You can deck out a lie in a suit, but I won't buy it

Eleven Questions

2012-02-08T10:23:00.001-08:00

this came at a good time. i've felt the need to blog, but had nothing to say.

UNTIL NOW!

tanks, judith. tanks.

11 things about me, 11 questions to answer and 11 questions for someone else to answer...although i know less than 11 people in this entire world so i'm not holding my breaf.

Random Crap

1) february 22 will be 6 years since i was diagnosed with MS

2) the only pop tarts i'll eat are unfrosted strawberry

3) i met my husband through xanga

4) i went to a garth brooks concert on january 17, 1993

5) i was lil' miss darbonne range rider rodeo queen in 1993 (it was a big year)

6) my hair was down to my buttocks for much of my pre-adolescence.

7) i used to eat my cereal dry...as in sans milk, but still in a bowl with a spoon

8) i played the flute and piccolo in marching band

9) i also cheered for 6 years and we won state my senior year

10) i have the world's flattest feet so i will always look awkward in heels

11) my obsession with my dog knows no bounds

My Questions from Judith

1) Why did you decide to go to college? Or not go to college?

both of my parents and both of my brothers went to LA Tech, so it was kind of an obligation. i loved it though.

2) How did you pick your children's names? (And, if you don't have kids, do you have the names picked out?)

matt and i discuss our future children's names a lot. and we disagree a lot. if we have a girl, i want to name her lila because that was my best friend's mom's name when i was growing up and she recently passed away from parkinson's. maybe calvin for a boy because it's common but not common. cal for short. like cal ripken. little cal everett.

3) What was your favorite book as a kid?

ramona quimby, age 8

4) Favorite book as an adult?

redeeming love is the only book i've read more than once. but less than 3 times.

5) Is there some food item you hated as a kid but now like as an adult?

cheese. you read that right.

6) What's the best thing about your job?

flexible hours

7) What's the worst thing about your job?

no paycheck

8) Why do you blog?

because i can type faster than i can write. and i have a bad memory.

9) Why do you read my blog? Ha!

because you're my friend and i miss you (awwwwww)

10) Do you do Valentine's Day cards to family members/your significant other?

matt and i aren't big on cards. the only birthday card i ever gave him was a spiderman card that said something about a grandson. the only birthday card he's given me referred to me as a beautiful african sister. so no. we don't do cards.

11) What's your favorite flower?

i like roses which comes in handy when you live in the city of roses.

If You Dare...

1) Who taught you how to drive?

2) What's your dream car?

3) Favorite Bath and Body Works scent?

4) Is there a song/band that you absolutely hate? Like Taylor Swift?

5) Is there a piercing/tattoo that you really want?

6) What's your worst habit?

7) Does that damn ASPCA Sarah McLaughlin commercial ruin your entire day?

8) Name two people that would be on your "Elevator List."

9) Do you have a favorite Vera Bradly pattern?

10) Does the token stop spinning at the end of Inception?

11) Could you ever be vegan/vegetarian?

i need cheering up

2012-01-23T14:35:00.000-08:00

i have a case of the moonsdays.

we put an offer on (another) short sale as soon as we moved here. we were hoping to hear from the bank this week, which we did. they accepted our offer. but i forgot there's two lenders that have to approve. and the second lender could take another 30 days. and then a 45 day closing. this house is right down from the first house we put an offer on (and lost) and looks exactly the same, except it's about 200 sq ft smaller. i have a stack of paint swatches on the counter. ready to get this show in the road.

also...i have 3 headhunters but no job. funny how i'm great at attracting headhunters but not employers. *pity party alert* so i sit here alone all day in an apartment full of boxes. and while this apartment is definitely livable, i'm quite certain methuselah was the first tenant of this place. whatever color appliance came before the awesome 70s avocado is what this place is outfitted with. i don't do well in temporary situations. anxiety robs me of sleep. *ends pity party*

we did get lots of pretty snow last week though. thick, fluffy snow. and this is what i get to see when i convince myself to run up the neighboring hill.

just ready to start making portland home.

so this is the new year...

2012-01-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

...and i don't feel any different

i start off the first post of each year that way. death cab lives!

it's funny how i'd actually rather sit here and beat myself up about not blogging than actually blog.

masochism.

this is my 11th day living here. we're squatting in an apartment that's very old, but clean and functional. we put an offer on another short sale (why is every house we like a SS?!?!?!), so now we get to wait to hear from the bank(s).

i got crazy spoiled by staying with my parents in dallas for two weeks. big comfy bed, my mom did my laundry and took me shopping every day. spoiled. eden and ella became bff.

then the night before flying here, i decided to go bat shit cray cray. so scared to leave my family and fly to a strange apartment in a strange city.

i'm much better now. i've found a target, a mall and a liquor store. and 283942224922 starbucks. so i'm good.

also, i've been watching "glee" on netflix and reading "the hunger games." i am almost caught up on pop culture.

i was in bed at 11:50pm on NYE. fail.

and running up massive hills in the cold is like a slow death.

soundtrack of 2011

2011-12-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

i usually post the songs in chronological order...but since this year was ridicrazy, i didn't get a chance to keep a running list.

civilian - wye oak

so american - portugal. the man

i can never relax - hellogoodbye

pink champagne - lovedrug

monster monster - the almost

terrible world, give me more! - the bigger lights

direction - the starting line

she was raised by a man with a sickness - bradley hathaway

kmag yoyo - hayes carll ( got made fun of for that one)

plath heart - braids

you told the drunks i knew karate - zoey van goey

go outside - cults

abducted - cults

you know what i mean - cults

oh my god - cults

for you - angus & julia stone

down in the valley - the head & the heart

we will all be changed - seryn

simple math - manchester orchestra

unrequited love - lykki li

mr moon - eisley

baby - warpaint

home - edward and the magnetic zeros

your hand in mine - explosions in the sky (theme song to FNL)

i and love and you - the avett brothers

like a fool - lawrence arabia

don't stop (color on the walls) - foster the people

pumped up kicks - foster the people

thin air - aqualung

rox in the box - the decemberists

take your mama - scissor sisters

look at me now - chris brown ft busta and lil wheezy (i WILL know all the words by 2012)

i'm leaving some out. i always do.

"you win, you always do."

- robert goule

the 12 days of new orleans

2011-11-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

i have 12 more days here. twelve car-less days. apparently it takes a loooong time to ship a car to portland, so we went ahead and dropped his car off at the shipping place and we're just left with rosie.

this post was interrupted by her highness, ella the butt, who "needed" to go potty and in the process, i locked myself out of the house. none of my neighbors were home, but they were showing a house across the street. so i scurry across the street in my fuzzy snowflake slippers and ask the potential tenant if i can use his phone. thankfully, he was a nice guy and matt was able to come let me in. but still...ella's fault.

speaking of showing houses, we're hoping to move into this little jewel in the next couple of months.

we gave away 90% of our furniture last night to a sweet girl that had been in eastern europe as a missionary for the past 6 years. so we have nothing to put in said house. but it sure is cute. and portland has an ikea (!!!)

as you know...

2011-11-13T20:27:00.000-08:00

...we're moving to portland, or

but in case you didn't know, here's some pics of portland and all her beauty.

now shopping for a raincoat and hunter wellies.

coming soon

2011-11-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

i'll (most likely) have some news to share in the coming days.

until then enjoy this picture from christmas 2007

tear jerker

2011-10-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

i'm not a big crier at movies. i've been known to well up during certain films (blue valentine), but mainly just if an animal died. not a human. animal.

but there have been 4 movie/tv moments that have made me cry like a big dumb homo.

i will share them with you, in chronological order:

1) ok, fine, i sobbed after i saw pearl harbor. i saw it in the theater in high school. i was misty-eyed during the scene where danny is dying and raf tells him he's gonna be a daddy. but then i got in my car to drive home and lost it. i sat in the parking lot, bellering on the phone to my mom about how they named the baby "danny" and raf and evelyn raised him together. i missed my curfew.

2) when ryan atwood left at the end of the first season of the oc. run-on sentence. but seriously. ryan does the noble thing and leaves the cohen's mansion to go raise his bastard kid. literally drives off into the sunset. but when jeff buckley's "hallelujah" starts...and kirsten starts stripping the sheets off his bed and sobbing...UGLY.CRY.

3) i was way late in seeing the shawshank redemption. but after i saw it, matt literally had to hold me, while i pressed my salty sticky face into his polo shirt. the old man that works in the prison library is released from prison. nowhere to go. doesn't know a soul. and he winds up hanging himself. this poor, old grampy hung himself. and it tore me up something good. major soft spot for fogeys.

4) friday night lights spoiler. but you see it coming a mile away so it doesn't really matter. first off, i just love matt saracen. the way he talks like his mouth is full of marbles. his patience with his schizo grandma. i want a travel-sized matt saracen. but then...when his father dies. wow. the performance zach gilford gives as he goes through the 5 stages of grief is incredible. it was a long, hard, snotty, swollen-eyed sobfest.

i have to go. i have a...food...in the oven.

fantasy knuckleheads

2011-10-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

last year, matt joined a fantasy football league at work. neither of us were really into the NFL before (except for the saints!), but it was really fun. especially since he won. so i wanted to play this year.

we started a league with some friends from church that was originally 5 girls and 3 guys. so me and my friend, meredith, decided we really needed to punch it up with some girly team names. we eventually had 2 more guys join the league, but that didn't stop me from naming my team "the monistat 7." and with a current record of 0-3, i have last place firmly locked.

i usually don't have fun when i lose, but this is still fun. matt, of course, is undefeated. anything that involves some element of luck is an automatic death sentence for me. the brashears are not known for their luck.

in other news, tiny little ella biscuit had to get her yearly shots yesterday and she is beyond puny today. we enjoy laughing at her misery, which bodes well for our future children.

slacker

2011-09-03T19:10:00.001-07:00

i always intend to blog more. i just never do.

so here's what i've been up to in DIY Land:

this is the box valance i made for our big living room window. using foam board, of all things.

i had to buy a staple gun and scared myself to death using it. i'm not so good with guns.

hubby bought me a sewing machine! it's for my birthday. which is in october. c'est la vie. got that "telephone desk" at a thrift store.

obligatory ella picture. this is how the doofus sleeps.

my first sewing project! well the green one anyways. the other one was the first pillow i ever made and i used stitch witchery. not.a.fan. it'll probably get redone.

i sewed the first two here. the orange in the back is another victim of my stitch witchery. also, i'm addicted to buying fabric off of ebay. actually, the yellow one was a remnant from joann's. i get social anxiety when i have to go to the fabric cutting lady at fabric stores so i just use the remnants. it's gonna be the next big trend in sewing.

all my happy throw pillows in all of the their non-matching glory.

this was a no-sew pillow cover. just knotted the fabric in the middle. i think it'd look better with a solid colored fabric but that's boring.

i was trying to get a better view of the knot. the busy-ness of this pattern (called "vintage people"...presh) really camouflaged my expertly tied boy scout knot.

in other news, tropical storm lee is here this weekend. it has beat my poor impatiens bloomless and woke me up several times with its howling winds.

also, i cut my hair into an angled bob. it's cute as a button. next time, purple streaks.

mid-life crisis?

casa de everett (picture-heavy)

2011-08-09T18:50:00.001-07:00

matt and i have lived in our current house for about 4 months and i realize i've never really posted any pics of it. mainly because it is still quite sparse. we went from 900 sq ft to 1500 sq ft and definitely not enough furniture to fill it up. i'm also only showing pics of the rooms that i don't mind people seeing. and a couple of DIY doo-hickies at the end.

first off, this is the episode of the office that was on while i was taking pictures (we have a tv in our bedroom...our marriage is doomed). can you guess which episode it is, misti dawn harrington walker?? ("i call this...'the bumper test'")

you may recognize that magic eye looking canvas from this post. it has been replaced and now sits on top of the bookshelf in the guest room. please do not closely inspect said bookshelf...it was a PITA to put together. three things of note: the terrifying pic of ella on the top shelf, my tech bulldog and my "serve it up" award from pine cove on the bottom shelf.

this is to show how bare the guest room is. my mom did the painting on the wall. her wall art is much better than mine. and all my winter shoes are in that closet.

we do have an actual bed in the guest room. the mismatched bedding looks bizarre, i realize. and i actually think my avocado chair looks good with the teal curtain. you'll notice i don't hang two curtain panels on any window. it's a quirk. DEAL WITH IT.

this is ella biscuit wanting me to open the blinds so she can watch the neighborhood cats nap on our front porch. i didn't oblige. suck it, pal.

one view of the living room. please note: the 70s loveseat inherited from my parents, the one curtain panel and the tissue paper flower on the coffee table. i fit no style mold.

ella laying by her favorite pillow. i made the cover out of 2 napkins from world market.

the couch where my butt expands from east to west. and ella naps all the live long day. jan also did that painting above the couch. she made it manly for matt.

this floor lamp was a nice garish brass color so i first tried painting it krylon's "tuscan sunset." totally came out titty pink. so it got repainted in jade. much better.

another sommer original. just give me some painter's tape and some neon acrylics.

matt doesn't like the pink so i've made its home in my bathroom. because in 3 years of marriage, we've yet to actually share a bathroom.

there's two other bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room, a foyer and two porches that i didn't include. maybe one day.

a (blog) break from DIY

2011-08-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

i've still been DIY-ing my little rump off, but i decided a spontaneous non-DIY post was in order. because this is important.

2011 is over half-way done. we're on the downhill slope to fall and pumpkins and soup and cardigans and spiced cider. and while 2010 proved to be a great year in terms of music, this year has been, shall we say, underwhelming.

but two little jewels have occupied all my ipod time this year.

first off is lykke li (pronounced like "licky lee"). she has phoebe's "sexy phlegm" going on and while her newest album wounded rhymes initially started my infatuation, her older album, youth novel, is equally enchanting. she does sing a song about prostitution called "get some," so i wouldn't necessarily recommend her for your 8 year old iCarly-tee-shirt-wearing prepubescent.

Then there's Cults. yes, they have a penchant for long hair. and yes their name is "Cults." but look at that doll-faced little piece up there. with a sugary sweet voice to match AND her name is madeleine ("lighter than air") which is only one of the most preciousiestestest names ever. their songs will forever remind me of summer. and not just because it's summer. and i'm listening to them. they are in the lead for my prestigious "band of the year" for 2011. i've never done a band of the year, but it's still prestigious.

i would say pandora these fools, but i'm way past pandora and have been building my life around spotify. get.your.spotify.on. listen to pretty much any song for free. FO FREE. that's my favorite price.

p.s. i quit biting my fingernails about a month ago and it's hard learning to retype with these raptor talons!

my DIY is getting better

2011-07-27T15:42:00.001-07:00

i've moved on from pouring paint into jars and calling it a craft to making things that are actually useful.

i used to keep all my jewelry (well, necklaces. i own like 3 bracelets) in a jewelry organizer that hung in the closet. when we moved to this house, i realized the rod in the new closets was too big for the hook on my jury thingie. so it hung on our closet door for months. until i saw this idea on pinterest.

i already had the towel rack (which was a blinding nickle silver) so i got some $5.99 shower curtain hooks from marshall's and some oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

i think i may have hung it a little high, but i have some long necklaces and i didn't want them dangling in the laundry hamper below. Dangle. Hee hee.

obligatory picture of "ella-pecia" in all her devil eyed glory.

now my coffee filter lamp has been a debacle. gluing on the filters was no problem. but when i screwed the shade on my original lamp base that was reeeeeeally skinny, it looked like a mushroom. on meth. a methroom. so i bought a plain white one at tarjay and spray painted it.

our guest bedroom has: 1) a bed, 2) a table, and 3) a chair. that's it.

oh and this lamp. it's a shame when a table lamp is the focal point of a huge bedroom.

lately i've been making tissue paper flowers like a fool but i've been too lazy to take pictures...mainly because they are lame.

it's been raining too much to run so that's how i've been spending my time. it lets my shin splints heal.

Now that we're home...

2011-07-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

...here's my Top 5 Favorite Things About Seattle (besides food, since I already covered that):

1) The weather. Holy crap. It may have possibly reached in the 70s the first few days but after that, it never got out of the 60s. I don't think I even sweated. Like at all.

2) The coffee. Duh. I took pics of the foam art on our lattes/mochas but they're on my phone and I'm lazy. Seattle Coffee Works was our fave. All drinks had double espresso as a standard. Didn't have to bother with "an extra shot." And they had a "slow bar" that we didn't get to take advantage of. **hates ending sentences with prepositions.

3) The flowers. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo beautiful.

These baskets hung from every light post.

The market had the biggest peonies I've ever seen. And $10 bouquets!

These window boxes ran along the top of every store in the market. Sunflowers are so happy.

4) The views. When we were riding in the cab to our hotel from the airport, we immediately noticed the beautiful trees and mountains. And then we actually went up to an observation tower and wow...
We didn't go to the Space Needle because it was too far to walk and cabs were a hassle. But the building we went to on Jefferson and 5th was actually higher so we got a better view. Say "hi" to the Space Needle!

5) The people. Cars stopped and let us cross the street. Just out of human decency. And all of our waiters/waitresses were sooooooo nice and personable. Is southern hospitality a myth?

Today, I'm vacation-sick. And I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Vacation Food

2011-07-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

So Matt and I have been in Seattle on vacation this week. And while I love New Orleans food in all its fried-in-peanut-oil glory, I've loved eating some fresh, fresh West coast seafood.

These are my favorites (in order):

(also, misti, feel free to stop reading if this is going to make you eat your pillow or alan's head.)

1) The special at Serious Pie on Sunday was pizza with roasted garlic, chanterelle (sp?) mushrooms, and buffalo mozzarella. OMG. The roasted garlic was like candy. So sweet and creamy and NOM NOM NOM.

2) Ivar's crab cakes are the BEST EVER. With a stone ground mustard aioli and topped with basil/balsamic tomatoes. Holy rusted metal.

3) Shrimp cups!!! The fish market at Pike's would sell these little cups of huge shrimp drowning in a homemade cocktail sauce. We ate them twice.

And although not a food, we also visited The Juice Emporium twice for coconut, pineapple and watermelon juice. SO yummy. And healthy!

Soon will be back to the tasteless swill that manage to scrounge up so we don't starve. Saddest!!!

very, very, very basic DIY

2011-06-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

i'm not terribly crafty. ok. i'm not crafty. i can't draw, paint, and i have terrible handwriting. but what i can do is smear paint on random objects and call it a craft. here's a collection of my elementary, simple, duuurrrhhhhh "crafts."

these were two vases that i'd held onto from the times matt got me roses. the color scheme i'm going for in the living room is oranges/corals and blues with hints of sage/avocado. so at michael's, i picked up a bottle of acrylic paint in pumpkin and one in turquoise. afterwards, i realized that the orange one really does resemble a pumpkin. but i digress.

all i did was wash and dry the vases and then pour an indeterminable amount of paint in each one. i added a dash of water (i really just wet my hand and let drip a few drops into the vase) to thin out the paint a little and then swirled it until it covered the entire inside of the vase. i put it upside down on a paper plate for about thirty minutes, wiped the top with a wet rag and then let it finish drying right side up overnight. NOT rocket surgery. but i like them.

also while i was at michael's, i grabbed two cans of spray paint (krylon's "blue ocean breeze" and "avocado"). the avocado is my latest obsession. i tried it out on my cupcake stand that was originally silver and i'm liking it.

i liked it enough that decided to paint a whole chair. i even went to the trouble to sand and prime the chair before using two cans of spray paint.

my old desk lamp needed a facelift so i gave it a coat of blue ocean breeze. i'm going to get brown coffee filters to make a "ruffled" shade for it, but i lack coffee filters. and a glue gun.

i didn't bother to take "before" pictures because i'm lazy and scared to try new things. this vase was originally a nice lemon/lime polka dot pattern. so it got ocean breezed too. i just put some painters tape around the opening and stuffed a plastic bag in it to keep the opening neat. it actually worked!

oh my. so i tried to make some abstract art for the master bath. michael's had some canvases on sale 2/$6 AND a 25 pc set of paint brushes for $4.99...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so i got two shades of blue acrylic paint and one white and just mixed in the white with each of the blues to make the medium and light shades. close up, it looks like it was done by a third grader.

and here's how it looks in the bathroom. adds some color at least.

i'm thinking about spray painting some picture frames (loving the warm "tuscan sunset" shade) and maybe the floor lamp in our living room (brass? voms).

lest i forget...

2011-06-02T20:00:00.001-07:00

because TLC has decided that another show about a tattoo shop was in order, i now have even more tat ideas swimming through my mind. i need to make a list. so i don't forget.

1) a dandelion with its seeds blowing across my arm/shoulder/back with the verse from Ruth that says, "where you go, i will go." that's for matt. my love.

2) a hot air balloon. for two reasons: the first being that we saw lots of hot air balloons in napa valley on our honeymoon and i loved it. the second being the considerably cheesy fact that the more weight is dropped off the balloon, the higher it flies. see the symbology?

ssssssymbolism. what is the syyyyymbolism.

name that movie.

3) the much admired banksy drawing i posted a while back of the girl with the umbrella.

4) i have a porcelain hand mirror that my grandmother painted for me. it has a single iris on it and i'd love to get that tattooed somewhere in her honor.

5) an orange ribbon for MS awareness!!!

if i get all of those, that'll bring me to a total of 8. this is like a disease.

some pointless crap

2011-05-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

our whole bedroom reeks of sunless tanner.

because i felt compelled to buy a romper. i'm 17, right?

no...?

bummer.

so i've started running. i'm slow as molasses and sweat like a hot donkey, but i managed to shave a minute off my mile time this week. don't expect that to happen again for a while. but i did find a $5 bill on the sidewalk across from the snoball stand whilst running. i gave it to the Lord.

and then i found $5 in my pants pocket this morning. full circle, bay-BEE!

so now that i'm actually doing some physical activity, my appetite is off the charts. my tummy begs for comestibles waaaay more than it used to and it has FORCED me to make cookies and buy a bag of chocolate chips today. to bake more cookies. and completely FUBAR some homemade pop-tarts. the strawberry filling hemorrhaged out of the "pop-tarts" while they were baking, leaving me with baked pie crust (i.e. lard) covered in glaze. my tummy does the dougie just thinking about it. oy.

also, i'm pretty obsessed with her blog. it's mainly about adoption (international, transracial) which isn't something i'm terribly interested in (yet) but i do enjoy her stories of raising 4 kids (all under age 6). and of course, i'm a sucker for a fellow cynical, sarcastic, socially awkward, closet twilight lover. her transparency when it comes to child-rearing gives me confidence that i could actually bring a child into this world and not screw it up completely.

*matt just closed the bathroom door and it scared the piss out of a sleeping ella. bless those hypersensitive ears.

cause you're my wifey...

2011-05-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

i've felt very wife-ish this weekend. yesterday i bought two baskets of impatiens and an indoor ivy to spruce up our porch and living room. i mopped. i made another pillow cover (i accidentally did it wrong-side out so that was an hour wasted, drinking coffee and listening to offensive ganster rap while my iron did all the work). i made a yummy mexican chicken and rice casserole. matt and i washed both our cars and now we're both sipping on homemade margaritas, complete with fresh limes, simple syrup and patron.

we both took off work friday to go to jazzfest. actually, we took off last friday too. to go to jazzfest. last friday, we saw mumford and sons (i could cry just thinking about it) and both got burned to a "frazzlin' crisp" as my dad would say. i was smarter this week and wore long-sleeves, thanks to our purty 75 degree weather.

friday night we saw arcade fire. my life changed forever. if you do not know who they are, i'm going to have to re-evaluate our friendship. ok i don't mean that, but seriously. they are fabulous. and cyndi lauper magically appeared during their encore for "girls just wanna have fun." i was mad trippin, yo.

i also did a gallery wall in our living room that i wasn't digging at first, but now i'm lovin. i also googled "spackling drywall" so that all of my nail holes can eventually be repaired. i'm not real big on measuring...

and happy mother's day to my sweet mom. that i used to bring bouquets of weeds to, thinking they were actual beautiful flowers.

beiber on the next ABDC?? well, suck me sideways...

{dumb and dumber quote.}

frugal freveretts

2011-04-24T20:16:00.001-07:00

we've lived in our new house about a week now. we still have boxes piled in what we call "the atrium" that are full of wall decor and knick knacks. lesson 1#: don't buy all your decor specific to your current casa. because chances are it won't work in your next one.

goal: i need to learn how to cluster our frames/wall art so that the one painting that looked great on our tiny apartment walls doesn't look so sad and lonely on our more expansive house walls.

also...i've decided to entertain this thing called "frugality" and also massage the notion of being more eco-friendly. we bought a HE washer/dryer. which i stare at from time to time because it's so beautiful. i only use mrs. meyer's clean day counter spray (plant-derived essential oils) instead of fun bleachy, chemically cleaners. i just repurposed two antique glass bowls into a jewelry holder on my dresser and remote holder on my nightstand.

i made a pillow cover out of two napkins from world market and an old pillow and hem tape. total cost was less than $6.

i bought a head of romaine lettuce instead of those bags of greens that can cost almost $4. some roasted red peppers, sunflower seeds, parm and a little dressing...mmm mmm mmm.

our dinner tonight cost about $1. kraft spaghetti dinner: $1.59. can of tomato paste: .33. and we can eat it for two nights which averages to about $1/night. don't worry, we don't eat that college dormish every night.

we have tons of jasmine and gardenia growing right by our front porch so we have a constant (for now) supply of amazing smelling fresh flowers.

next up: more earth-friendly and wallet-friendly toiletry items (shampoo, body wash, etc) and homemade cleaners (but i doubt i can ever EVER beat the amazing smell of mrs meyer's lemon verbena).

and maybe a picture or two of the house when it's not nighttime outside because i become an overexcited school boy sometimes. don't know what i was thinking...

beep beep ribbi ribbi

2011-04-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

google it.

if you will kindly recall this post, i'd like to share with a bit of irony.

as of this past wednesday, my bank has been purchased by another bank and as of september, i'm back on the job market. does the world think i particularly enjoy looking for jobs? because i do not.

for a little brighter news, two weeks from today we are moving into the cutest little house that you ever did see. whose yard is overflowing with jasmine and a front porch adorned with the preciousist of swings. it's a good thing.

that's not a lot of info but it carries a bit of weight so i'll let it marinate in your eyes, heart and brain before i continue the never-ending drama that is life as an everett.

things in my head...

2011-03-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

...besides brain lesions.

there's a flurry of thoughts swirling around my wee mind and i need to get them out.

- muses thursday night = fun supreme. i didn't get a shoe but i did get a lunch box. and i got kissed by a rolling elvi.

- i just bought water for elephants, on the road, and me talk pretty one day. i hope reading them is as much fun as purchasing them off of amazon.

- i baked this weekend. banana bread and strawberry muffins. there's only two of us that live here. carb supreme.

- the new eisley album is growing on me. it's hard for me to accept change.

- speaking of which, we have a system conversion going live on friday and that will undoubtedly be the worst time of my life. so terrible it requires a sublist of its terriblicity:

*i'll be working til 10pm or later friday night.

*only to be back at 9am SATURDAY morning for the whole day

*matt flies to wisconsin for a week at 6am sunday

*daylight savings time begins. as in spring FORWARD. to certain death.

- needless to say, i'm not too excited.

- and cpa scores are released on st patty's day. my irishness better not fail me or there'll be another potato famine.

- i got a haircut i actually like. i previously looked like a hammerhead shark.

- i had 4 muffins and a piece of chicken fried steak for dinner. at 10pm.

i feel better now.

i will cry...

2011-02-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

...if on that fateful day in march, i see passing scores flash on the computer screen. this needs to be over because the last few months, my wittle bwain has been conjuring up all sorts of things to do once i no longer have this monkey on my back.

"i hate monkeys." - michael scott

these are a few items on my list!

- make this wreath

- bake. bake like no one has baked before.

- learn to play some other chords besides "g" on the geetar.

- watch weeds, it's always sunny, curb your enthusiasm, entourage, how i met your mother, modern family, etc.

- make any and every thing on these blogs.

- continue my obsession with this

- see band of horses, mumford and sons and arcade fire

- thrift shop (specifically on magazine.)

- eat 5 billion bee sweet cupcakes

- watch my dog's fur not grow

that should do it. oh and read. for FUN.

please please please let me get what i want.

(name that reference)

Do-Over

2011-01-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

matt and i had our second wedding anniversary back in october and since then, i've contemplated a few things that i would've done differently concerning our wedding.

it's not a long list by any means. it was a virtually perfect day. but i thought i'd share anyway in hopes that my experiences might actually be helpful to someone.

1) i would not have worn a tiara. i'm not a tiara girl. i'm not sure what i was thinking. if i could do it over, a feathery fascinator would've been my headwear of choice.

2) i bought a perfume specifically for our wedding day because i think the little snapshot the photographer gets of the perfume bottle in the dressing room is neat. that's why i bought philosophy's "falling in love." and i left it in my ditty bag and didn't even wear it. i just smelled like...me.

3) i would've adamantly refused to walk down the aisle before my musical cue. the bridal party and myself all walked to the same song (sigur ros' "hoppipolla") and there was a handy lull in the middle of the song that was supposed to separate the bridal party and me. the wedding coordinator forced me down the aisle during the lull so i basically walked down to silence and got to the alter right as the crescendo signaling my entrance began. it has HAUNTED me. because i tend to be a little more than obsessed with music.

4) i would have either: worn brightly colored shoes OR dyed my crinoline. i tend to evaporate when i'm only wearing ivories and whites.

5) i wish we'd done a "first look" before the ceremony. it would've been nice to get wedding party pics out of the way pre-ceremony and gotten to the reception when the guests did. ahhh southern tradition.

i decided to negate these do-overs with some things that i'm SO glad i did:

1) super short ceremony. it was done in 20 minutes so neither of us had time to lock our knees and pass out.

2) NO garter toss. NO bouquet toss. and not just because everyone there was married.

3) wore my chucks during the reception. they helped the rhythm move me.

4) ella was the perfect flower girl and i am still so proud of that little turd.

5) hid matt's car so it couldn't be defamed while we partied. i was terrified of people stuffing lizards and crickets in our getaway car.

i'll end with a random tip:

i always clean my stovetop while i'm cooking something in the oven. the heat from the oven makes it super easy to clean grime off the stove.

i'm so domestic.

soundtrack of 2010

2011-01-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

because the only things i can think of to blog involve nostalgia, post-holiday blues, increased work hours and alopecia x, i'll play it safe with my soundtrack of 2010...in chronological order.

2010 Soundtrack

ambulance – eisley

the valley – eisley

chasm – flyleaf

circle – flyleaf

swept away – flyleaf

listen – an horse

tourist – julian casablancas

my girls – animal collective

lion in a coma – animal collective

dominoes – the big pink

bluish – animal collective

marry song – band of horses

swim until you can't see land – frightened rabbit

I cut like a buffalo – the dead weather

the party – st. vincent

I could be there for you – eisley

broken horse – freelance whales

sun hands – local natives

airplanes – local natives

the resistance (entire album) – muse

animal – miike snow

sylvia – miike snow

gazeretti – the starlight mints

diplomat's son – vampire weekend

brooklyn – wakey!wakey!

weighty ghost – wintersleep

bear – the antlers

sylvia – the antlers

never give you up – the black keys

sun feet – eisley

foot shooter – frightened rabbit

cold wind blows – eminem

eyes like candles – passion pit

w.t.p. - eminem

untitled – eminem

two headed boy, pt 2 – neutral milk hotel

rococo – arcade fire

sprawl II (mountains beyond mountains) – arcade fire

next girl – black keys

madder red – yeasayer

mirrors – new frontiers

walking on stones – new frontiers

after the storm - mumford & sons

awake my soul - mumford & sons

precious time – the maccabees

world sick – broken social scene

everlasting light – the black keys

sinister kid – the black keys

cosmic love – florence & the machine

the mama papa – plants & animals

good friend – plants & animals

yes I would – frightened rabbit

fun stuff – frightened rabbit

kids – sleigh bells

rill rill – sleigh bells

infinity guitars – sleigh bells

i got mine - the black keys

thin air - aqualung

terrible love - the national

only went to 3 shows all year. good thing they were all amazing.

my best of 2010

2010-11-30T16:31:00.000-08:00

this will be my first annual "best albums of 2010" post. i always do a soundtrack of the year, but soooo many good albums came out this year that i must elaborate on them.

no particular number in no particular order.

"gorilla manor" - local natives

great harmonies and their drummer is not human. they were at tulane not long ago.

what has two thumbs and missed it? this guy.

standout tracks: "sun hands" "airplanes" "who knows who cares"

"the suburbs" - arcade fire

it's no "funeral" but i tend to not like later albums much as older stuff. win butler's hair

is inexplicable.

standout tracks: "rococo" "sprawl II (mountains beyond mountains" "we used to wait"

"brothers" - the black keys

love love love love love this album. i feel like a badass when i listen to it. funky, bluesy,

sexy.

standout tracks: "sinister kid" "ten cent pistol"

"sigh no more" - mumford and sons

i know i won't be alone on this. everyone is obsessed with this album. folky, bluegrass

rock that makes for easy listening.

standout tracks: "the cave" "after the storm" "awake my soul"

"winter of mixed drinks" - frightend rabbit

there are no words. it's not as perfect as their previous album (midnight organ fight)

but that subtle scottish accent, lyrics that portray masculine vulnerability, and a live

show rivaled only by coldplay, i can NOT get enough of these guys.

standout tracks: "things" "foot shooter" and i DARE you not to tear up at "fun stuff"

i also found myself listening to several albums that were released prior to 2010, but i just now decided to try out.

"manners" - passion pit

perfect for getting my work day going. can barely understand a word they say.

"hands" - little boots

poppy with just the right about of indie weirdness.

"midnight organ fight" - frightened rabbit

perfectly perfect perfection.

"la la land" - plants and animals

saw them open for frightened rabbit and their quirkiness won my heart.

"forgiveness rock record" - broken social scene

because i love stars. the band and the balls of burning gas in the sky.

gas.

i'm sure you'll all be on pins and needles about my forthcoming soundtrack of 2010! and by all, i mean none.

areba. dare. chee.

your new poodle could be your noodle

2010-10-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

my mom sent me a really sweet email chronicling the day of my birth. i think i'll post it sometime.

in other news, cherry is long gone. she has been replaced by a red corolla named rosie. i miss cherry. but rosie is very comfortable. and practical. ewwwww. practical.

i meant to post this a while back but i get easily distracted (i.e. lazy). my parents are leaving the bustling metropolis of junction city for the quiet solitude of dallas. what...? do i have that backwards?

my dad started a new job a few weeks ago and mom is staying behind to sell the house. of my childhood. complete with our hand prints in the driveway from the day it was poured. and our playhouse in the backyard. the hall closet where i slept as a baby (i forget why). the chimney that santa could never fit down. the lazy susan that always got stuck on some random appliance accessory. the dining room that we were never allowed in cause the carpet was pristine (and peach. and still is). the bedroom window that i could never sneak in/out of. so i never tried.

the indoor planter that was originally supposed to be a hot tub. but instead used to be turned into a winter wonderland at christmas. with a motorized angel of some sort. and big styrofoam lollipops. and different color spotlights. willy wonka comes to mind.

sorry jan.

i don't really want someone else to live in my house.

i've had two toenails get ripped off in the last two days. that's an average of one a day.

i can haz math.

another story

2010-10-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

i have not enjoyed this week.

i'd like to apologize in advance to my dear, sweet office buddy, melissa, who has heard this story in detail multiple times over the last few days.

so on my lunch hour wednesday, i decide to drive around and look at some houses that are for sale. i'm on my way to the third house which is further out that the other two. i'm at a stoplight on a busy four-lane road when my sweet cherry darlin dies on me. no warning. no sputtering. no lurching. just dies. traffic light turns green and suddenly i'm THAT person. apparently the fact that my hazards are on doesn't tip anyone off and they continue to honk at my helpless ass as i sit there contemplating what good calling matt would do.

luckily, the guy beside me in traffic pulls over and pushes me onto a side street. he happens to be a mechanic! :D:D:D found out that cherry has a rotary engine and he wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. :(:(:(

after about an hour, cherry magically cranks. assuming she had overheated, i just left her there to continue cooling and matt dropped me back at work.

we take cherry to the dealership on thursday because no one else will fondle her rotary. that afternoon, i'm in the process of reading an email from a realtor when homedude from mazda calls me. and says, "i hope you're sitting down." no, my job is as a professional stander. i'm a statue.

so dude says my fuel pump needs replacing first of all so we're looking at at least $2000. yeah, there's 3 zeros on that. i choke on my own vomit and tell him i'll just have to talk to him later.

and then i cry because that means no house.

matt's like "aw, hell naw" when homedude tells him the news and says we'll pick cherry up and take her home cause we can't afford that right now.

we go to pick her up and those dirty hamsters left my glovebox sitting in the floorboard. with papers strewn about. i was DISPLEASED.

we took it to a new place and they are sooooo nice there. i promised to make them all brownies if they could get my cherry darlin back in tip top shape.

so that was my wednesday-friday. now i get to study for the $#@@#@ cpa exam which i take on monday.

at least it's october.

Firsts

2010-09-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

first cd i owned: celine dion - let's talk about love (gift, christmas 1997)

first pop song i ever heard: lisa loeb - stay (totally grew up on country. and rappin' rabbit.)

first music video i saw: the cardigans - lovefool (mtv was banned til i was like 15)

first car: 97 pontiac grand am. the windows didn't work and it flooded when it rained.

first kiss: i was 15. and it was awful. i was afraid i was gonna be a lesbian.

first day of 7th grade i wore: acid wash shorts and clear platform jellies. i had to put deodorant on the bottom of my feet so they wouldn't get sweaty and slide around.

first magazine i bought: a YM with antonio saboto jr on the cover. i was in 7th grade and i think it got taken away from me because there was a blurb in it about penises.

first text message: "i'm ron burgandy?" from topher cagle. in 2005. second edition nokia phone that i thought was so cool cause the sides lit up when it rang. and i had a louis vuitton phone cover.

first apartment: 305 w. california in ruston. we got robbed so i moved after my freshmen year.

first dance at my wedding: "heaven" by the fire theft. youtube it. now.

first homecoming date: mitchell wood in 8th grade. i had a ridiculously good time.

first big haircut: my SENIOR YEAR. senior year, people. went from middle of my back to my collarbone and i loved it and jan hated it.

first rated R movie: "scream" in 6th grade. had no idea what kind of movie i was about to see. scared the hell out of me. and i got in trouble.

first piercing: second hole when i was 16. downhill from there.

first job: first financial bank in el dorado. in the loan vault. and i got locked in it regularly.

i should quit while i'm ahead. that'd be a first.

i don't mind the rain

2010-08-29T20:22:00.001-07:00

as long as i can stay home on the couch.

i think it was determined this weekend that parkway tavern's surf and turf poboy is the leading poboy of new orleans. according to the everetts' palates. sophisticated as they are.

it has been raining like nobody's business. so today, matt and i watched some "arrested development" while the rain pitter-pattered. i got my favorite blanket, moved our unphotogenic dog out of matt's lap (sorry, ella. NOT!) and snuggled til i fell asleep.

i'm sorry but i have to say it.

five years ago, i was in hawaii. watching new orleans wash away from our condo tv. i got the same feeling i had on 9/11.

i stared at the tv.

"ok, what?"

.........

"ok, i'm sorry, what?"

my comprehension skills were not up to par.

but katrina-whore definitely leaves a cloudy film on my hawaiian vacay. maybe on some level i knew that i'd one day call new orleans "home."

this was totally supposed to be a temporary stop for us. but we went to harbor about a year ago this month and the sermon was basically about urging students and young couples to stay in the city. after their degrees/internships/summer jobs were over.

i took it as a sign. despite the craters in the roads, the unfavorable schools, traffic and crime, i had fallen in love with her. and i decided i wanted to stay here, as long as the good Lord saw fit.

my friend, meredith, said in her blog that "i've heard it said that the longer you live in new orleans, the more unfit you are to live anywhere else."

i feel that way. if i moved right now, i'd end up making everyone hate me cause i'd never shut up about the food or mardi gras or my saints.

i can't say enough about the food. or sipping cocktails on the porch of the columns. or the ambiance at the green goddess with it's copperplate ceilings and teeny tiny tables. how hansen's doesn't have air conditioning. but you can air condition your stomach. the many chandeliers at loa and how they play arcade fire and band of horses while i sip my lemondrop on a velvet chair.

how everyone looks good in black and gold. and people take their dogs everywhere. how old metairie road is like my own personal princess land. and magazine st has more little stores and shops than i can count.

and amazing gelato.

how the dumpest looking little shacks have the absolute best food. and the waitresses call you "honey," dear" and "baby."

our friends here are amazing. we love them so much and they've made my life complete.

i can't see myself living anywhere else.

i love my city.

my top 5 michael scott moments

2010-08-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

i was originally going to do a top 10 list, but i decided top 5 is more prestigious.

i don't know if "the office" will live without michael gary scott.

5) in the episode "performance review" where pam is microwaving popcorn; michael looks at the camera and whispers, "ahhh i'm hungry." and it's ridiculously fun to quote.

4) in "weight loss: part 2" michael pitches a little hissy fit after one of the weigh-ins and the way he flaps his little hands like a 5 year old cracks me up.

3) any and every time he sings.

2) his solo dance in "booze cruise." very fun to imitate.

1) prison mike in "the convict." gruel, dimentos, eating your own hair...

i definitely have top 5 dwight and top 5 andy moments. i just have to narrow them down.

"that's what she said."

i own it

2010-07-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

back in the days of yore, i tried to be one of those people that's "hard to read" or "put up walls" because i thought it'd be cool if someone was like, "man, i wonder what happened to make her so closed off" blah blah blah.

i don't know if i really wanted to be seen that way or if it's because i was surrounded by fake people and thought that was a good way to be fake.

the truth is i'm a freakin open book. i'll tell you whatever you want to know, good or bad. because i don't feel like i should be ashamed of things i've said or done because i've learned specific things from each and every one. and i want to share what i've learned with friends going through similar times but i feel it's pivotal to also divulge some background so they don't think i'm some self-righteous quack.

plus people that are too guarded just get on my nerves.

do i strike you as judgmental? cause i like to think that i'm far from it. because 1) i've probably done the same thing or something similar and 2) i'm not God.

i spent too much time surrounded by fake, judgmental people. so i'm determined to be the opposite. i like being real, even when it's not pretty. and i feel like that was stifled in the past by people who judged me for being me.

awkward, uncensored, clumsy me.

but that is no more. and it only took ~27 years.

heart + sleeve

a confession

2010-07-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

i've meant to post this before but in case you haven't noticed, i have a tendency to be lazy.

but i think it's time that i come out and say that i have some weird, morbid obsession with disturbing movies.

and i have for a while.

i'm a sick, sick soul.

i have no problem with violence as long as it's not someone getting the crap beat out of them. or curb-stomped, a la american history x.

in city of god, little kids are forced to shoot each other. i didn't care.

didn't really find a clockwork orange very violent or disturbing, but we've been wayyyyy desensitized to violence since the 70s.

i've watched pieces of cannibal holocaust but i REFUSE to watch the scenes with real animal killings.

even i draw the line somewhere. and the line is animals dying.

and i also couldn't finish i spit on your grave.

see i have a soul! i'm human!

disturbing could also mean just plain freaky, i.e. eraserhead, audition, freaks.

or just plain gross. see pink flamingos, gummo, salo.

i know entirely too much about this genre of film. and no one to share it with.

currently craving

2010-07-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

- a brocato's cannoli

- crabby jack's shrimp poboy

- green goddess sweet potato biscuits

- stella's potato soup (with bacon lardons and caviar creme fraiche)

- kupcake factory's wedding cake cupcake ( and reese's cupcake)

- banana pudding from my own two man-hands

- ben and jerry's sweet cream and cookies

- a margarita from juan's flying burrito

- a frothy monkey mocha

- jacques-imo's cornbread muffins drenched in garlic butter

- upperline's honey pecan bread pudding (with toffee sauce)

- brennan's brandy milk punch

- zea's roast garlic hummus

- tabouleh from lebanon's

- the drew bree's cupcake from bee sweet cupcakes

- a sidecar from swizzle stick

- the flaming torch's french onion soup

did i mention i want these all at once?

*EDIT*

- and a baked potato from port of call

and a swamp reuben from the avenue

ok that's all.

and a macaroon from sucre.

bah!

2010-06-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

that picture up there makes me laugh every time i look at it.

anyway.

i've really never been this happy. that i can remember. God has placed some super great people in my life lately and for the first time in 26 years, i feel like i'm on level ground, friend-wise. i'm not trying to break into an already tight-knit group. i'm not trying to downplay my likes and opinions. i'm not in competition. it feels really good. although when i think about being 26 (and 3/4) and just now developing these kind of friendships, it dampens my enthusiasm. i wish i'd had these friends all along and not wasted time trying to mold myself into whatever friend i thought i needed to be.

but c'est la vie.

i'm glad to have people around me that i adore. and people that aren't always around me that i adore.

plus, i have a really freakin cute little dog.

i keep finding more and more reasons to not leave new orleans. including the new orleans rum factory. who gives lots of tastes of rummy yum. i mean, yummy rum. get it? get it??

i suck.

i just took an approx. 2 1/2 hour nap, so my MS happy and i can concentrate on this re-run of "whale wars." those japanese need their ass kicked.

1000 facepalms

2010-06-17T20:57:00.001-07:00

ugh.

i've been way more socially awkward than usual this week. it physically hurts me sometimes. i talk when i shouldn't and don't talk when i should. like always, i'm gonna blame hormones.

i almost said "i'm gonna blame whale wars." cause that's what's on tv right now.

father's day is sunday. wish i could see my daddy. he's pretty much the best. he makes everything ok.

and he sang at my wedding. and i still tear up when i think about it.

i'm pretty sure ella isn't gonna do anything for matt for father's day. she's too spoiled and ungrateful.

omg the coffee at work is ridiculous. i can't handle chicory. it's like sludge. i put two creamers in it and it doesn't even change colors. i get obscene amounts of work done though. i have a dream job. good hours. tons of holidays. huge office and desk. amazing coworkers. the Big Guy really outdid himself on that mother.

holy crap! now there's some show on about lizards. it's one of my worst nightmares!!!!!!!!!

no fear in death

2010-06-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

strange few days.

i got to see some ruston friends friday. there was much walking around the french quarter which led to my toes being sore. my TOES were sore...??? really strange.

dinner at upperline saturday night. grasshoppers are a delicious dessert beverage. not the actual insect. that'd be really strange.

sunday i dreamed i was riding a bicycle underwater while singing "bicycle race" by queen. really strange.

today was my first day of work. i have a big desk. not just an L-shaped desk. but a U-shaped one. and 3 windows. and 35 hour weeks. i'm tearing up right now. really strange.

today i found out that a friend from high school shot himself yesterday. he was my first boyfriend. it's really strange. my facebook newsfeed is plastered with people writing sympathies on his sister's wall. people posting memories and prayers. it's so weird and so sad. i'm not sure how i feel about it.

it's a mixture of sad, weird and strange.

cause i was told to get out, told to leave...

2010-06-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

...told to have my things in the parking lot

good things have been happening for the everetts. while out having a beer with matt and his coworkers thursday, i found out i passed the financial section of the cpa exam. totally thought i failed. i had prepared myself to fail. but no. this dang exam has been a pain. well...i guess i should say this dang disease has been a pain. i started taking the tests in january of 2008 and then i had the relapse of all relapses that sidelined me for a year. A YEAR. it's the most annoying disease in the world.

so yes, i'm behind. and it takes courage for me to admit that but i guess i can't help it. my brain is against me.

also, i got to go home for the holiday weekend and get spit up on by my niece. i did not care one bit. 5 month olds are soooooooooooo fun. wiggly and giggly and they can hold their head up. she's way fun. really tugs at my uterus.

AND...get ready......................................................

I.GOT.A.JOB.

a great job. at a bank. less than a mile from my house. so i get tons of holidays. it's really close to being my dream job. so this just proves that prayer works, people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i finally get a job and target is out of pumpkin pancake mix. where is the justice?!?

on a closing note, my brothers crack me up. i'm glad it only took 20 years for us to learn how to get along.

she was my favorite character on "DooL"

2010-05-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

i washed my car today. for probably the second time since i've lived here. i forgot she is red.

almost.

i don't typically watch "the bachelore/tte" but i was painfully bored this evening so i tuned in. what a bunch of morons. i mean really. poor alli.

today, my diet consisted of two meals of lucky charms and one of cinnamon toast. i'll wake up starving, i'm sure. and then not be able to go back to sleep. and thus get up early. and go back to sleep after i eat.

when i have a job again, i'm gonna need a sitter for ella. because she is now even more co-dependent since i've been home with her all day.

banksy is a famous guerrilla graffiti artist that has some work around new orleans. i've decided that my next tattoo will be one that commemorates our time here. so my favorite banksy picture (below) will serve as my third tattoo.

next week = june. almost makes me want to eat a gun.

maybe too much?

2010-05-14T21:07:00.001-07:00

i've lost my will to blog. it's a complicated process. i don't blog unless i have something specific to say. and my desire to sit down and blog has to correspond with having something to blog. so despite the pointless drivel that comes from my fingertips, it's actually very thought out.

maybe i shouldn't have admitted that.

so my older brother is officially a doctor. my oldest brother has been a doctor for 8 years. i have no job. *destroys self-esteem. even though my parents swear a CPA is just as prestigious. i am not 100% sure i believe them.

my family was in for most of the week. i realized that even around my family, i feel alone if matt's not there. co-dependent much? i really can't stand to be away from him.

my mom gave ella a haircut today while i was at an interview. luckily, i had a chicken biscuit to distract me and i didn't see the full extent of the damage til i'd sucked it down my gullet.

and she looks really cute. like a teddy bear.

and our dining room table has been summerfied. not sommerfied cause i have zero decorating sense. but some gerbera daisies and new placemats spruced it up.

my parents left a huge, huge jug of captain morgan on our kitchen counter. i am ever so grateful.

Twas quite the party

2010-04-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

this was one of my favorite pictures from my bro's wedding last month. there may have been a wee bit o' celebration.

love and marriage

2010-04-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

go together like a horse and carriage...

it's wedding season (who are we kidding...every season is wedding season) and i've managed to make an astute observation or two. but probably just one.

no wait. i hate taylor swift. there. that makes two.

anyway, i always found it really irritating during engagement when people would offer me unsolicited advice about marriage. how things were gonna change and "oh you're gonna love married life!" uh...well why else would people do it? definitely not for the tax breaks. you have kids for that.

so it would really annoy the piss out of me when people would do that. so i don't do that. i ask about wedding plans (while carefully avoiding the phrase "well, what i did was...") and ask what the plan is post-wedding. but i offer no musings on newlywed life.

the other part of that is something i've just noticed. like 6 minutes ago. it basically cracks me up which is the opposite of annoying the piss out of me. i like it when newlynewlyweds (we're talking less than 2 months of marriage) offer marriage advice. especially when they talk about how hard it is. am i missing something? matt and i have not had a hard time at all. we have argued about sauce at chic fil a. it was pretty serious. and he did tell me i had fat butt disease. but that's pretty much it.

we are strange in that we tend to calmly and rationally discuss issues. unless i'm pms-ing super hard and then i yell. but i feel bad later. we don't fight about money. i don't feel neglected. we have our similar interests (movies, the office, beer, food, tattoos). we spend time together but not all our time together. we have the same (apathetic) political views.

i could go on but i can feel the carpal tunnel flaring. plus i seriously doubt anyone has read down this far anyway.

my sexy man candy has a birthday on sunday. doesn't look a day over 14.

and soon...

2010-04-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

i have an infinitely long mental list of things i'm gonna do when i have a job again. it grows every day.

- buy pumpkin pancake mix

- and new dirt pans for the stove

- eat at the green goddess

- stop watching river monsters

- go to starbucks

- treat my car to a tank of premium

- find a concert to go to

- join city bark so ella won't be so socially maladjusted

- buy wine that's more than $6

- go to the dentist (does cobra cover than? mental note...)

(i'm watching people shoot up on "addicted" and it's grossing me out. OUT.)

*shudder

i had another snoball at hansen's today. half cream of coconut and half spearmint. the only thing i've had that compares is shave ice in hawaii. sorry, little red trailer snowcone stand in ruston.

on beautiful days where it's sunny but still cool and i'm sitting outside with friends eating snoballs deep, deep in new orleans, i'm reminded how much i love it here. i love saying i live in new orleans.

sometimes i feel like i'm in the minority on that.

a story

2010-04-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

if you recall this post, i showed a certain picture that i wanted to one day have on or around my body.

it is now on the back of my right shoulder. looking all cool and stuff. and sore as a mutha.

i realize it's a bit sinister...maybe even morbid. but i have a reason for it.

grad school was a pretty low time for me. i was so lonely. none of my friends stayed after graduation. i had my sweet roommate, but it was still a struggle for me.

i was sad. and i couldn't get not sad. it was like quicksand. i wanted to die and thought about it several times. i called my mom in the middle of the night one time and told her i was scared to go to sleep cause i didn't think i would wake up. i was pretty robotic. it was like i was watching myself from outside my body...trudging to class, trying to not fail my classes, befriending many of the wrong wrong kind of people.

i came across that picture somewhere. and it just made me feel better. made me think of heaven. where i wouldn't hurt anymore.

luckily, matt, ella and new orleans revived me from my stupor. but i still looked at this picture all the time. then and now, it reminds that no matter what happens here, i have a much better place waiting for me. where no sadness or pain or depression or guilt or hopelessness exists. it reminds me that i should put myself out there because even if it turns out badly, i have something much bigger waiting. i get so much peace and comfort from that.

i apologize for the somber tone. i truly believe that tattoos should be something that really means something special to you and gives you encouragement and hope.

there's some insight into the non-sarcastic, non-random me.

on the plus side, my tummy is full of p.f. chang's and gelato. and pg tips.

that is beautiful and doesn't hurt.

oh good grief

2010-04-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

the strawberry patch candle from bath and body works makes my mouth water. i want to eat the air.

this weekend we watched the hurt locker, district 9 and brothers.

the hurt locker was entertaining but didn't live up to the hype. district 9 was the weirdest movie i've ever seen, including charlie and the chocolate factory. brothers tore me up inside.

i decided to do some weight lifting yesterday evening and today my arms are throbbing. THER.OB.CHANDLER.BING.

this could possibly be the last week i'm unemployed.

i hope i didn't just jinx it.

i have three tattoos planned out in my mind. if i get this job, i shall celebrate by getting one.

cause you know, i'm a badass.

i actually said "badass" at church today. because my church is awesome. and they don't care. the sermon today was on sex and i blushed at least twice. i'm 26 years old, for pete's sake.

as an accountant, i offer my condolences as accounting firms scramble to get tax returns done this week. i'll be piddling the days away in my pajamas.

that is both awesome and pathetic.

what's in a name?

2010-04-06T17:13:00.001-07:00

matt and i enjoy a ridiculous name. we've come across many. playville, pe'andre, micole...just to name a few.

we discuss our future kids' names fairly often. and matt vetoes all of my suggestions. so far i think we've agreed on nora or katherine for a girl and jack or max for a boy. jack is growing on me, i guess.

i have no intention of stepping on toes with my name preferences. i'm just voicing a point a view. that's my disclaimer.

we are not fans of spelling a somewhat normal name a ridiculous way, just to be different. heathyr, jaxxon, aaiyden, tailyr, etc...

we also are not fans of pretentious names...where do i start: ryker, karsten, roxton, eastin, seamus (!?!?), seraphina, phinneaus, allesandra, etc.

lastly, we are not fans of naming your kid after a place, object or action: river, ryder, georgia, asia, derby, talon, trooper, olive, pace, holiday, gage, forrest, and lexus.

the following is my list of names. 99% have been vetoed by matt. but i don't care.

girls

roslyn

camille

katherine

nora

ella

lily

anouk

stella

lila

cecily

celia

amelia

paige

bianca

esme

nadia

boys

conner

jack

aiden

isaac

caleb

jacob

ethan

eli

grant

collin

seth

clay

max

i guess having an odd and oddly spelled name has given me a preoccupation with what people are naming their kids these days.

p.s. so glad someone picked "eleanor rigby" to sing on AI tonight.

i don't like having to think of a title

2010-03-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

so that's my title.

so i follow a lot of blogs. a vast array of blogs.

we have the fashion blogs (that i think i tagged in a previous post) that leave me scratching my head as to how they afford to buy so many clothes. i used to buy maybe one shirt a month. one forever 21 shirt a month. these girls are loading up on rachel roy, dvf, chanel and louboutins. i'm not jealous per-se. just curious. i'd like to see their finances.

i'm a nerd.

then we have this woman. psycho to the max. a family of 5 living in a 445 sq foot apartment with a $1000 monthly income. she has some...interesting...ideas. she has recently stopped posting because she got berated daily for starving her children and keeping them in a room full of booby traps. and speaking of booby, she wants to breastfeed her children til they are 3 years old??? i don't need my nips knocking on my kneecaps, and i thank you.

she also feeds them sprouted rice. sprouted. rice. i don't even use a garlic clove if it has a sprout. she makes her own ketchup. handwashes clothes in the shower. uses lemon slices as deodorant. it's absolutely fascinating.

she's a fundie. enough said, i guess.

and you can judge me all you want for the following statement, but as someone who has been denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, i'm not all up-in-arms about the healthcare bill like 90% of my facebook friends.

and getting 1,000,000 to join a group to repeal it won't do a thing. facebook has a lot of magical powers, but i don't really think congress is going to take a social networking site that seriously.

i made this tonight with homemade mashed potatoes (i may or may not have used a stick of butter, cream cheese and heavy cream in said potatoes).

i guess i had more to say than i thought.

i'm obsessed with raspberry smirnoff and sprite.

back in my fleece pajamas...

2010-03-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

i've actually been in my pajamas all day. it was a mopey day.

my brother got married saturday. i danced my arse off. probably the most fun i've had at a wedding that wasn't in october. of 2008.

and i got to hold my tiny niece all weekend.

we are cat-sitting while my bro and new sis are honeymooning. ella is a terrible hostess. but matt and i did spend a couple of hours today on the couch with a sleeping dog and sleeping cat. purring cat. biscuit-making cat.

our upstairs neighbors now have a surround sound system. shoot.off.my.face. it is dreadful.

like any responsible unemployed citizen, tomorrow i think i'll go buy some liquor.

i cannot get caught up on sleep. i was asleep before my parents even left yesterday afternoon. i basically slept til 1pm today, except for the short window of time i was awake to eat a chicken biscuit and watch an episode of "the wire." it's been a pajamas + blanket+ couch+ no makeup + apple pie for lunch kind of day.

i'll go ahead and admit i'm completely apathetic about politics. matt keeps me informed on what's going on, but it's all just a big headache to me. i'm a terrible citizen.

but my toenails are essie's "lilacism" and that is pretty much all i need to be cool.

dumped.

2010-02-28T20:40:00.000-08:00

i did not enjoy this week.

thursday afternoon, one of the partners at work called me into his office. my little heart sank when i saw our HR rep in there too. then the inevitable happened.

laid off.

apparently...it's a p&n tactic to hire a bunch of kids right out of school that they can pay less and kick older staff that cost them more money out the door. the partner really had no valid reason. and he sputtered and stuttered whenever i asked a question or made an earth-shatteringly valid point.

my work bff was let go too. maybe we're just too attractive...??

ella was at work with me that day. i never take ella to work. the Lord must've known i'd need my little buddy to lick my cheeks while i packed up my stuff.

i'm already bored out of my mind. my parents were here this weekend for wedding stuff, so that distracted me. and a little retail therapy with ol jan.

and my bottomless glass of sauvignon blanc at dinner friday night.

i feel like i've been dumped by a boyfriend. it's the exact same feeling. and i have the sadz.

if anyone wants to come down to new orleans and hang out, i'm totally free.

p.s. i had a brunch of grits and grillades today. that combined with about 12 mimosas made my day a little less dim.

girlfriends

2010-02-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

i've been thinking about posting this for a while and i guess since it hasn't left my mind, i should get it off my chest.

after 26 years of existence, i decided maybe i'm some rare special snowflake that just isn't meant to have close girlfriends.

sommer, could you elaborate please?

why yes. yes i can.

i had one best friend from 1st-6th grade. then i made the cheerleading squad in junior high and those durn pom pons (yes it's pom poNs) just ripped us apart. we were merely civil throughout the next 4 years.

for those 4 years, i was a floater. i had my cheer friends. my band friends. my friends that were just my friends cause our parents were friends. my church friends.

then i switched schools for my junior year. which was a death wish friend-wise cause you can't penetrate those circles of friends that've been together since the boob. i could sum up my role in those friendships in one word: expendable. "oh i don't have anyone else to hang out with so i'll call up ole sommer!!!!!! weeee yaaahhh bleegghhh eeeee!!!!"

i saw right through you.

and then you did something completely horrible to me and i will never forget it. friendship. over.

college...it's hard to make friends in college. and i didn't until the end of freshmen year. then i had a select few bestest friends.

i'm terrible at keeping in touch. i know this. i'm mainly not still friends with anyone from high school because i'm the only one in my class that went to tech. and 90% of them still live in el dorado.

and i moved waaaaaay down here to new orleans. by myself. well. one of my good friends was down here too. but a series of unfortunate events (lemony snicket!) has put a major glitch in that relationship. i've posted about it before. i'm still too angry to talk about it. and i'm still ok with being this angry about it.

it really takes a lot to piss me off. or at least it did before i finally woke up and laced up the ball hairs. now i'm pretty crap-intolerant. that's a medical term.

so it's pretty much me+matt=bff4lyfe. and ella. i have alison here now. who's so sweet and has never ever hurt my feelings. i have a church i love. misti cheers me up at least twice a week, even from 6 hours away.

maybe. MAYBE. i can have close friends again. but for the most part, i'm pretty ok just on my own. because i've been on the outside (oh this sounds so pity party! sorry!) in pretty much all my girlfriendships. so i don't really feel like i'm in a new place emotionally. just a place i've finally come to accept and now i can quit fretting over why i don't have close girlfriends.

i guess it makes me me. but for the record: i am pretty awesome. you basically want to be my friend.

unless you don't. that's cool too.

*end "woe is me" pity party hats

hungry

2010-02-21T21:20:00.001-08:00

i go from so full i can't eat another bite to starving in about 1.5 hours. worms?

i got worms.

i'm only making this post i remind myself of stuff to post about later. and in the time it took to type that sentence, i forgot some of them.

girls. i need to talk about girls soon.

and that does not make me sound like a lesbian.

saw eisley again last night and i really really really want to be their friend. they are so cute and funny and talented and following them on twitter isn't enough for me.

the band that opened for them sucked all kinds of asparagus. the bassist still had braces. the lead singer looked like an angry midget (little person, sorry). the keyboard player's fly was down. tragic. they tried to get a circle pit going...i was all like "oh no, boy" and stuff. it didn't happen cause we were crammed in that place like cattle headed for slaughter. oh and the one girl in the band looked like ellen page. "geez, bananas, shut your freakin gob."

carnival

2010-02-14T18:12:00.001-08:00

i hit "enter" after i typed the title not knowing it would post. i learned something new.

the superbowl commercial with the sock monkey is on right now. one of the few commercials i liked.

unlike the game. which i liked at least 50% of. *hates ending sentences in prepositions*

the highlights from a little quadplex on st. ann included:

-black and gold tutus.

-black and gold beer. for matt.

-porch light morse code with the neighbors.

-the onside kick. that will live in our hearts forever.

-porter's interception. which caused heart palpitations of epic proportions.

-a dog running in the apt and peeing on ella's head

-drew holding his son after the game. sweetest thing i ever did see.

needless to say...carnival time has been a bit more rowdy than usual. the traffic makes me want to throw myself in front of a bus, but it's a small (to moderate) price to pay to live in new orleans at mardi gras.

my dad got to ride in the hermes parade friday night. i chased his float down st. charles and was rewarded with two bags of beads, a bag of cups and stuffed turtle. named davy.

but it was colder than a witch's tit so we left after one parade. why yes, we are hardcore.

endymion made getting to our valentine's dinner reservations a pain in the arse last night. but we were rewarded with our first 5 star dining experience. a few bites made me tear up. the blueberry meringues were unbelievable.

our alarm didn't go off this morning so we snoozed right on through church. sinners. so i made a pot roast and took a nap. i prefer to think of my constant need for sleep as a silver lining to having MS. i can drink a pot of coffee while lying in bed and be sound asleep 10 minutes later.

got two mouth-watering candles at b&bw yesterday. vanilla coconut and island pineapple. i now have 10 candles on our entertainment center. makes me want to have a seance.

my chest is feeling icky so i think i'm gonna try to see if cookies and wine (not together) will cure what ails me.

my purpose in life...

2010-02-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

...is to survive til sunday without wetting myself.

ok not really. but i am mega-excited. hyphenated.

the beer i will be drinking during the beauxl (i think that's kind of a gay spelling, but i couldn't help it) is called shock top...or as i call it: "shockey" top.

ella has a saints jersey. it's so precious i could cry.

i have an adorable little container of fleur de sel that i need to use. google it. it's francais.

obsessed.

matt installed a swype keyboard on my droid. uhh, it's pretty friggin sweet. and it's in beta, so that makes me feel important.

ella is spread out like an oil slick, snoozing away. it's making me sleepy.

finally watched "the hangover" this weekend. i laughed. i laughed often.

but it's no "anchorman."

audrey! i look like hell!

the next 5 weekends are booked for the everetts. or at least mrs. everett.

and while i'm being random, i'll go ahead and say that i met our health insurance deductible for the year before most of you guys had recovered from your new year's hangover.

i'm actually une petite proud. sick sad life.

i really miss daria.

if you read this and still think i have a slight possibility of still being a cool person, i thank you.

in honor of my still raspy voice...

2010-01-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

it's tuesday and i still can't talk all that great. it reminds of phoebe's "sexy phlegm."

my sticky shoes...my sticky sticky shoes

and i have every intention of losing my voice altogether on february 7th. we've already planned to congregate at the same location, bring the same food and wear the same clothes as we did for the nfc. oh, and bring ella. my wittle good luck charm.

once the game was over, everyone in mid-city was on their porches or in the streets cheering and shooting fireworks. cars were all honking and strangers were hugging and others were coming up with creative ways to hug themselves. my heart swelled with pride.

so. with that being said. i felt compelled to list a reason or two why i love new orleans. and if you're sick of hearing about new orleans, whether good or bad, then just humor me. i don't get excited very often.

where to begin...

-the food. THE food. THE FOOD. it's unbelievable. seriously, i've taken some first bites at a few places here and my eyes literally welled up. please come eat at brigtsen's. and dante's kitchen. and jacques-imo's. and green goddess.

-elizabeth's praline bacon deserves its own spot on the list.

-abita beer, sazeracs, gin fizz...

-shotgun houses, the garden district, audubon park

- you're a dead giveaway as a tourist if you properly say "calliope" and "burgundy." but only when referencing the streets.

-it's "cal-ee-ohp" and "bur-GUN-dee"

-brocato's cannolis. they bring me to tears often.

-krewe of muses

-tons and TONS of festivals.

-the shopping on magazine st.

-that i can take ella basically everywhere

-3 martini fridays. and there was one or two margarita tuesdays.

-second lines

-street performers

-king cakes, beignets and everything at sucre'

-prytania theater

-beads in the trees and on the powerlines year round

i could go on but it's time for idol. omg avril lavigne, i loooove you!

NOT.

see ya later, boy.

aaaaaannndd my voice is gone...

2010-01-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

two quick things before bed:

1) my saints are going to the super bowl. the SUPER.FREAKING.BOWL.

2) sometimes i think about my childhood friends and where they are in their lives and how i kind of want what they have. but then i remember...i live in new orleans. and i dare say i LOVE new orleans.

may not be the best outlet

2010-01-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

but seriously. it's been on my chest for a long time.

i am angry. ANGRY. and i don't really know how to get over it. you know how you can keep playing hurtful events over in your head and you just get angry all over again? reopens the wound.

that's me. i think about it almost every night when i have my "me" time. and i get wicked pissed off every time. maybe i don't want to get over it...some people like holding a grudge.

BUT.

it's really really good that i got away. the distance has done little to unpiss me off but it hasn't been exacerbated by having to be in close proximity and make nice. oh i could just gag.

i should've grown a pair a long time ago and nipped it in the bud. but i was still "doormat sommer" who just wanted to be liked.

now i'm close to being "eff off sommer." i care less and less every day what people think of me. a priceless trait i'm learning from matt. i may take it a little further than him. i need to learn moderation.

anyway. i kept most of the details private on purpose. i'm not one to air my dirty laundry on the internet. there's just a person out there that my heart is harboring some serious anger towards and has been for a while. and i honestly don't think i'm ready to let it go.

i'm drinking wine and watching "the real world." it's hard to not be dramatic.

i can sincerely say right now that i don't think i would really care if i never spoke to you again.

psycho dog

2010-01-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

ella has a lot of toys...and they are all ripped and shredded and de-squeakered. this is why. forgive my poor lighting.

achey joints

2010-01-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

thanks to this frigid weather. and my age.

i've definitely noticed a change in my "wine palate" over the last year or so. i used to only be able to handle the distinctly sweet ones...particularly moscatos and white zins. now i could drink those puppies like juice...or milk...or sprite. drier is definitely better. particularly a pinot grigio from new zealand. brancott, i think. screw top is the way to go!

so i'm watching the bcs championship and there's this tiny knot in my stomach now that mccoy is hurt. i'm sure the rest of you are all "RTR! RTR!" but i just can't bring myself to cheer for the tide for two reasons:

1) john parker wilson's grade A loins are no longer around for me to gawk at.
2) saban ABANDONED us to go to bama. we're all still bitter, nick. nick satan.

i'm excited to break out my new creuset pots this weekend and make some white chili. i'll need something warm in my tummy since it's been so cold lately that ella's pee freezes before it even hits the ground.

if you know someone doesn't like you, do you still make an effort to like them? i find it hard. and sometimes i don't have any interest in being the bigger person (confession!).

i didn't need to put a period there.

another picture of my niece because i think she's preeeshy.

you're probably gonna be seeing a lot of these over the next few weeks/months. years.

i refuse to call it "twenty ten"

2010-01-04T20:47:00.001-08:00

the everetts aren't really known for their big new years eve plans. this year was no different. a few close friends, champagne, and fondue was all we needed. and some fireworks.

i had to do an inventory count at a client today and the inventory manager hugged me when i told her that the one item she couldn't find didn't matter. i've never had a client hug me. it was nice. cause it was a woman. and not a grody man.

the other person helping us was a precious little black man named herman. herman! so great.

i decided to lift up the chain surrounding the parking lot in downtown nola on saturday instead of ducking under it and by doing so i think i pulled a chesticle. it was deceptively heavy. and downtown was infested with florida fans from the sugar bowl.

luckily, none of them knew where one of our fave hole in the wall restaurants is (it only has about 4 tables so i prefer it to stay under wraps). i was able to enjoy my pear brandy and champagne in peace. and dine on pulled pork and slaw atop a jalapeno-corn pancake. or flapjack? and sweet potato biscuits with red pepper jelly.

*drool. DROOOL.

last but not least, on new years eve our little niece was born. she's uber cute. my bro skyped me last night and set his laptop in her bassinet so i could talk to her.

look how preshy...

her name is eden. and she looks just like my brother. who looks a lot like me. so basically she looks like me.

i'm convinced.

2009 Soundtrack

2009-12-31T12:11:00.000-08:00

as promised (because i KNOW you all care), my 2009 soundtrack. in random order.

delta bay - empire of the sun
ambulance - eisley
the valley - eisley
ghost - little boots
18th floor balcony - blue october
if you're wondering - eisley
fever dream - iron and wine
decode - paramore
sorrow - flyleaf
help i'm alive - metric
pariah - dredg
quotes - dredg
mk ultra - muse
keep the car running - arcade fire
crown of love - arcade fire
wake up - arcade fire
no cars go - arcade fire
rebellion (lies) - arcade fire
laughing with - regina spektor
chasm - flyleaf
left and leaving - the weakerthans
all i wanted - paramore
r&r - the classic crime
supernatural - flyleaf
i can feel a hot one - manchester orchestra
bruises - chairlift
melt my heart to stone - adele
alone - heart
the limit to your love - fiest
we own the sky - m83
skin of the night - m83
you've got the love - florence and the machine
your song - kate walsh
spiraling - keane
i want you - kings of leon
meddle - little boots
collect call - metric
glasgow mega snake - mogwai
do what i do - noah and the whale
hold my hand as i'm lowered - noah and the whale
armistice - phoenix
the lightening strike - snow patrol
casmir pulaski day - sufjan stevens
dlz - tv on the radio
dancing choose - tv on the radio
ships - umbrellas
heads will roll - yeah yeah yeahs
so i thought - flyleaf
circle - flyleaf
swept away - flyleaf
arise - flyleaf
marry song - band of horses

good albums came out this year. new arcade fire and eisley in 2010!

2009

2009-12-30T14:18:00.001-08:00

i was waiting til the very end of the year to finish posting my events of the decade.

i think you could say we are now at the very end.

woodcheese.

2009

-spent new year's on st charles
-lost my temper on a co-worker. who deserved it.
-saw flyleaf
-did boudoir pics
-saw coldplay
-and dredg
-and eisley
-had my first wedding anniversary
-became an aunt
-became obsessed with brocato's cannolis
-and sucre'
-found a church i love
-got a tattoo
-turned.26.
-watched tons of "friends"
-and "the office"
-and "dexter"
-watched the SAINTS kick some rump de dump dump
-and then break our hearts into a million pieces
-watched flood waters rise around my car
-continued to enjoy the amazing food of new orleans

tomorrow i'll post my 2009 soundtrack...i know you're salivating.

fleece navy dah

2009-12-27T19:35:00.000-08:00

i'm fighting off the post-holiday blues as best i can. tree still lit. santa pj pants still on. coffee in my snowman mug. i will NOT let christmas die yet.

we flew to dallas wednesday morning. ella was a complete angel the whole time. it was her first flight and first hotel stay and she was peeerrrrfect.

her daddy held her for a while in the hotel room

and then she went to sleep.

wednesday, when the weather was great, i wore my sweater and boots. thursday when it started snowing like a cow farting styrofoam, i had on flats and no socks. major suckage. but. we had a white christmas!

we went to wal-mart and the liquor store in this blizzard. it was way cool. by we, i mean my parents, myself and my bro, jarret. we sang "let it snow" because we felt like we were giving the snow permission to fall.

ella loved the snow. i have no pics (i suckkkk) but she zoomed through the drifts and made lots of yellow snow.

clint's christmas lights glowed under the snow. it snowed so hard for a long time. i loved it with every part of my body.

a summary of christmas 2009:
- ella was airborn
-upwords
-el fenix and circle grill
-a $79/night hotel suite with two flatscreens, marble bathroom and king size bed that went on for days
-starbucks caramel apple spice...i tried it for the first time and LOVED it
-we went to starbucks a lot
-stockings hung by the chimney with care
-5 pieces of le creuset
-a Wusthof knife that'll cut your face off
-a sweet maltese that i wanted to take home with me!
-playing sudoku on the plane
-meeting a nice stranger at baggage claim

i was so glad to be in my bed last night. i slept til 10:15 without cracking an eye.

2006 to 2008

2009-12-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

it was the best of times...it was the worst of times

2006

-woke up new year's day on the shore of lake degray. poet didn't know it.
-rebelled
-went "urban camping" on the playground of hillcrest elementary
-because i'd just watched "the exorcism of emily rose" and was too scared to stay home alone
-saw mute math and vedera in dallas
-was diagnosed with MS
-and then got dumped because of it
-cruised grand caymen, jamaica and cozumel
-moved out of 901 cook street
-worked at pine cove for the summer teaching kids to ride horses
-moved into apt 5 with al
-suffered through grad school
-got a big girl job for the coming year
-danced my butt off every time tyler read played at rabb's
-enjoyed late nights out on our little stoop
-got used
-walked to a rope swing a few blocks from our apt
-dyed my hair

2007

-got scared
-got a rook piercing
-picked up a crying girl on the streets of deep ellum and took her home. she educated us on the dangers of shroom tea.
-began dating matt
-got a new car...my precious rx8
-saw clap your hands say yeah and vedera
-got ella. my pride and joy.
-dyed my hair
-saw shiny toy guns
-completed my master's
-moved to new orleans. it was meant to be.
-lived alone.
-drove 5 hours every other weekend to see my boo.
-saw tegan and sara

2008

-got engaged
-relapsed. big time.
-worked on the same client by myself for 5 months.
-had the stomach virus for the second time ever
-temporarily stopped biting my nails
-got married
-honeymooned in napa valley and san francisco
-it was perfect
-dyed my hair again
-fell down a flight of stairs
-had part of my big toenail cut out
-ended it for good. and ended it for good.
-saw jack's mannequin, snow patrol and death cab
-enjoyed the amazing food of new orleans
-and beer
-and wine

and now...pics to commemorate the above events

group pic on the cruise ship

and dancing on the ship...this pic is so full of win

trough diving at pine cove

one of my favorite pics of all time...totally unflattering of everyone

in the parking lot of tat2u after getting new piercings...although you can't really see mine

at juanita's in little rock...saw shiny toy guns for our 1 month anniversary

christmas in apt 5 included mistletoe

apt 5 during finals week

baby ella

after our first official date

random hot air balloon in napa valley

a lot of life-changing events during those years...

2003-2005...the odd years

2009-12-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

these posts literally write themselves.

no really. i have it all in a word document and i just copy and paste it as i go along.

for this series anyway.

we left off with the heart-stopping beginning of...2003.

2003 involved:

-making 4.0s
-working on campus
-playing pool in the "kennel"
-watching star search
-eating a lot of bacon cheeseburger hamburger helper
-thinking i'd die
-spending a night at "the hill"
-getting locked in the bcm til 3am
-having dates for twirp week
-starting a relationship just in time to move home for the summer
-working at brookshire's and i loved it. the ppl i met there will forever hold a piece of my heart.
-moving apartments cause mine got robbed.
-having a (unwelcome) third roommate
-starting an accounting internship
-having sooo much fun at the hoe down
-skiing in coloradooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004

i...
-danced with some strangers in hot springs
-moved into an actual house. with a fireplace and everything.
-watched a best friend get married
-made a sponteous trip to baton rouge/new orleans (i'm seeing a pattern)
-had a christmas party in july
-turned 21 which included: daiquiris, sister hazel and a party at the ranch house

2005

-became a certified scuba diver
-pierced my belly button
-got a summer internship at murphy oil
-my mom set me up with a 28 year old
- i met my husband
-and sold him a ticket to see mae, mute math and circa survive in shreveport
-moved into the 901 cook street house. which ties with apt 5 for my favorrrriiiiiite residence during college.
-went to hawaii just as katrina hit
-played football during rita
-and got the flu because of it
-had life-alterating conversations with misti
-saw the lights in nachiteousaksdjfaskjd
-used the "i don't want a relationship right now" line
-had a really great first date
-those two things might be unrelated

i absolutely love my dog. she is wonderfully odd.

and you... because of you, i will be 1200 pounds by new years. and i couldn't care less.

through the decade: 2000-2002

2009-12-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

i decided that since 2009 is almost over, i should dig out my scrapbooks and reminisce about what has transpired during the last 10 years.

the first few years are a little sparse mainly because 1) it was a long time ago and 2) i have a disease that inhibits my ability to recall information.

so here we go.

2000

in the year 2000, i...

-finished my last year as a JCHS Dragon
-got my first car: a 97 pontiac grand am. i loved it.
-started a new school. a private school.
-cheered
-stunted
-tumbled
-began my affinity for dating tall guys
-saw creed live. i'm so ashamed.

2001

-was junior maid on sweetheart court
-skied in coloradoooooooooo for spring break!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-wore a hot pink, fully beaded, backless dress to my jr prom
-where the dance was at a skating rink
-and my mom had to take me home
-my hair was down to the middle of my back
-got voted homecoming queen
-turned 18
-watched with rest of my senior class as the second plane crashed into the wtc...

2002

-cheerleading squad won 1st place at regionals
-went on a mission to trip to new orleans...my future home, little did i know
-did my own hair for prom
-cruised to playa del carmen and cozumel
-graduated high school
-started college at the prestigous la tech
-hated it
-went home a lot
-because i lived with my bro's girlfriend
-made my first B eveeerrrr
-saw aerosmith and stone temple pilots for my 19th birthday
-listened to the soundtrack to "a walk to remember" constantly
-had dial-up internet. and a landline. i guess they went hand in hand.

the decade got progressively better once i got to college...

dude, we are sooo gonna party

2009-12-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

it's rainy. and humid.

*shakes fist at new orleans

the saints should've won by more than 3. i'm a terrible fan and intermittently took my sunday nap during the 3rd quarter. did i use "intermittently" right? i don't care.

i made puppy chow. chicken pot pie. and french onion soup. nothing new.

but what IS new...is my oval 5qt le creuset! i think i'll name it. maybe sandy. or sven. octavius.

i realize my posts never have a clear direction. i'm slowly accepting that.

continuing with the random photos...here is matt. with a cop. in popeye's...?

don't drop the soap, babe...

i have to spread the word

2009-12-03T20:46:00.001-08:00

i know i've mentioned them on multiple occasions and i probably sound like a complete emo tween but just hear me out.

i simply adore flyleaf. i know, i know. matt's rolling his eyes right now. and that's fine. but they combine hard, grungy rock with straight up worship and it's like a little piece of heaven for me. i absolutely love it. the lyrics come straight from scripture and it's like "i can only imagine" except with a lot of bass, a lot of drums, a lot of riffs and a tiny girl wailing like none other.

it's me in band-form.

i basically just want to encourage you that if you are inclined at all towards the heavier hardcore rock genre, give them a listen. they have tons of videos on youtube...their newest single is called "again" off "memento mori" which i believe means "remember you will die."

which i believe is spanish for a whale's va...

anyway...enough PR.

i found this picture on my mom's camera. it's my dad in a suite in cowboy stadium...??? random. so very random.

i'm really quite pathetic...

2009-11-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

so i got ella her christmas present.

it's a hide-a-squirrel. and the 3 squeaky squirrels are sinfully cute. kind of like ella.

i also have some unhealthy obsessions with the following:

woodwick candles. i have pumpkin butter, brown sugar and apple cider candles right now and i've been know to burn them simultaneously. although the crackling sound makes me think it's raining.
i realized my dream of owning a le creuset dutch oven. and i'm hoping to add a couple. beware: the plastic knobs are only ovenproof to 350 degrees. learned. hard. way.

oh lawsie. this sandwich is pure heaven. sometimes i make it twice a week. it's chedder, provolone, tomato, purple onion and green chiles. grilled. so that it's all melty. and divine.

annalee christmas mice. HOW CUTE ARE THEY?! i have two so far. i love them so much i actually want to be one.

two more things: got my audit score back for the cpa exam...passed that sucker.

and i got a tattoo.

i could be there for you

2009-11-19T20:52:00.001-08:00

ugh november is busy.

we did go see these guys sunday.

honestly, my most favorite female voices of all time. unique and harmonious and perfect. i'd be violently jealous if they weren't so darn cute.

i did kind of feel out of place when we went to see them...they were playing with say anything (gag a maggot) and the place was crawling with teeny boppers and their 10 gauge hoops and psychedelic hoodies. and giggling. there was so much giggling.

i'm ready to be home for a few days. christmas shopping is done with the exception of one that i still need to purchase and one that i still need to come up with.

i've decided to end each post with a random picture that i come across on my hard drive.

meet kelsey, scoobie and little fearless. my parents' welsh corgis. so cute and sweet i could cry.

i think there's something in my eye....i have to go now...

a massive fatty...

2009-11-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

...is what i will be shortly.

if you open our refrigerator, you'll be blinded by the glare off of aluminum foil. we have so.many.leftovers.

they include:

- one piece of tombstone supreme pizza
-the remnants of the top tier of our wedding cake
- half of a dish of squash and zucchini casserole
- an ungodly amount of gingersnap caramel pumpkin cheesecake (100% homemade, i might add)
- a homemade chicken pot pie that would make a believer out of the biggest decent pot pie atheist.

i made up that term.

i cooked for hours saturday night and i loved it. Lord, please provide me with a kitchen that can safely fit more than one person and a dog.

i might post the recipe for the cheesecake when i don't have a towel wrapped around my wet hair causing neck cramps.

and the recipe for pie crust that's so easy, a caucasian girl in her mid-twenties that occasionally runs red lights and mispronounces common words could do it.

we started "the curious case of benjamin button" last night but didn't finish it. and the only reason we watched it is because blockbuster had their finger up their butt and i sent us the wrong disc of "dexter" from our queue.

hurricane ida will be here by morning. kind of a drag. i've missed hurricanes about as much as i've missed my acne.

saints 8-0, baybee! who dat!

before i forget...

2009-11-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

i need to get this post out of my system while it's fresh in my mind.

misti, i dedicate this post to you for inspiring it.

The Musical Timeline of My Insignificant Life. And Also...Random Use of Capitalization

my first genre of musical obsession was *gulp* country. i know. i KNOW. but i could straight up flow to some reba, garth, little texas, brooks and dunn, patty loveless, the judds...i could go on but i think those few will lose me enough friends.

i watched CMT like it was going out of style (it so was) and i remember being very disturbed by the video for reba's "the night the lights went out in georgia." i can't talk about it anymore.

the first non-country song i remember knowing was "ironic." in seventh grade. on the way to cheerleading camp.

the first non-country music video i saw was "lovefool" by the cardigans.

hence my slow descent into the paradox of 90s pop. there was an n*sync obsession. there was a disney concert special obsession. i used to keep a blank tape in my stereo so that if a song i liked came on the radio, i could record it.

i think i still have a mixed stolen-from-the-radio tape of "the next episode" by snoop and dre...

in high school, i decided i was angry and rebellious. and should therefore listen to music that makes you angry and rebellious. oh and depressed. there was some staind. some linkin park. godsmack. flaw. cold. i even owned (and adored) every creed album.

i would like to thank xanga for introducing me a beaucoup of diverse music. i would peruse peoples' sites to see what they were "currently listening" to and then download it. that led to my introduction to death cab, lovedrug, copeland, juliana theory (rip), rilo kiley, eisley, wilco...

and that is where i am today. not only am i a music snob. i am an indie music snob. that's like a category 4 music snob.

and in case anyone is wondering...

all-american rejects, good charlotte, simple plan, yellowcard, bowling for soup and fountains of wayne are NOT indie, NOT emo, NOT punk and NOT good.

unless you like them and in that case, they all totally rock!

fun at work

2009-11-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

whilst perusing the pictures on my work laptop, i realized that i only have pictures on here that i've acquired for the sole purpose of emailing to a co-worker for their enjoyment/to piss them off/to gross them out. below is a small sampling of said pics:

accountants really are way fun.

all hallow's eve...

2009-11-01T15:24:00.000-08:00

MUAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

pretty uneventful halloween at the everett house but i kind of prefer it that way...

a picture is worth a thousand words so here's 4000 words.

A very pissed off but very cute "ella"phant from halloween 2007.

coffee and a sinfully delicious strawberry-filled cupcake at sucre'

anniversary roses in my new milk glass vase...or "vahhhhze"

top tier of our wedding cake that did not taste like crap...

it's november 1 and my calendar is already full. i get exhausted just looking at it. so i've hung a pillowcase over it. just kidding. i'd be inclined to think it was july or maytember without a calendar constantly in front of my mediocre freckled face.

boooo...

2009-10-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

i don't really like my previous post. i toyed with the idea of deleting it...the second half anyway. but i shan't.

i don't like talking about having MS. i feel like it makes me sound whiny. or like an attention whore. but i just needed to get some of that info out there so that people know i'm not slow or stupid...i just have some things working against me.

NEWAYZ!!

i want to pummel myself for just typing that, by the way.

matt and i are continuing our halloween tradition of watching a scary movie on halloween night. we've knocked out "halloween," "friday the 13th," and "nightmare on elm street." this year it's gonna be "drag me to hell" although matthew has never seen "the exorcist."

i have a strange fascination with horror/disturbing movies. i used to google it all the time. i haven't really seen any of the movies i've come across...i can barely read about them on wiki.

i also have a fascination with her story. i've never heard anything like it. and not in a good way.

might be one of the most terrible things i've ever read.

i've depressed myself.

so to cheer up myself, let's list the 3 loves of my life:

1) my piece

2) my puppy
3) my car

annivegasary

2009-10-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

except we didn't go to vegas.

anniversary weekend made up for my sucky birthday on tuesday.

matt took friday off and he did laundry, dishes, bought groceries, folded towels, etc. i was super impressed.

friday night we had our 1st anniversary dinner at herbsaint. one of my favorite things about nice restaurants is the amuse-bouche. i generally like that one bite more than the appetizer/entree. weird huh...

i did start with a squash puree with creme fraiche and candied pecans followed by a pork belly cassoulet. we (politely) opted out of dessert in favor of sucre' as i am addicted to their adorable strawberry filled cupcakes with pink glitter.

but my FAVORITE part was after sucre'. i might post some pics after i get around to taking them.

and no, they won't be dirty pictures. perverts.

i took ella to city park saturday afternoon to meet some friends since the weather was soooo nice. as expected, she got sick and yakked all over the place and proceeded to be so lethargic that i took her home. ninny.

oh and last week i took her to petco where she managed to streak diarrhea all over the store. ella is on house arrest.

anyway, today we ate year old cake. and it was yummy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

on another note, i was perusing the national MS society's website and realized even more ways that MS affects you, even when you aren't relapsing.

here is what i learned:

-- MS decreases cognitive learning. as i read through the paragraph, i kept saying "that's me!!!" i do have trouble finding the right words, concentrating, recalling information and just memorizing in general. and so i accepted that i'm not gonna be one of those "pass-all-the-sections-on-the-first-try" type of people in regards to the CPA exam. but not because i'm stupid, which was my initial conclusion.

-- people with MS tend to laugh/cry uncontrollably. the uncontrollable crying i just blame on being a woman. but the uncontrollable laughing is interesting. there's been soooo many times that i've lain in bed at night laughing til tears poured down my cheeks for no reason. it's called emotional lability. you can google it.

-- you need 10-12 hours of rest a day with MS. uhhhhhhh. that's like half the day. i determined i get approx 7.5. but who has time to rest that much??? WHO I ASK YOU?!?!!

the rest of the information was stuff i already knew. but now YOU know. cause i'm sure you were laying awake at night starving for such information.

i really really really struggle to find the right words. it's remarkable really.

really.

i hate unsolicited advice

2009-10-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

so i'm putting MY unsolicited advice in a post so that if you read it, then you've solicited it and therefore it's...so...lici...ted.

?

made sense in my head.

with my first wedding anniversary quickly approaching, i've compiled some lessons learned throughout this first year-o-marriage:

1) secrets can destroy. tell each other everything even if you think it's stupid. most of what i say and do is stupid.

2) when you learn what pushes the other's buttons, don't do it just to get a rise out of them. in fact, don't do it at all. it's all about harmony...

3) don't stop being polite. i value a "please" and "thank you" more in my marriage than in any other aspect of my life.

4) always kiss goodnight...we actually have a little sign over our bed that says that. although a road sign that says "merge" would be way funnier.

5) leave and cleave. cut the chord. pop the titty out yo mouth. you and your spouse are a family now (i.e. he is now the most important person in your life....or she. i don't discrimin-hate).

6) brag on your man. and tell them they're cute. even if they aren't...whaaa? jk.

7) laugh. laugh laugh and laugh. and then you should laugh.

i'm stopping at 7 cause it's the number of perfection.

matthew alexander everett is perfection.

secret time

2009-10-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

it has not been a good week.

AND just now a guy on "police women of broward county" got arrested for soliciting sex and he was driving an RX8. soils the good name of my cherry darlin!

who is at the doctor cause her a/c sporadically blows hot air. get.well.soon.

as for the actual secret...

i really like new orleans.
and "police women of broward county" but that's beside the point.

yeah new orleans has traffic bad enough to make you jab blunt pencils into your eyes.
and there might be a hint of a crime problem.

but there's so much culture...and character...and charm. synonyms? oh well.

i can say with certainty that the food here is unbelievable. i'll annoy the hell out of people bragging on the food in this place.

mid-city: love it
french quarter: love it
uptown: love it

i can almost see target from my house. along with a mall that has BR, jcrew, f21, sephora, bebe, coach, cache, aldo, macy's, etc etc etc. i mainly just named the stores that are NOT in good old pecanland mall, monroe, louisiana, papermill stank capital of the world.

12 days til my birthday. 17 days til my first wedding anniversary.

hearts for october, man...

The College Years

2009-10-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

because this weather makes me long (ache, actually) for those wistful tech days, i've decided to do a series of posts about my college memoirs. mainly so that i can go back and read them and get warm fuzzies. and also because most of you are involved in some way...

lesseeee....

FRESHMEAT YEAR

i lived in an apartment on california with my bro's (then) girlfriend. i went home EV-VER-RY WEEK-END. mainly for my sanity. i was so lonely! i would sit in my car outside of GTM (ah! such an ugly building!) and just cry and cry before my 8am class cause i was so lonely. hence going home every weekend. and we're talking thursday night through monday morning weekend. in hindsight, that was pretty much stupid.

ahh but that spring i came alive! i made friends! friends who i still have to this day... and i managed to cram the following huge volume of awesome into 6 short weeks:

.spent a night at "the hill" with a group of people who were strangers to me while driving there but close friends when we drove back

.got locked inside the bcm til 3am...but when there's bean bags i won't complain.

.played what i thought was an awesome prank that ended with me driving my car into a field goal post...? (misti, it was when leigh-ann and i stole scott sutton's car and he avenged his honor by stealing all the tvs and computers from leigh-ann's house).

.i had twirp dates! not dates that were twirps, but dates for twirp week.

.fostered a budding romance that fizzled by the next fall quarter (c'est la vie!)

.on my gosh, that was when the frothy monkey was across from nethken hall. it was nethken, wasn't it? i'm so old.

.i was a student worker in the department of economics and finance. i pissed around on the internet when there weren't tests to copy or envelopes to stuff. but it paid my ($175!!!) rent.

in may i went home to work at brookshire's. certified cashier, thank you very much. that was actually a great summer...

also, freshmen year is pimento loaf compared to the prime rib that was sophomore-grad school years...

shoes

2009-09-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

omigah, shoes...

let's get some shoes...

anyway. i am now experiencing the phenomenon that is infamous among antidepressants. i can't feel excited. however, there could be some environmental factors contributing to this and i'm just using the drugs as my escape goat (i know it's scape goat, but i like my way better).

for one, it's still like 90 degrees in this fiery furnace. how can i get excited about fall when i still break a sweat just walking to my car?

and for two, i could possibly be getting the post-holiday blues pre-holiday. i suffer greatly from post-holiday blues. seriously, my hands shake and i get a lump in my throw when i'm taking the christmas tree down. i have to stop talking about it.

and three...maybe my body is just learning to do this new thing where my brain won't let me get excited about something until the day before or something. maybe it could be the fact that i'm very quickly learning the skill of absolutely not caring. about anything. blessing and curse.

jason mraz is on l.a. ink right now. he looks like an uber dork. sorry, jason.

i want this on or around my body at sometime in the near future:

kurt vonnegut was a wise man.

pictures and a recipe

2009-09-14T18:06:00.001-07:00

my depression glass teacups...i've suddenly become obsessed with collecting antique glass

jadite measuring cup/juicer...it houses the orange spice tea (recipe to follow)

where ella can be found while i'm getting ready in the mornings

when she's not playing skip-bo

behold...two beautiful cannolis. *drool

and in honor of the fall...ness, i've included the recipe for the orange spice tea mix that really, really, really makes me happy.

Orange Spice Tea
Equal parts
-unsweetened, unflavored instant tea (i had to get nestea (sp?) but my mother-in-law recommends lipton)
- Tang
- Country Time Lemonade mix
- sugar

Combine and add in whatever spices you like. i use lots of cinnamon and a sprinkle of cloves, pumpkin pie spice and allspice.

Add approx. 3 spoonfuls to a mug of hot water and raise your hands in celebration.

it's the ultimate comfort drink.

i don't wanna work...

2009-09-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

...i just wanna bang on this drum all day.

weekend consisted of 3 very important activities:
1) eating
2) pouting
3) watching "dexter"

not necessarily in that order.

i did get to use all my nice serving pieces (including an ice bucket) sunday night just moments before i got rolled like a philly blunt at mexican train.

eating consisted of a new york strip at the flaming torch. best.french.onion.soup.ever.

EVERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'd rather not discuss the pouting. i'll just say i feel almost justified in the fact that today i slept til 10:30, took two naps, never changed out of my pajamas and watched a "whale wars" marathon.

damn japanese.

i would like approximately 1827382173 woodwick candles please.

i put out my little pumpkins and fall dishtowels. used my fall shower gel (b&bw pecan passion which they don't sell anymore, lame-o's) and wore my fall perfume (dream angels desire). that managed to lift my spirits a tad.

and lsu not losing to a high school team.

confessions

2009-09-03T15:51:00.001-07:00

- i've been wasting far, far too much time reading this . to the point where i think i've developed eye strain. BUT...now i highlight the text so it's white words on a blue background. problem. solved.

- i have fall out boy and panic! at the disco on my ipod. it hurts to admit, but i just had to say it.

- we have a tv in our bedroom...everyone advises against having a tv in the bedroom, but who doesn't love laying in bed and watching "the soup" at 1am?

- i slammed my hair in my car door when leaving starbucks this afternoon. feeelt like a moron.

- although the first pumpkin spice latte of the year (!!!!!!!!!) pretty much made up for it. and that's a confession cause the caloric/fat intake of pumpkin spice latte will make you want to hurl. the actual taste, however, does not.

- i'm just a moon without a tide.

- today, i noticed a peculiar habit i've picked up that involves me doing a quick march in place before i start walking somewhere. throw away paper towel in the bathroom, step step, leave. elevator stops at my floor, step step, leave. get coffee, step step, leave.

- like a friggin show pony.

let us band together and make this illegal. this is why God doesn't give some people kids.

was that politically incorrect? forgive me.

comfort...

2009-08-20T20:24:00.001-07:00

"hope floats" was my comfort movie in college...i watched it every sunday for a year
"the photo album" by death cab was/is my comfort cd...and makes me happy when skies are gray

dashboard's "don't wait" makes me ache for the weeks between pine cove and grad school...

as long as "friends" is on, all is right with the world.

and i have coffee. i want this. now. i'd take it to all my clients and never worry about the 3pm slump again.

it is impossible to be sad/mad/cranky when you see this face:

or this face:

creeps

2009-08-12T20:32:00.001-07:00

i always have my breakthrough revelations while in the shower...almost every night, i come to a brilliant realization. about something.

yeah so this weekend/week was spent in dallas...allow me to recap:

- actually had starbucks. twice. i never go there when i have to spend my own money. and by never, i mean unless i have to cause i will. i totally will.

- toured two $800,000 model homes and lusted my face off

- learned what a lanai is, but after reading the definition on wikipedia, i realize i knew what it was all along and was falsely corrected.

- had two sips of the worst.margarita.ever.

- once again had the yummiest tortillas of my life

- watched "taken" and totally loved it although i was ridiculously afraid to stay alone in a hotel room alone after watching it... wikipedia provides what is probably the most pathetic movie description known to man but i'm too lazy to imdb.

- the shower in my hotel had two shower heads

- that deserves its own hyphen on the list

- i find downtown dallas to be 10 times creepier than the french quarter

- the man who sat by me on the plane today was quite the creepy mccreeperson (that's for you, t). check out the creepiness:
1) he explained to me the carnal logics behind dolphin sex
2) said he heard that redheads liked to be "slapped"
3) mentioned several times about taking a picture of me to send to his ex-wife

i was quite glad to see my sweet, adorable, non-creepy husband waiting to pick me up...

quirks

2009-08-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

we all have them.

let's see how weird sommer is, shall we?

- i could spend an entire 20 minute car ride shuffling through songs on my ipod...i'll think of a song i want to hear and instead of going directly to it, i shuffle til i find it. i currently have over 11oo songs on my ipod. it tends to make people hate me.

- sometimes my hand will do something twice when i only told it to do it once...for that reason, i've sent emails i haven't meant to (and texts) and misspelled my own name.

- if my nightly routine gets interrupted, i can't adapt. it's shower, vitamins, pills, deodorant, teeth, hair and injection, people!!! please take note.

- i am very aware of my somewhat obnoxious obsession with my dog. and i don't care.

- i purposely try to piss people off whilst driving. i strategically plan each of my lane changes so that NO ONE has even the slightest chance of cutting me off. and let's face it, people in new orleans have no business behind the wheel.

- i'm not a huge fan of cheese. i don't eat cheeseburgers or ham and cheese sandwiches. but i do enjoy a cheesy pizza and rotel dip. i don't know why.

i'm leaving for dallas tomorrow for FIVE (5) DAYS. i am very sad to be leaving my sweet, precious boy and my adorable dog.

i took the audit section of the cpa exam wednesday...gag me with roughage.

have you seen a more unphotogenic dog?

2009-07-28T21:20:00.001-07:00

i mean, seriously. look at this.

i hope we have better luck with our human babies...

I have been edited...

2009-07-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

...by my dear sweet husband. please see the comments in the previous installment for "the real story" surrounding the oreos.

ANYWAY.

i've decided that since my lesion-infested brain obviously can't keep up with the chronological order of events, i'll just document the events and aforementioned husband can correct my errors.

somewhere, during our lives, we went on a double non-date with matt's roomie and his gf. to bennigan's. and to see "inside man" where i was completely entranced the whole time by jodie foster's calves.

and then...end of may...i leave for pine cove for 3 months.

without saying goodbye.

which is still a sore spot, mind you.

in my defense, i had a lot going on with my recent diagnosis and finishing my undergrad degree and preparing to be away from family and friends for the summer.

that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

matt and i did exchange a few letters and a phone call or two while i was away.

when i came back and school started again, i had another interest and he (to my surprise) also had another interest. so that love boat went ashore for a while.

my year of grad school at tech was most definitely the hardest and maybe the funnest...i didn't work, i skipped some classes, i lived with sweet alison and we'd dye each others hair and watch "friends" on dvd.

it was also the darkest time of my life...so far (JK!) i continued my habit of getting involved with guys i had no business spending time with and i felt like i didn't have matt anymore to be sort of my bright spot...

i'll save that for another post.

matt's fall quarter relationship fizzled (yay! i mean, sorry, babe) but he wasn't where he was with me before pine cove. i think life was in favor of him and his former flame and no longer in ours.

after about6 months of very sparse contact, we slowly slipped back into our pre-pine cove routine. in april of 2007, my dad and i drove all the way to tulsa to look at a car for me. i drove that bad boy home (her name is cherry darling and she is the most beautiful piece of machinery i've ever seen) and straight to ruston. and straight to matt's house.

we had our first kiss that night. it was timid yet bold at the same time. i'm sure my shock was palpable.

the next night, april 17, 2007, was our first official date as...*gulp...BOYFRIEND AND GIRLFRIEND. of course it wasn't official til it was on facebook.

cliff's notes version to get you up to the current:
- june 2: said "i love you" for the first time
-july 24: i move to new orleans for a job
-we do long distance for 5 months (gag me with a spoon)
-january 2008: matt moves to new orleans!
-valentine's day: matt proposes
- october 25, 2008: we tied that knot, fool!!!

and just fyi, no babies on the horizon. our dog is enough of a baby.

THE END

Sommatt...Mattommer...?

2009-07-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

i've been meaning to continue with my meaningless saccharine drivel for the last few days, but life got in the way. and by life, i mean a juan's margarita, a cannoli from brocato's (go there or DIE!), and seeing dredg at house of blues where we were complimented but probably in a less than ideal way. anywho...

i left off on the stellar note of matt not liking me.

i was working in el dorado that summer (blow my brains out, man) and made a trip back to ruston one weekend after our initial meeting for a rousing game of dominoes. matt, myself, chris hall, my dear friend jeremy, and the washers were in attendance. i don't remember who won but i'm sure i had last place firmly locked.

and that's the night things got steamy...

NOT.

i left on a family vacation to hawaii at the end of august and promised to bring matt some kona coffee. he in turn brought me some brazilian coffee. the goods were exchanged in the doorway of 901 cook street. i wasn't sure if he wanted to come in, so like a true moron, we held a very extended convo on the doorstep until leigh-ann shoved me out the door and closed it to keep the cool air in.

and that's when we shared...

our first coffee exchange.

luckily, katrina and rita had come through to ruin our lives for a while. that fall i got distracted by a couple of other boys, yet continued my constant, constant texting with matt.

january of 2006 i decide to take myself off the market with some other dude. and then 6 weeks later when i was diagnosed with MS, he never spoke to me again (he was a real gem).

however. matt knew the ultimate cure for MS. ben and jerry's.
which involved him picking me up in his 3000 GT that i loved more than any human baby. and then driving to super 1. where, in the freezer, sat a pint of dublin mudslide. the stuff dreams are made of.

it was shared at our kitchen table. and it was at this point that my roomie, misti, began giving me the "knowing look." you know...the sly smile that shows they know there's a love connection but you deny it til the earth looks flat (we're just friends!) because it's what society teaches us...

she may have been right...

i'll end this installment by sharing the night i cooked matt dinner. and i recently found out that before he came over for dinner, he gorged himself on oreos in case he didn't like it.

BUT! he did like it. and he drank all my chocolate almond milk...

Stalker...?

2009-07-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

i have a sneaking suspicion that i'm being internet-stalked. i feel it...mostly in my right shoulder region

they came down this weekend to apartment hunt...yay for old friends moving to new orleans!

i still haven't uploaded the pics from coldplay off my camera yet...and in all honesty i probably won't.

i guess since it's summer time, i find myself thinking about this place a lot. so in honor of Summer 2006, here are some wrangler memories...

moneigh and i before a rodeo

last day (for the campers). this camper was from minden!

it was gansta/green day...or "gangrene" if you will

we got up before 5am everyday and this is what is does to some ppl...

buffalo hunt...or "let kids chase you around a huge pit of mud"

towers staff during orientation week

what a wonderful yet insanely difficult summer... it's been three years and i miss it so much.

i wanna play tooo!!!

2009-07-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

yesterday i finished her love story (jaw-dropping) and today, i started reading her love story. and i read her love story today...gah you fools are twitterpated. :D

i've always hated to be left out. so even though today i had to drink my lunch cause i couldn't find a spoon, throw out the pork chops i was gonna cook for dinner cause they smelled like dead butt and i'm now on my second individual bag of special k crackers, i want to test my writing skills and see if i can turn a lame (read: nerdy) love story and into something steamy. well. not steamy. maybe...misty? give it some sort of condensation.

Ágætis byrjun
(which means "an all right start")

somehow, i come across the cyber-journaling site of xanga. i recall coming across my friend brandon's xanga, freakina, which was supposed to be like "freakin A" but he forgot the underscore so i always pronounced it like i would "christina." anyway, sadly his site is no more (may it r.i.p) but its legacy lives on for introducing me to the geekdom that would introduce me to my hursburand.

via this "xanga" as we called it, i came across this dude and ended up chatting on AIM (dear pete, could we get any lamer??? the answer is "yes"). after scuba class one night in the winter/spring of 2005, we all went to monjunis to partake in tasty comestibles. this dude (i'll just call him "the dude" cause it'll make hubs proud to see a big lebowski reference)... so the dude is at monjunis under mounds and mounds of hair. we're talking moptop, my friends. i think he's someone else. he texts me after he leaves asking what i'm doing ( i gave him my number?!?! me = desperate) and i tell him where i'm at. he's all like, "wiggity wha i just left there!" i'm all like "wiggity wha wha i thought that was you!" again still thinking he's someone else.

he invites me to go watch a movie at a friend's. at 3 am. i shower. don't dry my hair. don't put on make-up. don't have a hope of looking like an actual human person.

upon climbing in his truck (yeah he didn't even get out), i realize he's not who i thought i saw at monjunis. panic rises in my chest as i realize that i have gotten in a vehicle with an almost total stranger. whose hair was bigger than mine. i pressed on.

we watched "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" and i didn't fall asleep. the dude tells me to change majors before i get any dumber. i decide that maybe there won't be a second middle-of-the-night rendezvous.

the next day, i go to his xanga (shoot me now) to leave a comment. something snarky and wenchy i'm sure. and alas, what do i see? a comment from a boy...with the rosiest cheeks...and shiniest hair...he was my seth cohen. who, at the time, i was totally jonesing for.

so i comment on dream boy's xanga because that's what dignified women did in 2005. and what's more dignified than that? my comment said that i thought he "looked hot."

brazen, brazen hussy.

our xanga relationship ended when we were introduced to the magnanimous creation that is facebook. where thousands, hundreds, of messages were exchanged.

we finally met at the frothy monkey on june 18, 2005 after my friend heather's wedding. i was wearing one of leigh-ann's dresses. and her shoes. he was wearing a yellow t-shirt that said "venezula" on it and it will forever remain in my closet drawer.

he didn't like me.

but...

love does not give up so easy...

more later...

Owie, my poor tummy...

2009-06-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

3 cupcakes. that's all i'm gonna say about that.

what did i do friday night? i really can't...oh watched "yes man" with the hubs. i have the biggest crush on zooey deschanel. like kirstie alley big.

saturday i did enjoy perusing through racks of designer wedding gowns. not for me. and i'm convinced if we'd been on "say yes to the dress" i would've been the annoying friend that all the viewers want to slap. i'm so ashamed!

it's not chicken under a duck, my friends. it's chicken under a brick. remember that if you go to dante's kitchen. and you should go. now.

NOW I SAY!

check out this attractive couple:

beautiful children will be born from our loins...or...my loins.

do women have loins?

mmm pork tenderloin...

make this today and then thank me for being your friend and telling you to do it. my next dinner guests, whoever you may be, you will be eating this. with mashed potatoes and probably a nice crisp pinot grigio. line forms outside our front (or only) door.

4 day work week...so happy i could pee myself...

i'm becoming more of a failure

2009-06-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

i need a "work" switch that i can turn on when i leave every morning that renders me robotic and emotionless. it would make the days less complicated.

the dreams i have whilst napping are beyond (read: BEYOND) absurd.

saturday my hair was so big, i looked like a country music singer. i hummed "coal miner's daughter" for most of the day.

and got my ring cleaned. and a free teasing comb. she would be proud.

my dog pees and poops in strange houses. it's embarrassing and only highlights the fact that i cannot stay mad at that face.

little biscuit.

i meant to upload all the pics from my mom's camera...all 1246. but i forgot. phenergran has had me in a daze all day. cause i ate so much last night i made myself sick.

but it tasted soooooooo good. go here now.

blog much...?

2009-06-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

no i don't. i'm really very lame.

i find i'm very preoccupied lately with obtaining this... because i really wanna make this.

i am very much obsessed with cooking and baking... hence my need for a big kitchen with a great working triangle (sink, stove, refrigerator) and granite, quartz or stainless steel countertops and maybe a butcher's block built in to the counters. a huge deep double sink, stainless stove with 5 gargantuan spider burners, and island with a sink for washing vegetables. excuse me, i need to grab a tissue...

my newest and possible lamest obsession is watching any and everything on hgtv. i've slowly (and reluctantly) phased out my mtv-only channel non-surfing.

i'm trying with every fiber of my being to finish this book. i'm struggling.

june is going by so, so fast...

spaghetti western spaghetti (get it? no? i suck)

2009-05-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

i didn't think to take any pictures but trust me...the following recipe is di.vi.ne.

i tweaked rachael ray's cowboy spaghetti recipe... i guess you could say it's yum-o.

you will need:

1 lb spaghetti
1 lb ground beef
3 slices of bacon, chopped ( i use 6 cause we're bacon fiends)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
worcestershire sauce (a few turns of the pan)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
3-4 tablespoons brown sugar
3-4 tablespoons white vinegar
14 0z crushed tomatoes ( i can only find 28 oz cans so i just use half and put the rest in a ziploc bag in the fridge)
1/2 cup of beer

add'l toppings:

green onions
cheddar cheese

procedure:

bring pot of salted water to a boil and add spaghetti. i like to break my spaghetti into 3-4 inch pieces before i cook it so i can avoid the whole twirling-around-fork-slurping-like-curly-sue thing.
cook til al dente.

begin sauce by browning the bacon until crisp in a heavy skillet. remove with slotted spoon and drain any excess fat. leave enough to coat bottom of skillet. add ground beef and brown (you can also drain any excess fat once the beef is cooked). once brown, add onion, garlic, a few turns of worcestershire and salt and pepper. let simmer til onions are soft.
meanwhile, combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, white vinegar and a few shakes of worcestershire in a small bowl (this is basically bbq sauce, only way better). taste and add more sugar or vinegar to get desired tasted (i like mine sweeter).
deglaze skillet with 1/2 cup of beer and cook down 5-6 minutes. add tomato sauce mixture and crushed tomatoes. bring just to a boil and turn off heat. add spaghetti and toss to coat. spoon into shallow bowls. top with bacon, green onions and cheese.

i exercised self-control by not getting seconds.

i did not exercise self-control by drinking the rest of the beer.

morons in the pools

2009-05-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

because there are morons in the pool.

i've been meaning to explain what my blog name means cause i do see that it could be a bit misleading if not...deranged...?

my sweet little babies, flyleaf, have a song called "cassie" about the columbine shootings. one of the dudes pointed a gun at cassie bernall and asked her if she believed in God. she said yes and he shot her. so, in a lyrical sense, cassie could've said no and lived but by saying yes, she essentially pulled the trigger herself. so the phrase "and i will pull the trigger" basically translates to say that if someone points a gun at me and asks if i believe in God, i'll say yes even if it means dying...

profound no??

that's why i love this girl.

we're practically twins....

1) we both wear dresses over jeans

2) we both have red shoes

what further proof do you need?

no.work.tomorrow

2009-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

and i just realized i haven't fed my poor dog all day. i suck.

the song on that sherwin williams commercial they play every 3 minutes reminds me of feist's "i feel it all"

july 24th will be my 2 year living-in-new-orleans-anniversary. so unless it's christmas, i pretty much always have this scent wafting through mine and matt's apartment to remind me of when i first moved here...sigh

today was spent with total bedhead. and i even went to target and bb&b. i guess vanity dies when you get married.

but vanity did NOT die for ella...who just got a bath. very much to her disdain. as usual, she thrashed about, trying to drown. it's painful to watch, really.

"boston white" by umbrellas will forever be one of the most beautiful and melancholy songs i've ever heard. i've heard it live but like a dunce i didn't record it. doh!

whoa. am i back to my usual couplets?!?! she will be proud.

wait no i'm not. my bad.

this woman is my idol...i've made her ranch style chicken ,her monkey bread and her chicken spaghetti so far and my taste buds have been dancing with joy.

i don't have to work tomorrow. i shall go to the mall.

goodbye, lappy...

2009-05-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

my laptop succumbed to the rigors of a virus this past week.

it was a good ole lappy...faithful...true...

ehh it was actually a piece of crap that i almost despised its whole life.

but because of said lappy's decease (RIP), i cannot listen to the following musical babies...

you can be gay all you want, adam lambert, just as long as you sing "mad world" to me everyday...

kings.of.leon.

and my sweet babies of flyleaf...lacey mosley, a little piece of my heart is yours forever. in a totally hetero way.

To Do and Been Done

2009-04-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

To Do (within the next 10 years):

1) buy a house
2) get a new bed
3) get a new dining table
4) get new chair and loveseat!!!!
5) get a new entertainment center

we did purchase a china cabinet this week (*dance dance dance*)

for a fleeting second, some old painful feelings revisited me and now i've spent the moments since trying not to let them back in. like i said a long time ago, i think i'd feel a lot better if i knew how others saw me...it may be bad but at least i wouldn't wonder all the freakin time.

and i'll just say this...i absolutely love 99% of the people i work with. the other 1% are complete morons.

i think i'll just spend my days (or entire life) reading and drinking coffee and napping. human interaction is too exhausting.

Supernatural

2009-04-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

Her headaches are constant, increasing in pain
with each passing day...
She can hardly stand on her own, it's gotten so bad

And you think of saying, "There's no use in praying."
Still, she bows her head
So she can say, "Thank You for just one more day."

Supernatural patience graces her face
and her voice never raises
It's all because of a love never let go...

He has every reason to throw up his fists
in the face of his God who let his mother die...
Through all the prayers and tears, she still passed in pain anyway

And you think of saying, "There's no use in praying."
Still, he bows his head
So he can say, "Thank You for ending her pain."

Supernatural patience graces his face
and his voice never raises
It's all because of a love never let go

He is teaching me
what love really means...

Sleepy time...

2009-04-17T20:12:00.001-07:00

if you asked me what three things i love the most, i'd probably say...

1) my husband
2) my puppy
3) my car

3 things i like/love...loke...?

1) my gray straight leg jeans
2) winged eyeliner
3) orbit gum

and 3 things i hate...?

1) taking a shot every day
2) lizards
3) the moronic drivers that comprise 95% of new orleans

once i muster the strength, i see a shower, shaved legs, "eclipse" and wonderful, wonderful sleep...