Quarter Life

Things I have accomplished before I turn 25:

Graduate college

Buy and almost pay off a car

Climb Mt. Olympus

Master the art of reading while walking without getting seriously hurt

Start graduate school

Discover that the greatest comfort food of all is tri-colored pasta with fuzzy Parmesan cheese

Gain financial independence (mostly) from my parents

Killed a roach... by myself

Move away from home and know it will all be ok

Maintain the ability to fit eleven dimes in my belly button

Find something I'm passionate about

Run at least three miles consecutively

Find the love of my life

Cultivate a diverse cast of noises, voices, and characters with which to entertain myself and others

Lose and regain to ability to sleep and dream

Learn how to carve linoleum

Do something drastic with my hair

Visited two continents other than the one I inhabit

Learned to drink, appreciate, and abhor cheap beer

...amongst other things.

"The Complex of All of These" - Amazing Video

I discovered this amazing video a few days ago and am transfixed by it. I find myself watching it over and over. I love photo streams like this. The artist really shows how intricate and difficult it is to make something completely by hand. So much skill and patience is required for this kind of work and her process is mesmerizing. For those of you interested you should check it out. This is the kind of stuff I'm learning to do and its so wonderful to see the process.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128340180&sc=fb&cc=fp

Happy 4th of July Y'all!!

Believe it or not, but the weather has been quite pleasant this last weekend. Of course, there is a nice thin glaze of perspiration on the skin, yet somehow its been tolerable. Late evening has brought with it gentle breezes which have cooled off the sweltering heat from the hard ground and made evening walks a pleasant refuge from the day to day.

This was not my first 4th of July away from home. In 2004 I went to Australia to pick up my brother from school and he made sure to welcome me with an impromptu 4th of July BBQ for us Yanks. But this is the first 4th of July living away from my family, friends, and the traditional festivities I normally attend with great excitement. So to celebrate in our own little way, Boy and I made sorbet from all the seasonal fruits that have popped up recently.

It was super easy and lots of fun. All it took was lots of strawberries, several peaches, a few scoops of blueberries, some stevia leaves, a pinch of salt, and a healthy dose of Vodka all tossed into our food processor and TADA...


Pretty much the most amazing summer-time-in-the-sweltering-melting-heat-of-Alabama after lunch, after work, after dinner, after hard day of reading and napping treat possible.

Survey says: Yumm...

A lovely weekend, we've had here. Friends, food, a teensie bit of fireworks, and to top it all off, a good read. In honor of the book, and my profession's honouring of it, I have started To Kill a Mocking Bird again. I loved this book the first time I read it and it feels only fitting to read it again now that I live in Alabama. I decided that I am going to read southern books for the rest of the summer. What better way to learn about the culture you live in, than through the stories people write about it.