I've been wondering for some time now what others think of as the "traditional" or "perfect" engagement ring. And also what are some interesting/romantic proposals besides the "traditional" dinner at a fancy restaurant situation. I'd love to hear your thoughts so leave me some comments!!
And what is considered too early to get engaged, yet how long is too long to wait?
Does the guy ALWAYS have to be the one to propose or is it more acceptable nowadays for the woman to ask for her significant other's hand in marriage? And what about same sex couples?
AND fyi, I'm not going to be getting engaged anytime soon but a few people I know have weddings coming up this year so I was just wondering what other couples' stories/ideas for the engagement are.
:)
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Webcam
So after trying to use my old Dell Inspiron 600m laptop forever (meaning I tried to save it from completely breaking by using a lot of duct tape), it finally gave up on me and broke. Thus, I got a new laptop! One of the perks of this laptop is the built-in webcam and I think I've been having too much fun with the program it came with for the camera. So, if you're ever around and want to hang out with me, come over so we can take silly pictures!
In other news, I'm pretty upset that the New York Giants lost today...and even more upset that they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. Yuck. Well, sadly enough the team that played better definitely won...just sad that I won't be able to celebrate another Giants superbowl this year...I guess I will have to wait 'til next season.
Just for the record, I'm going to be rooting for the Arizona Cardinals next week to defeat the Eagles.
In other news, I'm pretty upset that the New York Giants lost today...and even more upset that they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. Yuck. Well, sadly enough the team that played better definitely won...just sad that I won't be able to celebrate another Giants superbowl this year...I guess I will have to wait 'til next season.
Just for the record, I'm going to be rooting for the Arizona Cardinals next week to defeat the Eagles.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Once Upon a Time...
Do "Happily Ever Afters" really happen?
As much as I love classic Disney fairytales like Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, I've recently been wondering if watching them from a young age was a bad thing. In these movies, along with several romantic comedies or romantic dramas (aka "chick flicks"), women are "swept off their feet" and find these men that seem to be willing to do anything, spend anything, risk everything to fulfill their every want, dream and desire. Being someone who has been in a long-term(over 4 years!), committed relationship, I don't have many complaints about Jeremy and I...yet I still find myself in situations at times (mainly after watching these kinds of movies) where I wonder if other REAL women experience these absurdly romantic events in their lives and relationships with their significant others or are they just fictional and unrealistic? Given, these movies often tend to give their viewers (many times women) an unrealistic view of how real romance is supposed to be and sometimes one can find his or herself comparing a relationship or romantic encounter with the experience of a completely fictional character...which is probably not very healthy and can end up in disappointment.
These ramblings of mine are similar to the topics that come up in this article Jeremy sent me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7784366.stm
I don't want this entry to come off as me complaining about Jeremy not being romantic (because he is), but I'd definitely love to hear about any "romantic moments" or things your significant other has done to "sweep you off your feet" so that I know whether or not these types of romantic things really do occur in real life and that for some people fairytale endings really do come true...
As much as I love classic Disney fairytales like Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, I've recently been wondering if watching them from a young age was a bad thing. In these movies, along with several romantic comedies or romantic dramas (aka "chick flicks"), women are "swept off their feet" and find these men that seem to be willing to do anything, spend anything, risk everything to fulfill their every want, dream and desire. Being someone who has been in a long-term(over 4 years!), committed relationship, I don't have many complaints about Jeremy and I...yet I still find myself in situations at times (mainly after watching these kinds of movies) where I wonder if other REAL women experience these absurdly romantic events in their lives and relationships with their significant others or are they just fictional and unrealistic? Given, these movies often tend to give their viewers (many times women) an unrealistic view of how real romance is supposed to be and sometimes one can find his or herself comparing a relationship or romantic encounter with the experience of a completely fictional character...which is probably not very healthy and can end up in disappointment.
These ramblings of mine are similar to the topics that come up in this article Jeremy sent me: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7784366.stm
I don't want this entry to come off as me complaining about Jeremy not being romantic (because he is), but I'd definitely love to hear about any "romantic moments" or things your significant other has done to "sweep you off your feet" so that I know whether or not these types of romantic things really do occur in real life and that for some people fairytale endings really do come true...
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end...
So along with the new year I've decided to create a new blog. Now that everyone has a gmail account, I figured it'd be easier to use this blogger rather than my livejournal. No one ever read that anyway (though if you're interested, you're more than welcome to visit it - starry_knight08.livejournal.com), then again who's to say anyone will ever read this...
Anyway, so much has happened in my life these past few months. It's been a whirlwind of good and bad things really. The good things being having graduated from college, traveling to Mexico with my three best friends, vacationing with Jeremy, spending more time with my best friends, and reading many books. The bad being I am still jobless after a few months of unsuccessful searching. I'm trying to keep my head and hopes up - afterall, many people tell me it takes the average person 4 - 5 months to find a job and many recent grads don't hold their first jobs for very long. In that case, I should be getting a job sometime in the near future. All the stress and worry surrounding the uncertainty of my future has taken a toll on me in many ways...
My self-esteem took a real hit (which isn't good since it's always been fairly low to begin with). It's difficult to put yourself completely out there and give so much of yourself in each job app and interview that you get and get calls saying you were not chosen, or even worse - no callback at all. There are only so many of those one can take before it gets to you. The number of unsuccessful attempts of job searching left me feeling inadequate, dumb and hopeless. I developed insomnia where I would stay up 'til 5, 6, or 7am and wake up at absurdly early hours - often 7 or 8am and would go on functioning throughout the day on a mere 3 hours (max) of sleep. Recently my insomnia hasn't been as bad (though it is 5:30am and I'm writing this since I can't fall asleep and am coughing a lot due to this unknown cold/flu/throat infection/allergies) and I have been getting a handful of good nights of sleep.
The job search being up in the air also leaves other aspects of my life to be uncertain as well. I find myself questioning a lot of things I thought of as "solid" in the past. Relationships with friends and loved ones seem harder to maintain, take me more effort, rejection affecting me much more than before. I found myself pushing away those that I needed the most and feeling that I deserved to just be sad alone and miserable by myself.
With all of this building up I was bound for a breakdown - which happened a few times between September and December. With those breakdowns, I'd have to take a step back and think of things in a bigger picture, remind myself of my ultimate goals, refresh my memory of what activities and things I enjoyed, basically try to find the answer to What makes me genuinely happy?
It is said that when you've reached the bottom there's only one way to go and that's up. I really believe that. I took a long break from job hunting from the second week of December through this past weekend to simply relax and let my self-esteem heal a little bit. In that time I have realized what it is that makes me happy - genuinely happy (this might be long):
- Jeremy because he is a constant support and for never losing faith in me and being able to believe in me even when I don't, and he shows me the meaning of real love.
-FFFCUP because no one could ask for a better group of friends that constantly show love and support regardless of how far away we are from one another and can make me laugh all the time 'til my cheeks hurt.
-my parents, my cousins, my family because they inspire me to be the best that I can be and show me that the key to life is to laugh and be joyful, as well as treating others with kindness.
-my Rutgers friends (Engineers, 1015 loves, Psych majors, Douglass Girls) because they are really the most intelligent and intellectual group of people who I can have drama free times with and who have really made College 4 of the best years of my life - so much that I miss it more every time I look at old pics, and who I know will remain life-long friends to me.
-my WWPers because they are all off doing amazing and wonderful things to change the world and will always be like family to me, and have made me love them more knowing that no matter how long we've been apart not much changes when we all hang out again.
-painting because it relaxes me and makes me reminisce of art classes in middle school & high school and it's one of the things I'm actually naturally good at, or atleast I think I am...
- reading because I can leave my current situation and immerse myself in the lives of other characters in far off places and interesting situations.
- hugs because they are physical proof someone is there for me.
-blogging/journaling, basically writing out my feelings because I can look back on this in the past and hopefully be able to see how far I've come and how much I've grown.
-snail mail because they seem much more personal than emails or ecards or anything electronic because someone took the time to write, mail and send something.
All of these things make me really happy, and the list is (hopefully) still growing as I work my way towards a better, kinder and happier me. 2008 was a happy, tough, challenging and awesome year and I'm just hoping 2009 is even better...
Anyway, so much has happened in my life these past few months. It's been a whirlwind of good and bad things really. The good things being having graduated from college, traveling to Mexico with my three best friends, vacationing with Jeremy, spending more time with my best friends, and reading many books. The bad being I am still jobless after a few months of unsuccessful searching. I'm trying to keep my head and hopes up - afterall, many people tell me it takes the average person 4 - 5 months to find a job and many recent grads don't hold their first jobs for very long. In that case, I should be getting a job sometime in the near future. All the stress and worry surrounding the uncertainty of my future has taken a toll on me in many ways...
My self-esteem took a real hit (which isn't good since it's always been fairly low to begin with). It's difficult to put yourself completely out there and give so much of yourself in each job app and interview that you get and get calls saying you were not chosen, or even worse - no callback at all. There are only so many of those one can take before it gets to you. The number of unsuccessful attempts of job searching left me feeling inadequate, dumb and hopeless. I developed insomnia where I would stay up 'til 5, 6, or 7am and wake up at absurdly early hours - often 7 or 8am and would go on functioning throughout the day on a mere 3 hours (max) of sleep. Recently my insomnia hasn't been as bad (though it is 5:30am and I'm writing this since I can't fall asleep and am coughing a lot due to this unknown cold/flu/throat infection/allergies) and I have been getting a handful of good nights of sleep.
The job search being up in the air also leaves other aspects of my life to be uncertain as well. I find myself questioning a lot of things I thought of as "solid" in the past. Relationships with friends and loved ones seem harder to maintain, take me more effort, rejection affecting me much more than before. I found myself pushing away those that I needed the most and feeling that I deserved to just be sad alone and miserable by myself.
With all of this building up I was bound for a breakdown - which happened a few times between September and December. With those breakdowns, I'd have to take a step back and think of things in a bigger picture, remind myself of my ultimate goals, refresh my memory of what activities and things I enjoyed, basically try to find the answer to What makes me genuinely happy?
It is said that when you've reached the bottom there's only one way to go and that's up. I really believe that. I took a long break from job hunting from the second week of December through this past weekend to simply relax and let my self-esteem heal a little bit. In that time I have realized what it is that makes me happy - genuinely happy (this might be long):
- Jeremy because he is a constant support and for never losing faith in me and being able to believe in me even when I don't, and he shows me the meaning of real love.
-FFFCUP because no one could ask for a better group of friends that constantly show love and support regardless of how far away we are from one another and can make me laugh all the time 'til my cheeks hurt.
-my parents, my cousins, my family because they inspire me to be the best that I can be and show me that the key to life is to laugh and be joyful, as well as treating others with kindness.
-my Rutgers friends (Engineers, 1015 loves, Psych majors, Douglass Girls) because they are really the most intelligent and intellectual group of people who I can have drama free times with and who have really made College 4 of the best years of my life - so much that I miss it more every time I look at old pics, and who I know will remain life-long friends to me.
-my WWPers because they are all off doing amazing and wonderful things to change the world and will always be like family to me, and have made me love them more knowing that no matter how long we've been apart not much changes when we all hang out again.
-painting because it relaxes me and makes me reminisce of art classes in middle school & high school and it's one of the things I'm actually naturally good at, or atleast I think I am...
- reading because I can leave my current situation and immerse myself in the lives of other characters in far off places and interesting situations.
- hugs because they are physical proof someone is there for me.
-blogging/journaling, basically writing out my feelings because I can look back on this in the past and hopefully be able to see how far I've come and how much I've grown.
-snail mail because they seem much more personal than emails or ecards or anything electronic because someone took the time to write, mail and send something.
All of these things make me really happy, and the list is (hopefully) still growing as I work my way towards a better, kinder and happier me. 2008 was a happy, tough, challenging and awesome year and I'm just hoping 2009 is even better...
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