Am I Drinking Milk From a Saucer?



MEOW

One of the best movies ever.

Rules of Being a Lady

It also doesn't mean I'm a lesbian - thanks though, dad.

Drooling.

gold glitter

Oh how I want each and every one of these... and also somewhere to wear them.

MuaHaHa

Amanda: Hey I like that shirt, where did you get it?

Me: Target - but lucky for you, I saw something similar at Lane Bryant!



Derrr...

St. Louis has probably 3 good radio stations. The rest play the same Fergie, Kesha (I refuse to use the dollar sign in her name. Refuse.) Britney, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry songs over and over until they brainwash everyone into thinking it's actual music. Just my personal opinion.

The good stations:

106.5 The Arch

http://www.1065thearch.com/

They play a good mix of everything - 70's, 80's, 90's, current. But they never repeat the same song twice in the same day.

100.3 Gen-X

http://www.genxstlouis.com/main.html

You'll hear songs from Green Day, The Offspring, Dr. Dre & Tupac, and Alanis Morrisette on this station. It's all music I grew up listening to in middle school & high school. Good for a walk down memory lane.

And my personal favorite... 89.1 The Wood

http://tunein.com/radio/The-Wood-891-s32063/

This is Lindenwood University's campus radio station and it barely reaches all over the St. Louis area. They play the "B side" tracks... songs from bands like Coldplay, OAR, Phoenix, and Kings of Leon that don't make it onto the other big radio stations. They also play new, small bands that haven't made it big yet, but definitely, definitely will.   

Since The Wood is such a small station, I haven't been able to get it at my office for the past 2 years. Today I finally thought "I wonder if I could listen to it from my phone..." and voilà! I'm listening to an Eddie Vedder song that I'd never heard before (that I'll probably end up buying on iTunes) instead of being forced to music that's been maniuplated by auto-tune. Damn you, T Pain. You've ruined music forever.

AND... instead of playing commercials, The Wood has hourly updates from the Associated Press. Good music and national news. Pret-tay good huh?

I can't believe it took me 2 whole years to come up with this. But I'm SO glad I finally did!!

yesssssss

Oktoberfest

It grieves me to say that I can't attend St. Louis' Oktoberfest this year. I went last year with 9 of my girlfriends and had one of the best (and longest) days ever!

(me with brown hair!!)

 This year I'm going to the Roger Daltrey concert with my parents instead.

Disappointed about Oktoberfest? Yes.

SUPER EXCITED about Daltrey? HELL YES!!!

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

Look out Daltrey... I'm coming for you October 8th.



Holy Motivation Batman



Ira Glass Quote

Boy did I need to hear this today.

I went and saw Ira Glass speak a few months back and was amazed. I had never even heard of him and by the time I left I was entranced. I listen to his podcasts of This American Life whenever I can at work and always feel giddy. What an amazing, inspirational, motivational and eloquent quote that is. I might frame this and put it on my nightstand so it's the first thing I see when I wake up, and the last thing I see before I go to sleep.

 I do NOT want to give up on doing something creative/unique/original with my life. I do NOT want to be a corporate clone who never produces anything special with my life.

If you're reading this - never let me settle, ok? That's really important to me.

I'll buy you a present if you keep me on my game.

For more from Ira and This American Life, visit their site.

Guh...

I was trying to sleep last night and for some reason this creepy S.O.B. popped in my head and I was up for the night.

Cheshire Cat

"I'm not crazy... My reality is just different from yours."

Probably won't sleep again tonight eith--- oh who am I kidding?

Mr. and Mrs. Budenholzer

My friends Monica and Mike left for their honeymoon in Jamaica yesterday - they were married last weekend, and it was truly one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to... the happy couple looked absolutely flawless, and the reception was one of the top 5 nights of my life!

Alecia Hoyt Photography

Congratulations, you two! Thanks for letting me be there for your special day - and I hope your honeymoon is magical!! Now get back here, so we can play!

Happy Autumn Everybody



well we do.

Desk Blotter

I've been waiting for my desk blotter to come in the mail for WEEKS and when I went home on my lunch break, it was waiting there for me at my door... this just goes to show how empty my life has been lately. A desk calendar has the power to make me jump for joy.

Tres cute though, huh? It has my initials in the bottom corner and I got to pick the colors and everything... I ordered it from Dabney Lee and I think I'll be purchasing some personalized Christmas gifts from here too!

So I'll be filling in the months and dates for the rest of my afternoon -- very exciting stuff!!

GPOY 9/21/11

I used to be a Golden Retriever.



Golden Girl

I used to need everyone to like me... & if I knew someone didn't (and believe you me... there are plenty of 'em out there) I had to do whatever I could to get their approval and to make them be my friend.

I'm starting to realize that that's no way to go through life. I know I certainly don't love every sinlge person I've ever met, so it's only natural that some people out there aren't going to love me!

So now... I'm going to be:

Cocker Spanish Girl

a Cocker Spaniel:

friendly to everyone, unyieldingly loyal to friends and family, and happy as the day is long.

If you had to describe yourself as a pup, what kind would you be?

Halloween 2011... nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.

Over booze and laughter on Friday night, my friends Kristen, Katy and I decided what we want to be for Halloween this year.

We thought about being Three Blind Mice, McDonalds characters, football players... but ultimately we decided on these guys:

spread ouuuuut

Obviously I'll be dressing up as Larry Fine because I have the Larry-Fine-Fro. Kristen is going to buy a bowl cut wig, and Katy will be donning a bald cap for the evening.

We were out a bar practicing our eye-gouges and ear flicking when we realized how embarrassing we are together. We'll save our stooge-ness for All Hallow's Eve but until then... may I just say...

"Why you!!!"

Katy, Kristen, Alli

OH MY GOD

You GUYS... I just figured out what I want to do with the rest of my life!!!!!!!!

Alright ready?



drumroll please....

I WANT TO BE A PROFESSIONAL PET PHOTOGRAPHER!

Think about it - it involves:

- pets

- creativity

- little (if any) futher education

- pets

Why on EARTH didn't I think of this sooner?! I'm so excited about this I could burst!!!

Lunch Date!



I'm huuuuuungry

STARVING today! Going to Maggiano's with my mom for lunch... excited for some Rigatoni D and a delish salad! Be jealous. Be very jealous.

So Cozy...

It's that time of year, friends... where the weather starts to change and getting out of the comfort of your warm, cozy bed is absolutely impossible.

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I went to Target's website to see if any of the Missoni throw blankets were still available. I know, right? How sweetly naive of me. They're gone. All gone...

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If I weren't planning on purchasing my 2011 fall boots this weekend, I might go on eBay to see if any of the crazy girls who got to Target at the crack of dawn wanted to sell me their blanket for triple the price or something, but no. Boots are more important.

Anyway, I hope you're all staying warm (and for the St. Louisains reading this, I hope you're all staying dry and driving safely)! Let's get through the rest of our work days, then go home and cuddle up with a warm mug of hot chocolate and repeats of Will & Grace. At least that's what I plan on doing!

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Hey. Subway guy...

Hey. Subway guy...



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...shutup about your weekend and make my sandwich.

Television Gold

My friend Betsy and I have been talking about this article all afternoon... we think it has the potential to be it's own reality TV show...

"He was shunned by his feathered family when he was just days old. Now, nearly three months on, this ugly duckling has found an unlikely father figure to replace them – in the form of his breeder, Barrie Hayman. The fairytale friendship was forged when Mr Hayman rescued the distressed duck, named Star, from his incubator. He noticed Star was panicked when he started doing a manic ‘waddling dance’ in an attempt to escape his hostile siblings. Since then, the Indian Runner duck has become inseparable from 65-year-old Mr Hayman. The 11-week-old bird follows him everywhere, from the pub to the supermarket, and even watches the rugby with him. Mr Hayman, from Eastleigh, Devon, said: 'He just won't leave me and so now we go everywhere together,' said Mr Hayman, who has been breeding ducks for 18 months. 'I've not trained him to follow me, he just seems to like it and he is one fantastic duck - I've never known any like it before.'He comes to the pub, where everyone loves him and we'll be watching his first world cup together next week."

Some of Betsy's and my ideas are:

-Have the duck and the man sitting on the couch together, watching a movie, eating popcorn out of the same bowl, trading knowing glances at one another during certain parts

- Have the duck swimming happily in the bathtub while the man sits on a closed toilet reading the newspaper and sharing the day's headlines

- Having a picnic outside, where the old man throws pieces of bread to the other birds around, but the duck just eats 'em all... they share a laugh and a smile

-Show the duck help the man wrapping his Christmas gifts - that beak is perfect for the times when you need someone to "put your finger right here for a second"...

I mean I'd tune in every week to see what kind of hijinks they'd get themselves into!

Good Point...

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I'm surprised my own father hasn't said this to me yet. Good old Kenn is a bit of a worrier!

09-11-2001

It's impossible to turn on the TV today without seeing pieces about 9/11. Everything is very well put together and emphasizes that our country was not broken that day. In Jon Stewart's words: we grieve, but we do not despair. All day I've been overwhelmed by the unity of our country and the outpouring of love from all 50 states.

But I'm also very angry. I'm horrified and very, very angry. I won't go into the politics of it, I won't go into all of my personal emotions about it, but I will go into one big life-changing realization that came to me this evening.

It's so easy for us to say "God bless America" today. It's easy for us to say "I will never forget" today. And it's easy for us to be patriotic and so grateful for the men and women who ran into danger that morning 10 years ago. But what about the other 364 days? Please, please don't misunderstand... this isn't me saying "I'm better than all of you because I'm a prouder American all year long, and I'm always thankful of our brave men and women in uniforms" - that's not what I'm saying. What I want to say is that I want to be a proud American all year long, and I want to be worthy of living in a nation where men and women are willing to run in and rescue us. Think about that for just a second. Police officers, firefighters, EMTs, nurses, doctors, volunteers...

"While we were all scared out of our minds he ran as fast as he could toward what we were scared of." via

I don't know. This whole post seems very cliche and I've come close to deleting it several times. But it also seems like something that I needed to get out. I'm going to turn off the coverage now, and go on with my life. I just hope that I really do start to realize how lucky I am, how lucky we are, to live in the greatest country in the world.

Just always be nice to each other. Always be grateful for your friends and your family. It's a crazy, scary world we live in... and we don't know when we'll need to rely on a stranger to rescue us next.

God bless.

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Jolene

Amazing song.

Ray LaMontagne

Now & Then

I grew up in a fairly typical suburban neighborhood a little west of St. Louis. From the ages of 8-15 I was practically inseparable from my neighborhood gang. From 10am till 12am we'd do everything together from jumping on the Schulte's trampoline, to building Lego homes at the Paladin's, to making music videos in the Lommel's basement. We'd spend an entire weekend planning our new dog walking company and then forget about it that next Monday morning. Summers were spent playing football in between the Schulte's and the Alford's house and then posting up at our lemonade stand at the end of the street. We'd annoy the hell out of our adult neighbors while playing Capture the Flag throughout the neighborhood all night long. I had my first kiss in a game of Truth or Dare with a neighbor named Ryan. I have permanent scars on my legs from riding on the pegs on the back of a Dyno bike that looked just like this one:

We represented a lot of different personalities and fought like brothers and sisters, but loved each other regardless. Whenever I see any of these people (some married, some in medical school, some now living very very far away) I regress to my childhood-self, and everything seems endlessly possible again like it was in those days.

My best friends out of the group were Jennifer, Heather and Lindsay. Heather and I were the same age, with Jennifer one year behind and Lindsay another year behind that. We always watched the movie Now & Then and then fought over who was who.

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We all even tried to save our allowances to try to get a professional picture like this taken, but all that money ended up getting spent at Rave on fake leather jackets. I always argued that I was the most like Roberta (Christina Ricci in the green) because she was so tough and such a hard-ass. They would quickly remind me that I was neither tough, nor a hard-ass, and that I was the most like naive, sheltered, optimistic Chrissy (in the pig-tails). Rude.

Jennifer and I would sleep over at Heather and Linny's house probably 5 nights a week in the summer. They had a screened-in porch that was perfect for the late-night giggles and Backstreet Boys playing in the background. When we were all laying down comfortably but still wanted to play Truth or Dare, we'd just play Truth or Truth instead... ahh the simple joys of being a pre-teen. We'd talk about what we wanted to be when we grew up and how amazing our lives would be, not stopping to think how amazing our lives were at that very moment.

Our parents all still live on the same block but we hardly see each other anymore. Every time we try to get together something inevitably comes up, as it tends to do with old friends.

What I wouldn't give to have one more summer of freedom, bike rides, and movie marathons with this gang. I guess not much has changed, I'm sitting here wishing I could go back in time because it was so perfect, and I can't see how perfect my life is today.


Our Gang (not really)

Oh the Cuteness...



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I've caught myself doing the foot stomp when I get really really excited about things. Normal?