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Here is a list of the ways my cat is like me:
It figures that I would get the only clumsy cat that has ever existed.
And yes. I am blogging about my cat. I know. I promise it won't happen again. (Much.)
Project 1: Friday I drove Hiram to the far away mall for a Top Secret Mission. In exchange, he had to wait while I speed-browsed through Paper Source again, this time coming home with the bookcloth I needed for my box project.
Project 2: I love pretty stationery. Love love love it. But tragically, I don't send very many letters so all the lovely stationery I collect just sits in a box on my desk. Tadaaa! The birthday book is born. A place to collect everyone's birthday and anniversary and otherwise important dates so I have an excuse to send letters every month, thus using up my stationery and justifying the purchase of more. If you want pretty cards in the mail, give me your birthday!
The first day of school was a little rough on everyone. The weather was super crazy hot, the bus rides were too long and too many, books were too expensive, my roommates had a financial aid mega-crisis, and Chris was having major car trouble. In general the mood at apartment 650 was one of slightly depressed exhaustion.
Chris wanted to cheer everyone up, so he took all of us out to see Tropic Thunder. (I'd say he's a keeper.) A really good way to finish off a bad day is by laughing till your sides hurt.
I took a self-portrait in the parking lot; not the best, but it's been a while since I did that.
Take Two Tuesday was much better for everybody, although I somehow forgot to eat breakfast and was forced to spend a stupid amount of money on sustenance for the day once I got to school.
We're experimenting tonight with yet another method to cool off the house. I learned this one from my current book, Love in the Time of Cholera, which is set on a pre-A/C-era Caribbean island. If anyone knows how to stay cool in stupid stupid heat, those characters do.
I am excited about this new school year. I've got new, exciting classes and a sense of closing in on the finish line. Plus my birthday's in five days. GOOD STUFF.
Last year I lived in a cave. The main window looked out on a brick wall, and we got very little natural light in the whole place. I had a lot of ivies and other low-light plants all over and everything was green and happy, despite the lack of sunlight.
Now I live in a greenhouse. I have to remember to water my plants more than once a week. I'm not very good at that. We have a little corner table with all the dying plants on it and a big sign that says "Plant Graveyard: RIP." It's very sad.
I bought a few small succulents at the beginning of the summer, and they looked awesome. But now they are dead.
I went to the garden store a little over a week ago and decided to try again. I bought this awesome chili pepper plant (not edible!), and it's already wilting! I haven't even had time to sabotage it! The soil is still moist, it should be getting enough light, but it's dying. I don't even know what to do. I have a few cute little flower plants that are still doing all right, but my collection of empty pots is growing. My confidence in my ability to keep a plant alive is shrinking.
"Life is like a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep on moving."
- Albert Einstein, in a letter to his son (via swissmiss)
One of my goals at the beginning of this year was to find balance, both physical and mental. Especially mental. It is August, and I am feeling decidedly wobbly. Everything is all out of whack. My Wii Fit score will attest to the fact that I can barely stand on one leg - although I take solace in the knowledge that I am fantastic at Hula Hooping.
I tend to think that if I could just stop I could get my nuts together, stop feeling so frazzled, and also magically acquire the ability to do a headstand. But on my rare opportunities to stop, like last week, I am unproductive and a bit squanderous. I don't really think that's a word.
So I am going to try something new. And Albert Einstein seems like a pretty reliable guy to take advice from. He had his life together at least a little bit. Instead of always wishing I could stop and figure it out, I am going to find a routine that works, that keeps me doing a little of everything I need to stay balanced, and just keep moving.
Routine I am good at. But I am learning from Wii Fit, Nastia Liukin, and Shawn Johnson that physical balance requires an enormous sense of focus and an ability to block out distractions. I am going to take a wild guess here and assume that applies to mental balance too. Focus is not so much my strong point.
But this is the start of a different new year. School starts next week, and my birthday is in twelve days. It seems like the perfect chance to (re)learn focus.
So armed with the words of Albert Einstein, a new routine, a goal of focus, I am ready to give balance another try.
Paper Source opened in Dallas. Molly and I made the trek. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. I was so overwhelmed by the awesomeness of all the paper and stamps and cards and glitter. Mostly the glitter. I kept returning to the glitter wall. There were so many colors I couldn't choose. My mind shut down under the sheer magnitude of the choices before me. I had to get none or all. So I grabbed one almost at random, and ran away.
We each bought a drop-spine box kit, and I bought a flower kit. Unfortunately in my paper-induced stupor, I misread the "required materials" on the box kit, and we ended up at home with no bookcloth. CURSES! So we spent several hours making paper flowers instead.
I am more excited about paper right now than I have ever been in my whole life. Paper is awesome.
