just because everything's changing.

Listening to: The Call by Regina Spektor. (title credit.) 
Quote love: "It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"
"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.
"Are -are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.
"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there." C.S. Lewis (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) 

After tons of hype, years of waiting, and frantic reading in the theater during the previews, I saw the Dawn Treader. I kinda loved it. They radically changed it from the book (which, I managed to finish before the movie began) but in a good way. I missed Peter being there, but it was good to see Edmund step out a little. Susan...well, she was never my favorite character. Lucy and Edmund were always my favorites, and I loved a movie where they were the main Pevensies. Eustace was fantastic. I can't wait till he comes back in the Silver Chair. What did you think about it?

Today was amazing because:
1) I used my favorite mug. A Christmas present, my photos on it, with the quote "Every leaf speaks bliss to me."
2) I wore my new Beatles shirt. It's long enough that I can wear it over my jeggings, which are the most comfortable legwear invented, not including sweatpants.
3) It's snowing outside, and I'm inside.
4) We took a roadtrip to Ohio just to visit Ikea, and had an epic game of hide and go seek throughout the store.

Question: what happened to all the comments? I miss hearing your thoughts!

new.

Listening to: Heaven Forbid by the Fray.
Quote love: "All my years to this moment. All my roads to this wall. All my words to this silence. All my pride to this fall." Catherine Fisher.

So it's the fifth day of the New Year. I have a few goals, or hopes (or whatever you've decided to call them this year) for the year floating around in my head, mostly small stuff. Some of them involve stuff like, read the Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the next four hours before I go see the movie today. Stuff like that. On the top of the list is documenting the books I read this year. I've failed to do that in the past, and my dad suggested I start.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a 365 blog, and to prepare for that, if I do decide to start one, I've been making sure to take at least a picture everyday. Yesterday's were a lot of fun because 1) My sister is gorgeous and incredibly photogenic, 2) I got two new lens filters for Christmas that I think are for portraits, so using them was fun, and 3) I don't generally take portrait shots, and I like it.

If I do start one, I think I'll call it something similar to a New Story. Reasons: 1) I've always used words to communicate stories, mine or others. Telling stories has been something I've done ever since I was little, but always with words. I've recently realized that photography is another way of telling a story. 2) This summer I wrote about individual stories, and how people have a story to tell, and 3) Someone recently told me that my photos tell stories. That's such a powerful compliment.

Yay or nay on a 365? I'm leaning towards a yes. I just created a photography course yesterday for this semester. The course requires a website of some sort, to display photos, advertise, ect., so I may combine the two. What do you think?

the highlight reel.

Listening to: at the moment, nothing.

Quote love:  “Whether a girl is 8 or 80, I think her heart flutters when somebody calls her beautiful. Because sunsets are beautiful. Yellow flowers are beautiful. Art is beautiful. Music is beautiful. You grow up hearing the world beautiful associated with those things. And when someone says that you are also that way - that you are beautiful - there's a particular kind of confidence that swirls up in your heart.” Natalie Lloyd.

 

 

January: our family trip to Washington DC, a city I'd never been to before.
February: ...not such an outstanding month.
March: A few friends and I went to an Acquire the Fire conference...tons of fun.
April: Birthday!
May: Left on the 23rd to the Middle East, got an unplanned day in Paris.
June: Short vacation in the south to the Red Sea, and got to snorkel there.
July: Spent a week in the UAE, went to an archeological dig, and made some friends.
August: Came home after almost three months overseas.
September: Bought my camera Darcy, a Pentax K100d.
October: Thoroughly enjoyed our short fall, and read the Hunger Games series.
November: My family pressed cider, and it is delicious.
December: Took a trip to Colorado for Christmas with my mom's family.
Today: Had two best friends over, took pictures for a long-unused frame (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, smell no evil. We needed a fourth), cuddled with some lazy cats, and (not so much a highlight) braved the cold.

What stood out about this year for you?

just another so-and-so.

Listening to: Yellow by Coldplay.
Quote love: "There are as many reasons to travel as there are travelers. For a writer interested in place, the subject can be any dot on a map. One goes to a war zone, one takes a wildflower walk, one experiences a gun at the temple, one trails a foot off a sailboat in aquamarine waters. Only the writing will reveal who traveled the furthest."

I've been spending my far-too-few days of break eating lots of chocolate, dark, thank you very much, spending hours with my aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and their little children, drinking coffee that I don't make (not the case at home), and sleeping. Lots and lots of sleep. Yesterday I got the flu from my mother's cousin's son, and spent upward of five hours sleeping, not to mention the twelve hours of sleep I got last night. It was a yucky day, especially since it was our second to last day here, and who wants to spend it on a couch?

My family spent Christmas Eve through Boxing Day up in the mountains. We stayed in a huge gorgeous house that my incredibly talented mom designed. It's absolutely beautiful, and warm. I'm not looking forward to going back to Indiana, where they have a very white Christmas.

During my vacation, I was informed that my family, on my mom's side, are all related to George Harrison, of Beatles fame! How cool is that? And how on earth have I spent my entire life not knowing this? So now I've been listening to the Beatles station on Pandora, and it makes me happy when a George Harrison song comes on, cause you know, I'm related to him.

How was your Christmas? And New Years- are you setting any goals? Thinking of anything that needs to change? Merry Christmas!

jumpy clap time.

Listening to: Chicago by Sufjan Stevens. so a couple weeks ago I wrote that I was listening to a Sufjan Stevens holiday song. then I felt like a hypocrite because I have never listened to his music. And now? A newly created Pandora station. 
Quote love: "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." Oscar Wilde

So I got home today from the dentist and started doing jumpy claps in the middle of the living room. Why? Because today, I received my copy of Matched. And it is so, so much more gorgeous in person. I have had to pull myself away from it several times today.

Tomorrow morning we head out to Colorado, a two day drive, which means that I cannot read any of my books, both the library ones that I got today and the other ones I got in the mail.

Yesterday I received my free copy of Double Shot from NavPress. Today, we went to the library. I got  Speak, and I'm so excited to read it. I've read so much about it, and I'm glad to finally be reading it. I also go Incarceron and That Summer. Incarceron looks fantastic, and Sarah Dessen is so talented.

What reading do you have for your break? I'd love to know!