I had dinner with one of my favorite couples of all time tonight, Kendall and Art. Kendall and I have been best friends since senior year of high school when we bonded over a love of Anchorman among many other things. I finally met Art when Kendall had dinner with my main group of friends at Sho Gun before prom. We bonded over a love of making fun of Kendall. Since then, I have considered them my favorite couple and if you've spent any amount of time with them, you understand why!
Anyway, we were having dinner and I was talking about camp, naturally, since I leave tomorrow in the AM. Kendall likes to refer to my cult (or one of many since drill team in high school was definitely conidered a cult and I'm sure she'd refer to TCU as one, too, haha). The subject of the lack of telephones came up and Art immediately said, "CULT!" So I decided to blog about the things outsiders wouldn't love, but anyone from Mystic has grown to love and adore and count down the miliseconds to each year.
1. No air conditioning. Yes, it's a pain in the rear, but there's nothing like walking into the Commissary during the hottest part of the day, or Byrd as a counselor on rest periods out. 2. Sharing a room with 15+ other girls. 3. Sharing a BATHROOM with 15+ other girls. 4. No cell phones. I tried to explain that even if we could have our cell phones, the service is so sotty that we'd never use them. However, I did promise to try and send picture of camp to them when I get there tomorrow - haha. 5. No television. 6. No internet. Not so much a big deal back in the day (the 90's, that is, not a Wednesday as Dane Cook would say). 7. Camp food. As I wrote yesterday, we have the most delicious camp food ever. We don't just have hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken nuggets, anything fried you can imagine every night. We have coffee cake in the morning, chef salad for lunch, steak for dinner, and Messy Face Cakes for dessert (more on those when I get home - don't worry). 8. No boys. Ok, this is so hard to imagine, but girls of all ages return ear after year to camp for a month at a time to the escape that is all girls camp. Yes, we have a dance with Camp Stewart, the boys' camp on the other side of Hunt, but there are 29 glorious days where girls don't have to worry about make up and flirting and everthing that comes with boys. I mean, sure we miss them, but the added drama is missing too. 9. War Canoe. No one really understands this. At all. Yes, we love to compare our massive bruises that take up the entiriy of the right or left sides of our bodies. We love the intense competition on Field Day and at Round Up. Even the counselors that were campers love it. Can we say CC War Canoe?
10. Hills. Walking up them. Walking down them. Wearing red shorts or blue shorts. Sitting around a fire. And I don't just mean tribe hils when I say hills. I mean the ones we see from our cabins every day. Chapel hill on Sundays. Every hill that adds to the beauty of camp.
Now, these are just a few things I'm excited about that outsiders may be afraid of or even not understand, but as someone who has gone back year after year and is returning for her 12th year, theres nothing like these 10 things. There's nothing like the countless other things I can't think of at the moment. There's nothing like the countless things I can think of but don't want to bore everyone. But I can say, "There's nothing like home."
Oh thank Heaven for delicious camp food! Or for camp in general really. In 48 SHORT hours, I will be getting ready to make the trek from Angel's Attic (from personal experience this is probably the furthest cabin on the hill from) to Harrison Hall for my first camp meal in TWO YEARS. I'm about 95% packed now, thanks to an intense packing session with my mom this morning/early afternoon. All I have left are a few last minute items that I'll still be needing until I leave.
Thanks to Kathleen, my mouth is watering in anticipation of my arrival and first bite of the most amazing camp food anyone has ever known. Literally. We don't just eat hot dogs and hamburgers every night like most camps. Just take a look (she's got some pictures of what they've already eaten, so jealous)!
Since I'll be at camp sans regular internet connection, posts will be very limited: maybe a post or two on my days off (maybe nights off if there's a better place in Kerrville with wifi and is open 24 hours). Without the modern conveniences of regular internet connection, my iPhone, and television, I'll be starting my summer reading list. First I have The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and the two following books of the series. Then I'm not sure. I'm thinking that the first two books of the series will keep me busy enough while I'm at camp, but I am looking for other suggestions since I never have to read for school again and would like to read for fun more. And now I'm off to figure out my second to last dinner at home for a month!
Oh, where is my charm bracelet? Oh, where is my charm bracelet? Oh, where oh where oh where oh where oh where! Is my charm bracelet?
With 4 days left in Tyler, I've started digging up random things I need at camp like my 3 year counselor ring, random James Avery jewelry, a little rug for in between my bed and the bed next to me, and of course my charm bracelet. However, I can NOT find my charm bracelet. I saw it last July 2009 and now it's missing. I found my ring and since I got it in 2008, it usualy stays in the same 5 in radius as the bracelet. But this just isn't so right now. I've looked all over the top of my dresser. Picked up and shaken every James Avery box I own (white and orangey-salmon) and I can't find it. I'm quite distraught. If you have any suggestions of where to look, let me know!
Update @ 9:45PM FOUND. My mom knew it was at the back of a random drawer... It's safely sitting on top of my trunk now.
for SYTYCD!!! One of my all time favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance, is about to start everyone. Thursday, May 27, 2010, at 7 PM (Central time) on Fox. I'm bummed it's a summer show only because I have to miss four weeks of it for camp. However, my lovely mother has a DVR, which is a Heaven-sent technology that I love on a daily basis. In honor of my favorite show's return, I'd like to highlight a handful of my favorite dances from the show's 4 seasons that I have watched. (I tuned in starting with season 3 because I knew a girl in the Top 20 and fell in love!)
Season 3 Favorites I'll try to keep each season to 3-5 dances since this will be a long post even if I did one per season.
Dancing by Kameron and Lacey - Oh my gosh. The jump at 1:15. PERFECT. I get chills EVERY time. Lacey was one of my favorites for the season. She's been one of the pro's on Dancing with the Stars for two or three seasons.
The Moment I Said It by the Top 10 - I mean, let's face it, Imogen Heap music and Mia Michaels choreo... It's perfection. Mia Michaels is an artistic genius and I'm so excited she's coming back to judge for season 7.
Sweet Dreams by Neil and Sabra - This is still one of my FAVORITE dances. I find myself comparing other dances to this one A LOT. Neil was by far my favorite boy this season (and maybe of all the seasons I've watched... If not, he's definitely up there). I'm super pumped for Neil to return as an All Star this season!
Fuego by Pasha and Lauren - Sorry it's not the TV version, it's the best I could find. I remember not liking Lauren until I watched this dance and then I was like, "Ok, I get it, I understand why she's on the show." Always loved Pasha. Excited to see both of them back as All Stars with Neil.
Season 4 Ok, as much as I loved season 3, season 4 was probably the best dance wise. Seasons 3 and 5 had the personalities (don't get me wrong, 4 has big personalities, too), but season 4 had the dances and dancers capable of performing the choreo to the degree required (and surpassing that).
The Garden by Mark and Courtney - Hello, Sonya Tayeh! She's perfection. Mark is perfection. Courtney is perfection. This is by far probably my all time favorite dance on the show. Two of my favorite dancers (and All Stars for season 7) only make this dance better. I remember when Adam Shankman requested this is one of his favorites for the finale, I knew I wasn't alone in loving this dance and these two dancers. PS - Mark has been one of Gaga's back up dancers for the past year. It only makes me love him more!
No Air by Joshua and Katee - This dance on tour left me speechless. I hated this song until I saw this dance. Not to mention Josh is from Fort Worth and taught a class at TCU after winning SYTYCD (still mad I wasn't a dance major for a day). They were the IT couple of season 4 and I didn't get it until the show intoduced Bollywood with them (look it up, it's a definite honorable mention).
Bleeding Love by Mark and Chelsie - Is anyone else as in love with Mark's dance abilities as I am? Season 4 intro'd us to NappyTabs, aka Napoleon and Tabitha, the hip hop married couple with ridiculously good ideas and choreo. Chelsie has been a pro on DWTS for two seasons I believe. She was a favorite of mine.
Marcy by Twitch and Katee - I wanted Twitch to win SO bad. He was my favorite guy for this season (until I saw Mark in the Garden, then it was a tie). Still the most famous prop on the show, I'm convinced.
The Dance by the Top 12 - Couldn't find the original TV version, but this will do. Probably my favorite Top 12 I've seen on the show so far. Mark got to be super creepy. The boys got to beat the floor with giant sticks. I really think that's why I liked it so much. I mean, besides it being a phenomenal dance. And now I have to move onto Season 5 otherwise, I could show you 10 more dances from Season 4.
Season 5 Again, we had stand out dancers and personalities, but the choreo didn't touch season 4 (for the most part, my favorites are up to that standard though). What happened in season 5 is that the first episode was fan-freakin'-tastic. It was hard to see how anyone could go home. And instead of building up like the other seasons, they just kind of stayed at the super awesome level they at which they started (yes, I got super grammatical correct on you just so I didn't end the sentence in a preposition).
If It Kills Me by Jason and Jeanine - Chills. Thank you, Nigel, for bringing Travis Wall (season 2 runner up) back for choreography. Why didn't he win his season?
Battlefield by Brandon and Jeanine - Ok, if this dance isn't perfect then I don't know what is. Seeing this in person when they came to Nokia (now Verizon) in Grand Prairie is one of the highlights in my dance life. Obsessed.
Jai Ho by Jason and Caitlin - This was how season 5 kicked off. Literally. It was the first dance of the first competition episode. How do you get better than that? Thank you, Nigel, for bringing Bollywood to American TV.
Eyes on Fire by Kupono and Kayla - Thank you, Sonya Tayeh, for being on the Twilight bandwagon and choeographing a dance to this song. They were my favorite couple of the season (until Brandon and Jeanine - runner up and winner, respectively). I wanted Kayla to win until the very end. Kupono is Hawaiian like Mark, so I'm wondering what's in the water there to make these guys so amazing? Also noteworthy is Kupono and Kayla's "Addiction" dance to "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. Absolutely stunning.
Hot Like Wow by Max and Kayla - How the first episode of competition ended. Just imagine the 8 dances in between. Kayla's original partner, Max, and Kupono's partner, Ashleigh, getting voted off was sad but probably the best thing that could have happened for Kupono and Kayla because they were a match made in heaven (as seen above). However, Max was amazing and without him this dance wouldn't have been what it is.
Ok, bonus for season 5, because I'm afraid there were too many good dances.
Kick It by the Top 3 Girls - So I literally looked for 3 other dances before settling on this one. It so perfectly showcased the top 3 girls' personalities and dance abilities. Sonya Tayeh is a genius.
Season 6 Although the dancers were talented, there was little turn around time from season 5 to season 6 because 6 aired in the fall. Because of the lack of down time, I'm afraid the choreographers weren't exaclty bringing their A-game as usual. Plus we experienced the absence of Mia Michaels, which was really depressing and only made us realize more that the choreo wasn't as stellar as usual. We also found ourselve on a new stage which isn't too bad, but it limits the camera angles as compared with the first few seasons...
Bad Romance by Nathan and Mollee - A few of my favorite things... The IT couple of season 6 (or one of many IT couples), Lady Gaga, and SYTYCD. I love that they do Gaga-ish moves throughout as well.
The Can-Can by Nathan and Mollee - The first time the can-can was performed on the show. Mollee had a sprained ankle was still that good. So enerrgetic and fun!
Ordinary Day by Jakob and Mollee - Sorry for the Mollee love-fest, but these are honestly some of the best dances. If this isn't one of the most perfect waltzes you've ever seen, then I don't know what perfect is.
Tore My Heart by Jakob and Ellenore - AKA The Garden, Pt 2, as deemed by Adam Shankman very appropriately. Not as amazing as The Garden, but definitely awesome.
Afro-Jazz by Russell and Noelle - Another first in SYTYCD - the African Jazz. SO good. I'm pretty sure this is how we ended the first episode of competition and I was siked. I was hoping it'd be a good prediction of the rest of the season. Mainly what it did instead of that was to solidify my love of Russell who ended up winning.
I can't wait to see what Season 7 has in store despite its many changes. I wasn't happy with the changes until Nigel announced the All-Stars.
As you know, I graduated 15 days ago from TCU. Along with graduation come moving out. My birthday was mother's day and the day after graduation. That day was spent packing up clothes, decorations, movies, toiletries, etc from my room into my car (and my mother's car) and driving it back to Tyler. On Friday, my mother and I drove back and took back two of our three cable boxes and awaited my father and one of his friends to get my furniture into the bed of his truck and a trailer. When I walked through our cute little green house I was overcome with sadness and memories.
My roommates (Amanda and Stacey) and I decided to live together near Christmas of Sophomore year. They had lived together for a semester Freshman year and I was unsure of what I was doing to Stacey invited me to live with them. We had originally planned to live on campus in the apartments, but TCU decided that rising Juniors weren't cool enough to stay on campus so we started discussing off-campus options. A few of my friends had decided to go off campus together and were looking for houses and apartments. They signed their lease shortly before my roommates and I decided to go rent house hunting. I asked Brigitte for her list of nixed houses and saw one that was too good to be true: 3 bed, 3 bath, on University, walking distance to campus. I called the landlord and we visited the house the following week.
We signed the lease shortly after the visit. We moved in slowly over the summer and then in the fall of 2008, started our two year adventures in that house. It had MANY flaws, but was pretty much perfect for three college girls. Amanda and I were a little more than 5 minutes walking from our major's building and Stacey was probably about 7 minutes walking distance from her's. Amanda and I often were able to walk together to Moudy, if not the same class. It was the perfect location.
Over the past two years, the three of us bonded and grew closer as friends. Amanda would come up and say hello to me every morning and afternoon and random other times through the window in the kitchen. Stacey would pace in the kitchen while studying for various tests and eventually a few high kicks were added to her pacing routine. Our cute green kitchen became the hub of the house where I would sit in my desk chair, Amanda would stand at the window, and Stacey would stand between the doors of the kitchen or be cooking and we'd talk.
On my way home from the Fort on Friday with my mom, she said, "You don't live in Fort Worth anymore. You don't have a Fort Worth address." It was so sad. Fort Worth became a home away from home for me over the past four years (but especially the last two) and while I hope to return there in the next few months when I get a big girl job, I'm in limbo. I live in Tyler with my mom. In a few days I'm going to camp for a month for the last time. Everything sounds so final right now, but I know that it's only the beginning.
So I wrote this post to memorialize our time in the Cute Green House on University. May the girls that move in enjoy you as much as we did.
Today Google is celebrating PacMan's 30th anniversary! Since I was in Fort Worth packing up the rest of my stuff I had been watching people's statuses and tweets talk about it until about 15 minutes ago when I finally logged on to play. If you were unaware of this amazing thing, please go to Google and play immediately. This article is one of the first things I saw that popped up after I played. Pretty funny at the end.
So far I've played twice. My scores are 3060 3930
I'll probably update later after I play more... Go play and post your scores!
Update 5/22 @ 1:03 PM I made it through level 1 and into 2! 4300
Camp countdown: 14 days til I go, 17 days til campers arrive. In honor of camp approaching so quickly, I thought it would be fun to post random things that remind me of camp; the first being a poem by Robert Fulghum that is read at a vespers service every term: All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It's a crowd favorite!
Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.
These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.
Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK . Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
Forget the Super Bowl, funny commercials come out year round (Although the Super Bowl does produce some grat ads, don't get me wrong). This week, I thought I'd share some of my favorite funny TV ads.
Sears Optical - Raccoon This ad never fails at cracking me up. I think this ad is so funny to me because I can imagine it happening to anyone in my family since we're all blind.
Schick Quattro TrimStyle One of my best friends told me about this commercial around spring break last year. It took me a good month after hearing about it to see it. I've been laughing at this commcercial for a year now and it never gets any less funny.
Kotex - Why Are Tampon Ads So Ridiculous? I want to personally thank the writers of this ad. They had to be female because tampon ads are SO RIDICULOUS. The sarcasm in this ad is absolutely perfect. I laughed just now watching this on YouTube...
E*Trade - Milk-a-what! Okay, so I know I said forget Super Bowl commercials, but we need to address how hilarious this ad is. Especially because dumb LiLo(aka Lindsay Lohan for you non-Perez readers) had it taken off the air. I miss this commercial so much...
E*Trade - First Class Ok, let's face it, I'm a sucker for E*Trade commercials. I love the E*Trade baby. My mom is obsessed withh this one and I only recently decided it was funny. "Dad?!"
Snickers - Diva From the campaign that broughht back the nation's love for Betty White, I give you Aretha and Liza. Not quite as hilarious as the Betty White ad, but still up there!
That's all I have for now! I hope you enjoyed these ads as much as I do.
I'm a huge movie buff. Ok, let's face it, I love all forms of entertainment! So naturally, I get really excited about the summer movie releases. Tis post will be dedicated to the movies I plan on seeing this summer!
Iron Man 2 - May 7 - Saw it the other day. It's so good! Can't wait for the eventual third movie and although I'm not as into the spin offs, I'll be anxious to see those as well. Robert Downey, Jr., I love you, thank you for cleaning up your act (and getting so buff)!
Shrek 4 - May 21 - The first three Shrek movies were fantastic. I feel like this one won't be quite as good as the others, but I will enjoy seeing a fat Puss in Boots. Not to mention Craig Robinson (Darryl fromt The Office) is the voice of an ogre in this Shrek installment. I'd post the trailer with him in it, but YouTube is lame.
Sex and the City 2 - May 27 - I absolutely loved the first movie! And Aidan is back for this one, which makes me all giddy! As much as I love Mr. Big, there's just something about Aidan. I guess Aidan was more real to me than Mr. Big. I'm excited for that story line.
Prince of Persia - May 28 - I honestly has NO interest in seeing this movie until recently. It looks pretty hott... And Jake Gyllenhaal is definitely one of my favorites! We'll see if I actually see it in theaters though, I have a feeling no one else will want to see it.
Killers - June 4 - I will be praying the June movies I want to see do well so that I can see them after camp. Katherine Heigl does great in chick flicks. Her comedic timing is awesome. Add in Ashton Kutcher and I get the feeling it'll be a match in chick flick heaven.
The A-Team - June 11 - I'll admit it: the only reason I want to see this is Bradley Cooper. Can you blame me?
Toy Story 3 - June 18 - I think I might be a little TOO excited for this movie. Toy Story and toy Story 2 were two of the best movies of my childhood and I love that the writers wrote TS3 about Andy growing up and going off to college (making the timeline realistic). I'm hoping the Kerrville movie theater will stay open later than 9:30 to show a few movies because this will be one I'd race into town on a night off to go see.
Eclipse - June 30 - I'm really kind of upset that this is starting in June, I'm not going to lie. It'd be way more convenient for me if this started in July.It will be the first Twilight movie that I won't be seeing at midnight and I'm really surprised at how upset about it I am... But regardless, I will be seeing this as soon as I get home from camp.
Despicable Me - July 9 - I'm so curious about this movie. I saw the first preview for it at the Harry Potter midnight showing LAST June. It's got a great cast of voices and I'm wondering how it could NOT be funny.
Step - Up 3D - August 6 - The original Step Up was great. I don't remember seeing the second one, which says a lot about it if I actually did. However, Adam Shankman (one of my favorite judges from So You Think You Can Dance) produced it. AND two of my favorite dancers from SYTYCD are in the movie (Joshua and Twitch from season 4)! And Alyson Stoner, the girl from Missy Elliot videos in the EARLY 00's, is definitely in it and I love watching her dance. Ok, let's face it, I love dance movies.
Eat, Pray, Live - August 13 - I haven't read the book, but the movie looks great! So does the food in the trrailer.
The Switch - August 20 - Saw the preview for this at the Back-up Plan and knew immediately it was going on my must see list. Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman? I'm thinking this is going to be a match in comedy heaven.
Here's another little post! It's about pre-grad stuff, like my brick and my now beautifully decorated cap! I can't believe graduation is in 5 hours! The first one starts in a few minutes - this is so weird!!!
Went out to find my brick by the library yesterday and here it is: my brick
Then last night I decorated my cap for this afternoon. I'm going to be in the middle of my ceremony and in a sea of purple, so I put a key (inspired by Tiffany) on my cap to help people find me, I hope it works! my cap
Congrats to all the other TCU Spring 2010 grads! We made it!
So, Glee is probably one of my favorite shows ever. Or it's quickly becoming one of them. And there's this little gem out there in the blogosphere that everyone needs to enjoy. Emma is easily one of my favorite characters. And Puck, but that's another story. So since I haven't blogged in a while, and probably won't give you a substantial one until after graduation (which is Saturday!), here's this little blog-lette: Go to What Would Emma Pilsbury Wear? and enjoy.
Sunset over Camp
Intermediate War Canoe 2008
Chapel Hill at Tonk Vespers 2008
Together Song Chorus Practice 2008
The Cute Green House
Living Room Pre-Move In
The Kitchen from My Room
The Roommates at My 21st Birthday Party
Chapel Hill at Camp Mystic
my brick
go frogs!
my cap