Curly Hair Song

So I've been thinking about my curly hair a lot lately. I haven't had my hair cut in about 5 months so it's kind of at an awkward length and I've been straightening it a lot lately (fyi above is pre-haircut). One day as I was straightening it I said to Sarah, "So I kind of feel bad for straightening my hair so much." Sarah asked if it was because the straightener damages it and I said, "No, not really... I just feel like I'm betraying my curly hair." Sarah laughed at me and told me that she thought my curly hair would understand. But I still feel bad...

A few years ago I thought about writing a song about my curly hair and how it kind of symbolizes the real me. A little crazy, unruly at times, unique, "spunky"... My curly hair is how God made me. Now that I think about it I have no idea how that could be a cohesive/decent song at all, but I used to that think it would be...

Anyway, I wore my hair curly today. I'm not writing this post to say, "Hey look at me and my gorgeous curly hair" (because generally it is far from gorgeous.) I'm just saying this is something about me that I'm thankful for because it makes me me....

Cardigans

I remember in the movie Never Been Kissed when Drew Barrymore's character gets caught secretly talking on the phone by her friends and to cover it up she says she was just checking out the nearby cardigan and the whole group ends up getting one each in a different color. I didn't even know what a cardigan was then, but this past year I have fell in love...

A long time ago I signed up for In Style's "Look of the Day," so I get e-mails daily of the great (actually most of the time it really isn't that great at all) fashion of celebrity women. Yesterday I received this picture of Julia Roberts and was reminded of how much I love cardigans.

I would say a typical Abby Thomason outfit would be (not really anymore because it is getting nicer outside...) jeans, my Sperry's, a t-shirt/solid colored shirt, a scarf, and a cardigan. It takes the place in my wardrobe of what used to be the zip-up hoodie. I mean, really a cardigan is a zip-up hoodie without the zipper or hood so I haven't come that far... but still.

Here are a couple others that I really like:

Left from Gap (V has this and I love it), right from Anthropologie

My roommates...

My roommates are the greatest. I have heard many roommate horror stories and I am blessed to say that I have none because my roommates are wonderful. It is so random how we all came together... Meg was my potluck roommate freshman year and we just got along and eventually became great friends. Valeria, I met on the side of the road when she asked me for directions and Meg and I invited her to come along and we all hit it off right away. Sarah, I went to high school with but didn't get to know her until college and now I think she's awesome. These ladies have come together to be three of my best friends. We laugh, cry, sing, vent, dance, etc... together all the time, and it's great.

Cheesey post #2,571: I love my roommates.

Morse Google

So, it's still raining... Not going to lie, it's hard for me to find things to be joyful about today because it is still gross outside. I just went to Google, I don't even remember what I was going to search, but I saw today's logo and was delighted. I know I've talked about the Google logos before, but this was a little thing that brought a smile to my face today soI thought I'd share it with everyone.

It is Samuel Morse's birthday... therefore Google in Morse code. Cool, huh?

"Let's roll, windows down..."

One of my favorite things to do when the weather is nice (or anytime, really...) is drive with the windows down and music up. After my long trip back to Columbia today, I finally exited the interstate and I rolled the windows down to be greeted by a moment of bliss caused by some great music (I was listening to Leeland's "Reaching" at the time) and wind in my hair.

I took the above picture to try to show the bliss, but it just didn't convey it... at all. So instead, I turn to one of my favorite Matt Wertz songs "Everything's Right." This is one of my favorite songs of all time because he is one of my favorite artists and he sings about one of my favorite things. Perfection. Anyway, here are the lyrics that I like, and below is a video of him singing the song. Enjoy!

"Windows down as the night blows in
Tap the beat on the wheel as the tires spin
Until we're there crank the radio
We'll join in with the songs we know

Hey, everything's right, said everything's right tonight..."

Tulips!

The tulip has always been my favorite flower. It is so vibrant and it's so refreshing to see them pop up after a long, gross winter. It works out perfectly because the landscapers of MU are also fans of tulips so tulips are everywhere around campus and I love it. I love tulips. (I realized that I say "I love *fill in the blank*" in every post I ever write, so I thought I would continue the trend...) Tuition at MU is pretty expensive. So when I'm walking by these tulips I like to think that they are what my tuition went to...

Anyway, everyday I walk by some beds of tulips and have been wanting to take pictures of them for a while. Last night I finally did. There wasn't much sunlight so they aren't as good as I wanted them to be. But you get the gist.

Benches.

Columbia, MO

So I can't really believe that I haven't blogged about this yet. I literally went back and checked all of my old posts to make sure I hadn't already done it, because I was so surprised. I'm pretty sure I haven't, so today is the day. Today is the day that I finally blog about my love for benches.

I love benches. I love taking pictures of benches just about as much as I love benches. What I love about them is that they are saying, "Stop and rest. Take a look around. Enjoy what is surrounding you." They just symbolize stopping and appreciating things and I like that.

Here are a few pictures of some benches that I have seen. I think I just decided that this summer (because I will be living there!!), I want to go around and take pictures of the different benches all over Kansas City. Maybe I'll make a calendar: "The Benches of Kansas City." I think I like it.

Anna Maria Island, Florida
Not sure, but it's in Kansas ,I think
(Family, what is the park with the stepping stones?)

Baking.

Ok, so I know that I talk about baking a lot. It's my new found love and I just can't seem to get enough. It's my job; I think it kind of uncommon that I would start to love something after doing it professionally... but I do! Here are a few things that I love about baking:

-Everything that I have learned about baking has been passed down from someone, mostly my mom. I know that all knowledge is passed down from someone, but it's just a cool thought to me. The other day I was greasing a pan to make a cake and I don't know exactly when but sometime in my life my mom taught me how to do that. I can just picture a fun mother-daughter moment, my mom saying/showing, "Here's how you do this..." That's cool to me!
-Baked goods make people happy. How often do you make some cookies, or a pie, or some muffins and people are disgusted and ask you to take them back? Never. Well, unless people are on a diet and then they are just jealous that they can't eat as much as they'd like to eat.
-You bake for special occasions, celebrations, or just for the fun of it. I love baking cakes for birthdays or anything for anyone really. It's fun to think of the person and what they like and make something in honor of them or something they've done.

Ok, so this is silly... I'm blogging about why baking is fun to me. All these thoughts were just running through my head the other night as Valeria and I made a birthday cake for my friend Jonathan so I thought I'd write them down. Baking is special. It's a different way to love people... I just think that's cool.

It's the little things...

I have been contemplating buying a water bottle from Kaldi's for the past week or so. It was only $12; I don't know why it was such a difficult decision for me, but it was. Today I finally bought it. I have been trying to drink more water lately, so I figured if I bought the water bottle it would make me more excited to drink it. Silly, I know. I'm like a little kid who has to have a Thomas the Tank Engine spoon to be inspired to eat his peas.

Anyway, turns out I got it half-price because I work there... which was exciting! So I'm happy about my purchase. It kind of made my morning actually... Now hopefully I will be inspired to drink water.

Cultural Immersion

I'm taking a Cross Cultural Psychology class that requires us to do different projects over the semester to basically better understand that everyone is different and that that's ok. Our last project is called the Cultural Immersion Project. We are supposed to go somewhere where we are the minority and experience it. Some people went to AA meetings, some people went to LGBT events, some people spent the day in a wheelchair, I (along with Valeria, who is also taking the class) went to Second Baptist, a predominantly black church.

It was such an interesting and enjoyable experience! We were, for sure, the minority and I felt it, but at the same time I never really felt out of place. We were welcomed by numerous people. I kept wondering, "Is this how they welcome all people or just white people?" I think they do welcome all people like that, the color of our skin just made it a little bit more obvious that we were visitors.

Anyway, I was just sitting there analyzing how it's true, things are a little different. Not just because we have a different color of skin, but culturally the people at that church worshiped different than I'm used to as well. The main thing that I took away from today though was that none of the different stuff mattered, the fact that I love Jesus and they love Jesus made everything feel right. I just thought that was cool.

Mas lluvia...

I'm about to go to bed and it's raining. I love falling asleep when it's raining. Waking up in the rain is a little different. It's just so peaceful, who really wants to get out of bed... But falling asleep to the rain... I love it.

"God chose raindrops... tonight."

My Family

So on Easter, just like with every holiday, special occasion, sports game, etc... my family got together to celebrate. Our Easter traditions include getting together, having lunch, having an Easter egg hunt, and celebrating Joel and Julie's birthdays. This year, for the first time ever, we had to do the hunt inside because of the weather... but we did it! And that's all that matters...

Anyway, I was downstairs waiting for the hunt to start so I just laid on the couch to relax (you know, to get myself prepared for the intense egg finding ahead) and I started listening to all of my family upstairs. I could only hear the murmurs of various conversations but I was overwhelmed with how much love there was. (Cheesey, I know... just get used to it, this post will be filled with cheese.) Everyone was talking about their lives and asking about how everyone else was doing... genuinely caring. We just really love each other... We're so lucky (aka blessed).

Whenever someone says, "Take a second and think about what you are thankful for," every time my family is the first thing that comes to mind. I'm so incredibly blessed to have a mom who's my best friend, incredible relationships with all of my cousins, support from all my aunts and uncles.... They are some of the coolest people in the world. Because this blog is entitled, "Noticed My Heart" I thought it was about time that I talked about the people that have my heart the most...

High School Musical 4

Zac Efron was on SNL this weekend. It wasn't the funniest I've ever seen, but I enjoyed it nonetheless...

One of my favorite things about SNL is that people can make fun of themselves. Therefore my favorite skit of the night was the one where Zac Efron made fun of High School Musical. I thought it was pretty funny... So here it is!

Rain remains continued...

One more thing that I thought I should add after the last post.

Tonight when I was getting off the bus, the bus driver (not the same one who told me I should go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire) said to all of us exiting the bus into the rain, "The sun is bound to come out sometime. I guess God chose raindrops today."

I liked that a lot. "I guess God chose raindrops today."

Rain remains

The rain is still here. I know it's spring, so that's normal. I'm ok with it for today... If it sticks around for much longer, I don't know if I will be. I am more of a sunshine kind of person. After a while the clouds start to weigh me down.

Anyway, the rain did bring the opportunity to take some fun pictures of my aunts' Cindy and Charlotte beautiful, rain drop covered garden yesterday. Whenever I think of flowers with raindrops on them I think of those cheesy fake flowers with the plastic drops on them acting like they're rain that you can buy at the dollar store. But the pictures I took yesterday are the real deal and they make me appreciate the rain on days like this...

Shuttlecocks

My friend Mary is leaving for the Navy in a few weeks so she is trying to get all of these Kansas City things seen and done before she leaves. As you know, I love Kansas City, so I was more than willing to join her as she did some.

Thursday we went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. We didn't stay for long because museums, in my opinion, are only good in small doses. We looked at the Egypt exhibit for her and the Contemporary Art and Photography exhibits for me. But before we actually toured the museum we ventured outside...

We went out to take pictures with the shuttlecocks. Mary had never done that, so we for sure had to do it before she left. I was the photographer and told her to lean up against it to get a funny shot. I took a few and then she took a few of me hugging it. Then all of a sudden we hear a voice coming from a nearby tree that says in a stern voice, "Please stop touching the statue. You are allowed to take pictures but no touching so please stop." We looked at each other and jokingly put our hands up like we had just been caught by the cops and then walked away. Funny stuff...

(I've been slacking on blogging lately... this week should be much better.)

I caved...

So there seems to be a trend in my life. A new technology fad comes along and I resist it for a while. I think that either it's too cool for me or I'm too cool for it. It happened with Facebook in high school. I resisted for a while... then a couple of weeks before I left for college, I caved and got one. Then it happened with blogging. I was sure I would never blog because I thought (and kind of continue to think) that no one really cares what I have to say. But once again, I caved, and here I am.

Now there's Twitter. Actually, I think the first time I heard about it was from my dad before it was popular and I thought it was strange. (Way to call it, Daddy!) Then slowly I heard more about it. My brother Joel has one, my cousin Anthony has one, Kanye West has one. I thought, "It's a glorified Facebook status. What's the big deal?"

Last night I caved, yet again. I got a Twitter. I'm so new to this that I don't even know if that's the correct terminology. "I got a Twitter." I don't know... Anyway. Twitter.com/abbythomason. That's me. We'll see if I enjoy this technology fad as much as I do the rest. Likely so...

Nothing out of the ordinary...

For some reason life has been pretty low key lately. Nothing too exciting.

It snowed today. It's April 6th. I watched the vibrant tulips on campus look up to the sky in wonder as they felt these cold clusters surround them and think, "Something just isn't right here." But I suppose the cold gave me an excuse to continue wearing my favorite accessory: the scarf. So really I'm not complaining.

One noteworthy thing that happened today is that on my way out from getting a few groceries from Wal-Mart the automatic door closed on me. Not all the way. But it for sure hit me then realized something was there so it reversed directions. I wish I was with someone to laugh and enjoy the funny experience with. Instead I just smiled to myself and kept walking. Hopefully it brought a smile to someone else's face, too.

Art.

I re-fell in love with art tonight. A guy from Veritas, the campus ministry I'm involved in, created this movie/music/art thing called the Human Story that was a compilation of music and movie clips with some readings of writing as well. Anyway, I saw it tonight and it moved me. It was an indirect and beautiful way of conveying creation, the fall, and redemption. He only used one Bible verse and didn't use any clips from any "Jesus movies" but his message was totally conveyed.

Anyway, I loved it. I love the power of art and how God uses it and how it can really move people (I cried... a lot.) I'm reading a book called "Finding Common Ground" by Tim Downs and he addresses the use of art to further God's kingdom. He says:

"It isn't simply that we undervalue art--we fear it. Art is what happens when science gets sloppy. Art is what liberals do. Imaginative style and creativity become ends in themselves, and the message gets squeezed out. Good, solid expositional sermons get replaced by puppet shows and interpretive dance. To be fair, that can happen, but it doesn't have to... We must lose our fear of art without beginning to worship it. Art alone is no greater virtue than science alone. We must always work to strike a balance between the two--clear, scriptural thinking communicated in a powerful and relevant style."

I feel like what I saw tonight was just that. And I wouldn't mind dedicating my life to something like that either. I just love art and I love that God uses it in the ways that he does.

It's Over

I'm currently obsessed with the song "It's Over" by Jesse McCartney. A friend of mine considers McCartney to be her "guilty pleasure crush" so I've been giving him a try lately. I heard this song when I was on his MySpace the other day. It's about a break up... and it's pretty funny. Some of my favorite lyrics (because of what a joke they are) from this song are:

"I've got the picture phone, baby, your picture's gone. Couldn't stand to see your smile every time you dialed."

"So when you call I'm pressin' seven, I don't want to hear your messages. I'm tryin' to erase you from my mind." (Get it? Because you press seven to erase your messages on your phone! So clever, right?)

This is one of the most technologically advanced songs I've ever heard! :) Anyway, it's ridiculous, and that's why I love it and am trying to spread it throughout the world! (Oh, and yes, the video is ridiculous too...)

Teletubbies

Today I was sitting on a bench on the quad with a friend, minding my own business, studying mneumonic devices and cognitive processes for my education test when all of a sudden my friend said, "Oh my gosh!" and points behind me. There were four people dressed up as Teletubbies running through the crowd dancing and giving people high fives.... It was funny.

My friend thought it was REALLY funny though. I laughed for a while but he laughed about it for about 5 minutes and finally said, "Ah, that made my day..." It's not very often that I find someone who laughs about things longer than I do. It was kind of fun for a change...