Remember that time I actually wrote but then my blog just turned into sharing links? Yeah...

Yes, I haven't written at all and I've just started to share my favorite links which is turning out to be really lame because it was supposed to be a "follow Friday" post and I've posted on Sunday two out of the three times. BUT I have good excuses I swear!
Over the past week I met up with *most* of the wonderful people I met in London. It was a week where we drank a lot of champagne and cider, danced throughout Boston, sang karaoke, danced with Ed MacFarlane from Friendly Fires (in love) and giggled, laughed, chatted and gossiped to our hearts content. It was an amazing week with some people who know me best of all, even though they met me only a year and a half ago. I hate leaving them.

This week I am packing up, and Friday Madic and I begin our journey to Austin. I'm nervous with excitement. It seems a bit surreal. But I cannot wait!

I hope you are having a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! We're having a lot of family time, gathering around my new nephew and cooing, while my mother is slowly realizing this is my last weekend home and is getting overly sentimental. Ah family. I love it.

And now, a few of my favorite posts from the past week, with a lot of explanation :). I may have missed a few fantastic ones while I was away so if you know of a fantastic post that just stands out, please let me know!

100 Awesome Things: Being Single - Heck yes it's awesome! and, the opening poem makes me giggle.

Confessions of a Love Addict: Welcome to Oblivion - I read this just after I returned from an afternoon with my cousins and their babies. While I was there all I kept thinking about was how much I wanted a baby. One cousin (my very best friend growing up) laughed at me and said "Oh Annie I want you to have one too, I can't wait until our babies can play together, but you need a man first, and it doesn't look like you're in a rush for that." And oh, how true that is. But there are moments, here and there, when my niece (that's what I call my cousins' children, I'm always "Auntie Annie") starts running away, then turns a bit and reaches out her hand, inviting me to run with her, or when she stumbles exhausted into my arms, nestles into my neck and falls asleep... my heart swells, and its as if my entire body aches for one of my own. So to come home, turn on my computer, and see this post in my inbox, made me feel a bit better. I know it will happen someday, but it doesn't help to try to plan it out, that will just make you ache more. Also the friend she was talking about in this post sounds a lot like me - I can't figure out my dream job - I see no long term with any boy, I'm just me, searching for happiness.

Almost Fearless: It Doesn't Count If You're Not At Home - Honestly everything on Almost Fearless I'm in love with. I have complete life envy. This is actually a guest post, so now I covet this blogger's life as well. I now stalk follow his blog. I hope someday I will meet a man who wants to drop everything, start a mobile/online career, and travel the world with our adorable curly headed babies (so - my future husband better have curly hair 'cause mine is as straight as a board).

Eleni Zoe: My best friend's shoes  - I loved this post, if you read it, and check the comments you'll notice I cried a bit when reading it. Things you should know: everything makes me cry but most of all talking about weddings, best friends, and funerals will absolutely bring out the tears. And this has it all.

Bluebird Rising: My Oprah lives in Brooklyn - is there a family and friends theme this week? maybe it's because I'm soaking up my last week with my family and best friends, so I'm feeling sentimental. But this post really touched me. Also, you probably already know how much I love Amy.


cheers loves.

I just want to travel

A couple days ago I announced to my mother I had made another career change, and then five minutes later I took it back.
"I don't know what I want to do! I just want to travel, that's it, just travel." I whined. Living back at home I've become such an amazing whiner.
"Then why are you plopping yourself down in Texas for a year?" Mom responded defiantly - Mom has also become very snappy. Oh we make a happy household.
"Because I've always wanted to live in Texas! So I'm trying it out. And then in a year I'll go to Nepal for three months, then I'll come  back and make more money then go --"
"ANNIE!" My mom interrupted me with an abrupt yell, "I want grandchildren!"
"Well in order for you to get grandchildren from me I need to find a man, and I don't see that happening any time soon."
"Not at the rate you're going! Why can't you just sit still for a minute and allow a man to actually meet you!"
"If he can't keep up he's not worth it! Oh and Mom, I am your fifth child, why don't you go bother the married children. Or even the ones who are in relationships." Also, side note here, she does have two granddaughters already, but they live in Denmark, and that makes her sad. She wants grandchildren stateside. "Also!" I begin to storm, "I am only twenty-three years old!" Here's the problem with that argument: all of the females in my family have either married, had a child, or had a very serious boyfriend that would quickly lead to marriage by the time they were my age. Usually by the age of twenty-one. My family is used to that. They expect that. I even expected it.
At nineteen I thought I had my life mapped out for me. I had a date picked out for my wedding to "the love of my life." We had a plan to live in Spain for a few years and come back home to start having babies.  Even after things crashed and burned with The Boy I still thought of myself as a girl who would settle down young, with a handsome man, have babies right away - and lots of them, live in the country with the white picket fence and a family dog.
I can't pinpoint when things began to change. But after living in Europe, after halfheartedly going on dates, meeting a wonderful man but losing him again due to distance, I realized that I didn't just want to be a wife and mother. I want to live my own life, have my own plans, be my own complete person.
Yes, of course I would still like to meet a man someday, I still absolutely want to have children, but I am in no rush. I am twenty-three, I have years ahead of me. Right now, I need to figure out what kind of life I want to live, who I want to be, where I want to be. And maybe, someday, someone will come along who wants the same things out of life, and we will continue to travel side by side.

London Love

A couple of weeks ago, just like millions of other people all around the world, I tuned into the Royal Wedding. Yes, I thought the dress was very pretty, yes I absolutely adored the hats - even the ridiculous WTF? hats, yes I had a forty minute conversation with Panda about how awful, just plain awful, Chelsy Davy looked and Harry should clearly drop her and find me. Stat.
But the real reason I watched it? It was in London. Because watching the panoramic views of all of the London landmarks transported me back to the happiest six months of my life. The memories came flooding back, and I just let them take over. I sat back and relived it all, and couldn't keep the happiness from gushing out of me.
I closed my eyes and saw...
Panda and I getting completely lost and turned around and late meeting DT at Westminster Abbey. Completely smitten with Miss Mary and her bedazzled reading glasses. The way DT looked at her, his darling wife, his "English Rose," which curiously mirrored the expression he had when explaining Anne Boleyn, and pointing out Queen Elizabeth's tomb.
Penn and I deciding to see every sight in London without taking the tube until I finally broke down and cried about my poor little feet just in front of the Gherkin. And yet we still continued to walk over the bridge and to the Tower of London where I glared at him and proclaimed "Off with your head!"
Taking three hours to walk through Portobello Road Market, driving the boys crazy and finally sending them off to find food while we stopped at every booth, sifted through clothes, antiques, handmade items, and bought dresses, scarves, and earrings.
Walking with Professor Jackson through back streets. He made us notice the graffiti, appreciate the graffiti, causing me to not be able to look at graffiti ever again without thinking of him.
Professors announcing we will be spending the last forty minutes of class in the pub discussing "deep topics"
Chasing buses in stilettos at 3 am because we couldn't find where the N9 stopped.
Sitting in the back of a cab with Sie, Panda, and Stien rocking out to Sie's ipod as she took videos while we giggled and sang in our tequila voices.
Coming back from Spain, Wales, Paris, Ireland, and stepping out of the Gloucester Road tube station and getting the overwhelming sense of "I'm home."
Following DT to East London and down some streets to a small cafe that served jellied eel. Trying the jellied eel and trying not to gag as the woman behind the counter gently suggests we try it with pepper.
Exploring St James' park on St Patrick's day, half fuddled and overly giggly as DT explained torch bearers and brought us down a quaint mews.
Heading to the outskirts of London, far down along the Thames, to DT's favorite pub. We drank pints and played trivia and danced all the way home. Panda taking DT's phone to talk to Mary, telling her how much we all loved him, to which she replied, "Oh no, he got you all drunk."
Running around Picadilly Circus, seeing Les Miserables, visiting every market, every museum, castles, and palaces. Always having something to do, something to see. Staying out past midnight every night yet still able to wake up at seven am to jog in Hyde Park and attend every class. Finding "our pub" "our restaurant." Settling in to a routine yet still adding new and exciting things.
And finally, laying in the middle of Regeant's Park, beaming up at Penn, Sie, and Panda, gushing, "This can't be real life!"

If I could, I'd return in an instant. But then again, would London be the same as my London? The London of 2010. Because yes, the experiences were wonderful, but it was the people who really made it. I didn't know a single person when I headed to London, but quickly I made some of the greatest friendships of my life. Without them, London just wouldn't be my London. I'd need to scoop up Sie and Panda and take them with me. Until then, I'll just look at pictures, and take advantage of the national news when it decides to go Britain-crazy.

*Guest Post* Cait from Fit, Fierce and Fabulous!

Hello everyone! At this moment I am probably wearing a tutu and flitting around Copenhagen with my niece. 

But I wanted you to still be able to come over and have a little read, so Cait was so wonderful and agreed to blog sit for me! I hope you enjoy! Missing you all... 

source

Hey fellow bloggers! My name is Cait from Fit, Fierce and Fabulous! My sweet Annie asked me to do a guest post about my favorite trip that I’ve taken on and I couldn’t wait to start chatting, typing it out!

I have been blessed to take a 2 week trip to Italy 3 years ago with some of my best friends in college. I went for a course that our college was hosting, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have experienced the wonder of what Italy had to offer.

The first day we arrived, we landed in Palmero, exhausted, dehydrated, but ready to pinch ourselves at the thought of what this gorgeous day would come!

One of my favorite things that we did while in the Sicily area, was eat as much gelato as possible, and no joke, I ate this every single day!

 The best part about all the gelato is that you can mix the craziest flavors together and somehow they still taste AMAZING

Another favorite place we visited was a town called Taormina. I literally felt like I was on a movie set walking around the cobble stone steps, visiting the shops and attempting to talk to the local Italians (my Italian is so bad haha)

Never the less, we stayed at this hotel, where a friend and I snuck on the roof and snapped this picture of me. It doesn’t even describe how incredible the view is from the roof, but this snapshot will do.  I vowed to go back one day and I really hope I can keep that promise!

So there you go! That is one of the best trips I have ever been on! As a travel bug, I am actually going back to Europe starting the middle of May to the middle of June! If you want to know where I’m traveling, please visit my blog and share some tips and tricks! I would love to know more about where you have been, even if it’s not out of the country!