If you met me offline, you’d quickly realize how attached to that little black zebra stripe notebook I am, whipping it out at the mere mention of making plans.

I’ve tested out quite a few iPhone calendar apps and none of them completely fit the bill. I need to be able to see my week and list of appointments and tasks at a glace, so the generic monthly calendar with dots for events was not going to work at all. I need to be able to add items fast, without a bunch of fancypants options.

I found one that looked simple, with high ratings and cheap at $1.99. I tentatively added a few items from my paper planner to test it out. The interface was easy to use with a clean design  and day by day I started pulling out my phone instead of my planner.

I generally don’t use the first calendar page, but it’s there if you need it and makes flipping through months simple. The second page scrolls up and down through the day and I can see everything I have planned all at once, this is KEY.

Setting or changing dates or creating an event that will repeat, like my aerial classes, is quick. I generally skip the location field as to keep all the info on one line. And it syncs with multiple calendars if you use a desktop agenda as well.

For now I still keep my paper planner in my bag, a safety blanket of sorts, but haven’t pulled it out in the past week. And I may be fantasizing about buying tiny, cute clutches and tossing my giant purses aside for good!

I haven’t actually been in the D for a Sunday in the D in quite a while, but yesterday Jenn, Lana, Rachael and I headed downtown for Slow’s 5th birthday bbq. What started as a quick trip for lunch turned into an all day drinking extravaganza at we hung out in the freezing cold.

Everything was set up in the park in front of the train station. The chilly weather didn’t stop tons of people from coming out for the corn hole tournament.

I drank pear cider and ate Slows mac and cheese, while the other girls had pulled pork sliders.

After a few hours there we headed to the beer tent to find out which beer had the most alcohol because it was windy and about 50 degrees so we were freeeezing!

We ended up staying from 2:30 until about 8 so we could watch the Liars and then hightailed it to Mexican Town for some HEAT!

I had short, spikey, ever color-changing hair and a penchant for converse, plaid pants and band t-shirts. I worked at Michaels Arts and Crafts and then at a fancy Italian restaurant and spent almost every weekend taking photos at hall shows for my local music website.

I was trying to pick an old entry to post, but they were all pretty ridiculous, until I found this:

after sitting around inside/outside for a while we all piled into connelly’s clown car around 1am and went to taco bell and white castle. then came back and ate in the driveway. colin and i left about two. i went to his house for a while and got home a little after 3. it doesn’t sound too exciting and eventful but i had a good time. hi klair if you read this ;)

See that little note at the end? That was the first time anyone ever recognized me from the internet. Klair, who I had never met before, walked up to me and said “I know you from LiveJournal.” It freaked me out just a little, but we had a lot in common and ended up being very good friends for a long time.

2002 - Check out those walls!

Then there are gems like:

i have a lot of cheese in my mouth right now

and

my parents are pissed at me again for coming home late. but i called and said i’d be home in a bit. who’s to say that a bit isn’t an hour long?? thats what i thought. and i’m 18 so they can just kiss my ass

There are also a lot of entries that go like this: today i rained a lot, so i decided that was a good reason to not go to class. (It’s a miracle I made it through college in 4 years!)

My conclusion after reading through all these old entries is that I was a damn weird kid and was (still am) oblivious to my eccentricities. But I think that’s the way all kids should grow up – being deliriously happy thinking everything they love and everything they are is amazing. Then we can all look back and laugh at what freaks we were.

Somewhere around age 13, when us kids were just starting to explore the World Wide Web, I stumbled on a web page owned by some girl named Claire. It was one column and purple with a big *Claire* at the top. I was memorized and intrigued. I created an account at gURLpages, like she had, and made my own one column *Sarah* page. (I looked at gURL.com the other day and sadly, it looks like gURLpages no longer exists. Where will the nerdlettes come from now?)

I spent the next few years dissecting every site with a fancy layout and flashy graphics, teaching myself HTML and then CSS. I wish I had gotten my hands on a copy of Dreamweaver back then because I wasted a whole lot of time coding everything in Notepad. I remember trying to figure out mouseover buttons and frames and being thrilled with my discovery of the iframe. (Any of you nerds still with me here?)

At some point, maybe around 15, I started blogging. I had an account at Blogger and Diaryland and then graduated to having my blog hosted at another blogger’s site.

In college, while getting my degree in journalism, I built websites for bands (they mostly paid in food and merch) and small companies. I also spent a good amount of time redesigning my portfolio. I don’t think any layout lasted more than a couple weeks before I came up with something new.

In 2005, when I graduated from college, the almost 10 years of being a total nerd finally paid off when I landed a job at the TV station I now work at. My degree got me in the door, but my portfolio definitely got the job.

I don’t design much outside of work anymore. I spend most of my day glued to a computer sifting through code, so when I go home I prefer to stay away from the internets.

I owe a big thanks to Claire and her adorable purple webpage for making me the employed nerd I am today.

You Are Remarkable: http://youareremarkable.wordpress.com

Rules For My Unborn Son: http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/

ABC Adventures: http://abcadventures.wordpress.com/

L My Life: http://www.lmylife.com/

Five Rules For Life: http://fiverulesforlife.blogspot.com/

Days With My Father: http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

Dalai Lama’s 18 Rules for Living: http://www.owenkelly.net/737/dalai-lamas-18-rules-for-living/

Love According to Children: http://hagebutten.livejournal.com/256932.html (This one made me want to cry a little)

ALSO, I’ve added another item to my 101 list – just a few spots left!

I’ve decided to write a letter to my grandparents once a month. My grandma writes me letters every once in a while, telling me what she and grandpa have been up to – how she worked in the garden while grandpa trimmed a tree, but ended up cutting off most of the branches because he cannot see at all, how they baked bread or how her violin concert went. (Have I told you how my grandmother decided to take up the violin in her 70s?) Being the terrible granddaughter I am, I rarely find the time to write back. Maybe it’s the lack of email or just pure laziness. Between work, the house, the dog and friends I don’t see them all that often either. So, now it’s on the list and I will regain my good granddaughter status one letter at a time.

AND! I totally passed up my 1 year blog-o-versary, which was at the beginning of May. So yay! Go me!