being a grown up rules.

tax time = tax return (as long as i continue to not make a significant amount of money, which is looking to be my lifelong trend if i want to like, care about the world and stuff). and i am so fricking excited about spending my lovely hard earned (or hard deprived? withheld?) money on some fantastical home (well yard, really) improvements!!!

i have some super, duper plans on turning my little house into the bungalow decorated, recycled material, sustainable haven it sooo deserves to be...but i'll tell you about that later ;)

main priority of focus this spring: massive flower garden. i am going to turn the sunny side of my house into a flower patch. i buy TONS of flowers in the summer, pretty much always have fresh flowers in my house so now i save money and have a lovely view coming down the street!!! BUT i am going all out. best flowers money can buy, hence using tax money surplus.

cattle fence. since winter bombarded my back yard with snow, the horrid kudzu and debris in the yard has become somewhat manageable looking. plans for chainsawing the crap out of more of the yard and expanding the fence for my little pooches to have lots of luscious running space will go into full effect as soon as weather permits.

and finally, attempt to save and exploit longest life possible from back deck with a nice pressure wash and new stain. it is a lovely deck and i want to keep it up. it is my favorite place to be in the spring/summer...especially at the night with the stars a shining!!!

yea! i am so grown up i cannot stand it. alert alert!!! even more grown up action taken by me: these projects have been allotted after i put most of my return into savings. gosh. look at me now.

shameless plug

this winter i decided to join a local csa. i frequent the community market but i wanted something that would challenge me in the kitchen and by golly did i get my wish granted. i also have never eaten so many potatoes in my life...but anyhoo...here is my shameless plug:

www.lynchburggrows.org

please, please, PLEASE go check out their website. this mostly volunteer run, in the smack dab middle of the city, friendly, warm, feel good and snuggly each week place is a new fav.
each week i receive an email like the one below...i research the items i am unfamiliar with, seek out some recipes then i pick up my bag of goodies and the fun begins. and i am for real about the potato thing...i have enough soup to last a year. which is awesome!!!

although i look forward to my summer of self sufficiency (hopefully) i can proudly say i haven't bought general produce at the grocery store in months. lemons and limes (use sunkist-union approved!) are the only thing i have been purchasing (with the reg's like cheese and milk and yogurt)

i love, love, LOVE my csa. i love, love, LOVE the volunteers. check it out. find one in your area and i dare you to challenge me on potato soup recipes.

if you don't already love bill withers, it is probably just cause you don't know bill withers sings a bunch of songs that you already love you just don't know his name.

i love how the will ferrell always has bill withers in his movies. i guess it could be someone else but i notice it is the movies will is in...anyhooo...happy valentine's day!

wtf is up with this youtube video? i was looking for a normal one but dj buddy love old school obvi put so much effort into this one he deserves the promo!

soon the daylight will be saved.

someone reminded me the other day that daylight saving time begins on march 14th. that's nineteen days, campers. NINETEEN. 19. 1-9. JOY!!!

me gusta mucho

although diego luna is my favorite of the pair...gael garcia bernal is equally as man beautiful.
um, yeah. pretty he is buying stuff for his gorgeous little baby here...
droool.

cuba libre.

wtf? how is this legal?

i am speechless.

i literally have a copy of this picture that i have had since, like 1999. i had it in my car forever and now it lives on my refrigerator. no joke.

p.s. see every movie he is in immediately please. many feature gael and my secret lover, diego so...double fun.

totally awesome.

i did this forever ago but it would not let me save it...until now. joy!

right here, right now.

i would just like to take a moment, amongst all of my whining about the cold and winter and wishing it were spring and blah blah blah, to acknowledge that life is super awesome. being this age, at this time is pretty much the greatest and i do not want to take any of it for granted, despite the fact that i am a wretched complaining brat about the snow and the season.

at the risk of sounding uber queso: i can honestly say i have accomplished all that i have wanted to by this age. i am not one to set limits or by ___ years old i must have/do/done this, that and those. but as i face the big, bad birthday that is 6 months away...i find myself ready and in the most perfect place. i am kinda bursting with confidence and self satisfaction...

so... i commemorate this time with this blog to be reflected upon as needed for any upcoming days of woe and crankiness.

if only the world could be filled with only cute boys, red seal pale ales, singing aloud, dreams of gardens, pets, and laughs with good friends that never end...

green peace.

i never really thought i would be one of those peeps that was waaay into gardening, but alas, i am. I AM SO FRICKIN EXCITED ABOUT MY GARDEN THIS YEAR I CANNOT STAND TO WAIT UNTIL MAY. MAY!!!
i volunteered to help at this thing last year in my old job and was given a gift card to barnes & noble. i knew right away i wanted to buy a gardening book and i waited and waited. i went to b & n last weekend, took off my coat, sat on the floor and explored the garden books. the one i decided on kicks ass!

so now my dreams are full of these diagrams...i space out into visions of canning tomatoes and beans and peppers and cucumbers...my quest for simple living is coming along quite nicely and i feel less stress and complications with each plan i make that is striving towards more self sufficiency and less corporate consumption.

maybe i miss my hippie college. i know i am stir crazy and having a tough winter. but the prospect of summer eats that came from my yard 20 ft away just gets me all giddy. wook at da whittle pwants and weeves!!!

good news: with tax money, my backyard fence will expand for more animal play AND will construct a giant cage for my garden to deter the biggest groundhog in lynchburg doesn't get into my stash this year. JOY!

dance party.

i had this roommate in college who was really into house music and weed. needless to say we spent a lot of quality time together and had some good times. he was all artsy and was a photographer and talked real slow and all north carolina-like and he lived with me and our other roommate and dealt with our bitchy feminist neo-vegetarianism opinions and my lame boyfriend.

we had some GOOD times. once, we had a pimps and hoes party and basically invited 300 of our closest friends and they brought all their friends and we had djs (this was before people just did the dj thing easily-this was like REAL records djs). we got in trouble and it was worth it. it was also awesome because everyone was dressed like sluts and at my hippie college that mean the boys did the hoes and the girls did the pimps. so anyhoo, my old roomies and i still agree that was one of the best parties EVER and hold it dear in our hearts.

this fatboy slim cd commemorates all that was the fall/spring of '00-'01...(sorry there isn't a cool video, just close your eyes and imagine my hippie male friend with straight hair to his butt in a mini skirt and fishnets sitting like a dude on the back of the couch and it will all be ok)

mmm: late valentine...

i am sorry. i could NOT resist.

you got it.

look. i obvi hate valentine's day just as much as the next schmuck. corporation created holiday blah blah blah consumerism blah blah blah. but let me tell you the secret to valentine's day: take yourself on the best. date. ever. (preferably with a gay male companion) eat an excellent meal. HAVE dessert, a glass of wine. then listen to this song. sooo romantic.



i'm telling you. i did all of the aforementioned suggestions last year. i was in nyc...it was cold and quaint and romantic in the little wine bar, i knew the server and my bff dude friend and i had a BLAST. then i rode the train home with this song on repeat. i rarely disappointment myself. and my imaginary bf's never let me down.

kitty monster.

my friend took this picture many, many, many years ago and it is my kitty monster, rup-rhett. the dude that took it owns a bar and sends out invites for all these bar things and one day there was my rupey!

it is pretty much the greatest picture of him ever (despite the presence of an ex-bf in the shot, bleghh) he's all slim and trim and young and sly and sweet and badass and mischievous and sultry looking. i love this little jerk. today he is much fatter and has a hard time climbging onto things because of his lower region and it's excessive weight. the neighbor asked me if he was a "regular cat" a few months ago. and indeed, he is not. but not in the way the neighbor meant. i think.

i'm the one.

yep. that's mr. big. nothing really significant came from them other than the song below. and that song just happened to be MY ALLTIME FAVORITE LOVE SONG OF 1992. and maybe (DEFINITELY) could be on my top 10 for the rest of my life. i just love this old, terrible hair, cock rock of the 80s & 90s. i would have been the BEST groupie. nah, that is a lie. actually i would not be a good groupie cause i would fight with the other girls too much. i can be a wee bit jealous and territorial.
BUT i would have bagged someone from g n' r. i just know i would have.

please enjoy this valentine's week special on me. you are welcome. umm so there is a copyright on the real video (maybe because it's the only thing worth copyrighting- ha!) so i have to share with you a boring one. apologies.

it's been a long week.

and we all know i still have a thing for stringy haired hippie boys. still.
!
he makes me want to sit in a corner booth in a smoke filled bar and listen to a mexican cover band of nirvana...(actually happened to me once, minus the diego luna part)
look at his little (giant) fro!!!!!
thank you, diego luna, for being so extra hot.

feeling it.

so it goes.

i have had kurt vonnegut on the brain since i finished slaughterhouse 5 last week. i found myself staying up to late with weary eyelids because i did not want to leave his words each night...

it makes me sad to think of all of the close mindedness that has kept others away from his unbelievably touching and raw stories...and i admit sheepishly i am guilty of some form of close mindedness lately...but the spell now is broken!

towards the end of the novel is this picture and quote. it took my breath away and calmed me and excited me and put me at peace, almost immediately...

now if only i could find the perfect frame...

straight from D.F.

holy geez. diego luna is the tallest, sexiest mexican in the entire land of mexico.
i have never seen him in a movie i did not like and i just found out he was in some lame tom hanks business and now i have to go watch it. joy!

only this sexi mexi can pull of the sewn on patch girly hippie shirt look...

geeeyaw! milk was the greatest.

sigh.

IS HE TRYING TO KILL ME? A PSA FOR PLANNING ANIMAL PREGNANCIES!!! i can now die a happy and fully complete woman.

right after i make this my wallpaper on my computer for the rest of my life.

p.s. please go see every movie he has ever been in. now. and stay tuned for next week.

:(

for real. i can't take this friggin weather anymore. i hate complaining about the weather because i like seasons and some change but not this winter ice/snow/can't park in my driveway crap my usually unseasonably warm little central virginia town is accustomed to.

the week is filled with neil young and cat stevens and not in a driving with the windows down on a lovely day with a cute boy singing along way...in a i am not moving until this album plays through completely and then i will probably continue to lay here in silence for a while way.

let's focus on how much of a babe neil is in the video and how awesome it would have been to be in that audience of swinging chicks and dudes. i would love to go to a venue like that, like mtv unplugged was in the 90s.

a good thing.

so per usual i started feeling guilty about whining about life and winter and stuff that i am fortunate and grateful to have that others do not have, like food and shelter and well being...erghh.

i will now try my best to focus on positive things accomplished during this winter weather storm and i realized, i have been reading!!! in lynchburg there was a book encouraged to be read by the community and i read it cause a friend of mine b was badass about promoting it...(AND her blog is badass check it out...i want to go there...on my blogroll)

it was a pretty awesome book. and the main character was waaay hot. i only read books with hot dudes, btw.

so if you recall, reading books on my book shelf is one of those things i put on my birthday list. so since reading the last book was so enjoyable...and i was still finding time to peruse my copy of vogue i began again...
i had never actually read this book, ironically. i had some pretty liberal high school teachers and i went to hippie school you would have thought someone would have put this in front of me, but, alas...they did not. i put it in front of myself and it was most enjoyable.

next i will begin this book again. it has been forever since i have read it so i am excited!

(that makes 2 books down on my shelf, people! wahoo! perhaps i picked the more depressing choices from the shelf but i can be a bit of a glutton for punishment)

finally, in lieu of the death of j.d. salinger i cannot for the life of me find my copy of catcher in the rye...this is making me sad but i am pretty sure it because i had it some where convenient...so give it to me, snow day. i will dedicate you to finding my copy of this favorite and will relish all that is cute boys for the entire day.

there. i feel better and much less bratty.

turn your heartache right into joy.

obvi i am on a 70s hippie rock kick as of late. (yesterday i listened to the eagles for most of the morning. the eagles, people).

i have this slight obsession with songs that are somewhat morally compromising yet catchy and truthful and overall badass (like every frank sinatra song. ever. and most elton john and george michael songs...those boys ain't wanting to sing about no girls, y'all)

the first bar job i had was this rednecky pub and this song was on the jukebox and it was always a joke between the bartenders when we would "discuss" the events or what seemingly appeared to be a precursor to an event at the bar. most "discussions" generally resounded around this form:

bartender 1: woah. susie q. was pretty wasted and snuggling and smooching up on johnny b. isn't her boyfriend, pauly x. in georgia?

bartender 2: yep.

bartender 1: wow. i thought they had been together a while and were pretty serious. hmmm. she sure didn't hide that one...

bartender 2: well, you know what they say, "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."

bartender 1 & 2: hysterical laughter until they discover the barf in the front bathroom.



enjoy the snow storm folks.

oh by the way...

which one's pink? yep. i'm one of those people. i used to lie on my bed and listen to pink floyd full blast in the dark. i remember the times i played certain albums for people and i'd watch as they got hooked. i just saw this box set online and spent a significant amount of time shuffling through it. (the website was super neat-o!)

i am not a traditionally romantic individual...for instance, i find pink floyd romantic and nostalgic and timeless. CHEESY. i know, i know but the beginning years of listening to their music was filled with mind expansion and dreams of what would be and could be and the future. totally and completely: wide open.

i keep the rednecky classic rock station on my radio seek buttons. whenever pink floyd comes on i crank it up and retreat back into the 16 year old that was everything she wanted to be in her head...when i zoned out as a teenager and pink floyd was on, my thoughts and focus all came together. my dreams were clear and exciting.

here are my highlights (in no particular order)...although i honestly cannot pick just a few favorites because at one time i owned every. single. album. yep, i told you: i was one of those people.

what better to express your teen angst with than the wall?

more. this was a soundtrack to a terrible movie about two german addicts that went to an island to withdraw from heroin. they pretty much dropped acid and ran around naked through the entire film. there was one scene where the guy jumped onto a windmill and i saw more than i had ever seen (or really ever needed to see) on a man. i watched it with a male friend. it was NOT what we had expected when previously listening to the album. awkward!

wish you were here. this is what i call romance.

dark side of the moon should really

be in everyone's music collection.

just take my word for it.





my friend b girl and i used to listen this album,

meddle, so much i had to buy several copies it's drippy,

inspiring and opportunistic.

i could call it my favorite. if i had to.

my friend j still remembers the night i drove him around

and played this album for him for the first time. animals is a keeper.

and i love the piggies.

i had this album on a tape in my car for years.

the division bell is a good staple for road trips.

so as of late, i pulled out the old pink floyd (or what i have left) and turned off the lights and was still and silent. i recently remembered why i love music so much and decided that although others have damaged that relationship a little in the past...i am over it. i've invited music back in and we are having a great time together.

mmm: almost there...

michael cera is doing an excellent job turning into man meat.
he needs to make sure his jackets fit a little better, but he's young. let's give him time.

he is effing hilarious. i love his movies and, like most people with a soul, feel a twang of pain when i think about how awesome arrested development was before they murdered it.

good job, cera. keep it up. i look forward to seeing more of you that doesn't involve poo and masturbating jokes in the future but whatevs. i still think my humor is that of a 21 year old boy.

and feel free to sing more songs by the guess who.

thank you and goodbye.