Wish I Was There

Space Shuttle Endeavour. Seriously, how cool would it be to be there in person? Crazy cool- that's how cool. Check it:

Photo credit: Getty Images via npr.org.

As seen from a plane (photog Stefani Gordon). Via Buzz Feed.

Live Here!

Have you ever lived in a city with amazing attractions, but not gone to them while you lived there? EX: Living in NYC and never seeing the Statue of Liberty or going to The Met. When I lived in Chicago I did pretty well, but I definitely missed some major stuff: I've never been to the Sear's Tower, the first architecture tour I went on was with my sister during a touristy visit AFTER I had already moved away, and there are still several awesome museums that I have not visited. I've decided this can't be the case with Bloomington. If I'm going to consistently try to get my friends to move here (which I do- annoyingly, I'm sure), I better know every awesome inch of this town. This weekend I visited the IU Greenhouse for the first time. It's huge.

Cool plant (no idea what it is, I forgot to look):

Audrey and green plants.

This one's for Amy: A Hoya plant. She once drove 40 minutes to buy me one for my birthday. I kept this plant alive longer than any other plant I've ever owned. I've only owned two, so that's not saying much. Sorry Ame!

Looking at IU's beautiful landscaping while walking to the Greenhouse.

Another amazing IU place I recently visited: the brand new, state-of-the-art IU Cinema. Come on, Jon and Margaret, what else do you need? http://www.indiana.edu/~iucinema/

May 21

I want to officially predict that the world won't end on May 21. So when the world does not end, remember...I predicted it. I've also predicted this successfully three other times. I don't know why I don't get any publicity for it.

The Key to Success: Don't Try to Do What Everyone Else is Trying to Do.

Well, Audrey is finally better (yay!) and back at school. It is so good to see her spunk back!

Today I've been getting caught up on work and I just took a break to get caught up on some blogs. I just read this career advice from Stephen Levitt from http://www.freakonomics.com/ and I find it to be awesome:

Regarding having a career you love:

Make sure that whatever you love doing is something other people don’t love to do. The worst thing in the world is to find some kind of job that everybody wants to do – like being a rock star. Stephen, you’ve tried to be a rock star, it’s hard work. Or a movie star. You have to find something that is idiosyncratically something you love but everyone else despises. So if your dream is to be a garbage man, for instance, you’re guaranteed to have success in life.

Yummy Candy / Sad Mommy

I received the YUMMIEST Mother's Day gift. I love chocolate-covered marshmallows. They are my absolute favorite. And the best in the world are Schwartz from NYC:

I am home again with Audrey today, who is under the weather. The most difficult thing about being a single mom is when one of us gets sick. It's also difficult knowing that taking a vacation is going to be a rare event because I use up all of my paid time off when Audrey or I are sick. Booo.

Welbutrin Just Isn't Enough to Emotionally Deal with Mitch Daniels

Have you noticed that cake balls and cake pops are all the rage now? For good reason too. The few I have devoured tasted like almost-cooked cake batter covered in frosting. Yum! And they are sooooo cute!

Sooo...if you are frustrated and depressed because your state governor is Mitch Daniels, who just de-funded healthcare for thousands and thousands of low income families in order to not support an organization that performs abortions and has thus INCREASED the number of future abortions since low-income families will not have proper reproductive health care and family planning services....a cake pop can help brighten your spirits- at least for a few minutes.

Yay Cake Pops! Boo Mitch Daniels!

Via Bakerella, Babble, Cake Central, and Paper Plate and Plane

Absolute Perfection

I love, love, love this gymnast. She never quite made it, but she will always be loved by gymnastics aficionados. Everything about this routine is perfect....the music, the leotard (my fav), the yarn in her hair (classic 80s Soviet), the choreography, and the tumbling. The first pass is a double-twisting double back. This means the first flip also has two twists. This is NOT the same as a double-double (a la Shawn Johnson), which is one twist in each flip. This is the only female gymnast I've ever seen do this. I don't know if gymnastics will ever be like this again. Thank god for youtube.