ok FINE

i've been ordered by several people to post these. i'm SORRY! please forgive me for the damage these will do to your eyes. they were taken in 2002. the fish is named waldo.

ah whiteboard, how we love thee.

very attractive face there, justin.

hear ye hear ye if ye have ears then hear ye

i started a ... cringe at the phrase... scrapbook... this evening, as is appropriate for the eve of school. but i'm still not a scrapbooky scrapbooker, like the ones with stickers and weird "inspirational" or "cheeky" quotes to paste onto the page. but, i'm almost ashamed to say, it was fun. really fun. i'm gonna have to watch it.

i'm in shock

oh wow. i just actually heard this horrifying specimen on a tv ad:

"inner beauty is important, but not as important as outer beauty."

shield your eyes

this may be the last time you hear from me. ever. why? because after i post the following pictures i'm pretty sure someone is going to kill me.

and yes, caitlin and i both won the "biggest dork alive in 2003" award.

so... for a bit of comedy, here you go.

you know, i'm really quite shocked that i just posted this.

the very last first time

my last first day of homeschool is coming up in 5 days. though i've always looked forward to this part of "it", i'm suddenly just sad. and thorougly understanding of the phrases "bittersweet" and "mixed emotion" though they are cliched i realise. i also remembered this one day of school that for some reason stuck in my head - i must have been 7 or 8, and caitlin and i were sitting in the schoolroom together, wearing our favorite dresses which were absolutely horrid (the yellow/pink ones with the upside-down tulips sketches. thank you mamadah for trying so hard to get us to relinquish them.), having an eraser war instead of doing our handwriting.

and this time next year i'll (hopefully) go trotting off to the scary world of college, no longer young enough to hypothetically apply to hogwarts or be a part of one of those 80's highschool movies. the teacher won't take pictures of us, or give us butterfly day picnics, or let us paint our faces like celts and stand on our desks yelling war-cries. but on the bright side... it will be different, it will be exciting. i am excited about new things, i am sad about old things, and they are swirling together like the whipped cream and chocolate in my drink did when my little brother stuck his finger in it just now. ew.

this year of school will be most exciting. the most exciting parts are these:

gileskirk modernity

(oh the wonders of george grant!)

spanish II

teaching company physics course

being done with math FOREVER after this fall!

(maybe not forever, but if i can help it...)

greek!

art history class this spring

the amazing literature course mamadah has planned for me

taking piano for the first time

i'm doing more than this (yeep!) but these are the really exciting parts.

this year i'm going to faithfully take pictures and blog... it seems appropriate. and its probably the best thing to do to keep myself from (horrors!) scrapbooking, which i admit myself to have always kind of wanted to do. not cheesy scrapbooking. pretty scrapbooking. maybe i will. hmm.

95 degree weather, like tears in your throat

yesterday i was driving down abrams and it was so grey and blustery that i thought it was winter for a moment... it reminded me of driving to class in 20 degree weather with the windows rolled down and the wind making my scarf flutter and giving me little-girl shivers. so i rolled down the window, expecting the wonderful shock of chill ... and the hot august air was so heavy it caught in my lungs and suprised me, in a bad way.

i miss fall. i miss winter. summer is so wonderful and lovely, but think of scarves and hot drinks and days when fingerless gloves don't do a thing... of taking walks when its so cold the air makes your eyes water and your stomach to do that funny shaky thing.

come here, little autumn, i miss you!

meet your flight attendant, earnestine

well, i just got home. sunday night turned into monday afternoon, which turned into monday night... which turned into tuesday morning. wow.

so on my flight back from birmingham (free, thanks to my friend! yay dan!) the flight attendant was obviously loving her opportunity to have a microphone and a literally captive audience. she kept making spunky jokes. yech. also... and i'm very curious about this... she thanked us for all wearing clothing ...? oh and right after the part where the flight attendants do their funny security interpretive dance, it got really quiet and this guy behind me's phone went off and it was really loud and it sounded like a dying duck!

cecil and percy say they have felt something akin to locked-in syndrome with me gone so long. i told them they were being dramatic when they said this, but ok, fine. they want sympathy.

"it feels like we're really doing it, jim! it feels like we're finally having an adventure!"

so... i love last minute plans. lots. lots o love in my heart for those.

in exactly 2 hours my plane will be taking off! i go to see a bunch of my dearest friends in the world!! tonight i'll be at the blevins, then spend the weekend with the greens. yay!

and yes i do love flying almost as much as boats. airports are FUN! honestly i even think airport security is exciting, with the cool x-ray boxes and funny talkative security ladies. whoop!

those somalian pirates were visually disappointing. no eyepatches?

i want a boat. not just any boat... a smallish, beautiful, blue and white and brown wooden sailboat. with fancy ropes that i can pull, and a mop that i can swab the deck with, and one of those fancy helms. i'm just feeling the need to go a'boating today. i've only been on a few boats in my life, but all these experiences have been marvelous. one time in historical jamestown i got to walk around on a really big frigate replica, and it rocked around and creaked and was wonderful and i felt like it was finally adventure time, and that i might do anything... go off to some amazing place or do something incredible and historical that nobody else could have done. and then the tour guide came running over and made me stop weighing anchor. bah! where was his sense of adventure?