Closet Space

I have two favorite books.  Of course I do… such a complicated life I lead.

The first is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It’s a great book. I have only read it once, but the view it’s written in drew me in right away and I feel in love with the journey the autistic boy was making to find out what happened to his neighbor’s dog one evening.  I found a great summary here if you would like to learn more.

My second favorite is To Kill a Mockingbird. A lot of people have bad memories about this book because it was frequently shoved down the throats of 9th graders at the start of their year.  I encourage you, though, if you haven’t read it since your angsty 9th-grade year, please give it a chance.  It’s great, I promise.

As for things not related to the thirty days project, I am doing the shadowing portion of my internship tomorrow. I am spending the day at a local crime lab to gain exposure to how the evidence is handled (outside of what our crime lab teaches us in school).  I will inform all of you of what I learn.  I won’t say where I am going or any specifics, but I will outline anything interesting or exciting that happens in my day tomorrow.

I also got my 3rd dose of Gardasil tonight.  That shot hurts like a mother… yowsers.

This topic is so difficult. Who on Earth only has one favorite TV program? Perhaps someone who watches much less television than I do. Oh well. Judge all you want. Some people are music people, some people are book people, some people are movie people – I am a tv person.  I can re-watch episodes I’ve already seen, it just doesn’t get old to me.  So to adquately do this posting, I must mention all of my favorite TV shows. They are:

What are your favorite programs?

Anyway, onto another blogging topic – I’m almost done with my time in Pittsburgh. This is my last week. It’s insane to think that I’ve finally reached the point of going back with Ryan in our new apartment.  Granted, I will be working 40-hour work weeks from home (I will use a special type of software to log-in to my work computer from Richmond, so I can finish my project) so I won’t be done working.  I’m glad the project is continuing after I leave the city, though, because we are going to be able to get so much more information if I work on it longer. I will even get my name on a journal article or two for this project – which is incredible to me.

Also once I get back to Richmond, I’m going to make a daily schedule and adjust my spending habits. I want to find more time for this blog, since I’ve been getting so many visitors lately. I want to expand it, and learn more, and make this website really awesome.  I want to make more of my own themes, too. But Artisteer has a lof of limitations.  Do you know of any other programs that will allow me to create themes? I’d love to try anything!

Today, although not the second actual day since I started, is my second blog-post of the Day 30 series.  Today’s subject is my favorite movie.  That’s an easy one.  If I had to pick one movie… just one… it would certainly be this one:

“Remember, kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you’ll never go wrong.”

The Sandlot.  I might be 23 and in graduate school, about to start a career that involves testifying and putting criminals behind bars, but my favorite movie of all-time is this movie.  I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s my absolute favorite.  What’s your favorite movie?

As for topics other than the 30 Days series, the most exciting news in my life is that I am going to a wedding this weekend.  It’s for friends of ours from high school.  I’m sure we’ll have fun – I love weddings.  I still get bitter when I’m not the one standing on that altar, but, alas, that’s my cross to bear.  I will undoubtedly take some photos and post on facebook, for those of you that know me well enough for me to add you to facebook. For the rest of you, who knows.

Nothing else is really going on in my life.  I have 2.5 weeks left of my internship – this summer is flying.  But soon, I will be reunited with Ryan, preparing for my last year of school (it only took what, 23 years?) and getting ready to put on my big girl panties and head out into the real world.  I’ve never been more excited in my life.

First thing is first – I updated my 101 in 1001 list.  A lot of the goals were so immature and materialistic. I wanted to clear all of the crap out of my life and start with a new, refreshing series of events.  While I was redoing my list, I stumbled across an item that I didn’t blog about – buying a new car.  I know in the last post I described how I didn’t get my license yet.  Well, Ryan and I still purchased a car anyway. It’s a used car, a 2001 Black 4-door Saturn.  It looks like this:

Of course, that’s not our car.  I just stole that picture from Google.  We love it. It’s such a cute little car. We had been driving that gigantic Blazer since the accident in January.  It sucked gas… I honestly believe that thing ate it.  There’s no way we could afford to keep driving it. But, I’ve finally, then, straightened out the mess I caused with Ryan’s car in the accident. That gives me one more major goal to cross of my list. See the complete list here.

As for this 30 days project, I’ve seen so many places doing this around the internet, including SP and Stubborn-Ox. I love the idea. It will give me something to blog about, along with reminding me to actually log-on and do it.  The topics for all 30 days of the project are:

Day 01 → Your favorite song
Day 02 → Your favorite movie
Day 03 → Your favorite television program
Day 04 → Your favorite book
Day 05 → Your favorite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Day 01 → Your favorite song

My favorite song is the one that I want to play at my wedding (whenever that happens…).  It’s called “I Like to Be With Me When I’m With You” by Drew Holcomb.  I just love this song.  I think it has to do with my love-bird mentality. I’m just in love with love. I love everything about the whole process. I love having that person I share everything with – that perfect person who makes everything complete.  If you’ve ever been in love, and I mean that real that can’t-eat, can’t- sleep, reach-for-the-stars, over-the-fence, world-series kind of stuff (Did anyone get that reference?) you’ll know exactly what I am talking about.  The lyrics for the song go like this:

If I had a great big mansion
I’d rather live in a shot gun shack with you

If I drove a red farari
I’d rather ride in an oldsmobile with you

If I won a million dollars
I’d give it away to spend more time with you

If i had a million lovers
I would trade em all for just one more night with you

With you I can be myself
With you I don’t have to be somebody else

It’s like puttin on my favorite pair of shoes
I’d like to be with me, when I’m with you

If i owned the finest vineyard
I would rather sit and drink cheap wine with you

If i could live on the moon
I would rather stay in Tennessee with you

If i could sail across the ocean
The ocean would just be blue without you

If i could climb up Mount Everest
I would turn around and climb in bed with you

With you I can be myself
With you I don’t have to be somebody else
It’s like puttin on my favorite pair of shoes
I like to be with me when I’m with you

If i could be like Albert Einstein
I’d rather just be dumb and be with you

If I could sing like Frank Sinatra
I would rather sit and talk to you

With you I can be myself
With you I don’t have to be somebody else
It’s like puttin on my favorite pair of shoes
I like to be with me, when I’m with you.

It’s a lovely song. If you’d like to listen to it, I’ve included the .m4a file here - I Like to Be With Me When I’m With You

P.S. Due to my new found love for blogging to finish projects, after this 30 Days project the future will be filled with a photography project and blog entries answering the 50 questions that will free your mind.  Looks like I’m not going anywhere.

Edit: Like the new theme? The other one was too bulky and got on my nerves. Ick.

Hey all! This summer is seriously flying by. It’s been so busy, I can’t even keep up! Once school starts again, I will have more time at home and really try to make this blog a priority.  I suck at keeping it updated after my 12+ hour days.  I just don’t feel like doing anything after I come home. Unfortunately, that makes me a sucky blog hostess.  Forgive me?

I have some future plans for this website, but I don’t know so much if they are going to work out.  You see, I want to blog about everything I do. I mean, everything.  Especially when I plan parties, bbqs, cook meals, see something interesting, etc.  But, to do that, I have to get better at taking my camera with me and taking photos of everything.  I’m gonna try real hard once I’m back in Richmond, I swear I am.  I also don’t know if I am going to keep all the visitor content or not.  I really might direct it more towards just being a blog, without all that extra stuff.  No-one is really here for it, and a lot of it it old and not really in style anymore.  I might just back-up the word press entires, delete everything else, and start over.  What do you think?

As for life, it’s been same-old, same-old.  Ohm I do have a story I forgot to post.  You know how last time I was getting my license we got in a car accident? Well, this time something else happened.  As I’m sure all of you know (because you’re all loyal readers of mine ) I didn’t get my license last time.  So, I made an appointment for when we were at home last weekend to get it.  Well, I was driving around with my Dad, practicing and we went into a restaurant real quick so he could get some lunch.  When he came out, we were going to go practice parking once more before the exam.  Well…. the car wouldn’t start.  It just died.  Right before my test!!!! He got it started, then it died again.  It just didn’t want to go anywhere.  Because it was so close to exam time, it was too late to get another car to use.  Long story short, I didn’t get my license this time, either.  I seriously think I’m not meant to drive!

My internship is going well.  It’s really neat.  We’re running into some road blocks though, but they are out of our control.  So I had to modify my project a little.  I hope it’s not going to be a big deal in the end.  I can’t see why it would be, so hopefully nothing  comes of it.

Ryan’s moving our stuff into our new apartment next week.  We are sooooooo excited to be moving into a nicer, quieter place.  Unless you lived in the middle of a college town, next door to a rock band that practices daily and who’s amps are so not in tune that they have constant, ear-piercing feedback, you have no idea what we lived through last year.  I’m very excited to be living in a nice townhouse.  It really feels like this is going to be the place that Ryan and I start our life together in.  We shall see, I guess. Maybe there will be a ring in my future and I can put one more piece in my life puzzle.  I

Hopefully I remember to post on Wordless Wednesday and the Thursday Treat this week, since I’ve sucked at it all summer.  Do you have any requests for either of those?

I seem to say this a lot on this blog, but I’m sorry for being so dispersive with my entires over the last few weeks.  I simply haven’t had time to blog with everything that has been going on.  I’ll try to fill all of you in on my life adventures since I last blogged.

First, I finally got the buses down! Thank goodness. All that stress lead to an anxiety attack.  It wasn’t the highest point in my life.  But, they changed the bus routes after I’d been here for 2 weeks and the new routes make my commute easier and faster.  I enjoy it much more.  It only takes about an hour or so each way – not too bad.  I’m just glad I have it down and don’t have to stress out about it as much anymore.  It makes life a little easier.

I saw Ryan last weekend for the first time since I moved to Pittsburgh a month ago.  This is the longest we’ve ever been apart.  It’s weird. I have seen him at least once a week for the entire 8 years we’ve been together, now it’s down to once a month.  I miss him a lot.  Only one more month until I move back down south with him, though.  I can’t wait.

I bought a crock pot cookbook. It was my first ever cookbook purchase (and, it’s on my 101 in 1001).  Usually, I just get the recipes online instead of buying a cookbook.  This was an exception though.  I have an easier time looking through recipes in print than I do online when making a grocery list or planning a party.  It’s just easier.  Because of that, I’m trying to find a way to organize all of my recipes.  I thought about typing up all of them and putting them in a binder or something, but I don’t know if I will like that.  I’m more of a fan of the recipe box or cookbook.  A binder isn’t that much different, I just like the aura of a cookbook or an old family recipe box.  Do any of you have a recipe system that works wonders for you? I need advice!  I want one that I can easily add to as I find new recipes, in the sections they belong in (like appetizers, sides, main dishes, etc).

And the most eventful thing to happen since I last blogged… I got food poisoning.  :(  YUCK.  I have never been so sick in my entire life!  I didn’t know that’s what I had, but I Googled it (hey, I belong to the technology generation, what do you want from me?) and I had every single symptom.  It was a rough 2 days.  I still can’t eat a full meal, I just don’t have the appetite I did before.  I won’t discuss all of the unpleasantries, just know that it was the singe worst experience of my life.  Easily.

I’m still trying to decide which phone I want to buy.  I’m leaning towards the Razzle.  It’s got good ratings, and someone had one at the zoo and it was really neat. I’ll let you know what I decide.  I love my phone, so it’s hard to get a new one.  But, it’s dying all the time so I need a phone with a better battery life.  What phone do you have?

The most recent thing I’ve done was have a movie night.  Last night, the girl I am staying with this summer and I had a Netflix watch instantly marathon.  We watched The Girl Next Door, Tamara, and Death of a Ghost Hunter.  The Girl Next Door was a good movie, but it was so difficult to watch… morally.  The things these people did to this girl… still gives me the shivers thinking about it.  It was so disturbing.  I felt like a sinner just for watching it. Tamara was awful, we just watched it because we are in love with awful B movies and this one fit the bill.  Death of a Ghost Hunter was AMAZING. Aside from Yvette and Mary Young being AWFUL actors, this movie was great.  So suspenseful and intriguing.  I was scared!  Another creepy good movie is called Them or Ils in French.  It’s creepy as heck!

I’m also thinking of updating my 101 in 1001 list.  Can you do that? I don’t really see why not, it is my list.  There are just some things that don’t fit what I want to do anymore.  I also want to catalog them like Caity did, her list is very inspiring.

I put up a new layout as well.  I love it. So cute.  I didn’t make this one, though.  The Artisteer program is lacking some settings I would like to see in themes that I build.  I might try to find a new program.

Alright, it’s nice to be back. I promise I will try to update more often. At least once a week. I swear.

P.S. I know that I’m not on here too often, but I still should be linked on your site if you have a link exchange with me.  I went through my list and if I couldn’t find a link to my site, I deleted your link.  If I made a mistake, please let me know!

So, I’ve survived my first week in Pittsburgh.  The bus system here is SUCH a bust.  It’s hard to make the transfers sometimes, but I’ve at least got the morning ones down.  Once I get the evening ones, I should be fine.  I thought I’d have it figured out by now, but I’m still making mistakes and finding myself getting lost, freaking out, and being upset with myself.  It’s really scary to be lost in downtown Pittsburgh, 5 minutes away from the bus leaving and being stranded there.  Eeek.

Once I actually make it to the place, it’s great! I love all the people and the atmosphere in general of the place I am working.  It’s really great. Once my project gets done, I’ll link you guys to some of the materials that explain what I do (if you’re interested).  It’s confusing for people not in the field, so I haven’t decided if I will post it yet or not.  Do you have any thoughts?

I’m still trying to decide on what phone I want to get.  I’m down between these three: Razzle, Cosmos, and the Exilim.  Do you guys have or know anyone who has any of these phones?  I have no idea what I want.  I know that really, I want an iPhone, but I can’t afford the plans that go with those so for now, I think I am sticking with Verizon.  I don’t want the data plan though, so that limits the choice of phones that I can get.

Alright, I am off to prepare for another crazy work week.  Wish me luck!!

Sorry I have been gone for so long!  I had all of those exciting events I have eluded to happen, so it’s been an eventful couple of weeks.  After finals were over, I had some time off, went to VA Beach (see last blog) and spent some much needed alone time with Ry-Guy.  Once the fun was over, we went to the MAAFS conference in State College, PA.  It’s a forensics conference. It was really neat – I learned so much and spoke with so many people.  I met my internship mentor, met a questioned document examiner for the FBI, and sat through a lecture by George Piro! It was amazing.  For those of you who don’t know who George Piro is, he is the FBI agent who was solely responsible for interrogating Saddam Hussein when he was in US custody (all 8 months).  He told really incredible stories about the experience and I learned a lot. If you want a peak of what we saw, you can check out his 60 Minutes segment.  It was really amazing.

Now I’m officially moved into my bedroom in Pittsburgh, and getting ready to start my internship.  I have a lot of work to do for it, and I’m getting most of it done quickly.  I have found a lot of articles and am getting a good start on my 10-page (single spaced) proposal.  It’s coming right along.  While I’ve been in Pittsburgh, I’ve done some crafting and gone to the zoo! I’m thinking one of those will be my Wordless Wednesday post next week.  The Zoo and Aquarium here was so pretty. I loved it!

Along with that, I’m changing up what is on my iPod, working on a new layout, and editing my teaching powerpoints for the fall.  It’s been busy.

What have you guys been up too now that summer is underway! Do you have any plans for Memorial Day?

I’m so glad to be done with school.  I had to proctor today, and it was my last official duty of the school year.  I haven’t had any exams since Tuesday, but I didn’t really feel completely done until tonight when the proctoring was over.  YAY! Summer is here. I still have to do school work over the summer for my internship, but I’m at least free from class. Off to get paid to work on questioned documents all day.  Dream job? Um, YES!

Ryan and I have decided to take a day trip to Virginia Beach this weekend.  I’m really excited.  You can look forward to seeing more photos in my Flickr and Facebook pages!  I will put everything and it’s mother on Facebook, but only my favorites go on Flickr.  I’m no professional, I just love pictures.  I love taking them, I love looking at them, everything!  Have any of you ever been to VA Beach? Is there something you recommend we do? We’re going to go out and walk the boardwalk (it’s 3 miles full of shops and fun!) then hit the beach, then hit-up the Cape Henry Lighthouse (maybe).  It’s going to be exciting, and exhausting.  Perfect day.

I added some WordPress themes to the site and re-organized a little. Now credits and bios and such are easier to find.  What do you think of the new themes? I’m also going to be making a change from this theme soon… I’m growing tired of it.

I’ve seen the “Wordless Wednesday” catch on in other blogs.  I like it. Along with that though, I’ve seen mean comments about the wordless things people are posting around the internet.  I’ve seen people say other’s baby pictures were ugly, that they didn’t like the photo, they would have done this, blah blah.  What’s with all the haters? If you don’t like it, shut-it! I feel so bad for people when I see that.

Speaking of trending topics… I’ve decided to start my own little trend in the blogosphere.  It’s called “The Thursday Treat”.  We all know how much I love cooking, and how much I love sharing food with others.  As such, I’ve decided that I need a way to share these treats with you. Instead of boring you day in after day out, I decided to go with 1 day a week for food based non-sense.

This Thursday Treat was found through my favorite website ever, FoodGawker.  I’ve shared it before, but it never gets old.  I was browsing around and came across the gem for today’s treat.  Are you ready? It’s pretty amazing looking…. behold popsicles!

YUM-O, right? Those of you who follow me on Twitter have already been subjected to this awesome delight.  I was so taken by it yesterday that I couldn’t control myself and had to share it with the world! Haha. If you click the photo, it takes you to an article about two popsicle places in NYC… aka the first places on my itinerary for my trip back there!

Enjoy kiddos.