Surprise!

I can't go into much detail about this post either. Today, I went shopping for a few supplies that I will be needing this upcoming weekend. I have the pleasure of staying in a sorority dorm for four days so I stocked up on the necessities. While I was shopping, I had a great idea! There is a certain person that has put in a lot of work over the last couple of months to ensure that the new members of the sorority A. stay with us and B. get initiated this weekend. I don't know if you know it or not but it's not that easy to coordinate almost 80 women. Due to all of her hard work, I decided to put a little something together. She will get said surprise in the near future, but it'll definitely be worth it!

Random doings

Unfortunately, I cannot go into great detail on this post. A few days ago while I was working, I came across a few very cute items. I wanted some and I knew that a few people would like it, as well. There were varieties of said cuteness so I decided to make little packs. I got the same thing for myself and two other people, but with different themes. I can't go into detail because they have not received them yet and it wouldn't be a surprise if I said it on here. I'm late for a very important date so I will post more later. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of pixie dust...and if you don't have that then just hakuna matata.

Happy Anniversary, Ashley & Marcus!

Tomorrow, February 27, 2013, is the three year wedding anniversary of two very awesome people: Ashley and Marcus Trice. I had the privilege of attending their wedding and you could feel the love between the two more than ever. Since that time, they have brought three beautiful babies into the world. One boy, Quentin and two twin girls, Leighton and Braelynn. Ashley posts pictures of them quite often and they are quite happy. I wish them all the best and hopefully they have many more anniversaries ahead of them. 

Here kitty kitty

I have never seen cats just randomly wandering around my complex. Mark says he sees them all the time. I like cats. I think they're cute. And I want to put them in baskets and on rainbows...wait, I got distracted. I just love cats so much! Okay, kidding aside. I have two quite plump kittens. And by kittens, I mean they're six years old, or will be at some point this year. They go through quite a bit of food...yes, they're spoiled. I don't think they need as much food as they go through, but they apparently do. Mark says that they are two months from starving, which is possibly true. Later today, when I go to the store, I am going to take a handful of food and place it somewhere outside for these cats that Mark says are there. They are a living creature, after all.

Offer to return a shopping cart

If you refer back to one of my previous blogs, you will remember that last night the weather was a pain in the tail. Due to this, work was a ghost town. For the last hour and a half, there were maybe ten customers in the store. At one point, a woman came through my line with a very full cart. Normally I try to get the customer out of the store as quickly as possible but I could tell that this woman wasn't in too big of a hurry. While I was scanning her items, we were talking about various things including the weather. I then mentioned that several of the people that had left within the last ten minutes were still outside scraping the ice off of her car. She then realized that she might not have had an ice scraper in her car. My coworker then went to get her one while I continued scanning her items. In the process of scanning, I placed a bag on a ledge where I don't normally place them. After the woman had paid and I had the next customer go through, I realized that she did not get said bag. My original reaction was dangit! but then I remembered that she probably hadn't gotten too far on the de-icing process. I then went outside with her bag as she was still loading things into her car. I handed it to her and she was very thankful, especially considering that it had her bread in it. I then offered to take her cart back into the store so that she wouldn't have to take it to the corral. I hope that she made it home safely and that it didn't take her too long to thaw her car.

Observe a moment of silence

This past weekend while at District Leadership Conference in Chicago, we were asked to hold a moment of silence for one of the other chapters present. If I remember correctly, it was Chi chapter and the moment of silence was for one of their sisters. It was quite loud in the room before they requested the moment and so I did not catch the woman's name. There were roughly 400 women in the room at this time and it was inspiring that we were silent out of respect. There wasn't even any coughing or sneezing. It was a great reminder of our motto, "We Live for Each Other."

Be kind to yourself

There are very few days out of the year that I do not have anything to do. Up until today, it had only happened on the 3rd of this month. Today I have that opportunity again. It was unexpected but I will welcome it with open arms. I have decided to make it a be kind to Kasey day. With this lax day, I get to accomplish a lot of things on my to-do list, and even get other things done that were not intended. So far today, I have paid my Wells Fargo bill (oh yea, two days in a row of talking to them on the phone. I'm on a roll!), paid my Comcast bill (technically I made Mark do it), and crossed off the cancelled events. I have been working on catching up on my blog basically all morning but I am so close to finishing it! I have also decided to add putting my new tags on my car (it's literally been a year since I had non-expired tags on it, but you couldn't even tell because the colors went from dark green to black, which to the naked eye are the same color) and later on we are going to go get a few groceries. It will be nice to take the day to do nothing but stuff that normally gets put off, especially because I work the next six days and then I hopefully will go to Bloomington to assist my lovely sisters with initiation. As of right now, the next full day off MIGHT be March 9 and that is depending on the work schedule. 

Clean out your closet

I know it's not spring yet, but I felt like it was a good time to clean out my closet. The last time I cleaned it out was when I moved in July of last year. I got rid of a LOT of stuff then. This time, I probably took out about 10 articles of clothing, most of which were shirts. I'm fairly certain that everything I took out hasn't even been worn since the last time I cleaned out the closet so it wasn't that difficult. There are a few things that I should probably say goodbye to, but I bought them in Europe and I now consider them my I-will-fit-back-into-you-one-day clothes. Those items of clothing are all shirts, three of which are gray and one is green. I didn't buy too many clothes over there unless I really loved it. Therefore, it will be rather hard to get rid of these items. Perhaps I should just work hard to a weight goal and then I won't have to feel guilty for not getting rid of them! Now, since I know some of you are still snowed in, you should go to your closet and toss out the old. Beside, it gives you an excuse to go shopping in the future, which does kinda defeat the purpose. 

Greetings on Valentine's Day!

I really like surprises. One of the best surprises is opening your mailbox and seeing a colored envelope. Usually those mean that it's not a bill! This year, I decided to send a few cards for Valentine's Day. I would have sent more but cards are expensive and I didn't have time to make any. Therefore, I decided to send cards to Sarah, Jessie, mom and dad, and of course I got one for Mark. Actually, the cats got one for Mark, too. It was a very simple thing to do and I'm sure that they all appreciated getting something in the mail other than a bill. 

Academic Year in America

This post is more a marketing ploy, but there's a reason behind it. Academic Year in America is an organization that allows international students to come to America to study for either a semester or a full year. There are several different countries that the students come from but the most popular are probably China and Germany. I personally would love to be able to host an international student. The problem with this is that A. I don't really have the space and B. I don't have the money for it. Therefore, I challenge you to host a student! The only major requirements are that the student needs their own bedroom and bathroom or shared with same gender and roughly same age, three meals a day, a study place, and access to phone, internet, kitchen and laundry. It really would be a great opportunity for you and the student. You can go to academicyear.org to get more information or to fill out your host family application! Of course, don't forget to put my name as your local coordinator, even though those outside of Indy would get a new one for the supervision.

Follow me

Last night, we got a weird mix of weather. We couldn't really decide if it was snow, sleet, or ice, so we will just say that it was a mixture of all of the above. This weather started around 7:30 pm and within a short period of time it was a rather large pain in the tail. I wasn't scheduled to leave until about 10 and so I knew that it was going to be an adventure getting home. The upside to all of this is that I got to work with someone that I hadn't worked with in quite a while. Another upside is that, compared to Indiana folk, I learned to drive in Nebraska. Therefore, I am quite familiar with driving in snow and ice because it's a common occurrence in winter in Nebraska. My coworker, however, was not used to driving in this type of weather so she asked if I would convoy with her home so that way if something happened then help would be there. We both live in the same vicinity and so I figured why not. 

Another perk to living in Nebraska for so long is that I know when this type of icy weather comes, it takes a bit of work to thaw your car. My car historically takes forever and a day to warm up in normally cold weather, so I decided at 9:30 to go start my car. That's right. It ran for a half hour before I even went out to see if I could go anywhere. Bonuses: I could brush off the thawed ice and the interior was nice and cozy. All of my coworkers had to wait and then slowly chip away. Since I was ready to go, I went and helped my coworker chip away at her car. Once we got it road worthy, we were on our way. We drove quite slowly home and there were several people passing us. I didn't mind because I would rather make it to my destination in one piece. Now it's the next day and the roads still aren't cleared but I made it home safe and so did she. Mission accomplished.

Answer the phone

Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate answering my phone. You can ask Mark how our conversations go. He's usually pretty excited and I'm responding with uh huh or okay, to which he responds 'you don't want to be on the phone, do you'. It's a bad habit that I've created. Yesterday, I received two phone calls. One came sometime in the early afternoon. The number was not saved in my phone, but based on the area code, I knew it was Wells Fargo. Just so you know a little history...I have a comment on my record at Wells Fargo that says they are not to talk to me on the phone. This is because our conversations really don't go that well. If I made a list of companies that need to disappear off the face of the planet, Wells Fargo would be a resounding #1. When it came to answering the phone, I hesitated a little bit. I figured that they were calling because I need to make a payment, and so I decided to answer it. Low and behold, it was the only sane employee working there. We have been dealing with this guy for over a year now and he actually knows what he's doing, surprisingly enough. He said he was just calling for a payment to which I told him I completely forgot, because I did until I saw them calling. I now have to call him back today because the money is in Mark's account and he needs to have authorization from Mark. Yesterday, Mark was at work at the time Wells Fargo called. 

The next call I received was around 4:30 pm. I was on my way to pick up a baking rack from Mark's mom before I went in to work. This call was from work. Usually when work calls, it's to ask if I can come in early, and if not, then I have no idea why they're calling. I found it strange they would be asking me to come in early considering I was to be at work in 30 minutes. The call ended up being from my HR manager. She wanted to know if I would go into work today. I was supposed to have tennis today, and so I told her that I would think about it and call her sometime today and let her know if I were coming in. Now I have a conundrum because tennis was cancelled but the roads are crappy and I would rather just do nothing all day.  She's not expecting a call until after 2:00 anyway so I guess I still have time to decide. 

You take the first left...

A few days ago while I was working at the bullseye, a couple came through my line. They didn't get too many items, but I could tell that they didn't get everything that they wished they could have. I was making small talk with them and the man turned to the woman and suggested that they look to see if they can find a Wal-mart. Normally I don't butt into people's conversations because I find it to be rude, but A. I was technically already talking with them and B. I know where a Wal-mart is. I proceeded to inform them that there was a Wal-mart across the street but that it was a rather small one, for Wally World standards anyway. They then told me what they were looking for and I suggested that they go to Meijer instead. It's about the same price but the quality is much better. Then again, it's not too difficult to find better quality items than those at the devil store. They both looked at me with the exact same confused look.

Then I asked if they knew where it was and they told me that they weren't from around here. I told them that it's quite easy to find and that it's not too far away. I then gave them directions on how to get to Meijer. It was actually quite challenging considering there's been construction on the road I was sending them on, and when I used to give directions in that vicinity, I would tell them how many lights before they needed to turn. Now there are one or two fewer lights, so hopefully they found it okay. 

Good Morning

I see about ten people during my morning routine. The majority of these I usually just keep on walking without any acknowledgement. I don't do this to be rude, but usually they have their head in a computer or on the phone or doing something else. This morning, I said good morning to every person I came with ten feet of. It puts into perspective just how easy it is to do an act of kindness each day. Whether it's saying good morning, holding the door, or telling someone to have a nice day, it's quite easy. They all take about a second to do (unless, of course, the person you're holding the door for walks slowly), and they really shouldn't be given a second thought when you have the opportunity. I told a woman to have a great day a few days ago and she responded with 'uh huh'. It would have taken the exact same amount of time and energy to say 'you too'. It's just one extra syllable that isn't even heard! So now, as you go on about your day, I hope that 

Kasey's Poetry Corner

Preemptive strike: I apologize for my terrible poem writing abilities. Now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy my poems to special people in my life (in no particular order).

Sensitive, sweet, soulful
Admiring, adoring, adorable
Real, romantic, red lover
Awesome, adventurous, amazing
Hottie tottie, honorable, helpful

Joyous, Jason's leading lady, jazzy
Elegant, enthusiastic, excellent
Sassy, silly, sincere
Soft-hearted, special, spiffy
Imaginative, impartial, interesting
Entertaining, encouraging, elite

Merry, manly, marvelous
Animated, alive, agreeable
Rambunctious, rebel, real love
Kindhearted, Kasey's man, keeper of things

Likable, lovable, lovely
Artistic, author, alert
Unique, upbeat, useful
Racer, rider, Robin's mount
Illustrious, incredible, inquisitive
Energetic, exciting, exclusive

Rare, reflective, remarkable
Aware, astonishing, amusing
Nice, nonchalant, neat
Determined, dashing, detailed
Youthful, young hearted, yielding

Piggy Bank

Sometimes people spend too much time thinking about the now. They are impulsive and when they go shopping, they buy things that might not make much sense in the future. The future could be a year from now, five years from now, fifty years from now, or fifty seconds from now. My piggy bank is for the future. Well, most people's piggy banks are for the future, but mine is for something very specific. Some of you know about one of my lifetime goals, which is to backpack across Europe. Some know the extent of this, while the majority of you don't. This will be a very in depth trip. The more I think about it, the more I want it to happen. Let's be honest, life makes me think it will never ever happen. Realistically, it probably will only happen if I win the lottery and I don't play the lottery. That's the likelihood of this trip. Every dream has to start with something. The planning of said trip is in the works and now, we have a piggy bank! So far, I have $1.95 to my trip. See what I mean about the realism of this. Anyway, you may be asking how this is an act of kindness. I view it as an act of kindness to my future self. By having a piggy bank that allows me to save, it is a constant reminder of my goal. It also helps that it sits right in front of my face whenever I'm at my computer. When I am backpacking across Europe, I will look back and appreciate all the work it took to get there. At least I know that eventually I will go back to Rome, since they say if you throw a penny in the Trevi Fountain you are guaranteed to return. Lastly, I would not be opposed to any investments in the send me to Europe fund. You could consider it your act of kindness! Just kidding, you don't need to do that, but you could! Have a happy Wednesday, or whatever day it is when you read this!

Do a Chore for Someone

I clean the same house every other Monday. I clean a different house every other Tuesday of the same week, and also a different house every other Wednesday of the same week. I also clean the same house the other Wednesdays of the month and every other Thursday of the opposite week. That sounds extremely confusing on paper, but it makes perfect sense in my head. At each of these houses, I try to do something a little extra since I'm there frequently. House A I pull their trash bins up the driveway and back into the garage since the garbage collectors usually come while I am cleaning the house. House B I clean at least one mirror that isn't on my to-do list. She only has fifty mirrors in the six rooms that I clean and of that fifty, I am required to clean five. There are at least three other rooms in the house. You can imagine. House C I clean the outside of their patio doors because they have a super cute corgi that gets a little excited when she wants in the house. House D (also with a super cute dog) I spend extra time mopping the floors because they don't look that dirty, but with three dogs (or maybe four) they tend to be kinda gross. House E I take about five minutes to play with their golden retriever. And yes, she's super cute, too. I clean other houses throughout the weeks, and sometimes will do little extra things for them also. 

MySociety

There is a site that I have recently been introduced to. It is called http://www.mysociety.org/helpus/. There are several moderator volunteer opportunities on this site. I haven't quite looked that in depth at it, but it seems like a very easy way to volunteer and it doesn't take up too much time. Hopefully some of you will decide to help them out. I will do what I can, so you should, too!

Tip Thank You

When Mark and I decide to go 'out' for dinner or lunch, lately we find ourselves going to Red Robin. It's nothing fancy, but it's inexpensive and we usually have decent service. There has only been one time we did not have good service and that was around Christmas time. This time, we had a young female as our waitress. She was nice and seemed to know what she was doing. She wasn't too slow and didn't come over to our table every five seconds like some other establishments that I've been to. Our total bill was probably around $30 and I really don't remember what Mark tipped her, but I know it was a decent sized tip. As we were getting ready to leave, I took the slip from him and wrote her additional thank you. Most people leave a tip but not everyone takes the time to write them a note. I hope she appreciated it and that it made her day go a little bit smoother. It also probably helped that by the time we were leaving, the lunch rush was mostly dying down. 

Pay Someone's Toll

I had a very exciting weekend. I went to Chicago for District VI Leadership Conference with my wonderful sorority sisters of Alpha Delta Pi. I may not be a collegian anymore, but I thoroughly enjoy advising my team at Beta Alpha chapter. 

We left on Friday and Sister Structure has mapped out our route for us in order to save time. Google maps had us going through downtown, but she decided it would be much quicker to take the scenic route.
  *side note: we left one hour after everyone and got there about 30 minutes before anyone else*. The only downside to taking this route was that there were tolls involved. Immediately after being told to have cash for tolls, I thought that this would be a great way to knock something off of my appreciation list. As I was pulling up to the first toll, I realized I only had larger bills. At this I was frustrated but I figured that why not pay the person-behind-me's toll so I wouldn't have as much change. I had already slowed them up by having to wait for the guy to count out my change. This specific act of kindness left a smile on my face because it was the first act that I'd done that was completely random. Yes, I had intended to pay for someone's toll, but the person never knew what was coming to them. Hopefully one day, they will pay it forward.

Compliment Someone

The other day while working, a woman came through my line. I don't remember anything about this woman, except she had a very cool necklace that I complimented her on. Funny thing, as I type this I don't even remember what the necklace looked like. I do know that it was unique and shiny. If I would have taken the time to blog about the necklace that night, I'm sure that there would be more detail here. Now I challenge you to randomly compliment someone today!

Pleasant Commentry

One benefit to doing this blog, other than the obvious, is that it has jump started my best friend back into blogging. This is important because she uses it as a diary or journal. Therefore, it's mostly her thoughts that she can go to on one site and view at a later point in her life. Her blogs are written in exactly the tone that she speaks. When I read them, I feel like I'm sitting there having a face to face conversation with her. Earlier, as I was reading one of her 'older' posts, I senses a feeling of disdain and a little bit of sadness also. I decided that I would leave her a comment. It's not like a don't text her on a daily basis or even talk to her on the phone every once in a while. Now that there's a comment, though, she can look back on it whenever and think 'huh, I should just breathe'. Even though I know that she feels slightly better after blogging. 

Smile at Strangers

I walk with my head down. I've always done it. I get it from my dad mostly. Positive: think of all the change you can find! Negative: think of all the things you don't see! Since starting this blog, I have tried to be more conscience of those around me. I attempt to walk with my head up and take the time to smile at strangers. Obviously this is going to be a continuous work in progress. So far, the feedback hasn't been anything other than what I expected. Either people will smile back, say hello, or just keep on marching to the beat of their drum. I'm completely okay with this because I realize that there are several people out there who lean toward the introverted side of the scale rather than the extroverted. Anyway, smiles are contagious. You never know who's day you will turn around just by offering a smile. 

Speaking of smiling, this video, courtesy of Mrs. Brittney Wood, made me smile. It also made me cry, though. Mainly because I realize how extremely rare the occurrences in the video are. I would also like to say thank you to Brittney for getting my butt back in the blogging chair. I have been doing my acts of kindness, so I haven't completely fallen off the wagon, but I have been severely lacking on the blog. Kudos to her!

Praise Your Boss

My boss and I have never really had a conversation. We've hardly ever had any interaction. The few times we have come across each other typically didn't end on a pleasant note. With that being said, I finally got the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with him. The basis of this chat was improvements on attitude at the store. I believe that several of the people I work with do not create the type of environment that the motto claims. Instead of saying hi, they would rather ask what percent of conversion I'm going to get for the day. I understand that that's part of the job, but taking five seconds to say hello really wouldn't hurt anyone, would it? Anyway, this conversation started a little tense. It was a lot of I said something and he would try to counter. I noticed fairly quickly that we were both not understanding what the other one was saying. I then switched the wording and we finally got on the same page. He then stated the improvements in certain areas of the store. Here's the shocking part: we ended up agreeing! How the conversation ended was discussing how the store has made vast improvements since he came along. I told him that I was proud of how he turned things around and that I did see some change. The bad thing with change sometimes is that it takes forever! I really didn't expect the conversation to end this way. I view my position a little bit differently know and I look forward to some things he hinted at. *Crosses fingers* PS. I actually learned what his sons name is, and boy does my boss make cute babies!

Cook a Meal for Someone

I consider myself lucky in that my job has rather short workdays. I am typically home by 2pm, although there are some days that I go to my other job. Then again, that usually only happens about twice a week. Since I work short days, I am at home much more than Mark is. He goes to work at 930am and usually gets home around 8pm, depending on if he works overtime or not. Being that I am home and he is not, I cook dinner. The other night he walked in the door right as the timer went off. That has never happened before and may or may not ever happen again. I wouldn't call his job strenuous, but he is gone for a significant portion of the day. He also brings home more money than me. The least that I can do is make sure he has a meal waiting for him. Tonight is a little different, though. I have been home for about four hours. In that time, I have been working on a to do list which has gotten me to accomplish doing laundry, writing a couple of letters (including to my soldier!), figuring out finances, and almost finishing my taxes. What's left is blogging (which probably won't get finished tonight), painting a box (which is going to be pushed back as it's not a life or death thing), showering, dishes, painting my fingernails (since I did my toes yesterday), and cooking dinner. Ah, dinner. One of Mark's favorite dishes is meatloaf. It's on the menu for tonight. He's also been begging me to make tater tot casserole. I'm going to make that, too. His absolute favorite vegetable is peas. It's borderline an obsession. Peas will be joining the party. You see, tonight's dinner is all for him. I personally don't really care for tater tot casserole. But you know what else Mark loves? Besides me, that is. Leftovers! I won't elaborate  on this. Seriously, some of his eating habits would make a person nauseous. I also attempted to make fudge but that was a complete and epic failure. Long story short: I hope he enjoys dinner.