Rarest of them all Launch Party!

happy tuesday

hangin out!

I'm really excited about my new reads I picked up from Barnes & Noble the other day:

Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren

Hungry: A Young Model's Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves by Crystal Renn

V magazine JUNE (?):

Zink magazine MAY:

 

That'll keep me busy in-between random on-call shifts at the store this week! hooray for starting work!!

updates (finally!)

    I know, I know, it's been a long time with no posts. But! before you tell me "tsk tsk" and snap and point your fingers at me, let me explain! Dylan and I are finally moved and settled into our new apartment in Austin, TX! We've been here for about a week and half now, and each day I discover something new and intriguing about this wonderful city. 

     The drive down itself actually wasn't as bad as we anticipated. I was able to listen to just about all my audiobook of The Lovely Bones, while trying not to be distracted too terribly by Patrick, who, for the first few hours of the trip meowed and pawed at the car windows profusely, scared out of his effing mind, i'm sure. After a while he got used to it though and seemed to enjoy traveling.  He especially liked ducking down into the space around my feet, where the gas pedal is.  Having a spastic kitten running around your car, while driving a stick-shift Mazda with no cruise control for a total of 22+ hours was a feat (although fun overall!) in and of itself.  

     Driving decidedly became sort of an enjoyable chore, although I wouldn't recommend it for those of you planning to visit us. Fly if you can! But I suppose if you love road trips, it's an interesting one (staying in that creepy-ass hotel just west of Little Rock was pretty spooky...I really am surprised we didn't get robbed- or raped.)  

     All in all, I feel like a pro now, and much more confident with myself as a driver.  The only problem we ran into on the drive was just south of Dallas, about an hour and a half away from Austin, Dylan got a flat tire in the middle of the highway.  Thank goodness he was smart and got insurance before the trip, we only had to wait about 30 minutes before someone from U-Haul came to our aid and fixed the flat for us...at no additional cost! 

We arrived in Austin on June 2, at about 8 PM, in the middle of a drenching thunderstorm.  After going over the paperwork and signing our lease, we immediately ran to our apartment on the second floor, keys in hand.  One of the first things I did was jump on top of the larger-than-neccesary island in the middle of the kitchen, reclining on my back in an Esther Williams-esque pose, long enough for Dylan to take a picture on his phone. 

     Liza would be proud.

     We still can't really believe we live in such a nice place, complete with gym, wi-fi lounge, parking deck, elevators, and lap pool with a patio and grill in the courtyard.  Our balcony overlooks a smaller courtyard, and we can't wait to get a small table and two chairs to put out there for breakfasts.  All for the same price as a college apartment back in 'ol Harrisonburg. Suck on that!

     We've made two trips to IKEA, tried at least one new restaurant every day (Two of our favorites are P. Terry's, a burger joint, and 24 Diner, where over 50% of the fare is from local farmers), been to some cute coffee shops (like Little City and Thunderbird Coffee), sun-bathed, grocery-shopped at the biggest Whole Foods known to man (going into the flagship store downtown on a tuesday afternoon is like a black friday at Tyson's Corner), biked across town, rode the city bus in the middle of the night, explored antique shops and vintage glamazon treasure troves (the best so far have been Room Service, Feathers, New Bohemia, and Prototype) and there's still so much more to see. (i know i sound like a naive adolescent exchange-student right now, but i don't care!)

    I've been applying to jobs like mad, watching Hayao Miyazaki films, reading Janice Dickinson's book "No Lifeguard on Duty", smoking probably too many cigarettes, but at the same time eating quite well, thank you very much.  Dylan has been busy at work, making friends, getting inspired by his fellow-artists, and getting into the groove of being a tattoo artist in Austin.  I'm so excited to see where it takes him in the next several months.  

   Needless to say, we're very, very happy so far. I'll be posting more frequently once we get the internet set up, but for now, have a great weekend, and try to see Get Him to the Greek while it's still in theaters!!! It's a riot.