I'm not going to pretend

It's not a secret that I'm not internet famous. My Instagram is mostly blurry pictures of my dog and my twitter is covered in cobwebs. To be totally honest my blog isn't the textbook example of chic millennial social media, and I'd be mistaken to assume that this blog will be anything more than my own person journal of my long descend into the bittersweet promise that is adulthood. Yay.

I'm no going to pretend to be enthusiastic about my future. I'm going to present my opinion, my experiences, and my ideas as a possible answer to whatever  currently plagues me.  I hope to see more of you all soon.

Beer Daze: Florida Key West

I'm a native Floridian, I was born right in the middle of the biggest tourist trap ever created. I'm sure you've heard lots of crazy stories about "Florida Man", Disney World, and alligators; but there are more, less insane, things to come out of Florida. Florida Beer Southernmost Wheat is honestly a great regional beer, and Florida has quite a lot of those. It's a light beer that isn't hoppy at all so it doesn't give you beer bloat, which means you can drink a lot of it and not feel sick.

How it Tastes
This beer is light and malty, a lot like Landshark or Bud Light. But this has hints of orange and spices to keep it from being bland. It also has the added twist of Key Lime with is a Florida classic.

What it Goes With
I'm going to call this an everything beer. It's good with the greasy fried foods, but it's light and citrus-y enough that it can be paired well with meat and sweets. This is the perfect dinner beer or hanging out on the beach day drinking beer.

Why I Love Alex + Ani

Alex + Ani bracelets are the absolute best for many reasons. They're so diverse, you can get them in a ton of different styles and with so many images to pick from theres an Alex + Ani bracelet for everyone!
Here are a few of my favorites.

I love Alex + Ani bracelets so much because they're like a charm bracelet that you can easily mix and match to match not just your ever changing style, but your ever changing life. As you can see from my picks above I can rock my universities logo, my hobbies, my interests, my favorite movies, and my ideologies. It's like getting to pick what you want to represent every day and wear it proudly on your wrist.

Beer Daze: Abita Purple Haze

World of Beer has yet to steer me wrong. I had the Abita Purple Haze on draught a few weeks ago and it was amazing. I almost screamed when I saw it at public, I also almost screamed when I found out it was the last six pack!!! i've been checking every beer aisle since trying to find another case. 

How it Tastes
The beer is a lager brew with raspberries mixed in afterwards. It has a very wheatey flavor, but the fruity-ness of the raspberries keeps it from being overly bitter and hard to swallow. 

What to Drink it With
Drink this beer with lighter offerings. Non fried appetizers and salads would be perfectly balanced with the fruity flavor. Fruit, dessert, chocolates, and even sandwiches are a great combination with this beer.

Things to Obsess About: May Fashion

Lauren James Seersucker bow shorts// Kate Spade stripped fish scarf// Lilly Pulitzer Shift Dress// Mod Cloth mid wedge heels// Mod Cloth Bestie Dress

Here are some of my top picks for May essentials. The seersucker shorts are perfect for everything from date night to chapter meetings to a relaxing day at the beach! If you live in the right climate (not Florida) scarves are a year round staple to a fabulous wardrobe.  They provide warm and flare in addition to accenting an outfit perfectly. All Lilly Pulitzer shift dresses are perfect for a stylish way to beat the heat and still look hot. Wedges have been a trend all season long and I predict it'll stay that way for some time; these bronze wedges are a perfect neutral that has more pop than plain black or tan shoes would. Speaking of pop this beautiful dress from Mod Cloth is perfect for those days when you just don't want to wear pants. Slip this dress on and never worry about looking frumpy while shopping at Target or sipping a triple espresso latte before class. 

iAdult: Student Housing edition

Everyone always talks about how crappy their student housing is. Either the property is old and a little run down,  the management sucks at listening to their residences, or it's on campus housing which has strict limitations on what you can keep or do in your room. These fears haunted me as I was gearing up to move out of my parents house and into one of these possible satan stain student hell holes. I was worried because even though I knew I could make my place look feel and nice and cozy thanks to Pinterest I didn't know what to actually look for to avoid feeling like I've been cheated by apartment. Here are some out of the ordinary tips for finding student housing:

This a night view of my apartments pool

Make a list of the amenities you'll actually use

Let's face it, if you're not already in to virtual golf as an active participant, you're a lot less likely to pick up this hobby while trying to balance school work and living on your own for the first time. Most student housing has the same basic amenities, a pool, rec room, gym; it's up to you to figure out the quality of each of these basics. For instance, my apartment's gym is located in two buildings, one for the machines and the other for yoga and dance on demand video lessons. 

Distance to campus

My school is the second largest schools in the nation. We have two major campuses in Orlando. The university runs a shuttle service between the two campuses, and most of the apartments run a shuttle service to the main campus. This service is a great benifit because we have over 60,000 students, but only 9,000 parking spots. See if your complex will have services like this and how it works with your school.

Tour the property

You don't want to be surprised by any broken gates or lights. Preferably take a tour in the off season, most apartment complexs will address any aesetic issues during "leasing season" (March-May) but leave things broken and a mess the rest of the year. 

Surprise! People lie

The majority of people who take you on tours or even just work at the residence are your college peers. They know only a handful more than you do about the property. They just want you to sign, and be happy you got a room. When I signed my first lease the complex was still being built, so the company had high expectations of what they wanted to build, not what was actually built. When everything was said and done several things that were 'promised' when I signed weren't never fulfilled. Unlike some of my neighbors, I'm not that bothered by that. I was ready for only half of the things promised to actually be there.

Things to Obsess About: Sassy Tank Tops

I've lived in Florida for 21 years so take my word for it when I say tank top's a requirement in the summer. You will suffer from heat stroke within five minutes if you wear anything heavier than a cotton tee shirt and booty shorts. My favorite summer outfit staple are tank tops. The best part is that there are so many to pick from!

Sassy Yet True

Preppy

Disney

Patriotic + Party (This one is super soft!)

It's almost a guarantee that before summer starts all of these tanks will be in my closet before summer starts, though if the weather stays as humid as it's been these past few weeks I'm going to need to trade out the t-shirts of tanks sooner, Thanks Global Warming.

Painted Lucky Buddhas

I love these Buddha bottles, the beer wasn't bad either! I think these bottles are just too cute and boho to trash after the beer is gone. My room is honestly filled with them, so are my roommates, and the kitchen, and the living room... 

Find them on my Etsy page!

Archaeologists Favorite Coffee Cup

I found this cute camping cup while at Marshalls today. It speaks to my anthropological nerdy self on a spiritual level. It's aluminum so it's perfect for taking with you camping or on a dig. 

Here are some others that are super cute:

For your inner hipster

Minimal personalization 

Forgo the ring for these engagement mugs

Cool Kid at the Party Playlist

I think one of the main themes of anthropology is discovering and defining human universals. For those who don't know human universals are traits that are found in every culture, every society all over the globe. An example would be that every culture experiences sex and sexual attraction, or else that population would die out; these universals don't always present themselves in the same way but they're always present. I personally think that music is the most defining human universals because not only does it define a culture but it's a common connection to other cultures as well. You wouldn't have to favor someone else's music to understand why they like it, you understand enough about your own music to see the similarities.

This brings me to my Cool Kid at the Party Playlist. These are the songs that are currently getting me through finals week. Andy grammar's new song Honey, I'm Good will get you bouncing in your seat as you try and drive, it's really hard to not dance to this song, or get it stuck in your head for the record. It's perfectly upbeat and peppy while still being a song you can't help but sing along. Fight Song is the perfect motivator as you're trying to study and Free and Easy is the perfect song to play as you bust out of your last final and into the summer sun.
Until summer semester starts.

Beer Daze: Kona Castaway

Last night my roommate and I went out to our favorite local dive bar; we order a massive amount of food and two drinks and roll our stuffed bellies home. This time we each tried to be a bit more adventurous with our beer (we typically just drink bud light lime), my roommate got the Blue Moon and I tried the Kona Castaway. I've had the Kona Longboard but found I didn't mix well with other beers, it's very citrus-y and has a strong flavor. The Castaway I'm would assume was similar. The beer has a fruity smell, kind of like apple juice, and it's not heavy in the slightest, which is good because beer bloat is the absolute fastest way to spoil not only a night out but my self esteem too. 

I was able to eat a plate of fries and hot wings without the apple-y taste of the beer masking the taste of the food, and vise versa. The odd thing about the flavor of the beer though is that even though it smells of apples its flavor isn't that of a cider. It's not an apple juice beer, it just smells entirely like it. 

I'm excited to get to try more of the Kona beers and addition to others. I have a World of Beer loyalty card, which I recommend absolutely everyone get, so I'm hopping to get to go back there sometime soon.

Things to Obsess About: Finals Week

As finals week continues I find I have a two day lull in my schedule. It seems some of my online classes don't open the final until the actual due date of the exam. I bet thats going to go well when 100 students are trying to submit a 100 question exam all before 11:59 pm. At any rate this lull gives me more time to organize notes and study the tough stuff. But I thought I'd take this free time to list all the things I'm grateful I have an abundance of this week. 

Coffee K-cups
Waking up is hard to do. Even more so when you'd just spent most of the night wide awake trying to argue with yourself about the opportunity cost of rearranging your bedroom at 2 in the morning instead of sleeping. Thats why I love my Caribou coffee. Unfortunately even though Caribou is the second largest coffee retailer in the country there are zero in the Orlando area, which means I have to resort to the K-cups; which lets face it are cheaper and easier than going to the cafe.

New Pens
I think like most people new office supplies makes me beyond happy. The feel of a fully inked up pen dripping as I scratch my name is truly truly truly one of the best feelings in the world. These pens by the Write Dudes are perfect for regular everyday pens, and these gel pens from Yoobie are amazing for adding a pop of color in my agenda and notes

Reading for Fun
It's not often I'm calm enough to sit down and read for forty minutes but when I find that time I like to take full advantage of it by reading just about anything I can get my coffee stained hands on. I recently ordered "Writing Enthographic Fieldnotes" off amazon, and it has yet to disappoint. To my dismay, I'm terrible at writing fieldnotes, and as proof of that, I've been taking notes on the book and I've mostly rewritten it. I suggest picking up a copy to anyone who wants a practical way to take fieldnotes.

Lilly Pulitzer at TJ Maxx!

As I said last night (this morning?) it's finals week for the spring. This means that I'm finding any and every reason to not be at my desk studying or even glancing at my notes.This will come around to bite me right in the ass come my actual finals but until then I'll have seen every episode of The West Wing and have perfected my burrito recipe.

My avoidance skills actually paid off yesterday though when I found myself wandering into TJ Maxx. I had joked with my self saying that maybe since the Lilly for Target chaos that maybe some Lilly Pulitzer had found it's way into the store. But I hadn't seen any in there before so I didn't keep my hopes up very high.

The first thing I was on my trip was this beautiful blue Ralph Lauren tunic. (It looked pretty good on, but I'm thinking of adding some pop of color around the trim). But then out of the corner of my eye I saw the little pink script and I knew my wish had come true. The thing that brought my faith in the gods though was not just that it was in the store but that it was in MY size (petite girls holla).

I love this tunic and I'm so excited to wear it once summer really gets into gear. Though it has been humid enough these past few weeks here in Florida I might get to wear it early. 

The beading on the neck line is my favorite thing about the tunic. It's classic and adult without adding an overwhelming amount of age to the outfit. Hopefully I'll be able to make DIY tutorial for the blue tunic soon!

It's 1 am Eastern Standard time...

and I'm invigorated. I've spent the better part of finals week scrolling through every fashion/college/preppy pink blog I could find and I'm inspired. 

I see these girls who love fashion and being in college just as much as I do, and a special shout out to History in High Heels for also using her blog as a platform for fashion and feminism! I hope to be able to bring to my blog as much courage and genius on feminist social issues as she has.

I'd like to end my first first post by saying how thankful I am for english tea on nights like this.