.fist.pump.

jersey shore is back!

there are few things i LOVE more in life then a good tv series that i can become personally invested in … real house wives of NYC, giuliana and bill, bethenny getting married, modern family, glee, mad men, tudors, etc.  (i am an adict).  AND NOW I HAVE JERSEY SHORE.

last night mr. match came over, after our massive thunderstorm, and i made tacos and got FREE queso from moe’s and we watched the season permere.  we also indulged in dark chocolate klondike bars with whip cream.  i think he actually bought the redi whip for aspen who went crazy when he heard the sound ala bailey.

as some of you have seen i requested, via twitter, that mr. match become a gorilla juice head but then took it back as i feel that snooki would come to va and steal him.

highlights from last nights episode: everyone’s blatant hatred for angelina (who gives my favorite mouse ballerina a bad name!), snooki hating on obama for the 10% tan tax and spray tanning herself, and use of the word creep!  i think brian moylan did an awsome recap over on gawker

the thing that really wraps me up in JS is that all these lovely individuals are my age.  i can remember being in 7th grade and watching real world hawaii and wondering hoping that is how life is at 22.  now i am on the verge of 25 (GULP) and i see these creeps are anomalies that i need to live vicariously through.

i also wonder who determined that they need something like $20,000 an episode?  why do we reward such vial entertaining behavior?  and why is AJH not racking up the G’s on one of these shows???  or for that matter why doesn’t mtv/E!/bravo come to my house and tape the insanity that is my life.  i would do it for $1,000 an episode, but if i was offered more i would totally take it.

i was discussing my love of snooki with AJH and told her i wanted to be the white snooki.  she informed me that snooki is indeed white like me.  i want to use this forum to call her out on her bold faced lie because according to wikipedia snooki is a latina adopted to an italian family.  she was born in santiago, chile.  this opens a space for me to become the white, irish with a splash of german, waspy/preppy snooki.

i see a HUGE opportunity for a reality show.

it could be highlighted as i attend the plethora of weddings and awkward family situations i have lined up in the next few months.   (perhaps if he got paid mr. match would finally let me meet his mom… i take that back… this would probably keep me from meeting her)

HAPPY FRIDAY.  LET JULY END WITH A BANG!!!!

.august.is.coming.

august is always an amazing time in my family.  lisa’s brithday is august 16 and AJH’s is the 18.  this year is extra special because AJH FINALLY TURNS 21!!!  also school starts!  for the first 18 years of my life i remember dreading august (well no the first 4 i prob. did not know any different and then i hated it the fifth year when AJH was born, that’s a story for another day) but now i am pumped as it is the turn on fall AND the start of the school year!

i am currently LOVING my desktop calendar i downloaded from the pink orange.  my good friend DLF  told me about how she personalizes the calendar in photoshop and i am about to try it.   after my serious fight with photoshop last week i have recovered enough to try it again.

maybe i can find a way to put lisa and AJH on it!

also i have decided that i now need illustrator as well as photoshop. good thing i have unlimited funds…NOT.

.top.secret.

lately i have been over whelmed by a few top secret projects i have been working on.  on top of my school work (finished a class yesterday, 2 left!!!) and summer job these additional projects have gotten the best of me.  but enough of my complaining and excuses for why i have be a absentee blogger.

my top secret collaboration will stay under warps for a while longer but i will give you some hints!  i have been working with the AMAZING jamie over at sticker shop unlimited.  i got in touch with her from my friends over at room it up.

my second collaboration has been with one of my cousins who is currently in school for graphic design.  his views are amazing and i am so privileged to have a relative to bounce ideas around with.  he is super stoked because the work he is doing for me is filling up his portfolio!  i cannot wait to share all of this with you and wish i did not have to be so secretive.

back to normal splash of happy stuff: i recently bought essie’s chinchilly nail polish.

(photo from apothica.com)

you may remember i posted about my love of grey nail polish and i met with lisa monday after work at Ulta and picked it up.   i am totally loving it and suggest if you want a nice nude that is not pink based you go out and get it!

today i am finally getting back to yoga as well, i am totally looking forward to my 6 pm class.  i don’t know how it keeps happening but i have moved exersize from priority #1 to like #1000.  this is not good for my sanity, my behind or marathon training.  mr. match made a keen observation that it happend when i had the boot on and ever since i got it off i just have been out of sync.  now that i am down to 6 graduate credits i am going to move exersize back to #1 and hopfully get life back in sync.

how do you guys make sure you get out and work out enough?  i can use some tips!

.prayer.

last night at tennis one of the women on the other team dropped to the court suddenly had what we thought was a seizure.  She then stopped breathing and no one could find a pulse.  It was the most tragic thing i had ever seen.  thank God we were at a tennis center that had an AED machine and there was a women on the court who was an md and could use it.  we also have a nurse on our team and there were a few other on other teams.

we were unable to locate her husband for a while because she did not have her cell phone in her tennis bag or her car.  thank God the club she plays for had that information on file and we were able to get in contact with him.  When EMS arrived we had not contacted her husband and were unable to answer most of the questions the EMS had.  It just goes to show how important it is to have a list of your emergency contacts in your bag or cell phone.

by the time EMS took her to the ER she had a weak pulse but was not breathing on her own.  this morning i recieved a update that she is in critical but stable condidtion.

PLEASE if you have a moment today send up thoughts and prayers for her.

.beach.

today i am taking the kiddies off to the beach.  i am board sitting in their pool and i think they are board with life as well.  i must admit i have never taken kiddies to the beach, so it is sure to be an adventure.  i take k$ but that is nothing.  I will be briniging my own chair and hopefully they can get their acts together, an 11 and 13 year old should be self sufficient right?

I feel like sunscrean, towels, liquids and a snack-er-00 should be enough.  we will see.

What i am most pumped about is being able to dive back in to girl with the dragon tattoo!

i promise a good post soon.  life is just a mess right now… AGAIN.

.agendas.

with the school year just around the corner i am starting to get anxiety about how i am going to keep life straight.  while having my new blackberry helps so much i feel like i am still going to fall short on things.  i have already missed two birthdays this summer and would like to nip that bad habit before it gets out of control.

for the past 3 years i have been very loyal to the august to august calendar.

while i love this planner i am ready for a change.

for christmas lisa and thug gave me the kate spade planner and i have just been loving it.  i also like that it is january to january which more fits my adult life.

(photo from katespade.com)

i could not find a site that still sold the planner from last year but check out lox papers for a look at the 2011 calendar!  kate spade did not use Bella Foster again this year but it still looks fab!

my morning discussion with AMC got me thinking about planners.  she closed on her new house yesterday!!! and now needs to be super organized as she starts this new stage of life.

while i am not starting a new stage of life i do think i need a big girl planner.  i have been coveting one of these planners from kate spade for as along as i have been a fan of hers! i am a huge fan of the dot noel but cannot force my self to part with close to $90 for something that will be a triplicate in my life at this moment.  (and mr. match already makes fun of me for carrying 2 planners)

for those of you in need of a new calendar come august here are a few more options that cannot be missed:

this is one of the many 17 month styles that lilly has recently put out.  the colors of these agenda are great as well as the duel week and moth view.

amc purchased this one from jonathan adler:

for more agendas check out:

coach

filofax

happy planning!

.john.mayer.recap.

last night i had a great time at johnmayer.  the concert was great, he played old stuff,  new stuff and did some improv/covers that were awsome.

I am only sad that he did not play 3X5.  CWD my freind from school and her husband joined mr. match and i.  the four of us had a blast! we missed part of the opening act as we were the ONLY people tailgating before the concert.  maybe because it was a sunday night no one else was?  i came totally prepared with chips and corn salsa, a pitcher of raspberry margaritas and some watermelon.  we had the drinks but not the food and headed in.

i unfortunately came down the the stomach flew at 1:30 this morning and have just recovered enough to eat some oat meal and get on line.  I had to cancel both my babysitting jobs and feel like a real waste.

not much planned for the week ahead so look forward to some good posts, also mr. match’s blog might go live this week!!!  he has done the whole thing from scratch (no wordpress/blogger) for him.  i am so excited to see the finished product!

.jewlery.lust.

recently i have been craving jewelry.  with ajh’s 21 birthday a little over a month away she has been to.  here are some of the pieces that i would die over.  i stayed under $600.

($48 at behandpicked.com)

($48 at kate spade)

($525 at davidyurman.com)

($425 at davidyurman.com)

($530 at hermes.com)

($450 at tiffany)

($98 at coach)

can you tell i am loving enamel bracelets.  i only wish i had a big life moment coming up so i could get some of these pieces.  perhaps i will have to save up and get one of them!

.tennis.backpack.

i have treat for you dear reader.  my dear friend AMC recently sent me an amazing present from her place of employment.  she works for an amazing company, Room It Up, doing among other things blogging for them, you can read her insight here.  now that i have disclosed my association i will tell you about HOW IN LOVE i am with my tennis back pack.

this is my backpack waiting to go to its first game tonight (we will forget that i lost 6-1, 6-1)!  i packed it up with my clif bar, extra grips, 3 cans of tennis balls, flip flops, bight bloom sports towel, sigg water bottle and so much more, BUT i still had room to spare.  The first thing i noticed and LOVE LOVE LOVE about my new backpack is that there is an amazing built in hook to hang it on the fence at the court.  of course at todays match i was on a center court and could not get a picture of this.  all you tennis players know HOW important this clip is.

my second favorite feature is all of the pockets.  there is the front pocket (which has my monogram) and in side of there there is an additional pocket.  There is the tennis racket pocket.  The main zipper space that has the clip to hang the bag, and additional clip to hold on to a cosmetic case or to keep your keys and id case, and 4 YES 4! pockets.  one is even has velcro closure!  The pocket that is accross from the zipper is perfect for keeping your after game shoes (flipflops) and the pocket on the side closest to the racket is almost the WHOLE length of the bag, perfect for keeping snacks, extra grips and extra socks!  the final pocket… YES there is another pocket! is on the back of the bag.  easy access for whatever you need. i hope all of these are clear in the pictures below.

(love how you can see my mac in the back ground!)

in addition to being in love with my bag, 2 ladies from another team asked me about it.  i was gushing as i told them it was a new gift from one of my best friends.  if only i had some Room It Up business cards to pass out.  i guess emailing them the website will have to do.  i just love passing on such a great find!

if you are looking for a new tennis bag, a second tennis bag, or a first tennis bag you must go straight to Room It Up and get the tennis backpack.

.guitar.

this morning, after a lovely starbucks run, mr. match taught me how to play guitar.  ok you can stop the laughter.  while i do not have a single musical bone in my body, FLASHBACK to freshman year when i was told not to sing at the christmas choral concert, i love to pretend.

mr. match loves playing guitar and i never had an interest before this morning.  i was very afraid at first and refused to even touch the guitar, as i do not like attempting anything that i am not almost certain i will 100% successful.  i eventually held his electric guitar and after much searching through the itunes library picked Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson to learn.

Mr. Match has two guitars at first he gave me one like this
(image from fender.com)

i could not really hear the music so he gave me a acoustic guitar that looked a little something like this:
(photo from ibanez.com)

i was awe struck when without any music after hearing the song he played it back to me!  then it was my turn.  mr. match turned on this program on his mac that slowed the song down.  to say i was bad would be a LARGE understatement.  he was so patient with me and kept encouraging me to keep trying.  eventually i GOT IT!  i am now able to play the first 2.5 seconds of banana pancakes!  all of 5 notes… one is a slide so maybe its just 4?

we then moved on to say it right by nelly furtado.  i got this one right away as it was 5 notes.  after this i was also still able to go back and butcher but play banana pancakes.  for my last song we went on to Jimi Hendrix’s All Along The Watchtower which i found out uses almost the same cord progression in reverse.  all you music buff are probably shaking your head at me and how this is not the correct terminology but its all i have.