Amanda Blog and Kiss

AB&K grows up

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:47:22 +0000

Hello all!

I have finally followed through on a January 2011 project, and moved my blog over to: www.amandablogandkiss.com

Better 10 months late than never, right?

I have also just posted an explanation of my previous post, and why I have been MIA for a little while.

Thank you for your patience! I’m back! (Over here.)

A pause to regroup

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:20:33 +0000

I’m sorry for the delay. I’m going through something of a personal crisis lately, one big event has changed the way I feel about many things. I don’t feel that I can blog again until I face this one issue in words, and until then I have to stay a little away from my blog. But I hope to have a post for you soon. So thank you for your patience. I’m still here.

Mi Indicando Le Cose Piccole, Italian Edition (Me Pointing At Small Things, Italy)

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Sat, 28 May 2011 22:04:44 +0000

So I went to Rome and yadda yadda culture- gladiators- yadda yadda, but what I really want to show you first is the small things that I found!

Micro-Harmonica!

Piiiiiiccolo Gelato!

Itty-Bitty Bagels!

Scrimpy Little Shirts for Teensy Tiny Men!

And my favorite discovery:

Pocket Espresso!

Here is me enjoying my pocket espresso on the train to Milan, afterwhich I promptly fell asleep. So much for caffeine burst!

Infintisemal Amount of Caffeine!

And last but not least, a photo that I didn’t take of the buses in Rome. Because, while they may be small, they are quite quick, and my hands were always too full of cones of gelato to snap a photo.

Bitty Buses for Liliputian Commuters!

A Glimpse Back to Rome, 1998

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:28:57 +0000

Tomorrow I hop on a big tin plane bound for Rome where I will meet up with a friend, and afterwards take a train to Milan where I will see my cousin for a day.

Before that, however, I will take my Dutch driving test.

Take a guess which one I am more excited about!

This driver’s license thing has been going on for well over a year now, and I regret ever beginning the process, which is long and complicated and expensive and involves not one, not two, but three tests! And the funny thing is, I don’t even need a license for living in Amsterdam. I have an American license that suits me just fine should I wish to rent a car, and I have no intention of ever actually buying a car in this lifetime.

But I started the process, and am one day away from finishing it, so this will be a huge weight off of my chest. I’ll consider it a Dutch right-of-passage if I get the damn thing, although none of my Dutch friends have their license either, so….

Yeah, basically it’s just been a waste of time and money.

Anyway! The tin plane! To la bella citta di Roma!

The first time that I landed in Rome, I was a naive and uncultured silly little thing of 18 years. I was backpacking around Italy for 3 weeks on my own, and seeing what trouble I could get up to. Plenty it turned out!

Rome was the city where I experienced my first body shot on a pub crawl. In fact, I think it was the first time I had ever tasted tequila at all, much less off of the salty neck of another backpacker from Chicago.

Pedro was his name.

Aaahh, Pedro rued the day he ever came into contact with me when I nearly took his bottom lip with the lemon slice that he held in his mouth for me (ouch!). From that point on, things got sketchy (or I should say sketchier), and resulted in poor Pedro literally carrying me through the city of Rome back to my hostel in the wee hours of the morning, stopping kindly to let me off so that I could puke at various points of interest such as the mighty Colosseum, which I assure you looks much less grandiose at 4 in the morning next to my pile of vomit.

Good times they were.

I do imagine, however, that at the much more mature age of 30 my upcoming trip to Rome will involve drinking in more of the culture, and less of the vino. Priorities have to change at some point in your life, ey?

Oops

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Sun, 15 May 2011 10:19:44 +0000

Titles of TV shows that I found interesting before learning the hard way that they were on the “adult spice” channel:

Country Wives
My Teenage Blog
A Week In Provence
Plumbers & Pipes
Carmella has a wish
Unsafe Haven
The Cleaners
Snowball Fight
AssCapades 2, Ass Harder*

*OK maybe I could have guessed this one.

Things I am getting good at that can never go on my resume:

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:26:04 +0000

Collecting urine samples from the dog without getting pee on my hand
Vacuuming with my new Dyson vacuum cleaner
Predicting within 3 chapters of a book whether or not I will like it (and thus abandoning it)
Mixing up work and play twitters (and calling someone a “boob” from my work twitter)
Pining over amazing shoes online (but never actually buying any)
Helping my flatmate find The Perfect Dress for a specific occasion

If you can think of any position that requires all of the above then I’m your woman!

On Dreams and Being Dutch-i-fied

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:05:29 +0000

Last night I had a confusing dream about the girl from Florence NJ who is missing. This hits close to home for me because it is literally close to home. Her car was found next to the house I grew up in, where my dad still lives. My cousins know her, she lives a two minute walk away from my grandmother.

In my dream I had an idea of what might have happened to her. But of course, it was a dream scenario, and while moving from the dreamworld to the waking world, while still in that fuzzy half-asleep place, I knew that my theory was incorrect. But, similar to what her friends and family must be thinking right now, frustration led me to ask myself, “Maar wat is er gebeurd met dat meisje???*”

And then I laid there in bed thinking, “…Did I just speak to myself in Dutch?”

Surely this is a step in the right direction to full-blown Dutch-i-fication! If I wasn’t so tired I would have high-fived myself.

But back to the subject at hand: if anyone has any idea what might have happened to Sarah Townsend, please please please contact the Burlington Township Police on 609-386-2019. I have a lot of hope and faith that she will be back in her family’s arms soon.

*”But what has happened to that girl???”

Une petite difference

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:28:41 +0000

Marijuana seeds sent in the post from the hotel.

This time to France!

By golly that brought a bit of excitement to the night.

France for a change! FRANCE!

Me Pointing at Small Things, Edinburgh Edition

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:16:49 +0000

So you know that trip to Edinburgh I took over a month ago? Well I just got around to looking at the photos….you’d think that, because I hadn’t seen my parents in months and months, I would have taken lots of photos of my parents and the fun we were having.

Not so.

I took photos of me with small things.

Here we go!

Cutesy Cupcakes!

And then I went to the Museum of Childhood and found a whole floor- A WHOLE FLOOR- of dollhouse things! After I keeled over and DIED, I stood back up again and started pointing….

TEEEEENSY teacups!

And then in the next cabinet I found something not so cute, yet still tiny….

Bitty Butcher Shop.

And then I went for a coffee and found quite the opposite of small. The biggest mother-effin cup I’ve ever had a soy latte in.

Big Bucket of Coffee. Like Whoa Man.

And after this coffee things got a little blurry as I dinged from one end of Edinburgh to the next, hyped up on caffeine overdrive, chattering a mile a minute. I think in the end I was restrained with a leash. And I’m not sure, but maybe a muzzle too.

In other news, my little cousin was just here for the weekend from Paris where he is spending a semester abroad. At least….I think he was here. That might have been him sleeping on my couch when I peeked out in the living room at 5 am, but I guess I can’t be sure.

I remember my first trip to Amsterdam when I was nineteen (his age now in fact), and from the look of his trip, it went pretty much the same- stumbling around in a stupefied daze, enjoying just being here and enjoying all of the oddities that Amsterdam has to offer.

Who am I to intrude on that experience? I’ll make him spend time with his older boring cousin on his next trip here.

And one last thing, now that I’m blogging and I have no idea when the next post will come.

My dog! She has hair like Charlie Sheen!

Not bi-polar....Bi-Winning

Will wonders never cease.

Fairy Farts

Amanda Blog and Kiss — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:51:53 +0000

As you read this blog post, imagine that I am reading it out loud to you. While I am reading it out loud, imagine that I am skipping over a flower-strewn hillside, dressed in a dirndl skirt a-la-Heidi (and sure, maybe I have a horse dressed in a dirndl with me). While I am skipping and reading- nay, singing – this post out loud to you, I am also throwing glitter into the air around me.

That, my friends, is how I feel these days.

I could go into the where’s, why’s and how’s of why I feel like a fairy on crack these days, but it’s actually boring to hear.

I’m simply….happy. I have ideas flowing, I have a full social month ahead of me, a trip to Copenhagen coming up, and most importantly, I’m getting a lot of sleep. Come to think of it, I’m probably slaphappy on sleep more than anything.

So if you happen upon this blog and you haven’t seen hide nor hair of me in awhile, just picture me up on that hillside, skipping away, glitter in my hair.