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10 most irritating phrases

in the English language found via Reader's Digest. I concur, especially the first one.

  • At the end of the day
  • Fairly unique
  • I personally
  • At this moment in time
  • With all due respect
  • Absolutely
  • It's a nightmare
  • Shouldn't of
  • 24-7
  • It's not rocket science

(tonight)

I'm going to see (500) Days of Summer, finally! Yes, it came out a while ago but for one reason or another I haven't been able to see it yet. But, tonight's the night and I'm so excited!!!

keys to my heart (and house)

I often get my apartment keys confused because several of the keys on my key ring look identical: same color, same shape, same everything. And since I don't have the time or interest to find one distinctive mark on the cuts for each key to remember which is which, I settled for a yellow paint pen dot on my current apt key (because I refused to use these) But today, thanks to my Daily Candy emails, I found out just how out-of-date my little yellow paint pen dot actually is. These are brilliant...and fun!



Maggie's getting married!

My friends Maggie and Neal are getting married in October and the celebrations have started! The wedding is just about 6 weeks away and now all the fun is starting. This past weekend, Maggie had her bridal shower, which was a blast. Tons of food, games and presents...and plenty of bubble gum for Maggie when she got an answer wrong about her and Neal. Thanks for planning such a great shower, Kyo!




summer

I love this picture that I found on the Design*Sponge blog. It looks so summery and beautiful and like it's the middle of June somewhere. And, unfortunately, reminds me that summer is almost over...

for old time's sake

During my senior year in college, I watched this YouTube video on average 3 times a day. If I was stressed or having a bad day, I'd pull this up and instantly be mesmerized. I just thought about it again tonight for some reason and couldn't help sharing it. Even if you don't watch the whole thing, make sure you make it to the 1:00 minute mark!



Abbey must not have known this picture was being taken for me...she's smiling?

dirty laundry

Thanks to NY Mag (and LA) for such entertainment!

Bill Clinton: So did you call me in here so I could teach you all the lessons I learned from my rescue trip to North Korea? That was pretty great, wasn't it? Kim Jong-Il looks even more like a lollipop in person.
President Obama: I called you in here to tell you that you can never do anything like that ever again, especially without asking first.
Bill Clinton: I meant to, but Gore called me up, and I was joyriding Bingy's jet for the week anyway, and you know how it goes.
President Obama: You could at least have called your wife, the secretary of State.
Bill Clinton: Yeah ... I don't have her number.
President Obama: [Sighs]
Bill Clinton: I brought you back some North Korean cigars?

ultimate forgiveness

This article brought tears to my eyes, more than once. This is forgiveness, from Jenny Sanford on her husband's recent affair with a mistress in Argentina:

For now, the first lady of South Carolina is groping for the high road and trying to keep an open mind. “If you don’t forgive,” she says, “you become angry and bitter. I don’t want to become that. I am not in charge of revenge. That’s not up to me. That’s for the Lord to decide, and it’s important for me to teach that to my boys. All I can do is forgive. Reconciliation is something else, and that is going to be a harder road. I have put my heart and soul into being a good mother and wife. Now I think it’s up to my husband to do the soul-searching to see if he wants to stay married. The ball is in his court.”

Read the whole article, from Vogue, here. Believe me, it's worth it. You will be inspired.

home sweet home

Here are a few updated pictures from my new apt as promised!

My bedroom, above and below. If you saw my old room, you'll see it looks pretttty much the same...


and you can't see it because of the way I took this picture, but there is ANOTHER window just to the left of my desk. Heaven.

The kitchen, above and below. And you can see the hallway (in the photo below) that leads to the outside of the apartment. On the left side of the hallway are the two bathrooms and at the end of the hallway on the right is another bedroom. I can't wait to cook in this kitchen! (Sadly, even after living there a month and a half, I haven't cooked yet. The summer has just been too busy I guess...)


Pictures of the living room are coming soon! I haven't had time to get photos taken of the latest additions, but hopefully in the next day I'll have them up (although, the living room is still somewhat of a work in progress...) Home is where the heart is though, right?

Harry Potter, praise?

I've always been a pretty big skeptic of Harry Potter, but in the last month have grown increasingly interested in this boy and his story, thanks to Maggie, who is a rather big fan! I'm about halfway through the first book and decided I will re-evaluate after I'm done as to whether I want to continue in the series. But I must admit, so far it is a very intriguing story and fast read because I'm constantly wanting to find out what happens to this little boy who somehow received "grace" from someone (?) and overcame evil and apparently death (I'm only in the first book...), not by his own doing but as a predestined plan, it seems. Anyway, this morning I was reading a new blog on my list, 843 acres, and found a link to this article. If you, like me, had your Harry Potter doubts, it's worth a read.

How the boy wizard won over religious critics - The Boston Globe

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books, boundaries & borders

Over the past 2-3 weeks, I've had a rather elevated desire to read. Ever since I moved to New York, it's grown dramatically but even more over the summer. In light of that knowledge, I spent almost 3 hours in Borders yesterday (yes, one of the most beautiful Saturdays all summer I spent inside a bookstore) looking at tons and tons of different books that are on my reading to-do list. But what drew me in was to pick up a book called Boundaries that someone recommended to me last week. This is written by Christian psychologists about how to effectively set boundaries in your life in order to not feel responsible and burdened for things that you ultimately have no control over. I haven't started it yet, but am anxious to read it.

However, the sad realization I came to while in Borders is this: the last time I visited the Christian section in Borders it took up one entire shelf, front and back, and the front side of another shelf, all of Christian books- Christian inspiration, Christian fiction, Theology, etc. Yesterday as I searched for what used to be the "Christian" section, I noticed most of the shelves had been replaced by History sections and Eastern religion sections and other various topics. The Christian section was now squeezed into one tiny side of one shelf.

Sadly I don't have any deep or profound thoughts except that I just felt an extreme and real sadness at this observation as soon as I noticed this yesterday. Not that any of this is new news but it just reminded me yet again what a broken and fallen world we live in. When that becomes evident in such minuscule things as the book arrangements in Borders, I think that is only the mere evidence spilling out of a much deeper root issue. (I'm still hoping I was just confused after the rearrangement, but something tells me I should be less naive.) And what a sad issue it is.