Charming Tunes

There's something about waking up and discovering a new song that can add such a lovely, warm and fuzzy tone to your morning. All my stresses melt away and I am swept up into the sounds. Check out Lisa Hannigan's "I Don't Know" for such an experience.

Happy Wednesday!

Monday Musings

Sometimes I feel like I never stop thinking. I get completely swept up into ideas and passionate thoughts. How I could get by without washing my hair, for example. How I can reduce my carbon footprint. How I could live without a microwave, a dryer, a massive refrigerator, and yes, a blowdryer. How I could stay as far from processed, non-local, industrialized food as possible. How I can't wait to get married in June and start a new, wonderful life. How I can't wait to have children. How I get paralyzed with the fear of not being able to.

Whew!

Lately I have been getting more and more intrigued with the idea of living a 'slow life'. The simplest life possible...because I refuse to believe everything is as complicated as the world makes it out to be. The peak of American happiness was in the 1950's, when each household only had the absolute necessities. Since then we have been bred to consume from birth...why else are so many ads directed at children alone? I want to live a life with Starshine knowing that we have reveled deep inside every moment of it, rather than using it for its surface value. I want our children to grow up with an appreciation of what is around them, rather than taking a fresh cup of milk or plate of food that was grown in their backyard for granted. It should be easy to start living this way considering we will be starting as newlyweds. But I want to do what I can now. I get frustrated that as a college student - ok, in general - that I can't afford to always buy the local 'organic' produce. Forget about me, it's hard enough for me to know that poverty is caused by our overproduction. If I and my wonderful future husband can do what we can towards stopping this, then full speed ahead.

Or rather...slow speed.

My return.

I'm back, after a long hiatus for someone who only wrote a few entries and stopped. I always feel the 'writing tug', but I also always ignore it way too often. I read blogs every day, to the point that I look forward to whatever bit of laughter, creativity, or wisdom will be brought to my life by these people I have never met. By writing in here, I don't really know what I want to accomplish...and maybe that has been the problem all along.

To get me started...

20 Things

1. I was born in San Diego, but left when I was four. I have always wanted to go back and take a coastal roadtrip. Something fiancee (Starshine) and I will definitely do, I'm sure!

2. I tend to get extremely interested in things, learn all I can about them, and then move on to the next.

3. I am horrible with math and still count using my fingers. Mental math terrifies me. I'm worried this will be a problem when I start teaching.

4. I trust very easily. Despite this getting taken advantage of at times, I still firmly believe in the innate goodness of man.

5. Starshine is the best thing that ever happened to me, in every fathomable way. He calls me Blackbird because when we first met, he just happened to be learning the Beatle's "Blackbird", my number one favourite song. Another is Oliver's "Good Morning, Starshine"...hence our sickeningly cute nicknames for each other.

6. When I lived in Tennessee, ages 4-7, I had a pink carpet. Upon our move to Virginia, I cried over leaving that carpet for weeks. So then I had pink walls with ballerina bears as my border, and a pink canopy for my bed. I think that explains why I didn't touch the color pink for at least 10 years. Now my favourite colour changes from day to day...but I could easily say my number one is ocean blue.

7. I like to spell things the British way. I think it looks prettier.

8. I didn't listen to popular music until I was 10 years old. Until then all I knew was Mozart, Beethoven, etc. My babysitter made me a copy of the first Backstreet Boys tape, and the rest is history. Hey, gotta start somewhere!

9. I am extremely close to my family. My mom is loud, my dad is quiet, and they are perfect for each other. My brother is the loudest,and I am the quietest. He knows how to get me mad in .5 seconds, but also to laugh. I love him dearly. We all say 'I love you' constantly.

10. I don't follow any particular religion, but I believe everything is connected and that we should all work together to conserve our planet and it's people.

11. I could curl up with a book for an entire day. The characters in my books were like friends to me when I was younger, and I used to daydream about being in their worlds constantly. Some of the places that actually exist, such as Anne of Green Gable's Prince Edward Island, I want to visit before I die.

12. Fiancee and I have been making mix CD's for each other since we met, and I know we won't ever stop. I love that we share such a passion for music, and I can't wait to see it come out in our wee ones someday.

13. I've had an obsession with Ireland since I was 7 years old, even though I have no Irish in me whatsoever. My mom bought us the Riverdance CD, and I was hooked. Now I know why - it led me to the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with, and I can't wait to begin the next chapter of my life with him in my favourite place.

14. I love the smell of fresh laundry, and used to put my clothes in the dryer with a dryer sheet every day before school. ...Until I knew how much energy a dryer takes up. Now I want to avoid using one completely.

15. When Starshine and I acquire our dream house, we want at least one room to be painted a Parisienne eggshell blue, a bookshelf crammed with books, a table for artistic things, music and instruments, and paintings covering the walls. A fire will always be roaring, especially in the evenings. The kitchen will fill the house with comforting smells. And there will always be laughter.

16. Starshine and I want to teach abroad for a year, and I'm pulling for New Zealand.

17. I am extremely socially awkward, and tend to ramble on and on about things until they no longer make sense, especially jokes.

18. I want to continue taking classes of some kind whenever I can...whether they be cooking, photography, art, literature...it doesn't matter. I love learning. But when it comes to trivia, I am awful, so don't ever ask me to be on your team.

19. Someday I will learn how to make my own french baguette.

20. At some point in my life I want to own my own yoga studio/book shop/coffee shop/organic store.



So there you have it.

I don't know what got me to write in here again...but I do know that I am bursting with thoughts all the time, and need some way to get them out. I do know that in practically 4 months I am getting married to the most amazing man, and that I am the luckiest woman alive to be doing so, no matter how cliche that sounds. I can't wait to see what chapters our storybook will be filled with...