school of hard rocks

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!

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!!!!!

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."

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!!!!!!

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...

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

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

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!!!

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."

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