Santa Monica

Do remember awhile back I was talking about doing posts about songs that for whatever reason, remain near and dear to me? And then I kind of forgot about it? Well today I was listening to my iPod on shuffle and this song came on and every single time- I'm forced to sing out loud.

Everclear: Santa Monica



When I hear this song, it brings me back to the summer before high school started. My best friend in the whole world at the time, Allena, and I were so into MTV's Alternative Nation, that she figured out a way to record the episodes onto VHS tapes, then record the audio onto cassette tapes. Which clearly dates me as far as age and I realize this sounds confusing to those of you under the age of 23. But trust me when I say, doing this resulted in the most amazing mix tapes, even if they sounded far away.

But this song was easily one of our favorites. We really thought this band was great, and we'd sing the entire album this came off verbatim, a capella. Because we were amazing 15 year olds.

This particular day I had spent the night at her house the night before so we could get ready for Spartan Camp, get our freshman year information and do picture day. After all of that, we were supposed to go to my house. Neither of our parents were around to give us a ride and we obviously couldn't drive, so we decided to walk the five miles to my house from hers in 100 degree heat. Somehow, we were wearing jackets and carrying a boat load of shit, decided to take the longer route past the oil refinery, and I'm pretty sure heat induced delirium happened. Because we sang this song repeatedly, all while picking up a random 2x4 chunk of wood, a hubcap, and a bunch of cat tails.

For no damn reason.

I had that chunk of wood for years. She actually still has the hubcap.

In hindsight, we were kind of odd.

But we were damn cool to us.

So every time I hear this song, it reminds me of hanging out with her and having her as my friend during some real formative years. She moved away in tenth grade and I never really recovered from that. But ninth grade was our year. We thought for sure we'd meet really hot rocker boyfriends in an AOL chat room and they would totally let us run away from them, and then we could become groupies and just go to concerts all of the time.

That didn't happen for either of us, but we could have been the real life Banger Sisters. (And if you don't know the greatness of that movie? We can't be friends.)

Copied

Guess what? I got to read a book you wasn't even available for sale at the time. That's because I'm kind of awesome. Just kidding. HA!

Copied - S. M. Anderson

Adopted off the black market, Alexander Mitchell, has no idea his DNA is copyrighted and property of military weapons giant Texacom Defense. Nor that his DNA is being used to develop an army of clones. When the company discovers he was not properly disposed of 17 years ago, they send an assassin copy, BETA23, to terminate Xan and cover it up

After he narrowly escapes BETA23’s first attempt, Xan teams up with Lacey, a genetically engineered genius he’s surprised to find common ground with— only they’re awkward together. Half of the time she stares at Xan like the science project he is and the other half…let’s just say Xan can’t keep his eyes off her lips.

When they manage to capture a company copy by luck and sheer stupidity on Xan’s part, Lacey is determined to see the good in their prisoner to the point she believes BETA23 can be persuade to give them the intelligence they need to keep the company forever off Xan’s back. Xan’s not sure if he can trust the darker version of himself, not when it means gambling with the lives of his family and the possibility of losing Lacey.

When I started this, I was super intrigued. During the middle I got a little bored. At the end? Loved it. So overall, I'm going to give this 3.5 out of 5 stars. A pretty solid rating for a book I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to finish, but I am glad that I did. And I'll tell you right now, it feels like this is first in a series? I could be wrong, but there is enough questions left at the end that the author could easily keep going with the story. And I want to talk about those.. but it would ruin major plot points for you and that's no fun. 

Basically, this is the story of Xan, who finds out that essentially he is a clone. He has no idea about this until BETA23 comes around trying to kill him. In walks Lacey, the ubber smart class mate of Xan's, that is helping him figure out just what the heck is going on. Xan is kind of falling for Lacey but she isn't and you never really know why. That's not a spoiler, FYI. Lacey feels some kind of a connection with BETA23 because after they miraculously capture him, he's held captive in Lacey's storage room and she is determined to see the good in BETA23. (He has no name, and he's Xan's clone. It's creepy.)

But the best part of the story is feeling it all unravel. The limited information Xan is able to get from BETA23 about the clones, the mystery about Lacey, and the general ramifications of clones. The whole genetic altering aspect of it is also kind of creepy when you think about it. BETA23 basically tells Xan the purpose of his clone was for organ harvesting- Xan was never meant to survive. He's supposed to just incubate parts until another clone needs them. Creepy. I admittedly got a little bored in the middle of the book because I felt like it wasn't moving fast enough for my liking. But the ending more than made up for it. Can I just say that the clone recycling tank? Creeped me out. Do not read this before bed because you will have terrible dreams about yellow fluid tanks. Just sayin. Except I was left with a lot of questions. So instead of taking points from the book based on that, I remain hopeful there is a sequel which will answer those questions. 

It's definitely a young adult novel that I think is more geared toward 17-19 year olds? I did enjoy it and if there is a sequel, I would definitely be interested in reading it! You can purchase it on Amazon HERE. 

Eyrie

It's book review time! And buckle up, because over the next few weeks I'll have a bunch of them for you.

Eyrie (Society of Feathers #2) - Emma Michaels

The truth is being unveiled and Iris’ past is unlike anything she ever could have guessed. For Stryx, finding your missing half doesn’t always mean finding your mate. Iris has been missing a part of herself for so long that no one is sure she will be able to put the pieces back together and her ever reliable dreams may be forcing her astray. Coping with the death of someone she loved, she is forced to face the truth and break free from the lies that have caged her.

So if you have read book one, I highly recommend you re-read it before you read this one. Otherwise you'll end up like me who read it awhile ago and some of the details are a wee bit foggy and I have no fracking clue what is going on. 

I didn't have time to re-read Owlet fully, but I skimmed it and it helped. Kind of. 

But I really liked Owlet. This is a young adult series and it's about Stryx (which is like,  half human/half bird) and they aren't really shifters because they don't turn into the bird, but instead they have bird like qualities? It's really strange. I thought I understood it during Owlet, but during Eyrie I far more confused. And "Eyrie" is the name of the governing group of the Stryx. I think. So by that definition I really thought we would learn more about the Eyrie and basically learn more about what is going to happen to Iris. 

But no. You only learn a little bit about it, and this book feels like it's even more back story. Sure, Iris is trying to figure out what the heck is going on. She has Falcon (her boyfriend/soul mate type guy) and he's nice. She has a group of people willing to help and she basically becomes lead for a sea of change. She befriends people tradition says she shouldn't, and she's learning more about the society she is a part of, good and bad, and I feel like this book sets the tone for the third. In fact, I almost think half of this book could have been part of book one, and the other half would merge with the third book. Yes, it's building information and more back story, but at this point.. it feels too much. 

Though of course it leaves you with a sad and terrifying cliff hanger. It really started getting good in the final 50 pages when she starts having nightmares that are possibly premonitions, she learns some really helpful but confusing information about Ravens, and then you find out the stupid Osprey lives. But of course you don't know who the Osprey is until literally, the last page. I really hope the third book comes out soon otherwise I feel like I'll lose interest by the time it comes out. 

I do suggest that you read book one then book two back to back otherwise you will get lost as I did. You can purchase this book for your Kindle HERE or your Nook HERE. The author is also doing a giveaway for a $10 Amazon card that you can enter here for: 
"http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf067102/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

Who would hide your sex toys?

I don't know what page it was on yesterday, but that was the sentence that jumped out at me. And it could have been in the context of a lot of things, but for me- I took it as if hypothetically I were to die today, who would  hide my sex toys? Maybe sex toys can be used as a metaphor for just your clothes and other random vanilla things if you're too prudish to admit to having an entire drawer full.

And maybe a second box.

And that third box you hide in your closet to rotate through things.

Hypothetically, of course.

It wasn't always easy, for years I had huge groups of friends. I had all sorts of people I could hang out with. But it really does take one really shit hole of a situation to weed people out. And it happens so fast that sometimes you wonder what's worse- the original betrayal or finding that most of your friends disappear?

So when I think of this, it takes me no time to think of who would do this for me:

Tammy. My friend Tammy and I have been friends for ten years. Which doesn't seem like it's been that long but at the same time, how is it not longer? Her and I totally get each other and she has always been my go to friend when I have had major problems with Matt or just life in general. I know that no matter what happens, I can call Tammy at any time and she'll bail me out. Like the time I ripped my own nose ring out of my nose and had to go to her to help. And she made her husband basically re-pierce my nose. Or the time we drove to Hinckley for donuts in the middle of the night for no reason just so we could complain about our husbands. She is always my friend who is game for just about anything. She's easy going, laid back, I could trust her with any thing. Which is why, if it came down to it? Tammy would be my first choice to hide my sex toys.

Emily. Emily and I have been friends for a relatively short time, but she is hands down, the most positive, optimistic, easy going, carefree person I have ever known. No matter how bad things are, she always sees the positive, and you can't help absolutely loving life when you are around Emily. We met at work and I'm so glad we've stayed friends. She also is a fellow book slut and I know that if it came down to it, she would chip in wherever I needed her.

Amy. Amy is one of my longest running blog friends. I haven't actually met that many in real life, but she was the second, and she's been with me the longest. For all of the things we don't have in common, we both like adventure so I know that if I ever wanted to go on a crazy ass trip? I could probably count her in. And despite living a few hours apart, I talk to her the most often with almost daily emails. It's nice to always have someone I can email a raging email to!

Amy, Tammy, me, and Emily. Rochester, Minnesota for Amy's birthday way back in 2011. 

And I cannot friend my far away friends Shirley (Arizona), Shannon (Nebraska), Kimberly (Tennessee) Gini (Nebraska), and Jennifer (Michigan). All of them are blogger friends, all of them I adore for different reasons. Shannon just gets my humor and my love of book boyfriends, Gini is just hysterical and I want to be her when I grow up, Kimberly is also amazing and hilarious, Jennifer is a god damn riot and I just love her, and Shirley? Well I love Shirley. Shirley is my pretend lesbian lover friend. Shirley is the one I'll message when ben wa balls get very stuck. If I had to hide a body, I bet you anything Tammy and Shirley would help me dig a hole. Of all of my friends, I bet you Tammy and Shirley would get along the best because without even knowing each other, they have the most in common with me. We'd be a dangerous trio. 

And if you aren't mentioned? It doesn't mean I don't love you. I love you long time. It just means that you probably wouldn't know where my toys were (all of them) and would probably respond with a "oh hell no" if I had left it in my will for you to take care of it. And it's totally understandable, which is why I love you. I have to have the yangs to my yings.  

I'm just really thankful that I have such great friends that would hide my sex toys. I could trust all of them implicitly with anything. They don't judge me, they accept me and my crazy for what we are, and they love me despite it. They wouldn't even judge the things they found in the closet because they would just know it's something clearly I would do. Because I'm nuts and that's just how I am. 

But the lesson in this is that it's taken me all of these years to find this group of friends. I see kids on Facebook have all of this damn drama with their "friends" and yet.. continue to be friends. And then I look at my group and I'm lucky. I haven't ever fought with my friends. None of my friends would ever do anything to intentionally hurt my feelings or "get back at me" for anything. Maybe I just got lucky or maybe that's just what happens as you get older. But it's worth asking- who would hide your sex toys? 

Rome

You guys. If you haven't started reading Jay Crownover's Marked Men series, you are a loser and I don't know if we can even be friends. Get on it.

Rome - Jay Crownover

Sometimes the wrong choice can be just right . . .

Fun and fearless, Cora Lewis knows how to keep her tattooed “bad boy” friends at the Marked in line. But beneath all that flash and sass is a broken heart. Cora won’t let herself get burned again. She’s waiting to fall in love with the perfect man—a baggage-free, drama-free guy ready for commitment. Then she meets Rome Archer.

Rome Archer is as far from perfect as a man can be. He’s stubborn, rigid, and bossy. And he’s returned from his final tour of duty more than a little broken. Rome’s used to filling many roles: big brother, doting son, supersoldier—but none of those fit anymore. Now he’s just a man trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life while keeping the dark demons of war and loss at bay. He would have been glad to suffer through it alone, until Cora comes sweeping into his life and becomes a blinding flash of color in a sea of gray. Perfect may not be in the cards, but perfectly imperfect could just last forever . . .

So this is the third book in the series, but you really don't have to read the other two to fully understand this one. I'm still recommending you read the other two because they are great. Also, can I just say I'm in love that Nash's story is next and I am putting in my request for Rowdy and Asa's stories? I feel like Jay and I can come to agreement that this should happen. 

To me, this is is maybe my favorite story of the three so far because at no point did I want to smack Cora. Cora has been pretty hurt from a serious relationship where she was cheated on and her fiance basically kicked her to the curb. Because he was a jack weasel. So she has kept herself busy by Facebook stalking him and essentially taking car of the boys in the tattoo shop she manages and helping those boys get a grip on reality and go after the women they love. Go Cora! 

But then enter Rome, Rule's older brother, battle worn and clearly suffering from PTSD from his military war tours. He kind of adores the fact that Cora is sassy and can tell a boy when to shut up and that's what he needs. She kind of loves that he sometimes leaves her speechless and it doesn't hurt that he's super hot. 

So, like any red blooded American girl would do, she basically had sex with him. A lot. But lots of sex and no protection means... unplanned baby! In the middle of all of this, Rome struggles with PTSD and finds help in Brite, the owner of a biker bar full of veterans. Except Rome inadvertently pisses the wrong one off and danger happens and I can't really tell you any more than that other than it's good and you'll like it. 

I kind of loved this book. Sure, Cora is kind of a mess who doesn't understand that just because you encounter one jack weasel, doesn't mean they all are, and is terrified to let Rome all the way in. Even when she is knocked up, I can understand her reluctance. She's wrong of course, but still, I get it. And I loved Rome. He's genuine and I never doubted for a second his feelings for Cora. I think that despite being a mess from war, he's actually very clear headed about life and what he wants, it just takes a few wake up calls to make it obvious for him. 

Overall? Love. Love how their story isn't 100% finished, I love how at the end Nash's story is introduced. I really appreciate how it's not so cookie cutter. Jay is really a good writer and I am excited to see this continue. You definitely need this series in your life. 

Freeze yer balls, and Christmas.

Don't even try to shame me in being this late on Christmas posts. The week of Christmas was insane, I'm up to my boobs in book reviews and I'm in the midst of planning a baby shower and trying to figure out where in the hell Jackson's snow pants are all while I'm pretty sure my eight year old is like pre-puberty because she has burst into tears for basically no reason no less than 6 times since we got home at 5.

It's only 7:30.

It's kind of my life basically.

So here is basically the last week of December:

 We finally went to Bentleyville this year. It's been bitter cold, and by bitter cold I mean like 30 degrees BELOW zero. So we went on a day when it was like 5 degrees ABOVE zero. Which is still ridiculously cold, so you can't really see the children in this terribly dark picture, but you see the lights and you see the bundles that are shaped like my kids. It was particularly terrible for me because I went without a real winter jacket and boots that are more fashion than function.

But more on that later.

 After standing in line for an hour to see Santa, we hustled it through the lights. I basically got no pictures of any lights because I could no longer feel my toes. But the moon looked pretty over the lift bridge, and if you live here you are obligated to take pictures of this bridge. You don't even realize how many you have until you look through.

It took me four hours to thaw out. Even my nipples hurt, they were that cold. I really probably could have cut glass.

So Christmas Eve we go out to Matt's parents' house per usual and that was alright.

 Olivia brought out the sewing machine my blogger friend Jamie gave her because Grandmas knows what to do. Mommy does not. But I kind of love this picture because Olivia looks like such a little lady.

 And to kill time, we take pictures. Olivia and I.

 Not to be outdone by Jackson and his beloved dog.

The obligatory in-front-of-the-tree picture. I always think it's funny their tree is actually tethered to the ceiling but they do have dogs and I've been told the dogs will knock it down otherwise.

 Fun fact. The sweater Matt is wearing? Is old. Like well over 12 years old. He wore this exact sweater to a wedding we went to at a bar when we first started dating 12 years ago. I kind of hate the fact he still fits in it. Jerk.

 Last picture from their house on Christmas Eve. Jackson got this Batman belt from Aunt Kate and he had to put it on right away, obviously. So I made a comment about how he's all dressed up with a Batman tool belt and he declares, "Yah, mom... Batman gets fancy some days." I stand corrected.

So after all of that, we headed home. This is the first year since having kids (so 8 Christmases) that we have not had to wrap all of the presents after they went to bed first year. It felt good. I don't know if it felt good enough to have my shit together next year, but it was nice this year.

 The kids put cookies out for Santa, carrots out for reindeer, I remembered to sprinkle the reindeer food out on the sidewalk which I'm sure some random neighborhood animal ate because it was all gone Christmas morning. Then we put the presents under our wonky shaped tree. Seriously- I don't know what the hell happened to this tree between last  year and this year. It's leaning forward, looks like chunks are missing- it's just sad. But I'm also too broke to replace it so Wonky Tree will see another year.

 I'm that mean mom that makes people get themselves dressed before we open presents. I also make them wait until I'm ready, we've had breakfast, I've peed, the animals had been fed, all the while they are bouncing off of the walls. Parenting = power.

 Olivia got the much anticipated Nintendo 2DS. The best part about this is that she is absolutely amazed at how good I am at Super Mario Bros. Between that and Mario Kart, Tetris, Final Fight 2, and Mortal Kombat 3, those are the only games I can play.

 Story behind the giant fucking turtles. So, my brother got Jackson a Ninja Turtle Van. He informs me no guys come with it. Which, lame. So I figured I'm one gift short for Jackson, I'll buy him the four Ninja Turtles and call it one gift. Except I'm trying to do this the Saturday before Christmas like every other jack ass. So I order them, have to pay expedited shipping to get them here by Monday, and my total is like $90. For FOUR turtles. This is almost more than Olivia's big gift. So I get the package and it's huge. Then I open it to see that the turtles? Are the size of my god damn HEAD. Like, almost a foot tall. Clearly are not going to fit into the van. Fortunately for me, Jackson thought they were kick ass and now wants his own weapons. Like real weapons. He's already put the birthday request in for nun chucks. I'll give you one guess as to what he is not getting for his birthday.

 Christmas madness in motion!

 OH! So Jackson's big gift this year was the Skylanders Swap Force Starter Pack for the Xbox 360. He's been asking for months. We have had months of emotional melt downs at every store that carries these things. His response of hugging the box (repeatedly) has made these meltdowns worth it.

 Olivia's big gift was the American Girl doll that looked like her. Which was sold out online and I am very fortunate to know someone who was not only going to the store right before Christmas, but was willing and able to pick one up for me and I could pay her on payday. Again, totally worth it- she kept saying she was really worried Santa forgot because I made sure it was the last one she opened.

 While I cleaned up the madness, the boys played Skylanders.

 Olivia played on her DS.

 And Twinky tried to hump his new toy while in his Santa suit.

 After all of that, we had my parents, my uncle, my brother, and my grandparents come over for gifts and dinner that consisted of appetizers and desserts. Here's my mommy! You don't see her much on my blog but she's the best.

 Jackson opening a bow and arrow which he's already shot me with, Matt trying to assemble Ninja Turtle Van, and my Uncle Ron watching madness.

 My brother is also the best. The kids adore him.

 My and my little bro who's bigger than me.

 Olivia and her two American Girl dolls. Seriously- she dresses them everyday and carts them around every where.

 At the very end of the night, we watched my favorite movie, Christmas Vacation, and then followed that up with The Great Outdoors. Because honestly, any movie referring to hotdogs as lips and assholes is family friendly.

 Olivia and I. She's wide awake, I was tired. Real tired.

But you're all, "what did Matt get you? Did he fail AGAIN?" And like you, I expected an epic fail. I really did. He not only did NOT take my list, but he waited until the last minute. He ended up getting me that box of chocolates (which I've eaten them all. Except the cherry cordials, coconut and the fruit and nut things. Gross.), a used Wii (that my cats already ate the fucking sensor bar so I need a new one), some underwear (standard, but this year it fits!), and two dirty romance novels and some costume jewelry I took pictures of. The best part is that afterwards he asks me if I knew what those books were about, because he wasn't sure if I really wanted them for me. I was like, "Yeah- they have light BDSM but it's fine- it'll probably be really good." He almost choked on an ice cube. Honestly, he clearly doesn't pay attention to what's on the nightstand.

Men.

My parents got me knives and the Coach perfume I wanted, and I got some gift cards from my grandparents and brother. Overall, it was a pretty great Christmas. I feel like we did a lot in the month of December, even though there was some other Christmas things I wanted to do, like ride the train in Duluth, see the reindeer in Fitgers, etc- but it was too fucking cold to do any of that.

So on to New Years. More later. xx

Phil, John, and Dance.

So, I went to empty my camera tonight and holy hell- there is so much you don't know! A lot has happened in the last two months, so I've got to catch you up.

Way back in November, I treated my mom and my Uncle Ron to a John Mayer concert. I have been wanting to see him since 2009 or 2010, whenever his Battle Studies album was being toured, but I didn't have money. I really didn't this time either, but to hell with it. I was going to make it happen because his opener? Phillip Phillips. Let me just tell you I love him. Wonky kidneys and all, love.

 And he's just so great live. You can tell he loves what he does and he loves his fans. I sang through everything. It's always nice to see the crowd appreciate an opening act.

 Then John came on. Which, I was a little worried how it would be since every thing I heard on the radio in regards to his tour said basically- no hits from the past.  His voice wasn't 100% recovered from surgery and all of that so he'd be sticking to his newer things. Which is fine, I actually loved his last two albums that most people didn't, but they are really pretty solid.

The good news is that those radio people turned out to be morons because he sang things from every album! YAY!

 Visually, it was a pretty stunning concert. It had almost a Smashing Pumpkins a la Mellon Collie years to it, but seeing as that's one of my favorite albums of all time, I'm all right with that.

 We of course, sang to every single song.

 I can't even tell you how much I loved this concert. If you have never seen John Mayer live, you need to fix that immediately. I was kind of bummed he didn't sing "Walt Grace", but that's OK. Next time, right? But it was nice because this broke my concert lull because I haven't gone to many this year. I did see Beyonce a few months back with my friend Amy and Beyonce is the queen. Seriously. I wasn't even a huge Beyonce fan before, but now that I have seen her live? I will bow down- she dominates every other female in the business.

So that was that.

 Oh yes, completely late now, but we decorate our house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. The kids always get new pajamas so here they are modeling them. Stinking adorable.

Olivia had her winter dance recital too. I don't know if I have fully told you how much I love that she is in dance. I love how it's non competitive and it really is just to have fun, but part of me kind of wishes we could get all dance mom on people. HA! One of my favorite people, Andrea, is a fellow dance mom and she's there every Tuesday. I seriously think I would go insane without my Tuesdays. We haven't gone in like two weeks now and I'm going through withdrawals. Anyways.

 So yes, Olivia's recital. Isn't she just the god damn cutest??

 It's her knobby knees that just kill me. I love it.

I was trying to get her to do a dancing move for me, and this is what she does. You'll notice it's exactly what she did in her "strike a pose" part of the routine. Every time I watch her, I'm laughing, but I'm kind of crying, and I am usually screaming like a maniac. I don't care, I just love that she loves dance so much.

So that was basically my November and part of December in a nut shell. More soon loves.