Scent Shopping

You know those girls who walk past you and have an incredible smell all around them? I always wanted to be one of those girls. I wanted to have my own smell. Scents don't really stick to me, though. I mean, I don't stink; I just don't smell good. I'm neutral or something.

So I was discussing this with my friend Amanda, and she said I just had to pick the right scent for me. She claimed she had helped other friends out with this before, so I took her up on her offer to go scent shopping with me on Saturday.

She knew just the scents I'd like. She sprayed some samples for me at Sephora; I chose the ones I liked; and I sprayed the 4 I liked the best on my forearms. We then shopped for a while, so that I could smell the scents for a while to determine which one I liked best. (Amanda tried to get me a lower-cut shirt to show off my clavicles. She was not successful.)

Well, I finally decided on Nanette Lepore. I'm starting to re-think that choice, though. It might be a little too . . . baby powdery??? Plus, I'd like to try Hugo for women or Hugo Purple.* We'll see what happens . . .

This is what the Nanette Lepore 30 ml bottle looks like:


I'd like to point out that this is a total mess of a perfume bottle. You can definitely tell it's the product of a designer and not a usability engineer . . . So I wrote the company and told them so. I doubt my measley little e-mail will change the look of an entire designer fragrance line, but here's to hoping . . . And smelling good!

* More on the Hugo brand later . . .


Thing I'm thankful for: Amanda's scent-shopping skills.

All Apologies

After writing in my journal for a while and thinking about some things that have been on my mind the entire day, I realized I needed to apologize. I'm sorry for that last post. I'm not really sorry for letting you readers know why I haven't been blogging lately, but I'm sorry if I came across as unhappy or ungrateful.

I want you to know that despite the stressors in my life, I'm generally happy. Life may not be the greatest it could be for me right now, but the people in my life are. I'm very grateful for my family. They are my best friends. I'm also grateful for the work colleagues who make work interesting and sometimes fun. And I'm thankful for my friends. They are all wonderful people, and I'm amazed how caring and thoughtful and talented each one of them is. People make me happy, and because of the people in my life, I am happy.

Sometime in the Beginning of February . . .

I kind of lost interest in blogging. What a far cry from my blogging heydays. Should I tell you why? Instead of writing paragraphs about it, I'm just going to make a list:

• Spent some late hours at the office.
• Began babysitting for extra money.
• Started reading (and have since quit) 20 pages of the Book of Mormon per day.
• Have had a lot of very expensive dental work done. (In 3 days, I'll have a gold tooth . . . I'm gettin' a crown, ATL style.)
  
• Been very socially active -- I hosted 2 parties in a month and a half. I'm hardly ever home.
• Applied for -- and did not get accepted into -- the Master's program in Human-Computer Interaction at GA Tech. :(

All in all -- not a terrible 2 months. I have a lot to be grateful for. I also have a lot to work on. Lately, though, I have just felt like I have nothing worthwhile to say. I feel like my brain is just . . . blank. I used to think and think and think about all sorts of things -- literature, philosophy, day-to-day musings, what have you. I still think, I guess . . . but I feel like it's not worth sharing. Or that maybe nobody wants to read about what I have to say. I'm just kind of in a funk. I feel like my brain is like those two eggs in a frying pan, but without the drugs.

This feeling became really pronounced with that last list item. I think I handled the news well at first, but now that it's been a few weeks, I think, "What am I going to do now?" "What am I doing with my life?" One good thing is that I had been wondering how I was going to pay for school -- what with all of this major restorative dental care -- and now I don't have to pay for it . . . I do feel rejected, though. I'm not used to academic failure . . .

This is not just taking a toll on my blogging. I feel like my human-to-human interactions are not as good, either. I've been pretty quiet lately. Oh, sometimes I'm talkative, and I laugh and have fun, but I feel like most of it's empty conversation -- on my part, that is. Maybe I need to do more reading. I used to read all the time. And maybe I need to get more sleep.

What do you suggest? Do you have any helpful hints?


Thing I'm thankful for: violin solos.

Tallulah Gorge, GA

Last weekend about 10 of my friends and I went camping at Tallulah Falls, GA. We went up there Friday evening and hiked the Gorge on Saturday. I haven't had so much fun in nature in a long time. It was great! Some of the highlights . . .

1. Clay let me borrow his super-light and incredible camping gear.
2. Jordan and Lina told me fun stories on the drive up there.
   
3. Neal makes incredible camp food. I haven't eaten that well in a long time. The chicken was amazing. That's why I had it for dinner and breakfast.
4. We stayed up until 2 in the morning talking around the campfire. Talking until the wee hours of the morning is my favorite thing.
5. Hillary gave me a Cadbury egg.
   
6. I snuggled up next to E. Rose during the night. I'm not a snuggler, but I needed to get warm, and at that moment, snuggling was a good thing. :)
7. I got a slight tan -- very slight -- on my face.
8. We played Bocce ball in the sand, which apparently is the best place for me to play it. I actually won one game and came in 2nd in another!
9. We left just as it began to rain. Perfect timing!

And guess what? Even though I still don't have a digital camera, Jennifer does, and she took pictures! View all Tallulah pictures.


Thing I'm thankful for: modern toilets and plumbing. We definitely didn't have to "rough it" on this trip. Yesssss.

Can You Guess What State I'm From?

I don't think most people can. Apparently a lot of people lately can't, anyway. For whatever reason, I've told several people recently that I'm from Oklahoma, and they seem surprised. Maybe it's because I don't really have an accent. And look, GoToQuiz doesn't think so either:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

(I think something's wrong with the code for this thing because those lines should actually be boxes, showing me just how much of each accent I could have. Basically, it's in descending order. So if I had an accent, I would sound mostly like I'm from the Midlands, least like the Northeast.)

Thanks go to Heather for the blog idea. She and I have a thing for talking in different accents . . . So what about you, readers? Where does your accent say you hail from?


Thing I'm thankful for: my OK roots.

Pit & Pancake Party!

Okay, people -- a Pit party had been in the works for far too long. I had been talking about it since around December. But I finally did it, and I'm glad I waited because thanks to Mark, the Pit Party turned into a Pit & Pancake Party. That's what I call PERFECT! So without further ado, I give you the Pit & Pancake Party pictures.





View all Pit & Pancake Party pictures.


Thing I'm thankful for: friends who bring food, flip pancakes, and help clean up. Thanks, guys. Got nuthin' but love fuh ya!

Busy Nothings is 2 Years Old!

Well, well, well -- look who decided to read my blog for a change . . . HA! Just kidding! I know I've been a totally lame blogger. It's been well over two weeks since my last post. Crazy!

And all you get for now is a "Best Of" compilation. So this is really more for me than you . . . I'd like to say thanks, though, to you faithful blog readers. Maybe you just read to pass the time away. Maybe you read late at night when you are putting off sleep. Maybe you actually do like my blog. Whatever the case, thanks for visiting, and thanks for leaving comments! I love comments!

This list is significantly longer than last year's. I don't think it's because I'm a better writer; I think it's because I've used my blog as more of a journal this year. So I've listed posts that garnered several comments, posts that show the progress of my life, and posts that I've just enjoyed writing. I hope you like them (again)!

• My Secret Love
• Listenin' to Abbey Road
• When I Grow Up . . .
• Why I Love Slate Magazine, Or Why the "Organic Is Better" Argument Just Doesn't Hold Up
• If You Can't Think of Anything to Say, Give Compliments!
• Buying a Car: Phase I
• Buying a Car: Phase II
• Ode to My Parents
  
• My Thoughts on Aliens
• I'm not Bitter, but . . .
• Best Act of Self-Absorption
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
  
• Why I Love Blogging, or Why Blogging is the Shy Person's Playground
• Organized Religion and the "Sheltered Life"
• Pick A Color, Any Color . . .
  
• I've Got Bette Davis Eyes
• Best Morning Scene
• The Tennessee Aquarium
• Color Me Cool
• Favorite Cereal
• A Night at the Opera
• Oh, Blogging World! How I've Missed You!
• Ahh, the Sounds of Morning . . .
  
• I Hate It When People Say . . .
• Mahwedge. Mahwedge Is What Brings Us Togethaaa Todaaay.
  
• I Think We Could Be Friends
• Look, Ma, I'm Growin' Up!
• Look-Alikes
• What Big Girls Can Do to Get a Tall Man
• Content Is King, or Sara, Plain and Tall
• Oooh, FASHION -- Turn to the Left, Turn to the Right!
• Deep Sea or Space?
• Time is Not on My Side
• My Favorite Friday
• My Heaven
• A Bad Habit
• October = Irish Twins Month
• Irish Twins in Elementary School
  
• The Vocabulary of an Irish Twin
• My Free Associations
  
• Is the World My Oyster or an Overwhelming Sea of Possibilities?
• Hot or Cold?
• Hot Chocolate Party
• Five Things You Might Not Know About Me
• New Things
  
• Birthday Cards
• I Hate Littering, or A Dating Litmus Test
• I Was Born to Be a Drummer!
• Valentine's Day Party!