33 things that make my heart beat faster

one of the items on my list of ’33 things to do in my 33rd year’ was to write 33 lists of 33 things. this first list is one that could easily have been 333 things, but a girl’s gotta have boundaries, so here it is:

33 things that make my heart beat faster:
1. walking past a laundromat at night and seeing people washing their clothes
2. the sound of my husband’s key in the door
3. bird sounds in the sunshine after a long winter
4. the first crocus
5. a cold lake in the hot summer
6. getting a package in the mail
7. checking my lottery tickets
8. realizing i have left something behind
9. laying my head on the pillow the night before leaving on a trip
10. making my friends laugh
11. getting caught in the rain (do you like pina coladas?)
12. thunder and lightning
13. the open road
14. hotel rooms
15. seeing my order on it’s way to my table at a restaurant
16. a familiar smell
17. misplaced glasses (panic also makes the heart beat faster)
18. arrivals
19. watching Obama’s inauguration
20. rockabilly music (the old kind, not the new ca-ca)
21. when little kids meet my dog
22. thinking of my wedding day (so sublimely perfect)
23. phone calls from faraway friends
24. taking off in airplanes
25. really good cheese (both literally and figuratively)
26. new red shoes (and old ones too)
27. fresh blank paper
28. the smell of a bakery when i’m out and about
29. my husband’s touch
30. bees at a picnic (‘nother panic one)
31. jose cuervo (tee hee)
32. little tiny pickled onions
33. getting my first comment on my blog (which hasn’t happened yet – hint hint.)

i’d love to know what makes your heart beat faster. will you tell me?

travel tuesdee #2

...before i had left thailand, the germs were already gestating (not real germs. i am speaking of 'the travel bug'). all i could think of once i had returned was the smelly tasty world and how i salivated for it. and so, for the next year i worked three nasty/awful jobs (the kind of jobs a 19 year old with no experience is apt to get), one of which was making 'can-o-grams' at a kioske in a mall. blegh. but i was determined. i thought only of the gates this toiling would open. and in the end, the means were justified. my next destination would be India. and as hackneyed as it may sound, India in many ways, is where the person who writes to you now was born. truly. Not because of some spiritual epiphany or citar lessons or anything, but because this was my first time travelling alone, and my first real experience of the world.

i lost my camera fairly early on in my 8 month trip, so the photos i have of India are few. though sometimes i believe that this keeps my memories stronger somehow. i find that when i have a lot of photos from a trip, eventually the moments i took pictures of become all i can remember.

can't talk. comin' down.

turned 33 yesterday. had a magnificent birthday weekend. so very hungover. been rendered too dumb to write. need one of these.

video vendredi #2 - pussycat slow jam

weeeeeeee! F ta the R ta the I mutha lickaaaaaas!!!! it's not just any friday either. it's the friday before my 33rd birthday weekend! yeeeeee! AND it's video vendredi. which i like. and do i have some treats for you! i'm going with a pretty random twosome today, cuz it's almost my birthday and i'll do what i want! the first video is the opening credits to a brilliant british kids show called Bagpus. sadly, the creator of Bagpus, Oliver Postgate, passed away in December (you can read about him here at the Yorkshire Evening Post). this was my favourite show when i was wee (i lived in England as a todd), and unless you're mostly dead inside, i'm sure you can see why.



now then. next we have what may well be the greatest slow jam of all time: Shake You Down by Gregory Abbott . many of you may chuckle when you see this. but you must look past the 1986ness of it all and let go of yourself. the video is heinous, of this i am aware. but there is something about the song that is so smooth it refuses to be denied. and my husband does a version of this that'd have you slappin' yer knee and creamin' in yer pants at the same time.


Unfortunately, i can't find a copy that'll allow me to embed, so you have to click here. trust me, it's worth it.

it's ph-ursday (for lack of a better word for photography thursday)

this is the section where i show off my mad photography skills (jes kiddin'). all of these photos are taken by me, unless otherwise noted. today i feel like sharing my two favourite photos from our visit to the Elvis festival in Collingwood, Ontario. i took tonnes more, but they are mostly portraits taken unawares, and i'm not sure what the legalities are when it comes to posting pictures of people who don't know you took them. does anyone know 'bout this? (not that anybody reads this shit anyway ;)

sketchy

since it's doodle hump day, i'll draw you're attention (guffah, guffah) to 'skine art, a really nifty site that lets you peer into the moleskine notebooks of talented artists like this one:

these are pages from the moleskine of a user named 3rd Foundation. i love the use of line and light. i visit this site all the time. my favourite thing is to press the random button and see what lovely treasures pop up!

hump day doodles!

every wednesday i'll be posting some of my doodles n scribbles. i love to draw, and i have a wee comic i play around with called Hilldebrande's Land, about a chain smoking misanthrope and her dog. i'm readying a separate blog to showcase said comic, the header of which will look like so:

travel tuesday numero uno!

hello ruby tuesday! i'm afraid i missed the first 'motivation monday', meant to bring a little umph to the start of the week. the truth is that i just wasn't feelin it, y'know? and i've a growing suspiscion that i rarely will (be feelin it on mondays), so i've decided to change it to 'maybe i'll write if i feel like it mondays'.

moving on then...

it's travel tuesday!

my first major foray into the world came too many years ago, when i was 19 years old. i went to thailand on a co-op program to teach english and live with a host family there, which was an experience that altered my life most profoundly. here are a few photos from that trip taken with a shite camera and an inexperienced eye.

video vendredi numero uno!

it's our very first video vendredi! every friday i'll be posting video clips for your viewing pleasure. and i'm starting it off with what i consider to be the most beautiful music video ever made: sigur ros - untitled #1 (vaka). WARNING: it is also the saddest song and video ever made, so i have given you a chaser, to be viewed immediately afterward.

"Untitled #1 (vaka)" - Sigur Ros

It's Friday, Yayyy!!! Peewee Wa loves you all!

chasing after bubbles

i am, quite apparently, new to the world of blogging, and it seems that my blog has up to now been flailing about, every which way, without a clear structure of any sort. and so, from here on in, i shall be implementing the following elements here at LLT (in no particular order):

• from now on, i will be properly linking all posted photos. (i'm pretty sure everything i've used so far has been public domain or taken by yours truly. the photo above is public domain, but i retrieved it from a lovely site called Grandma's Graphics, which has a wonderful collection of vintage children's book illustrations. you should go there.) i will also be reviewing each of the marvelous websites i have so quietly posted in my links section (one at a time. this will take some time.)
• the coming year will bring updates on my 33-things-to-do-in-my-33rd-year-list (the inspiration for which came from this fabulous post by Hula Seventy)
• the days of the week will soon be filled with recurring series' to delight the reader again and again as follows:

travel tuesdays: travel is my one true passion in life. had i no limitations, i would wander the earth, never lingering longer than a month or two in one place. 'course i'm not goin' anywhere right now 'cause i'm broke. but i will. and so every tuesday i will write about the places i have been and the places i've yet to go.

hump day doodles: i looooooooooooooove to draw. ima post my doodles on hump day.

ph-ursday: as i've mentioned below, i fancy myself a bit of an amateur photographer. so thursdays are for photo show n tell!

video vendredis: to finish out the week, i will post quirky little video clips that i think might tickle your fancy.

saturdays & sundays: come on. everybody knows that saturdays and sundays are for pickin yer nose and making snow men. not for sitting at the computer.

• and all this icky scary structure will be peppered and tossed with plenty of random spitting and drooling.

ambitious. but i think i can do it.

xo

my favorite buddha shots

taiwan

vietnam

neon lights!

you don't know this about me yet, but i've done a bit of travelling. most extensively in asia, but other parts of the world as well. over the years i've taken a poop-load of photos, and i thought it might be fun to expose some of them to the world, organized in odd little groupings, rather than by excursion. so... here is the first of many:

a karaoke house in taiwan

a juke joint in memphis, tennessee

a tribute to b.b. king's guitar at his bar on beale street

Zoofotos!!!

the view from here

It's a new and glorious year my friends!
And I've decided to lend more of my time to amateur photography...

thirty three things to do in my thirty third year

(inspired by this awesome list posted by Hula Seventy)
(pink = done!)
1. turn my little drawerings into a web comic

2. visit the science centre and pioneer village

3. read at least 2 books (i hardly read at all these days)

4. go to a museum by myself

5. finish painting my apartment

6. take a road trip

7. finish the series of paintings i started

8. get new glasses

9. lose 20 lbs.

10. work on my children's alphabet book and accompanying dolls

11. think a bit more before i act

12. see the ocean again

13. learn html and css

14. go to elvis bossanova

15. send postcards to my friends

16. own a lomo/holga

17. start a photography project

18. make a new friend

19. go camping

20. visit the east coast

21. watch less tv

22. make some guerilla art

23. write more

24. take a self portrait sans clothing

25. eat something new and different

26. make homemade eggnog

27. brush my kitty everyday

28. surprise my husband

29. write a script

30. drink more water

31. win the lottery

32. make 33 people smile (at least)

33. make 33 lists of 33 things (4/33)

a new year is nigh

in not so many weeks I will be turning 33. i find myself inexplicably drawn to this number, and look forward to adopting it as my own for a year. that being said, i will be posting a few prepatory items in anticipation of its arrival. to begin, here is a sprinkling of tiny information nibblets concerning the number 33:

• the number 33 is said to symbolize truth, and that good will always triumph over evil (which is nice.)
• a significant number in modern numerology, it is considered one of the "master" numbers, along with 11 and 22
• those of Islamic faith believe that the dwellers of Heaven will externally exist in a state of being 33 years old
• 33 is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's old number
• in french, italian, romanian, spanish and portuguese, the word a patient is usually asked to say when a doctor is listening to his or her lungs with a stethoscope is 33 (trente-trois, trentatrè, treizeci şi trei, treinta y tres and trinta e três)
• jesus is said to have been 33 years old when he was crucified (in 33 A.D.)
• 33 is the number of innings in the longest baseball game in history (1981, rochester red wings vs pawtucket red sox)
• 33 is the code for international direct-dial phone calls to France
• a normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually
  
  
  

Is anybody out there?

Say cheese.

I just realised that though I started this blog as a means to inspire myself, it is clearly becoming a place for me to vent. Not a problem, venting is good. And nobody reads this shit anyway.
Still, just so you know, I do also smile and laugh and love. lots o the time. :)

The Young and the Restless

I'm having one of those days when I wish I could push the sun back behind the horizon and wake up all over again. This time I would not argue with my husband, and not forget the keys to my office. I would not begin my morning dipped in a hot vat of frustration.

But the sun is stuborn and will not resign.

Then comes the recurring urge to tie all my possesions to a stick...

vrrroom vrrrroooom!!

Feelin lively today. Ready ta start sumtin!