Playing Favorites.

On the list of BEDS topics, the first few are about our favorite things. Since I like common themes and I didn't use any of those topics on those days, I'm going the first five prompts.

Your favorite song
My love of music is far too expansive for me to only pick one favorite, so here are three: Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel; The Middle by Jimmy Eat World; Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson.

Your favorite movie
I'll list my top five, just for kicks -- Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Dirty Dancing; Grease; Anchorman; Centerstage.

Your favorite television program

So You Think You Can Dance?

Your favorite book
It's a tie between the Harry Potter series (if I had to pick a favorite, I'd go with Deathly Hallows) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Your favorite quote
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -- Ferris Bueller

Share some of your favorites in the comments - pick one or answer them all! I'm curious.

grace in small things.

• every single moment I spent with my boyfriend over the weekend
• deciding on an outfit for Easter
  
• lunch with my Lady Lumps
• lots of beautiful weather
• Beyonce's newest song
  
  
• being Natalie's bridesmaid dress model and helping her pick styles and a color
  
• finally seeing Toy Story 3 (definitely cried) and Easy A (such a good movie!)
• trips to Starbucks
• finally admitting I'm head-over-heels in love
  
• snail mail
• feeling optimistic, energized, content, loved, cared about... and just plain happy

This week was such a good one and this weekend is going to be the icing on the cake. Happy Easter weekend for all those who celebrate! Eat lots of Cadbury eggs and Peeps, or whatever else you like instead. (There's a purple bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs with my name on it, waiting to be devoured on Sunday.)

take my hand.

I'm no stranger to the wonderful Ingrid Michaelson, but this week I finally got around to downloading a fair number of her songs and this one has been on repeat. Not only do I adore this song, her version of it is just heavenly.

Plus, with Valentine's Day right around the corner and me being a month into my relationship, it makes me feel extra swoony.

Happy Friday!

holiday week 2010: day 2.

The Music
An absolute MUST to start off my holiday season is the cassette tape of Christmas music my mom recorded from vinyl way back when we were kiddies. I refuse to decorate the tree without it and it gets ample play throughout the season. It's a mix of some pretty unique songs, like Marshmallow World by Darlene Love and Christmas in Killarney by Bing Crosby, but has all the classics as well. Plus, there are a few adorable interruptions that were recorded when we would play it on our toy tape player that also had a microphone. It's really all my brother's fault, because as I can be heard saying on my favorite of the recordings, "you can't record on this one Dan, this is not a blank tape." I was such a bossy older sister.

Aside from that entire cassette, I have plenty of other favorites. My mega Christmas play list has a total of 66 songs on it, but I'll try to pick out just a few to share.

First up is a new favorite: Deck the Rooftop by the Glee Cast. When I first heard this song, I died on the spot because it was amazing. I always love their mash-ups and this one is so well done.



Next up is a recent song that, in my opinion, has already become a classic for our generation - All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. Any time this comes on the radio, I blast it and sing at the top of my lungs. It's just so damn catchy!



The last one I'm going to put up is Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses. I adore this song and I really have no idea why.



A few other favorites include: Believe by Josh Groban (it always gives me chills); Maroon 5's version of Happy Christmas (War is Over); Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by NSYNC; Parade of the Wooden Soldiers by The Crystals; and Step into Christmas by Elton John.

The Movies
Much like my mother's Christmas cassette tape, the holiday season doesn't start until I've watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas, the original cartoon version. I like the new live-action version as well, but it doesn't come close to the original. The ending always makes me tear up, when "he, he himself, the Grinch - carved the roast beast."

A new favorite is A Christmas Story, which I only saw in its entirety for the first time last month. Now that I've finally seen it all the way through, I realized that I actually had seen most of it and that it is amazing.

I generally love most Christmas movies. Love Actually is such a sweet, romantic movie and it makes my heart swell every time. I cry my face off every time I watch The Polar Express, even before it gets to the super weepy parts. My mom and I watch White Christmas together because it was her favorite movie as a kid, and I have to keep myself from rolling my eyes when she starts singing along when they sing Sisters. My favorite Santa Clause is the original, and the same goes for Home Alone. Also, I love the Home Alone "theme song" - it reminds me of all things Christmas whenever I hear it.



And, considering I'm a dance geek, I always need to watch this version of The Nutcracker featuring the New York City Ballet. Yes, it has Macaulay Culkin in it and that just makes it more amazing. Sadly, I cannot find a single clip of it on Youtube other than this trailer, which barely contains any dancing. I love each and every piece of music from The Nutcracker and the dancing is absolutely phenomenal.

What are you favorite Christmas songs and movies?

you know we're superstars.

I have a confession: I love Ke$ha. Well, I don't care one way or another about her as a person, but damn, her songs are super catchy.

Her newest song came out last week and I haven't stopped listening to it since. It was on the radio for the first time yesterday as I was driving home from work, and to be quite honest, I think I deafened myself temporarily from turning the volume up too high in my car.

Anyway, please have a listen and realize that I appreciate the song for what it is - a completely manipulated, auto-tuned piece of non-artistry that serves no other purpose than to pump you up for, well, just about anything.

So here's your anthem for weekend-type activities. You're welcome.

musicfest weekend.

After being sick for the past week and not being able to get out and enjoy the weather, I was looking forward to my weekend at Music Fest. It's a county-run event that includes musical performances, a carnival, vendors, and tons of other activities and is held annually on a weekend in September, just at the end of summer. Every year they host a ton of artists, many that are lesser known with a few big names mixed in. This year, those big artists were OK Go and Train.

Considering I live in a tiny town with the closest concert venue being at least a half hour away, having a series of free concerts being held at a park that is a ten-minute walk from my house is kind of amazing. When I woke up late Saturday morning, I could hear the music from the festival pretty clearly from my bedroom. The weather was perfect and I was feeling much better, so I knew it was going to be a good day.

My brother and dad headed out before I woke up and I went over on my own in the early afternoon, mostly to check out the vendors. There weren’t any artists I particularly wanted to see, but it was nice to have live music playing for most of the time I was there. It was great being so close to home because after a couple of hours (or more, for my brother and dad), we were able to simply walk home to eat dinner instead of shelling out money for greasy carnival food. Plus, I was able to change into something warmer since I knew it would be cooler at night.

Blog, meet my brother! Just FYI, the hat is not a typical everyday look, just a purchase from one of the vendors.

After dinner I went back over with my brother, who ended up leaving early because he’s a music snob and doesn’t like mainstream music he was tired from being there all day. I met up with my friends and we settled in to watch OK Go, who were slightly disappointing. It may have been because we weren’t close to the stage or in the crowd, but they just weren’t as good as I was expecting. Still, the show was decent and I had fun hanging out with my friends.

OK Go


Ashley and me

Train more than made up for the previous mediocre performance. I had a total blast. They were energetic and fun, always engaging the audience to sing along and at one point bringing a bunch of younger girls on stage to sing with them. On the set list were all my favorites: Save Me, San Francisco; Marry Me; Hey, Soul Sister; and of course, Drops of Jupiter.

Our original view of the stage


Pat climbing the set (snagged this from their Facebook group)


The "Trainettes" (also snagged from the FB group) - the girl with the long black sleeves was TOTALLY into it and excited to be on stage

My favorite moment had to be when they played Drops of Jupiter. After they finished Hey, Soul Sister, they left the stage, but we knew they’d play an encore (especially since Drops of Jupiter is their most recognized song and they hadn’t played it yet). The crowd had thinned out a bit – families with younger kids or those wanting to beat traffic started leaving – so my friend Ashley and I were able to make our way up towards the stage a bit. When they came back on, the entire crowd belted out the lyrics from start to finish. It was completely awesome.

Closer to the stage now

Once they finished for good, the huge crowd started making their way out. I got in line for a funnel cake to bring home to my mom when some fireworks started going off; after I got my funnel cake, Ashley and I stuck around until they finished before walking home. Of course, I was totally exhausted when I got home - my feet hurt, my throat was sore, and I had to wait for my hearing to get back to normal - but it was completely worth it.

And just for fun, I put together a video of all the performances I recorded. It's just a bunch of snippets, with shaky camerawork and me singing terribly in the background, but I figured it was worth putting up here.



(If you're interested, you can also go click the following links to see a better version of the Hey, Soul Sister performance and also their encore, Drops of Jupiter.)

On Sunday I went back only for a short while, to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band and pick up some swag, which I'd forgotten to do the night before.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band

Overall it was a fantastic weekend. I got plenty of exercise from walking to and from the park and it was so much fun to be able to attend these great concerts completely for free. I can't wait to find out who'll they'll get for next year!

who made you king of anything?

This may or may not be the theme song to my life. And by that I mean, it most definitely is.



All my life I've tried
to make everybody happy
while I just hurt and hide
waiting for somebody to tell me
it's my turn to decide.

I don't mean to say that I feel this way on a constant basis, but it seems to happen quite a lot. There are a handful of people in my life - usually the most important ones - who believe they know better than me. If I had a dollar for every time my parents, someone else in my family, or Mark told me how they think I should handle my life, what they think I should do, I would have a fair amount of money to my name. I wish I were exaggerating.

This also doesn't mean that these people don't mean well or that they don't love me, because they do. I don't wish to shed a bad light upon them - everyone who does it has a thousand shining qualities that outweigh this one pesky, negative one. It's just a bad combination of the way they "help" and the way I react to it.

It probably grew from being raised by parents who worked hard to get where they wanted. My mom tells me stories on how she buckled down and always studied; my dad, though slacking a bit in college, has worked like a dog at several jobs since then. To be honest, I feel like they both embody the attitude of having to work hard and be somewhat miserable to get what you want. They were the reason I picked accounting as my major, when I was applying to colleges and had no idea what I wanted. They were the same reason that I begrudgingly stuck with accounting, despite wanting to change majors as early as sophomore year in college.

The majority of my family has similar opinions - it's less about choosing something I enjoy and more about what will be the "best" for my future. Mark was even worse about it, pushing me when he barely knew me, my goals, or what was "best." Being surrounded by so many people, acting like they know exactly who I am and what I want, is exhausting.

Luckily I have my friends. My four best friends from college pulled me through some heinous moments, listening to me vent about how my parents completely shot down my suggestion to switch majors. How I could feel myself hating it more and more every day. How I didn't understand why my parents couldn't be open-minded and supportive, like all of my friends' parents were when they all made choices and changes.

It's only recently that I've begun to force my own opinion into conversations, talking about dream jobs more realistically and making it clear that I'm not going to be pushed around anymore. And, when possible, I refrain from talking about such topics with people who can't get past what they think I should be doing.

Because it's like Sara says, who cares if you disagree? You are not me.

august activities.

I realize that I don’t talk nearly enough about what I do on a day-to-day basis. Of course, the main reason for that is because for a while, I was sleeping on a day-to-day basis and not doing anything of interest. Still, my blog posts are usually either themed (between Fashion Fridays and Ten on Tuesdays) or are about big bad topics that are brewing in my head, which I feel gets a little impersonal. So here’s a look at what I’ve been up to.

Cat-Sitting

I’ve been taking care of Lyndsay’s family cat while her and her family are on vacation in Florida (which included a trip to Harry Potter World, jealousies). This job has been mine for a few years now – they usually take a family vacation at the end of the summer – and I absolutely love it. It’s a ten-minute drive, I have the house to myself, and I get to see this adorable face when I get there:

Meet Houdini, or Dini for short. He’s usually pretty skittish, but I somehow won his heart over. He’s always waiting for me when I walk in the door because I come in through the garage, so he knows someone’s home long before the door actually opens. He clings to me – one time even lunging at my legs because I walked away too fast – and doesn’t let up until I put out his food. Because food > human contact, apparently.

Let the Music Play

When I sat down to write this, I had about a billion music-related things I wanted to talk about. First and foremost, I saw Step Up 3D last week and before you say anything, yes, it was an awful, terribly-scripted movie. Also, I question the choice to make it 3D. The dancing, however, was phenomenal. And the music is awesome. I’ve had a handful of the songs from the soundtrack on repeat for two weeks now and I’m still not tired of them. There have been lots and lots of random dance parties going on over here (especially to this song).

The big, exciting thing is that there’s a free concert being held at a park that’s within walking distance of my house, and they recently revealed that the big-ticket bands performing will be Train and OK Go. I nearly peed my pants because, I mean, what?! Those groups? Performing? For FREE? BY MY HOUSE?! It’s pretty amazing. Any and all of my local friends are welcome to join me because I will definitely be there.

And finally, this song? Makes me swoon. Any boy who wants to win me over need only reference this song in any fashion, and I’m yours. (What? I'm easy. TWSS.)



Wedding

On Sunday, my parents and aunt attended my second cousin's wedding. At first we assumed the kids were invited and I was pretty disappointed to find out that just the adults were going. But, I didn’t let that stop me from obsessing over every detail.

The best part, though, wasn’t in the details but a certain moment during the reception. My great uncle – the groom’s grandfather – was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. He’s since lost a little bit of his sharpness and a lot of weight, and my parents said he was kind of out of it for the ceremony.

When the reception rolled around, after all the ceremonial dances had been danced, the family noticed that he was still standing, tapping his cane to the music. He eventually made his way to the corner of the dance floor and spent a good five or ten minutes grooving to the music. It even prompted my aunt, who can bust a move but hasn’t danced at any family gathering in a long time, to join him. Even though he’s not close family to me, it was such a beautiful moment and it brought tears to my eyes.

{with his grandson, the groom, to the left}


{with my aunt}


♥

friday is for lists.

Friday! I'm exhausted! Exclamation points and bullet lists! Ready, go!

• I am totally that person who turns up the air conditioning, then realizes it's too cold and puts on a sweatshirt. It's kind of ridiculous. My brother is always commenting on it, but I can't help it! My computer desk is right across from the AC unit, so when it's on, the cold air is coming directly at me. Some might say, well, then just turn it off - but then it's too hot! #firstworldproblems #usinghashtagsoutsideoftwitteriscool
  
  
• Alex freakin' Wong, my favorite dancer on SYTYCD of the past three seasons, is officially off the show because he ruptured his Achilles tendon. Yes, I cried. But his little face! He was so! sad! Okay, that's enough now.
  
  
• Why am I playing Animal Crossing for Gamecube on a daily basis? Why? I should be looking for a job. Effing mindless video games sucking my life away.
  
  
• I've only been out of my relationship for three months and already I'm feeling those shitty "I'm going to be single forever and become a cat lady" feelings. I think it's worse now that I've actually been in a relationship; at least beforehand, I didn't know what I was missing.
  
  
• Speaking of my past relationship, in case anyone was still wondering, I'm pretty much over it. Mark and I have entered the friend zone and I don't really think I'm going to budge. We've had several discussions in the past few months and every time we disagree on something, it just solidifies in my mind that we really don't match up.
  
  
• I know I'm way late to the party on this one, but I am in love with this song. I mean, come on - it's begging to have a dance choreographed to it.
  

video friday.

My weekend kicks off in about fifteen minutes, by which I mean, that's when I'm going to hang out with my friends for an hour before they go into the city, where I will not be joining them because my body is a hot mess and I have about ten varieties of cramps, so instead I'll be coming back here and finishing my grandmother's scrapbook.

Right.

So now, I'll show you some awesometastic videos that graced my presence this week.


(I am not responsible for any pants-wetting that may have occurred during the viewing of this video.)

I may or may not have giddily jumped up and down after seeing this video. I am beyond excited and am now on a quest to re-read all of the books and re-watch all six movies before November. Which would be in progress already IF WE HADN'T MISPLACED OUR COPY OF BOOK ONE.




Everything about Maroon 5 is sexy. Including this video. If I could trade places with that girl, I would be the happiest person alive. Adam Levine is a yummy, sexy man.


NOW. Before you watch this one, let me preface it. Yes, it's a dance video. Yes, it's from So You Think You Can Dance. The dashing man with the clipboard and glasses is Twitch, who came in second place on the fourth season of the show (we're on to season seven now) and is now the male Hip Hop All-Star for this season. The kid in the jacket is ALEX FREAKIN WONG, contestant on this season and the most perfect technical dancer I've ever seen in my life. He came straight from a ballet company and has barely touched hip hop in his career. Not going to lie, as amazing as he is, I kind of expected him to bomb. HE DID THE TOTAL OPPOSITE OF BOMBING. See for yourself.

alex 9 @ Yahoo! Video

I KNOW RIGHT? Have fun picking your jaw up off the floor.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone!

and now, a song.

Because sometimes, you hear a random favorite song on the car radio and you turn the volume up to deafening levels, dance behind the wheel and belt out the lyrics. Can there be anything more cathartic and just damn amazing? I think not.


How absolutely perfect.

music is my life.

In college, I often found myself feeling very out of place when my friends or acquaintances would start talking about music. They would discuss how they loved such-and-such a group, which was not main stream and of which I’d never heard. A conversation would continue, with more groups I had either never or rarely heard of, and I would just sit quietly in the corner, nodding in fake agreement.

I’ll just come out and say it: being a pop-music lover makes me feel immature. With all the criticism that today’s popular music is uninspired, over-produced, and sometimes just loud and obnoxious, I feel ashamed when I admit to actually liking all of it. I mean, I don’t let it bother me – I like what I like, and nobody’s opinion is going to make me stop listening to Britney Spears – but it still feels awkward sometimes.

What’s weird is, I actually have my fair share of non-main-stream music in my iTunes. The way I form my library of music is downloading a specific song I heard and liked, not giving any thought to other songs by that artist. The only time I look into the artist is if I hear two or more songs of theirs that I like. At that point, I check out more stuff and debate buying the entire album. Most times, however, I just buy or download the song I like and leave it at that.

I don’t know if it’s something I developed because I’m a dancer or because I tailor my playlist to match my mood. As a dancer, I’ll sometimes like ridiculously awful (not to mention completely out of character) rap songs because they have a good beat, or pick an indie song because the musicality is amazing. When I’m getting ready for a party, I like to blast Black Eyed Peas, much to the chagrin of my music-snob brother; when I need to relax, I listen to Colbie Caillat and Ingrid Michaelson.

Sometimes I just look at my iTunes and think it has a personality disorder. Because how is it that I can completely, one-hundred-percent enjoy both of the two songs below? I DON’T UNDERSTAND.

my week in photos & videos.

Some things that happened this week, because I felt like posting but didn't have anything to say. Friday laziness at it's best, no?

• I pulled out my old PS2 games, including the most epic game ever, Britney Spears Dance Beat.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In the spirit of old-school B.Spears, and because I had the house to myself Wednesday night, I danced around to 90s pop princess and boy band music. Especially this:
  
  
  
  
• I took pictures of weeds. Judge me all you want, I still think they're pretty.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We threw away a bunch of old furniture. I took more pictures.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I got a kick-ass new planner from erincondren.com. I'm in love.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I became totally obsessed with this song.
  
  
  
  

honeybee.

This week, I've succeeded in eating my weight in Cocoa Puffs (okay, so maybe "one box" isn't "my weight," but STILL), playing Text Twist to the point where I'm repeating levels, actually working out (yay!), and looking like this on a daily basis:

Paint freckles on my arm!


Paint freckles... in my hair. Which is much less fun.

On top of all that, turns out my plans for this weekend got postponed to next weekend, which bummed me out. But, I guess it'll be a nice break because next week is basically just a repeat of this week, except that my brother is turning 21 on St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, wrap your head around that.

The best part of this week, though, was this. Gaga never fails me.

Update: Okay. So originally I had a Youtube video embedded. But that said it was no longer available. Fine, awesome. So I embed it from Vevo... and apparently you have to click through to see it. So go ahead and do that.

tuesday tidbits.

Sorry to be MIA recently, but we're doing Big Remodeling Projects in the house and I am the sole laborer most of the time. My dad and brother's rooms are set to get new carpets installed next week, which means giving each a fresh coat of pain. Of course, fresh coats of paint were on hold until we cleaned the rooms (they're the two dirtiest in the house) and patched the holes in the walls. But! We're finally on to painting.

And because I'm exhausted from all that (and a ridiculous amount of time spent playing Text Twist with my friends), you get a bulleted list! Hurray!

• Some of my friends and I have decided that AIM has officially died. Gchat and Facebook came along and everyone cleared out of AIM. This is evidenced by the fact that I just changed my profile for the first time in a year when that definitely used to be a weekly thing. Of course, the three of us are still using it, but boy is it lonely.
  
• My brain is all a-buzz with boy things, none of which I can really elaborate on here. Some of it's bad, some of it's good-but-bad-because-I-can't-do-anything-about-it. But oh, is it thought consuming. Blargh.
• Google Analytics is such a tease. It gives me just enough information to make me crazy, especially when there are multiple visits from New Jersey locations that are not my friends who read or any Jersey bloggers I'm aware of. So of course, I come to the (probably paranoid) conclusion that somehow, some IRL friends have found me and are lurking. But lurking is no fun! Delurk! I don't bite. Or at least fess up elsewhere, if commenting makes you itchy with anxiety.
  
• Project Pull My Shit Together is... sorta going forward? I'm working out more, which is a step in the right direction. My eating is still terrible. I'm trying very hard to eat well this week because I have plans on Saturday night (me? out on a Saturday night?! I know, I'm as shocked as you are) and would like to not feel like crap. I guess that means I should lay off the Stouffers frozen french bread pizza.
• And finally, the song that I've had on repeat for about a week now that's probably driving the rest of my family insane:

a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I really need to break this early-morning bedtime thing. I really should have been asleep two hours ago.

I spent the better part of the past few hours fiddling around with my blog design, and I'm finally finished. The only thing I'm not feeling 100% about is the background, but that can easily be removed. I would also like to mention that the header and background were done in Paint, because I only use the highest quality programs when designing this blog.

Anyway, those of you reading in Google Reader should head on over to check it out.

~

While I'm a little late on talking about Michael Jackson's passing, I feel the need to say a few things. There are many people who cannot move past MJ's downfalls and appreciate the immense talent that this man had. While I acknowledge the scandal surrounding him, I am unable to deny his ability to mold pop music into what it is today.

I will love MJ's music forever and always. As a dancer, it's pretty hard not to. I have countless memories of past recital routines choreographed to his music, like singing along to "Smooth Criminal" and donning a fedora as I rehearsed to a dance I wasn't even in, simply because I loved the song. I remember learning to do the moonwalk correctly when we were learning gliding in hip hop class. When I heard my drill team captain play "The Way You Make Me Feel" and start making up our next routine, I was so thrilled to be dancing to one of my favorite songs of his. Every time I hear the familiar beat of one of his songs playing on my radio, I will absolutely turn it up and dance in my car.

Michael Jackson is a legend who will live on and be remembered forever through his music.

~

My friend posted this on her Facebook, and I am completely addicted to it. I cannot wait until this man gets the rights cleared so I can get this song on my iPod STAT.

have fun trying to top *NYSNC, jonas brothers

So here's an example of how little taste I have - I was about to record the MTV VMAs over my still unwatched recording of the Olympic opening ceremonies. Except then I remembered that MTV will play the VMAs ad nauseam. This turns out to be a good thing, because I completely forgot they were on tonight and promised to let The Boy cook me dinner have dinner and hang out with The Boy tonight. But I need to see them. I crave the train-wreck-ness that is the VMAs.

They used to be good. Really good. Interesting things happened. Like when Lil' Kim showed up in this ensemble. AND DIANA ROSS TOUCHED IT. Or when that one guy climbed up onto the set which definitely wasn't meant for that. And of course, who can forget the jaw-droppingly, blow-your-mind performances?

I have always been and will probably always be a shallow, pop-music-loving girl. This means that I was a huge fan of all things *NSYNC and Britney Spears. Therefore, I would remain glued to the television on VMA night waiting for the moment they'd show up on stage. And rarely was I disappointed.

Here's my favorite *NSYNC performance, from 2000.


LOVELOVELOVE. I'm pretty sure that year I watched MTV every day to watch repeats and watch that performance over and over.

And my favorite Britney performance, also from 2000.


I remember watching this and thinking, I WANNA DO THAT. I don't care about the controversy, about how she lip synchs, blah blah blah. The girl's got dancing talent and I LOVE IT. (And actually? She's singing in the beginning, bitches. Take THAT.)

I'm not a huge Britney fan, but I do feel that she's gets way too much criticism. I'm glad that she's doing better now, that everything seems to have calmed down for her. Watching her "comeback" performance last year made me feel very, very sorry for her. I hope that whatever she's scheduled to do on this year's show goes a thousand times better than last year. I miss the old Britney!

Now I'm off to see The Boy. He's lucky he doesn't have a TV, or else I would probably insist on watching tonight. I'm such a whore for TV.

keep me coming back for more

I love Maroon 5.

I especially love (and drool over) Adam Levine.

I [heart] Rihanna.

Which means that when I first saw their collaboration on VH1, I screeched in excitement. Since then I've seen/heard it every once in a while, and honestly, I still scream a little bit on the inside.

whirlwind weekends

This past weekend was the last of my crazy tendency to plan outings on consecutive days.

My four-day weekend of madness started Thursday night. I saw Sara Bareilles, Maroon 5, and Counting Crows in concert. Yeah.. we headed out before Counting Crows had set up because we were tired and starving, and not willing to spend our life savings on food from the venue. Anyway. We arrived just in time to see Sara Bareilles finish her set. She sang Gravity, which is my absolute favorite song of hers. Then Maroon 5 came out and THEY WERE AMAZING. Adam Levine is a tasty looking man, especially when he's really sweaty. Mmmm. They really mixed up their set a lot, doing songs from their old album as well as the new one. I was happy.


We had a pretty decent view from our lawn seats, but my camera is crap so this is the best picture I have.

The following day was spent running around like a crazy person for my friend Barb's surprise going-away party, since she's moving to Las Vegas in a mere ten days. The party was fun, but in some respects, not worth all the stress I put into it. However, she absolutely adored the scrapbook we made for her (that was one of the secret projects I mentioned here).

Saturday was little miss Isabella's third birthday party! When I went to get her gift a few weeks ago, I realized how easy it is to shop for little kids. All I had to do was walk into a store, look for anything covered in Disney princesses, The Little Mermaid, or Hannah Montana, and I was set. I ended up getting her a huge Disney princess coloring book, new crayons, and some Disney stickers. She got a ton of adorable clothes, which she kept throwing on the ground after opening. I forgot how boring clothes are for little kids. And of course, there was the oh-so-expected moment where Isabella and her 5-year-old cousin, Daniel, were tearing wrapping paper from a box of clothes. As soon as the paper was off, Daniel held it thoughtfully for a moment before proclaiming, "oh, it's just a box." I absolutely remember that sentiment as a child. I would look up at my parents and go, really? A box? How thoughtful of you. Oh, there are CLOTHES inside. ...I still don't care.


The birthday girl, eating her cake.


The birthday girl and myself with her new coloring book, after tearfully insisting that we go inside and paint instead of just using crayons. Well, it's her party and she'll cry if she wants to.

Sunday was way more laid back. I slept in and went to see Lyndsay in the late afternoon. We played DDR, packed for her Disney cruise, watched the Olympics, and witnessed the most ridiculous (yet hilarious!) stuff on YouTube.

So that was my last OMGIdon'thavetimetobreathe weekend. I've done a pretty good job of spreading out the rest of my social calendar over the next two weeks, so I should be able to get back to sleeping normal hours. That is, if I ever get out of the habit of blogging at 4am.

Oh, and the haircut is scheduled for this week, so be prepared for either my Elated Hair Success Story or my Panicky Ultimate FAIL Hair Story. Let's hope for the former, shall we?

worrywart

To start, I'd like to thank everyone for the input I've gotten so far about how to get my hair cut. I think I might actually step a little further out of my comfort zone (the first baby step having been getting it cut short last year) and go with layers. Stay tuned!

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Can somebody tell me when my sleep schedule went completely down the crapper all over again? A month ago, I had everything under control - actually getting sleepy by one in the morning and waking up before noon every day. Now? I'm nocturnal again. Seriously. It's 9am. I haven't slept yet.

Now I'm getting worried because I've got just over two weeks left until school. Considering this is the year that I'm hoping to eventually dub The Year I Kicked Major Academic Ass, I really need to get back to sleeping like a normal human being.

Of course, on top of having trouble falling asleep, my brain decided it was time to list all of the challenging, complicated aspects of the upcoming year. I just love. it. when that happens. It puts me in my "oh shit!" mode. Here's why: I'm considering getting a job this semester, because I need the money. So first I start wondering if I should work on campus or off, then move to worrying about obtaining either kind of job. Then I realize, hey genius, what happened to studying HARD this semester? Oh. Right. It's probably not smart to expect myself to be able juggle a job with my new-found work ethic (especially since, well, it hasn't actually been "found" yet). AND THEN. I remember that I need to check up on the resume I uploaded to the school-run job search engine, which is being reviewed by someone in the office. The issue there? My GPA isn't listed because it's completely embarrassing and would probably be laughed at by corporate recruiters. Of course, the person sitting in the office doesn't know that - she'll just casually note, "please list GPA." If it were only that easy...

I really just wanted to go to sleep. Is that so much to ask?

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To put me in a better mood, let me mention that tonight I'm going to my Very First Concert. Yes, first. Yes, I'm twenty-one. Moving on. I'm going to see Counting Crows (who are good, but not who I really care about), Maroon 5 (hellooooo, Adam Levine.. yum), and Sara Bareilles!! I'm majorly excited about her and Maroon 5 - both of their latest albums are just amazing. What's more exciting is that I get to see a whole mess of people who are also going, including one of my roommates, one of my accounting major friends, and the whole "lifer" gang from dance. It's going to be a blast, even though it's supposed to rain. We've all got lawn seats so we're pretty screwed, but I'm sure it will be fun anyhow.