"You could never publish my love..."

I'm a bit of an obsessive list-maker. My documents file on my computer is full of them, there are little index cards with notes all over my desk, I make daily to-do lists in my planner, etc. Recently I've stumbled upon a couple of sites that simultaneously appear to help and encourage my need to achieve little goals.

1. Listography - http://listography.com/
This site is pretty basic; they give you a homepage and the rest is up to you to upload and type out your own lists how you best see fit. I like that they allow for searching - makes it easier to find lists without wondering what-the-heck you named it and browsing for it on your hard drive. I intend to put all of my floating lists from my desk and computer on the site sometime this week so I can de-clutter a little (and save paper!).

2. Lists of Bests - http://www.listsofbests.com/
Users create their own "best" lists and upload them to the site. You check off what you've seen & they calculate your percentage completed. Nothing feels better than checking something off a list. they remember what you've seen/read/listened to too already so it's not too tedious. Some include "Netflix Top 200", "BBC's 'The Big Read - Books 1-100'" & "I Love Pop Culture's '1990s Movies'".

3. We Heart It - http://weheartit.com
Blog Goggles led me to this, actually. Devoted to compiling all images you find lovely, inspiring, creative, etc. in one place. When surfing the web, if you find an image you like, you click "I <3 IT" on your Bookmarks Toolbar (at least on Firefox) and voila! it (usually) appears with the rest of your "hearted" photos. The only things I dislike are that I can't seem to search within my profile for certain images so you have to filter through the pages, but it's better than taking up free space on my computer!

4. 43 Things - http://43things.com/
This is probably my favorite of the four. Users write a list of up to 43 goals for themselves, write entries about the, can "cheer" each other's goals, and write blurbs on "How to do ___" when they've accomplished them. You can also set mini-challenges to complete one goal by a certain date, "or else you will ____". The site keeps track of the number of goals completed - it's always nice to see accomplishments quantified & gives me some motivation to keep raising that number.


P.S.: I want this dog:

From We Heart It

Oregon

So posting Oregon photos has taken a bit longer than anticipated, but here they are!

I took a trip with M. at the end of August to Portland and Euguene, Oregon to visit some friends. Oregon is absolutely beautiful - many tall, cascading mountains, plenty of hiking trails, and Portland is probably the cleanest, quietest large city I've been too, although I only saw a small portion of it. While in Eugene I got a look at the University of Oregon - M.'s a track fan so this was right up his alley. The campus regardless was phenomenal; this was the first large university I've gotten a chance to explore in depth fascilities we incredible. I would love to go to grad school there, but unfortunately they don't offer my program. We also visited the Oregon Zoo, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and got a chance to visit the coast.

Mt. Hood

Cool compass pointing to some of Oregon's peaks


Hayward Field at the University of Oregon

Sign pointing to Olympic cities at the University of Oregon

Japanese Garden

Rock Climbing!

I had a great time and it was a good end to the summer, and I definitely would love to go back!

"Time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'..."

Six months is a long time to take a hiatus...not that I had much of a routine going anyway. I've been a busy lady! Apart from not updating my blog, here's what I've been up to.

1. Went to Nationals with the Swim Club - Ohio
The university was something straight out of a movie; a completely gorgeous college town and campus, where each apartment had some clever name. I wish I'd taken more pictures.


















Look. at. that. pool.


2. Saw Ratatat in Concert:

Courtesy of scissorkick.com

3. Went for several hikes:



































Third highest mountain in Vermont - part of the Green Mountains.

4. Attended the local Chew Chew Fest and sampled many delicious local eateries:











5. Saw my first midnight showing of Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince:




I loved this shot of Luna. How cute are her Nargle-hunting glasses (and her coat!)?
Courtesy of mugglenet.com












6. Saw Coldplay!
This image is actually from when my friend saw them in Liverpool a few weeks ago. I was silly enough to follow directions & not take photos when I saw them in July.



























7. Traveled to Oregon!
Here I am, retreating from the icy liquid that is the Pacific Ocean.


I'm aiming to update at least once a week in the future, but we'll see how that pans out. Stay tuned for more photos from Oregon!

P.S. Why is blogger so difficult to use?! I can never get the photos or text to go where I want, on the HTML editor or the regular Compose function. And the spacing is all messed up. Ugh. Maybe this is why I stopped before...

"Dream of now, dream of then, dream of a love song, that might have been..."

what a busy week! I was finally able to catch up on sleep last night, after getting about 5 hours a night all week. thank goodness.

yesterday I journeyed to our regional swim meet which was odd to say the least. initially, the group of us was to drive down in two large vans, but apparently there were none to be had once we got to the school in the AM. This actually worked in my favor as they had move up the departure time a half hour and I missed the memo. M. had a track meet to go to himself and saw my teammates waiting around and called me. after jumping into multiple cars last minute, we took off with nothing but route numbers to guide us, which is usually fine unless the next route you're looking for isn't connected to the one you're on. my car ended up driving 25 exits too far and u-turned in time to make it for event #1 (oh well, warm-ups). it turns out one of the girls with us had internet on her phone and could have mapquested us out of the situation. oy.

the return trip was just as taxing. as we were filling up for the ride home, another teammate noticed a tire on our car was SUPER soft. almost flat soft. 18 psi soft (the max pressure for her tires is 44 psi). how-the-hell-did-we-miss-that-one soft. but it held up alright once we had it fully reinflated, thank goodness. then on the interstate, we hit a HUGE beaver, but our only other option was to swerve into the neighboring car, so we had no choice. we felt terrible.

I was fully glad to finally pull into my driveway at 11:00 pm.

last weekend, M. had a barbershop competition, and I have never seen anything so adorable in my life. the majority of the large groups were composed of little old men, with a few 20-somethings thrown in the mix (as M. & his friend Z. were). it was heartwarming to see these senior citizens so full of life and genuinely having a good time while pushing 80. so cute. and the costumes were outrageously over-the-top & gaudy, especially the (usually female) conductors. I felt like I was being thrown back into one of the old southern american musicals. for those of you not familiar with barbershop, I recommend this scene from The Music Man, definitely my favorite musical we did in high school. it was my first exposure to barbershop - apparently for many, as one of the announcers said at the concert.



now, time to make this day productive!
catching up on sleep - check!

"Time, why do you punish me?"

I'm happy to say that the temperature has said goodbye to the 20s and has settled nicely in the 40s. it's not terribly warm, but knowing the weather shall continue its upward climb makes going to class much more bearable. I'm loving letting the natural light fill my apartment again.

the last day of break was spent with the boyfriend, M., enjoying the sunshine. we wandered over to our favorite diner and people-/puppy-watched for the remainder of afternoon. it was a nice closure to the only semi-relaxing week off.

it's hard to believe I'll be out of my apartment in only two months time (assuming we find subletters). I'm anxious to find something for next year, but few listings are up for september. hmph. last year at about this time, my old roommate (whom I've only seen once this year, unfortunately) brought home a couple of garden gnomes he found on his way home from work. they were in questionable (but quaint) shape, and I put off painting him for a while, but he looks so fresh afterwards!

Before:
After:
and if you haven't seen this puppy yet, click play to see the cutest thing ever!

"Just trying to find some solid ground, a little house with a picket fence, how's that sound?"

current items I'm craving:

.grey skinny jeans
.black skinny jeans
.black a-line skirt
.more skirts
.new spring jacket (my other ones have lasted me a few years and are showing too much wear)
.a good sundress (or two)
.a new digital camera (the shutter speed on mine is painstakingly slow and the images are always grainy)
.a coat stand
.cute watershoes (possibly an oxymoron?)
.new wallet
.new handbag

I know some of these seem terribly easy items to acquire, but keep in mind that I am but 60 inches in height and horribly pair shaped. leads to me only owning about five good pairs of pants.

this coat rack from urban outfitters is PERFECT but I just can't bring myself to spend the $68...plus the almost $20 on shipping. any idea where I can find a similar one?

I also really enjoy this skirt from them, but alas, urban outfitters does not fall in my lowly, rent-paying student budget:

as for the watershoes, I spend about 50% of my time on the lake in the summer - one filled with zebra mussels. I've looked at l.l. bean and land's end but am not a fan of the matronly-looking navy and brown. land's end had some more promising pairs, but I'm looking for some to match my white/burnt orange/deep purple bikini i recently purchased.

speaking of summer...only 56 more days to go! and only 40 days of classes.

"A gypsy wind is blowin' warm tonight, the sky is starlit and the time is right..."

much of the last two weeks has been spent tackling mounds of homework, but in my spare time I managed to put together a costume for a friend's nickelodeon-themed birthday party. I went as the roadrunner which I realize is slightly cheating, but the looney toons were on nickelodeon for a good portion of the 90s, no?


this picture is horribly unflattering, but is the only full-body one I took. the beak didn't stay on either, i was able to breathe all of two minutes before slightly suffocating. I also had a better headpiece constructed, but the headband broke last minute. I'm still happy with the overall look though!

I've really loved crafting costumes in the past (all by hand since I haven't yet figured out how to use a sewing machine!) ; I've made nearly all of my halloween costumes (or at least, haven't purchased the outrageously expensive ones) and look forward to doing so each year.

from left to right: cupcake (halloween '06), patti mayonaise (halloween '07) and toadette (halloween '08). my boyfriend, M., went as doug funnie and toad in '07 and '08, so my costumes makes a little more sense. they wouldn't have worked well on their own.

I'm back from rochester a day early which I'm ok with, gives me an extra day to relax and run some errands!

"I said my get up & go, must have got up & went..."

this little guy has helped me push on through the last two days. I owe him a great debt, because if not for him, I would have failed a test and fallen asleep before finishing my paper last night at four AM. thanks for giving me that extra boost. and being so darn cute.

I've decided to go ahead and take the extra semester. it'll give me a chance to breathe a little, and take some of those classes I wanted to. i'll also get to spend a full three years here, instead of only two and a half.

classes I want to take:
-linguistic anthropology
-psychological anthropology
-classical greek civilization
-the british isles (1350-1688)
-london: a cultural history
-motivation
-physiological psychology (new this year I believe)

oh, they had just released the schedule of classes for next semester. mine is going to be most unfortunate again, and I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my current job, as I will have classes scheduled into the early evening each day. hmm. probably time to move on from waiting tables anyway.

one class tomorrow, followed by an easy exam, then it's off to rochester!

"without love life is like rock & roll without a drummer..."

I've never considered myself much of a cook or baker, but I've been trying to hone those skills more this year. for valentine's day, instead of chocolate, I baked an apple pie for my boyfriend, crust & all. this probably isn't a huge feat for most, but it was this first thing I'd made entirely from scratch, instead of a box. I was pretty impressed, especially since crust is supposedly a little difficult and mine seemed just right. =)

in the spirit of the holiday, I tried to make the top crust red, but didn't think of it until after I'd mixed together. adding food coloring afterward resulted in a marbleized look, but I still liked how it turned out. unfortunately, I was trying to bake this before my boyfriend woke up and ran out of time, so in my rush added frosting waaaaay to early. so its a little sloppy from melting. I also baked it in a tin tray and crushed the crust a little when I moved it.

I received two nice bouquets for my birthday/valentine's day. the colors are gorgeous and I can't wait til they dry and I can continue to keep them in their pretty vases.


we only just took down our christmas decorations a few days ago. so sad.
I really need to finish my costume, our nick toons party is tonight!

"I believe in the sand beneath my toes..."

i just got an exam grade back for my european history class and I did MUCH better than I thought.
what a relief. I only have three grades for the class as it is.
I woke up saturday night with this on my face:



its a little hard to see, but I had a smiley face written on my hand in marker the night before. I must have slept on it.

I'm still in the midst of deciding if I want to graduate next semester or take an extra. i'll be very busy if I don't and there's a lot of history and psych courses I would love to take, but I just want to be done in may (2010). december graduation seems so anti-climatic and the job market is poor at best during the winter, especially here.

on another note, I thought I had lost my black cardigan and went out and bought another. I had scoured my apartment a good hour before admitting defeat. I need one for work when it's this cold, so I had no option but replace it asap. the first, of course, shows up on its neat little hanger as soon as I slide the new one into my closet. now with two plain cardigans, I found a way to spruce up the first one. I had found a cardigan secondhand that looked really cute but was terribly unflattering on me once I got home and tried it on. after an hour of button-swapping while watching some of The Office, I'm pretty happy with the results:


spring break starts in ten days. thank goodness.

"she can roll with the punches, as long as she feels like she's in control..."

i've been 21 for a week now.
here's to welcoming true adulthood by beginning a new blog!
just a little post for now, I have a roadrunner costume to create and professors to appease.