I've been tagged!

Yay! I've been tagged by Mary to list 6 random things about me. Then the rules are that I should tag other people, however... I don't really know many other bloggers besides Brian and Mary! All the other people who I actually know read my blog are non-bloggers, and the other blogs I love to read are fitness and writing blogs, I don't actually know the bloggers themselves. However, because I think it's fun, I'm still going to list 6 random things about me! The hardest part is narrowing it down to only 6...... :)

Well, here goes!

1. My favorite US President is (and always has been) Theodore Roosevelt. He was so cool and accomplished so much. He was so awesome, he finished giving a speech despite being shot! (Thankfully that assassination attempt failed... whew!)

2. Starting October 9, I'm going to be taking belly dance lessons! (Only for a couple weeks, it's through Main Line School Night, but it still sounded fun!)

3. I know more about car maintenance and repair than most guys I know (thanks Dad!)

4. I pretty much can quote the entire script of the movie Zoolander

5. I really, really dislike when people who are clearly not friends with me add me as a friend on facebook or myspace for the sole purpose of being either nosey or trying to have a million friends.

6. BBQ sauce is my favorite condiment.... I'll put it on almost anything.

So, there are a few random things about me to wrap up my September blogs. Can you believe it's almost October? Where did the time go!? However, it's all good, because with October comes cooler weather, which I'm looking forward to so that I can wear the sweet new coat I bought at Target on Sunday! Yay! :)

So many things to love about fall

There are so many things I love about the fall season, but one of my favorites is hot spiced apple cider. Mmmmmm. And here I sit, cozy and toasty warm, sipping hot spiced cider on this warm fall night while watching the Hayley Mills version of The Parent Trap (love this movie!) It's a lovely autumn night indeed... I can't wait for more! :)

Free Credit Report.com

I try not to watch too much TV, and when I do, most commercials really just annoy me. But some are very clever and I love watching them. One such commercial (or actually commercials, cause there are a few of them) are the freecreditreport.com commercials. They are so funny.... I wonder if the guy always singing the songs actually came up with the jingles himself, or if he's just an actor? Either way, I always stop what I'm doing and watch the commercial, despite the fact that I've seen them a hundred times. And then I'm constantly singing the songs the rest of the day. :) I don't know who thought of those commercials, but whoever did, they're a marketing genius, cause I always remember freecreditreport.com! :)

How could I forget?!?!

I can't believe I forgot to post something as huge as this.....

Over labor day weekend, I acquired two highly prized (to me at least) concert tickets at the chameleon club in Lancaster. And the tickets are for.....

Hanson!!!!!

Hahaha, I'm sure anyone who reads this is probably thinking one of three things:

1) Why in the world is she excited about seeing Hanson

2) Hanson is still in the music business??

3) Mmmmbop

Well. I have loved Hanson since they came on the music scene 10+ years ago. I jumped on the teen-crazed Hanson bandwagon with abandon, I could sing every song (inlcuding the mumbly song Mmmbop, and yes, I do still know it and can still sing it :) and I wanted to see them in concert so badly, but never got the chance.

Hanson dropped from the boy-band scene to become more of an Indie band, and really matured in their music and sound. I love all their music, from the old to the newest stuff. One of my favorite new songs is "Go" and I like it because it has a bit different sound- because Zach (the youngest brother) is singing the lead vocals (instead of Taylor, the middle brother).

In May, my sister Britt had texted me telling me that they were playing at the chameleon club, but I waited too long to get tickets and missed my chance. I was so upset. So when Britt told me they were coming again for their walk around the world tour, I immediately hopped on the computer and snagged two tickets. YAY!!!!! :D

The concert is at the end of October, so stay tuned for a blog about how it went!!! I can't wait!!!!

What I wonder every day

So sometime back in June I wrote a blog about the Princess Bride (one of my favorite movies, and just one of the best movies in film history) and today I'm going to blog about one of my other favorite movies, Ever After. I LOVE that movie. But my inspiration came from one of my favorite pieces of dialog in the movie, between Leonardo Da Vinci and Prince Henry. Prince Henry verbalizes everything I've ever thought about love in a way I could never seem to phrase. He hits it dead on.

Henry: "Do you really think there is only one perfect mate?"
Leonardo: "As a matter of fact, I do."
Henry: "Then how can you be certain to find them? And if you find them, are they really the one for you, or do you only think they are? And what if the person you're meant to be with never appears? Or she does, but you're too distracted to notice? "
Leonardo: "You learn to pay attention."
Henry: "Then, let's say, God puts two people on earth, and they are lucky enough to find one another. But one of them gets hit by lightning. Well, then what? Is that it? Or perchance you meet someone new and marry again. Is that the lady you should be with? Or was it the first? And if the two of them are side by side, were they both the one for you and you just happen to meet the first one first, or is the second one supposed to be first? And is everything just chance....or are some things meant to be?"

Amen, Henry. I wonder this same thing every day.

Fabulous Birthday Weekend!

Unfortunately, both my sister and I forgot our digital cameras (stupid, I know!) and while we did take lots of pictures with store bought disposable cameras, I can't post them here, bummer. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Anyway, we got off to a later start on Friday then we wanted, so we didn't reach the beach house until 10:3o pm. However, what a beach house! It was so nice. Way nicer than what we normally stay in at a beach. Actually, Ocean City is just way better for us, considering most of my times at the beach have been spent at Wildwood, NJ, because my younger sister's twirling squad would perform on the boardwalk one week every summer, so.... that was our vacation. So coming to a fabulous large new beach house in lovely Ocean City already made the weekend great! It was so incredibly sweet and generous of Catherine (my landlady) to allow us to use her beach house free of charge for the weekend. She is so nice.

So if the lovely beach house wasn't enough, we had fabulous weather Saturday and Sunday. Sooo nice. Sunny, warm, a nice breeze coming off the ocean.... ahhh. Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast at some restuarant on the boardwalk, then browsed some of the shops a bit. Then we hit the beach! It was so nice. The water was a little cold, but it felt refreshing after laying out in the hot sun. We stayed on the beach for 4-5 hours or so, then headed back to the beach house to get cleaned up for dinner. We ended up at Jay's crab shack.... it was delicious, and the owner (that'd be Jay) was really friendly. We had a good time. We then headed back to the boardwalk, where we played mini golf, and I actually won! That's amazing, as I normally really stink at mini golf. Then we went shopping again, picking up some fudge at Laura's fudge shop (BEST fudge ever, their snickers fudge is my favorite!) and of course, hitting up a pirate store! Both Britt and I got pirate-related T-shirts, I got a cool leather bracelet (reminds me off my college friend Nikki.... man I miss her!) and I also got a "I heart Pirates" vinyl sticker that is now plastered on the back side window of my car. :)

Sunday was very much the same as Saturday. We awoke to gorgeous weather, then headed to the boardwalk for breakfast. Breakfast was not nearly so healthy as Saturday, since we passed a monkey bread stand and were hooked. Monkey bread, for anyone who hasn't had it before, is absolutely delicious. It's sort of like cinnamon rolls. It's small pieces of dough rolled in balls that are all stuck together. They're coated in butter and cinnamon sugar and brown sugar and baked so it's all gooey and melty and delicious. You can put icing over it or eat it just so. I learned how to make it many years ago when I was in girl scouts using an oven made out of a cardboard box with coals inside. I kid you not. Thanks to girl scouts, I can make something useful out of almost anything!

We hit the beach again on Sunday, and was treated to an air show over the beach from 1-3 pm. It started by having paratroopers jump out of planes (4 paratroopers in all) and every one landed in the designated spot blocked off on the beach. They had very impressive landings. Much better than I'd have done, I'm sure I'd have landed in the water somewhere. :P

Then there were acrobatic planes.... that was intense! I swear they were going to hit each other sometimes, they got so close.... but they never hit. It was amazing to see all the stunts they did with those planes.... better them than me, though! I'm sure I'd have passed out or gotten sick had I tried to do that. It was so neat to see though.

We were sad to have to leave, it would have been great to stay a few more days, but we had a fabulous time and really made the most of our weekend there. I think the best part was that it wasn't so crowded, now that it's the off season. Though there were plenty of people there, it was that extreme busy-ness that normally floods the summer. I loved being able to walk the boardwalk and not feel claustrophobic!

Anyway, there's my general recap of my birthday weekend. I really wasn't anxious to turn 25, but I must say, this past weekend was a great way to ring it in! :)

Happy birthday to me, I'm going to the beach...

Sing the title to the tune of the happy birthday song. :)

So, I'm 25 years old today.... a full quarter of a century. Yikes. It went so fast! And I'm not sure what I have to show for it....

I look back nostalgically on my last 25 years (oh, those were some good times!) and look forward to my next 25 with a mix of excitement/anticipation/trepidation/fear. When I realize just how fast these past 25 years went, I'm afraid I'll blink and miss what happens next! I don't know, some days I'm so happy and content where I am, and other days...... I feel the void of something missing and discontentment darkens my days. Hmmm. I'm not 100% sure what to do about that.

Anyway, enough pondering for now... in two hours I'll be heading to Ocean City NJ with my mom and younger sister to spend the weekend at the beach house my sweet landlady so kindly offered to us. It should just be a nice relaxing weekend with them, no matter what the weather, and I'm really looking forward to it. A detailed blog report to come in a few days. :)

my horrible secret........ and my radio clip!

Ok, so I've posted lots of things on this blog, some very trivial and silly and some very serious. Today I'm going to post something that I ordinarily would have never talked about before as it was something I was extremely self-conscious of. I know it's giving you all a glimpse of my vanity and while I know beauty is only skin deep and it really is on the inside that counts.... it's hard not to want the outside to look good, too!

So, here is my secret. Ever since middle school, I had been incredibly self conscious of my upper lip and chin....specifically, the hair there. :( Being of mediterranean descent, I have lots of dark coarse hair. Thanks Mom. Not only did I get your bad skin, but I have dark coarse hair on my FACE! What made it worse was that I couldn't even tell myself no one noticed- I definitely got teased about it (thank you, Tony Roth, Billy Reichle, and Jeremy Reinhardt... even though I know Tony was the evil mastermind behind it) Ever since that day in eighth grade, I had been obsessive about waxing, tweezing, bleaching... I was trying to make absolutely certain no hair could be seen. However, that was MUCH easier said than done. It was a tireless effort where no matter what I did, things just seemed to get worse, and I could never completely get rid of/hide the hair. I hated it.

So, why am I basically telling anyone who has internet my horrible secret? Simple.... thanks to laser hair removal, it's fixed for good now! I don't have to worry about telling people and then having them stare at my problem spots, because I don't have any anymore! I know some people would just say I'm being vain. Maybe they're right. But I feel a lot better about myself now.... I'm more myself. At the end of my rope, I had researched a lot of places and came upon Bella Medspa, a laser hair removal treatment center that had a location right in Ardmore. They had great prices and were extremely professional and helpful. I had a great experience with them and in turn, wrote a good review on their website... and like I said in a previous blog, they then asked me to help them out by doing a radio ad!

So for anyone who didn't hear the ad on the radio, Bella Medspa has a picture of myself in the Ben FM studio, as well as an online version of the radio clip. It was a lot of fun, and so not only do I have great results, I got to be on the radio too! :) Here's the link to Bella Medspa's website if you'd like to check out my radio clip!

http://www.bellamedspaonline.com/blog/2008/08/12/laser-hair-removal-customer-testimonial-recording-for-ben-fm/

"Jen's Favs" CD

While I am sadly behind in the times, and do not have iTunes or an iPod or MP3 player or a fancy cell phone or hi-tech computer, both my sisters do have at least one or two of these items. Both of them definitely have (and love) iTunes. For my 25 birthday (eek it's almost here!) my younger sister Britt made me a CD of some of my favorite songs. Now, I am a Christian, and I do love Christian music. However, I love all other types of music as well and I'm not one of those Christians who only listens to Christian and classical music and bans everything else. First off, there is a lot of good music that is not "Christian" and secondly, how can we as Christians relate in any way to people with different beliefs if we closet ourselves up and have nothing in common with them? With that said, this CD actually holds no Christian music (though I have tons of favorite songs of the Christian genre... maybe Britty can make me another CD ;) Anyway, some of my favorite songs include:

-Under Pressure (the version with Queen and David Bowie is the best, I love David Bowie's voice. Despite being utterly creepy looking in the movie "The Labrynth" he completely transfixed me and I've loved him ever since. Weird, I know)

-Peace of Mind (By Boston.... I want to play the guitar so badly just so that I can play the intro to this song)

-Wonderboy (Tenacious D- such a silly song but I LOVE it and can sing it word for word ever since I first heard Mitch, Shaun, and Monty sing it at Karaoke back in college)

-Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns & Roses)

-Adiemus (a haunting song by Enya we performed in indoor guard back in high school- my favorite routine EVER)

-Hero (Enrique Iglesias)

-Mortal Kombat theme song (love that movie... I have a weakness for sci-fi movies and if you combine it with heart pumping music, I'll love it even more :)

-Untitled (Simple Plan). If you haven't seen the music video to the Untitled song by Simple Plan, do it now. Here's the link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2lhkCQkhu8 it's such a fantastic video, very haunting, I get goosebumps everytime I watch it. It's a really powerful message and I love the song. One of the most sobering things is how you see how the event in the video affects the whole family.

There are a few more songs on the CD, and I have to give Britt a shout out of thanks because it was an awesome, thoughtful gift. I love it Britty and have been listening to it constantly! :)

Concert, Amen, Good God

Last night I drove up to Philadelphia Biblical University to attend a free concert, featuring Christian music artist Shaun Groves. I met my friends Brian and Mary Hand (Brian attends PBU, which is how I found out about the concert) and we settled in, not really knowing what to expect. I'd heard of Shaun Groves, and had heard one or two songs of his on the radio (and liked them) but really didn't know much about him.

It turns out that Shaun is a very talented singer, guitarist, and pianist, but more than that, he's incredibly witty and charismatic. He was so funny and held the audience in the palm of his hand. He had some goofy songs (one about shopping at a flea market in Montgomery) and other serious songs. At one part during the concert, he had some of the lyrics of his songs projected on screens so we could sing along. One song that particularly touched me was called "Amen." Here are the lyrics.

My body breaks beneath the weight
Of toil and trouble, fears and fights
Sickness in me, world against me
I cry to You tonight

Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Holy Healer
Strength within
Pass me not
Forsake me not, Lord
Amen

My enemies are whispering
They pray my name may die
So few to trust, so few are just
I cry to You tonight

Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Faithful Brother
Closest Friend
Pass me not
Forsake me not, Lord
Amen, Amen

My heart is dim, It’s always been
I turn from what is right
Passions of youth tear me from truth
I cry to You tonight

Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy
Sinless Savior
Judge of men
Pass me not
Forsake me not, Lord
Amen, Amen

It was a beautiful song, with words that echo feelings I've often felt. Sometimes it feels like I have the world on my shoulders. Sometimes it feels like God is so far away. Thankfully for me, God is merciful and gracious and forgiving, and constant. Though I may feel oppressed and far from God, he is near and willing to take me as I am, flaws and all. I just need to reach out and accept his love. And that's a promise he's made to not just me, but to everyone.

That's a good God.

Labor Day Festivities

Ah, Labor Day Weekend... such a great time, signaling the end of summer. I took Friday off so I could have a four day weekend, which was looovely! I started it off by sleeping in, which was so nice. Then I hit the gym, showered and packed my things, and headed toward Kutztown. I ended up going out to lunch with my mom, and then coming home to the power out, so I took my Dad out to lunch later so he could get something to eat. It was nice to have the separate times with my parents. Luckily the power came back on quickly though. Friday night I just mostly relaxed, which I needed. Saturday, my mom and sister and I went to the movies and saw Tropic Thunder. There were parts of it that were really funny, but lots of parts that were really crude. And there was a lot of bad language I thought was really unnecessary and kind of ruined it for me. Overall, Zoolander is still my all time favorite Ben Stiller movie.

Saturday night, we had a cookout and then a movie night in my Dad's shop (located right next to our house). See, my Dad has loved photography and film for a long time, and for as long as I can remember, he's had movie film and the movie projector that he can show our homemade family movies with. So he set up the screen and projectors in his shop. Britt and I ran the concession stand, handing out fresh popcorn and candy and drinks. Everyone loved it. Saturday night we watched the 30's Frankenstein trilogy (my Dad gets a lot of movie films off E-bay now) followed by some home movies. We did it again Monday night, where we started out with a Tom and Jerry cartoon, followed by the Towering Inferno, followed by family movies. Saturday night was really special, as we got to see movies of my Dad and his brothers and sisters and my grandparents when they were young. The neatest thing was seeing my great-grandmother Lillian on film. She passed away before I was born, so I never knew her. It was a neat moment to watch her on screen.

Sunday we had a big family breakfast, including my cousin Dee, who had slept over the night before. Later in the day we went shopping a bit, where I picked up a cool purse, some books, and an awesome pair of boots I can't wait to try out.... come on, colder weather! :) And then later, we had another cookout, followed by swimming, and then a campfire, set up by yours truly. :) At least I know I learned one thing in girl scouts! It was so nice sitting by the fire, making smores and hanging with my family. We had such a good time.

Monday was yet ANOTHER cookout, followed by the movie night again. I didn't make it back into Philly until late at night, but it was worth it for such a great weekend. Hopefully everyone else had an enjoyable labor day as well!