That’s three years of writing about happy stuff, sad stuff, personal stuff, funny stuff, downright ridiculous stuff, photography stuff…..all on this lil’ website which people continue to visit for some reason.
And whatever that reason is, I’m happy about it. I’m glad that you’re here. I want to hear more from you and do more stuff on here that you’ll find interesting so you’ll keep coming back.
I write this a lot for me, but I want it to be for others too. I want to share my stories, happy or sad, because it’s therapeutic. And it’s fun.
I have plans for this next year of blogging. And if there’s anything you want to see or see more of or want me to quit writing about altogether, lemme hear it.
And thanks for sticking with me!
Happy birthday, blog!
Also, this. Just because I can. And if you don’t love Stevie Wonder, you don’t love America.
The closest I’ve ever had to a house fire, thankfully, was that time The Roommate burnt popcorn so badly the living room smelled like it for almost a week. And hopefully it’s something I never have to deal with. But one of the questions that provides an answer that tells you a lot about a person is “What would you grab if your house was on fire?”
There’s been a blog – and soon, a book – made out of that question, and it simultaneously serves to feed our nosiness and maybe make people think about what’s the most important stuff they have in their possession.
It’s called “The Burning House” and people send in submissions – photos – of neatly arranged items that they’d grab if they had to make a quick exit from their home, something that hopefully they’d never really have to experience.
There are a lot of electronics, photos and pets, of course. And while I’m not sure yet if I’ll submit it to the site, here’s my pile.
I gave myself only about a minute to think about it. In case you can’t see everything- it includes the following:
• Sixteen Candles DVD
• Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison record from my grandpa
• Laptop
• Camera
• Peanut, my stuffed elephant that I’ve had forever and has been with me on just about every trip I’ve ever been on…
• Pictures of me and my grandpa when I was little, he’s playing his harmonica in all of them
• Boston and Louisville hats
• The Wire Complete Series
• My four favorite books: “Water for Elephants,” “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “The Help.”
• Little decorated box Alistair made me in England with British pounds in it
• Door sign thing that says “Shhh Laura is sleeping” that’s been on the door in my room (except for my rooms in college) since before I can remember.
In honor of another year of blogging with double the amount of posts, comments and followers from the year before (really? What??!?) I have rounded up my personal favorites from what I’ve shared with you on this site. Some are one-hit wonders and others are part of a series. Because it’s too awesome not to, I’ve included all things Bourbon Boys, also known as that time when I drove my dad, uncles, and other awesome guys in my life on a tour of all the bourbon distilleries in the state (except one).
This might be the most boring post I ever write. Except for maybe the first one I ever wrote on here three years ago. But please don’t stop reading yet.
Posting will be light nonexistent until our regularly scheduled Friday fun, because, well, I’ve got shit to do. And these naps don’t take themselves.
I’ll so make up for it though, because in case you were unaware, a certain blog I know of is celebrating three years of existence next week… and for you, my friends, that means content galore!
Just a tease of what you’ll have to look forward to March 25-31:
- Live-blog of Hoarders returns
- I tell you what I was like at age 3 (with photos! possibly)
- The latest installment of texts that sound like my friends
- Smiley things round 2
- I tell you about that time I didn’t eat for 30 hours
- Live-blog/stream-of-consciousness as I watch Scarface in its entirety (no, I’ve never seen it all the way through before, I’ll pause while you react like I did when I found out several people in my life had not seen Shawshank until recently).
And loads more awesome stuff! So much so that I need to take this week off to prepare. I’ve gotta have time for the magic to work, people…
One time when I was driving, I saw a shoe. In the middle of the road. It was weird.
No idea how it got there. Was it thrown out? Did it fall off some redneck who was hanging their foot out the window while driving? (I say redneck, but I’d totally do it if it was more comfortable) Did someone get hit by a car? Is it a sign for something?
Regardless of what it was for or from, it was weird.
It’s not the only time I saw something weird in the road and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
There was another time I saw this dinosaur on the sidewalk.
Why does any of this matter? Because someone has made a blog out of sightings just like these.
It’s called “Sad Stuff On The Street” and it’s great. People submit photos of stuff on the street that seems as ridiculously out of place as that shoe was. And the commentary on it is even better. My favorite is the “Depressed Teddy Bear Series,” because apparently a lot of people leave teddy bears randomly on the street.
I like lists. And organization. And generally orderly things. It makes for a clean room but damn if it isn’t annoying when I have to get up out of bed to push my desk chair in because it’s bothering me for no other reason than it’s askew.
Yeah, I’m that weirdo. Guys are just lining up.
I would link to every list I put on this blog but that would just be ridiculous. If you want to see them that badly, they have their own category.
YUP.
But this isn’t about lists. It’s about charts. And the thought a couple of guys had to devote a blog to various types of them. Some are bar, some are pie, some are venn diagrams… it’s fascinating.
One of my personal favorites is a pie chart that shows what happens when you try to move a photo in Microsoft Word.
It’s fittingly called “I Love Charts” which is similar to what this blog might be named if The Roommate hadn’t come up with “On Account Of.” True story.
Most of my experiences with buses or trains or subways or monorails or boats or whatever, have all been while I’m out of town on vacation.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve fallen asleep on all of the aforementioned modes of transportation, especially that one time when Ash and I went to London and had such bad jet lag we slept for 13 hours.
Speaking of, I took a picture of Ashley asleep on the subway while we were there. Because it’s funny to take pictures of people while they sleep. Because usually they look crazy/weird. And by they, I mean me.
And the people at poopt.tumblr.com.. Because apparently, someone got the idea to start a blog where it’s all just submitted photos of people asleep on public transportation. (Be real, you thought for a second because of the url it was gonna be about poop, didn’t you. Sorry to disappoint.)
I wish I’d thought of that.
And also may have found a new goal – get my picture on that website. But it has to be taken by someone I don’t know. Which means my friends can’t submit a picture of me sleeping on a bus and send it in. Also, I guess that means I need to start taking the bus.
If you’d have told me this day two years ago that I’d have a blog I’d keep up with – and that people would actually read – two years later, I’d have laughed at you.
I’ve started blogs before. One was in college and was lame and I didn’t write much and if I did it wasn’t anything fun to read.
I started one at my last job in an attempt to up the web interaction at the newspaper but that quickly fizzled when it was realized that with everything that needed to be done for the job already, adding a blog wouldn’t be the most productive idea.
Then, one night in 2009, I got bored. I wanted to fill the void of creative and feature-y writing I wasn’t able to do, the writing that was in my voice, not just the newspaper voice.
227 posts, 128 comments and more than 5,200 page views later, here we are. I can’t believe I’ve kept it up, but mostly, I can’t believe people read it and like it as much as they tell me they do. In the past year, more and more of my family and friends, including some I never expected to, have said “hey I like your blog” or tell me they read something and thought it was funny.
I’ve gotten comments saying my writing is “hilarious” and makes people “literally laugh out loud.” One of my cousins even got funny looks for laughing out loud in public while reading an entry, and just recently my mom cried from laughing too hard at a post.
It makes a girl feel good to hear those things and have that support. I love that several of my friends have blogs I’m now addicted to. I love that one of my friends – and possibly this blog’s number one fan – thinks this thing could be a book someday. I love that I can share my photos, my stories, my accomplishments and some of the ridiculously stupid things I do, hear, say, see or think with you. I try to keep it light and funny the most of the time, but when this thing takes a more serious turn – like when I write about missing my grandpa who passed away in 2008 or a vague post about how I’m so stressed I can’t see straight and therefore can’t blog about anything worthwhile – the support is still there.
I wouldn’t still be doing this if it wasn’t for you all and my hope is to continue sharing the good the bad and the mildly disgusting or awkward with you for as long as I can.
Thanks for reading, and happy birthday, little blog!
I’ve been saving this up for a while, so I would have a special present to give you all to read during lil’ blog’s birthday week. You can thank me later.
We’re at number 5. Or the FIF. See, Chappelle knows what I’m talkin’ about.
For the fifth time – ’cause here’s one, two, three and four – I’ve compiled all the texts from TFLN that sound like my friends. And there are some great ones.
Get ready to live.
Sounds like….CKR
(206) A homeless man downtown was blasting lil wayne and singing at the top of his lungs. Kind of wanted to give him my life savings.
(410) I woke up this morning with a bag of pepperonis in my bed…and my facebook status was “pepperonis.”
(504) I’m buying a chandelier at walmart. WHO’S CLASSY NOW, BITCHES.
(605) For future reference, when you see people who look like Rosie O’Donnell, don’t tell them they look like Rosie O’Donnell.
(732) I just woke up to seventeen texts from you saying all the things you would have done for a french fry.
(919) Apparently I signed “I love you” on my bar tab last night.
(516) There are going to be so many Snookis this Halloween I might just dress as the guy that hit her and punch them all in the face.
(609) He looks like Spence from the game Dreamphone.
(609) I’M SAVING ALL MY LOVE FOR YOU
(1-609) I don’t want it.
(972) **i WaNt TO sLaP mY niECe wHO ThINks iT iS cUtee tO WriTE LiKE tHiS**
(724) This chick stood right next to me in the elevator. Like she had the whole elevator and she stood right next to me. So I farted.
(859) I didn’t know it was possible to throw up mid-sneeze.
(613) Kenny Powers is just a normal guy with exceptional hair
(330) It’s just like the Real World with babies.
(512) I want the rest of his teeth to fall out while he slowly dies alone. Pretty sure I’m to the anger phase.
(303) I remember your 21st ending with me driving you home while you insisted making bicycle signals out the car window
(224) I won’t be hard to find. I’m wearing a Darth Vader mask and I have a megaphone.
(269) today as a vday present for myself i am walking in between any couples I see on campus.
(214) I bet they all look and smell like Amy Winehouse.
(989) I can’t believe Lindsay Lohan feels like this every day
(804) so I just shotgunned a water balloon.
(260) you called me and cried until I agreed to record a rap about our lives with you.
(416) you said you were a responsible adult. then you licked the wall.
(609) you kept searching pizza on Facebook and becoming a fan of each page dedicated to it.
(917) i just saw how many times I called you last night. you’re welcome.
(919) we took up a collection and paid her $50 to eat a piece of meat. Vegetarian morals trumped once again by cash.
(510) and then you told your sister how horrible of a friend I was because I couldn’t get you cheese fries.
(407) he had on Juicy sweatpants and that’s when I knew he was no longer a threat.
(904):I’ve been awake for 20+ hrs. What does that mean? I just realized if BSB were Twilight characters, Brian would be Jake and Howie would be Edward based on the video for “Everybody”. That’s unsettling.
(1-904):It’s unsettling that you took the time to think about that.
(917): And my awkwardness continues. I felt the need to send him a text that said roar. I did it.
Sounds like…Rachel
(708) For using a life jacket as a pillow, I slept pretty good last night…
(413) you know it’s time to start studying when you’ve procrastinated to the point where you’re reading your roommate’s ex-boyfriend’s wall posts from 2006.
(571) found POGS while i was cleaning my room this morning. definitely bringing them back to school to turn into a drinking game.
(607) i just found a half-inch of mimosa in my shoe.
(1-864) you should get more absorbent shoes.
(250) tequila makes me forget i have legs.
(215) i think tequila should come with a little jiminy cricket.
(973) you know that saying beer than liquor makes you sicker, it should be beer then pickles makes you throw up a lot, everywhere.
(614) there is a man walking two goats through the city.
(614) bonus: only one of them was on a leash.
(908) my sombrero is too big for the bathroom.
(813) Haha Tomato, tomato. That doesn’t work very well via text message.
(860) do you ever Facebook stalk someone so much you think their inside jokes are yours?
(312): The maid of honor just puked.
Sounds like…Caitlin
(973) I climb out of my sunroof. I mean, it’s kind of embarrassing but part of me feels awesome and ninja-like.
(641) TOMORROW NIGHT CAN I HOLD YOU LIKE A BABY
(262) there are GROWN MEN with fake HP wands flinging curses at me in Walmart.
(1-262) That’s funny. Are they weird-looking?
(262) OF COURSE THEY ARE WEIRD LOOKING. THEY ARE STALKING ME IN WALMART. WITH. FAKE. WANDS.
(508) this kid down the hall keeps banging on his drums…i feel like i’m living in jumanji
(908) there’s a girl in the library on myspace. she must have missed the memo.
Sounds like…Jennifer
(817) matt is drinking blue powerade and it looks like he has hypothermia. i can’t take this kid anywhere.
(561) George Bush was a better president for first pitches than Barack Obama. There. I said it.
(520) The world would be so much better with thought bubbles.
(845) She looks like she scalped a horse for her weave.
(856) I was looking up hair salons in ithaca for the wedding and one is a hair salon/sake bar. you can have sake or champagne while you get your hair done.
(917) question, how would one sake bomb while getting hair done without getting a horrible haircut?
(906) i seriously wish i was FB friends with her
(630) would the plural word for douche be deese? “Look at these deese bags”?
(502) green mimosas, i think yes.
Sounds like….Anthony
(618) was it you or me who tried to make the, what appears to be, nacho cake in the oven?
(804) we need to drink more beer. the fridge won’t close.
(812) gpnpr hd vmdd nm the ggrl whm was mn my lar
(219) i need you to use more vowels.
(410) she should get an extra 30 days for that Georgia Rule movie…terrible.
(909): My glasses smell like tequila. I just put them on and almost threw up.
(980) I’m making dinner, so you might want to actually come home tonight.
(704) oh, you finally did the dishes then?
(980) No, bought new ones.
(225) you don’t know how to answer ppls texts anymore?
(504) i’m sorry, i don’t get text messages.
(714) there is a strobe light in my taxi. in what way is this safe.
(573) I asked you how much you drank and you replied with “I don’t know what kind of toothpaste I use.
(646) your horoscope this morning…very interesting…good luck today.
(636) tequila makes her clothes fall off.
(512) wow mom, sounds like you’re having a good time.
(575) I permit you to call me.
(603): i’m sober ask me anything about the civil war
(315): There was a suspicious looking plate that suggests I may have eaten salad with gravy
(248): if you dont talk to me in person you cant text me
Sounds like….Liz…or Ash…
(717): reaaaally cool. my cat ate my birth control.
To kick off blog birthday week, my suggestions this week are a bit on the self-promotion side.
OK, they’re all the way on the self-promotion side. I can’t lie to you guys.
This week my blog turns two. Hopefully, unlike I’ve heard it is with kids, this two-year-old won’t have anything remotely close to terrible. But that’s really for you all to decide I guess.
Anyway. As I did last year around this time, I’ve compiled a list (and y’all know how I love me some lists) of ten of my favorite blog posts I’ve written this year. Last year I put them in order, but this year, for the sake of a little bit of chaos, they’ll be in no particular order.
If you’ve read ‘em already, thanks. If you haven’t, well, now you’ve got something to do while you’re procrastinating on whatever else you should be doing right now.
