I Capture the Castle...

What wonderful things in my life keep me happy, healthy, and glorious as ever!?

Here are just a few...

Broccoli! (Yum, my favorite vegetable)... Steamed and sprinkled with lemon, salt, and pepper. Delicious!

The beautiful turtle ring that Brian gave me for Christmas. (Turtles are my absolute favorite!)

Sexy werewolves that hang on my bedroom wall... (I don't know HOW New Moon wasn't nominated for any Oscars this year!?)

My abundant earring collection. A girl can never have too many :)

My faux fur snow-leopard mittens. Best-gloves-EVER! I get lots of compliments on these babies haha...

SOOO... What keeps you upbeat, sane, and kicking!?

So Ummm.... Where's Spring!?

1) That stupid groundhog saw his shadow yesterday... 6 more weeks of Winter... FML! One of my favorite things about living in DC is being able to walk & Metro everywhere. I'd willingly spend hours just strolling and shopping and being productive or not being productive and soaking up Vitamin D and releasing endorphins but NO: the cold weather has me locked up inside my crappy little apartment, wasting money on heat and getting horrible cabin fever... BOOO!

2) The vegetarian-eganism is going well! No meat has been consumed and I'm slowly weaning off the dairy day-by-day. I've yet to get a multi-vitamin, but that's this week's goal. My Mom, who was originally strongly against the whole thing, is slowly starting to accept it... (Not agree with it, but accept it. So hell, I'll take it!... Yeah animals, woohoo!)

3) My life is totally awesome, except for the fact that I drove my car into a ditch at the end of my parent's driveway and accidentally made it straddle a small brick wall. AAA was called and successfully lifted the car in about 5 minutes, but this writer has felt like a complete idiot since then haha.

4) Here are some pretty pictures to take us all away from the cold...

Skinny Bitch Changed My Life

It's not often that I come across a book that changes my life. It has to be kick-ass, extremely convincing, captivating, and pragmatic for me to eat-it-up and follow whatever it's telling me to do.

Well... I recently read a book called "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. The book isn't about being a skinny little bitch, (the title's a bit deceiving). It's about eliminating food from your diet that's drowned in chemicals, hormones, steroids, and artificial everything. It's about waking-up and realizing that you crave caffeine and junk food because of unnatural addictive chemicals found in the delicious but disgustingly horrible junk we put into our bodies. It promotes becoming a vegan or a vegetarian and reveals the truth about the USDA, slaughtering houses, and dairy farms.

After reading a few chapters, I was terrified and lay frozen in my bed thinking about the turkey sandwich I'd eaten for dinner. I ran to the fridge, opened the door and tentatively picked up a piece of ham to test myself. Could I eat this delicious Boar's Head treat after reading about the poor cows and pigs who get their legs ripped off... alive!?... Turns out, I couldn't... I picked up the package and threw it down the garbage disposal.

So now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to announce that I'm going to try vegetarianism. Reading about the torture that animals go through during the slaughtering process and the steroids and hormones they are given before being killed has convinced me to pass on meat and dairy. After all, all those steroids being given to the cows can pass right through them into their milk.

To finish up, here's a quick passage from the book to show you why I've decided to do what I'm doing... "Stunned or not, cows and hogs are then strung up from the ceiling by a chain attached to their legs. In theory, while they dangle there, they are supposed to be unconscious. But often they are fully conscious, struggling, screaming, and fearfully staring at the workers while they have their throats stabbed open.... Often before hogs can bleed to death, they are dunked fully conscious into 140-degree scalding water to remove the hair from their bodies."


OINK, OINK!

Papa Will Preach.. and preach... and preach...

My dearest grandfather broke his hip exactly 11 days ago and had to have a hip replacement, (not a transplant... as I've learned haha)... WELL, the man isn't an easy gentleman to please, so my mother had to drive up north to help her mom and her two sibling take care of him.

He refuses to be alone at the physical therapy center and refuses to eat any of the hospital food. ERGO: my mom is busy playing chef, trying to keep both her parents sane and walking on eggshells so papa doesn't fly into a giant rage of lunacy. While I appreciate and commend her efforts, I desperately want her to come home. I miss her hugs and her grocery shopping and her ability to take care of my Dad, who's laundry I've been doing and dinner I've been making since her departure haha. (slight exaggeration - he's done pretty well taking care of himself)...

Therefore... please pray for my impossible grandpa so that he actually learns to pour his own cereal, (my grandma spoils him to death), and use his walker so that my mama can come home to us! Also, here's a picture of Brian and I on New Years. He's one sexy man, yes!?

A Poem... ("January Blues"/"Back to School")

When the Christmas festivities are over
And the New Years cheer is done
We're left to face the month of January
Wondering, "Where's the fun?"

This week has been the laziest week
The laziest week I've ever had!
I've worked a little and watched TV
But the winter cold is making me sad

I've been hanging out with some good friends
But I'm still left with a slight inkling
That the television is rotting my brain
And it's time to get back to thinking!

(School starts for me next Tuesday! Although I've enjoyed sleeping 10 hours a night and lounging around my parent's casa, I'm starting to think it's time for me to engage in some serious mental stimulation. Spring semester 2010, bring it on!)

Happy 2010!! (Nat'l Buiding Museum Review)

What's my new years resolution for 2010?... Not having to say: "OMG, it's been so long since I last wrote something here" before every single update I post on this lovely blog :)

Happy 2010, my loyal readers! What did you all do to celebrate New Years? I myself went with Brian and a bunch of friends to a party at the Nat'l Building Museum in DC... Despite awful planning by the event's creators, unwarranted fees and no midnight champagne toast, (which they promised), I had a great time hanging out with buds... (We of course went to IHOP at 2 AM, which was the night's real kicker haha)

Here's a brief review of the Nat'l Building Museum's New Years event...

Hosted by DC bars Kitchen, George, and Gin & Tonic, the New Years party at the Nat'l Building Museum was a smashing success, (But only if you were raking in the night's profits)...

Tickets for the events averaged at about $100 dollars. Included in that charge was all night access to an open bar, (short lines were promised), a champagne toast at midnight, after party access to the three host bars, and classy DC ambiance.

When party attendees arrived at the Museum, they were forced to wait outside of one of the museum's entrances in the pouring rain and cold. Instead of having several entrances, only one door was open to the cattle-like herds of 20-somethings fighting their way into the venue to reach the open bars. The herds didn't even need to drop $100 on a ticket, because the lack of employees at the Museum erased any chance of being able to scan peoples' tickets. Ergo: it's quite likely that underage drinkers and Salahi wannabees were stealing booze from paying customers...

Walking through the museum was like forcing yourself out of a crowded football stadium at the end of the 4th quarter. Due to the greed of the three host bars, the event was WAY overbooked and the bars were incredibly understocked. The promise they made to have short lines at all the bars was a complete lie. Thirty minutes after getting in one of the lines for a vodka with soda, I had barely moved closer to the slow-pouring, stressed-out bar tender.

At about 10 o'clock when the bar stations ran out of beer, (or at least they said they did), angry party people took their revenge! Picture hundreds of tipsy 20-somethings dodging bar tenders and successfully stealing whole bottles of liquor to share with their tipsy friends. (Actually, they weren't really stealing. They DID pay $100 dollars for the event!)... Bottles were everywhere, plants and garbage cans were thrown into the Museum's fountain, and the midnight champagne toast never happened. And since nobody heard the countdown until 4 seconds till midnight, it too was embarrassingly abysmal.

So the next time I am offered a chance to attend an event hosted by Kitchen, George, or Gin & Tonic, I will immediately decline without hesitation. I will also never be a patron at any of their bars and hope that all of you will do the same to avoid getting horribly ripped-off. Next year for New Years: it's going to be me, some close friends, and take-out deliciousness watching a beautiful ball drop on TV. Olde Lang Syne!

Hold On Tight, Spider Monkey!

Lots of things I'd like to mention today...

1) I apologize for not writing in such a long time. I've been caught up with re-reading the Twilight series and pretending to do end-of-the-semester work.

2) Speaking of Twilight, have any of you seen New Moon yet!? Yours truly has seen is 3 TIMES already! Of course, the acting is atrocious and Kristen Stewart needs to stop doing drugs, but Taylor Lautner's body is one of the most exquisite male forms I've ever seen. He's almost as hot as Brian ;)

3) Lady Gaga has a video out right now for her song "Bad Romance." If you haven't seen it, YouTube that shit immediately! She's absolutely insane, but a complete diva-licious miracle. (I REALLY want the red lingerie outfit she wears in one of the dance sequences)...

4) It's December, which means "you know what" is upon us!! (The holiday joy inside me is about to spill over onto everyone within a 5 mile radius... Christmas carols are going to start projecting from my head without me knowing it... EEEK!)


Happy December Everyone!!