Petite Career Girl's 2nd Birthday

(My very first picture and very first blog post.)

Hi Ladies,
Exactly two years ago from today, I started Petite Career Girl. I gotta tell you that I'm still surprised that I actually did it. (Delighted, but surprised.) It's a big deal putting your pictures up on the internet and there are a million things that you don't know that you'll realize that you need to know about running a blog. To be honest, had I known how much I had to learn...I probably wouldn't have started it to begin with. :) 

The War Against Popcorn & Zone Bars

Hi Ladies,
I'm Merrie and I'm a Carb-aholic. I'm addicted to Zone Fudge Graham bars, among other things. Once you are done reading this, please consider driving to Charlotte and prying the bars out of my hands. (I promise not to bite or scratch.) Then I'll need you to run down to Target, buy up all their bars and destroy them. While you're on the way, can you pop over to the popcorn shop across the street and shut them down? I don't have the will power to live near a store that sells 50 different kinds of popcorn, and I'm grown enough to admit that. Especially, when they have 4 different Caramel & Cheese mixes. Four different kinds!!  Also, they don't post any of their nutritional information online, so you know there are a million calories in each bag. In addition, can you tell them that no, it's not ok to just buy two bags instead of one if you want to mix them? First, I feel it's wrong to spend $10 on popcorn, and second...who do you think is going to eat that other bag of popcorn? Me! That's who! So, instead of getting one bag of god-knows-how-many-calories-are-in-it-popcorn, I'll be forced to eat 2!

Ok...calm down. This is not the end of the world. You've faced candy down before. But, I'm so weak now. I'm not in top form. I'm one bar away from saying "forget it" and just moving into their factory. How am I gonna get out of this? I just lost 10 pounds and am in jeopardy of gaining it all back. In addition, this is a very dangerous time of year for me. First, there's my birthday in August. Then Halloween hits in October. Then, "Bam!" it's Thanksgiving and Christmas, and before you know it it's Valentine's day. I'm on a slippery slope that's gonna lead  to having my stomach pumped for candy corn and conversation heart over dose. What am I gonna do?

Maybe I can get arrested. There's no gourmet popcorn in jail, right? Or maybe I can join the Navy and live on a submarine...I bet there's no popcorn down there either. But then I'd be cramped in a tiny capsule with 30 men, under 1000 tons of water. That might not be worth it...Sigh...I worked so hard to get here! It's not fair! Why can't I be too young to buy junk food? Or too old? Maybe they should have warning labels on junk food like cigarette cartons do. "Warning! This product is highly addictive and will be impossible to put down. You know that dress you love to wear? Try fitting into it after you've downed a box a Zone bars four nights in a row!" Anyone agree? If so, I'll get a petition started.

Having a  free will is a slippery slope. A tasty slope, but a slippery one none the less. I think this is the point where I admit that my life is outta control and not in my hands. This is when I appeal to a higher power:

Dear Mother Nature,
It's me again, Merrie! Thanks for making my cat's ring worm start to clear up, although giving Mary feline acne was a bit of a surprise. (Cats get acne? It's caused by using plastic bowls? Huh? What are you playing at?) Anyway, I'm sure I'll learn a lot from this experience. I have one more favor to ask: "Could you possibly smite the popcorn shop down the street?" I know it's a mom and pop store and the guy who owns it is really sweet, but I gotta think about myself now. Maybe you don't have to send a tornado to destroy it; maybe you could just make the owner realize that his true calling is in real estate, not popcorn. Yeah, that will work.

Thanks again for letting me know what you think and I look forward to hearing your response! I'm also open to any other ideas you may have. :)

Kind Regards,
Merrie K. (aka Desperately Dieting in Charlotte)

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How to Choose a Career | Wordy Wednesdays

Hi Ladies,
Late last year I was introduced to a post idea by The Ladders to suggest career advice for soon-to-be college grads. If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know that I had a "few" things going on at that time and was going through an early mid-life crisis. So, at that moment, I didn't have the time nor feel qualified to give anyone advice, so I declined.

A few months later, after the dust storm that was my life settled, I started wondering what I would have written in that article. No doubt, if President Obama had been writing it, he would've told you to reach for the stars. (Heck! Why stop at being a Noble Laureate? You can be President of the Free World too!) Former President Clinton would tell you to make sure you get the most out of your company's perks. (All of it's "perks".) What about me, though? Could I come up with something equally wise, but true? Actually, the answer for me became very simple. If I'm being honest, I'd tell you to choose your career very wisely. Your company's culture can make or break your experience and money, really, really isn't everything.

Yeah, right though...I was told this a million times in college and didn't listen. Well, I listened, but I didn't know what it meant. I think it's one of those thing adults say, but find it impossible to communicate the actual meaning. Even now, I wonder what I would've done differently. Strangely, the one piece of advice that I remember being given, is not what you would normally consider as advice. I have no idea where I read it, but this is the gist: "when picking your career, think of the one situation that you would hate working in and the one thing you would do if money was no object. Then you should do the thing that you want to do, but in the situation you hate." See, I told you it was strange, but hang in with me for a moment...

For me, I would choose being a babysitter as the one thing I would hate to do. (Sorry, but I'd rather stick a hot needle into my eye than take care of someone else's kids.) On the happy side, I would love to do something that involves cats. Therefore, when I put those two together, the answer was simple: I should be a cat babysitter! Makes sense, right? Well, interestingly enough, that job does appeal to me at face value. I would love to be paid to play with cats all day. It sounds great!

However, if we dig a little deeper, certain concerns arise. I also like being able to pay my bills and being a cat sitter doesn't sound like a very lucrative career. My income would be cut even smaller, because I would also only be able to be around happy, healthy cats. I’m one of those people who tears up in Pet Smart when she sees all the kitties in cages with no owner to love them. I can't imagine there being enough Prozac in the world to keep me sane, if I had to deal with a sad situation involving cats.

So, where does this leave us? By now, you've probably put together that I'm saying that you don't know and can't possibly understand the impact of the decisions you are making now. (No matter how many internships you've done.) I'm also saying that there is a lot of crazy/ crappy career advice out there and you should be very careful who you listen to. However, all is not lost! Here's my advice: take a chance, do whatever, listen to your parents, ignore them, become a computer scientist or major in history. Just choose whatever career you think is going to make you happy, then graduate from college and do it! If you catch yourself one day, looking at the last few years and thinking that you were miserable for most of them, then stop! Take some time to yourself and think. Be aware of how you felt working those long hours or how you felt only being able to afford Ramen noodles.

Next, look at your options. Don't just look at the far off options, for instance if you were once a real estate attorney, but feel that you've earned the equivalent of medical degree diagnosing your mystery illnesses on WebMD, don't just look at becoming a doctor. Consider it, but also consider small tweaks to your current role that might make your quality of life better. Perhaps you could find a less strenuous law firm. Or you could meld the two fields together and focus on suing doctors for malpractice. There's plenty of opportunity in that! Anyway, I sincerely mean everything I've said and wish you the best of luck and happiness. I doubt  that this is the only way to handle this decision, and I certainly would've had a nervous break down in college had I know I was going to be doing this, but I can only share my life experiences as they are. And there you go...

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Cooking Disasters Pt.2

Hi Ladies,
Sigh...my attempts to cook Italian Beef today, turned into Italian Blah. @#%$#, I hate it when that happens!! <pause to kick table> I couldn't even get the cats to eat it! Minnie just licked the salt off  and walked away. So, I wound up driving to the food store, buying bread, cheese and yogurt and eating what I call the "College Student Delight".

As I sit here semi-sated, I am reminded of the last cooking disaster I tried to foist onto my cats...

Dear Mother Nature, a small request, please... (A Cooking Disaster)

(Dear Readers,

Today's post is a slight departure from our regularly scheduled fashion programming, but it's relevant to everyone!) 

Dear Mother Nature,
While I have always respected your judgment and appreciated your design esthetic (love the amber waves of grain and purple mountain magesties!) I do have one thing that I wanted to discuss with you...

Why did you feel the need to put a tiny, dead caterpillar in my one of my sugar snap peas last week?