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Reasons to watch The Bachelor

If you've never seen at least one episode of The Bachelor then do yourself a favor and tune into ABC at 7 on Monday nights.  The show is like a bad wreck you cant keep your eyes off of.  This show is the reason men think women are crazy.  Most of these girls are man eating, manipulative, dramatic, and pretty damn desperate. I say girls instead of women because there is not one single person on the show who conducts herself like a woman. It's really sad. Yes, Sean Lowe is very attractive.  I feel like  its not just hearts he melts, it's brains too. Can these people really be that insane? Tierra- that goes out to you, girl.

But really, if you ever just want to feel good about yourself watching The Bachelor is a great way to do so. First off, the fact that these people think he's going to find love by dating 20 different girls at one time is just dumb. If it wasn't being filmed by a national television show Sean would be considered a player and girls would despise him. Not only that, but girls definitely would not drool over him in ways which they do. They say things that quite frankly just freak me out. They have only known him for about a month and consistently talk about marrying him. Who does that? Why are these girls so desperate? They are all very beautiful girls physically.  It's just the mental part they lack in. Last time I checked though, mental stability is kind of important. (Sorry about your luck, Sean). These girls talk about "winning" The Bachelor. So...it's a game? Fools. I would also like to add the fact that all these dates are very extravagant. News flash, that is going to end as soon as the show does even if Sean gives them the final rose. It just leaves an inevitable failed future. For that, all I can say is- sucks to suck.

So if you have had a bad day just remember these things:
1. You're not a contestant on The Bachelor
2. You're not sharing a guy with 20 girls
3. You're not living with 20 strange girls
4. You're not telling a guy you barely know that you love him
5. Your future doesn't depend on a rose
6. The world isn't watching your every move
7. You probably don't have judgmental people like me blogging about you
8. You didn't have to drink freshly squeezed goats milk to go on a date
9. You're not that desperate to find love
10. You're not crazy

Preach it Bruno

Have you ever heard a song on the radio that twists your brain in such a pretzel that you have to immediately download it on iTunes and obsessively listen to it on repeat? Well, Bruno Mars has done that very thing to me with his latest hit, "When I was Your Man". Let me just start by saying how talented the guy is in general. He has such great songs that always get stuck in your head. Not to mention he's like the perfect combination of Lenny Kravitz and Michael Jackson. Am I right or am I right?

So this new song of his..
It's all about a guy who sees a girl he used to be with out with another man. The song is him reflecting on all the things he should have done to keep her around. "I should have bought you flowers and held your hand, gave you all my hours when I had the chance, take you to every party cause all you wanted to do was dance"
So this made me think about all the things I should have done in life. Not just relationship wise (still single... Sup fellas?), but life in general. Opportunities have an expiration. There's so many things I wish I had I done.  This ranges from big things like studying abroad while I was in college to the smallest things like going to parties with all my friends. What is it that holds us back? Fear? Anxiety? Risk of failure? Laziness? I suppose its different for everyone. But when will you have your Bruno Mars epiphany? How long is it going to take until you swallow your pride and realize all the things you've missed out on? The opportunities that we don't take are being swept away by others. Now those people are living the life we wish we were. The last part of Bruno's chorus says "now my baby's dancing but she's dancing with another man". I've made a promise to myself that I won't let other people take my dreams from me. I'm going to embrace the opportunities that are put in front of me from now on. I charge you to do the same. Don't sit around and wait for life to happen anymore.

If you haven't heard this song then you need to get on iTunes or YouTube pronto and give it a listen. I may not have the most perfect singing voice (or be able to carry a tune in general) but this song is one of those you can't help but get your car karaoke going on.

Until next time,
KND

What is happy?

The reason I went to New Orleans two weeks ago was to attend a conference called Serious Business.   It's hosted by Neill Corporation which are the distributors for Aveda products.  In the nearly five years I have been an Aveda stylist I had never attended the conference before but after all the great testimony from my coworkers I decided to give it a go.  It's not a conference where we learn new color formulas and cuts.  It's more of a inspirational and motivational conference. This year the theme was "I'm here" and it was centered around happiness.

Everyone knows someone who is always negative, always complaining and always frustratingly unhappy with life.  You know the type. Everyone is having a great time but that one negative Nancy manages to bring down the mood. If you can't think of that person then chances are its you. So listen up.

One on the most valuable pieces of information I retained was that your happiness effects other people's happiness. We are wirelessly connected to each other.  what I mean by that is if you're down in the dumps it's going to inevitably bring everyone else's mood down too. If you're complaining about something then it's going to take away part of the happiness from the people you're surrounded by.   We cannot be truly successful unless we fill our minds with optimism. Each day we should remind ourselves of the things we are grateful for.  The easiest way to do this is to surround yourself with concrete social support who will generate a sustainable positive change. If we are inspiring and think big we can generate the genuine positivity that this world so desperately yearns for. 

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it". - Michealango Buonarroti

In one of the breakout sessions we listened to a chiropractor named Dr. Eric Snow.  He was a firm believer in that your mental state effects your physical state. If you constantly push yourself to be the best you that you can be it will surely lead to a positive physical state.  What we put into our minds and what we put into our digestive system is a direct correlation to the condition of our body's health. 

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest the patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease." -Thomas Edison

One of the key note speakers was this little red head firecracker named Erika Napoletano. Have you ever had a moment when you instantly click with someone and think "that's my new best friend!"?  Well I felt that connection as soon as she walked on stage and said, "can I get a hell yeah?" then followed up with "can I get a fuck yeah?".  She talked with us about how being unpopular has its advantages.  She expressed her desire for people to embrace their individuality and uniqueness.  Not everyone's brain works in the same way and its important for you to understand that you work the way you do for a reason.  I learned that we can never be sincerely happy with our lives until we accept who we are. She also drilled us on the fact that sometimes it's ok to just say, "you know what.. Fuck you".  She has a book titled Unpopular. I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but its defiantly on my kindle reading list.

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken" -Oscar Wilde

I took this and so much more home with me when I left Serious Business. I felt rejuvenated, motivated, and inspired.  Over the two days of the conference my mind had spun faster than I could keep up.  Being happy isn't just a feeling. It's a state of being. It's a lifestyle.  Being healthy mentally, spiritually, and physically are the most important things in life. If you cannot successfully be a happy person then you simply cannot be successful.

Until next time,
KND

New Orleans

My weekend-part 2

So after my date with Justin Bieber and a very small amount of sleep later, I headed to the airport for my first flight ever. I was headed to New Orleans to meet up with my Lyndon's Salon family who had flown up the night before. I was really nervous and my stomach was in knots. Have you ever heard Alanis Morrissette's song "Ironic"? There is a part in the song where a man had gone his whole life without flying and the one time he decides to go it crashes. Yeahhh.. I was positive the plane was going go all Alanis on me. But I survived. Thank goodness- because NOLA was one heck of a weekend.

As soon as I got to the hotel I was greated by a massively hungover staff. It was great hearing about the night before. However, it fueled me to get the party started early.  We all got dress and ate at this oyster house and started drinking of course. It was 11am by the way. But hey- it's 5:00 somewhere. After that, we headed to the French Quarter to be touristy. We grabbed an alcoholic slushy for the walk. After I purchased a new wire ring, I headed to the casino with another stylist. Naturally we picked up a hand grenade for the walk back. It's supposed to be made of a bunch of liquor and nothing else but really it just tasted like sweet tarts. So I'm sipping on that when I come across Big Sexy. Big Sexy is a pretty large man in a cowboy hat with a leather bra on. He has a skirt on with fish nets and platform heels. And that's when I knew I was getting drunk. We stopped by the hotel to get some more drinks and continued to the casino. The best part of Nola is that you can walk around with alcohol all day long and not get in trouble. My group of friends would love life here.

We get to the casino and we grab a seat at the penny slots. I'm hooked. I spent $25 and won $100. Then about 5 minutes later I lost it all. Then I got up 60$ and I kinda lost count from then. We were in there 6 hours. I had no idea. I thought we were there for like an hour and a half. When you're gambling you get free drinks. Oh my goodness, we defiantly utilized that.

After we finally left the casino we met up with the rest of the salon staff and headed to see the first official mardi gra parade. Lucky for us they moved it up a week because of the Super Bowl. Pretty much every floats theme was derogatory towards the Super Bowl. I have never in my life seen so much penis and vagina related things- and I've been to PCB for spring break four years. I got my first set of beads there along with some Jell-O shots (gross- who would take those from a stranger in the street) and some marry Jane candy. After that my voice was pretty much a gonner.

While everyone else went to bed, I was still ready to go. So I stayed out with one of the other stylist who is gay. We head all the way down Burbon street, rightfully collecting beads on the way, to the gay bar.  This was also a first for me. After we got in we headed straight to the bar. On the bar there were tons of male dancers in very tight underwear. One made eye contact with me and started coming towards me. Naturally, my hands started sweating and I just stared and the ceiling yelling "I can't" until my drink was delivered. We drank and danced and finally decided we should probably head back to the hotel. Not before one final drink though, right? We were sitting at the bar when one of the little underwear men walked up. Crap. So I decide to get my picture with him because I felt like nobody back home would understand what was happening. Let me tell you...this man put his weenier on my leg. ON.MY.LEG. yes- I have the picture if any of you would like to see. On the long walk back to the hotel I suffered from Post Tramatic Stress Dissorder.

The next day the conference started. So the party didn't start til later that night. We decided not to eat dinner. Good idea, huh? We had some drinks in the room and talked about some uh.. Recreational..activities. After that we headed to my new favorite place in New Orleans, the casino. I didn't do well at all. Finally when I broke even I just stopped. Thank goodness for those free drinks or I would've been really pissed. We headed down Burbon again catching beads as we go when the best thing ever happened. One guy asked us to show our boobs when one of the other stylists yells "no, you show me your boobs". GOLDEN.  She got some beads for that. We kept making our way down and went back to the gay bar. We met some awesome people from Murfreesboro and danced all night with them. Before I knew it, it was just me and one other person from my salon there. So I decided to head back. Good thing the Murfreesboro people wouldn't let me walk alone. I took two different turns before I figured out where I was. But I stopped by the Krystal near our hotel and decided some chili cheese fries would be good. I can testify- chili cheese fries do not mix well with a beer and vodka diet. My insides were all twisted.

Over three nights I had only gotten a total of 9 hours of sleep. So Monday was a little delusional for me. As fun as New Orleans was I was excited to get back to Nashville and see my sweet cat and perfect roomie. I can honestly say, I came home from NOLA a changed woman. So many firsts or me: First plane ride, first casino, first gay bar, first set of beads, first PTSD experience. I had so much fun being there with my Lyndon's family. It really brought us so much closer and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to go. It's always nice to see the people who write your paychecks drunk as hell.

We weren't just there to party though. We were there to attend a conference called Serious Business. It was very inspirational and motivational. I'm going to tell y'all about all the wonderful things I learned there too very very soon. So keep checking in with me.

Until next time,
KND

Baby baby baby ohhh

This weekend was definitely one for the record books. I still haven't caught up on sleep..or completely detoxed from my alcohol diet...but I just really couldn't wait to tell everyone about it! 

         After what felt like I waited a lifetime, it was finally the day I got to see my man Justin Bieber in concert. If you don't already know, I have an almost embarrassing obsession for this guy. I blame my obsession on growing up with boy bands and young male singers like Jesse McCartney and Aaron Carter (thank you 90s-early 2000s). I was so nervous for some reason. It was like first date kind of nerves. I have no idea why though. Its not like I was going to meet him or even be remotely close to him.  Our seats were pretty bad. I'm talking section 301 in Bridgestone Arena bad. I'm pretty sure I could've touched a cloud. Don't don't let that fool you. I was screaming and singing like I was in the front row.  

          The night started out a little rough. We called the cab company at 5:30 to come scoop us up at 6:00. When it hit 6:15 we decided to give them a call to see if they were lost. The company told us to call them every ten minutes to see if any of the drivers were coming. Ugh, why should we do that? Just freaking send them. We waited and waited and had some Budlights and waited some more. Finally at 6:50 (the concert started at 7) the taxi driver showed up. So we finally pull up to Broadway when I realized I HAD LEFT MY PHONE AT MY APARTMENT. I died a little inside. I thrive off Twitter, texting, and Instagram. Knowing I wasn't going to be able to capture this concert was just tragic. Needless to say, as we entered and took the never ending escalater ride up I made sure to grab not one but two tall boys of beer. 

             Cody Simpson opened first. We missed most of it but I wasn't too upset considering I don't know the guy or any if his songs.  Then Carly Rae Jespen came on after him. She was pretty fun and entertaining.  She even grabbed some people and let them party on stage with her during her hit of the summer, "Call Me Maybe". I really liked her song "Heart Is A Muscle". After all that, it was time for my biebz to come on.

             Oh Justin. That guy has talent. He played the piano, the guitar, and the drums.  He sang all the songs I wanted him to play. He even sang a few with just acoustics. I love that. He engaged his audience. At one point he even grabbed the camera and showed what the audience looked like from his view. Dang it must be awesome to have that many people dying to see you. He danced all across the stage and even gave us some risky pelvis thrusts and body rolls. You know I wasn't mad about that. Meeeeowww. When he took his shirt off my eardrums almost busted.

          I will say... I'm in love but I'm not so head over heels that I won't admit that I can't stand his outfits sometimes. I just can't handle his pants. They're like skinny jean versions of mc hammer pants.  His last wardrobe change for his encore he came out with zebra striped pants like that with his red briefs showing and no shirt. Y'all, this is why he needs me. I would tell him that's not acceptable. But whatevz.

           I also want to tell y'all how awesome the staging was. The lighting was incredible. The stage set up was great. I love trap doors. His literally shot him and his backup dancers high in the air before they landed. He also had this crane that went above the audience that circled around so we cold see him better. I also really enjoyed that there was times where they showed home videos and his old YouTube videos. Those things just make me sink a little deeper in love. 

          All in all it was an amazing experience and I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to go. Next time, I swear I will buy meet and greet passes because I just KNOW that if he ever met me he would fall in love. Also, I am aware that I'm 22 and I'm super creepy for being so obsessed with him. There ain't no shame in my game baby. 

Stay tooned to read about the rest if my weekend in New Orleans! 

Until next time,

KND

Quarter Life Crisis

After a couple of emotional breakdowns and a few bar talks with friends I've decided to write about the latest world wide epidemic: The Quarter Life Crisis. 

Ever since I can remember people have told me that my 20s are supposed to be the best years of my life. While I can honestly say I have lived a wonderful life, there is still something missing.  As a 20 something year old we are pressured by every aspect of life's roller coaster. We are supposed to have a great position in a career of our choice, the perfect relationship, and be financially stable.  There is so much pressure to be the perfect person that it makes people question themselves, their goals, and life in general. Self achievement and self worth are all casualties of the quarter life crisis and its easy to hide these worries through booze and tears. 

This past summer by best friend told our little clique about this awesome book by Christine Hassler called, "20 Something 20 Everything". It's all about finding who you really are and where you want to go in life.  At the time she told me about the book I was a single 21 year old senior in college. So, I thought I would give it a shot considering I was nearing the time to face the monsters of the real world. I got one chapter in and the book had already made me feel like my life was falling apart..or maybe that it had never started coming together. Either way, I closed the book and haven't opened it since. I'm not saying its a bad book-I wouldn't know. I'm saying I wasn't ready to look at my life like that.

Now I'm 22 with a degree in business management with two jobs doing what I love to do. Sounds great, right? Ha! Well here's the deal, I'm still dealing with the quarter life crisis. With social media at the center of the universe, I feel like every single time I get on Facebook or Twitter I am faced with another accomplishment of someone other than me. 

After engagement season- oh, I mean the holidays- it felt like I was the only single person left in the world. I think about the last two guys I've had in my life. One, was just too much and the other just wasn't enough. It made me feel like I wasn't meant to find anyone. It was like my life was a reoccuring episode of The Bachelor where I didnt get the rose at the end of the night. That's the kind of crisis 20 something year olds are facing all the time. Thanks to another one of my best friends who comforted me via a hysterical phone call through probably one of the most dramatic breakdowns I have ever had, I've come to realize falling in love doesn't HAVE to happen at the same age for everyone. Some people find their love (like my perfect chi omega little sister) in high school. Others, like me perhaps, are meant to do something in life that just simply doesn't permit a relationship at this time. That doesn't mean something is wrong you. Trust me, I know better than anyone it's just hard to grasp that concept.

As far as jobs go, college students are expected to know exactly what they are going to do with their lives right after graduation. The fact is, that's just asking for too much. We enter college at 17/18 years old. We are told to pick a concentration and thats what we are expected to do for the rest of our lives. I'm sure it was much easier when men were expected work the coal mines and women were supposed to stay at home and care for the house and children. Now, men and women are competing for the same jobs and steadily moving up the ladder side by side.  Knowing that, it's hard on 20 something year olds to figure out where they fit and what job best suits them. That's why so many people switch degrees, go to different colleges after they graduate, or just wind up in a completely different field than the degree they paid so much money to get.  Fortunately for me, I love being a hairstylist. I'm lucky enough to have two jobs doing what I love to do. If y'all know me at all, you know I went to college solely for the experience. However, someday I hope to use that piece of paper that put me $14000 in debt to open my own salon. Here's to big goals, huh?

Speaking of money, why the heck are we expected to be financially stable at this age? I have two jobs and still find myself looking under the seat of my car to find lost quarters (I love quarters by the way).  With no money in my bank account, I will still go out on Saturdays and buy my friends a round of shots to celebrate the smallest things. I indulge in endless amounts of margarita pitchers  just because the local Mexican restaurant is having a special. I buy clothes I don't need, go to expensive movies, and eat out far too often. But you know what, I seriously don't care.  Apparently at this age we are supposed to be preparing for our future. We're supposed to budget our lives in order to start saving for that wedding we have pinned on Pinterest or that dream home we pinned. I don't know about you but I'd rather not have a pot to pee in but have a good time than save all my money and wither away watching reruns of murder shows for the rest of my life. 

I suppose the best advice I can give is to come to grips with the fact that life isn't perfect for everyone at this age. Some people cruise though life in a brand new Escalade while others take the bumpy road on the struggle bus. The pressure is inevitable. The outlook of it all is what truly defines you. If you're like me, you're going to break down. Life is hard. That's the facts. Getting back on your feet and finding the greener side is the best thing you can do for yourself. Just know that your not alone when you feel like things aren't falling into place for you.

Until next time,

KND