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Travel Obsession: Norway

January 10, 2010

When it comes to obsessing over travel destinations, I usually stick to my guns. I know what I love and I love what I know: England, Ireland, Scotland, DC, Maine, New York, Boston, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico… There are so many places that I could visit endlessly for the rest of my life and never grow tired of them. Sometimes, however, I learn about a place that would just be completely EPIC to discover and explore for the first time. This would be one of those times. :)

I can’t even describe it.. so I’ll just let you see for yourself..


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Music

January 6, 2010

SO MUCH has happened. My life has always resembled a whirlwind in more ways than I could ever describe.. It’s been an epic ride.  I neve rthought it could change so drastically in such a short period. .. I’m loving it.

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WANT.

December 20, 2009

This dog wants me to be his best friend. OBVIOUSLY. :)

Gargeous. :)

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Funniest part of today…

December 20, 2009

Please imagine the following scenario:  I am wearing boots..and so is my friend Jerry. I was sitting at work, when he came into the office and demanded a hug… not unlike every other time he’s come to see me at work.  I enjoy hugs and therefore oblige him. Trying to go in for the hug a little oddly, one of us accidentally kicks the other in the foot.

Me: “Jerry…we knocked boots.”

*hysterical laughter ensues*

Yeah… that was the highlight of my day. haha. Wanna know why? Because I’m working 42 hours in 3 days… and I think I might be turning into a living zombie.  THE END

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Today, I feel like bragging…

December 19, 2009

Kay?   ..Kay..    The sole purpose of this post is to proclaim to the world that my nieces and nephews are, indeed, GORGEOUS BLONDE PEOPLE. …all of them… and though I can’t WAIT for the day when my own little dark-haired minions arrive, I am content , playing with my sisters kids for the time being… :) :)

Just LOOK at them..

(Yeah, that’s me with them at the bottom…  I usually sit at the kids table anyway..)

..There are 10 of them…and every last one of them has fallen asleep in my arms.   <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

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Pale September

October 4, 2009

It’s getting to that time again when September is over and I start to question EVERYTHING…. simply because fall is here. My favourite time of year can be so melancholy when I’m in the wrong place. I recently stumbled upon an old entry from my travel blog, however, and it made me happy. It went like this:

 

      “This morning I was walking to the tube station so I could ride the hour  to Wembly and go to church and a homeless man stopped me. I gave him £1 and tried to head on my way, but he said “Wait, is that a bible?” I told him it was and we stood there for a while talking about different things. He said that he had never read any of it before and asked me some questions. We talked alot about lakes of fire and judgement and second deaths. He also wanted to know about limbo and death. It was really interesting. He asked if I could pray for him so I asked what his name was and he said “Allistair, but people call me Ginger.” I told him my name and of course, he sang the lollipop song. I had to leave for church but I told him to yell at me if he ever saw me on the street again. I shook his hand because I didn’t want him to think that I wouldn’t just because he was homeless or that his hand was as dirty and black as the street. We parted ways and ever since then, even after washing it 6 times, my right hand still burns. I’m trying not to think about why.”

       I wonder where Ginger is right now. The memory I have of him is happy, bittersweet, and regretful. I am still mad at the fact that I didn’t stay with him instead of going to church. People would’ve wondered where I was, but would’ve understood later when I told them what happened. I feel like I did him a disservice.  I really love talking to strangers just like him. I see myself in them from when I graduated from highschool and didn’t know who I was and had my spiritual meltdown of sorts. I have a relation to them that they don’t even know exists. I have no interest in bible-thumping, or getting them baptized in the nearest London water feature. I just want to help them find what they’re looking for.

A thirst for knowledge is never a thing to be frowned upon or regretted.

    It is only in doing this that I can ever really feel complete.

Strange, that.

 

homeless man and dog

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Load the car and write the note…..

September 27, 2009

I love this so much. It fits me. I feel like this song has been in my subconscious since the day I was born…. and when I heard it at the Avett brothers concert on Friday, I almost couldn’t handle it. It’s the story of my life.

Listen to the words and you’ll know why.

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I don’t care who you are….

September 27, 2009

…or what you think of me…

Lolcats have the ability to make my weekends better.

funny-pictures-kitten-invites-you-to-fort

funny-pictures-cat-has-hare-in-food

funny-pictures-cat-has-idiot-friend

funny-pictures-cat-needs-new-minion

funny-pictures-balcony-cat-is-shocked

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Strength through Music

September 14, 2009

      Today is Sunday and I work a 16 hour shift. It’s raining and dreary and I’m sitting at a desk in an office until midnight tonight. I have a stack of around 300 index cards that I have to memorize, 3 chapters to read, a paper to write, and a photo assignment to submit and I don’t really even know where to start. Other than that I have a lot of things on my to-do list to keep me busy… except I have zero dollars and seeing as how most of them call for money-spending….. it’s turning out to be a list of no-go’s.

None of this really bothers me. I’m pretty indifferent to it all, actually.

I’m not complaining in the slightest, in fact. I say all this as a means of leading up to the fact that in spite of it, for 20 minutes today I was happier than I have been in months.

Sitting at work I realized that My notecards for abnormal psych were at my apartment and I needed to ride my bike over there and get them. My supervisor gave me the go-ahead, so I left.

Walking outside and retrieving Hildegarde from the bike room, I noticed that it had gotten quite a bit chillier than when I rode to work.  On the ride  I also noticed that everything sort of had a calm wisdom about it. There were no pickup trucks rumbling down the street. No camo adorned methheads in front of the crackhouse I pass every day. The rain was sprinkling slightly, the cool wind was breezing past me, and for a second even the smell was the same.

I was in England.

I was back to those days when (if I didn’t have show-jumping) I would ride my Murry bike though Ely (Even though I wasn’t allowed to), go into pubs and watch football matches with old men who treated me like a grand daughter. I would go to Waitrose and the Gift box and look at all the things I couldn’t afford to buy. I would ride down to Watersides to visit the swans and feed them ice cream cones and look at the boats. Ride my bike past the Almonry just so I could smell the best cup of tea in England. And of course I went to my cathedral. I like to think that she misses me as much as I miss her. I would walk by the marble tombs and statues and have silent conversations with them. They were part of the cathedral. They were family.  They had seen thousands upon thousands of stories unfold. I hadn’t seen anything. I was 11.

I realize that this makes me sound like I had no friends. Don’t worry. I did. We played soccer, and tennis, and skateboarded, and watched Buffy the Vampire slayer pretty much everyday. We thought we were the coolest people in the world. We wore high heeled boots with jeans because we thought that’s what hot 11 years did. We crushed on 8th graders who wore Calvin Klein “Be”, and played light as a feather/ stiff as a board in tents in the backyard. We played on a field that later turned out to be an Anglo-Saxon burial ground, complete with treasure and a king buried on his horse. Those were the days. I miss them.

I need to go home.

Needless to say, on the bike ride to and from my apartment…. I dawdled. I dilly-dallied. I quite possibly might have even Lolligagged.

…but eventually I had to leave my Anglo-Lolli Land and go back to work… where I am now…. still not doing homework…

Cathedral

My cathedral

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SO.MAD….

August 19, 2009

 

 

angry

angry still

angry but cute

angry but...hahahaha

One of the reasons that we decided to move into the apartment we did was that pets were allowed. … and they still are…. except  the owners of the complex literally JUST raised the pet deposit to a MILLION KAJILLION GOOGLEPLEX dollars… so my pup dreams have just been dashed against the rocks. So dumb. So unless I suddenly come into a great deal of money by freak chance, no pup for Loll.

No furry happiness.

No licky bundle of puppy joy.

all is sorrow, all is pain.

 

But LOOK!!!!

baron-munchausen-totally-looks-like-burger-king

Have you ever noticed how Baron Von Munchausen looks just like the Burger King????? They both have side swirly hair parts, even. Freaky!