Well, if you haven’t caught on- I’ve apparently slowed down
to posting on Fridays. If you can believe it, I have THREE jobs right now. I
know it sounds impressive, but I’m
really only working two. More on that later.
I have a slight food obsession. I can’t tell you exactly
when or how it happened (of course, I have the natural tendency to blame my
parents. More precisely, my father- the chief chef), but my love affair with
food has been a constant in my life.
John likes to tease me about it. The hours spent hovering over
the pantry, lost time with the open fridge and freezer door are now referred to
my “quest for food”. Yep, he gets a lot of enjoyment out of calling it that. I
lie in bed, fantasizing about warm fluffy bread dipped in egg batter and
grilled to golden perfection. Topped with a smothering of powdered sugar and
maple syrup= heaven. Yes, I expect there to be an endless supply of fresh french toast in heaven. It’s seriously amazing that I am not morbidly obese.
And don’t even think
about crossing me when I am hungry. I regress to a two-year old, whining and
complaining that my stomach is ACTUALLY eating itself, I am so dramatic. And so soooooo attractive.
But all that is about to change- the “quest” has been put on
hold, and I am currently taking scrounging lessons from the King of Scrounging
himself. You give that kid ketchup, he can make a meal out of anything (I’ve
seen it). Grilled cheese is the current staple of our lives… breakfast, lunch,
dinner, midnight snacks. I’ve been content so far.
We’ve been having a lot of life changes recently, cutting
back on food expenses being one of the many. But one of my best girlfriends (we
called eachother “sister” in high school) taught me to always remember what you
DO have. Focus on the happiness in your life, the rest of the stuff will seem
smaller.
I am so thankful to all my friends who keep up with me on
this blog- especially those who contact me with words of encouragement. I can
count at least five faithful readers, (while some of them are surprising- oh
the wonders of facebook) I am SO grateful for your support and love.
No matter what you are up to this weekend, I hope it is full
of happiness and people who make you joyful.
Shelby- sweetest dog of my life. Impossible to be unhappy with her around.
A while ago, there was a talk radio topic that stirred both the djs and listeners alike. Is it acceptable for a man to cry? Let's say you're on a first date... it's a sad movie... and your date starts weeping next to you. Yay or nay?
I claim awkward. No. Not acceptable.
I know, I know. 2007 me is shaking my head in shame. But really. On a first date?!?
If you ask me, there are only 4 times it is acceptable for a man to cry
Getting kicked in the groin. No man seems to be able to explain this feeling... but I have seen men cry over being kicked in the crotch. Does not look or sound fun. A few tears are acceptable.
Ok, but in all seriousness. I do think it is okay to cry... just as long as the man doesn't cry more than I do. I want to know that my man can be strong for me when I can't. And crying on a first date gives off a very "I'm more emotional than you" kind of vibe. And I don't know any woman who wants a man who is more emotional than them. At least we have the excuse of estrogen.
Crying in movies: Ok. But only if it's a super sad movie, I'm blubbering and sobbing like the Hoover Dam breaking.
My roommate's rule of thumb for men crying? Acceptable at one specific occasion:
"The funeral of your wife or child. NO EXCEPTIONS"
I then read him my list. And he scoffed at it.
To be fair, I think the rule goes both ways... Women should not cry on a first date. Besides, that's totally going to mess up your make-up and make you look like you have ecchymosis. Nott super cute.
Although this raccoon is super cute
Alright. I feel like I've been moving at 100 miles per minute this week. Hopefully I find some more to blog. ALAS. Thanks for taking the time to read. Have a great weekend y'all.
Ok. Not really "Last friday night". But I refuse to put the other song referencing Friday on my blog. You know what I'm talking about. If you don't... type in "Friday" to youtube and see what comes up... yeahhhhh.
It's feeling like a random post kind of day.
"Failing is just proof that you are trying"
As someone who feels like I've been failing EXTRA hard this week, I love this quote. Maybe you've been having a rough week too? TGIF.
How great is this pillow??!? I want this pillow. As an admitted Facebook stalker, this pillow just speaks to me (ew, ok that sounded way more douchey than I ever want to sound in my life). Plus, I love having LOTS pillows. But if facebook isn't you're thing, there are a ton of other creative pillows here that I geeked out on.
Anddd lastly. The reason why you are all here. The truth about how the zombie apocalypse starts...
Ok. We've all seen the movie Jaws right? My brother and I woke up before my parents one morning (I will always remember this). We turned the tv down low, got some cereal and milk and ate right. in front. of the TV. Thus breaking three rules:
no TV without parental approval
no eating with the TV on
absolutely NO eating in the living room
It was a glorious morning. After fighting over cartoons, we finally agreed on some movie with the beach and the ocean (yay! I thought, little mermaids and dolphins!!) and some awesomely adult sounding music. We made it through Jaws and half of Jaws 2 frozen to the couch, too terrified to move and/or change the channel. It was my dad who saved us, turning OFF the TV, gently scolding us for breaking all three of the above rules, and cleaning up the mountains of cereal while simultaneously trying to calm us down.
Everything involving water was terrifying. Baths, pools, and definitely the ocean. You never know, one of those sharks could just POP out of the drain and eat you in your own tub. Nothing was safe.
And then I grew up, joined the Junior Lifeguard program every summer and learned that shark attacks are rare. And when they do happen, the sharks are usually just confusing the surfers with sea lions. But sharks don't want to attack people. It's not a fun hobby or a favorite pastime, they are just looking for some food (food that is not human flesh).
Which leads me to a story I saw recently. There used to be a video, but I'm having an awfully hard time tracking one down to post
Anyways, here's the story in short: A boy was fishing with his friend, saw a shark. They put out bait for the shark and killed it.
Take what you will from the story, but to me it just seems like a senseless killing. I know the boy justified his action with the fact that "kids learn how to swim here"....... and I don't mean this to sound offensive but aren't there other places for kids to learn how to swim? Maybe like a swimming pool? Maybe somewhere NOT infested with sharks?
Secondly, (this part was in the video) the fisherman have effectively TRAINED the sharks to follow them into the docks. Throwing "bad" fish overboard has essentially created positive reinforcement for the sharks. Come into the docks, get fish. THAT'S WHY THE SHARK WAS THERE. If you don't want sharks around, the answer is pretty simple: stop feeding them.
That's how one Georgian (just one, I mean no offense nor to generalize to ALL people from the South) decided to deal with things... and this is how some California surfers decided to deal with a baby GREAT WHITE shark who washed up on shore.
I know the chick's voice in the video is totally annoying, but still a great video
Surfers. Surfers, the commonly "confused" pray of the great whites, saved the shark. Respect the circle of life (sidenote: recently went to go see the movie in theaters and sang all the songs. Out loud. John cried in shame).
GO CALIFORNIA!!!
On a happier note, I am obsessed with the Allstate Mayhem commercials. I think they are hillarioussss. I'll leave you with my favorite.
I'm all... OMG.
Lolz. Have a great Thursday everyone. And guess what?!? TOMORROW IS FRIDAYYYYY. Bazinga.
Something peculiar started happening this one week in high school.
Doors were opened for girls.
Senior drama boys would come into classrooms, stating he had a message for Susy Q (whoever the lucky girl was). He then would break out into a Shakespeare sonnet, wink, whisper "Have a great day, Susy". Anddd I would swoon.
Brownies, cookies, chocolates, flowers were delivered to chosen girls with sweet notes, wishing them luck on their exams.
The week was torture for me. WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING?!? And WHY wasn't I involved in any way? Who were these lucky girls that got pampered for a whole week? Of course I (and all the other girls who were not involved in this week of loveee) were green with envy.
Slowly, the facts came about. Chivalry week. The "new" English teacher at our school had paired up each boy in the class to shower one certain girl for an entire week with gentleman-y actions. The girls, in turn, had to do some sort of equivalent for the guys the next week.
All I knew about this new English teacher was that she reallyyyy liked her diet coke (her students had no idea what to think the first day of class), and she then came out with more and more creative and FUN (isn't that supposed to be a foreign word for projects?!?) activities for her class.
Since her time at Tesoro High School, Ms. Nuzman (uh yeah, that is probably how I will always refer to her) has taken her creativity in another direction and has paved the way in lifestyle photography. She started her own business (Kamee June Photography), complete with a consultation aspect in which she will sit down with budding photographers over lunch and pretty much mentor your little brain out. Her work is simple. Beautiful. Full of love. She is among the list of photographers that I like to drool over, and I peruse her blog on a near daily basis.
She has recently paired up with The Rustic Alley to do a super awesome give away. Who DOESN'T want a free photo shoot? A free photo shoot with a fantastic photographer, no less.
Follow the steps here for your own shot at documenting something special.
As for The Rustic Alley, here's a peek at her talent and works. If you have a special place in your heart for antiques, Allison is the gal for you!! She's located in Texas, but totally worth checking out
OK Minions. That's it for today. Yayyyy for mid-week!!! We are HALFWAY to the weekend. Yeahyuhhhh. Have a fantastic day all!
I’m currently amidst a… career change at the moment [I’ll
blog more about it later, I promise]. At these moments, I always find myself
being drawn to my original career
choice. When I was six, I wanted to be a dolphin trainer. While most kids grow
up and their aspirations change from “President of the United States” to
“Astronaut” then to something mature and realistic like… “Lawyer”, I clung to
my answer of “dolphin trainer”. You have no idea how many times someone laughed
in my face. Why are you even going to
college?!? Don’t you just need to go to like… clown school or something for
that!? (VERBATIM what someone said to me once. How sweet, huh?).I learned
to generalize my answer, depending on how well I knew the person, how
comfortable I was with them, and if I thought they would laugh at me. I would then
give one of three answers
“Um,
I’m not really sure yet
"I
really want to work with animals
"A dolphin trainer”
Then I went to Hawaii.
I wanted to post pictures of me hugging/training dolphins on (very specific)
people’s facebook wall with a two word caption: Suck it.
I swear, in my head, this story was a lot more brief than I
am making it out to be. ANYWYAS. My point being, I am on the job hunt again and
now being drawn into a career of training. Weird, but there are not a whole lot
of dolphins in Sacramento.
But do you know what there are a lot
of? Dogs. Super cute dogs. Reallyyy fluffy and adorable dogs. I do not have
wedding fever or baby fever or whatever fever… but I sure as heck have PUPPY FEVER.
I recently did an epically looonnnggg online application to be a dog
trainer (it literally took me two hours. They requested the all addresses that I
have lived at for the past TEN YEARS. I have lived in two states, two countries, and
five different counties in the last ten years. Seriously?). A huge portion was
a behavioral test, evaluating my temperament and personality to be a dog
trainer.
I can tell you the most
important quality to be an animal trainer is… PATIENCE.
NOW. My upstairs neighbors kept me up for an hour last night.
The sleepy, grumpy two year old inside of me wanted to thump on ceiling, the
confrontational side of me (so many stories about that) wanted to go upstairs, knock
on the door and ask them to “step lightly, please”. Anddd then I thought about
what a trainer would do. Well I can’t exactly spray someone (a stranger/t-rex, no
less) in the face with water (although the satisfaction of doing that is sooo
tempting). And since I’m well versed in positive reinforcement, the way to say “No!”
to an animal is to give a LRS (Least Reinforcing Stimulus)… Which pretty much means
ignoreit. Turns out John was right. I hate when that happens.
Click HERE for an awesome video. Apparently my blog hates certain youtube videos... The video is like 90% accurate. And hilarious.
I don’t even understand how one person (or even two people)
can walk around their apartment that much. It seriously sounds like they are
conducting speed walking training up there. How do you just spend HOURS and
HOURS just walking around your apartment?!? It NEVER STOPSSS.
But, alas, I am an eternal optimist. Two good things to come
out of this… This is my chance to work on my patience. As Morgan Freeman/God
says (in the movie Evan Almighty…
don’t you love it when I quote scripture?) “If someone prays for patience, do
you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be
patient?” I’ve been given many opportunities to be patient. Maybe I should
actually seize one?
Second good thing… I am SO much more considerate of how I walk
around the apartment now. My calves were actually sore the other day because I
was literally tiptoeing around the
apartment.
Now, since I ALWAYS have
“FRIENDS” on in the background, I just had to include one of my favorite
moments from the show. Again, this blog hates me and I couldn't post the actual youtube clip that I wanted to... but this blooper reel will do.
Some background for those of you who have not been my roommate: I am a deep sleeper. Likeee reeaallly deep. I have slept through multiple alarms, earthquakes, parties, you name it. Freshman year, I asked my roommate to wake me up if I wasn't up by a certain time. I made a joke that she might have to hit me to wake me up. I woke up to her LITERALLY socking me in the arm. And then she told me she had been punching me in the arm for about five minutes before I stirred. Needless to say, I had a bruise.
So last night, I'm sleeping (duh). And our upstairs neighbors decide start throwing things at their floor. It sounded like 50 lb. dumbbells or boulders or something, but it definitely woke me up. And oh yeah, it's midnight. Now, I wouldn't mind this if we were in college or if it was the weekend, but it is a Tuesday night people. I am not in college anymore, I am a grown up. With a grown up job and a very grown-up work schedule. Being woken up + the fact that they stomp around everywhere in their apartment made it impossible to go back to sleep... So I wound up on facebook (of course) and re-watching shows like Perfect Couples.
[That story was completely unrelated to the main part of my post. Yeahhhh still a bit bitter from last night and I guess I just needed to vent]
So I don't know how everyone else feels, but I hate being hit on. Some people love it, others crumble under the pressure and return smiles because they don't know what else to do, and the really smart people always seem to have the perfect comeback comment... And then there is me. If you watch the first two minutes of this, I am the reallyyy awkward girl. I just don't know what to do with myself. Whaattt? Pshh. No. That's just... weird. Pretty sure those words have actually come out of my mouth at some point. On top of that, I just don't understand whyyy guys think pick up lines are a good idea?
No, it did not hurt when I fell from heaven. Because I didn't?
Uh, the alphabet is JUST fine how it is. Do not put "u" and "i" together. Beyond that, "u" is a letter. Which is different from "you". That's one is just uneducated
If I were a booger, you would pick me first? Well, you started off real well, comparing me to a booger. Second, the first thing you are going to tell me is that you pick your nose? That's attractive
Did you really just scrape your knee "falling for me"? Because I'm pretty sure that's a lie... and I don't date liars
Asking me "How it feels to be the most beautiful girl in the room?" is ridiculous. I think you are lying (please see above logic) and a compliment like a normal person would work just fine. "I think you are beautiful" would make more of an impression than the former question
TALK TO ME LIKE I AM A PERSON. Not some dumb girl you need to con into talking to you. Sosimple. Jeez.
OK, I am getting to the good part, I promise. The best thing to come out of the midnight apartment quake of 2011 is this gem I found via facebook. Every now and then, a youtube video of some creative proposal starts to go viral. I usually refrain from re-posting because I don't want to come across as having wedding fever or pressure to get my own proposal or any other crazy thoughts, but this one is the best. I couldn't NOT share it.
Jamin (part of Marvels Dance Company) decided to propose to his girlfriend (Val) of five and a half years. I know we all saw that adorable proposal of the guy who made a "movie trailer" as part of his proposal to his girlfriend. Super cute, super creative... only thing that ruined it for me was when I found out they had only been dating for four months. I know, judgmental. But I think marriage is HUGE. To me, you can't possible know something like that in four months.
I watched this video four times (maybe more, but I'm only going to admit to four). Once to watch it, another time to watch her reaction, another time to watch the dancing and one more because I am a sap.
What makes this video so awesome?
It's done in Downtown Disney
It's done to the song "Marry You" by Bruno Mars (melt)
There's a video of her reaction and everything that is going on
This is a real-life proposal that is better than some proposals they do in MOVIES (and light-years better than the one they did in "The Back-Up Plan". Gosh, that movie is awful). So many congrats to Jamin (and major props too!!!) and his future wifey, Val. Best of luck to you both and thank you for sharing this video with us all.
Leave comments and love if you so feel. Happy Wednesday everyone- we are HALFWAY to the weekend (yay)!!
Currently: having ridiculous flashbacks and college
cravings. It’s the perfect October day… slight drizzle, cool enough to bust out
the Uggs, but not so freezing that you need the coat that turns your tiny
physique into a sausage. I mean, that’s what I blame the appearance of my
winter blubber on… don’t worry, it’s the
coat. It has nothing to do with the ten pounds of see’s candy I ate and washed down
with two haageen daaz bars. Psh,
stupid winter coat. Makes me look like a WHALE”.
ANYWAYS. I’m currently sitting in Mishka's surrounded
by dutiful college students hammering away on their laptops and highlighting
their textbooks. And I miss it… I never really thought I would. While everyone
lectured me to “enjoy” my college years, all I could do was YEARN for the days
when I was out of college. I just assumed that if I was out of college, I would
have life figured out. I would clearly be the head dolphin trainer, with the
luxury of holidays and nights off, and of course some time and money to travel.
Yet, I’m out of college and not a CLUE with what I’m doing. This thing called
life seems to own me, taking my life one way and another, in paths I never
expected.
Back in college, the biggest troubles were those of facebook
gossip (ohmigosh, why is he with her?!?), dinner obstacles (how many more days can I survive on
peanut-butter-and-jelly-saltine-sandwiches?), and the ever present pressure
of academics (how am I going to stretch
this essay into ten more pages?). I honestly thought they were the biggest
troubles in the world. Now, I’m facing very adult problems… car payments, job
hunting, making rent, and oh yeah… still don’t know what I’m doing with my
life.
ON A MORE FUN NOTE,
YAYYYYYY!!!!! Fall (aka, decent) TV shows are back. One of
the biggest hypes of the season was for the show Terra Nova. It
is a) directed by Steven Spielberg AND b)ridiculously over budget. For the full
scope that is WAYY better than I could ever replicate, watch a 2 minute clip here.
I promise it’s worth it.
To commemorate the pilot of the show, John and I quizzed
each other on our favorite dinosaurs. As a true FRIENDS fanatic, I quoted the
velociraptor as my favorite. When John need clarification, I did this:
No joke. With the noise and motions and everything.
Our upstairs neighbors have a different method of celebrating
the release of Terra Nova. They decided to act like dinosaurs and stomp around
their apartment like overweight T-Rexes. I swear, the glasses shake and every step
looks like this scene from Jurassic Park.
John is not bothered by this at all. He claims that I do the
EXACT. SAME. THING. I beg to differ. I am a tiny, petite woman. The upstairs
neighbors seem to be harboring a couple of the largest land carnivores of all time.
My judgement of Terra Nova? (I know this must be the most
well-organized blog post ever. I swear, I graduated from college. WITH a minor
in English, mind you). It’s… pretty good. With a two hour pilot, excellent
dinosaur scenes, and lots of action, it just felt like a movie that didn’t have
a complete ending. Minus two very gross bug scenes, I enjoyed the show. I will
be watching it again, not alone of course (someone has to tell me when it is
safe to look at the screen again). If you want to catch it, you can watch it
for free here.
That’s all for today minions!! Thanks for reading. Leave some
comments if you are feeling generous. Pretty sure I have like ONE reader (hey
Carly!!!). Have a fantastic week :)
