Thought Of The Day

Currently Listening To: The Outsiders, NEEDTOBREATHE.

My Housemate: is so talented.

 

(from 1 Corninthians 13, the Message.) (Source: Typographic Verses)

Happy Friday! So glad it's the weekend :]

Three Songs for Wednesday (+ Bieber)

My housemate called me out for promising to discuss Justin Bieber's new song and then not doing it. (I said: I feel like my blog readers should know by now that i am fickle.) But here's what I think about it: it was surprising. So much so that it came on in my iTunes yesterday and I was like "what is this?!" before remembering. But I can respect that he's changing his sound up a bit. I think? Oh, and this article made me laugh.

Now that we got that over with, here are some songs I've actually been enjoying recently (they're fairly eclectic. As is my life.):

P.S. Made it through Wednesday night. Looking forward to a more chill, story-writing kind of day tomorrow...

P.P.S. The same night I waxed semi-obnoxious about Cook-Out, I went there again. Shout out to Susan who shared a milkshake with me and thus made some authoritative decisions. We went with caramel fudge + snickers. And it was a good choice.

The Magic of Cook-Out

Currently Listening To: Eyes Open, Taylor Swift

The new big thing around these parts is Cook-Out, which opened in Cville just last week. Ever heard of it? If you are from Richmond (or other Southern cities, I suppose), chances are yes. If you are a missionary kid from Africa, chances are no.

Luckily, I had been conveniently made aware of its existence just the week before that. When we were driving back from spring break, we were somewhere in North Carolina and Kathleen sees a sign for Cook-Out and says we should go there for lunch because it is CRAZY and you get SO MUCH FOOD for REALLY CHEAP and their MILKSHAKES ARE SO GOOD, etc. Problem: we had packed lunches for the car ride. And so a very serious conversation ensued: do we forgo our packed lunches for Cook-Out? After all, a sandwich can be saved for tomorrow, right? Or do we eat the food we brought?

Practicality won out, and we ate our sandwiches and pasta salad (in a JR parking lot somewhere else in North Carolina, perched on our cars. Always classy.) BUT, just two days later, Kathleen saw that there was one opening here! There was a picture text and much exclaiming, and now it is open and it is basically all anyone can talk about. Exactly because of the reasons Kathleen first wanted us to go there: cheap, large amounts of food, and delicious milkshakes. Most people I know have already been more than once (guilty). And can I just say that when you live with ten other people, it’s virtually impossible to get all eleven together at the same time…but when we went to Cook-Out, we had a 73% house turnout? That’s the magic of Cook-Out. It brings people together.

But here’s the thing. THEIR MENU IS THE MOST OVERWHELMING THING I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. Now, I realize I am prone to exaggeration (see the previous sentence), but I am not exaggerating at all when I say that there are FORTY choices of milkshake flavors. AND YOU CAN COMBINE THEM. For an indecisive person like me, this is the epitome of overwhelming, so the first time I went, I avoided this decision completely and got a Cheerwine float. (um, hello. Delicious.) The second time (aka last night) I copied my roommate’s order and got peanut butter fudge mixed with oreo. Aifhoidjkfnjgaoijkfnghsjofiak so good.

So, y’all, have you ever been? And if so, what’s your favorite milkshake flavor/combo? I need to be prepared for the next time, so please just tell me what to order….

P.S. Added bonus: they love Jesus. Christian music playing and Bible verses on the cups.

P.P.S. Justin Bieber’s new song? We’ll talk about that tomorrow…

[image 1 source]

Back in the Game

Dear Whimsy and all my beautiful readers, I have missed you.

I regret being a lil MIA recently, but here’s the only way I can explain it:

1. Crazy wonderful fun spring break adventures.
2. Back to reality for about 48 hours (so, really, a super-reality of sorts because I had to get things done during that time)
3. Crazy wonderful fun visit from my bestie, Abigail Lee Lunsford.
4. Actual back to reality. And a lot of catching up and work and I was still reeling from aforementioned crazy wonderful fun things that happened, so it was all just a little overwhelming.

But here I am: firmly rooted in reality once more, ready to return to y’all and Whimsy. (Albeit with the disclaimer that said reality is a little bit of a lot busy, so, until the end of May, I may not post as regularly as I have in the past.) But I digress.

In case you were wondering, this is what Abby’s visit looked like:

 

 

It was a weekend chock full of porch chats and touring around Grounds and frolicking through peach trees and getting to see some of our other high school friends (these guys) and wine tasting and hiking up mountains and picnicking at the top of said mountains and just picnicking in general and eating delicious food (homemade and otherwise) and coffee-shopping and hanging out with a ton of people and sitting on the roof, among other things.

But here’s the best thing about visiting with an old, good friend: the way you can switch so easily from the kind of deep conversation you would only trust to the best of friends to funny, trivial things -- remembering your history together. It’s a little bittersweet but beautiful, really, being at the stage where we have our separate lives now in separate places, but we can still know and care for and be involved in each other’s. Does that even make sense? Do you have friends like that?

In other news, I was serious when I said I missed you. I have had all sorts of small, semi-pointless things pop into my head all week that are the kind of things I would have mentioned on here, but I had to store them up in my brain instead. (And, consequentially, I forgot several.) But to make up for my prolonged absence, here are a few of the randoms I wanted to share with y’all:

• I went to a fiction reading on Saturday, which was part of the Virginia Festial of the Book. It was so great! It's funny how real authors are. And now I want to read The Ninth Wife by Amy Stolls and The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown.

• Boy bands (especially British ones) are back in. Exhibit A. Exhibit B.

• This post by Natalie Lloyd really struck home for me. (Read past the part about Jack White – the part about how blogging can sometimes foster negative emotions and comparisons. I especially loved this one paragraph (because I can relate, and because it was so in line with something Abby and I had talked about while she was here!): 

"Instead of taking this unique mix of days I've been given -- matching my gifts and 

talents and dreams up with my hours and minutes and mysteries -- I've wasted lots 

of time wishing I could be somebody else. I'm guilty of trying to make my journey 

look exactly like hers (whoever "she" may be) so I'll have the exact same end result 

she has. Because "her" life looks seriously perfect. But the end result is never what I 

thought; because that was never meant to be my story." - Natalie Lloyd

• Spring is here and it is beautiful. You know what I love? When all the trees get leaves again, and you realize that you had gotten so used to bare branches, you forgot that it was possible for them to look this beautiful and green.

• Most articles on singleness are kind of obnoxious. This one was good. (And we might have read it out loud in our kitchen while cooking dinner today)

That’s all. Oh, except for that it’s good to be back.

Thought Of The Day

Currently Reading: Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner

Love this verse. And I love the second part too, especially in my version (NLV): "Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow."

Some Spring Break Pics...

...To distract you from the fact that I am too tired to tell you all about it just yet. Waking up at 6am, which felt like 5am (daggone daylight savings. but, I mean, I do love that extra hour of sunshine.) and driving nine hours will do that to you. And the sinking sadness that comes with the knowledge that the most fun spring break yet is over and I have to go back to class tomorrow...well, just pictures it is for now.

 

P.S. My BFF Abby comes in JUST THREE DAYS. What a glorious two week stretch this is.

So Tell Me Darling Do You Wish We’d Fall in Love?

I forgot about how much I love this song til it came on my iPod as I walked down the beach, post-running this morning.

I'll update y'all more later, but Charleston was super fun, Hilton Head is relaxing, and we are going to this place for dinner tonight. YES.

SBK2012: The Beginning

Quote Love: "I am awaiting / perpetually and forever / a renaissance of wonder." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Currently Listening To: Brooke.

SBK2012 is in full swing, y’all.

I find it sort of amazing how I went from being so tired and from feeling like I had one thing straight after another due for like 3 weeks (remember the 10 page paper? The story due? The lessons and 12-page midterm? And those were only the things I posted about...) to feeling so completely free of school and work right now.

(Actually, there was a brief interlude on Friday where I came home from class and turning in my midterm and had no idea what to do with myself. So I fidgeted around the house, made banana bread and entered a story of mine in a contest, obviously. Then I took a break, and finally forgot all school-related thoughts.)

I  actually kind of feel like it’s summer right now, because everyone is gone except for a scant few of us. In La Bamba – usually occupied by eleven people (who I love so dearly) – there’s only Monique and I left* (who, plus Kathleen, were the only ones here this summer), and it’s a nice little break. There’s the perfect amount of just a few people still around to do stuff with, and, I feel like I’ve been busy doing fun and relaxing things. Since Friday, I have: gone to Margaret’s photography show, gone running with my friend Caroline, gone to Target, made chili for the group, sat on the roof drinking PBRs**, watched UVA play Syracuse in Lacrosse (but we left at halftime because we were SO COLD), made these cookies (mmm Nutella), played Monopoly, made a midnight IHOP run, etc.

However, it absolutely does not feel like summer because this is what I woke up to (and by "woke up to," I mean did a legitimate double take when I glanced out the bathroom window):

(What?! Virginia, you’re crazy.) So, I’m thinking the rest of today will involve some sledding and whatnot – and then maybe some packing, too, because our actual spring break adventures begin bright and early tomorrow morning. From snow to South Carolina in 24 hours? Let’s do it.

*Maybe this is something I should not post on my blog. Kind of like the modern-day equivalent of when you were a kid and you weren't supposed to let people calling for your parents know that you were actually home alone?

**Also something I shouldn't post on my blog?...oh well. This is real life, people.