If you call...

I will answer...

I love this Barenaked Ladies song - "Call and Answer". I've been using my iPod as my crutch this week to help me get through some thoughts of mine. I actually came across this one after not having heard it for awhile. I used to listen to it in college a lot. It's funny how songs on my iPod can elicit memories regarding other times in my life.

I love music. It's helped me get through hard times in life. It's helped me get to a point where I can think clearly again. Many of the songs on my playlist are from years ago, but I still have an emotional attachment to them. There are also new songs that I've been able to mix into the playlist.

Some of this week's playlist, including new and old:

"Call and Answer" by Barenaked Ladies
"At the Stars" by Better than Ezra
"Heartbreak Warfare" by John Mayer
"Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum
"Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper (though I love the acoustic version with her and Sarah McLachlan
"Wait" by Sarah McLachlan
"Napoleon" by Ani DiFranco
"Why" by Annie Lennox
"I Stand" by Idina Menzel
"Living Inside me Heart" by Bob Seger
"Crazy" and "Sometimes" by Nine Days

Thoughts, lack of sleep and headaches, oh my!

You ever wish you could take something back? That's how I feel this week. Funny thing is, it's not something I could take back, since I didn't do it. I just have to deal with the aftermath.

There's a point you get to where you realize the people you thought your friends were aren't those people at all. You get to questioning whether you want anything to do with those people anymore. It's not an easy discussion to have with yourself, trust me.

In the end, I'm a fairly forgiving person and while I'm hurt, I will probably bounce back from it and worry more about the friends that did wrong instead of worrying about myself.

It's funny - I'm actually in an ok mood today. And I know I'll be ok. And I know I'll be stronger for it in the end.

A return?!

After some thought the past few weeks, I've decided to try to return to using social media and electronic communication, while expanding my phone useage (that's not texting). As I was looking at my blog last week, I realized how long it's been since I've written anything. I mean, heck, I didn't even finish blogging about my vacation! It's to be determined whether I will actually finish that set of blogging.

However, a lot has been happening since my last post. I've finished my term as president of the Lansing Jaycees, have become the Region D Director for the Michigan Jaycees, and I'm job hunting. All of this has made for quite an interesting 2010 so far. Definitely a busy one with lots of traveling.

In the meantime, you can also find me on Twitter - @fallingstar924

More to come soon, I hope!

Break in vacation blogging...

I have much more to blog about vacation, but I'm being really slow about it. There are so many things going on right now, and I'm trying to be attentive to myself.

With that being said, I made a huge decision this past weekend. I'm going to go to law school starting in Fall 2010. Which means I have to take the LSAT in February (with a possibility of taking it in June also, depending on score). I am trying to set my schedule up to accomodate this, and went and collected LSAT study books from the library. I will be purchasing some soon too.

I still need to find a place to study for the LSAT, because I really just can't do it at home (I know myself too well). I will clearly have to sacrifice some sleep for this endeavor, but I think it's been a long time coming. I'm very excited, but also very nervous. This is going to be a very trying and difficult time, but I know it will be worth it.

Please bear with me while I start this new journey!!!

Vacation - Sushi Belt

On the way to the coast on Monday of vacation, we had to stop for lunch. Our destination? SushiLand in Clackamas. AKA the sushi belt. This is an amazing idea and I wish we had one here!

Below is the sight when you walk in...

Here is the menu - these were on the tables so you could find out how much each plate would cost, and also so you could tell what was what...

Here are some of the plates we got - salmon, eel, and california rolls. We had lots more, as you'll see further down...

The other very cool thing was that we were able to watch an entire salmon be filleted and deboned with amazing precision...here is the salmon before it produced many yummy pieces of sushi!

And this is the culmination of what Eric and I ate - just the front two piles. For both of us it cost around $20 - not a bad deal at all!

Vacation - Powell's Books

I am so sad I didn't get to spend more time at Powell's Books. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have more books than I know what to do with. This place was HEAVEN for me. It is one city block in downtown Portland, OR. Rooms are separated into different colors - Rose was Children's, Blue was Fiction, Orange was Travel, and there were many others. They even have a Rare Book room - which had a copy of "Le Petit Prince" for $13,000. Sigh...

I did come back with a t-shirt (yes, I understand that a t-shirt from a bookstore constitutes me as a big dork). We also got a water bottle for a friend of ours, and a couple of books. It was a beautiful sight to behold...

Vacation - Stepping Stone Cafe

On Saturday, July 11th, we took a plane from Grand Rapids to Portland, OR (via Atlanta - yeah, I know, out of the way!) It was a long enough trip between Atlanta and Portland for me to watch two movies (Watchmen and Sunshine Cleaning).

We stayed at a friend's mom and stepdad's house in West Linn for the trip, and after we all got there, embarked on breakfast on Sunday morning. We hit the Stepping Stone Cafe in Portland. Eric and I are big fans of the Travel Channel show "Man v. Food". Adam visits Portland in one of the shows, and visits 3 places while there - Stepping Stone, Voodoo Doughnuts, and Salvador Molly's.

Eric and I outside waiting for a table...

Their menu...

Some of the decorations inside!

One of the things that really caught our eye were the Mancakes that Stepping Stone serves. They are 13 inch pancakes that are monstrous! You can get an entire stack for $4.50. Before we even left for our trip, I knew that we would order one stack of Mancakes, add blueberries, and have a side of bacon with it - for the two of us.

The Mancakes hang over the edge of the plate...we asked for extra plates!

It was like eating a piece of cake!

These were soooo yummy. Between the two of us, we ate the bacon and also half the Mancakes - we took them back to the house to eat later, but because we were gone a lot of the rest of the week, we didn't end up eating them. I highly recommend taking a trip here for breakfast - they have bunches of great food. But, we also had lots more yummy food along the way...

I'm working on catching up on blogs about our vacation, so keep an eye out!