tomorrow's my last first day of school.

and what, do you suppose, I'm doing?

making a playlist, that's what.

Enjoy:


(I actually didn't realize that the first two songs were named "I'm Ready" until now. I guess I'm really ready.)

All songs based on the actual playlist I made in my itunes. Get at me if you want a copy. I love sending mail.

Music Monday

Please, please enjoy these musical wonders this Martin Luther King Jr. day and thank your lucky stars that since I didn't have to actually go into work today, and simply have been working on things at home, I got sidetracked and have been listening to way too much music for my own good. Also, I bought the latest Paste magazine. (Remember my ode to the last one?) With each Paste mag you buy (or subscribe to, which I'm seriously considering) you get the code to download a new playlist with 20ish songs on it. They're pretty great. I've been musically resurrected yet again. But, most of the songs listed below are because I heard them on the radio on my way to Target this morning or I've been finding them via the internet. I surf the web a lot. Do people even use that phrase "surf the web" anymore? Well, apparently I do and I have.

I actually woke up to this song, via the fabulous The Current radio station.



I've recently discovered Allison Weiss. She's fabulous and I love this video. (She loves pancakes.)

Don't actually watch this Owl City video (because there really isn't one), just click play and go about the rest of your web surfing. I haven't figured out how to embed regular old mp3s on blogger - apparently its pretty impossible to do.

Also, just love Owl City because they are from Minnesota.

And last, but certainly not least, my latest addiction is the band Metric.

love love love love. Listen to more here.

i hate pop-tart crusts.

Now, I know that some of you are thinking "what are they supposed to do, Janae, just let the delicious gooey faux-fruit filling gush out into the wrapper?" No. That is not what I am suggesting. I'm just saying I hate the edges of pop-tarts. Especially the super generic brand that was bought for a tour because we were on a budget and that is what we do, but no one likes generic brand pop-tarts (don't even pretend you do - you know that real ones are 300 times better) so we had a ton of boxes left over and everyone took one or two home and I haven't really gone grocery shopping since I've been back in the cities (6 days and counting) and before I left I was already eating everything possible because I didn't have time to go grocery shopping during finals week and generic brand pop-tarts are practically all I have left in my cupboard except for a few spices, stale tortilla chips, marshmallows and dry pasta, so it is what I happen to be consuming right now and it is bad.

Whatever, pop-tarts are bad for you anyways. No one should eat them if they want to be semi-healthy. And that is where the rant came from.

With all of this coverage on Haiti, I feel really silly for not even mentioning it yet. And then starting off this post with a bash on fake pop-tarts which probably made most of you click off your computers and put in a toaster strudel. But I am mentioning it now. If you haven't donated but want to, there are a few ways that I have been reading about that seem really wonderful.

You can text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross. The money will be directly charged to your phone bill.

Partners in Health has a great reputation for helping with health care in Haiti and you can donate by going to their home website, or by going to their designated Haiti relief website, Stand With Haiti at standwithhaiti.org.

Another option is to support small businesses and Haiti relief by buying handmade goods. Each shop listed on this website is giving a percentage or all of the money that you spend towards Haiti relief.

Let's tackle both problems and never buy generic brand pop-tarts again while using the savings to help donate to Haiti. This post is coming off much more light-hearted than it probably should, but I'm sure you have all seen the destruction and devastating photos on the news, so there is no need for me to relay those here. And, just in case you haven't seen anything, CNN has an entire page dedicated to up-to-date stories, news, testimonials, photos, and everything else you want to know about the earthquake here. (Including an entire article on how money is the most important thing needed, and reputable organizations to donate to here.)

it seems to me that most of us are living precisely the lives we want to live. we just don’t realize it.

The subject line comes from a fabulous conclusion to a woman's tumblr post that i have reread a couple of times over the last few days. I love it. If you want to read it, click here.

Now, I haven't updated this with stories or pictures in awhile. I hear it. "Geez, Janae. Thinking you can go off and have winter break and not update anyone on anything you are doing." I did have a couple people from closer to where I'm from say that ever since I'd been back I hadn't been blogging. The truth is, I'm not sure what I did over break is really that interesting. But, here goes nothing.

(By the way, I LOVE when at the end of sit-coms, the characters sit down and say "the truth is..." and the dramatic culmination-to-the-problem music comes on. It makes me sit back and chuckle everytime and I usually get a little feeling in the pit of my stomach that is triggering the THIS IS IMPORTANT notion that I should be paying attention even though I already was - but the truth is, this is what you were watching for in the first place. Get it together and remember this valuable, sound lesson, DJ Tanner. Or Stephanie. Or Michelle. Or Danny for that matter.)

Since I didn't get home for break until a few short days before Christmas, I'm going to start with Christmas Eve. It blizzarded. Is that a word? It is now. This year was the first year ever that I didn't spend Christmas Eve at my grandma and grandpa's farm, eating spaghetti (our family's tradition - with homemade sauce), devouring the best cookies ever that are only made at Christmastime (and that you can tell my grandpa frosted because of the extra red hots on top), and very un-patiently waiting until all of the dishes were cleaned up from dinner before we could open presents. It's a wonderful tradition and it didn't really feel like Christmas without it. We did have a make-up day, with all of the things I described above, but it wasn't quite the same. I think anyone who was snowed in on Christmas feels a little bit of the same way.

Christmas day came and my mom went alllllllllll out. In my immediate family we have started our own new tradition: re-Thanksgiving. Last year for Thanksgiving, my brother and I were both out of the country so we re-did it in January, on my birthday in fact. This year, my brother and his fiance both missed out, so we re-did Thanksgiving dinner on Christmas. No one was really allowed to drive anywhere because of the blizzard, but we have family that live a couple houses down from us and a few neighbors that feel like family, and they all came over for the feast. It was actually really nice and felt special in it's own way. And the fact that the day started out with my 25-year-old brother screaming at me to WAKE UP around 8:00 AM so we could open presents from SANTA just made the entire day funny. I didn't hear him at first - I can't remember what I thought he said through my sleepy coma but it was something ridiculous - and then I finally understood he was yelling "JANAE GET UP!" I rolled over, checked my phone, realized how early it was, thought to myself "Good Lord, Brian," dragged myself out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt and trudged downstairs to find everyone already in their respective positions patiently (or not so) waiting for me to join them so we could start dishing out the goods. It was just like it used to be when we were little, and Brian (the oldest of us) was as giddy as ever. I secretly hope this never changes, even though I know I made a few cracks at how he should grow up a little bit, considering he is getting married and graduating with a masters this year.

After Christmas I spent a large chunk of my time with my friend Ashley, watching Sex and the City (if you didn't read a couple posts below this, Santa gave me ALL of the seasons and if you bet we finished them, you would be correct), baking, pretending that I would actually go trudge through the snow to make it to other people's houses when the weather was too bad to drive in, actually driving my dad's pick-up to people's houses and being scared to death while doing so (I'm afraid of it for some reason...), BAKING, getting things ready for a sewing project and then realizing our sewing machine no longer works and hurting another in the process, wearing sweatpants day in and day out, meeting up with friends in other cities, READING, listening to all sorts of new music and burning CD's for friends, avoiding the internet, and going to Ashley's house and baking for her family. In short, it was wonderful.

What did you do? Leave me a comment (they are my favorite things to read) and let me know!

There are always more silly stories to share but I must get back to being productive for the day, so here's a song to send you on your way:

Listen to the all of the new Vampire Weekend album here.

this just made my day.

"Kayla stopped in yesterday with the CD. Thank you! I put in the CD on the way home from school and even stopping at Kel's house and at the gas station, I didn't hear a peep out of Shay. I don't know if it was a fluke thing or if he really does love the Beatles! :)"

(excerpt from an email from little Shay's (remember him?) mom)I got to play with him last May and found out he would be calm and quiet if I put the Beatles on, so I made a CD for him but, due to blizzards, didn't get it to his mom when I was home over break. Thankfully she got it yesterday and he remembered just how to act when the Beatles play! I love this little boy so much.
Ha!

the thing I love the most about home is...

...that I can magically run into people I know and miss randomly in a city neither of us live in! I went to Sioux Falls both Saturday and Sunday of this week and both met up and ran into some really great friends. That is something that is not nearly as easy to do in a larger city - I'm usually planning meet-ups with friends for days if not weeks in advance. It's silly, really, when we don't live very far from one another, but it is just how it seems to work. Either way to Beth, Stacy, Brittany, Joe and another Stacy -- I'm glad we've seen each other for at least a few minutes in the last couple days!

Today we had another Christmas celebration with family at the Make-A-Wish SD headquarters. It was very cool - the building is new (actually it may be a little over a year old, but I couldn't attend the opening so it is new to me) and we had the in because of my aunt, who is the CEO. She does some incredible work, and has done it for as long as I can remember. She definitely has what I consider an incredibly hard yet rewarding job, and I can only hope to be as lucky someday.

While we are on the topic of Christmas, I thought I'd share a couple quick photos of an ugly sweater party I went to the weekend before Christmas. It was very fun but I didn't take out my camera once, so I'm relying on other people's photos to document the night!Spending some quality couch time with good friends. Our fabulous sweaters!

And hanging out with the boys! All of the people in these photos were on the Pay It Forward tour I went on during last year's spring break. If the incentive of incredibly good friends doesn't get you on a tour, I don't know what will. (Okay, okay, the travel and community service are pretty great, too.)

Tonight is my last night being 21. I think I might go have a sip of wine to celebrate.

Happy 2010!

I spent New Years Eve practicing my Martha Stewart skills to pull off a last minute get together while patiently waiting for one of my best friends to get off of work. I think I rocked it, or as Martha would say, what I did was a "good thing." I made a couple homemade pizzas, mozzarella sticks, and Red Velvet cupcakes complete with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles (and I admit, the sprinkles were K's idea.) Other people brought the hard-to-resist chips and yummy desserts, including homemade fudge which I hadn't had the stomach for last night but have successfully eaten a few pieces of today. It is spectacular. I think my favorite part of the night was from about 1-3 am when the last people standing were sitting around a table sharing stories and laughing boisterously at incredibly odd things. I'll throw in a teaser: edible blueberry britches. I'm not sure anyone wants me to elaborate.

I've spent today eating one (three?) leftover cupcakes while watching endless episodes of Sex and the City (I will finish all of them before I go back to school), the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona, reading the book mentioned in the previous post, talking to a couple friends, and cleaning up from said party. All in all, it's been a wonderful, lazy New Years day. I am officially ready to embrace 2010 and all of the exciting, challenging, and crazy things that will happen - not the least of which includes my graduation from college.
Bring it on 2010!