ready, set, go

I am in a new place — it’s uncomfortable as new can be. It’s exciting. It’s…new, to me.

Just looking for patience and kindness and determination and rest. I’m exhausted.

The only thing today — and moving — has made me long to do is give away everything I own and travel anywhere. Sometime.

Here are a few snaps from this weekend…

Be well, friends!
j

worth mentioning: my parents

I completely failed to address a momentous occasion that occurred this past week. My parents celebrated 30 years of marriage on 14 August. That’s 30 years of hanging out with each other all the time, raising kids, dogs, (and at one point, a duck), kids that acted like dogs, and picking up after kids and dogs.

All joking aside, I am extremely privileged to have such wonderful parents. I recall days when Dad had more hair and Mom had three toddlers in tow at any given time, two of them crying (on behalf of all the times it was me crying, I’m sorry Mom). Oh, the things they’ve been through…

• Orchestrating a family of seven for church every Sunday, and getting there on time (or seven minutes late)

• Single-handedly raising five children through:
      * Diapers
      * Surly childhood days
      * Sugar highs
      * Cooking lessons (24/7 supervision of the stove)
      * Surly Pre-teen years
      * Surly Post-teen years
      * Etc.

• About 23948719234 birthday parties

• Talking their girls out of wearing boys’ clothes, talking their boys out of wearing girls’ clothes

• Driving lessons

• Plenty of car accidents (I will take the blunt of the blame on this one)

• Buying a lake cabin, knocking said lake cabin down, building a new lake cabin

• Moving kids around (or in some cases, kids moving back in 🙂 )

• Florida, New York, and Oregon family vacations (In Dad’s words, “We were there!”)

• One child’s wedding

• Two minivans 

• Three dogs, 90 billion turtles

• Four other childrens’ breakups (not mentioning any names here)

• Proms x 1001349

• Five high school graduations

• Zero children joining the circus

• Coordinating 2349587 dentist, doctor, chiropractor, and orthodontist appointments as well as emergency room visits

• There isn’t even a number that exists to explain how many times the toilet overflowed

• Etc.

I haven’t been around all 30 years to witness the extent of their marriage, but from what I have seen I am completely enamored. I could only hope to be as lucky to someday experience their kind of love and happiness.

Without them…there would be no me!

+

=
xo
j

TODAY COULD POSSIBLY BE THE LAST TRUE FREE DAY OF MY LIFE. I mean it…kind of…okay, it’s an exaggeration. But right now all I can consider is life is about shift gears from Fun in the Summer.

See, today is the second to last day of summer before I begin my BFA year on Monday. That means:

01) Tomorrow I’ll be sweating like a mad woman trying to gather my things for the first day of class, so it can look like I was very productive (design-wise) over the summer (which in some ways, I truly was)

II) Monday – Thursday I will have class, and am expected to work 8-hour days on my project until November

C) Fridays I am expected to work 8 hour days on my project

4) Saturdays and Sundays will be catchup days (except for every other Saturday and Sunday, when I’ll be working a 24 hr shift at my job)

V) Come November when my project is said and done, I will hopefully have/be knees deep in finding an internship ANYWHERE for the spring semester (I would really love to go anywhere but this area…to be somewhere new and fun!) Which means getting my portfolio to the gym for a workout to GET IN SHAPE.

F) Come said internship time (January-ish) I will be, well, interning! Until approximately whenever. Forever?

Seven) In May, I get a shiny diploma/walk across a stage in my younger sister’s college graduation garb (yes, I said younger sister).

VIII) Then it’s Look-for-Big-Person-Job Time!

So you can see exactly why I’m sitting at Starbucks right now drinking tea and waving off flies that are attacking me, because they probably know that I’m hanging by an emotional thread and want to crawl in bed and wake up next June!

• • • • •

Enjoy today — I know I am especially. I’ve been making trips back and forth to the thrift store, dropping off donations from apartment cleaning/moving prep.

xo
j

friday, friday

Nothing too exciting from today — quite a bit of schoolwork and a visit to the library where I snagged the first season of Flight of the Concords to put a smile on my face. Tomorrow I have a 30-hour shift beginning at 9am. See you Sunday!

Also, I know I’ve posted this song before, but I’ve had it on my mind the past few days…

“Goodbye’s too good a word, babe
So I’ll just say, fare thee well —”
xo
j

"olive" this

My sister and brother-in-law sent me olive oil from the olive tree they adopted through Nudo in Ardelio grove, Italy. What a neat concept. Thanks, Kacy + Matt!


Check out Nudo and adopt your own tree! (I’d love to if I could afford it!) It pays for itself!