Becoming More Responsible

They say that you have more and more responsibilities as you get older and that you become more responsible, but that's not the case for everyone.

I've heard many stories of kids who grow up too fast, and that's another way to say that they received too many responsibilities at once and had to mature faster than they probably should've.

I can't say that I have a case like that, but I've definitely have matured quite a bit in just a little over a week.

Now that I'm a swim teacher, I'm currently trying to balance a total of four jobs. As I mentioned, I'm a swim teacher, I dog walk, I volunteer at a museum and I babysit.

That's a lot to balance alone, but you also have to throw in my softball schedule and gym schedule in there.

This is my first year being a swim teacher and volunteering at the museum, so I'm still trying to figure all of that out.

My schedule is crazy now. My softball team has missed about eleven or so games due to weather, so their constantly being pushed back and that affects everything else in my schedule.

It's becoming complicated to take shifts at the museum and take possible subbing shifts at the pool when I never know when I'm playing anymore.

This has caused me to become more responsible.

I went out the other day to buy a monthly calendar to be able to see my schedule for the whole month and not overbook myself.

Of course there are many phones out there that have calendars, and I do in fact have one on my phone, but it's a lot easier to have everything written down and be able to see everything at the same time.

When school starts up again, I feel like things will be okay.

I will still be working, volunteering and babysitting, but softball would be off the table and that's good because my schedule will be straightforward.

No delays, no cancellations, no makeup games, my schedule will be more regular.

In the end, it's good to be organized.

It might be a bit scary to have all of these responsibilities all of a sudden, but you figure out your own way to manage your schedule and your responsibilities.

My way is to have a calendar while to someone else, it could be having a schedule that doesn't change at all.

Either way, become more responsible is a challenge at first, but you learn.

I thought that I was going to be terrified with having so many responsibilities, but I found a balance that worked for me, so that's good!

In the end, I'm learning balance and how to become responsible and it shouldn't be something to be afraid of. It's an adjustment that we all make.

Until next time!

Road Trip Playlist

I've been on a few road trips since the start of summer for softball tournaments and although I have many songs on my phone, I usually listen to the same songs during a trip. Add a few or take some away, it's roughly what I listen to during road trips. 

As it's pretty clear, I've decided to share my road trip playlist and I hope you enjoy it or at least some of the songs!

Dirty Little Secret - The All-American Rejects*

Something's Gotta Give - All Time Low*

Kids In The Dark - All Time Low*

Cinderblock Garden - All Time Low

Love Like War - All Time Low*

Uptown Funk - (covered by) Against The Current feat. Set It Off*

Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi*

Peace Of Mind - Boston

Alone Together Is Gospel - (mashup of) Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco

Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses*

Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

A Dustland Fairytale - The Killers*

We'll Never Know - Lifehouse

Twixtor - Make Out Monday*

Air Guitar - McBusted*

Sing - My Chemical Romance*

Bohemian Rhapsody - (covered by) Panic! At The Disco*

Hallelujah - Panic! At The Disco*

Elevated - State Champs*

Remedy - State Champs

Nothing's Wrong - State Champs

Secret Valentine - We The Kings*

Skyway Avenue - We The Kings*

Check Yes Juliet - We The Kings*
Telescope - Yellowcard

Southern Air - Yellowcard

Acoustic Songs:

Remembering Sunday - All Time Low feat. Juliet Simms

Breakeven - (covered by) Boyce Avenue*

Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall - (covered by) Boyce Avenue*

Fast Car - (covered by) Boyce Avenue feat. Tracy Chapman*

One Life - Boyce Avenue*

Back For Good - (covered by) Boyce Avenue*

Teenage Dream - (covered by) Boyce Avenue*

A Sky Full Of Stars - (covered by) Boyce Avenue*

We Can't Stop - (covered by) Boyce Avenue feat. Bea Miller*

Photograph - Ed Sheeran*

Kids In Love - Mayday Parade

Lying... - Panic! At The Disco*

A Drop In The Ocean - Ron Pope

So Obvious - Runner Runner

Ten - Yellowcard

Long Way Home - 5 Seconds Of Summer

Even though the playlist is pretty long, sometimes I'll skip some or listen to more of the depending on my mood and how long the trip is. Either Way, I usually stick to the songs on this playlist.

All the songs are linked, so if you think to be interested in one, go listen to it! Any song marked with * means that it's the music video/recording of the video to that song. 

My personal favourites are Love Like War by All Time Low, Cinderblock Gardens by All Time Low, Twixtor by Make Out Monday, Elevated by State Champs Air Guitar by McBusted, Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas, Breakeven (covered by) Boyce Avenue, One Life by Boyce Avenue, Photograph by Ed Sheeran and Long Way Home by 5 Seconds Of Summer.

I hope that you're able to find a song that you enjoy!

Until next time!

Three Things To Do In Your City Alone

It's the summer and often times, my friends are away on vacation or attending camps. Even if they're not all away, I can't always spend time with my friends that are around because they're already busy with other plans.

Instead of being stuck inside the house, I created a list of few things that you can do around your city.

1. Attend a festival
I live in a rather small city, but every summer my city is host to many festivals - including Jazz Fest and Alfresco Film Festival (AFF).
This was my first year attending Jazz Fest, but I loved it. It's held over a few days and there's a different jazz band that performs every night. I got to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and they were amazing. I want to go back next year.
The Alfresco Film Festival is a festival where they show outdoor movies once or twice a week (usually twice a week) for the duration of six weeks every summer. Every summer, there's a different theme to the movies. The ones I remember are Summer of Bill Murray, Summer of Spielberg and this year is Summer of Superheroes.
Festivals are super fun with friends, but you don't always have to go with friends to have fun!

2. Watch Street Performers
I was walking on the boardwalk on my way home today and I saw these two kids performing on their guitar and violin. I wish that I could've stayed and listened to them because they sounded amazing together, but sadly I had to catch the bus home.
We have a Buskers Festival that perform at the end of August for a few days, not quite sure if that counts as a festival, and those are fun to watch but they tend to always be centered around magic or tricks. I personally love to see people play music on the streets and I wish that at some point, I could take the time to listen to a whole song.
I want to have a day where I walk around downtown and watch whatever street performers that I stumble upon.

3. Go on a tour
Every city has a tour whether its about the town's history, a ghost walk, a food tour, a tour in a museum, bus tours, there's so many that every city offers. If you find yourself bored and alone one day, go on a tour! It's great to go alone because then you don't have to compromise what tour you go on with someone else, so you're guaranteed to attend a tour on a topic that you'll enjoy.

That's all I have so far for things to do in your city alone. I wanted to keep in quite neutral knowing that depending what city you live in, the activities offered may vary.

Hopefully I'll be able to expand this list some day, but for now, let me know if any of you do any activities that I suggested on your own and let me know what you thought of it!

Until next time!

Fashion Friday #1

I decided to start little segments on my blog in hopes of it having me post more often, and today shall be the debut of my first segment: Fashion Friday.

As I mentioned before on previous post Surfing (The Web For Sites That I Love), I'm absolutely loving the website Polyvore.

It's a website where you can create outfits, room designs, colour palettes for makeup and more. 

I love the website, I use it mainly for fashion myself, but I've been spending a lot of time on it.

Seeing how much time I've been spending on their and how many I've been creating, I thought that'd I'd share one with you guys every week or two weeks (depending how everything goes), therefore creating Fashion Friday!

The first outfit I want to share with you guys, I'm pretty sure it was the first set I created under my username, claireelizabeta, on Polyvore. 

I've only created my account 10 days ago, but I already have about 20+ sets made and I have to say that my first one is still one of my top favourites.

Finally, here's the outfit:

Dress - Tommy Hilfiger floral summer dress
Sandals - Monsoon ankle strap sandals
Earrings - Kendra Scott mother of pearl earrings
Bracelets - Liz Claiborne bangle set

White dresses are one of the trends for this summer, so I decided to stick with that.

I love the light pink accent colour. Light pink is a colour that I don't wear all that often myself, but I love it with this dress because it keeps it light and fun

I chose gold accessories simply because I prefer gold accessories over silver ones.

The colours go so well together (then again, what doesn't go with white?), and I love how the look basically says summer when you look at it.

It's one that I would definitely buy in a heartbeat and I would give the light pink a go! 

The only thing I could wish about this outfit is to have the money to buy it.

If you like that outfit, feel free to check out some of my other sets that I've created HERE.

Until next time!

My First Job (Interview)!

Today was a pretty good day for me.

At around one o'clock this afternoon, I got a phone call asking if I could go in for my first job interview ever today.

I was really excited and nervous when I answered the phone and then they asked to speak to me. I gave in my resume to teach swimming lessons at my local pool yesterday, so I wasn't expecting a phone call today.

They asked if I could go in for 3:30 this afternoon, and I was nowhere near ready.

Seeing as I had about two hours to get ready (leaving half an hour for a drive in case of traffic), it still wasn't enough. I had to take a shower, do my hair, do my makeup, put together a professional outfit and walk two dogs.

It's fair to say that I was stressed a little bit.

I went in for my interview and there were two interviewers. I was able to relax once one of the interviewers who presented themselves was someone I knew before, it was nice to have someone I know interviewing me.

I'm not sure if these are all the questions that they asked me, but here are the ones that I remember:

• Why am I applying for this position?
• What are my strengths and weaknesses?
• What's a time when something didn't go as plan and what did you learn from it?
• Do I have any experience in services (volunteering or a past job) and how have I performed to offer a service? (what have I done to keep everything even and keep the people I've worked with happy?)
• What does teamwork mean for me and what would I bring to the staff team?
• What would I do with a swimmer who doesn't want to put their face in the water?
• Why should they hire me and what would I bring to the aquatics team?

At some points, I would have to pause to form my answer, but I left the interview feeling as though it went pretty good.

I went back upstairs to see my mom and let her know that we could go, but she reminded me of a question I had to ask to the interviewer whom I previously knew.

When I went back downstairs, I asked my question, but he turned to the other interviewer before I left and said "Let's just give it to her now, she's already here."

I was lost at that and the other interviewer noticed that, so she said to me "I was going to follow you upstairs to give you the payroll papers but I figured you'd already be gone. It's great that you are back down though!"

I was still lost, but the interviewer whom I previously knew before went over the forms I had to fill out to be an official staff worker.

The hired me right there!

I was shocked but really pleased with myself. It's a job that's slightly above minimum wage, but that's still great!

I came back out to show my mom the papers and she was also surprised! I was expecting a phone call or email in two or three days, but this was amazing.

I already have the majority of the paperwork filled out, I only have a few lines left to fill out.

Tomorrow, I'm going in for a mandatory orientation that I'm possibly getting paid for, but that just means that I'm starting soon and I couldn't be any happier with myself.

I'm immensely nervous to start working, but I think it will be good for me. I love swimming and I love teaching little kids; it seems like a pretty good job for me.

Until next time!

Newest Purchase

When I go shopping, I find anything over 25$ expensive. I don't like spending a lot of money for a singular objects, but as many of you know, sometimes we have to make exceptions.

I love music and I have played three instruments in my lifetime so far. I played the saxophone a few years ago, but I still remember a few scales, and I'm currently playing the guitar and bass.

I got my first instrument, which was a guitar, about four and a half years ago and I'm still in love with playing it. My first guitar was an acoustic guitar that was 3/4 the size of a regular guitar and I won't ever forget the day I first got it. My uncle came over, taught me a few chords and the rest was history.

The 3/4 sized guitar was my first acoustic guitar, after that I rented a full sized electric guitar and I ended up renting it for so long that it was payed off, therefore it was now mine. I had those two for the longest time until I traded in my 3/4 sized guitar for a full sized acoustic guitar which I still own today.

It's a Simon & Patrick Songsmith guitar; it projects a full, rich sound that I love and it plays really well.

Recently though, I traded my old electric guitar for a new one.

Before I had a Les Paul Epiphone guitar which was also really nice to play, but now I'm the proud owner of a Ibanez Gio RG.

 

(The difference in between the two pictures is that on the right, I added the whammy bar and turned it slightly so that the volume and tune knobs, plus the pickup switch, can be seen better.)

I absolutely love the guitar. The whammy bar is really neat, I didn't have one on my other guitar, so know I'm still trying to figure out the best way to play with it.

It was funny because my older cousin came by and he also plays the guitar, so I showed him mine and he liked playing it, he thought it was really cool. Apparently a few weeks later he sold his own guitar and bought himself an Ibanez guitar because he liked mine so much.

Something special about that type of Ibanez guitar is that the strings are locked in place. 

Right where the strings start to go down the neck of the guitar, that's where the lock is. I find it great because it locks the strings in, they don't move around as much as they would on a guitar without a lock, therefore it stays in tune a lot longer. I could go a week or so without touching the guitar and I could pick it up and play a song that's in tune.

Because the strings are locked at the top, I don't actually use the pegs at the top of the guitar to tune it, I use small and round pegs at the bottom of the stings. They're right behind the spring loaded tailpiece which holds the end of the strings to the body of the guitar.

I'm so excited to own it and to be able to play it, but I have to admit that I'm a little scared of tuning it and changing the strings later own because the tailpiece is spring loaded. I have to remember to balance that and only remove one string at a time.

Hopefully I'll get more comfortable with it after practicing a bit. Until then, I'll get my dad to help e with it.

Until next time!

Summer 2015

I haven't posted on here for awhile and I'm very sorry for that! The end of the school year is a stressful time for me because there's still projects to finish and essays or test to write, but seeing as it's the end of the year, I tend to procrastinate a lot and let the work pile up.

That's never a smart idea.

Anyway, seeing as it's the end of the school year and summer is coming faster than I thought it would, I thought that I'd share a few things that I want to do this summer. 

1. I want to spend the day with some of my friends out and about the city and then go back to someone's house for a movie marathon. 
I don't necessarily mean all day out in the city and then have a movie marathon overnight, maybe spend the morning in town and then have the afternoon/evening to watch movies. I think it's a fun thing to do with friends and it's not something you need a lot of money for.

2. I want to find a new shop.
Whether it's a book store, cafe, library, whatever it is, I want to find a little hole-in-the-wall type of place where I can escape to and sit around in whenever I need to get away from things. I love hole-in-the-wall's because I always find them relaxing and interesting.

3. I want to make a mixtape. 
I want to make one for the reason of having all my current favourite songs on one CD so that I don't have to skip through 20 songs to find the one I want to listen to. I find mixtapes quite efficient for road trips.

4. I want to do well at my job(s).
I got hired by a museum in my city and I believe that my job will be to give tours, then again I could be wrong. If I do end up giving tours, I don't want to have to second guess myself with the facts, I don't want to feel unprepared. This is something I want, so I'm going to study for it as often as I can. 
It's also possible that I apply to be a swim teacher this summer, and if I do end up doing that, I want to be confident in myself.

5. I want to do something that scares me.
That could be anything from telling my family and friends something personal about myself, going out for the day alone, playing my guitar or bass guitar with my family home or doing something different at my job, but I want to do something that scares me, whatever that may be.

6. I want to go out and take more photos.
I don't have to go all that far to take pictures, but I really do want to set aside time to go out into town and around my city to take some pictures. I want to take some for practice, to have fun with and hopefully some that I'll post on here.

7. I want to do more with my blog.
I'm still trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my blog and what type of blog I want it to be (even though I'm sure it's going to turn out to be a personal blog where I write about whatever comes to mind and whatever motivates/inspires me).  I want to write more, create good content and be happy with what I post. I want to take some time in the evenings to write and edit my posts and make them as good as they can be.

That's all I have for now for things I want to do this summer! Any of you have specific things you want to do this summer? Feel free to comment what they are!

Until next time!