movies are never as good as books


but guess who is most def going to be first in line for the midnight showing of this one?
so excited...come on 2012!!

I just love Adele

there is no replacement

for home.

I know it's where the heart is, but there is something permanent and unmovable about it, too.

There is something about having familiar walls to your bedroom, in a familiar town, with your parents down the hallway so you can run in there if something bad were to happen.

There is something beautiful about that, home being a physical place.

I am a twenty-one-year-old girl and I still sometimes sit in bed at night, here in Charlottesville, and feel that deep pang I remember from summer camps, of just wanting my own bed, of wanting to wake up to the coffee-pot half drained by my dad and good morning hugs from my mom. I still feel the deepness of that - the homesickness.

Tonight, my mother and I both had a hard time sleeping, and we found each other on g-chat after midnight. We talked like we were both up in the kitchen in our pajamas, in the deepness of a quiet house, chatting about life. But we were in separate houses, separate towns. And that hurt in my gut came to me, the one of just wishing I wasn't so grown-up, or wishing I was snuggled in my room where I could hear the wind-chimes on the patio and the courthouse bells every hour. And I felt like mourning for something, without really knowing what. Maybe mourning my own maturity, how it crept up on me without asking me if it was alright.

I'm excited for this summer. I'm excited to dig into Charlottesville, to root all around the hidden gems of this city, to create it into something I can call my own. And I'm excited to see the world one day, too. I'm excited to travel and understand the places and people who span distances I have only dreamed about. I'm excited to fall in love with the corners of this planet.

but I promise you, there isn't an inch of land that will ever be more precious to me than home.
and while I'll keep it in my heart, tonight I'm allowing myself the sadness of wanting to be there, in that physical house, with the walls that are familiar, and the people I love.


life lessons...compiled by Kendall Suzanne Hancock and Emily Morgan Thompson

...learned from the game of Snake.

1) it's all about survival. all. about. survival.
2) the more you eat, the more you grow.
3) when life gets fast-paced, you die.
4) walls suck.
5) numbers determine your success.
6) homework/physical activity/human interaction is overrated.
7) if at first you don't succeed, try try again. (and again... and again... and again...)
8) yelling at inanimate objects is acceptable and encouraged.
9) competition with others can lead to depression, which can lead to perseverance, which can lead to frustration, which can lead to success. TOTALLY WORTH IT.
10) just face it, you'll never be good enough.

"you're not going to get married, you're not going to have kids, because all you care about is staring at a computer screen."- feedback from Leigh Anne Piercy

because I go crazy during finals

The most hysterical thing to me right now is my Hebrew Bible study guide, which, as I am creating it, is becoming sloppier and sloppier. I am abbreviating words, and have started saying "Baby" to refer to the Babylonians. So, my notes currently say things like "After the Baby invasion, the Jewish people were exiled" or "Psalm 137 expresses the deep distress of the people because of baby's".

also, I ate bread this morning that I realized afterwards has been expired for at least 9 days. Hope I don't die.

also, I'm translating Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" for my ASL final this afternoon. So my study schedule right now means that my thoughts alternate between Royal Theology and what's the best way to sign "boys blowin' up my phone phone".

also, did I mention that my brain is melting?

because rain always makes me feel like writing a poem. always.

what happened when the storm came on the evening of May 3rd

once the rain told the hood of my car
several of her secrets.

she told them in steady succession
before she lost the courage to say:

some about places she'd seen,
destroyed carnivals, or grayed weddings

with no apology. she spoke
of anger, which she felt guilty for not controlling.

she also said some things about love,
which she never told anyone about,

so she said it extra hushed, tapping
out the secret against the windows

and saying she often took her time rolling down
an elbow,loved that space above the sock and ankle,

loved waltzing puddles of lullabies against a roof
in the warm of a summer night,

and said before she left that she loves what I hate
about myself: that I can listen but I can't talk.

Zoe is my #1 musical muse

for the past 6ish years of my life, my best friend Zoe has been the one who constantly introduces me to new fun music.
Tonight her blog re-introduced me to a band I already love but sort of forgot about recently.
This song rules...in case you forgot.

on what I've been thinking about all day...

"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

-Martin Luther King Jr

----- an addendum:
two articles I found to be interesting reads in light of current events:


2)Is God Glad Osama Bin Laden is Dead? by John Piper (thanks to Auna for posting this on facebook)

the simple joys of college life

topping the list has got to be the pleasure of receiving free food.

the best way to get a college kid to do pretty much anything is to promise that there will be pizza there, and that they won't have to pay for it.

this past weekend was basically a college-kid-food-wonderland. From the Apple Blossom festival I attended in Winchester, to a study review sesh for sign language to a picnic this evening, I'm pretty sure all I've done for the past two days is eat food other people provided for me.

and it.
was.
totally.
AWESOME.

honestly, I don't think I ever want to experience the real world. because there are so many wonderful things to love about college - such as, but not limited to:

-eating brownies for breakfast
-taking naps at odd hours of the day
-hanging out with people at 4 in the morning
-wearing the same clothes several times in a row
-getting your mom to do mountains of laundry for you when you go home
-making irrational choices about your sleep schedule
-eating brownies for breakfast

college. it rules.