college – Rosie Culture

The Hookup On: Flossolution

I’m about to get pretty real here. After I graduated college, I went to the dentist and found out I had 7 cavities and my teeth were in pretty bad shape thanks to the college lifestyle and an old dentist who wasn’t treating me properly.

Ever since then, I brush my teeth twice a day, floss every day, and use mouth wash every day to protect my gums.

My teeth have always been an area of concern for me. I had the works of dentistry done to me when I was little – including getting a wrong tooth pulled, braces with lots of rubber bands, and more.

I recently got to try the Flossolution Mini and I think my dentist is going to be very happy with me. I floss every day, but let’s face it – I’m lazy. I don’t reach back far enough or wiggle around enough. This little tool is fast and painless and makes flossing so easy! It even comes with a little suction cup so you can attach it to your mirror and always remember to floss! They’re bogo right now at Flossolution.com

I’m trying to avoid the traumatic dentistry experience of my childhood by taking care of my teeth now. It seems so silly to have to stress it, but trust me start taking care of yourself so you don’t have to regret it later.

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

PostGrad

When Life Hands You Lemons

Life has handed me a lot of lemons lately with very little sugar. If I were to try to make lemonade, let’s just say it would be very bitter.

If I back up and take deep breaths and get out of the moment – there have been plenty of good things that have happened to me recently. A lot of big steps, realizations, and falling back into place when I had felt disheveled. But that bad stuff really just feels like it’s piling up and burying anything good.

It’s at the point where life just feels like hit after hit after hit and nothing can go right. I love my new apartment, I love reconnecting with my friends, I love where I’m at with my job. But then my phone breaks, then I shell out thousands for my car over a three month time period, then I get sick and can’t enjoy the nice weather.

How do you really separate yourself from the bad when the feeling of all those things is so overwhelming? I think it takes a lot of support, a lot of positive vibes, a lot of things I just don’t have anymore or can’t appreciate anymore.

With the downs comes the ups – but how long do I have to hang out in the downs until I start climbing back up again?

PostGrad

Our Adopt Don’t Shop Story

I was supposed to go to Rhode Island this past weekend for a quick getaway, but plans changed fast.

My boyfriend and I moved in together a couple months ago. But before we even had the conversation about moving in, we were talking about getting a dog. I’m a huge animal lover and have wanted a dog since I graduated college. I had a couple of set backs on my journey to adoption.

One reason being that I didn’t have enough space, money, or time for a while and I knew it was unfair at that point in my life to get a dog. Another setback being, I’ve been bitten in the face twice by two separate dogs on two separate occasions that required a significant amount of stitches – really, that was just bad luck. And lastly, the dog I grew up with passed away not too long ago and it really hit me hard.

But still, we talked about getting a dog for a while and the longer we lived together the more and more we started looking at adoption sites. I had volunteered at a shelter when I first graduated and on Wednesday of last week the most perfect dog became available for adoption. We initially thought we would adopt her and come back to get her after the trip, but that wasn’t really realistic as we would have a hard time leaving her alone after falling in love with her.

I was a little panicky the first couple days, as seems to be the trend with big decisions. We are going to be responsible for this little pup for the rest of her life, I just was nervous we were taking a step a little too early. But we are finally beginning to get settled with her, even though we are facing typical puppy challenges that I will write about later on.

World, meet Kaya. She’s a little over 1 year old, the shelter thinks she is a chow/terrier mix, and she had puppies only a few months ago. She is a great dog and is already pretty well trained! We love her so much already! 🙂 Did you adopt your pet? I’d love to hear about your adoption experience in the comments!

PostGrad

My Completed Winter Bucket List

Is spring actually going to come soon because I’m SO sick of the cold! I managed to get most of my bucket list done for winter, even hitting my Instagram followers goal (for now at least) which is always tough for me! Check it out below.

~~Go to Terceira Island!~~
Read about it here
~~Finish 2 books~~
~~Learn to knit/crochet a blanket~~
~~Go somewhere by myself~~
~~Find a new apartment~~
~~Move out~~
Become a better runner
Probably time to accept this will never happen….
~~6,500 Instagram followers~~
2,500 WordPress followers
Only 60 away 🙂
1,000 Twitter followers
I don’t know why I made this goal lol wayyyy out of reach!
~~Plan a weekend trip~~
We went to Orlando!
~~Become more present~~

What’s one thing you’ve accomplished this winter?

PostGrad

Letting Stress Get The Best Of You

I am a continuously stressed out person. I normally don’t get worked up over small things, but I do get worked up over small things that keep building up higher and higher and I also really feed off other people’s stress. I’m not usually worried until someone else is worried, and when you work at a 9-5 job pretty much everyone is stressed all the time. So now I am stressed all the time.

And it’s really gotten the best of me lately. So much so, I developed an eye twitch for over two weeks – it’s starting to go away for anyone who has been following my complaints on Instagram. I have awfully vivid dreams and don’t sleep well at night. I get migraines that knock me on my butt for hours at a time. All of this from stress and not managing it correctly.

I have things that make me feel happy and organized. I’m a list maker, I plan trips to keep my wanderlust at bay, I have a gratitude journal, I organize my plans far in advance. And yet it still doesn’t seem to be enough in this postgrad world of mine.

I want to put the fun back into life – but even the fun things cause stress now. Everything needs to be scheduled, put in the planner. When unexpected things come up – fun or not so fun – it is a total drain on my energy.

What are your tips for dealing with stress and not letting life weigh too heavily on you? Leave me comments – I always appreciate advice! 🙂

PostGrad

Somewhere In Between

I feel pretty weird about this stage of my life. While I know I don’t need to have everything figured out at 24 years old, I do know that there are some things that I should feel more comfortable with.

But everything is very up and down at the moment. I just moved into a new place, so where I live will be a constant for probably the next two years. Therefore, I really don’t have any big life changes coming down the road – and I kind of thrive on change. I don’t plan on moving, don’t plan on changing jobs, don’t plan on making any relationship steps. Which is all fine, but the lack of change makes me uneasy.

And I feel like I should be more comfortable with my friends, the way I spend my time, the way I look. But I just can’t find a balance.

My friends all have their friends and they all live more than an hour away making pretty much everything hard. I’m tired after work so I don’t really do anything exciting – probably the only thing worth mentioning is my blog but that has become so integrated into my life. And I can’t get past any fitness plateaus, I’m so stagnant.

But what do I do? Join a club at 24 years old? I’ve never been an outgoing person and just the thought of trying to make new friends makes me want to hide under the covers. Do I just accept I’m at a weird transitional part of my life and that the puzzle pieces will fall into place soon? Because so far I’ve learned when you expect things to get easier, they don’t.

Being 24 is weird.

The Hookup On...

The Hookup On: Being A Car Owner

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

Recently, I had a bad week that turned worse when my car decided to not start on a rainy Monday morning. I bought my car when I was 20 and didn’t know much about the process. I just searched online, found one I liked, and bought it.

Being a couple years older now, the most important thing I wish I knew is that research goes a long way.

You can’t guarantee that a car is right for you until you know all of the facts about the make, model, and price of your car. As someone who can’t make a huge commitment to a pricey car right now, research is especially important to me because I’m looking through used cars.

Now I know to use Cars.com to learn about the vehicles I’m interested in. Their website has a huge selection of information that will provide you with everything you need to make an informed purchase. I’m always pretty hesitant to trust companies, but cars.com provides extensive reviews and essential information about a wide variety of different cars. And they give it to you straight.

Mechanics and salesmen always look at me and sugarcoat things because I look like a young and naive girl. But Cars.com doesn’t sugarcoat or or hide the bad reviews of cars. If something is poorly rated, hasn’t performed well or not a good purchase, they aren’t afraid to tell you.

Some things I now know to look for in a car is the gas mileage, how long it has lasted for other people, common problems, ease of dealing with the company when something goes wrong, and the appropriate price to buy it at when it’s used.

A lot of people will say being a car owner is not all fun and games – but it CAN be that way when you find the perfect car after a good amount of research. It’s a big decision and purchase, so you need to be informed to make the right choice. Trust me, you don’t want to have to watch your poor little car getting towed away while you’re calling out of work so you can be on the phone with insurance all day.

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