The art of the mixtape.

I am not old enough to have had the experience of waiting for my song to come on the radio and hit record as quickly as possible, just to ensure that my song was being recorded onto my cassette. Okay, maybe I did it once or twice. But just when I was in my (short lived) country phase. In hindsight, I am glad that I didn’t waste my “hard earned” allowance on country music CDs. Why? Because that means my money was instead spent on boy bands and trips on my bike to 7-11 or Dairy Queen. So much better.

Anywho, this post is about how I have officially lost the art of creating the perfect mix. I blame technology! And iTunes. And college. And terrorism (I just feel like terrorists should always be blamed).

My sister and I used to spend so many "homework hours" in high school illegally downloading music. Get off my back, you know you did it too! Napster was a thing. Remember? And at the time it wasn't illegal! Well… it might have been. Beyond the downloading, we also had an insane CD collection. It was the 4-per page book and it was amazing. I think it is still at my parents’ house! Now I am determined to find it. Anyway, because of our amazing music collection, we became artists when it came to creating the perfect seasonal mix. Oh gosh, and remember the importance of the sharpie art? Especially if it was going to a boy.

A perfect mix would of course have an appropriate rise and fall for your day:

- Starts off slow for the drive to school (3 songs)
- Awesome sing along jams for off campus lunch and car dancing with your gurls (4 songs)
- A medium song for the immediate post school wind-down
- A slow rise back up for pre-practice pump-up (3-4 songs)

These days with iTunes and even Spotify or Grooveshark, you can select an entire album and just “shuffle.” That is what I have been doing on my iTunes playlists for a while now… and I can honestly say that I have officially lost the art of the mix. It is gone. I take my most recent purchased albums and random songs and just hit shuffle.

At one time there were mix rules! I miss the rules. If you had new songs by a fave artist, you could only put a 3rd song by that artist if it was a classic. For example, if I was about to make a new mix that had some JT 20/20 on it, I could only put a third JT track on there if it is a classic (ala Cry Me a River). Do you catch my drift?

A mix by me would usually include some Britney. A mix by my sister would usually include some DMX Dr. Dre (My sister called after the post went up to correct me) or Biggie. She actively thought we lived in the hood. It was SW Portland, not the south side of Chicago Linds. BUT her hoodness did give her an uncharacteristic love of rap that carries through to today. Most people would be shocked to learn this fun fact. She comes off as so straight laced!

For a post with good playlists from someone who has not lost this art - visit Venus!

Alright folks, have a great Tuesday! Tomorrow is May. I hope you have all seen that ‘Nsync GIF. Okay, just in case:

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Fears Realized!

Can we chat really quickly about what happened on the Marquam Bridge last night!? Let’s move beyond the fact that you were in heinous traffic for hours okay? Instead let’s talk about some scary stuff! Isn’t it your worst fear any time you pass a semi that the stuff on the truck will fall on your car? Or that you will get wedged between two trucks? Your fears are valid folks! Because that ACTUALLY happened to someone last night here in PDX.

For those of you who don’t live here, or maybe you do live here but don’t watch the news and you also don’t listen to KEX on your way home… Here is the reason traffic sucked:

Yesterday a semi was taking a turn on the freeway and a concrete beam that was loaded on the back of his truck somehow shifted the balance of the truck bed and tipped, crushing the car next to him and pinning down the driver of the car with a concrete beam. The driver was okay, but her hand was injured by the beam.

I have this strange fear of trucks on the freeway. Especially if it is raining, or if they are log trucks, or really if there is any kind of exposed cargo. This just confirms that those “irrational fears” are straight up VALID! It is a miracle that this woman came out of the accident with only a hand/ arm injury.

Check it:

via

via

And a vid:



Okay, happy sunny days you fools! Enjoy the 70+ degree weather while it lasts! Only one post by me this week. I’m a busy lady with sunshine to enjoy and a boyfriend to go visit in Seattle. Peace!

PS. Remember my post about fear?... oops.

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A news break.

I cannot stop watching the live news feed of everything that is going down in Boston and the surrounding areas. I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a little something happy when most of my news feed and twitter is so incredibly depressing. Brian Williams just reported that people in Watertown have been told that they should not answer their doors! Scary scary scary.

In my attempt to bring you a smile, please enjoy an episode from season one of Boy Meets World. Not only is this a great after-school special type episode that teaches about acceptance, but it is FILLED with future D-list celebs! Be on the lookout for Yeah-Yeah from Sandlot, the klepto guy from Can’t Hardly Wait, Val from Brink and that chick from Full House, babysitters club etc. It is basically a who’s who of future 90s stars.
Side note: Shawn had a sister in this episode!? She was never mentioned again...

Enjoy! And be reminded that the lesson Ke$ha taught us was really first shown to us by Boy Meets World and the free spirited Topanga Lawrence. We are who we are!

Also, no more blowing stuff up or killing people. Okay? That is enough. Seriously.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A very vino weekend!

This weekend I wine tasted and it was fantastic!

One of the major benefits of living where we do, is that we basically have our very own Napa Valley just a hop skip over in Yamhill County. Yes, it is a much chillier and really probably not like Napa Valley, but it is very beautiful none the less. And they have wine! So… yeah. It’s awesome. Know what else is awesome? The fact that I went to college out there! I would say that we all (speaking directly to my fellow wildcats) took for granted that our college was in such a beautiful place. At least I can say that we took advantage of the wineries for a couple years. Turning 21 in wine country was not so shabby!

We started the day with brunch and mimosas, packed the car with snacks and hit the road! We visited Penner Ash, Adelsheim, Bergstrom and Colene Clemens. Our least favorite was Adelsheim. They were crazy pretentious and had pathetic pours. We paid to be in here! You might as well be nice and quit being so stingy with your vino! You have a few grape vines… I don’t think you’re going to run out! All the others were marvelous though. Amazing wines at Penner Ash, snacks and cool stories at Bergstrom and Colene Clemens had a pup and a fire place. Who doesn't love a cute puppy and cozy fireplace!?

Get ready for a ridiculous amount of photos!

Sista friend! 

Marina and my lovely mother! 

Mama Jo was our chauffeur extraordinaire! 

Just a few texts went out... Sorry I'm not sorry Brian! 

Pretty friends and tasty wine. This was the place w/ snacks! We were about it. 

Marina's new friend

I hope your weekends were stellar too! 

The science of sleep

Disclaimer: I have not taken a real science class since 2002ish. I am terrible at both math and science. But I guess you already read about the math thing. Also, this post isn't actually about science at all. It is about sloth.

I was once told that if you don’t get a lot of sleep for a bunch of years your body will spend the next however many years trying to catch up on those lost hours. This is clearly not true, but the theory was that if your body needs 6 hours of sleep to function normally, but you regularly only give it 5 over the span of a year, your body will “bank” the lost 365 needed hours and try to make it up. The best solution would obviously be 365 hour long naps.

I am certain I have used this photo of Lauren and Marina napping before. It is just too perfect!

Doesn't this feel true sometimes though!? Say you stayed up late on Saturday and didn't get to sleep-in on Sunday. Even if you get normal sleep amount on Sunday night, it feels like you are still recovering on Monday. Which you may be, as this is on a much smaller scale. It does make me wonder though, what about new moms? Do they have a bank of lost sleep hours that make them say things like, “because I’m the adult and you’re the kid.” You guys, they were still tired from the agony that you put them through when you were an infant! Maybe. Probably not. It is an interesting theory though.

Don’t worry guys! I have more on this completely uninteresting topic.

My co-worker once told me about a study that was done where they put people in a house or room or something where they had access to food for 3 meals per day, as well as entertainment and a place to sleep. BUT they couldn't see the daylight progression. These people were just supposed to go about their lives. It was a study on the natural habits of people and our natural body clock. From the study (that may or may not be real) they found that after time, these people were living 25 hour days! Based on when they ate their meals, how their bodies naturally slept etc. They were living 25 hour days!!! That means the real reason we always feel like we are catching up is because our day is one hour too short.

I’m not crazy right? Don't we all feel like we are constantly trying to catch up with our own lives? One more hour to get laundry done, or take a bath, or sleep longer, or linger at Target! Wouldn't that be amazing!? I love Target.

What a stupid post. I don't even care. I'm going wine tasting this weekend! TGIF!

Old is the new young!

Today is my birthday! As a gift to myself, I will not be writing a big long blog post.

So please go about your day and celebrate me. You may also celebrate my mother! Today I thank her for her (epidural free) hard work to bring me into this world.

I was born. You are welcome.

Potential new career? SPORTS!

I don't watch a lot of sports. Are you shocked!? But when I do watch sports, all I can think about is how stupid the game time reporter commentary is. There is a friendly type boy in my life who doesn't get a lot of mention on this here internet place, but as we spend more time together, my exposure to professional athletics has doubled (from almost none to a little).  And in this observation of athletics, I now have a claim out there in the universe, and now on the internet, that I could be a halftime/ post-game reporter! Seriously. All they do is say something everyone already knows and then ask an obvious question.

All you have to say is stuff like,

"I bet coach [name] is giving the players some real encouragement right now."

OR

"The team with the most points will most definitely be victorious in this match-up. Back to you [name]."

OR

"Tough loss. How are you feeling?" and "Great win! How are you feeling?" and "That was some hard play in the second half. How are you feeling?"

THEN

"Big win for the [mascot]. Back to you [name]."

The only people who need to know stuff are the real reporters in the studio. Everyone else just sounds like blithering idiots. I could TOTALLY be just as stupid as them. Please email me with any job openings or potential hiring opportunities that you hear of. Thank you.

“She clearly has done her homework in preparation for this blog post. In the end she gave it all she had, it JUST wasn't enough today. Back to you real bloggers.”

Things I am not good at: Math

My name is Laura and I am terrible at math. Not just like normal person bad, but like REALLY bad.

To this day I add on my fingers and can only multiply by the low numbers or 10. I remember thinking long division was fun. But I think that is just because I liked my 4th grade teacher. I also know that I was bad at it. Hey, you can be bad at something and still think it is fun! Reference: Things I am not good at: Sports.

Ways my poor math skills inhibit my daily life:
- When I tip, I never add change to the tip to make the total rounded out. You think I can do that math!? You are wrong.
- On the same topic of tipping. I am also a really good tipper. Not because I am super generous, but because I only know how to make 10% from the total. I then of course double it (Yeah! multiply by 2 booya!). And if there is a weird amount of change I will round up to the next whole dollar. Most of my tips are over 20%. Especially at bars or buying other low cost items.

Basically, being bad at math is making me poor. It isn't all bad though. Luckily my complete ineptitude for mathematics set me up for some really great friendships! How is this possible? Let me explain...

How bad math skills gave me great friends:
- Because I scored so low on the math portion of the SAT, I had to take a proficiency exam at Linfield.
- Because I failed the proficiency exam (are you kidding!? There were fractions! Of course I failed) I had to take a remedial math class.
- Guess who else scored low on the SAT and failed their proficiency exams? MARINA AND LIBBY!

Here we are 2 days before graduation. Posing as freshman in line for Dillin. (the dining facility for underclassman)

Because we all suck at math, we ended up in the same class at Linfield during the first semester of our freshman year. It was called Great Ideas in Math. It was Math 116 and it was hard! I mean, we all got an A in the class, but still. Libby and I would sit in my dorm room and do our homework together struggling to get through the worksheets on topics like infinity.

For a better idea of what this class was like… for our final project Libby and I made paper mache Mobius bands and changed the words to Love Shack to be about Mobius bands. We got an A.

A couple tastes of the song: 
-"I've got me a Mobius band, it has one side and one edge, and we’re headed on down to math class."
- "A Mobius band is a really cool thing that / we can learn about together! Mobius bands baby!"

This is where I say thank you to my liberal arts education. I will never forget what a Mobius band is.

Obviously this experience bonded us together because we are all still friends today. Libby and I lived together for 7 years [see this post] and Marina moves in next month. Great Ideas in Math? More like great friends for life!!