Slow Club's "Christmas TV"

Because today is Christmas Eve (!!!), I figured it was the appropriate time to write about the most adorable, saddest, most perfect Christmas song EVER. It's "Christmas TV" by Slow Club, and I listen to it all year because it is just that precious. I think that I listened to it on repeat for at least half of my flight home on Friday, and I've been listening to it a ton since I've been home, too. Every line of this song is full of Christmas adorableness and perfection, especially where it goes, It's okay that I pray/ that you will miss your flight/ and have to stay with me another night. If that doesn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, you have no heart or soul or feelings and you are probably a robot or something.

Anyway, I have to go do laundry and finish making/wrapping my Christmas presents, so here is a cute little video of Slow Club singing "Christmas TV" inside a cute little gazebo-thing!



Love, Jillian

My New Necklace & A Bulldog Puppy!

I went to the Seaside Bazaar in Encinitas (I will make a post about it someday) with my sister today, and pretty much finished my Christmas shopping! I went to the same woman I always buy jewelry from, and found two really great antique pieces. I bought them both, and of course, one of them was for myself. Mine is a pietra dura necklace, check it out:


I can't write about the other one here because it is a present, but it is also super cute and totally worthy of being included in this post. Oh, well! I feel like all I've been doing since I've been home is sleeping, eating, knitting, and putting gas in people's cars. It's pretty sweet. And between doing those things, I found this adorable video of a tiny little puppy that is so little it doesn't even know how to walk yet!



Love, Jillian

Home is Cute

I got home last night after being gone since August, and it is even better than I imagined! There are so many reasons why being home is amazing, and everyone is probably sick of hearing about how much I love San Diego, but I can't help it!

This is what I wore to run errands today:



This is what I saw out my car window:




I hope everyone on the East Coast is enjoying the snow. And now I am going to go eat tamales for dinner!

Love, Jillian

Spirit Animal Break!

Because I am about to die/fall asleep while re-reading the same play for the millionth time, I thought it would be a great time for an update. Jillian's post reminded me of how much I've been thinking about what animal I would be. I finally figured it out. A CHINCHILLA, DUH. Jillian is a chipmunk cos she is tiny and cute and sometimes has these weird spurts of energy where she decides it is okay to attack me. There are always chipmunks outside of my house and they are really precious and sometimes they just lose it. But even though we are basically the same person, my spirit animal just isn't a chipmunk. I am not that teeny tiny and cute. Instead, I am totally a chinchilla. I am still really fuzzy and soft and precious but not like Jillian. If I were a chinchilla, I'd attack/bother other chinchillas like this:


Seriously. Jillian knows how good I am at bothering people. For weeks now I've been bugging Jillian about this. "Jillian, am I a baby pig? or a lion? or what about a calf? what about a duck? can I be a pony? No?" I think she was ready to kill me. Good thing today while looking at pictures on my computer to distract me, I realized, I AM A CHINCHILLA. Actually, right now, I feel like this chinchilla:


TRAPPED! Chinchilla's love to sleep during the day, just like me! And they are funny and round and have little noses. I have a weirdly round face and a tiny nose! I also know that a lot chinchillas can't stay still. I am so bad at staying still sometimes. Like sometimes we will be laying around in Jillian's bed and I will just feel the need to tap things or move around and I just can't help it. I knew someone who had a chinchilla and they said that they are super moody sometimes and just sort of sulk but then just want to run around. I am basically like that.


Have you guys ever seen a chinchilla take a dust bath? CUTEST THING EVER. Go look it up on youtube! I will admit, I do nothing that can compare to how cute that is. Oh and chinchillas are so lucky cos they never have to write 20 page papers about Rosario Castellanos or stay up all night in a library. Okay, as much as I want to just think about what everyone's spirit animal is, I'm pretty sure it's time to go back to doing work. But later I'm gonna go curl up in bed and I'll feel like a happy chinchilla for a few hours.

Love, María

Finals Are Not Cute, Baby Chipmunks Are

Hey, guys, it's finals week! Obviously everyone is going insane and is super stressed-out, and María and I are no exception. We just had to kick some freshmen out of our carrels in the library, and they even had the nerve to roll their eyes at us and the one who was in mine just tried (and failed) to stare me down while I was fixing my chair so that I am no longer stuck in her butt imprint. Unfortunately for her, she didn't know that my evil-eye is powerful enough to make people instantaneously burst into tears (true story). But once we go home for break (Friday!!!!!!), I'm sure that we will stop being so cranky and regular posting will resume. Until then, here are some pictures of a sleeping baby chipmunk to tide you over:



María thinks that baby chipmunks are my spirit animal, and this is probably exactly what I will look like as soon as I get on the plane on Friday. I plan on passing out before takeoff and not waking up until Saturday except for when I need to switch planes and get my luggage and eat delicious food when I get home. Hopefully we will still be alive at the end of the week, and now María and I are going to play a little game in the library called "How Much Work Can You Get Done Before The Sun Comes Up Or You Lose Consciousness?!!"

Love, Jillian

Sweaters

Now that it's gotten cold and finals are eating up my life, I've been getting out all of my sweaters and hoping that they'll make me feel better. I have tons of sweaters. TONS. But I always buy more and more because they are one of my favorite things. I have all sorts of sweaters. I have super cute sweaters, and super hideous sweaters, super soft sweaters and super weird itchy ones. And do I love them all the same? Mostly.



That's me attempting to show you the buttons on my sweater. I totally failed, but oh well, I tried! This sweater has been in my closet at home forever. I kept forgetting I had it so I wouldn't bring it back. It was with a bunch of other sweaters that I never ever wear and totally forgot I had. The other day I pulled it out because I haven't done laundry in awhile so I had no real clothes left. Then I realized how much I love this sweater because of the buttons! They are gold and they have lions on them! I will admit though, that it's not very flattering and makes me look sort of strange and boxy and there aren't many thing I can wear it with. But I think it looks nice with my floral dresses because I love florals so much and should probably write a whole blogpost about that. I wore this sweater on Saturday night and our friend told me I looked like Emily Gilmore. Yikes! I don't care though because I still think it's a pretty awesome sweater. Plus I was also told I look like a lemur that night so I'm not sure what to think. Later, I thought I'd lost one of the buttons but luckily I found it. It was probably the best part of the night. My life isn't very exciting.


This sweater is currently snuggled between a bunch of Jillian's super soft clothes in one of her drawers. I basically assume all her clothes are really soft, and I don't have a real explanation for that. Isn't it precious? It is! It's full of bows and when I wear it I feel like I look like a present. Once, last year I think, I wore it while also wearing a bow in my hair. It was a little much, but I couldn't help it. I got this sweater at the Bryn Mawr Hospital thrift shop back when Caroline and I used to go in there to waste time almost every week. It fits me kind of funny so I rarely wear it. Plus, I feel like It needs to be paired with pants and I rarely wear pants. It looks much nicer on Jillian. She actually made it her profile picture for awhile, with the caption "coople sweater" Cute! Okay, that's just another really creepy fake Korean Drama term we've come up with to feed our addiction. Well, mostly just mine and Melissa's. When I went home for Thanksgiving break I left it for Jillian so that she wouldn't miss me so terribly. Sick, right? She's also the only other person who has ever worn it, except for the time Allegra tried it on and quickly took it off. When I die she gets the sweater but she has to share it with my little sister.


My very favorite sweater is this super old United Colors of Benetton pullover. It's really kind of shapeless and hideous and sometimes feels kind of scratchy cos it's so old. But, it is my very favorite. It used to be my mom's back when she was a teenager. My grandfather, who by the way is one of my very favorite people ever, went to Germany when she was younger and he brought her back the sweater. When I was younger, I remember my mom would wear it all the time, but little by little she stopped wearing it. She loves it so much though, which is why she kept it tucked away in her closet. Now, I had my eyes on this thing since forever ago. So, when I came back to college sophomore year, I tried to find a way to get my mom to give it to me. You have to understand that my mom knows better than anyone how clumsy and horrible I am, and she's seen me lose/break/destroy things since I could move. So, I knew that she wouldn't just give me the sweater because I wanted it. Instead of asking directly, I sort of suggested she give it to me since she never wore it. And then, I snuck into her closet right before getting in the car for the super fun 13 hour drive and stuck it in my suitcase. By the time she noticed I was feeling pretty pleased whenever I opened my closet but still way too guilty to wear it. When we finally talked on the phone about it she told me I could keep it but that if anything ever happened to it she would kill me. I now guard it with my life and just this year told Jillian she is the only person in the world besides my sister who can ever touch it.

Ah! I love sweaters. All of the ones I own. Like this red cardigan that was $9 and has a weird hole in it but looks really cute with dresses. And my cashmere sweater that has the worst neckline but is so super soft that I don't care at all. Or this old man sweater that I bought a size too big and stretches out after you wear it and it looks like I'm wearing a sack. Ummmm. Sweaters are just so great. I know that Jillian has a bunch of favorite sweaters and I bet everyone else does too. Okay, now I need to go back to my real life where I have to finish a 20 page Spanish paper. This is basically as long as that paper. Ah!

Love, María

Airports

Right now I am "working" at the cafe. But a week from today, I will be waking up in my big, comfy bed at home! And even though I have to write a huge paper and a smaller paper and my thesis proposal before then, I am still in a good mood pretty much all the time because I know that at the end of this week, I will be wearing t-shirts (without like four more layers of clothes on top of them) and eating delicious food and playing with Chelsea and sleeping a lot. I am definitely excited to go to the airport on Friday.


I have always really loved airports for some reason. I know a lot of people hate them because there is a lot of waiting and sitting around involved, but even that isn't enough to make me not love them. I just feel like whenever you go to the airport, it is a good thing. Either you are going to the airport to go somewhere exciting, or to go home, or to pick up someone who is visiting you, or to drop off someone who was visiting you (because, let's face it, by the end of a whole week with whoever is visiting you, you are probably a little sick of them), and so every time you go to the airport, it is cute and happy and fun!

I guess probably a lot of why I like airports and airplanes is because my grandpa loves them so much. I seem to have inherited his obsessions with chocolate and ketchup, so I probably got the airplane one, too. Plus, even when I was a kid and I hated my middle name, I still would always tell myself that it wasn't so bad because it's Amelia, and Amelia Earhart was pretty awesome.

I don't know how else to explain it, something about airports just makes me really happy. I love this one airport in Texas (Dallas?) because it has a monorail, and I still have to admit that Charles de Gaulle in Paris is really pretty, even though I am still bitter over when I got stuck there for twenty-four hours. On my way home on Friday, I have a layover in Las Vegas, and I always end up in this terminal that basically has a wall of windows and you can see the entirety of the Strip while you're waiting, and even though the Philly is a disaster, I kind of like it because everyone always hates it and is lost and confused, but I've finally figured it out and that makes me feel special. My freshman year, I went to Boston for part of my fall break in October, and landing in Boston was probably the prettiest thing I have ever seen. There were so many trees and it was right at that time when they are all like bright orange and yellow and so pretty.


Of course, my favorite airport of all is San Diego (surprise!). It is just so tiny and precious, and when you take off and land, you fly right out over the ocean and if you have a window seat on the right side of the plane (I can never remember which side), you get the most amazing, perfect views. I always like having a window seat, especially when I am landing in San Diego, because then I can look out the window and look for my favorite places, like Balboa Park! And then, when you finally step outside at the airport it just smells like San Diego and that is wonderful. It's like ocean-y and flower-y and plant-y and I-don't-know-what-else-but-it-makes-me-happy and I am so ready for Friday afternoon when I take off and get to go home to seventy-degree weather and sunshine!

Love, Jillian

Party Dresses

I feel like lately all of my blog posts are kind of about cute things, but mostly just reveal how absolutely insane I am. This is definitely going to be another one of those posts, because it is mostly about how I create weird little personas/characters/lives in my head, and then spend a lot of time imagining what secretary-me or housewife-me or career-woman-me (my mom put this idea in my head because she kept telling me over the summer that she sees nothing wrong with never getting married and having children, and instead having a career and lots of disposable income for clothes) would wear.

So I don't even know when this started, but at some point in my life before high school I somehow became convinced that being an adult and being married meant that all of your weekends between Thanksgiving and New Year's were spent going to fancy holiday parties that required you to wear fancy dresses and fancy updos and your husband to wear nice suits and cute, knit ties. This may have something to do with the fact that for most of middle school I babysat for the same family and one of the parents was the CEO or CFO (I don't remember) of this big hospital and that is basically what they did every weekend of the holiday season.

Because of this and my pathological need to create a wardrobe for all sorts of weird, impossible, future versions of myself, I always get distracted by PARTY DRESSES when I am doing my Christmas shopping for everyone else. And, every year, I find one perfect party dress and stalk it and spend a whole month imagining how I would do my hair and what shoes I would wear and how cute the holiday parties would be! Anyway, this is this year's obsession-dress:


Luckily it is already sold out in my size, so I will not be tempted to buy it. I always end up buying a ton of things for myself while I am doing my Christmas shopping. Today I bought a dress for my sister for Christmas, and I also bought two shirts and a skirt for myself. But by doing that, I spent enough money to get free shipping AND I had a coupon that got me 10% off everything. And when I bought my mom's Christmas present, I bought myself a shirt that was on super-sale. Obviously, I have a problem. I have even already planned out exactly what I am going to buy with all of the Christmas money I get from my relatives every year. Sick (in both senses). I am going to stop now before my computer dies and I reveal any more craziness.

Love, Jillian

Cursis Melodías

I can't sleep. I just keep being up all night and tired all day. This has been happening for weeks now. My body probably hates me. Tonight, I tried moving things around in my room, brushing my hair, changing my sheets even though I did that 2 days ago. Nothing works! Then, I spent a long time sewing buttons onto my skirt and wondering when I'm gonna finally fall asleep. And then, seven minutes ago, I found this:


Oh, Natalia! She is so precious. We went out for brunch and it was really delicious and now that I think about it, I had approximately 7 cups of coffee all day which is why I can't sleep now. Anyway, on the way back from brunch, I was telling Jillian and Melissa about how my sister's name was gonna be Natalia and then ended up being Mariana at the last minute because my grandfather told my mother that he knew too many ugly/mean people named Natalia. Hahaha, that sounds horrible and is totally not the only reason.

Anyway, "Cursis Melodías" is definitely one of my favorite Natalia songs. And isn't the video cute? Of course it is because she's just really super cute. I just want tons of Mexican girl cuteness, but apparently I just didn't get it. I guess I can just write these silly blog posts instead. Fun.

Love, María

Snow!

It is snowing!! Today is the first day it's snowed this school year, and obviously snow is totally adorable and Flower Farm-worthy. Especially this snow. Yesterday the weather forecast said that it was supposed to snow overnight, but that it was supposed to be that weird, slushy, snow/rain mix stuff. There was a little of that this morning, but now it has turned into big, fluffy, perfect snow!


I always get really excited about snow, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I live in California. When we lived in Delaware, my mom and I would always get really excited for snow days, and she would get up at like four in the morning to listen to the radio and see if her school or my school or Jocelyn's school would be closed. Then she would call all of my friends' parents to tell them that there was no school, and they would always make fun of her for being so excited about it (she's from New Jersey, so snow shouldn't have been new or exciting or anything) and for calling them that early in the morning.

Apparently, this is hereditary, because ever since I've been at Bryn Mawr, I basically do the same thing. What usually happens is my mom will call me and tell me that we are supposed to be getting a lot of snow, and if I think it's going to be enough snow that we will have a snow day, I will go to bed early without doing any of my homework, and then I will wake up at four in the morning (this happens on its own, I don't even set an alarm) and look outside and check my email to see if Mike Hill has sent out an email saying that the buses aren't running and class is canceled. Then, I text all of my friends and go back to sleep.

This is why I always arrange my dorm room so that my bed is next to the window, even though all of the dorms I've lived in are really old, so the windows are really poorly insulated and it is always really cold right next to them. It is totally worth it, though, because nothing is better than going to sleep when you know it is going to snow or it's just started snowing, and then waking up in the morning and having everything be covered in snow.


Also, this whole snow-thing has made me think that I am psychic. Normally we don't get snow that actually sticks until I am home for winter break or the beginning of spring semester, but this past week I haven't been able to stop listening to "Snow Days," and even when it was sunny and nice out the other day, I kept thinking about snow. Probably because it is December and almost Christmas time and I love snow so much!

Love, Jillian

Lento

Unlike Jillian, I am not in a really great mood. That's because my email hates me. Plus, I've been freaking out about my life and work and aaaaahhhh. That's why I've been listening to Julieta all morning. "Lento" will always be such a great song. Seriously. You should also go here and check out the Julieta Venegas remix of "Bestia" which is just so good.


Hopefully I'll finish a real post soon. Until then, I'm gonna just try not to die.

Love, María

Sunny Days & Good Moods!

I am in such a good mood today because it is so sunny and nice out! It is that perfect kind of fall weather when it is chilly enough for a sweater and a scarf and a light jacket (if you are me, anyway--I guess normal people would wear only one of those since it's like almost 60 degrees out), but it is sunny like summer. María hates when it is sunny, but it makes me so happy because I always miss the sun when I am not in California and I have to use my fake-sun lamp thing in my dorm room to make myself feel better.


When it is sunny out, I feel better about everything. Like right now, I am in the library and I just came back from Haverford, and even being packed into the Blue Bus wasn't enough to ruin my good mood. Plus, my carrel in the library is in this room where two of the walls are giant windows, so even though I am sitting here doing research for my huge term paper, I am still in the sun and I am still happy! The sun has even made me actually LIKE writing this paper! Even though it was mean to me and made me pull and all-nighter Tuesday night, I am currently really nerdily enjoying reading entire books just to find two useful quotes and over-analyzing fourteenth-century Italian literature.

On top of that, I am listening to this really adorable playlist I made of all of the songs that I want to listen to when I am driving on the 101/any road with an ocean view at home in sixteen days! These are some of the adorable songs on my playlist:

I guess this post isn't really about any one cute thing in particular, but I think it still works. Being in a good mood just makes everything super-cute!

Love, Jillian