lonely lady date. (THE HUNGER GAMES!)

hi.
remember when I just wrote a blog post about being alone?

well, for the first time in my life, I went to a movie by myself on Saturday. The Hunger Games actually. Taylor wants to see but I didn't want to wait for him to see it. (I'll see it again, nobody panic.) And honestly, I didn't really think it was that big of a deal but when I told everyone else about how I went by myself they said things and made sounds that made it sound like they felt sorry for me. But I actually loved it. I'll probably go to movies alone all the time now. I mean, if there's a movie I want to see and Taylor doesn't, which happens.

There's only a couple of things I hated about being alone at the movies:

number one. when you have no one to talk to before the movie & previews start and you aren't eating popcorn or candy, all you can hear the sound of EVERYONE in the theater shoveling popcorn in to their mouths. The sound of people eating popcorn can be maddening. People eat popcorn like barbarians, for real.

number two. when I wanted to cry, I didn't feel like I could. It might be different if I was in a movie that I didn't have strangers RIGHT next to me. but still, I felt stupid and had to hold back.

and number three. when you have to go potty you have no one to tell you what you missed so you have to hold in pee for 2 hours.

but all in all, I had a good time. I pretty much forgot I was in a theater because I got caught up in the movie anyway. I love the Hunger Games. I don't really know what it is but it really causes me to have an emotional response. Even when I'm reading. All I can do is put myself in Katniss' shoes. When Jennifer Lawrence was standing there shaking right before she had to go into the arena I was literally sick to my stomach and holding back tears. Like as if I could imagine that I was about to go into an arena and possibly get sworded to death. It's really nerdy and stupid, but I like it a lot and I don't care.

Do you think it's weird that I went to the movies alone?

 There was also an elderly man with a cane who came to see the movie by himself too. I wish we could have sat by each other. I would have liked to know what he thought about the movie.

wifed up wednesday: "how to be alone"

It's a sure sign that I haven't done anything crafty or domestic this week when I have to resort to youtube videos. But I feel like this is relevant to my situation currently.

My friend Scott of MULLETNSTEPS recently shared this video, and just in time for me really. I guess I hadn't realized how dependent on Taylor I've grown to be over the last year. Which I suppose isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be when he decides to leave me for a month. So, I've had to readjust to being alone again, not that I have been ALL the time (Lux is always lurking). But anyway...

I think it's important to have alone time. Now I'll stop and you watch this video.

wifed up wednesday: DIY "glittering landscape"

I found this project on apartment therapy. I saw it awhile ago but the other day I FINALLY got the last of our wedding gifts and left over decorations in mail from my dad. I found a couple of strands of Christmas lights and remembered this project.

So I went at it.

Here's what you need:

Mini Christmas lights
stretched and stapled Canvas
Hot glue or craft glue
Awl
Pencil
And optionally, you can paint the canvas before working with it.

This took me about 5 hours. Which, as you probably guessed, I was watching Mad Men so I didn't even realize how much time had passed.

First you need to mark where your lights are going to go. You can do this with a pencil on the back of the canvas.

Once you know where your lights are gonna go punch the holes in through the back with the awl (or whatever you have to punch holes). Then stick the lights through and secure them with glue (I used hot glue)


It's a pretty simple process, just time consuming.

 If I were to do it again (and I think I will) I would be a little more careful about where I put my lights AND I would have painted the canvas beforehand. Mine kind of looks abstract and random, but the lights still add a cool ambiance to whatever room you put it in.

The cab driver strikes again.

Taylor spent his Saturday in Tianjin (which contrary to what I thought, he is not staying in Tianjin, just near it.)

He took a bunch of pictures and bought me a "Prada" bag, but unfortunately I don't currently have access to either thing. But he told me a story that I wanted to share.

You might recall from a previous blog post a story about a friendly cab driver who attempted to win Taylor's friendship with promises of beers and women. This same cab driver was taking him to Tianjin on Saturday and decided to let Tayl know that he was "very pretty". Tayl was like, "Thank you, but I'm not really that great." And the cab driver was like, "Trust me I have seen a lot of foreigners and YOU are very pretty. Is your wife pretty like you?" And Taylor was like, "No man, she's a mutant." (OK, OK I'm lying. He said I was pretty, but of course he said that. Guys don't marry girls they think are ugly.) Then the cab driver started asking him about when we were going to to have pretty babies and Tayl said, "We're not sure. But my younger sister is pregnant." To which the cab driver replied, "Is your sister pretty too? She must be if she has the same face as you!"

That's pretty much the story but I find it very odd that the man used the word pretty. This conversation was in Chinese, but there is a Chinese word for "handsome" and this guy did not use it. 

ALSO, Taylor lost his passport for about a day, but then found it. He left it in a cab that he had luckily paid for and had the receipt and phone number to that cab. ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE. I thought he was going to have to be a Chinese citizen and miss our anniversay.

I have to blog about stuff that happens to him over there because my life is boring without him here.

angsty

OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAa

I miss Taylor SO BAD.

I don't even know what to do with myself.  I've just been having a Mad Men marathon (I can't believe I never watched this show before. It's so good)

I can hardly believe I have to endure 16 more days of this. No distraction in the world can make this time go by fast enough.

In other news, our anniversary is less than a month away. I want to spend a couple of days at the beach in Florida. But I don't want to spend tons of money. Any suggestions on which beach to go to?


If you read this, I will now reward you with a picture of a dog in a swing:

wifed up wednesday: TREAT YO SELF!

This week I don't feel very wifely. My husband is gone and I am "vacationing" so to speak in Atlanta. 
So I decided to write about something that I feel very strongly about.
I think that all people should set some time aside in their lives to TREAT THEMSELVES.
You don't have to spend money. Even if treating yourself means dropping your kids off at someone else's house for a few hours while you have a gossip girl marathon in your underwear. TREAT YO SELF.
Kids or no kids, married or not, male or female, everyone needs to make time for themselves. Not only for your sanity but to keep in touch with WHO YOU ARE. 
I had a real sucky week last week, so this week I am TREATING MY SELF in the ATL.
My first treat this week was meeting Liam Hemsworth at the Hunger Games cast event at the Lenox mall:

How do you TREAT YO SELF? With fine leather goods?

little trouble in big china.

After 24 hours of travel, Taylor made it to China in one piece.

We have been able to Skype and email a little whenever he wakes up and I'm getting ready for bed and vice versa (on account of the 13 hour time diff), which has been nice. It's like we have traveled back in time to the early days of our blossoming love affair.

ANYWAY, I asked him to update the blog with his various adventures in China, BUT he is unable to access google (which includes blogger) and also Facebook. I've found some of his email updates humorous so I thought I would copy and paste them in lieu of him blogging.

Sunday Night :

"I got here just fine. 

The flight from Seattle to Beijing was tough. It wasn't long into the flight that I started burping collard greens that I got from Paschal's in Atlanta airport and I knew everything wasn't ok. I sat in my seat with my belt undone for a while. Then got a coke and walked around in the back of the plane a little. Then I started to feel like I really might barf up those collard greens along with the chopsteak, so I stood in the airplane bathroom. For about an hour. Finally I just pooped. I hoped that would be the end, so I finally asked for my dinner. The chicken and stuffing smelled delicious, but when it hit my tongue my body was clearly rejecting it. So I went and stood in the other bathroom. While in there both times I preemptively cleaned the seats off and practiced squeezing my legs around the toilet in the tiny little room to get ready for when I lost it. But I just couldn't puke. So after another hour or so in there I sat back down and was fortunate enough to be able to sleep it off after eating a slice of cucumber. I finally was able to get my cold dinner down after the first hour or so nap. All in all I ended up sleeping quite a bit after that.

But I knew when it didn't come out the top end that it would later meet me at the back alley. And it did. As soon as I stood up to get off the plane it hit me that I needed to clear my bowels. And I had to wait for everyone to clear out. I followed the crowd out of the tunnel, up the escalator, noting that everything was in Chinese and thinking that I had pictured my first steps in China to be less frantic, and finally around the corner found the bathroom. It was very relieving, but by the time it had subsided I was left all alone. 

I followed the signs for baggage claim and eventually caught up with everyone at the customs desk. I made it through without a problem and found my driver that was arranged. It was Sindy's husband, Yang Yong He. It was an hour and a half drive or so to the hotel and we chatted the whole way. Until we stopped so I could pee on the side of the road. That was really the first I saw of China, when I stepped over the siderail of the highway to pee in the middle of the night. It was nice finally putting my Chinese to the test for the first time in so long. It was a struggle to remember some very basic words. When I went to tell him how we had locked ourselves out of the house on the way to the airport and had to reach my arm up in the doggy door to break back into the house to get the car keys I had to ask him how to say the words wallet and arm. Pretty weak. Along the way I told him how much I was looking forward to some good chinese food and mentioned a few of my favorites, so when we got close to the hotel he treated me to one of the things I mentioned, niu rou mian or beef noodle soup. It was excellent"

I probably should have warned you about all the toilet talk in that one, but whatever. It is what is, and it made ME laugh.

Monday he had the day off to adjust and rest. He sent me pictures of his breakfast. That is one thing I am happy about, that he gets to enjoy the Chinese food he loves so dearly. But this breakfast looks weird. 

Just as a side note, this breakfast cost 34 american dollars!

He got a haircut (which was crazy to me that they allow haircuts in China that aren't bowl cuts) and he sent me this email Monday evening:

"Dear Kynslie,
I didn't go sightseeing. I met up with Mark instead and he went over what all is going on here. Then we went over to Motorola. We walked by where they make all these phones. I was surprised when he said they don't even wear gloves when they're making them. It was cool to see how normal and crappy looking it is looking inside one of these huge corporations. Also, it's snowing a little. Also, people drive like maniacs here. There seem to be very loose interpretations of traffic laws. People don't care about lanes. It's crazy. Also, I love you. 

Your husband in love,
Taylor"

Later we skyped when it was a about two in the morning his time. He told me he was hungry so we parted ways. Later I got this email:

"Dear Kynslie,

I went to get some dumplings just now cuz i forgot to eat dinner. The first place the taxi driver tried to take me to was closed, so he kindly offered to take me to get some beers and have some pretty girls accompany me. I said no and he found me a 24 hour dumpling shop. Me likely. He gave me his number and wants to be my friend. Now I will try to sleep.

Love you long time,
Taylor"

It makes me feel so special to know that he turned down an offer so enticing as some beers and pretty Asian girls. 

Goodbye Tayl. Hello, Ryans.

this morning was crazy. we were walking out to my car to take Tay the airport when he started patting his pockets. he had forgotten his wallet inside. I handed my keys to him and I waited outside and destroyed some ant hills on the sidewalk. he walked out the door in a rush and i asked if he had the keys... he didn't. And he had locked the door. SO after about ten minutes of sheer panic he was able to finagle himself back in the house by strong-arming the lock through the doggy door.

we DID make it in time to the airport, with quite a bit of time to spare. when we pulled up to the curb and i got out of the car it all hit me at once and i started crying. I tried not to look at him cause that made it worse.

When I got back in the car after our goodbyes, it was like dejavu from 2 and a half years ago when Taylor came out to visit me and I had to send him home so he could come back in 3 weeks to drive with me to start my new life in Atlanta. I cried most of the drive home. Then I saw a Hooters billboard and stopped crying because it got me to thinking, and I got the best idea ever...

(this is where the blog takes a really strange turn, but i had to share this)

I developed a concept for a new restaurant which will basically a Hooters for women. I am going to find a way to clone Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds (and possibly try to create some kind of mixture of the two, just to see) and that way I won't have to worry about finding hot guys because that will pretty much cover every woman's needs. I mean, if you don't like BOTH Ryans then you like one or the other, and if you don't like either, you're either A) blind or B) a lesbian, and you can just go to Hooters. Ok?

So there will be a bunch of these serving you delicious food (oh yeah that's another difference, the food will actually be good)

 

You will come in and get to choose who you want to serve you. (this is where my mixed version of the two will come in handy if you can't decide.) Also I will make them dress classy and sexy. This isn't Chippendales for crying out loud!
 But if you tip good and ask nice they'll probably show you their abs.


And then since they are clones I will program them to say really nice things to you like:

and

and I'll be all THANKS RYAN!

So yeah, basically I've thought of everything. EXCEPT the name. I thought about "Ryans" but then that seemed too boring. Then I thought about something obscene like "balls" but that was too obscene, plus not as clever as Hooters, and I won't be out bested by them. Especially cause they still dress like they're in the 90's. 

So ladies, that's where you come in, I need suggestions for names if I'm gonna make this happen.