Shout out to the dreams you chase. Shout out to the hearts you break.

   Sorry to disappoint but today's blog post will have no important life lesson, take home message, or warm and fuzzy emotional rant. Nope, this one will be all about ME it is MY blog after all, I get tired of entertaining y'all week in and week out anyway My entire life I have been an overachiever, thank you Julie. I have an obsession with school supplies last Christmas I received paper clips in my stocking, yeahhh , applied early and received early acceptance for college, took a rather extended break of four days off between graduating and starting work, and now at the ripe old age of 22 years two months and 20 days have been named a Fall Features Alumni of the University of Tennessee's College of Communication's School of Advertising and Public Relations. I understand people have their opinions about the University of Tennessee, the color orange, and "Communications" majors I would just like to point out, I am NOT one. I have a degree in ADVERTISING and that is perfectly fine. But it definitely gets old when people voice their opinions especially to graduates' parents about how they would never pay for University of Tennessee education for their child. That's interesting because the founder of my agency is a University of Tennessee grad, so is the head of digital marketing for Dell internationally, and Peyton Manning oh yeah, HAD to get that one in there  Yes, I like to wear orange it looks great with my coloring , and yes The Hill and Circle Park mean something special to me, but don't write me off as Cheeto head...the average ACT score of University of Tennessee student is 27 with a 3.87 GPA. So congratulations on paying over $100,000 for your child's small Catholic liberal arts education, how's that job search going? Target isn't hiring btw And here's to MY Fall Features Interview being released and my guest lecture in ADV 490: Social Media to come. that's my best attempt at channeling my inner T.O./Ochocinco I will of course let everyone who cares know when my interview will be released and do a special blog just for the new batch of social media kids. Until then GO VOLS and Joe do your homework. 

". . . Dad's living with Joe when he's old"

If you ever see me with a bagel in my hand, watch out a life event is about to happen. I was eating a bagel when mom went into labor early with Joseph John Pekarsky he crashed my party, 5 weeks early and it was a blueberry bagel when he turned blue for the first time such a dramatic Asthmatic and here I am eating a bagel the day he heads to college. We joke that his birthday is the anniversary of my life being ruined and my sometime lapse in common sense is due to him splitting my head open with a log he threw the length of our yard; but through out all the cheek pinching, door slamming, biting we don't mess around, shower hogging, bickering, and the usual irritated state of being siblings I love my little brother more than anything. We have finally reached the stage of life when we can be more friends than siblings AND because we look nothing alike people are more likely to assume we're dating than brother/sister. I will always remind him at various holidays of how he missed my college graduation while at the same time remembering how he got up at 4am to come yell my mile splits at me during the half marathon and send me the best text ever, yeah I smoked that 10K time Bless his heart, he's taken on the role of what a boyfriend would be to me, this includes but is not limited to: Sonic runs, Friday night movies, after run Smoothie King, going to Target at 8am to get me a signed copy of the new Emily Giffin book, and Emoji heavy texts. I don't need a Dr. Phil special to admit I am overly protective of the younger Pekarsky when it comes to life, but mostly girls and Western Kentucky is NOT that far of a drive, and he knows I'd make it just to mean mug someone it's a talent really And at the same time, he has threatened to drive to Knoxville and defend my honor. Eat your heart out Donny and Marie. 
   So today is a toughie. I left for work and he left for the beginning of the rest of his life. Yes yes I know, I've been in Knoxville for four years and he's only an hour away...but he's my little brother. So Jofus, I will so desperately miss you and your face when mom asks "who was acting like Eyore the other day?" and all those YouTube videos you laugh at by yourself in the dark at the computer and being able to hear your XBOX all the way downstairs no not really actually and hugging you during the Sign of Peace at mass and the ridiculous amount of Powerade in the back fridge and you saying the blessing at dinner every night and yelling good night and I love you down the stairs before bed. No matter how tall or old you get I will always be your Sissi, it's one of my favorite parts of my life. I love you Joe, GO HILLTOPPERS!

L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.

   













Let's get one thing straight, despite my groaning, bitching, complaining, eye rolling, comment making, and overall sunny disposition towards young love I am in fact a hopeless romantic. When my best friends I can count them on one hand but they're the best a girl will ever find find their one true love and get engaged and married I will be over the moon for them. And this weekend I got my first of many to come during my 20s I'm sure "WE'RE ENGAGED!" screaming phone calls; I knew something was up when I got a call from my Junior year roommate and one of my very best friends Emily on a Saturday afternoon.... There are very few couples I am truly friends with both people but this is definitely one of them. Brendan and Emily make life fun sometimes interesting and would go to the ends of the Earth for any of us. I am overjoyed for them and their life together. So while they mark a life event off their list, I'm doing the same. Everything's finally starting to click. Work is trucking right along; we're going full speed ahead into Q3/Q4 planning/buying/madness. Had my first round of condo shopping this weekend HUGE thank you to momma for helping/guiding me through all this crazy grown up stuff the Steelers are back on the field minus my love Hines Ward, but Ryan Clark will do birthday dinners are upon us along with all the young college folk heading back to campus. Which brings me to the next big life event in the Pekarsky house....Joe Jofus goes to school on Thursday. But that's a whole other blog post. So for now a HUGE Congratulations to Emily and Brendan, a early Happy Happy Birthday to Morgan the BIG 24 and a shambley post to come sending Joe off to Western Kentucky University properly complete with embarrassing pictures, stories, and emotional rants. So here's to Mondays, never be ashamed to go back for that fourth cup of coffee. 

"Close your eyes"

   I have the memory of an elephant, no joke. I remember dates like my dad remembers the name of the weird looking girl with the annoying mom I was in pre-school with Britney Spanniel. Today is August 15th, 6 years ago it was my one month anniversary with my high school boyfriend, the first boy I ever said "I love you" to. We went bowling, got stuck in the rain, laughed our abs sore, and had the best damn first kiss in the history of high school love Nicholas Sparks would have been jealous/written a book about it that then would have been turned into a movie.  So here's to high school love, letting fate put you in the same group at the Youth Leadership Workshop you didn't want to go to but because of a canceled family vacation did, long kisses in an old red pick up truck, scapulars, and keeping the faith. 

The Heartlines on your Hand

"You didn't get fired in 90 days" lunch with BECCA

   Today celebrates the end of my 90 "trainee" title, to quote Kevin Rudolph "I made it. I made it." I am officially a BOHAN Brand Engagement Specialist or in layman's terms which you non-Advertising people probably still won't understand an assistant media planner/buyer. It finally feels real. All the college kids are leaving my little brother Jofus included, wait...what? the intern is gone, and I now have to leave an extra 10 minutes early to go the back way through the neighborhood to avoid all the Jack Anderson Elementary traffic; hello #postgradproblems. Surreal is how I would classify this feeling, almost like I'm watching myself live the life I talked about/dreamed out/ yearned for for so long. Yesterday I started training for my next half marathon yeah I'm really doing this again and while I was running through the park watching little league soccer and baseball practices, couples walking their dog together hand in hand no I did not shove them off the path and little girls and their mommas walking their baby dolls, I looked back through with the sun streaming through the trees and just took a deep breathe in. I feel complete. I feel strong. After a Smoothie King stop with the little brother complete with me taking my shoes off while waiting for my smoothie because I was convinced the entire instep of my foot was peeling off, welcome back to training and a Office Depot run for binder dividers for the Dollar General Insertion Order binder once again you have no idea what that means, but I do. (It's my job) I finally got to plop on the sofa with mom, dad, and yes, Sophie to watch some HGTV and irritate mom by refusing to change out of my sweaty frat tank I religiously run in.  And as I sat there laughing while also staring at Dad when he would give his commentary on the designers' choices I once again asked God how I became so blessed. I'm a "one song on repeat for weeks" kind of girl and while putting together a stack of IOs the other day I let Spotify do the driving, putting the Billboard 100 playlist on shuffle and thus a new obsession was born. I expect Imagine Dragons to start paying me royalites on this song because I swear they took my feelings/emotions and put them into song form. "Radioactive" Imagine Dragons; listen to it, run to it, love it. So yes, Julie/Mom/BECCA, I will publicly say it... all those nights in the library, and horrible group project meetings, and psychotic roommates, and emotionally draining phone calls were worth it. This is it, my 20s. The decade when I will get married, have babies, grow my career and become the person I've dreamt about since I was little. It's all here, welcome to the new age. 

   "I'm waking up. I feel it in my bones. Love to make my systems go. Welcome to the new age, to the new age." 

Don't you forget you come from nothing

   This past weekend I had my first Saturday as a "Nashvillian." Although I was born and raised in Music City USA, I would much rather spend my Saturday in norts with no makeup doing thrilling things like laundry. But one of my accounts, Martha O' Bryan Center everyone should follow and Like them on Twitter and FB, had a booth at the Tomato Fest this weekend in East Nashville SO I persuaded Mom to come with, put on a real bra, and off we went! Before I go any further let me explain some things first y'all knew it was coming I do it every post.. My last two years of college I swore up and down I would not cop out and move back to Nashville. I always wanted to end up here eventually to raise a family like my parents had done, but first I wanted to go have my big adventure, take on the world, date a few more assholes. First I was Denver bound, yes that worked out so well Caroline... Then it was Charleston, then Baltimore, and then I got the email that changed my adult life as I know it. Two weeks later I was accepting a job in Nashville. I KNOW God was having a good cry inducing laugh up there looking down on me and my "plans." There is the famous Pinterest quote, "What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it's supposed to be," yeah...I have no idea what that quote is talking about because I've never gotten myself all worked up to the point of sitting in the shower for an hour because my life was falling apart at age 21, ever. So, BACK to Saturday. After judging enough Liberals at Tomato Fest to get me through till November, Mom and I found my future home finger, legs, toes, arms crossed (and no I'm not setting up another picture of how my life should be, maybe) and then headed to The Gulch for lunch and some more people judging or what normal people call shopping. All in all it was a day definitely worth putting on make-up for and once again I realized just how blessed I am to have the family and life I do. Okay, now getting to the point of this post like I ever really have one while driving home mom and I got to talking about my past and my subsequent future. If my life had kept going the way I had so desperately wanted it to  I wouldn't be in Nashville with the job I have, or the car I drive, looking at a condo on Church street, and training for my next half marathon hell I probably would have never run my first one or spending a day with my mom nonetheless talking to her. Don't get me wrong I still want to be married by 28 with a baby by 30 I want at least 4 okay? gotta start sooner than later but the details don't worry me so much anymore. I can genuinely say I'm glad I'm not engaged/married/heading down that road. Because honestly I'm a brat and would like to have my own apartment decorated how I want with everything monogrammed and bobby pins everywhere and how awesome is my monogram, cPr, amazing I know right? So I'm just gonna go on causing trouble and being shambly and making fun of the annoying lady in the booth behind me at lunch and dancing around in the restaurant bathroom with mom BECCA and whatever happens happens except gaining weight... 

p.s. 12 weeks till 13.1 #2 see I told you gaining weight wasn't gonna happen (got six years to get that ring)

Hot Mess Party of Two

  Yesterday was National Best Friend Day but between work, life yes I somewhat have one , and a debacle at the VW dealership I didn't get a chance to blog. But here I am so here we go, per usual let me brief you on somethings so this post makes a little more sense to you. I was the 8 year old who SO desperately wanted that ONE TRUE BFF "Best" "Friends" half heart necklaces and all. Unfortunately this also made me look like a nutcase before age 10. Don't get me wrong I had my little group of sugar crazed girlfriends but I was never the "best friend." While I was stalking girls so desperately looking for the Ashley to my Mary-Kate I never realized I had always had my best friend right by my side she just refused to wear those tacky plastic BFF necklaces , my mom. Julie, or as I lovingly refer to her BECCA please see my Wait...What post for further details, deserves a medal for successfully raising my hot mess of a self but at the same time needs her head examined for dealing with my shenanigans Saturday through Sunday, Monday, Monday through Sunday yo. Through all the ups and downs, the really downs, and that one relationship that prompted her to give me up for Lent... she has been there minus those 40 days but I deserved it. Just last night she gave me a perfect 10 and Gold on my vault over her striped bedroom chair while not judging me on my second Sonic trip this week. This one time she watched me eat it/face plant on a wooden stage during city wide talent show dress rehearsal when I was in the front row with the seniors, and laughed. And then this one time she took the dog's pill with her vitamins, and I laughed. She also force fed me blue Gatorade one time and then laughed when I was throwing it back up, and you guessed it, it was blue. We need our own show, but at the same time we really don't. We've had our moments, like when I was in 7th grade and didn't talk to her for a week expect via Post-it Note. But we've also had those moments that deserved background music, like when we both cried when she hugged me and told me she was proud of me in front of medical tent 3 at the half marathon. I may drive her crazy sometimes okay no more like ALL the time but she's my best friend. After all, who else would give your number to the cute Publix produce boy on a mini card from the floral department? Or watch you pace around your bedroom for 3 hours at 2am refusing to throw up even though you had food poisoning? OR sit on your bed with you and laugh while your newly minted ex-boyfriend's dad called the house repeatedly because he was upset? Exactly. Not many things scare me in life, but being as good of a mom as my mom is is definitely on that short list. So Julie, this one's for you. 
    
                                                 "You are SO weird" "Yeah, but I'm cute so it's okay"