Author: liz

Misc.

First Tattoo: Story + Meaning.

liz

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On November 29th, 2014 around 3pm-ish, I got my very first tattoo.

I was a 20-year-old junior in college that was in love with everything television that involved crime drama. I watched almost anything that had a compelling story to it, and you can blame that slight obsession from the TV show, The Killing.

For those who never heard of the show, The Killing is a character-driven crime drama that involves one case a season (with the exception of the Rosie Larsen case being two seasons long). The main characters, Detective Sarah Linden and Detective Stephen Holder, learn how to work with each other and find themselves in shitty situations, doing whatever it takes to solve these cases. Linden, being crazy dedicated to her work, also has a dark past; once being too heavily involved in a case that caused her to go crazy, and just dealing with the demons of her past. Holder, a newbie in the Homicide division, is pretty much the only one that could identify with her because he’s not the most perfect person either. Throughout the series, you see their give and take towards each other and at the end of it, you understand just how much they do need each other in order to balance each other out. No, they don’t end up together like Mulder and Sully did in The X-Files, but Linden and Holder are possibly the definition of a perfectly platonic relationship. Ever.

Because of my love for The Killing, I realized that my first tattoo would be something that related to the show. The show doesn’t have any little symbols that correlate with it like Harry Potter has with symbols or something cute like that. Despite my love for it, the show is full of darkness and dealt with serious topics like runaways, crooked politics, sexual assault, missing homeless girls, drug abuse, and manslaughter of families. So when Season 4 of The Killing premiered, the last episode of the series was “Eden”, and years after Linden and Holder went their separate ways, they reunited 5 years later, back in Seattle, where it all started.

So, whatever – I’m crying my eyes out because it’s the last episode ever of The Killing, and Linden confesses to Holder how she never had a real home, and in the course of the three cases they worked on together, you know “in that stupid car, driving around and smoking cigarettes”…

She says: “I think maybe…

IT NEARLY KILLED ME. So fast forward a couple of months, and I really wanted to get a tattoo before the new year started. At this point, I’ve had ideas for tattoos stored in my little box of notes forever, and as soon as I saw this moment, I felt something. It was weird, because, for something as dark as The Killing, this little line had hope in it. Even if Linden’s home was her and Holder, my “home” that potentially saved my life back in 2013 when I had really nothing left to live her, was this show and the people who I got the pleasure in connecting with through the fandom on Twitter. These two best friends, Lauren and Melissa, welcomed me and thousands of fans into the fandom to help bring back the show for a fourth season after being canceled (twice) and communicated with us during the wait for season 4 in 2014. They even decided to create a series of books (which I had the pleasure of being a part of) for the showrunner, Veena Sud, and the two main actors: Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman.

All in all, it was a moment in my life where I felt like I belonged in a community and this show allowed me to love and be passionate about something that wasn’t always about me. I wanted to take this moment in my life and always remember the “home” I had with these people who seriously helped me turn my life around. It’s cheesy, but I wouldn’t be the person I am today if The Killing wasn’t introduced to me.

But anyway, I decided that at the end of November, I was going to get “home was us” as my first official tattoo. I went to Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and was tattooed by Matt Huff (ironically enough he’s the brother of one of my sister’s old high-school friends). Nevertheless, the tattoo took about 10 minutes in total to complete and that day, with Obie as my plus one, I got my very first tattoo.

Side story: So, Obie and I walk into the tattoo parlor, and of course in this surrounding, Obie is like a little kid at a candy store. Obie is not about that piercing or tattoo life, so when Matt was setting up and getting ready at his station, Obie and I stood in the front and looked at all the artwork on the walls and shit. Obie looks at Alex, another tattoo artist at Brooklyn Ink, and asked him if the tattoos on his face “hurt”. I literally face palmed myself. But in all seriousness, Obie was definitely amused of the tattoo environment. It was cute.

The only downfall of this tattoo is that it’s not common, so it obviously is going to have a story or meaning behind it and when people ask, you gotta explain it. I’ve had people look at me sideways as soon as I mentioned the word “killing” in my explanation, but hey – I believe in getting meaningful tattoos, and this one tells a story way too long to tell for “small talk”.

But I digress.

Anyway, I’m planning to get at least one more small tattoo that will be a matching one with my sister. I don’t know what it is yet, but hopefully, we get it soon because after writing this, I can totally go for another tattoo experience.

-Liz (:

Misc.

♥ Happy Easter! ♥

liz

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Happy Easter, TNTH readers! Whether you celebrate the holiday or not, I just wanted to write a little Sunday post to personally thank the people who came out during Spring Break to hang out with me on Instagram Live before every TNTH post was published. It was really fun to talk to you guys and tell you about some of these TNTH posts and inspiration behind them. I also shared some little surprises coming to the blog in the next couple of months, which I will let you guys know once everything is finalized. 

So yeah, I hope you guys are enjoying the last days of your Spring Break (if you are currently on it), I hope you’re spending time with family on this Easter Sunday (again, if you celebrate it), and again, thank you so much for your support and feedback on TNTH!

I also wanted to give a quick birthday shout out to a fellow blogger and old friend of mine, Nina. Nina is the creator and writer of SparklyWarTanks, a blog whose core message is to empower women in every aspect of their lives whether it be social, spiritual, mental, etc. She is turning 23 today, and you guys should totally wish her a happy birthday and read all of her inspirational stuff on her blog.

See you all on Tuesday; enjoy the last of your weekend and break! 😀

-Liz (:

Misc.

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (4/15/17)

liz

I hope everyone who is currently on Spring Break is having a lovely week off from school or work or whatever you are on vacation for; I definitely needed this time off to get all the week that I needed to get done GET DONE before the semester ends in a month. Again, this is what my Spring Break has been like for the last two years: just working on school stuff at home.

But now that we all had our week off and we all return to reality on Tuesday, it could be hard to transition from “lazy, unproductive self” to “did I forget to breathe during my long day of work?” self. We all got a taste of relaxation and days of sleeping in, and now we all have the Spring Break blues. 

So, how do you get rid of them before the break is actually over?

Continue reading “Self-Appreciation Saturday. (4/15/17)” →

Misc.

#TBT: All About 2014.

liz

2014 was an amazing year for personal growth. The year before was a rough one; I was very much still dealing with lingering depression from high school, my freshman year of college wasn’t the greatest experience ever, and I was holding on to toxic friendships that were ruining the friendships that meant something real to me. Starting my sophomore year of college, I had a better head on my shoulders, and 2014 is still a year I very much look back at and hope to have another year like it.

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20-year-old Liz on her 20th Birthday.

Continue reading “#TBT: All About 2014.” →

Misc.

What I’m Currently Listening To! (Part 2!)

liz

Hey, guys! Long time, no see. Welcome back to TNTH.

I decided to recycle a post that I did all the way back in January when the blog first launched, and after re-reading that, I realized that new music has come out since then, which I will like to share with you guys! Again, if you will like to see what’s always on my playlist (minus the Hector Lavoe and 2Pac; my father’s playlist is on my account), make sure to follow me on Spotify!

Without further ado, here are some songs that I’m currently obsessing over:

  • The feel-good song of the season: “Beautiful” by Betty Who (feat. Superfruit) There’s a funny story behind this song. I first heard the song, I was on my way to school a couple of weeks ago and me being the tweeter I am, I tweeted how beautiful the song was and tagged them in the post. 10 minutes later, my tweet had 300+ likes and about 72 RT’s. I thought I was hacked for a quick second until I realized Superfruit (which in case you didn’t know are Scott & Mitch from the a capella group, Pentatonix), retweeted my tweet! Screenshot 2017-03-28 at 6.44.01 PM.pngAnyway, the song itself has a Jess Glyme vibe to it; it’s very uplifting beat with an inspiring message that expresses the fact that no matter what, you are always beautiful. It’s definitely something to make you dance after a long, stressful day.
  • “Chained to the Rhythm” by Katy Perry is a song that I didn’t expect to like at first because I wasn’t the biggest fan of hers in the recent years, but there’s something about this song that’s just SO GOOD. On Spotify, you get this little thing on popular songs that tell you little insights of how that song was produced, inspired, as well as gives you the lyrics while it’s playing. This particular song is a political song disguised as a catchy pop song, which is honestly what I live for. It’s like a song Lily Allen would make because of the controversial, political, and sarcastic lyrics. If you didn’t like Katy Perry before, you might actually like this song.
  • “Undercover” by Kehlani has been my go-to song to listen to for the last two months. Don’t get me wrong, SweetSexySavage overall is a great album, but this song and the next one are the only songs I didn’t get sick of after 12,000 times of listening to it. Kehlani is one of those artists that can sing and rap, and this is one of the songs on the album that she mainly sings. Plus, the lyrics just describe me and how I feel: one way or another, ima love you.
  • Speaking of that other song on SweetSexySavage I was talking about was “In My Feelings” by Kehlani. This was the first song off the album that I gravitated towards to because of just the beginning rap. It took about 15,000 times to master the first rap verse of the song because Kehlani is just the master of not-breathing-while-rapping-for-45-seconds-straight type of rapping. You will find me milly rocking to this song all the time.
  • Last but certainly not least, “Lowlife” by That Poppy came onto my playlist in an interesting manner. Like everything else in life, YouTube was going crazy over this weird, young girl named Poppy, a girl with a YouTube channel who made weird videos that didn’t make sense and raised interest because of the odd behavior. People began to make conspiracy theories about her origin and the meaning behind the videos and her image. People began to link her through the Illuminati and began reversing her songs to see if any cult/satanic messages were in it (which in the line “And I get so lonely”  backward sounds a lot like “Hail my Lord, Satan”). Besides all of that, she is signed to Island Records and has an EP called Bubblebath, which features Lowlife on it. It’s catchy and it’s the definition of bubblegum pop. Plus, I really enjoy the chorus and the feel of the song; it kinda goes along with the whole “reggae” vibe that popular songs have in Top 40 hits.

I’m looking forward to the new music that should be coming out in the summer because there’s nothing like a good summer song (think Drake’s “One Dance” in 2016 or Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” in 2014). Lol, hope you guys enjoyed this little music update, and see you guys in the next one!

-Liz (:

Misc.

Thirteen Reasons Why.

liz

Yes. I hopped on the bandwagon and binge-watched all 13 episodes of the Netflix Original Series, Thirteen Reasons Why and I actually haven’t slept because I’ve been watching it all night. It honestly made me write this post minutes after I finished the series because the series as a whole is so fucking important to tell, especially in today’s society.

I guess here are my thirteen reasons why the series and storyline are super important and how honestly left me thinking about my own experience once being a 17-year-old teenage girl in high school.

I’ve read the book about three years ago during the winter break. I got the recommendation from an actress, actually, who I was following at the time. As many of you know, Thirteen Reasons Why is about a girl named Hannah Baker, a 17-year-old high school junior who commits suicide and leaves behind a set of cassette tapes, explaining the 13 reasons (and people) that caused her to take her own life. I warn you now, the last 5 episodes of the series is extremely graphic; showing scenes of rape, abuse, and a very graphic suicide scene. If you are triggered by these sensitive topics, then watch at your own risk, honestly.

Continue reading “Thirteen Reasons Why.” →

Misc.

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (4/8/17)

liz

So, you have bad habits. They suck, don’t they? I know my bad habits are bad habits for a reason and because they are habits, they are hard to break. Sometimes, these bad habits lead to poor life choices, and you all-around just feel shitty and lousy and no one likes feeling that way. 

In the last few weeks, I’ve been dealing with bad habits developing and coming back every once and awhile due to the excessive stress I’ve been going through because of grad school. Anyway, here are some ways to make your bad habits actually good habits!

Bad habit: Poor Time Management // Good Habit: Calendar Organizing

Listen, no matter who you are, I think everyone has experienced poor time management at least once in their life. We have deadlines coming up, bills have to get paid, and it seems like every now and then, we never have time to hang out with friends or see family that often. One great way that I try to organize my time is to have a dry-erase calendar board. It’s beneficial to me because if I ever decide I need more time to work on something or if something in my schedule changes, I can just erase it. Doing that on regular calendar make it look less organized and messier due to the cross-outs and rewrites.

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My life as a grad student currently. (Yes, I’m still alive.)

If you’re a stressed out student in school that feels like your assignments are eating you alive (like me), then it’s crucial that not only you write down the deadlines for these assignments, but also the days that you are planning to work on those assignments. Make sure you have different colored markers or pens to differentiate the assignments and classes you have to do the assignments for. (Of course, you can always color coordinate different things that pertain to you like appointments, bills that are due, or social events). I adapted this little technique during my first semester in grad school when I only had a month to literally write 30+ pages for two of my classes. I would color coordinate the assignments that I wanted to do on each day for whatever class it was for. I tell you not, I finished everything before the semester ended, and now I’m trying to get through this semester following the same technique. Whether this looks like it would be overwhelming or not, I assure you that you’ll get things done more efficiently when you plan ahead when to work on things instead of just waiting it out last minute.

Bad Habit: Too Much Junk Food // Good Habit: Portion Control

They always say that once you eat one chip out of the bag, it’s hard to stop. In my duration of being on WeightWatchers, I’ve hit this dead end where it’s been hard to lose more weight because I just really love junk food. Like seriously, that commercial where Oprah is practically screaming she loves chips makes me angry because I LOVE CHIPS AND YET THEY ARE STILL BAD FOR YOU. Anyway, cutting down on junk food is one of the hardest habits to break. One way to change it into a good habit is to possibly find an alternative to binge-eat on these bad foods. For example, if you really love potato chips, eat baked potato chips instead of the regular one. If you have a sweet tooth, make sure you eat sugary foods in moderation. Maybe half a donut, half a candy bar, half a brownie, whatever it is that you like. Of course, you don’t need to take it out of your life completely; take a day out of your week to treat yourself. I know that if I’m out with my best friend, we eat a lot. As long as you’re not eating junk food all day every day, then you’re helping to cut out some bad foods in your diet.

Bad Habit: Over-Tweezing & Nail Biting // Good Habit: Eyebrow Pencil & Nail Polish

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One personal bad habit I have is that I over-tweeze my eyebrows when they get a little stubby. Because of that, I haven’t had tails to my eyebrows in a really long time. They’ve gotten better over the years, but I still consider it a bad habit because I still over-tweeze. One good way I try to not do that is that I do have my eyebrows drawn on for most of the day, and yes, I sometimes fall asleep with them. I find myself tweezing them at night when I’m laying down, and my hands just gravitate towards my eyebrows. With my eyebrows drawn on, I don’t pick at them as much. The first time I did it, a lot of my eyebrow hair did grow back, and I’m currently doing the same thing to help them grow back again. It’s the same thing when you’re a nail biter; painting your nails will prevent you from biting them because then your nail job will get all chipped and nasty and nobody likes chippy nails.

There’s a lot of bad habits out there, and it honestly does take some thinking to make them as good habits. These are just a few, but I believe any reasonable bad habits could be turned into good ones.

-Liz (:

Misc.

Tomorrow’s the day!

liz

Hey, TNTH followers and TNTH readers!

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For the past week, I’ve been reminding everyone on my social media accounts that the live-streams for TNTH will begin TOMORROW, April 8th! They will all start at 12:55pm EST (so if you’re not from America or on the East Coast, check your time settings and see when that is for you).

Make sure that if you will like to be a part of these live-streams this next week that you are FOLLOWING ME ON INSTAGRAM! It isn’t public for many reasons, do you will need to request to follow me and I’ll accept!

Thank you guys for following and supporting TNTH! Look out for more updates on new content and because planning for the summer content of TNTH has commenced!

I will be explaining a new topic that will be coming to TNTH in the near future, so I’m excited to share that with you all as well.

See you guys tomorrow! 😀

-Liz (:

Misc.

Why “Find Our Girls” is So Important.

liz

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There are teenage girls, specifically black and latina teenage girls, who are going missing in Washington D.C. These missing reports are linked to the ongoing issue of human and sex trafficking. These girls who go missing are most likely being sold. Human beings are being sold as sex slaves. These young girls who still have so much life to live are being SOLD AS SEX SLAVES.

Why is there little to no media coverage on it?

Why do women get the short end of the stick when they’re in danger? Why does a social media platform such as Twitter help find a girl named Kennedi who has once been kidnapped a few weeks ago in Baltimore, but not when the missing person report is initially made? Why is social media the only place out there right now concerned about these missing girls?

Don’t you guys realized these are daughters of mothers, sisters of sisters, nieces of aunts, friends of friends. These girls are not just objects that aren’t real just because you can’t feel them yourself. What would you want to do if this was someone you knew?

In any given circumstance, a disappearance of a girl never seemed to be important to media unless she was a white girl. Think back at all the famous kidnapping cases you can think of: Elizabeth Smart, Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, Jaycee Dugard. They are notably all white teenage girls. Why don’t Black & Latina women get the coverage that they deserve?

The reality of it is that “things like this happen all the time to young women”. You know, because we love getting manipulated, raped, kidnapped, killed, and all the other possible things society thinks we love!

You don’t know how real it is until it hits you.

Last night while coming home from school, I got off at my usual bus stop to wait for another bus that takes me straight home. Usually, there are other people waiting for the same bus as me and we all carry on with our lives once the bus arrives. Note: the buses run every 30 minutes, so I’m usually left waiting for 30 minutes for a bus, or I end up getting in on time. Yesterday, the bus was 10 minutes away from the bus stop I was at.

When I got off the bus, I notice this man standing alone by himself at the bus stop. I usually never stand too close to people on bus stop because I respect personal space. Anyway, I stand a good 10 feet away from this man, until I see him turn in my direction, facing me. Usually, when people do that they are trying to ask for directions – so I took my headphones to hear what he had to say. Initially, I couldn’t tell if he knew any English until I heard him actually speak English, but he was slurring his words like crazy. Oh man, he’s drunk, isn’t he? I told myself as I was trying to comprehend what the hell he was trying to say. Once I actually understood what he was trying to say, I gave him the directions and proceeded on my night. Every time he tried talking to me, he got closer to me, asking me the same question over and over in a very particular way; every bus that came by he didn’t go on. He started to talk to me even louder but in a more aggressive tone as I try to mind my own business and pay no mind to him. By the time he was close enough to me so that I was able to smell the alcohol on him, I started to feel my gut telling me to do something.

I was in this constant thought of what I should do next: If I leave to go to another bus stop 5 blocks away I might miss the bus but if I stay here any longer he might get on the bus with me and I don’t want that happening– I honestly didn’t know what to do. I sent Obie an S.O.S text to call me immediately so that at least I have someone on the other end of the conversation. So I’m just trying to have a conversation with him, and this man gets even closer; he’s about a foot away from me now and he’s now looking at me with this certain look. He just kept staring at me with his aggressive, glossy look and talking under his breath, nodding his head at me and now I’m at a loss for words; I’m tensing up and this man can see it. Obie is trying to guide me out of it, and sooner or later, I say to Obie, “Hey, where are you?” Clearly, Obie is confused as fuck, not knowing what’s going on, and I just kept saying “Where are you? I’m about to meet up with you.”  Eventually, he caught on and when I was turning the corner to walk away from the bus stop, I finally told Obie that I got out of there and I was walking to a different bus stop. After what felt like forever, I got home and immediately just started crying.

The fact of the matter is, anything could’ve happened. He could’ve been aggressive to the point he pulled out a knife. He could’ve threatened me. He could’ve followed me when I walked away. Life just happens in unfortunate ways, and things could have gotten worse.

God forbid if I became just another statistic that no one spoke about.

I relate this to what’s happening in D.C. because situations like that aren’t so blatantly out there now, but they still happen all the time to young girls and women. They are in fake job offerings, drive-bys, they are in people who simply need help with directions. And nobody is taking it as seriously as it should be because “things like that happen every single day”.

Yeah, young girls getting kidnapped happen every single day. Young girls getting sexually assaulted happen every single day. Young girls running away or disappear happens every single day. BUT NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. 

Instead, hashtags are being made in order for top notch news platforms notice it and put it in their 10 o’clock news slot. Twitter and Facebook (as bad as social media can be for a person at times), remind everyone each and every day that these girls are still missing and are not backing down to help find them and bring them home. Instead, many women and young girls who’ve been sexually assaulted or harassed still remain silent because they know nobody cares to do them any justice. (Nah, instead people think we cry out “rape!” for the attention and want to humiliate ourselves.) Instead, many young girls and women end up dead within 72 hours because there’s simply no more we can do. Instead, we are put in the back-burner behind Kardashian/Jenner gossip, Donald Trump nonsense, and what new iPhone is coming out next.

There’s just simply no time for the safety of our girls, huh?

If only we mattered more. If only we “knew better.”

-Liz (:

Misc.

Just a couple of minor thoughts.

liz

These posts seem to be written far too frequent, and I apologize that that’s the case.

I’ve just been feeling really out of place and under the weather for a couple of weeks for many reasons, and keeping up the blog has not been something I’ve personally been wanting to do with my free time. In all honesty, it’s one of the things that I’m starting to consider stressful, especially on top of my schoolwork and all that jazz.

Honestly, I feel like I’m slightly getting lost and slightly depressed. The last thing I would want to happen is if I completely lost myself because of everything currently going on around me.

I personally need some space.

I’m taking a break from TNTH these following two weeks, which means that no new posts will be published until then. I need time to plan out what I want to write, as well as have time to do what I have to do personally and just get myself out of this funk.

I just don’t feel like I’m currently in the right mind space to be writing blog posts about positivity and happiness when I’m personally not feeling that myself.

I definitely am still planning to do the Instagram Livestreams during Spring Break, so yes, TNTH will be back the week of Spring Break, starting Saturday, April 8th. 

Again, thank you guys for sticking around, whether you click on the links I share throughout my social media accounts, or find my blog posts on the WordPress Reader; I appreciate each and every one of you who read my stuff.

I apologize, again, for going on this hiatus from the blog. As much as I want to write and post and create for this blog, my mental health and schoolwork take priority in everything.

See you guys in two weeks.

-Liz (: