Well, shit.

First person who can guess what accidentally occurred here due to my stupidity gets a high five.

Just a quick little post to say that it looks like, god willing, I will be graduating in December. There are no words to describe how happy this makes me - I've got a ridiculous grin spreading over my face just typing this. Obviously, I'm very exciting to be closing this chapter in my life and starting a new one, but I'm also a little terrified.

For the past year, I've been dying to get out of college. It was not a good choice for me, but so far I've stuck it out. I might not be a straight A student, but I get by. So naturally, since I've so desperately wanted to be done with this, I've contemplated all the things I would want to do after I graduate.

Well, now that this milestone is in the foreseeable future, it is a lot scarier to think about. I am drawing a lot of blanks concerning my future and realizing that getting things to be the way I want them to could be a lot more difficult than formerly anticipated.

The biggest issue in my mind is: Where am I going to live? I don't want to spend any more time in Charleston than I absolutely have to, and I also don't want to return home to rural Pennsylvania. So where do I go? I have no idea. New York was always in my mind as where I wanted to be, but with real life and bills and all, I just don't think I can do it right now. so hopefully the next several months will hold many weeks of traveling for me. I'd love to be able to take a month or two or four and just see the entire country. And Canada. But...it's just not going to happen.

Anyway, I will spare you all the excited ramblings. Just know that I am looking forward to being very happy. :)

Since I last checked in, not a whole lot has occurred. The weather has been as crazy as ever. On the 12th, we had a couple of inches of snow here in Charleston. And today it's in the mid-60s. Although the snow was fun, I'm ready for summer!

Valentine's Day was fairly uneventful. I didn't really do a whole lot, just worked on some stuff around the house. My dad sent me roses to "brighten my day" - thank you, Dad, for reminding me that I am hopelessly single! :) He meant well and I appreciate them. They're very pretty and I've been snapping pictures of them as they bloom.

It seems February is going to come to a close, and quite frankly, I'm glad. It was kind of a month that I feel like never really arrived anyway, so why not. Bring on March! Next month is full of exciting things for me, but I don't want to spoil all the fun now.

As far as the ordinary day-to-day stuff goes, I'm trying to find the perfect fabric to make curtains for my living room/dining room. I have one set of two windows attached (if that makes sense) and then one window alone in the dining room, with my front door in between to keep them from fighting. I would love to have different curtains for living room and dining room instead of all the same. But...as it were, I live in the apartment with the dumbest floor plan known to man. An 11' x 18' living room, which also serves as a hallways and entryway. Really. It's idiotic. And my dining room will never be separate enough from my living room to have its own color scheme. See?

Dining room is where it says "750 sq. ft."

Speaking of the dining room, since I don't dine there, I figured I should make it useful for something. So for right now, it's the makeshift arts/crafts/sewing/correspondence/printing and copy center area. I spent much of last evening trying to reorganize it so that I can implement some sort of system for storing all of this stuff. Still not done...

In other news, this weekend I made the best $10 investment of my entire life. That is, a man's razor. I don't know why, but it appears to be true that men's razors work better than women's. My legs are smooth and happy. :) Not that anybody cares, but it's a slow news day and honestly, I was really excited.

I'm off to a meeting shortly and then home to do more homework. I hope something exciting happens this week, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

It's getting close to Valentine's Day. I always think of these at this time of year:

Image borrowed from here.

Just a random thought...

There comes a time when a person must admit that they have a problem. Some people have this problem with things like alcohol or drugs, some people have this problem with actions like shopping or stealing. I have this problem with having pets.

I have always loved animals, ever since I was a child. When I was very young, I thought this would lead me someday to be a veterinarian, but as I grew up I realized that seeing animals suffer is something I will never be able to deal with. I moved on from that phase and spent some time volunteering in animal shelters. This exacerbated the problem, because at the end of the day, I'd always want to bring all of the little homeless animals home to live with me.

I think my attitude towards animals stems a little bit from growing up on a small farm where my father raised sheep and my brother raised chickens. My grandfather also kept ring-necked pheasants for awhile. I just love having animals around and helping them to live happy lives.

When I first moved to Charleston, I adopted 3 rabbits. One, we had to send to a breeder because he was too angsty. He was looking for a nice female bunny to court. But the other two lived with my boyfriend and I, and my yorkie, until the relationship ended and I had to go. One bunny (Julian - a gray dwarf rabbit) stayed with me, and the other (Rory - a gigantic 15 pound rabbit we got when she was a pregnant, mistreated young thing) stayed with the ex. I don't know what the ex did with Rory, and I miss her dearly, but I'd hope she's in a good home. Julian stayed with me until my studies lead me to New York City, at which time he found a new home in Pennsylvania with my mother. I hope one day to have him living with me again, but traveling is very stressful on rabbits and I don't want to move him here only to move him again when I graduate college.

So currently I live here with my dog and my cat. We have a fairly balanced household, and a fairly noisy one. Recently I've been really thinking about animals a lot. I feel like I need to have another critter in my house. It's a weird thing. I don't see myself ever being one of those crazy people who lives with 47 cats in complete squalor. Let's face it, I'm far too much of a neat freak for that. But also, I refuse to have animals in my life if they won't be well taken care of or if I can't guarantee that they will be healthy.

That being said, I have no space to adopt a huge dog or even another cat. But I've been thinking about an anole. They live indigenously here in South Carolina, so I know it wouldn't be a harsh environment for him. Also, they don't like to be held much, which works out for me because lizards are something I'm still working on being okay with as far as touching goes. So I've been contemplating inviting a little green anole into my house and it may be a change I make in the next few months.

The point was though, that every so often I do wish I could live in a bigger home so that I would have the opportunity to foster some animals looking for new homes, or to do some wildlife rehabilitation work. But unfortunately, apartment life is where I'm at right now.

I wanted to share something that I saw via Apartment Therapy today. It was this fun little (well, not really little) aviary that a woman built from a wardrobe. I think it's absolutely gorgeous and would make a wonderful home for a few little birds. But, I'm definitely not ready for birds in my life yet! Maybe someday...

Here's the picture from AT:

Dear Weather, Please Stop That

So when I posted last week, I had tentative plans of going to the beach, making a big day out of it, etc. But...it got cold here. And windy too. And while I'm up for some fun in bad weather, having sand blown into my face for a few hours is just not at the top of my list. Hopefully this week. And hopefully Sullivan's Island. I haven't been there in a long time - at least 2 years - and I kind of forget what it's like.

I had another good mail day in the middle of last week, on which I received my first ever fabric postcard. I may want to dabble in making some of these in the future. I have such a long list of sewing projects that I want to do and not enough time or a big enough fabric budget to do them.

This week, though, I will be starting a wee little project that I can work in along with my schoolwork. It'll be something I do when I have time, and I've got no deadline for it. When I was maybe 14 years old, I moved into a different room in the house. Upon cleaning out the closet in that room, I found an old, battered briefcase that happened to be filled with old photos, some of which were tintypes, and also a diploma or college degree for a woman named Helen Keller (not THAT Helen Keller). The briefcase has been sitting under my bed in the spare room at my grandparents' house, just collecting dust. And so I thought now would be as good a time as any to dig through them, sort them a little bit, and try to learn more. Also, it's just fun to see the pictures and speculate things about the people's lives. So far, I've not got much information. I went through a small stack yesterday and saw that some of the pictures were labeled as being taken in Chicago and Wisconsin. If I find anything that I particularly like, I'll probably share it here. But for now, here's a picture of the jumbled mess that is currently living in a large priority mail box:

Good Mail Day

Friday was the best mail day I've had in awhile. Of course, days I get anything other than bills are all actually good mail days, but this one was special. I received three postcards that I reeeeally like - they're all handmade and just interesting. One is a PostSecret style one. Soooo look:

Secret.

Another fun card from Carroll.

True story.

I really need to receive the last one once every couple of weeks. It needs to find a permanent place in my home where I can see it on a regular basis, I just haven't come across the perfect spot yet.

Things have been dull here. Classes are boring. I'm trying to find the perfect paint colors for some "accent walls". I haven't been anywhere outside of Charleston recently or been to any interesting events. 2010 feels very strange to me now and I feel like I need to get settled in and find my footing before I start doing really big things.

The weather's getting really nice here, so I'm thinking the end of this week will bring a trip to the beach!

Doing This Year Right

So I was reading somebody's blog on tumblr this morning and I've decided that I'm not going to neglect this anymore. Whether it's just a picture or a quote or just what I've done throughout my day, I'm going to try to post way more often. I would say daily, but I'm a slacker, so we'll see how it goes.

2010 has been feeling really good for me so far. I think a lot of stuff is going to change and I think it's going to be a really great year. I have this feeling like something big is going to happen, I just don't know what it is yet.

Yesterday I met with a friend for lunch and we decided we need to be more goal oriented. So we created a system of setting goals for the week, month, and long-term and actually achieving them. It'll be interesting and I'm sure we'll both make a lot of mistakes, but at least we're sort of in this together so that we can each tell each other to step it up and get to work.

My first "big" goal of this year is to make my shitty apartment into a home. It appears that I'm stuck here for at least another year, so I might as well enjoy it. I will be selling a lot of my stuff to minimize clutter, reorganizing pretty much everything, and possibly doing some painting. Pictures may come later.

Now, off to the first day of class. Hell yeah, "decision sciences"!

So long, 2009!

Hello from lovely, snowy New York. I am not going anywhere near Times Square, but I am in close proximity to the city.

I've been thinking a little bit about what I could say about 2009. I don't want to do a "looking back" meme. I had no really huge events to recap on in 2009 other than my accident and finger surgery. I haven't traveled anywhere and I haven't seen anything spectacular. I can't even give you my top ten albums of 2009 because I think I've only listened to maybe three albums that were released this year.

I guess this all means that 2009 was mostly mediocre. And it was. It wasn't the worst year I've had, but it wasn't the best to date either. I'm happy to see it go, and I'm really hoping 2010 is going to be an amazing year - at least, I'm going to try really hard to make it one.

Anyway, so as not to disappoint and merely trash talk 2009, here are the ten albums that I clung to the most in 2009. Enjoy this, please.

1. XTC - Apple Venus Volume 1

I heard this exactly one year ago today. I was lucky enough to be wearing headphones during my first listen so I could enjoy the full experience. It still feels like the first time every time.

2. Fleet Foxes (self-titled)

I never thought I'd love this album as much as I do. I get chills every time I hear it. I like to sing along with it. My family will endure listening to it. There's just nothing wrong with this. And seeing the band live was a treat - they perform well.

3. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

I'm always a little bit wary of new albums from bands/musicians that I already love. Because eventually it ends in disappointment. This album was a bit different to my ears from previous offerings from Mr. Bird, but it was really well done. Took a few days to grow on me, but I listen to it frequently now.

4. Tears For Fears - The Hurting

This came heavily recommended and I liked it upon first listen. That never happens.

5. XTC - English Settlement

If I could just put every XTC album I've heard on this list, it would probably be more accurate. But that's not fair. I like to listen to this one while I'm cleaning.

6. Eric's Duran Duran mix

It's really fantastic. It was only posted in October and I've already listened to it over 100 times, I'm sure of it. Download it. Also, Eric did an XTC mix that was excellent. And some others too. I'm constantly impressed.

7. St. Vincent - Actor

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about St. Vincent when I found out she was opening for Andrew Bird in Charleston. I bought the album, forgot to listen to it, and saw her with no previous knowledge of her work. I will say that she was amazing on stage - I prefer her live performances to the album. But the album grew on me quickly, and I really would love to hear more from her in the future.

8. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow

This has always been my favorite album from The Shins and that still hasn't changed. Their music makes me happy - I like to dance around to it while I'm working in the kitchen.

9. Nick Drake - Pink Moon and Five Leaves Left

I can't choose one. And I usually listen to them back to back anyway. Great albums. I heard them both for the first time on the long drive to Minnesota with my mom a few years back.

10. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part

Oddly enough, this is a Christmas album of sorts for me. As soon as it starts getting cold outside, I dig it out and revisit it. It also is the album I listen to while I'm trying to sleep at night.

I've been staring at this thing for a couple of days, knowing that I've neglected it and should write something, but not able to think of anything. It's not that nothing has happened since I last wrote - quite a bit has - but nothing really worth talking about so much.

Staci and I *did* go to Presents for Punks at Mellow Mushroom this year. It was a charity art show type thing. Locals artists donated some of their work and most of it sold for under $50 - some pieces were just straight sales, others were sold in silent auctions. It was a nice event and we each left with one piece. We had them picked out within ten minutes of entering the room, so I'd say we did good. The event is only in its second year, but I'd really like to see it go on for many years to come.

Currently, I'm home in Pennsylvania again, and ready to get out of here. Ready to get out of anywhere I call home, really. I'm in a bit of a rut and am having a hard time getting out. It feels like time for me to move again.

Anyway, hopefully in the next day or so I'll have something to say about 2009 since it's drawing to a close. I'm a little happy about its passing. In 2010, maybe I'll be better at this. But don't count on it... :)