What's Your Stone

Favorite Song(s) of the week:
Let it Grow - Clapton
Cheerleader - Omi
Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon
Believe - Mumford and Sons
Strawberry Fields - Beatles
Fight Song -Rachel Platten
Bad Blood - Taylor Swift (usually I don't like her, but this song gets to me)



Favorite Quote(s) of the week:
"I may only have one match, but I can make an explosion." - Fight Song
"Learn, Love, Grow, Explore, Adventure." - Personal Statement
"What's my stone?" - Kathy Lee Giffords tribute to her husband
"Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear." - Tony Robbins
"I'm so proud of you." - My husband to me :)

Favorite thing done this week:
Making my vision board, doing art, and starting a new job as a LifeStyle and Wellness Coach

Favorite show/movie of week:
I watched a few Friends episodes with my aunt this week and remembered how that show is so hilarious.

Favorite thing read:
How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman

Favorite event:
Team Meeting last night.  It was so inspirational and full of hope!

Most inspired moment:
Again, last nights team meeting was powerful.
And also, Kathy Lee Giffords tribute to her husband, Frank.  Makes you want to get up and do some good!

Thought(s)/Epiphany (ies) of the week:
I can do this! 
Life is so full of potential at all moments.  You can choose to see it or ignore it.

Weirdest dream:
I have a lot of weird dreams.  Like, a LOT!  I'm sure not many people have dreamt about being a rat or having a conversation with Walt Whitman.  I'll usually have something good, but nothing this week.  Watch, tonight I'll have a crazy dream!

Artists Den Flop

So I didn't write last night because I was busy working on a video for a contest with Artists Den.  The premise was to create a 60 second (or less) video demonstrating your fandom of the Artists Den.  The girl that won, fellow Wisconsinite, I congratulate you; however, your video was all about your superfandom of Mumford and Sons.  If that had been my objective, I could've come up with a way better video.  I doubt that girl ever purchased a ticket to see them in a foreign country.  Heck, my first piece of mail, which arrived before me, in France was my Mumford and Sons tickets.  I have seen them in concerts with less than 200 people in the crowd to several hundred to  several THOUSAND!  I love these guys.  They have seen me through my senior year of college, learning my grandmother had stage 4 cancer in several organs, moving to France without knowing a single word of French, terrible family drama, and many, many more happy memories.  My life could be a Mumford and Sons soundtrack.  Recently, they accompanied me to Puerto Rico.  That was one of the coldest and most zen plane rides...EVER.  They have a way of pepping me up and relaxing me into a meditative state.  Ok, enough about those crazy boys.  I'm glad they produce such beautiful music that touches my life in so many ways.


It'll be very exciting to see who wins the election race tomorrow.  For now, I bid you adieu!

Babbling Babel

So tired. I have been tired since around 4 o'clock this afternoon.  EXHAUSTED is what I feel.  Attempting to stay awake is very trying.  I haven't even listened to all of Babel yet.  I got it in the mail today and I did a little happy dance with my joy face.

This is sort of what my "Joy Face" looks like - minus the facial hair

  I have to say I am a little saddened by Whispers in the Dark and Lover of the Light.  I got so used to the way they played them at the shows, that it just sounds horrible to my ears now.  I wonder if it will grow on me after a few listens.  I think I am mostly upset because I knew I loved the band and how absolutely amazing Marcus was by the video of them performing Lover of the Light in Paris in 2010.  I am up to Lover's Eyes.  I am really enjoying all of the newer songs (one's that they haven't been playing at their concerts since 2010).



I would have listened to it over and over again tonight had I not already promised to help my friend smooth the edges of sheet metal she cut into the shape of a guitar.  We filed that piece of sheet metal, with metal files, of course, until it was so smooth, it was practically back to the cutting you stage.  Filing metal makes a rather loud, awful, abrasive noise - not very conducive to taking Mumford and Sons into your soul. ugh, I can feel myself beginning to babble nonsense - like I usually do when I am tired.  Stupid laundry.  I really wish it would finish.  I left a half hour ago and it had 25 minutes left to go.  I come back, it STILL says 25 minutes.
 I feel like beating my head against the wall. 

Pitching a Tent

This last weekend I had a first - I slept in a tent that I set up all by myself!  I've slept in a tent before; however, I think the last time I did I was 12.  I don't remember how the tents got put up or taken down.  I don't remember much other than my cousins peeing on the fire (boys!) and my Scottish relative saying he was a "balding Scot" while trying to say the shower was "scalding hot." 

I was at the Gentlemen of the Road (*I noticed today that the GOTR of Gentlemen of the Road is the same as the Girls on the Run*) Dixon Stopover and I purchased a tent.  It wasn't my first tent purchase, the previous one had to be sold before I moved to France.  I didn't even get to pitch that tent.  I had gotten it for a road trip with my friend; alas, my throat started to swell with an abscess right before our trip.  We had to cancel our explore the northwest and Canada trip due to illness.  Silly body!

I thought I'd be spending this weekend in a cabin - turns out I might be in my tent again.  At least my nephew will love crawling around in it!  So two weekends in a tent for me - I'm not that sad about it.  I had a great experience and there is something very empowering about being able to do something all by yourself.  I didn't have one of those tents where you basically take it out of the bag and it pops out into a villa.  Me, a couple of poles, a tent, and a set of instructions later: behold a dwelling!  I had brought a flexible lock that enabled me to at least lock the doors to my tent.  If anyone had really wanted any of the stuff in there, they could have easily just slit the thing to pieces; however, my recent friends (I parked next to them at the Stopover and they ended up living a town away and in my college town) and I stored our stuff in my tent (I had plenty of room in my 4 person tent).  My friends had several instruments they felt safer leaving in my locked tent.  I slept next to bagpipes, a banjo, and a violin.  It got so cold at night that I could see my breath!  I had to huddle down into my sleeping bag and zip up my hoodie. 

I expect to be cold at night up north as well.  I might have a cuddler this time though, a little nephew that is practically a furnace - he likes to cuddle too!  I am excited for this weekend and all the wonderful people I will get to spend not enough time visiting.  I need to go finish cleaning and packing! Bonne Nuit!!!!

Electrifying

Wow, I am using the E-stim (electric stimulation) on my sore muscles from this weeks intense workout plan.  Boy does it feel good.  I am so glad I work for someone who has all these gadgets I can borrow to make me feel better. 

This thing is so easy to use too!

Our departure time for our weekend getaway has been shortened to 9am, as opposed to noon.  Wow, so glad mom filled me in on that...tonight at quarter to 8.  Now I have to try and get everything done tonight and still squeeze in my workout tomorrow morning. I guess I can't be too mad, I did get a dollar raise today!  WOOT! 

I am really excited about this coming August.  I have it marked on my calender in BIG BOLD TYPE (and a picture).  I'm going to be able to see Mumford and Sons for the first time since Paris!  I don't know if this can get much better than Paris, since Marcus did walk right past me (I was too awestruck to say anything).  I just still need to find someone to go with me; I bought two tickets so I don't have to be a girl alone in a tent at a folk festival.  Things could get weird.  Dixon, Illinois, I can't wait to invade you for the Dixon Stopover.

This is currently my favorite song to listen to by them.  When it plays at work, I can't help but smile.

An Explosion of My Mind

So I have a request to end my blog silence.  I have been super busy these last few weeks.  I work 10 hours a day, then I work out, then I make myself some din din, then I veg.  If I had the internet at my place, I probably would be better at blogging, but I don't.  At the end of the day, I don't feel like going anywhere to write it and post it, or stay at work another second longer to use the computer and internet there.

I have had several things on my mind lately.  I've been reading and watching like crazy (when I can). I've been working out and learning how to make healthier choices when it comes to making meals.  I'll start with the lighter stuff and then move into the slightly heavier sections at the end.

First off, it was nice to have a opening day nap with my dad.  WHAT THE HECK BREWERS?!?  I got to catch up on my sleep and my pinterest account while you were sucking it up out there.  I had such high hopes after those 2 runs in the first, but you just couldn't keep it together.  And wait, how many pitchers did we go through today.  I completely lost count!  You'll get it together tomorrow - and now that I've actually done the wash, I'll have my Brewers shirt to wear while I watch.

I watched a couple of rather shite movies lately.  I just can't seem to pick anything good lately.  I picked out Young Adult to watch.  That movie was horrible.  It had no point to it at all.  It just has completely screwed up people going around and acting completely selfish and narcissistic. Don't watch it, you will seriously regret the hour and a half of your life you cannot get back.

The other complete horror of I movie I watched was Like Crazy.  It seemed like it might be a cutesy, but it was horrible. They have a great relationship and then the girl has to return to the UK since her student visa is up. They try really hard to keep their relationship together, but they can't be in the same country for very long.  Well, he could have moved to the UK, but he refused.  I can tell you right then and there, that he wasn't that in love with this girl if he wouldn't move to be with her.  She was the one who was having to give up everything.  Move back to the states (once she was allowed to again after violating her student visa), give up her assistant editor job at a magazine, and live far away from her family, with whom she is very close.  He has no family really, so moving his furniture design business to the UK would have been simple.  Anyways, both of them can't seem to really move on despite new partners.  They are stuck in the past, in the past joys of their relationship with nothing really new to continue their relationship.  It just ended horribly with you realizing that both of them are realizing the same thing. My guy friend was so bored after 20 minutes of this movie, that he left.  Yup, this movie sucks that much.

I did happen to pick one good movie recently: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.  I recently read the books and was quite disappointed by how much of the good stuff in the book is left out or changed.  It was still a really good movie despite the changes.  Then again, it is hard to be disappointed when there are cutesy little owls hoping around trying to save one another. I mean come on - look at that little ball of fluffy feathers.  Hard not to smile and enjoy yourself when looking at their faces.  Good story too - accomplishing your dreams, looking out for others, and caring, compassionate people get further than selfish, self-seeking traitors. 

Our most recent read for book club was The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.  The story is really interesting, but the fact that the people in the story were really people involved in the Salem witch trials and the author herself is a descendant of some of the accused women, makes it all the more exciting. The site up for the book is really interesting too.  It has a lot of interesting information about the story and the history of Salem. The book is about a young grad student, Connie, doing her research for her dissertation in history at Harvard  She agrees to go clean up her dead grandmother's house that has been accruing taxes since her death.  She discovers a link in the house to a possibly undocumented women that was tried in the Salem witch trials.  Her research begins to take her further and further into her own family history.  While she is working on this project, she is dealing with the pressure of cleaning up her family home to sell, a crabby advisor who has gone a bit batty over his alchemy set, and a rather dashing preservationist by the name of Sam.  While searching into the life of Deliverance Dane, Connie begins a journey of self discovery that is quite magical.

My friend and I went shopping together last week.  Her shopping consisted of chocolate, pizza, chocolate puff cereal, mac&cheese, and tater tots. Mine, on the other hand, had a ton of fresh veggies and fruit, eggs, fish, chicken, cottage cheese, and yes, chocolate (they were having a buy 2 get 1 sale on it...and hey, dark chocolate has TONS of antioxidants).  This also leads me to another rant of mine.  Why can I not find a cottage cheese that doesn't have artificial flavors and colorings?!?  I looked at 2 stores and at several different brands.  What the hell?  Why add that fake crap to our food?  I DON'T GET IT!  Oh, did I mention I bought a bright yellow kayak too?  Yay little treats I buy myself :D

I recently read an article about BMIs and how much crap they are at actually gauging what they are meant to: obesity. The people in the article were talking about how the BMI doesn't actually gauge correctly the "health" of people.  According to them, a 5'6" woman over 150lbs should be considered obese.  Really?!?  What if the woman is just stacked?  I swear to God my boobs alone weight about 20lbs if not more.  They were basing this based on body fat rates in individuals whose BMIs were in a normal range but whose body fat percentages put them in an obese category.  I'm really getting sick of the government trying to control our bodies. Soon people who really need medical attention aren't going to be eligible for it because their type doesn't fit into a certain box.  Apparently a woman's body is a scary thing to men in our government.  Go ahead and teach abstinence alone in our schools and take away Planned Parenthood.  Education is POWER - and apparently our country is tired of empowering their women.  Sure, lets just add a few more 100s of thousands of babies on to welfare and see what happens to our economy.  Did the government read Freakenomics and just decide to through it out the window.  I'll just clarify this, I don't believe in abortions at all (it hurts the mother both physically and psychologically), but preventative measures like teaching about conception and how to use a condom work wonders.  Not to mention, baby booms and STD booms will have our broken medical/insurance system strained even further.  I can tell you in my high school, our health class completely skipped the sex ed part of health class and focused more on drugs.  Oh yeah, guess how many girls we had preggers!

Ok, now after ranting, I will close with some music I have been loving recently. Enjoy!

Stalk What You Love

There is something so refreshing about stalking.  Yes, I said it: STALKING.  I haven't done it lately, but I love finding every youtube video with Mumford and Sons in it.  I am obsessed.  I can't believe it has been over a year since I have seen them.  I started out just youtubing the heck out of the band.  I couldn't get enough.  This song, Lover of the Light, was honestly the reason I fell in love with them...and furthermore, Marcus.  There is something so incredibly powerful and vulnerable in his performance of this song.



After I bought the MP3s, the Deluxe CD, and even 2 of their LPs - I kind of lost track of stalking them via Youtube.  Well, I am back at it and boy do I have a plethora of new songs to watch now that they have been touring and are about to put out a new record. So enjoy...maybe you'll go stalk your favorite band and find out what they have been up to lately!

 

It's sad, but I just thought about how much my former lingustics professor would geek out at the use of youtubing as a verb...kind of like he did over facebook being used as a verb!

Can I Keep You?

As I am sitting here watching Casper - I am wondering why his ghost looks nothing like his physical being.  Bill Pullman's ghost looks exactly like him and so does the evil chicks.  Casper's three uncles don't look like their 'human' selves.  I know they probably wanted him to look like the cartoon version and you they didn't exactly have Devon Sawa back  in the day when Casper came out. 

I have some intense memories with the cartoon version.  I went in for surgery on my ears and they ended up postponing the surgery for 2 hours.  I was so nervous and so hungry - I sat in the kids waiting room and that was the thing they had playing - Casper.  Weird how things like that will stay with you.

I love Casper the movie.  It is just such a great story.  I read more in my death book last night - I must say, it is very interesting the stories people make up for creation and death.  It is amazing the different explanations cultures have come up with to deal with things like death.  In Casper, the father felt the presence of his son still around - so he spent all his time developing the Lazarus.  Would you do anything to get back someone you loved? 

"The flesh that lived and loved will be eaten by plague / so let the memories be good for those who stay" - I love those lines from Mumford and Sons.  I remember listening to their album for the first time the weekend I went up to spend with my grandma after she had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in three organs. The book brings up thoughts about the afterlife and if it is something we make up to comfort ourselves or are they just ways to explain away what we don't know  .Is it a way for us to 'keep' our loved ones after they have died?  Is life after death...just like life?  Or like Whitman thought...do we just continue on through this world as constantly evolving matter?

DOTA

Just chillin' - listening to my Pandora account Mumford and Sons station. I love them so MUCH! Seeing them live is life altering it is that good. I once new a person that said they would always change the radio station if they recognized the song they heard on the radio. I don't get that at all. Yes, you hear more songs, but what is the point of listening to music and having favorites if you never listen to it when it is on or occasionally belt out the lyrics with the song? Honestly, what's the point of listening to music if you aren't going to enjoy it? I have songs that make me happy or zen. Mumford and Sons and Eric Clapton can make me feel both pumped up and completely calm all at the same time - probably has something to do with my constant playing of these two artists during finals weeks and intense paper writing sessions. There is one song - DOTA, by Basshunter - and it never fails to make me so happy. I jump around like a giddy girl when ever it plays...which is why in the morning when I get ready it's typically on repeat :D

Love life is blah. The most men I see are old men that spit their snot in front of you and married men - like my chiropractor that has hands of gold. I think my mother is still hard at work on arranging my marriage.

Health is doing better. My body measurements are beginning to go a bit wonky - migrating to different areas of my body :| The tendinitis in my hand is much better, but my back is sort of getting better. I feel like such a freak with an ice pack on my hand and a heating pad on my back. Oh well. I went for a really long bike ride/walk with some of my friends the other day. It was nice to chat and catch up. I got one of my dresses that I am trying for my brother's wedding and it looks good. My sister says I look like a movie star! My mom is at least happy that the dress covers my cleavage well enough.

I am happy to say that I only have 5 more days at my current job. I don't know if my poor back and hand could take too much more of this. So the job hunt continues on and on...etc. etc.

Well, I'm off to ice and heat various parts of my body and read some more!