Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Top 2

Tonight was Idol's top 2 showdown between Lee and Crystal who I have been fans of all season. I have to say Crystal Bowersox CHAMPIONED the night. The first round of songs they got to sing songs they've done from earlier in the season. Lee sang "The Boxer" which was fine, but I liked many more of his performances much better. Crystal hit the nail on the head by singing "Me and Bobby McGee" which has probably been the song from this season that I've listened to the most. The second round was producers choice Lee give REM's "Everybody Hurts" and I thought he sounded great on it. Crystal sang "Black Velvet" which I know a lot of people don't like, but for some reason I like that song (I actually first heard it at Karaoke at a bar in Texas and the girl blew it out of the house). Crystal gave the song a really interesting take and I really enjoyed her performance. The final round was the winner's single and usually it's a song that written FOR idol. This year apparently Lee and Crystal got to do a cover of a song for their single which I thought was interesting. Lee did U2's "Beautiful Day" which was solid, but he didn't own it. Crystal sang "Up to the Mountain" which I kinda of knew, but it was bluesy, folksy awesome and for me she won the show right there. The judges seemed to be on team Crystal tonight, but there are lots of theories of why Crystal won't win out there.

Sadly I won't be able to watch the finale live tomorrow, because tomorrow kicks off CAMP WAR EAGLE. The next 3 days will be crazy and awesome at the same time. Training week has been fantastic, I've really enjoyed getting to know the Camp Counselors better. I think we're gonna have a great summer. I hope to blog this weekend, which is a FOUR DAY weekend!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Joie de Vivre

Yes, my week has been crazy, but how did I forget to mention that I got my newest tattoo on Saturday.



Joie de Vivre means Joy of Life/Living. It's a phrase that has meant a lot to me over the past year or so and I love the notion of it.

This was the first tattoo I got that I haven't had an exact idea of what I wanted. I showed the tattoo artist the type of font and I wanted and how I wanted it to work with my lion tattoo. I loved what he came out with and I think it's perfect.

After a series of random events that kept pushing off my tattoo Saturday was the day. Prior to me going in for my tattoo my friend Melissa got her nose pierced. Exciting, exciting. She has such a cute nose and it looks great. Then it was tattoo time. My tattoo artist was cute and had a great personality. I love off-beat artsy people, I pretty much loved all the tattoo artists/piercers I've ever met. The inking of the tattoo took about an hour and a half. I was very proud of my pain tolerance, I think I'll be ready for mt rib tattoo (one day). It's always interesting what topics come up while getting tattooed. Hilarious conversations overall, but not took hilarious because it would be back if my tattoo artist or myself started laughing too hard while he was tattooing. Oh and the tattoo parlor was really cool, it has an Irish/ medieval feel to it.

So now I am in the healing process - keeping it clean and moisturized. I love it. I swear I am addicted to tattoos, somehow I went 2.5 years since my last one, but I already have 3 more planned for the future!

Idol

I am been lackadaisical about this season of idol. However I would like to point out from EARLY on I was a fan of Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze (especially when people were haters). Granted we won't find out who is going to the finale until tonight, but I would be SHOCKED if it's not a Crystal/Lee Finale. Last night Lee "BROUGHT IT" I thought. He finally seems comfortable on stage. I really liked both "Simple Man" and "Hallelujah." I think my overall favorite Lee performance was "Beast of Burden." My favorite Crystal performance was "Me and Bobby McGee" and I also really liked her Hollywood round songs of "Natural Woman" and "If It Makes You Happy."

If it's these two I think it will be a good finale and I'd like to see a Bowersox victory.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Star-ism

So a few weeks ago right before my 5K my fabulous friend Star and I were Gchatting (shocking) and our conversation goes like this:

Star: I think when you finally meet David Cook you should perform a song
Star: I've narrowed it down to "girl for all seasons"
me: ahahaha
me: LOVE
Star: i think it accurately portrays your unique blend of fun, obsession, and psychosis

For those of you who don't know the song (which is BLASPHEMY by the way) it's from Grease 2

Enjoy!


I'm still pumped I had a RANDOM 30 minute dinner with Star last week!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

DC in Review

WRITERS NOTE: When I started out on this post I meant for it to be short...oooopps

Thursday April 29
~Drive to the ATL airport
~Stop for my first glorious Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee since early January
~Fly to Baltimore
~Have a drink at Little Havana with Sara and Dan
~Hang out with my Sara
~Fall asleep while Sara is packing

Friday April 30
~Have an uneven night of sleep
~Eat yogurt with Strawberries, blackberries and wheat germ - yummy thanks Sara
~Get ready for the day with Sara (something I miss most about not having a roommate)
~Reunite with Kelly
~Get lost looking for Dunkin Donuts, get an iced coffee and cheeseburger from McD (first of many random Mickey D cheeseburgers of the weekend mind you)
~Catch up on the drive to PA
~Get a call from my friend Josh who I FBed about seeing while in DC and he insists on on staying with him instead of a hotel when we are there
~First stop: AMISH! Got to a place called Kitchen Kettle and are the youngest people there by 50 years (or so it seems)
~Sample all kinds of Amish yummies - fudge, jams, salsas, cheeses, kettle corn
~Amish hunting around INTERCOURSE (that's really the name of the town) and taking forbidden pictures of them
~Wine tasting
~Head to Kelly's cute apartment and get the grand tour
~Drink some beverages on Kelly's lovely deck
~Head to Lancaster for dinner and drinks at an Irish Pub called Annie Baileys
~Eat yummy yummy food and I like throw my water glass off the table - how it happened I stll don't know
~Meet up with some of Kelly's friends for drinks on the beack deck of Annie Baileys and I proceed to drink my first IPA beer
~Head back to Kellys

Saturday May 1
~I have a hard time sleeping and get up at 4:58am to start my day
~When Kelly gets up at a normal hour we go for lovely run around her neighborhood
~Get ready and packed up
~Make 3 stops before we hit the road - Dunkin Donuts for my coffee, Turkey Hill for Kelly's coffee and gas (but it was dramatic and I don't want to enrage kelly when she reads this) and finally to Grand Central for tasty bagels
~Roadtrip to DC (the place, not the person - it will confuse many of you I'm sure as you read this)
~Drive past DC to Arlington, VA to check in for our 5K and pick up our stuff
~Find Josh's apartment (he's participating in the Great Urban Race and won't be back til later)
~Kelly and I take the metro to Chinatown to meet her friends for a cupcake crawl (we may have stopped for $5 soda for our "beverages" as well)
~While waiting on Kelly's friends we sit on the stairs of some random building in DC and actually SEE Josh and his friends run past us while in the Great Urban Race...very random
~Meet up with Kelly's friends and get 2 yummy cupcakes
~Explore DC further
~Head back towards Josh's place - Kelly and I have random silly time sin her car
~Josh arrives!
~Josh's apartment building is redonkulous and he has a great place
~Catch up, have a beverage
~Get ready and head to Georgetown (if only it sounded that easy, there was a lot of walking, metros and humidity involved
~Stop for some Chipolte in Georgetown
~Meet up with Kelly's friends at some outdoor bar right on the water
~End the night early because OH WAIT Kelly and I are running a 5K the next morning
~Head back to Josh's and while enroute I lose a cute, new little back jacket I had just bought the day before :(
~Back at Josh's we chat with him roommate George who graduate from the Q with us, but I didn't really know him then
~Sleepy time

Sunday May 2
~Sleep terribly - which has been my theme the entire trip. I think it was nerves and excitement overall that contributed to my sleeping woes.
~My alarm goes off when I am actually asleep and I turn it off.
~Get up 30 minutes later than I wanted to
~Get ready with Kelly and Josh graciously toasts us bagels and drives us to the race.
~I am panicked that I am gonna miss Dave and like jump out of Josh's car only to immediately see Dave cross the street (he had just greeted the his "team members" which I missed), but I do like walk right behind him until 2 girls stop him for a picture
~I like freeze up and just stare at him (and assess his height)
~I spend the next hour no less that 3 feet from him just in awe
~See some of Dave's friends and family
~Get a picture with his brother Andrew
~Line up with Kelly for the race...I have my phone because we plan on running at out own pace
~Race starts and I am feeling GOOOOOD
~The first half of the 5K I am feeling good despite ALLL the people (it was very hard to navigate through crowds of people like that whilst running)
~Hit the water table (which I later learned was the half way mark, but I had no clue)
~Slow it down to throw back to cups of water and the humidity and heat HIT ME
~My body is good, but the air is SO thick
~I slow it down and see Kelly pass me so I tap her on the shoulder and we run for a little bit
~We separate again and I see a sign that marks the 3K point
~Well like an IDIOT I think 3MILES and run full force thinking I have like .2 miles left.
~After like 5 minutes I realize my mistake and I need to slow it down a little since I like overexerted myself
~See a 4K sign
~Skip to my last 2 songs on my ipod for the home stretch
~Soak in the crowd and spectators and I run towards the ball archway that signifies the finish line
~Cross the finish like and feel thrilled - so much for a second I thought about turning around and running the course again, but then I realize I am drenched in sweat, even my eyeballs are sweating
~Kelly and I find each other and partake in the goodies at the finish line - water, bananas, crackers.
~We sit and cool down despite the fact that I think we continued to sweat for a full 30 minutes AFTER we finished running
~We gather for the awards and David Cook talks
~More Dave staring and picture taking
~Once people clear out Kelly and I get coffee (I get iced she SOMEHOW gets hot...crazy)
~We walk around a bit, the race was at Freedom Plaza so we were in the heart of things
~The course of the 5k had us run past the Capitol Building it was cool
~Walk past the White House - I had never been before
~Take the metro back to Joshs
~Eat brunch on a sidewalk cafe - GOD I LOVE CITY LIFE
~Thank Josh for housing us and showing up a good time
~Drive back to PA - poor Kelly's legs from all out walking, running and driving
~Shower and collapse
~Rally
~Stop by Millersville where Kelly works and go to her office and meet some of her students
~Get dinner at a cute place called Loxleys that was Robin Hood themed
~Drink wine and watch a movie
~promptly sleep and sleep soundly

Monday May 3
~Start our morning with stretching and a jog
~Drink coffee on the deck
~Pack
~Head to Millersville for an official campus tour and to meet more of Kelly's peeps
~Get MORE Dunkin Donuts
~Drive to Baltimore
~Meet Sara and Katie for dinner and drinks at Nacho Mamas
~When I say "drinks" I meant a HUBCAP - a $15 hubcap of margarita that I practically drink myself
~Say goodbye to Sara and Katie
~Kelly drives to me to airport
~I am like buzzed checking in and going through security which I found hilarious
~The flight is empty so I sprawl out
~Get into ATL at 10pm
~Drive home to Auburn whilst catching up with my favorite West-Coaster Christina

So there you have it folks. DC was an absolute blast. Had TOO much fun. Good times and great people. It was EXACTLY what I needed.

Picture from the Race for Hope I found online:

The runners applauding surviors walking to the starting line with David Cook

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

DC in DC

I am swamped at work this week, but I fully intend on writing a proper blog entry this weekend, but I do want to take a moment and say how magical and satisfying running in the Race for Hope 5K was. I truly would love to run in it every year.

Race day actually did not start off as well as I planned. We hadn't slept enough, drank too much alcohol and not enough water the night before, I "snoozed" on my alarm 30 minutes longer than I wanted to and I was tweaking out too hard to eat.

I knew Dave (David Cook for those of you who don't know him like I do) was going to be greeting his team members at 8am and we were told to get there at 7:45. Yeah well we don't get to freedom plaza until like 7:58 (I'm like panicking). We like try and figure out where to go and we cross over to the plaza when I spot HIM crossing the street like right towards us. HOLY MELTDOWN BATMAN. All I wanted was to like see Dave from away afar, I really wasn't expecting him all in my business. Just as we like closing in on him 2 girls stop him for a picture. My friend is like trying to push me towards him, but I can't. I really think I was in shock, and also I LOOKED like I got hit by a train since we rushed to get ready and get there. My friend Kelly was taking pictures of him for mean, even though she wanted to take pictures of me staring at him/having an inner battle if I should get a pic with him or not. Am I bummed that I didn't carpe diem...kinda, but I also know what a hot mess I looked that day and I wouldn't be able to blew the picture up into wall-sized art. Dave and I will have our day and it will be perfection, I am sure of it. However I am happy to report that Dave is TALLER than me (I have always had major concerns). I'd say he's 5'10.5 - 5'11 which is find by me...I'm sure with his boots on he's 6'.

Anyway fast forward through about an hour of Dave watching and getting a picture with his younger brother Andrew. Fun pic with Andrew - he look adorable, I look a hot mess, which again further validated my decision to not get a picture with Dave.

More about the Race itself coming soon as well as my other vacay adventures!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My Weekend in Pictures

I don't have time to blog just yet, but I do want to share some pictures from this weekend

With Sara in Baltimore on Thursday night


Amish Country with Kelly on Friday afternoon


Out in Lancaster on Friday night


The first thing I see when I get to Freedom Plaza - David Cook. Sadly I chickened out of getting a picture WITH him, but more on that later


David's younger brother Andrew and I before the race Sunday (Bonus Monty in the background)


The view from the starting line (Bonus David in the background)


Cooling down after the Race on Sunday in 80+ degree weather/humidity


Dave talking to the crowd after the race


The Race for Hope raised $2.3 million this year and they are still taking donations through August)