some loves

Please, right now, download and listen to Down on Love by Sarah Blasko (or stream it on youtube from that link right back there). It's the opening track on her newest album, As Day Follows Night. It's precious and poignant, and I've been listening to it on repeat for about three days now.

Also, I wanted to share this etsy store: verabel.etsy.com. It's darling. Boys, this is the place to buy jewelry for that special hipster/indie girl in your life. Really. I want the Cutting Necklace and the Bird's Nest Necklace so very very much.

Roundabout Coincidences

Funny little blogging tidbit. So I read {this is glamorous}, which is full of lovely, inspiring photos and blog links. I happened to click on a link to another blog, just randomly, since I don't generally have time to check them all out. And I found Bloom, Grow, Love. I loved the photos the author takes, so I was reading some of her older posts, and saw she had an Etsy store. So I clicked on the link to the store, the first item of which was a set of postcards of Paris in Spring. Beautiful really. They happened to remind me of some postcards I ordered last summer to send to a friend. Some of my favorite postcards of all time! Lovely stormy colors, pearlized paper, enough space to write what I wanted.

And then, as I was scrolling through her other items, lo and behold, there were the postcards I ordered over a year ago! What a small blogging world... wait, what am I saying? There are millions of blogs in the world, many many many of which are photo blogs. Not to mention millions of etsy accounts. So what are the chances of me clicking in a roundabout, non-intentional sort of way, back to a site I visited a year ago? I should think slim to none.

And yet Mr. Beebe's voice from A Room With A View can't help but come into my head. If I'm interested in a particular thing (beautiful things, photography, postcards) is it any wonder I should happen upon already found beauties from people interested in things similar? I don't know. I just don't know. What a happy coincidence though! Thank you, Alicia Block, for taking such wonderful photographs!

What in the woooorld?

I've had a surge of anonymous comments on blogs I posted over a year ago. And a lot of them range from mildly to moderately critical. Who is taking a random girl on the internet so SERIOUSLY? Blogs are for rambling about junk no one actually cares about. MIRite?

I guess I should be glad people are reading though... hmmm.

Odds and Ends

I check the Provo Craigslist Missed Connections every week or so on the off chance someone has written something about me.

My favorite albums of 2008 were For Emma, Forever Ago (Bon Iver); Lust, Lust, Lust (The Raveonettes); Starfucker (Starfucker); Some Are Lakes (Land of Talk); Oracular Spectacular (MGMT); and Devotion (Beach House).

I'm not living up to my potential.

I secretly enjoyed Happy Sumo more than I should have. It's not even real sushi. It's (delicious) overpriced Americanized fish, seaweed and rice.

I found this website fascinating and very helpful in my new quest to overcome depression and anxiety.

I love Toby even though he's a jerkface.

That is all.

#100

I have found that living in a place I like living and being with people I like being with means I spend much less time wishing I were elsewhere and pretending to be there by perusing the internet. What I'm getting at, is that I finally have time to read. I spend my real world time in the place I used to try to reach with my internet time, which means I spend my internet time reading books I like.

Current: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Belano
Next: Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Follow Up: Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

I feel like I'm finally returning to homeostasis.

places I'd rather be

I think about the last frame in this webcomic almost daily. I find it heartwarming and full of hope.

I'm not really in my usual chipper state these days. I rotate between anxiety, anger and depression. I am not in San Diego. And I'm missing a few key people greatly.

The bright spot in my life is that I'm moving in less than two weeks to Utah. I leave the 20th and should arrive the afternoon of the 21st if my dad drives with me. If he doesn't I'll make the trip in one shot. This wasn't part of my original plan but current life necessitates it. And at least I'll be there in time for Sego.

Sigh. I just have to make it through the next two weeks then hopefully things will start looking up again.

Questionable Content

Ok, we are going to completely ignore any of the things that have happened in the real world the past few days and stick to the intar-webz. Because, ugh, I don't even want to think about it.

Thanks to my lovely friend Dane, I am officially 100% obsessed with Questionable Content. 1027 comic strips and 3 days later, I'm trying to force myself to slow down. Because eventually (cough tonight cough) I'm going to get to that point where I actually have to wait a day for every new strip. And I don't even know how I'm going to handle that (or not being able to just skim the guest strips and get back to the main story line).

The thing is, I relate to these characters. I mean reading this is like reading someone else's take on my life. Just, everyone is scarily better looking. But the conversations and the interests and snobbery! oh the snobbery! It's just so me and my friends.

I just got to the point when Steve and Meena are having the "what happened with your last boyfriend" conversation and it was astonishingly similar to my (somewhat) recent history. That overwhelming feeling of just not living up. Knowing if it doesn't end, you're going to make a really stupid decision just to get out of it. And all because the other person is simply too perfect.

How can I relate to drawings this much?? I don't even know!

Also reading Persepolis. My first foray into the graphic novel genre. It's wonderful so far. Our matching freckle is what first intrigued me (see the top right side of the bridge of my nose - no, it is not mascara), but after further investigation, I realized it was a worthy read for other reasons as well. I'm learning a lot about Iran in the process and I'm hoping once my French skillzorz are up to par, I'll be able to read it in it's original language.

Oh, and I guess I'll throw in two small tidbits about real life: 1) Neumo's need some freaking air conditioners! and 2) I've never seen Conor Oberst so happy in all my life (and all 4 times I've seen him) than he was on Wednesday. It was pure magic. I thought I'd eaten some rainbow slices and unicorns hairs and hallucinated it all. But no, I think it really happened. Conor Oberst was ACTUALLY SMILING. A LOT. Weird, I know! And yet strangely glorious.

Alright, I think I've taken a long enough break from QC. Time to finish this bad boy UP! (also, I just really want to see Faye get together with Sven already. I mean we could see that one coming from a mile (and two years) away!)

Adventures, Anxiety and Animals

I woke up on the brink of an anxiety attack this morning and it hasn't subsided. It hasn't blossomed into the stomach wrenching, heart pounding, barely able to walk symptoms that usually occur, thankfully, but I'm still not feeling great. I haven't been able to pinpoint what I'm feeling anxious about exactly so it's been hard to fight.

However. Babyanimalz.com has helped significantly. Basically I want one of these:


Isn't it just squishy, fluffy, floppy, oh so adorably huggable?? I love its cute little arms and ears! aaaaah!

So I know I'm like 2 years behind on this, but my brother and I finally bought Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii and oh em gee I love it! I love slashing the wii-mote to beat bad guys up, and the tail spin thing I get to do as a wolf ROCKS! Heck, just being a wolf is awesome fun.

I think next on my list is Zelda: Wind Waker (from the Game Cube) and Boom Blox. Both look very entertaining.

I'm a little bit ridiculous

So I find myself a little annoyed with the internet lately. Which is completely hypocritical and kind of dumb, but I can't seem to help it. This is why I haven't been blogging as of late.

I find that the more we recede into the internet (the more Facebook friends we make, the more blogs we write, the more emails we send and comments we leave and statuses we update and instant messages we type) the less we really know our fellow man. These versions of ourselves and others are not real. The people we "meet" through these mediums are rarely who we think they are but rather some skewed version of themselves; a distorted reflection of another distorted reflection of the real thing.

So I bought a real journal, and I'm writing in that. And at times I might update this thing, but mostly I'm tired of posting my life on the world wide web for a while. I'll probably get over it, but I'd rather just talk to people in real life. And do real things. And think about them myself and not talk to everyone about it not in person.

That's this week's feeling anyway, we'll see what happens next week or the week after :)

I'm so fickle, I swear. But I guess at least I'm aware of this fact.

One red paper clip

I would like to trade one red paper clip for a house. Hah.

Hey, if Kyle MacDonald can do it, so can I!

I think it's completely nuts but also really cool. We should all trade paper clips for houses. Maybe it would save our economy? (kidding)

Crocheted squares completed for Warm Up America: 2.5

Central Coast Cali, here I come! (Please don't rain on me) countdown: 17 days

Things are good.