(Approximately) 19 Favourite Compliments

I have absolutely nothing to show for the past week and a half, but isn't that what summer's all about? It takes me back to the good old days (aka middle school) when summer was two solid months of sleeping in and going to the mall; none of this making-tuition-money and preparing-for-school bullshit. Semi-adult life sucks. At least full-fledged adults can spend their money on stuff they actually want instead of textbooks and dormitory damage charges.

IT'S LITTLE MERMAID NAIL POLISH. SO. BEAUTIFUL. 

I'm pretty sure bills and car insurance and taxes are just urban myths told to scare kids into not enjoying their childhood. Well, it's not going to work on me!

My friend Tawa got me a Flynn Rider doll for my 19th birthday (from Tangled AKA The Best Disney Film Ever Besides Monsters University). It's not like I roleplay with him or anything (*cough*), although I am pretty excited for him to meet my Brandon Walsh doll. I'm sure they'll be best friends/lovers forever.

Anyway, since I have recently turned nineteen years of age and can now drink legally in every province/territory in Canada (which I believe is cause for celebration), I wanted to list some of the best compliments I've received from my friends, family and random-ass strangers:

1. "Your nails look so good. Are they fake?"

No, these are not my nails, although I wish they were (chalkboardnails.com). I hacked off my nails in a fit of mania last week because half of them were breaking off, so they are no longer long and beautiful and Lana Del Rey-esque. 

They will be one day soon! I am in the midst of repairing them and readying them to be the fierce talons that are thus far but a hazy, sultry, tattooed, auburn dream. 

Before they broke, many people were asking me if my nails were fake, to which I gleefully responded, "They're REAL! Aren't they fabulous?" and to which everyone would say, "They're actually really creepy." Well, that's The Dream.

2. "You have perfect eyebrows."

Eyebrows are a tricky thing, as Demi Lovato knows. It's a very delicate balance, most of which people who have discovered tweezers struggle with horrifically. Hence, when people compliment me on my own, which are a carefully constructed face-framer resulting from two years living in constant fear of over-plucking or filling them in unnaturally, I think I've found my eyebrow sweet spot, as it were.

I mean, they're not terrible. They vary from day to day. Lana is, as per usual, the golden standard.

3. "You know that episode of How I Met Your Mother when Robin is trying to take a bad picture of Barney, but Barney looks good in every single photo no matter what? That's like you. You just have the perfect smile every time."

Pretty much. 

4. "Are you wearing fake eyelashes?"

By now you should have inferred that if anything about you is thought to be fake, you are at the pinnacle of beauty. Honestly, can you think of any higher compliment than looking too good to be true? Fakeness is a virtue, and faux-fakeness is godlike. 

Courtney Stodden is something of a role model to me.

5. "You're surprisingly smart"/

"You're surprisingly dumb"

This one really depends on what context you initially meet me in. If it's an academic context, then you may think me to be mature, sophisticated, insightful and even maybe intimidating. If you meet me in a social situation, then you'll most likely assume that I am the most air-headed person on the planet. Take for example, yesterday when I was plugging an electric pump into the socket of the car. I put the end where the air comes out into the socket, and the electric plug end into the air plug of the mattress. I didn't notice anything was wrong until my dad laughed at me. I just blame it on the fact that I am above such menial cognitive function. Kind of like when I got every question on my high school physics test right, except for the first one where I incorrectly manipulated v=d/t.

But I digress.

6. "Your shoulder dimples are so cute."

You can always fake it with piercings? *shudder*

I didn't even notice these until I was like 16. I just thought everyone had them. Apparently not.

7. "You have the best makeup collection ever."

I really don't, though. My collection is about 1/4 of the size of this one (which I found a picture of on tumblr and cannot find the owner to, so sorry, please don't sue me). I guess it's just because I have a lot of nice eyeshadow? It all just kind of appeared one day, so I can't take much credit for it. I'm too lazy for eyeshadow now anyway.

Compliments are pretty weird, if you think about it. Complimenting someone on a facial feature is kind of stupid because it's not really any of their own doing; you should really be complimenting their genetics. Complimenting someone on something they own could either reference their taste or style, which I suppose is admirable, or just how much money they have. Complimenting someone on a skill or talent or job-well-done is probably the most justified, in my opinion. At least that can't be bought or handed to you by your parent's chromosomes.

So maybe this wasn't 19 compliments, because I couldn't think of 19 nice things people have said to me. At least the ones I have received reinforced my boundless vanity! I should probably do a sequel post about the worst compliments I've received (like when a friend told me my hair reminded her of Blake Lively. I was going for Ke$ha, but fine. That's fine). I feel like that would be a thousand times more entertaining.

To make the finale (fee-nal-aaaayyyy) of this post more exciting, here are some catlike representations of me in various life situations:

Me when I run into my crush and try to act cool

Me stepping outside on a winter morning and underestimating the snowfall

Me on the first run at a ski hill

Me showing affection to my friends

Me trying to understand quantum physics

Me when I smell bacon

Me at the Disney Store

...I think that's enough for now.

Ten Teenage Crushes

I recently read a post by the very funny Kate of the blog Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine in which she lists ten crushes she's had. Some of them were adorably embarrassing, and it got me thinking about my own crushes over the past few years, and particularly the embarrassing celebrity ones.
I may still technically be a teenager, but that doesn't mean I don't look back on my junior high days with varying levels of shame and regret at my unrequited loves. Also, using the word "crush" here is very much an understatement. When I develop a crush on someone (real or fictional or famous, but mostly famous), I become obsessed. Like, literally. I watch all of the movies they're in, watch all of their interviews online, create folders on my computer filled with photos of them... Sometimes I think better of it just in case I actually meet said celebrity crush and they fall madly in love with me, only to be driven away by my stalkerness, but I'd rather have easy access to those shirtless photos.

So without further ado, here's my list, in kind-of order from way back to now:

1. The 8th Grade Fantasy: Ed Westwick

I don't remember having any crushes until I was 13 and started watching Gossip Girl. I mean, there were cute guys at my school and stuff, but they were kind of immature and obnoxious. Gossip Girl was the love of my life for a few years, before it kind of went off the rails and into shitsville. It wasn't even so much Ed that I liked as his character, Chuck Bass; he was so witty and brooding and secretly romantic that even his flaws seemed irresistible. The height of this passion would definitely have to be making Chuck and Blair wallpapers and writing fanfiction. Oh, the good old days.

2. The Everyone Loved Him at Some Point: Zac Efron

This one's a given. I didn't even start liking him until a few years after High School Musical. The scene in 17 Again when he's wearing those sunglasses and that leather jacket and he gets out of his car and locks it without looking back has got to be one of the best cinematic moments I've ever experienced. 

Zac's been one of my biggest obsessions to date, so much so that my 15th birthday party was Zac Efron-themed. If you don't believe me, I have proof:

Yes, that is a cake with his face on it. I had it custom-made. There was also a HSM tablecloth (pictured), HSM cups and plates, a HSM pinata (luckily for me, all this stuff was still popular), and about 50 pictures of him taped up around the house. The one in the dining room stayed for about 2 years before my dad finally forced me to take it down.

I also taped a picture of Vanessa Hudgens to the pinata, just so I could hit her in the face repeatedly with a baseball bat. 

3. The Mid-2000s N*SYNC: The Jonas Brothers

One Direction who? Not much needs to be said about this one; they were the metrosexual heartthrobs of my generation. And the reason I listed all of them collectively was because I oscillated between them; at one particularly dark point in my life, I was deeply in love with Kevin simply because no one else was and I wanted to be unique. He was my Msn Messenger icon. It was that real. 

4. The I'm Too Cool for Edward Cullen: Jackson Rathbone

So we're entering the Twilight era, and I will never, ever like Robert Pattinson. Besides, Jasper was always my favourite vampire. Sure, Emmett was pretty funny, but Jasper was so... angsty. His body language was worth a hundred of Emmett's sex jokes.

Kellan Lutz kind of reminds me of a beefed-up Seann William Scott, and I don't know how I feel about that. 

5. The Most Beautiful Man Alive: Matt Lanter

Matt Lanter is one of those guys who is just way too good-looking to be human, kind of like Ryan Reynolds. They're so hot that you can't ever take them seriously. I remember when he first appeared on 90210, and everyone was flipping shit. Obviously they had to boot the boring dude no one cared about so Matt could become a permanent ratings boost (side note: I'm friends with a girl who was Dustin Mulligan's neighbour AKA Ethan, the guy that got bumped off after season 1. Basically Matt Lanter and I are BFFs). I'm pretty sure he's the only reason anyone watched 90210; he's the only reason I did.

6. The Animated Crush: Flynn Rider

I don't even care that he's a fictional character because he is damn sexy. I've had conversations at length with various friends over the pervertedness of viewing animated characters in a sexual light. I think it's most appropriate when it's a human character like Flynn. Or He-Man. Whatever you're into. The lines start to get blurry when you talk about non-human characters and drift into that beastiality-esque area.

Still, my view on My Little Pony is that the characters were meant to be viewed as kind-of humans... how else could those male ponies be so alluring?

He's wearing a bowtie and vest. He's basically Owen Wilson from Wedding Crashers.

Okay, I'm going to stop before this goes too far.

7. The Second Animated Crush: Emperor Kuzco

I wish I was just joking with all this stuff, but I'm really not.

Remember, from The Emperor's New Groove? The TV show was even better, in my opinion.

He's kind of like an Egyptian Barney Stinson. Also, it took an entire high school education to learn that Emperor's New Groove doesn't actually take place in Egypt. I think they were Mayans or something? But I mean, come on, who could blame me? They had fancy hats and pyramid-things and those haircuts... anyone could have made the same mistake. Excuse me if I don't know the geographical origins of llamas.

Also, this picture has been my iPod background for a solid year and a half. I can't imagine my life without the internet.

8. The Fuzzy Heart: Jason Segel

This one's more of a personality crush, where he is just adorable and talented and I love it. He definitely made the first few seasons of How I Met Your Mother for me, and the Muppets was amazing and I may/may not have screamed and/or cried the entire way through. When that snobby bitch Michelle Williams broke up with him because she "wasn't looking for anything serious," I wanted to punch her in her pursed little mouth. (I'm sure she's actually very nice, but it's one of those things where I just dislike her for no particular reason. Kind of like Natalie Portman. She's just too sweet and intelligent. Something's clearly wrong there.)

He was such a stud in Freaks and Geeks, though.

9. The True Teen Heartthrob: Jason Priestley

When I was about 16, I started watching Beverly Hills 90210 (the old one), and Brandon Walsh was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. He was such a do-gooder, and it was so hot. It's the kind of crush that's like true love, where over time it just deepens into this kind of warm, comfortable affection. I'll never find anybody as good as Brandon.

And yes... I have the doll. 

Speaking of obsessions, I'm obsessed with '90s television. It was just so much better than the crap we have these days (not that I don't watch Honey Boo Boo from time to time). In fact, anything before the new millennium was awesome. Doogie Howser MD holds a special place in my heart. He can be an honorary member on this list.

How can anyone say no to 16-year-old Neil Patrick Harris? He totally would have been my tween crush, if I hadn't been born in the wrong decade.

10. The Love of My Life: Miles Teller

This one is extremely important. 

If you don't know who he is, good, because I want him all to myself. The first movie I saw Miles Teller in was Project X (yes, I saw that in theatres- we almost didn't get let in because it was rated R and we were 17 at the time, but one of my friends was 18 so she was allowed to be our "chaperone." Don't worry, she covered my eyes during the bad parts). I remember briefly thinking, "Oh, that guy's pretty cute," and that was the end of that. A few months ago I saw 21 and Over (I was 18 this time so I was allowed to watch the bad parts- heheh, butts), and that's when it all started. 

It's not that he's the hottest guy in the world or anything like that. He kind of reminds me of Jason Segel, except young and hot and an even better dancer. There's just something about him that I love, and I don't quite know what it is. My best guess is that we're soulmates.

Also, this was an accident. Well, a sort-of accident. I was perusing random posters and autographs on eBay when I stumbled upon this beauty, and I never wanted anything so badly since my Brandon Walsh doll:

It's just the most hilarious thing. Anyway, I made an offer on it, only briefly considering whether or not I would be locked into buying it if my offer got accepted (I'm not very good at eBay). Turns out it did get accepted, and yes, I was now obligated to buy it. There are definitely worse fates to be had.

So basically, I now own something that he touched/breathed on. I hope I don't get pregnant. I'll wear gloves.

And that leads me to the present. If you haven't already checked out Kate's list, make sure you do so, and let me know who your 10 crushes are! I'm getting so lonely that I might have to post comments on my own blog under different names to make myself look popular. Let's not make that happen. 

OH! One last thing. I know I already used up my 10 crushes (it was a difficult decision cutting it down to these sexies), but I just wanted to add Alan Rickman in there.

I could care less that he's like 70; that voice is timeless. Sense and Sensibility was so wonderful that you didn't even notice that he was ~30 years older than Kate Winslet. Also, Snape.

I'm done now, I promise.