Friday Favs - Nails

It's Friday!

(well not anymore. I had this post all ready but forgot to actually post it yesterday...)

Today I'm going to share my favorite for nails...

 ...Essie Polish!

I don't always have my nails painted, but when I do it's with Essie! I believe I discovered Essie in college and it has become pretty much the only brand of polish I use. It comes in gorgeous colors, holds up well, and comes off easily with remover (no stains after wearing dark colors!).

The other night, I decided to try something new though! I have a friend who sells Jamberry and she sent me a sample so I tried it out. I struggled a bit while applying it and it isn't perfect (it's the striped one), but I'm excited to see how it holds up. And she was sweet enough to send more than one sample so maybe my second attempt will be better. 

All opinions shared are my own. I receive no compensation for these reviews. 

What are your favorites for nails? 

77 Days

77 days. The number of days I was unemployed before receiving a job offer. 77 days.

I get it that at about 26 years old I haven't had a lot of time to experience true struggle and I know my life has been fairly easy this far. But even with few truly challenging experiences, I can assure you that unemployment is awful. I'm not sharing this for pity or to compete with others who struggle. I'm sharing for personal catharsis and with the hope that you may understand unemployment a bit better. 

The worst 77 days. 

I felt hopeless, sad, exhausted, lost, useless, lonely. I lost confidence in myself. Some days I couldn't find an ounce of motivation. 

The hardest 77 days. 

For me the toughest part of unemployment was not knowing when it was going to end. I quickly lost the ability to concretely plan anything in the future - scheduling a haircut a few months away was stressful. 

The longest 77 days.

Every day was the same. Weekends were no different from weekdays. Without having somewhere you must be everyday, days run together. Job searching and applying can occur any day of the week. 

As my dad said when I called him with the news of my job offer, "It only takes one". It took one offer for all the terribleness and stress of those 77 days to dissipate. My tears of worry and frustration turned into tears of relief and excitement. 

I think it will take a bit of time, but I hope that I become thankful for my unemployment experience. So far it's helped me with one thing. Perspective. I learned that challenges that once brought me frustration are actually not that terrible. I hope that I'll be able to keep that perspective as I venture back into the "employed" category. 

Weekend Recap

three things about this weekend

1. Celebrating a new job in two ways! First picking up my sibs from school and stopping at Starbucks for treats and fraps. My bro at a blueberry muffin in the time it took me to snap this pic. Secondly, enjoying brews with my Besties! 

2. Enjoying the weather: working in the garden, decking (not the material used to build a deck, but the act of chatting on a deck on a sunny day), and soccer watching. We had gorgeous weather all weekend and I tried to be outside as much as I could. 

3. Procrastination. Per usual I procrastinated on my school work...