look! more flowers!

OK, let's pass this award to five bloggers, before the weekend is over. (I know it's 2 AM, so technically the weekend is over, but goddammit, today isn't over until I go to sleep!)

So here it is in all of its glory: THE SUNSHINE AWARD. BEHOLD.

The Sunshine Blog Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. The rules for accepting the award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post

2. Pass the award to 5 bloggers

3. Link the nominees within your post

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award

6. Share 5 things about yourself

So! First things first: my five. I tried to adhere pretty hard and fast to the concept of recognizing people for their positive attitude and their creativity, so I hope this award is meaningful for those of you who I've linked. And the award goes to:

1. Heather of Boyfriend Challenged. Because she's hilarious and because this post made me want to stand up and cheer. It's basically the "We Are The Champions" of single ladies.
2. Ally of Fourth-Grade Nothing. Because I always look forward to her posts. There's a real satisfaction that comes from learning way more than you needed to know about Strawberry Shortcake.
3. Ethony of Wicca, Tarot, Photography, Books and My Life. Because I've just been to her online photo gallery and it makes me want to try harder to create beautiful things.
4. Amber of Nostomanic. Because her blog is sheer, blinding brilliance. If you don't believe me, just go read her current post about the untapped potential of The Goblin King's bulge. Then we can talk.
5. Ashley of You're The Charlie Browniest. Because you know that one friend you have who can turn the most mundane thing into a hilarious anecdote and/or rant? She's the internet version of that.

Later today I'll be posting five things about myself. For now, I'll just say that if you haven't checked out any of these fine foxy ladies yet, then go right now or I don't know if we can be blog friends anymore. I'm serious. OK, I'm only a little bit serious. 

Thursday Five: Smooth Sailing

It's been one of those pleasant, busy weeks where Some Things Go Wrong but, by and large, Things Are Pretty Good. Nothing groundbreaking (no graduate school acceptances, no Publishers Clearing House knocking at my door with a giant check) but nothing too devastating either (no funeral services to attend, no dogs bringing baby bunnies into the house as a gift). Just smooth sailing, small pleasures, and personal victories. It's a good week to participate in MannLand5's Thursday 5 for the first time.

The graphic:

Did I ever mention that I love daisies? They're my favorite wild flower.

The rules:

Today's the day where we (those of us that want to) post 5 things that have made us

Joyful

Giddy

Excited

Thankful

Jubilant

or

Just plain ol' happy this week!

And then you link back to Keely, of course. (whose blog I just discovered via this meme).

And here's my five.

1. So I feel kind of like a fraud for being excited about this, but THE FLYERS ARE MAYBE GONNA GO TO THE STANLEY CUP WHAT. Being Matt's girlfriend basically necessitates becoming a Flyers fan, so I've started to really warm up to the sport over the years. The playoffs have been really fun to watch, and it feels weird to suddenly be a sports fan, but the more I think about it, the more it's just another branch of geekdom. At least that's how I'm going to look at it.
2. Ever since I started listening to Book One of Harry Potter on audiobook in the car, I actually look forward to driving around. I haven't re-read any of them in years, and I've forgotten so many of the details and how straight-up good it is. It's honestly like I'm reading the series for the first time.
3. My Very Geeky Friend from the library just turned me on to Fables. I really love fairy-tale retellings and anything having to do with inserting characters from mythology and classical literature into modern-day settings, and from what I can tell so far, that's what Fables is all about. So I'm really excited. Also, same Very Geeky Friend invited me to her weekly True Blood/Buffy Night -- it starts in June when season 3 of True Blood starts ... so I have until then to get completely caught up on the series, I guess...
4. I have one sentence (...fragment): Neil Patrick Harris guest starring on a Joss Whedon-directed episode of Glee. Ultimate win.
5. I found out that I got an award from the awesome Nikki of City Soliloquy! Thanks Nikki, if I could give it back to you, I would. I'll be passing it on to 5 more bloggers tomorrow. Hooray for spreading the love!

Wordless Wednesday

insane in the membrane: the story of my weekend

This weekend Matt and I descended upon Lambertville, NJ, a small, historic town near our alma mater that is known for its art community, antique shops, and all-around quaintness. It's the kind of place that I guess people go to retire. Honestly, after spending the weekend, now I kind of want to live there when I retire. It was awesome, is what I'm saying.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

• The FOOD, OMG. We just picked restaurants at random but we happened to end up at the best places in town. And the breakfast our B&B served was insane in the membrane. Warm scones with blueberry preserves, fresh fruit from the farmer's market, and blueberry-cornmeal pancakes from scratch. I nearly died.
• Touring River Horse Brewery and facepalming (in amusement) when Matt insisted on asking the geekiest questions like "What sanitizer do you use on  the bottles?" and "What kind of machine you use to flash-chill the beer?"
• Stumbling upon a secret room in an otherwise typical curio/antique shop that was literally jam-packed with pop culture memorabilia, records, action figures, old magazines (from Tiger Beat to Rolling Stone), pulp fiction books, and kitschy toys. Matt, who is a collector of classic rock LPs, found original presses of Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience AND Aqualung by Jethro Tull and he bought them both for FOURTEEN DOLLARS. 
• The fact that the B&B had A Mighty Wind in their DVD collection. It was slightly less exciting when the DVD crapped out just before all the good stuff happens, but still. It's the concept. 
• Discovering that I fucking love B&Bs and I don't care who knows it. All I can say is that instead of being worried that it would be lame and annoying and I'd have to make chit-chat with pretentious Princeton retirees [note: I actually did have to do that, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be], I should have been more concerned with the monster that a B&B would unleash in me. As soon as we got to the house and dropped off our bags I dragged Matt downstairs into the common area for way longer than necessary in the hopes that we would run into the owner again or come across another couple. So, yeah -- the B&B experiment went, like, outlandishly well.  

And now. Pictures.

Here's the pop culture room I mentioned before. I seriously had to catch my breath when I first walked into this room. It's like Geek Heaven.

This is Peddler's Village, where Matt and I had dinner and window shopped. I took this picture while he was buying us some ice cream. 

Our room. It was way bigger than it looks and so cozy. That bed was the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. I have to admit, though, when I saw the flowered wallpaper I had a bit of a moment from the episode of Gilmore Girls I talked about last time. You GG fans know what I'm talking about. And no, there wasn't actually any foil in the paper.

I just needed you to know that our toilet paper looked like this when we got to our room. This is the level of service we received, people.

I can't believe I'm even posting this, but I just wanted to show you how Matt has this uncanny ability to ruin pictures of us. 

See?

And of course, the obligatory food picture. This is Matt's order of Chocolate-Banana Coconut French Toast. I bet you can guess what happened approximately 1 minute later.

Gone.

don't you want to ring the bell?

Matt and I are taking a trip this weekend for our third anniversary. There's going to be brewery-touring and sculpture garden-traversing and delicious food-eating and bubble bath-taking and THIS:

That is the Martin Coryell House, a B&B in Lambertville, NJ where we'll be spending the night in what appears to be absurd amounts of comfort and luxury. I admit that I'm somewhat worried that this will be like that episode of Gilmore Girls where they get lost on their US road trip and end up at this B&B that Lorelai's friend used to own but got taken over by a crazy cat lady named Ladawn. 

Also, my friends K and K from college went to a B&B in the Catskills for their anniversary, and they told me it was extremely harrowing and scary because it was like a creepy little cabin in Deliverance-type woods that was seriously COVERED in pictures of little Rip van Winkle men. 

So! Based on those impressions, I'm just a little wary. But mostly I'm just excited that Matt and I get to stay in such a nice place for our anniversary. 

Anyone with similar (or, perhaps, more positive) B&B experiences is definitely welcome to share them. People, I need to know whether we're doing the right thing or if we should go ahead and skip it, maybe book a night at the Marriott instead.

In any case, I'll be back soon with plenty of pictures and hopefully nice things to say. Have a great weekend, everyone, and DFTBA.

true life: i watch way too much true life

Today Lindsay (my BFF) and I were texting back and forth while simultaneously watching MTV's daily one-hour block of True Life (a tradition spanning several years) and the following exchanges occurred:

Oh P.S.  - The first episode was "True Life: I'm a Fanboy" and the second was "True Life: I'm Ex-Amish."

BFF: omg wtf THIS kid has a gf!? ["this kid" being the wannabe low-budget horror filmmaker]
Me: lollll i am just as surprised as you

BFF: awww awk nerdlove [sent when the two Power Rangers geeks went shopping together and shared a cute-but-cringeworthy moment]
Me: HEY! nerdlove is beautiful

BFF: this is SO WEIRD [sent when the wannabe low-budget horror filmmaker debuted his short film about a person who wakes up in the middle of the night only to find that Freddy Kreuger has possessed his penis]
Me: i'm afraid. mama? are you there, mama?

BFF: [just before the ex-Amish True Life starts] yesss i don't think ive seen this one. i was confusing it with that other documentary we saw i think.
Me: ohhh yeahhh. man, you know you're weird when you don't know which amish-based thing you're about to watch cause you've seen too many.
BFF: hahahaha oh mannn, and i made fun of the fanboys??

Me: [upon discovering that the Amish speak a different language sometimes] whattt is this language! this is new to me!
BFF: oh it's like german. i forget actually if it's regular german or an amish version. but yeah.
Me: oh man that didn't sound german at all! but i guess he wasn't using very german pronunciation
BFF: right yeah i'm sure it's been modified over the years. i know bc i read those religious romances written about amish people
Me: WHAT OMG I NEVER KNEW THAT ABOUT YOU dude i'm gonna call VH-1 right now and you can be their amish enthusiast for "i love the pennsylvania dutch"
BFF: shut uppp lollll

Best friends. You can learn everything there is to know about their ways in a month, and after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.

Okay, that may or may not be a quote from LOTR that Gandalf says about Hobbits. But I still think it applies. I never ever ever knew that my best friend had an Amish romance fetish. And now I do. I think I need to go sit down.

perseverance and patience

I'm feeling much better about life now that I've dropped the piss-poor attitude that resulted in my last post. I feel like everyone has a right to occasionally lose all perspective and indulge in straight-up wallowing, but I'm reading it back over and feeling kind of silly for writing all that stuff about how I am not a unique snowflake and how I'm lazy and bad at video games. That's not really a fair representation of my life right now.

I need to snap out of feeling like I failed. So I lost direction in college and failed a couple classes. Shit happens. So I'm just now figuring out what I want to do with my life. Well, at least I'm taking steps to have the life I want. So I live at home and haven't started earning a salary yet. So what? Who says you have to be financially independent by 23? By 25? I'm the only one who's been putting pressure on myself to move along faster than I have the means to move.

 My parents are insane for letting me live with them for as long as I need to, but they've insisted on it so I'm not going to argue with that. In the meantime, I'm doing everything I can to create an adult life. I've set my sights on my career path and I'm speeding off in that direction. I have a job I love and a cool boyfriend and my best friends are awesome and I get to live with my hilarious sister. And that's a lot.

These are the things I have to remember when I'm feeling inadequate. This needs to be my manifesto for the times I feel like I haven't done anything worthwhile in these past 23 years. Because while my life might not be remarkable, it's not forgettable. Instead of feeling like shit for having a boring life right now, I should remind myself that this is just the part where I lay the foundation for the outrageously awesome life I'm going to have soon.

And the rest is just perseverance and patience.