Mutts

L.A. ...lalala... Love

The perk of living in LA is the la la la live music! Heck yes it is!

Tonight I went to Hotel Cafe and saw Greg Laswell. His music is pretty amazing. He's pretty chill himself actually. It was fun to watch him perform. He seemed sincere... and tired. The Hotel Cafe is this cute little place with a few tables and tons of standing room. Cute cut-out-felt hanging lamps and a brick wall, it's located right between Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood Blvd. in the heart of the downtizown. What better place to listen to such sweet melodic expressions.

Yay for LA! Love the live la la la.

Irregular Verbs Belong in the Zoo

Today I look my CSET. I had been studying for a while but did some cram-sessions this past week. Last night (yep, Halloween) I was studying and took a pre-test. One of the questions said,

"Irregular verbs"
a. show a vowel alteration when changing to past tense
b. show the difference between a noun and a verb
c. show the difficulty in linguistic studies
d. belong in a zoo

I choose d. belong in a zoo. That'd imply that they were cute and fluffy. That'd imply that this test might not be so bad... Instead, this test was ridiculous! I totally would have aced it if... I HAD KNOWN EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT ENGLISH!!! It's so broad and complex. I feel I was expected to know all kinds of things that I'll never, ever teach in my class as a high school English teacher. I'm hoping I passed because, if I didn't... well... I don't know if I have a career in teaching English. I would have to take it again but I'm not sure how I'd even study for the next round. Oh! I know! I can read the entire Oxford Companion to English Literature, The Dictionary of Literary Terms, and a few common grammar books to start off. ...oh whatever... I guess all I can do now is wait to see how it turns out.

In efforts to recover, I baked two apple pies. :) And I leave you now with one thought: perhaps irregular verbs actually belong in pies... not the zoo.

Good Bye October

I can't believe October is nearly gone. It went pretty fast.

What I really can't believe is what comes next... November! AHHHH!!! Run and hide!

I start November off with a wonderful Saturday of CSET testing. Followed directly by moving into a new apartment ("followed by," if not accomplished simultaneously). About 10 days in, I start graduate school at APU. On day 14 we have a friend visiting from India. He'll be here for about one week. His stay also includes corrdinating his luncheon at NewSong Church on the 16th. About a week after he leaves, Thanksgiving rolls around the corner and right into my lap. I lovingly and gladly volunteered to host Thanksgiving at our new apartment, which includes hosting(and cooking for) my brother, sister, father, and Aaron's father and mother.

These are all things I'm excited about, but it's slightly daunting knowing that all of these boulders are rolling toward me at once. None of them can I pick up and throw back up the hill.

Better yet, I have cold.

Good bye October... hold on November! Wait for me!!!

Used Furniture Rocks

I spent most of today buying and selling furniture. It's really quite exciting knowing that I've just furnished my second room/office for about $130 (this includes 4 pieces of furniture - 3 piece[chair] couch, a huge bookshelf, a coffee table, a new printer stand)! How amazing! All I have left for the office is our desks which each cost $180 (new) and some accessories. Still pretty good!

I've also gotten rid of two TVs! I also have a butterfly chair, cd rack, 2 lap trays, and a side table/printer or tv stand up for sale. Let's hope someone grabs.

New best friends: Craigslist & Freecycle

and PS if anyone sees a candelabra for an amazing price or FREE, definitely let me know!

Christmas/Birthday List... so far

For the sake of... well... my husband (by his request) I've started to compile a "Christmas/Birthday List"

so far... (which isn't very far)

• a pair of Tom's shoes, like this or this in size 6.5
• a magazine subscription to Real Simple (I have a great coupon for it too)
• Ticket to Ride board game
• Wicked The Grimmerie: a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical (hardcover)

I'm sure there will be more to add later. After all, it's only October.

An Oregonian at Heart?

Aaron and I went to Oregon last week... and it was AWESOME. I really like it up there. I discovered that I can't handle the streets in downtown because they're too crammed and busy, but other than that I felt like I fit in. It's weird to say because I never really admit this aloud, but I think I feel most comfortable with the artsy-hippy crowd that exists in Portland. Not to mention that Powell's - the best book store ever - also exists in Portland, and I can definitely handle that! 3 stories high, one city block large, new and used books on the same shelves... c'mon! An amazing bookstore and constant reading weather (foggy chill), what wouldn't I totally love about being in this city (except for the driving, we already established that).

It should however be noted that I do turn into ultra-nerd in Oregon. We went on this amazing hike (behind waterfalls and all!) and I was totally content taking photos of mushrooms. Uh huh, mushrooms. I intend to post the pictures for my very-large(hardly existent) fan base here soon. Some of them turned out to be pretty cool.

The last day we were in Portland we went to this cute cafe called "Sound Grounds." The coffee was great, they had art on the wall (good art too, not corporate reprints of crappy patterns mixed up and called art), and they sold vynals on the side. Uh... yeah...

The houses there are even cute. I mean it's all that slightly old architecture that looks like it's transitioning out of the victorian style, but is way cute. I'd love to own a house like that. I can picture myself growing old in a house on a cute little, tree-laiden street. That's after I have kids playing under the large oak tree and building forts in the backyard, of course.

Oh Portland of my heart...