Honest Scrap

Heather at Live.Love.Laugh. gave me this award. I have to share 10 honest things about myself.

1- I hate working. I honestly believe that I was just not made to get up every morning and go to work. I cannot wait until I am a mom and can stay home every day and cook, clean, garden, etc. However; I LOVE to design. My dream is to one day have enough residential work that I can work from home (before kids!?) when the kids are napping and then once they go off to school I won't have to go back to an office. Anyone need some interior design consultation? For free? I need to build my portfolio...




A competition to design (hypothetical) new Habitat offices in DC that I actually won a prize for.


2- From above, I am petrified of actually starting my own business. I know a ton about design and happen to think I am pretty good at it, but I know nothing about the business, especially residential. Working in an office for a couple of years has taught me nothing in this way because
a)My boss does all of the meetings stuff and
b)Our firm doesn't do residential. Government work is VERY different in construction style. I don't have to worry about budgets (awesome!) but I also don't get the experience of budgeting and dealing with contractors.

I plan on reading books and doing a buttload of research to remedy this.

3- I am horrible at making friends. I just feel so awkward with people I don't know. Even people I do know, I don't know what to talk about with them. I've never really related to girls- all of the girly crap like makeup and shopping I am not good at, and often girls are just so drawn to drama- I hate it. I don't do bars or "going out" either- I hate the thought of wasting so much money on something so stupid. I would MUCH rather just stay home and watch TV or read a book. Bonus- no obnoxious drunks (did I mention how much I hate drunk people?).

4- I love camping. I grew up "fake camping" in a camper trailer, going to the lake every weekend since I was born pretty much. John and I obviously can't afford a trailer (yet) so we tent. I honestly don't mind it except for the bathroom situation. I have to get up to pee at least once a night every night and that sucks when I have to put shoes on and then wander all over the campground to get to the bathroom. I am also not a fan of the bugs in the showers. Blech.

5- I played ice hockey all through high school and then the first year that I was in college. I loved it SO much. I grew up watching hockey and with season tickets to the local D1 college team and the day my dad agreed to let me join a team is the day my life started :) Almost all of my positive high school memories are associated with hockey and my hockey friends.

My awesome hockey friends & me after our last practise together.

My high school senior picture.

I tried to join a team here this spring, but it was all guys and I felt like they were just looking at me and wondering what the heck I was doing there. And it just wasn't the same without my hockey friends. I miss them.

6- Since I was 6 years old, I knew I wanted to go to RPI for college, for architecture. My dad told me that if I worked hard and got good grades I would be able to get in. I had honors all of the way through school with that as my goal. I did it.

Approximately 1 month after I started at RPI, I felt like my life was falling apart. I hated my classes, had approximately 1 friend, my roommates were horrendous and I felt like I wasn't supposed to be with my boyfriend of 3 years anymore. God was clearly leading me away from the whole situation and I was lost. I had no goal and didn't know where my life was going for the first time ever. I think I was mildly depressed.

In February I broke up with the boyfriend for good and decided to transfer schools. I applied to Virginia Tech (among a few other schools) as a transfer student about a week before the deadline for applications. I felt led to VT for reasons beyond my understanding. I had never visited there and never even heard of it until I was looking at architecture schools. I also decided to change my major to interior design since I always preferred interior space planning.

In April, my mom's job was cut from RPI. Did I mention that I was only able to go to school there because of my free tuition due to her job? Yeah- if I hadn't felt God's nudge to leave RPI and apply to other schools, I would have been SOL for schooling the next year, as it was already too late to apply anywhere else.

In June I was accepted to VT and the next weekend my parents and I drove down to visit the school. It was love at first sight. I showed up for school in August all alone, truly for the first time, met John a month or so later and never looked back.

Looking back at my past, I don't understand how someone could see all of this and NOT see God's work.

7- I love reading. Love it. When I lived at home, I was never "bad" enough that I got grounded, but if I was doing something that my parents didn't like, my mom couldn't send me to my room- I had all of my books there & would be as happy as a clam. Instead she would threaten me, "Samantha, if you don't do __________ I will take away all of your books!" Oh snap, I would hop to whatever chore needed to be done.

I have recently discovered the library. Our library in NY was super small and never held much interest to me. The library here is HUGE! I am like a kid in a candy store. I look SO forward to my every other week library trips. I come home with a stack of about 10 books each time and finish them within 2 weeks. (The 2-3 hours commuting each day definitely helps) My stack of books makes John look like he is gonna puke.

8- I hate folding laundry. And putting it away. I would let is just sit in piles in the laundry basket if the piles didn't bother me so much.

9- I am very schedule oriented. I do exactly the same things in the same exact order every morning.

Get up, get dressed, pee, brush teeth, spray hair w/water & put in hair clip or ponytail, put on concealer, bronzer, eyeliner, mascara. Go to kitchen, take medicine, get lunch together, pour cereal, get out soda, go to computer and eat cereal while checking my Google Reader and email. At 6:53 put bowl in dishwasher, get lunch off of kitchen counter, pack in work bag w/soda and any shoes I need. Call to Jaq and say goodbye to him and John at the same time. Be out of the house by 6:57.

10- It is hard for me to lose weight because I love sweets so much. Put a brownie/ice cream/cookie in front of me and I pretty much cannot refuse it. I hate that I have no will power.

I am supposed to tag 10 people to do this, but I am exhausted after writing all of that. You can decide if you want to do this or not.