A note and a reminder

Hi friends,

Quick note. To everyone who was so sweet as to comment here-- please believe that I was not ignoring your kind words!  For more than a month, blogger has foiled my every attempt to respond. But, finally... success!  I'll be responding to comments once again, and hopefully commenting on your pages as well.

And, so that this post is not all administrative... a reminder I needed during this first week of work:

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Hope you a weekend full of taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy! 
(Did you guys love Magic School Bus too?)

Proud

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I've been thinking this is a nice question to ask myself in the morning. 

We become like that on which our hearts are fixed

Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and do not waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do; and then without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal. Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do, and then, as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunities that are required for the fulfilment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the element it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into the particular individual… Thought is supreme. Preserve a right mental attitude — the attitude of courage, frankness, and good cheer. To think right is to create. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed.

-Elbert Hubbard

#2 Get hired for a full-time job!

Check! Offer came in this afternoon! Woop!

Well, it's a full-time paid internship for six months, and I'll still be sending out applications and hustling on the job hunt while there. So, pseudo-check?  But forty hours will be spent per week in an office and there will be a paycheck.  I'm going go ahead and cross off number two (and maybe come back for a double cross-off with an official job-job rather than internship down the line). 

Now, what really matters here is that I have to start on Monday.  Aka three weekdays and one weekend left of sans-office living (for the time-being at least!).  I hereby declare a moratorium on all things resume/cover letter/interview related and all attempts to diguise myself as an adult.  Time to savor five days of kid-style summer. 

  

By Thurston Hopkins (I love this shot. So much mischief.)

Yippee!

Setting sail for five days of:

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sleeping in

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lazing by the pool all afternoon with popsicles in hand (possibly from the ice cream truck?  The one in my neighborhood played Swan Lake last week! swanky.)

(from last summer!)

kayaking on the river, a la summer camp

(from The Princess and the Frog)

catching fireflies

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spending a day at the amusement park riding all the rollercoasters. twice!

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climbing trees!

sleeping outside

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eating lots of watermelon

re-reading Ella Enchanted and A Room with a View (it's tradition! since third and eighth grade, respectively)

Of course, I can still do most of these things the rest of the summer too.  But I like the idea of bundling them up for some last minute nostalgia and magic. Tally ho!

Whitman

Getting revved up to really dig into Leaves of Grass, per the 22 Things list, (although I have to say lately I'm much more into reading books as I come by them rather than working off of a book-list of self-made required reading. Thoughts?) and came across this gem. Oh Whitman, I think we're going to be friends.

Press close, bare-bosomed Night!
Press close, magnetic, nourishing Night!
Night of south winds! Night of large, few stars!
Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night!

Yes. I say yes.

#17 See the midnight showing of a movie on opening night

So how obvious was it that I intended #17 for the second installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

Very? Okay, cool.

One of my friends from high school hosted a "pre-game" at her Potter-poster bedecked house.  We watched the first part of Deathly Hallows and munched on chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties and Mrs. Weasley's onion soup.  Then my little sister and I donned our homemade t-shirts and met some neighborhood buds at the theater.

"Make Love Not Horcruxes" and "Dumbledore's Army"

We nibbled on leftover Olivander wands (chocolate-covered pretzel sticks) and treacle tarts in the theater and alternately laughed, cried, and applauded for our old friends at Hogwarts.  The munchkin and I both agreed that it was our favorite of the films for sure. Sibling bonding + some wholesome muggle fun = great success for a Thursday night.

Work hard and be kind

Ben Sollee

I've just found cellist Ben Sollee earlier this week and have totally fallen for his stripped-down blues-y sound.  Feels like the perfect soundtrack for lounging under a shady tree during the late afternoon sun. A few favorites for you to peruse:








Enjoy!

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how…We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
Agnes de Mille