Happy Girls Are Prettiest

Dearest Readers,
These past few weeks have been a hot mess of exams and general shenaniganry...however,it is finally starting to slow down in the lull between midterms and finals. (once finals hit, I will be lucky to see my room for longer than the 6 hours a day I am sleeping.) My past few weeks can be summed up by this little poetic moment I had a week or so ago:
What a decadent fall night, she thought from her perch by the library window. She sighed woefully, pushing her hesitant pencil forward to complete the task at hand. She shifted her eyes back to the page, but her mind…her mind danced with the leaves.
(I know...I know...I could be the next robert frost...bahaha...)
But seriously, I feel like I have been trapped indoors as the leaves have gushed gorgeous autumn-y shades, so I have been toiling to find personal inspiration during this time. These are inspirations I have found on other blogs lately, and feel like they are worth sharing, so that one of these may brighten your day, as they have so oft brightened mine!



This comes from a new fave blog called: ache....it's super presh...despite the sort of depressing sounding name. This just made me giggle, because it pretty accurately depicts how I try to live.




This just conjures images of people laying amongst the leaves and pointing to everything beautiful...how can that not make you smile...right now the beautiful thing I can see is my pumpkin franklin who is miraculously still alive sitting on my desk! (remember, faithful readers, that I got franklin at the Paw Paw festival a few weeks ago) well he is alive and well...my fab pal. and all the credit for this pic goes to the Words I Love web page...that I currently love myself (see how I made a joke there...i love words i love...heh heh heh).


This is a print available from The Black Apple's Etsy. If you are not already an etsy afficionado, which you should be, the website sells all handmade art work. It is so fun to explore....or to distract you from the homework you probably should be doing. But as I have been spending all my spare time reading Harry Potter, this suits me pretty well.



How sick is this bike??!! I want it right now....and I want it blow bubbles out the back while I'm at it. This picture comes from a flickr collection by intrepidacious. I just think this is so creative, and hilarious when juxtaposed against the construction sight behind it.

Well those are all the images I have for now, but I decided I am going to continue collecting and sharing images on a tumblr (a type of blog this is more conducive to sharing pictures)...and my tumblr is called The Girl Who Played With Chalk (pretty clever...right?). It has all these images and more, because I want this blog to be focused on words for now. I hope these fun interwebs images have inspired you a bit, or lead you to more pictures that you like (that's how I found these). In my own real life, I have been inspired by seeing my little brother's first homecoming (gush!), the changing fall leaves, playing in pumpkin patches, and looking forward to my trip this weekend to....THE RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY AND/OR FEAR!! How sick is that going to be (though I will miss Athens halloween...but really, it's okay in the name of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.) Moral of the story is: get inspired and keep finding ways to inspire yourself as the seasons change and you are trapped more and more indoors.

Hope you all are doing well this fine and fabulous fall day!

Happily,
Adorkable

ps. new blog name possibility: the girl who played with chalk...thoughts?

Harry Potter: My Anti-Drug

Dearest Readers,
I am a Harry Potter-aholic. I admit it plainly. They are the series that I have and will reread dozens of times like a drug addict and with the same fervor I experienced upon first reading. I will get lost in the Quidditch matches, the trips to Hogsmeade, the duels with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and the anticipation of Ron and Hermoine (the ultimate couple!). In the past week, I reread the entire 870 pages of the fifth book. (This disturbs me and should disturb you, imagine if I devoted this time to other things…I would accomplish so much!)
For those of you who don’t love the HP (you are wrong, btw), this post still applies to you. Because this post’s not really about HP, it’s about the fact that we all have habits for our own sanity; Actions we have to do by ourselves in order to continue interacting with the outside world without being grumpy. Some paint. Others dance. I read (at this time, Harry Potter). Reading is this form of catharsis for me. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I find myself enchanted by books, and completely lose contact with reality. It’s glorious.
The reason Harry Potter is so specifically gripping is hard to pin-point. As many have pointed out, it’s not like they are the most well-written books of all time. (Though she vastly improves as the series continues.) It’s the characters. They are so full of life, as are the settings and plots. I want to fly and fight and attend a school where the paintings talk and the staircases move. I just have this strong desire to be there, to live as they do. Why am I grabbed by this fantastical and unrealistic passion? I wish I could tell you.
These books also represent my childhood. My parents read them to me before they were popular after my dad’s friend from work recommended them (I think I was in 3rd grade at the time). I quickly became frustrated with waiting until each evening to hear the story, and started reading them on my own. They gripped me like no other book ever has in my life (and I am a bookworm to the max…I mean seriously, I go by the pseudo-name Adorkable). I have been to every midnight book release and every midnight movie premiere. When I finished the last book, I cried (I’m not ashamed to admit this), because it was like an end to era of my own life. (When the movies are over, I will cry again for sure.) These characters carried me through the shaky middle school years and the steadily growing self-esteem of high school years and follow me as I try to find my way through college. They ground me (which is ironic considering I feel like they take me somewhere far away). They serve as a constant and a solstice. I know it must sound bizarre to those who do not know the pages of these Hogwarts-based novels, but everyone has that activity that they do in their spare time that makes them feel like they have taken a breath of fresh air and makes the load on their shoulders a little lighter. (I could make commercials: Harry Potter: My Anti-Drug…tee hee, I bet those would go over well.)
Overall, I want everyone to reconnect with their soothing measures. (Try to keep it from getting out of control….870 pages in a week is a bit much to be honest.) But I think that we stray from these activities when we are stressed or we are embarrassed (I can’t tell you the number of times I have felt weird when my roommate walks in and I look like a lazy bum just plopped on my bed reading a lil’ HP). But it’s what I do for me. It’s my fun and fabulous me time.
Oh and just to be clear, one day my Hogwarts letter will come, I just know it…Accio Letter!
Wizard-ily,
Adorkable
ps. picture cred goes to bea mondonedo on flickr...gorgeous photo