Change of Address (Temporarily)

It's official kids: I will be interning at a publishing house down in New Orleans for July and August. Yes it will be extremely humid, but growing up in Baltimore has trained me for this. My hair situation should get interesting, though.

I'm so excited because I have been extremely jealous of my sister, a freshman at Tulane, who has gotten to live there. It is such a cool culture - the food, drinks, people, music, architecture, art, everything. So here are a few tunes that remind me of nola and humid summers:


"Going Back to New Orleans" - Joe Liggins and the Honeydrippers

"Moondance" - Van Morrison (live)

"One Night Only (The March)" - Trombone Shorty

"928 Horn Jam" - Trombone Shorty

"Hangin' Around" - Counting Crows

Because She is a Fatoosh, That's Why

I love this photo because people often don't know what they're looking at when they first see it (photo credit to my sister):

[It's a pug's face, in case you were still unsure]

Where Art Meets Life

I love the way the architect Gaudi plays with shapes and lighting. He forms such whimsical spaces in his work that you can enjoy all over Barcelona.

Oh the People You'll Meet

I was recently reminiscing about my trip last spring break to California. My friend and I headed west to visit a mutual friend and spent the week in Santa Barbara and LA. And I never realized the wild characters we found there. There was a snake charmer, fire dancer, iguana owner, and Johnny Depp look-a-like, to name a few. You can find some interesting people if you just look around.

Last June, while listening to a street musician in Florence sing and play his guitar in a great open square, my family and I started talking with three young men from Australia. I don't really remember how it happened - they were having a funny conversation behind us as we sat on the steps on that summer evening, and somehow my mother involved herself in their talk (as she often does with strangers, in her outgoing way). And so we laughed with them for a while. Apparently two of them had met the third while traveling around Europe, and they had all been traveling together for the past few weeks. After some time we decided to take my grandmother home, and thought how nice it had been to meet them.


After returning home, we decided we wanted to have more fun in Florence's nightlife, and so we headed out again. And somehow we ran into the three Australians. Since it seemed like fate, we went and had drinks with them. They were hilarious, and my sister and I ended up staying out with them long after my parents decided to go home. We wandered around Florence, and then they walked us home. We sat around talking for a while in the square below our apartment and planking for photos.

It's chance occurrences like this that make meeting new people so exciting. Although my sister and I are friends with the boys on Facebook, I doubt I'll ever talk to or see them again. It seems sad, but also wonderful that we got to spend a night in Florence with them. Life can be unexpected that way.

Spring

Although I love the colorful New England fall, when Easter rolls around I desperately miss the sunshine and flowers of spring down in Baltimore. Everything seems brighter and more saturated, and the days are getting longer. Dinners are now bathed in the setting sunlight, not the deep winter darkness.

But it is also a time of remembering what has been lost. I wrote this poem around this time last year during a sudden loss in the spring:

The sun is still rising behind the pine trees

And I have woken from a nightmare.

I sit at my desk and crack open

The old window above it

So that the warped glass does not skew

My vision.

It’s spring again.

The sensual curves of the magnolia

Have returned to my yard,

And I watch the way their milky pink petals

Glow from within

In those moments before the sun greets them.

I stare at the blank page in front of me

And sense rain in it,

Along with all of the heaviness I feel

But do not want to acknowledge.

Spring.

I never noticed the sorrow wrapped

Within the rebirth.

But of course, I am still madly in love with the spring. Here's to warmer weather and beautiful flowers, like the ones above.

Weekend Warrior

The sun was extra red as it set this evening, and I assume that it is a good omen for tonight. Get ready to dance with these beats:

Karmin - "BrokenHearted"

Mark Foster + A-Trak + Kimbra -" Warrior"

 Keane - "Silenced By The Night (Alesso Remix)"

Home

Where I plan to live after I graduate from Williams

Baby's First Blog Post

 So I thought I'd throw down my first post with a few songs that I've been jamming to for a little while now. They're fun, catchy, and really great for the spring (although Williamstown hasn't really hit spring yet...)

Fun. - "Some Nights" 

Jessie And The Toy Boys - "Runaway"

 Grouplove - "Tongue Tied (Gigamesh Remix)"

Russ Chimes - "Targa"

Flo Rida (Feat. Akon) - "Who Dat Girl"

Le Youth - "Fever (Flubba Remix)"

DJ i6 - "Music Is My Religion"

and of course, my guilty pleasure:
Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe"