Meetups

I had a roommate in college who refused to join clubs (bless her heart) saying clubs are dumb and for the nerds. Well, I'm not about to argue that I'm not a nerd (I've embraced it!) and club loving is just a part of my nerd-like qualities (I actually had an ex-boyfriend tell me I have nerd-like qualities). I love clubs because they combine two of my favorite things, people and activities. One website that makes it easy for us to join clubs and have fun is Meetup, whose motto is "Do something, learn something, share something, change something." Not only fun but also profound. No one can argue the benefits of a healthy social network and doing things you enjoy. And it's such a versatile site. It's great if you're new to an area and don't know anyone or you want to take up a new activity or simply want to meet some new people. There truly is something for everyone on here and I encourage you to use it to add some flavor to your life.

Has anyone used Meetup? How was your experience? Anyone have any other similar websites or services they'd recommend?

Road Trips

Returning to the real world can be slightly jarring after spending a week in a most beautiful land with amazing peeps, delicious food and all the water sports/land exploration a person can manage. I'll have to share pics later once I get copies from the bf but let's just say I'm now a semi-pro wake boarder, archaeologist, jet skier and boat chef.

I've also become an expert road trip entertainer. Since it was a twelve hour drive from the LA to Bullfrog something or other where the boat departed that was twenty-four hours the bf and I had to fill in his smaller silver Scion. Oh, and since it's a manual vehicle and I don't really know how to drive one I wasn't a whole lot of help in that area. Some might call that a recipe for disaster. I think it actually made us closer cuz hey, if you can spend that much time together in an enclosed space essentially doing nothing and still come out enjoying one another bonus points. And I think we actually came out of the entire week enjoying one another more making us the coolest couple ever. Our road trip was spent hopping out of the car for various photo ops. Besides all the pics of us by the neverending massive rock formations we posed with the Sinclair gas station dinosaur (our Utah pet).

This isn't our pet dinosaur. Must be a cousin or somethin'.

In addition to taking pics we did the normal car ride things like listening to a lot of music (dance partying it up to some country music, which neither of us typically listens to) and chatted. We also spent a lot of time engaged in mass quantities of silliness that can only be attributed to lack of sleep (or not). We even invented some new animals out of ones that already existed. Lihorserus anyone?

It was especially important to keep our spirits up at one point on the way there when we wandered into Capital Reef National Park. We turned before we should have and didn't see a single person for a couple hours nor did we have cellular signals to reach the experts. At one point we pondered if we were even in Utah anymore. Perhaps against our better judgement we powered on and ended up where we needed to be with amazing views and memories. I wasn't too bothered by the whole detour since I think part of any kind of trip are the random adventures that pop up.

Here are some other suggestions for road tripping entertainment to keep you from dumping the ones you love at the rest area:
- Games such as "I Spy" and the "License Plate Game" dominated my childhood road trips.
- "Spin the Dial" radio game. Set the radio to seek and see if you can guess the song and artist before the station changes.
- Crossword and math puzzles.
- Mad Libs. Bring some or make up your own.
- Make large signs to flash at passing cars.

What do you do on road trips?

Lake Powell

Here are some pictures I found of Lake Powell where I'll be vacationing until tomorrow. So excited for all the fun that awaits me!!!








And that's the boat we'll be staying on. Well, I don't know if that's the boat we'll be staying on but a houseboat of some sort.

See ya when I get back suckas!

Stumble

Usually stumbling has a negative connotation but often new things are discovered through life's little redirections. Maybe that's how the peeps over at StumbleUpon felt since that's essentially what this website does. You click the little Stumble icon you can download for free from the website and then it goes to work bringing you to a website that matches your interests. You can then give it a thumbs up or thumbs down to help them to form a collective opinion on the website based upon both yours and other like-minded Stumblers. Pretty cool! The bf turned me onto this little addiction that's a massive time waster and time saver wrapped into one.

Apartment Therapy Part 6: The Great Outdoors

AKA backyard in southern California. Space in Los Angeles is hard to come by but somehow I'm coming by it.


I like the colorful pots and furniture dispersed throughout all the green plants and rocky ground.


Not sure what that is through the trees (a fire, lots of candles, other lights) but I like the warm feeling it evokes.


I love everything about this outdoors space including the empty grass behind the rock garden.


I'd love to walk straight out into this.



This is my last post concerning my wishlist for a new living space. It's been fun dreaming and I hope it's inspired you to have a good time doing so too.

Balls in Yo Face

In honor of the start of the World Cup, which is my fav sporting event ever (Well, maybe tied with the Olympics), I wanted to include some kind of photographs that most people would find fun to look at. I considered the usual hot players with their shirts off but that would only satisfy those who find that hot. And it's a little overdone. I thought maybe some team pics but that's kinda boring. Then, I came across this: Balls in their Face. It's not as funny as I'd imagined in my head. Since I'm a soccer player I'm well aware of the number of times we get hit in the face with a ball accidentally, which is what I thought this would be. Something like World Cup meets America's Funniest Home Videos. However, it's simply a montage of headers but now we've satisfied the hot soccer dude requirement and action shots for the rest of ya'll.

You Know You're From Michgian If...

Reliving some of my undergrad memories got me a little nostolgic for my childhood/part of my adulthood state of Michigan. While I have no desire to return there are definite things I miss about it. Mostly my family and friends who live there but also the abundance of green (no desert there), lakes, rivers and outdoors activities you can participate in. When I ran across this You Know You're From Michigan If... on Detroit Memories list I had to share it.

So you know you're from Michigan if...

You show people where you're from by pointing to a spot on the back of your left hand (I get so excited when I find people who understand this when they ask where I'm from in Michigan! It's amazing how many people don't know that Michigan's shaped like a mitten. 'Course Americans are suppose to be the worst at geography.).

You know it's possible to live in a thumb.

You consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice
and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by (Ah, good ol' ice fishing. Never did get into that a whole lot.).

Your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March (Always a bummer.).

You know that UP is a place, not a direction (Again shock that most people don't know that Michigan has two peninsulas.).

The only place in the world can you experience all four seasons in one day (The bf was shocked to learn as a child I once experienced rain and snow on the 4th of July.).

Your doctor tells you to drink Vernors and you know it's not medicine.

You know what a 'party store' is.

"Vacation" means going to Cedar Point (Worked there for a summer!).

At least one member of your family disowns you the week of the Michigan / Michigan State game (Even more so during the week of the Michigan / Ohio State game.).

Your idea of a traffic jam is 40 cars waiting to pass an orange barrel.

Half the change in your pocket is Canadian....eh?

You drive 86 mph on the highway and pass on the right.

You know how to play (and pronounce) Euchre.

It's easy to get Vernor's ginger ale, Better Made chips, Sanders hot fudge sauce, and Faygo pop.

You know how to pronounce "Mackinac (Mackinaw for those of you who don't.)."

You've had to switch on the heat and the air conditioning in the same day (And I repeat effin snow on the 4th of July!).

You bake with SODA and drink POP (Sad to say that I've converted to using the word "soda" instead of "pop.").

The movie "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" wasn't funny. You consider it a documentary.

Your little league game was snowed out (I remember one spring shoveling 2 feet of snow off our high school soccer field so our game wouldn't be cancelled.).

Traveling coast-to-coast means driving from Port Huron to Muskegon.

When giving directions, you refer to "A Michigan Left."

You know that Kalamazoo not only exists, but is only 100 miles fom Hell.

Your year has two seasons: Winter and Construction.

Home Depot on any Saturday is busier than toy stores at Christmas.

You know when it has rained because of the smell of worms (Love that smell!).

When owning a Japanese car was a hangin' offense in your hometown (I got a lot of dirty looks after returning for a summer from Georgia with my Honda.).

You believe that "down south" means Toledo.

Your idea of a seven-course meal is a six-pack and a bucket of smelt.

You know that Big Mac is something that you drive over (aka Machinac bridge).

You can see a car running in a parking lot with no one in it, no matter what time of the year (This is necessary to freeze off ice so you can drive.).

You end your sentences with a preposition; example: "Where's my coat at?"

All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, or animal.

You carry jumper cables and snow chains in your trunk (and an ice scraper).

You design your kids' Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit (Slutty Hween costumes are a challenge in this state.).

Driving in the winter is better because the pot-holes are filled with snow.

Your favorite holidays are Christmas,Thanksgiving, and the opening of Deer Season, which you consider a National Holiday (School is actually closed!).

You have 10 favorite recipes for venison (deer meat).

You learned to drive a boat before you could ride a bike.

You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car.

Your snowblower has more miles on it than your car.

Shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout.

The "Big Three" means either Ford, Chrysler and GM, or Little Caesar's, Domino's, or Hungry Howie's.

You think alkaline batteries were named after a Tiger outfielder.

Your definition of a small Michigan town is one that doesn't have a lake.

You define summer as three months of bad sledding.

You attend a formal event in your best clothing, finest jewelry, and snowmobile boots.

The municipality buys a Zamboni before a bus.

You have experienced frostbite and sunburn in the same week.

The orange barrel is considered Michigan's 'other' lighthouse.

And you know how to make a damn good snow angel!


Can any of you Michiganders relate or do any of you have any for your homestate? I'll have to find one for Georgia and California since those are states I've also lived in.

Daily Affirmations

Now I'm a big fan of affirmations but I don't think any of mine come close to this gal's. Somehow something is lost between this age where everything is possible (including being a shark) and grownupness. There comes a point when knowing you and everything in your life is the greatest thing in the world is frowned upon. I say let all children believe they're sharks for the rest of their lives and the world would be a helluva lot more fun and loving to raise them in!

Sidewalk Chalk

This is an art material I've been having fun with since my childhood days. I know I have some pictures somewhere of me in my elementary years all dressed in my red, white and blue on the 4th of July participating in a neighboring small town's sidewalk art contest. I have no recollection if I ever won it but I know I had a grand time. My enjoyment of sidewalk chalk continued on into the infamous undergrad years and infiltrated its way into the random entertainment we created for ourselves on those nights we didn't feel like studying, working out, going out or anything else. That's when "chalking" was born and we chose friends' sidewalks/front porches to randomly "decorate". Many of these "decorations" were not entirely PG but we thought they were hilarious and so did all of our friends. The only person who did not find them even remotely amusing was one of our friend's jerk face roommate. 'Course his grandparents came to visit the next morning so that might have played a role, although he was a major jerk face even before that. There's always the option of keeping the drawings PG, though and it'd be just as fun of a surprise.

Have any of you ever "decorated" friends' sidewalks, homes or cars in any fashion?

Leaving Presents

I know I've mentioned the fun my roommates and I created back in our undergrad days. As a refresher we went to a larger university in a smaller town so eventually we ran out of already planned for us activities and had to use our ingenuity. Luckily there was no short of that and as we were affectionately known the Casa Loma H27 girls became famous for surprising the rest of our friends. One such surprise involved us going through our apartment gathering everything we didn't want anymore. This included old girlie magazines, canned food, tampons (still in their wrapper), old clothes, etc. We took these items and made care packages for our friends, delighting in putting the girlie stuff in the guys' packages. Then, we waited for dark and drove around the town leaving them on our friends' door steps. By that point we were pretty well known for doing random acts of kindness so even without a note they all knew it was us.


Some of the Casa Loma H27 gals at New Year's this year just as fabulous and fun as ever!

What kind of random surprises have you left or done for your friends?

Apartment Therapy

I am addicted to another website. Yet another reason why I shouldn't have computer access on the job. Apartment Therapy is the answer to my current aesthetic needs. I love having a comfortable and sensual experience in my home and that's been lacking in my current living situation. This will soon be remedied as I'm moving shortly. And in the meantime survival has become dependent upon daydreaming about decorating my new pad.

Overall I have an eclectic taste. My personal style is a mix of funky and natural. I love bright colors, zenlike eastern influence, Victorian, brick, and Spanish styles. These don't particularly go together but hey, we're dreaming here. And there's a lot to dream about so are some of my ideas:

BRIGHT COLORS


I'm not normally much of an orange fan but I'm kinda digging it on walls. I actually saw this color at some friends' house recently and loved it.

NATURAL ELEMENTS


I love, love, love everything about this place. It takes me back to my childhood desire of a log home. And you can still totally funk it up and play with color while maintaining the natural beauty.

BRICK

Brick with some fun additions (not that brick isn't fun by itself cuz it most certainly is).

FUNKY DECOR

I'm a big fan of modern art (probably because it makes me believe that I too can be an artist) so I love how there are pieces of it displayed all over this large space, not to mention the other funktified pieces in this apartment.

LOFTS


A great use of such a small space and there's also the combo of my beloved brick and funky decor.

YARD


Front, back, I don't care where it is I'm determined to have some yard space in this place where it is scarce. Something like this perhaps?




How much do you enjoy interior decorating? What is your style? Know of any other good decorating/house websites? Oh it's so fun to dream!!!