things i love thursday

1.blondexpresso 2.kstoon 3.stokedstephi 4.evablue 5.lucywardle 6.psychic_heart 7.kimhascats 8.bitchbuzz 9.northernstarandthewhiterabbit 10.dhammza 11.12370270@N05 12.inju

Soft Pastels Every couple months I try out a new art project to see if I’m any good at it. I have an art kit filled with different mediums which makes this easy. Lately, I’ve been doing pastels and I really like it! I’m actually semi-satisfied with how things are coming out. I’ve even been drawing people which I don’t ever do. Today I went to Michael’s and got some brand new oil pastels and a brand new sketch pad. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload a couple of pictures once I get some good ones done. Just FYI, I definitely like oil pastels as opposed to the more chalky ones.

Foreign Films So admittedly, I started watching foreign films to appear more cultured, or maybe I just wanted to BE more cultured. Semantics, doesn’t matter. Point is, I have grown to LOVE foreign films. Especially anything starring Gael Garcia Bernal. I haven’t watched a lot of French films but I’ve watched several Spanish films and I love them. I definitely need to watch more. Also, I feel that foreign films are totally not awkward about sex and nudity. Which is good because I feel like Americans are really awkward about that sort of thing and over-dramatize it.

Chinese Food Chinese food is one of those foods that I would absolutely would not and could not eat every day or even more than once a week. But it’s also one of those foods that when a craving for it is satisfied…it is SO GOOD. After work the other day I got a nice lunch of Kung Pao chicken and white rice and it was totally delightful. Plus, it was enough food that it last for three full left over meals and it was only $6! Good AND cheap. I love it.

Priscilla Ahn I saw her on Jay Leno or something the other night and I was so intrigued because she was just this totally chill girl with a guitar and a harmonica. She has a nice soothing voice and I like her music, so that’s pretty much what I’ve been listening to lately. She’s apparently friends with Cary Brothers which is cool because I like him. You may remember him from the Garden State soundtrack. Zach Braff loves him. And he loves Priscilla Ahn. And so do I.

Echinacea I think that I have put echinacea on TILT before but here’s the deal. I started taking echinacea awhile ago, and I never got sick (it’s supposed to build your immune system and protect you from illness). Well, over Christmas break, I left my Echinacea at the 16th House and just never got around to buying anymore. Well, when I stopped taking Echinacea, I got the flu TWICE and I got mono! So needless to say, I just bought some more and I stoked to be healthy again.

Swimming Our pool is officially open and filled and ready to go! The past few days I have been in the pool all day, mostly floating around and reading. But when that gets boring, I put away the book and the float and I start doing laps. I think swimming is the greatest thing ever because I have SO much fun doing it, and it’s totally exercise! But you can’t tell it’s exercise because it’s so fun. Which is the best kind. The bad thing is, it totally works your leg muscles which I really don’t need any more of.

Interior Decorating Moving back into my parents house, I realized how much I hate my bedroom. I’ve had the same leopard bedspread since nineteen dickity six, the walls are grossly green, and the furniture is all old and ugly, from the desk to the TV stand to the reclining Lay-Z-Boy in the corner. So I’ve been reading a lot of design articles and looking at a lot of stuff to get for my room so that when I have money, I can redo the place. I have 2 themes in mind: I either want to do one half of the room City and one half Beach, or do a room inspired by Carrie Bradshaw. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Showtime Series I love any series that Showtime comes out with. Queer As Folk, obviously. Weeds, I have an irrational obsession with Nancy Botwin. I just watched the premiere of Still Single with Eric Schaeffer and I loved it. I started watching The Secret Diaries Of A Call Girl when it premiered and it is good so far. I love Californication and can’t wait for the new season. My next project is to watch the first two seasons of the Tudors, which I started doing awhile ago but abandoned. Showtime, FTW!

Oral Fixations After watching Weeds almost constantly to catch up for the past couple days, I am completely developing an oral fixation. Nancy Botwin ALWAYS has something in her mouth, usually a straw or a lollipop. I think I’ve always had a semi-oral fixation (insert Katelin making jokes about the Blow Queen), but now it is surfacing due to my extreme desire to BE Nancy Botwin.

Being Barefoot I do love shoes, really. The thing is, I love a great going-out shoe, I love heels and wedges and boots. But I hate sneakers, and usually, if I must wear shoes, I’ll wear flip flops. But more often than not, I find myself barefoot. I will go anywhere possible barefoot. Obviously I can’t go into stores (I even got yelled at by the woman at Kimmy’s) but…anywhere allowed, I will do it. I love the feeling, I love feeling just completely natural and running around freely. This is all weird because I hate feet, a lot. Hmm.

Oversized Bags Here’s the thing. I love ridiculously oversized bags. The thing is, I don’t really carry lots of things with me. In fact, I find myself carrying unnecessary things just so that my bag can seem fuller. I’ll carry around my journal, a book to read, my planner, my wallet, my pills, lotions, makeup…all these things just to run to the store. But I love gigantic bags. I recently got a crossover bag from Target and, while I feel somewhat like a hippie with my crossover bag and pony beads, I love it and I love how big it is.

Pretty Little Mistakes Remember when we were little and they had those Choose Your Own Adventure books, which were always so fun? Well this is a Choose Your Own Adventure for adults! It’s so good and fun. Like, you can become a meth addict, or have an affair with the dean of the school you teach at only to have her murder you, or you can catch your boyfriend in bed with someone else or move to Paris or…there are tons of storylines! It’s a forever book, you can always make a new story. I love it. Definitely pick it up.

Loves it,
Pontius

book review: the time traveler’s wife

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Here’s the basic plot outline without giving anything away. This guy, Henry, has a genetic disorder which causes him to involuntarily time travel. The book is basically about a) his dealing with this because it’s not all fun and games and b) his relationship with his wife, Clare. It’s interesting because he travels from the future (where he is already married to Clare) to the past, where Clare is a little girl. So she has known him since she was 6 years old, but his present self doesn’t meet her until he is 28 and she is 20. Also, it’s told from both Clare and Henry’s perspectives, alternating.

Sound confusing? It is. After reading the first chapter, I was so confused, and considered giving up and putting it back in the stacks. But I persevered and not only did I get a hang of it and ended up totally understanding it, but I enjoyed it immensely. It’s a little extra work to read it because if you’re like me, I had to keep referring back to dates earlier in the book to see how things related in his different time traveling episodes. But it’s very well written and interesting and although it’s over 500 pages, it’s a pretty quick and easy read.

It’s a love story above anything else. I mean, this girl has known the love of her life, her future husband, since she was six. And for him, she’s the only real constant thing in his otherwise very hectic life. It’s pretty much them against the world and against this disease, which leaves her waiting and worrying about him for sometimes days on end while he disappears to God knows where. It’s about loyalty, unconditional love, and coping.

My only beef is that towards the end of the book, I felt like the author started giving too many things away in Henry’s time traveling to the future. But I guess that’s just my personal opinion. It wasn’t THAT big of a deal, the ending was still lovely. Also, it was weird because when I picked it up, I got the impression that it took place in the 19th century for some reason. But it actually takes in like the late 20th century. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wonder if it would’ve been more charming in the 1800s? I don’t know.

What’s awesome is, it’s one of those books where the whole time I was reading it, I really wanted it to be made into a movie – come to find out, it is! And Rachel McAdams is playing Clare, which is awesome. Eric Bana plays Henry which, have I seen anything he has ever been in? I don’t think so. Anyway, it’s set to come out this September which…I’m really excited for. Yeah yeah, movies always ruin the book, I don’t care.

Go to the library and get this book and read it before the movie comes out and then we can go see it together!