the high line

I was reading through some trendy magazine while on break at work one day last week and there was this article about gardens to visit. And I thought, "hey! I like visiting gardens, I'll read this article!" And, the spotlighted garden was called, The High Line, and it is an elevated garden that runs throughout the meatpacking district in NYC. And now, I want to go to there. How COOL does this seem?? I mean, really, an elevated anything is cool. But, add the magicality of a garden and it becomes like, 100 times cooler. And then minus the fact that I just made up the word, "magicality" and that brings you back like, 10 cool points. So, it's like, 90 points cooler than a regular garden. Now I have no idea where we are on the scale and I'm going to start a new paragraph so I don't totally lose all of you in this blabber.

Hey! What's up!?!

Last night I had a dream that Dunkin Donuts was advertising all these new flavors of hot chocolate, so I went to go get one and Daniel Radcliffe was working at the drive-thru window. And I was like,

JULIE: Oh hi, can I get a hot chocolate?
DANIEL: We're all out of the cool flavors.
JULIE: Even raspberry?
DANIEL: Yes.
JULIE: Can I get a shot of espresso in mine?
DANIEL: Okay. That'll be $15.02.
JULIE: I'm really excited for tomorrow night.
DANIEL: Make sure you give me lots of kisses.

And it was like a weird DD, where you ordered at the drive-thru, but then had to drive across the street to the actual store to pick up your order. So, I walk inside and it's all avaition themed, and you had to go into the cockpit to pick up your drink. And I actually paid $15.02 for a hot chocolate with a shot of espresso!! Isn't that ridiculous! And then there was that line, "make sure you give me lots of kisses." Don't know where that came from.

It was just a strange dream overall. Like, overall.

Kara and I watched this movie, 'Somewhere' last night. It's the new Sofia Coppola film. It was kind of like the breakdown of a celebrity lifestyle. Pretty good. Hardly any dialogue. There was this really interesting part when he goes to get a plaster mold done of his head, and he's just sitting there alone in the room with all this plaster covering his face. And the camera was just slowly moving forward towards him. IDK, it was interesting.

And so, the point was that he's this big shot celeb, who parties all the time and has all these one-night stands, and then his 11 year old daughter comes to stay with him for a little while and he realizes that he's been missing out on his whole life and that everything in meaningless.

It was pretty good. Pheonix did the score. Members of Rooney made an appearance, which was how I first found out about the movie. Robert came home from shooting the movie and did a video diary where he talked about filming a movie. Because Sofia Coppola is his cousin, so he gets to be in her movies. And Jason Schwartzman too. Anyways, check it out, I guess. It was pretty slow, and like I said, hardly any talking, but, worth it.

Anyways.

I bought a neon yellow bra the other day. I'm pretttyyyyy excited about it. Some might argue that it's neon green, because apparantly I'm neon color blind. But, it's neon yellow. All the way. And I love it. And I normally don't talk about things like bras, but I'm so excited about it that I wanted to share. Great!!

Yesterday I had this realization that I had frozen mango chunks in the freezer and pineapple juice in the fridge. (Are you seeing where I'm going with this???) SO, I put them in a blender with some ice and voila - MANGO PINEAPPLE SMOOTHIE!!!! It had a great flavor, but for some reason wasn't as tasty as the McDonald's version.

And through the smoothie making process I was fully aware that I was using all Dole products. Because Dole is one of those really bad companies that you shouldn't buy things from. And I even said aloud,

JULIE: You're using Dole products. Jesus Julie, COME ON.




And then I went on to fully enjoy my smoothie :/ Go America!

That was a bummer portion. Now I'm all sad at the state of everything.

Let's talk about something beautiful!

So last week when Kara and I were waiting at the Saab dealership for them to charge her $100 to tell her what was wrong with the car, I was looking through this travel magazine in the waiting room! And they had this article on Central California and why you should visit it. So I said, "okay! I'll visit it!" So, now I want to go to there. And for some reason, I immediately thought that this would make a great honeymoon destination! Why not?! So if anyone wants to marry me and then honeymoon there, let me know. Or, just go there and not get married. That would probably also work.

And then while I'm there, I would somehow convince the California Parks and Recreation Department to hire me to be the lighthouse keeper for the Point Sur Lighthouse, which is one of the most haunted lighthouses in the country!! My dreams of ghost hunting and also becoming a lighthouse keeper could finally be fullfilled!!! BAM.

I think we need to do something about the lighthouse keeping industry in this country. There needs to be a revival! Just like a Broadway show. Revive the lighthouse keeping industry! It's just like, such a beautiful and lonely sounding thing.

When I become President I'll revive it. Don't worry, guys. I'm on this. Maybe I'll even start a whole new party. The Lighthouse Movement. Or something. And create some catchy slogan like, "shining light on our beautiful future." Or something. "Beacon to the Future!" "Vote Julie Evans and Maria Richardson!"

(I just assumed that Maria would want to hop in on the campaign. As either Co-President or Vice President.)

OMG it'd be so fun if Maria and I were President together. 24/7 sleepover in the White House.

Okkk. Speaking of Maria, I MIGHT see her today! Or sometime this weekend because she's home for a few days!! I'm very excited about this. Except I have to work like, nonstop this weekend. Butttttt, it'll all be good if I see her.

We've covered a lot of ground in this entry. Daniel Radcliffe, bras, lighthouses. This is one of the reasons why I love blogging. It could take you anywhere. I mean, you could end up talking about something you never intended on talking about. Which is basically like every entry.

OH! I know you're all concerned about my sunburn. So, it's getting a lot better. My skin soaked up all the vinegar it could handle yesterday and then I switched to an aloe lotion that we had in the cabinet that did not contain any cocoa butter. I guess I have to remember to read the ingredients. My allergic rash is all gone. And, the redness also went down a lot, so I'm thinking that a lot of the red was caused by the rash. It's still red, though. And kinda hurts. But, last night I was able to sleep on my side, so we're making progress. Now I guess I also have to go out and find a sunscreen that doesn't contain cocoa butter so I can use that in the outdoors. It's hard being allergic to random things. Once I get health insurance, I should really go for an allergy test. But in order to get health insurance I would most likely have to get a full-time job. And the term "full-time job" scares me.

Okay enough about serious things like full time jobs and rashes. Geeze, with all this talk about bras and rashes you'd think this blog was something totally different than what it is. What is it? I don't know. But it's not the bras and rashes type of blog. Except for today. This is like the rare uncensored entry.

No, I would say that most entries are uncensored.

MOVING ON.

I have to go do laundry now. I enjoy doing laundry, so I'm not upset about this. I'm also hungry so I may eat something.

OK! You may go have an excellent day!! I will too! It's nice today because it's not 99 degrees outside. I appreciate that. Last night I actually had to pull my comforter up because I was cold. And it's a great feeling, being cold in the summer.

We'll talk again soon!!! Enjoy everything there is!!!!

Episode #563: Julie is Allergic to Sunscreen

Folks, I have a sunburn. It's pretty hilarious looking. It also hurts. And, as it would turn out, I am allergic to both the sunscreen I used as well as the after-sun lotion I put on to soothe the sunburn. I realized this when I noticed all these red rashy bumps all over my legs and arms. This caused me to read the ingredients to both lotions, and both of them contain cocoa butter, which is a thing I am allergic to.

I found out I was allergic to cocoa butter only after using it for a while and ending up with a rash.

Now, Kara and I were at the beach for about 4 hours yesterday and I think I reapplied sunscreen about 4 times, more so in areas prone to sunburns, like my knees and shoulders. These are areas in which the sunburn is the worst, which makes me wonder if it's worse because of my allergy to cocoa butter. Since my skin was already irritated by the lotion, the sun on top of it may have made it worse?? It makes sense in my head. It's also a bummer because now I am left with a sunburn AND a rash.

At first, Kara was joking that maybe I am allergic to sunlight. This would have been better because then I would have the perfect excuse for spending the summer at the movies!!!

Anyways.

It was a fun day at the beach anyways. We headed to Drake's Island, in Wells, which is maybe our fave beach. We passed through the intersection of Rt. 4 and Rt. 9 just before 10am, which, an hour later was the sight of a deadly train crash. For serious! Scary stuff. We didn't go home that way, because we were picking my mom up from work, so we drove south and headed into Dover, and came home through Somersworth. Crazy.

So, the last time I talked to you, Kara, my mom and I were headed to the drive-in! Yes! It was a super fun night. We saw Bad Teacher and The Hangover 2. I had already seen The Hangover with Greg a few weeks ago, but it was still funny. I wasn't sure how I would like Bad Teacher, but it ended up being pretty cute and funny. And $8.50 for two movies is a great deal. And - we took the trusty Prius and averaged 57mpg the whole trip. Not toooo bad, eh?

Friday I was the only one who had to get up for work! Everyone else had the day off. But then Friday night I headed into Dover to meet up with two new friends!!!!! Andrew and Alicia!!

Andrew first commented in THIS VERY BLOG about my Murdock Lake posting and we just started communicating from there. He has his own adventure blog which is a highly enjoyable read!! And he has a lovely girlfriend named Alicia who he lives with and so on Friday night, I took the risk of being murdered to go meet them!!! I am a very trustworthy, naive person, so I believed they were who they said they were. And they were!!!

They live in a great apartment in downtown Dover and we drank wine and ate delicious homemade pizza and had some great conversation!!!! How wonderful is it when you make new friends??? Pretty wonderful.

And - if you click on Alicia's name up there, it will take you to her website where she is conducting a craft-blogger survey. SO. This is your mission: if you blog about doing crafty things (Aliya and Renee are coming to mind....) then you should go take her survey!!

I was lucky enough to be the first recipient of one of Alicia's fabulous homemade business cards!!!




They are beautiful, tiny pieces of art and I was super excited she gave me one.

Also, I was super excited that her and Andrew are totally cool and really fun to hang out with. YAY.

It really makes me happy that I am so lucky to attract awesome people into my life. And also all the wonderful people I've met through this blog. Because it's a fact that awesome people read this blog, because I've met some of them, and they are really, really awesome. All of you.


SPEAKING OF BLOG READERS!!!!!

CONTINUE TO SEND ME YOUR SPIN ART CREATIONS!!!!! I've only gotten ONE sent to me (from my BFF Maria), and I want a whole bunch more before I put up the art gallery show!!!! It takes a maximum of 2 minutes to create a beautiful spin art. I just timed myself making one, and it took me 1 minute 44 seconds to create this:


I call it, 'To the Sunrise.' Under two minutes!!! I overestimated the time it would take, because I created a bunch of spin arts the other day, so I was already familiar with the process. Those unfamiliar may have to fool around a bit to figure it out. But! It's super easy and I trust that you all can do it, no prob.

So - go do the spin art and then send it to me: captainjulie225@gmail.com.

I WILL POST IT IN THE BLOG. Then you'll become famous, because everyone who's cool reads this blog, duh. Great.


In other news, Kara brought me home this cake pop that she made at her bakery this morning:



This photo was taken approximately 45 seconds before the cake pop was gone. DELISH. Cute, too, eh?


And, speaking of smoothies (what's that..? We weren't talking about smoothies..??), I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy another mango pineapple smoothie from McDonald's

(KARA: Julie, come to the gym with me!
JULIE: Noooo!!!
KARA: I'll buy you a smoothie!
JULIE: .........FINE.)

(Keep in mind that that smoothie was the only thing keeping me going at the gym. It was horrible. The only time I've ever been to the gym and thought, "I don't think I'll be able to keep going." HORRIBLE. I was so tired and hotttt and suuuuppper sweaty. I only did 25 minutes on the elliptical, and those 25 minutes went by slower than the last 25 minutes of a workday before the weekend. AWFUL.)

But! I got home and someone else was happy to see my smoothie!!!



Miss Ruby Tuesday!! She enjoyed drinking the outside of the cup, while I enjoyed drinking the inside. Perf!


Man, it's hott today, right? Yes. I dislike.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about news teams. Just like, how they're a team and how great that must be. And, it's making me wonder if radio hosts have the same kind of camaraderie as news teams do. Like, would a morning radio crew have the same kind of bond as a nightly news team?? Also, why does the word 'crew' seem to always be used in the radio sense, whereas the word 'team' refers to on tv? Hmm.

Like, everyday at the same time, a group of people get together and deliver the news. And for some reason are waaayyyy less annoying at improv dialogue than a radio crew is. I just find this interesting.

Also, because I've been watching the nightly news a lot with my mom. Also I have developed a crush on weatherman Matt Noyes. He's an enthusiastic little cutie.

Also, speaking of cuties!

My horoscope for yesterday said this:

Ask out that hottie you've been aching for in secret. It might not actually be all that secret, actually -- they've probably been waiting for you.

Remember last week there was that other mention of hotties in my horoscope?!?! IDK. This kinda made me happy though. The thought that somewhere out there there is a hottie waiting for me...

My horoscope for today reads:

Luck is on your side today, so enjoy a series of positive encounters.

Great, right?! I was happy to read that. The only place I'm going today is work. From 7-11pm. In Kittery.

TOMORROW, I really want to go to Warped Tour, but NO ONE will come with me. :( So, at first I thought I was definitely going, but now I'm not sure. RIVER CITY EXTENSION is playing though...... UUGHHHHHHH. I should just go. But, it's like a two hour drive. I don't really know any of the other bands playing..... Keith texted me a whole bunch of suggestions on who to go see, which makes me think I should go to see those bands since Keith likes really good music.... buuuttttt IDK. I could really use a River City Extension show, as always, since the last time I saw them was in FEBRUARY! The day-after-my-birthday show in Connecticut that took me like, 5 hours to get home because of the horrible snow storm in which I thought I was going to die.

SO. It's still up in the air. If you want to go with me, let me know and I'll buy tickets.

Also! I meant to write about this after I saw Locksley last week, but I forgot. Unless I actually remembered and wrote about it, but forgot that I did so, and in that case - I'm telling you again!!!

They played this great song called, 'For the Summer,' and in this middle turned it into a mash-up of 'Clint Eastwood' by Gorillaz, which I loved! And ever since, I've kind of had 'Clint Eastwood' stuck in my head. I found a YouTube video of them performing this mash-up, but not at the concert that I saw. I watched a couple videos, and this one had the best audio. So, you should watch it and as always, please enjoy.

Hmmmm. What else did I want to tell you about?! I feel like I had a good amount to say and I feel like I've said a good amount. Maybe that's it?

I've got a 'Foster the People' Pandora station going and currently it's playing The Pixies. In case you were wondering what I was listening to right now. Aanndd, it just switched to The Black Keys.

Ok. I have to go take a shower, which is possibly one of the worst things you can do on a super hott day when you have a bad sunburn. But maybe washing off all of the lotions that I am allergic to will be a good thing. And, I have come up with an alternative sunburn remedy! VINEGAR!!! Yep, it smells gross, but when mixed with water is apparently a great solution. And bonus - I'm not allergic to vinegar. At least, I don't think I am.

I seriously can't believe I am allergic to the sunscreen AND the sunburn lotion. So lame. So, so lame.

SO. You have some tasks:

1. Create your own spin art
2. Take the craft blogger survey if you are a craft blogger

Both are very crafty things! Loves it.

I guess the good thing about the allergic rash is that it goes away quickly and is not contagious.

ALSO, I'm thinking more seriously about getting my tattoo. I had been imagining the compass inside a round circle, but lately I've been thinking, 'maybe I want a diamond shape?' What are your thoughts? I guess I still like the circle idea. We'll see. Also, I have to find a good tattoo place. If you have tattoos.... give me some opinions. I might talk to Greg about this, since he has many.

I feel like I've been talking about boys a lot in this entry. ........ :)

This is the song that's currently playing on my Pandora: TRAIN SONG. I've heard this song before, but forgot about it, and now I'm hearing it again. Pandora is great for that sort of thing. This song is a collab between Feist and Ben Gibbard. That guy, in addition to being in Death Cab for Cutie, just does collabs all over the place ( <--- great song. great record.) Also, he's married to Zooey Deschanel. Who I saw IRL when I was in Chicago last summer!!!

Ok. I was going to end this entry a long time ago. But then I started talking about vinegar and tattoos and boys and Ben Gibbard.

My sunburn hurts less since the vinegar, btw.

Alright. Hope you're having a great day. Again, I will be working tonight from 7-11pm. And I highly recommed the 'Foster the People' Pandora station. Loves it. Iron and Wine on now.

Have a great Tuesday! Make it a Ruby one ;)




And in my memories depths I retrace my steps.
I cannot find where I went wrong.
It was one fast move or I'm gone.