Sunday, October 29, 2017

Confess Your Unpopular Opinion

So every now and then there's some fun hashtags that get to trending on Twitter and "confess your unpopular opinion" is one of them. I'm always tempted to join in the fun but on Twitter, I feel a little silly when I tweet things out because I feel like I'm just talking to nobody. I'm on Twitter probably more than any other social media platform but it's mostly just to read things, get news, and laugh at college football memes. I don't necessarily do the tweeting, I just read all the tweets. I'm like a Twitter creeper, I guess. But anyway, as soon as I feel like it's too weird to join in on the Twitter fun I remember hey, that's what you have a blog for!  So, in today's edition of T is for Townsend I'm about to confess my unpopular opinions. Get ready.

1.) Beyonce is not that cool.
I probably shouldn't have started out with this one because it sounds so harsh (and might bring me death threats) but I'm just not impressed with Beyonce.

2.) Avocados aren't that good.
I've actually never said this one out loud before so it feels good to finally get this one off my chest. I will eat guacamole until the cows come home but a plain jane avocado just doesn't do it for me.

3.) Avatar was stupid.
Like, the movie.

4.) I think it's weird when famous people die and regular people are like, really emotionally affected by it as if they really knew that person.

5.) A hotdog is not a sandwich.
I actually thought this was the general consensus but my coworkers and I got in a fight about it recently and I was the only one who said no, a hotdog is not in fact a sandwich.

6.) Speaking of hotdogs, they're better when they're burned.

7.) I don't like Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

8.) Women's bathing suits get smaller and smaller every year and I'm not about that life. I just want full coverage bottoms is that too much to ask?

9.) Golf is not a sport.
It's a skill. But not a sport.

10.) The Prisoner of Azkaban was the best Harry Potter book.

11.) I don't understand why everyone hates Nickleback.
I didn't think they were that bad.

12.) Hard copy books > ebooks

What are your unpopular opinions?!

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Sunday, October 8, 2017

I Like Summer the Best

I feel like as a 30 year old, white female...and a blogger nonetheless, fall is what I should be looking forward to the most right now. Mornings and evenings are cooling off (hallelujah), Bath & Body Works has their fall candles out in full force, and Halloween is a mere few weeks away. But the honest truth is I love summer and I'm really sad to see it go.

The thing is, I don't love the summer heat, but I love summer activities. I love to swim in any body of water I can find and you just can't do that in the fall and winter.
I love to fish, but the fish don't bite in cold weather like they do in the summer.
I love northern Arizona, and camping, and exploring, but the forest roads close up north come November.
I love being able to just throw on some shorts, a tank top, and flip flops, but dressing myself is way more complicated and involves way more pieces in the fall.
I love baseball and baseball is summer (Fall if you're lucky).
I love that berries are always on sale at the grocery store, 2 for $5. You can't find berries on sale 2 for $5 dollars in the fall and winter.
Summer hosts the 4th of July.
The 4th of October, or the 4th of November aren't as fun as the 4th of July, be honest with yourself.

This summer was a really good one for me and like I said, I'm really sad to see it go. There's no more bathing suits draped over the side of my bathtub every weekend. My truck doesn't smell like wet dog anymore. I love the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice, but I already miss the smell of sunscreen and chlorine in my hair. I love the sound of Al McCoy calling another Suns game, but for now, Greg Schulte is still on the radio calling Diamondbacks games in October.

Weekend road trips, fishing in the dark, one great big vacation, lots of pool time and Route 44 Diet Coke's with cherry flavor and easy ice, monsoons, haboobs, and all the other summer things - I'm sad to see them go. So, while we all usher in fall and cooler weather with open arms, I bid summer the fondest adieu.

It was a good one.

Summer 2017 from Carissa on Vimeo.


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Sunday, October 1, 2017

It's been a while - 2017 Edition

Alright well, this is a little bit weird here because this is the first time I’ve written a blog post since mid-July. Today is October 1st. I’m not for sure, but I think that might be the longest I’ve ever gone between posts here at T is for Townsend. I’ve actually come here a few times throughout the summer and started writing some things but nothing ever came to fruition. The truth is I’ve been having a little bit of an internal struggle over here with this blog.

I would get the bug to write, so I’d start, and then I’d stop because I just literally couldn’t think of anything to say or couldn’t get in a good flow. I’d chalk it up to writer’s block.

More time would go by and I’d be like, ‘oh hey look at all this fun stuff I’ve done this summer let’s write about all of it!’ but then I’d start going through all my pictures and I would get overwhelmed with sorting through photos before I’d even begin writing. Which sounds silly, but maybe not because my mom told me a story this summer that goes like this: she used to color in those adult coloring books all the time. She ended up stopping because she said she had too many colored pencils to choose from. She would get so overwhelmed with the amount of options she had, that she couldn't decide on what colors to use so she just stopped coloring. This resembles my problem in that her colored pencils are my photos. I had so many photos to sort through and choose for a post, it became overwhelming so I just stopped posting.

I would also get to cruising old blogs I used to follow and suddenly feel inspired so I’d sit down and try to write something, but then I’d start thinking about how much the blog world has changed and I’d get discouraged and self doubt would creep in and I’d be like why bother? Who’s reading your blog anyway? What other blogs are there to follow anymore anyway? What's even the point of your blog? Do other people even really blog anymore? Where do I find all the bloggers? Where did they go? How deep do you have to dig through sponsored posts and carefully placed paid advertisements to find the actual blog posts anymore? There’s a way bigger web of questions weaved in my head but I’ll stop there and spare you the confusion. Bottom line is, I’d ask all these questions of myself and talk myself out of coming back to this space because I had decided in that moment that there was no point in it.

A few times thereafter I’d think about how I miss my blog and miss posting regularly but then I’d think about actually sitting down and coming up with a post and I just wouldn’t feel inclined to actually do the work. I thought maybe that post back in July was it for me. That blogging and writing just wasn’t my thing anymore. 

So, to test this theory and see if I was really ready to close this chapter, or if I was just in a weird headspace, I started writing in a journal every night. Now, before you roll your eyes and be like seriously Carissa how old are we how cliché are we going to be right now – I totally acknowledge that a journal sounds terribly cheesy and cliché and almost kind of cringy but I can't call it a diary cause that's even more cringy. I started writing in a journal because I remembered back in college I took a creative writing class and we’d always start the first 20 minutes of class just writing in your journal. No prompts, no rules, no requirements just kind of write whatever comes to your mind. I decided to do this on my own every night wondering if it would get my creative juices flowing, or help shake the rust off, or remind me what it feels like to actually write something. No pressure to be clever, or creative, no photos to sift through, just write down the thoughts that come to your head.

While I was in the midst of creating this habit I happened to read an article that was about setting boundaries and rules around the use of technology in families, for example, how much time we spend on our phones, how long we stare at the myriad of screens and devices we have, stuff like that. The author mentioned how they strategically place things around their house that promotes creation vs consumption for their kids; things like crayons, drawing paper, books, musical instruments, etc. This stood out to me – the idea of creation vs. consumption and I really got to thinking about it. 

This blog used to be my creativity. It was where I’d come to write things, to put ideas into a blog post and create something. In the absence of something like that I thought, what kind of things then, have I been creating? Nothing really. I’ve mostly just been consuming. Consuming news, mindlessly scrolling through social media, keeping up on my favorite tv shows, watching too much baseball, etc. 

So long story short (lol that was not that short but whatever), I’ve been wondering like, maybe writing and blogging might not necessarily be what I feel like doing lately, but maybe it’s what I should be doing. Maybe it’s what I need to do. Creativity over consumption. That’s going to be my new mantra and I’m going to start first with this blog so bear with me as I shake off the dust or take too long to sort through my photos. 

Speaking of photos here's one of me and Gunther snuggling to make up for all the words in this post.

Meet you back here in less than 2.5 months!

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