Of course, this won't be a diary "pouring-out-my-soul-for-the-masses-to-read" type of thing, but more like a semi-daily journal of moments and things going on that I want to celebrate. In other words, it'll be like a Gratitude Journal, but longer.
So here we go; I'll be starting with this past week up until this moment!
But first, I want to say that I'll probably be quoting and referencing the public material on the "Simple Abundance" website a lot, especially for each months. Because I really do like them...a lot. Be sure to check them out if you can! It does get quasi-New Age at times, but if one approaches it with the right balance, then they can be just fine. I still want the book, but I'll probably go through the first year marking out the more dangerously ambiguous stuff and writing in my own ideas.
I hardly want to think that summer is ending, but it keeps coming....I love autumn, but I hardly want to leave vacation at all. And plus, the weather has been getting both pleasant and exciting lately.
Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions
with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is a jeweled balm
for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can
become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.
--Ada Louise Huxtable
with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is a jeweled balm
for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can
become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.
--Ada Louise Huxtable
All I can say is...no kidding! I was not able to go on a real vacation this year, due to summer school, and it looks like this may be a rule, as it was the same last summer. But I don't really mind, because this past Monday, for the third year in a row, I went with all my family and the dog to DuPont State Forest, to the waterfalls and river they have there, which are both excellent for sight-seeing and for swimming. The river was running higher and faster than I had ever seen, and I, being a bit of a swimming nut, nearly got swept away a few times. But it was heaven, even if the water was much colder than it had been in the past couple years (but still, so refreshing!) As much as I love swimming, I'd much rather swim in such a place than any chlorine pool. We spent a good part of the day in the river. I ruined one of my favorite tanks by going in the water before I realized I hadn't taken it off....but it was worth it!
After that we went to Hendersonville, and that's just a lovely town. I went to my first pub, even though we ate outdoors, which sorta killed the atmosphere, but we did not have much choice with the dog, who was so hungry and tired she kept trying to snatch up things like pretzels and stale, old pizza crusts. And then after the pub, which was Irish which makes it 20% cooler, we went to an old-fashioned soda fountain. I had seen a cute, old-fashioned clock-maker's shop down the street earlier, and that got me thinking about "The Nutcracker Prince" which made me think of Christmas....which prompted me to get the fountain's peppermint ice cream. Boy, was it worth it...but sometimes it's a little funny when you realize you do everything for a reason, be it conscious or unconscious.
Not much else has happened this week until I met up with a couple of my friends who are leaving for college this weekend. I had been planning to attend the same college as one of them, but the plans fell through, and here I am now going to a local college. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to go and spend more time with her and really strike out on my own, but I know there's still a lot I can do at the local Uni. It's not my top choice; I really wanted to go to a Catholic college, but they were either too expensive or too far or both, and it looks like I'll be getting a masters in the future, so I know I need to save as much money as I can. I really don't want to have debt weighing over me as I start my career (or maybe a family?) after college/after grad school. I would call myself practical if I wasn't getting an English major and aiming to publish my own fiction. Still, I really believe it's my calling, and I'm in love with writing, so there's no other way! To be self-employed would be hard, but lovely in many different ways. I've gotten a taste of being in a job I don't like and I do not want to be that way all of my life.
Anyways, to visit my friends, I had to drive one down to the other's house, which is down south, an area where I had little experience, and I have even less experience using maps. It was quite a little adventure, driving along and realizing that I might be completely on the wrong road and going in the wrong direction! Thankfully all went to plan on the way the way there, and we had a great time. Though on the way back, I tried to take an alternate route, since it went past a church I was familiar with and used to go to with my mum and sister to first Friday mass. Buuuut it looks like my memory was worse than I thought, and we wound up going in a very different direction. Though it took us pretty much right to my friend's house, so it worked out and was actually much faster than if I had actually been able to find my way! Life is funny like that sometimes, just little things that work out when you think you're driving in some maze!
So, yesterday not much happened. I took care of college transcript stuff, and more importantly went shopping with my sister. I remember reading in xxxHolic the idea about there being a type of rapport in relation to luck between people and objects. An object can or can not suit someone, it can bring good or bad luck...and you can be drawn to an object. I felt it! While we were shopping I spotted this purse...it was like it was calling to me. And plus, it was new and only twelve dollars! Now it's hanging on my closet door, looking down at me in all it's blue-bronze-and-brown glory, waiting for me to use it and sneak around a couple large novels and mace, or maybe enough snacks to feed a soccer team into the movie theater. I've always wanted a large purse, and it's positively perfect. I betcha I could put a good-sized puppy in there...or my cat, which is saying a lot.
And so here we are today, Saturday, my last free Saturday for this year! And of course I'm spending it doing some much needed cleaning....which I have not finished yet! But I like working, especially just the feeling one gets at seeing everything tidy and clean. Somehow it makes you feel more tidy and clean on the inside. It's like, you are what you eat....so your interior is like the interior of your house! Or something along those lines.
Sure, I'll complain about college some, but I'm pretty happy with how this semester is looking. I've got a creative writing course (my first!), a class on detective novels, a silly, guaranteed A required class on "Human experience" (yay for online classes!), a Statistics class (it's the only Math I like!) and an Italian class. Hooray for the Italian class! I did not want to learn Spanish, or French, or German....and I'm 25% Italian, and I want to visit Italy someday, especially to go to Venice and to see my own hometown. So I really did luck out on that one, and considering it's got some similarities to Latin, I'll have some type of base for it. I'm pretty pleased!
One last thing....yesterday evening was lovely. We had a terribly strong and sudden thunder and rainshower storm, and the power went out. I read Dracula for a while, then took the dog on a walk. I love walking with her, especially when there are thunderheads out. There weren't as many great ones as there's been other days, but it was still nice....and I think we also saw the entire snail population of the street. They were all over the sidewalk! I had to walk real slow and stealthy sometimes to make sure I didn't step on any....and then after we got back, we watched A Bug's Life (which I've liked a lot since I was little) and every time I saw them using the snail shells, I couldn't help but think it was so gross...but still, thunderstorms are pretty awesome. And power outages. It really makes you think about how we really are tied to the daytime and the sun, and how much we owe the sun...of course, after reflecting on that, I stayed up way past sunset working on a picture and then slept in way past sunrise. Go figure...still, I would like to be on a pattern more similar to the sun! I'm not a nocturnal person at heart. School will probably set me right!
Well, that's all for today. Have a good weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment