J Squared

Love this song!

-t

Summer Flora

For our graduation party, my mom wanted to warm up this windowsill, which was the backdrop of a dining table full of food. We went to T.J.Maxx, which is probably our favorite summer past-time anyways, and found the tall vase in the center. 

The rocks came from a local craft store. We tried to arrange the flowers at varying heights to some success. The flowers are beautiful and since the party, we’ve trimmed them down and kept them in the smaller vases. 

So beautiful and so simple :)

-t

Times Are Changing

The heinous theft of my bike early yesterday morning was an all-too poignant sign that things will never be the same as they were only two weeks ago. One of the best gifts I received during the last four years was Big, my trusty bike. My parents gave it to me for my 19th birthday. I asked for a bike because I was living in the dorm all the way across the lakes with just the Rec Center and the arb surrounding it. How was I supposed to get to the nucleus of campus on foot? So I got a bike from the bike shop a couple miles away from my home and brought it to school with me for my sophomore year. There it stayed for most of the next three years, which encompassed both the happiest and saddest moments of my life. Funny how those seem to go together for me. They did in high school too.

By the end of high school I was able to point to the happiest and saddest times of my life and they were both within two months of each other, in the summer of 2005. Now, four years later, I can point to the moments that usurped those mantles for me and they were totally encompassed within my sophomore and part of junior years. I’m sure in the years to come similar trends will happen. But at least for college, Big was there throughout those times.

Not that my other friends weren’t. And by “other” I mean “real.” As someone who’s never had a pet though, I’ve never had someone or something that is loyal and trusty and always there for you, as a dog might be. (This might sound a bit crazy, but I’m in mourning for Big still, so bear with me.) When I left my apartment building yesterday morning to head for the Metro and the last day of my first week of work, seeing my cut lock hugging the tree without Big in its embrace immediately felt to me how I imagine it must feel when a dog runs away and leaves its leash tied around a fence. There was definitely more I could have done to prevent someone from cutting my lock and taking Big from me, but I was still stuck into thinking that, like in college, no one’s going to take my bike, even if the lock isn’t the best or I leave it in the same spot for four days. But that’s just it; we’re not in college anymore.

Maybe it’s just starting to hit me now. So many things are changing. The items that I had in college will slowly begin to break or fray or get lost, only to be replaced by new ones. College, and the life that I’m so accustomed to, are melting away. I love having my own apartment—a much bigger bed, cable tv in my room, a whole kitchen to myself—but at the same time I realize how different this life will be and already is from the life I tried to prolong as much as possible.

It sucks. Obviously I imagined that I’d be able to keep my bike much longer than less than two weeks after graduation. The difference between this and missing all my friends is that I mentally prepared myself to miss my friends for over a year (I need that much time to process big life changes), whereas the loss of Big came so suddenly. I really hate change. Can you tell? (Still love Obama though….)

I guess I just have to accept this change and go with it. Easier said than done. But maybe in two years I’ll feel the same way about the stage of life I’m beginning, that I’d love to go back and do it again. So now I have that opportunity to make the most out of this next stage, however long and winding this road will be.

And wherever Big is now, I hope and pray that perhaps he will be picked up by a poor family that has been having trouble getting to the grocery store or pharmacy, and that Big gives them the opportunity to lead a better, more fulfilling life. He certainly did that for me.

-b

Gratitude.

As much fun as writing thank you notes on the assortment of cards my family has collected over the years is, it would be so much more exciting with my own personalized stationery from Walnut Paperie. This is my favorite:

[photo credit]

Regardless, this is just to say that there are many generous people in this world and I am very blessed :)

-t

Books

Inspired by the nice weather, the fact that I have very little to do, by my mother, or by some unknown force, I decided that today was the day to re-organize all of the bookshelves in our house. Of course, this only included the bookshelves upstairs. We have a long row of bookshelves in one of our basement storage rooms that I chose to disregard. While incredibly tedious, there is something so appeasing about books neatly arranged and separated by various photographs and figurines. 

These statues added the perfect symmetry to this shelf and acted as perfect bookends. I threw in the laughing Buddha in the middle for kicks.

I tried to group similar books together— my favorites are the small pile of books on music, and of course, all of the noble-looking Brittanicas.

This figurine was a perfect bookend AND I think it looks like it was always meant to sit next to those books on that particular shelf.

You can’t see the higher shelves of these built-in shelves, but board games are neatly stacked on one- easily accessible and a nice splash of color. CDs are also kept on the shelves and interspersed with stunning photographs of my grandma and great-grandma.

This was a strangely satisfying way to spend a few hours today. I also learned that we’ve acquired a number of new books during my four years at college, making a trip to the library unnecessary for quite some time. Now that everything is organized, I can’t wait to start reading books from the bookshelves :)

-t

Graduation

Just for the record, it happened today! We have degrees, photographs, a diploma to prove it, and beautiful memories from fun with friends and family. 

-jsquared

What Roster Changes Should the Bulls Make?

Food for Thought

Important things to think about while reading this article on the bikini as a badge of fitness: the media’s disproportionately large influence, who IS judging and why is it their business?, and swimsuit season will eventually creep its way here, so I’d better get a suit :)

Happy Friday,

-t