Sunday, July 26, 2009

What goes on in your mind?

Well... life is fun. I went to the beach last weekend, so I just thought I'd post about it here. While Madelyn and I were walking along the bay on our way home from Balboa Island, we noticed a particularly picturesque spot where the lights were shining on the water (I'm just about to post the pictures here. While I was looking at it, talking to Madelyn, I realized something: I spend so much time (and I think other people do this, too) trying to think of ways I can bring an image with me that I don't really enjoy the image when I am looking at it. I am so caught up with trying to bring the things I'm living to my future that I don't enjoy them in the present.

Capice?

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I Think

it would feel good to be a violin. I've been playing the guitar more than usual the past few days (I get out the guitar every summer- it's just a summery instrument) and it feels so nice to have the music so close to you, just thrumming through your heart. I wish I could play the cello; a lot of my friends are probably sick of hearing me say that. I'm also working hard at "Time Does Not Bring Relief" and it sounds really good. Hopefully my old choir director will (if I'm really lucky) have my high school choir do it. Does that even sound possible?

Another thing I feel like doing is riding my bike. I got my bike for Christmas this year, and even though I've never photographed it and posted about it really, it's the most beautiful bike that ever existed. Riding my bike makes me feel so... free. I just have time to think. I have so much time. I feel awake and alive- I feel. A part of me adores books, which is why I spend so much time lying around reading, but another part of me wants adventure so much I think I will explode. But I am a coward. I want adventure in the form of travel and beauty and points of interest. Sometimes I think danger would taste good, but I have no heart for fear.

I also feel like being in love. This statement is self-explanatory, right?

Friday, July 10, 2009

Design [of mine], you are divine.

As my first official post on design/fashion, (since I have become vaguely interested in it while reading various design blogs in Google Reader) I am going to show you two things. The first:
is an AWESOME boot I discovered through another design blog. It is called a Winklepicker and it is from an awesome British company called Underground. The shoes are rather expensive (over $100 dollars, not counting shipping from the U.K. Yikes!) but I am determined to save all my money working at my Dad's office this summer because I literally do need a pair of boots for school, and if I must wear boots, why not a wonderful pair like these?

The second design item is a bag I designed myself. Okay... I actually didn't design it, if my understanding of the word design is correct. But I designed the design on it, if that counts.

Right. Let's be straight with one another. I colored the bag. Here it is:

The text is a few paragraphs from an essay I had to write about Toni Morrison's Beloved, which I never actually read. :( As a matter of fact, the essay was sitting on my desk and I was copying "Time Does Not Bring Relief" on to one side of the bag (from memory, and poorly) and the capital "T" turned
out weird. I flipped the bag over, and I noticed my essay and read it over, and then, on a
whim, I started copying it onto the bag. Once I was done, I flipped the bag over and drew the cord of the lightbulb and decided that in order to erase the ugly "T", I would color in darkness around the bulb and cover the writing. The writing showed through more, so I wrote a bit more to make it look like it was on purpose, but I got the poem all wrong, so if I do want a bag with that poem I'll have to get a new one.

Speaking of that poem, it's one of my new favorites. It's by Edna St. Vincent- Millay, and it won't take up much of your time if you want to read it here. I am currently composing a choral arrangement using the words, but I have yet to get Sibelius (the notating program I got for my birthday when I was 14) to work, or to have time to load it onto a different computer. :(

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Catching up...

I am home now, as you must have deduced, so I will just finish up my trip stuff and have done with it. :)
The next day in Paris we visited Saint Chapelle, which is a beautiful church with exquisite floor to ceiling stained glass windows and jeweled light bouncing off of everything. I liked the Basilica best of all of them, but I think this one came in second. After we left the church, we took the subway to the Rodin gardens, which were more coifed than Monet's, but beautiful and gold and green in the summer. Madelyn and I ran around taking pictures and stuff and then we went home in a taxi. That night, I stayed up really late talking to our family and then went to bed.
The next day, we got up and got ready and went to church!!!! On the way though, something scary happened: we were walking down the stairs to the metro and there was this shirtless, grimy hobo hanging around. As I went down the stairs, he blew in my face, said something about pretty French girls (which is ironic) and slapped me, HARD, on the arm! Madelyn even heard the sound! After that, we hurried off to the subway and then we eventually found church. It was so nice to be in a familiar environment! We went to an English sunday school session and then the meeting was afterward. We could only get one set of headphones, so Madelyn and I switched off for the different talks. After church, we rode the subway to the Tuileries and ate a picnic on a bench there. Madelyn spilled the chips, so we fed them to the pigeons, which was fun. :) After we ate, we went back home and slept and Skyped and stuff. I was up really late talking to our family, and after that, packing. Madelyn took all these funny pictures of me that I didn't see until the next day, when I downloaded my camera pictures onto the laptop.
The next morning, we got up around 5:30 and got ready and then Madelyn, Grandma and I walked to the Austerlitz Bridge for a last look at the city. It was cool; we could see Notre Dame from there. After that, we went back to the hotel and had breakfast. Madelyn and I went shopping one last time at the train station stores, and then we came back and met the taxi, which took us to the airport.
You've all been on planes, so I won't go into the flight, but after 20 hours or so, we were back in Newport Beach and then the next morning, we drove home to Rancho Mirage! Once we were home, we gave our family the presents we got them. Shortly after, we were packing for a trip to Brian Head, which I returned from last night.
At last.