Pulling my weight

I live in a certain situation that I am very fortunate to be in...in which I do not pay rent but I have a couch with my unofficial name on it. "How generous!" you say..you are correct. So, to pull my own weight around here I have taken on the housekeeping duties of a french maid. Dishes, bed making, dusting (feather duster not included), tidying up, laundry, watering, and most recently---MAINTENANCE. 

The toilet's broken....the handle's fell off and there's no connection to the actual flushy thingy.

NOTE: Not actual diagram, way more complex and no rubber ball at bottom. 

Today was the day to right this wrong! I proceded to Staples where I knew I could find some cheap superglue and possibly some tiestraps. I needed 2 tiestraps...one for the toilet and the other for.....that's not important right now. Bottom line, it was $10 for 100 tie straps so I did what an self-respecting woman would do: Stole 2 yellow ones and stuffed them in my boardshorts. 

For those of you who are staunchly oppposed to theft, I will offer this one "that's karma bitch!" tale.....I ended up supergluing my thumb and index together with a sheet of toilet paper between the two. 

It won't come off...and that's what she said...it actually is because I said it and I am a "she". 

Oh and superglue doesn't work on metal...which is what the handle is made of. KARMA. 

Click here for a very relevant treat!

Oh Canada!

Our rental car in Canada is a hybrid. Nuf said. 

If everybody lived like me..

According to this awesome site, http://www.ecofoot.org/, if everybody lived like me we'd need more than 5 planets to sustain our lives. After you take their quiz, it will generate a picture of your life followed by statistics of how much land, food, water, etc you consume. Click on mine to see how selfish I am...but seriously it has action items and ways to reduce your carbon footprint, more than anything it is a resource rich website and a good kick in the pants (are only guys supposed to use that?).

Ultimate Geek Girl Blogger Contest

 Win AGAIN with the ultimate geek girl!

Ultimate Geek Girl blog is an interesting compliation of internet fun facts, life hacks, and more. I found the commuting to work blog entry to be especially helpful considering my new lust for the free-wheeling life choice of mine. Another entry regarding fun sites to visit before starting up school was great as well. Rondee.com is a site using Skype-like VOIP but with conference call function and no video. There was also a link to a free sms site in case you forget to bring your phone to class and still want to text out of boredom. On the whole, I enjoyed this blog and even more on the whole I am only writing this review of the blog in order to be eligible to win Ultimate Geek Girl’s blog contest. So in many ways this isn’t the most interesting blog entry of mine, but if I win the contest….well then things could get VERY interesting….In conclusion (and you can tell by now that the restrictions are a minimum of 150 words)…thank you for your time and warnomore! That’s 180 words!

New Blog: Off The Beaten Path

I've grown weary of this nonsense blog and therefore I have created another one which I will update quite frequently with oftentimes cheap, possibly free, and always fun things to do in LA such as 

1) Hikes in the Ballona Wetlands (Anja!)

2) Free Metro Passes & Guided Art Walking Tour

3) Roller-skate Dance Clubs in Venice

4) Free Popcorn at Bars

5) A band that let's you step in for any of their members & play

6) Ethiopian Soul Food Jazz Club

7) $6 Burger, Fries, & 2 Pints Mondays

8) 39 cent Martinis Downtown

9) Beach Boardwalk Sunset Bike Rides

10) ...and more.

Those are just the off-the-cuff ones, it only gets better from here. 

Anyways, here's the link.  

Social Commentary

One quick question...perhaps this is more "parental commentary", but why did my parents sign me up for California Driving School (pictured above). It's a yellow taxi that I had to drive up and down past my high school peers and they laughingly looked on. Move over leather belt, this is child abuse at it's finest. I saw this car on the freeway this morning and it really brought all those feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing to the forefront again. 

While I love coca-cola, and there's no finer way to sip it than through a bottle like so...I truly believe they might control more of the world than we think. For example, when I lived in Brazil, there was a 2 liter of Coke on the table at every meal. I ended up suffereing from extreme dehydration because of this dietary shift...though I was covinced it was Dengue Fever. Coke is an interesting product, click here for Snopes for more "cokelore". 

High schoolers (cousin pictured above) have way too many books! It's unbelievable. One day they'll do SAT prep in Kindergarten if they don't already. Either we need to let kids be kids, or we should come out with a new business that reinforces book-bag straps... because something's gonna give. 

Amazing Website For City Info

I stumbled upon this CITY DATA website (without actually using StumbleUpon.com) and it is unbelievably thorough. 

Here is just a few of the interesting statistics it has formulated for the zipcode 90045.  

The website look itself is jenky, but it has data galore. Put in your zipcode and be amazed at the bigger picture. 

Thank You For Showing Us The True Aloha Spirit

Well I am back in Kauai after being away for 4 months, and nothing much has changed which is the best news in the world. 

This blog is not very interesting if you are not Jenn, Paisley, Bern, or Lana but here are some pics and vids that I took today that made me miss being with you guys on this fine island. 

SHAKAS!

Al Pal

We are ANIMALS!

This photo was taken yesterday at Bristol Farms. 

How bad can someone want Split Pea soup?!

We are animals.

Ready Made Magazine

I found this little wonder at Fancy Tiger in Denver and I immediately took a liking to it. I forgot the name until today and got a free trial subscription which should prove pleasing. 

This magazine has awesome ideas for simple and (sometimes) wholesome fun. I really suggest checking out the website at the very least.

CLICK HERE FOR READY MADE MAG ONLINE

How Business Majors Decide Stuff

In a recent tough decision, MK Ward and I constructed a "weighted pros & cons" list in which we eventually surmised that the pros did in fact outweigh the cons. 

The difficult decision you ask? I'll tell you when you're older.

POOL PANORAMAS

I Won!

For those of you I haven't told already, and you may few and far between, with all my copious free time being unemployed and single, I have begun to enter contests!

Recently, I was made aware of a Good Magazine contest in which you had to give a tour of your home town. Galavanting (bike-riding) around Venice & Santa Monica, I made a 2 minute short complete with Italian tourists, super models (Paisley), and more! 

I ended up winning and therefore I have 2 tickets on Jet Blue anywhere coming my way shortly. They also gave me this shirt, a free mag, and a tour of the offices on Melrose. 

I know this is risky to post such a winning in my blog, and I'm sure I'm going to have distant relatives "a-comin' out the woodwork" but I just have to shout this from the rooftops!

So, check it out on their site, plus it's a really cool magazine. I suggest you take a further gander after being blown away by my stage presence, champion camera work, and overall professionalism. 

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO 

Death To My Relationship Status

Today is the day I became a woman..and by that I mean I finally changed my Facebook relationship status from "It's Complicated" to "N/A". The decision was liberating. It was a literal and metaphorical untying of previous pains and tragedies alike, a proverbial key that broke the camel's back, and many more things to be sure.

What caused this significant change you ask: I realized that my status, in fact, is no longer complicated. Moreover, it is rather UNCOMPLICATED (as one's life naturally is when you are tragically unattached, solo, spouseless, footloose AND fancy free with the very serious possibility of dying alone.)

So, here I am world: uncomplicated with copious hours of spare time that was previously spent on my backbreaking and burdensome love life. Now I have the freedom to chacha questions like "how long are cat's memories?" and "is I am Legend based on a true story?"...

...9 hours and absolutely not (respectively.)

Check out Ingrid Michaelson's Die Alone with Buffy The Vampire Slayer Clips for More Fun in the Sun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDDTu27RfwM

about

15/F/ Fort Lauderdale
Interests: This and That
Hobbies: Cheese

A Crime To End All Crimes

In LA, and stranded without a car, I decided to take public transportation from Playa Del Rey, Ca to Costa Mesa, Ca. This should be "not so bad", I thought. With not the highest of expectations, I ventured out in what would soon become one of the worst ideas of my life. 

I will start with the positive, on the four hour bus ride/MetroLink combination, I was able to see a side of Los Angeles I had not been previously exposed to: Crenshaw, people on drugs, elderly women bitching out elderly men, the mysterious location of where our recycling and trash goes, and more. Had it not been for these things, I would have totally regretted my transportational decision. 

Here are the steps and costs laid out for your eyes to see, and your heart to feel: 

1) Bus 115 to IHOP- $1.25

2) Dropped at IHOP with suitcase & backpack only to find "Route Aborted"

3) Tried to scam free WIFI access in IHOP bathroom to "Reroute"

4) WIFI Not Available

5) Wandering eventually leads to alternate route

6) Bus 42A Downtown LA/Union Station $1.25 

7) 2 Hours until arrive at Union Station total

8) 1.5 Hours to Kill Before Metrolink Orange County Line Leaves @ 2:30pm

9) Purchase Metrolink Ticket: $9.50

10) Wander Olvera Street with suitcase in tow

11) Find hole in teh wall vegetarian cafe that boasts best mexican hot chocolate and tamales

12) After going to ATM because of a $40 credit card limit, I find they are out of hot chocolate and tamales!

13) Order a cappuccino and sit down to use free WIFI

14) Cappuchino is worst I've ever tasted and there's no wifi

15) Chug watery cap and make my way to my train

16) Train ride lovely though I overhear a young man from Georgia confuse the words "human" and "humid" while describing Atlanta. 

17) Text Katie slack about the hilarity of the confusion because of a previous waiter we had and his confusion with "specific" and "pacific". 

18) Arrive in Santa Ana Train Station

19) No free bus to Orange County Fair because Friday is NOT A WEEKEND

20) Take a taxi with 3 Torrance Youth Boys who overuse the F word and we almost crash because of their heathen ways...perhaps. 

21) Arrive at Orange County Fair $7 split cab fair 4 ways. Tipped extra for "life or death moment"

22) Father picks me up at Fair entrance only to find out that my step mom had the day off and would have loved to have picked me up from LA

$1.25+$1.25+$9.50+$7 and 4 hours of my life

Praise God For The Intangibles

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

1 Hour Drive To Multnomah Falls: $40 in gas

1 Mile Hike To The Top Of The Falls: $10 of respiratory dysfunction

Turkey & Cheddar Sandwich Lunch: $Stolen From Anja's Parents House

Anja's 10 year-old Cousin Garrett Singing Natasha Beddingfield: Priceless

Bern, eat your heart out

I'm staying in a house with Pumpkin.

These Days

I'm thinking of trying to take a picture every day and post it because I don't think I have the self-discipline to write. 

So today, I'm in Portland visiting Anja and we've been having quite the Pacific Northwestern Hippie Fun time here. These are a little "rock art" from the Saturday Market. If you aren't interested in buying these hand carved rocks, the man offers CDs with improvisational African mouth harps. 

Everybody Has One

Top 10 Things Everybody Has That Makes Me Jealous Enough To Have Them Too:

1) A Blog

2) A Bellybutton

3) A Pug

4) A Hybrid Honda Civic

5) A Super Hot Japanese Significant Other

6) A Nose Ring (oh, never mind, that's something I had that Bern was jealous enough to get)

7) A #7

8) A Job (not jealous enough, apparently)

9) A College Degree

10) A Top 10 List