Misty Green and Blue

Pink and Ruby Tuesday!

2012-02-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, FRIENDS!!!!

Look at Ruby Tuesday! We took her picture with a heart shaped cookie cutter!! And I thought I'd post it in the Valentine's entry!!!! (She's the best!)

I hope you all wore Valentine's Day colors today!!! Which, Aliya informs me YOU CAN in fact, wear together all year long. My mistake, folks. This is good info!

Hope you all had a wonderful day, ate lots of chocolate and got lots of love letters from all the secret admirers I know you have :) Oh wait, that just sounds like a normal day!!

ANYWAYS, I love you ALL! Thanks for reading! Hope to see YOU at the New Blog Ribbon Cutting next week!!!

LOVELOVELOVE,
Julie

NEW BLOG RIBBON CUTTING EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!

2012-02-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

- New blog extravaganza!
- Join me here! That's right, just come to THIS BLOG, and the address to the new blog will be posted.
- 24 February 2012, 6:30pm

Join me for:
- my second ever online ribbon cutting ceremony!
- first ever video post!

PRIZES!!!!
- the first SIX PEOPLE to leave a comment either on FACEBOOK OR THE NEW BLOG will be mailed a handmade, one-of-a-kind FRIENDSHIP BRACELET!! (made by me!)

Gotta love prizes.

OK!!!! So that's the story on the new blog! I hope all you readers can make it!!

It's been kind of a while since I updated! I bet you think a lot has been going on! Nope! Not really!! Same old, same old.

Well. Some exciting things have been happening. I will recount them here.

THE FIRST THING!

I voted today!!! In a SPECIAL ELECTION!!! Just for Berwick. If you've been following the news out of Berwick, Maine (what's that...you say you haven't been...Fair enough.), then you know that there is major controversy over the three sketchy selectmen/woman who have been trying to pull all kinds of tricks behind the townspeople's back. NOT ANYMORE! Today we voted on whether or not to get them outta there so they can't be reelected. I like voting. I like it a lot.

Ok. Now I have some important photos to show you. I'm just gonna go right down the line here...

Yep. That's Ruby Tuesday, right there. She's sleeping on my bed on the blanket that Maria made for me. I found that blanket a few weeks ago and said, "Oh, Ruby used to love this blanket when she was little, I'll put it on my bed for her." Turns out - she still loves it. I woke up one morning last week and she was sleeping like this. I have no idea how she got herself covered up. But I don't mind - IT'S PRETTY CUTE.

This now, was a separate day. I think it might have been the next morning, or something. Still sleeping on the blanket. I woke up, looked at her and said, "ooo JACKPOT." Then immediately reached over for my phone and snapped this gem. Her little paw is covering her little face!!!! UGHHHHH WHYYY IS SHE SO SWEET?!?!!?!??! We really lucked out with that one. She's the best. No, really, she's the best.

Speaking of the best.... THIS PHOTO WAS A GREAT DAY!!! So, we all know my best friend Maria. She is frequently mentioned in this blog. WELL, Maria has a little sister who is equal in awesome and I love her so much. And there was one particular Saturday that I thought, "Hm, I wonder if Joshie wants to go out for lunch?!" And she did!!! It was a date!!! So I picked her up and we drove over to one of the finest establishments in Dover, NH, Friendly's, and we had a delightful lunch!

At the end of our meal, we both got out our super cool shades to put on, and then naturally decided to put them on our drinks. To make our drinks looks super cool. Yep, that's my Fribble. DELISH. If you don't love a Fribble, then you don't have a heart. And that's Joshie ducking down in the background, haha. She's the best! I had such a fun date with her!

POETRY BREAK!!!!!!!!

I thought you might be getting sick of hearing what I have to say... and maybe you want a little more poetry in your life. Who doesn't want that?

So, remember the Blog Reader Haiku Challenge??? You all write me a haiku and I'll post it in the blog?!?!? YEP! That one! Well, I've gotten TWO MORE haikus to post for you!

KEEP SENDING 'EM!!!! I love it.

Let's enjoy the poetry stylings of...

MATT

eat honey mustard
amazing nectar of Gods
love honey mustard

DK

the world speeds forward

like a never ending stream

flowing icily

GREAT JOB, GUYS!!!!! Me and Matt are huge fans of honey mustard, so I was especially excited when he sent that one in. If you want YOUR haiku posted in THIS BLOG, then write one (3 lines, first line has five syllables, second line has seven syllables, and third line has five again) and email it in! Blog email address posted to your left!!

<<--- GREAT!

Aanndd, now! Some more visual displays that I've done at work!

The Spring 2 floorset called for more flying people, so I was excited for the challenge! After having done it once, I was more confident that I would do a nice job. And this time it was in men's AND women's!

It was definitely harder because there was more layering going on in the clothes... but we did it a different way. Jen had these huge wooden dowels, and I dressed the dowels and then suspended them from the walls and ceiling....

Check out the spring jackets!

I dressed that classy lady sitting on the table in the front, too. I think it came out pretty awesome.

Now, for the men's section, the way the walls were and the way the ceiling tiles were placed, I ended up needing to screw hooks into the wall in order to hold the display up.

I may not look like it, but I'm actually pretty handy.

Came out great, I think. Every time I walk in the store, I look over to make sure both sections are still up. Still makes me nervous. It's hard work making those displays. And being up on the ladder all day is HOT. It's hot up there. But, worth it.

SO!

I made a new friend last week at trivia night at Fury's. And on Thursday night we went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston together! And it was super, super fun and TURNS OUT you are allowed to take pictures of the art!

Here are some of my faves:

This was a large glass case with these vase-like objects in it, and every way you looked at it, it looked like infinity. It was so cool. I think this picture came out pretty rockin'.

Ship captain or postman??? YOU DECIDE!!!!

These above two were NOT done by the same artist! Amazing! Because they look similar. Both beautiful.

This was another fancy effect, where it looked like the spiral went to infinity! Loves it!

We had a great time! After we went over to Chinatown for some delicious tea and then strolled around the Boston Common. Fun times. A lot. :)

So, I don't know if you realized the date of the Blog Extravaganza.... but it's ONE DAY before my birthday!! That's right! I chose that special day so that it will be a TRIPLE THREAT weekend!!!

FEB 24th - blog ribbon cutting
FEB 25th - JULIE'S BIRTHDAY
FEB 26th - Academy Awards!!!

Three of my favorite things in one weekend!! There will be LOTS of celebrating! There's another celebration happening that weekend over at Eddie Bauer where I work, because the FIRST EDDIE BAUER STORE opened on February 25! Haha. I think that's kind of hilarious that it's also my birthday. Meant to be, I guess.

So - get ready for the big triple threat weekend. I can't wait. My birthday is my favorite day of the whole year.

Greg and I went to see The Woman In Black the other night. AAHHHHHH. OMG it was super scary and creepy. It was like one of those movies where you are constantly holding your breath and things make you jump. It was like a jumpy scary movie. Really good, though. Sad, also. Daniel Radcliffe was good. It only took me a few minutes to get into the "not Harry Potter" mindset. The first big conflict and I semi-expected him to yell for Ron and Hermione. But! He didn't. And he pretty much tackled the demons by himself. Good movie. CREEPY movie. Theater was packed.

OK!! I think that's it! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! DON'T FORGET TO WEAR PINK OR RED!!!! Purple is also accepted AS LONG as it's worn with pink. It's the only day of the year where that color combo is allowed.

Hope everyone has a great day! Talk to you soon!!

lovelovelove,
Julie

two miles on my tank and 3 dollars in the bank.

2012-01-29T18:33:00.001-08:00

News Flash: I am NOT an Adult

Hey guys. I realized something very important this morning on my way into work. I am not an adult. I am actually quite far from being an adult. And I thought, 'I should blog about this.' And then I thought, 'I bet I could come up with some examples of just how much I am not an adult.'

YOU'RE IN LUCK! I found some examples!! Let's begin:

You see, here we have a photo I took this morning in my car, of the dashboard. Please note I have TWO MILES left on my gas tank. Irresponsible. Especially in the winter. Also, I need an oil change. Irresponsible! And, if I had made the shot a little wider, you would see that my tire pressure light is on. And has been on allll winter. Majorly irresponsible!

That's like, two pieces of evidence in one photo.

Moving on.

This, my friends, is a screen capture from my bank account! (I've hot-pink'd out my account number.) Please note that it says $3.85. Yeah, that's the total. Do you see a savings account in that list? Yeah. That's because I don't have one. Why? Because the bank closed the account after the balance was $0.00 for like, three years.

I used up the $9 I had in cash at the gas station this morning. That $3.85 has to hold me over until Friday. I haven't been this broke in a while. NOT AN ADULT.

ON THE OTHER HAND:

This is a photo I took of myself today:

Wearing a yellow shirt! AT LEAST I'm following through on my resolutions! :)

IN OTHER NEWS:::

I have some important things to talk about. Well, kinda.

1. SHOUT OUTS!!!!! Remember how sometimes I like to do shout outs to people who read my blog?!?! YEP!

Today's shout out goes to DK!! He told me today at work that he was up until midnight reading THIS VERY BLOG! He got all the way back to the Taylor Swift concert! That's dedication! Thanks for reading, DK. I really appreciate it :) AND, now you get an awesome shout out!

2. My hair! I love experimenting with my hair, be it color or style. Recently, I have found a way to curl your hair with no tools!

Here is the website, and you all should try this. IT REALLY WORKS. Basically you take one of those thin elastic headbands (mine is Goody brand), put it over your head like, "hippy" style, and then twist your hair underneath until it's all up. It doesn't make sense when you read it. You have to go to that website. I even had to watch the video because I was still perplexed.

The first time I did it, it came out awesome. The second time, ehhhh. It came out, ok. Still curly, just not as fancy. Both times I've had to run the straightener through a few times in the morning, also brush it out with my fingers (because I don't own a real brush) because it's like WHOA CURLS. It also adds great volume! Something which I am always looking for! But it takes like five seconds to do, and then you just sleep on it! And it's not bulky or plastic-y like some overnight curling methods. You don't wake up the next morning sleeping in a giant pile of bobby pins.

It's hard being a girl.

3. BLOG READER HAIKU CHALLENGE!!!!!

Remember I challenged you all to write me some haikus after I wrote a circular one a few weeks ago?? WELL - I had four lovely people submit me some damn fine haikus! And now, without their knowledge or permission, I will post them here!!!!

Folks, we've got poets in our company. Let's enjoy the poetic stylings of:

JENN
some branches prefer
the challenges of winter
over boring sun

EMILY
I miss mod sixty
and convincing Julie to
stay downstairs with me

(i miss this too!)

DAVID
I can't do it, you
can do it. Really? My gar-
lic knot is ready.

(Emily said she recorded what David said, and then turned it into a haiku. Love it.)

ANDREW
in the road i see
the promise of adventure
why don't we do it

Can you believe these are my friends?!?! I was/am pretty impressed by their continued awesomeness. PLEASE, let this challenge continue! If you ever feel the need to write a lil' haiku, please send it along my way. I'll post it here! That sounds fun.

I hope you guys are getting excited about the new blog!!! I am! I'm also getting nervous about the video blog. YEESH!!! But, I'm really excited to unveil the awesomeness to your eyes.

I'll post the invitation soon :)

ALSO, um, did anyone notice that the title of this entry ROCKS?!?!?! 'two miles on my tank and three dollars in the bank!' Yeah, did I mention I'm a rapper?? Cuz it sure sounds like it. I should figure out how to post some of my raps that I recorded with Andrew. Not the Andrew that posted the haiku. But, other Andrew.

So tomorrow at work is FLOORSET!!!! I'm doing more flying displays! I'm excited. I like floorset days because I feel in control of myself and what I'm doing. I feel like I have responsibility, and I really like that. I like being responsible for things.

I liked that about working at Hannah House. It was like, I was in control of the house during the nighttime. All those mother and babies were my responsibility to keep safe. I also think this is one of the reasons I would like to be a lighthouse keeper or a ship captain.

That ship captain that "fell into the lifeboat" on that cruise ship that recently ran aground, MAN, he could have been so great. And instead, he's a douchebag. Like, he had so much he was responsible for. He was the CAPTAIN. Not something to be taken lightly.

Also today at work, I was hanging out with Katie D and she was saying that I was the "vision specialist" at the store. And I was like, "that sounds like I work at LensCrafters." haha. I laughed. And I just laughed about it again. So, there ya go.

MOVIE RECOMMENDATION!

- One Week. Starring Joshua Jackson. Yes, that Joshua Jackson. From Dawson's Creek. What was his name? Percy? Pacey? Something like that, I think. Comment if you remember! Without looking it up! Anyways, this movie was about a guy who finds out he has stage four cancer, so he buys this old Norton motorcycle and heads west. Two things:

1. Norton was the brand of motorcycle that Che Guevara and Alberto Granado rode in The Motorcycle Diaries.
2. I assumed this film was set in the US - but no! It was set in Canada! Turns out it was a Canadian film! Great!

So, he starts in Toronto and ends up in Tofino, which is on Vancouver Island! That's where my dad lives! Not in Tofino, but on the island! One of the spots he went to on the trip was Banff, where my dad, Kara and I went when we went on our big Canadian adventure! I really liked the movie.

Well, ok! I think that might be it. I'd say this was a fun-filled entry, as always.

Be on the lookout for your New Blog Unveiling Ribbon-Cutting Extravaganza Party of the Century invitation! Coming soon!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Enjoy this week! It's almost my birthday month! :)

Have a great night!

and so i run now to the things they say can restore me
restore life the way it should be

PUT A BIRD ON IT!

2012-01-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

SO HERE IS SOME EXCITING NEWS TO START OFF WITH:::

I have decided on a date for the New Blog Unveiling Ribbon-Cutting Extravaganza Party of the Century!!!!! As it is now being called.

YES - that's right! There is a new blog out there, and it's coming to you SOON. Get the hell ready, cause it's gonna be amazeballs all over your face.

AND - I'm gonna do a video post as the first entry! So ya'll get to see the crazy stuff going on IN REAL LIFE. Except it won't actually be in real life cause it'll be prerecorded. It's probably much more work to do a live-blog chat sesh... although that sounds kinda fun. Maybe I'll look into it for future blog parties. But not the first one, cause I'll be too nervous already. Once I'm down with the video posts, maybe we'll do a live-blog.

SO - I will formally invite each and every one of you to the New Blog Unveiling Ribbon-Cutting Extravaganza Party of the Century via invitation posted IN THIS BLOG. I will most likely also create a Facebook Event for the party, because why the heck not?? Also, I like creating Facebook Events.

But I'm SO EXCITED to share the new blog with you. It's more representative of myself then this blog is. I feel. It's cooler. Sexier. More fun. Smarter. Classier. Braver. All those great things that make a blog (and a person) AWESOME.

Great!

What's happening this week? UM, EVERYTHING.

We did trivia on Monday night again at Fury's. Pretty much the same group as last week, minus Maria, plus Ian, Sam and Tim. It was way fun. Although, we did not come in second place. We came in like..... some place much more closer to last. Whatevs! Still a super fun night.

Tuesday I had to work! Lame! But then - TRIVIA AGAIN. That's right - two nights in a freaking row. This time it was at Shipyard Brew Pub in Eliot, which is a place that I pass on my way to work, and have never been to. Until now. And it's super nice! It was Kara, Kara's boyfriend's sister Leigh, and myself! AND WE CAME IN SECOND PLACE!! AND GOT A 10$ GIFTCARD!!!! It rocked.

And, I'm going to trivia again TOMORROW NIGHT with Matt and Meg and all those fine people. Yessssss.

Today was my sit-on-the-couch-and-so-absolutely-nothing-day. Ruby Tuesday sat with me the whole day. She's still sitting next to me right now.

Although I might go to the gym later. I went to the gym on Monday. I know what you're thinking, 'what a horrible way to start the week!' And you're right!

OK! I think that's all for now. Keep it tuned for the BIG INVITATION!!!! Coming soon. Just you wait. (I can't wait!!!)

Hope you all are having a great day! If it's not great by now, then go MAKE IT GREAT. I mean, what are you waiting for?!?!

Talk to you soon!!!

'Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.'

2012-01-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

Today was kind of a melancholy day. You have them sometimes. I have them sometimes. We all have them sometimes.

Didn't leave the house all day. Didn't get dressed all day. Didn't even really eat all day. Well, I had some food. (I had a sandwich.)

Monday was a good day. Leisurely. Spent it with friends. Ended up at Fury's (formerly Biddy Mulligan's) for trivia in the evening. It was a great group of smart hotties: Kara, Maria, Greg, Kendra, Brittany, Jeff and me. We thought we had it "in the bag," because it seemed at first that nobody else was going to show up for trivia. But then, a lot of people ended up showing up. We still came in second to this group of guys who were CLEARLY cheating on their cell phones. LAME. We'd rather lose with dignity than win as cheaters! (although one of the cheater guys was a super hotttiieeeee who looked like Tony from Crash Kings... turns out he's engaged..)

It was pretty fun.

What was the name of the band in the movie, 'O Brother Where Art Thou?'
--- George Clooney and the Holy Waters

What was the name of the Chicago baseball trial where the players threw the World Series game?
--- The World's Serious Trial (..get it?)

Those were both answers that our awesome team came up with.

**Please note - both of those answers are wrong. Do not use them in your trivia answers.**

ANYWAYS. It was a super fun night. Let's hope that everyone can make it for next week. Well, I think we'll be minus Maria.. :(

BUT THE REAL REASON WHY I STARTED THIS ENTRY, was to tell you about the poem I wrote tonight!!

I can't tell you the last time I wrote a poem. It was probably in college. But, my friend Greg is taking a poetry class right now and has been sending me a lot of the stuff they're learning... which is GREAT cause it's like I'm vicariously back in school.... and it has inspired me to write a poem!

He's doing a big project on haikus, so I've been reading a lot about them. And I decided that I am most interested in the 'circular haiku,' which is a form where you aren't supposed to be able to tell the beginning from the end.

I kind of like it since I hate endings. And beginnings are scary. So why not just make everything a big, giant, grey area?!?! My motto for poetry, as well as life.

Here is my circular haiku:

shooting star soaring
like a flare through the black sky
lay down and watch the

Well! What do you think?!

Keep in mind that most widely recognized syllable structure for haikus is 5-7-5. That's, five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.

I think for my grand entrance back into the world of writing, it's a great start. It actually took a lot of thought. Circular haikus are not easy to write, folks.

BLOG READER CHALLENGE!!!!!!
I would like to challenge each and every one of you reading to write one right now. And post them in the comments! Either here, or on Facebook. (Hi, Facebook readers!!) Haikus are generally supposed to be about nature, but for this assignment: no rules. Go crazy! It doesn't have to be a circular haiku. Just a normal one :) This is fun.

Ok. That's all, really. All I've got for right now. Hope everyone had a great day! Hope it was less-melancholy than mine. I guess mine wasn't too melancholy. Jenn came over from across the street and we had a vent session. That was nice. Also slightly depressing. But... nice.

Have a great Wednesday! Talk to you soon.

love,
Julie

i will convince myself i'm fine and then i'll hate what i've become

2012-01-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of those times when I wish I had a compass tattoo. So that when I'm feeling super lost and confused and upset about my life, I could look down at my arm and not feel so alone. I need that compass. Why don't they make navigation systems for your life??

I actually had a break down in work yesterday. Apparently, it's very easy to tell when I'm in a bad mood. I suppose I'm usually pretty chipper. I was hiding out way in the back corner of the store folding sweaters that didn't really need to be refolded, and one of the managers whom I absolutely love, came over and asked,

MANAGER: Julie... what's wrong?

And then I pretty much burst into tears. LUCKILY, she had a project for me to do. Which was distracting AND fun. And I got to use the tall ladder. It was like those breakdown scenes in moves where you think, "that sucks." And it did. It sucked. I had also had a breakdown on the car ride into work! So, yesterday was overall a fail day.

Although, apparently, I led the whole team at work because I got 4 friends, 3 PWP's and 2 credits. That means nothing to you. And I hope in a few years it will mean nothing to me, either.

Hey!! So, this entry will be filled with lots of random stuff!! Pictures and stories.

Let's go!

Live music! At The Brickhouse in Dover! Kara had heard that this guy, Dave Gutter, was pretty good, so we decided to go. He's the lead singer of the bands Paranoid Social Club and Rustic Overtones. Although, those actually might be the same band. I'm not too sure what the deal is.

Anyways, it was a really fun night. Kara and I got there early and got food. DELISH. Like, the food was awesome. Really, really good. Who knew?! And they had totally changed the set up around. I had only been there twice before (both on dates), but it was like, totally renovated. Nice. Kara thought her friend Matt might show up, but he was a no show. Greg ended up coming! And hanging with us. Which was fun.

For the second half, Dave was really drunk and apparently also really high. It was pretty interesting. At one point he called his girlfriend and put her on speakerphone right next to the mic. Funny stuff. Also, he invited those two guys up on stage. I don't know who they were.

GREAT NIGHT.

At some other point this holiday season, I took artsy pictures of Kara in front of the Christmas tree. This is my favorite:

So pretty.

NOW:

Julie and Jenn Have An Adventure!

The Sunday before Christmas, my friend Jenn and I had a super fun day together.

We got an early start (around 11am) and went to The Barley Pub, in Dover, because they were having a craft fair! Seems like craft fairs and bars don't go hand in hand - but apparently they do! It was a great time. Lots of artsy, hipster people selling lovely handmade things. I ended up buying/custom ordering a paper lantern for Maria! I got to pick out the paper for the lantern as well as the cut outs on all four sides. It was awesome!

The woman who makes them, Carrie, is going to start selling them at Lucy's Art Emporium, also in Dover, NH. I highly recommend you getting one. They make great personalized gifts. So pretty :)

After the craft fair, we drove to Kittery, ME with the intention of going straight to the candy store, Yummies. We took a spontaneous detour when we saw the sign, "$10 palm readings!"

Unfortunately, the lady was cash only, and Jenn didn't have any cash on her. But I did! So, I got my palm read. Just one. It went pretty well. Some things kinda seemed universal, but the main parts seemed relevant. That was only the second time I've had my palm read, and it's always fun. I love it.

After that, we went over to Yummies and bought candy and delicious things. Then had lunch at Friday's - also delicious. Then we went to the movies!! We saw The Descendants. While we were there, Jenn pointed out that the last movie that we saw together was also a George Clooney movie. Funny. But great movie. It was probably the most depressing movie we could have chosen to see... but it was great.

Then we went to Starbucks to get a coffee! Ended up staying there for like, 3 hours until they kicked us out.

It was such a great day. Lots of fun. :)

PICTURE:: Ruby Tuesday on Christmas Morning!

That's the stocking I made her!! It's pink. She's the best.

NOW! Pictures of Ruby Sleeping Under Things!

She was like that when I found her.

Peeking out from under the tree skirt.

Also! I don't know if you realize this, but I'm on the visual display team at work. It's a fun team to be on. So, I get to do a lot of the visual displays that are up in the store. Or, on the mannequins. I think I'm pretty good at it.

Here are some displays that I've photographed, because I'm just so proud of them :)

Pajama bottom and sock display!! The picture I was going by did not have the bows all perfect. It just showed the strings like, hanging down. And I thought, 'yeah, that's not gonna work." So, I tied them all in perfect bows!!! Doesn't it look great with the bows tied on the socks?!?! YES IT DOES. I love this. It's super cute.

The next one is probably my claim to fame. The Flying Sweater display. I had no idea how I was going to pull this off.

It took A LONG TIME. But, it was actually a lot like jewelry making. I had to use wire, crimping beads (giant super sturdy ones), pliers and fishing line to get the whole thing to work.

It was A LOT of trial and error. And my finger tips were literally numb by the end of it.

But, it pretty much rocks. Every time I walk into the store I look over and check to make sure it hasn't fallen. I think it came out awesome.

NOW! For a segment I would like to call,

"Our Cats Are Business Ladies."

*End Segment!*

Another exciting thing! Kara and I were hosts to a New Girl party last weekend!!!! Of course, we are all familiar with the show, New Girl, starring everyone's girlfriend, Zooey Deschanel.

We just thought there needed to be a night where we just invited all the girls over and watched every episode of New Girl. And that night was last weekend.

This was the table spread:

YUM - right?! I made bruschetta and the punch (pink lemonade concentrate, ginger ale, and white cranberry juice), Kara made spinach artichoke dip and lemonade cupcakes with raspberry frosting. We also had sweet potato waffle fries! And then everyone brought delicious things including wine, champagne and chips!!!

It was a great group of hotties: Kara, Maria, Jenn D, Meg, Danielle, Jen S, Renee, Brittany, and me! We had so much fun. Lots of laughs. That show rocks. Like, so hard. It's like you can relate to some aspect of her life at some point during the show. Hilarious. Everyone should watch.

And the next day! Was SISTER DAY. :) Instead of me and Kara getting each other gifts for Christmas, we decided to have a sister day. Always a good decision.

We slept in a little bit. Had to run to Targs for some quick errands. AND THEN, the day started.

We got coffee and food at Dunkin Donuts. Then headed down to Old Navy and did some light shopping. I got this really pretty blue cardigan and a orange striped tank. The tank was only $3. YEP.

Then! We headed over to the movies to see New Year's Eve! It was great. Made you laugh, made you cry. I didn't think it was as good as Valentine's Day, but it was definitely fun. Definitely good. :)

Then! We drove home and packed because earlier in the day we had called and reserved an OCEAN FRONT ROOM in Wells, ME at Lafeyette's Oceanfront Resort. Cheap winter rates!!

We checked in, got a redbox, got some Chinese food and Woodchuck cider and crashed for the night. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

And we took pictures!

This was the view from our room when we first got there:

Yeah - right on the beach.

We had a great night. And this was the view when we woke up the next morning:

AHHHH! Birds! Wild birds! Too close for me.

:) Nice, nice day at the beach. It was such a great Sister Day. I ♡ Kara.

OTHER THAN THAT... there has actually been a lot more going on. But I think that's all I'll share with you now. Mayybe another time.

Sorry I haven't updated in forever. I'll try and be better. I'll make it a resolution. So far my resolutions for 2012 are:

- wear more yellow
- have no parking violations
- blog more!

I think those are pretty good.

2011 was a strange year. Overall, I think I liked it. I miss some parts of it. I did a lot of new things. Met new people. Kissed a lot of boys. Smiled a lot. Cried a lot. Drove to Brooklyn. Drove to Canada. My grandmother died. I got strep throat. Twice. Went to two weddings. Paid $85 worth in parking violations. Saw River City Extension twice. Had some articles published online.

Hm. I guess it sounds okay. I guess it was a good year.

And now, it's Golden Globes night!! My favorite season :)

Hope you all are having a great night! We'll talk again soon.

love,
Julie

adventures with a best friend in an afternoon fairytale

2011-12-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

The title pretty much explains it all. That's exactly what happened. But! Lucky for you, you are reading this and you'll get awesome pictures along with awesome explanations. Great!

So, the last time we talked, I was in Rhode Island with Maria and the next day we were going to go to the Kinney Azalea Gardens! Well, we did!

But first! We had a Paranormal Activity marathon. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'Julie, didn't you just watch the Paranormal Activity movies with Greg?' And the answer is: YES. Yes, I did. But! Maria and I got to talking about them, and then we were like, 'let's watch the first one!' And then during the first one, we were like, 'let's watch the second one after!' So we did! And it was great. Although not very scary, those movies are fun to watch. It was a good marathon.

Then we slept really late the next morning.

And then! We got our act together and went to the azalea garden. Now, we realized pretty early on that we were going in late late November and nothing would probably be in bloom. And, nothing was. But, it was still an incredibly magical place. Can't believe that Maria lives right down the street from it! Awesome!

So, here are the pictures. I think you will find them enjoyable. :-)

There were lots of little gardens with month names. Such as this one, 'June Garden.' We kept looking for the November/December Garden... but apparently it doesn't exist.

We did find this artsy looking shed! It instantly reminded me of this artsy shed that Kara, Aunt Liza and I stumbled across in Canada last winter.

Then we found a tree with a face. Ya know, like you sometimes do. The first magical encounter.

Also, I should mention that all these photos were taken on my iPhone with the Instagram app. You can make the pictures look all hip. So, that's why they look so hip and olde-timey. :)

I think that's the house that belongs to the Kinney Azalea Garden people.

It felt like we were in The Secret Garden.

THERE WAS A MOON GATE!

Maria in the moon gate!

This was the view from the other side of the moon gate.

Us inside the moon gate! We felt protected.

So pretty :) The second magical thing we encountered in the garden.

If you see a sign for a hidden bridge, you immediately need to find the bridge.

It was hidden well.

This is us either on the Andromeda Path or the Circle Path... I can't remember. That was kind of a confusing area. I feel like we accidentally ended up there like, 5 times. Time warp? Maybe.

Monsters? Check.

It didn't come out that well, but there were many tiny Godzillas in that tree.

Branches over Maria. :) I like this one.

And then! This dog came charging at us. It was scary. And then, ANOTHER dog came charging at us!

This dog had three legs.

Three-legged dog? The third magical thing we found in the garden.

Another secret bridge! This one was guarded by a Troll.

Yep, you guessed it. Fourth magical thing to find in the garden.

Another view of Troll Bridge.

Cool branches, eh?

Florals!

YET ANOTHER BRIDGE!!! It was great. We named this one, 'Jeff.' After, Jeff Bridges, of course. Jeff Bridges' Bridge. ha. Yep, we made lots of jokes about that.

Goodbye, Moon Gate! This was as we were leaving the garden. Such a beautiful journey! We were both hoping that since we were in a fairytale that we would find two Prince Charmings at the end. But, no.

Hidden bridges, secret pathways, monsters, trolls, three-legged dogs, moon gates.... it was magic in there.

If I were Taylor Swift, I would probably write a magical sounding song about that place.

I hope me and Maria go back when the gardens are actually in bloom. It'd be cool to see the place in a different season. But! I bet not many people visit during this time of year! So, that's cool, too. It's like going to York beach in the middle of winter. Or, being in the Airport Lounge at 4am, (during not finals time.)

So then! We were super hungry. Maria suggested we go to Crazy Burger. We did. It was down in Narragansett, RI, which was a short drive away. YUM!!! Their burgers certainly were crazy. Lots of vegan and vegetarian burgers, too, which was awesome. I got a turkey burger. It was delish.

The restaurant was only lit by twinkle lights!! I snapped this picture from behind me...

Pretty!!

Then sadly, I had to leave. :(

I was stopping in Providence on my way home to pick up some delicious East Side Pockets, for Kara and myself.

So! I decided that I wanted to see all my favorite sights of Providence while I was there. THEN - I decided that I should turn it into a "20-minute Tour of the City," and post everything on Facebook. SO I DID!!

But! If you weren't on the tour when it was happening, or for some reason do not have a Facebook - don't worry - I have all the pictures here. I will do another tour for you :)

LET'S GO!

First stop was Thayer St. to get the food. Love Thayer Street! It wasn't too crowded at this time of night, which was weird. But nice! Although, I still had to wait in a long line at East Side Pockets.

And I couldn't stop in Providence without seeing THE GREAT AND CURIOUS WALL! Duh!! My favorite tourist attraction in the whole city!!! This is the Wall along Hope Street. And, this is a great article that I just found on the Wall, and the Dexter Asylum, which used to be behind the wall. It's actually taken from the athletics page on the Brown University website, haha. Because now instead of the poor house being behind the wall, it's the million dollar athletic complex. I know I've talked about this many, many times. It never stops being fascinating.

After the Wall, I texted Kara asking her how to get over the the Overlook. Which is another hidden gem of Providence. Maybe it's not a hidden gem... it's always pretty crowded there. Anyways, it's a great spot!

Right on top of College Hill, you can see the whole downtown! It was very beautiful. And, the moon :) We went from moon gate, to moon at night. Full circle. Unlike the moon. HA. Wow, that was funny. Yeah, I'm laughing to myself right now. Moon jokes FTW!

ANYWAYS.

It was a GREAT day of adventure! I felt like a powerful explorer after it was over. Yeah, that was a great day. :)

It was a nice drive home. But, I was sad to be back because that meant I was not with Maria. But! I was with someone who missed me very much, and that someone was Ruby Tuesday! She was very happy to see me :) I missed her, too!!

The rest of the week was good. Saw the Twilight movie with Greg on Thursday night. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. The ending - OMG. It rocked. It was the first movie where I wasn't totally annoyed by Kristen Stewart. She looked kinda pretty! I think it was the way the movie was lit. It didn't have that bluish look to it. It looked happy! Yeah, it was a good movie. Nice time.

Then I worked a whole bunch.

Saturday night was fun because we went out celebrating Jen Sabin's birthday. All my friends who I used to work with in high school and college! We went out for drinks and lots of dancing. Great time!! My feet hurt for like four days afterwards.

Other than that - just been working. Today and tomorrow are my days off. REALLY REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.

Tonight I'm going out to the Brick House for some live music. If you're reading this and you live nearby and want to come, you should come. Find me. I'm looking forward to it. "the more the merrier!" Kara said, so seriously, you should come.

ALRIGHT! I think that's about it. I got a coffee this morning when I went out to run some errands. I was going to go to Aroma Joe's, but then my apple fritter radar went off and told me to go to Dunkin Donuts. So I did - and they had delicious looking apple fritters.

YEP. That happened. Did I eat the whole thing? You betcha. My apple fritter radar is very strong.

Ok! I guess I'm going to hang around some more before it's time to go. Tomorrow I have no plans. I'm very excited about this. It'll probably be a day where I stay in my pajamas all day. Nice. I might watch Moulin Rouge. I've been wanting to.

OK! Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?? Anything else exciting happening in your life?? You can let me know. I'd like to hear about anything and everything.

TALK TO YOU SOON!!! Be well!

☃ <--- snowman.

"Nora is insane and acts like a squirrel so she can earn cash money."

2011-11-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

SO MANY FUN THINGS HAVE BEEN HAPPENING LATELY!!! Let's make a list so I don't forget. Because sometimes I get really excited and then forget.

1. brunch with A & A
2. Mark
3. RCE
4. sleepover @ Jems
5. MR in RI
6. date

WHOAAAAA I'm getting excited just thinking about telling you about all this. Ok. I don't think I'm going to go in order. Ready? Ok. Let's go.

4. sleepover @ Jems

I took a spontaneous adventure up to Weare, NH (Where, NH) to visit my long-time friend, Jenn. Jenn is Tammy's older sister. We all grew up across the street from each other. More like family than friends. And I had never been to her apartment and we both seemed to be going through times of semi-crisis in our lives, so I decided that I needed to go visit her. So, I did!

And it was great! It was about an hour and a half-ish drive up there. I took good ol' I-89, which I hadn't been on for almost a year. Weird. I can't believe it's been OVER a year since I worked at Hannah House.

We went to the Boondocks Tavern and Country Grill for dinner, which was great. They were having a trivia night, so there were a lot of locals there. It's also like, the only restaurant in the town, so everyone is a "local." But, it was super fun.

We basically just hung around. Talked all night. Watched Daria and ate key lime pie. DELISH. It was great.

Then, I came home the next day and had a...

6. date

Yes, I had a date. Had to drive up to Portland, ME for the date, which I wasn't super excited about to begin with. We went out for thai food, then we walked around the Old Port, and then we went to this place called, Bull Feeney's, for a drink and then to watch this 90's cover band. THEY HAD BULMERS!!!!! The drink we drank all throughout Ireland!!!!! THEY HAD IT. SO I GOT IT. And it was delicious. And the band was good. All in all - it was a good date, but I wasn't really feeling into the whole thing... so that will be the only date. Nice guy, though.

I guess I've kind of been "dating" people. Well, not people. Just this guy and one other. The other one, though. Great. It was great. But, it's also over. And, I'm still a little sad. Maybe a lot sad.

Maybe just all around feeling like I'm not good enough for anything........ yep.

The other night I was really bored so I took this "what kind of dating style are you?!" quiz. It said I was a "window shopper." Which, I don't really understand how that relates to anything in the description.... but it was a totally accurate description of myself. How do I know this? Well because I read it and immediately started crying my eyes out.

This is the part that got me: "...of all female types, you are the most prone to sudden, ferocious crushes. Your results indicate that you’re especially capable of obsessing over a guy you just met. Obviously, passion like this makes for an intense existence. It can also make for soul-destroying letdowns."

SOUL DESTROYING LETDOWNS. That line, right there - THEME OF MY LIFE.

And I KNOW, I KNOW, that there is nothing wrong with me. And I KNOW I KNOW that I am good enough for lots of things. Why? Because I'm totally awesome and super hott! But even though I know there's NOTHING wrong with me, it just feels right now that EVERYTHING is wrong with me.

And that's all I'll say about that.

1. brunch with A & A!

Andrew and Alicia!!!! Remember my friends who I met THROUGH THIS BLOG?!?!?! And I went over to their apartment over the summer and we had pizza and wine and it was a great time?!?! Yep! Them! We got together again and had brunch! At Kara's bakery! It was a super fun time. They are great, great, awesome people and I'm really happy to be friends with them.

:-)

2. mark!

Guess what?! I have a friend, Mark, (well, I actually have TWO friends AND a cousin named Mark! Here I'm just talking about one of them, even though they are ALL awesome.) and he is a painter! And he works part-time with me in retail! But more importantly, he is a painter. And he has a lovely studio in the mill buildings in Rollinsford, NH, and a few weekends ago they had this big "studio open house," where all the artists opened up their studios and invited the public in to view! And I went with my mom! It was all sooooo great. Five floors and studio after studio of beautiful art.

YOU ALL should check out Mark's website!!!! He's such an amazing painter! I was like, "holy crap - I KNOW that guy!!!" It was great. Check it out - definitely. You can go, right now. I'll give you some extra time...

*
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:-)
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there!

3. RCE!

By now, you all should know that whenever I write "RCE" it stands for RIVER CITY EXTENSION. If you don't know that... well, then... we have a minor problem.

River City Extension is the best. That is a fact. Why? Because it's written in this blog and everything that's written in this blog is fact.

I hadn't seen them since FEBRUARY, but last week, they were playing in the great city of Hamden in the great state of Connecticut at the great venue that is The Space - SO I WENT! At first I thought that Jo was going to come with me, but it turned out she had a prior engagement and couldn't make it :( So, I drove down by myself. I didn't know how much I needed a River City Extension show until I was there.

First of all - I get there JUST in time for them to go on. Well, maybe like, 20 minutes to spare. But, it's packed! Almost immediately I find The Great Ben Silver, who is a great human being. He has brought with him a large crowd of friends. I also meet them all. Although, I don't remember their names. Wait - JP, JH, Tom, Max, Jacob... there were more of them, I think. That's not too bad.

OMG. Maybe one of the greatest shows ever. It was so packed with people - and they were all fans of River City Extension. They were all singing along! CRAZY. I was reminded of the time that Ryan and I saw Crash Kings in Philadelphia and it was the first time where we weren't the only ones who knew all the words. CRAZY. It's a bittersweet moment, because you know that they're not "your" band anymore, but they're also gaining more exposure and more people are realizing that they are totally and completely amazing.

Anyways - great show. I rocked out so hard. I don't even have any pictures or videos to show from it. TRUE STORY! You'll just have to take my word that I was actually there.

Not only was it a great performance - but it was full of emotion. Like, one of the most emotional shows ever. There was so much energy radiating off the stage and circulating throughout the room, it was incredible. There were two moments where I actually thought I was going to cry. No joke! (I've just been crying all over the place lately...)

The first time was during 'South for the Winter.' Now, this is usually my go-to song when I'm having a bad period in my life. The lines,

sometimes all i want is a job and a god and a wife
oh, lately i've been thinking some stability would probably be nice.
another moment and i don't know what to say,
i'm not in love, i'm not inspired by today,
if i go down you bet your ass i'm gonna get my way.

OHHHHHH those lines. They make me so angry and so happy.

The second time I thought I was going to cry was during, 'If I Still Own a Bible,' which is a song that had never really hit me until last week. The verse was,

And I wonder, do I still own a bible?
Do my parents, do they really believe?
Cause they know I've been hurt
And if there's one thing I've learned
Don't put your trust in anyone or anything

YEP. Joe, man, he just gets everything so right. It's brilliant. I feel like the only people who can write lyrics that I totally relate to are him and Taylor Swift.

It was a great show. And, Holden was there, too!!!! So nice to see him!! I wish I lived closer to The Space, because I would totally hang out there all the time. It's so cool. And cool people go there.

So, after the show I went to the diner with Ben Silver, Tom, Max and Jacob. It was pretty awesome. I had never met the other three guys before, but they were super nice and funny and we had a great time. And, I got chicken salad, which is my favorite food ever.

And then I had a horrible drive home!!! It was DOWNPOURING the whole time!!! Which is apparently turning into a theme with my drives back from Hamden, because the last time I did that I thought I was going to die in the snowstorm! Lame! But - I made it safely. So - success.

OHHH I LOVE RCE.

5. MR in RI!

Yes - you read that right. I'm CURRENTLY in Rhode Island with MARIA RICHARDSON!!!!! And in case you don't know, she is my best friend forever. We hung out last Friday night and I said, "I wish I could drive you back to school and then sleep over." AND THAT'S WHAT TOTALLY HAPPENED! It worked out that I had two days off which was exactly when she needed to be back! So - I drove her back down to RI last night after I got out of work, slept over, had a bunch of adventures today:

So, I dropped Maria off at work this morning and then said, "hm, instead of taking a left to go back to her house, i think i'll take a right to see where that goes." And it turned out to be a dead-end road that had a little park with ocean views!!! GREAT ADVENTURE!!!!

So pretty!!! And unexpected! I'm a pretty good explorer.

This is the view from Maria's work! She works at the Oceanography library at the Narragansett Bay Campus Library. Awesome, right?!

And what's exciting about that particular library?!?!?! UMMMMMM Bob Ballard also works there!!!!!! 'Who is that,' you ask? UMMMMMMM he discovered the TITANIC. Yep, THAT Titanic.

And those are all the tapes from his Ocean dives when he went down with all the robot cameras!!!!!!! Along with other stuff mixed in.... but mainly the robot camera tapes.

It was A LITTLE BIT AWESOME. Ok, it was a lot awesome.

And then we ended up in a mall with Christmas decorations all over the place and it just seemed like a great photo op!!!! And it was!!!!!! Look how adorable we are! Pretty great.

So, I was going to only stay one night, but then decided pretty early on that I wanted to stay two nights. So, I'm staying tonight, too.

Tomorrow I have another adventure planned!!! We're going here: Kinney Azalea Garden! It's a giant beautiful garden right down the street from Maria's apartment! And she drives by it every day and has never been!! And today I was stuck in traffic in front of it and saw that it was a garden that was open to the public and so I made an executive decision that we are going there. It looks pretty awesome. I'm actually really excited. Even though it's not peak azalea season, according to the website.

It's a great getaway trip. Sometimes you need a cheap getaway trip. This is one of those times.

♡FRIENDS♡

WELL. It seems we've come to the end of our list!!!!! I'm pretty happy with the way everything turned out here. I think you all got a pretty good entry. Some great pictures, some great links, some great stories. Pretty much all you could ask for!

I hope you all are having some equally great times. Feel free to tell me any and all of your exciting adventure stories. I'd love love love to hear them!

UNTIL THEN, I hope you all have a great rest of the week! Enjoy enjoy enjoy it all, and I will try and do the same.

I am stopping in Providence on my way home tomorrow for some East Side Pockets, which is very exciting. I'm a little nervous about parking on Thayer Street.... but it's gonna happen. Because I need some good falafel.

Alright! Have a great evening!!!!!! Maria and I will continue to have an excellent time! You can follow all our minute-to-minute updates on Facebook! If we're not Facebook friends - you can friend me. I know how important it is to know where I am at all times. And now that I am able to "check-in" places, that's pretty much all I do. Why? So YOU (and the government) knows exactly where I am at all times!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Be well!

practicing my purpose once again

2011-11-13T15:48:00.000-08:00

Oh hey friends!

I really need to get the new blog out there. I've been thinking about it. I think I'm ready to make the switch over. I just need to plan the party. Buy the ribbon, etc. Ya'll get excited - because I throw a damn good online ribbon cutting ceremony. Maybe this week or next week. Watch for your invite!

Also, speaking of 'your,' I've been really messing up the 'your,' and 'you're' lately and it's driving me CRAZY. Like, I have NO IDEA why I'm suddenly doing this. I've NEVER done it before. And all of a sudden - it's like I have no control over what I'm typing.

I guess that was kind of a disclaimer.

Anyways - I wanted to tell you about some exciting things that have happened recently!!

FIRST AND FOREMOST!!!!!!

I got an iPhone! YEP. Yep! Finally. After a loonngggg time of waiting - it happened. I kept checking all the stores and nobody had ANY. Like, NOBODY had ANY. And then, one random night at Wal-Mart we were in the electronics and I just randomly asked the guy working there and he just happened to have the exact one I was looking for!! Weird - because just two days earlier, I had been in Wal-Mart and asked and they said, "nope, we don't have any and we have absolutely no idea when we're getting more." So - lucky me!!

Also LUCKY ME - because it was Tom who helped me out. And he was awesome and totally a cool guy.

He even posed for a picture with me after we had spent like 45 minutes bonding while he set up the new phone/transferred over the info from the old phone.

YEP!! Great guy. Tom. And Jesse also helped us out. Thanks, Tom and Jesse at Wal-Mart!! You guys RULE! (Tom wanted to pose with the price check gun, or whatever it was.. haha)

Awesome! So, I'm totally obsessed with the iPhone!! I didn't even have a smartphone before!!

One day last week, Kara and I had just hiked this mountain with my dad (pictures below), and we got to the top of the mountain and Kara was like,

KARA: Ok, I just checked-in at the top of this mountain, tagged you both, then I uploaded a photo to Facebook and posted it as my status. All from my phone!
JULIE: Well, I just checked the time with my phone...

It was PRETTY LAME. (Not PRETTY COOL, as if it were the Miley Cyrus talk show.)

But, it's PRETTY COOL now. Maybe even SUPER COOL. Yeah, definitely super cool. It's a white one. OOHHHH I LOVE IT.

And - it has a pretty sweet camera. I can take pictures wherever I go! But, who did I start taking pictures of first??

RUBY TUESDAY!!!! The cutest most sweetest thing on the planet!!!! She's the best!!

SO - like I just mentioned - my dad, Kara and I hiked up a mountain the other day!!! When my dad was visiting!!! He came in late Saturday night! And stayed until earrllyyyy Friday morning. It was so great!!!

And, one of the things we wanted to do was explore this mountain in North Berwick!! It's crazy! There's a mountain there! Like, a real one. And we explored this whole section on North Berwick that I never even knew existed!! It's like, you drive up a hill and all of a sudden it's these beautiful homes and beautiful views! There was this one "estate-like" house we passed and I said,

JULIE: WOW - that house is like a giant estate!!
DAD: OCCUPY!!

:) Love my dad.

So, here are the pictures from the hike! It was a great day.

WE MADE IT TO THE TOP!!

SISTERS!

The (handsome) Old Man in the Mountain! :)

SELF-TIMER PIC!!

Yay! What a great hike on a beautiful day!!!

ALSO EXCITING:: bridal showers!

Kara's best friend Renee is getting married in June and her bridal shower was this past weekend! And since I love taking pictures with my new phone, I will show you the pictures from the shower.

First - the favors. Kara made them. CAKE POPS. Vanilla cake mixed with vanilla frosting, rolled into a ball and dipped in purple colored chocolate. Tied with a ribbon and stuck in a flower pot. DELISH.

They were the centerpieces on the tables!!! How PRETTY do they look?!?! Her colors are purple and mint green!

Shower! Derek is in the blue and Renee is sitting next to him! GREAT couple! So fun!

And, here's another adorable picture of Ruby Tuesday! You're welcome:

And here's an adorable picture of me and Brittany when we went out dancing the other night!

YAYYYYY friends again!!!! (Also:: note my lime green nailpolish::) Hotties!

SO - the week was full of some great times. OBVI.

Other than that - not too much going on. Feeling weird about something. Been listening to some great music which I will post for you at some point soon.

And - I will get on the new blog ribbon cutting. Are evening times better for everyone? Generally? You can let me know. If you really, really want to come to the ribbon cutting, but you have a certain time of a certain day that doesn't work - let me know! For serious!

OK! I hope everyone has a great night! We'll talk again soon! Have a great start to your weekend!!! I mean, week!!! Have a great start to the new week!!

lovelove!

after all that you've been to me

2011-11-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

Remember back in the summer when I had strep throat??

WELL, GUESS WHAT?!!?

I have strep throat AGAIN. It's crazy. Like, I think IT IS CRAZY.

Never in my whole life of 25 years do I get strep throat - and then I get it twice in 6 months??!?! Weird, right?!

And this is especially weird because when Kara was little she used to get strep throat alllll the freaking time. Like, at least once a year. And, I NEVER got it. And now, twice. In 6 months. Bam. Strep.

And of course it's during the first year of my life when I don't have health insurance. I've had health insurance for 25 years and then the one time I don't, I need medical attention.

GO FIGURE!

But, what can ya do?

So I got a prescription for amoxicillin. Got it filled at Targs. While I was waiting for it, I did some shopping around. Checked with the cell phone people to see if there were any iPhones just waiting for me to buy them. Nope. Then I started looking at clothes.... and wound up with THESE:::

Yep. That's a pair of neon orange socks, right there. And, I don't know if you can see - but they cost me $.75. Yep. I probably should have bought 7 pairs, because I'm totally wearing these everyday.

I love neon things. And if I see a neon something, there is a good chance I will buy it.

You have full permission to be jealous of those socks. I will probably point them out to you if I am ever wearing them and you are around. Just so ya know..

SO LAST NIGHT was a big night. I saw a scary movie in theaters! To be more specific, I saw Paranormal Activity 3 with Greg. AAAHHHHHH. It was scary. We were jumping all over the place. Everybody was! Over the past three weeks, Greg and I have watched the first two Paranormal Activity movies, knowing that we would then see the third on in theaters. AAAAHHHHHH. Scary!

But - it was totally fun seeing it in a big theater with everyone else who was scared and jumping all over the place. Like - it was definitely the most scary, but also the most funny. Lots o' laughs.

So.. I just woke up from a nap. It was a good nap. Ruby Tuesday napped with me. As soon as I got into bed, she crawled under the covers and stayed there with me for the next two hours. :) It was happy.

I'm feeling happy this week. I've been out every single night of the week with friends. That never happens. But, it's exciting.

So, I took my first dose of amoxicillin this afternoon. The recovery begins! Hopefully!

I also had a fever this morning! I forgot to tell you that! YEP - FEVER.

AND - they were unable to take my blood pressure. They tried like, a hundred times using the machine and not using the machine...trying it in different places on my arm. NOPE. No luck.

Weird, because the last time I had my blood pressure taken in a doctor's office, which was maybe like, a month ago....it took them six tries and two different people to be able to take my blood pressure. Weird, right?

Everyone has been like, "Ok, sooo....we know that you're alive...so why can't we take your blood pressure?" MYSTERY. But, just strange that it's never happened before in my life and now it's happened twice.

Which is the exact same story as the strep. It's crazy, I tell ya.

But, the last time, when they were finally able to get a blood pressure, they were like, "WOW, THAT'S GREAT!!!!" It was kinda perfect.

Anyways, that's the story. Apparently maybe I'm falling apart. Stay tuned.

IN WAYYY BETTER NEWS: My dad is coming to visit tomorrow!!!!! (saturday!) We haven't seen him in the beginning of February, so it's veryyy exciting! And he's staying for a week! I'm super excited!!! YAY!

OK. Gonna go eat something soft. Talk to you all later! Have a GREAT weekend!!

lovelove!

school of hard rocks

2011-11-02T10:57:00.001-07:00

Wanna watch me make brownies?!?!?! I thought you did!! That's why I photodocumented the whole process (ok, most of the process) yesterday when I was making brownies for my date last night with Brittany!!!

Now - I don't know if you know this about me - but I am not the baker in my family. And, I am constantly reminded of this. So, IF I am baking, I like to do it alone, or else I'll have everybody all up in my grill the whole time I'm in the kitchen. (Yep, I just really said that.)

It's a good thing that nobody else was home, because it took me like, 45 minutes to finally get all the ingredients mixed, I DIDN'T use the Kitchen Aid mixer (horrible, horrible SIN), and I made a pretty big mess.

Let's enjoy:

JULIE (AND RUBY) MAKES BROWNIES!!!

Ingredients? Check! (there were more than that, obvi, but those were the only ones I took a picture of.)

Helper? Check!

This was literally the scene after STEP ONE. I was like, "oh, I'll measure out the cocoa first because that'll be easy..."

And then this happened.

Ingredients mixed with the vanilla bean paste!!!

Two sticks of unsalted butter!

Melty butter!!! The best kind!

Then I had to mix the butter with the sugar and put it back in the microwave until it looked like melty lemonade concentrate. (Mmm lemonade...)

Eggies! 4 of them! Now, I'm the worst egg cracker ever. Like, seriously probably ever. It's one thing that I've gotten worse at over time. But - no egg shells in this batter. :)

Mix it! By hand!! I'm pretty hardcore.

NOW - then Aliya called me!!! And I couldn't bake brownies, talk on the phone and photodocument at the same time. So, I skipped a few steps photodocumenting.

Basically, I took out the pan, sprayed it with nonsticky stuff, and poured the mix in!!

This was the scene after I finished. Stuff was just everywhere. The bag fell on the floor. Note the cocoa on the floor as well as on the table. Pretty gruesome.

BUT THE BROWNIES CAME OUT PERFECTLY!!!! FOR SERIOUS!!!! Like, they taste amazing. Apparently, I make a damn good brownie.

And I brought them over Brittany's house last night and this is what we turned them into:

That's right. Brownie, pumpkin ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. OMG. No, like, OMG. It was kinda amazing.

And we watched Glee and New Girl!! New Girl is back on TV!!! They were off the air for a little while....

(this was last week)
KARA: Is New Girl on tonight?
JULIE: Not until November 1st... apparently there's some baseball thing on...
KARA: ..You mean like, the World Series?
JULIE: .....Oh yeah....

That's what it was! The World Series.

Anyways! So, lots of fun times were had with Brittany. And her sister Gemma stopped by for a brownie sundae, too!!! SO AWESOME. I'm SO GLAD that Britt and I are hanging out again! So much fun!

Speaking of baseball - I saw the movie, Moneyball! It was great. Co-written by Aaron Sorkin, so, there you have it. It was just really wild to see all the baseball politics like, right in your face. I couldn't believe it, actually. Like, the players really have no say on which team they are playing for. That's so weird. And, they can be traded at ANY POINT. Also, weird. Like, they were trading these PEOPLE just like they were TRADING CARDS. The scene with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill in the office making all the phone calls was fantastic - but eye opening. I couldn't believe how they were treating these people.

I also really loved the sound in the movie. The volume would randomly fade in and out. Well, not randomly. Around major moments in the plot, mainly. But, it reminded me of when you're watching a baseball game, right after the guy hits the ball, and everyone is kind of silent, watching the ball in the air, trying to figure out where it's gonna land.... and then everyone gets loud again. YEP. That's what it reminded me of.

Great movie! I recommend it! Highly! And the scene at the end between Brad Pitt and the Red Sox owner is great.

Anyways! Great movie. Great night last night. Great week. I'm having a great week! And I expect the rest of the week to be great as well.

I bought new nail polish!

So - I WASN'T going to buy nail polish at Target yesterday. I scanned the nail polish section, and WALKED AWAY.

Then, I was in a completely different section of the store, and saw this nail polish sitting on the shelf, out of place. And, I immediately loved it. It's called, 'School of Hard Rocks.' Kinda like a dark teal, greyish color. LOVE IT. And, it was my very first Essie. So, yay!

YOU ALL SHOULD READ MY ARTICLE ON QR CODES!!!! Yes you scan!

OK!! I have to get back to work. Just wanted to take a minute blogging break.

I hope you all are having as great a week as I am :)

Take care! Enjoy the crisp weather! Be well! Talk soon!!

<3 <3 <3

loves it!

2011-10-29T13:48:00.001-07:00

Oh, ya know, just another email from Robert Schwartzman in my inbox.

(click on that to make it bigger.)

Yeah, that'd be this guy:

You know him from The Princess Diaries, the band Rooney, and for being Jason Schwartzman's little brother. YEP. Ya know, just sending me emails...

(Yeah, I know probably like a thousand other people got emails from him... it's just pretty cool to see his name in the Sender box.)

ALSO COOL EMAILS YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED:

* Updates from CULT: This is very cool. So, my friends are making a movie! A horror movie! These friends are Kevin (@KevinKlausman) and Pat (@realmccrea). You should start following them on Twitter right now. This is the website where you can read information and watch videos about their movie, CULT. Also - the place where you can donate your $$ to help them out! I donated $10!

I'm just really excited for these guys. Like, I went to high school with them.. I was pretty good friends with Pat. (We were Writing Center superstars together.) I don't know. I just kind of realized that everyone needs to start somewhere, but it's hard for anybody to get anywhere without support. And - I just decided that I wanted to support them.

I mean, currently that's only been through the form of $10 and a few re-tweets. And now through the blog.

I just think it's great that they're trying to do what they know they want to do. And like, I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but if I did, I would want people there to support me.

Also, I just really liked everybody that I graduated high school with. We all experienced some really great and really terrible things together. And Pat and Kevin are cool people. And they're supposed to be writing and recording me a redneck country love song...?? Which I'm pretty freaking excited about and will try and share it with you all once it arrives.

OK!

Also - more about friends from high school!!

Remember how my friend Laura won the Real Maine Wedding of the Year?!?!! Well - she got married!!!!! And there's a pretty awesome video montage of the wedding that you should watch. I may have watched this video twice already and cried both times. It's pretty great. Also, it features many of my beautiful friends as bridesmaids!!! You may recognize TAMMY - who just got married!

On another note: I'm having a great week. Today is and will continue to be a great day.

OK!! That's about all for now.... I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!! Talk to you all soon :)

❄ ❅ ❆

(it's snowing!)

JULIE AND BRITTANY GO SEE HANSON!!!!!

2011-10-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

O.M.G. You guys. This has been the best week. For serious. And, it's only wednesday!

So, yesterday, myself and Brittany Dyer drove up to Portland, ME to see HANSON.

Brittany, Maria and I were BFF in high school and then semi-lost touch after we all went in different directions for college. :(

(from L to R: Maria, Julie, Brittany)

That's us at Friendly's after the alumni chorus concert, haha. We look so young!

Anyways - it was SO GOOD to see Brittany! I don't know if you all remember, but I had dinner with her and Maria back in the winter and haven't seen her since.

But we were meeting up on Tuesday afternoon and going to see HANSON together! They were playing a show at the newly renovated State Theater in Portland, ME.

I hadn't seen Brittany in like, 10 months and I hadn't seen Hanson in like, 15 months, SO - it was a pretty special night.

I drove to Britt's new apartment (super cute!) and picked her up!! SO FREAKING GOOD TO SEE HER!!! And - we were dressed almost exactly alike, which was super weird and totally awesome. It was like we went right back to being BFF.

We had a great drive up, lots of catching up about life, jobs, boys, etc... GOOD talks :)

Found the parking garage with no problem. We were going to get dinner first and ended up at this Thai restaurant almost right across from the garage and right down the street from the venue. Britt had never had Thai before! Um, it was delish. Like, really good Thai food. And I got a Thai iced tea, which was also delish.

Right at the end of our meal, these two girls at the next table over heard us talking about heading over to the State Theater and made some comment like, "we're headed there too!" or something, so I said, "are you guys going to Hanson?!" and they were like, "YEAH!!!!" So then we all had a mini-Hanson freak out moment. And they were like, our age, which was cool.

Then we headed over to the theater. When we first pulled into Portland, there were people already lining up outside the doors. Crazy.

We finally got in line probably just before 6:30. The doors didn't open until 7pm. So, we had some waiting to do. Lucky for us, we ended up in line in front of these SUPER Hanson fans. They were from Canada and had seen Hanson like, 15 times or something.

(I've seen Crash Kings 19 times... soooo.... not to brag, but whatevs... haha)

And also lucky for us, this girl had like the loudest voice ever. And she was literally talking nonstop about all the different Hanson shows, their different album covers, photo shoots, music videos, songs, concerts, like, literally everything Hanson related. :/ it was pretty obnoxious.

So we finally get into the theater and immediately find spots in the crowd. There's like a section in front of the stage for people to stand, and then there's the huge theater with seats and also a balcony. We got a standing spot in the center, probably like, 7ish people back from the stage. AWESOME.

The Hanson concerts I have been to before all had like, assigned seats, which definitely makes for a different concert vibe. Standing concerts are so much better.

Also cool - the Hanson shows I've been to before, I've felt like a senior citizen. Like, I can remember Kerianne and I commenting on all the high school girls when we saw them in Northampton and same thing when Kara and I saw on Cape Cod last year. But this time it really felt like everyone was right around our age. Like, mid-twenties. All people who have been fans RIGHT from the very beginning. :) That made us happy.

We took pictures of us in the crowd:

HOTTIES AT HANSON! Right? That last pic is so good. Also: please note how we are almost wearing the same thing. We both wore royal purple tops with grey cardigans. And I wore a denim skirt and Britt wore jeans. We totally matched. It rocked.

The opening guy was called Charlie Mars. Relation to Veronica? IDK. Should've asked him after the show.

He was really good! And super cute and kind of awkward!

He was like, "This next song is called, "Listen to the Dark Side," and I wrote it while I was high and listening to Pink Floyd." And then he was like, "I wrote this song for this girl who had just broken up with me... I wrote it because I wanted to get back together with her... and I played her the song and she said, "that's a great song... but we're not getting back together."" It was just all very cute.

AND THENNN!!!!!!!!

HANSON CAME OUT!!!!!!

ZAC!

TAYLOR!

ISSAC!

Brittany and I were talking about how when they first became popular everyone was crazy over Taylor and Zac, and thought that Issac was like the older, creepy one. But now - Issac has turned into a SUPER HOTTIE.

Britt was saying that Taylor looked like a Frenchman and Zac looked like a member of the Foo Fighters. haha. He kinda did.

After every song they would have like, a 15 second band meeting at the drum set. It was weird. And then after the third song, they were like,

HANSON: We'll be right back!

And they all ran off stage and took like a five minute break... it was really weird. I assumed something was wrong with the sound on stage.... or something....

They came back on, played one song and then Taylor went to the microphone and said,

TAYLOR: So, we took a little break a few minutes ago because I've got a really bad cold... and we always want you guys to have the best Hanson show possible. We always want to give you 175% - all the time. And, we're not feeling that way right now.. So, this show is going to be shorter. And we're going to come back and play you a better show.

At first everyone was kind of like, "whaaatttt???" And then they just kept playing music... so it was a little confusing...

But you could definitely tell Taylor was sick... he could barely talk and his cheeks were bright red and he was sweating really bad :( Poor guy.

After their break, they switched to songs where either Zac or Issac had lead vocals. Songs such as Deeper, A Minute Without You, and Man From Milwaukee, which rocked. They played Mmmbop, of course, but Taylor really counted on the crowd to sing for him. Which, of course, we did.

Here are some rocking shots that Brittany took with her iPhone. I stole these off her Facebook. All the ones of Issac are soo cool. It's like he's got this glowing outline. We were looking at them in the car on the ride home and she was like,

BRITTANY: Haha, it kinda looks like he's just a cardboard cutout!
JULIE: Yeah, haha, they were so sick that they just brought out cardboard cutouts of themselves!

It does look like that, though...

Mmm Taylor Hanson.... thank God for those skinny jeans..

(we also made comments like that the whole ride home...haha)

ALL IN ALL - it was such an awesome time. The crowd was totally pumped up, singing and dancing and doing all the right hand motions at all the right times.

♡♡♡

So fun.

And! They said that if we saved our tickets we wouldn't have to pay to see the show again. SO - guess who's going to see Hanson again?!?! Um, me and Brittany are. I'M SO EXCITED. haha.

I mean, they played for an hour last night, that's a pretty good show. It's like getting two shows for the price of one, kinda. Which rocks.

It feels so good to be at a Hanson show. It's like, I've loved them for SO MANY years, it kind of feels like a 'full circle' kind of thing. There have been only two things I have made scrap books for in my entire life:

1. Titanic
2. Hanson

Yep. I have both of those things. Clearly those have been the two most important things in my life so far.

I got some videos... they're pretty short and very jumpy... but the sound quality is good...

"Waiting for This" - As I was taking this video, a State Theater employee tapped me on the shoulder and said, "still photos only!!!" I nodded my head and stopped the recording...

But that didn't stop me from taking these videos too:

"A Minute Without You" - TOTALLY ROCKED
"Mmmbop"

Yeah, guy, I'm actually going to listen to you. I'm at a HANSON concert, COME ON!!

OHHHHH it was such a great night. Too bad it ended early, but we have another whole show to look forward too!!!

OTHER GREAT LIFE UPDATES:

1. My dad is coming to visit!! At the beginning of November!! I haven't seen him since the beginning of February! AHHH SO EXCITED!

2. Robert Schwartzman is doing a solo tour and he's coming to The Space! I'm really super excited about this, because if you've been to The Space, you know that it's like the smallest most coolest venue ever. And the rockstars practically just walk around mingling with the crowd. This could be my chance to finally make my move!

ANYWAYS... I think that's all. Hope you enjoyed coming to the Hanson show with me and Brittany! I CERTAINLY did.

Hope you guys are having as great a week as me!

Talk to you all soon :)!

lovelove!

"I'm right 100% of the time... Just ask my husband."

2011-10-04T19:07:00.001-07:00

OK GUYS.

I think you all know that I've been getting caught up on Friday Night Lights again. I stopped watching after Season 1, but I've recently been watching again and AM LOVING IT. Oh man - that show is so awesome. GREAT characters. Like, seriously. Some of the best people on TV.

Anyways - what you may not know by now is that I have a crush on Tami - Coach Taylor's wife. I think she is seriously beautiful. Like, gorgeous, even. I would give up a lot of things to have her hair. A lot of things.

Anyways - she's got these great sunglasses that she wears. They're like, golden avaitors. They're super hott, she's super hott - it all works.

And everytime she has them on I'm just like, 'DAMN THOSE SUNGLASSES THEY'RE SO HOTT."

And we've got a pair of sunglasses at work that remind me of them. And I've liked the sunglasses ever since they came in, which was before I started watching the show again.

Here's a picture of Tami wearing the sunglasses:

UGHHHH so beautiful. She just looks great 100% of the time. Even when she had the newborn baby and was wearing nothing but sweat pants and pjs - she looked beautiful.

SO TODAY - I kind of couldn't stand it anymore. Staring at those sunglasses on the rack. Thinking about her wearing them in the show.....

I HAD TO BUY THEM.

BAM.

BAM BAM.

That's me right now. No, like - right now. I'm still wearing them as I'm writing this. And ya know what? I feel pretty cool. Even though I'm wearing that bright green sweatshirt... which is either REALLY lame or REALLY awesome. I can't quite decide. But - I love it and I wear it all the time.

Anyways - so I bought the sunglasses. I feel like a hot chick!!!!

Which is the theme of the book I'm currently reading! It's called, 'How to Love Like a Hot Chick.' My friend Brittany Dyer recommended wayyyy back when we (Britt, Maria, Me) had dinner in the winter.

And, I had been thinking about it a lot recently and thinking, "man, I wish I was a hot chick." So, I texted Britt again about it and she still HIGHLY recommended it. So - I bought it! And I started reading it. And so far - I love it. It's awesome. I've gone to sleep the past three nights feeling GREAT about myself.

And I wrote down everything (so far) that makes me a hot chick and it actually makes me feel good when I read it. You do these little exercises in the book and they're really fun.

It's just like a "girlfriend to girlfriend guide to getting everything you want and deserve out of love." And, that sounds good to me.

SO - there. Even though I know I shouldn't rely on material things like sunglasses to make me feel like a hot chick - THEY DO - and that's okay too, I think..

GREAT!

This is Ruby Tuesday when I start watching Friday Night Lights:

She can never quite stay awake. She tries, though.

I also bought a headlamp today at work. Why? I have no idea. Basically because it was $6.99 and I think it will be good for when I make jewelry.

I probably won't be posting a picture of me wearing the headlamp because I would imagine I'd look pretty dorky. But - you never know. Anything goes in the blog.

Maybe the headlamp, combined with the sunglasses..... haha.

Anyways! That's all I really wanted to say.

Tonight Kara bought me a white hot chocolate with a shot of espresso from Dunkers. Ummm it was seriously delish.

Also, today at work I walked over to Jen and said,

JULIE: Hey Jen! What's the haps?!?

I have no idea. It just rolled off my tongue. "what's the haps?" That's like a thing that Schmidt would say and then everyone would make him put a dollar in the douchebag jar. (New Girl reference! Everyone should be watching it!)

OK! I think that's it now.

I hope you all are having GREAT beginnings of the week!!!! I am! I am, actually. I'm A LOT happier than I was last week, which is a relief. Last week was blahhhhhh. Well, the mid-end of the week.

Please continue to have a fabulous week! Let me know of any exciting haps!

love love!

I BOUGHT A MARKER BOARD!!!!!!

2011-09-28T17:18:00.001-07:00

The first thing I thought when I unwrapped the new marker board was, "OMG I HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE FOR THE BLOG!!!!" I knew you guys would be super excited about it.

Awesome, right?!?!? It even has a cork board portion!!!! HYBRID MARKER CORK BOARD!!!!!

And I bought AWESOME marker colors to go with it. Notice all the awesome colors in the picture!! (and the note i wrote you all!!!)

It's really going to revolutionize my life. Either that, or be totally distracting and I'll just want to write on it all the time and I'll never get another productive thing done ever.

I bought it for work. So I can write my goals for the week on it so I'll be able to see them at all times. Good idea, right? I think so.

ANYWAYS - I'm super excited about it. And I signed up for a Staples rewards card while I was at it. The girl was super nice and had great nail polish, so I thought, "why not?!"

Great!!!

Ok. That's all, really. Hope you all are having a great day. I am! I think I'm gonna go make mac and cheese right now. Even better.

Bye, friends!!!! We'll talk again soon!!!

everytime I fell for you...

2011-09-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm permanently black and blue, permanently blue for you...

Been listening to this song, 'Bruises' by Chairlift a lot. I put it on a new mix that I made. It's really fun to sing along to. It was on that iPod commercial a while back where all the colors started melting....

I listen to that song and think it's funny, because it's about how loving someone leaves you with bruises, because you keep falling for them. (get it? FALLING for them?) Essentially the same message that the Ben Folds/Lee/Kweller song, 'Bruised' leaves you with. Only, that song is so much more sad seeming. Like, 'who would ever want to fall in love because it just leaves you with bruises."

Whereas the other song is more, "aw cute! I'm falling for you!!"

I've felt a mix of both songs lately.

OMG I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG. Whaaatttt is my problem?! IDK!

Ummmmmmm I GOT ASSOCIATE OF THE MONTH AT EDDIE BAUER! Did I tell you that?! It happened!! They were so excited about my enthusiasm and the excellent job I did during the first floorset I was a part of. Plus, my selling numbers were phenom. TRUE STORY. I kind of felt like a rockstar. Still do, actually.

I was sick last week. Yeah! I had a cold. At the beginning of the week. For the first two days, I thought it was allergies. I was like, sniffly and sneezy, but other than that, I felt fine. Which is the burden of allergies. And then I woke up Monday morning and was like, BLAHHHHH. It was over pretty quick, though. Like, I was feeling a lot better by Wednesday.

WEIRD - because it was THIS TIME LAST YEAR that I had that other super bad cold. If you read that post from last year, you'll notice how I say that that cold was "borderline flu." NASTY. Also, that post contains some VERY CUTE PHOTOS of Ruby Tuesday sleeping upside down on the couch.

(Currently, I'm writing this entry on a bed, and Ruby is sleeping next to me under the covers. Best. Cat. Ever.)

I read a few entries from 'this time last year' and I was also having to sleep with the baby monitor in my bed, which can make for lack of sleep. Also, I blogged that a baby spit up and sneezed on me, which can account for sickness.

Man, I do not miss having to have that baby monitor on all the time. Well, when there was a new baby in the house. Especially sleeping with it in bed with me.

**sleeping with the monitor in the bed with me... NOT the baby. babies should always sleep in their cribs. on their backs.**

I realized I do miss babies, though. I realized this when Greg and I were over his friend's house, and they have babies, and I held one of them for a really long time. It was awesome. Super cute babies. It was the first time I had held a baby since leaving Hannah House. I don't know. Maybe it felt like a "full circle" thing.

I was thinking about my last night at Hannah House the other night. Because I was crying, and I was thinking of all the times I've cried this year. And, one of them was when I left Hannah House. I cried for a while in the car with my mom. And we stopped at Kohl's on our way home. And the internet was broken. And Keith called me and I listened to 90's music and talked to him on the phone for like an hour. And then I felt better. That turned into a good night.

While I was crying the other night I was also thinking about all the times that I've been crying and actually thought that I would never stop. There have only been three times like that. Two for bad reasons, one for a good reason. They've all occurred in the past two years.

"Here's to the tears you knew you'd cry..."

Yep.

So, it's fall again. "I can't believe a year went by so fast." (can anyone name that song?!?!?)

'So, I fall again,' would have been a better way to say it. Ha, ha.

I saw a sign today in downtown Berwick for a haunted house in Lebanon. This was the first time EVER that I saw a sign for a haunted house and thought, "ooo fun!" WHY?? IDK. Maybe I can find someone to go with me, who would also protect me if I got scared. Halloween is like, over a month away. I've got time.

OK - something that you HAVE to do is go watch this SNL clip from like a million years ago. It's the 'Irish Home Makeover.' Liam Neeson is the host. My mom literally will quote this skit every chance she gets. And every time she does it, we all start laughing and then have to go find the video online. It's Seth Meyers as "Buildin' Finn McQuinn" and he's like, hosting a home makeover show in Ireland. It's kind of hilarious.

But, we watched a Liam Neeson movie the other night, and then started talking about the skit, had to go online and watch the video, etc, etc... and now I'm posting the link for you. Seriously - watch it.

Speaking of TV - New Girl is on tonight!!! I know a lot of people who are really excited about this. Maybe more like a handful of people. But still - it's very exciting.

Ok. Now I kind of feel like I'm just talking about totally random, unrelated stuff. And you guys are all like, "ummm yeah like always, duhhh!!" Because you all talk like valley girls. I knew it!

I've been having weird dreams lately!!!!

I had a dream a few nights ago that I was driving and I hit and killed a chipmunk.

And then the next night I had a dream that a very shiny, silver gun was being pointed at my head.

Yikes!

Two things I don't like: guns and chipmunks.

Josh recommended that I go to a firing range to get over the fear of guns.

OH!! Something I have to do:

- email Josh

ALSO

- email Courtney

I owe them both life updates. As well as Maria.

- Maria

Actually, I owe a lot of people life updates. It's amazing to think that I actually have more stuff to say OUTSIDE of this blog. Or like, things that actually matter...(??) But, yes. There are SOME things I don't talk about in the blog.

- also, Jenn.

If you are one of those people and are reading - know that I HAVEN'T forgotten about you!!! I'm just very lazy.

Oh - getting back to the dreams:

CHIPMUNK:

To see a chipmunk in your dream suggests that you are holding onto the past and need to let it go.

Yes, and in my dream I killed the chipmunk with my car.

GUN:

To see a gun in your dream symbolizes aggression, anger, and potential danger. You may be dealing with issues of passiveness/aggressiveness and authority/dependence. Alternatively, a gun represents the male sexual drive.

Hmm. This one is more complicated. Actually, considering the gun was pointed at my head... I'm coming up with some interesting theories that means the dream would have been foreshadowing... It was a nice looking gun.

(hahaha)

I had a foreshadowing dream a few weeks ago. It was weird. I dreamed that one of our old neighbors that I haven't seen in probably 10 years came into the store while I was working. And, lo and behold - it happened! Weird, right?

Actually, I just remembered my dream from last night. Hm.

OK. That might be all I have to talk about. Believe it or not. Although, I feel as thought I haven't really said anything.

I'm finding I have more of a crush on Tim Riggins during season 2 of Friday Night Lights than I did during season 1. I should have highlighted that with like a **NEWSFLASH** sign, or something. Important info, right here.

I'm in a great mood today. Although, I'm super tired. But, I've had a really great day. Really great.

OK. That's it. I might go take a shower now. We shall see.

Hope you all are having an equally great day! And a great night! Don't forget to watch New Girl! I think it's on FOX!

In honor of Zooey, and my great mood - here's a link to one of my fave She & Him songs!

Sweet Darlin'

Great song.

There's been a lot of media in this post. Enjoy it!

♡♡

TEST BLOG

2011-09-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

This is a test blog. I just signed up something called, Networked Blogs, which is like a blog thing that imports and shares your blogs to social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

I learned about it in a social media for your business seminar that I attended today.

So, I figured I'd give it a try. Especially since I've been having trouble importing my blog into Facebook and getting the links to work... which is a problem I can't figure out. It takes a lot of time to manually upload the blog posts to Facebook, but it's something that's important to me. So! Hopefully this will be a beautiful gateway to a new automatic blog updating world!!!

I'm about to eat something called a "frudel." It's like a strudel? With fruit? So.. a frudel? It's an apple one. Currently it's being warmed up. I wish it came with some sort of sweetened cream cheese filling also, but, I'll take what I can get.

OK. I think I'll stop before the test blog entry becomes a real blog entry.

I'll update again soon!!!! Hope everyone is doing real well. It's cold and rainy today. And, I seem to have gotten a cold also. So, that's not fun.

But - hope you're having a great day! Talk soon :)

it's many hundred miles and it won't be long

2011-09-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

OOOHHHHHH kathy. OOOHHHHHH kathyyyy.

(Hot Rod, anyone?)

Anyways. I'm kinda sad right now. Feeling lonely. I was so excited and having a great day all day and then it was just like, blahhhhh.

I don't really know why.

Work was fine.

So, they're re-releasing The Lion King in 3D. I wish they were just normal re-releasing it. 3D is weird and kinda distracting. Like, YES, I would pay to see The Lion King in theaters, but I don't want to see it in 3D.

I think they should re-release all the Disney musicals. That would be amazzzing.

I think I'm gonna get an iPhone. And I think I want a white one. Is this lame? I can't decide if the white iPhones are lame or not. But, every time I imagine myself with an iPhone, it's a white one. So, it might be kind of my destiny.

(Just like every time I imagine myself accepting an Academy Award, I have blonde hair and a navy blue sweetheart cut strapless dress. Why, I don't know.)

Also, I have known for a long time that when I get my iPhone I want an orange case. And, if I got the black iPhone, it'd be like Halloween 24/7. Which, might be cool for a little while.

Listen to me. Debating over which color iPhone to get. I'm a jerk.

Two movies I watched recently:

THE ROMANTICS: Better than I expected. I thought it was going to be totally boring and unfunny. But, it wasn't. Hard to watch two people who are in love with each other, not be together.

THE OTHER WOMAN: Nat Port flick! As much as I hate Nat Port (for stealing my jacket that one time), I will never turn down one of her movies. About an affair that turned into marriage that turned into pregnancy that turned into the baby dying at only 3 days old. None of that was spoiler info. It was very sad, but I thought all the different characters were really interesting. Everyone was dealing in different ways with this baby dying.

I also started watching Friday Night Lights again. I stopped watching after the first episode of season 2. And this was like, over a year ago. But, I just started right back up again. Loved it. Loved the part when Lila's dad was drunk on the floor and Tim was trying to help and Lila said,

LILA: Don't you have a 3-way to get to or something?

Ha. That made me laugh. And, OH the awkwardness between Matt and Julie. It's pretty freaking adorable.

Watched the movie, American Psycho last night. MESSED UP. It was so freaking messed up. But, I kind of loved it. The fact that Christian Bale hadn't won an Oscar until this past year is like WTF. He was a total crazy guy. Ohhh man it was so fascinating. How he had so many different personalities he was UNRECOGNIZABLE to people who knew him by a different name. Like, WOW. And the parts where he would say one thing, but people would hear something different - loved it.

Yeah. It was like, totally brilliant and completely disturbing.

I feel like being artsy and crafty right now. Like, creating something with my hands. I think because at work we are selling LED headlamps on sale for $9.99, and all the associates have to come up with different uses for the headlamp and then write them on a poster. (yep.) And, everyone was like, "hiking! boating! camping! camping! camping!" And I was like, "um, these headlamps are awesome when you're doing things like arts and crafts or sewing!!" Who wants to go camping when you could do arts and crafts?!?! (actually, i would kind of like to go "real camping" sometime.)

And then I was like, "we should all wear a headlamp, turn out all the lights and have a dance party!" How fun would that have been?? But, the idea was shot down almost immediately. Actually, immediately.

What else can I tell you?

My feather extension needs to be re-positioned. Also, I kind of want to get some more. Also, I really wish I still had teal streaks in my hair.

Ok I think that's all. I'm still kinda sad and lonely and blahhh. But, whatevs, I guess. I'm like, sick of being in this house right now.

Also, I want chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups.

I might try doing a fishtail braid in my hair. Excitement!!

cause all i really want is to be with you
and feeling like i matter too

I FORGOT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!!!

2011-09-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

It's kind of a gross story, but I know how you love those... (Renee...)

So last week, Kara and I were returning a RedBox rental (We rented Prom.... OMG - loved it just as much the second time as I did the first.) to the machine inside Wal-Mart. It was a rainy night. I was wearing flip flops. I dashed from the car into the store to make the return.

Now, this is where it gets tricky..

As I was walking up to the machine, my flip flop skidded on the wet floor and SOMEHOW my toe got injured in this process. Like, the top of my toe scraped against the RedBox machine in just a way as to destroy it. Graceful, eh?

So now I'm like, "crap, this sucks." Because now the top of my toe is all bloody and mangled.

I go back to the car and tell Kara the tale. Toe Tale, as it will be called. Now, the toe is hurting pretty bad. Like, REALLY bad, actually. It's like, throbbing with sharp pain. Upon further inspection I saw that a giant piece of my nail was ripped off AS WELL AS half of my nailpolish!!!!! It wasn't just the top of my toe, it was also the nail and the polish.

And we're driving and it feels just like blood is gushing out of the wound, so Kara gives me a napkin as to not bleed everywhere.

It turns out, there wasn't actually that much blood. Just lots of pain.

But now it's all scabby and hurts still when I bend it. It's been a hard week. But, I've managed. Hopefully the toe will be all healed soon.

And to add to this: I just feel like I've gotten like, 75% more clumsier than I used to be. I always feel like I'm either walking into things, banging my arm, slicing my toe... all over the place. Seriously, I have like, four bruises on my legs right now and I KNOW one is in the works on my arm from when I banged it last night. THAT HURT.

I'm like living that Fergie song, 'Clumsy.' Clumsy 'cause I've fallen in love? Well, no. All the parts except for the parts about boys. Except maybe the parts about boys, too. Mainly just the tripping and stumbling parts.

WELLLLL OK.

Kara and I went to the gym today. I increased the ratio of Lady Gaga songs in my workout mix before we left. Gaga Six - I OWN YOU. But, I do admit it was a mistake after not having been to the gym in a few weeks. It was prettttyyyyy hard to get through it all. BUT - I did it.

Other than that: I've been working all day at a NEW JOB! Which I will tell you about soon. Like, very soon. I'm very excited about it. CHANGE!

OK. I think that's all for now. I'm very hungry, so I'll probably go eat something. I don't know what yet. Possibly some pasta and sauce.

Hope you all are having a great night!!!!!!!

♥♥♥♡♡♡

"and i can't keep you off my mind.... i have tried, but you come right back in again."

2011-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Oohhh hi. Hope you all are doing well. Blogger introduced a new blog interface... so it feels a little weird being here right now. Like, being on Blogger. It doesn't feel like the same old hang out spot I know. Yep, because I'm creepy like that.

I know we haven't talked in a little while. I've been busy! We did another floorset at work this past week, so it was a lot of DOING stuff. Like, moving around shelves, stripping wall hardware, putting new hardware up. I was in charge of coming up with something to put in the decorative crates. I spent a lot of time on this project. ALSO! OMG - I can't believe I forgot to tell you this story. Actually, maybe I did tell you.... I feel like I told anyone who would listen.... which was maybe like... 3 people.. ANYWAYS:

This story happened like, maybe two weeks ago at work. There was this olive green skirt that I was in charge of putting a belt on. It was like, on a display. So, at first I had this thin brown belt on it and it looked pretty good. But, I noticed that it wasn't really selling. So, I changed the belt to another thin brown belt, but this one had a string of gold beads also on it. The gold really went well with the olive green.

SO, I'm working at the register and someone comes through with both the skirt and the belt and I say to them,

JULIE: You know, this belt goes great with this skirt!
CUSTOMER: I know! They have it on the display and I loved it!!
JULIE: :-D!!!!!!!!

And that's how much I rock.

And then last week I was redressing all the puppets in the store and the next day, one of the managers told me that someone came up and wanted to buy all the clothes on the display because they loved it so much.

Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.

And now, for a brief PART TWO of my Ruby Tuesday Sleeping Under Blankets post....

YEP. This happened the other day while I was trying to do work. HOWWW can you get work done when this is happening?!?! RUBY! She's the best.

So, Kara and I had been waiting for the new Zooey Deschanel TV show, 'New Girl,' to premiere later on this month, but I saw last week that the pilot episode was FREE on iTunes! So, I downloaded it! And it was super cute and funny. And it also stars the guy who played Officer Leo on Veronica Mars!!! (yeah, that's a giant screenshot of him from a former blog entry where I talk about how Veronica Mars stole my teal jacket...) Anyways - he's super cute. And we loved the show. Zooey is a total hottie. UGH why does she have to be so hip and cool?!? Unfair.

But! You should go to iTunes and download the free ep! Super funny. Plus: Zooey.

Also! Zooey's older sister is on that show Bones, which I had never seen until last week, when I watched it with Greg. And now I can't wait to watch more.

And like, I keep thinking about it. There was this one episode where this lady was pregnant, but some other lady who was crazy, killed the pregnant woman and cut the baby out of her, replacing it with another, dead baby. Creepy, right?

So then, the crazy lady raises the other lady's baby for a few years until the police figure it out. The police find the lady and the baby at the playground, where they seem to be having a great day. The baby looks healthy, happy, well-dressed, and well cared for. But, this is the crazy lady. So, the police just go up and force the lady to hand over the baby, because of what she did. Now, this baby is maybe like..... a year old? Definitely older than an infant. But, they just take the baby, right there on the playground.

This was very upsetting to me. YES, the lady was a crazy person who killed another lady and then stole her baby. THAT'S horrible and sick. But, it was also clear that she was taking care of this baby. I feel like in this situation, the police should have maybe not just taken the baby away. The baby most definitely recognized his "mother," and I think they should have at least been sympathetic of that. Maybe at least arrested the mother WITH the baby, so the baby wasn't just ripped away. I don't know. It's a tricky situation.

BUT - this happens too frequent. I had to deal with it when working at Hannah House. Not babies being cut out of their mothers.... but, babies being taken away from their mother's. And it's hard to watch.

And, I can think of one instance when I needed to take a baby away for its own safety. That was a bad night.

ANYWAYS. That's why I don't work at Hannah House anymore.

ANYWAYS. What else?

I've had a heavy heart lately. At least, I feel that way. Oohhhhh I don't know. I'm trying to find the in between, as the song goes. It's a subtle mix of melancholy and excitement.

On a different note, I want to see the new Lars von Trier film, Melancholia. What a great filmmaker that guy is. I REALLY want to see that movie the more I think about it. Somebody find out when it's playing and TAKE ME. Actually, it looks like it doesn't come out for a few months.

I've never cried harder during a movie than during Dancer in the Dark. I think about that from time to time. How it's probably a movie that I would never watch again. How upset it made me.

Ok. Before this turns too somber, I'm going to go. I think Kara and I are going to hang out. There's a hookah lounge that just opened in Somersworth. We want to go. Not tonight, but another night. I'll let you know if we go. It looks pretty cool.

OK. Hope you have a great night!! And a great week!!!! We'll talk again soon!!!! That's a blog promise!!!!!

lovelovelove,

JULIE

TAMMY GOT MARRIED!

2011-09-04T12:02:00.001-07:00

Tammy's wedding was more than a week ago! I can't believe it's taken me so long to post these pictures/stories from the big day!!!!

The wedding was up at Camp O-At-Ka, which is a boys summer camp up at Sebago Lake, in the town of Sebago, Maine. We had never been there before, which is apparently almost illegal if you live in Maine. It's the second biggest lake in Maine. (Fun fact.) Murdock Lake is the first. (Just kidding. It's Moosehead, I think.)

So, the wedding was Saturday the 27th. But since Kara was making the wedding cake, we needed to go up on Friday and turn the place into a commercial bakery. Success!!! Partly due to the fact that I am an excellent/pro cake holder while in the car. It takes more effort than you think. I'm skilled at holding all cakes, be they birthday, wedding, welcome home, or any other special occasion.

So my mom and I picked Kara up at her bakery on Friday afternoon and gathered up all the cake decorating supplies she would need, piled it all into the car, and make the trek up to Sebago!! Everything arrived in fine condition.

We got to the kitchen and Kara immediately took over. I loved this. It was like, 'never mind those camp workers, I'm here to make a wedding cake!!!' YES! Mutiny of the dining hall. 'Mess Hall Mutiny,' could be another one.

And now - the creation of a wedding cake! (in photos.)

Kara's gonna hate that I posted this photo of her, but I think she looks great.

It came out so beautiful!! Kara did such an awesome job, as always.

We went home shortly after she finished the cake... since it was like, 5pm and she had been working since 3am or something crazy.

The next morning was the wedding!! Got up early to get ready. I had to go out and put gas in my car. And we headed north again!! Got there in time to get seats and socialize a little. Morgan Roy (formerly Morgan Mosher) came running over to Kara and I as soon as we got there telling us that the camp people weren't going to be moving the cake from the fridge to the hall, and that we had to do it. Morgan was acting as sort of the "day-of" coordinator. She was awesome. I hadn't seen her since high school!! WAaaayyyyy too long for someone who used to sleep over my house like, every week. Same with Kristin Otten!!!! I miss those ladies.

SO - Kara and I now knew that we needed to move the cake and that we needed to book it back to the kitchen after the ceremony.

Then it started!!

Tammy's brother Corey and her mom, Doris!!!! Corey and Kara were born just days apart. Her mom is like a second mother to us!

Morgan Bickford!! Wearing killer shoes.

Katie Brown!!

Laura Plaisted!!!! Kara is BFF with Laura's younger sister, Mary. Laura is the one who won the Maine Dream Wedding for herself and her fiance, Nolan!!!

Chelsey Coughlin!!

Laura Olsen!

What a lovely crew of bridesmaids!!!!!

Tammy!!!!! And her dad, Gary!!! :)

The ceremony was super short, but very nice. And set against a beautiful backdrop of the lake! Awww, I had tears!!!

Tammy and Josh!! First dance!!!! Josh is a great guy.

♡♡♡

Father/daughter dance!!!!!

Mother/son dance!!!!!

It was all great. Everyone did a great job dancing.

And then! The cake cutting!!!!!

Member how Kara made that?!?!

So great!!! And the cake was delish, as is anything that Kara bakes.

Then we had a BBQ, make smores, and relaxed on the beach!!! What a beautiful spot!!

Artsy photo of Kara in front of the water.

See how her dress is that gorgeous shade of yellow? Wanna know how it got to be that shade?? Ummmm cause I dyed it. Yep. She was on the lookout for a yellow dress to wear, but instead we found a white dress. And I said, well, get it and I'll dye it yellow.

So we bought the dress and brought it home, only to discover that the dress was dry clean only, because of some plastic-y lining. So we were thinking that if we put the dress into a boiling pot of hot water, it would melt or shrink, or something else even more horrible.

But, it was down to the wire, and I said, "OKAY, we are gonna do this and it's either gonna come out awesome or it's going to be totally ruined."

And, it came out awesome. Why? Because I am an expert dye-r. Like Brittany!! (shout out to Squeaky Hindu and the Rainbow Fish, whatwhat!!) So, she was able to wear the dress and she looked totally fabulous.

That's us! Looking kinda gross, but whatevs. We're all friends here.

What a great wedding!!!! It was really fun seeing people from high school!!!

OH AND!!!!! I caught the bouquet!!!!! YEP. That was fun, haha. And the bouquets were wrapped with braided pieces of the train from Tammy's dress, which she cut off, so that is a cool thing to have.

♡ yay love! ♡

And it was kinda crazy, because the very next day the camp was semi-destroyed by the hurricane!!! It was weird like, watching that video and thinking that we were there just the day before. The wedding balloons are still up :(

Luckily, the storm did no major damage around here. We all spent the day mainly indoors. Greg came over and we started watching Smallville. The show about Superman! I have always gotten this show confused with the other show, Supernatural, which I also want to watch. Both shows are about unnatural occurrences, so I think it's okay to mistake them. But, I really like Smallville so far! We're two discs in. I mayyy or may nottt have a tiny crush on Lex Luther. The fact that everyone knows he turns out to be a bad guy is kinda sexy....???....or something.

So! That's been my week.

I went to the movies twice!!!!!! I saw Our Idiot Brother with Greg on Monday and then 30 Minutes or Less with Kara on Wednesday!!!! So fun!!! Both movies I am constantly confusing as: 1. My Idiot Boyfriend and 2. 30 Seconds or Less. But - it's okay. I really liked Our Idiot Brother. It was funny as well as heartfelt. And, he was just a guy, trying to stay happy and put his faith and trust into others, which, I don't think is such a bad way to be. Certainly not "idiotic" in my opinion.

Great week, right?!?! RIGHT. Other awesome things happened tooooo which I will talk more about later!!!!!

And then last night I saw ALIYA!!!!!!!! And her brother SAM!!!!! They were up from various cross-country locations on their annual family vacation in Ogunquit!!! And I made my usual trip over to hang out with their family!!!!!! Aliya, Sam and I had a bro night together drinking beers on the beach late at night. It was super fun.

And then this morning I saw them again!!!! We all (aliya, sam, their parents, me, my mom and kara) went to Kara's bakery and all had breakfast together! Kara was working, of course, but she was able to come out and sit for a few minutes. So nice! It was the first time my mom was meeting Aliya's parents! Which is crazy thinking about all the times I've met hers. And stayed at her house in Florida! So, that was fun.

OK! I feel like this was a great entry. Lots of great stories. And friends. Both old and new.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!!!!! Stay safe! Have fun!

I'll post more later about EVEN MORE exciting news!!!!!!!!

love!

ps: happy birthday kerianne!!!!! ♡

Ruby Tuesday Sleeping Under Blankets

2011-08-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Yes - exactly what it sounds like. These photos are TOO CUTE to keep to myself.

THIS IS WHAT I WAKE UP TO EVERY MORNING:::

Ruby Tuesday is the best. She just loves to be under the covers!!

* Semi-related but mostly unrelated story:: last night, Greg and I went to eat at Ruby Tuesday the restaurant and they played Ruby Tuesday the song while we were in there! And I thought about Ruby Tuesday my cat. Triple threat!!

I have more to blog about! I have pictures to post from Tammy's wedding!! I've been having some great days recently. It's been really fun.

OK!! Talk to you all later!!! Have a great Tuesday! Make it a Ruby one ;)

Tammy getting married!

2011-08-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

TAMMY IS GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!!!!

I have been friends with Tammy my entire life. Tomorrow, 27 August 2001, she is getting married.

I remember the day Tammy got her ears pierced! It seems crazy that I've known her forever.

I am super excited for her. She's marrying a wonderful guy, Josh.

Ahhh, the infamous 'First Communion' picture. Did we recreate this photo before Prom? I think we may have. There may actually be a couple recreations of this photo of us wearing fancy dresses.

Tammy and I grew up across the street from each other, she's more like family than a friend. I can't believe she's getting married.

Weddings are great.

♡♡♡

"oh, that's jesus greg kinnear."

2011-08-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY. from the very start to the very finish. great great great.

- had a great morning
- great breakfast (english muffin with cinnamon sugar)
- worked with great people at work. had a lot of laughs with Joy, who i totally love. got some great compliments on my wall displays!! got another great compliment from a stranger about what a lovely person i was!!!
- i rocked a great outfit
- had an amazing find at TJ Maxx when i magically found a dress that i had been obsessed with like, months ago. only one in the whole store and it was in my size. it still hasn't hit me yet that i own this dress. because i love it so so much. i will post pictures asap.
- watched a great episode of Parks and Recreation with Kara
- now i'm in bed, about to finish up some work and then head off to sleeeep.

great day. my horoscope said that today i would have a conversation with someone who could turn out to be my soul mate...??? that kind of scared me because of it's ominousity. (that word looks totally wrong, but you get the point, right?) i guess it's also exciting because of the same reason.

ANYWAYS. i have to get going so that i can finish writing and then go to sleep. i'm expecting a long, boring day at work tomorrow. great! but, i have another killer outfit planned, so that'll make everything just a little bit better. also, i painted my nails mint green, so there's that too.

OK!!!!! i hope YOU ALL are having a GREAT week!!!! anything and everything is exciting, right?!? right.

talk soon!!!!!

love.

endless sky on thursday

2011-08-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

So my week quickly turned weird after we last talking. I mean, talked. I think it was Monday night. Yes.

So, I got into bed. Watched an episode of Pretty Little Liars. Quickly fell asleep because I was exhausted. And then slept, and slept and slept.

Slept RIGHT through my alarm clock. I have no idea how this happened.

And what was important about Tuesday???? More floorset at work. I was supposed to be at work at 8am, so my alarm was set for 6:30.

Ruby Tuesday woke me up after a great night of sleeping. I thought it looked rather bright out for 6:30am, so I checked the clock. It was 9:40am. YEP. Overslept by THREE HOURS. I suck.

I checked my phone. I had also slept through two phone calls. Work, of course. Wondering where I was and also worried about me.

So, I immediately call into work and say that I had slept through my alarm and that I felt terrible. Jen said it was alright, that she was just worried about me, and that she would see me when I got there. Ok.

I scrambled to get ready and managed to leave in like, 20 minutes. Got to work around 10:45. And then proceeded to kick ass on floorset. I was up on the huge ladder like, changing the super high wall displays. It was cool. I got to dress up more puppets, which I rocked. And I stayed an hour later. So, it all ended well, I suppose.

But then I said, 'I'm gonna get a coffee on my way home to make me feel better.' So, I did. I got one for Kara, too. But, the girl messed up my raspberry dark mocha and it ended up just tasting like raspberry milk. Bummer.

Then I got home - I was over the coffee mess up and was looking forward to just relaxing online. And I open my computer and the internet isn't working. On every computer? Nope, just on mine. I have no idea what was wrong with it. Kara thought it was some proxy thing, so she fiddled around with proxy jibberish, but nothing worked. It was saying that I was connected to the wireless, the airport had full signal, but nothing was loading. Something wasn't connecting in there.

SO - Tuesday was a crappy day. I can acknowledge that. But, then Kara and I went to the gym and I killed it. So that was good. Rocked The Gaga Six.

I think later that night we went out to get McFlurries. That was also good. Whatevs.

WEDNESDAY was yesterday and it was better. I was working 1-8:30. Work was SUPER BUSY. It was cloudy and rainy, so everyone was shopping rather than at the beach. I got to work on some wall displays which Jen thought might be "too artistic," but she let me leave them because she really liked them. So that was cool.

Then, I got to do some sewing projects that I had requested. I had been noticing that when little things like buttons fall of clothes, they have to mark them down like, 20% or something. And I was like, "well, if someone brings in a sewing kit, I'll just resew the button on so we can leave it at full price." You know me, always motivated by money.

So, Jen brought in a sewing kit! And last night I did some sewing! Everyone was like, "really? you want to do that?" and I was like, "yep!!" All the buttons came out really nice. Great!

I like actually DOING stuff. I have realized from working these two jobs that I like seeing results. Like, I enjoy the process of making coffee and fancy drinks because at the end, you get a product. I like working on the register at work because you're pressing lots of buttons and swiping credit cards. I like sewing on buttons because you start and you have two detached things, and when you finish, they are attached to one another. It's quite romantic, actually.

No, it's not really.

Anyways. This is why I like working on projects rather than walking around the store asking people if they need help finding anything. Or putting away the reject clothes at the fitting room. Although, at least that has you walking around the store on a clothes-putting-away-mission.

Anyways. So now my mom thinks I should go into fashion merchandising. Which sounded kinda lame until I realized that was what Elle Woods majored in before she decided to go to law school.

And I try to keep an, 'Elle Woods state of mind' at all times. Really. I do. (Except I probably won't go to law school in the end.)

Just the other day, I was hearing about how everyone at the store wears jingle bells at holiday time and at first I thought, "there's absolutely no way I am wearing those jingle bells." But then I realized that Elle Woods would probably totally embrace it and then also become head of the holiday decorating team. MOTIVATION. DETERMINATION. ELLE WOODS.

And bonus - she scored a 179 on her LSATS, got into law school, rocked it, AND got the hott guy in the end. What a great movie. I've been wanting to watch it lately.

Anyways. How did we even get to talking about this? Oh, right. Fashion merchandising. We'll see. The ship captain idea is still at the top of my list.

So, last night, I basically sat on the couch all night and watched Pretty Little Liars. I finished season 1. LOVED IT. The season finale was super scary! And I got excited when Aria was wearing the same color nail polish as me. It was like a light blue. All the girls on that show have such awesome nail polish.

Then I went to sleep. Slept pretty well. Kara woke me up this morning and we went out to get breakfast and coffees. Really good coffees. Then, I thought I might be working, so I called to find out. But I'm not! So - surprise day off. Love these days. I have tomorrow off too!!!! Party hardy tonight? No, probably not. But I like to keep my options open.

HMM. I thought I had something else important to tell you. I mean, all this was pretty important.

I guess we'll see. This week started off great, but it seems kinda downhill, I guess. Although, I guess today is okay so far.

Kara and I have been watching all the episodes of Parks and Recreation on Netflix. That's a pretty funny show and I never really appreciated it until recently. Aziz Ansari is like, totally funny. And I've seen more episodes than I thought I had.

Ruby Tuesday is being super cute right now. She's taking a little nap on the porch.

I woke her up when I took this picture. But, she quickly fell back to sleep.

Alright. I have to go check on my laundry. Exciting! I know. I'm really living it up on this surprise day off.

I hope you all are having excellent Thursdays! Talk to you again soon!!!!! I still have to plan that new blog ribbon cutting. I'll start to get my act together. Probably make a Facebook invite. Sounds great.

OK! Enjoy this beautiful afternoon!

**side note** The turtle in the picture with Ruby Tuesday is not a real turtle. It's a fake, plastic turtle named Slash. Kara stole this turtle from the lawn of her apartment on Woodbine Street in Providence. We love Slash. He lives on the porch. **end side note.**

cause either i bleed dry or keep this thorn in my side

2011-08-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

Here are all the things we have to talk about today:

1. the gaga six
2. jordan
3. floorset
4. impromptu high school reunion

In that order??? Ummm...... yeah. That order works for me. Ok, let's go!!

1. THE GAGA SIX

If you read my Twitter updates or Facebook status updates, you may have seen the other night when I used the hashtag (#hashtag), #thegagasix. You may have been wondering what this meant! Actually, I'm sure you were all on the edge of your seats waiting for an explanation!!

So, we all know that I like creating competitions for myself to complete, yes? Yes. Which is strange because I hate competition. Unless it's against myself, I guess. Anyways, I came up with this challenge for myself while I'm at the gym on the elliptical and I call this challenge, The Gaga Six.

The rules of The Gaga Six are that whenever a Lady Gaga song comes onto my iPod mix, I put the level up to number six. Normally, I stay at a five. (DON'T JUDGE ME ON MY ELLIPTICAL LEVELS.) So, for that little bit of Gaga, I go the extra mile. It always gets me going.

And even last night, a Gaga song came on right before I started my 5-minute cool down, and I KEPT the level at number six until the song was over. Like, three minutes into the cool down. How hardcore is THAT?!?? Yeah. I know. You are all totally impressed with my determination.

Anyways, it's a really fun game to play while you're working out. There's a little bit of mystery, because you never know when you'll have to play The Gaga Six. TRY IT!!!!

I guess it could work for anything, really. Whenever you're doing anything and a Lady Gaga song comes on, just go the extra mile. Drive a little safer, clean a little cleaner, cook a little better, sleep a little harder. Although, I don't know why you'd be listening to Lady Gaga while you're sleeping. Unless it's lullaby versions of Gaga songs, which I don't know if they exist. I'll find out right now.

Yep. Fantastic.

Also, I'm really digging the lullaby version of 'Hey, Soul Sister.'

Anyways! That's The Gaga Six.

2. JORDAN

I like to think he's my new BFF. Jordan works in the computer department at the Best Buy. He's maybe the best sales associate/person you'll ever run into. He just started working at Best Buy and doesn't even have the right color blue shirt yet! But, he's a great guy. Super nice. Super funny. And he says, "cool beans" all the time, which is awesome. So, when Kara and I were talking with Jordan the other weekend at Best Buy, I finally asked:

JULIE: Have you seen the movie Hot Rod?
JORDAN: No!
JULIE AND KARA: Ok, you HAVE to see it! There's this whole part where all they say is 'cool beans.' It's awesome.
JORDAN: That's awesome. I'll try and get it on Netflix.

And then! We were back in Best Buy a few weeks later and ran into Jordan and he remembered us and said,

JORDAN: Hey!! I still haven't seen Hot Rod yet!!
JULIE AND KARA: Well you HAVE YOU SEE IT!!!!

It was pretty great. But then in a horrible turn of events, Jordan ended up being busy with another customer and Kara had to buy her new laptop from another guy. Not Jordan, as we like to call him.

But Jordan is just so great. So last night I emailed the store manager at Best Buy and told him how much we appreciated Jordan's help and general awesome-ness. True story!

Jordan - you have a fan club!!

3. FLOORSET

Today was my first day at work working on the FLOORSET TEAM. It's a big deal. Well, maybe not really. But, it's exciting that they asked me to be on the team. I think because Jen (who is kind of the floorset leader) knows how much I love doing projects and having something to work on. So, I really appreciated that she noticed that and then asked me about floorset.

So - today was great! I dressed the mannequins! And people loved the clothes so much they started buying them right away!! Even though they technically weren't for sale yet!!!! I mean, yes, I had to follow the floorset book to know what to put on the mannequins... but still. I'm sure the awesome and trendiness of the mannequin dresser shown through and made the people want to spend their money.

I also cut up signs! With an exacto knife!!! It was a messy job. It was, actually, because all the little shavings of plastic/cardboard got everywhere.

I also took down the wall hardware!! Jen would say, "Strip the wall!" And I would do it! It's powerful moving shelves.

Then she had me go into the basement to get some sweaters. Now, the door to the basement is locked and sometimes alarmed. So, she gave me her keys. And then I somehow set off the alarm in the whole store!!! Yep! That was me!! I don't know what happened. One wrong turn of the key and BAM. Hello, loudest alarm ever! Ah, well. It all ended well. Like everything does? Hopefully.

I'm excited for more floorset tomorrow. I really like having projects and tasks to do all day. Have I mentioned how much I love busy work? And waiting in lines. Untying knots. Threading needles. Apparently because I am the most boring person alive. Yes!

4. IMPROMPTU HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

Wow, already at number 4!

So, I have been experiencing an impromptu high school reunion over the past two days! Saturday night I was in Targs and ran into Mark Anderson! This was special because Mark is a loyal Facebook blog reader. Hi Mark!!! (He's probably reading right now.) This encounter made me happy because remember how I was talking about having a blog get together!?!!??! IT WAS KIND OF LIKE THAT. Only, I would hope that if I ever have a real blog get together, it wouldn't take place in Target.

And then the next day in Target (yeah, I go there a lot...) I ran into Eric Guilmette! We "went out" from third through fifth grade. Oh yeah. Big time. And then!!! I also ran into Grace Shaw!!!! Who is simply a lovely person. She actually works at Targs, and said that she had also seen Eric Shields not too long ago. CRAZY. How's that for a great reunion?! All those people over the course of two days! Awesome.

It probably a fact that the Noble High Class of 2004 is the most coolest class ever. Yeah. That's probably written in stone somewhere.

Good people. I'm glad I know them.

Well! That brings us to the end. For now, at least. I have to go take a shower and make my lunch for tomorrow. But probably in the reverse order.

I've been having a really hard time sleeping lately. Last night I didn't fall asleep until like, 3:30am. I just couldn't calm down, or something. Well, yeah. And the two nights before that have been the same. I need new pillows and a new bed. I blame that.

Alright! I hope all you all are having a good week so far! I realize it's only Monday. I think it's gonna be a good week. Yes. Yes I think that. I have a feeling. So, let's make it great!

GREAT!

Talk soon!!!! ☮

THE TIME THAT KARA, MARIA AND I SAVED THE BABY MOLE FROM THE CHINESE FOOD RESTAURANT PARKING LOT (and other stories.)

2011-08-05T19:47:00.000-07:00

Hooked?? Keep reading!!!

But first, some song lyrics:

and now i just don't know what i should do,
i'm twisted all around like some cartoon, but i don't mind.

I forgot that this song is one of my favorites until it came on my iPod the other day and now I can't stop listening to it. PHANTOM PLANET, man. I miss those guys. And their hilarious blog videos.

Sooo I'm in bed now. Bed blogging, as I like to call it. Kinda got sad tonight. Stupid.

Ruby Tuesday has been keeping me company, though. She brought her toy up onto my bed and was playing with it. It was really cute.

Had to work in the coffee shop today. Made $11.50 in tips! Not bad for 6 hours. And - someone was nice to me! This guy comes in. He's cute. Got lots of tattoos. Ya know. And, a few minutes later his friend joins him and they order some food to go, and then I ring them out on the cash register on their way out. And the tattooed guy says to me,

TATTOO GUY: You know, I just have to say that I think you are the perfect person to work in a place like this.
JULIE: Wow!!
TATTOO GUY: You just have the absolute right personality.
JULIE: Aw, I really appreciate that. Thanks.
TATTOO GUY: So, I just felt like complementing you.
JULIE: That's really nice.
TATTOO GUY: Feel free to give me a complement now... (laughs)
JULIE: Well, I think that you are the perfect customer for a place like this!

And then we all laughed. It was so awesome. Like, AWESOME. And like, funny and random. And then I looked around to see if anybody else had seen this awesome encounter, but all my coworkers were in a deep discussion about onions, or something. LAME.

Actually, I just got hungry. But I already brushed my teeth so I'm not gonna get anything to eat. Also, I've been feeling generally sick this week. Upset stomachs and whatnot. I actually thought I was gonna need to call out of work on Tuesday because I thought I was gonna vom. Lovely, right? Yep.

Member when I blogged through having the stomach flu?!!?!? Good times!! Good memories!!

Ok. I have to tell you this story. And I keep forgetting. And I WISH I had pictures. It happened a few weeks ago. Get ready for drama, excitement and adventure...

THE TIME THAT KARA, MARIA AND I SAVED THE BABY MOLE FROM THE CHINESE FOOD RESTAURANT PARKING LOT

I believe this happened on 20 July 2011. A few weeks ago. We were on our way to see Harry Potter 7.2 and we decided to get some Chinese food beforehand.

We pull into the parking lot and Kara suddenly yells,

KARA: Watch out for the injured mouse!

It ran directly in front of the car. So, I stopped. Kara and Maria are on the right side of the car to see the animal..

MARIA: Uuhhhhh.....
KARA: Oh my God I think it just died right in front of us... I think it's a baby mole...

So, I quickly parked the car and all three of us ran out in the middle of the lot to investigate the death scene. It was, in fact, a baby mole, and it had been running from the woods directly through the parking lot. Kara and Maria pointed out that moles are blind. ??? Really??

We could see that the mole was barely breathing. He wasn't dead! But, he seemed injured. So, I ran to the woods to get a stick.

(This made me happy because I thought we were gonna have to have a mole funeral. And, immediately I thought, "well, I blogged about the hornet funeral a few weeks ago, I'll have to blog about this, and all my readers will think I'm an animal killer." But, I'm not.)

Then, we coaxed the mole back to life while speaking to it (actually more like, "PLEASE GET OUT OF THE ROAD MOLE!!!!!!) and gently tapping it with the stick.

At one point, Maria got some napkins out of her purse and was prepared to pick up the mole and bring him over to the grass. But luckily, in our hesitance, the mole started running on his own!! Probably out of total fear of us, but whatever - he was running away from the cars and traffic!!!

And, in this time period, we had stayed surrounding the baby mole while cars drove around us. YEP. Risking our lives for the baby mole. We were heroes that day.

So, the baby mole got far enough out of the road that we were no longer worried. So, we went to eat some Chinese food, which was delish, while still maintaining a close eye on the parking lot.

We all left the restaurant prepared to see a squashed baby mole in the parking lot right where we left him. BUT NO!! There was no squashed mole. There was no mole anywhere, in fact, and we can only assume he made it home safely to his mole family!!!

In doing some further research after we got home, Kara and I came to the conclusion that we had found a star-nosed mole. He had all the little fingery things coming out of his nose. And, reading about it, it sounds like he does a pretty good job of defending himself. Also, at surviving in general. He probably would have been fine that day. BUT, it was semi-traumatizing in the moment to think that this little guy might be squashed at any instant. And I think it was nice of us to stay with him until he reached safety. It really says a lot about our character.

HEROES.

An oldie, but a goodie.

And, this wasn't the first time I saved a baby animal. Remember the time that Andrew and I saved the baby bird?? Which we affectionately named Gene and then we wrote a rap song about him. Which I performed on a CD that we made. The rap was called, 'Gene Fell From the Sky.' It was pretty hardcore.

Wow. Those were some good times. Me and Andrew had a fun summer that year.

Aw, I miss that guy. Haven't seen him in like forevs. Waay too long. We should all go out for Amy's birthday next week!!! LPD friends!!!! Meg! Amy! Andrew! Mike!!! The 'ol crew. That'd be really fun, actually. Let's make it on the haps.

I think I'm getting tired because I just abbreviated two words in that paragraph. And I've never used the statement, 'let's make it on the haps' before. I don't even think that makes sense.

So, the moral of the story is that I go around in my spare time saving baby animals from death. I moonlight as an amateur veterinarian, if you will.

And in the season finale of my still-to-come tv series, I will face the challenge of having to help a baby deer, or something. Since deer are one of my worst fears. It'll be like, the heroine faces a big obstacle and WILL SHE PULL THROUGH AND SAVE THE BABY DEER?!?!??!

Oh geeze, I don't even want to think about how horrible that would be. If I came face to face with a deer. UGH LET'S STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS OR ELSE I'LL HAVE DEER NIGHTMARES. Wouldn't be the first time.

No, actually I think I'm going to go to sleep. Right after I post this on Facebook!!! I need to make sure that my trusty Facebook readers are up to speed on all the haps of my life. (yep. the haps just happened again.) (should it be, 'happs?' with two p's???)

So! If you're reading on Facebook right now, know that this was the last thing I did before going to sleep. And that'll I'll probably dream about you. Yeah, you. Probably.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!! Anything fun and cool to do on Saturday night??!!? Want to invite me?!?!! Yessssss I think you do.. I have to work from 7a-8:30p tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll be up for a party afterwards. Great!

Oh how I would LOVE to have a blog party IRL (in real life.) Like, where we all meet up and dance and stuff. OMG. That'd be so fun. If I organized a blog event.. how many of you would show up? Cause now that's all I'm gonna be thinking about.

OK. I have to go to sleep now. I have to be awake in like five minutes to go to work. UGH I was gonna go to bed early tonight. UGH.

OK. Have a great day!!!! We'll talk again soon!!!!!!!!!!

lovelovelove!

PS: Remember how I said I was sad before?!?!?!! I'M NOT SAD ANYMORE!!!!! :)

update

2011-08-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

my night got better.

feather extension win (part 2)

2011-08-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

I told you there'd be a part 2! With a happy ending!!!

I got my feather extension!!! I got in touch with Gemma, my friend Brittany's sister, who works at Statix Salon and Spa in Dover and asked if I came in to see her tonight (this was Thursday), if she could do my extension.... and she said yes!!! So great.

So, I went in, picked out my feather (a teal bundle, obvi) and BAM! Super freaking cool.

(I also just took those pictures of myself after a long, bad day, so don't judge.) (especially the bangs...)

Anyways - I love it! It just feels like normal hair. If I could afford it, I'd get like, 10. I really want a neon one. Like, yellow or orange. YEAH!!!! I'm really into anything that's neon, fyi.

So, I totally recommend that anyone and everyone go get a feather extension. You won't regret it, and you can always take them out if you do.

:)

So, I mentioned that I'm in a bad mood. I am. I kinda was yesterday and then today too. Being at work was super lame. Although, one of the managers, Jen, asked me to be on the "floorset team," which I was excited and happy about. That means that I'll get to help out with rearranging the store for the new fall setup. I'm excited because it means that I'll actually be DOING something, whereas most days, I feel like I'm just folding stuff.

But still, it's all very trivial in the grand scheme of everything. Or, even in the little scheme of everything, even. I kept thinking about that today as I walked around and around and around folding and folding and refolding and refolding. Like, "really? i've folded this sweater four times already and yep, i'm gonna do it again." Things get unfolded really quickly.

Anyways. That's my work rant. I am excited to learn more about visual marketing rather than verbal marketing. Because, I'm not really a supporter of the verbal stuff and I don't think anyone wants to hear it.

Like, most people are nice about it and everything. But a lot of people say, "i know you have to say that..." Like, when we're offering things to them that they clearly don't want.

Yeah, they're paying me money to ask you if you want to buy this. It's just all crap. Now I feel embarrassed that I'm working in this job where I clearly don't support the practices.

And then I'm like, "JULIE - just do it! Everyone has to work stupid retail jobs in their lives - just do it and stop complaining."

BUT I DON'T WANT TO. I don't like doing things that I don't want to do. That's why I went to Hampshire. So I could choose my own classes and create my own major. I don't want to fit into someone else's crappy job - I want to create my own!!!!!

wow i feel kinda good now. ranting is fun and sometimes very needed. I feel like I don't do it very often. I want ranting to myself all the way home from work, too.

I've kinda begun to look at Route 236 in a different light.... since it's so long and boring and terrible, it makes for some good solo conversation. Yep, I'm serious about this. I rant to myself a lot.

This afternoon on the way over, I worked out the script to a video blog post that might come in the near future. Nope, not kidding about this. Kinda weird, right? Blogging aloud while alone in the car. Whatevs.

It works out well for you fine folks because I REALLY do think I'm gonna video blog. For when I introduce the new and improved blog. Which I love because I think it's way more representative of myself in the now.

Kara saw the new blog and liked it more than this one. So, I'm thinking that I'll formally set a date and probs have a ribbon cutting ceremony. Pff, what do I mean 'probs??!?!' There will DEFINITELY be a ribbon cutting ceremony!!!

Ok now I'm excited.

See!! It's good for me to blog out my anger because then I just get talking about more exciting things and realize that it was lame of me to be in a bad mood in the first place!!!!! GREAT.

It's like that time I was having a hard time writing that paper in college, so I started writing it in the blog and then finished in no time!!!! It's just easier to write here. Although then all my professors in college started being like, "why can't Julie ever write seriously?!?!" UMMMM yeah cause that's boring.

OK. I have some more things to say and will continue this at a later time.

I'm off to start having a great night....

feather extension fail (part 1)

2011-07-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

GUYS. UGH. So, yesterday when I blogged, I said I was going out later to get my feather extension, which I've wanted for a very long time. And I just kept talking and talking and talking about it but never actually did it. SO, yesterday I was like, "TODAY IS THE DAY." So I went to the walk-in hair place that does feather extensions and I walked in and said,

JULIE: Hello! I would like some feather extensions please!

And the girl brought me over to her chair and I was getting omg omg omg soooo freaking excited and she gave me the selection of feather extensions and there wasn't any teal. And I said,

JULIE: Ohh, I'm actually looking for teal...
HAIR LADY: Ohh, well, this is all we have today, but the truck is coming with more tomorrow.

What is this no teal business???? Why didn't they have teal?! Clearly it's THE BEST. So, we worked out a deal where she was gonna call me when the truck came in and ASSURED me that there would be teal feather extensions on the truck.

So, cut to today, and I get a voicemail while I'm at work that the feather extension shipment has arrived and that I should come in tonight!!!

Now, ALL DAY at work I'm thinking of how awesome things will be once I get a feather extension. Awesome things will start to happen, I'm sure of it.

So, I RUSH home after work, CHANGE my clothes and RUSH BACK out the door to SPEED to the hair place.

I get there, the excitement building, and go inside... it's not the lady from yesterday. And on top of that - there were no teal feather extensions in the shipment.

NO TEAL. Twice in a row. They did have neon yellow, which would have been my second choice. And, I knew how badly I wanted one, and I was tempted... but knew that I just wouldn't be satisfied unless it was teal.

But I'm also thinking - maybe I'm not meant to get a feather extension?! I mean, I tend to think that everything happens for a reason, and this is twice now that I've been denied teal feather extensions.

So here's my next move: I knew that my friend Brittany has some feather extensions and that her sister is a hairdresser. So, I facebooked Brit to ask her if her sister did the extensions, and she did. So, I think I'll try and call to make an appointment at Brittany's sister's hair place to ensure I get teal and also (obvi) a great hairdresser!!

Don't worry, friends, I'll keep you updated on the feather extension saga. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat!!

OTHER NEWS IN MY LIFE:

1. The coffee shop that I work at is maybe becoming a bar! Which means that I would become a bartender! I'm excited about this prospect.

2. Kara's birthday is FRIDAY!

3. I took the very first step in becoming a boat captain!! Yeah, like, for realz!! I've been in touch with this guy, Captain Greg, and he teaches courses on how to get your master captain's license through a registered Coast Guard approved class!!

I've been feeling very bored and stuck in my life lately, especially still not knowing what I want to "be," and I keep coming back to boat captain, which I've joked about becoming ever since I was in like, 6th grade. More recently, the goal has turned to water taxi captain.

And so finally I was like, "WAIT. How come I can't actually do this if it's what I want to do???" So I said, "screw you, world, I'll become a boat captain if I want!!!"

The class doesn't start until October, but already the thought of learning navigation and charting skills has gotten me SUPER excited. Like, silly excited.

4. Kara got a grill this week for free!! Which means that everything we now eat is grilled. It smells really good. I like it. It's like Bobby Flay moved in or something.

5. I had a neon coral-y shirt that I had been wearing lately to hang around in, and I had been thinking it might look better with the neck cut out. So last night, I took the scissors to it and cut the neck out!!! It's amazing how much sexier you feel when something falls off your shoulder. Even if you're also wearing sweatpants. :)

6. I kinda want to go into work with Kara tonight. She said she might go in at like, midnight. Is it bad if I go in with her, eat a bunch of bakery items and then leave...?? You have to be quite disciplined when you have a baker for a sister. Something of which I am not..

7. Last night I was bored so I painted gold sparkly nail polish on over my bright pink nail polish and it was like, OMG HOW COME I DON'T DO THIS EVERY DAY?!?!?!

SPEAKING OF WHICH:

8. THIS IS WHY EVERYONE SHOULD CARRY A BOTTLE OF HOTT PINK NAIL POLISH AROUND ALL THE TIME:

The other day I had some time to kill before work and I was sitting in my car doing my hair and makeup (second time this summer), and I noticed that my nail polish was all chipped. And I couldn't go into work like that! But luckily, I carry a bottle of hott pink around with me at all times! In case of emergency!!! Like this!!! So, I quickly repainted and voila! Instant hott!

BRILLZ!

Alright!!!! I think that's it! I hope everyone has been having a lovely, great day and week!!

Talk again soon!!!!!!!

♡

Remember when I rewrote the ending to Harry Potter?

2011-07-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Me too. I have a lot of things to talk about in this entry, and perhaps I'll make a list, but first - I want to talk about Harry Potter.

Remember when I rewrote the ending to HP7 after I finished reading the book?? I feel that was one of my best entries. I encourage you to go back and read that. That's vintage Livejournal, right there.

Anyways, so we went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter. Watched it. And then it was over. Like, over. Folks, can I talk about how sad I am that Harry Potter is over? I was way more sad than I thought I would be. I first started reading the Harry Potter books RIGHT when they came out. Like, RIGHT.

Actually, I like to think that I was the first person in the country to read the first book. (Another reason why I should get some kind of compensation for this whole mania.)

And I actually remember like, opening the first book for the first time and starting to read it. In the back of my dad's car. The day before Kara's birthday. And I remember talking with my high school friends saying, "can you believe that we'll be in our 20's when the movies end!?!?!!" and how like, that was in FOREVER. And now it's already gone.

The end of Harry Potter is a big thing. It's been such a constant thing for like, almost half of my life, and I was very, very sad that everything was actually over.

I thought 7.2 was great. I had to keep reminding myself that it is just the second part to the first movie, and like, all these things have happened before. It jumped RIGHT into the story, which I was happy about, but I would compare it to watching the second disc of Titanic after not watching the first disc for like, 6 months.

I also had to keep convincing myself that YES, Lord Voldemort IS the same dreamy actor in The English Patient and The Constant Gardener. Also, Maid in Manhattan. Classic Ralph Fiennes. Man, I just hate Voldemort so much. The scene in the end when he tries to give Draco a hug is heartbreaking. I mean, it's funny, because it looks like he's never given anyone a hug before. But, it's heartbreaking because it looks like he's never given anyone a hug before.

I just think he's such a great character.

Anyways. It's a great movie. Great books. I am very sad it's over. It was a very emotional night.

ALRIGHT. Moving on.

I dyed my hair the other night! It's once again dark brown. I did this in preparation for my FEATHER EXTENSION, which I am getting today. I know, I know, everyone has them and it's probably not even cool anymore. But - I don't care. Like, at all. I want one very badly and today I am finally going to get one. Or two. There will be teal in my hair once again!!!!!! Ooohhhhh I miss my teal streaks sooooo badly.

Also, I still really want my tattoo.

So, the other night we were all watching something and there was a preview for the TV show Pretty Little Liars, on ABC Family. Kara and I finished watching the commercial and were both like, "WHAATTTTTTT?????" This show looked amazing. Both of us thought it was a show similar to The Secret Life of the American Teenager, or whatever it's called, so we thought nothing of it. But after seeing this commercical - WE HAD TO KNOW MORE.

So, we started downloading the first season. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS SHOW IS ABOUT?!?!?! Let me tell you.

This group of high school girls are super hott. Also, super gossipy, thanks to the "queen bee" of the group, Alison. One night, they're out having a sleepover in this creepy barn place, and Alison disappears. And she's missing for an entire year and the rest of the group of girls lose touch and aren't friends anymore. Then, the police find Alison's dead body. The girls are brought together at the funeral for their former best friend, and it's very sad. BUT, after the funeral, they all receive a text message from an unknown number, and the message is signed, "A."

So then, this person "A" starts leaving them notes, and texts and emails, saying things that only Alison would know. So, the group of girls are brought back together as friends and are trying to figure out who is sending the messages.

The show also includes: student/teacher make out sessions, affairs, lesbian affairs, car crashes, bombs, a mean blind girl (or is she blind?!!?), peeping Toms, plagiarism, girls making out with their future brother-in-laws, lots of secrets and lots of lies. AMAZEBALLS.

It's pretty awesome. It's like True Blood combined with Gossip Girl. We're loving it.

Hmm. I thought I had a bunch more to talk about. Like, a bunch more. But now I can't think of anything.

KARA'S BIRTHDAY IS THIS WEEK! I'm pretty excited. I love birthdays. Everyone has them!!

I've had a really relaxed work schedule lately. It's been weird and sporadic.

I'm excited for the Friends with Benefits movie to come out.. Kara and I were wondering if it could possibly end the same way as No Strings Attached...? Thoughts?? This is pretty important. I mean, you would think that Justin and Mila would be a good match, just like Ashton and Nat Port.

Also funny, that Ashton and Justin are friends, and Mila and Nat Port were in Black Swan together and they both did movies about literally the exact same thing. Although, I haven't seen Friends with Benefits and maybe there is some way deeper plot line that No Strings Attached didn't have. Buuuttt....... I doubt that.

Today is the anniversary of the 26th of July movement. The start of the Cuban Revolution! When Fidel Castro overtook the Moncada Barracks. A bloody, bloody day in Cuban history.

Alright! I'm off, I guess. I can't believe I can't think of more to talk about. I could've sworn there was more. I'll think of it later.

Everyone have a great day!! It's cool today! I like it!

Enjoy!!!

the high line

2011-07-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Hornet Funeral and Other Adventures

2011-07-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

There was a hornet funeral on our porch this morning. Here's the story:

So, a few weeks ago, a hornet died on our porch. He was stuck in the screen window when he died, and he remained there until this morning, when I finally took him off. It took me a while because:

1. I was scared to go near him in case he had really been in deep sleep mode these past few weeks

2. I realized that he had died stuck in the screen, right in the sunlight, and I thought there was something beautiful about that.

So, I grabbed a paper towel, took him off the screen and said,

JULIE: Hope you're having a good afterlife, buddy. (to Kara) Did you want to say a few words?
KARA: NOOO GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!!!!!

And that was the end of the hornet funeral.

So. Remember how a few nights ago I blogged about being obsessed with the mango pineapple smoothie from McDonald's?!!?! WELL, my dear friend Emily commented in the blog saying she did some more smoothie research after reading my post (awesome), and found a coupon for BUY ONE GET ONE FREE on the McDonald's website.

BOGO SMOOTHIE COUPON!!!!!

("BOGO" is retail speak for "buy one get one." This is something I learned recently from working in retail, and now I'm passing this information on to you.)

Now, this coupon presents quite the internal debate for myself. Because I could use this coupon for two purposes..

1. Scope out a cutie and say, "Hey, can I buy you a free smoothie?!"

Yep. That's me, always scoping out the cuties.

OR

2. Go by myself and stock up on TWO smoothies. One for now, one for immediately after finishing the first one.

I'm leaning towards the second option, just because I don't run into many cuties on my daily activities. Although, sometimes I do. Either way, since I learned of this coupon, I have been debating this in my head. And I figured, why not debate it out in the blog??

Also! If you head to the smoothie page on the McDonald's website, you'll see information on this spin art game they have on the site. Ya know, because spin art is cool and hip and so are smoothies! Clearly they go together!!!

Did I mention that today is my day off and so I have nothing to do but play the spin art game on the McDonald's website??? I like the first one. I call it, "Detonation: Cucumber."

I highly recommend that you go play the spin art game and then send me your creations!!! If you do, I'll post them in the blog!!!! PROMISE!!!

Send me your spin art creations: captainjulie225@gmail.com

Then we'll have a blog gallery show with all your beautiful spin art explosions!! That actually sounds really fun. PLEASE DO IT!!

Okay, so, this is my horoscope for today:
Now is the time to step up to that hottie and tell them what's up. Don't be too aggressive, though -- just say enough to overcome the initial tension. Things will warm up quite a bit after that.

HEY HOTTIE, WHAT'S UP?!?!?!?! No wait, that would be me asking the hottie what's up. I need to tell them what's up.

HEY HOTTIE, I'm gonna buy you a free smoothie. That's what's up.

Wordddd....

So many hotties, so little time. That should be the new title of this blog.

OOhhhhhh man, good times. Good times..

Ruby Tuesday is sleeping like this right now. We're on the porch together, enjoying the summer. That orange thing next to her is a straw she was playing with. She's so cute and sweet.

she looked sleepy as she sat in the sun
then she started to cry

That's some Coconut Records lyrics that always remind me of Ruby Tuesday. She's the best.

Kara, my mom and I are going to the drive-in tonight. I'm pretty excited. It should be awesome. You need a good GNO every now and then. (Don't judge me for that link.)

I'm in a great mood today.

OK. I think that's it for now. I'd call this entry, A+. Remember to play the spin art game when you have a chance and send me your creation!!! ALL are welcome to participate! Whether you're a frequent reader, or someone just stumbling upon this blog for the first time! Just send it to me with your name. Think of what a beautiful entry the Spin Art Gallery Show would be?!?!

I hope you're having a great day too. We'll talk again soon!

Now go enjoy everything there is!!!

listening for the angels just like me

2011-07-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

late night blog post - GO!!!!

it's not even that late of a night... it's like, ten minutes to 1am. geeze. i'm so old. and wake up so early for work. it's terrible. and waking up early for work means 8:45am. that's still middle of the night territory.

so, the past few days have been rough for me. as you all know, i am NOT a fireworks person. so, hearing loud explosions randomly throughout the day has not been enjoyable. but, we've managed to get through. and by "we," i mean myself. and Ruby Tuesday. she mainly sleeps.

i met up with Jo last night in dover!!! that's right - Jo!! i hadn't seen her since we met up in Hamden, CT for River City Extension back in February. one of her favorite bands, Locksley, was playing the fourth of july celebrations. so Jo was there, along with her friend Jess, Jess's fiance (they're getting married on Saturday!!!), and then later on Sarah joined us! Fun times!!

(i'm not really focused on capitalizing since my left shift key is broken... i'm still adjusting to having to right-hand shift. it's not going so well.... apologies...)

so! Locksley was so fun!!! they are a bunch of really tall super cuties that play really good pop music. they were all rocking with their fancy shoes and nice button-up shirts. lots of good musician sweat happening.

and their drummer was just like, this BEAST! i loved him. kind of a lot. he looked like a hipster lumberjack, or something. and he was just back there, cranking out the beats. loved it.

and their songs were all like, "i love you! i love you! i love you!" it was really sweet. i had first heard of Locksley because they were on tour with Rooney once a few years back, and i didn't make it to a show, and had never listened to their music, until the other night! but if you're also looking for some good pop music, go listen to Rooney. i bet the two bands playing together on tour was killer.

also, i feel like i'm having a hard time forming sentences right now. is any of this making sense? maybe i'm tired...? idk! let's just keep rolling.

oh!!! remember my new friend ANDREW, who i met through THIS BLOG?!?!! he was at Locksley too!!! i just learned that via his awesome blog (linked above), which you should all check out and read. isn't that crazy? we've been commenting in each other blog's for a few weeks and then we end up at the same place and have no idea. funny. it's a big, small world.

i feel like without this blog, a lot more people would be strangers to me. maybe you don't know what that means, but i know what it means. and it makes me happy.

speaking of blogs.... i'm still thinking of changing this one. you know how i like to revamp the blog? make color changes? picture changes? layout changes? yeah. me too. well, i'm thinking of doing that. it would be a totally new blog. new address and everything. NEW NAME. i know, right?! i've had this name forever. let me know what you think. would you still read if things weren't so misty green and blue??

oooo if i got a new blog then i could plan a new blog unveiling ribbon cutting ceremony. i do love a good ribbon cutting ceremony.

OK, WE'LL SEE. but, keep on the lookout. it looks like a pretty good future to me.

today kara and i drove down to exeter, nh to wait at Gary Blake Saab for like, two hours while they told her what was wrong and charged her $100. crap deal. but, kara bought me an iced coffee, so that was delish. my new coffee at Dunkin Donuts is an iced turbo raspberry mocha coffee with milk and sugar. this morning it seriously took the lady like, five minutes to figure out how to write that on the cup. don't hate me because i love artificial flavoring.

afterwards we had to go buy cat litter. and i deposited $6 in cash into my bank account. this is officially the smallest amount of money i have deposited. i'm not sure which is worse.... having to deposit six one dollar bills today..... or the time back in the fall when i deposited all that rolled change that was counted out wrong..... that was pretty embarrassing.

but hey, you do what you gotta do. i may be totally broke, but i'm generally in a great mood. and that's priceless!!! AND - tonight i put nice clean sheets on my bed, so there's that. tomorrow i'm working 11 hours, but then i have a day off!!!! so there's that!!! and i vacuumed my bedroom today!!!!! so there's that!!!!!!! there are a lot better things in life to be excited about rather than to not be excited about the lack of money.

what???? again, i don't know if that made sense.

really, the point of this entry is to tell you to check out LOCKSLEY. because they are cool.

ALSO - this is the song i'm really into right now. it's by Young the Giant and it's called 'Cough Syrup.' it's kind of beautiful and easy going. and we really love this guy's voice. "we" meaning myself and kara. and maybe Ruby Tuesday. it's hard to tell what kind of music she likes. we know she likes listening to birds chirping. but really, who doesn't?

OH OH OH!!!!! ALSO ALSO ALSO. the new thing i'm obsessed with???????

MANGO PINEAPPLE SMOOTHIE. YES, THE ONE FROM MCDONALD'S. today i said to kara,

JULIE: I really hate that McDonald's can produce such a delicious product.

and i may or may not have had mango pineapple smoothies the past two days. MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE. you should try one. i hiiiiiighly recommend them. and if you don't like it - give it to me and i'll drink it!!!!!!!

last night i got a mango pineapple smoothie after the Locksley concert and i put on 'Young Blood,' and it was like the totes perf summer experience!!!!! those two things are making for a great summer.

i don't usually enjoy summertime. but this one is pretty good so far. and i keep having this idea like, "LET'S MAKE IT A GREAT SUMMER!!!!" but like, why wouldn't it be a great summer??? why don't people ever say, "LET'S MAKE IT A GREAT WINTER???!!?" it's always a great winter, duh!!!!

i don't know. i hope this summer is as perfect as i'm imagining.

because that would be, well, perfect. and awesome. and really really really awesome.

okkkk!!!!! it's quite late night. like, 1:30am. i have to be at work in 8.5 hours!!!!! NOOO! ugh that sounds terrible when you say it like that. instead how about, "i'm going to go sleep for the next 7.25 hours!!!!!!!" YES. spin it into a positive, i love it!

ok i feel a bit crazy tonight. i was kind of in this weird funky mood all day, and now i feel super enthusiastic and great. hopefully that'll make for some great dreams....

GOODNIGHT FRIENDS!!!!! have a great wednesday :)

so i run to the things they said could restore me
restore life the way it should be

magic in the air...(taylor swift concert)

2011-06-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

real life is a funny thing, you know. in real life, saying the right thing at the right moment is beyond crucial. so crucial, in fact, that most of us start to hesitate, for fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. but lately what i've begun to fear more than that, is letting the moment pass without saying anything. i think you deserve to look back at your life without this chorus of resounding voices saying, 'i could've, but it's too late now.' so there's a time for silence, and there's a time for waiting your turn, but if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you'll know it. i don't think you should wait. i think you should speak now...

I don't know what it is about Taylor Swift. Her songs, her lyrics... she just 'gets me.' And also every other teen girl in the world. Even though I'm not a teen girl. I should be. It's like she describes these moments that everyone feels in just the best way. And, I was not a Swift fan from the beginning. I was not even a Swift fan a year ago. But, Kara turned me. I just think her music is really catchy and meaningful. And I'm not apologizing for that.

So the other night, Kara and I went to go see her in concert. Yes, T.Swift IRL. And I had these tickets for like, over half a year. Kara got them for Christmas. The concert was down in Foxboro, MA, at Gillette Stadium, which is where the New England Patriots play their games. So, it was like a giant place. Like, I just had no idea what this place was going to be like. I couldn't even imagine it. Like, the parking lots and what it looked like in general. Do I watch the football games? No.

This place is like, kinda far away. Maybe like 1.75 hours or so. Maybe a little closer. Kara and I figured that if the concert didn't get out until around 11pm, we probably wouldn't leave the ground until like, after midnight, and then it'd be a long drive home. So! We got a hotel room!! In Providence!! It was only like, 15 miles more South, and we figured we would get to go to Davenport's the next day. Since it's the best restaurant. Also, we could go get Kara's bike which has been on Woodbine St for the past like, year and a half.

We drove to Providence first, to check into the hotel. I got a great deal on Expedia. $50! No lie! On Federal Hill!! That's the "Little Italy" section of Prov. Kinda sketch, but really pretty.

The hotel was Hotel Dolce Villa, and it was super pretty. It's classified as a "boutique hotel." (But without the boutique price.)

All the rooms are suites, which was fun. Still for $50!!! Great deal, Providence. They go with a stainless steel-on-white-on-white-on-white motif, which was kinda classy/kinda institutional. Also, they had real keys and not those card keys, which I appreciated.

Also something we appreciated - the super hotties working the front desk both in the afternoon and after hours.

Buck came too! But not to Taylor Swift.

So, we had made t-shirts so we could be even more awesome. We chose neon colors so that Taylor would be able to pick us out of the crowd more easily. Makes sense. And we decided that the shirts should say, "SPEAK NOW," since she's on the Speak Now tour, and that's the name of the record and a song on the record. Which is a great song.

We were really excited for the show, so obviously we had a photo shoot. And, might I say, that our neon shirts against the white-on-white-on-white-on-stainless steel room made for a great contrast.

Sometimes blurry photos are the best.

Yep, they said 'Swift' on the back. Also, doesn't Kara look GREAT in neon orange?!?!

Before the show, we headed to Thayer Street for some East Side Pockets. Kara had eaten there a few times during college and was craving it. I could always go for falafel, so it was a good deal. And it was probably the best falafel I've ever had. SOOOO FREAKING GOOD. And as we were walking out the door, (keep in mind this place is PACKED) and the guy behind the counter yells,

COUNTER GUY: Ladies, ladies! Wait for some dessert!

Then he yells to the other guy,

COUNTER GUY: Give these ladies some dessert.

And the other guy packs us up a piece of baklava and just gives it to us! For free! Just for being so awesome! Or, he thought we were hotties. OR, he is a Taylor Swift fan and recognized our shirts. Any of those three possibilities. Or perhaps a combo of all three. I'm gonna go for combo.

We also got cowboy hats to complete the country experience. Do I enjoy country music? NO. Let me make that clear. NO I DO NOT ENJOY COUNTRY MUSIC. But, I do enjoy Taylor Swift. That's us in the car! I think this is a GREAT, A+ photo!!!

Kara's car has been having this problem where it randomly dies.... and then you just need to start it again. It happens mostly after idling... like sitting in traffic for a long time.... like if you're on the way to Gillette Stadium for a Taylor Swift concert and there are like, 15,000 other cars waiting to get in. But sometimes it just happens if you're just going through the drive-thru or something, so, it's weird. Anybody know what could cause this? She's got a 2007 Saab.

Anyways, so this happened four times on our way. FOUR TIMES of thinking we'd have to abandon the car and RUN to see Taylor. But luckily, all four times it started right back up again.

That's what the place looks like. We parked in lot P7. I do not appreciate the parking situation at Gillette Stadium. I think they could have done a better job. I don't think the parking lots are set up for pedestrian traffic, like walking to the stadium, very well. There is one tiny sidewalk and the rest of it seems to be like, "hey, good luck walking through this parking lot that holds 10,000 cars!!" I think there needs to be some sort of giant, central sidewalk, along with an entrance (or just exit??) on the OPPOSITE side of the parking lot, with maybe a back/loop road connecting back around to the main road. I feel quite strongly about this. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I like analyzing traffic patterns and figuring out what's wrong with them. And, believe me, there are a lot of things wrong with the traffic patterns at Gillette Stadium. And, I had a lot of time to sit and complain to Kara about this, because the concert got out at 11pm, we got back to our car around 11:30pm, and did not leave the parking lot until after 1am. Kara was like,

KARA: I don't think it's the traffic patterns, I just think there are A LOT of cars.

But, I don't think that's a good excuse. They built the giant stadium and the giant shopping mall area next to it, they should have thought through all the traffic patterns more thoroughly. Yes, there will obviously be SOME wait time, but an hour and a half? Please.

Anyways, so, we get to the stadium and walk around lost for a few minutes, marveling in the size of this place and also in the fact that Taylor Swift is very close.

We entered on the wrong side of the stadium, so we had to take the outdoor path around to the other side. It led us behind the stage! Did I mention we had CLUBHOUSE seats??? OH YEAH. Only the best.

Also, we passed by Taylor's vans! And tour buses! It looks like those tour buses connect... anyone else agree?

Patriot's practice field!! I'm kidding, I have no idea what this random field is.

In our seats!

The first openers, Harry Montana, or something. Some guy who we thought was related to Hannah Montana. It was all country music.

There were a billion people.

Hotties!

The last openers, Need to Breathe. I kept making fun of them through their whole set, and then they played their popular song and I realized I knew all the words. They play the song at Eddie Bauer, where I work in Kittery. So, that was funny. It was like, "uugghhh what a crappy band....ohhh yeah, I actually know this song, and I also know every single word."

I call this one, 'Sunset Over Gillette Stadium.'

AND THENNNN......the moment we were all waiting for.....!!!!!

Oh, hey Taylor Swift.

It was actually very emotional when she came out, because of how gracious she seemed. Like, I don't know if you've realized this, but whenever she wins an award, she has this look of total surprise on her face. Now, this might be a total act for suckers like me.... but it's working. She just really seemed surprised that like, everyone showed up, or something.

Lots of glitter everywhere.

WHITE PIANO PHOTO MONTAGE

That was 'Back to December.' I have no idea why I got so many photos of it.

Taylor in a red dress for 'Better than Revenge!' That song is killer. I usually don't like it, but I did that night.

A lucky fan gets married at the concert!!!!

No, just kidding. This was the mini-production for the song, 'Speak Now,' which is about Taylor standing up and protesting at a wedding, because she's been secretly in love with this guy the whole time, and finally just can't take it anymore, so when the preacher says, "speak now or forever hold your peace,' she chooses to SPEAK NOW. Which is the whole point of the record... like, DON'T hold back, SAY you're sorry, SAY I love you, SAY what you're feeling. Loves it.

That's Taylor right before she stands up and SPEAKS NOW. See, she's timid, BUT SHE DOES IT. And she ends up with the guy! Win win. How come I never end up with the guy?

Then a bunch of fireworks went off (not appreciated), and there was smoke everywhere. You couldn't see anything for like, 30 seconds. And I wanted to yell, "I'M NOT PAYING FOR THIS!" In keeping with the whole, "speak now" theme. But, then the smoke cleared.

'Enchanted!' Loooveee that song. Basically it's about meeting someone and having a crush on them and then you can't stop thinking about them. My life, pretty much. Also the line at the end, "please don't be in love with someone else..." So good. So true. So true.

Then, she disappeared under a giant bell after the song, 'Haunted,' and when she reappeared like, 20 seconds later, had totally changed her outfit!! Ah, the wonders of a dressing team.

Now, Taylor's sparkly guitar has been a pretty big part of Kara's life. Last year, someone came into her bakery and ordered a cake to look like this guitar.

THIS IS WHAT KARA MADE::

Yeah. Our little Kara made that cake. It's Taylor's sparkly guitar. Kara is an amazing baker/cake decorator. Seriously guys, hire her to bake your cakes. Like, all of them. She's had sooo many people come in after ordering a cake and say, "that was the best cake I've ever had." For serious. They say that.

And! Her bakery, Pine Tree Marketplace and Cafe, located in Wells, ME, is having a cake tasting THIS SATURDAY, 2 July, at sometime in the afternoon!! YOU should go! I'm going! I don't frequently pass up free cake.

Glistening after the show!!

WHAT A GREAT CONCERT. For serious. It was a lot better than I expected. The songs were great, Taylor sounded awesome. The sets were fun. It was a great night.

And, her acoustic, ukuele version of 'Fearless,' instantly became my favorite. I actually love that song. (That video, which I hope you watch, was not taken by me, and is not even from the concert. But it's the best audio quality I could fine.)

"long live that look on your face..."

About to burst with excitement. That's the infamous heart symbol that Taylor makes to her fans during the shows. The fans give it right back.

So then we made it back to the car and had to wait for an hour and a half (see above traffic story.) FINALLY, we were back on the road and headed South to Providence.

It was an easy drive back to the hotel. Got a parking spot out back in the creepy alley.

This is our hotel at night!

So pretty!

And this is our hotel from the creepy back alley where we parked!

We slept great post-concert, as we were exhausted.

Check out was at 11am, and I said to Kara,

JULIE: I have this vision of us sitting outside at an Italian cafe drinking delicious beverages and being fancy ladies.

Outdoor seating? Check.

Italian cafe? Check.

I got a raspberry mocha (not as good as the ones I make), Kara got a mocha latte, and we split an order of blueberry and ricotta crepes. DELISH TO THE MAXXXX. And we sat outside like fancy ladies and enjoyed it all. SO FUN.

Keep in mind, this was all in the plaza where our hotel was located:

Did I mention $50 a night for this great location?! And - we didn't get murdered. So, BONUS.

GREAT location. So fancy.

And that's the giant pineapple structure hanging over the entrance to Federal Hill. Welcome!

So, we had the day to kill in Providence. We headed over to Woodbine, where Kara used to live, to get her bike. But, unfortunately, there was no bike. She even asked the nice hippie lady who had moved in downstairs, and the lady said she had seen the bike there all winter, until it mysteriously disappeared. She said her bike had been stolen around the same time. Hmm.

So, no bike luck.

Afterwards, I had two things I wanted to do while in Providence,

1. check out The Wall
2. go to the overlook

1. REMEMBER THE GREAT AND CURIOUS WALL OF PROVIDENCE?!?!?! YEP ME TOO. That was another GREAT adventure we went on. This giant stone wall fencing in this huge area that used to be home to a poor house/farm until the land was bought by Brown University and now it holds their athletic complex. Funny how that all worked out...

I'm still obsessed with this...

Still great! Still curious! Still a horrible constraint on societal mixing!

2. I had also wanted to check out the overlook! Where Roger Williams stands, protecting the city. Kara didn't realy want to go, but I forced her!

There he is!

What a great spot! So great for eating thai food, cheesecake, or for just hanging out. All of which I have done in this place.

Ok, I lied. So there were three things I wanted to do while in Providence. The third thing was:

3. DAVENPORT'S. My favorite restaurant. Why? Because they have the best chicken salad sandwich ever. FLATBREAD. Ohhh I love the flatbread. It's just Willow Tree chicken salad, dried cranberries, glazed walnuts, lettuce and tomato, on flatbread. YUMMM. It's the best meal ever.

As we were approaching Davenport's, we noticed a vacant building across the street! This wasn't there the last time we were at Davenport's, which was maybe... mid-March, or so.

I saw this building and said,

JULIE: OMG that's prime Davenport's overlooking real estate!!
KARA: We should buy it so we can just stare at Davenport's all day.

She was kidding, but I thought it was a great idea. I also love my joke about "prime Davenport's overlooking real estate." I think that's pretty funny. I laughed about it for a while. Kara thought it was lame. And I said, "I can't wait to write it in the blog!!" So - there ya go.

And there is Davenport's in all its glory!!! Just a simple, family restaurant? NO. Oh, it's so much more.

My sandwich!!!

Kara's sandwich! She got a buffalo chicken wrap, or something. Loved it.

And, I got to use my Davenport's rewards card, which was my birthday present to myself. Yes, it's a free program, but still, an exciting thing.

What a great day in Providence. I love that city and would move there in a second if I had enough (or any) money saved up.

WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND!!!! We listened to Taylor Swift most of the drive home and would say, "UMMMM remember how we saw her in person last night?!?!!" Yeah. That happened.

We got home and immediately recounted our wonderful time to our mom, who was excited to hear everything.

Check out the short videos I got!!!

(:: Camera sparkling when the lights first went down)
:: Mine
:: Mean - I also LOVE this song. It's totally "country." It's about someone being mean to you.

someday i'll be livin' in a big ol' city
and all you're ever gonna be is mean
someday i'll be big enough so you can't hit me
and all you're ever gonna be is mean
why you gotta be so mean?

And I love that this person is being all mean to Taylor and everything and she gets back at them by saying, "someday I'll be livin' in a big ol' city." I just love that. Like, eventually she'll be on to do bigger and better things, which include living in a city. I LOVE that.

I also love the line,

you have pointed out my flaws again
as if i don't already see them

BRILLZ.

:: You Belong with Me
:: Back to December
:: Fearless (ukuele, acoustic)
:: Enchanted
:: Long Live (Kara's favorite)

They're short and far away, but are good little reminders of our fun night. Enjoy them!

SO. I hope you all enjoyed your time spent at the Taylor Swift concert with me and Kara. I surely loved reliving it with you. And I've been on a Taylor-listening streak ever since.

GREAT NIGHT.

"can you feel this magic in the air?"

only half of something else

2011-06-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

ISN'T THIS A GREAT SAYING?? Yep. I've been loving it a lot lately. As in, like, since yesterday, when I saw it on SayingImages. I just love that site... even though it makes me feel like I am 13. But, sometimes that's not a bad thing. It's amazing how well some of those stupid quotes relate to my life sometimes...

So!

I guess I'm having a good week. I had a great Tuesday. From start to finish.

I was working from 10-2, but I had to drop my mom off at the doctor's for 8am. So, this left me with little time to get ready in the morning, as my goal is always to sleep in as late as possible. I basically just got dressed, packed a giant bag of things to do to kill time until work, and then we left. And we drove into York, which didn't take us long at all. Normally I dislike driving on 91, but I didn't really mind it that day. (reading this blog maybe makes you think that i dislike driving on lots of roads... but that's really not the case. in the giant, grand scheme of things, it's really only 236 and 91 that i dislike. and you have to drive on 236 to get to 91. so, double dislike.)

I dropped my mom off and then pondered a place to get a coffee and drive over to the beach. There were no Dunkin Donuts in a convenient area, which I thought was a bummer, but actually turned out to be GREAT, because it forced me to discover an awesome local coffee place in York!!

I had passed this place a bunch of times, St. Joe's Coffee, and had known of it because it says, 'Home of the Bennie' on its sign. And this kind of made Kara and I laugh. Because we didn't know what that meant.

So, I decided to give it a try. And I pulled into the parking lot, and there were two people exiting the shop with coffees in their hands, so I thought, "hey, maybe this is a good place." And I walk in, and it's the cutest, tiniest coffee shop! And they have all these great sounding sandwiches and a whole bunch of delicious sounding coffee drinks. Also, they have a pretty-full bakery case, which I make sure to study intently, seeing as my sister is a baker in Wells, which is kind of just down the street.

I get to the counter and order my standard coffee drink, an iced raspberry mocha and then I get a coconut creme donut. I'm pretty excited about the donut.

So then I'm waiting for my coffee to be made and then the guy gives it to me and says,

COFFEE GUY: So what are you up to today? Work?
JULIE: Yeah, I start work at 10, so I've got some time to kill.. I think I'm heading to the beach.
COFFEE GUY: You work around here?
JULIE: Yeah, I work in Kittery.
COFFEE GUY: Oh yeah? Where?
JULIE: At the Eddie Bauer outlet..
COFFEE GUY: Ooohhhh... cool place.
JULIE: Great discounts!
COFFEE GUY: (laughs) Well, have a great day.
JULIE: Thanks so much, take care!
COFFEE GUY: Bye!

And then I was in a great mood. Pleasant encounters will do that to you.

So then I headed down 1A to York Beach! Got a parking spot at Short Sands facing the ocean, it wasn't very crowded at all. Then I gathered my donut and coffee and sat outside on a bench and enjoyed! The donut was DELISH. Like, so creamy and coconuty. It was not a filled donut, there was a hole in the center, and it was covered with a coconuty glaze. YUMM TO THE MAXX.

The coffee was great, although I admit, I think I make a better raspberry mocha. But it had a good flavor and was made by a lovely gentleman, so therefore it was great.

It was so fun just sitting at the beach by myself! It was nice and quiet. Lots of people were on walks or jogs. As the time got later, more and more families started coming.

So, after I finished my lovely breakfast, I got out my bag of arts and crafts to do. I had been wanting to create a PAPER BAG NOTEBOOK, which Aliya invented and is totes brillz. Clicking on that link will take you to Aliya's fabulous blog with her step-by-step instructions on how to create a paper bag notebook.

Basically, you take a large paper bag that you've got lying around the house and do some easy ripping and tearing and folding actions to create a beautiful and handy notebook!! I haven't taken any photos of mine YET, but I will, and I will share them with you.

I got a lot of funny looks sitting on the beach, ripping and folding a giant paper bag in every which way.... but, I got it done and that was the goal. Also, check out Aliya's amazing blog! She's beautiful, crafty and very inspiring!!

Then, I did some texting and photo taking at the beach.

Then, I decided it was probably time to get ready for work. So I got back in my car, put on some music, and did my hair and makeup in the car!!! And then, I painted my nails!! It's a good thing I don't have a car adapter for my hair straightener, or else things would have gotten pretty crazy.

And the best part - I didn't even have to pay for parking!!! It's metered parking at the beach from 8am to like, 6pm or something, and I was definitely there after 8am, and I risked it by not putting any money in the meter. I figured that I wouldn't be leaving my car, and I wasn't staying there during prime beach hours or anything. There was even a police officer walking around the whole time, but he wasn't checking meters.

Lucky, because I don't need to not pay another parking ticket.

So, I was in a great mood at work. As much as I hate getting up early, it was really nice to not wake up, get ready for work, and then go straight to work. It's nice being able to do something before, so it doesn't feel like the whole day, or something. If that makes sense.

Work was really slow, but it went by quickly. And I bought some bermuda shorts! Nice!

Then, I went home, hung out for a long time with Kara and my mom... we all took a field trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond so Kara could get an apple corer to use to make filled cupcakes. Then, we stopped at the Mediterranean food place and got food. FALAFEL. I could eat that nonstop. Loves it.

Then we hung around the house for a little bit longer and then I went over to Greg's house to hang out with him for a while. It was really nice because I hadn't seen him in a long time. And his puppy had gotten really big.

GREAT DAY!

Wednesday was my busy day!! I worked from 10am to 2pm in Kittery, then drove straight up to Springvale to work 3pm to 10pm. Pretty quiet night in the coffee shop, but I like being there, so it was fun. Doug and I closed, so that's good.

Thursday was my day off!! I slept in - which was great. I thought Ruby was going to have me up early, but she woke me up around 9, and then went back to sleep shortly and both of us woke up around 12:30pm. NICE. Hung around a lot... didn't really do anything except relax.

OH, and I spilled coffee on my Macbook. Bummmmer. Ruby was walking around on the counter and I thought she was going to knock it over, so I grabbed the mug real quick, and spilled it myself. The keyboard light is a little shady... it's not working in all parts, and last night about half of the keys weren't working, although today they're all working fine. I think it'll be okay... but if I have any extra money, I might bring it up to the store in Portland.

Today was a busy day. At least it felt like it. I worked until 2, then headed down to the party store to look for cowboy hats for me and Kara to wear to TAYLOR SWIFT ON SUNDAY.

Yesss, that's right, the big Taylor Swift concert is on Sunday. We're getting excited. The t-shirt making party is happening tomorrow, and I was able to find some great cowboy hats. So, success!!

Saturday night we're going down to Salisbury, MA to hear my mom's cousin's son's band play!! That's less degrees of separation than it sounds like. I'm excited. They're like a rock cover band, so it should be good.

Alright friends, have a great start to your weekend!!!! I hope everyone had a great week! Any big plans for tonight?? Well, I hope whatever you do is a great time with good people!!

Take care! Be well!!

just a quick update to recap my life goals

2011-06-22T21:02:00.001-07:00

Seeing as my goals in life change like, every five minutes, I thought I'd take a quick moment to sort them out. And since this blog is my "sorting out" place, I figured it was the perfect place.

Tonight, this rainy 22 June 2011, I have three life goals:

TO BECOME:
1. a water taxi captain

TO OWN:
1. my own line of specialty condiments in a store called, 'The Sauceror.'

TO BE THE FOUNDER OF:
1. Dance Party Gym: the 24/7 fun way to work out.

That's a pretty good list, right?? I think so. Also, NONE of these life goals have anything to do with what I studied for four years at an expensive private college. AWESOME.

I think I would be a really awesome water taxi captain.

OH OH OH!!!!! ALSO!!!!!!!!!

I want to WRITE A BOOK!!!!!! And that DOES have EVERYTHING to do with what I studied in college!!!!!! Thanks, Hampshire!!!

Life goal #4:

TO BE THE AUTHOR OF:
1. Ghost Stations: Exploring the Abandoned Underground

Wow, I just came up with that title as I was writing it!

I've become really fascinated lately with "ghost stations." This has nothing to do with my other obsession with Ghost Adventures, which is a totally addicting show on the Travel Channel starring the always manly, Zak Bagans. No,

GHOST STATIONS: are abandoned subway stations! They have been closed for one reason or another, YET THEY STILL REMAIN! And so they're these totally creepy, totally beautiful under (or above) ground subway platforms that no one is allowed into. And I'm like, obsessed with this idea.

And today on my way into work, I was thinking about ghost stations and thinking about the country and thinking about what the country would look like if the top layer was gone.... Like, if you were sitting (or standing, or floating) in outer space, looking at the US from above, and the top layer was gone and you could see into all the subway tracks in all the different cities... what would it look like??

Ummm I think I just came up with the cover of the book. If there are any artists reading, someone please do an artists imagining of what that would look like... It'd be amazing, right???

It'd probably look like this giant, tangled web of metal. Now you're thinking about it... it's cool, right??? Yes. See, if there was a book about Ghost Stations and you saw that on the cover and then started to think about it, you might pick it up, right??? RIGHT!

Maybe it'd be like a coffee table book.

And so here's my idea: Since I'd be researching all this awesome stuff, I'd get to go down into these ghost stations and photograph all the different adventures. Imagine how lonely it must be down there... And quiet, maybe. Although maybe you can hear the screeching of other trains in the distance and in that case, it might be eerie.

Exploring the Eerie Underground of America's Lost Subway Stations

Brillz!!!

1. WATER TAXI CAPTAIN
2. THE SAUCEROR
3. DANCE PARTY GYM
4. GHOST STATIONS: EXPLORING THE EERIE UNDERGROUND OF AMERICA'S LOST SUBWAY STATIONS

I come up with the best ideas. Also, I have the best life ahead of me. (But, I knew that already.)

I'll write more about ghost stations later. Maybe like, tomorrow. Or sometime soon. Because I think I talked about the old NYC City Hall subway stop before, but I'm gonna talk about it again, so get ready. Also, information on the New York Transit Museum, which I want to visit ASAP.

I'm in a good mood today. It's been a good week. Had a lovely time at the beach yesterday morning by myself. I will also tell you more about that. AND, more about the new coffee shop I discovered and the lovely people I have met.

Alright. I hope you all are having a equally exciting week and will have equally exciting stories to tell me!

Also, I'm game for some book title revisions, so anyone who wants to brainstorm, please feel free. Also, artists, I'll be waiting for those 'America with the top removed' maps. :)

Have a great day, friends!!!!!

'all my precious secrets, yeah, you know them all...'

2011-06-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

YEP - that's a Miley Cyrus lyric to start the post off!! From the timeless hit, 'Fly on the Wall.' Which I actually love. WARNING:: That video contains lots of "sexy" hair touching. It gets a little awkward, actually. All in all, it's "PRETTY COOL." (yep.)

Moving on!

(and no, i'm not listening to Miley while writing all of this.....)

Really moving on!

I received two great comments recently from two great new readers!!! Both of them discovered the blog while searching for information on Murdock Lake!!!!! And one of them actually came in through the BLOG EMAIL ADDRESS (which is located to the left of your screen.... unless you're reading through Facebook...) which doesn't get enough use!!!! Keep those emails coming! Guys, you have NO IDEA how happy and excited this makes me. Because I love this lake, I love blogging, and I love getting blog comments. So, when these three things collide, it makes for one excited Julie.

I really hope that everyone new and old continues reading... I seriously can't believe I've been blogging for 6 years now. RIGHT?!?!?! It's crazy! That's so long!! It's just kind of crazy to me that people are still reading. It makes me feel kind of famous, actually. But don't worry, I won't get too "celeb" on you all. At least not right away.

So, everyone, THANKS FOR STOPPING BY. You readers are the best readers. That's true, actually. Keep leaving me comments! Or send me an email! I love it!

(i'm still listening to Miley... but I'm changing it now. I promise.)

I've been listening to Adele as like my new go-to music. That's what I just put on. I know I talked about this the other day, but MAN, that song, 'Someone Like You,' it KILLS me. Like, it breaks my heart every time I hear it. And even more heartbreaking is that I hear it and wish that I had heard this song when my heart was hurting.

Although, during that time I remember listening to sad music and thinking, "listening to sad, break-up music doesn't really help as much as you think it would." I actually remember thinking that. Even though it wasn't really a break up. Or, anything really. It was a little bit sad, and that was all. WHATEVER!

Geeze, moving on!

I wanted to talk about some semi-awesome/semi-awkward moments at work I had this weekend!!! Great!

1. I was working in the men's section at the clothing store, which I never do, so I'm not very comfortable over there. I just have no idea about men's sizes. Like, none. I'm like, 32 34 whaaaaatttt are these numbers?!?!?!!? So, I'm over there for like, 5 minutes and I'm folding shirts, and this man approaches me holding a shirt.

MAN: That get repetitive at all? Folding and re-folding?
JULIE: Um, no, it's not too bad. I don't mind it, actually. It's good practice.
MAN: You know, I'd love to know how to fold one of these properly, if you don't mind....
JULIE: ....................
MAN: I'm being totally serious, I'd love to see how it's done.
JULIE: (ohhhhh geeze is he trying to pick me up???) Oh! Um, ok, sure!

And then I demonstrate the proper folding technique. (It's all in the wrists.)

MAN: Yeah, that was really helpful. Now I know how to pack better for traveling so my clothes don't get all wrinkled.
JULIE: Actually, sometimes when I'm packing a suitcase, I roll my shirts instead of folding.
MAN: Yeah, I've tried that way too, they still come out wrinkled!
JULIE: Well, good luck, then!
MAN: Thanks for putting up with me! You're a good sport, and very helpful!
JULIE: Oh, it's my pleasure!

ummmmmm yeah. That happened. It was actually awesome and TOTALLY made my day. I was bummed that I had to go from one job to the next job, and was feeling crappy and tired, and that guy just totally lifted my spirits. And like, RANDOM, right?? But, he wasn't trying to pick me up. Good thing.

2. Now, it's almost closing time in the store, so we're all just kind of straightening up, waiting for any last customers to come in. This guy walks in with a return:

JULIE: Hello!
GUY: Hi there!
JULIE: How are you?
GUY: I'm pretty darn good. How are you?
JULIE: I'm doing great.
GUY: Good! Well, I hope you can help me..
JULIE: Alright...
GUY: (pulls pair of pants out of the return bag) My wife bought these and they're too small, so she's hoping I can exchange them for a bigger size.
JULIE: No problem!
GUY: You see, she bought a size 2 and she needs a size 4.
JULIE: Ok! Let me show you where those pants are; hopefully we have a 4, and if not, I can check out back for you.
GUY: Great.

(found the size 4)

JULIE: There you go!
GUY: And what if these don't fit....
JULIE: Bring 'em back again!
GUY: Or, diet!!
JULIE: ....No!
GUY: Nah, I'm just kidding.
JULIE: That's a terrible thing to say!
GUY: Yeah, that was terrible. Thank you, have a great night!
JULIE: Ok.. you too!

ummmm that happened too. It could have gone weird at the end when he mentioned the diet... and I didn't want to let him get away with saying that. But, he was joking, so it all ended up being kind of jokey. But, I'm happy I called him out on it anyways. Another weird experience.

3. Today at the coffee shop, I was working with Liam, who is a great kid. He's super fun to work with. And, he was in the back doing dishes and I was keeping watch on the front, in case anyone came in. And, he came out for a bit and did some other stuff and then went back to the dishes. Then about 5 seconds later, he comes back out front and says,

LIAM: I just left the water on that whole time by accident...
JULIE: Uh oh..
LIAM: And there was dish detergent in the sink and now it's all bubbly.
JULIE: Oh boy.
LIAM: It's like, really sudsy.
JULIE: Yeah?
LIAM: You could probably float a baby on all those suds.

And then I just started LAUGHING. Totes hilars. Liam has been so funny this weekend. It's great. Yesterday he was making a smoothie, and just could not get it right. Luckily, he was making it for his friend. But, he kept adding more ice, and then more yogurt, and then too much banana and it took like, 5 minutes, and then he handed the smoothie to his friend and said,

LIAM: I'm sorry you had to see that.

I just loved it. He really powered through that smoothie. Turned out not so bad, actually. Although a little too icy.

Today I totally KILLED at making a double cappuccino. In case you didn't know, I was BORN to make fancy coffee drinks. I'm actually pretty awesome at it, and I also LOVE it. But I was proud of my cappuccino today. It had some totally sexy foam on it.

And last week one of the guy's who works in the hardware store next to us came over to buy a scone and he walked in a said to me:

GUY: Is that your Prius I always see out there?
JULIE: Yes it is!!
GUY: Oh. I was wondering who that belonged to. You like it?
JULIE: I love it!

Love my car. Make fun of it allllllllllll you want, but in the end, I'm the one getting 56 miles per gallon!

Well. I think that might be all.

I listened to Crash Kings at the gym the other day. 'You Got Me' has been really speaking to me lately. Is that a good thing or a bad thing??? I may not know until the end. Where all the boys will probably turn into monsters.

Speaking of monsters!

When I was hanging out with Keith last week, he forced me to watch the Kanye West video for 'Monster,' (Keith and I invented these "forced listening sessions" back in the fall, where we force each other to listen to the other person's music. watch out man, taylor swift is coming next. i hope you're reading..) and MAN - it was really good. Totally freaking creepy - but really good.

YOU SHOULD WATCH IT. I actually really like the song. Sometimes I just get it stuck in my head and then I'm like, 'holy crap there are a lot of swears happening in my head right now.' But, before you watch the video, make sure you're not about to drive away through the woods in the middle of the night and then get lost because you WILL get freaked out. Speaking from experience. (Side note:: Kanye in bed with the two dead girls is my favorite part.)

ANYWAYS.

I think I'm headed to bed now. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my wonderful father whom I love very much. And also MISS VERY MUCH. Hopefully we can see each other soon!!!!

Love you, blog readers! Have a great morning, afternoon, and night! We'll talk again soon!

♥♡♡♡

hipster hotties playing music!

2011-06-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Kara and I traveled to Boston for the WFNX summer concert. Radio sponsored event! Some great bands were playing, and Kara really wanted to go, so I bought her the tickets as an early birthday present! Yay sister day!

The concert was on Lansdowne Street in Boston, right next to Fenway Park. The street opened at 3pm, so we left the house around 12:30pm. Maybe more like 1. We got in the car and realized that we had come up with absolutely no plan for the day, so we decided to just drive to Wonderland station and park there, since that was a pretty easy drive.

That's what we did! Parking only $5, you can't beat it. We took the blue line to the green line and got off at Kenmore, and then walked over to Lansdowne. It wasn't that crowded and we were able to get pretty close to the front! It WAS wicked, super, totally hottttttttt outside. Things got pretty sweaty.

So, the first band performing was DOM. They are from Worcester, MA. Their set was okay... Kara knew one of their songs. It kind of looked like they were all wearing wigs...

They kind of seemed like they were some high school friends who just rolled out of bed and said to each other, "Hey, let's go play some music at that concert..." Whatevs. They covered Prince, so that was cool.

The next band was Young the Giant, and we really liked them. Cuties!!!

I liked a lot of their stuff. And they had these super girl fans in front of us who were just going crazy. I liked watching them too.

And then a giant lobster dressed in Bruins gear came out...?????? Everyone got pretty excited. But check out Young the Giant. I liked a lot of their songs. And I liked the guy's voice.

And then the radio people came out and were like, "WE'VE GOT A SURPRISE FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And everyone started going crazy and then this other guy walked out with a fake Stanley Cup trophy. Um, cool? Because the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup the other night! Go sports!!

And then!!!! The Naked and Famous came out and played!!!!

I was really excited to see them because they sing the ultimate 2011 summer jam song, 'Young Blood.'

Girl was a hottie!!

And they are from New Zealand so they had super cute accents. And all their music was really good. I liked the first half of the set a lot better than the second half, though. After a while all the songs blended together.

But, here's my video of 'Young Blood!' It came out pretty good.

YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHHHHHH. oooooooiloveit.

THEN, Kara got really thirsty and absolutely insisted that we go get water. Now, we had been pretty close to the front this whole time and had no idea how JAM PACKED FULL it had gotten. Well, it had gotten pretty darn jam packed full. Like, there was no extra space. Anywhere. It was kind of insane.

So, we made it to the water table. Paid way too much money for water. And then struggled to get back into the crowd. We weren't able to get as close as we had been before, which was a bummer, and since I am such a shorty, I didn't get to see any of the next band, Foster the People, but I loved all their stuff, and from the looks of these pictures, they were all super hotties.

Oh, but first a lady's hand. I tried to take a band photo, but then she stuck her hand in the air in what I'm assuming was a moment of music euphoria. I actually really like this picture.

Yep, they were hotties! Kara loved the bass player, as is usually the case with Kara. And we both lovedddddd pretty much all of their songs.

And the headlining band out of all the bands was Cold War Kids, and they were great too. It seemed like a lot of people were leaving the front of the crowd, so we took this opportunity to push through until we got to about where we had been.

The lead singer totally looked like Will Forte! For real!

I like that one.

And! And! And! Notice his tattoo!!!! It's the Basquiat crown that Tony from Crash Kings also has!!!

(Mmmm yeah that's nice. Not enough sweaty Crash Kings members have graced this blog recently, if you ask me.)

So, here's my video of 'Skip the Charades' that I took. Came out pretty good. Ohhhh I love this song a lot.

What a great concert!!! All the bands were great. I had a super fun time with Kara. And then on the T ride home, we met a lovely Irishman who had also just been to the concert and just wanted to talk music. He loved Cold War Kids. Said he was also a big fan of Florence and the Machine and Ray LaMontagne, so he was a cool guy. I told him that I had been to Ireland two years ago and that I loved Doolin the best. He seemed excited to know that. And, it made me miss Noel. And Kerianne. A lot.

We arrived home just about two hours after the concert ended! We made really good time coming home. 56 mpg the whole day!

YAYYYYY for sister days and great music! What a fun time :)