weekend + 'rents

as stressful as parents can be, the comfort and stability that comes with a visit always overrules.  a quiet fall weekend with a visit to andrew jackson's home and delicious food that went undocumented (do yoself a favor and get yoself to tayste for dinner and marche for brunch. you won't regret it).

"one of the greatest weaknesses in most of us is our lack of faith in ourselves.  one of our most common failings is to depreciate our tremendous worth."

- l. tom perry

funny, the way it is.

1. the above song is one of my faves right now, but i just found out that the dude won american idol. awkward. also, dear songwriter/singer, did your parents realize that they named you your last name minus the "s"? 
2. my parents come today for parent's weekend!
1. cons: great interrogation by said parents about life plans
2. pros: great food from said parents over talk of life plans
3. my stats professor said yesterday, and i quote, "mark twain used to say that you should lock your children in a closet until the age of 16, and feed them through a little hole. and then when they get to 16 you plug up the hole." 
1. note: this had nothing to do with statistics.
4. the nytimes does a splendid job of freakin' me out.  (cue future plans here). hip hip hoooray!

have a wonderful weekend.

"for every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness."

- ralph waldo emerson

those days, those nights.

{this school}

{holland house}

{sky blue café}

{nashville beer festival}

{hillsboro hangin'}

 one for the books. nuff' said. 

"sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people."

- nicholas sparks 

the times, they are a-changin'.

i think it's crazy that i'm old enough to have collected real memories and made real relationships - not that the relationships you make when you're five aren't "real"; friendships built over sandboxes and barbie dolls aren't something you should mess with.  but i'm old enough to have loved someone and lost someone, to say that 15 years ago i watched "doug" and "rugrats" on saturday mornings, to look at my high school soccer trophies with a real sense of nostalgia, and to say "dang, i REALLY miss playing with pogs!"(anyone? anyone? or am i just a home-schooled jungle-freak who is just a less-hot version of regina george?)

i was going through my old pictures in iphoto the other day and i found these drawings i did my senior year of high school for my portfolio (side note: creator of said iphoto invented the application during my childhood AND then proceeded to pass away a few years ago... aka i'm old reminder #5 and 6, respectively).  i really miss drawing; it was my way of tuning out the world while tuning it in at the same time.  i was able to block everything i deemed superfluous out, while at the same time, bringing it in, as the state of mind that resulted allowed me to think in a more constructive and rational manner.  as weird as this sounds, the lines i drew seemed to emanate from a dream-like state of mind.  

i was in drawing at the beginning of this semester, but decided to forgo it because i wanted to commit myself to other things outside the classroom.  i see this blog as my creative outlet nowadays.  although sometimes it does feel like a treat when i indulge in the daily blog post, it's something that makes me really happy. and isn't that the point of this little thing called life? 

"i found i could say things with color and shapes that i couldn't say any other way - things i had no words for." 

- georgia o'keeffe

breakin' it down.

a list of reasons why fall break will be awesome (in order of increasing awesomeness):

1. it's fall
2. it's a break
3. i get to sleep in as late as i want to
4. i'm staying at school for the first time ever during a break, which is actually kind of exciting 
5. i get to take care of a cute kitty cat
6. i get to figure out how to use that dang camera of mine (you know those people who have a really nice camera but have no idea how to use it? exhibit a: me.)
7. i get to go to a beer festival
8. i get to see my boyfriend for 4 WHOLE DAYS (comparable to 1 year in long-distance-relationship speak.... ya feel me?)

wherever this break takes you, near or far, have a wonderful one. 

"if we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting the rest of our lives."

- lemony snicket

sounds good to me.

{prospect park, brooklyn. summer 2011}

"be soft. do not let the world make you hard. do not let the pain make you hate. do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place." 

- kurt vonnegut