that one time i never blogged...

yeah, that one time just happened. i've been meaning to get back to posting on here because i really like the process of organizing how i felt during one particular day or moment. and there have been so many days and moments that have been worth documenting! this month has been pretty chaotic, but in a good way. i graduated, moved, and became a dog owner. what?! i've enjoyed the crazy changes and am almost dreading the quiet lull of life post holiday season. at the same time, i'm looking forward to seeing what this quiet, recharging time will bring. i'm looking forward to the smaller ways in which my life can change. with the new year quickly approaching, it's the best time to set little resolutions {that i can hopefully keep!} i had a good talk with some friends last night about what our goals were for the upcoming year. besides attempting to become more familiar with the kitchen, one of my main aspirations is to be more creative. i feel as if i've lost that part of myself, especially with school, and i'd love to get it back. i also hope to travel more, even if it just means driving an hour in a direction that i've never driven in before. you know, just little things like that.

p.s.-these friends and i decided that blogging would constitute as writing more, so i'll be doing my best to being a regular around here again. and they better keep their word. you know who you are...;)

the littlest roommate.

there have been some pretty sweet perks of living with a four year-old. i'm partly referring to the gallon of leftover halloween candy that's sitting on top of the cabinet right now, but that's another story. i've really enjoyed being able to watch a little mind at work. curiosity is something that i've become pretty awful at. i forget to ask questions a lot, and forget to look for answers even more. at some point it became embarrassing to do these things. so, it's terribly refreshing to have teddy around, asking me questions about dinosaurs and insects and the sky. he just has an incredible little spirit that i admire and am going to miss so, so much. of course there have been moments when living with a kiddo has been rough, but the good undoubtedly outweighs the bad. did i mention he likes to listen to the band yes? and says "talking of lemurs..." even though you aren't speaking about lemurs at all? plus, he thinks i'm like the coolest gal in the house! i'm the only gal in the house, but still...

twenty-two.

this is the number of minutes i ran tonight. i think people jog/run a whole lot longer than twenty-two minutes on the regular, but this is a big deal for me. i've never ran for that long before in my whole entire life! {isn't that sad, but at the same time really exciting?} i suppose i've never been the most athletic gal on the block, so i'm sort of loving this brief stint of semi-athleticism that i'm experiencing. and let me tell you, it has been brief. nonetheless, it's been very rewarding pushing myself and my body. anyway. now i'm thinking, if i can run for twenty-two minutes, what else can i do? run for thirty minutes? eat three bowls of ice cream in one sitting?! the sky is the limit.


*don't these sneaks look extra serious? they're five years old and look like new because i never used them. they're also from the little boy's section.

simple dreamer.

i woke up to mumford & sons remixes {yes, remixes} blaring from the room next to mine at 9:15 a.m. is there a more terrible way to wake up? fine, yes there are. but just barely. this morning only substantiated my dream of living all by lonesome someday. it's a very small dream, but it's one that i can't seem to get out of my mind. i get giddy over the idea of having my own kitchen, even if it's itty-bitty. and my own tiny garden for a few flowers. and my own everything. i'm sure dreams are supposed to be of living out of a suitcase in a foreign country, or of ryan gosling making you spaghetti {err, right?} or of something bizarre and fantastical. but oh well. maybe those dreams will come later. for now, i can't fathom anything better than having the littlest space to call all my own. with a puppy. and a fireplace. and now i'm dreaming big.

happy thanksgiving!

 

{harvest moon by neil young}

i'm not sure why, but this is the most perfect song for today. there's nothing quite like a neil young/spending a whole day eating with your family combo.  

pie queen.

ok, maybe pie princess or...pie peasant? so i'm not that experienced in the pie making world, but i'm working towards a serious title. i decided to make a pecan brownie pie for tomorrow's festivities. i'm more of a fruit pie gal myself, but pecan pie is a little easier. {plus, i didn't have apples for an apple pie, and only adrenaline junkies go grocery shopping on thanksgiving eve.} the last pecan pie i made didn't have corn syrup and it tasted delicious. this recipe, however, called for ol' karo corn syrup. whoa, who knew that stuff looked so gross? i'm still kinda haunted by the texture of it. i suppose the brownie batter made up for it. anyway. i don't get to taste the pie until tomorrow, drats! it's pretty tortuous to stare at. oh well, a little pie yearning never hurt anyone.

friendsgiving.

{tex, the friendsgiving mascot. he was oblivious to the sneakers.}

well. this just so happens to be the only photo i took from the friendsgiving get-together i was at earlier tonight. is this my puppy? no. did i follow him around all night trying to take pictures of him regardless? definitely. i refuse to consider what this reveals about my social skills. anyway, besides the fact that i'm horrible at capturing actual people/good times on camera...tonight was kinda amazing. it was my first official friendsgiving. i made rolo cookies {because those take four ingredients} and discovered that i could live without ever eating another brussel sprout. yikes. it was nice to be surrounded by some of the best company around, though. i've only made a handful of good friends down here {note the aforementioned social skills} but i really like this handful. they are some of the most positive people i have ever met and continuously build me up, so i feel very lucky. i'm gonna throw in the fact that i'm thankful for them in the spirit of the upcoming holiday. but seriously. they are such sweet reminders that people can be good.

real quick: on a completely unrelated note, i attempted to purchase my cap and gown from the bookstore {so exciting!} this week but they were sold out. it was yet another anticlimactic moment in this whole graduating process. i feel like this is foreshadowing my future! somehow.

*the caps and gowns are being restocked next monday, but still. not as exciting.

collage coolness.

art is a thing that, well, i never really get. a pretty painting just doesn't do the same thing a good book does for me. but, i've been trying to break out of this mindset. i'm looking for artists that speak to me, browsing art books my roommate keeps lying around the house, and telling paintings, "hey, make me feel something!" these things are sorta helping. i've found that i'm really gripped by collages at the moment. they seem to transport me the most, which for me, is the point of any art form. i guess i'm cheating a little here because i've liked beth hoeckel for a couple of years now, but i just learned that many of her collages are not digitally done, which is pretty awesome. i love her use of texture and way of making the most ordinary images look fresh and neat. who knew a collage could be so impressive?

                                                                      {all of these by bethfromabove}

the virgin suicides.

i'm a little late on this one. every girl read the virgin suicides when she was 15, right? right. i checked it out from the library a week ago and have been dying to read it since. if i could sum this book up in one word it would be:  dreamy. seriously. reading it felt like this. i tried to explain the plot to someone today and ended up just sounding like someone who was fascinated with teenage suicide, so i'm gonna refrain from dishing out another synopsis right now. i will say that i'm completely spellbound by cecilia lisbon, though. and bonnie. and lux. and ok, every single character in the whole book. i was pretty surprised that i didn't feel completely depressed after reading it, but jeffrey eugenides has this sweet little way of making morbidity somewhat ethereal and lovely. anyway, i'm a little hesitant to watch the film version, but completely intrigued at the same time. i probably won't be able to resist it for too long. well, i'm off to re-read the bell jar now! {just kidding}

also. i got talked into joining good reads-basically a place that gives you endless book recommendations based on how you rate books you've already read. i can't believe i'm just discovering this! after countless hours of skimming library bookshelves for something that catches my eye. sheesh.

a small rant.

sometimes it's difficult to be an english major, partly because you don't really focus on anything that isn't fictional. you don't read books that don't end the way they weren't supposed to, or about characters whose flaws aren't charming. it's nice, but at the same time can be a little disenchanting. because then, when you're working on your minor in anthropology, you deal with the complete opposite. you are thrust back into reality and you learn about things that are awful and that can't be fixed with an extra paragraph. i just finished paul farmer's infections and inequalities for my medical anthropology class and couldn't feel more helpless, hence this post. the book was about tuberculosis in haiti {which is something that never crossed my mind} and how, although the disease is treatable, it's still a really big problem because of the lack of healthcare there. i can go to the hospital whenever i please, and these people can't. it makes no sense, and that's because it shouldn't make sense. what's even more frustrating is that there isn't a simple solution to this problem. well, i didn't plan on ranting so much, but sometimes it's OK to rant a little, right?

oh, and on the bright side...for a living, paul farmer offers healthcare {as he co-founded partners in health} to people living in poverty in haiti and rwanda. he's said that they've helped too many people to count, which were golden words to hear after reading that book of his.

psycho killer.

happy halloween! i'm just over here eating all the candy i can get my hands on. this has to be one of the best halloween jams out there. psycho killers are scary!

 {psycho killer by the talking heads}

here's a list of a other creepy songs that i've been listening to this month:

bad moon rising-creedence clearwater revival
on the vampyre-aa bondy
my body's a zombie for you-dead man's bones
fear city-elliott smith
ghost-neutral milk hotel
cemetery gates-the smiths
monsters-band of horses
heads will roll-yeah yeah yeahs
they are night zombies!!-sufjan stevens

enjoy!

all the leaves are green.

they aren't even brown a la the mamas and the papas! but green. it makes me a little sad to think that i've never seen the beautiful, dramatic transformation of the changing fall leaves. ah. texas, i love you. but i am getting a little frustrated over here. one of the biggest fantasies i have right now is moving away as soon as i graduate. i need seasons. google-imaging fall leaves just isn't cutting it anymore.

{the picture above was taken last weekend by my kind sister for my graduation announcements (eek!). but note the awful excuse for fall foliage!}

predictable pumpkin post.

like everyone else, i too have fallen under the spell of pumpkin. i feel for pumpkin the way bubba gump felt for shrimp. so yeah. it's pretty bad. last night i tried this pumpkin chili recipe that ended up being much tastier than it sounds. i then proceeded to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies {which are all gone, by the way}. oh yeah, and then i carved a pumpkin. i guess i went kinda crazy with the pumpkin business, but that comes with the october territory. along with scary movies that are so bad they're good. i watched a few of those after my pumpkin coma last night and they were glorious. october is simply one of the greatest months around. someone needs to make it last two months already.

{canned pumpkin: the culprit for my pumpkin infused weekend. and then there's that really bad quality photo of me with awkward hands on my pumpkin babe. thanks, mom.}

sing-a-long saturday.

 {edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros-home}

the past week kind of kicked my butt. it was one of those weeks that makes you question how much stress a person can take and wonder how people twice your age are still sane. yeah, one of those. i don't know if i've ever looked forward to a weekend so much in my life. anyway, i listened to edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros all week long and it helped a little...ok, it helped a lot. i don't know if it's possible to listen to them and be bummed. 'home' has to be one of my favorite songs of theirs, because who doesn't like songs that mention chocolate candy and pumpkin pie? this little oldie will be on repeat for awhile.

fall came with red hair.

it's finally cold down yonder! well, it's cooler. but cold by any texan standard. fall is hands down my favorite season. what isn't to love about wearing flannel and indulging in pumpkin flavored everything? i can't get enough of this weather. ok, except for at this very moment because it's sorta freezing in my bedroom. after living in this house for three months, i've learned that my bedroom seems to directly reflect the temperature outside. it was a sauna in august, and now i can feel my hair slowly turning into icicles. i just can't wait until december! on a lighter {or should i say redder} note, i went ahead and changed my hair color. i've been dreaming about having red hair for at least a year now, so i figured it was about time to ditch my brunette locks. i feel a little like a different person with this hair. hopefully tonight i'll feel like a person who knows how to handle a bedroom that is 55 degrees.

 {this thing has an instagram filter on it, i know. but it's red, really.}

five minutes later with a list.

i wrote a post five minutes ago, i get it. but i kind of want to put this out there. i'm making goals for myself! i never really do this unless it's new years eve, and then i don't stick to them. i jokingly made a goal for myself that i would be able to do twenty push-ups before december. well, i can't even do one. so i feel like this is a realistic, challenging goal. seriously. and it got me to thinking, why not make a tiny list of goals for myself? it's important to have a few little motivations throughout the weeks. here is what i came up with:

1. be able to do twenty {real} push-ups
2. write at least one short story
3. bake three different types of pie
4. read one unrelated-to-school-book every two weeks
5. make something with my hands 

 

and there it is! it's tiny, but it's something. these don't necessarily have set deadlines on them because i don't want to beat myself up over them. except for the push-ups. those babies are serious business.

i'm a real writer!

not really. or am i? and is everyone? just a few deep thoughts for the night. but let's get to the point...one of my stories was published! granted, it was in the literary magazine on campus, but still. i think it's pretty cool...in theory, at least. at the same time, it's also very embarrassing. it's strange to think about people reading it and picking it apart...especially since my story on the first page. why oh why? oh well. the other night i {hesitantly} went to the launch event at a coffee shop around here. people were reading excerpts from their stories and poems. i, of course, didn't dare do that. i hope to one day believe fully in what i write and feel comfortable reading it in front of people i know or strangers. i've had one other story published in the saint edwards literary magazine, but i transferred before i ever got a copy! how sad. so this one sorta means a lot to me. even though this story is embarrassing. ok. i'm done being wishy-washy about this subject. i really am happy about it all.

graduation, step one.

tonight i put in my application to graduate. finally. i feel like i have been in college for an infinite number of years {when really it will only have been four and a half.} the graduation application was basically just to check up on my mailing address. really? i think i expected a question like, "hey, do you understand the universe now?" or something similar. filling out the application was a much more anticlimactic experience than i anticipated. but oh well. i'm still really, really excited! 41 more {school} days until i graduate.

{photo from a recent football game. i'm going to miss those things. just kidding.}

the carpenter.

last night i stumbled across a first listen of the avett brothers newest album, the carpenter. oh my goodness. i am in love with it already. i've been reading their interviews about this album for months. so, i guess it would be difficult for me to find flaws in any of their music because they are so dear to my heart and i think their every move is beautiful. their music is uplifting when it wants to be and sad when it needs to be. i was lucky enough to see them last year at the jazz and heritage festival in new orleans and it was a dream. they even played my most favorite song {will you return?} during their encore and i danced and just about cried. thinking about it makes me yearn to see them live again. plus, scott and seth avett are a couple o' downright hunks. i'm going on my fourth listen of the album and counting down the days 'til i can hold the real album in my hands {10 more days}!

a good day.

i don't have class on fridays, which is one of the greatest pleasures in the world. it gives me a whole day to lounge around and do things i adore. this morning i spent a few hours at mochas and javas {currently my favorite coffee shop because it is the only coffee shop that's air conditioned} i read romeo and juliet for my shakespeare class, basically a throwback to ninth grade english. i also managed to start my most recent book endeavor: the world according to garp by john irving. i'm not sure what made me pick this book up in the library but i'm really looking forward to it. i'm also reading a collection of horror stories--american gothic tales edited by joyce carol oates, whom i love. it's definitely getting me in the fall spirit. {and whoa, is this boring or is this boring?} i wrapped up my afternoon at goodwill. who doesn't love buying clothes for less than five bucks? or the cheapest, coolest dishes ever for pennies? i snagged some perfectly printed shirts and an alabama record. ok, i'm kind of embarrassed about the alabama record because i used to make fun of their hairstyles...but i actually am gaining a slow obsession with them. dixieland delight is currently on repeat in my head. hopefully the rest of my weekend will be just as sweet as today.

week one down.

i completed my first week of school two hours ago. whew! while that seems like quite the menial task, i've actually found myself to be very, very exhausted. i think this tired feeling mainly has to do with the new walking to school business. yikes. i'm loving the idea of being a little less lazy, but dang. you have not seen this gal sweat until you've seen me after my walk home from school. it ain't pretty. other than that, i have a feeling the semester will shape up rather nicely. i'm particularly excited about my magazine writing class, not because the professor is a stud or anything...;) on the other hand, i underestimated my anthropology classes. my mexican american culture class is completely interesting and i want to look up everything we talked about today. oh, and i want to go to mexico. like, tomorrow.

august to august.

this morning i took a picture of myself. because people still do that on the first day of school when they're twenty-three, it's normal. anyway, after taking it, i wondered if i performed this picture ritual last year. i so did. the photo on the left was taken exactly a year and a day ago! ah. i'm swimming in all of the differences over here and it's making me sentimental. i can't believe the first picture was taken in the room i recently moved out of. or that the girl on the left did not have a clue how stressful a class on jack kerouac could be...amongst many other things. a part of me wants to go back and change a few things about the past year, but then there's the tiniest part of me that knows i wouldn't be where or who i am right now if i did. and that simply wouldn't do. i should mention, i'm happy i haven't lost my love for sporting wacky floral prints to school.;)

i said "excited" a lot.

tomorrow is the end of the beginning. not really, but i feel like that's dramatic enough to capture what tomorrow really is--which is the last first day of my collegiate career! hooray. i'm so, so excited. while i'm grateful to have had the opportunity to pursue a higher education, i've had my share of tough times with the whole college thing and kinda can't wait to be done. personally, i don't think i should've even started school until tomorrow. i feel like i'm finally getting to know myself in ways that my eighteen year-old self never could. and i feel like i'm much hungrier for learning now than i was five years ago. emo in-depth reflections aside, i'm still excited. i'm a completely different person than i was last august and i cannot wait to see how i interpret and handle school and life this semester. eek! also, i just went on a late-night school supplies buying spree and am counting down the minutes until i get to use my new highlighter.

p.s.-i'm less excited about my actual class schedule...a course dedicated entirely to shakespeare is involved. oh. my. gosh.

a country weekend.

i've been a fan of wandering this summer. over the weekend, i headed down to south texas with my friend bethany to visit her family. {i kind of want to go back already.} there was something so peaceful and sweet about being in the country, surrounded by land and animals. the animals were undoubtedly one of my favorite things about the weekend. i even got to feed a baby goat! and play with rabbits. and pet a horse. and have just about the coolest, most special weekend ever. did i mention homemade ice cream was involved? because it was. and it is oh so hard for me to take blue bell ice cream seriously anymore.

a post.

so yeah, i blog now. though i should mention...i have this terrible habit of quitting things, so we'll see how long this goes for...