SYTYCD Wedding Dance

SYTYCD has been pretty good this season. I think I liked last season better (though it's funny that last season I was no fan of Aaron, the tapper who made it to the finale, and I'm also not huge on Zack, the guy tapper in this year's finale), but I really loved this wedding-dance-to-end-all-wedding-dances with Twitch and Valerie. I feel like it's been one of the few truly stand out routines of the year, but maybe because it's so funny?



I'd go to that wedding. Also, Ricky is super amazing - how does he get his body to extend so much!? And I don't even totally know what extending means!

Misty Copeland Dances Like Some Crazy Dream

Misty Copeland judged the So You Think You Can Dance for the last three weeks, and she was pretty harsh. From her resume (American Ballet Theater soloist), you can understand why, but it wasn't until I watched her in action that I was like - holy shit:



That first lift looks like something is literally pulling her up or like she's gently entering into Zero G. And from then her movements are so fluid and her muscles are INSANE - her calves! How do you even make calves look like that!?

You can read more about the ad campaign the commercial was promoting over at Jezebel or whatever, but frankly I'd rather just watch Misty dance. Woman can dance.

Artful Stew: ENGAGED!!

OMGosh the ring!! Isn't it beautiful?

Since most of my readers are my good friends, you probably already know that your very own Artful Stew got engaged last week!!!

Isn't it exciting!?

I couldn't be happier. My fiance is the most wonderful man in the world. So wonderful that he's the one who bought me my Harry Potter ebook collection the day it was released as my early birthday present! It doesn't get any better than that! We're not sure when or where the wedding will be yet, but we're thrilled that we're going to spend the rest of our lives together. Also, saying "my fiance" is a ton of fun!

He proposed at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens on the first seventy-degree day in NYC. Absolutely perfect. Here are some flower photos to show you how lovely it was:

We spent all last week eating at wonderful restaurants around the city - seven places we had never tried before - including DB Bistro Moderne (using a gift card), Eataly, Chikalicious, Locanda Verde, Buvette, Ciano, Northern Spy Co (best kale salad!), the Spotted Pig, and our favorite place to celebrate, Harry's Cafe and Steak. Unfortunately, our favorite waiter wasn't there to share the news, but we're going to email him and make sure we return on a day he's working so we can celebrate with him. After all, he's been there for most of our anniversary and birthday dinners! Plus, we got some engagement cupcakes from Magnolia, just for good measure.

Below are some fun food photos, too. Enjoy!

Delicious chicken and fancy fries at DB Bistro

Desserts from Locanda Verde

Formerly a sundae at Harry's

His burger and my salad at the Spotted Pig

OMGosh engagement cupcakes!

2010 Reflections: Love

3. This is the first year that the BF and I have lived together. It's better than I ever could have imagined, and I can't wait to have our first whole year together. We even got a new loveseat and bookcase to celebrate! I'm very much looking forward to some New Year's Day Ektorp assembly celebrations.

The fact that he gave me tickets for a romantic trip to Paris this year has me a little more excited than usual for the New Year, as well! He's the best!!

The Good Side of Life

This mini-documentary, "Alice Dancing under the Gallows" is incredible. It really made me happy, and I hope it makes you happy, too. Sometimes it all is about perspective...

Things the DJ Might Have Said Late Night:

1) Who was born in 1987!? Or just the 80s in general!? Shout!
2) Who likes 80s music!? Who likes 90s music?! Who likes music!? Let's listen to some music!!
3) Who's graduating!? Make some noise!
4) Whose birthday is this month!? What! What!
5) Who likes milk!? Yeah!
6) Gotta chicken in your mouth!? Hey!
7) Can do the who-da-what-ho?! Ye-Yeah!
8) You see your best friend? You see your girlfriend? Since 9th grade? Give 'em a squeeze! Bring 'em in close! Just like that, ladies! Don't stop now! MmHmm!
9) Who likes this song?! Make some noise! I'm just gonna keep talking over this song now! Yeah! Let's all sing along to this song that I'm speaking over! What! What!
10) Who drives a carpool?! Cool!
11) Kittens jumbalaya! Ok!

Senior Ballin'

How Columbia Actually Got Something Right: Senior Ball.

1) Free food all night, and when they said "hors d'oeuvres to dessert" they didn't just mean "hors d'oeuvres and dessert" they meant tons of delicious, vegetarian and non-vegetarian goodies for all! I know I ate my $100 worth.
2) The only thing they ran out of was chocolate-covered strawberries, but there were chocolate-covered bananas as backup.
3) The place was huge and gorgeous, with big tables where people could eat and chill, but also a big dance floor for boogieing.
4) Everybody looked so pretty! And they clearly didn't take that stupid "black suit only" rule seriously since some guys showed up in gray pinstripes. Also, more hilariously they didn't take the "no miniskirts" rule seriously since a number of girls showed up looking like classy, leopard and tiger-print prostitutes. And what's a party without classy prostitutes?
5) The vast majority of friends in my grade were there. And we danced and had fun and it was great.
6) They let in my (very sharp looking) non-CU boyfriend - phew!
7) The DJ was terrible, but in a hilarious way. He would only play about 45 seconds of each song and then just shout things over that, but I still danced and it was still awesome.
8) Most importantly, it made me realize (like I have many times and then forgotten) that I will miss CU and all my friends even though I will still see most of them after I graduate. Just not in the same college-y kind of way. Sigh.

Aw, nostalgia. In the good way.

Wake-Up Songs: Part Two

Yesterday I woke up with such a happy, romantic, fun song that I ended up dancing in the kitchen while making breakfast. Super fun and silly, right? A great way to start the day.

The strange thing was that, despite acknowledging how pleasantly random it was to have this song stuck in my head, by lunchtime I completely forgot which song it was.

Instead, "Genie in a Bottle" ran in high-speed all during my meal. When was the last time I listened to "Genie in a Bottle?" In eighth grade on the pop radio station back in Dallas while I was attempting to connect with awkward St. Mark's boys over AOL Instant Messenger. Good times?

Once I a) realized that "Genie in a Bottle" was not my preferential stuck-in-head song and b) could not remember the actual, quality song that was stuck in my head previously, I c) came up with "Jitterbug" as my closest replacement. Almost perfect, but not quite.

I did still dance down the halls on the my way to pick up groceries, though. Why not?