Displaced by Azure Ray

It's just a simple line
I can still hear it all of the time
If I can just hold on tonight
I know that nothing
Nothing survives
Nothing survives
I think I'm turned around
I'm looking up
Not looking down
And when I'm standing still
Watching you run
Watching you fall
Fall into me

Am I making something worthwhile out of this place
Am I making something worthwhile out of this chase
I am displaced
I am displaced

And She's my friend of all friends
She's still here when everyone's gone
She doesn't have to say a thing
We'll just keep laughing all night long
All night long

Am I making something worthwhile out of this place
Am I making something worthwhile out of this chase
I am displaced
I am displaced

It's just a simple line
I can still hear it all of the time
If I can just hold on tonight
I know that no one
No one survives
No one survives.

The Coolest thing I've seen in awhile...

is this music video that Dooce wrote about on her blog. You have to watch it. It's unbelieveable and beautiful, and makes me wish I had gone into art of some kind.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

Movie Quotes

There are maybe three movies I have watched enough times that I could quote them endlessly. Enough times means at least a hundred times, because I can not memorize anything easily. One of those movies is "So I Married an Axe Murderer." It is such a great flick. By far the best movie Mike Meyers ever did in my opinion. To see a nice little list of some of the funniest lines, go here. You'll laugh right out loud!

Check this out!

I am seriously dying to get out of AZ and travel again. I saw this video and thought I would share it with all of you. It's this guy who traveled all across China. Isn't it cool?

The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse
by bigfatspringroll

The last three months...

I just haven't felt like blogging. I haven't really even read anyone else's blog either. I told a friend of mine the other day that it's like I've had reverse seasonal depression. Summers are pretty miserable here for me. I want to go outside and be active and it's so, so hot. Beyond that I've been working the night shift now since May. 7pm to 7am. It's rough going back and forth from sleeping during the day to sleeping at night! And because of the sun and heat it's been really hard to sleep during the day. It's been slowly getting better though. That foil I've got over the window really helps and it looks great too! Hahaha!

Some things I've missed blogging about:

1. Whoa, MJ. I did not see that coming. Kind of a mixed blessing for him, I think.
2. I turned 29. Sad, sad day.
3. My youngest sibling graduated from high school. I never have to go to Prairie/Battle Ground again. YAY!
4. My three middle siblings are giant jerks and there are no obligatory family events in the near future. YAY!
5. I worked on the Fourth of July, and did not get holiday pay. Apparently you only get holiday pay if you get off the morning of a holiday. Not cool.
6. I got to see some of my sweetie-pie cousins at our family beach house.

I'm sure I'll think of other things I have to catch you guys up on later. In the mean time, I made my blog public so it would be more accessible for you, my blog buddies. So you guys better comment on my posts. I'm apprehensive about having a public blog too, so I'm just going to try it out for now.

My new domain is from a Beatles song of course! "She Said, She Said." It's kind of a dark song, but I love it.

Blog Re-Launch

Hi, Hello. How are you, my ten blog readers? I know I haven't blogged since April, but I'm feeling better about blogging now and would like to re-invite you to check in from time to time to see what's new with me! I've changed my domain name and made my blog public so you'll be able to "follow" and add me to your Google Reader feed.

Here's a picture of what's new in Tucson. That's right, the MONSOON is here. This picture was taken from my apartment balcony. If only you could hear the sound that accompanied this shot!

Family Feud

Sometimes when I have the day off I turn the TV on to Family Feud. You know the show, right? Two teams of two families play against each other trying to guess the most popular answers to a survey question. Sometimes I wonder where they find these contestants, you know, when I'm screaming the answers at the screen. My favorite part of the show is the "Lightening Round." It's when the winning team picks two members that try to accumulate 200 points. One of them goes off the stage, while the other tries to get the most popular answer to 5 survey questions, and then the other one comes out and tries the same thing. This is really the only fun part of the show. I would totally kill on the "Lightening Round." I would probably even try to get on the show (I am so confident in my speedy answering abilities) except for two problems...

#1. The host is a creep. I can remember three different hosts on this show, and they have all been total creeps. There was that comedian guy Louie Anderson, ick. Then the guy who played Al from Home Improvement, ick. Now the host is John Hurley (he was Elaine's boss on Seinfeld, and did Dancing with the Stars). The problem with this creep is he is super touchy feely. He always kisses the women's hands and then holds on to them while they are answering. And then during the "Lightening Round" he puts his arm around them. Ick. This stuff would totally throw me and ruin my game because I'd just be thinking, "STOP TOUCHING ME YOU SLIME BALL!!!"

#2. Who would I have on my team? There are 5 people on a team, and I have 7 people in my family, some of them I actually am in a real FEUD with. So that probably wouldn't work. I thought maybe I could put a winning team together with Ben's family, but that probably wouldn't work either because he has more than 5 family members and we're not married. I think if I could put my Family Feud Dream Team together it would consist of me and four of my all time favorite girls (who are all sisters) but the fact that they are blonde/red headed/ blue eyed probably wouldn't help when I introduced them all as my "cousins."

Death and Taxes

Yesterday when Ben sat down to do his taxes, he told me I should be surprised he was doing them so early. He said a teacher from Prairie once told him, "Why should I give the government my money any sooner than I have to." What an excellent point. Of course I overpaid the government all year, so when I filed in January I got a pretty awesome refund. Ben knew he might have to pay, so he ordered some comfort food to ease the pain. I ate two cheesy, saucy slices of comfort last night. It was sooo good, and I wanted more but the guilt stopped me. And I just got back from the little gym at my apartment where I killed myself for an hour. And probably only burned off half a slice of pizza.

On a side note: I'm watching the NBC Nightly News right now, and I think Brian Williams has become my new favorite news anchor over Peter Jennings and local boy Jeff Granola (Gianola).

Presents...

I sent these little boxes off to my San Diego cousins the other day and I can't wait to hear if they like the charm bracelets I made them!

Diploma

It's nice to finally have this. Is it tacky to frame it? After all the crap I went through to get it, I'm actually considering sewing it to the back of a shirt and wearing it around for all the world to see.

I admit it.

I'm a risk taker. I push things to the limit. I think to myself, "I can't wait to get home. There's enough gas. It's only a mile home from here." I drive back and forth the three miles from the hospital to my apartment, over and over again. Yeah, I drive a couple blocks more to the Post Office and then to Albertson's, and scoff at the Circle K.

So, yesterday when my little car slowly sputtered to a stop, I was embarrassed and frustrated but I was most certainly not surprised. Even though I totally should have had at least another 10 miles in that tank. Stupid Arizona heat messing with my mileage.

Luckily I was at a light, across the street from the Circle K.

Charms...

If you're interested, I posted a bunch of pictures of my collection on my online photo album...including some charms I've been collecting for my cousins. (The link to my album is on the right. That's for you Mom, on the right, see the column on the right? Ha. And Ben, I know you want your own bracelet. It's okay if you want to admit it!)

Camping in AZ

I decided to take a quick camping trip this weekend to take advantage of this beautiful "not-summer" weather we are blessed with in Arizona. Just outside of Tucson is Mt. Lemmon, covered in camping grounds and vista views of Tucson, clearly the perfect place to go. This is a shot of the little camp site, pretty nice right? Car camping is the best for some nice chill-axing (yes, you read that right). You can throw all your gear in the car and within two hours be sitting around a nice roaring fire with your sweet tent, air mattress, and giant flannel sleeping bag waiting for you under the stars. Yeah, I like to rough it in style. That sweet tent is from REI and might be the coolest thing ever. It's over 6 feet tall, the top is completely mesh (to better view the stars) and it only has four poles so it pops up in about ten minutes. So cool.

Saturday night, Ben and I made some foil dinners that turned out delicious. We wrapped chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, onion and garlic cloves up in some foil, put them on the coals and twenty minutes later everything was cooked perfectly! I think we lucked out actually. For desert we had s'mores Sarah style. I like to toast my mallows and put them between two cookies that already have the chocolate built in. It's a time saver really. They can be chocolate chip cookies or chocolate covered grahams, but this time I got these great little French shortbread cookies that have a milk chocolate piece on top. I probably could've eaten about 20 of those s'mores but we ran out of cookies. Ah yes, it was good.

So, some things I learned about camping in Arizona:
1. Apparently there are bears. At our beautiful little campsite there was a nice pergola and picnic table and there was a food locker to protect your food FROM BEARS. I thought Bears only lived near rivers where they could snatch up some tasty salmon. I guess I was wrong.
2. Just because its 75 degrees during the beautiful day, doesn't mean that you shouldn't pack your winter clothes. Because as soon as the sun goes down the temperature will drop to the low 40's. Nice and chilly. Thank goodness for super warm flannel sleeping bags!
3. Just because it's only 75 degrees and you're hanging out under your nice pergola all day, doesn't mean you won't get a nice lobster red sunburn. Note to self: never leave house without sunscreen EVER.

Where The Wild Things Are!

I just saw this on Ellen today and am sooooo excited to see it. I loved the book as a kid, and this looks amazing. Check it out!



P.S. The music is the AMAZING band The Arcade Fire. Check them out too!

Apple Cake!

The other day I was at the grocery store and wanted an apple, so I bought this great little bag of organic apples at the UN-Safeway for 2 bucks. It's rare to find such affordable organic produce here in Tucson, let alone the UN-Safeway (it's in the ghetto). After I had my one little apple, I had about 12 left, and not wanting to waste my 2 bucks I went on a recipe search. I found this recipe for Apple Cake on a great little blog called Smitten Kitchen. It turned out great and I think I'm going to make this at Thanksgiving time instead of Apple pie. It was very good! Check out the recipe!

Lionel Richie kinda looks like Smokey Robinson!

Alright I guess my little girl memory is not as good as I thought it was. Here is the exact clip that horrified me as a kid. Thanks for finding this Mom!

Good Song?

So I just stumbled across this video and can't decide if I like it. It's a cover of a Lionel Richie song that I have detested my whole life...mainly because of him singing it on Sesame Street and being chased and attacked by a giant letter M. I can still remember cringing every time I saw that giant letter M squishing Lionel Richie's head while he sang, "You really got a hold on me!" I think I'm traumatized. Anyways, Zooey Deschanel is singing and she is gorgeous and has a beautiful voice and I've loved her acting (she was the big sister in Almost Famous among other roles), but I don't know if I can handle this song. Is it a good song?

I'm going to get some more earrings.

I just got back from a three hour laser hair removal session. I had both my legs lasered and it hurt like hell. It's subjects like this one that I want to blog about, and why I have made my blog private. There are girls I know from high school that I really loved and admired for how smart and independent they were, how thrifty their style was and how confident they were-- not ever shaving their legs and wearing shorts. I just don't want them to think less of me because I'm paying a lot of money for torture to remove hair that naturally grows on my body. Is that bad, that I'm a closeted laser-hair-remover?

I also have a couple friends who have started blogs lately who talk about really interesting things they do and think about in their lives. Like my friend Marcella (she married one of my old school buddies Clint). Marcella has started this really great blog and posted some really healthy recipes--even including why the particular recipe is healthy. (Hey Marcella, great blog by the way!) And then there's my old buddy Kevin from school. He's already posted about walking the freedom trail in Boston, and the art of dumpster diving. I would enjoy reading both of those blogs even if I didn't know those two people. I also have a few of my friend's (those of you reading right now) blogs listed on the side here. And you all talk about your husbands, and careers, and travels and kids, and write all kinds of great stories...and I like to post pictures of my charm collection, and my new jewelry "box".

Basically, all I blog about is stuff I would want to talk to you about on a daily basis...not necessarily anything insightful or life changing, just "chit-chatty" subjects, not even anything funny really. Like how, today my laser hair removal really hurt bad and the session lasted so long that I was literally shaking for a good hour afterwards. And how I'm so excited about my new jewelry "box" because it's so functional! (You can get one here if you want!) I just don't know if my buddy Kevin, or some of the previously mentioned girls that never shave their legs, would want to read about the things that I blog about. I mean Ben doesn't even read my blog. But I guess since Kevin shared his blog with me, I'm gonna have to let him read mine. I'm still going to blog about Laser Hair Removal, and earrings though.

My Vintage Sterling Silver Charm Collection

This is a picture of a bunch of the Sterling Silver Charms I have been collecting over the past few months. Most of you know that I have been to 49 states and when I went on my giant road trip years ago, my sister and I collected a bunch of charms. Last summer I started looking on Ebay for charms and came across these sterling and enamel map charms and became obsessed with them. Like totally, totally obsessed (like couldn't study because Ebay auctions were ending obsessed). The other day I finally collected the last few states and am so pleased with my little collection. I haven't bought the bracelet I want to put them on yet, so I've been taping them on this map I printed out. When I get the bracelet I'll probably put up some more pictures because this one doesn't really do the little sparkly charms justice and my Mom is just as obsessed with charm bracelets as I am.

Happy Late Valentine's Day!

On Valentine's Day, my Valentine made me these amazing crepes and sauteed bananas with chocolate sauce. Ben totally surprised me, and they were soooo good. Check out the recipe!!!