Happy Friday Folks

Makes me laugh.

Blessed!

Can't write much now, but I am just overwhelmed right now by the amount of good things that are happening for my loved ones lately...

Jessica and Scott had a perfect, healthy, handsome baby boy!

Betsy is engaged to an amazing amazing man!

Lacy moved off to NY to start a new life with the fella she loves!

Katie Strutz is head over heels in love!

Kristen just moved into her own apartment - right down the street from me!

Katie Voss moved into a new apartment with her boyfriend!

Jemma and Sarah are going to have babies this year!

Susan McDonald is going to have a baby in a month!

Kelly and Noah had a perfect wedding and a fantastic honeymoon!

I just had a perfect, relaxing vacation!

I know we have to take the good with the bad in life, but I'm so blessed that lately for me and my favorites, everything has been so, so good.

Too Blessed to be Stressed

Much love to you today, whoever you are, and if you're in the STL, stay inside. It's gonna be a scorcher!

Captain Backfire

Man this song sounds like someone I know... 

Who is that - I can't think..

Oh yeah. 

Me.

Are You My Child?

God I wish I had been this cool when I was younger...

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And All That Jazz....

Last night my mom, sister, aunt, two cousins and I went to see Chicago at The Muny! My mom and aunt have what they call "a connection" so we were in the second and third rows, and may I just say: HOLY smokes.

I went and saw the movie version of Chicago with my mom my junior year of high school and it absolutely blew my mind. I feel like with some musicals I want more more more but Rob Marshall took it above and beyond on the big screen.  Who knew Renee Zellweger, Catherine  Zeta-Jones, John C. Reilly and Richard Gere had it in them? Before the movie even hit theaters I watched a behind the scene special on VH1 (I'm awesome) and was immediately obsessed. Mom and I sped as quickly as we could to the nearest store to buy the CD as soon as we left the movie and I played it till it broke. A family friend bought a bootlegged copy of the movie at a flea market (this still happens?) and tried to burn us a copy. I honestly think this was one of my top 5 most excited moments in my life when we finally got that burned copy. We put it in, it didn't work. I was so pissed - that's always how things work for me though. The things I'm super excited about never end up working - I think there's a lesson in there somewhere but I'm too busy raving about Chicago to look for it.

So last night the play starts and we're already getting goosebumps and whispering "This one's my favorite", "No, this one's my favorite" to each other. The Cell-Block Tango number was fantastic (although, I couldn't help but notice, it wasn't as insane as the film version. Smaller stage though - I get it) and the singers were pitch-perfect. Then Billy Flynn's first number comes up. "He sounds just like Richard Gere in the movie," my sister noticed. Indeed he did, and he was a handsome Billy Flynn at that! No sooner than I decided that I wanted to find out what else this actor has starred in, we found his name in the Playbill - it's Justin Guarini!

This kid from American Idol season 1:

afrolicious

Well. Now he looks like this:

Mr. Billy Flynn

As they said in Clueless, "Not a total Betty, but a vast improvement." He was so good. I'd venture to say he was the best thing about the whole play. Not bad for a curly haired kid from Georgia! 

I can't decide now whether I liked the live version better or if the movie still has my heart. The live version obviously had some songs that didn't make it in to the movie and some were better than others. My favorite of these was "Class" sung by Mama Morton and Velma. This one actually was taped with Queen Latifa and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but was cut from the film:

Please disregard the subtitles. Or don't... either way.

Anyway - I highly recommend you see this movie if you haven't already. And if you get an opportunity to see it live - jump at it. You won't be disappointed!

Adios!

Alright friends, I'm leaving for vacation this weekend so won't be able to post! I haven't had a proper sit-on-my-butt-in-the-sun vacation in over three years. To say I'm excited is an UNDERSTATEMENT.

waves

water

 hell yes

summer lovin

Wednesday Smiles

One of my sister's best friends used this song for her first dance with her husband and I've loved it ever since. Running on faith... what an incredible way to live life.

Thanks for introducing me to this song, Art & Sas :)

So Disappointed in Myself.

So my favorite website of all time is imgfave - it's where I get all my silly pictures and gifs for my silly blog. There's been an all out imgfave WAR going on over this British boy band One Direction - half the users love them (and I'm putting it extremely mildly when I say "love"... it's more of a scary obsession) and the other half can't stand them. Fans of the group would post a picture, then haters would type something politically incorrect over it, then the fan would type something mean over that, and so on and so on. An example would be:

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I found myself on the "can't stand them" side initially. "Why are they famous? Because they're good looking and had auto-tune imposed over their voices? Lame...", was my opinion. 

But now... (I'm physically cringing as I type this...)

I kinda...

LIKE THEM!!!

Oh my gosh I'm so disappointed. I am. I'm mortified. But I hear their song on the radio and it's CATCHY! And I looked them up on Wikipedia and they actually really do have talent! They auditioned for one of Simon Cowell's talent search shows as individuals and he suggested that they get together as a group. And they seem like such nice, normal boys!

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Am I going to buy a ticket to their next concert and a tshirt and pillow cases and a beach towel and body wash? No. We went through that all with BSB and I'm not doing it again. My heart can't take it again.

But I am no longer on the "can't stand them" side of the imgfave war. Now I'm on the "they're kinda good" side. 

Holy shit....

I'm such a loser, you guys. I just wrote an entire post about a war on a website about a boy band. I'm 26 effing years old.

Jury Cat

meow

Pinterest & the Craftermath

So if you're a female and you know how to use a computer you probably know all about Pinterest. This virtual bulletin board has given women (and a few persnickity men) an amazing way to keep tabs on ideas they find online, in the hopes they'll bring them to fruition in their real lives! 

Do it yourself projects, outfit ideas, wedding planning tips, photography, recipes, home decor... really anything you find online that you want in your real life, you "pin". I was SUPER excited about this when Betsy introduced it to me (just like she has introduced basically everything good in my life to me), but lately, I've started to resent it a bit.

I've tried a handful of these little DIY projects and none of them turn out anywhere near usable. I don't have the time or patience for cutesy little hand-made knickknacks. I WANT to, but I don't. That's why I shop on Etsy. So I can buy cutesy hand-made knickknacks and tell people I made them. Duh. 


 Can't afford any of the clothes I pin, and I definitely don't do any of the exercise moves I have pinned. I haven't tried any recipes... I don't cook (I had to Google how to spell "recipe") but I just know it wouldn't turn out as easy as it looks. Pinterest is kind of starting to make me feel like a big failure. Thanks but I don't really need a website's help with that...


Thanks to Pinterest, single ladies now have a way to organize their dream wedding (even if "the happeist day of their lives" is eons away). This includes me. I have my own board of wedding ideas should the opportunity ever present itself. Go ahead. Judge.



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No fiance, no engagement ring, no boyfriend, but about 107 ideas of how I want my wedding to look. Screw you Pinterest, I could have done without that.


Birthday parties, wedding/baby showers, and holidays will never be the same now thanks to this website. If you don't have a dining room table on which hurricane vases sit, filled with sparkly ornaments and glittery sticks at Christmas, you're not trying hard enough!!!! If you're throwing a shower for one of your gal pals and you don't have mason jars and floofy decorations at every corner, well, good for you for trying, but try a little harder next time.


I'll keep going to this website though. It's a fantastic way to kill time if needed, and does get the creative energy flowing. Just wish I could be as cute, creative, healthy, skinny, married, happy, rich as my boards are!

Enough.

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Vertically Asleep

Having a hard time keeping my little eyes open today.

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 I'm having a weird/kinda gross issue lately at night where I wake up drenched in sweat several times. I've always had "night sweats" because of my crazy pills, but it's gotten really bad over the last few nights! Gross right?? But it's keeping me awake and now I'm suffering at work (more so than usual) because of this. I'm going to go purchase a huge fan tonight to  keep right next to my bed and see if that helps. I once dated a guy who slept with a giant box-fan right next to his bed at all times and I never knew why. Maybe he was a sweaty-sleeper like me. 

If you're looking for me today I'll be asleep in my chair.

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***FYI when I googled "asleep in desk chair" to find this picture, this link showed up. I applaud the person who took the time to do this.

"10 Reasons...."

Found this on a website called The Gloss and thought it was worth sharing! 

"10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Date A Writer:

1. Conversation theft - Sure, The Great Gatsby was "fiction," but how many of those lines did Scott steal right from Zelda's lips and put them in print directly word for word? Exactly.

2. Everything is a f*cking metaphor - Seriously. Writers can find metaphors in anything.

3. It's called "literary license" - Basically, a writer can do what they want with their words, and you just have to sit back and watch while the whole time they'll define it as "literary license". Which it is, of course, but sometimes you don't want someone to take literary license when it comes to your life you didn't want revealed in the first place.

4. Overall, they're a wounded lot - "Most things good for writing are bad for life." - Lorrie Moore. It's so true. Do you want to be the one to mend that broken wing of your lover every other week? I don't think so.

5. The battle of truths and lies - In my version, I'm the tall pretty one who broke your heart, so that's how I'll write it whether or not you object. Also, "You're painfully too short for even a proper adjective to be attached to you..." or at least that's how I "recall" it.

6. Darkest secrets revealed - Granted, they'll name the character Julie or something equally random, the one who looks exactly like you and also had a breakdown in 2005, but the truth is your secret has just been revealed. But hey, it's for the sake of art!

7. Quote 'em if you got 'em - Do you know how many times during a single proper two-hour lunch my writer friends and I quote some text or poem? Too many to count. Yes we're that pretentious... or that dorky.

8. Go ahead and have another - Let's be honest, a lot of the great writers were (and are) hooked on some substance or another. And with this winning quote from our buddy, Hem, "Write drunk; edit sober", we have an excuse for this codependency. What's a 9am deadline for 1600 words, if it's not reeking of whiskey? Nothing!

9. "You absolutely MUST read this!" - Writers tend to think that because they write they know more about writing and literature than every other person in the world. Chances are every time you leave a writer's home, you've got two or three books you didn't ask for and probably won't read in your bag. That's fine, I guess, you can just add them to your collection. 

10. Immortalization - Even if this is the age of the internet and you've got a bunch of us bloggers calling themselves writers, the fact remains that you can't erase the Internet. So when you find yourself in the starring role of some gal's essay and she's referring to you as Swede or Tattoo Guy or whatever else she's not-so-cleverly come up with, you should realize you're f*cked. Not only has she exposed you, but she's probably even loved you and that alone is some scary shit right there."

Written by: Amanda Chatel for The Gloss

Well this broad is DEAD on. She's freaky right. She must know what she's talking about! 

But us writers (this is me, as a "blogger", calling myself a writer) aren't all bad!

Here is my rebuttal:

7 Reasons Why You Should Date A Writer:

1. Eloquence - Writers have a way with words that can flatter (and insult) in ways that a non-writer's brain cannot fathom. We can tell you things about yourself that you already know, but we can do it in a colorful and thought-provoking way. Tres interesting, no?

2. "It's like that time when..." - Who doesn't like to hear that someone else has been through what you're going through before? Writers can always give examples of literary characters who've been through the same thing. "I can imagine how pissed off you are. It's like that time in Little Women where Amy throws Jo's manuscript in the fire. You should push her into a frozen lake or something." Cuz that's totally how that went. 

3. Helpful! - Whether you're writing a thank you note or an email for work, writers are generally good people to have around to help with the phrasing/spell check/etc! We have a certain flair that you normal people don't. Morons.

4. Good company - Some of the most influential people that ever lived are writers. John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. J. K. Rowling. That alcoholic Hemingway. And I don't know their names but I hear those dudes who wrote the Bible knew how to have a good time...

5. Love letters - 'nuff said.

6. Credit where credit is due - If you're dating a writer, odds are you're going to be written about in one form another. When you do something nice or something they find amusing, odds are even greater. Wouldn't you like it if your nice gesture or your funny story was written for millions (or in my case, a handful) of people to read? This is the other side of the "Immortalization" argument. What if you're immortalized for being the most amazing boyfriend/girlfriend ever, who did the most amazing things for their partner the writer?

7. Because we're awesome. Well. At least I am.

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Benjamin

My nephew was born on Sunday, June 3rd at 3:18 am! His name is Benjamin James and he is absolutely perfect in every. single. way.

I have exactly zero experience with newborns and all that comes with them, but I'm absolutely ecstatic to get to learn with this beautiful baby boy! I would always hear everyone gushing about their nieces and nephews and saying how obsessed they were with them, and I always thought it was very sweet, but I never understood it. Now, I completely do.

Welcome to the world, you sweet sweet boy! I can't wait to watch you grow up!

Yep. That's A Good One.

A man is walking down the street one day and all of the sudden he falls into a giant hole in the ground. He starts to panic, because he sees no way that he can get out on his own. A priest walks by and the man says, "Oh thank God! Father! I'm stuck down in this hole, can you please help me out?". The priest throws a bible down into the hole and walks on. A little while later a doctor walks past and the man says, "Hey Doc, I'm stuck in this hole, can you give me a little help down here?". The doctor throws a prescription down into the hole and keeps walking. Then a few minutes later, a friend walks by. The first guy says, "Hey buddy, I'm stuck down here, can you help me get out of here?" and without thinking, the buddy jumps down into the hole with him. The first guy says, "What are you, stupid?! Now we're both stuck down here!". The second guy says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out."

--Aaron Sorkin

It's easy to assume that medicine and religion are the only things that can save you when you're in a tough spot. Never underestimate how much having a friend who's been through it before can help. 

I get by

You've Got Mail

How I feel when I see someone has left me a voice mail:

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Quit that shit.