Top Ten Posts

I didn't want yesterday's blogiversary post to be suuuuper long, so I left out the list of the top ten most popular/viewed posts from the last three years. Here they are now! There's a good mix of recipes, a handful of movie mondays, and a few other random posts. Enjoy!

1. Reasons why Autumn is the Best Season- my most popular post by a loooong shot. It has over 500 views more than the second most popular post. I think it got into the stumbleupon world.

2. Movie Mondays: Wristcutters: A Love Story- one of my favorite movies to this day.. according to my stats though a lot of people find this post after google searching "cutting wrists" :/ soo... that's unfortunate/weird. I hope those people are inspired to watch this excellent movie and are thus in a much happier and enlightened place for having done so.

3. Movie Mondays: Life as a House- I think this was one of the first R rated movies I saw when I was a kid. Very sweet film. And Hayden Christensen at 20 playing an angsty lil teenager is a real cutie.

4. 20 Things to do in my 20th Year-I'm glad this post is popular because I think it's one of the better things I decided to do on this blog. I didn't do them all but maybe I'll recycle a few for my upcoming 22 in 22! I am starting to think I may never have the chance to beat Stewart at Chinese Checkers though.

5. Shampoo? Toothpaste? Facewash? Who needs 'em!- This post has a really corny title, but some pretty decent info/ideas for anyone trying to go the all natural/no-poo hygiene route. I still stand by it all! Especially the facewash. PUT OIL ALL OVER YOUR FACE. seriously. you'll thank me.

6. 7 Layer Burritos- The only post I know of that has gotten "pinned", which makes sense because pinterest is obsessed with copycat recipes. Inspired by my 17 year old self's diet of taco bell but so much more delicious.

 7. Sesame Seared Tuna and Papaya Tempura Sushi with Spicy Sesame Sauce and Papaya Chutney- A long time ago I did this thing for a website that doesn't exist anymore called Foodie Fights. It was basically a competition between food bloggers... 5 or 6 people could enter each week, 2 secret ingredients would be revealed, and everyone would create/blog about a dish. The winner from the previous week and a special guest judge would decide the winners. This was my first entry and it won! If you couldn't figure it out the secret ingredients were sesame seeds and papaya.

8. Mint Nail Polish and 30 Day Challenge Day 18- I have no idea why this post is popular but it has a couple weird pictures of me and a couple funny videos. And I'm wearing nail polish and trying to be cute.

9. How to Couch-Hop Successfully- I had no idea, when writing this post in a state of frustration and annoyance at my current house guest situation that it would become so popular. Honestly I sound a bit like a self-righteous bitch in it. Oh well. I stand by my tips! And don't hop onto my couch if you don't like it ;)

10. Movie Mondays: Dakota Skye- Another awesome movie. Low budget indie, filmed in Scottsdale AZ which is cool. Great quality and sweet, interesting storyline about a teenage girl. Very very nice.

There you have it! That, apparently, is what people have been reading on this blog. Lots more recipes/movie mondays/other cool stuff in the archives :)

Love,
Em

3 Year Blogiversary/Me at 18!

Today marks the three year anniversary of the day I sat at my little dorm room desk and decided to start a blog! Crazy. My writing has been somewhat sporadic and I don't have a ton of followers, but I am SO glad I decided to make an effort to document my life. There are so many photos and memories that I would have (and did, until browsing the archives) never taken or completely forgotten about! It is so wonderful to have the posts to look back on now and years down the road to see who I was and read what I wrote (as cringe-worthy as it might be) as I transitioned out of adolescence and into adulthood.

I was thinking the other day about how much I have changed over the years. It's almost like I can look at each year from about 14 years old to now (21) and pinpoint exactly who I was -taste in music, style, beliefs- and each year is almost completely different. I guess that's what growing up is all about. It makes me kind of nostalgic... like thinking of a group of old friends I haven't seen in a long, long time. Do you ever think about who you were at 15? or 19? I know that at both those ages I was pretty sure I had shit figured out and I did not see my tastes or aspirations ever changing. And yet I did not move to NYC and become a Broadway star.

BUT, all that stuff still makes up who I am today... all those different girls with different things they think are important. I've been thinking about maybe doing some throwback posts... looking back on me at 14, 15, 16, etc just for the fun and ridiculousness of it. Kind of like VH1s I love the 70s/80s/90s but just about me because I'm a blogger and thus inherently narcissistic. Hah.

So, in honor of this blog's third birthday, here's a little bit of who I was when this all began... 

Me at 18

When I was 18, I...
- graduated high school

Me and my fellow show choir seniors on the last day of high school!

It was raining! That's why my hair is so weird.

- moved out of my parents' house/AZ and into a little dorm room at Lewis and Clark in Portland, OR

Administration building at my gorgeous first college

 - Dated and then stopped dating and then dated and then stopped dating and then dated Stewart

- Got my first pet fish, a purply-red-aqua Beta named Mikal

- Worked at my first "real" job- Subway!

- Performed for the first and last time in a dance show - LC's Dance Extravanganza

- Spent my fall break riding in a UHaul with a bunch of other college kids to Bend, OR where we stayed in someone's aunt's vacation house.

 

 

- Ate mostly vegan, sometimes just vegetarian.

- Decided I missed AZ and my friends and my boyfriend too much and moved back at the end of the school year, just a couple weeks before my 19th birthday.

My favorite bands/artists were: Modest Mouse, Regina Spektor, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, Tool

My favorite movie was: Wristcutters: A Love Story

I read: All the Harry Potters again, the first two books of His Dark Materials, Siddhartha, Kneller's Happy Campers

My best friend(s) was(were): Stewart, Sharney, Megan

The most important things to me were: Hanging out with my friends, living a vegan lifestyle, dating Stewart because I liked him soooo muuuuchhhh, coming home to arizona so I could continue hanging out with my friends and dating Stewart and cooking vegan food.

18 was a pretty weird year for me. When I look back on it I think I really had no idea who I was and was just trying to figure it out. That's probably pretty common for the first year of college. I have lots of great memories of exploring Portland, flying home to visit my best friends in Prescott, experiencing the whole dorm-meal plan-college in a new place thing, and leaving high school behind. The summer before college was one of the best ever, and luckily I filmed a good deal of it so I have a nice little video reminder of that time. I won't put any of it here, because we were being dumb 18 year olds.. but it's pretty cool to have.

I also still used Myspace when I was 18 and got a lot of these pictures from there. So old school.

Here's to another year of blogging!