NURSING SCHOOL LESSONS TO APPLY TO LIFE

• Comfortable shoes beat all else.
• Smile, no matter how bad your day is going. Someone else is having worse.
• Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. You are not Superwoman. You cannot do it all by yourself.
• Don't forget to take time for yourself, or you won't be any help to anyone.
• It depends.
• Friendships come from unexpected places. Keep an open mind and heart.
• Prioritize.
• You will not find the answer in a book.
• Knowledge is power. Arrogance is not.
• Clean hair. Clean nails. Clean clothes.

TL;DR

Just a warning, this post will be some of the wordiest I will get on here.


I've broken my resolution to post on here daily. Hell, holidays are busy enough, I should've remembered the likelihood of being able to stick to a writing schedule would be shot to bits. Add some various medical issues (mine and family members) as well as a healthy dose of bad news with a side order of amazing news, and it's been a crazy crazy couple weeks.


It was a lousy time for me to hit this slide, since my one year anniversary is coming up! I can't believe it's been a year. Technically, I started it back in October of 2007, but did frequent updates starting this past year. I'll get into that more on the actual anniversary. I'm sure that's what you'd like to see. Oh yeah.


Anyways, I'm back, because I could use the happy distraction that fashion and silly blogging offers. Not only from the bad, but the exciting and terrifying. Although when I get back into the nursing program at university, I'll be wearing a whole lot of scrubs. OH GOD WHY AM I DOING THIS PANIC. (Every semester, I'm convinced I'm going to fail spectacularly, and so far haven't. Oh fear, you so illogical.)


Yes, I am a well of optimism.


As I've gone through this little blogging adventure, I've found many areas I've grown, and some areas that I still need to work on. It's not just defining my personal style, or opinions on trends, or evolving fashion. It's a bit of what is at my heart, what dreams and aspirations are long dead and which are still viable. Which attitudes need to be discarded, placed in my past and changed for my future.What is to be left behind and what needs to be nurtured. I can't party all night, or be careless and stupid with my life choices. I can't be reckless. I'm going to be an aunt. I'm going to be a nurse. I'm going to be an adult with a career and all the attendant responsibilities. To grow. Beholden to my future life choices.


I want to be a good aunt. I want to be a role model for the shrimp. Be someone who they look up to and admire. Someone who takes them on cool and weird excursions that other kids don't get to do. To be cool, silly aunt Ari. Embarrassingly, it's the newest addition to the clan that's making the changes I've been holding back on come to light.


That's enough soul baring for tonight. Got to leave us with SOME mystery after all, right?


Instead, here's another OOTD I threw together yesterday.













Top: Forever 21 fitted basic tee
Skirt: Forever 21
Sweater: Alloy in Pumpkin Spice
Jacket: Forever 21 (the warmest coat I own! It was 32 out when I took these snaps! There were icicles I had to scrape off my car. That doesn't happen often here, okay?)
Belt: Forever 21 in Taupe
Gloves: (not pictured) Portolando (GILT find)
Socks: Forever 21
Boots: Rocket Dogs
Headband: Sally's
Necklace: Forever 21
Earrings: Forever 21
Hair: Washed and left to air dry under headband



It was a horrible decision, wearing a skirt in freeze temperatures.


Hope you all stay warm, and snuggle up to your special one!

OH MY STARS AND STRIPES

Wanted to share with you all that there is a very exciting project I'm (hopefully) going to be involved with over the next few months. Cross your fingers that everything goes according to plan!

*kisses and sasses*

COUGHIN' LIKE IT AIN'T NO THANG

Sick as a dog. I finally caught the mutant flu going around my office since early April. Everyone else had gotten it months ago. Now, I'm chilling here with my Pink Floyd shirt, stripey socks, and The Origin of Species. Not too shabby.

:)

WHERE AM I?

What a week! Work went wild this week, between various complications and piles of paperwork, and unforseen circumstances, I spent most of my time busting chops to get caught up. Also, I spent some time leaning on my friends' shoulders because of personal life problems. When it rains, it pours, I guess.I feel terrible about letting the blog fall to the side, because I really consider this to be the fun part of my "work" in fashion. What's more, I enjoy the platform. Being able to pour out my silly fantasies and whimsy and not give a rat's ass whether or not anyone looks at me strangely.


To keep this from being a ridiculous wordy post, I'm going to be uploading various pictures I've snapped about town this week. I don't have an iPhone or anything fancy, but it does the trick.

"IS THIS REAL LIFE?"

Sometimes I wonder that myself. Usually before I get my coffee.


As you can guess, things have been super hectic after the vacation, between finding out and fixing what problems were ticking away on our desks, catching up on the paperwork in time for payroll, and all that fun stuff. Regretfully, I let Fashion Rihab updates fall to the wayside while I dealt with the "real life Ari" stuff.


My goal is to have my real life stuff caught up today, with life here starting up again tonight.


Wish me luck.

Formspring Answers

What is your skincare regimen??

This is going to make me sound weird, but other than using a cleansing toner and makeup remover, I really don't do much.

I wash my face every day with Clinique facial soap for dry skin, same I've used since I was fifteen. I sometimes use Olay facial moisturizer, but usually don't bother since it's so humid here it ends up making my face look oily. After a night on the town, I'm usually too tired or hammered to trust myself with too many chemicals around my eyes, so I use presoaked makeup remover pads from Target.

For the rest of my skin, I use Olay or bodycology body scrub in the shower, and use Lubriderm unscented moisturizer every day. I use that one because my tattoo artist recommended it.

And that's that.

Your hair looks so healthy! What products do you use?

I have had super awesome luck in the genetic department. Like my skin, I really don't use many products. It's thick, strait, and generally does what it wants.

Instead of fighting it (exception: color) and trying to make it do what I want, I kind of let it do it's thing.

Mane & Tail shampoo and conditioner. Herbal Essences for thick hair. Intensive repair hair mask once in a blue moon. Cream to smooth any fly-aways. Air dry. Hairbrush I bought in the Keys years ago.

Every so often, I get a bee in my bonnet, and I'll make a hair mask from avocados, whole milk, and kiwi.

Ask me anything

I installed tiny robots to all of the hinges on the cupboards in your kitchen. This isn't a question. I just wanted you to know that while you sleep, I open and close those things at will.

HAHA, OH YOU ARE FUNNY.

Jerk.

I should probably explain, for those of you who don't have the pleasure of intimately knowing me, that one of my biggest pet peeves is cabinet doors and drawers being left open.

I have been diagnosed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) caused by PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). My therapist explained it developed as a way for me to control my surroundings whenever I felt powerless. Made sense, I mean, that was the biggest reason I developed anorexia and bulimia, as a way to control the only thing I felt I had any control over: my weight.

My OCD is pretty moderate. I count a lot of things (napkins, street signs, steps, etc.) and wash my hands a specific way, hold onto some silly superstitions (throwing spilt salt over my left shoulder three times) and obsessively close things. I can't walk past a door that is barely cracked without closing it.

I used to have anxiety attacks when drawers and doors were left open. Now, it's such a habit, that I can't sleep if a cabinet or door is left open.

And one of my friends gets the biggest goddamn perverted humor from opening my cabinets and watching me struggle with my instinct to close it.

Ask me anything

Gurgle Gurgle

OH GOD 24. GODDAMN YOU DANA! SHIT.


(I know. I'm a lost cause. Example, I'm looking forward to The Good Guys. If that doesn't say anything, I don't know WHAT does.)


You may have seen on the Twitter last night, I had a run in with the food poisoning ills. Having a massive hangover and then getting that mess? Dudes, I wanted to punch whatever bacteria that caused it in the face. Too bad medicine doesn't work that way.


Anyways, I'm back on my feet, and feeling oodles better! Thank you for the kind words.


(glurge)

I'M MELTING!

No, darlings, I haven't taken over the mantle of Wicked Witch of the West. (YET.) However, it is boiling fricking HOT here! Good for the Air Conditioning business, not so much for normal life. That doesn't include the beach and ice cream.


So, pretty much the majority of my life. I knew being a night owl would turn against me some day.


On that note, I'll just let you know that to see my party owl OOTD, look to my Twitter for updates tonight! I'll take legit pictures as well, but won't be sober enough to properly upload until tomorrow.


As always, party safely!

Salutations!

Happy Saturday y'all!


I went ahead and dyed my hair last night. It came out pretty nice. More red than I was expecting, but considering my bleached blonde state, I should have counted on it. (I took pictures, but left my camera at home. I'll post the pictures this afternoon.)


Tonight is a massive undead-themed birthday party, so I'll take the camera and share the undead fashion. Ha!


As always, have fun, but be safe!

BLEH

Sorry darlings. I've been having difficulties with uploading my pictures all day. I've saved the posts until tomorrow, when I can hopefully figure this out.

Wish me luck.

UFF DAH

THAT'S RIGHT I SAY 'UFF DAH'. (Shout out to my Midwest peeps, yo!)

For years now, I've been looking for a new curse word or phrase, because the old stand-bys just hadn't been cutting it. "Shit" was for minor things like slicing my finger open while making dinner, or tripping on the stairs. "Goddamnit" was for annoying customers and cold calling telemarketers. "Bitch" and "Asshole" are terms of endearment for friends. (If you met my friends, you would understand. I think. Or am I an asshole for that? Oh God!) "Fuck" covers anything from, as Lewis Black says, 'thinking up shit to say' to falling into puddles.

I say 'fuck' so often, that when I am pissed off, or hurt, or whatever, no one really takes me seriously. Some times I get so flustered, I can't even curse. I just spit out something like, "monkeypissfiddlesstickshitfuckcreek!"

I can hear your laughter.

That Norwegian phrase always works, even if no one down South really knows what it means, except for my Minnesotan friend. Hello friend! Thanks for making me feel less like a weirdo than the native Floridians!

The point I initially wanted to make, before being sidetracked explaining about uff dah, was that, once again, my work life is in disarray. Surprise! The second new girl quit! After a week of interviews and three weeks of training.

And the executive decision is that we won't be hiring a new person to fill the slot. Because, well, that's the job I've been doing anyways for the last four years, in addition to what I actually get paid for.

I get to work six days a week.

Twelve to sixteen hours a day. At least.

While going to school full time.

Oh boy.

Vital Statistics

So, by now, some of you are probably wondering, "Gee whiz Ari! I wish I knew more about you! Like, what are your stats and shit?"

Well reader, you've got it!

Me and my buddy Richard.

• Nom de plume: Arianna Loucard
• Age: 23
• Location: Florida (Space Coast)
• Sign: Capricorn (OMG, it is so true in so many areas of my life. Uff duh. Only Midwesterners and other Northerners will see what I did there. Eh? Eh?)
• Status: Happily unattached
• Children: Delicious when fried.
• Style: Hodge-podge. That's the reason I'm doing this. To find myself and evolve. And bring y'all on the journey! Yay!
• What You'll See Me Wear: Mostly Forever 21, GAP, Michael Antonio, American Apparel, vintage or thrift store finds, J Crew, Banana Republic, Anthropologie, and shit I find on Amazon. (It's my crack!)
• What You'll See Me Fawn Over: Marc Jacobs, LOUBOUTIN, Christian Siriano, Alice + Olivia, Dior, on and on and on.
• Favorite Designer: Alexander McQueen, bless his heart. Everyone should check out his final collection. It is HAUNTING to look at.
• Favorite Food: I love food. I love to cook, and I like to play with my family recipes. I'm German, Irish and Italian, so when I cook, I fucking cook. Since I was ten, I've been making the big family holiday meals. KA-BLAM.
• What I Do When I'm Not Working, Blogging, Or At School: reading, reading at the bar, dancing, and loving every moment of life I get.
• Is This Going The Way Of My Other Projects: I sure as hell hope not! I've decided to treat this as a real job, just like my day job, and my free-lancing journalist job. Baby needs to pay her bills, so don't be surprised if I get another free-lance job. Yay adulthood!

I love shopping. I love writing. I love sharing my opinion on fashion. This is a platform for me to do it all. To share my dorky humor and silly fashion ideas. To share my steps and falterings as I transition from being the party-girl nursing student to capable yet still hard-partying nurse (off duty only) who may or may not change her mind on love and family at an undetermined point in the future.

Who knows what going to happen? Fuck, I've haven't the slightest. So, come on the ride with me. At the very least, it'll be a good laugh.

Where's the tech guy?

Lovelies, I've been having a bitch of a time with Blogger today. I don't know what's going on, but I can't upload photos and auto save is going nutso.

I'm going to try to fix these, and if not, curl up in the corner with a glass of wine to whine into.

Wish me luck!

Whoa Oh Ah Oh

My gal Jess and her boytoy Noah flew down from Brooklyn early this week. They have a great room on the beach, right near Main St and all the parties. And, man, do bikers fuckin' PARTY. Dude, Daytona Bike Week is MASSIVE. Like, crazy fucking MASSIVE. Parties, booze, tattoo parlors, bikes... I can't believe it.

So, yeah, I've been on an unofficial break while balancing work, school and partying with everyone. I know, that's not balancing.

So sorry!

Be back in action March 9th.

Vitamin C & Vodka

I am so sorry y'all, but I am exhausted. I really wanted to do a COVET and OOTD, but alas, life does not like that plan.



1) The new girl has called in sick the last two days (which means I do her job plus my job PLUS tons of overtime) and I'm pretty sure if she calls in again tomorrow, she's going to be gone. LAME.


(UPDATE: This morning, the new girl called in and quit. More on this later.)




2) I have a friend coming down from the frozen wastes soon, so I wanted to get ahead in my schoolwork so I can get wasted with her every night and not hate myself. (That's a lie. I hate myself for every hangover, but I still tough it out at work! At least I'm reponsible.)





3) All computers have turned against me, so a simple half-hour thing requires defrags, virus scanning, rebooting, trouble-shooting, blah blah blah. Five hours later, I've got two crapular things saved, and I go into work (where the computers are also against me!) in four hours.



I used to run on three hours of sleep (a week) and a carafe of coffee in highschool. Okay? I NEVER SLEPT. WHAT HAPPENED TO ME? BLAST AND TARNATION.



So, I apologise.

Ciao.

What a ride!

Ah, there is nothing like a truly relaxing vacation. I escaped my work-a-day existence for the glory of Miami and South Beach.

It doesn't hurt that my BFF lives down there, either. Yay!

I didn't take any pictures, which is a shame because there were some cute fuckin' fashions happening down there. Plus a wedding on the beach! And now some stranger will forever have an image of me sunbathing in their wedding photo. Sweet.

But, now that I'm back (and found a TON of cute sale items! At expensive boutiques! Holy shit!) I'm ready to post the pics and shop some more. Internet sales = gasm!

Ruh-Roh!

Since I started this silly little blog, I decided I should get an idea of how the bigger, badder bloggists do it. So I've been reading a ton of fashion and crafts blogs. I Am Style-ish, the (chloe) conspiracy, My Mama Made It (I like saying "momma" instead), Pepper Design, just to name a few.

Something I've noticed, while thoroughly enjoying the wit, humor, and creation of these darling blogs, is that most are married, some have children, and some proclaim their religious faith very openly and without shame.

Uh oh.

Compared to their socially acceptable values, I'm screwed. I talk about my partying, my wild-child past (erm, present, kinda), my boozing, my crazy amazing life. I've never felt an inclination to be wed. I only recently (and reluctantly) accepted the fact I'm going to be a mother. (No, I'm not preggo, but the more chubby cheeked cuties I see, the harder it is to resist.) I believe in God, but I have too many conflicts with the religious background I was raised in to feel comfortable to practice my faith. And in the Judeo-Christian community I live in, my religious and personal beliefs are very much looked down upon.

So, I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm not going to be PG or PC. I've said it before, I'm not ashamed of my life and I won't make apologies for it. Sure, right now, I feel like the oversexed, attention-seeking, rebellious, naughty younger sister in the blog-o-sphere, but what the hell?

I'll stick to what I'm good at.

Hold on tight.

It's going to be a hell of a ride!

Still Livin'

Yes! I am still here! And still kicking, sort of.

My hours are up at work, at least until we find another office worker, but I'm down with that. More money for me! Which means more shoes, tops or accessories to put up on here! Squee!

Speaking of my work, I've been doing a ton of research for Bossman about advertising and writing up a huge list of my recommendations for our next phone book ad. Today I found out he wants me to be a part of the development team! Hooray! If I wasn't going into nursing, I would SO be working as a graphic designer. Other than reading and fashion, it's my passion.

ANYWAYS.

I'm just giving y'all a heads up as to what's going on (the pleasant stuff, not the usual icky concerns I've got. Not going to burden y'all, let's be happy! Yay, shoes!) and to promise promise promise that during my lunch break I'll whip something up to share, instead of my life.

Ciao! <3