Dear Santa: Keep It Simple.

Honestly bro, I've gotten some pretty strange clothes from you in the past.

In fourth grade, I got a printed silk shirt and a matching pair of suspenders. I thought it was legit. I thought you had my best interests in mind when choosing the perfect ensemble for me to debut in Miss Lafontaine's class after Christmas break. It looked totally expensive and my faith in you wouldn't steer me wrong, right? WRONG. I ate lunch in the bathroom for two weeks. Did you know who Urkel was? Just because he was on TV didn't mean he was cool.

A few years later, you did it again.

I opened my gifts and found a buffalo plaid pair of Zubaz pants with a matching V-neck top made out of a very stiff broadcloth. They may have been trendy in previous years, but by the time I opened up these extremely hideous genie pants, the fad had passed. I wore them anyway. My unwavering support, and your unabashedly exquisite taste level got me into a fight on the playground with a boy that looked like a pug. So, thanks for that.

This year, if you decide to buy me any clothes, my only request is that you keep it simple. Classics, y'know? I understand that you probably don't have a Polyvore account or that you sit around around in your palatial cabin waiting for Opening Ceremony to announce their latest collab. You're a busy dude. I get it.

Because you're so busy, I've decided to keep things incredibly simple for you.

This is what I want. Get it at American Apparel:

Winter Jacket
Rib Henley One-Piece
Fine Jersey Long Sleeve Leisure Shirt 

sorry/not sorry
thanks in advance :-)

DAMN THE MAN, SAVE TOILET WATER!

My friend Carol owns a really sweet record/clothing shop in Ocean City, NJ. It's probably the coolest shop we have locally. In addition to a fantastic vinyl selection and quirky gifts, she carries an assortment of really great clothes for guys and girls from really good brands; things from Dear Creatures, Obey and Sailor Jerry. If I drove, I would probably visit her everyday.

If you were following the devastating coverage of Hurricane Sandy, you know that Ocean City was hit HARD. A ton of great people lost a lot, including Carol. Unfortunately, the insurance companies just aren't helping and it's heartbreaking to see something someone has worked so hard on filling up with mold and broken dreams.



Luckily, Carol was smart enough to have an off site warehouse that wasn't damaged in the storm. However, it doesn't change the fact that homegirl could use a little income to start picking up the pieces. It IS the holidays!

So, until further notice Toiletwater.net is hosting an online warehouse sale!!!  By entering the discount code "40" at checkout you'll get an insane 40% off your total!!!!

Make a cute punk rock girl's Christmas and do some shopping on her site!

Christmas Knitting Swap!!!!

On Sunday, our Tuesday night knitting group met up to finalize our Christmas in July swap! We basically ananonymously traded yarn, and then patterns and finally a finished projects. It was super clever and the most fun!

Our lovely host, Lea, made some incredible treats for us to eat while we sat and chatted before the big exchange. It was great to finally catch up with everyone after a soul crushing semester at a new school. I was so excited to see everyone!



Can you even stand how stinkin cute how cute Lea's house is? It looks like a yarn shop! Julia is pretty adorable too! Eventually, we got around to swapping gifts! Shawls for everyone!



There was even a guest appearance from an estranged West Coast knitter whom we all adore and miss!



After sharing our stories and making up for lost time, it was time to pack up our shawls and hit the road!



All in all, it was a great time with great friends that I'm so thankful to have in my life! You're all the greatest!

WERK.

Only Dani and I would have this much fun in a freight elevator after work. Sometimes, you just have to put your leg up.

You know what I mean?


This post has been brought to you by a ton of tiny donuts and disgusting bottle of coconut water.

5 points if you know what song the caption on the picture is from.

Imaginary Friends-giving

Tonight, I had some extra time to finally catch up on blogs. While reading A Beautiful Mess, I started getting insanely jealous of their Friendsgiving concept. Every year, we trudge from house to house carrying various foods items, and are continually being forced to eat until our clothes don't fit. I always wonder what it would be like to be the house the people come to, instead of the people coming to the house.

While I was reading, I was thinking about how I would set the table, what food I would make, who would be invited and all of the really quirky things I would be able to do. Herb Alpert dance-party anyone?

Of course, this led to browsing Etsy for the perfect decorations and tableware. Which in turn led me to making my first ever treasury.

I picked some of the best stuff to share in a collage, but you can click on over and see it in it's properly curated glory here.



1. Nut Tray - VintagebyJen 2. Pilgrim Dolls - CherryBerryVintage 3. Paper Straws - ThePartyFairy
4. Psychedelic Dish - Monacross 5. Turkey Cookbook - Ismoyo 6. Flower Mugs - TheOpSpot
7. Owl Salt and Pepper Shakers - ModsLuvRockers 8. Turkey Platter - BeckVintage 9. Honeycomb Turkey - ReDesignKC 10. Tablecloth - SyndneyVintageFinds

Hopefully, I'll be able to pull this off next year, but I'm definitely going to start collecting things now. What are you going to be doing for Thanksgiving? Do you celebrate it?

A Personal Soundtrack: 5 most meaningful songs.

I'm taking a class on identity and culture and it requires a lot of introspection. One of our most recent assignments was those choose the five most personally meaningful songs and to share them with the class. I really struggled with the assignment at first because music just seems so personal. I looked through my record collection and my iPod trying to find songs that played significant roles in me figuring out just who i am.

Eventually I was able to narrow it down to five, and here they are:



1. Nina Simone - "Aint Got No/I Got Life"

Throughout the years that I've been blogging, I've probably shared this video a dozen times. Of course Nina is incredible and the song is powerful, but for this class I had to dig a little further to figure out why I love it so much. As a kid, I really didn't have much. I don't want this to turn into some sob story or a plea for sympathy, because I learned a lot from that situation. One of my biggest pet peeves is listening to someone complain about the things that they don't have. My mother and grandmother were staunch believers in the ideology that if you can't make (create) it, that you probably don't need it. They were basically right. Necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it? Your given a body and tools, and the way that you choose to use them is up to you. So, this song is akin to my mother and grandmother inspiring me the same way they did as a child.


2. Bright Eyes - "Shell Games"

I discovered Bright Eyes at a time when i was deeply involved with figuring out who I was. This song in particular reminds to never have serious expectations. I know that seems weird but having high expectations is seems like a destructive force to me. Life is a shell game. You never know what's going to be under the cup, do you really want to set yourself up for disappointment? Or would you rather take things as they come?



4. Sufjan Stevens - "Too Much"

Shortly after my grandmother (meemaw) died, a friend took me to a house shaped like an elephant near the beach. We didn't really talk, but we listened to Sufjan Stevens on the way there and on the way back home. The music made everything seem so surreal but safe; uplifting even.



4. Tilly and the Wall - "Defenders"

Tilly and the Wall hold a special place in my heart. My best friend Kellyn and I have seen them live every single time they have played locally. It's such a good band to associate with such a positive friendship. When I hear them, I think back to all of the fun things we've already done and all of the fun things we will do in the future.



5.Cat Stevens - "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out"

Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam is my all time favorite guy ever. Not just as musician either. He just seems to radiate good vibes. I had never heard anything by him until watching Harold and Maude the first time and I was immediately his biggest fan. He is one of the very few artists who can move me to tears in less than 3 minutes. I chose this song because it was the first of his that I ever remember hearing.

It was really fun to do this project and the class is going great!

I think it would be really sweet if all of you joined in on the fun! I'm going to set up a link party at the bottom of the post and I'd love to see what you come up with!!! Blog about your 5 most meaningful jams and click on the little blue frog, he'll tell you what to do!

Adrienne Goes to the Kitty Dentist.

Today we had to take our oldest kitty, Adrienne, to the vet. Sometime during the hurricane, she lost one of her canines. She's old and it happens. However, her bottom tooth was pushing through her top lip and we were concerned that if it wasn't taken care of that the tooth or her lip could get infected.

She was such a good sport! She was virtually quiet and relaxed when they weighed her and took her into the back for x-rays and blood work. The doctor sent us home with some antibiotics and pain killers for the interim. She has an appointment with the kitty dentist in a few weeks. I'm sure she'll be okay, she's a trooper. I believe the vets words were "...she's really stoic...you know how much a toothache hurts."

I was going to try a new recipe tonight and work on paper that's due tomorrow afternoon but, I think we're gonna just snuggle on the couch, instead.

Happy Halloween, Kiddos!

For those faithful readers, you'll realize that this was my costume last year (well, the mask and the binoculars anyway). This year, I've been insanely busy and the threat of hurricane Sandy had me an emotional wreck. I just about finished off an entire bottle of skullcap tincture trying to ease the stress. So, of course dressing up was the last thing on my mind.

Luckily, our neighborhood was spared. Out ceiling didn't cave in (like I thought it would) and the flimsy tree behind our deck didn't crush us in our sleep (like I thought it would). Somehow, the clouds just opened up and passed right over us. That's not to say that I don't have friends dealing with insane amounts of water in their homes and shops. When everyone is allowed back on the surrounding islands, I'll offer my assisstance in any way I can.

This morning when I woke up, everything seemed to be drying out and I finally started feeling human again. I decided to go outside for the first time in a few days and take some pictures so I could join Miss Indie's Halloween blog party. Mandy inspired me to look at the positive side of things today. I mean, it is a super cool holiday.

Later, I'm going to bake some candy corn cookies and make Dave watch family movies with me.

What are your plans?

REBBCCA LOEBE IS MAH BESTIE.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Rebecca Loebe for an hour between classes. Stockton does these events called "Tunes at Noon", where bands/artists come in and play an hour long set in the student lounge. Usually, it awkward older couples playing jazz standards. However, Yesterday was so much cooler.

I was sitting in the lounge drinking a PSL an reading "The Road" for a Lit. class and Rebecca was warming up on the stage. I was pretty sure I heard the first couple of bars of TLC's "No Scrubs" and from that point on she had my undivided attention. I kept looking up and smiling, concurrently and repeatedly losing my place on "The Road". I was meeting some friends to color pictures for the contest on McSweeney's blog.

I moved over to table closer to the stage and settled in.

I was totally in love. Rebecca has a sound described on her website as "post-brontosaurus indie folk/crunk" and will be described on my website as ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I HAVE EVER HEARD/JAMS.

Seriously though, watch her videos and tell me you don't love her!!!!



Oh, dude! I forgot to mention that may recognize her from "The Voice"! I only use Hulu now, so I had no idea, but yeah. She's good.

Check out her site!

GET DAT CACHE!

Today, I went on my first geo-caching adventure with my friend Laura before classes. It was the most fun! Obviously, I dig hanging around in the forest. I usually read or just wander around on my own to kill time between classes, but today we had a mission.

Apparently, there area ton of little caches in the forest around Richard Stockton College. We set out on the search for the closest one and found it in about a half an hour. It was "camouflaged", so it took a little sleuthing, In the end, we found a little hole drilled into a brick that we both picked up like 30 times. This one was super small, so we just left a little message and headed to class.

I'm so glad that Laura introduced to yet another amazing hobby!

Have you ever geo-cached? Do you love it? I do!


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Tour of The Richard Stockton College: Stop #1, Au Bon Pain

If I had to lead tours of incoming freshmen and transfer students around the school to coerce them into choosing Stockton, Au Bon Pain would be our first stop.

Psuedo-Gourmet Bakery on campus? YES PLEASE! Eating at college is usually a chore. Being a stuanch flex-itarian doesn't help either. Bringing food from home isn't an option; I'm usually there for two 12 hour days a week.

The only other options are pizza, fried chicken, EXPENSIVE salads or bad sushi. Si, I usually just get a bread bowl filled with vegetarian chili from Au Bon Pain AND after 6pm all of the pastries are 1/2 price. THE BEST.

Looks like I'm going to live on a diet of soup and bread punctuated with fancy baked goods for the next two years, eh?

Analog Monday: Empire Records.

Being back in school can make a guy quite nostalgic. Gone are the days of inflatable sofas and color drip candles, late night punk shows and UFO pants, but something about carrying around a backpack full of composition books leads me back to that same place.

I don't smell like patchouli oil anymore and I no longer have Marylin Manson posters on my bedroom wall. I can't go pick up a new shirt at Shifty's, and Limbo Lounge closed it's doors a long time ago. But somehow, being back in school makes my function with a certain child-like wonder and amazement at even the simplest moments.

Music is huge catalyst in maintaining a that nostalgic mindset and so of course, I turn to the same records or cassettes that played a huge part of my formative years.

Empire Records was one of the first movies that seemed to really make sense to me (followed by things like Reality Bites and later, Ghost World). It's probably the solitary reason that I've been working at my current day job for over 6 years; it evokes the same kind energy and atmosphere that I connected with so strongly as an awkward adolescent.

So clearly, the sound track is kind of a big deal to me.

My god, I'm rambling. I'm not trying to sound profound or anything. I'm not even sure exactly what I'm getting at.

All that I've eaten today is a few cookies and a bowl of soup. Maybe this will make sense to me in the morning.

Tomorrow, I'm going to pull together all of the instagrams I've taken so far this semester to give you a little tour of the campus. Kind of.