What a revelation.

This evening, I discovered that I have a blog. A twelve-year-old blog. A blog that would be starting its moody adolescence. I'm not sure why I would post here now, except for the fact that I enjoyed reading the posts that I'd forgotten so thoroughly that they could have been written by a stranger. Maybe I'll record a few odds and ends, forget this for a decade, and enjoy again.

A moment from the balcony of our Remedios hotel on our recent trip to Cuba.

One post, due to Thanksgiving break.

I collect words. These are from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Some were new to me, some were used in a new context, and some were just words that I want to use more often!

superciliously
heliotrope
pillory
decollete
repartee
curate
salver
Lamia
expostulating
huckster
paroxysm
pertness

Thanks, iPad Annotate feature!

23 years.

Today I woke up feeling weird. I pondered this as I reached for my alarm, and I suddenly realized it was the feeling of being the awkward age of 23. What am I supposed to do with that?

And then I had my coffee, which put me one step closer to normalcy. I checked my e-mail, and I immediately panicked as I saw that I had 30 new messages. I had, of course, forgotten that it was my birthday, and that my friends were greeting me. Realizing what was going on, I felt much better!

This town has crazy traffic. What's going on here? I don't know. Cars. People. Stoplights. Parking garages. But hey, I made it to training, and there were donuts, and then they sang happy birthday to me! Then I learned lots of facts. Somehow I need to remember them and put them into action. Hm.

But now, another day more trained, more textbook-laden, and more acquainted with my fellow School Psych students, I seem to have pushed through my first wall of grad school anxiety and am momentarily on a new wave of excitement. Here's hoping that holds out for some long period of time.

 

Image only vaguely related to my thoughts today; took it last weekend and thought it was worth putting in a safe place.

I'm getting to the point that I'm running short on days before school starts. How did that happen? This summer kept appearing vast and open up until the end. The avoidance curve is now getting steeper than the approach curve (thanks, Personality Psych), and my excitement is being slightly deterred by nerves. But so goes life; I know that the next few weeks will be exciting, and I plan to enjoy it even if I'm simultaneously nervous. I'm a little worn out and stuffy this morning, though, so as much as possible, I'm going to take it easy.

And here's a brief photo update from a couple weeks ago. I attended Natalie and Robin's wedding in St. Louis, and it was classic and classy, and all-around beautiful.

Summer Snapshot

A quick shot from my family's float trip. Our campsite was right by the water, so in the evening after we floated, I could watch the fog rolling in over the water. Thanks to the weather behaving, it was a gorgeous couple days.

I want to remember this when school has started and I'm busy. Michaela made ciabatta and I picked fresh herbs, and this was our afternoon snack. Perfect.

Jewelry rack

My new jewelry rack!

I bought a screen sieve at an antique store last week. I cut rectangles of cork to fit into the spaces of the box, then I cut fabric just a little bigger.

I pinned the fabric to the cork just a little, but the box held it in place pretty well on its own. The backing is made of cardboard from a box I disassembled.

And I hung it on the wall and used t-pins to hang my necklaces! Also put a few nails along the bottom.

Tada!

Closet Space

My closet, before. Boxes of clothes surrounded me as I took this. I knew I had enough space for things, but I didn't quite know what I needed to make the most of my large closet. Luckily for me, I happen to know a good organizer! Her website is currently under construction, but I'll link it eventually. Totally a good investment, because I just was thinking, "Uhh... I need shelves," while Molly knew what kind of shelves I needed, how many I should get, and where to look for the best price. And now, I have a closet that will make me happy and be easy to maintain once school starts!

What's great is that I have more space, too. I bought one more of these shelves that my t-shirts are on, because I know when I move to sweaters, they'll take up more room. And clearly, there's plenty of space available above these shelves that are built in to the closet. I haven't moved up my out-of-season clothing yet, but when I do, it'll go up on these shelves. Yay!

Moving along

Moving in! Moving in! Sure, it's going to be about 100 degrees today. SURE, I'm moving furniture. And hey, while we're at it, let's point out the fact that the air conditioner at my new place is reportedly malfunctioning. These things being said, today, I am moving in! Two cars and a truck are in the process of being packed, and soon, this pristine space will be filled with boxes and bags and disassembled structures. I look forward to posting an "after" photo to this "before." Excited!

Buzzz

I've been busy as this little bee! Moving into my new house, so there will be pictures of that soon. My room has been painted and some of my bathroom stuff is moved in, but I have a long way to go. Taking a load of furniture up tomorrow morning; it'll be great to have a bed THERE and out of my bedroom here.

I had a wonderful mini-vacation to Kirksville last week to see HP7II. The lovely Fallyn let me stay at her house for two nights, and since she's currently moved in but not living there, it was like staying in a guest house that is as cozy as a home. I need to send her a thank you note today. The movie itself was very enjoyable, and Alan Rickman blew me away. I just want to watch his scenes over and over. I do think that this film did a worse job of making choices of what to include to create the best movie. It would be easy to cut some of the scenes intended to look cool in 3D to include bits that strengthened the plot. But they didn't consult me on it... so I'm just going to enjoy the product.

Mom's birthday was yesterday, and we went to The Legends in KCK. There were 40% off everything sales at the Banana Republic and Ann Taylor outlets, so you can guess I had a good day. I think my favorite purchase was a denim skirt from Banana Republic that fits me wonderfully, and it was under $5. I need to find fun things to do in my new town so I can wear my new clothes!

I should probably work on getting my furniture ready to transport, but I think I'll spend just a little more time working on Fallyn's socks, as I deciphered the next part of the pattern last night!