Sleeping is, hands down, the best thing I get to do every day. From the time I get up, I can’t wait to get back to sleep. Going to bed is amazing. It’s like the foreplay of sleep. I love everything about it. I love lying down. I love blankets. I love pillows. I love pajamas. I love reflecting on the day and planning for the next one. If I had my way, I’d be in bed as much as an unemployed baby with clinical depression. Except my diagnosis would be “clinical living the dream.” - via

Truth.
Truth x a million.
Truth x infinity.

(and just an fyi, the article above is worth reading)

There are a few things I've come to the conclusion to, since being 22:
1. I love sleep. SO much.
2. I have no more time for sleep. Or anything else for that matter. Where did this time go?
3. Errands. Errands take a whole lot longer than I ever thought possible. My mom used to spend all day running around getting things done, and I thought it was ridiculous that it took a whole 24 hours! Figured out why. Driving. Driving to run errands takes for-ev-er.
4. An idea of a fun weekend does not mean going out anymore.
5. I plan my life in my head at night while lying in bed, all the way up until my retirement. That whole "making lists" thing? I do it.
6. Finally, and maybe the most depressing one of them all: my calories catch up with me now. High school lunch meal (every day my senior year) = 2 lunchables, 33 cent candy bar (usually a Reeses) and a bottle of water (grand total of $2.78! Thank you Maceys!) If I ate that these days, I'd die.

And since six is my lucky number, I will end there.

fashion budget

I had read about Jason Wu exclusively designing lower priced items for Target, but didn't think much about it until I saw his collection here.




I plan on sticking with my budget this year... after February 6th.
Promise.

more like a friday.

Flowers and sticky love notes make Mondays feel more like Fridays, and Fridays feel more like a holiday, and every other day after that pretty great, too.

the bookstore is my friend.

A boy doesn't have to fight a war to be a hero, he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.
Edgar Watson Howe


My favorite part of our trip to the bookstore last night was looking over the book The Art of Manliness. It was worth purchasing alone for the list, "100 Books Every Boy Should Read" in the very back, but after I read the quote above, I was won over -- and all it read after that was: buy me.

Other books purchased:
Skeletons at a Feast - by: Chris Bohjalian
Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - by: Ransom Riggs

I bought both of these after reading only a few pages (so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!) but I always feel the need to purchase books that I'll actually read after spending money on textbooks that I'll probably only use once this semester.

And now with the falling snow, (you're three weeks too late and not necessary anymore in my humble opinion) I plan on keeping company with my new books and my desire to do anything but get out of bed until I absolutely must.
Happy weekend!

image via

birthday cake pop.

Starbucks and steamers,
Two birthday cake pops,
And three of the people who I love the most -
especially the boy sitting right next to me.

you jump, i jump, remember?

Going back to school/work/reality this past week wasn't so bad after I made the following list:

12 Things to Look Forward to in Two-Thousand-And-Twelve:

1. A new President.
2. Valentines Day thanks to Pinterest.
(And throwing all originality out the window.)
3. The end of the world. (December 21, 2012)
4. The morning after.
5. The new Rocket Summer CD.
(please be like everything but your last CD?)
6. The return of Modern Family.
7. Turning 23!
8. Wallowa Lake next summer, and New Zealand (with significant others) next Christmas.
9. The Hunger Games, of course.
10. Titanic 3-D.
11. Titanic 3-D.
and
12. Titanic 3-D.

Now if there was anything I loved more than Mr. Dicaprio (besides Dream Street, BSB and JTT - in that order) it was Celine Dion. I remember a sleepover with my best friend Cassie in the third grade and all we did was sit by the radio to listen for Celine Dion singing My Heart Will Go On. No seriously, that's all we did. I remember that was the night we both heard the song including dialogue from the movie (which we still weren't allowed to see) and we went to school on Monday telling our friends that we had basically seen the whole thing after hearing this:




Cassie and I vowed we'd see the movie together one day when our mothers would actually let us, and when it happened, Titanic did not disappoint. So Titanic in 3D 15 years later may be one of the many reasons 2012 could never be a failure... and why starting life after two weeks of bliss wasn't all that bad, either.

2011/2012

I will always be grateful for 2011. Sometimes I can hardly believe that 2010 was just the year before last, because so much has changed. We kid around, but we often make the joke that this year we were forced to grow up. I kind of think it's true.

I am grateful for a year that brought so much change, even for the parts that weren't perfectly perfect or what I was planning on (at the very least...) Because seeing my best friend after two years, and petting kangaroos and koalas with two parents who became more like two best friends was worth all the up and downs in between. Learning more of who I
thinkbelieve I am through friends, family, school, chances and opportunities (missed or taken) and understanding life better by bike riding and forgetting our cares, or sitting with those same friends realizing that life just got so much bigger than ourselves... and then knowing that although any of it may not get any easier from this point onward, it definitely gets more and more rewarding, and I only become more and more grateful.

I am most excited for 2012, though. I have been for a few reasons, but I decided that if the world is going to end anyway next December 21st (just like it was last May 15th?), I better make the most of it.

So cheers to a wonderful and magnificent, exciting, imperfect but perfect and happy year! And cheers to another 365 days beginning... now.

far apart.

If I could tell you one thing I learned this Christmas, it's that I could have had all the snow in the world, the biggest presents under the prettiest tree, and it still would have felt like something was missing without all my family around. Thank goodness for Skype and for parents who will read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas over the computer screen even though we're far apart.

christmas confession session.

1. The man I spoke to on the phone yesterday afternoon who kept referring to his wife as "my bride" (who he married nearly 44 years ago) deserves everything he wants on Christmas morning.
2. Phil Dunphy, will you marry me?
3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is now a movie? Time to confess: I didn't finish the book.
(side note: I cry in the trailer War Horse. Who cries in the trailer War Horse?)
4. I also cried at the Post Office on Monday morning. Something about seeing a line of cars all waiting to drop off Christmas letters and packages and then listening to I'll Be Home For Christmas as you drive away will do that to you.
5. All I want for Christmas is: you. Really.
6. Kylie and I called a long over-due girls night, which meant leaving the uno dolares theater early so we could talk. Instead, we watched parts of the latest Victoria Secret fashion show to encourage any sort of motivation we have for our new years resolutions.
(6.5 I still have no motivation.)
7. Half of my Christmas shopping was done completely online. Bless you Amazon.
8. If the boy who asked you to be his girlfriend when you were sixteen asks you again nearly six years later... It's even cuter than I thought it would be.
9. I miss my parents way more than I care to admit.
10. I read Christmas Every Day every year.

"Peace on earth will come to stay,
When we live Christmas every day."-Helen Rice

I love this season.

the 90s.

Thought Catalog (which I love) published this article (below) which I love, love.

Things 90s Kids Will Have to Explain to Their Children:

-Topanga was at some point in human history considered not only a legitimate first name for a human being, but the kind of name that would inspire in malleable teenage boys a life-long infatuation. Topanga, in our day, was leading lady name-material. Topanga (pronounced Tah-payne-ga, for those who will have only ever seen in it written down) is the name of the quintessential girl-next-door who will live, along with Feeney, in our hearts forever.

-At some point, we carried around little plastic eggs with tiny screens on them — in these screens lived our hearts, our pets, our raison d’etre, our very own Tamagotchi. We loved them, we listened to their tiny electronic screams of malnourishment, and we occasionally forgot to pick up their poop for long enough that they died a tortured, poop-filled death. They were perhaps our first foray into the life-consuming world of electronics and self-absorption, later to be fully manifested by Facebook.

-Though on the surface, they are the exact same thing in every conceivable way, whether you liked The Backstreet Boys or N*SYNC said more about your character than all of the terrible macaroni art you could ever make for your child psychologist. Essentially, liking *NSYNC meant you liked Justin Timberlake, as he was clearly the Seabiscuit in that race from the get-go. You even liked him with his terrible, icy-blond mini-fro. Liking the Backstreet Boys gave you a bit more of a cultured palate, as there was no clear Diana in those Supremes. Nick was kind of the wholesome, if northern-Florida-redneck safe choice (save for his humiliating younger brother, Aaron). Brian was the shy, sensitive type. AJ was the hottt, dangerous meth addict. Kevin Richardson was mute with sexy, sculpted facial hair. No one liked Howie. Choosing between the two groups was like choosing between two beloved children, but once that line was crossed–there was no going back.

-“I wanna really really really wanna zig a zig ahh,” has a meaning, and all true nineties kids know it, but we must never share it. Like the Illuminati, it must remain between us, the keyholders. With great power comes great responsibility.

Is it sad that I still feel like the 90s were basically yesterday?
When did I get so old?

via