Things I require to be happy

(in no particular order)

Sunshine

Dogs/Cats/animals

Flowers

Family

Friends

Hugs

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

It's beginning to look a lot like fall (again)!

Today, really for the first time this year, I looked out my window and was like 'Oh. Yup, it's fall.' Not Autumn, which to me is when all the leaves change color and you have beautiful crisp blue-sky days and being outside really is just pure delight (especially when there are leaf-piles and friends involved). Fall is that point when most of the leaves have fallen, and the sky is slate gray. It's like practice winter.

This is my third Summer-(Autumn)Fall-Winter transition in a row, and while I find that I don't mind it as much as I thought I would (in New Zealand the change made me miserable, but that could have been because they didn't really have an Autumn, and Winter just involved a lot of rain and cold wind where I was), I don't really like it. Truly, I prefer Autumn. Color everywhere, blue skies, chilly enough for hot mulled apple cider to be appropriate, but not so cold that you don't want to go out.

Anyway, this is a practice post, in a way. I want to get back into blogging! Looking back at previous posts, I had a lot of fun with it. We'll see how it goes!

And now, time for class.

Resolutions

1. Do things that make me happy with people who make me happy

2. Try new things, even if they're a little scary

3. Say what's on my mind to make sure that people know how I feel when it's important that they know

4. Be more active - spend fewer whole days inside, even if the weather is terrible

5. Be more forgiving (of myself)

6. Talk to my whole family more (extended included)

7. Listen to more music, of different varieties

I had such good intentions

I know it's be a while, but here I am again! Sleepless. I really meant to go to sleep so long ago; I'm not sure what happened. Now is not really the time for a catch-up on my semester, so I won't try. I do, however, have another poem for you - I don't think it's quite done yet, but one of my new years resolutions was to put my poetry someplace that I couldn't lose it, and so here we are.

Me, myself

one skin, brown. seamless.

look closer: blue veins, white scars, pink palms, wrinkles, calluses, marks, stories.

beneath: bones.

hard, strong, straight. Mine. Wrapped in muscle, fed with blood -ironwateroxygen- that is pumped by a muscle that names two parts of me,

one tangible,

one not.

A never-ceasing force of life [ideas] that feed my brain [knowledge] and my feet [passion], from my heart.

a streaming dancing twirl of blue and red defying gravity.

a swirling dance of light and joy and life,

Mine.

Me.

I liked the other one about bones better - I was actually going for a more personally descriptive piece here, and I guess I got around to it a bit, but I got excited about thinking about what's beneath my skin and how cool it is that I can move myself because of all of these different parts. I mean, maybe I'm just overly tired, but isn't it so incredible that we have bones and muscles and blood underneath our skins that are actually part of who we are? Isn't it weird to think about the fact that rather than live in the ocean, we carry the ocean inside of us?

Anyway, just some thoughts I've been having. Maybe I'll try to go to sleep again.

-Oh! I'm going to New Zealand in a few weeks, and I'll be keeping a blog while I'm there - but I think I'll make a new one in a new place, and keep this one somewhat personal.

That's all for now, happy new year!

Also, I really can't figure out why there is so much extra on the bottom. Weird.

Meet Dumbledore :)

My beautiful, happy, companionable, adorable beta. :D

He wiggles his fins at me and is just generally adorrrrrable. Seriously.

Ahh, a return

Well, summer is over in the blink of an internet eye. Maybe a literary eye? Maybe it was just your eye, haha!

I suppose it isn't quite over yet - I have another week and a half until classes start, but that week is scheduled left and right and almost entirely accounted for. It's nice to be on campus before everything starts though, and it's really nice to have my floor (and the bathroom) to myself... and! It's so nice to have my room to myself! Not that that will change, as I have a single (huzzah!) this year. It's kind of weird not having a roommate though, and I miss mine. I'm thinking of getting a fish so that I can have something to talk to that might at least look like it's interested :P.

I had a really excellent summer - it started out on a trip to NYC for a friend from high school's birthday (a trip that I was very skeptical of that turned out to be really fun), and it ended with a canoe camping trip that was probably one of the best experiences I've ever had. In between there were thunderstorms, concerts, concerts IN thunderstorms, research at Wellesley, hangings-out with friends, loves, families, dogs, and cats. There were shows, trumpet lessons, trips to brass heaven, picnics, and even a party or two. There was also my birthday - this is officially my 20th year outside of the womb on planet Earth. How weird is that? - and lots of paint. My mom got rid of a bunch of stuff that I wanted to get rid of but was incapable of throwing away and turned a storage area into an incredible mini library/office supply/place I might actually spend some time in. There was a family trip to Vermont, the exploration of a chasm, and more than one awesome badminton game. There was a lot more, too, but I've suddenly become very tired and think I will end this soon.

Right now I'm up at Wellesley training to be an FYM, or, in layman's terms, First Year Mentor. My job is basically to ease the transition for and answer all of the questions of my group of first years, while also making sure they stay calm and healthy. Oh, I'm also supposed to introduce them to other people, haha. We're halfway through training now, and I feel about halfway confident.

Okay, more updates later.

It's Summer!

The semester is over at last, and I'm home! Home! I feel like I've never had a summer vacation before - I have so much to look forward to and so much to enjoy, and it's really great. And I have so much time! Maybe I'll finally be able to do most of the things I say that I want to do (like uh, finish those paintings. Hmm.) 

Anyway. I'm really excited. :D