My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-29) 
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Carmen. 20. ISTJ.
Seattle --> Kalamazoo College --> Budapest, Hungary.
"runninghome" comes from the song "For Emma" by Bon Iver.
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My nephew, Orrin, went to see Where The Wild Things Are dressed as Max.
(My sister-in-law is livin’ the dream with how much she dresses this kid up… love it.)
“Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis. Nature. Open-minded people. People watching. Resolutions. Quote tattoos. San Francisco. “Black Balloon” by Goo Goo Dolls. Horoscope. Warm baths. Pomegranates. Doing absolutely nothing every once in awhile. Ryan Gosling. Washington ferries. MBTI. Detectives. String lights. Romanticism. Mash up music. Inglorious Basterds. Long walks. Taylor Swift. Waffles with my mom’s syrup. Jessie. Kittens. Narrative psychology. Gala Darling. Tostitos. Sand dollars. Pictures set to music. The Killers. Sharpies. Liberals. Best friends. One Fine Day. Jigsaw puzzles. Listening to songs on repeat. Finding something you thought you’d lost. Making wishes. The stars. Random connections. Joshua Radin. Paula Abdul. Folding paper. Sunsets, and sunrises. Doodling. Rooftops. History. Feeling understood. The Decemberists. Blue eyes. “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens. The smell of rain. Love/Hate relationships. “The World Spins Madly On” by the Weepies. Sledding. Red hair. “Bennie & the Jets” by Elton John. Seattle. Caramel. Playlists. The Beatles. Outer space. Maps and globes. Prep. Discovering new things. The northwest. The Sex & The City Movie. Attempting to analyze dreams. Pear crisp. Skiing. Keeping a journal. Regina Spektor. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Portland. When little kids admire you. Dreams. Laughing. Getting lost in bookstores. My amazing family. Lists (obviously). Tegan & Sara. Almost Famous. Strawberry chapstick. Old country roads. Vibrant colors in nature. Really believing that other people are in love. Cinnamon. Marian. “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez. Creative Nonfiction. Boots. Warm clothes fresh out of the dryer. Ben Folds. Mountains. Cozying up with a good book on a cold day. Down-to-earth people. Earth. Music. “Breathe Me” by Sia. Peeling glue off my hands. Waves crashing on the shore.A good tear jerker. Facebook. The ocean. Cuddling. Elton John. Sudoku. Camp. Sufjan Stevens. Google documents. BSCS. The way snow looks. When babies fall asleep on your shoulder. Pretty views. Making someone’s day. Random ideas. The way snow feels. Ryan Reynolds. Scrapbooks. “Careful” by Guster. Bradley Cooper. Retail therapy. Jeter. Writing. Paper lanterns. Sun. Being read to. Lucky. Playing with candle wax. Frolicking in the ocean. Swing sets. Photography. Rainbow order. Realizations that set you free. “Displaced” by Azure Ray. Art. Learning new things every day. Red and orange leaves in the fall. “Auld Lang Syne.” Reese Witherspoon. Non-judgmental people. Walk the Line. Smores. Warm rain. “Please Don’t Leave Me” by Pink. Solving problems. Always having to do something with my hands. Wilco. Being taken care of when I’m sick. Veronica Mars. Astronomy. Contrast. Damien Rice. Sketching. Warm summer nights. The smell of baby shampoo. Reading. Water. Psychology. The Things They Carried. Adventures, in general. Organizing things. Anne. Reading blogs. Handwriting. Feminism. Introverts. “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts. Haruki Murakami. Couchsurfing. “Adventures in Solitude” by the New Pornographers. That feeling of relief after a test. “This Year” by the Mountain Goats. Vanilla scented candles. Brocolli. Personal growth. Quotes. Nice surprises. Bon Iver. Fairs and festivals. Iron and wine. Life. Museums. Canon in D. Budapest! Norma. Chick lit. Receiving mail. Daydreaming. Classic literature. My core group. “Can’t Go Back Now” by the Weepies. Feeling productive. Jamba Juice. Graph paper. Twitter. Helping others. Babies. The Dixie Chicks. Memories. Christmas Markets. Memoirs. Friends the TV show, and friends in real life. Oasis. Last.fm. Kids’ drawings. Garlic bread. Driving aimlessly at night. Chick flicks. Pictures. The holiday spirit. Azure Ray. Green Lake. Coffee. Harry potter. Tumblr. “No One” by Alicia keys. Scarves. Love Actually. Cities. Bucket lists. Street markets and fairs. Moonlight. Not having regrets. Karma. The Shins. Google reader. Listening to other peoples’ stories. Crackling fire. Make-up. Sarah Dessen books. Kate Winslet. My mom’s pasta salad. Ryan Adams. Shelfari. Down bedding. Personality psychology. Being thankful. Making money. Murder on the Orient Express. The Fray. Simon & Paula. Tortellini. Vienna. Bright blue. Meeting other foreigners in Budapest. “Drive My Soul” by Lights. Coats. Good naps. Holding hands. Bobby. Rereading my journal. Sunshine Cleaning. Concerts. Dumbledore (my hero). Education. Now & Then. The Goo Goo dolls. Arcade Fire. Ballard. Going to Mariner’s games. Eat, Pray, Love. Definitely, Maybe. Pillows. Architecture. Jimmy John’s. Mr. sketch markers. Children. Books that you can’t put down. “Already Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. Peach iced tea. The Nineties. Interior design. Travel. Dr. Seuss. Crosswords. Natural beauty.
@6 days ago with 1 noteFirst, on thursday night I skyped with my mom and two sisters all at the same time. That was truly wonderful. My three favorite ladies in the whole world, all in one place. Instead of feeling sad that I wasn’t there, I just felt filled with happiness. Kirsten even brought Jeter on to skype with me too! And I was eating nutella and telling them stories, and they were all listening attentively and smiling at my mannerisms and the way I say things and laughing. And then my mom was trying to be all sneaky and take a screen cap of me eating the nutella by itself. But I caught on to what she was doing, because she really isn’t sneaky at all!
The whole skype sesh made me really happy. Skipping ahead to yesterday after the test. I wrote a list of places I wanted to check out, mapped my route, and set off. I found some cool, cute, quirky little places that I am glad I got around to checking out. And, I finally found some boots, from Zara, which I love. They were on sale, too. Then, last night… we had our second potluck, thanksgiving themed. It was really, really great.
As for cooking, I helped Rachel make garlic cheese bread. She actually did more of the work, but at least I could say I helped with something. The best part was the actual potluck, though.
God, I can’t even put words to it. It felt more like genuine THANKS-GIVING than any other thanksgiving in recent memory. Random people who would never otherwise be together, all being welcomed together. Looking around the table, I saw all the people from my program, whom I love; some of the Hungarian students from the dorm, experiencing their first ever Thanksgiving dinner; Avery, our honorary BSCS member, and her mother, who is in town visiting and is downright hilarious (I think they would be one of those families that you really wish you were a part of! Just contagious to be around); our culture professor, Maria, who was absolutely thrilled to be experiencing Thanksgiving and will surely share this American tradition with Hungarian students; our language professor, Teri, who I didn’t know was coming and was really happy to see there, she is so sweet and adorable; Tanav’s cousins from the U.S.; Avery’s friend from her program, Sam; someone’s friends who I don’t think I got introduced to; Megan’s friend from school Kyle, who is studying abroad in Copenhagen; Kyle’s friend from his study abroad program in Copenhagen, Don; Don’s friend from high school, Cole, who goes to WSU and is studying in Scotland (! they’re both from Washington! I was excited to meet them. They’re from Moses Lake, which is in Eastern Washington, but Washington nonetheless. And, OF COURSE, Cole knows Sheida. Everyone I meet knows Sheida!); someone even took a plate of food to the doorman :) … all of these people, mingling and sitting around a table, eating delicious food, brought together by random connections and this holiday. It just felt straight out of a movie and so… so…. happy, inclusive, joyful, gracious, and community-like. It really felt like what Thanksgiving should be all about.
Oh, and the food. THE FOOD! Allie and Carley made a delicious sweet potato caserole, which was definitely a fave. People who don’t even LIKE sweet potato casserole loved it (like myself). There was a turkey, made by Lauren and Julie, and a GOOSE, made by Parker (who had his fair share to drink, ha) and Tanav, mashed potatoes, lots of wine to go around (although I didn’t have any), ginger beer (ew…), our garlic bread, stuffing of course, a few traditional Hungarian dishes, some delicious apple-nut dessert made by Marianna from our program, really, really amazing truffles made by Alex, etc etc. I’m probably forgetting some, there was so much food there, I couldn’t even begin to describe it all.
After everyone had stuffed themselves completely to the brim and was about ready to enter their food coma, Johna set up the projector and debuted the slideshow she had made documenting our wonderful semester here in Hungary. It was pretty amazing. She did a great job chosing pictures, including everyone, and making a good representation of what we did here. She set it to music, some of it tearjerking (how’s it gonna be, when you don’t know me, anymore…), and had captions explaining how much she has loved everything about this semester. A fair amount of people were crying at the end. I didn’t, but if I had been drinking, the tears probably would have flowed more easily. Ah. It was fantastic. Parker, who, like I said, was pretty drunk, was so so cute. Right before we watched it, he asked Johna if he could have a copy of the DVD. Now, this is Parker, who is not usually a very sentimental type of guy. But he expressed wanting a copy, and Johna said, “Yeah, if you guys like it, I can make copies.” And Parker spoke up again, “Excuse me, Johna, IF I like it?!” as if that’s even a question! It was super cute to see Parker, who doesn’t usually show much emotion, expressing in his own way that he cares.
Ah, the entire night was just great. Everyone had a great time. Afterwards, I had a headache so I went to bed (and slept sooo good). I think more merriment was spread, but I didn’t take part. It was just a really, really happy evening in general. :)
