Collection #14: Shoes.

I LOVE shoes. Everytime I buy a new pair of shoes, I want to treat them like a baby. I want to wear them everywhere... I love cute shoes. I love pretty shoes. Sometimes I love ugly shoes. I really really love cute cheap shoes. As much of a shoe lover as I am, I still refuse to spend more than $30.00 on one pair. I would really like a pair of Rainbow Flip Flops, but I don't want to pay $40 for a pair of flip flops. I try to limit myself to only buying around 6 pairs a year. But if I find a good deal, it's on. On like Donkey Kong. I have some pairs of shoes that I've had since high school. When I went to my mom's house 2 weeks ago, I found a pair of shoes in the closet that my mom had bought me to wear to my 8th grade end of year band concert. I only wore them that once and then put them back in the box. Guess what? They still fit. And they are awesome. Some of my cool Converse One-Stars still fit, too. I still have my senior prom shoes. Pretty shoes just make me feel good inside.

These are my favorite shoes, which I bought last year at JC Penny's (for $18.00-75%off!!!):


High School Prom shoes:

By the way, don't look at this in large size. You'll see my serious need of a pedicure.

Most of my shoes (which I laid out all pretty for ya:



You know what I don't get? How can boys live with only 4 or 5 pairs of shoes?

Doesn't make sense.

Collection 13: Candles

Now I know there are many many people out there who can say they collect candles. When I was 13ish, I collected weird candles. I loved any kind of candle that wasn't the "norm". I had a candle shaped like a poodle, and a few shaped like eyeballs. I had one of those hands that melt red blood. I had several different fruit candles, and even a Beethoven candle. I don't have those anymore, I'm sure they either melted or my mother threw them away. Nowadays, I just have normal candles. But I have a lot! I believe we have close to 40 here in the house and outside. And everyone of them has been lit at least once. They say it's bad luck to have an unburnt wick in the house. Who knows.

Here is my current favorite, the one Jared gave me as a birthday present. It is Rose Petals from Yankee Candle Co.

Collection #12: Hats

This is by far my favorite collection. Hats make me happy. The best place to find yummy hats is thrift stores. I have a lot, and I love them all. Why? Hats are like a mini disguise that doesn't take much effort. You can say so many things with different hats. I took pictures of myself wearing all my favorites, and the facial expressions just wrote themselves. That's what makes hats great.

Let's see if this thinggy works:



Click the picture for fun slideshow goodness.

Collection #11: Romance Novels

This one's pretty self explanatory. I collect romance novels. Or at least, I used to. Not as much anymore. When I lived at the beach during my summer internship with the QAR project, I didn't have cable. I lived in a dorm. I had a tv and dvd player and all of my dvd's, but I had no cable. I got awfully bored the first few weeks and decided to go ahead and read some. I've never been a big reader. Instead of finding a library, I decided to go to Wal-Mart and buy a few books. The romance novel section had some interesting selections, that I loved. That summer I read 24 romance novels. They were all basically the same with different characters and different situations, but I didn't care. At the end of the summer, instead of moving them with me in my car back to K-town, I gave them to my roomies and told them to take them to the used book store and keep the money. I'm charitable like that.

I still enjoy romance novels, but I don't read them as much. I've branched out since then. Now I read pirate books, Harry Potter books, and suspence. I read a John Grisham book last month, and now I'm reading some Patricia Cornwell. Good stuff.

Collection #10: Pictures

Short and sweet tonight.. I'm still thawing from the Appalachian slaughtering..er.. uh.. game in Boone today.

I collect pictures. Ever since I was a young'n I've always loved taking pictures. I've always had a camera, polaroid or otherwise. I have pictures all over my house, I have about 15 photo albums from before I got a digital camera, and I have exactly 3,800 pictures on my flickr right now. If you think that's a lot, you should see all the ones I haven't added to flickr. I try to never leave home without my camera, because you never know when you'll have a great oppurtunity to take a great picture.

Here are a few from the football game that Jared, my dad, and I went to today. My Apps beat Western Carolina U. in Boone. The final score was 79-35. We left at the beginning of the third quarter, as it was veryveryvery buttass cold.

Collection #9: Buccaneers Stuff.

Yes, this collection goes along with the football cards and the pirate stuff, but it is different. Obviously, my favorite NFL team is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Why? Because I am Floridian, I was born in Bradenton, Florida. This is near Tampa. While we lived in Florida, the Bucs were my family's favorite team.

Once we moved to NC, they cheered for the Redskins mostly (my mother has always been a Skins fan, and the Bucs sucked at that point). I wasn't really caring either way since I didn't really like football anyways. Then in high school I realized the awesomeness of football (marching band, woo!) and picked up the old Buccaneers because they were my original team. Plus, my older brother was pulling for them.

Well since then, I've developed into quite the Buccaneers fan and therefore collect stuff. I have the football cards, a cool snowglobe, a dammit doll (that Katie and Andrea gave me), a bobblehead, numerous shirts and hats, and lots of other fun things.

My Joe Jurevicius Superbowl bobblehead is my favorite item. He is broken, but as long as you don't touch him, you don't know. I love that because I got it off ebay right after they won the superbowl. It has him, and a big Superbowl ring, and the final game score on the bottom.

Here:


PS that picture thinggy you see with the "40" is from the game my brother and I went to, where we were on the front row at Panthers stadium. Woo! Click here to see! Also here!


Here is my flag that Brad gave me, which hangs in my pirate bathroom:



By the way, Dane Cook was awesome!!

Collection #8: Pirate Stuff... .... arrr!

Now I know this is a giant shocker to you all out there.. but I love pirates. LOVE pirates. Especially Blackbeard. Why, you ask?

It all started in 8th grade (I think..) when I had the greatest history teacher in the world, James Pope. Mr. Pope taught at Corriher Lipe Middle School, home of the Yellow Jackets, in Landis, NC.

Mr. Pope loved pirates. His classroom was full of pirate stuff. When it got to be time to talk about pirates in class, you could see a definite gleam in his eye, and he got very excited and emotional and loud and quiet. All of these things make for a great lesson, and very interested students. I loved it. Mr. Pope loved pirates so much, that every year he hosted a Pirate Troop.

The Pirate Troop was a group of the 8th graders who got dressed up like pirates, with a pirate persona, and went around to all the local elementary schools, and acted out a little pirate play. The play was the pirates telling the story of Blackbeard.

In 6th grade I decided I wanted to be an actress, and when I found out that the Pirate Troop existed, I dreamed of being a part of it. Only 8 lucky 8th graders were chosen to be in the little bit of awesomeness. So when it came time to audition, I was hella nervous, but I was confident.

Lucky for me, Mr. Pope already knew me before getting into his class, and he already loved me and my brothers (he had taught both of them, too). When I freakin' nailed my audition, I was a shoe-in.

Apparently that year there were so many great "actors" who auditioned, that he expanded to 2 pirate troops, each consisting of 6 players. I was a pirate. My persona was Scarlet Hatcher, or "Hatcher the Hatchet". That's what Mr. Pope chose for me, and I loved it. I got to carry around a dulled hatchet, and scare little kids with it!

Anywho, so I loved that. And I loved pirates all through high school and college too. Then of course, Pirates of the Caribbean came out, adding fuel to the fire.

And then there's my internship that I got to do with the Queen Anne's Revenge Project. The Queen Anne's Revenge was Blackbeard's flagship. In 1718, he beached (purposely sank) this flagship in Beaufort Inlet. In 1996, underwater treasure hunters found this ship, and ever since then, underwater archaeologists have been slowly recovering artifacts. PIRATE ARTIFACTS! BLACKBEARD ARTIFACTS!!! Lucky for me, in the year 2004, they needed a GIS intern to do stuff for them, and I was lucky enough to be chosen. It's definitely one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. I got to touch actual Blackbeard artifacts. I especially liked this:



Needless to say, I collect piratey stuff now. I have a bathroom that I call "the pirate bathroom" where I put a lot of my piratey stuff. I've been a pirate for Halloween many times. Pirates rule.

Some of my bathroom stuff:


My pirate "action figures":


I have much more than this, but I don't have that much room on my camera :)




Oh yea, and guess what!? I'm going to see Dane Cook tonight in Charlotte! woohoo!!

Collection #7: Star Wars Stuff.

Yes, dear readers, I AM that cool. I collect Star Wars memorabilia. If I were rich, I'd buy ALL the vintage toys. I'd buy Luke Skywalker and Han Solo's uniforms...er.. costumes and I'd wear them.. Or I'd make Jared wear them. I'd completely remodel my house to look like it's from Star Wars. And then, I'd have a Star Wars Wedding. Jared would totally be down with that... maybe..

For some strange reason when I was 14, my Aunt Sue gave me the original Star Wars Trilogy for Christmas. This is the only Christmas present she has ever given me. It's like some sixth sense told her to give this to me. I'd seen them before once or maybe twice when I was young, but I never understood. Once my aunt gave me the trilogy to own, and I watched them again, I understood. So I watched them again, and again, and again. I was hooked.

I am officially a Star Wars Nerd. Not Geek. Geek is a term specifically reserved for the fans of that other genre (Star Trek).

Anywho, I'm also one of the rarer breeds of Star Wars Nerds, because I also love the new movies. Episode 3 was so awesome, I cried when it was over. I went to see all 3 of them at midnight releases. I only wish I could see the originals on the big screen. Or maybe at least on HIDEF (Stephen?? :D)?

Anywho my collection looks meager here, but it is not really:

Click on it and look at the large size.

You should see all of my lightsabers. And my Darth Vader Mask, and my TWO Darth Taters. And so on.

Collection #6: Football Cards

This is what inspired me to do 'collections' as a NaBloPoMo theme. Football cards. Ever since I started dating Jared, I've started collecting football cards. Not a lot, mind you.. Well, not a lot compared to Jared's collection. I have probably 100. Some of them are pretty cool, I think.

Actually I did have 2 before I met Jared. I have a Mike Alstott autographed card that my brother bought for me a long time ago. He is one of my two favorite pro-football players, even though he is perpetually injured. He has played for Tampa Bay his entire pro career, and he is awesome. The ATrain rolls on. Also, I have a Joe Jurevicius rookie card that I bought on ebay a long time ago, just because. He is my other favorite player, who now plays for Cleveland.

For the past year and a half, I have been around Jared a lot. We are always together when we go to Target. Everytime we go to Target, Jared buys either baseball cards, basketball cards, or football cards. He gets overly excited when he gets cool things, like autographs or jersey cards. He then excitedly shows me. After a while of this I finally got excited about them too, and started to buy a few here and there, to share in his excitement. I only buy football cards though, since I hate basketball and I don't know any baseball players.

Like I said, I only have around 100. Jared has about 10,000. Yes, 10,000. And that is a rough estimate. I suck at estimating but I know he has at least that many. If you saw my guest bedroom, you'd agree. Anytime he gets a Buccaneers card, he gives it to me. I have a lot of them.

I'm starting to like this collection. It's growing on me. I'll never be a "collector" though because I don't really like spending a lot of money on them. Plus, I don't know what's worth a lot. It's just nice to have something like this to share with Jared.


Plus, I love football.

Collection #5: Barbies.

Okay, this one is a liiiittle bit of a cop out, since I no longer collect Barbies. But when I was a young'n, I had a lot of them! My mother still has them all at her house. My favorites were the one redhead barbie I had (guess why.), my Joey McIntyre Ken doll, my Brandon Walsh doll, and my MC Hammer doll. I somehow lost the Brandon Walsh doll :(. But I still have the MC Hammer and the Joey McIntyre. Plus, about 20 Barbies, and boxes and boxes of accessories, including a horse, a big pink limo (with hottub), and a store.



I opened a box and found Hammer and Joey M like this:


hmm..

Non-Collection Blog

I have a collection to write about today, and I brought my camera with me to work so I could download the pictures off of it. Unfortunately, I did not bring the cord used to download the pictures. So.. my collection post will have to be made later tonight. But it will come!

In the meantime.. I went to visit my ma yesterday in Kannapolis (K-town!) so I could get a picture of an old collection. It was a good time. I watched the Buccaneers game on my ma's NFL Sunday Ticket. They won! woo! And Appalachian won on Saturday. AND I beat Jared in Fantasy Football. So I had a good weekend. Um, back to my Mom's house.. I walked in and saw this:














My brother was in a parking lot the other day and heard a kitten mewing in a bush. He walked over to find this little girl and her 2 deceased siblings. So he brought her to my Ma's house. She has been bottle feeding her. I collect snowglobes and my mother collects cats. She swears she's going to find a home for it once it's old enough.. Anybody want an adorable little kitten? My mother already has 5 cats. She needs no more.




And another thing. On the way home last night all of normal radio stations were playing crap. I switched to FM2 and switched through when I landed on 104.7. Usually they play 80s 90s and today type stuff but last night? They were playing CHRISTMAS music. Is it really that time already? OMG.

Collection #4: Snowglobes

It all started with this one:


In 11th Grade English class, we had to read The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. It was a decent book, except for the last chapter. In 11th Grade I was not interested in reading 30 pages about Socialism.

A big part of our grade for the book was to make a model of something from either The Jungle, or Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons. I chose to do a scene from The Jungle. I wanted to show the main character's (Jurgis's) struggles with working in the pig slaughterhouse.

I'm not sure what made me think of it, but I decided to make a snowglobe. For the globe, I used a glass jar. For Jurgis, I needed a male figurine who could pass for someone in the early 20th century. I chose to use a Han Solo action figure. I also included a small plastic pig. I superglued them to the inside of the lid, and filled the jar with water and glitter for snow.

Needless to say, I got an "A" on this project. That year for Christmas I made snowglobes to give to boys.

Ever since then, I've been collecting snowglobes. Anytime I go on vacation, I come back with a cheesy snowglobe (and a deck of cards). The cheesier the better. I've got a lot of fun ones. I have one with pictures of Brad (one of my best friends) and another with pictures of Johnny Depp. I have a globe with Raymond James Stadium (home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) in it. I love these little snowglobes!

Collections Day 3: Johnny Depp movies

This one is simple. I love me some Johnny Depp. Anyone who knows me knows that. Ever since college I've been collecting his movies. It really started before that when Sleepy Hollow came out. Somehow that movie made me finally realize how freaking awesome Johnny Depp is. And, how hot. Yes, even in Sleepy Hollow. Anywho, I started out collecting VHS's since I wasn't jumping on the DVD bandwagon until 2002. I have about 15 Johnny VHS's. It slowed down a little until Pirates of the Caribbean came out and I realized this movie was the greatest movie ever made! Did I mention I went to see it 6 times in the theater? I was a poor college student who spent like, 55 dollars going to see a movie. Anyways, I have a lot of Johnny Depp movies. My more obscure ones are: Ed Wood, Dead Man, and Private Resort. CryBaby is another favorite. Blow, From Hell and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are some more favorites. Oh hell, I love them all. Except maybe Nightmare on Elm Street. The first one. Johnny was in it. He's the one who got sucked into his waterbed. That is just a bad movie.

I counted and I currently own 26 Johnny Depp movies. Plus, the first 2 seasons of 21 Jump Street. I've seen some his other ones, the really weird ones, that I chose not to buy. Like Libertine. Scary boring. And Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I've never been a big fan of drug induced movies.


Here ya go:

Collection #2: Homies

Yes, homies.

If you haven't heard of them by now, well, you're really not missing anything. Three years ago I would have argued that they were the coolest things ever. Now, I'm thinking of selling them on eBay.

Way way way back when I was in 11th grade, I was randomly at KMart in Ktown with Brad and Eric the Mexican. We often hung out and did little when we got the chance. As we were walking out of the store around 2a.m., I paused to look at the "gumball" machines. Sometimes you can find the greatest treasures in these. When I saw one labeled "Homies", with little gangsta figurines, I couldn't help but be curious.

I made the guys empty their pockets and we gathered all of our quarters. We had 8 combined, enough to buy 4.

I put the first 2 quarters in the slots and slowly turned the wheel. With each click of the machine, I got more excited. Could someone have really made 1 inch figurines of what looks to be Southern Californian gang members? Some were mexican, in a poncho. Some were muscle bound.

With the final click, a small bundle of joy slowly rolled down the shute. I pulled up the flap to claim my prize. And it was this. Except, in plastic form, like this.

I was excited. This was truly the most entertaining piece of 1 inch plastic I had ever seen. I quickly inserted 2 more quarters and got another. It was the mexican with the poncho. I named this one "Eric" after my friend that was with me. With my four brand new pieces of awesomeness, I knew it was the start of something great.

I fully expected to never find anymore of them. I didn't think they would end up as the start of a collection. I just thought they were really cool, and we used them as our mascots.

Three years later, I was living in Boone, and I had my four Homies sitting in the window sill of my apartment. They were happy little guys. I didn't pay them much attention, but I kept them around. Then, one day, Carmen and I ventured to Expressions, a happy little store in Boone where they sell "novelty" products. And "tobacco" products. And "lingerie". It's a fun store where you can always find some junk you think you need.

It was my first time in there, and I wasn't expecting to find anything great. I wondered around the aisles for an hour and was about to leave with only a candle.. when I saw a big basket on the floor filled with those little plastic bubbles.

I casually walked over, curious. There, inside of these bubbles, were a very familiar bunch of little plastic figurines, dressed up like gangsters. A whole big basket full of homies. With glee, I picked out 10 of them and happily walked to the register. The cashier looked at me funny and told me that they get new shipments of them in every few months.

Ecstatic, I went home and added them to my four little guys. I officially had a collection. Over the next few years I added to my collection, and when I graduated college, I had about 100 of them.

Since then I have not added to my collection. My Homies sit sadly in a wooden shelf thinggy on my wall. I think it is time for me to find them a new, fun home, where they can be appreciated. All I ever do is bump into the shelf, curse, and throw them back in there anyway I can.

Here are my little guys (and girls):






fin.

NaBloPoMo Day 1

Okay, so here goes a month posting about my collections!

You can call me a pack rat if you want, I just like to collect things. I'm going to start by telling you about my biggest and favorite collection: Decks of Cards.

I've always loved card games. My mother taught me how to play Rummy while in the back of our camper on vacation when I was just 8 years old. Not too much later, my Grandfather taught me how to play poker. Ever since then, I've always loved playing cards. I love learning new games too. When I was in 11th and 12th grade, I had a continuous Rummy game going on with some of my band friends. When I learned how to play Spades in college, I thought it was the greatest game ever. Now that I know how to play Texas Hold 'Em, I'd love to play more, and win more $$$ (Legally, of course...).


Anywho, since I've always loved card games, I've always needed to have decks of cards. If I see a fun deck of cards, I add them to my collection. Any time someone in my family goes on vacation, they'll bring me back a deck of cards. At my old bedroom in my mother's house, I have 4 big shoe boxes full of decks. At home in my condo, I have at least 30 decks.

I know it's an odd thing to collect, but I'm not exactly normal :).

My favorite decks are the see through plastic ones, the Appalachian cards, and the skull and crossbones cards.

Happy Halloween!!

It's my favorite holiday again, and I'm celebrating it by working!

Last night, Jared and I carved a pumpkin, and it's so pretty, I took a picture to share:














This past weekend was my friend Brad's annual costume party in Durham. The first year I went as The Statue of Liberty. The Next year I was a pirate (cop out, I know). Last year I was pregnant Britney Spears. This year, I was a flasher. That's right, a flasher. It was an adult party, so I figured, why not? My mother had the same costume idea when she was my age too. Perverted women run in my family. I'm not that perverted. I just know how to have fun. Anywho, here's a picture of me in my costume, showing it to James Taylor, who is dressed as Buddy Christ. I edited it, for the kiddies.


















Tomorrow is the first day of November, and the first day of National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo! So I'm going to be blogging every day for the next 30 days (Supposedly).

So....

Corey Lynch, will you marry me?



ASU wins another conference game. Hello playoffs!! Maybe.. There are those other games we have win too.. Like, all of the last 3..

But YEa.. Wooo!

Rain, rain go away. Well, I guess maybe not..

So, yay rain and all. It's been raining all week. Which is good. For those of you not in the South, (Okay, the one of you) North Carolina (and other South Eastern states) has been in a serious drought this year. Worst drought this century apparently. The lakes are down to the point of having to ban boating.

When we all woke up Monday morning and it was raining, there was a collective sigh of relief all over the area. Then, it kept raining. And it's still raining. The only problem is, it's also coldish. And it's mostly just drizzly rain. We still need it to rain for like a month. Hard rain. Then, it may replenish some things.

My father is convinced it's the beginning of another mini ice age. But then again, he doesn't believe in global warming. And hey, he's one of the smartest guys I know. So I guess it could happen. We'll all find out one day.

I guess the point of this post is just to say that rain makes me really sleepy and when I'm really sleepy, I'm kind of incoherent. Sorry.

What Have I Done?

I've decided to do something totally outrageous, just because I can. I'm going to take the idea from Southern Suburbia, and join NaBloPoMo. November is National Blog Posting Month. I'm going to blog every day in the month of November. Hopefully.

I wasn't going to do this because I'm just not creative enough to come up with something to blog about for 30 days in a row. But one idea they give you is to come up with a theme.

Last night as I was taking a shower, I thought of a blog idea. I thought, "I could write about all the random things I collect, and show pictures of them". Then, I realized I collect a LOT of things. This would be, like, the biggest post ever. Then, I thought, "I could break it up some". It suddenly occurred to me that this might be a great idea to use for NaBloPoMo. Do I really collect 30 different things? I don't think so, but I'm willing to try and see.. Wish me luck!! And read my blog every single day in November. Or suffer. It may be different times of day. And this is all assuming, of course, that I'm going to have Internet access every day.

So, anyways, here goes nothing. Yippie Kay Yai!

You can look at my NaBloPoMo profile by clicking the badge thinggy to the right (below my archive). All the posts will be here though. Hey, you should join too. And be my friend.

Future Father of my children...