Total Beauty Collection #1

Click here to read my review of the first Total Beauty Collection on TruBeautyGems!

My favorite thing about life in A2

It has been almost a year since Corey and I moved out to Ann Arbor. We were immediately taken with all there is to do, eat, and experience here. We came from a relatively small town, so we reveled in the variety of culture, cuisine, and people in A2.

After living her for 10 months, settling into a routine, and generally making a life here, I began to reflect on what I like the most about my life here: my new friends.

I'm a very social-relational person. I love being around people, talking and sharing ideas. It's not surprising to me that I've become attached to certain people so quickly.

This is not to say that I don't miss my Wisconsin friends. Many of them are going through HUGE milestones right now, and I'm so sad I can't be right there with them soaking in all the joys and supporting them through all the rough patches. I do my best over the phone, but I miss them terribly, and they will never been replaced in my heart.

On that note, I was actually worried about making friends in this new life initially. I was worried that, now that I'm a "grown-up" I wouldn't bond with new people like I would my college and high school friends. They new me at my craziest, and they still stick by me. How could I form a bond with someone who met me after the "crazy" is no longer age appropriate? (I know I'm being a little hard on myself. I'm only 25.)

But it turned out that I met some amazing people who are just like me. We were all brought to this town for school, work, or by our significant others to try to make our way as adults, and that's definitely something to bond over. We still get silly (plenty silly), but we talk about careers, mortgages, and future families.

I really love that my new friends are from all over the country, some from places I've never been. We grew up with slightly different values and we have different tastes in what constitutes the ultimate in home cooking, but we fit together in awesome harmony. Sure, my Bostonian friends prefer Sam Adams over Leinenkugal's, my friends from the South and I will never agree on iced tea, and I'm never quite going to get what's the big flipping deal about Chik-fil-a, but we are getting along great.

The Single Experiment

Corey was gone for about a week earlier this month. He went back to Wisconsin to speak at his undergrad composition seminar and stuck around to visit friends and family. I, however, was stuck here because I have to earn our living. I love Corey more than anything, but I was getting jealous. I was upset that he got to take off (he's done for the summer) and I have to stay tethered to my job. I got off of work long enough to spend a week with him in Italy later this summer, but that felt like forever away. I was, and still am, restless in my nonexistent career, but I do get a small high knowing that even though I'm not using my degree, I can support myself, my husband and two cats.

(The cats btw, NOT happy that Corey was gone for a week.)

So I decided that while Corey was gone, I would ask myself: WWSLD? What would "Single Lauren" do? (minus the whole getting involved with other men thing).

Serendipitously, a new girlfriend invited me to a girls' night out. It ended up being just the two of us, but I had a blast. On Friday night, we got all dressed up at her place, pre-gamed (I haven't used that word in a while), and when to a flashy dance club downtown. We danced (it was pride night, score!), had delicious drinks, and her husband picked us up and took us through McDonald's drive-thru on the way home. My tweet of the weekend: "Early 20s: getting drunk and crashing on your friend's couch. Late 20s: getting drunk and crashing in your friend's guest room. Upgrade!"

On Saturday, I joined another husband-less girlfriend for lunch and shopping. Something about Corey being out of town made me freer with my money than usual, but hey, Single Lauren lives a fabulous life of overflowing shopping bags and only has to answer to herself about bank statements. (Don't worry, I didn't go divorce-court overboard. Plus, we just got our tax return.)

Sunday, I woke up with a horrible sore throat. It particularly sucked because it hurt so bad I had to cancel two phone dates with besties from back home. I drank tea and watched "Greek" on Netflix all day. It's a decent show for ABC Family.

Corey came home on Monday afternoon and life went back to normal. I had fun as Single Lauren for a few days, but I wouldn't trade my life with Corey for anything. Especially because he makes tea when I'm sick and carries the 27lb tub of cat litter up to our 3rd floor apartment.

Great Day

I feel almost bad blogging about having such an awesome day since it started with me dropping off Corey at the bus to go home for a few days. He is going back to WI to speak to the comp studio at our undergrad at the invitation of his former professor. It's awesome for him, but I'm going to miss him and I'm frankly jealous that he gets to up and leave when I have to stay here and work. But after I kissed him goodbye at the bus stop, the day went up from there.

1. I finally found us a new apartment, and it's exactly what I wanted. We have been lusting after this property that gives an amazing discount for U of M students. I don't want to dish too many details, but it's an amazing price for the amount of space and an Ann Arbor zip code. If we stay here for another 3 years, this will be our home. :)

2. I decided to celebrate by treating myself to a trip to Ulta Beauty. My recent forte into beauty blogging (you can find my guest spots at trubeautygems.blogspot.com) has turned me into a bit of a makeup monster. I snagged a gift set of $112 worth of Too Faced makeup for $45 that wasn't even supposed to be on the shelves until tomorrow. I may do a beauty post in the near future with details, either here or at TBG.

3. I was invited at the last minute to dine at the home of a couple Corey and I have been getting to know since we moved here. I had delicious homemade lasagna and played Balderdash tonight when I was planning to make a Lean Cuisine and watch a chick flick alone. Quel bon suprise!

A few side bits of awesome: I met my weight-loss goal for the week, only 6 lbs left to go! And I shipped a super-secret surprise for someone I love dearly. Can't divulge the details yet, they may be reading!

So I'm doing my best to put positive energy back out into the universe. I don't know what I did to deserve such good karma, but I'm going to try to earn it!