and there they sit

So I hope this photo doesn't offend anyone. I'm not sure why it would except that I can see where it might. So I don't know.

That being said, I love it.

I have had the two religious pieces (are these statues? trinkets?) for as long as I can remember. My father gave them to me when I was little and I think there was an association with my grandmother (his mother) but I don't know if the association was just 'she was Catholic' or maybe they were hers. For my entire childhood they sat on that exact shelf of my dresser. Probably with a layer of dust exactly as you see them here.

I bought the hula girl in high school when I upgraded from a 1982 Chevy Blazer to a 1994 sea-green Ford Taurus. Holla. I glued it to my dashboard and we bopped together for a few years. She even came to college with me. Then one day I was in an accident and totalled the poor Taurus. Thank my lucky stars no one was in the passenger seat because when the airbags went off that hula chic was like a plastic missile that definitely could have ripped some one's face apart.

This dresser still sits in the bedroom I had in high school. Over the years I've slowly taken things to my home or thrown things away etc - that widdling away that you randomly do every time you visit. These three are pretty much all that's left.
Holding down the fort, keeping it real.

orange crush

Taking a cue (aka stealing fun blogging topic) from miss Meghan at The Perfect Compilation Tape's Top 5 Thursday list - my top 5 celebrity crushes (past or present)...

Heath. oh Heath. Cannot even name the number of times I obsessively watched A Knight's Tale. Loved Brokeback Mountain. Definitely my top crush, but also one of my favorite actors ever (seriously, the Joker? Incredible.) Still so sad that he is gone.

Eric. or I think his name is Alexander. Whatever. Admittedly, this is a crush on Eric the True Blood character- I'm not sure I'd still have the love if there were no fangs.

Vinny. I get this is a weird one. But the guy is funny. I'm starting to lose the crush - as the show (Jersey Shore) gets bigger, so does his head and he's losing a little bit of that humble charm. But alas, funny.

Robert. Didn't get it until I read the books. Now I get it. Nom nom nom.

Johnny. Johnny (Goo Goo Dolls front man) and Heath were the only men to ever grace the walls of my bedroom growing up. And Chris Farley. I recently went to the concert and got to stand a few rows away - realized that I've been crushing on this guy for a solid 16 years. Go Johnny go.

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And yours are?...

waking up

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Seriously feeling awesome today. I don't care if awesome is a dorky word to use. Feeling awesome. Test? Done! Unfortunately I don't find out the results for a few months (months?!) but it's done!

The test was all day Friday and Saturday - so I had a lot of weekend to make up on Sunday. Spent some time outdoors snapping pictures of the little blooms popping up all around, did some spring cleaning and a quick house project. That's right - a house project in one day! I'll post pictures asap.

But yay! That's all, just yay! I hope you had a great weekend and are having a fabulous hair day today.

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Harlow also says yay.

the first step

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. - J.Pierpont Morgan
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Today is my last day at the firm I've been with for the last six years.

Definitely a bittersweet day. I have been so blessed, more than anyone deserves, with some of the most wonderful co-workers you could ask for. It's still hard to imagine not seeing them everyday!

Next week I start with a new firm - an opportunity I am so, so excited for. New inspiration and experience in a different environment. So excited and grateful to take this step!

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Hope you have a great weekend! I'm kicking mine off the right way with happy hour. Most likely spending the rest studying (only one more week!) with a break for yummy brunch with family.

remember

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I have been singing this little ditty over and over to myself the last few days. I just feel like I'm about to step into the sun.

I am typically a cold-weather gal. But this winter? Has been too much. Anyone agree?

Luckily I feel like Spring is finally, almost here. Add the this-exam-is-almost-done, ill-have-free-time-again cheer mixed in with an exciting new step in life to look forward to... and you have one positive-outlook gal.

I just need to keep repeating this to myself this weekend, when its cold and rainy and I have locked myself in a conference room with textbooks for 9 hours.

Almost there.

fuzz + jitters

I feel guilty for being a terrible blogger lately.

I am taking a big exam in a few weeks and every spare moment has been filled with reading, reading and reading. My brain is a fuzz of building codes and design principles. Mixed in with the fuzz (and making it hard to focus on the fuzz) are fabulous jitters over some changes coming in my life. Stay tuned for details (no babies are involved.) But to say I'm excited is an understatement.

In general, what's left of my mental capacity isn't focused on blogging right now. The thing is, it's silly to feel guilty about blogging. I started to blog as a fun, daily journal - for myself. It's an added (and extremely awesome) bonus that you come check in to see what's up. As a journal, this is an extension of my real life. And will be affected as a result of what's going on in my real life.

So. I need to try and not feel guilty. But I love this blog and I miss the daily interaction - so I'm looking forward to getting back to normal eventually! Thanks for sticking around:)

I took this photo when I was studying abroad in Rome. Detail shot of an entire giant mosaic - which I have no recollection of what it was - but I love thinking about someone setting each one of these tiles one at a time.

Things used to move slower.

the things we seek

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I am not sure why I titled this post what I did. Sometimes your brain spits things out - it's probably moving one step ahead of where your mind is. If that makes sense.

Random thoughts:

Our books are arranged by color.

The Oscars. Overall I'd say I was completely underwhelmed with the fashion - for the whole awards season really. I don't know, just (in my opinion) no iconic ensembles. Nothing I will remember in a week. Who knew Anne Hathaway had such pipes? Totally impressed on the singing. Totally un-impressed with James Franco. The set was gorgeous. What did you think?

I think I am addicted to Jimmy Johns. #6, easy mayo, don't be shy with the avo.

I am excited for this week. Really excited. I hope you are too.

Go get 'em tiger.

dorm room door

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Like many students, when I went off to college I secured a spot in the typical dorm and was randomly placed with a name. You hear so many horror stories of these scary pairings but I had the opposite - an experience I wish for everyone and pray my children get to have.

T was unlike anyone I had ever met and she scared me for about 30 seconds (mostly because she liked Britney Spears.) But then I loved her. By our second day everyone we met assumed we had been friends for years.

On our second night together she woke me up to tell me not to worry about the blood on the carpet. And that she might need a motorized wheelchair.

On Sundays she would say she was going to church, pull our dorm-issued desk chairs together to create a bench, sit quietly with her hands together... and crank Madonna's like a prayer at full volume.

She let me paste pictures of my completelyobsessedcelebritycrush Heath Ledger all over our dorm room door. Until someone stole them. Which I couldn't even be angry about because I get it, they were adorable.

We ended up living together for four years. She can still make me laugh harder than just about anyone on our little planet.

To my energetic, happy and hilarious T, we need a late night of cocktails and pokey sticks sometime soon. And Shakira songs. And your red pleather pants from Prague. And paper mache that I will spill on the carpet. Also, thanks for being awesome.

Heath Ledger photographed by Bruce Weber for the 2000 Vanity Fair article.

Any good roommate stories?

search party of one

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I'm up in the Northwest - technically on work business - but I have another agenda. I'm totally finding the Cullen house. It cannot be that hard. And then Edward and I will hang out. The only icebreaker I need is to be like 'ugh, isn't Jacob annoying?' and then it's basically bff from there.

In the meantime, a couple shots I grabbed on our quick stop by the coast (taken with my phone as we were ushered out of the closing park so excuse the amazing quality.) Unfortunately once I find the Cullen house I will be sworn into vampireawesomesecretsociety and I won't be able to tell you about it. Such is life.

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easy a + snowy days

Harlow and I stayed cozy on the couch Saturday night and watched Easy A. I planned on an ok/fun to watch/girly chic-flick - but totally under estimated it! It was a fabulous/fun to watch/girly chic-flick. Highly recommended.

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My only complaint would be that it heightened my already severe desire to color my hair red. I have blonde hair. It is my natural color. I tried to color my hair one time in college, going the college-budget route with a $7 box from Target. 25% of my hair stayed blonde, 25% turned strawberry blonde (the goal) 25 % turned maroon - like dark, dark maroon. And the last 25%? Pink. Like I-can't-make-this-up-Barbie-hot-pink.

Four hours at a salon and $90 later (so much for college-budget) my hair was stripped and I had made a promise to never, ever, under any circumstance, color my hair - which I have totally stuck to and never questioned. But lately I keep seeing these fabulous chicas with fabulous red hair and I just wonder...

The real thing holding me back is the slippery slope that is hair-coloring. Because once you do it, it starts fading and then you need to do it again and then years go by and you have to keep doing it you're spending more money on hair color than shoes and you just start to wish you had your real hair color back and then you have to do this whole awkward grow-out thing and it turns out in the meantime your hair kind of changed colors and you're like why Eddie Murphy, why did I do this? And he doesn't know.

I might get a wig.

In other news - a blizzard is coming. Yikes. Don't pretend like I didn't rent the third Twilight movie on my way home from work. If you're snowed in, you need entertainment. But instead tonight I watched the Bachelor, which I'm not really proud of, but there it is. I've never watched this show before and its kind of fascinating. For those following along I like Emily and Chantal. I'm pretty sure Michelle is going to try and kill the whole cast. Seriously - she's freaky and a little bit of a flooze. Part of the reason I like watching this show is so that I understand The Sports Gal's tweet recaps the next morning. The Sports Gal is the wife of one of my husband's favorite sports writers. She's kind of hilarious and doesn't talk about sports at all.

And while we're talking Twitter, if you're just on the edge of your seat after this stream of random thoughts and you really just need more (or you're snowed in and bored) you can find me here!

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"At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." - Billy Madison

boots

When I went away to college (a little more than 10 years ago - yikes) my mother insisted that I have a new pair of winter boots. Clunky, heavy, rated to a billion-below-zero, way more than a college student would ever buy herself, winter boots. For walking around campus in the winter and snow, she said.

Mothers like you to be warm.
College students do not like to be warm walking around campus in the winter and snow. They want to be cool. Even if they're slightly hungover, hauling more studio supplies than they can carry and its blizzarding out and they really couldn't be less cool - heaven forbid they wear clunky boots. Good God.

So these boots sit in my closet for 10+ years. I may have worn them twice.
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We moved into our house this year and we're spending our first winter in it, getting used to the drafts, the drifts, the icy paths and the endless shoveling.
And do you know what I decide to wear? My boots. My practically brand-new, oh-so-warm, surprisingly comfortable, what was I thinking, I want-to-wear-them-everywhere boots.

But here's where we get ironic. Maybe, sometimes I'm not sure I'm really using that word right. But this feels ironic.
After about two wearings they started to crack. And with every run around town they crack more. And more. And they are literally falling apart and are no longer wearable. Apparently this is what happens when you put boots in a closet for ten years.

This is one of those times where I would like to call my mom so that she could say I told you so. Instead I am shopping online. Buying a pair of clunky, heavy, rated to a billion-below-zero, way more than a college student would ever buy herself, winter boots.
And somewhere my mother laughs.

almost

Then I was somewhere else, and it was bright.

A voice said "If you'd carried on practicing that song you almost got right, you would've been great. Bigger than the Beatles."

It continued "If you'd carried on working on that book you almost finished, it would've changed the lives of many, many people."

Then it said "If you'd tried to reach the one you loved just a little bit more, when you almost had them, your life would've been completely different."

And I asked "Is this what happens when I die?"

And the voice said "Almost."

-I Wrote This For You

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I have this saved in my favorites and I've probably read it 68 times. And I'm still not sure I get it. But it fascinates/haunts me and I just can't shake it. Like it's strongly triggering something in me but my brain isn't quite grabbing what it's triggering. Thoughts?

the tree

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When I was growing up my mother loooooved to decorate the tree. Always a real tree. Always. With its imperfect branches and sap covered needles that eventually fell all over the floors. She used colored lights and too many ornaments and let us help her decorate it which meant they were never evenly spaced. Ornaments from years and years of preschool classes and souvenirs and random treasures. The final touch was tinsel, the stringy silver stuff that lived in the vacuum cleaner year-round.

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I'd tell her that someday I would have a fake tree that was perfectly shaped and didn't make a mess. I would use simple white lights and ornaments strategically planned with a color scheme in mind. They'd be perfectly spaced and there would be no messy shiny tinsel.

My mom would always tell me that I was welcome to have that tree someday - in my own house.

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This year is my first Christmas in our new house. We got a fake tree with white lights and I put pearl trim on it. It's semi-sparsely decorated with gold and green balls that I purchased at some random craft store on sale. It's exactly what I had envisioned year after year as a child. Precise and balanced and pretty.

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But it turns out my mom was right. You need the tacky colored lights and too many crazy, random, memory-filled ornaments. The tree should smell fresh and prick your fingers as you decorate it with all kinds of happy clutter. You need a cross-stitched tree-skirt that never matches anything. And you need the damn tinsel.

Lovely image via the flowerchild dwelling

a little decor

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I'm having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year. Could be that I've been craaaaazy busy at work and feel like I'm semi-living in my workstation and therefore really haven't had time to even think about shopping/decorations/holiday cheer etc.

My deadline is this week and I get to host a fabulous holiday party that evening - so this spirit better arrive asap. Is it something I can mix into a cocktail?

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Photos from Everything Fabulous and Design*Sponge

stevie + maury + cold medicine

"Botox is becoming the new face of beauty and it’s unfortunate because it makes everybody look like Satan’s children."
-Stevie Nicks

This quote has nothing to do with anything except that it makes me laugh. I am sick. I hate being sick. Not that anyone likes being sick. When I was little there were the kids that would say they were sick to miss school. I would have days where I was throwing up with a fever of 102 and I would fight my mom that I had to go to school. I hated (and still hate) feeling like I'm missing something. Like if I sit down and just be quiet even for an afternoon the entire world will fly by and I don't even know what will happen. Zebras will start talking and I'll be the only one that doesn't know.

As an adult now it feels like if I'm going to take an afternoon off from work I should be doing something. Accomplishing one of the 3080954 projects on my list. Not sitting on the couch watching Maury finding out if Michael is or is not the father of your baby.
He is the father by the way.
But he is also messing around with your best friend.
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where edward, eric and bill mud wrestle

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*warning*

This post is pretty lame unless you like True Blood and/or Twilight. It might be lame even if you do.

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It is no secret that I love True Blood. I am currently in the midst of an inner Bill vs. Eric conflict but that is another story. I am two episodes behind so this may get resolved in the next day or two but don't comment giving anything away pretty please.

I may have gone on vacation last week. Driven 3000 miles across the country. Listening to the Twilight series the whole way. I'm going to be honest, I didn't want to like it. Mostly because I haven't decided between Eric and Bill yet but obviously I'm not going to cheat on my vampire love whichever one it is. Or something. Also that Kim warned me it was very PG and compared to True Blood I would get a little vampirenaughtytimefrustrated.

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But honestly how can you not like Edward?

Book 1 was good. Book 2 was kind of whiny. I'm not sure why anyone even invented the term 'Team Jacob' because honestly, who is on that team?

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*spoiler alert*

So here's where I do a weird me thing. I plan to read the next two books. I really do. But for some reason tonight I looked at a review of the last book. I read the whole thing.

Learning about weddings and babies and Bella finally becoming a vampire and all of these crazy details. I have no idea why I do this - but given the chance I will almost always spoil a surprise for myself.

For those Twilighters - do you like the movies? Are they worth watching?

shapes

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So is there any chance that shapes that you're drawn to have some weird tie to a personality trait? You know when you get those emails that are all 'if you like purple then you clearly talk to much and hate bacon' - is there something like that for shapes?

Because I love squares. And rectangles.

But I do not like circles. At all. And the only thing worse than a circle is a triangle.

Violent reaction.

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Go psychologists go!

tattoo + walls

I have a tattoo. Some people say they are addictive and you'll always want more. I got mine about 8 years ago and that little inkling has always popped into my head now and then (most likely will not act on that one). Although this one's not real, it is quite lovely... via Blanaid.
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How was your weekend? We spent the first half getting our house all cleaned up to entertain, and the last half ripping it apart with our first attempt at painting. Of course, its not just painting - we have layersandlayersandlayers of wallpaper over century old plaster we're worried about damaging- so we found some great instructions via google on ways to correctly seal the wallcovering, cover the seams etc before painting. 12 hours of work later...still no painting...but the prep is strongly underway. The house is covered in a dust that I fear will take years to clean up. In the second room we decided that because the many layers of wallpaper were loose, we should take them down... and instead of plaster underneath found a mysterious concrete substrate that's going to require us refinishing the entire walls etc etc etc.

homeownership. That was my weekend.

peony babies, champagne + small humans

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Even with my obsessive projects in the house, still managed to make time for some tasty beverages with friends (bloody mary + champagne) and cozy coffee with Husband (decaf! always!)

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Also, I apologize if you're sick of random flower pictures from my yard. But here's a random flower picture from my yard. Our first peony baby was born! I'm completely in awe watching the ants on these flowers. I don't even get how the whole process works but you see these tiny ants scurrying all over the big blooms and I keep going 'Husband! see?! the ants are going to open them up! see?! its a miracle of nature! I think glitter will fly out of the center next! see?!'

Ants are basically the midwives to our peony children.

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I find it odd that I'm referring to the peonies as my children and babies, yet tonight when we met a new neighbor I literally said 'yeah, eventually we need some small humans to fill up this house'. Small humans.

oops

It's Thursday. I was out of town for a long weekend... and then suddenly its Thursday. And I have ignored you blogworld. I've been consumed in a little thing I like to call 'the decent into lameness'.
I keep typing and retyping this and it doesn't make sense.



To attempt to sum it up: I loooove happy hour. To finish the workday and head to a fine establishment for a tasty beverage is very high on my list of wonderful things in life. This week, when Husband suggested happy hour this Friday? I said I would prefer to do the following:


1. go to Home Depot (I should have bought stock in this company. since moving in to our house we visit this store an average of 8 times/week. I'm not exaggerating)
2. buy flowers
3. go home and plant flowers
4. start refinishing old desk
5. measure for curtains

These are all things that I suddenly, magically, within a two week time period, find exceptionally entertaining and high on my priority list. More so than happy hour.

Decent into lameness.
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ps. roses came up in the yard this week. little tiny innocent pink ones.