WHY aren't these things real???

James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach holds a special place in my heart. And Tim Burton's film creation is just as wondrous. Living inside a peach would be gross, but Roald Dahl makes it seem enticing. I wish I could meet a bunch of friendly insects who play the violin and such, and I wish I could fly, via a piece of fruit, to NYC. I remember always hating James' aunts and I wanted to punch them in the nose for being so mean to lil Jamesy poo. Aunt Spiker (the one with the severe cheekbones) frightened me. And rightfully so. She looked like an anorexic clown and she whipped James with a belt!!! Aunt Sponge however was never quite as threatening. She was like a plump rollie pollie.

Harry Potter

I know I am probably the 5 millionth person to be stating that I wish Hogwarts was real. But I DO! I truly believe that I could just fit right in with the bunch. Hermione and I could study together, Ron and I could make out and tell jokes, and Harry and I could play quidditch. The four of us would travel to Three Broomsticks and drink butterbeer all day. And then we'd sit in the common room area by the fire and, and, and we'd just do EVERYTHING! The way I feel when I read HP books is ineffable. It is the numero uno book at making me feel like I live in another world. Dear Harry, Ron, and Hermione, if you are real, come find me. I will leave behind the life I live if it means I get to be your pal and live in your magical world. Contact me via Hedwig please. Or just use floo powder and show up in my family room. Either one will make me pee my pants. (Sidenote: this is my favorite HP bookcover. The colors, the prancing unicorn, the whimsical purple and orange sherbert sky, the two lit windows in Hogwarts... I love it all!)

Clouds

Ok well obviously I know clouds are real, but the whole jumping on them...not so much. But they should be bouncy. They should be just like trampolines, and they should smell like candy, and they should have complimentary milkshakes with whipped cream every time you went on them, and you should definitely be able to jump from cloud to cloud. When I was little I was convinced that the aforementioned actually happened, but just not until you went to heaven and became an angel. Last year when I took a weather and climate class and we talked about clouds and how they are just vapor, I wanted to standup and shout at the professor, "You're wrong!!! You're wrong!!!" But I never did.

things that never fail to make Me smile

1) This picture of silly, young English lads wearing galoshes. The one hanging upside down is supposedly Emma Watson's boyfriend.

2) This scene from A Charlie Brown Christmas. My favorite line is, "Charlie Brown is blockhead, but he did buy a nice Christmas tree."

Reminiscing of Christmastime when I was little is my favorite. Only fond memories. Snuggling with my mom, dad, and brothers and watching Home Alone, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Snowman (ahhhhh this is actually probably my favorite favorite), PeeWee Herman's Christmas (the one with Charo and where everyone brings PeeWee a fruitcake).

3) The song "With Arms Outstretched" by Rilo Kiley

- The lead singer is beautiful and I'm jealous of her red hair.

- The guitarist is from Boy Meets World AND Salute Your Shorts!?!?! JACKPOT!

- I like how she silences the guitar with such a swift and gentle hand movement. You go, girl!

Oh Abe

So this semester is going to be a lot, lot, lot, lot of writing. I'm taking two writing intensive courses: American Lit and British Lit before 1750 (yikes!), Creative Writing, and Film production. All of the classes (minus the Early British Lit) are subjects that really interest me. But after looking at the syllabi, I think I want to cry. Sooo many papers and projects. And in such little time. It seems as though professors make their syllabus with the intention of making everything clear and organized, but often time I feel like they just confuse and overwhelm me. But you know what? It's ok. Because I have other things on campus that make me non-overwhelmed. Things like this...

Going to Badger football games with my friends!!! Sporting the red, tailgating, the whole crowd singing Build Me Up Buttercup, Sweet Caroline, Shout, Hey Baby I want to know if You'll be my Girl, etc. etc

Going on dates with Andrew at the Cabana Room and eating some of the most delicious food ever. And the interior is so nice. Red and turqoise walls and dimmed lighting (oo la la) and paintings.

Reading in between classes on Bascom Hill. Whispering sweet nothings to Honest Abe and people watching as students walk to classes.

Tie Dye Love

The final products

Tie Dying out on our balcony on the last day of summer

Extra comfy Hanes v-necks :)

Tuesday was the last day of summer and it was gorgeous out. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and everyone was in a super good mood. That is, except me. I was so freaking cranky!!! And I think the fact that everyone else was in such a good mood got me even crankier. I usually love being on campus in Madison at the beginning of the school year because everyone is excited to be back and is outfitting their new apartments. And I usually love taking in State Street and the crowds of people who inhabit it. So many different characters: a guy dressed in an orange jumpsuit playing a piccolo next to the Lutheran church, the tiny woman who waves me over to taste a sample at her Chinese food stand, nervous freshman walking around with their parents buying their books (acting embarrassed that they are with moms and pops and yet secretly sad they have to say goodbye), the hippies playing hacky sack on Library Mall, the hipsters drinking their coffee at Espresso Royale, students playing frisbee on Bascom Hill, and the crazy, uber religious guy that shouts into a microphone about being saved from the wrath of hell. Usually I welcome them all (even the "wrath of hell" guy because he is kinda funny to watch) and have come to recognize them as predictable and familiar, something to take comfort in because they give an iconic stamp to the college I have grown to love. But not on Tuesday. All I wanted to do was flip everyone the bird. Things that were making me mad: 1) Woke up feeling really hot and uncomfortable 2)Major headache 3) Had to go back to the bookstore because my teacher decided to add ANOTHER $60 book to the list of 7 books I already bought for his class 4) TOOOO many people on State street and I'd say most of them were slow walkers 5) Walked to the fruit stand and picked out all my goods only to realize I only had my credit card on me and they only took cash GRRRR 6) Had to make a hundred calls to Madison Gas & Electric and figure out billing stuff because they screwed up my new apartment address 7) Walked to another bookstore that is really far away and find out they just sold the last copy of the book I needed 8) Someone nearly knocked me down while running to catch a bus 9) Went to go make a turkey sandwich and remembered that I used the last of my turkey the day before

But then my roommates suggested we tie dye shirts and all was well. And now that I actually write down all the stuff that was making me cranky, I see that I wasn't actually having that bad of a day. Whatever, I was just being a crab, and every once in a while I think it's okay to be one.

Undocumented Happenings of Summer that Deserve Documentation

School starts en dos dias. YIKES! And though I am sad to leave behind lazy days and beautiful sunshine, I look forward to a fresh start of my junior year. Straight A's here I come (.... hopefully... probably not... it would be nice... already dreading the thought of papers... and pop quizzes... and difficult tests... AHHHH). But I do love the beginning of the school year, when it's easy to have an optimistic outlook on all the hills that lie ahead (is it lay or lie? I'm an English major and it still throws me through loops trying to figure that one out. That's probably not good.) But I am most excited about... FALL WEATHER!!! Being outside with the leaves falling, wearing comfy sweatshirts, drinking apple cider or hot cocoa, bonfires, Badger football games, the smell of autumn air, cool breezes, and the list goes on and on and on...

But before getting into major fall mode, I mustn't forget to scribble down some highlights from summer that I have neglected to record. Oh summer, I love you... just not as much as I love fall. No hard feelings.

1) My dear friend Catie visited me in Madison. And I loved it. Because she is funny/makes me laugh and we share a love for Disney'sThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.

2) Dinner at Potter's (an unfittingly named Mexican restaurant in Naperville) with some of my Brosnan cousins (Bridget, Pattie, & Nora).

3) I went with Sam and Liana to Madison's Comedy Club and drank grasshopper drink things that tasted like mint chocolate chip milkshakes.

4) Family reunion with my dad's side (He's is one of about 60 cousins...so it's big) at the ole' LaSalle Manor.

5) Took a trip to Kenosha with Andrew and got to eat at Big Star and see the lighthouse!

6) Madison Orchestra on the Square! Listening to some good music at the Capitol. This picture reminds me of a Where's Waldo page. And that orange balloon is sticking out like a sore thumb.

Going Downtown with my ma

Last year for mother's day I made my mom a book called "When I think of my mom..." and on each page I wrote a memory from my past that reminded me of my mom. And then of course I added pictured and made it all cute. Well, here is one of those entries. Just short and sweet and simple.

When I think of my mom... I think of going downtown.

"Entering the solid, gray, building, mom would repeat the name of the floor our car was parked on. May. Floor number five. Before Bloomingdale's entrance was the shop with all the headpieces. So many pretty things that would never be bought. But we bought something. The crown of flowers. Tiny, white flowers. You had them put little blue beads in the crown to match my dress, the dress I'd wear to crown the blessed Virgin Mary the following week. We finished off our day of shopping at Tucci Benucch. It's closed now. We ordered bruschetta and just kept each other company. I was so happy that day. I hope you were too."

This is my dresser and the back right photo is one my mom took of me the day of May crowning. I'm wearing the crown of flowers we bought. I still have it and hope to maybe wear it on my wedding day.

On our latest excursion downtown, we didn't get to all the shopping, but we did go on the Wendella Boat Ride and took the Architecture Tour on the Chicago River. We've done it twice before, but it never gets old. It was a beautiful day outside and needless to say I snapped away at all the humongo buildings we passed. Enjoy!

The Sear's Tower and the Marina City Complex which is featured on Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. Architecturally, it's my favorite.

A view of the city.

Homes on the Chicago River that I hope to live in someday. So quaint and perty.

1970s Irish Suburbia

There are so many reasons to love Ireland.

And this movie is one of them.

I saw this movie at the Wisconsin Film Festival back in April.

And I liked it.

First of all, the director has the same name as my grandma: Marian Quinn.

Second, the lead character is so darling and relatable.

Third, the soundtrack has Elvis Costello on it.

Fourth, Ireland scenery is soooo pretty.

ps Right now I'm at home in Illinois and there's a thunderstorm (i LOVE them).

And I'm lying in bed watching home videos from when I was 3.

pps Earlier I was watering the flowers in my backyard and I saw a garter snake.

And I screamed loudly. More like shrieked.

I've never seen one before.

It was black with a yellow stripe down its back.

Ewwwww!

Lazy Day

" No ripple stirs the placid pool,

When my adventurous line is cast,

 A truce to sport, while clear and cool,

The mirrored clouds slide softly past.

The sky gives back a blue divine,

         And all the world’s wide wealth is mine  "

- Paul Laurence Lauren

Laying out in my backyard with Katie (and Sam not pictured) playing cards and listening to Sinead O'Connor & Tracy Chapman 

For Lenny, EVERY day is a lazy day

Little Nuggets & Au Revoir Kevin

On August 7th my cousin Bridget had twins.

Two precious baby girls.

Emily and Madeline.

And I got to hold them.

:)   :)  :)

Emily resting on Madeline

Holding Madeline

On August 8th Kevin left for Massachusetts.

He's going to be teaching in New Bedford at...

Nativity Preparatory: a private, tuition-free school for boys Grades 5-8.

I hope Kev picks up an accent.

The night before he left we had his birthday/going away partaaaay.

The staple = Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake

The kids: Me, Kevin, Matthew

Blast from da past:

Kev's Birthday Aug 2008

Kev's Birthday Aug 2006

Kev's Birthday circa 1989

(What a happy young fella)

Find a Penny...

A few weeks ago I saw a penny on the floor in the Chili's restroom.  I didn't pick it up, but had it been a silver dollar or a Sacajawea coin I may have reconsidered. And so, I sent this text message to a few of my friends and brothers "Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. But what if you find it in the bathroom of a Chili's?"  These are the responses I got...

Sam (mi amiga from college)

"Dealbreaker."

(Sam and I at Kyle's house back in November)

Owen (mi amigo from high schoooool)

"You already ran out of luck; you resorted to eating at Chili's. You can't be having a good day."

(Owen and I at Relay for Life 2007)

Matt (mi oldest hermano)

"I'd lick it because Chili's is delicious and therefore everything inside a Chili's is delicious.  That is a fact."

(Matt and I last summer in our backyard posing for the Christmas card that mom never ended up even sending out.  This was probably like the 50th photo and mom told Matt to put on his best smile.  This was the result. GOOFBALL!)

Kevin (mi second oldest hermano)

"Best luck EVER!"

(Kev and I at the condo in Florida on his Birthday. Aug 2006)

Sammy Rae (one of my oldest and bestest friends)

"Double good luck? Or maybe just an STD."

(Sammy Rae and I at our kindergarten graduation. Awww so cute!)

Dear Sleep, Why do we have such a complicated relationship?

This was written at 1:54 a.m. on July 23rd.  Naturally, I should've been either finishing my homework or sleeping.

Lately I have gotten into this really, really weird trend of waking up early.  And I mean, I’m talking early.  The past 5 days I have woken up at 6 at the latest (4:05 at the earliest).  And if anyone who knows me is reading this (probably no one is reading this), then they know that I am not an “early bird gets the worm” kinda girl.  I enjoy my sleep. Very, very much so.  So anyway, there of course is reason to this madness (and madness to the reason).  My summer school class has me reading these articles that are fairly interesting, but they are SO DARN LONG.  Like 30 pages in tiny, tiny print and it’s the sort of article that has like 3 columns per page making it extra dense. (Hey Charles-Dickens-wannabe, you aren’t getting paid by the word. FYI). And I have to read 4 articles each night. And then write a paper on one of them for the next day.  And I have a quiz on them every morning so I can’t really slack on the reading or skim it.  Ok, ok so you’re reading this (again, I understand the “you” is an abyss and that actually no one is reading this. That’s cool; I’m still going to rant) and are thinking stop complaining and just do it.  And that’s why I really need to get someone to sit next to me and like every 10 minutes make sure I am not daydreaming, because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.  I’ll “read” a paragraph and then take a subconscious 20 minute break where I contemplate what people in Switzerland think of Swiss Miss hot chocolate; Or I imagine which flowers would be in my hypothetical wedding bouquet; Or I take a trip down memory lane to 2^nd grade and reflect on how sweaty and red Timmy D. would look after playing some intense crab-soccer in gym class; that boy sure did share a striking resemblance to a tomato (a sweaty tomato. Yes, I know those don’t exist…but for the sake of the story, go wit it).   

And so, the moral of the story is don’t daydream.  Because it causes you to lengthen (by hours) the time it takes to do your work, and then you feel guilty about not finishing your work so you stay up to obscene hours and try to finish it.  But then you realize that you aren’t actually reading because it’s 3 in the morning and your eyes have this feeling that they have a film covering them, making it nearly impossible to keep them open.  And then you pray for a snow day.  And then you remember it’s summer and the chances of snow are pretty slim.  And so then you also realize that you haven’t even started your paper that’s due the next morning and kinda freak out. So you set your alarm for 5:30ish.  You go to sleep. You wake up at 5:30 and the first thing that crosses your mind is “OH HELL NO!” and you hit the snooze button and sleep for another 15 minutes.  You wake up, rub your eyes, splash cold water on your face, make a lil Dunkin Donuts Coffee, and get down to business.

You arrive to class feeling/looking like a zombie.  You are pretty pissed off at your current state.  You look at the clock and see it’s 10:15 and get nostalgic about the days when you were a kid and summer at this hour meant watching Scooby Doo with your brother and hearing the voice of your mom call you down for breakfast.  And then you remember that you don’t have any milk and need to pick that up after class (you of course forget).  You then quickly read over your notes because you are about to take a quiz.  You have bittersweets thoughts in your head regarding your teacher: damn you for assigning all that reading…but I guess I can forgive you because you are like the nicest guy ever and have this geeky, black framed glasses look going on.  And then you think “oh dear I have a haphazard crush on my 28 year old married professor”. And then you take the quiz. And then you sit in lecture for 2.5 hours.  And then you repeat all the above for 4 more days until the weekend.   

This was taken at 4:15 in the morning last week.  An hour I really do not like to see. But it did kinda look pretty outside.  The sun was just starting to peek through.    

Allan's Centennial Garden and Farmer's Market

Today Andrew and I had a beautiful, lazy day.

Went to the farmer's market which is held every Saturday at the capitol.

So many baked good.

Little kids running around.

Pretty flowers.

Homemade jewelry.

And the list goes on and on.

And then we made lunch and rode our bikes to Allan's Centennial Garden to eat.

Mucho weddings pictures were being taken there.

It's such a wonderful place.

A large Victorian house surrounded by different types of gardens:

A French garden, An English garden, An Italian garden, A Japanese garden, etc. etc.

It reminds me of the book "Secret Garden". 

Or maybe "The Velveteen Rabbit".

Both good.

Andrew eating a Fuji apple. But convinced that he got ripped off because it didn't taste like Fuji.

A cute archway.

 

Really pretty flowers. But I don't know the name. Anyone?

And me looking out into the garden. 

Allan's Centennial Garden  :)

  

The French Garden - Fleur de lis.

Wisconsin Wild Flowers.

And zi farmer's market...

Blast from the past: Mi roommate Mallory looking like a chicken at the Farmer's Market back in Sept. Cluck Cluck.