You should hear him breathe when he's on his back like that. Hahahaha. Cutest.
***
I'm blogging every single day of October with Blogtoberfest, just so's you all know. Not that that's really any change, I seem to be doing that anyway.
Reading: I just did a library smash'n'grab yesterday. Basically, every once in a while when I have nothing to read at all I just grab like ten books off the library shelf that seem like they might be interesting. Here's what I got yesterday:
Right now I am reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, just because I'm curious why it's been popular since 1937. So far it seems a bit bossy, haha.
Watching:
Last night Ryan and I went on a date to see the new Kevin Smith movie Red State. Holy moly it was intense. It's no Mallrats, that's for sure. Here's the NSFW trailer if you're interested. Basically it's about a psychotic bunch of religious weirdos who hate homosexuals. There's all kinds of awesome actors; I recognized people from True Blood, Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad. John Goodman was especially bad-ass in it.
Last night it was a one-time one night only type screening, and we got free t-shirts!
Yeah I don't know where I can wear that without everybody just assuming I'm pregnant but whatever. (If you can't read it, it says "There's babies in the attic.")
Ryan accidentally put mine on, it was a night just full of hilarity.
Listening:
I found a Spanish podcast that is absolutely perfect for me. It's simply called 'spanish podcast' by Mercedes Leon who is clearly a Spanish teacher for foreign students, and she is awesome. Each podcast begins with a little skit (that she kind of creepily performs herself...all the roles, laughing at the jokes, etc), and then she breaks it down for like half an hour. She goes through all the vocabulary, the grammar, etc. But it's all in Spanish and uses big intellectual words, so it's not dumbed down at all. It's like taking a university Spanish class. You can get it for free in iTunes if you're interested. There's like 250 episodes there.
Eating: Ryan made a casserole for us the other day and I realized it had probably been five or six years since I've had one. They feel so homey and cozy to eat!
Loving: that my real good friend Jen came all the way from Alberta to hang with my crippled ass. It was so nice to see her! :)
Thankful for: Winning so many darn blog giveaways lately! I keep getting good mail, it's so exciting! This week I got a real cool stripy toque (Canadian word, look it up) and a freshwater pearl bracelet from a wedding accessory store! As Jen (pictured above) said, it looks rather incongruous on me. But whatever. In the picture the hat is folded up a little at the bottom, it doesn't really look that weird.
Looking forward to: my 29th birthday (I wonder if I'll be looking forward to it next year), reading a lot of good books, getting my chest tattoo finished soon (hopefully) as well as a couple others I've been planning for some time now, being able to walk to the regular bus stop again and maybe even taking this guy for a w-a-l-k. I miss it so much!
Bet you weren't expecting that one! Surprise! That's right fellas and ladies, I took your precious meme and turned it upside down. This isn't about what my least favorite chore is or what I eat for breakfast...vaccuuming and oatmeal btw...nope. I'm feeling philanthropic at the moment, and thought I'd give back to this wonderful blogging community.
I follow eighty seven bajillion blogs, and here are 24 of my favorite moments or features from a few of the awesome blogs I love.
Just to cover my ass here, I'm gonna tell you guys s-l-o-w-l-y and clearly and bigly that all these videos, photos and excerpts are coming from the blogs mentioned, so basically I did not create any of the content in this post. Please go visit each of these people, they are amazing. And if anyone's bummed that I'm using their stuff, please let me know! I don't want any hard feelings, I'm just trying to be nice here. Geez. Relax.
Benjamin and Elise - That time it snowed in New Zealand, they were so excited about something that I'm generally very blase about, stereotypical Canadian girl that I am.
Conspiracy Inc. - Allan's black metal birthday party...I love when people aren't "too cool" to dress up and paint their faces. Really though, you should click through and see the other partygoers! LOL!
Delightfully Tacky: Elizabeth's posts on her adventures in the brave were what got me really interested in blogs in the first place. That was a few years ago, and she is still killing it with her cool gigantic hair. :)
Eep, I'm a Blogger! Other than the amazing blog title (haha) she also does some pretty good "stumble sunday" posts that rival the best TILT posts I've seen. I'm a big fan of huge lists of interesting links.
Hue and Hum - the awesome custom shirts "lady hue" makes are so great! I would love one that looks like Sgt. Pepper would wear it. If he were a real person and not just a concept album, of course. Here are a couple of my favorites she's done so far:
I Go By Katie: all her photos. Everything in her life looks so clean-cut and well-lit. And she always has photos in her posts, which I love. Everything is illustrated so well. See?
Jess of The Doe or the Deer: has mastered the art of instagram+blogging. Normally I just skip over instagram naval-gazer posts, but hers have a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to them. (You can click through to see their original posts.)
Little Chief Honeybee: well, everybody on the whole internet is abuzz about this, but Kaelah's new mobile business is so cute!
Mary Rebecca's Blogging Worldwide series, in which she shares lists upon lists of amazing bloggers, separated geographically. You can find people in your hometown, or people across the world. Really cool idea.
No Ordinary Rollercoaster - when Ben went to Ethiopia. I loved his very honest North American perspective on everything that was happening.Especially when he talks about the traffic, LOL!
I’ve never been more certain of my own demise or disfiguration than I was in the cabs and bus-cabs on the way home from the market today. I had fourteen adrenaline rushes, I aged seven years, I had two hours of post-traumatic stress disorder, and I spent thirty minutes planning out my next cab requirements so that I could mentally prepare with a Gravol cocktail with a Xanax chaser.
Rockstar Diaries: um...their dog reminds me of someone I know!
Suzy Krauze and the Skyscrapers: the first time she vlogged it was so cute my brain exploded.
Time won't wait for me - Kristin's most recent post on an adult patient in the Operation Smile recovery room in wherever she is now in India...it brought tears to my eyes. I love what she's doing, and I love her way with words...and there's a tie for the 't' section, because I also look forward to reading Caitlin's blog To Make Love Stay on Thursdays. Her TILT posts are some of my favorites!
Um...I don't follow any "U" blogs. so here's a cute picture of tank and I this morning. Yes, this is how I'm blogging: on the floor, 20 pound dog head in my lap. Not pictured: big ol' cup of coffee.
(hello)Vanny - all the 8-bits posts. Again, it's just tons of cool links to random stuff.
Write In Color - basically this entire blog is amazing. It's kind of in the 'self help' category of blogs, but is so beautifully written that each time Melody posts, I feel giddy.
(Coffee and) Zombie Movies (haha I was reaching for a 'z' okay?): Chelle's illustrations KILL ME. She is so good at expressing hilarity in her drawings. Like, I'd put her up there with Hyperbole and a Half, guys. So it's serious. She actually drew my blog's header too, so we're like, practically best friends now.Click through to read the amazing stories these belong to:
I asked Hannah to talk about two things I've been meaning to write about for months: the blanket octopus or chinese foot binding in the 1800s. Both are disturbing topics in their own ways...find out which one she chose!
Definitely go here and see her blog, she vlogs like ... awesome. And she's a funny girl. I like.
And...if anybody wants to vlog about chinese foot binding in the 1800s, and then let me post it here on my blog, that would be great. Let me know.
***I originally posted this on Desirous of Everything as a guest blogger - you should go there***
I am from a small town in Alberta Canada.
For those of you who don't know what that means, this is how I remember it: farmers, real cowboys, oil sands, "rig pigs", house parties and underage drinking, "family values", the best bush parties ever, Hutterites, jocks vs druggies, fighting, racism, money, drugs, freezing cold winters, knowing your neighbors, knowing everybody's business, community gatherings, people constantly having babies, a working steam train, drama, obesity...
People always say it's the Texas of Canada, but I've heard Austin is awesome so I don't know if that's fair to Texans.
There's some cool stuff about small towns too, for sure. My step-dad is the mayor, for example. That's pretty cool, right? And a lot of people I love and care about like living that way, which makes it indismissable for me. It just really wasn't my bag. I have always been obsessed with obtaining absolute anonymity on the streets, maybe because I'm so shy or a snob or something. I really think I'd thrive in a London or a New York City, where nobody knows my name. Kind of like a reverse-Cheers-type-scenario.
Anyway, one thing I regrettably gained over my five or six rather formative years in a particular small town, was an extensive knowledge base of country music. But wait, I'm not talking about the "cool" country music. No no no.
I'm talking about POP COUNTRY.
Yeah. That's right, your ol' Nova "Rella" knows all the words to probably every Shania Twain song ever written. Terrible, isn't it? It's not my fault! The only radio station in the whole town played top 40 country, and it was the only thing the bars in town played unless one of the metal kids got to "guest dj".
When my friend Sam, who is from London, asked me if I'd ever heard country music before, and was it a "real thing", it blew me away that not everybody learned line dancing in gym class! (Electric Slide? Cadillac Ranch? Anybody?) Not everybody knows the lyrics to Fishin' in the Dark...which I have on my iPod at the moment actually...full disclosure! Whatever, that song is kind of awesome.
Anyway, the point is, rather than hanging out in old barns listening to people blow on jugs with three x's painted on the sides and pluckin' banjo strings like I should have, I was repeatedly exposed to songs about achey breaky and/or cheatin' hearts, what guys do all the time, and um...sexy tractors
What, you think I'm joking? Well, for those of you international readers who don't know the crazy ridiculous phenomenon that is "pop country" here are the three VERY popular pop country songs that are so ridiculous I can't even...I don't even...
I did, I paid the man. He said so many people were taking his picture that he should start up a facebook group. He probably should. He told me to always do what others expect of me, and to amputate my feet, and never follow my dreams. And then my bus came so I had to cut him short.
