[ list making ]

So NaBloPoMo is going monthly! There's a different theme every month. November is still the official-official NaBloPoMo, but this is something to keep everyone up with posting. The every month themes are totally optional.

So anyway... March is the month of lists.

I'm having trouble coming up with lists to make. Any ideas? I need 31 lists, and I have about 6 right now.

Anyone else going to do the lists? What lists are you making?

[ and the world spins madly on ]

Ok, so I both love and loathe Target. Love it because, um, hi... it's Target. Loathe it because it's one of those stores that you go in for toothpaste and you come out with a new wardrobe, new books, some home accessories, but no toothpaste.

I went to Target for some work clothes. I found one cute outfit for work, and a nice casual top. And then I went for a swing around the rest of the store, because that's what you do in Target.

And I walked out with SEVEN movies. SEVEN! That's so bad.

However, I spent a grand total of $52.16 on those seven movies. That's only $7.45 a piece!!!

Which movies, do you ask?


I freakin' heart this movie. I just think it's incredibly cute. Very funny, great music, fun cast. Lauren Graham is in it, and she's one of my favorite actresses (if only because I want to be Lorelai Gilmore when I grow up). Diane Keaton is a freakin' riot in this... just so over-the-top overbearing.


I'm trying to slowly but surely grow a collection of classic movies and classic books. My movie collection of classics is actually nonexistent, except as an idea in my head. So when I saw Breakfast at Tiffany's for $6.50 (!!!!) into the cart it went! I watched it last night for the first time in forrrrrever, and fell in love all over again. All I can say is, Audrey Hepburn is so amazing, that it can't be put into words.



I'm also a ridiculous fan of 80s movies, and have a small collection of my favorites from that time (The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Labyrinth [seriously... Bowie!] and Clue, so far). That explains why it was absolutely necessary to get Flashdance and Footloose. Classics! Some of the best soundtracks of the 80s. Plus, they came in a sweet two pack, for $9.44!!!


One of the cutest, funniest romantic comedies ever. Totally adored by pretty much every girl I know, plus a fair number of guys. Great movie.


Looooooooove it. This now has a place right next to Spaceballs. Hysterical.


Great movie that I had never even heard of until my friend Kelly came back from break at school with it, and said we all had to see it. I think we may have watched it about a dozen times in the months following! Really great movie... clever, fast-paced, amazing cast.


If this doesn't provide an excellent example of how random my taste in movies is, I don't know what will. Just wait until I describe my musical taste! Another post, for another day. I've got to grab a shower and some breakfast, so I can hit up the Junior League rummage sale, and then get ready for work!


[ images all found through google ]

[ holy moly mother of beautifulness ]

Just go look at these amazing photographs based on Alfred Hitchcock's amazingness in Vanity Fair March 2008:

http://up.youngruffians.com/vanityfair/

[ the new digs ]

Well, I finally feel settled enough (and organized enough!) to share some pictures of my new place!

This is the dining area. The table has two leaves, both of which I keep down when I'm not using it. It makes it more like a shelf and takes up practically no space. The half-wall hides the kitchen, which is a typical kitchen so no picture of that. The hexagon shelves on the wall above the half-wall hold a combo of my ampersand collection and my Buddha collection. The chairs were $4.99 each in the As-Is section of IKEA! That's my still-not-framed-nine-months-later diploma.


Backing up a little, you can see my slowly-coming-together office area. The built in shelves have my books and printer. It still needs a light, and I'm trying to figure out a way to hide the cords from view, because they are freakin' ugly under the desk. You can also see the front of my most triumphant purchase: my new couch. The pillows were on sale at Home Goods, and my big sister made me the blanket a few years ago for Christmas.


Turning around, you see the living area. I freakin' love the wall color, and luckily you can't see the splotchiness of the paint job. Basic living stuff... shelving unit hiding DVDs and showing off some old cameras, my favorite photography books (Individuals, Through The Lens, The Polaroid Book, and Portraits), and a bunch more Buddhas; awesome fantabulous couch; storage ottoman with wooden tray on top in place of a coffee table.


And to the left of the living area is my bed, with another awesome orange wall, and my kick-ass IKEA quilt cover.


Can you guess my favorite color? It ain't navy!

[ triumphant purchase ]

I went to IKEA today to purchase a sofa, because I'm sick of sitting on my bed across the room to watch television. Also, it's no fun to only have a bed or hard chairs to sit on.

So I go... I decide on the Klippan sofa with the natural fabric cover. I go down to the crazy self-service area and convince the only IKEA worker I can see (my only peeve with IKEA... you can never find help in the self-service area... and I'm a small person and not particularly strong so I definitely can't lift a freakin' couch) to help me load the couch onto the push cart. And I grab the right color slipcover. And before I check out, I decide to swing by the As-Is section to see if they have anything worth grabbing.

And there, with the ass-ugly green floraly pattern slipcover on it, is the Klippan sofa. For $100 less than the one I'm pushing around. Simply because it was the display sofa for however long, and had one slightly wiggly foot.

SCORE!

It comes tomorrow, and I've got the pretty slipcover to put on it instead of the ugly green patterned one.

I feel like a champion.

And I'll finally have somewhere comfy to sit that isn't my bed.

And then you'll finally get to see pictures of the new digs.

[ valentines ]

Irony of ironies.

I spent Valentine's Day with Jesse. Yep. A not-date with my ex-boyfriend.

At the beginning of the week, we decided to make plans to have dinner and hang out one night this week. We picked Thursday because we had hung out on Sunday so Monday was too soon, he goes rock climbing on Tuesday, and plays softball on Wednesday. So Thursday it was.

Neither of us realized it was Valentine's Day until Wednesday. Well, I probably wouldn't have noticed until Thursday, but Jesse called Wednesday night and said that he just realized that Thursday was V-Day. He wanted to make sure I still wanted to hang out. I decided what the hell... it just won't be a holiday for us.

So we had dinner, and it was totally fine. A little awkward at first, because it was kind of hard to forget that it was Valentine's and we were no longer together. But then we both relaxed and had a good time. He attempted to explain the purpose of delegates (I still don't get it... can anyone out there explain it to me??) and the differences between a primary and a caucus (still don't really get that either), and then we watched Transformers. A good, non-romantic movie.

Overall, a fun night.

[ productive and fun weekend ]

Oy, galapagos.

The apartment is starting to come together. I have officially finished / admitted defeat to painting. The lighter color looks absolutely gorgeous (and happens to match the cabinets in the kitchen area perfectly), and the darker color is just what I wanted. It's a bit splotchy in some places, but after about thirty hours of painting this weekend, and four to five coats of the darker color, I simply can't paint anymore. Now I'm slowly shoving all the furniture back up against the walls (as opposed to clustered in the middle of the room, four feet from all walls, with a giant plastic drop cloth covering it all), finally putting away the rest of my stuff, and clearing out the cardboard boxes from the IKEA furniture that I was using as makeshift drop cloths.

Pictures to come when the place doesn't look quite so much like a disaster area.

I actually had quite a fun weekend, in addition to my painting craziness. Thursday night, I went to a British-style pub called The Rose & Crown with a Meetup group. The pub is so freakin' cute. It's in a historic downtown house (a theme I've noticed around the area), and since the house is historic, the rooms can't be altered architecturally, so the pub is a bit disjointed, but I think it just added to the charm. One room had a small pool table, most had tables and bars. We sat out on the patio, and were perfectly comfortable (yes, in February, after dark... still can't get used to the warmth during the winter here!). I met a bunch of really nice people, and will definitely be going to future events with this group.

Friday afternoon, I went to downtown Tempe to go to a Lunch with Ladies Who Launch (Sunny... I promise I'll do a post devoted to LWL soon!). As always with LWL, the meeting was great. I met a bunch of really nice women, and we had a blast. The place we went is called The Center Bistro and it's an organic-type restaurant. A little pricey, but the food was amazing.

Saturday morning, I drove over to Bevla's (my LWL leader) house to shoot some images for her website, and to get a haircut! Finally! I haven't gotten a haircut since I moved to AZ... eight months ago! Bevla's been a hair stylist basically forever, and was a celebrity stylist for a while actually... she got to tour Europe with Prince! So I totally trusted her to clean me up. Here's a kinda shitty picture (taken with the Photobooth on my computer) of the new do, with the pretty pretty new wall color behind me. Note that I match. My favorite color is orange... can you tell?


Yay for new hair!

And then on Sunday, Jesse and I hung out. He helped me pick out a DVD player (no more movies on the computer!), and then we went to lunch at a really great sushi place, and then just hung out at his place for a while.

All in all, a very good weekend.

And today, I walked over to the Italian market that's around the corner to see what it was like. It's pretty small, not a ton of variety, but just enough items I'd prefer to get from an Italian market. I picked up a couple things: some pesto sauce, an Italian seasoning mixture, and some Pizzelle cookies. I think I'll be having a nice Italian dinner for myself tonight... pasta with pesto, with some Pizzelle for dessert. Yum!

[ good points of today ]

I walked to and from work today. It's a half mile each way, which means that if I continue this, I can walk a full mile three days a week, without feeling like it's doing exercise! Woot!

From today on, I start work at 8am instead of 9am, which means I can either take a long lunch break and end my day at 5pm, take a short lunch break and end my day at 4:30pm, or eat lunch at work and end my day at 4pm. I love options.

I have these AMAZING jeans. They're cute-butt-jeans. And by cute-butt-jeans, I mean good-lord-they-make-me-feel-so-freakin-hot-jeans. And I haven't fit into them for a really long time, because I had gained some weight. These are those type of jeans that practically every girl has that they keep because maybe someday they'll fit again. And you feel like an idiot because you know they probably won't ever fit again. However.... today I pulled them on, and they fit perfectly! And not only did they fit... but they're a size 8. And as much as I typically don't care about the size of my pants, I was pretty stoked to be rocking non-double-digit pants today.

My amazing jeans got me cat-called today. By a construction worker. Although incredibly cliche and typically downright insulting, today it made me smile.

The really cool architecture guys that we share our office space with recommended an amazing place for lunch called That's A Wrap. Holy moly tasty deliciousness. I got a veggie wrap, and it had zucchini, asparagus, carrots, eggplant, feta cheese, rice... all warm and amazing, with a wicked good sauce and wrapped in a spinach tortilla.

Good day, today.

[ birth month traits ]

I'm currently sitting in my apartment, surrounded by bags of books (I've uttered the phrase "I read too much" A LOT the past couple of days... lugging big bags of books is not fun!), empty and full HUGE cardboard boxes (from my new IKEA furniture... pictures to come when this place isn't such a sty), and other random shit that doesn't have a home yet. I'm totally and completely hijacking someone else's internet, while I wait for mine to be turned on today, "sometime before 7pm," as the man from Cox said. I'm trying to decide if I should go to the grocery store and buy some food (because right now I have Mac & Cheese, pasta, Special K, oreos... and nothing else), finish building my IKEA furniture and try to clear out the cardboard that has taken over my apartment, go to Home Depot and pick out paint colors, or go back to IKEA (for the third time in a week) and get more storage solutions and other accessories. I'm going to do all of that (hopefully today), but can't decide what to do first.

So instead, I'm perusing 20-somethings members' pages and blogs, and finding fun things to post. For example: (I have since closed the page where I found this, and I only copy/pasted part of it. Sue me.)

You're supposed to find your birth month and say which of the traits apply to you. If I find the whole post again, I'll post a link. Here's my month:

JUNE:

Thinks far with vision: I'd like to think so. I'm working on expanding my visions for my photography business.
Easily influenced by kindness: I think most people are. When other people are nice to you, it's easier to be influenced by them. Although, I'd like to think I'm not easily influenced.
Polite and soft-spoken: Umm.. polite, yeah. Soft-spoken... no way in hell. I'm freaking loud.
Having ideas: Yes, yes.
Sensitive: I guess.
Active mind: Most definitely.
Hesitating, tends to delay: If that's the same thing as thinking things out a lot, then yes.
Choosy and always wants the best: I suppose. I know what I like and what I want.
Temperamental: I wish I wasn't, but I definitely am. I'd like to think that as I've gotten older, my ridiculous temper has calmed down, but I know I still am temperamental.
Funny and humorous: Most of my friends definitely would agree with this one!
Loves to joke: Yes, yes. Sometimes too much. Although I'm not really a fan of practical jokes. I think they're kind of mean.
Good debating skills: No idea. If you replacing "debating" with "fighting/arguing" then probably yes. I'm too hotheaded to debate, I think.
Talkative: Most definitely.
Daydreamer: Yep.
Friendly: I am indeed! Be my friend!
Knows how to make friends: I'd like to think so, however I've been having trouble making friends since I moved out West. But it's getting better!
Able to show character: I guess so. Does this mean showing your personality well?
Easily hurt: Ummm... I'm not really sure. I think I'm lucky in that I haven't been horribly hurt by a lot of people. I've had the best friend who bailed on me and picked the boyfriend over me, which sucked A LOT. Of course I've been dumped and hurt that way... but I don't think being hurt in general happens a lot to me, which is good.
Prone to getting colds: I'm actually quite healthy, and rarely get sick, but when I get sick... I get SICK. I once had strep throat for like a month and a half. In college, I had a mysterious illness for pretty much an entire semester (I only ever went to the campus health center because I hate going to the doctor... and if you aren't pregnant or don't have strep, they don't really know how to deal with you). I dropped a bunch of weight, was never hungry, and was completely and totally exhausted. It wasn't mono or lyme disease (got tested for both). I'm just a weirdo.
Loves to dress up: Not so much.
Easily bored: Definitely. My family would always joke that that's why I never really had longterm boyfriends. I would get bored in about a month (3 months was the record until J came around), and break-up with them. In general, I always am looking for new things to keep myself from being bored. I'm the weirdo who was ready to go back to school after about a week of summer break, just because I would be bored to tears.
Fussy: I equate fussiness with infants, so I'm going to say no.
Seldom shows emotions: I show happy emotions all the time. It's the sad ones that I definitely hide.
Takes time to recover when hurt: Holy moly yes.
Brand conscious: Not really. I love my Dove soap & shampoo, and I'm obsessed with Apple, but the brand loyalty pretty much ends there.
Executive: I try to be.
Stubborn: Oh good lord yes. I'm definitely one of the most stubborn people I know, and I'm sure most of my friends would agree.

Now... I must go do something productive. I think I'll work on furniture for a while, and then go grocery shopping. Laterrrrrr.