As I sit here alone in a fast food place staring at the chicken caesar salad that they managed to make look unappetizing, I can't help but think, "What should I write about today?" For my first two days I had my cutsey alliterations but here I sit, waiting for my ride and completely blank on what to write about. I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to come up with something that starts with a W and alas I have decided to talk about work.
Yes, I am 17 and a senior in high school, but I also have a job. As anyone that currently is or has ever been a teenager can tell you, there is nothing better than the freedom that comes with being able to afford things on your own. Now, my school situation is a bit different than most (another post for another day) and this has allowed me much more flexibility in getting a job. Let me preface this whole thing with "I am not in any way saying there is anything bad about the typical jobs available to students, I just feel very blessed to have a different job."
I have the joy of being a nanny to a wonderful, almost 2 year old boy. I, of course, am not going to give any names or pictures of him but let me just tell you, the second you see him, you absolutely fall in love with him. Today was my first day back to work in a week because they had been away and there was nothing better than the greeting I got from him when he saw me. I have been watching him for about 8 months now and I can't help it, I have gotten very attached. No, the job is never easy. You are constantly responsible for a small life. I have no idea how parents do it. There are certainly it's challenges (as I sit here, my arms and legs are covered in blue Thomas the train stamps, who knows when those will wear off) but it is also extremely rewarding.
When I started in February he was only speaking in his own little baby language and couldn't walk on his own. Today he ran up to me and told me he wanted to have a "conversation" and then told me all about his vacation. Being able to see the development is truly amazing and a complete gift. I love the fact that every day when I get to work, he has something new to tell me. Today I taught him how to say ""garbanzo beans."
It is very different than the babysitting jobs I was looking for when I posted a flyer in my dad's office, but it is 100 times more amazing. We sit and play guitar together. I teach him new songs and he dances around. He has even started asking me for "rection" because I may or may not have played him a One Direction song on my phone. I guess he liked it!
There is nothing better than getting to work and having his mom tell me that he was asking for me because that means I have done my job well. Beyond making sure that he stays safe, it is also my responsibility to make sure I am keeping him engaged and teach him. We are working on letters and counting right now.
I'm not going to lie, it is not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination, but I woudn't trade it for any other job I could have right now. Not a chance.
I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about my life and what I do.
Much love,
Kelsey <3
iPhone 5c: Tech Tuesday
Hello blog friends how was your Monday? Mine was busy but enjoyable. Today I wanted to take a few minutes and write about my newest love, my iPhone. A week ago Sunday I upgraded out of the stone age and got my first ever smartphone. Now, I know what you are thinking, "I didn't think there was anyone left that still owned a flip phone." Well, there are. Me and 7 other people still had flip phones and got together to commiserate about it monthly. All joking aside, I was very excited to upgrade to a new phone.
I was planning on getting the iPhone 5. I had been previously led to believe that the 5c was not as good of a phone as the 5. It turned out that after further research I learned that the two phones are exactly the same, but the 5c was made with a colored, plastic backing instead of the traditional metal. Being the complete girl that I am, I wanted to get a phone my favorite color and behold, my blue iPhone 5c.
The first night I had it I quite possibly spent 10 hours on it and forgot to sleep. I am neither confirming nor denying that fact ;) Coming from such a basic phone, anything I got would have been an amazing upgrade but I feel confident that I got the best phone for me.
Obviously it is hard for me to review it because coming from a very, very old phone with no features, everything on the 5c seems amazing. One thing that I love is the camera. As an avid photographer and videographer, the ability to have a good quality, 8 megapixel camera with me at all times is fantastic. This eliminates the need to carry the 10 megapixel "every day" I used to have with me at all times. The camera is clear as can be, has great focus, and some of the most impressive depth of field I have seen on a lens of its class.
It wouldn't be an iPhone review without mentioning Siri. I absolutely love being able to tell my phone to do something and have it done. I am the kind of person that makes lists for everything and uses calendars religiously. Being able to tell Siri to schedule something and not having to do it myself is amazing. Also sometimes I use it as pure entertainment. If you haven't asked Siri, "knock, knock," yet, you are missing out.
One other thing that I love SO MUCH is how much you can personalize your phone. I never had the option of changing ringtones to anything custom and my old camera was so bad that taking pictures for my background was not a good idea. Now when someone calls me the chorus of "Still Into You" by Paramore plays, texts play the beginning notes of "Thinkin Bout You", and my lock screen is the lovely Ed Sheeran. I have left the background as the one that came with the phone because i really like the blue to green gradient dots.
I have had the most amazing time downloading way too many apps and spending way too much time on them. I started with the current classic, Candy Crush. I wasn't a huge fan in all honesty. Temple Run Two is a different story. I am obsessed with this game. Any time I have some downtime, I am most likely playing it. There are also a bunch of apps that are great for more productive things than gaming. There is an app for my bank account which I love. Run keeper is fantastic. I used to have to use my iPod and my Nike+ sensor in my shoe but the GPS works much better. I may be just a tad addicted to the ebay app but I am also just a tad bit addicted to Ebay.The EBay design on the phone is streamlined and efficient and to my surprise I believe I prefer it over using my laptop to shop. I have all of my social media in one place and I am finally getting to use Instagram!!! This is very exciting to me seeing as I have never been able to use it until now. Also Kik is fantastic for talking to friends without using up texts.
Overall I absolutely love my new phone. There are only 2 negatives that I can even think of and they are not the fault of Apple. One is that the screen is ridiculously hard to keep clean. Seriously, it isn't possible. Second, because of the plastic design, cases for the 5 and 5s do not fit the 5c and has made it harder to find a case that I love. Besides that this phone is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone.
Much love,
Kelsey <3
I was planning on getting the iPhone 5. I had been previously led to believe that the 5c was not as good of a phone as the 5. It turned out that after further research I learned that the two phones are exactly the same, but the 5c was made with a colored, plastic backing instead of the traditional metal. Being the complete girl that I am, I wanted to get a phone my favorite color and behold, my blue iPhone 5c.
Obviously it is hard for me to review it because coming from a very, very old phone with no features, everything on the 5c seems amazing. One thing that I love is the camera. As an avid photographer and videographer, the ability to have a good quality, 8 megapixel camera with me at all times is fantastic. This eliminates the need to carry the 10 megapixel "every day" I used to have with me at all times. The camera is clear as can be, has great focus, and some of the most impressive depth of field I have seen on a lens of its class.
It wouldn't be an iPhone review without mentioning Siri. I absolutely love being able to tell my phone to do something and have it done. I am the kind of person that makes lists for everything and uses calendars religiously. Being able to tell Siri to schedule something and not having to do it myself is amazing. Also sometimes I use it as pure entertainment. If you haven't asked Siri, "knock, knock," yet, you are missing out.
One other thing that I love SO MUCH is how much you can personalize your phone. I never had the option of changing ringtones to anything custom and my old camera was so bad that taking pictures for my background was not a good idea. Now when someone calls me the chorus of "Still Into You" by Paramore plays, texts play the beginning notes of "Thinkin Bout You", and my lock screen is the lovely Ed Sheeran. I have left the background as the one that came with the phone because i really like the blue to green gradient dots.
Overall I absolutely love my new phone. There are only 2 negatives that I can even think of and they are not the fault of Apple. One is that the screen is ridiculously hard to keep clean. Seriously, it isn't possible. Second, because of the plastic design, cases for the 5 and 5s do not fit the 5c and has made it harder to find a case that I love. Besides that this phone is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone.
Much love,
Kelsey <3
Opening for Little Mix: The Best Day of My Life
Why hello there again blog friends, look at me, blogging two days in a row. Today I wanted to fill you in on one of the most amazing things that has EVER happened to me.
As you may know, I am a massive fan of the UK girl group, Little Mix. They have been very big inspirations to me and I absolutely love their music. Well............back in March/early April they started a competition, Mixers Magnets. It was a contest to get Little Mix to come to your country. Myself along with many other amazing US Mixers fought tirelessly to get the United States to won, and we did! The next stage of the contest came in deciding where Little Mix would visit. There was a list of cities announced and the closest to me was Miami which is about a 5 hour drive. I took part in the first few challenges but the big moment came for me when they announced a cover contest! Being a singer I jumped on this right away. I quickly started rehearsing and working hard to make their song Wings, my own. There was only one small problem, I GOT THE DEADLINE WRONG. I thought that I had another full day to properly film a video but instead I found out at 5pm at my dad's office that the entry was due at 6pm! Luckily there was an old guitar there and I had my laptop. Thinking fast I balanced a few boxes on top of each other as a make-shift tripod for my laptop and sat on top of an exam table to film with the old, lousy guitar. After quick editing and rendering, I got the video in literally 5 minutes before the deadline. Thinking nothing of it, I went home and had dinner and then went on twitter. I didn't know why but my interactions were blowing up. People were tweeting me things like "THEY POSTED ABOUT YOU" and "CONGRATS" and I was incredibly confused. I finally saw one tweet saying something about my cover and almost had a heart attack. I remember running into my parents room and yelling "I THINK I WON BUT I AM NOT SURE" and running back to my room to check. Sure enough, I had won. The girls had watched and picked my cover as their favorite in the country! I was so excited and overwhelmed that I cried for quite a long time. It meant the world to me and gave me the biggest validation as a singer. They even posted my cover on their website.
The Winning Cover
I went on with my normal life not thinking about it more than to make myself happy from the memory. Then, Miami won the contest! My mom was amazing and said she would drive me across the state to see them perform. The concert was on 6/1/12. We have family that live about half way so were were going to leave the night before and stay with them. My dad was going to stay home with our dog. An hour before we were supposed to leave I got a DM on twitter from them asking me if I was coming to the event. I told them that I was and they sent me a message asking me if I could bring my guitar because the girls would like to hear my cover!!!! I got really excited and replied that I could for sure and they asked me to call a phone number. I quickly called and the next thing that happened blew my mind. I was asked if I would open for them the next day in Miami. I feel bad for the person on the other side of the phone. I just kept asking them "Are you serious?" and he started to laugh. The first thing I did was call my dad and tell him. I am pretty sure that he started crying. I wanted to wait until my mom got home so that I could see her face. I also called one of my best friends and told her and then I just started crying while on the phone because I couldn't believe what was happening.
We quickly called my cousins and asked them if they could watch our dog so that my dad could come and then we headed to my cousins house, me, my mom and dad, and our dog Maddie all in the car with our bags. I posted on facebook what was happening and the entire ride to their house I had almost everyone I know calling me asking me about it. The night was a blur and sleep was nonexistent. All I remember is obsessing over how I was going to do my hair.
I set my alarm for 4 am to get up and get ready so that we could be on the road by 7. I was excited and hyper and emotional but there was one thing I wasn't, and that was nervous. We headed out on our way to Miami and I would like to say sorry to my parents because I know I talked the entire car ride. We got lost in a scary section of Miami but we finally made it to the mall where the concert was being held.
When we got there, 4 hours before it started, the line was already huge. I walked to go get in line but my dad went up to the check in table and said to the people "Hi, my daughter is opening today," and the next thing I know the guy that I had talked to on the phone came over. He got us checked in and told me to come back in about 2 hours for sound check. We went into the mall where I bought a very cool Wings inspired necklace from Forever 21 to wear to perform and just walked around until it was time to go back. We went back at 2 and it was time to sound check. I went up on stage in front of the couple thousand people that were already there and started to play and sing for about 20 seconds. Even though it wasn't very long, people started to cheer and if it was possible, I got even more excited. Next I got interviewed by a few people and someone from the radio station until they brought me to the room backstage where we stayed until it was time to perform. We hung out with Little Mix's guitar player Curtis who was as nice as can be. Time seemed to move so slowly while I was waiting. Then they came and gave me a 10 minute warning and told me that after I performed, they would take me to meet the girls. I had been so excited about performing, I had almost forgotten that I was going to get to meet my idols. At this point I took a few deep breaths and got ready to go out and perform. The next thing I knew I was waiting side stage as they introduced me and the place started cheering.
Doing Interviews
Crowd before sound check
Sound check
Curtis, the guitar player
Cool Little Mix Balloom
Ironic box of wings by me while practicing Wings
Backstage with my parents
Me and my mom
The moment that it hit me that I was opening
Very into rehearsing
Little Mix guitar case
I went out on stage and played my cover of Wings that won the contest and let me tell you, there is nothing more terrifying than playing a cover of a song in front of the artist and 5,000 of their biggest fans. I nailed it if I do say so myself. At the end the most amazing thing happened, the entire place started chanting my name. That is the kind of thing I have dreamed about since I was 4 years old and it actually happened.
Amazing sign that someone made for me
Me onstage
After this I got to watch Little Mix perform from the side of the stage and they were amazing. When they finished the person that I had been talking to all day that had told me where to go and what to do told me to come with him, that the girls wanted to meet me. They brought me back into the room I had been in and there they were. I tried my best to stay calm but it was hard. I had made them each hats and I was able to give them to them. The most amazing thing is that the girls knew who I was when I met them. They told me that they loved my cover and loved how I changed it up and I was pretty much speechless. They each gave me a hug and we took pictures and they signed my CD and magazine and it was incredible.
Little Mix performing
Backstage with the girls
I even had a couple of surreal moments during the weekend. Before I performed I had two people to stop me to take a picture because they recognized me and that was pretty amazing. I also had people stop me on the way out when they realized I was the one that sang. The next morning, we had stayed at a hotel, my dad and I went down to the lobby for breakfast. I was tired and too lazy to change out of sweat pants or do my hair and makeup because I knew no one would notice. Well, half way through a few girls came up to me and asked if I was Kelsey that opened for Little Mix!!!! I suddenly wished that I had at least put on some makeup, haha.
It was the most amazing thing ever and then it got more amazing. I received an email on that Monday letting me know that my interviews and performance were going to be made into a My Day, My Life episode for Teen.com!!!! This is a series that I watch and love and that has been done on a lot of my biggest idols and now it was going to be on me. It came out about two weeks later and had almost 20,000 views overnight.
This entire experience has been one of the most amazing things to ever happen to me and I am so thankful to everyone that made it happen especially Little Mix, their management at Columbia Records and most of all my parents for making it all happen. I got to live out my dream and now that I've had a taste of it, I want it even more. I also vlogged my experience so I will make sure to link that at the end of the post along with the Little Mix website post about my cover and the My Day, My Life episode.
My Day, My Life:
My Vlog from the day:
Post on Little Mix's website:
I had so much fun getting to relive this while writing this post and I hope you liked it! I think I am going to make sure to post about something music related every Monday and make it Music Mondays.
Much love,
Kelsey <3
Hello again?
Well you know what they say, the third time is the charm. I think I am going to give this blog thing another try because I absolutely love reading blogs. The next few months should be a bit wild and even if no one reads it, I'll be glad to have this to look back on. So I hope that if you are reading this you come along for the ride with me. My life is not exactly normal and there may be some people out there that find it kind of interesting. I know this was short but I wanted to keep the "I'm starting again" post short. I am going to be posting a pretty cool post about something amazing that happened and trust me, you will want to read it.
I hope you are having a wonderful night.
Lots of love,
Kelsey <3
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