Drivin' and drivin' and drivin' some more.

Tomorrow is the big day. The day in which we drive 8.5 hours and then I get to spend 6 hours with my favorite men in the world: Amos Lee, Ray LaMontagne, Edward Sharpe, and of course, Dave Matthews.

I spent all of today packing and shopping and making playlists, which is my absolute favorite thing to do. So, here's a little bit of my playlist!

Bryan J. I think he's so funny, and this song is just ridiculous. 

Nickel Creek has slowly become one of my favorite bands. A guy I went to school with/sang in choir with introduced me to the band, and I've been hooked ever since!

I found Jamestown Revival through Rolling Stone magazine, and even though they didn't win the cover contest, I still think they should've. They're very mellow, and they use a banjo sometimes...all of my favorite things.

Gomez is one of the bands that will be performing at DMBCaravan this weekend, and I got this song on the Caravan sampler. I love their sound!

Hope that's given you a little music for your weekend. I'll post some pictures once we get to the caravan!

Writing

Hello all!

As some of you may know, every November I like to participate in National Novel Writing Month, a contest that encourages writers to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The magic number, to save you some math, is 1667 words a day, which is more than you might think. It's easy to get behind if you don't write faithfully every day!

NaNoWriMo is something I love to do because it forces me to be very focused in my writing for at least a month. It isn't a program that is meant to churn out a work of genius, nor are the participants expected to write great prose every day. That's what I love about it. It's about making a mess, getting creative, and seeing what your brain will churn out if you give it enough freedom.

This summer, one of my goals was to write a novel in 30 days, so as of yesterday, I've begun. It's all very messy, but I started a Moleskine for the book in early June, and I've got a lot of notes and excerpts that give me some much needed fuel when I can't get through a paragraph without hating my writing. I'm excited to get writing, but I wanted to let you all know what I've been doing with my summer: National Novel Writing Month in July! 30 days of nonstop writing. And yes, I know July has 31 days. Close enough.

In the meantime, here's one of my favorite songs to write to. I actually love listening to the whole Harry Potter soundtrack, but this is one of my favorites. Gets me focused! 

Happy writing, and happy July!
<3 Adrienne

Eye Candy

I know, I know, a little fluffy today. But I just got my new computer, and I've been having fun uploading pictures of my favorite men as my wallpaper.

Here's a couple of my favorites:

Ryan Gosling. Yes.

John Krasinski. I found this picture of him with the scarf and I couldn't help but sigh contentedly. It makes me happy knowing somewhere out there is a guy who can wear a scarf and not look ridiculous.

Johnny Depp. 

Alright, so not really eye candy. But I do love Flight of the Conchords. And Bret (right) is adorable in a geek-chic sort of way, right?

Who is that, you ask? Why, it's Paul McCartney, of course! I love this picture. Clearly he didn't realize anyone was taking his picture, which makes it all the more enchanting.

And now, for the man who truly steals the show, Robert Buckley. A former economist turned TV actor, he currently stares on One Tree Hill, which, as some of you may know, is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Look at that second picture. Glasses? An economics book? It's like a dream come true. 

Hope that brightens up your Friday a little! <3

Zumba!

This is my favorite song to "Zumba" to. Seriously, I know you all think I'm kidding, but I'm not - there's nothing like bumping and grinding to Pitbull/T.O.K. with a bunch of college girls and middle aged women. Just let this song play and read the rest of the blog entry. It'll put you in such a great mood.

I think I've mentioned Zumba once or twice before, but I went again tonight and was reminded of how much I love it. 

First off, if you've never heard of Zumba, you can check it out here. It's basically a Latin-dancing cardio class that encourages extreme booty shaking in the name of fitness. Now, I was never the girl who was dancing and jiving around the room. I dropped out of dance when I was roughly eight years old. In chorus as a middle-schooler, my best friend had to teach me the dance moves in my bedroom over the weekend. Throughout my high school career, I avoided dance parties like the plague for fear that I would be forced to display my severely lacking dance skills. 

But then I discovered Zumba. It was sort of an off-the-wall decision to try it; I'd merely heard good reviews from some acquaintances and thought it would be fun to try. Thank goodness I did! Zumba has given me so much confidence in my body, in myself, and in my dancing ability. I've learned things like salsa and mambo and cumbia, but I've also just learned how to shake my hips and be excited about it.

The first time I came to Zumba, I met Heather, our fabulous instructor, and she instantly gave off the aura that everything was going to be just fine. She opened the class with the magic words: "It's your body - do what you want with it!" and then proceeded to dance and shake and yell 'aye aye aye' with such abandon that I had no choice but to join in. And I loved it! Zumba has completely changed my outlook on dancing. Anyone can do it, you just have to be brave enough to try. Heather would then close her class by yelling, "What are you thinking about right now?" and we were all instructed to yell back "How awesome we are!" She wanted us to love ourselves, and she wanted us to love Zumba. For that, I just want to say thank you, Heather.

And for the rest of you - give Zumba a try! They teach it everywhere, for goodness sake. Not just the YMCA, but all sorts of fitness clubs. You won't regret it!

It's Time.

Time to turn over a new leaf - in fashion.

I was reading a couple of old blog posts on Bethany Joy's blog, one of which being a guest editorial on fashion choices. The author wrote about her love of fashion, how she found joy in picking out new outfits and putting together pieces that she wouldn't have normally chosen to put together. And she talked about how that came to be - how she used to "dress like I was in my 50s (my usual outfit was boot cut jeans and a solid colored top sometimes with a scarf for “flare”)." Upon reading this, I realized that my favorite outfit is a pair of skinny jeans with a tank top, cardigan, and scarf. And it is time to mix things up!

I love this! It's from a blog called Kendi Everyday and she writes about this outfit, "I'm not a particularly loud person. But when I put this outfit on I immediately felt like the combo was yelling, 'Can you see me? I'm over here!! Pass the ball!!' (Okay, not 'pass the ball.' Sorry, that was left over from my past life as a 7th grade basketball star.)" 

I mean, if I don't do it now, when am I going to? When I turn 50, it's not like I'm going to want to wear crop tops and tiny leather skirts and oversized sweaters. It's now! I'm about to go to college, and I vowed to myself that I would do a few things differently than I did in high school. I'm not going to be so scared, for instance, to have a voice in large groups. I'm not going to stay in my safe little bubble of safe, crazy friends. It's time to branch out, and what better way to do it than revamp my wardrobe!

This is one of the outfits Joy put together on her blog, and I think it's so classy!

So I'm doing some research to try and figure out exactly what I want, but I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, if you need some fashion blogs, let me know. I've found about a million!

Summer Travels

July promises to be a month of adventures!

There are so many things I am looking forward to, the first of which being...

THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND CARAVAN!

I am so excited for this event. All my men are going to be there. Not just Dave Matthews himself, but also Michael Franti, Amos Lee, Ray LaMontagne...I cannot wait. This is also a momentous occasion because it's my first official, real-live concert. Ever. And I can't think of a better way to do it than going to a three day festival in Chicago by myself. 

Now, some people have questioned why I'm going by myself. But music is sort of like going to the movie theatre for me - I don't like going to the movies with people because I need time to take in everything for myself, form my own opinion, and then go out into the world with the information fully processed. It's the same way with music. I don't want other peoples' opinions until my own is fully formed. 

Besides DMB Caravan, we're also taking our annual trip to Minnesota.

This is the view from our cabin. We've gone here every year since I was a baby, and it is my second home. I can't imagine not coming here every year. I recently did an oil painting (see this picture - it's on the desk!) of the view from the balcony of the cabin with a quote that reads "Somebody once told me that this is the place where everything is better, and everything is safe." I can't sum up how I feel about it any better than that. 

We're also taking a trip to Montana - who knew I could rough it in the mountains? I can't wait for the long road trip and the beautiful scenery - plus, I've never been further west than Lincoln, so it should be an adventure. 

In honor of all the travel, here's one of my favorite roadtrip songs. Hope your summer is going wonderfully!

Summer Reading

One of my summer goals was to read a book week, and though I got started a little late, I've followed through the last two weeks!

The first book I picked up was "Reviving Ophelia" by Mary Pipher, a therapist from Nebraska. The book was all about Pipher's experiences with adolescent girls and how they deal with pressure - the pressure the date, have sex, do drugs, drink, live, learn, have a plan, and succeed. I thought it was really interesting how she discussed these issues without sounding preachy or condescending. I worried, when I picked it up, that it was going to merely be her thoughts on why these girls were so messed up. But the majority of the book was her finding the strength in each of the girls she studied. And that made me proud.

Then, last week, I read "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers. It is the story of a Muslim family living in New Orleans pre-Hurricane Katrina. Midway through the book, the hurricane hits and the family is split up as Kathy and her children leave her husband, Zeitoun, to relocate temporarily in Baton Rouge. Zeitoun and Kathy continue to keep in contact in hopes that he will soon join them, but before they can make a plan, Zeitoun is arrested and taken to a FEMA-run prison, beaten, tortured, and left without contact. The book progresses and provides a lot of great insight on how President Bush managed to handle (or, not handle, in this case) the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. I was so surprised that Bush couldn't even send in the National Guard effectively, and only managed to make a bad situation a hundred times worse.

These were both great books, so if you're looking for a good read, there's a couple!

This week I picked up a couple new titles:

Cutting for Stone

and Jamrach's Menagerie

Hope everyone's June is going really well!