Christmas Presents:
1) Trip to Seattle to visit with my family :)
2) Franco Sarto dark brown riding boots
3) Camel colored UGGs with the three buttons on the side
4) a BEAUTIFUL crocheted blankey my Grammy made
5) a hanging jewelry display
6) really cozy pajamas
7) "An Education" DVD, What is the What by Dave Eggers and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (the book not the movie)
8) A very sweet looking homeless dog, Goober, got a donation in my name.
9) a University of Washington tee shirt (potential law school!)
10) a REALLY, super adorable head band/ ear muff thing that looks like this except in a golden yellow. It's going to be SUPER perfect to wear with my navy sweater to some of Ethan's (boyfriend) cold lacrosse games this semester!
11) A handy little journal (I love journals)
12) (Insert what my boyfriend got me here) We are doing Christmas on Sunday :)
So I flew to Seattle on Sunday and flew back yesterday. They were both about four hour flights. I must be one of the few people who LOVES flying, especially longer flights. I like to snuggle into my usual tradition of reading the stack of magazines I bought in the airport book store (usually one fashion, one music, one gossip, and one political), and watch a movie on my laptop. I rarely give myself four hours just to be by myself, think, and be completely cut off from outside distractions. I find myself caught up in thoughts and inspirations and I always feel rejuvenated. I watched "Eat, Pray, Love" on the way there and I basically just decided I need to do some traveling.. lots of traveling. And, I watched "Easy A" on the way home, which in all honestly was purely mindless entertainment, but enjoyable nonetheless. I found some really interesting things throughout my magazine reading that I thought I would share!
In NYLON, I realized how much I really love this new Maxi Skirt trend. I have been going back and forth between deciding whether the look was awesome, or a little matronly. But I definitely decided that I love it. Now all I have to do is find the perfect one and work up the courage to rock it! What do you think of maxi skirts?
Also while reading Nylon, I realized I want the Arcade Fire Album "The Suburbs." Enjoy the song "Wasted Hours" from that album here! I also want to see "Blue Valentine" really really badly. It has Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in it and it looks so charming, in a dark romantic kind of way.
Speaking of Ryan Gosling, my favorite actress, Carey Mulligan and he will be staring in the "Great Gatsby" based on one of my very favorite books of all time by one of my most very favorite authors! If you haven't read it yet, or pretended to read it in high school but really didn't, you should!
In LUCKY, I learned of these new AWESOME jeans made by BLEULAB that are reversible! These are definitely on my "Wish I could have but I definitely cannot afford list!"
Also, in LUCKY, I discovered an awesome interior design book by Jonathon Adler called Jonathon Adler on Happy Chic Colors. It takes the colors that make you feel happiest (mine would be: muted tones) and shows you how to combine them in your home decor. SO cool!
I adore perfume, but whenever I used the last of my "Funny" by Moschino, I settled on "Sweet Pea" from Bath and Body Works. Don't get me wrong, I love "Sweet Pea" and am very happy to have that as my perfume, but I think it's about time to find a new one. Right now, I am eyeing this new scent from Chloe called "Love", a mix of orange blossom, pink pepper, hyacinth, talc, and rice powder is described as "super-feminine and totally irresistible." This would be another on my "wish but can't afford list."
Another cool thing that uses your sense of smell are "21 Drops" from www.21drops.com. There are 21 different scents titled as what the scents can do for you. For example, #21 is called "Inspiration."
In "The Economist," I read lots of articles, but a few caught my attention more than others. The article Iran's morality campaign: Watch Out! discusses the rising "morality police" that have tightened their grip since Mahmoud Ahmadinjad became president in 2005. I encourage you to go read the article, but some of the things that took me off guard as I was reading is that the morality police prevent unmarried couples from walking together in public, loud music in cars, and girls from riding bicycles. These social constraints are off putting enough to make citizens of Iran, especially people in my generation, to try to leave to a country that offers more social freedoms. Although I knew prior to reading this article that there are countries out there that severely limit personal freedoms, it made me wonder if I am truly thankful for the freedoms I have, if I utilize them, or do I just take them for granted. Do I fight for the freedoms I don't have? On the flight home, I decided to do everything I could to not be scanned by one of those TSA body scanners, and I managed to avoid it! Although a very small infringement on my 4th amendment rights and a very small fight, quarrel, squabble, to save what little freedom I would have given up by going through the scanner, it still felt nice to know that I didn't absent mindedly and uncaringly given up that little bit of freedom of privacy.
Another article, Air Power on the Cheap fascinated me. Basically, the military has realized that it is more cost efficient and more strategic to use basic prop planes instead of very expensive jet fighters, especially in guerrilla warfare. I won't give you a whole synopsis, if you are interested, you can read the whole article. It isn't very long.
The last article I will share with you is Does it Really Stack Up? It's an article discussing the costs and benefits of "Vertical Farming" which is basically a sky scraping greenhouse. Check it out!
I have never really been in to the whole Skyping thing except when my dad was on a business trip in the Middle East. But even then, we just did the instant messaging part. I learned just how useful and fun the video chatting can be when you are separated from loved ones for a long period of time. I chatted almost every night I was in Seattle with my boyfriend and it was just SO much better than talking on the phone. It almost felt like I wasn't 2,000 miles away! He is going to be mad that I shared this picture but he is just so handsome, I can't help but to be proud of my catch :)
Anyways, one night while we were skyping, I didn't want to say goodbye, so charming boyfriend made me a playlist on his itunes to fall asleep to. It consisted entirely of Iron and Wine (my favorite) and it made me miss listening to them all the time. So I am going to dedicate the music on my page to them for a while! Enjoy!
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:9-11
over and out and MERRY CHRISTMAS
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