Kacey's Techey Review: Droid

I have finally entered the age of the Smartphone! I am celebrating my tenth day with my 4G Droid Razr. It is purple, nicknamed Raul and fabulous. Here is my opinion of the Droid, in a much more entertaining (though probably less informative) way than those tech boards.

Pros of Raul the Razr:

·         Fantastic camera! Such HD pictures and quick upload ability

·         The screen is really big, which is good for people who hate to squint

·         My text icon is not a normal envelope…it is a speech bubble with a smiley face in it! Adorable!

·         Words with friends!

·         It’s super fast and I feel totally boss with a cool phone. Even when the "DROID" sound annoys people whenever I get a text. Sorry you are not cool enough to have a phone that is self confident enough to say it's name all of the time. I may start saying "KACEY" whenever I have a message for someone....

·         It’s way less pretentious than the iPhone.

Droid Downers:

·         For two weeks I couldn’t receive pictures from iPhone people but now I can. I just had to update something and now it’s great

·         I sometimes do not wake up for my alarm. Whether this is Raul’s fault or my own has yet to be determined.

#TeamDroidForever

Scavenger Date

Sorry I have been so absent! Things have been so crazy with school and I took a weekend away to go home, relax and disconnect from drama. It was a perfect remedy and got me even more excited for Spring Break (T minus four days, but who’s counting?!)

Winter South Jersey is much different from Summer South Jersey, but with a little bit of creativity and caffeine, you can make a fun time out of anything. Matt and I decided to go to the Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing, not because we needed to shop, but because we really didn’t have anything else to do. How do we entertain ourselves?

By making up a scavenger hunt of course! 

 Some of the things were way to inappropriate to post, but I will say items included “a screaming child”, “an afro”, “a person with a wolf t-shirt like Alan from The Hangover” and “a middle school clique”. We failed to find a “person preppier than Kacey”, but that was expected!

I naturally won the scavenger hunt because I am an expert people watcher, and we had dinner with his parents and then went to my house to hang out with old friends and family and play the Xbox Kinect dance game. 

Weekend perfection!

Picture: Looking over the list in Macys. Note the Sperrys I am lusting after, Starbucks in my hand and 'I'm-so-going-to-kick-ass" smirk. 

Giving Up The Buck

Its Ash Wednesday today, and thus starts a time for sacrifice. Last Ash Wednesday I was in Paris at the Notre Dame…nothing against the Newman Center on Temple’s Campus, but this mass will be a little different.

The boyfriend and I were discussing what we were giving up for Lent. Soda? Nah, we don’t really drink that much anyway. Facebook? Unfortunately I need that for my internship. I realized giving up didn’t necessarily mean having to go cold turkey on a favorite commodity, it meant doing something to better your understanding of someone else’s pain and suffering.

Therefore, we decided that each day, Matt and I are going to ‘give up’ a dollar, which means at the end of 40 days, we will have $80 to put to a good cause. We have chosen the put the money towards restocking the food pantry at my local Parish of Saint Maximillion Kolbe. They always need donations and I feel I always take 3 meals a day for granted. Though its not much, its something and I am excited to give back to those in need.

What are you giving up for Lent?

Sacred Small Stuff

Ugh! I get to my ‘Modern Britian: Empire, War and Rock and Roll’ (welcome to Temple) class today and some rando chick is in my seat!!! I ALWAYS sit in that seat and there was a Malfoy-worthy sneer on my face when I walked in and saw her there.

I guess humans are creatures of habit, we all have our little rituals and vices that get us through the day. For instance, if I don’t have my coffee in the mornings, I am a force to be reckoned with. And I have to make flashcards before any test or quiz, even if it’s only ten questions and I know what it’s about—if I don’t have flashcards, I don’t feel prepared and usually have some type of panic attack. I always fold my pizza when I eat it, always put my makeup on in the same order (foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, coverup, blush, lipstick) and always say ‘I love you’ before I hang up the phone.

You never realize how much you rely on the normalcy until something throws you a little off balance. In a crazy world where every day there is a new drama, it’s nice to have a couple things you can control.

It’s also nice to have little indulgences. Vineyard Vines is having a free shipping sale so I am ordering myself a Koozie. It’s only five dollars and it is so worth the excitement I have waiting for it to come in the mail! Little things, little rituals, little moments…that’s what keeps me sane most days.

Dreaming of Warmer Days

Sorry for the absence over the weekend! It was filled with birthday celebrations for one of my good friends, a Temple Owls victory in basketball and a visit from my guy!

So apparently voting for the Top 10 Best NJ Beaches launches tomorrow at noon! It surprised me that the Wildwoods are the remaining champs (winning 3 out of the 4 past years). Not that Wildwood isn’t pretty, of course, but when you have to walk practically a mile from the boardwalk to the sea…that loses its luster.  According to the comments on their Facebook page, it looks like there is a lot of Wildwood pride and voters are ready to have the title be theirs again.

Although I love South Jersey, love my summers on the beaches in Strathemere and Sea Isle…Lavallette (off Exit 82) is the most beautiful beach. Though it shares the same stretch of island as those Jersey Shore nuts, Lavallette is a small coastal town with the most amazing sand. Somehow, the sand up there brushes right off of you, it’s got more of a exfoliating feel than the sand down in South Jersey. The water is beautiful, the sandbars are so defined and I always seen dolphins!

Lavallette’s got my vote for best beach in South Jersey—cast yours tomorrow at http://www.njtoptenbeaches.org/  

xo

Thursday Thoughts: Starbucks

Did you know in the state of New Jersey there are 259 Starbucks?

Why do we like Starbucks? Their drinks are overpriced and insanely high in calories. And yet…you have to love Starbucks. I certainly do.

I can walk into a Starbucks and know what to expect. The coffee-colored walls, the cozy couches, a hipster in the corner on a Macbook and a barista ready to take my order. Do I want a cappuccino? A chai tea latte? Whatever I choose, I know I will like it and I will walk around with that little green and white cup with a bounce in my step. I hate forking over five bucks for a caffeine fix, but I can justify it by saying ‘well, most of this is going to the poor kids in Africa on all of those pictures. And I had 35 cents left on my gift-card, I practically got this for free’. Self-deception fuels the Starbucks business.

Sometime in October, Starbucks comes back with their coveted pumpkin spice line and it’s pretty much a national holiday for any sorority. “Ohmygod, pumpkin spice lattes are back?! The line is forty people long? No problem, lets skip class and get some!”

After a stressful day at work, stop at Starbucks. Got an A on a test? You deserve a treat--stop at Starbucks. In preparation for a shopping day, you’re going to need fuel. You’re going to need Starbucks. I know I use any excuse I can to justify my overpriced latte, but there’s something about The Starbucks Experience that keeps me coming back for more, no matter how thrifty I say I am.

Well, that, and the fact that they always let you use their bathroom.

Where are the places I will go?

Even when I am at school in Philadelphia, I like to keep in touch with what’s happening at home. The Press of Atlantic City newspaper has a “local business” section and I read such a great article today. The article is about Care Custom Cabinetry, a father-son business. They do high end woodwork and their clients include the Atlantic City Country Club and Blue Heron’s Golf Club. It’s a nice read and definitely something I would recommend checking out.

I’m a sucker for small businesses, bonus points if it’s a family business. When the person at the counter knows your coffee order or the owner of a clothing boutique asks about how your brother is doing at college—that’s personal and brightens my day. South Jersey is great for finding local, small businesses to shop at, which I will definitely be featuring in upcoming posts. I also firmly believe that supporting small businesses is good for the local and eventually national economy. My local bagel shop doesn’t get their bagels from a sweatshop halfway around the world.

I’ve always wanted to run a business with my family (as in future family. Much easier to boss around my kids than my siblings), even though I have no idea what that business would be. I’ve dreamed about a restaurant, a café, a bar, a clothing shop…I’m only twenty one years old so I guess the possibilities are endless. Some days my rapidly approaching graduation date scares me, but most days it really excites me. I just don’t want to ever have the attitude that “it’s not the right time” or “maybe later”. My life is happening right now; I’m going to do what I want with it!

Dirty Drinks and Sweet Boys

It’s my first Valentine’s Day with a boyfriend and I have to admit, after years of being a hater, I am officially in love with Valentine’s Day.

Due to the 70 miles currently between us Monday through Friday, I have to wait until weekends to be with my guy. Instead of presents, we decided to just do cards and a nice dinner this past weekend at The Continental in Atlantic City. I love it there. It’s funky, classy and they never card me which was 1) awesome when I was underage and 2) great now because I always hate showing my license picture. The woman decided having an extreme close up of my face was suitable for identification. The only thing you can identify with that picture is the fact that my Bobbi Brown cover-up did not completely cover up a pimple on my nose.

Anyway, now that I am 21 I can legally enjoy the finer things in life. I’m usually a beer girl (I probably have higher amounts of Corona than water in my bloodstream) and wine is okay for holidays and movie nights and particularly stressful Thursdays. But there is one drink that The Continental makes that I just cannot resist: The Dirty Martini.

It looks sexy, it sounds sexy and it makes me feel totally bad ass/Mad Men-esque/wealthy. Maybe it’s the glass, maybe it’s the fact that it’s not a shot of Vladimir vodka (the college freshman in me just threw up a little) or maybe it’s just the way it sounds ordering it (‘Dirty Martini, extra olives please’) but I am particularly obsessed with this drink. And Matt is nice enough to fund my obsession.

It seemed that the card, chocolates, teddy bear and dinner weren’t enough though: today I received two dozen red roses from Matt himself with an adorable note attached.

Does this make up for the twenty other February 14ths I spent alone, bitter and stuffing my face with pity chocolate from my parents?

Absolutely.

xo

So much more than the fist pump...

I know. The title throws you off, right?

Let me clarify a few things: yes, I know the “Jersey Shore” cast is not actually from New Jersey. But you don’t see the show being called “Visitors From Other States Getting Paid Millions For Acting Like Idiots Shore”. And no, I sure as heck did not vote for Governor Christie. I pride myself at having a little more class than those two horrible misrepresentations of the state I call home.

I used to say the most Jersey things about me were my license plate and my big hair. I gladly escaped my little coastal town and headed to college in Philadelphia and even got the chance to study abroad in Ireland for a semester. The more time I spent away from New Jersey though, the more I realized I belonged there. I belonged at Exit 25 off the parkway, belonged on the beaches in the summer and Quizzo at Yesterdays on Thursday nights. Jersey isn’t about guidos and fist pumping: like me, it’s got more class than that.

Do I think my little pink blog will singlehandedly change anything? Nah, but why not indulge yourself and listen to my daily thoughts (which tend to turn into rambles) and take peeks into the fun parts of my life? I live at the beach, wear cute clothes and drink a lot of coffee—I promise, it’ll be entertaining.

xo