I've always really liked David Yurman ads. Yes, it's giant billboard ubiquitous and the actual jewelry is coveted by every other sorority girl, but somehow it's always a breath of fresh air sandwiched between magazine ads: simple, beautiful, recognizable and very Peter Lindbergh.
p.s. One of my favorite quotes comes from a piece on Kate Moss in Vanity Fair from a few years ago: Everyone wants to be Kate Moss. Well, you really want to be Kate Moss? Than be yourself. There is nothing more Kate Moss than being totally and unapologetically yourself.
Meg and I (okay, mostly Meg) sanded down and re-painted my Grandmother's vanity that has been sitting in our garage forever. Currently searching for the local version of these coveted Anthropologie knobs to be the cherry on top.
Meg, Casey and I explored THE RINK in Bethany recently which was as awesome as we'd been imagining it since seeing all the treasures Jane Hosman found there for her house in Norman.
Finally ate the famous Oklahoma City Vietnamese pho. So delicate and yummy. And I am improving on my chopstick usage, utensils I find highly intimidating yet am determined to master before summer's end.
Every time my mom gets a snocone, she orders diet banana. I find this hilarious.
Saw Toy Story 3. Pretty much laughed like a little girl. I'm not big on animated movies, but Pixar gets things so pitch perfect it's hard not to leave a movie feeling one hundred percent wonderful.
A malt and burger at the Nichols Hills Drugstore. A summer goal come true. Also, if you ever get the chance to wander around the tiny grocery store right beside it, please do. We're talking plush green carpets, family crests, Grandma's house, suits of armor...
Animal Collective's Summertime Clothes is so perfectly restlessOklahomasummerIlovemyboyfriendanditfeelslikeBonTempsoutside that I can't help but post them a second time.
Sweet summer night and I'm stripped to my sheets Forehead is leaking, my AC squeaks and A voice from the clock says, "You're not gonna get tired" My bed is a pool and the walls are on fire Soak my head in the sink for a while Chills on my neck and it makes me smile but My bones have to move and my skin's gotta breathe You pick up the phone and I'm so relieved You slide down your stairs to the heated street And the sun has left us with slippery feet And I want to walk around with you And I want to walk around with you And be here with you, we're goin'
It doesn't really matter, I'll go where you feel Hunt for the breeze, get a midnight meal I point in the windows, you point out the parks Rip off your sleeves and I'll ditch my socks We'll dance to the songs from the cars as they pass Weave through the cardboard, smell that trash Walking around in our summertime clothes, Nowhere to go while our bodies glow And we'll greet the dawn in its morning blues With purple yawn, you'll be sleeping soon And I want to walk around with you And I want to walk around with you
When the sun goes down, we'll go out again Don't cool off, I like your warmth
Let's leave the sound of the heat for the sound of the rain It's easy to sleep when it wets my brain It covers my rest with a saccharine sheen Kissing the wind through my window screen The restlessness calls us, that I cannot hide So much on my mind that it spills outside Do you want to go stroll down the financial street? Our clothes might get soaked, but the buildings sleep And there's no one pushing for a place As we end up at an easy pace And I want to walk around with you And I want to walk around with you I want to walk around with you Just you, just you, just you...
This trailer looks so good (seen at A Cup of Jo)! Mostly because I love family dynamics, but also because I've had a huge thing for Mark Ruffalo since my beloved 13 Going On 30. Recently watched him in Shutter Island. And also, I think Walker looks like him. Wink, wink.
I would also list Lee Pace as a current celeb crush - from Pushing Daisies and, especially, The Fall. There's just something about his face and the eyebrows and his quiet, subtle acting ability.
Past celebrity crushes have included: Robert Pattinson. Especially from when he played Cedric in the 4th Harry Potter movie. Yup. Jim Halpert. I'm sure this one wouldn't be pushed into the past except I haven't watched The Office in forever. Dean from Gilmore Girls. Followed by Jess from Gilmore Girls. Christian Bale. Circa Little Women. Gael GarcíaBernal. Heath Ledger. Circa A Knight's Tale. Prince William. Yes, I even proudly pranced around in an overpriced shirt from Juicy Couture that read Prince William Is A Fox. So embarrassing. But even now, when it was announced he would be marrying a girl named Kate, I sheepishly thought, there's no way that's a coincidence.
And I definitely liked N'SYNC - but I literally remember having heart palpitations over Taylor Hanson. And the thing is, this kind of love felt so real to me back then. Which makes me wonder if they've ever really studied the anatomy of the preteen celeb crush psychology that keeps "musicians" like The Jonas Brothers and Justin Beiber a consistent entertainment recurrence. And it really comes at such a clearly definable moment in a girl's life, because now, that type of intense boyband crush seems so far away from me, impossible to understand, bizarre and completely unrealistic. I mean, the celeb in question really doesn't even need to be empirically good looking or talented. It's more like a freak lightning strike in a bottle , a combination of pushy stage parents and the female hormones of middle school girls going haywire and a quirky haircut or outfit.
Preteen boys go through the same thing, right? Except they don't really uniformally choose a young icon on which to pin their hormones on. It's more like an array of adult swimsuit models kinda thing. The Miley Cyrus phenomenon was pretty much fueled by preteen girls, not boys...
The Inspired Life. Jenna in Oklahoma for a few days. Meg in Oklahoma. True Blood. Michelle & Chris' wedding. William & Rachel's wedding. Beyonce, Get Me Bodied. Unsweetened green tea lemonade from Starbucks. Grizzly Bear, Two Weeks. Go Celtics. A little sick. Classic movie cravings. Reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The movie trailer looks so good. Top Chef D.C. - can't wait for restaurant wars. Oh, and Work of Art. Madewell. Experiencing The Flood in the best way possible, trapped indoors and snuggled on the couch watching Gary England and the ensuing car-to-water carnage. Pinch me, I can't believe it's already June 17th.
My best friend since the 6th grade Michelle Worden got married on Sunday to Chris Bates, officially making her Michelle Bates, resident of Memphis, Tennessee and counseling grad student.
...we can deal with the psychological ramifications this is having on me later.
Michelle is my bell. Pre-teen and teen years of unadulterated bliss. Snocone summers. Enough inside jokes to make it to the moon and back.
And important weddings are hard to grasp in the moment, it all feels like it flies by your face in a rush. Leaving you a little empty after the cake has been cut and the crudely decorated getaway car has driven away.
But I did cry three times: Once at the rehearsal dinner, watching the pictures flick by on the slideshow and witnessing how happy Michelle seemed in every single shot. A girl with a happy life. And again when we got to see Chris and Michelle see each other for the first time right before the wedding, and it hit me how much my friend is completely loved. And when Michelle walked down the aisle with the important music playing, her bouquet covering her face as she was so characteristically excited. A totally official, this-is-really-happening moment.
Well, successfully helped throw a personal shower/bachelorette party. Check that one off the my-life-to-do list.
The theme was red in honor of the two redheads getting hitched and it included tears, a beautiful cake, homemade sangria, a red candy bar, white Christmas lights, ending the night at Ihop, the crazy good dance skills of Harding alums, paperbag surprises, Michelle calling a group of random girls at a bar sluts and a glass bowl of tortilla chips catching on fire.
Taryn Sheehan takes beautiful pictures - all photo credit goes to her.
Christa Town's is the best toast giver. Jenna Williams coming into town makes everything a little more special. There is no one I would rather dream up party details with than Kori Hamman. And basically, I've been lucky enough to call some really amazing people my best friends for forever and I plan on keeping it that way, forever and ever.
Right before graduating, Kelly, Paige and I forged an unbreakable bond over happy hours at The Library. This led to the inevitable conclusion that we would be ideal traveling buddies and the decision to absolutely test this theory.
The original plan included coveted, abstract destinations like Morocco and Turkey until we came to the realization that we really, really did not have the money to take that kind of trip.
So with Portland's reputation for being one of the coolest cities around, plus the amazing generosity of my mom's friend Holly (beautiful little yellow house on Lake Oswega and loaning us her husband's car) and her daughter Claire (adorable apartment in the heart of Portland) - we decided on a fun, affordable vacation over Memorial Day weekend.
So I'm a creep and I've been following this Portland couple's blog for a long time, falling completely in love with their cooking, their city and their way of life. There's something so pure and life-affirming about it for me. Seeing them in person, behind the counter of their restaurant that I've been so looking forward to visiting, exceeded all of my expectations: the breakfast dishes were amazing, the orange juice fresh squeezed and the coffee melted in my mouth. Plus, I kinda just felt like I'd bumped into my favorite celebrities - they were exactly as I'd imagined them, salt shaker tattoo cool.
Maybe only perfect after 2am. Kelly picked the winning doughnut: double chocolate penetration. Yup.
Canon Beach.
Cold and beautiful. Like something out of Twilight. People out in their parkas, walking the beach with their huge, Oregonian dogs.
Limo. How to do Peruvian: lots of appetizers and a bottle of wine.
Alloro Vineyard. There are many vineyards in Oregon, but this one fit us perfectly in so many ways. Unreal scenery, like Tuscany and Napa combined. And the actual wine tasting.
Japanese Gardens.
International Rose Test Garden. When in the city of roses...
Powell's. Largest independent bookstore in the nation. A labyrinth. Of course, I was in heaven. I bought a used copy of Valley of the Dolls for myself, because I've always adored the cover and a copy of Ferdinand the Bull for Walker who I feel missed out on childhood reading.
Forest Park. Hiking with the mud, barefoot runners, slugs, moss and trees from Avatar.
My own observations... We knew we liked this city when the toilets at the airport had different degrees of flushing.
More badass tattoos than hipsters. It must be a requirement that all families be utterly beautiful: cool parents and their heartbreakingly adorable children. Huge, happy dogs. 50 on the highways. Annoying! It is illegal to pump your own gas. Seriously. Oklahoma suntans are covetable. It is as rainy as they say, which might be to much to bear for me - but all the lush greens and flowers make up for the lack of sunlight and everyone is always out. Plus it was a nice reprieve from 90+ I secretly love it when airplanes hit bouts of turbulence.
It just made me realize more and more how badly I want to live in a city around this size and walk everywhere or use great public transportation. I bought a car this year with the intention of never having to buy one ever again and if/when I get married my dream is to share a car with my husband. I just think cars are such an inconvenient waste, endless money pits if you will. (Not that I don't see the flip side - I feel the most Oklahoma when I get in my car and drive around aimlessly, just listening to music and feeling free. Takes the edge off).
But most of all, it was just nice to be reunited with two great friends who, as cheesy as this sounds, inspire me as strong women. Fun, fearless Paige who can so easily find the best places to eat at the airport by charming total strangers and my soul mate Kelly who had mapped out the entire trip before we had even arrived. Or as Holly more simply described them in a text to my mom after dropping us off at the airport: Paige = tall and beautiful, Kelly = blond and beautiful.
I am seriously considering devoting my entire blog to the trials, tribulations and small victories of attempting to finish the masterpiece that is War & Peace. Track my progress, keep me accountable.
I just checked The Dud Avacado out from the library. Again with the distractions.
The Last House by Richard Hawkins on display in Los Angeles along with other variations of the fabled haunted house. Via NYT's Moment Blog. Seriously love it.
I want to shout from the roof tops about my Memorial Day weekend trip to Portland with Kelly and Paige, but truth be told I'm still processing everything. It was seriously amazing and left me with a lot of inspiration and longing. Plus, Kelly's camera took the best pictures so I figure I'll wait until she finds a moment in her crazybusy schedule to upload them onto facebook, then I'll steal them and have them accompany the post.
Meanwhile, I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna. Really good, thought provoking: Frida Khalo, the startling parallels you can draw between the McCarthyism of the 50s and the outrageous accusations being made today and the most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know. Reading The Poisonwood Bible changed my life - or really, how I came to perceive religion. Kingsolver is just always the perfect blend of fanciful story and a punch in the gut.
I'm just not crazy about alternative radio. I've decided this type of music, though it's my favorite, is just not radio friendly. I turn on the radio, I want something campy and oversexed, easy to run to and instantly likeable. They're probably even playing The National (High Violet is soooo my album of the moment) and I probably wrote it off as more of the same. I think it's because I need this type of music to wash over me, I have to immerse myself in it and hear it over and over before I'm in love. I think Walker put it so well when he said something along the lines of: there's some music that meets you where you're at in your current moment. Where I'm at: Conversation 16 &Lemonworld, The National Pretty Wings, Maxwell Little Lion Man, Mumford & Sons - saw them perfom in Portland and also smoke by the back door. Spiritual experience + winks in Paige's direction. Every Ryan Bingham song ever.
When I was younger I'd stare out the car window and get lost in the scenery whizzing by and feel like the world was infinite, endless, epic like Jane Austen novels and Braveheart and Apollo 13.
The other night I ran and ran and ran and ran through so many neighborhoods and it felt so good. I was really proud of myself, I didn't keep score of the miles or time or how many songs I'd listened to on my iPod, I was just infinitely running and had no desire to stop. It was one of those Elle Woods, this is so much better than that moments where you really feel like a world conqueror capable of anything. I really hadn't felt like that in a long time - the real world really can be a little defeating and you end up accepting things as they are, only seeing closed doors, the realities of needing money, etc. But I decided whatever I eventually end up doing with my life, I want it to empower me. I want it to challenge me. I want it to make me feel energized. I want it to make me feel proud. And forget continually saying and thinking eventually. I want it sooner rather than later. Life is short. Seize the moment. Etc. It's like you have these dual personalities when your in the transit stage of life: I'm only 23! and I'm already 23! On the flip side, maybe there is a bit of a realization that the real world really just won't quite satisfy you. That instead, people find this within themselves, in vivid imaginations, religion, loved ones... I remember listening to Jason Reitman on NPR, he was discussing how he really made Up In The Air (excellent movie) for his wife, who had come to the conclusion that nothing in this world was really going to satisfy her professionally and the challenge of coming to accept that as a part of her life. So maybe for me, this is domestic street running.
Oh the blog world is blissfully filled with all things summer - especially summer goals. My summer goals: popsicle walks, sunscreen skin and swimming pools, sunkissed, sun kisses, lots of running, complete and utter use of that sweet time after 5:30pm on weekdays, maybe finally writing about those epic summer Callahan/Butcher road trips, how to dress right for work in 90 degree+ heat, late night cheese and cracker picnics when the day has finally cooled off a bit, my bike, long hair, my sisters, grapefruit juice, reading, savoring every moment of my best friend's wedding, bruce springsteen... I am so thankful that life is so good.
1. need more toothpaste. 2. pick up some flowers for Michelle, just because. 3. read the girls a bedtime story. 4. PLUG THE DAMN OIL HOLE IN THE GULF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5. suit tailored. 6. don't forget dog food. 7. catch last half of game 2. go Celtics!
