My Carry On Essentials: Roadtrip Edition

As you're reading this I am on an eight hour bus ride to Southern California to celebrate my birthday. While trying to figure out what to pack I decided I ought to write a post on carry on essentials, I mean I do travel long distances kinda often. Like every three months often!

Below are my carry on bag essentials for road trips, either by car or bus. I try my best to not stuff too much into my backpack because I honestly won't end up touching half of it anyways.

E L E C T R O N I C S

+Laptop: Luggage gets lost, stolen and tossed from location to location. I rather carry an extra 6 pounds and know my computer is safe, plus, you can watch a movie along the way.

+Headphones: Because not everyone wants to watch a movie with you.

+iPod: For when your laptop battery dies and you want to look out the window and pretend you're in a sad music video.

+Phone: For obvious reasons.

+Phone charger: When your trip gets unexpectedly delayed make sure you have enough battery life to keep yourself occupied. (And safe.)

E N T E R T A I N M E N T

+Magazine: I still buy magazines from time to time, and found this Cosmopolitan from the 1950s at a flea market!

+Journal: In case inspiration strikes and I don't want to drain my laptop battery with typing.

S N A C K S

+Food is necessary, especially when you'll be sitting all. day. long.

E X T R A  L A Y E R S

+Cardigan: If you travel by bus often you know the all too common freezing temparatures from the AC.

+Scarf: I take a scarf whether I travel by bus, car or plane. Scarves make great pillows and don't have to take up space in your purse.

M I S C E L L A N E O U S 

+ Sunglasses: You will look tired, and they make any outfit look put together.

+Compact brush: I tend to sleep a lot during long car rides, my hair reflects that by the time we arrive at our destination.

+Hair ties: Because a compact brush can only do so much.

+Ear plugs: In case others didn't think to bring their own headphones. And crying babies.

+Chapstick: I don't know about you, but constant AC blowing in my face makes my lips dry out.

+Wallet: To hold all the important stuff like IDs and debit cards.

+Pepper spray: I carry this with me everywhere because I've travel alone and seem to attract a lot of creepy people.

Upcoming Changes to the Blog

For the past few days I have been working nonstop on a new blog design that I hope will be ready to reveal by my birthday. (Which is only four days away now!) I stopped blogging near the end of March because the entire universe seemed to be against me, and also because I woke up one day and decided my blog looked like a hot mess.

After hours spent bookmarking tutorials and studying everything Ellie over on xomisse.com has to teach me, I think I've finally created something I'm proud to show off. It's not done quiet yet, but here's a sneak peak into the coming changes for this blog.

Also, if you just like freebies in general, check out my Blogging Freebies Pinterest board to keep up with all the free blog items I find all over the web I've also created boards dedicated to fonts and tutorials, because one blog board is not enough...

Shit My Mom Says: About the Internet

If you don't know me personally you probably missed the part where I graduated college and moved back home. No big deal, I didn't even post on Instagram about it. Moving home has been....interesting. After being away for so long and only visiting occasionally, it's surreal to see my old bedroom fill up with all my belongings again.

Two weeks into post grad life I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure something out for my mom. Apparently her tablet had been notifying her she was low on memory which led her to run to Staples to buy an overpriced SD card. I've told this woman a million times about the wonder that is Amazon, yet she keeps shopping at useless stores like Staples. I swear, that company must make it's money off people who have kids that don't love them enough to teach them how to shop online.

Anyways, as I'm transferring my mom's photos from her tablet to a removable SD card she decides to give me a lesson about 8 years too late. She begins lecturing me about Google and how I can literally search any question on this website and it will come up with a list of answers. Apparently I can look up things on my phone, computer and tablet, basically anything with an internet connection. As I'm sitting there trying really hard to not laugh  my mom is going on and on about all the questions she's searched.

Right as I'm about to walk away because I've finished with her tablet and it seems like the educational lesson is over she makes her final remark which was, "Oh, and term for looking up a question is 'Google it." Thanks mom, you're always teaching me something new.

And that everyone, is the type of shit my mom says...in 2014.

At What Age Do We Grow an Attitude?

As I walked home today I was approached by a strange man claiming his dog had wandered into my apartment complex. Having just watched a video the night before about being wary of people who claim they need help, when in reality they take advantage of people who like to be helpful (ie me). I brushed away the feeling that he might be a murderer when I saw that look on his face. You know the one. Puffy eyelids, red eyes, avoiding eye contact. He had been crying, all because he had spent the last few hours looking for his lost dog.

After looking around my much too complicated apartment complex we figured out we thought we heard his dog barking from inside an apartment on the third floor. When we went upstairs to kindly ask the residents if they had found a lost dog we were met with unanswered knocks, what sounded like dogs being forced to be quiet and finally an attitude would make any of the Kardashians look like saints.

What I couldn't understand was, why was this total stranger being so rude to us? Sure, we assumed we heard his dog barking inside their apartment, but we also gently knocked, asked politely if they had found a dog recently and made no point of entering the unit without their permission. After too many vulgar words were said to us and a few doors slammed, the man decided to call the police and let them handle it. By this point we had heard people inside the apartment speak in Spanish about his dog being locked inside a room.

As I sat on the sidelines though most of this I wondered, at what age do we grow an attitude? I can be bossy, sassy and sometimes downright mean, but I rarely have an attitude. My mood swings generally have a reason, whether it's stress or impatience, and I cant think of a time I took of my frustration on a stranger.

I could have easily blown this man off and let him figure it out for himself, but I decided to end the phone call I was on and run around my apartment building shouting "Rambo" in hopes of figuring out where his dog's barks were coming from. Maybe the couple inside the apartment was having an off day or were in the middle of an argument when we knocked, but in my opinion, that doesn't excuse the lack of sympathy they had towards a person standing in tears at their door asking if they had seen a small black chihuahua recently.

I honestly can't begin to figure out what is causing people today to give "zero fucks" about strangers, but I would be interested to know at what age should I assume that there's a good chance someone might be having a "off day." I cant remember of a single day in my childhood where I thought I was having an "off day," so maybe our days aren't so "off" after all, maybe it's just our perspective.

How It Feels to Start Blogging Again

I feel as if I took a very long vacation, except it was anything but. Within the past three months I moved myself and all my favorite belongings across the country to live and work in Washington DC, did what I was supposed to do there and then lugged all my junk back to California to attend my college graduation. Time honestly flew by so quickly, and having never worked a 9 to 5 job meant I came home too tired to even think about logging onto my blog.

Now as a recent college grad with no job and strangely no deadlines hanging over my head, I'm super excited to put all my energy into my blog. (And hopefully figure out what the heck I'm doing with my life along the way.) Coming back to my blog has been as strange as moving back home. I cant quite remember how things were before my departure, which might explain why it took me a few minutes to log into my Bloglovin account and even longer to find where my mom had decided to store the baking sheet.

While I've been writing during my entire disappearance, the audience was much different and the topic was much more...depressing. (More on this later.) Returning back to the blogger community has felt a lot like coming back to my hometown after years of living somewhere else.

The biggest worry I've had throughout my entire absence from blogging and my hometown has been if anyone has even noticed my hiatus. I constantly read blog posts about people apologizing for taking a break from blogging, and in reality, I would have never noticed had they not pointed it out. Maybe it's because I try to keep up with a ridiculous amount of blogs but, when a blogger decides to take a leave of absence for whatever reason, I almost never take notice.

The same feeling applies for returning home after spending the past four years in college and traveling. I anxiously wonder if I'll have anyone to catch up with after being away for so long. The answer is no. Life and friends have moved on without me, which is understandable under my conditions.

The most frustrating part about returning has to be having to relearn the most simple things. It took me too long for comfort to figure out which way I needed to turn the key to get into my home the other day, which proves how much time I've spent away these past four years.

Same goes for my blogging routine. Remembering to check my Bloglovin, Google Friend Connect, Twitter and so many other accounts is overwhelming when you've lost habit of keeping up with so many people. Don't get me wrong, I love keeping up with all your amazing blogs, but when I make a list of all the blog related tasks I need to do in a day, it can seem a little crazy.

Even though it seems as if I'm having to relearn everything, I'm beyond excited to get back in the habit of writing (and publishing) regularly! Soon my blog will be flaunting a new and improved blog design, plus a ton of content I dreamed up while sitting in my drab cubicle those past ten weeks.

Hopefully I'm not just talking to myself, but if I am, that's alright by me.