I Couldn't Wait For The Summer And The Warped Tour



Some weirdos may have taken pictures of themselves with their tickets.


As I drove out to our Pre-Warped Tour Breakfast I thought to myself that I am, unfortunately, not aging in reverse and... eventually I should probably stop going to crazy outdoor concerts such as The Vans Warped Tour. You know, grueling heat, dirt, dehydration, the kids. However, that day didn't come this year.



So, while I still am young enough to keep on keepin on here is a semi-quick recap of  our Warped Tour Extravaganza 2012.



We got fueled up for the concert splitting a delicious order of Eggs Florentine Benedict at Mimi's Cafe in Murray. So good!


Jessica with her breakfast.



Who takes pictures of their breakfast, hmm??

This can of purple stuff (under the guise of a big ol energy drink or tea or at least that was what we hoped they thought) may or may not have been shared in the LOOOOONG line to get in to the event. It also may or may not have inspired the words, and I quote "We just wanted to let you know that the music you write really means a lot to us." when we ran into one of our most favorite singers right off.

Arrival time! Best little Warped Tour attendee group that you ever did see.

Marta and I.

Jessica and I.

Marta and Jared.

We were fortunate enough to have some time to get to chat with Anthony Raneri, the singer of Bayside, one of our favorite (mine since 2005) bands ever.

Sweetness, can you believe this?

And also see many fun shows, here are a few pics.



Anti Flag



Senses Fail

Bayside

Mo' Bayside

Some of us (aka ME) were uber wise and decided to rehydrate with Diet Coke (only) vs lame ol water. Note this works really good if you want to have a "sick spell" and almost nap on a sand bag during an important band's set. It was a total concert girl fail and I hang my head in shame.

Jessica, although drinking DC with me, was smart and didn't lose her water like someone else.

All in all, it was a super fun day spent with great friends & great music. So glad I still haven't outgrown it, yet.

PS - I was going to upload a video, but then it decided it would take at least 7-10 business days to upload so I didn't. I guess I will youtube or facebook them eventually.

I Love You So Much That It Hurts My Head

A few nights ago I was fast asleep dreaming of chocolate chip cookies and Christmas.

I hate to admit it, but my pup sleeps in my bed. I tried to teach him to stay in his own, but inevitably he'd sneak in every night so eventually I gave in. Anyway, back on track, the other night while I was in that dreamland, one of the lazily done acrylic paintings that I have hanging over my bed fell off the wall. It just landed right at the head of my bed, not knocking us out or anything luckily.

This terrified Rocco.

I just shrugged under the covers, reached up and moved the lame painting to the side of my bed and tried to go back to sleep. And then I heard Rocco growl. Thinking to myself "seriously?"  I put the painting behind my nightstand to get it more out of sight and closed my eyes. Then he started barking at my nightstand. So I got out of bed, put the darn thing in the linen closet, and we got back to sleep, finally!

The next day my son opened the linen closet for a bath towel and it tipped out. Rocco went running out of the room. I told the boys the story so my oldest picked up the painting and followed the dog out. About two seconds later the Rocco came running back into my room top speed.

Apparently he thinks the painting is alive or possessed or haunted or whatever. He hates it. And of course, we find this hilarious and extremely entertaining.

I'm Part of You Indefinitely.

As you may have noticed all I do is blog, day in and day out. OK, so I rarely post, but when I do [insert clever Dos Equis joke that I am too lazy to whip up here.] it sure as heck isn't more than once in a day. However, this second post is going to be short and sweet.  PS - the other blog has ten times the effort put into this one. FYI yo. This one is full o' the ramblin.

Yesterday I celebrated my 14th Mother's Day. Holy crap!!! I may have been a clueless teenager that day with no idea what was ahead, but I was the luckiest girl alive and I didn't have a clue.

Being a mommy is some of the scariest shit that can ever ever ever happen to a person. You live in constant fear that something bad will happen to your little one. Every story on the news lives in your heart forever and you imagine kidnappers, and car accidents, and those scary little "do not eat" packages being opened up and eaten by your silly boys. Your life is never your own again. Goodbye selfishness, you are no longer a priority...at all.

However, being a mother is the best thing to ever ever ever happen to me. My heart is so full of love every single day. I am never alone. I am loved so much. I am needed. And I am so blessed. I'd do it all over again a million times, even the horrible pregnancies that kicked my ass. If you ever want to know what it feels like to throw up Pepsi that is still cold, come see me. I'm your gal. Nothing I have ever done or ever will do compares to this.

I am so proud to be a mommy to my Sookie Pookie Na Na and Baby Double D.

It is my greatest accomplishment, of all time.

Modern day Us

Me and baby Sookie Pookie right around that first Mothers Day (note my classy boob peaking through my dress. Oh yeah!)

Me and Baby Double D just after he was born (note my bloated I just had a baby face. Oh yeah x2!)

I Guess I'm Young, But I Feel So Weary.

The other night while laying here thinking of 1001 ways to not be a fatty mcfatterson anymore (aka get healthy and lose 10 pounds) my mind started wandering. It tiptoed past the life lessons I've learned in my years. Some good. Some bad. Some pathetic. And I decided it would be fun to share them with the universe (and by universe I mean the three or four friends who read my blog, but that is neither here nor there). So here just celebrating my birthday I shall share with you 32 things I am oh so wise about. And I look forward to learning #33...

1. Carbs make you fat. Well, maybe not you, but definitely me. A big FU to refined, delicious, and heavenly carbs for making me gain weight. It may be possibly because I refuse to stop eating them with wild abandon, but they still definitely are contributors to the problem.Yes, Frito Lay, I am talking to YOU! One day I will wise up and stick to those healthier ones known as fruits, veggies, whole grains. At least I hope that I wise up. Oh gosh, somebody please oh please make me wise the hell up.

2. You don't have to complete your degree to get a really great job. I am very proud that I have been able to work my way into a fantastic career that I love. I know that I am super lucky to even make notably more in salary than many of my friends who pursued higher education to it's finish. However, this does not mean I discourage a college education. In fact it's quite the opposite. I think it is a great opportunity for anyone who can make it happen. I fully intended to stay on that path; life just lead me along a different road that worked with my young mom lifestyle. Bottom line, stay in school dudes... however it is possible to work around the road blocks and be a success without it. It's just not all peaches and cream every day, but is life really ever?

3. Boys that karaoke 'Wonderwall' to you probably don't have the best intentions. Now, I've been working in this life to avoid stereotyping or judging books by their covers. I'm just saying if you have a questionable fella in your life, and his choice of song to sing when you're out for karaoke is 'Wonderwall' or 'Champagne Supernova', you better watch your back! Cute (insane) boys + Oasis songs = Life Ruiners

4. Friends will come and they will go. Even the closest of friends grow apart sometimes. Things happen in this topsy turvy ass life of ours and we slip away. Most times it's not really intentional. Some of them change when they get into relationships, marriages, jobs, have kids, blah to the blah blah. Sometimes it really sucks and you miss them really bad. Sometimes they come back! And sometimes they don't. Either way life goes on and the friends who are current in your world are more than willing to fill the void and then some if you let them. So let them!

5. Animals can make you really happy. I know it's cliche'-y, but man's best friend and all that crap...TRUTH! I love my dog (as I did his predecessor) with all my weirdo little heart x1000. If you ever find your life full of suckage consider getting a pet yo. If you ever need any proof of this just ask to see my phone and the gallery of Rocco pictures I have for your viewing pleasure.

6. It is possible to "conjure" people. If you ever find your mind a'wanderin off about someone or something that is no longer in your life for a reason there's a very good chance that they'll show up at the store or your work or friend ya on the internets the very same day you type their name into google and find unsavory things. So think before you think so to speak.

7. Be the thing you envy. Jealousy sucks, bad. And if you spend your life being envious of everyone else you miss out on the parts of your life that are YOU. Even though other people's lives seem cooler, more fun, they are able to take naps and eat their food without being interrupted 8000996656456454546544677777889 times, this doesn't mean that at the end of the day they are any happier than you are. Who knows? Maybe they think that their life sucks big time. If your pal (or chick on a blog with cute clothes, a cute nice looking [not as in good looking, but as in not mean looking] helpful husband, her own business, and endless money) seems to have it all take a moment to find out what pieces you admire. If someone is chasing their dream, find time to look into yours, even if just a little. Learn something new. Take a trip. Do that thing that looks so damn cool to you. If all else fails at least you were too busy to be jealous.

8. Don't think that writing a list of things you have learned that coordinates with the years in your life is a good idea. If you are, oh god, over 30 ( I swear I never thought I'd live to be this old. Not with the way I drive.) well that's just too much shit to write up. No one is gonna care that much. Know when enough is enough and call it a night. Make that story a series. Yeah, something to look forward to. Oh that's good.

So please enjoy the first, very strategic, installment of the things I have learned in this uber fabulous life of mine. Somewhere along the line I will start up again with number 9. Any cool/funny/interesting life lessons you've learned that you wanna share?

The Kind of Love That Won't Fly Away.

I don’t want to jinx us, but I think spring is here! Shhhhh. I totally said that in my twelve-inch whisper (throwback to elementary school yo) voice because as you may or may not be aware we can have spring one day here in March then snow the next.

To help celebrate and welcome the warm weather my bestie, since the 8th grade, Monica and I decided it was high time we got ourselves out to the Holi Colors Festival that happens around these parts each spring. It is actually a religious festival celebrated by Hindus, however they welcome all attendees (ie us) and it is a fun way to kick off spring.

Now, I am usually down for most adventures, but the ones that involve getting...well, dirty I do occasionally have to pause and think about for a minute. And I did pack up sheets to cover my car seats and a multitude of plastic bags in preparation for our return. Hey I am totally spontaneous yo!

So Monica and I loaded ourselves up in my car and headed out for good ol’ Spanish Fork Utah. It’s about an hour drive from the SLC. It was a good time for us two girls to shoot the breeze since life sometimes prevents us from the long conversations we were able to share growing up.


(here we are all clean, well aside from some hand prints from some topless dude who decided to give us a hug on the way up)

We arrived to the temple area, alongside a few thousand others, in the early afternoon pretty excited to check it out. We were wearing our whitest clothes we were willing to sacrifice and were ready to get our color on. It was basically beyond awesome. Everyone we came upon was in a great mood tossing colored powder on each other, laughing, dancing, and just getting along. It is not often when you get thousands of people together and no one fights or causes trouble. It was an amazing mix of people ranging from kids to adults. I am totally taking the boys next year (or to an upcoming one here in SLC depending on our baseball schedule).

There were cool things to buy, unique Indian Foods (which we enjoyed and still aren’t sure what it was we ate, but it was vegetarian and deep fried full of amazing!), and surprisingly awesome music varying from rock and house music combined with the language of the culture.





We danced the day away and had a blast. It was quite the experience. It was a fantastic way for us girls to kick off spring together. Doing something free spirited like we used to do when life wasn't so…important and we just lived. The Festival of Colors probably isn’t for everyone, but it was a nice open minded day of celebration, crowd surfin, positive vibes, and we basically felt like modern day hippies.





Oh, if you have ever wondered what Easter Eggs feel like (and uh who hasn't, right?), well you should just ask me what my bathwater/I looked like that night. Lastly Monica and I also totally came up with our new band name “The Pink Cleavage” thanks to some stubborn color that decided to want to keep on hanging out with us (in strategic places) post festival. Yep.

You know sugar never ever was so sweet.

I'm not much of a baker (just ask me about the great cake pop disaster of 2012) so when Sookie and I started talking about whipping up some cookies on a whim there was easily a chance for this story to end badly.

Into the kitchen we went and started looking through our cupboards. Lo and behold we had plenty o' cookie ingredients! Our next step was to decide upon which recipe to use. We searched and we searched and none were quite right. In the end we went ahead and combined bits and pieces of a few to create our own recipe. Which, OK so there really arent a shit ton of different ways you can make cookies so it's probably a very normal run of the mill recipe, but my family really really liked them so that's what counts. And well, they are pretty hard to screw up so that is obviously a plus since we are dealing with me here and all.

Useless blog story short it gave us something fun to do together and my boys are always happier when there is something food oriented going on around this joint. If you find yourself in the cookie making mood then feel free to fearlessly (because hey, I did it succesfully after all) use our Frankensteined recipe below.



Sookie Pookie's Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup of butter (two sticks)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 package (12 ounce) of semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Mix sugars, butter, vanilla, and egg in a medium sized mixing bowl.
Stir in flour, oats, baking soda, and salt
Mix in the chocolate chips
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets
Bake for 8 to 11 minutes (magic number in my oven turned out to be 9 mins)
Cool slightly for a few minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to a wire rack

Am I correct to defend the fist that holds this pen?

Boredey McBorederson has nothing to write about, but is in the mood to write. So here ya go universe. 10 Question Time Killer Survey in all it's lame glory.




1. Do your jeans have rips, tears, and holes in them? I have a few pairs that do, but for the most part no. I am not opposed to the destructed jean look; I just have kind of grown out of it these days. Not to say that I won’t come back to it. Fashion always comes back around.

2. Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep each night? Pssht! Sleeping is for sissies. I basically sleep the least amount as possible to not die of a heart attack. I once read on a yahoo article that young dude played a video game for one week straight without sleeping and croaked. So I just want to sleep enough to avoid that.

3. Do you celebrate 420? Personally, no. I am not a smoker. However, I don’t see anything wrong with it for adult humans. It’s just not fer me. And well, I typically see it as more of a guy hobby. Mansport so to speak.

4. Do you eat raw cookie dough? Is this question here as a sub-question for #3? Ha! I don’t bake a lot of cookies, but I do make cakes (as of late) and I will probably die of salmonella poisoning because I can’t help but lick the beaters off my mixer. It’s like some deeply rooted childhood habit of being able to lick the stupid things. I can’t NOT do it. It tastes so good. Judge me if you must. I understand. Mmm, cake batter.

5. Do you wear your Significant Other’s clothes? I wear a few of his shirts around the house and to work out on occasion. They are good for sleeping in. Would I wear them as regular day to day fashion? Nah. Not my style yo.

6. Ever been to Georgia? Indeedy I have been. I had to go there on business a few years back, during the month of July. It felt like breathing under a blanket. I am not used to humidity such as that. I would run from my rental car to the hotel like a weirdo so the air couldn’t drown me. I bet they thought I was a super freak, but oh well. Also, typically when I travel on business the others working for the company “host” me and take me to dinner and stuff. Well, for some reason no one there in Atlanta was assigned to look after me so I was on my own. I thought that was AWESOME. I had a GPS so I went shopping all over the place. It was all fine and dandy until this weird dude basically wouldn’t stop bugging me (ie probably intended to kidnap and kill me dead) at this one store to the point where I had to ask a salesperson to help me get rid of him. They walked me to my car and I learned a lesson about shopping alone in large cities. Scary, no?

7. Do you have freckles? Yep. I have a sprinkling across my face. There is a story behind my freckles. As you are probably are aware I am half Hispanic and half Caucasian. Growing up I had a lot of blue eyed blond haired cousins and I was the little brown one. I was also freckle free probably because the sun didn’t have as much impact on my olive skin. Needless to say I was a weirdo kid and I was jealous of their cute little freckles. One night I prayed really hard that I too could have cute little freckles like my cousins. And nothing. And nothing for years. Then one random day when I was about 14 I happened to be looking in the mirror, and mind you by then I no longer had my freckle wanting obsession, I noticed I HAD FRECKLES!?!?!?! I whole smattering across my cheeks and nose. And there they remain to this day. Every so often someone tells me they think my freckles are cute and that they like them. And my only answer is “Thanks. I totally prayed for them.”





8. When is the last time you got pulled over for speeding? Well, that was about a year ago. Mercifully, the officer took pity on my pathetic self and didn’t ticket me. I have no idea why. I’m flying down the highway in a 60 mile per hour zone. And I’m doing at least, oh 82. Rocking out to Alkaline Trio. In a hurry to get home to my kiddos. Suddenly, there’s a cop traveling the opposite direction that I didn’t notice coming. He flips around. I obviously slow down (aka put on the engine breaks) and try to act non-suspect. Yeah right. So of course he pulls over the crazy beotch driving like an insane woman. “Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” he asks me with this oh so serious face. “Upper 70s?” I respond with my most pathetic pouty innocent face. “Nice try.” Is his response as he gathers my stuff and does the walk back to his car. I start to wonder if they can put you in jail for reckless driving the first time you do it. And I imagine myself calling Joey to tell him that I am locked up and to take good care of my kiddos. Well, just a few minutes later the officer comes a’walkin back and hands me my stuff and says “Be careful. Slow down. And have a Happy Valentine’s Day” UH LUCKY DOG ARE I, no?

9. How old were you when you got engaged/married? Twenty Two. Now, I don’t really recommend to any youngins to go rushing out and get married right away. I would probably offer the advice of living your life a bit more first and really spending time with your future spouse. Just being together for a while first. Being Friends!! However, by the time I decided to get married I had been in my relationship about 5-years and had a 4-year old kiddo. I felt like it was a natural step, and well it just felt silly to keep referring to him as my boyfriend at that point in time.

10. How many kids do you want to have? Well, I used to want to have 3 children. Then my youngest, second child, turned out to be a total maniac handful so that is where I stopped. I was totally exhausted. I am not 100% opposed to having more kids, but right now it’s not on the table. If I do though, it will have to be a little girl and we will call her Violet. Not like I’ve thought about it or anything.

Well, if you get bored and are in the mood for a good ol’ survey of randomness (I haven’t done one of this in years at this point) you should take this and share your answers with me. Because if you actually read my blog, I probably really like you and would be totally entertained by your answers my pals.

This Night Is Wild, So Calm & Dull

Song o' the Week: Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional
Note - an obvious work of fiction.


“Well, there’s the van; over there, waiting for me. I should just keep on driving.” I thought to myself as I pulled into the parking lot that night. “I should just keep going. I should go home.” I didn’t go home, the smartie-pants that I was. I pulled into my parking space. I looked up and I saw his face. A face I have to squint hard to even remember these days.

It was his idea to meet up and chit chat. I was out doing some peaceful solo shopping and he didn’t feel like hanging out with his girlfriend’s family. He wanted to skip out on a family gathering since I was in the area. The next day he was leaving on a week long trip. Really, he should have been home where he belonged. I didn’t know it yet, but he was not the kind of guy who ever just stayed where he belonged. However, by stopping there I wasn’t where I belonged either, so who was I to throw stones?

So we decided to swing by the park near his home. I’d like to claim he twisted my arm, but hey, sometimes we all do stupid shit, right? From the moment I got there I was knee deep in regret, but at the same time not wanting to leave like I should have. This may be just what mental illness feels like.

We set out for a walk. It was briskly cold outside, October. There I was walking with a boy wearing torn jeans and a beanie. The sun was starting to move lower in a sky that was starting to turn an orangey tone. This fella was three years my junior. We walked past the pond and the ducks were squawking. We moved past a few joggers and couples with their happy dogs. I hardly knew him. His voice kept catching me by surprise every so often because it was deeper than I expected. It’s not like I hadn’t talked to him before, but for some reason it kept getting me off kilter that day. It made the little hairs stand up on my arms.

Because I am clearly brilliant I was wearing flip-flops that day and my feet were cold. “Thank goodness my toes have cute polish” I thought to myself as I wiggled and admired them as the leaves crumbled beneath my feet. Such a deep thought, eh? We stopped and sat on top of a picnic table. I leaned back reading the messages people had carved into the metal. The conversation was good. I purposely tried to avoid looking at his face. We really hit it off. I was probably being straight up manipulated, but I wasn’t completely naïve and just enjoying his company. We talked about music, and life, and relationships, tattoos, and food. And the time ticked away.

Eventually it was time to head back. Nothing inappropriate had gone down aside from just being friends oddly feeling like it was inappropriate. Why did I ever give him my phone number in the first place? What was I thinking? I started to get really nervous. Regretful.

I started rambling as we walked back quickly. I have a habit of talking too much when I get out of sorts. And he then got a little bit more quiet. I became even more nervous (WHY DID HE STOP TALKING?!) and jabbered more. Oh god, where is the freaking car? Why did we walk so far away? This.Is.So.Lame. Why am I here? I don’t even like this dude like that. Why are we alone? I totally should have just stopped at McDonald's instead.

I started to feel like I was talking to myself, but it was better than awkward silence. We were came upon a bridge that lead to the parking lot. Finally. I was walking about two to three good steps ahead of him. Just about 50-yards from my freedom to escape this mistake of an evening. Sweet Salvation Ahoy! I don’t remember the words I was saying, but suddenly... mid-sentence, he was kissing me on that bridge.

Instantly an imaginary camera is spinning around us. Every breath inside of me was being crushed by the hurricane that was him. It was an eternity. I shut up. It was the best and worst thing to ever happen to me all at once.


I should have just gone home that day.

And Everything Will Bring A Chain Of Love.

Song o' Le Week. You know, I could do this as more of a Song de Jour type post habit if I could find time. Imagine, just how annoying that could get, eh? Alas, weekly it will have to be.

This week's song is "Danny's Song". The version that I am most familiar with is the cover done by Anne Murray. It is an early 70s country-folksy type song. I totally taught it to myself today, which has annoyed my eldest kiddo the point that he is trying to distract me so I stop playing. Ironically enough, he is the reason I love this song so much.

It's 1997, I'm still only 17-years-old and I am pregnant. Preg to the Nant. I was so stressed out about it that I waited 3-months to tell my best friends. This of course is an eternity in teenage girl world, but I have a habit about keeping stuff to myself when I really shouldn't. I wouldn't blame them if they still didn't trust my secret-keepin-ass.

Anyways, at the time I am going to school in the mornings to finish out senior year, puking my guts out secretly because in addition to hiding it from my friends I am also totally hiding it from my parents too, and then scooting off to my full time swing shift job doing laundry at a local nursing home. I make a whopping $6 an hour at said job, and Joey is ballin-shot-calling with his $8.50 an hour cook job at the nearby Sizzler restaurant.

Needless to say we are basically poor partially due to my need to have a newer (but not really all that great) car and the attached payment and because when you're expecting a baby you gotta buy a lot of shit. A few months later we move into a basement apartment at graduation and I take up a night job as a CNA.

One morning I was driving home from work, feeling kind of down because HEY WHERE IS MY DREAM LIFE?!?! And this song shuffles on the oldies station. By the end of the song tears are streaming down my face because it finally all feels worth it. I get it, and it's gonna be OK. It might even be good. How about that?



People smile and tell me I'm the lucky one

And we've just begun,

I think I'm gonna have a son

He will be like him and me,

as free as a dove

Conceived in love,

the sun is gonna shine above

And even though we ain't got money

I'm so in love with ya honey

And everything will bring a chain of love

And in the mornin' when I rise

Brings a tear of joy to my eyes

And tell me everything's gonna be all right

Aint Love The Sweetest Thing?

Cake decorating. Prettification of sweet delicious cake. Something I never knew a lot about. Never expected to acquire any skill in. It used to be that I was pretty damn proud of myself for whipping up a cake from a mix and frosting it with a cheapo can of frosting. And by proud I mean I'd take said cake to a party or work or any ol' place, because hey it was sugar and who doesn't love sugar, right? Yeah, try my faux zero effort cake awesomeness!!! I'm a super cook! How embarassing, eh?

Recently my sweet friend that I am THE SILLIEST version of me with, Jessica, signed us up to take a cake decorating class over the course of a month. So each Saturday morning in January we headed over to a local craft store to play with sugar and hang with some other chicks. Everyone else in our class was either a teenager or a cute little mom over 40. We were the only in-betweens. This either made us super cool or look like a pair of weirdos who don't have anything better to do with our weekend. I prefer to assume the first option. Although if you're just weird enough people won't bother you by trying to talk to/befriend you. This may not always be without it's perks.



* Jessica naturally excelling at creating roses (unlike moi)


Soon I came to realize that everyone else in the class had some kind of cake decorating experience but me. I couldn't (and still don't do the best at) even hold a piping bag properly. And pretty much anything I could squeeze out looked lopsided and or sloppy. Ghetto flowers over here! Sad times for Charissa-can't-frost-a-dang-thing-right. I just didn't have a knack for it. Oh and people wear aprons for a reason, FYI. Well, I wanted to go home and practice, but life just wouldn't have it as it turned out to me a mega busy month. So these Saturday sessions were all it was gonna be.


* These ones (above) are mine


* These ones are Jessica's obviously because they're better than mine.


Anyway, long-sugary-story short eventually it started to come together somewhat. I had to prepare the night before, bring everything the teacher (who at times reminded me of my dear friend Christy in some ways) told us to and pay attention. Following directions, who knew that worked? Now I can actually whip up REAL frosting in my kitchen super quickly and it actually tastes like frosting. In the past all I had been able to accomplish was making some lumpy ass sweet goo that sort of resembled frosting and/or animal puke. In addition we learned how to fill cakes/cupcakes/ANYTHING you can slice in half. FILLING inside of cakes is cooler than a polar bear's toenails. Shit is rad. I don't know if I will ever make a cake without a filling again. It is that good/easy to do. Why have plain ol' boring cake when you can have cake from heaven with raspberry/apricot/pudding hiding on the inside? That would just be a downgrade.




Today was our last class of Course One. We may do more courses down the road when we can find the time, but at least we have some photographic evidence of our cake decorating extravaganza yo. Below you will see my finale cake which I gave to my sister for her birthday this coming week. There are no photos up close of Jessica's finished cake because she purposely squished it with the lid so I wouldn't have to feel inferior yet again.







So sometime soon I want to have a cake decorating party at my house so if you're one of my pals who lives in the area and want to participate let me know! Just imagine how much fun I am after a few hours of eating frosting nonstop. Woo!

I Wanna Be The One To Walk In The Sun

Song o' The Week:

I decided today that weekly I'd like to highlight a song in this here popular (I may or may not be laughing uncontrollably at that comment) blog. I LOVE MUSIC, oh so so much. I love it enough to drive you nutty with my analogies, interpretations, and by well, playing songs out pretty much all the time. Wanna song stuck in your head? Hang around me for a while, I'll give you an earworm or two. Every single blog title here - song lyric (or song title). Basically, I'm batshit inFRICKINsane. So I'd like to regularly share a song and the memory/story/whateves attached to it here in my brain.



This week I'd like to share my very first ever, favorite song. Above is a photo circa 1983ish. I was a wittle kiddo and my mother asked me what my favorite song was. I had to think about it for all of 3 seconds and came up with 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and then I danced around our living room. I danced my silly little ass off all day long. I felt awesome, I had a favorite song. It was all mine, forget the world this was my song and Cyndi Lauper was my hero. No one could be cooler than she. I wanted to grow up and be just like her one day.




Now watching this video tonight I probably would wear 90% of the dresses shown in this video (even to work tomorrow). Funny how that fashion shit comes right back around.

So, what was YOUR first favorite song?

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Marilyn Monroe. Someone who has often fascinated my sister and I. Growing up we watched the movies made about her. We always loved (aka fought over) a good coffee table book full of her photos. We learned all about Miss Norma Jean. Of course she is still a well known sex symbol. Also she was a woman, one with a realistic figure and a really sweet personality. Of course her life is plagued with drama and speculation. Failed marriages, presidential love affairs… You know, stuff & things.




Flash forward some years (OK enough years for me to be thirty friggin two and my sister nearly twenty nine) and there is a new movie coming out - “My Week with Marilyn”. Of course my mother is all over it and we go and see it at the Broadway theater here in Salt Lake City. This is one of my favorite movie theaters to go to because it means we are seeing an independent or limited release film. This means I get to see something rare or at least something before others. This also means that I can climb upon my cool-movie/hipster-high-horse and brag a little bit. Oh yeah!



Anyway, Michelle Williams plays Marilyn in this movie which is based on the true stories of a young man who worked for her for one week during the filming of the movie ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. It was a story of a time that Marilyn escaped being “Marilyn” and just existed without Hollywood. It depicted her real personality, not the persona she had created for the public. Michelle really did a great job capturing how fragile yet capable Marilyn was. I think she really nailed the look and behaviors and it only made me like her more as an actress. I definitely thought it was an interesting story and a side of Marilyn that I didn’t know about which I found intriguing. To know me is to know that I also liked the fashion in the movie. It looks that careful work went into recreating similar wardrobe to what Miss Monroe wore. And of course her personal style with hair and make-up was oh so glamorous. So to get to my poorly worded point here, it’s a good movie and worth watching. I intend to purchase the DVD upon release, and I hardly ever buy movies anymore. So that has to say something I suppose.



Oh, and recently I decided it would be a fun pastime to eventually watch all of the old Marilyn Monroe movies. Last night I watched ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ as my movie of choice. It is kinda fun to see how these old flicks can be funny and full of innuendo even in a time before I was even a twinkle in my parents’ eyes (since they were not born yet either and all, ya know. Ha!).


* Note the random bondage-y type stuff going on with the ladies in black. Not what I had expected from a late 50s movie. Lil risque.

Well, I'm done with my Marilyn stuff now because obviously there is nothing I can write about an icon such as her that most folks don't already know. I just think she was a pretty rad chick.

It Would Be So Fine To See Your Face At My Door

11-days. Shut-Ins. That is how long it has been since we have had any type of structured routine in this house. Just the group of us, nowhere to go, no car (for most of it), just hanging around the house. Chilling. Eating a ton of great tasting, yet uber caloric food. In the morning it's finally over. We are headed back out into the wild. Bittersweetly with the holiday season behind us. Back to our scrambled mornings of fights to not get out of bed, bowls of cereal, the dog taking a leak on the front porch post because it is too cold and he is too lazy to go down to the lawn and then me yelling at him for it. Oh tomorrow.

During these days off without the car I spent a fair amount of time online. I even broke down and made a Pinterest for heaven’s sake. Frankly, I really didn’t want to do that because I like having a life and I knew that it would be another time-suck for me, but I was bored enough to do it anyway. Gah. During this time I also, because I just had so much to do, kept track of the random crap I googled, typically to prove a point in conversation or because as I have mentioned before, it drives me batty to not be 100% certain about the random stuff that crosses my mind.


Things I Googled over Christmas Vacation:


The Poltergeist Curse.



As you might imagine around my house we are fans of all things scary. So of course during our shut-in lockdown phase we all sat down one day and watched the whole Poltergeist trilogy. And as you may know there is a rumored curse to haunt the cast of the movies because a shit ton of people croaked during the process of releasing these three movies. Well of course everyone knows the little girl, the star of the movies, died at the end of filming the last one. So I decided to look up all the gory details.

A) Carol Ann - Heather O’ Rourke died in 1988 when she was only 12-years-old of septic shock. Yeah, that’s normal for kids, right?

B) Dana – The teenage older sister in the first movie actually died in 1982, the year the first (and very best of the films in my opinion) movie came out. Her boyfriend strangled her. She was only 22. She would be the exact same age as my daddy if she were still alive. Sad.

C) Kane – The scary ass old dude from the second movie died of stomach cancer in 1985. I guess he was 60, but he looked like 800 to me.

D) Taylor – The Medicine Man who came to protect the fam from the above scary old man died of kidney failure in 1987.

That’s a lot of dying for one show if you ask me. A curse? Who knows, but sure sounds creeptastic to me. Oh, and as we were watching it we just had to know if ol’ Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) the little psychic lady was still alive today. During my search I found out that cute little Zelda passed away at the age of 76 in 2010. So she was around until just barely-ish. So unfortunately there will be no more of that cute little fakey sounding voice for this world.


Reasons your car might sound like a tank.



On Friday night at the last possible minute, 6pm-ish when the shop closed, we got our car back after two weeks of major car surgery! Woo hoo! Freedom Time! Hooray yo! And as it was driven home we had to note that our car now sounded a lot like a super cool suped up car with a race muffler. And since it isn't, and never will be, any of those things this unfortunately was a bad thing. So we had to wait out the weekend out to take the sucker back in. During that time I of course, just like looking up web MD, decided to speculate what on earth it's problemo could be this time around. So "I searched Reasons Your Car Might Sound Like A Tank" because that is what it sounded like.

Here is what I found:

A) How to fix a car that stalls in 7 Steps (which reminded me of the movie How To Lose A Guy In 10-days, and now I feel like watching it)
B) Fuel Injection Cleaner
C) How To Prepare for an Emergency (fuuuuuuuck! this is not a good sign, eh?)
D) My Car Started To Emit Gas Fumes Well After We Had Turned It Off (Now it is the car's turn to get even, and kill us - via poison!)
E) What is Vapor Lock? ( I don't even ever want to know)
F) How to get a good deal on a new vehicle when doing a trade in (DING DING DING!!)


Sundance Film Festival



Every so often, in January, my pals and I may go up and enjoy the festivities at the Sundance Film festival in Park City. Once my pal Marta won some tickets to some awards party and we went and sat in the middle of a bunch of filmmakers and right next to Tony Hawk because it was for Sports Documentaries. That night was fun and entertaining, but we felt a bit out of place. Ya know, since we were neither film makers nor sports peeps. Oh, and another time 30 Seconds To Mars played a concert up there. So yeah, we had to be there! We had so much fun that day freezing our asses off.

Anyway, thinking about how fun attending has been in the past I decided to read up on when this year's festivus is (Jan 19-29th). And also about the screenings that are screenings here in SLC along with those up in Park City. I hope we can score some tickets and find the time to go up. I also was curious about the history of the festival. It is about to happen upon it's 34th year anniversary! Wow! It is also the largest independent film festival in the United States. Pretty Dang Cool. Well, if anyone wants to join me on some sort of movie seeing/legitimate reason to hang at the festival (aside from volunteering because I have too much responsibility to commit to it), let's do it!


Celebrities that are my age or approximate same age (within 12 months or less difference):



No good reason or value for this search, just plain ol' boredom at it's best. Shut-Ins, remember? And FYI, there were a lot of non celebrity people that come up for my year or so of birth that look all porn star-ish. Ew.

Aaron Paul - Jesse, Breaking Bad love him
Adam Levine
Bam Margera
Brandy Norwood
Claire Danes
Earl Watson - Utah Jazz player
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Joel and Benji Madden
Kate Hudson
Kourtney Kardashian - not particularly a Kardashian fan myself
Heath Ledger
Macaulay Culkin
Rosario Dawson
Ryan Gosling
Zooey Deschanel

There were a lot more, but I got tired of reading em. My not-giving-a-shit side kicked in, or I may have gotten hungry. Who knows?

Well, that is the end of my useless Winter Break information searches this time around. Anyone else unearth any interesting topics or facts lately and wanna share?

The Clanking Of Crystal, Explosions Off In The Distance

2011 - another day, another dollar, right?

So many things happened during the year. Some good, some bad. Our first family trip to Disneyland, our first broken kid bone, a shit ton of glorious car troubles (GO TEAM HONDA!), a new home. For all the good moves I made there were plenty of mistakes too. Such is life, right?




I’d make some resolutions, but hey, who wants to put stuff in black and white that they possibly won’t have time to get around to? Not I. And like the overplayed hipster NYE anthem I used as my blog title (Death Cab) says, resolutions are just: for self assigned penance & problems with easy solutions. Yes, I need to focus on being more fit/healthy with my food choices. That is something I want. I need to not always say yes to every single favor asked of me because it makes me exhausted and grumpy. I could be more grateful for what I have in love and life. When one sits around and nitpicks the things that could be done better in this life there are plenty of improvement opportunities. However, the things that are good in my world far outnumber the struggles. I can't complain!



Things may not be perfect, but tonight I am going to be serving root beer floats to two of my most favorite people on the planet. And I wouldn’t change that for the world.



PS- Also in 2011 I did drink my first beer ever. Yes I am a sissy girl and I just don't like beer. It's icky. However, my cute pal Meggi did convince me to try a Lunch Box (a beer with orange juice & a shot of amaretto) and it wasn't too bad after all! Of course, I still haven't had another beer, but hey it could happen if someone doctored one up again for me.

Gaily They Ring While People Sing

'Carol Of The Bells' or 'The-Most-Scary-As-Shit-Christmas-Song-Of-All-Time'? You decide.



*flashback fades in*

January 1986. West Jordan, Utah. Terra Linda Elementary School. I am 6-years-old. I have on a rad purple striped shirt with coordinating beads. Pretty much the epitome of cool. And, today, we are going to watch the Space Ship take off! That sure as hell sounds better than lame ass math, yep. Woot!

So we all pile into the gathering area, AKA us plopping on the floor in front of a TV on a cart. It's on a news channel so obviously as a pile of kids, we're completely engaged in watching the TV. My floor-neighbor, whose last name was Davenport, was poking me in the back about every 3 to 4 seconds. He was a fella with blue eyes that I was certain I would marry (and my mother wrote something in his Valentine from me that year that I still to this day have no idea what it said, and of course now she cannot remember). Of course, I just looked him up on Facebook and if it is the dude who first came up, well I think I dodged a bit of a bullet not marrying him after all. Alas, everything happens for a reason I suppose.

Anyway, so we are sitting there watching a bunch of boring stuff waiting for THE SPACESHIP!!!! to take off. There is a teacher on board, a lady teacher. So this is cool to us, sort of, as we wait. Finally, there is a countdown and this shit happens...



Obviously, none of us really get it. "Is there a fire on the spaceship, teacher?" which was answered with "I don't know sweetie, let's watch Old Yeller instead, OK?" And she put on the movie and went off to talk with the other teachers. It was weird. I mean, why in the world are we watching this ancient ass Dog movie? Maybe it was a ploy to knock us all out from the boredom.



Well, by the time we got out of school we knew that the shuttle had exploded. And we had seen that happen real time. It was all anyone could talk about. It was sad. It was crazy! And so later that night I was watching TV with my daddy and they replayed the footage, except they set it to 'The Carol of the MotherFucking Bells' probably because it was still near the Christmas Season, I don't know why, it sounds stupid, but they did. I think it was to create drama and freak everyone out. And it worked...on me.

So now I associate that song with some scary ass shit I once saw at school. And heck, this song is just screaming horror movie anyway, at least in my opinion. To this day it stirs up emotion.