It's about that time.....

I try to avoid bloggy blogging on here, but it is about that time of the resolutions and I guess I'm writing some and they're going to be bloggy. So I will start by apologizing. And now to the blogginess.

1. Lushless Me. My biggie for the year is to be a bit less of a lush, which has been a bad habit that's developed recently. I don't particularly enjoy my drunk self or the things I do or say and I really need to and am ready to put and end to the. Pooey. That's what I think of that me. Now I'll still be imbibing, just going back to that good ol' concept of moderation that's done so well for people throughout the ages. Peace will return to the world and I will be a much much happier person. Go plan, go.

2. More Cooking for Good Looking!  I have a lot of awesome recipes that are delicous and healthy that I just haven't been motivated to make. It's a big shame. I could really enjoy my food, stay in shape and learn new things. So 2011, I would like to cook more during you. Hopefully, this will also revolve around my CSA, Boston Organics, and force me to try new foods and random times.

3. Flush the filth. It's been a long time now that I've been indulging and nurturing my potty mouth. I hate it. I absolutely hate it. It comes out at work, in front of inappropriate people, near kids... all places I'm terribly embarassed to be speaking like that. Yucky yuck yuck. It's ok sometimes, but I really need to cut it out.

4. Power off. The tube that is. I've been making good progress at starting to read more this year and I'm really happy with that. So I'd like to encourage that habit and hopefully keep it up. Maybe even upgrade out of youth literature at some point.

5. Self soothing. OK so that one may sound weird, but it basically just means that I need to do more on a regular basis to relax/meditate. If you do it on a regular basis, it's much more effective when you need it. We practice other things, why not practice that?

Alrighty, well I guess those are the main 5 for 2011. Not too too bloggy I hope. Comments, questions or thoughts welcome :)

My Adventures in Crafting! Pt. 1

For those of you that don't know anything about my family, we have quite the gifted heritage when it comes to all things crafty. My grossmutter (great grandmother) could pretty much make anything under the sun, and better than any professional and continued to do so until maybe a few weeks before she passed at 101. We have knitters and crocheters and quilters and painters and photographers and sewers and everything you can imagine. I've always thought my artistic ability came from my sense of style - I like to think I'm fairly different in how I look (hair color, piercings, clothing, shoes, mixing and matching whatever just because I want to). But lately I'm trying to see if I have any legit craftiness in me. So here are the beginnings of my craftiness attempts.

First was really simple. I had a black bracelet which I liked, but didn't think was anything different. I didn't know what to do with it, so I added some ribbon on and sewed a button where the ribbon knotted. Still not sure if I want to make it into a bow or not. I probably could have entwined different ribbons through the bracelet instead also. But this was a nice, simple idea.

I have always love love loved the swallow/sparrow tattoo symbolism and I had purchased a necklace a few years back with a swallow on it. Unfortunately, now that necklace is a very hipster thing to have and I'm way to embarrassed to wear it. So I decided to remove the pendent and attach it to something else. First, I painted it using some metallic purple nail polish (warning - this took a long time to dry!). Then I decided on embellishing a plain green coat of mine, so I used the attachment holes and some other corners the sew the little birdie on. Voila! Excellent combination. However, I did find out later that this swallow was even cheaper than I thought and really couldn't stand the wear and tear of a coat; it broke in a few places. It's hard to see from a distance so I'm keeping it on and will try to fix, but it was a good lesson.

I also love H&M. They have a style of dress shirts that fits me wonderfully. So when I found that shirt in a shirt-dress style at Buffalo Exchange a few months back, I was stoked and bought it! The dress was definitely cute as is, but I wanted to see if I could spice it up a bit (and I still may add more even). So I decided that one simple thing to do would be to just add some lace at the bottom. I went to my local Joann Fabrics and purchased some lace and other goodies and used a machine washable material glue to secure the lace to the inside of the dress. I haven't figured out how to end the lace yet at the cuts, but I'm told there's a product called "No Fray" that I should invest in. Until then, it's basically done. Maybe a broach or patch on the chest area.

And finally, the coup de grace - my SantaCon costume. Every year we go on a pub crawl where everyone dresses as something holiday related - doesn't have to be Santa, just holiday related. My friends were reindeer, helpers, a pile of presents, an Xmas tree and things like that. I didn't want to go as the Leg Lamp, but instead as the box it was delivered in. So I went to Joann's, found a fabric that looked like particle board, some trim and a brown material marker. I originally was going to be boxy but when I put it up to my body, I decided it would just look so much better as a mini dress. So I grabbed one from my closet and tried to use it as a pattern. When, using a sewing machine for the first time since 6th grade, I sewed the two pieces together, I realized there was no way I was going to fit into it. So then I had to finagle some sort of side panel and sew that in. I had to hand stitch the last seam after several failed machine attempts and added buttons so I could get in and out. Then I used the brown marker to draw on the boards and a red sharpie to draw on FRAGILE.  Finally, I used that same fabric glue to add a silver lining at the bottom for sparkle. I knew I would be cold, so I made a really simple shrug out of the leftovers. I just took a long piece of material, folded it in half inside out, and sewed up sleeves from the ends leaving the middle open to cover my back. Then I wrote "This End Up" on the shrug. Things fit pretty well but I used buttons that were kinda too small and I wanted to safety pin to my bra just in case. Overall, I think I did damn good! Compliments all night! Can't wait to try again!!!!

Reading Rainbow!

Not complaining really, but I've had a lot of free time on my hands lately. I'm definitely one of those people who the busier they are, the more they get done. And when I have free time, I tend to just sit on my ass on the couch for hours and hours. Normally I fill this time with going to the gym, but I've been so sick the last few weeks so I haven't been able to go. I'm starting my crafting adventures (more to come) but I'm also finally reading. 

I've said this before, but my favorite books to read usually are young adult books. I'm OK at English, but not a natural at all. If a theme/motif is obvious, then I can get it - or if it was pointed out to me (like it was in highschool), then I totally follow. But if I'm just reading on my own it's usually pretty hard. So I stick to the YA section. Easy reading and I can usually follow OK.  So here's what I thought of my most recent reads!

The Alchemist - I've heard so many amazing reviews about this book being utterly amazing and life changing. Honestly, I hated it. I felt like it was something that they would have given to us in a 5th grade religion class. I couldn't get into the story. I wasn't invested in the characters. I thought it was cheesy and awful. I knew maybe 1/4 of the way in that I wasn't going to like it. It was an easy read and I just plowed through it just to finish it. I've heard from others that they also hated this book of his but really liked others, so I'm maybe willing to keep an open mind. It did make me feel pretty twisted hating that and loving.... GRADE: D-

A Clockwork Orange - I thought this was utterly fantastic. It took me a chapter or two (ok maybe 3) until I really got used to the slang, but after I did I was hooked. It's definitely debatable if this is really a YA book or not. Way too detailed and intense in many sections. For once, I totally understood the main plots and I really enjoyed/related to them. This idea of brainwashing and if you can truly be a man if you can't make your own choices. It was classic. I then finally watched the movie for the first time afterward. I'm so glad I waited. I wouldn't have really understood it or appreciated it as much, but it worked perfectly in protraying the themese and characters. Of course, the book was better, especially because of the omission of the last chapter. But the overall feel of both really appealed to me. Maybe that should be worrisome...  GRADE: A+

Alex and the boys... drinking their milk.

That was Then, This is Now - Another book by the author of my favorite book, The Outsiders, - S.E. Hinton. I did not let me down by any means. I have to admit, I was confused at first. I kept reading about Curtis's and thinking that I was somehow related to Of Mice and Men. Pretty funny. But the timing of the book was perfect for me life - just generally looking at your past and seeing how dumb some of it was. Coming of age. Growing up. Making those choices. And of course some tearjerker scenes in there, as was to be expected.  Makes me super excited to reread The Outsiders. I do love her books. GRADE: A-

I am the Cheese - This was just a good simple simple read. I think it's even more middle school than anything. Interesting because it was taking place in New England, so I could picture it well. I understood what was going on throughout all the different narrator/style changes, but it made me wonder how this would have been taught in school and to what grade. GRADE: B+

The Neverending Story - Now I figured this was going to be good, but not nearly as good as it was. Highly recommended to anyone needing some feel good. I loved the style, flipping between the two worlds and using the two different color inks to enhance this effect. It just sucked me in immediately and made me so attached to Bastian. I was definitely invested. It was interested to watch the movie afterward and see how different it truly was. Looks like the movie is only the first part of the book really. I need to re-watch the second movie and see how that fits in.  Anyway, it was great. I was so engrossed and I felt so wonderful the whole time even thought I knew how it was going to end. Great read. Would definitely recommend to anyone in need of a feel good.  GRADE: A

Tat-two

Get the pun, huh? huh? Oh I'm so clever aren't I? But yeah, I'm thinking it's about time for tat numero dos. I know what I want to incorporate into it, I'm just not exactly positive on the design yet. So I'm counting on feedback people!!!! This one is highly personal and I can't exactly go into the reasons why for all the parts, but that's fine. It's going to be going on my lower back off to the far left. First, please tell me that doesn't say tramp stamp at all....

So Part 1 of the imagery: the words. It's either going to be "Stay Gold" or "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I'm leaning towards the first. For those of you who don't know where that comes from, the latter is a line from a poem by Robert Frost that was used in one of my favorite books, The Outsiders. The first is really "Stay gold, Ponyboy" but many people shorten it. To vaguely explain, this is really to represent my recent changing view of the world and how awful of a place I've realized it can be. Not that I think that everything is awful, but that I've just become more realistic with how much suckery there is out there. My golden, naive view of the world has been shattered and there's no getting it back.

The Boys of The Outsiders.

The next part of the tat that I really want to incorporate is some reference to the band Nada Surf. Now there are two options that I can see for this.  One would be to do some tattoo like the one below and instead of using the stars that are there, use the stars/moons from this design. I don't know if that's obvious enough though and I think I feel too much like I'm stealing someone's tattoo.

One option...

The other option would be to steal the idea of the album artwork from The Proximity Effect and use that instead. I would replace the album title with "Stay Gold" and take out the band name. Instead of the yellow and blue balls I think I would want leaves tousling in the wind, twisting and turning, but in the same pattern. I would want them to be two different colors, but I'm not sure what would look best on skin color and still fit the idea of the poem. Something golden and maybe something red? I also might stretch the image out a little bit so it's not so scrunched.  This is the idea I'm leaning towards the most right now. Also, if there was somewhere I could put a little robot in there, that would be AMAZING, but I can't think of anywhere. Maybe just hide him in the pattern instead of one of the leaves?

Option 2 - which I'm leaning towards.

Ok dudes,  so that's a what I'm thinking. I NEED FEEDBACK!!!! I'm terrible at making these decisions on my own. These are the concepts that I want in there - "Stay Gold" and a reference to Nada Surf. If you have any other brilliant ideas, please throw those out there too! Hoping to do it soon!

The Highlander: 1999-2003; Why am I sharing this? Part 1

Unlike most people in highschool, I think we had a fairly enjoyable time. It's begun to occurr to me, that these amazing memories are going to slowly disappear into oblivion, which when you have stories like stealing chess club, operation gobble gobble, coyneclops and hand made IUD's in health class just is not acceptable. So I'm going to start compiling some of mine here and damn well expect that my friends jump in and put in some of theirs.

Arnie, aka our Ron Jeremy look alike drivers ed instructor. I don't even know where to begin here. First, who was it? Me, Kevman, Jules and....Dan? Mike? See!! I'm loosing them already! Where do I start? The 21 point turn when we drove into the Constitution Marsh and ended up on a 5' wide road in the middle of the woods. That was pretty awesome/terrifying for your first time driving. The constant oggling? No, definitely the forced chinese fire drill at 5-corners when Kevin and Julie and to switch places during a traffic stop.  Wow. Just wow.  I don't think I even get any insurance credit for that extreme violation.

Oh Math Team. Yes, I was a Mathlete. And yes, we kicked ass. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but we did actually have a really fun time given that it pretty much was all our best friends and a really awesome teacher. We trained, we competed, we won. And then we'd compete against the real teams....yeah. Nothing like Physics team, where we totally blew them out of the water....aka Dan cheated at the last minute and thew a bunch more sand into the bucket after the bridge had collapsed. Booyeah. And my homemade xlophone playing skills = AMAZING. We need to find the videos of that shit. I just vaguely recall some ridiculously team tshirts (anyone remember?). But alas, you'll just have to live with math team photos.

Now we also can't forget my first secret (ok second... stickman in 7th grade was first) secret admirer. And really, Fitz wasn't exactly secret. More like blatantly obvious. One of the few of the punk persuasion in the school, so somehow we had of course come into an aquaintainship of sorts (possibly through unitard Mark?). Now Kyle was one persistent young man, creating a variety of poems for me. But alas, it did not work for the self proclaimed teddy bear with "more to love." But here for your enjoyment - a supposed poem from me to my boyfriend, dumping him for Mr. Fitz, entitled "Welcome to Dumpsville: Population You" (a Short Music ref):

Where else do we even go? What about Mr. Nobile - I would say the best English teacher but I loved all of our English teachers honestly (especially glueing a certain one's head to a model's body as an xmas gift for a certain friend...). When I rewrote and performed Bohemian Rhapsody a la piano about Animal Farm for some project (lordy, I really am a dork). My most enjoyable moments with him were musical though. We had some good discussions...I brought him 90's punk and he gave me what he considers to be some essential rock ballads including Utopia's Singring and and the Glass Guitar, Rush's  2112, Yes's Close to the Edge, King Crimson's Lark's Tongues in Aspic Parts 1 & 2, Limp Richard's Attack of the Giant Painted Baby and Wave Phenomenom, and The Barking Spider's Some Bush Tune. Unfortunately, I have this on mix tape now and nada to play it with.  One day Nobes, one day....

Ok, well I think that's enough for part 1. I'm expecting requests or suggestions. We had some classic moments damnit. I demand they be captured, even if no one else understands them except us. Sorry :P

It was a One-eyed, One-horned, Flyin' Purple People Eater!

So tonight I was having quite the interesting conversation with my roomie about Braveheart/scary/gory movies and I realized, Wow, I have a really interesting/screwed up history with scary stuff/movies. That would be fun to record! So, here we go!

Well, it all start wayyyyy back when I was a wee lass. Even certain Disney scenes were too much for this princess - like when Ursula turns into a giant mega-Ursula or pretty much all of Pinocchio. Just about all I could take was Bill Cosby's The Chicken Heart. And that's probably pretty impressive considering that I usually had to fast-foward one of the tracks on our Cats tape (I have no idea which one of course, just that it scared the piss outta me) ANNNNND our West Side Story tape. Now that one I remember was the "rumble." And thus the beginning of my life with scary movies.

This would be a good time to flash foward to about 5th grade, when I hung out with a rough crew of gals - welll about as rough as it could get for our town, so it still involved digital pets and Devin Sawa. Well these ladies were not at all scared of anything scary (unlike myself who was piss your pants terrified during most sleep overs from 5th-7th grade), and thus the torture began. It started simple with seemingly innocent films like Now and Then, but these lead to actually attempting seances in our friends backyard/cemetry and her parents jumping out in the middle of it to spook us/nearly give me a heart attack lol. Obviously the next step was to move up to Scream and Scream II, both of which gave me nightmares for weeks no matter how hunky Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard were. We did a little House on Haunted Hill, Urband Legend, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Craft and mother-freaking Event Horizon. Holy crap. Damn peer pressure! You did me rough!

Nothing will crack me up eternally more though than a certain share experience my sister and I had with some genetically spliced paleolithic clones. That's right, Jurassic Park baby!!! The movie came out in 1993, so that puts me at 8 and my sister at 11 and it was rated PG-13, yet somehow my parents thought it was a good idea to take us????  Now I made it through about an hour or so, but my older sister made it through maybe 10 minutes! Movie fail. It was years until we were able to finally rent it as a family and all sit down together, have a laugh, and make it through - with a couple trips to the hallway to hide of course.

Good Family Fun!

So despite taking me to see JP at 8yo, my parents then proceeded to have quite the interesting stance on mature films. My junior year of highschool, I wanted to watch Saving Private Ryan upon recommendation of our AP US History teacher. Nope. But they would let me watch Schindler's List with them. They knew I had seen Resevoir Dogs but made me leave the room for the last scene in Braveheart when they're quartering Mel Gibson. They don't even show anything!!!!!! Oh parentals.

[I was going to insert a Schindler's List picture here but it was just too awful - apparently not for my parents - but yes for this blog. So use your imagination]

Now what am I like today you might ask? Well, I'm still a wimp, that's for sure. Gore movies - those don't bother me at all. So things like Hostel I could care less about. They don't spook me out or even really gross me out. I think they're kinda silly. Anything with ghosts will have my spooked and looking around corners for a few days guaranteed. And definitely don't set it in the woods or I will run from my car to my house if I'm home. I still have yet to see The Blair Witch Project.  Put people in masks like The Strangers and I can't even watch the previews. Pyschological stuff though, like Saw, that's totally doable since that tickles me brains. Guess as long as it isn't Mel Gibson not being cut up, I'll be set. Thanks Mom + Dad.

M.A.S.H.

I've been feeling fairly uninspired lately. Not too much has been going on that I've felt the overwhelming urge to blog about, but I have felt the urge to blog. So today I was thinking of embarassing things I could share with the public, and what's more embarassing than a list of those sexy men I've crushed on throughout the ages? So here were go. Sad but true.... my real life MASH hopefuls.

1. Keanu Reeves - I mean, seriously, who didn't? "Shoot the hostage." Dead sexy. When my sister and I were kids, we had a craft table of sorts. We used to write our crushes' names on the bottom of it.  There are many an interesting spelling of Mr. Reeves' name, surounded in giant hearts of course.

Eddie on "La Vitesse"

2. Devin Sawa - Oh man of man, he was a total teen hunk in middle school. Now and Then when he kissed Christina Ricci?? Ow Ow!!! You couldn't help but swoon. I'm pretty sure I still have a picture of him somewhere in one of my memory boxes. Oh you can't forget Casper while we're at it. (They said "bitch" in that movie!!! Ohhhhhhhhhhh).

Awwwww. Teen love.

3. Colin Firth - Love Actually, Pride & Prejudice, or Bridget Jone's. Name your movie, he's a sexy beast. Now, then and always. Who cares if he's old enough to be my Dad? Every time I see that man dive into Netherfield Pond... damn!

4. Will Wheaton - Time to get embarassing. I was born and raised on good ol' Star Trek: The Next Generation. I had to have the hots for one of them. Wesley and his rainbow striped uniform and sexy physics skills was the obvious choice. Who cares about Stand by Me anyways?

Oh Mr. Crusher!

5. Gavin Rossdale - Like most teenage girls of the 90's, this lead singer of Bush swallowed my heart and there was no coming down form it (yes, those are horrible references. sorry). Even more reason to hate Gwen Stefani (who annoys me to no end...except when singing about bananas).

6. Ewan McGregor - Anyone that knows me knows my love of this man. Be still my heart. He might just be my #1. Big Fish, Moulin Rouge, Down With Love, A Life Less Ordinary and of course, my favorite - Trainspotting. Doesn't matter to me if he's all clean and proper or "heroin chic." Oh and the voice, the voice!!! Take me now Renton....errr... I mean Ewan...

I don't understand how anyone could resist....

7. James Bond Jnr. - Last but not least, I couldn't end this list without including my first love. The one, the only. Bond. James Bond. Junior. This prep school student spends his free time fighting for the safety of the free world with the use of crazy gadgets and mad science. And he does it all while being dead sexy, at least to a sex year old. For those that haven't been enlightened, hold on to your horses and enjoy the show.

So that's that. My sexy 7 of the evening. Amazing. Embarassing. and True.

Furkids!!!!

It occurred to me this week that I don't think I've done a post about my furkids - or at least not recently. I got the idea when I saw the picture of one of my rescue group's newer adoptables, Goliath, a cutiepie little lionhead who looks just like my Dirk did as a baby. So this probably won't be the most exciting post, but it might be the cutest.

I guess we start at the beginning. You probably ask, how in the world did I get into rabbits? Not exactly a common pet are they? Our bunny involvement started about 40 years ago, with my Dad! He had buns when he was kid. He also had pretty strong animal allergies, which I was lucky enough to inherit. So when it came time for our family to get pets, cats and dogs were definitely out. That left buns!

Enter Tippy and Toes! We were very creative young gals with our naming. Tippy and Toes did have excellent periscoping skills though, at least until Tippy goy fat :) Oh and for those that don't know, periscoping is bunny talk for standing up on your back feet only and looking around, like a periscope on a submarine. Our buns lived relatively long, happy lives. Toes was constantly either running into things and breaking his teeth (yes, literally) or very exubrantly lusting after poor Tippy. Her scent alone saved him from being lost in the woods one night he got loose! They were our babies. And they passed away when I was in highschool. I knew I couldn't have bunnies in college, but I always knew I would get more as soon as I could.

The beginning of Love.... and many incidents of peeing on my bed!!!

Enter..... Clive and Dirk, my current furkids! In the weeks before the end of college, I started looking everywhere for a place I could get buns. Unfortunately, at that point I didn't even think about adoption. It didn't occur to me with rabbits, but I can't imagine any other way to do it in the future! I did however come across (thanks to my sister) and fall in love with a breed called lionheads. And thus began my search.

First, I found baby Clive. Awwwwww. And a few weeks later came baby Dirk. And pretty immediately after came love, as you can clearly see in their ridiculous snuggling and spooning.

Baby clive, baby dirk, early bonding in the park, spooning in the litterbox - literally.

And even sooner it was clear who the third wheel was. I love my boys dearly, but they're clearly in love with each other and not me! I'm the human slave. I clean. I give hay. I have treats. That's me. The only time I get attention is when we go to the park and they're trying to hide from everyone.  I don't have any idea why they wouldn't love me all the time....

Xmas 2007

So, like I said, not the most exciting post, but probably the cutest!!!!

What are those??? April 2008

You Can't Have Your Pudding if you Don't Eat Your Meat!!!

Last weekend I had the extraordinary pleasure of seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall live! Thank god I have an awesome cousin that jumped on me months ago and informed me that I was going :) Seriously, THANK GOD.  I've been to a lot of shows in my day and thoroughly enjoyed them all, but this was unlike any show I've ever been to before.  Generally, I go to smaller shows - more along the lines of 500-3000 people. This wasn't a huge show by any means, but it was the biggest I've been to, with about 18,000 people at The Garden and it was more of a stage production than a concert.

The first half of the show revolved around the wall being built up between the band and the audience, the original inspiration of the movie. Stage hands would walk out one by one carrying bricks and piling them up as the band performed. They left small window holes in place so that you could see the band until the last song of the first half. The engineer in me thoroughly enjoyed seeing the construction. As the bricks were put in place, they became screens on which various images were projected onto, in addition to a giant circle above the stage. Sometimes it was sections from the movie and other times they were just provocative images. Waters had fans send in images and stories of family members who had died in war to bring some of the themes into current times. Their images were projected onto the circular screen and then transferred onto the individual bricks, starting with his father. It was quite epic.

The Wall being built, rally scene, 13 channels of shit, the Teacher in puppet form, the marching hammers and a giant floating pig - in the flesh.

It was a most excellent time. The crowd was quite the mix of people. We had a group of 40 year old stoners making up the rest of our row. They lovingly nicknamed me "Number 5" for my seat and commented on my every movement in and out of the aisle. One was smoking next to me and did eventually offer me a hit with 5 minutes left. Just a few hours too late buddy. Then we had the family in front of us - mom, dad and daughter. Mom was clearly there because it was a "family thing," but daddy and daughter were rocking out together, quite adorably. It had my roomie and I talking - what the heck music that's come out any time recently could someone our age enjoy with their child? Nothing. Just nothing. Definitely some stuff from more of the 90's, but anything past y2k is generally just crap and certainly not classic.



A small glimpse into the show.

It was an epic night and much fun had by all. Of course we needed something for bragging rights in the future to say "I was there!!"  We both decided to commemorate the night with some wonderfully inappropriate flower t-shirts from some of the animated sequences. There were some really cool dark t-shirts, but this one screamed "buy me!!"

I'm so glad I went and got to experience this for probably the last tour ever. For an almost 70yo dude, Mr. Waters can still put on quite the show. And there was only one "old man moment" - when he was exciting the stage at the end of the show, gripping that stair railing like his life - or probably his knees - depended on it. Everyone loves a silver fox. 

She's Baaaaack!

Well Howdy-Ho! I'm baaaack!

It's been many a month since I've visited you all in blogging land and I'm ready to make my return! Hopefully it will be most triumphant (excited anyone?). Or at least OK. I'm not too sure where to start now that I think about it. Hard to sum up the past few month, but I'll try.

Honestly, it's been a bit rough lately. Going through some personal stuff (to be girly and vague), but I don't want to get down and mopey with that. Always look on the bright side of life, right? Right. Unfortunately, the bright side of the last few months has mainly revolved around food...not so cute on the waistline. So that's #1 on the comeback to-do list. Getting back in good shape and starting to eat well again. I did say good shape and not just shape because I have somewhat maintained that. I did quite sucessfully complete the Warrior Dash with a bunch of awesome friends just a few weeks ago (which my friend quite wonderfully wrote about here!). So I was somewhat able to keep in shape of some sort. Definitely not up to par for me though. Plus, I long for "da pummmp" as Arnie would say.

Work has been OK as well. Mostly doing a lot of the same stuff.... over and over again. I'm quite ready for a change of pace, which luckily I'll be getting soon when I go out for inspections! I've decided to put off grad school for the moment while I try to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life. Just decided the timing wasn't right. So that's that for now.

I didn't get to do quite as many "summer" activities as I might have liked. But I've been keeping pretty busy with my friends too, which has been nice! Hanging out doing random things, helping my college bf with wedding stuff here and there, going to concerts, seeing the family and enjoying shenanigans with the Boston Society of Spontaneity. I haven't been doing as much volunteer work as I would have liked lately either, but there's always time to change that! I have been enjoying my new volunteer role with my rabbit rescue group, HRN - working on the hotline! I've had all sorts of interesting calls and was given the Hotline Volunteer of the Year award at our Bunny Bash this summer for my "grace" (ha! my mom would love to hear that) during some of the more "interesting" calls. I miss fostering, but I know I'm making a good solid contribution doing this too!

What else? Well given that I'm calling this a comeback, I figure it's also time for a.... MAKEOVER! 

There's some neat new options available on blogger that I definitely want to take advantage of here. So be expecting the setup to change a lot, when I get motivation of course. I'd like to try to also use this more to post a bit of what I'm doing for diet/exercise since my friends usually ask me about it (and to keep myself a bit more on track and accountable....). And I want to include some more random stuff about just my everyday life too. So it will be all over the place! No real theme... other than me?

So I think that's about that! I'm back! I'm excited. I hopefully won't get too distracted by my Wii. Speaking of which, time to go...do.......something..........toodaloo!

Everybody loves a COMEBACK, right?

::coming soon::

Where's Kate?

So Where's Kate? you might have found yourself asking lately.

I am here! Don't worry. But due to some recent craziness in my life I just haven't quite had the time I need/want to be posting here as often as I like. I will be trying to as time allows, but lately that doesn't seem to be much :-/ So I did want to hop in and give you all that update. Things may be a bit slow here, but with any luck there will be the occasional random, enjoyable blog posting - so don't forget about me!!!!  I may be on holiday, but I will be back!

Adventures in Singledom

Ah so embarassing blog post time!!! Yayyyy! I have no in fact been single for several months now (geeze, maybe close to a year...eek!). And as to be expected, in the meantime there have been many "adventures" to put it nicely. I've done the convenient dating, wishful thinking, horrible drunkenness, friday-night loser... I've never really had to real world date (did a little in college but was mostly long term relationships), and so far it's not so fun really. So I figured it was time to "treat myself" and join one of these dating sites. And thus the adventure/review begins.

So a while back I had done some of those free weekends on eharmony. But man! They asked wayyyyyy to many questions. I was exhausted by the time I got through making a profile - I can't imagine that any of the guys i would be attracted to would really sit through that. So I knew that wasn't the one, and that really only just about leaves match from the ones I knew of. But a hundred something $ ??? Too rich for my blood. Cue the bargain shopper genes to the rescue! Found it for 50% off through the Bank of America add it up program. Much more reasonble. Ten bucks a month or so I can handle. So I give in and sign up.

Now the consipracy theory. I'm convinced that they put us 50% offers together into some reject group. Either that or the dudes just suck. More likely the second though... at least from what I've talked to others about. It just seems like they're all either your steretypical boring DMB loving guys or the weirdos. Needless to say, not my type of men. Oh and fyi, I judge by your pictures. But not if you're good looking or not - I like to see what you're doing, who you're doing it with and where, and if you seem fun. I dont want to see lots of pics of you sitting around smiling. I want to see you in action being fun, because those are the kind of people I like.  Apparently match guys dont do that.....

see more Funny Graphs

Need not apply.

Of course, I've paid so I'll be keeping up with it anyways cause you never know. There have been one or two that piqued my interest - but it's so damn awkward! What do you do? Horrible messaging? Winking? I've been going with the latter for the most part, but I'm sending messages here and there too on the rare occasion that there is someone i *might* like a little.

So step 2 in the adventures of singledom... speed dating. Oh yeah baby. An old neighbor of mine was going and invited me. How could I possibly resist the wonderful potential horrendousness. I thoroughly believe that some things you just HAVE to do for the story. Unfortunately, the turnout for this particular event was small (I guess they usually have 8 or 10, but we had 6... huge chances there). We still managed to get all the stereotypes - the foreingner, the totally awkard guy, the laborer, the i think i know everything about music and am young and hip but am really kinda lame guy. Then there was one normalish dude, but he lived way outside the city (boooooo - i'm too lazy for that) and one guy who I could see maybe going on a few dates with, but not dating really (so what do you do with that??). Overall, fairly lame, but I'm still glad I did it. It was an adventure indeedie. Would i do it again, why the heck not?  Kinda funny afterstory... we went back and looked on the site of this particular group, and even in their promotional video the people reviewing it were kinda wishy washy. 

Not a totally terrible idea....

So that brings me to the finally step. Okcupid. I knew a friend of mine using this one (several apparently), but had totally forgotten about it! We'll have to see if anything actually pans out, but at least I'm getting somewhat normal people messaging me and there are actually itneresting people for once. I've found my stomach soulmate apparently (steak and cinnamont toast crunch - not together, just both amazing) and possibly someone who lives in my old apartment building. I can't lie... i'm super addicted to the quickmatch thing (and maybe am a little too liberal with who I give out 4 stars too - but hey, you miss all the shots you don't take, right?). And I think the awards idea is hysterical (can you really just send that to someone random though???). Again, you get stuck with the question of what the heck is online dating etiquette? I certaintly have no idea and I'm sure no one else does either.

So I'm just winging it from here.  Who knows what the heck will come out of ANY of it, but like i said - some things you gotta do for the story. At a minimum I hopefully end up with some entertaining stories, maybe some new friends and anything past that is would just be dandy too. But i'm certainly not holding my breath.

Well this didn't turn out nearly as exciting or embarassing as I thought it would, but between the massive amounts of work I've been doing lately, this has been the randomness that is my love life. With any luck there WILL be some good follow up stories :) In the meantime, that's my $.02.

Rawr!

So this weekend was the makeover weekend!!! Finally! I was so so sooooooo in need of it in so many ways. So I knew I was getting the tat in RI so I got some local recommendations from a coworkers in our Providence office about where to get my hair and nails did.



First thing was the hair. I'm incredibly inspired by everything about my female punk idol Brody Dalle (Rancid's lead Tim Armstrong's ex-wife), inlcuding her hair. Unfortunately, I dont have raw, overprocessed punk-rock shit hair, so any haircut ends up with KK=Neve Campbell. Not that this is awful or anything, just not really my personality either.

NOT Brody Dalle.

So after some super lucky last minute cancelations I ended up at Christiaan Salon to get my hair done. The stylist totally understood what I was going for, which was such a relief. Plus she was quite pierced herself, so I knew she wasn't going to pull like a madwoman on mine (and she didn't!). For once in my life, I also was able to DONATE my hair, yes, MY hair, to locks for love. So that was extra-awesome too. I thought I *might* be able to, so it was fun finding out that I could. And finally, after a little research I found out that the Goldwell Spruhwaechs (Spray-Wax) recommended to me was animal friendly (aka on PETA's "does not test on animals" list). So I didn't even have to do any crazy shopping.

So this is after two days. The color is awful - I tried henna-ing, but I dont think I put enough product in my mix, so it didn't take well. I'll wait a while and then figure out what to do next.... I need a single color. Maintainence has been really easy so far. The spray wax totally gives it the texture that keeps me more towards Brody and less like Neve. I really LOVE the cut.

Next was the nails. After doing some shopping and getting a really cute wrap dress at Second Time Around, I ended up going to the suggested Studio 1 Nails. That was meh honestly.  They did a mediocre job for $25. I would have rather stayed at the original place where I got my hair done and paid $10 more and had a more relaxing service. That's OK though. You live and learn. I'm missing nails of paint already hahahaha.

Next was tattooo time. I finally got myself some tea so I would be alert. I wanted to remember this. Then I headed over the ArtFreek on Wickenden St. The place had actually been recommended to me buy the finance guy that sold me my car hahaha. But I totally trusted him and it was worthwhile. My artist wasn't quite what I expected. Usually they're a little more talkative and open and friendly. He was really quite....disturbingly quiet even. Kinda reminded me of this guy (prison break, 24, xfiles, etc), but bald and glasses:

He was fun and fine and all, but not what I expected. The other artists there were much more what I imagined. Anyways, he totally worked with me, let me reposition it over and over (big surprise there) and this is what I ended up with:

So all in all, I'm pretty happy about it.  There are a few little things in retrospect (not going to point them out lol) that I would change if I could. But that was part of the point of starting with something simple and plain and so straighforward - there really wasn't a way this could come out that I would hate it. So it's good :) I'm so glad I started with this. I feel so much more prepared and informed and like I know what to expect in the future. It's WAY less intimidating and I know what things to think about that I woudln't have otherwise thoughts about. So good learning experience definitely. Oh and if anyone doubted this would happen, yes, I am totally and utterly freaking hooked. I loved it. Completely freaking loved it. Can't wait for the next one. I was hoping that the summer/sun thing would hold me off until the fall, but now I'm not so sure.

Anyways, that's it! That would be the makeover weekend. And I'm feeling good! Must say I'm strutting my stuff a little lately and getting random compliments left and right. Feels like the sex kitten is on the prowl :)

Conjunction junction, what's your function?

So this would be that random blog entry that goes back to my giant to-do list...specifically, starting grad school. My first step was doing some of my own research, where I think I've narrowed my choices down to:

• North Carolina State University
• University of Idaho
• Kansas State

I would be going back for my masters in Structural Engineering and these schools would hopefully allow me to get it done at a reasonably fast pace and for a reasonable amount of $$$$. I went through the question I could think of, but figured there had to be things that woudln't pop up for me. So my next step was to get a guide for distance learning and see if there were any other points that they brought up that I didn't think of.  For the most part, I got it mostly covered, but here's the stuff I didn't think of.

Places to search online:

• http://www.distance-educator.com/
• www.petersons.com/dlearn
• http://www.collegequest.com/
• http://www.geteducated.com/
• www.edsurf.net/edshack

Places to look for $$$ lenders. I'm not sure that I'm going to need this. Our company gives $5k a year. I'm thinking max I would be able to handle 4 courses a year. At the worst that would be about 10k - 5k = 5k for me to pay out of pocket, which I think I can handle. There's also the idea of building credit too.... So I'll have to do some more research and weigh my options. I could also never be able to handle that much coursewise anyways! So here are the places:

• http://www.key.com/
• http://www.estudentloan.com/
• http://www.embark.com/

Along the same lines, I'd like to save moolah buying books - or even just be able to find them. Besides your normal places (amazon, banres&nobles) and the campus store, some places for that might be:

• http://www.bigwords.com/
• http://www.efollet.com/
• http://www.campusbooks.com/

Finally, there were a few more school listed in the book that I'm not sure I had thoroughly looked through. So here's the list of them. Like most schools I've found, I suspect that they will have *some* courses available online, but not a full masters degree available. Anyways, here's that list:

• Penn State 
• Indiana Uni
• UC Berkley
• Uni of Wisconsin
• RIT
• Uni of Washington

Alright, so not a very exciting blog, and more of a reminder list for me, but maybe it could help you too? In the mean time, I've made contact at the rest of my schools. I intended to ask a bunch of questions (working on that list now- will post later) and feel them out, but I think NCSU is my current front runner. We'll see. If anyone has any experiences that they want to share, please jump in and let me know! I'd love to hear it! Plan for now, harass a bunch of people, probably just start by taking one course in the fall before I'm actually matriculated in a program and then decide if it's right for me or not! We'll see :)

Shhh!! Don't tell Mom+Dad!!!!

Well after years and years of debating, I think I'm closer than ever to considering taking the plunge and getting my first tattoo. If you know me, you know my list of piercings is pretty damn long (don't understand how I don't set off metal detectors), but I've yet to po my tattoo-cherry. Why you may ask? Well really it's the whole permanent thing. Yeah my piercings are going to leave random scars and weird holes in all likelihood, but I can also probably put small discreet simple jewelry in them too if I want. I also responded really well to tea-tree oil when I was developing a keloid on my industrial when I first got it, so I'm hopeful about that. Anyways, that's at least a decade away until I have to worry about that.

But as for now, yeah, it's all the stereotypical reasons that people don't get tats. Worried about work, changing you mind, tackiness, sagging, kids, wedding, parents, life, special occasions, etc etc etc. So it's something that I've be torn over for years. There's one that has always ALWAYS resonated with me, and that's just an old school pair of swallows on your chest. The symbolism and imagery has always done it for me, and not to mention I think when done right, they're just gorgeous (yes, even in a wedding dress - although my gramps would will me). But again PERMANENT = SCAREY. And your chest is pretty out there. Granted it's really more your brestbone than your boobs so you won't really have much sagging.... can you hear me talking myself into this?

More than I would want, but you get the idea.

So what's this post about then? Well I'm considering stronly doing a quote of sorts somewhere. They can be kind of cheesey, but I'm finding some that I really like the jist of. This whole idea of accepting that I can't control the future has been really important/empowering/influential on my lately and something I've tried to enforce in my life (unsucessfully) many times before - so it's not like it's coming out of nowhere. Now where to put it is the questions. I really like Rachel Evan Woods' back tattoo, but I want to keep my back clean for now (just in case......), and I also think you need to be kinda of waif-ish for this look - which if you know me, you know I have no interest in. Elbows down is a no. Nothing in the crotch area (a place where many girls are throwing their swallows nowadays). So it's kinda weird.... but I kinda like these foot tattoos. The just go around the edge and if you have flats on it looks really cute and you can obviously cover it at times. And if I decide I hate it, it's only on my foot. So something like this...

Or with the option of maybe going up and around the leg a bit? Maybe adding some shapes?

This would of course all depend on what quote I ended up choosing and how it fit, yadda yadda yadda. So I guess that was the meat. Now the potatoes? Here are some of the ones that are standing out for me. Highlighted quotes or portions (is that silly?) are front runners. Others are just included to get the jist of what I'm looking for.  

• I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future..
• The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.
• The best way to predict the future is to create it.
• The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.
• Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. 
• A door opens to me. I go in and am faced with a hundred closed doors.
• In time I will fade away/In time I won't care what you say/In time, but time takes time you know (ben folds)
• but it's your life/and you can decorate it as you like/beneath the paint and armour in your eyes the truth still shines/jane be jane (ben folds)
• maybe something from it means everything by Save Ferris - that whole song justs pumps me up.
• You need to remember, you need time to forget/We need the time to change our minds/And separate the present from tomorrow/Disguised as yesterday (h20)
• And no one said it was gonna be easy, but I'm not afraid to try/ With the odds stacked up against me I will have to fight/ One life One Chance Gotta do it Right. (h20 - i see this as maybe a future rib?)
• maybe this weight was a gift/Like I had to see what I could lift (nada surf)
• 
  
  durrrr... what about "Here I Am, Still Intact" hahahahahaha.  That might be the winner. 

So now I'M EXPECTIN MAJOR FEEDBACK AND IDEAS!!!!! Anything! More quotes, placement ideas, font styles, possible shapes/images to add, "those ideas suck katie", that'll be fun, "you're feet are way too ugly", weird...  whatever you think. I needs me some help. I was given a specific recommendation of ArtFreek in Providence from a guy I trust pretty well, but I'm open to otther suggestion as well. Also less worried for writing than something like the swallows I'm sure will follow....Lordy my parents are going to flip LOL. The lip ring was bad enough, but really.... they HAVE to know it's coming eventually. So yeah, FEEDBACK BITCHES!!! :)

Yet another path.....

Well I'm down yet another path it seems, and it's a bit rambling... Things have been pretty rough, and if you're convinced they're going to be bad, chances are they will be. So lately I've been working on remembering that I'm not on a concrete fixed path, no matter what it might feel like at time and I can't possibly know what's going to happen. So why the hell should I base my actions on assumptions or predictions? It may seem like common sense, but for someone that tends to project into the future... not so easy at times. And having at least some good success.

Last time I thought I was on a different path I was hopeful and it didn't quite turn out how I expected. Trying not to have expectations now cause there's really no way to know. Just gotta focus on that and try my best.