Things that are saving my life today

My RX Bandits t-shirt

The hope of making this for Rousseau

Vampire Weekend

This poem. I'm sorry. It's cliche, it's over used, but I needed it.

Popping bubble wrap at my desk

Zumba in less than 8 hours

AND

Blair's changed the ringtone on his phone to the theme from Star Wars. I don't think I fully realized just how perfect this guy is for me back when I married him. SO much more nerdy than I ever could have hoped for. I tried to counter it by changing mine to the theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation... but it just didn't quite have the same power. Don't take this as a concession of any kind. I was raised on both.

add this to the collection

Meet the newest member of our little reading society:

(Incidentally, her blog is delightful. I read with pleasure.)

So, how is everyone doing on their summer reading lists? I expect updates you know, printed updates with full color charts, a detailed analysis on each book, multimedia presentations... you know that sort of thing.

right.

but I really would love to hear how everyone is doing

I'm totally killing my list. I'm like 15 books ahead of schedule. Ok, not really. I for the life of me cannot finish The Mysterious Benedict Society. Yes I realize that it's a book for 5th graders, but let's remember that most 5th graders to not have jobs, spouse and kids, and a kick-ass Zumba class to teach every week. (please come to my Zumba class?) As always you can track my progress (and Blair's as well) here. I'm also thinking that I need to be a bit more diligent about posting reviews of these books on my goodreads page.

Also, Happy Falker Satherhood to my dearest Blair, and my fantzastic Dad. I would estimate that a good 63% of my awesomeness can be attributed to these two fellows. I love you guys.


One last thing. Go see Toy Story 3.

Liberated.

Notice anything different about my blog? No?

I deleted something from my blog list.

Something that makes me feel nothing but negative feelings,

and replaced it with this:



I couldn't be happier.

A Trillion Bees and Similes

I'm having a rather dramatic day at work. I just threw my purse at a window like a emotionally disturbed three-year old (something I have plenty of experience with).

sigh.

The last two weeks have been rather more eventful than usual and require more rambling than usual... please bear with me.

1. Lately I have been able to scratch many things off of various lists. From my New Year's list, I'm at the mid point of my weight loss goal. I'm now back to where I was before I got pregnant with Rou. Only 10 more till I'm back to where I was when I got married nearly 6 years ago. yesssss. I should really be thankful for the stomach flu I got last week.

Speaking of the stomach flu.

2. The timing *could* have been better. I spent the entire night before my Zumba certification workshop puking like a co-ed in Miami on her first spring break. Nevertheless, I wasn't going to miss the workshop (especially since I'd already paid for it). So the next morning my mom, baby Rou and I drove up to Clearfield (got lost thanks to super WRONG directions on Google Maps). My amazing mom tagged along so that I could feed my anti-bottle kid. Halfway into the first master class, I thought I was going to probably die, but thanks to a well-timed glance by the instructor and a really nice compliment, I found some way to stick it out. SO, less than a week later, I was thinking about where I could use my newly attained skillz. I found a Yoga studio here in town and shot them a quick e-mail offering my services as a Zumba teacher. Less than 3 hours later I had a job. Crazy.

3. So, you really should COME to my first ever Zumba class at The Yoga Shop this Wednesday at 7:00 pm (go here for address, and class details). Yes I am completely nervous and intimidated as a Star Trek fan at a Creatine convention.

4. Is it true that all the kids say "legit" now instead of "cool"? Blair (via the kids on his basketball team) tells me that this is so, but I am hesitant to believe.

5. I absolutely love the guys on Blair's team. He is lucky enough to coach some REALLY great kids. I could listen to Jaylund and Russty talk for hours. And Weston is a total sweetheart. We went to a little tournament in Salina this past weekend, and his team totally cleaned up. They are going to be SERIOUSLY good. (Far too many adverbs in this paragraph... moving on.)

6. While in Salina I spent some time with my lovely Miss Katie Cowan. As always, she was delightful, and just LOOK at the result of our visit!
She is sew crafty. I love it.

7. I just finished When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris as part of my summer reading list. A. I loved it, B. It has totally changed my general opinion of creative non-fiction, and C. I'm now obsessed with finding humorous Japanese to English translations. Since my Brother-in-law will soon be spending the next two years in Tokyo, I'm going to beg him to send me pictures of any awesome ones he sees during his journeys. Ruth? Any awesome translations you find in Korea? Send them my way as well. Oh, and another side effect of reading/listening to this book? I now hear David Sedaris' voice in my head narrating my life in humorous anecdotal fashion. Urgh. Well, there could be worse things.

8. I just invented a drink. Coke, with lots of ice, and Dulce de Leche flavored coffee creamer. WHY I thought this would be a viable flavor combination I don't know, I blame it on putting the coffee creamers right next to the soda fountain at the Pastry Pub. Nevertheless... it's a super-sweet taste fiesta.

9. Go read something hilarious right here then acknowledge the blatant plagiarism in the next item. :)

10. Finally, and most importantly, the hottest guy I know just turned 29. The lousy part about it was that he had to not only work a graveyard shift the night before his birthday, but then had to go right back in later that same day, which is as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. But we still had a little celebration. I woke up very very early and made sure that he came home from work to a clean house, a nice breakfast, and a big kiss. I do love my Blair so very much. And since this year is officially "The Year of Blair Einfeldt", I expect many wonderful and marvelous things for him. (state championship maybe?)

LOVE and LOST

First of all, please don't get offended by any of my comments? It may sound like a personal attack... but it's not. I'm just super opinionated.

without further ado...

1. I've recently had an overwhelming urge to write spacey Arthur C. Clarke or Ray Bradbury style sci-fi. Little short stories involving spacemen with rocket packs, and Mars colonies, and robots, and laser guns.

2. Elliot has started saying really, uh, interesting prayers. Last night she wanted to make sure that we remembered to not feed Rousseau pizza.

3. Two super nerdy things that I got excited about yesterday: Learning how to fill multiple cells with the same text at once in Excel, and the use of commas in relation to subordinate clauses. (I looked the latter up on OWL at Purdue because I was just curious. Who get's curious about grammar? I AM a nerd.)

4. Ok, so I realize that I'm kind of lazy. Therefore my new goal is going to be something along the lines of selecting only ONE lazy activity per day. Work on the Astoria blanket, read a book, or watch a TV show, but no more of all three in one day. I mean, come on.

5. This Saturday is the Zumba workshop. I keep having these horrible dreams where I see myself being dragged out by the shirt and tossed into the parking lot for being any number of the following: uncoordinated, lame, uncreative, not skinny enough to teach Zumba, ugly shoes...

6. I really should stop eating chocolate for breakfast.

7. Is there some kind of Murphy's law that states "The more tired you are, the less sleep you will be entitled to"?

8. So I used to always think it was SO funny when people would say things about kids growing too fast or whatever.Had these people just skipped all the amazing stages of toddler-hood? You know, the smashing peanut butter sandwiches into the carpet, the hair pulling, the FUSSING... That being said? Can someone please tell Rousseau that she needs to STOP getting big so fast? Where did my tiny little baby go?

Ok, the last two are rather intense. Just a heads up.

9. LOST. I LOVED IT. Here's why: The LOST creators/writers are smart people, and created the show with the expectation that their audience is as well. For the most part I believe this is true, but if I have to hear (or read on Facebook) one more hater saying how they just wasted the last 6 years on a show I'm going to punch that person in their stupid head. First of all, LOST was always a show thats intent was to make the viewer think and to promote discussion and debate. Are there really people out there that thought the show was going to spoon feed the viewers an ending that answered EVERY question? Have they not figured out by now that the whole point of LOST was to get people to use their brains a little bit? Granted, I felt like I had a step up on the casual viewer, because I took the time to look into the Easter Eggs that were left along the way. The ending to me was really no surprise after having been exposed to texts such as An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Slaughterhouse Five, and Stephen King's The Dark Tower. I, for one, am incredibly grateful for ANY opportunity to use critical thinking skills and use then on a well crafted piece of media, whether it be film, television, graphic novel, art, or a book. But then again, I also think about papers I could write on childhood literacy and its relationship to adult income while blow-drying my hair, and thought it was a good idea to immerse myself into the second nerdy-est college degree out there. If you were looking for a mindless junk food TV show to aid in accelerating brain damage, go watch some procedural, or worse, reality shows.

Wow. that was WAY more negative than I had originally intended.

My real feelings on the ending? I love that they made it all about the characters, their connections to each other, and the choices they made. The plot elements in the show (all the mysteries) I really felt were mainly there as facilitators for the characters to grow. Especially with Jack. I would love to talk about it more, so if you're in the mood for some delightful discussion and debate, call me.

Last of all

10. I have been to a lot of concerts. Trust me.

A LOT.

This may have been the best one.


And that is saying a lot.

Any praise I could give this event would just come out sounding trite and lacking. I don't have a camera other than the one on my phone, which usually really sucks, but at least the pictures I got from the show have a nice impressionistic feel to them, which is probably the best way to describe it anyway. There was this amazingly positive energy that was there and an overwhelming sense of love and connection. And for the record? Tom DeLonge is kind of a nerd. Awesome.

Red


Blue



Purple


Orange

LOVE.

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.

Some Cool Guys

I have the pleasure of being acquainted with some seriously awesome guys, who are also world travelers. Today's ten things includes a few.

1. This guy. He's leaving this week for a most righteous and triumphant mission in Tokyo, Japan. My girls absolutely adore their Uncle Joel, and are really going to miss him. Blair and I will also miss him. Joel is an all around amazing kid, and I know he'll do great things. Good luck Uncle Joel!

2. This guy. World traveler extraordinaire. He is an amazing photographer, super daddy, not to mention he has exquisite taste in women (he's married to my very dearest friend in the world)
Go look at his site, if you are getting married in a strange and exotic land, or just want to get some severely bad-ass family photos taken. Kevin is the guy. (And Katie too of course).

Blog

Photography Website


Reading List

3. So... I accidentally bought some waterproof mascara last week, and I'm having a totally unnecessary crisis about it. I actually don't wear any makeup at all except for mascara, and ridiculous amounts of moisturizer (this Oregon native skin doesn't love living in the desert so much). But seriously, who wears this crap and actually likes it? It gets all smudgy under my eyes, I can't wash it off without going out and buying eye makeup remover, and for that price I may as well just go buy new mascara. grrr. lame.

4. On Friday, Blair and I thought we had been robbed yet again. We have had 4 packages go missing in the last 2 weeks, and we thought someone was stealing mail packages off our doorstep. I got so upset about it that I barfed in the wal*mart. nice. A day later we find out that our *special* mail carrier had put all of our packages in a lock box and *forgotten* to leave us a key.

Yeah.

You stay classy USPS. Luckily the Sees chocolate my mommy sent me for mothers day was not yet melted. Ahhh, silver lining.

5. Today for breakfast I ate broccoli, and a Twix.

6. I had a dream last night that I was going to try out for a roller derby team. I was practicing skating at the church building I attended as a kid. Oh, roller derby...

7. I've realized that I will probably never be a truly effective Zumba teacher, because I don't listen to the radio. How am I supposed to know what all the cool kids want to dance to?

8. Elliot is under the impression that a headache, is called a "head-egg". I discovered this when she told me that headaches are yellow and white.

9. There is this game that the Einfeldts like to play. It's kind of a weird cross between the telephone game and pictionary. Needless to say, it is amazing and hilarious. We all played it last night while we had Joel around. It's basically a wellspring of classic inside jokes that we can use to annoy people for ages to come. And for the record, the grim reaper welcomes you to New York. :)

10. I'm the teensiest bit behind in my summer reading list. If I can just finish A Passage to India by the end of tomorrow though, i'll be back on track. Bam.