Rain Girl's First Drop

So even though this isn't my first blog post ever, this is my first post on this blog and I thought I'd go with a rough overview about me the type of content this blog will have, a little bit about myself and an explanation of my blog name.

There are several things I would like to explore on this blog such as:

• Gardening
• Crocheting
• DIY projects
• Weather news & information
• Nature Education
• Cooking (recipes - new & old)
• General outdoors education & information
• Boosting positive energy
• And any other topic I find or is brought to my attention!

Enough about my starting ideas of what I want to post, here is a little information about me ;)

I'm a full time college student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and pursuing my bachelors degree in Fisheries & Wildlife. My ultimate goal is to have a job in ecology & environmental education with kids. They are truly the voice of the future and with the current state of affairs, we need them to be as equipped and educated as possible!

My favorite activities include fishing, camping, hiking and well-- basically anything outdoors. My boyfriend and I have an extensive garden which I love tending to from beginning to end of every season. Having such a large garden taught me that I need to seek alternative methods to preserving the food from our harvest-- this is when I learned canning, which is also one of my favorite activities (along with cooking of course!).

I'm an avid reader. I love fiction like that of Michael Crichton but I also enjoy lots of non-fiction. Anything where my mind has the opportunity to think and explore is an opportunity I desire to take-- reading is a fantastic way to do this!

Music is another one of my passions. I do not play any instruments but I can guarantee that the music assortment you would find on my iPod is one of the most unique and diverse you've ever seen. I'm sure that occasionally I will post about a new music artist or a song I'm currently really diggin'.

I'm a strong believer in positivity! I will most likely make several posts with inspirational pictures and quotes. I've found that in my own life, the small dabs of positivity can make all the difference in my day. I hope to do the same for others.

My nickname "Rain Girl" originated while on a trip with my (loving) parents to North Dakota to visit my dad's family. I won't go into the nitty gritty details because it's one of those things only my parents and I find funny, but I will share briefly. I'm a little strange with random things, for instance, the arrangement of my food. Now, I'm not OCD or anything, but I do like to prep some food items in certain ways. I've also been known to freak out on clothing tags or need to use a certain cup because condensation doesn't form in a certain area or something equally as ridiculous. My (loving) mother likes to tease me about my random oddities and one night, in a motel in Minnesota while fussing with my Wendy's sour cream and chive baked potato, my parents nicknamed me "Rain Girl" in half joke reference to the popular film "Rain Main". Now at first, this seems like a slam on me. It isn't. Initially it was just a joke between my parents and I, and it always seemed appropriate since I've always been a fan of the weather, a little odd and goofy. As time has gone on, my love and knowledge for the weather has deepened and I've also been opened up to the entire world of ecology, but I will always be rain girl and the nickname will always stay.

As far as the whole blog title, I decided to use my rain girl nickname with the singular word 'reason'. I chose reason because of this definition from Merriam-Webster Dictionary :

a (1) : the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways : intelligence (2) : proper exercise of the mind (3) : sanity

For this blog, I would like to lay out reason for different activities and ideas  which I have found to be useful, fun and life enhancing. And there you have it, Rain Girl Reason.

All in all, I'm really excited about this blog and the endless possibilities for not only me getting to share ideas and news with you, but you sharing with me in return!