Moderation

You know that saying "everything in moderation"

Well I have decided that I need to apply this little saying to all aspects of my life...therefore I have decided what my resolution will be for this year (better late than never..right?)


(unfortunately) I have this habit of having a laser focus when it comes to my interests and not remembering to look at the bigger picture (i.e. getting my priorities in order)


Now, for the most part, I haven't considered this problem of mine to be too much of a concern, actually to be quite honest I sometimes consider it a blessing and believe it to be a main factor in the reason that, up to this point, I have done very well in school. During the school year, I have an obsession when it comes to getting my work done (I'm a big dork, I like learning...and getting good grades:) I sometimes get so caught up in my school work that I have to remember if I have eaten lunch or try and remember when was the last time I worked out (but then again, if I am eating less then I can workout less..right?!).

But, like I said, I can usually let this obsession with school slide because it is obviously serving me well, but what I can't let slide is my obsession with non academic things, for example:

  I like to do jigsaw puzzles... A LOT. So much so, that once I start a puzzle it is really hard for me to do anything (and I mean anything) else until I finish that puzzle ( at which time I normally want to start another one). This is a bit ridiculous, and the reason why I have to limit myself to only doing puzzles during breaks from school.

 During the Casey Anthony trial I did very little from 9-5 on Mondays-Saturdays, and if I was doing anything (like babysitting Haley) the trial was always on (don't worry, she loved it too:). Looking back, this seems a little ridiculous because I could have just gotten a recap of what happened in court from the HLN people who recapped the biggest happenings from the trial every day. I could have, for example, been working on my tan!

 My final example (although there are many more) came from The Royal Wedding. Now the funny thing is that I didn't know much about the royal family (or even who Kate Middleton was) until about a month before the wedding when I saw some talk about it in People magazine. From that point on I was hooked. I watched every special there was concerning the royal family, the Middleton's, and the wedding itself (I even watched the Lifetime movie of how Kate and Wills met not once, not twice, but three times). Thankfully, my last final was the day before the wedding so I didn't have to feel bad about waking up at 3am to watch the pre-wedding coverage (side bar- I even TiVoed it, but decided that it wouldn't be the same if I didn't watch it LIVE..ya ridiculous!) and then watching the wedding coverage and then analysis of everyones thoughts of the wedding for the rest of the day. I even continued to keep up with the happenings of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for several weeks following their nuptials!

I am glad that I have finally taken a step back to see the BIG picture and realize that the world wont end if I take a step back from my obsessions to do other things, now the million dollar question is will I remember this the next time my latest obsession rolls around. Only time will tell (did I mention that I am really good at making excuses for myself ?!;)

over and out,
kristen

Mini road trip to Alabama the Beautiful (Birmingham)

This past weekend was spent in Birmingham because my bride-to-be friend Jessica was having a Bridal shower on Saturday afternoon. So seeing her was awesome (obviously), but I also got to see my twin (seriously people who don't know us think we are twins, or at the least sisters--and the funny thing being that I actually have a twin..brother) Katelyn and stay with her, which was so needed because we had some MAJOR catching up to do.

So here's a run down on my weekend:
-Friday night Katelyn and I met Jessica and Sims (a good friend of Jessica's--she's super fly) at this new pizza place in Bham called Slice--it was delicious, and highly recommended. Afterward we went to a whiskey bar (which is a bar that sells whiskey?!?) and met up with Jessica's fiance (Ashley) who has been spending like every waking moment of his life ( I exaggerate) studying for the bar exam he takes in about a week.

     Jessica warned me to go easy on the questions I had already complied for him while watching the           Casey Anthony trial because he is uber tired of all things related to law and studying for the bar exam. As my questions were more related to the trial-- process in general-- (and even if I had specific questions regarding the case Ashely would have not one clue what I was talking about because he didn't have time to follow the trial---I wish I could have said the same, now that it's over I miss it...but I digress, so..). I did get a chance to talk to Ashely about "beyond a reasonable doubt"and what he said made a lot of sense, but I wouldn't do it justice trying to explain it to you, so I will try and work on that for a later blog.

-The highlight of Friday night was meeting (that's probably not the best word considering that could imply that introductions were given, a better phrasing would be "my encounter") with this girl named Louise (not sure of the spelling). Oh Em Gee exclamation point (Ashely George:) she was by far one of the top five funniest people I have ever met. She was telling us about a couple she is friends with and her thoughts on when they would be getting engaged. I didn't even know the couple she was talking about, but because she was so animated and crazy and out there (in a good way) it made everything she said so entertaining:)

-Saturday morning Katelyn and I went to this breakfast place called Over Easy--it was delicious! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, so I am always in search of a good breakfast place (I am so sad the Flying Biscuit is gone)
-Jessica's bridal shower was Saturday afternoon. And my favorite thing about her shower was her presents; she got some really cute stuff!! The theme for the shower was monogram, so most of her presents had her (almost) new initials on them. Here is an example of my favorite gift she got (except hers says Mrs. Wright)

How cute!! You can find it (and others like it) on this website www.etsy.com

-After the shower I went back to Katelyn's and was informed that her friend (Lanier) had texted her and said that she needed to be ready by 8:30 with going out clothes and that she needed to get some mixers. This is all Lanier would tell Katelyn, Mary Frances, and Stephanie (who were at Katelyn's when I got back from the shower). So we were all left to wonder what Lanier was planning and just figured we would go pregame at someone's house and then go down town to the bars. Well, we were wrong. At 8:30 Lanier showed up with some Auburn boys and this is what was waiting outside

yup, a limo:)

and we were informed that we had the limo for the next 2 hours and then the driver was going to drop us off downtown at the bars. Um excuse me, what?! I was like "um, Katelyn is this how you normally spend your Saturday nights?" And she responds with "duh" Haha right. The limo driver just drives around Bham while we all drink and listen to music in the back. At one point Lanier even has the driver go to this point on top of a hill where you can see all of downtown Bham at night (super cool view) and has the driver take a group photo shot like we were back at prom. It was a great night, and for someone who is never spontaneous (me) it was even that much better!

Hope this weekend trumps last weekend:)

over and out,

kristen

Casey Anthony..what really does beyond a reasonable doubt mean?

So, like previously stated, I have been following the Casey Anthony trial  ever since someone (Ashley George) got me hooked on it. Sadly, I didn't get hooked on it until the prosecution had finished presenting their case and the defense had started presenting their case (which, by the way, I am not really sure I could tell you what the defense's case was)

That being stated, here are my thoughts about the whole thing (it should be said that I am a newbie to anything having to do with the law, this is my first trial to watch, my only experience is the many Law and Orders tv shows that I have seen--if that counts):

-to be honest, before I started following the trial I didn't know much about it, I probably could have been a juror because I knew so little...that being said, it didn't take me much time to have an opinion that Casey killed her daughter (It will be fair to say some of this could have been due to the bias of the media, but for the most part I think I tried to stay neutral--I think)
-it was unfortunate that the cause of death couldn't be determined because it seems that reason alone potentially held a lot of weight for the jurors, which begs the questions, do you have to know the cause of death to prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt?
-the closing statements "sealed the deal for me" so to say, I just felt the prosecution made it so clear for the jurors and I would have no problem relying on the circumstantial evidence to find Casey guilty of first degree murder

-when the verdict actually came back I was babysitting Haley and she was playing around me with all of her toys and I couldn't even move at first when she wasn't found guilty of anything except giving false testimony to the police (which is like HUGE! while she was lying to the police all of the evidence that the jurors needed to convict her was decomposing and going through a hurricane), and then once the initial shock had ended I tried to resume playing with Haley, but that was hard to do because I was so stunned and filled with so much emotion that it was hard to continue to play with Haley (sorry Hula Hoop)

-as the rest of the world started to voice their opinion on the case it was evident that a majority of people felt the way I did, even people who would have voted not guilty still thought she was guilty (just not convinced by the evidence--which seemed to be the opinion of the jurors), this is just really (I don't know the right word) unfair, and it's like the prosecution gets blamed for not doing a "good enough" job even though everyone knows she's guilty!

-i would never blame the jurors or criticize them (but I can disagree with their decision) because I do believe we have the greatest justice system in the world, but like anything else our system isn't perfect, and (unfortunately) "justice" is not going to be served for every victim; that being said, I don't think our system really "fails" us unless an innocent person gets convicted

-the biggest question that I have after all of this is what is the legal definition of beyond a reasonable doubt because (depending on who was asked) their seemed to be several definitions of it; so maybe in the future this definition should be addressed so that everyone is on the same page

All in all it is time to move on. I have been emotionally invested in this case for sometime now and (although I am not happy with the verdict) I am glad that I can now move on with my life (I've missed you SportsCenter). In the end the only judge that matters is God, and he knows what happened to little Caylee...so don't worry, JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED

over and out,
kristen