Absolute Wannabe

Normally, I object to a website or magazine posting the best things about this year a month, week, or even a day early, but I just got struck on the head by the mallet of mediocre inspiration, so I'm going to go ahead and write this. This year has been really cool for me and I'm sure it has been for a lot of you people out there, too. Then again, maybe it hasn't been for you, but there are some cool things to always celebrate. I made a list(ish) of my favorite things I found this year: 1. The Internet Weird, huh? The Internet has been around for most of my life, but it took this year for me to really appreciate it. This year, I discovered all sorts of neat things (yes, I still use the word neat). Stuff like Rookie ( http://rookiemag.com/ ), a cool site for girls that talks about literally everything intelligently, and HelloGiggles ( http://hellogiggles.com/ ), described on their about page as " the ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creati...

Today, I went to do one of my favorite things. I went shopping for records. Now, usually when I make that sort of statement, people either think it's really cool or really weird that I buy old and new vinyl records as opposed to CDs or digital tracks. Music has always been a really important part of my life and this is one of the ways I connect to it. There are so many reasons why I prefer and buy them. While I do buy them partially because they look cool on a shelf, I play mine (not to disparage people who don't. I also think it's really cool when people frame them or put them on a wall). For me, they just sound better. It's also really fun to put a needle to a record and anticipate when it starts to play. There is a nostalgic element to the appeal of records for me. My parents and grandparents have passed down parts of their collections to me in hopes that I will get something out of the music just like they did. For the music that they don't have, I go searchi...

Judging by the title of this entry, I'm going to assume that a lot of you, non-existent readers, are thinking I'm about to talk about Christmas. WELL I'M NOT!!! I really want to talk about the day after Christmas. The day after Christmas is going to be a special day for me this year. Why, you don't ask? Two reasons. First, on the day after Christmas, I have been allowed to go record shopping for the first time since Labor Day. LABOR DAY!!!! My bare looking record shelves and I cannot wait. Second, I'm pretty sure this is the day exam grades come out. I know this seems really nerdy to a lot of you. I will also take this time to point out that if you are just figuring out I'm nerdy, you may need some sort of evaluation. It's not that I like seeing my exam grades or anything like that, but if you work hard and study, you want to see the outcome. Other than being pretty positive I bombed Organic Chemistry (why on earth did I take this class?????), I think ...

Today, I took the last of six exams that I've taken in a eight day period. I cannot stress how glad I am to be done for a while and this much closer to graduation (even if I have had a really fun semester).This now means that I'm on holiday break and I have all this free time. Free time that, quite frankly, I have no idea how to use. So far, I've gone on a junk shopping binge and to the movies, but now I'm stuck at home cleaning out the DVR that over the past month I've clogged to its full capacity. Literally. For now, I'm content, but I'm guessing that in about, oh, twelve seconds or so I'm going to be screaming of boredom, waiting for some sort of project to fall into my lap. As much as I look forward to them, I've never really been able to handle breaks. Usually I go on some sort of binge (TV show(s), Disney movies, cleaning, alphabetizing, etc.) for the first week and a half, then find a "project" only to leave it half finished beca...

Recently, I learned how to make friends. This is a skill everyone should learn by the time they're, eh, 45ish. I also like music, as you may know. I make mix CDs often for people, so I thought I would post the playlist/some commentary on the recent one I just made. Some of these I may have posted before, but they are still worth a relisten. Enjoy (or not. That's what the comments section is for): 1. Boyfriend-Best Coast This song sounds like summer. Period. I honestly think Best Coast is one of the best bands out there right now, and this song (along with the video) makes me very happy. It also sort of reminds me of The Princess Diaries for no particular reason at all. 2. Supervillain Music- Chilly Gonzales I found out about Chilly Gonzales through Marina and the Diamonds. He rearranged her single "Hollywood" in such an ingenious way that I had to find out more. It makes me feel like I'm about to go rob a bank or take over Townsville or Gotham City or somethin...

Over the past week, I've had kind of a cold-y thing. I don't like to call it a cold, because then people tend to back away slowly...or quickly...and occasionally (but only occasionally) I like people. Not only do I feel sort of gross, but starting about last Friday, my voice changed from that of an obnoxious Target cashier to that of a boy going through puberty, voice cracks and all. It got to the point that on Wednesday morning I woke up and could not talk at all. This got me pretty scared. I mean, in addition to the fact that I love to hear myself talk, I rely on my voice for quite a lot. There's school, the speech tournament I have on Saturday, the choir concert I have on Sunday, and the impromptu Motown concerts I give whilte singing in the shower. My brain kept going to that episode of Glee  when Rachel tries to sing "The Climb" and ends up having laryngitis (maybe it was punishment from God for singing a Miley Cyrus song. Just a thought). Then I thought ...

I haven't really been able to think of anything to write for a few weeks, but I'm feeling productive and hyped up on caffeine, so I'm going to see where this goes. Hmmm...let's see...what have I done recently??? OOOO!!! I ate some War Heads today, that's interesting right?? HEY!! I thought it was!! OOOO!!! I've got a good one! I recently started reading Carrie Fisher's new book Shockaholic . I have read Wishful Drinking  and loved it, mostly because I'm narcissistic enough to think that our sense of humor is very similar. Her story covers every aspect of Hollywood and fame, and her story is CRAZY. Maybe that's why she's crazy... nah, that's not it. Even though she has far worse problems than I ever will (knock on wood), I do relate. Mostly because I am the kind of person who at least tries to turn problems into something funny. Nine times out of ten I fail, but that one time keeps me going. My sense of humor is weird and kind of scary at ti...

Recently, I went to Walmart. Now I understand that this is probably not a great opening statement, but trust me, ladies and gentlemen, it gets better. Better sentence: this is a big deal because up until that moment, I was afraid of Walmart. Crazy, right? I was afraid of Walmart because I was getting scared and/or trampled. I had only been to Walmart a handful of times and usually, I got lost, but not trampled. The trampling fear comes from those scary stories that come about after or during Black Friday about people who die because they fall and are trampled, when all they came for was the Malibu Snowshoe Princess Dream Castle Barbie and Ken set. THAT MAKES ME SCARED TO THE POINT WHERE I FEEL THE NEED TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS. Anyway, this Walmart trip, I got neither lost or trampled and also found a plethora of different junk foods. Even though it still gives me a little bit of anxiety, I am no longer completely frightened, and may even go back in the near future. As I explained to a f...

Today, I had an off day from school due to parent teacher conferences, so my brother and I decided to go join my mom for lunch at one of our favorite places around town (I've been going there to eat since I was 18 months old. Yeah, I'm dedicated.). As some of you may or may not know, I am a tad bit clumsy. As in, one time I was standing on a folding chair and it folded, caught my legs, took me to the ground with it and exposed my underwear to about fifty people. Yep, that kind of clumsy. Some of you may also know that I get this from my mom, who is so clumsy that her friends used to count how many times she fell down the stairs in high school. Today, mother dear showed off some of her good old fashioned awkward. First, she asked the waitress for a straw, only to find out that they had been placed right in front of her. Then, when we got our food the waitress asked the traditional "How is everything tasting?", to which mother replied, "Good, how about you?"...

"Calling somebody else fat won't make you  any  skinnier. Calling somebody else stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you"- Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) Mean Girls Everyone who knows me knows that I love Tina Fey (I dedicated a post to her on the week of her birthday). While sitting in class today, I remembered this line from Mean Girls , which she wrote and is in my opinion one of the greatest high school movies of all time (and I love high school movies). It's such a wise film, and I think this line sums it up. I wish I remembered it more often. Lately, I've not been very nice to the people I care about. That's always been a part of my problem. I've always been selfish and uppity and more often than not I forget to hold my tongue. I make fun of people constantly, and while I mean it to be lighthearted, it gets...

So, I have recently been thinking about deleting my Facebook account. Why? Because I don't really like that my "social life" gets a program updated every four days, I don't post anything, and don't really care about what other people post. It's nothing personal, I just don't particularly think reading "bad mood" or "cereal"  is a fantastic use of my time when I could be reading books or articles about cats. Just kidding. I don't really like cats. Anyway, after thinking it over and deciding that I was going to delete my account this weekend, I came across this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014qsws/Afternoon_Reading_Face_It_The_Deletion/ For those of you who are reading this later or maybe don't want to click on this link, it is a story written and narrated by Laura Dockrill about how she deleted her account and then her computer started talking to her. Fiction, of course. But,  the story still managed to spark a fear ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently joined the speech team at my school. Now, I know what you're thinking, non-existent readers, She's a choir nerd, an academic geek, an AV nerd, and now a speech geek, too???  Yes, yes I am. On a similar note, I think I'm switching back to glasses. Anyway, I competed for the first time this past weekend and learned a lot. Whoopee. I just thought I'd share some of my knowledge with you: 1. Don't judge the kid who wears a backpack, a bow tie, and square glasses. He's REALLY GOOD. He will make semifinals. He will beat you and then tell you how awesome you are. And then you will feel awesome and cheer him on when he beats you. Weird, huh? 2. Just like the weird kid who doesn't talk may be really nice, the kid who is nice in the beginning may be really competitive. He will stare at you and try to throw you off!! And it might work!!! Then he'll beat you...badly...and you will be angry. 3. Karma may or may not b...

I've wanted to write about the goddess known as Marina and the Diamonds for some time, and now, with my building frustration with all of the people around me who've never heard of her, I'm going to do it. I came across Marina and the Diamonds (just one woman, the half-Welsh, half-Greek Marina Diamandis) while reading a Clare Maguire interview. The fabulous Miss Maguire was explaining that instead of a rivalry between her fellow female musicians, she was, in fact, friends with Ellie Goulding, Paloma Faith, and Marina. Curious as to who she was, I typed her name into the YouTube search bar, finding this little jewel: I was SHOCKED!!!!! Why would anyone want to diss Hollywood, let alone America, so musically??? It took me a while before I decided to listen to it again, and when I did, I realized how brilliant it was. I went out and bought the album, entitled The Family Jewels, and loved every unusual bit of every song. She says that she writes by playing and deciding what soun...

So recently I was assigned to write a 750-1000 word essay about myself for my English class, talking about my family, beliefs, thoughts on school (tehe thoughts on school), career plans, hobbies, etc. and it got me thinking. I talk about myself all the time. All teenagers do it. All people do it. Does that make us selfish? While I sat there, typing a paper for three hours on the night before because I enjoy procrastination (the word is tattooed on my forehead. Just kidding), I thought to myself, does listing random facts really give my life a definition? Am I really doing myself justice? Does anyone really give a flipinflap? While I did say that I am a Christian, who my family was, that I like to write, and other stuff, I was really thinking about the people and stories that got me to where I was. They weren't listed. Mostly because I had to keep this thing between 750-1000 words (it ended up at 1493), but still. I gave it a cheesy and bombastic title and turned it in dissati...

School started a week and a half ago. This year, I'm faced with the typical new things, like classes, work load, schedule, and teachers, but I have also (re)joined the choir and the speech team, and we have a new volleyball coach. While I am excited about all of this new stuff, I can't help feeling like a scared little freshman, not knowing what to do at all and diving into whatever I can while screaming bloody murder. The start of school makes everyone feel really scared, agitated, depressed, or all of the above, I think, and I am most certainly no exception. I have been very mopey and angry and screamy and cry-y lately, and I have definitely been taking refuge in God, music, coffee, and exercise now more than anything. While I sit here, once again stressed and not helping myself by procrastinating and writing a blog post, I just wonder if I'm the only one who feels this way about a little thing like school. I'm sure I'm not, because there are billions of people ou...

Today is my birthday!!!! I am not going to tell you my age, however, because this is the Internet and that would just be downright silly of me. Thank you for finding me through word of mouth, Facebook, or Twitter. This boosts my self confidence greatly, especially since I'm getting up there in age (not really, but this seemed like a good opportunity for that joke). People keep asking me today what I'm going to do for my birthday, but I don't know. I have been to the record store and am now listening to Buckingham Nicks (!!!). Later, I may get barbecue for dinner, because, in the words of the musical genius, champion of feminism, and my hero Kate Nash, "Barbecue food is good". Pretty good for a birthday, in my opinion. Speaking of Kate Nash, I tweeted about her this week, with links to her cover of "One Way or Another" by Blondie and this blog. The next morning, I awoke to find a hit from the UK. Could it be Kate Nash? I MOST CERTAINLY HOPE SO!!!!!! If yo...

Well, I'm rather upset that a CD I ordered last week hasn't come to me in time so that I can enjoy it while I'm on my cruise. HOWEVER, because I haven't written in a long time and my last post was ridiculously serious, I've decided to share a few of my favorite artists with you today. Everyone who knows me really well knows that my favorite songs are by a bunch of British women, so if that's not you're thing, it's ok, just exit out. No, really, I won't be offended. Much. Here goes: 1. I've sort of just discovered Brigitte Aphrodite. She's toured with Kate Nash (more on her later) and has a single out called "I Dream Myself Awake". This song, called "Dance With A Stranger", is a perfect example of how amazingly funny her lyrics are: 2. Ellie Goulding recently appeared on Saturday Night Live . I heard her music for the first time early this year and was amazed by her unique voice and fresh sound. Her album is called Ligh...

Well, I arrived back in the old US of A a week ago today, but I haven't really been able to process what I saw and did in the Dominican Republic until about now. All I have really been able to say is a very breathy "It was AMAZING" or a quick "It was just awesome". Now, I think, I can tell the tale in detail. After two long flights, one on a small plane next to some fragrant people, we arrived at the airport, swung by customs, and boarded a bus, sandwiches in hand, to get to the camp. Though we knew that the bus was the last we'd see of our friend AC for a long time, to be cliche, we had no idea what else we had seen the last of and what we would see for the first time once we got there. I'm not going to go into every minute detail about what we ate, because I can pretty much sum it up with the words rice, beans, plantains, yuca, chicken, empenadas, and fruit. The food was amazing, though, a lot of it being stuff I would have never tasted before or stuff...

Well, it's been good. I haven't gotten up before 10, I've gotten new records, discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer , had blueberry muffins, gotten bright green Converse, vintage comic books, ridiculously good ice cream, new headphones, blank CDs, and record cleaner, I've gone for a run, and I'm still absolutely reeling from my friend's dance recital. Sound like crap to you? Fine. But this week has been an excellent send off before I go off to the Dominican Republic next week. It's not a vacation but a mission trip, and even though I'm really excited, I'm scared out of my mind. Therefore, I have done everything possible to avoid even thinking about leaving. Last week, I even organized my room (something I do about annually) early. Now, I'm facing reality. I'm not confronting it, considering I'm typing my nonsense jabber at this moment, but I am currently facing it. Next week may be filled with bugs, Spanish, hammers, heat, power outages, an...

So, yesterday was Tina Fey's birthday and I was going to write something yesterday but I was busy. I know, no excuse, but I'm doing it now. I kind of wanted to talk about how I was introduced to Ms. Fey. Weeeellllll....I was on a church retreat in the 7th grade. Yup. Church introduced me to Tina. Seriously. We watched Mean Girls on our retreat and then discussed. I thought it was hilarious and so was she. It was clever and was very relatable. It was fresh and actually sounded like teenagers. Plus, Karen is gold (who can forget "There's a 30% chance it's already raining"?) Before that she had only been the girl on that show about rocks that daddy liked so much. Someone told me to watch it. I did. I loved it. Cartoonish and hilarious. Everybody cares to make it look like no one cares on that show, and it fits. My life is scheduled around it now. So, being me, I became obsessed. Who is this actually funny lady who can manage to look wonderful in glasses? So I lo...

So, I'm now on the Internet, creating a brand for myself. Here's the deal: I'm a writer, dreamer, observer, filmmaker, Clare Maguire super fan, student, music lover, TV fanatic, a not-so movie buff and ultimately, a wannabe. At the moment, I'm not particularly anything, but I can be. By reading this blog, you have discovered me, and I just want to say thanks. I don't aim to be a genius, but I do aim to make at least one person smile. Please keep reading, because I certainly need an audience. After all, I am an attention seeker! Now here's some more about me... I'm inspired by these people (not necessarily in this order): John Hughes George Lucas Fannie Flagg Diablo Cody Ellen Page Tina Fey Amy Poehler Kristin Wiig Clare Maguire Kate Nash Lily Allen Adele I watch these TV shows: Gilmore Girls I Love Lucy Degrassi: The Next Generation The Golden Girls Gigantic Law and Order: Los Angeles Harry's Law Glee Law and Order: Special Victi...