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Current Book(s): I started reading Surfacing by Margaret Atwood about three months ago, I'm 150 pages in, and I'm considering giving up. I almost never do that because I hate investing all that time into a story and then not finding out how it ends, but Surfacing is just so dull. And it's a darned shame too, because Margaret Atwood writes beautifully.

Current Playlist: A Fine Frenzy's Bomb in a Birdcage and Mates of State's Re-Arrange Us have been on rotation recently. Re-Arrange Us is absolutely fantastic! It's catchy and upbeat and I highly recommend it. Bomb in a Birdcage is ok, but A Fine Frenzy (aka Alison Sudol) changed her style from ethereal to Regina Spektor for this new album and I liked her old, unique style better.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Ok, so Lady Gaga's The Fame is also on my current playlist, but I thought it'd be better to mention that here. I dance like a complete moron at the wheel every time "Poker Face" comes on, I like "Just Dance" and "Paparazzi," "LoveSong" and "Boys Boys Boys" are good, and the rest I'm sort of meh about. Oh well, POKER FACE!

Current Color: Aubergine! Sean and I've decided to make a dark shade of purple the dominant color in our eventual nuptials for a few of reasons: 1) We both look nice in it, which I realize won't make a lick of difference when I'm choosing my outfit for the day, 2) The members of our wedding party will all look nice in it too, and 3) When coordinated correctly, it'll feel warm and October-ish without screaming "THIS IS A FALL WEDDING! JUST LOOK AT ALL THE ORANGE AND YELLOW!"  

Current Drink: I recently started keeping flavored, carbonated water in Sean's fridge--it's tasty, it's sugar-free, it's cheap at Wal-Mart, and it burns so good! Since we don't have any at my parents' house, I look forward to visiting my beau and raiding my stash. 

Current Food: I'm addicted to Gardenburger brand veggie patties and frozen shrimp wonton soup at the moment--they're both delicious, low calorie, and available from Costco, which means I can eat them every day for a month before I have to go back for more. I also eat two or three sugar-free topical Popsicles every night.

Current Favorite Show: LOST I suppose, it's the only one of my shows that's airing at the moment, and not even for much longer! I watch Dancing With the Stars with my parents now that they've narrowed it down to only the good dancers (and/or good personalities/good lookers). Top Chef and Mad Men start up again in the summer and I cannot wait! 

Current Wishlist: I would trade my cat child for an iPhone! My current phone is and has always been a piece of crap, but until recently I've been too cheap to pay for fancy services that I didn't think I needed. Now, however, I crave an iPhone, (even though I still doubt that I need all those fancy services). I was planning on purchasing one next month, but then my mom (who is also craving one) discovered that we have to wait until we've fulfilled at least 1 year of our contract with AT&T before we can go purchasing another phone (unless of course we want to pay full price for the iPhone, which we do not). Now it's no iPhones for us until August :(

Current Needs: I need to go shopping for work wear! I don't think sweats, t-shirts, and slippers will cut it in the corporate world, nor will 4-inch heels cut it in the city that never sleeps. But basically I'll come up with any excuse to go to New York & Company.

Current Triumphs: Landing an amazing job, of course!

Current Bane(s) of my Existence: My hair! It is so long and thick and split and shapeless and dull that I can hardly stand it! (Plus it obscures the girls, which is grounds for being buzzed off completely.) Thankfully I've got an appointment to have it lopped off and colored in less than two weeks, so there will be no need for me to go Britney Spears on it.  

Current Celebrity Crush: I'm not actively crushing on any celeb, but I guess I'll say RDJ since I just saw Iron Man 2. He was fabulous as usual, but I thought the movie dragged and was nowhere near as good as the first, which was such a bummer because original flavor Iron Man is easily my favorite super hero movie ever. 

Current Indulgence: Online window shopping. Now that I'll finally be able to move out on my own, I've been doing nothing but browsing home goods and DIY sites for furnishings and decorating ideas.

Current #1 Blessing: It's a multi-parter--1) I am blessed to have a steady source of income 2) That enabled me to buy those enhancements I've always wanted 3) Which have not ruptured, bled profusely, fallen off, or caused any unanticipated financial stress 4) And can be lavished with pretty bras and outfits now that my steady source of income has just increased by leaps and bounds.

Current Slang or Saying: I've been say "in any case" a lot. I don't know why--I guess it just reminds me of an antique store or something.

Current Outfit: Brown shorts and a white v-neck. Like I said, I need to go shopping.

Current Excitement: Going on vacay with my love and going to NYC. (That's definitely nervous excitement, but nervous excitement is better than no excitement at all.)   

Current Mood: Grown up. Is that a mood? It is now, because I'm feeling it! I finally have big girl boobs and soon I will have a big girl job, a big girl wardrobe, a big girl salary, and a big girl abode to match. 

Current Link: Twitter.com. Once upon I time I said Twitter was silly and pointless, but now that I've started using it heavily, I think it's silly, pointless, and totally addicting! I update all the time, I check my feed more often than that, and I'm always on the lookout for someone new to follow so that I'll have even more reasons to check my feed.  

(Source: LaurenFromTexas.com, otherwise known as @LaurenFromTexas)

Travelin' woman

This time last year, I was embarking on an epic tour of New Orleans, Louisiana. This year I'll be keeping it local-ish but no less epic (in terms of mileage I mean; I doubt any vacation destination will ever match the epic-osity of NOLA). The plan goes like this:

Saturday: Travel to Huntspatch, TX for grandma's birthday early in the AM.
Sunday: Travel to Waco, TX for bed in the PM.
Monday: Travel to Fredericksburg, TX for German food and antiques early in the AM.
Tuesday: Travel to San Antonio, TX for SeaWorld and the Riverwalk in the AM.
Wednesday: Travel to Dallas, TX for a return to the grind in the PM.
Thursday: Travel around the hometown for meetings from 8AM-3PM. Travel to Sean's for engagement ring shopping in the PM.
Friday: Travel to Texarkana, TX for a visit with the future in-laws (and hopefully to collect Sean's baby pics so I can get an early start on the wedding slide show).

And, thanks to my sweetheart, the soundtrack for this busy week will be provided by this musical team who produced this song that has been suck in my head since I heard it on the Late Show on Tuesday (team Letterman forever, by the way):


Hey, come to think of it, I should probably pack.

Play on (and on and on)

Good heavens it's late. Worse than that, the only reason I'm still up is because I'm too obsessed with this to turn it off:


And too engrossed in the Vitamin String Quartet to stop perusing their catalog. Can you blame me though? I mean, really? VSQ Does The Beatles. I thought not.

Discovering new music is hard on a betty, no?

Good things, pt. 1

Breaking down some of the sweet things I got from Santa and my family this Christmas:

1. Because I lacked the proper storage vessel, I used to keep all of my jewelry in a small tin box. Whenever I wanted to wear a piece, I'd have to untangle it from a giant wad of chains and hooks, until now: baby brother gave me this filigree jewelry hook [that I found on the Urban Outfitters site and put on my Christmas list] and doesn't he just have the best taste? The space on the vanity in my bathroom is limited, so I love that this goes on the wall. I'm also very fond of the way it looks--it matches the style of my bedroom (to which my bathroom is attached) perfectly, and I'm head over heels in love with the style of my bedroom.

2. Last year for Christmas (or was it my birthday? I can never differentiate) I got a couple of Margaret Atwood books and absolutely devoured them, so this year I put one more on my list. Surfacing is billed as "the story of a talented woman artist who goes in search of her missing father on a remote island in northern Quebec. Setting out with her lover and another young couple, she soon finds herself captivated by the isolated setting, where a marriage begins to fall apart, violence and death lurk just beneath the surface, and sex becomes a catalyst for conflict and dangerous choices." The feminist overtones in these books are quite pronounced, so it doesn't make all that much sense that I, a veritable Phyllis Schlafly in my own right, enjoy them so much, but c'est la vie.

3. On Diane! On Carla! On Coach! On Sam! When Cheers died in 1993, it took the whole sitcom genre with it (Friends and Seinfeld* notwithstanding, or so I'm told). At least the place where everybody knows your name (including mine--NORM!) can live on in DVD sets and in our hearts forever.
*After reading my post, Sean protested (loudly) that I accidentally neglected Seinfeld (aka the another mega-popular post-Cheers sitcom that I did not watch). Of course, according to the Wiki-official List of most-watched television broadcasts, Cheers was indeed more popular than both Friends and Seinfeld. In fact, the only show that was more popular than Cheers--M*A*S*H--was 10 years younger. So my argument still stands.

4. Beatles or Stones? Beatles. Don't know what to listen to in the car? White album. Wondering what you should name your next ungrateful psycho hellion cat? Dame Eleanor Rigby McCartney (or "Rigby" for short). No matter the question, the answer always relates to the Beatles, so when my smarty-pants boyfriend was wondering, "What should I get Sarah for Christmas?" the answer was, of course, a Sgt. Pepper's puzzle. Sean's even promised to glue all 1000 pieces together for me after we finish it and mount it on the wall (next to his Abbey Road poster, presumably) in our eventual residence so that John, Paul, George, and Ringo (and the one and only Billy Shears!) can bless our home with love, love, love.

Twinkle toes and jazz hands

A couple of weeks ago I came across a "Find a Fresh First Dance Song" feature in my latest issue of Modern Bride (side note: I can't walk into a grocery, convenience, or super store anymore without casually looking for bridal glossies on the magazine racks. It's sort of like Where's Waldo?: Goin' to the Chapel, except without the red stripes because um, faux pas much?) Now, I've been convinced of my first dance song since before I'd ever had a boyfriend (which, let's face it, wasn't really that long ago), but I thought I'd take the test anyway just for giggles.

Questions one ("Are you having a band?") and two ("Do you prefer something upbeat?") both received big fat "no"s, so MB suggested that S and I dance to either U2 (gross, generally) or to a Van Morrison song that I've never heard of. I perused the other suggestions if only to find out whether they were any better and immediately spied one that struck my fancy. I showed it to Sean with a smile and a "Whaddaya think?" and he responded with an earnest, "Yeah! That'd be good!" I'm not sure he was on board with my first choice, but this new one suits us better anyway so I willfully sent my old song packing and immediately latched on MB's suggestion.

In our infinite wedding wisdom, S and I decided that the original version of the song that MB suggested (which I've enjoyed for years) is too fast for a couple's first dance, so I downloaded a well-known (but not really by me) cover to see if it would fare better. My decision? Well, let me put it this way--I completely reformatted my computer over the weekend, reinstalled iTunes on Monday night, and The Song has already been played an astounding 12 times. It'll do.

Want to know what it is? I'm tempted to say "well you'll just have to wait until 2011, biatches!" because I don't want to reveal all my tricks, but instead I'll offer these clues: Monday-Saturday, seedless grapes, and psychedelic chocolate candy. And if you can guess based on that information, well heck, I'll let you walk me down the aisle!

Baby clean bill of health

High school freshman: Miss, what kind of music do you like?
Sarah Substitute: Well, my favorite band is Death Cab.
High school freshman: Death Cab? Is that like scream-o?

True story.

C'mon, kiddies, Death Cab (for Cutie, though I doubt that clarification would have made much of a difference) might be more obscure than, say, Lil Wayne (Who's "hot." Um, what?) and Tupac (Who's alive and living it up in Jamaica, apparently.) but I'd certainly heard of them when I was in high school. I even tried listening to them once or twice, but I ultimately failed because, I dunno, I liked Enya.

Oh well, the (generally) very sweet students at my old high school more than make up for their lost style points by actually giving a darn about the type of music that I, their lowly substitute teacher, like to listen to. They get extra credit for wondering where I went to college, what I majored in, how old I am, what I want to do with my life, as well as for remembering my name, saying "hello" and "goodbye," and dubbing me "the cool sub!" (sure, kiddies, just as long as you toe the line). But those precious, well-mannered little anomalies can't fool me--I'm still not having kids!

Just can't get enough!

Sean and I paid a visit to College Station last weekend, and we spent the entire ride down on Friday night arguing about music. As it turned out, he was sick of hearing Death Cab and The Beatles on infinite repeat in my car. How lame is that?

Anyway, my car is full of Sean's old CDs that didn't have a place in his new ride, and I was using my laptop (which is chocked full of my favorite tunes from waaaaay back) to do dreadful teacher homework, so to resolve the music situ, we started searching for gems in our old music collections to play for each other. Sean discovered a Depeche Mode CD in his stash and played the seemingly innocuous tune "Enjoy the Silence" (you know, "all I ever wanted, all I ever needed is here in my arms"). At first I thought it was silly (Depeche Mode? As in, "reach out and touch faith"? Whatever, Sean.) but then yesterday I popped the CD in and listened to the whole thing and oh my gaw, HUGE MISTAKE! It is so outrageously awesome that I predict that Depeche Mode will be just as dead to Sean as Death Cab and The Beatles are by this time next week.

Depeche Mode - Policy Of Truth
Uploaded by droogirico. - Explore more music videos.

They carried on like long division

Holy buckets, readers, how do I describe last night? There are very few words, pictures will just have to do (click to enlarge).


More precious than gold, those tickets.

OMGDEATHCAB! They sounded JUST LIKE they do on their CDs. Hooray, talent! I'm a believer! I'll be back for more!

Hey, it's Ben Gibbard, lyricist extraordinaire!

I wish we could open our eyes
To see in all directions at the same time
Oh what a beautiful view
If you were never aware of what was around you
And it is true what you said
That I live like a hermit in my own head
But when the sun shines again
I'll pull the curtains and blinds to let the light in.

The venue was small enough that you could hear everyone singing along. AWESOME.

And in case anyone doubts my enthusiasm for the music, here's a god-awful picture of me that Sean captured in the middle of my favorite song.

Death Cab for Cutie. Amen.