olive you

thomass its a mouse, it has its little donut eyes closed

sloane. sloane is a friend of ours. she is very large, but also tiny the same time. we would continue to explain but at the moment cayla is still traumatized from a movie depicting the life of frida kahlo. today we visited an olive mill which may sound a little lame, but was actually a little lame. did you see what i did there? it was a mundane afternoon until cayla needed a small in the 'olive you' t-shirt and all that was out on the shelves was large or XL. we all know cayla needs the XL but can't come to facts. so we ask the redhead girl with braces behind the counter if they have any smalls in the back and her head kind of exploded and she didn't really do anything. then, as we waited next to the t-shirts, a boy that was also working behind the counter came over to us. average height, brown hair, fair skin, the average olive mill college-age worker. he opened his average olive mill worker mouth to ask us if we needed help with anything and HELLO out comes a smoother than honey mouth watering australian accent. our family stood dumbfounded holding numerous olive-pun t-shirts watching as this average looking boy was transformed into an olive god from down under. he told us that the best part of his job was the free wine tastings on saturdays while the orthodontialed redhead giggled at his every word. we all know what the best part of her job is. olive mills have their perks? we will definitely be visiting again.

you may ask yourself, how did this australian boy end up in this olive mill at the end of a dusty road in queen creek? eventually we'll get the full story after he asks one of us out, but it is probably similar to the story of how our australian kayaking guide ended up in ketchikan, alaksa when we took our cruise a few years ago. do they just look for obscure places to work and surprise people that are looking for small olive t-shirts or trying to keep their fake nails on while paddling a kayak? i don't know, but hopefully they'll keep showing up.

cheers,

lauren & cayla

hello,

i know cayla already posted an advertisement for dance party friends, but i decided since we have written nothing in so long that another post could be appropriate. today has literally been one of those day. when filling out my time card at work, i wrote that it was february and added .5 and .75 to equal .80. yes, one of those days.

i officially have seven days of freshman year left! five days next week, two the week after, three finals and i am off to boston. i am most worried about how i am going to keep myself entertained during my flight from phoenix to newark. how does one stay quiet for four hours? maybe i will end up next some adorable boy that will want to talk to me but know when to shut up when i want to take a nap.

cheers,

lauren

the morning tilts over the hill

so my itunes has decided to only play the matches, which is a little weird, since I happened to have a dream about the matches last night! lauren and I (cayla) snuck into this crazy matches concert that was more like a rave and everyone was running around and dancing, it was awesome.
I've always wanted to go to a party like that! Where instead of focusing on the band, which would still be amazing, everyone would be dancing like crazy and it would just generally be the best thing of your life. I just don't have the best friends for crazy dance parties, more like gossipy sleepovers, which can still be fun, but most of the time they just aren't doing it for me!
So who wants to throw the most amazing dance party ever with me?
let me know.

Cheers,
Cayla

beach bag happiness

Cayla's really been showing me up with the whole awesome words aspect, so I figured I might as well post some of my writing. This was written while I was waiting for a meeting on a bench under a tree on a sticky afternoon at school, it's unfinished so I'll have to tie up the loose ends.

Does happiness really care where you are? Are you really happier when laying out on the beach with the tide tickling your toes and the sun kissing your face? Maybe, but why? Is it because the sand has seeped into everything imaginable and you got a sunburn even though you reapplied sunscreen every fifteen minutes? Maybe it's because it's because when you're on the beach all that matters is the spot where you get the most sun and whether you can build up the nerve to go talk to that cute lifeguard (maybe next time). Schedules, due dates, traffic jams, annoying co-workers, everything else is as distant as the next shore across the waves. Why can't we pack up this careless feeling into our beach bags with us when we leave the sand and carry at least a little of it into out daily lives? We forget what it's like to appreciate and to love, and we focus on stress and pessimism. Surely we can't do this on purpose. Who would ever want to live so unhappily? Instead of acting and enjoying, we say things like "it must be nice" and "don't you wish". We never find out if it is nice. We always wish, but never do anything to make it happen. What's holding us back? With all the time we waste wishing and complaining, we could be experiencing and appreciating. Can happiness only be found on an overcrowded, sunburnt, dirty beach? Absolutely not. Happiness is not made out of places and things, happiness is made out of moments. When streetlights change in time to the song on the radio, when your dog does something really cute with a sock, when it's just overcast enough to make your chai tea taste especially whimsical. You don't need to over-think happiness, it just happens. As soon as you stop wishing and wanting your time away, the joy will seep from the seams and you'll wonder what was ever so special about the beach anyways. About a month ago, I vowed to stop saying "I wish" and "you're so lucky", and anything along those lines. I've had to stop myself numerous times, because the thoughts come automatically. But it's amazing that once I've stopped the coveting thoughts, what replaces them. I realize the small wonders of my own life, things I've taken for granted in the past that I really treasure. I don't need a sandy beach to make my happiness, I carry it with me in tiny moments that happen unexpectedly everyday. Along with the change came a whole new lifestyle, a little wisp of the carefree beach breeze. I booked a ticket to Boston that leaves two days after my last final. Why? To visit Boston University, a possible transfer for next spring? To see my family and visit a friend? To be completely honest I have no idea why I did it, it was $300 that I had and adventure was calling my name. Who knows the possibilities, what moments are waiting to explode and take flight when I touchdown in Massachusetts. I had a feeling that it was a good idea, that a change of scenery would keep the wishing and wanting thoughts away for a long time. I guess we'll see what happiness has in store.

Cheers,

Lauren

reality check

you know the feeling after a concert, when you are being herded out of the venue, clutching your shirt and water bottle, shaking from excitement and the fact that it is about 10 degrees cooler outside than inside? You can barely think straight because your ears are ringing so loud and your throat is burning, but then it hits you. You just spent 4 hours being violently tossed around a giant room filled with people you don't know, all screaming at the top of their lungs, getting yourself covered with other people's sweat and who knows what else. You put up with all the rude girls trying to stick bubble gum in your hair and that tall kid jumping around in front of you and the fact that your shoes were pretty much completely stuck to the ground. All to see one band perform for less than an hour. Was it worth it?

Hopefully.

It seems to me that the more shows I go to the more I realize that I'm not really that different from the hundreds of other girls who love that band. How am I different from that other blonde girl singing in the crowd in Chicago or Seattle? Well, to them, I'm really not. But I like to think that while being so close, yet so far from all of my favorite artists is a bit of a realily check, I really could carry on an interesting conversation, and maybe friendship with each person that I go to see. I also like to think that all the money I pay and abuse that I receive from mean girls chomping on gum behind me, is the thanks I owe to them for making such amazing music and for coming all the way out to Arizona to let me see them. Because lets face there are very few people who come out here by choice.

So after I walk out of a concert I'm always happy knowing that it was worth swapping sweat with a stranger to say thank you to all the people that make me happy.

Cheers,
Cayla

dear the buried life,

we want to go to africa. we want to ride in a hot air balloon. we want to spend a day in disneyland with andrew mcmahon. we want to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. we want to meet you (jonnie, duncan, dave, & ben) to see if all that cuteness that comes through our television really translates into real life. we're banking on a definite yes. we want to meet you so we can feel accomplished in a way that you do when you cross something off your list and you get those smiles that take over your faces in a way we've never seen. we want to meet you so that we can be friends and you'll remember us when you're bored, and maybe we can change each other lives. now that everyone knows who you are and even oprah loves you, we're hoping that this doesn't mean you're becoming less reachable. the idea of this makes us sad, and kind of gives me the feeling in my stomach i got when i realized that all the times i (lauren) thought my phone had been locked it had actually pocket-dialed 911 about seven times. so, the buried life, unless we creepily creep on you and send emails and facebooks stalks, you'll never read this. but, we might as well write this, and i mean what's stopping us from creepily creeping i suppose. maybe one day this will fall on their eyes and they'll want to meet us just as bad. we're not exactly banking on that one.

speaking of going to africa, today we kind of did, except it took a little less time and we didn't have to get 100 shots. we went to the out of africa zoo/park thing about 2 hours away and it was awesome! not only did we get to feed giraffes a carrot from our mouth so it was basically like we were getting a big kiss from a slightly overweight giraffe, but i (cayla) have a very special connection with giraffes i.e. they love me. so we will be returning so i can spend more time with my new 15 foot friend. we also saw lions, tigers, bears, (oh my!) and a jaguar that looked super soft, but not quite like it wanted to be snuggled. the resident rhino named boom-boom is actually the marc ecko's rhino, bought from a gaming thing and given to the zoo, so we just met the rhino on 1000 shoes. everyone should go and feed the camel and avoid the demon ostrich that seriously wanted to kill lauren. even the buried life because we would love to go there with them, and it would also be hilarious.

i've (lauren) been ignoring andrew! but that's okay because he's been busy growing out his something corporate hair and working on his 'fourth' album even though the third one is nowhere to be found. apparently his degree in sweet ass rock did not include a math course.

cheers,

lauren & cayla

early morning adam

adam is the perfect music for yoga. adam is actually the perfect music for anything, but yoga is one of those many things. especially when the yoga is wii fit yoga for 10 minutes before class on an unusually cloudy morning. i wish that arizona would just make up its mind about the weather. is it time for the blistering heat or should i still bring a jacket to class? is it going to rain or do i take the umbrella out of my car? right now it's still a little cloudy and the humidity is probably around 0.1%, which is just enough to make arizona sticky. humidity is one of those things that isn't okay in arizona because it's supposed to be a "dry heat" here, like we're living inside a hairdryer. i'm not surrounding myself by dirt and spiky plants so i can wake up and have to worry about frizzy hair. humidity is okay in other places, especially new orleans. there it's expected, and you just pull your hair back in a high pony and head down to cafe du monde for a beignet and cafe au lait. right now i would give cayla's spanish grade to be sitting in a green chair on the mississippi (yes i spelled that out in my head) porch of cafe du monde eating a bag of powdered sugar embalmed beignets. instead i'm on my patio while little gnats bump into my arms and pebble lays like a legless seal next to me on the chair.

cheers,

lauren

if you can't say it in english, you can't say it in spanish

I don't know much about art, not even in English. Then when I have to critique it in spanish, that's were it gets really tough. Especially when the painting is "surrelism" and has 1 stick figure and a circle in it. I'm just not a very artsy person. I can write stories, but I'm just not physically artistic.
I'm also not very good at confusing things. Like learning the history of Medevial Europe. Especially when I keep thinking we are still learning about Ancient Rome. That definitely makes it a little difficult. But I blame our teacher for showing us a movie about Medevial King Arthur set in Ancient Rome. That's not going to throw me off or anything.
I'm also a little upset that I have learned about The Middle Ages in english and history and I still haven't watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail in class. Missed opportunity on my teachers' part.
Well I guess I am off to study!

cheers,
Cayla

from ten thousand lightning bugs

hello from my brand new mac! it is so new and shiny and just lovely.

everyone in my house is permanently in a bad mood. cayla is only approachable after her csi shows have been on for at least 3 hours. there is only so much of bad puns and removing sunglasses in time to music that i can take. these are supposed to be awesome words but so far i'm at quite the loss.

we should probably get around to posting our list sometime soon, but to avoid copying little jonnie almost all too completely we may need to think of another option. there are unfortunately some things that will never get on the list because of their lack of relevance, when really they would be totally rad to cross off. things like, dating a french athlete from the winter olympics. why? because they're obviously all totally gorgeous- on a good day, the hottest american man equals the ugliest french athlete. they have that outrageous accent, and you can take them places like le grocery store. other things that have already been written on the list may also fall into this category of irrelevancy, but who ever knows when we will run into michael buble and he will want to sing a duet with us?

cheers,

lauren

bicycles in bushes

today i was driving to class with the windows down because it was a rather nice day & i was also very low on gas. i looked out my passenger window at just the right moment and saw a boy trying to multi-task (doesn't he know that's only for girls?) by sipping a fountain drink and ride a bike at the same time. translation: epic fail. he proceded to hit a curb, fly over the handlebars, and into a bush.
it was almost as good as when i was driving home from work a few days ago and saw someone's car on top of the rock/landscape situation in front of lakewood. funny things happen when you drive alone.
i haven't been able to listen to anything except adam since saturday, and i feel like i should be getting annoyed, but fortunately it's not happening. how can you ever get sick of tiny adam and his outrageous imagination? drinking different colored milkshakes with him is definitely going on the list.

cheers,
lauren

hello seattle

it needs to be summertime
right now. a nice trip to somewhere other than this sauna seems to be in order.
so i'm thinking i would enjoy spending the entire summer somewhere lovely like seattle, but maybe also somewhere where i could wear a cute bathing suit? if i could afford a cute bathing suit.
maybe this is not going to work about as well as i planned

cheers,
cayla

oh hey.

at that point in time, we did lie. we did not have a blog. sorry boys. but if you ever do by chance lay your little eyes on whatever you want to call our masterpiece, this will have been posted and now we totally aren't lying.

bring on the asparagus. what? exparagus. what goes on in these kind of things?

blogs. i think we're going to need to do some research.

cheers,
lauren & cayla