Nail Dilemma

one of my well-known, certified addictions is to nailpolish. i am easily swayed by seeing different shades out on people, or on tv. i commenced a severe addiction to super-dark red/virtually black polish after watching too much of the hills, and seeing LC with such pretty manicures, as so:lately i've been seeing a hot red around on people, and did do a full week with that on. now, in a rare mood, i've got totally clear polish on and i'm not sure how i feel about it. honestly, a little naked. i've almost always got a color on so life is a little off-kilter right now. i need advice, people. what color is good?

Last Night

apparently i forgot to post last night. i could be crafty and change my date and time stamp on this and make you THINK i posted, but that would be wrong. instead, i will own up to the fact that after working til 9 pm last night (don't worry, i didn't go in to work til 1 pm) and after wearing high heels all day long (at a retail job, so i stood for the entire time), i think the exhaustion in my feet and calves traveled up to my brain and hit it over the head with a sledgehammer. i was wiped out, to say the least. so there is my excuse, exhaustion as caused by wearing high heels. it's probably in a medical dictionary somewhere.

Confession

i have quite possibly the strongest sweet tooth in the country. or world. the craving to have something painfully sweet after dinner is so strong i often leave my house all over again just to go get something. example: you might see a little theme in my trash. despite working hard in pilates, i have consumed about a billion fun-sized reese's cups tonight. so bad but oh so good.

Last Night

him: "alright, i'm going to go plant my rutebega and head to bed."

me: "um, ok..."

Sculpted Plants!

i've been lusting after some topiaries at work now for about forever. they went on markdown yesterday, and i got my additional 40% off of them, so though originally they were marked at $29.00 apiece, i got two for $9.00! nothing makes me happier than a good deal. a couple days ago i got three double-walled green glass votives for $1.89 as well. this has been my week for bargains. gotsta love home decor!

I Hope No One is Looking Through My Window

because this is what they would see:except, like, it would be me. i have longer hair. and cannot by any means get my legs that low during the single leg stretches. working on it.

Hot Hot Heat

after all of my whining of winter cold and freezing freezingness, i will now commence whining about summer heat and its hot hotness. for unexplainable reasons, kansas city frequently (i.e. every day from mid-may until october) experiences 100% humidity. find me the body of water nearby that causes this. regardless, i slept with my window open last night only to awaken to my sheet plastered to me and my body at my bed's edge, gravitating to my little bedside fan as a flower to the sun. and so begins the nights of no temperature drops. we stay at a lovely 80 plus degrees despite the color of the sky all through the summer, which if you are unlucky to be without air conditioning (which THANKFULLY i am not) is totally miserable. working in a store that depends on walk-by traffic also is interesting in this weather, as everyone comes in not to buy or even necessarily to look at our merchandise but rather to cool off. makes a sales associate feel a little redundant. anyway, i'm only on a whine-about-the-weather kick since i just did pilates (three days IN A ROW! WOO!) and feel like my body temperature just skyrocketed into the triple digits. shower time.

Day of Klutziness

today was just not my day. i managed to make it to work unscathed, but instantly upon stepping out of my car began jostling my piping hot tall starbucks pike place roast coffee on to my hand (1/2 an inch of half & half, 3 splenda). i elegantly tried to lick it off as i walked juggling my car keys, coffee, and massively wonderful purse.

a few hours later, as i hurriedly tried to secure some information for a customer, i somehow managed to scrape the top of my foot (enough to tear the skin) on the bottom of a cabinet door. i valiantly soldiered on through the day with a big pink stripe across the top of my foot.

fast forward to cooking dinner. as i waited for my chicken to bake, i decided to wash the dishes. i set to work with my handy dandy scrubber brush from walgreen's. scrub, scrub, scrub, and slice! i cut my own thumb with my own fingernail...in my apparent fervor to scrub that food off of that pot, i was gripping the brush so hard i dug my own nail into my own little thumb. i bled.

still waiting for my chicken to bake i headed to my room to change to more comfy clothes. i could not wait to slip into my trusty yoga capri sweat pant things after a long day in BR chinos. taking them into my bathroom to change, i manage to dip them into my (clean) toilet. lovely. abandoned those in a hurry.

this was my day. good thing i am not a welder, a construction worker, or a haz-mat person. i would probably be dead.

Back In the Grind

i think i'm finally on a real road to recovery (FRANTICALLY KNOCKING ON WOOD). i have no days off in the foreseeable future, and i do not feel tired and shaky at the thought. also of note, i just did pilates for a half an hour. i am feeling shaky at that - due to muscle fatigue though, not sickness. pilates will kick. your. ass. try doing all those tiny movements without crying. i did the core and thigh workouts, and plan on doing so every day for the next month plus before heading to the beach for the fourth. goal: not feeling like a flat blob in a bikini. keep me accountable, interweb people.

Sunny Days

clinging to this gorgeous day in my brain as it rained today. but even if it were sunny again, it wouldn't be quite the same - he's not here to take that picture of me, to walk the entire kansas city zoo (even africa) with me, to sit with me at starbucks with frothy cold drinks to do the crossword, to give me a kiss on the forehead. so instead i will just meditate back into that day when times here are less than stellar. clinging on.

Weekend Leftovers

what i have left of this weekend with my reverend:

- a HUGE pile of clothes on my floor, accumulated as a result of my unwillingness to waste time on cleaning when i can be having fun with him.

- 2 men's dress shirts, one pair of men's dress pants (brown). now taking monetary offers...just kidding, i also have a box now to ship them out.

- 5 wire hangers. they stand out, as i am anal and have all wooden hangers.

- one prescription antibiotic for acute bronchitis. one bottle of mucinex. these are mine.

- a raging sunburn across my shoulders and upper back, but happy memories of the zoo.

- raggedy nailpolish, again as a result of not wanting to waste time on my nails when i could be playing a game of scrabble or shooting a round of pool with him.

- zero pictures. he took them all.

- a million pounds of heartache that yet another perfect weekend had to end.

I Want

i want to start a vegetable garden, and work outside on it in possibly a stylish floppy hat while my reverend mows the yard.

i want to get the new pottery barn outdoor chairs and lounge in them to tan my legs while sipping on an amaretto sour.

i want to make an arugula salad with shaved aged parmesan and a squeezed lemon juice and olive oil dressing with marinated grilled steak on the side. i want to eat it at my dining table with my reverend.

i want to be not sick anymore.

i want to be tanned, in some healthy way that still somehow involves falling asleep in the sun next to a pool.

i want to find the perfect 1922 bungalow with a large stone front porch, arched doorways, built-ins galore, and the hottest modern kitchen you've ever seen.

i want to find a pair of heels that are actually, legitimately comfortable. for under $700.

i want to be in his arms.

New Toy

i got this little piece of sweetness last week. i had been in a sort of awkward joint phone contract situation that i was able to extricate myself from, and i returned to my cell phone roots by going back to verizon. doesn't hurt that that is the reverend's company of choice and by doing so i would be enabling us to talk, text, and message for free and endlessly. then it came time to pick out a phone. i have always been one to pick out the free phone that is crummy and basic but will hold a phone charge for about 64 days since it does nothing else. but then, i fell in love. she's an LG chocolate in black cherry (to match my purse, much to the hilarity of the verizon sales force), she slides open and closed, she has a camera, and when shut is very ipod reminiscent in her aesthetic. sleek and smooth and gorgeous. she is my first truly grown up swanky phone, and i LOVE it. not to mention that i have commenced texting pete approximately every three minutes, just with the word "FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" and he has done the same. it is a thrill that can not be captured in words.

One Night Left

it was our last night in rome. it was cold, january, and got dark early on in the night. desperate to absorb every iota of the city into our skin before being torn from the place, my friends and i set out to visit all of our favorite tourist hot spots. we hit the trevi fountain, the pantheon, the monument to vittorio emmanuele, a gelato store. but there was one place that we reserved for last, one place that we had visited over and over, where we had sat outside on a stone wall eating fresh panini and watching asian couples get their wedding photos taken. and when we got to to il colosseo, it was after midnight and as the air got crisper we became more aware that our time in italy was over. and i walked to the grass lawn across from that monument that everyone knows, laid down on my back, and stared up at the tan edge of the crumbling stone etched across the deep black sky. and this is a moment i have trapped in my memory, the feel of the air, how i scooped my coat's hood under my head as a cushion, how i had such wonderful and new friends around me, the bittersweetness, the awesomeness of the history, and the smell of centuries-old stone. i miss it, still.

Sucked In

etsy has taken over my night. i am 154 pages into the ring section of jewelry, and really no end in sight. i clicked through them all through the hills finale. and still am. i consider it a strength of mine that i have not yet bought a thing. so i'm internet window shopping. harmless.

One!

today was my nephew brayden's first birthday. i had to work, but afterward went to my mom's house for a birthday party for him with my immediate family and my sister's in-laws (which translates to about 5 other kids 18 and younger). this means i walked into chaos. after pizza and presents, brayden got his own personal cake to destroy:after all that total insanity of what seemed to be 37 kids running around and screaming and crying and icing flying and tissue paper crinkling underfoot and sugar highs and full pizza stomach lows, this is where i want to be:for about a week. that should do it.

Hot Lap

my computer gets hot. i have taken to sitting it on its side, teepee style, to better vent. otherwise the hot hot heat of the engine or mouse in a wheel or whatever it is that runs this thing goes straight into my thighs, where it travels north to my cheeks. for some reason these are the only two places i get overheated due to the computer: thighs and cheeks. not those cheeks. the ones on my face. time to go teepee style to vent for a bit. computer: so hot right now.

The Links! They Move!

phone rings. "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" he finally separated the links! pete has been handcarving these links, out of one piece of wood, for a while now and finally got the links to move independently, as you can see. he is rather excited.

also, he approves this message.

Goodbye, Shudder

ever since i bought my car in november of 2006, it has had an increasingly dramatic shudder as i brake. especially dramatic at high speeds, which is quite reassuring on the highway to memphis in the middle of nowhere, mo.

today, i got my rotors replaned and new brake pads and shoes. (thank you, government-issued rebate. could i BE more practical?)

the shudder, it is gone.

i'm almost more scared without it, it has been my constant companion for so long. it is eerily smooth and silent coming to a stop off of a highway exit now. i think, though, that i can live with it.

More Materialistic

in a shift from the previous post in which i endorsed items that are within my means and bring me joy, i will now feature some products that i lust after and will consequently reveal my truly materialistic nature.

i want a tiffany's bracelet. i'll admit it. i like the shiny jingliness of it. i like the round tag. i like the label. and i feel like i should feel like a bad person for wanting one, but you know what? i don't. quality silver is an investment right now, since silver prices are shooting up, and it's an adorable piece that holds its value. so shoot me.
oversized chanel sunglasses. i like the double C, the oversizedness, the mystique going back to the days of our first lady of camelot, jackie O. total glam.
christian louboutin black classic platform heels. my other two things would be splurges, these will be what i buy when i win the lottery. from what i've seen and heard, louboutin heels are made out of fairy dust and magic. they actually don't hurt to walk in, or so people say. plus they are hotttt with an infinity of extra t's. the rev loves me in heels too so i'd get some use out of these. and when i say use, they will have to disintegrate off of my feet.

notice that i put no prices on these. they range from $200 to uhhh a lot. look for me to own them in the next ten years. i have very lofty goals that are not only intellectual but also do good things for the world, too. ok i'm a bad person. i'll go volunteer somewhere.

Endorsements

so whenever i see product endorsements on other blogs it's always like cool, indie products that are all botanical, with quirky titles, fun packaging, and can only be ordered online directly from a small island west of turks and caicos where the natives package them in banana leaves.

i am not this cool.

i endorse the following products for bringing me happiness year round and costing less than $47/ounce:reese's peanut butter cups. only acceptable in classic form and fun-sized. no pieces or whips or white chocolate allowed. can be found: EVERYWHERE. cost: $0.33 - $0.75 depending.
cover girl eyeliner in a dark brown. creamy, goes on smoothly, lasts forever. can be found: every major drugstore in america. cost: about $4.
serasoft oversized throw blankets. so good i got one for myself and one in blue for the reverend. so good our apartment cat, bowser, snuggles into it every chance he gets. and it is so damn warm and snuggly. can be found: bed, bath & beyond. cost: about $20.

conclusions to be drawn from my endorsements: i am easily pleased; i am cheap; i don't look super hard for ritzy products; i find lots of pleasure in lots of little things. decide on your own.

I Have Nothing

nothing to discuss here.

i'm just going to go ahead and help out the reverend in his eternal quest to become the biggest blog slut on the planet and say, go read his new post! fuel him! tell him how much you love him in the comments! because really, nothing makes him happier. seriously. he calls me with every new comment.

not to mention, he's an excellent writer and it's fun to read him, every time. so go back to his page (since most of you came there from here) and tell him so.

pete, you're welcome.

Steichen

i love edward steichen's work. i flipped through a new monograph that we carry in our store last night and today and it is GORGEOUS. just sharing him with the world in case you've never heard of him. google it. also, on an art historical note, steichen's self-portrait above was an attempt to justify photography as an art medium by portraying himself as the typical artist and applying brushwork to the rough print to ally his work more closely with what people of the time considered high art. so, there's your nerdy moment for the day.

Makez Me Laffs

for some reason i can't stop laughing at this. i am tearing up. maybe it's because i haven't had coffee in weeks and so i feel like my face might permanently resemble this. or maybe it's because i took this picture of pete pre-coffee and it brings back memories: