sums it all up with a nice little bow...

"everything is beautiful and nothing hurts." -kurt vonnegut

[my knees still kinda hurt, so that is not entirely true, but for the most part, everything is right in my world and my globe is spinning ever so whimsically...]

happy tummy

serious shout-out to beth bolt and her pumpkin curry soup!! sorry your mom isn't as great as my mom. unless, of course, your mom is my mom [travis and ty, i'm looking at you].

this face...

... never ceases to make me smile. sometimes when i get a bit discouraged or sad, i look at pictures of charlie and it reminds me that life is wonderful. i love you charlie.

in love...

...with the xx. do yourself a favor and fall in love with them too.

yeah! yeah yeah yeahs!

sunday was awesome. the only thing that could've made it any better would have involved 16 miles, my ipod, water and cliff bocks... i digress, so back to the awesomeness...

yeah yeah yeahs in the venue!!


the photo is not the best, as it was taken with my phone, but the show was outstanding... i love karen o. i love her voice, her wacky fashion, her ability to spew water out of her mouth as if it were a fountain, etc. etc. etc... they played a lot from the first two albums and the is is ep, which are my favorites, so honestly the only thing that i can complain about is the venue. but i'd rather not. it's lunchtime and i'm hungry.

funny

friday night i got this from my home-/hair-girl:


at first i thought it was totally random and way funny... then i remembered that i had texted her a few hours before with this question:


so i went to the salon saturday morning with dirty, dirty hair! and she didn't mind at all...

bummer, dudes...

many of you know i've been diligently training for a marathon. some of you also know that i've been having some serious issues with my knees. well, i went to an orthopedic knee surgeon on thursday and as it turns out, i'm not to run for 4-6 weeks... like, at all... i have moderate tendinitis in both knees, and although they call it "moderate" there's nothing moderate about the pain. it's frustrating and depressing, especially considering i had been doing everything i thought necessary. i think the most frustrating part is that mentally, all i want to do is this marathon. my body and mind are both craving 10+ mile runs... crazy, i know, but marathoners are crazy. it's part of the deal. anyway, my mind is there and my body is not. a few weeks ago i was telling some non-runners that probably the most amazing thing to me had not been the distances i was going or the mileage i was building on a weekly basis, but the mental transformation i was experiencing... watching myself push through these barriers i never thought were possible was not only painful, but also completely exhilarating! i had been reading up on nutrition and discovering the best things to fuel pre- and post-run. i was loving learning and feeling and breathing and moving! ice baths, believe it or not, were motivating! ha!

hmmmph... i know i'll get to that place again, and next time i'll be stronger mentally and physically, it's just frustrating to have to be patient and wait...

sidenote: i did get a confirmation from the long beach marathon registration people that i will be able to roll-over the $100 registration fee to the 2010 race... i'm considering the salt lake full in april, but if not, i will certainly be running 26.2 miles along ocean drive in 2010!!

six down, six to go...

training for a marathon is both brutal and amazing. the mental transformation i'm experiencing is what fascinates me the most... here are my feet which i'd like to thank for putting-up with me and the past six weeks. i'm half-way there. huzzah!

indeed!

image via le love

...

i've decided to be wealthy...

...and it was so.

vivian girls

i might be a bit slow on this one, but i read about the vivian girls in the new york times today. the article sparked my curiosity so i surfed on over to the popular social networking web-site known as myspace. although not a member myself [rIp profile, 2002-2008] i still utilize the 'space to stream music... that's a lot of words to basically come to this point: go to this link and listen to the vivian girls.

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=1436739&albumid=10778163

p.s. you're welcome lumpy :)

crap

my knees were a bit achy this morning so i decided to skip the bike and take the train... thinking i had singles, when i got to the trax stop i realized i only had $1 bill or a $20 bill... the fare is $2.00 so i was left with only one option... the outcome of which is this:

dammit! eighteen dollars in gold coinage makes for one heavy wallet!

lesson learned: be prepared. and ride the bicycle.

the emerald city...

so i went to seattle at the beginning of july to spend some much needed quality time with some much appreciated quality friends... gerrad finally emailed me some photos [camera battery died and i found myself sans charger] so here they are for your viewing pleasure... but mainly my mom's because she has bought it up a few times.





i had great intentions of posting serveral photos, but then i got super impatient waiting for blogger to upload... hopefully these two will do.

getting older

i talk about the weather and listen to npr all day long.

i. am. awesome.

grosser than just kinda-gross?

so i'm losing a toe nail. it comes with marathon training. this toe nail has been "special" [aka retarded] for 7ish years now... anyway, i thought about taking a picture and posting it but then i thought some of you might find that gross... maybe even real gross. so let's take a poll... who wants a picture and who wants to throw-up now?

thanks, in advance, for your kind attention to this matter.

well said...

sylvia plath:

"and by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. the worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

i would hate for kyle, or anyone of you for that matter, to be bored... so with that, you will be relieved to know that i have a new-found interest in this blog.

.

"when we kiss it feels like a flying saucer landing"

this song [plus many others]:

hey look!

the weekend forecast is lamer than my blog!


the only saving grace is that i've got a hot date with a hot babe tonight. oh, and the celebration of my fathers on sunday.

tomato, tomah-toh

sometimes you wanna blog, and other times [i'm going on months here...] ya just don't.

i really like the pixelation in this... i also really like animal collective... like a lot:

sleeping in...

...is so awesome. my body rarely let's me engage in such activity since it is programed to be up at 5:30am, mon-fri. so today, when i laid in bed 'til 10:45, it felt like quite the treat. however, such a treat pretty much kills my motivation to do anything else aside from just lounge in bed and [apparently] blog. i have two things i have to do today. they are: go running and clean my apartment. oh, and do the laundry i've been putting off, but that kinda ties in with the latter...

here's the problem --------> neither one of those things sounds fun right now. and shouldn't i be doing something fun on my day off?!

ugh, being an adult can be so overrated... now where are those running shoes?

editors edit: ok, so that run was what we'll call quite the beat-down... however, i feel amazing now so it was obviously a good time... now on to the cleaning... it's already 3:00... ha! mom, can i borrow your berta*?!

*berta is my mom's cleaning lady...

without further adu...

paris oh-nine from anji nilsson on Vimeo.

i made an imovie of some photos from paris... it's the first one i've ever made and it took me about 3.5 hours... i tried to time the photos with the music so that it kinda appears to be dancing... hopefully you see that too... regardless, i'm quite proud of it! enjoy!

adventures in euroland

jet lag is no joke. i'll post more photos when i've got the energies... that might not be til the weekend, my friends. but my trip was fantastic and traveling is the best thing ever! maybe even better than peanut butter...

you makeh me laughing

now this might be too much info, but honestly i don't really care...

while discussing my upcoming vacation with "lilly" [i've changed her name because she might be embarassed that i posted this on here, but it was really funny so i have to share], and oh, did i mention i'm going on vacation? yeah, ok. anyway, this person suggested i pack some extra dental floss and possibly a crochet hook... i was a bit confused and asked her why i would need these things... her response:

"in case you run out of clean underwear."

this guy...

... this was my guy:

jack e. belt, 1939-2009
you will be missed terribly.

please please please

keep my uncle jack in your prayers... and his lovely wife, jo, too.

tonight!

i just recently started listening to lily allen and i love her... not sure how i overlooked this cute little tart on her first go-round, but i'm making up for lost time... with that said, i'm really excited to see her tonight. this is one of my favs:



somehow i relate to her and her lyrics. i find it uncanny, to say the least. but i really think her and i could be friends.

springtime, dancetime!

although it's not very spring like outside right now [it's snowing and freeeezing - it is also april 1], the spring fever in me makes me long for dancey, poppy songs... such as this lovely by little boots... get into it!

way cool [part two]

i really like this quote:

"I must learn to love the fool in me--the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool." -- Theodore I. Rubin, MD

way cool

where the wild things are has always been one of my favorite books so it just makes sense that i'd be excited about the movie, right? especially since spike jonez is doing it... and wake up by the arcade fire is playing in the trailer... see, like i said, it just makes sense...

not bad for a saturday

whilst driving to rei on saturday afternoon, rob spotted what he thought was money lying in the street... teresa and i were skeptical thinking it was probably just a piece of paper or something... but rob with his "hawk eye" was bound and determined to find out... so we turn around, he pulls over, darts into the middle of the street, and comes running back to the car with not only a huge grin, but also $20! enter teresa saying "oh, hey - there's another one!" ... once again there goes rob risking his life for a $20 bill. and as if $40 weren't enough, i look over and see another one in the middle of the other street and, never one to pass up free money, i jump out of the car and go grab it!

all three of us must be living right because all three of us gained $20 on saturday. rob spent his on ice cream. teresa and i have decided to save our findings and spend them in vegas next weekend... UNBELIEVABLE, really... and totally awesome.

"i want something unignorable!"

the universe [or whatever you want to call it] never ceases to amaze me... once you put something out there, with a little patience, it eventually becomes your reality.

i <3 <3 <3 my life!

something sweet or something strong...

it's funny how a song can instantly draw you back to a moment... the memory is so vivid that even certain smells come instantly flooding back... take this song, for example:

it just came on the pandora and as i'm sitting in my cubicle, i'm suddenly taken back to the summer of 2004... i had just moved downtown to the art space bridge project... it is a friday night and i'm getting ready to meet friends at the art gallery downstairs for gallery stroll... it was just before sunset and i was drinking a glass of wine - it was white, and although i'm not exactly sure if it was the cavit pinot grigio or dancing bull sav, i can say without a doubt it was one of those two [i consumed a lot of both that summer, you see]... i had just sprayed my perfume [hence the smell part] and was dancing around my room to this song... just before heading out the door, i snapped this photo... it was totally for mypspace [how appropriate]:

this ain't seaworld...

... this is real as it gets!

lisa and i hit up the andrew bird show last wednesday night. that place was packed and aside from both of us feeling like old ladies, we managed to stay out past our bed times... we also managed to both get up and hit the gym in the morning. being responsible is so adult-ish, don't you think?!

and just a sidenote about lisa, our friendship goes back to the eighth grade... we were fourteen and bonded over my so called life. anyway, one of my favorite things about our friendship is the inside jokes that are still funny 10+ years later. lis, this one's for you giiiiirl: "run sisel, run!" and "fellas, yeah!" thanks for a fun night!

...

i love my life! just putting that out there...

yesssssssssssss!

i have been waiting, and waiting, and anticipating and getting stoked on the yeah yeah yeah's new album, it's blitz! ....... a few tracks have been leaked [god bless the world wide web] and you can stream them here. album due april 18th. tour tba... i. can. NOT. WAIT!

also, i have a new love:

somewhat laughable

i think i'm more embarrassed about this than anything. that's a ridiculous amount of text messages. true, i am a fan of the text - but there's a lot to be said about phone time... needless to say, they've upped me to an unlimited plan.

we might have a problem...

... i went out to the house tonight [parent's house, that is - they're m.i.a. until march 15th] to poke around and restock my peanut butter supply. first thing i notice is the car... more specifically, the SCATCH/SCRAPE/EEEK! up and down the back bumper, driver side. the expeditionist has been parked in the driveway since thursday so how this happened, i have no idea. how i'm going to explain it is completely beyond me. the only thing i can think of is that the snow remover dudes did something. if they don't come back after the next storm, i'll know i'm right. i wouldn't even know who to call to ask them about it...

i'll get a picture this weekend, but i can't stop thinking about what the hell could've happened... i leave the car in the safest place i can think of, as i won't be needing it for a few days, and........... W! T! F!

this is not good. not good at all.

g g g g-unIt "literature"

while searching through a box of books at the cabin this past weekend, i came across this:

50 cent wrote a book? could it be?! i mean, i know he took a few shells and now he walks with a limp [see "in da club" for explanation] but a book deal?! fiddy, i had no idea!

the back cover was the best:
street justice wasn't his way. but for his older brothers, it was the only way.
the seven davis brothers made a promise to their mother on her deathbed: they would each make something of their lives. and they vowed they would watch over eighteen-year-old zabu davis, their baby brother. intelligent, driven, and charismatic, baby brother had resisted the lure of brooklyn street life and was headed for stanford university on a pre-med scholarship. but on the eve of his departure to california, in a split second of blinding violence, baby brother's life is thrown onto a tragic collision course. soon, his devoted brothers follow of path of blood justice that will rock the city streets. baby brother was their pride and joy. now, he's their reason to fight for vengeance.

introducing g-unit books by 50 cent--a hot new series of hip-hop novellas that dare to tell the truth about the life. the lovers, the haters, the guns, the money, the highs, the lows, the street: for real.

-----------------

unfortunately i can't tell you much about the book or about life on the street [for real]... it was so poorly written that i only made it to page eight. have you ever tried to read slang? how about a raunchy sex scene in slang? yeah, all that in eight pages.

the awesomeness lies in the principle, i guess... "its fid-dy...."

off the grid

headed to the mountains and specifically sarah's cabin this weekend... its weird to think that there will be no internet or phone service for such a connected lady [read: me]... the r&r will be a well deserved treat however...

happy <3 day to all you lovers and non-lovers out there... hopefully i'll be over this lack-of-blogs-slump when i return.

question: what does anji think is cool?

answer:

randomness in twenty-five

some of you have seen this on the FB, i'm posting it here for all my non-FB followers [hi mom!]...

1. i feel that there had to be some sort of divine force involved when my parents were deciding what to name me. they had no idea that spelling it the way they did would be oh so appropriate for their little girl.

2. i have no idea why i prefer to type without caps.

3. i love bicycles and bicycle culture. being able to ride yesterday [and today] after a two month hiatus only reconfirmed my love of riding. i plan to purchase a more serious road bike sometime this spring so that i can get outta the downtown area and into spandex... uh, we'll see about the spandex - but yeah, new bike woot woot!

4. since we're on the topic: just because i ride a fixed-gear does not make me a hipster. although i tend to listen to the same music, have an affinity toward apple products, and sport some bangs does not constitute any assumption of this stereotype in regard to me. also, i have a bone to pick with the hipster dudes: your skinny jeans make it impossible for me to tell if you are gay or straight. this is not a good thing. a nice fit is OK, skin tight [cheap mondays] are not.

5. the daily diet coke has never hindered my athletic performance whatsoever. i drink plenty of water [and by plenty, i mean plen-tyyy] and have gone through periods of non-consumption. no difference. fizz on, my friends.

6. i'd like to say i live without regrets, but i have made some mistakes and have had to learn some lessons the hard way. i learned an incredible amount about myself from these lessons, but if i could do it again, i'd do it differently. i do not dwell on this, however, and have moved on, and i firmly believe these lessons have made me a better person.

7. i have this strange love for peanut butter. travis shares the same love. i'm not sure where it came from, but if i don't get my daily scoop i kinda feel ripped off. it's not natural, but my choice in peanut butter is.

8. if i could have dinner with any living famous person it would be thom yorke. he is absolutely brilliant. in fact, after a bad break up in which the loser kept my fancy watch and faint t-shirt, i discovered said loser had put the entire radiohead discography on my external hard drive. i feel that it was worth the exchange, but i still want that t-shirt back.

9. zombies! shit!

10. it typically catches people way off guard when i tell them i don't have a car. some people probably think it's weird, but i think it's awesome. i live downtown and work downtown and with adequate planning being carless in salt lake is no big deal.

11. i've been thinking about going back to school for quite awhile. if this happens, it will be in the design field for sure. not necessarily graphic design, but something creative.

12. i hated having to listen to npr when i was growing up and now i hate my mornings without it. al [my step-dad] was an npr-junkie and now that i'm older i understand why. it happens to when you get to be 26-27. some of you have that to look forward to.

13. i love college football and specifically the runnin utes. lucky for me, my dad has season tickets. brian johnson almost gave my dad a couple heart-attacks this year, but also lucky for me mr. johnson pulled through and dad avoided the ER for another season.

14. i'm not afraid to admit that i love pop music. with the exception of beyonce.

15. my brothers are amazing people and i'm not sure they have any idea just how much they have influenced my life. new balance 990s aside - my brothers are cooler than yours.

16. on the mac vs. pc issue: can't we all just get along?

17. i love to dance but am not a dancer. i was recently told i'm somewhat awkward about it. this was a compliment for me, as the boy who told me only listens to rae-gay.

18. i'm running out of things to say. this is harder than i thought.

19. i recently started wearing red lipstick on occasion and was instantly drawn to the confidence it induces. kinda weird - but i walked out the door and was like, "wow, i'm on fire!" people respect a woman in red lipstick. [a note to the ladies: make sure you get the right shade. it can either be good, or tragically bad.]

20. i love, love, love denim. it is by far my favorite material and this is going to sound totally weird - but from it's rawest raw to the way a good pair of jeans feels, i love it. everything about it.

21. i hate washing my hair. i think it's the whole blow-dry-straighten process that i really do not enjoy. i push it as far as possible and lie to myself saying i'm doing it as to extend the life of my color. that's not true. i'm just lazy.

22. i hate mushrooms and think they're gross. i won't think you're gross for eating them.

23. i regularly maintain my eyebrows but no one can tell because they're always covered by my hair. you can also tell how old a woman is by her eyebrows - if they seem over-plucked and thin, chances are she's in her 30s.

24. my diesel jeans totally fit again. tried them on today and was like "booyah!" ... seriously, that's what i said when i looked in the mirror.

25. i recently got into spinning and now find myself craving it. not the i-wanna-puke-right-now-on-the-teachers-shoes feeling itself per se, but the after-glow... those endorphins are totally addicting!

nerd alert: hands-free!

i will be the first to say that i have always hated on the wireless phone ear-piece and that i thought i'd be the last person ever to convert... well, halleleuja, my brothers and sisters because a convert i have become...

at the risk of out-dorking even myself, i hesitate to expand on my new-found love, but i feel inclined to give the readers what they want... or something like that... anyway, when i opened the iPhone box and saw the headphones i made the assumption that they were just straight-up apple ear buds. boy, was i wrong! there's a little "thing" [for lack of a better term] on the cord that acts as not only a microphone, but also a mini-remote! click the little "thing" once and it starts the track over, click said "thing" twice and it will advance to the next song, click it a third time and it does something else i have yet to discover but i'm sure is on-par with being cool... so yeah, i'm a big fan of this and mainly because i can switch-it-up with gloves on. what i love the most about going hands-free, however, is that when i'm iPod-ding with the iPhone and i get an incoming call, the music slowly fades-out and fades-back-in... it makes my conversations much more enjoyable which in-turn must make me more enjoyable to conversate with [am i right, mom?].

side note: at least the iPhone hands-free is nothing similar to blue-tooth hands-free. i could elaborate, but i'm not going to. apple=cool, blue-tooth=ghey.

sweet video

"lets turn this mother out!" ... this rules:

sweet cover

i came across this cover of the arcade fire's "my body is a cage" ... now we all know how i feel about the arcade fire, but this version by sara lov is brilliant:

we came; we saw; we LENKA'd

this is lenka:


this is lenka's stage at the kilby court:


this is mel, me, and jaime [respectively] at the lenka show called "the show":


and this is mel, jaime, lenka, and me in the merch room:


lenka is lovely. if you haven't heard her, you probably should... and if you haven't met jaime or mel, you should probably do that as well... they wrote the book on being rad! and also, they had a girl crush on me when we were 19... and it still makes me smile when i think about it!

research & development

i got an email from emilee yesterday asking about a coat of mine and inquiring the details of said coat so that she could purchase one for herself. she also said "i hope you don't mind," to which my response was something along the lines of "of course i don't mind!" ...and i really don't mind, but i took this as an opportunity to, once again, congratulate myself on my fantastic taste. humble much?! meh. humility can be overrated - plus this is my blog so i feel justified in saying whatever i want. neiner neiner neiner...

i digress, her inquiry led me to the world wide website where i purchased the garment [you know, as to provide her with a convenient link], which in-turn sent me on a downward spiral deep into the funnel of unproductivity and online "window" shopping. you see, the spring lines have hit and although i stick by my rule of never paying full price for anything [including macbooks - booya] it was utterly difficult for me to nay-say the temptation... the temptation is what irritates me the most about this and i'll tell you why... if you have ever had the chance, or get the chance, to peer into my closet you will find what i like to refer to as my "utopia-of-wardrobia" consisting of items ranging across all sorts of spectrums [seasons, materials, colors, sizes, etc.]. you will also find a mess, but that's not the point here... the point here is this ---------> i do not need anything new - want, yes; need, no...

so not to toot my own horn [see, i can be humble] or anything, but i think of myself as a stylish person; meaning with a personal sense of style and also the "in the know" kind of style... so here's where the "development" comes into play from all this "research" ... i have a sewing machine [thanks, santa] and a closet full of clothes i don't wear... botta bing, botta boom! those two things combined with my creative eye have inspired me to get to modifying and manufacturing... think of it as a renaissance of my closet, if you will, or you can think of it like vicki prefers: "you're one crafty betch!" either way, i find the possibilities of it all quite exciting [with the exception of the cleaning the closet part]!

alright, elko!

this is going to be short and sweet as my creative juices seem to have abandoned me, and also because there's only so much you can do in elko, nevada... such as take-up perma-residence on your best friend's couch... and since they're your best friend, they find this endearing... and then they tell you you're pretty sans any effort into getting ready at all... and they take you to walmart in the same t-shirt you slept in, which they totally endorse since they're doing the exact same thing... and they steam you veggies for dinner and allow you to help yourself to the kiddo's candy bowl... and "hey, josh, beer me another diet coke!" ... ah, best friends rule! especially my best friends.

i love TORY!
i love JOSH!
i love RAMSEY!
i love RUGER [the dog]!

the night "the worm" came to town

this is kris and they call him "the worm" ... i have no idea where that moniker came from, but it might have something to do with the time he jumped-ship in the mormon temple right before he was to be married for time and all eternity... regardless, kris is one of the most intelligent, creative, funny people i have ever known. we met through my old roommate [his x-fiance] in our utah state days, and although we kinda lost contact when he moved to new york to pursue his master's degree from n.y.u. [yeah, like i said - intelligent] we picked-up right where we left off... i love friends like that. especially when they can make you laugh the way "the worm" can make you laugh.



now that's johnny and the worm showing us their best moves... i wish i had a sequence shot of this because a .gif would really make this awesome, but i don't so whatever. trust me on the awesomeness of these two dancing. anyway, we did some gallery-strolling earlier in the evening and then went back to lindsey's gallery to get in some proper hang-time... turns out gallery strolling when you know people who know people is a lot of fun. it also turns out that having two x-boyfriends in the same small room at the same time can be handled like a champ - trust me, i know from experience... which is a whole other story in and of itself... but anyway, thanks to "the worm" and his lovely new wife for coming to visit and for showing me how to have the best time in my own town!

dancing & diddling

fear not, my sweets... i'll post about my elko weekend soon, but until then, enjoy this little gem:

elko or bust!

there's a high high high probability that i won't be able to sleep tonight. why, you might find yourself asking?! because i get to spend the weekend in elko, nv [not the exciting part] with some of my favorite people in the whole universe [totally the exciting part]! spontaneity and capricorns don't typically mesh well ... tory is the exception to all the rules.

here's the most recent photo we have of the two of us, so look forward to a serious fotolog come tuesday...

this was taken in 2002 - time for an update.

for the WIN!

if the fact that it would've hurt me more than it would've hurt the machine hadn't been a factor this morning, i totally would've punched the treadmill.

it was just one of those cardio jams where you're watching the clock the whole time and no matter what is streaming through the pod, all you can think is "am i done yet?!" ... it turns into a continual battle with the self over giving-up or just keep going... and it's totally not fun. i really like fun. also, i forgot to take a hit off my inhaler beforehand so i think the lack of breathing-ease may have had something to do with my attitude... well that, and my bed was just OH SO COMFY today [and since i rarely type in caps i hope you see the serious emphasis i just made].

regardless, i saw it through and it ended not a moment too soon. sometimes these types of runs actually make you think, "wow, i'm so glad i did that." but not necessarily today. i'm glad i did it, yes, but mainly because i won't have to think about the fact i didn't do it all day long... make sense?!

so in other news... i won the war over cheese fries last night! yesss! this is honestly something i should get an award or some kind of recognition for... delicious training table cheese fries stared me in the face and i managed to politely look but not touch. i'd like to think that my sweet dinner partner was doing this in my best interest, you know, to see just how strong i was... i'd like to think he thought something along the lines of "wow, she's so strong! look at that will power! i didn't think it was possible but she looks even sexier with that fork of lettuce near her mouth!" alas, i'm sure those thoughts never even came close to entering his head [with the exception of the sexy part]. needless to say, his meal looked much more appetizing than mine... how could it not, really? hawaiian burger and cheese fries vs. wilted-iceberg-lettuce "salad"?!?! ... whatever. i still won this time! and had he ordered the dipping sauce it just might have changed the entire outcome of my decision not to partake in the gooey-deliciousness-that-are-the-training-table-cheese-fries... but thankfully for me, he's a simple ketchup-only kinda guy... so thanks, barowdwngs, thanks...

in living color [part two]

a word of caution: if you're going to voice your unsolicited opinion in which i might find a little curious [and also annoying], don't be suprised when i do the exact same thing the next day... not necessarily to irritate - ok - yeah to irritate you, but also because i can.

i really should consider the source of all this and just let it go... its not her fault she's pushing sixty, a temporary employee, and bat-shit crazy. she also doesn't help her case by being bat-shit crazy.

"know first who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly." -epictetus


yes, i learned that pose from modeling school and hillary duff endorsed my dress... ok that first part isn't true, but the second part is...

au revoire simone - sad song

i want to attend this party, preferably in the grey dress [with the bow]...

in living color

at lunch today i was told i was wearing too many colors... what?! well yeah, that can happen and i've seen it happen... but not to me. also, i was quite pleased with my color combination today so this comment caught me a bit off-guard and was completely unwarranted. if trying to be nicer and talking less crap weren't two of my new years resolutions, you would see a much longer rant here... alas, i have resolved... for now at least.

here's a picture to prove that my color choices were, indeed, kosher and not excessive by any means:


cream dress, orange coat, blue gloves, grey tights, brown boots...

how to lose 7.5 pounds in one week

week one: weigh self on your mom's scale - get off said scale thinking "wtf??". go to gym.

week two: weigh self on own scale. realize it reads -7.5 from previous week. think, "wtf!" then realize your mom's scale has always weighed heavy. re-think, "WTF!" and go to gym.

now how to gain it all back in one meal, two words: grandma's house. go to gym.

i can't actually back that last part up, but it seemed like a nice way to end this blog... and i did indulge a bit at grandma's last night...

THE END

update: oh eight was so great

due to circumstances beyond my control [ok, that's not necessarily true... i'm just being lazy] i will not be distributing hard-copies of my tribute-to-shows-i-attended-in-2008 mix disc... you see, when my old computer went jerk-tastic it postponed everything... and now i'm on to bigger and better things so i do apologize if you have lost any sleep in anticipation of my ode to '08... since i highly doubt that is the case, lets get on with this, shall we?! i've decided to just list the track order for you and you can all rush to itunes or emusic or whatever you kids are using these days and create the playlist yourselves! being self-sufficient is so hot right now...

so here it is! and as a sidenote, i ran to this today and i gotta admit, it has a great flow... which is somewhat impressive considering the genres don't necessarily mesh all that well... but whatever, it seems to work... so knock yourselves out!

oh eight was so great
one: broken social scene - stars and sons
two: andrew bird - fake palindroms
three: clap your hands say yeah - skin of my yellow country teeth
four: the faint - worked up so sexual
five: css - music is my hot hot sex
six: chromeo - needy girl
seven: m.i.a. - paper airplanes
eight: ladytron - playgirl
nine: of montreal - wraith pinned to the mist and other games
ten: feist - mushaboom
eleven: tapes n' tapes - say back something
twelve: nada surf - blizzard of '77
thirteen: fleet foxes - white winter hymnal
fourteen: the swell season - falling slowly

look what i can do!

yes, my new pet slept right next to me - mainly because i was watching a movie on instant-netflix before i fell asleep, but i probably would've had it next to me regardless because i'm just that awesome...

so after checking the morning's stats [email, facebook, justin timberlake, etc.] i played with the photo booth application [which is rad, by the way] for a bit... then i got up, got some water, and when i came back to my room i had every intention of putting on my running gear but instead...

... my bed just looked so lonely!
and so do those running shoes...

a lovely evening this doth make

[i'm fairly certain this is the first time i've ever used the word "doth"...]

lounge wear
cafe niche take-out
the prettiest/shiniest/sexiest purchase i've ever made
streaming andrew bird's not-yet-released noble beast

now if only i could have wrapped tonight up in one giant satin bow!

someone was wrong

money bought me a macbook and, in turn, money bought me happiness!

thug life

occasionally a certain mood will strike me and i'll get a craving for some ear-candy that can only be described in one way: a serious guilty treasure.

enter the thug life playlist.

now before i delve into this, you should know that i make absolutely no claim to being any sort of expert in the hip-hop/rap genre... nope, not even close! these are just songs i've come across that satiate the craving all while i'm gettin my run on...

one: timbaland - the way i are
two: ciera - one, two step
three: jay-z - dirt on your shoulder
four: missy elliot - work it
five: q-tip - vivrant thing
six: usher - yeah!
seven: nelly furtado - maneater
eight: method man and fred durst - n2gether
nine: kelis - milkshake

hey mother nature!

why you gotta be such a tease?! you've given me a serious case of spring-fever this morning... not cool!

moving on

sometimes in life it is necessary to close chapters in order to open new ones... i've found that although this can be painful, it can also be incredibly freeing... like sometimes you're so stuck in the world as you know it, and comfortable, that its scary to think of what lies beyond all this... you don't really know what you're missing out on, though, because you've been comfortable for, like, four-and-half-years... what i'm getting at is this: for whatever reasons, sometimes its just best to not ask questions... not to think too much into the mechanics of it all and what you could've done differently... to just realize, that although the ride has been a good one, every new beginning must come from some other beginning's end.

with that said, please click here.

yes, folks, that beautiful gem of computery will soon be mine... technically, it is mine, i mean i've paid for it... but now i'm just "patiently" awaiting it's arrival [keep your fingers crossed for friday]... so if you see me completely beaming around town, you'll know why...

may my whitey [ibook g4] rest in peace... he and i have been through a lot, both good and [until recently] bad... i have cared for him to the best of my ability [he's lasted four.five years - so that's some serious protection in my opinion]... i thought the loss of such a dear friend would be more difficult, but the beauty of the unibody macbook quickly did away with all feelings of melancholy and grief...

so with that, i say "audios amigo!" and "mister fedex man, can you please hurry it up?!"

oh, mirah

this song meant a lot to me a few years ago... and by "a lot," i mean A LOT... "the dude" knows who he is and i'm sure he'd be OK about me mentioning him here if he ever stumbled across this blog...

anyway, this is not the official video but it's lovely nonetheless:


also, mirah will be at kilby court on march 17th - i know that's a bit out, but it gives us all something to look forward to... along with others including mr. bird and b.spears...

hot damn!

after the new computer
and after the bills are paid for the month [of february? yeah, it'll probably be february]
i think i'll treat myself to:

oh, bless you ray ban - for your stylish take on the iconic wayfarer...

iDork: you are never alone...

... i find this quite amusing... but then again, its an iDork thing, so you might not understand:

examined: thom yorke, adam levine, doo bee doo bee doo, and the like...

i have often come across deeply heart-felt love songs that make me stop and wonder about just whom the song was written for/about... specifically, i like to try to imagine the kind of man/woman that could hurt someone to the extent that such a beautiful song was written... see radiohead's "all i need" for the specific inspiration for this post... i've been thinking like this for years now, in regard to various artists and songs and whatnot... it's fascinating to me and i'm not exactly sure why... other than music has always been much, much more than just sounds for me. i think there are two kinds of people in this world - the ones that will understand exactly what i'm saying here and the one's that don't think of music+emotion on the same level... regardless, i remember listening to songs about jane [maroon 5] for the first time and thinking, "i'd sure like to meet the girl who ripped his heart out." ... i could elaborate and think of hundreds and thousands of other examples when i've paused in wonderment, but i'm feeling more blahg today than blog - so i'll just leave it at that...

does anyone else ever think of these things? [<--- that's an honest question and not just a solicitation for blog comments.]

short and sweet

i can't really make the claims of "best birthday ever!" or "i really couldn't have asked for more!" without following-up with a blog post... i'm not going to go into much detail, but needless to say, i stand by the aforementioned statements... i guess low-expectations going into it definitely helped, but even then, the few expectations i had were met times thirteen [seems like a reasonable number - and not as common as, oh say, ten]!

so thanks to all my family and friends for making me feel special... and not in the unfortunate-special way.

wowza

for someone who rides the trax enough to consider herself an "experienced rider," i sure had fiasco with it yesterday...

it all started with a call from my grandma:
grandma: can you do lunch at chuck-a-rama by fashion place at 2:00?
me: yeah, sure! i'll have dad pick me up... see you then! [or something like that]

[sidenote: it's important to note that chuck-a-rama has always intrigued me... i have been known to longingly stare at it as i am driven past the establishment on fouth south, but that is a story for another day... needless to say i probably won't be going back... and we can leave it at this: it's a good thing there was a restroom within ten feet of our table, but not a good thing that the toliet was broken. oops i did it again.]

so my dad picks me up and we meet up with the fam at the restaurant. i'm not going to go into detail on this because i feel like what was mentioned above is adequate... lets get to the point: my dad decides to go to the b.basketball game thus leaving me sans ride home. grandma offers to take me, but only after they decide to go bowling. i'm not a bowler. and also, i had plans in which i had to get ready for so i knew this would just totally throw me off schedule... so i decide to take the trax...

my aunt drops me off at the stop and as i'm looking in my wallet i discover i only have a ten dollar bill... said aunt asks if i need cash... "no, it's cool. it's saturday! they never check anyway" ... my aunt looks at me suspiciously [being the good 10%-giving-church-goer that she is], tells me she loves me, and yak yak yak...

so i get on the train, sit down and start playing on my wireless telephone device... i hear the words "tickets please" and see a u.t.a. policeman standing about five feet from me... fear ensues...

he starts hassling some guy who is thumbing through various pockets and whatnot, leaving me to an interal freak-out session... you see, the ticket/citation for not having proper fare is $133.00... $133.00!! that's money that i'd have to dip into my computer fund for IF i would've gotten caught... and for such a stupid reason...

the wanna-be-real-cop gets to me and i tell him, "i switched-out my wallet earlier and i dont have my pass... i'll get off at the next stop and buy a ticket" ... "OK," he says and proceeds down the aisle [that is not true at all, by the way - i was totally going off the sheet on that - good thing i'm a quick thinker!]. so i jump off [not literally, i dont want to hurt my non-cankles] and insert the $10 bill... while i'm waiting for my change, sackagewea dollars, the trax leaves... UGH! it was cold outside! but whatever, i'll deal with $8.00 in dollar-coins to not have to pay $133.00 - and let's be honest, i was really lucky... of course that was the only trax cop i saw, and the ride to the gallivan center plaza was quite uneventful... as i'm waiting to make the transfer, i decide to walk across the street and get a cup of coffee... wouldn't you know it?! the university train is running early... so i totally miss it... i'm kinda ok with that, as i did wash my hair earlier that day so my "getting ready time" won't be nearly as long, but at the same time i'm quite irritated - early?! come on u.t.a.! it's called a schedule for a reason!

so i purchase a back-issue of the believer and wait, in the cold, for fifteen minutes... the train comes, i get on, but being so consumed in the article i was reading, i realize that i've missed my stop when i get to the stadium... SONUVA!!! ...more waiting...

i eventually made it home, but the lesson here is this: pay attention. pay your fare. and just go bowling with the fam... grandma's van is way more warm that the train.

new romantic

laura marling:

in one word: stunning
this song makes me want to fall in love and then get quickly out of love - just so i can use this as "the song" ... but that seems like a lot of effort so i'll just keep listening to it without the emotional attachment.

nerd alert: online forums

before i purchased my bicycle, i did a lot of research on bikeforums.net.

i will be buying a new apple laptop [because its like i always say: once you go mac you never go back*] sometime in the near future, and although i have a sufficient idea of just what will suffice, i decided to do some research on the subject... enter the macrumors.com forums.

and sometimes when i'm bored, i peruse the craiglist's discussion boards. i'm not even buying anything when i do this - unless of course you look at it as "buying" entertainment - but even then it's a stretch.

--------------------------> forums=good / uninformed=bad

*i've actually never said this... until now.