gershwin, ezekiel, and a cupcake.

I painted pumpkins yesterday evening! I don't like carving them, that's just icky. Last year was a little tragic in the painting department. I didn't have a clear vision and my pumpkin sucked and everyone else had totally awesome ones. There was Harry Potter, Lady Gaga and a panda. Mine was just a pumpkin with pink hair and what appeared to be olives for eyes:

I was devastated with my poor performance, so this put a lot of pressure to do better than last year, but also didn't set the bar too high, because anything would be an improvement.

Andrew was super jazzed to be painting pumpkins!!!! He painted Gerswhin, the monkey, who comes with a banana in his favorite ear! I love my peacock pumpkin! It turned out so goooood. If you disagree with this I don't want to hear about it because I'm proud of myself and that's all that matters. His name is Ezekiel, Zeke if you're his friend. We listened to Pandora's "Halloween Party Mix" while painting them. They had some rad 1950's halloween jamz for inspiration. I'm off to work on my Katy Perry halloween costume!

Tootles!

neon watches!

From my last post about 4 Simple Goals they have proven to be not so simple. I haven't blogged at all yet since becoming a sassy working profesh! I'm trying to figure out being a working girl and fun things too. I'm thinking of what I want to do with my blog, website, and a million other things.

From my 4 Simple Goals I've met one of them so far:

I got a watch! A really rad neon pink one just like I wanted. Andrew got a neon green one too because we're totally adorable and make people want to barf.

Other fun things I've been up to involve going to my first roller derby bout, organizing my room a ton, and I made guacamole which is part of one of my goals of making new foods! I found that 5 new things a month was a pretty ambitious goal for someone who makes nothing. I also got a pet cactus for my birthday! He just survived a transplant into his new pot and he is doing much better. His name is Charlie and I love him.

Hopefully soon I'll get the hang of being a grown up and will have more exciting, more frequent updates for you. Later tonight I'm painting pumpkins. Hopefully it doesn't turn out as tragically as last year. Well it's almost the end of my lunch break!

Tootles!

four simple goals...

This entry is inspired from this blog I enjoy, A Beautiful Mess <-- Click that link right there to check it out. The general gist if you don't want to read the original post is to create four simple goals you want to accomplish before 2011. First of all when did it get so close to 2011, it just became 2010?! Second of all this is really rad and I'm totally inspired by the challenge. It's perfect timing with my "grown up" life starting in Harrisonburg. Here are my goals in no particular order of importance:

1) Start an inspiration wall. I've wanted one of these bad boys for awhile and moving into a new place is such a fantastic time to start one. Since my apartment is completely empty right now, minus an air mattress and Marcela (my mac) and Regg, I have all of the walls to choose from!

2) Try out 5 new recipes a month. This one is probably going to be the hardest one, but since the extent of my current cooking involves mainly breakfast foods (cereal, pancakes, eggs) and pasta the options for new recipes are pretty wide, but putting the effort in is going to be tough. So if you want to join me for dinner sometime to make this one more fun let me know, oh or if you have any suggestions of stuff I should attempt too!

3) Go on a picnic at that newish playground in Harrisonburg. I've wanted to go there forever and just haven't and who doesn't love picnics! Maybe even a night time picnic! Ohhh and I could take some of my new recipes with me on this adventure. Or I could have little kid foods since it's a playground. Anyway this is just for funzies and I'm still a little girl even though I have a grown up job now.

4) Buy a watch. I really want a neon watch or a white watch that has links & isn't rubbery. Weird I know, but I think they're cool. Maybe one like this! I just have to get around to committing to the search.

These are my four simple goals to have complete by the end of 2010! I'll keep you posted on the progress. I also found this blog because she was inspired by the four simple things too. She makes a list of things to do for the year on her birthday according to her age, so a list of 24 things to do when I'm 24 is soon going to be added to this blog in September! I guess I'm just really into goal setting right now? It's a cool way to think about what you're doing with your life! So if you want to join in the fun let me know.

Tootles,

Jess

katy perry + jess = BFF

Lately I've become a little (a lot) obsessed with Katy Perry. I think that Katy Perry and I would most definitely be BFFs. I know that this is very much stereotypical of my teeny bopper tendencies, but out of all the celebs (Miley, T. Swift, Selena Gomez, etc etc) Katy Perry would totally be my friend in real life. I'm also aware that if you don't know me this probably makes me seem a little delusional, ehhh you'll have that. I'm ok with the judgement.

It was not love at first sight, or first listen for me. I remember hearing "I Kissed a Girl" for the first time on the radio and thinking something along the lines of "ugh, this is awful and gimmicky ". Then I heard it a few more times that summer and slowly started to become a major fan and enjoyed the fact that she didn't take herself too seriously and it was just a fun summer song.

Later that summer I went to Warped Tour for the first time ever. Katy Perry was performing and I was excited to see her live. My little bro was too cool to see Katy Perry and was off at one of the other stages, so I rocked out alone. She was wearing a really cute outfit and this just further ignited my love of her. I took a really snazzy photo at her merch booth:

Let's fast forward to my current love for Katy Perry. My roommate once said, "You are the Katy Perry in my life", I don't know if I have ever received a better compliment. I love "California Gurls" and it's a perfect summer song, but the real obsession started to grow with the release of the single "Teenage Dream". I started watching a lot of interviews on YouTube of Katy Perry and this is where I've come to the conclusion that we would totally be friends in real life.

Katy Perry is super quirky, girlie, and chill and that's why I'm pretty sure we'd be friends. We could go on really random adventures and we'd obviously be really adorable. Her style is cute and unique without being GaGa crazy. She got a cute strawberry tattoo and gave it a name, which is something I would totally do too. She's been compared to Punky Brewster, and oh wait who was my doppleganger on Facebook, oh that's right Punky Brewster. These are just a few similarities and reasons why Katy Perry and I would be BFFs. So Katy Perry if you google yourself and some how discover this and want to be BFFs I'm game.

As for now I'm waiting for August 24th when her album comes out(it's going to smell like cotton candy!!!) and I'll just have to continue embarrassing myself by singing "Teenage Dream" at red lights and getting too into it and having really cool friends like Caitlin Heinlen see me and call me out for it.

the rest is still unwritten...

Ok, so the last episode of The Hills aired on Tuesday and I watched. I wouldn't call myself a die-hard Hills fan at all. I have some fond memories of watching it with my roommates junior year, but I've never really stayed up to date since then. So a few seasons have passed and I've caught an occasional episode here and there while I've been bumming around on weekends and ended up catching the marathon on the Tuesday of the series finale.

Watching the series finale was a little emotional. I didn't cry like a baby or anything, I mean it's The Hills not Toy Story 3 here. Why did I feel such an attachment to these characters and their dramatic lives? Yeah I love that Kristin's a bitch and I have a soft spot for Audrina and Justin Bobby, but there's more to it than that.

I think it's because I've grown up with these girls. Not in the sense that we live down the street from each other and went to the same elementary school type of growing up together, but more like we were going through the same stages of life at the same time. I was in high school when Laguna Beach was first on-air and now they're in their early 20s about to embark on this new more grown up stage of their lives and so am I. They were all experiencing an element of unknown. What's going to happen to them after the show? What's going to happen to me after college? We'll see.

I also loved the ending. If you haven't seen it you can check out the whole last episode at mtv.com. I loved the mystery behind it. I think this is a sign that I'm growing up a little too. A few years ago the unknown would have driven me crazy, but now I'm kind of digging it. It was nice knowing you. I don't know how I am going to fill this guilty pleasure void in my life.

people at jmu make me smile.

5- We Are JMU from Jon Combs on Vimeo.

The other day a friend had this video posted as her facebook status. I love it and wanted to do my own so here they are:

What would yours be? If you don't go to JMU use something else that has a special place in your heart ;-) Leave me a comment and let me know!!

a few favorites

As I sit here in Harrison lab, exactly one week away from graduation, I'd like to take a few minutes to share my favorite places at JMU and in the Harrisonburg area. I've developed quite a fond attachment to them between move-in day in 2005, pictured to your right, and now.

Hanson Field: I lived in Hanson Hall freshman year and had a lot of fantastic times in Hanson Field. A lot of these involved sports. Snow football, where I intercepted the ball and returned it for a touch down. Practicing soccer for another Champs intramural victory. Dominating sand volleyball until 2 am causing my feet to freeze and homework to be neglected.

Hillside Lab: All I can say about this is that it was basically my second home my last two years at JMU. 90% of my homework was completed here as well as a ton of facebook stalking.

Old Dominion Coffee: I know this doesn’t exist anymore, sadly, but it’s still one of my favorite spots in Harrisonburg. It had such a homey vibe and was great for studying or having conversations with a friend over a cup of coffee.

TDU: When I toured JMU as a potential student I thought TDU was a groovy place. My tour guide said people take naps here and leave notes on themselves saying “Wake me up for class at 3”. I never saw this, but I might have taken a nap here once or twice. It was also a great place to hang out with friends, do homework, and play a little tambourine here and there.

DHall: Let’s be real, I ate here at least once a day freshman year. When peanut butter pie or peanut butter passion are on the menu my day is instantly fantastic. I think I might end up starving after I graduate without dhall there to feed me my favorite comfort foods with a swipe of my JAC card at the door.

Mr. J’s: This has become a nearly every weekend tradition. I’ve had many recaps of the crazy weekend events here. Bagels are also one of my favorite foods & Mr. J’s has a mean everything bagel. Great people, conversation, and food are a killer combination.

The Nile: One week I think I spent 4 straight nights at the Nile. It’s one of those places that some of my friends just associate with me and I don’t hate it. Enjoying live music with friends and a PBR in hand is definitely one of the best ways to spend any day of the week.

MGL: McGraw-Long Hall, for those of you who have no clue what MGL stands for, has a pretty special place in my heart. This is the dorm where I was a FrOG for 2k8. I met some of the greatest people through this experience and owe a large part of who I am today to them. MGL was my go-to place if I had time to kill and I was on campus.

Wilson Steps: The Wilson steps are always going to be the place I think of when I think of JMU. I’ve spent a lot of time in between classes, skipping classes, and hanging out with friends here. I don’t really have the words to describe the significance the Wilson steps have to me, just know it’s a lot.

There it is, my list of favorite places at JMU and the Harrisonburg area. As you can see most of these places involve people. The thing that makes something one of my favorite places is that it has brought me together with the people I’ve met. These people are the things I’m going to remember most about JMU, the places I shared with them are just a random detail.