My Week.

Beatles Beatles Beatles. We have our first test Thursday, a mere week and a half after the class started. As much as I love listening to them all day long, these first few albums on this test are kind of hard just because a lot of it is stuff I haven't heard much, if at all, before. And a lot of covers which require the memorization of original artist. (Oh, look, it's the Beatles in Hamburg with Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best! When there were five... and no Ringo.)

SHOT BOOK! My friend Lauryn's birthday is next Monday, and I'm making her a shot book for her birthday. I LOVE scrapbooking, and now that I've got all the pictures/etc organized it's coming together pretty well. I'm really excited. I'll share some pictures of finished pages once I give it to her so it doesn't give anything away. My favorites so far are the Red Headed Slut and Patron pages :-)

Rain Rain. Go away? It's been raining for like a week. I got a break when I went to Brownstown with my friend Betsy to her family's lake house on Saturday, but it was still a little overcast. I'm ready for sun and a good summer tan. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the lake. The dog is Betsy's dog Chipper, my new favorite other than my own. She was so cute with her little ears flapping in the wind on the boat. (And by little ears I mean big floppy ears, she's a Walker Hound so by no means does she have little ears.)

First Day of Class!

Ok, so I guess my first day of class was on tuesday. I'm clearly a little behind here. I'm only taking one summer class, and it's The History of The Beatles, so it's really quite the enjoyable way to spend two hours of my day Monday through Thursday.

The professor, Glenn Gass, is one I've had for two other History of Rock classes, and I LOVE him. You can tell how much he loves the Beatles and every aspect of the music he talks about, and he's so passionate about all of it. It's basically just two hours of hearing all these great stories about the band and those associated with them, and Glenn has clearly told these stories so many times, been to these places, met a lot of these people, it's almost as if he was there when the story happened.

Anyways, this is what I wore. Thank goodness I opted for leggings under this dress, because it was one hell of a windy day, and I don't think the journey to class is the appropriate place to pull a Marilyn.

Outfit
Dress, Leggings: Target
Sandals: Old Navy
Owl Necklace: For Love 21
Key Necklace: Chewlry
Sunglasses: Delias
Bracelets: For Love 21, Charlotte Russe, Claire's

What's everyone else up to this summer? Summer classes? Working? Any good vacations? Also- stay tuned, my roommate is going to be having a give away sometime in the near future, so I'll be sure to shamelessly plug that for all it's worth!

History of Rock Professors at the Bluebird

I'm sure you all have heard me talk about my History of Rock classes/professors before, but every semester the do a show at the Bluebird, and this year I was finally old enough to go! Andy Hollinden, the one I have right now, performed Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) in its' entirety with his band, and then Glenn Gas came on too and they performed some Foo Fighters, Beatles, Elvis Costello, etc. It was an amazing amazing show!!! It also happened to be my first experience with the Dirty Bird... these drinks you see here. Of course we got the large ones, and ONE of those did the trick.

Went with Betsy and met up with Claire, her new boy, Annissa, and by chance Joe, Sean, and Robert. It was definitely a great time. I wore this new black dress, that happens to be exactly the same as the Navy one I had on in a recent post, with my faithful old cowboy boots (They're baaaack!), and accessories of Kelly's picking. I really have taken a liking to just asking her to throw me together some accessories last minute. :-)

Now you'll have to excuse me, I'm off to continue this marathon of digital scrapbooking for my Creativity and Communication final project.

Busy Week, Bad Metal, and Buys!

What a busy week it has been. No good outfits. As a matter of fact, hardly any time to even get dressed... I've been running uncharacteristically late to most things this week. But thank goodness it's the weekend, and hopefully that will bring something more exciting to talk about.

I was a little disappointed that we merely brushed over Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, etc, in History of Rock. Now, I understand none of them really made any significant contribution stylistically to the way anything was really done, but I sure as hell think they embody the Rock n Roll lifestyle. We did, however, get to spend almost an entire hour and a half listen to and watching videos of some of the worst "Death" and "Thrash" Metal I've ever heard in my life. Not that I really like any kind of metal... and even though Crue/GnR are considered "Glam Metal", they're far from what metal really is.

I kid you not... at one point we talked about a band called Mayhem, who was from either Norway or Sweden or one of those places up there, who burnt down these old beautiful churches to try to rid their country of religion. Crazy, right? Well, tack on the fact that one band member killed himself in the apartment of another, who then supposedly made soup out of his brain and necklaces out of his skull and took pictures of the dead body that they later used on an album cover. But don't worry, because another band member ended up murdering that guy anyways. I mean seriously... who wants to listen to THAT when you could be hearing all the wild Crue stories? Because believe me, go pick up a copy of The Dirt, TommyLand, or The Heroin Diaries, and you will realize there are plenty.

Basically left that class wishing I could have back that hour of my life. Oh well. I guess at least it wasn't completely boring... at least our professor is hilarious. Lots of one liners, but my favorite from this class was, as we are listening to Van Halen's "RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL", "They were radio friendly... nothing satanic about these guys!" Yeah, I mean, not counting the running with the devil part. Though I guess Eddie Van Halen and his parachute pants really aren't that threatening at all, so we get where he's coming from.

In fashion news, I just ordered this adorable bronze and purple "Get Keyed" necklace from Chewlry's Etsy Shop. I'm so excited! I've been wanting to buy it for practically a month since she listed it, and my darling mommy bought it for me for a Valentine's present! I'll obviously have lots of pictures up of that when it comes. Wish I had some now but I forgot to save them before I bought it and hence the post was removed. I'm sure a monster has been let loose now that I have an Etsy account, but at least I don't really HAVE any money to spend, so I guess it may not be much of an issue.

Hope everyone has been having a good week and has a great weekend... it's strangely 45 degrees here, but we're also expecting some other big winter storm in a few days? So I don't really know what's going on with Bloomington.

LONG Day.

Really REALLY long day, so this is not going to be a long post at all. However, the weather was GORGEOUS today, as in really really sunny, and outrageously bright due to all the snow! Still cold and windy, but that's what coats and gloves are for. Speaking of which, my roommate's mom sent up some little Valentine's presents with Kelly's boyfriend, who's up visiting for the weekend. They included some Mary Kay mascara, some satin lip balm that Kelly says is amazing, and these SUPER SOFT EAR MUFFS! I think she found some fantastic end of winter clearance sales for them, and they are the softest things ever, which clearly is right up my alley.

History of Rock was gooood today, but we only managed to cover Kiss, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and a few others, which means ONE MORE WHOLE DAY dedicated to Motley Crue, Poison, Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, and all those other cheesy 80's Hard Rock bands all my friends make fun of me for liking. Or, ok, a lot of them will dance with me to the fun songs, but still.

One worthy quote I will share with you was from when Andy was talking about going to his first KISS concert with his older brother in Owensboro, KY, at the tender little age of 14. After recapping all the theatrics KISS uses (Which, if you're not familiar, include fireworks, explosions, tons of fire, flying drum sets, spitting of blood and fire, flying Gene Simmons, and more confetti than you could even imagine), he says:

"I don't know about you girls, but it was like the check list for all things a 14 year old boy needs to have a good time. Fire? Check. Explosives? Check. Blood? Check. Rock'N'Roll? CHEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK!"


Yep. I'd say that's all the stuff we need to have fun too. Except maybe replace the blood with high heels, which KISS technically wears anyways.... so we're good.

I'm heading home for the weekend to do some visiting with friends and family, and of course to see my little Lily niece, since she seems to be growing SO ridiculously fast and is already walking and probably getting her driver's license soon. I believe we're doing a single girls night on Sunday, so you can probably expect some GOOD pictures of one of my new pairs of Steve Maddens, and maybe a semi-fancy dress I haven't broken out in a while!

Also one last tid bit- I of course just ordered some clearance workout pants from American Eagle, but the day AFTER I do so, all clearance is an additional 30% off (Code: 49816637) with free shipping all weekend. If it's not a clearance item, use the code 84176459 for an additional 20% off. So if you're into that at all, now's the time to check it out. I may have to just get myself on over there and order some jeans I was contemplating earlier in the week, since they'd be like... $14 with no shipping. Hm....

If You're Going to San Francisco...

...Be sure to leave your snow boots behind. My dad is in San Francisco this week on business. This was the trip I was supposed to join him on next weekend, but he wasn't able to stay through the weekend soo that didn't quite work out. He has, however, been kind enough to send me these lovely pictures of his hot as hell rental car and the gorgeous California coast.



Of course I love snow, but I'd SO rather be there instead of still having classes in inches upon inches of snow mixed with more wind than any human could prefer. (This picture was taken prior to round 2 of the snow which has officially made all roads hell and prevented tonight's workout from happening, which clearly is the one thing about snow that I DON'T like.)


Today I did the little French Braid trick to get my bangs out of the way, because I had to put it up last night right after showering after the gym to run to a review session, so it was all sorts of crazy. I always get so excited when these braids turn out well, because more often than not my hair doesn't cooperate.



I ended up skipping History of Rock as planned, which actually kind of depresses me, because I always seem to miss the good stuff. I think today was Led Zeppelin day... but I guess that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to prevent frostbite! (Yes, I'm being dramatic, it's not that bad, just a bit slippery... too slippery for night class!)


I don't care WHAT the weather is on Thursday, I don't even care if we're in the middle of an apocalypse, because guess what? I do believe it is ACDC, AEROSMITH, HEART, KISS, POISON, MOTLEY CRUE, GUNS N ROSES, etc etc etc DAY!!!! Ladies and Gentlemen... let me clarify, I have been waiting THREE SEMESTERS OF THIS CLASS to get to this day!!!! All my guilty music pleasures unite in an educational hour and a half of goodness! I can only imagine I'm going to be on my knees at the end of class begging Andy to keep lecturing. You can probably expect all sorts of excitement and maybe even good quotes from that class.

(I also finally put up the "Better Than Sex Cake" recipe at Wonderland Kitchen!)

Camis and Cardigans.

I really do apologize for going a little post-crazy lately. It occurred to me I hadn't ever shared pictures from "Girl's Poker Night", and Kel and I took plenty so I wanted to get them up!!!


We both went for camis and cardigans, and if I do say so myself I think we had a little bit of a suburban housewife feel going on. Haha. I also wore this necklace (Forever 21) for the first time ever. I bought it, and one of the green beaded strands broke halfway off, and I finally just fixed it by clipping the end of it into the clasp when I put on the necklace. Easy fix!

Outfit

Cardigan- AE
Knit/Tie top Tank- Old Navy
Necklace- For Love 21

"Poker" night was fun. We ended up not having any chips, so we mostly just watched the Grammys and played some Blitz, which I was the first one out of. Hopefully next time the poker part will actually happen, and hopefully I WON'T be the first one out there! I still wish I would have taken more pictures once the rest of the girls got here, but Oops! Forgot!!!

I'm going to leave you this time with some song recommendations from my History of Rock studying. These are some of my favorites from this test:

King's Lead Hat- Brian Eno (British Art Rock)
I'm Waiting for My Man- Velvet Underground (American Art rock)
I Can't Stand It- Lou Reed (Glam Rock)
All I Want- Joni Mitchell

That being said, all of those songs are probably pretty love/hate so if you don't like them, then so be it! I've got a ridiculously wide range of music tastes, often kind of here and there, so there's no guarantee any one person will ever like every single song I recommend... but that's ok!

Girls' "POKER" Night.

My my, hey hey, rock and roll is here to stay. It's better to burn out than to fade away, my my, hey hey.

Anyone know who quoted that song in their suicide note? It's a Neil Young song (As much as I don't want to like Neil Young, he really has grown on me) appropriately called "My My, Hey Hey". His band Crazy Horse also does a rendition that goes "Hey hey, my my, rock & roll will never die," and it's much rockier. They're both good, so any interest in Neil Young (or not, even) I'd recommend you give both songs a listen.

That just goes to prove I'm being a good little girl and doing at least SOME studying while I'm getting ready for our Girls' "Poker" Night. I use quotes because due to some unforseen problems, I don't think we'll actually have any poker chips tonight, so we may have to just play other card games this week. I want to make them a semi-regular thing so we can all actually learn poker and then take those skills elsewhere to kick some unfortunate guys' asses and take all their money when they brush us off as unskilled female poker players ;-) I'm hoping to buy THIS book soon to really educate myself, haha. I think it's pretty cheap in bookstores.


The girls will be here in an hour, and I still have no idea what I'm wearing. Not to mention I still have to run to Kroger and grab some Coke to mix with my Captain Morgan Bite (Clear rum infused with lime, it's my new favorite- JUST came out!) and return The Orphan to RedBox. So I guess I should probably go figure out this outfit situation. I'm sure I'll have good pictures to show from tonight in my next blog post. For now I'll leave you with some pictures of the pretty little Valentine's bouquet I bought last time I was at the store, and some Valentines cards I've been making for friends. I haven't bought fresh flowers in forever and I just love them, so I'm obviously pretty excited about these, and so far I'm really liking how the cards are turning out!




OH! I also FINALLY got to the YMCA to sign up, and Kelly and I went today and had a fantastic work out. I'm hoping I'm sore enough tomorrow that I feel I have something to show for it, but not too sore to not be able to work out again!!!

The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny

I have missed History of Rock SO MUCH! Today's class largely centered on Frank Zappa, which I'll admit I really just don't like so much. I appreciate and respect the artistic value of his "music", and I like a few of the songs, but some of it is AWFUL. I'm not even kidding... go listen to "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" by the Mothers of Invention. It honest to god made me feel like I was being abducted by a colony of aliens resembling Chucky dolls (Child's Play anyone? I had nightmares about that movie for years when I was younger, so that partially explains my discomfort with this particular song) and I think I spent the 6 minute entirety of it's class playtime just wishing it would end.

(Ironic that the colors of this album match my blog so perfectly)

Besides the occasional awful song, usually few and far between, I love hearing random fact about various artists, albums, and songs, and hearing music I might otherwise never have given a second thought. That, and I'm a complete Rock junkie anyways. I think I agree with my professor, Andy Hollinden, that there is NO form of music out there which I can comprehensively say I hate. Even types I don't necessarily love, I can usually find at least a few songs I enjoy in some way or another. Also useful advice: "Do not assume that just because YOU don't like something, it sucks." So true. Sometimes it's hard to wrap our heads around the fact that what we like, and what we think, is not always right, or at least not the same opinion of everyone else. And where would we be anyways if we all thought exactly the same way?

(Andy Hollinden)

No doubt I'm excited to see what this semester holds, since we'll finally be getting into 80's rock (AND pop, new wave, etc!)... which my friends all know serves as the core of my musical preferences.

Right now I'm listening to music from the 50's/60's class, more specifically the Beatles. I love all the slightly obscure songs... some of which I doubt I would have ever heard had I not taken this class (Norwegian Wood? One of my favorites. But you can hear me ramble about that one here). SO good.