Hawaii

In less than two weeks, I will be here. In Honolulu. And then Kona. And then Hilo. Wow.

This American Life

This show began as a radio program featured on NPR but Showtime recently picked up two seasons of a television version. Simply put, this show is breathing life into me by its incredible capacity to capture stories and reveal human nature in that process. This short cartoon narrative struck me as particularly poignant.

Eple

Fascinating sound and even more fascinating video. I probably won't post for a while because I need to simply absorb this one. Fantastic.

Jump On It

Prom

Amadou & Miriam

This couple is from Mali Africa and creates the most amazing fusion of African and Western music. It's like a massage to my eardrums

Fashion Smashin

Buy these shirts from Guess, help Invisible Children out, and look oh so lovely.

Hyperlink won't work, so copy and paste http://shop.guess.com/ProductDetails.aspx?style=W94311I7CM0&category|3271=&image=W94311I7CM0-WHT

Falling Down a Sand Dune

Falling With Style - Watch more Funny Videos

Show-off.

Perfect Day

Remember this? Continues to inspire me

5K... And Looking Fierce For Lauren's Wedding

"It's elevating and humbling at the same time. Running along a beach at sunrise with no other footprints in the sand, you realize the vastness of creation, your own insignificant space in the plan, how tiny you really are, your own creatureliness and how much you owe to the supreme body, the God that brought all this beauty and harmony into being."
- Sister Marion Irvine

So, I'm running a 5k along the Silver Strand Beach of Coronado Island in like 3 weeks. This decision was made about an hour ago. Want to join me? Hmmm... Spontaneous much?

Austria

It seems to me, that out of humanity's greatest heartaches, we are able to find our deepest capacity to create beauty.

Teen Angst

When I was in high school, this was the song I listened to while I ran on the elliptical and was internally tortured by high school boys. To be 17 again.




Every now and then, when I'm all alone, I be wishing you would call me on the telephone. Say you want me back, but you never do. I feel like such a fool. By far, the best part is when she is "dismissed" on a reality TV show.

My Baby

This is my child. I had her secretly a year ago. But now you can see how undeniable our resemblance is.

My baby dancing to Britney Spears @ Yahoo! Video

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't have a kid. Duh.

Falcon Takes Flight

This is a real sequence of events.
1. These people name their child Falcon.
2. They are on Wife Swap twice.
3. They build a giant balloon that a person could be taken away in.
4. The balloon and Falcon disappear.
5. News frenzy everywhere trying to save this child.
6. Turns out the child is hiding in their attic.
7. They are featured on the Today show where Falcon proceeds to vomit to millions nationwide.

As my Jojo puts it "Falcon is the coolest kid ever! He's taken over all of America!"

Trapped

Whimsical, Mechanical, and Ever So Fun

Psapp has less than 29,000 Myspace friends. So, they aren't exactly HUGE. But they should be.

Churchy

"That was probably the first church service that I've been to in years where I couldn't have just gotten up and preached the sermon myself. I think that's why I like it so much."

"Well honey, why don't you just preach some? You have a great Christian education."

"Dad, I was born with a vagina so I can't contribute anything at church, remember?"

"Oh... well I meant for like the junior high girls. Why don't you preach to them?"

Conversation I had with my father last Sunday. And here's more of the problem:


For an amazing and hilarious article check out my new best friend's blog, Cole Nesmith (he doesn't know that we're besties yet) http://www.colenesmith.com/?p=342 sorry... I can't figure out how to get the hyperlink to work. You'll just have to copy and paste that sucka.

Nate Henn, get yours fast

In Birmingham, AL, the Creed comeback concert is tanking so bad that they're selling tickets for $0.75

Thanks Perez.

Cinderella

There's never been much in me that I would classify as romantic. It's true that I loved Cinderella growing up, but my favorite scene was when the step-sisters ripped up Cinderella's dress.

Freaking Montreal. I Want to Meet You

One shot. University of Quebec at Montreal

Factoid of the Day

Ever spotted a sign with the words "Chevy Chase" on a sign where they seem completely out of place? Like what the heck would the actor, Chevy Chase, have to do with this lame apartment complex in San Diego, or this city in Maryland, or this golf course in an outlying suburb of Chicago, or this East Coast bank chain? Well, I know I've scratched my head on that one. I mean, I like the guy, but National Lampoon movies don't seem like they're inspiring enough to be the namesake of these seemingly boring places.

After I did some research I discovered that Chevy himself was actually named after the same thing that all these other places were named after as well. Here's the text from Wikipedia about what Chevy Chase REALLY is:

The Ballad of Chevy Chase

There are two extant English ballads known as The Ballad of Chevy Chase, both of which narrate the same story. As ballads existed within oral tradition before being written down, other versions of this once popular song may also have existed.

The ballads tell the story of a large hunting party upon a parcel of hunting land (or chase) in the Cheviot Hills, hence the term, Chevy Chase. The hunt is led by Percy, the English Earl of Northumberland. The Scottish Earl of Douglas had forbidden this hunt, and interprets it as an invasion of Scotland. In response he attacks, causing a bloody battle which only 110 people survived. Both ballads were collected in Thomas Percy's Reliques and the first of the ballads in Francis James Child's Child Ballads.

The actor/comedian Chevy Chase and the town of Chevy Chase, Maryland, were both named after The Ballad of Chevy Chase. The bank Chevy Chase Bank was, in turn, named after the Maryland town.

So there you have it. That's what Chevy Chase really is. If you are dorky enough to want to know more, the full wiki article can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Chevy_Chase

Growth Spurt

Flats, right? Nope, there's a wedge heel hidden inside the boot. Suddenly, you're an inch or two taller and no one really knows why. Great for those days that you just want to secretly be slightly better than other people.

Anne Frank on film

Recently released footage of a young Anne Frank peering out of her window onto a bride and groom on the street below. This film was taken one year before her family was forced from their home into hiding.



"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank

Let the sun shine on my face

And the moral of the story is hope.



Quicksand
Natalie Walker

I must have been so stupid
I must have been so out of touch
He must have been so clever
Convincing me that this was really love

Desperate for words
Lost in a maze
It fell apart
I lost my place
It hurt so bad
I cried for days
Time healed all pain
Now I’m okay

How many times can my heart break
Disillusioned by the thought of flawless love
Will I every get there
Or am I drowning in quicksand
With no relief to come

I’ll rise from all my sorrow
Let the sun shine on my face
All alone in comfort
Its my solitude I will embrace

I will rise from my sorrow…

Atlanta Olympics

The blinds were permanently bent. Lying in bed, eight years old, I would cry myself to sleep silently. Bending the blinds looking at the street lights. New house. New school. New life. All I wanted to do was run down that street back to Hannah and Ashley and catching ladybugs on recess in our empty milk cartons. I would never find friends like I had in my old neighborhood. Hannah and I would go swimming without sunscreen. Her mom stocking up towels in the old VW Beatle. No air conditioning, so we would eat ice cream on the drive home complaining about our sunburns. And now, I was alone.

The tears only lasted for about a month. I quickly adjusted to this new school and couldn’t even remember what I had liked so much about that old school in the first place. Katie and I would jump rope under the ramada. Heather and I would hang upside down on the monkey bars to see who could hold that position the longest. Megan would sit next to me in class and we would work together on practicing for the spelling tests. But in my room our new kitten had found her entry into the window. She continued to climb through that little blind section that I had bent back to peacefully look out on our neighborhood every night.

It was the year of the Atlanta Olympics. Americans were winning gold medals left and right. And every good gymnast that year seems to be named Dominique for some reason. Hair pulled tight into ponytails, glitter on their cheeks, leotards paying honor to the American flag. They pranced out across the floor to begin their performance. This was the floor routine night.

Look at how pretty they are. If you want to be a pretty teenager, make sure you’re skinny like them. My mind wandered while they chalked their hands and swallowed down their nerves.

Outside, our desert sky was turning red with monsoon fury. Lightening flashing. Dust consuming the entire street. Branches rapping against the windows and walls.

Lightening would flash and then I would count. one, two, three, four… Thunder cracked. I jumped. That meant that the lightening was four miles away. And if it got much closer, it might strike our roof and then my kitten and I would burn up. I hope mom gets home soon. I prayed as I ran down the hall to peak out my bent blinds. Nope, not yet. Just a dusty brown window with a few of God’s tears beginning to hit the pane.

I ran back to the TV just as Dominique began her floor routine. Leaping into the air she flipped and flew. She would stick the landing, throw her hands into the air. Dance. Squeeze into a corner. Take a deep breath and then do it all over again. The crowd cheered her on. Music that I’d hear on KZZP radio serenaded her performance. She never left the white box. She never fell. She threw her hands up triumphantly up in the air and the commentators couldn’t stop singing her praise. She walked off the floor and the crowd went wild.

I hopped up and stood in our corner. Thunder cracked. I lifted my arms into the air. Branches applauded me against our wall. I lifted my leg and flung myself into a cartwheel. Then another. Lightning. Then another cartwheel. Then a round-off. Landed and threw my hands into the air. Thunder. Rain. The crowd on the television went wild and flung their American flags into the air. And a small smile crept across my face.

All of a sudden, our latched front door whipped open and blowing dust flooded into our house. I screamed and coughed. The door opened up to its full width slamming into our wall and I lifted my head to see if anyone was there. Just the storm. I scurried to the door, my hands shaking. Shut it, and locked it. Lightening. Thunder.

The kitten and I hid under my blanket looking through the hole in the blinds until I saw the white Corolla roll into the drive way. My mom stepped out. McDonalds Happy Meal in hand.

I jumped up and ran to the front door before she could unlock it.

“Mom, mom! Dominique is going to win the gold medal. Can I go to gymnastics? The door flew open. And the lightening and thunder are only four miles away. What’s my toy? Did you get ketchup?”

She bent down, hugged me. “That’s great honey. So who’s next for the floor routine? You know that’s my favorite part of the gymnastics night.”

We watched the next Dominique, and Kerri, and all the rest of the 1996 Magnificent Seven fly though the air that night. Rain pattered against the window. The thunder grew duller and duller.

The next day at recess Katie, Megan, Heather and I cartwheeled across our soccer field agreeing that we should all start taking gymnastics classes so that we could be that pretty American Magnificent Seven team when we’re older. The boys yelled at us telling up to get out of the way of their soccer game. We stuck our tongues out at them and giggled. I launched into another cartwheel, threw my hands up in the air and smiled at my girls. “I’m Dominique. You can be Dominique too.”