I've been working in the same place as an intern for the past two years. And no, I'm not complaining--I've been at school and working as an "intern" allowed me to work whenever I was home so I'm grateful. However, now that I'm nearing graduation (December 2010!!!), I've been given a job offer! So that means in January I will have a cubicle that's a little more permanent (I've been moved around over the past 2 years) and I will get to decorate it! I am excited by the challenge of injecting personality into a uniform cubicle space and love getting ideas from the Internet. I simply cannot wait for January and to be working on something that feels more productive than writing literary criticism essays (ugh....). Three cheers for employment!

I like cupcakes. A lot. But I don't like icing as much as I probably should (or as much as is normal). Therefore, I prefer my cupcakes uniced, as pictured above. I think icing is too sweet and usually takes away from the deliciousness of the cake (mmm, boxed cake). Some icing is tasty, though and then I'm willing to compromise. However they are made, though, I can usually take off the icing if I don't like it and enjoy the lovely cake underneath. Who could possibly not like a mini cake?

Maps are pretty useful. They help you get from one place to another, plan out a trip or show someone that you know geography better than they do. Aside from this, though, maps are just beautiful. I've always been fascinated by them. This might come from my Dad who is a great lover of maps and has always shown me the routes we take on our road trips. He has a couple of maps framed and hung around his house and they are some of my favorite pieces of art in his house. He has a particularly beautiful map of Ohio that uses purple tones and he has an old schoolroom map of the USA in the home office. The lines and colors and shapes always look so inviting, asking me to follow new roads and discover new places. Because of maps and my great sense of direction (mental maps), I will never need a GPS in my car--I'll navigate on my own!

The Smashing Pumpkins were my first favorite band (or at least the first I can remember) way back in the 90's. I was little and 99.1 WHFS was playing Tonight, Tonight a week after Halloween. The DJ introduced the song saying something along the lines of "And now, because this is what you should do with those old pumpkins from last week, here's some Smashing Pumpkins." I instantly loved the idea of smashing old Halloween pumpkins and so my love of the band was born directly from their name. Their sound, as well, has captured me but it took a little more time for me to appreciate it. Many years later, they are still one of my favorite bands! Now if only they would tour near me...

Hammocks are amazingly comfortable. They solve the problem of not being able to sleep while camping so you can be both comfortable AND enjoy the sounds and other benefits of sleeping in the outdoors. My mom is a big fan of hammocks so, luckily, we usually have one set up during the spring and summer under the leafy roof of our "forest." It's usually too hot and humid to actually enjoy sleeping in the hammock but on spring and fall days, it doesn't get much better than a nice long nap in the hammock.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need a  nap.

Sandcastles are amazing. They can be anywhere from a low-budget project with a few molds and a bucket to huge operations with spatulas, blueprints and full-blown moats. As a child, I used to make sandcastles and specialized in "drip castles" where you let wet sand drip through your fist to create very skinny and perilous towers. I don't make sandcastles very often now but I always like to look at them because I know how ridiculously difficult they are to make. I think they add a whole new dimension of fun and nostalgia to the beach and make it a more unique place than it already is--it's not everywhere that you can find huge replicas of castles made out of small rock particles!

I laugh a lot. I make myself laugh quite often and I'm not ashamed of it. If I didn't make myself laugh or if I didn't laugh as easily as I do, I think I would go crazy. Laughing is my release--it let's all my energy and emotion out and it makes me feel so GOOD! I usually laugh loudly and widely, only covering my mouth when I'm in public and my laughing goes a little overboard. I think the fact that I laugh and smile so easily, despite my serious and somewhat critical nature, are a big part of what make me who I am. For that reason and so many others, I love laughing.

I have very few vices. I don't smoke, I don't do drugs and I very rarely drink. One vice I do have is speeding. I love to drive fast and I get impatient when I can't do it because of slow traffic. That's why I absolutely love an empty road. I can go as fast as I want (well, sort of--I keep it between 10 and 13mpg over the limit) and  just feel very free and unrestricted blasting off into the distance. No matter where the road is going, I want to get there as fast as possible. Unless someone else is driving--then I don't mind going slower and taking the time to look at where I'm going.

Vintage wallpaper is so simple and classic, especially British styles. I don't know if I'd ever wallpaper a whole room but I might wallpaper a wall or stretch wallpaper over a frame as an accent. Whatever I do with it, I hope to make vintage wallpaper a part of my future apartment/house!

Pad Thai is utterly delicious. It's taken me some time to fully get used to it and be able to enjoy it totally and unconditionally like I do now (actually, unconditionally is a little generous--you can definitely make a bad pad thai). I used to hate the idea of peanuts in a warm preparation and so I shunned pad thai. And, to be honest, the first couple of pad thai's I tried were pretty awful so they didn't properly introduce an appreciation for it in me.

The first pad thai I remember loving was in Alaska. My roommate loved pad thai and when I ordered Chinese food, she would order tofu pad thai (because the Chinese food place was also a Thai food place). She let me try it one day and I was hooked! Tofu pad thai isn't the traditional type--as I was told by a somewhat surly Thai man at my favorite Thai restaurant, pad thai is traditionally prepared with shrimp or plain. None of this chicken or tofu business. I try to stick to that and usually choose plain. Yum, yum, yum! Today I am a lucky girl because sitting in my office refrigerator is leftover pad thai and it's all I can think about. I will need to find something to distract me until lunch!

Most of my computer usage is on a laptop. Because of this, I relish the times when I get the privilege to use gloriously large and beautiful computer monitors. Occasionally I'll really hit the jackpot and get two monitors! At the moment I'm traveling for work and I get to use two monitors. Usually I use only one large monitor back at my normal office. In my dream office, I have two large monitors and a nice, large, clean desk. I have these fantasies quite often. This dream "office" could even be a cubicle--I'm not picky (and I'd still consider it "my" office)! But whether it is one or two, almost any monitor is a luxury compared to my 15.6" laptop screen!

 Aquariums are amazing. They are like televisions but filled with nature. I guess the zoo is kind of like this, too, but I find that aquariums seem to be much more alive than zoos. Maybe that's just me. Anyway, aquariums are filled with so many amazing things--many of which I've never seen before. Sharks, whales (maybe?), seals, jellyfish, seahorses, coral, anemones, etc. It's all colorful, beautiful and mesmerizing. I know I could sit in front of the stingray, shark or dolphin tank for hours, just staring into it.

I recently went to the local aquarium. I have loved it ever since I was a kid and it's been changing a bit recently. I was glad to visit again and realize that many of my favorite things haven't changed one bit! The dolphin show is new (and not as good in my opinion) but most of the same exhibits and installations are the same and bring back good memories.

Also recently (and what inspired my visit to the aquarium), I found an amazing video of the Kuroshio Sea Aquarium in Japan which is the world's second largest aquarium and is home to a healthy population of tiger sharks! I just absolutely love the video and its hypnotizing array of fish and its equally-hypnotizing music. Take a look!

I have, after all my years of living, recently "discovered" Belle and Sebastian. I had heard of them before and heard a few songs but I had never actually listened to a whole CD or really gotten into them. Well, I can't remember how it happened but now I'm in deep. Luckily, I have a friend who is similarly "taken" by the band and has compiled a gigantic library of their music and was willing to share it with me. So now Belle and Sebastian accounts for 1/6th of my iTunes library and I wouldn't have it any other way. Their calm, haunting melodies and clear, mind-reading lyrics have me captivated and squirming to find a way to get over the $38.50 price tag on their concert at DAR Constitution Hall in October. Or I can just drive around in my car, filling its inside with their songs from my iPod. Either way, it's going to be a good time.