Don't think I've abandoned ship on this blog! My laptop decided to go swan diving from the living room table and is in need of a new hard drive that I'll be getting on Saturday. But I've learned a few things from this laptop-less week (teehee, laptop-less)
1. Redbox is king
2. Books are cool
3. Friends are fantastic
4. UPS customer service really sucks.
In the mean time Mama will be coming to visit this weekend and I'll be gearing up for the big move to my little studio this Monday. Hope everyone is enjoying their crisp October!
When it comes to my beauty routine, the philosophy is normally: "why make it at home when you can buy it in the store?" It always seemed like such a hassle to trek out to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and track down each individual little ingredient that was otherwise impossible to find in regular stores. But then I found a recipe for Mud Scrub on Pinterest and figured, what the heck, I already have most of the stuff in my cabinet, let's go for it.
All I used were the coffee grounds, sugar, and olive oil, and since using it I can not shut up about it. It makes your skin so soft and glow-y, I'm guessing from the caffeine. It gets your shower a little messy, but that's the fun of the "mud scrub" I suppose. It's made me think about using other at-home beauty recipes...
Other than reading poetry, writing every day, and flossing my teeth, one tip in particular blew my 24 year old frigging mind:
23. Listen to a whole album. The digital sales market has returned music to the singles-centric model that worked in the 50s and 60s, but even then the best work was the full vision of an artist. Be it Cher Lloyd or Bloc Party, listen to the entire thing and be sucked into their world. Blew it. Clean out of my skull. I can easily recall begging my mom to take me to Media Play to buy a couple of CD's so I could lock my door, plug in my little green box CD player and let the music take me where the artist wanted me to go. Whether I was singing, dancing, or writing on my mammoth sized window 95 wordpad, I was intrinsically lost in the music.
In the spirit of my 7th grade self, I bought some whole albums and allowed myself to get carried away.
I have been fighting tooth and nail to prevent myself from listening to Christmas music all week long. I justify it by saying that at the very least it's Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby, but I know in my heart of hearts that it is far too early for "sounds of the season". And yet, I find myself singing it around the apartment and craving a screening of White Christmas.
After fighting all night with different cough medicines and waking up to a less than warm apartment, I crawled under a blanket on the couch and let Pandora take care of me. I don't know if it's the joy of the season I'm looking forward to, being able to stay in and drink a hot toddy without guilt or wear my red rubber snow boots out and about, but I'm truly looking forward to Christmas this year, despite not being able to go home.
I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday! (Only 71 more days until Christmas!)
Pre-fall it was all about the pants. This has proved a worthy investment since blue denim is an absolute no-no at the new job, but colored and black denim seems to get along just fine. I made a few investment purchases and I think they'll get me through many autumns to come:
Special thanks to the "amaro" filter on insta-gram. I look truly arty here. These are my dark green zipper jeans à laGap and they've proven to be a really useful transition piece from work with the polo and heels, to stage management with boots and a black top, and out at night with whateveaIwant. See how I'm rocking the half tuck here? My midwest upbringing said: "don't do it you'll look a fool!" But if J.Crew can do it then I certainly can.
No thanks to amaro filter here for making me look like a blurry mess. But note my relaxed demeanor and carefree spirit? It's these ponte knit pants, also from Gap. (Pon-tee) They're stretchy enough to do yoga in yet have the thickness and style to be considered dress pants at work. A pants miracle? I believe so.
American Apparel has some sort of weird and sinister witchcraft that causes me to shell out for the crazies darn things. I'll be browsing plain white t-shirts next to the gold lamé body suits and suddenly I'll fall in love with a piece of clothing that I never in my dreams would think to covet before. It's impulsive, unadulterated, and as freeing as a breezy spring day after a long and dreary winter.
These are my newest infatuation: faux leather leggings. I told Running Buddy I was just trying them on but I knew in my heart of hearts that they were going home with me. Pulling them on sounded like a sweet romantic melody of trying to put on a wet scuba suit, and the texture caressing my skin felt like I was wearing pants made out of rubber bands and angels wings. Already having spent a lot of pants, I asked RB if I should hold off. "You don't have to buy them today...but since you have to buy them eventually you may as well just get them now and save yourself the gas money."
So welcome to the pants party...it's a party with my pants!
This Monday I became an official big girl. I sat through new hire orientation and an employee health care meeting and only laughed at the sexual harassment video once (I'm sorry, but those things are just so darn contrived). After that I hopped on the el, set foot on a new red line stop and signed my first solo lease. No co-signers, no roommates, just me and my little studio in Chicago!
I wish I had taken some pictures of it, but it opens up in to a bedroom with a hallway leading to a kitchen and breakfast nook and a giant walk-in closet. I can't wait to move in at the end of October and make it my own!
I wanted to share with you one of my favorite works of art at the Art Institute of Chicago. I happened upon it once and it made me smile. As it should, it's a pile of brightly wrapped candy stuck in the corner of the stark modern wing of the museum. When I shared my discovery someone told me that you're supposed to take a piece of candy with you, so I had to go back...
I was so moved by the motivation that it's my favorite piece in the modern wing. I don't always take the candy, but it's funny to watch others stare at it, wondering if they should take a piece themselves.
Gallery secret: if you look at the ceiling, events both national and personal are printed along the wall pertaining to the artist's life. "A Peaceful Death" is printed right above the candy. Beautiful.
When I'm in the booth during shows in between calling cues I like to have activities that keep me alert after a long day of work. Sometimes it's knitting, writing free form poetry (really), and today it was hot yoga since the heat was cranked very high in my lil' machine-filled "stage manager's office". But this weekend I tried to focus on teaching myself to waltz.
Ever since I downloaded this new album it makes me want to dance everywhere. Through the halls of work, on the train platform, with strangers at the bar, anywhere really. Determined, I started hearing the melodies in my head and teaching myself basic waltz steps only to realize two hours in that I wouldn't lead a waltz.
So I had to learn it again...backwards. I was #almostsortofpractically a dance minor and reversing a combo is my least favorite thing to do other than doing anything that requires any sort of flexibility. (In case you're wondering I studied modern and I was fantastic at stretching and practicing my gravity-relationship with the floor.) But with a little practice I can lead AND follow, so if you need a teacher I could spin you around in circles :)
It reminded me of all the other things I'd like to learn, at the top of that list: teaching myself to play a ukulele or the banjo. And when I do, this is the first thing I want to learn:
To those of you that have a Pinterest: obviously the "thrill of the hunt" starts with the chase. Scrolling through pages, finding something inspiring/amazing/noteworthy enough to give up-to-the-minute updates with your friends (mostly on your phone...while you're at work.) But when is the last time you actually went back and surveyed your pin boards? Looked at the things that inspired you right then and there enough that you wanted to remember it for later? I urge you to go back and look, and remind yourself why you wanted to try a new outfit, or a new recipe, update your bedroom, or, you know, just look at corgis.
When I was getting psyched up for my new job, I was operating under the assumption that there was no dress code other than "business casual". Shock and horror when policy change resulted in, what else? A business casual uniform. Bleck. Fortunately I have options: either I wear an itchy flame retardant grandpa-sweater over pretty much anything but jeans (which I flipping love! no sarcasm or anything!) or I wear a black polo shirt.
Seeing as I have five polo shirts and only one fugly sweater, I need to start using the polos more:
Option 1: The casual side of business casual.
Option 2: Ladylike sophisticated.
Option 3: Funky / Artsy / Might have had a few when I made this...but I love it!
I've wanted a tattoo for as long as I can remember, but when I finally turned 18 I decided against it, mostly because I didn't think that I had anything truly meaningful/unique/artistic enough that I'd want on my body for the rest of my life. I went back and forth between a "notebook" or a "fleur de lys" but I've honed the fine skill of talking myself out of things. I accompanied quite a few friends to get their tattoos done, and even when someone suggests that they might get some ink, I always volunteer my services as a hand squeezer just so I can hang out and watch.
Then I picked up some advice from who-knows-where, probably the almighty Pinterest, that said if you choose something truly beautiful you'll never regret it. I suppose I might be ready to consider getting a little one, just to start with. I'm hoping I can rope my brother or a friend in to going with me to squeeze my hand and share the experience.
I have very few excuses as to the lack of content on this blog recently. There's a crap ton of things going on and normally when things are going a little too fast for my liking I pull the covers up over my head and pretend it's not happening...or in this case holing up in my apartment, eating peanut butter M&Ms and laughing like a hyena at SNL. Hey, neighbors, it's either that or the couple upstairs that fights, "makes up", plays the bongos and then fights again. Personally I'd take my gibbon-like cackle combined with the occasional snort.
I'm a charmer!
So if you like to know how it's all going, I'll lay it on the line for you:
I discovered how to make whole wheat pancakes with almond milk, don't want to eat anything else.
Finally found a studio I like, don't want to live anywhere else.
Finished doing a month's worth of laundry, don't want to put it away.
New season of Parks and Rec is kicking it, don't want the show to go away.
Bought an 80's-tastic short sleeved sweatshirt, don't want to wear anything else.
Thinking about going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, don't want to go anywhere else.
Had a fantastic night Saturday night, don't want to drink anymore...until next Saturday.
Started laughing like a siamang gibbon, don't want to do it any other way.
