B+

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife and I can't stop thinking about how we all waste time thinking about the past and the future instead of focusing on the now. I try so hard to be physically present but find myself emotionally in the past constantly. Something keeps pulling me back, while I remain transfixed on the idea of moving on into the future. I've spent so much of my time waiting, waiting for something to happen. Like the time traveler's wife, so many people spend much of their lives waiting on their loves. No wonder patience is such a virtue, waiting can be agonizing. However, the wait is often what makes the experience worthwhile.
It was a good book. I really loved all the poems concerning time and love that were dispersed throughout the book. The second poem "Love after Love" by Derek Walcott particularly struck me. Here's the second half:

Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Feast on your life...I like that. So as I sit and wait for him to call (I'm absolutely not calling him), I think of how I can feast on my life. Despite the doubt and the worry and the awkward expectation, I need to remember to be positive. My blood type and my new mantra.

5

5 things found in my purse:
1. My cell phone that I drop constantly
2. A Sudoku puzzle book
3. My zoo work folder
4. Lip gloss, just to make me feel made up
5. A spoon from when I ate breakfast on the way to work

5 things found in my wallet:
1. my debit card...I feel swipe happy just thinking about it
2. My TigerCard (student ID)
3. AAA card...Hopefully I won't have to use it for my car *fingers crossed*
4. A $20 check I never cashed from like January
5. Old receipts

5 favourite things in my room:
Technically, I don't have a room. I'm crashing on a friend's couch for the summer but I'll use the stuff I have in storage for the room I'm moving into in a month.
1. my sheets (I love satin sheets. The end.)
2. My old movie posters (Gone with the Wind, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Oceans 11...I just love the technicolor)
3. My Kurt Halsey prints (gotta collect them all!)
4. My laptop
5. My clothes and shoes...for reals.

5 Things I've always wanted to do:
1. Live in New York and love it.
2. See a musical on Broadway with good seats.
3. Wear what I want, when I want
4. Be successful
5. Be happy.

5. Things I'm currently into:
1. Blogs and blogging
2. Thrift store shopping. I'm going to a flea market tomorrow and I'm pumped.
3. Counting down the days until summer's over.
4. Thinking about living in the Northeast (Boston or New York)
5. Birds...pictures of birds, birds at the zoo, drawing birds, bird art...a tiny obsession.

Tokens of Happiness

Just a post about some of the little things that have been bringing me joy lately:

Vintage inspired styles.
I really just want to go on a vintage/thrift/antique store extravaganza...but alas, I am a poor college student with little monies to buy books. Clothes will have to wait...but not long.

Evening walks.
I live in a pretty safe neighborhood and feel comfortable walking in the street at night. I've never really warmed up to sidewalks, streets are much more my avenue. We seem to have a pretty good colony of bats living somewhere in the neighborhood and I enjoy watching swoop and fly near the streetlights. Sometimes I worry they'll fly into me...

Riding my bike.
I'm getting more and more serious about reducing my carbon imprint. I'm really trying not to drive places that are in feasible biking distance. Luckily, Central Market is only like 2 blocks away. Riding my bike makes San Antonio feel more pedestrian than it is.

Blogs.
I'm really digging all of the hip fashion blogs that are out there. How did I just stumble upon these? I literally, StumbleUpon'ed them...and now I'm addicted. I'm reading as far back as March in two of them and see no sign of stopping.

My future.
Ok, so I know my future isn't really a little thing; more like this big, vast thing that could consume my thoughts with worry and expectation. But I like to idealize it as being filled with simple beauty and creativity. Pretty exciting, huh?

The end of summer.
Egad, it's been hot. I'm ready for cooler days where I can wear my sun dresses with cardigans and scarves and maybe even boots. Until then, I'm preparing to trek to class slightly glistening in sweat (gross).

The pictures I've been taking at the zoo.
I've really formed a serious appreciation for the animal kingdom while working at the zoo. Some of them are so beautiful and majestic it just blows my mind. Enjoy!

My Bucket List

A work in progress...

1. Fall madly in love
2. Live in New York while I'm young and free
3. Have a career I'm passionate about
4. Travel cross country on a train
5. Walk across Abbey Road
6. Run a half marathon
7. Get drunk and dance all night long
8. Forgive my mother
9. Visit my father's grave (bring flowers)
10. Taste the difference between mediocre and good liquor
11. Taste the difference between cheap and good wine
12. Visit every continent
13. Do something truly selfless
14. Do something truly senseless
15. Learn to play the piano with some degree of skill
16. Go to an all weekend music festival
17. Own a Vespa
18. Reduce my carbon imprint as much as possible
19. See at least twenty Broadway shows
20. Restore all of my grandparents' old black and white photos
21. Remain committed to a philanthropic organization
22. Learn to speak another language fluently
23. Overcome my fear of vulnerability
24. Tell at least one person a day I love them (and mean it)
25. Sing in public, without embarrassment
26. Spend a week in Greece
27. See all the art I can in Rome
28. Never let a week go by without an adventure
29. Take a cruise to the Caribbean
30. Take a cruise to Alaska
31. Plant a vegetable garden
32. Learn to make a meatloaf that tastes like Grandma's
33. Make homemade ice cream
34. Write my memoirs
35. See the Northern Lights
36. Try hang gliding
37. Ride in a hot air balloon
38. Spend a day in the park flying kites
39. Attend graduate school
40. Remain financially secure
41. Get married
42. Have/adopt children when I'm ready
43. Learn to see myself as beautiful
44. See every movie on AFI's top 100 list
45. Read a book in a hammock
46. Take meaningful, relaxing vacations
47. Fill my home with beautiful things
48. Buy myself flowers
49. See a movie alone
50. Stay in touch with high school friends
51. Remain connected to college friends
52. Be the first person in my family to graduate from college (almost there)
53. Stay active and comfortable in my body
54. Gamble in Vegas
55. Spend a weekend sipping mixed drinks on the beach
56. Ensure my organs are donated when I no longer need them
57. Practice random acts of kindness
58. See a Dave Matthews Band concert
59. Get a tattoo
60. Laugh until I cry
61. Help a complete stranger
62. Find the happiness in my life