The Pierces

I downloaded The Pierces' album Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge several months ago after hearing about them in Us Weekly. From the clips on iTunes, I was able to get a glimpse of their style, and once I downloaded the album, I was listening to it all the time. I'm not one of those people who will listen to whole album by a musical artist and usually enjoy the whole thing, but to my surprise and delight, I really love every single song on this album. I've listened to it many times now. Every time I make a playlist it seems another song by the Pierces makes its way onto it. I'm hoping that The Pierces will be making an appearance in California soon, as I would love to see them live.

Here's the video to my favorite song on the album ("Sticks and Stones"):

The Week in Photos

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: I absolutely love my camera. It breathes life into the most mundane objects, in my quite biased and humble opinion.

I have a dream.

My dream consists of more 3 day weekends. How sad am I that this one is coming to an end? Very, very sad.

Yesterday morning I drove out to LA for my very first blog party (organized by everyone's favorite monkey)! I sailed along listening to my iPod, and I was really pleased that there was little to no traffic. I was the first to arrive at the very crowded John O'Groat's, and I was happy to see that the monkey showed up soon after. She acted as a very gracious host and introduced me to everyone. It was my first time meeting everyone, and I must confess that I felt extremely overwhelmed and sometimes out of place. I am not normally a shy person, except in certain situations. Yesterday was one of those situations, but I still had a really good time and was happy to finally see everyone in the flesh, especially those who comment on my blog regularly or talk to me online or through email (you know who you are!).

There was lots of food, lots of talking, lots of cameras being whipped out. I find that this highly journalistical [sic] picture tells the story of the day.



But this one is also good.



The rest of the day was spent hanging around the house watching the third season of Veronica Mars. I have to say that I am pretty disappointed in the third (and final) season. Kristen Bell is not nearly as likeable this season. The editing sucks, and the plotlines are not as compelling. But whatever, it's still better than the average show.

Today Mandy and I went out with the intent of finding a dress for me to wear in her wedding (the only criteria is that it has to be black), going to her wedding site to scope out possibilities for decorations, and getting pedicures. We got the pedicures, but everything else was a bust. Oh well, we still got some sisterly time together.



Yes, my toenails are blue.

I have set the date for Mandy's shower for March 29. I am really damn excited about planning it, because it's not going to be your ordinary bridal shower. Unfortunately, I can't reveal anything here, as Mandy reads my blog. But hopefully it will turn out as awesome as it is turning out to be in my head. And I only have the monkey to thank for giving me the idea (although I've modified it some).

And this post has now come full circle, beginning and ending with the monkey. That can only mean one thing: a conclusion.

I think I'm done.

Reading chick lit novels, that is. I read Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan last year. I enjoyed both, but by the time I got to the latter, the formulaic tendencies of the author (Sophie Kinsella) had already become very clear to me, and thus, I ended up getting annoyed with it.

I started reading Can You Keep a Secret? (by the same author) last night. I'm already over halfway through, and it's entertaining. But I can't help myself; I want more. I get tired of the same ditzy heroines, the men who love them, and the mistakes they make. I grow weary of entirely plot-driven books where character development takes a backseat. Oh, the curses of having an English degree - I overanalyze everything and tend to be a bit of a literature snob.

But I don't exactly feel like reading War and Peace either. A balance must be found.

But still - no more chick lit for me. Sophie Kinsella has ruined the genre for me.

Smart Shopper, Domestic Diva

Today Roy and I decided to do some clothes shopping, as we have some extra money right now and both need to add to our wardrobes. We grabbed lunch at BJ's and then went to the Ontario Mills Mall, which is the closest outlet mall to our house. We only visited one store and then decided to leave. There were way too many people there - lots of rambunctious kids and crying babies. I began feeling claustrophobic walking around, and we were both getting headache-y.

So we made our way back to the Riverside area and went to Barnes & Noble and the Tyler Mall. We split up, and I went to Express, where I discovered that they were having an awesome sale! I was so excited! I ended up spending $150, but I got 3 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, and 2 camisoles. I have been wanting to beef up my professional wardrobe, so this was the perfect opportunity.

The shopping experience wasn't all great - I have gone up a pants size and have quite the muffin top. Now more than ever, I really need to focus on getting back in shape. I have never been this flabby in my entire life. While some may dismiss it as newlywed weight, I still don't think that's a good excuse to let myself get fat or even chubby. Mandy's wedding is in May, and I would like to look really good in whatever I end up wearing. My main problem areas are my stomach and arms. I can deal with the rest.

Since we've been home, we've been doing copious amounts of laundry and cleaning. Our place was a wreck, so I've been pretty busy the past few hours. We already have too much stuff, so there's a lot of clutter to deal with. I've been working on getting rid of a lot of things, but it never seems to work out exactly the way I want it to. I did, however, get rid of a few items of clothing that I'm not wearing anymore. I try to do that whenever I get new clothes. It just makes sense to me.

I want to say thanks to everyone who de-lurked and came out and introduced themselves. I know there are more of you out there though, but I totally understand the need to lurk. Trust me, I read tons of blogs but only comment on a few.

I'm off to LA tomorrow for a blog party! I'm excited to meet everyone in the flesh for the very first time - and I have to admit that I'm a little nervous as well. I'm sure it will be an awesome time - I will certainly be reporting back with a recap!

Desert Skies

I made 2 playlists for the trip to Vegas and really love both of them. This one, Desert Skies, is somewhat darker than the other one (which I will hopefully blog about later), but I was trying to convey many different aspects through my song choices: alienation, isolation, beauty, emptiness, and change.

One thing that I learned about our trip is that Vegas is much more complicated than I first assumed, and hopefully this music reflects that.

Obviously, I take my music much too seriously.

1) "Desert Song" - Dead Can Dance
2) "I Would Follow You Into the Dark" - Death Cab for Cutie
3) "Warehouse" - Dave Matthews Band
4) "On the Road" - Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson & Sigur Ros
5) "Track 6" - Sigur Ros
6) "African Journey" - Anugama & Sebastiano
7) "The Sinister Minister" - Bela Fleck & the Flecktones
8) "The Stars of Track and Field" - Belle & Sebastian
9) "Things Are What You Make of Them" - Bishop Allen
10) "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" - Charles Mingus
11) "Sugar is Sweeter" - CJ Bolland
12) "Absurd" - Fluke
13) "Message in a Bottle" - The Police
14) "Sandstorm" - Peter Gabriel
15) "Learning to Fly" - Pink Floyd
16) "Glory Box" - Portishead
17) "Drive" - R.E.M.
18) "House of Cards" - Radiohead
19) "I Turn My Camera On" - Rock Kills Kid
20) "Fly" - Sara Groves
21) "Black Trombone" - Serge Gainsbourg
22) "There Is a Light that Never Goes Out" - The Smiths
23) "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol
24) "Two People" - Spiderworks
25) "Sleep Tonight" - Stars
26) "Sorrow in Desert" - Tan Dun

Sorry, no YouTube links. That took entirely too long last time. Guess I don't take my music too seriously after all!

To make up for it, here's a video to "Fluke" by Atom Bomb. Awesome song!

Bouncy Ball!

Myra found this bouncy ball outside of Baskin Robbins the other day and gave it to me. I brought it home and set it on the table. And now it's gone. Some little kid's livelihood has been stolen (but hopefully not ingested) by our cats.

It's been awhile since I posted about a found object, because the found object phenomenon is not always active in my life. But I liked this one a lot - it makes me wonder who it belonged to. (I'm thinking it probably belonged to a little kid, probably a boy, but not necessarily - I loved bouncy balls when I was a kid. I even collected them!) And now that it's been lost, it's just waiting to be found all over again. We probably won't be able to find it until we move again. Our cats are major hoarders.