Childhood Toys

So, I’ve been kind MIA the past week or so. Sorry. I’ve been too busy flying like paper, getting high like planes. Sorry again.

The other day, I had an epiphany.

I am obsessed with childhood.

Toys, books, work, home… everything.

It’s not even like I had a drab childhood or anything—on the contrary, my childhood was the best thing ever.

Which is probably why I’m so reluctant to let it go.

The other day, I was reading Yotsuba, wishing that I could be a little five year old man who carries around their stuffed animal and uses big words incorrectly.

I have a stuffed animal like that. Her name is Little Nemo.

This is a picture from move-in day at Mary Washington. My parents wanted a picture because, after they got over their surprise, they thought it was *cute* that I was bringing Nemo with me to college.
I got Nemo for Christmas when I was five. She used to be fluffy and kitten-looking, but time wore her fur and all the puffiness away. Personally, I think she’s far cuter the way she is now.

Nemo has been through a lot. For example, when I showed her to one of Erics friends, he told me her brains were rattling in her head. I was mortified- Little Nemo had a ball which did indeed roll around her enormous head, making a purring sound whenever she was moved. Some find it near impossible to sleep when they hear the “rrrrrrrrr” from Nemo—I find it relaxing.

Also, I apparently almost left her in a hotel room, and Eric found her and brought her to me before we left. Whoops.

She used to be the queen and have her own kingdom in the time of the Beanies, but then she got demoted because Eric decided he was “too old to play with Beanie Babies”. (That’s a story for another time).

I remember my friends dog, Haku, grabbing Nemos big ‘ol head and carrying her around the head like a play toy. I was furious.

Oh, and Little Nemo comes from “Nemo in Slumberland”, the children’s movie with the little boy. Apparently, my Mom always thought that my stuffed animal was a boy because I named her Nemo. No. She’s a She. Oh, and my Dad suggested the name. I’m not sure if I agreed to it, or if it just caught on.

Basically, Little Nemo is that one thing that everyone has since childhood that looks ratty and dirty and old, but they can’t possibly be parted from it. She’s the icon of my childhood that just makes me remember and be jealous of how good those years were.

Childhood wasn’t always good though.

One of my earliest and least-fond moments is from when I was around four years old.
These were the days before I learned that everything Eric told me wasn’t true.
Eric told me that there was a gang of plush teddy bears in the basement, led by the Creepy Panda, and that they were all there to do his evil bidding.

Well, I was scared, even though I’m not sure what evil teddy bears could do to harm me. I guess they could tear out their stuffing and throw it at me. Or else bang their glass eyes repeatedly on my feet. However, both would be far more damaging to the bear gang, so most of their threats were psychological.

Four years old is the age when you start to realize that certain things can’t happen. For instance, Santa doesn’t really come, the Cat can’t communicate in English, and teddy bears can’t walk.

Well, this gang was different.

One morning during the summer I woke up and sprung out of bed like bread from a toaster. I was excited, god knows for what, dashed to my bedroom door, opened it, when…

There they were.

Lined up in a row outside of my door, with Creepy Panda in the middle, they stood, ear to ear, just daring me to take one step closer.

I was stuck in my room, away from the safety of Mom or Dad. I ran back to bed and huddled there for about an hour until Dad got back from the grocery store.

“Daaaaaaaad” I yelled, and he came to check on me, giving a confused glance to the teddy bears surrounding the door.

I told him they were evil, that Eric had sent them to destroy me.

Times like those, I sure would have loved to know how Dad kept form cracking up.

The teddy bears were put in a box in the basement, and Eric was told not to threaten his little sister with plush ever again.

With Love.

I had a post prepared for this February 14th, which delved into how every Valentine’s day was a terror and about how I was forever doomed because I let the one person I was in love with slip away from me. I was going to record a parody of my favorite love song, Emily Kane by Art Brut for said could-have-been-soul-mate, but we all know that it’s for the best that I didn’t do that… (wouldn’t want to have to pay for everyone’s broken speakers).

Instead, I decided to look at Valentine’s day for what it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be a day of torture for everyone who’s not in a relationship, nor is it supposed to be a day for pining for a past flame or wishing evil thoughts on all those lucky people who do get to celebrate Valentine’s day as a couple.

Valentine’s Day is about love. It’s about loving those around you, whether they be a “significant other” or not.

It’s a day for celebrating those people that you love.

This Valentine’s day, I would like to say thank you to my favorite couple- My mom and dad. Thank you so much for always being there for me, even when I’m an hour away and at school. Thank you for taking such good care of Eric and me, for listening to our complaints and rolling with our requests (such as making vegetarian meals along with a course of meat, or driving me to school every day even though the bus stop was only two minutes away).

I would also like to say Happy Valentine’s day to Christine and Eric, who I couldn’t go a day without. Also, a very Happy Valentine’s day to all of my friends at Once Upon a Time, at Mary Washington, to Erin, the best roommate ever, and to Christian, who kept me sane in high school and who I wish I could see more of.

Someday, I hope to have a Valentine’s day that I can spend with “someone special”, but I’m in no hurry. I think from now on, Valentine’s day won’t be that day I had mono, or the day I broke up with my boyfriend, or the day I sat alone in the corner while everyone else had a grand old time. Focusing on the past, especially the bad, is not what life is about, and I feel that, especially on Valentine’s day, we should embrace those who are close to us.



Just to keep this post from getting too serious, I’m also including this video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! (although that would require you to watch it a thousand times and memorize the dance moves)

Guess whose a nerd?

Not only do i plan on spending the rest of my life completing a complete set of Lord Of the Rings Amigurumi figures, but I hope to do so while watching all the extended editions again.
I mean, their just so cute!!

Who wouldn't want this adorable Gimli sitting at their desk while they attempt to focus on Linguistics?



I have claimed before that I am a nerd. Let me explain.

I am only a nerd on a few levels.


For one, I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings. So much in go over facts of Middle Earth on a near-daily basis. Like, If I could marry Aragorn (the character, not Viggo Mortensen, although I would probably marry him if given the chance), I totally would get in line (behind Eowyen, so that case when he denies her, I’ll be there instead of Faramir. Not that I don’t think Faramir and Eowyen is the best thing that ever happened, its just that I think of myself, and since none of this will ever happen anyway, I deserve her more than Faramir. On that note, I’ll marry Faramir too. Let’s just all get married. A big huge polyagamous/monogamous marriage for everyone!).

That thought went on way too long.

Anyway, to move on, I, like all nerds, hold Star Wars in high esteem (all nerds except Treckies, obviously, but they are totally nerds on a whole other level). I enjoy watching the movies, however, I just don’t really seem to get Star Wars. Like, the original movie was all like, “Hey were brother and sister, but were not going to explain that, instead, we’ll just leave a bunch of split ends so you have NO IDEA what’s going on!” I just don’t get why they weren’t made in order to begin with. But I like Yoda. Especially puppet Yoda.

Next, computers. Computers and I have a love/hate relationship. To put it simply, I like computers, but only when they work. But I don’t know a thing about them. I took a computer class for my “elective” when I was in 6th grade (in a desperate attempt to get out of chorus), but all I learned was that the screen-thing is called the monitor. I guess it never really occurred to me to learn anything else, because I always had Eric around to help me if the computer decided to become possessed and hate me.

Computer games were also Eric’s thing. I decided from a early age that it was better to let him play and just watch than actually try and embarrass myself. Also, I hated the stress from having to defeat bosses and stuff. Which is probably why the only video games I ever really got in to was Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing.

I always thought Harvest Moon was the COOLEST game ever, even though, in reality, its just pretending to be a farmer. Yahoo. That didn’t stop me from devoting hours to playing Harvest Moon, A Wonderful Life, and then, once I was bored with that, immediately wanting Harvest Moon: Magical Melody. Because, you know, there was obviously going to be so much difference in my farming life now that I also had to look for Magical Melody icons to restore the forest fairy’s magical powers .

Harvest Moon also had an appealing aspect: finding a wife. Or husband, depending on whatever genders you decided to be to begin with. You couldn’t be Bi or Gay in Harvest Moon, but then again, farming is a pretty conservative thing. And they had no idea whether or not you were Trans to being with. I find that you make the most enduring friendships with people who choose the same life partner as you in these games. For example, I found out that Marishka had this game, and she had chosen the Doctor, Alex to be her husband…. What a coincidence! But then again, he’s pretty cute and women love men in uniform.

Animal Crossing was also pretty addictive. Or at least it was addictive to me… who took addictive to a whole other level.


For those who didn’t know elementary schooled Julie, here’s a synopsis:
• I decided to change my name from Julie to Tangy, in honor of my favorite character
• I then assigned new identities to all my friends, creating a sort of secret code-language with which we could talk about boys we liked without actually saying names. Oh, how Cheri loved Weber….
• I was, of course, in love with Chief. Chief wasn’t a nickname though. I was in love with the animated character, Chief. Like, so much in love that I “wrote him letters” and got a Valentine from him (oh! It is love!). So much, that I cried when he moved.
• I made a t-shirt that said “ONETT IS FOR LOVERS.” Yeah, like I crossed out the word ‘Virginia’ and wrote in Onett, which is the town from Earthbound, just to further my nerd-age points.


I know. It’s pretty pathetic.

I played a bit of Final Fantasy, but mostly I just fell in love with it because of the AMAZING graphics, and I always had a crush on Rikku. And Yuna.

I used to play Donkey Kong, but that was so I could find all the secret hiding spots. Then I would hang the controls back to Eric. I liked gathering bananas too.
I got in to Super Smash Bros and I even played Super Mario Sunshine for a bit (only because I liked to ride around with my water-jet-pack), but that’s about it.

So, yes I am a Zelda poser.

Not that I don’t like Zelda. On the contrary, I love it. Or, the idea of it. Its just that when I was playing Ocarina of Time, I couldn’t get out of the freaking valley (like, where you are first placed). And I ran around for about two hours before I just figured that my time was better spent chasing the cat around the house. But the music- I love it. And I love how, in Twilight Princess, you can change into a wolf. SO COOL.

I have a funny story about Twilight Princess actually: I got it for my Ex-bfs birthday last year, but I had to use his credit card cause I didn’t have one, and I had to get it online because he couldn’t stand the thought of me spending an extra $5.oo to get it in a store. That’s not the story, I just wanted to take a moment to point out how freakshow my relationship was. THE story is that I gave him the game, then left to go home. Called him the next day, and he didn’t pick up. For three days, he didn’t return my calls or anything, which was fine, but I was a little confused because he normally sent me a text every 4 seconds. Turns out, he was in his room. Playing Zelda. He beat it in two days, and had spent the third day trying to beat it again. Oh, and he hadn’t gone to school or eaten anything in the meantime.

Yep. So, I’m a partial nerd, I guess.

Still, I enjoy listening to my Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I’m not listening to it right now, in fact I’ve been listening o the poke’mon theme song/poke’rap on repeat for the past 40 minutes because the speakers are all the way across the room and I’m too comfortable to move. My neighbors have probably called the Funny Farm.


While I was searching for patterns for the Lord of the Rings patterns I can upon these My Little Pony's, which I had seen about a year ago. Still amazing the second time through.

"No life, you Have."




Also, even though I am not that nerdy, I hope to make a set of Star Wars figures. Oh, and a little Link would be so cute! I guess that would be over the top for never having played an entire game...

*and so, Julie seals her fate of never leaving her room, surrounded by nerdy plush, dying slowly of lack of Vitamin D*



This one's for Stella and everyone else who loves Bill Nye.
I FEEL IT IN MY FINGERS.... I FEEL IT IN MY.... TOES"





Thought this one was pretty cute too.

Anyways, I hope that after posting this I will actually begin to be social and go get some dinner. Maybe even review some Geology. Fun Times!

Micheals Craft Heaven.

The other day, I wandered into a Michaels craft store.

The instant I did so, I forgot what I had come in the store for in the first place.

First off, I would like to clarify that I do not have A.D.D. I’ve never had problems with focusing.

But, every single little thing in that store is more amazing than the first.
Let me explain.

I’m one of those people who loves to try everything when it comes to crafts. I love to craft. I love everything about making stuff. I love paper. This means that, while I’m in a Michaels’, I am the most obsessed person in the scrapbooking section. Every single sheet of paper gets looked at. Even the baby paper. And, honestly, the baby papers get the most points for being adorable. I know it’s outrageous. Every time I go, I have to spend a good ten minutes arguing with myself that I don’t need more fancy-pants paper, because I already have a bunch and I don’t use much of it anyway.
You know how the cliché is that all girls love shoes? And how they faun over shoes and have to convince themselves not to buy shoes? Right, well, that’s me, only instead of a red pair of kitten heels, I’m debating over the necessity for red paper with romping kittens on it.

I really don’t get it. I seriously don’t know how it started, but I have massed quite a collection of pretty, high quality inked paper.

Oh, but I haven’t gotten to the best part about Micheals. You see, you can’t only buy the paper. Oh no. You need something to do with the paper. And that’s when the inventing comes in.

Inventing occurs as I continue to wander the isles filled with random crap that I somehow need to own and use and create on. Inventing is not really the right word; I guess the word is pulling things from other places to make one thing to call my own. Now, pretend that’s one word. And the word is not plagiarism.

Mostly, I take my fancy-pants paper and I make books out of it. I have been doing this for years. I have hand-made notebooks everywhere. That’s because my second favorite thing, other than paper, is blank books.

This is weird. I know. But I like to make lists. And keep things organized and separate. So, I need a separate sketchbook for my mixed-media art and my emo art. And then, cat sketches and manga also need their own notebooks. You seen, I may not be A.D.D., but I think I am O.C.D.

But this time I didn’t buy any paper, because when you’re at school you have no time to do anything fun other than sit around and watch romantic British dramas set in the 1800’s.

This is what normally ends up happening. In micheals, I mean, not the whole thing with watching movies. My roommate and I, well, really just me, have gotten into a state where the only thing we want to see is couples getting together after finding out that the male lead, who before hand is figured to be terrible, Is really the most wonderful person ever, and the strong female lead was in love with him all along. It helps if its set in the olden days and lady’s wear big puffy dresses and have a slight accent.

Anyways, I wander the store, trying to push the paper out of my brain. Then, I come to the bead section. I gave up beading in seventh grade when I realized that I never wear any jewelry except the fundamentals (ring, earings, ect.) however, beading helps to feed into another one of my stupid favorite things… miniatures.
Like, 1in to 1 ft scale, hard core, French colonial miniatures for my dollhouse. My dollhouse, which will soon get its own post because EVERYONE needs to see how I take Nerd to a whole new level.

Anyway, I look in the bead section for little square beads which can work for frames for pictures. I like to print out Belle and Boo prints from the website and make them so they fit the scale for my little girls room. I love belle and boo, and If I was living in London/ was rich enough to pay for overseas shipping/ was 4 years old, I would get some of their prints and hang them on my walls.

And then I get into the cheap section, where there are markdowns on everything including children toys which I would love to own, event though I couldn’t justify spending a dollar on sparkly Cinderella pencils. The cheap section of Michaels’ is like a royal palace compared to the dollar store.

The best part of the dollar store, other than everything being a dollar, is that they have weird things from Asian countries with choppy translated text, like, “Hello, My name Dog, Woof Woff! Come on magical Journey!” That, and the totally inappropriately named “perfumes” next to the door, such as “Black Lady” and “Eat me Raw”.

But the Michaels cheap section… is like what every mother should go to for party favors for their childs birthday-party goodie bags. I mean, They have Hello Kitty coloring books and crayons, Tinkerbell paint sets, little princess figurines, and those expanding things, which apparently grow up to 600 times their size (I doubt it too).

Better yet, they have notebooks, so I could make more lists and keep more things ridiculously tidy, and little boxes, and handles and knobs. That’s another weird thing I am in love with. Door pulls. Lord knows why. I just really really like fancy door pulls, like these ones from Anthropologie. If I could have my way, I would change every knob in the house. But then everything would look retarded, so I’m glad I don’t own furniture yet.

They had these single serving casserole dishes which were super cute, and Paula Dean cupcake liners that say “a balanced diet is a muffin in both hands” on the bottom. I don’t know anything about Paula dean other than she had a doughnut sandwich on t.v. Like, a sandwich where, instead of bread, you use doughnuts. And in the middle is another doughnut.

Flip back to me walking down another isle and looking at photo albums and scrapbooks. I used to scrapbook. Diligently. I didn’t really have a choice, when high school scrapbooks cost around $80.oo and I only had a handful of friends anyway. Made my own Yearbook. And it’s the best one I own.

I come to the Sticker isle. Stickers are amazing. Since when did stickers become so amazing? I mean, these aren’t your everyday “Good job!” smiley face stickers. These stickers have embellishments. They have glitter. And bows. And fuzzy stuff. And ribbon and bumpy parts and fun colors. And I want them all. I mean, there are stickers for camping and stickers for graduating elementary school, and for going to parties and for mowing the grass. I mean, there are stickers for everything. But I have no idea how you would ever use them. Unless you were making cards and you didn’t have any Beatrix potter images or something.

I am so amazed by Michaels. I spent an hour, just looking. Totally amazed.
And then I left.

Without buying a thing.

Ah, it’s nice to forget your wallet in the car.

Egg-cellent.... not really.

Haven’t really done much today, since my lymph nodes are hard boiled eggs. Meaning their large. Very large. And make my throat hurt. No, I don’t think I’m made of food, and I don’t have a subconscious desire for everyone to be a cannibal. That’s gross. I’m a vegetarian, so why would you even think that? Oh, you weren’t thinking that? You say I’M crazy, cause I’m the one thinking like that?? Well… phwa.
Smoke that in your pipe…and then smoke it again.

Speaking of eggs, today i….

1. Watched cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Quite possibly my favorite movie ever. My favorite moment is when Sam goes, “Alright, lets do this moosh-boosh”, and some random guy in the audience goes, “What’s a moosh-boosh?” hahahahhahaaaa cracks me up. < another egg reference!!!

2. Make a cake! Well, more like 2 giant brownies which were supposed to be cake, but because I apparently “don’t know how to do the toothpick test”, I took the cakes out of the oven too soon. Blame it on the weather and the toothpicks, which I’m sure are in cahoots to overthrow humanity. And the eggs are in with it. Knew it…

Anyway, the cake ended up crumbing and creating a grand cavern on one side, and a canal leading to it on the side. To make up for the abundance of geography on the cake, I put the Steelers logo on top with yellow icing (to the best of my abilities, which, might I add, are nonexistent).


Not having to do with eggs, at all:

1. Watched about 7 episodes of the office (season 4, one of my favorites), while re-making cards. Aniene found these ugly cards a few years back, and gave them to me so that we could get them out of the toy store cause they certainly weren’t welcome there. Anyway, I fixed them up, so now, instead of having babies on them, they have Beatrix Potter characters. MUCH better.

A nineteen year old, college student should not love Beatrix Potter as much as I do. I can’t help it. I love the pictures, I love the stories, and I even named my deceased bunny Cottontail. Which wasn’t original, but I was a bit sick of the
original names we gave to our pets, like Faucet or Dr. Pepper.


2. I insulated a bag I got for free at Free People. Seems a bit redundant, doesn’t it? Got the bag for FREE at FREE people. However, I feel like my dress purchase went to paying for the bag in addition to paying for them to re-wallpaper their store every 3 months when the “indie fashion” scheme “gets too mainstream”. No one article of clothing should cost over $50.oo in my opinion. Which is why I mostly shop at thrift stores and look like a granny all the time. BTDubs, the dress cost way more than $50.oo. But I just had to allow myself to be sucked into the belief that buying that one dress would make me feel infinity more proud of my wardrobe. And it does.

Pretty much it. Excited to have the family, well, Mom’s ½ of it, down for the Superbowl. I love it when family comes to visit, its’ like having fresh baked bread.

That’s… not supposed to be a synonym. I just… like both freshly baked bread and family.

This post has been disastrous, So I'm just going to end it now before it gets much worse.

*an edit: Cottontail was the name of the rabbit before she died. Don't go thinking that I don't name my pets until after they die. No. I don't do that, yeah? And Cottontail, for those who care, lived to be a grand five years old. She was born on Easter. And, I suppose, She will have her own post soon. So, to quote the Lion King (another great movie), Be Prepared!

Icky and Sickly.

So, I have been gone for more than a week, and I apologize, because I know all of you were clamoring over the refresh button, desperate to have an update on my life.

Relax. I’m okay. Kinda.

I have contracted some sort of other-worldly virus which makes me feel sleepy (nothing new), and makes my throat very sore. And I’ve lost my voice. And have people giving me puppy dog faces whenever they hear me try and talk.

Alas, I may be in a better state, if not for the 1 am fire drill that we had the other day, after I was 99% recovered and feeling MUCH better.
This 1 am fire drill went on for twenty minutes.
It was cold. Really cold. And I was tired and sickly.

It doesn’t help when everyone around you is also coughing and feeling down with some bug or another. I think every person on campus is infected with some sort of virus or another. And while I’m a big fan of germs and eating chocolate off the floor, I do have to say that I have been considering wearing gloves around campus so I don’t have to touch doorknobs.

Of course, this is just me being dramatic. But, since I haven’t written in so long, I felt that it was appropriate for me to make up for all that time I lost that I could have been complaining about smokers or extreme fashion-conscious people, ect. So there you go.

Short post, my apologies. I need to get some more sleep, although many people will argue that 12 hours is more than enough for one day. However, the joys of the internet do not allow your opinions to be heard, so hah. I’m going to bed.