Follow Your Bliss

Hey Guys!

Just wanted to write a quick post before Halloween weekend madness begins. If you follow me on twitter you'd know that I'm seriously considering transferring schools next year. First of all I would like to thank everyone who gave me such encouraging words and amazing feedback - I appreciate it so so much. Obviously this is a bit of a difficult time for me right now but through this experience I'm learning so many new things about myself and about the people around me.

I've learned that settling is totally overrated. Settling for anything - whether it be relationships, jobs, or in my case college, should not be tolerated. I've learned that this is the time that you're supposed to be making mistakes. There's nothing wrong with not knowing what you want, the answer will come in time. I've also learned that wishing away my days here at school and focusing on how unhappy I've been is no way to live - I've learned that you just have to make the best out of every situation that you're in. I'm trying to keep an open mind but the idea of transferring after finishing my freshman year sounds like a perfect plan for me as of now. Maybe things will change, maybe they won't. But there's a bit of fun in not knowing what's going to happen next, right?

So my message to everyone is to follow your bliss. Whatever is good for you, do that. 

"Don't settle: Don't finish crappy books. If you don't like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you're not on the right path, get off it." - Chris Brogan

I hope everyone has an amazing (and safe) Halloween weekend!! Look out for my post about costumes I should have it up by Sunday!
xoxo Junior Hockey Girlfriend

Present Ideas: The Birthday Edition

As I'm writing this it's hard to believe that it's already October 27th. In twelve short days my favorite boy will be 20! And I'll still be 18.. for four more months. Side note: I will never get over the fact that he will be 21 years old and a freshman in college next year. Anyways, with his birthday coming up in early November along with Christmas in December I started panicking about present ideas hmmm probably two months ago.

About a month ago my boyfriend joked that he was going to get himself a pendant with my initals on it (in proper monogram format, obviously). He wears a cross and also has a little angel pendant and said that he wished he had a pendant with my name on it to go with his angel and cross. At first I thought it sounded kind of cheesy but the more I thought about it the more the idea grew on me. Eventually I looked on Etsy (LOVE) and found exactly what I was looking for. It shipped fairly quickly and came in the cutest little package, bow and all. 

Since the pendant was inexpensive I decided to get him something else from one of his favorite stores. Originally I wanted to get him a fleece shep shirt from Vineyard Vines (God bless preppy boys) but after going into the store I was a little disappointed in the quality of it, I wanted it to be a warmer material, so I decided against it. I ended up going to Lulu lemon and spent a solid 45 minutes going back and forth between two different presents. Seriously being as indecisive as I am is a curse. Anyways, after a little internal debate I decided to get him this 1/2 zip. I'm guilty of buying him EVERYTHING in this color it just looks so good on him! 

Starting in November I will start posting about the homemade gift I'm making him for our anniversary, along with holiday present ideas so look out for that! 
I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!!
xoxo Jr Hockey GF

Distance

I dreaded writing this post. I put it off for weeks and told myself a million times that I absolutely had to write it today but I eventually made an excuse to not write it. Distance... is hard. It's not for everyone. It's not for the weak hearted - that is for sure. Never in a million years would I have dreamed to be in a long distance relationship. I'm going to give a little background history of my relationship, but before I do I would just like to make one thing clear, distance is distance. I find it so immature when girls give each other shit about whether or not their relationship "counts" as long distance or not. It doesn't matter if you're in different cities, states, countries. Distance is distance. It seems like girls try to make it a competition at times - who has the harder long distance relationship. EVERY long distance relationship is hard. 

Now that I've made that clear, time for a little background information on my relationship. My boyfriend lives in the same hometown as me - but has been in different boarding schools since his freshman year of high school. When I met him he was attending a prep school two hours away from our hometown while I attended the public high school in our town. Luckily, when his hockey schedule allowed it, he came home on the weekends. People always ask me how I dealt with seeing him for only two days every couple of weeks - schedule permitting. What they don't realize is that this is all I've ever known. I've never had the luxury of having my boyfriend at the same school as me so it just seemed normal to me. It has been extremely difficult at times, there's no denying that. During my senior year I went on a foreign exchange trip to Germany for three weeks. Three weeks in a different country with a six hour time difference.. That was hard. But we got through it and I think it made us even stronger. Now, I'm away at college while he's living at home and playing Junior hockey. We see each other a lot more now than we did last year, which is amazing. But it's still just as hard. We both have extremely busy schedules, he's in a different state on roadies every weekend while I'm trying to balance school and a job and a social life and a boyfriend. Honestly, it's exhausting at times. Trying to plan out dates and times to see each other usually ends in one of us getting frustrated or upset. At times, I wonder if it's really worth it. At times, I think to myself that yes it's great that he's home this year but what happens next year? What if he gets offers from D1 colleges that are far away from me? I constantly overwhelm myself when I start thinking like that so I often remind myself to "stay in today", meaning not to let the future worries bother me today. I don't regret a single second of my relationship, distance and all. I believe that any long distance relationship can work if you truly want it to work. 

And now, here's a bit of insight from another hockey girlfriend's point of view! I was lucky enough to have Jessica (@JessiRaab) email me her thoughts on her long distance relationship: Well, let me just start off by saying.... Long distance is hard and I truly admire and feel somewhat connected to anyone going through it. Not being able to see the one you love for months at a time can be one of the worse feelings in the world. I've been in a long distance relationship with my boy for about two years now. My boyfriend plays hockey so for about 8 months out of the year he's in a different area playing for a team. This year he is playing up in Oregon, last year it was Fresno. Fresno was only two hours from where I live, so I've experienced the "short" long distance and now I'm experiencing the out of state one. Regardless of how far or "close" they are too you, distance is distance and its hard either way. Although, it's so easy to get caught up in all the negatives of long distance, the positives are the hard ones to feel but that doesn't mean they are not there. In my personal opinion long distance brings two people closer then ever. That constant feeling of missing someone, only makes you cherish the time you actually have together. It makes you appericate all the little things, that you dont even realize how much you miss. A thing as simple as a kiss could be such an amazing moment between a couple dealing with long distance! If I could give one critical piece of advice when dealing with long distance, it would be, cherish the little things and no matter how hard things may get, always find the positives everyday in your relationship. My boyfriend and I are both really positive people, and believe me when I say we have our bad days too, but it really helps that no matter what we can always smile and say "this is worth every second of pain we go thorough." I never thought I would be in a long distance relationship, but when it comes down to it, I wouldn't change it for the world. It's going to make for a great love story for my love and I and I'm sure it will for all your girls dealing with it too! It's always good to know other girls are dealing with the same types of situations and I thank "preppy hockey girlfriend" for letting me write a part in her blog to help other girlies dealing with long distance!! 

Xoxo, 

Jessica & Junior Hockey Girlfriend

The Dark Side

To me, being a hockey girlfriend is all about being a positive support system for your boyfriend. But what happens when things aren't going as well as you'd hoped? How can you support someone if they're not getting any playing time? Or if he has a minor concussion that he isn't telling his coach/family about? Or if your boyfriend seems to be less passionate about hockey? 

It all comes with the territory. Being a hockey girlfriend is not always very glamorous. This hockey season has been very different than the last one. My favorite hockey boy went from being the best player on his team at prep school, to being scratched every other game once he went into Juniors. Obviously being scratched again and again and being moved back and forth from the fourth line to the second line results in a bruised ego. And lots of frustration. There's only so many times that one can say "Stay positive, you just need to give yourself more time to get adjusted" before it loses its meaning. 

Luckily, things have been turning around for him. Hopefully he'll stay on the second line now.  I've found that the best way to show support when things aren't going well is to just be there for him. Let him talk about hockey and all his frustrations until you want to hit your head off of a wall just so you can stop hearing him repeat himself (but seriously, I can only listen to him say how much better he is than the first liners so many times before I want to knock myself out). Sometimes, it helps just to not talk about it at all. My boyfriend has days where he just doesn't want anything to do with hockey (these are the dark days) so I try to distract him from it the best I can. Get to as many games as you can. I'm jealous of all the girls that get to go to a lot of their boyfriends games. 

As for the minor concussion thing... I try to stay out of that. My boyfriend has a bad history with concussions. The kind of bad that means if he gets another one doctors won't let him play contact sports for two years. As terrible as it sounds, I know its not my place to say anything about the hard hits he gets to the head sometimes. He has told me more than once this season that he feels like he has a minor concussion, and as hard as it is to not tell his parents or anyone, I know he has to deal with it himself. He'd get super mad if I said anything to his parents because it's not like he can afford to miss any part of his season, considering the fact that this is his one and only year of Juniors and he hasn't heard many offers from colleges. So I chose to stay out of it and let him deal with that himself. 

At any point this season, if your boyfriends are going through a "dark time" I hope you remember this... Be there for him. Be as sympathetic and understanding as you can. He'll appreciate it more than you know.

xoxo Junior Hockey Girlfriend

Rink Outfits

While brainstorming for blog topic idea's last night at two am (who needs sleep?) I remembered that I promised to write a post about my go to outfits for the rink a long time ago sooo here it is!

I tend to dress a little preppier than your average girl but all of these outfits can be modified to fit your own fashion sense!

Tops: Sweaters are an absolute must in the rink. I tend to wear neutral colored ones such as gray or black or cream, ones that I can layer a lot. If I'm not wearing a thick sweater I usually have a warm long sleeve on and his team sweatshirt over it. These are my favorite sweaters!

Bottoms: I'm a big believer that leggings can pass as pants. Sue me. My favorite leggings are from Banana Republic, I wear them allll the time. When I'm not wearing leggings I'm wearing dark wash skinnies. Usually from Abercrombie and Fitch because I have like a million and ten pairs from working there.

Jackets: Finding a cute jacket is seriously the hardest task ever. I have a pea coat from Forever 21 that I like but I've had it for a couple years now, definitely time to upgrade. I'm currently loving Jcrew vests so I've taken to wearing a warm sweater and layering my vest over it. I'm also a big fan of Patagonia pull overs and Vineyard Vines shep shirts for when I don't feel like wearing a jacket. I refuse to believe that it's already jacket weather!

Shoes: I own a lot of shoes so I change it up a lot. Usually in the fall I tend to wear my riding boots and Hunter rain boots (like I said before, it rains a lot in New England). I'm currently obsessed with the Lizzie riding boot from Tory Burch. Seriously if anyone has $525 that they'd like to give me I wouldn't be opposed. Once it starts getting colder I'll migrate to my warmer gray booties and LL bean boots.

Bag: I recently got this Kate Spade bag and I absolutely love it. Such a perfect size and it's different than the longchamp bags that everyone has!

I hope this was helpful to you guys! I would love to hear some feedback :)

xoxo Junior Hockey Girlfriend

It's that time of year again

As I said in my last post, October is my favorite month for many reasons. I found a quote somewhere that goes "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." The month of September was a bit of a rocky start between me getting adjusted to college life and my boyfriend getting adjusted to his new team. So naturally I was extremely excited for a new month and a fresh start.

With the start of hockey season, the inevitable occurs...

Those clusters of obnoxious girls that you see in the rink while you're trying to focus on your boyfriends game? Yeah, its puck bunny season. This is a bit of old news to me because I've dealt with my fair share of puck bunnies at my boyfriends boarding school but regardless it's always annoying to see them in the rink. I was a little apprehensive when my boyfriend first joined the team that he's on now because most of the players are second year junior players and have a bit of a partying reputation. Most of my boyfriend's friends on the team have their own apartments. 20 year olds living on their own? Can you say puck bunny heaven? 

So far I've heard some pretty terrible stories involving some girls that hang out around the rink his team skates at and one of his teammates apartments. Yuck. 

I remember it used to bother me so much when I would see girls being so flirty and obnoxious around my boyfriend and his teammates. I would see these random girls following him on twitter and liking all of his Instagram's of him and his teammates. Then I grew up. It sucks that there are girls out there who have such low self esteem that they would do anything to say they had sex with a hockey player, but I have learned to remember that all they'll ever be is a puck slut. No one wants to date the girl who hooks up with everyone on the team. That's a fact. As annoying as it is to see these girls fawning over your boyfriends, always remember that you're the one in a relationship and they are the ones becoming the butt of the joke for your boyfriends teammates. Never feel inferior to a puck bunny, ladies. It's not worth it. 

xoxo

Junior Hockey Girlfriend

Seasonal Dates

   Hey Guys! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week, the weather today is absolutely beautiful! Such a perfect fall day. Now that the weather is starting to get a little colder (not that I minded the Indian Summer - I LOVED being able to wear my Jack Rogers for a little longer) I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about some seasonal date ideas! I love a lazy cuddle day just as much as the next girl but it's so fun to plan out a special date every once in awhile. So here are a few ideas that I have come up with! 

Apple/ Pumpkin Picking: Personally, I love to go apple picking! I recently went with my friends from college while my boyfriend was away for hockey (of course) and I had so much fun! It was so nice to get out of the city and see all the beautiful foliage while driving to a nearby farm. If my boyfriend was there I know we would love to walk around the orchard searching for the perfect apples - even though he's allergic and can't eat them. When I go home next weekend we plan on going on a pumpkin picking date and carving them together. I can't wait until then! There's something about the fall that just makes me so happy. 

Fall Desserts Day: Little known fact about me, I absolutely love baking. More importantly, I love love anything pumpkin. My boyfriend has taken to calling me his "little pumpkin head". I seriously can't get enough of it! I found a really amazing website with a ton of different fall themed recipes, I can't wait to try them! If any of you are into baking, or even just looking for something to do when you guys are bored I would definitely check out this website!

http://diycandy.com/2013/09/15-sweet-recipes-to-celebrate-fall/

Halloween Movie Marathon: What many people seem to forget about the fall is that it rains - a LOT. I think everyone gets so caught up in the leaves changing colors and such that they forget that it usually rains a lot in New England in the fall! If you and your boy ever find yourself stuck inside on a rainy day I suggest you have a Halloween movie marathon to get yourselves in the Halloween spirit! My personal favorites are the Halloweentown movies, Hocus Pocus, and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. 

Costume Shopping: For another fun rainy day activity you two could go to your local Halloween costume store and pick out costumes together! Trying on silly costumes (or even sexy ones) would be so entertaining, especially if your boyfriend is as goofy as mine. 

Go to a football game: Friday night football and fall weather go hand in hand in my opinion. Catching a local football game (high school or college) would be a great date night. Watching the game under the lights bundled up in warm clothes with my favorite boy next to me sounds like a perfect Friday night to me.

Go to a Haunted House: Depending on where you live, you could go to a haunted house, haunted hayride, etc. My boyfriend will deny this till he dies but he is absolutely terrified of haunted houses and scary movies. I've gone to a haunted house with my friends before and I've absolutely loved it! Nothing like a haunted house to get you into the Halloween spirit!

I hope everyone has a perfect fallish (is that a word? It is now.) date with your favorite boys! If anyone has other ideas that I haven't listed feel free to comment below or tweet at me! @jr_hockey_gf is my twitter handle if you don't follow me already!

xoxo

Junior Hockey Girlfriend

   

October

        October has always been my favorite month for many reasons. For one thing, fall has always been my favorite season. Hockey finally comes back. And it's the start of my favorite holiday months (October, November, and December are always the happiest months for me). I have always found something so great about being able to spend holidays and "happy months" with my boyfriend. There's just so much to look forward to!

     October is also a favorite month of mine because of Halloween, duh. This year I'm especially excited because it's the first time my boyfriend and I will be spending Halloween together. I seriously thanked the Hockey Gods for scheduling his games so conveniently during the last week of October. We already agreed that he will be coming up to my school for the night of Halloween, instead of going to the Halloween party that one of his teammates is throwing (sorry boys). Actually not really that sorry because I'm pretty sure a few of his teammates are coming to my school with him. Now it's time for the hard part... Finding a costume.

     Surprisingly my boyfriend suggested that we match costumes! Here are a few ideas that we have come up with so far! For Holly Golighty and Minnie I only have girl costumes but I think it's pretty easy to figure out what the boy would wear. Also taking a leaf out of Sarah Vickers book for Daisy. Absolutely loved her outfit for the Gatsby party she attended.

Daisy Buchanan and Gatsby (The Great Gatsby):

Mickey and Minnie Mouse:

Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak (Breakfast at Tiffanys):

These are my favorites so far! Really leaning towards Daisy and Gatsby but we'll see! Look out for a post about group costumes, which should be coming soon. I hope everyone is having an amazing start to the month of October!

xoxo Junior Hockey Girlfriend

P.S - Welcome back hockey!!!!