My Top 5s (or so) of 2011

My favorite part of December (besides Christmas cookies, Christmas songs, Christmas lights, Christmas presents...) is reading thousands of "Top 10 Blah Blahs of the Year" lists. I'll scour the internet for the best movies, CDs, books, songs, celebrity break-ups...you name it, I'm reading it.

(In 2005, my college was featured in a "Worst of" list because someone created a Hot Girls ranking system and a bunch of ugly girls complained about it, so we made the national news. I digress.)

Because my opinion is so highly valued, I have created my own Top 5(ish) lists.

Top 7 TV Shows I Found on Netflix Instant
7. Survivors
6. Lie to Me
5. Parks and Recreation
4. Mad Men
3. The Tudors
2. Friday Night Lights
1. Battlestar Galactica

Let me tell you, it was really hard to pick a #1. I really struggled, because I never thought anything could be as good as Battlestar Galactica, but Friday Night Lights surprised me. I'm only in the middle of Season 1, and it's a good thing, or it could have overtaken my beloved BSG. Frak. 


Top 3 Reasons I Love Spotify
3. Music I would never buy, but will listen to for $10 a month (The Muppets soundtrack, Justin's Bieber's Christmas album (he is single-handedly ruining Christmas), and Kanye West)
2. Cheesy Christmas music I don't have to buy (but I DID buy Michael Buble's Christmas album...and you should too)
1. Every Glee song ever

Top 5 Books (but not for the Kindle, the jury's still out if I like that thing)
5. Sisterhood Everlasting - Ann Brashares/The Help - Kathryn Stockett
4. One Day - David Nicholls (Trust me on this.)
3. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
2. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
1. THE HUNGER GAMES (All three of them) - Suzanne Collins

My top anything from 2012 will be The Hunger Games movie.

Top 6 Visits to the Hospital in October and November
6 - 4. All the times I got an IV filled with toradol, my favorite thing in the world.
3. The time when they couldn't put the IV in...and then they infiltrated my vein...and then I had a bruise for a month.
2. The time I kept telling my dad I couldn't breathe and he kept shouting, "YES YOU CAN! If you're talking, you're breathing!!" and getting angry that I wouldn't get up and walk to the car while my kidneys tried to squeeze themselves into my ureters. I'm pretty sure that's what was causing all the pain.
1. The time I went in the aid car at 3am and my dad rode up front so he could talk about firefighter things with the firefighters. No no, I'm fine here in the back by myself.

Top 5 Celtic Thunder Moments
5. The moment I learned they were coming back to celebrate my birthday with me for the second year in a row.
4. Emmett's arms.
3. Storm, the delightfully tacky Celtic Thunder MUSICAL.
2. Their Greatest Hits CD. Which has 102 songs because ALL of their songs are great.
1. The second annual Catlyn's Birthday Concert. Props to Laura, my only friend who shares my love for the lads.


Top 3 Celebrity Crushes
3. Josh Groban
2. Zac Efron
1. Zach Gilford

I can't believe Zefron was overtaken, but seriously people. It's as if they took my dream man and turned him into a TV character named Matt Saracen. 


There you have it folks. Happy 2011. I'm going to go watch Friday Night Lights.

(Mis)Adventures in Babysitting

Remember last summer, when I told the wonderful story about babysitting two little monsters children that locked themselves in their bedroom and I had to take the doorknob off? I'm here with them again this week. Right now we are finishing up High School Musical 3...we've already watched HSM1 and half of HSM2 (because, let's face it, that one was terrible). 

I love children. My career revolves around children. I am passionate about children. I cannot wait to have children (or child, still up for debate). But there are so many things that I really dislike about children.

1. Getting up early in the summer with children. Early for me is 8:30am in the summertime. I set my alarm for 8am, hit snooze three times, and then climb out of bed and sit on the couch for an hour. Then I'm awake. These children come INTO my bedroom at 3am, get in bed with me, make weird sleeping noises, and then are awake for the day at 6am. Not fun.

2. Preparing food for children. I eat most things out of a box or a can. Occasionally I will open a bag of pasta and a jar of sauce. I buy most of my groceries in the frozen aisle of Trader Joe's. When I want actual food, I go to my parents' house. These children want actual food all the time. It's not even difficult food, but I haaaate cooking. We've had pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, tacos, and lots of mac and cheese. I'm sick of washing dishes. I'm sick of picking up plates. I'm sick of the fact that neither of them like the same foods. My kids are eating fast food...or my husband better be a gourmet chef. There will be NO romantically cooked dinners when we're dating.

3. Bathing children. I should not have to get into the bathtub with you and pour buckets of water over your body because you refuse to rinse off soap. And I do not think it's funny when you fart in the bathtub because my feet are in there with you!

4. Blowing up a backyard pool for children. No no, it only took me an hour to blow up and you don't want to go in because the water from the hose is too cold? Not a problem. I wanted to crouch awkwardly in the grass holding an electric pump two inches from my ear because the extension cord isn't long enough. Would you like me to pick up the 37 towels you left on the lawn? And why aren't you wearing your bathing suit anymore? Private parts stay in the backyard.

5. Going places with children. I love the zoo. It is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. I love spending time at my favorite exhibits: the bears, the penguins, and the gorillas. These children like those exhibits too. For three minutes. Bears are boring. Why aren't they growling? These penguins smell like fish. These gorillas are just sitting. Can we go on the carousel? My favorite part of the zoo was the fountain I could put my hand in. Next time I will leave them at home.

At least we didn't lock ourselves in our bedroom this time. But we did wear only underwear for the entire day yesterday. 

These are a Few of My Favorite Things...

1. GoodReads (dot com)
Love love love. Big, big thanks to my dear friend Abby, who introduced me to this website. Read a book, rate it, write a review. All your books are stored in lists, all your "friends" (simliar to Facebook) can see your books/ratings/reviews and comment. Before GoodReads, I had to ask people for book recommendations. Now I can stalk all my GoodReads friends and put random books on my library hold list. Except for Abby's weird gynecology books, so far I've been impressed with everyone's picks!

2. Almonds
They may seem a bit out of place, but my parents and I are currently on a new eating program (The Game On Diet). On this plan, I have to eat five times a day and balance my meals with proteins, carbs, and healthy fats. Apparently I can't eat peanut butter all day long, so I had to find an alternate healthy fat. Enter: salted almonds! How have I lived 27 years without these delicious little morsels of goodness?

Mmmmmm.

3. Mumford & Sons
Love. Love love love. Love every song. Love "Little Lion Man" the most. I dare you not to love their album. (And those British boys are darling!)

4. Cleaning
I'm not kidding. It's cathartic. It's beneficial. It wastes a lot of time and is better for me than watching hours and hours of television.

...which brings me to...

5. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
That show deserves an Emmy.