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Showing posts from 2012

Project: 100 Books in 2013

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At the end of 2011, I made a resolution that nearly everybody makes: I wanted to get healthy, get in shape, and most importantly, feel more comfortable in my body. More than 60 pounds later, I consider my New Year's resolution from last year to be a smashing success. I feel fantastic and have plans to continue getting healthier and happier. Since I was able to stick to my resolution last year, I am overflowing with ideas (and confidence) to continue to improve my life overall in 2013. One of the things that I really want to work on is making time to do things that I enjoy. I've fallen into a pattern lately of getting up, rushing off to work, working hard and long and then coming home, mentally drained to watch TV and play on my phone until I fall asleep after a few short hours and then repeating the process. I hate it. So, I've made a list of things that I want to do (and not do) in 2013. One of the big ones is to spend more time reading. I love to read. It re

Europe Trip 2012: Part 1: Paris

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I have been so excited to blog about my trip to Europe, but it seemed like such a daunting task. We were on vacation for 24 days total, and I'm sure you can imagine the amount of pictures that we took! Our trip started after work on October 19th. We got off early and a friend drove us down to the airport.  (side note: I love airports! I will sometimes plan trips with layovers when it would be just a little more expensive to fly direct so that I can see more airports. That much.) We took off from Seattle around 4:30 p.m. and showed up in Reykjavik, Iceland very early the next morning. Pillow that they gave us on the airplane. We flew IcelandAir to Europe. They were great!  The sun coming up over Iceland right before we landed.  I was very excited to get to Reykjavik because it was the very first country outside of the United States that I have ever been to! My dad was in the Coast Guard while I was growing up, so I have been very lucky to see almost all of MY country,

I has a sad.

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I feel sad today. I think it's just the inevitable turnaround from being so ridiculously happy for the past month and a half. I was deliriously happy during our vacation in Europe, and then I came back and I wasn't stressed at work and then my WHOLE family came to visit and everything was so good. I think I'm just coming down from exhilaration and it's manifesting itself as pseudo-depression. I'm mopey. And whiny. And spontaneously teary-eyed. Even kitty snuggles and reading Harry Potter on my lunch break didn't make me feel much better. Also, I have a pimple. Chanel cuddled on me to make the sads go away.  I'm just chalking it up to a bad day. Now I'm off work, hanging out with my husband and trying to come up with things to be excited about (that's depressing).  One thing that's really awesome is that I heard from my friend Melissa (who is also my contact at Confront Magazine ) and she said that she heard back from the mana

Catching Up

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Hi fellas. It's been a while. A ton has happened since the last time I wrote. Marc and I finally went on that European vacation that we'd been planning for years... three weeks in some of the places I have spent my entire life dreaming about. Those tales are just going to have to wait, for now. There's no way I have the energy or stamina to get through it all tonight. But look at how happy I was: That is the face of a girl whose dreams are coming true! Marc took that picture of me right before I tossed my coin into the Trevi fountain. I feel like we planned the timing of our trip perfectly. When we got back, it was the week before Thanksgiving and we barely had time to be depressed about the trip being over before it was the holidays and I had something else to be excited about. On top of that, my sister was scheduled to fly into visit exactly one week after we got back. Imagine my surprise when we get to the airport, find my sister at her gate exit and then a

Panic Stress Dreams. So, that's fun.

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I'm really hoping that my three week vacation is ridiculously restful and relaxed and completely stressed free. That is, if the stress of getting ready to be gone for three weeks doesn't kill me before I make it to my vacation. Our plan for Friday is to leave work at noon and be out of the house, on the way to the airport around 12:30 p.m. I woke up this morning in a panic after dreaming that we were leaving work to run home and get our luggage on Friday at 1:07 p.m. To add to my anxiety, I was leaving work without finishing everything that I needed to do before I left (a big concern for me in real life over the past few weeks). So, in dream life, I get home to find that I haven't packed! Now, in real life, I have lists and packing systems and everything is going to be super organized and packed (tonight) as soon as all the laundry is done. I start randomly throwing crap in my backpack and we rushed out of the door, me sobbing that I'm sure we are going to miss ou

I'm a (free)lance writer!

I'm excited. 1. Hubby and I leave for Europe on Friday. 2. The Head and the Heart tweeted at me today. 3. In this tweeting, I was informed that Head and the Heart is going to be part of a complication Christmas album that is going to be released at Starbucks for the holidays. 4. I wrote about the album in my first freelance post for Confront Magazine!! I don't get paid, but it is still very exciting!! You can read my article here ! It has a link to listen to samples of the songs. For my job today, I got to write about one of my favorite bands and listen to Christmas music without feeling too blasphemous! The CD comes out on October 30, and I am going to get it right after we get back from our trip so that I can put it in on Thanksgiving evening while I'm in a food coma and getting my Christmas decorations all ready! Which artist's song are you most excited to hear?

Show/Album Review: Bryan John Appleby

Guys, it feels good to write again! This morning, I heard about an (unpaid, 1-2 article a week) freelance writing position through a twitter friend. I thought it would be a fun thing to do on the side, so I whipped up a little something so that I had a current writing sample. Here's what I came up with: Seeing Bryan John Appleby open for The Head and the Heart was like finding a french fry in my order of onion rings: an unexpected bonus to something that was already awesome. You go to see one of your favorite bands headline, and end up finding a new artist to love. A few hours waiting in line outside the Paramount meant I had prime position to the sold out show in Seattle on September 15; front row, pushed up against the barrier, nearly close enough to touch those on stage. The lineup was a spotlight of Seattle-based bands, The Head and the Heart and their opening acts, Curtains for You and Bryan John Appleby. When Appleby and his (mostly) bearded band started playing, a