Before She Tried to Save the World in 4 Minutes

When I was little, my favorite thing in the entire world was listening to music - not on cassettes or on the radio, but listening to vinyl records. My dad had this big collection ranging from The Beatles to Blondie to Tom Jones to Pink Floyd. I credit this randomness to my random music preferences today.

I used to watch in awe as he would pick out an album to play. He would slowly pull the record out of the sleeve and place it on the turn table and carefully place the needle on the record and it would start to play. Every time I would beg him to let me do it, but fearing that my little hands couldn't handle it, he always said no. Then one day, he taught me how to do it - my love of music was never the same. Before long I was collecting albums with him and our collection was pretty massive. But since he's decided to be so "mature" in the divorce, he took them all with him. Not because he wanted them, but because he knew it would upset me. Ridiculous.

My favorite album was Madonna's "Like a Virgin". This was the album that also contained "Material Girl" and "Dress You Up". Completely 80s, but totally fabulous. There are many pictures of me dressed in one of my many leotards, standing on the coffee table with the remote as my mic, singing along to the record. When I talk about that today, many people are shocked that my parents let me sing "Like a virgin, touched for the very first time" at the top of my lungs at such a young age. But my mom saw Madonna as a pioneer and let me adore her.

Yesterday while avoding finals, Matt and I checked out this used record store and my eyes sparkled with excitement when I found my favorite album...and he bought it for me. I've been giddy all weekend. Who needs to study for finals when I can spend the day listening to this...

It's Finals Season

It's that time when finals are just around the corner. Clearly I can look at the calendar and see that it's almost that time, but there are a few other ways I can tell.

1) Starbucks caramel machiatto. I find myself wanting one 24/7. Obviously the caffeine helps me stay awake, but something about sitting in Starbucks with the "hip" music and people rushing in and out is comforting. Bizarre

2) I always manage to find a new show to get hooked on. Current obsession? Dexter. I find myself saying "well, I'll just watch one episode and then go back to my outline. 3 hours later...well, you get the picture. Normally I can avoid the tv, but when I really should be doing work it just hits me.

3) My cell phone is attached to my ear. I always love taking with family and friends, but I find that my phone convos get longer and longer...and therefore, so does my phone bill

4) Errands. Normally I try to make a list of things that I need so I can run errands once a week. When I need to study, it's like I need whatever item right away. Only 5 days worth of contact solution left? Must go to Target NOW!

5) I always want chocolate chip cookies...we all know that's bad.

2 Weeks until showtime...here we go.

Gym Couture

So lately I've been going to the gym, which is good. It's a good de-stresser, makes me think about what I eat, etc.

So of course, wherever I go I have a habit of looking at what people are wearing. Usually I don't really look at the gym because no one really looks hot working out. It's a sea of sweats and t-shirts or cute gym clothes if you're a girlie girl and can afford to pay the money for it. I tend to pick 1 of the 50 or so sorority shirts I got in college, mostly because I won't wear them in public.

A few days ago I was rocking the elliptical when I looked to my right and saw some guy lifting weights wearing cargo pants, a polo shirt, and flip flops. I thought this was a little weird: 1) isn't that a little "nice" to wear to the gym? 2) open-toe shoes in the gym, let alone near the weights, seems deadly. I decided that this guy must be from out of town and visiting a friend, didn't have gym clothes and this was his best option.

Today I was at the gym and I saw not 1, but 3 people dressed the same way. 2 of the guys were doing the polo shirt thing while this girl was wearing jeans and uggs.

The whole thing reminded me of the Cribs episode where Mariah Carey put on her 5 inch stilettos and jumped on her stair-master. Did I miss the memo that gym couture was changing, or am I just out of the loop?