Raindrops and roses

Magnet #500 - 100% Happy, 100% Joy

Yay! 500!

I do love that I'm blogging on my 500th magnet with a magnet that I made. It's from one of those bottlecap sets that you can buy at like a Michael's or a Jo-Ann's, only I just stuck a magnet on the back, rather than making it into a pin.

I guess if I'd made it into a pin, it would have been like the little bottlecap Mr. Fredricksen gave to Russell on UP. Speaking of UP, I'm gonna go against the grain, and say that it wasn't my favorite Pixar movie. In fact, I fell asleep.

I know! It's a total unpopular opinion!

But, I suspect you'll find that a lot here on joy magnetism, because if there's one thing that I try to do in my life, it's stay true to myself and what I love - no matter how dorky or unpopular or obsessed people think it makes me.

So in honor of my 500th magnet, a review of my 500 favorite things - hahahhah, no, just kidding, only a handful, really. In no particular order: (cue Sound of Music music)

1. Architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright. McKim, Mead & White. Zaha Hadid. Frank Gehry. Daniel Burnham. Philip Johnson. Louis Sullivan. I.M. Pei. My taste runs the gamut, I just know what I like.
2. Magnets. joy magnetism. Nuff said.
3. Tours. I love them. I would take a tour of a paper bag, if it were given.
4. Television/film. I love them both. Love opening weekends, and no matter how much I weed out, there's a baseline of at least 30 hours of tv each week. Except reality. Hate. Kinda meta, methinks.
5. Travel, roadtrips and Roadside America. Practically grew up in a van, and there's nothing better than discovering some lost byway and crazy tourist trap. Here. Or abroad.
6. Books. Yes. When I'm not doing any of the above, I love a good book. Who doesn't?
7. Chocolate. No one understands how I can keep bags and jars of chocolate at my desk and not gobble it up. Psst. It's because I don't share the good stuff.
8. Duran Duran. I know! It's crazy that my little boyband from the 80s can still make a girl squee.
9. Trains. They're awesome. If I could train everywhere, I would.
10. George Clooney. And various and sundry cuteboys. If I list them, gravy, we'd be here for days. Just know: Cuteboys. Uniforms. Big guns. (No, not those guns.)
11. Doctor Who. Ten is my Doctor, and if David Tennant decides to do the big-screen DW while Matt Smith does BabyEmoDoctor Eleven on tv, that'll be interesting. (I'm thinking that this last one shouldn't count, since arguably, it's only been within the last three years or so. It could just be a fleeting thing that ends when David hits the road.)

There you have it. The oddest combination of me I can think of - even my best friend in the world giggles at some of the things I get into. And she's known me since we were in Kindergarten.

But even she doesn't share half of these things with me. And she shouldn't - that's what makes us friends, each bringing something different to the table.

Huh. I feel like I just filled out an online dating profile. Hahahah.

Anyway, happy 500! And they thought it wouldn't last.

eta:
Heh. Upon completing the labels for this post, I realized that I had existing labels for just about every item above, which I guess just means I'm pretty consistent in the things I talk about here, the places I go, and the things that interest me. Yay, consistency, I suppose.

Little America

Magnet #165 - Roadside America

During an unplanned roadtrip across Pennsylvania (the trip itself was planned, the stops along the way were...not), we stopped at this odd little building called Roadside America, in Shartlesville (no, I'd never heard of it, either), PA.

Once you get out of your car, you feel like you've stepped right into the 1950s. From the little old ladies running the register and the little shop, to the aged facilities, and the hand-penned signage and the cool, somewhat retro tchotchkes.

But this magnet does no justice to the largest miniature village in the world. I dunno if that's truly what it is, but take a gander at this and this and this and finally, this. C'mon. How freakin' awesome is this village.

The entire room is a diorama of the history of America. This guy basically carved and built all the buildings over a period of like 60 years - and there's about 300 buildings! And I'm not counting all the cars and people and animals and trees and grass and railways that he and his family maintained throughout the years, as well. It's massive.

But here's the absolute best part. So at the far end of the diorama, there's a small seating area, where everyone sits when the lights go down and night falls across the land. And then. And THEN! On the far wall, right where the Statue of Liberty is, a bright light is projected on to the wall.

And remember in grade school, when they used to have filmstrips for us? Dudes. A filmstrip starts playing, and a full moon comes up. And images of Jesus sitting and little children at his knee pops up. And a Verse comes up. And in a rousing fit of patriotism, the American Flag pops up as the you hear the strains of "God Bless America" begin to swell.

It's just fantastic - and just what you'd expect from what's arguably one of the last, great Roadside Attractions in America.