Kate & Allison

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 marks the release of Mariah Carey's latest project, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. Chalk one up for Mariah for yet another cheesy album title, but the album is pretty legit. As a die-hard fan I was able to obtain the CD early, so I have already formed my opinions on it...

It is interesting to see how she has had basically two different careers over the course of 19 years in the business and 14 (THAT IS A LOT people, over twice as many as Whitney, and 50% more than Madonna, and they have been around for 25 years) studio albums- so those out there who are "old school" fans will find only a few power ballads to remind them of the Old MC.

It's funny to me when people complain that Mariah's music has changed, or they "love Mariah Carey music" but are shocked when it sounds completely different than her first 3-4 albums. She has not had that sound for over 12 years- ha ha. Oh the glory days of the 90's...

But those who are into mainstream R&B and possibly pop can find more than enough tracks to enjoy. I absolutely love The Dream, the artist who produced the majority of the album along with Mariah, and together they wrote 90% of the songs. He is responsible for many hits you'll hear around on the radio these days (Umbrella, Single Ladies, etc), and his style of heavy beats and laid-back vocal arrangements is right up my ally. They do a lot of clever things with the engineering that is unique to their sound together. Also they have a habit of making lots and lots of jokes in their songs, there is no shortage on this album.

Overall I'd say this is my 3rd favorite album of Mariah's. Great driving music.

I liked this review from the Associated Press (and yes, I do read the bad reviews as well, and understand their criticisms. But this album has yet to have any negative reviews to note)--

Associated Press
By Mesfin Fedaku

Music Review: Carey's 'Imperfect Angel' is perfect

"I should crack you right in your forehead," Mariah Carey sings on the breakup tune "It's a Wrap."

The song, on her latest CD, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," finds a hungover Carey kicking her lover to the curb with particularly harsh words.

"Another early morning, and you walk in like it's nothing ... ain't no doughnuts, ain't coffee," she sings with attitude in her signature high-pitch tone. "Let me take a breath and regain my composure, told you more time, if you (expletive) up it's over."

But even though she's spitting venom, Carey's cooing on the doo-wop sounding song is so sensuous and sweet, even the song's intended target will remain under her spell – as will her listeners.

"Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel" is an exceptional album that is about love – being in it, out of it, over it and trying to reach it. While the subjects are tried and true, they are never tired, thanks to Carey's approach, which mixes a good dose of humor and wit with her multi-octave voice.

"Betcha Gon' Know," the disc's opening track, sets the tone as Carey compares the seriousness of her broken heart to news programs like "60 Minutes," "20/20" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Carey produced and wrote the majority of the album with Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The-Dream" Nash – and those hitmakers add their own touch to "Imperfect Angel" without overdoing it.

"Ribbon," which bumps with southern flavor, is radio-friendly, showcasing The-Dream and Tricky's signature sound. As does "Standing O," with its addictive hook.

Other notables tunes include "H.A.T.E.U." ("Having a Typical Emotional Upset"), a beautiful heartbreak ballad, and the top-notch "Candy Bling," a teenage love affair tune that finds Carey so in love she "can't delete your picture from my mind."

Some of the tracks use samples: "Inseparable" interpolates Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" and "The Impossible" finds Carey "layin' in the bed bumpin' Jodeci." The latter samples the R&B group's hit song "Forever My Lady."

"Imperfect Angel," though helmed by The-Dream and Tricky, still maintains a classic Mariah sound – especially on the soothing "Angels Cry" and its accompanying prelude, and the personal "Languishing," highlighted by a piano.

No one is perfect – that's obvious. This CD is – that's obvious too.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "It's a Wrap" joins tracks like "Vision of Love," "Always Be My Baby" and "We Belong Together" as a classic Mariah song.

Tell me some good blogs to put on my Google Reader. You guys just aren't cutting it lately, I need things to keep me occupied for 5-10 minutes at a time when my professors and/or employers are not saying anything important whatsoever.

While I wait for you to tell me the BEST blogs you read (weird, funny, great writing, useful, anything you enjoy), I will post this video of a man's progress over 365 days of exercising.

S-i-g-n-i-f-i-c-a-n-t.

Isn't it interesting how people automatically get more tan and oily once they start to get ripped?

VIDEO

The goodbyes of summer:

I had to say goodbye to Kristen Berry, I hated that! But luckily we had a ton of time to hang out this summer with all of the dogsitting and babysitting for Scala's we were trading off on. This girl is so deep and has been through so much stuff I don't have a clue how she turned out as amazingly as she has. But she is so well-put-together and insightful. I love having her in my life!


Also, my beach friend, Dave was basically one of few sane people I met this summer. I can't tell you how relaxed and happy I felt when he was around. He always seemed to know when stuff was going on at my job and was nice enough to listen to me vent for hours when he'd probably rather be surfing. I already miss his laid-back funny personality.
(he wouldn't let me take any pics of him...)


And then there's Stacy Eubanks- why she showed up at the END of summer I'll never understand, but I'm glad she didn't come 2 weeks later at least. I was getting pretty antsy to leave and get on with life in Utah, and I was getting bored to say the least. I was busy enough, but friend-wise I was really getting homesick (really not normal for me)! I had the best time hanging with her before I left, and whether she believes it or not, I learned a LOT from all of those convo's we had. And to embarrass her even further, I will say that I haven't been that inspired by someone's "story" in a loooong time. I have to suck up in this blog so that she'll come visit the land of Zion sometime soon...



It was much more difficult to leave than I had anticipated. Sarah and I had gotten really close over the last few weeks, and I think it finally hit me that she would be back to being basically alone in the house when it came to certain things. With things being like a roller-coaster when it came to her brother, and her dad leaving for a big part of the week, she really takes care of herself most of the time. Hopefully we can stay in touch enough that she'll feel comfortable calling me with issues she trusted me with while I lived there. It was so cute, she could have just said goodbye to me the night before I left, but she insisted on waking up at 4am with me to send me off.


I miss you all! Hope to see each of you sooner than later.

Well, it looks like I could not quite keep it together long enough through August to blog every day. Not too many blog-worthy events took place in that second half, although it was obviously significant to me since it was the end of my summer.

My hodge-podge account of a few of the last days in New York:

Sarah and I cooking a LOT of food... teaching her homemade mac'n'cheese, any type of potatoes (she's obsessed!), various salads.

Sarah basically ripping off any and all of my music she might potentially want to hear... it scares me how much "grown up" music she enjoys. Of course I got her hooked on Mariah, so there's at least 150 songs...

Sarah doing a lot of tumbling on the beach all of the sudden.




Bob and Sarah

Sharon, Carly's nanny- all day every day we "worked" hard at the beach.

Sarah and BFF, Carly


I went into the city with Stacy (the new girl:) and her nanny family's former nanny, Kim (get it?). It was a funny experience to say the least. We had some Italian food with Kim's friends, then Stace and I basically just wandered around chatting 'til it was time to catch the train back home.

I wish I could post the video of our scary "1:00 am attempt at getting a cab from the train station" situation, but I don't think anyone would get what was going on unless they were there. Just imagine an abandoned town (no one anywhere in sight), 3 girls standing at a train station under a street light, and 2 very large African American men circling the block slowly, looking at the 3 girls. Then imagine that car parking near the 3 girls, and the guys just sitting in the car. Then picture about 10 minutes later one of those men getting out of the car and walking toward the 3 girls. All the while Katelin video taping it, trying to remain calm and nonchalant. Sooooo funny is all I can say!

Pics from that night that make me laugh (basically the only ones we got):

Our odd choice of hang out spot- almost to Times Square


The entertainment for the night- buying a drink


While dog-sitting I read the book Mafia to Mormon- have you guys heard of it? It was such a cool (true) story written by a man who was raised in the Mafia and in the midst of his working for them ended up converting to Mormonism. It was wild! Thanks for letting me borrow the book, Underwood.

The next week was the infamous Wipeout show, Congrats to T-Roll for his victory!! I have gotten over my sheer inability to believe he had kept it so well hidden that he won. I am now happy that I thought he lost, it made it much more fun to watch. The only thing is now at school I have people coming up to me, people who I haven't seen in ages, only to bring up TYLER and WIPEOUT and how AWESOME it was... and oh yeah- how have you been, Katelin? I haven't seen you in YEARS...

Then that Friday I got in my car and picked up Sister Weidler, my branch president's wife. She rode with me and we had some great convo's and it was really nice to have someone with me to help the time pass faster. We drove for 3 days and arrived Sunday, August 30. Also thanks Stacy for texting me basically the whole time... you know I would have gone insane at times without it (RL especially)!

OHHHHHHHHHHHH YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Listen to Mariah's version of I Want To Know What Love Is, the Foreigner power ballad.

Went to church at the single's branch today. Nannies stick together out here, so when the new girl introduced herself as a recent college grad from Arkansas (great accent) coming to the island to nanny, I knew she'd want a little help adjusting. Church was the first place I found any friends out here, at times it was a lifesaver before I knew my way around.

I offered to take Stacy into the City later that night for her first time since I'm leaving soon... that's risky because if the person turns out to be kind of annoying I would be stuck with them all night (I have made that mistake before).


Luckily she was cool! I had been feeling like my life revolved around Males this whole summer, so it was fun to hang out with a girl for once.

Also, the fact that she just finished graduate school yet still chose to nanny is validation for all of us in this profession :)

We didn't take any pics that night, so I will include this photo that cracks me up (this girl is never this serious):



We walked all around the city that night, it was terribly hot. It was like a rainforest out there. We probably walked close to 100 blocks in flipflops...(we went straight from church- so it was that or heels!) From 34th Street to the Temple on 65th, through Central Park and everywhere in between.

This is my sweet blister the next day due to the flip flops:


Later that night I stayed at Scalamandre's with Kristen Berry, dog sitting.

Oh no! Behind again. Well since I don't remember a thing that happened on Saturday August 15, I'll use the opportunity to post some of the funny and interesting links I have stumbled across lately.

Aladdin SNL skit...Whole New World

Very funny, an article showing some of the most funny Google searches that come up in autofill feature on Google. Doesn't sound that funny, but trust me.


If you like Taylor Swift, you will like this. Maybe even if not. She's rapping. My favorite line, "I'm so gangsta, you can find me baking cookies at night. You out clubbin? Well I just made caramel delight!"

Reason for loving this line: I baked cookies on the night of my 21st birthday while living 20 minutes from New York City.

2 songs I like:

Colbie Caillat, Fearless (once there you have to click on Fearless)

Nelly Furtado, Manos Al Aire


If you want to know how much cash your different electronic devices are using, use this calculator (AC, TV, Heater, etc.)

And finally, Money! I am a big Suze Orman fan, but if you're not, don't stop reading!! I think she promotes really healthy attitudes about money, even if specific advice leaves room for argument. She gets women especially to understand the underlying fears/feelings/imbalances concerning the money in their life. This month's column in O Magazine was extra good, in fact I felt like it summed up all of most crucial parts of the Suze Orman books I have read. Even if you do not feel you are struggling financially, this article will open your eyes to your behavior and ways to improve. I can count on one hand the people I have observed in my life who are truly "healthy" when it comes to money, and it has nothing to do with their net worth. So much of how we feel about ourselves is revealed in our exterior circumstances, including our finances (and vice versa).

I have included what I found one of the most critical topics covered in the article, but I would urge you to read the whole thing here: Suze Orman: What Money Has Taught Me About Personal Power

6. How you respect your possessions says a lot about how you respect yourself.

My closets are temples of organization. But they have been a work in progress. When I was just starting to make money as a stockbroker, I would come home after a long day and throw my clothes on the floor; by the weekend I had a pile of disheveled items that I schlepped off to the dry cleaner. I spent a lot of money having clothes cleaned and pressed because I was too lazy to hang them up at the end of the day. Sound trivial? I don't think so. It was symptomatic of my lack of respect for the money I had worked so hard to earn.

Cars are another dead giveaway. I once knew a woman who had serious external power and a super-impressive career. But her car was a disgusting mess: fast food wrappers all over the place and a trunk that was a mini-dump. One day she was driving us somewhere and asked me to pull her wallet out of her purse; my hand came back smeared in lipstick. Ick. No surprise, her financial life was a mess, too. I was at her house once when someone from the utility company came by to turn off her service because of lack of payment. Do you really think this was a happy woman? When you can't manage to keep the power turned on, exactly how much are you in control of your destiny?

And buying what you can't afford, regardless of how well you take care of it, is flat-out disrespectful of yourself. Purchasing a home with a crazy mortgage just because you think it is your right to be a homeowner—and then not being able to keep up with the payments—is not being true to your circumstances. Leasing a fancy car to keep up appearances when you have to borrow from your 401(k) to make the payments, or don't have enough to fund your Roth IRA? Tell me what that is all about!

If you don't respect what money can buy, you don't respect money. If you don't respect your financial obligations—paying your bills on time, buying only what you actually have the money for, saving for your future—then you don't respect money. And if you don't respect money itself, that is a sign you are not respecting yourself. It takes hours, weeks, and months working at a job to earn the money you then spend. To turn around and use that money in a wasteful or powerless way is just heartbreaking to me. You deserve better.

I want you to measure your power right now by walking through your home. First, open every closet and every drawer, and take a serious look in the garage, including the interior of the car. Are things organized or a mess? Next, pull out everything that still has a sales tag attached or is in unopened packaging. Why did you buy it? More important, when did you buy it? Perhaps when you were feeling less than? Every possession you bought is waiting to tell you a story. Take the time to learn the lessons that your money can teach you, and you will be on the path to building lasting and gratifying internal power. I'll bet all my money on it.

Today (actually TODAY! All caught up) was great, the water finally cleaned up and the beach was back to blue water and breeze. My beach friend, Dave came by and we chatted all day per usual. The conversation was mainly focused on his surfing travels to Africa, Brazil, Chile, Central America, and beyond. He runs a landscaping business, so once fall clean up is finished he takes off all winter to warmer climates. I am so jealous of this that I grill him about it most days.

Tonight I took Sarah to the carnival for her first time ever!!! Can you believe that? 12 years old and she had no idea what the Zipper felt like. She has never even been on a roller coaster of any kind. Not a teacup, not a Ferris wheel. Although due to my overwhelming motion sickness I could not go on anything with her, it was awesome to see how much fun she had going on all the rides like 10 times with her buddy Carly.



First time fair-goer! I'm holding my Zeppoli, hence the bizarre positioning of us both.

August 13, 2009

Today Sharon, Sarah's BFF Carly's nanny, invited Sarah and I to go with her and Carly to Smith Haven Mall. It is pretty far away, as is basically anything "chainy", so Sarah was stoked because she's only been once in her life. It was another rainy day so we were excited to get some school shopping done...

Sharon comes to pick us up and we're on our way! But wait, Sarah has forgotten her wallet which is at Carly's. OK, let's go by Carly's to get it. Alright, changing routes. We get to this intersection:


We're stopped at the light, and I'm looking down, going through my purse. Next thing I hear is Sharon going, "OH MY! OH MY!" I look up to see this girl coming right at us, skidding, not attempting to swerve, just sliding right into our car. She makes impact and just starts apologizing for the next 30 minutes as we make the accident report with the police. Also when the cops came she just kept saying, at least 7 times, "It's 100% my fault- I was going too fast and the roads were slick." OK, that makes it easy for all of us then! Kind of an odd girl. Our first reaction was just to laugh, it was so crazy! She just came right at us and we were just stopped there, watching. Luckily no one was hurt and the car was basically fine.


Our car (Sharon's employer's car, Carly's parents):


Her car (She was about Sharon's age, 22, and they actually even sort of knew each other... small town!):


My favorite part of the incident: After the girl pulled over at a nearby business, she got out of her car and came walking over to us, paying no mind to the 2 lanes of traffic she was walking through. We were still in the intersection. So Sharon yells, over the loud traffic, "Don't get hit by a car!" to which the girl makes a puzzled, yet slightly annoyed face. "I'm not gonna get in your car!!??" She says, offended, as if Sharon was afraid she'd get in. Laughing about this as I type.

We made it to the mall and we got Sarah her first 2 pairs of skinny jeans. Congrats.

August 12, 2009



Happy Birthday to my best sister, Erin Lyn!! Thanks for being a great big sister and a wonderful mother to my niece and 3 nephews. I love you!!




Today it rained. A lot. All day. Sarah went to volleyball and then her friend Carly invited her to go to her house, so she did. All day. I did nothing while she was gone.

When she got home we decided to go to Pizza Hut, again (she thinks it's a tradition now). We then waxed our eyebrows, THAT was funny. She kept asking me if it was gonna hurt and I completely downplayed it until I got the wax on her. Then I warned her it would probably hurt quite a bit! She pretended to be mad at me, but once she saw her beautiful, non-unibrow brows, she thanked me. I didn't get a pic but believe me, they are much improved!