Prompt 28: My Favorite Movie

nope.

movies I really like

• The Giant Mechanical Man
• Moulin Rouge
• The Fall
• Ever After
• The Dark Knight
• V for Vendetta
• You've Got Mail
• one BILLION others

Prompt 27: A Picture of You Last Year and Now and How You Have Changed Since Then

This picture is of me and Phish on Valentine's Day last year at blues.

That pictures is of me and Brock at graduation.  We managed to run into each other both days!

Obviously, the biggest change is that I am graduated.  I am not as skinny as I was then.  I don't go dancing quite as much.  My hair is longer.  That's about all I've got...

Prompt 26: A Photo of Somewhere I've Been To

THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY!!!!!!!!!

please note the people on the top...to give you an idea of scale

Prompt 25: What's In Your Purse?

Though it is, in fact, a pretty large purse, there is really hardly anything in it.

• wallet
• keys
• tiny mirror
• box of tic tacs
• headphones
• partial roll of tums
• if I'm going anywhere, typically my phone is in it as well
• on Sundays I have my journal
• sometimes I have my iPad with me

I'm not good at being one of those people who is prepared for any and everything with their purse.  For that you want Kara.  

Prompt 24: A Letter to Someone who has Hurt Me Recently

Sorry, this ended up being kind of intense... :-/

Dear friend,

I ran into you the other day.  I hadn't seen you in a couple years, since before you had your baby.  I was excited to meet him and to see you.  I smiled at you and your spouse and crouched down to see your lovely little boy.  I'm so glad I got to meet him in person.

But when I stood back up I noticed that you weren't really smiling.  Not a real smile.  I know because we used to be best friends and I was very good at making you smile.  I tried to start a conversation but you only replied with one-word answers.  Your spouse and I chatted easily, but you stood there in silence.

You're married now, so it makes sense we wouldn't be as close as we used to be.  But I know that we were growing apart long before you ever met your spouse and that a large part of that was my fault and it hurt your feelings.  I'm so sorry about that and I've been trying to make it up to you for years now.  It was something I needed to do and I wish I'd known how to do it more gracefully, or at least how to tell you what I was doing.

But I thought that maybe you had forgiven me for that.  You invited me to your parents' house for your wedding.  You were almost like the old you.  You invited me to dinner with you and your spouse and brother and again, you were friendly and I thought maybe we were, if not the friends we once were (there was a reason that had to end) at least friends who remembered that we used to be inseparable.  Friends who were ok with the fact that we couldn't maintain the relationship we'd had in college, but would always care about each other.

But when I saw you standing there, acting polite of all things, I knew that I was another victim of that selective memory I had witnessed so many times.  The memory that turned exes you had thought about marrying into random people you'd hung out with a couple of times but were never really serious with.  I saw that our relationship had met the same fate.  We weren't dear, close friends...I was just someone who you'd known a few years back.

And that hurt me.  You hurt me.  Your polite fake-smile and your one word sentences.

That's why I left so quickly.  I didn't want to force you to keep being polite, but much more I didn't want to keep listening to you as you told me that you, someone I will always care about so much, no longer cared about me.

sincerely,

me

Prompt 23: A Photo of Something that Means A Lot to Me

I feel a little bit self-conscious about using this.  I feel like I mention my grandma too much, for some reason.  That is her spoon ring, which she wore virtually every single day (I believe she used it to keep her wedding ring, which was just a little bit big, on her finger).

I keep it on that chain (because grandma had unbelievably skinny fingers) and I wear it on days when I miss her.  Which I continue to do with a regularity I never expected.  I wore it today, in fact.  It's comforting to have something of hers that I can keep with me.

And...I think that is enough about that.

Prompt 22: 15 Things About Myself

1. I love twinkle lights.  If I could I would have them everywhere always, especially outside
2. I would rather wash the dishes then put them away
3. I am 27 years old, turning 28 in September.  Somehow I manage to have severe anxiety about running out of time in my life whilst also kind of looking forward to getting old
4. I get what I think are panic attacks, but I'm not actually sure...
5. I did not learn to ride a bike till I was 12 or 13, nor did I get my driver's license till I was 18
6. I actually like a simple McDonald's hamburger now and then (#judgeme)
7. I have a mole right in the middle of my sternum that I share with my mother, my grandmother, and I believe my Aunt Vickie as well...though I think mom got hers removed a few years back.
8. (numbers 9-14 were submitted by Taka and Michelle because that's more interesting than just having me write)Emily has amazing taste in music
9. Emily has the most extensive movie knowledge of anyone ever (this is not true)
10. Emily only washes dishes by hand
11. Emily is very well-read (only sort of true...so many more books for me to read!)
12. Emily can have entire conversations using only movie quotes
13. Emily gives the best commentary during movies (I could find several people to disagree with this statement)
14. Road trips with Emily will inevitably include a Disney sing-a-long (as well as Mika and Queen)
15. Emily cannot handle spicy food (this is 100% true, but on the other hand I can out-sour everyone I've ever met)

Prompt 21: A Photo of Something That Makes Me Happy

Today is a good day to write this post because it was not the happiest day at work I've ever had.  Sometimes Caleb takes on contract assembly work for me (that is, other companies hire us [me] to assemble small numbers of products for them) especially when work for me is thin on the ground as it has been for the last month.  Unfortunately, the latest contract job he got me didn't come together until this week...aka the week when we finally did get actual work of our own to do.  Suffice it to say, this has been a crazy week, made doubly so coming straight on the heels of all my previous down time.  I worked over 40 hours in what was supposed to be a short week.  I detail all of this simply to set the stage for my day today, which was the day I finally started this contract project.  Or rather, tried to start it.

See, the core of my job is PCB assembly.  That means that I build these:

quite literally, actually.  That's one of the sensors we sell, the GP9, which I assembled last year (and, incidentally, it is the picture I took for the website).  I don't know how well you can see, but each of those little parts has a little label next to it, like C1 or U9 or whatever.  Those labels tell me which part goes where by way of what we call a BOM (Bill Of Materials).  I go through the BOM one component at a time to populate a board.

In a perfect world the BOM lists each type of part together--all the capacitors, resistors, ICs, etc together.  It's easy to read, it's clear, and it absolutely does not inspire within me the urge to rip my hair out of my head.  The world was not perfect today as I looked at the BOM for our contract project.

The most ridiculous part of this entire story is the fact that, after spending literally 8 hours going over this BOM, sorting out all the parts, asking poor Caleb all the questions, repeatedly bashing my head into the desk, and otherwise cursing every single person who might have even glanced at this BOM and not fixed the one billion problems I was having...there actually only ended up being 2 real concrete mistakes.  Just a lot of technically benign stupidity.  Which was awesome because it meant that all of the stress I'd passed on to Caleb had really been mostly my own fault.  Bless him, he did such a good job of not slapping my face when we finally settled on the two mistake conclusion.  He's such a good boss...

Briefly, my problems involved incredibly unhelpful product descriptions, missing parts, part descriptions which didn't match part numbers, and part numbers which didn't match actual parts.  The same part was listed multiple times as a new part.  And I refuse to feel guilty about my struggles in the face of the ultimate two mistake total.  I maintain that anyone would have been confused by the mess that was that BOM.

All of this is to say that my day was deeply frustrating.  Frustrations with other people, frustrations with myself, and, of course, dealing with Caleb's frustrations about the whole thing (not least being the fact that I spent an entire day dealing with this madness).

And yet.

In the midst of this I decided I must needs listen to something happy or truly my brain was going to start pinging.

this is where I would put the video of Rory complaining about her brain pinging if I could find it.  But I couldn't...which is incredibly lame and causes me to question the state of the internet

So I decided to listen to a song that I discovered yesterday by creepily stalking my friend Jarom on Spotify.  And by stalking I mean that it showed up on my player that Jarom had listened to this song and for reasons I do not understand, I thought "huh, that looks good...I'll listen to it!"  Understand, the thumbnail they give you of any given album is literally the size the north face of a sugar cube.  And the song was called "Ala Barfi" by Mohit Chauhan.  Which is fine, I'm just saying that, as the title was in a foreign language I had exactly none connection with it.

All that being said, I did listen to it for some reason and discovered perhaps the happiest song I've ever heard.  I proceeded to listen to the entire album (technically, a soundtrack to a movie somewhat unfortunately named "Barfi") as I struggled through the annoyances of the day.  And somehow, magically, it was exactly the right thing.  My mood picked up and I was able to simply find the entire experience amusing rather than hair-rippingly frustrating.

Which is to say, I am not posting a photo of something that makes me happy, but rather posting that song.  If you have the interest I heartily suggest going and listening to the entire album.  But that first song was really the best one.  So, without further ado, here it is

also, for the first time I find that I want to watch a Bollywood movie...like a lot...

Prompt 20: The Meaning Behind Your Blog Title

Ah, now that's not bad, as silly prompts go.  

To be honest, there isn't a whole lot of meaning behind my blog title.  I wanted something that I liked the sound of, something that was broad enough that I could post about whatever I wanted, and basically just something that felt right.  I asked Caleb what he thought and he said that the title did seem adequately broad, so basically that sealed the deal.  

And even though it is really pretty generic, I do quite like my blog title. 

You'd think I'd have more to say on this topic...but you'd be wrong... 

Prompt 19: Another Picture of Myself

Dude, seriously?  You had such a hard time coming up with prompts that you included "a picture of yourself" three times? (it's also the prompt for the last day)  Come up with better prompts.

seems pretty accurate.

What's that?  You want a different one?  Ok...

This is possibly my favorite picture of me ever.  Possibly.




Can you tell I'm blasting through these trying to get caught up?

Prompt 18: Something I Crave A Lot

Things I crave a lot:

• sleep
• sugar
• cookies
• ice cream
• otter pops
• white rabbit milk flavored candies
• Good'n'Plenty
• various other candy
• milk
• 2%
• chocolate
• random movies/books/songs
• long drives
• meat
• dancing
• movement
• connection
• good conversation
• affection
• alone time
• fall

that seems like a pretty good list for being right off the top of my head...

prompt 17: A Photo of Me and My Family

I know, I know, I'm like two weeks behind.  Like anyone actually cares.

This prompt is actually kind of hard because I, like my mother before me, don't really like being in pictures.  That said, I just graduated, so tradition dictated that I take a few pictures with the parental units.  Separately, of course, because that's how we bounce in this family.  Also noticeably lacking are any and all siblings.  But here are pictures of me with the various sets

I think I have the same face-shape as my dad.  Also, in comparison to both him and Cristy...I have a gigantic noggin'!

apparently my mother was not even a little excited about my graduation because this is her expression in literally every picture.  Sort of a "meh" kind of look...

prompt 16: My Celebrity Crush

This is a really hard question because I have many celebrity crushes and they change often.  For instance, today I put on Law and Order: SVU to play in the background whilst I was at work and, as always happens when I watch that show, I fell deeply in love with the magnificent Elliot Stabler aka Christopher Meloni

look at these babies...so silly

I'll be honest, I don't think you could find a more viscerally attractive man to me than Elliot Stabler.  He's big and strong and about as protective as it gets and I am a total sucker for that.

Then again, as I admitted in an earlier post, I absolutely have a thing for Chris Thile

I find him nerdy and adorable and I have this weird dream of us singing together cause I think our voices would match really well.  And, I'll point out that he's about as opposite Chris Meloni as you can get.

Before I started watching L&O:SVU, however, I was watching Elementary.  In my defense, I fell in love with Jonny Lee Miller several years ago when I saw him in...Emma and Mansfield Park and Eli Stone.  But this show has not helped with the obsession.  Because tattoos!  And scruff!

But I originally fell in love with him for his eyes.  I mean...look at them (cause those pictures up there are useless except for the tattoos)

Of course, if we're gonna talk about kind of goofy looking British men who I love passionately, you know who must be included

Objectively I can understand that he's not actually an especially handsome man, but that doesn't change the fact that I absolutely love his face and his all of him and would definitely make out with him at a party and try to convince him that we should go out for dinner.

Interestingly, as I'm thinking about all of these, most of these guys, with the marked exception of Meloni, are guys that I find adorable rather than "sexy" (so to speak).  Thus, this next guy fits right in

You literally cannot get more adorable than Lee Pace.  Like...it's physically impossible.  With his sweet grin and gigantic eyebrows and his chucks....he is truly the pinnacle of adorable man-person.

But let's get crazy, cause you know I have some random people on this list...

but only young Gene Wilder...he got scary in his old age

I honestly believe that young Tim Robbins is my celebrity soulmate

this guy won me over when he played young Captain Picard and
if he were taller I would be hopeless

Anyway, I can't think of any more legitimate crushes off the top of my head.  That is, I could come up with an endless stream of guys I think are attractive, but these are the guys I fantasize about meeting by chance and the two of us fall madly in love and get married and defy Hollywood pressures to remain happily married for forever.  Which is not to say that this list is complete.  If I think of any more I'll be sure to come update it.  And I haven't even touched the topic of lady crushes, which is a whole other thing...

next up: Post 17: a photo of me and my family


ATTENTION!

not long after I wrote this I cam across this picture

on this site.

I feel that it is important to include Fass here because, setting aside the issue of height, because I think he's a bit compact....he is kind of a perfect looking man.  I mean.  Really.  Look at his face.  Look at it.  and his shoulders.  and his hands.  and his all of him.  That man is the essence of masculine beauty right there.

Prompt 15: Something You Don't Leave the House Without

To be completely honest probably the only things that I definitely never leave my house without would be some form of corrective eye-wear and clothing.  Literally everything else you can think of to take with you out of the house I have forgotten at some point or another.  And if I wasn't utterly blind without them I probably would forget my glasses/contacts too.

Prompt 14: A TV Show You're Currently Addicted To

I have discovered a very odd tendency lately in my TV viewing.  I have this habit of getting into a show and then just suddenly I stop watching.  I think it started with Being Human (the BBC version).  I watched the entire first season of that show in one sad and unproductive day and I was totally involved.  And then season two started and my dear sweet Russell Tovey suddenly started behaving like an absolute dick.  Pardon my vulgar language, but that is really the only way to describe it.  I stopped watching right there.  One episode in to the second season.  Since then I have stopped watching quite a few shows.  I've started and stopped watching Buffy quite a few times, I've stopped watching Supernatural, I stopped watching Bones, and I stopped watching Luther.  

This is not the same thing as just sort of phasing out with the knowledge you'll come back and finish eventually.  That is what has happened with House and with Star Trek: TNG.  I know I'll come back to TNG eventually, when I'm in the mood for it again.  And admittedly, I suspect I'll come back to the others too.  I imagine that one day I'll come back to Supernatural and get beyond season 5.  In fact, right this very moment I'm trying to come back to Once Upon A Time, a show that Matt and I watched together during its first season and absolutely adored.  Then season 2 happened and I made it about half way through before I stopped.  

There are two sides to this, I think.  The first is something I've talked about before a couple times, and that is my inability to maintain healthy levels of attachment to fictional characters.  I get way too involved and I've found that the only way to deal with that is to just cut myself off from the show.  When I start to care too much about Spike or the Doctor or Sherlock I simply stop watching as a sort of splash of cold water to the face: these people and these stories aren't real and you need to stop caring.  It is how I deal with the betrayals that come with network TV where plotlines and character developments happen that only make sense if your decisions are entirely built around gaining and keeping viewers rather than writing and maintaining a good story.  Hence my decision to stop watching Being Human when George completely breaks from character.  It's how I deal with extreme tension (*spoiler*Luther getting framed for the murder of his ex wife falls into this category) that I don't want to have in my life.  This, btw, is part of why I'm immune to spoilers.  Fun fact about me: I frequently go onto wikipedia/IMDb and read the synopsis of whatever show that I'm watching so that I know what is coming and I don't have to have anxiety about it.  This is the only way I can make it through stressful stories fairly often, and even then it sometimes isn't enough.  Especially when the stressful story starts verging onto the mangling of the story/character for the sake of drama. 

And the other part is my simple desire for stories to have ends.  One of my favorite aspects of British television is that they do not sacrifice story arcs on the altar of numbers.  Which is to say that if a show was written to have three seasons and then end, it ends after three seasons no matter how many people were watching it.  There are, of course exceptions to this *cough*doctorwho*cough*, but in general, they allow good things to end whilst they're good rather than flogging them along far beyond endurance simply to make as much money as possible.  A good example of this being the US and British versions of the Office.  This is why I stopped watching Supernatural at the end of season 5.  It was such a solid end to the story.  I'm sure that the rest of the seasons have plenty of amusing parts, but I wanted to respect that ending.  Of course, rarely do I have such a solid and clearly final ending to latch on to.  But even so, there are times when I feel like that story has ended and I have neither the desire nor the energy to carry on (see Doctor Who, the David Tenant years).  

All of this is to say that it is hard for me to give you a show I'm currently addicted to because the shows which best seem to fulfill that criteria are also the shows I am most likely to stop watching, often right at the climactic moments. If you follow me on facebook at all you know that I have cherished a deep love of Fox's The Blacklist (James Spader!!!!!) all winter.  I thought that it had ended for the summer several weeks ago, but when Matt just told me that there were actually 3 or 4 more episodes for me to watch I was not excited.  I had been ready to stop and now you want me to go back and reinvest before next winter?  Ugh!  I know they're gonna do something awful to me...  You could not get more obsessed with Doctor Who than I was (that's a lie, you totally could...) but it has literally been years and I still have no desire to dive into the Matt Smith years.  I was literally on my bed screaming (which, if you know me, is not how I react to movies and TV at all) and yet I probably won't watch the third episode of Sherlock till season 4 comes out...if then.

So I guess in the end, the only real answer to this question has to be Gilmore Girls.  The show of my heart.  The show that will never get old, no matter how many times I watch it.  The show that always soothes my anxieties and is always the right thing to watch no matter the mood.  Gilmore Girls is the show I will always be addicted to, no matter what other shows come and go from moment to moment.  And I think that is the best possible end to this long and rambly post.  

Next up is prompt 15: Something I Don't Leave The House Without

Prompt 13: My Favorite Musician and Why

This is pretty much of the worst genre of question.  "Your favorite" questions are evil because how many people are there out there who are so resolved and passionate and sure that they have one single favorite anything?  So I refuse.  And this is my blog, so I can do whatever I want.  So I'll give you a selection of artists that I like

I'll begin with the first musician I have any memory of loving...

Yes, when I was about 8 I was completely obsessed with Michael Crawford.  Specifically the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera, but it wasn't limited to that.  I had these two CDs of him singing various famous Broadway hits and I loved them.  I listened to them all the time and could probably still sing them for you today.  And before you mock me, because I know you will, I just want to make it known that it was none other than my incredibly music-snobby uncle Jesse who introduced me to Crawford.  It was his enthusiastic teenage praise of those two high notes in this very song which converted me to my adoring status.  So Jesse, if you read this, feel free to judge, but know that you must also judge yourself.

Next is the second musician I feel in love with.  I believe I was 9 or 10.  And truly I still love her today.  She holds a place in my heart no one else could fill

I must begin with this song because it was my first love.  This is the song which converted me to Celine.  Also the song which granted her precedence over Michael, as he, too, sings a cover and I infinitely prefer Celine's version to his.  But I also must include two others.  When I asked Kara what song I should post of hers she said "'I Love You,' obviously."  And while I do adore that song, I instantly realized that, while I did always listen to that particular song, it was always on the way to the song that came right after.  So, just as it was on my CD so long ago I first give you "I Love You"

And then

No one can belt out love song like Celine.  And in case you don't believe me when I say that I still love her, this was a large part of the drive up to Union a few weeks back with Kara


Now, after Celine it gets a bit harder to pick my favorite musicians...I've typically tended more to specific songs than to all of any given musician's entire body of work.  I think that, post Celine, the first actual artist I really fell in love with was this guy...

It was the summer I worked at the Boise Cascade Particle Board plant.  I would have been around 19/20. I was working graveyard and that song came on the radio in one of the operator's shacks.  I fell head over heels in love with that voice (how can you not?) and as soon as my shift was over I headed straight over to Wal-Mart to buy the CD.  They weren't open yet (our Wal-Mart was not yet 24/7) so I actually sat in the parking lot and waited for thirty minutes for them to open so I could buy it.  And I have bought every CD since (though I think I've fallen behind and there's one I need to pick up).  Last summer I scored two free tickets; I took Kara and we listened to this song sung live

After my freshman year of college I went on a study abroad to London.  It was there that I met one of the greatest musical loves of my life.  I am speaking, of course, of none other than the legendary Mr. Freddy Mercury.  Broadly, I fell in love with the whole band (Roger Taylor, Brian May, and John Deacon) but most of all did I love Freddy.  It started with a show.  Before I saw We Will Rock You I was about as little  familiar with Queen as it is possible to be in this day and age.  That is to say...I knew "We Will Rock You" and "Another One Bites the Dust" and had a vague familiarity with "Bohemian Rhapsody" but I didn't even realize that all those songs were by the same band.  After We Will Rock You I came home and stayed up all night reading every Queen related wikipedia page I could find.  I discovered that somehow I owned to CDs of Queen's greatest hits (up till that point completely unappreciated and unlistened to).  For the rest of my study abroad and, indeed, the rest of that year I entered what can only be called a Queen coma.  I listened to nothing but Queen.  There was never a time when Queen wasn't playing in my head.  I remember I actually started getting worried about the length and intensity of my obsession.  Then I realized that there was a queen song called "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and just embraced the inevitable.  I eventually surfaced from complete immersion, but to this day they remain a true love.  If Queen comes on you sing.  At the top of your lungs.  Till your vocal chords give out.

This will forever be the anthem of my study abroad and my favorite Queen song.  

This post has turned ridiculously long.  If you're looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, there's only three more to go...that I'm aware of...

So the Queen mania lasted for over a year.  But all things must come to an end, even your obsessive repeat listening to your favorite band.  So eventually I began listening to other music.  I believe it was during my time in Glenwood that I discovered Mika.  Aside from my general love of him music, Mika holds special value to me because it was a long night of singing his music together driving back from Logan to Provo that Taka, aka my surrogate Japanese brother, and I became friends.  Mika writes the happiest, silliest, most brilliant music and I have loved all three of his albums.  This, however, is my absolute favorite of his songs.  It is literally impossible for me to listen to this song without feeling happier.  Ironically.  Because it's actually kind of sad lyrics.

About the same time I also discovered a completely different sounding band called Punch Brothers.

Now, specifically the artist in question here is Chris Thile.  It is possible that I have the kind of crush on him that it's only possible to get on famous people you know you'll never meet--you know, they're the perfect mixture of hopelessness and passion and conviction that if you were somehow ever to meet you would absolutely hit it off.  I have that kind of crush on Chris Thile.  And I love him in every different endeavor he has been involved with.  From his years with Nickel Creek to his absolutely phenomenal collaborations with people like Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, to his recent covers of Bach on his mandolin.  But above all of those things I love Punch Brothers best.  I love them because every member of the band is just as talented as Thile, but they also haven't quite reached the level of someone like Yo-Yo Ma so they're interested in making music that sells.  The combination of those two factors means that you have absolutely majestic, sweeping pieces like the "Another New World" above or "The Blind Leaving the Blind" (a damn bluegrass concerto Thile wrote after his divorce...go find the 3rd movement and listen to it because it's amazing) and then you have songs like Alex

I've been listening to that song for six years now and I love it every bit as much as I did the first time I heard it.  Also, this is the video that made me fall in love with him.  He's so adorably nerdy!

And at last we make it to the final and most recent of my "favorite" musicians.  And if you've known me for the last several years then you know who I'm talking about and how much I love these guys...

And because they're probably the best contender for my current true favorite musicians, I'm just going to give you lots and lots of songs to listen to because there's no way I can just pick one

there are literally no words for how beautiful I find this song...

Just listen to their voices!!!!!!

Please forgive the ridiculousness of the video and just enjoy this song.  It's from their new album under their new name and it is just the best!

As many videos as I have posted they have so many more wonderful songs.  Go get on Spotify and look them up (Guggenheim Grotto and Storyman).  Listen to every single one of their songs.  They have the most beautiful voices and their songs are catchy and gorgeous and sometimes funny ("Her Beautiful Ideas" will make you laugh if you have any sense of humor at all).  Seriously, buy all their albums and listen to all of their music because it is so so good.

Next up for tomorrow we have: A TV Show You're Currently Addicted To

Prompt 12: A Photo of the Town You Live In

It's late and I need to go to bed, but since this is the last post I need to get caught up and it is super lame, I figured I'd knock it out real quick.  Here is a photo of Provo:

or, more accurately, a picture of BYU campus.... :-/

The thing is, that isn't very representative of where I live.  So here are a few pictures that feel more accurate...

That's a bit of a glimpse at what my town looks like from inside.  It's pretty nice.

tomorrow we have "your favorite musician and why?"

Prompt 11: What is in My Makeup Bag

The ratio here seems to be one decent prompt to three incredibly stupid ones.  But I've decided to be more proactive.  Let's see if I can make this post even a little bit interesting, shall we?  Here we go

First and foremost, I'm writing this at work which means that I'm going entirely off memory...so who knows how accurate this is.  Because much more important than what is IN my makeup bag is how often I use those contents.  And the answer to that implied question is: not very often.  About once a week, really, on Sundays when I'm expected to look like I at least tried a little bit.  Sometimes I'll wear makeup during the week...usually to remind myself that I am, in fact, a human and not a slug.  You'd be surprised how often I get confused on that fact.

As for what is in it, I think there are more things that I literally never use than things that I do.  Because my makeup pretty much consists exclusively of eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow.  If I am feeling ridiculously extravagant I might use an eyebrow pencil to give myself entire eyebrows, because typically my eyebrows look like this:

I drew this...cuz I'm an artist...or something...

Of those things that I do use, I think I have four or five eyesadows which are simply variations of these colors:

Why?  Because I have blue eyes.  And orange is a complementary color to blue, which means that if I paint orange (or in this case, metallic orange, aka copper/gold) around my eyeballs my blue eyes look even more blue.  That and I just am instinctively drawn to these colors.  Because I have gone to the store several times with the purposeful determination that I will buy eyeshadow that is NOT these colors...and I end up buying yet more coppers/golds.  It's a sickness...

I also have just recently discovered a magical new kind of eyeliner that has revolutionized my entire concept of wearing makeup.  Which is eyeliner that comes in a tiny pot that you put on with a very tiny paintbrush.  It turns out that paintbrushes are better than crayons (what I had previously been using) for creating the very popular "winged eyeliner" look which I have been striving to achieve for some time now.

possibly the most literal interpretation of anything I've ever seen
and therefore utterly awesome

Before the winging efforts, my eyeliner strategy has always included a certain amount of smudging.  I was delighted to discover that my pots of eyeliner also lend themselves to this practice equally well.  I fell like I've been wasting my life up till now...

My mascara is some wretched thing in a violently purple capsule.  I hate it.  But since I paid $8 for it I am forcing myself to use it up.  It's depressing.

so much for the things I actually use.  As for things I don't use, let's see if I can remember any...

I believe there is one shoddy pair of tweezers that I never use because they are ineffective.  There is a strange little tool that my mother gave me years ago that I think is for the...judicious removal of blemishes.  I think there are a couple sample size pots of Burts Bees products because the bag I use was originally a travel bag full of Burts Bees creams and salves.  I think there's a wooden stick for maintaining your cuticles.  And I think there's some various MaryKay products that I was given when I graduated from high school that have been used maybe twice ever.

And there you have it.  I don't think I succeeded in making this stupid prompt a nevertheless enjoyable read, but I got it written.  Next up is prompt 12: a photograph of the town I live in.  psh.

Prompt 10: The Prompt Was Stupid So I'm Making Up My Own....

...and it is to write my own 30 prompts.  Because these ones have been super ridiculous.  I think that next month I'll try this challenge again, but with these prompts because this way I know they'll be interesting (at least to me)

1. Where did you grow up?  Share some memories...
2. How do you best demonstrate your cooking skillz?  If you literally have zero skillz, then what is your best food-related story?
3. What were your top 3 favorite movies growing up?
4. What is your favorite fairy tale and why?
5. What is your favorite non-big-5 holiday (not Christmas, Halloween, New Year, or Easter) and why?
6. Which literary world would you pick to live in instead of reality, and why?  Remember, you get alllll the parts of your chosen world, good as well as bad.
7. What books are you most looking forward to sharing with your children and why?
8. What superhero do you wish was your best friends with and why?  Also, which version of him or her?
9. What are the bottom five most shameful songs in your collection?
10. What always makes you cry? Song/movie/story/commercial/etc
11. If you were to suddenly develop a mental illness, which is most likely for your personality?
12. If you had to have a mental illness, but you got to pick, which would you pick?
13. What are your top 3-5 favorite jokes?
14. What is your dream career (regardless of its actual existence)?
15. What is one random, non-touristy place you want to visit?
16. What are your top 5 secretly favorite features/abilities/attributes about yourself?
17. Is there anything you wish people knew about you?
18. What is your weirdest food eccentricity?
19. What are your five favorite fantasy wardrobe items?
20. What is your best story?
21. Which Disney film is your favorite and why?
22. What's the best meal you've ever eaten and why?
23. What is one skill you wish you had the time/money/resources to learn?
24. If you could instantly change one single thing about yourself what would it be? How do you feel about that?
25. What are your top 5 biggest pet peeves?
26. Is there anything you secretly love/want that you're afraid to admit because you don't think people will think it is "you"?  (does this even make sense?)
27. Where are your top 3 dream cities to live in and why?
28. You showed up to work with a black eye...how did you get it?  
29. The Doctor shows up.  After the obligatory world-saving, where is the first place you'd go?
30. What are 5 songs you love to belt out in the car?  

Prompt 9: A Picture of the Item I Last Purchased

It just so happens that I made a trip out to Target today.  This means that I purchased several things.  To determine the very last thing I purchased I suppose I must consult my receipt

Even though I distinctly remember the cashier scanning these quite early (he was deeply confused by the fact that they were called hobo bags) they are the last items listed on the receipt.  So we shall say they're the last items I bought.  So here is a picture of them.  Slightly irresponsible a purchase as they may have been, I am quite happy with them

I had initially thought to give the green and white striped one to Kara, but the more I look at it the more I like it.  Not to mention she just snapchatted me that it looks like me.  Which is a nice way we have of saying that we would never wear/carry/have whatever the other is showing us, but we appreciate that the other person likes it.  So looks like two new purses for me!  After I'm done writing this I think I'll check if I can fit my laptop into them.  If so, that will make a very awesome purchase indeed.  Always looking for ways to cart around this giant laptop...

Coming up next we have #10: A photo of my favorite place to eat...

Prompt 8: A Song to Match My Mood

Well, for better or worse, at this specific moment I am not aware of any particular mood.  On the one hand, as it is 11:30, this is good because typically at this hour if I have a mood it is more or less depressed.  On the other hand, it is difficult to pick a song to match a mood you don't have.  So here is my strategy.  I shall pull up iTunes, put my entire library on shuffle, and then keep skipping till I find something that feels right.

Apparently iTunes was really dedicated to the idea of me listening to New Model Army.  Matt, you should appreciate that Desdemona is clearly on your side about that band.

Two hits on Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom audiobooks, and, in all honesty, those felt like just exactly what I wanted to listen to.  However, the prompt very specifically states a song, so I pressed onward till I found the song where I wanted to stop and listen.  Here you go:

Just to see what happens, I shall try this again and see if the next song I stop on is of a similar mood.  Fair notice, though.  I am a blues dancer and DJ, so there's a very good chance whatever I settle on will be blues-y

Nope.

This song won through pure nostalgic value.  Don Williams = my dad.  My mom and dad would sing all these great old Don Williams songs like "Lay Down Beside Me" and "Amanda" and "I Believe In You".  One day I ran across a "Best Of" album on iTunes and had to buy it.  We'll try one more time and see where I land...

This came up almost right away.  I think that taking all three of these into account that would put me in just a solid chill mood.  Bonus points go to songs I can sing along with.

And there you have it

Click on through to read the actual prompt for today, a photo of the item I last purchased (so exciting!)

Prompt 7: My Dream Wedding

This post is a day late, but only because I really got into this prompt.  Planning a fantasy wedding when you don't have to consider constraints of money or your fiance's taste turns out to be a whole lot of fun (with just the slightest hint of bitterness because we're being honest and contrast makes everything taste better).

Perhaps this should have come first, but it wasn't till we'd both spent an unnecessary amount of time searching for the perfect dress for me that Kara asked me what the "essence" of my wedding would be.  Once I figured this out it really helped me settle some of the "but I like allllll of them!" quandaries.  Like what dress I would hypothetically wear.  So without further ado, the "essence" of my wedding: organic, dreamy evening wedding with touches of Southern Gothic.

This leads us first to the venue.  My ideal venue would be a southern plantation with a long avenue of southern oaks draped in Spanish moss, absolutely covered in twinkly glowy lights.

photo by Marc Walter

Imagine that just covered all over with glowy lights!

The tables would all be decorated with moss and flowers and vines and such.  And there would be tables because, as this is a fantasy, I can afford to put on a big dinner like we had at Ralf's wedding.  Full catered dinner for my close family and friends.  Delicious food...in fact, I'd be willing to have exactly what Ralf had, because that food was freaking delicious!  Anyway, I can't find any good pictures of what I'm imagining but imagine soft moss, candles, and windy twisty vines and woods.  And the dishes are all clear glass that catch the light and are beautiful.  This is where I would have it

Which leads to my colors.  Here is a link to look at them (ish).  It's hard to make exactly the right ones, but that's a pretty close idea.  The primary colors would be the orange and charcoal, with the blue, heather, and green as accents.  I deeply deeply long to have orange poppies involved in this, but I just don't know if they'll fit.  But I will absolutely have roses.  Because I love roses.

this is possibly the most perfect thing I could ever imagine

So we've got an evening wedding covered all over with lights, with the colors down.  As far as things go, I guess we're just missing the dress and ring.  Here you go:

I don't even want to know how expensive this dress is, but I could buy it here:
http://www.allurebridals.com/products/8901

I could buy this here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/96725424/lovely-elvin-organic-flow-band?ref=market

So, obviously the dress would need to have a sleeves of some sort.  I have some ideas, but I'm not sure exactly how I would do that.  Also, I would want the bodice to be less crusty, more embroidered.  And for the ring, I would just want to add a raw sapphire on the left in that space.  A dark blue one.

So that's that for things.  I also would say that my ideal wedding would also have a specific feeling.  My favorite thing about Ralf's wedding was the way every single person came there with the intention of staying and having fun and dancing.  It was literally a celebration.  Not like so many of the weddings I've been to here in Utah where it's more like a ritualized meet and greet where people come, eat some food, hug the bride and groom, sit for a set number of minutes, and then leave.  I want a real dinner, and I want actual dancing where all of the people dance, not just my dance friends.  I want us to party late into the night.  I want people to make new friends and talk to each other.  That is also one of the most important parts of my dream wedding.

prompt 8 is a song to match my mood...so keep your eyes peeled today for that

Prompt 6: An animal I'd love to keep as a pet

I'm just going to point out...none of these are so much "writing" prompts as they are picture prompts.  Annoying.

We're going to do this in two categories, actual reasonable pets, and fantasy pets you only get to have if you're a rajah in turn of the century India.  First, normal pets

My current dog obsession is a blue brindled French Bulldog or Boston Terrier.  Basically dogs with bat ears who look like they got their faces smashed in by a door.  Look at these guys!

Look at him!  They're so compact and squatty!

another frenchie

I literally cannot handle Frenchie puppies

Boston terriers have longer legs and are a little less powerfully built

puppy!!!

I would also like to have a cat.  I don't really have a particular type in mind exactly (Russian Blues are pretty, as are Ragdolls) it's more of a personality thing.  I'd need to meet the cat and see how we get on.  But because cats rule the internet, here are some cute pictures of various cats for you to enjoy

Russian blue

ragdoll

black cat of indeterminate species

As for unrealistic pets...well...

obviously the slow loris

pygmy elephant, equally obvious 

miniature giraffe...why are you still even questioning these....

a freaking tiger!  Really any big cat, but especially a tiger

a hedgehog!

a real, normal sized elephant.  It would not be my pet so much as my friend

a freaking river otter!!!

"'sup"
yes, an owl.  Because I am part of the Harry Potter Generation

I'm pretty sure there are many more animals I have longed to own as a pet, but that's probably enough for one post.  If you come back tomorrow you can find out what my dream wedding will look like!

*Edit*
Literally the minute I hit publish I thought of one more that needs to be included