twenty.

I'm not a birthday person. I'm kind of obnoxious about it too. Wish me a happy twentieth and you'll most likely be treated to a rant about how I haven't done anything in the last two decades or (even worse) how birthdays are overrated and if you're friends with someone you shouldn't need a date on the calendar to tell you to celebrate them. Cherish your friends everyday and all that jazz. I should really be more gracious about that.

Twenty, though. That sounds so removed from me. I'm not this twenty year old. Twenty year olds have apartments and cool jobs and pay bills and live in cities. I'm not there yet. I live in a dorm room. I'm on a meal plan. I don't have a job during the year. Heck, I don't even have a car. The only thing that makes me "independent" is the fact that I'm not physically living under my parents' roof. But I'm still wholly dependent on them in most other ways. I haven't done enough to be twenty. Twenty year olds have done stuff. Important stuff.

Its like how when you were little, high school students seemed so, so cool. And then when you got there, it never felt as cool or exciting as you were sure it would be. Twenty has this connotation of sophistication and independence and energy that I might never live up to.

Believe it or not, my friends still want to be friends with me after having their ears bent out of shape with this constant whinging refrain of mine. And they very sweetly brought me flowers, something I love getting but have few excuses to do so. 

So thank you for everyone who helped celebrate. Thank you especially to the bouquet-bearing Mary, CJ, Harry, Kristi, and Maggie. 

{sophomoric.}

That's what my album will be called if I ever get around to putting pictures up. This second year has thus far been filled with square dancing, befriending the freshmen, going to Ke$ha, finally getting a chance to wear my onesie in public, finding a church, studying up a storm, celebrating birthdays, committing to too many things, going to Jack's Mannequin and Guster at Ravinnia, living at Caribou, feeling comfortable with my friends instead of freaking out about meeting absolutely everyone, loving my new dorm and remembering to call home this year. 

Fall is coming. 

Listening to:

Ben Rector

The Tallest Man on Earth

Guster

goodbye to summer

Last day in town...surreal. I'm definitely ready for school to start. For most of the summer, I wanted more free time. Every week I worked I counted down the hours to weekend. But, after two weeks of no job and no responsibilities really, I'm starting to realize that, no, I actually do need something to do. I'm driving myself crazy. I hang out with friends, or think about maybe starting to pack, and then I just start baking. Its gotten slightly ridiculous. This whole week, in fact, I've made something that my sister and I devour while watching one of the movies from our summer list (every holiday/break, we make this super ambitious list of things to do, books to read, movies to watch, skills to acquire....rarely is it even close to accomplished.) 

So this is what I've been up to, in pictures. It basically involved combining eating with some other activity.

-Making shepherd's pie (brought on partly out of nostalgia for Shannon's and partly because Karen and I spent the afternoon speaking in our kind-of-passable British/New Zealand accents).

-Watching Inglourious Basterds and spending the rest of the week yelling "Au revoir, Shoshanna!" and "Ob-LIGE him!" at each other.

-Watching Rabbit Hole and then making blueberry crumble to cheer ourselves up.

-Finally reading all the books that have been sitting neglected on my dresser (whilst having a lovely cup of tea). Every time I read something by C.S. Lewis, I'm like "why don't I read this stuff all the time?"

-Watching our deck be torn down and then rebuilt. This is probably the trippiest thing that's ever occurred in our house. For a couple days, our second story door, that used to open onto the deck, opened  to thin air. Unfortunately, my mom decided that my sister and I were not responsible enough to handle dangling ourselves out the door and taking silly pictures, so she duct-taped it shut. 

-And my crowning achievement, beignets de tomates vertes avec fromage du chevre, also known as fried green tomatoes with goat cheese. SO GOOD. This is pretty much the one and only part of Southern cuisine I've fallen in love with. And I'm getting all fancy now and Frenchifying them after a visit to South City Kitchen in Atlanta, which does the whole upscale-Southern food thing with aplomb. 

My little brother and I had a very pleasant lunch/afternoon snack of wilted spinach, fried green tomatoes, more goat cheese, and apples. 

And now, I'm getting back into the college swing of things by catching up on work in Starbucks and seeing my friends for the last time in a while.

Its odd, thinking back to this time a year ago. Last year, leaving meant having to start over. It was an exciting yet completely terrifying experience. Everyone I met, I would think, "Will we end up friends? What will you mean to me? How will you fit into my life, or I into yours?" Everything was fast. This year, I'm not heading off, I'm coming home. 

This isn't how I planned my summer to be, but I ended up enjoying it. Or most of it, anyway. A big thank you to all my hometown friends on that account. Thank you for the support, the love, the encouragement, the crazy random fun, and the endless photos. 

That being said, I'm beyond excited to see all my Wheaties again. I've missed you guys more than I thought possible. And oh my gosh thank you for all the letters! I absolutely love getting mail, and this:

made my day every time a letter/package/postcard arrived.

I don't know what's going to happen blog-wise. The key ingredient for this was free time (which, even without a full time job, is going to be thin on the ground in college). Also, the fact that most of the people who read this go to Wheaton makes it a little redundant. It's been fun though. And hopefully sharpened my photography/writing skills a little. So...we'll see. Thanks to everyone for reading. 

Seeing as I leave first thing tomorrow, I should probably start packing now.

{coffeeshop soundtrack}

Ahh. Today is a good day. Yesterday I took my history final and am officially DONE with history classes from this point onward. So now when I hang out in Starbucks (because my house has become a construction zone) I can do more interesting things. Namely, writing lots of emails, uploading photos, researching internships, co-writing my screenplay, read Let the Great World Spin which I just borrowed from a friend, and creep on the other people here. Wow. Between the four moms who have set up court in the back and look Real Housewives-worthy, the two nurses who must have three hour lunch breaks or some neglected patients, my former pastor, a lawyer with a two foot stack of case material (re-thinking law school...), the hipster couple on the couches who are talking really really loud and the cute blonde guy in the corner, its much more interesting in here than you might think. 

Only a week and a half til school starts and I have to start doing real work again. 

I'm really enjoying just hanging out with friends and doing silly things like obsessing over ridiculous TV shows, driving for hours trying to find the town of Serenbe, zumba, and enjoying the fact that for this small window in time, and in life really, we have no obligations.

In some good news from the world, stock market's up (for now) and the London riots are slightly more under control.

Listening to: the entire For Emma, Forever Ago album, Bon Iver (sidebar: the governor of Wisconsin named July 22nd Bon Iver Day. Who knew?)

{savannah}

Back from the weekend, still recovering from the absolutely insane heat 'n' humidity and mosquito bites. It was worth it though. Two days with two of my favorites in a beautiful little Southern town.

Agenda for Saturday:

Drive to Savannah (this involves mostly sleeping in the backseat on my part)

Walk around the squares, take way too many pictures, get heatstroke (not actually).

Me & Emilia (photo by Emily)
Have lunch, which consisted of the best fried green tomato sandwiches ever, at B. Matthews. That might sound odd if you've never lived in the South, but it's actually really good. Take my word for it.

Go to Tybee Beach. This was kind of a shock to all of us, we've been spoiled by uncrowded beaches. Our solution to the issue of loud people playing football all over the beach was to lie down in the shallow part of the tide and sleep. 

Dinner was at Jazz'd, a blues-jazz live music tapas bar. Definitely a good call. The band there that night played blues (they played Ain't No Sunshine!) and the restaurant had a really fun atmosophere. And the food was amazing. Proscuitto wrapped asparagus, chorizo empanadas, stuffed mushrooms, southern crab cakes, hummus, tapas lasagna, leek fritattas, and a black bean soup for my vegetarian Emilia.

{food photos credits to emily}

Strolling around City Market at night, getting matching necklaces because we're still fifth graders at heart, running into people from high school randomly, hotel sleepover with so. many. pillows.

Sunday Agenda:

Up early morning the next day to go tourist it up at Ft. Pulaski and the wildlife reserve (which is where the bulk of the mosquito tragedies happened).

Lunch at a burger joint with a menu more complex than NASA shuttle manuals.

Shopping and walking through Broughton St. 

And the absolute coolest store in the world: The Paris Market. 

Anything vintage, Parisian, or both can be found here. Its partly an antiques store, but not everything is ridiculously expensive. They play forties music and wrap up your purchases like presents. 

{photo creds to Emily}

Basically, this is want my house to look like. I could live in here. And I exercised a lot of self control by not buying lots of fabulous things. Just these. 

They had a trunk-ful of "vintage jewelry grab-bags". Just a little bag full of odds and ends of antique jewelry. So obviously I got one.
Also, a map of Paris. Kate, Mary, hopefully you like this since its going on our wall next year. 
After that, I picked up some pralines as souvenirs for the family back home and headed off. 

So, if you find yourself in Savannah, enjoy the restaurants and quiet streets, brace yourself for the humidity, try some sweet tea, and take lots of pictures.

Listening to (partially inspired by The Paris Market):

Quelqu'un M'a Dit--Carla Bruni

Le Temps Perdu--Carla Bruni

Ain't No Sunshine--Bill Withers

I'll Be Seeing You--Billie Holiday

{getting splendid post}

i love getting mail. when i was little i used to sit out after school and wait for the mail truck to come, hoping one of my pen pals had written me. i still write people letters, too. And postcards that take months to get halfway across the country. (What is up with the mail nowadays? I sent a letter to Israel--granted, fairly far--and it took four weeks to get there)

i also love surprises. and so it made my day yesterday to come home and find a package from my lovely friend Su, in which she had enclosed these cool tshirts she had gotten at her internship (i think). 

(I don't know what "The Send" is, though. Is it like...a gift? a "God"send? A demand? A band? I could just Google it, but I think I'm going to make up my own story.)

So, I was already pretty psyched about the whole getting-completely-unexpected-gifts in the mail. And then today, it happened AGAIN! 

My grandpa is a wonderful man in many respects, keeping track of dates and time is not one of them. I've gotten three "Happy sixteenth birthday!" cards from him. Usually what happens is whenever we're in Santa Barbara he'll just get us our birthday/Christmas/graduation presents there in one fell swoop. We didn't really do much shopping this trip, but I guess he remembered me pointing out this:

because it arrived in the mail today :) 

Other good things:

I'm going to Savannah this weekend with two beautiful amazing girls and it shall be wonderful.

Only two more days until I have another week off! (never have I been so grateful for out of state youth softball tournaments)

Sidebar: I didn't realize how many people read this...at all. One of my friends was telling me that like six people at her work read this, and I've never even met them! I was under the impression that about two people read this, because I think that's how many people 'follow' me. (However, you, dear reader, are welcome to 'follow'....it doesn't do anything fancy, I believe it just sends you an email when I post and also lets me know who's reading this. Plus then I can give you little shoutouts. Always fun.)

Listening to: Dream a Little Dream of Me--Cass Elliot

a lazy sunday

perfect weather (for the first all summer) + recovering from the first late late night I'd had in a while + hanging out with two amazing girls + reading up on the emerging GOP candidates because I am a dork + watching ridiculous TV shows + running + new music + finding out my car should be back by Thursday (fingers crossed) + lots of my little projects/long term plans coming together + great sermon in church today  = good weekend and the perfect cap to a wonderful two week vacation.

back to work tomorrow--hopefully it will go well and I will be able to come up with activities for the kiddos.

Listening to:

The Civil Wars. I've had their music for a while but I never got around to listening to them--they're fantastic. 

Also, I have this thing where I create playlists for very specific sub-genres of music. The songs have to fit a certain mood or have a feel to them that matches the others. I keep these four song playlists around for years with no change and then one day, bam!, I'll hear a song and go "Wow, that's absolutely perfect for my nordic lighthouse playlist!"

 One of my favorites I have christened "Bluesy Harmonica Put to Good Use". Most of the songs do have harmonica, but in general they're folksy-bluesy-alt rock songs with stomp to them that simultaneously remind me of Cold Mountain and taking a road trip through the Carolinas. And with my (re)discovery of the Civil Wars, there is a new addition! Fair warning, if you don't like the first track, you won't like the rest of 'em. 

Barton Hollow--The Civil Wars

Believer--Viva Voce

Follow Suit--Trent Dabbs

Wagon Wheel (cover)--Against Me

Complicated Shadows--Elvis Costello

Fault Line--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Done All Wrong--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

The Civil Wars--Barton Hollow

anatomy of a costume

Alternately titled, what I did with my Thursday morning. As you all probably know, tonight is the motion picture event we've been waiting for--the U.S. midnight premiere of the last Harry Potter movie (unless you're super lucky and are currently in New Zealand cough *megan* cough and already saw it). And if you didn't know that, or are not a Rowling fan, just stop reading now. Because otherwise you will think I'm very strange.

As its the last movie, we're going all out and dressing up. I have decided to be Luna Lovegood because she's such a fun character and gives you lots of great costume options.

                  

Unfortunately, I do not have the time or patience to make a lion hat. But here is what I did do. 

My costume philosophy for established characters is somewhat akin to method acting. Yes, try and find whatever the book or movies had them wearing, but its perfectly acceptable to add something if it fits the character.

 Start with classic Ravenclaw uniform: black skirt, white button down, grey sweater, blue/silver tie:

Now, add a bunch of oddly patterned and assorted thing like scarves, knee socks, sneakers, giant purses. bonus points for wearing items in a fashion they were not intended for and/or not matching.

Next, add Luna-ish accesories. Lots of necklaces with pendants, that sort of thing.

The things the books mentioned were: necklaces made out of butterbeer corks, earrings made of radishes, copies of her father's magazine The Quibbler, and Spectrospecs.

For the final touches: Hair should be worn down and wavy, make it look as long as possible. If you want, stick flowers or something in it. Paint your nails an unusual color. Look spacey. 

Finished product:

And not to brag or anything, but I also turned my little brother into Professor Lupin and my sister into Hermione Granger. 

Also, a very merry happy birthday to my wonderful sister, who is officially of wizarding age today.

Birthday morning coffee cake.

Luna Lovegood inspired playlist:
I'm Not Calling You A Liar--Florence + the Machine
Eet--Regina Spektor
Possibility--Lykke Li
Starry Eyed--Ellie Goulding
Boy Lilikoi--Jonsi
Generator (Second Floor)--Freelance Whales
If You Can't Sleep--She & Him

{chicago}

Back from Chicago! (after perhaps the worst string of flight delays EVER occurring in a two day time period). But my actual time there was great. We only had one day, so we jam packed it. Our big plan was to hit up the East 57th Street bookstores near the University of Chicago in the morning (My friend's an English major and I'm a nerd, so that would have actually been super fun for us). 

However, what we didn't know was that there is no public transportation that drops you off at U of C. You would think the several thousand undergrads would warrant a Metra stop. Oh no. We wander out into the middle of South Chicago, which even at ten in the morning is probably the sketchiest place I've ever been. Six blocks in we chickened out and, fearful for our wallets and safety, hightailed it back to the mag mile. When we checked the map at the El station, we realized we were about eighteen blocks of gang-infested back alleys (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was bad) away from anywhere we wanted to be. 

We decided to just focus on our other fun plans. Mainly, the Taste of Chicago festival. 

Hundreds of booths from great city restaurants spread out over Grant Park; you buy some of these little guys:

and go to town. Kate & I decided to split everything so we could try more. And did we try more.

ravioli, deep dish, potstickers, tamales & sweet potatoes galore.
After which we hung around Chicago (very carefully NOT taking the El this time), shopped in nearby Naperville, got dinner (although HOW we possibly ate again astounds me), went to Bridesmaids (even better the second time), crashed a dinner party, went to church and brunch the next morning and then it was time to head back. All in all, a very short but very worth it weekend.

Listening to: "Chicago", by Sufjan Stevens (it seemed appropriate).