just a few things i need to get out there. . .

right now i just can't focus on only one thing (when it comes to blogging and in life in general). here's some of the items in my mental shopping cart right now:

- i just checked my brackets and i am DEAD LAST in both leagues. one of the leagues has 20 people which means i am worse at picking winners than 19 of my closest birmingham friends. awesome.

-i think i am a "foodie" or maybe would like to BE a "foodie." i'm not quite sure of the requirements. part of that is a fantastic new cookbook courtesy of amazon used books, and a newly discovered (by me anyway) food blog called orangette. sigh. i just don't think my blog will EVER be as interesting as hers. 

-my inner hippie is starting to resurface.  mj and i went bouldering and its like it all came rushing back. i want to grow things on my apartment porch and join a farmers co-op.  my porch, however, gets only 5-7 hours of sunlight a day and the farmers want a lot of my money for their locally organic grown produce. we'll see how this plays out.

-i would like for this week to be more productive and feel less scattered than last week (which was supposed to be super laid back but ended up being quite unsettling).  

-sara and paul are married!!!! i am so very excited about them. and a little nervous because they named me the godmother of their dog, sandy. what if she dies while i'm taking care of her? oh, i should explain, the littens now reside here at our apartment complex. this should have been first but due to being a larger, heavier item, it had to be placed at the bottom of the mental shopping cart. so as not to crush the bread. 

-i'm beginning to think in twitters. it scares me.  

more to come. perhaps expanding on these issues, perhaps with a whole new load of issues. i guess we shall see.

"

give us this day our daily bread

have any of you ever made bread? well i did yesterday and let me tell you this - it takes a really long time. and it sort of takes a lot of work.  yesterday was a good day for it though. rainy, cold, justin recovering from a stomach bug and loads of america's next top model on tv.  plus, i just bought a new loaf pan so of course i had to put it to use.  i've decided i love the idea of making bread far more than i actually like making it. you have to do everything just right. get the water just the right temperature - too cold and it doesn't activate the yeast, too hot and it kills it. you have to add just the right amount of flour (which was about a cup more than the recipe called for) and you have to mix and knead and wait and then knead and wait some more. it is one looooong process. that was fine yesterday. i could sit on the porch in between and read and drink coffee or watch antm, because it was sunday without small groups so i had plenty of time. all i'm saying is, i could never do it on a normal day AND no wonder bakers have to get up before the cracking of dawn.  

well my bread turned out beautifully and actually tastes ok. the problem is, we don't really eat a lot of bread. so i'm going to have to find something to do with this loaf of perfection.  it did make me think about that part of the Lord's prayer "give us this day our daily bread" and how i just say it and think "yes, Lord, provide for my needs" because clearly providing bread is as simple as going to the store and buying some bread. but now that i've actually made bread and it's such a freaking process i think it changes my perspective a little bit. providing bread sans grocery store - a major undertaking. it just puts a little more weight into that line of the prayer we say once a week. 

me against the music

this past thursday night will do down in history (ok, personal history) as the night that britney spears and the pussycat dolls (whom i will now refer to only as PCD) put me, amelia, charlotte and mary elizabeth against the music.  and i think we won.  not only did we get to go to a pop-tastic concert but we had a professional photographer document our adventure.  here's a few shots by amelia strauss.

Me in the car, in my fedora - a wise purchase if i do say so myself.
me and strauss. strauss vamping it up, me attempting to vamp.

charlotte. i feel like this picture so acurately describes her personality.

brit's grand entrance. she came down from the ceiling in a cage. it was amazing. 

Crazy, i just can't sleep. I'm so excited, i 'm in too deep . . .

ok. here it is. big news. tonight i'm going to see the pop princess, the queen of scandal, the duchess of disturbing yet newsworthy breakdowns. ms. britney spears.  

i am. soo. excited. i haven't been a particularly avid brit follower but i DO recognize that a chance like this comes along once in a lifetime.  so me and three friends are driving to atlanta in approx 2 hours for this event.  yesterday we spent a solid hour at claire's (yes, the last time i bought a pair of earrings there it was during brit's first platinum debut) collecting earrings, brightly colored hair extensions, lace gloves and head bands. why? because if you're going to see britney you have to be prepared. i also bought a fedora. don't worry. 

2 things that make this even MORE fun: 

1.  one of my 2 guilty pleasure bands is opening

2. my favorite photographer is documenting our adventure.  

the exciting part for you? knowing that within a couple days i will post the story of our epic adventure. 

the exciting part for me? knowing that i'm about to see a real live performace of toxic while rockign out with a fedora on my head. 

dirty pop

I may or may not have downloaded a CD called Mr. Timberlake. I love it.

Justin Timberlake is my new Maroon 5.