Post 12: Some of my favourite photos of my friends and me.

2005-2006

2007-2008

That’s J [to the] L on the left and T-Dawg on the right

J [to the] L, T-Dawg & our friend A&W

I guess I kinda got a little carried away.

Post 10: Top 100

I’ve finished my top 100 and have posted it. Go read it if you’d like.

Post 9: Ongoing Battle

Mutter: [while laughing] “hey Jessi, did you know you’ve been in college for over 5 years!”

Me: [with a serious look on my face and sarcasm in my voice] “hey did you know you were once in college but got pregnant at 18 and had to drop out after a year!”

Mutter shoots me a look as if to say “okay, you’re right. you got me on that one.” or “praise the Lord you didn’t take after me! stay in college as long as you need to!”

Jessi 1 – Mutter 0

Mutter likes to point out the fact that I’m 24 and still an undergrad and that I’ve been in college since 2003. I like to point out the fact that she was once in college. But got pregnant and dropped out. It’s all out of love. That’s how my family is. The meaner you are to someone shows how much you love them.

Mutter (Aged 21) & BB (Aged 2)- 1983

Post 8: Conversations with Babe

Yesterday was Babe’s birthday so after practice I decided to drive to her college and hang out with her for a little while…plus she’s been going through some difficult things and I wanted to make sure she was okay (see Post 6: I wish). Babe is great at multi tasking. She was texting some dude named ”Niles” while we were talking. This is a small snippet of the conversation we had while sitting outside her dorm.

Babe: [receives a text] “Ohhh. I’m so nervous!”
Me: “Ummm. Why?”
Babe: “Because he’s probably gonna ask me out, just wait…” [texts Niles back]
Me: “So, it’s not like you’re gonna actually go out with this dude since you already have a boyfriend…are you?”
Babe: “No, I won’t…but I’m still nervous. I always get nervous when guys ask me out.” [texting again]
Me: [laughing] “Oh, Babe…you’re something else”
Babe: “What do I tell him if he does ask me.”
Me: “Oh I don’t know…except maybe that you already have a boy and don’t want/can’t handle another one.”
Babe: “I know but he’s super cute…I wish you could meet him and see for yourself.”
Me: [smiling/laughing a little]
Babe: “J, what do I do…I’m nervous” [laughs]
Me: “Tell him you have a boy…nip it in the bud before it gets worse…duh.”
Babe & Me: [laugh]
Me: “So anyway continue on with your previous story…”
Babe: “Oh, right as I was saying…[receives text and shouts] AHAHAHAHA”
Me: “What?”
Babe: [laughing] “He just asked me out, what do I do what do I do???? Tell me! What do I say?!” [stares at me with a look of nervousness and eagerness]
Me: [looks at her with the look of didn't we just have this discussion 1 minute ago]

Okay so for probably all of you that conversation doesn’t seem very funny, but if you only knew Babe and the thoughts that go on in her head, the things that come out of her mouth…you’d find it a hell of a lot funnier! She acts kind of like a hybrid of Jessica Simpson from Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica and Anna Faris from the Scary Movie movies except unlike those two girls, she’s actually really smart and for the most part has pretty good common sense…she’s just kind of ditzy and unpredictable when it comes to what she says. Which is why I love her so much. She keeps me laughing. And guessing.

Sadly at 11:30pm it was time for us to say our goodbyes. So we hugged and said our goodbyes. Once she was in her dorm I sent her a text and we had a mini text convo:

Me: “I love you more than oxygen”
Babe: “Haha your silly love you too”
Me: “lol…”
Babe: “By the way that was the best birthday present ever”
Me: “lol…what the frosty?” (I bought her a Frosty for her birthday because I’m poor)
Babe: “Seeing You!”
Me: “awwww…really?”
Babe: “Yes for sure was the highlight of my day”
Me: “well that says a lot since your day was lame…haha…jk”
Babe: “true…in shower lol text after”
Me: “K…have fun”
45 minutes later
Me: “I made it home alive”
Babe: “good! I’m glad!”
Me: “me too”

Again, probably not very funny or interesting but oh well. This is a blog about my life, not yours.

Babe in Walmart for a Softball prank. Haha, she’d kill me if she knew I put this pic up. Oh well.

Post 6: I wish…

I wish I could take away the guilt she feels inside. The embarrasment she hides. I wish I could make her believe that it will be okay, that she will make it through this. I don’t know what else to say to comfort her except that I love her unconditionally and no matter what she does, says or thinks will ever change that. I want her to know that I know exactly what she’s going through. I’ve done what she did, I’ve been where she was, I know how it feels the next day when you “sober” up and you realize what happened. The shame, the embarrasment, the awkwardness…feeling like everyone knows your secret. That everyone is staring right into your soul like they are watching a movie about your mistake. The looks of shock and awe come across their faces as they witness the event.

To Babe,
I want you to know that I love you like a little sister maybe even like a daughter. My love for you is unconditional and nothing you do will ever change that, ever. I promise you. Your secret is safe with me. Nobody will ever know. I will take it to my grave. I love you, Babe. Don’t ever forget that.

- j.

Post 3: LB – My #1 BFF

LB is coming home soon. I’m so excited to see him and to just hang out with him like old times. I miss him so much already and he’s only been away at college for a month. I miss just being able to watch TV with him. I miss watching Family Guy with him. I miss hearing him talk like Chris and Peter and making me laugh. No matter what mood I’m in LB can always make my laugh, or at least smile. I love him so much yet there are some times when he pisses me off and makes me so angry I could strangle him (out of love of course). We always forgive each other, well actually we usually forget why we even started fighting or one of us will say a funny movie quote and we will bust out laughing.

LB is 18 years old, he’s about 6 foot 4 inches and really strong (he can pick me up if that says anything about his strength) and he used to wrestle in high school and he plays rugby. Yet despite all of this I’m extremely protective of him. Even though he claims he’s the body guard in our little group (of the two of us). It’s funny but even though he’s 18 and over 6 feet tall I still see him as that tiny (if you consider 9lbs 4oz at birth to be tiny), red-faced, screaming child that I used to cover with a blanket hoping he’d disappear.

It’s funny to me how I’m the OLDER sister but he’s the BIG brother. I find not so funny things funny.

I guess now I know what my parents are going through with three grown children, one being a husband and a father. I guess I understand it a little bit now when my mum says to me “oh I remember when you were that little” or “I remember when you used to wear this” (as she shows me your typical mid-80’s outfit that resembles something Michelle Tanner wore in Full House). And now that I’m an Aunt I get to witness my niece grow from that tiny floppy newborn to a chubby, smiling, giggling, adorable little girl with a huge personality (she has her mothers patience and her fathers temper-not a good combo, at all). It truly is amazing, a miracle even.

So here’s to all the fun times we’ve had together LB and to the millions more that have yet to come.

 

This is LB in his Prom attire. I took this photo and it turned out to be one of my fave’s of LB.

Post 2: What’s in a name?

So you wanna know the story behind my blog title/name eh? Well to be honest, I don’t really have a specific story to explain it. I wanted the title “La Vita e Bella” (life is beautiful in Italian) but it was already taken, but I prefer this one anyway. I guess it’s just my philosophy to life. You know, kinda like the whole “when life gives you lemons” thing.

I have a few painful stories from my past (but who doesn’t right?) that maybe one day I’ll share with the blogger community and I have a million things I’ve done that I’m slightly ashamed of, okay well maybe not a million but pretty darn close I’m sure. But I truly honestly believe that everything happens for a reason. No matter how bad you felt after you did something use it to learn something and change that thing about yourself. If bad things were done to you, use your pain to help others and I think you’ll find, as I did, that helping others will in turn, ease your pain.

So I guess that’s the story behind my name, if that counts as a story. Regardless of all the crap we’ve done and all the crap that’s been done to us, and despite the pain and unhappiness we may experience at times, or the loneliness we all feel at one time or another we still have so much to live for and so much still to experience.

It is a beautiful life, after all.

Post 1: About Me

This is an introductory post, as it is the first post on this blog, I am going to tell you a little bit about myself. Try not to fall asleep. My name is Jessi, I just recently turned 24 on August 15 (thanks for the belated birthday wishes) and I live in Ohio (OH-IO!). I currently live at home with the ‘rents (saving money to get a place of my own) in a teeny tiny little room that’s roughly the size of a walk in closet. I love small spaces because it not only forces you to keep only the necessities and the things you treasure the most, it also forces you to be creative when it comes to decorating and utilizing every nook and cranny. If I were to move out I’d probably rent a tiny studio apartment uptown just so I could still enjoy a small space (plus it leaves little room for the Boogie Man to hide).

I am four classes shy of a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a minor in Graphic Design. I don’t really like American businesses or how they run which makes it difficult to finish my degree, however I do love arty stuff and being creative, so I guess I’ll finish just for the minor degree.

I am the middle child and only daughter, I have an older brother who is married to a wonderful woman, and in April I became an aunt (which is my favourite title so far) to the most beautiful little girl on the planet (I may be just a little biased). I also have a younger brother who is my best friend and who just recently left for college which was bittersweet to say the least, thankfully he is only an hour away but it’s still weird not having him around to make me laugh. I was blessed with the most amazing, incredible, loving family a gal could ask for. We all get together at least 2 or 3 times a week for dinner or lunch or just to hang out.

I’m a photographer (I just finished my new website, http://www.justagirlandhernikon.com/), a coach (I coach a high school rugby team), I love to write but I don’t like to read (I’d love to write a novel someday, I have a ton of stories that I need to transfer from my brain to my computer), I’d love to get married someday and have a few kids, I love hiking and camping but hardly ever go, I love to travel but don’t have the money to, I’d love to pack up and move to Chicago but I’d miss my family and friends too much, I love coffee but my weak stomach prevents me from drinking it, I love Chinese food but have no desire to travel to China, I love my life (even though I still live at home and don’t have a high paying job), I’d rather make $30,000 a year than $300,000 a year, I really want a MacBook Pro but I don’t have $3,000 to buy one, I could care less about the current economy woes because I think if we can survive 1 stock market crash we can survive another one, I love America and my freedom but sometimes I think America is overrated and we have a “big head”, I love history – my two favourite times/places in history are: America – Lewis, Clark & Sacajawea and the expansion of the West; Europe – during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, I wish I could redo college and major in early European history instead of Business, my little brother is my best friend, I love eating waffles and drinking Chocolate Banana Vivanno’s.

That’s about it for now. I hoped you enjoyed getting to know me a little better.

Got questions? Just ask!