Missing My Baby

Do you guys remember that short-lived show, THE BLACK DONNELLY'S?



Lately I've been missing it :(

I was in LOVE with that show!! Such good writing, great plots, lots of drama, mobster action and some fun accents. I brought back a stack of unlabeled DVDs (and other stuff I hadn't had the chance to bring with me before) from home. I spent the last 2 weeks going through them and finally labeling them according to what was on them. Alas, my season 1 (the only season before it was cancelled) iTunes files were nowhere to be found :(

So now I resort to watching vids of it on YouTube. I just don't know whether to give up looking for the episodes I had saved to DVD or if I should just go ahead and re-order it on Amazon. :(

American Girl

The new Punk Goes Classic Rock album is out and to tell you the truth, I'm only in love with 2 of the tracks. I feel like I probably should be in love with all of them, but I'm not. I love punk rock music (which includes pop punk as well), but it's WAAAAY daring to try to cover the classics . . .

I was really excited to see that there was a Tom Petty cover on there! I love Tom Petty's tunes. I grew up rocking out to Last Dance With Mary Jane, Free Fallin', and American Girl. So when I heard the cover of FREE FALLIN' by The Almost on the album, I immediately went to download it, and I've been playing it on repeat all day! It's like reliving those days when I would stand on my bed, rockin' air guitar and thanking my audience for "coming out to the show!" ;)

I've been reading a lot of reviews about the album, and a lot of people don't like that bands are trying to cover such iconic tunes. I, on the other hand, don't mind. I mean, if you can do a cover right, then you should. And you should ROCK it! I feel like The Almost does that with Free Fallin'. I love the aggressive power of Aaron's voice in the cover and the fact that they didn't stray far from the original. I know that it's really cool when a cover is done with a different feel (see John Mayer's slower cover, which is also awesome) but I appreciate that The Almost didn't stray too far from Tommy P's version. I think it pays homage to it's natural quality. I still listen to the original, but now I get to have a nice punk pop cover of it to add to the collection.





The other song on there that I love is the Mayday Parade cover of WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. Love it!

What's On My Mind

Let's take a moment to talk about some of my favorite Seattle things . . .

1. Local Caffes like Caffe Ladro, Caffe Vivace, Verite Coffee, & The Jewel Box Caffe. Seriously, the local shops work hard to prepare delicious coffee, and it shows. I love the sense of pride the baristas at the shops take in making the coffee not only taste delicious, but look delicious as well. They also get mad crazy awesome points for always having honey on the bar ready for me to stir in.



2. Molly Moons Ice Cream. This is the Seattle answer to Amy's Ice Cream! I love all of their unique flavors and I actually just found out that they are going to start sending out Ice Cream trucks! Insane! I better go hide my wallet right now!


3. Flowers in Seattle. They're gorgeous, okay? They are! They pop with so much color that they make even the gloomiest days seem hopeful.



4. Fireworks. It's a store that sells unique items and a lot of it is super creative—what a haven for me! This is one place I frequent when I'm searching for gifts for my friends & family.



5. Counterbalance Park. It's close to where I work and when I get the chance, I like to sit on the fun bright yellow chairs and enjoy a cup of coffee. I love the way the lights change color and how they light up the neighborhood at night.




6. The AGOG Primo pizza at Pagliacci Pizza. It's fontina and mozzarella cheeses, roasted garlic, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, goat cheese, parsley and Kalamata olives on an olive oil base, baked to perfection. They may as well call it crack cocaine.



7. Local Art-house Style Theaters. They're so unique and beautiful. There are so many of them here and they all feature movies unique to their neighborhoods! And I'm pretty sure the popcorn is cheaper too! ;)



8. Westside Church. My home church. It's amazing! I love all the people that I get to share life with there. My pastor and his wife are hilarious and the staff inspires me to greatness. I'm honored to be a part of that church family!



9. Easy Street Records. Where music lives. No, really lives. All of the staff KNOWS their stuff and are ready to suggest new music that is actually worth listening to. Plus they host fun Live—In—Store performances fo' frizzle! You can't beat that!



10. King County Metro. I gotta give major props to the metro transit here in Seattle. The bus drivers have to put up with pretty crazy shenanigans but they still maintain a positive attitude and I've even seen a couple hold their tongue even when they had every right to say something about a person's rude behavior toward them. They are truly unsung heroes. Also, the transit system is tracked via GPS and is 95% accurate in accordance with their online Trip Planning site. The service is great, it's relatively cheap transportation, and I can go to so many places all over Seattle just on one monthly bus pass! Love it!

Writing On The Walls

(click image to enlarge)

Other works of art from today:

American Idiot

I am a lover of all things pranktastic. I just am. I think pranks are hilarious when done right. I've been gotten by pranks a lot, and though most of the time they either scare the ever loving life out of me or make me look like the biggest fool ever, I appreciate that they tend to shift my perspective and lighten the mood.

On Saturday, I got to hang out with some wonderful women and talk about pranks that we had pulled and what some of the best ones were. As it happens, most of my really good ones, tend to backfire the most because either my timing is off or because the person doesn't think it's funny. But hindsight is 20/20 right?

One of my favorites is from this haunted house outreach that my church did. I worked at a church in Austin with the Master's Commission program as the Media Director. So not only did I do all of the media for the program, I also taught other students how to do it as well. Well, one year, we decided to do a haunted house at an old abandoned grocery store. The staff and students pulled excruciatingly long hours to put it all together. We had a section where people would chase you with chainsaws and we had an Exorcist station where they would show a clip from the movie and then someone would jump out and scare you, we had crazy insane clowns, and all sorts of other haunted house things. Well, at the end of it we had a coffee shop set up where you could talk to people (including our students) about what you thought of it all and we left out comment cards for people to give us feedback on what they liked and what they didn't like.

So, one day, just to be funny, I filled out one of the comment cards beforehand and I told the person in charge of choosing the cards that our director would read each night aloud to the cast to be SURE he read that one. So on the comment card, I said something like:

Wow! You guys did amazing! I'm a theater student at UT and I work a lot with painting sets and some of the more technical aspects. Man, whoever ran tech for your car crash scene was AMAZING!! [side note: for the record, it was me ;)] They must have put in a lot of time and effort to get the cues right. I'm impressed! And the painting in the clown section was phenomenal! [side note: the person who painted it was sitting next to me when I was filling the card out.] Your team deserves a big fat raise!

He read it out loud to us at the end of the night and even though most people in the room knew I had written it, and were giggling (as was I), our director TOTALLY thought it was real and was feeling pretty awesome about the magnitude of the compliments . . . until he found out it was me. ;) He then proceeded to fire me, then rehire me. This firing and rehiring would be a recurring issue between us for the next 4 years . . . in fact, I think that since I've left, he's fired me 3x as well.

(For the record, he doesn't REALLY fire me,
he just says it and we laugh)

So basically what I'm saying is I love pranks.

Also, I need some people to help me recreate this awesomeness! ;)

Steady As She Goes

Some things you should know:

1. I LOVE my job—the workplace, the co-workers, the atmosphere—i just LOVE it all! I seriously wish people could spend a day with me and get to experience all the greatness of my workplace!

2. My office building is an old church renovated into offices.

3. My personal office has 2 huge round portal windows with beautiful views.

4. One of those windows is removable plexi-glass so that I can get a fresh breeze when it warms up in the summertime.

5. There are no elevators in my office building.

6. I work on the 3rd floor

7. There are still more offices higher up than mine.

8. When you gotta get things from one place to another, you get inventive.

9. When you sit and work at a desk all day, it's nice to get interrupted with these inventive ways

10. When these inventive things happen, I will most likely take pictures of it!

One day last week, we had to get a whiteboard into my boss's office, but there was no way to get it through the stairwell up to his office. So, my co-workers got inventive . . .

They tied rope around the whiteboard so that we could
hoist it up from my window directly into my boss's office

It wasn't holding right the first time, so they kept trying different knots

Finally found one and made sure it could handle being hoisted

We lifted it up out of my office and began to hoist it up!
(i promise i helped!)

Then they hoisted it up

Up . . .

Up . . .

And away!!!

It's a good thing my boss's office is directly above mine ;)

Worlds Collide

Can we just talk about how much I love LOST? Cause I do! Seriously, I brought back my Season One DVDs from home on my last vacation just because I NEEDED to have it ready for when I get really nostalgic after this final season is over. Look, a girl's gotta be prepared!

I think part of the fun of it all is that since the beginning of LOST, I've been able to get together with a group of friends and watch it. When I was in Austin, every Wednesday night, my friends and I would pile into cars and drive over to the Matlock's or over to the Lermster's house and freak out together over the smoke monster, or over Arzt's big blowup (you uh, got a little Arzt on ya'), and finding out who Benjamin Linus really was. :O I mean, we went all out, brought over tons of snacks, some Dharma themed, some not. We even had a party where we all dressed up like members of the show and wore T-shirts with our characters on the back. I mean really, between Simo getting hair extensions a' la Sawyer and Tanner getting a perm so he could look like Sayid, I couldn't have asked for better friends!

My name is Sayid Jarrah . . . who is this Tanner you speak of?

And now that I'm in Seattle, I've been lucky enough to be able to carry on the viewing party tradition with when I go over to the Harvey's to watch it with Kyle, James, and Julie. We get to talk about our theories, what we've heard about upcoming episodes/the series as a whole, and just enjoying the company.

There's just something about being able to watch your favorite TV shows with others that makes a show that much better.

I really can't believe this is the last season of LOST. I am such a LOST geek. So much in fact, that when Damon Lindelof (co-creator of LOST) accepted my friend request on Facebook, I got ALL KINDS of geeked out giggly. It was bad, guys. Bad. Also, yesterday, I bought a shirt online from RIPT that has this on the front of it:

and I'm probably gonna wait by the mailbox like a sick puppy dog until I get it . . . this obsession is kind of ridiculous, I know.

Knowing that the final season is coming to and end and that there isn't going to be a spin-off or a movie made about it, I just keep looking back at things through the year that are have come about because of LOST. Things like this:

i'm still pretending this isn't REALLY the final season :(

a picture of perfection . . . er . . . i mean,
of Matthew Fox as Dr. Jack Sheppard ;)

Tell me that didn't make you laugh! Thank you, Chatroulette jokes!

i can't stop laughing at this

I gotta admit, if I were in an elevator with Matthew Fox,
I'd be like, "Oh my gosh, Amanda, what are you doing?!?" ;)

(sorry i couldn't center the vid—blogger is misbehavin')

In conclusion, I'm finally coming to the sad reality that I am just like all the folks in this video:

crushcrushcrush

Let's start here . . .


I think you could ask probably any girl to name one famous person that they love and they've got at least 2 people ready on a list in their brains. Some would like to call them "celebrity idols" or "iconic heroes." I have what I like to call, GIRL CRUSHES. Legit. I have girl crushes. Don't be fooled, I still bat for the home team, but truth be told, if I were ever ever ever ever ever in the presence of these drop-dead gorgeous, amazingly talented women, I'd GEEK OUT like no other!!!

Girl Crush #1: AMERICA FERRERA

And not just cause she's a Latina . . . promise! ;) She has truly grown as an actress and even though she totally could, she's not a celeb that goes around seeking headline stories and shocking tabloid press. She's classy—she's one of those ladies that can walk onto the red carpet and just command your attention, without even having to shout . . . which we Latinas can tend to be known for. She's a phenomenal actress. She's beautiful. She's named after my country for crying out loud! ;) But really, she just is such a stunning woman. I love her!

Girl Crush #2: KAT VON D

Being a woman who is a little "rough around the edges" and tends to "push the envelope," I got nothin' but love for Kat Von D. She's got a great sense of style and is incredibly talented. I know it can be easy for people look at a woman with tattoos and think she's just trying to fight for attention or she's kind of lower class, but I see Kat and I think the complete opposite! She's beautiful and the art that lives on her body is equally as beautiful because they each represent something special to her. And though I will never have such an extravagant amount of ink done on my body . . . in fact, I'm shooting for one here, folks, I will always smile big when I see her pics or re-runs of Miami/L.A. Ink. PS: Have you SEEN her makeup line at Sephora?? It's like she's reading my "make-up" mind!

Girl Crush #3: HAYLEY WILLIAMS

I love punk rock music. Plain and simple. I do. Hayley, the lead singer of Parmore, is the queeeeeen of punk rock music! She's funny, she's got a laid-back personality, she can rock a guitar with the best of them, and the girl can SING! man. i just love everything about Hayley. I seriously could go on and on. I've currently got 4 Paramore songs in the queue for me to learn to play on my electric guitar . . . I know it'll be a while until I get even anywhere NEAR her talent, but man, I'm excited to learn! Plus, she's so rad, I titled this blog post after one of Paramore's songs ;)

Girl Crush #4: KATIE SOKOLER (color me katie)

You may be asking yourself, "Who is this? What show is she on?" Well let me set the record straight. She's one of the most creative people I know . . . and she's not on TV or in movies . . . she's just an extremely creative woman that I admire. I first found out about her through an article in American Way Magazine . . . yes, the in-flight American Airlines magazine. But her creativity really re-fueled the creativity in me and inspired me sooooo much! You should check out her blog --- COLOR ME KATIE and take a look at her wonderful, whimsical work! You may not develop as much of a girl crush on her as I have, but you'll at least be tempted ;)

Girl Crush #5: KRISTEN WIIG

When it comes to funny, I look straight to Kristen Wiig. She is just a top notch improv comedienne! She is one of the main reasons I watch Saturday Night Live. Her impressions and the sketches she is in are the best medicine for me after stressful days. When I need a good laugh, I watch her various Gilly sketches, or her Bjork sketches on hulu and just laugh the stress away! She's beautiful, strong, funny, and isn't afraid to push the envelope—and I LOVE that about her!

Said The Sun To The Shine

For the record, I TOTALLY meant to write a post yesterday about my first day at softball practice. However, I had pulled an all-nighter on Saturday and so when I got back from practice, I decided I would take a 2 hour nap and would set my alarm accordingly. However . . . not only did i NOT fully wake up from the alarm sounding, but apparently I subconsciously put my laptop speakers on mute (I use an alarm clock program on my mac cause it's louder than my phone's alarm) and apparently dismissed the alarm that sounded on my phone. I don't remember doing either of those things . . . and I woke up 15 hours later. :O

Anyway, all in all, softball practice was great! I only sustained minor injuries . . . when I put up my glove to catch a pop-fly, but just missed it, which led to said pop-fly making it's mark . . . on my chest. Right here>



I know I know . . . i gotta work on my catching skills. I've never been good at catching pop-flies, so it's not like I was incredibly surprised. I just now have a strong reminder that I need to work on those skills more.

Moving on . . .

On Saturday, I got to do one of my favorite things ever: MAKE A MIX-TAPE!

I seriously LOVE making Mix-Tapes! So one of my friends asked me to make some for him because he hadn't been able to keep up with recent music and wanted to try out some different styles and sounds, so I jumped at the opportunity—it's so fun and creative and allows me to share music I love with my friends. Here are the ones I made for him:








It made me sooooo excited to hand them over to him! Also, one of the funniest things about the process of making the mix was my iChat conversation with Kelley while I was picking the initial song lists:

Me: I want Paramore on there. The question is, THE ONLY EXCEPTION or FEELING SORRY?
Kelley: I dunno Paramore really . . .
Me: It's okay. Hayley forgives you. ;)
Kelley: I used to like WE ARE BROKEN a lot but even that one has kind of fallen off with me . . .
Me: Ah. I like MY HEART
Kelley: Me too. Also my lungs.
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

This is just further proof that iChatting with Kelley while making a Mix-Tape is NEVER a bad idea. :D

Let's Get Physical

Heyyo! So today I got to spend a lot of time at the gym. Usually I only get to hang there for about 30 minutes because I don't always make time to be there for longer. I was working out hard today . . . for about an hour and a half, and was just thinking of the journey I've been on to get to where I am currently as far as my physical fitness goes. You see, when I was growing up, I was a pretty big girl.

Look, I'm Hispanic and we love to eat, okay? And we have the BEST FOOD EVER!! ;) Also, the fact that I was never was good at saying no, especially to yumtastic food, didn't help either. Growing up, I ate what I wanted, and a LOT of it was very unhealthy. We were constantly on the go and I'm pretty sure we spent a large chunk-o-change on fast food. Since finding out I had Pre-Diabetes, and fighting to avoid it, I've been able to make some pretty big changes in my diet. There are a lot of fatty foods I have cut out of my diet and a lot of things I'm slowly siphoning out of it currently. It's not always an easy fight, but I am getting much better. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't conscious of my weight. I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't excited for all the progress I've made thus far. Last fall, after months and months of working out and eating better, I was able to drop 2 pant sizes. This may seem like a little step forward, but for someone like me, it's a pretty big deal!

Usually when I go to gym, I go dreading the workout. Even when I was on staff with MCA and we HAD to go to the gym 2x a week, I hated it. I had the worst attitude towards working out. I didn't like to sweat and I didn't like to push myself. Also, I was pretty comfortable with just being large and in charge. But today when I was at the gym, I noticed that my attitude toward working out had shifted for the better. I even worked out a little extra just because I felt I could push beyond my perceived limit for the day . . . and I did and it felt great!

I'm looking forward to working with my doctor/nutritionist to become better and better and get to a place where I can feel good about challenging myself to push my limits. I want to be healthy and make wise choices. I've gotten so much better about saying NO to the wrong foods and YES to foods that are healthier for me, even if they're not my favorite foods. I've rearranged my schedule to get in more gym time and I'm looking forward to becoming even more healthy. I would be lying if I said that my mirror reflection wasn't a motivator, but an even greater motivator is the thought of defeating something that can easily take my joy, my health, and my life and lead it to a point of pain and inconvenience.

I will add that living in Seattle has worked wonders for me as well . . . these hills . . . they're insane. Also, the building I work in has no elevators and I work on the third floor. I sit at a desk for the majority of the day and it's so easy to just be content with inactivity, but one thing I do is challenge myself to make more trips up and down the stairs to continue to get in some more exercise. I discover that the more active I am, the more free I feel and the more healthy I feel. I want to be able to do another 5k this year as well (possibly even 2), and softball season is starting next month! I'm looking forward to going into these physical activities with a brighter, more positive outlook!

Oh Sailor

Ahoy me mateys!

This be yer cap'n speakin'. I wanted ter let ye know what be happening upon mah starboard bow lately. And it be deeeez. I've been fightin' a bit 'o' homesickness lately and these be helpin' me fight that scurvy foe. I commandeered these with me Diana Mini. I hope they be pleasin' to yer eyes, matey!

Peg-leggedly yers,

Cap'n Amanda "Patches" Martinez

mi muddah