floating down the river (top 5 thursdays - music!)

Love this topic! It's hard for me to make a list of only 5 songs, but here goes:

(excuse me while I sit here and stare at things for five minutes because this is HARD for me. UGH.)

1. I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys)

This song is for my sister. Because it's our song. We would sing it to eachother, upstairs in Browning (our houses were known by their street names, because my parents bought houses as our family got bigger, and then kept the old ones and rented them out -- we were not super rich, I promise.) We would text eachother when it came on the radio. We occasionally just text eachother the opening lines. Because it is ours. We're not even really that big of Backstreet Boys fans...

2. Wannabe (Spice Girls)

Because seriously, what girl didn't want to be a Spice Girl? My best friend, Jess, and I used to dance around to this song. We knew all the words. I was Ginger Spice, because I had red hair, and she was Scary Spice because, well...she looks kind of like Scary Spice. ;)

3. Poker Face (Lady Gaga)

So this song isn't all that old, but it reminds me of first hanging out with Nate before we were dating. Specifically, the first time we went dancing with the other memebers of our a cappella group (where we met,) this song came on. We got fed up with not knowing the words to this "new" song and told the other person we would have it memorized by the next time we went dancing. The rest is history!

4. Call on Me (Eric Prydz)

I didn't discover this song until college, when it was played pretty much every Tuesday 80's night at AJ's on the roofdeck dancefloor. AJ's is nasty, but it's where I gained some of my best friends in college and discovered my love for ridiculous 80's powerpop. And seriously, the roof deck would sway if too many people were up there. And if you started jumping up and down -- because that's what you do to 80's songs -- they turned off the music until everyone stopped, so we didn't go crashing down through the roof of the building below. Now, I just get all dancy when I hear this song. I wish it would last forever

5. For Good (Wicked)

This song reminds me of my friend Megan. She's very far away now, and getting married next year. We aren't as close as we used to be, but I love her. Back when we met in high school and were roommates freshman year of college, this was going to be the closing song of our senior recital. Well, we never really got there. But this song (really this whole musical) reminds me of her. She helped me grow up, and be stronger than I thought I could be. We were ridiculous.

I have so many more I could put here: Africa (Toto,) Our Children (Ragtime,) Ironic (Alanis Morisette,) The Luckiest (Ben Folds,) The Next Ten Minutes (The Last Five Years.)  I have so many memories, associated with so many things because I live my life through music. It's part of being a musician. =)

Wanna do this and link up? Go here!

-C

(I was trying to think of songs that reminded me of all three of my best friends from high school, and I couldn't come up with anything that wasn't choral. I have individual songs: Cotton Eyed Joe -- Jessamyn, you know what I'm talkin' about; The Rose - for my Leslie...do you guys remember anything I'm missing?)

concrete jungle where dreams are made

Empire State of Mind always reminds me of my friend Zoe. She's from LA, but moved to Boston for a year or so (where I met her,) before she moved up to NYC. Now she works for Food Network (! -- that exclamation point represents my seething jealousy.) And she does a mean Alicia Keys impersonation.

Last night out before Nate and I left on our adventure!

We are both from non-snowy places, so we get real excited about snow.

I've decided that there's no point in checking the weather for any reason other than the temperature here in Seattle, because it was supposed to rain all day yesterday and it didn't do anything until about 6PM, when it decided to thunderstorm and hail, as Nate and I were walking home from the grocery store. Today was supposed to be mostly sunny, and it's been raining since I left the house at 7:45 this morning.

I love grocery shopping, but sometimes going to the grocery store (especially on Sundays, when it's a made house) makes me feel like this:

{via}

Hehe.

In any case, we made burritos last night for dinner, because our fridge is malfunctioning and likes to freeze things. So I asked Nate to put the chicken that was in the freezer in the fridge to defrost and it didn't. So we used the ground beef we got, instead. I cooked up some mushrooms, onions and yellow corn to put as the filling (Nate added green peppers and jalapenos -- so spicy!) and we stuffed it inside burrito shells with some iceberg lettuce and cheddar cheese. It was super delicious, and there was plenty left over, so I have the makings for a taco salad for lunch!

In other news, I got my beauty bag from Target! Free things rock my life.

{via}

You can never have too many small makeup bags! I also love the book of coupons and the extra moisteurizing chapstick and lotion (because I am always extra dry-skinned.) The only thing I'm not positive I'll use is the hot pink lip gloss sample. My lips are naturally pretty pink, so I don't like to add a whole lot of color to them. (And by 'not use,' I mean I'll probably put it on at home, decide it's way too much color and take it off before I leave the house.)

Also, I always read about people bookmarking things, and I'd like to take this time to mention my favorite way to bookmark: SVPPLY

Basically, it's like a feed for your 'want to buy's, with an easy-to-install bookmark app that allows you to add things from outside sources to your feed. You can also follow people and see what they're adding, and add them if you like their taste! I can't share my feed on here, because I use it to keep track of things I think would make good gifts for people, but I did find that grocery bag on the site. So check it out! (and if you really want to see my feed, you can e-mail me.

-C

two minutes late

Despite the fact that since I got up at 11:45, and have since watched a bad 80s movie starring Michael J. Fox, an episode of chopped and two episodes of Made (well, one and I'm on the second,) today has been pretty productive.

I decided, when Nate found out he had to work, I would try and make Apple Chips, instead of just staring at the television! I whipped out all my tools and apples and got started:

My little apple corer is hilarious, and prompted me to take more pictures than I normally would. I find this one is especially hilarious...

He is a shady character!

Got all the apples cored, and one of them sliced using the thinnest setting on the mandoline.

I put the slices down on some aluminum foil and covered some with cinnamon sugar and some with pumpkin pie spice, and then baked them at as close to 200 as I could get the oven (a little background story: our oven bakes about 100 degrees hotter than it says on the dial. And the lowest temp on the dial is 170, so I had to turn it to somewhere between the lowest setting and off. And then check in the thermometer we have hanging inside. It's a hassle.)

The first batch was uhm...interesting? I really like the cinnamon sugar ones (not so much the pumpkin pie spice ones,) but the apples stuck horribly to the aluminum foil. Not to mention, they're less chip-like and more fruit leather-like in texture. I think this might be because I took them out too early. So I made a smaller batch and sprayed the aluminum foil this time, and I'll try and flip them after an hour and leave them in for closer to two hours.

I was going to make roasted chick peas, also, but my chickpeas leftover from making hummus were kind of...fermenting in their own juices, so I just had to throw them out. 

We're hanging out with Nate's cousin and his girlfriend who are in town for the weekend either tonight or tomorrow morning. This whole 'hanging out with people' in the city we now live is is kind of cool. I think I like it.

-C