Loving this right now

Sums up a lot of how I feel about Camp and my summers there. 

No matter what the summers have brought, experiences both good and bad, the memories of that place and the rivers and waters there will always be fond.

Winter Break Plans

Read This:

Watch These:

source

Source

source

Visit Here:

source

(I'm particularly excited about these plans)

Make things for this

(it's slim pickings! I need to knit!)

aaaand watch some more of my favorite fictional couple of all time:

source

source

source

Ok, maybe not my favorite ever ( i'm sure there are more reputable literary romances)

But who am I kidding I really love them.

5 more days, 5 more days, 5 more days...

What's Making Me Happy This Week.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

I've been listening to the podcasts while I run, and people in my neighborhood/along the road I run down probably think I'm crazy, because i'm constantly grinning and laughing despite running moderately long distances. 

 They discuss everything from Lady Gaga to Fall TV to Zombies, and their childhood fears. It's great. They also have regular features to the show like "What's Making Us Happy This Week" (thus the name of the post) - which is pretty self explanatory and yet wildly entertaining. And the "Regrettable Television Pop Quiz" in which they play clips from truly awful television and try to guess the show it's from.

So what's making me happy this week (besides this entertaining and often intellectual[ish] podcast)?

My new running kicks!

Now I don't feel like I need a knee replacement after every run!

And Starbucks Peppermint Mocha - The obvious king of all holiday drinks.

So delicious!

Blog World is Amazing

One of my favorite favorite and inspirational bloggers (Biscuit) is having THE MOST EPIC GIVEAWAY EVERRRRRRR. Seriously, check it out, it's awesome. There are so many ways to enter and so much stuff to win.

 Pleas visit her giveaway post  and learn about all the amazing things she has to offer (her blog is totally rad too!).

I think blogging is so cool. It is literally its own world, there's so much to do and discover, it's overwhelming!

Speaking of overwhelming, I should get back to my 12 page psyc nursing paper of Oppositional Defiant Disorder....

December where are you?

Too True

P.S. How have I not fallen in love with this album sooner?

(Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago)

Listen here

Buy here

I feel trapped...

And I want to be

Here

(John Muir Trail in CA)

Or here

(63 days is just too long)

(source)

Or here

(Summer plans?)

(Source)

May just can't come soon enough...

Beach

Driving home from school the other day I had my windows open and caught a whiff of this mild, sulfer-y, salty smell as I passed a farm. I was immediately reminded of the beach in St Petersburg, FL my family used to travel to every year. Unfortunately it's been some time since I've visited. . .

 Despite the glorious 80 degree weather, and the sun and sand, the thing I miss the most are the smells that are there. Not just the beach smell, but the smell of my grandparents's porch, their house, the ice cream shop we frequent, and the air outside long bridge on the way to the beach. I love it, and I miss it. 

They say smell has a huge effect on memory. I can totally attest to this. The second I smell something similar (like the farm of my way home) my mind is flooded with childhood memories. 

Fall is great (and has plenty of wonderful smells [I could probably write like 8 posts about smells {weird? maybe?}]) But I could totally use a beach day and the warmth and welcome of those favorite smells. 

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

It has been quite some time since I've last posted... The last few months have felt like a whirlwind of events, but in the same sense some parts feel like forever ago. . .

So, here it goes, RECAP:

1. SUMMER: spent at Bil-O-Wood! (where else?) I had my most favorite girls in the whole world again, many of which received their Voyageurette Hat. 

(I'm so proud!)

 I met some new (and old) aussies

Had some fun times in the great Canadian wilderness

(L! is for the way you look, at meeee!)

And had an all-around awesome time with friends, family, and the people I love.

2. SCHOOL: ugh. Stress to the MAX. But I still love it for some reason...

So far this semester I've seen a baby come into this world, 3 babies being pulled out of their mother's womb and into this world (aka C-section aka kinda icky), I've hung out with some schizophrenic and bipolar kids, and survived the first round of test-mania (for some reason all of are exams are within hours of each other this entire semester).

3. SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN: I feel like I've been exploring a lot the past few months, and will continue to do so in the coming ones. New churches, new faces, public radio, a trip to England, and an Etsy Shop are just a few of the things that have been on my mind lately...

Yikes.

So I thought that with school being finished I would become a  better blogger. 

Welp.

That apparently did not work out so well. Summer so far has been SO BUSY.

Here's a little of what's been going on:

-Hanging out with friends (both nursing and otherwise)

-Picking up crazy hikers from the AT

-Going to Kings Dominion and riding this -ahhh so crazy!

-Family visits from my aunt, uncle, cousin, grandma, and great grandma (who is basically the greatest person I know)

AND

MCKENNA'S GRADUATION!!!!

I can't believe my lil sis is all grown up. I am so incredibly proud of her.

So there you are! Summer is off to a GREAT start.

POOLPALOOZA

Get this:

My AWESOME nursing friends and I are getting together and doing NON-nursie things. 

You know why?

BECAUSE IT'S SUMMER!!!!

woooooo!happy!!much rejoicing!!!

That's right, no more studying for 12hrs on end (that is not an exaggeration, ask my family)

Why we chose to do something that involved bathing suits? Especially after we've all been inside. studying. FOREVER. I'm not really sure . . .

Hopefully my new best fraaands will help me get over the bathing suit fear a great majority of us experience come may/june

(best friend #1)

(best friend #2 - Dreya Weber - she's basically my hero)

Now to work on that pastiness . . . .

Cereal!

I found these in my pantry the other day:

Now usually I'm more of a Kashi/wheat/bran/cardboard cereal type girl. 

But these are just so cute and delicious and excellent to munch on. 

I like. 

I was slightly obsessed with cereal in high school - so much to the point that I wrote a research paper on the history of cereal for AP Lang. I tried to find it, so I could read an excerpt, but alas, I have poor organizational skills and do not know where it is. 

Probably in the black hole that is my closet.

3 DAYS left of studying and 1 TEST to take before I am free. Then I promise I'll be better about posting on this here blog so I won't have to rename it "fail blog"

I think that name is already taken anyways . . .

Music Music Music

So I was reading a blog (I can't remember, eek!) that linked me to this blog that mentioned this site that has become one of my "I-need-to-check-this-every-morning" sites and "I-don't-really-want-to-study/write this paper/work on my resume-so-I'll-pretend-to-do-important-things-online-to-procrastinate" site

 (Come on, we all have them, usually it's facebook but that gets old)

So stop stalking your ex and "liking" ridiculous things and get some cool new jams.

Downplayer 

(so awesome)

10 free downloads are uploaded everyday monday through friday - it pulls them from sites that have those "free download of the day" and "new free music", but Downplayer just picks the cool ones, so you don't have to do any work. 

Talk about making Mondays better right?

Belated Earth Day Post:

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail.
--John Muir

Hmm . . .

Is it bad that I don't know what to do with myself when I'm not studying?

I feel like there are plenty of things I imagine myself doing when I'm studying, but when I actually have the time, my mind goes blank . . .

Some long-ish term goals I've pulled from the deep dark crevices of my brain (the small areas that are not saturated with nursing knowledge) are:

1. Go camping/hiking with Mckenna 

(Perhaps here)

2. Paint my room

(I'm thinking this color)

3. Watch this from Netflix

(Looks pretty baller)

GLEE

I jammed out to the soundtrack driving home from school today . . .

It's back tonight!

9:28 sharp!

I can't wait!

HAPPY

There is a lot of happiness going on in my life right now, so I thought I'd share. . .

1) I saved sim man

He's this cool guy who can talk and have abnormal heart rhythms, lung sounds, his chest rises when he breathes, you can monitor is O2 saturation, temperature, heart rate, and he has peripheral pulses, the list goes on and on. 

Anyways, he was having some trouble. So I saved him and am now COMPLETELY finished with clinical.

That's right DONEZO.

2) I received an AWESOME letter from this guy

I love letters. I'm bad at writing them but I LOVE getting them. Especially from people who are doing fun and exciting things, like hiking the southern half of the Appalachian Trail 

(I'm so jealous)

3) SPRING

I know I posted about it before, but I just love it so much! Seriously, I don't remember everything smelling so good and being so vivid. 

(View from my kitchen table where I spend appx 80% of my life studying, writing papers, doing homework, reading, and of course eating. duh)

Spring spring spring, I love spring, springy spring spring

It just makes me HAPPY.