The Up and Up

Last week my friend Carrie and I road tripped out to Phoenix, AZ to take advantage of the PIT TICKETS to Arcade Fire that she managed to score in a pre-sale event for super cheap (Thanks Carrie!). Crammed in the pit and waiting for Win Butler to spontaneously crowd surf over us (never happened sadly, but I've heard it has at other shows) while dancing and trying to keep sneaky people from cramming their way in front of us, was in short: THE GREATEST EXPERIENCE.






(Photos courtesy of Carrie's iphone)


Can't get this song out of my head now...



And it was pretty great to see Local Native opening too! I'm pretty sure Carrie and I were the only ones who were actually singing along with all the words, (F.Y.I. Phoenix-ans are a stuffy bunch)but it is really cool to see how great they are live. I've been following them since they were 'Cavil at Rest' and now they are performing with Arcade Fire. So cool!




On Friday I'm seeing Mumford & Sons AND Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Thank you Jon Olsen!


This is an exciting month in the life of Camyron Lee, I will tell you that friends.
-Cam

Added Emphasis

Two reasons why I can't seem to stop smiling today...


My first article was published in my school newspaper! Not exactly a Pulitzer Prize winning story, but just to know that something all my own has been published is just plain exciting. Also, when I picked up today's printed issue(one of the 10 I snagged) I had made it onto the front page!

Clearing a spot on my refrigerator as we speak...

Check out the Daily Titan online edition and my Story!

Also, Just as exciting, I purchased my ticket to see one of my dearest friends Miss Maritza Skidmore at her place in Seattle!

Good things are happening friends.
Pardon the unnecessarily large amount of exclamation points(!!)

-Cam

Out of Style

Recently I have been pondering things that have become passe in my life time. I feel like it is one thing to hear an older generation telling a younger "In my day we used to...(fill in outdated tradition)". However, in my own life time I have personally observed things becoming "old fashioned". Things are advancing and becoming obsolete faster than I can keep track of, it is an interesting world we are currently living in. Here's the list of obsolete ideas, gadgets, and traditions that I have compiled:

*CD players
*CD's!(just go download it already)
*cassette tapes
*floppy disks
*VHS, please tell me I'm not the only one with an entire Disney collection on VHS!
*Non-smart phones, I feel like everyone has an i phone
*Myspace
*Talking on the phone is no longer the preferred method of communication:just text, email or Facebook me
*e-vites?
*paper applications, *just apply online
*Outdoor activities, what do you think a treadmill is for?
*Gym membership cards. If you have visited a 24 hour fitness lately, they have most likely shredded your membership card before your very eyes and set you up with a "finger print verification" instead. Totally Weird.


Notable technological developments in my life time, that have become near staples in the daily American life:
-iPod, iPad, iPhone
-Facebook
-Kindle
-iTunes
-Skype
-Text Messaging (emoticons, text-language, i.e. acronyms like: ikr, idk, lol, jk)
-Hybrid cars? Maybe the technology has been around longer, but Hybrids have definitely reached the height of their popularity over the last twenty years


Something I am convinced my kids(or grand kids) will never experience nor remember:

Bank Tellers, I'm convinced by the time I am in the 55+ age group I'll be telling my grand kids about how people used to actually go into banks(and work inside!), and they will look at me in disbelief and ask ..."Why didn't they just use an ATM?"


Fast Paced, crazy world we're living in.
Any other things you can think of that would fit on one of these lists?

Late Night Musings

Blogs I can't stop perusing....

I am a daily drop-in on my dear friend Blythe's blog. Blythe is currently wrapping up her second Dressember,the promise of 31 days of dresses has enticed me into visiting on a regular basis. Ever since my days of working in the Dress Department at Nordstrom, I've been in love with dresses. Which is why Blythe's impressive dedication to an entire month of them is simply fascinating to me!

Dressember in action:






Hoping to jump on board come Dressember 2011, hold me to it Blythe!

Another Blog I love, Cupcakes and Cashmere : flawlessly combines the enticing genre's of Fashion and Food. Fashionista Emily blogs about everything from "how to's" ( on make-up, curls, & hair-styles) to photo-cataloging
all sorts of confections she whips up. The photos are beautiful, her style is impeccable. I can't help but drop in a couple times a week to see what visual delight she has posted. Serious blog-stalking material!

Also, always hoping to be as cool as the kids on LOOKBOOK or as chic as the subjects of The Sartorialist .

For now I'll just blog stalk and enjoy being inspired by my weekly visits to all the blogs above. Visit them, and fall in love for yourself...

Very Merry

Happy Jolly Christmas.


Holidays are strange, ever notice that emotions seem to be running high come December 1st? Something about Christmas. Emotions that come to mind or that I have observed in the last month: nostalgia, excitement, anticipation, stress,an acute sense of loss, and an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

Nostalgia, sometime between Black Friday and December 24th an onslaught of traditions are relived and remembered each year. Every Christmas season most people follow the same cookie-cutter routine that they followed the year before, and the year before that. Repetition can be good and bad, it does not necessarily produce the same outcome regardless of how closely you follow the "recipe". Perhaps the gifts you chose last year were more heartfelt, or maybe the dinner turned out better, or any other reason you can think of...regardless of doing the same activity each year the outcome can be very different. I am convinced this is fact, not insanity. Which is why I have come to the conclusion that the holiday season regardless of the variety of time tested traditions we revisit each year, can fill us with a sense of nostalgia and longing for a distant place in our memory where the outcome was a bit different. Perhaps, better suited to the fairytale memory you constructed that year.

Anticipation and excitement is to be expected. The Christmas songs that dominate radio stations during the entire month of December, the extended store hours for your shopping convenience, the assortment of holiday foods: all attribute to this build up that continues to escalate until Christmas day. A whole month dedicated to one day, how could there not be some sort of static excitement in the air?

It is the acute sense of loss that I discussed above that has really struck me this holiday season the most,not only in my own life, but in the lives of my friends and acquaintances. Being a teller gives me an opportunity to have semi-lengthy conversations with a wide variety of people: for better or worse. I hear about people's financial success and troubles, along with numerous other unrelated topics. It is AMAZING/SHOCKING what some people tell the person depositing their paycheck. This Christmas however, I have really gotten an idea of how much pain the Holidays can bring to so many people. With holiday nostalgia comes a longing for the times when loved ones who have passed away were there to celebrate with us. Not having all the people you love with you for the holidays can make a seemingly joyous occasion, painful for so many people. I have nearly been in tears at work quite a few times this month after hearing the pain that people are facing during the holidays, which has caused me to hug my family a little tighter and be exceedingly grateful to have the ones I love with me this Christmas.

Oddly enough, when Thanksgiving was here I was in quite a funk. For some reason I had the selfish misconception that I did not have a great deal to be thankful for. I look back now, and I am completely disappointed in myself for being so blind and taking for granted all the things I have been immensely blessed with.So I'll end this exceedingly long post with a list of things that I am grateful for, a little late...but as they say, better late than never:

A family who loves me without condition
Friends who do the same
A home
A job
A car
The ability to afford and go to school(and only having one year left!)
A savior who continues to bless me, in spite of my ingratitude
Good listeners
Life lessons
Times of refining, and the beautiful outcome they produce
Goals(achieving those goals!)
And so many other unspoken blessings in my life

Tune it next time for: NEW YEARS resolutions!
Thanks for reading if you did...

Merry Christmas Eve!

Sunny One So True

Work, why must we? Why does money make the world spin and beauty get you everywhere in life? Why doesn't money grow on trees, and what exactly are those "best things in life" that are free?

Why when I attend a school with a staggering enrollment of 37,000 students, have I only managed to make less than five legitimate friends in the last three years? While walking to class recently I noted a few problems with today's "campus culture". No one makes eye contact in passing, people stroll in zombie-like trances to class, with their ipods blaring, earphones in, and text-able phones in hand. In a sea of people, everyone seems so surprisingly disconnected. Not that I am NOT a card-carrying member of this guilty demographic, but still, sometimes I think I do it just because everyone else does. Sure I enjoy listening to cheerful tunes while walking briskly to my next class, but do I do it because it makes me seem like everyone else? While everyone scrambles to fit in, their methods only seem to widen the social gap. We are on facebook, dating websites, chat-rooms(this may be a terribly outdated term, of which I am aware), AIM (maybe only if you are 15), and video chat, hoping to meet someone. Yet, when surrounded by thousands of faces we cannot seem to find the time or gather the gumption to make a friend or even eye-contact. I find it so ironic that as I said, I attend a huge university and yet when I am surrounded by people, all I can seem to do is retreat into a world of my current musical inclination, accompanied by my invisible friends on the receiving end of my text messages.



Also, Murphy's Law.
What a law, what a law, what a mighty bad law.
Darn you Murphy and your constant willing of things to go wrong!

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Tidbits from my exciting life as a college student.

My yoga teacher cannot remember that my name is Camyron, so he asked if he could call me "Camy". Usually, only my family or close friends call me this. It is weird hearing him call out in front of the class "Camy...you need to lean in to the pose more..."
His name is Patrick, fighting the urge to address him as Patty or Pat.

Also, my Political Philosophy Professor tells dirty jokes and attempts to relate them to philosophical concepts. He also ends every class by saying "Alright...party on".

I am pretty discouraged about my grand attempts to study abroad, the cheapest program available was a minimum of ten grand. TEN GRAND. More than I pay for school in a year. I am feeling a bit deflated when it comes to my grand adventure plans.

Told you it was exciting...