably due to a lack of iron and B12 in my diet. Needless to say, it was a struggle to figure out everything...and still is! It is so worth it, though. As of January 1, 2011 I can proudly say I have not consumed any meat from factory farms! For the first time in my life, I was able to stick with a New Year's resolution, and not only stick with it but make it something that I want to do the rest of my life. I had lost passion in my life. Between school and work, I really just felt like I was going through the motions of life. Since I've adopted this new diet, I really feel like I'm making a difference, and it feels great!

So now the big question is what's my 2012 New Year's resolution? Here's a few I've thought up:

1) Finally get down to a healthy weight

2) Exercise

3) Blog more

4) Buy local fruits and veggies

5) Get a job in the music industry

6) Get a hobby and stick with it

I know - it seems a little boring, but I made such a big step with last year's resolution. I think I'm due for a little boring in my life! : ) To end things, I just want to say thank you to those who listened with an attentive ear during my long talks about why I'm doing what I'm doing and for going out of their way to prepare food for me that I could eat. You guys seriously made this process so much easier for me, and I really appreciate it. Happy New Year everyone! Here's to hoping 2012 will be full of resolutions kept!

Dog: The Other White Meat

Read Article First: Dog: The Other White Meat

First, let me apologize for falling into the usual bad habits of a blogger of not posting! Yes, it's been 4 and a half months since I last posted. My excuse is...I'm looking for a job as most recent college graduates are. Besides a week long beach trip (Thanks Dad and Gayle!) and a six-day trip to Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (WOOHOO!), I've been hitting the job grind as some might say. One more excuse: I didn't want to write something if I had nothing to say. That, I'm sure, can be really torturous to read!

Back on point: I found this article and man, did it hit home for me. I've been trying to convey this idea to many people but never could find the words without saying, "We should eat dogs!" which is soooo not what this article is about - or what I believe. See? I'm retarded when it comes to finding the right words to convey a controversial subject.

As many of you know, I'm a huge animal lover. I see cows running, and I will laugh about it for days. I see peacocks in the middle of a field in TN and almost run off the road because it's so odd and amazing to see a peacock in close range. Oh, and I cry when I kill things accidentally with my car. Two weekends ago I killed a bird while driving down the road. Just this happy little bird flying along, enjoying his day, and BAM! No more happy bird. I know, I know...it's the circle of life (cue Lion King music), but I couldn't help but worry about the bird's fellow companions or family that may be waiting for it to return home.

I obviously have a very strong sentiment (some may say way too much sentiment) for animals, so it would be obvious that I would not want people to eat dogs. Dogs are one of my favorite animals. They are there for you when you're sick, upset, angry, depressed. They literally are man's best friend. Not to mention how each individual dog always has it's own personality and can make you laugh for hours on end with the crazy things they do. So why would anyone want to eat such an amazing creature?

Well, look at a pig or a chicken or a cow the way you look at your dog. All are intelligent creatures. All have mothers and fathers and siblings. All have true feelings and thoughts. All feel shame, pain, fear, loneliness, love. Why, then, do we turn a blind eye to the way they are treated? Oh that's right - because we eat them. That obviously means that they're just a piece of meat and nothing else.

If people could just see or hear what goes on in factory farms, I promise you many would never want to touch that food again. It really is a disgusting industry, and yet the U.S. government says it's a perfectly legal practice. There have even been states that are trying to pass a bill stating that undercover agents of animal rights groups who infiltrate factory farms disguised as workers should be prosecuted for their findings. This is yet another way the government and the food industry are trying to blind the public's eye to what really is going on behind closed doors. The only reason they choose to do things that way is because the government and the food industry does not provide the public with the information of what really is going on when a steak makes it from point A (being the animal) to point B (being your dinner plate).

It's ludicrous to judge certain countries for eating dogs when we treat the animals we eat here in the United States the way we do. We're really no different from them at all.

5-Step Animal Welfare Rating System Now at Whole Foods!

Whole Foods is starting a new program in their stores to inform the consumer through a new rating system of exactly how the animal they are about to purchase lived their lives. I'm so excited to find this out because as many of you know, I only eat animals that lived their lives happy and natural. I can't wait until I'm able to head to Nashville to check this system out! Here's to hoping that this system will begin to be the norm instead of the alternative!

Food Matters Official Trailer

Food Matters

Okay, so I'm going to have to get back up on my soapbox and talk about yet another documentary that I just watched. I know - NERD! Seriously, though, I've found a love for documentaries because inside these hour and a half gems of film you can find information that is not being readily offered to you. Actually, a lot of this information is being purposely hidden from the general public because it would hurt one industry or another.

I recently watched "Food Matters." For those who have Netflix, it's available to stream to your computer or TV. It's not even a full 90 minutes, so you should watch it when you get time. I highly recommend it. To tell you more about the film, I went to the film's website to get their description:

"With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what's wrong with our malnourished bodies, it's no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide 'sickness industry' and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for overcoming illness naturally.

In what promises to be the most contentious idea put forward, the filmmakers have interviewed several leading experts in nutrition and natural healing who claim that not only are we harming our bodies with improper nutrition, but that the right kind of foods, supplements and detoxification can be used to treat chronic illnesses as fatal as terminally diagnosed cancer."

That's right - cancer. In this film, there were many doctors who have been treating patients for 25-30 years with high doses of vitamins (mostly vitamin C) and nutritional therapy - mainly a high fiber, vegetarian, organic diet. Many of these patients were terminally ill cancer patients who had tried chemotherapy, surgery, radiation - all the "treatments" modern medicine can offer for this disease. Within months, these patients had reversed their cancer...some were completely cured. And that's just cancer.

The whole film embarked on this quest to not use pharmaceuticals. We live in a society where there's a pill for every illness. Yet, studies have shown that nutritional therapy and the use of vitamins can prevent and reverse many illnesses. Of course, these studies are not published for the public to see because then the drug companies would be out of business. These therapies are not even being taught to doctors, so they don't even know how to prescribe natural healing because medical schools think this type of therapy is a crock. Let's face it - there's no money in being healthy!

Another incident I found interesting was the use of antidepressants. Everyone knows that antidepressants don't make a person better. The side effects alone sometimes make the person suicidal. Yet, psychologists continue to prescribe them. In one incident, one of the doctors from the film had a patient who was a wife in her mid-fifties who was seriously suicidal-depressed. Her family came to him, needing answers for why she was not getting better after being on Prozac for some time. He told them about his research he had found from previous doctors (one being the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) using Niacin (vitamin B3) to treat depression. She began taking 11,500 mg of Niacin a day. She was not depressed anymore. Yet, once her therapist found out, the therapist suggested that might be harmful and suggested they not do that form of therapy, so they stopped. She was right back to being depressed again.

I know...that much of Niacin in your body can make you sick right? Well, not at all actually. The cancer patients I spoke about above were receiving thousands of milligrams a day of vitamin C, and the only adverse affects were thirst and head wooziness. No nausea, no hair falling out, no sickness.

Just to offer up some statistics that I took from the film: every year, 106,000 people die from complications with prescribed pharmaceuticals. Over a 23 year period, only 10 people have allegedly (not proven) died from too much vitamins. So, over a 23 year period - 2,438,000 die from pharmaceuticals; 10 from vitamins.

What this film is trying to show is that we're doing it wrong. Even with the type of medicine we have these days, more and more people are getting sicker each year. There's no denying that. Thankfully, there are people out there who are going against the grind and realizing that we don't always have to do things the way they're always been done. It's definitely something to consider the next time you get a common cold. Go see a doctor, or eat really well and take a load of vitamin C for a couple of days. I, for one, have seen the effects eating well can have on your body, and I'm not even eating everything organic like I should.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox now. Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend! Oh and for those interested, I included some links at the bottom for more about this stuff.

Gerson Therapy (cancer treatment spoken about in this film):
http://gerson.org/


Food Matters website:
http://www.foodmatters.tv/

1st Month Anniversary!

So....today has been my one month anniversary of not eating factory farm meat. I am proud to say that I am 100% positive I will be sticking to this - dare I say - lifestyle choice. I have never felt better in my life physically. I also have no guilt when I do decide to eat meat because I know that it is coming from an animal that was treated humanely, was fed the right diet, and was not pumped full of hormones or antibiotics. Not to mention that I've lost 5 pounds since I began this diet! Woohoo!

I decided this was going to be my New Year's resolution and figured I'd keep it up as long as I could. I knew that I wouldn't be able to have meat any time I wanted, and I was really worried about that drastic change. However, I can honestly say not eating meat every day really hasn't fazed me. I know I could never go full on vegetarian or vegan because I do love me some steak! : ) But, through this way of eating, I've found a solution to eat what I want without guilt but also what my body needs.

As hard as it was to be made aware of how food gets from the field to the plate (I can assure you - it's not a pretty process), I feel in control of my life now because I get to choose what I put in my body instead of just relying on the food industry to have the consumer's best interest at heart. I'll let you in on a big secret they don't want you to know - THE FOOD INDUSTRY IS ONLY CONCERNED WITH MAKING MONEY. PERIOD. They do things the cheapest and quickest way possible, which never fares well for the animal/crops or the consumer. Like I've always said, I'm not going to preach or try to change anyone's mind. I do, however, urge you to do your own research, so that you will be aware of how things go on and you can make your own decision. Thanks for reading!

Sustainable Meat

In light of the Taco Bell lawsuit (see link below), I figured I would add a list of brands that you can purchase that practice sustainable farming - meaning that the animals are humanely raised, they are free-range, either pasture or vegetarian fed, no antibiotics/hormones, and the animals are allowed to socialize and interact with other animals. You'd be surprised how much an animal's stress (i.e. horrible living conditions, horrible diet, abuse) can affect the meat they provide.

Here are brands you should not buy because they come from factory farms where all of the above is not practiced:

• Hormel
• Tyson
• Foster Farms
• Jimmy Dean
• Smithfield
• Oscar Meyer
• Louis Rich
• Farmland
• Eckrich
• Premium Standard
• Butterball
• Banquet
• Libby's 
• Healthy Choice
• Hebrew National
• Armour
• Slim Jim
• Perdue
• Farmer John
• Jennie-O
• Staag 
• SPAM
• Hillshire Farm
• Ball Park
• Valley Fresh

Here is a list of brands that practice sustainable farming:

• Shelton's 
• MBA Brand
• Coleman
• Niman Ranch
• Diestel
• Applegate Farms (found at Trader Joe's and Kroger so far)
• Five Dot Ranch
• Eel River
• Organic Prarie (found at Kroger)

As you can see, there are a ton of really popular brands that practice factory farming. It's because it's cheap and allows for the most amount of meat to get out the quickest. I'm not trying to change anyone's diet, but I wanted to provide you with the information in case you decide to change any aspect of what you eat. 

Link for Taco Bell article:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2011/01/taco_bell_meat_not_actually_me.html

On a Lighter Note...

Okay, I hope I didn't worry anyone with my last post. I got a lot of really sweet (and worrisome) responses from some of you. For that, I'm sorry. I was trying to vent while also conveying some humor, but I guess it was a little too serious for humor to show through. Whoops! Anyway, this one will be a lot more positive - I promise!

I wanted to let all of you know about how my newfound diet is working. I call it my diet because my eating habits really have changed completely! Two Sundays ago, I went with my brother Christian and his wife Lindsay to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in Nashville. Funds are a little tight this month, so I mainly went to observe and see what these stores had to offer. Whole Foods offers a TON of organic products and also offers meat from sustainable farms (i.e. no antibiotics, no hormones, completely organic, and humanely raised animals). This place was amazing!! A sign was posted stating that they offered close to 200 different organic items. They also had a seafood place, a butcher, and a deli all offering meat I could eat! It was heaven! : ) Okay, not really, but it was so awesome to see all the products you could purchase. They even offered environmentally-friendly household products and organic lotions, soaps, and shampoos. They are a little on the pricey side, but it is a place I could definitely purchase meat at.

Then we went to Trader Joe's. TJ's as most people call it is known for the cheap version of "Whole Paycheck" as Christian called Whole Foods. At TJ's I was able to find deli meat from a company named Applegate Farms. Before going on this shopping trip, I found a list of all brands that offer meat and who of them uses and doesn't use factory farming. Applegate Farms was one that doesn't. So, I was able to pick up some turkey and ham for $3.50 a package - just a little bit more than what I would normally pay for deli meat. I was ecstatic!!

Then, today I went to Kroger and found in the organic and vegetarian aisle frozen products by Applegate Farms and Organic Prarie (another company I can buy meat from). They were a little more expensive than I'm sure Trader Joe's would charge, but it's at Kroger right down the street from me and not 40 minutes away in Nashville, so I think it evens the price out. : ) I could purchase beef patties, sausage, turkey burgers, chicken filets...

So, to lay it all out, I now have 3 different places I can purchase meat from. I'm so happy to know that I can keep this "lifestyle" going! I was worrying about having to join an organic co-op group or having to ship meat to myself from far away companies. However, I now have means to buy meat I will feel good about eating. I also can't wait until Spring because I plan on going to many farmers markets to purchase veggies and fruits.

One last thing - I really have felt some benefits from my new way of eating now that I've been doing this for 2 1/2 weeks. Here they are:
1) I've lost weight. Seriously, 3 pounds so far!
2) Now after eating a meal, I feel refreshed and not overly full. I feel like I just nourished my body instead of pissing it off. : )
3) Finally, before all of this, I had been experiencing stomach issues. I didn't know where they were coming from, but I was really sick there for awhile. Ever since I began this diet, I haven't had a single issue yet.

Kinda crazy what giving your body what it needs can do, huh?

Someone Should Have Warned Me

If you are in a great, chipper mood today, be warned: you might not want to read this! Inside this blog, you will find a lot of "Debby Downer" (with slight humor however) because I need to vent.

I had a really good childhood. Well, my parents split up when I was 8, but because of that, I now have 2 amazing step-families, so I can't complain there. Anyways, my childhood was so perfect and innocent that I actually believed everything ended with a "happily ever after." Boy, was I wrong! No one told me that the real world was this awful. Now that Spring semester has started and the students are back in town, I find myself envying these kids. Going to work at the same place five days a week for the same amount of time each day has me feeling like a robot. I have become a monotonous, routine follower. After work, I come home to an empty apartment and try to find things to fill my day. Lately, it's been this little quest of not eating products from factory farms. However, it hit me that no matter what I do...even if I quit eating animals all together (which I have a feeling this will lead to)...nothing will stop the big corporations from doing what they do. It doesn't mean I'm not going to continue what I started, but the food industry won't end with a "happily ever after." How disheartening is that?!?

I know people will say, "Well, when you get into a job you love, you won't mind going to work every day." I'm sure that's true, but I'm a looooonnnnggg way from that day. Looking for a job right now is a job in itself, so where's my "happily ever after" with that? And don't even get my started on relationships. When I was growing up, I believed that relationships (even friendships) end with a "happily ever after." Give me a freakin' break!

Someone should have taken off my rose-colored glasses and sat me down when I was younger and told me the truth. It has taken me 26 years to realize exactly what it is: The real world sucks. Your life will not turn out how you dreamed it would. Being married and having children by 23 years old is impossible. Oh, and, the beloved pet you had as a child will eventually die and you'll miss her every day of your life.

Now, if I had heard that as a child...I probably would have been traumatized. Haha! I'm not going to lie. But at least I wouldn't have been disappointed when things didn't turn out how I expected them to. I'm not looking for advice or answers or thoughts of encouragement. I really just want any parents or future parents or people who eventually will have kids to know that you need to let your children know how the real world works when they're old enough. Growing up and believing that bad things don't happen to good people is just...well, stupid. I know I should be thankful for what I have - a great family, a roof over my head, a job with a decent income - and I am! I really am. But man, I'm just down in the dumps right now because I didn't expect things to be this hard. I'm sure every recent graduate has gone through these thoughts of doubt. I just needed to write about them instead of bottling them up inside.

*Sigh* I feel a little better now. I hope I didn't sound like a spoiled little brat. I know there are people out there who would kill to have my life. It's just one of those days I guess, and thankfully I can express myself on here and hope that none of you judge me for what I write. Anyways, thanks for reading, and I promise my next post will be a lot happier!

We are the Champions, my friend! And we'll keep on fighting till the end...

We are the Champions! We are the Champions!
No time for losers cause we are the Champions...of the (college football) WORLD!

Queen is stuck in my head right now after Auburn's win in the BCS National Championship Monday night! I can't believe my hometown gets to bring home the title this year. Wow!!! Getting to see shots of Toomer's and downtown Auburn before the game really tugged at my heartstrings. I always told everyone I couldn't wait to leave Auburn. Now, more than ever, I find myself missing it. I was definitely homesick watching the Auburn/Oregon commercial, getting to see all the Auburn people in their excitement for how this football season has turned out. I've always been a huge football fan, but this year, I found myself glued to the TV every time Auburn played or was even mentioned on ESPN. I was blown away with the talent we had this year, but every game I kept expecting us to lose. As an Auburn fan, you kind of become accustomed to things not going your way. Needless to say, it was an exciting (and nervous) football season!

The Championship game was, in my opinion, a little boring. It wasn't anything near the high scoring game everyone predicted or I expected. You could really tell both defenses had done their homework. Mike Dyer out shown Cam Newton - something no one expected, and Nick Fairley did his thing. To those questioning Fairley's style: you have to understand the kind of player he is. Fairley plays dirty and nasty and mean. It's something Auburn fans are not accustomed to. We're used to seeing that kind of style from LSU or Georgia. However, he plays with heart, so I can't bash him. Yes, some of the things he has done this season I do not agree with, but he lives and breathes football. I heard he spent 20 days looking at footage from Oregon's games, and it paid off! Despite everything, I'm sad to see him go.

It wasn't the most entertaining game, and besides Dyer's stop-and-go run to get us in field goal range with seconds to spare, it wasn't near the most entertaining Championship game. However, I shed some tears of joy when we won. I got to read posts from friends that were able to attend the game. One of my friends actually got engaged at the game to her longtime boyfriend! As an Auburn fan, it was surreal to get to witness history 53 years in the making! News will come Saturday on whether Cam will choose to stay or not...fingers crossed!

Something I have noticed is how classless and mean some people have been about our win. I've seen numerous posts on Facebook from various fans from other teams in the SEC who are saying nothing but negative things about Cam Newton, our team, and the town of Auburn. Some people really just perplex me with their attitude towards us. Oh well...all I can say is War Eagle and War Damn National Championship! : )

New Year's Resolution 2011

Some of you may have seen "animal rights activist" at the top of my blog and thought "Huh?" Well, let me explain that. Activist may be a little strong for right now...non-factory farm eater is more accurate, but there's no cool word for that. My New Year's resolution besides to lose weight, save money, and drink less - all the cliche resolutions put aside - was to stop eating food from factory farms. For those that do not know, factory farming is a term used for large production of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory. The main product of this industry is meat, milk, and eggs. (I hate milk and rarely buy eggs, so my main focus is on the meat from these farms.) Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics and pesticides to mitigate the spread of disease and pestilence exacerbated by these crowded living conditions. In addition, antibiotics are used to stimulate livestock growth by killing intestinal bacteria.

Now that you have that, let me start from the beginning. This past summer, I saw the movie Food Inc. It is an incredible movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Everyone should see this movie just so that they can have the real facts about what they are putting into their body when they eat. Food Inc. focuses on how your food gets from Point A to Point B, what's put in it, what it is made of, etc. The U.S. agriculture business is discussed. Factory farms are discussed and shown. Pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones that are put into our food are discussed. And companies that are monopolizing the food business are discussed. Needless to say, after seeing this movie, I had to do more research on this subject. What I found was horrific. We, as a society, have grown up doing what we've been taught. Eating food is something we need to do to survive. However, it never crossed my mind what I was actually putting in my body until I was 25 years old. Now why is that? The reason is - no one knows because the information is not given to us in plain sight! It is not in newspapers what goes into your food or the procedures that are used to raise and kill an animal. If it was, I can promise it would raise a lot of eyebrows. 

You must seek out this information for yourself if you want to know the truth. That's exactly what I did. I did research on everything to do with this subject. Because of what I found, I decided to make my New Year's resolution to not eat food from factory farms. I'm not going to talk about what goes on in factory farms. I'm not going to show pictures of the animals or the farms themselves. It is a sore subject with me, and one of the main reasons I have not eaten meat from a factory farm as of 1/1/11 12:01 a.m. As an animal lover, it is absolutely atrocious what goes on in these hell houses. I made the mistake of reading too many articles and watching too many undercover videos that the Humane Society conducted about factory farms for me to ever think about going back on this resolution. If you are interested, all you have to do is google "factory farming" and you will see a ton of information on what I've been talking about.

Animal rights is just one aspect of why I've decided to change my eating habits. Another major one is the  chemicals that are put into our food. Pesticides are put on plants to keep them from ripening too quickly, growth hormones are fed to animals in their food (mostly chickens) to accelerate their growth so that more meat can come from one animal, and antibiotics are given to the animals to prevent the spread of disease since there are so many in one space. And this is what we are eating...

Hopefully, I haven't upset too many of you by speaking my mind on this. This subject was a main reason for me starting a blog. It is something I have become extremely passionate about, and I feel I need to spread the knowledge I've learned so that you may know the facts and make your own decisions. I'm only on Day 8 of this, and I'm not going to lie - it is hard. I can't eat out anymore. I can't shop at normal grocery stores for meat. If I want to buy meat, it is going to be more expensive because it has to come from an actual local farm where the animals are free-range, pasture-fed, and raised humanely. I know I have a tough road ahead of me, but I feel proud of myself for doing this. I know that me doing this won't end what goes on in the food business, but at least I can not support it. Hope all of you have a great weekend, thanks for reading, and WAR EAGLE!!!!

First post - it better be good!

Hello readers! This is my first attempt at diving into the blog world, so bear with me. I have pondered the thought of creating a blog for about a year now. It started with my adventures attending concerts on a regular basis. When you attend as many shows as I do, they all tend to run together. I wanted a way to remember everything I could about that particular show and also to be able to share it with others. Well, that was a great idea, but along came my last semester as a college student. For those that do not know, I had the WORST semester I could have imagined for the last semester of college. I wrote 23 papers from September-December (3 months people!) and suffered from an extreme case of senioritis. It wasn't fun or easy, but I'm proud to say I came out with all B's and graduated December 18, 2010. Yay me!

Back to my point - now that I'm a college graduate, working part-time, looking for a real job full-time, I have more time on my hands now. Enter in - BLOG! In this day-and-age, there is so much that distracts us from keeping our relationships open with people. Social networking sites may seem like a good substitute, but in my opinion, they fall flat of seeing who a person really is and what's on their mind. Even text messages have become a normal means of communication between friends and family. This is my solution to that problem. Through this means of communication, I hope that I can express to you who I really am and also provide myself an avenue to dispose of the constant ramblings going on in my head.

I have a lot to say about a lot of topics, but I promise I will never push my views on anyone. Instead, I will try to provide information so that you can form your own opinions. Cheers to all of you reading this and for taking an interest in what I have to say!