Blogger Swap Awesomeness :)

 I participated in a blogger swap recently so I could get a little help with this list of 101 things I would like to do within 1001 days.

My partner, Miranda at Aimless Translation, sent me a lot of thoughtful stuff to help me out :) I got these about a week ago and the only excuse I have for posting this so late is that  I moved! and pretty much all the small things that could go wrong with that did so I haven't had time to sit down and blog until tonight.

 Here's a few photos  of what she sent me :) Her arrangement's so pretty too. I didn't even think to make mine pretty, just practical. I keep forgetting you can do both...

Thanks Miranda! This is what she helped me out with:

20: Go 2 weeks drinking only water (sugar free packets to make the water taste better!  - There's a strawberry lemonade flavor and a cherry which is my favorite flavor!

65: Hand write a letter a month to a family member - She sent me some note cards monogrammed with my initial. I'm already behind on this so I needed this extra boost

83: Find a new favorite cocktail: She sent me a recipe for what sounds like an awesome cocktail. I'll have to give it a try when we finally get this new place all set.

91: Fill every page of a journal: She sent me an adorable monogrammed journal that will fit perfectly in my bag. Hope to have this done by the end of 2012 :)

33 and 34: See a ballet and an opera in Seattle: Miranda looked up some productions for me and gave me the dates which was helpful because I hear about these things and then forget to look up when and then all of the sudden they're gone. I'd love to see how they do Snow White ballet style and I'm already looking forward to Madame Butterfly.

Thanks again, Miranda! And thanks Holly for putting this together.

Top Twelve Thursdays: Christmas Time!!!!!

Taking a lead from  Life.Love and posting my favorite Christmas songs of the moment! (I can't have favorites of all time, that changes literally all the time. Links are to youtube videos, some of which are fun to watch too. The first and the last are pretty special though. If you want to make your own, then you link up with Shauna at Life.Love  :)

1. Carol of the Bells - Mannheim Steamroller: a creepy instrumental version. PLUS the video I found for this is awesome. I'll just let you embrace it and not give spoilers. Trust guys.

2. White Christmas -  Bing Crosby: from the movie White Christmas

3. River - Robert Downey Jr. : from the only good season of Ally McBeal (shhh sorry I'm fun)

4. Where are you Christmas - Faith Hill : From How The Grinch Stole Christmas 

5. Christmas Tree - Lady Gaga: You have to appreciate Lady Gaga/have a sense of humour to appreciate this. It's dirty but fun ;)

6. Believe -Josh Groban : from the movie Polar Express. His voice is so deep and sexy but still innocent.


7. Only Hope - Mandy Moore: I KNOW, I know, it's super embarrassing that I like this song. I'm  also not sure it's technically Christmas but she sings it during the Christmas play in  A Walk To Remember. It's also embarrassing that I like that movie. There are other versions of this that are equally good. Help me find them!


8. Carol of the Bells - John Williams : the Home Alone version aka  the traditional version


9. Christmas Time Is Here - from A Charlie Brown Christmas : it sounds so sad, but I can play this on piano :) ...or could.


10. Silent Night - all Instrumental versions:  but if we need something specific then Enya's 

Oíche Chiúin works too :) 

11. Carol of the Bells - Hayley Westenra: I just discovered this! Not too creepy but not too traditional either


I'll find tons of other creepy instrumental christmas music, but I'll just leave you with this one for my twelfth. Enjoy ;)


12. Jingle Bell Rock - Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chalbert: this one's just necessary.

November 6th, 2011 - Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void  by Mary Roach is a nonfiction analysis of what NASA's work on getting to Mars. What we know and what we need to find out.

Sounds boring, right?

It's surprisingly not. Mary Roach has a talent for picking up the weird minutiae and pulling a whole chapter out of it. Like: how do you shit in space? stay clean? eat? at what point do you reach your BO threshold and when does your skin stop accumulating oil. Is that story about Enos the chimpanzee being the first thing to orgasm in space even true? ( spoiler alert:  it's not...probably)

I'm definitely going to read her other books: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

By the way, they're using cadavers for crash test dummies now. I'm trying not to judge based on my initial reaction, but I'd be freaked out.

Anyway, I'm always hesitant about recommending nonfiction books, but if you once in your life had an interest in space you'll probably enjoy this one.

October 20th, 2011 - Saving Aimee

So, I know I saw this a couple of weeks ago but I haven't really wanted to write anything about it. So I didn't. I'm only doing so now because I don't want to screw up my record and leave my few readers in the dark for too long.

It's not that I didn't like this new musical with book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford and music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman. It's more that I was kinda of 'meh' about it and I'm not entirely sure why.

Saving Aimee is a biography musical that takes us from Aimee Semple McPherson's teenage years and through 3 marriages, 2 kids, a possible fling/kidnapping, and the development of an extremely influential religious movement.

I'm not very religious; not quite an atheist, but when people start putting words in Nollij's mouth I get a little suspicious. So when I first heard that a musical was underway based on the founder of one of the biggest church's in LA, I started thinking that maybe this would be the one that would break my streak.

I went to the Spotlight Night to see where they were going with this, and learned that Aimee led quite the scandalous life, (she was the evangelical Kim Kardashian, basically) and they were going to focus on her entertainment impact just as much as her religious one.

So I saw it.

It was good story, but there was a lot to cram in there (three and half love stories will do that) and I didn't come away humming any tunes (although the music was good). There weren't a whole lot of characters you could get attached to either, since Aimee was always in the center of it. If she wasn't on stage, they were singing about her. Props to Carolee Carmello for pulling it off, however. She was very talented as was the rest of the cast.

Maybe that was what made it 'meh' for me, Aimee had no outside foil. She was both Beatrice and Hero and that just means there was no one to root for/against. It just kind of was.

I don't regret going, but I don't think I'd see it again is what I'm saying.