hello dear friends, loyal readers, and you who were bored on facebook and saw this link,
today on the way back from the capitol of our state where that handsome boy who lets me call him my boyfriend lives, i was trying to think of something profound to write about on the blog. nothing really came to mind, mostly because it's hard to think deep thoughts while listening to country songs.
they usually re-route any philosophical ponderings to things like beer and trucks and kissing.
i thought, rather than write a short essay about ONE thing, i would write a sentence or two about SEVERAL things i've been thinking about this week. here goes:
gluten free diets actually cause weight GAINoh no, hipsters! according to this article, less than 1% of americans have celiac's disease but 20-25% of consumers will buy gluten-free products. think how much more money you'll have for apple products when you aren't paying extra for gluten free bread.
matt chandler on dating: not exactly what you read in "I Kissed Dating Good-bye", yet still so biblical.
NC State gets farther than Duke in the NCAA tournament? That's the craziest fluke that i've ever heard, but also super gratifying. i am very determinedly not-geting-my-hopes-up for anything more.
i want this bed! how cool and modern and practical is it???? p.s. if you're bored, pick me a duvet from this company that's under 50 dolla and would match grayish purple sheets and you'll earn my undying love.
unedited except adding border and adjusting brightness a little
so in the random news of j's life, I went without wearing makeup today. I'm not a huge makeup wearer but don't exactly have flawless skin either, so I usually slap on a little tinted moisturizer and mascara before I leave the house. if I'm feeling fancy/seeing the boyfriend, I'll add a little eyeliner to the mix. So today I woke up, showered, put on lotion with SPF (80 degrees what what!!) and thought:
"you know what? I don't have time to put all this junk on my face today. I'm a brave woman; I'll just go without it. I am beautiful no matter what they say."
jk about that last part. that was a Christina Aguilera song.
I felt a little bit like Robert Pattinson in "How to Be"
"You're not a nobody. You're a somebody!"
and so I did it, and it was scary and liberating at the same time. sometimes I would catch my reflection and think,
"who is that?!?"
and I don't really have any deep thoughts/reflections about this except that I wish my own face didn't surprise me and I thought you should know about my day.
this is gonna sound super stuck-up, but i swear it's true.
homemade icing is better than store bought.
you can make it whatever flavor you want and the taste is beyond comparison. luckily it's not hard to make, and I swear that's the truth because I'm someone who thinks "hard" is anything that uses more than one pan.
add a little of this icing to box brownies or cookies and they're 50% more glamorous.
here's how:
6 tbs of real butter, softened (microwave for 30 seconds in a glass dish)
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 tbs of heavy cream
1 tbs of water
flavoring (I used 2 tbs of raspberry jam here)
dump all ingredients into a big bowl. using a spatula, mix ingredients until all sugar is damp. beat with electric mixer for 1 minute. VOILA.
toldya it was easy.
other flavor suggestions:
cinnamon, lemon zest, vanilla, coffee liquor, pumpkin puree, graham cracker, the possibilities are endless!
I'm back!! and alive! with sore feet, less money, and tons of amazing memories. here's what we learned:
"our" station
1. NYC is not as dangerous as people make you believe. granted, we stayed in midtown Manhattan, but by the way people talked, i was 100% convinced one of us was getting mugged/pickpocketed. really though, we rode the subway and walked around at night and i never felt unsafe.
2. the food is delicious. i'm probably gonna do a post solely about this later.
3. the people aren't rude. assertive? yes. if you had to cross the street 24 times to get to work, you would be too. but rude? no.
4. the # of Starbucks in the city is simply outrageous. especially considering you can get great coffee and a bagel for 2.25 from a street vendor.
5. speaking of which, bagel carts are the best thing ever. especially when they remember your order by the 3rd day, making you feel like a real new yorker.
breakfast!!!
6. this part was really sad, but riding the A train through Brooklyn/dowtown to Manhattan you see every racial and economic stereotype on the spectrum. I could tell when we had reached our district, simply by looking at the other people on the train.
7. don't let the deceiving signs at The Met deceive you! admission IS by donation, and a 25 dollar suggested donation is absurd.
the met
8. rent on the Upper East Side is around $3500 a month!!! How do Chuck & Blair afford it?!?! (XOXO. gossip girl)
9. stores are outlandishly huge. finding a bathroom in a 5 story Bloomingdale's is dang near impossible.
10. i didn't hate it! I mean, obviously, I knew it was going to be fun, but I was surprised how fond I got of the big apple, considering that I previously thought of Raleigh as a "big city".
lace & i are off to NYC next week and i'll be sans internet but expect pictures/stories when we return!
i'm
so looking forward to wearing all the stuff that i love that's way too
hipster for the 'burbs. pink lip gloss, furry hats, and liquid eyeliner,
here we come!
READ THIS FIRST!!!! If you haven’t read the first hunger
games book and want to, you may not want to read this post. There will be some spoilers, although not any serious plot revelations. If you
have read the second and third books in the series (Catching Fire and
Mockingjay) PLEASE BE CAREFUL in the
comments, as I have not yet read them.
So I’m waaaay behind the times, as per usual, and just read “The
Hunger Games” last weekend while I was in the mountains with my family. If you don’t live under a rock, you know that
these books are one of the most popular on the market right now. My friends’ facebook statuses didn’t let me down, it was a pageturner. If I was going to make a scale, it would be
somewhere on the level of the Sookie Stackhouse (TruBlood) novels, but not a “Harry
Potter”.
Although the books were captivating and the characters
likable, I was immediately disturbed by the level of violence in the book. The book starts dark from the very first
chapter and doesn’t let up, even at the end.
I was disturbed by the premise (24 children fighting to the death, while
the entire country watches on television), and disgusted at myself for being
unable to put the book down.
As a reader, I was disgusted with the citizens of “the
capitol” who are crazy with bloodlust, yet I refused to set the book aside as I
read pages and pages of a boy being tortured to death by a pack of wild
dogs. All this in a book that is being
read by children.
Now, I’m notoriously a wimp. During “The Immortals” I sat outside
the theater for 10 minute stretches with my hands over my ears and kept my eyes
covered for half of “The Dark Knight”, but I have to wonder if it’s a good
thing that most people are desensitized to this kind of violence. Halfway through the book, while urging
Katniss to go ahead and kill one of the tributes, I stopped and thought
good grief, these are children!
I’ve been debating whether I should read the next two. I want to, of course, but I wonder if it’s really the best thing.
I did some research and was surprised by the mild reviews. Focus on the Family, a notoriously conservative Christian
organization said:
“Despite the many alarming images, readers find little if
any gratuitous gore.”
And commonsensemedia gave it a 3/5 for violence. Really? I
wonder what book got a 5/5?
What do you guys think? Am I being too hard on “The Hunger
Games”? Too old-fashioned? I love
reading and believe in teaching children the difference between fantasy and
reality, but I also believe in protecting our minds from excessive..."bad stuff". (Philipians 4:8).
I’m not saying this to condemn anyone, really, it’s just
food for thought, and I’d love to know your opinions.
On a lighter note, I’m loving this new t-swizzle/civil wars
song for the movie soundtrack! How perfectly does it go with the theme of the
book?
