The next time I see Katie C? I'm gonna kick her in the knees.

Just kidding Katie. So she wanted to play the "let's make a soundtrack for our lives" game. Sounds like fun right? More like stressful and aggravating (but in a rather fun way I guess.)

First of all, I start WAY overthinking things. For example, are we making this soundtrack on the assumption that my life is a movie? That would be a rather boring movie. I have mixed feeling on this point. Next, the song selection. It would be much too easy to just go and pick my ten most favorite songs and use that as my soundtrack. Oh no, I need to select music which would be appropriate for the various "scenes" that will be appearing. I'm making this way too complicated I know. Then, of course, there is the problem of using music because I have seen it in a movie, and loved that particular song. I don't want to be, like, a poseur or anything. (heh heh) For example, Sabotage by Beastie Boys (been used Star Trek.) or that really pretty one by Aimee Mann in Magnolia - you know the one I'm talking about. anyway. ALSO. is this movie a musical? I'm assuming no. If it was, I'd of course have a completely different soundtrack. Well, in fact I DO have one. I wrote a play in college which was a Moulin Rouge-type musical, anyway so I guess I'll skip those songs. And finally I come up with a list that has 35 songs on it. I am now supposed to cut that 35 down to ten. TEN!?!?!? Come ON Katie! In the cutting process I had to slice Weezer, Motion City Soundtrack, Radiohead, Something Corporate (cry), Brand New, Incubus, The Format, fun., The Eels...

sigh.
I made it to 13. Sorry Katie, I tried.

The opening scene
Something very super-hero-esque happens
Chase scene
Something probably involving cars
ROMANCE?!?
The Villain
Dance number #1
Someone making some kind of hard decision
The scene that would probably make you blush
People getting stuff done. I don't know, like building a house or something.
The HERO
Dance number #2
Most triumphant end credits

And last of all, if it's a slightly depressing, but romantic and beautiful sort of movie in the vein of Garden State or 500 days of Summer or something slightly indie like that. Here is the ending song.

If you actually just listened to all those songs? The next time I see you, I will buy you a cupcake. One of those gourmet ones even. And i'll give you a high-five. Because those are the best.

Summer Reading

18 books. 18 weeks.

I'm not in school anymore, so a summer reading list might not make a ton of sense, however I do like goals, and I do like lists. So I'm giving myself till Aug 30 (Elliot's first day of Preschool). In the spirit of diversity, I put a few books on my list that I wouldn't normally pick up. I tend to gravitate towards YA, and anything fantastical, so for me Vonnegut and Cormac McCarthy are a big deal. If you're into this, make your own summer reading list, and I'll link it here!

Here are my books. (green = currently reading) (red = finito!)

1. Something Wicked this way Comes - Ray Bradbury
2. The Magicians - Lev Grossman
3. The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo (Greenslake ward book group May book)
4. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
5. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
6. When you are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
7. The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom (Greenslake ward book group June book)
8. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. The Princess Bride - William Goldman
10. A Passage to India - E.M. Forrester
11. Scott Pilgrim (the full series) - Brian Lee O'Malley
12. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
13. Rift - Todd Petersen
14. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
15. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
16. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
17. The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
18. Blankets - Craig Thompson

Also, I'll admit that probably half of these will be audio books. So what of it? You wanna fight about it? Anyway, It makes things like doing dishes, working on the Elliot/Astoria/Rousseau quilts, and long drives infinitely more interesting.

~Maryposa

***

So I have found myself in a new and weird spot in my life. No school. Leave it to me to be done with school . . . and then create a summer reading list. Anyway. Here are the books, in this particular order that I think I will tackle. None are re-reads (I don't think) and I am open to suggestions as replacements if there are a few that may not be as good as I hope.

1. 1984 - George Orwell
2. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
3. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
4. Notes From Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salmon Rushdie
6. Fear and Trembling - Søren Kierkegaard
7. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
9. The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring) - J.R.R. Tolkien
10. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
11. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
12. Dune - Frank Herbert
13. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - Bryan Lee O'Malley
14. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
15. Y: The Last Man - Brian K. Vaughan
16. Ulysses - James Joyce

Yes I know that some of these may come across to some of you as pretentious or otherwise but I spent a long time being pretty one tracked on my reading and I reserve the right to read a pretentious or especially bad book.

~Blair

add this to the list

Some things that were missing from my Shape of Things to Come list. Shame on me

Have a house with a secret room. Preferably behind a bookcase
Collect all of Mo Willems' books (and possibly meet the man himself?)
Cook something so amazing that my husband says "wow"

and most importantly,

See fireflies in person.

Photo found here

How can I have lived this long and never experiences fireflies? Guess it's time to visit the South eh?

The Shape of Things to Come

Seems like everyone has a list of things they would like to accomplish in their lifetime. I have a list. It is an ever changing list. But here it is in its current incarnation. Yes it is categorized. No I am not anal. Yes I'm awesome. (Blair is invited to experience any of these with me if he would like, except play roller derby. Obviously.)

06/07/10 - I've started checking a few of these off, they are in green.

Places I must see:

London


Ireland


Paris

Barcelona, Spain
New York City
Mumbai, India

Bands I must see (that i haven't already seen):

Angels and Airwaves

Vampire Weekend

U2
fun.
Flight of the Conchords (are they even still together?)
Regina Spektor

Owl City

Bands I'd love to see again (this does not include all the bands that I'd kill to see again, but can't because they are broken-up):

Jimmy Eat World

Dashboard ConfessionalWeezer

Motion City Soundtrack
Something Corporate (reunion tour?!? YES PLEASE!)

Events I must attend:

Suns vs. Spurs (with the Suns kicking the tuna salad out of those crap-lousy Spurs) Oh how i wish i could be there now... Suns vs. Spurs in the PLAYOFFS? dang.The NCAA Final Four
The Holi Festival of Colors
Comic-Con


People I should meet:

Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindehoff, or J.J. Abrams

Neil Gaiman
Team Boo

The Ruth that lives in Korea

Billy Collins
Steve Nash
Mo Willems

Things I must do:

Eat at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill
Take up guitar again, and perform - Open for John Allred maybe?
Get a part in a play/musical
Play roller derby
Run a 5k
Run a 10k
Get Zumba certified
Teach a dance class/Zumba
Have my writing published
Finish writing a novel (even if it's just a little one)
Read more than 50 books in one year
See all my kids go to college and get married in the temple
Have a son ( I know this isn't exactly up to me, but i'd really really like one someday)
Learn to play the theme from Pride and Prejudice, and Debussy's Clair de Lune on the piano (along with a few other pieces)
Paint a picture that can hang in my home
Make quilts for each of my kids
Give someone a really meaningful gift that they will really treasure
Make someone happy
Start and keep a tradition with my family
Own a cat. Maybe even several cats. And name them all really awesome names.
Have a house with a secret room, preferably behind a bookcase
Cook something that makes Blair say "wow" without provocation by me
See fireflies
Play in a meadow with my girls, and we can all wear white dresses and pick wildflowers

Learn how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie for high-altitudes (THANKS to Cheeky Kitchen!!)

Teach my girls to sing
Read Ulysses
Be part of a dance or music flash mob




There. Incomplete, but still awesome. You should make one too. I dare you.

Also, i'm always open to new suggestions and ideas. I know I've probably forgotten some things. And as I think of more things, i'm sure i'll add them on, so this post will change. And yes, if you'd like to do any of these with me, i'm up for that too.

Winter is Totally Lame

I know i'm not alone in this, but I am NOT a fan of winter. I don't like it when it arrives in November, I don't even like snow on Christmas (yes, I know. Bah Humbug.) But around mid-February it goes from a mild annoyance to full-fledged hatred.

So in the spirit of trying to be a little less miserly, i'm attempting to make a list of things that I can pretty much tolerate, and occasionally even like about winter (Yay for lists!)

Things about winter that do not suck:

1. The deer that come down from the hills and graze in my neighborhood. LOVE them.
2. Sitting on the heater with a blanket and a book (yes Dad, I still do this)

3. Putting warm and colorful tights and boots on my kids

4. Fog (could I see myself living in England? Why yes, I think I could)

Fog over the Oregon City bridge

5. Stepping on that thin layer of ice that forms over the water next to the curb.

6. Hot beverages of all types

7. The way snow looks when it's on things like architecture or bare tree branches (but nothing else about snow)

There are other things that while they don't directly involve winter as a season, they do occur during winter months such as, My birthday, Rousseau's birthday, New Year's, and everything from the 2002 Olympics in SLC (that was seriously awesome, right Natali? Except maybe those heinous berets)


And if I were writing this list to appeal to my hottie-cakes husband, I would of course include basketball season on the list somewhere. But this is my list.