anachronistic

like the white twinkling Christmas tree on view last night in a tucked-in looking house on Harvard Rd. as you drove by with the windows down, hand playing in summer air.

like standing in the superfine mud on the bottom of the lake wearing skis in October.

like leaving just when you've really fallen in love.

quote-able

Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want.

--Esther Abraham Hicks

momma

just how am I leaving this wonderful woman? i'm at home for two weeks before moving, bo & mom are downstairs garage sale prepping as we speak, and i'm nothing less than perfectly comfortable and content.

le sigh. the calm before the storm of moving, I suppose.

$3 target shirt

Bought this yesterday for $3.24, then hacked at with scissors while m.a.m. got his new room in his new place set up. It's such a lovely little room I need to post a picture of it.

Adventures in (possibly trashy) crop-topping.

the new place

Here she is, in all her glory: my own personal balcony.

More to come, but isn't all the greenery sort of promising?

back in the game

In truth, I never left. I just started Tumbling instead. Something about the ease of that medium fed my sloth. Alas, as I am headed to Texas this fall to pretend to be capable of writing creatively, perhaps I should actually put forth a bit more effort into blogging.

Not that blogging and fiction are at all synonymous, except in the way that we all make ourselves out to be better and brighter (creating, shall we say, fiction) when we blog. Certain blogs make me cringe, others make me clap regularly. I too often fear I have nothing legitimate or that hasn't otherwise been said to add to the online cacophony.

And yet. I am here.

So the news is official, and my employer knows, and I've even found a roommate. I am going to Texas State in San Marcos this fall to get an MFA in fiction. I am moving away from home for the first time in my soon-to-be 24 years. The program is three years long. I'll be an instructional assistant (read: paper grader). I'll be living with a stranger for the first time. I am leaving Lawrence for an Austin suburb, selling my coats and--God, it's time to, yes, I have to--thinning the boot collection.

Perhaps I'll start writing about this transition. New place, new me, (re)newed blogging?

Muse: Wall-E

There he is. The love of my life.

He's a mix of E.T. (big eyes, low-centered belly), R2D2, and more than a couple dashes of genius from the Pixar boys.

He's a robot, yes -- but he's intimately human. Without wanting to give too much away about Wall-E, I can safely say it is one of my new favorite movies, and possibly the best I've seen so far this year.

Wall-E is communicative, spry, dedicated, patient, and inquisitive. In a movie where humans take a more back-seat role, Wall-E and Eve (Eeee-va), through the use of no more than a handful of decipherable words, play out their own poignant and personable love story.

Through some incredible sound work, Wall-E and Eve are alive. I used to have trouble believing however-much-percentage of communication was non-verbal or not about words. No more.

In fact, I liked Wall-E so much that I'm now hungry for more amazing movies. With awards season looming, I have a sudden urge to check out any and every movie that has started popping up on nominations lists.

I have a sudden and inescapable urge to be filled with great stories, and I think that's for two reasons. One: hearing one great story always makes me want to hear more. Two: I'm in the process, the baby step stages, of starting to tell more stories, and to tell your own stories well, of course, you've just got to call on the prowess of great storytellers before and around you.

So, with all that in mind, I implore any readers to please, please offer suggestions for great new favorite movies. I've got a five-day weekend staring me in the fact, and I'd love to make good use of it.