Posts (page 2)
I like to call myself a tomboy fashionista wannabe. I have the capacity to be pretty girly, but there is still too much of the tomboy in me from my youth to be a total girl. I am not a fan of pink and have to force myself to wear it. I don't wear skirts and dresses too often, often resorting to pants or jeans. I have a mean hand shake too; I may be slight, but watch out. I can shake hands like a man.
Lately I think my style has been more "tomboy" than "fashionista," and I'm trying to renew my passion for fashion. This culminated in a trip yesterday to Express.
Y'all, this dress is SO FREAKING CUTE. I can wear it with my new necklace and a pair of killer peep toes. And it was only $20! This is cheap anywhere, but especially at Express. I bought two different colors of the shirt at the right. I didn't get it in that color, but I bought it in burgundy and forest green.
I also did some online shopping yesterday at New York & Company, Victoria's Secret, and Body Central. There are crazy sales at New York & Company right now, so I highly recommend you check it out. Victoria's Secret is good for their sales only, because their normal prices are pretty expensive. I bought a nice pair of jeans for only $20. Their jeans are fabulous. I get compliments on the pair I have from them a lot.
I haven't bought anything from Body Central before, but the prices are amazingly cheap...I'll wait until I get the clothes in to dish!
I also checked out samples at Sephora. My problem skin is really bothering me, so I asked one of the assistants for her advice. The people who work at Sephora are incredible. First, they don't work for a specific brand, so it's not like going to someone at a makeup counter in the mall. They will tell you the brands that really work. They're also incredibly helpful and give a wonderful amount of sample products to try. I showed up right when it was about to close (thanks to someone submitting something a day late on their deadline at 6:15, but that's a WHOLE OTHER STORY), but the employee took me under her wing, giving me cleansers, moisturizers, serums, and foundations to try. I left 20 minutes after they were due to close and felt so bad, but they were so helpful! I love Sephora, and I love having new products to try. I'll let you all know if they work!
Well, I think I need to clean this place up and head for a run.
A real update is warranted, I suppose. Even though this last week hasn't been really eventful...just dealing with a lot of stuff at work.
I never blogged about the Them Crooked Vultures concert last Thursday. Well, it was awesome. The doors opened at 7, so Pat and I showed up around 6:30. There was already a long line looping around the venue, so we stood in it for awhile and waited excitedly. We were told the band would come out at 9 without an opener. It was a little while to wait. I bought Pat a beer and we waited around impatiently, texting friends and listening to the other excited drunk people around us. Finally the band came out and everyone started screaming. I think a good 95% of the crowd was there to see Dave Grohl on the drums. I can see why - just watching him was worth the price of admission alone. The guy is INCREDIBLE. He puts so much energy into it that it's amazing. Even though we were pretty close to the stage, it was hard to see Dave drumming, so the majority of the concert, I was just trying to catch glimpses of him. One girl and her boyfriend shoved by us to go to the front - I have to say it was funny to see them straining to see Dave later, when my view had gotten better. Seeing a former Led Zeppelin band member in concert, John Paul Jones, was pretty cool. Josh Homme was a better front man than I'd thought he be. I was pretty disappointed that the band left without an encore though. It's hard for me to remember all the songs, but I really liked "Dead End Friends" and "Interlude With 'Ludes."
It's funny because last year, before I'd gone to the Foo Fighters show, I was a casual fan. I mean, I'd listened to all their albums at least once, and I liked a lot of their songs, but I didn't call myself a huge fan. But the Foo Fighters show turned me into a fan for life, and seeing Dave drum turned me into a fan of his even more. There are very few musicians I'd be willing to wait in a line all day for, but Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters are one of them. Incredible, talented, down-to-earth musicians.
I took Patrick downtown on Friday so he could check out the record shop and the awesome candy shop. He really liked that. Then I drove him back home on Saturday, and came back up to the City on Sunday. I'd driven over 1000 miles that week by this point, but it was worth it! So much fun.
However, guess what I missed on the 28th? Apparently, ALEXANDER SKARSGARD was here for some festival and was at a movie theater that is very close by to my downtown office for this said festival. ALEXANDER SKARSGARD. HERE. AND I MISSED IT. I was in a bad place when I found that out. I've recovered...only a little though.
So what do you all think about President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award? I think it's absolutely ridiculous and cheapens the award. The man was only nominated for the award after less than two weeks in office. Two weeks! And he has not done anything significant to warrant the Prize, only give a couple of speeches and otherwise fulfill his job duties. I got into a pretty heated debate about it last night with one of my friends over Facebook (I guess you can tell I didn't do anything else last night). There were 51 comments total to the thread...my aunt Chris kept egging us on too because she was enjoying reading the debate. It was funny.
Yesterday I was eating lunch with my coworker Thomas and the client's project manager. We were enthralled by a high-speed chase taking place in Dallas. I don't know what it is about high speed chases...you're just watching someone driving, but it's addicting. I don't know why Fox News devoted so much time to covering the high speed chase, but thaaaat's another topic. Right when we were finishing lunch, the cops had successfully run the guy off the road, and everyone started clapping and cheering. "SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!" people were shouting. Gotta love living in Texas!
Ok, I think I have updated you all enough. Stay tuned for a fashion post this weekend.
For real.
Just a small update. A bigger one will be coming soon.
Can't believe it's already October (!!!!) This summer was one of the best yet...I'm determined to make this fall/winter just as kickass.
I very rarely splurge on jewelry for myself. But I saw this in my latest issue of Lucky and thought, I must buy this. Now.
Maybe it was a self-conscious decision because the article was about finding fashion pieces inspired by Amelia Earhart, and we all know how I used to be obsessed with Amelia Earhart. Or I got excited by the fact that while usually I cannot afford anything in Lucky, this piece actually is relatively cheap. Or the fact that it's just an amazing necklace. How cool is it? I can't wait until I get it.
If you like it, I got it from fredflare.com. I was able to get it for pretty cheap because I used the Lucky promotion code and got 35% off! Not sure if it's still good (you'd have to get it within the next day or two probably to take advantage of the discount), but the promotion code is Lucky4.
So I've been at the hometown for the past couple of days due to Pat's and my concert tour this week. On Monday night was Metallica. We drove in to San Antonio Monday afternoon to get to the hotel. We got a much nicer hotel than the last one we were at, so we felt considerably safer in it, haha.
This was a sold-out show, so it was a little bit different than the Green Day show. We were able to find cheap parking across the street and waited outside for a little while. These guys were walking around saying that the t-shirts inside were $40, and that they were selling concert shirts for half the price. I made a very fast (and considerably bad) decision to buy one. It was a total ripoff, obviously. I asked for a small, and the guy (complete with a shifty East Coast accent and everything) turned his back to me to pull out the shirt. It was NOT small and it was one of those shirts you just take over to some custom printing place. I could fit probably two of me in it, so I gave it to Pat. I bought a REAL tour shirt inside (which was $32, by the way, not $40). Typing this out makes me realize I spent an inordinate amount of money on tour shirts. But I love getting tour shirts, and Pat has been wearing his non-stop, so it makes me happy.
Anyway, the concert was excellent. The opening bands were Gojira and Lamb of God. Now, I love good hard rock and metal, but I draw the line at death metal. I just can't handle it. And these two bands were death metal, so I was pretty bored throughout the set. But once Metallica came out, it got awesome. We had the "nosebleed" seats that still ended up being great. The band had a laser show that was incredible. They played for 2 hours total. They didn't play anything from the albums the fans usually hate, like Load, Reload, or St. Anger. They played a lot of good stuff from their recent album, Death Magnetic, as well as stuff from the Black album, Kill 'Em All, and Master of Puppets. Their set included "One," "Sad But True," "Enter Sandman," "Nothing Else Matters," "The Unforgiven," "Master of Puppets" (which was AWESOME), "Seek and Destroy," and "Battery."
What was semi-distracting was this chick and her boyfriend, who sat right in front of us. Now, I'm usually not judgmental about this kind of stuff but...this girl was dressed like a total skank and was one of the biggest attention whores I've ever come across. She was both revolting and fascinating at the same time. She came dressed in a teensy tube dress that came maybe two inches below her crotch, high high heels, and carried a huge Chanel bag. She would make out with her boyfriend randomly (enough to be like "get a room"), leave randomly for long periods, probably to snort a line of coke (not joking), and would return and sit down. She spent several songs tying these stupid glow rings around her arm. But then what was most infuriating was how she would put up the devil horns like a total poser. I mean, I admit that I'm just a casual Metallica fan, but bitch! If you were that into the show, you wouldn't be trying to do your boyfriend or leaving for long periods of time. Annoying. She was very pretty, I'll give her that, but besides her ridiculous concert outfit, she had a vapid Marilyn Monroe voice going on. Annoying. Girls like her go against everything I stand for.
After the show was over, Pat and I headed back to the hotel (luckily we already had cold sodas waiting for us so we wouldn't repeat last month's fiasco.) I was a little nervous because it was rainy and I get really nervous driving with that much traffic. At one point I had to switch lanes and this asshole kept on honking and honking at me when I couldn't make it over right away...I could never make it in a big city like New York because I'd be taking all the honking personally.
We came back yesterday and I slept for 10 hours that night. Tomorrow is Them Crooked Vultures! YEAAH!
You guys ever hear a song, and think, "God, this sucks!" But then find yourself humming along to it, and before you know it, it's stuck in your head, and then you secretly start listening to it over and over again on playlist.com just to satisfy your listening urges? I've been there, my friends. Many times. This week's songs compiles some of the best of the worst. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a sample of the creme de la crap.
1. Kelly Osbourne, "Shut Up"
I'm not going to lie. This song was my JAM when I was eighteen.
You have to understand my state of mind when this song came out. The Osbournes had been a huge hit that spring. Between that and my recent discovery of classic rock and Black Sabbath, I was ready to embrace anything the Osbourne family released. Besides, at 18, I thought I was so badass and this song seemed to fit my mental attitude my first semester of college.
Months later, my mom and I heard this song playing somewhere and my mom said, "Ugh, that's awful." And I realized - yeah, this song really does suck. And yet I can't hate it, no matter how annoying Kelly O. sounds with her faux punk rocker grrrl pronunciation of "SHUT UPPPPP." I have to admit, the "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah" part is still kind of funny.
2. Methods of Mayhem, "Anger Management"
In 2005, I went through a phase where I had a crush on Tommy Lee. I don't get it either. I mean, besides the rampant drug use and domestic violence accusations, he actually seems like a pretty funny guy. His reality show was on then, and his autobiography had just been released (it's not for the sensitive readers, but it's actually good). In the book, he mentioned writing this song when he was in jail and feeling frustrated.
Technically, this song sucks - it jumps all over the place, and there's Tommy Lee trying to sound all badass when he's rapping. But at the same time, it's actually kind of good; and I can't hate any song that has, "GET THE FUCK BACK, WUT!" as one of the lyrics.
3. Black Eyed Peas, "I Got a Feeling"
I've referred to the Black Eyed Pea disease, where the songs have great beats, but where the lyrics are so dumb you can't believe these people are taking themselves seriously.
I know, I know - I'm supposed to hate this song. It's Autotuned to death and the lyrics are stupid even by Black Eyed Pea's standards ("Go out and smash it/like oh my God/jump off that sofa/let's get get crunk" and "Fill up my cup (DRANK)." And yet it stays stuck in my head. Damn you, Black Eyed Peas. DAMN YOU.
4. Soulja Boy, "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)"
My brother can't stand this song, and some days, I can't either.
5. Miley Cyrus, "Party in the USA"
DON'T JUDGE ME. I DON'T CARE HOW AUTOTUNED IT IS, AND HOW IDIOTIC THE LYRICS ARE. IT'S CATCHY, OKAY?! DON'T JUDGE ME.
What really bad songs can you not stop listening to?
1. Be someone I've never met in real life.
2. Send a message saying this:
hey there hows it goin i just moved to (city redacted) a couple dayz ago thought i would make sum new friends meet sum new faces.
Um...no.
Conrad posted this on Twitter, and it's just too good not to re-post.
Back in the 70's, a group of students formed an orchestra called Portsmouth Sinfonia. It was formed of musicians playing instruments completely new to them. They were um, not good. But I suppose that was the whole point, as they performed and released hit singles.
This is their version of "Thus spake Zarathustra" from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even if you weren't in band or orchestra when you were in school, you can appreciate how hilariously bad this is. Unless, you're, you know, tone deaf.
I really wonder what level of effort went into something that sounds that terrible. They must have only practiced once.
Hola Voxers. I just haven't felt like writing anything. I dunno why. I don't think it's time for me and this blog to take a break just yet; I've had it for three years, so I've grown quite used to writing in it. It's just my 'hood has become rather quiet as of late. I like reading y'all's posts. Update more.
This weekend was a good one. Last weekend, when I was feeling pretty stressed out and antisocial, I was quite content with spending the whole weekend holed up in my apartment. This weekend I would have gone crazy if I did that, so luckily there was a lot to do. I went out to happy hour with some people from my running group on Friday and watched the UT/Tech game with them on Saturday. Yesterday I saw The Informant! with Jared and Conrad, and went out to Souper!Salad! afterward. Remind me never to go out to that place again. It's glorified dorm food and is nowhere worth the money. Ugh.
Yesterday I went for a long run because I'm trying to get my endurance back up. My endurance is in a sad, sad place right now...I think my problem is more mental because I'm sure I have the physical capacity to run longer and faster than I am. I'm pretty embarrassed at how bad my running is now. I ran for an hour, with a water break in the middle. It was a slow run though...my ankle muscles have been hurting me lately because I think I have the wrong form when I run sprints, and I pulled something. It took a good 20-30 minutes for my muscles to stop hurting and for the endorphins to kick in. I skipped my run today. I dunno if that's good or not.
Sigh. Well, I'm going to take a shower. Sometimes I wonder if I have insomnia because I just cannot get to sleep at a normal time...this weekend I went to bed at 4 for no reason.
A couple of weeks ago, on our way back from Dallas, my coworker said that he doesn't know of any girls like me who enjoys listening to music like Black Sabbath. I think anyone, fan or not, would dig this badass song:
