Wednesday, November 26, 2008

"there is nothing false about hope."

Yes We Can.


gratitude.

Tomorrow is annual turkey day.  A day of visits to Grandma's house, extreme over eating, and sitting around watching football, and making fun of napping cousins (with their pants unbuttoned in response to turkey comas.)  I'm so glad to be on break from school.  I'm dreading going back seeing as its the last week of classes and then the ominous week of final exams.  I know I will do well, its just utterly overwhelming.  Coming home has been a bit overwhelming as well in certain ways.  A lot of things have changed while I've been at school - good and bad.  Once again, money is on the brain.  And in a big way.  Just when you think you're ok, and that your finally stable, the universe goes and pulls the rug out from underneath you.   I guess I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to learn from these circumstances.  I want to believe that everything happens for a reason but sometimes it just feels like the world is out to get you.  But seeing as its the holiday for gratitude, I'm making a list of all the things I am thankful for, the things I DO have in my life.  Looking at this list suddenly makes money problems seem so trivial and small.  I'm thankful for....

*being able to go to art school and getting shot at doing what makes me absolutely happy and completely fulfilled.
*Having all the basic necessities...clean water, a roof over my head, food...
*Being alive to witness the first black president of the United States.  Being proud to be American for the first time ever.
*Feeling like I'm getting closer and closer to the woman I want to be.
*Having beautiful friends and an incredible, talented, strong family.
*Learning from my mistakes.
*my dog. :)
*Not growing up addicted to video games and actually learning how to have a real conversation instead.
*I'm thankful for my voice.  For my freedom to speak.
*White out.
*ipod.
*prismacolor pencils.
*clean sheets that smell nice.
*Robert Pattinson.  
*I'm thankful for people fighting in Iraq to protect me even though we don't know each other's names.
*My best friends.
*Having a sense of purpose and direction, even if I havent completely found it yet - I know I'm on my way there.
*Yogi tea.
*tattoos
*People who love me when I can't love myself.
*The turkey who died in order to feed me tomorrow :(
*Having eyes and ears that work so I can read endlessly, and listen to music all I want.
*Being alive.

Blessed.  



Thursday, November 20, 2008

tattoo <3



its beautiful.  i feel beautiful.  love is beautiful.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

18

i am officially 18 years old.  :D

Friday, November 14, 2008

letting go.

I said it because I've been waiting for you to hear me - really hear me - forever.
I said it because I care about you.
I said it because I'm tired of the bullshit.
I said it because I deserve more than this is and so do you.
I said it because I'm done carrying your extra baggage.
I said it with anger in my voice because you don't listen to diplomacy anymore.  My struggle to say it the "nice way" has always been in vain ever since we were kids.  Maybe this time you'll hear me.  Your my best friend.

But I'm done fighting for you when you throw yourself into the same shit over and over again.  I can't do it anymore. and I shouldnt have to.  So good luck.  love you.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

word vomit.

*I can't believe this semester is almost over.  It went by so fast and so slow at the same time.  Almost at perfect speed.  Fast enough to go by without being painful, but slow enough so I feel like I didn't miss anything.  

*I love my dorm.  I don't really know how I will readjust to being at home now that I've lived on my own.  It makes me feel grown up.  

*My room mate bought me my very own shot glass today.  That makes me feel grown up too.  :)

*I wonder if people realize it when they say some paper cut of a comment that makes you bleed more than you expected.  I need to invest in more band aids.

*Dining hall food sucks.  Tofu stew...Seriously?  Seriously.

*I miss home a lot this week.  I want to go home and lay around and talk and drink hot chocolate with my family and play with my dog and forget about stuff for a bit.  It would be lovely.

*Boys suck.  Especially when you go to school where there are more squirrels than straight guys. And the ones I have met, just don't get it.  I'm a human - not just a pair of boobs.  

*This Saturday I get to party with my favorite girls in K3E and be stupid and just relax for once.  :)

*Someone showed me what a camel spider was this week.  And I now have nightmares about them.  Holy shit.  If you havent seen one, look it up.

*If I could do anything in the world at this exact moment, I would probably be on a date with Rob Pattinson.

*Sometimes I wonder if Jay still thinks about me at all.  It makes me feel pathetic.  Its so fucking dumb.

*My little sister is going to change the world.  

* Claire de Lune has been playing my head over and over for a week.  And I still like it.


Monday, November 10, 2008

"don't lose your faith, don't run away, hey baby its only Life."

I drink tea before bed.  A lot lately.  Calms me down I guess.  Makes me feel happy and safe.  It also makes me have to pee like sea biscuit but hey...thats ok.

Life is so sweet right now.  This past week brought with it emotional roller coasters and plenty of hard work.  But life is so undeniably good right now.  Good with the bad - I am just happy to be on earth in this exact moment.  But to bring everybody up to speed, I guess I'll start with the bad so I can end with the good.

Megan had her baby on the fifth at around 11 at night (this is good news).  What an insane day.  I got the call she was in the hospital at like 7:30 in the morning.  I thought I might be able to go to classes but I found out from my mom that things were moving faster than expected.  So I emailed my teachers and drove to Highland around ten with Mom where we spent a little over twelve hours waiting for that beautiful baby.  Megan was a soldier - 20 hours of labor all together.  The whole situation would have been so much better if the father didn't show up with his new girlfriend and a fake ass wedding band on his finger.  His stupidity never fails to amaze me.  And the girlfriend's stupidity - even more astounding.  She had the nerve to walk into the delivery room.  Luckily Meg was too drugged up to get upset.  But Mom was ready to kick this girl's ass.  It was great.  I can't really explain how I was feeling that day - I felt so much at once I almost felt sick.  I was angry - at Ray, at the whole situation, and at the new girlfriend.  I was sad mostly though - for Megan.  I kept wishing that this whole thing was happening to her when she was ready.  When it was a happy thing for her parents too. When she had someone who REALLY loved her beside her. When she was ready to be a Mom.  I was anxious - mostly for the baby to be here and be healthy and for everything to be ok.  But on top of all of this, afterwards I just felt totally empty.  I should have been happy or something...I don't know.  

I felt so strange and I lost it in the car on the way home.  I felt like Ally and Meg and everyone didn't need me anymore all of the sudden.  Like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I didn't know what to do with myself anymore now that I wasn't needed.  I felt useless.  And it hurt me to realize that I'm the girl people go to with panic, with conflicts, with emotional baggage - because I'm really good at helping them hold it up.  But then when its over - I feel like I'm stumbling around totally alone.  So suddenly - nine months of waiting, of agonizing, of being there is over.  And I don't know what to do with myself.  And I have no idea if it even mattered.  I just hope that the baby knows he is loved.  

Now for happier stuff.  I'm almost 18 years old.  And yesterday I finished designing my second tattoo. This one is different.  It feels different.  My first tattoo will always mean a lot to me.  This new one has been a process that has been just as beautiful - if not more.  Its a gaelic saying that means "Peace Walks on Love's Road."  It has a dove on the tail of the phrase and it's going to go down my right wrist.  I thought a lot about this tattoo while I was putting it together and just really reflected on this year.  It has been an AMAZING, beautiful, challenging, emotional year.  Graduation, college, independence, Megans baby, the first black president of the United States, growing, changing, feeling closer to the person I want to be....this year has been my best so far.  It has pulled me in so many different directions and taught me that the one true thing in my life is Love.  And with all this year has brought me, I am ready to put this statement on me without any hesitation.  I know now more than I ever have, that my belief in Love is the driving force behind my existence.  I want to look at this tattoo so that I can live up to it.  So that I always know that above all things - Love first, peace first.  I want it on my right hand, my drawing hand, my dominant hand so that I am reminded that Love should be dominant in my life as well.  I want it in an ancient language, beautiful and scripted and speaking to my heritage - however removed it may be.  I look at this design and I know I am meant to wear it.  Its nothing huge. Its simple, and elegant, and to me it will always be powerful.  I am so excited to get it done I can't even tell you.  I DREAM about it at night.  

Life is beautiful and scary and wonderful.  And I am so in it right now.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

unyielding hope.

I want to remember this moment forever.  I want to tell my grandchildren about it.  I want to sing.   I want to cry.  (oh wait I'm already doing that.)

I cannot believe I am alive, in this moment, right now.  Its not just about the fact that Obama is our new president.  Its the fact that millions of Americans put him there.  That millions of Americans dont just believe in one man, but they believe in change, in the future, in facing the struggle with dignity, and hope.  That America is finally getting it.  I cannot contain my joy.  I cried so hard.  Just to be here, just to see this day, just to be alive.  To think about Martin Luther King, to think about all our country has been through.  To think that we choose the here and now to move forward.  To hear an incredible, historic speech by our new president.  God is so good.  

I know that the next years will be incredibly hard.  They will test us and change us.  But I can honestly say that this is the first time in my entire life, I have ever been proud to be American.  This is history.  This is history.  It means more to me than I can ever explain.  My prayers now are about keeping Obama and his family safe so this moment will not be in vain.  I am filled with "unyielding hope."   Yes We Can.

edward cullen and elections.

Yes, I have fallen victim to the Twilight series.  Don't judge me.  I've never been into the sci fi, vampire fiction crap.  And thats exactly what I thought these books were until my room mate forced me to actually read them.  I went through all four books in less than a week.  I'm in love - madly in love - with Edward Cullen.  (well basically Rob Pattinson...but you get what I mean.)  I'm going to the midnight premier for my birthday!  GAH he is so sexy.  BIte me - please.

I'm up watching the election coverage and desperately hoping for Obama to come out on top. If he doesnt, I'm seriously considering moving out of the US as soon as I'm out of college.  So my fingers are crossed, and I'm feeling hopeful.  :D


peace and LOVE.