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!

Writers are crazy . . . and I love them.

I just got back from two weeks at a Creative Writers' Camp.  It was so much fun!  While a lot of people seem to think that having over 6 hours a day devoted to writing sounds like torture, I found it to be incredibly enjoyable and helpful with developing my writing skills.  I also met some amazing people who understand my weird quirks like obsession with notebooks and office supplies and talking about my characters as if they actually exist.  We all bonded over a love of writing and a bunch of shared fandoms.

I didn't really get many pictures at camp, but I'll share a few of the ones I did get.

I had a lot of fun, but it was also nice to come home and sleep in my own bed and shower in a bathroom I wasn't sharing with 14 other girls.  The dorm experience was useful for knowing what college will be like, though.

There were so many interesting things going on at camp, including a talent show, dance, and karaoke night.  The talent show included some really great acts, like all the counselors singing "Bohemian Rhapsody", the new boy band 4th Floor doing a horrible yet entertaining rendition of "I Want it That Way", a bunch of truly wonderful singers, musicians, and dancers, and some of the girls from Creative Writing performing a mashup of song lyrics as slam poetry from songs including, but not limited to, "If I Was Your Boyfriend", "Unwritten", "Radioactive", "Love Story", "Single Ladies," "Umbrella", and "Thrift Shop".

Another awesome time was had on a trip to a used bookstore that I immediately fell in love with.  It was one of those stores literally overflowing with books.  The inside resembled a maze of bookshelves, and there were literally stacks of books lining the floor in front of the shelves as well.  And with thirty or so creative writing kids there, well, let's just say the store did some really good business that day.

We also had several afternoon activities to choose from, or we could just stay in our rooms and write.  Some of my favorites included Zumba, candy sushi, and movie nights of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Howl's Moving Castle.  We also had a living group night where we had 60 dollars to spend however we wanted.  We went to Whole Foods, bought a ton of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and then watched a movie.

This is the candy sushi I made.  It was ridiculously sweet and actually pretty gross.  I managed to eat two pieces before I gave up and had to go find a water fountain.

One of the things I loved was being around people just as crazy as I am.  Or maybe it's not that they're as crazy as I am, but rather that we're the same brand of crazy.  It made for some really fun times.  A group of us have even begun planning and co-writing a story in which we're all superheros and get into some pretty hilarious situations.  We're filling the story with basically every stereotypical plotline we can come up with.

Wear a Skirt Wednesday!  We also had Wear Pink Wednesday, Pajama Day, and Tacky Day, though Wear a Skirt Wednesday definitely had the most participation, especially among the guys.  All the girls (including me) were more than willing to provide daring guys with skirts for them to wear.

The last week of camp went ridiculously fast.  I woke up on Thursday, the last day of classes, wondering where the time went, because it felt like I had just arrived a few days before.  I was really sad to leave everyone, but I know we'll stay in touch.

One thing that made coming home a little better was the stack of books that had arrived while I was gone.  One in particular is a book I think everyone should read, because it is so incredibly awesome.  It's called "Let's Bring Back" by Lesley M. M. Blume.  It's an encyclopedia of various items and traditions and whatnots from times past that we should revive.  I agree with pretty much everything in this book, and it's brilliantly written to boot.

On the last day, while I was waiting for my mom to come pick me up, two of my friends decided to be cats and climb on top of the wardrobes.

I'm going to miss all the great friends I made and all the fun I had at camp.  I brought back some wonderful memories and some even greater bonds with new friends.

Monsters and Fires and Popcorn, Oh My!

Today was much more eventful than I initially thought it would be.  Around lunchtime, my Dad announced he was taking my younger siblings to see Monsters University, and I decided to come too, as I've been pretty excited about it, being both a major Disney fan and a fan of Monsters Inc itself.

So, I settled in with my family and my super nutritional lunch of popcorn and m&ms to watch a delightful movie.  We got a little over halfway through, when suddenly the lights came back on.  We didn't really know what was going on, thinking it was just a malfunction.  But then there was a faint blaring (the monsters were roaring so it was hard to tell) and people started leaving the theatre.  Turns out the fire alarm was going off.  Exciting stuff!

Well, we all gathered outside the theatre and waited for the firetrucks to show up.  There wasn't a fire, which luckily was very clear the entire time, so nobody panicked.  Turns out one of the air conditioners was malfunctioning.  Eventually the firemen checked everything out and declared it safe, so we went back in to finish the movie.

For the rest of the movie, the lights kept starting to come back on, but every time I would whisper "Stop," and, much to my surprise, they listened to me.  This seemed to amuse my Dad and brother very much.

So, my opinion of the movie.  I, personally, really liked the movie.  It was adorable and funny and sweet, and presented a really great back story leading up to Monsters Inc.  The story line didn't turn out as predictable as I thought it would be, and everything seemed to tie in well with the original movie.  It was particularly interesting to see the characters develop and become the personalities we know and love.  I certainly recommend it to any Disney fans or kids at heart.  (And adults and actual kids too.  It's just a great movie for everyone.)

Me and Violette.  I admit I look not-so-great in this picture, but I didn't get any sleep last night--stupid insomnia--and didn't put all that much effort into looking cute, as I was just sitting in a dark theatre where no one could see me.

The summary of my day:  I was going to watch a movie, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Just Another Day at Work

I have the greatest summer job.  Ever.  I work for my Nana and Papa.  Papa is a mechanic and owns his own business, conveniently located at his house.  During the summer, my sister and I work there.  We don't actually work in the garage, as I know next to nothing about cars, but we work more for my Nana.  Our job entails a ton of different things, including cooking, cleaning, gardening, running errands, doing taxes, sorting paper work, and doing any other odd jobs that crop up.

Us last summer at work.

The downside is that their house doesn't have air conditioning.  Have you ever tried cooking in an un-air conditioned kitchen in 95 degree weather?  I think everyone should try it at least once, just so they can fully appreciate air conditioning.  One of our main concerns during the hottest parts of the summer is making sure the guys at the garage don't die of heat stroke.  We make sure they have a cooler full of ice water and we take them lemonade and occasionally ice cream during the afternoons.

The odd jobs are definitely the most diverse, including decorating an apartment, beautifying a brick (I wasn't there for that one), defrosting the freezer (multiple times), re-bricking the sunroom, sorting and documenting the entire inventory of car parts (which included three days in the tin storage unit with no air conditioning during the hottest part of the summer), typing and organizing hundreds of recipes, covering the inside of a barn with tulle, installing air conditioners, and a ton of other random things.

We also have lots of fun, of course.  Last summer, I made a sword out of insulation board, and a couple days ago we climbed out on the roof and discovered the joys of shade-bathing.  It's like sun-bathing for pale people who hate the sun.  And we often burst out in song and dance while washing dishes or making lunch.  (Or when grocery shopping, which gets us weird looks sometimes.)

Shade bathing on the roof.

One of the most useful skills I've learned from this job is how to cook.  Unfortunately, I've only learned how to cook for large groups.  We make lunch every day for about a dozen people:  the three of us, eight guys who work at the garage (and they eat a ton), the new intern, and occasionally others who wander in, usually Mom or various Aunts or Uncles.  Many of the things we make don't really have recipes, so I only learned how to make them in the large quantities we use.  One of my favorites is a delicious pasta salad with pepperoni, Greek dressing, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and other yummy stuff.  During the school year, I'll make the pasta salad and have enough to take it for lunch for an entire week, and eat it for breakfast every day.  It's a good thing I never get sick of it.

Lunch today!  We had a Greek theme, with a salad filled with delicious kalamata olives, artichokes, and Greek dresssing, chicken with Greek seasoning, and homemade spanakopita!  The spanakopita took a ton of work, but it turned out wonderful!

Given the fact that I end every day sweaty and gross, I love any opportunity in the summer to dress up and look cute.  I had a lovely opportunity today, when I went shopping and hung out with my friend Eleanore before she leaves for a trip to Hawaii.  It was great fun, and there was much craziness, as there always is when we're together.

So, after this long explanation of my work, I actually won't even be back at work for a while.  I'm heading off to a writing camp for two weeks and I'm really excited!  I love writing, so spending two weeks doing just that, though the thought made my friends cringe, sounds like so much fun!

I hope everyone else is having a great summer, too!

Happy St. Audrey Day!

Guess what today is!  It's St. Audrey Day!  This isn't quite so significant in the US, but in France at least, your saint day is kind of like your second birthday.  I had no idea there even was a St. Audrey until one year I was in France with my grandparents and their friends surprised me with a cake on St. Audrey Day.  I'm not actually doing anything exciting for St. Audrey Day (I'm basically just drinking tea and watching X-Files), so I'll tell you about my more exciting time yesterday.

Big Sis and Olivia

Yesterday I went to a graduation party for a very wonderful person, Olivia, who I've known pretty much my entire life.  I had a wonderful time hanging out with some of my very favorite people all evening.  There were many laughs and much random dancing and singing.

My friend, who has elected to be called Tallulah, and I can never be serious in pictures.

Actually, none of us can ever be serious in pictures.

Frisbee Golf in the rain!

Funny faces are half the fun!

Sam's Frisbee throwing skills are greatly in doubt.

We all had lots of fun despite the rainy weather.  And, of course, the food was all delicious, home-cooked goodness.  Unfortunately, my parents couldn't come because my little sister was sick. 

As usual, at some point my phone disappeared and I got it back a while later with lots of selfies of Tallulah making funny faces.  I've decided that I should start compiling my favorites in preparation for Tallulah's graduation party in a few years.  She's probably got a good number of funny pictures of me, too.

Sam moseying along in the rain.  We all stayed resolutely on the cabin porch when the downpour started, until they announced there was food, at which point Tallulah decided we should brave the rain as nothing would keep her from the food.

Is there anything better than spending an evening with friends?  And I have the great luck to be friends with some of the most amusing people in the world.  My siblings are also amusing, so we all have great fun together.

I hope you all have a fabulous St. Audrey Day, whether or not your name is Audrey. 

Seeing the World through {Purple} Colored Glasses

I love sewing.  I'm not the best at it, and my sewing machine likes to freak out at me, but I still love sewing.  My Nana is the one who taught me to sew, and we always have a ton of fun together sewing fun dresses.  (Though, admittedly, she does most of the sewing and I generally do most of the cutting-things-out.)

The other day, I had a random urge to look at some sewing patterns, only to find that the website (McCalls, Butterick, and Vogue) was having a huge sale!  And by huge, I mean nothing was over four bucks, and most of the patterns I got were under $2.  So I bought 15 patterns.  I was actually going to buy 16, but the shipping went up $8, so I had to decide which I liked more: the somewhat more practical blazer, or the completely awesome Renaissance style dress.  The Renaissance gown won, of course.

The patterns arrived yesterday and I am so insanely excited!

A lot of the patterns I got are from the vintage collections, and are original patterns from the '50s.  I can't wait until I find time and fabric to make some of these dresses!

This is one of my favorites, and also one I'm not sure I'll ever have the occasion or the fabric to complete, but why not have it on hand anyway?  If I get my way, I will definitely attend a ball at some point in my life.

This pattern might be my absolute favorite.  It has so much potential!  I also now have an assortment of historical dress patterns and a brilliant pattern for super fun full-skirted aprons.  (I adore aprons and am building a collection.)

And there's more exciting news as well!  I got glasses!  I'm still trying to get used to them, as I've never had glasses before.  My family, who have all had glasses for years, made fun of me because I was constantly raising and lowering my glasses trying to see the difference.  (It's a very slight prescription, basically just a magnifying glass for far away objects.)

I'm actually quite pleased with how my glasses look, as I should be, considering I spent over an hour trying on almost every pair of frames at the eye doctor's.  The only thing I really don't like are the nose pieces, because, as I'm not used to wearing glasses, I keep putting them on my head and getting them caught in my hair.  I guess eventually I'll get used to it.  I really wanted some Ray-Ban, hipster-type glasses, because I think they look awesome, but they didn't look good on me.

In other exciting news, my parents recently informed us that we're going to Disney World this Christmas break!  I cannot even begin to explain how super excited I am!  I don't really remember much from our last trip to Disney, about six years ago.  To make things even more exciting, we're also visiting Harry Potter World!  There is so much excitement I can't even contain it!

I've decided that I want to make Disney princess outfits to wear at Disney, because I think it's silly that generally only little kids dress up.  I'm definitely thinking about a Merida dress (I have a medieval dress pattern), a provincial Belle outfit (my favorite princess!), an Alice dress, and shortened versions of Ariel's pink dress and maybe Cinderella's dress.

I found a thing online that matches the different Myers-Briggs personality types with Disney characters.  I am the same personality type as Belle, my older sister is Tiana, my brother is Roger from 101 Dalmations, and my little sister is Peter Pan.  I was more interested in the fact that Sarah (older sis) is the exact opposite of Jack Sparrow and Sam (brother) is the opposite of Gaston.

Well, that's all the interesting things I can think of for today.  Have a lovely weekend!