214. April 29

What a day. I moved home, leaving behind a messy apartment full of wonderful roommates, a snowy city full of a thousand memories, and the part of me that belonged to exclusively to all of it. I'm home. I'm exhausted. I'm content.

I've loved this room I shared with Hillary, funny prison beds and all. I don't think the room itself has been a big part of my life, but the time in my life in which I've occupied it has been. The emptiness looks so strange.

213. April 28

What can be done with one fabulous eyeshadow pallet and other fun resources, one talented young lady, and a handful of roommates as willing guinea pigs? Well, I'm glad you asked.

It was my last night in my apartment with these lovely ladies. Highlights of the evening: Amber's makeup skills, dinner at Panda Express, CD's of epic nature, Lori's baby pictures, Maddi's mugs, the "bouch," and the thousand details that make my roommates who they are and the semester into what it has been. These ladies make goodbye a sad and strange thing to say. Thank you, Apartment #3, for a fabulous semester. And now that's it all over, the schooling aspect of the semester seems almost secondary to all the rest of it.

I hate long posts, so now, onto the quote of the day.

"I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing."
— Neil Gaiman, The Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

(Thanks Tiana for a few of these shots!)

212. April 27

HEY, HEY, HEY.

Finals are done. Thank goodness. I am, however, going to miss this beautiful campus. And it was just starting to get green...

Plans for the summer? Secure a job, read voraciously, write for pleasure, get as little sleep as possible, find adventures on a daily basis, meet dozens of new faces, cross items off of my list of life goals and ambitions, improve my vocabulary, and live life to the fullest. Sounds good, right?

"I said I wouldn't want to add another mediocre writer to this world. Being a glorious failure didn't scare me at all, but being just mediocre did. What I heard her say was, If you're not willing to be mediocre, you'll never be anything at all...there's no way of knowing you're good if you don't dare to be mediocre."

~ Katherine Paterson in an interview with Diane Osen, The Book that Changed My Life

The Not 212. April 27 Post

Feeling slightly handicapped by inability to adjust to Blogger changes. Help uploading photos, anyone? The direct upload won't work, and uploading through Picasa Albums is kind of a pain and I can't get the picture to tilt correctly. It's lame to post pictures sideways. So, I'm rebelling. And you don't get a post today, at least until I figure this nonsense out.

211. April 26

All the fixings for a barbecue with my church "family." Such good times. I'm going to miss this crowd.

"And I had a feeling that I belonged, and I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone..."

~ Tracy Chapman, "Fast Car"

There is a small handful of songs that come back to me again and again as personal favorites, and "Fast Car" is one such song.

210. April 25

Sunday adventures with Danni. 

Thank you, Danni, for helping me cross two items on my list of life goals and ambitions. At your request, I am posting this picture in sepia tones. You are simply lovely.

"In her I also found what I liked best--an unfailing, kindly welcome without a hint of sentimentality, unruffled good sense, the unobtrusive talent for making all things at all times as cheerful and comfortable as circumstances allow."

~ C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

209. April 24

Tokens upon a headstone at a local cemetery...

"Endeavor to so live that when you die even the undertaker will be sorry." 

~ Mark Twain

 

(Thanks, Rachel, for the quote.)

208. April 23

"But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things."

~Vincent van Gogh, Dear Theo: An Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh, 1937

207. April 22

(Happy Earth Day. Have you hugged a tree yet today?)

206. April 21

Only in Utah can you have a thunderstorm, sunshine, and a snow storm on the same day... Crazy weather, can't you just stick with the sunshine?

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well there is such a thing as food; a duckling wants to swim; well there is such a thing as water, etc. If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
~ C.S. Lewis

205. April 20

"The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."
~ Margaret Nadauld

204. April 19

Stop. Look up here.

Hey thanks kind chalk-artist stranger for this reminder. I needed to see the chunk of sky above your words.

"Life gives to all the choice. You can satisfy yourself with mediocrity if you wish. You can be common, ordinary, dull, colorless, or you can channel your life so that it will be clean, vibrant, progressive, useful, colorful, and rich."

~Spencer W. Kimball

203. April 18

Sign on Sunday afternoon walk with a friend.

(And a corny analogy for the upcoming week? I don't know why the bike is going backwards, but it seems to fit the life analogy-- going uphill and backwards.)

 

"The world belongs to the energetic."

~Emerson 

(As found in my local yellow pages)

202. April 17

There is much to be seen just off the highways of southern Utah. It's like another world, a strange and undiscovered one, exists within the realms of what I thought was the familiar. It's delightful. Adventures such as today's drive along the old highways fill me with a voracious hunger to scout out the world, if not the whole world, then at least my own corner of it.

Today's photo is that of shoes dusty from a lakeside walk and a jaunt through mining town ruins.

"Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you've never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground."
  ~ Judith Thurman

201. April 16

Barefoot in my momma's garden at sunset.

Life is good.

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
 ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

200. April 15

An Incomplete List of Methods of the Self Portrait

1. The hold the camera out at arm's length shot--particularly effective if a fleshy amount of arm is included in the shot.
2. The Myspace-esque mirror shot captured with a camera phone, usually involving scant amounts of clothing and awkward attempts at seductive facial expressions.
3. The photographer and his or her (though usually her) camera in the mirror shot, done in an artistic and creative manner, of course.
4. The up the nostril shot.Yeah.
5. The self-timer shot, the only technique not used enough.
6. The shot of portraying the self vicariously through inanimate objects, often misunderstood by all but the artist.
7. The use of body parts, such as the feet, as a synecdoche for the self.

In my case, I went with option one, avoiding the addition of a large chunk of arm. I inadvertently wound up with a mugshot, albeit a very chipper mugshot, like in the case of a criminal whose still too giddy high to know the night might not be winding up as they hoped. Sorry it's a rather poor shot of the after...

And today's quote comes from a hilariously sweet little novel by the actor Steve Martin. Did you know he wrote novels? I certainly did not, at least not prior to the pleasant discovery of this novel.

"Wouldn't we all like to know the extent of our own magnetism?"

~ Steve Martin, The Pleasure of My Company

199. April 14

Holy dang. Life is good!

"It all reminds me of that moment when you take off your sunglasses / after a long drive and realize it's earlier / and lighter out than you had accounted for."

~ David Berman, "Charm of 5:30"

198. April 13

A few things I don't like:

Tax forms

Cold weather

Profanity

Contact with feet

Crude humor

Condescending know-it-alls

Waking up to alarms

Lists such as these

 

 

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." 

~ Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

197. April 12

So, it snowed this afternoon.

Instead of ranting to you about my venomous hatred of winter, I'll tell you about some awesome things that happened today. While pumping gas in the snow at the station today, a nice man also pumping gas offered to clean the snow off of all my windows, which he did--in short sleeves. It was incredibly kind. I came home and my neighbor stopped by out of the blue with a hot plate of delicious blueberry-raspberry muffins. Shortly thereafter, I got a nice text from a friend today just checking in to see if I was okay. No reason for the text, just a kind thought. 

Bring on the snow. Life is still good.

And another good thing: family. Whenever life's occasional hiccups arise, it's just incredible to see how close my family pulls together. The power of prayer within a family is terrific. And when the good times come, family is always there as well. I am especially amazed by how supportive, understanding, and kind my parents are. I moving back into their home this summer for currently unknown span of time, and at first this was really depressing. I really like being on my own and I'd hoped to move in with my sister. But, the closer it gets to move, the more excited I am. It will be so good to be around family so much. I'm just grateful to my parents for welcoming me home. Besides, I hear there is sunshine there.

And hey, congratulations Lisa on graduating. I know I told you I'm mad, but that's only because I love you.

There are so many wonderful quotes I want to share with you lately, particularly some great ones others were kind enough to share with me. I'm just waiting for fitting days. Luckily, I've got well over a hundred days more.

And as yet another act of kindness, my roommate Lori was the one to suggest tonight's quote. I really just love Lori. She has such a quirky wealth of knowledge and interests. Lori reminds me of that saying, she knows a little something about everything, and everything about a few somethings. And because she was able to whip out this little quote off the top of her head that just happens to be perfect, I am allowing the first unknown author quote ever on this humble blog.

"I have wept in the night for the shortness of sight that to somebody's need made me blind; But I never have yet felt a tinge of regret for being a little too kind."

~ Author Unknown

196. April 11

Happy Birthday, Amber. Thank you for giving us an excuse to have a little party.

Thank you, Tiana for this picture, Hillary for the cake, and roommates for a delightful time.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." 

~e.e. cummings

195. April 10

Wanderlust.

Isn't that a terrific word? Sometimes, the only wandering I can do is via Google Maps, as I dream of worlds beyond my window. Someday...

"Because some places simply call to us, and it's a kind of moral imperative to follow that call. To find out why we hear it and what it's like when we finally answer it. [...] Sometimes you just have to go see what presents the universe offers."

~ Edward Readicker-Henderson, "Yap," Islands Magazines

194. April 9

And suddenly, it's spring.

It's the strangest thing how the season seems to have tumbled in out of nowhere. Suddenly, the sun is up before I am and stays up past seven. Suddenly, it's time to pull out the shorts. Suddenly, there are daffodils. Today, I sprawled out on the lawn and read in the sunshine for a delicious hour. Today, I tagged along on a hike up the canyon. Today, I wore a skirt. And tonight, I'm watching a movie outside on the roof with roommates.

I love spring.

Even more than spring, I love this little guy, my nephew, Cash. Cierra, I hope you don't mind me sharing this picture. I didn't know babies smiled in the first week. I don't know why I never this, but I find this detail, in itself, is more of a miracle than all the wonders of spring. He looks so much like his dad's baby pictures in this one. I am so in love with this kid and I've never even met him, and this love is also a beautiful miracle.

"You have to wonder how many other things you think you know, but you don't. I love this feeling in the air, this edge, like something is about to happen."

~Kristen D. Randle, The Only Alien on the Planet

193. April 8

Spring... it's almost here. And summer is close on it's heels.

"Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?" 

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

 

192. April 7

Dear Sue,

I came across your bowling ball, alongside Carol's, in a thrift shop the other day and I want to know why. Have you given up bowling? Is it merely boring to you now, or do you just find you lack time? Perhaps, is it that aged and shaky hands can no longer throw a strike? Or, dare I say it, are you still alive to think about things as trivial as bowling balls? I hope if you bowl no longer, you still have your scores posted upon the wall or tucked away somewhere. And, I hope if you've moved onto another life that there is bowling there, too.

"That is the sort of people they were--very interesting people, and I think of them so often, in such queer places, because one will never see them again, never know what happened next."

~Virginia Woolf, "The Mark on the Wall"

191. April 6

Most people don't know I play the piano.

And I don't--at least not often or well.

But sometimes my fingers to the keys, coaxing out a few familiar hymns, is just what I need. 
 

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent."

~Victor Hugo

190. April 5

Watching the rain and wind (and later snow) from a stairwell window and wishing for sunshine and other pleasant occurrences...

"April is upon us, pitiless and young and harsh."

~ Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Northern April"

189. April 4

Happy Easter.

"I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross. [...] I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest. But the doom of that day did not endure. The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind. [...]

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

~ Joseph B. Wirthlin, Sunday Will Come

188. April 3

I had a fantastic time attending General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with my family. Whether religious or not, the conference has some awesome Christian advice for the world. Beautiful. Click here for a broadcast of it.

My handsome brother and beautiful sister waiting to go in.

 The Conference Center

The Salt Lake City LDS Temple

"I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth..."

~ Psalm 16: 8, KJV

187. April 2

Friday nights with roommates usually involve going out for large quantities of very cheap Mexican food. Delicious.

"Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you." 

~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

186. April 1

Hello, Cash Matthew. Welcome into the world.

Cierra, Matt, congratulations! You are going to be wonderful parents!

I'm thrilled to be an aunt and can't wait to meet your beautiful son.

"Man is greater than a world--than systems of worlds; there is more mystery in the union of soul with the body, than in the creation of a universe."

~ Henry Giles