Tag: blog

A Strange Christmas

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This was an odd Christmas. That’s really the only thought I have about it. With the way my chemo schedule works out, I have a treatment on the 27th. In addition to that, weather has not been on our side (thanks Wisconsin). So my mom and I spent Christmas in my apartment prepping for the next chemo treatment. It’s my first Christmas away from home and it’s the first Christmas my mom has had away from my stepdad in 10 years. If we had it our way, we’d be at home, but we are making the most of it with my baby tree, Christmas cookies, hot chocolate and all the Christmas movies we can watch!

Before Christmas even started, I got to host a couple of Christmas parties with friends this year! They came over and we had a potluck of champions. We laughed and talked well into the middle of the night. It was really something special.

DPhiE Fam Photo.jpg

Of course, family wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention my sorority family. I am a part of the Beta-Lambda chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon. My sorority is amazing and is very supportive of each other as we pursue our individual dreams. My family line is probably the best family line out of any sorority ever. As individuals, they are all amazing and are always busy. They’re smart, funny, clever and really well-rounded people. Together, we are a crazy weird group of women who enhance each other’s personalities. We push to make sure each one of us succeeds in whatever we set our mind to. Not all of them could make it but a few of the women could come over to celebrate. So we ate all of the mac and cheese we could and unwrapped our gifts in a giant circle on the floor. I felt like a little kid again, opening gifts on Christmas eve. And then we took the best Christmas photo of all time.

I’m really fortunate that I got to go home this past week, that way I could celebrate Christmas with my dad a little early. The greatest tradition that my dad has is every Christmas eve he reads The Night Before Christmas. The book that we own is made entirely of cloth and each picture is special printed. I remember being a kid and hanging on every word of the story, hoping to hear Santa on our rooftop. Even as an adult I can’t help but smile as he reads it. I didn’t get to hear it this year because I came in the morning but we made a fancy Christmas Eve breakfast which was a pretty good substitute. Who could be upset with bacon on their plate?! And then, of course, we went upstairs and played Nancy Drew and got a couple steps closer to solving another mystery.

 

ba-drama-fam-photoI’m not big into celebrating the holidays, but for whatever reason, this year was different. For the first time in a very long time, I felt the Christmas spirit (or whatever it’s called) and was a little less grinchy.  Christmas isn’t about the day you celebrate it on but who you celebrate it with. I don’t mean to brag but if people were presents I’d have the most gifts out of anyone.

So Happy Holidays everyone and have a great New Year! Be sure to give your loved ones lots of hugs and don’t forget to tell them that you love them!

Until next time,

Dana

LET’S MAKE A BLOG.

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Have you ever gone to bed and right as you’re about to fall asleep you think of all the amazing things that you could do with your life? You could be skydiving in the tropics right now! Well, maybe not right now but the idea certainly beats having to get up at the crack of dawn and scraping the ice off your car so you can get to work. I had one of those thoughts three nights ago. It screamed for my whole brain kingdom to hear, “LET’S MAKE A BLOG.” I ignored it because it was 2 in the morning and I wanted to sleep, but it was an interesting idea to say the least.

When I woke up the next morning, I texted my best friend about the idea and within seconds I hear back, “Yes. Do it.” That was all the encouragement I needed. I didn’t even know what I was going to write about but I was going to do it and gosh darn it, it was going to be fun if I had anything to say about it.

I found WordPress, got a domain and started working. I learned many a thing from this:

Rough drafts are real.

this-week2They’re not just something your 8th grade English teacher made up so you’d have extra homework. It’s a real thing and should be utilized (I’m looking at you college students). Everything that ends up on this site starts on paper. The titles, ideas, number of photos for a post, etc. Then half of it gets scrapped and the rest gets typed. And retyped. And retyped. And retyped. AND RETYPED until eventually it becomes something that can be posted for all the people of the internet to read.

I am a terrible web designer.

It’s only my third day! Give me a break. I’m still learning how this all works. If you have advice, please comment below because… yeah. You’ve seen my site. You know.

A stable internet connection is a beautiful thing.

This week I’ve been home at my parent’s house and they live out in the country. I’m sure you can imagine my frustration as the connection would fade in and out while I’m trying to add photos to the homepage. (My dogs learned some fun, questionable words this week too.)

this-weekAnd now here we are. Me typing away on my computer and you reading away on yours. I’m sure the list of things I learned could go on for miles. I mean, that’s kind of why I created my bright corner in the first place. I want to do something new. I want to learn as much as anyone who reads this page would learn. Besides, the world is a terrible place. It’s true. You go to any news outlet and you see nothing but sad, depressing news articles. But there’s a lot of good in this world too and I want to shed some light on it. I want us to learn about the good together.