Senioritis

I wish I were April fooling.

Rindz and my sleeping arrangements for the past 2+ weeks...
my bed situated on the right, where I had just taken off my gray cardigan and jumped on to MGMT's Electric Feel (the theme song for the impending summer, we decided) and Facebooked to procrastinate my paper...
(which, ps, you people need to blog more! Facebook is super boring when compared to Blogger RSS feed updates!)


Something that IS funny....when Gmail temporarily malfunctions and I see this on my page.

It's like the feeling you get when you're pulled over: you're not a fugitive but not a 100% law-abiding citizen either.
(But in the case of Gmail, you did nothing wrong, so I guess that's not an equal comparison. Oh well.)


Watched Rachel Getting Married yesterday, and I recommend it.


Cool to see Anne Hathaway so raw...It's about dealing with unfinished business in your past (or letting it be the excuse for your present addictions), the dynamics of family and sisterhood, and what it means to come and confront the meaning of "home." Pervasive use of violins in the score, which makes it hauntingly meaningful.


Happy day, you fools!


Moving into DC at the end of this month. And that's the truth. YAY.

Couples around the world

Inspired by Amy's post...

Snapped this gem in Espana....this couple was not holding hands, but they had the same crook in their backs which made them lean the same way....

just taking a little stroll at mediodia during siesta...cute, huh?

Hare Krishna. Repeat.

Where else can you find 15,000 totally sober, nice Mormon kids at some Hindu festival (that more resembles Woodstock) celebrating diversity?

During the four-hour long festival, we chanted and sang "Hare Krishna" more times than I shampooed and rinsed (and repeated) my hair that evening.

Which is probably why the lead for the SL Trib story is about showering.

(P.S. You can tell how much fun that reporter had writing that story...probably the best kicker ending EVER!)

I wish there were more of this kind of thing around here.

'Sven' and 'Keats.' Freshman friends, now 8 months fresh from Finland and Brazil missons, respectively. Such nice guys.

Roomie 'Rindz' crowdsurfed. 5 times. Still talks about it.

HARE KRISHNA!

Kissing checklist

In lieu of planning my wedding or deciding which kind of diamond ring I want (something about cut, color, clarity? I dunno) for my engagement to a currently non-existent man, I'm now creating a kissing checklist as per this Smitten post.

- Atop the Eiffel Tower (3rd time up will be a charm!)

- Along the following rivers:

Seine (Paris is a magical place, I was proposed to at age 17)

Vltava in Prague

Charles in Cambridge, Mass (also a magical place: both my parents rowed there at different points in time, and it's where my brother and sis-in-law met and engaged)

- In Central Park
(almost happened last summer, but the dude was too dull and I wasn't about to go all progressive on him in the most romantic place in America if he wasn't going to man-up)

(yeah, we were sitting on the fountain steps pictured above...in the moonlight...long story short, I never wanted him to begin with, but for story's sake, yes, geez!)

- A mountain summit (Kilimanjaro...base camp of Everest... Any takers?)

- In Africa (Victoria Falls?)

- In Dubai ("Las Vegas on steroids")

- On a sunset on the lake my family goes to every summer

- On a boat (preferably on the a fore mentioned lake)

- On a beach

- In a jungle (Costa Rica, Amazon Brazil, or on an elephant in Thailand)

- In a forest (New Zealand, perhaps?)

- At the Lincoln Memorial

- In all 7 continents

(Antarctica will happen...can't you just take a little boat trip from the southernmost tip of Argentina? Dime, si sabes.)

How about you? Anywhere you want to smooch that I'm missing?

On mediocrity

Brought to you courtesy of Gmail quote-of-the-days...

"Only the mediocre are always at their best."
- Jean Giraudoux

Hardcore and intense, but true.

My mom and dad would never care about grades growing up, but they WOULD care "if we had done our best."
ALWAYS.
This applied to everything else... from church talks, volleyball practices, to drivers ed.

(The follow up question was always "Did you make it fun?")

Most of the time that was hard for me to swallow, because I am naturally REALLY HARD on myself (I don't seriously subscribe into astrology, but I am a Virgo and this happens to be a facet) and ALWAYS knew I could have done better.

Gradually, as I would get upset when they'd ask me this, they clarified the statement to:
"Did you do your best with the time you had?"
And then, it made me relax (a little).
Because there are so many more commitments in life that go unseen behind the grade on the transcript or another unit of societal measure.

So yeah, the above quote makes me realize I wasn't wrong for being upset (being asked if I had done my best), because truth be told...

a fate of mediocrity scares me.

Mis hermanas españolas

Had a great little Spain reunion the other night at Kendal's bridal shower...

(Liz, Lauren, Sarah, Me, Kendal)

She is marrying the male version of herself, and I couldn't be more thrilled for her.

Yeah, freakishly beautiful children will be on our planet in the future.

Here are some memories of us in Spain...some of the following I stole from Laur's blog...

Clowning around in Leon...We were so cool (lame), we quoted Mean Girls all the time...
especially
"I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom!"
"You go Glen Coco!" and
"You can walk home, b's!"

We would always, always laugh.


Riding camels in Morocco in our Kandurum dresses-
we broke the rules by jumping Gibraltar but all agreed the above photo made our study abroad.



Our many nights sleeping together....



I believe this was after we watched Ellen DeGeneres stand-up comedy on our laptop.
And then were laughing so hard we watched it again.
Then had some quality GT, as always.
And then we slept head-to-toe like Charlie Bucket's grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


Porto, Portugal. Love the pirate style boats (we took a boat cruise on one!).
This is evidence that we would yes, indeed, take the initiative to siesta wherever and whenever we could.


Bar-the-lona...Sarah and I shamelessly sporting our see-through pants, that we all bought at H&M and wore all the time.


Ahh! So many funny memories of being with you guys.
Por ejemplo...

"My host parents still don't know how to pronounce my name..." -Kendal
Making our 'Arabian Nights' music video...and the one inspired by 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'...
Scheming about buying a baby chick on Las Ramblas, Barcelona
Napolitanas from La Mallorquina, Madrid
Laughing/being grossed out at Garrett squatting everywhere

Making friends with those Tangier shop-owners
Always electing for doner kebabs over 'gross tapas'
Andrew pulling out a sword in a Toledo shop ('Viva Espana!')
"Proxima Parada...Atocha Renfe"
Getting ripped off by nuns in Toledo
Mimicking John-Charles
Sarah screaming at the lizards at El Escorial
Las Fallas in Valencia and cursing all the kids throwing firecrackers in the street all day, thinking if we were anywhere else it would be a war-torn country
Laughing at Angelica, our Spanish teacher, dangling chalk like a cigarette ("Ojo clase! Ojo!")

That doesn't even begin...


US, reunited back in December (with some strange lurker...)

The infamous Charita

My mom and I are really good friends....

We joke sometimes how we were in the premortal existence and played rock/paper/scissors to decide who would come down to Earth first.

...such good friends, we have silly pet names for each other. All two of them:

a) Bubbala (a yiddish term for "darling/dearest"...often we clip it to "Bubbs")

or

b) Charita...who I will discuss...


My mom went through the public school system in 1970s Los Angeles, and Charita was a mean black girl...

(I say 'black' in all politically correct detail purposes...it's no secret my mom secretly wants to be African-American)

...who bullied my mom and even threatened to beat her up once (that's when my grandparents offered to put my mom in private school if she wanted).

Yeah, my sweet mom...was apparently some kind of a threat (or perhaps an easy target) of Charita.

(she uses this as her Facebook profile picture. I know, how cool is she. She claims it's so people can laugh at her dorkiness.)

Another fellow University High School Alum of my mom's year was Paris Hilton's mom.
(Don't worry, my mom was invited to THIS reunion but didn't go...and upon getting word of the Hilton appearance, we all had a good laugh).


I digress...anyway, Charita stories:

1) One day my mom is wearing a white shirt and white shorts, skipping along somewhere at school, sees Charita (and her posse) out of the corner of her eye and does everything to go unnoticed. Next thing she knows, Charita is yanking my mom's long ponytail (which trailed down to her hips) and sneers:

"What color you wearin'..."
"Umm...ehhh.....white?" my mom feebly replied.
"I better not be seeing you wearin' that again, you hear!"
"Ok!!!"

2) Another time, my mom and her friend Suzy were in the school bathroom, and Charita demanded to use Suzy's Bonne Bell Lipsmackers lip balm.
Scared out of her mind, of course Suzy wordlessly obliged, and as soon as Charita had used said lip balm and vacated the premises (homegirl posse in tow), Suzy sliced off an inch of the lip balm, averting scary Charita cooties.


And the kicker...

3) One day in the gym locker room, one of Charita's posse called out:
"Charita, you got some lotion? My skin be gettin' ash-EEEEY....umph!!!"

My mom said she and her friends hid behind their row of lockers, giggling (silently) with gaped-mouths and wide-eyes.

My mom will do a shameless imitation of that, upon simple request.
She will also do the Uni High Cheer Squad (of Kathy Hilton fame) football cheer and choreography as well.


So Charita, wherever you are, I hope you know you never cease to be a freakish fascination (and name substitution) for your former bully target and her daughters.

I hope to meet you one day, and I hope you won't beat me up.

Sincerely, Alex

Prague: Addendum

I forgot to mention Simon, my cousin's college friend who is from Prague and was still there on Christmas Break when the four of us were there for the journalism conference...

he showed us all around the city and Prague Castle the second night we were there, and I felt silly taking pictures of him in his hometown, so I discreetly (hah) snapped the following:

He knows Czech, French, German, and perfect English, rows and is 6'3"...any takers?!
(we all had little crushes on him).

And funny thing, I saw Simon again when I went to....



Boston last month to visit sister and cousin!

Silly hats waiting for the T

Sunday Brunch

Love my little 6'3" ginga sista!

Today I'm missing...

Prague

The most gorgeous city in the world, blanketed in snow.

But more importantly, the following ladies who made it fun, despite the fact it was the coldest week of the year.

(Emiley, Emily, Kristine, Me)

Emiley and Kristine work elsewhere, and Emily and I have a class together so we see each other about every other day (when we're not trading off going to it, which we're really good at!)

Emiley, Emily, Me, and Hassna'a- queen of Saudi Arabian media...seriously, she's so awesome.

Canadian Katie, Me, Norwegian Christina, Kristine



Me, Emily, and Dina from Kyrgystan- we Facebook message each other about every other week, and I love our little chats! Technology is awesome!

I miss all of you!

9th Ward Cartoons

Visiting Teaching: Bearing each others burdens, one Edward Cullen reference at a time!

See more LDS cartoons at 9th Ward Cartoons. Funny!


If you're lost, read about what "Visiting Teaching" is HERE.

Career change

Just kidding!!!!!

My latest obsession/dream is to write for the TMagazine, the Travel Mag of the NY Times' Style Mag.

Check out at all the breathtaking sumptuous photography!

Chicago has never looked so chic (clever title too).

Slovenia: who knew?!

Can I please re-locate to Liechtenstein. Now. Well, not really...but freakishly gorgeous countryside.

Oh to be a Missoni...(so jeal of Margherita)...

Breathtaking Bali...



Take me away!!!

Breakfast at Starbies

So yesterday I was missing New York (as per usual), so I decided to channel my inner Audrey Hepburn and get my favorite latte (soy, decaf, extra foam, no whip) from Starbucks and a chocolate croissant from Eliane French Bakery.

Yes, I drove to two locations for the above items... I'm a foodie, remember?!

Six Word Stories

After many late late nights this week (and last) just being there for my newly broken up roommate (six words: his real girlfriend is/was skiing), yesterday I woke up begrudgingly to go snowboarding yesterday with a new friend.

We both found out later that we secretly didn't want to go, but felt bad as we had made a commitment a few days before.

Words cannot describe how amazing it was to be on the lifts and then lay in the snow, spill our hang-ups about life and commiserate, then get up and careen down the mountain (even though it was sticky spring snow and now I have a goggle tan/burn like aforementioned ski bum ex-fiance).

I swear, get me on a chairlift and I will confess everything.
"Lift confessionals" as I have come to call it. Slightly hilarious.

But I really think I've become a really blunt person since I've moved here, because I can't stand all this non-confrontational tip-toe-ing, and would rather have people be straight with me instead of getting that smile-y "Yer so greaht" facade and then get stabbed in the back later.

Because I am extremely bored all the time here in Provo, and have given up on the constant self-advertising efforts to make friends who you know will then ditch you for a man-friend, and instead channeled that energy in lots and lots of daydreaming.

Get a life, you say? Well, that's mine at the moment so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

(To all those who are still my friends (and you know who you are), you are diamonds in this rough patch of my life.)

To make a blunt segway...ssooooo John Mayer's Six Word Story (read more about it on Kate's blog), via Twitter, is

"My heart didn't come with instructions."

Why is he so brilliant? Really.
I remember in Spain when I was bored on the charter bus, I listened to his albums on repeat all the time, savoring every brilliantly constructed sentence and insight (him and Missy Higgins. Gah! love them!). I was astounded that the amazing voice and beats I had come to love had such deep deep meaning when I really listened to the lyrics.

So is it any coincidence that my six word story is:
"Destined for greatness in due time."

I've had to temporarily dull my hyper-anxious senses because I know I can't do anything about said daydreams until I get out of this gestational period of sheer monotony.
Provo is like a mother's womb, some bask in or never want to leave the comfort, and some just can't wait to get out kicking and screaming.

Guess which one I am.

Octomom: the verdict

So in case you are a martian, this fellow we Americans like to call our Commander-in-Chief killed it on Leno last night.


I think John Mayer says it best (via his tweet):

"As long as the Octomom stays the top national story, I know Obama is doing his job keeping America safe. Think about it until you agree."



Yes, I'm following johncmayer on Twitter.
Hot. I know.
He is brilliant and hilarious and dashing. What else does a girl need?

Dear CWTV

Dear CWTV,

I'm sorry I couldn't make time in my schedule to watch the latest episode of Gossip Girl on Monday...


(Truth be told, I think watching live TV is a waste of time- blatantly avoidable advertising)


...but I would highly appreciate if you would post the latest episode on your Web site....ALREADY!

i.e. Usually, you do it 48 hours after GG has aired...
...but now, if you haven't noticed, it is well into the THIRD DAY.

I have put up with your lack-of-filming shenanigans for upwards of the last two months, and for many reasons (which may or may not include the fact that I'd rather watch Penn and Blake's sickening chemistry on-screen than on People.com), I am on the brink of my seat about to explode with dramatic escapist suspense that only the recession-proof Upper East Side world you convey in your silly drama provides.


Anxious and peeved,
Alex

Mobama's Prom Dress!

Who'd have thought this FIERCE Lady of '81 would one day become....

(that slit!)



the FIRST

(those toned arms!)

Love them


Picture courtesy Buzz Feed & Smitten