3 Things I Love Today- Liam Baby, Liam Baby's faces, and Zune Music

1. When life moves fast, in a good way- Doesn't May feel so long ago? This summer just rushed by, but I think life couldn't be better with babies and remissions and such. So happy!

2. This face- this baby is so chatty and expressive. Plus he always looks like he is thinking so hard! So fun to get to spend so much of the day with him (without having so much else going on). Plus, he is super super cuddly.
3. "Call Your Girlfriend" Robin, "My Body" Young the Giant, "TKO" Le Tigre, "Some Nights" by Fun, "Shake it Out" Florence and the Machine, "Love for Sale" Talking Heads, "Ain't Misbehavin" Fats Waller, "She's Amazing" Team Dresch, "Awake My Soul" Mumford and Sons, "Albing Alp" Yeasayer, "Grow Old with Me" Postal Service, and "Cool Schmool" Bratmobile- All songs I can't stop playing on all the airplanes I've been stuck on.

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Gussing up for Fall with Etsy and Pinterest

 

 

 

Even though fall is my favorite season, this is the time of year where I really start getting homesick for Pennsylvania.By the end of September, beginning of October, Franklin turns colors, and it is so beautiful. In California, nothing changes (it is horrible all year long ;o). So I have been etsying and pinteresting ideas of how to bring fall into our sad, Season-less world. 

from pinterest.com

Awesome idea from pinterest to cover fallen leaves with  wax. This arrangement is pretty...

from pinterest.com

But this one is gorgeous. This would also be a cool thing to do with the leaves my Grammy sometimes sends me from the lake.  Very cozy and warm, and it might be a nice detail if you wouldn't see the leaves changed otherwise.

from pinterest.com

I like the lanterns with the pumpkings in it- thisis whole schpiel looks like only a middle aged woman would make it based on something she saw in Pottery Barn. But there are still some udable good ideas there.

 

These glasses are from Connie's Creations on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/listing/109185470/fall-leaves-water-glasses-hand-painted?ref=usr_faveitems). I think they are so sweet and I love the rendering of the leaves.

 

I love this mobile more than anything else on Etsy. It simultaneously captures the color and movement of falling leaves. It just looks like fall. I am seriously considering getting one.  You can find them here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/72235083/changing-color-leaves-mobile-medium?ref=usr_faveitems.

 

I love that this watercolor (from http://www.etsy.com/listing/107181789/autumns-colors-an-original-watercolor?ref=usr_faveitems ) doesn't shy away from really bright color. People over-associate brown and gold with the fall, but the most beautiful part is when a whole gamut of color is on display.

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7 Things I Love Today (and Yesterday)- St Louis Edition

Oops! The general chaoticness of life and the stress about my presentation today kept me from blogging, but I'm back! So let's do this:

1. Washington University Campus- Big, very 1920's Tudor, and people are super friendly. Thumbs up all around.
2. Being in Tennessee now! For the rest of my life, I should put family visits at the finish line for academic talks. Way better than anything else I've tried.
3. Eating with the Boy around- it turns out, that without him I can't eat a healthy meal to save my life. Or at the very least, married life diet has run its course, and now it is truly time to reinstate regret diet (with lots of Zumba).

4. Delmar Loop- the other great part of Washington Campus is the downtown area nearby, which is adorable and quirky. Also, it features this theater, which you can tell is awesome. Super cute. I didn't get to see much of St. Louis, but the parts I saw I really liked. But I kind of love the Midwest in general. I am sure this breaks some snooty academic liberal law, but the people are so friendly!

5. Getting Paper feedback from my Dad and the Boy- 2 very different experiences, but they are both important in their own way. I am pretty sure they would have already kicked me out of grad school without my dad's help.

6.  Hot Air Balloon Festivals from airplanes- I am not sure if you can see them in this picture, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!

from izismile.com

7. Ostentation- This. Also, apparently anyone who is considered a repetitor in ballet contexts. If you haven't read anything about Gaga's newest spectacle, you are missing something truly and commitedly stupid.

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3 Things I Love Today- Eleanor Antin, St Louis Metrolink, and Moonrise Hotelf

from www.getty.edu/pacificstandardtime/explore

1. Eleanor Antin's reading of Conversations with Stalin- She blew my mind and broke my heart. I have never seen an artist with so much success and prestige being that open and honest and heartbreaking. It's just the kind of thing they generally avoid, because they have to maintain a mystique. Antin was incredibly smart and funny, politically-minded, and heartwrenching at once. She told stories from her childhood, a story about her sister, a story where she perceives she was going to be kidnapped, a story (that she told in tears) about turning down a black family to stay at her family's hotel as a kid in the 50's. She also handled the question session with humble self-conciousness and intelligence. Man, I really loved the talk! I have never enjoyed an artist talk as much, Shirin Neshat comes the closest. And I left wanting to write a million things about her and just to think about her. Which, for the first time in maybe 2 months, makes me feel like maybe I am not making a horrible mistake with my life. Just this could be like 100 different things I love today, and it makes me excited to see how the rest of the symposium goes.

from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station

 2. St. Louis Metrolink system this was my first time with it, but it was easy and efficient and cheap. All together, a pretty big win. Will let you know if I still love it as much by the end of the trip, but as of right now I am always a fan of any urban area that offers good public transportation- it should be a requirement for all cities!

from www.umphreys.com/nye2011/

3. Room service at the Moonrise Hotel- first time I ever got room service in my life, and it was pretty good and not too expensive! I keep debating whether to order more, because I am in that weird super long travel day feeling (especially when you change time zones) where you are constantly looking for food but your aren't really hungry. I think it is an energy thing.

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3 Things I Love Today- Talking Shit on Baby Boomers, Changing Leaves, and Babies being People

from www.esquire.com/

1. This article- http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412

Sometimes I am amazed by my peers lack of frustration in the direction of baby boomers, who really are the freaking worst. This article is a good break down of why we all really shouldn't want to do things the way the generation before us did.

from etsy.com

2. This mobile- I have started trying to think of cool ways to bring the fall to our super-seasonless California home, and this mobile is really amazing. Definitely captures that feeling I miss so much this time of year.

3. That phase where babies stop looking like a baby and start looking like themselves. Or at least starting to resemble what they will look like. I feel like I just saw Liam, but this picture makes him look so much like a Ritchey, which makes me think he is really starting to look like himself! I just love that phase! Also, this picture is ridiculously sweet! Can't wait to see him, his mommy, and his Mimi!

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"Every Pot has its Lid"- so sweet!

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Top 5 TV Shows I'm Definitely Not Looking Forward To

1. The X Factor- I am so sick of singing shows and celebrity judges and all of that nonsense. And I actually think last year this was the show that broke the camel's back. No amount of teen queen is going to win me over to this, or the one with the chairs, or the one that used to have J Lo. Please someone start the new trend, because this one is tired.
2. The New Normal- People keep talking about this one, because it is the next brain child of Ryan Murphy, but I am not sure there could be a bigger turnoff for me. Because I am pretty sure Murphy's creative MO is starting with a cool conceit loaded with some sort of potential, and then making it increasingly bizarre/stupid/sincere and ugly at the same time. I really did like Glee in like the second half of the first season. That Madonna Episode is damn good. But at some point, some big chunk of somebodies at Glee ran out of good ideas and humor. Also, is a coming out story really the only way to give a high schooler pathos? And I am happy there are some good gay story lines out there, but if you are still making your curvy girl sing songs about eating tater tots, I am pretty sure we aren't talking about acceptance. It's bizarre, because it wants to be making fun of High School Musical style moral patronizing, but it just espouses a different set of rules. That isn't satire, that isn't clever, and I don't see his new show as being any different. I think that actually American Horror Story is the perfect creative vehicle for Murphy, because he can just switch set ups as he goes.
3. Revolution- I am sorry, but I have not forgiven any of the guys from Lost yet. They are freaking assholes that wasted way too much of my life. I am not watching another show, because now I know they never know what the hell they are doing. Plus their "tough girls" are always kind of wusses who need men's help. Plus, I hate them. I will never watch this show.
4. SNL- I have already written at length about how much I hate SNL now. Especially Seth Myer's SNL. I'll pass, thanks.
5.  Whitney- You know those girls who say they hate all other girls because they are actually the only cool girl and all other girls are stupid? Worst group ever. And this show is not funny.

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