Just Say the Word

Open your eyes and love-soon all you know will become a memory

December 1, 2009 · Filed under Random, Thoughts · Tagged family, love, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving break was good. I spent a lot of time with Lesley and Alli, and worked a little bit. It was both relaxing and productive.

Thanksgiving really got me thinking this year. I don’t know why. It seemed like the whole week I was home I felt like my eyes were being opened. I saw just how much I had to be thankful for. I have a great family that I’m proud of, and friends who make me laugh and I can talk to about anything. And, even though it’s not always fun, I am blessed to have a job. Two, actually. I’m lucky to be in school. I am very fortunate, and the whole week I was reminded of that. But, there was something kind of depressing behind it as well. I started to realize that the perfection I have in life right now isn’t going to last forever. You know how you can remember when you were a little kid and you didn’t know anything about money and responsibility and such? Your life is completely different than it is right now, and you didn’t realize your life would ever change when you were 5 years old. It’s like that now, but I’m starting to see that things WILL change. My best friend will move away, my sister will grow up, my parents will get older, people will die. Not to get all depressing, but that’s honestly what was going through my mind. Things are changing before us right now, and we won’t even see how that piece of us was a real part of our life until it’s in the past. So, I started to realize that I was taking for granted a lot of things in my life. Being in a room surrounded by my family, just hanging out singing in a car with my friend, and everything. I was suddenly very aware that it wasn’t going to last forever.

“Life as we know it today will soon become a distant memory that we long for-just like when we were kids. So live every minute of every day, and fall in love with the little things, like being in a room with people you love. They won’t be there forever” -Just something I typed up on my phone. :)

On a lighter note, Christmas is upon us, and now my diet will consist of hot chocolate and candy canes. Yummm. :)

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Women in Advertising

November 23, 2009 · Filed under Random, Thoughts · Tagged Advertising, Beauty, Dove

Today in class we talked about advertising and how it affects women. We watched a video from like 10 years ago called “Killing Us Softly”, a film that talked about how women in the advertising industry are flawless, unrealistic, and how they are made into sex symbols, made into objects instead of real people so that when real people see them in magazines, we are chasing after something that’s not even real. They want women to be innocent but sexy, virginal but experienced, and so on. It was amazing to watch, and some of the ads really made my mouth drop wide open because of the blatant use of sexual references made or just the dehumanization of women. I was in awe about how much women are objectified in the advertising world. If you get time, go to youtube and type in “Killing Us Softly”, we watched the third one. It’s from 1990, but it still very much applies. It’s pretty long, but it’s great for research or just to think about. We also watched this video, and it’s pretty crazy. Kind of scary, actually.

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St. Catherine Show

November 19, 2009 · Filed under Events, Magic · Tagged Magic, St. Catherine

Sean had a show last night at St. Catherine’s College in Springfield. The show was supposed to start at 7:30, but I didn’t get out of class until 12:30, we had to pack up, and there was a 2 hour drive, PLUS the one hour time change, AND we had to make a pit stop in Bardstown to pick up my sister, Alli. So we didn’t even get there until 5:30. The whole time we were rushing to get everything set up so that Sean could do a little close up magic to get more people to come to the show. St. Catherine’s is a really small college, about 600 students, and they were only expecting about 30 to come, which, isn’t great. At all. Sean’s show is built for large audiences. So, Sean and I made our goal 50. He got to do a little close up, definitely freaked people out. The show, given the circumstances, went really well I think. Sean dealt well with the crowd, and even though the show didn’t get started until 8, quite a few people came. We got 65! Much better than they were expecting! I wish I had taken pictures, but I’ve gotten really bad about that lately. :( It was pretty late by the time we left. We grabbed some subway and looked over the comment cards that Rich had passed out, and they really surprised me. Sean didn’t get one negative comment. Everyone gave his show a thumbs up, and some people gave advice on how to make it better, which was great because they were exactly right! We took Alli home and drove back to Bowling Green. Got in and went straight to bed.

Sean and I still have a lot of work to do. On the ride home last night we started brainstorming, and I think we’ve come up with something. :)

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Understanding Islam

November 17, 2009 · Filed under Thoughts · Tagged Islam, Muslims

Yesterday I went to the Islamic Center in Elizabethtown to get extra credit for my religions of Asia class. I met with the Imam and his wife, who wore a black robe type thing and had her hair and mouth covered. Now, I’ve always wondered why Muslim women wear veils over their faces and cover their bodies completely. I never understood why. I asked her, and she said that it’s because Muslim women believe that their beauty should only be revealed to those close to her (family and friends), other woment, and her husband. So, really, no other man is to see her without her veil. I was kind of surprised. I don’t know what I expected the answer to be, but it kind of took me off guard. What is the problem with someone seeing your beauty? I got to thinking about it, and talked about it with Sean, and he kind of justified it well. He talked with the Imam, Shakir, and they agreed that if you can’t see the beauty of a woman, if you don’t know what’s behind the veil, you’re less likely to lust after them, less likely to cheat on your wife, or even think lustful thoughts. When all you see is a woman’s eyes, it takes a lot more to be attracted to her. This idea really made me think a lot, and I am really amazed. I mean, why should we go around letting everyone see so much of our bodies? Girls dress in low cut shirts and short shorts, and well, bad things happen to girls in today’s society because of it, and in an extreme way, they are sharing their bodies with the world. I thought it was amazing that women are so closed up about their bodies, and I think it’s a really good thing. Not saying that we should all do that, but I understand why they do it, and I have an appreciation and respect for why they do it. I learned a lot of other things too, but this just stuck out. :)

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Khakis

November 15, 2009 · Filed under Random

First things first:

Dear Mom,
Thank you oh so very much for waking me up at 6:30 your time, which is 5:30 my time. It was just what I wanted. Especially when I had to work all day.

The only good part about being up that early is getting to see the sunrise. It was so gorgeous. :)

Sean’s show at St. Catherine is on Wednesday. SO UNPREPARED. As if last week wasn’t hectic enough with all the going to and from the mall in search of jobs and a place that sells PLAIN khakis, and then the 4 hour orientation at Bath and Body Works. Monday through Wednesday is gonna be rushed. I really hope it goes well. But it’s never a good idea to procrastinate, which is what we’ve done. :(

So, back to the khakis thing. What the heck is up with all the stores lately NOT selling you know, regular khakis. Every store for some reason has decided to not only turn khakis into skinny fit pants, but also skinny corduroy khakis. Can you please just give me a plain pair of khakis for work? Blah. It was actually a 3 hour process just to find a pair of pants for work.

Anywho, my weekends at home are pretty boring.

Here’s a quote that’s been on my mind lately. It was on a preview to a movie coming up that Mel Gibson’s in.
“You’ve got to decide if you’re going to be the one hanging on the cross or the one hammering in the nails.”

Just a cool quote I think. :)

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“The Box” & Hollister

November 14, 2009 · Filed under Random, Thoughts · Tagged "The Box", Cameron Diaz, Hollister

So, the other day, Sean and I went to see the movie “The Box”. He was really excited to see it, and I thought it looked cool, so yeah. We pay like $14 to see this. Within 10 minutes, I was ready to go. The acting was so terrible, and it was so weird. I think the acting was intended to be unrealistic, but it was really hard to sit through. It only got worse. The story line was SO confusing. I had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on the ENTIRE movie. It was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. It was SO confusing. I’m not even sure why Cameron Diaz was chosen for the part. PLEASE don’t pay money to see this. Look up reviews online before you go pay money for this. If you still want to see it, I strongly encourage you to wait until it’s out on DVD and pay $1 at a Redbox or something. Of all the reviews Sean and I read online afterwards to try to understand the plot of the movie, I think only one person defended it and said it was one of the best movies they’d ever seen. It was so bad. Don’t waste your money people.

Also, the other day I had an interview at Hollister. I don’t really care anything about working there because, I mean, I don’t buy their clothes really. I mean, they are comfortable, I’ll give them that, my favorite hoodie is from there, but most of their stuff is so overpriced! I think I’ve bought like two things from Hollister in my life. Plus they play the music way too loud, and the smell of cologne is so strong I can’t be in there long without getting a headache. Plus, the people are the most unhelpful people I’ve ever met in a store, and all they care about is looking good. But, I really don’t want to go home for winter break when I have my own apartment here, even if I don’t have a car, so I’ve been job hunting and applying everywhere! After she asked us a few questions. I didn’t really care if I got the job or not, so I didn’t try too hard to impress her. Luckilly I didn’t care much because I couldn’t afford to work there even if I WANTED TO. She told us all these ridiculous rules they have for how their employees have to look. Girls’ toenails can only be painted red or pink, any other color isn’t “California”. You have to wear denim every day and if you don’t buy their jeans, your jeans can’t have ANY embellishments on the back pockets at all! Who makes those??? No one. Also, girls can’t wear anything in their hair. You can’t wear eyeshadow or accessories. You don’t have to buy their clothes, but you have to present your outfit to a manager who has to approve of it and make sure it’s totally in line with the style that’s out right now in order for you to wear it. Your flip flops have to be like, navy white or grey. And all this other crap. It was totally stupid. At the beginning of the interview she asked us what diversity was in our opinion and why it was important in the workplace. One girl didn’t even know what diversity was! But whatever, I said that diversity was more than just race or ethnicity. It was about working with people who have different views and outlooks than you do. Basically, they don’t agree because everyone that works at Hollister looks the exact same because of all these crazy rules they have! Everyone looks and acts the same, and no one stands out. It’s completely retarded. There IS NO diversity among employees at Hollister. I really don’t like the store at all. But, I ended up getting a job at Bath and Body Works, which is SWEET! They let you paint your toenails whatever color you want. :)

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Christmas on Halloween!

November 9, 2009 · Filed under Events, Magic · Tagged Christmas Caroling, Halloween, Hands and Feet, Magic

Halloween weekend Sean and I went back to Columbia, TN to hang out with Brock and Auny for their Party with a Purpose. That weekend it was for the Hands and Feet Orphanage in Haiti. Since Brock is an illusionist, he was able to put together a pretty sweet show in his barn for his guests! There was also a little part where Sean sewed a needle and thread through his neck, Jacob the pirate laid on a bed of nails, and Lindsey ate fire! It was an amazing show! Then, on Saturday we all got together and went Christmas caroling in a neighborhood in downtown Franklin. The reactions from people were so funny! A lot of people didn’t get it. Haha. Here are a few pictures from Friday and a video that Auny shot on Saturday.