I’m on a weird kind of high right now after an afternoon viewing of 500 Days of Summer. It was just as great as I expected, and I’m so glad I wasn’t disappointed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great.

My co-worker, Dave, expressed that he would not be seeing the movie because there is no way it could possibly live up to the hype. Well, fortunately for me, that wasn’t the case. In my opinion, the over-hyped-movie title still resides with Shrek and Waitress.

From the beginning of the film the narrator informs us that although this is a story of boy-meets-girl, this is not a love story. I love that 500 Days of Summer was so very grounded in its portrayal of love, or rather, relationships and our expectations of them and the people with whom we become involved. The idea that it’s unwise to go into a relationship expecting to change the other person, to win them over to your side of whatever your core beliefs are, and not expect that that person, in turn, will affect you in the same way—this film explored that idea brilliantly AND it was so very pretty, funny, heartbreaking and squeeful (JGL doing a very relatable portrayal of a stifled artist) to watch.

At first, I didn’t give much consideration to Zooey Deschanel’s performance as Summer. Now I think that’s a good thing. Her performance wasn’t lacking by any means, and now I realize she did an amazing job of conveying a sense of reservation on the part of Summer, playing a character who didn’t believe in love, but by the end, you see that she truly wanted to believe what it was that Tom (Gordon-Levitt) was pitching.

On that note, here’s this:

“Why Don’t You Let Me Stay Here” by She & Him
Directed by Mark Webb

In late September of 2008 I got my last relaxer.

Writing this, I realize that this could become a very long blog post, but my intention now is only to post photos of a recent hair styling success.

I’ve had lots of trial-and-error trying to figure out how to actually do my hair these past two months. I figured out that washing with conditioner (Garnier Fructis Moisture Works), and then twisting while damp, preferably with something with holding capabilities (Garnier Fructis Fiber Gum) works best. This is especially necessary because the top, front section of my hair doesn’t seem to want to hold a coil or curl pattern.

For moisture, I apply a bit of Carol’s Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey to my scalp and hair. I picked it up on a trip to New York over 3 years ago. (more…)

For the past few years, the weekend before the start of the fall semester has been designated for a Tax-Free holiday, where no sales tax is charged on purchasing made. Some stores have exceptions, putting say $100 limit on the amount one can purchase and still not be charged sales tax. The past 2 years this date has fallen between my pay days and at the beginning of the month, where either I’ve just paid bills or more are due.

This year, thankfully, that isn’t the case, and so I decided to scope the commercial center and see what was available. I’ve slowly been building up my wardrobe from ill-fitting jeans and oversized shirts to better-fitting jeans and cute and well-fitting tops that better express my quirky personality. After losing all that weight, many of my clothes no longer fit. Some items are out of style, but I’ve also been trying to acquire things more appropriate for my age (gah! 27 next b-day, late twenties, OH NOEZ).

I’m a late-bloomer in a lot of things, and finding my style seems to be one of them. What Not To Wear is one of my favorite television shows. Stacy and Clinton provide truly practical tips for dressing to fit “the body you have right now” so that you can look your best at whatever stage of life you’re in. If you’ve gained weight, and you know you’re not going to lose it anytime soon, suck it up and buy and bigger size, because you only look fatter wearing too-small clothes. I know this. Conversely, the same thing works if you lose weight. I’ve never hated shopping, but I guess it’s just a frustrating experience when you don’t actually know what looks good on you, or what you like is too expensive, or OMG, this “dress” is really cute up top, but are they sure this isn’t mislabeled, like, it’s having an identity crisis where it was born a shirt but really wants to be a dress?

However it does pay off to take the time to find things that look nice and actually TRY THINGS ON. I finally figured out what size I actually am, but all designers don’t fit the same, so a cute party dress by Max Izaria in a size 6 (small) fits great, a small sweater from Old Navy it too small.

It’s an insane rush to be this excited about buying clothes for the first time, like, ever in my life. Seriously, when I got to work after my mini-spree, I was all a-twitter to my co-worker, Dave, about the experience. Thankfully, he’s nice enough to humor me. I think he just find my kid-genius antics amusing. Incidentally, if possible, I would marry this online store: ModCloth.com. I tweeted about some of my longings while browsing their selection yesterday.

The point? Oh yes. I was originally going to begin this entry talking about how the store XXI gives me the barely controllable urge to leap from the nearest window whenever I cross its threshold. They do, however, have very cute clothes. And the store is only one story. There’s just SO MUCH STUFF. There’s no discernible (to me, at least) rhyme or reason to how they’ve organized the selection, except that the really dressy stuff is on one room and all the Sale and Clearance stuff crammed on racks and walls in another.

TL;DR version: I bought some really cute clothes. I dress from a boutique called Hourglass and a cream colored sweater and deep blue-green woven shirt from Forever 21.

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In other news, I applied for a job. I hope something comes of it.

These past few weeks, I’ve really been missing my stash or card stock paper that I draw on. I bought a shoe rack (finally) to put my shoes up properly, and while straightening other things I “found” card stock. It wasn’t really lost, just in a folder that was tucked away on the bottom of one of my shelves, conveniently out of eye-level sight.

Still, I was happy to have found it. So, I flipped through the old drawing and came across one that I had started of one of the characters from my 2008 NaNo. E’lari started out as a kind of very minor character, shallow and selfish, but then I started to mull over why she was that way…and she got a story. As as a result, I think her character goes through the biggest transformation over the course of the story.

Close-up view after the cut.
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B. April 26, 2009; Jasper, Pascal, and Evan

They’re tearing up exploring my room right now, and as such, Jasper and Evan are up for adoption. This morning I made a poster to hang in the vet’s office.