it's almost spring.

yay hooray!

spring = closer to summer, which makes lauren one happy camper.

happy weekend!

day fifteen...FAVORITE QUOTE.

"YOU WERE GIVEN LIFE; IT IS YOUR DUTY TO FIND SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IN LIFE, NO MATTER HOW SLIGHT."

-e. gilbert

day fourteen.

name 4 things you're looking forward to for the rest of the year.


1. festival of colors
the festival is held at the hare krishna temple in spanish fork every march...and it's my favorite day of the whole year!!! it's a celebration of spring with live music, food, singing, and the best part..throwing colored chalk at each other!

i've gone the past two years in a row and LOVED it.

2. adventures in logan
i still love going back up to cache county to pay a visit to my friends up there. the past year has been really hard for me and some people up there are amazing and helped me every step of the way!! we've had so many adventures and i know 2011 will have a lot more. i'm most excited to kick it with this kid:

he's probably 10000 times cooler than you, and easily my best friend.

3. NEW MUSIC!

i am seriously so excited for all the new albums coming out later this year. some of my favorites include radiohead (which came out last week and i am in love), devotchka's new album coming out next week, and others later in the year: eisley, lupe fiasco, the dodo's, noah and the whale, fleet foxes, the black lips, the shins, and my favorite...death cab for cutie! it's going to be an epic year for music.

4. summer adventures

no need to explain... summer is just around the corner and i literally am CRAVING it. i love hiking, camping, rock climbing, sitting outside with friends, campfires...everything about summer completes me!

5. 

blast from the past.

i've actually been meaning to post these for awhile, but always manage to talk myself out of it because it turns out they're totally embarrassing. the fact that i used to be a cheerleader is sometimes too awful for me to admit. haha! however it was so much fun and some days i find myself kind of missing it.

me and one of my close friends mindy

cheering at a football game

at a dance.

oh high school...hahahhaha.

13.

post a picture from when you were young.

my brother, dad, and i probably around like 1990. [my dad rocked the pink shirt and huge glasses...so awesome.]

day twellllve.

list 5 things you'd take with you on a deserted island.

1. my cat

for obvious reasons...she would keep me sane.

2. sunscreen

i have hardcore redhead skin. i'd burn to a crisp otherwise.

3. a compass

i don't know how to use one, but at least i'd feel prepared, right?

4. some sort of knife

to cut open fruit, perhaps kill animals for food if i had to.

5. a flare

so i could get help to come rescue me!!

11.

name a bad habit you wish you didn't have.
one of my worst habits is giving people the benefit of the doubt. i like to try to "fix" people... nine times out of ten it ends with me getting hurt and them worse off than they were before!




in other news, it's president's day weekend and i'm incredibly excited to go on a staycation! my long weekend has already been fabulous because i spent last night teaching some friends how to play my favorite board game, settler's of catan.

it's possibly one of the most addicting games ever.

day TEN!

so i'm almost finished with my 15 days of blogging assignment. this has been a lot of fun but i must admit i'm excited to go back to blogging about whatever i feel like blogging about. haha. today's theme is talk about your favorite book.
i have so many favorite books that it's hard to narrow it down to just one. however, one book that sticks out to me quite a bit is:

i read this book in high school and it has always stuck out to me. i reread it this past summer and found that, once again, it blew my mind and i could hardly put it down. it got made into a movie a few years ago that is also really good. i love this book because it is heartfelt, and brutally honest. it is written about a girl who's life is anything but easy. it really put my life into perspective. once the semester is over i will probably buy the book and read it once again.

"Always learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay."

another day.

put your itunes on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that play. then share a memory about each of those songs.

1. NARC - Interpol
This band reminds me of late afternoons, driving down from beaver mountain with an old friend of mine. We had our coffee in our hands to keep us warm, with the beautiful Logan Canyon for company. Snow was everywhere, freezing on trees and clinging to road signs. we blasted this entire album every time for the drive home and it was perfect music after a day on the mountain.


2. Miss Delaney - Jacks Mannequin
Ah, this takes me back to the days of high school, and driving around to find somewhere to eat for lunch. It was usually nate driving his little blue truck, with adam, kole and i sitting in the bed of the truck in the spring, singing miss delaney at the top of our lungs.



3. You Know I'm No Good - Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse will forever remind me of the summer after my sophomore year of college at Utah State. I was living in Logan with close friends and spent my summer days hiking, going on walks with my dog kiara, playing frisbee golf and baatchi, settlers of catan and using Skype to call brazil.


4. Bangers and Mash - Radiohead
This song just happens to be one of my favorite songs in my entire iTunes library. It reminds me of longboarding the streets of Salt Lake City in flip flops and shorts, sunglasses and tank tops.


5. Infra-Red - Placebo
About a year ago, an "ex crush" of sorts showed me this song at 4 30 in the morning as we sat on my porch. I remember thinking, "wow, this song is incredible." A year later, despite all the crap that kid put me through (he is so not cool...haha), I still love this song.


6. Drive - Incubus
Incubus is my all time favorite band, and this song reminds me of elementary school, when I heard it and was instantly amazed. It's been years since my first intro to this epic band. They remind me of high school sluffing class, driving around with the volume full blast by myself. Incubus is probably the most influential band in my life, so it's safe to say this song means a lot to me.


7. Big Sur - Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar
This song reminds me of star gazing at Frog Rock, a giant rock formation in North Ogden. This song makes me smile because it reminds me of better times, before life got kind of difficult. I was 20 years young, with no idea what was ahead of me.


8. Quiet Houses - Fleet Foxes
I only heard of Fleet Foxes this summer, and was completely changed by their perfect harmonies and clean sound. The first time I heard this track I was driving home from camping with a bunch of my friends. One of them, Soren, said something to the effect of, "This is a great post-camping song. It's so relaxing and amazing." I couldn't help but agree with him and to this day I smile when I remember that drive and those friends I hung out with my last year up in Logan.


9.  Put You On Game - Lupe Fiasco
I actually had no idea I had this song, so I was way excited when it came on random!! This is my all time favorite Lupe song. He is one of few rappers I enjoy because he's actually decent at what he does. Not to mention this song is just gangster.. It reminds me of an old friend of mine. Him and I would listen to it as we cooked dinners at my house or did homework in my living room. He used to rap every word to it and I would pretend to beat box in the background. It's actually a song that feels very bittersweet in retrospect.


10. Soco Amaretto Lime - Brand New
This is the one song I would use to remember high school by. Brand New was one of my favorite bands. I saw them live when I was 16 and I've always loved their music. This song gives me serious deja vu of sitting in my hot tub with my best guyfriends, talking about how we were going to do what the song said and "stay eighteen forever". Next thing I know I'm 22 and life has had its ups and downs. But this song always brings me back to my roots, reminding me of the person I was before I moved out.

day eight.

talk about one of your favorite hobbies.
i used to do a lot of photography in my spare time. it makes me sad because i hardly ever do it now...life gets so busy. but one of my favorite things to do is to take a break from the stress of every day life, and take pictures of pretty things around me. my favorite kind of camera is a Polaroid. i also really really want a holga. (early christmas present, anyone? please?) here are some i've taken over the years.

aaron in logan.

laketown.

fall in heber city

why i love logan

sunflower.

hike around yellowstone lake.

i love taking pictures becuase they all tell a story, whether to who sees the picture or to me as i take the picture. like the yellowstone lake picture (right above). i took that photo, thought "wow, yellowstone is beautiful." then literally 15 seconds later my friend and i walked around the boardwalk and saw a grizzly bear maybe 15 feet in front of us. she was eating with another bear who was about 40 feet away...it was the most terrifying thing!! we backed away slowly..rounded the corner..and ran for our lives!!

now every time i look at this picture i feel a sudden rush of adrenaline.

that is what i love about pictures.

day seven.

list nicknames that you have, and why.

this is a fun one...mostly because i have SO many nicknames. i'm not sure why either. but i love all the nicknames my friends and family have given me over the years!

1. laur for obvious reasons.... it's the shortened version of my name.. (duh).

2. laurels or laurels barkley. my friend mike patton started calling me laurels barkley (a clever take on the musician gnarls barkley, who i love) and eventually it just got shortened to laurels. and now a lot more people call me that. haha i love it.

3. LG my initials have somehow caught on to be a nickname of sorts. my friend scott fletcher has called me this for years and years, and recently it caught on to my other kaysville friends, who have lovingly dubbed me "the LG".

4. scuzz this might be my favorite nickname i've ever had. when i was in 4th grade my cousin gardner gave me that nickname after a character in a comic book. it stuck like glue. his whole family started calling me scuzz, as well as all of my other elementary school friends. to this day, 15 years later, i still see some of gardner's family or old friends sometimes, where they all say, "hi scuzz! how are you?"

5 larky my friend jordan actually started calling me that, and then my best friends adam and brenton have been calling me it ever since. it started a couple years ago while i lived with them in salt lake. now every time i get a text from anyone in that group of friends, i'm always referred to as "larky". adam also likes to call me "pookey" on occasion, though i have no idea where that came from.

so there you have it. i tend to respond to lauren, laurels, LG, scuzz or larky..but also have responded to past nicknames such as loo, ra ra, or elb (my brother came up with that one. short for L-Babe i suppose).

day six.

complete the sentence "i am..."

strong
carefree
scatterbrained
optimistic
hopeful
disappointed
free
stressed
happy.

uno dos tres quatro cinco.

something that makes you feel better.

that is easy...it's my cat!! this is my cat, nesta, who has many nicknames including "nesta pesta" "nesta prime" (we pretend she's a transformer), "stinky brat" (very appropriate), or "kitten little". she is almost 2 and is the naughtiest cat around. she loves to drink out of the toilet, pick on the dogs, harass older cats (ally's cat sofie was super entertaining to watch, as is my parent's cat cleopatra..), climb trees outside, and sleep on important things/dark clothing.
however, despite her naughtiness she is the best thing in my world. every day i come home to her whiny meow, but i can't help but love it. she loves to hang out with me and cuddle with me. i'm fairly certain she has a sixth sense and can tell when i am sad. those days she tries extra hard to be cute...it almost always works.

she is kind of like a dog stuck in a cat's body...which makes me love her even more. not to mention, last but not least, she is named after one of my idols robert nesta marley, and she more than lives up to her namesake!

i love my cat. she makes me happy.
:]

day four.

it's day 4 of my "15 days of blogging" assignment, and this is one question i've been looking forward to answering. what are you guilty pleasures; tv show, food or music?

 

for tv mine is the same as about a million other americans: LOST. and yes, it does live up to its name and have you completely lost after only an episode or two. however it was completely addicting!! after school my senior year my friend kole and i would come straight to my house and lock ourselves in the basement for six hours of LOST. we did this until we caught up to season three, and for about 4 years after that it was a party every wednesday for the show, and anxiety at waiting for their constant "hiatuses" or "breaks" midway through seasons (that was so frustrating!) a couple of my friends have started rewatching it from the first season...something i think i'm definitely going to do!

as for music, that is an easy one. phil collins is possibly one of the sexiest bald men alive, not to mention his songs are incredible!! i absolutely love in the air tonight (of course..have you heard that drum breakdown?! fantastic!), i don't care anymore, and of course, against all odds, the most epic of all breakup songs.

he is a serious guilty pleasure of mine...don't tell anyone!

hilarious.

stumbled upon this picture today while cleaning my basement.... me and my little 6th grade gang. i found it absolutely hilarious so i had to share. esp for all the people who are in it... so funny!

three.

post about your favorite place in the world - a place you have visited often or have gone to more than once.

this was a no brainer for me. angel's landing in zion's national park is hands down the most beautiful place i have ever been. it is an incredibly strenuous hike (often with only a few feet of trail with thousands of feet of dropoffs on either side of you) and an absolute blast. i've only been three times; once with my family, once on spring break with some friends and an ex boyfriend, and once with one of my best friends ryan (pictured above).
every time it has pretty much changed my life!

day two...celebrity crushes.

it is impossible for me to pick just one celebrity crush....there are far too many good looking people to narrow it down. but here are some personal favorites of mine:

 

adam brody
he is just plain sexy. it's ridiculous.

 ashton kutcher

my total nerd crush.

 david duchovny

one word: x-files.

 

george clooney

because he's every girl's old man crush.

15 days of blogging.

 for one of my classes we have to do an assignment called "15 days of blogging." this consists of 15 days of steady blogging about a certain topic. this assignment has already taught me 2 things: 1. i hate being told what to blog about. (haha). 2. i'm not all that interesting of a person! haha.
but regardless, i'm excited for these next few posts, along with a few posts of my own, without being told what to blog about. :] enjoy!


day one: your name and 5 things people don't really know about you
my name is lauren and i'm pretty much an open book. however here are some things not everyone knows about me:
1. i am a closet history nerd. i love the history channel, studying politics of the past and even writing papers about such. i find it incredibly interesting and fun!
2. i am ridiculously accident prone. i have broken my finger running into a wall, cracked my elbow longboarding, broken my nose three times, and fallen down stairs/curbs at least once a week. i spill on myself and stub my toe daily. (my little sisters love to make fun of me). my most recent epic fail was in logan for a hannukah party, when i slipped on black ice and ate it. hard.
3. i'm fairly certain i was born in the wrong generation. i should have been a teenager in the 60's or 70's.
4. i have a bucket list of things i'd like to do before i die, including road trip to mexico, meet brandon boyd, volunteer in a third world country, and open my own bookstore/coffeeshop. a couple things i've already achieved off my list: go sky diving, meet damien rice and learn to play guitar.
5. i don't plan on ever getting married. weirdly enough i've never quite seen the appeal to it. 








tomorrow i get to post my celebrity crush...yay. happy wednesday!

the best.

i'm pretty sure being an aunt is one of the greatest things ever. my niece and nephew are the greatest..and make me so happy!! the other day they were over for the superbowl, and my little nephew matthew was SO cute. he gave me a hug goodbye and said "i am always sad when i come over and you're not here." it was so adorable!! he is such a sweet kid.

and my niece is grace is just as amazing!! she loves giving kisses, playing  peek a boo, and as of sunday, being covered in stuffed animals.

they are pretty much the coolest kids around.

weekend in pictures.

it was a lovely quiet weekend for me, consisting of double dates, homemade fajitas, despicable me, live music, working, superbowl fun with the family, how to train your dragon, and sunday mornings reading the paper. here's a couple shots i managed to take along the way.

watching my friends band the descriptive play an acoustic set in ogden.

sundays with my favorite shift, laura. [who is also who i went on the double date with on friday.]

learned to play texas holdem...and might be kind of addicted to it already.

football shaped rolls for our superbowl party.
[go packers!]

nerdin' out with my favorite nephew.

life is wonderful.

quote of the week.

we can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. it's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.

yay!!

today a good friend of mine turns twenty two!! miss emily beth was one of my best friends in logan, and probably the only girl who really matters to me at all [no offense anyone]. i love her to death and have been so glad to see how happy she has been in the past year!

happy birthday emily!! i hope it's a wonderful day, cuz you totally deserve it! i swear just yesterday you turned twenty one, we were having many adventures at the perengarvis household..ah bittersweet memories!

i love you.

lovely music for your week.

despite how busy i've been these past couple weeks, i've still managed to find some time to discover some new favorite music groups. here's some i think you ought to give a listen!

 

good old war

my good friend aaron showed me this band a few days ago, and i am a huge fan. my favorite song i've heard is tell me.  it's an amazing song and really goes with the acoustic mood i've been in lately!

 

he is we

i have never gotten obsessed with a band so fast. he is we is a lovely band from tacoma, washington (why are all the great bands from the northwest!? must be the rain). the main singer, rachel taylor, has a voice comparable to lydia's mindy white (who we all know i'm obsessed with, so that's saying something!). be sure to listen to my favorite song, forever and ever.

  

deas vail

another great band that i was introduced to recently, these guys are from arkansas and have many lovely tunes. they get compared to death cab for cutie quite often and i can definitely see it. my favorite song i've heard so far is excuses.

all of these lovely bands have made my busy busy weeks far better by keeping me company on my long drives to school and work.

check em out. 

fink

i don't much about this guy, except that he's awesome. i heard this song at my work the other day and just had to go home and buy it! it's sooo good and i love everything else i've heard by him as well.