Pictures of lately..

Lately Ems has taken to sleeping over on the weekends. 

Nobody is ever too old for a slumber party.

We found Cheese a prom dress!

(It's one of these but no one must know until that day!...jkjk its not a wedding)

May 1st...the birth of my sweet, crazy roommate Julie Anne. 

Finals week means proper celebrations cannot be had until Thursday. 

Appropriate footwear for a skype interview? 

Whatever you please!

142 Dubs looking very pretty this spring..

Emma's concert! She had a solo and was amazing. I got there extra early ;)

Deep deep thoughts (harharhar) no but for real..

Everyone keeps talking about the future.

I guess it's because the majority of people I know right now are about to graduate and will not be returning to good ole Storrs CT.  This makes me equal parts thrilled and equal parts petrified.

The future right now is summer and Boston. The future next year is SENIOR IN COLLEGE.

What are you doing this summer? Is that what you want to do when you grow up?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Are you going to grad school?
 Where do you see yourself in five years?
 Two?

Too many questions...feeling overwhelmed? Nonsense!
( Mind you I cannot even tell you what I'll be doing this time tomorrow. )

I make to-do lists  every day and I know that it'll all EVENTUALLY get done, but never in the order I wanted. One cannot simply wake up, class, work, nap, run.

Too much room for interactions and other things to happen.  That's how I feel about this future we all keep talking about. I can tell you what I THINK I will do.

I think that when I grow up I'd like to teach, and travel a lot, and maybe even one day have a family (or at least a dog). I think I'll go to grad school (some days). In five years I will be 26, in two 23. I think I'd like to check out life on the West Coast.

But I really truly do not know. It's like how today I thought I'd leave work and take a nap and then run. Left work, uploaded some videos onto facebook, got froyo with Ems and THEN napped. I can't tell you clear cut that its going to go A B C D E F G.

If there is one thing I have learned in this little life of mine, nothing will go as you planned or hoped.
At least not always.

Right now my to-do list for this future self that I am constantly becoming is simple. Be happy. Do things that make the people you love happy. Thee end.

:D

“If only there could be an invention,” I said impulsively, “that bottled up a memory, like a scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.” - Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

This is exactly how I feel about the past weekend. I could go detail for detail about who and where and what, but that still won't capture it. It's weird because as it was happening I was aware of the fact that this was something I was going to remember. There I am in the middle of barbequeing Saturday and I was actively thinking that when I remember this day it's going to be with a smile on my face.

Wait what was that? I was barbequeing. OH YES. The quote "Everyone is a feminist until we need to grill" was thrown out Saturday, as we were waiting for the boys to get there to start cooking burgers. That sentiment is far too accurate, and I was hungry. Despite the fact that I have never grilled anything, ever before, I decided to take it upon myself to be the grillmaster. 

Mission successful.

 While I'm still convinced the glasses of wine had something to do with it, everyone seemed to LOVE the burgers.  And thankfully I had my lovely assistant Sara to put the cheese on them. Later in the day Clark and Harrison tried to take over, but I was determined to be the grill master so they were swatted away with my spatula. 

I can't even begin to describe why this day was so perfect.

Naturally I'm saying this as I am about to attempt to describe it all. 

Alright excuse the cheesiness factor, but I felt like I was a little kid. Granted a little kid that is allowed to play with fire and grill and allowed to drink alcohol. But a kid nonetheless. I didnt feel like a college student with finals looming and various other stresses. The sun was shining and everyone was glowing, in drinks and sunshine. There was frisbee, sidewalk chalk, music blasting and the grass was SO GREEN, a whole field of green green grass and the bluest sky.

(Fun fact- I love the sky. I became aware of just how much when I was in Florence. The streets were so narrow and then you'd walk out into an opening and BAM sky and clouds. )

Nothing like some good clouds.

I probably had 20 photos of the same cloud before going through and deleting/editing pictures this weekend.

So we're behind Mandy's little red house and the sun is shining and there is grass as far as the eye can see. I'm with people I love, some of whom I haven't seen in quite some time. The happiest of days. We were all untouchable. I wasn't thinking of what I needed to get done for Monday, I wasn't thinking of anything outside the little bubble I was in. It was like going on a vacation for a day: fun, sunshiney, stress free. No one was graduating or had homework or anywhere else to be. 
( except maybe Sammy, but we got him to stay and play for as long as we could)

One of those days that you couldn't really explain to anyone that wasn't there. But since everyone has has something like that, it's understood.

I wouldn't be me if I didn't take a trillion and a half pictures of the whole day- so once again I will let those guys give some peek as to the sunshine happiness I felt.

The gorgeous Mandy who was so nice to have us all at her home :D Ye Newe.

We were chasing each other around and I managed to capture this little gem.. Sar and I are going to be living together next year, which I am BEYOND excited about. Not only will we have the most Florence/Europe-obsessed room that anyone has probably ever seen, there is also going to be photo wars constantly.  I am usually the one behind the camera, but Miss Leavitt always tries to get her shots of me...sneaky lil girl! 

Just some bros on a couch in the yard...   The musical stylings of Crunchy Granola,  the greatest Paul Simon cover song you ever did hear. "Sara, I will give you $10 if you eat this.."  (please note, she did, and is owed ten bucks) And more and more and more pictures to further express that this day was unbeatable in all of it's perfection...

OH HAPPY DAY!

Currently sitting in Starbucks with the Emily's (how is it that my two closest friends at school end up with the same name?) and I do not want to do a single ounce of work.

Now I normally don't want to do any work, but WHY NOW IN PARTICULAR?

SUSAN ANN CONNOLLY IS DONE WITH CHEMO! THIS IS THE BEST NEWS AND THE BEST DAY!

Took a picture of my eye on a particularly greeny day -- and my friend painted it!

 To the beautiful Margaret, thank you so so much :)

A List of Happy Things

The past couple weeks have been kinda strange. Interesting? Weird? Off? Stressful? --Pick an adjective, they all apply. Things have just been reaching a certain breaking point.



Lucky for me this past weekend was Easter, which meant I was heading home. And I firmly believe that there is nothing in this world that a hug from my mom cannot solve. Despite the fact that any stress is probably still there after she hugs me, it sure does feel like the world will change. So, home it was, and I was right- no place like it. Sunday we spent the afternoon at Granny's. Chloe is SO BIG and talking and slightly devilish (must be the red hair) but super cute nonetheless. It is kind of sad but very cute that she is the only grandkid left to do the Easter Egg Hunt. She found them all!

SNAPPED out of funk, just in time to enjoy the last three weeks of school, the majority of humans I hang out with are all graduating, so everyone is on the bucket-list mentality. Time to buckle up and get things done, senior spring! (I'm just along for the ride). It has inspired me and Hopper to make sure to have a bucket list/ senior year scavenger hunt, but there is PLENTY of time before that is a concern.

Sunday night was back to school. There was still enough sunshine to run, so I got that done and then went NUTS cleaning my room. Which is a sick joke cause from my vantage point IT LITERALLY LOOKS THE  SAME. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy do I even bother? One day I will have a home for every item of clothing and book and sock and water bottle. ONE DAY.  This day is no where near that's for damn sure. Sigh!

We heard that Sunday = no cover and $5 beavers, so it was off to Ted's! (Beavers is the weirdest name for a drink and I hate it). The wonderful Emily Elizabeth came over and along with my roommate and some other folks we took advantage of some drink deals.











In light of this recent bad mood, I got to thinking of things, big and little that make me happy. Naturally I am going to list them here! And naturally I will disclaim this all by saying THIS IS BY NO MEANS GOING TO BE A COMPLETE LIST.

family
ruebs
naps with ruebs
naps
running
sisters
brother
best friends
green eyes
car rides and good music
coffee
burritos
trips to boston, trips to rhode island, TRIPS!
messages from people you haven't heard from in a while
good grades
singing call me maybe
good books
confidence
nail polish
leonardo dicaprio
reuniting
the promise of sundresses and flipflops
adventures, or hearing of other's adventures
viva la juicy
milkshakes
late night phone calls
laughing
dinners with Emily (both emilys)
roommates
silly singing and silly accents

Much much much more than just that. Nice little reminder though for when I have a case of the lost and weirds again!

I knew this weekend was going to be a great one when I was able to make great time and avoid traffic nightmares and find a good spot AND PARALLEL PARK the car without needing Liz to do it for me.

I was right. 

The beginning of any great Friday night in Boston is a slice of pizza and rootbeer at Upper Crust. This particular Friday the slice of the day was spinach and roasted eggplant. 

UH.MAY.ZINGGG.

Unbeknownst to Sara, we had a little bit of a surprise party planned for her on Saturday at Landsdowne. Naturally this meant we could not go there Friday night. So out in the world it was! 

The lovely evening began at Storyville. The prettiest decor (de-core...Sar am I saying that right?) that you ever did see. HOWEVER, we were a tad bit too young for the crowd inside. In fact while running Sunday morning, any time we saw a parent the question was "did we see you at storyville friday?"  Had it been filled with people our age, it would have been great. The setting and music were a lot of fun... so maybe in ten years if we're feeling wild that's where we'll go. (Good to know its out there I guess?) 

Back out into the night it was! After falling in love with the sweetest bouncers in the world, who were going to be "hahtbroken" if we left, the night turned around quite nicely.

Liz and I not so stealthily snagged this picture. NO THAT GIRL IS NOT SARA. 

After I took it this kid goes "oh are you trying to take a picture of my friends?"...why yessir, I am. And I would not claim them as my friends if I were you!

This picture does not do justice to what we witnessed. However doing justice to what we witnessed is slightly R rated and I don't want that nonsense here!

Saturday we woke up and decided to put free movie passes to use and saw Mirror Mirror.

(Other than the song at the end it was a really cute/funny movie)

Saturday night was Sara's surprise. Landsdowne or bust! It was a lot of fun and everyone came and she was happy.. all in all a great success.