To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird turned 50 this month. July eleventh to be exact. The book is one of my favorites. The kind of book that makes me yearn for a simpler time. I just wanna sit on that porch all day long and watch folks pass me by. In retrospect, had I been born with any acting talent I think I would have made a darn good Scout. She is just a more extreme version of my childhood self. Plus, the haircut is almost dead on.

Here are my favorite quotes from the book:

“Talking to Francis gave me the sensation of settling slowly to the bottom of the ocean.” pg. 92

“Atticus picked up The Mobile Press and sat down in the rocking chair Jem had vacated. For the life of me, I did not understand how he could sit there in cold blood and read a newspaper when his only son stood an excellent chance of being murdered with a Confederate Army relic. Of course Jem antagonized me sometimes until I could kill him, but when it came down to it he was all I had. Atticus did not seem to realize this, or if he did he didn’t care.” pg. 119

“Jee crawling hova, Jem! Who do you think you are?” pg. 157

anthropologie is an expensive meadow of beauty

...or something like that.

In a month, I'm attending a wedding in St. Paul, Minnesota. I need a dress.

Maybe if I become even more freckly, I will be deceivingly somewhat tan and can pull off this number.

Word on the street is that for every Anthropologie dress you buy, they throw in one of these baller chairs for free.

OK that's a lie. But them chairs would look pretty darn cute on my upcoming front porch.

just observing

I went to a show at High Noon Saloon. Stood in the back of the place with some friends and waited for a Minneapolis band Sleeping in the Aviary to take the stage. It was the first time in a long time that I didn't feel the need to talk. No real desire to chirp in, give my two cents, or participate in a conversation where I didn't even know what everyone was talking about. Completely content with just listening and staring off into space. I played two games of pinball. I scored something like 3 million which I thought was okay. Some guy in a plaid shirt came up a little bit later and scored 11 million.

I need to up my game.

Strutting

If I could strut to one song, this would be it. If you haven't seen Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown", you better got on that. The film blew my mind. And the soundtrack? Absolutely awesome. To say the least.

Somebody New

This is my go-to shower song. In case you were wondering. Which I know you weren't. Despite it having little or no relation to my life, it's one of the few songs I can for sure say I know completely by heart (+ Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows).

I know (I know)
You belong to somebody new
But Tonight you belong to me
Although (although) we're apart
Your part of my heart
And tonight you belong to me

Way down by the stream
How sweet it will seem
Once more just to dream
In the moonlight
My honey I know (I know)
With the dawn that you will be gone
But tonight you belong to me

Way down, way down along the stream
How very, very sweet it will seem
Once more just to dream
In the silvery moonlight
My honey, I know (I know)
With the dawn that you will be gone
But tonight you belong to me
Just to little old me

Scrubbing boarding school floors

(the above title is pretty misleading)

Without much thought or reason, I have come to the conclusion that I want to teach English at a boarding school on the East coast. Like Massachusetts, Vermont, or Connecticut. I told my dad and his response was, "Who do you think you are?Harry Potter?" He then proceeded to wash the dishes.

Hmmm, so was that a sign of approval or disapproval?

{Kent School in Connecticut. Not too shabby}

In other news...

I had every intention of going to the gym today at 6 o'clock.

Three hours later I'm waking up to my telephone ringing and I'm lying in my parent's bed.

I'm not quite sure how that adds up.

Yesterday I got coffee with my friend Claire who is currently living in Grinnell (where she goes to school).

Could talk for hours and hours about nothing and everything with that girl.

After departing, I received this text from her: "TLC - No Scrubs - on the radio. Bummmmmp it."

With no coincidence, I was already jamming to it.

Growing up, despite not knowing what a "scrub" was, I sang that song with a passion like no other.

Rock On

The juxtaposition of the video with the lyrics is just too much. And by "too much", I mean perfect.

90s, it has been awhile.

{BOYFRIEND://best_coast from Theo Anthony on Vimeo.}

Madison

Right now I am a good tired.

The kind of tired that comes with laughing too much, dancing like a goof, making late night stops to get cheese steaks (ok cheese fries too), and staying up until 3:30 to talk to friends on your porch.

Sitting back-to-back to one another and silently enjoying being young. Shared smiles are enough for me to know they feel the same.

Thank you gals for accompanying me on a wonderful trip to Madison.

"Let us linger here in the foolishness of things" - unknown

oh hey you guys! (left to right - Mal, Lauren, Anne, Jackie, Sam, Paige)

Paige, missed the sundress memo.

He found his spot, and he ain't giving it up.
A guy named Suggs.
Lauren and Mallory

City sounds.

Babysitting

{via}

Last week I babysat for two 10-year-old boys who challenged me to a basketball game. I happily agreed because I use to play and I enjoy the sport. I have learned though in most cases it's best to just let the youngsters win, that way you don't have to deal with any sore losers. So, we're playing two on one - them against me. I make a few shots, they make a few. All is well. Then one boy starts some major taunting. I let it slide for a little bit, I mean, whatever he's just a kid and having fun. But then it escalates and any time he makes a basket he runs up to me and before giving me the ball says with a glare in his eye, "We're smoking you, you giiiiiiirl."

Well, that was it. I decided to go all "Billy-Madison-dodgeball-scene" on him. I started throwing elbows (gentle ones) and stuffing their shots. I'm a terrible person. I started to feel bad so I let them win by one.

Here is what I've observed to be popular with the youth of today

1) Rummage through babysitter's purses. Once they find a camera, they like to either take lots of pictures of themselves or demand the babysitter tapes them as they make dance routines to Selena Gomez songs.

2) Say their parents would let them do stuff that clearly their parents wouldn't actually let them do. "My mom says that if we're listening to music with swears we're allowed to swear too." What?

3) Taunt the babysitter during games with lines such as, "I'm gonna smoke you." Whatever, kid. You weigh like 60 pounds and are half my height. (see above story)

4) Refer to their farts as "toots".

5) Act either extremely shy or extremely crazy when their parents around. Why can't you just be even keeled and not hide behind your mom's leg like you're scared of me especially since I know the second they leave you're going to be begging me to give you piggyback rides?

6) Call dibs on either being the 16-year-old girl or the dog whenever we play house.

7) Refuse to believe me when I attempt to communicate with them that eating 6 ice cream sandwiches 10 minutes before they go to bed just isn't a good idea. Trust me. I know from experience.

blah blah blah i'm running late for class

this summer i'm pretty sure i've eaten my weight in string cheese. gross. stomach growling and very upset with me.

maybe i'm delusional, but it seems to me that the song "it's my life" by Bon Jovi comes on the radio waaaaaay too often. Especially considering A) It's a song from the early 2000's and B) It's not even good.

Here is something that likely won't fail to make you laugh at least a tiny bit.

speaks for itself

sitting back and letting myself laugh

Here are a few things this past week that have made me take a mental note to "never forget this moment".

{via}

1) Our electricity was out for a couple of days after a storm hit Chicago. No internet, an uncharged laptop, no TV. AKA the perfect time to snuggle up to a book. Oh wait, it was nine at night and I couldn't see tiny print and I couldn't find a darn flashlight if my life depended on it. So I just sat there in the dark. In my family room. Alone. Well, with my dog.

But then my dad came home and surprised me with an mint chocolate chip ice cream sundae. Awww shucks, dad. We chitter chattered a little bit, but for the most part we soaked in the pleasant, peaceful silence as gentle raindrops began to fall outside.

2) My dear cousin Kelly got engaged in April and is getting married next August. I kinda love love everything and anything wedding related, so needless to say I've been excitedly jumping at every invite to go wedding dress shopping. Last night we went to a place where Kelly found one she liked, but she wasn't quite ready to commit. But forget the dresses, the ladies that worked at this boutique were the real show stoppers. In a bad way.

The main gal helping us had a comment for everything and in a smug-annoying-trying to be funny way, criticized the place Kelly is thinking about having the reception. Which is a bunch of malarkey because we were three years ago for my other cousin's wedding and it was absolutely beautiful. Then she bragged to us about donating to charities and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo that had nothing to do with us finding a dress. Oh and she also told Kelly she was "over shopped" and she would only let her try on a veil with two dresses even though Kelly had it narrowed down to three. I don't know, maybe I'm just not familiar with wedding dress shopping (because I'm not) but this lady was really getting on my nerves.

Not to mention the salon owner was perched in the back like a cat. Didn't even know she was there until she abruptly answered Kelly's question, "Could I get my measurements?" with a a harsh "NO. Unless you are ready to buy the dress." Cat lady scared the bejeezus out of me.

3) Sitting on the couch with my dad and having him show me how to use his new Ipad is about the best thing in the entire world. It's safe to say that my dad is fairly technology illiterate. Ya know, he likes things old school. Like type writers. Which only two years ago was his main method of writing letters for work. But anyway, he went to his first class on how to use this lil trinket, and it is really cute seeing him explain everything. "Oh oh and Kathleen if you press this button, you can control the brightness of the screen." OR, "How the heck do I get to my email? We went over this in class. Don't tell me. Don't tell me." He may be one of the world's biggest advocates for returning to a simpler time, but I have a feeling he is going to really enjoy this bugger.