It's Been a Long Time Comin'...

Happy Independence Day, Iraq! Hopefully this really is a "New Dawn" for the country.

This picture sort of sums up how I'm feeling these days.

Gerenuk

Want. Want. Want. A Gerenuk would make the perfect companion for Snicket and Draper. Please send me one post-haste.

Long Weekend Love

Ahhh, finally almost the weekend! Three days of bliss, my friends. Three days of bliss. What are my plans for the weekend? Well, hopefully laying low. Ben and I are going to look at a few houses this afternoon, but other than that I don't have much planned. Ben will be gone all day Saturday, meaning I get a day to myself at the apartment. My hope is that I will be equal parts productive and lazy. Hopefully I can get in a skype date with my beloved Katie. I might paint my dresser (if I can decide what colors I want to use) and am thinking I might rent a movie. Probably a movie Ben wouldn't want to sit through. I'm also poking around to see if there are any recipes I would want to try making, since I'm only cooking for me that night. Might be fun to try something new! On Sunday, I'm going to suggest Ben and I try making the lasagna cupcake recipe I found this week -- I'm dying to give it a shot!

Anna

A lovely lady I adore is Anna Karina, who was an actress in a number of French nouvelle vague films in the 1960's. Leading lady and love interest of director Jean-Luc Godard, she's too beautiful for words! And a wonderful actress to boot. She starred in my favorite Godard film, Une Femme est une Femme (see picture below). That movie is, in fact, where I got the quote tattooed around my upper arm from.

She also appeared, as in Une Femme est une Femme, alongside one of my favorite leading men of the era: Jean-Paul Belmondo (seen below). A dynamic film duo if ever there was one! And not too hard on the eyes, either!

Well, That's Embarrassing...

I stumbled on a bunch of Courage Wolf pictures today at work...

It's really unfortunate how often I see those in public. Every time I laugh hysterically, regardless of location or appropriateness of said laughter.

Not-Exactly-Guilty Pleasure

Bridey fun fact: I love writing cards. I'm not one of those "Dear So&So, [insert Hallmark greeting here]. Love, X" kind of people. Oh no. When I write someone a card, I fill the whole inside/back/front/whatever with words. I love blank cards for that reason -- nothing to get in my way. When someone has something coming up, I will think about what I should write for at least a couple days before sitting down and actually doing it. And I love every minute of it.

So, with my love for writing notes comes a love for awesome stationery. I have a box at home that I'm slowly filling with greeting cards, thank you cards, and postcards so that I can always be ready to send a note when needed. Today I gave into my temptation a little more than usual and ordered a couple "congrats on the baby" cards (which was the original plan) from Felt & Wire and two box sets of Christmas flatnotes from Hammerpress. While it was not my intention to flood the house with packages of cards, I decided to give in a little bit. Plus, might as well start thinking about Christmas now; if there is one thing I've learned, it's that good Christmas cards are always sold out if you wait too long.

Groupon

Words cannot describe my love for Groupon. The basic idea is that a deep discount is offered everyday, and if enough people pledge to buy in, the deal is "on", meaning your card gets charged and you get the coupon. Usually places will offer other specials for people using a Groupon; for example, when I redeemed one for 2 lbs of coffee at a local coffeeshop last year, they also gave me a free cup of coffee everyday for the entire month. Most are at least 50% off, in the form of "$5 for $10 at X restaurant". Sometimes it covers the entire bill (like going to lunch alone) or other times it just counts towards that much off your bill. It's really an awesome deal, and they get a lot of random local, independent places that you probably wouldn't check out otherwise.

I started using the site when I was living in Chicago so that I could make my money stretch a little farther. This past week I started getting back on the site because, while Ridgecrest doesn't have a Groupon site and probably never will, Ben and I have impending trips to cities that do. Most Groupons last for about 6 months, so I've been trying to keep an eye on places like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, because we will definitely be ending up there a few times between now and February. I also scored a couple great ones for places in San Francisco, for our upcoming long weekend trip to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

The best part: I currently have about $120 worth of Groupons sitting in my little folder. The total cost? $58. And while we could have saved the same amount of money going to other places, the fact that we now get to check out some of the local flair that we otherwise might not have even known about it pretty exciting! If you haven't checked out the site yet, definitely do! They have a ton of different cities, and a ton of awesome offers!

Hardly Strictly 2010

For a brief time, I was sad I had to miss Lollapalooza this year. However, that sadness was no more as soon as I saw the lineup for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival! Ben and I are heading up to San Francisco for the weekend (Oct 1-3) to take part in this awesome and free music festival, which happens to be featuring some of my favorite artists! Really? I get to see The Avett Brothers, The Felice Brothers, Conor Oberst, and Elvis Costello, among others, for free? Does it get any better?

Sorry, Lolla, but this (partial) lineup totally kills yours this year!

Mad Men

GASP! I just realized I haven't posted a blog about the new season of Mad Men, which premiered on July 25th! With the season two episodes in, I can already see it's going to be a tense and interesting season. So much is going on already! It's amazing to see how Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (the firm which was started on the Season 3 finale) is working, and how Peggy is really coming into her own! She's such a great character. Betty, of course, is still a total bitch. What's with still living in Don's house? Having Joan back in the fold is wonderful! She's so fabulous -- and can lead a congo line like no one's business! And did anyone else feel really bad for Roger last episode? Lee Garner Jr giving him such a hard time made my heartbreak.

But by far the hardest thing to see this season is Don. He's so . . . so . . . lonely. Seeing my beloved Don Draper like that -- with a call girl, not being able to seal the deal with a young actress, sleeping with his secretary, is very emotional. He's clearly not doing the best after the divorce, and I'm excited/nervous to see where this season takes him. I feel like it can only go up from here, but we'll see.

So, let us remember Don as the suave, sexy fella we all know he is deep down!

(Also, this hook up would answer my deepest hopes and dreams! America hasn't ever seen a couple this good looking!)

Carrie

The movie may be . . . well . . . you know. But what girl wouldn't kill for Carrie Bradshaw's life? Seriously, those clothes, that job, that apartment -- what wouldn't I give? (Lucky for me, I already have the friends!)

Annie Hall

Annie Hall is my favorite movie of all time, and this still from shooting makes me smile.

Charlotte

And Charlotte Gainsbourg is just too beautiful and too cool for words.

Audrey

Any girl who doesn't aspire to be more like Audrey is of questionable moral character.

Couple Inspiration

I love Brad and Angelina. Not only are they beautiful, but I think of them as a wonderful example of a couple. I think everyone was a little awkward about the idea of all American Brad Pitt joining forces with wild child turned humanitarian Angelina Jolie at first, but they are really wonderful together, despite what the tabloids constantly scream. They seem like their own little club, together with their swarm of children, and that's something I think is great in couples. Angelina, despite being a mother of like 15 and significant other to one of the world's most beloved actors, is still Angelina -- still tattooed, sexy, and a little dangerous. I love that she has created a prototype for a woman who is caring, motherly, and still her own person.

Momentary Relapse

I know I said I was giving up on my Zooey inspired hopes, but . . . well, a girl can dream, can't she?

Time to Face the Music

Sigh. Now that I'm 22, I need to face reality. I've spent the past 3 years growing out and attempting to style my hair, and it just hasn't been working. So, it's time to face the fact that I am never going to wake up in the morning with gorgeous, thick locks a la Zooey Deschanel. My bangs don't want to behave like that, and I need to accept it. Time to come up with a new hairstyle icon, and I think I've found just the one.

That's right. Rory Gilmore. My hair likes to behave more like her's on its own, and I feel like her style would suit my fine hair better. My cut is similar as it is, but I need to get it touched up and layered a little differently.

Time for me to suck it up and accept that I am not a hip indie chick who plays a ukelele. I'm an awkward bookworm who daydreams about going to an Ivy League graduate school and negotiating rapprochements between countries. And ya know what, that's okay. Rory Gilmore proves that we awkward dark haired fair skinned girls who started reading at a college level before leaving grade school are just as wonderful as girls who learned how to play a bass guitar. So there!

And rocking the Rory look will definitely work out well with my plan to pretend I'm living on the East Coast until Ben finally agrees to move to New England. It's only a matter of time . . .

The Start of Year 22

Well, yesterday was my birthday! When Ben asked me last week what I wanted to do for the day, I said that I wanted to do nothing. I just wanted to be totally lazy and watch TV and eat junk food. And that is exactly what we did! After sleeping in, Ben went out to work on the Explorer for a little bit while I talked to my mom, dad, and eventually Ben's mom. At noon he called it a day, and we popped in the first season of True Blood, which Ben had gotten me and had yet to see all of. My other wonderful gift: not one, but two keffiyahs! One is just black and white, which is the Palestinian scarf, and the other is a British military issue one that has been in use since before WWII and was widely adopted throughout the region. SO excited!

Anyway, we spent the whole afternoon doing absolutely nothing, which was fabulous. I made Kenyan food for dinner, and a strawberry Jello pie, which we ate half of within about twenty minutes. After the new episodes of True Blood and Mad Men, we lounged for another half hour and called it a night! All in all, a fabulous birthday!

21 was exciting -- I went to Africa, got engaged, graduated college, got a job, and moved to California -- and I can't wait to see how 22 turns out!