new years resolutions © 2012

in woody guthrie's words...
1. learn people better
2. dont get lonesome
3. stay glad
4. dream good
5. save dough
6. dance better
7. love mama
8. love papa
9. love everybody
10. wake up and fight

disney cruise surprise!

not sure if you have seen the ridiculously cute youtube video of lily's parents telling her she gets to go to disney world...today!
well, we are finally taking a family vacation and we thought a disney cruise would be fun for both kids and adults. my sisters and i always reminisce about vacations we took as a family. of course we loved going to a beach but it was more about the intentional time making memories with the family. it is especially great when there are kids involved. watching them play in the ocean for the first time and see them get excited about the littlest things. even if they might be too young to remember it when they are older...the rest of the family will remember.

we have been talking in code for the last month or so (saying 'cosco' instead of 'disney cruise') "before we go to 'cosco' we need to do this..."- we wanted to wait to tell my nephews. we thought it would be fun to tell the kids they were going on a cruise in a creative way...jackie and i thought up fun clues with rhymes and puzzle pieces and then we made a little scavenger hunt with the final clue at my parents house. they are super excited...although i dont think they fully understand, not having been on one before. they understand that mickey mouse will be there...which alone is exciting enough :)

almost over...

traveling is a drug.

and i am going through withdrawals.

“Of all the intoxicants you can find on the road (including a "national beer" for nearly every country in the world), marijuana deserves a particular mention here, primarily because it's so popular with travelers. Much of this popularity is due to the fact that marijuana is a relatively harmless diversion (again, provided you don't get caught with it) that can intensify certain impressions and sensations of travel. The problem with marijuana, however, is that it's the travel equivalent of watching television: It replaces real sensations with artificially enhanced ones. Because it doesn't force you to work for a feeling, it creates passive experiences that are only vaguely connected to the rest of your life. "The drug vision remains a sort of dream that cannot be brought over into daily life," wrote Peter Matthiessen in The Snow Leopard. "Old mists may be banished, that is true, but the alien chemical agent forms another mist, maintaining the separation of the 'I' from the true experience of the 'One.'" Moreover, chemical highs have a way of distracting you from the utterly stoning natural high of travel itself. After all, roasting a bowl might spice up a random afternoon in Dayton, Ohio, but is it really all that necessary along the Sumatran shores of Lake Toba, the mountain basins of Nepal, or the desert plateaus of Patagonia? As Salvador Dali quipped, "I never took drugs because I am drugs." With this in mind, strive to be drugs as you travel, to patiently embrace the raw, personal sensation of unmediated reality--an experience for more affecting than any intoxicant can promise.”
― Rolf Potts

from the book "vagabonding."

Top Albums of the Year.

my opinion.


1.) adele
2.) florence and the machine
3.) foster the people
4.) youth lagoon
5.) bon iver
6.) gungor
7.) james blake
8.) young the giant
9.) black keys
10.) motopony

runners up...M83, kurt vile, other lives, ryan adams, the weeknd, fleet foxes, st vincent, starfucker

thankful for friends.

november sucked...but it would have been a lot worse if it wasnt for great friends. i always have fun with chris and josh and they conveniently live right down the street. most nights in november we were either sharing a pitcher at matchbox, listening to live music at the medowlark, dancing at the shag lounge or watching funny youtube vidoes at home. even though where we live is a bit sketchy, its nice to have friends i can call anytime.

celebrating thanksgiving...