this one's for derek

songbird
Originally uploaded by mattamberpool.

that time of year

nunkin
Originally uploaded by mattamberpool.

i'm proud of my carving. check out amber's too.

go see it

tagged, in the wake of my beautiful wife.

originally from lindsay.
i'll try to keep it short and sweet as hell.

10 years ago: i'm 15. freshman/sophmore, somewhere in there. i'm listening to sad smashing pumpkins songs and acting depressed. wearing vans and flannels. staying up late toilet papering houses with kids that are way older than me. i'm probably just starting to branch into the whole skateboard and punk rock phase.

5 years ago: i'm, umm, 20. living in huntington beach. being an asshole. dropping out of college. delivering pizza. smoking cigarettes, and discovering jimmy eat world, clarity.

1 year ago: like she said, freshly married up. gettin busy in the sack. sorry. remodeling our humble abode. discovering things about each other, about giving and loving in the true sense of the words. road trippin. having good old times with friends. drinking.

yesterday: it technically started with the colour boys, then driving home from our show in l.a. getting home at 3am. going to work at 1pm. tearing apart tile and getting drywall in my eyes. watching crash. drinking hot chocolate. going to bed. pretty damn exciting.

5 snacks i enjoy:
must i remind you of the emenada.
7-11 go-go taquitos.
shortbread cookies.
odwalla superfood.
maybe a nice cold mgd.

5 songs i know all the words to:
in my garage, weezer.
lady madonna, beatles.
rocket town, micheal w. smith.
super galactic chick princess, norpain.
and the family guy theme.

5 things i'd do with a million dollars:
get super selfish and buy a bunch of shit.
build my grandma pool her dream tree house.
get my wife a washer and dryer.
build a vintage recording studio.
travel.

5 places i'd run away to:
narnia.
tokyo.
tibet.
tahiti.
my bedroom when i was 10.

5 things i'd never wear:
pretty much nothing, yah this one's really not making me think.

5 favorite tv shows:
iron chef.
american chopper.
laguna beach.
modern marvels.
seinfeld.

5 biggest joys:
my wife.
my music.
sleeping.
eating.
showering.

5 favorite toys:
unfortunatly i don't really have any,
but i want a quad,
a batting cage,
some kayaks,
an x-box,
and a slinky.

no dice. big game tomorrow.

back in it! kind of.

bottom of the 6th, cabrera, two run homer.
sox 5, la 2

game 3, bottom of 3rd, sox 4, la zip

...i'll keep you posted. i know, i know. you can't wait.

i was tagged by lindsay

10 years ago: 15 years old. sophmore year of high school. this year had many different phases for me. the begining of the year is when i ended my little "rebellious" phase. i had too much to drink at a jimmy buffet concert. i vaguely remeber sitting on the shoulders of a large hawiian man, singing along to "fins", which was much to the amusement of the people i was with, expect for jaime's mom. i don't think she was impressed. but after that i said goodbye to rum and anything else that pirates drink. i also became president of the backpacking club at my highschool that year and started hiking to castle rock twice a week before school. and i went to the philippines with josh and nadia. pretty much i was a bad ass that year.

5 years ago: 20 years old. my junior year of college and i studied abroad in england. this was one of the best things i've done in my twenties. i travelled through europe with this girl named esther whom i barely knew. i ate gellato, sat in the colosieum for about 3 hours because it was so amazing, sang bob dylan songs with a homeless man in hyde park, worked at a pre-school with the most precious little english kids, thought for sure i would marry some hot englishman but after the charm of their accents wore off i realized i was not a fan of tight pants and turtle necks, i was lonely, and i learned more about myself than i ever had before. when i got back from england i lived with rosie and suzanne in the "costa misery". we made big dinners together and watched the same six seinfeld episodes over and over. my lesbian haircut was growing out, it was a good year.

1 year ago: i just got married, so pretty much all i did was get freaky. just kidding. i went to hawaii for the first time and loved it. matt and i were still working on our house when we got back so we lived in his parents' cabins and had to move to a different one every three days. this took about five months and then we finally got to move into our house. i also went up to portland with suzo and rosie, to move suzo there. it was a really fun trip, but sad to say good-bye to suzanne ( i miss you). matt, derek, nate, and i took a little trip up to san francisco for bridgeschool and that was an amazing time. we stayed in a lighthouse/hostel. we went to a pumpkin festival and went wine tasting and then we saw paul mcCartney. this was probably the biggest transitional year.

yesterday: i went to breakfast and lunch with rosie and then i had to say good-bye to her. she will be back in vegas and i'm very sad not to have her here with me anymore. i was pretty much upset about that all day and ended up having way too much to drink while watching "hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy", which i'm going to have to watch over again. matt didn't notice me boozing it up and he didn't figure it out until we went to bed and i couldn't stop laughing at nothing at all, apparently. then i told him i was going to throw up and then i burst into tears and cried hysterically for about ten minutes. the poor boy didn't know whether he should carry me to the bathroom so i could vomit, soothe me so i could stop crying, or let me sleep it off.

5 snacks i enjoy: tacos from jack in the box, 31 flavors chocolate peanut-butter ice cream, carmel apples, hot tamales candy, and chips w/ guacamole.

5 songs i know all the words to: well this is tough because i rule at knowing all the words to songs. but i'll highlight some of my favorites to sing at the top of my lungs when my radio is broken:
1. shoop, by TLC
2. the humpty dance, by digital underground
3. crazy, by patsy cline
4. ticket to ride, by the beatles
5. everyone ruins it, by annlynn

5 things i'd do with a million dollars:
1. buy my mom a new car and put her through school
2. put rosie through school and support her so she can go to india and africa to help sick people
3. buy esme an entire library with any books she wants
4. buy matt 10 beautiful drum sets
5. travel and be a lady of leisure for as long as possible

5 places i'd run away to:
1. portland
2. disneyland
3. london
4. spain
5. interlaken, switzerland

5 things i'd never wear:
1. anything with puffy paint
2. sweaters with apples, teddy bears, or kittens
3. low rise pants with a thong showing, so tasteful
4. leather jackets with fringe, sorry mom
5. "juicy" velour track outfits

5 favorite tv shows:
1. seinfeld
2. wonder years
3. cosby show
4. felicity
5. smallville

5 biggest joys
1. matt
2. my neice, esme
3. having coffee with rosie and suzanne
4. reading in bed/ writing
5. i'm going to agree with lindsay, "when i am really able to rest in god's grace"

5 favorite toys
when i was little: my barbies, my casio keyboard that made animal noises, my paper dolls, my roller skates, anything that belonged to my brother.
now: my volkswagon, my harmonica, matt (my boy toy), my roller skates (still), and my snowboard.

5 fine folks who can now consider themselves tagged:
becca, linda, joey, derek, josh pool.

tahoe whereabouts pt. 4

biggest little city
Originally uploaded by mattamberpool.

homeward. our fourth and final voyage log. as i said earlier, we took reno like johnny depp in fear and loathing, but came out cotten picken' broke. well other than the stuffed purple bear we won esme. we said goodbye for now and plotted a course south, down the redonkyless 395, and by redonkyless i mean spectacular in it's beauty. along the back side of yosemite, erick schat's bakery in bishop came highly recommended. eat there. we too recommend it. soon after we stopped at a world war two japanese relocation camp called manzanar. this was very interesting, emotionally, and deserves a blog of it's own to describe. all that remained were the foundations of a post office, a hospital, baseball fields and shack upon shack bordered by what appeared to be rock or bonsai gardens. the most moving was the cemetary (in photos). the remainder of the drive was to a purple sky over the mojave, and before long we returned to reality in the form of a warm bed and an alarm clock set for 6:30am, when it's workin time.

tahoe whereabouts pt. 3

tahoe
Originally uploaded by mattamberpool.

at a chilly 2 in the a.m. we arrived at the doorstep of the casa de castaneda (chris & sarah in photos) to a charming tray of cup cakes (also in photos) baked by the mr. of the home. we were taken right in with such warmth and generosity. in the days to follow we toured the valley and were persistently taken aback by its beauty. we shopped candy and toy. we boys kayaked the truckee river (in photos) where i grew too brave and challenged a rock that turned me over, literally, to the icey rapids. we gambled in reno (photos in pt.4). we hiked the mountain. and, if i may be so bold, we very much enjoyed "13 going on 30". all in all we were inspired by chris and sarah to live the life of a toyota commercial as they do.

tahoe whereabouts pt. 2

tunnel
Originally uploaded by mattamberpool.

in next to no time we said farewell to josh, nadia, and ewan and were back in the saddle singing over the all too familiar hum of the 101 at seventy m.p.h. it's one of the more beautiful drives in california, the tunnels and trains and pea soup. we passed and were passed by friends all pointed to the same northern nuptials of kristen and dan. kristen was the first girl i ever shared a saucer sled with. an old beloved friend. good food. good drink. good company. and again as the sun tucked itself into the sea, my wife and i were back on the trail, en route for the sierra nevadas.

tahoe whereabouts pt. 1

denim josh
Originally uploaded by mattamberpool.

end of september. part one of the travels my wife and i shared. we drove toward the west's swiftly passing sun, through the wintry air and red leaves, down the mountain's side , through the vaporous city of angels, to arrive at the blessed home of the talbot family. together at sea level we ate fish, puffed smoke, played gap-hide-and-go-seek, all in all spending (not enough) much needed time being friends.

part 2. (wedding)
part 3. (truckee/tahoe)
part 4. (homeward)
all to follow

pointlessness

sitting here in my chair, trying to think of some original or fun locale of my life to log, and i have nothing. amber and i journeyed our little pettuties up to tahoe over the weekend. i wanted to log that however my photos are not on this particular electronic computing device, so that will be next. i do have something, and at the risk of sounding totally obtuse i will ask this:
in the movie bambi, is that his father, or just some random elderly buck that shows up during the fire and jumps off the cliff with him?

the empanada

i ran for the border and fell victim to a love affair with the sixth food group. before there were five: (1) grains, (2) vegetables, (3) fruits, (4) milk and dairy products, and (5) meat, beans, fish, and nuts, right? the sixth, the taco bell caramel apple empanada, with it's intensely crunchy shell, it's soft innocent buttery breading stuffed whole with warm, possitively sinfull golden brown caramel apple filling, is the youngest addition to the pyramid. this (6th) group is soon to be discovered as the only group required to necessitate a further flourishing and successful occupancy of our own planet earth.

Rosie passed onto me this gem

If you want to pee your pants, go to the following link. -a

www.theonion.com/content/node/33930

classroom wisdom

I was subbing at the elementary school the other day and this quote was hanging in the classroom. I was really inspired by it and I wanted to share it with you guys.

"A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search for truth or perfection, is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life." -Lewis Mumford

Since I read this I have been thinking about whether or not my days are filled with these things. I decided that they used to be but I've greatly neglected them. I've been neglecting the most important things and for no good reason. God is at the center of these things. I want to open my eyes again, for all the beauty and mystery and loveliness and truth. If you want to, post in the comments section how this quote affects you and what ways you fill your days with these things.-a

too late

guess which two places i would love to visit before:

a.) they are under water

b.) someone flys a 747 into their buildings

book game

ok, i was "tagged" by rosie. i'm exctied. here it goes:

1. Number of books you have owned: I'm not sure how many. Definately not as many as I'd like to have, but enough to keep me reading new things for a while.

2. Last book you bought: Watership down. I've never read it and I'm really excited about it.

3. Last book completed: The Alchemist. I reccomend it to anyone who hasn't read it.

4. Five books that mean a lot to you:
1. East of Eden
2. The Little Prince
3. The Human Comedy
4. The Brothers Karamazov
5. The Shawshank Redemtion

4b. What are you currently reading? Well, I just started Invisible Man but I'm taking it slow beacause I'm still digesting The Alchemist.

5. Which five bloggers are you passing this onto? I think all of mine are taken already. But I would pass them to:
1. matt
2. rosie
3. tim and shauna
4. josh talbot
5. joey

timshel...

i've been spending very pleasant and painfull bits and pieces of the last month or so in salinas california with a chinaman named lee, a mr. adam trask and family, as well as the ancestors of the now late mr. john steinbeck; the hamiltons. however last night i was compelled, against my will, to say my farewells and return home, for good. those blustery yellow days hiding in the willow with abra, and intellectually lingering nights sipping ng ka py across the table from lee, are but distant memories.



...i finished reading east of eden more or less.

new death cab for cutie record

don't need it. already got it. thanks j.t.

and i'm going to go ahead and get this out there, um... it's really good.

i take back the dreadful things i said before.