Hi. My name is Bekah Buttons. I like cats, music, the internet, cupcakes and taking self-portraits in random places. I like new friends. Would you like to be mine?
Welcome to another addition of Meet My Friends. Today I'm introducing you to LeeLou aka Julie aka one of the sweetest, most giving people EVER.
I met LeeLou through Lauren and stalked her blog for awhile before finally e-mailing her asking her if she could help Nikki & I with a new design for The Secret Blog. Turns out she was already a FAN of The Secret Blog. We started e-mailing back & forth. I guessed how old she is and the ages of her kids & we had some laughs. AND she made the adorable Buttons Blog look that I have now! Oh- and we've never met in real life. I used to think that was weird. And I think that used to be weird back when the interwebs were only used by 57 year old men like this guy, but I've made too many normal, amazing and totally not chester-the-molester friends via the interwebs that I'm over it. It's not weird.
Here are a few ways you can become LeeLou's friend. Use her free layouts for your blogspot blog. Seriously. So freakin' cute. Buy one of her pre-made layouts which are seriously so much freakin' cuter.
Make your desktop look like mine & user her monthly desktop themes. Here is November's:
Hey adorably cute lil' turkey. I won't eat you. Cuz I'm nice to animals
Does this post seem random? Like why out of all my friends in real life that I haven't introduced you to, did I choose to talk about LeeLou today? Ohhhhh there's a reason...
I know 30 seems old. And, well, that's cause some 30 year olds are old, but not you. To me, you're the 22 year old boy I met over 7 years ago who couldn't do his own laundry and loved the first birthday present I ever gave him- combos & Mr. Wallace, the little purple stuffed cat you still keep in your car. I guess most people consider themselves a full-fledged adult by the time they're 30, and sure, maybe you are technically on paper. And our life insurance policy is probably gonna go up (dang). But I don't that buy that crap about 'settling down' and 'growing-up.' No, I hope you're always spontaneous. I hope you always have so many hobbies that you can't choose your favorite. I hope someday we'll have 1 room to contain all those hobbies. I hope you're always an artist, always exploring, always learning and always creating. It's what I love about you. It's why I traded in firebolts for guitar strings.
So happy birthday to my favoritest 30 year old who acts like a little boy but not so little that it's pervy, EVER.
I love you
And if anyone questions my love, or you acting like a little boy, they should view the following:
I'm not happy a lot these days (more to come on that later) however, I realize that when I AM happy, I need to take advantage of those moments and dwell on whatever it is bringing me happiness no matter how small it might be.
Today is Monday. The worst day of the week, however... I am uncharacteristically cheery. Here is why:
I got a free sammy from Genuardis.
Because I everytime you buy 7 sammys you get one free.
There's this old woman who works for us and she stared at me today like I was weird. Probably cuz I'm wearing shorts (and it's cold out) with mustard-colored tights and a big black flower in my hair.
Marco, the Italian chemical guy, did a double take. I'm not saying he thought I was attractive. I think he was just thrown-off by the mustard-colored tights, big black flower & shorts. In late October.
But since I've discovered that I can continue to wear my shorts when the weather turns cold because of the marvelous invention that is brightly-colored tights, I guess I can expect to get many weird looks. I don't care. Cuz I get to wear shorts in the winter! Which excites me:
I know a bunch of you are a fan of SEPIA toned pictures. This one is for you.
You can answer the following question honestly because I love this outfit and my mind is made up, so you won't hurt my feelings. I might judge you as having bad fashion taste though (KIDDING)*
Was this a major outfit fail? Or was this appropriate for a Fantastic Friday?
I saw Dead Man's Bones at The First Unitarian Church in Philly. Creepy kids, creepy music in a creepy church. Oh yeah, and Ryan Gosling. Cuz it's him and a friend. Making creepy music. With a children's choir from my future Silver Lake, CA home. It was mesmerizing. Ryan's voice is amazing. The kids are creeptastic. Seriously go listen now.
Then I watched The Notebook Saturday morning. And I don't even care that that's the most stereotypical fangirl thing to do.
So it's Friday. Fantastic. I love to share music that I'm listening to on Fridays. Fantastic.
I wouldn't be truthful to my inner-fangirl if I didn't share a song from the New Moon soundtrack that was released today. Yes, New Moon is the new movie from The Twilight Saga. Yes, that vampire thing. The movie comes out November 20th. Yes, I already have my 12:01 am showing tickets. For Burbank, CA. Yes, I bought that before I bought my plane ticket.
Okay enough confessing, on to listening.
I know you've judged me already for saying I'm going to post a song from a teenage vampire love story's movie soundtrack. But just you wait! This soundtrack will even impress YOU, my music-snob readers.
It's early on in the listening process, but David did steal the soundtrack for me earlier this week (Yes, I actually BOUGHT it today, WITH MONEY) so I've been listening for a few days.
I think Lykke Li's track is my fav. So that's what I will share.
It's pretty depressing cuz New Moon is a depressing story. You see, Edward leaves Bella because just kidding! I don't actually like to talk about The Twilight Saga (ahem)
Ignore the lame video; love the song:
Then go on over to Itunes & BUY the album (yes, BUY) because here is the track listing:
1. Death Cab For Cutie – Meet Me On The Equinox 2. Band Of Skulls – Friends 3. Thom Yorke- Hering Damage 4. Lykke Li – Possibility 5. The Killers - A White Demon Love Song 6. Anya Marina – Satellite Heart 7. Muse - I Belong To You (New Moon) 8. Bon Iver and St. Vincent – Rosyln 9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Done All Wrong 10. Hurricane Bells – Monsters 11. Sea Wolf – The Violet Hour 12. Ok Go- Shooting The Moon 13. Grizzly Bear - Slow Life 14. Editors – No Sound But The Wind 15. Alexandre Desplat – New Moon (The Meadow)
GUYS- Thom Yorke WROTE a song for this movie. If Thom York isn't too ashamed to be involved, you shouldn't be either. GO BUY NOW!
You should know by now that this blog takes 2nd priority to the secret blog, so if I say I'm going to do something "Tomorrow" that usually means "I'll do it in a few days." Apologies if you've been waiting for my EPIC post. It'll come soon. Promise. I think
But to make it up to you, here is a convo I just had with my friend Jamie:
Jamie: there are some hotties on the phils you know Me: i do know! That guy who said f*ck last year! werner? curt? was that him? Jamie: i just snorted so loud. oh my gawd Me: what? who is curt werner? Jamie: you just named a football player- kurt warner. QB for the cardinals. I'm totally snarfling right now. You are so sports clueless. Last year it was chase utley that cursed. I love you hard Me: Oh, Well he's cute!
Go Phils!
(Dear Mr. Phanatic, I was seriously scared of you as a child)
I lied when I said I'd blog multiple times this week. I am a liar.
I will make it up to you by introducing you to a new band D & I love- Jupiter One. We heard them a few weeks back when they opened for Regina Spektor (did I not blog about Regina? Oh my! (yes, that major fail deserves an "Oh My!") It was a brilliant show). Jupiter One was awesome. I got yellow fever. Yes I did
And when I pushed through all the Abercrombie n' Fitch wearing teens & their moms to get up to the merch counter and spoke to the merch dude who clearly would rather be working for Creed and asked for Regina's latest album on vinyl and he responded dryly "don't have" and I pointed to the Jupiter One album and said, "I'll take two," he dryly said "you know that's not Regina, right?" And then I stared at his bored Creed-loving ass and said "Um, yes. Do I look like the kind of person who would make that mistake? I'm not wearing Abercrombie n' Fitch." As wonderful as the purchasing experience for the Jupiter One album was.... their live show was better than the album. However... it's still good.
So that you can have a fantastic Friday, please listen to my favorite tune:
And onto your Friday chuckle (that you won't chuckle at unless you're familiar with my secret blog) I have a friend name Wheeks who lives in Myanmar. She recently received some baby chickens as gifts. You can become their fan on Facebook here- No, not a fan of Wheeks & her hubby. A fan of the chickens.
Wheeks & I love weird people's blogs. If you're kinda weird and I follow your blog, we probably talk about you. Wheeks & her husband recently stalked the heck out of a weird blogger & found out a bunch of great details about her. I was REALLY impressed. And that's saying a lot. Cuz I'm kinda the queen of internet stalking.
I congratulated Wheeks on her fine work and she responded:
I'm glad that you're impressed, because I have to say, I have never been so impressed from me or my husband as when we found her. And I'll be honest again, it represented several long Friday nights of hard work. It will be a little hard to stalk them since they are blogspot and I can't read blogspot here in Myanmar, but I will try my best. I am very pleased that you are impressed with my work. I may not be able to attract millions of horny, crazy women who wear vampire faces on their pants, but this is MY spiritual gift.
I have a friend named Steve. He runs a coffee company that I love. He apparently also moonlights as a Rockette (jump ahead to 1:53 to miss the awkwardtimes morning show host flirting w/ the Rockettes)
Why yes, that is Scotty, son of Steve, new Daddy to Junebug who you see in the background!
Good job, Steve! I'm totally not even 2nd-hand embarrassed! Promise!
Remember when I blogged a message to Junebug about coming out of her mommy's belly soon because we were all anxious to meet her? She listened!
Today, I bring you a post of pictures of our first time meeting precious little June Alice Hackman- two days after being born on September 12, 2009 at 10something in the morning weighing 8something and 19something inches long (what? I'm not her mom.. I don't remember those details)
Folks (that's my new favorite word- it's extremely difficult to say well),
I had a brilliant idea. It was brilliant. Let me share. I was going to do a post- multiple posts actually- showing you the random stuff & videos that could be found on my cell phone.
But, alas, my cell phone succumbed to the frigid waters of the Lake Wallenpaupack.
I had such good stuff on there. Videos of Richie & I. A couple great shots of Ryan dancing at 4 am I may have also had a scandelouspictureortwo that was sent to my husband at one time or another that the guys at the Verizon wireless insurance company might enjoy. And many, many dressing room phone photoshoots.
So Plan B. This is random stuff I found on my harddrive at work. Enjoy!
This was the card I sent to Nikki for Christmas. It's our only picture together from 7 years ago when we met. Both of our heads are in that hole. Yes, I have ugly as crap shoes on. Yes, we are all giving the finger (except for Megs in the back who seems to be giving a gansta sign)
I believe this image was sent to me right after Laura learned some new Photoshop skills. This is Ryan & Laura and their pretend Christmas card in 2006. Ryan had a huge beard before they got married in October, 2006, and before their wedding, he shaved it into all sorts of miraculous mustaches. I believe there are many more mustache pictures to be shared. Get ready.
This was my Microsoft outlook signature (just to emails to my friends) for a week in 2008. This was RIGHT after I read the books & had NO ONE to talk to about them. And before I realized how first-hand embarrassing it was that I actually did this.
Halloween 2007 with the DEWs (you haven't "met" them yet, so don't worry if you feel confused). We were (from left to right) 70s porn star, Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, 60s Pixie Chick, 70s Porn Star director (sense a theme?), Harry Potter himself, Disco Chick. If you were wondering if that was the night where we stopped being invited to parties at "the barn," you'd be correct. We made this video circa 3am:
(Yes, 60s Pixie Chick Laura is wearing Harry Potter's glasses & Hermione Granger is directing the music with her wand)
This is me & Ashley, on my way to my wedding in 2006. This was right before I almost barfed b/c the limo driver was driving like a crazy person, lost & I was sitting backwards.
Here I am on the floor at our beach house in 2007. This was probably at 7am or something because Richie made me start drinking that early.
This is kitten Daizie Tumbles in our hamper. SO CUTE. She is a fatty cat now, but still has the cute baby face.
Ben Wheeler's dad threw a birthday party for him. It was a surprise. We had to wait in the garage for the surprise because he was in the house. And by "we" I mean me. This is the pic text I sent to everyone who wasn't there because they were late. And I was alone. And nervous I would have to yell "SURPRISE" by myself. Because that would be quite depressing.
Told you I'd find another mustache pic of Ryan. This is probably my most favorite picture of Ryan of all time.
I just remembered I had an even more brilliant mustache picture of Ryan on my phone that succumbed to Lake Wallenpaupack and now I'm depressed. Maybe the guys at Verizon return services for phone insurance will be so impressed by my scandalous photos meant for David's eyes only that they send me the pictures on the memory card?
I'm going to have a baby soon. Well, I am not having it, but Andrea is. She'll share though. Her name is June Alice but will only be called Junebug by her Aunt Bekah.
Junebug was supposed to be born yesterday. On 9/9/09. That would've been spectacular, but alas. Junebug did not come.
Last night me, Laura, Nicole, Karen (& latecomer Ann!) hosted "Operation Get Junebug out." We failed. Vietnemese food did not work. Bouncing on the ball did not work (Andrea barely bounced Andrea did a great job bouncing). Laughing hard at glee did not work. In fact, the contractions stopped.
Operation Get Junebug out= Major Fail
We did look cute though:
Well, they look cute. I have Bekah big smiles, sigh..
Enoch Junebug love
Operation get Junebug OUT!
Junebug! Mommy is tired of holding you in her belly and would like to drop those 12 pounds on average women lose in the hospital (thanks Pregnancy magazine in Andrea & Scott's bathroom) & Aunt Bekah wants to meet you NOW. Also don't be born on 9/11. That's worse than having your birthday on Christmas.
I often peruse my friend's facebook pictures & friends and decide I'd like to also be friends with a person.
Today I came across Kim's photo album of Jessica's Roller Rink Birthday Party.
I do not know Kim nor Jessica. But I do know Nikki who is Jessica's sister-in-law and in some of the pictures. Thus the connection. I don't want to be friends with Kim or Jessica today. But I do want to be friends with this guy:
I have no idea who he is. The Facebook does not tell me. But I do know we're destined to be friends, since I just blogged about him.
Looking forward to our budding friendship, dude with awesomest shirt ever!
I can't stop playing Regina Spektor's new album Far. This weekend was the first time I really got a chance to listen to it. David & I drove home from the shore yesterday and listened to it twice. I love that I have a husband that doesn't need to fill the silence with noise. We just listened. I got goosebumps. We held hands.
It’s like forgetting the words to your favorite song You can’t believe it You were always singing along It was so easy and the words so sweet You can’t remember You try to move your feet
It was so easy and the words so sweet You can’t remember, you try to feel the beat
I wanted to cry during this song. And almost all the others. I don't know why. Gorgeous
I think we might be going over our "entertainment" budget to buy tickets for this show in a few weeks.........I'll eat ramen for a few days to make up for it:)
I have a friend named Sam. She's a friend of a friend really, but to me that means a friend.
Sam is an incredible artist. Incredible. The first time I met Sam (who I had heard about for awhile from Andrea and Scott and had seen her work hung around their house) I got to view the 'daily drawings' she did for 100 days. At the time, Sam was working as the (warning- really technical job title coming up) person who makes Anthropologie displays around the store look really amazing. She says this about her daily drawings:
on 6.20.07 i started doing daily drawings on 3.5" x 5" fabriano paper cards. i have a pack of 100 cards and intend to make a daily doodle until i finish the pack. it's both a sort of journal/diary for me as well as a way to keep me in the practice of daily illustrating.
I will always remember sitting on Andrea & Scott's living room floor with David, going through her 100 drawings. It was an amazing experience with a lot of varying emotions. Here are some of my favorites:
my favorite!
It was when I saw the drawing of the rain cloud that I knew Sam experienced a feeling I had felt and was feeling (am still feeing?) And while I looked at the drawing of the girl falling, David told me her dad died in the middle of this 100 drawings project. And today as I was looking through the pictures I wanted to use for this post, I realized he died the day after she drew that picture of herself with him.
That was two years ago today. Here is the illustration she did for him today on her blog:
I've been wanting to share my 'friend of a friend' friend's art with you for awhile because it's beautiful and worth sharing. But more than anything, Sam's illustrations will always be special to me because she expressed and expresses through art what I cannot.
Thinking of you, Sam- the beautiful person you are, your beautiful art and your dad, today.
I have these great friends and we call ourselves The Quad (its: Lauren, Leigh Anne & L.A. Nikki) I wanted to photoshop a picture of us together for fun times, but we all live super far from each other. So I had this brilliant idea of each taking a picture of our feet, then photoshopping our feet together.
They thought I was crazy, so I decided to take a picture with my 3 favorite girls in the world as an example:
Isn't that super cute? It kinda fits our personalities too. We have me, the skanky* sister, Snails the 'mom' sister, Lyd the future lesbian** sister & Rach the Tom-boy sister.
So how did the feet pic turn out with The Quad? Well, we never ended up doing it, which is really sad times. But we will. Perhaps one day we'll even take a real picture together.....
*False
**long story, but David wants a lesbian sister. And so we nominated Lydia. And once Lydia said something about being "confused" when talking about a pretty girl. Therefore, she'll never live it down.
