Packing

Today is my last day at home.

I am leaving this evening for Reykjavik and Iceland, where I will be for the next two weeks. When I return to the States, I'll be heading off to Denver and college. This being said, I have, like, a million things to pack. Not only did I have to deconstruct my room and fold/stack it into brown boxes and giant duffel bags, but I had to separate what I wanted to pack for my Iceland trip. Oh, les gymnastiques mentales!

Now, I'm sitting in my room, staring at mostly-empty walls, remembering smiling times and crying times alike. A room holds things: a bed, a poster, a lamp, a memory. Clichéd though it is to say, we never really appreciate the things we have until they're gone. Now that I'm leaving this room, I realize I'll miss it that much more. Fortunately, I have a wonderful blank slate waiting for me at DU...

Also on the topic of appreciation, I would like to say thank you to those who are in my life and let them know how much they mean to me and how everyone has impacted me. My parents, my brothers, my old family, my new family, my extended family, my friends, my teachers, my neighbours & other peoples' parents: you have all helped me grow to the point I am at now and I know you will be there to help me keep growing. To those who are no longer with us: know that there are moments when I wish I could say "what would you suggest that I do?" and you are still a part of me.

Ok, enough nostalgia, reminiscence, and general sadness! The next two weeks are going to be nonstop new stuff every single day! I'm bringing some good books to accompany me. AND my new camera, so there will be photos abound!

See you in September.
xxo, S

Ramen dinner

No, wait, stop pursing your lips! This is high-end ramen. Classy, expensive, fresh, handmade stuff that you get at trendy little shops in the East Village. Or in downtown Tokyo, whatever's closer.


Last night, I had said ramen for the first time. Not this ramen:

High-end ramen. Puh-lease, I've had that three-minute, MSG-filled ramen plenty of times before. And I can tell you, high-end ramen, like you find at Ippudo, is sweet deliciousness.


Our meal started off with mild green peppers and spicy salt for dipping; folded roast pork bun/sandwich-things followed. We then had agedashi tofu which was SUPER yummy, I wanted more more more! Finally we got to the good ramen. It was just the "classic" ramen, but it's true what they say: gotta love the classics!

Seriously, try this stuff some time. It's like a whole other food group they keep secret because it's so good.
xxo, S

My new camera - UPDATE

here's a picture. i was stupid and forgot that my webcam can take pictures :P

My new camera

I am seriously seriously seriously smiling so hard my face is gonna crack right now because I GOT A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! Actually, it's an early birthday present from my Auntie Moo. She gave it to me early so I can use it on my Iceland trip next week. Which is perfect.

My beautiful new gadget is a Panasonic Lumix with an incredible lens. It's pretty much made of solid crystal. Pretty much. I would post a picture here of what it looks like. Unfortunately, since this is my only camera, I don't have another camera to take a picture of it with. Ironic.

Expect pictures soon, my dutiful readers (especially a certain someone who lives with Cheezel)!
xxo, S

Photos from VT and NH

On the ferry from Essex, NY to Charlotte, VT

oussain bolt

Farty as Ralph Rackstraw in CT's H.M.S. Pinafore

during intermission

final scene of the show

At CT, picking up Farty

getting fried clams afterwards

In case you hadn't noticed, this is the first post where there are a lot of people's actual faces in the photos. I guess I gave up... how else am I supposed to share my life without faces?? So this is sort of a historical post. Sort of.

xxo, S

Boys will be boys

Picking up Farty from his seven week stay at camp in New Hampshire was an eye-opening experience for me... and not in the good way. Because I learned a little more than I needed to know about the way boys live.

Farty's camp is an all-boys camp. This means all the campers, all the counselors, all the alumni, and most of the staff are - good guess! - BOYS. Now, I like to think I have a rather high tolerance for boys because I have three younger brothers and have known nothing but how to deal with them for my entire life (except for three years of beautiful bliss before they were born). But visiting this camp, even for just one afternoon and one morning, made me see a whole new light. Because this is a camp full of - even worse - TEENAGE BOYS.

Sadly, I have to admit that Farty is now a teenager. He is fourteen after all (and will be fifteen before the year is out). While he was away, he shot up at least four inches (he's way taller than me now). He snacks on sunflower seeds (the ultimate manly snack) and drinks Arnold Palmers by the gallon (another manly food item invented by the manliest of all athletes, a golfer). He wears the same clothes that he fell asleep in the night before. Shorts and underwear are considered proper a proper swimsuit. "Dripping wet" is considered "dry." A few days without a shower goes without question; a week is fine too. Sweaty sports and chili-filled meals are the highlights of a good day. If you can't see the floor of your cabin, so what? Spitting on the ground and peeing in the woods (just off to the side so people won't really notice you but can still see you're there) is totally acceptable behavior as well. WHAT IS THIS CRAZY LAND???!

Not to say that this camp is a madhouse. In fact, quite the opposite: boys look forward all year to returning to CT. It's a well-organized, respectful, fun, encouraging, safe, friendly, life-changing camp. I'm very grateful that it is part of Farty's life; when he talks about it, his whole body glows with passion (and no, it's not just the sweet tan he got from being outdoors all the time). CT is clearly a place where these boys belong, not me. In other words, I think I am now quite certain that I could never be a boy and that I am perfectly happy being a GIRL :)    Isn't that nice to hear? I'm happy with who I am.

Three cheers for CT and all its gross boy-ness!
xxo, S

Family reunion in Vermont

Farty's camp ended this weekend (he'd been away for seven weeks!) so we went to pick him up in New Hampshire. On the way there, we stopped in VT to spend some time with my Blood-west cousins who were visiting my Blood-north cousins. The Blood-north family has a really cool house that's insulated with straw and they live in this awesome community that shares resources like chickens and lettuce (and sometimes peaches, if they aren't too good for sharing). Everyone is also very environmentally-conscious, and of course VT is a very green state (literally and figuratively) so it was refreshing to spend the weekend.

My little cousins are another sort of refreshing. "Refreshing" in the I'm-so-exhausted-after-chasing-you sort of way. "Refreshing" as in man-I-feel-old-and-out-of-shape sort of way. They range in ages from four to thirteen and there are seven of them, plus my two brothers (we hadn't picked up Farty yet). That's nine kids running around going crazy in the way only little kids can. We had a blast, though: blueberry picking, seeing a circus [check this out, we love it! http://www.circussmirkus.org/], swimming in the lake, eating the best pizza in Vermont (which was really in New York), chasing sheep on a farm, and other Vermont-y things.

It was sad to say goodbye to the Blood-west crew because they live so far away and we never know when we're gonna see them next! :(   Fortunately, being at DU will mean I'm 2,000 miles closer to them than I am now (so we're only, like, 1,000 miles apart?).

I love my family :)
xxo, S

August vacation plans

Yo, yo, I'll soon be on the road again. Here's what you need to know if you're trying to keep up with me. Expect photos to accompany all my travel adventures! Purple leaves for FIT on 22 Aug; I'll miss her all the way until Thanksgiving :(

12 Aug - 15 Aug: Vermont and New Hampshire
seeing my cousins; Farty is in the lead in his camp play
24 Aug - 5 Sep: Iceland
Reykjavik, Snæfells, Husavìk, Þingvellir national park
6 Sep: fly from NY to Denver
first day of DU orientation!!!


Bon voyage
xxo, S

Summer book list

Books I've read so far this summer:

Pride and Prejudice (not as difficult to read as I had thought)
The Fellowship of the Ring (much more difficult to read; I wanted to read the whole trilogy this summer, but that's just way too long!)
Sweet Deceit: A Privilege novel > (these two were mindless, "trashy beach novels" I read at the beach)
Tan Lines: A Summer novel >
Charlie St. Cloud (compelling, sad, meaningful, and inspiring; better than I thought it would be)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter (not at all what I was expecting. bittersweet and beautifully written)
and now I am working on Eat, Pray, Love 

Charlie St. Cloud was much better than the movie; The Fellowship was much longer than the movie. And now I can only wait and see how EPL compares to its own new movie.

xxo, S

I LOVE NEW YORK!

So as my days in New York come to an end, I am becoming increasingly more nostalgic about this great city that I've taken for granted for so long. I realize I won't have unlimited access to delicious ethnic food, or endless shopping choices at my fingertips. As these small facts become more and more evident in my mind, I am scrambling to embrace it all one last time, as quickly as possible.

Here are a few of my favourite things:

a woman knitting (full on!) while standing on the subway. she's the one in the green dress and by no means any sort of frumpy grandma lady. no, no, this is one chic knitter... only in new york.

in times square, a girl sports a neon orange dress... to match the neon orange signs maybe?

hipster graffiti in an urban outfitters fitting room that reminds shoppers what i have just recently realized: don't take new york for granted!

not actually IN the city, but my web browser informs me that netflix refuses to load with a disappointed "aw snap!"

"We could be living next to a murderer, Larry!"

"New York is a melting pot, get used to it." -Manhattan Murder Mystery

Purple and I spent the day downtown near Union Square and the West Village. We stopped at such New York hot spots as Urban Outfitters, Pinkberry, the Strand, Starbucks, Magnolia, and the marc jacobs store (where Purple's new "boyfriend" works). Soon, I'm sure, I'll be exploring the standard Denver hangouts. "Each man reads his own meaning into New York," Meyer Berger. For me, it will always be my hometown, my homebase, and my heart.

xxo, S

Clouds

The Sea Stretches Out

I.
A sea of
rolling hills of clouds
dropping down to an
abyss of red sunset.

From white-blue to periwinkle,
indigo and navy,
a gradient of blues
makes up the sky.

The boarder between 

periwinkle and indigo

grows higher every second

as the sun rises

Until a haze, a long puff
of light clouds,
smooths the bright paints
to a pastel-washed landscape.

II.
Clouds rose and fell in their own hill-and-valley landscape.
Looking down in the valleys, smaller clouds, closer to the earth, fell away
like rocks off a cliff.
These small ones had let go of the sea above, leaving a hole suspended high above.
Then another whoosh, and it all disappeared behind another haze.
Dark periwinkle smothered the view in a blue-grey cover.
The sea is gone and it is just the morning sky once more.

III.
I want to be a cloud.
They float over the earth, just going with the natural rhythm of the wind,
wherever it calls them, without plans or duties.

They cry when they want to, yet dimple at will too.
They look down on every landscape know to man --
and some unknown.

They have no sense of time nor space.
They can be together or apart, but never for long.
And never lonely.

They have painted, upon their faces, a multitude of colours;
should they choose to be an angry sunset or a meloncholy haze.
They are always there, always reliable. Always, through thick and thin.

I want to be a cloud.

Drug of choice

Attention! A new, dangerously addictive product is out there!

All teenagers are users, or at least in the possession of this extremely addictive product. Celebrities and CEOs alike are open users as well. Handed out in offices as part of the job, a status symbol. Endorsed in TV shows and movies. Banned in many schools, restaurants, clubs and public places. Detracts from the education process, building relationships, and family life. There is a rapidly developing language - almost code-like - to use this product. Easily transported; reusable; pocket-sized. Many varieties and styles to cater to your personal taste. Easy to use and get; mass produced and widely available at any location from the mall to the corner store. Not illegal: politicians, doctors, athletes, teachers, moms, and dads are all users.


What can we do to stop it?
THE CELL PHONE EPIDEMIC

Vespa colony - SECOND UPDATE

More shots of the growing Vespa colony

Bay Shore, LI has them too!

back at home; a new white one

I'm a full-fledged reporter now

xxo, S

Bella's birthday box - UPDATE!

A few days ago, I got a letter from my cousin Bella about the opening of her birthday care package at camp that I sent to her. I am very happy to report that the balloon inside the package worked! I guess the trick is to use a balloon that holds a lot of helium, like the ones you can find at a supermarket. Also, I labeled the box "fragile" several times.

Feel free to try this trick on your own!
xxo, S

Mug shots - UPDATE!

About a month ago, I posted pictures of my friend, Kumquat, and I painting our own pottery "friendship" mugs. Here's how they turned out. I think they came out really well. Can't wait to exchange and use them!

for Kumquat by ME!

inside the one I made

inside the one Kumquat made

for Me by Kumquat

friendship mugs are finally a reality!

look at this cute little cow I painted - he came out so well!!!

Kumquat's at smart camp at Stanford right now, so I'm holding onto both of them until she comes back. And I'm definitely bringing mine to college! :)

xxo, S