Summer Dreams

It's been a good month since this blog has been touched, and I guess it's my turn to contribute to it. So here I am, talking about life in general. 

In case y'all didn't know, I (Alex/Tally) have been living in Pennsylvania for the past two years (it's a long story). However, this summer (six more weeks!) I'll be moving back to Texas to be with Savannah and my family and other friends. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. Of course I'm going to miss my great friends that I've made here in Pennsylvania, but I'm not going to lie...I miss Texas. I miss everything about it. The people, the pretty sky, the weather, the shopping (wait what!?), my school, my house, my neighborhood, the Mexican food, the Bluebell ice cream, the flat landscape (mountains make me feel claustrophobic)...everything. A lot. There are good things about Pennsylvania, too - the friends I've made, the Italian food, the closeness to all the big cities (New York City <3, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Harrisburg, Washington, D.C., Jersey City (ew), etc.), the abundant historic places and great photo ops...and there's probably more. It's just that Texas is home, and nothing can change that. 

I've also been involved in my school's musical this year, Godspell. Since singing, dancing, and acting isn't really my thing, I'm the stage manager. Basically I make sure that all of the props are in their place, I stay on book and call lines during rehearsal, I help the actors with their costumes and lines, and I work the lights. It isn't much, but I love being involved with my friends and something that lots of people will enjoy. It's kinda taking over my life, though. But in the best way possible. 

Oh, I made another blog. I know. It's pretty sad. I deleted all of my old ones though, so hopefully this one will last. It's called sweet tea and summer dreams and I'd appreciate it if you'd follow me. :)

That's about all that's happening in my life right now. So, goodbye for now. 

- Alex

Running A Million Miles An Hour

My life is crazy and because I gave up my beloved Netflix for lent I have found myself craving more and more YouTube. I have even gone so far as to use my account to actually upload videos. Shocking, I know. So if you think an awkward random girl (possibly named Savannah) could be kind of interesting or funny time and again please check it out. I've uploaded 2 videos so far and hope to load another soon. My username is Savannah Marie and you can find my first video here: Awkward Me (First YouTube Video)

So are you the type of person who gets on YouTube every second of everyday? Or maybe you're obsessed with some other social media/random site? Don't try hiding it you know who you are! Maybe you just get on occasionally? Perhaps you're the type of person who lives under a rock and has no idea what I'm talking about. Silly me, those people don't exist. (or do they? peeks under rock) Anyways I have several people that I subscribe to on YouTube and I figured I would share them with you wonderful people. I'm linking their username with their channel so that you can find them super easily. Some of them you may have heard of before or they may just be a completely new experience to you but YOU WILL LOVE THEM. (or not, some cursing in most videos...you've been warned!) 'You've been warned'...What am I a creepy old man living with an apocalypse sign tied to his chest. Anyways....
PRESENTING these fantastical amazingly random hooblah mesh magical genie unicorn what am I doing!? YouTube-errrrrrrs:

NigaHiga

Jenna Marbles
Sxephil
ItsKingsleyB****
MysteryGuitarMan
321ACoupleOf <<
Only a few but don't worry they'll keep you busy for a while. Hope you like the videos and please come back for more and we will try to post more often. But you know how it is. Life is crazy!

Busy Busy Busy

 I haven't posted in who know's how long! (Or do you know because you just went to check?!) Anyways, seeing how crazy long it's been since I have written on this blog that my wonderful awesome friend and I share I decided it would be a good time to create a post.

What has been going on in my life? Well...Let me tell you. What has currently been on my mind of course is Christmas. I mean it's December 11th isn't it? Who doesn't have Christmas on the brain! Unless that is you think the world's going to end on the 21st and you're trying to sale everything you own. I'm sorry for you and hope everything works out.

Going along with the season, last night I watched parts of two adorable movies that had some strange similarities. The first I watched part of was Hallmark's Holiday Engagement. I only watched a portion of it but what I gathered was cute, funny, and very Christmas-y. (not a word I know, but it's seasonal!) The other great movie was ABC Family's Desperately Seeking Santa. This
film is about a workaholic lady desperately trying to increase her mall's profits in order to get a promotion with the help of a very funny "Sexy Santa." It's cliche but still very cute and seasonal.

Also recently (and by recently I mean about 2-3 weeks ago), I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). This classic novel, that you've hopefully heard about, is about a young girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole. This story is rather strange and I imagine you'd have to be more than a little mad to have written it. Oddly enough, I never even liked this tale as a kid. In fact, it even scared me a little. Seriously, what's more frightening than crazy people throwing tea pots and an evil queen beheading everyone in sight!

More recently though I've come to some more positive outlooks of the fantastical journey and have even found myself to love it. I can give some special thanks to Disney's 2010 film, directed by Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland. Also I more recently discovered a magnificent modern outlook on the tale with Syfy's miniseries, Alice, which happens to be on Netflix, just saying. I especially love the portrayals of the Mad Hatter by Johnny Depp and in the latter, Andrew Lee Potts. 

While I'm on the topic of Alice in Wonderland, I feel like it's a good time to mention one of my favorite artists, (and one of the few modern artists that I keep up with) Julie Dillon. How is this relevant? Julie works especially in digital media, and one of my favorite art pieces of hers is titled Solitaire. She made it for a "Alice: Madness Returns" art show. I love the colors she uses andher fantastical style. Please check out her other artwork on her website at www.juliedillonart.com 

Now that everyone knows what is going on here, stay warm from the cold (Starbucks doesn't hurt), enjoy life, and Merry Christmas (or at least Happy Holidays)!!! 

The Raven

Hey guys, Alex (Tally) here. I know it's been a couple of months since I've been on here, but you know, things happen. So, I'm going to make a useful contribution to this blog that I've been dying to put somewhere. 

I recently took a trip via airplane, as I often do. While flying, I downloaded a movie on mommy dearest's kindle fire so that I could watch it. That movie just so happened to be The Raven. I've been wanting to see the said movie for some time, especially since Edgar Allan Poe is one of my absolute favorite authors of all time. I adore his work, and after visiting the Edgar Allan Poe House in Philadelphia last summer, I have also grown to appreciate his difficult, sorrowful, and strife-filled life as well. Here's a brief summary (according to IMDb) of the movie, in case you aren't familiar with it:

When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.

Intense, I know. I'll admit, I never read any type of description/summary of The Raven before settling in to read it. That was my first mistake. I actually expected this movie to be a theatrical version of Edgar Allan Poe's popular poem The Raven. Stupid me, I know. Naturally, I figured out the plot not too far into the movie. It took me a little while to accept this plot since it is extremely far-fetched and very historically inaccurate. Those were my two major problems with this movie. I know, it's a work of fiction based (very, very) loosely on fact, but...I don't know. I feel that if Poe could be with us today to watch this movie, he would laugh, or perhaps scoff at the way in which Emily, his wife (or, in the movie, fiance) is portrayed. Then again, he was never a very predictable fellow, so maybe he would love it and think it was a charming representation of his life. However, I seriously doubt that.

Here's some major points at which the movie was historically inaccurate:

1. Poe was not a raving drunk. Sure, he was arrested for public drunkenness a few times and kicked out of a few taverns in his life, but he wasn't a crazy man whose very life revolved around a bottle of whiskey. That's exactly what his character is like in the movie, however.

2. At the time of their marriage, Emily was only thirteen. You take a look at Emily in the movie and tell me she's thirteen. I didn't think so. She wasn't intended to be thirteen in the movie, and I know it would have otherwise been ridiculous if they hadn't tweaked that detail, but it just sort of...bothers me.

3. Anabel Lee was written after Poe's wife's death. In the movie, it is presented to her as a love poem; historically, this is not the case.

4. In the movie, it seemed to me that Poe only wrote stories for money and to make a living. I know that many authors do this, but there must be some passion behind the stories or they are meaningless. Poe obviously had this passion, but I did not feel this reflected in the movie. He seemed to magically conjure up a poem or story when he needed some extra cash. Some of his struggles with getting his works published were reflected in The Raven, and I did like that. He lived most of his life in poverty, but that wasn't focused on much in the movie. This wasn't a movie about his life, so I guess gritty details like that aren't completely relevant, but it still would have been nice.  

5. The publication of some of his works were out of order. I know, I'm probably the only one who would catch this, but I just thought it should be said. It doesn't take away from the movie at all; it's just a little historical flaw.    

I did think that the director did a fabulous job of showing how unfortunately misunderstood Poe was during his life. People took him as a madman who was to be ignored; many people though him an atheist  and everyone thought him politically incorrect. He didn't care, though, and I though that this movie overall did a very good job of displaying that.

As for a horror/detective/mystery type movie, I though The Raven was very good and original  It almost reminded me a bit of Urban Legend, but just a little bit. In Urban Legend the characters are murdered based on urban legends, and in The Raven people are murdered based on Edgar Allan Poe's stories. About halfway through the movie, Poe's beloved Emily is kidnapped by the murderer and hidden somewhere, and Poe must find each dead body, receive a clue from each, and find Emily based on the clues before she dies. If you have a substantial knowledge of Poe's works, you will probably recognize most of the murders and may be able to identify which murder goes with which story. If you have a very vast knowledge of Poe's life story and his works (not to toot my own horn, but I just so happen to fall under this category...) then you will most likely be able to figure out who the murderer is, where he/she has hidden Emily, and which story the final scenario is based on about three-fourths of the way through the movie (at least, that was about when I figured it out). I was watching The Raven with my mother, who majored in English and literature in college. We exchanged predictions throughout the movie, and she had some good ideas as well. It's been a long time since she's read Poe though, so she said that this movie was a good "memory refresher". 

The acting in this movie was mostly mediocre, except for the part of Edgar Allan Poe, played by John Cusack. He is an amazing actor and did an awesome job. It wouldn't have hurt him to understand Poe's genius a little better perhaps, but overall, he did a pretty good job. 

All in all, The Raven wasn't a bad movie at all. Historically speaking, well, it wasn't very accurate and was extremely far-fetched and exaggerated. But if you're looking for an entertaining movie based loosely on an iconic literary genius, you may want to look into The Raven. 

Trick or Treat

I don't know about y'all but my October started out very cold. It's starting to warm up now and I'm super excited for Halloween! To celebrate the fun holiday, here's a neat video about the history of all Hallow's Eve. Enjoy!

What Blog? Oh, Right!

Now it must be that our 5 adoring fans have been dying without posts from our amazing blog. Tally and I have been crazy busy. So in other words, school has started. I can't believe the summer went by so fast. One moment I'm saying bye to friends on the last day of school, and the next, I'm hauling around an outrageously heavy backpack overflowing with school supplies.

As if school weren't enough, I'm now nearing the middle of my cross country season. I realize it varies from high school to college as well as by region, but here in Texas we begin having meets in September and continue to run until about the beginning of November, depending on how far you go from District to Regionals. For training we've been running since the week after school ended. So I can easily say I've been running 20+ miles per week during the school year with a considerably larger mileage during the summer.

That basically sums up my recent schedule, running and tons of homework. Hopefully, I'll make it to Thanksgiving break without too much trouble. On the bright side of things though, I watched Urban Legend with a couple of friends this past weekend. The movie is a late 90's cheesy horror film where a crazy serial killer is murdering people using urban legends. It's pretty scary, especially to a scaredy cat like me, but the best thing about it is the main guy is played by Jared Leto! If you don't know who he is, please, find out, now. The lead singer for 30 Seconds to Mars does a great job as well as having an amazing voice.

So hope everyone's having a good September. I'm probably going to continue being busy but at least I have a great vampire playlist I can listen to on Spotify. (check it out, Vampire.) ¡Adios!

Greetings, good civilians!

  It's been a while (five months, to be exact) since either Savannah or myself has written on this blog. 

That sounds like something I would do.

First came the excitement of the end of school, then summer, and - BAM! - Tally & Shay's World is dead. Well, this is still our world, and I intend to keep it that way. Savannah is flying up here to see me, and she'll be in at 10:00 - tonight. Yeah, late, I know. But we do what we've got to do to see each other (also, she recently had a birthday, so happy birthday Savannah!). Maybe when she's here (for two weeks, to be exact) we can update the blog. Sorry, kiddos, but I really don't know what's going to happen here. Our fanbase is, what? Like five people? Yeah, that's what I thought. So anyways, I just wanted to update y'all on what's going on here. We're not dead, we've just been in hibernation for a while. Yeah...lame excuse, I know. 

P.S. - I'm going to use this space to advertise my Tumblr blog that's been going  strong for a few months now. It's all my original photography, and I'm rather proud of it. :) Follow me, or, if you don't have a Tumblr, check it out!

http://alexwalkerphotography.tumblr.com/

HUNGER GAMES

Last Friday, March 23rd, the long awaited HUNGER GAMES finally came out. I went to the premiere at midnight and was gladly rewarded by an amazing cast, wonderful effects, and all in all a spectacular movie. I couldn't believe how amazing it was, and even though there were a few differences from the book itself, it still honored its origin. I loved the film so much that I have actually seen it twice since it's release and wouldn't mind seeing it a third time soon. If you haven't seen it, run to the nearest theater, get yourself a ticket and some popcorn, and enjoy.

 

I was especially pleased by the quality of the acting of Jennifer Lawrence who was the actress for Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson who was Peeta Mellark, and Liam Hemsworth who was Gale Hawthorne. 

Also while at the theater I discovered a movie that seems to hold a lot of comic potential called Dark Shadows. It's about a man (Johnny Depp) who's is turned into a vampire by a jealous witch (Eva Green) and is awoken in 1972. The movie comes out on May 11.

Also I have recently been enjoying The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. In the books Clary discovers that she lives in a world that is nothing like it seems. When she meets a strange group of teenagers and her mother goes missing she has to fight her way in a strange reality to get her back. It's a very intense and thrilling series. The first book is City of Bones.

On May 8th the fifth book, City of Lost Souls, is to be released. I absolutely cannot wait for it to come out. I just hope that they can save him. You need to read this series, no joke. 

School & Pneumonia

Lately I've been really busy with soccer and I've also been running at seven in the morning for cross country. The weather here has been insane! One day it's freezing, then it's warm, then it's raining, then it's a foggy mess....anyways, you get the picture. Because I've been outside all the time for over a month now and the crazy weather, I've been getting sick. It was pretty bad on Valentine's Day and yesterday at the soccer game I had a random pain in my back below my left shoulder. When I say random, I mean random. I had no clue what caused it! I hadn't lifted weights in a week, I wasn't hit by a ball, later discovered there was no visible bruise, and the strangest thing, there was no problem in the warm-up right before. I left school a little early today for a Dr.'s appointment that would hopefully clear up the whole mess. After some examination, an X-ray, and some hangman with mom we now know that I have pneumonia. Specifically, Atypical Pneumonia. The symptoms consist of runny/stuffy nose, sore throat, fever, and coughs, most of which I've had. Basically I have a bacterial infection in my lungs. It's not too bad but I can't go to school tomorrow, am on a lot of medicine, and can't play sports until next week which means that I won't be playing in the soccer game on Friday.

That all sucks but that's not all that happened today. It just so happens that today is Ash Wednesday. That means, because of lent, I will not be eating beef, pork, or chicken until Easter Sunday. Technically, we're allowed to take a break on Sundays but I'm still considering whether or not I'm going to. My favorite thing about Lent is seeing if you can do it and keep your promise. The problem though is that because of how active I am, it's really important that I get plenty of protein in my diet. That's pretty hard without meat so I'm going to be researching a lot. I guess that means I'll be eating a lot of fish and beans. I also might start making fruit smoothies with protein powder. I just ate some yogurt, and guess what! It had 5 grams of protein! Also, my mom buys these energy drinks called Boost. It's great just like chocolate milk, and it has 13 grams of protein. Who knows, maybe I'll survive without meat after all.

Also, today I got my first finished ceramic from the kiln. In my art class at school we have been making ceramics (clay figures and such). It's so much fun and we're just finishing up this week. Here's a picture of my penguins ceramic. Hope you like them, I know I do.

Lent

Hello people...it's been a while, but guess who's back?!

This upcoming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, and as a Christian that is the first day that we observe lent. Lent is a season of fasting from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. You give up something (or start regularly doing something good like volunteering weekly at a hospital or something) as a sacrifice to God and as a remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for us (dying for our sins). Well, every year I give up some form of food. I don't know why, but I just do. Last year I gave up any form of potatoes (my favorite food) and the year before that I gave up sweet tea (my favorite drink). This year, however, I've decided to do something a little different.

As you may (or may not) know, I have been a lacto-vegetarian since August 2011 (about half a year) for various reasons (health, animal cruelty, and protesting the meat industry). I generally regard myself as simply a "vegetarian", but I am, more specifically, a lacto-vegetarian. That means that I eat no meat of any kind but I do consume dairy products and eggs. So, for lent, I've decided to become a vegan. Vegans are basically a more extreme version of vegetarians who eat a diet of mainly raw foods - they don't eat meat, dairy products, eggs, honey, some don't eat sugar, and most don't wear leather, wool, or fur. To simplify things, anything that is an animal product is excluded from their lifestyle. Well, I'm probably going to eat sugar and continue using leather and wool (I've never used fur in the first place), at least for now. I've been wanting to do this for a while and lent seemed like the perfect opportunity. And if it's not too horrid (how can it be? lots of people live perfectly happy & healthy lives this way) I might just continue my veganism after lent. Wish me luck!

Also, Savannah (the hooligan who helps me cause brouhaha on this blog) will be giving up any kind of meat for lent except for fish. That makes her a pescatarian (think I spelled that right...?). I'm so proud of my little hooligan. :)

-Alex (A.K.A. Tally)

P.S. I'm thinking about making a playlist of motivational songs to help everyone out with staying away with whatever you're giving up for lent or to help you continue doing whatever good deed you're doing for lent. Hehe, I make a playlist for everything. ;)

The Vow & Valentine's Day

Last weekend, I went with a friend and saw "The Vow" starring Rachel McAdams from "The Notebook" and Channing Tatum from "Dear John." It was a cute love story about a married couple who's madly in love and when there's an accident the wife (McAdams) looses her memory. It's heart wrenching to watch how the husband (Tatum) fights to win back his love from fate's cruel clutches. Was that a little dramatic? Either, it's a good film and you should definitely see it.

Also we recently celebrated Valentine's Day. I didn't do anything special but at my high school I was constantly crowded from huge bears, balloons, and flowers. A good guy friend of mine did get me a flower that the Art club had been selling. That was sweet. I hope that everyone had a good holiday. I don't know about other areas but here in Texas hardly anyone was putting "St." in Happy "St." Valentine's Day...I wonder why.

 Everyone who is doing Lent better get ready. Lent is a fasting period where Catholics as well as many other Christians give up something (like candy or eating junk food) for 40 days beginning on Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. I'm considering becoming a vegetarian like my good friend, Alex (Tally), who I share this blog with so for Lent I will not be eating beef, pork, or chicken. I do like the way these foods taste and I don't want to give them up by any means but I saw a video about how many animals in mass food production are treated horrendously. In fact, I couldn't even finish the video; if you decide to watch it (click here) be warned, it's awful.

-Savannah (A.K.A. Shay)

Vampire Playlist

Recently, I've been watching a lot of vampire movies, and that has gotten me in the mood to make a vampire playlist! So, here's a few songs from vampire movies and some that I just think would go well in a vampire movie. :)
*NOTE: some songs will be listed twice. One is the original, and one is a cover that was either featured in the movie or I think is worth listing.*

Format:

Song - Artist

1. Miss Murder - AFI
2. We Love Like Vampires - Sparks The Rescue
3. A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More 'Touch Me' - Fall Out Boy
4. Lost In The Shadows (The Lost Boys) - Lou Gramm
5. The Sharpest Lives - My Chemical Romance
6. This Is How I Disappear - My Chemical Romance
7. It's Just Me - Escape The Fate
8. People Are Strange - The Doors
9. People Are Strange - Echo And The Bunnymen (cover)
10. Cry Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys) - Gerard McMann
11. Cry Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys) - Aiden (cover)
12. Sympathy For The Devil - The Rolling Stones
13. Sympathy For The Devil - Guns N' Roses
14. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - Marilyn Manson
15. Violet Hill - Coldplay
16. Hurricane - 30 Seconds To Mars

-Alex (A.K.A. Tally)

Snow, snow, and...more snow.

This morning, I was awakened at around 10:00 A.M. by my mother who insisted that I "come out and see the snow". So I did.
Later in the day, we ended up going sledding on a huge hill with some friends and neighbors, then we ate at a local bar/tavern. This is the way to raise kids. ;) It was fun, cold, and wet, and now I am reduced to sitting in my bed at 5:15 trying not to fall asleep. I think I may watch a movie later...not sure what yet. I'm so tired.

-Alex (A.K.A. Tally)

Chili's & Movies

It's monday, and I'm NOT at school. It's really great.

Yesterday I went to Chili's to celebrate my friends birthday. Happy belated Birthday Meagan! I ate "Bacon Ranch Quesadillas" and they were awesome! After I had some awesome cookie cake. 

(from the menu at Chilis.com)

Then we busted open a pinata. I got a bunch of candy but my favorites were the jaw breakers. Later

in the night we watched "She's the Man" with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. That's definitely one of my favorite soccer movies, especially since there aren't a lot of them. It's hilarious.

Yeah so that's what I've been up to. I'm sorry for anyone who has to work or go to school today. Also I recently began reading "Austenland" by Shannon Hale. It's pretty good but I think it has an unfair advantage towards being liked because it's Jane Austen related, but whatever.

-Savannah (A.K.A. Shay)

Exam Week and Movie Splurging

Exam week is finally over! Wednesday through Thursday I spent my entire school days testing my brains out hoping to get a high enough grade to make an A+ in all of my classes for the semester. I was soooo close. I made a 94 semester average in English. So that's that.Meanwhile, Soccer has been going good but we did loose our game last Tuesday. It's still a lot of fun though and I'm expecting a great season.

Something to definitely celebrate is the fact that tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. You know what that means?! No school! I love 3 day weekends. I guess I haven't exactly been spending the extra time wisely but I have finished my homework over Act 4 of Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. On the more fun side I went to the movies yesterday with my friend Rebecca. We saw "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol." The movie was very intense and I enjoyed it immensely. Rebecca and I both agree that there should definitely be another Mission Impossible... soon. It's hilarious looking at the first "Mission Impossible" that came out in 1996 and seeing how much technology has advanced in maybe a decade and a half. I can't imagine not having my cell phone or ipod. It's a very hard concept for me to think that there's a life where these thing are nonexistant.

I have also recently enjoyed watching, "Howl's Moving Castle," an Asian cartoon directed by Hayao Miyazaki who also created two other movies I like, "Ponyo," and "Spirited Away."

After coming home last night I began watching an interesting TV series called "White Collar." The guy in it is cute (Matt Bomer) and the scenario is fantastic. Alex would love that it takes place in New York. One of the episodes even took place during and was tied into New York Fashion Week.

(Pictures are courtesty of The Internet Movie Database)

Snow on Friday the 13th

So, I wake up bright and early this morning to torrential downpours of snow and monsoon-like winds. After making my way to school via Jeep (and falling about 10000 times on the way) I was slightly surprised to discover that I was not, as was prior knowledge, the only person to come close to death by falling on the way to school.
Later, we walked to Mass (I go to a Catholic school) and the girls frantically tried to keep their skirts pushed down and their hats in place while strategically dodging large puddles of water and random patches of ice. After be ranted at and later yelled at for not saying the responses and singing from the hymnal by the priest, we made our way back to the school (about two blocks away) in the same fashion above stated.
Upon arriving back at school, we were lectured by the teachers and continually had study guides for our upcoming midterms shoved down our throats in a repetitive manner.
Then we all trooped home, exhausted and ready to sleep. But do I do that? Why, of course not! Sleep is for the weak.

So, in honor of our first blizzard (or...something like it) here in Pennsylvania, I have dug out some pictures for last year's snowfall in Texas. Oh the irony.

-Alex (A.K.A. Tally)

P.S. Did you know that the past tense of 'dare' is 'durst'?
This useless knowledge has been provided to you by Anthony, my kinda-friend-but-not-really.

Stuffed Animals, not the cute kind!

Hey I was looking at some pics I uploaded on my computer and I found these from when my family and I were in Cabela's (mentioned in my "See ya later Fort Worth!" post.) As I mentioned before the place is like Bass Pro Shops, so hunting/fishing/that kinda thing. It's kind of horrific but the place was FILLED with stuffed animals (like taxidermy, not cute toys.) Even though it's kind of creepy it was neat getting to see so many different animals up close (There was even a zebra, and a polar bear!) Anyways, here are the pics:

 

 

I figured my vegetarian friend (not saying any names *cough Tally cough*) may be offended so check out this plaque that was in front of the huge mountain where most the animals were.

Back to School...Blah!

Today was the first day back to school for me. I just got home from soccer practice a little while ago. Practice itself was fun but school was long and tiring. I felt slow all day, messed up this watercolor piece in art, and made an 80 on this paper in last period (that was a definite bummer.)

Even though its gone, the break was great! Originally, we were going to go to Dallas on New Year's Eve, but there was a change of plans. Instead we stayed home and Michaela had a friend over. It was a lot of fun. There was fried chicken, chocolate chip cookies, lights in marshall, and the six hour version of Pride and Prejudice (A&E's.) dIt's definitely the best book to movie relation but I usually make do with the shorter Pride and Prejudice film that I got the Christmas before last, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. That's really great too and captures the feelings from the novel very well for so little time to do so.

I don't know why but I've been really cold lately. I got home shivering and began watching an episode of Danny Phantom on Netflix. Not one minute into the episode I find out that Danny (the main character if you couldn't tell) was facing a cold spell of his own, how fitting. The show was very enjoyable while I ate my baked potatoe.

That's basically it, oh wait! I almost forgot. I wanted to share my New Year's Resolutions: (here it goes)

• Run more on my own
• Juggle and practice soccer at home 
• Write in my journal (I like writing down my memories but I hardly get time to.)
• Write letters to my friends *cough Tally cough*
• Scrapbook (I have a ton of supplies and photos but hardly take the time to.)
• print pictures
• $ Save MONEY $
• get a job or babysit more
• don't procrastinate!!! (I'm really bad at this one.)
• Use Rosetta Stone (my mom gets it with a huge discount since she's a teacher)
• remember to log driving hours (when I get my permit, which will be soon!)
• practice piano

Yep. That's them. It's kind of a lot but I think I can do it if I work hard, also it can't hurt that I taped a list on  my bathroom mirror and on the lamp on my bedside table. That way, I won't forget! Wish me luck with those and I hope that you all had a great holiday. 

Metallico

A few metallic things I've had my eye on for a while...

1. Michael Kors handbag (that I received for Christmas). This is one of the two things on the list that I actually own.

2. Metallico eye pencil set from Ulta.

3. Metallic-y dress from TopShop.

4. Pretty sunglasses by Prada.

5. Metallic snakeskin-print strappy heels, also from TopShop.

6. Classic Chanel No. 5 perfume...this is the second thing on the list that I own (I also received this for Christmas).

7. A bronze-and-gold colored clutch by Alexander Mcqueen. By far the most dreamy item on the list. ;)

-Tally (A.K.A. Alex...the colorful and enchanting mango)