When I was 22

First ever F-Off huge pumpkin at a pumpkin patch in Lafayette, IN

At the age of 22, I:

-       moved overseas

-       spent time in three countries

-       Visited more than twenty cities, in more than 15 different states.

-       Lived in a college dorm (FML)

-       Navigated my way through NYC, Toronto and Ottawa, as well as countless airports all by myself.

-       Studied abroad for a year

-       Was accepted to complete my degree overseas

-       Joined a roller derby team

-       Overcame my crippling social retardation and can now almost function in most social situations

-       Saw Spoon in concert

-       Lived without a car for one year, for the first time since I was 17

-       Lost 15 lbs

-       Met more incredible people than I could even possibly count

-       Learned to really appreciate good beer

-       Didn’t die

When I was 22, I

-       saw snow

-       ate pulled pork

-       ate smores

-       experienced Thanksgiving

-       experienced Halloween

-       experienced Fall

-       got stitches

-       played dodgeball

-       got an A at university

-       competed in an actual team sport

-       saw a huge pumpkin

-       went to Homecoming

-       went to an apple orchard

-       went to Canada

-       sang karaoke

for the very first time in my life.

My favourite bands when I was 22 were The Smiths, The Cure, Beck, Spoon, They Might Be Giants, Ben Folds, The Hives.

My heroes when I was 22 were David Sedaris, Suzy Hotrod, Eddie Izzard, Bonnie Thunders, Michael Cera, Quadzilla, Kristen Wiig, C. D. Payne, and your mum. 

My favourite foods when I was 22 were pulled pork sandwiches, French fries, bacon, and beer. Ha ha! Thanks, America, you sonofabitch. I’m confident that when the novelty wears off, I’ll go back to normal food again. I have this strange thing with eating food that isn’t normally available to me, even if it’s really bad. For instance, I really don’t like stuff that’s pumpkin flavoured, but I’ll buy it every chance I get and choke it down, just because I never had the option before. Same goes for root beer. Jon says he won’t be allowing me to buy either of these things anymore, now that he knows the truth.

I feel as thought the enormity of the last year makes up for the mediocrity of the previous 21. One of my friends who is quite a bit younger than me told me how I had done and seen so much more than she had, but I reminded her that this is literally more than I did in the first twenty one years of my life put together. 

In any case, I'm kicking myself and trying to figure out why I didn't decide to do the 365 project, because this has been an effing amazing 365 days.

Well, I guess there's always next year.

Reasons why September will be awesome

Summer in America was a strange time for me. It felt a lot like what I imagine living in a black hole would be like, with a touch of Groundhog Day thrown in for good measure. In my various eavesdroppings around the coffee shop in which I may as well live for the amount of time I spend here, I've heard people complaining about how fast the summer went. It had the complete opposite feeling for me - I had nothing to do all day for about three months except go to roller derby practice, clean the house, and muck around with my friends. I had a ridiculous sleeping pattern, normally sleeping from 2am until midday, then waking up feeling completely disoriented and...blank, somehow. It felt like I was living in a bizarre alternate universe, where school or employment didn't exist.

I find it really hard to be productive in any way, shape or form when I have no regular routine or daily schedule - and, as a result, I wrote a grand total of nothing for the whole summer. Inexplicably, now that I'm incredibly busy again, I'm feeling inspired to write again and have started writing three different pieces. I'm hoping I'll get them finished, edited and tidied up in the next couple of weeks, because I'm feeling incredibly guilty for ignoring my poor blog this whole time (does anybody else feel like an absolute wanker using the word 'blog'? I feel like a pretentious turd when I say it. I shall henceforth call this site my digital portfolio. No, wait, that's almost worse).

In any case, I thought I'd kick start the semester slash month of September with an exercise in gratitude! Think of me as a poor, white Oprah, passing on my favourite things to all and sundry. Without further ado, I present to you: Reasons why September will be Awesome.

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The new season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I can't even explain to you all the ways in which I love this show. It's a pretty incredible story: a bunch of friends wanted to make a TV show, so they did. They filmed their pilot for less than $100, presented it to a bunch of networks, and one of them picked it up. The end. This tumblr is incredible, by the by. Here are some of my favourites from it:

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Three day weekend in t minus two days!

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Indy's Irish Festival in downtown Indianapolis. The manfriend and I have three day passes - I'm going to drink a ton of beer and pet a leprechaun. 

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Easy A comes out. I'm all about Emma Stone, and by golly, if Easy A doesn't look freaking awesome. When I first happened upon this video, I watched it about forty times consecutively. 

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One of my derby heroes, Suzy Hotrod of Gotham City 

A month of intensive derby conditioning. After a crazy couple of months for the Lafayette Brawlin' Dolls (three bouts in seven days! Two five-hour road trips to away bouts in as many weeks!) we finally have a month off. That in no way means we have a month off, however, as we're changing up practices, implementing new drills, and skating more than ever. I'm skating about four days a week now and kicking my ass at practice - I really want to work on my endurance, and getting my five lap time down to 45 seconds. 

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It's no longer so warm I get heat stroke on a daily basis. Up until about two weeks ago, it was so hot here every day and night that there was little else I could do beside sit on the floor in my bedroom (because that's where my window-mounted fan points) and watch TV on my laptop while not moving. It was starting to get really old.

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The leaves start to turn. This is officially my first Fall ever, what what! We went to the Fort Harrison State Park last week and walked through the foresty bit, where I got to step on many a crunchy leaf! I can't tell you how excited I am for the whole place to look like this:

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Getting to spend a heap of time with this guy:

I know, right? Go me.


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This so closely resembles my own life that it's not even funny. 
 

New 30 Rock! Oh, Liz Lemon, you've come back for me! 

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Finding a ton of sweet new music to listen to:

I love this 80s-sounding version even more than the one I have. Swoon!

You, my dears, are welcome.

All I Want Is You

This song by Barry Louis Polisar was (obviously) featured in the movie Juno. It is also totally going to feature very prominently in my wedding. To me, it sounds like lying in the grass in the sunshine, ankles intertwined with those of someone special, eating coconut ice and taking Polaroid photographs. For some reason, I think there are helium balloons there, too. 

I made you a mix tape

There is little I can do in this hazy, cough-syrup-induced stupor. As such, over the past 72 hours my daily activities have included frequently napping whilst sweating profusely, watching TV, lying motionless on the couch, and coughing incessantly.

I was tired of feeling completely useless, so I wanted to do something mildly constructive that wouldn't prove too taxing on my currently feeble brain. And so, I present to you this extremely excellent Summer Mix Tape! I've included all of the songs I can't keep out of my head lately. I'd love to hear your recommendations, too!



I believe it will shuffle the songs, but these are the tracks I included:

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

Islands - Vapours

The Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be

The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba

Landon Pigg - High Times

At the Drive In - Pattern Against User

Beck - Sexx Laws

Ok Go - Bye Bye Baby

Spoon - You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb

Beck - Devil's Haircut

The Strokes - Reptilia

The Vines - Nothin's Comin'

This may be the one and only electro(?) song I like.

Dos Hell - Pretty Girls

My friend Danny is in this band called Dos Hell, who are kind of kicking asses and taking names at the moment. Sometime last year Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring took an interest in them, and it wasn't long before The A & R Department were on board, too. Their EP In Stereo was produced by Mikey of Eddy Current, and a handful of other well known dudes in the industry. This is the first video they've made, for their song Pretty Girls, which you may see on Rage, if you're lucky. I thoroughly enjoy it. What do you think?

Lafayette Brawlin' Dolls vs. Rollergirls of Southern Indiana

Starring the one and only Scarburst

It's the Brawlin' Dolls' third home bout of the season, and we're gunning for a good one. We stand at two losses and one win so far this season, a score we plan on settling on our home turf. 

Tickets are only $8, and, look, you're more or less guaranteed the best night ever. After the last bout, I was without my voice for over a week because I was cheering so ferociously the whole night. 

Brown Paper Tickets is your one stop Brawlin' Dolls ticket shop, and you can get all the details of the bout on the facebook event page. The last two bouts saw almost 1 000 people packed into the Brawl House, and we're expecting an even bigger crowd for the Devil Wears Derby. Speaking of the devil: 

The more Beck the betterer. 

Beck - Sexx Laws

I'd like to introduce you to another one of my husbands. I love this so hard, I don't think I can even express it. The song is rad, the video is totally badass, and Beck "looks so fly it hurts."