at first sight

I heard from an old friend last night, and it was so nice. It's easy to get busy with work and other things and not make as much effort to keep in touch, and before you know it, it's been months or years since you've talked.

There are a lot of friends like that that I've made over the years, and then slowly, even though you still care about them and miss them, it gets harder and harder to keep in contact, as you know less and less about each other's lives and actually getting on the phone and talking only makes that more obvious, and you start to doubt your friendship, and wonder if the other person even cares to hear from you anymore.

But then there are those people that you just click with, instantly. I don't believe people only have one soul mate, and I don't think that if you do have one, it necessarily needs to be romantic. There are just people in life that I have clicked with, sometimes honestly at first sight, and we've been friends ever since. And we'll be friends forever because even if I never spoke to them again in my life, I know we'd still feel exactly the same way about each other.

Those are the kinds of friends that even if you don't know the name of their dog, or even their address, you could see them after 10 years of not talking and pick up exactly where you left off, and those are the kinds of friends I am lucky enough to have.

white trash beautiful

For our anniversary a few weeks ago we went to see ZZ Top, Uncle Kracker and Kid Rock at the Shoreline in San Jose. It was, as my boss pointed out "The Most White Trash Concert I've Ever Heard Of". It was really fun, people were dancing in the aisles and singing at the top of their lungs and they were selling tall cans of Bud Light Lime-arita. Legit.

ZZ Top was the best of the 3, they have the most amazingly deep voices, and the combination of that many sequins with that much beard has probably never been seen since or again.

Sadly my camera was confiscated as soon as I walked through the gate so I only had my phone to take pictures with and it wasn't really up to the task, but I did get to wear my leather pants with my motorcycle boots without feeling like I was going trick or treating, so I'm going to call that a win.

the fault in our stars

I'm reading The Fault in our Stars by John Green, and I'm pretty much obsessed with it. I've basically given up eating, bathing and talking to my husband because I can't put it down.

I've always loved to read, but a lot of the time, books are somewhat predictable. You can tell right away what's going to happen, or else it starts out really well and you start to get excited, and then the ending feels rushed and contrived, and it's really disappointing.

I should probably finish reading it, I suppose, before I write something about it, but writing a book is hard. Like really hard. It's easy to get distracted, or to get pulled away from your original idea, and before you know it you don't have any idea who your characters are, or why they are doing what they are doing.

A lot of the time I will read a book and think "That's not how I would have done it" or "I could definitely write a better novel than this." It's easy to criticize when it's not your work.

But sometimes I read a book like this one, and instead of being filled with questions or criticism, I am just utterly content because somewhere out there is someone writing the story exactly the way you would do it, and it gives you hope that it is actually possible to do, and to do well.

It seems like all of the good stories have already been told, every movie you see is a sequel or a remake, every book you read follows the same plot lines and has the same type of character. But this one is special. I almost don't want to finish it because either it will not be as good as I thought it was and that will be sad, or it will be, and then it will be over and that will be even sadder.

favourites

Here are a few things that are making me happy right now:

 I've been looking for a pair of black booties for a long time, one that is cute enough to wear out, but also has a low enough heel that I could wear them all day at work without wanting to fling myself off the roof. I found these ones from Asos a few weeks ago and I love them, they are comfy and cute, and there isn't a hint of fringe anywhere on or around them.

This might seem very obvious to every other person in the world, but I had an epiphany a few weeks ago. I have about 5 chiffon button up shirts that I love, and are perfect for work, but I never wear them, because they are really sheer. I've tried wearing tank tops underneath them, but it's hard to have two shirts tucked in, one of them is always rolling up and it's bulky.

Sometimes I'll see a woman on the street wearing a sheer white button up tucked into jeans without her whole bra showing and without looking like she is smuggling something under their shirt, and I think that she must be a wizard.

For years I've been seeing the cotton body suits at American Apparel and I always wondered "who is buying those?" and then last week I was like OF COURSE! Everyone but me is buying them! Anyways, I bought a couple, and my whole life is better already.

Semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies from Specialty's are a thing of beauty. I have to bodily restrain myself from going in to get one every time I walk past, but sometimes I can't resist, and then I thoroughly enjoy every warm chocolatey delicious morsel to the full capacity of my soul.

I hadn't been loving my makeup in quite a while, no matter what I seemed to do it always looked the same, and not very good in my opinion, so I had a little bit of a "me" day and splurged on some new makeup from Sephora.

I actually just went in to get eyeliner, but all of a sudden I was replacing almost every product I use.

The verdict so far: I love the Moonshadow eyeshadow pallet, the Tarte cheek stain is amazing, and the Kat von D Trooper eyeliner is life changing. Go buy it immediately. It goes on smoothly without the dragginess of a lot of liquid liners, and the color stays all day without budging.

I don't know that the beauty blender was an absolute necessity though, in essence I feel like I paid $20 for a sponge.

breaking up is hard to do

I saw this video last year, and it really stuck with me. This couple was together for 5 years, and they are breaking up because he wants kids, and she doesn't. They wrote a song together to break it to their friends and family, and explain the situation.

Even though it's sad, you can tell they still really love each other, but they just know that sometimes, that's not all there is to it. If they stayed together, one of them would eventually resent the other one because they weren't able to do what they really wanted to do.

If you love someone, you want them to have the best life, and have everything they want, even if it means that you can't be together.

"You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because, it wasn't true love..."- The Alchemist.



Link to full article here.

potter

I went to my first pottery class yesterday, and it was pretty neat. The instructor went over the basics with us, and then just kind of let us go, stopping to check in every once in awhile. We all got as much clay as we wanted so we were able to make lots of different things.

At first I made 2 bowls that looked exactly the same, and then a coffee mug that looked the same as both of my bowls. I think I was being a little bit hard on myself, I spent a really long time on each piece trying to get it perfect, but the people around me were just cranking through them one after another.

Our instructor was telling us how pottery is one of the most long lasting art forms, which is true, archaeologists are always finding pottery from ancient civilizations. Maybe one day, thousands of years from now, someone will find one of my pieces, and wonder what kind of society could have survived when it's people were so bad at making pots.

I didn't keep any of the pieces I made for the first class, I signed up for 3 classes so hopefully by the end of the third I'll have improved enough to bring home a mug that will actually be able to hold coffee.

one of my pots will probably end up there eventually, let's be honest

this is where the magic happens

pre-glazing

finished works

before

after

my first attempt at a plate. no bueno.

demi

Happy Friday!

It's going to be a gorgeous weekend, and I'm pretty excited to sleep in and go for a nice long run tomorrow, and then to do some shopping.

But the thing I am MOST excited for is Sunday morning, I finally found a pottery class in the Bay that doesn't cost your first born child to attend, and also offered weekend classes.

This is about to be me on Sunday, but with more Patrick Swayze (hopefully).

If you're interested in taking a class, you can sign up with Create in Clay School of Ceramics, here. They offer classes 7 days a week, and it's only $40 for a 3 hour class.