Abandoned

I have always had a particular fascination with abandoned places. I once saw an abandoned amusement park in the middle of nowhere on the way to Tucson or something and have been thinking about it ever since. When my parents and I used to travel around AZ a lot, we saw plenty of ghost towns and indian ruins that always amazed me. I love to think about who once lived there, why they left, etc.

Today I read an article called "7 Abandoned Cities and Places in Asia" and there are several that I would give my big toe to go see... maybe not literally (though, one has land mines surrounding it so I'm sure that option is quite possible... Eek), but I would LOVE to go nonetheless.

Check out the article. I'm sure there are plenty of places like this all over the world and I would love to see them all. Maybe that should become a hobby of mine one day. I particularly like the ones that you can just walk around without some annoying tour guide making the place feel more like a museum and less like a piece of my imagination. You know what I mean?

Anyway, I started looking on that site with the Asian abandoned places deal and found a ton more! I shall post pictures to spruce this post up a bit:



Pennsylvania





Russia





France





Arizona(!!!)





Mandu


If you know of any other awesome abandoned places in AZ, know where that amusement park is (because I couldn't tell you where it was if my life depended on it), or have anything else to say do so, please! I enjoy sharing common interests with folks :)

Vampire Weekend Show!!!

Julie and I, on a whim, decided to go to the Vampire Weekend show tonight at the Marquee. It was a blast! They are fantastic live. Seriously, his voice is just as good or better in person as it is on the album itself. They're really fun and the music is so happy it makes you wanna get up and dance your life away!!!

Go see them if you ever get a chance. It shall be a good time, I promise you that.

Oh, we've also decided that shows are really fun and we definitely need to go to them more often. There are a ton coming up that sound entertaining so perhaps I shall become one of "those people" who go to shows every weekend. Then go deaf at 20. JK JK. But seriously, maybe not every weekend or anything but going to shows sure is a blast and I am always so energetic and happy afterward. I have yet to be at a boring or just plain BAD performance.

So far, I have seen the following live:
Julieta Venegas w/ Los Abandoned
Spill Canvas w/ Sugarcult
Imogen Heap
The Kills
Vampire Weekend
the all-important Snail Quail on several occasions ;)

uhh.... I feel like I am missing someone important. I can't remember.

In a past life (aka I was young so I only have vague memories) I also saw:
dcTalk
Vince Gill
ZoeGirl

and I am sure someone else but again, my brain is not remembering everything right now.

Nevertheless, I feel as though I have missed out on a lot of good acts. So, let's go to more shows everyone!

The Fly

Little Fly

Thy summers play,

My thoughtless hand

Has brush'd away.

Am not I

A fly like thee?

And art not thou

A man like me?

For I dance

And drink & sing;

Till some blind hand

Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life

And strength & breath;

And the want

Of thought is death;

Than am I

A happy fly,

If I live,

Or if I die.

-William Blake

(my favorite poet!)

Rocky Horror

"I ask for nothing."
"And you shall receive it... In ABUNDANCE!"

"Let's do the Time Warp againnnnn...."

"It's not easy having a good time! Even smiling makes my face ache!"

This is my peacock buddy! I folded him out of a dollar bill at work today. I want to make him a llama companion but I only have a fiver and I don't feel like wasting quite that much.

Enya

I had my iTunes on shuffle while I was doing some homework and it came upon my really old Enya Greatest Hits CD. I never seemed to know this about myself but Enya brings instant tears to my eyes! My gosh...

I LOVED her when I was little and then I stopped liking her for a long time. Then I asked for the new CD with Only Time on it for Christmas back in the day because I liked it in the final episode of Friends. I ended up getting the Greatest Hits instead and like, never listened to it. I added it to my iTunes when I first got my iPod of course but never really listened to it then either. Well, now it is accidentally played on my computer and it makes me cry. How strange.

Now I love Enya again and though I would love to listen to this CD on replay forever I cannot. I prefer not to bawl all night long.

I could survive for 38 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia

I Carry Your Heart

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear

no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want

no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings, i carry your heart with me

I think I need to start writing again. In the words of Trouble Over Tokyo "I've been neglecting what my insides need, I've been running away from it." I also need to re-read my Emily Dickenson book. Seriously, the chick is a babe at writing. "If she were a president she'd be Babe-raham Lincoln."

If I were a mythical creature...

According to New York Zoos & Aquariums, this is what I'd look like. Sweet!

I've been through the desert...

Time spent on a recently discovered gem of a blog called Phantasmaphile: 3 hours

Time spent talking in a baby voice to a rabbit in my backyard: 5 seconds

Time spent petting my cat: 10 minutes

Time spent being utterly content: priceless.

Below are some random photos of home that I felt like sharing. If you've never been to AZ then this is what you're missing out on! Or at least, it's a taste. Enjoy :)

This was how the sky looked the other day. GLORIOUS! If there were only one reason to stay in Arizona forever it would be because of the daily shows we get in the sky.




A coyote with a bum leg. He was drinking out of a bowl that my mom leaves out for the myriad animals we get in our yard. I felt sorry for him.




Proof that it can get below 100 degrees in the summer time. It's so nice outside right now, you wouldn't know you were in Phoenix.

You Gotta Believe in Yourself!

Tonight, I took the first steps toward become a healthy person: Julie and I went on a walk/jog around my neighborhood for 25 minutes then did one hour of Tae Bo. It was the hardest physical thing I have ever had to do in my life! I was BURNIN' UP! We're going to try and do this at least three times a week to keep our bodies goin' strong. I really hope that I stick to it this time. I think, though, that because I have someone doing it with me it will help to keep me motivated. I should be sleeping right now but I can't fall asleep yet... I really would love to wake up early tomorrow to actually eat breakfast for the first time in probably six months to a year! I want to be healthy! I'm sick of being so weak and getting sick all the time. No fun!

Anyway, I am in this weird state at the moment. It's like adrenaline mixed with exhaustion which is causing my brain to explode and send uneccesary worries and thoughts into my brain. I don't want to think anymore. Turn off, brain! Let me sleep!

I've also decided that starting now I am going to be hyper weird random Caitlin whenever possible. I'm bored of my current personality. Time to switch to my older model. Goin' vintage.

Ahh... weird sounds outside. Dogs barking. SCARED! Don't eat me Boogie Man!

Come On, Eileen

I'm currently listening to a playlist made by a guy who was born in the 70s. It is probably one of the best playlists I've ever listened to. I also look like a hippy right now... I am positive I was born in the wrong era.

Yeah, these rock. These make one go from zero to hippy/pocahontas in 3.5 seconds.

GOOD SONG:

Two of Us
by The Beatles

Two of us riding nowhere
Spending someone's
Hard earned pay
You and me
Sunday driving
Not arriving
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

Two of us sending postcards
Writing letters
On my wall
You and me burning matches
Lifting latches
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead

Two of us wearing raincoats
Standing so low
In the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

You and I have memories
Longer than the road that stretches out ahead

Two of us wearing raincoats
Standing solo
In the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home
We're on our way home
We're on our way home
We're going home

We're going home
Better believe it

Smirks from Passersby

I'm not completely positive that "passersby" is the correct term but, if not, so be it. I have invented another Cait-ism.

At the moment I am listening to my new Fleet Foxes album, recently purchased from iTunes. I adore them all of a sudden. I had heard of them in the past and I believe I illegally acquired Mykonos at some point but then never really listened to it and so it consequently got deleted. Either that or I am talking out of my big toe and I had never heard it before yesterday. Moving on, I love Fleet Foxes and very much adore Mykonos. Their harmony is to die for and the imagery of their lyrics is vivid and beautiful.

That's my review for the day.

I went to my two favorite classes today: World Religions and English. I decided that I wanted to put on my brave mask and try a funky outfit to try and get me to come out of my shell a bit at school. It worked! First of all my outfit wasn't that weird but I was wearing these awesome moccasin boots that have fringe all over them and my hair was wavy and had a braid across the top and my jewelery was all natural-looking and such. I said to someone later, "I guess I was going for the Pocahontas look." Not really but it made that someone chuckle. Anyway, when I first walked onto campus every person that even noticed me at all took one look at my shoes and smiled as they walked by. It was funny. Then I got to World Religions and during discussion I swear my alligator-boot-wearing instructor could not stop looking at my shoes. Love it. Perhaps he wants to add them to his weird shoe collection because, no joke, I have seen these alligator boots in three different colors in the course of two weeks. Awesome. Later on, I went to my English class and right when I sat down a kid in my group looks me up and down and goes, "Sweeet..." I looked at him funny and ask what he is referring to and he said, "Just... you're whole ensemble today." I laughed and said thanks. First time I actually had a "conversation" with someone in my English class. I even had to get up in front of the class today with a group and read something we had collectively written outloud and I didn't read too fast, I didn't turn red... it was miraculous.

I have thus concluded that I need to dress a bit on the unique side everytime I want to be comfortable with myself. It sounds backwards but it worked today! Whatever works, I am completely open to it.

"You gooooooooo wherever you go today..... You goooooo todayyyyy....." Gosh, this song is magnificent. That's Mykonos by the way.

OK, my drowsy cold medicine is finally kicking in full-force. Time for slumber.

My Name is Echo

I just screamed really loudly into cyberspace and all I heard were echoes. I don't think anyone actually reads this blog. I don't care really. If you do, cool. No one commented on my N. Korea thing... makes me think that it's 1984 and you're all afraid Big Brother is going to arrest you if you do.

Anywho, I've decided just now that if someone were to call me by my blogging name my nickname would be Sophie. That would be sweet. Stop calling me Caitlin, it's becoming overused in my world. All I hear day in and day out is "Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin." Wouldn't it be awesome if we got to change our names depending on our moods? Kinda like the update things on Myspace and Facebook. Today Caitlin is: Bob.

I miss being Bob. I was a Bob once, you know. No, I was not literally a different person and ABSOLUTELY NO, I was not a male at any point in my life. In my theater class there were two Caitlins so my teacher asked me what I would like to be called instead. I said, Bob. It stuck through two years of theater.

I have class in an hour and I still haven't left my house. Booooo....... Which reminds, me that I've started calling my dog Blooblee. Her real name is Lucy but that's become boring and overused as well. Now she is Blooblee. Say it outloud, it's fun.

Names are fun. I like calling my friend Jublie instead of Julie. I think it's the B sounds that get me. Add a B to a person's name and it's automatically hilarious. Caitblin. See? Hilarious right?

OOOOKay.... I suppose I should leave for class. Sorry for wasting 8 years of your life. I'll try to be more exciting next time.