Vacation Shots

Though I was home for my 21st, I don't mean shots of alcohol..ew. Here are a few SNAP-shots of my little trip home. Some highlights; we got a basically private tour of Safeco Field where the Mariners play, saw some gorgeous flowers, enjoyed a trip to Pike Place Market and Seattle Center and of course saw my brothers and pets.

Purse Essentials.

I just returned home from five days in my hometown of Kenmore, Washington. I was there for my 21st birthday. Though I saw few friends - it's finals week at the University of Washington - I did spend some quality time with my family and I showed my boyfriend all my favorite places in the greater Seattle area.

My brothers got me the J.Crew Tillary Purse for my birthday and I am beyond happy with it. It's the perfect size but still loaded with three pockets and it converts easily from a cross-body to a clutch. I'm in love.
To me, having your purse filled with only the essentials it key. I don't like to be weighed down with extra hand creams or  Here's my mental checklist of the only things I actually need to have.
Moleskine notebook - you never know when you'll need to jot something down
Pen - for jotting
Stud Earrings - They take up little space and are the easiest way to suddenly look put together
Wallet - duh! I pack light here too - ID, cards, cash, the end
Keys - again...duh.
Gum - mostly for sharing with others (easy way to bond with someone, weird, right?)
Phone - I don't have an iPhone, but if I did, I would have a case like this.
MAC lipstick - I wear Viva Glam 1.
Ray Bans - I've had mine since 2006. They go anywhere, with anything and bring lots of compliments. I'll never own another type of sunglasses.

Summer Stripes

Everyone needs a striped dress for summer. Preferably knit, knee length and easy to throw on with a pair of flats or chucks and run out the door. Here are my picks for the quintessential striped dress.

1. Marimekko / 2. J.Crew / 3. Lands End Canvas / 4. Madewell

Settle Down, Kimbra

I just came across this video of Kimbra performing Settle Down at SXSW.
A few things that I find striking about this performance:
1. She builds the song --LIVE--completely with her voice and her digital recording station thingy. I love it when people do this - Kanye West is especially adept at it too.
2. She's on ground level. This reduces hers and the audiences sense of heirarchy which I would assume makes performing that much more intimidating.
3. She's alone. Intimidation x2. You can hear her at the end saying it's scary being alone.
4. She's dressed like Beetlejuice which means she has balls.

Solar eclipse

In case you weren't alive yesterday let me inform you. THERE WAS A SOLAR ECLIPSE!
They happen quite rarely, when the moon, in it's orbit around the earth, passes between the earth and the sun, temporarily blocking the light from the sun. Luckily for me, I am in Arizona which was the perfect place to see the eclipse. Apparently in northern Arizona, the eclipse was even more spectacular but I'm not complaining.
You might have guessed that these images aren't actually pictures of the sun - they're upside down - and you've guessed right.
In order to see the eclipse and not go blind, I made an eclipse viewer out of a cereal box and a piece of aluminum foil with a pinhole in it. I faced my back to the eclipse and looked through the hole in the box to see the projected image of the eclipse in the bottom of the box.

I've never seen such a complete eclipse before so I was quite excited throughout the 2 hour ordeal. If you browse the web, you'll see much more creative views than mine - reflections through leaves or skyscrapers were particularly awesome.
I tried to warn you that I couldn't be kept from science posts. Hope you enjoyed the temporary stop in Nerd-ville.

Did you see the eclipse yesterday? How excited were you?

The College Question: Is it worth it?

In case you didn't watch it last night - and you should - here's the 60 minutes piece Dropping Out: Is college worth the cost? The story is centered around the Thiel Foundation, founded by Facebook's first investor (and billionaire) Peter Thiel who offers college students $100,000 to drop out of school and spend their newfound time and money working on projects to improve themselves and the world. Basically, he's kickstarting venture capitalists like himself.
I'm a rising senior at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School. A school that I earned a full academic scholarship to attend and that I am often told is the best journalism school in the country. But I'll graduate with more student loan debt than the average in a state that has the highest student loan default rate in the country. Oh and did I mention that jobs in journalism - well really everywhere, but especially journalism- are hard to come by?
The worst part about it is that I - like the students in the piece - rarely feel challenged in school. Of course I often have a giant workload - school, internships, editorial job at the school newspaper - it's not mentally challenging, just time consuming.
I often wonder if my college experience will be worth it in the end. Journalists are semi-famous for being college-dropouts or at least for NOT studying journalism in college, so my degree seems a bit frivolous. Graduating under a mountain of debt makes me wonder if I would have done things differently if I could go back. Would I get a different degree that didn't require so many extra curricular work  and have a job all the way through? Would I take my time and graduate in five or six years?
It all makes me quite stressed out and sad, but I calm myself by remembering that I will have a college degree, a thing that just one percent of the world has.
That's a good thing, right?

T.GIF: LBD Edition

It's Friday! You made it to the best part of the week. As a special reward, here's a .gif. Because T.G.I.F. or T.gif. Get it? Hardy har har.

Here is my latest purchase. It comes via J.Crew. I saw this Crossover Dress as it was being picked off the Sale page at an alarming rate a few weeks ago. I desperately wanted it and got on chat with the nicest J.Crew lady who measured an actual dress for me and everything, but with just extra extra smalls left it just wasn't going to work.

Alas, last Saturday morning I checked again and there it was...this time in a Small. I bought it and compulsively watched the UPS tracking on it until it was handed over to me just minutes ago.

I thought it would be the perfect almost-formal dress for the summer and beyond. Jewelry and heels to dress it up, a belt and sandals to dress it down - you get it. But now I'm thinking about returning it. The waist is a little higher than I thought it would be and the hem is a little lower. Despite the fact that I do love jersey and the faux wrap, I'm afraid that it looks a little mom-y on me, especially since it's black.

I think I'll wait until the BF comes home to see what he thinks. He's always on mom-alert. Just kidding...I don't even know what that means.