Mother's Day 2012

this (plus a massage gift certificate) was our present to our mom for Mother's Day.... beware, slight profanity at the end. :)

Mother's Day 2012 final cut

being a senior...

the lovely angelique crandall did my senior pics. baci photography. loud and proud. oxo

senioritis...

in the last couple months of my time at high school, I have realized that what I have defined as "senioritis" my entire life was really just pure laziness. If I didn't want to do a big project I would say something about how it's not fair that all my best friends were seniors and that since I was friends with all upper class-men, I get senioritis too. LIES. I didn't realize I had senioritis until today while I was locked in a room taking my 4 hour AP U.S History exam. I felt pretty good about the multiple choice. I knocked the first essay out of the park. I continued on to my second essay when my mind literally went AWOL. I have never, ever had that happen to me before. It wasn't like I didn't know what to say, it was that my mind didn't want to think. I blinked my eyes trying to re- focus telling myself that I just needed to write two more essays. I finally resorted to bribing my psyche with the simmering goodness of a j-dawg. that got my attention and I finished my exam. first thing I learned is that I obviously love food way too much and secondly, that was possibly the most terrifying thing I have experienced.  to literally loose your mind and loose control of your focus. I think I would take pure laziness any day than the awful reality that is senioritis.

a transcendentalist in paris...

"In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society."

-Henry David Thoreau

As I walked through the streets of Paris last January, my long, red coat and big scarf absorbing the brisk air, I realized that I could finally think. I was in a familiar place, walking by my favorite restaurants but I was far away from everything I knew. I could never figure out why I loved it there so much until I came home and on the route from the airport to my house I could point out the old billboards on the freeway. Don't get me wrong, I'm a home-body (def. someone who loves their own bed). But at home I always have things I need to do or things I can worry about. When you have all the time in the world and you are across a 41 million sq miles ocean, you throw out all the trivial thoughts and you are able contemplate.

I walked down Avenue de la Motte-Pique, stumbled into a boulangerie, casually asked for a mille feuille and found a cafe next door. I sat down at a table on the street and ordered a hot chocolate. I watched a Parisian man with flood pants and purple socks walk home from work. I watched a couple out on a walk stop on the street to look at each other in the eyes and smile. I realized that I was watching everyone live. Before I was always consumed by what I was doing and where I needed to be. We would all be better off if we stopped for a second and looked at the world moving and people living. Maybe we would all be more aware of others struggling around us instead of waxing our speedboats or detailing our Ferraris.