Shark Week Copycat

My friend Ashton already posted about our shark adventures together in Hawaii but I'm going to do it again, because I'm loving Shark Week and feel really proud to be able to say I did that when I watch people going down in shark cages on the Discovery Channel.

Did you see the one where a Great White swam into a cage through an opening and the people had to hide at the bottom for a while before mustering up the courage to escape out past him? Boy am I ever glad that didn't happen to us Ashton, although I think we both probably would have been pretty excited and thought it was pretty cool (our brains were a little too fried from the sun those few months).

Every time I'm in the ocean I try to swim out as far as I can hoping to see a shark, I wouldn't mind that much if I could tell people that the huge scar running down my arm was from a shark bite. My brother always gets angry with me for not following the buddy system and going against the "rules of the sea". He's old and boring ;). Living in Hawaii made me conquer my fears of pretty much everything I can think of. Heights, sharks, being kidnapped... I wouldn't mind spending a couple more months on the North Shore again one day.

Extreme Makeover: Gmail Edition

I got sick of never being able to find anything in gmail due to the large number of emails (exaggeration) I've received over the years. I've been spending a few minutes here or there each day organizing my emails into their appropriate folders (this blog post is fascinating I know). Here's a buried treasure I rediscovered in the process...

http://mashable.com/2010/02/12/fresh-prince-of-bel-air-trick/



I've only got 1,500 emails left to organize. Remember that time I was going to go to Law School? Gmail does. Remember that time I was unemployed and tried to get a job at the Food Network as a food critic? Gmail does. Remember the time I learned Herb Brook's speech from Miracle to give to my lacrosse team? No? You don't remember those time? Gmail does.

Garden Parties and whatnot

Favorite thing about living in Palo Alto? People have great gardens. Rose bushes out the ying yang, tons of hydrangeas, twinkle lights, etc. it's a magical little time.

Jess in Real Life

Apparently certain members of my family (mom) get confused about why I have a blog and yet never post about my own life. Well, mostly I'm bad at remembering to take pictures and don't have babies to make people drool over, so I stick to random thoughts I have. But today I'll humor you with a photo montage.











I went to Lake Tahoe for 4th of July weekend with some Palo Alto friends. I got there Friday night and didn't get home until late Tuesday night and had a ball. We boated, swam, hiked, cliff dove, white water rafted, played sports, played endless card games, watched fireworks, went to a Giant's game in SF, ate tons of food, and had a great time. I wish it had gone on forever.

School House Rock

I hate it when people mess up their and there, your and you're, its and it's. We learned these in like 4th grade people, it's not that hard! Guess who has realized they are totally guilty of doing this lately? Me! So next time I make these mistakes, please call me out on it so I can a) fix this problem b) not hate others who do so as much, and realize that they, like I, are just human.



(Not totally the same concept, but it's grammatical, and entertaining)

The More I Know, The Less I Understand

I majored in Political Science in college, and whenever I tell people this they are interested to hear what my positions are on today's issues. They (and I) are always surprised at how little of an opinion I have on most of these topics. It's not so much that I don't have ideas or thoughts, but I think I see so much of what's going on as being entirely gray, while both sides are trying to make it seem like it's black or white.



I like to read Greg Mankiw's blog, he's an economics professor at Harvard, and he recently wrote an article about health care in the NYT that I thought was interesting and spells out some of the same thoughts that I have. I think both sides are more on each other's side than they realize or are willing to admit.

Radiohead said it best...

I went to Utah this weekend for one niece's birthday party and the others' blessing. While there, I learned something about myself... I'm a creep. I spent practically all weekend trying to get my 1 nephew and 3 nieces to cuddle with me.

Case Study #1: Andrew was showing me a video on his dad's phone and I kept scooping him up on my lap only to have him say "no Jess!" and crawl right back off again and again. Here we've captured that moment on film.

Case Study #2: I convinced Madeline and her other cousins/friends to play hide and go seek. Every time I was hiding I would convince Maddie to hide with me. At one point I started tickling her and in her tiny little 2 year old voice in the dark I heard her say "quiet Jess!"

Case Study #3: I barely participated in any of the Little Gym activities because I was stalking a sleeping baby Olivia waiting for her to wake up. Here we are once I managed to convince everyone she was awake and ready for me to hold her.

Case Study #4: That's it. Baby Caitlin is a gem and willingly let's me cuddle her all I want (despite my creep face in this picture).