Allow me to explain myself

I have a tat...jk

It makes no sense because it comes from no where, but in my mind it works just fine.  

The summer before leaving for college my best friend Cara and I were getting ready to leave for school.  She was going to be at the University of Oregon, and I was going to be at SMU.  We were nostalgic about all of our time together in high school, and were nervous not to have each other to rely on.  It is so much easier to have good friends than to go it alone.  Always having someone to back you up, or to cry to on the phone.  

Well Cara and I both got computers as our graduation gift, and sat on my back porch the night before I left for Texas.  We were curled up in blankets in the chilly Seattle evening with our laptops laughing hysterically.  We came up with the idea of making a screen name that we wouldn't give to anyone else, like a secret code that we needed to talk.  Half in tears, half laughing hysterically we came up with these names.  Hers was, youreacowjk, and mine ihaveatatjk.  Sure it doesn't really mean much to anyone else.  But to me it means sitting on the back porch with my best friend laughing, and ensuring that no matter what we were never too far apart.   

Word Association

okay lets play....

Socks...cat

Fish...jews

t-shirts...bagels

class...pass

Lamps...fart

make-up...balls

hazlenuts....sour

This is just a little trip inside of the mind of my friend Kelly Caldwell when we were up at three a.m. studying.  Funny things happen when you deprive yourself of sleep and pump yourself full of caffeine.  Are these thoughts buried in our minds all the time and they bubble out when we are too tired to filter.  Kelly says...I don't know probs.

styrofoam...asbestos

envelopes....stamps

secrets....giggle...sex

post...what?

drugs...mmmmm

ears....nibble

pens....tan

tattoos....ew

favorite....me?

cards....tard

gold...mold

tree....flowers

boats...t-pain

boys....yum

guitar....string

hats...warmth

spiders...ahhh!

grey....why?

nice....fake

vitamins....useless

publish....crush

rude....knee cap

apples....travel

gummy bears....haribo

ankles....cankles

water....love

bottle....baby

font....scary

elephants....loud

Julie and Julia

I followed the blog, I read the book, I saw it in theaters.

Now it's coming out on video. I swear these are happy tears!

There are certain people who touch the entire world with their charm. That have a magnetism that is undeniable. Julia Child was one of those people.

The movie Julie and Julia while it received moderate reviews from critics, left me in movie after glow for days. I felt I had found a kindred spirit, in a woman I had been watching on TV since my childhood was finally brought to me in a whole new light. I felt I could understand her. She was vulnerable, and yet so strong in her convictions.

She is an inspiration to all people who know exactly what they want for themselves but are too afraid to do it, in her words, "Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it."

She was graceful, charming, poetic, and fearless. I would feel lucky to be like her.

Bon Appetit!

Sweet tea gone sour.

So there I am sitting at my little table drinking copious amounts of sweet tea to keep my up through the night writing my fifteen page paper, that I swear I had no other time to do other than the night before.

Its five a.m. and I'm feeling relatively good. I have 12 pages done and four hours to write the last three. I get up and talk to some of my friends that are leaving for the daily update, and tell them how optimistic I'm feeling. "Once I conclude and cite all my sources I'll be good!" I say.

Then it happened.

I sat back down to my computer and while reading my paper closely reach for my sweet tea and then. I can hardly say it. I dropped my cup onto my laptop.

curses

tears

yelling

hyperventilating

I propped that baby upside down on the couch and paper toweled it off as much as possible. I grabbed my hair dryer and pointed it into the keys. Then I prayed, then I slept next to it on the couch for two hours, staring blankly at that little piece of technology that means so much to me and to my future.

I thought to myself that at the end of the day no one will ask you about what you went through during school. No one will know that you worked diligently for hours on you paper just to see it sucked into cyber space in a flash. We are so reliant on technology, and yet technology has no regard for anything that goes on in our lives.

I am doing my best to abide by this wise saying...

Things that will surely ruin a good portrait shoot

There are some spoilers for portrait photography, that can make capturing the right 'moment' near impossible.  In this instance there were a lot of things that could have gone better, but these shots were definitely some of the worst.  

Antsy pets.  I assure you they don't understand why you are making them sit still for that picture.

Mothers who dress their children in short sleeve shirts just so that they match

Fighting siblings...that was not a nice hug.

40 degree weather

Too much sun

Annoying shadows

All in all sometimes the best pic is the one you just snap on the way back to the car, when you look down at the little girl, and say, "Hey pretty girl!"

Murray Street Coffee shop, the hunt continues

Despite the warnings from overly cautious friends not to go to Deep Ellum, I ventured out of our SMU brick bubble recently to check out Murray Street Coffee shop.  

I felt like I had stepped into Capitol Hill in Seattle.  Allow me to explain.  Good quality espresso+funky staff+cool art+interesting architecture+different music=Seattle.  Murray Street coffee shop is definitely all of that with a cool mix of people too.  There were moms, and business men, artists, and hippie/hipsters, all in one place!  Besides that the coffee was delicious, and they have lunch items, AND they serve booze.  Sounds like a perfect place to post up for studying starting with coffee and capping off with a cold beer. It was a great find I will definitely be going back.

I am left with this thought, what is it about certain places that attract chains, and other thats attract independent restaurants?  Dallas!  Why is it that you feel that chains are a sign of success??  Bigger is not always better!  Maybe I am a Seattle girl at heart, because when I start my restaurant there will be one and only one, and any improvements will be only to the original.

Best Idea Ever!

A: Omg everyone listen I have the best Idea ever! Okay so its the end of the semester, and we have been testing these students all year but lets just make sure that they know everything.

B: Everything??

A: Yes, everything if I said it the first week of class I want them to know it now three months later.  And I want this to be the largest portion of their grade.

B: But haven't you already tested them on all that?

A: Yes, but we need to make sure they know it all!  All of it!

B: Well should all of the teachers do this?

A: Yes!  And lets make them take all of the tests at the same time.  

B: But won't the students get tired and sick?

A: ...maybe, but if they do lets make it ruin their grade for the entire semester, and not let them make this up when they feel better.

B: But where will they study.  

A: In the library of course!  They will all gather together and study. 

B: Is it a good idea to put all of those slightly ill, extremely tired, and stressed out students all together? 

A: I don't know but lets do it anyway!

My name is Sarah and I am anti-Comic Sans

I have become a big fan of typography. I think it is interesting which font people will choose for different things. There was a long while where everyone thought it was really cute to make everything comic sans. Please.Stop.Torturing.Me.

Don't agree? Think fonts are just fonts?

Baby Shower

Still don't think so?

Baby Shower

Looks better doesn't it?

All I have to say is choose wisely, I will judge you. Fonts matter, they set the tone before the person reads the words.

Cosmo, the bible?

While home for Thanksgiving I ran into my brother's high school ex-girlfriend at the grocery store...awkward! It shouldn't have been seeing as they have both graduated form college now, but there is a particular reason why the break-up was so brutal.

They had been dating for two years, and things were getting serious. They went to college together, they had the same friends and were inseparable. This is when the chick breaks up with my brother because she said she took a quiz in COSMO that said their relationship was unhealthy.

I know blows your mind right? Why is it that people can be so stupid. I mean come on honey even if you did read it in Cosmo don't tell him you did! We have all read it, and the articles are spookily true. The thing that bothers me is that its all about manipulating guys to get what you want.

I read an article once titled, “make him fall in love with you.” I laughed at it but remembered the points, and decided to try it out when I went out with my friends that night. It said to wear something soft, whisper something in his ear, touch his arm when you talk to him, play with your hair a lot, and then point your head down, and look up at him when you are talking to him. That night, I wore a silky dress, and caught the eye of a guy I had met before. It was really loud so I talked right in his ear, and gave him a quick hug. He immediately asked if I wanted a drink, I tossed my hair back thinking how easy this was. I followed the other steps to a T, we danced, and left the bar holding hands and exchanging numbers.

The next day I woke up feeling terrible. It's nice to get attention from a guy but under what guise? I don't want to manipulate a guy into liking me, and I don't want to toy around with guys like that either. Boys are not playthings, and girls aren't silky hair flippers. What I mean to say is stop messing around. Cosmo is a magazine, people are people, with real feelings and emotions. If you like someone then tell them, and if you don't then tell them, but cut the crap. Stop hiding behind tricky manipulation and treat people with kindness.

I think that's stupid

I can't stand it when people say they are “finding themselves.” HELLO! You are right there!

It's a cliché and it's a trap. I don't understand people who skydive, or get a tattoo to define themselves. I have been told by more than one person that everyone needs to do these things, that it is life changing. As though people say if I go skydiving, then I will be myself. YOU ARE YOURSELF. Thinking that you need outside sources to be 'yourself' is a trap. You will constantly be looking to outside things to define yourself. Looking right past the only source you really need, your own mind.

Look in not out for yourself. If you have to look out for god's sake be more creative than going skydiving. I'm so over that.  

Dear Airlines:

This is my rant to you. While I can't complain too much because you allow me to see my family far more often than if I had to drive to Seattle, I can't help but get annoyed when I am on one of your lovely aircrafts.

Currently I am wedged into my seat, my knees are poking into the seat back...I am only 5'6” why is this. I am really thirsty, and that tiny cup of soda you gave me was a tease. I am resorting to chewing on ice as my only source of hydration, as I hate that VASA water they sell in the airport. I managed to sleep but only under the the conditions of me having gotten about six hours of sleep in the past two days. I refuse to lean the seat back and encroach on the poor person's space behind me because its just not worth the three inches. What? Online wifi?? Cool! I can do my homework! I checked for fees on your little gogo wifi information card but didn't find any! Amazing! But gogo wifi, you waited until my little L-top was alive with your signal to crush my dreams with your $12.95 charge for a mere few hours of service. Lame.

So what I mean to say airline is this. You are not very nice. You provide the bare minimum, charge way too much for it, and you don't even care. Rude. Oh, but thanks for the free Sky Mall magazine! I love looking at useless shit no one needs, its embarrassing that that stuff is even in production.

Sincerely,

FF

frustrated flyer.

Business Proposition

Pre-going-out pic

My birthday is on halloween. Which means two things; number one, halloween is my favorite holiday of the year, number two, I am allowed to dress up as a birthday cake and its not weird. This year being my 21^st I was absolutely prepared to pull out all the stops. I found a costume online that had a PINK SPARKLY cake skirt. I of course ordered it weeks in advance and left its rediculous foamy sparkly fabulousness out in my room for three weeks leading up to halloween to the nauseum of my roommates. Disappointed by the accessories that came with this costume I set out to find something better. I was telling one of my friends about my costume and she non chalantly said “you should put like candles on your head or something.” But I am not the kind of girl who is just going to stick some piddly little candles on my head and call it a day, no. I proceeded to craft the cutest non-cliche tiara, birthday head piece I have ever seen.

Ingredients:

Headband

Styrofoam

Two colors of felt

Pipe-cleaners or other decorations

Appropriately numbered birthday candles

Rhinestones

Really, really strong glue.

Directions:

I cut two circles out of the styrofoam blocks one a little smaller than the other. Then I covered them in felt and decorated them, and glued them together to look like a little cake. I attached them to a headband and allowed it to set for a couple of hours. Meanwhile I covered those little candles in glue and rhinestones and then glued them on top of the cake.

After completing this project and was about to head out for the night, I realized that I had just covered two CANDLES in FLAMABLE glue. Damn. Not willing to relinquish my sparkly accessory in the name of potential fire hazard I remained determined to remain coherent enough to make sure that no one successfully put fire to those little wicks. Well, turns out that if you set something out that strongly in your mind you will stick to it no matter how intoxicated you are. Crisis averted, I got tons of compliments, and am considering making them, and selling them online.

Funny things that happened on my 21^st:

1. We shot the neighbors with vodka water guns.

2. I got bitten by a vampire.

3. I lost all my friends, but they found me dancing on a stage

Cookbook, or autobiography?

Recently I was commissioned to take a woman's family recipes, and type them all up for a book. The woman was dying of cancer, and wanted her recipes to be preserved for her children. I can't imagine knowing that you are going to leave your family behind. Your mind buzzing with everything you wouldn't be able to do for them anymore. For Fern, it was her recipes. She had created them tweaking them into perfection for years, and wanted to know she would live on through them.

She gave me a ziploc bag full of scraps of paper and recipe cards. She knew that I would understand as I am a cook, and I did. I wanted her to know that it would be taken care of before she died. So I read each recipe, and I researched them on the internet to make sure I was getting them right. I attached the notes that were left on the bottom of the cards like, “Grandma and I made this for Easter, and Gary came back for thirds!” I spent hours organizing, and typing, and saved all of it. When I delivered it to Fern, a look of relief came over her face. She knew that even though she wouldn't be there for thanksgiving, her pumpkin pie would be, and that was enough.