Trying to decide if I could (/want to) pull off booties like this.

For $25 I’d certainly give it a shot…

This tall girl’s mission for 2010? To not be terrified of heels. Partially, yes, because I have a 6′4″ boyfriend and have very rarely taken advantage of it in my footwear choices. And partially because heels are pretty and sexy and WHY DO I ONLY OWN ONE PAIR?

This is cutest “gift finder” I’ve ever seen.

Any mention of this calendar always makes me smile.

I have been finding new style blogs I love all over the place (and am still loving older ones!). Cause for celebration!

Send your own postcards, just because. Perfect for studying/traveling abroad.

Some homemade gift ideas from Real Simple (hello, pineapple infused vodka).

Carrots ‘n’ Cake is having giveaway(s) every day!

Care to make me some of these? Thanks!

Webcams: my new way of procrastinating?

I love this card.

Any sites or reads that rocked your week?

I’ve seen a “weekly round-up” of sorts on a number of blogs and have loved it! I think I’ll try it out for awhile, just with whatever strikes me on that day/week. It’s fun sharing links and promoting the sites of bloggers I love to read!

“It’s really not a religious issue or a moral issue. It’s just simply a civil rights issue. And the fact that the majority can get to vote on the rights of the minority seems very un-American to me.”

-Portia DeRossi

Amen.

Just got back from seeing The Other Guys with Ashley and Natalie. I am always happy to see their famed rendition of “Morrow Plots” (you can find a clip under “video” on the website), which will be the most hilarious if you attend(ed) U of I, but regardless…it’s good stuff. The Christmas concert always puts me even more in the mood for THE HOLIDAYS. Also putting me in the mood:  slowly working through my “to-buy” list for the big day. I love buying gifts for friends and family, truly. I keep a running list of “Gift Ideas” all year so as to prepare myself for big events…because I am cool like that.

Ashley (formerly an Other Guys virgin!) and I grabbed delicious pad thai beforehand. The Thai place is below my old apartment, which is always a SMACK of nostalgia. I used to eat Basil Thai far too often, along with slices o’ pizza from Rosatis. Anywho, tonight made me very grateful for my classmates/friends—who were great a cappella buddies!— and also made me remember Other Guys concerts of yore. My former roommate, Shelly, got me started with them, and since then I’ve gone to two shows with Adam. I miss both of these lovely people.

It’s weird that I’m (obviously) now years older than all of the group’s 8 members. Oh, attending-the-same-school-for-your-Master’s…it hits you hard sometimes.

Friends posing with the holiday decor post-concert

]]> http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/2009/12/06/morrow-plots/feed/ 5 caffeinerd DSC05908 DSC05897 DSC05904 http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/mimosas-research/ http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/mimosas-research/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:54:02 +0000 caffeinerd http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/?p=2718 ]]>

Perhaps the best way to start a final-research-paper-writing-session?

Roast some potatoes, sautee some Italian chicken sausage, throw in some green pepper and onion. Invite your fellow group member/friend to join you. Be delighted that she volunteers to bring orange juice and champagne (and subsequently opens the champagne successfully!). Eat, sip mimosas, THEN stare at correlations and try to dig clinical implications out of…nothing.

(And THEN decide you need to go for a run outside because the peppermint ice cream in your freezer is also looking really appealing…)

Pretty.

From: Anthropologie.

Shocking, I know.

(Maybe actually OWNING something from there will dim this yearning? I can hope…)

After 5 hours at the clinic I am relaxing with a glass of wine and some Say Yes to the Dress. And hypothetical earrings, of course. Oh, end of the semester. You’re mean sometimes.

Coat: H&M, 2004

I bought this coat, along with a black trench, years ago at H&M. I still wear both coats today (both admittedly went on hiatus for a bit when I gained some weight but HUZZAH are back in the rotation), so zero buyer’s remorse from that shopping trip! Stephy even got to enjoy this one for a semester while I was in Italy (and could only bring one big coat along). And, unlike the plaid AE coat, I’ve only ever seen one person on campus wearing it, which is nice. Seeing your coat every time you walk to class is not the best feeling in the world. This outfit mostly resulted from the realizations that these cropped jeans are too big and that this belt fails to be big enough to be a “conventional” one. I figured as long as I had something long over the jeans…all good. I haven’t worn this shirt-dress in at least a year, so it was a nice rediscovery.

—————

Events: Lab meeting, grocery shopping, group project, ?

Shirt dress + cropped jeans : Gap, Belt: “CAbi” brand/handed down from Mom, Boots: Hot Kiss via Famous Footwear, Earrings: Steve & Barry’s (SJP line), Yellow bag: Target, Glasses: Just Cavalli via CostCo

]]> http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/plaid-coat-2-belted-ruffles-december-4th-2009/feed/ 8 caffeinerd December4 http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/archives-ahora-no-hablo-espanol/ http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/archives-ahora-no-hablo-espanol/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:02:28 +0000 caffeinerd http://caffeinerd.wordpress.com/?p=2700 ]]>

Ashley and I observed therapy with a bilingual older gentleman today…

…And it reinforced how truly pathetic my Spanish skills are now. Yes, I would still be better than someone off the street who has never taken Spanish…but that’s about it. I attempted some bad Spanish with him as our supervisor didn’t know any, but I don’t think it helped. The only response I got was in English, and I left the room still plagued by HOW ON EARTH I couldn’t remember the word for “fork” (oh, okay, it IS tenedor…I feel slightly better now).

It doesn’t really surprise me. When I switched to Italian Sophomore year, I kind of knew Spanish was going to fade away. But UGH. It’s still sad. Especially now that Italian has faded, too. The whole “you don’t use it, you lose it” motto for languages is so so so very true.

The one plus? I still feel confident that, if I had a short but intense refresher course, I’d get back on that bicicleta. I love and miss Italian more, but Spanish is obviously much more functional. Life goal: regain conversational Spanish skills so I can be of some use with clients…and, okay, become near-fluent in Italian (pretty please?).

And now an entry from when I lived in Spain (okay, for 2.5 weeks…when I was 18) and one right after. Because there was a time when I used Spanish on a daily basis. VERDAD. I mean, I GOT MY NOSE PIERCED. Only using SPANISH.

I miss languages.

January 4th, 2005

Hola amigos…

I really like it here. It´s just so darn beauuuutiful, fun, and I feel relatively independent. While I´m not a big drinker, it´s also pretty damn awesome that you can be downing a lot of wine and champagne with your professor sitting a table away from you…especially when the school paid for the alcohol muahahaha. My time here hasn´t been too crazy, but I have had some tipsy nights when we decided to try hard apple cider, and when we went on a pub crawl. Generally, it´s just really cool to meet people from so many different countries.

I also love my host family, though, so I like having nights in as well. Grace is soooo nice and does so much for Shelly and me, and yesterday the husband and I bonded over El Señor de Los Anillos, as I told him that Aragorn es mi corazon muahaha. So he called me over and showed me this photo gallery he has on a computer disc of Aragorn. Mmm. Awesome—even though I´m not sure I could tolerate watching any more than the trailer in Spanish…I need to hear Viggo´s voice.

I think I´ve been being a prude without even realizing it, dudes. I don´t do the 2 kiss greeting-goodbye correctly…very little contact- Guess I have to practice. On a semi-related note, as he´s very consistent with the kissing, Shelly and I have a ´date´with our host son´s friend Augusto, who works at Starbucks (yeahhhhh awesome), so hopefully that´ll be fun. He seems like a nice…cute…barista of a guy.

Mmmmk. Gotta head off–but I do want to tell Heather, especially, that every morning we watch Dawson´s Creek in Spanish!!! It´s awesome! And I now must watch them in English when I get back…Shelly and I have nicknames…I´m the romantic, and she´s the sleepyhead lol…because I´m so emotionally attatched to the screen, and she´s in a quasi-comatose state.

HOPE ALL IS WELL IN THE STATES! love, Elena.

January 15th, 2005

Whoa. It’s past my bedtime, guys. Seriously…the last 2 nights I passed out in front of my laptop by 9:30pm. Jet-lag, which I didn’t even think affected me on the way to Spain, is killing me now. It’s made me an incredibly early riser as well, so I guess there are benefits. I fell asleep whilst watching Alias, though. And Dr. Quinn. Yeah…I don’t know what this world is coming to.

I really loved the past 2.5 weeks. Yes, I had depressive moments- times when I just wanted to be somewhere where I could communicate without difficulty, and periods where I wanted to smack members of our U of I group…but, bottom line…Barcelona is an awesome city.

Favorites from Spain:

The Dali Museum in Figueres
Eating breakfast every morning/Te y galletas most afternoons
The metro
Palau de la Musica
Grace y Paco

Montjuic
“I need to exit the drink” -Nico

Shelly being my roommate
Augusto’s vegetarian dinner/wine/tea/hot chocolate
Starbucks with Shelly and Erica
El Bosque de las Fallas
The park with the spinning metal saucers
Dawson’s Crece
Sitges: la playa con Ellen, Annie, Joel, and Shelly…seashells and helado!
Getting my nose pierced

Yeah. About that. I decided within the first few days that I was going to do it in Spain…got it done on Tuesday. People on the trip kept saying “how much are your parents going to kill you?” etc…and seriously, I really wasn’t too nervous about it. And I was right not to be. They noticed it right away, but my mom just said ‘I see you got something done…studs are classy’ and my dad said ‘Isn’t it really hard to blow your nose?’ etc. The only bad part was when they saw the brochure from the place–which I hadn’t looked at–that showcased a variety of penis/clitoral piercings. Fabulous.

Life back here has been pretty tame. I went out to Friday’s with Kevin last night and made him look at my pictures…only 2 rolls…as Shelly is my digital-camera-photo bitch (thank goodness, because just developing those 2 rolls of film with CDs was ridiculously expensive)..and then, as previously noted, passed out by 9:30pm. Today I was up super duper early, so I showed my mom pictures…and spent the day in a Dr. Quinn coma. I still have so many things to watch (Garden State, Troy, Lost episodes, Napoleon Dynamite, Dr. Quinn Season 2 stolen from Heather), but I guess I’ll have to get all studious soon. Ugh. Education feels so worthless sometimes…which sounds silly…but as of this moment I mean it. I felt like I learned more (not academically…just about life. Oh geez. Corniness) in Spain than I did memorizing and regurgitating crap all of last semester. The GPA was just fine…but meh. I didn’t do that much to earn it. Anna and I went to see In Good Company tonight. Wasn’t thrilled with it, but absolutely need the soundtrack!

Anywho. Heading back to school tomorrow. Not super-psyched about it…but we’ll see. My classes feel exciting as of now. I’m just excited for the car ride with Heather! I’ve missed her mucho.

<3

• Mood: pensive

Coat: American Eagle, December 2007

I vowed to feature more coats, so here we go.

Honestly, I feel like this coat is more a lesson in what-not-to-wear if you have my body (swoop in and TAKE ME AWAY, Stacy and Clinton!). Every other wool coat I own is long (a few of them are also belted), but for some reason I dared to be different when I purchased this one. It was on sale, I had a long-standing love of plaid, I was (am) dating someone very Scottish (haha)…who knows. It seemed like a good call at the time. And I still like to wear it for its coziness and pattern every now and then. But…flattering? For the most part I think: No. With jeans and some cute flats (and with the hood removed) it can work, but it still just leaves me feeling boxy and shapeless.

So…not really a win overall. But there’s another peek into my coat collection. More to come!

Events: Hospital placement, class, client, clinic meeting

Black pants: Gap, Tie-front shirt: Old Navy, Earrings: General Eccentric, Bag: Target, Glasses: Hugo Boss via Costco

(Obviously assume the title was said by Samwise Gamgee)

While sleeping in this morning didn’t totally work out (phone woke me up), I’ve still been incredibly lazy. With no reason to rush into the lab, I opted to roast up some potatoes and make some coffee.

Delicious.

Maybe I’ll go rent Four Christmases for tonight? This lull will end once my group members have completed their part of our paper and Natalie and I have to crank out our portion…but for now I’m kind of in limbo. No complaints here.