Anyone else feeling a little scatterbrained? Here’s what I’ve been day dreaming about…
GLORIA JEAN’S // The perfect blast from the past
When I was a teenager, I worked at White Oaks Mall in Springfield, Ill., for many years. I started as an Auntie Anne’s pretzel girl and moved to the lower level shortly after to join Hot Topic, where I stayed until I left for college and transferred to a new store. I have some great memories of working there – largely thanks to the rad weirdos I worked with – and was thrilled to hear a few years ago that the shopping center was being updated and remodeled. The only problem? It lost its lone coffee shop, Gloria Jean’s. While it’s far from a local establishment, it was the only Gloria Jean’s I’d ever encountered, and it offered a sweet mall employee discount. I always used mine for a Mocha Coconut: a perfectly blended, cold drink that balanced the coffee and the coconut and the chocolate like a damn milk-based magician. When Gloria Jean’s left, the Mocha Coconut moved into my memory and earned snack sainthood. It would forever be remembered as the most perfect coffee dessert that ever existed.
You can imagine I was shocked to see Gloria Jean’s returned to my hometown mall the last time I visited.
I contemplated trying something else, as it certainly couldn’t live up to my embellished memory. Maybe it wouldn’t even be on the menu. Why risk getting it and ruining the way it lives in my head?
But my mom pushed me in the right direction, and it tasted so much like my teenage years I couldn’t stop talking about it.
TL;DR – Gloria Jean’s is delicious.
PSL // Pumpkin Spice Lover
Speaking of coffee, is it pumpkin spice season? (I feel your judgement and I reject it.)
MARVEL STUDIOS // Superpower of STEM Challenge
Leave it to Disney to do something amazing! While this contest is not for my age group and I don’t have kids, I love the idea too much not to share. Marvel Studios’ THOR: RAGNAROK – Superpower of STEM Challenge is a new contest for young women ages 15-18 focused on using STEM skills and a DIY mindset to create something amazing. Watch to find out more.
Tell your daughters, sisters, and nieces to enter. I want to hear all about that Disney Imagineering experience!
HOME IMPROVEMENT // Can I DIY everything?
I spent perhaps a sad amount of my weekend watching Mr. Kate’s OMG We Bought a House on YouTube and now I want to finish every home project we have thought about starting.
Specifically, I’ve become obsessed with mounting our TV, but I learned it’s unsafe to run a power cord through the wall which means we’d need to have an outlet installed to avoid the hanging cord. I Google’d how much that would cost, and the answer was $100 to $800. Yeah, okay, sure, that seems like a totally sane price range. Not like there’s a huge difference between those numbers.
But for real, anyone know if it’s closer to $100 or closer to $800?