Happy July and Birthday!

First off - Happy Birthday to Annie! Anne, you are so much older than me. No, but seriously, happy birthday. You have one of the greatest birthdays ever because it's not only your birthday, but an obscure and made up holiday! I'm so jealous. Hope you have a fab day.

Secondly, it's July! A month of heat and fireworks. I do have to say that out of all the NME celebrations, July's may be my least favorite. Only because it's impossible for me to plan and falls 4 days before the most depressing day of my year. But, with that being said...I will still drink and will still make resolutions.

My July resolution: to be outdoors more. Here's a reason why I may need to be outdoors more...
Friend: Everyone wants to sit on the patio even though it's freezing because we've all come out of our winter lockdowns and feel guilty about not being outside.
Me: I never feel guilty about not being outside.
Friend: Well, you're an exception.

I think what he wanted to say was "you're weird". Anyways...this month brings us Bastille day and the birth of Baby Habben. So let's get celebrating.

Me, on Shopping

The chaos you see above is my closet. I love my closet. I love adding things to my closet. Some people, however, have the idea that I shop all the time and spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothes. This is just not the truth. I shop all the time and spend non-ridiculous amounts of money on clothes because I am scrupulous about shopping. I have rules and I will share them with you now.

1. Only spend major amounts of moneys on things that no one else has or will ever have (with one exception...jeans). This means don't spend moneys on things at chain stores (Gap, Banana, A&F, etc.)
2. 20% off is not a sale, it's an enticement to buy. You are being suckered into buying things you don't need because of the claim of a sale. A sale is 40% off or more. 20% off is all smoke and mirrors.
3. Don't buy something trendy because it's trendy. Listen, I'll wear almost anything...I'm not a big fashion rules kind of gal. But I can't stand it when people wear trends that make them look terrible. It's like, yes you look very fashion forward and like you've been eating 50 doughnuts a day for the last year. Case in point...SKINNY JEANS...
4. Stalk online websites! It's the truth. STALK THEM LIKE IT'S YOUR EFFING JOB! There are many times when I have fallen in love with a dress or top that's too expensive. So, I wait till it goes on sale (remember 20% off is not a sale) and then usually say, gee, that's still a lot of money. As I hymn and haw about whether to buy the damn thing it's usually out in my size. But then I stalk the website repeatedly and relentlessly and then MAGIC, they have it in my size for about 70% off. How do you like them apples?
5. You will never regret spending money on jeans. Never. Ever.
6. If a fancier department store has terrible service, don't buy from them. I live and die by this rule. I stopped shopping at the Nordstrom store because of it. In the Nordstrom "savvy" department, nothing is cheaper than $150. That's a shit ton of moneys. But the sales girls are complete beeyotches and will barely acknowledge your paltry presence. So I never buy anything from them. Not a thing. At Len Druskin I'm greeted with a smile, hello and a damn glass of water, why should I settle for anything less?

These are my rules. Brilliant right?

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Let's just say that when Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes a book about a family over a hundred year period of time, it's going to take you an effing century to read what he's written. That's how I felt about this book. It was beautiful and long and confusing. There were characters with the same name and you could never really tell where you were in the time period of this family. But, that was the point...I think. I think the book was about being in a rut that you just can't get out of and you continue to make the same mistakes and you continue to punish yourself which only leads to making the same mistakes. It's this bizarre loop that you can't get out of.

I loved the characters in this book and I loved reading about the beauty of the setting and time period. But I started to lose steam about halfway through. It was one of those books where I wanted to get to the end, but it seemed like I would NEVER get there. Seriously, there were nights when I would read for an hour or more and felt like I didn't actually read anything. Plus there was so much going on that it seemed like the only way to get anything out of it was to read it a few more times, but the thought of that left me in tears. I loved it and hated it, I was inspired and annoyed, uplifted and frustrated. I felt kind of blah about it.

So...3/5 or 7/10 stars. And I can't put myself through the torture of reading it again anytime soon. Maybe in a few years I'll love it like it's supposed to be loved.

Teens As Hipsters

Add this to the list of things I don't understand. Everywhere I go I see teenage kids wearing skinny jeans, wayfarers and generally looking like they don't shower or wash their clothes. It's a fashion statement that says "My body grew up in Eagan, but my soul lives in Northeast Minneapolis." WTF? If you can't drink a PBR, you are not a hipster. Posers.