- Greek Yogurt Whips
- Schoolhouse Rock
- Spray Sport Sunscreen
- Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
- Graduation parties
- Cake carriers
- Plays
- One Night Werewolf (Game)
- Dragon Teeth, by M. C. (Book)
- Sheetz gas station advertising
- Oil paintings
- Ansel Adams posters
- Thermoses that keep coffee hot for the next day
- Sweet Potato Chips
- Long, comfy sweaters
- Reduced Price Grocery Stores
- Comfy old cotton sheets
- Framed poetry
- Multivitamins
- Squares of sunlight on the floor from the windowpanes
- Pretty laptop cases
- Road trips
- Homemade apple pie
- Waterloo by ABBA (song)
- Sending out packages in the mail
- Grandma Bonnie's chocolate peanut butter cake
- Cousins
- Spring landscaping
- Signing a lease
- Round trip tickets
- Paved walking trails
- Apple blossoms
- Jurassic Park (movie/book/sequels/etc.)
- Blue and white tile
- Drinking black coffee
- Polytopia
- Woven cream summer blankets
- Old carved wooden doors
- Reese's Puffs cereal
- Kids playing soccer
- Hard boiled eggs
- Waterfalls
- Kaow Soi
- Ziplock bags
- First aid kits
- Table lamps
- Solitaire on a smartphone
- Ice cream sandwiches
- The rule of thirds
- Airports
- College libraries at 2 a.m.
- Guest houses
- Old people eating at Bob Evans
- Water fountains with higher spouts to fill water bottles
- Music reccomendations
- Tea fields
- Headphones
- Macroeconomics
- Paper lanterns
- Ikea chairs
- Parking garages
- Not having any checked luggage on a flight
- Lost In Space, TV show
- Individual applesauce cups
- Aldi
- Laughing with someone else
- Unfinished books
- Coffee in blue and white Cazumél mugs
- Sheer white curtains that let in the light
- Sturdy entry tables
- Warm socks for Christmas
- Sister time
- Going clothes shopping at goodwill
- Handmade gifts
- Seinfeld
- Rimworld
- Twinkle light creations
- Flyers for food
- Grinding your own coffee
- Pretty bottles of dish soap
- Comfy old couches
- December Spring days
- Wind
- Thunderstorms
- Coffee shops, Joe 'n' Throw
- Matching tactical backpacks
- Fridges covered in photos and notes
- When all the bills are paid
- Paychecks in the mailbox
- Having lists and plans together
- Sauve cherry blossom hair conditioner
- Clean towels and laundry
- Finishing books
- Striped santa hats
- Red bird peppermints
- Quiet Sunday mornings alone
- Clean cars
- Rooms with good lighting
- Leftover Christmas ham
- When your mom schedules your doctors appointment for you
- Imperfect furniture
- Putting your hair up
- Flossing
- Being remembered
- Ordering photos from Walmart, nine cents apiece
- "Hello, love," on the phone
- Christmas card photos
- Anticipation of packages in the mail
- Cherry blossom print
- Thawing frozen strawberries
- Clean refrigerators
- "I hope winter doesn't try to catch up with us in April"
- Albuterol
- Ordering textbooks for the next semester
- Giving people gel pens and silly putty and stress balls just for fun
- Putting everything away
- Noisy refrigerators
- Shadows
- Clouds
- Paintings of sunsets, deliciously frivolous
- "Not Connected to Wi-Fi"
- Deadbolts
- Rediscovering old favorite things
- Not knowing what to do with leftover Christmas candy
- Making a "warm" out of pretty fabric and cheap rice
- Brooklyn 99, TV show
- Student Spotify
- The first "Happy New Year" text
- Calling your grandma
- Loving people
- Driving the interstate when you can't sleep at night
- Catching up on podcasts
- Bluetooth speakers
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Sleeping during the day after a night shift
- When your drink is the perfect temp so it feels warm going down
- When the muse returns to you
- The serendipity of a floral ballcap
12.30.2018
138 More Favorite Things
8.28.2018
Actually Useful College Tips For Homeschoolers
1. You will have online homework.
2. Class notes and schedules and syllabuses and grading and other stuff will be online.
3. When the teachers (or anybody) gives you the codes or addresses of online ANYTHING, pay attention and write it down. You may think you don't want, or won't need, an online textbook, and then later on you'll find out that there is a portion of it which you can access free and there's a quiz on there that is due by next class. That's an example, but the important thing is that ONLINE STUFF IS A BIG PART OF COLLEGE NOW. There's probably a college website with a student login that lets you use other programs, like school mail and homework, learn to use it. Everything's on there.
4. You will be responsible for scheduling your classes, probably on your first day of orientation. This will be online, probably in a computer lab which is just a room full of computers and desks. If you don't know how to do this, you can ask for help or you can talk to your academic advisor.
5. You will have an academic advisor assigned to your major and this advisor is a person who will help you figure out what you want to schedule. If you have changes that you want made, or you are concerned about your grades in a class, this advisor is who you talk to.
6. The first week (I think) is the only time you can add/drop classes. Figure out if your math class is going to be super hard within that first week and if it is, go talk to your advisor about having tutoring or an easier class.
7. Yeah, there's drinking and drugs and lots of stupid stuff but it's not that hard to avoid.
8. Parking probably sucks.
9. Printing is expensive, and you will have assignments that you will need to print and turn in. Plan on it.
10. Do ALL the extra credit work that is offered, this helps make up for points you miss on tests and so forth.
11. A syllabus is a document that your professor makes available on the first day of class (or that's the plan) and it outlines how the semester of class is supposed to go. This lets you know, usually, if you need a textbook.
12. You don't always need the textbook, and if you do, sometimes you just need it for random reference and an online version is just as good because you don't need to actually study it.
13. It's ok to be late for a class, just be quiet about it. It's ok to just get up and leave, just be quiet about it.
14. At least at my school, the food on campus is expensive. Think about that ahead of time.
15. There is a website called Rate My Professor that shows you reviews other anonymous students have posted about some of the professors. Maybe English is a hard class for you, if so, you can look on this website before scheduling your English class to learn which teachers might be more willing to work with you outside of class or have less confusing lectures.
16. Take notes. Research the Cornell note taking method. Use Quizlet.
17. Save EVERYTHING YOU DO. Like just get a filing cabinet or something, save all your work. Sometimes you will need it three classes later and it's really good to have it on record somewhere.
18. Be prepared for all the adults around you to suddenly view you as immature, irresponsible, and generally pretty dumb. Especially when you're a freshman. Maybe you are a hard worker, maybe you've held a full time job for years and helped run a house full of kids or wrote a book or rebuilt an engine, but all that doesn't matter. The point is, they work with a lot of kids who are just that-kids, and they haven't grown up yet, and they're going to lump you right in with the rest of them. Don't get offended, it's not personal, even if you think it is. Just steadily prove them wrong by being responsible with your time, work, and effort. :)
19. You're going to have to teach yourself a lot outside of class.
20. You can apply for scholarships every year, and some every semester. If you're not sure what you qualify for or what the application process is, ask your academic advisor. If you don't know who your academic advisor is, ask around because that person is crazy-important.
21. There are classes that you can test out of (study for them independently and then take a test.), some of these programs are CLEP and DSST. Your school might provide other options, like online summer classes. These can save big-time on your tuition, so talk to your academic advisor about other ways to get credits and transfer them in.
22. In some classes (and most freshman classes) attendance is part of your overall grade.
23. If you know you aren't going to make it to a class or if you have late homework, go ahead and talk to your professors as soon as possible and ask if there's any arrangements you can make for those. Some professors will accept late work, even if they tell the class emphatically that they won't, if you show up with it and look worried enough. Some professors will let you skip a class if you do an additional project or something, and that will keep your grades from dropping.
24. If something happens that prevents you from attending class or whatever, like a flat tire or a doctors' appointment, DOCUMENT IT THOROUGHLY. Remember, your professors do not view you as a capable or trustworthy human being, and they will probably be very suspicious of your reasons for not making it to class or for having late homework. A lot of kids try to cheat with this stuff, which means for the rest of us we have to be a lot more intentional about our explanations for things.
25. Most of the time, updates about canceled classes or changing homework assignments or other things, are going to be online. You might also be able to sign up for text updates for some classes, but make sure you check whatever online login you have for your school for these things.
26. Your professors probably have different ways that they prefer to be contacted, sometimes they put this in their syllabi, sometimes they just say it in class. At any rate, respect their requests on this because otherwise they may just not get your message. Some professors have office hours, others are adjunct-professors (meaning they don't have an office), some prefer scheduled appointments and others prefer walk-ins. Sometimes they want you to use the school email, other times their personal email, sometimes they prefer texts, other times they want you to call. Just figure it out and know that it's different for each professor.
27. If you don't know; ask. Ask anybody, and if they don't know, ask somebody else.
28. There's a thing called Midterms and it has to do with exams, and there's a thing called Finals which also has to do with exams. I don't know how these work yet, but I'll let you know when I do. :)
29. Khan academy is THE BEST math supplement if you don't understand things, and it is free.
30. I actually prefer online textbooks because it requires me to write out the things I want to remember, instead of just marking them on paper, and then writing again when I have notes. It gets it into my brain better.
31. There's going to be a lot of fees during the first semester for random stuff, like parking passes and online access codes to do your homework (think of it like an extension of the cost of textbooks and plan for it), so be prepared for that.
32. Homework assignments probably won't be very clear. Don't freak out, just poke around for a little bit and if you can't figure it out on your own, contact your professor and ask for clarification.
Good luck! And thank the good Lord that you'll never have to look at another Saxon math book again. :)
2. Class notes and schedules and syllabuses and grading and other stuff will be online.
3. When the teachers (or anybody) gives you the codes or addresses of online ANYTHING, pay attention and write it down. You may think you don't want, or won't need, an online textbook, and then later on you'll find out that there is a portion of it which you can access free and there's a quiz on there that is due by next class. That's an example, but the important thing is that ONLINE STUFF IS A BIG PART OF COLLEGE NOW. There's probably a college website with a student login that lets you use other programs, like school mail and homework, learn to use it. Everything's on there.
4. You will be responsible for scheduling your classes, probably on your first day of orientation. This will be online, probably in a computer lab which is just a room full of computers and desks. If you don't know how to do this, you can ask for help or you can talk to your academic advisor.
5. You will have an academic advisor assigned to your major and this advisor is a person who will help you figure out what you want to schedule. If you have changes that you want made, or you are concerned about your grades in a class, this advisor is who you talk to.
6. The first week (I think) is the only time you can add/drop classes. Figure out if your math class is going to be super hard within that first week and if it is, go talk to your advisor about having tutoring or an easier class.
7. Yeah, there's drinking and drugs and lots of stupid stuff but it's not that hard to avoid.
8. Parking probably sucks.
9. Printing is expensive, and you will have assignments that you will need to print and turn in. Plan on it.
10. Do ALL the extra credit work that is offered, this helps make up for points you miss on tests and so forth.
11. A syllabus is a document that your professor makes available on the first day of class (or that's the plan) and it outlines how the semester of class is supposed to go. This lets you know, usually, if you need a textbook.
12. You don't always need the textbook, and if you do, sometimes you just need it for random reference and an online version is just as good because you don't need to actually study it.
13. It's ok to be late for a class, just be quiet about it. It's ok to just get up and leave, just be quiet about it.
14. At least at my school, the food on campus is expensive. Think about that ahead of time.
15. There is a website called Rate My Professor that shows you reviews other anonymous students have posted about some of the professors. Maybe English is a hard class for you, if so, you can look on this website before scheduling your English class to learn which teachers might be more willing to work with you outside of class or have less confusing lectures.
16. Take notes. Research the Cornell note taking method. Use Quizlet.
17. Save EVERYTHING YOU DO. Like just get a filing cabinet or something, save all your work. Sometimes you will need it three classes later and it's really good to have it on record somewhere.
18. Be prepared for all the adults around you to suddenly view you as immature, irresponsible, and generally pretty dumb. Especially when you're a freshman. Maybe you are a hard worker, maybe you've held a full time job for years and helped run a house full of kids or wrote a book or rebuilt an engine, but all that doesn't matter. The point is, they work with a lot of kids who are just that-kids, and they haven't grown up yet, and they're going to lump you right in with the rest of them. Don't get offended, it's not personal, even if you think it is. Just steadily prove them wrong by being responsible with your time, work, and effort. :)
19. You're going to have to teach yourself a lot outside of class.
20. You can apply for scholarships every year, and some every semester. If you're not sure what you qualify for or what the application process is, ask your academic advisor. If you don't know who your academic advisor is, ask around because that person is crazy-important.
21. There are classes that you can test out of (study for them independently and then take a test.), some of these programs are CLEP and DSST. Your school might provide other options, like online summer classes. These can save big-time on your tuition, so talk to your academic advisor about other ways to get credits and transfer them in.
22. In some classes (and most freshman classes) attendance is part of your overall grade.
23. If you know you aren't going to make it to a class or if you have late homework, go ahead and talk to your professors as soon as possible and ask if there's any arrangements you can make for those. Some professors will accept late work, even if they tell the class emphatically that they won't, if you show up with it and look worried enough. Some professors will let you skip a class if you do an additional project or something, and that will keep your grades from dropping.
24. If something happens that prevents you from attending class or whatever, like a flat tire or a doctors' appointment, DOCUMENT IT THOROUGHLY. Remember, your professors do not view you as a capable or trustworthy human being, and they will probably be very suspicious of your reasons for not making it to class or for having late homework. A lot of kids try to cheat with this stuff, which means for the rest of us we have to be a lot more intentional about our explanations for things.
25. Most of the time, updates about canceled classes or changing homework assignments or other things, are going to be online. You might also be able to sign up for text updates for some classes, but make sure you check whatever online login you have for your school for these things.
26. Your professors probably have different ways that they prefer to be contacted, sometimes they put this in their syllabi, sometimes they just say it in class. At any rate, respect their requests on this because otherwise they may just not get your message. Some professors have office hours, others are adjunct-professors (meaning they don't have an office), some prefer scheduled appointments and others prefer walk-ins. Sometimes they want you to use the school email, other times their personal email, sometimes they prefer texts, other times they want you to call. Just figure it out and know that it's different for each professor.
27. If you don't know; ask. Ask anybody, and if they don't know, ask somebody else.
28. There's a thing called Midterms and it has to do with exams, and there's a thing called Finals which also has to do with exams. I don't know how these work yet, but I'll let you know when I do. :)
29. Khan academy is THE BEST math supplement if you don't understand things, and it is free.
30. I actually prefer online textbooks because it requires me to write out the things I want to remember, instead of just marking them on paper, and then writing again when I have notes. It gets it into my brain better.
31. There's going to be a lot of fees during the first semester for random stuff, like parking passes and online access codes to do your homework (think of it like an extension of the cost of textbooks and plan for it), so be prepared for that.
32. Homework assignments probably won't be very clear. Don't freak out, just poke around for a little bit and if you can't figure it out on your own, contact your professor and ask for clarification.
Good luck! And thank the good Lord that you'll never have to look at another Saxon math book again. :)
4.30.2018
Spring Things
- Spring peepers.
- Lions teeth on the banks.
- Easter dinner.
- Crocuses.
- Daffodils.
- Rain.
- Kids dressed up in the obligatory Easter dresses or Easter suits.
- Mint starting to come up from the mud and last year's dead grass and twigs.
- Wind.
- Curled up ferns.
- Drain pipes.
- The love song of the Chickadee.
- Cinders on the asphalt.
- Mud.
- Robin red breasts.
- Puddles.
- Hanging out sheets on the clothesline on windy days.
- Early nightfall.
- The beginnings of skunk cabbage, poking up green in marshy spots.
- Return of the birds.
- Malted milk easter egg candies.
- Forsythia with snow on it.
- Spring cleaning.
- Big, splashy waterfalls with all the snow-melt.
- Road work.
- Light blue skies.
- Really wanting a tomato from your own garden.
- Cold.
- Seed packet displays at stores.
- Not wearing a jacket.
- Having a stuffy head.
- The first dandelion.
- Chicks and ducklings at feed stores, balls of fluff on sawdust and under heat lamps.
- Getting out the bikes and checking the tires.
- Hyacinths.
- Feeling suddenly closer to the ground because all the insulation that snow provided is gone.
- Buds on the apple trees.
- Buying sunflower seeds to plant when it gets just a tad warmer.
- Suddenly really wanting bright colors.
- Hiking and not being able to sit down because everything's muddy.
- Overflowing creek beds.
- College kids coming home for the summer.
- Picking up branches in the yard.
- Wondering if the lawn mower still works after sitting still all winter.
- Farmers complaining about there being too much rain to fix fence and let the cows out.
- Spring beauties (tiny, stripey flowers.)
- The first trip to the park with the kids.
- The first hot day.
- Dyeing Easter eggs with kids, making a multicolored mess of the kitchen.
- Cleaning out/vacuuming the car.
- The ice cream shop opening up for the season.
- Putting away the heavy blankets and feeling organized and then being cold & digging them out again.
- Finding a teaberry patch in the woods.
- Mother's Day.
- Ramps. Ramp dinners at the fire halls. Ramps and potatoes. Ramps and bacon. Ramps and cheese.
- Being able to see houses and things that you can't see in summer because of the leaves in the way.
- Opening stuck windows.
- Not starting up a fire in the woodstove because you don't really need it.
- Perfectionist people raking gravel and cinders out of their yards and back into the road.
- Counting down to the last day of school.
- Starting to think about a summer vacation.
- The first firefly.
- Gaither music.
- Burning sticks that fell off of trees during the snow, having a bonfire and s'mores.
- Mandarin orange cake.
- Putting out hummingbird feeders, cooking up hummingbird juice with sugar, water, & red coloring.
- Storing away the winter coats and digging out the hoodies and jackets and rain coats.
- Farmers perking up.
- Icicles dripping from the eaves as they melt.
- Letting winter calves out to pasture for the first time, watching them run and play.
- Shearing sheep, shearing alpacas.
- Customer appreciation days at greenhouses.
- Baby goats (there's not much in the world that's cuter.)
- When the ducks and the geese come back to the lake.
- "Here Comes The Sun," by The Beatles, played on repeat.
- Redbuds along the highway.
- Taking the cars through an undercarriage wash to get all the salt off and stop the rusting.
- Old time Easter hymns.
- St. Patrick's Day, which is also my sister's birthday.
- Cleaning up all the flower pots, getting rid of old leaves and sticks, getting ready to plant.
- Rainbows
- Thawing slush and ice.
Things I Am Legitimately Scared Of
Big ocean creatures.
Someone being in or under my car when I get into it.
Uncovered windows at night, gaping darkness housing possibly big ocean creatures.
Barky dogs of all sizes.
Large birds like swans, turkeys, etc.
Falling off something tall that I'm standing on, like the edge of a rock cliff or the edge of a building.
Falling off a dock into the water.
Food and drinks being too hot and burning me.
Going off the side of the road into the ditch while driving (there's not much berm in most of WV)
Bees and wasps and such.
These are all things that I'm afraid of more than I rationally should be, and I don't know why. There's, of course, the more complicated fears like fear of disappointing my parents or fear of not being able to support myself financially or fear of losing people that I love, but the fears listed above should not be that scary to me. I shouldn't be scared of a tiny dog barking or of one wasp at a picnic or of going into the ditch when I know I'm driving right where I should be. But I am. I wonder why, sometimes. Genetics? Some code in my brain that I don't know about? Traumatic experiences as a kid that sank into my survival instincts and then I forgot about them? Maybe it's a universal mystery, why we fear things we don't need to.
Someone being in or under my car when I get into it.
Uncovered windows at night, gaping darkness housing possibly big ocean creatures.
Barky dogs of all sizes.
Large birds like swans, turkeys, etc.
Falling off something tall that I'm standing on, like the edge of a rock cliff or the edge of a building.
Falling off a dock into the water.
Food and drinks being too hot and burning me.
Going off the side of the road into the ditch while driving (there's not much berm in most of WV)
Bees and wasps and such.
These are all things that I'm afraid of more than I rationally should be, and I don't know why. There's, of course, the more complicated fears like fear of disappointing my parents or fear of not being able to support myself financially or fear of losing people that I love, but the fears listed above should not be that scary to me. I shouldn't be scared of a tiny dog barking or of one wasp at a picnic or of going into the ditch when I know I'm driving right where I should be. But I am. I wonder why, sometimes. Genetics? Some code in my brain that I don't know about? Traumatic experiences as a kid that sank into my survival instincts and then I forgot about them? Maybe it's a universal mystery, why we fear things we don't need to.
4.22.2018
My Favorite Luxuries & Luxuries I Don't Care About
1. Movie marathons.
2. Wearing pajamas all day.
3. Having multiple drinks with the same meal (e.g. coffee, orange juice, and water with breakfast.)
4. Long car rides where I can sit alone in the back with a book, headphones, pillow, big hoodie, etc.
5. Buying books at full price from bookstores instead of online.
6. Being home alone (I have a family of 11, this is a luxury.)
7. Driving really far to go to a second hand bookstore (likely doesn't save money due to gas, but still.)
8. Ice cream with peanut butter.
9. Riding on the back of a motorcycle.
10. Spending the night in a hotel.
11. Fresh, seasonal fruit.
12. Burning candles.
13. Really long showers.
14. Doritos and sour cream.
15. Sugar-mash strawberries.
16. Driving around aimlessly for way too long and listening to music.
17. Fresh flowers.
18. Afternoon naps.
19. Pretty stationery.
20. Nice spices and oils and cooking sauces/flavorings.
21. A/C in the summer, enough to get down under the 80s.
22. Real maple syrup, raw honey.
23. Spotify.
24. Having all the proper layers of bedding (pillow protector and pillow case, mattress pad, etc.)
25. Heat in winter, enough to get above the 70s, or the 60s at night.
26. Going to movies in the theater.
27. Getting food at the theater, specifically swedish fish. :)
28. Buying books to read at leisure instead of checking them out at the library.
29. Good quality beef hot dogs, instead of the cheaper chicken ones.
30. Good work shoes that are kind to my feet.
31. Sleeping in with no alarm, then fixing a giant brunch.
32. Putting sour cream on my food (like eggs, beans, etc.)
33. Real vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
34. Second ferment kombucha- it's a luxury for me because of the time involved and fridge space.
35. Staying up late. I'm a night owl but it does suck the next day so it = luxury.
36. Having patina-d and/or durable furniture/floors/house stuff so I don't have to worry about keeping it nice.
37. Carbonated drinks and drinks with straws.
38. Glass drinking glasses and ceramic dishes-I grew up with stainless steel so thrift store dishes are an artistic luxury.
39. Getting the oil changed on the car at Walmart or wherever, instead of doing it myself.
40. Framed photos of my family and friends.
41. The right B&B pickles: best is Mt. Olive, then Great Value, then Sweet Gherkins, then all the others.
42. Big parking spots, driveways with a loop to pull around. (Country life; space isn't an issue.)
Stuff I Don't Care That Much About And Can Happily Thrift Or Go Without:
1. Fancy refrigerators with ice/water thingies in the doors.
2. Name brand clothes/new clothes.
3. Jewelry - I'll lose it eventually, so quality is not a thing for me, I just like something shiny. :)
4. New cars/nice interiors on cars. As long as it has decent mileage and safe tires, I'm good.
5. Amusement parks/concerts/other loud things that are confusing and really loud and peopley.
6. The beach. Seriously, I could have just as good a vacation in a mountain in a motel somewhere.
7. Nice furniture. I solemnly swear I will never own a coaster. Coasters decrease quality of life.
8. Coffee. Maxwell House does it for me, if I buy a drink in town it's a luxury as a time saver.
9. Nice quality silverware. Seriously could not care less.
10. Quality of bath towels and sheets. As long as they're clean and plentiful, I don't care what type.
11. Purses. If they work and are versatile enough to go anywhere, I'm happy with hand me downs/thrifts.
12. Makeup. Cheap mascara is honestly just as good, the rest I don't care about or wear much.
13. TVs, Sound systems, headphones, video game systems. Really don't care. I kinda like radio.
14. Cable TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Magazine/Newspaper subscriptions, etc.
15. Having really nice social media accounts. It's my life. I post what I want, not what you want.
16. Polished windows. I mean, within reason. But fingerprints should not matter. See the coasters, above.
17. Manicured lawns and flower beds. I mean, honestly. Flowers happen-yay! Hours with the weedeater...nah.
18. Canned beans. Dried are just as good, WAY cheaper, and not that hard to prep.
19. Coconut oil. It's my generation's crisco. It's a solid fat. I'm not spending extra for it.
20. Fancy salt. Sea salt, himalayan pink salt, gray salt - good grief. It's sodium. Get it with iodine to avoid goiters.
21. Fancy flooring. I actually prefer plywood, tile, or linoleum, it's cheaper and less upkeep/less pain to replace.
22. Clorox wipes; gimmicky cleaning products. Soft scrub, Murphy's Oil, and apple cider vinegar are good enough.
23. Hot tubs/pools. I cannot relax in a hot tub. I have tried. I am a 'reads by the pool' type.
24. Nice camping gear. Army surplus is good enough. Bivy Saks and Alice packs with frames: good to go.
25. Complete sets of dishes, etc. that are ruined if one breaks. Hodgepodge is better because of the peace of mind.
26. New books for the sake of looks. If I buy them new it's a luxury because of the time/location.
27. Seasonal decor beyond the staples (Christmas tree, maybe a fall centerpiece, etc.)
28. Collectible stuff, signed stuff, stuff like that. Not worth the $. I mean, if it's your thing, that's cool. But, meh.
29. Any media that costs money, with the two exceptions of: Spotify and books. There's SO MANY free options.
30. Umbrellas. I am not water soluble, I will not melt.
2. Wearing pajamas all day.
3. Having multiple drinks with the same meal (e.g. coffee, orange juice, and water with breakfast.)
4. Long car rides where I can sit alone in the back with a book, headphones, pillow, big hoodie, etc.
5. Buying books at full price from bookstores instead of online.
6. Being home alone (I have a family of 11, this is a luxury.)
7. Driving really far to go to a second hand bookstore (likely doesn't save money due to gas, but still.)
8. Ice cream with peanut butter.
9. Riding on the back of a motorcycle.
10. Spending the night in a hotel.
11. Fresh, seasonal fruit.
12. Burning candles.
13. Really long showers.
14. Doritos and sour cream.
15. Sugar-mash strawberries.
16. Driving around aimlessly for way too long and listening to music.
17. Fresh flowers.
18. Afternoon naps.
19. Pretty stationery.
20. Nice spices and oils and cooking sauces/flavorings.
21. A/C in the summer, enough to get down under the 80s.
22. Real maple syrup, raw honey.
23. Spotify.
24. Having all the proper layers of bedding (pillow protector and pillow case, mattress pad, etc.)
25. Heat in winter, enough to get above the 70s, or the 60s at night.
26. Going to movies in the theater.
27. Getting food at the theater, specifically swedish fish. :)
28. Buying books to read at leisure instead of checking them out at the library.
29. Good quality beef hot dogs, instead of the cheaper chicken ones.
30. Good work shoes that are kind to my feet.
31. Sleeping in with no alarm, then fixing a giant brunch.
32. Putting sour cream on my food (like eggs, beans, etc.)
33. Real vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
34. Second ferment kombucha- it's a luxury for me because of the time involved and fridge space.
35. Staying up late. I'm a night owl but it does suck the next day so it = luxury.
36. Having patina-d and/or durable furniture/floors/house stuff so I don't have to worry about keeping it nice.
37. Carbonated drinks and drinks with straws.
38. Glass drinking glasses and ceramic dishes-I grew up with stainless steel so thrift store dishes are an artistic luxury.
39. Getting the oil changed on the car at Walmart or wherever, instead of doing it myself.
40. Framed photos of my family and friends.
41. The right B&B pickles: best is Mt. Olive, then Great Value, then Sweet Gherkins, then all the others.
42. Big parking spots, driveways with a loop to pull around. (Country life; space isn't an issue.)
Stuff I Don't Care That Much About And Can Happily Thrift Or Go Without:
1. Fancy refrigerators with ice/water thingies in the doors.
2. Name brand clothes/new clothes.
3. Jewelry - I'll lose it eventually, so quality is not a thing for me, I just like something shiny. :)
4. New cars/nice interiors on cars. As long as it has decent mileage and safe tires, I'm good.
5. Amusement parks/concerts/other loud things that are confusing and really loud and peopley.
6. The beach. Seriously, I could have just as good a vacation in a mountain in a motel somewhere.
7. Nice furniture. I solemnly swear I will never own a coaster. Coasters decrease quality of life.
8. Coffee. Maxwell House does it for me, if I buy a drink in town it's a luxury as a time saver.
9. Nice quality silverware. Seriously could not care less.
10. Quality of bath towels and sheets. As long as they're clean and plentiful, I don't care what type.
11. Purses. If they work and are versatile enough to go anywhere, I'm happy with hand me downs/thrifts.
12. Makeup. Cheap mascara is honestly just as good, the rest I don't care about or wear much.
13. TVs, Sound systems, headphones, video game systems. Really don't care. I kinda like radio.
14. Cable TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Magazine/Newspaper subscriptions, etc.
15. Having really nice social media accounts. It's my life. I post what I want, not what you want.
16. Polished windows. I mean, within reason. But fingerprints should not matter. See the coasters, above.
17. Manicured lawns and flower beds. I mean, honestly. Flowers happen-yay! Hours with the weedeater...nah.
18. Canned beans. Dried are just as good, WAY cheaper, and not that hard to prep.
19. Coconut oil. It's my generation's crisco. It's a solid fat. I'm not spending extra for it.
20. Fancy salt. Sea salt, himalayan pink salt, gray salt - good grief. It's sodium. Get it with iodine to avoid goiters.
21. Fancy flooring. I actually prefer plywood, tile, or linoleum, it's cheaper and less upkeep/less pain to replace.
22. Clorox wipes; gimmicky cleaning products. Soft scrub, Murphy's Oil, and apple cider vinegar are good enough.
23. Hot tubs/pools. I cannot relax in a hot tub. I have tried. I am a 'reads by the pool' type.
24. Nice camping gear. Army surplus is good enough. Bivy Saks and Alice packs with frames: good to go.
25. Complete sets of dishes, etc. that are ruined if one breaks. Hodgepodge is better because of the peace of mind.
26. New books for the sake of looks. If I buy them new it's a luxury because of the time/location.
27. Seasonal decor beyond the staples (Christmas tree, maybe a fall centerpiece, etc.)
28. Collectible stuff, signed stuff, stuff like that. Not worth the $. I mean, if it's your thing, that's cool. But, meh.
29. Any media that costs money, with the two exceptions of: Spotify and books. There's SO MANY free options.
30. Umbrellas. I am not water soluble, I will not melt.
4.20.2018
6 Guest Bathroom Essentials
1. A fan.
A fan in a bathroom is just a good idea, especially if you've got a window to point it towards. In addition to the benefit of air circulation, it can also provide some much-appreciated sound insulation for guests and residents alike.
2. A candle or wax melter.
A candle, or if you have younger guests, a plug in wax melter will make your bathroom smell nice while providing an odor mask, which can be appreciated in a bathroom. Plus, there's just something about candles that provide a sense of a well-kept home.
3. Plenty of toilet paper and towels-where your guests can find them!
If you're anything like me, it can be uncomfortable to have to snoop in someone else's drawers and cabinets for what I need, even if they've assured that it's ok to do so. Do your guests a favor, and if you don't store extra staples like toilet paper, towels, and perhaps even some basic toiletries in plain sight, at least put up some cute labels on drawers or baskets to point them in the right direction.
4. A lock on the door.
Most bathrooms have locks on the doors, but I'm sure we've all had the experience of using a restroom in someone else's home and discovering that the door does not lock. If it's your home, it's probably not something you even think about-especially if your co-residents are accustomed to knocking-but if it's not your home, it can be a bit of an anxiety factor. A simple hook and eye set costs only a few dollars and is a cinch to install, and believe me when I say that it will make your guest bathroom much more comfortable for your visitors.
5. A trash can. With a liner.
This is pretty self-explanatory. It's a bathroom and there may be items that need thrown away from baby diapers to used tissues, etc. Please don't make your guests ask you where to throw things away or feel that they need to smuggle dirty diapers home in their diaper bag. Just provide a can, with a bag, and maybe even a lid for good measure.
6. A Hamper for used towels.
If your guests are going to be using your shower, please do provide a place for them to put their towels when they are done. Leaving them on hooks and towel racks always feels a little awkward if you don't know someone else's system. Don't forget to make it obvious that this is what the hamper is for, again with the cute little labels. :)
4.17.2018
I Live In A Metal Box Of Death
Note: this is a complainy post that I wrote last summer and never published, I found and read it just now and it made me laugh so I thought I'd share it. You're welcome.
After about three months of non-stop, drizzly, thundery rain (and one weird snowstorm in the middle of May), we have been "blessed" with an entire week of hot, humid, sunshine-and-blue-skies, sweat soaked summer.
And when I say sweat soaked, I am not talking about pretty little sparkles on foreheads. I'm talking about drenched. I'm talking about shirts that stick to peoples backs and shimmering mirages on the pavement and a sudden spike in ice cream sales in the surrounding four counties. Survival of the fittest, folks!
I live in a renovated school bus, AKA a metal box of death when it gets above 76 degrees Fahrenheit.
I got a window fan, but I guess window fans aren't made to fit the windows of school buses, so it's kind of propped up on my desk pointing straight at me. There's also a little fan that was installed to circulate air by the bed area, but it's stuck pointing in one direction so it's pretty useless unless you stand in the hallway with your head at a weird angle.
Also, I have no fridge currently. I talked to a lady named Sharon that I met over the pillow bin at the local Goodwill and we hit it off and she said she had a mini fridge I could have for free, if I wanted to pick it up. But then she had to leave before we finished talking. I gave her my phone number, so we'll see if she calls.
Anyways, here I sit. Drinking lukewarm coffee and dreaming about air conditioning.
It's even worse at work, because I work in a bakery where the convection ovens (Convection means 'blows hot air around inside') are vented into the kitchen. Saves money on heating for the owners in winter, but in the summer it sucks to be the rest of us. Even with all the possible windows and doors open and both fans they have running, it just blows hot air around. Bleh.
I mowed grass the other day for a few hours and got sun burned so bad that it hurts to wear clothes. I'm thinking I should maybe join a nudist hippie commune. I already have the school bus! ;)
After about three months of non-stop, drizzly, thundery rain (and one weird snowstorm in the middle of May), we have been "blessed" with an entire week of hot, humid, sunshine-and-blue-skies, sweat soaked summer.
And when I say sweat soaked, I am not talking about pretty little sparkles on foreheads. I'm talking about drenched. I'm talking about shirts that stick to peoples backs and shimmering mirages on the pavement and a sudden spike in ice cream sales in the surrounding four counties. Survival of the fittest, folks!
I live in a renovated school bus, AKA a metal box of death when it gets above 76 degrees Fahrenheit.
I got a window fan, but I guess window fans aren't made to fit the windows of school buses, so it's kind of propped up on my desk pointing straight at me. There's also a little fan that was installed to circulate air by the bed area, but it's stuck pointing in one direction so it's pretty useless unless you stand in the hallway with your head at a weird angle.
Also, I have no fridge currently. I talked to a lady named Sharon that I met over the pillow bin at the local Goodwill and we hit it off and she said she had a mini fridge I could have for free, if I wanted to pick it up. But then she had to leave before we finished talking. I gave her my phone number, so we'll see if she calls.
Anyways, here I sit. Drinking lukewarm coffee and dreaming about air conditioning.
It's even worse at work, because I work in a bakery where the convection ovens (Convection means 'blows hot air around inside') are vented into the kitchen. Saves money on heating for the owners in winter, but in the summer it sucks to be the rest of us. Even with all the possible windows and doors open and both fans they have running, it just blows hot air around. Bleh.
I mowed grass the other day for a few hours and got sun burned so bad that it hurts to wear clothes. I'm thinking I should maybe join a nudist hippie commune. I already have the school bus! ;)
4.16.2018
The Giant Kids Books List
This is my current list of books that I enjoyed in my childhood and books that I have since read/bought for the kids in my life and would recommend to anyone looking to build up a children's library. Without further ado:
- Smoky The Cow Horse by Will James
- The Hank The Cowdog series by John R. Erickson
- Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw
- The Sandra Boynton board books
- Listen To My Dream by Debi Pearl
- Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
- The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
- Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman
- "Let's Make Jesus Happy" by Mack Thomas (illustrations by Bruce Day)
- The Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish and Fritz Seibel
- The Paddington books by Michael Bond
- The House With Two Grandmothers by Rebecca Martin
- Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
- The Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel
- Treasures of The Snow by Patricia St. John
- Stuart Little by E. B. White
- Captive Treasure by Milly Howard
- The Twenty One Balloons by William Penne Du Bois
- The Tin Tin books by Herge, translated
- The Girl Who Listened To Sinks by Justine Rendall
- Stop That Ball! by Mike McClintock
- The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
- The Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems
- The kids books by Dr. Suess
- The Morris The Moose books by B. Wiseman
- If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond
- The Bunny Book, a little golden book
- The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major
- Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
- The Great Molasses Flood by Beth Wagner Brust
- Katy and The Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
- Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess
- Katie and The Lemon Tree by Esther Bender
- Wagon Wheels by Barbara Brenner and Don Bolognese
- The Princess Academy trilogy by Shannon Hale
- When The Soldiers Were Gone by Vera W. Propp
- The Little Horse series by Betsy Byars (good for early readers who are getting bored)
- Listen For The Whippoorwill by Dave and Neta Jackson
- Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent
- Sarah Plain and Tall, Skylark, and Caleb's Story by Patricia MacLachlan
- Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
- The Tanglewoods Secret by Patricia St. John
- The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
- The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
- Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
- The Mildred Keith Books, a Life of Faith series, based on the books by Martha Finley
- The Golly Sisters books by Betsy Byars and Sue Truesdell
- Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards
- The Boyhood of Grace Jones by Jane Langton
- The Song of The Winns trilogy by Frances Watts
- The Grandma's Attic series by Arleta Richardson
- The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame
- The Sign of The Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
- The Great Redwall Feast by Brian Jacques, illustrated by Christopher Denise
- The Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey
- My Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George
- You Are Special by Max Lucado
- The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
- Take Me To The River by Will Hobbs
- Star of Light by Patricia St. John
- The Rose Years book series by Roger Lea McBride
- The Mouse And The Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
- Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and series by Bernard Waber
- The Poppleton books by Cynthia Rylant and Mark Teague
- The Sugarcreek Gang series by Paul Hutchens
- The Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver
- The Caddie Woodlawn books by Carol Ryrie Brink
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
- The Iris and Walter series by Elissa Haden Guest and Christine Davenier
- Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
- Look Through My Window by Jean Little
- The Moffat books by Eleanor Estes
- The Mandie Books by Lois Gladys Leppard
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
- Where The River Begins by Patricia St. John
- The True Princess by Angela Elwell Hunt, illustrated by Diana Magnusen
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
- Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink
- The How To Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell
- Rainbow Garden by Patricia St. John
- The Original Complete Sherlock Holmes Series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
- The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Secret at Pheasant Cottage by Patricia St. John
Taking Stock #6
Making: beaded earrings.
Cooking: ciabatta bread.
Drinking: lots of french press coffee.
Reading: The Girl In The Red Rubber Boots blog by Emily Smucker.
Wanting: to love people around me more and more.
Looking: at Instagram a lot.
Playing: lots of Spit and Hearts and Mafia. (card games)
Deciding: gosh, tons of stuff!!! So many little things and big things.
Wishing: I somehow knew exactly what to do and when to do it, to get where I want to be in the fall.
Enjoying: the Castbox podcast app.
Waiting: to hear back from college applications.
Liking: my family and my friends.
Wondering: how long my car is going to hold out before I need to shop for another.
Loving: life.
Pondering: how to explain/show the love/acceptance of God to those around me in a secular society.
Listening: to The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian with my youngest brother, also spring peepers. :)
Considering: signing up for either martial arts or dance classes.
Watching: Numb3rs on Amazon Prime with my sister, L.
Hoping: to find a good apartment.
Marveling: over how much changes in such a short time.
Needing: a job in the town I'm moving into.
Smelling: vanilla bean noel lotion.
Wearing: my favorite winter boots before spring comes.
Following: Dear Hank and John Podcast.
Noticing: the beauty of flowers.
Knowing: that I'm not afraid or alone, and those things are always going to be pretty certain b/c God.
Thinking: about college and adulting.
Feeling: apprehensive/looking-forward-to-things/content/slow/happy/alive/grounded.
Admiring: my parents' approach on parenting teens and adults.
Sorting: all my old journals and papers.
Buying: photo prints to have when I move away and to send to my grandmother in NJ.
Getting: caught up on sleep.
Bookmarking: "My Family And Other Animals," book by Gerald Durrell (great, funny book!)
Opening: windows when the sun comes out and it briefly feels like summer.
Disliking: romance novels disguised as non-romance novels (lookin' at you, The Little Paris Bookshop).
Giggling: at Ron Swanson quotes.
3.03.2018
In The Throes / (New York) Life, 9-16-1924
This is a piece of writing that I ran across a long time ago and it made me laugh so hard I almost cried! I love how human nature has not changed, even through generations of changing culture and language. This is by Dorothy Parker, and it was published in (New York) Life Magazine in 1924. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :)
The Precious Thoughts of an Author at Work
Now where’s the pencil? A person can’t be expected to write without a pencil, anybody knows that much. Never saw any thing like it—every time I turn my back, somebody takes my pencil. You’d think people would have more to do. Pencils, pencils, pencils, that’s all they care about. I bet I can use “pencil” in a sentence. Take care of the pounds, and the pencil take care of themselves. No, anybody could do that. An extra pair pencil cost you three dollars. Oh, the hell with it. I’ve got my work to do.
Ah, where is it? Wouldn’t you think people could leave a person’s pencil alone? I should think I had just about enough to put up with, without everybody’s stealing my pencil. Here I am sitting at this rotten desk working my head off, and everybody else out having a good time. And me with a cold coming on, too. Probably I’ve got a fever. And not a clinical thermometer in this house. A person could burn up in this house and nobody would know. Not that they’d care. “No,” they’d say, “you just sit there at your desk and run a temperature, and we’ll go out and have the time of our lives.” That’s all anybody ever says to me. All I ever do is work. And these the best years of my life. Oh, don’t mind about me. I’ll stay here and work, and you all go along and have a good time. And if you could manage to choke yourselves to death while you’re doing it, I’d take it as a favor.
It seems little enough to ask for—just a pencil, so I can get to work. Everybody that ever wrote had to have a pencil. Carlyle and everybody. Yes, and a little peach Carlyle must have been. That’s the only lucky break I ever got, that I didn’t know that boy. Throwing teacups across the breakfast table. And that thing he said about Frances Willard. When she said, “I accept the Universe,” and he said, “Gad, she’d better,” and everybody thought it was such a WOW. I never saw anything in it. I guess it was Frances Willard. I guess it was Carlyle.
I bet Carlyle would have been in a cute temper if anybody had taken his pencil. Just because I don’t go around throwing teacups doesn’t say I’m not good and sore, myself. I’d like to know who took that pencil. Just as a matter of curiosity. It must make a nice, satisfactory noise, a teacup smashing against a head. Took my pencil, did you? Socko!
It isn’t as if it were a pencil anybody would want. Not gold or anything. I hate people that have gold pencils sticking out of their pockets. I hope they all choke. I’d take an enamel pencil, though—blue or bright red. But nobody will ever give me one. Nobody ever gives me anything. All they ever do is say they mustn’t interrupt my work. And then they steal my pencil—my poor little lousy wooden pencil, without even an eraser on it. When I make a mistake, I have to spit on my finger and rub it out that way. That’s the only thing I ever learned at school that did me any good afterwards. There’s another pretty thing— education. I ought to write something about education, some time. Good and bitter, too. Yes, but how are you going to write if you haven’t any pencil?
There’s life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowuif and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil. I’d like to know what anybody wants to be a writer for, anyhow. And what do you do, Mrs. Parker? Oh, I write. There’s a hot job for a healthy woman. I wish I’d taken a course in interior decorating. I wish I’d gone on the stage. I wish I didn’t have to work at all. I was made for love, anyway.
I wish I could write something that would make a lot of money. This is a fine thing to be doing, at my age, sitting here making up sissy verses about broken hearts and that tripe. A dollar a line, and like it. Fat you’ll get doing that. The way I’d like to get money is in chunks, not drips. It isn’t as if I’d make a fool of myself. Just some decent clothes, and maybe a string of pearls. Oh, God, those pearls in Cartier’s window! Silky and not quite pink. It wouldn’t matter what you had on, if you had them. A string of pearls like that would be an economy. Even that brown dress would look all right with them. That’s the worst dress anybody ever had. Maybe I could have the skirt fixed and something done to the neck. If you had money, you’d never have to have anything fixed over. Just give it to the chamber maid. Oh, that’s all right, I hope you have a good time in it. I bet chambermaids have a swell time. I wish I was a chamber-maid.
You wouldn’t catch a chambermaid spending the best years of her life sitting at a desk working like a stevedore. They don’t write. Maybe some of them do. Maybe they write plays, nights. I wish I could write a play. I wish I had a play all written. I wish it was a good play. I wish it was the best play anybody ever wrote. Ever. Better than “Hamlet.” That’s a good play.
And a lot a person can do about writing a play, without any pencil. I’d like to see Eugene O’Neill, even, write a play with out a pencil. I wish I was Eugene O’Neill and had a pencil. I bet nobody takes his pencils. Just a common, ordinary, wooden pencil—that’s the lowest thing I ever heard of in my life, taking a thing like that. A little, cheap pencil, like blind men sell; you’d have to be pretty mean to steal that. The Meanest Thief. Meanest Thief Robs Blind Pencil-Seller. You know what a thing like that makes you? Sick at heart, that’s what it makes you. And this is civilization. Civilization, my eye.
Taking a pencil away from a poor woman that has to make her living with it—that’s nice. Not even an eraser on it. You could buy a cord of them for a dollar and a half. Thirty-five dollars, and you could corner the market. If I had thirty-five dollars, I could have that blue hat with the cornflowers. That’s my hat. Out of all the world that’s my hat. I love that hat. I love it better than anything on earth. Probably some woman has bought it by now; some woman with nose-glasses and an interesting case of rosacea. I bet she’s wearing it right now, while I sit here slaving. I hope she chokes. I hope she’s choking this minute.
Oh, there’s the pencil! Right there beside the pad—not even underneath. You would show up, wouldn’t you, sweetheart? Couldn’t let me have a minute off, away from this rotten desk, to go out and get a new box of pencils, could you, pet? Couldn’t let me go down to the stationer’s, and get a little bit of fresh air. Oh, no. Not you. A lot you care about my health. And all sharpened nice and pretty, too, aren’t you? Couldn’t give Mother just a moment’s respite, to find a knife and sharpen you. “No blessed leisure for hope and love, but only time for grief.” That’s “The Song of the Shirt.” I used to know the whole damn thing.
Look at that nice sharp pencil and that nice new pad just waiting for Mother. Isn’t that dandy? All right, you snakes, I’ll show you.
Ah, the sun’s coming out! It’s going to be a lovely day, after all. Isn’t that the meanest thing you ever saw in your life? Every body else out in God’s blessed sunlight storing up health and happiness, and here I am chained to this desk, working my fingers to the bone. Probably the only decent day we’ll have for a month, and I have to spend it like this. And I’ll never be any younger, either. I’m just about at my best, right now. And here I sit.
All those rotten little birds, bellowing their lungs out. I wish they’d keep their yaps shut. A person can’t be expected to write, in that din. Din, Din, Din, here’s a beggar with a bullet through his spleen. Deen, you have to say. I bet Kipling doesn’t have to stay chained up to a desk a day like this. I bet he goes out whenever he wants to. I wish I was Kipling.
I wish I was anybody but me. I have the worst life I ever heard of. Nothing but pencils and pads all day long. Oh, so you’re a writer. Oh, that must be awfully interesting. Yeah, it’s a great life. Hm—mine woister enemies shouldn’t have it! I wish I was Milt Gross. I bet he’s out in God’s wholesome sunshine.
Nothing but work; that’s me. And no play. I’ll be a dull boy, first thing you know. Lord, what a lot of dull boys I’ve known. And more every day. They didn’t get that way from working, though. Nobody has to work but me. It’s no wonder I get blue. If I had a lot of money and didn’t have to work, I bet I’d be nice. I’d be a peach. I’d have clothes that would knock your eye out, too.
Write, write, write. It’s a wonder I have any arm left. Tennis players have over-developed forearms. I wish I was playing tennis. But no, I have to stay here and work. That’s fine, you all just run along and enjoy yourselves, and I’ll work. I have my sweet little pencil and my cunning little pad, and I’ll just write my little curly head off. Here I go now.
And what the hell am I going to write about?
(New York) Life, September 16, 1924
In The Throes by Dorothy Parker
The Precious Thoughts of an Author at Work
Now where’s the pencil? A person can’t be expected to write without a pencil, anybody knows that much. Never saw any thing like it—every time I turn my back, somebody takes my pencil. You’d think people would have more to do. Pencils, pencils, pencils, that’s all they care about. I bet I can use “pencil” in a sentence. Take care of the pounds, and the pencil take care of themselves. No, anybody could do that. An extra pair pencil cost you three dollars. Oh, the hell with it. I’ve got my work to do.
Ah, where is it? Wouldn’t you think people could leave a person’s pencil alone? I should think I had just about enough to put up with, without everybody’s stealing my pencil. Here I am sitting at this rotten desk working my head off, and everybody else out having a good time. And me with a cold coming on, too. Probably I’ve got a fever. And not a clinical thermometer in this house. A person could burn up in this house and nobody would know. Not that they’d care. “No,” they’d say, “you just sit there at your desk and run a temperature, and we’ll go out and have the time of our lives.” That’s all anybody ever says to me. All I ever do is work. And these the best years of my life. Oh, don’t mind about me. I’ll stay here and work, and you all go along and have a good time. And if you could manage to choke yourselves to death while you’re doing it, I’d take it as a favor.
It seems little enough to ask for—just a pencil, so I can get to work. Everybody that ever wrote had to have a pencil. Carlyle and everybody. Yes, and a little peach Carlyle must have been. That’s the only lucky break I ever got, that I didn’t know that boy. Throwing teacups across the breakfast table. And that thing he said about Frances Willard. When she said, “I accept the Universe,” and he said, “Gad, she’d better,” and everybody thought it was such a WOW. I never saw anything in it. I guess it was Frances Willard. I guess it was Carlyle.
I bet Carlyle would have been in a cute temper if anybody had taken his pencil. Just because I don’t go around throwing teacups doesn’t say I’m not good and sore, myself. I’d like to know who took that pencil. Just as a matter of curiosity. It must make a nice, satisfactory noise, a teacup smashing against a head. Took my pencil, did you? Socko!
It isn’t as if it were a pencil anybody would want. Not gold or anything. I hate people that have gold pencils sticking out of their pockets. I hope they all choke. I’d take an enamel pencil, though—blue or bright red. But nobody will ever give me one. Nobody ever gives me anything. All they ever do is say they mustn’t interrupt my work. And then they steal my pencil—my poor little lousy wooden pencil, without even an eraser on it. When I make a mistake, I have to spit on my finger and rub it out that way. That’s the only thing I ever learned at school that did me any good afterwards. There’s another pretty thing— education. I ought to write something about education, some time. Good and bitter, too. Yes, but how are you going to write if you haven’t any pencil?
There’s life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowuif and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil. I’d like to know what anybody wants to be a writer for, anyhow. And what do you do, Mrs. Parker? Oh, I write. There’s a hot job for a healthy woman. I wish I’d taken a course in interior decorating. I wish I’d gone on the stage. I wish I didn’t have to work at all. I was made for love, anyway.
I wish I could write something that would make a lot of money. This is a fine thing to be doing, at my age, sitting here making up sissy verses about broken hearts and that tripe. A dollar a line, and like it. Fat you’ll get doing that. The way I’d like to get money is in chunks, not drips. It isn’t as if I’d make a fool of myself. Just some decent clothes, and maybe a string of pearls. Oh, God, those pearls in Cartier’s window! Silky and not quite pink. It wouldn’t matter what you had on, if you had them. A string of pearls like that would be an economy. Even that brown dress would look all right with them. That’s the worst dress anybody ever had. Maybe I could have the skirt fixed and something done to the neck. If you had money, you’d never have to have anything fixed over. Just give it to the chamber maid. Oh, that’s all right, I hope you have a good time in it. I bet chambermaids have a swell time. I wish I was a chamber-maid.
You wouldn’t catch a chambermaid spending the best years of her life sitting at a desk working like a stevedore. They don’t write. Maybe some of them do. Maybe they write plays, nights. I wish I could write a play. I wish I had a play all written. I wish it was a good play. I wish it was the best play anybody ever wrote. Ever. Better than “Hamlet.” That’s a good play.
And a lot a person can do about writing a play, without any pencil. I’d like to see Eugene O’Neill, even, write a play with out a pencil. I wish I was Eugene O’Neill and had a pencil. I bet nobody takes his pencils. Just a common, ordinary, wooden pencil—that’s the lowest thing I ever heard of in my life, taking a thing like that. A little, cheap pencil, like blind men sell; you’d have to be pretty mean to steal that. The Meanest Thief. Meanest Thief Robs Blind Pencil-Seller. You know what a thing like that makes you? Sick at heart, that’s what it makes you. And this is civilization. Civilization, my eye.
Taking a pencil away from a poor woman that has to make her living with it—that’s nice. Not even an eraser on it. You could buy a cord of them for a dollar and a half. Thirty-five dollars, and you could corner the market. If I had thirty-five dollars, I could have that blue hat with the cornflowers. That’s my hat. Out of all the world that’s my hat. I love that hat. I love it better than anything on earth. Probably some woman has bought it by now; some woman with nose-glasses and an interesting case of rosacea. I bet she’s wearing it right now, while I sit here slaving. I hope she chokes. I hope she’s choking this minute.
Oh, there’s the pencil! Right there beside the pad—not even underneath. You would show up, wouldn’t you, sweetheart? Couldn’t let me have a minute off, away from this rotten desk, to go out and get a new box of pencils, could you, pet? Couldn’t let me go down to the stationer’s, and get a little bit of fresh air. Oh, no. Not you. A lot you care about my health. And all sharpened nice and pretty, too, aren’t you? Couldn’t give Mother just a moment’s respite, to find a knife and sharpen you. “No blessed leisure for hope and love, but only time for grief.” That’s “The Song of the Shirt.” I used to know the whole damn thing.
Look at that nice sharp pencil and that nice new pad just waiting for Mother. Isn’t that dandy? All right, you snakes, I’ll show you.
Ah, the sun’s coming out! It’s going to be a lovely day, after all. Isn’t that the meanest thing you ever saw in your life? Every body else out in God’s blessed sunlight storing up health and happiness, and here I am chained to this desk, working my fingers to the bone. Probably the only decent day we’ll have for a month, and I have to spend it like this. And I’ll never be any younger, either. I’m just about at my best, right now. And here I sit.
All those rotten little birds, bellowing their lungs out. I wish they’d keep their yaps shut. A person can’t be expected to write, in that din. Din, Din, Din, here’s a beggar with a bullet through his spleen. Deen, you have to say. I bet Kipling doesn’t have to stay chained up to a desk a day like this. I bet he goes out whenever he wants to. I wish I was Kipling.
I wish I was anybody but me. I have the worst life I ever heard of. Nothing but pencils and pads all day long. Oh, so you’re a writer. Oh, that must be awfully interesting. Yeah, it’s a great life. Hm—mine woister enemies shouldn’t have it! I wish I was Milt Gross. I bet he’s out in God’s wholesome sunshine.
Nothing but work; that’s me. And no play. I’ll be a dull boy, first thing you know. Lord, what a lot of dull boys I’ve known. And more every day. They didn’t get that way from working, though. Nobody has to work but me. It’s no wonder I get blue. If I had a lot of money and didn’t have to work, I bet I’d be nice. I’d be a peach. I’d have clothes that would knock your eye out, too.
Write, write, write. It’s a wonder I have any arm left. Tennis players have over-developed forearms. I wish I was playing tennis. But no, I have to stay here and work. That’s fine, you all just run along and enjoy yourselves, and I’ll work. I have my sweet little pencil and my cunning little pad, and I’ll just write my little curly head off. Here I go now.
And what the hell am I going to write about?
(New York) Life, September 16, 1924
In The Throes by Dorothy Parker
3.01.2018
My Recipe Box
Last fall I sat down and finally copied over all the recipes that I thought I might want for future use from my dad's famous, old wooden recipe box in the fire safe and my mom's various recipe albums (she prefers those little photo albums that you can get at the dollar tree) and from the tattered blue folder on the cookbook shelf where we keep "random recently used recipes" printed off the internet for experiments.
My good friend, Barbie, gave me a very nice metal recipe box with holes punched in it in the shapes of pineapples. I also had a smaller wooden recipe box from a local school-turned-antique-store where I often go Christmas shopping with my siblings and mother and grandmother.
Ever since, the two recipe boxes have lived on top of my red wardrobe. The metal box holds recipes I'm likely to need or want, the wooden box holds recipes kept purely for sentimental value - I mean, I could live and die quite happily without ever tasting chickenetti one more time. But, since Helen gave it to me, and since a lot of old ladies have probably given it to their younger friends, it shall be kept ad infinitum. Someday years from now my great, great, great grand niece will open her recipe box and shuffle past an heirloom chickenetti recipe to get to the 'plasma fluff' recipe or whatever it is the cool kids will be cooking up then.
But some recipes are more precious to me than the chickenetti one. Some recipes, like my mom's coconut pie (a completely different concoction than any coconut pie you have ever tasted), and my great grandma's raisin filled cookies, and my sister's cajeta, and my Aunt Margie's gingerbread - some of those recipes could never be replaced by any old recipe on cooks.com and some of those recipes only have one or two copies in the universe, which would disappear in the event of a house fire.
What to do?
Why, digitize them, of course!
And so, I present my online recipe box: https://anniesrecipebox.blogspot.com/
It's pleasantly ironic to me that the same heirloom recipes that have been kept in boxes for my entire childhood beside the old blue folder of printed out recipes from the internet may now well be printed off by some other people way out there in the cosmos and kept in other folders or boxes or albums beside their own heirloom recipes.
Bon appetit!
2.22.2018
Link Love - Links To Lists of Happy Stuff
- https://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-wiest/2013/07/100-little-things-worth-being-happy-about/
- https://www.theodysseyonline.com/100-things-to-make-you-happy
- http://mightygirl.com/2012/08/23/90-things-to-make-you-happy/
- http://justlittlethings.net/
- http://www.onehundredhappythings.com/
- http://annettegendler.com/2018/02/31-happy-things/
- http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2016/11/happy-things.html
- https://localadventurer.com/100-things-to-be-thankful-for-list/
- http://www.positivelypresent.com/2009/11/100-things-i-am-thankful-for.html
- https://wholefully.com/100-things-im-thankful-for-2/
- https://www.thirteenthoughts.com/100-things-to-be-thankful-for/
- http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2015/09/101-things-i-love.html
- http://1000awesomethings.com/the-top-1000/
- http://www.hannahwarrenauthor.com/?p=7640
- http://alyssakeene.theworldrace.org/?filename=my-100-favorite-things
- https://juliamarchese.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/100-things-i-like/
- http://www.freda.org.uk/100-2/
2.18.2018
55 Things I'm Consistently A Sucker For
1. Winks.
2. Babies.
3. Oversized sweaters/hoodies/jackets/pjs.
4. Candles and string lights and those glowy rock salt lamp things.
5. Large, pretty mugs for tea and soup and coffee and cocoa.
6. "While You Were Sleeping" movie.
7. Sam Cooke music.
8. When someone explains what they feel about something and listens to how I feel and then I feel connected.
9. Anything with cherry blossoms on it. Literally. I would probably buy a tractor with cherry blossoms on it.
10. Anything Oreo related. Oreos, oreo ice cream, oreo candy bars, oreo cheesecake, oreo anything.
11. Chivalry.
12. Cheesecake.
13. Rain.
14. Geraniums.
15. Spring.
16. Paved walking/biking trails.
17. Someone opening the car door for me.
18. Handwritten words of affection or affirmation.
19. Used books.
20. Thrift stores: kryptonite.
21. Any non-alcoholic drink served in a wine glass (bonus points if it's bubbly.)
22. Original oil paintings of any kind or quality. (Somebody, somewhere, sometime, made them!)
23. Lentils.
24. Greenhouses and plants in general.
25. "Stars on the Water" song when sung by Rodney Crowell.
26. Feel-good commercials involving love, family, and friendship (bonus points for reunion scenes.)
27. Thunderstorms.
28. Pretty stationery.
29. Hostess gifts.
30. Radio DJs mentioning things about their personal lives, offhand.
31. Framed photos, framed word art.
32. Whipped cream in a can.
33. People endearingly sitting on things they're not supposed to-like tables or countertops.
34. Dimples.
35. Confessions of love in books and movies (I assume in reality too.).
36. Lemon or lime desserts.
37. Coffee.
38. Candid photography of people laughing.
39. Anything made out of fabric that has birds printed or embroidered on it.
40. Iced coffee with a straw, additionally any iced drink with a straw.
41. Old photo albums.
42. Gloria Jeans' coffee.
43. Museums (preferably art.)
44. Lists.
45. Anything that's not supposed to be a lamp but is-like a globe or a ceramic animal, etc.
46. Deep windowsills (perfect spot for books or plants or rocks, etc.)
47. Birthdays.
48. Trees in wind, all the time but especially pre-thunderstorm.
49. Little kids' belly-laughs.
50. Apricot anything.
51. Etta James music.
52. Throw pillows (they're the grown woman's stuffed animal, you know.)
53. When movies have text come up on the screen like someone's typing relevant info. I dunno, I just really love that.
54. Soft scrub and anything that was just cleaned with soft scrub (bonus points if it's lemon soft scrub)
55. Cajeta.
2. Babies.
3. Oversized sweaters/hoodies/jackets/pjs.
4. Candles and string lights and those glowy rock salt lamp things.
5. Large, pretty mugs for tea and soup and coffee and cocoa.
6. "While You Were Sleeping" movie.
7. Sam Cooke music.
8. When someone explains what they feel about something and listens to how I feel and then I feel connected.
9. Anything with cherry blossoms on it. Literally. I would probably buy a tractor with cherry blossoms on it.
10. Anything Oreo related. Oreos, oreo ice cream, oreo candy bars, oreo cheesecake, oreo anything.
11. Chivalry.
12. Cheesecake.
13. Rain.
14. Geraniums.
15. Spring.
16. Paved walking/biking trails.
17. Someone opening the car door for me.
18. Handwritten words of affection or affirmation.
19. Used books.
20. Thrift stores: kryptonite.
21. Any non-alcoholic drink served in a wine glass (bonus points if it's bubbly.)
22. Original oil paintings of any kind or quality. (Somebody, somewhere, sometime, made them!)
23. Lentils.
24. Greenhouses and plants in general.
25. "Stars on the Water" song when sung by Rodney Crowell.
26. Feel-good commercials involving love, family, and friendship (bonus points for reunion scenes.)
27. Thunderstorms.
28. Pretty stationery.
29. Hostess gifts.
30. Radio DJs mentioning things about their personal lives, offhand.
31. Framed photos, framed word art.
32. Whipped cream in a can.
33. People endearingly sitting on things they're not supposed to-like tables or countertops.
34. Dimples.
35. Confessions of love in books and movies (I assume in reality too.).
36. Lemon or lime desserts.
37. Coffee.
38. Candid photography of people laughing.
39. Anything made out of fabric that has birds printed or embroidered on it.
40. Iced coffee with a straw, additionally any iced drink with a straw.
41. Old photo albums.
42. Gloria Jeans' coffee.
43. Museums (preferably art.)
44. Lists.
45. Anything that's not supposed to be a lamp but is-like a globe or a ceramic animal, etc.
46. Deep windowsills (perfect spot for books or plants or rocks, etc.)
47. Birthdays.
48. Trees in wind, all the time but especially pre-thunderstorm.
49. Little kids' belly-laughs.
50. Apricot anything.
51. Etta James music.
52. Throw pillows (they're the grown woman's stuffed animal, you know.)
53. When movies have text come up on the screen like someone's typing relevant info. I dunno, I just really love that.
54. Soft scrub and anything that was just cleaned with soft scrub (bonus points if it's lemon soft scrub)
55. Cajeta.
2.14.2018
Valentine's Day 2018
Today is Valentine's Day. I love Valentine's Day. :)
Every year, on Valentine's Day, my mother sets out a special breakfast for her kids. It usually includes a little note, some candy, and something special like a juice box or individual yogurt cups for each kid. This year we each got white chocolate bears and some kind of peaches-and-cream breakfast cups that came with cellophane across the top, along with some raisins spelling out the words "I Love You" on a napkin.
I hope that I am able to love the people around me in my life half as much as my mother does in hers.
In celebration of this year's Valentine's Day, I am going to share some of my favorite quotes and poems about love:
1. "Love is never wasted for its value does not rest upon reciprocity." -C.S.Lewis
2. Scaffolding
by Seamus Heaney, 1939 - 2013
Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;
Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.
And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.
So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me
Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.
3. Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
4. "If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more." - excerpt from Emma by Jane Austen
5. Excerpt from As I Walked Out One Evening
by W. H. Auden
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.'
6. "There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child: and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own." -Robert Brault
7. "Grief, I've learned, is really just love. It's all the love you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go." -unknown
8. Tell Me Why
Song by Pat Benatar / Sung to me often by my mother
Tell me why the stars do shine
Tell me why the ivy twines
Tell me why the sky's so blue
And then I'll tell you just why I love you
Because God made the stars to shine
Because God made the ivy twine
Because God made the sky's so blue
Because God made you, that's why I love you
9. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
10. "I love thee with a love that shall not die, til the sun grows cold and the stars grow old." -William Shakespeare
11. "It will be our love, not our opinions which will be our greatest contribution to the world." -Bob Goff
12. The Love of God
Hymn written by Fredrick M. Lehman
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
13. " 'Don't cross oceans for people who wouldn't cross puddles for you' No, Do it. Do cross oceans for people. Love people, all people. No conditions attached, no wondering whether or not they are worthy. Cross oceans, climb mountains. Life and love isn't about what you gain, it's about what you give." -Unknown
Happy Valentine's Day 2018!
2.05.2018
Things That Made Me Happy In January 2018
 |
| photo cred: me, with a not so awesome camera :) |
- Making and eating an oreo cheesecake
- Melty snow
- A midwinter thaw
- A day spent with my Granny
- A Paddington 2 movie date with my youngest brother
- My 20th birthday decorations, handmade by my mother (blue and white paper hearts and teapots)
- Lighting candles a lot
- Sewing a new blanket cover with my sister
- "I Can See Clearly Now," song by Johnny Nash
- Going on lots of walks
- Cajeta brought back by my sister from an ethnic food market in the city-taste of my childhood!
- Muffins
- A Sunday lunch with my family at a friends' house
- A rock collection on a windowsill
- Gingerbread-snow on pine trees in my backyard
- My 3 year old cousin's birthday party @ Cici's Pizza
- Steve Winwood music in general, especially "Finer Things"
- Wood fires in the woodstove
- A sleepover with pizza and whipped cream in a can and cocoa puffs and two tween sisters
- Receiving in the mail the birthday gift I ordered for my sister's March birthday (it's cool!)
- Messy-scrapbook-journaling
- New pajamas and a new fluffy red bathrobe for my birthday
- Watching the BBC four part movie adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma with my youngest 2 sisters
- Wool socks
- A panda bear phone case
- Slushy-muddy-melty-gravely-windy-notsupercold-weather
- A new laptop (MacBook Air hand-me-down-birthday-gift)
- Free audio books on librivox (The Invisible Man by H.G.W. and Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde by R.L.S.)
- Clementines
- Going clothes shopping for/with a sister
- A specific tan sweater
- "Take The Money And Run," song by The Steve Miller Band
- A new pencil and art supplies pouch for my backpack that was found in a bag of hand-me-downs
- Hot chocolate
- A pellet stove
- Somebody got the big can of Peter Pan peanut butter
- "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," movie
- Sixlets
- A pretty floral storage box bought for pocket change at Goodwill
- St.Ive's Oatmeal & Shea Butter Bodywash
- Fruit salad in winter
- Quickly throwing a birthday party for my mom with what was in the house
- Starbucks sweetened iced coffee
- Blue sky with airplane lines in winter
- Sleeping in
- An old green army trunk
- "Because of Winn Dixie," the movie adaptation of one of my favorite books
- Walking on paved park trails
- An unplanned sleepover with a sister where we pushed the couch by the fire and I fell asleep fast
- Watching Numb3rs with La
- Texting a sister far away
- Not losing my cellphone forever thanks to a kind gas station attendant who found it
- Four tomatoes savored in the middle of winter
- "Someday," song by Michael Buble featuring Meghan Trainor
- A dinner date at a local diner (Donna Jean's) with two former work pals turned friends
- Walks in the woods with my youngest brother
- Window shopping in an expensive but cool antique store with my mom and sisters
- Counting all the cars on a train from mere feet away and no fence inbetween
- Buying much-needed new tennis shoes
- "Father of The Bride," movie on my mom's birthday
- Spotify
- A blood moon or super moon or something along those lines (It was pretty! And NASA wrote about it!)
- Internet pictures of cute hedgehogs
- Not worrying at all about my tire pressure
- Ritter Sport milk chocolate with hazelnuts in it
2.02.2018
Taking Stock #5
 |
| photo cred: yours truly |
Making: organization decisions.
Cooking: yellow lentils.
Drinking: cinnamon hot chocolate.
Reading: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Wanting: to find more music that I like.
Looking: for photography inspiration.
Playing: The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells on librivox.
Deciding: college things.
Wishing: Spring was here.
Enjoying: snowy trees.
Waiting: for spring so I can get a job.
Liking: Instagram.
Wondering: where I'll be this time next year.
Loving: sibling time.
Pondering: the kind of person I want to be/how to be that person.
Considering: cutting my hair.
Watching: Numb3rs on Amazon Prime with my sister, Laura.
Hoping: money for college works out so I don't have to borrow.
Marveling: over the way life kinda sorts itself out as long as you keep at it.
Needing: to exercise more.
Smelling: the salted caramel candle on my bedside table.
Wearing: new pjs and a new cuddly bathrobe that were birthday gifts from a friend. :)
Following: lots of street photographers on Instagram and the web.
Noticing: lots of love.
Thinking: about money matters.
Feeling: ready for fresh starts, happy, content, wanting to reorganize.
Admiring: my sister Laura's perseverance.
Sorting: all my junk.
Buying: mascara.
Getting: ready for whatever the year holds.
Bookmarking: lots of pages from the college's website that I'm hoping to attend in the fall.
Disliking: not much of anything right now, things are pretty good.
Opening: new accounts; phone payment, Instagram, insurance, FAFSA.
Laughing: at Psych.
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