French music makes me feel sexy. French music and rainy days.. they go well together don't they? with some coffee, or in this case, tea.

I am currently in the planning stages of a trip to California for mid October. It's going to be the best trip ever.

This saturday night Tim and I are going to a roller derby event nearby... live music, roller derby scrimmages, and free form skating for all! Maybe I'll rent some skates and go for a spin!

I remember now what I wanted to discuss...

Grey Gardens.

about 2 or 3 weeks ago it was all over the place.. the grey gardens hbo film starring drew barrymore was about to be released. Tim and I were listening to NPR on they way home from work one day when they were interviewing Drew about her character and I decided to research it since I knew nothing about it (and how could I have lived 32 years and never had heard this amazing story btw?!?) .. well, that was it. I became obsessed. I watched most of the actual documentary (they are missing part 1) on youtube and then asked my sister in law to record the movie for me on hbo since we don't have it. I am strangely fascinated with the whole story, the idea of closing yourself off to the world, of living your life as if you were glamourous and a fresh faced 20 something when you are actually living in filth and are now in your 50's.... just love it. It's so... strangely.. beautiful and haunting and creepy and just.. devine. Ashley.. if you are reading this and know nothing about grey gardens, I HIGHLY recommend you discover it... it is RIGHT up your alley!

another obsession I've been into lately (that started around the same time)... golden girls. Yes, GOLDEN GIRLS. The 80's sitcome about 4 older sassy women living in Miami. LOL.. I have found a youtube site that has ALL of the episodes .. not to mention it is shown on tv like 12 times a day .... and what timing with the death of Bea Arthur and all. Golden girls was the early sex and the city.. and funnier to boot! Thank you for being a friend indeed!

what is that saying? hindsight is 20/20?

isn't it crazy how if we only knew then what we know now right? I wish my future self could come talk to me now.. I wonder what I would say to me? Maybe if I concentrate long enough and hard enough I can hear it.

so we went to mexico in late February.. had a GREAT time... I mean, seriously.. fell in LOVE with the small town of puerto morelos.

the main square in town held a basketball court and a small playground for kids and surrounding the square there were very small restaurants and shops.. but nothing like you imagine... I mean.. this was a VILLAGE. Not a city, not a town, A FREAKIN' VILLAGE... with two main roads leading to the square. We would walk to town on the beach and walk back late at night with a million stars actually twinkling above us. and our room at our resort? huge! gorgeous! fabulous! I used my spanish a bit and had a full conversation with a guy at the Tulum ruins... I felt proud... still have a long way to go though with the spanish.. Anyway we went, we saw, and we did not get sick!

here are some quick thoughts on mexico:

coconut ice cream
playing with monkeys
waking up at 3 am to watch tv and cuddle
falling asleep by 9 pm
fish, fish, more fish!
tulum ruins were like entering another time
pesos make you feel like you are spending a lot of money when you aren't
everyone we encountered was super friendly
cancun airport is hectic
you can buy three tacos, one soda, and one water for about 3.50!


wow, I just had something else in mind to talk about and it literally flew away from me.. I'm sitting here in the dark trying to get it back.

it's windy out right now.. so windy I could hear it.. when I hear the wind it makes me think of mary.. but I've been thinking about her a lot lately.

it's a crossroads for us right now... to move or not move? to have a baby or not? to get a new job? to go back to school? but then again it is a strange period for the entire world right now isn't it what with the economy and all... I can feel it.

maybe when that thought comes back to me I'll return with it here to livejournal.

I miss all my friends. Even if I have not talked to you in years.. you are still in my heart.

* I have the incredible urge lately to bake.... like a lot. Like I picture myself making 15 different kinds of christmas cookies with flour in my hair. Too bad I don't have the time or money to do so.

* I bought Tim this really cool thing for christmas.. I'm not going to describe it here in case he reads this, but I'll take a picture of it after he opens it.. I think I must have a warped sense of humor or something though since I bought it.. and it was totally on a whim.. just saw it, loved it, and bought it. (then wondered if I should have).

* this is gross but I had this gnarly fungus on two of my toenails. I went to the doctor who gave me a prescription for a medicine ... but my insurance won't cover it unless they have "proof" that I really need the medicine. WTF? Isn't the prescription from my doctor proof enough??!!?? So I had to let my nails grow out, then cut some of them off and take them in as a sample. so gross. Who in the world has to deliver toenail clippings in a ziplock bag?? Me! that's who. Now my two toes have hardly any toenail on them at all... weird!

* I have GOT to start working out again ... I gained two pounds in Florida which I never thought could happen after all the walking we did, but it did! I guess it was all that yummy food.. and speaking of which.. I ate this thing called "school bread" from Norway which I am now obsessed with. It's basically like a bread-y dinner roll that is filled with vanilla custard and topped with a sweet glaze covered in coconut. mmmmmmmmmmm. seriously, the best thing I have ever tasted in my life. I found the recipe and am going to try to make it soon.. here's a pic:

Tim and I got home sunday night from our florida vacation.. we were spending time with my family at disneyworld and I got to meet my sisters new boyfriend (who I have a feeling could end up being my brother in law.. but we shall see!)... anyway.. we had a great time. During the landing into orlando, I could feel a smile come over my face as I looked at the sunshine ... I could feel the warmth already before I even stepped off the plane and I told Tim that I just can't help it, I'm a southern girl. I really am. No matter if I spend the rest of my life in New York, I'm at my best in the sunshine.

here is a photo of Tim and I... a little over a year after our wedding .. at the spot where we got married in 2007 - I'm still completely and totally in love:

Happy Holidays everyone.. I hope you all are safe, warm, and surrounded by family and friends.

and speaking of dancing.... here's yet another thing I would eventually love to do in my lifetime.... these people are amazing.. the speed and excitement of it! it's pretty much the coolest dancing ever.

This morning I decided to try and take a Zumba class here in town... if you don't know what it is.. zumba is basically a series of dance/salsa lessons/classes to work out with and lose weight. They started as videos you could order and now there are zumba classes all over the place. Here's a sample:



it was really a lot of fun and I think I may continue to take them on Friday mornings... we did about a 45 minute work out and I can tell you, I was sweating by the end of it and wasn't even really giving it my all as far as the intensity of the dancing goes (partly because I was trying to learn the new steps-they just go straight into the dances and you have to just learn as you go!). Anyway.. it was really fun and I can see how people could find it addictive!

Nothing much else to report for now.. things are pretty much the same, work, watch tv, go to spanish class, work out, do it all over again. Tim and I went to see Zack and Miri make a porn last weekend.. while it was good, it wasn't as good as I expected it to be for some reason... I'd say the first half was better than the second half.

so, that's really all that's happening with me.. here's another video of a zumba dancer.. if you're into that kinda thing anyway. The instructor in this video is amazing. I'd love to be able to move my body like that someday... lol. Do you think that is something that a person can learn to do though? or do you just have to have that in you? well, anyway.. here's the video.. have a great weekend everyone.



oh, one more thing.. how could I not talk about the election right? I woke up early that morning and went downtown in the early morning darkness to cast my vote.. honestly, it felt really good .. like I was a part of something historic.. and I stayed up all night to hear Obama speak... It really felt like one of those moments.. when our kids will say "where were you that night mom?" or something like that. I did get a bit teary and while I'm very happy that Obama will be in the white house come January.. I also feel like there is a lot of hard work ahead of us as a nation... hopefully we are ready and willing to do the work.... I guess we shall find out.

It's halloween and I'm really thinking a lot about Mary.. and all of my family who have passed on. My aunt... so frail and barely living as I held her hand last year... my grandparents who are gone.. my aunt who lived with us for a year and died in a hospital in houston.. my uncle who passed away on his kitchen floor years ago.

Death must not be so strange and crazy as everyone has to go through it right? .. maybe it's not so bad after all?

anyway... today is about more than candy and costumes... and I'm going to spend the day thinking about those people that I loved that have moved on.

Happy Halloween everyone!

hotness now playing on my ipod:



and



yessssssssssssss!

since I've been with Tim I dont seem to listen to music as much anymore which is strange considering both he and I are big music lovers. I would say I used to pick up on one new artist every few years that would be great and I would immediately start wanting to know everything about them... people like fiona apple, joan osborne, jill scott, phbalance, spearhead, new monsoon, and antibalas afrobeat orchestra. Honestly though, I haven't picked up on any new music... I mean REALLY dove head first into it... since Joanna Newsom and that was back when I was living in Austin in 2005. Well, maybe this is just a one hit wonder type thing with me... but I'm REALLY diggin the song "american boy" by estelle... I just sampled the rest of her album on itunes and the whole thing sounds pretty great... I may have to buy it. It makes me want to live in NYC actually which is funny considering I really didn't like NYC all that much on my first visit back in 1999.. or was it 1998? hmmm. Now I do sometimes daydream about living there. Too bad it's so damn expensive.. just visiting is even hard to do and we live 5 hours away.

so here's the video for american boy if somehow you have missed it being played on vh1:



later today (it's 4:28 in the morning and I can't sleep) we are going apple picking with tim's mom, sister, and our nephews harrison and henry. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have a nice time! I should make an apple pie!

As tim and I settled onto the couch this evening we flipped through the channels and were pleasantly surprised to find there were actually some really great shows on tonight...

1. Planet Earth - the BBC/discovery channel show that is beautifully filmed showing different animals/landscapes/nature of our world.

2. There was a really cool show on PBS about dogs and where they come from... some scientist guy has a theory that all dogs originate from one species that started somewhere in east asia... I guess the actual location is yet to be known and they are doing research on it.

3. On 60 minutes they were talking about "CERN" - a group of scientists who are working with a huge machine (the large hadron collider) to study particles and all sorts of things that are way above my head. You may have heard of this as "the machine that might cause a black hole that will swallow the earth" (which, of course, it didn't do). It's really mind blowing and amazing to think of the possibilities that these people could come up with... I mean, I think they even mentioned the words "teleportation" and "alternate universes"! wow! It also turns out that Tim's company has tested some metal samples for these guys.. so in a tiny, small way.. Tim has had his hand in all of this which is sort of exciting.. at least for me, being married to him and all. I told tim.. that's the thing about dying that I think sucks... not being around to witness all of these amazing advances and wonderful things that will be happening.

you can watch the CERN video here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4484053n

honestly, if it wasn't for project runway and jon and kate plus eight (my two guilty pleasures) I would have no need for cable tv.

I know this is totally lame but I really like America's favorite financial advice giving lesbian, Suze Orman. She is going to be on Oprah today (Suze ORMANNNNNNNN!) and I'm kinda excited... I will work out during the show then get ready for mi classe de espanol. hmm.. so what's new....

Tim and I went and saw "burn after reading" which was really good... we went to the manlius theater to see it. I like going there a lot because first of all it's such a quaint little area/village/town. I like how small the theater is and how they only take cash. It feels like a place where everyone knows each other.. the seats may be small and old and the floors may not be shiny and new, but there is so much character there. I also love how the theater is narrow yet long and the owner comes out and introduces the film before they play it. While there the owners wife (?) said to me "oh, are you julia's daughter?"... Julia. Not Julia Smith or Julia Martin.. just Julia. You know.. Julia from Manlius... Julia that everyone knows.

We went walking around the neighborhood before the movie started and with the cool weather kicking in it really felt like fall. We were admiring all of the gardens and colonial homes and I was wearing a thin, grey scarf. In the middle of our walk there was a light drizzle of rain so I threw it up over my head, babishka style, and it all seemed very romantic.

hola cada uno! ¡el tiempo es hoy tan hermoso! esta noche mi marido y yo vamos a hablar con nuestro agente de viajes sobre nuestro viaje con México. I' ¡m muy emocionado! ¡La vida es hermosa y soy tan feliz! ¡Te amo todos!

so, my friend levi usually has the funniest stuff on his myspace page.. here two great videos for you.. stolen from him:

hurricane ike galveston bear:


sad hippies with dead trees:

Hippies Wail for Dead Trees - Watch more free videos

my spanish class is going great and I'm loving it! My teacher is a mix of my dad and dr. Evil. I say this because my teacher seems to have a great love for hugs.. and in every class he talks about how hugs are wonderful (which they are! I'm not denying it).. but it just reminds me of the scene from Austin Powers where Dr. Evil realizes that Scott is his son and is trying to bond with him... saying, "come on. give me a hug. let's go." (with his arms streched out wide). LOL. Maybe my sister and I are the only people who think that scene is one of the funniest scenes in the movie or something though.. we quote it all the time.

Ok, I'm off! have a good weekend all!

usually on Tuesday mornings I can be found listening to East Village Radio. Between 8 and 10 eastern time my friend "melody nelson" hosts a French pop show which is really sweet.. if you check it out right now.. we'd be listening to the same thing together.. :D

or you can check out her past shows here... I don't think she is hosting today though for some reason? I think I heard a guy talking??? hmmmm.

it's such a beautiful day here today.. nice and cool... I'm beginning to really love fall in the north. oh! btw... I am taking a spanish class and my first class is tonight! I know a bit already but I wanted to take it as a referesher course and to learn a bit more... plus, tim and I have been talking about taking a trip to playa del carmen in February so I can try out my new spanish skills there!

Tim left today for a conference in pittsburgh so I'm alone all week but I'm keeping really busy preparing raw food things... yes, I'm still into that. I have been trying to eat raw foods during the week and then eat whatever I want on the weekend..... so here are some photos of what I've made lately:

raw cinnamon rolls:


raw buckwheat cereal with banana, goji berries, bee pollen, chunks of raw lara bars, and cashew milk to pour over it. Seriously, I could eat this everyday. I guess it's partly because I've always been a big cereal eater. The buckwheat is crispy after it's dehydrated so it's like eating rice crispies.


raw "creamsicle" drink. cashew milk, agave syrup, and oranges. tastes like and orange creamsicle. soooooo good.


and lastly, raw chocolate ice cream with goji berries:


also just to let you know, it sounds like the damage in the lake jackson/clute area turned out to be not as bad as people feared. Of course, my parents haven't gotten to go back home yet so we have yet to know about our house specifically, but in general... the area handled the storm pretty well. Who knows when my folks will finally get to go back though. The power is out so it's just a waiting game now.

hope you all have a great week!

oh my gosh, I hope everyone is safe out there and out of hurricane Ike's way! My family all went down south to the valley so they are safe but we are hoping that the house is still standing when they get back.... in case you didn't remember, my family lives in Lake Jackson which is right in the path of the hurricane.

stay safe everyone!

so I went over last Friday to meet up with Casey, the owner of Bebe Wamu. Bebe wamu is a home based store that Casey started a while back where she sells and displays cloth diapers and accessories for babies... and she so kindly gave me a short lesson in the world of cloth diapers...

it really was cool.. there are so many options and different types of diapers and ways to fold them and wear them... there are different colors and patterns and honestly .. between them saving money versus disposable diapers and helping the environment, I don't see why anyone would choose the traditional, disposable diaper route.

I know I'm totally jumping the gun here finding out about all this stuff since Tim and I don't even have a baby yet.. I guess I just want to be an informed mommy when the time comes.

while I was there I even picked up Casey's 19 month old daughter and held her for a little bit... which is a big deal for me actually. I am usually the last person on earth who wants to pick up someone else's baby. It's strange, I used to babysit a lot as a kid so I am familiar with babies, but as I got older I didn't really think about having one of my own to often ... and for the last year or so I think the mommy gene has really kicked in for me.

anyway.. it's a cool site and something interesting for moms and friend's of mom's to think about. If you know someone who is having a baby or using diapers, please feel free to pass the link on and let them know that cloth diapers is the way to go!

oh... btw, casey will be on the morning show "bridge street" this wednesday morning so if you are in the syracuse area you should check it out.

I found quite the cool video for meditation on youtube. I used it last night before going to bed and it completely calmed me and helped me relax. I sat upright in my chair, focused on my breathing, and watched the video all the way through. Will probably do so again tonight. Enjoy:



btw, tonight tim and I are going to a Chief's baseball game and tomorrow is our one year anniversary. :)

new portishead is coming soon! April 29th to be exact! I wonder if I'll still dig it as much since I'm not that young, misunderstood, "nobody loves me" girl of only 20 ... when I first discovered them. (ok, so maybe 20 is too old to be that girl, but hey, I was a late bloomer).

Here's a great portishead video for you to hold you over until the 29th: