Place de la République

It's only 10 am and a third of my liter bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper is gone. Perhaps I should have made "no caffeine consumption" apart of my goals for the year. But I don't know if I could actually do it after a night like last night. It was another testament that I am no longer closer to 20 than I am to 30. Gah, that sounds horrible.

I think I may be addicted to karaoke.

I just can't get it out of my system.

I went again last night with my roommate (who has an AMAZING voice by the way), and stayed much to late. It happens every time. I say to myself, "Tonight, I will leave at 11pm," and then 11pm turns into 12:30am...on a work night. Which is much harder than a school night, let me tell you!

Funny things seem to be happening to me of late at the frequented karaoke bar. Two weeks ago a utterly intoxicated man in his 30s started talking to my friend. I could tell that she was a bit unnerved, so I took one for the team, and engaged him in conversation, so he would leave her alone. He was asking if one of us if we wanted to do a duet with him. My friend did not. Nor did I. But I think this is where my being much too nice comes to bite me in the butt. I agreed to sing with him, thinking he would leave us alone once we appeased his request. We sang. I sat down. Horror of horrors he followed me, and asked for my number. He ended up taking my phone, entered his number, and called his phone. He was too quick for me to give him fake digits. And to top it off, we was wearing something that looked much like a wedding band. I told myself that he would be much too drunk to remember what happened that night, and that he would forget all about in the coming days and weeks.  Not so much. Three days later I received a text from him wishing me a Merry Christmas, and asking how to contact me on facebook. Naturally, I ignored the text. (All kinds of ick, huh?).

Last night I had a song dedicated and sung to me. Wasn't quite sure what was going on. Still don't know if it was a joke, or if it was serious. I'm going to pretend that it was a joke.The guy was apart of our group, but I'd only met him once before at karaoke. But how embarrassing!

It's Friday, and you know that I have a great bit of music for you. Je promis that I'm getting to it. And karaoke does relate. Sort of.

It's been really hard of late to pick good songs to sing. I don't listen to the radio, so I don't really know any of the popular songs out at the moment. And my music collection is eclectic. Very eclectic. I'm more of an alternative/indie girl, but I have my fair share of classical and foreign music. That being the case, I haven't really rocked it at karaoke.

Lately, I've been listening to the soundtracks of Amélie and Marie Antoinette on repeat, mixed in with a little Arcade Fire. I love French music. And we all know K-pop holds a special place in my heart. I even have  more than half a dozen Czech/Slovak albums.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this gem on iTunes. Coeur de Pirate has an AMAZING sound, and this song is absolutely beautiful! It's one that touches my soul and almost brings tears to my eyes.

Please enjoy Place de la République by Coeur de Pirate.



Click here for French and English lyrics.

Here's to 2012

You may have caught on that I love the beginning of the year. No? Well, I truly do. 

New years are shiny and new (obviously), an open book, full of untold possibilities. And I think 2012 is going to be absolutely fabulous. I can just feel it. 

Many of my friends know that I adore Bridget Jones. Bridget Jones's Diary could possibly be my favorite movie. Bridget is so endearing. She has flaws. She's been unlucky in love. But she has gumption and doesn't let set-backs keep her down. And she ends up with Colin Firth. Who wouldn't love that?

Anyways, one of the main things of the book/movie is that she sets goals. Sometimes she keeps them, but more often than not she's not so good about it. But overall she is working toward change in her life, even though it may not be as quickly as she'd like (I can't believe I'm analyzing Bridget Jones).

Since it's the new year, it's time for some of my own goals. Cuz if you aren't working toward something, you're falling backwards. 

So here are some of my quirky, small, big, short-term, long-term goals for the year. They are in no particular order, might I add...

• Wear lipstick everyday - there's just something about lipstick that makes you feel so glamorous
• Make my bed everyday - it makes my room look that much more clean
• Read my scriptures everyday - best pick-me-up and faith builder
• Pray everyday - communication with God is soooo important
• Go to Praha - it's been far too long since I've been in the Czech Republic. Hopefully my mom and I can combine it with a trip to Estonia.
• Date someone - really. This needs to happen. No joke.
• Be brave - My dear friend, Maggie, creates a motto to live by each year, which I think is super cool. This was her motto for 2011.  I love Maggie! Such and inspiration!
• Complete a 5-star Sudoku on my own - my ex and I used to do these together. He was super smart, and he did most of the work. But there's no reason why I can't be that smart too.
• Exercise regularly - I'm not going to put down how many days a week. Regularly I think works.
• Blog regularly - I need to keep up my writing skills, and what better place than here?
• Be nice - I pretty much have this down, but sometimes there are people that rub me the wrong way--I need to be nice to them too.
• Go shooting - this just sounds cool
• Love life - sometimes I get caught up in the things that aren't going well. My friends have accused me of living in the past, or having the grass-is-always-greener syndrome. I need to live in the moment and love it.

Let's see if I can keep them up. I'll have to make some smaller goals in order to achieve the larger ones, but I think it's doable. What are some of your goals for the year?

The New Year...

...brought to you by the Seattle Center!

I hope yours was just as spectacular!

Here's to 2012 and all the amazing possibilities!

Happy New Year!

Last night, a few of my friends and I visited The Maple Leaf for a night of karaoke goodness. Little did we know that they would be celebrating New Year's Eve early. The bar tenders and DJ were all dressed up--we obviously didn't get the memo. It ended up being the best karaoke night ever! Good music, excellent talent, and amazing dancing. And we can't forget the countdown. The best thing about it though, is that we  get to do it all again tomorrow night!

This music video has been circulating the internet, and I had to share it. Two of my most favorite celebrities teamed up again for this little ditty.



Can I just say I love Zooey Deschanel? And New Girl? It could possibly be my most favorite. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt is so dang cute. Who knew he could sing?

I hope you all have an amazing New Year's Eve!

Modern Art

My dear friend Janča posted this on her facebook.com wall.
It makes me happy because it's SO true!

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Here's to modern art (my favorite)!

Merry Christmas!

Our beautiful Christmas tree.

I hope you all had an awesomely amazing Christmas! I sure did. It was full of friends, family, and fantastic food! The only thing missing was the presence of my dear brother.But that's ok--he'll be with us next year.

I love Christmas!
I love visiting dear friends with platefuls of Christmas cookies.
I love silently sitting and watching the white lights glow and highlight the branches of the delicious noble fir.
I love rediscovering my favorite Christmas ornaments among the branches of the tree and recalling the memories of past times.
I love playing Scum with my family (and the satisfaction of starting as scum but ending up as king).
I love standing around the piano and singing Christmas carols.
I love eating my mom's rolls fresh out of the oven.

As usual, Linds and I were told to go to bed early. It was a bit funny to be told to go to bed, because we both stay up later than our parents on a regular basis, but we were willing to oblige. Lindsey was the first one up on Sunday morning, which seems fitting as she is the baby of the family. :)

It was sweet to watch my parents open up their gifts from us. Linds and I both did good this year--Lindsey and her boyfriend got my parents a beautiful set of pots and pans, while I made my mom a scrapbook of her travels back east this past winter, and got my dad an awesome book on the history of flight. As I've gotten older it's much more fun to give gifts than to receive them!

The damage done.

Cassie the Cat, wanting to be in on all the excitement.

Linds et moi.

After the opening of the presents we went to Church as a family and were able to focus on the purpose and true meaning of the holiday--our Savior's birth.

Here's to Christmas, spending time with family, and for the birth and life our Savior Jesus Christ!

It's the Holiday Season!

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 I love the holiday season! T'is quite unfortunate that I haven't found time to write. Apparently I struggle with  consistency. But sometimes socializing and spending time with my fam is more important, wouldn't you agree?

Christmas is fast approaching and I'm excited. It's my first time in a looooong while that I'm in Seattle leading up to the holidays. It's fun spending time with my mom and sister crafting Christmas crafts, and viewing our traditional line-up of holiday movies. (Some of our favorites are Elf, The Bishop's Wife, White Christmas, and Miracle on 34th Street).

Haven't made it into the city yet, but I did do Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister. We had a blast! We felt so bad for the poor retail workers that had to work through the night, so on principle we didn't start our shopping until 6am on Friday.

A side note:

Don't you think it's ridiculous that some stores

 opened on Thanksgiving night? 

And I'm not talking 12am, but 9pm? 

Or am I old-fashioned?

(I sure hope not--I'm only 28).

Other highlights of the past few weeks:

• Thanksgiving with the fam and great friends. Complete with an inappropriate cousin (not mine of course). It was hilarious!
• Bellevue Botanical Gardens with a great group of friends.
• Being bold, and confessing (perhaps I've been watching too many Korean dramas, but they do it all the time). It felt great to know where we stand. (Just friends, and I actually prefer it that way).
• Making Czech food for my friends. Ovocne knedliky are the best! I'm grateful to my MTC companion for sending me the recipe!
• Having a new roommate move in--she's amazing!
• Watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional (even though we accidentally watched the wrong year). 
• Seeing Arthur Christmas with my mom. Super cute movie!
• Hanging out at Crossroads, eating bulgogi, and drinking bubble tea, whilst listening to a community concert. There was one rockin' grandma that we wanted to call our own. 

Hoorah for the Holiday Season!