I Like Things, Maybe You Will Too?

"Between the click of the light and the start of the dream."

- from No Cars Go by Arcade Fire

Just some things:

1) No, unfortunately, I didn't go to the midnight release. I knew one thing about the viewing of this movie, and that was that I needed to see it with my good friend Naomi, because she and I have been attending midnight Harry Potter releases together forever.... and you can't mess with tradition. The original plan of us meeting halfway for a midnight release (she goes to school three hours away from me) failed for a few reasons. Therefore, she is coming saturday and I will be seeing it Saturday night. I'm okay with this, because 70% of the midnight release fun has always been waiting with the same friends at the same hometown theater. As stupidly nostalgic as this sounds, it would have been so... weird... to go here with random college friends. So, tomorrow is the day! I am quite excited! I've heard many good things, and this is a wonderful contrast to the usual complaints. I'm terribly excited for the soundtrack, as well. :]

2) Starbucks is having a buy one holiday drink get one free from 2-5 pm yesterday till Sunday, just so you know! I'm a fan of not spending money, so I thought I'd share this lovely festive info. Egg nog lattes, gingerbread lattes, carmel brulee lattes, peppermint hot chocolate, peppermint mocha, etc. Basically, christmas in a cup.

3) Groupon is becoming bigger every. single. day. You should create an account. They just added like 30 more cities, and their nationwide deals are becoming more frequent. What does this mean to you? You don't even have to live in a big city with snazzy local dealers. Yesterday I bought a $25 Groupon for $50 worth of merchandise at American Apparel. You can use it anywhere, and the expiration dates are plenty comfortable. It doesn't expire until February! Today I think the deal is like $25 for $50 at Nordstrom Rack, and the other day it was $20 for $40 at The Body Shop. Big companies are taking advantage of this, guys. Good deals. The only thing is, I get really excited about all this money I'm saving, until I realize I wouldn't have spent the money at all without this deal. Sneaky, Groupon, sneaky. I have fallen into your trap.

4) I thoroughly enjoy Glee. I mean, I've seen all the episodes, but last season I labeled it as a "guilty pleasure." This season, however, has just been pumping out such quality material. Somewhere between hearing Damian Criss lead a heart-melting accapella version of "Teenage Dream" and Gweneth Paltrow making singing and dancing in the rain seem glamorous, appealing, and downright wonderful, I decided that Glee legitimately deserves unashamed praise. They've finally settled down their outrageously shifting plot-lines, and spent more time producing the song and dance routines. This move is so smart. Lately the new shows that are on tv seem to think if they don't have someone getting married, pregnant, or dying every other episode (often all in one) they will have a smaller fanbase. As I was watching this weeks episode on Hulu as I was working out, I was just smiling during both "Forget You" and "Umbrella/Singing in the Rain." While gasping for breath. I have this problem too often. Watching shows that make you laugh while you are in the middle of an intense workout in which you are already short of breath only makes you look like a complete dork. True story.

5) Our friends who live in the first room when you enter the hall have big, flashy mint shaped christmas lights that play jingle bells when you turn them on. Let's just say every day has its fair share of mood brightening dance breaks after coming back from blustery walks. The fun thing is, they're some of the only people on our hall that we know. This means our twirling, finger pointing, and sporadic dance moves get a lot of strange looks. :]

Happy Weekend!

(How did you like HP 7.1? Please spare the details. :])

Today is a Breakfast Day

"Harry Potter loved to sit on my shoulder while I was cooking and insult my food...

A few days ago, Harry Potter jumped off my shoulder. And maybe he forgot he couldn't fly or maybe he thought a pot of boiling water was a birdbath. All I know is that he splashed into the water, and I scooped Harry Potter out with a spoon."

- excerpt from Flight by Sherman Alexie. Harry Potter was the name of their bird.

Don't worry, this isn't going to be all about Harry Potter. You'll have to wait another week for that one.

There is officially snow on the ground, so I feel like I need a new banner. I still love fall colors, though... so the banner in all it's fall glory is staying for now. ... but now that fall is over we can enjoy EGG NOG and CHRISTMAS MUSIC without guilt. I made it until two days ago, November 15th, this year. I'm keeping track year to year. I'd say I'm okay with that. I mean, if you start too late, you don't get to fully maximize your enjoyment of the music, right?

Today I was reminded of an artist whom I really enjoy. I worked with a short book of his for forensics in high school, and my partner and I really fell in love with his stuff. He mostly makes little comics for cards, but he has a few short books. They are all so adorable, random, and uplifting. My favorite and probably his most well known is A Lovely Love Story.

"The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, his cage.

Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words and loving thoughts.

I like this Dinosaur thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
Although he is fierce he is also tender and he is funny.
He is also quite clever though I will not tell him this for now.

I like this Lovely Other Dinosaur, thought the Dinosaur. She is beautiful and she is different and she smells so nice.
She is also a free spirit which is a quality I much admire in a dinosaur.

But he can be so distant and so peculiar at times, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur.
He is also overly fond of things.
Are all Dinosaurs so overly fond of things?

But her mind skips from here to there so quickly thought the Dinosaur. She is also uncommonly keen on shopping.
Are all Lovely Other Dinosaurs so uncommonly keen on shopping?

I will forgive his peculiarity and his concern for things, thought the Lovely Other Dinosaur. For they are part of what makes him a richly charactered individual.

I will forgive her skipping mind and her fondness for shopping, thought the Dinosaur. For she fills our life with beautiful thoughts and wonderful surprises. Besides, I am not unkeen on shopping either.

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old.
Look at them.
Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

And that, my friends, is how it is with love.
Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together.
For the sun is warm.
And the world is a beautiful place."

Without the comics to go along with it, it loses some of it's appeal. However, I just love his style. Today I found a few works of his that I'd never seen before.

>>>

Anyway, that's Monkton. He's fun.

In other news, I have eight days of school left before two days of finals and then winter break. This is wonderful. Also, I'm going to Nashville in a week. This is great, too.

The author quoted above about Harry Potter, Sherman Alexie, is really funny. We had to read a book of his and also watch a movie he wrote the screenplay for. I've quoted that one quite a many times. "Sometimes it's a good day to die, and sometimes it's a good day for breakfast." :] He's pretty vulgar in his written stuff, so that's annoying, but his writing style is insanely witty.

Alright, time to go buy an egg nog shake, followed by an egg nog latte, followed by a stomach ache. A glorious, glorious stomach ache. Actually, time to go celebrate the then-boyfriend's (this is the new way a friend and I decided to refer to ex's. It's legit.) birthday with half off appetizers at Applebees.

Happy 17th! One month until I'm no longer teenaged!

Today's Forecast

"Lend me your hand

and we'll conquer them all.

But lend me your heart

and I'll just let you fall."

-Awake My Soul

Let me tell you, the amount of random stress I have been under these past few days makes me really okay with the fact that I'm not trying to write a novel on top of that.

So, last weekend. I drove to Chicago to visit Alyson and tour Columbia College. Both were very, very, successful. I'm seriously looking into transferring, if all these little picky details go my way. After tons of stubborn research, I have come to the conclusion that people just don't get a BA and a BFA. This would take years of school, because BFA programs require no gen ed's... so they have two more years of specific classes. Therefore, even without transferring, it would take forever to graduated with a BA in marketing communication and a MFA in graphic design. There are some places that offer a BA in Art with an emphasis in graphic design, but even my advisor said this is almost worthless. Therefore, I'm picking the one I want to do most: Graphic Design. I think I'm going all in. What's funny is that this is what I wanted my freshman year of high school, but I talked myself out of it. Silly freshman.

Let me tell you, that school is sure swell at capturing you on their tours. I got to tour the fashion design floor. I felt like I was walking into the set of Project Runway.* Their on-campus apartments are the most gorgeously modern apartments I have ever stepped into. Also, the fact that they went on and on about their big name internships and friends jobs kinda didn't hinder my excitement.

I'm telling you guys this before the majority of my friends. Mostly because nothings for sure, but I like telling you guys this.

Anyway, then we drove to see Mumford and Sons that same day. It was a long long day, but SO worth it. I've been struggling with giving that concert the "best concert I've ever been to" label, but let me tell you, it may have been. They played such a long set list, and they only have one cd and one ep! And you could tell they were just having so much fun. They made it seem like they haven't been doing this every night for the past two months. The middle-aged woman who was flailing her arms up and down the whole time while her husband was sitting on his iPhone didn't help things, but we bonded with the couple next to us because of the fact this man and woman were so annoying. It was just so wonderful. I can tell you for a fact, you will never be able to buy an $18 Mumford and Sons ticket ever again. My brother said they were going for $200 for the Nashville concert.

One of the best quotes I have from the weekend was when I was sitting in the waiting room for an oil change with several very elderly people. One elderly woman wasn't talking much, but when she did I'm pretty sure the whole city could hear her. She turned to her friend and said, "GEORGE, DID YA HEAR BRETT FAVRE GOT HIS FACE SLICED OPEN?!"

.... I literally had to hold in my laugh.

Twenty-one hours in the car, a concert, and oil change, and a few life decisions later... I came back to MN. Hola, school.

Inception is at the free theater on campus this weekend, so we're going tonight. Last time I saw this movie I was stranded in the Massive Sinkhole Causing Flood of Milwaukee. Yep, it's got an official title. Anyway, yaay.

Okay, I will be here more often and read other people's blogs more often. Everything will just be less stressful and back to normal now.

*This is mainly due to the fact that it was a room with several sewing machines. Project Runway has probably taught me all I know about making clothes. Translation: I don't know much.