Kentucky Derby

Some day I will make it to the Kentucky Derby, wear a ridiculous hat, cute sundress,

and sip Mint Juleps.

(and either throw up cuz I hate Bourbon and/or get loaded cuz I don't drink hard alcohol)

In the meantime, I will strive for Saratoga this summer.

You Say It's Your Birthday...

Today is Ms.Virginia's birthday and we have a fun night out planned for Friday. I am crossing my fingers that it all works out and can't wait to share some pictures.

"Birthdays are natures way of telling us to eat more cake."

~Anonymous

Blur

Here are some photos from last night....

What started out as a mistake, became a game of making the most interesting pictures.

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."

~ Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book, 1927

Beach Bum

I love stealing off to the beach when others are at work....Sorry. I feel bad, really.

Tomorrow hopefully I will have some cool pics to post from photo class. Running out of places in the Warwick area to take some pretty photogs.

Did You Know?

Did you know Rhode Island has 21 lighthouses? 13 of them are active, there are 6 former light stations where ruins or foundations are visible, and six of the smaller surviving towers are privately owned. Can you image owning a lighthouse?

Block Island Southeast Lighthouse

Blissful Friday

This week marked the halfway point of "75 and Sunny." I feel healthier, more rested, and sunny (yes, I am a dork). I have been able to get up on the weekends and go, not lay in bed thinking about what I should be doing. Someone playing devils advocate asked, "Isn't it depressing to know that when you wake up that that is the best that you are going to feel?" Absolutely not! I just go and enjoy it. I enjoy the day, instead of anticipating when the hangover will be gone.

Happy Friday! Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Block Island

Sweet Baby James

So yesterday I bought the first tickets for my personal summer concert series. It is for James Taylor at Tanglewood with Sheryl Crow and Yo-Yo Ma. I must confess that I was obsessed with Sheryl Crow in high school and the fact that she is also playing makes me even more excited. I cannot wait to be sitting on the lawn watching the show with my own bottle of vino....

And I can check this off my life list!

Copy Cat

I also have a drawing class and our mid-term is to copy a master artist's drawing. I chose Leonardo Da Vinci's "Study of Madonna" and here it is...(it isn't quite finished and not sure why)

Rain, Rain

We didn't get to shoot yesterday in my photography class due to the rain, so nothing new to share. Instead, here are some of my favorite pictures taken over the course of the last couple years.

New Year's Resolution

I personally have never been very good at New Year's resolutions. I just never seem to think of things that seem worthy of a New Year's list and maybe I am a little afraid that I won't actually stick to them. Instead, I find myself contemplating various items that would have been perfect resolutions in the months and days following. One particular one has stuck with me the last couple of months after reading "The Last Lecture." I must say there are many principles in this book that are worth further contemplation and even worth adoption in my life, but this particular one continues to linger in my thoughts.

Now I'm not going to sound as elegant as the book, but it goes something like this, "Listen to people in conversations. Don't just hear them speak." With life as crazy as it is, today's society values our ability to multi-task in every possible situation. The problem with multi-tasking is some times you don't give 100% to whatever five things we may be doing. When you are having a conversation with someone and thinking of the nineteen other things that you must do that day, you are not actually listening to that person. If you commit to paying attention to what people say and turn off your thoughts about what story you have to counter with, what your next step might be, and/or what happened to you last night, then you really do learn so much about the people you talk to. And you may just in the end have better things to say.

So this is my Aprilution, to consciously pay more attention to people when they talk. I will try to turn off my thoughts and develop my conversations, which in the end will better my relationships. Another Aprilution I am committing to is to make my bed every day.


Image via Flickr

Daddy's Little Girl

I am the quintessential Daddy's girl, being the youngest of three. There is something incredibly different about the relationship between a father and daughter that is almost magical. I was the little girl dressed for school at the construction site making sure the concrete forms were latched properly, I was the one wearing an empty tool belt around the house, and I was the one slathering my face with shaving cream to pretend shave just so that I could copy my father. My father has been someone I admire unlike anyone else in my life. He has an amazing talent when it comes to building and creating things. This weekend as I watched him work on the house, I realized that part of my desire to create and be more involved in my work comes from watching him work. It is amazing to watch someone do something they are truly good at and enjoy it. It is utterly inspiring.

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

Clarence Budington Kelland

Image via Flickr

One Nice Day

All it takes is one nice day to realize how awesome New England is and in that day it is so easy to forget how the long winter actually can be...

Memories

Isn't funny how a certain song, smell, or outfit can bring you back such a vivid memory?

memory is a way of holding onto the things you love,

the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

* from The Wonder Years

The smell of lilac reminds me of my bedroom growing up.

image via flickr

Fixed...

If figured out the problem, so here are a couple pictures from week two of photography....

Technology Makes Me Mad

I was going to share some of my week two photos, but for some unknown reason I cannot open them. Technology really pisses me off some times. Unplugging and replugging my USB Drive didn't work, so those photos I took and the two hours I spent taking them are lost forever. Not happy!

Come On Spring

One thing that I have looked forward to since moving back to Gansett is taking advantage of the outdoor shower. It is amazing and I am pretty mad at Spring for not allowing this to happen yet. I mean I guess I could try it and get hypothermia in the process.

Warm up already!

No, that is not my backyard. This image is from CoastalLiving.com

Sisterly/Motherly Love

Whenever I spend time with either one of my sisters, I am amazed when I watch them be mothers. It is such a very surreal thing and it just seems to get even more so as my nieces and nephews get older. I was floored when I watched both of them dance on the line between friend and parent effortlessly, especially with their teenagers. I also caught them a few times saying things just like my parents, but don't tell them because they will either get offended or deny it to no end. It is a natural process to critique your mother and father's parenting, but watching my sisters parent is less about critiquing and more sheer amazement.

Easter

Easter was one of those holidays growing up that I couldn't wait to get to my grandmother's house. Some times with as large a family as I have (21 first cousins on my mom's side), it can be overwhelming to the point that I dread holidays. Christmas requires catering equipment, renting tables and chairs, and an aunt heating her garage to accommodate everyone, but Easter was always different.

We would have massive Easter egg hunts. Competition was always stiff with a few eggs holding five dollar bills. Some of us would end up in tears, yes I was probably one of them. But it would always be a great day. It is those memories that make me feel blessed for my large Irish family and miss being a child during holidays.

Image via MarthaStewart.com

Identity Crisis

You know how some people are dog people, some people are cat people, some people are fish people, some people are guinea pig people (not many, but I know one), and some people aren't animal people at all. Well I consider myself a dog person, except I have a cat. I think this has caused an identity crisis for my cat, Gavin.

How I came to own a cat starts with two cats, a roommate, feline leukemia, moving, and now it is just me and Gavin living together in bliss (slight sarcasm due to the litter box, his insistent meowing, and waking me up at 5am to go outside). So that makes me a cat lady with a cat that possibly thinks he is a dog. His personality is not typical of a cat. It is not like he barks or anything, well not yet but his meow is right up there. For one, he greets me at the door or anyone else for that matter. Unlike other cats, Gavin likes attention ALL the time. This means when I am making dinner, he is at my feet or eating his own food, which is in the kitchen. When I am watching TV, he is sitting on the back of the couch with his feet resting on my shoulders. (Picture an airline pillow thing) When I am typing on my computer, he is trying to lay on the keyboard. Another thing, he loves dogs. He goes right up to them and flops on the ground, so they can sniff him and play with him.

And finally today this theory was completely affirmed when I caught him drinking out of the toilet. I have never seen or heard of another cat drinking out of the toilet. Dogs, yes. Cats, no. Maybe he learned it from my parents dogs? Nope they don't even drink out of the toilet. Maybe he is just wierd...

Photo Class Week One

Here is the winning photo from my first digital imaging class.

It is mine and I think it is a winner. What do you think?

It is truly Spring

170 days since October 19th.

55.2 inches of snow in Boston.

34 games in Florida.

1 Opening Day postponement.

It's about time.

WELCOME TO 2009.

Sincerely,

Your Friends at the Boston Red Sox

FINALLY!!

Live Music

One of my favorite things to do in the summer, is catch some live music. Here are some shows that I hope to make it to:

* Allman Brothers Band & Widespread Panic - 8/29, Mansfield

* Jackson Browne - 7/19, Bank of America Pavillion

* Richie Havens - 6/5, The Narrows

* James Taylor - 8/27 - 8/30, Tanglewood

* Ben Harper - 5/10, Paradise Rock Club

Maybe it is too early to search. I didn't find much, but if I had my choice of any shows to go to it would include:

* Ray Lamontagne

* Eric Hutchinson

* Ryan Montbleau Band

* Citizen Cope

I really just wish that there were more outdoor venues to catch some good music. Sakonnet Vineyards would be perfect for a Tanglewood atmosphere.

Wouldn't it be nice with a blanket, picnic, bottle of wine, and some good music?

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life"

Berthold Auerbach

What you can't picture me as a substitute teacher?

I have had some random jobs in my life, actually many of them. Here they are:

1.) Babysitter - Patrick, The Kelly's, The McKenna-Donelley's
2.) Camp counselor at Look Park
3.) Secretary at STCC Dean's Office
4.) Camp Counselor at YMCA Camp
5.) Secretary at Superintendents Office
6.) Substitute Teacher
7.) Sales Person Gap Kids
8.) Catering with my Aunt
9.) Mail room sorter PC
10.) Sales Person Nautica
11.) Coffee Girl Simon Says Cafe
12.) Coffee Girl Main Street Coffee
13.) Waitress Twenty Water St
14.) Assistant Property Manager Picerne
15.) Property Manager MVC
16.) Liquor Promoter

I feel like I am missing some, so I am may need to add some more. In all these jobs, which one was my favorite? I think it would have to be working at either Water Street (that's where I met some of my best friends) or coffee girl. Good thing I have that college degree.

I think that unlike many of our parents, we are fortunate enough to realize that it is important to work to live, not live to work. This gives us great power to follow our dreams, but also I think it creates a feeling of confusion. It is the daunting question of "what do I want to be when I grow up?" that makes us feel lost or gives name to the quarter life crisis. I think we should remember that life is a journey of discovery, so our jobs and professions are just a part of it not a defining feature. I just hope that mine get better at matching who I am. What random jobs have you had?

Oh Sunday nights at Water Street.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday...

One good thing about a rainy weekend day is that you don't feel pressured to get out of bed and take advantage of the day.

Happy Friday!

Image found at http://peacelovebellavita.blogspot.com/

I have an addiction....

And it is a bad one...I am addicted to CVS. It just might be hands down my favorite store and now that there is one close to my house, it is dangerous. I think I can probably spend four hours in there browsing the aisles, looking at all the products, and reading my favorite cards (Fresh Ink). I am not sure who I was having this conversation with, but one of my friends stated that if they were given a shopping spree to any store it would be CVS. I was a little taken aback at first, but the more I think about it, the more I agree. Although they do not sell clothes, they have virtually everything else one could want and I am a definite a sucker to try a new lotion, bath salt, glitter lip balm.


Another recent addiction, yogurt covered pretzels. Why? I don't know. They are delicious. CVS does not sell them though, which angers me.



Image provided by yahoo image search

And it Begins...

I feel like a child anticipating the first day of school, only I am 28. I am nervous about starting this new adventure. I am nervous about entering the academic world again. I am nervous about how I am going to manage this and find a job that will accommodate my new schedule.

Through out life, people have little choice in their schooling and how it will affect and shape them. At a very early age, your parents enroll you in preschool, then kindergarten, then elementary school. You pass through middle school where the biggest choice you have is which quarter you take economics and which you take shop. High school you can choose a few electives along the way that interest you more than others, but it really isn't a matter of how those two classes will affect you, they simply help pass the time. Now comes college. Personally, I had no clue what I really wanted in life. Who does at 18? So I went through the motions, not owning full decision on where I went to school (money mattered, scholarships mattered, parental opinions mattered ALOT). So the school was chosen, not my personal first choice. I decided I wanted to major in Marketing, because it was more creative than Management and definitely not teaching, which I could not see myself doing at all. And so my fate was decided, all because I knew what I didn't want to do. I didn't have enough life experience to fully understand where I wanted to go in life, what interested me the most (mainly because up til then I had very little part in these decisions), and all in all I was just excited to get away from home. Who thinks about a career when you are just about to be set free in the world to do as you please? I certainly wasn't. Shortly after I arrived at school, I was thinking where am I gonna get that fake ID, not what career is going to fulfill me.

This time it is on my terms, so why am I nervous? I am nervous because it is on my terms. So now I am off to dust off my trapper keeper and pick out my first day of school outfit. Cross your fingers and wish me luck. I am sure it is going to be an interesting ride.

"in the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. the process never ends until we die. and the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."

-eleanor roosevelt