"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."

St. Augustine

 Toledo building, Spanish Cathedral, Versailles, Paris.

 Wanderlust has hit me hard. Unfortunately, a major adventure is impossible at this point in time. Soon, though. I miss Europe. I miss the Spanish architecture. I miss the art museums and the accordion players that stood on the sides of the streets in Paris. I miss Shakespeare and Co. I miss the crepe carts and the relaxed atmosphere. I miss the cathedrals and the excitement of Montmartre.

.  .  .

List of Future Travels:

Venice, Italy

Tikal, Guatemala

Machu Picchu, Peru

Alaska for the Aurora Borealis

The Amazon Rainforest

Great Barrington, MA

Mill Valley, CA

San Francisco, CA

Gig Harbor, WA

Colorado

Chicago, IL

Brattleboro, VT

Princeton, NJ

Bellinzona, Switzerland

Edinburgh, Scotland

& much, much more.

More will be added.

"I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can."

-Neil Gaiman

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An ellipsis.

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Rewind, rebuild and retry.

My bones are tired.

It's 104 degrees outside and what I want more than anything is to snuggle up in a coffee shop with a sweater, a great book, a great friend, and a cup of tea while watching the leaves blow through the crisp November air. I guess I'll have to wait 5 months for that.

 "You must write every single day of your life. You must lurk in libraries to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. May you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."

-Ray Bradbury

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When I'm sitting in Panera surrounded by my laptop, planner, journal, pens, pencils, and a notebook filled with disgusting math problems, I often compare this summer to last summer. 

I think about how I drove to work with the sunrise on the horizon, slowly hoisting itself up into the sky right in front of me as if it were sleepily rising to greet me personally, and the way that I would squint because my eyes weren't equipped to handle its luster at that hour. I think about the strenuous work that I did and the way that my hands cramped and my wrists swelled after a particularly busy day. I think about how I left work every single day with a smile on my face. I think about Corsby offering me triple-decker peanut butter crackers with so much peanut butter that it felt like I'd never get it down. I think about what I went through in the spring and the reason why I threw myself head-first into every task or encounter that I had in the past year. 

Then, I think about the way that I grew. How I learned to let things go, how I learned my strengths and weaknesses, how I gained confidence and matured more and more every day, and about how I gained an unwavering feeling of independence.

I have a choice. I can look at summer 2012 in one of two ways. I can dwell on the fact that I never see my friends and family. Or the fact that I'm not able to go on all of the excursions that I had planned. Or the fact that I have a strict schedule that includes waking up, eating, school, homework, work, and bed. 

 But after thinking about this a lot last night, I discovered that that way of thinking is highly inappropriate considering the fact that this is a major adventure in itself.

I'm twenty years old and starting a serving job in a fine dining restaurant, something that I have never done before. No, it's by no means as glamourous as trekking through Alaskan forests or leisurely strolling down the East Coast beaches exploring light houses. But, it's an incredible learning experience that many people wont ever be fortunate enough to have. 

After a few weeks of being incredibly discouraged and after doing a deep, personal analysis last night, I was relieved to find that I'm still growing. 

.  .  .

I've become more responsible.

I've found that I'm not a quitter.

I've found that I can have control over any situation if I keep my wits about me.

I've learned that I still have that independence that I discovered last year.

I've found that I'm growing every day and that my priorities are straightened out.
I've gained confidence and developed a mature way of handling situations that are out of my control.

.  .  . 

I'm pleased with this.

Next time you go out to dinner, leave your server a 20-25% tip. It will make their day, or even their week

I love tattoos like this.

  By Amanda Wachob.

If I were to get a tattoo...it would be:

 something like this, somewhere somewhat hidden

or

my grandfather's signature

or

owl feathers- because of my family crest.

The first weekend that I'm not working, I'm going home for a visit.

The second -- I'm going to visit my grandparents. 

( ^^ those may be flipped around.)

The third --- I'm going to go to Birmingham for a few Adventure the Great shows.

The fourth -- I'm going to go to Nashville.

Bloom.

After being open for 91 years, the Massachusetts Mental Health Center closed its doors for the final time.  Once the staff had relocated to another hospital and the plans for a new building were set, the building was destroyed.

But for four days before the doors closed, the center was a wonderland.

Artist Anna Schuleit was commissioned to create an installation in the barren building to memorialize it,  its staff, those who spent time there, and also to acknowledge the absence of flowers in psychiatric hospitals.

 BLOOM is an installation that contained 28,000 potted, blooming flowers of carefully chosen colors that were placed strategically throughout the four floors of the hospital. The pool was filled with African Violets, the basement floors were covered with live sod, and wildflowers appeared to be springing up out of of the linoleum, fourth floor hallways. During these days, the hospital's public announcement system played recorded sounds of the hospital's final, working days. 

For 91 years, the hospital had orders to remain bleak and washed out. But for these four days, the silent walls that are filled with stories of horror and of miraculous mental recoveries were slathered with a new palette that they had never seen before, and I'm sure they were very grateful.

The installation was free and open to the public. Viewers could walk through the hospital and meander along the trails of prospering flowers. Viewers could look into rooms and find a couch with the cushions still in tact,  flooded in a sea of Strep Throat. With the smell of earth in the air, the sound of slamming doors, patient voices, and echoing footsteps played in the ears of all who visited.

W. H. Auden

"As I walked out one evening,
   Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
   Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
   I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
   'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
   Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
   And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
   Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
   Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
   For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
   And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
   Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
   You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
   Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
   And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
   Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
   To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
   Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
   And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
   Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
   And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
   The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
   A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
   And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
   And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
   O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
   Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
   As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
   With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
   The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
   And the deep river ran on. "

This is how my summer is going to be spent: 

7:00 a.m. - Rise and shine.

8:00 a.m. - Peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich for breakfast.

10 a.m. - Class.

12 p.m. - Home sweet home.

1-2:30 p.m. - Homework.

4:30 p.m. - Work

11 p.m. or later - Home sweet home.

1 a.m. - Peanut butter sandwich as a midnight snack.

2 a.m. - 4 a.m. - Homework/insomnia.

I don't have any monstrous complaints about it except that I miss my family and friends. It is definitely going to be a strange one, just like last summer was. The only similarity between this summer and last summer is my intake of peanut butter. So. much. peanut butter. 

But, I have my roommates with me. We're all in the same boat, pretty much. The three of us are taking summer classes. Abbey works from time to time, and Tess spends her free time napping after she studies all night. 

Oh, summer 2012.

Where did my life go?

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But deep down, I really do miss my friends, family, and working at Occidental Chem. I miss the weight of my steel toed boots. I miss the texture of my jeans, soft on the inside from my hard work and scratchy on the outside from dried paint. I miss the baseball cap I wore every day. I miss the lunch break conversations. I miss my early mornings. I miss those friendships that I made outside of work. 

Summer 2011 really was the absolute best. 

Summer 2012 has potential. 

Joyeux Anniversaire!!

Happy birthday, my lovely!

Tess Davis and I had a strange start to our friendship. We knew that we were going to be roommates during our sophomore year, but we barely knew each other. Since she went to France to be an Au Pair, and I had an intense interest in France and all things French, we talked consistently the entire time she was in Paris. Our friendship didn't exist before her trip to Paris, but our interest in each other's lives and daily adventures made a beautiful friendship blossom. Now, we've lived together for almost a year and our friendship is fabulous. We went through a salsa phase where we each put on a few pounds by eating only salsa, chips, nutella, and pretzels. After I watched Tangled for the first time (which honestly is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen), we would watch it over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Now, we both have it memorized-along with every episode of The Office. She's the only person I know who thinks that recliners in the kitchen aren't impractical, that Vanilla Coke makes any day better, and that the movie The Squid and the Whale was absurd and shouldn't have ever been released. I cherish her and I'm very thankful to have her as a friend. 

Happy birthday, mon chou!

Photo by: Derek Corneau

- Lemony Snicket

Photo by: Marija Mandic

Wilhelm Staehle

 Wilhelm Staehle's incredible hand-cut silhouettes are terribly clever.

"Smile O voluptuous cool-breath'd earth!  Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees! 
Earth of departed sunset - earth of the mountains misty-topt!  Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!  Earth of shine and dark mottling the tide of the river!  Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake!  Far-swooping elbow'd earth - rich apple-blossom'd earth! 
Smile, for your lover comes."

-Walt Whitman

Photo courtesy of Daniel Roth

Colin Hay

A tribute:

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"

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I read The Picture of Dorian Gray in seventh grade and have been in love with Oscar Wilde ever since. In all of the books and poetry I have read, songs that I have listened to, or people that I have met, I have never met anyone who compares to Oscar Wilde when it comes to blatant expressions of love. Though I never knew him personally, I feel that he was a genuine man and I respect that.

"Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary."

Oscar Wilde

"Heart, we will forget him.

You and I, tonight!

You will forget the warmth he gave,

I will forget the light."

Emily Dickinson

      

"Our eyes

are glued to the

screen, but our thoughts are glued

to the spot where our elbows are

touching."

Sonya Sones

                

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Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic is a Yugoslavian artist who is best known for her nude, artistic performances. 

These experimental performances are complex. Her artistic approach pushes the viewer's comfort zone and is meant to leave an impression that exists long after the viewer takes his eyes off of them.

In "Imponderabilia", she and another human body stood nude in a narrow museum entrance, only a foot apart from each other. This made it to where museum visitors had to choose to squeeze through the two, very naked bodies, or leave. 

http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/190/1974

In another installation, she used a razor blade to carve a star in her stomach, whipped herself, and then lay on a cross made from ice--bleeding and exhausted. Unable to watch her suffer any longer, the audience intervened and the piece ended.

In 1976, she and a German photographer walked the entire length of the Great Wall of China, but not side-by-side. Instead, each started at opposite ends until they met in the middle, where they cut off all relationships with each other and went their separate ways.

I was moved by this one:

This piece featured Abramovic sitting in a chair for an entire day at the museum. Visitors were allowed and encouraged to sit across from her for as long as they wanted; becoming participants in the piece. In silence, Abramovic would sit across from them as an "emotional mirror" in a way--often inducing heartbreaking reactions. 

The pictures are click-through links.

"Job" can be marked off of my wish list!

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Certain nights of the week, you'll be able to find me at a quaint restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa. This restaurant relies on local and regional farms for all of their food needs and only serves meat that is free of antibiotics and hormones.  Needless to say, I'm excited to work here. 

So, if you need me... I'll be the one with bangs and a tie. 

I'll probably be strolling to and fro, serving happy animals and fresh veggies to the relaxed customers with a smile constantly plastered across my face--pretty easy to spot.