List: Places to Go Before I Die

3:14 PM Posted In , Edit This 3 Comments »
Thanks to my good friend Cognitive Glitch, and out of sheer boredom, I have decided to make a list of some of the places that I want to go to before I die. Yes, morbid. And no, these are not all of the places I want to visit within my lifetime, but these are the ones that I want to go to the most. So, here they are:

7. Various traditional American tourist attractions
Yes, it is a little cheesy to say this, but I want to get my fill of Americana. I want to ride a donkey to the bottom of the GrandCanyon. I want to go to Ellis Island and see the Statue of Liberty. I want to kiss atop the Empire State Building, like the reunion from An Affair to Remember that never happened. I want to go to Mt. Rushmore and dangle from our forefathers faces whilst being shot at like in North By Northwest. Hmmm....why was Cary Grant in so many movies with historical monuments? Strange...


6. The Middle East
I know I will probably never end up going here, due to all the violence and whatnot, but I would love to visit here. Israel and Palestine would be two places I'd really like to see, take a journey through the Christian Holy Land, see Petra, etc. I'm also going to include Egypt in this category. I want to not only see the pyramids/sphinx/Luxor Temple/etc. and ride on a camel, but I'd also like to take a Nile River cruise...speaking of African river cruises, I'd also like to take a Congo River cruise (Heart of Darkness, anyone?), but that really doesn't apply in the "Middle East" section.


5. Machu Picchu, Peru
It is so unbelievably necessary for me to go here. I want to hike my way to the top, hopefully with some trusty alpacas and a Peruvian lady wearing one of those silly hats. 


4. Germany/Poland/Matterhorn

First of all, I need to go to Germany to work on my German accent, which I find myself constantly slipping into when I am around my friend GreggoryAnn. While I'm in Germany, I figure it's just a quick hop over to Poland, my heritage homeland. I really would like to visit a concentration camp while I'm in either of these countries. And then, because Disneyland's Matterhorn is where the whole talking-in-a-German-accent thing came about, I need to visit the real one.





3. USA Haunted Houses
I am obsessed with paranormal shows and really want to have some sort of "experience", or just even see if ghosts are real. I've been to the Whaley House in San Diego, which is supposed to be the most haunted place in America. I didn't experience anything, so I want to go to other places. Places like, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Lizzie Borden House in Massachusetts; and the number one haunted place I want to go to is Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville.


2. England
The number one reason I want to go to England is for a Beatles pilgrimage. Abbey Road would be one place that I need to go, the other is taking a Magical Mystery Tour of Liverpool. I also want to go to London, of course, as well as Bath and Derbyshire (to see "Pemberly" and find Mr. Darcy).

1. Russia
I NEED TO GO TO RUSSIA. Red Square. Moscow. St. Petersburg. Vodka and caviar. Lenin's visible corpse.Enough said.



Listening To: Burnin' Up by the Jonas Brothers

List: Rainy Day Music

6:55 PM Posted In , Edit This 1 Comment »
Hello lovers, mothers, and Wednesday brothers! How is errbody's week going? Mine has been ok. There's nothing good on TV this week, which is a bit annoying. My mom has been out of town, visiting my nana in San Diego, but hopefully there will be some excellent souvenirs for me by the way of H&M...more on that later. I also was able to register for my Spring Term classes, which is exciting, but a little nerve-wrecking as I will be taking 20 credits. Anyway, tis Wednesday, and Wednesday night is the night that we usually make love...and by love I mean lists! So, I the weather up here is pretty crap-tacular. Rain, overcast skies, blegh. When the weather is like this, which means pretty much everyday in Oregon, I get into this mood where all I want to do is curl up on the couch with some tea and read. Cozy being the keyword, I also like to listen to slightly melancholic love songs when it rains. So this is a playlist of the songs I listen to when the weather is like this. Enjoy!

1. Silver Lining by Rilo Kiley (thanks to my friend Chlez for getting me into this song)
2. Jesus, Etc. by Wilco
3. Eucalyptus by The Deadly Syndrome
4. When You Were Young by The Killers 
5. Maybe You Can Owe Me by Architecture In Helsinki
6. She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5 (yes, I'm throwing back to 2004)
7. Float On by Modest Mouse
8. Sam's Town (Live From Abbey Road) by The Killers 
9. Raphael by Carla Bruni
10. Avril 14th by Aphex Twin (my favorite instrumental song of all time)
11. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads
12. New Slang by The Shins
13. Where Does the Good Go by Tegan and Sara
14. Maps (Live) by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (LOVE it)
15. Ooh La La by Faces (because I needed a happy song at the end of this depressing mix)

Chuck Taylor, My Best Friend

10:00 PM Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »
Something that is important in my life is a pair of shoes I own. They are Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars, low tops, in black. I have had these shoes for seven years, since about seventh grade, and they have been through a lot with me. I know it's not normal for a person to have an emotional attachment to a pair of shoes, but they have been with me for so long that they have become like two best friends that I take everywhere with me.

When I first got these shoes, they were brand new. The laces and rubber were a pristine white, the black canvas clean and stiff. But seven years of wear and these shoes have certainly seen better days. The once white rubber is now a grayish-blue, stained from the dye of blue jeans, and filthy from wearing them in the rain and the mud. The once immaculate black is now faded and spotted with mud, and torn, in some spots, away from the rubber on the sides. The laces are frayed and dark grey, blemished with black from the metal grommets. What once read "ALL STARS" on the heel now only reads "RS." They are falling apart, but I see their sorry state as a badge of honor, a sign of their high ranking in my shoe collection.

Nearly every time I wear them, I get a desperate plea from my mother to abandon these shoes. She's even bought me a new pair in the hopes that I will throw the old ones away. I could never part with these sneakers; they have been with me through thick and thin. I wore them to my 8th grade graduation, the first day of high school, and on graduation day. They have been with me through tests, getting my driver's license, the SAT, and stood with me in front of dozens of classrooms as I nervously stumbled my way through speeches. I have met new friends and lost old friends in these shoes. They have been on countless airplanes, walked their way through Disneyland, marched along the marble floors of our nation's capitol building, and climbed up 276 meters to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Nearly everywhere I have been in the past seven years, these shoes have tagged along.

But these are so much more than a pair of old sneakers. They represent a large portion of my life. They are most of middle school, all of high school, and a portion of college. These shoes are me. Their gradual decomposing is my gradual maturing. How could I possibly cast aside something so dear to me, something that represents my life in such a way? I can't, I won't.

And so I continue to wear them. This proves to be extremely difficult in the winter months, as the numerous holes allow rainwater to seep in, and the inside of the shoe is worn away to the skeleton, devoid of all fabric. I suppose that they will soon reach a point where I cannot wear them at all, in which I will retire them, probably to the back of my closet, forgetting about them; a thought I cannot bear to think. But I know the new pair I have waiting for me, so pristine and perfect, will serve to be just as good, another pair that I can store my memories in, another pair that will be there for me no matter what.

Listening To: Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground

List: TV Junkie

9:53 PM Posted In , Edit This 3 Comments »
Happy Wednesday to all the single ladies (all the single ladies!). I'm loving the weather recently, especially in the mornings. The other day it felt like vacation weather. Like, when you are on vacation and you have to leave your hotel early in the morning, when it's still chilly outside and you know it's going to warm up and be a perfect day. I had that exact feeling the other day, it felt really good. But, now that it's nighttime, the weather doesn't matter and I am watching TV. I haven't watched TV in a couple of days, and I didn't realize how much I record on our DVR every day. So I thought the topic of my list today would be what I have saved in my DVR. A boring topic, I know, but I couldn't think of anything else.

- Top Chef: New York
- American Idol 
- Law & Order: SVU
- T.I.'s Road to Redemption (yes, embarrassing that I watch this, but I like it)
- 4 episodes of Paranormal State
- Chuck
- On The Beach (movie I'm hoping to watch with Chlez over Spring Break)
- 3 episodes of Law & Order
- 4 episodes of The Presidents (History Channel bio)
- The Killers Rock Fuse (if they refuse to come to town, I have to watch them on TV)
- Psycho 
- 12 episodes of The Office (i never delete the current season's episodes, then I watch the whole season again over the summer)
- The Big Sleep
- Tristan & Isolde (I've had this saved for over a year...I keep meaning to watch it)
- Million Dollar Baby


Listening To: Queen Bitch by David Bowie

Valentine's Day Sucks

3:51 PM Posted In , Edit This 1 Comment »
Ohhhhh, Valentine's Day. 
Why are you the bitch of the holidays?
Apart from Columbus Day, 
You are the worst.
Though I do enjoy
Your chalk candy hearts.
Cupid is creepy, 
Babies should not be allowed to shoot arrows.
If you,
Valentine's Day,
Were a human,
I would punch you right in the face.
While wearing a ring that said
"SUCKA".

Just a little diddy I wrote while I sat here, hating Valentine's Day. Although I did make some delicious Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing. They were yummy, though it took me four hours to make them. And now I am off to work, at least that will distract me from this crapper of a holiday.


Listening To: Sugalumps by Flight of the Conchords

List of Annoyances

10:38 PM Posted In Edit This 1 Comment »
Happy List Wednesday! Today I found myself searching for a topic to list about, when I found that a lot of things in my life irritate the shit out of me. So this is what this list is about, all the things that irritated me today. What irritated you today?

1. Teacher was 35 minutes late to class 
2. Video we watched in class was sketching out and gave me a headache
3. This smoke-laden dragon lady in my class got about 2 inches from my face and yelled "WHAT DID YOU GET ON THE MIDTERM?!?!?!"
4. She then took my scantron sheet out of my hand a proceeded to yell the score to the entire class.
5. All the seats at Starbucks were taken, so I had to eat my muffin in the car.
6. Some dude at the college was just sitting in his car, smoking a cigarette, giving me the evil eye.
7. A girl in my class was wearing a really skanky shirt...and no bra. Yuck.
8. I left my umbrella at home and it started raining.
9. My geology teacher constantly uses the term "acrossed". You're a professor, get a dictionary.
10. Fish in the Klamath River. Trust me, they're bitches.
11. The term "thalwag".
12. Science labs that are greater than or equal to busy work.
13. China cabinets with sharp corners that demand to ram me in the back.
14. My tongue hurts.
15. It takes a ridiculously long time for my sink to heat up. I had to stand in the bathroom today for two minutes, with soap on my hands, waiting for warm water.
16. Tatiana on American Idol. She needs to get kicked off ASAP.
17. My mom talking when I am trying to watch Law & Order, thus forcing me to watch the same scene four times.
18. Canned laughter on Important Things with Demetri Martin. He's too good of a comic for canned laughter.

So there's my grievances for the day. I know I sound a bit negative, but I don't care. People need to be less irritating. That said, the rest of the day was pretty good. I had a pleasant commute to and from, Important Things was good, 100% on my History of Rock midterm, and I got out of my lab 20min early. Hooray!


Listening To: Baba O'Reilly by The Who

Goodnight and Go

11:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »
Why'd you have to be so cute?
It's impossible to ignore you.
And must you make me laugh so much?
It's bad enough we get along so well.
Say goodnight and go.

Listening to "Goodnight and Go" by Imogen Heap. These lyrics pretty much sum up how I'm feeling at the moment. Ugh, ridiculous/heart-wrenching/annoying/frustrating/happiness/adorable/painful/hilarious/cute/unsure all wrapped up into this one person, who will probably never know how I feel. I need to stop. 

Sorry, I just needed to vent. I'm going to go to bed now.

Notre Photos

11:02 PM Posted In , Edit This 1 Comment »
So...I wasn't really going to post anything today. I would write about the things that go on in my daily life, but my daily life is fairly boring. But my friend, the Chlez, told me that I needed to update this blasted contraption. So, I've decided to take you back to a time when my life wasn't actually as boring as it is right now. This past sumer, as my graduation gift, my parents took me to Paris. Apart from doing some excellent shopping, I took some pictures that I really like, so I thought that I would share some of them with you. Now, I don't want to bore people with vacation pics, so I've just stuck to a few that I took at Notre-Dame.

I'm not really a religious person. I do believe in God and consider myself a Christian, but I'm not one who goes to church every Sunday and knows the Bible like the back of my hand. But something about the cathedral of Notre-Dame and all its religious imagery makes me want to be a religious person. Something about the imposing grandeur and tradition of the place, it's dim lights and ancient religious artifacts. I don't know, I guess I'm just weird that way.

So, here are four of my favorite pics I took at Notre-Dame. The first one is just the exterior of the place. The second pic is what you see on the way into the church. There's something about the look on the face of the 2nd statue from the left, the way he's looking down on you, a sort of pity and disparagement on his face. The third photo I took inside one of the many chapels inside the church. The aged walls and candles around the base of the statue are why I like it so much, though I don't really know why. The final picture is my absolute favorite of these four. I love the prayer candles, they were actually my favorite part of all the churches we went to.






















Listening to: All These Things I've Done by the Killers

Listening to Oldies...

11:44 PM Posted In Edit This 3 Comments »
I've been listening to my 50's and 60's mix on my iPod for the past two hours, somewhat wishing that I had lived through those eras. The music of the time is my favorite music. It was so diverse, as rock and roll was just starting out, and it was growing and forming into different sounds and genres. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bobby Darin, Elvis, the Supremes, the list goes on and on.

I've specifically been listening to Bobby Darin more than usual over the past few days. Something about his music makes me want to wear a Dior "New Look" cocktail dress while serving martinis to men who wear tailored suits...even if it's a Saturday afternoon. My question is that if trends are recycled, why can't the idea of men wearing quality suits all the time come back? Forget the baggy jeans, faded t-shirts, sneakers and baseball caps. Give me a man wearing a suit and tie, hat and horned-rimmed glasses and I'll be happy. He could buy me a sody-pop and take me to the movies to see the new Hitchcock film for 35 cents. I might even be home in time to watch I Love Lucy.

It's not I don't think modern times aren't swell. Hell, if this were the 50's or 60's I couldn't be listening to my iPod while typing this on my laptop, getting ready to put a DVD in my flatscreen TV, all while wearing footless tights. No, I would be listening to a 45, writing in my diary, not getting to watch TV because the programming ended at 11pm, and my nylons would be held up by a garter belt (though I don't think I'd mind this last one, especially if they had the black line down the back of the leg). But people were somewhat different back then. Everybody wasn't as crazybusy like they are today, attention spans were longer, people were polite, there was a focus on family values, the most attractive woman in Hollywood was a size 8, and even the sluttiest girls were tame by today's standards.

Maybe I'm a crazy lady, maybe it's too late at night to be sensible, but I think that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the world, back to the feelings of the 50's and early 60's. Politeness should be rediscovered, as well as chivalrous gentlemen. Let's have some of the ladies in the world realize they aren't wearing enough clothes to be considered "decent". Let's stop having 50% of marriages end in divorce, learn to work it out. Let's start saying things like "swell" and "gee wiz". Ok...strike that last one, but I think you catch my drift. 

Anyway, sorry for the nonsensical rant. This is how I am when I listen to the Golden Oldies and watch Hitchcock and Hepburn films. Which reminds me, I need to go buy Sabrina on DVD, I seem to have misplaced my copy.


Listening to: Moon River by Bobby Darin

Old Movies To See

6:06 PM Posted In , Edit This 1 Comment »
Happy Wednesday errbody! And will be very happy with the new episode of Law & Order tonight, featuring sweet, sweet Detective Lupo. Anyway, tis time for List Wednesday! Originally I was going to make the list be of movies that I want to see, be it old movies, recent movies or upcoming movies. However, once I realized that this list was over 50 movies long, I decided to cut it to include only movies that were released before 2000. I've also included the reason why I want to see them because a few of them are a bit obscure-ish.

1) On the Beach (1959)
- I love Anthony Perkins, and I'd like to see a movie he made before the world identified him only as a cross-dressing mass murderer. 
2) Frenzy (1972)
- Hitchcock was a genius of thrillers, and I'd like to eventually see all his films. He made 66, but I've only seen 22 of them. I actually own this movie, I just haven't had the time to actually sit down and watch it.
3) Forrest Gump (1994)
- People seem to be surprised when I tell them I haven't seen this movie. I think my family owns it on VHS actually, I've just never gotten around to watching it.
4) The Godfather (1972)
- This isn't one that I plan on watching right away, but I think I'd like to watch it with my dad someday. 
5) Let It Be (1970)
- The Beatles are the greatest band in the history of music. I think it would be interesting to see the movie that documents their disintegration.
6) The Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
- The Beatle's psychedelic movie that was widely panned by critics and audiences. Koo-koo-ka-choo!
7) Soapdish (1991)
- I love Robert Downey, Jr. I just love that he's a jackass in all of his films, and somehow that works for him.
8) Tombstone (1993)
- I have been told my numerous members of my family that this is a great movie. We own it on VHS, but I think I'll wait to watch it with the rest of the family.
9) Say Anything (1989)
- I don't know why I want to see this, maybe because I'm obsessed with the 80's. Maybe because I would like to have some guy hold a stereo up to my window. 
10) War & Peace (1956)
- I love Audrey Hepburn, I think she's a wonderful actress. I would like to read the book, too, but I think I would rather see the movie first in this instance.
11) The Fortune Cookie (1966)
- I love the team of Matthau & Lemmon, I thought The Odd Couple was a great film, so I'm looking forward to seeing this one.
12) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
- Tim Curry. In drag. Yes please.
13) The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite actors, and I think Cary Grant is a great in romances. I'm not that jazzed about Katherine Hepburn, but I think the other two outweigh her.
14) A New Leaf (1971)
- Walter Matthau film. I own a book called 501 Must-See Movies and this was in it (as are quite a few on this list), and it's in it. I think it looks funny/cute.
15) All of Me (1984)
- Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin, before their movies started to suck ass.

So there's the list. I probably wont see most of them for quite a while, but if you've seen any of them let me know what you thought!


Listening To: Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) by Lady GaGa
Newer Posts
Older Posts