I’ve never been a big fan of rain. I don’t like getting wet and having to walk around in nasty soaked clothes. Especially when it’s warm out and you’re wearing a sweater. And then you walk into an air conditioned place. Gross. Snow is my precipitation of choice. Not only can snow be shaped into men or caves, but you can make snow angels and spell your name in it and make track marks. There are few things as beautiful as a blanket of fresh snow on the ground before anyone steps in it or shovels it or drives through it. Snow makes the entire world around you look pure and perfect. And when it snows at night, it stays light out. There is something incredibly peaceful about simply standing as snow softly falls to earth. Aside from peacefulness and beauty and art, snow makes school close down (and occasionally work). Thank you, snow, for allowing me to put off homework even longer than usual, and making the world a less chaotic place (if only just for a moment).
Bonus good thing about snow: when it’s snowing, you know it can’t be THAT cold. It’s usually a pretty nice temperature when it snows. And another thing: an excuse to wear your Bean Boots.
Yelp, aside from Time Out Chicago, is what gave me the idea to start Diana’s Thumb. I love seeing “People love us on Yelp” stickers at local businesses and going on Yelp only to find that people actually HATE them!
I very often go on Yelp to see what people think of the restaurant I’ve been meaning to try or what kind of funny comments my friends are making. I don’t necessarily depend on Yelp reviews to make or break my decision on whether to check out a new place, but it’s still fun to read. It’s a great place to find brand new places to eat or shop or whatever around you. It’s also a great site to visit if you want to laugh! People are pretty hilarious on Yelp. Let’s face it: people love to talk, especially about their own thoughts and opinions. Yelp lets people do that, and others actually read it. So, get yourself on Yelp (as a business or consumer) and get some reviews going!
I’ve had a Chicago Public Library card since kindergarten (acquired at the old Archer Heights branch - a small storefront). Before that, my mom used to take me to story time at the Brighton Park branch. Before we had an internet connection at home, I used to go to the library to use the computers. When I had a research paper to write in high school, I buckled down at the Harold Washington.
The reason I love libraries is that they provide services and materials FOR FREE. Everyone who knows me knows I love the word “free.” If there’s a movie in theaters you kind of want to see but don’t want to pay for and you don’t pay for DVDs on Netflix (and it’s not available to stream), you can head on down to your library and check it out! The nice thing about that is you can go look at the collection at your local library and see a new movie that you forgot about, never heard of, has an interesting cover or you’ve been searching for forever and never thought you’d find at the library. Movies, CDs, books, microfiche…what more could you ever want? Oh, you want eBooks? They have those too (in ePub format. Sorry kindles).
Lest we forget, The Chicago Public Library also has museum passes you can take out to get into museums and zoos for free. The CPL has branches in pretty much every Chicago neighborhood, so one is never too far away. In addition to checking out items for free, you also get free smells. Not only do you get that old book smell, but you sometimes get to experience the smell of people at the library. people who haven’t bathed in a while. That one is not so pleasant, but it happens. And it shows the library does not discriminate! (Unless you “have neglected your bodily hygiene so that it gives offense and constitutes a nuisance to other patrons”).
The library is the best place to see your tax dollars at work. And the employees are some of the nicest city workers ever! I can really only speak for the Chicago Public Library system as it’s the only one I’m really familiar, but I’m sure most library systems (at least in the midwest and northeastern regions of the U.S.) are similar. Let’s all celebrate the library by keeping money in our wallets and checking out some classical music CDs. Thumbs up to Libraries. Cheesy blog close: read, learn, discover.
This post has been a long time comin’. What can I say about pizza? I don’t know if any words can equal the joy that is pizza. How often have people of different races, religions, classes, sexual preferences come together to eat a pizza? How many times have you been hungry at 3am without a scrap of food and not wanted to get out of your pajamas? Pizza was there. Pizza was there when a bunch of people unexpectedly came over and you had nothing to feed them. how about when you had to cater for a bunch of picky little kids? Pizza. How often do you suggest pizza and have them turn you down? Never (if you get turned down, you shouldn’t associate with those people who turned you down for pizza). How much pizza is too much? No such thing. When is the right time for pizza? Always. When it comes to price to goodness ratio, there is no better option. Even bad pizza is still pizza. God, I want some pizza.
Oh, and everyone should follow http://fuckyeahpizza.tumblr.com/
I think I’ve always had helpful neighbors, at least as long as I can remember. There has always been a neighbor ready to babysit me or to lend my mom an egg. Now that I’m on my own, I’ve still had a very pleasant neighbor experience. (My whole family is friends with my cousin Danny’s neighbors). In the DePaul dorms last year, I lived in the very last room of the hallway, tucked into a corner. The room closest to us was a little bit removed, but we were neighbors. We were offered pizza when they had too much, I asked them for help with unbunking my beds (as I wanted to do it as a surprise for Tina :P) and they would sometimes stick their heads in while we played Rockband. Now that I’m living in an apartment, I still have some helpful neighbors. The people who live all the way upstairs (not the people directly above…they’re just loud) shovel the snow and taught me how to relight a pilot light in the furnace. I’ve also had a few weirdo neighbors and neighbors that let their dog into our yard to take care of its business, but I’ve had a mostly good experience. Neighbors: the friends who ask for favors and you don’t really have to hang out with unless you have a barbecue. This thumb is for you, Kramer.
I’m not sure it’s really necessary to explain this thumb. I can sit here and talk about the 20 awards Tina has won, or I can talk about how she wrote Mean Girls. I could, but I won’t. All I will say about Tina Fey is that she is beautiful, smart and hilarious. There are few things I can count on to make me laugh regularly, but 30 Rock is definitely one of them. She’s goofy, outlandishly clever and witty, and has broken the glass ceiling for women everywhere; what I find extremely inspiring is she has become extremely successful as a screenwriter and didn’t go to an ivy league school. Also, she wears glasses. I love Tina Fey; my hope is to be as successful in doing something I am naturally good at as she is. She deserves all her success and works tirelessly for it, but makes it look so easy. My hat is off to you, Tina Fey. You’re a star; you’re on top; somebody bring you some ham!
My obsession with L.L. Bean started last winter when I first laid eyes upon the Bean Boots of my friend, Mary. She’s from D.C. where the L.L. Bean brand is incredibly popular. They’re beautiful boots and I fell in love with them at first sight. Long story short, I purchased a pair for myself and love them. They’re the boots that started the company, and have been around for almost one hundred years. What sets L.L. Bean apart from other companies is their lifetime guarantee. You can return their products at any time! L.L. Bean can be pricey, but their stuff is built to last and the styles are all New England prep, which never goes out of style! L. L. Bean is as American as apple pie (except that some of their products are made in China now…but not the boots!). Come on, how often have you seen this backpack around campus, even in college (especially in college)?
Wearing an L.L. Bean is so much better than a North Face logo (yes, I have one of those too…); it shows you’re into it for the quality, not the brand. My hope is for everyone to own at least one product from this fine company, and take a trip to the L.L. Bean flagship store to take a picture with the giant boot. I know I will!
First off, I want to say sorry for not posting in so long. Second, I’d like to point out that perhaps it was just a really long commercial break (ahahahahahaaaa). Hopefully you used the time the same way you would use the time during a television “word from our sponsors;” did you use the bathroom? grab a snack? refill your drink? go fetch your blanket from the other room? check facebook again? Oh! Commercial break’s over! Oh…now I really have to go to the bathroom…I should have gone before the break ended..oh man, I don’t want to miss any part of this show…I’ll just hold it…no, I can’t! I’ll just leave the door of the bathroom open and I’ll be able to hear the TV…MOM, DON’T LOOK!!!!!!
So, my point is…commercials are not only awesome in that they’ve led to some pretty big fads (ex: WASSUUUUUPPP??), but they allow us to get up and stretch our legs or do one of the other thousand things we THINK about doing while the show is on, but can’t because we can’t miss a precious second of our mass media consumption. Commercials are also cool because whoever makes them has to be really creative in order to make a memorable one. I mean, does anyone really remember internet ads? Not really. But how many people remember the Britney Spears Pepsi commercial? Yeah, exactly. Commercials do such a good job of sticking in our heads (whether it’s for the reason they’re mean to or not is a different story) that I have to give credit to them for being so darn loveable…except for those stupid ones (I’m oovooing!) Thanks, commercials, for giving me enough time to pour myself another bowl of Lucky Charms.
Call me outdated, but I like my CDs. There is something very nice about owning a CD by your favorite band and getting to see all the album art, getting to read the lyrics and reading the thank yous (hoping to see a thank you to the fans). Now, I don’t “own” all the music on my computer…no…not all music has that privilege…but the music that I do own is special. The best part about CDs is the organization of the songs on them. The band put them in the order you’re supposed to listen to them in and they’re usually really good at it (see: Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree). It’s not everyday you run across a CD you can listen to all the way through (we all know CDs usually go bad past track 7 or so); when you DO find a cd you can listen to from start to finish, it’s just about the best treat money can buy! Nothing more satisfying than a hearty CD, organized the right way and leaving you with a good last song to hum all day. Maybe now you are picturing the cover art of some of your favorite CDs? Or maybe you disagree with me completely and are completely anti-CDs? Either way, let’s all take a second to remember “anti-skip protection” in portable CD players…
I am extremely late to jump into Netflix, but let me tell you…AWESOME. I have received various offers for a free trial in the mail, and always meant to do one, but never did. Today, I really wanted to watch the movie Factory Girl as I was looking up information about the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. I didn’t feel like going through the trouble of looking for a working link to a streaming video online, so I thought..hey, what a great time to get Netflix. So, I signed up for my two week free trial and started watching! (Unfortunately, Factory Girl is only available by mail so I wasn’t able to receive instant satisfaction…but I found a few other titles of interest to me.) I like that Netflix gives you suggestions because I’ve been finding movies I either a) forgot I wanted to watch or b) never heard of but sound interesting. I know people (especially people from work) have been suggesting Netflix to me forever, but I never did. Thank you to you all, and I’m really excited to be a part of this national phenomenom! Whoever invented Netflix, particularly the instant streaming…..whatagenius. Thumbs up to you and what you’ve started. Now, if anyone needs me…I’ll be in my room, in my uni-lazy, watching whatever I can get instantly for the next two weeks.
A lot of people will probably disagree with my thumb for Tim Burton, but whatever. Many of my favorite movies have been directed or produced by this guy. (It all goes back to when I was four and chose The Nightmare Before Christmas VHS over Alice in Wonderland (which has now been re-done by Burton, lol).) Most recently, I have been watching Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and, let me tell you, fun-ny. Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, Sweeney Todd and even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are great in my opinion. All of them make me smile, for different reasons (though they are all a bit silly). From what I’ve seen, Burton’s a really funny dude, and a nice guy. His friendship with Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman are my favorite, and the fact that he and Helena Bonham Carter are together just seems so right! For as long as he continues making movies, I will probably keep watching them. And for as long as I have curly dark hair, I will aspire for it to look like his. To Tim Burton, for giving me hours of entertainment and letting my mom and I have at least one common interest (Nightmare Before Christmas).
I very much enjoy airports. Part of the reason I am posting this is because of a text I received (a quote from Love Actually). The truth is there really aren’t that many places in the world where you can see as much love as in the airport (and probably not anywhere with as much prejudice either….but anyway). I love almost everything about airports. I like getting there early. I like checking my bags and then recognizing them at baggage claim. I like boarding passes, and I like terminals. I like duty free shops (though I don’t like the prices). I like the flags of the world (at least, at O’hare). I like the drive to the airport, and the slight nervousness when taking off. I like the feeling of turbulence in my stomach and in-flight movies and tv shows. I like picking people up from the airport and hearing their travel stories. I like watching planes take off and I like seeing them land. I like doing homework or reading on planes, and I like how little the coffee cups are. I like looking out the window and seeing everything below you change, and seeing how many people have pools. I like trying (and NEVER succeeding) to find my house from the window. I like arriving in a new place and thinking about how many miles just passed under my feet when it felt like not moving at all.
Ughhh….I’m aching to go on a trip.
In order to appropriately make a post about lists, I think it must be done in list form.
- Lists can help you stay organized.
- Lists help you figure out what you need to do.
- Grocery lists make sure you don’t forget what you need to buy.
- It’s fun to try and list all 50 states when you’re bored in class (without looking at a map).
- When you have something to do, you can make a list of it and include mundane, irrelevant things that you have already completed so that you can immediately cross them off and feel like you’ve accomplished something (when really you haven’t). An example of this is making a list for doing homework and including eating dinner and making your bed.
- Lists of requirements to get into a school or lists of things you need when going on a trip can help your be prepared!
- Though I do like lists, the real reason for posting this was an excuse to post the to do list I found on the ground today.
