Impromptu Wanderlust

Last Friday after I got off of work, my friend Matthew and I took an impromptu trip about an hour and a half away from Bellingham to Whidbey Island. We drove over deception pass (a place I'd heard about and seen pictures of but had never been to... It was beautiful) to the edge of the world -a sandy beach covered in driftwood that sat below a few quaint farms. We walked around and discovered a path that led to a bluff overlooking the ocean and ended up hiking up just in time to see the sun sink below the waves. Just for fun, I yelled as loudly as I could... no echo. It was like my voice got swallowed by the vastness of the ocean and the wind and the sky.

We hiked back down and built a fire in a driftwood fort someone had left and attempted to roast hot dogs... really we just succeeded in warming them up enough that they were edible. Then Matt ran to the car and grabbed a pile of blankets and we fell asleep talking and listening to the waves, only to wake up at 2:30, freezing cold and ready to head back home.

Whoops

So obviously, my new years resolution of posting on this more regularly did not work out. There's still six months for that to change though! Let me catch you (if anyone really reads this) up on what's been going on:

I finished my junior year at Western Washington University and in doing so completed junior portfolio within the Design department. This was probably one of the most stressful things I have ever been through -we (the juniors) had to create portfolios on top of our coursework, submit them for review, and anxiously awaited the news of if we passed and got into our desired concentration or any concentration for that matter. I'm happy to report that I got into my first choice: Design Production. So I will be making books, learning about printing techniques, color use, file management, packaging, design, design, design, all next year. I couldn't be more excited.

I procured not one but two internships. (Check) One is at a local music venue/bar here in Bellingham, designing show posters here and there and for the other I get to travel to my home state and live with one of my best and oldest friends for a month while I work for a ski publication. I'm excited to gain experience and to be closer to my friends and family.

I learned how to code websites. jQuery, HTML, CSS, the whole shebang. Bam!

and...

I'm about to move into my own one bedroom apartment. I CAN'T WAIT. I think I'll be a lot happier living on my own, making my own messes, noise, space, it's a very exciting prospect.

Now one of my other resolutions was to take more photos -I've been more or less successful in that but more could always be taken. One of these days I'll get an iPhone and instagram EVERYTHING. Until next time, I leave you with these bits and pieces.

Perfect Timing

Zoe

Bests

Beach Adventure

Wings for Eyes

Windy

Christmas Wishes

So now that we've all survived Halloween and Thanksgiving feasts, it's that magical time of year where snow drifts down from the sky, christmas lights sparkle in the evening, and the smell of peppermint or pine is just about everywhere. If only the holidays were really that peaceful. I swear, stores start decorating for the holiday season earlier and earlier every year. I was kind of disgusted at hearing christmas music in the grocery store the day after Thanksgiving. 


Anyway, with the holidays comes the "wish list." This is not a list of things that are necessarily needed per-say, but a list of things that might make existence a little more effervescent for a while. Here's my wish list:


Nikon 1 J1 - The smallest SLR digital camera ever. Oh. My. So sleek.

Stamps - I love writing letters to my friends in far away places but postage is something that I rarely think about buying. If I had a stash of stamps, a lot more letters written during classes would be sent.


Socks - I understand that this is that "really?" gift. But hey, they're something that I really need and want. My feet are always freezing and lately my sock drawer seems to produce fewer and fewer cozies to slip onto my feet.

Steve Madden Ruckus Boots - These I WANT. I seem to wear out cheap pleather boots at a rate of 4-6 months. But I think that were I to posses a quality pair of boots, they'd last a lot longer. And they're so pretty....

iPhone - Yes, yes. The mother of all phones. But I wants it... and in all fairness, my iPod has been slowly dying over the past year, and phones are constantly being replaced or upgraded....I'd take good care of it!

So this year's list isn't the longest but that's ok. I don't want that much. Gift cards are always appreciated since I love clothes so much... and let's face it, relatives whom you haven't seen in a few years don't always pick out the right thing. December starts tomorrow! I have to say that I'm very excited. Finals are next week and then I work the week after and then I head to my snowy homeland for a few days! 

On the Radio

So I have a radio show. I'm on air, playing music, hanging out, and rocking out once a week. KUGS FM is the WWU radio station and it's all student volunteer operated. So mistakes are made on air -I just played a cd, then popped the cd player open mid song, whoops. Right now, I'm doing a program called Music for the Masses. All of the albums are put on this rack (a.k.a. THE WALL) in the studio, then playlists are created based on ten categories: new music, top 40, heavy, medium, and light play, specialty, upcoming shows, local, backtrack, and open. There's an awesome selection of music too. 

So because of the diversity of "the wall," every show is different. It's constantly being updated and shuffled around, which is really fun when you're a fan of discovering new music. A few of my favorite finds consist of: Kristin Allen-Zito, Twenty-One Pilots, Deer Tick, The Dum Dum Girls, The Rooftops, and Rachel Goodrich. 


I suppose this leads into my musical taste. It's kind of eclectic (though some may argue otherwise). I love alternative female singer/song writers/muscians/vocalists like Regina Spektor, Feist, Florence & the Machine (I LOVE Flo), Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, Carla Bruni, and so on. I love Britpop. My first (official) concert was The Kooks, and upon being introduced to them I immediately tried to discover similar artists. This led me to bands like The Pigeon Detectives, The Fratellis, and The Wombats. Then there is my love for Muse.

The Kooks - "She Moves In Her Own Way"

 I discovered Muse the summer before my sophomore year of high school -I'd been watching Fuse all day and then the video for Knights of Cydonia aired, I was intrigued. A while later, I saw the video for Starlight and was hooked. I bought the Black Holes & Revelations album, listened to it relentlessly and then moved on in my interests until a friend showed me how much more music they had produced. I think that the last half of my senior year of high school and the first of my freshman year of college consisted of Muse being played at least once a day. As of late, they haven't really been at the top of my playlist because....

Muse - "Starlight"

These days I listen to a lot more Indie music. Indie pop, indie folk, indie rock, indie folk rock, etcetera, etcetera. Bands in this niche include Blitzen Trapper, Band of Horses, Deer Tick, Broken Social Scene, Camera Obscura, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cults, The Drums (who I saw in concert last fall...it was awesome), Givers, The Joy Formidable, M83, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, Matt & Kim, Metric, Mother Mother, (of course) Neutral Milk Hotel, and so it goes.. I think that I like the diversity within the Indie genre and how (especially when making a playlist for my show) everything flows together in a weird/awesome way.

Blitzen Trapper - "Black River Killer"

Broken Social Scene - "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" feat. Feist & Emily Haines (of Metric)

Finally there are a few alternative bands that I love along with the rest of the world. For example: Beirut, Bon Iver, Hockey, Kings of Convenience, The Postal Service, you get the idea. 


Check out the videos if you get a chance, maybe you'll discover something new!