Ab Imo Pectore*

The past week has been a whirlwind. A good whirlwind. A very good whirlwind.

I’ve re-discovered the joy in my life, the passion in my art, the meaning of love, and the perseverance in my career. I’m happy with who I am, what I can do, and how I do it.

I’ve learned what I’m grateful for, and who I want with me as I embark on this journey. It’s the ones whom I called jumping up and down — the ones who called to make sure that I was squealing that day because they remembered.

They’re the ones that mean the world to me.

*Ab imo pectore means ’from the heart.’ Or, literally speaking, ‘from the bottom of the chest.’

H’Ween

Surprise, surprise; an entry on Halloween! Halloween was a lot fun with parties on both Friday and Saturday night. I don’t think I can properly recap what happened so instead I’ll share with you these lovely photos from last night.

What I really wanted to be for Halloween this year was a taxi cab   The outfit would have consisted of a yellow dress with black and white checkered trimmings, black heels, driving gloves, and, best of all, a badge saying ‘Free Rides!‘ Unfortunately, I could not find a yellow dress so I settled on being a…

…rock star! (But I told drunk kids that I was an astronaut.)

Anyway, here are the less incriminating photos from last night.

Diva + Bro

We got hungry so we walked through the Burgerville drive-thru. They didn’t turn us down, which was a pleasant and delicious surprise. The cars before and after us were friendly too. Or they were just laughing at us.

We had a Waldo too!

And “dinosaurs.”

And a lot of fun.

Hope you all enjoyed the weekend regardless of whether or not you did something for Halloween!

Ice Ice Baby

The past work-week* was long and draining and I knew at the start of it that the weekend had to be relaxing and friend-filled. But, of course, with plenty of much needed personal time. Unfortunately, I only have photos from Friday. I forgot to bring my camera with me on Saturday (though there wasn’t much to photograph–I just watched movies, ate pizza, and drank wine with friends) and I stayed home yesterday for my personal time.

The view from my office window.

Lots of buildings and I get to see the trees change color. The streets are small enough/The buildings are close enough that I can see people working in the building across from my window. I’m a huge fan of people-watching (does that sound stalker-ish?) so it’s interesting peeking over once in a while to get a glimpse of some of the changes and of what they do.

Relaxation: iced coffee (it’s not that cold yet) and reading materials.

After I got off work on Friday, I headed over to Powell’s to pick up another copy of Barack Obama’s ‘Dreams from My Father.’ I decided to give my copy to someone as a peace offering of sorts and it seems rather fitting in hindsight since Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I then walked over to Peet’s to write a short letter explaining the present, and to start of my Maddy-time, before mailing it. Hopefully, it’s well-received by the intended recipient since I’ve had mixed thoughts about sending it…

Regardless, the book is definitely worth a read. Obama is a wonderful orator and, of course, it translates beautifully into his writing. If you’ve read ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how young, underdeveloped, call it what you will Obama’s writing sounds in ‘Dreams from My Father.’

First (and last?) hockey game ever.

Later that evening, a couple friends and I went to an ice skating rink. (This was only after I gave up the fight for bowling and gave in to the idea of ice skating…) When we got there, however, there was a hockey game. We decided to stick around and I got to watch my very first ice hockey game ever. The game was between Portland State University and Western Washington University, which was interesting to watch but apparently not very exciting. I learned stuff about ice hockey though.

Yes, it’s us again (minus two other friends who were with us that night).

After the game, we took over the rink… and I finally learned the proper techniques of how to ice skate. Last summer (the last time I had gone), I realized I forgot it completely–I spent the whole time on the ice stumbling around while my friends were skating about. Luckily, two friends who grew up with ice (in Virginia and Denmark) offered advice and showed me until I figured it out.

So, that was most of Friday night (save for the part where we all headed over to a 24-hour diner and pie house. Mmm.)

*I started working temporarily at the place where I interned/worked for this summer again after they had heard what happened to me.

The Silent Ways People Drift Apart.

The sound of a heart breaking isn’t poetic. It is hollow. It is tragic. It calls for rituals – the denial, the shock, the anger, the disappointment, culminating in hopelessness. Just like a shrinking white star slowly

[thanks le love]

Ever wondered about the silent ways people drift away? Up until a few days ago, I haven’t really… Now I’m not quite sure what to do.

Pineapple Juice

It’s been a while since I created a blog entry with photos in it so here are some ridiculous/cute/fun photos of my two lovely friends and I from last night. For my sake, I won’t go into details of how the rest of the night went. I will tell you, however, that it was a lot of fun, I got to meet some new awesome people, and I used up my ‘the one that needs to be taken care of tonight’ card.

Remember all the craziness from a few weeks ago? It was a good few weeks of negativity crammed into a few days. So, I’m balancing it out and trying to have fun. And, I think I’m succeeding.

“151 Rum, pineapple juice and Malibu. Caribou get dem all numb.“