Best Backdrop of All!

Tonight on our way to Waldo Pizza, one of Kansas City's best pizza places, I experienced this sunset. It was wonderful... Some people say they needs sunsets accompanied with mountains or oceans or whatever. I don't need that. Kansas City as the backdrop is enough for me.

Regrettable Trends of 2008

I have never been as free (aka bored) as I have been the past two days. The holidays are pretty much over and I don't have a job here in KC so I have literally nothing to do. Therefore, I have been roaming the internet aimlessly and came upon MSN's Year 2008 in Review- Regrettable Trends in Pop Culture. I thought how they addressed this trend was hilarious...

"...where we used to just send e-mail messages, now we send the messages through Facebook. Then Facebook sends our recipients e-mail that our friends then use to then log in to Facebook so they can see what we've written. Then they send their replies to our Facebook accounts, which send us e-mail, which prompts us to log back in. New technology that's three times as cumbersome as the old! Give us more!"

The article talked about other interesting trends including name hybrids like Brangenlina, the craze of Twilight, and Rihanna's growing amount of songs that everyone likes but no one admits to liking. If you want to read up on more of these, check it out here.

A Gem

Today I fell in love with Kansas City all over again. My cousin Eric is going to get married in a few months so we went to see his church, The Boiler Room, where they will be married. Their church meets in a really cool building that has brick walls, a freight elevator, an art studio, simple yet vintage decorating... it was awesome. Most of all I liked that it was in "the ghetto" of KC which is why I fell in love all over again... there are gems everywhere you look.

Here are a few pictures that I took...

I'm a Gamer...

I love games and on Christmas morning I found the game Rook in my stocking. I just tried it out with my parents and I wasn't the biggest fan in the beginning. But as I picked up on the strategy and ended up beating their socks off, I became more and more fond of it. As always, I had a great time playing because I just LOVE games. So, in honor of the holidays (a time we play a LOT) and my love for games in general, I thought I'd make a list of my favorites.

Abby Thomason's Top 10 Favorite Games:
1. Settlers of Catan
2. Ticket to Ride
3. Hit or Miss
4. Hand and Foot Canasta
5. Catchphrase
6. Hollywood Bowl
7. Phase 10
8. Yahtzee
9. Apples to Apples
10. Nertz

Correct me if there is a game that should have been included on this list. It's possible that I forgot an important one... Happy Gaming!

It's Christmas!

It's Christmas! One of my favorite Christmas songs of all time is "O Holy Night" by *N Sync. It's an oldie. It goes way back to when Justin thought he was blond and Lance thought he was straight. I know, you are judging me right now. But the harmonies are pretty impressive and I can appreciate that. Plus I grew up in the boy band era so I can appreciate it anyway. At least I didn't blog about "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays", right? Anyway... Merry Christmas!

One Tradition Down...

It's a Thomason Family Tradition for my brother Joel to take us out to dinner on the Plaza for Christmas and tonight was the night! We went to The Classic Cup (poorly captured above) and it was wonderful! It is a quaint place with a cozy fireplace, beautiful decorations, candles, and big windows so we could easily see the Plaza lights. The atmosphere was lovely, the food was delicious, and of course the company was outstanding... I love when the six of us are all together!

I'm so glad that Joel keeps up this tradition. It was a perfect night!

Big Kid Pick-Up Sticks

The other night our Bible study got together one last time before the holidays and it was perfection. We ate pizza, made sugar cookies, listened to Christmas music, laughed, sang... There was one point in the evening when The Christmas Song came on in the background of our good times together and I honestly said out loud, "This is a perfect moment." I really love those girls a lot.

In addition to the festivities above, our Bible study leader Sara had been given some oversized pick-up sticks and wanted us to try them out. It was incredible! Emily Lewis, Christine, Valeria and I played the first game and it was pretty intense. The others joined later, and as always, I had a great time. I think everyone should invest in some of these pick-up sticks. It was quite the good time...

10 Things I'm Most Looking Forward To...

I'm officially back in Kansas City for Christmas and it feels wonderful! Over the last week when I was discouraged about finals or whatever, I would wander to this list that I was making in my head of the things I was looking forward to about Christmas break, and everything seemed manageable again. Here is the list in no particular order:

Ten Things I'm Most Looking Forward to About Christmas Break:
1. Spending time with my family
2. Going to the Plaza for annual Christmas dinner--Joel's treat!
3. Traditional Christmas Morning Breakfast: cinnamon roles, sausage-egg casserole, sparkling grape juice...
4. Burrichter Family Christmas
5. Playing Lazer Tag with my entire family: aunts, uncles, cousins, friends... it's great!
6. Reading
7. Catching up on some TV shows that I'm behind on like: The Office, Heroes, Top Chef, Private Practice...
8. Sleeping in
9. Hanging out with my friend Mary
10. Not thinking about class for an entire month!

A lot of the above list involves my family... that's because they are so great! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about break!

Two Extremes and Atlantis

Every finals season I am always blown away by how quickly emotions can change from intense stress to intense relief and carefree-ness in a matter of minutes. I am now officially done with finals and am experiencing the relief which is a great way to feel!! I am sitting here on my couch watching a Top Chef marathon with nothing on my agenda except for packing, Christmas shopping, and eating pizza and making sugar cookies with my friends tonight. What an amazing feeling!

While sitting here watching TV with nothing to do, I just saw the most interesting commercial. It was for Atlantis Paradise Island but it had a remade version of "Anyone Else But You" from Juno in the background. How strange! It made me smile though...

Away-yay-yay...

I must admit that David Archuleta's "Crush" is currently my guilty pleasure... I just can't get enough of it!

I didn't watch his season of American Idol so I have no "The other David is better" feelings against him. I heard this song on the radio and liked it before I knew it was his... It's funny because it reminds me of a boy version of a Jo Jo song and I really like that (Maybe they should get together... They were born 8 days apart and will become legal in the next two weeks!)

I think the reason why I like this song so much is because it brings me back to the old pop days of *N Sync and Backstreet Boys. Oh, those were the days...

Brown Paper Packages...

Yesterday I got a package in the mail! I love packages! This one was from my aunts Mary and Janet in Texas... I opened it up and it had the shirt above in it! What a pleasant, hehe, surprise. I'm still not sure if it was a joke or for real. I'm pretty sure it was a joke... Aunt Mary, if you happen to read this and it wasn't a joke, I'm really sorry. Either way I really like it a lot.

The package ALSO had a $20 bill with the attached note. "Have a night on the town or a pizza break from finals or a quiet lunch at your favorite place. Enjoy. Love, Mary and Janet" How nice is that? I have the greatest family...

I am sitting here studying in my "Holiday Hoe-Down" long sleeve tee and all is right in the world... (Except for the fact that I have a crazy hard final about aggressive dogs in two days. Oh well... I'll survive!)

No Frost!

As I've mentioned before, I'm a baker at a coffee shop and I work EARLY so I leave my apartment around 4:00 or 4:15 to get to work on time. The early mornings kind of stink but there is one thing that I am continually amazed by and never take for granted...

I get up so early that there is no frost on my car! I'm still baffled. I don't know when the frost comes (I just spent about 15 minutes Googling it trying to find the answer, but no luck...) but it must be after 4:15. I can't grasp this idea. I know it's not as complicated as I'm making it, but I still don't get it.

Nevertheless, I love that I don't have to take the time to pull out my cruddy old ice scraper and freeze my rear off while chipping away at 4:15 in the morning... If you don't like having to defrost your car, just beat the frost and wake up a little earlier. And if you need someone to talk to because the rest of the world is still asleep, you can call me because I'll be up baking muffins and scones.

My lack of frost is nothing profound, just something I appreciated today so I thought I'd share it with you all.

Boys Lunch Out (+ ME!)

The men in my family are some of the coolest people I know. They are so good at getting together and doing cool things like: taking a tour of Kansas City, trying out a new BBQ place, and so on. I'm always pretty jealous because as a girl, I don't often get invited. I act like I'm hurt sometimes, but really I just think they are really cool so I want to be around them all the time. But of course I understand that there are times for it to be just the boys...

Yesterday there were impromptu lunch plans for the boys to go and try this hamburger place that is apparently one of the best in Kansas City called Hayes Hamburger... and I got invited! It was probably a pity invite but I took it anyway!! So my uncle Dave, cousin Anthony, brother Cory, Dad, and I all went to this little diner and it was quite the experience.

For being known for their hamburgers, I honestly didn't think they were THAT great. They were really greasy and had too many onions. But being allowed to attend a boys event was quite the honor AND they had some pretty tasty curly fries! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Joel, Kyle, and Brad there!

Magic Tree!!!

Last night BEFORE all of the Diet Coke insanity, I had the pleasure of introducing a group of freshmen girls to the Magic Tree! It truly was magical...

For those of you who don't know about the Magic Tree, it's this crabapple tree (I looked that up, I'm not a tree expert) here in Columbia that has tons of lights on it! I just Googled it and it even has its own website! I was reading about it and while some of the stuff they said was a bit... out there, I REALLY liked this: "First and foremost it is a "senseless act of beauty." Beauty has a way, when we recognize it, of putting us at ease while at the same time exciting us, paradoxical yes, but true. I think this particular paradox is better known as the state of joy. This is a healing state of mind that can have a powerful affect on heart, mind and soul not to mention the body. Acts of beauty, then, are always quite sensible." How interesting... I would say we were all for sure joyful last night! It was great!

Really, Ronald...?

Tonight I was craving some fountain Diet Coke so I went to McDonald's around 10:45 to get myself and my friend Jonathan something to drink. There was a long line in the drive through so I got out of my car to go in... but it was locked. (It was only 10:45! Lame...) So I got back in my car and got in line. After about 20 minutes of waiting I got our drinks and headed home... ecstatic for the caffeine, bubbles, and big straw (have you ever noticed McDonald's has really big straws?)

On my way home... my drink spilled all over my car. MY drink. Not Jonathan's. I took him his and returned to my room where I cried for a little bit. I know, that's ridiculous, it's only pop. But it was late and I was really craving that Diet Coke.

I tried to make things right by pouring myself a nice big glass of off-brand Diet Coke. I even found a straw that my roommate Valeria still had around from Halloween. But it just wasn't the same.
I'm pretty convinced that the bad breaks of the evening were caused by the man at the top of this post: Ronald McDonald. At the time I took the picture of him being a creeper I had no idea that the Diet Coke that I waited 20 minutes for would be on my car floor before I could even take a sip. Really, Ronald...?

Back to the Piano

I successfully completely two finals today, so all that are worried that I'm not studying enough (aka: Cindy and Charlotte), no worries... I don't have anything due for another week.

In the meantime, before the stress returns, I have randomly returned to playing piano. I took piano lessons for 7 years when I was young. I quit so early that I don't remember much but I can still figure things out. SO, I have busted out my dusty old keyboard (from like 2nd grade) and have begun playing again. One of my favorite things to do is to look up how to play songs on YouTube. You just type in "how to play *enter song title here*" and pretty much for every decently popular song out there, someone has taken the time to slow the song down and teach you how to play it. You don't even have to know how to play the piano!

Since I currently can't get enough of "Postcards from Far Away" I decided to try to learn it and it's going pretty well. Over the past year, I have also taught myself how to play "Boston" by Augustana, "What Goes Around" by Justin Timberlake, "Unfaithful" by Rihanna... I know, all pretty lame songs, but it's kind of cool to know how to play them. Below is an example of these crazy YouTube piano lessons. If only they had this when I was 12 and decided to quit playing.

Eye Am Avoiding Studying

Something happens when you come back from Thanksgiving break. It's like all of the studying capabilities that you once had, and really need, disappear. I have two finals tomorrow and today I have managed to: paint my fingernails, learn a song on the piano, do my laundry, go to the grocery store, go to a coffee shop, have a meeting, read other people's blogs, and write on my own. All that doesn't involve studying. *sigh* I'm waiting for the motivation to come, but it just hasn't. So that's why I'm here. The following is pretty random.

I think eyes are cool. This summer I got excited to use the macro setting on my camera and became intrigued with taking eye pictures. Here are a few...

My Theme Song

I was watching the movie The Holiday the other day and I love the part where Jack Black's character writes the theme songs for that old Hollywood guy and for Kate Winslet's character. Kate's song is beautiful and when he is talking about it he says something like, "I only used the good notes." I love that.

I think if I could choose a theme song mine would be "Postcards from Far Away" by Coldplay. I know I've talked about it before... but I just love it. It's so pure and beautiful and toward the middle of the song there are a few minor notes, but it ends with a beautiful major key. Cheesy, I know... but I hope that's what my life is going to be like. There's got to be some bad notes in there because it's life and I'm human. But if my life turns out to be anything like this song, I'll be content.

Next Two Weeks in a Nutshell

Christmas break is nearing and we only have a week left of class and then finals week. This is an intense time for everyone. I still don't get why teachers would all give incredibly difficult tests all in the same week and expect that to be a good gauge of our knowledge... *sigh* But we won't get into that. The picture above depicts how I plan to survive:

1. Notecards: that's the way I study, by writing out flashcards and going over them, and over them, and over them...
2. A pen: of course I am going to have to write, especially while writing flashcards. Tonight I went to Wal-Mart and bought new pens especially for the next two weeks. I have to get excited about studying somehow. It's the little things, I guess...
3. Music: there's no way I will stay sane without music. My iPod may just become my best friend.
4. Off brand Diet Coke: I love this stuff... The caffeine is great and so is the price. The taste isn't bad either...

Anyway, it's Saturday and I'm gearing up to head to a coffee shop and study for the night (lame, I know.) Just thought I would blog a bit about what I will be up to for the next two weeks.

Paris Hilton's New BFF

In honor of my cousin Anthony and his blog I created the above picture. But the inspiration for this picture came from an event that happened the other day...

I walked in my apartment to see my roommate Sarah sitting on the couch with a guilty look on her face. I turn around to see that she was shamefully watching the MTV show Paris Hilton's New BFF. I made fun of her for a bit but noticed myself sitting down and being mesmerized by the insanity of the show. It was the season finale and she was about to pick between the two finalists. Long story short, that 20 minutes of television was one of the most ridiculous things I have seen in a while but yet I still watched. I guess I secretly want to be Paris Hilton's new BFF. (I just don't think that's true though...)

Afternoon Delight

Haha! This post is not what you think it's about. This afternoon my best friend Mary came to visit from KC and it was delightful!

She came to see my apartment for the first time, then we went out to Kaldi's for lunch, then we stopped by a fun record store downtown, then we tried to take down the fire marshal for blocking the way out of the parking garage, then we came back and I did homework and she watched a movie. It was a simple day but amazing.

It's kind of cool that you don't have to do anything extra special with really cool people because being with them is good enough. That's what today was. Mary's one of those really cool people. I thoroughly enjoyed having her visit!

(I know the picture above is blurry. We took one in focus after this one but both decided we liked the blurry one better so we stuck with it... That's pretty typical Mary and I.)

Tuning Fork Analogy

I thought I'd let A.W. Tozer speak for me again. Here he discusses how some Christians are critical when we spend too much time focusing on ourselves and our personal walks with Christ therefore we neglect the Church as a whole.

"Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the "us" of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish "I." Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life." (Pursuit of God)

Good stuff.

No Words Wonders

Today's been a kind of rough day. The whole Murphy's Law thing has completely taken over. I was at the library working on a group project and I parted from the group to make the PowerPoint and turned the ol' iPod on. I was pleasantly reminded of what an escape music is. Especially instrumental music.

I feel like music with words kind of decides for you the thoughts and feelings you are to get out of it. Don't get me wrong, I love vocals. I sing. But instrumental music... there is a world of possibilities. You can use your imagination as to what the artist was thinking and your feelings can change with each listen. It's a rush of unpredictable emotions... I just love it. Some of my current favorite instrumental songs:

-Life in Technicolor- Coldplay (the first one, the new one has words... What's that about?)
-Postcards from Far Away- Coldplay
-Baleen Morning- Balmorhea
-Bella's Lullaby- Carter Burwell (from the Twilight soundtrack but don't discriminate.)

If you aren't a big fan of instrumental, I recommend you give it a try. It may just change your outlook on music. (The picture above kind of depicts my thoughts on instrumental music. I took this on our vacation to Florida two summers ago.)