friday favorites.

This week was relatively quiet, which honestly was kind of needed.

I'm seriously considering a no-alcohol weekend, which likely will not be successful.  But I'm considering it, which is really what counts.  I figure it's needed because next weekend, well next weekend is none other than PBR WEEKEND.

Only one of my top 5 favorites weekends EVER. 

In celebration of it, I will do a couple blog posts next week re-capping past PBR endeavours.

But for now, I'll focus on the now, aka Friday.

First up, a couple pictures from National Geographic Photo of the Day.  The first one is of Nove Mlyny, Czech Republic.  It was taken by Petr Cunderlik and it is just beautiful.

This one is of a wild horse in Mongolia taken by Chris Neale.  Love horses and love this shot.

I love learning about different places to travel to, obsessed might be a more appropriate word.  My must travel to list increases by the day.  I found this article on the 10 Best Places You've Never Heard Of, and it increased the length of my must travel to list AGAIN.

Stumbled onto this link of Pencil vs. Camera Photos, and I LOVE it.  Ben Heine, such a fucking cool idea!

Seriously, how did I not know about Plaidurday before this week?

Fall is my very favorite time of year.  It's just so gosh darn purdy.  Seven Sensational Scenic Drives for Autumn, yes please!

And to continue with the Fall idea - here is a picture from bing.  It's a picture taken from Bradley, Maine.

Enjoy your weekend readers, and prepare yourselves for a plethora of PBR posts next week.  It's on.

liquor me crazy.

Saturday night mayhem is all.

I skipped dinner, I should probs know better by now.

Guzzled down 5 beers at my friends house and then headed to the local bar with her, her BF from Florida, and his friend.  The plan was to meet our friends there.

Sometimes I get loopy crazy when I drink.  Like dance around, be excessively loud, and attract all sorts of attention crazy. 

First re-cap of the night: lime green glow in the dark nail polish, for the win.  Which I obvs made sure to stick my fingernails up into the ceiling light, shout to someone let's go light up a corner at which point I would dart off at top speed to show off my glowing nails in a darkened part of the bar. 

Secondly, I brought my dog to the bar.  I had him with me because I was at my friend's house beforehand and then well, it was late and I didn't want to call around finding him a place to stay while I went and got boozed up.  So, he came to the bars.

After the first bar dizzy-ness, we set off for the next locale.

We all walked in and who was there?  Well, my pretend liquor store boyfriend but of course.

Pretty sure I attempted to tone down my on-speed behavior and have a normal conversation with him - not sure how successful that was.

Anyways, my friends and I then hung out for a bit downstairs having a beer, and being mellow.

Then they decided to head upstairs to the actual bar sitch.

They all headed up leaving me as the last one.

I turned, took a step, my toe caught - and fucking all mighty I took a fucking spill across the concrete floor in front of everyone, liquor store boyfriend included.  My beer rolled away and spilled everywhere as I laid there on the cold, hard floor in front of a crowd, attempting to determine if I in fact broke my hip or knee.

I didn't. 

My friends however, didn't even see this take place unfortunately.  It would have made the embarassing aspect a bit better if I had them to laugh about it with.

Anyways, I kept drinking along, dancing, watching PBR, and generally being silly.

Then we set off for home.

We stopped to drop my friend off and I ran inside real quick to grab a contact container and she pointed out her new pellet stove.  To which I declared, damn that's a sexy stove!  Because that makes sense.

My friend took my keys and I crashed at her house. 

After making out with her BF's friend from Florida.  Because it seemed normal.

I then drove home at 4AM after he woke me back up in an attempt to hook up.

I think it's fucking code that when someone passes out - you leave them passed out.  You do NOT wake them up, and while they are all sorts of in a drunkenly wake-up stupour, attempt to hook up.

Code mother fucking violation.

So I grabbed my keys and drove home.  Leaving my wallet and my dog's collar behind.

3 hours of left alone sleep in my bed sounded delicious.

friday favorites.

I know it's not Friday.  I'm a nutter but I do know the day of the week.

But considering I took tomorrow off since I have an interview with my dog for volunteering and my BFF is here from Florida, I decided I should probaly write this now.  I mean technically it is my Friday.

First up, Skittles Vodka.   Never had it before but I just made it.  Tomorrow night is dinner with my BFF, her BF, his friend from FL, my other BF that lives here, and her hubby (did you get all that?!).  My BFF and her entourage leave to go back to FL on Sunday, so I figure Skittles Vodka will be a good send-away drink after our dinner.  I'm hoping it's as good as it sounds.

Mega hard swoon.  None other than Ryan Gosling, obviously.  New movie being made (seriously he's owning the big screen right now!) and here are some pics with the co-stars.  SWOON, sigh.

Alright, so I'm sure you've all heard of, or belong to, those websites where you get great deals on like designer duds, etc.  Well, HELLO zozi....all adventure type deal shiz-nit!  Obvs signed up immediately.

So last week, my coworker said he watched this tv show The New Girl.  He said it made him somewhat uncomfortable to watch it due to the fact he felt like it was ME on the screen.  So I watched the premiere on Tuesday night, OBSESSED.  Honestly, minus the crying bit - it's like watching me.  For example - this conversation might as well be a conversation someone had with me:

Nick: Or I could pretend to be more like you, Jess, and live on a sparkly rainbow, driving a unicorn around and just sing all the time.
Jess: Yeah — I think you should sing all the time.
Nick: No — I was being mean! I'm not going to do that, Jess.
Jess: Why not? It's fun!

FUCKING ROCKS and I mean hey - maybe I'll even learn something about myself from it.  You never know.

Simple and true.

This picture from Bing of Laguna Quilotoa, in the Andes Mountains, in Ecuador, is amazing.  Ecuador just made my must travel to list.

Rose Bryne, this dress is superb.  It wasn't getting much votes in favor of it on the People website....but I'm totally digging it.

Alright, so I know this song isn't new.  BUT IT IS SO BEYOND STUCK IN MY HEAD.  Nicki Minaj, Super Bass.  I want to have a dance party NOW.  And then maybe meet a boy that makes my heartbeat run away.  Just sayin'.

I have a list of 42 things I want to accomplish in my life.  On that list is sleep in a castle.  So this article on castle hotels is VERY pertinent.

This photo by Wilfried Niedermayr on National Geographic Photo Of the Day is soo cool.  It's sharks in the Bahamas, but the whole half in the water, half out makes it awesome.

And finally, I just like this a lot.

I'm probaly going to drink too much this weekend, once more, as it really appears to be a continuing theme in my life lately.  But I'm going to have a damn good time doing it. 

Enjoy it peoples.

because they can't.

elevator issues.

Friday night was wine night with two of my friends. 

By wine night I mean I drank an entire bottle of wine, a couple bottles of beer, and with their encouragement proceeded to facebook wall post an absurd amount of things and text like 15 people all at the same time. 

Solid choices.

I went to bed at 2AM and woke up at 6:30AM, laid around feeling like death, and then eventually forced myself to move and made it to my soccer team's team breakfast a half hour late.  At which all the girl's ragged on me (seeing as they are in high school, I'm pretty sure they know I'm a mess).  It was awesome.

I then skipped out of coaching the game (I co-coach you see, so I can do things like that, phew).

I ran home, walked the dog, took a shower, packed up all my bags filled with a ridiculous amount of clothes and shoes, and drove to a photo shoot.

A photo shoot that was set to begin at 1PM.  Seeing as the make-up artist set this up and the photographer was cutting me like a $600 break, I decided to be early (weird).

I arrived at 10 of 1.  I called my sister.

She was due to arrive at 1:30PM (really?!).

I called the make-up artist, no answer.  I tried 3 more times.  Still no answer.

I didn't want to be rude to the photographer so I decided that since I was nearing the point of pants peeing I should head inside this old warehouse, find a bathroom and his studio.

I went in and hopped in the elevator seeing as I knew his studio was on the 4th floor.

Up the elevator went and upon reaching the 4th floor it stopped.  I waited for the doors to open.

Only they didn't open, they just made a noise like they were opening and then closing.

Hm, well ok.  Let's try this again.

So I hit the door open button once more.

Same thing, just noises....no door movement.

I start to mildly panic.

Seriously I'm in an old warehouse turned studio situation and I'm stuck in the elevator.  WTF.

After several minutes of what the hell am I going to do.

I tried the open door button one more time.

This time I realized the doors were opening behind me. 

Like you walk in the elevator, it goes up, and you get out on the other side.

Honestly, I'm like a mother fucking brainiac.

I found the bathroom after wandering around the building and then I found the studio, which was empty.

No photographer, no make-up artist, no sister.

I went and sat in my car and waited.

Eventually everyone arrived and the shoot started at around 2:30PM.

It was a good thing I busted my ass to get there on time.

friday favorites.

Right down to it.

This slideshow on photos that show day & night in a single shot, is super cool.  Check it out.

Looks from People that I'm totally diggin' on this week.  Kiera Knightley, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Kate Moss....all looking amazeballs.

It's no secret I love animals, and I'm pretty sure I want to do all of these ten amazing animal adventures.

Elephants, yay!

Sooo, got a new cd: Mat Kearney, Young Love and I am beyond obsessed.  It might remain in residence in my car for quite a lengthy period of time.  Definitely give him a listen.

LOVE THIS.

Annd a National Geographic Photo of the Day.  This one is of Alpine Clibers in Midi-Plan Traverse, France taken by Tommy Harris.  I want to go and do exactly this....with my dog, obvs.

Found so many addicting blogs this week too....pretty sure I'm becoming a blog following addict.  I spend such a chunk of time in the morning catching up on posts, and I must say I LOVE it.

Anyways, I intend to have some drankss and live out loud this weekend.

I hope you enjoy yours, for reals. 

wardrobe sharing.

Love Emma Stone. 

LOVE this outfit.

Perhaps I could borrow it sometime.

boom.

So at my friend's wedding I met this guy, well re-met is actually more appropriate.  I had met him a few years back, and had several run-ins over the course of the few years.

I was single this time around, as was he.

Obviously I had my big girl pants on (aka I had a number of alcoholic cocktails) and sauntered over and struck up conversation. 

From that point on we had a great time flirting at the wedding and the afterparty.

It actually even led to an invite (from him!) to go out to a party the next night in his neck of the woods, he would even pick me up.  Is it possible to be more gentlemanly than to offer to drive 1.5 hours out of your way to bring a girl to a party?

Seriously.

So we hung out that night, the following weekend, and then another weekend.

He kept up with my sarcastic, ridiculous humor.  He made me laugh.  He didn't attempt a hook-up (seriously 4 different nights in the same bed with alcohol involvement & nothing beyond some make-out sessions!).  He actually listened when I spoke, and could have actual conversations.  Our personalities were quite similar in a number of ways.

Similar but also polar opposite.  He was a city boy, republican, didn't recycle....all that jazz.

Strangely, I liked that he was similar in some ways but also so vastly different.  It made conversation fun. 

Honestly, I don't want to date myself people.  And I could work on the recycling part.

I was effing hooked. 

Which doesn't happen often for me.  Generally I distance myself from someone who shows an interest.  Not this time around - this time I was in it.

Then....boom.  Dwindling texts and ultimately zero future plans.

To which I will not invest myself - as soon as I sense someone back tracking, I'm fucking out.  I will not be the dorker girl clinging to some guy.  No ways.

While I will not cling - I will mentally fixate on the situation.

Like WTF happened, honestly.

We had a great time together, laughed consistently, had normal conversations....it seemed pretty legit.

I'm baffled and irritated.  Actually pissed is more appropriate.

I do the walking away damn it.

Then, I had a conversation with my friend the other day, explaining my frustration over this scenario.

She pointed out....this is exactly what you do the second a guy shows an interest in YOU.

Boom, in reverse.

For example I was chatting with an acquaintance from college for a bit (texting & phone-calls, yada yada), he knew about the whole Montana job opportunity disaster.  So he had flowers sent to my apartment.

BAIL OUT.

First let me point out, I do not like getting flowers.  I think it is a waste of money for something useless.  Chocolate or pizza would be far better choices.

But after the flowers, I immediately began reducing contact.  He was a little over-zealous for my liking.  To the point of now, a week later - I don't talk to him.

So my friend was accurate, this is what I do. 

Vested interest from a male = sayonara sucker.

Maybe this scenario with the boy who had ME hooked is karma.

I suppose I deserve it.

But it still frustrates the fuck out of me.

whirl-wind.

Ups & downs, galore.

Let's begin with last week.

I went on an interview with my dog for volunteering on a children's unit.

Following the interview, me and my sister went out and got sandwiches for dinner, ice cream for dessert, and took a stroll on the beach.

Which was the best stroll ever, considering it was my dog's first time on the beach.  HILARIOUS. 

He had a flippin' ball.  Running in fear from the waves and attempting sprinting while sinking in the sand.  The two of us almost peed our pants laughing.

The next morning he woke up, and couldn't eat, drink, or open his mouth.

That afternoon we had an emergency vet visit.

Which led to the scheduling of emergency mouth surgery the following morning.

He had an infected abscess in the back left side of his mouth.  He was a sorry case, let me tell you.

And then yes, 8 pills a day for a dog that just had mouth surgery.  Now that effing makes a girl's life simple.

He got to the point of refusing to take anything I offered.  In fact he wouldn't even come near my hands.

He went a few days refusing food entirely, so then we re-supplied on pain meds, and we are slowly making a come-back.

On-to Saturday night.

My sister was going to be attending a photo-shoot and asked if I wanted to come along and hang out.

Mmm, ok.  Sure

So we went to this artist's studio, who was fucking amazing, honestly it was stop you in your tracks paintings.

We hung out with a few other girls, had some wine, and then the conversation suddenly turned to including me in the photos.  Pray-tell what?  Mind you I strolled in in jeans, moccasins, and a simple tee.  These girls were in their heels and dresses.  Fantastic, I fit right in, obv.

So I drank some more wine and said, sure I'd give it a go.  So I put on an extra black dress my sister had packed, another girl's heels, and had my make-up done up.

Then I was pulled in front of the camera for a shot with the artist who asked me to look up at him, and then kissed me.

KISSED ME I TELL YOU.  AND HELD IT FOR PHOTOS.

FUCK, what did I get myself into.

Mind you the artist was in his mid-late 50s, if not 60s.

The night was a whirl-wind of adventure.  My sister and I had a bunch of shots taken together, which was fun. 

Over-all it was a really cool experience.  I can't wait to see the photos.

Let me add in here, that the artist told me I was the answer to all his dreams.  Yes, me.

He now wants to wine-me and dine-me.  In fact he asked how I would deal with his world-wide fame.  Considering he's doing a painting right now for Lionel Ritchie which could ultimately result in me meeting my fashion idol, Nicole....I would deal just fine thank you.

However, he has like 40 years on me.

Could I possibly be that much of a gold digger?

He's invited me out on a date already, I put it off.  So opinions on this would be greatly accepted.  What would you do?! 

Then Monday morning arrived, and with it, a job offer in Yellowstone National Park in MT.

Fucking AMAZEBALLS.

Only the answer to all my dreams, duh.

Small town at the entrance of the national park, cowboys, horses, and wide open spaces = my heart.

They offered slightly more than I'm making now (which with what I make now, I fall deeper and deeper into debt).

They found me an apartment that I could rent on a month-to-month basis, 1 mile from the office, and they even said I could bring my dog to work.

Honestly, hello dream world.

After a week of torment over this decision and ultimate how could I not take this opportunity clarity, I sat down with my Dad to put together a spreadsheet of expenses, etc. to see how it could work.

I have zero savings, a lot of debt & bills, and my parents help me out monthly.

With what this position was offering as a salary, I would be in the exact same financial situation just across the country.

FUCK ME.

I called them today asking for more money.  They can't do it.

I fucking hate being an adult and making "responsible" decisions.

I'm probaly going to be kicking myself in the face for quite a lengthy period of time over this.

Minimally, I need to drink copious amounts of wine.

Immediately.