Day 3

3. Guilty pleasure things/secrets. That thing you like that people might make fun of you for.

Certain television shows definitely fit into this category. I loooove investigation/crime shows. Ever since netflix got a whole bunch of stuff from the investigation discovery channel, it's pretty much all I've been watching. I'm watching one right now.

I also love ranch and sriracha. Seriously, if left to my own devices I will put them both on anything. If I go to dennys, I will even mix ranch and hot sauce together to dip fries in.

Hm, what else? I like to bitch about stuff. Not a lot, really, but it feels stress-relieving to get off work and bitch with other co-workers about stupid customers or annoying situations. Mostly because we can sympathize with each other and laugh about it.

I like corny totally hollywood-ized romantic comedies. Like Sydney White, The Holiday, 50 first dates, 27 dresses, you know the deal. They're just so simple and formulaic and feel-good.

Maybe the weirdest thing I like to do is go to cemeteries during the day. I've been doing it since senior year, when me and my best friend megan used to have picnics in cemeteries and then look at the different graves. We lost touch shortly after I moved away for college, but I still go to a couple of the cemeteries in Prescott. One is up on a high hill in the middle of town, kind of tucked away so you wouldn't know it's there unless you paid really close attention. I like to drive up to that one, park my car on the edge, and look out on the city while listening to music and thinking/writing. The other one is much larger, and I like to walk around and think or just sit and enjoy the sunlight/breeze/grass. I know it sounds weird but it's actually quite calming and serene.

And last but not least, I really like taco bell. I know it's disgusting, but some of it (minus the beef and guacamole) is delicious.

<3
Em

Day 2

2. Some of your favorite things. Smells, songs, food, movies etc. Why are they your favorite?

Favorites! That's a fun topic. I have lots of favorites. I'm one of those people that goes to the same restaurant over and over again, always thinking I'm going to try something else for once... but I always get the same thing. Like at mexican restaurants. It depends on which restaurant, but I'm always going to get either a quesadilla (hugos in prescott or taco bell), spinach enchiladas (casa alvarez, macayos), or a chimichanga (any other mexican restaurant i go to ever). I'll try to break this down into actual categories though.

smells: some people have photographic memories, i have a smellographic memory. I will catch a whiff of something walking down the street and it will bring me back to an exact memory. For instance, I might smell the cologne that one of my past boyfriends used to wear and it will give me butterflys in my stomach. That's definitely one of my favorite smells. The cologne of someone I love/used to love. I also love the very stereotypical smells of rain, roses, and a hot cop of coffee in the morning.

songs: I've been in love with first aid kit for a super long time now. I love "I met up with a king", "ghost town", and "heavy storm" the most. I also have always loved modest mouse, it reminds me of high school. I love "missed the boat" the best. hmm... what else? get up and go by broadcast 2000, bon iver's skinny love (linn loved this song), and many many others.

food: i'm such a foodie. I'm really not picky at all. I love me some good cheese (on bread with a side of fresh grapes? mmm.). I also love Indian food, particularly the taj mahal in prescott. Speaking of prescott, Hugo's is always a winner too. Basically I just love food. Spicy is always a plus.

movies: Life as a House, Dakota Skye, Wristcutters: A Love Story, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Love Actually. 

etc: my favorite day of the week is saturday, because it's the only day I don't have work or school. My favorite season is autumn, because it's beautiful and inspiring. My favorite holiday is st. patrick's day, because I love making irish food, drinking irish beer, and wearing green and gold. 

and those are just a few of my many, many favorite things. here's another one:

 <3
Em

30 Day Challenge: Day 1

I'm such a sucker for these things. They remind me of the days of MySpace bulletins, where I'd waste the majority of a weekday evening answering survey after survey full of silly, pointless questions. Ahh, junior high. 


I feel like I've been out of the blogosphere for so long I literally have to go months back to catch up on all my favorite blogs. I was reading my friend Chloe's blog today and found that she made up a 30 day challenge like a week ago. It's a good one too! So I've decided I'm going to follow it. A good way to breathe fresh life into this old blog and hopefully get it rolling again. 


Here are the rules, I encourage you all to visit Chloe's blog and follow along too!
1. Your name, nicknames, changes to your name (if any), favorite usernames and meanings behind them. Insert your favorite picture(s) of yourself.
2. Some of your favorite things. Smells, songs, food, movies etc. Why are they your favorite?
3. Guilty pleasure things/secrets. That thing you like that people might make fun of you for.
4. Tattoos you have, their meanings, and/or tattoos you want to get.
5. Opinions on those things everyone argues about, brief or not so brief, and any one or more topics. (Politics, religions, rights etc) i.e. Things you feel strongly about.
6. Things you want, rational and irrational. Places you want to go, famous people you want to meet and more.
7. Working out: things that work for you; things you should do vs. what you are doing etc. Get motivated!
8. Style your hair in at least four or more ways and take pictures. Do you ever do these styles on regular days or for occasions? 
9. Comfort things; what do you do when you're sick to feel better? What do you eat/watch/do when you're having a bad day?
10. Childhood things; traditions and things that take you back. Did you have a favorite stuffed animal? What kind of books did you read? What were your favorite movies?
11. The best day; describe a good memory or the elements of a good day. 
12. Your best traits and your worst habits. Personal struggles as well as accomplishments. Balance it out. 
13. Things you're addicted to. Foods, sites, shows, whatever. 
14. Your favorite meal of the day and the elements that make it perfect. Obviously, post lots of delicious pictures. 
15. Things that make you jealous, whether it's possessions or people. 
16. Things you can't let go of. 
17. Something (or things) you haven't done in a while that you would really like to. 
18. Your hobbies or hobbies you would like to pick up. 
19. Your significant other. How you got together, your favorite things about them and maybe even things that bother you at times. 
20. Things you don't like that other people do. It's ranting time. Be specific.
21. Things that make you laugh really hard. Include some youtube videos. 
22. Your favorite video games and/or board games/card games/party games. Also include your least favorite.
23. Songs from your childhood/teenage years. Post some 90's/ early 2000's songs that take you back/make you laugh etc. Talk about the memories attached to them. 
24. VLOG DAY: take a video of yourself for this! Pronounce the following words: Aluminium, salmon, talk, caramel, lieutenant, mirror, scone, nearly, bath, grass, near, bacon, beer can, again, been, garage, process, hot, coffee, thought, not, tomato, potato, cheese, cake, Barbie, fond, duck, dog, cat, fish, chips, milk, friend, fried, disenchanted, sleep, dream, state, cinema, last ,lost, Raxocoricopalavitorious, antidisestablishmentarianism, dance, aunt, copper, win, one, on, herbs, rotten. Where were you born?
25. Three completely unselfish wishes for other people, and three selfish just-for-you wishes.
26. Some things you always think about. Where does your brain go when you try to fall asleep? 
27. Things you wish you could do. Skills, traveling etc. Include a video or pictures.
28. If you absolutely had to go back and relive a part of your life (say, a few months), what would it be? Would you change something, knowing it would most certainly have an effect on your future? 
29. If you could see a day of your future somehow, would you take the chance? How far forward would you go? What do you hope you see? What do you dread to see?
30. Admit or confess something. 


 Day One:  Your name, nicknames, changes to your name (if any), favorite usernames and meanings behind them. Insert your favorite picture(s) of yourself.


My first name is Emily, my middle name is Louise. I haven't made any changes to my name and I don't plan to, aside from maybe changing my last name when I get married. 

 I've got dozens of nicknames. Literally dozens. My mom called my "lou", "louie", "lou-lou", "lou-la-belle" and many other things as a kid. She still does, actually. My friends in middle school and high school called my "auntie em". some of them still do. I also got "mama emmy", because I was like the mom of the group at times. I also got just the standard "em" and "emmy" and of course "emi-lou". Stewie called me "emilem" all through our relationship and he sometimes still does. Probably the nickname that stuck the most was given to me by stewart's brother, brian. That would be "msoss" (it's pronounced em-sauce) or often just "soss". Brian calls me "sossy-poo" on occasion, too.

 usernames? hmm. lately I've taken to just using my first two initials (el) and attaching it to my last name. That's what college email addresses do for you anyways, so I just go with it. Sometimes I've used Emilemsoss (like on my twitter and stumbleupon accounts) because It's a combination of my two favorite nicknames. When I was younger I used to come up with all kinds of ridiculous screen names for use on msn messenger. remember msn messenger? does it even exist anymore? all I know is that is was all the rage in 8th grade. How else were you going to talk to your crush over summer? or before text messaging was something everyone had access to? I don't know if I can remember them now, but I can guarantee that many of them were cring-worthy emo song lyrics that I thought mirrored my life exactly. Thank god I graduated that phase. Now I just post them as my facebook statuses ;) jk. kind of.

See you tomorrow for day two!

Love,
Em

30 Day Challenge- 30

 Day 30 - Your highs and lows of this month.

So... I started this thing on January 14th which means it took me almost 2 months to complete it! meh, whatever. I'll just go over the highs and lows of the last two months.

Lows aren't as much fun so I'll start with those.
- losing my wonderful grandmother. that's definitely the biggest low.
- having to deal with someone living on my couch. so sucky!
- losing a long-time friend because of a misunderstanding
- not having fun at the 2.11 celebrations
- leaving my camera in phoenix. such a bummer! I'll have it back by next friday so i can start posting non-phone-camera pics again haha.

that's enough of that. now for the highs!
- spending time with family that I don't often get to see
- finding out I'm going to greece!
- doing quite well in school
- meeting some new people in the blog world
- having great times with stewie, like going to the zoo for valentine's day and going on hikes and watching endless episodes of buffy, scrubs, that 70s show, and psych.

yay :) 5 and 5- not a bad two months. whew, i must say that I'm relieved this thing is over! It was fun, but also quite time consuming and I felt guilty the first few times I skipped days. I got over that pretty quickly though haha. Maybe I'll do another one in the future, but probably not for a while. anyways, thanks for sticking around and reading the posts! Let me know if you're doing a challenge on your blog so I can check it out and see your responses ^^

<3
Em

30 Day Challenge- 29

Day 29- Goals for the next thirty days

I'm pretty excited for the next thirty days! Spring Break is in there, and that will be full of lots of fun and family and friends. Also, I will be turning in my second (and last) long essay for the semester so it will be nice to get that done and over with. Various other school things here and there but I'm not too worried about any of them... school has been pretty nice and non-threatening this semester haha. 

so goals, hmmmm.... I would like to adjust my sleep schedule/habits so that I wake up at 5:30 feeling alert and getting out of bed right away instead of hearing my alarm and convincing myself that waking up that early isn't really necessary. This article seems to provide a helpful method.

I'd also like to get out more and spend more time enjoying tucson. I'm so busy with schoolwork and chores and things that I rarely just go out for a cup of coffee or anything. Of course, this requires money, something which I am seriously lacking. Still though, I'd like to get out of the house- especially since glorious 75 degree weather has become the norm.

Keep the house clean! Now that our was-supposed-to-be-temporary-but-ended-up-being-2-months guest is finally gone, the place is ours again. As in, no one has commandeered our couch. This will make it much easier to keep the whole place cleaner, and it will also allow for us to hang out in the kitchen/living room without worrying about disturbing/dealing with someone else.

Find/start finding a place to live next fall. The complex I live in now is TERRIBLE. Seriously, they just majorly, majorly blow. I'd like to find a new place for next fall, ideally one with a shuttle to the university, a hot tub, and maybe a fitness center. Also, it should not appear to be made out of cardboard, have roaches, or refuse to perform any sort of maintenance. That would be swell.

Plan out the meals for the youth retreat this summer. I'm going to be on a tight schedule this summer (getting back from greece only a day or two before the retreat!) so the only way everything is going to go smoothly is if I am extremely well planned out beforehand. I already have a binder (complete with dividers! haha) and a general idea of what I'm going to do, but I want to plan out the schedule to the minute. I'm also going to make a lot of stuff beforehand and freeze it until the retreat. It's going to be a fun and exciting job, but definitely a lot of work and a little bit terrifying!

and that's about all i can think of right now. Thirty days isn't a very long time! hopefully everything will go smoothly :) hope your day is going wonderfully.

<3
Em

30 Day Challenge- 27

I just finished "studying" (rereading all the power point lectures my professor has put up since the beginning of the semester) for my midterm this afternoon and I only have thirty minutes till I have to bike to class. It's nice having all my classes one after the other on mondays and wednesdays, but I really wish I had them earlier... I hate going to school at 1:40 and not getting home until 6 or even 7 on some nights >.< oh well. This is the last semester of evening classes, thank goodness! Like I mentioned I have two more midterms this thursday, and another test sometime next week... blegghhhh. I'm burned out! I can't wait for spring break. It would be fabulous to spend a week down in mexico on the beach sipping pina coladas.... but I can settle with hanging out in prescott too i suppose :) besides it's not like I'm really missing out on warm weather down here.

That was quite a digression. What I was going to say is that I'm so busy with school stuff that I'm going to take any available opportunity to blog since I'm a bit backed up on posts! We're almost done with this 30 day challenge (thank goodness) and I've got some fun things planned for after that... so stay tuned!

Day 27 - A problem that you have had.

I think a lot of girls deal with a body image problem. Some cases are more serious than others, but I'm pretty sure almost every girl has looked in the mirror or stepped on the scale at some point and just thought "ugggghhhh."
I certainly know I have, and I think it's really sad that our society has reached this point. Why is it that uber-skinny girls are seen as the idols of beauty? It's completely unfair to the rest of the world that it, yknow, healthy looking. I've seen quite a few girls become obsessed with eliminating body fat, working out religiously, eating on strict and ever-changing diets.... all to reach some unattainable image that honestly probably wouldn't even be attractive without all the airbrushing and editing.
I've definitely been there, and I'm relieved that I saw the light and decided to just do what is healthy for my body. I used to constantly be looking in the mirror, checking how fat my stomach was... I would count calories and weigh my food to make sure I didn't eat more than 1000-1200 calories a day... and if I rose above 120 I'd get upset with myself and vow to work harder and eat less.
It was pretty f*cked up, and it's even more f*cked up that there are hundreds of girls out there with even more unhealthy habits. I eventually realized that I'm a whole lot happier if I just eat whatever I want (although I do try to be healthy- no meat, whole grains, lots of fresh fruits and veggies) in moderate portions. I'm also a lot happier if I stick to a workout regime that is fun and not over-exhausting. AND it's a whole lot better if instead of stepping on the scale (I don't even own one now) I just judge my weight on how I look and feel. I think I look good- a healthy thin, not an unhealthy one- and I know that I feel good. I also know that if I overindulge i definitely wont feel good, and if I don't eat enough in a day I wont feel good either. It's all about being healthy and doing what feels best for me, not catering to some unrealistic ideal that has been set up by the media and crafty editors.

So, that's a problem I've had and luckily one I've conquered. I just hope that all the girls out there who feel so angry and upset with themselves and spend their days looking in the mirror and wishing for something else will realize that they are BEAUTIFUL, no matter what.

30 Day Challenge- 26

Hello lovelies! It's been a busy week and I've been so caught up in renovating the look of this blog (I'm not finished yet ^^) that I haven't been spending much time blogging! March should be a much easier month than february though, so hopefully I will have lots of time to write.

I have three tests this week but after that there's only one more week until spring break! I can't wait to have a nice long week off to go up to prescott and spend time with my parents and some old friends. Stewie and I are thinking about going to the renaissance festival as well- I haven't been since I was a kid and it's only 20 bucks for a full day- sounds good to me!

Anyways, I'm going to trudge forward with the next prompt for the 30 day challenge. perhaps I should just call it the 30 question challenge? haha. If I've learned anything from doing this thing it's that I'm way too busy and all-over-the-place to stick to a strict 30 day regimen!. oh well, it's been fun anyways. I probably would have gotten seriously annoyed with it if I stuck to doing it every day.

Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you.

I would post pictures of all the boys I've dated in the past so you could see how similar they all are (there was even a time when I dated 3 chris's in a row), but I think that would be pretty creepy. I'm sure they'd rather not have their faces plastered on my blog forever. Instead I'll just describe their similarities.

All the guys I've dated have had short dark brown hair. Stewie's hair was a little longer when we first started dating, but he cut it short after just a couple months.

They've all had either blue or hazel/green eyes. never brown. No idea why, and I don't have anything against brown eyes... the guys I like just never have them though.

Nerdy. All the guys I've dated have been nerds, even if i didn't think they were when I first started dating them. A couple of them you would never expect to be nerdy, but then they go and play wow for 17 hours straight or something. Maybe all guys are secretly nerds?

There are a few other similarities as well, but as I think about it a lot of the things about the guys I dated before stewie I would never find attractive now. A lot about what I first liked about stewie was that he was much different from the guys I had dated before. He was (and still is) just so cool, and hipster (before hipster was a bad thing), and suave. He's also kind, creative, and fun. We're really similar in that we both like to keep our living spaces clean, we both jump at the opportunity to dress up in costume, we both prefer quality food and drink that might be a little more expensive over cheap, quick, and easy cuisine, and we both would love to travel the world. There are endless other similarities too, but it would take far too long to list them all :)

So I guess the answer to the question is this is the kind of guy I'm attracted to:

30 Day Challenge- 25

I'm skipping day 24 because it's highly unoriginal. It's basically the same as another prompt. I'm trudging ahead to day 25, which is...
"Day 25 – A photo you took."

Alas, my nikon d40 is still in phoenix! So I'm going to have to choose from photos I took a while ago. Oh well.

This is one of the first photos I took with my nikon. obviously I've upped the contrast a bit but I really like how surreal it makes the sky look. These are both pairs of stewie's old converses, which he threw up on the wires next to the old 211 apartment. I just think the framing on this pic is really awesome. One of my faves!

30 Day Challenge- 22

Once again, since I'm saving day 21 for monday, I'm using day 23's prompt :)

Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous who you find attractive.

Oddly enough I don't have any real favorite guy actors... I have two favorite female actors (rachel mcadams and kate winslet), but for some reason no guys really jump out at me. There are a few from my broadway-obsessed days, but you probably won't recognize many if any of them :) 

I'll do my best though, I watch plenty of media so it shouldnt be too hard to find 5 cute guys.

Adam Pascal. Roger in the OBC of Rent and Radames in the OBC of Aida. He is so amazing in every way. I actually was able to see him and one of my other favorite bway actors (anthony rapp) perform rent. It was probably like- the last tour/time they will ever perform it. so awesome. 

When I was 15 I thought Ewan Mcgregor was the cutest man alive. Of course, there was also a time I wanted to marry 12 year old daniel radcliff, and another time that I want to marry elijah wood the hobbit... but that's a whole other story. Anyways, there is something rather dashing about him, isn't there? He starred in my favorite movie at the time, Moulin Rouge, so that helped.

Jude Law. I dont know, it's probably the accent. He's in a lot of movies I like, too. I hear he's an ass in real life though... bummer.

Hayden Christensen. No need to comment on the fact that 2/5ths of the men on this list have been in multiple star wars films. I'm well aware.

This one time I was obsessed with One Tree Hill. ok... so i still think it's an awesome show. anyways... between the scott brothers chad michael murray and james lafferty, james lafferty wins in my book.

30 Day Challenge- 21

I'm saving the actual 21st prompt (one of your favorite shows) for this monday, so instead I'm jumping ahead to the 22nd prompt. which is....

Day 22 – Something you want to do before you die.

 One thing I'd really love to do before I die is write a book. I've always loved writing, and I've been told I'm pretty good at it- of course, don't judge that solely on this blog since I hardly ever proof read before posting haha.

I love literature though, and I truly enjoy writing fiction. I'd probably enjoy writing non-fiction too though, and maybe a cook book or two... If I could imagine the perfect life it would be staying at home with my family and writing books for a living. Lovely.

That might not necessarily happen, and there are plenty of other career paths that appeal to me and things that I'd like to do... but I'd like to at least write one book before I die :)

30 Day Challenge- 20

Day 20 - How important you think education is.

Hmm... considering I'm spending all this time and money (and by money I mean 4-5 hundred dollars on books a semester... my parents graciously pay my tuition and lots of other expenses^^) on getting a bachelors, i'd say I think education is very important. I might not always want to go to class (i played hookie my fair share in highschool), and I might not always see the point of  some things that we're learning or doing, but I think being an educated member of society is very important and can really help you out in life. For example, just taking AP classes in highschool earned me 6 extra credits in college 2 years later (thats about half a semesters worth of classes). That means less money and less time that I'll have to spend here! Education is a good thing :)

30 Day Challenge- 19

 Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents.

My parents are awesome. They are both so wonderful, talented, kind, compassionate, intelligent... I could go on and on. I think my sister and I are the two luckiest kiddos around to have been blessed with such amazing parents. I love them so, so much.

But yeah, I was a teenager once. I guess technically I still am one, for the next 3 months or so. Seriously, though, I'm scared to death to have a teenage girl someday. My sister and I certainly weren't the worst out there, but we definitely weren't the best either. Freaking teenage hormones, man! and self-consciousness, and the need to impress all the other little 15-year-old's and of course the need to find the perfect boyfriend so that you can have the most perfect year and go to the most perfect prom ever. All while starring in the school musical, obviously.

There were definitely times when I was a huge B to my parents. At the time I felt like I was totally justified in my actions, but in retrospect I feel terrible about it. I don't know if it would have been avoidable though... I mean, I think all teenagers go through this period of being moody and rude in an effort to be the coolest they can be. Seriously, I think people should stop worrying about the terrible twos and start freaking out about the terrible teens. I would take a screaming, toddling, destructive baby over a bitchy, hormonal teenager any day. At least a toddler can be reasoned with :)

Anyways, I feel so remorseful about the way I sometimes treated my parents back in highschool- but I think I've told them this and now we're the best of friends so thank goodness all that crap is over :)

Love you mom and dad!

mint nail polish! and 30 day challenge-18

 Last night, i dreamed that i painted my nails with mint green nail polish. Then, at the store today, i saw some! So i bought it and painted my nails haha. What is with mint green nail polish anyways? why is it a trend? i mean, its cute, but its still an awfully weird color to put on your nails.

anyways, today's challenge is:
Day 18 – Something that makes you laugh.

do you guys like how i've managed to stretch this 30 day challenge into like 45 days? haha.

there are lots of things that make me laugh... so here are just a few:

1. Eddie Izzard's Dressed to Kill performance. I love his british historical humor.
2. Nick Swardson. Any of it.
3. This picture of me trying to take a picture of the 2010 drawing on my ankle last year:

4. textsfromlastnight.com
5. a lot of the people that post on craigslist
6. natalie tran's community channel:

7. Viral Video Film School:

8. Family guy. Cliche, but it's so good.
9. the 211 video i made last year.
10. psych. probably one of the best shows ever, i'd say. also parks and recreation.

30 Day Challenge- 17

 Day 17 - Your highs and lows of this past year.

This year has been a pretty crazy one! A lot has happened and changed since February 5th, 2010. I had my telethon job at LC, which was ok sometimes and a bummer at other times... My mom and my sis came to visit me (separately) in Portland, both occasions were really wonderful... The last few months of school and packing and being away from my friends and boyfriend in portland were kind of rough, but in retrospect I'm so glad I spent the year up there. I got into the media arts program at u of a which was pretty sweet, I got an awesome job at mama eddas and met some of the most wonderful people ever (ups!)... I had such an amazing summer full of friends and trips and fun... school has been pretty good so far this year, I'm happy to be where I am, although the super ridiculous hot weather was a downer for a bit (and now it's abnormally cold!!)...
September, October, and November seemed to fly by in a whirlwind of school and little trips and holidays here and there... in December I spent a whole month with my family which was so, so, nice. We went to mexico and I absolutely fell in love with the place we were staying. A big downer was that my grandmother fell ill during this time and passed away about a week after we got back, so that was really difficult. On the upside though it meant I got to see a lot of my family that I otherwise wouldn't have seen for quite a while. Now stewie and I are back in tucson living our simple daily lives, and I'm quite happy with where I am. I am so excited for the future, too- greece in june, head chef at the youth retreat in july, being a junior in the fall with only 2 years left till graduation (!!!!!!!!)... It's been a good year, and I think the next one will be just as wonderful :)

<3
Em

30 Day Challenge- 16

Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music.

Stewie and I were just talking about this this other day, actually, when a mumford and sons song came on the radio.

We are both agree that mainstream music is typically mediocre- poor lyrics, crappy instrumentals, no creativity, and a very high chance that the artist neither wrote the song nor can sing it half as well live. so, we've grown to pretty much automatically dislike mainstream music, not only because of the above reasons but because it's just generally "uncool". It's much more hip to like indie underground stuff that has some soul to it.

Plus, these indie bands aren't "sell-outs", like so many mainstream artists- meaning, they didn't compromise the message they wanted to send or the style they were going for in order to appeal to the masses and get famous and make lots of money.

But then there's always the dilemma of some of our fave indie bands becoming mainstream. For a long time Kings of Leon and Modest Mouse and bands such as these were mostly unknown to the general public... but now you hear their songs on the radio very frequently. Do we stop liking them just because they're more mainstream? well, that would seem silly and shallow.... so as long as their music is still good, i keep listening.

So in summary- I don't like most mainstream artists and I do like a large number of indie artist. When an indie band gets "discovered" and becomes mainstream, it's ok but only if their music is still good and they haven't compromised their style.

The end :)

30 Day Challenge- 15

Today was the first day of me waking up at 5:30 am and heading to the gym in time for it to open at 6:00 am. Go me!! It wasn't that difficult waking up, despite the fact that I feel like I got zero hours of sleep last night. You know those nights where you just lie there almost sleeping but for some reason just can't nod off? It was one of those. So very frustrating. I'm sure tonight will be better though since I'll be exhausted :)

Anyways, after about an hour at the gym I came home and made some tea and breakfast for stew and I. We ate in bed and now he's getting ready for his 9:10 class which I'll drive him to in a few minutes. I don't have class until two so I have plenty of time to get tonight's homework out of the way^^

Listen to me- am I productive or what?! I have no idea what has happened to me lol, waking up at 5:30 for the gym and doing my homework in advance. It's a wild world.

I've got a movie monday lined up for later today, and i'll post stew's and my hiking date, but for now I'll take care of the 30 day challenge.


Day 15 - 5 people in your life right now who mean the most.

These are in no particular order of importance, of course.

1. Stewart- of course! We are always together and we always have so much fun. Of course we bicker from time to time but for the most part I think we keep each other calm, sane, and happy.

2 & 3. My Parents- I love them both so much. They are so compassionate, intelligent, understanding, and fun. I miss them every day and I feel so blessed that I wound up as their daughter.

4. My Sister- Jenny is my best friend! I love her with all my heart and I'm so happy we are so close. She's amazing!!

5. This spot is difficult to fill because it's not as obvious as my family or my boyfriend. So, I'm going to choose to let it represent the few close friends that I've kept over many months or years, who I still speak to and see as often as possible- This includes most of the people I worked with last summer, Natalie, Ruby, Sharney, Brian, Jaimie, Marby, and others :) You are all amazing and you are all immensely important in my life.

update and 30 Day Challenge- 14

Eek, so I suck at this a little bit. I really did try to stick to the 30 day challenge schedule, but i'm so darn busy! I seriously feel like I have zero free time... in fact, I feel like I need more hours in the day! I'm always at school, doing homework, cleaning, or cooking, and yet I still have chores that I don't get done and I'm hard-pressed to find a spare 20 minutes to get online to blog. What a pain! I hope it calms down soon. Even this weekend has been crazy busy... on friday stewie and I ran all around town doing errands- I went to staples to get copies of my passport made, we went to goodwill and bought a food processor and a cookie jar, we went to the running shop to buy me some new running shoes (which I love, love, love!), then we drove out to the mall so I could buy some forever 21 sports bras, and finally we drove out to an even FURTHER mall to buy some nike fitness pants. Which I also love. Remember how forever ago I was talking about how I really needed new workout clothes? I finally have them, hooray!! I'll put up a pick showing how astronomically better they are soon :)

Anyways, after all that shopping stew and I went to dinner at szechuan omei (a restaurant my parents- who lived in tucson for quite a while- recommended. it was really yummy!), and then came home and made a couple yummy pina coladas and watched white oleander and about 10 million episodes of xxxholic before going to bed. On saturday we went for a hike through pima canyon, planned two weeks of meals, and then went grocery shopping- which is no simple feat. When stew and I go grocery shopping we go to a minimum of three stores, sometimes four. We weren't finished until well after sundown. Afterward we came home and made some yummy mango salsa and watched the new Sherlock Holmes (I have to write a paper on it for a media arts class). I baked some awesome 3 layer grasshopper brownies and then we went to bed.

And today is homework day! I shouldve been doing homework all weekend but I've been so busy with other things. I have a LOT of reading to do, a film to watch, some reasearch to work on, and a french composition to write. It'll be ok though, I really like my classes and I don't mind the work so much.

Tomorrow I'm going to start my new schedule of waking up at 5:30 am and going to the gym!! I'll get back home at seven, just in time for stew and I to eat breakfast, drink a couple mugs of tea, and start getting ready for the day. I'm turning in my complete study abroad packet tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited to get things rolling.

Anyways, that's what I've been up to these past few days. I took some pics of stew's and my hike as one of our 100 dates, so that will be up soon!! I'm also going to start baking something to keep in my new cookie jar every couple weeks, and I'm also going to try a new, interesting, and moderately difficult recipe each week so I'll probably post a bunch of cool recipes for you guys.

Ok enough of that, onto the 30 day challenge. I'll just pick up where I left off..

Day 14 – A photo of a cherished memory.

 

This is a photo of the friday after thanksgiving, 2008. I was a senior, stewie and I were close but not dating yet, and the girl next to me, megan, was my best friend. The three of us hung out practically every day. We did awesome things like making a giant pot of stone soup, complete with a stone, building campfires in the driveway after school and roasting marshmallows, and dancing around on the futon to Gogol Bordello's "start wearing purple". 

On this day, Megan and I came over to the apartment pretty early, like 10 am. Stewie's roommate, Josh, was at work, so the three of us just sat around and watched a bunch of episodes of xxxholic. I had never seen it before and I absolutely loved it. We ate thanksgiving leftovers and in the afternoon bought some forties and played Drenga while listening to modest mouse. It was so, so, so much fun. Later in the evening more people came over of course, and in the  picture above I'm on the phone talking to our friend Marby and asking him to bring us half-off sushi (he worked at monsoon, a japanese restaurant in Prescott). 

This is one of my favorite memories, though, because it reminds me of the way the three of us were back then before stewie and I had started dating, before megan had started dating her ex, before I moved away, before everyone stopped hanging out at that apartment. The friendship the three of us had was really amazing and I miss it all the time. It was experiences like those that made my senior year so great :)

30 Day Challenge- 13

Day 13 - Somewhere you’d like to move or visit.

 I don't remember when exactly my obsession for Greece began... maybe around the same time the original Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants came out. That would have been when I was about 14, and ever since then I've desperately wanted to go to Greece. I love greek food, greed culture, greek history, greek architecture... and there's just something about those beautiful, white walls nestled into a mountain next to the crystal blue ocean that fills me up with longing and beauty and serenity. It's just so friggen gorgeous.

Since before I even was writing out college applications, I had made up my mind that I would study abroad in Greece at some point. And now, I'm actually going to!!!! I'm going on a summer trip during the month of June during which I'll  visit Athens, Peloponneseus, and some of the greek islands. It's going to be SO amazing!

30 Day Challenge- 12

Day 12 - Bullet your whole day.
I'm going to do a typical tuesday, even though I realize today is not over yet :)

7:00 AM Wake up. Go make some tea, maybe some oatmeal for stewie. Grab some fruit, come back to bed to drink tea and eat.
7:30 AM Shower/Wash face, brush teeth, floss, put in contacts
7:45 AM Makeup, hair, dress
8:20 AM Go on computer for a bit
8:40 AM leave for 9 AM class (bike)
9:AM Classics 329
10:15 AM bike back home, do homework or mess around on the computer (like i'm doing right now) until stewie gets back from his class
11:00 AM make and eat a simple lunch
11:30 AM-1:40 PM blog, run errands, clean, read, do homework, relax
1:40 PM Bike to class
2:00-2:50 PM French 202
3:00-3:55 PM Hang out on campus reading, on computer, etc.
4:00-6:30 PM MAR 100B Screening
6:30 PM Bike home
6:40 PM Make Dinner
7:30 PM Eat dinner
8:00 PM do homework, cleaning, or computer things
9:00 PM watch a movie or show with stewie
10:00 or 11:00 PM Bedtime

<3

30 Day Challenge- 11

Day 11 - Put your ipod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up.

1. Foals- Mathletics
2. Vampire Weekend- Campus
3. Paramore- Use Somebody cover
4. Passion Pit- Live to Tell the Tale
5. U2- With or Without You
6. Gogol Bordello- Through the Roof 'n' Underground
7. Pink Floyd- Run Like Hell
8. Regina Spektor- 20 Years of Snow
9. Red Hot Chili Peppers- Easily
10. Modest Mouse- Guilty Cocker Spaniels