yet another book suggestion, but this time there's an empty threat attached.

the perfect late summer read: this side of paradise by f. scott. fitzgerald.

i started it yesterday since we're in between book club (otherwise known as club dread according to robyn) picks since one of the three members decided to get married which apparently takes up time... (?) and it's seriously just what to read during these last days of august and the beginning of september.

try it. i dare you.

beware: shoes may be slippier than they appear.

so it seems my clock falling was just the beginning.

the next day i wore these cute little flats to work that are really slick on the bottom. i managed to maneuver up and down the stairs (the 3rd floor bathroom was out of order and i had to use the one on the 1st floor)quite successfully all morning. i must have been getting a little cocky because when i went for lunch at thurndercloud sub and tried to walk along that concrete slab at the end of parking spaces (incidentally, is there a name for that...?)i slipped in the most ungraceful way possible. it was like i teetered and slipped for a full minute before i crashed to the ground, still kind of on my feet and, of course, in front of a large window.

the next day i wore much safer shoes. i went to pei wei for lunch and as i was walking out of the porch area, i simply didn't see a step down after opening the porch rail gate. again, i didn't technically fall, but i did land in a really weird position with a look of utter confusion on my face. then i held my head up high and wandered the parking lot for a few minutes trying to remember where i parked.

yesterday i decided to brave hanging glass on my walls again. after breaking a picture frame when attempting to show claire and corbin where i was planning on hanging it a few nights before, i was a bit nervous. i'm happy to announce that this weekend i have neither slipped or broken anything. i believe a new leaf has been turned over.

sigh.

i've been living in an apartment with bare walls for a few weeks now. you see, i love decorating, but i have to be in the right mood. too creative as well as too mundane of a day could end in disastrous results.

i was on quite the roll bouncing from living room to bed room while canvases were drying listening to my ipod on shuffle (which is always an adventure in itself thanks to Robyn). i decided to sit for a while to a late dinner and to upload pictures from the weekend extravaganza when i saw the clock i had hung on the wall hours ago fall to the ground with a loud smash followed by the sound of small shards of glass tinkering to the ground. this beloved clock has made it through numerous moves and storage units but leave it to me to try to hang it unsuccessfully to its doom.

and i must admit although i plan to clean up the glass in a few days and hang up without it's glossy sheen, it is with a heavy heart that i write. i loved that clock and now in it's place is a nail that just couldn't handle the pressure.

sad day.

seeming is believing.

like with any new job in any new city, it takes a while to figure out the best route to and from work. i've been experimenting for a few weeks now.

i realized a few days ago that i'd found a route i particularly liked and that i'd been taking it more often than not. i also realized that although it feels like it's quicker than other routes i've discovered, in reality it's a bit longer. only a few minutes longer, but longer nevertheless. i found myself choosing the way home from work that seemed quicker, not the actual quickest route.

...and i began to wonder: do i always choose perception over reality?

are there other areas of my life that i choose what i want over what's real?

if there are, is that okay?

pre-madmen mondays.

so i decided i wanted a productive evening this evening. here's how it went down:

i've recently been liking salsa for the first time which is weird considering my extreme aversion to anything tomato. every time i've tried it recently i think, "this is almost really good. if only it didn't have a few ingredients." so tonight i decided to make my own. turns out those ingredients (namely peppers and cilantro) are semi important in the overall salsa taste. i chopped up some tomatoes and onions, added some black beans and corn, mixed in some garlic salt and topped it off with quite a lot of lime juice. it's intriguing at best. good thing my fajitas turned out better. although the cooking lesson should be to to stop trying to cook new things (rarely do i cook something experimentally that turns out edible) somehow i took away that i must not really be warming up to tomatoes.

after "cooking" dinner, i signed up for netfliks, and started watching watchmen.

all in all, a very productive evening.

recovering from dancing the night away at robyn and andy's wedding(sore calves and massive quantities of mosquito bites)sure can be tough...

dancing.

is it possible to be too confident on the dance floor when you're a bridesmaid at a wedding?

coffeeshop suggestion and fashion suggestion needed.

who wouldn't want to go to a coffee shop named "flipnotics"? if you live in the greater austin area, you should give it a try. i'm planning on it in the very near future. very near. i mean there's aliens on their website. i'm kind of wondering to myself why that seems to be a theme in my life as of late. coincidence? do those even exist? ("those" referring, of course to coincidences, not aliens...)

on a different note, what should a 25-year-old wear to one of her best friend's rehearsal dinner? i'm kind of limited on my dress selection to funky/casual or cute/dressier. suggestions?

documentary suggestion.

if you need a quite evening at home, i would recommend the documentary "stone reader." it's the perfect wednesday night flick after information overload at a new job.

you may be tempted to re-arrange your bookshelf while you watch. just succumb to the temptation.

evening suggestion.

I would recommend listening to Dragonfly by My Brightest Diamond on your ipod while sitting on a roof somewhere looking at the stars. Feel free to put it on repeat if necessary.

before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkD-3r7lQGQ

as a side note: IKEA's catalog department is incredible. i ordered one yesterday and got it in the mail today...how is that even possible? good work fellows!

Happier than a bird.

I am a firm believer that you have not actually christened an apartment until you have had your first heaping plate of french fries there.

Because of this belief and my recent move to a new place, I decided that no matter the cost I would make this happen. I went to HEB and bought a medium sized package of frozen, non-seasoned crinkle fries.

I had a few obvious roadblocks and a one covert one.
Obvious Roadblock #1: I don't have a baking sheet - it's still safe and sound in storage.
Obvious Roadblock #2: My microwave is 1,000 years old (meaning that it does not work.)
Covert Roadblock #1: The large stove top burner sparked at me and began to get cooler, not hotter with time.

Solution - I put a significant portion of the frozen fries on a skillet and balanced it on the tiny and unstable burner. Although the fries were a bit burnt on the outside and still quite frozen in the middle, I am happy to report that my apartment is officially mine. Feel free to congratulate me in whatever way you deem appropriate.

trash.

As I took out my trash last night I was attacked.

I threw the first bag into the dumpster and heard a rustling noise. I immediately backed away and was convinced that the noise was caused either by a cougar or a hiding man. Then a rather hefty raccoon jumped out, heading directly for me. I, of course, waved my bag of trash in it's direction to ward of the impending danger and let out a little scream. When did I become such a girl?

The interesting thing is that I didn't scream until I saw that it was a raccoon even though a raccoon is clearly not as scary as a cougar or a man.

My sheer size must have intimidated the raccoon. It scampered away and ran for the fence but it couldn't fit under the fence it's first try so I guess I should have said it ran into the fence. The second escape attempt was successful and that was the last I saw of the raccoon although it's presence haunted me for the better part of the night.

I tell this story as a warning to everyone everywhere to look out for oversized raccoons when you take out the trash as to use his or her size to his or her advantage if found in a similar situation in the future.

the only poem i have memorized.

there once was a man from wheeling.
who had an expectorant feeling.
but a sign on the door
said don't spit on the floor
so he looked up and spat on the ceiling.

name that blur.

i am not great a capturing concerts with a photo.
i get all caught up in the energy and sound of the music and then thrust my camera in the air and snap what i imagine to be a likeness on film to what i am experiencing in real life.
this is what i ended up with:

name that band? anyone besides claire?! answer: the fabulous barcelona.

this caused me to wonder if this has always been an issue for me. i'll let you decide:













solution: attend more concerts until i figure out the "night fall" setting on my camera

good morning regular person lemon.

paradise has finally come to earth (meaning, of course, that hulu has posted the entire season 3 of 30 rock online and available, free, and perfectly legally to the general public.)

to the friends I hung out with last night: know the depth of the sacrifice I made in leaving my computer.

to the people who live in the apartment next to me: i apologize if my laughing woke you up this morning at 6:30am.

to the friends i will hang out with in the next 15 days: please overlook the fact that everything can be (and clearly in my opinion should be) related to 30 rock.

and to the person reading this who has never seen 30 rock: give it 3 episodes

i am intrigued at coffee shop etiquette.

right now i am sitting at a local coffee shop and all 9 tables have one person sitting down and either staring at a book or a computer screen.

of course there is the exception of the man in the white linen shirt and khakis attempting to flirt with the older lady with the "i voted" stickers on her laptop. I wonder if she got one sticker each time she voted or if she just grabbed a handful. i guess i'll never know. (if i was more like my apartment locator, i would just walk up and ask her. i'm seriously way too stuck in social norms like not talking to strangers. something to aspire to.)

what i think drives me the most crazy is when some guy sits at the table in front of you and ends up facing you (see diagram below). then, whether or not he's cute, you end up looking up to see if he's looking at his computer, or looking at you because you can feel it when someone is looking at you but it certainly isn't a science...and things just get awkward and i end up leaving.















or when someone is sitting behind you and can see your screen:















and they comment on the picture you've set as a background. usually, for me, it's something strange that has no explanation:













and then i awkwardly mumble something about my friends being really strange and how i don't really know what to say...and then i suddenly have somewhere i need to be and fast.

does this kind of thing happen to anyone else or am i somehow mistaken about social norms in a coffee shop?

another random story: the day after MJ died, the staff at this particular joint decided to express their grief by playing his music at really high decimals and not serving anyone who came to the register. i respected their decision and enjoyed not having to pay for coffee to use their internet, but many people were disgruntled. one man in particular found it nearly impossible to concentrate on his crossword puzzle and shouted at the staff to turn down the music which, of course, they couldn't hear what he was saying and ignored him until he left in a huff. really - in a huff.

anyway i guess the moral of these stories is that if you don't like the coffee shop you're in, it's up to you to leave.

i'll let you extrapolate the deeper meaning yourselves.

babyface.

so i've been 25 for about 7 months and i think that i look my age, but inevitably as i'm sitting at a coffee shop doing something really important on my laptop and some awkward older man will mention to me that he is so happy to have days of writing papers and homework behind him. from there, as i see it, i have one of five options:

1.) ignore his stinging comment even though i've been out of college for 3 years.
2.) politely let him know that i am actually doing something really important and have been out of college for 3 years.
3.) curse under my breath that i've been out of college for 3 years.
4.) make an equally awkward comment about having been out of college for 3 years and how i'll appreciate looking younger than my age when i'm older.
5.) laugh to myself at a random man in the background who, upon emerging from the restroom has decided to stop and check himself out at the full length mirror including rolling and unrolling his t-shirt sleeves for several minutes completely unaware that i can see him from my chair.

i'm going to choose option 5 every time.

(i would like to dedicate this post to the beautiful kristin wood.)