The Bucket List

I was tagged by one of my girlfriends, not just in blog-world, but in real life too, to do a blog post about my bucket list. In order to provoke this, she did one about her's and I did the same. So here goes!

 1).

Sing on a stage:

 ...Auditorium style. I want to straight up grab the mic in a packed auditorium (probably stealing some kid's spot in the variety show) and belting something out, like 'Something To Talk About' or 'Like The way I do'. See, here's the thing, I can sing these in my car. Alone. I have done karaoke on a stage, in a crowded bar, that one of my favourite artists had just performed on and it went well, I suppose. However, if the whole auditorium thing went poorly and I screwed up on stage, I'd likely throw the mic into the face of a front-rower. Everyone wins!

OR

this one is a good one....I wish this was on a karaoke track.

 2).

Do something artistically as a career:

 ...and to some extent, I do, but I mean something where I am on my own, making money to support myself. Whether that be jewelry, glass blowing, cake decorating (big tymer style), fashion stuffs, coaching figure skating, etc. All of those things hold appeal to me, it's just deciding the right time to pursue it. But is there ever really a "right time"?

 3).

I want to go back to Malta:

...and cry into the Mediterranean once more.. I took a walk by myself one day (I went with a group for a field study) and I had purchased In Rainbows for the trip. I sat alone on these little stone steps right by this little inlet by the sea. A million things were going through my mind and I just kept listening to 'Weird Fishes/Arpreggi' over and over. I cried endlessly (at least that is what it felt like) and ended up walking around in the shallow part of the sea and I loved every second of my mixed emotions of sheer happiness and realization coupled with uncertainty and change. I never wanted to leave and I think that was my little parting day with it all. I loved that little bit of land so much. I just cannot believe I boarded the plane to leave. Now that was just silly!

this is me walking in Gozo. I was running up and down and jumping all around. 

This was during our first few hours there.

This is at Dwerja, the next day. I loved this place and could have literally sat here all day.

I sat on the ledge of these huge rocks that hung over the sea and the huge waves that were crashing were just barely touching my feet. It was amazing.

 4).

I need to see:

 Radiohead, PJ Harvey, David Byrne, Nine Inch Nails, & Florence and the Machine (again) before I leave this earth. I feel that this isn't asking a lot. I've seen Thom Yorke with Atoms for peace and I've seen Florence twice now, but these artists need to make their own little festival...with other fantastic artists, of course. They are just too good to not see live.

  5).

I want to perform:

 ...Dance. Something elaborate. Something either I choreographed or something insane that was choreographed for me. I was born to use my body artistically and I know this because I will strive for perfection and am so dedicated when a goal is in reach.
I swear I could have played both swans....
When I was a skater, I worked at it so, so hard at it. Dancing is amazing and it means so much to me. I want to perform. All the time. I was to be on SYTYCD! But I will NEVER EVER NEVER EVER NEVER EVER do anything like that, I just want to be choreographed by these people.
::cough cough:: Mia Michaels ::cough cough::

 6).

I want to go to NY fashion week:

 ...at least once in my lifetime. I feel insane for not attending this past year, seeing that one of my best friends forever lives in New York. I've loved fashion for too long to not attend events like this.

 7).

I want to go back and be formally educated once again.

 I love a classroom setting, I love the people I encountered, and it only betters you in so many ways. Although I don't agree with a lot of the curriculum in this country, you have to embrace it and educate yourself while interacting with others and passing requirements. On the same note, I want to use this in a career that is respected and makes adequate money to support living.

Okay, so even though this is what was happening last time I was in college, I swear the last semesters I really shaped up (I always did fairly well in college, but, ya know...)

I studied to this song quite a bit;

 8).

One day I want to see what's really going on inside my head. 

Sometimes I just don't like what's happening, but am useless in preventing it.

 9).

I want to go skydiving ASAP.

I feel this needs no explanation

 10).

I need to go storm chasing.

I have been in love with weather and have been such an enthusiast for the greater half of my life. Tornadoes and severe weather have always fascinated me. They have wonderful opportunities at the local college, but I can't strum up the money. One day, the money will be strummed, my friends. And I, Tessa, will be tailin' the tornadoes! 

The wind noise on this is just awful, however, there is some awesome footage. I took a class with the professor leading this trip. C.O.D is phenomenal for meteorology.

I want to listen to this while I'm watching a tornado roll across the ground.

 11).

I'd love to meet the people who have had a big impact on my life:

 and personally thank them. It would probably be ultra creepy, but really? If you did something professionally and people loved it and truly admired your work, wouldn't YOU want to hear about it? These people include; Florence Welch, Sasha Cohen, Rachel Maddow, Natalie Merchant, Terri Hemmert, etc.

Florence Welch

This is one of my favourites by Sasha Cohen. I love the straight-line footwork, the sprial sequence, her dress, and most of all her timing and consistency! 

Read more about Terri Hemmert [HERE]

 12).

See a play on Broadway.

 I've seen off-Broadway plays, but I'm so inspired each time. I always grew up thinking I would be on Broadway. I was entertaining at such a young age and was singing and dancing along to The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack at age three. I just think it's inspiring to the point of overwhelming to see those people come together to create something so marvelous.

 13).

I want to work with the elderly.

 After reading so much Advanced Style, I just feel that we have so much to learn from them. This is not a recent discovery, but I am so glad that the field study previously mentioned was with ladies and gents over the age of 50. That was such a treat. I loved hearing about their travels and their views on politics. It was such an enriching experience. I could only imagine the stories you would hear over time. Trust me, by no means is 50 or 60 considered even close to "elderly" in my eyes. I was just lucky that it wasn't a bunch of 20 year olds. I enjoy the older crowd. I'm such an old soul and enjoy hearing about the past.

Now, to accomplish!

caught red handed! (with yummy deliciousness!)

Wow. Already 21 days into January. Hopefully it will conclude nicely. I'm sure it will.

Let me tell you one thing right now. I have to get this out.

I hate the Kardashian family. I REALLY do. However, I am always tuned in to their damn show. I love their stupid drama. However I love Khloe. Once I tune in, I have to finish it.

I am VERY ashamed of this, but whatever, we all have our guilty pleasures.

I'd rather have mine be a show than be something like..mass amounts of apple pie.

So Sunday I was definitely tuned in for the Golden Globes. I LOVE award shows.

Back in High School, my friend Dan and I would dress up & go to Jewel before our GGparty.

We would announce to everyone we encountered that we were headed to the Golden Globes.

It was a hoot. We would all have sheets marked with who we thought would win and would watch the pre-shows on E! Those were the days. Eric even watched it with me this year :)

Thank goodness for TiVo (24 was on) I knew what he was sacrificing.
However we both enjoy a little Ricky Gervais and knew a lot of the nominated roles.

I guess watching award shows is another guilty pleasure.

But I enjoy the Academy Awards a lot more. It goes into each movie more in detail.

However the Globes this year were pretty good and I agree with the winners for the most part.

Of course plenty of shots taken at NBC by all--(always hilarious)

Speaking of NBC the 2010 Winter Olympics are coming up soon! I cannot wait! Sunday was the day when the three Olympic contenders where chosen; Jeremy Abbott, Evan Lysacek, & Johnny Weir are those three. I am so excited. I used to train with Evan back in my skating hey day. We had the same coach for a period of time as well. I am excited he made it but I am especially excited for Johnny Weir. I recently watched a hilarious documentary on him.

Be Good Johnny Weir is the name. It has a great look into the sport of figure skating and the pressures of being competitive on a world scale. Anywho...

The Olympics inspire me like crazy. Competition season (October-March) normally does.

I think it is absolutely remarkable to see so many talented athletes in one arena.

Winter is the best because figure skating gets out there on a large scale--which is exciting.

I just cannot wait to see which American ladies are going!

I'm for Ashley Wagner & Mirai Nagasu. They both have so much potential. Moving on...

This last stretch of the week is a busy one. Work the rest of the week until Sunday. It will be good though. I need the money (Saturdays always rake in more $$--long hours).

My thoughts are always in the midst of changing my entire look. But I adore my long hair, I like it's colour (it's natural color), and I like how easy my hair is to manage. It would look ridiculous short (shoulder length-ish). I've been there. I hated it.

I always say "anyone can have short hair." You really don't hear many people with long hair saying "Oh I wish I had short hair." But you always hear a girl with short hair say;

"I'm growing it out." or "I regret cutting it."

I don't know. I just feel like my look is getting boring.

I used to change it up constantly in high school. I want to get a wig actually.

A wig with black just above the shoulder hair with straight across bangs. That'd be perfect.

So tonight Flaming Hot Cheetos have the best of me. I love this unhealthy snack indulgence. I love it because it brings me back to my youth a.k.a. high school a.k.a. 4 years ago.

But I ate this almost every day freshman year.

You could see me skipping or running down the halls ALWAYS with a bag of flamin' hots

(with red fingers to match) and bottled water. I haven't really had them since freshman year which was 2002.

So flash forward to tonight at work;

(a girl I work with right now is pregnant).

In general without the pregnancy we talk a lot about food. I'm always spurting out my cravings (I have insane cravings and have had them my whole life). So today we were talking about snack foods and I mentioned Flaming Hot Cheetos.

Like always most of the time if a food is mentioned at all in the shoppe, I end up eating it later.

Chipotle, Noodles, Panera, Subway, Pizza...etc etc. I mean how can you resist??

Plus I always try to get something healthy (with tons of veggies!)

But tonight this was not the case AT ALL. I declared I was stopping on the way home to get my beloved long lost snack item. I was worried about eating the whole bag.

Eating the whole bag I have not.

Yet.

See I was worried about this. I shared how I always worry about bags/boxes of chips or snacks. I don't want to eat the whole thing! But I worry I might so I never get snacky foods like that usually. So this girl I work with tells me to just get a small bag.

No one is ever satisfied with that one bag of like 12 cheetos.

So I get the medium bag. I have consumed about half and I'm sure I'll go get more as soon as I finish this entry. The night is young. I have good spirits.

P.S. I will feel like shit later from this, I'm sure. I'll try and stay optimistic.

How cool is it that during Local On The 8's "Eminence Front" is playing?!

Now I will show you a completely random picture that has nothing to do with anything in this post!

(but I will tell you about it.)

This is the Mosta Dome located in Malta. That woman in the picture is JoAnn.

She was in my group when I traveled there. Anywho Malta was a big player in WWII.

So one Sunday during a service the church was struck by a bomb.

It came through the top of the church and fell on the floor.

It didn't go off. A faulty bomb. It was their Miracle.

This church is also the third biggest domed church in Europe.

:)

listening to: Kaleidoscope by Sleepy Rebels.

mesocyclone. alright.

Why, hello there.

So, originally I was not going to blog, but before I hung up with Matthew he asked "Are you going to blog tonight?" I replied, "Nah, I will tomororw, I do not have anything to write about." But low and behold, I have decided that tomorrow might just too busy to sit down and catch up on the week. Tomorrow is quite the day! These past two days have been nice.

Monday was monday. Opened--atleast it was with Ambre. I like working with her a lot and am so glad she got hired there a few months ago. I went on a long rollerblade after work, went home, showered, went to lunch with Matthew! (Butterfields) You cannot beat that! After I went on a walk with Ambre (funny seeing her twice in one day) and then the day just kind of went along from there. Dinner, hung out with Matthew, the usual. You know how it goes.

Today(Tuesday)--really yesterday: all I did was go on a long morning walk with Ambre and go to work. Work was very productive. Did a lot of glazing along with doing more detail and outlining. It feels much more satisfying to have completed more of a cookie than just filling it in. It seems to go faster if you're outlining and filling in, because you have the color in your hand and can just go from there. Work got out at 12:45ish tonight. Not too bad, although I will have to admit it was way later than I expected. I guess I cannot be too upset because I have the rest of the week off.

The rest of this week brings great things. Great things planned I should say. I cannot put too much into anything. I AM HAVING MY MALTA REUNION PARTY TOMORROW! Wow--you know I mean business when I do all caps. I am so excited. All the people (well, some of the people) I went to Malta with are coming over tomorrow night for a few hours to eat, drink, socialize and spill our memories of the fantastic little country. I love those people so it will be a really nice time tomorrow.

However, I have other big news! SEEING PHISH ON FRIDAY! This is a great crowd we have put together. Matthew, myself, My brother (John), My sister-in-law (Clarissa), Brian, and some people my brother knows. It is supposed to rain, but hopefully it will stay clear of us. I am really excited. I love Phish live, they are so great, so it will be great just to hear them and watch them play their music before our eyes. That's such a satisfying feeling. We are also going to camp at an onsite area. I've only been counting a handful of times, but I am expecting this to be the best. I really just hope weather is tolerable. It would be crummy to have some bad storms hit the area. We come back Saturday. It will be SO nice to get out of here. Sometimes I feel so trapped in suburbia. I hate that. Especially in the summer. I'm outdoors alot, but I'm always doing the same stuff. I want new terrain. ANNYYWAYSS. Matthew and I have to drive seperately down to the camp but we plan on stopping at Fair Oaks Farm on the way for an even settlement. I LOVE that place! GRILLED CHEESE LIKE WHATTTTT!?! My mouth is literally watering for a FOR grilled cheese sammer! It's a great place in Indiana. You all must go.

Well, I am very tired and have a longggg day ahead of me tomorrow. Getting my liscenced renewed tomorrow in the A.M. I hope you are all enjoying sleep right now! Don't forget to stretch and drink lots of water!

-Tessabee

"Beagles and Labs!" ;)

Why, 12:03 just struck, looks like Thursday. That means skating lesson and work. Meredith comes home tomorrow, so I hope we can hang out afterwards. Everytime she's been home lately I have not been able to see her! I'm excited.

Back to today. My dad turned 60! How exciting. Wow what a day. I would have been leaving for Malta today too. It's so sad to think about. Matthew and I were discussing how I shouldn't be sad because next time will be different and it being different will be good. The thing is, is that the experience I had last time was so new and refreshing. There are few things people would actually want to go through again. I would LOVE to relive it again. So to me it is sad regaurdless of me being able to back. I would be in great shape knowing I'd have the same kind of experience. I was in awe for mostly all of the trip. I was so good natured and I loved everything and I loved encountering new land and people. Each day was a new excitement and lesson. I'm so thankful for that experience. Wow, look at my goin on about Malta (what else is new?) So my parents met up my grandparents at 11:30 for Clara's and I headed my seperate way to skating. I'm so glad that I went today. Meagan and I pretty much had the ice to ourselves. It was clean ice too! I cannot even believe it. We didn't think we were at Seven Bridges anymore! ha ha ha. I really love working on spins, but they take a lot out of me. I can do a lot of jumps over and over, but it's hard because your body eventually gets tired of whatever it's doing. You have to pace yourself and be accurate on the ones you try to perform. Tricky Ricky!

I met Matthew up for lunch (Butterfields of course)--2 days in a row! After that I picked up the two cookie baskets my mom ordered. I made both of them, so that was neat. We got my dad a basket of gourmet cookies and then got him a dog cookie that resembled my dog, the piping was even made to look like fur. It was fun to do :) I ended up running into Danielle (she was walking) and I scooped her up and we took a quick walk and played some frisbee. I ended up getting curious about making my own shampoo/rinse. I have a tendancy to get into some weird kicks with food and oraganics and body stuff. So about a year ago I was really into organic hair prods but the fad diminished when it was just too much damn money. So I came accross a blog that gave directions on how to make super easy hair wash. It sounds crazy just using water and baking soda, but it really absorbs moisture without stripping your hair of it's natural oils that it needs. The rince is simply apple cider vinegar with water. It's just a basic ratio of 1 tablespoon to one cup of warm water (in their own seperate containers!). Read about it on that site for more information. But it REALLY works. My hair is soft and was super easy to brush after. You would think lathering water and baking soda would get it tangled, but after you rinse it out with water and apply your actual ACV rinse it makes it soft and brushable right out of the shower. How nice! After Danielle left and I washed my hair and all that Matt came and picked me up and headed out to a property he needed to analyze, went to the mall (H&M), and Hobby Lobby. I had to get more beads and wire for barrettes that I've been crankin out like a mad woman. I love them :)

Dessert was at my house after all that and My brother (John), sister in law (Clarissa), and Matthew went out to dinner and chilled at their place for a bit. We watched some South Park and ended up ducking out at 11:15. A good day/night overall. We shall see what tomororw holds!

Bonne Nuit!

-Tessa