Back to School Blues

Last Thursday was the first day of my senior year!  Wow, that's weird.  I'm really not ready for the summer to be over yet.  It feels like I've only been home for about two weeks.  It's so weird to be back at school, but at the same time, it's frighteningly normal.  After all, I've been in school for the majority of my life at this point.  (Isn't that a depressing thought?)

I love my lunchbox!  You can't see my backpack in this picture, but I swear I have one and it's bursting at the seams.

In the true fashion of my school, I had a ton of homework the very first night.  I also have a ton of school supplies, and have sadly found that my super adorable backpack I got (because I value fashion over practicality) doesn't even come close to fitting everything.  On Friday I had to use one of my huge purses so I could put half my stuff in that.  I've ordered a new backpack that should work better, but I have no idea when I'll get it.

I was excited to see my friends again (we've all been busy this summer and haven't really seen each other), and most of my classes seem like fun.  For the first time, I've really gotten to fill my schedule with classes I'm interested in, except for the obligatory math class.  Two of the classes I'm most excited about are Creative Writing (it has a poetry focus, which I'm a little hesitant about, but I like poetry, too) and European History.  I love writing and history!  I'm also taking psychology, which should be really interesting.  Euro is supposedly one of the most difficult classes my school offers, and I believe it based on the summer homework.  However, I also think it's one of the most interesting classes, so I'm looking forward to it.

My wonderfully cute school supplies.  I generally just use a folder and a notebook for each class, but my English teacher made me get a binder, too.  :(

I suppose I'll get back in the swing of things soon, though this year is going to be my most difficult one yet.  I'm taking 4 AP classes and Creative Writing will be a lot of work as well.  In addition, I have to work on college applications and I want to be involved in the school plays in some way, even if I don't act in them.  (We're doing Alice and Wonderland in the fall and Beauty and the Beast in the spring, which are two of my favorite stories!)

Tomorrow my friend Tallulah is having a tea party, so that should cheer me up.  I love tea parties!  My sister is also moving back into college tomorrow, and I know I'll miss her after having her around all summer.

We had dinner at Nana's house so Sarah could say goodbye to everyone.  After dinner, the four of us were hanging out on the swing and acting silly.  We kept trying to take selfies and were pretty blind from the flash by the time we went back inside.  (Fun story about the porch swing:  At Sarah's graduation party, Tallulah and I were on the porch swing and it broke, sending us tumbling over the side of the porch.  We weren't really hurt, but everyone freaked out when we told them.  We just told them Voldemort attacked us and then went and fixed up our scrapes with princess bandaids.  The swing has been fixed and reinforced since then.)

I hope everyone else has had a lovely summer!

California!

Hello!  I just recently got back from a week visiting my Aunt and Uncle and cousins in California!

I had a lovely time.  We went to San Francisco, Petaluma, Stanford, Berkeley, and all sorts of fun places!  The weather was probably one of my favorite parts.  It was a lovely 70 degrees, 60 or 50 if you were in San Francisco.  Compared to the 90 degrees and humid weather around here, it was simply heavenly.

I took this while we were walking the dog.  The views around there are wonderful.

On Wednesday, we went to Petaluma to go antique shopping, something I adore.  There are a ton of antique stores there.  My favorite was Summer Cottage Antiques, which had a truly delightful selection of items.  I nearly bought the entire store, but I did manage to restrain myself.

 I ended up with several vintage postcards that had been written on and sent. Three of them were postmarked from the 50s, and two were from 1909!  I also got a lovely handkerchief with a beautiful pastel design of French courtiers dancing, and some adorable vintage buttons.

Vintage Bank Antiques was another awesome store that was in a beautiful old bank.  The original architecture was all still there and it was packed floor to ceiling with odds and ends and furniture and what not.

 

As I'm about to start applying to colleges, we decided to visit a few, starting with Stanford.  It was quite lovely, but very large.  If I did end up going there, I would most definitely need to learn to ride a bike, especially how to ride a bike in poufy skirts!

 It was quite lovely in its own way, but it's not really the type of architecture I prefer.  I like something a bit more castle-esque.

We also visited UC Berkeley.  One of my Uncle's old neighbors currently attends Berkeley, so she came with us and showed us around.  It turns out we're really similar, so her info and insight into the college was very helpful.  I really liked Berkeley.  It's moved up to near the top of my college list.

I also loved the architecture of Berkeley.  This library was one of my favorite buildings.  There's a bust of Athena over the front door.  When you enter, Athena bestows her wisdom on you, but you can't leave through the same door, or she'll take it away.

After we toured Berkeley, we headed to San Francisco to explore and be all tourist-y.  It was completely swamped with tourists, so we didn't get to do some stuff like the cable cars, but it was fun all the same.  We went to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf and looked at the seals and stuff.

Two of my lovely cousins, the twins.

 

We also went to the Ghirardelli factory, which was pretty cool.  Then we were going to walk the Golden Gate Bridge, but all the parking lots were full, so we went down to a beach where we could get pictures of it. 

We also drove up a mountain to get another view of the bridge.  There was an old, abandoned building that we explored, and we found a path leading away from it.  We had no clue where it led, so of course we followed it.  We had a lovely spontaneous mountain hike along the cliffs and around other abandoned military buildings.

It was actually kind of freezing and windy, but still lots of fun.

We also attended Coast Guard day (My Uncle's in the Coast Guard) which was great fun.  There was rock-climbing, archery, fishing, ice cream, and loads of other interesting stuff.

Unfortunately, now I'm back home and facing the start of a new school year next week.  The problem is finishing all my summer homework before then and all that.  Well, I hope everyone else is having a wonderful summer!