32. October 30

Yellow...

"And it was all yellow."

 ~ Coldplay, "Yellow"

31. October 29

To Do List For Fall 2009:

1. Scoop the gooey insides out of a pumpkin

2. Photograph the leaves

3. Eat pumpkin pie

4. Drink hot apple cider

5. Watch a (mildly) scary movie

6. Kick up a big pile of leaves and sink slowly into it

Just one more item I can cross off my list.

What's on yours?

"In the sanctuary of my thoughts, I am a fearless renegade."

~ Mark Dunn, Ella Minnow Pea

One month into this project... Another eleven to go!

30. October 28

 Halloween week is thus far shaping out to be quite awesome.
Tonight? Church chili cook-off, pumpkin carving contest, and trunk-or-treat.
Now, I just need to pull a costume together for two parties this weekend.
Any ideas?
I've never really gotten into this holiday, 
but this year I think its a good time to get carried away and see just what the Halloween buzz is all about. 
Trick or Treat anyone?

Men who never get carried away should be.
  - Malcolm Forbes

29. October 27

Please meet my beautiful suite mate:

• Author of the next great fantasy series
• Survivor of the dreaded H1N1 virus
• Lover of vampires
• Diehard Irish
  

"I just don't think any of us should have to handle being human alone."

~ Barbara Galloway, in today's class discussion

28. October 26

Yes, another shot of the sky.

The purpose of this blog is to take a picture for each day of my twentieth year that:

A. Tells something about my day, as to serve a photographic journal entry

B. Looks pretty

Well, that's the rough gist of it.

The story this picture tells?

Today was pretty uneventful.

But the sky looked cool. And I like autumn.

 "And some days all I do is watch the sky / Today was a good day..."

~Something Corporate, "Watch the Sky"

27. October 25

So today was completely

uneventful.

I didn't think you wanted to see the other pictures I took today of things like:

A. My lunch

B. Still more pictures of trees

C. Pictures of me doing crazy faces

D. Peanut butter and candy corn (aka the contents of my food shelf)

So, I downloaded Picasa 3 and had a little fun with the editing. Picasa 3 earns my vote and will likely now be my editing program of choice.

And so, I now give you, my desk, in all its horrifically messy glory.

This. Is. One. Ugly. Post.

But, the good news is, there is fun things to come from Picasa 3 editing!

 "He was in one of his moods, for the day had been both unprofitable and unsatisfactory, and he was wishing he could live it over again."

~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

I am pretty much perpetually reading Little Women and I thoroughly love it.

And, on an unrelated note, thank you, dear readers, for your positive feedback. Glad to hear you like the blog and its been fun to check out your blogs as well.
And just so you know, that should be "Frank" and not "Frink" Sinatra. Ooops. 

26. October 24

The bus station is not my favorite place.

I hate the wafts of cigarette smoke, the leery gazes of strangers, the scent of unwashed clothing and hair, and the filthy benches. Even if it is only a few crazies among the rest, the whole atmosphere makes my skin crawl. I always want to change into clean clothes after riding the bus home.

The bus station is not my favorite place.

But, when I get on the bus, and I see the regulars converse easily with one another, and I see their humor, their warmth, and their smiles, I feel deeply ashamed for my pride and embarrassed for my intolerance.

The bus station is not my favorite place. But, I suppose if I don't like it so much, I could always walk.

View from a bus station bench...

"There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up."

~ Bernice Johnson Reagon

25. October 23

Getting all dolled up for the dance...

 "Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood."

~ Oscar Wilde

Icky

I am technologically challenged. My photo editing program has currently ceased to function. Blogger is acting up. And a strange phenomenon of a train of internet icons is growing and retreating on whatever that bar is called that appears at the bottom of the screen. More posts to come soon I hope. I'm going to go do what any wise computer user would do. Take a nap and worry about it later.

24. October 22

Forgive me, but life was just too beautiful today!

Sometimes I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am! Life is just so good. To be young at this time and in this place is truly an unusually excellent experience. Occasionally I fear that life simply can't get any better, and that these really are the best years of my life. Its like that line from "Total Eclipse of the Heart," 

"Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years has gone by." 

But then I think of all that lies ahead of me and I am quite sure these fleeting years of youth are far from the most life has to offer. I look at my parents, at my brother and his wife, and at all the young couples I know and I think how excited I am to someday have the experience, God be willing, of being a wife and a mother. There are no two experiences I desire more than these.

I do not fear growing old, even if the later years of life seem to me now a little bit beautiful, bittersweet, and sad. I love what Agatha Christie had to say about those years,

"But there is a great deal left. Operas and concerts, and reading, and the enormous pleasure of dropping into bed and going to sleep, and dreams of every variety... Almost best of all, sitting in the sun--gently drowsy... And there you are again--remembering."

 I think... life in its entirety is beautiful beyond understanding. And I for one intend to relish every moment of it.

I am done rambling now and with great pride present the picture and quote of the day. And technically this quote will be the third in the post, but don't let his bother you okay? Consider it a bonus.

"Happiness is the ultimate realization that everything was, and is, exactly as it should be."

~ Paul from The Netherlands

23. October 21

Shadows of the night...

And who is to say there is more beauty in the light of day than in the dark of night?

Is not a moonlit field or a star-heavy sky just as beautiful as any sun drenched meadow or storm-cloud sky?
Is not sounds so much more direly formal than isn't... Strange how that works. 

"Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber!"

~ Lord Byron, Manfred 

22. October 20

Well hello autumn! 

Today was both The Changing of the Maples Ceremony on the quad and Apple Day in the caf. Can you get any more fall than that?

Just a few reasons I'm falling for fall:

• Apple cider: I don't actually enjoy it, but the concept is so appealing
• Pumpkins: What is it with those orange gourds that is so endearing?
  
• Harvest time and corn mazes
  
• The color of the changing maples: Its a vibrancy I just cannot seem to capture with a camera. Any tips?
  
• Halloween! I love the trick-or-treaters, the candy corn, the costumes... So fun
• Thanksgiving: More on this come November
  
• The scents of ripe apples, fallen leaves, and smoke curling out of a chimney

And I loved these fading flowers this autumn morning...

"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life."
- P. D. James

21. October 19

This is the view from the top of the world, or at least it felt that way. It comforts to me to know there is so much untamed beauty that exists. I love the way the colors naturally get more intense at the edges...

"Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?"

~ Les Miserables, "Do You Hear the People Sing?"

20. October 18

My book shelf...

What's on yours?

"...I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book."

~ Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

Whoa! They now have an X-Large picture size. Definately utilizing this.

19. October 17

Seeing me a little differently...

And making plans.

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

18. October 16

This is the face of a very good friend who flew two thousand miles to sit in my living room and try sushi for the first time...

"You may amaze yourself when you stop trying to be inconspicuous."

~Rhea Fitzgerald

I would like to learn the art of portrait photography. Plants just happen to be a little easier and more patient. But perhaps now is a good time to learn a thing or two about photographing faces...

17. October 15

This shot was obtained leaning out the window of the science lab into a tree top. 

There is beauty to be found even on gray days.

But.

This little girl needs her sunshine.

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

~ Oscar Wilde

16. October 14

Today was an emotional yo-yo. I was not much in the mood for pictures, so I apologize for the lack of energy in tonight's post.

The good news? The leaves are finally turning.

And its beautiful.

I promise you prettier pictures of fall, coming soon.

"Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear. Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right. It's all right."

~The Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun"

15. October 13

Stuck in traffic, but who's complaining?

"You find beauty in ordinary things; do not lose this ability."

~ Fortune Cookie

14. October 12

Happy Columbus Day.

And hello Carolina Beach.

"It was so beautiful that for a moment the beauty was all that mattered; it wasn't important that there were things we would never understand."

~ Madeleine L'Engle, Meet the Austins

13. October 11

A seemingly insignificant ceiling fan in motion...

"How could something so seemingly insignificant give comfort to someone?"

~ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

12. October 10

Lunch, matinee movie, and... historic cemetery?

Yeah. Pretty awesome.

Thank you my sweet hostesses for that afternoon.

"However dark it may be here--there is no night in heaven."

~Epitaph on a gravestone

11. October 9

Driving away for Fall Break with my awesome roommate and these lovely suitemates...

"Your life now seems / to you exceptional / in its simplicities."

~ Linda Pastan, "Weather"

Leaving for Fall Break!

365 Posts to continue on Wednesday...

10. October 8

Oh it was a flawless autumn day today, my favorite sort of weather! Half of our campus, it seemed, was out on the quad soaking up the sunshine. I was out too, with a book on my lap, but I was busier reading the crowd than the text before me...

Cast of Characters Observed On the Quad:

• Two boys, two guitars
• One man, one child, one stroller, one very awful plaid shirt
• One young man who had the appearance of a poor Russian poet, his bicycle, and a group of friends with whom he was planning a weekend trip to Raleigh
• A handsome guy with curly hair and a nice smile who works at the library whom I can never work up the courage to talk to...
• A hippie who knows everybody, including the aforementioned handsome face
• Three groups involved in games of frisbee
• A couple involved in some passionate making out for most of the afternoon, much to the laughter of the Russian poets' friends
• A photographer whom I see all over the place with his serious camera and serious camera bag and a serious expression  (I wonder what he sees behind his lens?)

And now, I give you, the quad.

 

Quote of the day:

"If you feel like it, come with me. I will tell you a story. I'll show you something."

~ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

(I just began this book today and I'm quite excited about it!)

9. October 7

I woke up today expecting to find a day cold and gray enough to justify my cranky mood. Alas, life had other plans for me.

This is the sky that greeted me on my way to breakfast.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

~ Douglas Adams

8. October 6

I have a favorite seat on the second floor of the library that overlooks the front doors. I like to watch people stroll in and out of the doors. The curious thing about is that no one ever looks up. Ever. I suppose there is no real reason to. All they would see was a skylight, and perhaps a face in a window. But still. Such is also the case from my room on the third floor, overlooking a path and a parking lot where people often come and go. No one ever looks up. Ever. Today, I tried looking up a little more often. This is just one thing I observed.

Quote of the day?

Look up a little more often.

7. October 5

After the rain...

"The only world that exists for you is the one you invent yourself."

~Richard Chess, today in Modern Poetry

Does anyone know how to make uploaded images slightly larger? I don't ask for much, just a little bit bigger.

6. October 4

View from a fish bowl

 

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
~ Oscar Wilde

5. October 3

The hardest part of this blog?

Picking only one picture a day.

Cornstalks against an autumn sky. 

One of my strongest memories of fall in my childhood was the dying cornstalks in the yard of neighbor. I couldn't help but think of that today.

Quote of the Day:

"Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures."
~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

P.S. I discovered how to access a whole slew of previously unused features on my camera and I can't wait to try them out.

On my shopping list? Rechargable batteries. My poor camera is getting tired.

4. October 2

Sunrise at breakfast. 

"...find joy in every situtation you are placed in." ~ Brian Emery, Ninja

3. October 1

Ah! Is there anything more delightful than a letter in the mail?

"The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters." 
~Svetlana Alliluyeva