Peanut Butter in Muh Hair

 "Keep your head, heels, and standards high."

On the new blogger format, how many of you click "New Blog" for a new post on a frequent occasion? Golly, Blogger. The "New Blog" button is in such a prime location for a new post. And I am not smart enough to realize it might mean an actual blog, not post.

Today was awful. I'm just going to throw that out there. To be melodramatic, I feel like a little piece of my future broke up with me. To be optimistic, I am good at trusting. I wish I could expand, but I'm not letting myself tell a single soul. Which might not be healthy, but in my mind it is best. I am stubborn. Therefore, I have chosen a few lucky souls to vaguely "WEHHH" to.

On a brighter note (and any IRL friends are laughing at me right now, because I have literally talked about this with everyone...) I have discovered the secret to life. Well, hair life. Well, my hair life. It involves two things: Not shampooing every shower and also dry shampoo.

Let me explain. My hair is as thick as the sky is blue.

No... no, that doesn't work.

My hair is as thick as peanut butter.

Ew, wait... no. Nope.

My hair is... really really thick.

So, sometimes I wash it... like, HARD... and it still comes out with crap left at the roots. So I shampoo it a lot because of this. Then I started using a cheap Suave cleansing shampoo, because that's the only thing that gets all the crap out. But that shampoo damages and drys the poop out of my hair. (My adjective selection this evening is prime. Prime.)

So I bought dry shampoo. And it's a miracle. A miracle, folks.

Now I take my daily or every other daily showers and only shampoo maybe once every other shower... and use the dry shampoo when my roots get awful.

It's Tuesday night. I last shampooed Saturday. And I don't feel like ripping off every follicle growing off my head.

#votedryshampoo

I'm loopy.

Thanks, BEDA.

Spring Break = Summer?

So, I'm coming back into the swing of things from a wonderful spring break spent mostly in Nashville, my favorite city in the country. Except I can't find my motivation. All I have motivation to do is eat cupcakes.

Remember Stacy, my best of frans/roommate last year? Well, she goes to school in Nashville now. #convenient

We hung out in the sun, drank lattes, shopped, ate froyo, shopped, went out downtown, line danced, met nice boys, splurged, sat in the sun, slept, spent way too long getting ready, drove around, had Target runs, wore a lot of heels, listened to a lot of music, and had plenty of giggles.

There was this one moment when we were sitting on the porch of a Starbucks with perfect weather. Perfect. We just sat there for hours. Careless. Our only concerns were figuring out how to talk to the non-hipster boy who was sitting by himself at a Starbucks reading his book. Or if we also had time to go to the shoe store. 

Sigh.

Then I headed to Madison, where I saw one of my favorite artists, William Fitzsimmons. He was the kindest of men. When I got to him I simply blurted, "I think you're WONDERFUL." He told me that one one of the loveliest things I could say to him. I will marry him. Beard and all. 

But now, now I have projects and deadlines and work and stresses. Also known as, real life. This is okay. 5 weeks until summer. That's totally doable, right? Thanks for all the lovely comments on my stuff. It means a lot. For real. <3

Oh, My April

"Chilling by the fire, eating fondue. 

I don't know about me, but I know about you."

- Justin Bieber

Well, hello. Here we go.

I'm so rusty.

*flexes fingers*

I'm going to cop out today. Not because I ALREADY don't know what to say, but because I DO have ideas for blogs, but they require a better state of mind. I be sleepy. Therefore, here are some things I've made this semester.

A poster I designed for class.

A boutique logo

and lots and LOTS of advertisements

See you tomorrow! If you're doing BEDA, tell me. Please! I want to know who else is doing it this year so we can all read/share/encourage each other. 

Get Ready

BEDA is a thing tomorrow. And it's happening. Do it with me. Blog errday. I don't care if you never blog anymore, don't have anything to say, or are going through a midlife crisis. LET'S DO IT.

*cue pump up jams*

I Wanna Make You Happy

Drinking: Hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.
Listening: Junk of the Heart - The Kooks
Quote: "Enjoy it. Because it's happening."

Sometimes I wonder why the world seems like a different world than the one you live in every day.

Why other people's lives are more appealing.

Why the world looks different when you are listening to music.

Or see it through a lens.

Or are with different people.

I think a lot of it has to do with things that are new and exciting, aka not routine. But everyone has routine. I mean, some people have very unpredictable lives and such, but to a certain extent... everyone has routine. I, actually, am a big fan of routine. It's a lot less stressful for me. And I feel like, to each and every person, their routine is equally mundane... however exotic it may seem to some. So, I want to be able to keep my "youthful vigor" when it comes to things that become routine.

I try really really hard not to become used to things in Chicago. The first few train rides I took to school I remember admiring everything. Staring out the window, not needing a book or headphones to keep me occupied. While I still rarely read or listen to music on the train, and still use the window as my main form of entertainment, I see less.

I'm trying to become more observant. I think all too often I'm tied up in my own thoughts and my own little world. I look, but I don't see. Remember when you were little and you used to have those activities where you were asked to recall what color sweater your teacher was wearing or what the poster on the wall said? I was never good at those. This past weekend I played Scene It for the first time. They showed a movie clip, of which I watched the whole thing. But I couldn't even answer the question "What color shirt was Dan wearing?"

Look less, see more. A goal.


(Ps. THANK YOU for voting. It means the world. Unfortunately, I didn't win.. but oh well. :] )

Please, sir?

Good day, my friends. 


So, for the last month or so I've been jumping through hoops, seeing a dozen different people, filling out several forms, and sending countless e-mails to try and get this thing called an internship set in stone. I really wasn't telling anybody, because I hate talking about things until they are final, in case they fall through. But this is as final as it's going to get I feel. 


I'll be interning in London this summer. w00t!


Once I know more, I'll be sure to share. But, for now, I just know I will be in London for 8 weeks interning with a company. The interviews will come later.


With that being said, the program I'm going through is having a caption contest. I really wasn't going to enter, because I didn't want to do any of this self promotional stuff, but the prizes are just too grand not to try. So, if you click this link to the poll, you will find my caption at the bottom. I'm the last one, "Alysson." : /

I love you all.

If you don't think it's funny, I don't mind one bit. I really don't much go for creating captions. But, I did. So here we are. Also, you can vote more than once if you feel so kind, like on your computer, then phone, then iPad. Also, you can vote on every browser, so if you have Chrome and Safari, you can vote twice. 

Vote Here!!!

If you guys don't want to, I totally understand. But my mommy says I should be less scared of asking my friends to vote for me. :]

Have a lovely weekend! As for me? I have zumba, and then "the pile" is going ice skating downtown, followed by pictures at the awesome awesome light installation at the bean.

all my love,

allyson

You're the Wax in my Mustache

“The world is full of magic things, 

patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

-W.B. Yeats

I feel like... my brain never stops.

I feel like... I'm learning more about myself this semester than I have in... I long time.

I've learned that I'm my own worst critique.
I've learned that I have more to learn about how to do what I want to do in my business that requires more self-motivation than I ever knew...
...which I have, but...
I've learned that I am my own worst critique. Which sometimes pushes me to no avail.
I've learned that it's not other people that brings out my competitiveness, it's myself. Almost to the point of self deprecation.
I've learned that it's not "being different" that I always strived for, but it was trying to figure out how to be the most honest version of myself. Trying to sort out the cultural influences vs. my own identity.
Because I've learned that here, in Chicago, I am very much not different. And that's cool. Actually, in several ways, I'm very much like a lot of people. Which is also cool. Because of "mutual weirdness."
I've learned that, if I ran my own utopia, advertising would never be tacky or malicious. It would never be pollution or annoying. It would be a source of communication, the message of one or several people communicated as art. And the thing is, I don't think this is too far-fetched. Like, Apple ads. They're always pretty. And they're always put out by a company who really, truly, believes in the power of the product. Forget sales, numbers, money. Steve Jobs created something. Something that he wanted to share. That's what advertising is, to me, at least today. People wanting to share what they believe in / work hard on / want you to know.

I've been thinking a lot about advertising, marketing, and design... and how closely linked they really are. And what I hate about them and what I like about them and how I can do what I do without compromising what I feel about the business before being sucked in.

Yesterday we were talking about how design is used as a weapon. Even, very much so, in seemingly innocent commercialism. I hate it. I hate it so much. I wrote a promise to myself. "I will never use design as a weapon."

I feel like one of the biggest challenges in life is being consciously aware of how culture affects you, negatively and positively, so that you are able to sort through the "whys" and the "whats" and the real reasons for things without compromising yourself.

I want to go into the business fully aware of who I am. Otherwise I fear I will exit the business spiteful and crazy craze.

Anyway...

I've learned that hot yoga didn't change my life, contrary to... everyone else. (Blog on that in a few days.)
I've learned that I'm very conscious of sounding pretentious, and avoid sharing things because of it. I have deleted so many Facebook statuses, tweets, etc. because of this. I have a huge fear of seeming pretentious.
I've learned that sometimes my extreme justification of purchases is unhealthy, and that sometimes it's okay to spend a little more money than you should.
I've learned that "I don't have time for a boyfriend." is sometimes legitimately true and not a sad attempt at an excuse for self-imposed singledom. Well, actually, I would say, "I don't have brain space for a boyfriend." That sounds pathetic. But, I'm also very aware of the fact that I am naive and that "when I meet the right person..." and that you very much don't have much brain space to spare, ever. BUT RIGHT NOW THIS IS HOW I FEEL.
I've learned that I am pathetic, possibly.

And finally, I have learned, most importantly, that I have way more to learn than I can even fathom and that freaks me out.

THE END. I think I'm going to go make some bacon for dinner.

Ps. There are so many new wonderful people following me, this is crazy. Also exciting. I love you guys. You're all such interesting women.