johnandrhianna

documentaries. [favorites of Jan/Feb '12]

2012-02-27T12:46:00.003-08:00

Since the new year began I've made it a point to keep track of every new-to-me movie & documentary I watch, as well as each new (I have a bad habit of rereading books constantly, those don't count on the list) book I read. It's been fun & rewarding looking back at everything I've read & watched in the year the past two months, I can't wait to see the finished lists in December. With books, my goal is to read at least 52 by the end of the year. With movies & documentaries, I don't have a set number goal, but I am purposefully trying to watch things I've never seen before. Again, this is hard as I like to rewatch things -- case in point, over the last several days John & I haven't watched anything new because we decided to have a Lost mega-marathon, but we're halfway through season 4 already so that'll be finished soon and I can move onto new things.

Today I figured I'd blog about some of my favorite documentaries I've watched so far this year. I'm going to pick just 5 that I would definitely recommend to everyone.

The Pixar Story - this documentary is wonderful because it illustrates the beginnings of the animation company and how it became as beloved as it is today. It's interesting to see it's ties (& battles, & then friendships) with Disney and how Steve Jobs kind of resuscitated the company & believed in Pixar & its amazing animators. Makes you love Steve Jobs even more! Ha. I also loved the behind the scenes footage of the making of Toy Story. Kinda crazy how Toy Story really did change the animation world. Wonderful documentary to watch if you love Pixar films. And really, let's be honest, who doesn't love AT LEAST one of those movies?

IMDB info found here
official site found here

Best Worst Movie Okay, so this documentary makes you feel all kinds of awkward/second-hand embarrassed - just a warning. But it is a very compelling documentary about "the worst movie ever made" Troll 2 (I watched this doc before I watched the movie for some reason but immediately watched Troll 2 after ... a movie which does not even have one troll in it... ). This movie has become a cult classic over the years and you can see why -- the actors are so earnest & genuine, they weren't trying to be really bad or make a horrible movie, but they did. The director of Troll 2 is this crazy Italian man who thinks he made one of the best movies of all time -- oh man, is that guy a trip. Just watch this doc! And catch the movie it is based on too!

IMDB info found here
official site found here

A State of Mind is probably the most interesting and insightful documentary I've watched so far this year. Definitely my favorite. It is a British documentary that follows two young North Korean girls as they prepare for their country's Mass Games. The Mass Games is the world's largest choreographed gymnastics performance and it is amazing. What is even more incredible is the look at life in North Korea. The brain washing - children watching cartoons that feature US "imperialists" as the bad guys. The propaganda - radios are installed in every kitchen that broadcast pro-North Korea, pro-Communism 24/7 and they cannot be turned off. The dedication to their "Great" or "Dear Leader" -- it's just, like the poster says, jaw-dropping. This documentary made me start researching North Korea like crazy. Please, if you don't watch any other of my recommendations, watch this one!

IMDB info found here
Official site found here

Freakonomics This documentary features segments from 6 different filmmakers based on the popular book Freakonomics. John has read the book, & it's sequel, but I have only seen the documentary. I highly enjoyed it. Although I wish my least favorite (though still super interesting) segment on corruption in Sumo wrestling were a lot shorter to give length to other segments that I found more interesting - like how baby names shape the future of the child or how much money it takes kids to succeed in school. Controversial topics are deconstructed from an economic point of view and paired with awesome visuals from gifted filmmakers. A must-see.

IMDB info found here
Official site found here

Okay... the last documentary, you'll hate me for, but I had to throw it in the mix...

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never guys, I never caught the Bieber Fever before. But when this gem popped up on Netflix Instant my temperature started to rise a bit! While I'm not crazy for this Teeny Bopper Heartthrob (which is kiiiiinda unlike me) I do, after watching this documentary, think he's pretty talented and that he'll go far in life. This has sparked heated debates between John (he's never watched the documentary, nor researched JB in any way) and I. My argument, in summation, is Justin Bieber is more of a Justin Timberlake than a Nick Carter -- translation -- yes, he plays to his audience and is branded (much like N*Sync-ers & BSB-ers in their time) but it is backed by talent (just watch the doc to see) and a real drive that I think will make him successful. Whoever woulda thunk Justin Timberlake would have been as crazy successful & grounded as he is today while he was Bye-Bye-Bye-ing in the late 90s? Mark my words, the Biebs will stay successful, one way or another. Now if he goes the crazy drug route & is still singing "Baby baby baby oooooh" in 10 years, I'll owe John a lot of money...

IMDB info found here
Official site found here

WHAT DOCUMENTARIES ARE YOU WATCHING?!

... that's all folks! I think I'm going to start posting my favorite movies & documentaries & books read each month on this blog. Next up, I'll pick 5 of my favorite movies watched so far. January & February will just have to be linked since I didn't do posts for January.

february is almost over already.

2012-02-21T10:14:00.000-08:00

Seriously... where has this year gone? Our lives are pretty good here in NC, I hope your lives are going well too! John and I are having a great 2012 so far, mentally & physically. Happy and going strong, making future plans, loving life & each other.

Physically, we are improving in leaps and bounds. We've done 6 weeks of P90X so far - I think the last time I talked about it we hadn't even finished week 1 yet? It's safe to say now, after doing it for 42 days straight, that we LOVE this program. All caps are necessary. We have found a program that works for us and we are so in love with it. I bought the DVDs (if you are interested in this program, ask me how I got it for a lot cheaper than the official website advertises) almost 3 years ago and quit after 2 weeks - the box has sat on various shelves since then. There are many reasons I didn't succeed with my first attempt at this program, but I think the main reason I have succeeded this go-around is that I have a wonderful partner to do it with me everyday, to motivate me on days I don't want to do it (& I motivate him when he doesn't). As soon as we are finished with the 90 days we are going to just start right over again - or splurge & buy P90X2! When we are completely finished I'm sure we'll write a review together about it, so you can see what I liked specifically and what he likes. But anyway, we are also pairing our exercise routine with healthy eating -- lots of produce, very little meat - mainly vegetarian meals, no (or little) caffeine, no alcohol, and cooking at home. We've only been out to eat twice in 2012, once because John's mom was visiting, the other time for a fun date night. We go to Trader Joe's every Saturday morning and get our groceries for the week -- we spend less there for healthy food for a week (or more!) than we would a night out for dinner & drinks. All & all, we feel amazing, are a lot stronger, and are seeing great results while saving tons of money.

In other news, the two of us have decided to make a big commitment with our leisure time together -- we are rewatching every episode of Lost. And making up words that describe our indescribable feelings for what happens in the show and debating until the wee hours of the night about life, death, karma, the afterlife, actions & consequences, etc, etc. Lost makes your brain hurt, but in a good way. I'm sure there will be spirited essay posts from both of us in the future after we watch more of this show.

I'll end up this catch-up with some pictures of life in February from my phone...

my favorite concrete square outside my favorite library // the monster dog giving the babycat a kiss //
John gave me one of my favorite albums on vinyl for Valentine's Day // 1st meal out of 2012 - veggie burger & sweet potato fries from our local brewery //
one night we drove through a new-to-us town & stopped at the cutest bar & I had my 1st drink (sangria) in a loooong time // we got Breaking Dawn the morning it came out (look at his sleepy & happy face) because we are really lame //
my mom sent us a Valentine's package that included cards & gifts for all the living things in this house -- our part was a spaghetti dinner, chocolates, & Lady and the Tramp on bluray // I painted something for John for Valentine's Day -- it's cheesy & he loves it //
when John's in the kitchen, I like for him to make this gnocchi dish that he has called Captain John's Mega Gnocchi Gumbo Mystery Meal Mystery Meal, which is NOT gumbo, nor are the ingredients a mystery... buuuuut that's what he calls it & it's amazing // I had a cold for a whole week which was not very fun at all, but hot lemon water every morning made me feel more human & able to face the day -- I'm hooked on this drink now, lots of vitamin C & other great health benefits //
when I'm in the kitchen, he likes it when I make my own version of sweet potato fries & here they are paired with a big salad // it actually snowed where we live! less than an inch & it was gone when the sun came up, but we made sure to take the dog outside late at night so we could all play in it while it was still there

... that's it! I hope you have a wonderful Black History Month & enjoy your extra day!!!

this district smells like rat piss, my name is katniss.

2012-02-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

So everyone knows Lana Del Rey is blowing up. Months ago I think every single blogger that I follow had flooded my reader with her Video Games video. I listened to the song, I thought it was okay. I could see why people liked it because it was retro-y, the homemade-ness of the video was fun, & it was different, but I listened to some of her other songs and didn't like them that much at all. But I shared the VG video with John and he liked it alright too, then we made the mistake of watching her Saturday Night Live performance and haven't been able to take her seriously since. Frequently I will sing like her when John starts to play Skyrim "go play your videoooo gaaaaaame." You get it. Yeahyeahyeah. Basically what I'm saying, we are pretty indifferent towards this internet sensation and I still don't really get Miss LDR but who am I to judge... I bought Ashlee Simpson's first CD the day it came out back in '04, so you see where I'm coming from.

Anywho -- made the point of LDR & Video Games... not a fan. (someone online said "she sounds like a person making fun of someone trying to sing seriously" and I kinda agree) BUT! Then this gem came along and I love it! I love it so hard.

Because boys & girls, in our house we do LOVE The Hunger Games and are impatiently waiting for the movie next month. Holly Laurent, you are so fun & lovely & thanks for making a parody of this song for The Hunger Games!

an essay on crying. [by Rhianna]

2012-02-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you just have to cry.

A few months ago I surprised John, and myself, when I had a meltdown over the movie Hope Floats. How many times have I seen this movie? A conservative estimate would be around 20. Do I always cry when I watch this movie? The short answer is… yes. Do I always have a complete meltdown sobbing bawlfest over this movie? Not always, but the last time I watched this movie I suppose my mind & body just needed to let some things out. I found myself having a Beaches-inspired meltdown. (Beaches always brings on a complete meltdown sobbing bawlfest. I’m convinced you are a robot if this is not the case for you. But don’t worry robots, someday technology will come far enough for you to have a wide range of human emotion and then you can experience this movie as you should.) Anyway…. I don’t know when exactly the tears started trickling down my face. I’m a crier by nature, so when something is just mildly on the list of Reasons to Cry I will cry a lot. But then this scene…

Oh my god. I just started bawling on the mattress on the floor (did I mention at the time we were “camping out” in the living room… as we are wont to do) and John comes in from the bedroom and is amazed at the waterworks I’m producing from my reddened eyeballs. “BUT HOW COULD A FATHER JUST LEAVE HIS DAUGHTER LIKE THAT?! WHAT IS THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN?! BUT SHE’S JUST A CHILD! DOES HE HAVE NO HEART?! I DON’T UNDERSTAAAAAAAAAAAAND!” I sobbed to John. John, stunned, just asked, “Honey, are you okay?” To which I replied, “BUT JUST TELL ME WHY HE DID THAT?! HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO HER?! AND TO SANDRA BULLOCK – SHE JUST LOST HER MO-OOOOOO-OOO-OOM!” I would continue. John, again, “Are you sure you’re okay, Rhianna?” And then… “JUST LET ME CRY JOHN! THIS IS SAAA--*hiccup*---AAAAAD!” So he would. He went back into the bedroom as the scene ended and I started to feel a bit better about the situation. I mean, Sandra Bullock is a tough lady… she can handle this sitch and baby Egg is going to be just fine. Her cup runneth over and all that. But then this happened…

And so I started sobbing again. Meltdown sobbing bawlfest. John comes back out, sees the scene and asks why I’m crying because this is not a sad scene. “JOOOOOHNN! DON’T YOU SEE HOW BEAUTIFUL THIS IS?! HARRY CONNICK JR LOVES HER SO MUCH AND DID YOU SEE?!!! DID YOU SEE WHAT HE DID FOR HER?!!! I’M JUST SO HAPPY THAT SHE’S FOUND LOVE. SHE NEEDS LOVE. WE ALL NEED LOVE, JOHN. I’M JUST SO HAAAAAA—AAAAA—AAPPY.” And then John, “But you’re still crying?” I just gave him a look. It was just a crying day. I’m sure you, dear readers, understand.

I enjoy a good cry every now and then. Once every couple months some kind of spell just comes over me and I find myself crying. I’ll cry because I’ve just seen or thought of something sad, beautiful, happy, or… well, really I’ll just cry over anything when I get in these spells. Out of nowhere I just find myself having this meltdown and most of the times I’ll end up laughing because it’s so ridiculous that I’m even crying in the first place, but now I’m crying even more because I’m laughing so hard.

Now… the other day I decided to make a “Quiet Time” playlist to play on the stereo while I drank some tea and read a book at night. John was working late and called on his way home. When I picked up the phone I had already listened to the playlist once all the way through and was just starting Round Two. After I said hello and John established that his Call-You-On-My-Way-Home call was indeed signaling his return home that late evening he asked me if I was okay. Before he called I had quit reading a long time before because I got so caught up in the lyrics of all the songs on my quiet time playlist and was gently sobbing in the big chair. “NO. I MEAN, YES I AM OKAY BUT I’M JUST CRYING SO MUCH BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS SO BEAUTIFUL, JOHN. EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL AND SAD AND I WAS JUST LISTENING TO THIS NEW PLAYLIST I MADE THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO CALM ME DOWN BEFORE I WENT TO SLEEP BUT I JUST KEPT THINKING ABOUT HOW BEAUTIFUL EVERYTHING WAS AND THEN WONDERING IF MY ANIMALS KNOW I LOVE THEM. DO YOU THINK THEY KNOW I LOVE THEM?! I NEED THEM TO KNOW I LOVE THEM! I WISH ANIMALS COULD TALK TO ME-EE—EEEEE.” John, of course, had no idea where the tears were coming from. And I didn’t either. This was just another case of a random meltdown sobbing bawlfest. John starts laughing on the phone while he asks me repeatedly if I’m okay and to explain what happened. So I start laughing and crying at the same time because I’m ridiculous. “I MADE A PLAYLIST AND I DIDN’T REALIZE IT WOULD MAKE ME CRY SO MUCH AND I’M JUST CRYING JUST LET ME CRY.” But when I talk to him through my sobbing yells, because yelling is the only way I can make words come out of my mouth when I’m crying really hard, I start picturing this scene…

And then I laugh more because when has a movie ever understood me so much? Will Ferrell knows the soul of the meltdown sobbing bawlfest. The glass case of emotion that we are all trapped in. John cannot understand my sobbing yells because it’s impossible to talk when you are crying so hard and then you laugh so hard that you start crying more and, really, I mean, is it ever possible to completely describe why you are crying to someone? Even when you aren’t in the middle of the meltdown, how do you describe your slobbery mess of a self and the why of the situation? You don’t. So then I just started laughing/crying more on the phone to John trying to tell him to remember that scene in Anchorman. To which he replied:

“I’ll just see you at home, Rhianna. I love you.”

And that’s all I have to say about crying. Thanks.

Skyrim - a review, kind of [by John]

2012-02-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

Recently, I played a video game. The game, Skyrim, has been widely and rightly hailed as the most immersive and expansive video gaming experience in history (surpassing my previous most immersive gaming experience—1989’s Contra— by something like 132 ½ playable hours). I personally played Skyrim for approximately 20 hours over the span of about a week: a few hours every other day or so, although Rhianna might know more specifically, and by that I mean there’s a chance I played this game for 170 consecutive hours— I sincerely don’t know… it’s so… immersive. Anyhow, I played this game for some time a little while ago and have this to report: I have no idea what the hell Skyrim is about.

Now, I’m not an avid gamer, by any account. I enjoy, loosely, the fantasies and mythologies explored in video games, though as a rule I don’t have the interest or patience to give them much attention. But I grew up at the dawn of the gaming age, of course, and am now a school teacher, so the prospect of virtually lopping off some demon’s head with a ninja sword serves as a sort of cathartic metaphor in my life: you know— slicing the head off the demon of… ignorance? … with the sword of… learning? The point being that, once in a while, owing to nostalgia or relentless advertising, I’ll try out a game for the hell of it. But again, I am here to report that after 20-something hours of Skyrim I am wholly unable to communicate any of its themes to you. But in the interest of my engaging contemporary pop-culture, here’s an attempt:

It starts out all castles and helmets and other Nordic stuff, like a dragon, so at first you’re thinking it’s Viking-ish in a broad sense. But after only a few minutes, the dragon is totally gone, leaving you in the middle of an apparently unending wilderness (I’m assuming northern Canada?) with your hammer. Now, in the game’s defense, I don’t think everyone ends up with a hammer, but I happened to pick one up whilst being chased by the dragon, so you know… now I’ve got this hammer. And what does one do with a hammer in the wilderness? Owing to the fact that there are no Home Depots in northern Canada, one begins killing many people with it. And that was the first three hours of the game: walking around, hammering stuff.

Suddenly, though, amidst the carpentry, this message appeared on the screen: “Your vampiric powers grow as you hunger.” And I was like, “OH! SHIT! This is a vampire game! I am NOT supposed to be hammering people to death, I’m supposed to be sucking them to death… or… you know… like, bleeding… I mean making them bleed to death with my sucky-fangs…” So I spent the following six hours thinking Skyrim was a game about vampires and let me be clear: it is not. But I didn’t know that, nor did I have any indication as to what the game actually was about so I just went with the suggestion at hand: I was a vampire and somewhere in that fact must be a plot. Every so often another message would appear, to the effect of: “You are the hungriest vampire in this game.” But I had no clue what to do with that, and after a longer time than it should have taken, I grew very bored, so I turned my attention to the only other thing I knew seemed important in Skyrim: POTS. Whoa are there pots in that game. There are pots in barrels, pots on shelves, pots in houses, on tables, littering the streets of towns, in crypts, in stables, in rivers— pots, literally, found on dead bodies, and, of course, in other pots. So anyway, I was just like, “when in Rome,” and went to town collecting pots. I stole every pot from every person everywhere: had I robbed a hundred Container Stores I could not have gotten so many damn pots. I spent eight hours collecting pots of every variation and depositing them in the only place I thought I could: the corner of a wall surrounding the first city I came to. And in my game there grew an immensity of pots (in a town I called Pottown): a wall of writhing, hollow metal emergent as though wrought from the very land itself! The pots grew in number such that even the other characters in the game began to know my wall of pots, and to stop and gaze upon it, fearfully, in awe, as though to say, “Seriously, what is up with all these pots?” And then, suddenly: a dragon.

Initially, the dragon swooping low above my head, I thought he must be angry at me for stealing all those pots. Over time, however, I realized that I had been grievously mistaken. This was not a game about pots. It was a game, as was only subtly hinted at in its opening moments, about dragons. Or dragon hunting. Or, like, I am a dragon, sort of? But a person? Some guy called me “dragonborn” in a moment of dialogue just before the dragon attacked, but I’m clearly human in the game, so I’m guessing my mother’s womb was what doctors call, “an inhospitable fetal environment,” so mom and dad elected to employ a surrogate for my embryonic rearing and that surrogate turned out to be dragon— ergo, “dragonborn.” Regardless, moments after that dialogue, both guy and dragon were dead at the hands of my hammer, their bodies searched for pots.

Over the course of the following several days, I developed many theses regarding the nature of Skyrim— I was a wizard fighting dragons, a dragon-wizard fighting people, a dragon-person fighting vampires— all of which seemed, at different points, somehow incorrect, for varying and vague reasons. So ultimately I gave up. I was only renting the game anyway, so I returned it. Then I looked up the plot on Wikipedia and became immediately unconvinced that the game I was playing was, in fact, actually Skyrim. But given that it probably was, it is now one more thing added to the list of popular cultural phenomena I just don’t understand, alongside Twitter and skinny jeans. If I was to get a Chinese character tattoo of my experience with the game, it would be, of course, “strength,” as I understand is obligatory when getting a Chinese character tattoo. But then, in truer summation of my experience I would get the character that represents “dragons” next to an upside question mark, like in Spanish.

blue.

2012-01-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Jim: The different people are not like other people, but being different is nothing to be ashamed of. Because other people are not such wonderful people. They're one hundred times one thousand. You're one times one! They walk all over the earth. You just stay here. They're common as - weeds, -but - you - well, you're - Blue Roses!

Laura: But blue is wrong for - roses...

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winter sky // hat box // pashmina // polished nails // vintage plate // miso bowl // friendship bracelet // books // gnome & Norman Rockwell "Heavenly Dreams" plate // rosary // part of a Ganesh tapestry

and ... I love The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

Golden Globes: Observations & Reflections [by John]

2012-01-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Fallon and that guy from Maroon 5 not being funny.

I don’t understand the Golden Globes. Not like I don’t condone them or something, but I sincerely don’t understand them. Firstly, I don’t understand who is receiving awards from whom. I think it’s the entirety of television and film, globally, awarded distinctions by members of the Foreign Legion. It is meant, I suppose, to reflect what primarily Europe thought of everything the Oscars (and Emmys ) don’t allow them to think about, rendering the recipients of said honors slightly less honorific than the nominees constituting their Oscar-ian counterparts. Effectively, then, I guess it’s the announcement of who Europe would put on Hollywood’s JV team, like, “Dearest Kate Winslet, despite your abiding periphery in the states, the Old World thinks you’re capital! Love, Europe.”

Also perplexing: asynergistic presenters. Let me understand that in what seemed a testimony to the ability of film to transcend the world’s animosities, Sidney Poitier presented Morgan Freeman with a lifetime achievement award… immediately followed by Jimmy Fallon and the asshole from Maroon 5. Semi-equivalent: “Thank you for those inspiring words Mohandas Gandhi. And now to the stage, for your enjoyment, star of ‘Police Academy 3: Back in Training,’: BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT!”

The disorganization of the presenters felt, to me, symptomatic of the issues problematizing the entire show. For example: time management. At the start, I think Phil Donahue had like seven minutes to extol the virtues of and hand out the award for “Conceptual Backdropping in a Virtually-Animated Foreign Short.” Then at 10:56, Harrison Ford just sprinted across the stage while screaming, “’THE DESCENDANTS’ WON BEST PICTURE!” At the close, Ricky Gervais had only enough time to say, quote, “This was Golden Globes.”

Other concerns are enumerated below:

Incomprehensible French people: I cherish diversity and truly respect all people, but for serious, when Robert Downey Jr. looks at somebody like, “What the hell’s this guy’s problem?” something in the evening has gone irrevocably awry.

Miss Golden Globe: When I saw Sinbad wearing a banana suit in a sex-ed video in 8th grade, I remember having that particular sensation one suffers when, incongruous elements accruing unproductively, your Mad-Libs doesn’t turn out how you’d hoped. This is how I felt when I saw Miss Golden Globe… (Rhianna has, since I wrote the above, explained to me that this is a tradition, and that this little girl has an honored place in Golden Globes history… But is there a Miss Golden Globe Pageant? I mean, there’s certainly one implied… Rhianna says no… so I still don’t get it.)

They allow anyone on stage: There was the lovely but puzzling Turkish gal who came on stage and said, in précis, “I am from Turkey. That is all.”

I hate Madonna: I’ve been on the fence since, “Ray of Light.” Then she couldn’t decide if she was British or American for a decade. Now it appears she’s on steroids.

Apparently tv is indy now: You remember 9th grade, I’m sure, when that one kid (Brendan Burgett-- EKHS ‘99) had four dozen band t-shirts, and whenever you mentioned any band, he was all, “oh yeah, I saw them when ‘The Cranberries’ opened for them two years ago, but they’re way too commercial now. You should really try the new Barking Kellies record.” Anyway, that’s the Golden Globes— I have actually seen only two things nominated this evening, “Parks and Recreation,” and, “Downton Abbey,”… which is brilliant.

Chris Cornell and Trent Reznor: If you’re a 14-year-old girl, imagine a long impotent septuagenarian Justin Bieber, inert on his bad hip at Wheeping Oaks retirement community, deeply invested in the “Shuff-Off!!: 4th Annual Co-Ed No-Age-Limit Shuffle Board Contest.” This is how I feel when I see Chris Cornell nominated for a Golden Globe.

Finally: I would like to host an Oscars party. Anyone who reads this should consider themselves invited. Details to follow… except this detail: everyone has to dress as a category. Hear me out. I want to win my Oscar party’s award for best costume design dressed AS Best Costume Design: “And now, winning the award for Best Costume Design: BEST COSTUME DESIGN!” … you get it.

perfection.

2012. ahhhhhhhhh.

2012-01-17T10:28:00.000-08:00

Hello there! It's been so quiet on our blog. John's the only one that has even thought about blogging - props to him. He actually wrote a post about the Golden Globes the other night but he doesn't wanna post it. Sorry.

I hope your holiday season was merry & bright! We absolutely loved ours! Over the holidays we got to spend our first Christmas together (we had just started dating last Christmas season but were not together for Christmas festivities). It was so wonderful. We spent time in Kentucky with my family for Christmas Eve & Day and then we headed over to Ohio to spend time with John's family the week after. We were completely spoiled with gifts and love. Although - our animals probably made out the best... so very spoiled are they. It was so nice to be able to spend time with friends too! I didn't want to leave after our time was over, almost entirely because of the pretty people we got to see. But leave we did and headed back to our little country home in North Carolina for the New Year! We headed over to some of our friends house and celebrated with two other couples by having a Harry Potter marathon during NYE day, then at night we walked across the street to their neighbors HUGE NYE party and ate and ate and ate and socialized with them. John and I put on our dancing shoes and danced with some of the women there in the kitchen (how very The Big Chill of us... I put a link because I feel like that reference is lost on most.) to oldies on iPods. We may have embarrassed our friends that were there with us! Oops...

Life around here is wonderful! We've completely cleaned & organized our house after putting away decorations. We started P90X for exercising (I've already lost 5lbs & John's lost more than that!) and we absolutely hate it. And by hate it I mean we love doing it and love the results so far and how we feel but we hate how dang tired & sore we are. ;) We've also kicked all our bad eating/drinking habits and have been eating super healthy. We did this back in July and loved how we felt so we're doing it again. Homemade over take out, water & tea (decaf for me, I cut out caffeine in November) over soda & alcohol. John keeps exclaiming how productive he now is and I love that I don't need to nap anymore to make it through the evening. I've also been calculating every calorie for the past couple weeks using an app on my new iPhone...

My big Christmas gift this year was an iPhone 4S. It's so lovely! I had a 3G up until April then I kicked the smartphone habit for months and months until now. While the thought of being always connected to things still kinda gives me the skeevies, I still love this phone and am glad to have an iPhone again since the camera is better than my old point & shoot AND I can keep my music with me since my old iPod is basically on life support. Speaking of music and pictures... here have some iPhone pictures of life lately.

Prepare for a dump. Which may be redundant if you follow me on twitter, tumblr, or instagram. Sorry!

Well... that's it for this post! John will type something up for you next time.

Bye!

holidays.

2011-12-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

Hello there! Bet you forgot about us! We've both been busy with life lately and haven't blogged. I hope your holiday season has started well and I hope Santa brings you all the presents your heart desires and you are filled with joyous cheer!!! We LOVE Christmas in our home... I can definitely say without a doubt that John loves Christmas more than anyone I've ever known or probably will know. Which is lucky for me because I love this time of year so very much and have someone that is just as excited (more so!) as I am to celebrate.

Christmas season starts the day after Halloween for me. Last year I tried to get my friends in the holiday spirit earlier than they would like by baking them pies and delivering it to them with a tree ornament and Christmas mix CD I made. This year I live far from them so was not able to deliver them pies BUT John and I did start to decorate on November 1st and completed our decorating a few days later. The earlier you decorate the earlier you get in the spirit and celebrate! We were so thankful that our friend, Lauren, came to visit us in mid-November -- we just love her to pieces and while she was here we started Christmas crafting! Because we started crafting so early I got a lot of gifts finished super early. I can't wait to give them to family & friends.

We are going to Kentucky and Ohio for the holidays to see our parents. We both can't wait to go and are trying to rearrange some things so we can actually go up north earlier than we planned to spend even more time with everyone. John is especially excited because KY & OH have colder, more "wintry" weather than we do -- he wants snow so badly he can't stand it!

Anyway... I doubt either of us will blog before the new year so I just wanted to hop on and say-

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May your Christmas season be blessed and joyful and may your stocking be filled with treats & no coal!

Wishing you the best for the best holiday,
John + Rhianna

PS- don't you love vintage Christmas cards?! I found a bookshop in Durham that sells old postcards and scooped up a few Christmas ones that I'm going to give with gifts. One has a dated message from 1909! So fun!

thankful.

2011-11-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

Rhianna here! Since it's about to be Thanksgiving (!!!!!!) I figured I'd type up a quick post of what I'm thankful for this year.

I've had so many blessings in my life this year it's unreal. 2010 was so yucky -- safe to say the worst year of my life so far. When we rang in the New Year in 2011 it brought so many wonderful things! In fact, even the bad stuff that happened this year doesn't seem so bad when I think about how amazing this year has been overall.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's a close second only to Christmas. I love everything about this holiday -- the time of year, the food we eat, the family gathered around the table, the giving of thanks, and the promise the holiday brings of CHRISTMAS!

Without further ado, here are the things I'll be giving thanks for this year while I eat turkey & pie!

John. This guy is pretty rad. I am so thankful my housewife introduced us and that he is now a permanent fixture in my life. He is the smartest, kindest, craftiest, most talented, handsomest, and most fun person I have ever known -- and that is no exaggeration. He is my BFF and has helped me grow as a person so much (sometimes I think he shoulda gone into counseling). Every day with him is an adventure! I'm also thankful for his parents because they raised him up good ;) I ask him all the time what his parents did right for him to turn out the way he did because I'm always amazed at his wonderfulness. And also, his parents are so spectacular and I love them dearly.
my family & friends. This pretty much goes without saying. But with this year in particular, so many family & friends have shown us so much love & support, especially the past two months with my accident. Each card, care package, phone call, or text I received during my downtime after surgery lifted my spirits so much. I've felt so unworthy of all the love I've been shown and I am so so so grateful.
my doctors (& nurses, & admins, etc). Breaking my ankle was the most physically painful thing that's ever happened to me. It was also the first time I'd need a real surgery. Our experience in the ER was the nicest one I've had (based on the hospital in my hometown, I was skeptical about going to an ER... you'd understand if you'd ever been to that one). I'm also so thankful for my doctor & my George doctor that put my bones back together and for all the nurses, hospital workers, workers at my orthopaedic office, and my future physical therapist (I start formal PT next week!) for helping me and being so kind, patient, and lovely as I heal & learn to walk again.
the library. I've talked about our library several times on this blog... it's my favorite place in our town. It's kept me stocked with books, audiobooks, & movies.
my animals. we added our babycat Fleas to the mix this year. I loooooooove my babies. I get sad when I have to leave them for more than a few hours at a time. They are dear to my heart.
black beauty. my wheelchair has made this no walking nonsense so much easier. Crutches wear you out, I'm glad for my chair. It has also made me more mindful about handicap accessibility (--and enraged at public places that don't adhere to codes). I'm thankful that I will be able to walk again very soon.
my health. I'm so thankful that I haven't been really sick and that I've made it 26 years with a broken ankle being the worst thing that's happened.
moving. this move to North Carolina has been wonderful and I'm thankful for all the fun & new things I get to experience with John. Living with him is the best. We "camp out" inside all the time. He's an amazing slumber party partner and I'm so glad I get to have a party every night with him!
kayaking, cooking, baking, crafting, reading, traveling, my house, decorating, cuddling, pain medication, nail polish, water, EnglightenMint tea, coffee, ginger ale, pancakes, Leslie Knope, Mexican/Thai/Greek food, Halloween, Christmastime, Mindy Kaling, teenage drama television shows (especially ones with vampires), Britney Spears, kitten paws, journaling, iFriends, our bed, and blankie (my baby blanket is in the picture... it is my most favorite material item. forever and ever amen.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you have as many & more things to be thankful for this year!

Football: America's Pastime. {thoughts by Rhianna - a nonSports girl}

2011-11-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Who was it that said baseball was "America's Pastime?" We need to rethink that phrase. I'm pretty sure, when polled, most of the American population would put baseball somewhere in the 3-7 slot for favorite sport - depending on age, gender, region, & time of year polled. Right? Baseball is pretty darn boring to watch on television, and that's how most of us have to watch sports if we don't live near a town with a team or if we don't have ridiculous amounts of disposable income to pay for tickets to a game.

Anyway... I don't want to talk about baseball. I would like to talk about football.

This fall has been my first football season. John loves football. No, I mean, LOVES. boldCAPSenlarged. It's probably his 3rd favorite thing on the planet just under Christmas and me, respectively. This is new to me. I come from a land of basketball (which - depending on age, gender, region, & time of year polled - would take the #1 slot away from football). I grew up in a land where I learned to love one particular basketball team by osmosis, not because I really am crazy in love with sports in general. When I was a wee one I would dress up in blue with fun hair and crazy outfits during the month of March because it was Big Blue Day at school and we watched basketball games instead of learning fractions (to this day this is what I credit with my stupidity when faced with numbers). Our teachers couldn't miss the games, how dare they schedule them during daylight hours on a weekday?! We get paid slightly on or below poverty level to teach and now you schedule games while we work?!!! we need our basketball!!! they cried! And the administration heard them and lo, basketball games blasted on televisions during the month of March everywhere I looked for as long as I can remember. As I got older it was fun to gather with friends and watch games. But I was never the kind of fan that cared if I had to miss a game for my grandfather's birthday or to have open-heart surgery. No, no - not I. But because of my upbringing, I do hold a love in my heart for a certain basketball team. You try growing up where I did and see if you can make it out alive without being a small fan - unless you're one of those people that hates everything everyone loves just on principle, then I guess ya can.

John comes from a land of football. No one really gave a poop about our football teams except in a passive way. Whereas in the Land of John football was king. I imagine his growing up experience similar to mine except flipflop the sports around. Obviously. And John just didn't live in the land of football, he worshiped the football king, got heavily involved in politics, and got arrested for trying to overthrow the kingdom and rule himself so he could be completely absorbed in football -- in 50 years he can return to that land as a free man once again. So moving in with John has brought about my first football season. If you come over to our house during Football Season you will find some kind of ESPN channel always on the television during the weekend. John has three teams that he HAS to watch every weekend or bad things will happen. Two college teams (these happen on Fridays or Saturdays) and one Pro (these happen on Sundays... and every once in a while, a Monday) {Sidenote - pay attention to how much I KNOW about football now... I know schedules!!! look at me go!} . Also, it's not enough to just watch the game. When you come from a Land of Football you learn that you also have to watch all the replays on the 14 thousand different ESPN channels and listen to all the sportscasters analyze players and plays AFTER the games. If you're lucky, your football weekend could last almost a whole week because of satelite television & internet through the PS3. Aren't you lucky?!!! Oh and you HAVE to either toss a football at halftime (the first & last time I did this with John I stoved one of my right fingers really badly... it swelled up for almost a month) or play a football game on your game console of choice. Oh and remember that you have to be in costume, if an official jersey is not available a team tshirt or hoodie will suffice, please and thank you. Many a Saturday John and I have costume changes because two of his teams are playing. I like to go with wearing one teams tshirt under another teams hoodie that way I can just pull something off to make my quick change. If, God forbid, that game is going badly, it is important to get out every single item of paraphenalia of the sports team in the house and wear it or place it neatly around you. This includes but is not limited to, Pez dispensers, nightlights, toothbrushes, gloves, socks, gum, & handmade quilts - all of which we have in the house, displayed... if I didn't put my foot down on some things, our whole house would be overtaken. Seriously. But yes, there is a lot to learn for one from the land of basketball entering a household with someone from the land of football.

Here are my thoughts on football after my first season.

it's actually not that bad. while I still enjoy watching basketball more, football is way easy to watch.
college football is WAY better than the NFL. maybe this is a naive assessment being a newb and all, but pro football players are sloppy and poopy and boring. College players look so much more into it, they play with all their heart and seem to love it so much more. NFL players probably get paid too much money to care that much about the sport and it shows. The games are not that fun. Give me a college game over any gross NFL game any day.
I don't really understand all the rules. Other sports are much easier to figure out. I've been watching games consistently and (mostly) actively for 2 whole months every single weekend and I still don't get the calls most times. Although, I am improving. John actually just gave me a good compliment the other day when I was asking why the quarterback wasn't doing something and he said I "had good eyes" and he didn't mean they were just pretty or well placed on my face, he meant I picked up on something football-y! SCORE.
I'm ready for basketball season to start. no, not that pro junk... college. duh.
we pay professional athletes way too much money. and we let college athletes get away with way too many things.

... that's it for my football thoughts. I hope John reads this and writes some kind of response. I have a feeling he'll want to.

--R

what I'm reading. {vol. 2}

2011-10-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

I figured I'd do another book post. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping track of EVERYTHING I've read, but I can do a book post of things read within the last month since my accident. One thing I was crazy looking forward to before the dreaded egg poaching incident, was our library's annual booksale. My absolute favorite thing about our town is the library -- it's lovely, and if we move away from here I guarantee it's what I'll miss the most. We go to the library at least once a week. Fortunately I had just visited the library the day before I became bedridden so I had two books with me. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the booksale, but John went in my stead and got tons of books, some classics, some favorites of ours that we didn't have our own copy of, random neat old editions of things, coffee table books, and just plain random novels. He did amazing! We ended up getting 40 books for $15! Guesstimated total worth of the books, adding up the prices on the jackets or guessing where there was none, was near $800. AMAZING.

Okay, okay... here are some of those books that I've read in the past few weeks.

... okay, so I reread a lot of things and skimmed through stuff by Philip Pullman His Dark Materials (John had never read the books so we sped through those together ... he loved them!) and The Sally Lockhart Series.
My Lobotomy: a memoir by Howard Dully. Howard had an ice-pick lobotomy when he was 12. His memoir is an incredible read. It's strange and fascinating learning about the lobotomy craze that swept the US once upon a time. Definitely would recommend this one if you like non-fiction.
When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman. I loved this book. Couldn't put it down at all! This book is about Elly and her brother and spans about 30 or so years. Wonderful cast of characters and incredible relationships. Recommend!
The Adults by Alison Espach. This novel was pretty good, but I could take it or leave it. It explores Emily's coming of age in an affluent community and her expanding familial relationships. Maybe I didn't like it so much because I couldn't really relate to Emily and what she was going through.
Bossypants by Tina Fey. Chances are you've already read this or you know someone that's read it, loved it, and told you to READ IT RIGHT NOW, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200. Basically, you should listen to your friend if you haven't already read it. I won't get into it much because you know the deal. It's one of the most recommended books of the year and very well should be. Every girl can relate to Tina Fey. (And it'd still be an interesting read for men, too!) She's amazing and wonderful and speaks the truth with a witty tongue. Read it. The only reason it took me this long to read it is because my library JUST got it in.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka. John picked this book up at the sale due to the cover -- and I'll admit, it's a great cover in a wonderful graphic design-y way. It took me a little longer to trek through this book but it was definitely an interesting read. It's about two adult sisters and their elderly Ukrainian father (he is writing a book about tractors). The father is getting a green card marriage to a much younger, scheming, overly make-up-ed Ukrainian woman with a young son. This was just a book I read when I needed a distraction or was waiting in the car for John (it's hard for me to get around but I like to get out of the house, so I ride along in the car a lot. ha!). Probably wouldn't recommend this, but if it's around and there's nothing better -- read it.
Hook Man Speaks by Matt Clark. Unfortunately this is Matt Clark's only novel, but oh my, it is a page turner. It's especially great for this Halloween time of year. This book follows a man named Leonard who is largely known in the urban legend world of the US as the Hook Man who stalks cars in various Lover's Lane spots around the country. Leonard is being interviewed throughout this novel by a professor of folklore trying to piece together the legends of Hook Man and various others together to get the truth and see how the story exaggerated & spread. It's pretty awesome. Also - a super quick read! Definite recommend.

and I've currently got a few other books I've started, including Hey, Joe by Ben Neihart. Can't really get into it even though the reviews on the cover make me think I should LOVE it. But oh well... it's okay so far I suppose - it follows a 16 year old boy in 1990s New Orleans. We'll see.

HAPPY READING!

cast-tastic.

2011-10-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

it doesn't hurt me to hold my leg up anymore! yay!

The picture to the right is me, and my cast, and my blue toes wearing China Glaze's "For Audrey" in case anyone is interested.

Quick little update to show you my newest cast. I went to the doctor last Friday for the first visit since surgery. They took my splint and wrappings off and I got a first look at my incisions. The one on the left side is about 4 inches long, the right side is smaller, maybe 2 inches? Apparently they "look great!" but my leg and foot just look shriveled and sickly to me. Oh well. Originally after surgery they were going to put me in another splint instead of a cast, but one of the places where they had to put screws was apparently too small and they only fit 1 in where they wanted 2, so the doc & my George doctor (did I mention an intern, like on Grey's, is the doc that talks to me most? I call him my George doctor) say into the cast I go again for 2 more weeks just to give my ankle extra security. Then I (hopefully, fingers crossed) get to wear a boot for another couple of weeks & start physical therapy to help move my ankle around even though I still won't be able to put weight on it and will be stuck with my dumb crutches and or my ~~noble steed~~ wheelchair.

In other news, we finally got our car back from after the wreck -- it's good as new now! So that's a relief. I got out of the house for the first time (not to a medical practice) and went grocery shopping with Black Beauty. It went okay, but my foot swelled up a bunch so that's not fun. More lying on the couch with it propped up most of the time. It's killing me, this sitting around business. But my mommy came to visit this weekend which was lovely and we watched all of the SCREAM movies and I ate a bunch of dark chocolate so my spirits were lifted for the moment.

Anywayyyyyyy -- John said my last post seemed sad. I'm sorry if it seemed sad, I did not mean for it to at all. I have tons to be thankful for and happy about. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad at times, but things could always be worse. Hopefully this post didn't sound sad. Although, my picture probably looks a bit sad - personal appearance has kind of fallen by the wayside for me as of late... oh well!

quick update.

2011-10-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Our blog has been blank for a good while now. To put it plainly ... John and I have had the worst weeks possible. I fully intend to make a post called "John and Rhianna and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Week" and I will. Just to document for us this time in our lives. It's been one for the books.

The post will include the following: sickness (John's already put a post about that, though), a car wreck (not our fault & no one was injured... except our car. major), personal & work problems for both of us (I probably won't blog about that aspect, but they are underlying stresses), animal woes (moody cats ahoy!), no internet (for a whole week! eek!), and that time I tried to poach an egg and slipped and fell in the kitchen and my foot was kind of just dangling off my leg and I broke both my tibia and fibula and my ankle only moved sideways and we both freaked out and somehow got to a hospital. SHEW. say that in one breath! So yes. I ended up breaking my tibia (the bigger of the leg bones) really badly at the ankle - a whole chunk of bone was severed. And I ALSO broke my fibula (smaller of the leg bones) at the ankle. Making one "Clumsy Girl" post for the ages!

Oh readers, if you're out there. It's been challenging for us. Our nerves are basically shot, we're stressed to the max, frustrated with too many other things to mention. As I type everything out I can't help but laugh at everything. I've used the phrase "parody of a tragedy" lately to describe our situation. It fits. But a big post soon - with sweet pics of my broken self & my new ride -- Black Beauty, my wheelchair.

I would like to say that, John and I are probably stronger than ever as a couple though. In a way, it's nice that all this bad stuff has piled on us at once pretty early into our relationship. It's allowed us to learn more about how each of us deal with things and learn how to help each other in extremely stressful situations. We're making it through and we're doing okay. The phrase "livin' on love" sums us up right now. And maybe a desperate plea or prayer to the gods now and then. I should also note that we have an amazing set of family and friends that have reached out to help and lift our spirits. We're thankful.

Hey... it could be worse :)

I hope you're doing well out there in cyber land! It's still uncomfortable for me to be sitting at the computer for long (and we only have a desktop, not laptop), so my computer time is going to be limited to short spurts. I'm slowly trying to catch up on social networking & all that jazz.

Bisous,
Rhianna

Under the Love Weather [a post by John]

2011-09-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

M’girl has trouble with the words. She is very quick minded, which, apart from that condition’s many benefits, occasionally results in the piling up of three, even four phrases in her mind before she has the chance to speak any of them. Especially when she’s sleepy, this manifests as jibberish, e.g. “Wha’d you didn’t say? Ya wanna?”

In full lucidity, this cognitive bottleneck acts as a balloon that you have dutifully inflated and then let go: that is, usually, a sequence of disparate questions fired off in unanswerable succession, e.g. “Isn’t this song by ‘Coldplay?’ Whatever happened to Oasis? Don’t you wanna visit England? Isn’t Kate Middleton amAAAzing?”

Francis Matthew Schutz in his bed by Hogarth

On other occasions, though, this building up of statements necessitates her boiling down her overarching thought to a basic premise. Such was the case earlier today. --The truth is, I wasn’t doing so well last night. I was under the weather. I was running a fever, which I never run, in fact go years without running, and was shivering uncontrollably in a literal sense: sort of convulsing. Long story short, I am miserable and terrified when sick. After some losses over the past few years, I tend to catastrophise in regards to physical ailments: a charming hypochondria to which my poor girlfriend is now party. Despite the paltry nature of my low-grade (102ish… 101.6…) fever, R stayed up with me, got me medicine, fixed me up on the couch with reruns of The Office, reassured me lovingly, etc. I awoke today much better and this afternoon R took a much-deserved nap.

And I watched, through the window, while she slept, the breeze outside doing its best to usher in an early fall, here. I petted our wonderful, stupid dog. I played guitar, watched a bad horror movie, and, once in a while, looked over at R, noticing how pretty she was, bunched up with the quilt, the kitten sleeping on her hip.

In the middle of this nap, she awoke with a sort of start, looked fixedly at me, and asked, “D’j’you don’t mean nothing, you don’t?” Then, miraculously, she shook her head as if to clear it, slogging through the dozen or so questions she’d meant to ask, and reduced her query, following my bad night, to her most central concern: “Do you have everything you need, John?”

“Yes honey,” I said. “I do.”

[image via]

pink 'cause you are so very.

2011-08-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

1. our guest bed with a vintage chenille bedspread I found; 2. a copy of A Little Princess I bought for $1; 3. a vintage pink rosary; 4. 1950s French textbook on top of Pop Impressions Europe/USA; 5. my pink lips wearing Cover Girl's Parisian Pink; 6. a sleep mask; 7. strawberry mochi (yummy!); 8. my pink nails wearing OPI's Strawberry Margarita; 9. a knitting project I'm working on.

scrabble at city tap.

2011-08-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

We love words. We love word games. So it's kind of a tragedy that we don't have a Scrabble set in our house. (I think both of us lost our Scrabble games from moving from childhood homes over the years.) Luckily the local bar in our town, City Tap, has a set - so we go to the bar to PLAY! (And have a drink or two while we bust out some high-point words!) I won't mention who almost always wins -- no one likes that.

City Tap is lovely. It's our only real bar in our town but it's fun! They have weird photographs on the walls, local art displayed, and crazy fun lamps & statues scattered around. Plus an amazing outdoor area. It's a nice way to spend an afternoon.

As for now -- we've been preparing for Irene. Fortunately we won't get anything more than crazy windy storms, but for us that still means power outages. We've moved all the outside stuff to safe places, parked our cars in the field, and made sure all the flashlights have batteries & there's plenty of candles scattered around. I hope those that are on the coast are prepared and safe!

coffeecoffeecoffee.

2011-08-25T05:16:00.000-07:00

Last night we were sitting around the house and then John asked if I wanted to go somewhere. I said "sure!" But I had no idea what to do. He suggested coffee. I loved the idea. We were out of coffee in the house & weren't going to the grocery store til the next day so we hopped in the car and went to town.

We wanted to try out one coffee shop/cafe that we hadn't been to yet, but it was closed. So then we walked down the street and saw that the other coffee shop had already closed. Walked a little more towards the Soda Shoppe and we had just missed the time, it had closed 20 minutes earlier -- the lights were still on & people were still inside, teasing us. Our coffee run was turning out to be nothing more than an evening drive into our tiny, quiet town. But as we were heading back home we drove by the General Store and, thank goodness, the General Store is almost always open! So we parked & went in. The best thing about changing our plans to this locale, not only did we get our coffee & some Boylan's (our favorite maker of gingerale & other sodas!) but they also have Locopops at the General Store! One of my favorite things about living in the Triangle is getting to eat a nice tasty locopop. And they had Strawberries & Cream -- my favorite!

We decided to sit outside and enjoy our drinks & pops. It was nice. The temperature, the time of day, the town, everything made for a pleasant evening. It was very relaxing to sit and people watch while we could see the stores on the main street slowly, one-by-one turn out their lights for closing time. I'm so glad the General Store was open. Our coffee run turned out perfect.

autumn and other natural disasters.

2011-08-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but it's cooling off where we are and we couldn't be more thankful. Both of us are itching for autumn to make its grand entrance into 2011. Lately we've been able to keep the windows open and the AC off during the day and on today's morning run it was actually COLD. Fantastic!

The slightly cooler weather sent me upstairs into the craft closet to organize/sort out all the yarn & tools we have. I knit, John crochets - and never the twain shall meet. ;)

I popped on a bad romantic comedy and whipped up a little earwarmer headband with a bow. Simple & practical. It didn't take any time at all to knit and I had it finished before Sigourney Weaver & Jamie Lee Curtis were hugging in the pool (can you guess which bad romcom I watched?!).

Here it is!

If you don't wanna wear it yourself, it also will fit on your favorite monster*.

Clearly Rory loves wearing it!

I can't wait until it's cool enough outside to wear. Right now if you keep it on too long you get too hot and then your world becomes sepia and your face has expressions all its own.

If you leave it on monsters too long they get scared and make this face...

Anywho! Did you hear about the earthquake?! Of course you did! It's the 21st century -- everyone was tweetin' about it. We live a little over 2 hours away from the epicenter so we got a good little shake. It scared the cats! Penny came running down the stairs looking confused & scared and Fleas starting hissing at the rattling glasses. It was cute! And now we're onto our next natural disaster - Hurricane Irene. Irene is supposed to pour down on us Saturday which means bad storms for us, which means the power will go out, because the power always goes out during a storm, which means we will set out all our candles & flashlights accordingly.

Yeah... ready for summer to be over now. Bring on the fall!!!

*no monsters were harmed during the making of this post.

lo.

2011-08-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

The main reason we are traveling back to the Bluegrass State in a couple of days is to see one of my absolute dearest friends get married. I'm pretty darn excited to see her on her big day! We've been through tons of ups & downs together and I'm happy to celebrate this amazing UP in her life.

Lo is an amazingly funny woman. When you are around her you literally cannot stop laughing. She is the sweetest & cutest. We used to take ridiculous amounts of pictures together. Often staging "scenes" and creating "photo challenges."

One time we went out for sushi & set up the camera and just posed repeatedly like we were having a witty conversation. I don't even want to know what the people in Whole Foods thought of us.

I can't wait to see her so soon! And hopefully steal her away one of the days I'm there to go grab some sushi & pose for photos. Yay for LO! I love her.

*these pictures are years old now. I would like to note that my style of glasses hasn't changed one bit. my current ones look almost exactly like the ones I'm wearing in these pics. odd.

Rhianna, on television: Switched at Birth

2011-08-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

I love television. I've always preferred tv to movies. What does this say about me as a person? I don't know, probably something lame. But anyone that actually knows me in real life knows that I have ~~really bad~~ amazing taste in all things media. If something is super cheesy, I'm lookin' at you bad romantic comedies and/or musicals, chances are I'm going to LOVE IT. So it goes without saying that one of my new favorite phrases to read/see concerning television....

a new ABC Family original series
BAM! INSTANT AWESOME!

Okay, let me admit here that there are tons of their original series that I've not cared about or watched (eg: Make It or Break It [I heard DJ from Full House was in this though...] or Melissa and Joey [hey guys, your "careers" were over a decade+ ago so give up the witchcraft & sayings of "whooooa"])

Moving on... let's talk about Switched at Birth. I love it. Don't you? The end.

juuuuuuust kidding. What I mean to say is: this show is so much fun and so cheesy. It is both dramatic and educational. let's break it down:

Dramatic - Two baby girls switched at birth. DRAMA. One girl goes to a wealthy WASPtastic clan & lives a life of privilege; the other goes to a single, hardworking, (previous alcoholic *DRAMA*), Latina mother living on the wrong side of the tracks. DOUBLE DRAMA. And wait for it -- one of the girls is DEAF. TRIPLE DRAMA. Okay. So here we see that this show is uping the game. It's got major ups. I'm talking they are gonna take the "Air Jordan" franchise away from Nike & Michael because they have the MOST ups. ABC Family is going there & getting real -- watch out Degrassi*.

Educational - You get to learn a lot of ASL. I actually really love that half the regular characters are deaf and speak ASL. What a wonderful show for the deaf community! The subtitles on this show are actually for the hearing people. Watching this show (PS - I watch it on Hulu+ and I like to watch all the Behind the Scenes clips too!) I've learned a lot of basic signs and some fun phrases. When I'm giving John the silent treatment I will use my hands to speak and angrily tell him "I like cupcakes" or "I'm learning to sign" or "Do you want to go dancing with me?" because those are mainly the phrases I know. But for all John knows, I'm telling him "how dare you make fun of me for ______?! I'm not going to talk to you at all for _______!" So let me just say, it's effective. ;)

Let's get serious. This show is worth a watch. The situations & dialogue are cheesy at times & unbelievable, but they are fun. Yes, Switched at Birth, is following in the footsteps quite nicely of my two other favorite ABC Family Originals, Secret Life and Pretty Little Liars. OMG, PLL! Tune in next week when I break that down for you. (not really. I couldn't even begin to handle talking about Pretty Little Liars. WAAAAAY too much pretty people drama. but awesome)

I'll end on this note: Emmett & Daphne or Emmett & Bay. I'm completely...

EMMETT & BAY (all the way!)

*Degrassi: The Next Generation (although it can be argued that also the original series too) has the tagline "it goes there" and also "it's about to get real" to show how far they are willing to go. You know, drama wise.

[images via ABCFamily.com]

yesterday.

2011-08-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

a short narrative by John.

2011-08-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks we've been figuring out bills & canceling/renewing accordingly. Below is a narrative by John explaining one of our problems. I'm sure all of you that have ventured into the cable/satellite world can relate to this story.

Trying to Cancel DirecTV: A Narrative
Rachel (7th grade); Carl (9th grade)

They had gone out only twice, the first time to a Cheddar’s, the second time to a different Cheddar’s. And it wasn’t exactly because Rachel disliked Carl that she wasn’t going to go out with him again; he was pleasant and occasionally amusing, but, let’s face it, she thought to herself, not worth the $7.98 weekly budget for Cheddar’s Legendary Monster Cookies keeping his company necessitated.

But in concert with his crushing naivety, his canine persistence, and his head: the head of a 14 year old boy with the unevenly parted and be-dandruffed hair of a 45 year old male librarian, Carl’s spotty comprehension of language educed Rachel’s proclivity for basic human decency such that she was unable to ever officially, completely end their toddling-relationship in the closing moments of any of their infrequent and awkward conversations.

This made their accidental meeting in the Kroger’s parking lot quite uncomfortable, Rachel knowing that she would be put in a position of either, ultimately, marrying Carl and staying with him forever, or being, however reluctantly, mean enough to impress upon him that never again would they split a Jamaican-Me-Crazy! smoothie whilst discussing the nuances of Ruffalo’s Hulk versus Norton’s. After all, their last conversation had ended, she noted to a friend via text afterward, “AQ-WERD x 3!” That is:
Oh, gosh, I’m not sure, Carl, I’m pretty busy all weekend.
OK! No problem! I’ll see you next Saturday, then!
Oh, I don’t know… I mean… I might not be able to.
Keepin’ busy, huh? GOOD STUFF! ! !

pay no mind to Rhianna's remedial photoshop skillz (the z is neccessary)

The ennui of that earlier scene recreated itself fairly authentically under the enormous blue letters of the Kroger as Carl, pointing upward (for nearly twenty seconds) at the burned out K asked Rachel, “Just gettin’ some supplies at the ‘Roger?! Ha ha! (still pointing) See it?” Eventually, though, after a line of rebuttals from Carl that included the following: “I’ll call you at 8! … No? 9 then! … I’ll call you at 4:30, as soon as you get home!” Rachel, left with no other course, looked directly into Carl’s smiling face, and said, “Carl, I was trying to be nice, but since you are either too stupid to understand, or too myopic to grasp what I’m saying, I’m forced to tell you that I want to utterly end our aberrant relationship. I never want to see, or hear, or be near you, ever, never ever, ever again.”

Then Carl put Rachel on hold for 23 minutes while he got his supervisor.

around our home. [elephants]

2011-08-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

Our house has a lot of "us" around. What I mean by that is, we aren't minimalists in design. As much as I long for that perfect Danish Modern sofa or sleek lines, it'll never happen in our home. Cozy and (organized) cluttered - that's the way we go. Our furniture is lived in and squishy, we have tons of quilts & pillows around, and our shelves are filled with various decorations & knickknacks that show our interests & personality. I've almost completely come to terms with it. I still lust after minimal designs with just pops of color I see in interior design blogs but I know in my heart that I'll just have to admire them from afar.

Every few weeks I'll share some things from around our home. The first set is one that says something about me (Rhianna). I like elephants. Strike that -- I love elephants. [I may or may not even still sleep with an old stuffed one occasionally.] After a few seconds in our home you will see that there are tons of elephants. I've snapped some photos of a few. I didn't feel like photographing all of them, but there are more - on napkins, trays, glasses, clothing, etc.

don't remember where I got him. he lives on a shelf in our bedroom.

left necklace from J.Crew -- right necklace, thrift find & gift from Cecilia

an elephant print my friend Lindsay made

wooden carved candle holder & one piece stone carved elephant with an elephant inside

elephant teapot.

of pigs + art.

2011-08-08T09:47:00.001-07:00

We went to our friend's 2nd Annual Pig Pickin Jubilee on Saturday. I did bring my camera, but I left it in the car which was parked far away. We went over there early (they live <5mins from us) to help them set up (poor Kelly [1/2 of the husband/wife hosts] was sick!) and oh gosh, was it ever hot. It had stormed really bad in the morning but cleared up beautifully, leaving us with blue skies and air so thick you could cut it with a knife. By the time people started showing up we all had a nice shiny coat of sweat. The good thing about living so close, after a couple hours we ran home to check on animals and change clothes! The pig pickin was a success though! So much fun was had by all. I am a little sad that I didn't get my camera out at all, but there were so many people there with fancy cameras taking pictures so I'm sure I'll be able to get my hands on some digital memories in the near future. John ate some of the pig, because, yes, there was a whole pig on display, and deemed it delicious. Rhianna did not eat the pig and stuck with the 3 different kinds of coleslaw to be had on the side dish table. Rhianna made lots of new friends and loved socializing with everyone. John entertained everyone with some tuneage at the open mic stand (highlights include playing while a sick Kelly [such a trooper! she gets 1,000 gold stars!] sang "Sally Ann" and playing the guitar for a 9 year old boy that sang "Soul Sister"). John and Rhianna both wanted to steal a precocious and adorable 4year old boy named Ethan. It was a wonderful hot & fun day.

Sunday we had our first meal out since our month long experiment! We actually went back to the local restaurant where we had our last meal out on July 4th. We like to do things full circle. The restaurant we chose also doubles as an art gallery for local artists and we happened to be sitting in front of some paintings while an art reception was going on in another part of the restaurant. People kept walking up to our table, standing uncomfortably close beside us, to look at the paintings. Once our appetizer came it got a bit too weird for us - joking that we should hand write a sign on our table "Young Adults Eating - living art by John & Rhianna" - so we asked to be moved one table over (by the windows, not the paintings). We laughed as the young hostess ended up sitting (& eventually moving) 3 more couples at that table. Obviously she didn't get that the people coming for the food instead of the art didn't like to be treated as art. Oh well.

We ended our weekend on a fun note...

...with a marathon of The OC. We settled in with our three animal babies and watched pretty people resolve superficial conflicts with a good punch in the face or drug overdose. ;) We adore teen melodrama in our house.

thinking ...

2011-08-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of shutting this blog down for a while. But that doesn't mean stop blogging, as I really enjoy having my memories here. Perhaps exporting all these posts into a new blog and continuing on with that new blog, one I share with someone. And that someone might be my Mister. Especially since it's no longer really just me that I blog about. Everything now is pretty much linked with him - and I like it that way. So "Rhianna Brooke" just doesn't seem to cut it. We'll see! If he's in, I'm in. /random

Happy week, lovelies!

north.

2011-08-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched the movie North. It's safe to say that I haven't watched this movie in at least 10 years, probably more. I adored this movie when I was younger. I was very excited to see it on instant Netflix. It's so interesting to watch a movie you loved as a child, haven't seen in years, and now watch it as an adult. This movie is so fun and clever. Mister, who had never seen it & wasn't thrilled by my choice of movie for the evening, even really liked it. About 15 minutes in, "hey, this movie is pretty good." Yes, yes it is!

Bruce Willis as the guardian easter bunny.

Ma and Pa Tex! I absolutely LOVE Reba.
I felt North shoulda chose them simply because they had a song and dance prepared!

Viva El Norte!

loved the sweaters & needlpoint, Kathy Bates!

didn't realize baby ScarJo was in it!

{images via}

Some wisdom from the movie:

                    Joey Fingers: Remember, kid, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of Miami.
                    North: What metaphor is that?
                    Joey Fingers: What metaphor? You ever been down there in August? Your balls stick to your leg like crazy glue.

experimenting. {groceries, lifestyle}

2011-08-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

actual picture of the 2 of us outside!

The last time the two of us went out to eat was lunch on July 4th. We decided that after that lunch we would go a month without eating out. Make all of our meals at home. Buy only healthy foods. Drink only black coffee, tea, some fruit juices, or water. Be active everyday. I didn't blog about it before because I didn't want to jinx us. Technically we still have til Friday before our month is over, but honestly, we'll probably continue a long time after that. For the two of us, this seemed like a daunting task. We loved going out to eat and exploring our new town via cafes and restaurants. We were also addicted to gross over processed foods & sodas. I thought it was going to be hard, it actually turned out to be super easy. I don't know if we are just both in a different stage in our life or what but within days we felt better, we were sleeping better, and we were saving tons of money.

We tried to buy as locally and organic as possible (which is easy where we live, so we were super lucky) and found out that our taste for things had changed through that. We actually LIKED milk now that we were getting it from a local farm - this is what is was supposed to taste like? We both hated drinking milk before and avoided it, opting for almond milk in our cereal. Now there are some things we will only get locally - milk, eggs, bread (my next task is to learn how to make my own bread instead of buying it at the co-op), produce. Like I stated earlier, it was super easy for us to buy local, organic foods. We have a wonderful co-op in our town where we get the essentials. It's also really nice that you get to support your community. One reason that is keeping us out in our country home is because our town has such a strong sense of community - it's extremely refreshing.

Another reason this experiment helped us -- money. We have saved so much it's ridiculous and embarrassing. After looking back at financial statements and seeing what we were spending on food & drinks before it was... well, it was sad - I can't even share the figures. So not only are we getting healthier now, we have more money saved up by making all of our meals.

I definitely encourage anyone to try this experiment. Make ALL of your meals & snacks at home for a week, two weeks, a month, etc. ... whatever you want to start with. See how much money you save and how much better you feel. It may seem hard, but once you get into a routine, it doesn't take much time at all. We'd make lunches and snacks for the next day the night before, cut up produce & store in containers (we would freeze a lot of our fruit, too, and eat that for dessert - SO good) as soon as you get home from buying groceries, plan meals ahead of time. Think about what you want to make for the week before procuring your meat, produce, & extras. It's easy. Trust me. If I can do it, you can.

Now -- taking it one step further... This was not my idea, it was Mister's and he got this idea towards the end of our month experiment. We also decided to not buy groceries until we had eaten EVERYTHING in our cupboards, refrigerator, & freezer. So that means our staples (bread, eggs, fresh meat & produce, milk) were gone in a few days, we had to resort to the things stuck in the back of the freezer & cupboard. A LOT of frozen veggies, eating up all the soup & oats, and finally eating the three things of frozen pork sausage that our neighbors gave us (I'm pretty sure I blogged about the scary hogs they had months ago, well they've been in our freezer for a while). This experiment was interesting. I'd be lying to you if I said it was the most fun thing I've ever done. Mister definitely had a better attitude about it. Luckily for me, the coffee ran out on exactly the last day of eatable food left in our house. Had I had to go without coffee any days on that experiment, I would have done some damage to something (or someone ... you reading this Mr?!). I discovered I absolutely loathe eating oat bran (no matter how much cinnamon, it just was bland), eating mixed veggies for all meals, & eating pasta for more than one meal a day (never realized how much pasta makes my stomach hurt & feel plain rotten). Highlighted "meals" include: eating a bowl of meat for breakfast (Ron Swanson Approved!) and a spoon of peanut butter & pickles.

Enlighten Mint - how I missed thee!

Anyway -- we did it! We got down to frozen lima beans (which I refuse to eat, I hate them), some various oat products (no fun if there's no milk), and chicken stock & broth, and cream of mushroom soup. Finally, we went grocery shopping last night. I was drooling over all the apples & bananas we got, lovingly stroking the glass bottle of milk, singing to the eggs, dancing with the bread. If you think I'm exaggerating, you clearly don't know me well. Oh oh oh! And best part! A trip to the co-op meant I got to get a can of my most favorite cold drink (besides H2O) - Yerba Mate Enlighten Mint. Mmmm SO good. (If you don't drink Yerba Mate [original hot tea] you should! Organic natural goodness! And Enlighten Mint is EVEN better than original Mate)

kinfolk.

2011-07-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

The online magazine craze is really taking off - it's almost hard to keep up! I'm in love with Rue and Matchbook but I have to say, my absolute favorite so far is Kinfolk. All the articles, videos, & pictures are so lovely and inspiring.

volume one cover

loved Andrew + Carissa's Summer for Two

So many of my favorite bloggers, like Andrew + Carissa and hearblack just to name two, contribute. There are so many fun ideas in this magazine. It's hard to not get crazy inspired. Check out their first issue. You won't regret it.

button.

2011-07-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

Buttons. I made one.
It's below or on my "about page" & on the side if'n you want it.

hot weekend.

2011-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

The heat index in our part of the country was the highest in the nation this weekend. I suppose it's our turn for this crazy heat wave. We continued life as normal at first because we are kind of disconnected from the outside world until we go out in the world each day. No tv & we only get on the internet to check emails and social networks. Friday we went to the PTA home store and bought a chair and ottoman. We already have a loveseat and sofa, but the loveseat is still missing its cushions -- that's a humorous and long story that I won't share right now. We moved the loveseat up into the loft and I spent Saturday cleaning up the chair and ottoman before we brought it in to live in our little living room. We quite like it. A lot. We also spent the earlier part of the weekend picking through other PTAs and used bookstores and ended up coming home with a crazy amount of books (it would be our luck that another town's PTA was having a book sale on their already crazy cheap books) and some records.

our new chair with some of our new book purchases on it.
mister's grandmother made that quilt and it's so perfect to curl up in when reading.

Sunday brought thunderstorms. Which, for us, means power outages. Our electricity goes off for brief periods a lot out here in the country. But it was out for most of the day on Sunday. We got a lot of reading done during the day. The power came back on in the evening for an hour and then it decided to stop again. It's not easy to sleep when you're burning up but we made little beds out in the living room (it was cooler out there) and talked as it got later and later. It was a bit creepy to see the electric company trucks drive slowly up and down our road with spotlights lighting up the treelined sky trying to find whatever was causing the problem. Eventually the power did come back on though. However, Monday had more storms in store for us so once again the electricity kept going on and off -- kinda frustrating.

In the no power/internet days we had, I decided to dye my hair a dark brown last night. It's never been a complete brown before -- I always bought an auburn color if I wanted to go darker than my natural ginger. But I straight up got "dark golden brown" this time and it did not disappoint. Let's see if my hair, that has a talent for growing superfast and rejecting hair dye (I dye it one day and it's back to normal in less than a week, even with professional dye jobs), will stay dark for a while. Photobooth pics below!

hope y'all are staying cool!

my moon my man.

2011-07-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

Looking through photographs in my "inspiration" folder on my computer, I found (refound?) all these pictures I had saved from somewhere of an installation art piece by Leonid Tishkov and Boris Bendikov of Russia called "Private Moon." I just loved what they did so much. I posted them back in a long ago forgotten blog (livejournal? or maybe just my first blogspot?); I figured I'd repost them again on here. They still inspire me. Enjoy.

[since I saved them years ago I don't know their original source, sorry!]

fleas.

2011-07-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

On our Sunday evening walk, I made Mister stop talking (don't worry, we finished the conversation later) and said, "shh! Do you hear that? It sounds like a cat or something?" Sure enough, after back-tracking a few steps, he found it. A tiny kitten. Crying and crying. I jumped into the ditch and plucked her out of the thicket hissing and swiping at me. The poor thing was so small and scared. I cradled her in my cutoff sweatshirt and we asked the neighbors if they were missing a kitten. After a reply of "no" we turned around and headed home. We decided to keep the kitten. Over the next two days, I cleaned her up, fed her (watered down kitten chow and supplementing with a bottle & formula - she doesn't look even 6 weeks yet), cuddled her, played with her, and introduced her to the other pets - Rory LOVES her, she loves Rory - Penny HATES her, she loves Penny. Maybe Pen will come around. And maybe not. Oh, we also named her. Naming her was the hardest part. I wanted to name her something that represented her and something that was cute. Mister wanted to name her something "hilarious" although he and I disagree on what is "hilarious" for a kitten name. ;) Thicket was almost her name, since we found her in brambles. Sunday, was her name for almost a day because we found her on a Sunday. But Flea (or, as M says "Fleas") stuck. She's about the size of one, jumps around like one, and she was covered in them until I bathed her (TWICE) and picked and plucked all the fleas off of her. We compromised and found it both "cute," "fitting," and "hilarious."

So here she is -- meet Flea(s). She's a pistol.

We love her a lot already. It's so fun to watch her pounce, scamper, and play. She runs after Rory, our 90lb dog, Rory licks or sniffs her then jumps to play with her, which makes Fleas scared and puff up and hiss -- it's so cute.

Oh, and side note -- if you don't follow me on google+ or twitter, you may not know, but I cut a foot off my hair. It's super short now (and I might even go shorter later!).

sundays.

2011-07-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

On Sundays we go kayaking. It's so very lovely to live near a big lake.

Here are pictures from this morning.

kayaks on Troy (my car)

there were a few other kayakers out there with us

but overall the lake was pretty quiet

kayaks are the best because you can get so close to the wildlife.
(we saw 2 bald eagles this time, too!)
we see a lot of blue herons when we are out there.

it's neat to watch them catch fish or fly away.

we kayaked up into a little cove to the right.

we dropped anchor to enjoy the stillness and read.
Mister is reading Moby Dick.

I'm still on East of Eden.

after sitting there for a while you start to think you have the place to yourself.
and it's awesome.

we'll probably make kayaking on Sundays our weekend routine.
it's too nice not to.

Happy Sunday!

mister writes. {harry potter}

2011-07-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter has ended. You'd have to be living amongst that one unknown & uncontacted Amazon tribe that got a lot of play a while ago when someone got footage of them to NOT know that Harry Potter is over. I, along with my boo, have seen the movie twice already (odds are at least one more time before it leaves theaters). I got to take Mister on his first midnight premiere experience. I'm pretty sure he loved it. I cried a lot. I loved it very very much. But enough with this. Writing about Harry Potter is always hard for me. I love it so much and it is so important to me like it is for so many people. Mister is a writer. Like he gets paid and stuff to do that. Ha. He has decided to share his thoughts on Harry Potter. So in the first installment of a series aptly named "Mister Writes" on this here blog, he has chosen his topic wisely. Here goes...

***

After seven months of dating, it appears my girlfriend and I are finally getting intimate, in that I’ve been invited to contribute to her blog as a guest poster. There is, for me, what feels like an obligatory impulse to comment on our life together: where we’re living and how, our delight in and contentment with one another, et cetera. But that would be disingenuous, as there is, let’s be honest, only one thing about which to blog this weekend: Harry Potter and the Midnight Finale.

On Thursday evening, around nine, we stood in line with a comprehensive assortment of Bellatrix Lestranges, Remus Lupins, Ravenclaws, elves, and the rest of the menagerie of Potterites (even a Voldemort, who was accosted by a group of Gryffindors and beaten mercilessly in the parking lot, left for dead beside his mother’s Toyota Tercel). As a side note: from what I can tell, redheads everywhere are ecstatic that the Weasley family has facilitated, for them, a genus of costume wherein their God-given head is the central component (and one that is not Raggedy f-ing Ann or Andy).

he chose this image for the blog post.

Three college-aged girls directly in front of us passed the time paradoxically: smoking cigarettes, clad in Hogwarts house colors, debating nuances of Potter mythos, chiefly, which house each thought they’d be in (though if you’re smoking, you’re Slytherin, right? Or maybe you go to Durmstrang, the Tony Soprano of wizarding schools, where badasses get magical). They reminded me, in their fervor, of my little cousins, years ago, fawning over the first of the films, begging Santa Claus for everything Harry Potter. And while, eventually, my cousins stopped believing in Santa, I imagined them, like these girls, in a similar line somewhere, evincing their continued faith in Harry Potter: a faith that’s endured, unimaginably, through pieces of no less than three decades.

Near the end of our wait, the girls were interviewed by our local News Channel 11 (which promulgates its synergistic eleven-ness via a litany of slogans meant to reinforce its serendipitous network premise, e.g. “Next on 11 at 11,” or, “This is Dirk Skipson, and welcome to News 11 at 11,” and my favorite, “… all that and more tonight… at 11… on 11.”). Their replies smacked of rehearsal, bolstering my assumption that people their age imagine, each morning upon waking, scenarios in which they will appear on television. For example, their responses each featured the keywords childhood, generation, and “Star Wars,” in varying order.

Nonetheless, as we continued into the theater to our seats, shuffling by and amongst the robed and bespectacled throngs, lightning bolts adorning foreheads as if it was some Greco-Pagan Ash Wednesday, it was clear that the girls were speaking some form of the sincere truth: Harry Potter held nothing less than the hearts and imaginations of an entire generation of young people world-wide, the series developing synchronously alongside millions of readers experiencing the real-life sensation of (God help us) growing up. If we need more evidence that HP has impressed itself indelibly onto the psyches of the multi-national millions: I recently read that the books most requested by inmates at Guantanamo Bay— other than the Quran— were those of the Harry Potter series (although, in keeping with Donald Rumsfeld’s practices of psychological cruelty, the captives were furnished copies of “Eragon,” instead...).

When the film concluded, as the credits rolled, two young men yelled out, “MISCHIEF MANAGED!” Their homage to Potter’s, “Marauder’s Map,” elicited a cacophony of cheers and, audibly, sobs from the audience, all of it tinged, undeniably, with a forlorn sense of— what else?— finality. As members of the audience hugged and cried and laughed, there was a pervasive sense in the theater of a peculiar brand of loss, in that the Harry Potter space on the bookshelf would begin occupying, as of that moment, the same internal space as cherished photographs, shifting from essential to nostalgic— just like that, all of us hurtling into the future, finding that the present is a place we’ll never quite get back to. Like the Berlin Wall (or slap bracelets) before it, there was the world with Harry Potter, and then, beginning around 2 a.m. Friday morning, the world beyond him. And whether all losses act as a metaphor for death or the other way around, just as in the final Harry Potter film itself, something about the discovery of that truth seems to be the real difference between childhood and (God help us) adulthood.

As the theater emptied, I couldn’t help but be overcome by the sense that I was witnessing those masses arriving at a very important precipice— and maybe I was, too. And I was reminded, suitably, of the words of Albus Dumbledore, who once suggested that, effectively, all of life’s great adventures— the very process of living itself— are a series of beginnings predicated upon a series of endings. “Every new beginning,” said Dumbledore, “comes from some other beginning’s end.” … …or… shit… that might have been Semisonic... not Dumbledore. I can’t remember… it was so many years ago now…

a few pictures of places and things.

2011-07-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

my favorite chicken. the bossiest of the bunch. she eats out of my hand.

my black eyed susans are blooming in the side yard.

we go for walks all the time. at least once a day. here are two of the roads we walk. you can see a storm blowing in. the other day we were a few feet away from an adorable fox. the wildlife we see on our walks is awesome.

we absolutely adore our little red house.
we live out in the country. it's nice.

what I'm reading. {vol. 1}

2011-07-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

I read a lot. Always have and, hopefully, always will. It's no surprise that I have a degree in English. But here's a bad habit I developed during undergrad & grad school -- I am a perpetual rereader. During school, especially as English degrees go, you don't have much time to read for pleasure. It's absolutely horrible. You have to read all these books for school so the ones you want to read get left by the wayside. Reading before bed has always been something of a routine for me. Having my brain stuffed with crazy, heavy novels and other literature forced on me by my professors, I just wanted to chill out and read something I knew at night. So I started getting in the habit of "comfort books" and just rereading all my favorite books I'd already read. This habit isn't so terrible until you take away the school aspect and then miraculously you have time to read for pleasure again -- but now you've associated pleasure reading with comfort reading and you get stuck in ruts. Woe is me. The upside, I do have spurts of reading new books, albeit not as often as I'd like. I'm trying to train myself again to read more new-to-me books than comfort books. This summer has proved fruitful for me on this front.

Here's what I've read so far this summer:

Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Also known as The Other Hand if you're reading it in the UK. Two women from two very different worlds and how their lives entwine.

"The men came and they... that's how all of our stories started."

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley. A lovely collection of essays.

"If you have to ask someone to change, to tell you they love you, to bring wine to dinner, to call you when they land, you can't afford to be with them."

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. Travel writing, a pilgrimage to different presidential assassination sites.

"The people who visit the [Lincoln] memorial always look like an advertisement for democracy, so bizarrely, suspiciously diverse that one time I actually saw a man in a cowboy hat standing there reading the Gettysburg Address next to a Hasidic Jew. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had linked arms with a woman in a burka and a Masai warrior, to belt out ‘It’s a Small World After All,’ flanked by a chorus line of nuns and field-tripping, rainbow-skinned schoolchildren."

Brush Up Your Mythology by Michael Macrone. Author of several "Brush Up" books. A good primer or overview for Greek/Roman mythology.

"I first read of the Golden Fleece in a comic book starring Walt Disney's inimitable skinflint, Scrooge McDuck." ... [tale of Jason & the Argonauts] ... "What happened to the Golden Fleece, though, is a mystery; perhaps Scrooge McDuck knows the answer."

Looking for Alaska by John Green. A YA novel.

"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."

The Books of Lost Things by John Connolly. A story about growing up set in a fantasy world of classic fairy tales with a twist.

"Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should begin – there was a boy who lost his mother."

Trick of the Eye by Jane Stanton Hitchcock. A trompe l'oeil artist is commissioned to work for a very wealthy woman with many secrets.

"My object is to arrest and amuse my viewers by leading them away from reality and making them look twice, if only for an instant, at the beauty of illusion."

And now I'm about halfway through East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I'm actually quite surprised how quickly I got into this book. So far it is definitely my favorite Steinbeck. Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend and then onto others!

space.

2011-07-05T12:16:00.000-07:00


the rocket garden

On our trip to Florida, we also went to the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island. Mister's mother lives in the area of Florida deemed "the space coast" which I think is an awesome name. I love learning about space. I am totally fascinated by it. When I was 10 my family went on a vacation to Florida for some beach time and my parents took me to the Kennedy Space Center. I was completely amazed with everything there. We did the longer bus tour and got to see shuttle launch pads, training centers, old rockets and shuttles, and eat space food. We were also extremely lucky because when we were there we got to see a shuttle launch, the Atlantis. This shuttle took Shannon Lucid up into orbit to stay on the Mir Space Station. When she came back to Earth 188 days later she gained the record of the longest time spent in space by an American and by a woman (as of a few years ago, she no longer holds these records). Two years later, one of my favorite books, Space, came out and we traveled all over Texas making an important stop at the Johnson Space Center. Those two things kind of cemented my love of Space. But enough with all that.

This trip to the Kennedy Space Center was amazing. There were many more displays to see, things to do, and places to explore. I particularly loved getting to walk around in the space shuttle Explorer and going on the Shuttle Launch Experience. Both of those things were unavailable when I was 10. If you ever have a chance to go to either space center (Kennedy is my favorite of the two, though that just might be for nostalgia) you should definitely go there. And take the bus tours at least once (we didn't bus it up this past time, too hot & not enough time).

I think it's just heartbreaking that the shuttle launches are ceasing with the end of the space shuttle program and the NASA budget cuts. I'm of the opinion that space exploration is important, it fosters an adventurous learning spirit and gives people something to look to outside themselves. It's just really sad to me that our country cares more about putting money into weapons and pointless wars with the grossly astronomical (space adjective!) military expenditures than putting money into exploration of space. From now on, if we even want to send someone up into space we have to go through Russia. Sigh.

The regret on our side is, they used to say years ago, we are reading about you in science class. Now they say, we are reading about you in history class.
-- Neil Armstrong, July 1999, Gemini 8 and Apollo 12, first man to ever walk on the moon.

Anyway, let's end this on a good note. I had a fantastic time on the Space Coast! Yay!

Space Shuttle Explorer

mouse ears.

2011-07-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

We've been going going going lately and we've been fortunate to have some great experiences. Just this morning we said goodbye to two of my dear friends, Lauren & Cecilia. They came and stayed a long weekend with us. It was lovely to catch up with them -- talking, eating good food, lounging in the pool, and being lazy watching television. I'm very thankful that I got to see them and hope to see them again soon. But before they came over we were in Florida visiting Mister's mom, hanging by the beach, going to the Kennedy Space Center (more on that tomorrow), and... as you've probably guessed -- going to the most magical place on Earth -- DISNEY WORLD!

Enough with the talk, here are a few of the pictures I took...

outside the Magic Kingdom

the coolest mice on the planet

Alice outside the Teacups.

ELEPHANT!

Mister with our Mickey treats

I got a new charm for my bracelet

It was a most magical day for sure. I got some Minnie Mouse ears and wore them the whole day while at the park. Unfortunately due to time & money we only got to explore one park so we chose Magic Kingdom (as if there was any other choice when you have to choose just one). Of course this means we are going back as soon as possible to hit up all the parks -- shooting for October to be specific so we can celebrate my birthday and attend the Wine And Food Festival.

Even though it was just one day and one park, it was still a m a z i n g. A place where no one cares that adults walk around dressed like kids with spontaneous music numbers in the streets and everyone is happier than anywhere else? This is where I want to be always. I've worn my Minnie ears many times since we tore our eyes away from that shining magical castle that night. We rode Splash Mountain 4 times (we got stuck on it for 20 minutes the last time & got free fast passes for our trouble). In Frontierland I was pulled into a musical performance and danced and clapped and smiled and laughed. We rode the monorail around and toured the pretty hotels. We had dinner at Wilderness Lodge. And we got to see so many tiny princesses walking around the park that had visited the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique -- so jealous of them! I totally wanted to have my own fairy godmother make me into a princess. It was just lovely. So so so thankful for that experience.

next time, I'm buying a balloon!

If you have the chance to go to Disney World, you should. If you've visited many times, that's awesome! I hope to be a regular Disney goer in the future.

See ya real soon!

countdowns are terrifying sometimes.

2011-06-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

We have no internet for a few days! Eeep. What is it about this day in time that when you are without internet you feel just incredibly isolated -- even when you really aren't?! Since we don't have cable/satelite this also means no TV because we use Netflix/HuluPlus! Oh brave new world!

Anyway. My friendlie Cara-Mia just made her blog super cute. You should go look at it. She's good with the internet. I need to buckle down and learn the internet like her! Also - she made a button outta my face! She is nice! I will make her teach me how to make buttons. In the meantime, she made one for her own blog which I put

RIGHT OVER THERE ------>
(er, somewhere over there, you may have to look down depending on where this post ends up on the page.)

But I need to start putting up buttons because they are cute and nice and fun. CM's is the only one I got so far but when I get internet at my house again I will work on that.

I'm not TOO terribly sad about no internet for days (we are switching providers) because it will be back up and running when we return from Florida. And we leave for Florida on Sunday. So... yeah.

I just want to say though... I'm on the internet at the library and they make you sign in with your card number and all that, but then you only get 180 minutes on the computer. I say ONLY 180 because there is this countdown timer thing that stays at the top of the screen telling you how much time you have left. Now 180 minutes is a long time to spend in one sitting on the internet, but the timer just being up there makes me panic. You know how that feels? I know I just need enough time to pop on and respond to a few emails and maybe leisurely check blogs, but that doesn't take 180 minutes. Suddenly I'm panicking though. What if it DOES take me 180 minutes? What happens when the minutes are up? I'm at 163 right now. OH no! Does someone in a scary uniform come and take me away?! Do I get a stern talking to for trying to go over the 180 minutes? Do they revoke my library card for a week? Surely not! I can't live without my library card. I go here almost every day.

Enough with the dramatics -- I'm sure all that will happen will be that I have to login again with my card number and name and then I will get 180 more minutes unless there is a queue to use the computers (which there isn't). But isn't it funny how just a timer counting down seconds and minutes suddenly makes you panic? Weird.

Sans internet - I've stormed through two books in the past two days. So I'm going to get more. BOOK SUGGESTIONS ANYONE? I tend to just go to the recommended section and see what the librarians think you should read. So far the choices have been pretty good. I think I'm going to use my remaining 159 minutes to find some "Summer Reading" posts on blogs or something and get suggestions.

TA TA!!!

penny.

2011-06-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have a cat. Her name is Penny. She's just divine. I've always considered myself a "cat person" if I absolutely had to choose. Really I'm just an "animal person." But Penny if my first animal that has been all "mine" -- ya dig? She's going to be 4 soon. I can't believe we've been best friends for so long now. I've known her since the day she was born and I'm so glad she is mine. She's not always nice. Not to say that she is mean exactly, but she's pretty picky about when she wants attention and just how much affection she'll let you give her. If she's not feelin' it, she'll let you know. I respect that. She's been through a lot with me and I know change isn't really easy for cats so I would definitely say she's been a trooper with all the moves we've made over the years. I'm really happy to say that now she seems like she's doing extremely well. The last changes in our lives have really suited her. She just seems better, happier, more lively, fun. I just adore her.

Now, now. All these words for a silly sassycat? Lame. Maybe just because these past two days I've had extra quality time with her so I felt like writing about her a little. Who knows. Maybe she's controlling my mind and making me write things about her on the internet. Cats have great powers, you see. You can see it in their eyes when they stare at you. The kind of stare that just unnerves you, like they are looking into your soul. Cats are creepy. Maybe that's why I love them.

Anywho -- off to clean and read (almost finished one library book and then onto another!) and then skype with best friendlies and prepare for a seafood cookout with the musicmakin' boys (mister & his bff are recording music all day every day this week -- I only see them for meals & the occasional tv episode, typical).

Happy week to you! Whether you are or aren't a cat person. ;)

sandy.

2011-06-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

today... craving the perfect weather of san diego.
oh to live somewhere warm without humidity.

birthday (stockings) & libraries. and flags?

2011-06-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

we jumped from bed yesterday and headed to the local community college to check out the track they have. it was pretty darn awesome. we had a great walk and enjoyed seeing the college, lots-o-nature, and most importantly the library. here, check it...

the library is fairly new and GORGEOUS. definitely our new favorite place and a check mark for the PRO side of the ongoing list in our head for staying in this town or not. right now, I'm adding some songs to our shuffle and going to head on over to the track again and then go get a library card. I'm stoked. can't wait to find a book and cuddle up in front of one of the huge windows and read after I get a couple miles in on the track.

Penny laid on the scrap fabric bag & watched me sew.

today is a good day.

also, it's Mister's birthday. (and Flag Day.) I got him lots of little gifts that he will open tonight. I also sewed up a Birthday Stocking (ya know, like the kind you hang from the fireplace on Christmas) and filled it with some stocking stuffers. this sounds weird, but my guy LOVES Christmas, so I wanted to give him a bit of Christmas cheer on his summer birthday. he was pretty darn excited when he saw the birthday stocking. if I ever get a sewing machine (my WISH, because hand sewing even the littlest of projects is kind of not fun and takes forever) I will make a better birthday stocking and maybe we can start a tradition of sorts for ourselves. down below is a photo of the stocking sitting on the mantle. I whipped it together super quick, didn't draw out a pattern or anything so it's awkward AND by the time I finished I was over it and didn't even put a loop on it so it could hang. so it plops instead, lifeless & flat. he didn't care that it didn't hang though, so we're good.

BIRTHDAY stocking filled with treats & toys.

okay, okay, okay. now I'm off. busy day.

to the track, to the library,
to the store to pick up the birthday (ice cream) cake
and ingredients for supper.

happy FLAG DAY, to you yanks!

theatre. the "re" kind, not the "er"

2011-06-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Let's get personal for a minute, shall we? I love theatre. It is one of my most favorite things on this planet. I was involved in theatre in high school (drama nerds are my favorite people, most of my most favorite people from high school did drama with me) and I was involved with a local community theatre forever. And right now... Well, right now I just really really really miss it.

Summertime for my (well, not anymore) local theatre meant outdoor plays at the barn. [Side note: the barn is and forever shall be one of my most beloved places on Earth.] There is nothing like watching theatre outside in the beautiful Kentucky farm country under the stars. Nothing. We always did one Shakespeare play and then usually another play (a musical) on alternating performance weekends.

I like all the aspects. I started out acting in plays, but found that I loved taking off one play a year from acting (I usually averaged 3, sometimes 4, a year) to get involved in another part: assistant directing, stage managing, costumes, lighting, sound, dressing (if you don't know what a dresser is, they are some of the most vital people backstage when you have a lot of quick changes!), and probably my favorite - hair & make-up.

Performing in theatre was one of the best things for me ever. Growing up I was crazy shy, and still to this day have some issues being in front of large groups of people (I prefer smaller groups). Acting is the best thing for this and I recommend it to anyone that has stage fright issues in any aspect of life. It helps you gain so much confidence and it's WAY easier to get up in front of dozens, hundreds, thousands (though I've only ever done thousands once) if you are playing a part. Even now, if I find myself getting too nervous about something new or teaching in the classroom or presenting at conferences, I just pretend I'm playing a role and then it is so much easier. Another reason why it was the best thing is because I met the best people. I will go to my grave thinking theatre people are the best kinds. I've met people with such open hearts, kind faces, wonderful talents, and so much zest and love for life. They've helped me grow so much as a person.

So, I suppose this is just a nostalgic post. I really need to find a community theatre to get involved in - if only backstage things. I love it. Maybe that should have been a summer goal for me. Maybe I'll make it one right now.

[PHOTO: RANDOM COLLAGE OF ME DOING THEATRE THINGS, ALTHOUGH I GOT CUT OFF IN 2 PHOTOS: 3RD ROW 4TH PIC & LAST ROW 1ST PIC.]

clean.

2011-06-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Mister and I darted out of bed early today and went to work. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned our little hearts out. We knew that his dad would be here later today (he told us afternoon) but it wasn't so much for him, Lord knows he's seen the house in the worst state it's been in and he doesn't care, as it was for us. This weekend is our FIRST since moving here that we have absolutely nowhere to go, no one staying with us, no extra animals to babysit, no obligations. We can finally have a weekend to relax and do nothing if we choose, and it will be the last in a while too -- our summer is busy (we're not complaining though!). So we decided to cleancleanclean today (and a good thing too -- because his dad showed up at noon instead [way earlier than we thought], right as we were finishing) so we don't have to clean this weekend. ALSO - we got some bins from the dollar store on our way home from the recycling center this morning -- our recycling at home is organized: plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminum, etc... we got it. One of my 8 Weeks goals is complete. Awesome.

[IMAGE: HERE]

beautiful.

2011-06-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

I could watch this over and over and over again.
Timelapse video of the Perseid Meteor Shower
and the galactic core of the Milky Way
as seen from Joshua Tree National Park.
incredible, breathtaking, beautiful. [PSSSST -- WATCH IT IN FULL SCREEN]

8 Weeks: Week Six - Home Sweet Home [plus a home picture/update]

2011-06-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Naturally, I missed a week. Last week was busy, then the weekend hit which was even busier, and so on and so forth... blahblahblah. Week Five was Loving Life & Having Fun, I believe. I think it's okay that I missed last week because I am totally loving life right now anyway! :) But here we go onto this week -- Home Sweet Home. Easy peasy to come up with goals since we just moved into our little rental house. I've been losing steam when it comes to organizing and decorating the last things and places because we've been unpacking forever. Hopefully these goals will help that process along and give me a second wind.

Frame pictures/posters and put them up on walls. And to add to this, finish putting up pictures that already have frames. All the walls in the house, except for the great room, are pretty much bare. Not pretty.
Find a duvet cover for our master bedroom. We have new sheets, now we need a new duvet. Not having one is killing me. It makes the bedroom look incomplete to the max.
Buy a few more bins, label them, and start using them for the recycling. We have kind of mandatory recycling here, which is fine by me -- housewife and I loved to recycle. What I mean by that is, we don't have trash or recycling pick-up out here (oh how spoiled I was on Oak Street!). Maybe they have it in the city limits? Not sure. But we have to transport our trash & recyclables to the recycling center. When you take stuff there, you HAVE to separate things out (including a separate bin for kitty litter!) to dispose of it. Before, I just piled all the recyclables into a few big bins and set them out on the street and they magically disappeared every Wednesday morning - no sortin', no nothin'. Well, our recycling gets backed uuuuuuup because we don't have enough bins to hold all the stuff for one week and I'm tired of using part of our counter as empty bottle/can/jug/container storage until our next trip to the center. So bins & labels to organize recycling it is!

Here's a picture of part of the inside of the house. The bookshelves on the lower level of the loft. We are fortunate to have tons of built-ins upstairs and down. For two English people, this is awesome... we actually have bookshelves NOT filled with books! The lower loft level is our "office" with the big writing desk, computer, reading corner, craft closet, record player and fiction and poetry section of books. The upper loft is our "guest bedroom" with a double bed and way more bookshelves filled with CDs, reference books, school books, yearbooks, and anthologies - up here is where we have bookshelves unused! Once everything is put away and decorated a bit more I will take some pictures -- I just found my camera(s) from the move! Finally.

The coloring is weird so it may be hard to tell. My books are sorted by color, aside from my "favorite series" shelf in the middle, LOTR, HP, THG, etc. (ha!) Mister's books are sorted by genre. This explains our personalities. And we still have some strays that need to find homes. The bottom middle shelf holds records and a decorative screen I received as a gift in Hong Kong.

Hopefully more (better quality too -- I snapped this one really quickly before the battery died, now to find the charger! ha) pictures in the near future.

june.

2011-06-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid life down here has made me rather hermit-like. No more smart phone means I hardly look at my (super cheap with limited plan) phone anymore. It wouldn't matter much anyway because it's really hard to get a good signal in the house. I usually have to go on the front porch at least, if not walk around in the yard to find a good strength. I'm not complaining though -- it's been pretty nice to "unplug" and not be distracted by the cyberworld constantly. I don't get on the actual computer that much either, in fact it's days in between.

Life has been lovely. I found some work for the summer -- I will be working at an organic farm picking berries. It's a turn from what I'm used to but a welcome one -- I want to get outside and enjoy my days here. Speaking of enjoying days... we spent the entire weekend doing wedding activities for some of mister's friends. Friday there was a joint bachelor/bachelorette party, Saturday was the rehearsal and dinner, and then Sunday was the event. It was a busy weekend but very fun. I got to meet a lot of his friends from high school and they were super lovely. I talked to so many interesting and lovely people. We had a blast.

I've been filling up my days with household chores (I never scoffed at homemakers before because I know keeping the house is hard work, but I do have a new-found appreciation for them) and taking breaks in the sun or watching something on Netflix or Hulu Plus (highly recommend just getting the two of those and ditching cable all together! plus your first month of Netflix and your first week of Hulu Plus are free! ... much better than dealing with cable or satellite companies with their "deals" for a while and then jacking up prices sky high).

I suppose that's it for a catch-up. Prepare for a deluge of posts from me. Now that I have some more time for the computer I'll be posting a storm.

8 Weeks: Week Four - Loving Yourself

2011-05-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I missed last week. Here's my excuse... I was packing up the last of stuff in Kentucky, partying with 30+ family members in celebration of my Gramps being 90, getting home late Sunday night and spending the rest of the week unpacking/organizing, and then going to Mister's old apartment and packing up the last of his things. We finally FINALLY have all of our things here (BOTH OF US), and I'm slowly getting the rest of his things unpacked and organized, while staying on top of laundry and meals. I will be so happy once I've unpacked the very last box. I might have a celebration just for that box. I should also note here, that with every item we've packed, moved, hauled, whatever our decision to stay put for a while was made stronger. While we aren't 100% sure right now, we are very strongly leaning towards staying in this little rental house until the end of the year -- originally we were going to try and find something by the end of summer and move again, but we are both just so physically and mentally exhausted from moving every single day for the past month.
Annnnnnnnnnnd... back on track!
The topic last week was Healthy Eating. Something I used to be not so great at, but honestly I've been doing so well with it in the past month. I've said in previous posts that our location alone makes healthy eating not only super easy but eating UNhealthy really really hard. What I mean by this is there are no fast food restaurants conveniently near by, the town is super "crunchy" (aka "buy local!" and catering to organic foods), and so as long as the two of us make our major shopping trip a smart one, we try to only buy good-for-us foods. I've been cooking A LOT. Which was one of my own personal summer goals and it's been pretty awesome. Aside from our road trip food stops that weren't always as healthy as they could be, we've eaten really decent colorful meals and haven't had too many gross things. We've been taking our vitamins, drinking our smoothies (remember how I told you the Mcakes Way of the Smoothie a couple months ago), laying off the soda a bit (I'd be lying if I said completely - ha! maybe someday), eating lots of greens, etc. So yay!

And noooooooow --- this week is Loving Yourself. Probably will be one of the harder ones for me. I have a lot of insecurities, especially where my looks are concerned. I've gained bit of weight on my small frame in the past year (at first it was extremely depressed weight, and then it 180∘turned to being so stupidly happy and going on unhealthy eating dates weight), but whatever the reason, the extra pounds add extra insecurities. I usually don't talk about my personal body-image insecurities online so it might seem like I don't have them, but I do. Coming up with goals was hard for me. But, here goes:

Make a list of 5 things I like about my body. Either write them down or speak them out loud to myself. Go over this list every day for the week.
Put on "real" clothes everyday. Some days I don't leave the house, and I'm doing household chores and unpacking so I like to stay in my sweats. I need to make the effort every day to put on clothes even when I don't leave. When I look decent and presentable, I feel 100 times better about myself.
Stop with the negative comments (thinking and saying them) about myself. I think a lot of people are familiar with this, I know I get on people when I hear them say things about themselves, but I never do it for me. I need to not be so hard on myself. Odds are, whatever I'm criticizing about my body isn't actually as bad as I think it is.

home.

2011-05-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

I want to post about a lot of things. My 8 Weeks for this week, how I did last week for 8 Weeks (spoiler alert: not great), road trips, huge casinos (and mom & pop hole-in-the-wall casinos), how much effing fun I had at my grandfather's 90th, crashing class reunions, future vacations abroad, packing/moving/unpacking, drugged sassycats that are so funny and adorable, my good pup, and how amazing it feels to finally be home.

Maybe I'll get to a post about one or two of those soon. Maybe I won't. I have a lot of unpacking to do first. And cooking. And hammock-ing. And snuggling with my family in our new home.

Have a great week!

gramps.

2011-05-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Mister and I are packing things up today for a weekend trip. Part of the reason for our trip back to KY this weekend is to finish the last of the packing, clean my apartment, settle things with utility companies, and complete the move. It's kind of crazy to think this will be my last scheduled time in KY for a bit. Of course, I'm sure I'll be up there soon enough for a mini-trip -- but next time I go, none of my stuff will be there. Weird.

But -- the main reason why we are going up this weekend is to stay with my parents and then go up with them on Saturday to my Aunt Marilyn's neck of the woods (about 1.5 hours away) to celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday! WHOA! How amazing is that?! I'm pretty excited because I will see so much of my family. All of my mom's siblings will be there (she's 1 of 9) and bunches of cousins and everything to celebrate my gramps. I'm pretty darn stoked. I can't wait to see everyone for the day long celebration! It will be so much fun. -- The reason for the picture: my grandfather was a paratrooper in World War II. He was heavily decorated in the war. Unfortunately, he's also never really been the same after it -- Post Traumatic Stress and all. But he's still kicking, and super healthy, and the greatest story teller I'll ever know (mainly because he just doesn't STOP telling stories - ha!).

90 Years! So exciting to think about all he's seen. I'm thankful for all the "long-genes" in my family.

Have a wonderful weekend, loves!

8 Weeks: Week Two - Fitness

2011-05-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late with this because I was traveling all Sunday evening and then running on very little sleep yesterday while unloading my truck, another truck, and a small trailer full of things from Kentucky. I've been a whirlwind of steam cleaning everything that is stationary, washing every pot, pan, & dish, and organizing all our stuff. I really did give away, donate, or throw out so many clothes and other miscellaneous items but it feels like I still have entirely too many things.

But anyway -- this week the goals are related to FITNESS! Oi vey! Oh how fitness and I loathe each other most days. I suppose it is a good thing that I must make some fitness goals this week! I accomplished all my goals last week, too -- look at me go.

So here goes:

Walk Rory outside everyday. There are some interesting roads around our house and I need to get out and explore. Exercise while I learn my way around, plus the pup could use some exercise too!
Buy a new yoga mat and look into yoga classes in my new town! Someone told me there was an excellent instructor in town so I definitely want to check that out so I can get back into yoga and incorporate it into my life again.
Stop drinking Diet Coke/Pepsi at least for the week and definitely before noon. It's so gross when I think about it. I need to stick to water, coffee, yerba mate, and green tea. Hopefully this goal will translate to stop drinking soda all together, but I'll tackle that longterm goal as it comes.

****

In other news-- I've had a most fortunate experience moving thus far. The universe has been very good to Mister and me to say the least. Nothing but good signs everywhere letting us know that we are definitely making the right decision. I hope we continue to be this fortunate -- we have been so grateful for our luck so far!

Summer Goals 2011.

2011-05-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

With my 8 Weeks: Blogging post, I said I would sit down and make some goals for this summer. I'd like to note that I've been commenting a bit more AND I added blogs to my Reading Material page already! I'm on track. Kind of.

So here goes -- SUMMER GOALS:

Work with Mister to find a permanent place to live at the end of summer. Our house right now is temporary. At least we think. Unless we just completely fall in love with it and don't mind the country life -- it is pretty darn awesome.
Volunteer. So far there is one program that I really want to volunteer for and I even told Mister about it when we first drove by the place -- then yesterday when I moseyed on in to our tiny town and went into the General Store I found a flyer asking for volunteers! It was fate. I need to call the contact person and put myself on the list to work -- the place is also within walking distance from our house... we live in the middle of nowhere, so that's saying something!
Make new friends. I feel so lame when I say this kind of. But I live 7 hours away from the greatest friends on the planet now, so I need to make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. ;) Any other twentysomethings intimidated by the idea of making new friends? It feels more like dating when you're trying to make friends after college. Should I ask to hang out first or wait? When do we exchange numbers? How soon are nicknames appropriate? Ha... it's scary, I'm tellin ya!
Create (I'm talking spreadsheets and files on the comp -- complete organization) budgets for us and STICK TO THEM. We've been pretty darn good with saving money for a while now, we just need to continue to do so.
Play the piano daily. I want to discipline myself to learn more songs. I've been playing it a lot here, but I'm still slower on the learning of songs than I'd like.
Cook a heavy majority of the week's meals. This goal should be easy to stick to since there is literally no fast food within a close distance in our tiny town - and trips to the co-op or grocery store are still kind of big deals. We are forced to eat well. There is no junk in the house and I've had to settle my food cravings with mandarins and pickles for snacks instead of an unhealthier alternative I used to turn to (and if I'm honest, I've been grumpy about it). And I only say majority because we might go out to a local restaurant once a week, or Mister will cook, or we will have leftovers. Right now I feel like housewife would be proud of me for all the home meals!
Read at least 5 new books. I have a horrible habit of reading a new one, then reading a dozen "comfort" books that I've read thousands of times. So I need to read NEW books and not old favorites.
Write letters. I'd like to start sending hand-written letters to my friends since I now live so far away. Even if they don't have the time or don't want to respond in the same way, I still want to do that to keep in touch with them.
Find a job. Funemployment has to end sometime, doesn't it? Oh how I will miss these sweet days of having no rigid schedule. I thought, given my history of OVERworking, that I would hate not having a job, feel antsy, get bored, etc. How would I fill up my day?! But so far I've found my days go by so much quicker while I'm doing things that benefit us or something I enjoy. It's amazing how fast the day goes when you aren't dreading what you're doing. So I should add - find a job I don't dread.

That's all I can think of for now! I'm sure I'll come up with more, but I'm also trying really hard to set realistic goals for myself and not go overboard with idealizing goal-making. We shall see.

What are YOUR goals for the summer?!

8 Weeks: Week One - Blogging

2011-05-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

Danielle over at Sometimes Sweet is doing a new challenge called 8 Weeks to a Better Me. I thought I'd join in since I need a bit more structure to get me blogging more. Each week there is a new topic and you set your goals for the week on that topic. The first week is "Blogging." Kind of hard for me to pick some goals concerning blogging but I figured some out!

Finally get around to organizing my "Reading Material" page. I used to just have a blog roll but I want to categorize the blogs I follow on the page for easier viewing.
Comment more! I try and comment as much as I can but find myself just thinking about the lovely things people post and not commenting that often. Or at least not as often as I should given the amount of blogs I read regularly.
Make a Summer Goals post on my blog. I've got a lot of things to look forward to this summer and many things I want to accomplish -- writing them down and making them known always helps me stay accountable.

Join in the challenge and make some of your own goals!!! :)

quick catch up.

2011-04-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

My first wave of moving is complete. This week I have more of a task of housewife (thus the pictures) as I am now officially funemployed down here in futureland. It's been a chaotic few days, but very productive. Easter Sunday Mister and I were visited by the Easter Bunny and given a basket to share that held some chocolates, lots of fruits (including mandarins! my favorite!), bread, cheese, and wine. The Easter Bunny got a lot classier this year!

After Easter lunch with my parents we packed up all my essentials in both our cars, including my muttbaby dog and all her things and hit the road. (Sassycat is staying at her grandparents til the move is complete, then joining us down here.) Rory did the best of the three of us with the long trip. We stopped a couple times, one of those times to eat parts of our Easter basket goodies for supper, and Rory handled the situation very well. I listened to an excellent book called At Home: A Short History of Private Life while traveling to futureland. Very neat book exploring the histories surrounding all the rooms in the house! Sounds weird, maybe boring, but it was extremely interesting, I promise. Or maybe just for someone like me it was interesting. Whatevs. I don't know what Mister and Rory listened to in his car? I think he was finishing a book on Buddha but I'm not positive? Anyway. We made it to NC and crashed. Hard.

When we woke up the next morning we unloaded almost all of my stuff into our new house (we won't actually stay in that house for a few days though - we're staying at Mister's current apartment), went to the library for a bit, ate some lunch, and I got a new phone with a new number! My iPhone will be no more in a few days. But the neat thing about Verizon is I can sell my phone back to them and put that money towards my phone bill! And they are buying it back for a great amount - more than I could hope for. It will be weird not to have a smartphone anymore, but I'm already liking the idea of "unplugging" a bit. 24/7 access to twitter isn't that great for "living in the moment." So having a less-smart-phone will be nice - at least for a while!

Mister has had to go to work, if you don't know - he's a professor, and while he was at work last night I poked around and found some sheet music and sat down at the piano and played a couple songs. It's been forever since I've really sat down at the piano and tried to play. An amazing thing -- muscle memory is awesome - my fingers were super rusty at first but once I stuck it out for a couple minutes, it's like my fingers magically knew where to go when I looked at the music. This is not to say that the songs were particularly well-played, but whatever. Now that I live with a piano again, I'm finally thankful for all the years of lessons my mother forced me to attend! And now I'm itching to get my old sheet music back from my parents house so I can play some old favorites. Let me tell you this, though... Mister came home and saw me at the piano, he plopped down once I got up and tried playing the song I was playing - he doesn't know how to read music, he does it by ear, and after I told him what key it was in and he hit a few wrong notes, he played the song even better than what the music read. Don't ya just hate people with natural musical talent?! So so so jealous of them!!!

I'm by myself most of today. Well, not really if you count the sleeping dog lying in the bed near me right now. After catching up on blogs this morning and writing my own, I'm going to take Rory for a long walk, then hopefully get in my own car and explore a little bit on my own. I hope I don't get lost! I know for sure how to get to the grocery store and the library, but other than that, I'm kind of clueless. Luckily I'm pretty good with direction so I'm optimistic. Maybe I'll get to my housewife duties and clean, organize, and cook today too! Tomorrow I get to see my favorite band again! So stoked, especially since we can walk to the venue from here --- nice!

I hope all of you had lovely Easters and are gearing up for a lovely week!

[image: housewife sherri and here]

chchchchanges.

2011-04-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

Mister will be here in about an hour.
And then we won't ever have to leave each other.
To say I'm happy is a huge, gigantic, ridiculous understatement.

I'm, like, so totally, in love.

hk.

2011-04-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

woke up this morning from a dream. the dream took place in hong kong.
that place has been on my mind a lot lately.

i'd like to go back. soon.

mr. moon.

2011-04-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

Mister and I are going to see my favorite band again next week. It will be my fourth time seeing them in a year and a half. It will be my second time seeing them with him. We're seeing them in the same venue where we saw them together in February. I'm pretty pumped since they are headlining this time and will (hopefully) play a much longer set. Plus Christie is an opener and she's just such a sweet little thing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've listened to their new album non-stop since it dropped two months ago -- everytime we get in my car, Mr. - "The Valley is still playing in your car? Have you listened to anything else?" The answer is: yes and no. Someone is going to know every single word of every song now (unless they play entirely new things) because I'm pretty sure that someone has heard everything they've produced (definitely everything legally produced & more leaked stuff than that!). That someone is ME. But I know you figured that out, you smart thing, you.

Turning Tides Tour

je suis très heureux.

bisous.

summer rain.

2011-04-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of my most watched youtube videos for the past few years. I love everything about this. So beautiful. 2:02 starts the prettiest part!

Just thought I'd share.

packing.

2011-04-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'm going to be spending some time doing what I absolutely LOVE to do. PACKING. Actually, I just lied to you, I do not love to pack. Frankly, I hate to pack. But it's something that must be done. Shew -- it seems ever since I left the nest for undergrad some-odd years ago I've moved a trillion times. I might be exaggerating by a billion million thousand, but you know, a lot. For the past few years it seems I've moved once a year. Oh well, life is constantly moving forward right? Only suiting I get a new location with each step. But I will be happy when the day comes in the future when I don't have to move so much and can really settle in somewhere. As for now, though, I'm alright with packingMOVINGunpacking (repeat) for my twenties. I'm glad for the change while I'm young.

So packing it is. It's weird that the days are numbered and I'm actually approaching the moving day. I can't wait! But packing this weekend will be not so fun. How does one acquire so much JUNK so quickly? Ew. At least I will hopefully get a little break attack in this weekend and watch Deathly Hallows Part I with Lizzie Lou. Man, oh man, do I ever love Harry Potter. I will probably watch Deathly Hallows every single day from today til July 15th. Yes.

Wellllllll. All of this to say: forgive me if posts are even more infrequent than usual (not like I've ever been consistent with this blog) because I will be packing up my life and moving it 7 hours away. So excited to move on!

[both images via weheartit]

your laughter.

2011-04-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Deprive me of bread, if you want,
deprive me of air, but
don't deprive me of your laughter.

Don't deprive me of the rose,
the spear you shed the grains with,
the water splashing
swiftly in your joy,
the sudden silver wave
born in you.

My struggle is painful. As I return
with my eyes sometimes tired
from watching
the unchanging earth,
your laughter enters
and raises to heaven
in search of me,
to open
all the doors of life.

My loved one, in the darkest hour,
unsheathe your laughter,
and if suddenly
you see my blood staining the cobblestones,
laugh, for your laughter
will be for my hands
like an unsullied sword.

Near the sea in autumn,
your laughter must rise
in its cascade of foam,
and in spring, my love,
I want your laughter
to be like the flower I anticipated,
the blue flower, the rose
of my resonant homeland.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
young man who loves you.
Yet when I open my eyes
and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.

-- Pablo Neruda [translated by Ilan Stavans]

hero.

2011-04-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

my hero, Mindy Kaling (I'll also accept Kelly Kapoor)

A lifelong lover of television, I've had many a love affair and hero worship with characters, but never have I ever (wait, is this a drinking game? ...) felt so connected to any of them as I have with Kelly Kapoor. And in turn, because Mindy herself says the character is "an exaggerated version of what the writers think of her," I am connected to Mindy. Yes. I mean, how many times have friends and family made it a point to compare me to her? Literally like a dozen. Heck, maybe even a baker's dozen. We are one in the same. My number one goal in life right now is to make this girl my BFF for realzies. So if anyone has the hook-up, let me know.

One of the greatest presents I got for Christmas this year was a copy of her play Matt & Ben. It was the first present I opened this past Christmas season and I'm not lying when I said I gasped, moments of stunned silence, and then teared up (not unlike Kelly's reaction to Jim getting her a Twilight poster for xmas). How lovely is this woman? Many look at her and just see an Indian woman obsessed with the superficial pop glitz & glam, but I see that and MORE. So much more, you guys. She, like, gets the world. You know? She realizes that all of us are just obsessed with the pop and glam and trying to hold onto anything happy (and sparkly) in this sick, sad world. So don't get down on her for loving pop culture, at least homegirl is happy. I mean, right? Obviously. I'm sure she gives a shit about good will and charity - I mean TONS of celebrities are the faces of charities so I'm sure she does - helping the enviornment and junk is SO in right now. I know in my heart that Mindy (/Kelly) is a good person. I just wish she knew the potential she has to be my platonic life partner and my best friend forever. I just want to share half a BFF heart necklace with her. Do you think she'd think it was creepy if she got a gold half heart on a chain with BE / FRI written on it from me? Please advise.

ANNNNNNNYYYYYWAAAAAY -- all this just to say. Hey, readers, here's some Rhianna facts - Mindy is my hero. And I believe, in this world or the next, we will meet and maybe get friendship bracelets.

sweet weekend and potatoes.

2011-04-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

My mister and I love sweet potatoes to the extreme. I am not a big fan of fries in general but I absolutely adore sweet potato fries! And so does he. I've always wanted to try and make my own, considering most restaurants where I am don't offer sweet potato fries as an alternative so I rarely eat them. If you like cooking, I'm sure you already know this but sweet potato fries are SO easy to make.

I looked at recipes during the day but once I got home in the evening after procuring some sweet taters, I didn't even look at any and just did what I thought would work. All you do is skin and cut up some sweet potatoes (I did three and it was way more than enough for the two of us -- but nice so we could enjoy some the next day, too!) - make the strips of potato about 1/4 inch thick-ish, toss em in a bowl, use just enough olive oil to lightly coat them, toss in whatever seasoning you'd like, I also tossed in some sea salt, line them up on a baking sheet and toss them in an oven (450∘) and bake them for 20 or so minutes, flipping once halfway if you'd like. I couldn't figure out how to flip halfway without burning myself (trust me, I would've) so I just let them bake on one side the whole time and they were fine. Also - my oven gets SUPER hot so some ovens might require 30 minutes instead of 20. They were delicious!!! So so so good. We ate so many straight away instead of even waiting for the rest our our supper to finish cooking! And the next day for lunch I just turned back on the oven, put the rest on a baking sheet and popped them in for about 10 minutes and they were lovely again!

So yeah, as someone that needs to cook more, I was pretty proud of myself that I actually made these and they actually turned out amazing. Yay!

Other than that, my weekend was filled with watching Weeds on instant, porch sitting, thunderstorm watching, dog cuddling, and writing my two weeks notice (which I turned in today! yay! I'm officially going to be unemployed on April 22nd - then it's packing, moving, and finding new work in my futureland! I'm a combination of nervous/excited - like 27/73% respectively!). I was uber nervous to turn in my actual notice to Linda (immediate supervisor) because I love her more than words and hate to leave her, even though she knew it was coming and was just waiting for the day, but everyone at work was so excited for me today when I announced what I was doing (Linda was the only one that knew previously) so it made me happy that everyone was so happy for me. Very happy.

Anywho ... that's all, folks!

IMAGE CREDIT: HERE

this one is for the mamaws.

2011-04-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

thinking of getting this for Mcakes. don't tell her, k?

So, I'm a total mamaw. I use this word a lot when describing my favorite activities (snuggling, knitting, tea drinking, eating dinner way early, sending cards to all my youngin's - usually when the time is not right because I get easily confused, and going to sleep before the sun has completely gone to bed). I've recently discovered that not everyone in the whole wide world is familiar with this word. Let's use our context clues to try and figure out the word's meaning! Okay, class? What kind of person does all those things? If you answered "a grandmother" then you are correct! If you don't believe me, go to this link where wikitionary kindly breaks it down for ya. You know this is correct and I'm not making it up because the internet never lies. Especially sites that can easily be manipulated by so many. Growing up I heard this term all the time so it's something I never realized wasn't used everywhere. (I get confused easily.) But yeah, a mamaw is your grandma. Your grandfather is your papaw. Obviously. ~ThE mORe YoU KnOW~

Anyway - I'm a total MBMT (mamaw before my time) and I know I'm not alone. Housewife often compares herself to a mamaw too. We like to have sit down family dinners, drink some hot tea, go to our bedrooms early (after heavily moisturizing our ever-aging faces), read a little, and then LIGHTS OUT by 9. Yes. We are mamaws. And you know what? It's awesome. I'm almost always well-rested. Who cares if I'm in my midtwenties and I'm not out til the wee hours of the morning partying all day errday? I did that for a period of time but then the real world* kicked my ass and told me "whoa girl, you can't keep doing this, I'm going to make you pay --- PAIN FOR DAYS." So I listened to the real world and reserved party times for special occasions. Or at least, let's say, not every other night like it used to be. Ha. But I am loving my mamaw status and if you are a mamaw, you should too! So chin up, be a proud mamaw. If you really just want to put on a face mask, knit some blankets, eat supper at 4:30, and go to bed before sunset on any given night - do it! It's really (not) cool. But whatevs.

I feel like this post is obnoxious? Let's not change it though. Also, I feel like I should confess that I wanted to fill it up with google image searched pictures of "mamaws" but then I thought of all the real life mamaws that I love dearly and their families love them dearly so maybe they don't want their image displayed on this dumb blog (even if I properly credit the source). That's why I just put up the picture of the shirt I'm going to buy Mcakes and me. Even if we don't really have "greatest blessings" in the traditional sense. Our greatest blessings can be our animals and each other. Boom. Roasted.

*note: I'm not referring to the shoulda-ended-an-eff-ton-of-seasons-ago MTV reality show. I'm talking about ACTUAL REAL LIFE ON THIS PLANET EARTH.

week.

2011-03-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

So I've been away from my everyday world for a couple days and will be for a couple more in favor of spending time in my future everyday world. It's weird. And being here - trying to memorize roads and landmarks so I'm not hopelessly lost, soaking in everything, continually being in awe that things are within 30 minutes of me where in KY it took hours to get to most places -well, it makes everything seem much more real. I probably keep saying that. My parents will be here the day after tomorrow to tour around, see the places where their daughter will be living, and relax for a few days.

Currently, I'm waiting in mister's college library while he runs a meeting. I still have 45 minutes until he is finished pretending to be important and educate faculty peers on how to handle situations. But it's been nice finally catching up on things online. I'd also like to point out that there is a young man that works here working on some of the computers - he's the only other person in the computer part of the library right now (it's the college spring break here). He kindly asked me if I would mind if he played some music while he worked. I said "of course not." He started playing some old school emo-tastic tunes. Think Chris Carrabba. Yessssss VINDICATED I AM SELFISH I AM WRONG... etc. I feel like he is not even being ironic about listening to it. I think this guy and I could be friends. And I also think that were mister here at this time (or most of my friends for that matter) they would make fun of me for LOVING this horrible whiny music. Because - let's face it - I have horrible taste and I love me some Dashboard. ... memoriessssssss.

Back on target. Here's a sneak peak at my future:

Our future dwelling place. A little old red house. (The trailer will be gone -- it's being used to move furniture out [to make room for US... duh].) It used to be a glorified hunting cabin, I believe. Don't quote me on that. There's a newly painted white porch swing that you can't see. It has a big old fireplace. Two bedrooms and a loft area. It's pretty sweet. Cute and cozy. Loves it.

Here's part of the backyard. Not pictured here -- all the chickens, turkeys, and the big scary pigs. Mister made me go look at the pigs again. I said "Why are you doing this to me?!" He said that I had probably exaggerated the size of them in my mind. I said "no I didn't. Pigs EAT humans." His dad agreed with me. I crossed my arms and pouted. "I'm not going to see them again" I says. Two minutes later we were walking out back to see them. I stayed a good 40 feet away at least. I went back to the house quickly. Mister thinks Pig-phobia is not real. I tell him, "just wait until you are missing for days and no one can find you -- your remains will be pooped out in that pen." Mister's dad tells me that the pigs are going to slaughter before we actually move in. I make a sigh of relief. I win this time.

I'm not going to proof read this right now, okay? So don't get all huffy if there's spelling/grammar mistakes. Next time I get on a real computer (which is still days away) I'll fix it for you, okay? Okay?! Okay.

[ALSO, TOO -- YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS SONG & DANCE BY NOW --- SORRY FOR THE CRAPPY iPHONE PICS.]

why my housewife rules (and your's drools?).

2011-03-23T03:08:00.000-07:00

1. She cooks me supper on the regular.

2. She freezes leftovers for meals later in the week and refrigerates individual servings for lunch the next day.

3. When I pack my lunch for work, she writes cute notes on the napkin and slips it in as a surprise.

Other reasons: she's pretty, she's influenced me to eat better & exercise (though I still haven't really got on her level for either - especially the exercise), she's smart, she laughs at my jokes, she asks how my day was, she wishes me a good day before I leave for work, she takes care of my animals if I can't be there, she keeps "mamaw" hours (this means we go to bed SUPER early), and did I mention that she feeds me? Yeah - she feeds me... biggest reason!

mka.

2011-03-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

I love MKA.
This is a fact. Always have, always will.
MKA in Vogue? Yes, please!
Vogue gets behind The Row in the new article.

How lovely are those twins?
[CLICK HERE FOR THE VOGUE ARTICLE!]

triple word score.

2011-03-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

I know I'm late to the party with this one, but Words with Friends has become my latest iPhone addiction. I resisted this game a year ago when some of my friends started playing it. I wasn't very into iPhone games in general so I decided not to play. I forgot I even had the app installed on my phone until the other day when my literate & stylish friend Cara-Mia requested a game. I tentatively started a game and then soon became enthralled with it. I forgot how much I loved word games. I am an English major after all. I soon had so many games going that I'm now in the process of trying to finish all up before I start anymore! {If you want to play me, you can request me with the username "rhiannabrooke" but give me a few days or so before I start our game so I don't go into word overload from all the ones I'm already finishing.}

But anyway -- Words with Friends has made me want to upgrade my old Scrabble set that is still hiding somewhere deep within the storage closets at my parents house. How perfect is this vintage set from Restoration Hardware? I want it something fierce, you guys! Everything about it is so lovely. Solid hardwood with die-cast metal accents -- fabric wrapped score book with matching pencil -- rotating table with a raised grid. Ahhh - everything I could hope for.

i loaf you.

2011-03-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Remember my friend Sarah over at Tickety Boo? Of course you do. Well, a bit ago I requested that she make a style post about wearing loafers! I have a deep, secret love affair with loafers but have no idea how to style them properly so I don't look mid60s instead of mid20s. Ha. Sarah has done an excellent job putting together some age appropriate, lovely outfits all centered around loafers. Go over to her blog and check them out! How perfect are they for casual spring & summer days?! I love em!

{image credit: scbaird}

countdown.

2011-03-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

A countdown. Let's talk about one.

9 days until I'm back in the land of my future for week with the MisterAndRhianna unit. MotherFatherDaughterMister unit will be there for one weekend.

Next. 37 days until I am finished at my current job. These 37 days couldn't come fast enough as some people (NOT Linda, whom I love dearly) in the office make it harder and harder to be pleasant each day.

We have a place to live. Thank goodness. That picture on this post is of the town that we will call ours for a while (note: we will be moving to another town at the end of the year-ish). The place we will be renting is amazing and there's "a lot of nature happening" there. (chickens, pigs, turkeys, etc. - all in my future backyard. Rory is gonna flip out. I should note, though, I've met the pigs and I'm kind of scared of them. They make scary "I want to eat you" noises & faces at me. They are nothing like Babe. They are not gentle and do not speak to sheep. They just look big and fat and like they want to stampede or something. Do pigs "stampede?")

So. 7ish weeks until I am moved to the land of our future. So sooooooooooooon. I am excited. This year has flown by so very fast. Which I am thankful for now. I hope it slows down for the summer. I'd like a nice, long, lazy, lovely summer. Here's hoping.

Cheers =]

this is no place for a girl on fire.

2011-03-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

If you don't know about this series, then I don't know where you've been. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is my favorite series that I've read since His Dark Materials (I didn't read HDM until after Harry Potter). I'm currently rereading them for the second time. These YA books are amazing. As an English Teacher, while reading them I couldn't help but think of all the lesson plans I could make out of these books. It's a great dystopian series that lends itself to heaps and heaps of lessons for our current state of life. I think it'd be a great series to introduce to 8th & 9th graders, possibly 10th graders too. While I'm all about teaching kids classics, I think it's important to incorporate some contemporary literature to really catch their attention. Obvious lessons would be the government system at play as well as the allusions to the downfalls of reality television and our culture's obsession with schadenfreude. Close readings of these books could really help students with critical thinking - I'm thinking particularly with cartography. If you're not familiar, all of the Districts in Panem are described by their industry and sometimes their landscape -- a close reading could offer students a way to use their knowledge of the industries and locations of each in present-day US to map where they think each of the 13 districts would be. Okay, okay, taking off my Teacher's hat now.

Wanna know what these are about? I'll tell ya! Katniss, a teen from District 12 of Panem (the coal-mining Appalachian district... obviously I like this girl because protagonists from Appalachia are rarely seen in a positive light in novels. This makes me happy for all the App kids reading it and loving her!) is a tribute along with Peeta (boy tribute) in the Capitol's annual Hunger Games. The first book in the series follows Katniss as she volunteers to be tribute in place of her younger sister Prim, ventures to the Capitol with Peeta, Haymitch (their mentor in the games), and Effie (the Capitol escort to District 12), trains for the games, and then competes in the 74th Games.

Some THG Vocab broken down for you:

Panem - nation established in North America after the destruction of modern civilization. Made up of 13 Districts and the Capitol. (I would like to note that the map I used to make my collage I found on the internet and it is not where I'd place some of those districts, but for the most part I think the districts are fairly accurate.)
Tribute - a child (2 from each district, boy & girl) randomly selected (or they can volunteer) to compete in the Hunger Games.
Hunger Games - annual event in which 24 (boy & girl from Districts 1-12) teens compete to the death in a televised competition. The victor in the Hunger Games is the last one alive. The Hunger Games are mandatory viewing for everyone in Panem.

... that's about all I'll give for now - enough so you understand my summary. You'll learn the rest when you read the books. I definitely think it's important to read the books more than one time. So many pieces come into play that it's very fun on a second reading to notice little things that come up later in the novel, or in the second or third book. This is particularly fun with the 2nd book, Catching Fire, because it is much more of a puzzle that you need to figure out instead of just a case of survival.

Katniss makes for an engaging protagonist in a very real way. She's not all shiny and happy, understandably so. She's pessimistic and hard but without being unlikable. She frustrates me a lot in the books with her indecision on certain things, but I keep reminding myself that she is just a teen and the way she does process & deal with things seems very real, even though she's living in a very different time.

Check these books out if you haven't already -- super quick reads. Trust me, you won't put them down until you're finished! I could talk for ages about these books!

Have you read THG?
What did you think?

march.

2011-03-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

So we're almost a week into March already! My, how time flies. It feels like Christmas was just yesterday. Crazy. I never really give much thought to the month of March. This year it should be a pretty good one. Things I'm looking forward to: finding some time to get some hiking in at the pinnacles (hopefully), St. Patrick's Day (though I don't actually celebrate this day in the way 20somethings normally do - I do like to wear green though), and at the end of the month I'm going for a week long vacation to mister's land (aka- home of my future)... 3 of those days my parents will be with us.

I'm pretty excited about the last week in March and being in the land of my future for a whole week. I rarely take time off work. Almost all the trips I've been on in the past years have always including some kind of obligation or work and not much time to relax. This will be good. My parents are pretty pumped too, which is way cute. Mister and I will definitely show them a good time the weekend that they are there. We don't have any set plans for ourselves during that time yet. We'll see where that week takes us.

Any fun Spring Break plans for you? I guess some places have their Spring Break in April? I don't know. But March, though it's been rainy and cold for most of the days so far, is looking pretty fun and lovely.

[THE PICTURE IS MY MARCH PAPER-CRAFT CALENDAR FROM THE CURIOSITY GROUP. I FORGOT TO POST FEBRUARY'S ADORABLE GROUNDHOG PAPER-CRAFT. HERE IS JANUARY'S IF YOU REMEMBER MY YETI NAMED JULIAN!]

accidental photo.

2011-03-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

I found this on my phone today. I didn't realize I had taken it and wondered why I took it. I didn't really "take" it because I soon realized it was just an accidental picture taken when I was showing Mcakes how to use a photoapp on her phone. But I thought this accidental photo was kinda neat. It showcases some favorite things in my room as seen from the view of me laying in my bed.

My bed, with my pink vintage chenille bedspread I love with all my heart. My dog with a bone. My oak armoire, and on top: a white tree limb lamp (a matching lamp sits on my nightstand); a wooden elephant; two colorful hat boxes; a glass Buddha head; some lucky bamboo. On the walls: a floral wall hanging purchased on my trip to Hong Kong; a winter landscape painting made by a childhood best friend's grandmother. My old mirror I got at a flea market and freshened up with a coat of white paint, on it hangs my favorite thrifted leather bag. The mirror's reflection shows my Ganesha tapestry.

So those are a few favorites. Thought I'd share because in just a short time this bedroom will be deconstructed and I'll move some place faraway and who knows where these favorites will end up.

Sarah in Matchbook Mag!!!

2011-02-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

Sarah's Postcard in Matchbook!

Holy smokes! Matchbook Mag Issue 2 features a postcard from my hometown written by a lovely girl that I've known for quite awhile! It's so weird that the place where I grew up is in one of my favorite online mags -- and what's even more weird is that I know the author. Sarah, two years younger than me, and I ran around in the same social circle in high school and have kept in touch through social networking after. I really got to know her one summer when we worked at Richmond's country club concession stand by the pool -- we affectionately called our work place the Arlington Snack Shack -- Sarah, our friend Megan, and I were hated by our boss because we chit chatted about fanciful things through our shifts and made up games and drinks. Another memory I have of Sarah involves us & Megan (again!) going to a Blood Brothers show --- ha! Anyone remember The Blood Brothers? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Anyway - Sarah is one of the most motivated people I know. She's always doing crazy things and getting hyper involved in the most amazing organizations. Homegirl was even Deputy Chief of Staff for our governor - she's not even mid-twenties yet! Find all her great accomplishments HERE at her website. She also has my favorite blog out in the blogosphere - Tickety Boo -- she's freakin stylish to boot!

my wknd.

2011-02-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

[click to enlarge. duh]

So my weekend was pretty low key. But lovely. I had an awesome lunch with a dear friend -- so lovely to catch up over falafels. Friday night mister & I built a fort in the living room -- we even moved my huge mattress in the middle of it. We rented the first season of the tv show Community and cuddled up in the fort and laughed. (Annie is my favorite character so far! Though I've not seen all the episodes.) Sunday night we of course watched The Academy Awards -- kinda blah as far as the Oscars go, but still okay. Mila Kunis gets my award for best dressed! As far as our music went - I came home from work to see my pre-ordered The Valley package in! I think we listened to the album no less than 5 times straight through on Friday night while we talked and snuggled - it's my favorite Eisley album maybe! Saturday mister finally purchased The King of Limbs for digital download (he's been so excited about it for awhile now) and we listened to it while we played games that night. He seems a bit disappointed in it (he's a HUGE Radiohead fan). I liked the last half of the album alright, but I really am looking forward to listening to it when I'm not distracted by game playing so maybe I can soak it in a bit better. I like Radiohead but don't really consider myself a big fan, so I feel like my opinion on the album doesn't really matter. We went to The Peddler's Mall with my mama on Saturday for a bit (the only thing we purchased was 1$ & for my dog... ha!) which is always an interesting experience. Sunday night we took down our megafort and then were so sad by the sight of the regular old living room that we built a mini-fort with the sofa & loveseat and made a bed in that for Oscar viewing. In other news - my parents love my man more than me I'm afraid (ha!) and only ever want to talk about him... their next long weekend mini-vacay is going to be to his neck of the woods - they're excited, he's excited, I'm excited -- I've made a good choice with that mister, I tell ya. I know I sound like a broken record, but he's just the greatest thing in existence.

[I apologize for the jumbled, single-paragraph format of this entry. It's Monday night. It's rainy & gross outside. And I'm sleepy. Hopefully you can make sense of summa that up there.]

haiku-ish.

2011-02-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

work has been crazy
the internet keeps failing
but days go by fast

busy busy nights
looking forward to weekend
so far no real plans

haikus are so fun
but sometimes really hard to
get in all your words

(that's some {bad} poetry for ya to say - our internet at work is so wanky and keeps failing & work has been so busy. my weeknights have been busy with plans {some fun & some not}. i really want the weekend to get here because i have nowhere specific to be but i have people i wanna see and things i wanna do and i don't HAVE to do anything so hopefully i can see everyone/thing i want to and relaxxxxxx. i hope your week is going well.)

wknd.

2011-02-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

It's almost the weekend. Here are my thoughts.

excited for the shoestring budget road-trip with mister to the land of our future.
lookin at livin' quarters to call our own in the land of our future is going to be fun.
seeing a lovely little band for the third time of my life will be so very fantastic that i will probably spend saturday gasping and sighing a lot and my face will be plastered with a ridiculous grin.
linda always says "if money can fix your problems, then you don't have any problems." i'm starting to understand the wisdom in this. this mantra of hers is speaking to me this week when money has got me down. trying to be positive.
being positive is made so much easier with mister's encouraging words.
everyone makes mistakes. everyone has flaws. everyone is going through trials and tribulations in their lives.
it gets me weak that The Justin Bieber Experience was on glee this week.
i'm not a fan of the biebs. i don't hate him, i'm just indifferent.
mister & i fight over who gets to play angry birds on my iphone. it was started this past weekend when we went to visit my sick aunt that had that game on her ipad. we started to play, became addicted, then my aunt got mad because mister & i surpassed her level and she took the ipad away from us. i dl'ed it on suri cruise (my iphone), but it's not the same as on an ipad. we still fight over who gets to play though.
the longest bullet in my list is about some dumb game.
modern family is probably the show that i most relate to in life.

THE END.

(you're welcome)

{IMAGE VIA WEHEARTIT}

Clumsy Girl {vol. 2.}

2011-02-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

As a Clumsy Girl, generally I never ever participate in sports that involve hand-eye coordination, especially those of the flying ball variety. {did you just giggle at the phrase "flying ball" like I did? maybe not because you probably have a more mature sense of humor than I do.} Anyway... today I'm going to tell you about something tragic. That something tragic is what I will call The Year of the Softball. My mother, like all good mothers, said to herself "we have to find something Rhianna is good at!" and so she enrolled me in a plethora of activities and sports for Child Rhianna to participate in to find her "niche" or whatever. Spoiler Alert - softball is not the thing that I'm good at - I have never & will never be known as the Girl That's Good at Softball.

Rhianna: Aged 9/10? I don't remember? It doesn't matter? It was pre-puberty - let's go with that. So, Rhianna: aged PrePubescent is forced to participate in a summer softball league in her hometown. The team: The Tigers. The colors: Purple & Gray. This is the best thing I can say about The Year of the Softball: I look really good in purple -- it's hands-down the color that looks best on me. I have exactly one friend on this team. A blonde headed girl as short and young as me that's not very into playing this sport. I forget her name, I wanna say it was Brittany - or Ashley - that's what most girls my age are named. We'll go with Brittany. The other girls on our team, nice enough as they were, were very competitive and took this sport seriously. Brittany and I mostly sat on the bench and tried to look small & hidden so as not to get picked for something in the league "where everyone plays."

So yeah, I'd go up to bat at least once a game. The most action I got from batting was when I was "walked" to first base because it was hard for the older girls to pitch in my tiny strike zone. This is not to say that I never struck out. If I wasn't walked, I struck out. I don't ever remember actually hitting a ball. Sometimes I tried, usually with the balls that should have been "balls" because they were too far away - I tried to hit these balls because they were not so close to me and didn't make me cower in fear. Whatever. When our team had to play the field part - did I get to just lounge around in outfield like I wanted? No. Because for some reason the girls I played with were relatively good and playing in outfield meant you had to be good at catching fly balls. Where did they put this small redheaded girl that cowered when the ball came near her? Surely not in the infield - those are important places! And like I've already said - not the outfield - she can't catch a ball for the life of her. They put me as the catcher. Um... what? Yeah. I had to be the catcher. Every once in a while I would catch the ball, but mostly it was me scurrying around to find the ball the girl did not hit and throw it back to the pitcher. {side note: I can actually throw a ball pretty well. Anything to get that ball away from me, right?} More than once when I was catcher I got hit by the ball because I couldn't scurry fast enough, and ONE TIME, ONE TIME OH MY LORD. One time I got hit by a swinging bat. Let me tell ya about it: late in the season, I decide to "try." I get really excited because our pitcher pitched a perfect ball that didn't scare me for once, I decide I won't hurl my body away, I will catch this ball that is clearly not in the hitter's strike zone in my glove. I reach up, gallantly, and let me tell you it was gallant on my part - I remember this incident in slow motion and it was glorious(ly bad), I start to catch the ball, but the girl at bat decides that she is going to swing at this ball, the bat - in full swing - hits my hand lifted gallantly in the air to catch this ball that was clearly out of her strike zone and my glove flies off, the tears come to my eyes, and my little body cries out "UUUUGGGGHHHH" in full Charlie Brown style. They have to stop the game. My coach comes over and takes me to the dug out. A mom comes over - not mine - and brings ice to put on my hand. I choke back tears - so angry that a few actually escaped. I am out the rest of the game. Come to think of it - that's a benefit. I make excuses to get out of the few games left of the season. My mom makes me go to one more. I get put in the outfield. I let the other outfield girls run to the ball if it makes it to the outfield. I decide that without a doubt, I hate softball.

One last thing about softball - I thought I escaped the torture with the last game played. No, no, friends. I did not. The last event in The Year of the Softball was a pool party to celebrate the end of summer and the end of that dreaded sport. This seemed harmless enough. If nothing, I can swim. I was a competitive swimmer then remained a swimmer throughout school. Everything was fine. Brittany and I kept to ourselves in the shallow end - Brittany couldn't swim well and since she was my only friend I had to stick with her there. One of the older girls from the deep end called out to her friend in the shallow end, she had just got in the pool near me and Brittany. The shallow-end-friend yelled out for the deep-end-friend to toss her some goggles. They were the ugly big kind of goggles that non-swimmers wear - you know the ones that cover your nose too - prepubescent Rhianna scoffs at those because PrePubescent Rhianna has been a competitive swimmer for 4 years already, what do those "softball girls" know? Anyway, deep-end-friend tosses those goggles but deep-end-friend clearly has lost her ability to throw things since softball has ended because those goggles hit me right in my right eye. Thanks to my high cheekbones, they SMACK very loudly and tears come to my eyes, my little body cries out "UUUUGGGGHHHH" in full Charlie Brown style. The girls stop swimming. A mom helps me out of the water. {side note - my mom wasn't there.} The coach goes and gets ice. I sit out of the pool time fun until my parents come to get me. I do not care because at this point I have way more fun talking to the adults there than half-heartedly splashing in the shallow end with can't-swim-Brittany. I get a glorious black eye that lasts for about a week.

I never play softball again.

Clumsy Girl Tip: Never play softball. {or any sport involving flying balls.} {question: did you giggle that time when I said "flying balls"}

heart.

2011-02-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day. Oh Valentine's Day! A day of love. But also a day where people who love love have to hear from all the people who hate love (or, I'll give 'em a break, hate commercialized love) complain about this holiday. In my years of being alone for Valentine's Day I've never resorted to the kind of bitter attitude I hate. {At least not that I can recall?} So what if it's commercialized? So what if you think it there shouldn't be JUST ONE DAY to love your loved ones so hard and forget the other 364 days? So what if you have no significant other and are jealous of those that do? THIS DAY IS ABOUT LOVE, PEOPLE! And I, for one, love that. I definitely think you should make your loved ones feel special EVERY day of the year and not just wait around for some random day in February. But that doesn't mean you can't go all sorts of crazy in love on this day too! It's like Love's birthday - and everyone wants to feel special on their birthday - so don't let LOVE down!

Valentine's Day for me growing up meant sickness. As a somewhat sickly child, I was always blessed with a horrible case of strep throat around Valentine's Day. I never really got to attend the class parties with shoebox mailboxes! So sad! So tragic! But did this make me hate the day?! No! Because with my 13 birthday & puberty in full bloom, my strep throat ended {And haven't had it since! *knock on wood*}. I've been able to appreciate the day in full health ever since! My mom LOVES this holiday and always made it feel special. She's always sent me Valentine's through the mail (even when I lived at home so I could get REAL MAIL) and this year she did not disappoint. I got 3 valentines from my 3 animals in the mail. My mom is cute! She also made me brownies and gave me heaps of dark chocolate (my favesies!).

This Vday is my first with my mister. I've been celebrating for a week already. Sending him about a dozen eValentines throughout the last week daily (all have been Kate Spade B-Mines!), other cards, and gifts. He's done the same for me - crocheting me a cowl and making a fun Valentine themed basket with little goodies (Valentine's (in under) $20.11)! But we're not OFFICIALLY celebrating until this weekend during our trip. That's when we'll do the fancy schmancy dinner, some more gift exchange, and then my FAVORITE gift - going to a show with my favorite-est band EVER! So stoked! So thrilled he got us tickets! Unfortunately my little Valentine has been under the weather - I'm praying he feels better soon and isn't so coughy sniffly sad panda. But he's still a terrific delight even in his sick state - and this weekend will be awesome! I'm glad I get yet another week before Valentine's Day is over for our two hearts!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, DEAR HEARTS!

{image credits: one, two}