this week was cool.

photo: sweet mustaches

random babbling for the day:

land lines:

as you may know, i'm back living at home (i hate even typing that), and something i forgot about was land line telephones. my take on them since coming back, is not positive. there are a few things that add to my not liking land lines: political calls, calls that are absolutely never for me, having to take messages for my parents (naturally i'm never by paper or pen), more political calls.

i don't know if anyone actually always fully answers those calls, usually i hear my mom answer, telling them she's too busy to answer their survey, i pretend i don't actually live there, or when it's an automated call i usually just hang up. i hang up for two reasons: i am already an informed citizen, i make sure to brush up on all the political news in my area, nationally and internationally so i have no need for them to try to convince me of something, or i just don't feel like talking to them (sorry political call people). the other day i changed my normal action towards political calls and had a full conversation with a few (i think i was extra bored). i consider myself an independent voter but definitely lean one way over the other, so when someone called from the party on the other side, i had a quality chat with them. when they asked me about two candidates from their party for two different positions, i let them know exactly why i wasn't voting for them; i wasn't rude, by any means, but i hope it made their day somewhat more interesting, or maybe i just pissed them off.

next up: fitness.
i used to be in really great shape, went to college on a division 1 athletics scholarship, only to be injured, quit playing, and start playing like a typical college student. so now that i'm not and i'm back at home, eating real food, regularly and being much more active, i've decided to take a little more action; ever heard of p90x? well this week, their program, insanity, showed up on my doorstep after i ordered it for my upcoming birthday. i opened the package and was immediately overwhelmed; the packaging is even scary and i haven't started the program yet. it comes in a large book-like package, separating the dvd's (why is that necessary?), it explains how the program isn't for beginners and that you should consult your physician before starting it. now i'm scared. it's been sitting on my counter for two days, i keep thinking, tomorrow, but i know as soon as it starts, things will get better and i will also be in a lot of pain.

i think back to high school, i was in great shape, naturally like most other people, i still didn't think i was. i had a conversation with my best friend this evening (via gchat), and since we played a sport together, we could relate on how much better shape we used to be in (also side note, we want to try out for the amazing race). the conversation went like this:

alex: also, i'm starting p90x, i'm gonna get in shape, slash less wheezy

me:  oh snaap.

alex:  i wish there was a workout for lungs

me:  good work. LOL. so true.

alex:  that did not involve actual movement

me: lung restorer, that would rock

alex:  i'm gonna be a blob when i'm 40, mark my words. this sucks how much i don't like moving. 
me:  dude if i do insanity and u do p90x were gonna be so buff for the amazing race. me either. i dig sitting, so much.

alex:  LET'S DO IT, i just need better stamina, maybe i should do less drinking, and more...cardio.

me:  samesiez

alex:  that is a 6-letter curse word.

me:  remember when we used to be in shape? ah the good ol days.

alex:  i feel like insanity is much scarier than p90x. i miss high school, but only for my tight thighs

me:  lol i wish i had never let myself go

alex:  oh , i can't wait to see what you do with it

me:  same, i remember having nice legs and not cottage cheese legs, failure.

alex:  buhhhhh, i'm writing a letter of complaint to bell's brewery, they ruined my waistline

me:  LOL. damn two hearted ale. i blame vodka brand vodka straight from valparaiso wal-mart

alex:  hahahahhaa, only the BEST

a week of house sitting:

so my parents went out west for a week, to do cool stuff, so i was here, slummin' on my own. i was pretty pumped at first, thinking i'd go do some cool stuff, but then i remembered a few things: i'm stuck here with my dog (buddy), i'm in one of the least exciting places known to man and i have very few friends still living here. don't worry i managed, and ended up doing a few cool things. dinner with the grandparents, check. dinner with best friend's parents + best friend + best friend's friend (delicious homemade indian food). watching lots and lots of television i've been wanting to watch (boardwalk empire free on premium channels on demand, thank you mom and dad for not skimping out on the cable package, i greatly appreciated it this week).

so now i'll get back to the main focus of house sitting, keeping our lovely estate safe and sound and hanging out with my dog. my dog is similar to the marley and me dog; refuses to grow up, obnoxious at times and always wants attention. another annoying point is that my dad always feeds him, my dad wakes up early, meaning i had to wake up early. i don't just mean early, i mean like 5:30am, woof. so i drag my sorry ass out of bed, not until after my dog had barked in my ear and jumped up on me repeatedly, thanks buddy. the entire way to his food, he barks at me and jumps on me, thank  you, i'm a zombie right now, totally not feeling this situation. he dives into his food, devours it, then i need to let him out to do his business. it's pitch dark out, i like in the wilderness, he wanders far away so i just wait. i wait. i wait. a half hour later, he wanders back, happy as can be. what? were there magazines out there for you to read while you took care of business? come on now, buddy. this didn't just happen the first day, but all week. this makes me reconsider getting a puppy, big time. so other than that, since i'm kind of glued to my house i try to get my dog to go outside and run around or something, but he's just been sitting around, sad that my parents aren't here. my dog doesn't even like me anymore, sweet. 

in other news, i took a trip to visit alex, let's just say, she lives above a townie bar and i woke up with a mustache drawn on the inside of my pointer finger and a temporary simba tattoo on my chest. i didn't feel like pdiddy, but i think i won that one.

well, til next time, folks. stay classy.

caught in a bad romance with a side of twilight

 i think back on relationships, or in some cases, not even relationships necessarily, maybe i would just call some, interactions with the opposite sex, because flings at least have some kind of time frame. so all my interactions, relationships, encounters, whatever you want to call them, always turn out to be pretty interesting. for some reason i feel like i'm spending a majority of my energy being frustrated and annoyed by them.why? well here are some situations i've run into or witnessed...

dudes that love bitches: why? this is where i have no desire to fit into a category. i'm not going to be rude/demanding/bitchy to get your attention, no thank you. so please go back to your raging bitch of an ex or people who put you through hell, i'll hang out somewhere living my content/happy life , enjoy being controlled and persecuted in your relationship.

that dude that won't go away: dude i've removed you approximately 25 times from my phone a) because i think you suck b) i have no desire to talk to you, ever c) why i involved myself with you is beyond me.

dudes that have no balls: wait, isn't that what makes you a dude? grow a pair. no more explanation needed. (see also dudes that love bitches)

dudes that can't think for themselves: ever been in a relationship that the other person tries too hard to be like you? i understand sharing common interests/

expanding your interests and starting to enjoy new things, that your girl/boyfriend likes, but be your own person- don't try to be just like them, that's just pitiful.

so as you know i've got lots-o time on my hands... i've been watching twilight, yes i am judging myself for it still, but hey, it was on demand for free, so why not? i've come up with a few things that bother me, even though i was throughly entertained by the move, it's just not realistic, beyond the fact that this dude is a vampire. if the story had been a real life romance, beyond the vampire business here are a few ways i think this story probably would have played out:

a) edward would have probably gotten sick of bella after a few weeks instead of confessing his love to her and his obligation to protect her.

b) bella probably would have screwed things up shortly after they started dating by hooking up with him and soon there after edward would lose interest.

c) bella probably would have thought edward was crazy for following her around and staring at her like a freak.
d) (new moon) jacob would have thought she was a crazy person by continually doing obnoxious things, like almost killing herself cliff diving and riding motorcycles. oh and her being super emo about edward probably wouldn't have helped the cause.

e) dude from school who keeps asking bella out, relentlessly, would have finally just dated jessica because obviously bella isn't feeling it. get over it, bro.

so there you have it, real life twilight. yes i hate myself for comparing real life romance (or anything) to twilight. don't stop reading because of this, i swear i'll relate real life to something cooler, someday, when my life gets more interesting. (and don't worry, i could talk about this topic for days, so there will, indeed, be more.)

just snookin' for love

random ramblings for the day:

why am i addicted to jersey shore? the same exact reason everyone else is; what's up ultimate trash tv?! i hate that i love it so much. sometimes i think the characters have shining moments and i'm thinking "okay they aren't entirely worthless" then episodes like tonight bring me back.. if you watch, you know what i'm talking about. the situation kicking girls out the moment he realizes they aren't "dtf" and ronnie and sam fighting over her looking asian... ooook? that is why people hate the youth of america or our country in general...thanks jersey shore. but luckily before that i watched sunny-- mac and charlie are still low class and dee and dennis are still pretending not to be, the world still makes sense.

totally unrelated to the ramblings above, but something that really bothers me is when people invade my space unnecessarily. so i go to the gym today (not followed by tanning and laundry), i go to use the restroom, i pick one all the way to the end, no one else is in there, then this lady comes and uses the one right next to me... why? i don't know why but that really annoys me. anyway so i go and get on a cardio machine... i pick one on the end, there are five of the same exact machine open to my right... naturally some lady comes over and uses the one right next to me. go away, people. seriously what is the deal? i must have smelled really nice, today, like sweat, annoyance and unemployment.

other unrelated news: i am turning 23 in less than a month... how do i feel about it? not great. 23 is an age that is no fun. ages that are fun: 16, 18, 21... already passed all of those, from here on out, birthdays are uncool to me, i am just going to get older and more less fun by default. other reasons 23 will not be cool; i am unemployed and living at home. let me know what's cool about that and i will get excited for this birthday, so far, not so much. i really want to go do something fun with my friends, like hang in chicago for the weekend, maybe go to canada (except now going to canada when we are over 21 = much less adventurous, damn), i dont know something that doesn't entail me sitting at home watching shows i recorded on dvr... next problem, no job = no money to support fun birthday plans. womp, womp, womp. (but i will take donations for the 21+2 birthday fun fund)

also thank you for reading my blog people of canada, the us, norway, denmark, italy, germany and china, i'm glad you are tuning in, even if i don't know you... and  yes this means i have a tracker on my blog. also in news that is exciting for me (for once), on october 12th my blog was pushing 600 views and now it's pushing 800 views. sweet. someone hire me if you think i'm interesting. (and don't worry i made sure my own views don't count for the number counter thing, it would probably be a million if so, because i apparently like rereading what i say out of boredom)

i wanna be a billionare

so i just saw the social network, and i want to talk about it... but let me set the scene for you first, because naturally, it's comical (or maybe just to me? meh, i never know)

alex, my best friend, and i head on out to our shitty mall. we realize neither of us had been through the main entrarence for ages and see that there are now only two restaurants in the food court when there used to be maybe seven, sweet. so we wander our way to the movie theater (which is located inside the mall), continue to use our student discount, post college, get in line- order the couple's combo (why not?), i return from the bathroom to see that alex upgraded our sodas for 50 cents to buckets of soda, as she commented on how fat our nation is. next we wander into the theater, we made some jokes about how we wished their was a love seat spot in the theater (i hope you know what i'm talking about, if not, just use your brain for two seconds) we get a kick out of the new alien movie coming out and then acknowledge that matt damon has two new movies coming out (i swear every time i go to the movies, matt damon is in two previews and is probably in the movie i'm seeing as well). so then we finally get to the featured presentation, not until we noticed that we were in a theater with two, legitimate couples, and then there was us, acting like immature assholes as we sucked down our liters-o-cola.


so the social network, was fantastic. i saw people raving about it, on facebook, (maybe people somehow got brownie points for gloating about a facebook movie, via facebook (maybe they got extra farmville or mafia wars points, however that shit works)) and had seen that the reviews were great, so here i sit, going with the grain. i'd be lying if i wasn't on the edge of my seat during the movie, because really, i was (it was pretty lame actually, i'm well aware of my nerdy-ness when it comes to social networking), while i usually sit, god willing there is an open seat in front of me, with my feet up, sunken halfway into my seat. i wanted to clap every time they made a big breakthrough, i laughed when he did something nerdy, i got sad when he and eduardo fought. overall i found it to be a well scripted, well cast, start to finish, i was entertained. success.

so let me take you through my facebook journey, which naturally alex and i shared stories about immediately after the movie. i think it's really awesome that my age group was really the first to get into facebook. my older sisters, who are three and six years older, slowly got into facebook. when i was in high school, a high school version of facebook came out, check. as soon as it merged, i was on it, check. so there i was sitting comfortably on facebook heading into my first year of college. uploaded classes i was taking, check. added my freshman year roommate as a friend, check. added the people in my hall as friends, check. i was on it, and where would i have been without it? without it i would have not met my best college friend right off the bat, or probably wouldn't have had a place to party the first night of school.

i think about the parts of the movie where mark talks about college being about sex; even if it's not necessarily about sex it's about, who's dating who, who's looking for a relationship, who is off the market, who isn't. it's so true. how would we know the relationship status of a person? it can be awkward to ask a person right away. facebook (and other forms of social media) have made it so easy to get to know a little more about a person, before actually getting to know them. it has turned into almost kind of a cheat sheet to social interaction. thanks facebook, for making it easier for me to know who was single and who wasn't, much appreciated.


so, in conclusion, i think i've got all sorts of great ideas, but i don't have any geeky enough friends to come up with something like that (i don't think), so i'll just stick to this for now and maybe someone will pay me billions of dollars for it later?

let me borrow that top.

been shopping lately? i have (retail therapy). i usually stick to stores like macys and maybe the buckle (well if you shop at my mall those are the only appealing stores). let's say i go somewhere else; check out forever 21, h&m, nordstroms, lacoste, you get the picture. i like things simple. i don't need a giant dragon across my back (thanks for that shit, ed hardy) or glitter tops to cover my chest (i don't need anything else drawing attention to that region, thank you), so why is it so difficult to just have some simple, classic clothing?

my favorite places to shop are probably ralph lauren and jcrew (when i have money aka not right now); not that you necessarily need to know that, but just think about it-- both those stores meet the need for up to date fashion trends and keep them simple and classic. i'm all about that.

so while i'm browsing another stores, trying to meet my budget needs, i get all sorts of frustrated. i look at jeans; designs down the back, shiny stuff everywhere, embroidered colors. i wanted to vomit. hi, i just want some jeans, please. so i decide to put the jeans on hold, i mean i probably have too many jeans anyway.. let's take a look at some tops. no, should have just left. this store did not have ed hardy wear, but it might as well have, designs all over, not cute little designs or at least tolerable patterns more like BAM design. ahhh, no. i just want a top.

so then i relocate to another store, i check out some stuff, much better, because apparently "the more you know the more you kohls", so i was just putting my knowledge to good use-- i mean i was "expect(ing) great things" like kohls said i should. i'll be honest, i saw some much better things, much better than my last stop at least (oh it was the buckle, sorry buckle but you suck these days). so i'm browsing, what's up vera wang collection, half that stuff would look like shit on me, but i'm sure it's great for someone else. alright, cool, alright, still browsing, doing my thing. what's up lauren conrad collection, thanks for coming out from the hills to my western michigan store, how sweet of you. then i see it, this top-- totally deceiving, looks real cute, then i look closer, what is this frilly tutu at the bottom of this shirt? come on now lc-- i know you've got good style, you've been on tv forever, why can't you design simple, cute stuff like you wore on the hills? (also let me note, i refuse to shop in the juniors section of kohls, yes i am out of college and i probably should stray away from that, but their juniors section looks like clothes from deb or rave, no gracias.)

macy's oh macy's i just love you. my mall has the lowest level of macy's, no good stuff like the chicago macy's but i try to make due... yet why do you insist on still having "lucky brand" (hello middle school)? i'm looking for nice put together outfits when i shop at your store, but i am quite disappointed with your makeshift sweaters and ugly t shirts.

so here is where i'm confused, why when i walk into my old faithful stores like the buckle to buy some jeans (since my legs are far too long for anything else) i cant find anything that doesn't have gaudy crap all over it? don't you have any customers that don't want "destroyed" (destroyed taken to a whole new level) jeans? can i just get some jeans that are jean color with jean colored pockets and no designs? or am i going to have to buy some seven jeans that i cannot afford? guess i'll have to ask mommy and daddy for an allowance because that's what it's looking like.

i am really going to need some employment because i'm going to have to get high fashion on my shopping to not look like a total douche bag.

walmart wolverines and co

i've been going to michigan state football games since i was a child (thanks mom and dad) and through that i've seen rival games, tough losses, big wins and last second let downs. i love football; now that i'm older i've grown to appreciate tailgating and day long celebrating college football. as i prepare for this upcoming rival weekend and for a day full of tailgating like a champion, i reflect upon the great tailgating/game day experiences-- and let me tell you there are plenty.

i have had to throw a few apologies my parent's way for showing up at their tailgate after a few too many beers (seriously, still sorry mom and dad). not going to a school that has a strong athletic reputation i took full advantage of my experiences at big games: making friends with some guy wearing buckeyes around his neck, belting out "empire state of mind" at msu's tennis courts with some rowdy penn state fans, the infamous river street shot ski, morning screw drivers and mimosas, good food, cheering a few rows in front of my parents from their season seats, yelling until i lose my voice, celebrating in my game gear and even sleeping through a riot (msu bball final four 2009?). now those are some good times.

this weekend i will be venturing to ann arbor, michigan. (please don't insert your go blue's, not appreciated here) i talked to my dad, who went to msu and who has had season tickets for ages, i asked him why he doesn't attend games at the big house anymore and he filled me in on his experiences, which were just like mine. salty. i sat with a few friends in the big house student section fall 2008 decked out in green. yes, i do understand heckling the other team (i love heckling, favorite pastime, yep) but the michigan fans take it to a whole new level. i recall people throwing things at us (gum, trash, paper, yadda yadda) so unnecessary. so you can imagine my relief/ excitement when we won, that shut everyone up quick. don't chant your "can't read, can't write" hi, have you looked at your fans? (check out post "define pure" and then youtube pure michigan walmart wolverine) many michigan fans are respectable people (michigan grads, michigan law students, fellow smart people) others are michigan red necks-- hi don't tell me i can't read or write-- did you even go to college? asshole.

so this weekend's goals: relive college (shouldn't be hard) enjoy this rivalry game with my best friend for the fourth year in a row (even though she's a michigan fan/grad) and make sure no one throws gum in my hair. i'm only worried about the last one, man that's sad.

ps. go green.