i'm
twenty-
one
today.

happy
birthday
to me :)

"don't you just love...the fall? it makes me want to buy school supplies. i would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if i knew your name and address." -joe fox, you've got mailwhile autumn does not technically start for another month, fall semester begins tomorrow. i've bought my school supplies, set my alarm, said, "so long," to summer as i've known it, and done so without a bit of woe. see, joe fox and i have a mutual affinity for all things fall, and few things are more romantic to a girl like me than a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils. of course, i'm inevitably full of the night-before-the-first-day-of-school-jitters. but as i make my way into my junior year of college, these jitters have far less to do with wonderings like "will i find my class rooms?" and "who will i eat lunch with?" and much more do with the anxiety of upper division courses and the pending work load about to ensue. so, please be praying for a peaceful night sleep and for all the unknown ups and downs of the semester ahead...

one week later

i can't believe i've already been in my apartment for a whole week. it's been a whirlwind, full of all the nicks and knacks of setting up a house and whatnot, and things aren't slowing down any. so while i don't have much time to recall every little detail of everything i've been up to, i will say that all is well and share just a handful thoughts and happenings.

-i adore my room mate. though, i already knew that. we've been friends through high school and college, having been in the same small group off and on over the years. and while i already liked her a whole bunch, i didn't realize how perfect a room mate she would be. some fun facts: we have the same boyfriend. not literally (as if i would share nathan with anyone), but they might as well be personality twins. and we both love puzzles. here's the first one we've done of many to come (i know, i know...it's missing a piece).
-we've had our fair share of vistors already. our friend nikki came to play and can claim the title of first to slumber party at our place. a few hours after she left, claudia and jess (some of my old hall mates from last year) arrived. we all got burnt to a crisp at the beach and tori (another friend and hall mate) joined in on some fun and froyo, too. they're all moving into the dorms today, which means i get to sleep in my room again. and tonight, lauren's man is heading down to break in the couch and pass the last weekend of summer in the city of san diego.

-setting up cable and internet is much more complicated than setting up anything should be. three consults, two trips to best buy, and one great big headache later, my dad and i got it all figured out. phew.

-keeping an apartment tidy is hard work. thank goodness lauren's around to help with the porch-sweeping, dish-doing, bed-making, trash-taking-out, junk-picking-up, and whatnot. also, if anyone would like to donate a vacuum cleaner to us, it would be greatly appreciated. our carpet is starting to get gross. please & thanks.

-oh, and i'll post pictures soon!

it's my last day in this house. so sad.

i'll miss you, piano. wish i could take you with me.

i don't wish i could take bailey, but i'll miss her too. even more than the piano.

goodbye bedroom. goodbye bathroom. (even though you'll look pretty much the same in my new place).
bon voyage, orange county. i'll be seeing you...

wish list

two weeks from today i will turn twenty-one. and everybody knows that when a birthday is coming, a wish list is to be made. so i've started making such a list, of gifts i'd like to get in honor of my special day.

a macbook

[i know i already have one, but it's been acting funny lately. it won't download software or read discs. plus, they say it's normal to get a new computer every three years anyways, and i'm just a few months short of that. is it completely and utterly neccesary for me to get a replacement? probably not. but it's my birthday and i'm dreaming big.]

ipod speakers

[i don't have anything to play music from other than my computer, and let's face it--computer speakers stink. i think it would be nice to be able to listen to some decent-sounding music around my new apartment while cooking in my new kitchen or tidying up my new living room. also, how strange is the word "speakers"? say it a couple times outloud. think about it. it's strange.]

friends: the complete series

[i watched friends for the first time this past year in the dorms and fell head-over-heels in love. in six months i watched nearly every single episode of all ten seasons. ask my roommate, claudia, and she can vouch that i was obsessed. nix that, i am obsessed. and would love nothing more than to own my new favorite t.v. series on d.v.d.]

chanel chance: eau tendre[i'm not a big perfume person, especially designer fragrances. that is, i wasn't, until i smelled this particular perfume. it is lovliness in a bottle.]

a tea kettle[no, not a tea pot. a tea kettle. you know, the kind that's put on the stove and whitsles when it's ready. i love tea and i love cute things. so what could be better than a cute thing that makes tea? my friend jess gave me the idea to put this on my birthday list. thanks jess, you know me so well! *and like she said in the comments, she tap-taps this one.]

salt & pepper shakers

[unlike most things on the list, this is something i need. there are plenty of cute ones on etsy.com, but i happen to like these ones the most. oh, and these little acorn ones are pretty adorable too.]

slumdog millionaire[i love this movie; it's in my top-five, for sure. it's a shame, really, that i don't already own it. but i'm not one to buy movies unless their on the $5 rack at target.]

etc.
[i'll be posting more things as i think of them.]

home

home has become such an abiguity to me these days. at the moment my family is in the process of packing up our home in orange county. we're all in the midst of moving, but we're not all moving to the same place. my brother and his wife are moving to malibu, making their home near pepperdine law school where he'll be working on his degree. my parents are moving to oregon where a house has been donated to my dad's nonprofit; they're remodeling it and when it's all done they'll either sell it or settle down in it, depending on how things go. and as for me, i'm moving to point loma, making the city of san diego my official home.

home home home. i've always supposed that you're meant to have just one. but right now i feel like i have a hundred. other times i feel like i don't have one at all. i mean, home is being pulled in so many places at the moment that it almost feels nonexistent. it's a bit reminicient of my childhood (i moved fourteen times before ending up in this house). though back then, i never really settled down, never really had a "home town." my family and i were too busy moving from here to there and the next place for me to ever really feel a connection to the places we lived. but here? here i've gotten connected. this? this has been home for the past twelve years. and while i've had plenty of time to adjust to the idea, to slowly chip away at my attatchment to this place, i'm still going to miss orange county. how strange will it be not to come back here for the holidays? to come back here ever? i mean, i will come back to town for the occasional visit. but i will never walk through this front door, hop up these steps, come into this room, and lay down on this bed, looking out this bedroom window to see this view. i will never call this house my home again.
it's bitter sweet, really. because amongst all that schmaltzy nostalgia, i am so looking forward to settling down in san diego. it will certainly take some adjusting, and i'm not saying that it will be a walk in the park. what i am saying, though, is that i'm excited to be in a city that i love surrounded by friends that i adore. i'm excited for the adventure that it will be. and after all, my parents will only be a two-hour flight away instead of a two-hour drive. and instead of coming to orange county to see my high school sweetheart and my high school friends, they can come down to visit me (i've got a couch with all of your names on it).
so while the old english proverb says, "home is where the heart is," i say that is far too complicated. my heart is with my family and friends, and all of them are so scattered about these days, my poor heart wouldn't be able to handle it. instead, i'll stick with a much more simple definition: "home is where your rump rests" (pumba, you are so wise). i'm looking forward to my rump to residing in san diego. and exactly one week from today, that's precisely what it will be doing. the move-in date is set for august 14th, and in the mean time i'll be packing up everything and soaking up every last moment i get in this home before moving on to the next...

the summer i spent with harry potter

summer is a time for reading. i mean, as a literature major, every season is a time for reading. but during the fall, winter, and spring, i am consumed with assigned readings. i don't get to choose the books that i read, rather they are decided for me, marked out on a syllabus with the pages i am meant to read by the dates i am meant to read them by. but then june rolls around, marking the beginning of a very special time of year in which i have the privilege to read for fun. for three glorious months i am able to read what i want to read at the pace i want to read it and i enjoy every moment of it. so as school was coming to a close i made a list: love in the time of cholera, pride and prejudice, and the road made an appearance among other novels that i wanted to read. there was one series of books, though, that i placed at the bottom of the list. they were sort of a second thought, pushed aside in place of other novels. putting them on my reading list in the first place was half-heartedly done. see, i never actually had any real desire to read the harry potter books.

over the years people have planted the seeds, telling me to read them, insisting that i'll love them, etcetera. none of these seeds actually took root, though. not until i went to england. spending a month with a group of fellow literature students in the country that the novels are set led to constant banter about harry this and hogwarts that and all these comments were being made that i couldn't even try to understand because i had not read about any of it. everywhere we turned it seemed someone made a remark along the lines of, "oh! it's like in harry potter!" it quickly became quite obvious that i was missing out on something big. i mean, i always knew that i had been on the outside of the circle, but i never really cared. being in england, though...well, it made me care. and what better place to start my delve into the world of witchcraft and wizardry than the place where it all started. see, i made the deciscion to start reading them while in edinburgh, where jk rowling wrote on that napkin that would evolve into a seven book series. and i got my hands on a copy of the philosopher's stone (yep, the british version), finally opening it up under the oak trees in hyde park.
so it started in london two months ago, and now 4,100 pages later it has come to a close. how fitting that in the final hour of harry potter's own birthday i would finish the last page of the last book.
and so, somehow, all those novels that had pushed harry potter to the bottom have now been thwarted themselves by the seven book series. and while there are still a few more weeks of summer, my time of reading-for-fun is nearly done. am i glad that i spent my summer with harry and dumbledore and all the rest of them? yes, i suppose so. all in all, though, i hated the fifth book and thought that ron and hermione's kiss deserved much more than what jk rowling gave it. i am proud to say that i believed in snape and his goodliness all along, just knowing that his vindication would come and so glad when it finally did. i shed a tear or two when dumbledore died (even though i knew it was coming. what can i say? i've come adore that old man). the prisoner of azkaban, the half-blood prince, and the deathly hallows were my faves. and while i will say that i liked the series, i don't know if i loved it. what i do love, though, is that i am finally in on the inside jokes and able to contribute to the harry potter banter.
so thanks for the good times, harry. england, thanks for giving me the push that i needed. and thank you, summer, for giving me the time read.

...i miss hogwarts already.