Tingles

I seem to be in a kind of cocoon/waiting room period in my life right now.  It's kind of cool because I think when your life quiets down for a bit you know that big exciting stuff is in the works.  It's a feeling I really dig.  So in the meantime I've been cultivating the art of finding things that make me happy just for the sake of being happy.

And in the spirit of sharing (or talking about myself... which, let's face, is the entire raison d'être of this blog) I thought I'd do a little show and tell about some of my recent tingles.

1. Welcome to Night Vale

I'm sure many of you have already known about Night Vale for months and months, but I am traditionally the last person on every cool kid band wagon so I just heard about it this week.  For those that haven't heard about it, Welcome to Night Vale is a bi-weekly podcast about a little town in the desert called Night Vale where a lot of weird shit is happening.  It's kind of like Rod Serling and Amy Sedaris wrote an episode of Prairie Home Companion.  It's truly very awesome even if you aren't a science fiction fan.

2. The Wire by Haim

This is a new song from super cool sister group Haim.  I love their sound... like some weird Stevie Nicks/Belinda Carlisle/mid 90s Liz Phair combo. 

3. The Daily Love

I'm a good news junkie.  I treat my happiness like a set of lost keys: I look for it everywhere.  This website/daily email newsletter has become such a highlight in my day.  The creator Mastin Kipp started The Daily Love as a twitter account when he was in the baby steps of his own spiritual journey.  It's crazy how almost every day Mastin's message in my inbox feels almost like it was written specifically for me and addresses something I am currently going through... like today, for instance:

How many of us can do that in life? Instead of demanding what we want and wanting it now, can we ask The Uni-verse for what we want, and then let go? Can we rest in the peace of the moment knowing we are provided for and that the perfect thing, which is probably better than what we asked for in the first place, will show up?

Do we really have the faith to live the maybe? Or better put, can we see that the delays of The Uni-verse are not Its denials? Can we let go and let things unfold naturally? 

This just really spoke to me and how I've been feeling lately... like all of my momentum has been put on hold.  I think I've been struggling to recognize it as temporary, and instead I've been worrying that I might be at a dead end.  I've been seeing lots of 'Nos' when really I've been getting lots of 'Maybes'.  I had such a great aha moment when I read this.

4. The rain

We've been getting Oregonian levels of rain around here.  I am in love with it.  Everything is so GREEN and beautiful.  The trees are actually growing moss and there are mushrooms everywhere.  It's majestic.  But I am genuinely sorry for the people with flooded basements.

5. This picture of a tiger living his/her best life.

Every time I look at this picture of a tiger relaxing in a waterfall I feel peaceful.  And I don't know where I am in this photo... am I the tiger?  Am I the water flowing around the tiger? Or am I the stone and rock on which the tiger lays and over which the water flows?  Do I care?  Nope.

Bits and Bats and Things I Found While Looking Around...

1. Marina Meets Ulay

“Marina Abramovic and Ulay started an intense love story in the 70s, performing art out of the van they lived in. When they felt the relationship had run its course, they decided to walk the Great Wall of China, each from one end, meeting for one last big hug in the middle and never seeing each other again. at her 2010 MoMa retrospective Marina performed ‘The Artist Is Present’ as part of the show, a minute of silence with each stranger who sat in front of her. Ulay arrived without her knowing it and this is what happened.”

2. This Poem:

“You tried to change didn’t you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do, love
split his head open?
you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful

something not everyone knows how to love.”

- "For Women Who Are Difficult To Love" by Warsan Shire

3. Embroidering this on a cushion:

4. In case you wanted to know what it's like to watch soccer with me:

5. My current relationship with waffles:

6. Break Bones by Internet Forever

7. I got a private nighttime tour of the Wichita Scottish Rite (Masonry) Temple.  A few highlights:

What I've Been...

Raging over:

- losing and gaining the same 3 lbs for the past two months. I don't even want to talk about it.

- the sign in the window of my co-workers car that says 'Mother-To-Be On Board' as though she were some kind of precious snowflake we should coddle and protect just because she had unprotected sex.

- the fact that a photographer shoved his camera up in Anne Hathaway's business and she was asked to explain on television why she chose not to wear underwear.

- babies that should be with their families, but aren't because... well I don't think we even know why, but they aren't and I can't say anything that hasn't already been said by much more eloquent and intelligent people but I think Michael Moore makes an excellent point.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to just say a few words about what happened today, because I’ve been concerned about this issue for a long time. Yes, we need more gun control. Yes, we need free mental health services in this country. But I really believe that even if we had better gun control laws and better mental health, that we would still be the sort of sick and twisted, violent people that we’ve been for hundreds of years, that it’s something that’s just in our craw, just in our DNA. And to get that out of our DNA is going to take a lot more than passing a bill in Albany or D.C. That’s not going to do it.And, you know, other countries, I mean, they have their crazy people, and they have people that—there have been shootings and killings in Norway, in France and in Germany. But there haven’t been 61 mass killings like there have been in this country just since Columbine. Sixty-one mass shootings in this country. I like to say that I sort of agree with the NRA when they say, "Guns don’t kill people, people kill people," except I would just modify that a bit and say, "Guns don’t kill people, Americans kill people," because that’s what we do. We invade countries. We send drones in to kill civilians. We’ve got five wars going on right now where our soldiers are killing people—I mean, five that we know of. We are on the short list of illustrious countries who have the death penalty. We believe it’s OK to kill you when you’ve committed a crime.

Fawning over:

- pictures of precious baby deer Mesut Özil wearing a cardigan and looking like a bored 8 year old at a banquet.

- every interview Martin Freeman has done while promoting The Hobbit.

- Joe Gilgun

What I Am...

Just a quick post before a meatier post about *GASP* online dating tomorrow.  But here's what I've been up to lately.

Listening to:

"Ladies, if you love your man show him you the flyest. Grind up on him, girl. Show him how you ride it." is like the greatest piece of wisdom I've ever heard in a pop song.  Beyoncé knows what's up, you guys.

Watching:

And because of it I am crushing on:

Joseph Gilgun. Holla.

Eating:

Wishing I were eating:

Banofee pie.

And thinking about:

What I Am...

Reading...

Eating...

Thinking about...

Watching...

Listening to...

Lusting for...

And those are just a few of my current favorite things.  Especially the pineapple.

A Day In The Life

So last week work got kinda crazy, and then there was the Game of Thrones season finale last night which, you guys, I can't even talk about yet.  Just a lot of feelings.

So what happened in between?

Not much, but I'm going to tell you about it anyways.

Have I ever told you guys that I live with my parents?  Yeah.  I'm that person.  I am the 30 year old woman that lives with her parents.

It's a long story, and not a super fun one involving job loss, anxiety, and the death of a family member.  The good news is that my parents are rad so I kind of enjoy living with them.  I fully intend on moving out at some point, but for the time being I'm pretty okay with staying put.

Also, you guys, in Spain it is like 100% normal for adult children to live with their parents indefinitely. So, in a way, it's very European and sophisticated of me.

That's what I keep telling myself anyways.

Okay so last week I started to get a cold, plus I was crazy busy so I pretty much planned to do nothing this weekend.  Also my parents were both away for the weekend so I had the house to myself (Party! Shenanigans!!).

Here is what I did on Saturday to the best of my memory:

7:00 - Awake
7:15-7:45 - Feed dogs
8:00-8:15 - Feed self
8:15- 9:00 - Debate taking morning walk
9:00 - Get sick of listening to debate in own head, leave for walk
9:00 - 10:15 - Walking
10:20 - 12:00 - Find nothing on television, decide to watch the entire first season of Girls on HBO On Demand
12:00 - Feed self (Tostada!)
12:30 - Finally shower
1:00-2:00 - Nap time!!
2:00-5:00 More Girls (periodically interrupted by wandering into the kitchen to eat things)
5:00 - Decide I should sit outside for awhile and enjoy the nice weather.  Get sick of it after 10 minutes and go back inside.
5:30 - Dinner time!! More tostadas!!!
6:00 - Regret eating dinner so early.  Vast stretch of time remaining between now and bed time during which I should not eat anything else.
6:00-7:00 - Try watching X-Men First Class on HBO (you guys, it's so bad.  So many great actors, how can it be so bad?!  Michael Fassbender couldn't even fix the terrible writing)
7:00 - Give up on X-Men.  Wander into kitchen.
7:00 - Toast with peanut butter
7:05 - Cookie dough
7:15 - More cookie dough
7:30 - Try watching Hall Pass on HBO (you guys, this one is so bad too.  I will laugh at almost anything and this is just awful.  And why is Joy Behar from The View in this movie? Ugh. The worst)
7:45 - Pineapple.  I eat an entire container of pineapple.  At least it's fruit?
8:00 - Decide to take a chance on Dinner for Schmucks (best decision I've made all day. Hilarious)
10:00 - 12:00 Re watch old soccer game I have saved on DVR
12:00 - Wash face and remove contacts
12:15 - 12:45 - Reading A Clash of Kings (Game of Thrones book)
12:45 - Asleep

As you can see my life is non-stop socializing and partying.  It's basically like an episode of Sex in the City but with more sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And cookie dough.

What I Have Been...

Watching...

And..

Listening to...

Gotye - Eyes Wide Open

Thinking...

But also...

Reading...

Eating...

But unfortunately also eating these...

And you know what...

Blerg

Things:

I stayed up two hours past my bedtime watching Breaking Dawn and drinking cheap old lady wine.

And that is officially the saddest sentence I've ever written.

I wasn't alone though... that would have made it the saddest sentence in the history of sentences.

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I had to put skim milk in my coffee because I ran out of coffee creamer.  It's just awful, you guys.

-------

I didn't watch one single second of the Oscars because I don't think it's healthy to congratulate people who are probably already raging narcissists.

-------

I'm going on another cruise next January.

-------

Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music was, like, the original DILF.

-------

I really like that new (to me) Gotye song.

-------

And I think that concludes the list of thoughts that are tumbling around in my brain this morning.

What I've Been... (Vacation Edition)

I am writing this from the past (a week ago). I do not have psychic abilities, but I feel fairly confident that this is what I will be up to today.

Reading...

In fact, I am positive about this because I've already purchased a stack.  When I buy $30 worth of magazines you know I mean business.

But also this...

Listening to...

Kokomo by The Beach Boys

Fernando by ABBA

Drinking...

Or...

And Watching...

And as long as my ship hasn't capsized, I think it's safe to say I'm having a great time.

What I've Been...

Reading...

Eating...

Wishing I Were Eating...

Or...

Listening To...

Watching...

And Dreaming About...

These

This...

Emerald City by Revlon with Seche Vite Top Coat. Pardon my less than spectacular nail beds.

A lot of this...

This ridiculous (and embarrassingly awesome) song...

And some of these...

I would take a better photo, but I ate it the second I took this photo.

Which are from this recipe...

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Oreo cookies

1 8oz pkg. cream cheese, softened

2 boxes Baker's Semi-sweet chocolate

Crush the Oreos ( I used the food processor, but I've also used a blender and a rolling pin for this task). Set aside approximately 1/2 cup or crumbs for decorating the truffles later.  Place the rest in a bowl, add the cream cheese and beat with a mixer until you can no longer see any white.  Roll into walnut sized balls and place on a foil lined cookie sheet. Put the balls into the refrigerator to firm up... about 30 minutes.  

In the meantime. unwrap all of the chocolate and place in a microwave safe bowl.  Melt according to instructions (on the back of the box).  Using the method of your choice (I employ 2 toothpicks. One to spike the ball and drop into the chocolate, the other to remove the ball from the toothpick) dip each truffle into chocolate and place back onto foil lined sheet. Sprinkle with some of the reserved crushed cookies.  This hides the toothpick hole and makes them prettier.

Put the truffles back into the refrigerator to chill for approximately 30 minutes or as long as you can stand, whichever comes first.  Now proceed to eat yourself sick.  

With all of these in my arsenal I am fully prepared to make this Monday my prison bitch, y'all.

P.S. Did anyone else watch the 'Geek Love' show on TLC last night?  It was awesome, awkward, and gloriously cute.  I want the guy Chewie (he does a Chewbacca impression) and the Mandalorian (spelling?) girl to hook up! They are perfect for each other.

This Is What I Am...

Watching:

American Horror Story is my favorite TV show right now.  It's also the reason why I am constantly looking over my shoulder and taking a running leap into my bed at night.  Jessica Lange is probably going to get nominated for an Emmy, but I think Evan Peters should too.

Listening to:

Kreayshawn - Gucci Gucci
In my nerdy white girl dreams I am Kreayshawn's sidekick... the girl with the rat tail hairdo and Charles Nelson Reilly glasses. Beyond that, holy shit is this song catchy.  You won't be able to get it out of your head... I don't know if that is good or bad.

Wearing:

A lot of this...

Smashbox eyeliner in Caviar

And this...

Benefit They're Real! mascara

And some of this...

Burt's Bees lip gloss in Juicy Peach

Have a great weekend, Kids!