Oh Hi!

Heeelllooooo blog world! It's been awhile.

You all know that I quit my job and then the day after I got snowed in. There were peeps skiing down my street. I'm not making this stuff up. I was in complete awe at the insanity. I love snow days but not this time around. I had made plans to have a week break of vacation on the Oregon coast before I started my new job and that had to be adjusted. We did make it to the coast and I was stoked. That place is stunning and I hope to go back when it's warm and sunny, I froze my buns off.

I started my new job on Wednesday and on the first day I was like oh crap what kind of shiz did I get myself into. I had no idea what the heck was going on and I kept breaking stuff. I felt like I sat in on almost every meeting held at the company (it's small, like 30 peeps). At one meeting someone asked me my opinion and I was like umm I've only been here for 5 hours, but here is what I think. It was awesome and they appreciated it. I'm feeling all kinds of emotions, but mainly excitement.

My days have become pretty long and packed. Seminary, work, gym, Seminary prep, sleep. I'm such a rockstar at it but I'm going to have to adjust my schedule a bit so I won't get burned out. Seminary and finding time to train for a half marathon is hard work. 

It's 2 AM and I'm pretty sure this post does not make any sense.

Until next time.

Rockin Out Tuesday-St. Vincent

I love pretty much every song that I have heard from St. Vincent. CB introduced them to me and I was hooked. Surgeon is such a good song and it's on my running play list. Their song Cruel is another favorite and it made it on Pitchfork's 2011 top tracks. The music video to Cruel is insane. 

2012 highlights so far

::Photo::

I have a whole blog post dedicated to 2011 that I am still working on. It has a cool video that I am making to go along with it. This weekend I will hopefully post it. Promise.

The post also gives an overview on how back in August I began to feel like I was suffocating and it was time to make a change. I hired a therapist. Best decision of my life.

Oh and how I ever made a change. I stopped letting fear control every aspect of my life.

I quit my job a couple of days ago and I was scared out of my mind. I also accepted a job at a much smaller company where I can grow in my career. I am so excited and scared beyond belief.

Yesterday, my therapist let me know that I was progressing  and that I would no longer need to see her once a week but once a month instead.

2012 is going to be pretty much the best year of my life. So much growth and change and I am so anxious to see how it will all pan out.

Own it

My therapist is always telling me to own my story, to stop apologizing for decisions that I have made or that I plan to make. At first it was a hard pill to swallow but I have come to embrace it.

In these past several months I have made huge changes in my life and I have stopped feeling guilty all the time. It has been so liberating.

I love owning my story. Love it.

::photo::

Splitscreen: A Love Story

A love story shot entirely with a phone. Simple and perfect


Splitscreen: A Love Story from James W Griffiths on Vimeo.

Empire State of Mind

I saw this amazing video the other day and it made me think about my NYC trip. I loved every minute of being there, and the video just reminded me about how special of a place NYC is.  I'm making plans to one day live there.

One of my favorite moments was visiting the Empire State Building. The art deco building is breath taking and the views are over whelming. I do feel that the views from the Rock are better but if you have an option to do both, you should.

Enjoy this little video, maybe it will inspire you to visit NYC.

A Year in New York from Andrew Clancy on Vimeo.

Delancey

Oh heaven help me if there is a pizza in front of me. I have no control over myself and could eat more than my share, which results in me feeling guilty and strangely weird from all the cheese.

But not any more.

The first time I had a pizza from Delnacey, I didn't feel an ounce of guilt. In fact, I felt nourished and healthy. I kept thinking how is it that I feel so good after eating a pizza?! I've now become a pizza snob.

The ingredients are local, organic and fresh. Perfection. I'm also madly in love with the ambiance of the restaurant. I always feel so comfortable when I am there.


Love that Molly's husband  had a dream and made it happen. You can tell that they have poured their hearts and souls into the restaurant. I am all about making dreams come true these days. So refreshing.

The only downfall is that because it is so dang good there is always a wait. We waited for an hour and 15 minutes. It was worth every minute.

 

Blow your mind

I'm sure some of you have already seen this video, but just in case you haven't, I'm here to share it with you. I love the dude in the video, the homey feeling I get from watching it and the genius way to peel garlic. I can not wait to try this.

How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.

Rockin Out Tuesday- M83

If you know anything about me, you know I'm a concert junkie. There is something about the rush of a concert that I can't get anywhere else that keeps me hooked. Whenever I see that a band will only be playing for an hour, I have high expectations that it better be near-perfect. This past weekend's sold-out, one hour M83 concert nailed my expectations. It was beyond perfect. The energy was insane, the set list was brilliant and they rocked out hard. You could tell that they loved what they were doing and were excited to be there to perform. They fed off of the crowd's energy and kept it going. It was completely dazzling.

M83 is a French indie pop band, created and led by Anthony Gonzalez who is insanely adorable and beyond gracious. He was supported by a four member band who rocked out as hard as he did, each part of a balanced formula for dream pop perfection.

They started the show with a figure wearing a monster mask that I am pretty sure was supposed to resemble something from Where the Wild Things Are. The crowd went wild as stars lit the background and the band started playing "Intro." They continued to build up the show with songs from a variety of their past and current album.  Every song was immaculate and dare I say sounded better than their album recordings. Gonzalez would stop every once in a while and engage with the crowd by telling them how thankful he was for them and even said "This is the best crowd I've ever performed for in Seattle!" They had played an earlier sold out show that night at the same venue and I caught the tail end of it. He was spot on about the later show being much more engaging and responsive.

They ended the concert with "Couleurs" that created a massive dance party both in the crowd and on the stage. At the end of the show and before the lights were turned back on, Gonzalez high-fived the front rowers and made a heart shape with his hand as he left the stage.

As I made my way back to my car, I kept thinking about how perfect it was and was washed over with nostalgia. I lucked out by buying my tickets for $15 in July since they were going for about $150 on craigslist that night. Maybe it had to do with their 9.1 rating of their new album Hurry Up, We Are Dreaming on Pitchfork?

Last year, when Gonzalez announced that he was working on a new album that was going to be "very, very, very, epic" his confidence paid off. It is completely epic. Go ahead and be blown away.

Go figure

Do you know what happens when you start  blogging  less? You start to live more. Or at least I have. I no longer feel the panic of needing to do something so I can blog about it. I just started to do things to do things. My reader also has over 1000 unread items and I don't feel guilty about it.

So wanna know what happened to me? Glorious things have happened.

I've made new friends who I have scheduled dates with every week. My calendar is jammed packed with hanging out sessions with people that I love. New friends are the best, you know who you are!

I have more time to study for the GRE and it's actually insanely exciting that I'm going to open a new chapter in my life.

I all of a sudden have tons of time to work out. Getting up at the crack of dawn to work out makes me happy. Who would have ever thought? Definitely not this girl!

I've gone to concerts and I even have dance parties in my living room. It's the best.

I've joined two book clubs and have a new obsession with Gossip Girl. So good.

But the best part is that I am happier. I feel so much more alive. At different times, blogging made me unhappy, I just felt like I wasn't getting any where with it. I mentioned this to a friend and her response was genius, "If it doesn't make you happy, stop. Besides it's just a dang blog."

Stopping for awhile actually helped me realize that I really love to write, and I missed it. I just don't need to let my blog determine how awesome I am. So what if I only have about 100 readers and not 1000? I now like the idea of having a more intimate readership, it works for me. Thank you 100 readers for sticking around, you are rocking my blog world.

I am so damn awesome.

And super hot too....

Aimee would be so proud.