Day 13: Fave artist

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist


Well well well....this isn't too tough. I have two all-time favorite artists though: Lauryn Hill (aka L Boogie) and John Legend. 




 So you see, my girl Lauryn has kind of fallen off.  I liked the fugees when I was little, then she released The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill which probably got played 1,000 times on my panasonic no-skip cd player. Actually, TMLH takes up half of my top 25 most played on my ipod. Then.... she went into her rasta stage...married Ziggy Marley, had some kids and eventually released Lauryn Hill: Unplugged. I absolutely LOVED this album. It's pretty raw, very deep, kind of political and very emotional- and did I mention all acoustic. I don't know what it is but acoustic guitars make me cry, all the time, always, never fail. I feel like when I was growing up and I didn't have words to put to my feelings (and we all know I was very mature and over-dramatic for my age), Lauryn Hill said it for me.  I sang along. Cried. Healed (from high school and college break ups and the general woes of teenage-dom).  If you really know me well, you know that when I am listening to Lauryn Hill, mentioning her in my facebook statuses, etc then I am sad or upset. Her music is my go-to.

So, after that explanation and how LH bring back memories of things past....I will move onto my explanation of why John Legend has come into the mix.  Although there is a bit of sadness connected to Mr. Legend's music for me (ex: "Another Again"), he is more upbeat. Better memories. Happier times. The first song of his that I heard was "Save Room", like everyone else in America, but I went on to find his older album Get Lifted and fell in love with that. I then purchased Once and Again and have rounded out my collection with Evolver. I love his voice and find his music to be very soothing.  I love that he plays piano in a lot of his songs and I love the emotion he brings to his tracks. BONUS: he is still producing albums, unlike Lauryn Hill at the moment, so that is where I justify having 2 favorite artists. 






Sharing Time.....


here are my favorite songs of each artist


John Legend- "Ordinary People", Once and Again

Lauryn Hill- "I Gotta Find Peace of Mind", Lauryn Hill: Unplugged

day 12: something i l-o-v-e

Day 12 - A picture of something you love

the man who stole my heart and i don't even want it back

I almost didn't blog today...and then I checked today's challenge and I couldn't pass it up because it was something I loved! It really doesn't get any easier than that! Pretty sure everyone who knows me knows this by now, but I love Ramiro Ray Vela III.


Some quick facts about why I love him:
- he makes me laugh (he hasn't made me pee my pants yet haha)
- he has a TDF smile
- he is amazing with his words and can melt my heart with one sentence
- he's smokin hot (see picture)
- he likes to party
- he likes to drive (and i like to get in auto accidents...match made in heaven)


this list could go on for days but I am sure you get the picture! He has been the best thing to happen to my life and I can't wait for what the future holds for us- all good things I hope!
- 

Catching up

So I have decided that I like the blog challenge but I am not good at blogging every day.  But in an effort to catch up...here I go.


Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

shirt writing on my 21st birthday

Ok so this picture makes me laugh because it was 21st birthday. I was probably about 20 or so shots deep and a guy I know told me he wanted to write on my shirt. For those of you who don't know, on 21st birthdays we get a bday shirt with a funny picture and message) and your friends carry around sharpies so that all your birthday messages stay in one place (on your tshirt). So this picture was taken before I fell on the dirty bentley's bar floor laughing because of the following event:


guy: what should I write on your shirt?
me: (drunken mumble) lax rules
guy: proceeds to write "blacks rule"


Yupp, common misunderstanding. Needless to say, I laughed for days and I still have the shirt with a big "blacks rule" on the side.

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Jerry & Claud

It's a tie between these two lovely people. My mom and dad. I wouldn't be where I am without them. 

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with

galski

Yup that would be Gals, easily. She dares me to do stuff and I do it and that's a problem. And when I have bad ideas she tells me they are good ideas. Soooo yea, not gonna go into detail but she deserves day #10.

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

I HATE scary movies. I have nightmares for days. It is terrible and I have gotten to a point where I can't even watch scary movie commercials without having to cover my eyes. The first (and last) scary movie I saw was Pet Semetary and I am still scared of a little kid jumping out from under the bed and slashing my achilles tendons so I can't run away. The worst is when I am watching previews in movie theaters and it's impossible to avoid the scary words, sudden flashes of light and eery music. You can't change the channel like at home either.  If I could I would do away with scary movies all together.

day 7: most treasured item

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item

Lola Collins

  

There you have it...the evolution of lola (for puppyhood in Arkansas, to her first day in CP, her life as an office lap top and her first visit to the vet in annapolis). I just couldn't help myself. It was impossible to post just one photo so I posted 5. She's just so darn cute.  

I know she isn't an 'object', per se, but she is the most treasured non-human part of my life. Lola's life is pretty much my ideal life set-up. She wakes up under the covers in my bed, I take her out, I give her breakfast, she goes back to sleep for the whole afternoon, humps a pillow here and there, goes on walks, does what ever she wants and gets away with it, smells like a dream because she has kiehl's dog conditioner and she gets a treat every time she poops and pees.

Lola is always there. The best part about her is that she has a legit personality.  She gets depressed when I leave and she lays on her side on the "sad couch", but the best part is that when I return she is so happy to see me. I don't think anybody has ever been as happy to see me as lola is when I come home.  She's the best. She's kind of like having a kid (but kids are probably much harder).

I wouldn't trade my little furry nugget for anything.

Day 06: Trading Places

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

I wish it was acceptable to be this outrageous.

I had to think about this one for a while. I couldn't think of one person that I would want to be for a day and then it hit me.....I would definitely want to be Nicki Minaj. Some of your are probably cringing and since she is a pretty extreme person you either lover her or hate her I guess, but I love her.


Here are some things I like about Nicki Minaj:
- She raps and she's good at it.
- She loves pink.
- She's party of young money
- She pulls off outrageous pink wigs
- She uses MAC make up and I love MAC makeup
- She says whatever she wants
- She has multiple personalities
- She's a baddd bitch
- She collaborates with weezy and drake
- Her facial expressions are awesome
- Her real name is Onika Tanya Maraj...but it is now Nicki Minaj. It takes balls to change your name.
- She claims she made up Harajuku Barbie, and she explains it as, "I liked Harajuku and I liked barbies so I put them together..."
- Her part in Monster is awesome...she dominates Jay and Kanye


And finally, I thought about being Oprah because she yells things all the time and it's acceptable for some reason (think: how she introduces every item on her favorite things show...) but Nicki does the low-voice, semi-yell 100x's better than Oprah.


There you have it. I want to be NM for a day. 


And for those of you who may have missed it, here is my attempt to be Jenny Minaj (it was a joke, so don't take it too seriously...Gals said I couldn't be Nicki so I tried to prove her wrong...I have a bad habit of always taking her up on her challenges)

another reason to love Nicki

Day 5:My favorite memory

Day 5- A picture of your favorite memory.

I'm back on the horse! And moving onto my favorite memory (see below).

So my favorite memory is winning a national championship. Obvi. Pretty much the best feeling ever. I tore my ACL my freshman year and after being a suzy sourpuss (up until Cinco de Mayo 2006) I ended up staying at Maryland for 5 years. At first I wasn't really sure if I wanted to stay for 5 years but it was the best decision I ever made. The 2010 season was incredible and to end in a nattty champ was the icing on the cake. Being at Maryland gave me the chance to be part of a family that was even bigger than the 2010 team. I chose this picture because it shows how much support and love we had from every player that had been through the program. I love looking at this photo and seeing that every terp on the field is just as happy and excited as every terp in the stands.

We always say, "Once a terp. Always a terp" and it couldn't have been more true in this moment. I love my terps!

I will not accept failure.....

So I just realized that I missed a day (day #3...to be made up at a later date). Sad news. I really thought I was going to be able to do this challenge....but our lax camp to Minnesota changed up my plans. This weekend has been crazy busy, but in a GREAT way. I think that MN- the families, the players, the adventures, can easily be one of my favorite places to have a lax clinic.

Right now it is technically day 5 but I figure if I post this before I go to bed it will still count for day 4.

Day 4 challenge: take a picture of your night.

I posted two pictures for today because the first one was blurry and didn't do the blog challenge justice since you can hardly make out the photo. Okay, os photo 1 is me on the field at the Minnesota Swarm game at halftime and photo 2 is a legit picture of the actual game of the Swarm vs. Boston Cannons. As you can tell already, I went to Minnesota this weekend and the purpose for my travels was to run a Step Up Clinic. Becky and I ran a clinic on Friday evening, learned to ski on Friday afternoon, hung out with some great families (what upppp Engels & Warners) and then had a clinic on the Swarm field at the Excel Center in downtown St. Paul today.

This evening I got interviewed at halftime of the game and it was pretty cool- which is why I posted the picture. although you may be thinking that I liked it because I was getting attention that wasn't exactly it. During the short interview I got to talk about women's sports and all of the positive influences it can have on your life , I got to promote the growth of lacrosse in Minnesota and I got to encourage young girls to put a stick in their hands and come out to our next camp in Minnesota.

Tonight made me so happy because it was everything I hope to do with my education/Step Up all wrapped into one. It was the beginning of a string of opportunities to draw attention to women's sports and help give back to the game that has given me so much. It seems like a lot of things are starting to come full circle for me in life and that is a great feeling. When I was walking after the interview a few young girls stopped me to talk about lacrosse, and a women stopped me to congratulate me on the Natty Champ, but the best part was a mom who stopped to thank me for encouraging her daughter to get out there and play and for making an effort to reach out to younger girls because it definitely makes a difference. That's what I love to hear.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day #2

So due to scheduling conflicts and my commitment to this 30 day challenge, Alex is helping me out by posting this to my blog. (You're welcome -Alex)

Today’s challenge is to post a picture of my longest friend.

So here it is. This is a picture of my longest friend, Sarah Elena Baby Girl Schneider. Otherwise known as shirt, sassy, supa sexy sistah #1 (who were we in middle school?). But commonly known as Sarah. She’s, without a doubt my longest and bestest friend.

According to me (Sarah claims I told her this when we were little), we actually knew each other before we were born because I told her that was used to call each other from inside our mom’s tummies. But the more believable story is that our mom’s introduced us when we were babies at Towamencin pool which is about ¼ mile in between each of our houses. I was born in November and she was born in May so we we met in the summer or 1987, we probably didn’t say much but it was definitely the beginnings of a beautiful friendship. In the picture above, we are about 3 years old and we are at a playgroup date to Merrymeade Farms with our older siblings.

As we grew, we did some ridiculous things: like try to climb a tree with ropes and get suspended in mid-air, got in a friendship-ending fight in 5th grade over the lip sync and Gary Cole, painted our friend’s entire hand with nail polish and many more things. One of my personal favorite stories is the time that Sarah said she would make me an alcoholic drink and, at the last second chickened out and made me a drink with like orange juice, tobasco sauce and other stuff so it tasted bad…but she still gave it to me, claimed it had alcohol in it and just told me alcohol tasted bad. So I sipped on it, convinced myself I was drunk and sent some messages on AIM that I’m not too proud of (ex: “oh em gee, I’m so drunk (enter guys name), this is crazy…..”. Not only was this embarrassing but I didn’t find out that I wasn’t really drunk till a few years later.

Sarah has been there for me through the ups and downs of life (she was even there for the first time I farted in front of a boyfriend….and after the fart I promptly left while everyone was laughing and drove home because I was so embarrassed hahaha) and I am so excited about all the things to come! We’ve been friends for over 20 years and now she is engaged!!! Woo hoo! Now Scott is stuck with me forever.

I could actually go on forever about how great my best friend is but I will stop at this. Sarah blew out the candles on my 3rd birthday cake and I hope she gets to blow out many many more to come!!! Love you best friend!!!

30 Day Blog Challenge

This morning my bestie Alexandra brought something to my attention: A 30-Day Blog Challenge.

My yoga studio had a 100 day yoga challenge starting on January 1st...but since that is obviously a no-go, I've decided this is a much more manageable challenge. The Challenge looks like this:

Goal: to post a different photo every day, based on instructions from a list (see list below).
Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts
Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show
Day 04 - A picture of your night
Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory
Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day
Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item
Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh
Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with
Day 11 - A picture of something you hate
Day 12 - A picture of something you love
Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist
Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die
Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you
Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity
Day 19 - A picture and a letter
Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel
Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget
Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at
Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book
Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change
Day 25 - A picture of your day
Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you
Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member
Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of
Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile
Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss

And now onward to the challenge!!!!!!

So here is a picture of me....

10 Facts

No 1. This picture is me in front of the White House celebrating being a 2011 Natty Champ. While I was there I met Obama and shook his hand.

No 2. I am convinced that I have ADD and that I am a serious procrastinator (hence why I am blogging instead of doing my real work), but I also am very productive and have managed grad school, my lax company, being a student athlete and having a life. So my self-diagnosis can't be too accurate I guess.

No 3. Ramiro Ray Vela III is the love of my life, the best part of my days and the one person I know will always be there. I love him.

No 4. Lolita Pantalones Baby Gals Amazing Grace Collins-Vela is my dog and she comes in a close second behind Rambo. She got her name from all my college friends that thought I should name her after them and her last name is hyphenated because I wanted Ram to 'adopt' her. She will be celebrating her 2nd birthday on March 5.

No 5. My favorite flowers are calla lilies, dahlias and peonies. Even though I don't like flowers, I really do (but I still dislike roses...way over priced and they die in a day), but I probably would get pretty amped up over an herb garden or a mint plant to make mojitos.

No 6. I am writing my master's thesis on black female athletes and their hair. Ask me about it if you wanna know because I can go on for days.

No 7. My favorite food is macaroni and cheese. It is the one thing I could never give up.

No 8. I own a lax company, Step Up Lacrosse, with Becky Clipp and it is probably the most enjoyable job I have ever had. I get to work with all my best friends, travel different places and I find coaching young players to be one of the most rewarding things there is.

No 9. I'm a great swimmer but my biggest fear is drowning. I had to leave the theater when I went to see Titanic and the movie pretty much ruined any chance of me ever going on a cruise.

No 10. My best friend of my entire life is Sarah Schneider and she is engaged to Scott Barnes! I am so happy for them and I am currently in the works of thinking up a new nickname for us (we used to be Schnollins)....so maybe now we will be Bollins? Barnollins? Carnes? Colnes? Who knows!

That is all for today.

I've turned into a 'poser' (in a good way...)

So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and sometime last week I started throwing around the idea of being a Bikram teacher. For those of you who don't know, Bikram is a specific form of yoga that includes 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises, all which are done in a 105 degree room with 40% humidity. Each class lasts exactly 90 minutes.

I love bikram and it is literally changing my life. I went from not being able to sit down for more than 10 minutes without ending up with a stiff back that made me walk around like an old lady, to having no problem at all with lower back pain. At 23 it seemed unacceptable that if I sat down to pee in the morning I had to walk, hunched-over to the shower and couldn't straighten my back out for a few minutes. As much as I love running and p90x and insanity and all those crazy workouts I would do, it seems that Bikram is the perfect fit for me.

In the past month I have never shied away from going to a class. I look forward to being all hot and sweaty 1) because it opens up my pores and helps you get clearer skin (added bonus!) 2) it really increases my flexibility and range of motion. I would dread warming up for practice or the first 5 minutes of a run because my back was always so stiff that it seemed to take forever to simply get normal mobility. The best thing about bikram is that I leave every class feeling better than when I went in and stronger and with a larger range of motion than the day before.

The other day the teacher in my class said something that really interested me about how we spend the majority of our lives 'forward bending' (i.e. shoulders hunched forward sitting in a chair, back rounded forward sitting on a couch) and we rarely ever get into backward bending.

Example:

Ok so this does look a little bit drastic and it is fairly advanced, but when you actually think about it, we rarely ever backward bend in our daily lives. The lack of backward bending causes the discs in between our vertebrae wear unevenly, compressing only one part of our discs as we forward bend.....resulting in lots of back problems. In bikram there is a good amount of backward bending that pushes you to increase flexibility and open up different parts of your spinal column. Personally I have mild scoliosis, 2 bulging discs, chronic lower back spasms and every disc in my back is irregular/abnormal (the doc said it was the worst back he had every seen of someone my age after looking at my MRI). So in lieu of this diagnosis (and the threat of surgery or constant pain medication) I decided to return to yoga as a more low-key form of exercise to reduce the constant loading and pounding on my spine.

While I was right about the decrease in loading and pounding on my spine, I was VERY wrong about the 'low key' part. Every class I feel challenged in the 105 degree room (those who know me know that I am already flexible so this says a lot) and my body is stronger than it ever was!

So, here I stand now, after only a month of returning to Bikram, pain-free, more flexible, more energized and healthier than ever. After 5 years of tearing up my body playing college lacrosse I have finally found something that works for me and I encourage you to check it out.

The studio I practice at is Bikram Annapolis and if you want more info on bikram yoga, visit the official website.

A quote by Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram, often cited about the yoga practice is:

It's never too late, it's never too bad, and you're never too old or sick to start from scratch once again.

Think about it.

Love Babies

Well first-off, I want to give a shout out to my #1 love baby, Alexandra Mavris. I'm not exactly sure how it started that we give each other this name, but we were born on the same day (November 10) and we are both love babies. What is a love baby you might ask?

love baby [luh-ve bay-bee] noun. A person who was born around the 14th of November which is exactly 9 months after February 14th (aka Valentine's Day), which means you were conceived out of love on v-day.

**Alex, feel free to fact-check this definition because I didn't run it by you before posting it.

Alex and I are love babies and I always think of it when Valentine's day rolls around every year, so I decided to blog about it. I have 2 other friends who were also born on November 10th, which provides even more proof that Valentine's day was a driving force behind our existence.

In other news, I know a lot of people who are pregnant right now. Perhaps I am more aware because I am starting to like babies more and before I ignored it when people I knew were pregnant. But it seems there must have been something in the water around April-May 2010.

sidenote: I never held a newborn baby until my sophomore year of college and I was terrible at it. I held the baby like a sack of flour and I had a super human grip on him because I was so nervous. He almost immediately started crying and, since I didn't know what to do, I was forced to give up the little bundle of love (Brody and I have a much better relationship now that he is grown). So....if you have a baby and you are tired of holding it yourself, I would be happy to come over and hold it for you so I can learn.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. Two of my terp alums (fertile turtles) are preggo and both of my boyfriend's sisters are due soon. I went from knowing no one that was pregnant, to knowing 4 people! Although I am not related in any way to their babies about to be born, I am very excited for their arrivals. So good luck to Brooke, Kirah, Shavon and Desi in the coming weeks!! I can't wait to meet Elle, Bam Bam, Trevor and Baby M :)

sidenote #2: One time I went on a date with a guy who had a son. We had some things in common but at times I was struggling for conversation topics. He told me all about his son and what a blessing he was, and then I continued to tell him how I could relate because when I got Lola (my 2 yr old Morkie) I hardly got any sleep and she was so much work. After those words left my mouth I realized that that probably wasn't the best comparison to make in that situation.

Ok so I think that last little aside completes my thoughts for the day. As Valentine's Day draws closer don't forget tall those love babies out there, new and old, who are here today because of that very special holiday.

**This just in: Kirah had her baby and his name is not "bam bam" anymore but Kingston Miles George!! Congrats!