Voluntary Torture? Sure, I'm Game

Well well well, ladies. Look who's back to revive the blog!

In the news: We had beautiful sunny weather...which I enjoyed a bit too much and got sunburned. Never fear! no skin cancer here! (hey that rhymed) Then Old Man Winter decided to come visit and bring some t-storms, rain, sleet, and yes...snow. womp womp. GOOD news is that sunshine is back and it'll stick around for a little while.

Lollapalooza announced their lineup. While I was initially underwhelmed, the non-headliner bands look pretty sweet. Too bad I'm poor. Trying to figure out a way to get tickets.

I just bought a Groupon to get a discount for Mado. Pretty pumped about it. Going this weekend.

Bella is on a diet. she seems pretty pissed about it. hopefully she'll start slimming down soon and appreciate what I'm doing for her.

On to voluntary torture: I went to my very first Spin class yesterday. It was my first EVER spin class and I must say it totally kicked my butt. I'll probably go back, but it's tough stuff. Oh, but that's not all folks! I also decided to do a body pump express class...which is aerobic weight lifting right after spin. My body feels like it wants to give up on life. Does that mean I'm fit?? I dunno.

Sunny weather brings hope to my fitness goals, and I plan to sit outside and read a lot over the next few weeks.

When are you guys visiting again?

Ok, Martin out!

Sigga What?

This just in through the Schell grapevine (and from Relevant)-- Sigur Ros’ frontman, Jónsi Birgisson, is working on a solo album that will be out this April. Word on the street is that they were almost done with a full-length album when this all took off for ol’ Jónsi. He’s the high-pitched backbone of this group, so this should be a fun album. It’s going to be in English, not syllables from an obsolete Icelandic language, but even so, it still might be hard to make out the words from his baby bird/angel voice. The tiny bit of sampling that is on his website, and the youtube music video sound pretty fun. If you are not currently a fan of Sigur Rós, then you need to re-evaluate your life. This is a band Andrew introduced me to 2002-ish and they’ve had some good music since then. Check it out.

Also... Watched a great movie on HBO a while back with MJ… “Temple Grandin,” starring Claire Danes (as Temple) who sports some Shirley Temple locks. I have to say; she did a great job and as fellow HBO star Big Edie would say, she was an autistic smash. She’s a fine cowgirl and may have introduced herself in the following way: “Are you a scientist? Hi, Temple Grandin, nice to meet you. Are you a scientist?” This reminds me of when Karen Lesser busted in my room freshmen year and asked me if I was a poet. I told her that if I was I didn’t know it. She told me she thought I was anyway. Yep, Karen also said Hitler was “a famous man from the Holocaust,” so I didn’t listen too much to her predictions about my life. I’d like to see an HBO special on her life. I don't know anyone that wouldn't.

Finally, as promised, here are some pictures that I've taken on my grandfather's old camera. They are in order and you can see the art grow as we go. I think we've finally figured out how to use it properly and here are some of my favorites so far:

I'm still a little surprised that the camera works and I've been very pleased with this fun discovery. I took some sweet pictures of Frank with it while in NOLA but we'll have to wait and see how they actually turned out.

P.S.: I'm working on an art project for a work video. For those who don't know, it's a stop motion (flip-book style) movie of scenes I'm painting. It's about 1600 screens for a 2 minute curriculum video. So stay tuned for that because I'm finishing it up tonight. Probably can't post it but might try to show it to you soon.

Happy end of the week! Rainbows and honey bears,

schell

Ramblings of Procrastination

It's finals time, so everyone has their nose in the books, except for me. I'm not sure what's gotten into me, but I just can't motivate to study for the two finals that I have tomorrow.

The past few weeks have been filled with ups and downs.

I was SUPER excited to have sunshine and 40 degree weather for a few days. I think my S.A.D. is subsiding. I can only hope the same for Liz Lemon.

I've finally recovered from the plague. My black lung cough will sometimes resurface when I'm outside, but I'm otherwise healed. Get excited.

I've had a really hard time missing out on the birth of baby Emma. I'm not really sure why, I missed Jon and Sarah's wedding, so it's par for the course! I guess it's the first realization I've had of the trade-offs that I'm going to have to make in my life. I definitely don't regret moving to Chicago. I guess it was just my first realization that I'm not going to be physically beside you celebrating the great moments in your lives, and supporting you during the difficult ones. I guess this sentiment is fitting to the blog. I still miss you guys already :)

I went to see Citizen Cope Friday night. God love him...he's so messed up during a show, I'm just impressed that he's able to stand the entire time.

I just bought the Mumford & Sons CD and plan to buy tickets to see them at Lincoln Hall on the 24th of May. Thanks Melba for the tip.

Pooja also gave me Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance, I forgot how much I liked that song.

I bought chocolate covered, peanut butter filled pretzel bites at Trader Joe's last week. Pretty sure they should put a warning on those about how addictive they are. good grief.

I've been listening to Jump Little Children a lot lately. If you haven't listened to them in a while, do yourself a favor...go listen to them. now. go.

OK. I guess that's enough for now.

Make wise choices,

ashlarae

Amy, I'm glad you're blogging

I'd like to start by giving Amy kudos for keeping ISMYA alive recently.

Sorry friends. This quarter has been filled with tons of group work, which leaves me little motivation to open a computer once I get home.

I'm ready for Spring.

I've had the cold that won't die for a week and a half now. I finally sound normal again, but it's still hanging on by it's little fingertips.

I went to Louisville with Clayton for valentine's day, and that was fun times. We ate tapas, Persian food, an awesome brunch, went to the Louisville Slugger Museum, AND Churchill Downs. So, fun-filled weekend! I haven't unpacked the bag I took yet...oops.

Bella is a wretch and only wants to eat snow, so I'm definitely ready for a thaw.

I'm getting ready to mail Frank's b'day present....already almost a week late. fail. I was hindered by the inconvenience of a post office, lack of scotch tape, and the devil cold. :)

Better late than NEVER!

Just 5 more days of class this quarter, then we're on to finals. Bring it.

Citizen Cope March 5! Clayton visits March 16! Finals END March 16th!

Amy, are you ready for your b'day??? It's rapidly approaching!!!

I want a cupcake.

Blog Hog: a glutton’s trip recap

Hog log frog, ham lamb spam, bull beef bear… ring any bells? Anyone?

Okay, well as you know, I went down to see my sister for the weekend. The collapsed family vacation in New Orleans actually worked out well for me because it happened to be Mardi Gras weekend. I’m very familiar with this holiday because of living near Mobile and getting out of school for it, but NOLA celebrates just a tad differently. I went to 5 parades and found out the hard way that they do not throw moon pies there. But I caught a lot of beads and stuff for T-Frank, lost my camera and ran after a float with Big Frank to catch six intact BAGS of beads… awesome. What I learned, you don't have to push and shove and being from out-of-town helps you get more beads. Despite their governmental struggles, New Orleans does a few things well and fortunately for me that’s fun and food. I’m going to bore you with my weekend menu because it was ridiculous.

1) Vietnamese “3 Happiness Restaurant” (the Chinese restaurant is 5 Happiness, so I guess this one has the mopes): crab rangoons, wonton soup, egg rolls and cook your own chicken and shrimp rice paper roll-ups. This was a real feast that was almost missed because Conlee tried to get us to get up and leave abruptly before ordering. I vetoed this.

2) Sunday lunch with family & friends: crab & shrimp bisque/creole, seafood gumbo, rice, fried chicken, garlic bread, BBQ, Zapp’s chips and chocolate king cake.

3) Blue Frog Chocolates: chocolate covered gummy bears, sweet potato chips dipped in chocolate, and specialty chocolates like fresh peanut butter and strawberry jelly inside of chocolate.

4) Patois (a fancy dinner for Conlee and I): Almond crusted Flounder with roasted potato galettes, green beans and Satsuma meniere (whatever that is) with a Fleur de Lis martini… yes please.

5) Oak Street Café: a 50-minute wait for a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit and some great hot chocolate. They claim to have donuts all day but the donuts “had the day off” when we went. (There was also an emo guy outside with a giant Mick Jagger head on advertising for more people to come to the café, even though it was PACKED.)

6) Tried to go out to a second Vietnamese place that is in Kenner’s Little Vietnam but it was closed for Chinese New Year. They like to get special Vietnamese Po’ Boys from there, but instead we went to a creepy bakery “French” bakery that is not run by the French or any English speakers. (Side note: When I saw their business card with the French name I made a “can I have your number?” reference in my head but since I gave up cussing for Lent, you’ll have to figure that joke out yourself.)

7) Around the house: Fancy pork nachos (9pm dinner), specialty cheeses and strawberries, spicy cheese grits, Frank’s special rare burgers (gross) and then Conlee gave me John Besh’s first and only cookbook that came out in the fall. Looking forward to cooking out of it.


The city was also extra crazy because of the big Super Bowl win. The team parade was last week and then the regular parades followed. I don’t understand it quite yet, but the Who Dat nation has their own soundtrack from this victory that everyone knows and plays but I don’t know where it came from. These are mostly just older songs with Saints-adapted lyrics. This is all I listened to all weekend and it was always cranked to eleven. Featured on this are U2/Greenday’s “The Saints Are Coming,” Baby Boy da Prince’s “Saints Song 2009” and my favorite-- Ying Yang Twins “Halftime” a.k.a. “Crunk” to which old and young jump up and starting getting crunk… it’s a-mazing! There are CDs sold but I don’t know where they are produced or if it’s legal, but everyone knows the songs and the bands in every parade played “Crunk.” Of course I’m still listening to it, but the whole thing is still a mystery to me. Sorry I lost my camera or else I could have shared a video of some of this playing out. Please explore these songs in your free time.

Peace out!

ISMYA - Anniversary Edition:

So my parents’ anniversary is on Valentine’s Day this year and every year. But this year marks the 40th time they’ve been able to celebrate their marriage. They have been married for 2/3 of their lives. I want to take a minute and congratulate that because I think it’s more of a feat than we think. My grandparents were married for 53 and 61 years, so I have a good family legacy of people keeping it together. My maternal grandparents were married for 15 years before my grandfather was paralyzed. He remained married and unable to care for himself for 46 years. What? Can you imagine what stick-to-it-ness that took? I can’t; I really cannot fathom what it would even mean to be paralyzed and eat mush for 46 years, much less care for someone that long.
But back to my parents… This union has produced three great sons and one sassy daughter. (And yes I have a sister from another mother) My dad has built at least one house for my mom and my mom has sacrificed to make sure my dad’s dreams came true. I’ve had my share of not being thrilled with my parents’ relationship, but after forty years, I guess some things tend to happen. Sometimes I get mad that we didn’t have much to talk about at dinner time, but when you think about it, that’s 43,680 meals (minus a few breakfasts here and there), so I guess it makes sense. And despite any frustrations I’ve had, this is pretty great and I would “like” it on FB if that was an option. But let’s be honest, I just realized that my mom will give us that opportunity if you just keep an eye on her status updates.

I know it might be weird, but we grew up in a house where we celebrated my parents’ anniversary with cards and presents. So my brothers and I are trying to put something together for them as a sweet present to remember 1970 and what it held for them. Thought about just putting a bow on the Electrolux vacuum they got that year that is still used, but instead I’ve compiled some old notes and letters from my dad to my mom. They met at GM&O Railroad in Mobile and so I went down last year and took some pictures of this really great building. I’ll group these things plus some other GM&O memorabilia in shadowbox frames. Let’s just hope they like it (and actually hang them up). In making this and in recent conversations with my family, I’ve found out a lot about my parents that I never knew. It’s weird to think about my dad being a dad before he met my mom. It’s weird to think about my mom driving a sports car and having a wildly decorated apartment. It’s weird to know that your parents used to be young and crazy, but they were. So in celebration of that and more, here’s to Bonzatron and Johnny No Ice – thanks for all the memories!

Family Circus - a real life story:

I’ve slacked on blogging lately, so you are about to find out what’s been going on:

Ups:

We had a joint birthday party for Seth (2) and Josiah (3) this weekend. Seth is Josiah’s size but not as tough… for many reasons, but mainly age and exposure to violence. I really hope Josiah wished for growth when he blew out his candles. The party was a circus theme so Forest and I had the task of taping up streamers to resemble a circus tent in the dining room. It was awesome and I was thankful for the streamer experience from MJ’s birthday a few years ago. Then we went to the circus, which was my first exposure to such things. It was sweet, but I have to say that the BJCC just makes for a sad circus tent. That night, I went on a shopping spree with Sarah for the girls’ birthday presents. I walked out with 3 sets of clothes and one pair of awesome white patent leather mocs/loafers. (They already had another set of dresses at my house.) I feel justified in doing all of this because I won’t get to do it again for them in a while. I’m going to miss those kids.

Saw John Caparulo from the Chelsea Lately show at the Comedy Club. He was fun… good times and another first for me.

Went to FLIP, Richard Blais’ restaurant that newly opened at the Summit. Sorry I haven’t reported on this sooner, but it was awesome! Glad we finally got to go and the chocolate salted sweet potato fries were great. But they weren’t as great as the toasted mini marshmallows that topped my smores milkshake. Oh snapfish! I had the Farm Burger and it was pretty delish. Go to there!

The LOST debut this week! What the crap? When Richard got neck chopped I laughed and when the group went through the temple hole and were taken into Swiss Family Robinson pirate land, my SFR prediction came true. My favorite two island stories are now bound for eternity.

Going to New Orleans next weekend to hang out with my sister (during Mardi Gras). Don’t be jealous, it’s invite only. Who wants to go back with me in the fall?

Bought a GPS system with the monies I got from selling some art to Wingo.

Dropped off my film on Wednesday and I’ll get one back on Friday and one next week. We’ll see how badly I ruined this great opportunity for making awesome photos. I’m getting prints and digital copies, so I’ll post some if they turn out at all.

Downs:

I went on a shopping spree with Sarah.

My dad’s doctor thought he had a heart attack, but it turns out he didn’t. That was a scary week, but not as scary as knowing my dad thought he’d several and hadn’t been to the doctor about them. Side note: I took them to Five Guys while they were in town this weekend.

I didn’t catch up with LOST before it started again. I didn’t even finish re-watching Season 2. No comments needed.

The trip to NOLA was supposed to be a sibling vacation. It’s hard to have a family vacation without the family. I think everyone’s bailed on the trip, except for me, but especially the one that planned it. Awesome!


Reward:

I am grateful that you friends read through my thoughts on here, so I want to reward you. These are some featured shots from some scanned pictures from my uncle. I think they are from the summer before I started kindergarten or even before (1988-89) when my aunt and uncle hung out with us one weekend. Ladies and gents, this might be the closest you get to seeing me in a bathing suit.


Oh you are welcome. Happy Thursday!