lizzie in albuquerque

oh hi. if y'all were wondering did i go to albuquerque this week and then my mom visited me in los angeles, yes, that is what happened.

for my mom's arrival, i spent HOURS cleaning and organizing my living room and dining room (i speak of these as if they are different rooms, when in fact they are just separate areas of the same room) so she would be impressed with me being such a responsible adult.

however i did leave my bedroom floor covered with piles of clothes. i mean i don't want her to think i'm TOO grown-up, that might just make her feel sad.

also i DID leave a sink full of dishes. i figured i'd let her wash them so she would feel more at home, and also your mother needs to feel like she's taking care of you. it's important to let the dishes pile up in your sink for this reason.

i took a fun ride in a ~*prime time shuttle*~ to the airport monday morning. if y'all want to read the unnecessary deets of course they are here

on my flight, i took the last available window seat next to a large group of asian teenagers with enviable hair. they were stereotypically geniuses. they taught me about electrical circuits and i taught them about photography. then we looked on a U.S. map conveniently provided for us in our seat pockets and quizzed each other on the state capitals. none of us knew wyoming so we had to ask the flight attendant. you might think i'm making this up but i'm not.

then the asians, on their way to a christian youth camp an hour outside of albuquerque, began trying to convert me to christianity. obv they don't know that religion is one of the things you don't speak of when having a first conversation with someone. also included in this category are politics and which kings of leon album you prefer.

my mom and i spent two days in albuquerque and then drove to flagstaff and then drove to LA. this can only mean one thing: highly entertaining mom quotes and anecdotes~~~~

in albuquerque:

my mom: "oh lizzie you should go to school here"

me: "but they don't have an art therapy program"

my mom: "so what? study anthropology"

(i have never expressed an interest in anthropology in my life)

while driving, the following conversation occurred at least 8 times:

my mom: "look at that!" (not pointing or anything)

me: "what?"

my mom: "that!" (genuinely disappointed in me for not seeing what she saw)

also. y'all, i MAY HAVE gained a few extra pounds since i moved here, but my mom asked me if i was pregnant, and that is just uncalled for.

while in los angeleeez we did tons of things that are sooooo L.A.~*~*~

natch i took her to the grove bc she luvvvs shopping and thangz~*

fortunately or perhaps unfortunately, my mom's philosophy on shopping is "who cares~? just buy it!"

also we explored griffith park and went to the zoo and saw a movie and BAKED PEACH COBBLER

mmmm

and yes, she did wash all my dishes.

also supplied me with 4 laundry loads worth of quarters.

gr9est mom evr///

ode to a camera~*~

this is the lubitel universal 166+

or you can call it lubitel for short if you talk about it a lot, which i do

i saw it at the camera store conveniently located near my apartment and immediately loved it.

you took through the top of the camera right there at the top, which is rad because you can get different perspectives.

if y'all were wondering is it fully manual, yes it is

if y'all were wondering is it medium format, yes, but you can also use 35mm

basically the possibilities are endless

basically this is JUST WHAT I NEED

i want it so bad but it's a pricey little gem

and unforch for my birthday prez from my parents i need to get ~*~*new motor mounts for my car~*~*~ h8 being a grownup and getting practical gifts

sometimes i walk down to the camera store and if an employee is there that i haven't talked to yet i will ask them questions about the camera that i already know the answers to

IT TAKES GR8 PIX 2

y'all should look at the flickr tag page

bye

dolly + lizzie fashion blog 2k11

dolly and i wore matching outfits to the show last night~*~

i didn't bring my digital camera but i was able to snap this quick shot with my iphone 7g before she changed into her performance dress

it costs a lot of money to look this cheap

OH HEY Y'ALL, last night i saw dolly parton at the hollywood bowl.

y'all dolly is the raddest chick around. she's so hilarious, telling tons of jokes throughout her set~~~

not to mention she's a gr888 singer and can play zillions of instruments

makes me want to cover everything with rhinestones, i mean why not

this was my first HLLYWD BWL show and it was sooOOoooOOo mind-blowing

dolly being patriotic~*~*

dolly luvin' lyfe and lookin' fly

also here is dolly + mick jagger, whose birthday is tuesday. know who else's birthday is tuesday? mine

cya

something important that needs to be posted on the internet duh

listen y'all,

i was just thinking about the somatosensory system and how it's basically the only sense you can't really turn off, and how outrageously disturbing that is.

let's consider the facts:

the five senses are sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch. duh. everyone knows that.

now let's discuss the ability or inability to lose all of the senses.

it's so easy to stop seeing, all you have to do is close your eyelids! also if it's bright you can still technically see but you can cover your eyelids with something dark and see absolutely nothing. also, it is possible for people to be blind.

it's really difficult to completely turn off your ability to hear. you can use earplugs which mostly block out the outside noise, but you can still hear yourself breathing, your heart beating, your bones cracking, you know, all the things you wouldn't necessarily ever want to hear. let's just say for the sake of argument that you lie completely still in a very quiet place. if you do this you can basically turn off your hearing. it is also possible for people to be deaf.

obv to stop smelling things, all that would be required would be to hold your nose closed. but taste and smell are so closely related, so we'll focus on the sense of taste aka the gustatory sense. this sense can very easily be dulled if you have a cold or some other illness. completely ridding yourself of taste would be so difficult, but LET'S JUST SAY that someone burned off all their tastebuds or like didn't even have a tongue. IT COULD HAPPEN. also once i met someone who claimed they couldn't smell anything ever. in either of these instances, someone could technically be conscious and without a sense of taste and smell.

NOW IS WHERE IT GETS CRAZY.

according to my thoughts and considerations, IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO BE CONSCIOUS AND ALIVE AND NOT FEEL ANYTHING AT ALL.

let's consider some potential scenarios. let's say you are somehow floating in the air and there is no wind. you wouldn't be able to blink and you'd have to somehow not touch your tongue to your teeth at all (because you can feel both those things). how would you ever separate your toes without feeling them being separated? okay, let's say you don't have feet. also, you are floating easily and not straining any voluntary muscles, not like it feels to float in water or anything. listen, besides all those things, still involuntary things can happen in your body and you can FEEL them. also, if you were wondering why you were floating in the air and didn't have feet, you would FEEL anxious. PHYSICAL FEELINGS.

also i just googled "people who can't feel" and the only results i got were people who can't feel emotions and people who can't feel pain, which is indeed very interesting but they can still FEEL other things.

this is so wild and crazy. i just can't believe that there is no way to ever stop feeling until you die.

can you be entirely numb? is that possible?

if y'all could possibly think of any scenario that wouldn't involve feeling, please inform me at once. it would bring me peace. thanks.

alsew:

i was SEW inspired at the craft fair that i signed up to take a sewing class on sunday.

SEW excited~~*~*~*

can't w8 2 learn how 2 thread a bobbin

cArMaGeDdOn~*~*~*~

hey all y'all!

this weekend, the one that just happened, while everyone else in the city gone completely crayyzay over the 405 bridge closure aka ~*~*~cArMaGeDdOn~*~ aka THE END OF THE WORLD BASICALLY*, i took advantage of the unusually traffic-less roads and did TONS OF FUN THINGS.

first, i went to the eat real food festival in culver city~*~

this was all food made locally and from locally grown ingredients

+ fReE SaMpLeS xoxoxo

also i got some pluots and cookies, you know, just the necessities. two of the five requirements for survival: food, water, shelter, pluots, cookies.

then basically i spent the entire rest of my weekend (not really.) at the renegade craft fair~*~

this was like the shreveport maker's fair x1,000,000. and also very similar to the one-of-a-kind show in chicago that i go to every december with the gurlz~, except it's outside and you don't have to check your coat.

if you aren't familiar with either of those things, it's just sort of a festival with lotz of booths/tents for ppl to sell art that they make because they are creative geniuses. art = jewelry, paintings, photographs, clothing, etc.

the prices were entirely reasonable and EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME.

here are some sweet findz:

these are so all perfect because i LOVE sloths wearing suits and i LOVE siamese cats and i LOVE zombie mugs and i really DO LOVE being #1

also you could MAKE crafts there! made this silly round fruit holder:

also i got a few rad gifts but duhh why would i post the pictures here, pshhthy who do you guys think i am, someone who would ruin surprises, no>>

hope y'all luv my bedsheet photo backdrop

*if you guys don't know about this BIG DEAL, "the" 405 is an interstate along the west coast. apparently it is always super-packed full of cars, but i wouldn't know because i never drive on it. N-E-way~~ the mulholland drive bridge was being reconstructed, which meant that part of the interstate was closed for this weekend only. some genius named it "carmageddon" which implies chaos and also doom and ppl were like I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I'M NOT DRIVING ALL WEEKEND LOL ;)

so even though the 405 construction only impacted a tiny area of los angeles, the majority of drivers opted to just treat this weekend like y2k. thus, the time it usually takes me to get anywhere by car was cut in half.

unfortunate theft

dear whoever stole my cute disney antenna ball off my car,

WHY WHY WHY.

not only has that mickey-mouse-shaped piece of foam been riding with me since 2004,

but it is also my primary means for finding my car in large parking lots.

i wish something equally evil upon you.

sincerely,

lizzie and her sad, sad, antenna-topperless car

an ode to blue moon ice cream

it's no secret that i'm a ice cream fanatic.

those of you who are fortunate enough to be from the fine, fine midwest are surely familiar with the greatest ice cream flavor of all time, BLUE MOON. (this has absolutely nothing to do with disgusting blue moon beer.)

not only great for being the most magnificent color of blue, blue moon is actually a unique flavor because the ingredients are a secret. i think it tastes sort of like the ice cream version of fruity pebbles. if you do some excessive googling, and trust me i have, you'll find it described as lemon, orange, almond etc. BUT NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE.

*not my photo

mmmmm

for two summers i stayed with my sister in eau claire, wisconsin. this was partially to spend time with my sister and her family, but also to spend time eating tons of blue moon. somewhere along the line, i came up with the genius idea to tell my 4-year-old nephew simon that blue moon was actually made of gorilla poop. he may have believed me, or he may have just been going along with the joke, so much that everyone referred to the ice cream as "gorilla poop" for the whole summer. one time simon was spinning very fast on the tire swing after consuming some after-dinner gorilla poop, and then threw up everywhere. it probably still tasted good because you know, blue moon.

anyway, whole foods puts out this coupon book called "THE WHOLE DEAL" so naturally i was looking through it, and naturally when i came across the ben and jerry's coupon i cut that one out. naturally, in the ice cream aisle of whole foods, i pondered for MINUTES over which ben and jerry's flavor i should get. i was just about to settle on chunky monkey, when i was overcome with the inexplicable urge to take a chance, try something new, live life in the fast lane, run the risk, BE ADVENTUROUS. so naturally, i put a gross-sounding flavor pistachio pistachio in my cart and wheeled it away.

i had never tried pistachio pistachio and didn't know what i was in for.

i suppose you can guess where this wonderfully written ODE TO BLUE MOON is going...

that's right y'all.

no kidding, though it's missing the crucial blue color, pistachio ice cream tastes almost identical to blue moon.

this is the most important discovery i have made all summer.

looks like i'll be taking some more of those coupon books.

*ACTUAL PHOTO of me eating the real true blue moon in madison

GRAFFITI = VANDALISM

on monday i had the pleasure of visiting the art in the streets exhibit at the MOCA downtown. it was so lovely and inspired me to crack open my art box and create something.

quite a few of the artists i recognized from beautiful losers,

others i was familiar with, and others i had never heard of ever in my life.

these were my favorites:

Erik Brunetti's Lost (Black Female)

a collection of lost animal posters, the purest form of art, drawn in desperation

Banksy's I Hate Mondays

self-explanatory, and particularly applicable since i was JUST thinking about how our society is expected to hate that day of the week, even those of us not working 9-5 monday-friday jobs, which is JUST TOTALLY RIDICULOUS. working in a coffeeshop, i'm certainly exposed to it.. "oh hi are you having the usual today how are you?" "BLAHH ITS MONDAY"

anyway, banksy is hilarious and a genius.

Os Gemeos... i think most of their works are untitled. i can't find an image of the particular one i was looking for, but this was in the exhibit too.

Dash Snow's polaroids. y'all he died two years ago today, july 13. no kidding. i'm quite intrigued by the raw subject of his photographs. here's his page on saatchi

JR's Women Are Heroes - Rio de Janeiro. click here, i guess you can watch the film i don't know my computer won't load it

***I DID NOT TAKE THESE PHOTOS, NOT A ONE OF EM

HOPE ALL Y'ALL ARE INSPIRED TOO~*~

hey california

got a roll of film developed y'all~~~

here are some:

pacific

this is on the side of a building in west hollywood that i pass by on the way to whole foods. you can't see tell from the picture but those are sculptures, not paintings. sooooo rad

jesus' house in america

the TOP SECRET carousel at griffith park~

double exxxposure of two sides of a building in hollywood. nicktoons 4ever

and the rest of the photos are here

the end of the world, etc.

let's talk about my recurring end-of-the-world dreams.

these are getting completely out of hand, the worst and most detailed one happened on the night of july 4th (DUH BECAUSE PRACTICALLY BOMBS WERE GOING OFF IN THE SKY WHILE I SLEPT)

sometimes the end of the world happens by war, sometimes aliens, sometimes meteors.

always i can hear it happening before it actually happens.

these have almost completely replaced my old recurring dreams about trying to put really large plastic saucer contact lenses in my eyes.

even though they are dreams, they are entirely plausible situations. i mean you do realize that we are basically just suspended in space. it would BARELY even matter to the universe if it was the end of the world. correct me if i'm wrong but i feel like the earth could just get knocked off its axis at any moment and gravity would no longer be in effect and we would all just float around and die. OR ANY DAY NOW betelgeuse could explode as a type II supernova.

i had an idea to start a chain letter about recurring dreams but i never followed through with it. similar to the way i never made a morrissey t-shirt and also never made videos of my animals doing regular things with sad songs playing in the background.

ANYWAY, in keeping with this blog's titular theme (lizzie in los angeles) yesterday after work, i drove to santa monica, walked around the pier/beach, and also went to third street promenade which is a lovely bustling street full of stores that are usually in malls and also restaurants. i'm under the impression that most people here go out to eat for almost every meal.

i'm sort of on a half-assed hunt to find the greatest breakfast place in LA. i love breakfast so much but i don't know how to cook anything except cereal and eggs.

so far i've already watched 5 movies in the month of july, and we are only 6 and a half days in~*~

about two years ago i was talking to my genius movie-fan friend paula and my genius movie-fan boyfriend dacoda and they were like, LIZZIE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ______? *GASP*

so i made it a point to start watching more movies.

YESTERDAY I SAW TREE OF LIFE

it was sooOOoooOO good (not sarcasm, although i do usually indicate sarcasm with "sooOOooOO")

it really was magnificent. i already want to see it again. if anyone wants to have a serious discussion about the themes of the circle of life/death/impact/what we leave behind/everything, i am readily available.

also the day before yesterday i saw the perfect host, which was also very excellent.

i suppose i'm starting to feel just a tiny bit homesick. earlier i was looking at pictures of people hanging out in shreveport and they were all sweaty and having fun and i felt sad because i wasn't there. probably these creepy men sitting behind me enjoyed looking at them also.

hah i always feel so awkward getting on facebook in public.

anyway my friend danielle's wedding is this weekend and i'm missing it~

also i'm worried that my cats won't remember me when i return, and i really just want to give my poodle a hug right now. i hope my mom hasn't given him any dumb haircuts.

there are more things i miss, obv. but i'm still trying to soak all of this in... living alone in a tremendous new place, making my own decisions, cleaning up after myself, being a responsible adult, etc. i'm certainly not taking it for granted, and i'm not ready for it to be over yet.

today i was thinking about just taking a really long walk until my feet hurt so bad that i can't take one more step without crying. also i have some black and white film to use up~*~*~*~~*~*~

cya

LET FREEDOM RING Y'ALL~

Y'ALL, I AM PROUD 2 B 'MERICAN

THE 4th OF JULY AKA iNdEpEnDeNce DaY IS MY FAVE HOLIDAY

GOD BLESS AMERICA MY HOME SWEET HOME XOXO

LUV BAR-B-Q BBS

LUV EXPLOSIONS

LUV EVERYTHING BEING CLOSED

LUV WEARING T-SHIRTS FROM OLD NAVY 4EVER

jk, y'all.

i even have a list of reasons why i hate the fourth of july, but it's in an old notebook in shreveport and i can't remember any of the reasons, other than i don't care too much for fireworks.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

the other night while i lay awake and tried to remember what it used to be like when i had normal sleep habits,

i remembered how i used to never tell the truth. i suppose it was to impress my peers or perhaps to make myself seem more interesting, but basically everything i ever told anyone from age 10-13... ok 16... ok fine 18 was a lie. including but certainly not limited to:

i was friends with the olsen twins and we would chat online,

this guy from middle school came over to my house and snuck me out, he may or may not have thrown rocks at my window, and we went to see a midnight movie at the mall,

when i was 12 i had a bf named jamie that lived in bossier and we met in a library,

i told my friend's mom that we were assigned to read a danielle steele romance novel in class.

also one time my friends and i were staying at a hotel when we were 14 and we told these guys we were 18 and our names were britney, christina, and mandy.

anyway y'all, basically i am SO WISE now and i tell the truth always. wonder if ppl ever believed me at all~~ wonder if i know any fellow ex-liars. if u r a current liar then I C RIGHT THRU UR TRIXX BB

**IMPORTANT FACT**

LYING is different from KIDDING which is also different from PRETENDING.

ok here are some old patriotic pixxx:

so happie ryan could come 2 our 2k9 prom partie

maybe i will spend this lovely holiday eating tons of food from food trucks

or maybe i will go home and listen to lee greenwood's greatest hits

i haven't decided yet