Her Musings: College Christmas List

With black Friday closed it is time for a girl to focus on more important things, like what she is going to ask Santa Claus to bring her from the North Pole. Sadly the days of crashing old Chris Kringle's lap and begging for a choo choo train or a deluxe Barbie sports car are long gone. As college girls on a strict ramen noodle budget we usually find ourselves asking for what we need instead of what we want. But that doesn't have to be the case necessarily. This is my personal Christmas list and it has a lot of good trendy ideas for 2012 that combine everything a college girl wants and what is practical.

Fashion
Red Pants: They are very hot this season.

Express Zelda Jeans

Nude pumps: Great for work and going out

Steve Madden Unityy Pump

Make-up Bag: Mine is gross and too small and I think this is adorable

Nordstrom's

Clipless Curling Iron: I have very hard hair to curl with its natural wave. I have heard these things are amazing for getting natural looking curl. I am just afraid I will burn myself a lot.

Sedu Revolution Clipless Curling Iron

Bare Essentials Make-up: I love it. I need more. It's really a great product for people who don't like the feeling of cover-up. The only thing I will say is it is VERY messy. I have a stained counter to prove so.

Bare Essentials Make-up Kit

Fitness

Lululemon Sports Bra: My mom bought me one at a sale and I fell in love with it, most comfortable bra ever.

50 Rep Bra

Running Watch: All the bloggers I read wear the watches. Since I can lose track of my distance a lot, I really want one to know exactly how far I am going.

Garmin Forerunner

Food

New Blender: With all of my delicious smoothie making, my blender is getting a bit tired. And this is blender is named after a ninja, so it has to be awesome!

NinjaKitchen Pro Blender

Career

Vera Bradley Planner: Its hard as a college girl to keep everything in check. I love the Vera Bradley planner, it's a great way to keep everything organized.

Vera Bradley 2012 Agenda

So now I can do is hopefully stay on the nice list and leave out some delicious cookies and hope that Ol' Saint Nick is feeling generous to this college senior.

Her Fitness:Best Workout Youtube Can Provide

Attention all! My friend Reily has shown me the light! 12 minutes of sweat equals a lifetime of a nice booty. In my previous post about things you can when you can't work out. Part of that post talked about youtube workout videos. When I was driving home for Thanksgiving Reily kept complaining about how much her legs and abs hurt saying that the glorious pain had been inflicted by a 12-minute no nonsense workout. Body Rock is a health website that posts articles and videos with killer workouts that tone every part of your body. These workouts are perfect for a girl with little time to get to the gym, say a girl who still has the leg of the turkey that she wolfed down and Thanksgiving and is coming up on finals hell. I have posted the videos below enjoy the pain... the good kind!

Good luck with finals and with working off all the pumpkin pie!

Her Musings: Ode to Jenna Marbles

I have a girl crush. I don't get them often, so when I do--it's a big deal.Youtube and Facebook shares have been blowing up everywhere about a video blogger named Jenna Mourney, aka "Jenna Marbles."

Jenna posts weekly comical videos just about her observations about society. She became a sensation with two famous videos "How to Trick People into Thinking you are Good Looking" and "How to Avoid Talking to People you Don't Want to Talk to". Here they are, if you have no seen them, because the rest of the post won't make any sense if you don't know what I am talking about.

Mourey is a college grad from who recently moved from Boston to L.A.  She posts a new video every Wednesday. And by Thursday you see at least 5 statuses or posts of people sharing her new hilarious video commentary. Mourey's videos are raw, entertaining, crude and very witty. Each of her videos gets well over a million views. So why do I love her?
Jenna Marbles is everything I love and was starting to believe did not exist in women nowadays. In entertainment girls seem to fall into two categories; the Ellens and the Kims

Ellen Degeneres is one of the greatest women in the world. She is smart, talented and overall hilarious. However no one praises her for her looks. Although looks are really not that important and Ellen is a beautiful woman. Then there are the Kims, who in my opinion is not only not talented but really she has a completely dull personality. Society separates role models into these categories, Funny friend and Bimbo beauty.


For me, Jenna Marbles breaks that mold. She takes what is great from both worlds. She does part time modeling and is ridiculously hot but she is sarcastic and sharp. She not only graduated from college but she has a Master's Degree ( which she parodies in one of her videos). She shows that girls don't need to choose from caring about looks to caring about being funny.
Girls are always typecasting each other. We assume that if a girl is gorgeous, she can't have a good personality. There are so many comments out there that Jenna Marbles is the perfect woman because she is hot and funny. So I say Halleluiah! Why can't we all be that? I am not saying that all little girls should want to grow up to be like Jenna Marbles because she is not age appropriate. But I think college freshman should take note: PERSONALITIES ARE SEXY! To score your macho frat boy you don't need to be a type. You can slap on that bandage dress and tell a funny joke all the same time. You look in the mirror and say "dang, I am one hott mama" while also knowing that you are freakin' hilarious.
So thank you Jenna, for being sexy yet sassy. And in your own words, "Keep ho-ing you ho'"

Her Career and Fashion: Dressing for Impressing

Whenever a college girl goes on a shopping spree she can spot a garment and attach it to an occasion she would wear it for: "Girls night out", "Date night", "History class with the cute soccer guy." But where many girls are at a loss is seeking clothes that are best for work and more importantly interviews. Many girls think that in order to have a good interview outfit, you need to sacrifice fun and fashion-forwardness, but that's not true. Of course you should keep your outfit conservative but you can still bring out your fashion personality!

I asked my friends from the Fall Fashion entry to also show me their best interview out and I noticed trends that you could go with to dress up an interview outfit.

First off a very popular trend is to pair a nice top with a long black pencil skirt. This can seem like a dull outfit but there are fun ways to dress it up and put a little fun into it.

A colorful top:

Kelsey, Intern at Blitz Advertising Agency

Kelsey added a faded purple satin shirt with a simple black skirt. The splash of color adds a little sumthin' sumthin' while still looking very professional and ready to land a job

Colorful Shoes:

Reily, Intern at Billabong

Reily kept a simple grey patterned top with her skirt so she chose to give the outfit a little life with maroon patent leather pumps. Shoes can be a great accessory to give your interview outfit a little subtle flair. But be careful when making your selection, if you are going to go with a color other than tan or black keep a softer color, no hot pink or purple. Also keep the heel a little bit shorter and keep them closed-toe. Always remember : professional first, fashionable second!

   

A colorful belt:

Hannah, Intern at Lucky Magazine

 

A belt can be a secret weapon in completing a look. I am huugge belt person and I really think that belts are for every occasion. Hannah's red belt is very small but gives the outfit a big kick. A belt it best with black, white or grey if you are going to give it a splash of color and definitely make sure if you have a big belt you don't wear many other accessories!

   

   

The skirt/shirt option is a great outfit to have as your go-to interview outfit. But there are other options out and other ways to be a secret agent of style and find ways to stands out.

A Big Bold Accessory

Jenny, Intern at the Museum of Fine Art

Sometimes you are going for a job and you want to dress a bit more conservatively. That doesn't mean you have to dress like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality before the 10-minute makeover sequence. Jenny has on a practical shirt and dress pants outfit but she also added a bit of bling with an elegant yet eye-catching necklace.

      

Dress it up

Vanessa, Intern at Fox News Channel

No one ever said you had to do two pieces. Sometimes the best way to show that you're different, right from the start is to wear something different! Vanessa has a fabulous colorful dress. The long sleeves make it professional and conservative but the colors give it a fun vivacious feel.











So next time you are out shopping try looking for a few of these outfit pieces to help take your interview to the next level. Here are a few of my personal favorites I have seen while shopping online.

Shoes

DSW

Zappos

Shirts

Forever 21

Express

  Belts
          

H&M

Fossil

Necklace

Express

 

Ann Taylor Loft

Kohl's

Dress

Gap

So what trends do you like?

What do you wear on interviews?

Her Recipes: Friends don't let Friends Drink and Binge

This is Jane...

  

See Jane run...

 

 See Jane eat healthily.. 

See Jane go out and drink some cocktails with her friends...

See Jane drunkenly binge eat and ruin her week of hardwork in the end...

Behold the vicious cycle of the college student. You work hard all week, telling yourself you are going to be healthy. Then a few sugary cocktails, and some onset drunken munchies and you're waking the next morning with a stomach full of regrets. 

Now there is nothing wrong with indulging. College is too short to always count calories. However, I have also faced the guilt of waking up and realized I consumed way to many calories the night before and feel like I have to workout extra hard to undo the damage. 

This post is some recipes both for drinks and snacks that will help eliminate the guilt of a fun night out.

Drinks

Sex and the City made the Cosmo famous. Implanting the glamorous image of girlfriends sharing gossip over their martini glasses. What they fail to mention is that most cocktails have anywhere from 150 to 400 calories per drink. Us college girls love our Cranberry Vodkas. Each one of those babies is about 175 calories. A smart cocktail at the end of the day wont add up. But a night out with the girls can add up to about 400 to 840 calories. So I sure hope you are dancing!

The best drinks to order at a bar is a light beer, a vodka diet coke or my personal favorite, vodka soda with lime juice. It's very light and flavorful! The other ways to save drink calories is to make your own before you go with a cocktail light. Below are links to my favorite low calorie cocktails:

Carrots N Cake 

Hungry Girl 

Shape.com 

End of the night snack

When most people talk about "the mistake they made last night" they are usually referring to men. I usually think of it as the bag of Cheetos I went to bed with. Don't Drink and Eat! Whenever I go out I always have some snacks on hand to enjoy when I get home before bed that won't leave a greasy residue of shame on my hands.

Soup-

I lovvve minestrone soup. Two minutes in the microwave and it's warming my tummy. Minestrone is my favorite. At only 200 calories for the whole can, I feel satisfied and ready for bed.

Peanut butter and celery-

We all know I love my Better N Peanut Butter. When I love throwing it on some celery sticks after a night out. The salty sweet combo is music to the intoxicated mouth. And with the Better N it's only about 100 to 150 calories for 10 small celery sticks!

A salty green apple:

Apple a day keeps the calories at bay! A lot of times an apple doesn't seem soothing for a post drink munchies. A lot of times we crave something salty. By putting salt on apple slices you open up the flavor combo you have a hankering for while fighting off the love handles.

 

So remember, drink and be merry. But don't forget to drink and EAT responsibly!

Her Recipe: A side of fries

I am not a huge fast food person. Perhaps in comes from not REALLY knowing what it is in the meat patties, or that the Super Size Me guy really got to me, but I always pack snacks for road trips instead of hittin' up the drive-thru. However, I do have one weakness. I love fries. 

 

If I am ridiculously stressed, nothing sounds better than a large fry with a vanilla milk shake on the side. During finals season, I can't even go near the burger joint in the student union because I would create a new potato famine by robbing them of all deep friend spuds. Healthy recipe blogs showed me a quick and healthy solution to my junk food weakness.

PARSNIP FRIES!

I know it sounds weird, but parsnip fries are the epitome of delicious yet nutritious, and they are really easy to make:

First take your parsnips and peels them

Then you cut them into fry wedge shapes and put them on a oven sheet. Brush them with olive oil then sprinkle them with seasoning I personally like to mix Italian seasoning with a bit of sea salt.

Once they are seasoned cook up them in the oven at 420 degrees for about 20 minutes, flipping them halfway through and in the end...

 

ENJOY

Trust me, they taste awesome! Especially as a side dish. This recipe also works for big carrots, rutabagas, and sweet potatoes. So you can eat your fries and have your waistline too!

Her Career: Interview Questions

I remember sitting outside the room on my first interview. I literally had to push down on my leg to get it to stop shaking. And over and over in my mind I played the thousand of possible questions they could ask me. The best way to prep for an upcoming interview is to review possible questions and write notes to yourself of what your might answer. The hardest part is finding the questions. I asked my friend in the UT business school to send me their interview prep and I picked a few questions in particular to give example answers. You can see the full list of questions and interview prep Here:

Tell me about yourself.

 -This is just the generic first question when you get into the interview. Keep it short and simple. My name is Lauren, I am a senior at BU studying Public Relations and English and I am really excited to be meeting with you to talk about...

Tell me about your past employment? 

-Sometimes your entire interview will follow this theme. Have your resume memorized and be prepared to talk about specifics in your last job that really highlight your role.

How did you obtain your last position?

What were your responsibilities in your last job?

What did you like most/least about the job?

What are some of the problems you have encountered? Which one frustrated you the most? What did you do about it?

-Companies usually ask situational questions to gauge in the form of past experiences. They want to know how you would handle a problem at that job. Try to come up with example that could apply to their company it's okay to fib a few details that don't change your skills.

What are your short/long-term goals? How will you benefit by achieving them? What plans have you made to achieve them?

What could you improve upon to really help your career?

-This is a way of asking your weaknesses. If they ask for your weaknesses at any point, always phrase it as "something I am always working on to improve"

What are your greatest strengths/skills? How have you applied them to the job?

What do you consider to be the ideal working environment?

What five adjectives would you use to describe yourself?

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

-This is just a question to see what kind of person you are. Really to see how the chemistry would be with you and the office.

Why are you interested in this particular job?

What do you think you can do for us that someone else can’t do just as well?

-This is them asking, why should we pick you? Read the job description ahead of time and find out what qualities they are looking for and try to highlight them.

Describe the ideal job for you.

What else do you think I should know about you?

What would you like to know about our company?

-This is another way to ask you what you already know about question. Do your research and give them an example. " I saw that your company did ______, then ask a follow up question. it shows your interested and knowledge for the company.

And remember always practice practice practice and make your interview perfect.

Her Musings: PSA about PDA

Every day millions of college students are infected with one of the most sickening and contagious diseases: new relationship infatuation. The disease can be contracted at anytime, targeting single people looking for a relationship. The first stage of the disease starts out minor: a handhold or perhaps small public kiss on the cheek. If untreated by common decency the more advance stages of the new relationship infatuation include, full fledge make outs on the sidewalk and other public domains, nauseating baby talk, and inappropriate groping. If you start experiencing these symptoms you can be treated. Take a daily dose of reality of how obnoxious you are and quarantine yourself in your room. Second hand PDA can be very uncomfortable for innocent bystanders. So for the safety and health of those around you, try and contain yourself.

 

Now this is not some kind of single-girl mission to spit on all the happy couples out there. I swear I do not come home after a day of watching couples walking down campus hand-and-hand and cry to love actually while eating chunky munky with a ladle. I actually enjoy being single right now. I am very swamped with school and finding a job and I don't have time for man hunting. Of course if god drops a wonderful guy into my lap I wont shoo him away. But active man trapping is not on the agenda right now.

However, I do admit that  being in a relationship for 2 1/2 years and then being thrown into the collegiate single life does make me a bit more sensitive to couples. And what I have noticed, some couple don't get the concept of... YOU ARE IN PUBLIC. I was walking home in the middle of the day and there was a couple sitting on the bench outside my dorm doing some very involved petting. The girl was even sitting on her boyfriend's lap. The entire time I was in a relationship I felt that I was very aware of the people around me. I was a firm believer in laced hands as we walked and a quick kiss goodbye. Maybe it's my own personal thing but it's not even about caring about other people. I just feel my relationship is no one else's business. I don't maybe this is just my future cat lady talking, but I just don't get it. If you wouldn't do it on the sofa in front of your great-grandma, why would you do it in front innocent bystanders on the street?

Her Musings: Hall _HO_ween

Happy Halloween! Well official Halloween, for college students Halloween is the Friday and Saturday before, regardless of what the calendar says. I would like to start this post with a little poem I wrote last week in the student union:

Tis the Thursday before all Hallow's Eve and all through the streets. 

The conversations don't surround neither tricks nor treats

All the girls are buzzing and dying to know

What's the best way to dress like a ho'?

There are heels to find and fishnets to buy 

Because you can't be a cat without a skirt that's thigh high

The stores a cleared of red lace and pleather

Because it's much less skanky if you all do it together!

Let's be honest, I don't think I ever lose respect more for my age and gender than on Halloween. I mean is it one of my favorite holidays? DUH! But every year I feel like girls in college are pushing the envelope and in a secret contest of who can show the most skin. Let be honest, Mean Girls said it all!

 

"I'm a mouse, DUH"

I just almost don't know how it even got to this point. I was in Target with my friend Natalie on Friday and there were ADORABLE costumes in the front. And I made the comment " It's sad how the costumes for girls never get any bigger as we grow up." Don't believe me?

Cute Snow White VS  Skanky Snow White

         


    Cute Little Girl Cat VS Sexy Kitten









And it is not just the level of sluttiness in today's costumes that perplex me, it's the ridiculousness of what we choose to make sexy. In writing this post I looked up costumes on some websites and low and behold what I found:

Sexy Hulk Hogan: Now, I know boy everywhere have fond memories of wrestling and legendary Hulk Hogan. But when they were crowded around the TV fantasizing about being a pro wrestler... they were NOT fantasizing about one day banging the wrestler.

Sexy Tigger: Tigger was my favorite cartoon growing up, this picture made me mourn my childhood in one sweep.

Sexy Panda: Pandas are the most adorable things in the world and should not be made sexy. End of story.

Sexy CHEWBACCA: Yes, that is a slutty CHEWBACCA costume. How the hell do you make that sexy? If you have a thing for nerds and know they love Star Wars, then go as slave Princess Leia. Chewy is not hot. And will never be hot no matter how many times your guy has seen Return of the Jedi.

Now I don't want to be a hipocrite. I too have worn costumes that were tighter than the average outfit. But I keep it to a point that if I ran into my 80 year old christian Grandma, she wouldn't throw holy water on me and then proceed to go into cardiac arrest.

I don't mind sexy costumes, because hey, if you can rock it more power to you. I just like CREATIVE sexy costumes or costumes that you made. And to put my money where my mouth is, this was my "sexy" costume.

Yes I was beloved 90's toy Bop It and second night I was a ninja turtle with some of my sorority sisters.

My costumes were cute and flattering but they were homemade and creative. And I got TONS of compliments, especially on Bop It. And the best part is that when THIS STORM HIT...

...I was warm--well not warm but I was definitely not as cold as the sexy bunnies in fishnets and heels I saw walk by.

So things to take away:

-REALLY Think about what your costume says about you
-Don't kill your Grandma
-Is being 'hott' really worth frostbite?
-DON'T ever ask to see your future daughter's halloween pictures in College. Because most likely you won't want to know.

Happy HALLOWEEN everyone!