niche-less

When you don't fit in with the regular girls and you don't fit in with the girls who don't fit in with the regular girls, where does that leave you?

Adult content

Calvin: The TV listings say this movie has “adult situations.” What are adult situations?
Hobbes: Probably things like going to work, paying bills and taxes, taking responsibilities...
Calvin: Wow, they don’t kid around when they say “for mature audiences.”
Hobbes: I’ve never understood how those movies make any money.

Today I filed my taxes and then cleaned my room without being told. I realized that there are a few things that really signify that one has reached that "adult" stage of life. I made a mental list of a few of them.



1. Filing taxes (I hate this)

2. Eating vegetables voluntarily (I don't remember when I really started eating (and enjoying) all those things I thought were "gross" as a kid. When I go to the grocery store these days I buy almost exclusively "healthy food", and no one is even making me do it, or telling me I can't buy candy and ice cream! Not at all how I thought things would go when I was a little kid, daydreaming about the freedom I would someday have as a grown-up...)

3. Having a "change jar" (When I was little and I would go into my aunts'/uncles'/parents' bedrooms they would always have a jar or cup or something full of pennies, dimes, nickles, quarters, and maybe a few odd dollar bills. I would always look at it in amazement that they had SO MUCH money kicking around that it would just accumulate in a cup on the dresser. I wondered why they didn't spend it, and I was blown away by the fact that they seemed to not even realize the great riches that were right in front of them. One of my aunts used to give me pennies all the time because she said she hated them, and I couldn't understand why anyone would hate money. As I was cleaning my room just now I noticed my Star Trek glass nearly full to the brim with spare change, and I stopped for a second and realized I had somehow passed that "grow-up" milestone in life without even noticing.)

4. Choosing an aisle seat in the airplane (When I was little I always wanted a window seat and I didn't understand why people coveted the aisle so much. Why would they want to sit there when they could be LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW!!! I thought adults were complete morons for this. These days when I fly I try to get an aisle every time. (Maybe I am now a complete moron?) I wonder if that's because I've lost some of my childhood sense of excitement and discovery... I hope not. (Note when I was flying to La Serena from Santiago I did request a window because I wanted to see the mountains as we flew over them... then I ended up being on the wrong side of the plane so I saw the ocean instead.))

hmm... I guess I only thought of 4. I know there are more, but maybe I have yet to achieve some of them. We will see.

Yes I am socially inept

Conversation I overheard in the women's room today:

Girl1: [cleaning some lint off her black dress] I always seem to pick up white on myself when I wear black, and black when I wear white!

Response I started to give: Actually it's probably just that the lint and stuff is various shades of gray, so it appears white on a black background, and black on a white background... {this apparently is socially the wrong thing to say. I didn't actually say it because...}

Socially capable girl next to me: I guess the answer is to wear grey!

[both giggle and share some type of bond based on a mutual social understanding that I lack]

The end.

You would not believe your eyes If ten million Shutterflys...

...lit up the world as I fell asleep... (title inspired by the song Fireflies by Owl City)

Well guys, I guess I'm a real blogger now! Shutterfly offered me 50 free cards if I wrote a post about how awesome they are! And they are awesome! (...and I'm not just saying that because of the 50 free cards.) Think of how. many. thousands. of digital photos you have sitting on your hardrive. And backed up on your external harddrive. And maybe if you're really efficient, burned to CDs and put in a safe place. And yet, how many times do you actually LOOK at those photos? If you're anything like me, about once every 6 months or so when you decide to change your Facebook profile picture. But thanks to Shutterfly, that can change! You can take all those binary 1s and 0s that make up a file that is that awesome picture of you in front of the Eiffel Tower from that trip to Paris you took 3 years ago, and PRINT it! Then you might actually see it once in a while.

Not only can you simply print photos, you can make them into desk calendars, or Christmas cards, or my personal favorite: a Photobook! I spent a few weeks this fall putting together a photobook* for my brother about our trip to Europe we took a few years ago, and I have to say it was probably one of the greatest things I have ever done with my digital photos. My copy sits on the coffee table in my livingroom and when guests come over they pick it up and look at it, and ask about the pictures. Sometimes I will just idly leaf through it and bask in all the memories from all the places we went: London, Loch Ness, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Venice, Brussels, Copenhagen... but, I digress. The point I was making is that photobooks are AWESOME! Make one. They might seem a bit pricey, but I promise they are well worth it to give your pictures a little bit of center-stage time.

This year, for probably the first time in my life, I plan on sending out Christmas cards. And I'm going to use Shutterfly cards to make a personalized card with a picture of me, or maybe one of the awesome things I've done or places I've gone this year. I'm not really one for Christmas -news- brag letters, but I think a photo card is a cool way to show off a bit of my personality and adventures without being too obnoxious about it. Shutterfly has some awesome looking templates where you can use multiple photos and the final card looks nice and professional. I think I will probably use the Many Memories Tree card which I would like to point out is 20% off right now.

I will probably put pictures of myself on it instead of the cute little blond girl...

Anyway, look at me, being a real blogger that gets free stuff for writing blog posts!!! (This may very well be the first AND last time this happens, so I'm going to enjoy it!) Best day ever.


*Disclaimer: the photobook that I made was not through Shutterfly but some other website I don't remember now. I used them because they were having a really good sale. Shutterfly has very competitive prices, and next time I make a photobook I will definitely consider them. Unfortunately I can't comment on the quality of their photobooks as I have never made one before, but if/when I do, I'll let you know.

I'm back!

It's the moment you've all been waiting for! JM wrote a blog post. Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!

So, I'm not one of those bloggers that is always counting comments or looking at traffic or begging people to "vote" for them for some pointless blog award or something. I like having a blog, but I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes abandon it for stretches of 6 months. I'm not concerned with "losing followers" and so far no one has complained about my lack of posts for... what, the whole summer? (Probably because I have no followers...) But now that it's fall and school is back in session, I might start posting again. I've been busy! I could probably think of a lot to write about. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

I love the Ocean

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.

--Isak Dinesen

Don't drink the water

I don't have time to write a long post, but you can read this: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5geDUvZfc7dzGJd8oa6hV7msLnuEwD9FEDQR80

MA issued a boil-water order for drinking water in 30 communities, which include 2 million people in 700,000 households. Crazy. In a nutshell, a pipe that supplied water broke. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority was is drawing "emergency" water from various reservoirs for bathing, flushing and fire protection. But that water isn't treated for drinking, so the state issued the boil-water order. One of the places they are getting water from is the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. It's right by my house and I walk down there all the time and sometimes go running around it. Sometimes I see turtles swimming in the water. Aww, turtle water! :P

Good thing I have tons of emergency water in my "water storage" (tons of 2-liter bottles filled with water and a couple drops of bleach that we store in the back bottom shelves in the pantry). I never thought I'd actually have to use it. Crazy. But I'm glad we have it so I don't have to worry about boiling all my water, drinking turtle water, or the fact that most of the grocery stores are sold out of bottled water.