kindof

I am one of those people afflicted with being "kind of" able to do things. As in, I'm not "really" good at...anything. I can kind of sew, I can kind of cook, I can kind of get away with playing sports. (This is something that is: totally fine with me, as long as I'm having fun. shmurr.)

A peeve: When people are having conversations, which I am overhearing/part of, and I know that whoever is talking is very good at something (school, art, singing, whathaveyou) and someone asks them, "oh, you sing?" And in my head I'm thinking, oh yeah they do! They play sold out shows, and have CDs, and music videos, and duets on the radio with the jonas brothers! and then the person, the singer says flippantly, "oh, kind of."

NO! Kind of is reserved for people like me! If kind of good at something is watered down to really mean extremely good at something, that leaves the rest of us with noooooothing. I can't say I can kind of dance when the girls in classy cats are going around saying they can kind of dance.

Moral of the story: if you are a good painter, say that you are a good painter*.

*The modest way around it: "Yes, I love to paint."

class dismissed!

All this to say, my sisters and I made a Christmas Spectacular Extravaganza for my parents, a musical performance. My sister put it on youtube and it makes me smile. The good thing about parents is, that they don't mind when you are only kind of musical.

However, halfway through, you will find that my older sister is quite good at the harmonica.

cigs

I agree that: smoking is bad. stanky and unhealthy.

but when they say to little kids that smoking does NOT make you look cool so why do it?, they must have never met a French person, par exemple this girl who I unflinchingly, ciggie and all, wish I was.

I got this picture from scott.


I always thought since we have sports olympics, we could have other kinds of international olympic competitions too, and just add them to the rotation. Style Olympics, however, though extremely fun to watch, would never work. Because the French would sweep it, every year.

the name of the game is snaps

oh tra lala, everyone is studying but me.
some things:

1. I took mosie to get his wittle kitty balls and claws lazered off this morning. He is going to spend TWO NIGHTS at the vet. (Which means he will not be sleeping curled up in the bend of my knees- and I am a creature of habit. and this creature needs her little creature!) So, like a mom dropping her kid off on the first day of preschool, I cried the whole way home. This is: a) not something I am proud of, and b) turning out to be a not very fun day.

2. Tonight is my first fashion class I'm teaching to the kids at the mission. Bracing myself for discussions of baby phat, sean john, and southpole. (none of which are brands that I own. Although once I did spend an unfortunate amount of time watching Kimora Lee Simmons: Life in the Fab Lane. i love marathons.) I predict that: a) the whole situation will be rather humorous and b)I will learn a thing or two.

3. Found a cute one today on my daily missed connections perusal. Something about the missed connections, I just love them, the mix of pathetic-ness and hopeful-ness...and some unfortunate perv-ness. But what is the world without a healthy dose of pervs? There's nothing like a perv encounter to make you grateful for the people in your life who are not of the perv persuasion. same can be said for; serial killers, cult-mongers, chain smokers, moochers*, compulsive liars, pushers, the generally smelly, etc.

4. snaps is the name of the game.



* I am sometimes one who mooches. this is an accidental result of having extremely generous friends, thus not entirely my fault, but I can't list "mooching" without admitting that I kind of am one. but definitely not a liar OR a pusher, fyi.

bigday

so, i'm proud of myself that I watched (the majority of)
the inauguration.
and don't get me wrong: I totally jive with the excitment, and the change, and the hope of the people, um and the idea of little kids in the whitehouse again...

BUT I must guiltily admit, behind the thin veil of protection that the internet provides me, that: the part of entire process that captured my most heartfelt attention was...

aretha's hat.

It just feels really good to confess to this,
the shallow limits of my patriotism.

But seriously now, what a relief that aretha remembered to call me that morning, before she got dressed (just like she does every day! rethie can't think for herself) to double-check that we matched, as usual:

(I know that you will be shocked to learn that drawing this bowhat onto my head only took about 1.25 seconds. for that level of artistry, i mean wow. you'd think more like 1.25 years.)

yay america, oprah is so proud of you.

perks

one of the (only) good things about having a baker's dozen of (relatively) horrible months (in a row) is that usually, when you are at your rockest bottom, your mommy takes you to Marshall's and buys you things from the winter clearance.
and mcdonald's ice cream!
color me soothed.

So then Kelly and I played wardrobe, which always lifts my fickle spirits.
I made her wear my favorite free people summer-time-swishy-skirted dress to a birthday dinnah, and though it is wintah, I'm quite pleased with the result. observe:

my new wardrobe additions,
courtesy of: bummed out + mom's lovin.
jackie o's babysitter and sunshine slouchykins:

when you're cold, you're cold.
even if it's 85 degrees and everyone else is warm.
when you're sad, you're sad.
even if you shouldn't be.

grace grace grace grace grace

shmurrrr

i used to only wear leopard-print ballet flats and eat goldfish crackers for the majority of my meals and wear tulle-y skirts and prom shoes whenever it was time to clean my room.

i used to have sunshiney hair, also.
but now it suits me better, with the dark.

soon i will put up pictures of our latest idea...
aside from excersize-ball balance competitions. which is also a new one.

make any sense? mmm no

barcodefashion

some days you just have to start off your morning by looking at old pictures from Vogue. this one is by william klein. the best part is their facial expressions. girls never grow out of that "i-must-be-the-only-one-with-this-dress-at-the-prom" instinct.

although possibly, they just high-fived as they passed each other.

relief?

things have been busy lately.
but comparatively, my senses have been bored.
by the colors, by the shapes, by the music, by everything.
winter sucks the life out of me like a dementor.

one minor solution: drench my life with colors.

the idea of this cake perked up my senses enough to get through the rest of my beige-office afternoon:

kittybabe

these are some of the places i have discovered mosie, just in the past couple of days.

note: its not easy plucking him out of that tree.

fact: I am at least a little bit jealous of housecats.

peter anne.

my sister is engaged!
which makes me: happy.

and I love to plan weddings.

However:

it's a little unsettling, a la people are dropping like flies!, although I can't look at it as an epidemic, we're just getting older and that's weird to me. it's actually normal by this point, which is actually the part I find weird. me: a shifty-eye girl. people: grow up, and get married, and have babies, and and and. they do they do they do the end.



in other news, I finally made the curtains.
they change the whole feeling of the room:
from shmurrrr to glorious.
thus, I have decided that if there is one decorative thing that I will swear by it is: curtains.

also I want these so bad for every day of early spring:





BUT they are $400. so: nope.

welk-a-thon

for whatever reason,
lately I have been all about the Lawrence Welk Show.
I used to watch it with my grandparents.
(they were closer to the demographic the show was probly targeting, but I loved it)

I've been re-inspired lately,
especially by Arthur the tapdancer.
They just don't make dorkalicious variety shows like they used to!

lawrence and his musical family inspire me to cultivate more cheerful cheesiness into my daily life...maybe I'll sew matching outfits for myself and others, drive one of those little trains around my neighborhood, learn to play accordian, start a Big Band....so many ideas. At the very least, I want one of those white headdresses.

This one in particular strikes me as rather "J.Crew Bridal"...I may suggest this sherbety color palette for my sister's upcoming nuptials. Who wouldn't go for that?!