June 2021

Five years have passed since I last sat down for Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Even though the holiday was never that big of a deal in my home, it’s one of those days where everyone expects you to travel back to where you’re from and spend the day with relatives. The only problem? I live three thousand miles away from all of my relatives. So yeah, I will definitely once again be flying solo this year. Whether you are thinking about spending the holidays alone this year because you’re stuck at school or stuck working the day after the holiday, don’t worry, I’m a seasoned veteran on how to not hate the holidays even if you don’t have a home cooked meal to push you into a food coma. With so many different options of what to do, none including being asked about your relationship status by nosy relatives, you might even be a little glad that you saved yourself the price of airfare and survived the holidays all on your own. Or maybe with the help of just a few friends. This tip is especially applicable if you are still in college, because with so many people on campus, you can’t possibly be the only one that didn’t have the chance to go home for the holidays. Pay attention to flyers around school or campus emails, there are usually events planned in or around campus targeted towards a holiday celebration for those who stuck around. An alternative is to find friends or fellow dorm neighbors who are in town and host a Friendsgiving. Have everyone bring one dish and voila, dinner is served! While you could technically host your own Thanksgiving dinner in college, who has the time, money or cooking abilities? Am I right? If you’ve aged a bit, think 22 and up, try hosting your own dinner for a change. You can still encourage guests to bring a side dish, just make sure you cover the essentials like turkey and mashed potatoes. Any friends who are local to the area or just don’t want to spend the money to travel home can attend, leaving you looking like the most generous host of the year. Whether you’re in college or just being an adult, attending a close friend’s or significant other’s family dinner is an option. As long as they promise to not leave your side at any moment, because hello, awkward! While this might be easier if you’re younger, it’s not totally out of the norm to be someone’s plus one at a holiday party. As long as the dinner isn’t super intimate you should be fine, but just in case, bring a little something like a pie to show your appreciation. My senior year of college I spent Thanksgiving volunteering at a local food bank in my university town. After spending the day serving food and talking to people in the community I suddenly wished I hadn’t spent the last 3 years moping about being stuck at home alone on the holiday. Taking the time to give back to your community is so rewarding, and is especially helpful during holiday seasons when regular volunteers travel back home or have plans of their own. Take the step to call local shelter and soup kitchen to ask if they need any extra help for the day. With apps like Skype, Hangouts, Facetime and about a million other forms of communication, there’s no reason to feel like you are completely separated from those you love. Spend the time to call your mom or dad, I’m sure they’ll love it no matter how busy the day is. If you feel you need an excuse to interrupt the festivities (which you don’t by the way) just ask for some help on how to make that dish you all used to eat together. Real talk, I always call my mom to ask her at what temperature to bake my chicken because no one bakes chicken as good as that woman. Instead of stressing out about all the things you’re missing back home use the time to start a tradition of your own. With five years of celebrating on my own I’ve grown comfortable with my own Thanksgiving routine, which is making a dinner for one, complaining how there is nothing good on TV and stalking the website of all my favorite stores. I’m too terrified to shop on Black Friday so I just like to watch from a distance.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year? Will you be with friends, family or flying solo?

My mornings are usually pretty chill, with my decision to never wear makeup and my general lack of fucks given about whether or not I’ve worn a pair of pants already that week. Yet I know for some people getting up, ready and out for work in the morning can be a bit of a struggle, so after mastering the art of never being late for my bus, I’ve figured out the 5 things you can do to spend less time getting ready in the morning. What can someone do with all that extra time? How about eating a balanced breakfast, catching up on the news, or be like me and scroll through Instagram until your retinas burn from the brightness of your phone. While I don’t always follow my own advice, I definitely very rarely find myself running after my bus first thing in the morning. Also because I have a big thing against running in public after public transportation. I rather be late than run after a bus, seriously though, I’ve been late to avoid the awkward, “hey I’m over here, hold up,” arm waving situation.

Shower the night before.

Don’t listen to anyone that lectures you about how gross it is to shower the night before. If they were so worried about sweating in their sleep they would spend a little more time washing their sheets to get all dead the skin off. Like on a daily basis. Showering definitely takes up the most time, so why not get it over with the night before and save yourself the time of a shower plus the time you would spend blow drying your hair!

Keep all your stuff in one place.

This seems like a no brainer but I’ve probably wasted over a year of my life looking for my hairbrush. By keeping everything together you don’t run the risk of losing something, and the time it takes to find it, or missing a step in your morning routine. Yes, I do sometimes forget to put on deodorant because I simply didn’t get a visual reminder.

Plan your outfit ahead of time.

Ten years ago doing this was nearly impossible, with no cell phone app to tell me the weather and no real rights over the TV remote to check the nightly news. By picking out your clothes before bed you cut out all the stress from the morning, and don’t run the risk of finding out last minute that whatever you had hoped to wear is stained, ripped or just too wrinkly to see the light of day.

Pack your bag the night before.

Truthfully, when I’m unprepared in the morning this is what I spend most of my time doing, trying to roundup my badge, wallet, snacks and figuring out where the hell my keys are. Keeping all your junk in one spot helps, but having it ready to grab and run out the door will save you so much time. Even if you did just this, your morning could run so much more smoothly.

Download an app to help with your commute.

If you rely on public transportation to get you to where you need to be, downloading an app that let’s you know about any delays or arrival times is a completely game changer. Why rush out the door if your bus is running late anyways? Major cities like New York and Washington DC have tons of them, so download a few and choose the one that works best for you.

Is there anything you do on a consistent basis so that you can get a few extra minutes of sleep? And if any of you know of a way to prevent my hair from becoming a knotted mess overnight I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comment section below!  

Stay in the loop by following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bloglovin

My mornings are usually pretty chill, with my decision to never wear makeup and my general lack of fucks given about whether or not I’ve worn a pair of pants already that week. Yet I know for some people getting up, ready and out for work in the morning can be a bit of a struggle, so after mastering the art of never being late for my bus, I’ve figured out the 5 things you can do to spend less time getting ready in the morning. What can someone do with all that extra time? How about eating a balanced breakfast, catching up on the news, or be like me and scroll through Instagram until your retinas burn from the brightness of your phone. While I don’t always follow my own advice, I definitely very rarely find myself running after my bus first thing in the morning. Also because I have a big thing against running in public after public transportation. I rather be late than run after a bus, seriously though, I’ve been late to avoid the awkward, “hey I’m over here, hold up,” arm waving situation.

Shower the night before.

Don’t listen to anyone that lectures you about how gross it is to shower the night before. If they were so worried about sweating in their sleep they would spend a little more time washing their sheets to get all dead the skin off. Like on a daily basis. Showering definitely takes up the most time, so why not get it over with the night before and save yourself the time of a shower plus the time you would spend blow drying your hair!

Keep all your stuff in one place.

This seems like a no brainer but I’ve probably wasted over a year of my life looking for my hairbrush. By keeping everything together you don’t run the risk of losing something, and the time it takes to find it, or missing a step in your morning routine. Yes, I do sometimes forget to put on deodorant because I simply didn’t get a visual reminder.

Plan your outfit ahead of time.

Ten years ago doing this was nearly impossible, with no cell phone app to tell me the weather and no real rights over the TV remote to check the nightly news. By picking out your clothes before bed you cut out all the stress from the morning, and don’t run the risk of finding out last minute that whatever you had hoped to wear is stained, ripped or just too wrinkly to see the light of day.

Pack your bag the night before.

Truthfully, when I’m unprepared in the morning this is what I spend most of my time doing, trying to roundup my badge, wallet, snacks and figuring out where the hell my keys are. Keeping all your junk in one spot helps, but having it ready to grab and run out the door will save you so much time. Even if you did just this, your morning could run so much more smoothly.

Download an app to help with your commute.

If you rely on public transportation to get you to where you need to be, downloading an app that let’s you know about any delays or arrival times is a completely game changer. Why rush out the door if your bus is running late anyways? Major cities like New York and Washington DC have tons of them, so download a few and choose the one that works best for you.

Is there anything you do on a consistent basis so that you can get a few extra minutes of sleep? And if any of you know of a way to prevent my hair from becoming a knotted mess overnight I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comment section below!  

Stay in the loop by following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bloglovin

Five years have passed since I last sat down for Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Even though the holiday was never that big of a deal in my home, it’s one of those days where everyone expects you to travel back to where you’re from and spend the day with relatives. The only problem? I live three thousand miles away from all of my relatives. So yeah, I will definitely once again be flying solo this year. Whether you are thinking about spending the holidays alone this year because you’re stuck at school or stuck working the day after the holiday, don’t worry, I’m a seasoned veteran on how to not hate the holidays even if you don’t have a home cooked meal to push you into a food coma. With so many different options of what to do, none including being asked about your relationship status by nosy relatives, you might even be a little glad that you saved yourself the price of airfare and survived the holidays all on your own. Or maybe with the help of just a few friends. This tip is especially applicable if you are still in college, because with so many people on campus, you can’t possibly be the only one that didn’t have the chance to go home for the holidays. Pay attention to flyers around school or campus emails, there are usually events planned in or around campus targeted towards a holiday celebration for those who stuck around. An alternative is to find friends or fellow dorm neighbors who are in town and host a Friendsgiving. Have everyone bring one dish and voila, dinner is served! While you could technically host your own Thanksgiving dinner in college, who has the time, money or cooking abilities? Am I right? If you’ve aged a bit, think 22 and up, try hosting your own dinner for a change. You can still encourage guests to bring a side dish, just make sure you cover the essentials like turkey and mashed potatoes. Any friends who are local to the area or just don’t want to spend the money to travel home can attend, leaving you looking like the most generous host of the year. Whether you’re in college or just being an adult, attending a close friend’s or significant other’s family dinner is an option. As long as they promise to not leave your side at any moment, because hello, awkward! While this might be easier if you’re younger, it’s not totally out of the norm to be someone’s plus one at a holiday party. As long as the dinner isn’t super intimate you should be fine, but just in case, bring a little something like a pie to show your appreciation. My senior year of college I spent Thanksgiving volunteering at a local food bank in my university town. After spending the day serving food and talking to people in the community I suddenly wished I hadn’t spent the last 3 years moping about being stuck at home alone on the holiday. Taking the time to give back to your community is so rewarding, and is especially helpful during holiday seasons when regular volunteers travel back home or have plans of their own. Take the step to call local shelter and soup kitchen to ask if they need any extra help for the day. With apps like Skype, Hangouts, Facetime and about a million other forms of communication, there’s no reason to feel like you are completely separated from those you love. Spend the time to call your mom or dad, I’m sure they’ll love it no matter how busy the day is. If you feel you need an excuse to interrupt the festivities (which you don’t by the way) just ask for some help on how to make that dish you all used to eat together. Real talk, I always call my mom to ask her at what temperature to bake my chicken because no one bakes chicken as good as that woman. Instead of stressing out about all the things you’re missing back home use the time to start a tradition of your own. With five years of celebrating on my own I’ve grown comfortable with my own Thanksgiving routine, which is making a dinner for one, complaining how there is nothing good on TV and stalking the website of all my favorite stores. I’m too terrified to shop on Black Friday so I just like to watch from a distance.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year? Will you be with friends, family or flying solo?

Five years have passed since I last sat down for Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Even though the holiday was never that big of a deal in my home, it’s one of those days where everyone expects you to travel back to where you’re from and spend the day with relatives. The only problem? I live three thousand miles away from all of my relatives. So yeah, I will definitely once again be flying solo this year. Whether you are thinking about spending the holidays alone this year because you’re stuck at school or stuck working the day after the holiday, don’t worry, I’m a seasoned veteran on how to not hate the holidays even if you don’t have a home cooked meal to push you into a food coma. With so many different options of what to do, none including being asked about your relationship status by nosy relatives, you might even be a little glad that you saved yourself the price of airfare and survived the holidays all on your own. Or maybe with the help of just a few friends. This tip is especially applicable if you are still in college, because with so many people on campus, you can’t possibly be the only one that didn’t have the chance to go home for the holidays. Pay attention to flyers around school or campus emails, there are usually events planned in or around campus targeted towards a holiday celebration for those who stuck around. An alternative is to find friends or fellow dorm neighbors who are in town and host a Friendsgiving. Have everyone bring one dish and voila, dinner is served! While you could technically host your own Thanksgiving dinner in college, who has the time, money or cooking abilities? Am I right? If you’ve aged a bit, think 22 and up, try hosting your own dinner for a change. You can still encourage guests to bring a side dish, just make sure you cover the essentials like turkey and mashed potatoes. Any friends who are local to the area or just don’t want to spend the money to travel home can attend, leaving you looking like the most generous host of the year. Whether you’re in college or just being an adult, attending a close friend’s or significant other’s family dinner is an option. As long as they promise to not leave your side at any moment, because hello, awkward! While this might be easier if you’re younger, it’s not totally out of the norm to be someone’s plus one at a holiday party. As long as the dinner isn’t super intimate you should be fine, but just in case, bring a little something like a pie to show your appreciation. My senior year of college I spent Thanksgiving volunteering at a local food bank in my university town. After spending the day serving food and talking to people in the community I suddenly wished I hadn’t spent the last 3 years moping about being stuck at home alone on the holiday. Taking the time to give back to your community is so rewarding, and is especially helpful during holiday seasons when regular volunteers travel back home or have plans of their own. Take the step to call local shelter and soup kitchen to ask if they need any extra help for the day. With apps like Skype, Hangouts, Facetime and about a million other forms of communication, there’s no reason to feel like you are completely separated from those you love. Spend the time to call your mom or dad, I’m sure they’ll love it no matter how busy the day is. If you feel you need an excuse to interrupt the festivities (which you don’t by the way) just ask for some help on how to make that dish you all used to eat together. Real talk, I always call my mom to ask her at what temperature to bake my chicken because no one bakes chicken as good as that woman. Instead of stressing out about all the things you’re missing back home use the time to start a tradition of your own. With five years of celebrating on my own I’ve grown comfortable with my own Thanksgiving routine, which is making a dinner for one, complaining how there is nothing good on TV and stalking the website of all my favorite stores. I’m too terrified to shop on Black Friday so I just like to watch from a distance.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year? Will you be with friends, family or flying solo?