Just so we're all on the same page.

THIS is quite possibly my dream home
(granted it is in a good location, maybe a stellar view too?) (via le fabuleux destin de- an amazing blog).


I want to cut my hair this short sometimes.
(plus, she even has my beauty mark - maybe penciled on- but in the exact same spot!) Via The Impossible Cool- another favorite new blog (thanks Telly).


And if you like MoTown, Justin Timberlake, or Beyonce, this video will change your life.

Is it sad this is my favorite song right now?

And that I will probably think it is the most annoying song in about a week?

My little sister used to make fun of me for what songs I thought were "new" or "still cool" when I came home from Utah, as the radio there seems to be about 4 months behind cutting-edge California.

Point being, I have no idea how old this song is...I recently went through a 3-month pop culture sabbatical.


Anyone else still feel like they're 15?

"With sounds of rocks on the coast"

It's late, I just finished up Season 2 of Prison Break...I don't think I can do 2 more. I just want to watch the final movie and see Scofield and Sara together. OK.

But I'm of course creeped out by T-Bag's inevitable next escape and kill, not to mention dumb Panamanian officials, so to calm myself I am turning to V. Carlton..."Home" a particular favorite.

I really love living steps away from the water right now. It's basically my childhood revisited. I immensely miss that house, even though it was too small for our family. "No room for a desk in your room," says my mom. I'm not victimizing myself, I'm just nostalgic.

Since I'm fast running out of creative juice and battery juice, take what you will with that, the lyrics I'm pasting and video embedding. A lot of music tries to be vague for artistic interpretive purposes, and while I will argue for its place, I appreciate the straightforward too.

I saw her in concert 2 years ago and she is even more amazing live (absolutely she nailed that piano solo at the end).




HOME
Some people live in a house on the hill
And wish they were some place else
There's nobody there
When the evening is still
Secrets with no one to tell

Some I have known have a ship where they sleep with sounds of rocks on the coast
They sail over oceans five fathoms deep
But can't find what they want the most

Even now when I'm alone
I've always known with you
I am home

Some live in towns
Cardboard shack on concrete
All bluster and bustling life
They search for the color you can never quite see
Cause it's all white on white

Even now when I'm alone
I've always known with you
I am home

For me it's a glance and the smile on your face the touch of your hands,
And an honest embrace
For where I lay it's you I keep,
This changing world I fall asleep
With you all I know is I'm coming home,
Coming home

I think I'm a little bit in love with you

Type in 'Lykke Li' on Pandora Radio... because Swedish techno is great, and they deserve some love after being wronged...

This is what my life in Scandinavia would look like: friends wearing suspenders and maxidresses frolicking around in drapes...enjoying the few hours of sunlight in a clean white walled house. haha.



I have an averse reaction to the library. I feel physically sick to my stomach. Maybe because I just saw BYUSA (or people posing as BYUSA- that would be epic if it were true) dishing out free egg nog in front of the Wilk and one guy puking very loudly 5 feet from them. I'm seriously dry-heaving here in one of many pro-Shh zones...

As if finals weren't nauseating enough!

Half of my [head's] got a grip on the situation

I thought it was absurd when my high school teachers would harp on us to always be true to who we really were, because teenage years are such a poor prediction of how one is going to lead his or her life.

Since at BYU there is a markedly lesser amount of existential crisis at surface level, these "who am I" questions are significantly more implied.

But I still think it's absurd to believe you have to have yourself figured out.
At least for me, the more I learn about myself, the less I know. So I'm always a little puzzled when people advise me to be true to myself. It's like when my parents would tell me to "just do your best."

They had to add "...with the time you have" to that statement because it was and still is the hardest statement for me to digest.



#MusicMonday - John Mayer's Battle Studies...if you didn't get the title I altered from Half of My Heart

AND of course MirandaSings Christmas Album!!! ;)

Concrete jungle part deux

As if PART I wasn't enough of a love song!

I like this one's softness...

Ga-Ga (a-a-a)

NY mag is right, I just can't get enough.





BY THE WAY:
NY Mag Recaps ... and 'Recap Recaps' (with selected user comments) ... will change the way you Gossip Girl.

Check the Web site Tuesday morning- it will have you laughing out loud. Like this one.
Full recap coverage HERE.

Can I get an amen, Skynyrd and Tara?

"xoxo"

Brand new and inspiring

No explanation needed!

MoZella

No it's not a new version of Mozilla Firefox.

She is my new music obsession. Check it out.

I am guilty of watching The City (NOT The Hills). After they played the song "Manhattan" last show, I found myself promptly downloading her two albums.

I think she sounds like Natasha Bedingfield meets a pre-Timbaland Nelly Furtado (the "I'm like a bird" days).



Also digging...Four Leaf Clover, Let's Stop Calling it Love and her Weezer cover of Say It Aint So.

Magic already sounded really familiar (maybe from a Verizon commercial?)...the video is infectiously delightful...enjoy.

A-pathetic

Is how I've been feeling lately.

Midterm after paper after midterm after pesky quiz after another paper, etc.
Piercing windy cold.
Utah.
Waking up too uninspired to put on anything more than sweats.
Swallowing grainy horse pill vitamins to ward off H1N1.
Not applying a stitch of makeup for the week's majority.
Succumbing to the slippery slope of Ugg boots. (Rainbow sandals, I'll see you in a few...)

Does a-pathetic mean not pathetic, then?
Ooh, goody, I feel better already: there IS an empowering aspect of boredom!


On Tuesday, I started sobbing halfway through Greg Mortenson's forum address here at BYU (maybe the first time I've cried this whole year). It was brilliant, inspiring, humbling, hopeful, emancipating, and also real...I had been looking forward to it for several weeks, and will link it on here as soon as it is available online.


Regardless, I really think it's okay to wallow sometimes. A huge part of who I am is an isolated cavewoman. I LOVE alone time as much as I love social time, and I think my parents are reincarnated cavepeople: they need silence and stillness to recharge their batteries. Holing up in our rooms for hours to read, write and think in quiet sans TV or computer was a huge part of how I grew up.

I love my inner cavewoman. (But never fear, the next day I know I'll need to get out and run around to relax my brain from thinking!)

This song is one of my wallowing anthems, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Elated

I have had a professor this semester that has been particularly perplexing to please.

So I can't describe my tired happiness when after I spend hourrrs (and I mean HOURRRS) working on a midterm he emails a few minutes ago from Vienna (aside from the point, except to explain further how I'm wearily jealous) to tell me that my draft does not warrant any comments, just maybe polish up a few sentences in the opening?

CAN DO!

We all know rough drafts are the hardest ones to make, so yeah, I'll own up to sheer gratitude right now.

Sorry for the horn tootage.

Elate yourself with these fellas:

Ok, NOW I want an iPhone

Because before, nothing had sold me. ;)

Ever since two of my silly guy friends made their own "I Am T-Pain" song, I've been really wanting an iPhone.

So imagine my obsession with the following:

Just about the cutest thing.

The last time math was fun was when my middle school algebra teacher did a "NEAR...FAR" Grover imitation (with hands flailing- he was hysterical) to better explain the concept of positive and negative numbers.

What's your favorite Sesame Street memory?

Can you pay my automo-bills?

Arguably the best music video ever made:

Destiny's Child- Bills, Bills, Bills

Don't worry, I'm not some technical music video junkie who knows what she's talking about, but I do know that I am in many ways my mother's daughter, in that she wants to be a black woman: from their gorgeous ebony skin color to their no-nonsense "huumph" attitude.

So yeah, there are WAY too many good things about Bills, Bills, Bills:

The synchronized head stare that coincides with the beginning of the music.

The trash-tastic outfits.
The booty rolling.
The curves.
The hair.

The fact that it's set in a weave-tastic beauty salon.
Krystyna and Emily will remember...we were walking to a Cuban restaurant in Harlem summer '08 and passed a salon chock-FULL of beautiful black women getting their hair done for the weekend. It was one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen.
I wanted to keep staring at them...but you know...could not exactly do that...

The high-fiving and choreography using hair tools like combs and curlers as props to punctuate their messages.

"TRIFLIN'" (elongated out to three syllables: "Try-fa-lin")

"Can you pay my AUTOMO-BILLS?"

That it reminds me of my friend Liz's birthday party in 7th grade where we dressed up in afros and danced to it.

The really awful 90s 'lip-liner-darker-than-lipstick' look.

Their enviably full, glossy lips.

That the candidate they came up with to help them in hard times was a basket- "balla"

Basically the "we're worth it" attitude. Really, everyone could learn so much from this. LOVE it.

Breakthrough

Chantelle: I've taken a new approach to life.

me: oh?!

Chantelle: two words: country music

me: OMG

ESP

I've been obsessed with taylor swift all summer

Chantelle: yeah

exactly

jamming out to her in my car all the freakin day long




Most poignant T. Swift summer '09 memory:

going into the gym where my collegiate athlete sister lifts and seeing some guy wrestlers/rowers pumping iron to "You Belong With Me." Yes.

Untitled from the West Pt. 2

Wow.

I do not remember feeling as happy as I am right now in a long time. So full of joy, hope, contentment, and excitement for what lies ahead in life.

I have had such an incredible summer. Charmed, if you will. The theme of it was perspective...

a good friend asked me today at church what my favorite memory this summer was- either having 40 people in our house for a family reunion (yes, 40...Lobster night was just one highlight) .... or having Ray up for an endless gab fest, feeling the spirit of Elijah as we talked about our parents and grandparents, who knew each other way back when.
(oh, and sailing of course...and her making me into the newest Bachelorette fan hehe.)

Yesterday I attended a wedding in Orange County for a cousin and her darling new husband. I got to see family I don't get to see as often as I would like, and caught up with cousins who have achieved goals very similar to what I want to do with my life. They were on average, about 9 years older than me so it's fun to get advice, validation and affirmation...I love having fabulous role models and confidantes. It reminded me how much I actually love growing up, because the whole world keeps opening up to you. My family is extraordinarily divine.

There is folksy music coming in my room from either the neighbor or someone down the hill (we live on a cliff) having a soiree of sorts. It's a titch annoying, but it takes me back to the time in high school when the neighbors had a cocktail party with steel drummers (2 years in a row, actually), and each time I called my friend Liz and we went and TP'ed their Cruella de Ville looking Rolls Royce, as well as made coyote sounds to the guests to 'scare' them as we crept up on the canyon below the veranda. We were such pranksty dorks...

GOOD TIMES.

Life, keep them coming...and Love, save the empty.

(that goldfish thing going on is so What About Bob... how ironic...)

Untitled from the West

I miss one of my sisters so much right now, but the silver lining is that I can listen to all the Regina Spektor I want, unfettered from her annoyed pleas to "turn that woman off!"
(Listen now: 'Dance Anthem of the 80s')


Google Reader- I don't even want to start with you...you are intimidating and anxiety inducing. 'Telle, consider this a plea for help.

The House at Sugar Beach- everyone must read NOW.

Post forthcoming, I can't say when...my thoughts are slurring together right now...


why am I blogging? Oh yeah, my new credo to be a more "in the moment" blogger...and life liver.

That is all.

kisses and hugs,
Al

Laundromats: the new adorable

Last week, my sister and I took 3 hour Sunday naps that were halfway punctuated by my other sister bringing us fresh cookies out of the oven.

We decided it was the best nap we'd ever had.

Today, I vegged out to good old Regina Spektor...from "two birds on a wire" to "ancient bruises"...ah, she's marvelous.


ALSO. Whether it's the darling Aryan-Euro boy or her luscious dryer lair, I'm kind of in love with this video:


I am no Harry Potter aficionada, but I would submit that she is a Moaning Myrtle laundromat equivalent (in a good way).

Also unrelated but worth a self re-quote,

"Nothing is the new fabulous."

Remember when...

My sister accidentally ran a red light in Boston yesterday and a pasty white, four-eyed, wannabe machismo with a gut and receding hairline got out of his car and legitimately chewed her out at the next light. You know, because his elongated horn sounding was not enough. The shock factor of it all was surprisingly ephemeral...we laughed for the next hour.


I thought I got prank called the other night about my blue suit but it was really a Chinese lady from the website where I ordered it checking on the shipment. It became quite obvious that it was legit when, after gleefully screaming back at her ("Who is this?! Haha!!"), she repeated her shtick without a slip of any telling sign of English tonality or giggles in the background. I profusely thanked her, then laughed at my suspicious self (Friends...please prank call me? Just like I seriously, truly adore waking up at home to a toilet papered yard, I love it when I can call you out on my fake pizza order. Thanks!!!)


Rachel and I drove through the woods listening to K-Ci and JoJo blaring. And I did the same with one of my sisters today and, while she did get into it...she just. did not. understand.


I deactivated my Facebook. I simply question its relevancy. Most of this, I'm realizing, will be a great litmus test for the people who are truly most currently important in my life: it's too weird having a girl I used to babysit (and her mom), my past crushes, and my best of friends on the same playing field. My nearest and dearest will know how to get a hold of me, or be more resourceful (is that selfish? I suppose I run that risk.).
The kicker?
A friend request from my dear dear uncle (more like 2nd cousin once removed)'s awful ex-wife, as well as the feeling of knowing I don't want to be defined by a "like" of a status update, a comment on a photo, or an invitation to join the now-annoyingly-ubiquitous groups for wedding announcement address sending. I certainly don't look down on those who still have accounts: I simply claim ownership of what works for me, and now, I'm moving on.
If I need to get in contact with someone desperately, perhaps I'll reactivate for a second to message them with my information. Compromise? Yes.
Capiche.


I pushed the 70s in number of "Me Talk Pretty One Day" pages and still waiting for the "Memoirs of a Gay Childhood-meets-Lewis Carroll Psychedelia" novelty to wear off.
Just so harrrd because I was laughing out loud at Sloane from page 1!


Mark Ronson remixed Amy Winehouse...the twist-n-shout greatness commences at 0:52...

Gems from Regina

What are your thoughts regarding Regina Spektor's song Wallet from her new album 'Far'?



Because Ray and I have been in stitches.

I found a wallet,
I found a wallet
Inside were pictures of your small family
You were so young, your hair dark brown
You had been born in 1953
Your winter birthday was stamped on the plastic
Of a license so recently expired
I was so tired as I walked through my door
I let all the contents of your wallet on the floor

And like a holy relic
Or a mystery novel
I thumbed them in the dim light
Searching for a clue-
A Blockbuster card,
An old stick of Juicy Fruit
A crumpled receipt for a pair of leather boots

I have no wallet,
I have no wallet
I keep my cards together with a blue rubber band
And with a free hand I search in my pocket
For pieces of, pieces of paper and change

I'll take your wallet
To my local Blockbuster
They'll find your number
in their computer
You'll never know me
I'll never know you
But you will be so happy
When they call you up.

'Music box' is also a gem, from her older album: