mixed metaphors

So call me a nerd, but I'm obsessing over the name of my blog. I know I JUST changed it, but it still doesn't feel right. Brian is the scientist around here. I'm more of a book person. So while I like how the title lends some cohesiveness and I DO feel like I am continually experimenting with adulthood, I also feel like I'm mixing my metaphors here and I would feel more at home on a blog called the Library or something... except that isn't a very good name for a blog. For a bar, perhaps, but not a blog. The whole reason I started this blog was to have an outlet to write creatively (almost) every day. So again, writing not science.

Am I just being crazy and neurotic? Does anyone that reads this even care what it's called? Would changing it again be more trouble than it's worth? IS THERE SOMETHING BETTER FOR ME OUT THERE?!?

odds and ends: movin on up

Welcome, friendys, to a new weekly semi-regular installment on ye olde blog intended to justify my random web surfing introduce cool internet thingz to my readers.

This week's post is brought to you by the movie Up. Mainly because I found the first two and then it just seemed neat to do a theme... I maintain the right to revoke the themes and just post random shit at any time.

But Up seems like a great place to start. Disney/Pixar movies are all pieces of art, but Up literally makes me sob every time. In a good way. Just hearing the music I kind of well up a little. That old man! He's so in love!! All I want in life is to have something as real as that. And yes, I know I'm talking about a cartoon.

ANYWAY, onwards. This is super cool. It's all over the internet, so you might have seen it, but the Nat Geo Channel (a staple in any home Brian resides in) is starting a new series called "How Hard Can it Be?" and they just made a house fly through the air, Up style. Amazing. I love how those weather balloons look all together. However, I want to know how they landed the thing!

And, since I'm on a wedding binge, here is a wedding who used the movie as their inspiration. Scroll down to check out the cake, it's the best part!

Etsy always provides a plethora of AWESOMENESS. Like these cupcake toppers! This random painting! And this Adventure Book! Ugh how cute would the Adventure Book be for a wedding guestbook or photo book? Cute enough to punch something, that's what.

The internet is so cool, you guys.

adventures with kittens: the dark side

Ninety percent of the time I couldn't love Penny more. She is inarguably the cutest, furriest, sweetest, funniest and most playful tiny thing around.

But the other ten percent of the time, she does things like this.

She ate through THE ENTIRE STRAP. And I can't even find the piece that's missing. Utter destruction.

That bitch.

...Okay, so I can only stay mad at her for approximately eight minutes. But for those minutes, she better NOT show her face around me.

of cleaning and comas

I've always been messy. No matter how hard I tried growing up, my room was looked like an explosion of toys, shoes, homework, clothes and what I called "projects." Twenty years later, not much has changed. Well, the toys are different. (Not like that! Get your mind out of the gutter.) Anyway, I try, I really do. But somehow the clothes don't quite make it back in the closet and the papers get stacked up on the desk and before I know it, there is shit everywhere and I don't know what happened.

It has been especially difficult in our wee Boston apartment because, besides the bedroom closet (which is overflowing with thingz), there isn't any storage space. We've had to get really creative with putting stuff out of sight but eventually there was only so much we could do. Combine that with the facts that there's no air conditioning system in our building (i.e. no air flow up in here, i.e. dust gathers like crazy) and that Penny gets a sick joy out of rubbing her long luxurious fur on EVERY SINGLE SURFACE IN THE HOUSE, well, we found ourselves living in an apartment laden with piles of stuff everywhere, all covered in dust bunnies and cat hair. Oh, and did I mention we don't have a dishwasher? Cool.

Anyway, this is a super longwinded way of explaining why I am awake and blogging at 1:00 a.m. (and on a school night!!! Whatttttt???) See, Brian and I decided to tackle the house today. Five sets of dishes washed, four loads of laundry done and folded, an entire bathroom scrubbed and reorganized with a brand new cabinet thingamajig, seven pictures hung on the walls, countless clothes picked up and hung up, two trips to the dumpster and one giant, heavy duty air purification filter machine set up and running later and it seriously feels like we are living in a whole new apartment.

Then we decided to reward our hard work with beer, spinach artichoke dip and beef & Guinness stew (aka the comfort food of kings) at the pub down the road.

Then we came back to the house and promptly fell into an epic food coma at 8:30 p.m.

Except then we woke up after two hours and couldn't fall back asleep. So now Brian is studying and Penny is sleeping on more stuff she shouldn't be and I am blogging.

Seriously you guys, we live the craziest life. The party never stops around here. Twenty-somethings shutting it DOWN, twenty-four/seven. It should be illegal how young and crazy and out of control we are.

I should probably go to bed.

spring's all that

In the city, spring is kind of like that really hot chick who was just utterly fugly as a child. I'm talking bad teeth, terrible haircut and maybe she even smelled weird, like stale crayons or something. Then one day, bam. All the boys want to take her to homecoming.

(Why yes, I did try to reference terrible hot teen makeover movie She's All That in my title. Thank you for noticing.)

Here me out: Most people would probably say spring is the prettiest season, what with the green and the flowers and the tiny baby animals everywhere.* However, if you live in an urban climate that gets any reasonable amount of snow, the transition from winter to spring is easily the nastiest, ugliest time of the year. 

actually this doesn't look THAT bad... but just wait

Think about spring turning to summer. Life gets hotter, different plants crop up, everything seems brighter. Or summer to fall: the leaves turn gorgeous colors, the air gets crisper... Even fall to winter is beautiful in a stark way. 

But winter to spring? By this point, with no new snowfall to renew the white blanket, all the snow has turned a gritty, black-flecked (and likely pee-filled) hue of gray. Worse, garbage that has literally been frozen for months is being unearthed for the first time since November as the snow/ice melts. Instead of snowing, it rains, which just creates huge, trash filled puddles in between the slush that still remains. 

if only more people hadn't missed the can in the fall...

So yeah, spring. Girl's got a great personality – even these mid forty-degree days we've been having feel amazing – but she's still stuck firmly in her awkward years. I can't wait for her to lose the braces, finally discover clothes that flatter her (secretly bangin' all these years) body and get a really good haircut. I wonder if Freddie Prinze, Jr. is doing anything right now...


* I'm more of a fall/winter girl myself but I see their point.

alien brides and jungle cats

You know, searching for THE DRESS is hard enough without crazy photoshopped alien models wearing the dresses you are trying to picture yourself in.

This woman is assuredly very thin and statuesque in real life, but her "legs" are over twice as long as her upper half (Which is now her upper third? See my helpful illustration). PEOPLE ARE NOT MADE LIKE THIS.

To prove my point, I have added another model to compare. I used their heads/arms to make them as close to the same size as possible. Please observe:

Alien lady has at least another foot under her! The scariest part is that the "normal" sized model is probably still ridiculously tall and a size zero-two. People aren't even made like her. I JUST WANT TO LOOK AT A DRESS AND KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE ON A HUMAN HERE PEOPLE.

Just to drive the point into the ground offer another example (one of tons):

However, if there is one practice I am in FULL support of, it's taking your bridals with a wild baby jungle cat.

Hands up if you think Brian will still be willing to marry me if I recreate these pictures with Penny?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

frattin' is a habit

Brian and I just spent an absurd amount of money on two plane tickets to Jackson, Mississippi and – even though my bank account weeps – I could not be happier. I love Boston and really feel like this is our home now, but Jackson the first home I knew as an adult and it’s the place I met nearly all of my best friends and I haven’t seen it since May and I CAN’T WAIT.

We are heading back in a few weeks for his fraternity's Founder's Day weekend, which means we will spend two days wearing jorts (a delicious feeling that will be after this long and snowy New England winter), drinking beers, eating crawfish and generally reliving college.

this will be in my tummy so soon

Brian’s fraternity has a special place in my heart because during my junior year, they made me one of their sweethearts. It’s a pretty big deal and really very romantic; Brian had to propose it to his brothers and they voted, there was a secret ceremony and I get to wear their jersey with my own number on it. Each fraternity member (they are Lambda Chi Alpha) gets a zeta number when they are initiated, so my number is Brian’s half number: 1246 ½ – cue the awwwwws, ladies.

yeah, none of these people are Brian...
but apparently we never took good pictures together while I was wearing my jersey

They call the ceremony “dropping” which sounds like a) something nasty a bird does on your favorite sweater, or b) the guy is dumping his lady in a horribly blunt manner. This led to several versions of the same conversation, in which I would excitedly say the Brian dropped me and the other person would would try to comfort me for my loss.

Anyway, getting dropped would have been a gigantic honor no matter what, but it happened right after I had received a pretty big rejection – one that I’m not 100% over and probably will always be a little bitter about – and it made me feel special all over again and gave me a place that I always felt at home. So what if that place was a beer-stained fraternity house? It was especially nice to have all my “brothers” to hang out with when Brian graduated and we spent a year doing the long-distance thing. The LXAs always made me feel like I belonged there, even though Brian was a million trillion (or however far New Hampshire is from Mississippi) miles away. They became some of my best friends and I really think of some of the freshmen when I was a senior as the little brothers I never had.

See you soon, brothers!


EDIT: I would like to add that as soon as I published this post, the ad on the "it's now published" page said "Alcohol Abuse Problems?"... It really IS like college!