Well, hello, honey.
I just spent a wonderful day with my grandmother, chilling at her place, eating lots of cookies, relaxing and doing homework and enjoying her company. She is such a smart, clever, beautiful woman (she has the most lovely sunlight-on-sea-colored eyes) with a wealth of stories. Sometimes I ask her questions and listen to her talk and try to imagine what it was like to be her, a kid growing up in Detroit, parented by a single mother who took in boarders into their home and felt remarkably safe doing so. Everything about my grandmother is inspiring and strong and full of hope and faith (and acerbic wit), and it fills my heart with something I can’t always define.
In other news, on the way to class today, I saw a handful of winter-dried leaves doing their dancing, swirling, miniature-tornado twirls across campus. It was like some spirit or elemental was breezing through the courtyard. It was beautiful. I paused and watched it till it blew out of sight. Consider, this, but it moved more freely and expansively:
It was lovely.
Finally: happy Spring! I will soon have a post full of monthlies for April–be excited!
I should tell you that I woke up this morning with a renewed sense of hope.
Things have been going crazy lately, between work and my falling-apart car, and loneliness, and other things. But this morning I woke up and felt a little lighter. Now I am sitting at my “new” table (an old oak thing that I refinished this summer and just got moved down to my apartment), preparing to go to work, and the sun is rising through my east-facing window. I spent the last couple days with my Grandmother, one of my best friends, and my sisters, and I finally have my clothes back (all freshly-laundered) from when I sent them away three months ago.
I love my apartment. I love mornings like this. I love waiting for the future to unfold.
It’s going to be a good one.
So you can share a sunrise with me:
Call to Action , Good News , Other Films, Quotes, Artwork...
A Quote, Good News, and A True Act of Kindness
What have I been thinking???
It’s been almost a week since my last post–oh, the shame! Especially since the weather has been so particularly lovely. All I have wanted to do for the last few days is sit outside. Unfortunately, between finals and work, I have made excuses to not do that.
So I am going to try to make it a point to take some pictures today, tomorrow, and/or Thursday (though I may not be able to post until Sunday…I am going to visit my Grandma! ♥ ).
In the meantime, a quote, a story, and A True Act of Kindness:
If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy,
the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.
C.S. Lewis
The Love Drop writes, This month we’re coming together for two beautiful kids with severe autism. Our goal is to raise $13,000 to help cover the costs of placing and training a highly skilled service dog with the family through the 4 Paws for Ability organization. It’s a lot of money, but we also have a lot of heart. [...] Let’s make this happen 
At the end of their campaign, they raised $13,148.22!!! For videos of the event or more of the story (and more links!), explore the blog entry. To get involved in future Love Drop campaigns, investigate this link.
And finally….
Well.
It’s funny how quickly a good day can be transformed into a bad one, but it’s incredible how quickly a sucky day can turn into a good one.
My dinner with my friend was unfortunately canceled/postponed. Seeing as how it’s been my only social plan in a really long time, I was super-disappointed. But then, on my way out the door, I locked myself out of my apartment. Doi! For the second time in a couple months, too. I was so mad at myself for being so stupid, and for having to call the poor maintenance guys during their evening hours. I walked my silly self over to CVS before I even called so I could pay them upfront (it costs $30 to unlock doors after-hours, and they get it directly, in cash). Then I called one of the maintenance guys, and he came over right away, and was so nice. He even refused payment. And afterward, he sent me a text saying, I do like to help. So just call if u need help. Take care.
It just warmed my little heart!
So even though I was like, Man, this is slowly turning into a kinda crappy day, I think maybe I needed a little crappiness in order to get that heartwarming experience. If you believe in fate, or in the collaboration of the universe, or in God of some variety–or in finding meaning in things–then that was it. It made me really happy tonight.
So, I thought I’d share. Don’t lose heart! Trite, perhaps, but: when your day is going bad, ask yourself, What can I take back from it? What moment of joy can I seize?
♥
Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.
Author Unknown
My doorwall is open (the first time this spring!), the sun is streaming in, and I am soon to leave for Red Lobster with an old friend. Piece by piece, my apartment is getting straightened up and starting to look like a home again (I do so love my apartment).
I started my day early (4:30am) because I worked this morning, and it was a surprisingly excellent start. Most of you probably know that I work at a grouphome for people living with traumatic brain injury. One of our older clients is generally very quiet and withdrawn. He doesn’t speak much, and when he does, it’s often too quiet to hear. He’s very slow (physically) and must be coaxed or prompted to do almost anything, including get out of bed.
Not today! When I went to wake him up this morning at 7:30am, he swung his feet right out of bed, took his glasses and put them on, and said, “Now I’m Clark Kent again.”
I was so surprised, I said, What? and he repeated himself, with a mischievous little smile quirking the corner of his mouth. I laughed so hard, and responded with something unremarkable (I can’t even remember what I said). At this point, he shrugged his shoulders and said with a faux-innocent smile, “You can’t be super all the time.”
I just about busted a gut and spent the rest of the day calling him “Superman” and “Mr Kent.”
These moments make me think I actually might miss part of my job when I leave. Sure, it’s a tough job, but some moments are absolutely priceless.
In other news, pollution is pretty:
I know, I know. Things like this are supposed to make me sick to my stomach (or something). It’s an oilspill! But….I always loved finding the parking lots full of captured rainbows when I was a kid. Now that people (and machines) are more enviroconscious, you don’t see a lot of these anymore. Which in general is a good thing, but fills me with a weird sort of appreciation for them when I do see ‘em. There can be something pleasant out of our bad human habits. (I’ve heard, in fact, that colorful sunrises and sunsets are also the result of pollution, though I don’t know whether or not this has been substantiated.) So, the moral is: don’t add to the pollution, but go out and appreciate something about it today!
Activities and Adventures , My Stuff , Nature , Other Films, Quotes, Artwork...
Rain & Living
In other news:
It’s spring! The world has been a rainy place lately, which has been delightful for me (since I am a raingirl!). The thing about rain is that it makes other things lovely too. No, no, I’m not talking about April showers and May flowers (it’s only March after all! Though I can’t wait to see crocuses next month). I’m just talking about the way rain gilds everything.
So for the next month or so, every time it rains, I’m going to try to take a picture of something beautiful and rain-soaked. This first shot was something I noticed while I was turning into my apartment complex–the setting sun made the roads look like they were paved with gold.
Also, I am watching The Buried Life on MTV’s website…and I kind of love it. Guys, this is the sort of thing we should all be doing! These four guys are essentially working on their bucket lists, and as they cross each item off, they are also helping someone else cross an item off of their lists. It’s all kinds of reckless and inspiring.
I am debating creating a bucket list of my own. I don’t even know how it’s possible that I don’t have one! I used to keep a list of New Year’s Resolutions that I would try to accomplish in the year (random things, like going on a road trip [done] or getting a tattoo [done] or sleeping in a haunted house [done]). I stopped doing that about halfway through 2010 though–but maybe I should start again, huh?
Sounds like a plan. In the near future, I will post a tentative list for your approval. In the meantime, all of you should consider doing the same! We can work on our lists together. ♥
AN EDIT:
I found my list and crossed off the things I’ve done (some of them have some AWESOME stories, and you should let me know if you want to hear any of them!). I am also taking suggestions for additions to the list, so if you have them, you should definitely comment. I need to develop a plan for tackling these bad boys and try to hit up one a week. Waddaya think?
Begun in 2008, the List so far:
run through the sprinklers at night in the park
give cookies to strangers
watch a sunrise
make sandcastles
go dune-runningchase seagulls
buy a fun hat and wear it
picnic on the beach
picnic, period
take a nap on the lawn in the sun
stargaze
try gelatto
camp out
catch fireflies (and release them)
try new teas
learn hula
do yoga regularly
go somewhere haunted
play with blocks
pick up shopping carts at WalMart
jump in the lake spontaneously with all my regular clothes on
go to Appalachia
travel overseas
SAVE A LIFE
make 50+ scarves for small children
play hide-and-seek
take a dune-buggy ride
paint with my feet on a big sheet of paper
get drunk
get a tarot or palm reading
skydive
finish writing a book
work in a soup kitchen
work with No-One Dies Alone
go on a date
learn to make souflee
learn to make Baked Alaska
take a dance class again
A few lovely things in the last few days:
Last night, driving home from class, the world was full of ghosts. That’s what I always feel like when there’s so much fog. The lights all had haloes in blue and red and gold and green, and the entire world looked different. Overpasses materialized out of the sky. At one point, I was passing a curve with a hill on the left, full of tall, winter-dried weeds. Another car must have been approaching from the opposite direction on the other side; the fog lit up, pale blue and wraith-like, and the reeds and weeds were silhouetted against it like lace. I opted on the side of caution (forgive me!) and decided not to take photos while driving, but it was lovely.
This youtuber took some audiovideo of their own backyard nearly a year ago, and this is kind of what the world outside my apartment sounded like this morning.
This morning, I accidentally slept in (oops) till 5:15 am. One word for the sound of daybreak right now: BIRDS. The world was full of song. Tell me, do we get so used to them that we become deaf in summer? Or do the birds really sing louder, stronger, more exuberantly in the spring?
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
e.e. cummings
Activities and Adventures , Nature , Places like Home , Quiet Pleasant Moments
Overpass Adventure
Two things:
I forgot today was Fat Tuesday!
I lived in Iowa for three years, and they don’t have paczkis in Iowa (I think they lack a Polish population….sad). So today I went paczki-hunting. I didn’t take any pictures, but it was the first one I’d had in four years….I had forgotten how buttery and sugary and delicious they were. YUM> I can feel my blood turning into sludge just thinking about it…but they were so good, I can’t regret it. Thank God for Pastries!
Also, I finally got to explore those overpasses I keep talking about. There’s actually a bike trail down by them, so though it took me a while to find the access point, I didn’t have to trek through any sludge or muck.
When I drive by it, this is what I see from my ramp:
(I actually took this photo out my car window, haha.) But you can see why I wanted to explore it, right? It looks old and lovely, I think, and I love these little “urban” gems (I wish I could take some shots in Detroit but I don’t have anyone to hunt with out there).
Anyway, I parked at a Wendy’s and walked around till I found the entrance to the Metro trail, and it wound around over a bridge to the overpasses. There were actually quite a few more than I could see from my entrance ramp, which made it even more exciting. I really enjoyed myself. I climbed up under one (bad idea–even though it was fun to climb up, getting down scared me, haha–I kind-of crab-walked down on my butt). The world sounded like an amusement part, like I was wandering around underneath roller coasters. It was incredible.
To share my adventure with you, here’s a couple more shots: enjoy!
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On days when I get to sleep in (I try to wake up at about 7:45am), this is the first thing I see when I wake up.
I love having big, beautiful windows, and I leave the blinds open when I sleep. They face the perfect direction, and there’s a big pine tree outside my window (or some other kind of evergreen). Seeing it covering in melting frost, streaming with fog and light, just makes my whole day shinier.
This is a short update, because I’m off on an adventure! Since I have my new camera back, I’m going to try to figure out how to get to that overpass I wanted to take pictures of. I could be tromping through fields and snow and mud to get there–it should be fun!!! Then it’s back for homework and relaxation, followed by going to school. Woohoo!
Here’s the rule:
How do you tell when Spring is coming? By the colors of a girl’s toes.
Now, granted, even the fact that you can suddenly see toes–that they’ve come out from hiding–is a big hint in its own right. But right around springtime, their colors start changing. Winter toes are usually deep, rich colors–dark red, plums, blues. Many times they’re not even polished at all (though I almost always keep a coat of colored lacquer on mine…just because I think my naked toes look like corpse-feet!).
But spring rolls around, and girls (and some guys!) start getting pedicures, cleaning up their calluses, and the nail polish begins turning the colors of candies: lots of bright pink, magenta, cotton candy, even some bright aqua, robin’s egg blues, grass-green and yellows like sunshine or lemons.
I’d love to get some more confetti-colors, but for now, here’s my contribution to spring toe-wear:
It might look like red and magenta, but it’s more of a peppermint-pink and cotton candy. I love them! And of course, it’s always fun to try some new paint.
In other words, I was grocery shopping today, and I found spring’s signature brightly-colored bouquets sitting in the middle of the produce section. Every spring, it seems like there’s a plethora of rainbow-colored daisies. Different colors at each store, each year, but they’re always a bright spot, a reminder of what’s coming. I like to call them “crazy daisies,” haha. I bought myself a bouquet of them today, and took some pictures to share them with you. I usually think daisies smell awful, but these ones must have been bred for fragrance, because my apartment smells sweet.
All right, now that you’ve seen my pretties, here’s a couple of close-ups from different angles and so on–just so you can get the full, lovely effect. Have a wonderful weekend, dears!
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