Love this.
Love this.
Tonight I’m going to see my favourite band, Lucero, at the Fillmore. I bought tickets in February, and have pretty much had to forget about it because whenever I think about it I get too excited to do anything else.
I don’t remember the day, but I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard them. I was sitting on the chair at my desk in our first apartment in Hawaii, and my roomie’s boyfriend was downloading random songs, and came across one of their albums.
As soon as he started playing Here at the Starlight, I got a tingle from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I loved them immediately. By the time I had listened to My Best Girl, and Night’s Like These, it was over for me. That was about 4 years ago, and since then they have gotten me through every sadness, every heartbreak, homesickness and sleepless night, and every rainy day.
When I moved to California, and I had no friends, no job, no family and I missed the island so badly that I couldn’t sleep at night, I would put Lucero on my iPod on repeat, and let Ben sing me to sleep. It’s kind of funny how much of an effect you can have on someone else’s life without even knowing it.
Here are some of my favourite Lucero lyrics:
“She had a weakness for writersAnd I was never that good at the words anyways”- Night’s Like These
I spotted this book online a few days ago, and I think it’s super cute, and would make a good gift or stocking stuffer. You Are Good at Things: A Checklist by Andy Selsberg helps you to realize that even though you may not be a famous artist or concert pianist, there are plenty of ordinary, everyday things you are basically a master at.
I personally excel at getting the gas pump to stop on an exact amount, remembering quotes from movies and painting the nails on my right hand (I’m right handed). An area that I need work on, apparently, is thinking of things I am good at. I may have to invest in a copy for myself.
You can buy the book here.
Here are a few of the things that are making me happy right now:
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| Cruising down an empty highway on a beautiful day with the sun shining down on your arms, and good tunes on the radio. |
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| Red velvet. Anything. Always. |
Currently reading Just One Day by Gayle Forman . Loved this:
“You know, one day one of these might be in the Louvre,” he says. He touches an elliptical white sculpture that seems to glow in the darkness. “You think Shakespeare ever guessed Guerrilla Will would be doing his plays four hundred years later?” He laughs a little, but there’s something in his voice that sounds almost reverent. “You never know what will last.”
And this:
FASHION FILM from Matthew Frost on Vimeo.Lizzy Caplan is the best.
This story will break your heart, just like it broke mine. I don’t think there is anything harder in life than watching someone you love in pain, and not being able to help them.
His photos are amazing. You can feel the bond they share, and how hard she was fighting, and he doesn’t need any words to tell their story.
My mom, sisters and I are doing the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in September, if you would like to sponsor us, you can do so here.
I bought this Billabong dress a few weeks ago, mostly because I loved the colour, but also because I secretly suspected it was one of those dresses whose soul purpose is to be twirled in.
It turns out I was right, and I had lots of fun twirling around on the beach the first time I wore it. It also happened to be an extremely windy day so I spent not an insignificant amount of time with the dress blown up over my head. Luckily there were no children around, just one little old man flying his kite.
It seems like there is a lot going on politically and culturally these last few weeks. Not that there isn’t always, but the last few weeks with the sequestration, cutting funding to some military programs, the Supreme Court hearing arguments on Prop 8 and the DOMA, new arguments on gun control, and new restrictions on abortion, it’s been kind of crazy.
But I also discovered something pretty neat amidst the chaos, in the form of the Whitehouse Petitions website. I had heard of it, but I never really knew much about it before. Basically, someone introduces a topic, and it can literally be anythinggggggg. Here are some examples:
You just make your petition, and share it. If enough people sign on to the cause (usually 100,000, but sometimes more depending on the issue) the White house will review it, send it on to the appropriate policy makers, and issue an official response.
Even though people in this country are always going to disagree and complain about the way things are done here, I think it’s pretty amazing, especially when you consider how people are treated in other countries by their own governments, that we are lucky enough to live in a country where we can actually petition our government for things, and if enough of us want it, they have to at least consider it. Some people aren’t nearly so fortunate.
I finally got around to making the nanaimo bar cupcakes I was salivating over here. They were really good, chocolatey and nutty with that delicious nanaimo bar filling as icing.
Next time I make them I think I will leave out some of the almonds though, I only put about half of them in, and it was still a bit too nutty for me, but if you love nuts then by all means, add them all in.
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| The icing is sooo good, the situation rapidly devolved into chaos, and we ended up eating most of the bowl with our fingers |
A few months ago I came across a website called Meetup.com. The basic premise of it is that it allows people to find other people with similar interests, and form groups around those interests.
There are so many different groups for people that love everything from reading, to chocolate, to wine, to motorcycles, to pub crawls, running, biking, photography, languages, etc. If you are looking for a group, chances are it already exists.
I thought it was a really great idea, especially in bigger cities, or places like the Bay Area where so many people are transient, and are looking to meet some new people. I immediately signed up for about 10 different groups, one for photography, one for running, a girl’s night out club, a book club, and a chocolate club. Obviously.
I’ve met a lot of really fun, really nice people since I moved here, but most of them live in the city, and it’s a bit of an ordeal for me to get home from the city after 8:00pm, so I figured it would be nice to meet some people my age, with similar interests, that live over where I live.
I’ve been to a few meets up so far, I was pretty nervous for the first one, it was at a girl’s house in Oakland, at night, and I was going there alone, so basically the set up to every scary movie that’s ever been made. It turned out to be really fun, I met a lot of nice girls, everyone brought something good to eat, that’s how I was introduced to the amazing-ness that is the flour-less chocolate cake from Tartine, and there was lots of wine.
Last weekend I met up with some ladies for a Sunday morning brunch/ book club. I was a bit younger than the rest of the ladies there, but we had some really interesting conversations, and it’s pretty neat how the most unlikely people can be brought together by the shared love of a good book. Also, I ordered eggs benedict and a mimosa. It was a good day.
I haven’t been to meet ups for all of the groups I’ve joined, a lot of the time the date, location or times don’t work out, but so far it’s been a great experience. I’d like to keep finding new groups and going at least once in awhile because I really like to meet new people and try out different activities, especially when I’m a little bit scared to do it.
If you’d like to learn more about Meet Up, or find some groups in your area, check it out here.
Feeling restless tonight…
loveliness. 