carpe diem

every day for the past week i've been able to wake up and make myself take a sigh of relief. and honestly, that is a feat for me. i realized it's been at least 10 or so months since i've been able to really relax and not have any (1) stress about to-do lists or (2) anxiety or (3) deadlines or (4) hair loss or (5) relationship troubles or (6) gre studying or (7) grad school applications. it's all out of my power now. or rather, i've forced it out of my power. so today i'm thankful for (1-7) but add 'no' in front of each of them. but i've also noticed that because i don't have much to worry about, i've been panicking a tad because it's just what i'm used to. it's such wasted energy! and everything is really great right now. waking up and loving the day for what it is, and not what i need to get done.

the only thing on my mind right now is getting all of my christmas shopping done, and that's really not such an awful thing. kinda fun actually. i know everyone says this every year, but as i get older i really say it with even more disbelief: i really cannot believe it's already almost christmas again.

where have i been that i didn't know that operas came to knoxville? i've always wanted to go see an opera since i first watched pretty woman. an italian romeo and juliet is coming to the tennessee theatre in february and you can bet i'll be there! (i wish the dress code for operas was the same in knoxville, tn as it was in pretty woman and i could wear a red formal dress and diamonds... sigh... another day)

i need a good book to read that's going to make me think. ever since i watched that ken kesey documentary, i really want to read one flew over the cuckoos nest. that and kerouac's on the road. those have been on my radar for a while though, since my early psych classes. just never gotten around to reading them. let's make that happen in the next few months, krista. i'm also open to any other suggestions!

happy wed-nes-day

with christmas/winter right around the corner, i decided to customize my blog layout once again. doesn't this background just scream 'winter'?

what a busy month! i feel like i say i've been busy in every post i write. maybe that's my excuse for not posting as frequently as i would like. this month has been filled with grad school applications, thanksgiving, birthdays, and fat tire.

this weekend i was perfectly indolent and perfectly okay with that. although i did have a few things on my to-do list that i probably should've at least attempted to get done. maybe it's the colder weather that makes me want to stay in leggings and hoodies and watch movies all day and night. by the way, am i the only one who thinks that leggings can also double as pants.. as long as they're opaque and the shirt you're wearing is a little bit longer than normal?

this is my sister singing an ellie goulding cover that i love! :) makes me happy to see her singing. a few steps up from when we used to secretly listen to her singing 'i am so boo-tiful' in her room. heh heh..
i really need to get started on my christmas shopping, pronto.
i can't wait for my christmas staycation this year! that's one of the main things i miss about school- the long breaks. holidays are meant to be spent with family, so i'll be glad to be home for 10 days around the people i love (and a little snowboarding :D). (and i'm really excited about new years this year)

have i ever mentioned how much i adore diet snapple peach tea and the fact that friends is on nick@nite?

karma and california

my last week has been very eventful! halloween this year was pretty fun around these parts. i dressed up for 2 different nights. first night i was a sugar skull from dia de los muertos. fun to be something kinda scary looking. then i was "blue".. da bah de da bah di..? i really just found that blue wig and was dying to wear it. so i made people ask me what i was the whole night so i could sing that song and dance around energetically. and then last night a bunch of us went to lotus and i was kinda lame and didn't even dress up on the actual holiday. 

                   

and also it was my little brothers birthday 2 weekends ago so i made a little trip home and my sister's birthday was this weekend! so i was domestic for like the 3rd time in my life and made her a dinner that my mom had to walk me through the entire time on the phone. but it turned out great and we had a nice little mini celebration/dinner for her at my place. oh, to be 19 again. (the cookies pictured are a red velvet white chocolate recipe that barbara got online.... but we think she left out the sugar)

                                              

and now it's already november. the month i get to apply to schools! the closer it gets, the more nervous i get about being accepted somewhere i really want to go. i suppose i've done all i can up to this point (besides apply).

karma gave me a free pizza today. i'm a firm believer in good karma. i don't really like to think about bad karma... like vengeance and all that. however i do believe that if you do good things and have a kind heart, that in some way you will be rewarded (i'm using rewarded as a relative term). i try to really think about this doctrine in my every day life and act accordingly. and i think a lot of it has to do with attitude and how you react to certain events. soo how does this relate to pizza. well, today i ordered a carryout pizza with only green peppers with a coupon that brought the total to 5.45. cheap, i know. i was feeling satisfyingly frugal and extremely hungry by the time i got home only to open the box and see a pizza that was half pepperoni, half jalapenos (neither of which i will even put to my mouth). after picking off every single topping on the pizza (besides the cheese) i finally started eating the first piece. then, of course, the  pizza guy called me and apologized for the mix up, that a kristen had ordered the same size pizza with the same coupon at the same time as i did. this was almost as weird to me as the time another krista davis in clarksville had a dentist appointment at the same time as me and i didn't sign in for forever because i went to the sign in sheet and my name was already there so i thought my mom did it. anyway. i told him not to worry at all- that i just picked off everything and it was all fine. and papa johns now has a note on my phone number that the next time i call, my order will be free! who doesn't like free pizza. maybe i wrongly attributed the free offer to my geniality when he called, but whatev... i'm deciding that it was because of my balanced karma. and to kristen, i'm sorry all your jalapenos and pepperonis got put to waste... hope you like green peppers! i used a lot of parentheses in this paragraph.

and i won 2 free movie tickets on the radio today right after they played the new black keys song. thanksloveya, wutk.

today, i was really indecisive with a lot of things. i wasted approximately 45 minutes of my afternoon literally walking around the block changing my mind back and forth. and i had one of those moments where i was in the middle of market square and decided i wanted to go the opposite way so i kind of acted like i forgot something so i could turn around and not feel dumb. and i just laughed to myself as i was typing that.  

i'm leaving for anaheim, california tomorrow for my second work conference.. still exciting to me! and the first time i've ever been to that state and of course still am only halfway packed. i really am such a last minute packer. i always start and then find 10 million other things to do. like blog.

hiatus

i have been slacking on the leisure blogging lately because of how busy i've made myself believe i am, once again. i would like to say that i am completely done with standardized tests for the rest of my life (or at least i think so, unless i happen to get rejected from every school i apply to and have to try again next year... which hopefully will not be the case). i'm so relieved to have about a month of doing nothing but work. and enjoying every day after work just to relax. and then starts the application process. i've been waiting for this for so long. i just can't wait until the day i find out where i will be next year, wherever it happens to be. ready for the next chapter of my plan. and ready to start the process of adding those three letters to the end of my name heh. BUT, even though i'm ready for it, i'm even more ready to enjoy this month of october and the beautiful weather it has brought with it.

i was incredibly sick last week. i havent been sick in forever it feels like. it was the first time i've ever called out of work. i find that when i'm sick i regress back to everything i used to do when i would get sick when i was little. i sleep on the couch. and only crave saltine crackers and sprite. and watch bad day-time television. (except this time i really went back a few years and watched a disney cartoon movie. but, i highly recommend tangled to anyone who hasn't seen it). thank goodness for azithromycin, right?

does anyone know how to train a cat? no matter what, every morning, rufus wakes me up anywhere from 5:30-6:30 am. And i can't get back to sleep until i finally throw him out of my room (well, actually i've gotten a little nicer and have just started placing him out, instead of throwing). any insight on how to get him to stay asleep until i'm ready to wake up in the morning would be appreciated.

today i'm happy/grateful for these things:
1. my room is clean and most of my laundry is done.. because bobra bought a washer and dryer.
2. mellow mushroom and friends to eat it with.
3. thought catalog
4. the fact that my friends and i read aloud my 7th/8th journal yesterday. (and i had a LOT of drama in my life then, depending on your definition of drama)
5. live music again this week. i'm my happiest version of myself when i'm at a show.
6. halloween soon! and 13 days of halloween starts on abc family tonight. it's not halloween without hocus pocus.
7. abc's new show revenge. it's diabolical.
8. christiiiina has a blog!
9. toiletry shopping- does anyone else love buying shampoo/conditioner, face stuff, hair ties, soap, etc. as much as i do?

- i need halloween costume ideas!... this is rufus' costume (because he's obsessed with lion king 3D).

my sister jenna

this post is going to be a bunch of my thoughts that i don't know how to make into cohesive paragraphs so i'm not going to try. 

- i really liked the new abc series pan am yesterday, mainly because i've always wanted to live in another decade. either that one or the 70s.

- i turned 23 a week ago and realized that i'm not excited about turning any older. even though that quote "never regret growing older, it is a privilege denied to many" keeps popping in my head every time i discuss this thought with someone.

- rufus is always in trouble. so barbara and i find various, entertaining ways to punish him. (but really, i do love him a lot). and he has started talking. he literally says hello.... in meow form.

- i miss the feeling of when i listened to skream's version of la roux's in for the kill or chase and status's eastern jam for the very first time just a few years ago and became so excited about that part of my life, because i knew it was about to be so great.

- i really just miss college in general. can't wait to be back in a school setting.

- mustard yellow is a new favorite color because of pinterest. don't worry though, green is still at the top.

-look! it's homemade fruit pizza. and it was scrumptious (i always feel like scrumptious should be used only when describing sweets for some reason).

- it makes me mad at myself that i've become languid about certain things that used to be a big part of my life. i've even tried making a 'life list' of 10 things to do before november and i've only gotten to cross off 2 things so far. (but i also must admit that one of my favorite things about making the list was that i would get to say "i love crossing things off my list of life" every time i got to do it)

- i love accents

- days go by so fast now that i hardly ever feel like i'm caught up with myself..... annnd for some reason as i was typing out this bullet, the theme music for 'days of our lives' started playing in my head. .... like sand through the hourglass..

- i just saw this and it made me laugh pretty hard...

- gah, there went another day.

waste, wake, change

have you ever heard that expression that death comes in 3's and 7's? i think i heard it the first time on a grey's anatomy episode. but lately, the superstitious bone in my body is starting to make me believe it's true. so many people i know have been affected by a death recently and it really hurts my heart. death is such a sad, sad thing that everyone has had to deal with in some way. but it never gets any easier to deal with when it happens. at one point in my life, the whole concept of death was really hard for me to wrap my mind around. when i said earlier in the blog that i get lost in my own mind, i wasn't kidding. there have been extreme times where i've even struggled to know what reality was, much less the thought of someone that used to be in my reality that will never be again. what is your reality? what separates your reality from your dreams? and where does death fit into all this? because, i mean, i know it's entirely illogical to believe that everything we experience is a dream. but didn't inception get to any of yall? (ha just kidding.. sort of) i know at the lowest points in my life were the times when i had the most vivid and realistic nightmares/terrors. and that's only one definition of the word 'dream'. my other dream is to become a doctor of psychology and there's absolutely nothing stopping me from making that dream a reality, right?

i know i'm starting to sound a bit insane and overly existential, so i better stop before i go all Faulkner and start writing in complete stream of consciousness.

i love this song right now.

i'm sure you've all heard foster the people by now because i learned from twitter that they played on the VMAs? this specific song, waste, was playing in the background in my car the other day and the chorus caught my attention in a big way.

and every day that you want to waste, that you want to waste, you can
and every day that you want to wake up, that you want to wake, you can
and every day that you want to change, that you want to change, yeah

if you want to read the lyrics in their entirety, you can here. this chorus just keeps bolstering my (Buddha's) thoughts that whatever you think, you become. i wanted to wake up this morning and go to work, so i did. i have this breath and this heart that keeps beating and this day to do whatever it is that i want to do. and i'm so lucky and grateful to have realized this. my hope is that everyone i love spends their days doing exactly what they want to do.

monday, monday

another great weekend for the books. i love my friends. and i love that my friends share my semi unhealthy obsession with my morning jacket. i still have a sharp pain near my collar bone that i decided came from laughing so much this weekend, because every time i laugh is when it hurts.

i realized something about myself this weekend: when i really like something, i tend to become obsessed with it. a few examples are the color green, mary-kate olsen, rufus, my morning jacket, emoticons, abnormal psychology. i'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. i'm just going to count it as a positive because it shows that i'm a passionate person, right?

pinterest makes me want an entire new wardrobe for fall, unnecessarily. (pinterest is another one of those recent obsessions) however, i feel like this green pea coat i have my eye on may very well become a necessity. i love fall so much! its my favorite season. it also includes my birthday, which is 29 days from today. and i'm always exceptionally excited around september 20th ± 1 month.

i feel like i need to call jim james "his majesty" when i look at this photo.

thursday.

lots of things happening recently. i feel like i'm living life very fast.

here's some semi vague updates:

• i made my moving situation super complicated and stressed myself out so right now i'm technically homeless with no physical address. luckily, i have the most understanding and best friends a girl could ask for and all areas of that situation have been placated.
• some of my relationships have changed in the most mature way possible.
• took the gre and did better than last time.. stillll not good enough though. i will get the score i need in october. i will.
• nashville has become a little soft spot in my heart. i've been spending a lot of time there lately and i just love it. i keep going back and forth with nashville and chicago. the uncertainty of where i'll be next year is scary + exciting.
• i got new glasses from see! they're green. i love the color green.

do yourself a favor and go ahead and jump on the pinterest wagon. if you need an invite, ask!

rufus has been extreeeemely busy himself.

here's his new workout routine... boxing, the pendulum swing, downward dog, etc..

my bebe sister moves in to her dorm this weekend!!!!! how exciting is that. i can't wait for her to love ut as much as i did. i wish i could go back to the beginning of college.. knowing everything i know now. ha.

..... also... does somebody want to buy me this ring?

first grade lessons

chicago's pretty cool..

i think i could live there.

here's some bad things recently:

• the airport lost my luggage on the way back from chicago and i didn't get it for a couple days
• my check engine light came on so i took it to toyota and found out nothing was wrong- they just had to reset the light. i still had to pay $103.
• got my first ticket in the mail for not stopping completely while turning right at a red light.
• rufus continues to routinely wake up at 6 am every morning to play for an hour, juuust enough to not let me be able to fall back asleep.
• i move tomorrow and i haven't packed one thing.

here's some good things:

• presented at my first work conference (that was cool)
• visited the northwestern campus and fell in love.
• went to nashville to see my friends and had a really good weekend :)
• realized that i take the gre in a week!
• move in right across the hall from my bff tomorrow!
• my sister moves to the same city as me in a couple weeks.
• my hair has stopped falling out (for real... i think)

disclaimer: even though i listed all those bad things, i was really proud of myself for not letting them even alter my mood in the slightest. really been on a positive thinking kick lately and it's helping. and relaxation exercises/my form of meditation really do wonders.

so my little brother finally made the move to my old room now that i've been out of my house for almost 5 years. last time i was home, i attempted to help my mom clean out some of the things in my closet and drawers so my brother could start using them. (but you know how when you start "cleaning out", it just turns into looking at old pictures and reading old things and going down memory lane. well, it does for me at least). so i found allll my old journals (i think there was a total of 6 or 7) and started reading a few pages from each. the most comical one to read was the first one i started in 1st grade. every page started with "I am happy because.." and i thought it was refreshingly simplistic and genuous to remember that i really was extremely happy every single day. then i opened one from middle school and high school and read all the complaining and emotional teenage girl things i was going through. and it made me think. after all the perspectives i've seen at this stage in my life, it's really hard, actually impossible, to get back to that simplistic mirth. but the least i can do is try.

i talked to a good friend the other day who always pops in my life just at the right times to remind me about what's important. i have a tendency to get so lost in my own mind that sometimes all i need is someone to say, "hey- you're so lucky/blessed/fortunate/whatever form of that word you wanna call it" and it brings me back.

so, as an attempt to get back to the daily "I am happy because.." journal entries, i've started thinking about something every morning that i am so happy i have in my life. and it more-or-less leads to positive thinking throughout the rest of the day.

& if this was my iphone, i'd put in a couple of my favorite emoticons at this point. haha

cheers to friday!

alright

not really sure why i'm still up because i'm usually out by now. i think part of it is that i have a headache that just will not allow me to sleep. another reason is that i had a (i've been trying to think of the right adjective to put here, but i can't so i'll just say) strange day. and maybe a third reason is because i just redid my blog template thing and i'm excited to have a new post on it.

work has been very busy lately. i have a tendency to get overwhelmed if i feel like i'm behind, but the key words there are 'feel like'. because i'm really not i suppose. just have a lot more going on these days. work days go by so fast. anyway, so on my lunch break i went to subway and right when i walked in the door wanted to turn back around because the line was so extensive. i'm talking like 12-15 people in front of me. but i knew i already had to pay a dollar in the parking garage no matter what so i figured i'd stay and hope the line abated quickly. i end up being in subway for a total of 35 minutes- just to get my food and rush back to the office for a meeting.

what made the subway line bearable was that the man in front of me started a conversation right when i came up behind him in line. when he first started to talking to me i really wasn't interested in what he had to say because i just wanted to get my sandwich and get back to work (because of all the things i kept going over on my internal to-do list). but then after talking for about 5 minutes, i realized he was a harmless old friendly man who was trying to pass the time just as much as i was. we ended up talking about how he just moved here a couple months ago and was asking about more places to eat (subway was the only place he'd been for lunch since he moved here- the lady there had his order memorized). then he asked about what i do, and from that we got into a discussion about autism. and i don't know. there wasn't anything extraordinary about our conversation- he was just a good-natured old man and it made a 35 minute line seem like not that long.

then when i was in my car on my way home from work, while stopped at a red light i started going over one of those to-do lists in my head again and kind of leaned back in my chair and put my hand on my head. my window was rolled down and i must have looked like something was really wrong because the people in the car next to me rolled down their window and the guy got my attention and said, 'hey! everything's gonna be alright. everything's gonna be alright..' i kind of laughed and said thank you. and then he rolled up the window and the light turned green. and i thought... yep, i guess everything really is gonna be alright.

i believe

"There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life."

John Lennon

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us a universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest … a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Albert Einstein



content

edisto island is the cutest little island in south carolina. it really is like a step back in time. 2 full days of lying/walking on the beach and card games (the picture below to the right is our wheat thin poker game-heh). even though i would've loved to stay a full week, those couple days were just what i needed. on the way back yesterday, i couldn't help but feel completely content. i love those moments when you feel absolutely aware of the moment you're in and you can appreciate it.

jon was so nice to drive most of the way there and back so i could study for the gre. i got a good portion of my study book done (it's about 400 pages) and i feel much more prepared than last summer taking it. sometimes when i start studying for it, it's hard to even keep my mind on the questions because all i can think about is when i get to start applying in november. haha.

here's us being happy that we're at the beach..





to finish off our 4th weekend, we walked down to worlds fair park to catch what we thought was going to be about a 45 minute firework show. it ended up being about 15. but at least we got to see some (because they're illegal in edisto). hope everyone had a great weekend! back to work..

fourth

those of you who know me are aware of my love for fun facts and statistics (might be the main reason i love snapple so much).

i thought it was only appropriate to celebrate this fourth of july weekend with a little knowledge about the holiday:

• 31 cities/towns across America have "liberty" in their name.
• around 150 million hotdogs are consumed on the fourth.
• the amount of fireworks imported from china was over $200 million.
• the fourth of july was not declared a national holiday until 1941.
• the words 'under god' were not added to the pledge of allegiance until 1954.
• benjamin franklin wanted the turkey to be the national animal but was outvoted when john adams and thomas jefferson chose the bald eagle.

jon and i have decided to make an impromptu trip (i love those) to edisto island, sc for the weekend. hoping for nice weather! my body has been yearning for some vitamin d.

annnd rufus wanted to tell everybody happy fourth but he's too shy/sad that i'm leaving for the weekend.

happy independence day! hope everyone has a great weekend.

ch ch changes

i'm brunette now.

this weekend was friend-filled in nashville. all i can do is hope that one day my brain research dreams will come true and i will be going to vanderbilt, living in a fun, trendy apartment in nashville close to all the people i love..(chicago wouldn't be so bad either).

the 4th of july is this weekend and i don't feel very prepared. it seems like i've always had really big 4th plans in the past... well, it doesn't just seem like it. i have. for as long as i can remember my parents have had a huge 4th of july party for friends and family and family friends at our house with about an hour long firework show (we have a lot of land). but for the past 2 years i've been on other fun trips. in 2009 i went to rothbury, michigan for a music festival (fireworks, nice cool weather, and music with friends and boyfriend... greatest trip ever). and last year after returning from a month in europe in june, my friends and i went to hilton head and watched fireworks on the beach. ostensibly, this next monday has a lot to live up to. hope it makes the cut and i end up doing something enjoyable..

the whole month of july i will be studying for the gre. when i went to go buy new study books this summer, i found out that the entire test is being changed august 1st, and that's when i had planned to take it. so now instead of being out of 1600, it will be out of 170. i'm curious to see how grad schools will respond to this change and if it will help or hurt my chances since there's no previous stats about what scores they'll be looking for. only time will tell.

rufus caused me to get hardly any sleep last night. he will not accept sleeping anywhere else but one millimeter away from my head, neck, or body. and it wakes me up a lot.

i signed up for a meditation webinar tonight to learn how to meditate! hah.. but i'm really serious about this you guys. determined to clear my head.

guilty: i really want/(think i'm going to buy) this lip stuff because us weekly told me that some of my favorite celebrities wear it.

bicycle police

much to my dismay, my bicycle has gotten me 2 "notices" in the past week. what's a girl gotta do to find a place to lock her bike outside the apartment? i don't understand why i cannot lock my bike on the stair railing out of everyone's way, not blocking anything. there's no way i'm carrying that thing up 3 flights of stairs. i need to be innovative this afternoon in finding a new parking spot for it.

RUFUS is lighting up my life. he is the cutest thing. i've found that i call him baby, pronounced "beebee", more than i call him by his name. ah! this is the first animal that i've ever actually owned. and it was a surprise from my lovely sydney grigg. growing up we always had cats and dogs, but i was never interested in being the one to take care of them. but now, when i wake up in the middle of the night and he's cuddled up to me as close as he can get, i'm more than willing to give him food and love and keep the litter box clean. ha.

i've been having hair loss issues for quite some time now and it's about to drive me crazy. i've tried numerous avenues to try to stop the falling out and kindle the growing back process, but not with much success. i don't want to lose my whole head! so, i've decided to try out meditation. i've tried to do it on my own and it is very very hard. so i want to go to some type of class for it or something, just to actually learn how to do it on my own. if anyone has any suggestions or tips, fire away!

i think this poem is cute:

Location, Location, Location

             I could have kissed you
under cherry blossoms,
pale petals drifting down
like the trees wanted to
pretend they could be
snowclouds.

I could have kissed you
in the rain, drenched to
our bones and not even
caring that the skies
opened up above us
and tried to wash us out.

I could have kissed you
in a clearing in the most
secluded woods, with
just the sound of wind
rustling through the leaves
and a few voyeuristic
finches peeping at us.

Instead, I kissed you
in the parking lot of a
Waffle House, just shy
of 2 a.m. in the middle
of a hectic week, with
our waitress grinning
at us from the other
side of the window,
because, honestly,
how could I not?

KITTY

this is my new baby rufus.

quotes that mean something today

there are four questions of value in life.

what is sacred?

of what is the spirit made?

what is worth living for?

and what is worth dying for?

the answer to each is the same.

only love.

-johnny depp

everyone is a genius.

but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,

it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.

-albert einstein

stayin busy

i am now a bicycle owner. and it has a basket and a bell and no speeds. i've become a little obsessed with it because it's made me so active. it's so nice to stroll around because almost everything i need to go to in knoxville is within biking distance.

also it's been such nice weather in knoxville. well, a little too hot. but my favorite thing is not having to worry about putting on a jacket every time i go outside.

eventful past couple of weekends!
my little sister, jenna, graduated from high school. she's coming to ut knoxville in the fall and i couldn't be happier to finally live in the same city with her again.

i'm so grateful to be a part of the family that i have. whenever i make a trip home, i'm reminded of how fortunate we are.

this weekend, my friends and i assuaged the extreme heat by spending all day saturday on the lake. fun times with fun friends. i really miss all of our college friends and being able to run right up the road to see them whenever i please. just a part of growing up, i guess.

just a few more things

• i really love the instagram app on iphones. (and facetime)

• this is my picture i painted by instruction...

• i'd really like to visit this place at some point in my life.
• i like this story about love.
• don't take your hair for granted. hair loss is not fun to go through.

band aid

friday night was probably in the top 4 best nights of my life. we got very very front row for my morning jacket and i teared up probably at least three times. those shows are such an experience. during the show i kept on thinking of myself as an mmj "band aid" like from the movie almost famous, ya know? when kate hudson says, "we are not groupies. groupies sleep with rockstars because they want to be near someone famous. we are here because of the music, we inspire the music. we are band aids." i imagined myself as a 2011 penny lane. haha. is that so lame? i don't really care if it is. i can't wait to see them next. in the words of jim james, "it's just the way that he sings. not the words that he says, or the band. i'm in love with this soul, it's a meaning that i understand." their new album, circuital, comes out may 31st so everyone remember to buy it!


              

i loved everyone we went down there with, too. we had such a good crew. the best times were when everyone actually found each other and we got to enjoy the show in our little area and dance and play in the sand. ah i want to go back. it went by so fast.

but now it's back to work for a while. it's really weird knowing i'm not getting a few month summer vacation for the first time in my life. but i have accrued quite a few days off and i believe another beach trip is in the works in the coming weeks. i wish i was flying out to l.a. to visit my bffaa, dani collins, while she's doing amazing interior design internship things. but my bank account will not allow it. so the southeast will have to do for now.

hangin out

this has been a long 3 days of work. over time on hours and hardly a second for a breather during the day. but i love my job, love my clients- so it's been fun keeping busy. always something new and interesting to hear about during the day. but the reason i worked my butt off this mon-wed is because we leave for HANGOUT tomorrow morning! i feel completely free right now, especially because i cleaned out my entire room/closet and did all my laundry and got mostly everything done at work. all i have to look forward to for the next four days is repose and beach time (and MUSIC!)

watch this.

ever since i saw this video, i really do think about those 'moments' when they happen. when the balloon pops, when you turn the page, smell a flower, crack an egg, touch lips, open your eyes in the morning, type in facebook.com. all that. it's so easy to let those moments not mean anything because when they happen, all you're thinking about is what comes after it. when you turn the page you can't wait to finish the book. when you crack an egg you can't wait to eat it. when you type in facebook you can't wait to check your notifications.

i guess the point i'm getting at is that i usually spend all day waiting for the next thing to happen. and it really is a hard task to be here, now. but i'm workin on it. that video gave me a little reminder to enjoy every moment as it actually happens and be sentient throughout the day.

alright, enough with the sappy.

by the way, for a while now i've been learning 20 new words a day and am trying to use them in my speech and writing. so i've tried to say one of my words in every post (including the name of my blog). if ya don't know something, look it up ;)

happy hangout weekend!! 

favorites

i figured i would stop being greedy and let you all see my top 3 favorite blogs that i frequent. i aspire to be a combination of all of these some day..

taza and husband- this couple is so cute and hipster-y. her life is so fabulous, but it's really just her, her husband, their new baby, and cute little bulldog living a fun artsy life.

smart pretty and awkward- very first blog i ever read. every day she tells girls how to be smarter, prettier, and less awkward. such sound advice too! i followed this one for quite some time before venturing out into the blogging world.

sofias journal- cute girl that lives in manchester, england and rambles about her life.


by the way, i really wish i could insert tons of different blackberry bbm emoticons all throughout these posts. really, with anything i write.

weekend updates

realized i made a mistake in my last post.. i forgot lindsey's name changed last fall. it should've said lindsey howd rohling :)

i keep telling people "i'm a blogger" now and it feels really cool. haha.
updates from the weekend!
i met jon's little niece, piper. adorable. couldn't stop smiling around her. i haven't been around a baby in a while and it kind of brightens everything up for a little bit.

jon is a kid magnet. i realized how many pictures of him with kids i had from the weekend...

and then came jon's graduation day :)

so now it's a sunday night in knoxville and i have 3 days of work before more vacation time. getting so excited for the hangout. i haven't been to a music festival in a couple years- and never one on the beach!
a couple things i'll probably be sporting while there: my new coral fringed topshop top, which i wouldn't have come across if it weren't for my fashion savvy friend barbara, and my camelbak water bottle with a FILTER inside the straw! i'm obsessed with it. filtered water anywhere i go! i got it in seafoam.

soo hangout is kinda all that'll be on my mind for the next few days.

and now i'm going to watch monsters inc. and enjoy the rest of my sunday night. hope everyone had a great weekend!

i'll leave you with a little youtube video that jon showed me this weekend and i couldn't stop laughing..

new

so, i just tried to follow back my one followers, lindsey howd, but showing my tyronic blogging knowledge, ended up following myself. and now i don't know how to unfollow myself.

anyway, there are a lot of things i'm excited about in my near future!
tomorrow is the day jon graduates college. jon is my boyfriend (sorry, i still feel like i'm writing to a fresh diary so i have to keep explaining things. that will stop eventually). this is him... with beard :)

haha. he's graduating tomorrow! i'm so proud of him. we have lots of graduation festivities planned and i can't wait for him to enter into after-college land.

then next week, we will be heading to hangout music fest in gulf shores with a great crew of music lovin people :) so excited to hear my morning jacket (the best band who ever created music) amongst all my other faves, ALL on the BEACH.

i'm all smiles.

today

after months of lauding over the numerous blogs that i read daily, today is the day that i finally decided to start my own.

of all the journals and diaries and notebooks that i kept from the time i learned how to write, i always started out explaining myself to the pages so they would have a little background information about who was writing on them. i figured if anyone were to find it one day and everything was still in tact, the person would want to know a little about the writer.

so here i am.
i'm a 22 year old tennessean native, with hopes of traveling... everywhere. i was a psychology major and am completely obsessed with anything to do with the mind. i would go into detail about the four important corners: family, friends, boyfriend, job... but they're all equally amazing. i'm a very lucky lady.

i have idealistic, yet practical dreams for my future. the main one that i think about at least 8 of the 16ish hours i'm awake everyday, is getting into an elite clinical psychology graduate program to research people's brains! yes, that was an exclamation point.

i don't like using capital letters unless i'm writing a paper or a business email.

and i haven't exactly figured out what the focus of this blog will be. hopefully lots of pictures and updates and thoughts and fun links and videos. i just wanted to at least create it. and i did!

phew.