merry christmas, miss

merry christmas from the lane family!!

blast from the past

being bored and snowed in provides many opportunities to reflect on the past. specifically, family photos.

in preparation for my epic post about the epic blizzard of '93 (just you wait, alex...), i came across some real gems in the family photo collection. here's a sampling for your enjoyment.

BYU circa 1984. Looking at Deseret Towers (2008: Deseret Pastures)

BYU Law School Circa 1984 (2008: Looks exactly the same)

1984- TWO COSMOS????

1995-ish baby skittles! (2008: fattycakes)

my dad and i as bert and ernie. precious.

forever and always a nerd.

also, JFK is still holding my luggage hostage and there's no word of when i'll get them back. sucks, because they've been sitting around since 6:30am saturday morning. oh, the joys of traveling in the most epic snowstorm of 2008.

could i BE wearing any more clothes?

as i trudged through the freshly fallen snow on my way to and from work today (and becoming an icicle in the process), i thought about how nice it will be to NOT have to do that for a while (the next 2 weeks, at least). then i thought about how much snow i've dealt with over the course of my life. all those winters shoveling the driveway (then my parents buy a snow blower the year i leave for school...). i have come to be very prepared for snow because of this, racking up my fair share of snow clothes.

for those of you not lucky enough to live in a snow-prone area...here are some vital winter necessities/accessories for the winter season.

A) Warm Winter Coat: Pretty much a given. Without it you'll become a popsicle/get frostbite all over your body. Luckily, coats are pretty cute.
B) Ear Warmer/Hat: Today I wore both, but usually I wear one or the other. You don't realize how valuable your ears are until you can't feel them anymore.
C) Scarf/Hoodie/Neck Warmer: Scarves are my new collectible accessory. I have tons to match each of my coats. And they're functional! Hoodies are great when you don't have a hat/ear warmer and keep your head from getting wet without getting hat hair! Neck warmers are awesome...but you can't really move your neck when you wear one, making you look like the little brother from "A Christmas Story.'
D) Gloves: Need I say more? Also a necessity when making snowballs.

Not Pictured:
Knee Socks- To keep at least PART of your legs warm.
Boots- Boys hate Ugg boots, but really, they are necessary. A few days ago when we had the first major snowfall, every.single.girl. in the library was wearing boots. With jeans tucked in. They're FUNCTIONAL, ok? And warm. And cute.

Hope you enjoyed TLane's Guide to Winter Warmness. Be sure to put it to good use!

the routine.

over thanksgiving break i tried to teach myself the dance from beyonce's "single ladies" video:



but i only got through the first few eight counts before i gave up. i just don't have those skills.

so i've decided to dedicate christmas break to another one of my favorite dances:



let's face it. the routine is
a) easier
b) funnier
c) a heck of a lot more entertaining

although it won't win me any dance contests any time soon.

so that's what i'll be doing over break (when i'm not with my friends, of course). i'll need a ross counterpart though, so if you know anyone who would be willing...

yes on "d8"

this video has been making the rounds on various blogs, and it's about time that i put it on mine.



oh the pain and shame of LDS/BYU singles wards....

on finals.

just a little humor to lighten up this week!
fairport on saturdayyyy

double deuce

today i am 22. which is awesome. i slept in, ate lucky charms, and am being as lazy as possible until 6, when i'm heading to red robin for a birthday treat with lots of friends.

earlier this week i was having trouble coming to terms with my new age. i felt like this:
but don't worry, i'm all good now. hooray for birthdays, the end of the semester, not too many finals and home in 8 days!!!

stumbleupon, part deux

clearly, i love StumbleUpon (see previous post HERE). and clearly, i'm procrastinating studying for my dreaded finance test. here is another list of some awesome things i've stumbled lately--some hilarious, some helpful and some just plain awesome.

First World Problems- petty problems of people lucky enough to live in the first world.
example: "I was too full to eat the free dessert I got from eating an entire tower of mini-hamburgers."

AustenBook- a facebook news-feed-like take on pride and prejudice. read from beginning to end and you'll totally understand it, even if you've never read the book! i LOL'ed, not gonna lie...

Chocolate Cheesecake Candy Cane Bars- can you say YUM.

Best of Craigslist- self-explanatory. really hilarious. especially the missed connections.

Things You Would Never Know Without the Movie Industry- "The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty."
or, "Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at that precise moment. "


more to come, i'm sure. happy finals week!!

glamorous, oh the flossy flossy

when i was younger, the thing i wanted most in life was to get my picture taken at Glamour Shots in the oakdale mall. it just seemed so, you know...glamorous! i wanted to get my hair all done up and get my makeup done and wrap a feather boa around myself with soft lighting highlighting my cheeks...

i really don't know why that was a dream of mine. maybe it was the fact that my parents wouldn't let me get it done that made me want it more and more.

but now, i am really grateful they never let me get it done--because then i would have shameful pictures like these to look back on:




so thank you, mom and dad, for never letting me get a glamour shot. truly a blessing in disguise (even if my bratty eight-year-old self thought differently).

not-so silent night

a great night with good friends (and a not so good piece of cheesecake).

christmas bells are ringing

while i'm not even close to being done with my Christmas shopping, i have tried to provide a little bit of holiday cheer over here at blogs by tara.

for your enjoyment i have added a Christmas music playlist just a little further down on the page, under the blogroll and archives.

all of my favorite christmas CD's are on the playlist, inlcuding Hanson, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC with a few of my other favorite Christmas songs by Britney Spears, Faith Hill and Sixpence None the Richer (if you only listen to one song, listen to this one. their version of "it came upon a midnight clear" is so beautiful. fyi, it's the last song on the playlist.)

i hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season so far!

omg...

April 14th, 2009
Energy Solutions Arena
Salt Lake City, Utah
7:30 p.m.

See you then?
I KNOW I'LL BE THERE!!!

thank you, alex!!!!

countdowns

only....

7 days of classes left
10 days until by birthday
17 days until the semester is OVER
18 days until i'm home :)

taken from EW's popwatch blog... so i take no credit for it. but it describes my thoughts exactly. also, it is written for men, but is still relevant to women.

'Twilight': A hater's guide

by Clark Collis

Let's assume you're an adult male who has somehow avoided reading EW's 1,783 recent Twilight cover stories. You may be thinking, "Hey, this thing made a ton of money; maybe I should see it." You shouldn't. Twilight has no more to offer you than a sale at Sephora (FYI: Apparently, that's a lipstick emporium of some sort). Oh, sure, the premise of this horror movie sounds enticing: A hot teenage girl (Kristen Stewart) moves to a new school in the rugged Pacific Northwest, where she discovers that the man of her dreams (Robert Pattinson) is actually...a vampire! It's Near Dark-meets-Deliverance, right? Incorrectamundo! This adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel (for girls!) is actually the lamest episode of 90210 ever made combining forces with the second-lamest episode of 90210 ever made.

In fact — and this is the crucial point — Twilight is not a horror movie at all, just an excuse to feature the two leads making cow eyes at each other. Pattinson and his band of fellow goth-nerds only feast on the blood of, uh, cute animals, which might irk the folks at PETA, but does not a terrifying movie make. This interminable kissyfest is as frightening as an average edition of The View (FYI: Apparently, that's a daytime chat show of some sort). Yes, if you take a ladyfriend, she will repeatedly clutch your knee — which, after all, is the principal raison d'être of the horror genre. However, she will do this not from fear but to alert you to some aspect of Pattinson's total dreaminess. That's no way to spend an evening when there is beer to be drunk, sports teams to be supported, or, indeed, paint to watch dry.

yes, i still hate twilight.

sundance

taking advantage of the break and my access to a car, i drove myself up to sundance this afternoon, partly because i was bored, but also because i've never been there before and have always wanted to drive up the alpine loop in the fall. it was a beautiful drive, and really gave me the opportunity to clear my head and just get out a lot of frustrations i've been having.

i really appreciated the beauty of utah. sure, the state gets a bad rap because of the people and all, but for real, this place is BEAUTIFUL. i wish i'd been able to go earlier when the leaves were a little more colorful, but it was still really pretty. provo canyon is just so cool. sundance was really cute, too. (i even got to see, from a distance, the cirque lodge, former home of MK olsen, lindsay lohan and kirsten dunst. what can i say, it's the celebrity stalker in me.)

so i'm adding one more thing to my list of gratefulness-- utah's beauty. because i won't be able to appreciate it for that much longer.

thanx

i hope everyone had a good thanksgiving! i sure did. just a simple dinner with everything i love (including my famous green bean casserole) and some delicious pies, some movie watching, and a few hours of wii games to work everything off.

things i'm thankful for:

amazing family
amazing friends
my current job
my new job in january
my education
a warm apartment
blankets
my ipod/macbook
warm weather
rainboots
cable
lucky charms
diet coke
cats and dogs
opportunities
our troops
safety
my knowledge
hot showers
chick flicks

although some may seem insignificant or just downright silly, i'm still grateful for every single thing.

ps: dear santa,

i want a wii.
i know it won't happen, but i'm just putting it out there. in the universe. like "the secret" tells you to do. who knows...maybe i'll win that wii+rock band set from the DU giveaway....
as i rowed, long jumped, boxed, swam, trampolined, strummed, sang and rocked out on the drums today, i couldn't help but want one. laura said she lost 3 pounds the first week they got it! so much fun and such a great workout at the same time. think about it ;)

just warming up my tummy

don't go here if you're hungry....

(photo from foodgawker.com)

FoodGawker.com

beautiful food photography + the recipes to make it = yummy yummy in my tummy.

although i'm not a photography wiz by any means, i do like to partake in some harmless photo editing once in a while to make it look like i am...



these are yummilicious pumpkin cupcakes i baked (from scratch!) earlier today. they are delicious, if i do say so myself (and i do). i got the recipe from an article in the DU yesterday! here it is:

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 15-ounce can of pumpkin

1 cup oil

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Bake in lined muffin pan for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Frost with cream cheese frosting.
This can also be baked in a cake pan for 35 to 40 minutes.

happy turkey day!!

these boots were made for walkin'

although i still bleed blue (albeit i am still embarassed after this past saturday...), sometimes you just need to wear a little red.

these boots are so fierce and will look even fiercer with my selection of navy coats. on a bleak rainy day, who wouldn't be cheered up by these?

also, i had the great pleasure of getting a root canal today. well, it was finished up today. i've had one done before, but i don't quite remember it and i guess i must have been pretty resiliant in SEVENTH GRADE because i'm still in a lot of pain. therefore, i've relinquished myself to an all liquid/soft foods diet consisting of oatmeal, jell-o, applesauce and pudding.


appetizing, eh?

wildcat fever

i know you're all extremely jealous that i got to stand in front of the infamous east high school, aka where all of the high school musical movies were shot. well, everyone except casey, because she went there. i stood in spots previously graced by zac efron. it was amazing and embarrassing at the same time.

(hair=less than satisfactory)

(remnants of past past film production, perhaps?)

i heart new york....

only....



until i'm home :-)

it's rivalry week...

...So it's time for some good ol' UofU jokes! [P.S- Casey, if you read this, just know that I still love you, even if you are a Ute fan :) ]


Q: Did you hear about the power outage at the University of Utah library?
A: Forty students were stuck on the escalator for three hours.

Q: What do you call a good looking girl on the University of Utah campus?
A: A visitor

Q: How many Utah fans does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: One, but he gets 3 credits

Q: Why couldn't the Utes put on a live nativity scene for Christmas?
A: They couldn't find three wise men or a virgin.

One day in an elementary school in Salt Lake City, UT, a teacher asks her class if the Utah Utes are their favorite football team. The whole class says yes, except for Little Jimmy.

The teacher asks, "What's your favorite football team Jimmy?"

Little Jimmy says, "The BYU Cougars "

The teacher asks, "Well, why is that?"

Little Jimmy says, "Well, my dad is a Cougar fan, my mom is a Cougar fan, I guess that makes me a Cougar fan."

The teacher angered by his reply says, "If your dad was a moron and your mom was an idiot what would that make you?"

Little Jimmy says, "Well, I guess that would make me a Utah fan."

NEVER FORGET:

love songs of great boy bands

(disclaimer: i will try not get all OMG FANGURL!!!111 up in here, because this is a classy blog. i promise i will try to restrain myself.)

so this past weekend was the end of an era. TRL ended. it went out with a bang, with a long special on MTV in which they brought back lots of bands from years past, including Blink 182, 2/5 of NSYNC, and 4/5 of the Backstreet Boys. Britney's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" was named the most influential video of the series.

my childhood is calling.

this morning i watched the video of the BSB singing "I Want it that Way" from the TRL special. i still remembered every word, every inflection, every note, every key change, even though i haven't listened to that song in probably 2 years (the song itself is 9 years old...)

the original BSB CD was the very first CD i owned. i won it off of a sprite bottle cap. the NSYNC CD came next, and i'm pretty sure both of them are pretty worn out and unplayable on any CD player. i was a loyal BSB fan first; i loved nick carter, of course. when i crossed over to the dark side of NSYNC, justin timberlake of course became my next love. i still felt torn, so i had a picture of each above my bed. i also remember carrying around pictures of each in my wallet, and when i got a free BSB poster at Sears once, i showed the cashier my pictures. i'm pretty sure she thought i was a freak.

i remember staying up late the night before the 2nd BSB CD came out (Millennium), listening to Radio Disney (ew) as they premiered each song. I was ready with a blank cassette tape and recorded every.single.song. pretty sure that tape is worn out now, too.

what i'm trying to say is, boy bands are awesome. every generation has had one. the jackson 5, the osmonds, wham!, new kids on the block, HANSON, and then of course BSB and NSYNC (we'll throw 98 degrees in there for good measure).

today at work i relived my teenagedom and rocked out to old school BSB, NSYNC, and Britney and Christina. and i still remembered every song, every lyric, every inflection. it's amazing how stuff like that stays with you. i was thinking that it was kind of sad though, because at one point in my life, "this i promise you" topped my list for future wedding songs (i was like, 14, ok!?). these songs don't have any real MEANING other than i loved them when i was 14 and they make me happy.

so we've gone from this:

"My angel, my all, my very self - Only a few words today and at that with pencil (with yours) - Not till tomorrow will my lodgings be definitely determined upon - what a useless waste of time - Why this deep sorrow when necessity speaks - can our love endure except through sacrifices, through not demanding everything from one another; can you change the fact that you are not wholly mine, I not wholly thine - Oh God, look out into the beauties of nature and comfort your heart with that which must be"
(Beethoven)

to this:

You are my fire
The one desire
Believe when I say
I want it that way

But we are two worlds apart
Can't reach to your heart
When you say
That I want it that way

Tell me why
Ain't nothin' but a heartache
Tell me why
Ain't nothin' but a mistake
Tell me why
I never wanna hear you say
I want it that way

but i will still love them with every single bit of my heart :)

"i'm a miss capucine!"

i love this little girl! her name is capucine, she's french, and has quite the imagination. here she is telling a fairy tale she made up:

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

today's big things

so there's this site, TodaysBigThing.com that picks one viral video each day and posts it as "today's big thing." they're always hilarious and sometimes bizzare, but they always leave me laughing and make my day a little brighter. here are some of my favorites:

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

"It must be great being cat, lying around all day, splayed out on the floor, half in an empty box of yogurt. That would be the life. Today's cat isn't our first cat-diving-into-a-box video, but he adds originality to his genre with his unrelenting desire to wear a yogurt box like a tube top."

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

"Just kidding. Take the title and change every word to the opposite of what it means and it's accurate. This woman embarrassed herself when she turned on her camera, when she stood on the table, when she started singing, when she fell off the table and especially when she uploaded it to the Internet."

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

"Matt dances in 42 countries in 14 months. If Matt was a wanted criminal, this would be an infuriating piece of evidence to any detectives trying to capture him. He's the real-life Carmen Sandiego, only innocent and more adorable."
(^this is probably my favorite thing ever. how much fun would that me, to travel the world and meet all those people and make people happy just by doing a silly little dance?! i love it!)

check back tomorrow for a video so cute it will make your ovaries hurt.

this one is for mom

muppets took over the today show on thursday, and it was quite hilarious. i don't usually watch the today show in the mornings, but i just happened to turn it on while waiting for my ride to work and was so happy i did! the best was the willard scott muppet, and when they did the birthdays, all the pictures of the old people were muppets, too. it just made my day.

this is the only vido i could find of it. miss piggy makes an appearance at 2:50. enjoy!

as of late

life update, because i know you are all dying to know what i'm up to:

• my birthday is exactly one month from today.
• that means only 4 weeks of classes left!
• lindsay and i were twinners at work yesterday. white shirts, colorful scarves, dark jeans. we turned heads.
• there was a 23 point curve on my finance test, HALLELUJAH.
  
• LOST comes back in january and it can't come soon enough!
• bones is moving to thursday nights starting in january :(
• i'm reading machiavelli right now and i feel smart
• i may or may not have already started listening to christmas music...
• job searching is scary/hard.
• today we learned that facebook messages max out at 1,000 msgs/thread. whoops.
• gchat now has video. i have gchat. and a webcam. let's chat.

that's all.

happy thursday tomorrow!

i "love" grammar!

kevin just posted this site on facebook:

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks

and it is quite hilarious, if i do say so myself. the misuse of quotation marks is one of my biggest pet peeves. i see it frequently on the chinese menus at home. "fast" delivery!! they claim. "free" delivery is another great one. well, are you trying to tell me something with those quote marks, eh? is the delivery not really that "fast" or "free?" far too often quotation marks are used for emphasis in allllll the wrong places. being "somewhat" of a "writer," grammar is kind of my "thing." if i learned anything in comms 321, it was good grammar. i may not know how to diagram a sentence perfectly, but i do know what the difference between a preposition and a conjunction is!

my favorites from the site:














some other good reads:
Typo Personalities - 2 guys travel around the U.S. correcting bad grammar and punctuation anywhere they can find it.
National Punctuation Day - Enough said.

and just because i love him, mr. joey tribiani. just watch.

umbrella (ella, ella) update

today was a really gross day in provo. rainy, cold, overcast, foggy, the works. unfortunately, my new umbrella (see this post for further explanation) is not adequate for this kind of weather. it's tiny and barely covers my hair. it usually takes me longer to open it and get it STAY open than the amount of time i actually use it. and it's black, which makes rainy days even worse.

here are some pretty ones i'm lusting after:

(it's new york!!)

luckily, thanks to the upcoming gap friends and family event, these cute things will be arriving at my doorstep to make rainy days just a little bit better!

(cutie pa-tootie!)

jack and the blog-stalk

ok, so i know i have some strangers reading this blog. my stats don't lie.

i have 6 subscriptions to my feed. every day there are at least 6+ new visitors.

i know of about 10 people, max, that are regulars. but who is everyone else?

please, come out of hiding! i want to know who you are! i didn't think my blog was that entertaining, but based on the number of people who come here, i guess i'm wrong!

PLEASE feel free to comment. i would love to hear from you. ask me questions. tell me something to write about. anything. let's be bloggy friends, and i'll add you to my blogroll and everything!

the public relations profession has started utilizing new technologies, like blogging, to further the profession and the work we do. please help me improve my skills. seriously.

someday i hope to make money from this or another blog, and that means i need readers! if you like me, tell me. tell your friends. i'm totally serious. i have this blog for a reason. help me put it to good use.

hope to hear from you soon!
-tara

p.s. now that i've written this, i guess i should practice what i preach and de-lurk on some of the blogs i myself stalk...

the next jackson pollock

i've loved jackson pollock paintings ever since i heard that ashley oslen wrote about one of them for her NYU admissions essay.

just kidding.

but really, i love pollock's work. i saw this one at the met this summer:

and just recently i discovered jacksonpollock.org (thanks, stumbleupon!) where i've been making some creations of my own. here are some from my "love" series, haha.



















i encourage you to visit the site and play around with it. it's so fun. you'll come to a white screen and probably think, "jeez, is this site slow or what!?" but really, it's your canvas. just move your mouse around and see what comes out! left-click to change colors.

have fun! :)

something old, something new...

<-----adding this to my b-day/christmas wishlist


i saw this book at urban outfitters a few months ago and fell in love with it. it has little facsimile mementos from her life, like handwritten notes and pictures and just really cute things, plus a lot of never-before-seen pictures from her life. she's just so classic and classy and i love her.

also, this is just really cute:

you down with OCD?

so i've worked at the bindery for a year and a half now, and i feel that it makes me crazier every day. it encourages my OCD tendencies and makes me question my crazy factor.

you see, ever since i was little, i've had little OCD ticks. for example:
-i always start going down stairs with my right foot. if i don't, i'll go back and start over again. i usually need to end stairs with my right foot, too.
-everything is right first, left second. pants, shoes, makeup, etc.
-my clothes are hung up in my closet by color and style (well, the were)
-when i stack things, it is imperative that it goes from big to little
-if i have an itch on one side of my body, i have to scratch it on the other side, no matter if there is an itch in that place or not (i'm all about balance)
-i hate odd numbers. evens only, please. (it's a good think my birthday is all even numbers)
-etc.

these may seem little, and i know i'm nowhere near Monk's level, but at work these tendencies increase. books must be stacked perfectly. lines must be straight. everything must be in even numbers. i freak out if any of these is off.

i guess it's a good thing that i work where i do, though, because the job depends on things like this. when i stack the books or boxes, they need to be straight to keep the balance. they need to be even so it will be easier for the person doing whatever the next step is to handle the materials.

in a way, it is a blessing and a curse; but it's not the end of the world.

my oscar winning performance in HSM3

jibjab is the best...they made one of my wishes come true :)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

EDIT EDIT EDIT:

we made one for colin, too. it's only appropriate because he was troy bolton for halloween...

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

hangin' with oscar, lincoln and the ancient greeks

what do these two things have in common?

+ = ?

they were both just a few inches from my face!

tonight my FHE group had the cool opportunity to get a special showing of some of the coolest items in special collections at the library. we saw original manuscripts of the D&C written by oliver cowdery, abraham lincoln's handwriting, a 4,000 year old cuneiform tablet, an orginial first edition book of mormon, and an academy award. it was so cool.

other things of note that they have there are an orginial score of gone with the wind music, jimmy stewart's copy of "it's a wonderful life" as well as 2 of his accordions, 4 more oscar awards, and countless other things from church, national, and world history.

i'm still in awe.