Hey everybody!

So I guess I'll awkwardly introduce myself. My name is Monica and I'm born and raised in Tampa, FL.

I use to find myself kinda boring. But EVERYTHING has changed during the past few years. First of all, I'm turning 30 in a couple weeks (17 days to be exact). I can honestly say, even though I've been bitching and whining about hitting 30, I think my thirties will be some of the best years of my life compared to my twenties. Everything seems to be falling into place during the next year (fingers crossed) and even though there's a few things that suck right now, I'm feeling pretty great about where my life is taking me.

Meet me at least five years ago. I was such an awkwardly unsocial, shy person. Now you can't really shut me up and hold me down. I even love doing karaoke now for gods sake haha (something I would never have done when I was younger). I think I am starting to get into the mentality of not really giving a fuck what people think of me and just being comfortable being me.

Also, a major part of my life right now is me being completely head over heels with my boyfriend, Erik. It's really strange how people come into your life and start to mean everything to you. Our story is a little unusual but pretty amazing. I met Erik about a little over four years ago on OkCupid. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden. I live in Tampa, Florida. 5,000 miles and the Atlantic Ocean separating us. However, we started off as online friends, then pen pals, then really good friends. After a while, we planned for him to come here and we would take a road trip through the southeastern United States. Planning meant we started skyping and really getting to know each other. This was about a year and a half before the actual trip. A few months after our initial Skype conversation, I started to develop a crush on him and didn't really tell him until a few months before our epic road trip. Luckily, everything has worked out so well, and our trip went really awesomely. So good, that we'll be celebrating our one year anniversary as a couple next Wednesday and have many future plans ahead of us <3

Besides my amazing and sweet Swedish Viking boyfriend ;) I have some amazing friends. Probably the best group of friends anybody could ever ask for. We do silly things. We pick on each other all the time. But we all love each other. Despite our self depreciating humor and terribly bad puns.

I sorry I may be a little ADD while typing all this. This is basically how I talk in real life as well.....oooh look, squirrel!

Anyways, I love traveling. This year alone I've been or will be going to Savannah, Tallahassee, New York City, Stockholm, New York City again, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, and Sweden again. I think I need a job traveling. Anybody know what Samantha Brown is up to these days? Can I take her job at the Travel Channel please? Also Anthony Bourdain is my hero because I want to get paid for to travel and be an asshole all the time. I've met him in real life and he really is an asshole. But funny and interesting to hear speak.

Okay, this is seriously turning into an endless rambling of my inner monologue.

Also another big goal of mine right now is I'm trying to get fit and healthy. I have been overweight my entire life (well at least since I was about five years old). I'm currently trying to get into weight lifting and yoga. Cardio can suck it. I've tried getting myself into running. I've done quite a few 5k's, a couple of 10k's, and attempted a half marathon (made it over half way). But seriously. It can suck it. My goal right now is to lose about 120 pounds total. But I'm trying small mini goals to help my mind set.

So yeah, if you have questions, please feel free to ask...