Found

12 Confusing Constitutional Amendments on your Florida Ballot

Anna Eskamani: Yes, I am a woman running for office, and yes, I curse

Mindful: Stephen Hyde My soon to be cousin in law. Is that a thing? I just made it one.

Learning to Ride. I've known Nick since we were in elementary school and it's pretty badass what he's accomplished in adulthood.

Taylor's new DIRECTV starring her cats Meredith and Olivia.

We Could All Use A Little Snail Mail Right Now

The Pregnancy Reaction Videos You Won't See.

Why Dating Is Fucked.

Ways you know you have watched too much true crime.

Abortions In Women's Fiction and Romance Are Basically Non-Existent And That Needs To Change

It's such a pain learning algebra as told by the Holderness family to the tune of Toto's 'Africa'.

Dancing doctor. How has he not been on Ellen yet?

A maternity shoot like no other. Start with the first photo and keep scrolling. Trust me.

Tracee Ellis Ross continues to be cool as hell.

Driver reverses down Ohio highway. This is truly impressive and kind of funny.

When you're not a baby person.

I love this new Orlando mural.

A Family Reunion

A few months back my cousin told me she and her family (her husband and her children aka my other cousins) would be coming down to Orlando for the weekend to surprise her step-son for his birthday. It was also a perfect opportunity to get in some good quality time with family since they weren't going to be in town for very long. I was super pumped especially since I hadn't seen them since maybe 2011 or 2012. It had been a hot minute. They all moved to Alabama and since it's an 8+ hour drive they haven't been able to make it back very often. 

Out of everyone on my dad's side, and there are quite a few, Nikki was the one I was closest to. Sure, we're 4 years apart but that never really seemed to be an issue. I told Jodi to "move over" when Nikki was born and she was still in the hospital. We had slumber parties with my Aunt (Nikki's nana) throughout my entire childhood. We rode on four wheelers together and pretended trees were McDonald's drive thru's and the four wheeler was our car. We thought we were super cool because both of our birthdays were on the 14th - just different months. We played Super Nintendo at Tracy's old apartment. We went to Black Friday together where I broke my pinky toe running in Walmart. We both have a love for the Sims. We liked a lot of the same music and went to some shows together. We played Halo for I don't even know how many hours total. She was always a million times better than me but let me tag along with my needler and grenades. Technically she was my second cousin but we were more than that. I mean she performed our wedding ceremony and Jodi notarized us and made it legal. Full on family affair! 

Once she moved we fell out of touch. I'd hear through the Salyers grapevine how she was doing but we didn't really talk directly for a long time. I don't know why. It's just one of those things that happens but no one can really explain. The minute I saw her Saturday it was like no time had passed. We picked right up and started making new inside jokes about poison and researching if watermelons float. You know, totally normal shit. She even taught me what a STLB was. It was good to catch up and get a peak into her life now. I'm so proud of her and all she has accomplished. 

I had of course seen photos of Alex but I never really believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. Last time I saw him he was barely a teenager and now he's a full on really really tall man. Like super tall.  What even is time!

I have to say that Snapchat is amazing because it has kept me in daily contact with Jodi. Say what you will about social media but it really does help me feel closer and a part of the lives of the people I care about that are far away. She always sends me snaps of her furchildren and I of course send snaps of my cats, amongst other random shit. It's been nice having those interactions that without that silly app I wouldn't of had otherwise. She always felt like my older sister. She was the one that always did my hair and makeup for Halloween or school dances. She was older but still young so I felt like I could be myself around her more than other relatives. She treated me like a daughter even though I wasn't. She took me to movies with Nik or would pick me up so I could stay the weekend and swim in her old pool. I have fond memories of her driving us around in her silver 1996 Honda Civic where she'd blast Motley Crue or another hair band. I love the way she says "Ash/Smash". Her and Nik are probably the only two people who consistently call me that and I wouldn't have it any other way. I feel like out of everyone she always remembers me. I know that's kind of a weird thing to say but it's nice to not be or feel forgotten. 

I got to see some other cousins too; the ones that live in the same county as me but I don't see often. Growing up, everyone always hung out together but then people moved away or grew part, others died, and some just aren't worth having a relationship with. But I'm happy that there are still some of us that don't just keep in contact but have a special bond that withstands all life throws at us. 

It was a good day of reconnecting, eating, swimming in the springs, and playing corn hole. When I say "played corn hole" I mean I almost hit someone on the sidelines. One throw had the bag going directly up towards the sky. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess I won't be making the corn hole Olympic team or even the Salyers team for that matter. I still had fun giving it a shot. 

Until next time fam. 

Recently

Recently is the new Currently because let's be real I'm not currently doing any of these things. If I was blogging about what I'm currently doing I would be blogging about blogging. You know? So I felt a name change was in order.

Currently - at the present time

Recently - at a recent time; not long ago

These are things I've recently done.

Enjoying but also annoyed by: my new iPhone XS. I will preface this shit storm I'm about to type by saying I really do love my new phone. I do. It's faster and so crystal clear and the sound, well, sounds great. But there are a lot of buts...

• The round button is gone to make the screen bigger. Personally I didn't need nor want a bigger screen so the sacrifice doesn't outweigh the reward in my opinion. I miss the button SO BAD. I've had this phone for about a month and I'm still not used to that beautiful round home button being gone. 
• The battery percentage is no longer on the main screen front and center. The picture of how much battery your phone has is there but there is something very anal about me that hates the actual number is missing. I need to know if I'm at 63% vs 37%. Why? I'm not entirely sure but it bothers me. You can get to it if you swipe down but why should I have to do all of that extra work?
• The worst part of the whole thing is the face recognition. HATE IT. For one thing I can't ever open my phone while it's dark aka first thing in the morning after my alarm goes off. I have to punch in that 6 digit code at 5:30 am and quite frankly that is far too much thought so early in the morning. And to top it off the face recognition only works like half of the time in the daylight hours. I miss the fingerprint method which goes back to the button THAT I ALSO MISS. 

Watching: Big Mouth. I remember when it first came out last year and Dustin blew through it. No pun intended. Ha! He showed me a few clips that I thought were funny but I never thought twice about it. The second season just recently came out and Dustin was talking about it and suggested I watch it. But before I could even start it he offered to rewatch it again so we could crack up together. It is about a group of 12-13 year olds all coming of age in a very graphic, R rated, hilarious, real way. It's amazing that we all survive puberty because what a true hell it is. I'm just happy I'm on the other side. 

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Maniac - Dustin and I watched the entire mini series in one day. It is so unique and visually so interesting which makes it kind of hard to describe. The short and short of it is two people become intertwined during a pharmaceutical trial. I'll just say it's worth your time. 

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I'm not going to even give these next two gently viewed movies any more of my time but how awful was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (they are making another in 2021 - NOOOO!) and Solo?

Listening to: Jetty Bones. I bought both EPs the day after I saw them open for The Early November. Technically Jetty Bones is just one person, the lead singer Kelc, but I read that her friends help her out on tour so it's a full on band experience when you go to a live show. She's such a talented lady and my ears are happy because of her. 

I need to find a way to make this forever

I need to find a way to fight this bad weather

I need to find some friends that might live forever

I need to find a way to get myself better

I wasn't always the person I am now

But I worked so hard to get here

Dr Death. No this isn't a metal band it's a crazy ass podcast about a crazy ass neurosurgeon. It's only 7 or so episodes long and each episode is about 30-40 minutes telling the story of a neurosurgeon out of Dallas who purposely ruined the lives of 33 patients. His story alone is chilling and hard to believe but what is the scariest part is how much work it took to make him stop practicing. What a fucked up system we have.

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On the Line - This is Estee Lalonde's new podcast. I devoured her old one so I was pumped she was coming out with more albeit a little different! Each episode is based on one topic discussed between her and a friend/professional and at the end they answer questions that her fans have called in. So far she's discussed birth control, being single, reiki, and break ups. I love everything Estee does and this is no exception. 

Two Shows One Post

Last weekend Dustin, Pat, and I saw Thrice at the House of Blues. The openers were not great which made the night go on and on...and on. Thrice didn't come on the stage until 10ish (the opening bands played very long sets) and this grandma was cranky! BUT Thrice was well worth the traffic, bad openers, and late stage time. They killed it as per usual. I really loved hearing 'Anthology' and 'In Exile' live along with their new songs of course. It was a really great performance but my complaint was the lack of interaction with the crowd. We've seen Thrice a lot over the years and Dustin is usually pretty talkative but this time was different. The only words I remember him saying was announcing the band and saying hello to Orlando. Other than that he was silent. Yes, we're all there  in the same place to watch them play music but it's also fun to watch the bandmates banter or to hear a fun story about being on the road or hearing what was the background of a song. We got a good musical show but nothing more which was disappointing. 

Last night Dustin and I headed downtown to watch The Early November aka TEN. We tried to get dinner at Harry Buffalos but the place was crawling with Seminole fans aka there wasn't an empty seat in the place. We ended up at Graffiti Junktion which hasn't been great the last year or more. I don't know what it was but we both enjoyed our meals for the first time in a long time so that was something. We took our time and watched both Florida games before heading over to Soundbar BackBooth. I had no idea what Soundbar was and then as soon as I stepped foot in the place I was like "This is definitely BackBooth". I hadn't been in that particular venue since I was a teenager. I really love how small and intimate it is. We missed the first band but caught Jetty Bones and The Dangerous Summer which were both pretty damn good. I knew very little of either of them prior to seeing them live last night and they both impressed. The Early November was incredible even though there was technically only two original members in the line up. It didn't matter though because the other guys were great especially that kid wonder Nate Sanders who played guitar, keyboard, violin, and some kind of horn. I wish I could play one instrument and this guy can play everything! Ace has always been talented but he and the band just seem to get better with age. Unlike Dustin (Kensrue), Ace spoke to us a lot throughout their set. He mentioned how they rarely make it down to Florida (which is sadly true) and discussed how he thought 'Call off the Bells' would be everyone's least favorite song of In Currents which is why it is last on the album. There was one moment where he almost fell backwards (I got it on video - watch below) and he laughed it off and then at the end of the song said "We got a little wild" in a matter of fact way. The Dangerous Summer talked about "getting wasted and partying until 3 AM" whereas Ace was like "I'm going to bed in my hotel room after this." (which is right up my alley).  He's always had such a likable personality and it's cool getting a glimpse of it in between songs. I'm pumped for their new album.

 

As always please forgive my horrific voice. I can't sing worth shit but goddamn do I love to do it.