Pic Post: Halloween Weekend

These are pictures from Friday and Saturday night.  We were gypsies on Friday, which was a fun night of dancing and zombies.  Saturday I was a biker, Eva was an aerobics instructor and Molly was a hula dancer. I’m actually still in costume because my tattoos aren’t off and after applying my fake eyelashes i realized that they’re not meant to come off for 4-5 weeks.  I’m going to have to find a way, but for now I look like a bad ass and it’s actually pretty fun.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween weekend!

Warm A Cold Shoulder

I’m going to be straight forward with you, this isn’t the only blog that’s receiving my attention any more.  Eva and I have begin planning a winter clothing drive in San Luis Obispo that we’re calling Warm A Cold Shoulder (“don’t turn a cold shoulder to homelessness this winter.”)

Check out my ‘other’ blog that might be getting more attention than this one for a while, as I’m trying to lift this event off the ground:

I’ll be stretched pretty thin for the next few weeks.  If anyone wants to help me make this a success, please let me know.  I guess I’ve finally begun to learn that I can’t try to save the world by myself.  I’m not going to ‘ask’ for help yet though…  I’m not TOTALLY entirely convinced of the power of asking for help, despite all of my mothers efforts.  I don’t, however, object to requesting good company  This trait of mine also means I’m taken much more seriously when I say, “I need help.”  I think I can count the times I’ve said that on one hand…. ouch that’s not good.

I had the idea for this winter clothing drive about a month and a half ago, we began planning yesterday, and I already have a phone interview with the SLO Tribune on Friday.  WEE!  Eva’s got the PR and the graphic design, and I’ve got the donation collecting and coordinating.  We’re feeling very inspired.  It’s exciting!

Gotta go to bed. Love,

Erika

Battle Studies, LONG AWAITED

(ALMOST HERE!!!)

These are the songs I thought were going to be on the album:
heartbreak warefare
perfectly lonely
half of my heart
assassin
war of my life
heartbreak warfare
borrowing
stitched up
I think she knows

And this is the actual track list:

Heartbreak Warfare
All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye
Half of My Heart
Who Says
Perfectly Lonely
Assassin
Crossroads
War of My Life
Edge of Desire
Do You Know Me
Friends, Lovers or Nothing

(I did pretty good huh)

omg. omg. omg.

Accept Mystery

“A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore; it’s to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out. It is an experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery.”

Pepperminto

In the past week, without realizing it, I bought 5 peppermint items:

Peppermint body wash, a 3 pack of peppermint Trident, peppermint Crest toothpaste, peppermint herbal tea, and peppermint lip gloss.  So I decided to look in to the qualities of peppermint.

• Menthol is antibacterial and even anti-parasitic.
• It soothes muscles and the digestive system.
• It can improve concentration.
• It’s a stimulant and quickens functional activity of the tissues and cells giving them more energy.
• It helps fight stress and…
• Here’s the kicker: It is an aphrodisiac in large doses for both men and women.

WOO!  I’ll cheers to that.

Who Says

At first listen, John Mayer’s new single is calming.  At second listen I found it humorous, and the third time I heard it I thought it subversive.  The minimalism he uses is somewhat confusing;  since we already know his tremendous talent, the soft strumming and simple lyrics must aim to send some kind of message.  But what?  Is he arrogantly justifying his rock and roll life style?  Is he making a statement by using his usually romantic coos and guitar strums to sing about getting stoned?  Probably all of the above, but he’s also been quoted as explaining that the song is about taking pleasure in taking pleasure.  I’m feelin’ that, but I can’t say that I love the song… something is holding me back from saying that I love it.  I’ll be honest, it’s catchy. & I would definitely enjoy playing it if I were, say, bored on a stormy Monday night and smoked a joint by myself… but it seems like it’d be number 7 on the track list (in other words, not an appropriate 1st single).  I find it anticlimactic, and I’m disappointed that it lacks bass and a strong guitar–not quite what I expected about this album but since it remains yet to be released I still have hope.

Wine:Art

In Vitis Veritas

This is a fabulous new wine blog that Eva’s brother’s girlfriend writes, her name is Allison Arbuthnot, she’s from Sonoma and has lots of wisdom to share about wine and other important things.  I’m adding her to my Blog Roll and you should too!

I Would Just Like To Thank My Grandma

…for showing me the love (on my blog and in life.)  She’s my most active&avid reader.  If it weren’t for her I probably wouldn’t write in this thing anymore since comments would be so few and far between.  There’s a lot to be said for feeling supported. It goes:

RECENT COMMENTS:
Grandma……
Grandma……
Grandma……
Grandma……

My Grandma is the most amazing person I’ll ever have the privilege of knowing.  Have you ever felt lucky to have simply been born into the company of greatness?  That’s how I feel.  Thanks for being my biggest fan Grandma!  I should just write my blog to you… BLOG POST: “Dear Grandma, did you get my letter in the mail yet?  I sent it yesterday… thanks for the mixed nuts….”

My Grandma sent me the coolest pictures from China.  There is no photo manipulation done, this man just paints his body.  Check it out:

Brave New World

I bought an audio book to help me finish Brave New World quickly and efficiently… how wrong I was.

I cannot ‘do’ audio books.  I need the words, the paragraph breaks, the indentation, the print right there in front of my face.  For me, simply hearing the words DOES NOT convey the story.  The narrator takes the story and crumples it up into a tight ball of pauses and character names and attempts to impart the feeling of the words on the page, and with a strong arm he throws it as hard as possible directly at my face.  It hits me so hard that I gasp for air and realize that I have heard exactly nothing for the past 5 minutes… that instead of listening I’ve been thinking about the coast of North Carolina and the case that the Supreme Court is working on right now, and the possibility of driving to L.A. for the 2 days I have off this week.  Meanwhile, the story went on without me.  It left me in the dust, and what’s worse: it didn’t even care.  Had I not snapped out of my thoughtful trance it would have continued on until the end of the book.  How very unnaturally inconsiderate.  Unnatural because, call me old fashioned, but a book should stop reading when you decide that it should stop telling it’s story.  This, however, cannot be avoided when it comes to audio books.  Silly that I say I might be ‘old fashioned ‘ while it’s most likely due to the fact that I am a very modern person that I can’t focus on a verbal story.  We are of the written word now… the era of the spoken word has long been over and our brains have lost functions of memorization and imagination and focus when listening to a story.

At least mine has.

Still recovering from the weekend and going to bed extra early tonight,

Erika

Backwards and Birthdays

I’m going backwards in this blog post, but last night was Saturday and Mckenna came to visit to celebrate her 22nd b-day.  IT WAS SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND.  We had wine at Del’s and then went to dinner at a really nice Thai place in Pismo called Thai Talay.  We brought our own bottle of Benziger Sauvignon Blanc and received the BEST service that I could ever personally afford.  I asked my friends to help me describe the pumpkin curry and these are the descriptions that flew around: “The pumpkin curry was… so good that it just melts in your mouth, your whole mouth tingles with…. its like it makes you say ‘mmmmm’ and few things make you say that. It’s like a mouth boner.”

After dinner we got a handle of Skyy Vodka and had a fun little gathering. It was the most fun I’ve had in a while. We stayed up until about 4 and then at about 9 our friend walked into the house with groceries and he made all of us girls a big delicious breakfast.  I had creme brulee for lunch and then to wrap it up we had a big taco night for dinner. Everyone had napped and had their appetites back by the time 7:30 rolled around.  I love having tons of nice people in my house.  and to have Mckenna here…  It makes me feel so happy, as she would say, “my heart feels like its going to explode.”

This is a transcript from the birthday girl Mckenna about her b-day weekend: “I felt like I was being spoiled and it’s so nice to come into town to have good people who make you laugh and good conversation and people who know what you like to drink and where you like to go and how you react to things.  It’s so nice to, you know, wake up in the morning next to your best friends and be in the town where you heart belongs.”

AWwwwwwwww. On that heartfelt note, I’m going to climb into my big puffy bed in the sky and sleep like a baby.  Enjoy the pictures! xoxo

The pictures below are from Friday night.  Eva and I volunteered at the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum gala event.  It was Beatles themed, and we made it our mission to inject some life into that party.  I know we didn’t let anyone down, and as a result of our efforts we were awarded a piece of $800 dollar cake that a table bought at the live auction.  The highlight of my night was trying as hard as I could to win a twist contest in 4 inch heels on a slick dance floor.  Eva ranked that night an 11 out of 10 and I ranked it a 10 out of 10.