Weekend Update

This weekend has been about as busy as a weekend can be. Here's a list of some of the things I packed into this weekend:

*I watched my friends give talks on their specialities at a "Ted talks" style activity.

*I played Cranium.

*I tried Mountain Dew Voltage and have been craving it ever since.

*I drove to Grand Rapids and helped my sister move. I accused her of being a hoarder and I decided she reads too much/owns too many books. I had a pretty good time.

*I went to a masquerade party and won for most original mask!

Check out the googly eyes I put around the outside. :)

*I had an instagram competition with a friend. We both won.

*I learned that there are some pretty scary animals in the jungles of Vietnam from a friend from Vietnam. I got scared.

*I made a giant sugar cookie for my grandma for her 92nd birthday.

*I went to church. (It was awesome.)

*I went to a combined birthday dinner for my cousin and grandma.

 *I told my 5 yr old nephew a scary story after he begged to hear one. He covered his ears for most of it, but told me he could still hear through his hands, and didn't want me to stop.

*And I did something with my niece and nephew that both they and I love to do: took a ton of self takes.

 You know I love you guys if I'm willing to share those with you.

How was your weekend?

Pinterest Finds Thursday

After a four-day work week last week, this five day one is becoming a real drag. So I thought I'd share with you a few fun things I've found on Pinterest lately to take your mind off things you probably should be focusing on instead. ;)

Source (Um....somewhat relatable...)

Who doesn't love Ron Swanson!? Source

Sooooo much easier than working out! Source

Yep. Source

Neville Longbottom is hot, say what!? Source

Oops, my inner nerd is showing. Source

The one and only Mitten State! Source

Which is your favorite?

Wednesday Thoughts

This morning, even though the temperatures outside are still freezing, I'm thinking a lot about spring. One of the reasons I'm thinking about spring is because of baseball! A very exciting new player is coming to Detroit this spring! I'll give you a hint: his name is Prince and he is one of the following:

If you guessed Prince Jackson, Michael Jackson's son, you'd be wrong. But you're close because this Prince is also the son of a well known person. And no, it's not Prince William either. Nor is it the artist formerly and now again currently known as Prince. It is actually Prince Fielder, the son of Cecil Fielder! Check out this adorable picture of Cecil and Prince together in 1993!

Detroit!!!

I can't wait for baseball to start. A few years ago my friend Christi and I got tickets to Opening Day and it was so much fun. She even flew out here from Utah for it! (That's dedication.) I'm thinking about going again this year....oh baseball, I miss you.

But I have another reason for looking forward to spring, and it has to do with realizing a life-time dream. If you know me well you may have already guessed! I am going to Arizona and will be seeing the Grand Canyon while I'm there! I am super excited. When I told my grandma about the trip, she said, "No, no, no. You go to Arizona to see beautiful men, not beautiful places." She also told me to save the Grand Canyon till the end of my trip (I'll be in the Phoenix area the rest of the time) so I can meet a guy and take him with me. I told her I'd think about it (but I'm not really interested in being murdered by a stranger on this trip so I'll probably pass on that suggestion).

Spring! Spring! Spring! Now if we can just get through February....

Happy Wednesday!

Nominations

Last night I made a huge mistake. I watched the Lifetime Original Movie, "Untouchable" about Drew Peterson (the accused wife killer), starring Rob Lowe. You would think that since it was a Lifetime movie, and Lifetime is known for encouraging trust in men and marriage*, it would be really positive and life affirming, but if you thought that you would be wrong. It was really upsetting. For one thing, Drew Peterson is straight up terrifying. For another thing, Rob Lowe should never again adopt the Drew Peterson look. It's a travesty.

The movie left me with a lot of questions: where is Drew Peterson's last wife, Stacey? Why was Drew SUCH A JERK!? And lastly, can a Lifetime movie be nominated for an Oscar, because seriously. The script was top notch** and the mid-western accents were very natural.***

Speaking of movies, the Best Picture Oscar Nominations were announced today! Usually I couldn't care less about these since I rarely see any of the nominated movies. But this year I've happened to have seen most of them. Here's the list of nominees (plus one), along with my 3-word assessment of each them (I've underlined the ones I've seen):

“War Horse” - Lots of death.
“The Artist” - Want to see!
“The Descendants” - Won't be seeing.
“The Help” - Loved it mucho!
“Hugo” - Would see again!
“Moneyball” - Different than expected.
“Midnight in Paris” - All around great!
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” - Still too soon.
“The Tree of Life” - Looks really pretentious!
"Untouchable: The Drew Peterson Story" - Shouldn't be nominated.

What do you think of the nominations? Have you seen any of them? Would you recommend them? Which do you think should win? Out of the ones I saw, I think "The Help" was the best, though that's not an easy decision. Luckily for those nominated, my opinion means nothing to the Oscar committee. After all the calls I made asking why Chipwrecked wasn't nominated, they're now ignoring me.

*, **, *** soooo much sarcasm in this post. I hope you caught that.

The Universe Makes it Happen

I did something pretty cheesy last week, but also pretty exciting. I made a "vision board". Have you guys heard of vision boards before? Basically, you think about the things you want out of life, such as success, love, fitness, a new bike, to read more, adopt a puppy and so on. Then you find pictures in magazines that represent your ambitions and make a collage of them on a piece of poster board.

I've been thinking about doing one of these for awhile, and finally did it! I am not going to post a picture of it though because that will reveal way too much about me. But I'm sure you can imagine some of the things on it.

I hung it up on a cork board in my bedroom, and I have to say, it really has been motivating me! I've actually made some concrete changes and plans for the year, and I think it has at least a tiny bit to do with the  board. Is that crazy? It might be. But whatever works for you, I guess. Right?

The title of this post is a joke, and comes from this video clip about vision boards from the show "Happy Endings". I don't really think that putting a bunch of pictures on a collage makes the Universe hand them to you. I just think that the board serves as a visual reminder of what you want out of life. Let's face it, it's really easy to get caught up in day to day life and forget your long term goals. It is for me, anyway. So the board is a reminder that in 2012, I want to go to the Grand Canyon, I want to exercise more, and I want some other stuff, but that's between me and the Universe.

Wednesday Thoughts

Oh my goodness, it's Wednesday, isn't it? I'm off on my days this week since having Monday off.

So, this morning I made quite a spectacle of myself to any of my neighbors who may have been watching. My car door was completely frozen shut. I was running late so I didn't feel like going back inside to get hot water to pour on it, so after tugging and tugging for a long time, I ended up climbing in through the passenger side. Awesome.

I have one more winter complaint: heels and snow = no bueno.

COLD!

But enough complaining about winter. I started watching Downton Abbey this week! I'm only two episodes in, but I'm definitely hooked. Do you guys watch the show? What do you think? (No spoilers, please!) So far I've noticed a few things about the show:

Accents

Moolah (I don't understand how old-timey lords kept the money coming in - does anyone?)

Servants

Scandal (cover-ups! pbs-style affairs! secret pasts!)

English words (not American-English)

Horses

Intrigue (I knew there would be intrigue in 2012! Called it!)

Anyway, thanks for your support in my post about dieting. I'm still half loca with my diet but I'm getting saner, I think. What are some healthy snack ideas that work for you? I usually try to snack on fruit or 100 calorie packs (though most of them are fiber-less and therefore not filling). I'd love to hear any tips! (Just don't say "rice cakes" - they really don't qualify as food.)

Well, since Wednesday sort of snuck up on me this week, I think those are all the thoughts I have today!

Happy Wednesday!

Day in Detroit

Yesterday morning, while still lying in bed, I did a quick check of my email on my phone. One email in particular caught my eye. It was a promotional email from the scooter store telling me I might be eligible for a free or discounted scooter. Um, what!? Ok, I know I just had a birthday last week, but I am not old enough to need a scooter. Yet.

However, later in the day I went to Detroit to go to the North American International Auto Show, and in order to get to the People Mover, I had to walk through the Greektown casino (I didn't gamble). And guess what? I got carded. So I guess in the end, yesterday was a wash, age wise. 

After getting carded, my day really picked up. I went to the auto show with friends to start. Not being a car person myself, I don't know what to report to you on that. I saw a lot of cars. Most of them had four wheels, some of them had souped up dashboards, they were all in various colors. I think most of them probably had radios and CD players. Oh, and gas pedals for sure. Brake pedals too.

On the right you'll see some pictures of some cars I thought were pretty. I know nothing about them, so don't ask. I liked one of them because it reminded me of Barbie's dream car.

Another cool car was on roller coaster tracks (but we couldn't ride in it). :(

One car looked boring but a bazillion people were staring at it so I was forced to take picture.

Some cars looked like they were from the future.

Another car had tinted windows and messages went across the side. I would love to see this car driving past me on the road. I took pictures of a few of its looks:

But all the cars had one thing in common: I'll never be able to afford any of them.

After that I met up with a couple other friends and we went ice skating at Campus Martius in the heart of downtown Detroit, which is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It was as fun as I'd imagined except there were a million kids, and they were playing tag (on the ice, in ice skates), and they weren't that awesome at ice skating. Needless to say, it's amazing they all left without severed limbs.

Skating companions!

So all in all, it was a very successful and fun Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And not only did I do some good hard thinking about civil rights yesterday, but I drove past Martin Luther King Blvd. What are the odds!?*

Also, I got to continue my tradition of doing something new in Detroit with Sarah and Sara on MLK Day. Last year we went feather bowling, this year ice skating, next year... (?) Suggestions welcome!

*pretty good, actually.