So, out of the 8 readers of my blog I email with most of you semi-regularly, so I've probably told you about C. And the other person who reads this is his sister, so...she knows (hi Carlye!)

But for those of you that I haven't emailed lately (sorry!)....this is Chris. Or C, as I've been referring to him here lately.

In short, he's smart and handsome and kind and makes me laugh.

In long (not an actual phrase), he's the peanut butter to my jelly, the guy who rescues me from bats in my apartment, who checks for criminals when I call him in the middle of the night scared. He's the guy who opens my car door every time, surprised me with concert tickets, and listens when I vent. He's the most unselfish person I've ever met, and he makes me happier than I've ever been. When I ask him to tell me something funny, he always has something to tell. He loves bananas. And doesn't mind when I make him take a million couple selfies because I always think I look weird. He's handy and he loves Midas, and he made a pact to never tickle me.

Never in my life did I think I'd be so lucky. Never in my life do I think I'll be able to be as wonderful as he thinks I am. But I am willing to spend every day trying.

1. Get cheated on.*
2. Spend several months eating your feelings and using the cheating as an excuse to stop working out, live on french fries and ice cream and be generally lazy.
3. Panic when you notice you've gained a few pounds.
4. Travel a lot for work. Make sure these trips include sampling the local fare (the fattier the better) and taking clients out for dinner and drinks every single night. Also try not to sleep during these trips.
5. Meet the man of your dreams.
6. Get back on the scale and realize the few pounds has turned into several pounds.
7. Start working out twice a day and being really strict with what you eat.
8. Surround yourself with things that will make you feel fat.
9. Forget about the important things in life so you have more time to focus on working out and obsessing over what you eat.
10. Have a mini breakdown to the man of your dreams on a Sunday night and realize that you are driving yourself crazy. That there is so much more to you than how much you weigh, and that being a size 4 instead of a size 2 is not the end of the world. Realize you sound bratty when you complain about being a size 4.

More to come on this, in which I try to recover from the self-inflicted crazy.



*Don't actually get cheated on, if you can help it.

Or, ya know, call it a comeback if you want.

Dear, sweet readers of this tiny blog,
I am done with graduate school. I have a masters now.

And I live in my own apartment, just me and the dog. I have this amazing job that challenges and inspires me, and an amazing man who does the same. (Plus he's pretty handsome.)

I am a lucky girl. Pinch me.

But you know me...I am never satisfied. It's one of the things I like most about myself.

So in the coming months, I'll be challenging myself in (hopefully) many different ways, and documenting it here. Because that's one challenge: write more on the blog so years from now when I'm boring I can look back and remember when.

And that's it. Challenging, no? If you have any ideas of what I should do, leave me a comment, I need all the inspiration I can get.

Love, Jo

I actually whined in the car about this weekend ending. Groaned, even. Because while nothing extraordinary happened in the past three days, it was one of the best weekends I can remember having. And while I love my job, nothing can really replace that weekend feeling.

This particular Sunday night, I'm grateful for
- Diet Coke, delicious and functional
- gorgeous weather
- Liberty park
- someone who makes me believe there are still good people out there
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Because tomorrow my comprehensive exams start, and I'm freaking.
...and if I don't pass these exams then I don't graduate my masters program.
...and the study guide is 400+ terms, at least 100 of which I've never heard of.

Because yesterday was a fantastic day, and even if nothing comes of this new thing I've got going on I'm really enjoying it for now, and it's good to be reminded that nice guys are out there.

Because this whole album (which came out on my birthday!) got me through a horrendous breakup.

Because TSwift is clearly my spirit animal and someone understands all my feelings despite being so very young.

Because I don't care if everyone I know makes fun of me and my un-ironic obsession with Taylor Swift.

Because this song makes me happy, and I could use a big dose of that right about now.

- bed
- blanket
- book
- boyfriend
- brownie

Too bad I can only have 3/5 of my list, since boyfriend is in Ohio for the family (love getting his 'miss you' texts) and brownies are NOT on plan for the day.

Right off the bat, I am probably going to use the word *hard* a lot in this post. So go ahead and get all the 'that's what she said' jokes out of your system.

Done? Good.

I've been doing a lot of hard things lately.
Grad school? Hard.
Relationships? HARD.
Job hunting? Hard.
Working out? Hard.

Let's talk about that last one. Back in February, when Sundance was over and life was back to normal I started running again. And it was unbearable. Seriously. I remember feeling like I'd been running for ever and then looking and realizing it had been two minutes. Oy. That was the day I stopped looking at the clock on the treadmill.

But with time, and perseverance, running became something I love. Does that mean I want to run a half marathon or a 10K or anything? Absolutely not. I just don't have any real interest in it. I did, however, want to be able to run a 5K without stopping. And I did it. And it was awesome.

Something that seemed insurmountable at first was accomplished. And I discovered that with enough time, anything is possible.

When I think about the things I want most in my life, none of them are things I would just fall into (unless I won some sort of lottery that you don't have to enter). They are all things that would require effort, and work, and sweat, and tears. Which brings me to the above graphic.

It will be hard. (The best things are.) Do it anyway.

I made it so I can look at it when I'm thinking about quitting, or backing off, or wondering why I put effort into something when I can't always see results. The epilogue to that graphic is 'It's worth it.' And I truly believe that most things are worth it.

I'm a Libra, and apparently one of our traits is that we take the easy way out. I don't know why, but that's stuck with me since I first heard it. I don't want to be the person who won't put in the work. So I've been trying to do more hard things. And even though sometimes it does leave me sweating, or in tears, or whining to my parents, it's been a good thing in my life lately. In fact, I'm happier than I can ever remember being.

So what's my next hard thing? Well, D and I have been falling into the couple trap where we just eat whatever we feel like because eating icecream together is fun. And going out to eat a lot is fun. But these are not the habits that we want to build together. So, we're doing Body for Life. It's a 12 week challenge aimed at changing your eating and exercise habits (it's also totally safe and has been around since the mid 90s), and we're starting today.*

You might be hearing a lot about it on the blog, depending on how it goes. As with all new things, I will give this the best shot I can, but if it isn't for us, I won't feel any guilt about stopping. Mostly I'm hoping it'll get us away from eating take out and junk food as much as we do. We are pretty good at making dinner a few nights a week, but there is still a lot of pizza and Cafe Rio. 


*To be clear, I'm not trying to lose any weight. No sir. I want to tone things up, and I want to get into better shape and be supportive of D doing the same things.

Today is my last day of the semester. All that's left is to email a final paper and attend one more class tonight. I also have to submit my grades, but that's not a big deal. So to celebrate my impending freedom, a list of things I am excited about.


1. open window weather

2. eating outside
3. beach trip with D's family in July
4. seeing my parents at the end of the July trip
5. summer dresses in fun patterns

6. the Cinco de Mayo party D and I just decided to throw...seems like a good excuse to try to recreate Cafe Rio pork!
7. more running in the park
8. swimming
9. lemonade
10. filming my thesis doc (OK, not exactly excited, more nervous, but I figured if I add it here maybe it would help

Was it me, or was this weekend exceptional?

Friday I...
- worked my tail off at the gym (30 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes strength training)
- planned a mini picnic in Memory Grove park (even though by the time we made it there the sun was behind the hill and it was cold)
- browsed Barnes & Noble with D (I love bookstores!)

Saturday I...
- had lunch at Texas Roadhouse
- went on a failed IKEA trip with D (they had nothing we needed...impossible, right?)
- visited at least 3 grocery stores because we can never figure out what we want to eat
- saw fun. with Mel! (such a great show)
- ate a verrrrry late slice of pizza from The Piehole because not much is open at 1am

Sunday I...
- had a delicious Belgian Waffle
- took a non nap (best non nap ever)
- graded a bajillion papers (OK this wasn't really fun but at least I felt productive)
- made fancy grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner (D learned he likes smoked gouda)
- worked on the puzzle that we've been semi-neglecting for weeks

I don't know what it was about the past few days, but it was a seriously lovely weekend. And I wish it was still going on.

Getting up at 4:30 for a flight, 1 cab ride, 2 classes (one mine, one I taught) and unpacking is not the recipe for a lovely evening...except for last night.

Instead of tired and cranky there was yummy food and pink roses and listening to music on the couch. And a certain someone who couldn't stop saying how much he liked this song. So now it's his ringtone when he calls. Yup, I'm a temporary resident of the Sappyland.

This isn't the version I was playing, but I like the black and white video, so...

And trust me, I'm sooooo painfully aware this version is from Twilight. But you have to admit, those movies have amazing soundtracks so I'm not embarrassed.

This time next week I'll be in sunny California! To say I'm excited would be an understatement.

It's been years since I was in California, and I can't wait to see the beach. And Disneyland! (I've never been, and I feel like a little kid right now.)

This month is shaping up to be pretty fantastic. And so...(because I love lists)...a list of things I'm excited about this month:

1. California trip: Disneyland, beach, warm weather, great company
2. St Patrick's Day Shamrock Shake with Rachel (well...with her in spirit)
3. Fun. concert on March 31
4. Festival of Colors (I couldn't go last year so I don't want to miss it)
5. Jeremy's thesis film shoot this weekend (going to be a lot of work but I think I'll learn a lot)
6. A certain new someone I'm a pretty big fan of (do you like how I resisted listing this first?)
7. Warm weather! (wishing and hoping)

With all that to look forward to, how could the rest of March not be as great as the first week?

Have you ever had one of those nights when you think 'I'd better write all this down so I don't forget it' but then you realize you could never put the night into words?

Yeah.

One of those nights that you thought only happened in the movies, because it doesn't seem like it's possible that in real life your date takes you to this amazing restaurant and oh by the way knows the chef who insists that he make you a three course meal and visits your table to chat so many times that you want to take him home with you so he can be your Italian grandfather. And you spend the night asking each other silly and serious questions and eating so much food you might die but it's worth it. And you even eat fish and seafood and mushrooms because how could it not be good? (And it is good, but you still aren't converted to food from the ocean.) And then he asks (as one of his questions) if you'll see him again on Friday and of course you say yes (because don't forget, this is a movie, and you always say yes in movies).

How could a night be real when your face hurts from laughing by the time you get to the door and when he kisses you goodnight you don't realize you're leaning against the doorbell and your roommate comes out and it's awkward for everyone? But you actually don't really care because these kinds of things happen in movies all the time. And your life is a movie tonight.

I was right. Words don't do it justice.

Sometimes we need those nights, to remind us that they're possible. So that on all the days when life is just life and not bookended by credits and songs, we can look back and remember that one time when...

This was a weird weekend. A really good, weird weekend.

And ever since Mel posted on my wall that Fun. is coming at the end of March, I've been listening to this song on repeat. Sort of the best possible soundtrack for this weekend and since I've been thinking so much about age lately...well, it makes sense.

Tonight, we are young. So let's set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the sun.

What else should I do when I'm home? Trader Joe's is obvious. And Panera. And REAL BAGELS. Oooh and H&M, which is at my local mall and not half an hour away like in Utah.

Is it next week yet?

Today is the first day of fall!

Prepare for gorgeousness.

Source: google.com via Joanna on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Joanna on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Joanna on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Joanna on Pinterest

Source: whatsupmynerdizzles.tumblr.com via Joanna on Pinterest

My mission this Fall is to find some really pretty places that remind me of being on the East Coast. Anyone want to help?

I can't promise much, but I can guarantee there will be stops for pumpkin and apple goodness along the way.

PS- Did you notice the colors here are a little more fall-like? This is what happens when I don't plan out my mornings off. I waste time.

I could not have asked for more from this week. For quite a while, I've been feeling really insecure about whether I belong in film school. After all, I didn't spend my teen years making movies with my friends, or locked up in my room writing scripts, or watching foreign film or even worshipping Spielberg (b/c I'm not Dawson).

And when you spend your time in class with people who did one if not two or three of the above-mentioned, it can be a little intimidating. Film programs aren't like other programs. Sure, I have to write papers. But more importantly, I have to create a significant body of work. Did you catch that? Create.

OK, so back to how I've been feeling lately...this semester I have to make a documentary and write a script. I know that's only two things, but trust me it's a lot. So when things went well on Monday in my doc class I was pretty psyched. But the biggest obstacle this week was that I had to do a script reading. On the first script I've ever written. Well, the first 15 pages of the first script I've ever written.

And you know what? It went great. I was pretty nervous, because I wasn't feeling super confident about what I'd written, but it was really positively received. Yay!

I know it probably sounds like I'm just being full of myself, but I don't really care. It's my blog and I'll brag if I want to.

Besides, I really needed this week.

For three whole minutes.

At least, that's what my professor said after watching my in-class shoot from last week. It was projected on the big screen, and when he asked who shot it twenty seconds in, I was a little nervous. An early response is either really good or really bad.

But at 40 seconds in, when I zoomed in from a medium shot to a close up and he said 'that's exactly it' I knew things were going my way.

"That was perfect."

Forgive me if I brag, but I OWNED that shoot. And since this particular professor is known for being, ummm, difficult...what he said carries a lot of weight for me.

Yeah, today was a good day.

Whenever I'm having a bad day, or a good day, or even just a blah day, I blast this song and feel instantly amazing.

I had a rough time a little bit ago, and it's not exactly better but I've decided to feel better about it. And I got some great news today (new job! that doesn't require a uniform!) and it's sunny outside!

I was talking to someone last week who didn't think they were the kind of person I thought they were (how vague can I be?) and my advice to them was to just decide to be that person. So that's the attitude I'm trying to adopt: decide to be what you want. Today, I am carefree and optimistic and hopeful.

Join me?

Remember that time I finished my first year of grad school?

That was this week.

This semester kicked my trash. Seriously. Between disappearing to Park City for Sundance, to silly personal drama, to work intensive classes involving group work (which I hate), this was a really tough semester for me, and I am soooo glad to be seeing the end of it.

It's very surreal to be 1/3 through my MFA. It feels like I just arrived in Utah yesterday, and I can't believe it's been 9 months.

In 10 days I'll be going home to PA for a week! I haven't seen my parents since I moved out here, it's the longest we've ever been apart. I'm a pretty big fan of them, so I can't wait to see them.

For now, I'm going to enjoy the sunny weather and the fact that I'm done!

Ever seen Empire Records? It's one of my favorite movies. In middle school my friends and I watched it probably once a week. We celebrated Rex Manning Day with cupcakes and would routinely quote it in response to just about anything.

We knew about the character who was cut from the movie in the editing room, and where you could catch glimpses of her. We knew all the words to "Sugar High." We figured out which characters we all were. It was sort of a magical time.

In the last scene they all go dance on the roof, and "This is the Day" by The The plays. This is the song that gets me back to a good place and makes me hopeful when I'm feeling blah about my life. The video is verrrry 80s but the song is fantastic.

I love the chorus...this is the day you're life will surely change, this is the day that things fall into place