lovely.

I really should have learned by now not to make blogging time commitments. Especially during finals week. It just makes me look like more of a slacker than I already am. With that said, no I have not compiled the second semester picture timeline yet, BUT I did start writing something earlier tonight on the handy note app on my phone, and I want to add to it here on this haphazard compilation of my life. It's nothing special. Just a little something about my day today. It was a lovely one.

Woke up twenty minutes before my alarm today to birds chirping and sun peeking through the blinds. After not being able to get to bed until after 3 last night, I was startled to find myself energized and awake. Received an unexpected text from my sixteen year old cousin who was on campus with her high school, so I put on my favorite striped dress and walked up the hill to treat her and a friend to lunch. I get a strange pleasure out of buying people food, especially when it's with my meal card. We went to the sky room, which sounds and looks much cooler than it is. But after one trip around the buffet table I was glad I picked it. I haven't tasted blackberries that fresh in months, I swear. I had three plates of a lovely fulfilling brunch, convincing myself that I needed to fill myself up for my shots later. Walking back, looking around, I decided that there's really very little I dislike about Provo. Especially when the weather is as perfect as it was today. It's not Vegas, but I like it. After I borrowed my dear best friend's car and filled it up, I set out on the most lovely scenic drive through the canyon, passing snow-tipped mountains, a glistening lake, darling fishermen, and happy families at a park. I would have done the drive three times if I could. Windows cracked and my April new music playlist blasting, I was in heaven. It consisted of a slightly odd combination of The Rocket Summer, Deas Vail, Passion Pit, and Justin Bieber.  We all have Bieber fever these days. Somehow the mixture ended up suiting me perfectly. Upon arrival at the place in Park City where I had made an appointment for immunizations, I was greeted by a friendly helpful staff who had basically planned out my entire health and hygiene plan for me while I am in Africa. Suddenly I was glad that everywhere in Provo had been booked for weeks. I got the shots I'd been secretly dreading. Breezy. Didn't even feel them. Then I chatted it up with the ladies about my trip, went to the bathroom, where I found the most delightfully lavender scented toilet seat covers, and took a stalker pic of the decked out Skull Candy office right next door. A text from my brother told me to go in and buy him a dope pair of headphones, but I resisted to urge to spend money I didn't have.  

While talking to my mom for the third time in three hours, I perhaps got a bit distracted and found myself fifteen minutes in the wrong direction, ironically enough en route to her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming. I quickly resolved that and got myself pointed back towards Provo, enjoying once again the beautiful sunny day, this time with windows down just a bit lower. I'd given up on preserving untangled hair. Got home to find Kelsey and Jess "studying," which basically meant Kels was prancing around in her new beach hat and Jessica was taking pictures. Laughed a lot, had the brilliant idea to go study at Barnes & Noble because I knew there was no way I was going to do anything productive in our room. No one wanted to go with me, so I borrowed FJ once again and set off. I was hungry by then so I got dinner at the cafe. Delightful. I set up Spanish camp at a table next to a group of women discussing their latest work. One needed help editing a script she'd written, another was running over a new idea for a novel. I've always naturally drawn energy from these types of people. My heart beats a little faster when something is being created nearby. I thrive on it. I decided to put that energy into mastering the Present Perfect Subjunctive verb tense, etc. and when they left I bought a cookie and went to find a more comfortable chair. Ended up sitting on a little footstool right next to a girl reading a book about space, got distracted for a few minutes with the Illustrated Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (the reading of which happens to be #55 on my life to-do list), and then the girl left so I snagged the large cushiony chair and sunk into it to learn more about strange verb tenses. About half way through eating THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE OF MY LIFE, I looked to my left and realized I was seated in the Health & Fitness section. Having been distracted by an uncharacteristic interest in astrophysics, I hadn't noticed. I laughed at the universe's attempt to throw me into a sugary guilt trip. After I had successfully spent 4 hours basically living at the bookstore, and only having stroked a handful of book spines, I couldn't take it anymore and had to do my rounds. Ended up adding ten+ books to my must-have list, and found four that I just couldn't put down. I'm a sucker for a pretty cover and a rave review on the back. The lucky winners were A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, The Dolphin People by Torsten Krol, The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, and Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. In case you were anxious to know. With my B&N Member Discount, a 15% off coupon, and two recently discovered gift cards, I got them all with only $10 of my own. I could have danced in circles with joy. I don't know what it is about bookstores, but between them and scenic drives, I can think of very few things that make me happier.

On that note, my Interdisciplinary Humanities teacher said this on the last day of class concerning what we choose do with our lives: "If you don't have a love and passion for what you're doing, it can be soul crushing. Make sure that whatever you're choosing to study is something you're going to want to do in your spare time in the future." I found that comment extremely insightful, and have since been drawing up life maps in all sorts of directions. My latest favorite, which is one that I've always had on reserve, goes along the editing/publishing path. It's no secret to anyone who knows me that books are one of the things I am passionate about. And although I spent the last eight years of my life nearly positive I wanted to go into graphic design, I realized last semester during my drawing class, that the passion wasn't as strong as I'd thought. For me, the producing of art for other people's critique wasn't as fulfilling as I'd hoped. I loved that class and I learned a lot, but for me the very best part was seeing what everyone else had done, admiring their raw talent, and every once in a while thinking about what small changes I would make if I were them. That's what first got me thinking about studying the humanities. I love art. No question there.  As musically challenged and unable to dance as I am, I have a passionate appreciation for both. I love literature. I think immersing oneself in a good story builds an awareness and sensitivity to the world that can't be found in many other ways. The thing is, for the most part, I find more self-fulfillment in the study and discussion of the arts than I do trying to be an artist. While I never plan on giving up my love for creating, I don't necessarily think it's best for me to ruin the experience by making it a job. So, if you can follow all that, the point is that for a record-setting four days now, I have had a budding desire to perhaps pursue a major in Humanities, with an English emphasis and minors in Editing and perhaps business. Basically all I want to do is fall in love with book covers and what's inside of them all the time. This particular idea could completely change by next week, and I'm still not sure why I'm saying this, right here or right now, but I just wanted to put my thought process as of late into words. 

Wasn't planning on bearing my soul just now, but sometimes it happens. 

Thanks for being one of the many people who listen to me ramble day after day. If you're reading this you're probably someone I care about a lot, and you'd be surprised at how much happiness it gives me just to have someone willing to listen. Have a lovely day. All of them can be that way if you let them.