just thought you'd like to know...

that the mohawk is alive. It moves, it grows, it does things that even Aunt Hildegard would deem unacceptable.



I personally think that it's starting to look kind of like a tail... and it's even longer now. kinda scraggly if ya know what I mean.

Lilac Time!

This post is long overdue. I have been wanting to get these pictures up since Sunday when I took them! But I wanted to play with them in photoshop and all that fun stuff, and so i've been working on and off and trying to narrow down what I would actually share here. It was NOT easy this time! So often I get just a couple good shots, and then I like to pick my very favorite out of those... but I took probably 200 pictures, deleted 50 or so, weeded through what was left to pick about 25 good shots and ended up with the 10 i have put on here.

So here is a recap of Mother's Day and our annual (official, as opposed to unofficial :) trip to Highland Park.


First things first: inhale deeply. I LOVE the smell of lilacs... for me, smells carry a lot of nostalgia. It can be either good or bad. Sometimes I will smell something that reminds me of a time long ago and be taken right back to the memory with such clarity that it's kinda weird. I mean i sometimes have memories from an old movie of when I was 2, 3, 4 and it's like I remember everything from just a smell but never knew i had that memory. Anyways, the smell of lilacs has GOOD nostalgia for me :) and the memories that come along with it are not specific, but more general as I have had the opportunity to make new memories with that smell throughout my life.


Next: mini photoshoot for my mom. I think that my mom is very photogenic, and I have quite a few pictures of her that I really like, but she doesn't always like them (you know how it is with pictures of yourself right?) I was pleased that she liked this one because it really captures her :)


Then we walked through the park for all of about 5.8 minutes before my brother's stomach got the best of him and we rerouted to the concessions. ahhh yes. the concessions. Please refer to this post for more details on that adventure *smirk*


On the way to foodz (term coined by Dan and accepted by all) I spotted so many lovely tulips... the colors were amazing. What I thought was especially cool was that often when you see tulips they are paired with tulips of the same color. These were all mixed colors, so they all stand out so nicely. I've taken pictures of so many this spring and so many times i've gotten one big mass of color as they tend to blend in 2D :)


This is MY picture. This picture amazes me. Hold on for a second and let me realize that I actually took this. Ok, ok, i'm sorry. Don't take this momentary lapse of humility as a serious pride problem in my life :) It's just so much different than the pictures i am used to taking, and it takes me out of the box in my head that i get stuck in sometimes. I seriously look at it and think there is no way I actually took that. Maybe some little elf got a hold of my camera while i wasn't looking and snapped this shot. However, that logic is flawed in that I can tell by the height of the camera when the picture was taken that there is NO way an elf could have achieved such altitude. Unless of course he was a special elf... like Will Ferrell maybe?

This one was taken by Dan as we trailed far behind my parents. I really like this of myself, but am bummed out that the background is more in focus than I am :( I would have had him retake it, but the reason that it's slightly blurry in the first place is because there were people about to walk into my background and he had to snap it quickly. If we retook it, then there would be a lovely family of 5 walking away :) oh well, such is life!

Traditions are hard to come by in our family. This is one though that I hope will stick. It's actually kind of new... we used to drive by Highland Park on Mother's Day occasionally when my Grandma was still here with us, but up until last year or maybe the year before it wasn't an actual tradition like it is now :)

and here he is again

The ox gave me some pretty good material today, but this was by far the best pic. I thought about putting them all up, but i didn't want to exhaust you with pictures of him doing crazy things... that would be no good. So i decided on this one. The story behind is is that we (and when I say "we" i mean my mom, dad, dan and I) went to the Lilac Festival today. The first order of business was: FOOD.

We ended up getting a blooming onion and it was *oh so tasty* I squelched (sp?) all feelings that i was eating pure grease and soooo many germs as i savored every bite... and it was gooooood.

There will be a later post outlining the more beautiful parts of the festival and some lovely Mother's Day pictures... but like i said, that will be later. As in tomorrow, or maybe the next day... or even like later? I have no idea when that will be because i have like no time left anymore. Oh well... at least i'll have a lot of money when i'm done!

This one was too classic to leave out of the mix.

this is not the face of my creepy stalker...

this is the face of my baby brother

and yes, I created this monstrous work of art this afternoon... needless to say, this was not on my list of things to do today HA!

notice the music in the background

this was supposed to be posted LONG ago around the time it was taken... that would be Christmastime. however, i am somewhat technologically challenged in some areas and it took me awhile to figure out just how to do this. So here it is.

--> For those of you who know my brother Dan at all will totally appreciate this clip. Heck, even if you don't know him you still might appreciate it. We were setting the table for Christmas dinner when this took place. He is completely OUT OF CONTROL... or am i because i took the video?

DK2

I have been thinking lately that i haven't posted any random and or crazy stories... which after all, I am known for. So i thought i would post one now to remedy that.

let's talk about my benevolently acquired super nintendo game system. if you were born in the 80's then you will for sure know what I am talking about here, but if not then i will explain a little.

Nintendo made it's debut in 1978 in the form of an arcade game Computer Othello. In 1981 Donkey Kong was created and instantly became hugely popular. Then the first NES (nintendo entertainment system) finally came out in 1985. After a few years the original NES, nintendo got pushed aside as we moved on to what we knew then as the greatest advancement in gaming history, the Super NES.Welcome to the early 90's.

I had a friend who lived a few houses down on my street and we would spend hours playing on her SNES. Our favorite game to play was Donkey Kong, and when DK2 came out, we invested a large part of our memory space into that.

So here I am, 16 years later in the year 2008 still playing DK2. I don't know for sure how many times I have beaten the game. After you beat a game once then there is always the challenge of beating it better the next time! Well at least that's how I think. So last night, my brother Dan and I began yet again a team game of DK2 and worked our way almost through Krem Quay before we hit the deck. In non-gaming terms, that means world 3... still a game term... oh well.

So there is a pathetic and random story about a piece of my childhood that I still carry with me today.

but my lips hurt real bad

Yesterday I was sitting in my drawing class working on my color wheel. I love drawing class. It is relaxing and it is 3 hours long 2 days a week... it's almost like mandatory relaxation time. At any rate, most days I bring in my headphones and listen to my mp3 while i draw. I usually only have one ear bud in in the event that interesting conversation arises that is worth listening in on. When this happens, if i do not care to actually participate in the convo, i will just pull the ear bud slightly out of my ear so that i can hear everything being said, but still look like i'm listening to music... sneaky sneaky.

Back to yesterday. I forgot to bring my headphones to class so i got my entertainment from the two guys who sit behind me. Their back and forths are often hilarious and comment interjections are compulsory. i feel the need far too often to whip around and add my two cents. I was definitely trying to complete the task at hand, but when I heard this statement I could not help but join in. "my lips are so dry, i just quit chapstick cold turkey."

I am a chapstick addict. I'll admit it. So as something that I could relate to, I turned around and we began to talk about this horrible addiction that takes you by surprise so quickly and rarely will let go of you. I haven't been able to quit chapstick for at least 2 years. Somedays I can go without and feel completely fine, but that's usually during the summer. As the weather gets drier, so do my lips. As we continued on this topic, my lips began to feel dry. Very, very dry. I was resisting the urge to whip out my own personal chapstick that i had in my pocket and begin liberally applying it. It was almost more than i could take!

But here's a funny story about chapstick and the addiction that lies within. Two winters ago I would drive to MCC with my brother every mwf morning. to save on gas of course. We pulled out of the driveway and not a tenth of a mile away, i realized i had forgotten my chapstick. if we turned around we would be even later as we were already running a few minutes behind schedule. So i asked him if i could borrow his chapstick, because my lips hurt real bad. his response was negatory, as i had recently sabotaged one of his sticks. I think he had dared me to bite it or lick it or something, and calling his bluff, i did. Therefore, he was absolutely unwilling to allow me near his chapstick. In fact, he claimed that he had forgotten his as well. (but i knew he was lying) Well, when my classes were over THREE HOURS LATER i raced to the store and bought chapstick and smeared it all over my lips which i was sure were only minutes away from falling off my face. I returned to the school to pick Dan up, and sitting down in the car, pulls out his chapstick and starts applying! i freaked out on him of course. he seriously endangered the safety of my lips that day!

Anyways, I have no idea how to kick this habit, and i would like to find the group on facebook for chapstick addicts. i would join in a second.