Essentials

Can. Not. Live.Without.

Once you try these, you'll never go back to whatever you wore before.

Magic for the hair washing impaired.

YSL Singulier mascara.

The bomb.com

They dislike Sarah Palin as much as I do...

Crack.

Peace,

Where to start

I need help.

As you know, from a previous post, I have bought a home.

And after talking with my mom.

Who really gets into home decorating.

She kindly informed me it was time to step it up decor wise. 

I am the queen of buying crap.

Well maybe not crap exactly 

but I just buy things for my home that I like, 

not worrying about if it really goes with anything else in my house.

Are any of you all like this?

So anyways.

I love interior design.

I could look at nice rooms in magazines all day long.

But how do I translate those pretty pictures to my new home?

I have no clue where to start.

Do I pick paint colors first?

Or say I find this spectacular lamp that I just have to have, do I buy that then decorate around it?

I mean what do you do?

How do you, I-have-a-really-cute-put-together-house, people do it?

McCall 

is coming down the first weekend or so in November to help. 

She has a REALLY cute put together house.

So I know she has some tricks up her sleeve.

(you should go visit her blog and beg her to show you cute pics of her house. It is worth begging) 

But really how do you even begin this process?

Peace,

Thoughts

I have lost my life to the Pillars of the Earth mini series. I should really get it together.

And I should really post more photos on this blog like I used to.

Anything you readers would like to see from my camera lens?

I should really write more exciting posts.

I think I have turned into a really bad blogger....

Peace,

Pillars of the Earth

I FINALLY finished Pillars of the Earth Monday night.

And it was AMAZING. 

So great. 

I know that everyone who has read it says that about it.

But it really is that good.

I cant wait to read the Sequel World Without End and his new book Falling Giants (Or Rather Fall of Giants...)

And I now can not turn away from my TV since I ordered the Pillars of the Earth Mini Series. It is different from the book in so many ways, but still, so good. 

I, like anyone (I'm sure) who has read the book, just love Jack. 

But I really loved all the characters.

Well everyone except Alfred, Waleran and the Hamlieghs.

But you get my point.

But you know what I really, really loved about this book.

I loved that it was so realistic.

I mean I love books.

But a lot of times they are so unrealistic.

But I mean that is what makes a good story right?

I liked how the book wasn't over fanciful. 

There were a lot of story lines to tie up in this book and a lot of unanswered questions through out the book that the author could have been really dramatic with or over indulged.

But he didn't. 

He just told a really good historically accurate story with amazing characters. 

No crazy over the top, this-could-only-happen-in-a-fiction-book, resolutions to any of the characters story lines.

He just made it very realistic but at the same time draws you in with the amazing characters he has telling the story.

So good.

Worth the 1000 pages. 

read it. 

Peace,

These are the nicest things a co-worker could say

So at my office

we do this thing called Park It Forward.

Where someone gets to park in this balla spot all week then passes on the trophy to someone else who they think is deserving. 

Well I was the park it forward winner this week.

And I was awarded the trophy by the greatest creative director around.

And for coming into work with a Massive Headache on a Friday, Rich pretty much made my day with the below reasons as to why he bestowed the parking award to me:

In all my years in advertising, I have never come across any one quite like Caroline. I can be in the foulest mood and hear her say “... Well my lesbian psychic said ... “ or “I was home for lunch and a Mexican fell through my ceiling”. You can’t help but get in a better mood with wisdom like that flowing through your transit.  I am quite sure that I would’ve gone mad if it weren’t for her. She is living proof that happiness can be contagious. And that’s big coming from someone who has never trusted happiness.

I am sure she is destined for greatness. The agency would be foolish to ever let her get away. So keep her happy Luckie. For starters, a week of primo parking .

I'm not trying to brag.

But I posted the above  

Because a lot of times I don't think we see ourselves in a positive light. 

We are so quick to be so hard on ourselves.

(or at least I am. I am my own worst enemy)

And so sometimes it is a nice little reminder to get a glimpse of the way other people see you.

I'm really glad other people enjoy my 'weird' this much. 

So today,

go Park It Forward for someone around you.

Everyone needs to have their day brightened every once in awhile. 

So be that person and get it started!

Peace,

DreamLand

I was talking with Megan this morning.

We always have the funniest chats.

I literally laugh out loud at some the topics we choose to discuss.

And today's topic had me rolling again.

We were discussing dreams.

They are so weird.

Right?

I won't go into the details of hers, because, I mean, they are her dreams...

But I will say both of our dreams left us puzzled.

What was so weird about mine is that at this very moment,

I can not remember the full details or story line of mine,

but I do remember at one point last night waking up in the middle of the night with this exact thought:

"Man, I'm really glad I got to finish that whole entire dream. It was so wild."

So at the time I did remember all the details of the dream and I made it to the end of the dream (kind of like coming to the end of a level of a video game). 

But now I can't remember the dream in it's entirety but I did at like 3am this morning... So weird? I think I am rambling...

What I do remember is that I was fighting people with these glass sticks that had a glass pig figurines with wings on the end of them.

What the Heck?

You know what else sort of irks (weirds me out when I think about it too much) me about dreams:

the fact that you can rarely remember the dream in its entirety, yet you can almost always remember/feel what you were feeling in the dream.

Isn't it SO weird that your mind has the ability to make you feel things when none of your sense are really being used. Well I mean they are, but not really in a way that normally causes you to feel things when you are awake.

Am I making any sense?

It's like when you wake up from a REALLY good dream and you FEEL like it is real and it takes your senses a little while to adjust to the fact that it was just a dream. 

Isn't that just the strangest phenomena?

Well I think so anyways.

If you have any interpretation for fighting people with glass-pig-winged-sticks I would love to hear. 

Peace,

SO...

Big news people.

I have put an offer in on a town home here in Ole Alabama.

Yea, talk about a commitment.

and wouldn't you know,

10 seconds after I put my offer in,

I got a phone call for an opportunity in another city.

Literally, within 30 seconds, I had two HUGE decisions on my hands.

It took about an hour for me to decide what to do.

and {duh} I chose to go with staying where I am and becoming a homeowner.

If you read the about me to your right ------------>

you will see that I have a strong affinity for The Windy City.

And one day I hope to move there. {maybe with my husband, he is out there right?...}

But for right now, I know that I have peace about being here, in Alabama.

And I am a strong believer in doing what you have the most peace about.

Do what you feel right?

I'm just taking my little life one step at a time.

And walking in peace.

{ I mean I do have a peace sign tattoo on my foot as a constant reminder to walk in peace...}

Cheers to Life.

Peace,

It's the middle of September yet it is 98 degrees outside

And I am really really sick of it.

I usually love hot weather and summer.

But it isn't summer anymore so I need the cooler weather to come on already!

This past weekend was great!

My mom was in town and she still is.

My dad is headed this way tonight.

They are headed to the beach for two weeks and stopped in for a long weekend to help me with some things.

I love having family in town.

This past weekend,

I saw the Town.

It was pretty fantastic.

Great acting.

Great story.

Comparable to The Departed but honestly,

The Departed is just so good nothing really compares to it.

But if you liked The Departed you will really enjoy the The Town.

After leaving the movies on Friday night. It was probably around 11:00pm.

and I was driving some friends back to their cars when we passed an abandoned car surrounded by at least six cop cars with lights a-blazing.

And upon further inspection we noticed that the police had pulled out a number of bushes and plants from inside this abandoned car.

My first thought to explain all the cop cars was that the plants had to be marijuana plants.

But no, it was just your regular old shrubbery.

I am still so confused....

Like WTF?

Well I hope your Monday is going swell.

Peace,

Happy Weekend

This week has flown bye!

And here are some things I have loved this week:

1. Homemade pizza with some dear friends.

2. Concert tickets.

3. Pumpkin flavored beer. {forget the pumpkin spiced latte bring me the pumpkin spiced beer!}

4. This picture:

5. Vanity Fair magazine. {oh how I love each and every article}

This weekend my mom is in town helping me do some grown up things.

And I plan on seeing the Town this weekend. I love a good movie.

Have a lovely weekend!

Peace,

Sorry for

The light posting this week.

I don't really have many tales to tell at the moment.

Although I did book my NYE trip to Chicago last night.

So excited!

And I know, It is going to be SO cold. I don't care. It's Chicago. My favorite city and I will be there to ring in 2011.

Hmmm what else...

Tomorrow Bob Dylan tickets go on sale!

I also purchased tickets to the Avett Brothers Halloween Show concert at the Ryman.

Oh and did I mention that the Black Keys will be playing NYE in Chicago!

Now if only I could get Jack White to kiss me on NYE....

Oh how I love good music!

This morning I had overnight oats for the first time in my life and, by golly, they were fantastic!

I'm not a huge fan of warm oatmeal and I HATE instant oatmeal. But I was in desperate need of something to wake me up in the morning and to keep me full until lunch.

I had heard rave reviews of the overnight oats from my favorite food blogger and from others in the blog world.

So I decided to give it a try.

All you do is buy some dried oats

Mix some in a bowl with either milk or some variation of milk ( I use Almond Milk)

mix in some yogurt ( you know how much I hate greek yogurt so I went with just a low fat vanilla).

Mix it together then let sit in the fridge overnight.

The oats absorb the liquid making them soft and edible in the am.

I topped my oats off with some granola, banana, and almond butter (my new favorite thing).

And I am happy to report that it is 11:00 am here and I am full, happy and excited for breakfast tomorrow.

I have been so bored lately with my work outs.

So on Monday I am starting the 30 day Shred with this one.

I don't know if you all are interested in hearing about the 30 day journey and my results. But if you would be interested in me incorporating that into my posts just let me know.

I don't want to bore anyone.

Peace,

Loving It.

Peace,

Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine

While I am over the moon at the news that Bob Dylan, The Bob Dylan, My-Favorite-I-dressed-up-for-Halloween-as-him-and-everyone-thought-I-had-the-flu-singer/songwriter is coming to Alabama!!!

Yep. I am ecstatic. Call me a dork. Whatever. I love him.

That is all I have for today, Just an insane outpouring of excitement over this news.

Peace,

She couldn't pretend she was the same.

"Though she was young, she was no timid child. She was curious about things. She liked to ask questions... She had a quick mind and she paid attention, picking up phrases of the language, learning how to cook rice and eat with her hands... It intrigued her, the land and the mystery. She loved the thatched roofs and the naked children, the wonderful simplicity of village life. Her eyes seemed to glow; she couldn't get enough of it. She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty, in fact sometimes she seemed fascinated by it. Not blood and gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with her job, that quick hot rush in your veins when you had to do things fast and right. She didn't back away from ugliness; she was quiet and steady. There was a new confidence in her voice, a new authority in the way she carried herself.

Her stare encompasses everything around her, the mountains, the villages, the trails and the trees and rivers and deep misted-over valley, the hurt and the hunger, and the joy. She said, " I know what you think, but it's not... it's not bad."

"You just don't know," she said. You hide in this little fortress behind your stuff and your comfort and you don't know. Sometimes I want to eat this place. Just swallow the whole country, the dirt and the death, I just want to have it there inside me. That's how I feel. It's like... this appetite for life. I get scared sometimes - lots of times - but it's not bad. You know? I feel close to myself. I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark - I'm on fire almost - I know exactly who I am. You can't feel like this anywhere else."

She said it just like that and they all just looked at her with those big round eyes, not believing a word. They don't understand zip, it's like trying to tell someone what chocolate tastes like. That's the thing. You gotta taste it. She was there. She was up to her eyeballs in it.

She came over clean but she got her hands dirty and afterwards she could never be the same. It was like an unnamed drug. The needle slips in and you know you're risking something and though it hurts, you can't stop. The endorphins start to flow, and the adrenaline, and you become intimate with the danger and the devastation. Not bad, she said. It made her glow in the dark. She wanted more. She wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself, and then that wanting became needing, and needing became craving and she had to go. She couldn't pretend she was the same.

She could look at you with this little smile in her eyes and she was lost inside herself. Lost inside the country and the people and the sadness and the joy. She was the poverty. She was the land. She was still that innocent bright eyed girl from a land far away. But now, she was on fire."

- unknown

Peace,

It's hard

Being a Grown Up.

I am venturing out into some really grown up things at the moment.

Which hopefully I can share more about sooner than later.

but in the meantime I have to be all coy about it.

But anyways.

You know you are a grown up (and that it is a pain in the ass) when:

You have to schedule, on a calendar, dates for your parents to come visit.

And on top of that you have to start scheduling your holiday schedule (i.e. visits home for thanksgiving and xmas) in August.

You get an email from your dad telling you that you need to call the bank and talk to them about numerous things that you have never heard of before. Making you feel both really grown up that you are going to have to have a conversation with someone at the bank about these words you have never heard before and really dumb, because again, the email from your dad makes no sense.

You feel really helpless in your grown up endeavors and really just want your parents to take the reigns for you, but yea, your a grown up so you're the one taking charge...sucks...

You decide to make a really really big, huge, decision, the biggest and hugest thus far in your small life as a grown up, and you get really really excited about it like a teenage. But then you realize, shitballs, I am going to have to go through some serious red tape to get this done. And you start to feel overwhelmingly tired before your endeavor even starts.

You tend to forget things. And in order to remember them, instead of using a handy dandy planner like normal people, you start writing things on your hand and on post- its which end up either in your car, on the floor of your office, or lost in your kitchen or bathroom somewhere.

That's all I have at the moment. I'm sure I will have more to add once I continue in this very grown up endeavor.

Peace,

Some Randoms

If you were not already aware. I have a bum knee. It looks fine on the outside but it aches like the dickens. So yesterday I headed over to my knew, favorite orthopedic doctor to have him check it out.

Let's just say that I should not have worn a dress since I was asked repeatedly to bring my knees to my chin and do an assortment of other poses that had me showing my undies. Poor Doc.

Also in case you were not aware, I tend to pass out easily and unexpectedly. (I have some pretty wicked pass out stories that should probably shame me but, hey, you gotta laugh.)

So after the knees to my chin stretching he decided to whip out, not one, but two spinal needles to shoot me up with some steroids.

Um... yea, you guessed it, I felt faint.

I had to take a little reprieve then had to explain to him how I tend to topple over quite easily.

He understood and positioned me to were I could not see that HUMONGOUS needle being inserted into my knee and hip.

Hopefully the shots and the oral steroids will get me back to my running.

I watched Hoarders for the first time in my life last night.

As I said on twitter, I thought The Jersey Shore and Sarah Palin were trainwrecks! But Geez Louise these people are whackadoos.

I'm not gonna lie,

I just dont get it.

I get that there has to be some other underlying emotional issue but I don't get WHY it would manifest itself in a hoarding fashion.

I mean I can understand psycho-killers, alcoholics, anorexics, I can even get Crazy-Ass Kelly Bensimon from The Real Housewives of New York and her paranoid schizophrenic self, but hoarding I can't seem to understand (give me 'satchels of gold' over mummified cats buried in trash any day!). If you understand, please feel free to explain.

I have been cooking. Well to be honest, I really cooked my first meal last night.

I decided it was time I bought some pots and pans and got after it.

I have never cooked in my life.

I mean I didn't even know how simple it was to bake chicken.

So I asked this one over the weekend, who is some what of a gourmet cook, to show me some skills.

And she did. She outfitted me with a whole recipe box and my first order of business in the kitchen was making homemade dough for pizza which was my first meal last night.

On the menu for this week

BBQ chicken sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce

and Chicken Stir fry.

Wish me luck.

Peace,

I think I have regressed

Back to being 12.

No kidding.

When I was a tween and these cats were really cool and popular

and it was the 'In" thing to act like one of these crazies.

Well I wasnt.

I never did.

I mean I could get down to Bye Bye Bye

But I was in no way selling my soul to J Timberlakes bleached (botched) curls.

But I'm 25 now and I am afraid to admit that I have an 'n sync' like obsession with Jack White.

(although I dont think it is proper to use NSync and Jack white in the same sentence... Ever)

(well and Meg White too...)

I mean I love him.

Cant get enough of him.

I have watched the White Stripes documentary 'Under Great White Northern Lights' three times.

I have watched Cold Mountain numerous times just to see old Jack as sweet Georgia.

and I listen to his music or watch him on youtube at least an hour everyday (if not more).

And I know for a fact,

That if Jack White were to show up at my office and get down on one knee and ask me to marry him,

Well I would say yes. And never think twice about it.

I have regressed.

Dont be surprised if you come to visit me and I have a full size poster of Jack on my bedroom wall.

Peace,

It' that time again

Happy Weekend!

AND

ROLL TIDE!

Hot Damn it's college football season!

I am headed out of town for the long weekend.

and will be watching the game with some of my most favorite of people!

Happy College Game Day!

Oh and on another rather random and funny note.

I will leave you with my friend Andy.

Who is a real person.

But he also has a place on the corner of my computer screen at work.

It's the small things that get you through the day.

Peace,

Summer is Over

Well almost.

You can even feel it in the air down here in the deep South.

You can just feel it.

I hate that summer is over.

I mean I guess technically we have until Labor Day until it is officially over.

But, if you didnt already know, I have to prepare myself for goodbyes before they even happen.

So I am having to prep myself for the farewell of summer before it occurs as I do with everything that I dread coming to an end.

I was thinking back through this summer.

It really was a great summer.

I cant clearly remember the summer before this one,

so I cant really compare it to that one, but I would venture to say it was more exciting.

In a nutshell,

I:

Turned 25

Spent a spectacular weekend with my dearest dearest friends all in celebration of me.

danced A LOT

Witnessed some good people get married.

Spent a weekend on a steamboat with three of my most favorite people.

Enjoyed many a happy hour with my favorite co-workers.

Enjoyed more happy hours at the Red Lion with non coworkers.

Had a fantastic weekend with my best friends in Tampa.

Enjoyed many many great supper clubs.

Danced some more.

Read some good books.

Got thrown for a couple of loops.

Learned some things from those loops.

And now it is fall.

Again.

Till next summer I suppose.

Peace,