More from The Cloud

So lately I've been a little too all over the place to think full post-length thoughts, but I have had some briefer musings that I wanted to share.

The Heatley Cliff, a semi-imaginary place where ladies can go and just be ladies.

Podcasts: My husband loves them, and I never really got it until I recently found my own that I am really enjoying. It's The Heatley Cliff and it's these two awesome ladies who have many interests similar to mine including Jane Austen, addictive television shows and pretty things. They've also already turned me onto a few things I'd like to try including book and music suggestions and inspiration to try knitting again. I've linked to their website under "Sweet Escapes," so enjoy both their website and their podcasts if you find yourself liking many of the things I post about on this blog.

Thank Netflix Instant for my latest TV addiction.

Netflix Instant: Thanks to our new iPad, my husband and I no longer have to suffer through each other's television choices that we don't enjoy ourselves. It's football season, which means a lot of looooong games that I just can't sit through, even if I want to veg and watch TV. Thanks to Netflix and the iPad, problem solved. I take the iPad and settle in for another episode of Parenthood, which I'm ashamed I didn't watch before. It has LAUREN GRAHAM in it for goodness sakes! Such a great show and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Young Adult Fiction: I admit it, I read books written for teenagers with vigor quite honestly. Thanks to The Hunger Games, I now also find myself entranced by this whole dystopian forbidden love angle and the Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie is no exception. The second book in the trilogy just came out and I've abandoned the book that I was reading to read this, mostly because I know I'll finish it by the weekend and then it's back to Howard's End I go. (I don't feel too bad only because Howard's End, although great, is a little slow. I'm sorry Mr. Forster, but Jane Austen has you beat for captivating classic English prose.) Anyway, yes, I like YA fiction. Yes, I am a sucker for dystopian tyrannical governments trying to separate young lovers. Yes, I will pre-order the third book in this trilogy as soon as I am able.

You're totally putting rice krispies, butter and marshmallows on your grocery list aren't you? I know, me too.

Cravings: Lately I have been DYING for some rice krispies treats. At first, I thought I could cure it with the packaged factory-made ones, so I bought one of those hoping for fulfillment. Sadly, although delicious, all that the pre-made treat did was make me realize how much I really wanted one that was homemade and fresh. This craving won't go away, and looking at the picture above makes it even more real for me. I'm making rice krispies treats this weekend, it just has to happen.

Red Nails: So I've always been a pretty simple nail girl. For the past decade it's been pretty much light pinks only, but in the past few months I have expanded my nail color horizons. I've rocked neon pink, sparkly black, navy blue and most recently, cherry red, a la Ms. Mendes above. Let me tell you, I am LOVING them, especially with short nails. They are cute and sassy and a lovely pop of color against even the most boring work outfits. I'm channeling my inner Eva and it feels fab.

So those are the non-stressful things floating around my head. It's nice to be able to focus on little things like these sometimes when life gets hectic in adult land.

More from the Cloud or, alternatively, how pretentious am I for naming the interworkings of my brain?

Things are a little hectic right now, so my ability to focus and write a well-planned and structured post is severely limited. I'm going to visit my husband this weekend, so I'm getting ready for that (seriously, this distance thing is ridiculous) and my cat has killed four (4!) mice in the past 2 days, so obviously that's a problem I need to deal with. Anyway, other than the feeling that mice are crawling all over me, here are some things that are on my mind right now:

*You know how when you get on a workout kick and at first you can see what a difference it's making almost every day? I love that feeling. But now, I'm in the part where I kind of plateau and I have to either kick it in and workout harder or change something else like my diet, with which I have a real problem. Seriously? Does my body even know how much motivation I had to work up to start working out in the first place? Now I need to find more? I think I need Jillian Michaels to come to my house and start berating me otherwise that's just not happening.

*Beyonce's song "Love on Top" is awesome. Here's the thing though, I don't know if I actually really like the song or I like the fact that every time I hear it, I think how cute pregnant Beyonce was with Jay-Z at the VMAs. I think that might be it.

*I've been watching a LOT of chick flicks lately because my husband's out of town and I can. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to watch some action or sports-themed movies now. Instead of crying, I think I'm ready to watch a movie and yell at the television "Get out of the WAY! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!" or you know, something sporty. Although, sports movies usually make me cry, but whatever, my point is, I think I need an injection of testosterone in my movie watching, for a limited time only.

*Looking at the photos of the New York Fashion Week shows has made me really happy. You can check out My Tumblr to see some of the pretty clothes I really like. Of course, on the flip side of the coin, there are a few things that make me sad. 1) I will probably never be able to buy/wear any of these clothes because I am not in the yacht-owning tax bracket and 2) Models are too sickly thin. They just are, I'm sorry I can't get over it.

*I had a Peanut Butter and Jelly Pinkberry not too long ago and I'm not kidding, it was the most amazing frozen treat ever. It honest-to-god tasted like a really well-made PB&J sandwich. You know, perfect PB to J ratio but it was also creamy and had these crunchy lightly-sweetened crouton-like things on it too. Oh. My. God. If you have a Pinkberry near you and they are still making this taste explosion, go get one.

Probably the most hilarious part of ordering this was the Pinkberry employee immediately telling me that the Peanut Butter yogurt was NOT non-fat. I was all, it's cool, I just want this in my mouth.

*Shows like The Lying Game and Pretty Little Liars and really any show that takes place in high school now make me wonder if teenagers actually get that dressed up for high school now. I mean, I remember the days when it was simple, you wore a non-imposing outfit from American Eagle, finished it off with a pair of Doc Martens, preferably the Mary Janes and called it a day. Now the kids on these shows are wearing dresses that I would consider too fancy for a cocktail party sometimes and unreal high heels! Hello? You are not going to be able to run to class and make it before the bell in those. I'm so old.

Seriously? This outfit says "Pre-Calc" to you? *Side note: Just realized how much I say seriously. SO Grey's Anatomy of me. Sorry about that folks and yay blog self-awareness!

*I seriously can barely wait any longer for the iPhone 5 to come out. My current phone is the original model, the one they don't even sell anymore, not even at a super discounted price. It freezes a lot, especially when I play Words with Friends, which makes owning at that game very difficult and I'm convinced that I will get better service with a newer model because Danny's iPhone 4 definitely does. That said, I wouldn't trade this phone for any other phone out there because Apple has me brainwashed and I'm ok with that.

*There is no better clothes-related feeling than trying on a new pair of pants and having them fit you like a glove. Actually scratch that, it has never been my experience that gloves fit my hands exceptionally well, so let's just say they fit like really awesome pants. I've been fortunate enough to have that feeling with the past 2 pairs of pants I bought and it almost makes me get over the 4 dead mice in 2 days thing.

Alright folks, my brain is empty now, see you after my weekend out West! (I'm going to Salt Lake City, by the way, yay mountains!)

The Cloud: Also Known as the Inside of my Head

Since I'm just not in the mood for a traditional and possibly too-wordy post (sorry about that readers, I'm working on it), here are just a few random musings I've been having:

 
*It's listed on the sidebar of my blog, but I want to talk about it more because it's that great. HelloGiggles.com is such a triumph for female voices (but there are awesome men who write for it too!) This website's articles make me think, laugh and, twice so far, cry. I feel empowered to put more of myself out there because of this wonderful forum and it's my goal one day to submit a post and get it published on this site.

*They're remaking Footloose. My current position on this is somewhere between indifferent and disgusted. However, it inspired me to watch the original last night. ZOMG I love this movie. I danced along with about 5 scenes. Also, Kevin Bacon is a pretty tiny guy in this movie and still SUCH a stud. Good work KB.

*Don't you hate when something about a person annoys you and then you're alerted to that annoyance so that they annoy you at an intensity that increases with each interaction? I need to do some kind of voodoo mind trick on my own brain so I desensitize myself to these tics.


*Why do I own so many fancy (aka purchased at Sephora) lip glosses when I primarily use Cherry Chapstick? Seriously, do I need 3 different kinds of Lip Venom?

*Sports fan is never really a phrase used to describe me, but lately I've been getting interested in football. Not just in the final score either. I'm paying attention to actual plays and you know what? I'm kind of riveted. Running football plays is not unlike executing a well-blocked scene in a theatrical production and that warms my Theater-major heart.

*I appreciate my husband for lots of reasons, but one that's been cropping up a lot lately is that he makes me want to cook for him. Now that he's gone, I don't have that inspiration. Cooking for one is really difficult to get motivated for, especially because I'm kind of a leftover snob. One more reason he needs to come home soon.

*My latest DVD purchase was Season 3 of Parks and Recreation. I told my husband we had to get it for the betterment of our marriage because Ron Swanson brings out the best in each of us.

Not from Season 3, but come on guys, BREAKFAST BUFFET.

*Do you have those things you wish you liked but no matter how many times you try them, you just can't? For me, those things are running with no other purpose (i.e. not soccer or basketball or something with a goal other than getting to another place), coconut, American Idol and any type of shorts on myself, even if they're considered "flattering for my body type." I have changed over on some former items in this category however, so who knows, maybe in 10 years I'll be a marathoner. HA! I seriously just laughed out loud at the thought.


*Finally, I titled this post The Cloud because I still don't have a very accurate understanding of what the Cloud is. In my head it's just a bunch of Internet thoughts floating around out there somewhere in a pretty blob that in my version includes glitter and/or sparkles (See below for a loose approximation). This post (and really, my blog in general) would be a good example of my idea of the Cloud: stuff I like out in the land of Internets.