Monday, November 30, 2009

Quote of the Week


"People make their armor from their smartness, their anger, or their quiet, or their fear, or their being busy, or their being nice. Some people make it from a big show, always talking. Some make it by being very important. Many people do not make it, though, and those people can begin to see the world as it is."
Ronald Merullo Breakfast With Buddha

(photo via tumblr)

Saturday, November 28, 2009

A Little Holiday Update


"I'm coming home from my hardest year, I'm making plans not to make plans while I'm here."

This week has still been crazy, albeit for different reasons.
I came down to New Jersey on Sunday, went back up on Wednesday, had Thanksgiving up there on Thursday, and then drove back down here yesterday morning, and then I'll be driving back up to Boston on Monday.
Though the point of it has been to get home more to relax, it's been relatively contradictory.
I absolutely love it here, but sometimes it feels different than others.
Other than completing some assignments, including the one I just remembered that was due on Tuesday ( I usually never forget!), I am going to take it easy.
It's gotten to the point where I find many of my assignments, and the process of doing homework, to be pretty therapeutic. That is, if I invest an interest in what I am doing, be it a Flash project or a research paper.

I didn't have my computer with me when I was in Boston for the holiday, but here's a little list of things I am thankful for the make up for it:

1. My mind- Though I've always known how to use it, I love noticing how my articulation changes and my growing ability to form solid opinions on so many things. I am amazed every day by the mind's capabilities. Learning keeps me sane.

2. My body- I am healthy (knock on wood), I can run, I can jump, I can walk. I'm breathing. I have all my hair, fingers, toes, and appendages. That's something people take for granted all too often. People forget how lucky they are not to be limited by their own bodies, and how amazing it is to simply be alive.

3. My family- We drive each other crazy, but we could be a lot worse off. Some people don't even talk to their family members, some people don't have any family members. I do, and I'm very thankful for that.


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

(photo via tumblr)

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

New Jersey

This week, I am home in New Jersey.
When I come home, I always watch all the of the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations episodes that my family keeps on Tivo- something wonderful that I do not have in my apartment in Boston. Coincidentally, I watched an episode about New Jersey. Anthony Bourdain is from Leonia, New Jersey. Though Leonia is in the same county as my town, it is a place I don't venture to often, and Bourdain's take on New Jersey really proves to me how different everyone's experience of New Jersey can be. Leonia is not much like the little town I grew up in. He addresses the stereotypes, all of which are somewhat true, but most of which that don't apply to my own general experience. When I drive around, I rarely see chemical waste plants, unless I am on my way into New York City or down to the shore. He mentions everyone's fascination with the Soprano's, and the fact that you judge the quality of the New Jersey business based on whether or not there's a signed Soprano's photo on the wall. Though the Soprano's also took place in my county, it still seems so different. Yes, maybe I used to be great friends with the daughter of the owner of "Satin Dolls" strip club, but that was never really a huge part of my life.
To me, New Jersey is home. It's my family and my friends. It's having all four seasons at their finest. It's beautiful, it's about pride, it's about balancing between being a native and a tourist in New York City. It's about driving around on weekend nights with your friends and stopping into a diner at 2 am for gravy and mozzarella fries. Its... a lot like Anthony Bourdain's experience, now that I really think about it. And maybe I see that one of the Soprano's cast members has been to the same pizza place, and maybe I know that Reverend Run is a lousy tipper and uses the same car wash as me, but none of that really makes any difference. I love this place, and I've never seen a single episode of the Sopranos.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Quote of the Week


"She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged. She sliced like a knife through everything; at the same time was outside, looking on...far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day."
Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway

Thursday, November 19, 2009

London Files- Hyde Park





Hyde Park is the most amazing park I have ever been to.
When I was there, the weather was perfect every day.
Everyone is happy.
It's extremely clean.
There's beautiful sculptures and statues everywhere.
People are having picnics left and right.
Kensington Palace is there.
On one side you have Kensington High Street
and on the other you have Notting Hill.
Doesn't get much better than that.

plus there's a lake and the hugest swans I've ever seen.


Tuesday, November 17, 2009

This Week is a Mess.


So many awful, stressful things have been happening the past couple of days.
I am physically and emotionally and mentally exhausted.
Because of this, I remembered something I wrote about in a previous post.
Remember to do something good for yourself at least once a day.
Today, I made grocery shopping a priority over homework, because I have been scrounging in my cabinets for the last bit of decent food for the past few days.
I also had time to pick up one of those new Caramel Brulee lattes from Starbucks.

Then tomorrow, I have scheduled a massage!
Oh, how I need it.
I have the back of an 85 year old woman right now from being hunched over studying a majority of my waking hours.
Thanksgiving, where are you???

(photo found via Tumblr).

Monday, November 16, 2009

Quote of the Week


"There is just this for consolation: an hour here or there, when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning, we hope, more than anything, for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so."
-Michael Cunningham The Hours

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Tripp Vanderbilt



So I know Sunday night is a silly time for a post,
but I finally got around to watching last Monday's Gossip Girl.
I can't believe it took me so long to realize that Tripp Vanderbilt is an absolute babe.
Something about the shape of his face I think, very classic features like you'd see in a black and white movie star, don't you think?
ps. his real name is Aaron Tveit

Enjoy the eye candy :)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Found Objects





Whenever I find pictures and such around the web that make me smile, I like to save them in a little folder on my desktop. I'm mostly saving them to go with real entries, but sometimes its nice to have a little post created simply for the purpose of smiling, right?

If you think I got one of these from a post of yours, send me a post and I'll give you credit where credit is due! I've been saving them for a while so I can't remember where all of them are from, but it's mostly a combination of tumblr and blogger posts.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Sleep No More

The title of this post is so appropriate considering I woke up at 7 am for no reason, but no, Sleep No More is actually the name of a play that I went to see last night.
If you can even call it a play.
The website describes it as "an immersive production inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, told through the lens of a Hitchcock thriller."
I hadn't thought of the Hitchcock thing before I went, but now that makes a lot of sense. This "play" was like nothing I'd ever experienced. It was a sort of immersion theater where you walk around this huge building, decorated to the nines, and follow the characters around. It's EXTREMELY dark, and they make everyone that isn't a character wear these really ridiculous alien masks, and you follow whatever characters you want around to different scenes. You end up seeing the play in your own unique way. No one experience can really be the same since everyone sees everything from a different perspective.
I met up with a couple of people from my "Performing Gender" class, but we immediately lost each other because the point of the play is to have your own experience, so I was quickly separated from whoever I knew, and then even if I was around them after that, it was hard to tell because it was dark and everyone was wearing masks.
At first I felt like I was in a horror film, they gave us all some time to walk around and see the setting, but then events began to happen one by one until it got to the point where you were literally running after characters to see where they were going! I never thought I would break a sweat at a theatrical production.

Heres the video on their site, but I must say it does not do the best in explaining. I guess that's the thrill of it though- you really have no idea what you're getting yourself into, so everything is that much more surprising!


Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Zooey Deschanel style






seriously i want every article of clothing she owns.
or doesn't own- get's photographed in, whatever.
She's become the poster girl for amazing vintage-esque dresses.
If I could have anyone's entire wardrobe it would obviously be hers.

(all photos via zooeydeschanel.tumblr.com)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Tim Burton at the MoMA


I'm kind of ashamed to say I found out about this through Perez Hilton's twitter,
but I'm a huge Tim Burton fan so I am going to just ignore that fact.

Tim Burton is going to have an exhibit at the MoMA starting November 22nd, with all of his paintings, films, drawings, cocktail napkins, etc.
I am so excited and fully intend on going to see this sometime in the next month.
They are displaying such a large variety of things- I look forward to seeing what else this guy can do besides create ridiculously awesome movies.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Monday Evening Stress


This time of the year is always so crazy.
I am going to be nonstop writing English papers until December 19th, my last day of finals for the semester, along with various other assignments.
And I just finished midterms last week.
The work is seriously never-ending, and I'm dying for Christmas break, but I am trying to make the best of things. It helps to have something like Christmas break to look forward to, even though this year I'll be spending a good part of it finishing up my applications for grad school.
It's so nerve-wracking not knowing what my future holds. Being in Boston has been my life for the past 4 years, and those 4 years have flown by faster than you can even imagine.

Though I don't have a solid thesis for this post like I usually do, I still felt the need to write.
Tonight I traded in my usual Gossip Girl time slot for Intervention, probably in light of all the social work applications I've been working on the past couple weeks. I am really excited for that and I hope at least one school will accept me. I'm pretty nervous though, and I am so excited to move back to the tri-state area, eventually NYC, and of course eventually California.
I have not given up on that yet, and I don't think I ever will. It's been a dream of mine for at least ten years now, I think about how much I love it there every day. It's been too long since I've visited, I should probably make a trip soon, so I don't forget how much I love it. I think part of the reason I am such a big fan of Jack's Mannequin's "Everything in Transit" is because it has such a California vibe to it, but in a different way than I've ever felt it.

Sorry for rambling. My brain kinda feels like jello right now.

also, I've been listening to soooo much music lately its ridiculous, and I'm loving every minute of it. I'll have to do an entirely separate music post for you guys sometime this week.

Quote of the Week

"Look, in my opinion, the best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person is still going to think the sun shines out of your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with."
-Juno


Friday, November 6, 2009

Things I'm looking forward to this weekend


The weekend got here so quickly.
I don't have much going on, so it looks like it's going to be a good one!
Things I'm looking forward to:

-trying out my new sneakers at the gym

-finally getting around to grocery shopping and having real food in the house

-going to see A Christmas Carol in 3D on Sunday with my little sib, Makayla

- finally getting down to business with my poetry paper due Tuesday

- diving into these Social Work Grad School apps

-celebrating Kelly's birthday tonight

-having time to really clean my room/apartment

-watching "Dear Jack" at least five more times before Tuesday

-hopefully picking up my guitar at some point

-perhaps going out for a delicious dinner in the South End on Saturday

-and sleeping sleeping sleeping.


Thursday, November 5, 2009

The World's Largest Gummy Bear



So, I am a big fan of gummy bears.
Without even looking, I stumbled across this beauty.
It is the world's largest gummy bear.
5 pounds. 12,600 calories of pure gummy.
And the best part is that it comes in blue raspberrry.
As much as I love gummy bears, the thought of ingesting this entire thing makes me kind of queasy. Maybe if I could eat it over a long period of time it would be ok?
How long do you think it would take you to eat a gummy bear of this size?

It's just ridiculous!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Dear Jack



One thing that I haven't broadcast nearly enough is my obsession with Jack's Mannequin, and more specifically, Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin, because he is a musical genius. Aside from this fact, he has quite the story to tell. Right after his first pre-album tour for his first Jack's album called "Everything in Transit," Andrew discovered that he had leukemia at the age of 22. He documented the whole thing, from diagnosis to recovery. In July of 2006 he started the Dear Jack Foundation, which has since gone on to raise over $250,000 for cancer research.
The documentary, "Dear Jack" finally came out this week. I preordered it of course, and watched it, and loved it, and yes, cried. I am so grateful he has survived and continues to make amazing music.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A Day in France...sorta


So I came up with this wonderful idea.
It is what I will call a Fake Day in France.
I will start off the day with french coffee and pastries.


from there, i will get cozy and watch my three favorite French movies:

L'Auberge Espagnole
Amelie
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly


While doing so, I will drink chocolat chaud out of a bowl
and will feast on brie and french bread.

Then I will look at all the pictures I took in Paris and I will pretend that I am still there.

I haven't figured out when I am going to do this, but I will.


Monday, November 2, 2009

Quote of the Week


"Maybe our mistakes are what make our fate. Without them, what would shape our lives? Perhaps if we never veered off course, we wouldn't fall in love, or have babies, or be who we are. After all, seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away."
Sex in the City

Sunday, November 1, 2009

A piece of me in... November 2009


I have decided to join in on this idea from Toothfairy on her blog Notes From the Toothfairy

This game is to share a piece of you, every month. That way, you and your readers can see what's happening in your life, including the changes. I.E. one month, you might love chocolate, a few months later you've might come to hate it. It's also to remind ourselves of people you love and the plans you have.

Let's start!

This month....
I like: that Halloween just happened and I am really actually looking forward to a little snow, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I already watched Elf this morning! I figure the cold weather is going to happen no matter what, so I might as well embrace it. And the holidays can be stressful but I am going to try my best to focus on the great parts of them.

I don't like: how little time I am going to spend with my family and friends from home this month. I won't be back until around Thanksgiving and I wish I could be with them more.

I want you to know: I really love when you guys read my blog, and I love it even more when you comment. It really cheers me up :) I know I go days at a time without posting when things get really crazy with school, but I try to post as much as I can!

I've planned: to not be so hard on myself this month. Nobody is perfect and sometimes I forget that I will never get there. I think the best I can do is accept that I make mistakes, I say things that I later regret, and sometimes I forget to do things that I should have. I just need to get better at accepting that sometimes, quite often actually, I do mess up, but that it's normal to do so. I really am my own worst critic.

I want to say to someone special: Jess, I really miss you and enjoyed your text messages last night! I can't wait until next year when I will be close to home, or actually at home, and we can see each other much more.

Join the bandwagon, and start playing!

We play the game on the first sunday of the month.

Feel free to join anytime, but remember to keep posting every first sunday of the month after the first time!

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